The Good Portion

This week as I have been preparing to teach on living a Onething Lifestyle to our new interns, the Lord began to really encounter me with some deep revelation concerning the “good portion” that He credited Mary of Bethany with having chosen in Luke 10.

Luke 10:38-42

38Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. 40But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” 41But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.“

What is the good portion that Jesus is speaking of here? The Lord began to open this to me and it has been very revelatory and exposing to me this week. I have not been able to get it off my mind; it is just sitting and brewing in my Spirit.

The Lord began to tell me that the good portion is found in four different arenas of the life of Mary. Mary has chosen the good portion, and it includes four different things, not only found in this passage, but found in other places in the gospels.

1) Luke 10:39 Sitting at His feet. Intimacy. Perceiving.
Mary sat at the feet of Jesus gazing at His beauty and recognizing His worthiness and her neediness.

2) Luke 10:39 Listening to His teaching. Intimacy. Receiving.
Mary listened to the words coming from His mouth. This is “eating the scroll” and digesting what we hear! Hearing is not a tickle in the ears but a laboring for reality.

3) John 11:21-44 Partnering with Him in intercession. Fervency. Releasing to the Lord.
Moving His heart by living as an expression of His heart. He was moved by Mary’s weeping, compassion, tenderness and meekness.
Mary was not after the miracles primarily. In this case she certainly desired to see her brother raised. She recognized her neediness of the Lord (poor in Spirit) and from that place partnered with His heart. It is not however, the supernatural encounters that sustained her in gazing. Peter, James and John witnessed incredible things on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mt. 17) but could not tarry with the Lord for even one hour even though it was evident that Jesus was troubled and needed friends to tarry. Jesus was not so moved by the fact that the three witnessed the Transfiguration, but He was moved that they could not tarry. Mary could tarry without needing supernatural encounters to produce that desire in her. This moved the Lord.

4) John 12:1-8/Mark 14:3-8 Proclaiming His worthiness. Urgency. Releasing to man.
Forerunner proclaiming His beauty, His worthiness and agreeing with His plan in extravagant worship and adoration! While the other disciples mocked, she was a faithful witness of these things. When Jesus says she has anointed my body for burial He is testifying of her agreement with His plan while others were blind to the fact that His death was necessary. Mary was a Forerunner in this proclamation and it is part of the good portion….a faithful proclamation of His worthiness! It is the new song rising up at the end of the age in Revelation 5. Worthy is the Lamb to take the scroll and open its seals!

These are four things that characterize the “good portion” that He is calling us into, and will not be taken from us. I will write more on this later! Love you all!

Meditate on these truths!

Hurricane, You can have me…

Here is a new song the Lord gave me to sing to Him.

Come like You promised
like the rain
Hurricane
You can have me

I don’t care if it’s cold
as long as You’re here with me
I don’t care if I’m broken
as long as You’re here with me
I don’t care how it feels
as long as You’re here with me
I don’t care if I’m lonely
as long as You’re here with me
I don’t care if it kills me
as long as You come to me
I don’t care what they think
as long as You’re here with me!

I will waste my life to love You
I will waste my life to know You

I was dressed in rags
You clothed me with You love
and crowned me with Your gaze

Come like You promised
like the rain
Hurricane
You can have me

Come like You promised
like the rain
Hurricane
You can have me

That’s it, I feel Him draw near when I play it for Him.

Who is loving God how He deserves? Who is putting the first commandment first? I charge you to let the Spirit search you, and empower you. He so longs for it, He will help you. Lean. Lean. Lean.

Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved?

Learning to lean unto learning to love

“He brought me to the wilderness so I could learn to sing
He lets me know my barrenness so I can learn to lean”

Today in the prayer room the Lord really came in such a sweet way. Since we’ve returned from Kansas City we have really been feeling the Lord’s zeal to establish His Bride in the reality of the great and foremost commandment truly being foremost.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. This is the great and foremost commandment.”

