In a world full of self-help and performance-driven evaluations it can be difficult for a believer to really embrace that they need other people - it is a requirement; it is the Church… it’s the way “a body” is suppose to work.

Okay, so, this is a blog, so I get to be informal and personal, right?  Well, here it goes.  The last several regional prayer gatherings I’ve been missing something.  We’ve been short on singers, so then it feels like I have to sing more, which means I have less time to try and listen to the Lord and feel comfortable with what I’m about to sing.  I’ve also not had clear vision on prayer topics in advance, so I wasn’t able to really come prepared.  And, as usual, we end up with a new mix of musicians every week, and sometimes I’m thinking, “Man, it would nice to rehearse sometime,” but, ya know, we’re pulling people from all over the region, and we’re trying to “be a blessing” not a burden on any of these musicians and singers… but, it’s just difficult to feel like you’re doing things to excellence, when everything is flying by the seat of our pants.

But, each and every week, I am blessed and amazed by the Lord and the way His Body works.  So, yeah, I may not have the songs to sing one week, but, Paul Howell does; Thank you, Lord!  I don’t have to be the one who can keep everything flowing and always has the song when someone else doesn’t.  I may not have the prayer topic, but the people in the room show up with things on their heart, and Matthew McSpadden leads us like a seasoned veteran.  And, the musicians, wow, the Lord has really blessed us with guys and gals who can just show up and flow.  Sure there’s other things we could do if we rehearsed, but, man, these folks are good.

Wouldn’t it be nice if our congregations worked this way, too?  Where one man didn’t have to have THE WORD every Sunday.  (Don’t get me wrong, praise God for gifted teachers and preachers - Lord, give them Your Word every week.)  But, wow, how nice would it be to be in a congregation that really worked together like the Body Jesus intended.  A place where a pastor could really be a pastor and take care of, and go get, people and pull them together to see them fed, sheltered, and taken care of.  They wouldn’t have to also try to be the teacher, the evangelist, the prophet, and the apostle.

Or where the administrator isn’t getting knocked for not being merciful enough, and the intercessor isn’t getting bashed for not being evangelistic enough…

Lord, mature Your bride.  Call us to, and equip us for, the exact place you have for us in Your Body.  Let us not think more highly of ourselves or our callings than we ought, and give the hidden parts even greater honor.  Thank you, Father, that none of us need to be “self-contained”, because You have connected us, and made us inner-dependent with one another - Your Church, Your Bride, Your Body.  Amen!

I didn’t sleep very well last night, and found myself tired all day today - but I’m at a prayer gathering tonight (hosted and led by teenagers and young adults - woo hoo) and found myself thinking over and over, “Your Love, Oh Lord, is really better than wine.”  Okay, really what I was thinking was, “I could be at home vegging to a television, or I can be here, agreeing with these folks in prayer, and worshiping with them, and allowing the Lord to really convince me that ‘Prayer Actually Works’ and be able to look back in 5 years and see the change in our region because of this persistence in prayer.”  Your love is better than vegging out.

I love that these young’uns are PRAYING SCRIPTURE.  Every prayer starts out and follows through a prayer actually found in the Bible, or is inspired out of actual prayers prayed or things spoken in scripture.  Not only are we praying, we’re learning the Word, and getting the heart and mind of the Lord by doing it.  It would be impossible for me to express how excited I am about what the Lord is raising up in the river valley.

Here are just a small sample of some of the scriptures used tonight.  Each of which was used to pray over “the church” in the river valley and/or specifically for churches in Alma or Crawford County (Arkansas) - that the church would grow hungry for the Lord, begin to cry out for Him, and that he would break in with power.

Haggai 1:13-14 (NKJV)
13 Then Haggai, the LORD’s messenger, spoke the LORD’s message to the people,
saying, “I am with you, says the LORD.”
14 So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah,
and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the
remnant of the people; and they came and worked on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God

The Lord desires to build His house, His house of prayer in the Fort Smith River Valley, and is “stirring up the spirit” of His people to accomplish it.  I like the New Living Translation’s way of putting it, “So the LORD sparked their enthusiasm.”

