Already half way into week two, I am beginning to realize that time is going to race by faster than ever. Focusing on staying present in the moment and making the most of every day has never felt so urgent!
I am finding it difficult to try and put into words all that I am learning, thinking about, and what is happening in my heart, but stuff is going on and it is GOOD.
So much has been encouraged in my heart and I delight to know more God more and more everyday. This past weekend, I attended the Weekends@IHOP where I met about a dozen other Canadians who had come for a couple of days. It was wonderful to be with them, and connected immediately despite the fact they were from all over the country. With great teaching and wonderful seminars, there was much ignited in my spirit. The highlight was the prophetic seminar that I attended on Saturday, where the opportunity was presented to come up and practice and grow in the gift of prophecy, which I felt called to do. It turned into a hour of ministry and prophesying over the people in the room, from which I left and received prophetic ministry time back at the prayer room. What an incredible experience to realize the delight and joy that God has for His people and be able to share that with them in ways that personally and individually touch them! God loves to speak to His people! What was said and shared with me was so encouraging and exactly what I needed to hear! The things I had mediated on during the week and what God had been working in my heart prior to me moving down here was all confirmed and ignited even more. I love it when God does that.
Some of the things I have been reading and thinking about include:
-The whole book of Isaiah! It has always been my favourite and I am receiving more understanding and revelation everyday.
- The story and history of Israel, particularly the Exodus from Egypt and their exile in Babylon. I don't know what it is, but these subjects are just fascinating me. It is also the intercession sets for Israel that set my spirit on fire more than anything else and I often go back to them again and again on the webstream.
- I am reading through "Secrets of the Secret Place" by Bob Sorge, so everyday there is new revelation through that study.
- I think I have five books on the go, and they are all really good, I just have yet to finish one.
Living as part of the Greenwood house has been an incredible experience already. I have been welcomed in and made just one of the girls. Mandy, Christina and I get along really well, and Christina and I had a lovely girls night this week where we went shopping at The Plaza and out for coffee. Gerry came up with an idea last week to have different people over to the house for us to cook for and host for an evening. She is calling it "Greenwood Inn Hospitality Dinners," and we have decided that about once a week, we will invite different guys from this community to come over. This is a great way just to bless the guys around IHOP and be sisters to them. Gerry affectionately says that this is so that "her little darlings can practice keeping house and hosting for their own place one day." This week we had a friend named Will stop by and it was a great evening! Monday night we will cook an Italian meal for two brothers. This is turning into a highlight of my weeks!
As a house, we are also all involved in the "Lady In Waiting" book group. With some other girls from the base, Gerry and Joanna have created a small group for young women to study about it means to "become God's best while waiting for Mr. Right." The truth and life that I am taking from these Wednesday night meetings and reading through this book is completely shifting my thinking and paradigms! Realizing the amount of deep-set lies and deceptions about what it means to be a woman, how I think about marriage and singleness, and how I view myself is so good and so painful at the same time. However, I desire to be all that God has created me to be and no longer want to be held back by lies, so I welcome the painful process of stripping away that which is not of God and clothing myself in His Word and Truth.
I suppose you could say that I am coming out of the 'honeymoon season' of the novelty of it all being new and exciting, and beginning to deal with some very real and deep-rooted heart issues. I knew this was coming...
Today has been especially potent in its realizations and the facing of some of the darkness and brokenness of my own life. Being faced with the real questions of my soul, the fears and doubts that I still carry around, as well as being reminded of the fact that we fight not against flesh and blood but against powers and things unseen, it is all I can do to stand and say, "yet Lord Jesus, I praise You. I simply desire You. Reveal Yourself to me."
I would like to ask for prayer that this process be filled with grace, healing, restoration and freedom. Also, if you could keep me in your prayers as I will begin a forty-day fast this week, focusing on interceding for my family, camp and personal breakthrough as I sit before the Throne of God and minister unto Him.
The Greenwood house is full this weekend with visitors as the Women in the Prophetic Conference begins tomorrow morning. I am very excited to learn more about the Lord and to gaze upon His Beauty.
"Do not let your adornment be merely outward - arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel - rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God" (1 Peter 3:3-4).
Here are some pictures of the beautiful fall here in Kansas City. I went adventuring a couple of afternoons with my camera and enjoyed the warm sunshine.
Brilliant colours everywhere!
A beautiful little waterfall.
Mr. Bumblebee's photoshoot
Shiloh Gardens - part of IHOP
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