A few weeks ago the Lord began to speak to me about the greatest injustice of this age. He told me that the greatest injustice of this age is not that we have murdered 50 million babies in America alone, and not that there is 20 million slaves on the planet right now and not that there are thousands of people across the nations starving to death while we throw more food away than we know what to do with. He spoke so clearly to me, and in such a tender yet brokenhearted tone that the greatest injustice of this age is the fact that Jesus is not loved in the manner He is worthy! The Lamb is not receiving the Reward of Love DUE His sufferings! The Bride is not ravished by the ravished Bridegroom! We can easily pass this off as a radical generalization (mostly because the greatest commandment seems impossible to attain) but it is truly a serious issue. Jesus is not loved. The One who is MOST worthy of love, is not receiving love. The One who alone is worthy to open the scroll in Revelation 5-6, most do not consider worthy of radical love. No one would agree with this statement in so many words, but if we examined the hearts of many even in the Body of Christ today I do not hesitate to say we would find that many believe that the lack of radical abandonment to the Great Lover of our soul is not an issue. This is an issue.

So to continue, the Lord began to speak to me about that again today in the prayer room as we prepared for intercession. He spoke that to me again, that the greatest injustice of this age is the fact that Jesus the Bridegroom is not loved even by His own Bride. He went on to say that the indictment against the church is NOT the fact that Jesus is not loved as He should be, because it is not our job to conjure love up inside of us anyway, the indictment against the church is she is not leaning. He highlighted Song of Solomon 8:5, “Who is this coming up out of the wilderness leaning on her Beloved?” I heard Him speak so clearly, “the measure in which you will love is the measure in which you will lean!”

We know that it is impossible for any man to love God unless by His Spirit through His grace God produces love in that person. We love Him because He first loved us. So the indictment against the Church is not that we have not conjured up enough love for Jesus, the indictment against the Church is that we have not leaned upon Him to produce that love in us! The measure that we will lean upon His Spirit is the measure that He will produce love in us! As much as we bring ourselves to lean is as much as He can bring us to love Him!

So why all the wildernesses? Why all the barrenness? Why the hardship? Why trial? Why end of the age persecution?
He knows that He must get us to lean if He is going to get us to love!
He knows that we cannot love Him, but one thing we are really good at is being weak. So He sets it up in such a way through wildernesses and barrenness to make us weak and cause us to recognize our weakness. We will not lean without the recognition of our weakness! So wilderness comes! And we recognize He cannot be obtained, so we lean, in our weakness upon His power, and grace, and compassion, and our love grows as we lean!
He brings us forth in love, by bringing us through the wilderness! His leadership is flawless! You shall love me, therefore I shall bring hardship! This slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison; love for Jesus!

When we get this, we move from the place of hating hardship, past the place of just begrudgingly tolerating hardship, barrenness and wilderness into the place of loving and cherishing the trials, tests, barrenness, wilderness, poverty in spirit, hardship and persecution because we recognize it as the doorway to love for the Lamb! We will begin to truly treasure the wilderness because we know that it is a tool that He is using to force us to lean upon Him, and in that leaning, lean upon Him for the love to love Him! He is gifting us with love for Him by causing us to lean on Him!

You want me close
so cause me to lean
I am weak
make me weaker
so I have to lean
Who is this
coming up from the wilderness
leaning on the Lamb slain for Love

I am Your temple
come rest in me
I am Your kingdom
come reign in me
I am Your garden
delight in me
I am becoming eternal

I cannot lay hold of love lest I lean on Love for love!

I count the wilderness as joy
I count the barrenness as joy
I count my weakness all as joy

Sacred Charge

So we just returned from IHOP-KC and the Onething Conference yesterday after an 18 hour bus trip through the night. It was a long trip but the Lord really did a lot in our group. It was powerful! I hope that some of you took advantage of the opportunity to tune into what was going on at the conference, it truly was a deep time of encounter and opening of eyes. The worship was unbelievable! The teaching was piercing and powerful! The time before the Lord in the prayer room was electric!

