Merry Christmas!

Well, 5 days a little late, we have snow on the ground. And of course, the one day I had to drive, I got to battle good old Minnesota icy and snowy roads. Very safely though of course ;)

I can not believe how fast this break has gone by. Trent and I only get to spend two more nights in our beds and then its back to Texas. I'm currently, not ready to go back. I'm beyond words excited to go to South Korea, but this break has been better than I could have ever hoped for.
I got to go to my home church again!! So awesome. There is just not a pastor in the south who can measure up to my awesome pastor here in the north. And he did not let me down! The message he delivered on Christmas was very much everything I hoped and expected it to be. I miss this church! It was so nice to see all the faces who have been supporting Trent and I. Thank you again everyone. You're prayers have been such a blessing, and I pray God blesses you so much more than you have blessed us.
I got to see all of my family over our Christmas celebrations! I love having such a big family. I love just sitting and soaking in all the warmth and the love. I loved seeing all my grandparents again! Being down at YWAM there are many elderly people who help run everything. I didn't realize how much it made me miss the wise people in my life.
I got to see my very best friend! Only not as much as I had hoped to :( Still, it felt so great to see her again and just be with her and her family.
Last night I got to hang out with some of the girls who I had coached diving to before coming down to YWAM. I missed those beautiful ladies! That was so nice.
I'm hoping to see my theater family tonight. Its just been such a good break.
Overall though, the time I have gotten to spend with my family has been perfect. It has felt so good being home and being surrounded with this amazing love that has grown. This goodbye is probably going to be the hardest one so far.
But South Korea is calling us! And I am very excited. I think I have everything I need. Soon I get to start the fun process of trying to pack everything into a size and weight limit. ...joys
Last I was updated, Trent and I still owed about $600. I've been trying hard not to worry about it. I know God wouldn't bring us this far and not finish what He started. So if you are feeling led to partner with us in this Outreach please contact me and let me know so that I can inform my leaders money is on its way. Thank you again to everyone who has already been supporting us, financially and especially through prayers. I feel overwhelmed looking back and how much Trent and I have been blessed through this experience. Thank you to everyone who helped get us to DTS and through DTS haha :)
I pray that our King has blessed you all with a very Merry Christmas break. I don't know how often I will get a chance to write from here on out, but I'm told I'll have internet access, so maybe I can write a few short things while in Korea or get some pictures up :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Snow For Christmas

Trent and I are back in Minnesota for Christmas! It feels so good to be home. It feels so good to be around my family and to have Christmas decorations all over the place. Talk about coming to home to a cozy home. So nice!

I can hardly wrap my brain around the fact that the lecture phase of DTS is over. All day I've been reflecting back on the things that have happened in the last 3 months. I've seen so much growing and so much change happen in every one of my classmates and in myself. Its so beautiful. Guys, God has done some crazy awesome things in us! We are such beautiful new people. I'm praying we all get the chance to love on the people in our lives over break. I'm praying that we stay protected in knowing who we have become in Christ. I feel so blessed to see the work He has done in each one of you!

My life has been turned upside down these last months! God has taken the desires of my heart and has made them a reality. How cool is my DADDY?! I look at myself and just feel new. I know that I'm new and I feel that I'm new. Its just good :) God is SO GOOD.

I'm hoping I get to see a lot of people while I'm home. I'm really excited to just be with my family. I'm excited to be in my home. Its just all nice. So nice haha :)

End of DTS

Oh man world. Its been way too long. December has been a crazy crazy month of extreme ups and extreme downs. I feel like I've been sprinting all month. I've literally been working on this post all week. But finally, down time, and this is some of whats been going on:
A couple weeks ago we had one of the coolest teachers ever! His name is Micah and he took us through 1 John: Am I really Saved? Can I know for sure? Wow. The teaching was intense. I stole his powerpoint so if anyone is interested in having it, email me and I'll send it to you bschwantz@hotmail.com
Here is a quick overview:

