Author: Caitlyn

Let Us Run (Song 1:4)

On By CaitlynIn Bible Stuff

This should have been posted yesterday, but I instead spent the afternoon reading Mortal by Ted Dekker and the evening reading The Host by Stephanie Meyer. I do not see any contradiction in this, nor am I ashamed of my use of time yesterday. Except that I neglected to post a blog. Boo me.

So back into the game–here’s another taste of my thoughts on the Song of Songs!

“Draw me after you;”
(Song of Songs 1:4a)

This verse is my absolute favourite of chapter one. I love the yearning in it, the longing for intimacy, partnership, adventure. Draw me after you, Jesus. Seduce me. Woo my heart.

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.”
(Hosea 2:14)

He draws me away into the secret place by revealing his beauty and whispering his love for me until my faze is completely captured and my heart is overwhelmed with love. All the world is so still there; nothing else exists. Everything else fades away and it’s just the two of us, gazing at each other, whispering tenderly to each other’s hearts. When he begins to open my eyes to who he is, who I am, and the glorious destiny he has planned for us together, every fear and doubt fades away and my only desire is to follow him forever.

“Let us run.”
(Song of Songs 1:4b)

Then comes the running. Let us run, Jesus. I want to run with you.

I picture Jesus taking my hand, winking at me, and whispering, “Run.” And then off we go, leaping over mountains together. Oh, the running. Seriously, there’s an outrageous amount of running involved.

Okay, Whovians, I know you know exactly where I’m going with this. Think of that first moment when the Doctor took Rose’s hand in the dark when she was about to be attacked. She had never seen him before, but in that moment he became her saviour. He said only one word: “Run.” And they ran together through all of time and space. For the Doctor and his companions, it’s always the running–to danger, from danger, always together, always running.

That’s me and Jesus.

What does running with Jesus actually look like on this planet? What sort of adventures are in Jesus’ heart? I think running with him is partnering with the passions of his heart. It’s Isaiah 61, for starters:

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.”
(Isaiah 61:1-3)

Running with Jesus means running to the battle, whether that’s in intercession, justice, evangelism, whatever. It’s all of these and more, maybe in the nations of the world, maybe in your corner grocery store. It’s bringing hope, freedom, joy, and beauty. It’s proclaiming the favour of the Lord, and also his righteous judgment. It’s seeing what he’s doing in the world around you, and acting with him to bring his Kingdom. There is a massively glorious partnership here. We do all of this with his hand in ours, having been drawn away in intimacy so that our heart beats in unison with his. We know his  voice and we move when he moves.

And then the most glorious phrase of all–

“The king has brought me into his chambers.”
(Song of Songs 1:4c)

The King of Kings, my King, has drawn me into the place of deepest intimacy. This is the place of encounter. This is the Holy of Holies.

I don’t even know how to write about this. A deep, warm silence falls on me every time I think of it.

The King has brought me into his chambers.

I’ll leave you with that, then. Go meditate. Ask the King to draw you away into the most secret places of his heart.

And then you’ve got an awful lot of running to do.

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Testimony Thursday – Welcome to the Kingdom!

On By CaitlynIn IHOPKC Life

Today was BY FAR my favourite outreach day. We went again to UMKC, which as I said before is my favourite location at which to evangelise. I was with a woman in the evangelism department named Julie who looks like a little ol’ grandma but packs a powerful punch in the spirit. She will talk to anyone, and people listen to her as she simply and boldly lays out the gospel. She frequently ends up praying with people to accept Jesus. Today, I went out with her and a fellow One Thing intern who had never evangelised before. I kinda knew what I was doing, but it usually goes pretty awkwardly, and the testimonies I come back with are usually that we had a divine appointment and got to bless someone’s day. And maybe something minor got healed. Which is great–we’re definitely planting seeds, but I personally have never witnessed anyone get saved or even radically healed on the street before.

What we did today, or rather what we watched Julie do, is pass out cards advertising the prayer room. Those allowed us to get a bit of a gauge on how open a person was. From there Julie would ask if the person had a church, and then would share a bit of her testimony of growing up in church but never really understanding the gospel till much later when she finally confessed her sins and accepted Christ. Then she would ask if the person had ever done something like that, and if not, she would explain the message of the cross and ask them if they would like to pray that prayer.

Simple enough, right? We talked to ten or so people this way, and THREE of them got saved, and FIVE came really close!!

