It's All About A Wedding To Come!

March 23, 2012

Well the new semester is in full swing! I am really enjoying my classes this quarter. One is Foundations of Biblical Eschatology and the other is Basic Christian Beliefs. The Eschatology class is basically just the study of end times. Although somewhat hard to follow at times because there is just so much, I have really enjoyed the class because he is taking us through the 150 chapters in the Bible that have to do with the end-times and it’s kind of like he’s putting puzzle pieces together and I am beginning to see how this verse fits with this verse and why people think that means this. I also love it because he’s not just saying this is what IHOP believes and so you must believe it too. He is actually playing devil’s advocate and giving arguments for things that IHOP doesn’t believe and making us search it out for ourselves and make sure that we understand for ourselves. That’s one of the main things I love about this place. They say it over and over again; don’t believe anything I say unless you can find it for yourself in the Bible. They want us to be like the Bereans and search it out for ourselves.

The first day of Daniel's class was so good! IHOP gets a lot of flak about studying the end-times and it tends to cause people to think it is cultish. Well Daniel made such an amazing point to open the class with. History started with a wedding (Adam and Eve) and it will end with a wedding (Jesus and His bride). We are the bride of Christ. What bride have you ever met that wasn’t actively engaged in preparing for and planning her wedding? What if she just set a date and then went about her life living as though she wasn’t getting married? Then she just showed up the day of the wedding and expected everything to be perfect for her wedding. She didn’t even take the time to get to know her groom! THAT is why we study the end times. It’s because we are preparing for our wedding! The book of Revelation is actually called the revelation of Jesus. Not only is it God’s end time plan for how things are going to go down at the end of the age, but it is the revelation of who He is and what His heart is really like. We give ourselves to studying it now and getting to know Him now so we will be in agreement with His heart on that day. That’s why studying the end times is so important. We are getting to know our bridegroom as well as being prepared and preparing ourselves for that glorious day when Jesus splits the sky and finally gets to have the desire of His heart- He gets to marry His bride!

We had to write a final paper for our Basic Christian Beliefs class about the "good news of the gospel." Here are my 2 concluding paragraphs of that paper. I feel like it communicates my point.

Now most people will tell you that’s the end. You ask Jesus to come into your heart, you’re saved and amen you are not going to hell. Praise God that is true, but there is so much more! The good news gets even better because it didn’t end there! Our old history ends with the cross; our new history begins with the resurrection.[1] When Jesus died He didn’t stay in the grave! The cross was just the beginning. He was buried and He rose from the grave three days later.[2] He was resurrected and now He sits at the right hand of the Father unceasingly making intercession for us.[3] This isn’t the end of the story; it’s only the beginning. Now because of His sacrifice on the cross, when we die, we will be resurrected to everlasting life.[4] God’s original plan is going to come to pass! God the Father will have a family and His Son, Jesus will have a bride. It’s all about a wedding![5]

The cross was actually a marriage proposal. Jesus was asking us to give up our lives and be joined to Him forever in the wedding of all weddings. He prayed “Father I desire that they would be with me where I am.”[6] The good news of the gospel is that the Kingdom of God is coming to this earth.[7] Right now, we can rule and reign with Jesus through our intercession, but one day, we will rule and reign with Christ forever as His beloved bride. We were not just saved from something, but we were saved unto something. God does promise us that we will have trials and tribulation in this life,[8] but He also promises us that we have everything we need for life and Godliness[9] because He has sent us Holy Spirit, who is our helper.[10] We aren’t just supposed to grit our teeth and bear it until we get to heaven. God desires for us to have life and life abundantly now and forever.[11] This is our hope and the anchor for our soul.[12] There’s a Kingdom coming down and when it does, Jesus will come with it. He will end the separation once and for all.[13] We will finally marry our Bridegroom and live with Him again in the Garden where there is fullness of joy for all eternity.[14]

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[1] Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life ( Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 1977), 41

[2] 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

[3] Hebrews 7:25

[4] Ephesians 2:5-6

[5] Revelation 19:7

[6] John 17:24

[7] Revelation 11:15

[8] John 16:33

[9] 2 Peter 1:3

[10] John 14:16-18

[11] John 10:10

[12] Hebrews 6:19

[13] Revelation 21

[14] Psalm 16:11

(That was so cool! I just copied and pasted and it automatically did my footnotes for me!)

