We must wake up

It is a day and hour of great peril. It is the best of times and it is the worst of times. And we are heading into a great and terrible period of human history. I fear, that few will stand. I fear, that history is in fact doomed to repeat itself. I fear that we have been so effectively conditioned into ignorance and preoccupation that we do not see the coming storm. The tidal wave is building, and even as it builds it draws near. We are moving towards something so much bigger, I believe, than we even know how to comprehend. Perhaps the most fearful aspect of this is the fact that my generation is sleeping.

The end of all things is at hand; therefore we are to be of sound judgment and sober in spirit for the purpose of prayer.

There is urgency in my spirit to see my generation come awake to begin to oppose the darkness and onslaught on Truth. There is urgency in my spirit to see my generation come alive to something greater than themselves, to Someone greater than themselves. There is urgency in my spirit for a generation to understand the hour that we are living in, and to order their lives in light of it! We cannot slip into deeper places of apathy! It is crucial that messengers are raised up to call forth intercessors, revivalists and forerunners! The free world as we know it is in the process of crumbling and in the early stages of the conditioning process to receive the antichrist and his world-view. In America, the army of the Lord is being crippled even before it learns to walk. We are being blinded, even before we learn to see. We are being deafened even before we learn to hear and as a product of all this we are being silenced before we even learn to speak!

I want to declare to you with boldness, that the enemy has very effectively conditioned us to disagree with God in very many ways! There is a great battle for ideologies that must be fought in each of us and in this nation!
First, I believe we need to return to biblical Christianity. This is an easy statement to write. It is evident to us all that there is something greatly missing in Western Christianity.

The hour that we are heading into, demands that we be free of the ideologies that entangle us and hold us back from agreement. It also demands that we are free from all the petty little distractions that we have aligned ourselves with. So much of this actually serves to mold and form our ideas and perspectives and sooner than later we find ourselves disagreeing with God in a multitude of areas, because we so love our comforts and so love our pleasures.

We have become a Psalm 2:3 people, even in the church. This is what frightens me more than anything. We consider the restraint the Lord is certainly calling us into fetters and cords holding us back from life and pleasure. This is a false ideology and an area the enemy has most in the church bound with. When we begin to read the Bible through this lens, we begin to water down interpretation. This is frightening.

We are in a desperate hour. We must wake up.

URGENT CALL TO PRAY AND FAST!!

Lou Engle

Convergence

It is critical that the Church in America understands the times and what needs to be done now. The natural things speak of the invisible. Natural happenings on the earth are revealing something that is going on in the spiritual realm. There is a great spiritual conflict with a rising tide of Islamic boldness being manifested. Several happenings are converging this week.

First of all, our President has recently proclaimed, honored, encouraged the Muslim holy days of prayer and fasting called Ramadan. He was very silent on the National Day of Prayer, but very vocal on the support of Ramadan. Interestingly, at the same time, a major Christian leader of the Emergent Church called for forty days of fasting and prayer in the same Ramadan period with the goal that the Church will better understand our Muslim friends. We are all for understanding, but we must have spiritual discernment as to the spiritual dark powers that are being invoked into our nation.

Cause for Concern

At the same time, on the 25th of September, Muslims are calling for a Muslim Day of Prayer in Washington DC: (http://www.islamoncapitolhill.com/). They are calling for 50,000 Muslims to gather and pray on the DC Mall. This is the exact word of one of the Sheikhs who is leading this historic gathering: “Muslims should march on the White House. We are going to the White House so that Islam will be victorious, Allah willing, and the White House will become into a Muslim house.” These are not empty words. They speak of a dark spiritual intent and a coming day of great trouble to America.

A Divine Moment

Now, one of these events is enough to awaken us to this significant throbbing moment, but when they all converge, it becomes a massive spiritual alarm that must be responded to by the praying Church. However, I believe in this moment of divine providence that God has raised up on the stage of history, a little “Esther” that if we pray and fast for her, she could be a major voice to expose the dark under-belly of Islam and radiate a bright hope for a day of salvation for Muslims in America.

Headlines

On Monday, Rifqa Bary, a young 17-year-old woman, will be in the headlines of U.S. news. Four years ago, while living in a very devout and radical Muslim home, Rifqa met Jesus in a powerful way as her Savior. She hid her conversion, began praying secretly, and began hiding her Bible from her parents. Then, on Facebook, her love for Jesus was exposed to the radical Muslim community in Ohio.

