What I’m Reading: Seasons of Waiting

On April 25, 2019February 19, 2022 By CaitlynIn What I'm Reading

(Full disclosure: I love to recommend resources to help you in your journey, and when I do I use Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase something through my links, I may receive a small commission. But if there’s a resource you want, I encourage you to get it wherever works best for you!)

Continuing my What I’m Reading series, here’s one that I initially did NOT want to read.

A year and a half ago, I was at the 2017 Onething conference in Kansas City. I was browsing the bookstore and saw this beautiful matte turquoise cover with chalk-style caligraphy. It was called Seasons of Waiting: Walking by Faith When Dreams are Delayed by Betsy Childs Howard. I picked it up and flipped through it. I thought, “This would be a really great book for… someone else.” I was definitely in a season of waiting (still am) but I thought I had dealt with the emotions and landed in a good place.

That’s when the Holy Spirit gently whispered, “Caitlyn, you need to read this book.”

Um. Okay, that was clear.

I resisted the nudge at first because I thought I didn’t need to read it… or maybe I just didn’t want to give the emotions the opportunity to get stirred up again. Probably mostly the latter.

But He kept saying it, and I know better than to tell Him no and walk away. So I bought the book.

I didn’t read it for a year and a half, mind you. It sat on my shelf, and I knew I needed to read it, but I was a little scared. I really felt like I was doing well! I really didn’t want to become a puddle of emotions over circumstances I couldn’t change. It’s easier just to stuff them down and keep going… and for most of 2018, I was doing really well at that.

This year, the emotions came out of hibernation, and welp, they’re as loud as ever.

I finally broke down and took the book with me on a trip home for my sister’s wedding. I read it in one sitting on the return flight… and yeah, God was right. I needed that.

Really, most or all of us are in some kind of waiting, but this book is written for those who feel the waiting acutely, those with a constant pain, a constant prayer held in tension. The book includes several chapters on general principles of waiting, and then devotes a chapter to each of several different kinds of waiting: waiting for a spouse, a child, a healing, a home, and a prodigal. For me, the chapter about waiting for a spouse was the one I was most eager to learn from.

Chapter one talks about the “school of waiting” in which God does some of His most important work:

“You see, for God, the goal of this school [of waiting] is not that I should learn my lesson so that I don’t have to wait anymore. God wants me to learn how to wait to that I can wait well, even if my waiting continues for the rest of my life… Rather than end my waiting, he wants to bless my waiting.”
(Betsy Childs Howard, Seasons of Waiting, page 14)

As non-encouraging as the phrase “for the rest of my life” may be, it’s true that God hasn’t promised me the thing I’m waiting for. I know that He is good, faithful, and kind, but nowhere does the Bible say “Caitlyn Lutz shall have a husband, amen.” Even as I believe I have received subjective prophetic indications that marriage is in His plan for me, I don’t feel permission to claim that with absolute authority. I certainly don’t have any kind of timeline!

I have to learn how to wait well, whether it’s months, years, or decades.

The thing about this book that so grabbed my heart was the emphasis on how every kind of waiting is a prophetic picture of the story of God, especially of the Bride waiting for the return of the Bridegroom. Of course, this isn’t a new idea to me, but hearing it again so clearly was refreshing and encouraging.

“…God has given you a parable. Each different kind of waiting shines light on a different facet of the gospel story. Only those who have been given eyes to see and ears to hear can perceive the redemptive picture God paints through our waiting.”
(page 22)

“We don’t ordinarily know how long we will be waiting… But in that sense, our waiting is an even better parable of what it means to wait for the coming of the Lord.”
(page 21)

Of course, this doesn’t mean that God wants to emotionally torture me in order to make me an example. Of course not! It means that there is a sweetness of encounter with Him in the waiting, as I let my ache for my earthly desires lead me into the ache of longing for Him.

Spiritual hunger is a gift. Longing for Jesus, especially for His return, is something that only the Holy Spirit can stir up in us– and then He meets us in that longing, because we get to fellowship with Him in HIS longing for the exact same thing!

“And Jesus said to them, ‘Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.'”
(Matthew 9:15)

I’ve been waiting for a husband only about a decade. Jesus has been waiting since the original fall in the garden of Eden to marry His Bride, and He’s endured so. much. rejection and heartbreak along the way. There is a precious intimacy reserved for those who are willing to let themselves enter into the longings of Jesus’ heart.

I am so grateful for this book encouraging me to press into Jesus through my waiting. I can’t say that it makes the ache of waiting any less acute, but it does make the waiting richer and more meaningful. I begin to see purpose and glory in the waiting, and that gives me a sense of settledness and peace.

Epilogue: While I was writing this post, I met a woman in the prayer room who was in a different kind of season of waiting. I immediately knew that I had to give her my copy of this book, so I did, and bought it again on Kindle to finish writing the post. I pray it’s as much of a blesisng to her as it was to me!

Seasons of Waiting is available on Amazon.

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Throwback Easter Post: “The Promise of Future Resurrection”

On April 21, 2019April 21, 2019 By CaitlynIn Bible Stuff

Happy Easter! He is risen!

