Beth Moore Living Proof Live Conference
Sarah Christensen
On April 17 in Albuquerque, NM over 5000 women were gathered in one building to worship. The Beth Moore Living Proof Live conference was packed with women of all different ages, backgrounds, some as different as different can be, all brought together to worship and learn. It is an amazing experience to be in a room with so many other woman, the love and acceptance that was present that weekend was one of the most beautiful thing I have experienced.
After a time of praise a video came onto the screen with Beth Moore, her daughter Amanda, and Amanda’s daughter Annabeth. Each of them read a part of the verses, which would be the theme for the weekend, Psalm 78.
The conference was called “generate”. Beth Moore gave the definition saying that Generate meant-“something that can inspire or call forth something”. The weekend was about generating for the next generation.Beth Moore had 7 points that she made over the weekend and the first was “God commands his generations to generate” Meaning that each one of us is called to generate something into then next generation. One of her major points, which I personally really loved, was that “We were all born at exactly the right time”. Each one of us has been called with a purpose in both our generation and the next. “We will answer for the next generation”. Beth said that even if you aren’t planning to be a mother you have what she called “Spiritual Children”. That means women of the next generation we “invest in and love”. Right now if you have a niece or a young neighbor, even as a teenager, you have the power to be someone’s spiritual mother! One of the points that she made was that the women dressed inappropriately on the cover of magazines are also those girls’ spiritual mothers. We are influencing the next generation right now as we walk, talk, and learn ourselves. Whew, talk about a cause for self-control, I sure don’t want my cousins and sister straying down a bad path because of something I did or said. Don’t freak out because God’s plan for you was set in motion as Beth Moore said “Before God said ‘Let there be’ he had planned the generations from Adam to the end of line”. God did not set up your plan and place so you would cause the next generation to stumble, just by asking for God’s will for your life you are strengthening someone in the generations to come!
The second point, “To generate we have to communicate” this is one of the things at the conference that makes me want to duck my head a little. You don’t mean to generate I have to get out from behind my computer screen and actually talk to people do you? Being an introvert I would hope to sort of breeze by this point but that’s how I know I need it the most. It’s one of the hardest things for me to actually get up and talk to someone but we have to be as Beth Moore said “Bold enough to open our mouths and communicate” Psalm 71:18 “till I declare your (God’s) power to the next generation” Tell in Hebrew is sôpēr meaning “recount God’s goodness”. Recounting God’s goodness, that’s a topic that will never run dry, and that brings me to one of the quotes I need to type in bold “people need to know” they need it! When my introvert cries out inside me I am depriving someone of necessities!
So what are the necessities? What do I want to communicate to the next generation? Three “Eliminate what you don’t want to generate” Get rid of the yucky stuff! Beth Moore said “We will pass on what we possess” bitter passes on bitter, and mercy passes on mercy. So the question we need to ask ourselves is what is in our hearts? Author Janette Oke in her book Roses for Mama asked “’See that pot’ she said, pointing her finger. ‘If I pushed it over-what would spill out on my stove?’… Charlie hesitated “What’s in it?’ he asked slowly. ‘That’s it.’ replied Angela” If you have water in a pot water will spill out, if you have bitter in your heart bitter will spill out. All of my life I have struggled with insecurity but I know that I don’t want to pass it on to the daughters I hope to have one day. I need to rid myself of my insecurity if I don’t want to give in to the next generation. What do you want to pass on to your future daughters, spiritual or paternal? Is their something you want to pass on to your daughters that you don’t possess? Patience maybe I can relate to that one, I could fit almost every ounce of patience I have in the palm of my hand. Then, in the wise words of Beth Moore, “girlfriend, we need to get us some!” If I want to pass on patience, or mercy, compassion, hopefulness, wisdom, I should get me some! We can’t pass on what we don’t possess.
Point 4 is one of my favorites after struggling with insecurity, “Learn to appreciate what’s yours to generate”. This point goes back to the fact that we have a purpose, we were placed by God in this generation because we have stuff that the next generation needs. “You and I have stuff to bring to the table that no one else can bring!” How cool is that?!? I have things that only I can do in my generation and so do you, and we have absolutely no idea how important the things we have are to this generation and the next. God cares enough to plan our your time before he even made the earth, you have a HUGE part to play! One thing that Beth Moore said that really stuck with me was “No one has your DNA, your history, your quirks. They are not you!” a lot of times, the way we look, our past, and every thing that we can find wrong in ourselves is what distracts us from fulfilling our purpose. Surely Beth Moore can’t be saying that our baggage, our past, our insecurities, are what make us prepared for our part. She is and more importantly so is God! Moses had a bad stutter, Matthew was a tax collector, Peter was a zealot, Esther was afraid, and David was a bullied little shepherd boy. God uses people with baggage. In fact the man who was the Father of nations as countless as the stars, lied and slept with his wife’s servant. You don’t have to be perfect because “You have great story”. Everything about you has been shaped since the day you were born. God planned your life from the beginning, you can’t freak him out. The pastor at Mission Carlsbad illustrated this by saying that God is not up in Heaven saying “O M ME, I cannot believe what they just did.” God already knows your mistakes and he has used them to shape your story.