Rifqa’s father demanded that she renounce Jesus or he would kill her as is commanded by the Koran. As a radiant Believer in Jesus she refused to renounce her Lord and fled to Orlando, where she was taken in and cared for by a Christian Church and family. Now, the father is appealing to the courts to bring her back under his custody. Major television networks have already covered her story. How must the Church of America respond in this moment for our sister who is a part of the Body of Christ?

A Major Sign

This convergence, I believe, is urgently summoning us in the midst of the rising tide of Islamic influence in America to recognize that our God is above every god and that if we return to Him with all of our hearts and call upon Him with fasting and prayer, then God could use what the enemy meant for evil to bring about a great day of salvation for Muslims in America, of which Rifqa is but a major sign.

Here is The Call

First of all, we cannot be passive as a Church to let these kinds of developments go on without being challenged in the spirit. Our fight is not against Muslims, it is against principalities, powers, and forces of darkness.

We are calling the Church of America at the end of Ramadan, from September 21st through 25th, to five days of concerted prayer. On Monday, we must pray that God would grant supernatural wisdom to the courts so that the testimony of Jesus would be proclaimed and that the best situation for Rifqa and her family would take place. We must pray for Rifqa to be bold in proclaiming Jesus that even thousands of Muslims would hear and be awakened to the love of Christ. She has already said that this is not about her, but about many Muslims coming to Jesus. We must pray for her lawyers who are being bullied, threatened, and challenged on every side.

On Friday, September 25th, the Muslim Day of Prayer, we are calling the Church of America to fast and pray that Muslims would be moved by the Holy Spirit, convicted by the testimony of Christ, and even be visited by Jesus in dreams. We must pray that God would restrain the spiritual powers behind Islam and grant us the great awakening that we desperately need for America.

Let us hear the call to prayer and not miss this moment.

Lou Engle
The Call

Faithful Affliction

I have been diving into Psalm 119 for a few weeks now and it has been such a rich time of encounter with the Lord. When you really begin to open it up and ask Holy Spirit for revelation and understanding concerning the psalm, it is impossible to not hear the invitation to deeper places with Him and deeper places of surrender. You see, David (who I believe wrote the psalm) says some very intense things all throughout the 176 verses. For instance, in verse 20 he says, “My soul is crushed with longing after Your ordinances at all times.” Don’t tell me that isn’t intense. How often am I CRUSHED with longing for anything of the Lord much less His ordinances? I don’t have a problem being crushed with longing after the things of this world however. Help us Lord.
I wanna share something that the Lord opened to me while sitting before Him in this psalm.

Psalm 119:67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word.
Psalm 119:71 It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.
Psalm 119:75 I know O Lord, that Your judgments are righteous, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.
Psalm 119:92 If Your law had not been my delight I would have perished in my affliction.

Now as you read those verses I don’t know what happens to you but my heart is opened up in an incredible way. In faithfulness He afflicts us! Why? So we will learn to walk in His ways and statutes! So we will live crushed with longing after His ordinances! You see, God is desiring a people that delight in His dominion over them. He wants a Bride that desires His rule and reign not only on the planet, but in their lives too! Ones that will not just begrudgingly choose slavery to Him and His heart, but ones that delight in submission just like Jesus! Ones that would live their lives COMPLETELY dependent upon His leadership!

Let me give you a picture that has been so powerful to me in understanding this. When a sheep goes astray the Shepherd calls it back. Often times a sheep will continually go astray and begin to refuse the voice of the shepherd much like your dog at home might ignore you calling them or telling them to stop their insubordination. When a sheep continually goes astray the shepherd must do something which might seem a bit harsh not to mention peculiar. He must break the legs of the sheep and carry it on his shoulders. We’ve all seen the pictures of the lamb on the shoulders of the shepherd. Well that’s because its legs are broken! So while the sheep is healing the shepher carries the sheep around continually whispering into the ear of the animal. Training it to respond to his voice. When the sheep is healed and begins to go astray again, the shepherd will call the lamb and it now knows its masters voice and therefore comes. What a beautiful picture this is! I believe that David is talking about that in these verses. He is saying as he did in Psalm 51, “Let the bones which You have broken rejoice!” In faithfulness You have afflicted me O Lord!”
We can give ourselves to the wilderness and barrenness and declare with Job, ‘Though you slay me I will trust You.” when we know that He is breaking our bones to teach us obedience! Jesus learned obedience through the things that He suffered!
Jesus says, “My sheep know My voice.” Well why is that? It is because “in faithfulness You have afflicted me O Lord.”