I thought about writing a full new post for this Easter, but honestly I wrote a pretty epic post last year that’s probably better than anything I could write for this year, and so since many of my readers are new to my blog, I’m sharing it again today.

I’m not sure how exactly I managed to grow up in a Bible-believing church without really grasping the doctrine of the future resurrection, but I did, and I’m willing to bet I’m not alone. When I first encountered some preaching on these verses in 2012, they blew my mind, and it’s been one of my favorite themes in Scriptures to search out and meditate on ever since.

This post is a fairly thorough exploration of the astonishing revelation in Scripture that when Jesus comes back, every believer who has ever died and every believer left alive will get a glorious resurrected body. An actual tangible body, immortal, full of light and glory (and probably superpowers) to live on a renewed Earth forever. This future resurrection of believers is an integral part of the HOPE of Jesus’ return, and it’s a major part of why the resurrection of Jesus is such good news for us.

This has to become so, so real to us.

Luckily (or, you know, providentially) the Bible gives us some really clear details we can study and hang on to in order to stir up that hope in our hearts. Check it out in my Easter 2018 post, “Easter: The Promise of Future Resurrection”.

(BONUS: I’ve also included at the end of that post some extra study resources and related worship songs!)

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Tools for a Life of Prayer: Meditating on the Word

On April 14, 2019April 14, 2019 By CaitlynIn Prayer and Worship1 Comment

One of the greatest tools you could have for developing a life of prayer is the practice of meditating on the Word of God. Meditating is different from simply reading or hearing a verse. When you simply read or hear a verse, you may think, “Oh, cool, that’s a good verse,” and you may be able to pull it out later to use in an argument (maybe), but it’s not going to necessarily stick with you or change you in any way. We’re after getting into the Word in a way that it becomes a part of you.

Think of a sponge, like you have by your kitchen sink. When I hear or read a verse once, I’m like a sponge that gets a little bit of water splashed on it. I may become slightly “damp” with the Word, but it still hasn’t soaked into me and changed me. A slightly damp sponge isn’t much use to anyone.

The only way to really get the Word into me is for me to get myself into the Word. I have to immerse myself in it, like a sponge plunged into a sink full of water until it’s thoroughly soaking wet.

This is what we mean when we talk about meditation in the Word. We want to soak ourselves in the Word until it becomes part of us. My high school pastor used to call this “marinating,” like a piece of meat soaking in a dressing to absorb all the flavor. We want to marinate in and soak in all the flavor of God’s Word.

Here’s the definition of meditation I want to offer you:

Meditation is soaking ourselves in the Word

through conversation with the Holy Spirit

so that we know and love God more.

The biggest place we see meditation in the Bible is in the life of David. This “man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22) was a man obsessed with meditating on the Word. His writings are soaked with a love for and delight in God’s law. Psalm 119, the longest chapter in Scripture, is all about this.

“Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.”
(Psalm 119:97)

What was David’s secret? What fascinated him about the law of the Lord so much that he meditated on it day and night? I believe the secret is his prayer in Psalm 119:18:

“Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.”
(Psalm 119:18)

David had a yearning to know God and be near to Him. You may be familiar with Psalm 27:4, which was David’s declaration of his “one thing” desire for the presence of God in His house. I believe that one of the secrets to David maintaining the fervor of a “one thing” lifestyle was Psalm 119:18 — He regularly asked God to reveal to him the beautiful mysteries of His heart in His Word.

When we open up a dialogue with God over his Word, He really will show us things that we never could have come to on our own. This is what meditation is.

As a friend of God, you have the enormous privilege of getting to read the Bible with the Holy Spirit at your side, whispering in your ear. You can ask him, “What did You mean when You wrote this? What does this say about who You are or who I am? How can this be true if that is also true?” and He can actually tell you. In fact, revealing Jesus in the Word is one of the Holy Spirit’s primary job descriptions.

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
(John 14:26)

He does this in the most remarkable way. 1 Corinthians 2:11-12 describes it like this:

“These things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God… “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.”
(1 Corinthians 2:10-12, 16)

In other words, only you really know what you’re thinking at any given time, because only you live inside of your own brain. The same way, only the Spirit of God can know the thoughts of God… but God put His Spirit inside of you. We have the mind of Christ. The Holy Spirit searches the deep things of God, and then He reveals them to us. It’s His favorite thing to do.

Meditation is simply about talking to the Holy Spirit who lives inside us about His Word. He loves to talk, especially about the Bible! Again, meditation is soaking ourselves in the Word through conversation with the Holy Spirit so that we may know and love God more.

In future posts I will illustrate some practical meditation tools, but you can do this very simply even today. Take a short piece of Scripture and roll it around in your mind. Let it soak into you. Talk to the Holy Spirit about it. When I meditate on a verse, sometimes I’ll draw it, sometimes I’ll paraphrase it, sometimes I’ll sing it, and sometimes I’ll just think and journal and pray through it.

The point of getting the Word into you is to encounter God. It’s far beyond learning doctrine or fulfilling a duty. When we meditate on these holy, ancient words, we get to encounter the living Spirit who inspired them. The Bible is a guaranteed gateway into the genuine heart of God, and meditation is the key.

