The unexpected ups and downs
10/19/2019
But. Finally. We got to do again what we thoroughly enjoyed doing with our home team in Tulsa. We also brainstormed the idea of a prophetic prayer ministry for the field workers to get recharged, and refreshed, just like we did in the shadow of Y2K (poke, poke) on the home front. What we have walked through, and learned, we now would give away. So we planned and organized a prophetic-prayer ministry for those needy for a fresh Word, like a Graham Cooke conference, except…
No Graham. We did not bring in Graham, or invite him, or any other guest speaker. It was just us, and more of us, the body of Christ coming together. The body managed by the Head, nourishing one another, using what each of us has, and counting on Jesus to make up the difference.
many participated in the prophetic-prayer gatherings.
(we were asked many times NOT to take pictures as a number of the field came from hostile and persecuted countries)
_________
In one of our small prophetic prayer gatherings, Sarah was stunned at the Words coming from the three-member team. “What the…?” How did they know her incessant, troubling predicament in her personal ministry which was: to call attention to those women suffering from human trafficking in northern Africa, having been a victim herself? Like many of us, she came skeptical into the unknown “spiritual” experience of prophetic prayer. And.
She just kept crying as if the Lord was right there speaking of those things she had kept to herself. Her secrets. As if Jesus really knew. At the end of her time, you could feel the release in her as she looked up, with the peace that comes after you discover that the Lord is right in the middle of what has bothered you for so long. Sarah, re-gathered, easily agreed it was time for her to share the details of her troubling story, and its disappointments, to one of our seasoned pastoral-care ladies that would listen and pray.
_________
Cheryl, from Zimbabwe, came to the Gathering, weary. From a land of troubled with famine and drought, she had been continually looking everyday for relief–perhaps a miracle of supply for her needs. In a way, looking for Jesus. While we prayed her hands slipped up, and were extended out in the small prayer circle symbolizing: “HELP!” Knowing her discouraging predicament, I thought, “What in the world can the Father say to her today?” What would the three-person prayer team deliver to make a difference to someone living in such destitute circumstances? But the Father is bigger than our doubts.
Sometimes the light feels so far away. We want more light.
And His Word does what it does. It goes out with power. It zoomed into her personal, troubling circumstances and spoke the kind of truth that captures all of our wayward thoughts. “He knows my details!” The simple, powerful, prophetic spoke of the absolute, certain Lordship of Jesus in every detail of her life, and yes, that He was there in the middle of her needs. And then more images and pictures were shared from each prayer person, that corroborated what Cheryl wanted to know. Jesus’ truths can overlap to drive His point home. That Cheryl was known by the Father. He is with her.
Truth just flowed gently out and settled into her troubled heart. And more. What Cheryl needed, just like us, often is the farthest thing from what we think. She needed more. She needed her inner being re-charged, and her faith and hope restored. We think we “need” this. Or I must have that to survive. We lock into our-smaller-world-of-the-now, but the Father has plan and destiny for us. The Father-with-an-eternal-scope usually pops our temporal bubble to wake us up. Bigger vision. Yes, Jehovah Jireh clearly recognizes our real needs. He’s God. We do not know the innumerable times He has provided in various ways for us, and protected us from harm. He rules. And He is actually taking us somewhere.
He knows what is missing
God knows what Cheryl is missing first and foremost. More than Cheryl does. Unexpectedly, the Father led the prophetic team to pray for joy. Joy? (Joy for someone struggling with necessities?) Didn’t see that coming. We stepped out in faith. Our Father, shrouded in mystery, then touched her innermost being with a stirring inside. Yes, in the hardship of daily struggles, hanging on for dear life, Sarah had no joy. We prayed and we observed. It started with her tears, which caught us by surprise–and the concern of the prayer team (“Oh, oh, what did we say? Or do?”), but slowly her stirring made a dramatic turn and evolved from tears a rocking, uncontrollable laughter. In front of us. We were witnesses but we did not do this. We never thought of this. But. Significantly, for Cheryl, who felt poor and especially neglected, this was a holy moment. A memory that would last for years. The heart is our driver through all of life. After the outpouring of unexpected joy for a number of minutes, Cheryl looked at us. She knew. She just knew. He was in it, in her life, in the middle of her circumstances. She knew. Something had shifted deep within her heart. She was beaming and we talked back and forth what this meant.
Yes, the world is huge, but our sphere can feel so small and troubled.
For some of those who came to the Global Gathering from the field, often they lived in a region of spiritual resistance, or hardship. Observing the many, you could see a sense glumness, or weariness. Spiritual exhaustion showing through. That can be the look of someone coming off the battlefield, dragging their armor. Even in those we had not seen in several years and we saw the change. From certain hope, to hanging on.
Every believer is always ambushed or surprised by a sudden hardship that develops from a family member or with a friendship. “What the…” Oh, oh. Somehow we think we did something wrong, or missed it somewhere, or have fallen away from intimacy with Jesus—and now we are paying for it. The old lie: we must pay for our own sins. I have exhausted grace and forgiveness. (Jesus’ love or grace gets exhausted?) And when things don’t go according to plan, our thoughts evolve through our smaller minds to explain our disappointment—that we don’t measure up. For many, our number one fear.
