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AN NRT EXCLUSIVE ARTICLE
Passion 2024: Call On Heaven
NRT's Grace Chaves shares her experience of the three-day conference in Atlanta, Georgia
 


AN NRT EXCLUSIVE ARTICLE, Passion 2024: Call On Heaven
Posted: February 15, 2024 | By: GraceChaves_NRT
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Are there words to describe the miraculous? A way to explain the feeling of heaven touching earth?

I've wrestled with how I would start this article. I thought about it on the five-hour plane ride from Atlanta to San Diego. I thought about it as I lay in bed at night and in the bathroom every morning. Every eloquent word that I wrote kept falling short.

There are no words to say when your life has been changed. No words will ever amount to what I've seen, heard, felt, and experienced.

So I stare at a blank page, wanting to do justice to everything that happened in only three days. I'm trying to come up with words to explain that I'm not the same person I was when we rang in the New Year only last month. That version of me feels as dead as the autumn leaves. That version of me has been crucified in light of Jesus Christ, the one to whom I cry out, "Holy, holy, holy."

What was this thing that was so life-changing? What still has me on my face, absolutely in awe of God?

It was Passion 2024.

 

A little backstory first: in 2017, God used a church called Passion City to save me from anxiety and put me into a relationship with Jesus. The pastor, Louie Giglio, hosts a conference a few miles away from his church in Atlanta called Passion Conference. It's been going on for over 25 years as a gathering for 18-to-25-year-olds to glorify the name of Jesus. For six of those years, I've been watching online.

Even just from my perspective on the couch, I knew there was something special about this gathering. It always felt like God's presence in the arena leaked into my living room. Something about seeing thousands of students lifting the name of Jesus would set my heart on fire for weeks. I knew that, no matter what it cost, I wanted to be in the room for it--in person--during my first year of college. So, I packed up, left home early during Christmas break, and flew 1,500 miles to Atlanta. What was waiting for me there was wholly, completely unexpected.

The team at Passion always says to expect big things at the conference. They say to come with an open heart. But there's only so much you can prepare for--only so much you expect to happen. You'll expect good music, of course. You'll undoubtedly expect a few encouraging messages. But are you expecting heaven to come down and invade an entire arena? Are you expecting the Spirit of the living God to descend upon yourself and the 55,000 others in attendance?

We are likely to be. We would even pray for those things. But when it happens, you realize that your expectations fell short. Every idea of heaven coming down pales to heaven actually coming down.

From the beginning, you could tell there was something different about the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The Benz is where football is on a pedestal, and its players are idolized. But the atmosphere had shifted since the last game day. Now, the only name exalted was Jesus Christ.

On the first night, the stadium was electrified with the sound of contemporary artist Brandon Lake opening with "Praise" by praise band Elevation Worship. But when famous worship leader Kristian Stanfill came out with an acoustic worship set, we realized God was up to something. The raw worship made me see that this was not just a conference. I knew that whatever was coming next was going to be good.

Speakers Sadie Robertson Huff and Ben Stuart gave incredible talks in one night. Contemporary music superstar Crowder closed the night with an energized set, and former football player Tim Tebow appeared and prayed over the students. The four-hour session hardly felt like it had been going on for an hour when it was already time to leave. After crawling into bed at 1 a.m., my heart could hardly process everything that had just happened. And to think that this was only the beginning.

Day two was a whirlwind in the best possible way. My friends and I waited outside in the brisk Atlanta air alongside thousands of others, giddy in anticipation of the doors opening. We were all sleep-deprived, but our energy was high. Passion titled this conference "Call On Heaven," that's all we had done last night. Today? Today would be another chance to call on the King of kings. The idea made my heart beat fast.

As married worship artists Kari Jobe and Cody Carnes led worship with songs like "Our God Reigns" and "Firm Foundation," it was ever more apparent that God was on the move in this place. The day continued with worship from contemporary artist Sean Curran and house band Passion Music, a hip-hop segment with KB, and talks from speakers Levi Lusko and Earl McClellan.

But it was on that last night when I realized I would not walk out of the Benz as the same person.

After the dinner break, I returned to my seat and nearly gasped when I saw a larger-than-life cross in the middle of the stadium. I never heard the actual measurement of it, but it was more than 70 feet tall. In the middle of the stadium, there was a tangible reminder of the Jesus I serve and love with all my heart. The Jesus I traveled 1,500 miles to worship in this stadium. All I could do was stare in awe until the next session started.

Passion Music led the way with their newest song, "He Who Is To Come," before Pastor Louie Giglio came and gave a message titled "The Cross-Referenced Life," which I think will resonate in my heart for the rest of my days. As I stared at the giant cross in the middle of the stadium, I couldn't believe this was real life. I could hardly fathom the fact that Jesus is simply this good.

 

The late-night session with famous worship artists Brandon Lake and Phil Wickham started around 10:30 p.m. It was past one in the morning when I crawled into bed again. I would've been satisfied if that was the end of Passion 2024. But there was still one more morning session to come. One more session was about to change the entire course of the conference.

Everything that happened over those two days pales compared to what happened on the final morning. I can hardly write about it and have hardly been able to talk about it since it occurred. Every word I could ever write would never fully summarize the utter sense of heaven that invaded the room. Every time I think about it, tears come into my eyes, and the world shifts for a brief moment in time.

Everything was leading to this moment. Every intimate moment of worship. Every strum of a guitar. Every talk. Every conversation in between sessions. Every single thing was leading to this.

The world felt quiet on the morning of January 5. The quiet that makes you buzz with excitement. We were all tired from the past two days, but there was tangible joy and expectation as my friends and I again stood in the cold Atlanta air, waiting for the gates to open. The people we stood in line with felt like family as we laughed, danced, and spontaneously sang, "I Thank God," together. I had goosebumps, not just from the cold; it felt like we were about to enter a holy moment.

Once the session began, there were only four songs when Passion spontaneously started to play "Agnus Dei." And no one wanted to stop singing. For 20 minutes, the Holy Spirit came into the room, and all we could do was cry, "Holy, holy, are you Lord God almighty/Worthy is the Lamb/Worthy is the Lamb/You are holy."

As I looked around the stadium, I saw the thousands surrounding me in tears and on their knees before the King of kings. Some were facedown on the floor. We were all feeling the same thing: the very presence of God.

But it's different from this moment; it was emotion-driven. There wasn't a pastor with an emotional message urging people to lift their hands in praise. There was no altar call or profound piece of prophecy.

It was just raw worship.

We called on heaven, which came in the most beautiful, unexpected way.

That moment changed me and is still changing me. These words I've written entirely and utterly pale compared to all that happened over the three days of Passion. Those 20 minutes of worship felt like a mere five. It was as if we were in heaven's time, where a thousand years is like a day (see 2 Peter 3:8). It was nothing short of miraculous. It was heaven coming down to earth.

"Passion '24 is long from over. It has just barely begun," Pastor Louie Giglio said. "And to the glory of God, let the wind of the Spirit blow us out of this place, and may the world hear the story of Jesus. It is the only story worth living for. It is the story of this day and every day. To God be the glory."

The wind of the Spirit is blowing. What will your response be? Even if you weren't at Passion, the wind of the Spirit is blowing on your college campus. At your workplace. In your city.

I hope we all cry, "Holy, holy, are you Lord God almighty."

 

Pre-save Passion's upcoming album, Call On Heaven, here. 

Grace Chaves is NRT's News Editor and one of our youngest writers. She's been part of NewReleaseToday since 2019 and is continuing her journey by majoring in Writing at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego.

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