Another thing that’s really exciting this semester is our practicum rotations. Because of the new nightwatch schedule, we get to be more integrated with the daytime students and we have the same practicum and chapel as them. This semester is the first time they are doing the sophomore practicum like this and they said this is actually what they have envisioned since the first year the school opened. So we are the first class that gets to do it the way they have wanted to do it so that’s pretty special. Anyway starting junior year, we will get to choose a concentration that we would like to focus on for the remainder of the two years we are in school, basically like declaring a major. So this semester for our practicum, we get to rotate through smaller versions of the different concentrations to kind of give us a feel and experience for each so that we can make a more informed decision, having tried all of them. Each rotation lasts 4 weeks and we rotate through CEC, Justice and Mercy, Teaching and Preaching (definitely not looking forward to that one…) and Prophetic Healing and Deliverance. The sophomore FSM class was broken down into 4 smaller sections and in each section we have about 30 students and these will be the same people we get to rotate with the rest of the semester.

My first rotation was CEC. I was super excited about it because I know I am called to lead the next generation into the Lord’s battle…whatever that means. The only thing about this first rotation was that it was only 3 weeks because the first week was an introduction to the practicum. It’s ok though because since I’m pretty sure this is the way the Lord is going to direct me, I didn’t need as much time to experience this one. Every week we had a teaching by Lenny LaGuardia or one of his assistants and then we got to go and serve in the classrooms on Sunday mornings. I was really hoping to be placed in early childhood in the 3-5 class as that is my favorite age, but I was placed in the 8-12’s. Obviously I have more experience with that age since I taught 2^nd grade, but the little ones are still my favorites. I really enjoyed worship the most because it was all child/teen-led. All the singers and musicians were like 12 or 13 years old. Man I love to watch kids worship! It’s so beautiful even when it’s pitchy and the musicians play the wrong notes. You just know that the Lord is loving every minute of it! My next rotation which starts this week is Justice and Mercy. I don’t know too much about it yet so I will fill you in on that one once I do.

Blessed Are The Flexible...For They Will Not Be Bent Out of Shape

January 22, 2012

I got to come home for Christmas for like a little over a week and it was just a really sweet trip. A couple of my friends had babies in the last couple of months and I got to hang out with them and meet their new babies, I got to hang out with some people that I love and miss dearly, and then most of all I just really enjoyed my time with my family. Then it was back to Kansas City the day after Christmas to get ready for the Onething conference. Onething was very different this year because I had to remain on nights because of the CEC job. Normally I would just switch to days and then switch back when it was over. I also served in a new area this year. Last year I ushered every day practically all day so even though I was serving, I was still able to be in the sessions and participate in worship and hear the teaching. But this year because I was on staff with CEC I got to serve in the CEC tracks. I was only there for the evening sessions and I was with the kids so I actually didn’t get to go to any of the conference. But it was really fun working with the kids. I had always wanted to but never knew how to do it. I thought it was so appropriate since the whole thing that started this journey of mine was a sign at the first onething conferece I went to in 2005 that said Children’s Equipping Center. You know the rest is history. I still got to be in there for New Year ’s Eve though. It just doesn’t get better than worshipping Jesus with 30,000 other people to ring in the New Year. Then after onething was over, I switched my schedule to the new nightwatch schedule.