Do you meditate on Bible verses? What tools work for you? Tell me in the comments!

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What I’m Praying: IHOPU Ministry Team

On April 11, 2019February 19, 2022 By CaitlynIn What I'm Praying2 Comments

Continuing my What I’m Praying series, this week we at The Prayer Room have been praying for our ministry trip team from IHOPU in Kansas City! Every year, IHOPU sends out hundreds of their students to houses of prayer all across the country to serve the city for a week. Usually, they spend some time in a prayer room, then spend a lot of time ministering at different churches and ministries, as well as a lot of time evangelizing in the city.

We’re hosting a trip again this year, but this trip is special. Instead of 30ish students, we capped it at 10 (which filled up FAST!) and instead of doing all of the usual activities, we have them focused almost exclusively on The Prayer Room. They’re in a morning set and an afternoon set every day, they’re serving in some very specific and needed ways (spreadsheets and spring cleaning!), and we also have them spending lots of time with our community and leadership team– learning, connecting, and trying to get a feel for life at our house of prayer.

The team helped our two newest staff members, fresh transplants from KC, move into their new apartment!

As we have them here this week, we’re praying three things for them, that God would:

mark them in a deeper way with vision for the house of prayer,
strengthen them in their individual callings, and
give them grace to forge deep friendships with each other and with us.

I’ve especially been praying for #1, vision for the house of prayer. Especially for those who are here as underclassmen or who haven’t had much opportunity to experience what the house of prayer looks like outside of Kansas City, I’m asking God to mark them with His heart for smaller prayer rooms, where there are only a few faithful worshippers and intercessors in the room, where things are weak but vibrant.

The team hanging out on the TPR balcony for their lunch!

There’s a commonly cited statistic in the prayer movement that on average, people stick around for about five years before they get burned out and leave. I think there are a lot of dynamics to why that is, but a big one is VISION. I’m going on year 7 (although the first four were within the safety net of IHOPU, so we can call it two and a half if you want) and I know for me, the staying power isn’t in the hype and the “glory”. It’s in the why–the deep desire in the heart of God to have a resting place among us, for Jesus get the adoration He’s due, and for the church to partner with Him to bring His kingdom to earth (especially in the ultimate sense of the return of Jesus to the planet).

“Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint…”
(Proverbs 29:18)

I know it’s more popular to quote this verse as “…the people perish” (KJV), but I really like the “cast off restraint” translation because it means the inverse is also true: where there is vision, the people are empowered to embrace restraint.

The team leading a Worship With the Word set in our prayer room

In the house of prayer, restraint often looks like the frustration and tedium of long hours in an empty room, delayed promises, saying no to more exciting opportunities, the discomfort of fasting, the emotional labor of prayer, the reproach of embracing such a “foolish” calling… if we aren’t continually growing in vision, we will struggle to embrace these restraints with joy.

Our prayer for these students is that they will see more clearly God’s heart for the house of prayer and grow in conviction and vision for partnering with Him in this story. They all will be in Kansas City for at least a while longer, and some of them will feel called to serve in houses of prayer afterward–maybe even The Prayer Room!

God, give these students a deeper vision for Your house. Mark their hearts with Your desire to have a resting place, and stir in them a desire to lay down their lives to see that dream come true.

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House of Prayer Spotlight: The Reflection Center

On April 7, 2019February 19, 2022 By CaitlynIn House of Prayer Spotlight

Continuing my House of Prayer Spotlight series, this month I’m excited to feature The Reflection Center, a house of prayer in Galveston, TX! The directors, Andrew and Risa Adams, are close friends of The Prayer Room after the Lord sent them to us for a season of training in 2017. They were in the first internship I ran! In a sense, they are our first “plant” and we are so excited to see how God is moving and calling the church of Galveston to a lifestyle of night and day prayer.

Me with Andrew, Risa, and Wenzel Adams when they visited The Prayer Room last year. So proud of this family!

Their name, The Reflection Center, describes the mandate of the house of prayer to be a reflection of heaven. Revelation describes the ceaseless worship around the throne of God:

“…day and night they never cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!'”
(Revelation 4:8)

Just as Jesus said to pray “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10) and Moses was commanded to build the tabernacle “after the pattern” of the heavenly realm shown to Him on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 25:40), our houses of prayer are meant to be earthly expressions of what is happening in the throne room of God right now.

I am so grateful that Andrew took the time to answer some questions for me.

When and how did your HOP start?

The Reflection Center House of Prayer began as the Lord spoke to our directors (Andrew and Risa Adams) as they arrived in the States after a 2 year missionary assignment in Germany. Over a few months at the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017, He made it abundantly clear that He wanted His House of Prayer built in Galveston, TX. Andrew and Risa went through the Immerse Internship at TPR, planned and waited for the Lord in summer 2017, and then started the House of Prayer in Galveston in August 2017.

The Adams family: Andrew, Risa, and Wenzel

What does your weekly schedule look like now?