Jeremiah 2:5-9 (KJV)
5 Thus saith the LORD, “What iniquity have your fathers found in me,
that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain? 
6 Neither said they, ‘Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt…?’ 
8 The priests said not, ‘Where is the LORD?’ and they that handle the law knew me not:
the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked
after things that do not profit. 
9 Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD,
and with your children’s children will I plead. 

Wow.  Are we walking after vanity in our lives - dare say, in our church congregations?  The Lord’s charge is so weighty but yet so liberating:  He WANTS us to ask where He is, not just in some theological sense, but in His manifest power like He demonstrated in leading the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage.  It is okay to ask “Where is the Lord?”  And as we see in that passage, it is NOT okay to NOT ask.

Habakkuk 3:1-2 (NIV)
1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. On shigionoth.
2 Lord, I have heard of your fame;
I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord.
Renew them in our day,
in our time make them known;
in wrath remember mercy.

Here we see the prophet Habakkuk praying a prayer like the one the Lord was ASKING His people to pray in the passage in Jeremiah seen above.  This is a great example of the kind of prayers we should be praying, and is wonderful validation that it is okay for us to pray and ask the Lord for demonstrations like were seen in the past.

Jeremiah 2:12-13 (KJV)
12 Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate,
saith the LORD. 
13 For my people have committed two evils;
they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns,
broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

For too long I have drank from wells that did not satisfy, and tried to fill myself with things that only indulged but gave me no life.  For too long we have tried to create for ourselves programs and structures and doctrines to contain our thoughts about the Lord and from which we could try and distribute Him to others.  We have to tap back into that great fountain of living waters, that well deep within our souls, within our bellies that springs up.  Fast, Pray - in The Spirit and with understanding… uncap the well.  Ask for the manifest power of God to be demonstrated through His Bride.  Not because we “require a sign”; we will press-on and press-in whether we see many in our lifetimes or not - but, because of His loving kindness, and because He has used His manifest power so many times in the past to “add thousands to their number daily”.  We ask because we have the heart of the Father, “that none should perish, but have everlasting life.”

He is wondering why we are not asking, “Where is the Lord?”

So, “Ask and He will give the nations to you for your inheritance.”

Over-cautious is not a word I would use to describe myself when it comes to my fingers and hands, despite how frequently I play my guitar and lead worship these days - but, I typically consider myself a fairly OSHA-compliant worker when it comes to proper lifting, and very Boy-Scout-compliant when it comes to how I handle knives, pass knives, etc.  Well a couple of days ago I made a pretty deep cut in my left index finger while constructing a weatherproof box for a wireless internet antenna - and that was about 3 hours before I was scheduled to play guitar for a men’s gathering at a local church building.  Needless to say, during the soundcheck and quick rehearsal EVERY chord was excrutiating, despite the liberal amounts of Superglue[tm] I had applied to my finger tip.

So, that’s dilemna number one.  Secondly, as I prayed about the song list, I felt like I was suppose to do a bunch of older songs that I hadn’t played in a long time.  I was glad I went through the songs as my soundcheck, because there were a lot of incorrect chords, they were in bad keys, etc.  I’m sure the people in the room during that time were thinking, “oh… wow… this guy is aweful.”

Probably motivated by how incredibly bad everything sounded, the leader and some other men decided to pray for my finger (hoping that it was that pain that was making everything else so bad.. hehe…).  Okay, so it’s normal for you to feel your heartbeat in an open wound, but I hadn’t up to that point… but when the guys were praying for me, my heartbeat got really intense there, and I was given the faith to believe it would not bother me during our worship time.

The worship time came, and there was no pain in the finger… the songs came together okay, but during every song I felt like I needed to stop playing my guitar, back off of the microphone, and just listen to the men sing out as much as possible.  As I pray for a song list, I ask the Lord questions like, “What is Your heart for the people who will be there?”  By the last song of the worship time, I realized, the desire I had to hear the men sing out WAS the desire of God’s heart.  HE wanted to hear the men fill the room in their simple, all-on-melody, deep voices all in unison.

“The Lord gives us the desires of our heart.”

I’ve had this revelation of this scripture for a while, but I just seem to forget about it.  It’s not that this scripture always means that the Lord will fulfill the desires that we, as humans, come up with in our own carnal minds; it can just as easily mean that The Lord GIVES us the very desires themselves.  i.e.  The Lord says, “I want Aaron to desire the thing that I desire right now… I want to give Aaron MY desires.”