This is definitely a season of change. Back in August, the director of the Nightwatch proposed a new schedule. The old schedule, which had us wake up at 4 pm and then stay awake to do midnight to 6 am in the prayer room and then get to bed by 6:30 or 7 am, had us doing our prayer room time at the end of our day. However this new schedule is very different. On this schedule you go to bed between 2 and 3 PM and you sleep until about 10 or 11 PM, depending on how much time you need to get ready for your day. Then you do the prayer room from midnight to 6 AM, but now you stay awake and do the rest of your day until you go to bed again at 2 PM the next day. I know it makes your head spin just thinking about it. The reason the schedule was proposed was because the people that been doing nightwatch the whole 12 years since IHOP started were starting to feel it take a toll on them and decided if they wanted to do this for longevity, something needed to change. So leadership did some research and felt this new schedule was the best option. Now I have to be honest and let you know that from the beginning I have not been excited about this switch. The nature of the nightwatch already lends itself to feeling like you are missing out in general, and now with this schedule, you are asleep when basically anything social happens. So because it was announced right before school started students were not able to switch because school only worked for the old nightwatch schedule where classes were in the afternoon, but they told us their goal was to have it in place for students by January, and they were definitely on the ball. Now we have classes in the morning from 10-Noon instead of 4-6 PM.

So it was actually the Lord’s kindness that He gave me like 3 months to prepare myself and my heart and ask for grace to help me switch because everyone that wasn’t a student just switched immediately. I have been on the new schedule 3 weeks now and so far I have not had any problems! It took me about 3 days to get my sleep right but since then I haven’t had any difficulty going to bed. I even bought a sleep mask since the sun is like its brightest when it’s bed time. I feel kinda high maintenance wearing it, but it actually works wonders. I was so scared that this new schedule was going to be just miserable, but it turns out, I am actually enjoying it. It is really nice to see the sun in the morning, especially in the winter. I come home and open all the curtains and let the sun shine in. I have also been much more productive on this schedule. I got a groupon for a really good deal for a two months trial at a curves gym. 3 days a week it opens at 6 AM so as soon as I am done in the prayer room, I go home, change and then go work out. I don’t know if I will continue after February, but last winter it was so cold that all I did was stay in bed and I just knew I couldn’t do that again. It’s funny because since I go at the butt crack of dawn the only other people there are little old ladies. I kinda like it! So I will have to see if they can work me with after February and go any cheaper but if nothing else at least I am out and exercising.

School starts on Monday and I am super excited! I have enjoyed my time off, but we have been on a 5 week break and I am so ready to get back into the swing of things. This quarter my classes are the foundations of Biblical Eschatology, which is basically just a study of the end times and the books in Bible that speak of these future events, and Basic Christian Beliefs. School has been really hard. Last semester I think I thought about quitting like every day. We have so much reading and the papers just about killed me. However, even though I failed almost all my daily quizzes, I still walked away with straight A’s for the semester. I even got A’s on all my papers! I felt pretty proud of myself. I think this is probably the biggest challenge I have ever taken on, and although it’s hard and I want to quit on an almost daily basis, I am so proud of myself for sticking in there. And to top it all off, my church Grace offered to pay another semester of my tuition! God is so good. I told Him last semester sometime that even though I am still only taking my life a semester at a time, I would really like to do all 4 years if He would continue to provide. So far all signs point to go =)

Speaking of prayer, I would really appreciate it if ya’ll would partner with me in prayer. As you know I had a great tutoring job, but because of this new schedule it won’t work out to that this semester. Nobody is going to want tutoring at 6 in the morning! So that was a good chunk of change that I really needed. Then on top of that, I found out just this week that starting in March I will no longer be getting paid for the CEC job. We all know the economy is just terrible, and as it turns out, IHOP was no exception to the financial shaking and they no longer have the funds for my position. This is a huge bummer because I was so excited to see the Lord finally break in to my finances and I was actually completely funded for a good 3 months! But God is still on the throne. He has always been Jehovah-Jireh, my provider, and since He doesn’t change, that doesn’t change either. 