Some things the Lord really highlighted during this conference was the great necessity for us as Forerunners to begin to prepare ourselves and submit to His leadership in forming and solidifying the end of the age message IN us. At the end of the conference he gave a Sacred Charge, asking that all those that are truly feeling lead by the Lord to give their lives to “eating the scroll” and partnering with Him in His end time strategy would come forth for prayer with a commitment in their heart to honor the Sacred Charge.
There were seven parts to the Sacred Charge:

1) Pray Daily. 2 hours in prayer and the Word a day. Read the book of Revelation once a week for three years.
2) Fast Weekly. Setting our heart to fast two days a week.
3) Speak Boldly. standing as a Faithful Witness in allegiance to Jesus’ heart for the Church, Israel, and the nations.
4)Do Justly. doing works of justice focusing on the fatherless and oppressed.
5) Give Extravagantly. giving to the prayer movement. (beyond our tithe).
6) Live holy. walking out the sermon on the mount and keeping the purity covenant.
7) Lead Diligently. leading weekly prayer meetings and Bible studies focused on training forerunners.

These are the seven commitments Mike Bickle and the leadership in Kansas City called us to for the next TEN YEARS. He preceded the call by saying that he wasn’t looking for people that just sort of kind of wanted to be involved with what the Lord was doing, but that this was a huge commitment and would demand a radical lifestyle shift, so not to come forward unless you truly felt the Lord leading you. There were about 15 thousand people at the conference. This was the last night, on New Year’s Eve. He made the call and close to 2000 young adults came forth!! It was such an awesome moment to see that so many were being lead by the Lord to give their lives to being formed into a Forerunner. Mike Bickle said that that moment was the most critical moment in all his ministry and was up there weeping. It was a very powerful moment.

I would encourage you all to get a hold of the teachings from the conference and sit before the Lord and prayerfully consider what He has for you in the coming years concerning your role in partnering with Him in the end of the age. He is coming, He is jealous, He has an end time agenda, and we, His Bride, have almost no concept for what He is doing and how we are to partner with Him.

My Beloved is Beautiful
He’s Dazzling and Excellent
My Beloved is Beautiful!

He’s coming to rule
He’s coming to reign!
He is the King
He is the King!
He’s coming to rule
He’s coming to reign!
Jesus
Jesus!

I am in Kansas City right now at the Onething Conference.
I want to encourage everyone to tune into the worship and teachings RIGHT HERE! They are webstreaming it for free! It is something they have never done before. You can also watch it on God TV. The Lord is really moving and I feel Him really making solid a God birthed urgency for the hour in our Spirits! I will post more but I want to encourage you to check out the amazing worship and teachings and tell your friends and family! It is really a significant conference for the whole Bride to be a part of somehow!

Bless you!

The Great Injustice of this Age

I find that my own perspective of justice has been radically influenced by a compassion for mankind rather than a Spirit birthed jealousy for God’s glory and expression of His name. I will often times declare a thing to be unjust or in need of change simply because of the discomfort and suffering it causes a person or people group. The thought many times reveals itself in this manner, “it is not right for them to be starving to death because it is not right for the innocent to suffer” or “it is unjust for millions of babies to be murdered in their mothers wombs because they deserve an opportunity to live life.” This mindset, while noble and appearing to be pure, is humanism. My own desire for justice is often times birthed in humanism and sustained by humanism. You will meet many Christians who go into careers as doctors, and police officers and firemen and counselors and even to the mission field because they “just want to help people that are in need.” This is no different however than the atheist who chooses the same profession for the same reason; the motive of humanism. And why are we so moved and driven by our compassion for mankind? Is there a hidden desire inside of us that hopes that if we were in the same pit of despair that we too would be valued enough for a compassionate being to trouble himself with demanding justice on our behalf? Is it the inner Moral Nature that moves us to act on behalf of our fellow man? Is it a deep desire in us to set ourselves up as gods and control pain and suffering inflicted upon mankind?

This motive and urgency of humanism is brought into our ministries, and it seems to us that it has the right to reside there. We begin to approach even salvation from this perspective which causes us to believe that there is some inherent worth in mankind (apart from that which God has birthed and humbled Himself to “need” and desire) that would and could and naturally should motivate the Almighty God to bridge the gap between our depravity and His holiness and reconcile mankind to Himself. This is far from being true. Suddenly the gospel and the power of the gospel becomes the remedy to fix the problems of man and our extension of the love of Christ (through ministering to the poor, orphans and widows) is motivated by our desire to tame mankind’s sorrows and bridle its natural destruction. Our ministries then have very little or no distinction between those ‘ministries’ of the secular world and even less power because the end to which we are working is an end that will not sustain permanent change and transformation though it momentarily changes the temporal circumstance. Much of the church, whether she is aware of it or not, is imprisoned in this man-driven mindset to make heaven here on earth through temporal means and humanistic philosophies in hopes perhaps that she can do ‘what God is unable to do’ and put an end to pain and suffering now. This is tragic indeed. She has missed something that is crucial to the Christian faith; the necessity for pain and suffering and the profit it has in bringing men to Christ, and in forming Christ in men.

