Job 37:14 "...stand still and consider the wondrous works of God." As we wrapped up this Intro to IHOP internship last Sunday, it set me in the place of 'considering' this week. As I have looked back over my journey this past 6 months or so, I am so struck with God's great mercy, tenderness and willingness to hold the human heart in all of our weakness and brokenness....and transform it, somehow. Who can change a heart? Can you change your heart? I sure have tried on many occasions and in different circumstances to shift my own heart...and have failed miserably! And yet God can take the same heart and bring it into union and unity with His own. Wow.
As I look back I can remember so many specific encounters that God had lined up just for me. Like the night I had a specific question in my heart...a wrestle that I was desperate for Him to speak to me about. I wrestled through the service, prepared to leave as soon as the altar call was given....just ready to get out of there. (Have you ever been there before?!) As we stood and I bowed my head for the prayer where I could slip out I heard Mike Bickle ask his friend Kent to come to the platform. I had never heard of 'Kent' so I looked up and 'Kent' had taken his place at the keyboard. That was puzzling until he opened his mouth and I realized it was Kent Henry. I just started weeping at how wondrous God is to answer our questions! For those of you who don't know, Kent was a forerunner in 'new song' or prophetic songs and has a special place in my own walk with the Lord. God could not have come up with a more specific answer than that for the question in my heart that night. Receiving impartation from Kent Henry was not too shabby!
There was the day I was on a prophetic ministry team and had a word for a young woman. All I kept hearing was, 'There's no place like home.' When I shared it, she started weeping. When we finished up, she was standing there telling me she was from N. Ireland and had been so homesick. I asked what town and when she told me I asked her is she knew a girl there. She lit up like a lightbulb and told me they were best of friends. Another young man who we had prophesied over with her...whom neither of them knew each other...when he heard where she was from piped up and said he had been to the house of prayer in her little hometown and started rattling off people he knew. And then one of my fellow interns who had been on the prophecy team with me reached into his pocket and pulled out a pound...said he had brought it back from N. Ireland a couple of years ago and for some reason had put it in his pocket a couple of days prior...so he gave it to this young woman. What a great Creator God we have....all that to touch this young woman's heart and bring her courage!
Then there were just ministry times where I just had to step back within myself and marvel at God and what He has allowed me to participate with Him in. This place is always brimming with people from all over the world. I have had to sit back and laugh at times to realize I am not only prophesying...but I am prophesying to the nations....sometimes having to prophesy through interpreters. What?! I don't think I would have thought that one up in a million years for myself to be honest! There was one afternoon in a span of maybe an hour and a half where I had the privilege to prophesy over 2 from Germany, 1 from Switzerland, 2 from Egypt and another from Korea. You just got to love this!
And then there have been my fellow interns. What an honor this has been. I wonder all the time..."Who are you...really?!" There is my friend Sharon who has loved Israel forever, been there like 17 times as a volunteer, has authored books, and as a widow decided this was how she wanted to spend the rest of her days. There is Gloria who is from Korea and has been a missionary all of her life....we still have not figured out who all Gloria is. There is always something coming up and you just wonder who and what she has been doing around here! There is Bryan who went and served in the IDF in Israel, Brad who is just a solid mid-western young man who ran his grandfathers farm when he was no longer able to....as a teenager! Or Sara who landed on the streets as a teenager in NY but made her way to TV-land but now loves the Lord with all she is. And there is Elizabeth...Teacher as I call her. The woman is one administrative genius. I am convinced she could run the Pentagon. Or Won and Kay....who sold their booming business in LA...he is an eye surgeon, one of the best in LA...and taught YWAM DTS for years there but came to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn of His love for them. Or Christian who has yet to turn 30, who left Yale where he was pursuing his masters to come sit in the prayer room for 6 months. Come to find out this guy is stinking anointed and gifted. Last week he did a 7 minute spot of a play he had written a number of years ago...straight scripture. Unbelievably powerful. In the past week, God has opened the door to a man who has offered to put this play on Broadway. Christian will be working on that in between writing a play for our Exodus Cry, which deals with human trafficking, that will be taken to college campus' all over the states and going to Israel for a couple of months to be a part of a 'class' where he will have an audience with Benjamin Netanyahu! Who are these people? There are so many who are so special. I will have to share stories sometime!
I could go on, but you may already be in a coma! Thank you for all your prayers and love....I know I would not be standing here if it had not been for all of you guys. And yes, the picture says it all. After 2 weeks, 5 visits to 2 different courthouses and the help of some folks back in Alabama...I am an actual resident of MO now. The plate number cracked me up. I will let you hear it for yourselves! You all have been such a part of all that I have benefited from, grown in and been able to put my hand to! Love you all....