We started with 5 hours a week in August 2017. After a hard-fought year of faithfulness and laying the groundwork, the Lord began to move. We slowly increased over that first year from 5 hours to 11 hours a week. Then we suddenly increased over the next 6 months from 11 hours to 22 hours a week!

The Reflection Center also runs a part-time young adult internship and a weekly service called The Gathering with worship, teaching, and discussion. Find their weekly prayer schedule here!

How many people do you have involved?

This “suddenly” is also expressed in our Sacred Trust [those committed to weekly prayer meetings] and community! We went from 2 to 4 to maybe 8 people involved over the first year. Now we have 20 people on the Sacred Trust and several more just hanging out in the community!

The Reflection Center’s very first prayer meeting on August 21, 2017!

What do you believe is your unique mandate and vision as a HOP?

As the director, I believe our main and unique mandate is to exemplify being Mary of Bethany (Luke 10:38-42). Our heart’s desire is to sit at His feet and hear His voice. The overflow of this is that we get to call believers and the Church into this lifestyle. Secondary to this, our mandate is to become forerunners, train forerunners, and proclaim the forerunner message to the Church and to the lost. The forerunner message, in a nutshell, would be the often left out part of the gospel message: that Jesus is coming back to rule and reign and the Bible has a LOT to say about the subject. We are giving ourselves to this as a leadership team with the goal for it to be in the everyday language of our community. [Andrew also wanted me to add that they are called to be “friends of the Bridegroom” like John the Baptist called himself in John 3:29, those who would hear the Bridegroom’s voice and point others to Him, especially related to the message of His coming.]

The Reflection Center leadership team at Onething 2018 in Kansas City

What is something you love about the culture of your HOP?

I love that the culture of the House of Prayer has this unique dynamic of fulfilling Scripture! It seems obscure to many, but the prophecies (especially once connected) point clearly to the Lord rebuilding the prayer and worship movement of King David AND using it as part of His end time plan. The culture fosters a camaraderie in this biblical goal.

Andrew and Risa prepping a prayer topic for justice

What is something God has taught you on this journey of HOP ministry?

As the director, the Lord has taught me SO MUCH in our short history. He has taught me: leadership and the necessity of connection with Him to keep and receive the vision, the critical need to be in His Word a LOT and how foolish it is to stand before Him and have lame excuses for not having spent time with Him, the undeniable value of a life of prayer and worship and how it keeps you aligned with Him and out of the snares of this world, and the beauty of just sitting at His feet day after day.

Kids are often right in the center of worship.

What do you believe God is doing in your midst right now, or in this next season?

God definitely has us in a season of ACCELERATION that can only be described as sovereign. He has increased our hours, community, and level of trust while speaking to us that He is getting ready to plant us in a dedicated building for His House of Prayer (we currently rent a beautiful old church that we really like and had no desire to move from!). We have no means to make the move, but He suddenly provided us with a $25,000 donation and 90+ gently used chairs given to us (with a free place to store them)! Only God could have orchestrated that and we are actively waiting for the next move!

For more information, check out thereflectioncenter.com. They have tons of helpful information on not only who they are but the what and the why of the house of prayer! You can also find them on Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube, and Andrew’s blog at heinspiredme.com.

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What I’m Reading: All Things New

On April 3, 2019June 8, 2022 By CaitlynIn End Times, What I'm Reading2 Comments

This past Christmas, my family blessed me with a big stack of books I had put on my wishlist. (Yes, we do wishlists in my fam, and it’s great!) One I was especially excited about was All Things New by John Eldredge. If you’ve been reading Fragrance Arise for a while you know that I quote him every chance I get (like in Why The Beauty of Jesus is My Life Message) and recently reread and blogged about his book Epic. Few authors have impacted me more. Normally I wouldn’t blog about the same author two What I’m Reading posts in a row, but this one is fresh on my heart and I’m so excited to talk about it.

John Eldredge is probably– no, is definitely– my favorite contemporary nonfiction author. His perspective on the Story of God and the sacred romance of our relationship with Him has captivated my heart’s imagination and given beautifully potent imagery to the way I think about God. (Fun fact– John Eldredge’s book The Sacred Romance was a key inspiration for Ted Dekker’s portrayal of the “Great Romance” in the Circle series of novels. So I even owe my Dekker obsession to John Eldredge!)

All Things New is John’s newest book, and it draws its name from a verse toward the very end of the Bible:

“And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.'”
(Revelation 21:5)

It’s a portrait of the “happily ever after” at the end of the story of this age, after Jesus returns, when God restores everything that has been stolen and broken, and fully gives us every good and perfect gift to enjoy forever.

I have to admit– I was nervous to start this book. As excited as I was, I actually procrastinated several months after receiving it. The idea of the “restoration of all things” (as Acts 3:21 says it) in the Millennial Kingdom and beyond is not new to me, and ever since I started studying the end times about seven years ago, the hope of that final glorious restoration has been an anchor to my soul and a theological truth very near and dear to my heart.