So, I spoke that out during the last song, and encouraged the men to “fill the room” with their voices.  Turns out, it rang true and in-line with other thoughts and feelings and even plans for the night that were on several of the mens’ hearts.  Through that, the Lord built my faith, their faith, and in turn the faith of the others gathered in that room.  The Lord can always find a way to bring Himself glory through our frailty.  Truly, “His strength is made perfect in our weakness.”

I often share this testimony when I teach about prayer, faith, and hearing from the Lord - but it’s such a powerful testimony of how the Lord really works (versus how we’d like Him to work), that I really felt like I needed to post it today.

In the late nineties I got connected with a brother from Wales who flowed in the prophetic in such a specific way, to the likes I haven’t seen since, yet.  We got to hang out a few days at a time, but then we brought him in for about 10 days one summer and he stayed with me in a house that we were house-sitting for a couple from our church.  I can’t even begin to tell you some of the crazy things I saw in that time, just because we were willing to spend time in prayer and then go and do simple things like walk around the streets of downtown Ft Smith asking the Lord who He wanted us to speak to, and what He wanted us to say.  (You’ll probably hear me share one or two of these VERY specific prophetic words He gave to people, during another post, or during a teaching time.)

Anyway, this brother was on a mission trip and was asked to preach to a crowd of over 1000 who had gathered.  He, by his own admission, is not a gifted teacher, and this group they were ministering to was primarily from a particular denomination and had not yet embraced post-first-century prophetic ministry - but, he said yes anyway.  Here he was in his required black suit and tie, teaching about something in broken phrases as the translator did his job, when he heard the voice of the Lord.

“Steve, I want to heal someone who is blind, right now.”

Fear came over him - good and bad.  Would these people throw him and their whole team out for saying “he heard the voice of God” or for calling people up for “faith healing”?  Would it be “decently and in order”?  Could he just ignore what he knew was the voice of the Lord?  He wrestled with this for a while, between breaks in his message (since he had plenty of time between the translator.. hehe.. just imagine…).  He finally decided that his fear of the Lord was greater than his fear of man.

“I feel like the Lord told me that He wants to heal someone who is blind, in this place, today.  So, if you’re blind, please come up to the front and I will lay hands on you and ask the Lord to do what He said He would do.”

Over a hundred people came forward.  This is very difficult for me to fathom.  Over a hundred people out of around a thousand were blind?  Statistically you’d never see anything like this in the United States. (This is a side note that should move our hearts towards missions, the poor, and the needs of others.)  However, in many countries around the world, the lack of vacinations and other at-birth treatments that we in the U.S. are required at birth to receive, are not available to them, and the rate of infections and other complications that lead to blindness “from birth” are extremely high.  (End of side note.)

Over a hundred people came forward and lined up.  He went to the first one and prayed something like, “Lord, You said You wanted to heal the blind today, so I ask You to heal him now in the name of Jesus!”

…nothing.

So, he went to the next person in the line.  Similar prayer… nothing.

He remarked that the vast majority of these people were obviously, physically blind (sunken eye sockets, discoloration of the eyes, etc).  There was little opportunity for “just claim your healing, the Lord’s started a work, brother.”  The Lord said He wanted to heal someone “right now”.

So, he prayed for the next person in the line… nothing.  I don’t know about you, but I would have been seriously looking for an “exit strategy” - do these people know enough about the prophetic that they may decide to stone me?  Not to mention the sheer embarrasment for you, and the extreme disappointment for the people who came expecting to be healed.

He prayed for the next person… nothing… nothing… nothing… BUT, on about person number 40-something - complete and total restoration.  He witness the structure of the persons face change, their eyes clear-up, and the cries and shouts as the person began to see for the first time in their memory.  He witnessed the tears of joy from their surrounding family.  So, he kept on down the line… “Lord, You are at work here, I’m obeying Your word - heal this person now in the name of Jesus.”

Nothing… nothing… nothing… when the day was done, a handful of people had their site returned by the healing power of the Lord.  It’s so easy for us to say, “but what about the other 90 something.”  And, how many of us could have made it to person number 47, without having given up much earlier.  But, when it comes right down to it, “Several people who were blind CAN NOW SEE because of the healing power of God, and the obedience and humility of a man!!”  Praise the Lord!

