hope|sounds

(I find it ironic that I'm picking this blog back up a year to date from when I stopped writing.)

I am not a "blogger," I am a writer - good, old fashioned paper and pen work wonders for me. My journals are my outlets - like portals to places I cannot go in the natural realm. When I write, I feel like I'm exploring the caverns of my mind, finding all kinds of mysteries. When I write, I feel like I am searching after God as for treasure and my journals transform into a dialogue between God and me...letters between us, almost. I write my thoughts, my prayers, my experiences, and then he speaks to me and I write his thoughts and prayers.

I was going to make this blog strictly informational about the Onething Campus/Community and prayer, but I realize that prayer is becoming a lifestyle for me and my involvement with Onething is inseparable from the other social activities that make up my life (for the most part). So you're gonna get a little bit of "me" in here...grace and peace to you as you read!

This season has, for me, seemed to be infused with "suddenlies." It seems as though God's words have come to me "suddenly" (often when I'm not expecting them), and he has been moving "suddenly." The lingo around the prayer center of "shifting and sifting and shaking" has become commonly accepted and experienced. All I can say to that is, "Yes!" I am reminded of the word we (at Onething) were given a while ago from Amos 9 that there would be a great shifting and shaking. Praise the Lord for true prophetic words that come to pass! I believe we are beginning to live that word out now.

A little background on why this blog is starting up again:

Back in July, I had the privilege of visiting a friend in Indiana for nearly a week. Now, there's something about traveling (particularly by airplane - maybe it's the perspective thing) that seems to shake the dust off of the mind as the familiar and mundane fades into the background. This trip was a lot of "firsts" for me and a lot of "suddenlies." Though my intention was to bless my friend, God ended up blessing me with new vision, purpose and direction for this next season. I didn't have specifics, just felt a lot of clarity and peace about God being in control of the future.

When I came home, I was tested heavily within the first week - victorious in some, not so much in others. I felt very oppressed and discouraged that I wasn't experiencing what I thought God had been showing me. I felt like I came home as a new person and yet everything and everyone at home "appeared" the same. I wasn't exactly sure how to bring about the words God had spoken to me so I just resorted to prayer. (Always a win!)

I went to an all day solemn assembly not long after this trip. I knew going into it that I was not going to pray for or focus on any personal spiritual/relationship issues I had going on in my life (which were many), but rather this day was focusing on building/advancing God's Kingdom. Once again, God blessed me with a prophetic word from a pastor at the assembly that I never met before. What was different about this prophetic word was that there was a specific time frame attached to it. (Now, I was hesitant about this because the one and only and last time anyone had ever given me a "prophetic word" with a time on it, the person was a false prophet and nothing came to pass. But, I told God my spirit was open to receive from Him.) This pastor told me that in 2 weeks, God was going to launch me into my destiny. Hm. I had been asking God that prior week for direction and clarity about my "purpose." I thanked the man, thanked God and focused on prayer for the Body the rest of the day.

I was house sitting for Ed and AnnMarie for about a week near the end of August (their house is one of the best places I've ever found for good quiet time) and I didn't realize it at the time, but the day after that 2 week time frame the pastor spoke of, I was sitting in a chair in their house and just listening/waiting on God to speak and I felt compelled to read the book of Romans again because I felt I was needing a reminder of my foundation. (I've studied Romans many times before and knew this was a good plan.) I wasn't prepared for God to so gracefully and pointedly target me with his love and direction.

*Mini-rewind: During that solemn assembly, I felt my heart begin to burn stronger for prayer and God gave me an awareness of the urgency of the hour and the importance of prayer. From that, I found myself praying that God would raise up more communities of prayer across the land and that I wanted to be involved in planting prayer furnaces and raising up these prayer communities. Felt compelled to start 2 prayer gatherings - one in South Tampa where I live and the other at Onething in Brandon. At the time, I had no idea what this was supposed to look like, but I felt it was confirmation of what I had been feeling for over a year concerning my "purpose" - felt that God wanted to use me to minister to churches and ministries through prayer support, service, refreshing, and reinforcement. (What kind of title do you put on that??)

So here I sit with all of this in the back of my mind and I read Romans 1:5 - "...through whom [Jesus Christ] we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of His name among all the nations." Yes! I am being tested so heavily in my faith and have received grace SO THAT Christ THROUGH ME would bring about obedience of faith in the nations! (You can only reproduce what you are - you can only give what you have.)

Then I read Romans 1:11-12 and my jaw dropped - "For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you - that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each others faith, both yours and mine." That is EXACTLY what my heart has been crying out for and feeling deep in my bones for over a year and I thought I was thinking crazy and didn't even know it was in the Bible!!

After this, I can't even explain how much more my life has been characterized by a spirit of prayer, fasting and thanksgiving. There are no words...there is only the AMAZING, MERCIFUL grace of God that has brought me to this place.

Two days after I receive this word in my quiet time, I'm covering for someone else's shift on campus (nothing is coincidence) and I end up talking/praying/rejoicing for 2 hours with a woman who had to cancel her class on campus that night. Complete confirmation of the things that God has been speaking to me and specific direction for what the next step in God's calling looks like. Thank you, God!!

A week later, I visited a ministry I used to serve and a "random" young man prophesied over me that in 28 days I would be receiving clarity about some things (among others). Ironically enough, that time frame ended around the last week of September/1st week of October. Here's what else was going on around that time...Sept 22 is the first official day of the Fall Season, Sept 24 is Onething's 4 year anniversary of being open, Sept 25 is the beginning of the feast of Tabernacles (Jewish New Year of 5771) and is when we start to gain and lose some churches on campus, and Oct 2 is my one year anniversary of being in relationship.

With all that was coming and confirmation from others that they felt a lot of change coming with this new season, I felt led to pray and fast for the Onething campus, community and region for 30 days. September 16 was my first day and as God has been downloading things to me, I feel that the information needs to be available for those that would have ears to hear.

This blog will be a summary of the prayers I've prayed and words and vision that He has been speaking during this time. I pray that you would have eyes to see, ears to hear, open hearts, renewed minds, and prayerful spirits for the hour is urgent.