However, I know that there are many different end time beliefs in the body of Christ, and I LOVE John Eldredge so much that I just really didn’t want to be disappointed. It took the encouragement of a friend whose judgment I have grown to trust for me to take the plunge… and holy crap, I’m so glad I did. (He actually barely touches specific beliefs about the return of Jesus. The tribulation isn’t mentioned once. I think people from across the eschatological spectrum would be blessed by this book and wouldn’t find much to argue with.)

What I love most about this book is that as much as it is richly biblical, it’s far more deeply emotional. None of the theology was new to me, but John’s way of drawing out the emotional implications moved me to tears more than once.

The book begins with John sharing very candidly about some heartbreaking losses he and his family experienced– a grandchild, a best friend. Amid the agony of that season, the need for a vibrant hope in a future restoration became desperately clear. We need more than the vague idea that “they’re in a better place” and someday we’ll be together again in some vague cloud of ethereal bliss. We need a “wild hope” (a phrase which both C. S. Lewis and John Eldredge are fond of) in a very REAL, tangible, concrete Restoration.

“The secret to your unhappiness and the answer to the agony of the earth are one and the same–we are longing for the kingdom of God. We are longing for the restoration of all things. That is the only hope strong enough, brilliant enough, glorious enough to overcome the heartache of this world.”
(John Eldredge, All Things New, p 17)

Isn’t this what we have been dreaming of? Most of us don’t have words for it, but whenever we experience those rare moments of pure joy, something in us longs for it to last forever. Even more, when we experience the terrible, ripping pain of loss, we cry out for “everything sad… to come untrue”, as Tolkein’s Samwise Gamgee put it. Deep in our gut, we know what we were made for. We feel the brokenness of the world and know that we were made for more. And we’re going to get it.

We must dare to imagine a very real, future, restored Kingdom on Earth.

What can we look forward to in the Restoration?

Our bodies will be resurrected and infused with glory. All pain and physical limitations will be gone. This hope especially has become central in the mythology of this generation– the heroes of Marvel and DC. The vampires of Twilight. We know deep to our core that our very bodies were made for more.

Earth will be made new, which is not to say that it will be destroyed and Earth 2.0 will take its place, but it will actually be made new— renewed, restored, made young and bright and innocent again. Earth, our Earth, not an ethereal swirly realm of heavenly fluff.

WE WILL LIVE IN RESURRECTED BODIES ON A RESTORED EARTH FOREVER.

This is a huge point which John develops carefully and biblically in chapter 2:

“This passage [Revelation 21] isn’t just about heaven, the Sweet By-and-By. John is shown the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven… the city of God comes to the earth. The dwelling of God, which has heretofore been heaven, comes to humans, who dwell on the earth. Notice also that God promises to make current things new–as opposed to making all ne wthings. If God were wiping away reality as we know it and ushering in a new reality, the phrase would have been ‘I am making all new things!’… Annihilation is not nearly as impressive as redemption.”
(John Eldredge, All Things New, p 25, 31)

The animal kingdom will be restored to rightful balance. The lion will lie down with the lamb and so much more! We will all be Steve Irwin, with even more perfect and fearless harmony between species.

We will be reunited with loved ones. My last memories of my grandma are of tiredness, illness, and forgetfulness. I can’t wait to see her in the renewed world– younger than I ever knew her, with perfect stamina and memory, no more mental blocks from childhood trauma, her beautiful operatic voice never breaking or tiring. She will want to show me her favorite places in Oregon, where she grew up, I’m sure– her favorite rivers where the deer will gather and eat out of our hands, her favorite bike trails and mountaintop views.

We will meet the heroes of renown (and also the unsung heroes) from generations of the family of God. My friend Hannah and I have made a plan to sit down with C. S. Lewis for coffee in the New Jerusalem just as soon as we get a chance. We will have all eternity for good old Jack, the father of Narnia, to become our best friend.

All relationships in Christ will be restored. The old friend who let hardness overtake them and won’t speak to me anymore… if reconciliation is not to be in this age, we WILL have it to the full in the next age. We will love each other perfectly forever. I actually think of this often… it frees my heart to smile and forgive, knowing that they will embrace me again one day, like it or not!

Jesus will fully vindicate us of every injustice. He will give us real, specific rewards that publicly make known how He felt about us in the hardest times, when we chose humility through pressure and pain. He will loudly tell our story the way He saw it, without distortion. No matter what people say about me now, a day of vindication is coming.

Hope: The Anchor of our Souls

If hope in the Restoration becomes a very real expectation in our hearts, it will change everything. Every loss seems more temporary and bearable. Every moment of joy isn’t fleeting, but just a down payment of future bliss. Every lost opportunity is nothing compared to the infinite opportunities in an eternal, renewed Kingdom.

One of the simplest stories from All Things New perhaps impacted me the most. John’s daughter-in-law Emilie had been looking forward to a backpacking trip with some old and dear friends. When the trip was canceled, she smiled and said confidently, “Never mind. I’ll see them at the Restoration.”

What a perspective of confident expectation! How silly are our “bucket lists” when we have all eternity to adventure, explore, and experience.