As a side note I would like to address the misfortune that because of our false perspective of justice, which lends a hand in leading us to a false perspective of pain, much of the Church now has, rather solidified, false perspectives of salvation, self denial, intimacy and communion with God, and the manner in which we are to approach evangelism. We have, however subconsciously, catered mostly to man and his ‘frame’ (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual) in our teaching of these subjects rather than staying loyal to the clear perspective revealed throughout Scripture and testified of in other nations besides America where the Church is rapidly growing with little or no ‘false conversions’ even in the midst of great tribulation and suffering while continuing to preach a pure and powerful gospel.

I have begun to realize and encounter recently, as I have sat before the Lord and begun to come into the knowledge of God, that the greatest injustice is not the fact that we have slaughtered 50 million babies in America, and not the fact that there are thousands and thousands of sex slaves all across the nations, and not the fact that millions of people are starving to death and live below the poverty line. I have discovered that the greatest injustice this age has ever known is the fact that Jesus, who is the only one worthy to open the scroll in Revelation 5, the Lamb that was slain, is not receiving the full reward of His sufferings! The greatest injustice this age has ever seen is the fact that Love is not loved by those Love loves! The greatest injustice this age has ever known is the fact that the Bride of Christ, the very bride that He burns with unspeakable passion for and possesses untold affections towards does not love her Bridegroom in the manner that He is worthy of and necessarily due! This is the Great Injustice of this Age! The Lamb is worthy to receive the reward of His sufferings, and He is not!

It is necessary that we move out of our humanism driven intercession and labors for pure justice and begin to draw into a place of longing for justice for a different reason. That reason is simply because it is what our High Priest and Bridegroom longs for. We do not primarily ask for justice because of injustice. We do not primarily ask for righteousness because of unrighteousness. We primarily labor for these things because when they come, He comes and a people that are in love with Jesus cannot live without Him near. We primarily labor for these things because it is burning in His heart that these things be established, and a lovesick Bride will partner with the burdens and aches and long to move syncopated and parallel with the burdens and aches of her Bridegroom. It moves from intercession birthed out of and sustained by humanism to intercession birthed out of and sustained by lovesickness, which is birthed out of and sustained by the knowledge of God! It is a great injustice in itself that the Bride is more driven by man centered motives than God centered motives. In giving ourselves to having this reality of lovesick birthed intercession formed in us we are beginning to tame that Great Injustice discussed above and also beginning to chip away at these other injustices far more effectively and powerfully.

There will be much more on this later but I just wanted to present some ideas that the Lord was setting before me today in the prayer room. Please feel free to ask any questions if I did not fully elaborate on something or explain it with effectiveness.

Some good reads

The Lord has had me in an interesting place these past few months concerning my perspective of beauty. I have always been very moved by poetry, and very drawn into intrigue at the world of literature, so much so that before dropping out of college to become a full time intercessory missionary, my only ambition in life was to become a college or high school literature teacher. I wanted to teach literature because I so desired for people to come into understanding of the accessible beauty found in words, and pure expression.

As I drew closer and closer to the Lord this actually began to present a problem. I did not know how to combine my deep love for poetry and literary expression and my deep love for the Lord and that which He was calling me to. It seemed like all that presented itself as beautiful in my world of poetry contradicted much of what Christianity labeled and expressed as beautiful. I could not find God in my poetry, or see how He could approve of it at all. Certain themes throughout poetry, that I found beautiful seemed to contradict certain themes throughout Christianity. Now, this may not seem like a serious issue. Some might wonder why poetry was so hard to lay at the feet of the Saviour and just move on with my life. It was more than the poetry, it was the connection to expression, and pure expression that poetry alone opened me to. It would be like giving up feeling and emotion for me. There are certain doors to beauty that are opened to me through expression and through literature.