His leadership is perfect.

Bondslaves

Hello my dear friends!

Please before you say, “how dare he address us in such flippant language as if he hasn’t done something to deserve our animosity! For crying out loud he’s been gone for practically two months without a single word about his whereabouts or anything! If he thinks we’re going to befriend him again so quickly after he left us out in the cold the way he did, he sure has another thing coming!” let me explain myself. There really is a rather wonderful explanation for why I have not been blogging these past few months. What I mean to say is, I have plenty of reasons why this blog seems to have died. I am telling you, there is a practical reason that once you hear it you will be completely relieved and even happy in fact that I have not been blogging. I assure you, I have good reasons. You see….I have not been blogging on this blog for two months because…

Anyways, with that out of the way, I’ll get to blogging…. 🙂

I want to start a topic here on my blog about the effect of American ideology on our approach to God.

During our intercession set the other day at IHOP-AC we were praying for God to break in and open the Bride in the nation to deeper places of surrender to His callings and purposes. We were crying out for a people that would truly surrender to God. It has been something that the Lord has been highlighting in my own walk with Him for the last few weeks and a very convicting time sitting at His feet listening to Him speak to me about no compromise even in the seemingly little things.

“Make my life a prayer to You, I wanna do what You want me to, no empty words and no white lies, no token prayers, no compromise…” (Keith and Melody Green)

Well the entire intercession set the Lord was breaking in upon my spirit with a real and deep understanding of the way that our American ideologies, philosophies, perspectives, understandings etc. etc. etc. are so contrary to the way that He moves and what He is calling us into. I began to realize in very significant ways that we in America are building an entire social system that is (in most areas) a direct contradiction to the ideas and understandings the Lord desires to impart to us as Christians.

For the last 22 years I have grown up in a society that builds and fashions and confirms in my mind and soul certain mentalities that I believe God despises.

Fast food mentality
Entitlement mentality
the mentality that says I have rights
tolerance mentality
convenience mentality
pragmatism (if it works it is good, if it is efficient it is good)
humanism (the chief end of all being is the happiness of man)
individualism
independence
democracy
self love
etc. etc. etc.

These are just a few of the ideas that I have nurtured and helped form and have come into deep agreement with in my own life in conscious and subconscious ways.

I began to explore my motives and intentions behind things. I began to examine my commitment to God. I began to take a close look at how devoted I really am to Him. Am I really surrendered? Am I really a bondslave? Is He really my King? Have I really submitted to Him as Lord?

Have I committed to Him every penny in my pocket? Have I dedicated to Him every second of my day? Have I committed to submit? Have I committed to enter into real and pure agreement with His purposes and desires even for my every second? Is it real to me that I am not my own?

It has been very convicting and challenging as I began to really and honestly examine these things. The Lord spoke to me clearly and said that there are many times in my life where I “presume upon the riches of His kindness, not realizing that His kindness is meant to lead me to repentance.” (Rom. 2:4). I have been presuming upon the riches of His mercy, I have been presuming upon the riches of His goodnes, upon the riches of His grace, upon the riches of His patience. How many times do I refuse servanthood? How many times do I shrug it off when God tells me not to spend HIS money on something I want? How many times do I shrug it off when He tells me not to spend HIS time on sleep, recreation, entertainment or anything else? How many times do I feel an urge and refuse it because I think my life is my own?

I believe much of this disobedience is rooted in the ideologies I have been subject to for 22 years living in a culture of ease, convenience, self exaltation, proud and immeditate gratification. The Lord has been calling me to deeper places of real submission to Him. To begin living like a bondslave.

Many Christians may be offended with the intensity of this committment. If all this is what He wants Christianity seems impossible! Of course its impossible people, without His grace! He wants bondslaves.
Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:3-4

3Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

4No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

And Peter says 1 Peter 2:16

16Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God.

