DTS WEEK 3: Missions

It’s a new week in our Fall DTS here at YWAM Colorado Springs, and our students have dived head-first into Missions week with our speakers Jeff and Beckie Waalkes. Jeff and Beckie are full of faith, deep love for Christ and His church, and are passionate about the beauty of surrender and our daily yes to Jesus and the nations! They carry a reverence for holiness and righteousness and are consistently challenging those around them to do hard, uncomfortable things. Jeff and Beckie are people who walk in what they call others to walk in. They’ve spent 20+ years on the field as missionaries in Central Asia and really exemplify YWAM value 12 — “Do first, then teach.”

Our students this week have been asked many questions like: “What is God asking you to surrender?” // “Would you say yes to staying in a nation for longer than 3 months?” // “Will we give God our thousand times over yes?” // And, along with these challenging questions, Jeff and Beckie have highlighted over and over the tenderness of God’s heart and the radical beauty of the gospel! Here are some of our students and staffs favorite quotes from them this week:

1. “We are called to flee sin because it is INCOMPATIBLE with who we’ve been created to be.” God never created us as ‘sinners’ and to continuously claim this as our identity is to reject the gospel. Our identity is FREE and WASHED by the blood of Jesus! This is the gift of repentance at work — that we, as sons and daughters, repent and receive forgiveness daily for our sins that have already been covered by His blood. John 8:36 “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

2. “There is no following God and pursuing safety. If we follow safety backwards, we find self-preservation that keeps us from obeying God.” This line challenges us to really think about how much we trust God’s hand in our lives. Will we choose trust over our fear of the unknown and the control we attempt to have within it? Fear lies to us and tells us that we can take over and create a greater outcome, but really, peace and freedom are stolen from us.

3. “God wants to write His story through your obedience.” Our yes is powerful. Our obedience is sweet and fragrant to the Lord. Never doubt the power of simple obedience. God can do incredible and mighty things with your yes.

What could God be inviting you into? Is He asking you to step out and take a DTS? Is He asking you to minister to your friends at school? Has He put a country or people group on your heart to pray for daily? Is He inviting you into reconciliation within your family? I encourage you to take even just a few seconds, tune into the heart of God, and ask Him — “What are you inviting me to say yes to?”