The first was a girl who may have been Indian, I’m not really sure. She had no experience with Christianity at all, and she was really receptive when we told her about the cross. She prayed the little salvation prayer with Julie, but I didn’t get the feeling she really knew what she was doing. So let’s pray that the seed fell on good soil and God keeps revealing himself to her!

The other two we prayed with were Arabic and probably Muslim. They were very interested in the prayer room, and as we started to talk to them they both pulled out little Gideon New Testaments they had been given earlier that week! (Come on, UMKC Christian clubs, keep it up, God’s watering your seed!) They said that they really wanted to read them but couldn’t understand them, because they were in English as well as NKJV. Just as I was about to get their addresses so I could buy them some Arabic Bibles, the other intern with us had the brilliant idea of Bible apps for smartphones! One of the guys handed her his phone, and she quickly found him an Arabic Bible app. He was very excited, and both of them intend to read it. Julie also got them connected with IHOPKC’s Arabic ministry.

We talked to them for probably fifteen or twenty minutes, and after we prayed for salvation with them, they said they felt a lot of peace. It was incredibly glorious to watch God work like that!

UMKC really is one massive open heaven right now. People are so, so open to having spiritual conversations (as long as they’re not late for class) and many are really hungry and searching. Plus, it’s perfect for me, because I know college students.  I know the search for knowledge and purpose. I understand the skepticism as well as the openness, because this generation is willing to try anything, but they don’t want to do it blindly. We talked to one guy who was some sort of art major and had been studying a lot of different religions. He hasn’t committed to Christianity yet, but he was telling us what made the biblical narrative, from the Fall all the way to the cross, so unique. He was intelligent, articulate, receptive, and looking at it all through the lens of an artist. If he hadn’t been on his way to class, I would have loved to spend an hour talking with him. (Get him, God. I want to have coffee with him in the Millennium.)

Jesus is so jealous for UMKC. He loves that campus. Those students were born to be his bride and his inheritance; they just don’t know it yet. And it’s my privilege to get to tell them.

“And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.'”
(Matthew 9:35-38)

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Testimony Thursday: Faithful in Little

On By CaitlynIn IHOPKC Life

I went on outreach again today to Oak Park Mall! It was awesome. I admit, last week I was a bit disappointed because I felt like I was on the sidelines a bit, but I shook it off and today was much better. My partner and I talked to at least ten people and prayed with over half of them. I really feel like God set up some divine appointments for us.

We prayed for a couple of women who were working a lotion store. They were both the sweetest, most joyful people ever, both Christians, and we loved getting to encourage them, because they encouraged us so much too!

We prayed for a teen girl in Macy’s who had a swollen pinkie toe. She wasn’t healed, but she was definitely touched, and as we were walking away we encountered a woman who had been interested in our conversation. We asked to pray for her, and she said her life was a mess and she had actually been praying right before she came around the corner and saw us. We encouraged her a bit, and although she didn’t want us to pray right there with her, we prayed together for her after she walked away.

Those were my favourite encounters today. Our other groups came back with stories of a leg growing out, a Methodist couple getting healed and then radically baptised in the Holy Spirit, a couple of atheists agreeing to come to church tomorrow, and a guy coming to the brink of giving his life to Christ.

I realise, I’m not at the place some of the others are. I’m not super prophetic or dramatically anointed for healing. But I do have the Holy Spirit inside me–I know the truth, I hear his voice, and my voice carries power. And he is stretching my faith and teaching me to partner with him more.

As we were briefing and praying before going in the mall, our leader said, “Jesus isn’t here [in the flesh] today–you are.” That started me thinking… what would it be like to go evangelise with Jesus, if he was the partner I was strolling through the mall with? I imagined holding his hand and walking through the stores as he waited to see what the Father wanted to do, then watching as he healed the sick, spoke truth, and brought hope to many.

Then after I watched him with several people, he would say, “The next one’s yours. Go talk to that woman right there.”

“I don’t know about that, Jesus–I mean, I’m not you,” I would probably say (or at least think, which would basically be the exact same thing.)

“What are you talking about?” he would say. “You can do this. I’m right here. I’ve got your back.”

And I would go and do it. Jesus would be right there, giving me the words, silently encouraging me, healing when I asked him to. Not everyone would be receptive, but Jesus and I would be faithful together, to at least offer what’s available.

How painful is it for him when he asks me to go and I don’t because I don’t really trust him?