Stayed tuned for another blog on what God is doing in my heart...I'm not quite sure how to put it into words yet =/

11/11/11 The Call Detroit

December 6, 2011

Sorry it’s taken me so long to write an update on The Call. This semester has been crazy but I finally had a free moment tonight. First of all thank you to everyone who supported me financially for this trip. The Lord is so good! He provided above and beyond what I actually needed for the trip and again I got to experience His faithfulness to me through ya’ll. But then, right before we left we found out that The Call was actually going to pay for our gas so the trip ended up being only $30. Isn’t God amazing? So we left Thursday after class and we drove like 13 hours to get to Detroit. The car ride was really fun because since we were in the car for so long we were all able to hear eachother’s stories and journeys with the Lord. I feel like that always brings people closer. So the drive up there was fun but we didn’t get into Detroit until about 10 A.M. Now mind you, we have all been awake at this point since 2 P.M. the day before so needless to say that was a little rough. So we tried to go to bed as soon as we got there but everyone had to do all the before bedtime stuff so we didn’t get to sleep until nearly noon. Then we had to be up at 3 P.M. for breakfast and to get ready for The Call to be there by 6. Let’s just say going off 3 hours of sleep is not the best.

We got to Ford Field about 6 P.M. and were given our service assignment. We were to count the offering but we didn’t need to be back in that room until 9 P.M. so we all got to go out and participate in the prayer and worship until then. That was nice. Then at 9 P.M. we were taken to this tiny room in the basement to count the money. They came in with trash bags full of the offering and dumped them on our tables. I had never counted an offering before but you quickly get into a flow and we were like a well-oiled machine. We were sad to be in there for so long missing so much of the meeting but there was a small T.V. in there so we were kinda able to participate in what was going on in the main room. One of my favorite parts of the night happened during this time though. We were almost done counting out all the money and one of our nightwatch worship leaders, who also happens to be a student, took the stage and started singing one of her amazing songs. Immediately we all just wanted to be in the main room worshipping but we knew we had to finish our service assignment. After all, that was one of the main reasons we went, to serve. So she started singing one of her amazing songs and all of a sudden on the chorus, the entire room just bursts out and starts singing along while we were counting the money. Maybe you had to be there to understand how sweet the moment was, but I know we all felt it. We were worshipping while serving and I think the Lord was really moved by it!

At midnight we finished the offering and were able to go back out to the main room and do what we were there to do- strengthen the nightwatch. This was the first one that was 24 hours and that was the main reason we as students were able to go. Because we pray in the middle of the night. It was starting to dwindle down so I decided to go down on the field. Worship was really good and since there was so much space on the floor I got down on my knees and worshiped the Lord like I always see myself doing when I close my eyes and worship. While I was doing this my mind started to roam and I got to thinking about the first Call that I went to. It was 7/7/07 in Nashville and I had probably only been walking with the Lord maybe a little over a year at that point. Anyway, I was remembering how I was so afraid to leave my group of people and I didn’t really know what was going on the whole time. I was just struck with how different this time was. Here I was on the floor of the field completely by myself and not worried about the other people around me. I was content to just be in the moment loving on the Lord. Then I told the Lord, look how far we’ve come God!

Well about 30 minutes later I get a text and it says come down to the front of the auditorium because we are going to go backstage. I thought that was a little weird but I gathered some of the other students that were around me and we all walked the gate. Once we got near the stage we were all just trying to figure out what was going on. Nobody knew what was happening. Then all of a sudden, we found out we were going on stage and we were literally herded up there like less than a minute later. It was probably the most surreal thing that I’ve ever experienced. We must have all looked like deer in the headlights. Looking back now it was really funny, but in the moment not so much. Our nightwatch leader Stuart was on stage leading the prayer meeting and I was desperately trying to read his lips when he was talking to people to figure out what was going on. All of a sudden I hear him go- rapid fire! I thought you have got to be kidding me? We’re actually on stage and gonna pray on the mic? I said Lord you are so funny! I was just telling you look how far we’ve come and now I’m on stage? And gonna pray in front of thousands, even millions of people since it’s webstreamed? I don’t even pray on the mic in the prayer room. So Stuart does the first 10 people and then I thought we were done but he did another round. There wasn’t really any rhyme or reason to how people were going to mic since we were all just kinda in a clump so I was negotiating with the Lord while I was watching everything. I told Him ok if you really want me to pray I will, but only if Stuart beckons me over. So a couple of people went and then lo and behold, Stuart beckoned me. So I went forward and I prayed on the mic! Me! I prayed on the mic on stage at The Call. Now you tell me God doesn’t have a sense of humor. Then we were on the stage for probably like 20 or 30 minutes then we got to go down and go back to our places in the room. As it turns out there had been some miscommunication between leadership on what it actually looked like to lead the nightwatch. One leader thought that we were there and doing what we normally do in the prayer room, just at Ford Field. Apparently Stuart’s idea of us leading the nightwatch meant we prayed on stage. Either way, it was definitely a memorable experience.

