out of the water // a series (part one)

november 5, 2020 // a holy day. 

what we thought would be an ordinary day on the race quickly became a day of revival for gap d. a day of declaration, salvation, authority, and power. a day that all heaven’s angels would sing and celebrate. 

 

twenty-five people.

 

death to life. shame, guilt, fear, comparison, and sin died at the bottom of lake lanier. freedom rose again. 

and i’m simply here to share the story.

 

stick around as i release several blog posts displaying testimonies of my squad mates and their baptisms ! 

Layna Tolton // Gap Year Racer

Team Align

FIRE

“Baptism has been on my heart for a long time. I’ve never been baptized before and it seemed like something everyone did, but I didn’t quite understand the ritual. It didn’t make sense to have a hope in heaven and full access to Him, but then have a need for baptism. It was really cool to see what the Bible says about actually dying with Christ to then be alive in and with Him. How cool is that? The same Spirit that brings Him back to life gets to also raise me up from the water. Not only was baptism a declaration of my faith but it also gets to be a surrendering of death to my flesh. Now I get to be fully alive in Jesus and His Spirit. I’m no longer in bondage. He already broke those chains, but I was still carrying them around. They weren’t attached to me, but I still had them grasped in my hands. I had to just let that go, and throw it out. ‘Lord this is forever and you are forever.’ I’m no longer gonna carry around these chains. I’m just gonna surrender that all to you. Baptism gets to be a rebirth, but to be reborn you have to die again. That’s so interesting.”

“I think I carried a lot of shame around the word ‘baptism’ because I’ve been following the Lord for quite some time, but not exactly surrendering to Him. I just thought it was ‘too late’ to be baptized since I’ve had all these years with Him. But seeing how even as a 5 year old I could trust in Him, but then surrender it all at 18 is so cool. It all felt like it came at the right time. It’s not like it was long awaited, but I also didn’t miss something. This just gets to be now. Now is the time! It was super cool to be presented with the opportunity to step out in faith as well. I was never asked if I wanted to be baptized so I assumed that I wasn’t worthy of doing good for the kingdom of God. And now I’m stepping out of that, knowing it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks and that it was never assumed of me, and that I can declare this to Him and Him alone. It’s just me and Him. “

“The first word that comes to mind is ‘fire’. It’s funny because it’s the opposite of water but we get to go under in water and come up in flames for the Lord afterwards.”

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Samson Densmore // Gap Year Racer

Team Zeal Bros

NEW

“The day before (baptisms), Gabe gave a teaching and shared a good word. The Lord set up this foundation of a candle, which Gabe’s teaching really set a flame to. I went to God and said ‘November 4th. This is the day I surrender my life to you. I give it to you Lord, take it all.’ The following day (November 5th) was my birthday, and I turned 19. The Lord really set this baptism in place when Madie came out and talked about baptisms. It all fell together and I knew the Lord was calling me into that. I declared it in prayer and then was given the opportunity to physically represent that moment.”

“Beforehand I was really excited. It finally came to the moment and I ended up, in that time, just focusing on the Lord to keep my attention on Him. I wanted to make sure my mindset was steady throughout so when I was baptized and got dunk’d I could be ready with my intentions. I was so joyous once I got out.”

“New.” 

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Cassi Davis // Gap Year Alumni Team Leader

Team Agape

Breathe-Taking

“The day that Madie brought baptism up I was so excited to celebrate the squad, but i never felt a prompting to get baptized myself. I was actually baptized two to three years ago during my senior year and I completely knew what I was doing, and why. My life has been changed since, and my baptism had been just when my walk with the Lord took off. I didn’t feel a need to get baptized this day, and I actually had the mindset that I wasn’t supposed to get baptized again. Honestly excited for you guys (the squad) and then got to baptize my girls and experience everything that was going on. I was filled with so much celebration the whole time. Then Grant went in and declared something about breaking chains of shame and living in freedom, and immediately the Lord told me ‘That’s why I want you to do it.’ It was a crazy moment of hearing His voice and having so much rush over me. I totally got WHY He would want me to do this again. I looked at Nicole and told her, and she just knew it was meant to happen. This past year the Lord has really shown me what it looks like to have an identity as a daughter who has walked in a lot of healing. It’s been a cool season of knowing His love as a Father, and being able to give that away to my team as well, since they’ve needed it as well. He really convicted me when I first got here in Georgia of how I knew my identity in Him, but wasn’t walking proudly in it. I’ve never been so proud and secure in my identity as a daughter, so that’s why the lord told me to get baptized!” 

“Coming up out of the water and hearing the sound of celebration showed me what it was meant to be like all along. When I was baptized the first time I had told my parents I was going to and I just felt a lot of shame not having them, and other family there to experience it. I had been carrying this guilt the whole time but in the lake the Lord showed me that this is the family that was meant to be here. This is the celebration He wanted to give me the first time. I genuinely felt so free and proud to be a daughter.” 

“It was breathe-taking.”

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Max Rachkovskiy // Gap Year Racer

Team BYOB (Bring Your Own Bible)

New Life. 

“I feel like in my walk with the Lord I was finally ready to step both of my feet in, and go all in with my faith. I wanted to let the world know I no longer belonged to them and I’ve died to myself — I’m the Lord’s. I had no idea we would be doing baptisms that day, but the week before in Louisiana (for ministry) I felt the Lord telling me to get baptized. I told Him that if it was something He actually wanted me to do to bring it up again, and if not then I would know it’s not the time. A couple days later Madie started the conversation of baptism and I knew it was the Lord asking me to do it.”

“The enemy was telling me I wasn’t ready for this and I had a lot of doubts going through my head. But I knew it was the enemy talking, not the Lord, so I was sure this was the right thing to do.”

“I’ve realized that life isn’t as different as I thought it would be (after the baptism) but now I get to step in with the Lord and choose to not go back to my old ways. I’ve died to my old ways.”

“New life.” 

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four stories. four people. four warriors for Christ. 

“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

Romans 6:4