05.04.2001 What a Difference a Day Can Make!

Greetings! It is my hope and trust that this finds you all well...and I mean that with all sincerity. This past week has seen such devastation, injury and loss of life in Alabama, as well as other southern states....and what a difference a day can make. North Alabama has been 'home' to me for over 20 years and it has been nothing less than heart breaking to see the pictures/videos and hear the stories coming out of that region these days.

As I finished up my Intro to IHOP internship, made my trip to see my mom and visited Alabama, I finally landed back in KC on Monday, April 25, late in the night after driving for several hours through tornado warnings! Tuesday I began my class here at IHOP, which is not mandatory for staff but would be helpful. Wednesday, the world changed in my home state and for my friends and church family. I have spent much of my time from last Wednesday actually working on disaster relief communications, as most of the region was without power until Sunday/Monday....my little laptop and cell phone became communication central, of sorts. As that immediate need lightened, I realized my heart was in Alabama with this disaster relief effort.

Part of what the Lord has clarified to me regarding my calling during the past 7 months was that what has been established in my life through my social work, nursing and over 30 years of ministry training/labor has equipped me to minister to people....spirit, soul and body...in the midst of the 'birth pains' as described in the book of Matthew 24:6-8

"And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but
the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines,
pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows."

I had specifically communicated this to a friend here at IHOP the morning of the 27th, the day of the tornados....and before nightfall crisis and sorrows had fallen on the place I have called home.

This has caused me to have to seek the Lord's face as to where I am suppose to be in this little season. I was scheduled to head back to Alabama the last week of May to actually be about the business required for me to be sustained as a missionary here at IHOP-KC. That plan has not changed but I can not make sense of staying here for the 4 week interim for a 1 1/2 hour class on Tuesdays that is not mandatory when I could be of use actually walking out the answer to my own prayers for Alabama and my home church! And so after seeking counsel and setting this all before the Lord, I am making plans to head back to Alabama, hopefully by Friday morning, if I can get all the loose ends pulled together. I will share more of what the Lord has actually laid on my heart when I can get my feet on the ground and can learn what the real situation is looking like for folks there. I totally ask for your prayers!

Will update when I arrive in Alabama. The above photo is of the Rock Family Worship Center feeding people in a K Mart parking lot in Scottsboro. That first evening they feed about 500. Friday they fed somewhere near 4500! The work load is massive. If any of you would be interested in getting your hands dirty and loving on some hurting hearts, let me know. If your churches or organizations are looking for places to give into the relief efforts, I know the Rock is in an area that is not being reached by many of the other relief efforts....I can get you some info. Blessings and grace to you and your families as always. Love you guys!

Heather

04.09.2011 Consider

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....

03.27.2011 The Finish Line!

We can see the finish line! A week from today and this Intro to IHOP internship will be a wrap. It is hard to know how to feel about that, actually! There is such gratitude for the heart exchange and encounters I have had with the Lord, for the new friendships with men and women with like hearts/minds that challenge me to go higher into my own consecration and holiness and to have become so keenly aware of purpose. The other side of the coin is that wow, this season is ending and that always involves shifts/changes and who knows what things will really look like a few months from now? No matter what, it is a comfort to know that I, like you, are in the palm of His hand. I have seen repeatedly the past 6 months that His leadership is perfect and His heart and intent for me is good!

The picture above is of my sweet friend Michelle who married her love Whitney several years ago. She just posted this picture and I had to grab it for this blog because it is truly a 'picture' of my call. Though I was not an actual bridesmaid at her wedding, I did have the privilege to pray with Michelle right before her wedding ceremony....praying into her marriage, her role as a bride/wife. As I finish up this internship and step into the next season, I know I am to help prepare the Bride of the Lamb....Jesus! The church is to be one who has made herself ready, prepared in her character...without spot, wrinkle, holy and blameless. We are living in the time of great adventure!

I will be doing some traveling around for a short season before jumping back into my place here at IHOP-KC. I look forward to getting to see many of your faces and share more of what all God has done and is doing with my life and to have the opportunity to catch up with your lives. Thank you for all the love, prayers, encouragement and support....this has certainly been a joint effort! May you all know His favor and grace in greater measures for the day/season we are in.

Love you all much,

Heather

02.19.11 LIFE!

Today ends our 6th week of Track II....that is hard to believe! We are now running prophetic ministry and healing rooms in the prayer room. What an awesome opportunity to minister the heart of God to people who need to know His love and power! Another huge blessing to me has been to watch my fellow interns, along with myself, growing in so many ways. What can be done with a company of sons and daughters who grab a hold of who they are in Christ, press to know His heart and then move out in confidence in the gifts and anointing He has given to each of them? And I am not talking about just here in KC!