I know he enjoys me even in my immaturity and is so proud when I step out as far as I can, but sometimes I know I let him down. I’m not always a faithful steward of what I’ve been given. But as I push my faith to the limits now, he’ll give me more faith and more insight, and one day I really will consistently see the lame walk under the touch of my hand. I would love to suddenly be blasted with a massive gift of healing and prophecy, and I am constantly praying for more faith and more anointing, but in the meantime I want to be faithful with what I have. My light might not yet be a full bonfire, but I refuse to hide it.

“His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.'”
(Matthew 25:21)

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Bringing Jesus Home

On By CaitlynIn Bible Stuff, IHOPKC Life2 Comments

The past few days have been wonderful, overwhelming, emotional… but it’s okay because I like crying. 🙂 God’s doing good things inside me, although I’m not entirely sure what yet.

On Friday night I attended a night of the Call2All congress hosted at FCF. It’s a gathering of church leaders from around the world to put together world evangelism strategies. (Check out Call2All on Facebook with pictures of the event.) At the service I was at, they talked about what was going on with world evangelism and told us about a meeting that happened at Amsterdam 2000 with a few hundred leaders of the world’s most influential ministries such as YWAM and Campus Crusade. They were presented with a list of a couple hundred of the world’s remaining unreached people groups and by the end of the day, they had divided up the list among them and committed together to reach them all. Ideas were flying, partnerships were formed and strategies were devised. The Body of Christ has been mobilised and no corner of the planet is safe.

Also, China is mobilising thousands of missionaries in a divinely inspired “back to Jerusalem” movement aimed at spreading the gospel throughout all the Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim nations geographically located between China and Israel. I saw many prominent evangelism leaders on stage at FCF on Friday night (along with the governor of Kansas) joining hands with underground church leaders in China (although most of them couldn’t be on stage because being recorded on camera would endanger their lives) and committing together to do this thing. I watched spiritual history being made.

Let me slow down and explain what this means. This is not another “That’s cool, one more step forward.” This means that the finish line is in sight and the Great Commission is more than likely going to be FINISHED in our lifetime. These leaders are expecting it to be complete in their lifetimes, and they’re all 60-70 years old!

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
(Matthew 28:19)

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
(Matthew 24:14)

“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne… crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'”
(Revelation 7:9)

One of the main things Jesus is waiting for before he returns is this completing of the Great Commission. And let me repeat—THE FINISH LINE IS IN SIGHT. We are no longer in the “drop in the bucket” stage. We are witnessing the beginnings of the final sweep of the gospel in the nations before Jesus returns. Very, very soon, we’ll be living in Revelation.

Jesus could very possibly, dare I say easily, be back on Earth before I have grandkids. That is not a joke or wishful thinking. That is the evidence of the signs of the times.

This is not the era of “someday he’ll return, won’t that be nice” like it’s a sweet fluffy little “happily ever after” in the vague future. No, one day SOON he’s going to SPLIT THE SKY and come with a roar and the sound of a trumpet. (Is 64:1, 1 Thes 4:16) All of creation groans for that day. This planet is on the edge of its seat, waiting for the revealing of the sons of God on the day when the Firstborn comes home. (Rom 8:19, 23)

This is what I’ve been freaking out about. I cannot possibly live a “normal life” in light of this. The only thing that matters anymore is preparing his bride, bringing him home, and seeing him face to face. What will he say to me on that day? Will he honour me by standing like he did for Stephen? (Acts 7:56) Will he give me the crown of righteousness for those who have loved his appearing? (2 Tim 4:8) Will he say “Well done, good and faithful servant”? (Matt 5:21) A thousand years for now, most of what I’m now filling my life with will not matter. What will stand when my life is tested by fire? (1 Cor 3:12-15)

Peter said we can “hasten the day.” (2 Peter 3:12) There are two specific ways I know of to do this: through prayer/ worship and fulfilling the great commission. He is raising up a 24/7 prayer movement of a lovesick bride crying “Come!” (Rev 22:17) and he is raising up a missions movement to carry his glory to the ends of the earth. (Hab 2:14) And now, he is joining them together.

“They lift up their voices, they sing for joy; over the majesty of the LORD they shout from the west. Therefore in the east give glory to the LORD; in the coastlands of the sea, give glory to the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory to the Righteous One.”
(Isaiah 24:14-16a)

What will that look like for me? Do I join IHOPKC? Do I join YWAM? Do I live as an ordinary radical SAHHM (Stay At Home Homeschool Mom)? I don’t know. And for the time being, I am okay with that. There are a few things I know about my destiny. God’s been revealing these to me one by one, uniquely tailored to me. I was made to:

  • Pour out my worship like Mary of Bethany. (First Commandment)
  • Cast vision for who God is and what he’s doing. (Second Commandment and Great Commission)
  • Live with the clear endgame of Jesus’ return to marry his Bride and establish his Kingdom.