How To Know if You Are Saved:
1 John

A genuine Christian has a mark of authenticity upon him. There are 8 evidences that John gives us in First John. One of Satan's strategies in hindering the work of God is to reduce the gospel of Jesus into a formula so that people can enter by subscribing to the formula without every truly entering into relationship with God. In other words, just because you said "the prayer" does not necessarily mean you are a Christian.
Evidence #1 WALKING IN LIGHT: "If we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth." (1 John 1:6). A verse before, John tells us that God is light. There is no darkness in Him at all. So we can not be friends with Him if we are walking in darkness. To walk in darkness means to choose to dwell in sinfulness, to be in a state of habitual sin, to continue living like we used to live. I had become a "Christian" when I was 7 years old. But as I entered high school, my life did not reflect that at all. Even in college a little. I had a relationship with God. I prayed and read my Bible and He spoke to me as well. But I was definitely in habitual sin. This began my freak out of last week. I believe what the Bible says is true...so did this mean I was not a Christian?
Evidence #2 OBEYING HIS COMMANDMENTS: "The one who says, 'I have come to know Him,' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar; and the truth is not in him." (1 John 2:4) And the freaking out intensified. I had always considered myself as being in a relationship with God. But I knew there were things I was doing that were wrong. Did this mean I was a liar? I knew I wasn't keeping all His commandments. Obedience is the pattern of the Christian; sin in the exception, not the way that a Christian habitually lives. There is no salvation outside of having a relationship with God, truly knowing Him, not just about Him. And a person in relationship with God is obeying what He commands him to do. Romans 2:14 tells us we have no excuse for sin. We cannot claim ignorance for sin, because God has hardwired certain truths within us. A person's heart will race when he or she steals something, whether they are Christian on not. So how do I know if I'm saved? If I intend to keep God's commandments and obey Him no matter what. Before coming to DTS, I was not intending to obey some of God's commandments. I was planning to and expecting to sin in certain areas.
Evidence #3 LOVING THE BROTHERS: "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death." (1 John 3:14) This is not emotional. It is a commitment of the will to want the same rights for your neighbor as you do for yourself. Whatever you want protected for yourself, you must equally be committed to protect that for your neighbor. Love is charitable, benevolent, concerned. Bear one another's burdens. Shut out your neighbor and you also shut yourselves out of heaven. Who is your neighbor? Jesus answers this in Luke 10:25-37. It is the person you see who has the need. The neighbor is the person you see when you look out the window of your house. But now we have TV, and this is the window that opens up the whole world to us. It is the strategy of God. He put that funny little box in your living room, and it made you the neighbor to the entire world. Internet? Even more so. I know I'm saved if I love people.
Evidence #4 NOT LOVING THE WORLD: "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." (1 John 2:15) The world is all that attracts you prior to coming to God. You will know the saved by their attitude toward the world. Either you love the world or you love God. (Matt 16:23; John 14:17; John 15:19; Romans 12:2; 1 Cor 1:20; Eph 2:2; Phil 2:15) You can not commit your entire being to pleasing God and pleasing the world at the same time. When you see pictures of the devil, his fork is always represented as having 3 prongs for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. These things are not of the Father, but are of the world. Lust of the eyes is represented by wanting things and possessions. Lust of the flesh is represented by wanting experiences (sexual, social, etc). Pride of life is represented by wanting influence, authority, power, and position. Its not wrong to want these things. Its wrong to want them outside of God's will or above God Himself.
Evidence #5 ABIDING IN CHRIST: "And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming." (1 John 2:28). To abide in Christ means to remain in relationship with Him. The person who refuses to recognize and surrender the throne of his heart to unconditionally obey the Lord Jesus Christ is not of Christ. Abiding in Christ does not mean going to church. People go to church all the time who do not have a relationship with Christ.
Evidence #6 HATING SIN & DESIRING TO PLEASE GOD: "By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother." (1 John 3:10).
"Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who continually is practicing sin is of the devil." (1 John 3:7-8). When I read this, I really had to ask myself, do I believe everything in the Bible or not. Before coming to YWAM, I was continually practicing sin. The devil had a hold on me. Sense being here, the best way I have found to stop sinning, was to ask God to give me the attitude He has toward it: a pure hatred for sin. It didn't happen over night. Its still a work in progress. But when I feel tempted to sin, I look to Jesus and ask Him to show me how He sees it. I want to pleasing to God above all else.
Evidence #7 HAVING THE WITNESS OF THE SPIRIT: "Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us." (1 John 3:24). The Holy Spirit Himself personally brings the witness within our spirit that we have been born again. Your spirit is who you are. It is your spirit that leaves you at death. It is your spirit that thinks and feels and knows. Your spirit that lives. Without it, we would just be an empty shell. It is also our spirit which is regenerated at salvation. "The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children" (Romans 8:16). The testimony of the Holy Spirit is an inward impression on the human spirit, whereby God directly witnesses to your spirit that you are a child of God, that Jesus loves you and that He died for you and that you have been reconciled to Him.
Evidence #8 OVERCOMING THE WORLD: "For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world -- our faith." (1 John 5:4). And this is where my life was about to change. Overcoming the world means putting Jesus in charge. Stepping off the throne and allowing Him to do with me whatever He would like. Micah quoted a teacher he had in earlier years: "If you walk out this door tonight, and your planning on sinning, maybe you are not saved." I literally sank down in my chair after hearing this. I really had thought I had been a Christian all my life. My mind could hardly wrap around that maybe I wasn't. I was constantly planning on sinning and making up excuses for it. Oh this is just something I've always struggled with. Oh I'm a good Christian except for this one thing. etc etc so dumb. I was deceived.