From then on we just prayed and worshipped through the night and went home at 6 A.M. and went to bed to get plenty of sleep for our drive back. It was a short trip but we did what we were asked to do. We served and we strengthened the nightwatch. It was really special too because it was just the nightwatch students that got to go. In the past, we have apparently missed out on trips specifically because of the nature of the nightwatch, but this time we actually got to go just us, because of the nature of the nightwatch.

Overall I really enjoyed the trip. It was much like the California Blitz I went on back in November where you really have an opportunity to hang out with fellow students and you just bond. We all had a good time and came home more in love with each other. Success =)

My God is a Provider!

October 17, 2011

Thank you to everyone who made time to see me when I came home in August. It made me feel really loved. The Lord is so Good! I can not even begin to tell you how God has broken into my finances….but I will try. So last month I told you that the Lord gave me 2 jobs! He is so kind. I had just started working with the CEC on the nightwatch and after only about a month of volunteering there, the lady in charge asked me if I would be interested in some more responsibility and told me about a job opening that had just come available. She is over all the nightwatch CEC and then under her she has 2 nightly coordinators who take turns different nights of the week and go in 30 minutes earlier and unlock the classroom doors. Then you have to go between shifts and make sure the teachers got there and if they didn’t show up, you have to go find replacements. Then at the end of the night, you close it all down a nd make sure all the doors get locked, etc. You are also a lead teacher in the classrooms. So there’s 10 hours of classroom teaching and then 6 hours of admin, like making copies and such. So I told her I would pray about it and then she said and oh yeah you would get paid. So I didn’t have to pray long. Basically I am now getting paid to do exactly the same thing I was doing as a volunteer. It’s not quite enough to cover my monthly expenses, but it certainly helps a bunch. Then the other job is I started tutoring with a company and right now I have a client that 1 do 4 hours a week and it works great for my schedule right now because I can do it between class and the prayer room. It doesn’t get any better than that!

I started my 2^nd year of FSM a few days after I got back to Kansas City. Thanks for your prayers!! About a week after I sent out my newsletter, I received news that my church back home was going to pay for another semester of FSM!!! Such a blessing! Classes have started and this year is already way more intense than last. Last year was more like heart classes and I didn’t even feel like I was in school. This year, I am definitely aware that I am in a Bible college. We have a class called Biblical Hermeneutics (which is basically just a fancy word for Bible study) and then we have Old Testament Survey, which basically the teacher walks us through the whole Old Testament. I was super overwhelmed for probably the first 2 weeks when classes started, but now that I’ve had some time to sit down and figure my schedule out better, I am doing better because I have set times for homework which helps me to be productive. The classes aren’t necessarily hard, but they are super time consuming and there is a lot more work outside of class so I will have to work much harder this semester than last. Also, tutoring takes a large portion of my time. I do it 6:30-8:30 twice a week so I just have a lot less free time than I did last year.

And here again I see the Lord’s perfect leadership in my life. You know how I said last month I didn’t understand why God wouldn’t let me work all summer and why I had so much free time? Well I quickly figured out it’s because He knew what this semester was going to be like. He was so kind to give me several months where I had a bunch of free time to just relax and read whatever I wanted. There’s not much time for that right now. Any free time that I have is basically taken up with homework. I am even having to spend some of my prayer room time working on homework. This is not my favorite part but He is definitely giving me grace for this season.