He is a King and desires bondslaves and devotion to His heart.

We must break away from the agreement we have in the depth of us with the American ideologies and come into agreement with the culture of His kingdom! We must break away from out independence and enter into a real place of submission and obedience.

Let’s give ourselves to Him for real. I don’t want to just sing songs anymore, I want reality.

Hymns are Gorgeous

I have been falling in love with these hymns recently. The Lord has really been ministering to me in incredible ways.

O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

O light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.

O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.
–George Matheson

And this one is my favorite:

In the secret of His presence how my soul delights to hide!
Oh, how precious are the lessons which I learn at Jesus’ side!
Earthly cares can never vex me, neither trials lay me low;
For when Satan comes to tempt me, to the secret place I go,
To the secret place I go.

When my soul is faint and thirsty, ’neath the shadow of His wing
There is cool and pleasant shelter, and a fresh and crystal spring;
And my Savior rests beside me, as we hold communion sweet:
If I tried, I could not utter what He says when thus we meet,
What He says when thus we meet.

Only this I know: I tell Him all my doubts, my griefs and fears;
Oh, how patiently He listens! and my drooping soul He cheers:
Do you think He ne’er reproves me? What a false Friend He would be,
If He never, never told me of the sins which He must see,
Of the sins which He must see.

Would you like to know the sweetness of the secret of the Lord?
Go and hide beneath His shadow: this shall then be your reward;
And whene’er you leave the silence of that happy meeting place,
You must mind and bear the image of the Master in your face,
Of the Master in your face.

Sandra Mccracken has a CD out called “The Builder and the Architect” which is just her doing hymns. On this CD she sings “In the Secret of His Presence” and it is the most beautiful thing.

I am reading a book called “The Pleasures of God: Meditations on God’s Delight in Being God” by John Piper and it is changing my life! I suggest you read it!

Bless you all, the Lord has been doing incredible things here at IHOP-AC and in me!

I will be visiting Atlanta in a few weeks for about a month! Love you all dearly!

22 Weeks

Please go watch the movie

22 Weeks

This must become reality in us. It must move from concept to reality…for the thing hoped for to substance in our inner man that changes the way we live and pray.

He is coming.

He is raising up a cry for mercy.

The Book of Revelation

Since this past Onething Conference in Kansas City IHOP-AC has really been going hard after the book of Revelation. The Lord has really given us a special grace for encounter with His heart through the book and also been applying eye salve to our blind eyes to understand the book. It has been a special time. So in the midst of this I have begun reading a commentary of sorts on the book of Revelation written many years ago, called “The Apocalypse.” It has been extraordinary! Here are some quotes from the book. He is very passionate about the study of the book of Revelation and the coming of the Lord!

“Fiction has painted the picture of a maiden whose lover left her for a voyage to the Holy Land, promising on his return to make her his beloved bride. Many told her that she would never see him again. But she believed his word, and evening by evening she went down to the lonely shore, and kindled there a beacon-light in sight of the roaring waves, to hail and welcome the returning ship which was to bring again her betrothed. And by that watchfire she took her stand each night, praying to the winds to hasten on the sluggish sails, that he who was everything to her might come. Even so that blessed Lord, who has loved us unto death, has gone away to the mysterious Holy Land of heaven, promising on his return to make us his happy and eternal Bride. Some say that he has gone forever, and that here we shall never see him more. But his last word was, “Yea, I come quickly.” And on the dark and misty beach sloping out into the eternal sea, each true believer stands by the love-lit fire, looking, and waiting, and praying and hoping for the fulfillment of his word, in nothing gladder than in his pledge and promise, and calling ever from the soul of sacred love, “Even so come, Lord Jesus.” And some of these nights, while the world is busy with its gay frivolities, and laughing at the maiden on the shore, a form shall rise over the surging waves, as once on Galilee, to vindicate forever all this watching and devotion, and bring to the faithful and constant heart a joy, and glory, and triumph which never more shall end.”