This afternoon we did our first 'Life Siege' at a KC abortion clinic where 6,000 babies loose their lives each year. We stood around the property with red "Life" tape over our mouths in identification of the little ones who have no voice for themselves and prayed for the ending of abortion in our nation....appealing to the Higher Court of heaven for righteousness and justice to arise for the unborn. From what I have been told, somewhere during this time of standing silent and praying, the Lord begins to wreck your heart with His own heart over this issue. I found that to be true.

Interestingly enough, I have two friends who do not know each other, both are due about the same time, both are having girls and I found out within about an hours time frame Wednesday morning that both will carry the name "Justice". And then another friend commented on my FB photo from the Siege that a couple of weeks ago the Lord kept speaking about justice for the year 2011 through 3 or 4 different people at one of their church services. It is evident that this is a stirring the Holy Spirit is awakening in the Body of Christ. As we begin to lift that cry/prayer to the Lord, coming into agreement with the intercession that Jesus Himself is making at the right hand of the Father (He ever lives to intercede for us), heaven and earth are going to press for justice and righteousness together! I heard many years ago from a minister in North Carolina that, "The intercessors get to participate".....in what the Lord is doing. Since we are all called to pray without ceasing, this includes all of us! I keep being struck with the humility of the Living God....He wants and allows us to labor with Him? Nothing less than amazing!

It was such a different intercession experience to have such a deep cry and an inward groaning for justice but to be completely silent. In that silence and with the tears I was getting such a sense that our prayers were resounding through the heavens like thunder before His throne! I was also deeply convicted for the years I have spent fairly unmoved by this common reality of our American culture. As we have this growing cry for justice to spring forth in our lives, our nation and in the world....are we ready for what that might look like? Just as in childbirth, the transition is a bit rough, but the reward at the end of the whole process is new life! So it will be as God brings about justice in the earth.....making wrong things right....the transition might be a bit rough, but afterwards.....Life!

Much love to you all!

Heather

02.07.11 Firsts

Well, February is well underway! It is my hope and trust that this finds you all well. As I consider the past few weeks it struck me that I have had a couple of 'firsts'.....like my first blizzard last week! As we were hearing the warnings of the coming storm and they kept tossing around that word....I had to wonder what they were talking about...at trip to DQ?! Well, now I have been educated by experience! This shot of my car was just prior to a little time of whiteout. It was amazing to watch the foot of snow, which is now an ice pack on all of our yards, accumulate that day. What a Creative God!

Track II of this internship is concentrated, "hands on" training for obtaining our PHDs...prophetic, healing and deliverance! We are receiving some of the most down to earth, practical instruction, laced with such humility on these three areas weekly and then being given opportunity (sometimes known as sink or swim!) to put our hands to the labor in these three areas. This past Saturday my Track II spent almost 4 hours doing prophetic ministry over Track I which has over 100 students! The time alone was stretching but by virtue of having some experience with the prophetic I ended up leading one of the teams. What I didn't know was that as the 'leader' I had to give the first word over each person that came through our team and if the team stalled, it was my job to prophesy and kick it back into gear. What?! Nothing like a little pressure...and that's not quiet how my prophetic flows. Give me 5 or 10 minutes and I might hear something or I might not! Well, Saturday certainly changed my status quo! It is just a blast to have to lean on God....and you find that He is there and He is faithful! It was a pretty cool day, though it wore us out. I also found great delight in watching some of my fellow interns start out so hesitant but then found that flow and just enjoyed ministering words of life. Makes one wonder what other tricks the staff have up their sleeves for the next couple of months??? :)

The Holy Spirit is bringing such clarity to what I have been called to and that in and of itself brings such a confidence. As I finish this internship in April I know that I will be remaining here at IHOP-KC as a missionary, ministering to the Lord in prayer and worship, first and foremost, in a full time way....as my occupation. Ministry to others will be an overflow from that place....and oh what opportunities abound here, even to touch the nations!

As always, know that I am so grateful for all of you that He has placed in and around my life! May you know His favor and grace, as well as having all wisdom and understanding for the time and the season we find ourselves in. He is Faithful! Much love in Him.....

01.19.11 My Year of Jubilee

Well, Happy New Year ya'll! Suddenly I find that Thanksgiving is gone, Christmas came and went...then there was the New Year and here I am at the start of Track II at IHOP-KC. I had such good intentions of adding posts to this blog while we were on break, however....! Hope you entered this year with the knowledge of His grace and favor on your lives. He loves you so.