Is the Lord asking you to pray and contend for something?  A cancer-free zone in your region? For the protection and restoration of marriages? For the health of a loved one?  For revival in your area that seems to be on a moral and spiritual down-slide?  We have to forget about the 99.  We have to forget questions like, “why did the Lord heal this person, but not that person? Why did the Lord supernatural provide for you but not me?”  The Lord is asking for our attention, and for our obedience.  We have to give Him opportunities, but leave the rest up to Him.

Even though the Lord has called us to “equip believers in effectual fervent prayer and worship”, He is actually about that work whether we’re even conscious of it or not - take a few weekends ago, for example.  My family jumped into our minivan and headed over to a friends house to have an impromptu prayer and worship time.  It ended up just being the Jackson Five (us), and this woman and one of her teenage daughters - no one else ended up making it.  So, we fellowshipped for a little while and then I broke out the guitar and just began to sing some worship songs, which turned into spontaneous singing, which turned into prophetic singing, which turn into intercessory singing, which led to spoken prayers from other folks in the room, and lots of scripture reading that was on topic for what the Lord was saying to us.

After probably an hour or so of this, we had quieted down and I was just playing some simple chord progression and listening to the Lord and thinking about all He’d just said through His written Word and His children, when I heard the teenage daughter singing spontaneously.  I got extra quiet trying to “make room for her”, and Robin saw what was going on and began exhorting her to sing out.  It started feeling a little too “high pressure” for me, so I picked the volume back up with some worship, hopin that she would pick her volume up to and gain some air speed, so then I could drop back down some and encourage her to keep singing out.  Well, along with Robin’s persistence and encouragement, the girl began to sing the song she had in her heart and some relevant scripture, and Robin began to intermingle with her with some prayer.

Her lyrics struck a prophetic chord that we began to revolve around and focus on - that the Lord would “take off the lid over Van Buren”.  Unbeknownst to me, this lined up with a prophetic vision shared with the believers at The River Fellowship in Alma a while back, that I’ll simply call “The Lid” that you can go and read here.

But, before you do that, I just want to point out the faithfulness of the Lord to do through us what He has asked us to do, even when we’re not completely aware of it.  He was equipping this thirteen-year-old daughter of the King in the prophetic, in prayer, and in vocal/musical worship all in one night.  “Thank you, Lord!  You are raising up those who will stand, contend, proclaim, and wait on You and Your will for our region.”

Even though Robin and I are having some difficulties adjusting to the time demands of all of the things we are committed to right now, I felt like I was suppose to say yes to a request for some emergency computer help for a believer from another country, who has basically been used by the Lord to start one of the most effective and wide-spread christian works (read ‘church’ - i.e. evangelizing, discipling, pastoring believers) in a muslim country (that shall remain nameless).

He desparately needs to get his computer functional again, because while he is in the states, he uses it to communicate with the leaders and believers in his home country (and a few others) so he can disciple and teach them one-on-one and via conference calls, the internet, etc.  (Which, to even his amazement, has been extremely effective, since the Lord has asked him to be here in the States and unable to meet with them face-to-face.)  As we’re working on his computer, we indulge in a sparse amount of small talk about his country, what the Lord has called Robin and I to do, the history of the work the Lord has been involved with, etc.  (I want to share the testimony of what the Lord has done recently in one of the largest cities in his country, through a group of students who found this brother, met with him and some of his leaders for 3 days of fasting and prayer, and the amazing break-in of the gospel taking the church in that city from 40 to 400 in a matter of weeks - but maybe some other time.)

Instead, he shares with me about how when he is traveling, he always asks the Lord about what He thinks about each city or region that he passes through.  One time, as he was driving into Arkansas from Oklahoma, he asked the Lord about our region.  Then, as he was about to cross the state line, the Lord showed him a simple, yet profound picture that lines up with so many other words and visions seen and spoken over our area.  He saw a heavy “lid” sitting on top of our entire region that was keeping our prayer in, and the full glory of the Lord out.  On the rim of the lid was written the word “reason”.  As he asked the Lord about it, he was confident that it meant intellectual-type reasoning, i.e. our own thoughts that exalt themselves against the thoughts of the Lord, and our excuses and “reasons” for why He isn’t moving in miraculous power in our region.