Maybe someday I will write another post developing some of these ideas directly from Scripture, but today I’m just sharing my imaginings and musings. For now, read All Things New (get it on Amazon), and if you like, check out my post on resurrected bodies called Easter: The Promise of Future Resurrection.

May we always set our hope on that Day.

“…that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.”
(Acts 3:20-21)

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What I’m Praying: 6 Things I’ve Learned About Praying for Justice

On March 27, 2019February 19, 2022 By CaitlynIn What I'm Praying1 Comment

Continuing my What I’m Praying series, I want to tell you about something I love praying for every single week. Every Saturday morning at 11am, I serve as the worship leader on an intercession set at The Prayer Room for various justice topics. My prayer leader and I have been doing this set for several months now, just the two of us, and it’s been powerful!

We’ve been praying for several topics, including adoption and the foster system, reentry into society after incarceration, and always for the church to have God’s heart for justice. It’s one of my favorite sets of the week because we really feel the partnership with God as we go after these things that He cares so much about. Jesus is the righteous Judge, and His heart burns to set all the wrong things right.

“Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne…”
(Psalm 89:14)

As we’ve been praying, we’ve been trying to keep a few key principles in mind. In my experience, having a handful of goals for the way we pray strengthens the intercession and helps everyone in the room engage with the topics.
1. Be Praising

Before you go into intercession, get a high view of God in worship. Remember who you’re talking to. Agree with who He is and declare that He is holy, good, and powerful. From that perspective, you’ll have the faith to pray biblically and declare His heart over the brokenness in our world.

Psalm 2 shows this pattern of intercession:

“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? …He who sits in the heavens laughs… ‘As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.’ … The LORD said to me, ‘You are my Son…Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.'”
(Psalm 2:1-8)

The nations are raging, but God sits in heaven and isn’t worried at all. He has set Jesus as King. Then the next thing He does is invite Jesus (and I think we can hear this invitation for ourselves) to ask Him for the nations. From the perspective that God is confidently seated in heaven and He has firmly placed Jesus as King, we can have the joy and confidence to ask Him to move in the nations.

2. Be Biblical

Use verses! The prayers and promises in Scripture are like checks already signed by God – these are things we already know He wants to do, and this is language He actually gave us to ask Him to do them. Praying Scripture is the easiest way to come into agreement with the heart of God.

The prayers of the New Testament, which we call the apostolic prayers, are a great place to start (check out this list of apostolic prayers found in Scripture as well as this longer list of apostolic prayers) and you can also find a TON of verses to pray in the Psalms and prophets.

“The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed…”
(Psalm 9:9)

“O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will… do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed…”
(Psalm 10:17-18)

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?”
(Isaiah 58:6)

“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…”
(Isaiah 61:1)

“what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
(Micah 6:8)

BONUS verse: we’ve discovered that we love praying Ephesians 2 for unity and the ending of racism–

“For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility… that he might… reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.”
(Ephesians 2:14-16)

3. Be Positive

One of the core values of the harp and bowl model is positive prayers– praying FOR good things instead of AGAINST bad things. This is the model we see in the majority of the prayers in the Bible, and in my experience, it is super helpful to guard our hearts against offense and anger. We want to train ourselves to focus on the kingdom of light rather than the kingdom of darkness!

As another practical point, positive prayers help everyone in the room engage in unity. For example, you might want to pray “Remove the deception and racism in how this nation sees immigrants!” and not only are you working yourself up into more frustration, but someone in the room is now wondering what exactly you think about immigration policy and they’re probably arguing with you in their head. BUT if we pray, “Give us grace to see immigrants how You see them and love them well,” it’s much easier for someone to agree, because (hopefully) we can all agree that we all need more love!

4. Be Specific

When we started our set, we were praying really broadly, pretty much that God would reveal His love to every victim of injustice all over the world. That’s great, but it was a little too vague for us to focus effectively. As we grew, the topics became more specific, and that really helped us engage in a more targetted strike in intercession. In praying for the fatherless, our prayer leader got in touch with a local ministry that serves adoptive families, and we started praying specifically for their needs. Putting specific names, places, and scenarios to the topics we’re praying for really helps our hearts engage and helps focus our intercession so that we can actually, measurable see change happen.

5. Be Bold

I am so proud of my prayer leader– last week, he prayed boldly for a controversial topic related to systemic racism. He was biblical, positive, and specific, and prayed with a lot of grace and love. Plus, I know it was a topic that was very personal to him as a person of color. We prayed boldly and I could feel the Spirit of God interceding with us.

As easy as it may be to stick to the vague, safe topics, God’s heart is breaking for specific and often controversial injustices. He’s looking for a people unafraid to join Him in His burden for the things that are often difficult to talk about. Not only are we sowing into the spiritual breakthough that will one day come in these areas, but we’re practicing and modeling how believers should talk and pray about these topics from a biblical justice lens.

6. Be Persistent

We’re not going to see breakthough if we flit from one topic to another whenever we get bored. We need to take the example of the widow in Luke 18:1-8 who modeled persistent prayer for justice.