Instead of: Jesus is always my Savior. I get better where I will not need Jesus? Seriously? Rather, I must intentionally put Him in the middle of each of my relationships, including my spouse, if I am to thrive. Every day. He is God who commands us to love well. It only can happen if He is in the middle of each of our relationships.
Like Cheryl, the Zimbabwean, in a collapsing economy, and corruption seeping into places of power, where oppressive rulings seem to strangle hope, it is very difficult to believe that Jesus is Lord of my personal life. “It ‘feels’ like those guys control my life.” That Jesus is actively engaged with me in my boring life, knows my thoughts, my desires, my troubles, my fears, and that He is leading and protecting me? That it feels too much like I am on the outside looking in, or abandoned, and I don’t know how to get in where the good stuff is.
__________
It brought back fun memories:
Our friends worshipping in our home in Cape Town
It was great to see our young Africans, Henry and Tehila, with whom we had been close for several years. Good friends. They had been full of life. We had walked the streets of the township with them. She had struggled with health, and slowly the chronic pain had become worse. And went back to their home town in the north. The husband came to the Global Gathering by vehicle, living twenty hours away. In Tehila’s weakened state, someone kindly flew her down to Cape Town so she could be a part of the Gathering. They were not the formerly bubbling, smiling couple that led worship with song and dance. Something had seeped in. Something that can get into every believer if we are not careful. When we don’t receive what we expect. Instead of asking, seeking, and knocking, and pressing in for an answer, we resign ourselves to live with less. Except the less turns to take away our spiritual vitality.
At our Global Gathering on the third night, a missionary of All Nations, having spent eighteen years in India with a significant gift (but still having his own struggles with disappointment and dashed expectations), saw Tehila. In fact, he completely zoomed in on her. He drew close, and surprisingly, he reached out and prayed for her healing. In just a couple of minutes, Tehila had to lay down as her physical body gave way. She lay there for a few moments, then she stirred. And kept stirring. Those that were there sensed the change. Within a few moments it became evident there was another power–of the Holy Spirit–coursing through her veins. What? Something everyone wants. Gathering herself after a bit, Tehila stood up, and started moving her body in ways she was unable to do in the past few years–without pain. She was stunned. She never expected this. She moved about, and she even ran back and forth in the hall, declaring, “There’s no pain!”
Tehila and her husband, overwhelmed by her healing
I know the cynicism of the West. Because I had been a cynic in the West in a patch of time. And we must be careful because cynicism really is an attack on faith. It attempts to pick apart the fabric of faith in a personal Father, and especially in the work of the Holy Spirit. Bad idea. Unchecked it leads to Character assassination. Leaving us with Nothing but unbelief. And worse. If we call the Holy Spirit something He is not, then we cut off our lifeline to redemption. He brings everyone to Jesus. A cynic would diminish what happened to Tehila, “In the scale of human suffering, what is one healing?” (“God, I expect you to do more to impress me if you are God.”)
We overlook what should be the obvious. That at best, our questions come from a puny, finite mind, inflated with self-worth–severely Me-centered. We think we know. What is seriously lacking is perspective, and a wealth of wisdom which can only come from a brilliant, unfathomable, relational Creator of the universe. Without meaningful relationship with the exact representation of God (Jesus), who can understand the Father’s motives? His ways? His capabilities? In self-absorption, we use our tiny speculations to assess the hidden mysteries of God reserved for people who truly get Him.
With our immediate “wants” we miss focusing on: Him. We know the way of the world–not the way of the Kingdom. We “expect” simple, external validation and comfort so as to prove we are loved. After all, that is the way of the world. Keep saying, “I love you, I love you” and doing nice things for me means you love me. Our definition. “I must see your hand in my life all the time if you love me.” Our expectation for God. Make “Me” happy. Care about “Me” the way I “want.” (Even if my “wants” don’t take me closer to Jesus).
As we saw in many places in at the Global Gathering (with many more inspired) The Father is unbelievably personal to Sarah, Cheryl, and Tehila. He is able to read the secrets of our hearts. And renew those hearts at just the right time, to motivate them forward into His Kingdom.
When they came from afar, Sarah was not expecting her secrets to be revealed. Cheryl didn’t have joy on her “top twenty” prayer list. Tehila had resigned herself to accept that for some reason she was not that important to the Father. Sound familiar? And the many at the Gathering were not expecting prophetic Words that read their mail, addressed heart-felt issues, or speak comfort and identity into their very souls.
The many were surprised by the worship that left them tender, and willing to be vulnerable to one another. To let go of things that did not belong in the sanctuary of the heart. Worship does that. Prayer does that. The many that moved about, saw Jesus saying something to them through various people. Some heard something resonate from the front, or over a meal, or during a break, or in a simple passing in the hall. A Word here, a phrase there, slipping into the heart as a reminder. Jesus is Lord of all of our circumstances.
3 minute video of the Global Gathering
All of us live in an absolutely relational world where God the Creator is “Father.” Father created us to know Him. The only way for Sarah, for Cheryl, for Tehila, for the many, and for us to grasp and move closer is to have the eyes of faith. He is in my sphere. We miss seeing Him. We keep desiring things for the hear and now, so that we can eke by. The Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are crazy about eternity. They want us there. Everything they do for us is in the context of eternity–not carpe diem.