Since you have a great story “To generate get real and don’t impersonate”. Don’t lie about your story and “quit acting like someone you aren’t”. Our stories are already made great by God’s plan, he is the author of the nations, and he doesn’t need you to lie because you think your story isn’t exciting enough. 2 Timothy 3:13 “while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” Uh oh that sounds like a warning, great things do not come from deception, even the greatest stories told falsely are flat out lies. Beth Moore told a story about a woman who had been at the Albuquerque conference in 2009, a Jewish woman who had been rescued from a concentration camp from Beth Moore’s father or grandfather. I can’t quite remember all of the details to the story but this woman had agreed to tell her story that the conference. This is the part where it gets interesting because as soon as Beth Moore handed her that microphone, she said she felt almost nauseous, this woman was so calm, almost as if she had practiced. Later that day a church in the area had opened its doors to baptize this women, they had a preacher to do it. Then Beth Moore said she got a call and everything this woman had said was false. Can you believe that? I don’t know what a happened after but her point was that even if your lie is convincing, it will come out into light as a lie. “You should tell your story compellingly but not falsely” I have struggled with my story at times to because I was never a drug addict or walked away from God. I grew up in Church, accepted Christ young, and have lived in a loving Christian household every since. Well how is that going to change anyone’s life, brings crowds to tears, and revive the nations? The thing is, I don’t know, I may never know, but God wrote my story this way. Not because he was running out of time and needed someone to fill a seat in a classroom in 2015 but because I needed it to fulfill his plan for my life.
The sixth point was “To generate emulate what the battle takes to dominate”.
Emulate means to match something by imitation so we need to follow the spiritual warriors before us to dominate on the spiritual battlefield. “There is a spiritual battle going on and we need to learn to fight” I especially like that word “dominate” according to Merriam-Webster it means to “have control or power over something” We can dominate on the spiritual battlefield because “If you are in Jesus you have everything you need to be victorious”. How amazing is that? Jesus already won, the grave could not keep him, and we cannot be on the losing side if we are in Jesus! Now we need to live mighty for his name on earth until he calls us home. Beth Moore says, “We will never live mighty than we pray!” In Jesus and praying fervently to him, emulate what the battle takes to dominate. Let’s go out and dominate!
The final point that Beth Moore made was that we need to “Live to generate bold faith in a God too great to exaggerate” We need to generate bold faith in the next generation in our mighty God who is too great to exaggerate. Right now you are influencing the next generation of spiritual warriors I hope we all make sure that those girls can dominate in God’s name. The final point that Beth Moore made is “Never let anything or anyone convince you God does not still perform miracles” He does perform miracles sometimes in ways we don’t understand but he is performing miracles today, alive and He is certainly dominating.
I will never forget the last session of the weekend. Beth Moore got down from the stage and went through the crowd asking for testimonies. 4 or 5 woman spoke, and the amazing thing was that after each testimony all the women who wanted prayer for that thing stood up. Woman who wanted prayer for their marriage, who had illnesses, who were expecting children, and the woman around them laid hands on them as Beth Moore prayed over them. One of the women was younger who gave her testimony and all of the young woman and teenagers stood. I had gone over with a group, my mom and her best friend Mrs. Betz, her mother-in-law Mrs. Briton came from Nicaragua, and Mr. Betz daughter Kenya, a really good friend of mine, my mom, my little sister, and I. So it was really cool that the generations were there. The woman around us laid hands on us and prayed not only for us but our future children. It was so amazing the love and support these complete strangers had for us and the other woman in the room. Such a beautiful experience and in that room we prayed for all of you too, the teenage girls even who weren’t at the conference. You were prayed for by over 5000 women on the 18th of April.
One question that Beth Moore asked everyone at the conference to think about is “Why did God put you in that seat?” Not because I went online, saw the conference, and had a free weekend, I know that he was at work that weekend. “Why did God put you in that seat?” In a way I knew that question as soon as she asked it that second day and it is a little hard to admit. The sixth point Beth Moore made was largely about Prayer. “We need to shake the ground when we pray, prayer is not a quiet little blessing,” prayer is one of the major things we need to dominate in spiritual battle. I have to admit though I have always struggled with prayer like that, ever since I was little. I had read the verses that God knows everything in your heart and so telling him all about it seemed a bit repetitive to me. I got convicted that in 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins”, I thessalonians 5:17 “Pray without ceasing”, and Psalms 145:18 “The lord is near to those who call on him”. For a long time I was having trouble calling on the Lord and I think that was one of the reasons I was put in that chair by God. I needed to be reminded that prayer was what God wants; it is a personal relationship with him, and not only that but so is listening to him. I am working on my prayer life and I am so glad that God put me in that seat.