Immediately the Lord reminded him of a previous scripture that the Lord had taken him to weeks earlier about Ezekiel 47 and the depths of the river that flowed from the temple of God.  The Lord had highlighted to him that the river flowed from the throne, and that the throne was the place of constant intercession - where Jesus sits and continually makes intercession for us.  As the intercession continues to increase and rise, so does the water-level of the Lord’s glory and presence - a healing and renewing river like the one in Ezekiel.  (* see the note at the end of this post about literal translations versus types & shadows)

These two elements, “the lid” and “the water” are an amazing and beautifully confirming recurrance that happen in almost every prophetic word spoken over our region.  I’ve yet to encounter any of the people who have delivered these words that are in any way familiar with any of the previous words spoken.  One, because they have been kept as “word of mouth” more than anything (which I seek to rectify at some point soon) - so they’d have no access to them.  And two, because they’ve all been from different states or countries.

In this post, I just wanted to draw the connection between how the Lord is equipping His children to hear His voice and contend for what He speaks - namely, the thirteen-year-old He had sing about “the lid” a few weeks ago.  I will come back later and summarize some of the other words spoken over our region that line up with these elements and are wonderful fuel for intercession for our region.

* Note: I feel like the Lord does use His Word actively and alive in this way, to show us types of things He desires to do in different times and places.  However, I personally believe the river that Ezekiel saw is a literal river that will restore the waters, sea-life, and plant-life that are destroyed during the seals and bowl judgements of the Lord - but that doesn’t mean it’s not a example of something that is the will of the Lord, and is indeed something the Lord could use to illustrate another desire of His heart…. make sense?  There is a fine line between (A) guarding your doctrine closely, believing (like I do) that unless the Bible says something is an illustration, symbol, type, shadow, hyperbolic teaching tool, parable, etc, then it should be assumed to be literal; and (B) knowing that by studying the Bible and comparing all of our thoughts, dreams, visions, beliefs, etc, we can learn what the Lord “sounds like”, “looks like”, and “acts like”, and can then use it as the measuring stick with which we can “practice discernment through constant use” as Paul exhorts us.

This post is rated PG - just because it’s a little dark and intense, but, if you’re not a 12-year-old prone to intense nightmares triggered by moderate intensity, then you should check this out — wow, I justed the word ‘intense’ (and a derivative) far too many times in one sentence.  It starts intense, cause I’ll just share the imagery of the dream, but, if you don’t see it as you are reading it, I will share some of what the Lord has shown me from it later via comments.  I’m going to let it set for a few days and would love to hear some of your comments before (and after) I post the things I’ve gotten from it.  It’s long - but, wow…

[1]  I was held prisoner in an old farmer’s homestead-type complex made all too famous by horror movies in the last 30 years.  My captors were very humanoid, but I “just knew” that they were demons - mostly human in appearance, but enough distortions and grotesqueness to assure me that I was dealing with something more than human.  The leader of the demonic militia looked a whole lot like a picture of Rob Zombie that I saw on a magazine cover one time… obviously human in appearance, but dirty, matted hair and skin, and dark mono-colored eyes [2].  Every night, groups of these demons would go into the surrounding towns and randomly kill and terrorize the inhabitants.  They would also randomly come into the holding areas (like the one I was in) and kill, torture, and/or terrorize captives [3].  This went on for days.  (My dreams often cover entire weeks of time, “real-time”, even though they’re only a few short minutes in really-real time.)

Then, one night, out of nowhere, there was a buzz and an awkwardness about the camp.  I’m not even sure how I found all of this information out, but apparently some stronger, more authoritive party had come into play, and was now dictating rules for an upcoming battle [4].  The demon-leader was to form a team to compete against a team of us regular humans.  The rules of the battle itself were pretty clear:  (1) both teams would enter a multi-story house from different entry points, (2) the object was for the human team to rescue a young boy, probably about age 6, from the house before he was killed or all of our team was killed. (3) If we rescued the boy, the demonic army would no longer have dominion over this region. [5]

Somehow, by whoever this other authority was, I was made the leader of the human team.  All of the captives were let out of the houses and barns where we were being held. When I got outside, there was already a large military/FEMA-style tent set-up on the grounds, and we were being directed towards it.  As we approached the large tent, I could see that people from the region were walking onto the grounds.  I knew that they were coming to cheer us on; they had heard about the battle, and were confident that the humans would win, and had a new boldness that allowed them to just walk right into the enemy’s camp to watch them get beaten [6].  Many of the released captives drifted off to mingle and reunite with friends and family who were pouring onto the grounds from the region; I knew that some of them were suppose to be on my team, and that I had just lost them [7].

