So, the Red Cross called to confirm a donation appt & I asked her right after, “Hey, off topic, but is there anything at all, I can pray for you about?”
She said, “Hmm. Actually yes! You can pray for me to be able to help care for my neighbor Helen who is 92, & had a stroke. Her sister, 94, died last Tues. Helen’s been my neighbor for 8 years; she’s a missionary’s daughter. I want her strong and in that house of hers as long as possible.
So I got to pray for Tracy and Helen and God gave me a word for Tracy DURING my prayer, that she would be a Voice Of Hope for not just Helen but her whole neighborhood! She thanked me and said, “Well now I just wanna go and knock on everyone’s door and be that to everyone!”
Ha! The Lord is so good!
He meets me every single time I step out! And I’m not the only one. This simple act of asking to pray for someone is possible for every believer and we get opportunities to do it every day by phone in person and even in chat-boxes.
I was receiving help from an Xbox support person via chat, for over 2.5 hours the other day to straighten out Braylon’s account that had gotten all tangled up with his best friend’s security information. After we were done, I asked him the same thing. I thought, as I typed it, that he might have had emotional stress. He replied right away in the chat box,
“Bless your heart. Thank you. I could use all the positive energy I can get, actually. My mom passed away from breast cancer…and today’s my birthday.”
So I prayed pretty simply for him in the chat, and here’s a screenshot of the end of it.
I don’t even know where he was in the US. I wasn’t face to face or even speaking with him, but God transcends through space, time and proximity. He gives us unconventional ideas, and they actually work!
Give it up for my God! When I stopped putting him in a box, he said, “Actually, this chat-box will work just fine, today, thank you.”
I will keep stepping out because he meets me every time and shines through my every move. My every word. He transcends.
After Break Free tonight, talking and praying with my awesome friend and prayer-sister Samantha about sex trafficking, I had to stop by Freddies on my way home. I figured I might possibly run into David from about a week ago (https://chelan.me/2015/02/21/david-from-freddies/), but wasn’t sure. What made me wonder, is that I’d picked a random sermon to listen to on my way home from some church called Victory, in my Podcasts. I’d never listened to one from there before. This guest speaker was preaching all about King David. She was specifically using him as a prime example for us to embrace repentance along with forgiveness.
As Freddie’s was closing, I picked a line to check out and then saw it was his line! But he had to shoo me away to self check out. I left, a bit bummed, but then saw him again at the main doors a few minutes later. I turned to him, “DAVID. I told you I’d pray for you, remember?”
He smiled, and I watched it come back to him. So I asked him there in front of the electronic double doors by produce, what I could pray for him about. He said for a stressful real estate deal set to close March 13th or 18th? to go through successfully. And then he asked me if I had anything he could pray for. I thought about it…& said sure! I applied for a part time job and want it, only if God does. So direction on that.
He placed his hand on my shoulder and we stood there, basically strangers but brother and sister in Christ, and prayed for each other as his co-workers exited the store every minute or so.
After he prayed for me, I prayed for his real estate deal but added a part that I’d just heard from that sermon: that God would help him to see repentance for what it is – a turning away. And when we turn away from sin, we are turning toward our God who loves us deeply. I prayed for a desire to always turn away and then turn toward, trusting that there will always be a great freedom found there.
He lit up even more and mentioned that there was power in that prayer, & that he feels like what I prayed for him should be “reciprocated”, back to me. And I received it. Cause I’ve always had a hard time with repentance for some reason. But now I’m realizing its the step to take before asking for forgiveness. Like they’re dance partners.
I was thinking, our hands, if they are still filled with undealt with (unrepented of) sin, they will not be able to be filled with his gift of forgiveness. It’s a give and then get. A bit like a spiritual dance. Move toward God a few steps and give up the sinful action or attitude and then move back a few and get freedom and joy that comes from receiving His forgiveness. And a bonus comes when we gain victory over that area. Praise God!
Now that’s my kinda dance.
On the way home from there, the Lord gave me a new song with these words:
Vs1: There’s an outpouring of your spirit – out of our hearts, out of our homes. An outpouring of your spirit – into the streets, into the public places.
Vs2: There’s an outpouring of your spirit – out of the church, out of our songs. An outpouring of your spirit – into our work, & into the lowly places.
