Tag: Kansas City

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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Testimony Thursday: Healings, Prophecies, and Security Guards

On By CaitlynIn IHOPKC Life

I know it’s really bad form to start a series called Testimony Thursday on a Sunday, but these stories really did happen on Thursday and I just haven’t been able to get online since then. I did write this up on Friday morning, though, and I expect to usually be able to post regularly on Thursday nights. So there.

As I said in my last blog, we’ve started doing outreaches every Thursday afternoon on our day off. Yesterday about forty of us went to two malls to heal the sick, prophesy, and share the gospel. Within five minutes of getting out of the shuttle, still just standing in the parking lot, we saw the leg of one of our interns grow out and we prophesied over this random curious guy we met. And that was only the beginning.

Once inside the mall, my group almost immediately saw a woman wearing a blue dress with her ankle wrapped in a bandage, and two of the prophetic items on our lists were “blue” and “broken ankle.” We prayed for her and the man she was with, and her ankle got HEALED! As we were praying I got a word that she has a mother’s heart—turns out that although she has no kids of her own, she’s been (as I understood it) a foster mom to many and the theme of mothering has marked her life for years. So I got to bless and encourage her in that. The man she was with had “irreparable” back pain, so we declared that nothing is irreparable with God and we are still believing for his healing.

We also met an Orthodox Jewish girl from Israel, a rapper whose baseball cap was on my list, two Muslim women I prayed for in JESUS’ name (even though I was more nervous than I’ve ever been), and a believer from West Africa with whom we had a great conversation throwing Scripture back and forth.  Some of our other groups saw a lot of healings and connected with a girl who is so hungry for God and they’re keeping in touch with her, and the group that our two leaders were in actually got escorted out of the mall!

That story was pretty crazy. As I remember it, they were praying/healing/prophesying over someone working at a kiosk, when one of the leaders recognised a girl walking by. After talking, they realised that he’d prayed for her leg to grow out (it did) the previous week at a different mall. At the leader’s encouragement, the girl told her two friends about it, and he was about to pray for healings for the two of them right there but they were asked to leave the store they were in. So he prayed for both girls outside the store, and one of the girls had her torn ACL healed, and as she was freaking out and jumping around, a security guard came to ask all three of our people who were there to leave the mall.

So as they were being escorted out, they started prophesying over the guard, who turned out to be a Catholic believer and theoretically supported evangelism but not in his mall. He believed he was obeying God by making them honour the authorities, etc. So our people shared some stuff from Acts with him about preaching the gospel anywhere and everywhere no matter how many times they get shut down. They encouraged him to boldly share the gospel even in his own workplace, and his theology was getting pretty blown up. He still made them leave, though, and so they went and healed/prophesied/prayed/preached in Target and Chik-Fil-A instead.

So that was my Thursday.

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Prep Rooms and Thursday Outreach

On By CaitlynIn IHOPKC Life1 Comment

Hey, guys! I’ve got a few more fun little updates for y’all!

As an internship, we’ve added a couple new optional things to our schedule that are really challenging but really amazing. One of them is “prep rooms.” Every night during our first hour in the prayer room, we set aside a couple of the small side rooms to crowd into and pray in tongues for an hour straight to prepare ourselves to go into the main prayer room. Almost all of the interns have their prayer language (and the ones that don’t will be getting one soon!) and we are being encouraged to put it to use, to really align our spirits with God’s Spirit. It really is a pretty beautiful and amazing gift; I don’t know what I did before I got the gift of tongues in 2009. Actually, I do know what I did—I continually hit a wall of where I couldn’t sustain prayer and would just run out of words. I LOVE being able to pray in the Spirit!

One of the other things we’ve added is regular outreach every Thursday afternoon on our day off. Some of the guys started doing this on their own early on, and in the past few weeks it’s grown to be an official IHOPKC*/OTI scheduled thing for whoever wants to come, headed up by a guy from IHOPU who works with the outreach department an is really anointed for evangelism and healing. I went for the first time last week, and it was pretty amazing. We did it “Treasure Hunt” style, which means on the way there we were all asking God to give us pictures of things to be on the lookout for, ie specific clothes, locations, etc. We went to a local mall and broke up into groups of two or three, so I was with a guy and another girl wandering with purpose around the mall looking for people to pray for. We got to pray for a lot of people, and although we didn’t see any healings or salvations, we definitely got to see God touch a lot of people.