Well, for years I felt like two different people because of my deep deep and growing love for poetry and my deep deep growing love for Jesus. Recently I read “The Great Divorce” by C.S. Lewis. I went to Barnes and Noble with my friend Amanda and I sat there and read the whole book. I purchased it and read it again the next day all the way through. It was magnificent! I felt like I was going through some deep inner healing of misconceptions of beauty. My entire perspective of what was beautiful and what was pure expression radically shifted and I was presented with a bridge between my love for Jesus and my love for poetry. The book helped me realize the difference in fallen beauty and resurrected heavenly beauty.

I want to recommend a few books for people to read.

The Great Divorce–C.S. Lewis
Till We Have Faces–C.S. Lewis (My favorite book ever, I’ll have a review up later for this book, I need to read it again)
The Everlasting Man–G.K. Chesterton (I am reading this right now and it is an incredible book!)

Recently the Lord has provided for me to go to the Onething conference! My whole trip is paid for! Praise the Lord!
Also, my sister is going to pay for me to have a cell phone plan! Hallelujah! Thank you sister!
Amanda made me a Newsletter format too! Which was a huge blessing! Thank you Amanda!
Thank you all for your prayers and support! I will write more about what the Lord is doing here and hopefully have a newsletter up!

I want no other…

In You alone.
In You alone.
There is no other hiding place.
I have no safety, I have no home.
In You alone is peace. In You alone is rest.
There is no safe place. In You alone I rest.

I’ve sought my place, I’ve tried it all, I’ve wandered all around.
There is no rest, there is no peace, except in Your loving arms.
I want no other, All have failed me. There is no one but You.

Please, Father, hide me. Please, Father, set me in Your tower.
Wrap Your arms around me, cocoon me in Your love.
There is no place, there’s nowhere, there’s no hope, outside of Your arms.

I am Yours, I want no other, I am Yours. Hold me tight.
I am Yours, I want no other, I am Yours, Hold me tight.
Please Abba, I want no other, I am Yours. Hold me tight.

In you I trust, in You I rest, I have no peace but thine.
My eyes have failed, my hands have failed, my mind is good for naught.
My friends have gone, my family seeks my life, no man stands firm.
But in You I trust, in You I rest, please hold me tight.

Please Father, please hold my hand.
Please rub my head and tell me that it will all be OK.
Please Abba, please draw me close.
Please heal my heart and fill my cup full of You.
Please Lord, please hug me tight,
Please put it all back the way You wanted it all along.

Whatever it takes, whatever it costs, wash me clean,
Purge me, cleanse me, purify my heart.
I am dark with mud and dirt and blood.
I’m a man of unclean lips amongst an unclean people.
Touch a coal from Your altar to my tongue,
That I may speak only Your pure Truth
And sing only your praises with all my heart.
Have Your way with me and cleanse this vessel.

I am Yours, I want no other, I am Yours hold me tight.
I am Yours, I want no other, I am Yours, Hold me tight.
Please Abba, I want no other, I am Yours, hold me tight.

–Doug Perry

Update!

Hey everyone!

Thank you for being faithful to check in on what is happening with me. Thank you so much for being faithful to pray for me also.

There has been so much going on these past few weeks. Amanda and I have continued to prepare the material for the Immersed Consecration starting on January 12. Everyone on staff at the house of prayer is very excited to have interns to pour into and help consecrate! If you think that the Lord may be leading you into a season of consecration set apart for the Lord, or if you know someone that may be looking for an environment to encounter the Lord in check out the Immersed Consecration.

Recently the Lord has provided an awesome house for the guy interns and staff to live in. It is an unbelievable place and we are all really humbled that the Lord has made provision. There is possibly a girl house being donated too. I will have pictures up soon. We plan on moving in at the beginning of January. Thank you Jesus!

Our whole house of prayer is getting geared up for Onething! We cannot wait and really believe that it is going to be a significant time of encounter with the Lord and paradigm shifting unto lifestyle shifting! If you can find a way to be there or do the webcast it would be beneficial and worth it I am positive!