“That religion which does not look for a returning Saviour, or locate its highest hopes and triumphs in the judgment scenes for which the Son of man must reappear, is not the religion of this book, and is without authority to promise salvation to its devotees. And those addresses to the Churches which have no “Behold he cometh” pervading or underlying them, have not been indited by “the Seven Spirits of God,” nor sent by Him whose Apocalypse is the crown of the inspired Canon. Murmur at it, dispute it, despise it, mock at it, put it aside, hate it, and hide from it, as men may, it is a great fundamental article of the Gospel, that that same blessed Lord, who ascended from Mount Olivet, and is now at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, shall come from thence to judge the quick and the dead, and to stand again on that very summit from which he went up. This is true, as Christ himself is true; and “he that hath an ear to hear, let him hear.” Amen.”

“Terrible as it will be to the wicked, and the unprepared, and those who refuse the warnings which we give them, it is a precious day to the saints, a day to be coveted, and to be prayed for with all earnestness of desire. The poor faint-hearted Christianity of our times can hardly contemplate it without trembling and annoyance. Many who profess and call themselves Christians would rather not hear about it, and would prefer, if they had their choice, that Christ might never come. It was not so in the days of Christianity’s pristine vigour. Then the anxious inquiry of disciples was, “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?” Then Christians wrote to each other in joyous congratulation, that their citizenship was in heaven, whence they looked for the coming of the Saviour; and comforted one another in the assurance that the Lord himself is to descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and, as directed by their Lord, lifted up their heads, and looked up with joyful hope at every turn in human affairs which they could by any means construe into a probable herald of his hearing epiphany. Then the prayer, “Thy Kingdom come,” had a depth of meaning and lively anticipation which now has wellnigh been lost. Then “the appearing of Jesus Christ” had a power over the soul which made it “rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory;” and the most earnest and constant call of apostles and their followers was, “Come, Lord Jesus; come quickly. Even so. Amen.” Nor can the Church ever be her true self, or enter into the true spirit of her faith, or rise to the true sublimity of her hope, where this is not the highest object of her deepest desire. For how, indeed, can we regard ourselves as rightly planted upon the apostolic foundation, if we cannot join with heart and soul in this apostolic prayer?”

There is more to come from this book I assure you! It can be found online for free also I believe. Look into it! He is not altogether accurate on everything he believes but there is so much good and a wealth of understanding and passion to lay hold of in this man’s writing that I do not consider it a waste of time to delve! Bless you all!

Excerpts from “The Great Divorce” By. C.S. Lewis

But what you ask of earth? Earth, I think, will not be found by anyone to be in the end a very distinct place. I think earth, if chosen instead of Heaven, will turn out to have been, all along, only a region in Hell: and earth, if put second to Heaven, to have been from the beginning a part of Heaven itself.

“‘That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, ‘No future bliss can make up for it,’ not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory. And of some sinful pleasure they say ‘Let me have but this and I’ll take the consequences’: little dreaming how damnation will spread back and back into their past and contaminate the pleasure of sin. Both processes begin even before death. The good man’s past begins to change so that his forgiven sins and remembered sorrows take on the quality of Heaven: the bad man’s past already conforms to his badness and is filled only with dreariness. And that is why, at the end of all things, when the sun rises here and the twilight turns to blackness down there, the Blessed will say ‘We have never lived anywhere except Heaven,’ and the Lost, ‘We were always in Hell.’ And both will speak truly.’

‘Is that not very hard Sir?’

‘I mean, that is the real sense of what they will say. In the actual language of the Lost, the words will be different, no doubt. One will say he has always served his country right or wrong; and another that he has sacrificed everything to his Art; and some that they’ve never been taken in, and some that, thank God, they’ve always looked after Number One, and nearly all, that, at least they’ve been true to themselves.’

‘And the Saved?’

‘Ah, the Saved… what happens to them is best described as the opposite of a mirage. What seemed, when they entered it, to be the vale of misery turns out, when they look back, to have been a well; and where present experience saw only salt deserts, memory truthfully records that the pools were full of water.'”