Pre-Chorus:
So I will gogogo into my worldworldworld and I will lovelovelove every boy and girl! Yeah, I will gogogo into my worldworldworld and I will pray – for freedom every day
Here are some thoughts I wrote down this week, on what the GLORY of God is, and Understanding the Holy Spirit – inspirations from Piper, Munroe, with a little bit of my own, sprinkled in:
Glory – what is it? John Piper says it is the public display of the infinite beauty and worth of God (based on Is. 6 – where the angels sing, Holy Holy Holy Holy is…, the whole earth is filled with his glory). They are describing his goodness, perfection, love, radiance – made manifest for all of us to bear witness to it.
We will behold – we will see, feel, be changed by – his glory – His Godly attributes in fullness, on display.
Understanding the Holy Spirit – according to one of our favorite (now late) preachers of deep faith, Dr. Myles Munroe:
Acts 1:1-6 (written by Luke) John baptized you in water but in a few days you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Jesus calls the HS “the promise of the Father” – relating to the 1st promise the Father made in Gen. 3:15 What Adam lost when he first sinned was the Holy Spirit. He lost the Kingdom of God – The King’s dominion. The dominion of the rulership of God. When you lose the Holy Spirit, you lose the kingdom. When Adam lost the kingdom, he lost the dominion over the earth. So He made a promise.
Matthew 4:17 Jesus, right after his own baptism, was baptized by the HS (it descended upon him in bodily form like a dove and a voice came from heaven, saying, You are my Son, My Beloved! In you I am well pleased and find delight!” – Luke 3:22). In his first sermon preached after his 40 days in the wilderness, he declared – Repent, for the Kingdom of God has come near (is at hand). He was speaking of himself, for he was the only carrier of the fulness of the Holy Spirit. All of the Kingdom was IN him. He was FILLED with it without measure. And his primary message was on the Holy Spirit – the Kingdom of God.
Man’s #1 need, he communicated, is the Kingdom.
The Spirit of God – all of the Holy Spirit and his fruit.
Law enforcement are equipped to handle broken laws. Crimes committed. But the only person equipped to handle SIN, is the Holy Spirit. We may have information, or news of sin and the affects of sin in this world, but our solution is not in simply enforcing laws, or in behavior modification. It is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. To have his Spirit inside of our bodies.
Spirit is invisible. It cannot contain blood. A physical body must be the agent or carrier of blood. Since blood is the only thing that can truly free and forgive us of sin, according to the way God established covenant from the beginning of time. We’ve either got to shed the blood of animals, or accept the blood of Jesus as our new and improved sacrifice for sin – of our past, present and future.
*(My view: there is another sacrifice of blood and that is in the act of suicide…in essence, a physical declaration that Christ’s blood was insufficient to free you from your sin or pain. His sacrifice did not fully do its work, and therefore the sin and shame and pain inside became so overwhelming that a lie was believed – the lie that spoke, not even Jesus and his blood and his resurrection power is enough to bring hope for a new start, forgiveness, or relief. This is also the lie believed by those who cut themselves. They are deceived. The blood cutters release out of their body releases only temporary relief. It is a counterfeit, and a distortion or perversion of the truth that is found in the shedding of Jesus’ truly cleansing blood).
Jesus said it’s better that I go, so that the Holy Spirit in me can come out of me when I leave, and go – or be released – into YOUR bodies. But he cannot fill an unholy body. So Jesus imparted the Spirit to US, but not until His work was finished – that is, until his body was used by the Holy Spirit until the job was completed in Him. He had to let the work be finished in Him and leave his earthly body before the Holy Spirit was let out of him and able to enter into OUR bodies. Jesus was saying – you need MY body to prepare YOUR body. My blood to completely cleanse your sin, your body of its weakness, sickness and sin.
So, the promise of the Father from Gen.3:15 was fulfilled – that He would restore what was lost – the Spirit of God. The baby came through a woman and he was spotless, he shed his blood unto death. And now we have His blood that cleansed us (past tense).
Why was blood necessary to cleanse us? By Moses’ law, nearly everything was made pure by blood. The tabernacle and all the things in it were mere copies of the things of heaven and had to be purified by blood. But the real things in heaven had to be purified with far better sacrifices than the blood of animals. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. (Heb.9:22). He entered into heaven, and appeared before God on our behalf. Not to offer himself over and over and over, like Priests used to do w/animals. vs. 26 – but now ONCE for ALL time, he has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by his own death as a sacrifice.
*Jesus tells us about his Kingdom & says that it will begin when we receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We are living in the Kingdom of God now – the power of the Holy Spirit. The Kingdom of God will BEGIN when you rec’v the power of the HS. To exercise the power available in the Kingdom of God, we must release the power of the HS.