So I ended up either giving my life to Christ for the first time or recommitting myself to Him. I'm honestly still not really sure, but at this point, it just doesn't really matter. Now I know that I know that I know that I am a child of God. I am saved. I dedicated my life in front of my class, along with most of my classmates. The next day, our staff took us to get baptized. Here is a video of mine :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULgpjIXqka4&feature=youtu.be
There's a link also on my facebook. The video is of my baptism and then a bunch of prayers and words people had for me. Its kinda hard to hear, but its all really awesome :)

Yesterday morning we had our very last lecture of DTS. I still can't believe it. On Monday we will be learning how to not be American while on our outreaches and spending time with our outreach teams -- my team gets to eat Korean food -- win :) Tuesday we will be deep cleaning this entire base. And Wed Kelsey, Trent, and I will be on our way back to Minnesota! I can't wait to see my family and go to my church and just see everyone!

The 3 W's and Soul Ties

Yesterday's class was SO GOOD! It really just spoke to me a lot with everything I am learning about and dealing with. It was more on prophecies. A lot of guidelines on how to go about interpreting prophecies, giving or receiving, and what to do with a prophecy you have been given. Good stuff. Good good stuff. Years and years of wisdom handed out in one class. And all of it things I can use to evaluate the prophecies I have been given sense coming here.

The very first thing she said was to record everything! Its hard to remember what God says to you when you are experiencing Him and His anointing. Its also hard to remember what was all said if you are wanting to hear something specific. And, if you are the one giving the prophecy, it helps protect you so that people don't put words in your mouth.

When you are recieving a prophecy, especially if you don't have a lot of experience with it, it is a tendency to jump and say its got to happen today. Man, do I know this is true. This is a huge lesson I am learning with some of the things I have heard about my life. You need to wait for God to line things up.

Determine God's Word on the matter.
Determine God's Will concerning the matter.
Determine God's Way and Timing to fulfill it.

