Recently I was thinking back about when I was 14 years old. I was at a youth camp and I went forward and was baptized in the Holy Ghost. I am telling you, that began a deeper encounter with God. Suddenly the identity of God's authority began to bring more understanding into my life.

The following year, I went to another deep zone—God called me in the ministry. I was only 15 years old but I knew from that moment on, that I was going to be in full time ministry. You see, every time you encounter the deep things of God something permanently changes in your life.

A lot of times we change out of enthusiasm and zeal, not out of an encounter with God. You may try to change things in your life because you heard a good sermon or because you went to church or maybe you just want to do good and be a good Christian. But when you encounter the deep things of God, you just can't help but change!

You can't be in the presence of God without going away a different person.

So at the age of 14 I was permanently changed from a Baptist to a Pentecostal. Now I'm not saying God wants to change each of us from a Baptist to a Pentecostal. All I'm saying is that when I got baptized in the Holy Ghost, something radically changed in the realm of God's destiny for my life.

The following year, at 15 years old, God called me into the ministry. I was changed and from that moment on, I pursued the ministry. I didn't know how I was going to to pursue it, I just knew that I was going to make sure that everything that I was doing was going to be striving toward that mark.

The first time I ever preached in my life, I just stood up and read 101 verses out of the Bible! THAT'S ALL I DID! (yawn). I was like Gideon; I was just threshing wheat. I didn't know what else to do, but I knew that I had to go for the "mark."
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 3:14 KJV)
So I challenge you to go deep with God. Go after all He has for you, with all of your heart! And if you ever get the opportunity to preach…Don't just stand there and read 101 scriptures! Grab your Bible and GO DEEP!

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