First- thanks to all who came out to keep Long Island's "Home" fire burning before the Lord yesterday and to those who ministered to the Lord from home. We were so honored by you and value your friendship and commitment tremendously. I told many of you to stay home because of the weather and I appreciate you deeply for your desire and thank you because you were one less person for me to worry about yesterday. Love you ALL.
Second- IHOP-KC is offering classes that can be audited or taken for credit online now. You can audit a course for $50 and it's ALOT easier than re-locating to KC for a year (unless of course Dad says to). The material is really great stuff whether you agree with a particular point of view or not and it is worth wrestling with. The classes being offered include those that I took during my internship there and more are coming. There are a couple that I absolutely loved - including and especially Corey Russell's The Eternal Glory of an Intercessor. Here's the link in case you are interested. ALSO - if you are interested in taking a course, we can also choose to do it together and interact with the material and each other together or online. Let me know what delights you.
http://www.ihop.org/Publisher/Article.aspx?ID=1000023673
Finally, I had a dream the morning of The Burn - what else is new. In the dream, I was giving birth to a baby in a really large, warm tiled tub. The birth was fast and relatively easy and although the labor was right on time the baby had the affect of being pre-mature ( about 5 months old or so) (which by the way, that is about how long we've been meeting regularly at King's Corner). As the midwife cleaned the baby, it took weak breaths and didn't cry much. I thought it was still in pretty good shape but the midwife was troubled that it was weak and not crying deeply. Additionally, it had some placenta/skin around the sides of its eyes that I cleaned off so it could see correctly.
I went to breastfeed the baby and it spoke to me and said "Three Stormtroopers tried to stop me." What he was describing was a dream he had as he was being born that symbolized a spiritual experience in reality (kind of like the opposition received by the angel of Daniel's visit). I was only mildly impressed at the baby's ability to speak and realized that although I had conceived the baby with a man I barely knew (the relationship felt a little illegitimate because I barely knew the man when I was first with him and we weren't married when it was conceived) and although I felt like a single parent, I didn't feel like the baby or I were out of God's heart or love. As a matter of fact there were clear indicators that God cared for the baby and had gifted it with dreams and revelation as a matter of His own desire to lay favor on the baby despite the circumstances of its conception. I put my finger in its mouth and felt around only to find that the baby also had a full set of teeth - of perfect little white teeth all the way back to include little molars and I realized it had maturity in advance of its years.
Because of the concern over the baby's breathing I was told to take it to the hospital. As I was waiting at the bus stop with the baby, I looked around and realized I would never be seen at the Hospital even if I did get there. I was surrounded by and counted among the poor and I knew they were not treated well and I thought, "If I take the baby home and care for it and love it, I'm sure it will do well." Shortly after, a tall, large black woman walked up to me and said "Trust your insides. You are right, you'll never get seen in the Hospital. It will take forever and it ultimately won't help it anyway. Take the baby home and love it deeply and help it breathe right and it will do well there."
I went back to my apartment and the baby's family (on the Father's side) was there to celebrate its birthday but I wasn't sure about how they felt about the baby and whether they would claim it as their own and love it. I wasn't even sure how I felt about them and whether I could love THEM. I kept looking at the baby's face which was dark skinned like it's father's family; trying to see its beauty - because at first I wasn't sure if it WAS beautiful, but the more I looked to see if it was, and I mean intently looked at it, the more beautiful it became and while it looked like the Father's family, it started to look more like me as well. I knew that if the Father's family would love deeply it and adopt it as their own it would in fact do very well and become more and more beautiful and eventually, the Father would come and call it his own.
As we prayed yesterday, I began to get some understanding about the dream and wept quite a bit about it. Here's my best shot at explaining it: The baby is the House of Prayer. Breathing - deep breathing - is prayer and the inspiration that comes from meditating on the Beauty of God ("The Beauty of God inspires Deep, Breathing (inspired) Prayer.") Crying is the groans of travail and longing. The Hospital is the Church. The Father's family is exactly that. Dark skinned refers to us in the Song of Solomon "I am dark but I am Lovely" and I believe the admonishment from the Lord is as follows:
a.) as "people of the House" we need to see clearly and set our thoughts and eyes on Him - to contemplate the Beauty of God and praying from that place, we need to travail for the things on His heart - to long for Him - in order to be strengthened
b.) keep looking intently for the beauty of this movement/house/baby/clan and value it - it will become more beautiful as we do
c.) we need to love this baby and adopt it as our own - taking responsibility for its growth and up-bringing as if it is our own and as if it was a baby who's life depended on it -because it does - and if we do this . . . The Father will come.
What I'm trying to convey is this: the baby is not just mine - it is all of ours. Please ask the Lord what He would have you do in order to adopt it into your heart and love it and nurture it as a member of your own family. Then, please let me know what He says.
Much, much love and blessing to all you, t
No comments:
Post a Comment