——————————————————————————————————–

“‘Is should like to paint this.’ said the Ghost.
‘I wouldn’t bother about that just at present if I were you.’ replied the Spirit.
‘Look here, isn’t one going to be allowed to go on painting?’
‘Looking comes first.’
‘But I’ve had my look. I’ve seen just what I want to do. God!–I wish I’d thought of bringing my things with me!’
The Spirit shook his head scattering light from his hair as he did so. ‘That sort of thing’s no good here,’ he said.
‘What do you mean?’ said the Ghost.
‘When you painted on earth–at least in your earlier days–it was because you caught glimpses of Heaven in the earthly landscape. The success of your painting was that it enabled others to see the glimpses too. But here you are having the thing itself. It is from here that the messages came. There is no good telling us about this country, for we see it already. In fact, we see it better than you do.’
‘Then there;s never going to be any point in painting here?’
‘I don’t say that. When you’ve grown into a Person (it’s all right, we all had to do it) there’ll be some things which you’ll see better than anyone else. One of the things you’ll want to do will be to tell us about them. But not yet. At present your business is to see. Come and see. He is endless. Come and feed.’
There was a little pause. ‘That will be delightful,’ said the Ghost presently in a rather dull voice.
‘Come then’ said the Spirit offering it his arm.
‘How soon do you think I could begin painting?’ it asked.
The Spirit broke into laughter. ‘Don’t you see you’ll never paint at all if that’s what you’re thinking about?’ he said.
‘What do you mean?’ asked the Ghost.
‘Why, if you are interested in the country only for the sake of painting it, you’ll never learn to see the country.’
‘But that’s just how a real artist is interested in the country.’
‘No. You’re forgetting,’ said the Spirit. ‘That was not how you began. Light itself was your first love: you loved paint only as a means of telling about light.’
‘Oh, that’s ages ago,’ said the Ghost. ‘One grows out of that. Of course, you haven’t seen my later works. One becomes more and more interested in paint for its own sake.’
‘One does, indeed. I also have had to recover from that. It was all a snare. Ink and catgut and paint were necessary down there, but they are also dangerous stimulants. Every poet and musician and artist, but for Grace, is drawn away from love of the thing he tells, to love of the telling till, down in Deep Hell, they cannot be interested in God at all but only in what they say about Him. For it doesn’t stop at being interested in paint, you know. They sink lower–become interested in their own personalities and then in nothing but their own reputations.’
‘I don’t think I’m much troubled in that way,’ said the Ghost stiffly.
‘That’s excellent,’ said the Spirit. ‘Not many of us had quite got over it when we first arrived. But if there is any of that inflammation left it will be cured when you come to the fountain.’
‘What fountain’s that?’
‘It is up there in the mountains,’ said the Spirit. ‘Very cold and clear, between two green hills. A little like Lethe. When you have drunk of it you forget forever all proprietorship in your own works. You enjoy them just as if they were someone else’s: without pride and without modesty.'”

This book is a powerful picture of the spiritual and physical realms and the difference in the two and a great apologetic tool to study. He addresses many of the strongholds erected in the minds of the lost with pinpoint biblical, philosophical and psychological understanding and Truth!

Thank you all for your prayers for me. The Lord has been coming to me in some very strong ways recently. He is good. He is building His house! He is raising up a generation of Forerunners!

Bless you all!

The Father’s Affirmation

Hey everybody!
Wow it has been a long and busy few weeks! Thank you so much for being patient with my lack of updating. It has been an intense schedule for me recently.

The Lord has been doing so much in me recently. It has been a trying time, and a time of growth and a time of maturing. It has been a time of leaning leaning leaning leaning! I am so thankful for His patience with me and the grace He gives me to stay sustained in the place of prayer and sitting at His feet. It has been a difficult time for me, but the Lord has certainly used it to cause me to lean. Please pray for me! Pray that He would continue to bring me forth in love! The wilderness is such a crucible!

I would like to share something that David Gordon spoke last night at our Encountering God Service here at IHOP-AC.
We have been in a series about wholehearted love for God. It has been so powerful and very exposing. Last Wednesday at our Way School of Ministry Class, David Rickman got up to speak and was in shambles before His throne over this thing. It was that in the book of Daniel, three times before the Lord gives Daniel intense and revolutionary end time revelation, the angel of the Lord calls him “highly esteemed” or “greatly beloved one.” David Rickman was in pieces and standing before us weeping because of the affirmation of the Father before the releasing of revelation or the commissioning to serve and do! The Lord speaks Daniel’s identity over him before He gives him His plans for the end of the age. The Lord speaks to Daniel the emotions of His heart before He speaks to Daniel the purposes of His heart! What a powerful reality! It is like the Lord is saying, “we’ll get to the end time revelation Daniel, we’ll get to the plans and strategies and purposes of my heart Daniel, but first, you must know, you are greatly beloved! you are highly esteemed! you ravish my heart! you are mine!”