That is what my life is about. I want to bring Jesus home. And that day is suddenly looking very, very close.

People, get ready.

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Testimony Thursday: Rose Garden Encounters

On By CaitlynIn IHOPKC Life

Good news! I finally got to go on outreach again today. As soon as we got in the shuttle to head out, the leader said he felt God wanted us to break out of our routine a little bit. We prayed about where to go and two people felt God was saying “park,” so we went to this huge gorgeous park in Kansas City that I’d never been to before. Not many people were there since it was a Thursday afternoon, but we walked around for about an hour and a half and had some excellent conversations with people.

As we were entering a nice little rose garden area of the park, my group first met a woman who was tending a flower bed. She was a Christian, and we just got to encourage her in her walk with God and pray for her niece, who was going through a difficult situation with her parents. The woman was really blessed. Next, towards the back of the garden, we met another woman who had a back injury from work. We prayed for healing, and she was so touched that even though she wasn’t healed, she started crying as she opened up about all the struggles this injury had caused. We got to pray and speak prophetic words of love and hope into her life. God definitely touched her in a powerful way. We also talked to three other people and prayed with two of them, and definitely planted some good seeds in the third guy.

I heard snippets of stories from the other groups that showed God was definitely doing powerful things among all of us. One of our groups talked to an agnostic couple, and got to share the full gospel with them before getting shut down. Another group saw two legs grow out. According to our tally sheet, someone even got saved, but I didn’t hear the story on how that happened.

Last Friday at the FCF church service some of us were praying for one of the interns who was sick. She had had a fever all afternoon and evening and felt horrible, but was determined to stay for the service. We prayed, and within a minute or two it completely cleared up and she was fully healthy from then on out. I loved that, even though I think I was struggling with expecting God to actually heal her. As soon as she said she felt completely better, the first words out of my mouth were, “Are you serious?” But it really happened, and we were all so excited and turned it right around into praise.

God’s been talking to me a lot about building my faith. I’ve come to the realisation that faith is a gift, it’s not something I can work up for myself. I can’t do anything at all without God, not even have faith! My faith is small and weak, but all I have to do is keep stepping out and risking, and one of these days God’s going to break through and use me and my little weak prayers in a big way. It’s his job to use me and keep giving me those fresh baptisms; it’s just my job to keep making myself available whether or not I feel it. It’s a partnership, but as has always been the case with God and his people, his faithfulness more than covers my weakness. And he loves to partner with me whenever I step out! It’s not about me; it’s all about his Kingdom anyway. All he asks is willingness and that little mustard seed.

“So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.”
(Acts 14:3)

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Better Than Wine (Song 1:1-3)

On By CaitlynIn Bible Stuff

One thing IHOPKC is really big on is the Song of Solomon. That’s perfect for me, because I am too. It’s been my favourite book for years. I’ve savoured all of it, even though I’ve only understood pieces of it. It’s so great to finally get some good solid teaching on it verse by verse as a spiritual allegory. I’m just going to share the first little bit of the Song today, because there’s sooooo much good stuff but these first few verses are what I’ve spent the most time with.

The Song of Solomon, also called the Song of Songs (my preferred title), has two main ways to interpret it: the natural interpretation, which celebrates romantic love between a man and a woman leading to marriage, and the allegorical interpretation, which celebrates the love between Jesus and his Bride. This can certainly be taken for the Church as a whole, but it also works beautifully to see it as an individual journey between you and Jesus.

“The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s.”
(Song of Songs 1:1)

The best song ever, the ultimate. It’s like what we mean when we say “King of kings and Lord of lords.”

“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!”
(Song of Songs 1:2a)

This is the woman, the Bride, speaking. Notice that she’s not talking to her beloved; the first sentence is to a third party. In the allegorical interpretation, that would be the Father. She is asking the Father to let Jesus kiss her. What does it mean to have Jesus kiss you with the kisses of his mouth? What proceeds from God’s mouth? It’s his Word. “…Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4) So really what she’s saying is this: “Father, let Jesus kiss me with the kisses of his Word!” She longs for that tender caress of hearing Jesus’ words spoken to her heart. (Insert all of Psalm 119 here.)
This has become one of my favourite things to pray. I long for that touch, that intimacy. And I love that it comes through his Word! Logos and rhema, Greek scholars– the written word and the word spoken by the Spirit to my heart. That’s where my life comes from.