IHOP just celebrated its 12^th anniversary of 24/7 worship and intercession. It’s so funny to think that I was here during the 10^th anniversary when I was in FITN. It was cool to hear the stories of how it started and the different things that God has spoken to Mike over the years leading up to it. It helps to constantly be reminded of why I chose to do what I do. A couple weeks ago leadership told us that they are going to do a 21 day fast and encouraged as many of us as wanted to also join. As much as I don’t really like to fast, I get really excited when corporate fasts are called because to me that says that God is up to something and I just want to be wherever God is moving. So please pray for grace for me. The fast is September 29- October 19 and I have just done really poorly fasting lately so I will need all the help I can get.

This part is really exciting. I have some God stories to share! Over the summer my roommate did a speech fast, which means she chose not to speak for a set time period each week. This sparked my curiosity and so I wanted to see what the Bible says about talking/speech. God is actually very clear about what He feels about meaningless chatter and idle speech. I will leave it to you to do your own Bible study. Anyway, one day over the summer I was volunteering at the Fascinate conference which is the high school aged one. I was in the shuttle line waiting for the shuttle and there was a conversation going on behind me about stevia and artificial sweeteners and how one was so much better than another. I remember thinking to myself, what is the point of this conversation? Anyway when I got on the bus I was just talking to God and asking Him about the spirit of prophecy and telling Him that I wanted my heart to be on fire and I wanted Him to use me to speak truth to people’s hearts and I was wondering if keeping my mouth closed instead of joining the others in conversation or starting a conversation with someone next to me would actually make a difference. I asked but I didn’t hear Him talk back. I chose to just keep quiet and not join the conversation. When I got to the convention center, I went to my assigned seat and put my stuff down. There was a lady usher who was sitting in the chair behind me and I smiled and said hi. She started a conversation with me and I found out that she was just visiting from California and had been at IHOP a couple of weeks and was going to be for about a month just to kind of get refreshed and spend some time talking to God and seeking Him for her next season of life. I am my father’s daughter so I am usually pretty early to everything so there was actually about an hour before the conference session started. As we were talking, I really felt like I was supposed to pray for her so I asked her if I could. At first she said no, she was very picky about who she let pray for her. So we continued to chat for a little while and then she told me if I still wanted to pray then I could. So I sat down next to her and I began to pray for her. I had only been praying for a couple of minutes when all of a sudden, she just starts sobbing. I had no idea if what I was praying was good or not, but usually tears mean you are hearing the Lord. So I continued to pray for her until the conference started and then I walked back to my seat and she continued to sit there. A little while into worship, she got up and came and gave me a big hug with tears still in her eyes and she thanked me for praying for her. She said as I was praying, she felt like the Lord just came and took a huge vacuum cleaner and sucked all of the junk out of her. She felt like a new person. I couldn’t help but laugh at the Lord’s timing. He didn’t even wait. As soon as I got off the bus and walked into that place He chose to use me, because I had chosen to keep my mouth closed and talk to Him. He put fire on my words, because I chose to keep my mouth shut.

Here’s another cool God story! A couple of months back I had told one of my supporters that I was a little short of support and asked if she would pray for the Lord to meet my needs. I didn’t think anything of it and then the next month when she sent me my support check, it had an added amount and it was the amount I had told her I was short. I thought oh that’s so sweet, she had some extra money that month and knew I had a need. So I decided to send her a thank you card and I asked the Lord for a verse for her to encourage her and then I mailed off the card. Well about a week later I got an email from her and she said that I needed to thank her husband for the extra support. She told me she never tells him that kind of stuff and she did not share my need. Then one day he came to her and said I think we need to send your girl at IHOP some extra money this month. So she said ok just let me know how much to write the check for and he was the one that came up with the amount! Isn’t that awesome? He doesn’t even know me, except through his wife, and he had no idea of what I needed and the Lord spoke to him my exact amount. Plus on top of that, she said that the word I got from the Lord was like dead on and encouraged me that I absolutely hear from God. When I read the email it encouraged my heart so much!