So David Gordon took this to the Lord in the prayer room and the Spirit began to highlight other times where the Father first affirms and then commissions!

Father’s Affirmation
Israel: “God’s own possession” (special treasure)
Ex. 19:5…(church) Eph. 1:14, 1 Peter 2:9
Father’s Transcendent Cause
Context: Tabernacle/House of Prayer
Ex. 25:8…(church) Eph. 2:20-22, 1 Peter 2:4-9

Father’s Affirmation
David: “Sought out and found David” (favor/grace)
1 Sam. 13:14, Acts 13:22, Acts 7:46
Father’s Transcendent Cause
Context: King of Israel/ Dwelling place for God
1 Chron, Acts 7:46, 13:22, 36, 15:16-18

Father’s Affirmation
Daniel: “highly esteemed” (desirable, precious)
Dan 9:23, 10:11 & 19
Father’s Transcendent Cause
Context: Plan of the ages/end time revelation
Daniel 9-12

Father’s Affirmation
Mary: “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you!”
(favor/grace) Luke 1:28
Father’s Transcendent Cause
Context: A womb for the Messiah/Son of God
Luke 1:31-35

Father’s Affirmation
Jesus: “You are my Beloved Son, in you I am well pleased”
Luke 3:21-22, 9:35
Father’s Transcendent Cause
Context: Public 3 1/2 year ministry (sinless, the cross)
The gospels

Father’s Affirmation
John: “The disciple whom Jesus loved”
John 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7 & 20
Father’s Transcendent Cause
Context: Preparation of an Apostle/end time revelation
I John, II John, III John, The Gospel of John, Revelation

So many times throughout the scriptures before the Lord sends someone He first affirms them as His beloved! It is so crucial for us going into ministry to really come into the reality of our identity before we go out as one commissioned. We need priests before prophets! We need to be rooted and grounded in love before we go out to labor! A lover will work harder than a worker any day anyway!
David Gordon said, in Christianity there are so many people responding to the urgent and neglecting the essential! We are responding to what seems to be the need of the hour and forgetting about what is essential; forgetting that the urgent will not be shifted or changed if the essential is absent!

What is the essential?

Intimacy with God.

We need to know Him.

The knowledge of God will sustain us.

Man shall not live by bread alone.

Looking at Jesus coming out of the wilderness to be tempted. Satan challenges the very thing that God had spoken over Jesus at His baptism. Satan says, “if you are the Son of God…” when just six weeks earlier God broke forth from the heavens declaring, “This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased!” Jesus was rooted in His identity and was able to resist temptation because of His confidence in what the Father had spoken over Him.
It is encouraging reading through John to see the multitude of times that John refers to himself as “the one that Jesus loved” (John 13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7 & 20). He was rooted in his identity.
I encourage you, tarry in the presence of God, allow Him to affirm you. Let Him break off your desire to be affirmed by man. Sit at His feet and hear Him call you Beloved! Choose the good portion, that will not be taken from you.

To watch you burn!

Hey Everybody!
I am so sorry I haven’t updated in so long! It has been a very busy few weeks. The Lord has been doing so much in me though and it has truly been a time of intense growth even here recently. I have been getting into this band called “Leeland” lately. They are an incredible group of musicians that are really after the heart of the Lord! It is powerful to hear what the Lord is doing through them and their music. The front man Leeland Mooring was only 18 when their debut album was released. He is an incredible songwriter with an amazing voice. He helped Michael W. Smith write about half of Smith’s newest album. I am continually inspired by the songs and melodies the Lord gives this kid. Here is a few videos of Leeland performing at a church somewhere. The prophetic song is rising up all over the place! It isn’t confined to the International House of Prayer! This video reminds me of that quote. I don’t remember who says it but they say “Fall in love with Jesus and they’ll come from everywhere just to watch you burn!”

This kid is burning!
John 5:35
Please watch these, they are very powerful!!
I will update more soon, but for now, continue to press into the heart of the Lord! Fix your eyes on Him!

May Our Praise/Free Worship from Leeland on Vimeo.

Oh Taste and See from Leeland on Vimeo.

Yes You Have from Leeland on Vimeo.