As we got up to the large tent, there was a smaller pavilion-style tent set-up just outside of the large tent’s entrance.  Someone gave the first person who arrived at the tent a diagram of a soldier, arrayed in full battle gear, with explanations of where each piece of equipment went on their person, what it was, and how to use it [8].  The first person looked at it for a few seconds, then handed it to the next person and went inside the large tent to pick out whatever gear, weapons, medicine, explosives, lightings, etc - whatever they wanted.  The next person did the same thing; they only looked at the paper for a few seconds, pointed something out to one of their friends who had shown up from one of the towns, and they were like “ahh.. that is awesome - it’s like Halo 3, dude!” - then went into the tent to pick out their stuff [9].

The next two people in line were my two sons, Gideon and Kalek.  I knew it was them, and they weren’t much older than they are now.  They were probably 7 and 8 years old.  Gideon showed the paper to Kalek, and then laid it down on a nearby table, and they both grabbed pencil and paper and began to copy the diagram in detail and discuss what everything was for - almost like they were helping each other memorize where everything would go and how to use it [10].  I immediately saw the wisdom in what they were doing, and looked over their shoulder at the diagram: there was stuff that could heal any wound instantly, stuff to blind the enemy, stuff to protect a soldier’s eyes, stuff to blow-up obstacles, and several items to wound, kill, or ’remove’ an opponent [11].  But, for some reason, even though I could see their wisdom, I made mental note of only a few of the items (mostly healing and light-giving stuff that was all part of a satchel-like “medic/chemical kit”) and then went inside the large tent to put my stuff together [12].

Inside the tent, I saw a lot more of what I saw from person number 2 outside of the tent.  People were playing with the equipment, swinging swords, laughing, shooting large laser-type guns and targets that were set-up for practice, and having a really good time of it [13].  One person would load down with a lot of weapons (and nothing else), and another would load down in a bunch of armor (and nothing else).  Then there was me, who was getting my satchel of healing, light, some mild explosives, and various vials all together, but never managed to get any armor or weapons [14].  I would have thought that some of us would have known better.  There were a lot of young adults on my team, but there were also several older (honorably gray-headed) people, some women of varying ages, several ethnic backgrounds represented, and then my two very young boys [15].  They were the only two with a full array of equipment [16].

I began to walk around the grounds thinking about strategy.  Outside of the tent many of my team mates were still showing-off their new equipment, and many had set their equipment down and were playing games of catch with the townsfolk (frisbee, football, baseball - you name it) [17].  It was like the battle had already been won, the confidence level was so high, and people were so relaxed.  Not me.  I was wondering if we would get a chance to even see the building where the battle would take place, and if we would possibly be allowed to practice in it [18]. 

But, how could I gather my team to practice?  I was a prisoner just like them, so obviously I mustn’t have been very good at overcoming them in the past.  I didn’t want to seem overbearing or pushy.  I didn’t want people to think I was lording something over them, or that I felt like I was better than them.  And, you know, I wasn’t sure if we would even be ALLOWED to practice, so why bother them? [19] So, I began to walk to the battle building to see if there was someone there I could ask for permission to practice. [20]

As I approached the building, I could see (not sure how) the demonic militia was already inside of the building running drills.  I could see and hear the leader barking out orders, and see his squads react with military precision [21].  They didn’t have the type of equipment we were given; all of theirs were gnarly axes and jagged spears - covered with all kinds of sickening things and diseases.  They were all about close-up combat, instilling fear, and then making their victims suffer [22].  Some were obviously guarding certian hallways and rooms in the building.  Others were obviously the “searchers” who were covering as much ground as possible trying to find the boy.  Still others were the “sweepers”, trying to find, engage, and kill us - the opposing force [23].  I was astounded at their precision and efficiency, and a bit bothered that they were using some of the same strategies I was considering.  (You know, the obvious ones that you learn just from being on a paintball team, watching some war movies, and playing some tactical military games.)  I had to get my team together to practice - at least to talk about some strategies and maybe give them some signals, voice commands… something… anything. [24]

