Yes to say life changing... I would say that’s an understatement.

The tremendous task of transcribing to words, a time that can only be described in a few words. An encounter with the God of peace, The God of war and the God of love. ALL at the same time. Yes, I know... Joe how? Nope I didn’t caffeinate myself up with coffee or load myself up with tacos or any other man-made gimmick or event put together through the spirit of man. These typically get a person so full of emotional sensationalism that produces a temporary euphoric high in the mind, that makes a person feel as if God is in the room, when, in reality, God is nowhere to be found cause, He was never invited in the first place.

This is where AGMinistries/AGGE retreat comes into play. Nothing fancy, no frills, just a simple retreat that was built through God, by God through Alicia, using God’s divine blueprint. and for the simple purpose, to create an open space for God to visit and encounter those that made the choice to make themselves available for God to encounter.

(yes God desires to encounter His people, But the choice of surrender and yielding, must be made by the person otherwise God will move on to the next vessel)

And encounter I did, for me I will be blunt honest. When it started, I didn’t want to be there. I worked all day, then went to pray at my home church Ignite the Globe Revival Center. When we got to the host site. It was close to midnight. I was tired, hungry and cranky. When I entered, I was greeted with the sweet presence of God that had been cultivated hours before by worship and prayer. “God’s still but authoritative voice spoke to me “Joe you want change, but that change will require you to stretch and let go of some of the comforts you are accustomed to, for comfort and convenience are enemies to progress in my kingdom”. With these words I said yes, and the journey began. It led off with worship, And as God led me down into the vein of worship deeper and deeper like submerging into a spring during a dive adventure, I found that His presence was winning the battle against the fatigue and other moods that I was feeling when I entered. More and More the depths increased, the cares being crushed by the increasing water pressure of His love. 

Then came the meeting with the God of war aka the Deliverer. The sweet presence turned into an excavator and a rock hammer with angels manning the helm of this construction crew. First came them, breaking down caverns that allowed rejection to hide, which has been a torment for me since birth. They wasted no time tearing down the place where that spirit hid, then by fire they drove it up and out. Next up was a place that housed sexual dysfunction( rejection, this and python are parts of a 3 fold root system that make up manifestation of sexual immorality ) and it wasn’t even a contest, made for quite a interesting deliverance session on the floor, but one can’t be afraid to become undignified if they wish to break free and push spirits out of satanic bunkers that many have hiding deep in their souls.

Next was the wave of the God of peace. Many things God helped me make peace with.

1. My origin as an adopted child and the ambiguity of not knowing my parents. For me this has been a place of great torment for a long time, and this had a deep root of envy and jealousy attached to it. I was always jealous and envious of those who got to know who their parents are and enjoy the security of being raised by their biological family. This closed a major demonic door that the enemy had into my life and brought much healing through forgiveness and restoration.

Next thing was bringing peace to my soul with the loss of my adopted dad at the age of 16. This too was a major door of anger, bitterness, jealousy and envy into my life. I was angry at God for taking my dad, many times thought about walking away from Him because I felt that Him taking my dad while allowing those close to me to keep theirs was unfair and a slap in the face to me. Line of thought was “God if you loved me, you wouldn’t have taken my Dad away from me” But through realization and revelation God showed me the impact that my Dad’s decisions had on his own life and the way he was taking care of himself is why his life was cut short. Plus at the end of the day, we all have a set appointment day with Him that is inescapable. Charles had his, I am still here to walk out the mission God has for me and through His grace, it will be accomplished.

Final thing that God brought peace to my soul in, is being a middle aged single unmarried individual. Prior to the retreat this was point of pain and a breeding place for jealousy and complaining, but God brought peace in this through filling that area with His love and bringing healing to the parts that felt that they only way to be satisfied is with a spouse. Now am I believing for one.. yes, but does it dominate my thinking... nope and will I be disappointed if I never get married. Nope cause walking with Him is one of the greatest privileges given to mankind.

The final aspect of this weekend was encountering the God of Love. God went hard after the religious glasses that my eyes sported for a long time prior to coming to the retreat. These glasses had me attempting to earn God’s love through prayer, serving, attending church all the time, being at certain events, and even attempting to live holy through perfectionism and willpower (which BTW doesn’t work). He punched those things right between the eyes and broke them. With them broken the mindset did a 180. Doing those things didn’t become a thing to earn His Love, but expressions of His Love in me coming out. It made them a joy instead of a drudge.

Within this aspect, God also decided to destroy isolation island in my life. The place where I would go and zone out from the world away from anyone, and anything, including fluffy the random cat I would see. God burned this place to the ground by putting me in the middle of the awesome community that had gathered through the retreat, from the adventure of worshipping and prophesying in the rain, to building the vision boards as a team, to ending the evening with an awesome multi course dinner that was prepared by chef Jennifer. It made me comfortable dropping the walls down, the only difference is that once I dropped them, God made sure He burned them so they couldn’t ever be brought back up again.

So Yes to say life changing... I would say that’s an understatement.

- JM

Healing and Deliverance Retreat with AGMinistries/AGGE