That defies space, and laughs at time
Makes rain and soil, twists the vine
It takes that which was never so
And speaketh it to be, to grow
To burrow roots and draw from silt
And push aside condemning guilt
Its nutrients of truth and grace
Are coursing through my spider veins
Until at last in seasons’ time
A glimpse of pink, a bloom, a sign
And all the waiting, and irresolute
Will pale behind colors of life-bearing fruit
Transformation Northwest – Conference with Father’s House Church, at 1st Baptist Church SW Portland, featuring guest Speaker, Pastor at Hope Centre in Tauranga New Zealand, Kristen Williams. Also featuring breakout session speaker, Joshua Shaw, on speaking out with boldness to those in public, words of knowledge, and healing those with pain or afflictions, by the power of the Spirit.
She used to be a sturdy branch, proud and blossom-bearing.
Now she is a piece of firewood, split with an ax and used to warm a man for a moment.
She stares from the backseat down a crowdedfreeway and ponders the irony of that word.
.
Westbound
.
Cut from her life-source, now unable to bear the weight of fear, it gets so heavy that it crushes young bones.
It leaves her whiskey-scented, terribly fragmented.
.
At the Border
.
She recalls the shaky voice of her Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Ray, “all things work together for good” and asks herself if this journey could be included in the glorious idea of “all things”.
Good, at one point surrounded her; it is now a speck on a mountainside with no road leading to – or from – it.
Her one piece of ID is taken. Soon after, another piece is stolen, never to be returned. This one, much more sacred – a blend of body, mind and potential.
.
Eastbound
.
Her eyes watch the signs blur by and the pavement turn to gravel to dirt
An unsuspecting field her suite, flowing curtains made of wheat
A client tries, her eyes to meet as she lets them close, recalling a song her Mamma lulled, “turn your eyes upon Jesus”.
She waits for things of earth to grow strangely dim.
.
Southbound
.
Split with an ax by one more of hundreds.
Wholeness is a far-fetched dream of which she cannot afford to let go. There would be but one option left.
Stories of rescue, of raids and redemption resound with hope just palatable enough to grasp in her small hand.
She opens her eyes and discovers what was clenched in her hand: the corner of a stained sheet. Could have sworn she was in a field.
Knuckles turn white from this plight. If her spirit weakens any more, her hope will be reduced to a thread, spinning and taut.
.
Southeast bound
.
She hears a wrinkled woman humming a hymn & the words come back to her.
Its truth thickens the thread.
She recalls when that freeway used to be a free way, summons the courage to imagine a listening, loving God and wonders if anyone is praying to him on her behalf.
And just in case they are not, she whispers, “I still believe in you. You are all I have. Free me. Please.”
This last weekend, one of the songs we sang at church was “Healer” by Hillsong…no, by Planet Shakers…actually, by Mike Guglielmucci! I hadn’t heard the song since Hillsong’s newest CD came out like 5 months ago. So I’m up there on stage, singing away, reading the words line by line, and the Spirit was just movin’ like a smooth wave over our church! The words are full of power and truth. Half way through the song, I remembered the circumstances of how/why the author wrote it…the “tragedy” and all the deception that was exposed about his alleged terminal cancer. But that didn’t keep the tears away. Judgement and anger may have quenched the fire, but when my focus remained on those words, those words were all that mattered.
Deception and sin are no match for the power of the Holy Spirit at Work in the hearts of His people. When we worship in spirit & truth, then His Spirit & His Truth dwells in us. And when that happens, there’s no room for dissention or lies…so our enemy is kicked…to…the…curb.
You hold my every moment
You calm my raging seas
You walk with me through fire
And heal all my disease
I trust in You (x2)
I believe You’re my Healer
I believe You are all I need
I believe You’re my Portion
I believe You’re more than enough for me
Jesus You’re all I need
My Healer, You’re my Healer
Nothing is impossible for You (x3)
You hold my world in Your hands
heard the song since Hillsong’s newest CD came out like 5 months ago. So I’m up there on stage, singing away, reading the words line by line, and the Spirit was just movin’ like a smooth wave over our church! The words are full of power and truth. Half way through the song, I remembered the circumstances of how/why the author wrote it…the “tragedy” and all the deception that was exposed about his alleged terminal cancer. But that didn’t keep the tears away. Judgement and anger may have quenched the fire, but when my focus remained on those words, those words were all that mattered.
Chelan 