The W's are like three traffic lights which all must be "green" before we can pass on through. When we get a Word from God, that is not the time to act on it. You don't need to manipulate or twist anything to get what God has for you. The way you get to it needs to be legit - HIS WAY! This is where I think I messed up. I started focusing too much on what God said, and didn't pay attention at all to how He wanted me to get there. I wanted to be there now. Everything I did or thought seemed to be about getting to that Word. Constantly, God has been telling me that now is not the time for that. Now is the time to just love Him and feel His love. He finally got that through to me. I'm just sorry how off the path I got without really even realizing it..."The prince of darkness is a gentleman..." (Shakespeare).
So if you get a Word from God, the first thing you need to do is match it up to Scripture. If what was told to you does not match up with what the Bible says, it was not of God. God does not contradict Himself. Once you have the green light on that, you need to seek His Will. And you need to wait until you get a yes. If you are unsure about God's will, stay put and wait. He'll make His will clear to you. Once you know that you know that you know His Will, you need to wait for HIS WAY. You must be faithful to wait until God's way is made clear. Not my way, His way. HIS timing, HIS methods, HIS provision. We need patience to press on and pursue His will until His plan and provision is provided. You need to give God time to divinely control the situations involved. And you need to remember God's timing is not out timing. Jesus said He was coming back soon 2,000 years ago...

To sum up, class was just very good. I learned a lot. I learned that if I get a Word, I don't need to freak out about it. If it was of God, its His job to bring it about, not mine. I don't have to do anything but seek Him.

I'm really excited about something else I learned yesterday, kind of on the side of everything else. I had a rough night of weird dreams the night before that were really bothering me. I told my mentor about them. She said what she saw was that there were a lot of soul ties that needed to be cut. I gave her a questioning look. I have never heard of soul ties before. Her and I talked for a little bit and then I went to do research on my own. What I found lined up with what she said:

SOUL TIES

"But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him."
~1 Corinthians 6:17

soul ties: the knitting together of two souls that can either bring tremendous blessings in Godly relationships or tremendous destruction when made with the wrong persons. A soul tie in the Bible can be described not only by the word knit, but also by the word cleave, which means to bring close together, follow close after, be attached to someone, or adhere to one another as with glue.

In ungodly relationships these soul ties may place us in emotional and mental bondage. These ties can be established if the relationship is not under the Lordship of Christ.

GOD DEMANDS FIRST PLACE IN OUR HEARTS.
When our strongest soul tie is to God, there is a divine covering and protection that will enable us to withstand forming ungodly soul ties.
"For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called." ~Isaiah 54:5

The sexual union of marriage ties two souls as one. God created this gift for marriage, but the result of being knit together is not different if this is abused outside of marriage. Soul ties formed through illicit sexual involvement can be as strong and binding as those formed through the marriage covenant. Just as two souls can be knit or made to cleave together in a covenant relationship, they can also be tied or knit together to form bondage and enslavement. Sexual union was ordained by God to make two marriage partners one flesh before God, but promiscuous premarital and extramarital affairs can mysteriously tie ones soul to many partners. Catherine said there doesn't even have to be the actual act of sex to tie your soul to someone. It can be getting too close physically or emotionally outside of God's will. She said that God is probably trying to tell me that I have ties to people that I need to cut. She said she was attached to her first boyfriend for years and years. She just couldn't get over him. Until she learned about soul ties and prayed for God to release her from those chains. I am just in love with this idea.

After doing my research and reading Scripture to back what I was learning up, I sat and talked with God a little. I want to belong to God fully. I don't want to feel bonded to any guy on this earth until Jesus is ready to share me in a marriage. I told God I am all for this. So I prayed that He give me names of ungodly soul ties that needed to be cut. And He gave me names. So now I have a list of guys that I am so ready to cut all bonds with so that I can finally belong fully to my Redeemer. I haven't prayed with Catherine about them yet, but I'm sure I'll feel the need to write about it once it does happen! Jesus, I'm just beyond excited to give myself fully to you. All of me. Belonging only to You.

If this has touched the heart of anyone reading this, if you realize you have soul ties that need to be cut as well, and you want more information or would like to know how to get rid of them, feel free to email me bschwantz@hotmail.com or facebook me.

Also, Praise God for He is my Provider! $1,000 came in for us yesterday. We are almost half way to going to Korea now. Thank you for those who are supporting us!! You are such a blessing and you will be blessed.