Sitting in a bar called Green Devil, me and two team mates are trying our hardest to hear our own thoughts and just pray silently because not one bar girl is talking to us-but the music is raging. It is always the loudest in this bar. Add the visual distractions and it feels like a lost cause. We keep making eye contact that is screaming "how am I supposed to pray in here?!" It was a battle to keep our minds on Christ for an extended period of time but as soon as I had been praying for at least 30 seconds straight, I heard God telling me to keep standing. It was a weird thing to hear because I hadn't even thought about it, but it was only then that I realized I never even sat down. I leaned over to tell my team mate that I needed to keep standing and she said "oh" then got out of her chair and stood as well. Like it was a no-brainer that we should be standing.
The next thing we hear is "there's a fire starting in my heart, reaching a fever pitch and it's bringing me out the dark". It was Adele. An interesting techno remix, but nonetheless something familiar. Something we could sing along to that wasn't super inappropriate. Right when it came on, all three of us began singing at the top of our lungs. Our singing turned into uncontrollable laughter which flowed into dancing which naturally led us into worshiping Jesus in the middle of this bar called Green Devil. With pure joy gleaming on our faces, we mutually felt a peace that it was fine if we left after that. We all three now knew that God wanted us to praise his name in that bar and nothing else mattered.
In that moment that we felt a peace about leaving was when a bar girl came running up to us saying "who are you? where are you from? what are your names?" She was so excited. This was a complete 180 from what we experienced when we first got into the bar with no one paying any attention to us. The difference between the start and end of that bar experience was we were rejoicing and praising God at the end, and his Spirit was dwelling in us and with us in that bar. And it was attractive to this girl. The Holy Spirit drew her in. We got to talk to her for a few moments but the music began blaring again soon after. She was so pleased to have talked with us for that short amount of time. And we were so stoked that we got to praise Jesus there.
I will never be able to listen to that song again without thinking of this night. Where God reminded me that he is the fire in my heart. The fire that is so hot that other people feel it. The fire that brings people out of darkness and sets them ablaze with him.