The girl who was with us had “leather sandals” and “pretzel” on her list, so when we saw a woman with leather sandals standing in line at an Annie’s Pretzel shop, we stopped to pray for her. We decided to wait until she had made her purchase, so as we were standing there leaning over a railing on the second floor, I saw a girl below wearing yellow flip-flops. “Yellow sandals” were one on the items on my list, so I left my partners and hurried downstairs to find her. By the time I got there she had disappeared, so I walked around the corner praying for God to show me what to do, and right there was a different girl wearing pink and yellow sandals standing in line at a different Annie’s Pretzel shop! The “coincidence” was too much to pass up, so I waited for her to get her pretzel, then explained that she had been highlighted on our treasure hunt and asked to pray for her. She was pretty excited and asked me to pray for guidance for her. I did, and we were both blessed as I went back upstairs to discover that in my absence my two partners had prayed for the woman in the leather sandals, her back had gotten partially healed, and they received a prophetic word for her which brought her to tears! God is so good. I am so excited to go back next week and be even bolder in praying for healing and in preaching the gospel. I never have shared the gospel with a stranger before, and maybe this is finally my time.

*I’ve been trying to refer to IHOP as IHOPKC now, because since they recently settled the lawsuit from the International House of Pancakes, part of the agreement was that they transition to a new acronym. One of the interesting tidbits I learned in the full staff meeting last week–yes, I count as staff. I feel cool.

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Falling in Love with the Bible (and My First Forerunner Rant)

On By CaitlynIn IHOPKC Life1 Comment

God’s been doing a lot of really good things with me since I last blogged. I feel like testimonies are being built that I will share later, but they’re still “cooking” right now. Suffice it to say that I’m very excited to see how God’s going to glorify himself in me.

In the meantime, I’m still reading ten chapters a day (six days a week), and am halfway through Colossians right now. I feel like the whole Word is coming alive in a way it never has before. I’m underlining and highlighting just about every other verse and feeling a little silly for doing so, but it’s all so good! I know that’s a “duh,” but for most of my life, it’s just been a “duh” because I know it should be a “duh.” When I get to the point where I want to read the Gospels over and over just because I love to listen to him laugh, catch the flash in his eyes, hear the alternating passion, joy, amusement, sarcasm, and sorrow in his voice, I know I’ve finally come into something precious. I’m not even talking about encountering the present-tense Spirit of Jesus speaking directly to me in the secret place. I’m talking about being as moved by the Gospels as I am by the Circle and being completely swept up into that world to feel right there with the characters. This is unprecedented for me.

And then, as sorry I was to finish with the Gospels and get into Acts, I quickly discovered that watching Holy Spirit partner with the early apostles is every bit as fun as watching Jesus screw with the disciples’ minds. And then I got into the epistles and quickly became a big fan of Paul. Friends of mine for years have called Paul their favourite writer or teacher, but I never really got it until the past week or so. Dang, the guy’s good. He dives headfirst into really complicated questions and lays them all out, all while exuding this overriding passion for the cross of Christ and the living hope of the resurrection that it’s given us.

The resurrection. There’s another thing. IHOP’s been giving me a lot of theology, mostly about the end times, that I’ve never really studied before, but as I listen to the teaching and immediately go into the prayer room to study it out for myself, it’s right there all over the place. Perhaps I’ll write some blogs later about the Bridegroom paradigm and how that’s revealed all over Scripture and why it’s absolutely crucial for the last generation, and about how the final revival and tribulation is going to go down, and why we need to start talking about and understanding the Millennial kingdom and our eternal rewards—guys, this isn’t a fairy tale, and it’s not just abstract theology that’s fun to debate. It is really happening, and it’s going down much, much sooner than most people realise, and there is a vital importance to being ready for it. I’m not just talking about the final three and a half years of the Tribulation. I’m talking about what God is revealing to the church now, in this hour. This isn’t just IHOP being IHOP, I promise, because even a month ago I was rather skeptical myself. But now I’m being awakened to it, and I have concluded that I don’t want to be part of “the rest” that in the very last days will have to figure all this out as it’s happening. I want to ride the crest of the wave at the forefront, and I want help the rest of the church get captured by this thing so that we can be ready to partner with Jesus when the tables start turning instead of being offended by a Warrior King that we don’t understand is really a Bridegroom.

Well, there’s the tip of the iceberg of my forerunner spiel. I’ll save the rest of that for a time when I can be much more organised about it.

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