I saw this happen so powerfully when I was at IHOPKC – every month on the set for the ending of human trafficking, the prayer leader would focus on a different city somewhere in the world. All (or at least many, I can’t remember) of our prayers would be focussed on the ending of human trafficking IN THAT CITY, and then next month we’d switch to a different city. Every now and then the prayer leader would make an announcement on the mic that went something like, “Remember how we were praying for that specific city? Well, last night the police made a huge bust and freed 30 girls and made 14 arrests!” and we would all cheer and launch into our prayer for the next city with renewed vigor and faith.

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Tools for a Life of Prayer: Asking the Holy Spirit to Teach You

On March 25, 2019August 30, 2019 By CaitlynIn Prayer and Worship

Several years ago, I fell in love with reading the Bible at a whole new level. One of the things I started doing during that time was discovering and applying verses that promised God would open my eyes to understand His word. The first one I found, which is still my favorite to pray, is Psalm 119:18, which is a prayer for God to reveal “wondrous things” in His Word. As I continued on this journey, I realized that there were so many more verses I could pray for this same thing!

1. Behold Wondrous Things

“Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.”
(Psalm 119:18)

God, open the eyes of my understanding (Ephesians 1:17) and let me see things in Your Word I’m never seen before. Captivate my heart with amazing truths!

2. Wisdom and Revelation

“that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened…”
(Ephesians 1:17-18)

Father of glory, give me the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of You. Open the eyes of my heart to see You and know You as You truly are.

3. Teach You All Things

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
(John 14:26)

Father, thank You for Your Spirit. Holy Spirit, teach me all things. Teach me about Jesus and remind me of the things He has said.

4. Guide You Into All Truth

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
(John 16:13-15)

Holy Spirit, guide me into all truth! Glorify Jesus by revealing Him to me and sharing His heart with me.

5. Hearts Burn Within Us

“And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself… They said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?'”

(Luke 24:27, 32)

Jesus, open my eyes to see You reflected in every page of Scripture. I want my heart to burn within me while You reveal Yourself to me.

6. Kisses of His Word

“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth [His Word]!”
(Song of Solomon 1:2)

Father, let Jesus kiss my heart with Your Word! I want to feel those tender touches from Your Spirit as I read.

7. The Mind of Christ

“For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God… ‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.”
(1 Corinthians 2:10-12, 16)

Holy Spirit, thank You that You search the deep things of God, and You live in me, so You can reveal them to me! I ask You to take me deep into the Father’s heart.

8. Give You Understanding

“Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.”
2 Timothy 2:7

Lord, give me understanding as I think over the words of Scripture. Help me understand what You’re trying to communicate.

Free Bookmark

When I first discovered all these verses, I wrote them on a piece of paper with key phrases highlighted, and I kept it in my Bible (still have it today!) to remind me to pray one or two of these verses before reading. As a special bonus gift for you, I want to share a slightly prettier version of this bookmark as a free printable download! Click here to download your printable bookmark.

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What I’m Reading: Unceasing

On March 20, 2019February 10, 2024 By CaitlynIn What I'm Reading

As I’ve mentioned several times on this blog (HERE and then HERE), The Prayer Room is currently running a part-time worship school. One of the students’ assignments is to read Unceasing by Billy Humphrey, the director of the International House of Prayer Atlanta. It was really important to us that in addition to their music training, our students were also getting the DNA of the house of prayer and we couldn’t think of a better book to assign than Unceasing. Today, continuing my What I’m Reading series, this is the book I want to talk about.

IHOP-Atlanta is the only place on the continent outside of IHOPKC running 24/7 live prayer and worship. They’ve been doing this since 2006 and have a strong and fervent vision for the worth of Jesus and the importance of night and day prayer in this generation.

I’ve skimmed through Unceasing before (or at least the old edition entitled Until He Comes) but today during my prayer meetings I took some time to read through it thoroughly. It’s a pretty quick read at only 137 pages, and it clearly lays out the theological and historical foundation of the house of prayer from several different angles.

The first chapter is called “It’s Happening!” which I love because that’s exactly what comes out of my mouth every time I start gushing excitedly about the prayer movement. “It’s happening! GOD is DOING it! Everywhere, all at once, in our generation!”

When we talk about the 24/7 prayer movement, we first must realize that this is a sovereign move of God that is actually occurring right underneath our noses. There are houses of prayer and praying communities pursuing 24/7 springing up all over the world, and although some of them were influenced by IHOPKC, many have never heard of it, and even the ones who are familiar all have their own stories of how God called them into this. (At The Prayer Room, God clearly spoke to our director, “Start a daily prayer meeting tomorrow morning at 5:00 a.m. and don’t stop until I come back!” and we started the next day in his living room, only later realizing that we had been commissioned to be a house of prayer not unlike IHOPKC.)

In the 1980s there were only a handful of ministries in the world pursuing night and day prayer. Today there are close to 20,000. (He’s said this in the book Growing in Prayer as well as many other times.)

GOD. IS. DOING. THIS.