The holidays were a bit of a whirlwind as I traveled about during the 3 week break. Mac, Sophie and I spent 11 days in Arkansas with my mom. David joined us for a couple of days at Christmas with his 10 or 11 week old German shepherd puppy. That made for some entertainment...watching Sophie who is maybe 10 pounds soaking wet, backing down this puppy that was more than double her size...even crawling on her belly with her tail wagging!! Was able to connect a little bit with a couple of the folks that I use to work with there. Overall it was a quiet time. I then headed to Alabama to return the dogs to their "foster home". I had an extended stay there due to some auto body work that needed to be done, but I won't mention any names Michael....and then I got snowed in by their biggest snow like in over 20 years. It was beautiful! I was able to grab bits of time with many while I was there....and that was special to me. I so appreciate everyone God has brought into my life. If I missed you this time....we will work on my next visit!

We have kicked off this internship and were just trying to get into the rhythm of it....and it snowed like crazy yesterday! So we are having an official 'snow day' today! The classes we have had thus far have been incredible. I am excited about what we will learn and gain in actual hands on training. It all stirs the hunger to walk in the Spirit...truly hearing and seeing as He does and then being able to speak His words into people's lives and watch their heart open to Him.

I woke from a dream yesterday morning where I had seen "Matthew 11:3" When I got to the prayer room yesterday I looked it up and it was a very familiar passage to me. It starts out with, "and said to Him, 'Are you the Expected One?' It then goes into Jesus answer, 'Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended in Me.'

I had just sat through several classes that brought out the various scriptures that tell us to earnestly....with fiery zeal...long and pursue the gifts of the spirit. In contemplating that fresh stirring and reading this passage, of which I have spent much time considering "blessed is he who is not offended in Me"...I saw a new revelation. In the days ahead we will need to have the same report to give those who are seeking the Truth (Jesus)....it's going to be a part of their ability to not be offended as things become darker and more confusing as the end of this age approaches. The question is...will we be able to give that same report??? Go, report what you hear and see...the blind see, the lame are walking, the deaf hear...the dead are alive and the poor are having the gospel preached to them. There is a connection between the testimony of His power and mercy being performed on the earth and their ability to not be offended at the wisdom of His leadership! May we all press into all that He has for us to mature into for His name sake and His glory!

Well, I celebrated my 'Jubilee' birthday today....50! That is just the wildest concept to me....can't really grasp that one for myself. 50 belongs to all those other people. But I love the thought of Jubilee....'those who have sold themselves into slavery get released'. I am claiming that one over my life this year! Freedom in Jesus, right?! As always, may you and your family know HIs Presence, grace and favor in the days ahead. Love you all much!

11.19.10 Gracious and Compassionate....

Greetings all! Everyone gearing up with Thanksgiving plans? I will be heading down to mom's to enjoy the day with her and David. Will be a short trip as nothing closes at IHOP....will just have to miss a couple of days of class/prayer room. It will be good just to get in the car and drive for 6 hours, out of the schedule/routine that has been life!

Needless to say there is so much I could update you all on but neither you nor I have time to write or read that novel right now. I can say that I am pretty floored at God's graciousness, tenderness and compassion as He is ever so gently revealing His heart for me. This week the Intro Track II interns (I am in Intro Track I at the moment and will start Intro Track II in January) have been doing a prophetic practicum and pulling people out of the prayer room who are interested in receiving prophetic ministry. Tuesday I got blessed with this opportunity. Two of the women both saw the same thing. They saw me at the ocean enjoying the sunset...relishing it as His handiwork; His painting. They both shared His heart's response to me in that place of delighting in His creativity, it's beauty. It so ministered to my heart to realize that He sees that part of me that does see Him in nature, sees parts of His heart revealed in it and that I enjoy Him through those things.....He delights in me that I delight in Him! It seems relatively simple but that particular day it ministered to a wounding of my heart where I had been mocked in the past for this very aspect of my personality. It was as if God was taking back that ground for me....totally validated who He had made me to be. It was awesome. When I returned to the prayer room I was just marveling at how He would bother to speak through two different women...just to make this point clear to me...a particle of dust! (We were formed from the dust of the earth; Genesis 1!) As soon as I had spoken that thought to Him, the Holy Spirit immediately whispered, "You know that when the dust of the earth mingles with the Light of the Son....that's how I paint the sky!" I was speechless as He then downloaded His delight to use us to display the colors and shades of His glory in the earth as we sit before Him....mingling with Him...the Light! He will reflect out of our lives, revealing Himself to those around us in His beauty and splendor. Wow. So next time you feel like a dirt clod...nothing special, a failure....go and watch the sunset! Oh what He can do with a little dust....

Love you all much! Know that you are in my heart and prayers. Have a blessed Thanksgiving and safe travels to those who will be on the road.

His,
Heather