Hello, all! I’m writing this from a cute little coffee spot called Cafe Main, right next to the Exodus Cry office in Kansas City. It’s a beautifully rainy day off and I’m starting to believe fall is almost here. 🙂
I was looking forward to sharing some more outreach testimonies today, but the group left later than I expected them to and therefore I missed them. 🙁 Next week hopefully, then.
A lot has been happening just among the interns, though, and some of it relates to the IHOPU Awakening that happened here in 2009. There was a period in 2009 during which God visited particularly the IHOPU students in a dramatic way. There was crazy joy breaking out, tons of manifestations of the Spirit, lots of healings, and mostly lots of revelation of tangible love. God’s presence rested so thickly for a while, and then it lifted and the “normal” rhythm returned. Recently many of the interns have been feeling that God is getting ready to release another wave of his Spirit on us in a big way, and many of us have begun fasting and crying out for this revival. There have been a number of confirmations, and even some of the IHOPKC leadership team are getting very excited for what God’s about to do. I’m just praying it will come before I leave in December!
Many of us have also felt an increased burden for sex trafficking in the world, too. Yesterday three students shared dreams they recently had about God’s heart for these girls. Here’s the main message of them all: God’s heart is breaking, and our prayers REALLY DO change things. As we pray, God is releasing comfort and hope to specific girls who desperately need him. One day soon Jesus is coming back to set every captive free, and in the meantime he is raising up intercessors and deliverers to bring a partial fulfillment of that promise now.
In some ways it’s scary to be brought into God’s heart for these ones, because the pain he feels is so crushing. But at the same time it’s powerful to realise that he wants friends to weep with him, and partners to help bring justice. It’s a huge honour to get to stand in intercession and partner with his heart in this way.
We’re seeing answers to our prayers in other ways, too. A number of the interns have been praying for struggling family members, and God has been responding in big ways. One girl has been praying for her dad, who has been homeless and on and off of drugs for years. As she was praying, he got off the streets and started living with his mom, and he’s been clean for several months, which is longer than he’s stayed clean in a long time!!
Another girl shared that her parents, who are divorced, experienced a crisis which made them realise they still loved each other, they started dating, and they are now RE-ENGAGED!! God is the Father of restoration!!!
As for me, I’ve been enjoying tons of mini-breakthroughs in my personal relationship with God. Fasting is much easier now than it was at the beginning, and God’s been teaching and revealing a lot to me through it. I’ve also been working on spending my time more wisely, which has been a pretty foreign concept to me most of my life. But I only have three months left here (yikes!) and I really do not want to waste them. And I’ve been finding so many amazing things in the Bible as well!! Here’s something that blew my mind recently:
“Go out, O daughters of Zion, and look upon King Solomon, with the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, on the day of the gladness of his heart.”
(Song of Songs 3:11)
In the spiritual interpretation of Song of Songs, the beloved, the king, is Jesus. So what is this crown that Jesus gets crowned with on his wedding day?
“An excellent wife is the crown of her husband.”
(Proverbs 12:4)
It’s us! The Bride is Jesus’ crown! So who, then, is the mother who crowns him? Here’s what I think:
“And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars… She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne.”
(Revelation 12:1, 5)
I think maybe she’s the woman of Revelation 12, who represents Israel and is portrayed as Jesus’ mother.
Isn’t that awesome? Guys, this is how the Bible was meant to be read, where you’re in the whole thing so you can actually use Scripture to interpret Scripture. We gotta have the whole counsel, guys. It’s so much more fun that way. 😀