When we discussed chapter 1 in the school the first week, our students were enthralled by the story of the 24 houses of prayer within one Chinese house church network, all going 24/7 (yes– to my knowledge we’ve got exactly two in the US, and this one corner of China has 24). These Chinese house churches had never heard of any Western expressions of 24/7 prayer, and simply attributed their vision to their desire to see the gospel spread through the nations and go back to Jerusalem. They knew if they wanted to see a move of God that massive, they had better throw all of their energy into as much prayer as possible. The Holy Spirit stirred in their hearts that 24/7 prayer was a logical, rational act of partnership with the Kingdom of God.

Chapters 2-7 walk through the biblical and historical origins of the house of prayer, from the tabernacle of David that was birthed in the lovesick heart of a shepherd, to the cycle of Old Testament revivals that happened every time the Davidic order was reinstated, to Jesus’ zealous declaration that “My house shall be called a house of prayer!”, to various historical monastic expressions of unceasing prayer, to the state of the global prayer movement today. The weight of the biblical and historical evidence is staggering: God deeply desires 24/7 intercession and adoration, and there are certain things in His heart He will not release until His people pray night and day.

The second half of the book develops the core theological reasons for unceasing prayer, if the example of the tabernacle of David wasn’t already enough. These reasons include:

speedy justice as promised in Luke 18:6-7 (fun fact, this verse was the dramatic marking moment for me to devote my life to the prayer movement)
the salvation of Israel and watchmen set on the wall to see God’s purposes for her fulfilled (Isaiah 62:6-7)
ushering in the Kingdom of God (specifically the “not yet” of the Kingdom– yes, 24/7 prayer and worship is a key part of the drama of ushering in the return of Jesus and the dawn of the next age!)
the Joel 2 mandate for prayer and fasting in the face of impending judgment.

In my opinion, the heart and soul of the book is chapter 8, “The Single Most Compelling Reason”. That reason is simple: JESUS IS WORTHY.

“What is Jesus worth to you? How can His worth be measured? …How can we attribute a price to Him who is matchless, without comparison, without equal, the very definition of beauty and rarity?

…He is worthy of worship every second of every minute of every hour of every day. When I’m asked why we do night-and-day prayer, the answer is simple: Jesus is worthy of it. When the question comes, ‘How can you worship Him twenty-four hours a day?’ the simple answer is, ‘How can we not worship Him twenty-four hours a day?'”

Billy Humphrey, “Unceasing,” p 77, 79

This is it right here.

If every other reason fell away–if David never built his tabernacle, if there was no global prayer movement, if the return of Jesus was still a thousand years off–He would still be worthy of 24/7 worship.

I love the way Unceasing tells the story of Jesus’ humility, that great Philippians 2 descent from the highest heights all the way to become “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6-11) Jesus’ humility is one of my favorite things to write about because I see the crux of His beauty right there in His radical love. His worth and His beauty is directly tied to what He has done. “Worthy are You… for You were slain.” (Revelation 5:9)

In response to all He has done and the beauty of all He is, is there any offering too extravagant? Is there any passion too extreme? Is there any commitment too radical?

In light of Jesus’ great beauty and worth, 24/7 prayer and worship just makes sense.

It’s the only thing that makes sense.

Find Unceasing on Amazon.

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Ministry Update: Growing in Musical Strength

On March 17, 2019February 19, 2022 By CaitlynIn Ministry Life

Once a month, I send newsletters to my ministry partners (learn how to partner with me here!) about my life as a full-time intercessory missionary at The Prayer Room Missions Base, and I’ll be posting a few highlights from these letters on Fragrance Arise.

A few weeks ago, I shared a huge need/prayer request in my post “What I’m Praying: Crazy Supernatural Provision for a Dorm and Finances“. We’re still praying for God to break in and supply monthly partners as well as a dorm building where we can house some of the single young adult members of our community. I encourage you to check out that post and join us in prayer!

In other news, our part-time Forerunner Music Academy is at its halfway mark! I’m so proud of these 21 students as they are falling more in love with Jesus, being stretched in boldness, and gaining music skills both vocally and on instruments.

The past few weeks, our IHOPU externs/teachers Daniel and Tyler have become very intentional about bringing FMA students to join their worship sets, and a few of the students have even started leading their own sets. The explosion of new singers and musicians on stage makes me SO happy! These students are falling in love with the prayer room and learning to encounter God in a deeper way through their new skills. I love watching God woo their hearts into His story and His zeal for His house.

Here’s a short clip of Daniel leading four of our FMA students in a set! It’s unusual to have one instrument and five voices on stage, but these guys just went for it and it was wonderful. The whole room was getting blessed!

Here’s another FMA clip– students practicing developing spontaneous choruses for intercession in harp and bowl class!

I’ve been inspired by the musical swirl that’s happening around the base to learn more as well! I’m now playing keys on the Wednesday 5-7pm set led by Daniel. It’s my first time learning to follow someone else’s leadership as a musician, but Daniel is very patient and encouraging and I’m really excited to grow in this area. I’ve also started trying to learn guitar again with teaching from Chris, one of my fellow missionaries—mostly because I want to be able to keep the fire on the altar if the power ever goes out. It’s happened before, and I’ll be ready!

I’m learning guitar– follow my Instagram to see the journey!

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