“For your love is better than wine.”
(Song of Songs 1:2b)

The second part of verse two is spoken to Jesus. “Jesus, your love is better than wine.”  She’s declaring her priorities, and saying that more pleasure can be found in his love than in any other kind of pleasure available anywhere. Nothing can satisfy like his love can. We were given the capacity to experience love and pleasure because HE is the ultimate love and pleasure! Why do we run to so many other things when his love is better than all of it?

And it’s not just the sinful or even the neutral pleasures of this world, either. His love is even better than his blessings. He gives so many good things, but his raw LOVE is better than them all.

“You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.”
(Psalm 4:7)
“…In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
(Psalm 16:11)
“Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!…”
(Psalm 34:8)

“Your anointing oils are fragrant”
(Song of Songs 1:3a)

Guys, what does Jesus smell like? What scents surround his throne? Can you even imagine? It must be so sweet, heavy, wild, intoxicating.

Paul talked about the “fragrance of the knowledge of [God.]” (2 Corinthians 2:14) I like that idea, but I also think it has to do with the fragrance of sacrifice. “…as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:2)

How do you release the fragrance from a plant? You crush it. “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5) His crushing released the fragrance.

I want to take in Jesus’ wild, sweet fragrance. I want the scent of heaven to saturate me.

“Your name is oil poured out”
(Song of Songs 1:3b)

His name is the essence of his character; it encompasses all of who he is. He is like oil poured out… we can think of his name being poured out over all the nations, his fame spreading and his glory covering the earth. I like that, but continuing the sacrifice theme makes it more personal to me.

“And he said to them, ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.'”
(Mark 14:24)

Paul talked about being “poured out as a drink offering.” (Philippians 2:17; 2 Timothy 4:6) How much more was Jesus poured out for us? He poured out his blood like wine, like oil, flowing down that cross and covering us.

“Therefore virgins love you.”
(Song of Songs 1:3c)

“We love him because he first loved us.”
(1 John 4:19)

His love draws us in. His love seduces us. Even those who only know him a little bit, ie new believers, can’t help but love him. Our love is a response to the revelation of his love. You want to love Jesus more? Get a revelation of his love for you.

And I think I’ll stop there for today. I’ll save my favourite verse of chapter 1 for next time. 🙂

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Testimony Thursday: Dreams, Revival, and Restoration

On By CaitlynIn IHOPKC Life

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. 😀

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Snippets

On By CaitlynIn IHOPKC Life1 Comment

Hello again, everyone! I was realising it’s been way too long since I blogged, so here we go. Sorry Testimony Thursday hasn’t happened in a while, but I haven’t actually gone out on outreach since UMKC two weeks ago. On-base testimonies lately include a girl at IHOPU who’d been suffering from a nervous system disorder for two years get out of her wheelchair two weeks ago!!

I served again in CEC on Friday night, and it was awesome as per usual. We talked about Daniel 9 and the 70 weeks. I feel like I got some really good clarity right alongside the kids!

I spent last weekend in North Carolina for a friend’s wedding. It was absolutely beautiful to see these two wonderful people join their lives together before God. And since I’ve actually never met the bride, I spent the hours leading up to the wedding hanging out with the groom and his groomsmen. That was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, to be sure!

This weekend has been consumed with the Zechariah conference at IHOPKC. Twelve sessions in three days going through Zechariah and its end times prophecies verse by verse. It was intensely amazing. I’ve never really studied that book before, so I am so excited to take my notes back to the prayer room and pore over them again!

I’ll leave you today with one of my new favourite passages from Zechariah:

“Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the LORD. And many nations shall join themselves to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people. And I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. And the LORD will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.”
(Zechariah 2:10-12)

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The Kingdom Belongs to Such as These

On By CaitlynIn IHOPKC Life

Saturday night was my second night serving in the Children’s Equipping Center (CEC), the children’s ministry center at FCF. I help lead the 8- to 12-year-old girls every 5th service on either Friday or Saturday. This Saturday was amazing. I’d been told that these kids are crazy Spirit-filled and watch out because they will prophesy your socks off, but this was the first time I’d actually seen what went on that night. At least half a dozen kids got slain in the Spirit as their peers prayed for them and were on the floor through most of worship. I was skeptical at first (these are IHOP kids; they’ve grown up with this stuff) but they got up telling me all these stories of visions they’d had that sounded like something straight out of Revelation. They asked if they could pray for me, but they first had to make sure I was standing in a place that if I fell down, I wouldn’t hit my head on the stage. I was so blessed by their prayers. I’m sure I’ll be telling more stories of them throughout the internship.