I stood on a small hill overlooking the open field where hundreds of people from the surrounding area had gathered and were still playing games with my former-fellow-captives and teammates [25].  They were really enjoying themselves.  I wrestled with the same thoughts as before - who am I to start trying to give direction to them?  What are they going to think of me, even from moment one when I whistle loud and ask them to assemble? [26]  Thinking of that small, curly-blond-headed, six-year old boy being held somewhere even now, waiting to be the object of the demon-hordes murderous intentions [27]… thinking of the images we saw night-after-night of people being terrorized in their homes and in public places - killed and tortured with unthinkable cruelty all around the region [28]… I mustered the courage, and curled my lips to whistle louder than I had ever whistled before… and I awoke from the dream [29].

I have inserted some [#] numbers into the dream that you can reference in your comments without having to quote too much.  Obviously you aren’t limited to interpret and hypothesize about only numbered sections.  I would ask you to reply with whatever your natural thoughts are about it, and then to also spend some time in prayer asking the Lord to show you things about it, and then post your comments.  And, this isn’t some, “Yeah, okay, Aaron - you’re called to be some sort of leader - we get it.”  You can do whatever you want with that part of it… focus on the other content, please.

Here are some clips from the worship team I’m on in the new Justice Prayer Room (part of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City).  This team was put together in about two weeks by the leadership of the internship that Robin & I are a part of this summer, out of only interns.  They were able to form two teams to help get this new prayer room started.

I’m experimenting with a way to embed audio clips into posts.  You have to have flash installed to use this one - but let me know if you have any difficulties, please. 

This first clip is from an intercession set.  The focus of intercession sets are just that - interceding.  The musicians and singers help facilitate the prayers of the believers who gathered during this time by taking what they pray and responding to it and developing it using primarily the prayers of the Apostles found in the New Testament (but not limited to it).  This clip fades in right after someone informed our prayer leader that the 4-month old twins of a family from IHOP who are in Cairo, Egypt preparing for a conference, had gotten very sick and were taken to a hospital in Cairo.  You will hear the interaction of the pray-ers and the musicians as we join together to ask the Lord to intercede for the health of the babies and the salvation of Egyptians.

The next clip is from a “Worship with the Word” set.  During this day, we were focusing on the theme of “The Dark Night of the Soul” - those times when we feel like the Lord has ran off and left us.  We pick it up here around Song of Solomon 5:2, where for the second time, the Groom had come to the Shulamite bride, but she hesitates to answer him.  The first time (Song 2:10-17) it was out of fear and rebellion of not wanting to leave her comfort zone. That time, when she finally got around to running after him, she found him quickly and with little difficulty.  He was quick to forgive her of her rebellion, and she learns her lesson well.

This particular time it wasn’t from rebellion at all - it was just silly physical sluggishness, and she does rise fairly quickly to open her door for him - but, this time, he desires to cultivate longing in her.  It’s not because of anything wrong she has done; She rises and pursues him (her “Yes”).  But, he is not easily found.

The recordings aren’t meant to be cd-quality or anything, they’re really just for the worship team to evaluate - but, I thought I’d put a few little clips up so you can get a feel of part of what goes on in a 24/7 prayer room.  Because the focus on the word, and making all of your lyrics conform fairly strictly to actual written scripture, it’s really a great “singing seminary”, and the knowledge of the Word on the missions base here is unbelievable.  I know I’ve been humbled by my own shortcomings.

I welcome your thoughts.

Fellow Christians:

You DO NOT have the right perform “a special” on Sunday morning.
You DO NOT have the right to be invited to that leadership meeting even though you know you are very leader-like.
You DO NOT have the right to be recognized for your wonderful service this year with the <whatever>.
You DO NOT have the right to be on the worship team, ministry team, etc.
You DO NOT have the right to be invited to “the Joneses” after church this Sunday - or next Sunday, even though they consistently invite other people in your congregation.
You DO NOT have the right to be in that clique with all of those recognized “spiritual” types.
You DO NOT have the right to have the right of freedom of religion, or of speech, or even to vote.
You DO NOT have the right to be “offended”… ever.

You DO have the right to be persecuted.
You DO have the right to forgive those who persecute or offend you (knowingly or not).