Things are preparing to shift for me. I ask that those of you reading this would continue to pray. The Lord is doing so much. The Lord provided a cell phone and plan for me through my older sister! I should have that soon and will be able to better keep in contact with many of you! Praise you Jesus!

If you would like to contribute funds are anything else to any of the prayer missionaries at IHOP-AC just visit this site.

Thank you all so much for everything! I will have some entries from my mediation journal up soon for you to read! Till then bless you all, and set your gaze towards Jesus, and your heart on a pilgrimage into His!

URGENCY!

I want to take this time to personally express the urgency in my heart concerning the great need to be at the Onething Conference this year. I want to say first that I am not seeking to hype this up in any way, or attempting to hoodwink you into wasting your New Year’s Eve; what I am doing is seeking to sound an alarm in the Spirit concerning the end of the age, and the great necessity for us to prepare ourselves.

The Lord is certainly raising up a generation of forerunners that will operate in the same gifting and grace as John the Baptist to prepare the way for the second coming of the Lord Jesus to the planet. Much of the church is unaware of this reality much less moving into a place of aligning themselves with it. However, it is a sure thing in the scripture that the in the last days the spirit of Elijah will be poured out. There will be a group of forerunners giving themselves to the wilderness, being formed into burning and shining lamps, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom living sermon on the mount lifestyles of prayer, fasting and meditation in the Word with deep revelation of who the Father is and who Jesus is as the Bridegroom, King and Judge.

This years Onething Conference is not just going to be a cool worship and teaching conference. It is not going to be “just another event.” It is not going to be four days that will not be remembered. The leadership teams out in IHOP-KC believe that the Lord is doing some very critical things in this hour to prepare the end time church for His second coming. This year at Onething they are bringing the Forerunner message off of the back burner and to the forefront of their teachings. They are seeking to sound an alarm in the spirit and birth an urgency in the heart of the Bride so that she can begin to corporately, in unity, begin to prepare Herself for the Bridegroom. One thing the leadership is really seeking to do this year is expose many of the lies the Church has bought into concerning relevance and tolerance. Mike Bickle said this,
“Lou Engle, Allen Hood, Misty Edwards, myself and the other leaders here at IHOP–KC feel the unique urgency of this hour. There is a dire need to call forth and train a generation of forerunners who have clarity as to what the Holy Spirit is saying, but also the boldness to confront and expose the lies that many leaders in the Body of Christ, even those with a 5-fold ministry calling, are attributing to the Holy Spirit.

We want to clearly address these issues and give specific action plans of how we can intentionally prepare ourselves and prepare others to confront the emerging antichrist systems in our culture and expose the increasing deception that blinds many in the Church today.”

Instead of breakout sessions this year, all those attending the conference will stay in the main auditorium and Mike is going to go through the book of Revelation, presenting it to us as the “canonized prayer manual for the end of the age” the “battle plans for Jesus at the end of the age” and the “book of the acts of the praying Church at the end of the age!” If we are going to be on board with Jesus, partnering with Him in His return by way of intercession, it is critical that we understand what is on His heart.

I want to urge urge urge all of you that are toying with the idea of possibly going, to go for sure! I want to encourage with intensity intensity intensity all those that don’t have any clue what I am talking about, to go to this conference. I want to encourage all of you that are hungry to encounter the Lord and draw into your end of the age identity and calling to go to this conference. The leadership at IHOP-KC sincerely believe that this is going to be a crucial point in human history! (In case you didn’t notice, that is a HUGE statement!)
Change your plans if you have to in order to be at this conference, it will absolutely change your life! It is time to get on board with what the Lord is doing in this hour concerning the second coming of Jesus. It is time to align ourselves with the plan of Jesus. It is time to get out of the darkness of not understanding what we believe about the end times and dive into a study of this book. We cannot be people that do not give ourselves to study of eschatology.

Go to this site to register for the conference. Pray hard! Change your plans if you must. The Lord has a burning in His heart to sound an alarm in the Spirit about the end of the age.

This is a Onething promo video from 2007! Some of the artists advertised in this video may not be there this year! But it is a powerful video.
Here is the new video for the Immersed Consecration! Check it out!