I love the way the CEC leaders teach the kids–they put biblical realities in kid-friendly language so they can have clarity on it, but they don’t boil anything down. They’ve been going through Jesus’ parables the past few weeks, and I love to sit under the teaching and glean stuff I’d never thought about before. The leaders really listen to and respect the kids, and the kids really have some profound insight on these passages. I feel like I’m learning so much about children’s ministry, leading kids in general, and even the heart of God in general. CEC is an incredible ministry.

Also, I wanted to share with you an insight I got the other day in the prayer room. I was meditating on the Trinity and trying to wrap my mind around this”one yet three, three yet one, together yet separate” thing. I asked Jesus why he never told a parable of the Trinity, because we sure do need one, and what he brought to mind was a cartoon I’d seen years ago as a child. It’s about a whale that has three uvulae and therefore literally sings with three voices at the same time. His voices fill the ocean with beautiful three-part operatic harmony. Each voice has its own unique place in the harmony and interacts with the others in such a way as to create a complex, dynamic song. One song, one person, three voices. He is his own harmony.

So God is like a whale that sings with three voices? “Yes. No! But if it helps, yes.”* It’s at least a close enough picture to move me to awe. And I think that’s all he was really after.

How amazing that God hid this little revelation inside a Disney short from 1946! I imagine him giving that little nugget of the Divine Story to some animator who may or may not have even known him, but God just wanted to hide this little secret for the children and the childlike who have eyes to see and ears to hear.

“At that time Jesus declared, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.'”
(Matthew 11:25)

“But Jesus called them to him, saying, ‘Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.'”
(Luke 18:16-17)

* The Doctor, Doctor Who series 6 episode 4, “The Doctor’s Wife.” And yes, Doctor Who does apply to every situation.

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Testimony Thursday: University of Missouri Kansas City

On By CaitlynIn IHOPKC Life1 Comment

Today our outreach group consisted of five interns and two leaders. It was a way smaller group than normal, but God wasn’t a bit intimidated. We went to the University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC) to heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, and preach the gospel of the Kingdom. Well, no corpses or demons turned up, but we did see a number of healings and did plenty of preaching.

We split into a few small groups to head out over the campus. I was with the same girl I was with last week, and we headed out with very little direction at all. I’m totally fine with talking to people and praying for them, but straight up “preaching the gospel” is NOT normal for me. I was praying hard for opportunity and boldness, etc. The first girl we talked to was a very friendly freshman who told us she believes in some sort of higher power but mostly just believes in the good in humanity. We talked to her for fifteen minutes or so, praying for her and sharing the gospel a bit.
We went into a building looking for a water fountain, and I immediately saw a girl wearing red sandals. As it happened, “red sandals” was the first item on my treasure hunt list. I showed her the list and she got excited and said I could pray for her. I did, and afterwards she and her friend (they were both Muslims, although the first girl was pretty secular and agnostic) started asking us questions about hearing God’s voice and the difference between Muslim and Christian beliefs, etc. They actually mentioned Isa the prophet (their view of Jesus) before we did. We stood there talking for about thirty minutes, then they invited us to sit down and we talked for another thirty minutes. We covered everything from justification to the Trinity to prophecy. It was a really good conversation. At one point one of our leaders walked by, then came back and asked if he could demonstrate that Jesus is God by growing out the first girl’s leg. She claimed her legs were just fine, but he sat her down, and we could clearly see the difference in length. He commanded the leg to grow – and it did – but the girl still denied that it happened and said it was all psychological. Overall, though, it was a really good conversation, and God’s definitely after their hearts. The leader who joined our conversation said that talking for an hour to Muslims is an unusual kind of favour. I’m pretty in awe at how that happened too, and I’m definitely going to keep praying for them.

The other groups in our team saw three legs grow out, a toothache healed, and had several awesome conversations with students. They met two guys who were passing out flyers together; one was a Christian and the other was a Muslim. The Muslim guy didn’t want to listen to them, but they talked to the Christian guy and encouraged him to share the gospel with his friends on campus, because their salvation may depend on it. Pray for him. He’s there for such a time as this.

I love UMKC. I really hope we can go back more often. College students are very willing to have these kinds of conversations, and it’s easier for me to talk to people who are basically my peers. God is doing big things on that campus, and one of these days all heaven is going to break loose there. 🙂

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