Enjoy your new found freedoms, because truly, in those two rights, you will find an amazing amount of freedom.

However, I also plead to “the Joneses” and the rest in the words of Jesus, The Word of God:

• “woe to that man by whom the offense comes” (Matthew 18:7)
• “and they devoted themselves to…the fellowship…and were together, and had all things in common… and broke bread from house to house” (Acts 2:42-47)
• “And those [members] of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely [parts] have more abundant comeliness.” (1 Corinthians 12:23)
• “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake…” (Matthew 5:11)
• “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” (Matthew 5:44-46)
• “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” (John 17:20-21)
• “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)

Let us love each other, trying not to offend, forgiving those that do (even if they don’t ask or think they’re wrong), and be hospitable and selfless in all that we have - drawing closer and closer into complete unity - so that the world will believe.

This weekend I posted something that apparently lacked some clarity and resulted in a firestorm of misunderstanding that really pained my heart and frustrated my mind.  I think it was a good thing for me, though.  It exposed a few things to me: a little bit of pride, and a little bit of hypocrisy.

Before I was living for the Lord, I took great delight in trying to make christians feel dumb.  I believed in the Trinity.  I believe the Bible was the infalible word of God.  I believed that the church (as I has experience it) was a political, hypocritical mess that was nothing like Jesus - so I studied the Word, not with the “open mind” that our culture tries to put so much value on, but with the purpose of finding things I could use against christians.

On the other side, I was very big into music and the local music scene, which was dominated by punk rock.  The kind of punk rock that hated all other types of music, hated religion, hated any type of conformity, hated politicians - well… it hated.  Although I shared I similar hatred for conformity, I also felt the need to go-out-of-my-way to demonstrate the fact that I didn’t care about what people thought of my style of dress, hair, music, etc.  So much so that I even took delight in pointing out the differences between myself and this punk culture.

 One time while doing a sound check between bands at an underground punk club in Fort Smith (”The Old 700 Club”), I said from the microphone,

“I want to be different just like you guys.”
I then expounded,
“If you refuse to wear Guess, Varnet, Reebok, or Swatch,” (I’m aging myself), “just because ‘the preps’ wear them - you are letting them control you… they’re actually controlling what you wear and don’t wear… think about it.”

I probably didn’t make any friends that day, nor did I get any applause for my brief flicker as a Punk Philosopher.

I guess I say all of that to illustrate the fact that I am just like those punks.  In my consciousness of making sure I was “so different” that people had to respect and notice that I truly was a non-conformist, my actions were being ruled by pride, and by what other people thought about me.

When the firestorm erupted this weekend, and I was getting acused of all kinds of things that are completely against my real heart, it frustrated my mind and hurt my pride long before it broke my heart.  I have worked so hard to make sure people knew (especially youth and young adults) that I absolutely was not the stereotypical, hypocritical, judgemental, holier-than-thou christian.  Yet, in one crazy misunderstanding, I was being branded as one by an entire scene in my own hometown.  While struggling with how I could possibly convince people of my real heart, and how what they were saying was completely out-of-whack with what I had actually said or meant, I realized, “I’m not really trying to clear this up so that one day I can be an effective witness to them,” or anything lovely and spiritual like that.  I realized that I was trying to clear it up because I couldn’t stand the thought that someone might not like me - multiplied exponentially by the fact that it was over something that wasn’t even true.

So, although I did feel completely compelled to apologize and try to make amends, I did so out of just feeling the need to do so out of decency, because I had to first come to grips with my thoughts about these words of Jesus:

“You will be persecuted for My name’s sake.  Because they hate Me, they will hate you.”

The reason they were able to misinterpret what I said so readily is because they were judging me because I bear the name “Christian”.  And, even though I am not the stereotypically christian they have come to know and hate; and even though the Christ himself is not at all what they think or see personified in most american christians… I cannot worry about people liking me or accepting me - even the people that I feel the most connection and similarities with.  I wouldn’t care if it was some mainly denominational First Socio-Political Church of Your Hometown that was hating on me; but when it’s the people that the Lord has wired me to love and connect with, and used as a part of my very fashioning and molding for His purposes in my life - it destroyed me.

So, here I am - a little smaller than I was last week.

Thank you, Lord - for I must decrease so that You may increase.