Wiggle Room In the Schedule

It's been one of those weeks. Or months... Maybe the last couple years. I have been learning how to not be so busy. It's a fight. Today started off all wrong, or so I thought.

Zoe, the puppy would not go potty for me this morning before I left for work. She's usually very good, might take some doing to get her out of bed, but once she's outside, she wants to get it over with. This is a yawn. "I'll just lay down out here."

I went to work and called Mom on my break since I doubted Zoe could hold it for 20 hours. She said she'd walk over and let her out. After work, since Zoe had gotten a later bathroom break, I felt like I could stop and look at some red impatients and maybe think about spending the money on them. I got over there and a lady was sitting behind the flowers between them and the wall and started talking to me. Asked me why the red. Then she told me she hadn't had a cigarette in 2 years. Hmmm, ok, I didn't see a cigarette in her hand... I said "But here you are sitting on the smoking bench..."
"I know! And all the church people are going to come by and see me sitting here!" I laughed and walked around the plants recognizing this for what it was. A set up.

So I look at her and to sum up, we have an addiction trying to come back, the worst day she's had in 2 years, a brace on her leg and I could tell she probably has trouble fitting in and finding friends.
"Ok God, where do we start?"
"Just let her talk."
"I can do that."
So she talked. She unloaded. And it wasn't your run of the mill problems, it was problems that the local media has been on top of, but I didn't realize it was her family. Wasn't even real to me until I was hearing it from her and I hadn't heard the big evil part of what happened. And it got spiritual real fast. I didn't steer it at all. She lit her cigarettes but was mostly too busy talking. She had moved back fairly recently to be with family that was in a point of turmoil, but wasn't strong enough to not get sucked in. She didn't have an outside person to talk to, was in a church that probably doesn't understand anything about warfare and said I was her first friend. I like her. I drove her home and prayed for her. I would never have had the opportunity had I been in a hurry. So many other days have been like that, the times where I don't have a plan are the great days. I can't shun schedules and responsibility. But I don't have to cram it all in so tightly that I can't stop for one person. We'll see how long this change of mind lasts.

I did buy the red impatients. Every time I look at em I'll think of her.

Spring Cleaning and Banana Cream Parfaits

I haven't posted in a while, not because things haven't been happening, but because so much of what's happening hasn't been things I could talk about so publicly.

Spring cleaning seems to be on God's heart for me and many others I know, and it all started for me with this lovely little dream about taking care of the generational curses in the family. After that one, I had another revealing Freemasonry in my bloodline. Mom had a dream of being married to a 33rd degree Freemason. Dad was not a mason, I believe that since Mom is the matriarch of the family, it was revealing what we were in covenant with.

Once a week the entire extended family in the area gets together for Sunday night supper. I printed off this prayer of renunciations for descendants of Freemasons and we went through it as a family. It took a full glass of pop and about a half hour for me to get through it all, but afterward we all felt free and happy and there was that unmistakable fragrance of His Presence in the room.

Had a couple more Masonic dreams showing me where to go from there. Mom had a vision of Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich chasing Mitt Romney. (Or it might have been that they were running behind him :) she said "chasing.") At the same time, she heard that we were supposed to renounce the Masonic declarations spoken over the nation. How those two things go together, I'll leave you to speculate.

We basically went through the generational prayer again, only instead of "our forefathers", it was "our founding fathers". Not going head to head against fortified spirits, just forgiving those involved and praying in the Light.

The following Sunday was my turn to cater Sunday Night Supper and I woke up that morning from a dream of a banana cream parfait in a mason jar. Not quite sure how to interpret that, but I liked the idea of celebrating that we've driven that spirit bananas, so I made parfaits and they were tasty!

Nilla wafers, banana cream pudding mix, bananas and whipped cream.

Need a dream interpreted? Click here.

My Dog's a Believer!

I should preface this by saying she has been prayed for before and likes to be prayed for.

I came home from work last week and my dog Zoe was on three legs. She came up crying as I got in the door and I immediately sat down and made a big fuss and kissed her all over her face. She maneuvered around so that her hind leg was in my hands. I felt around, moved it through her range of motion... It was her "knee." (Do dogs have knees?) I did a quick little prayer and let go. She put the foot down on the ground and started walking on it, a little at first and then she started stepping down more normally, testing it out. She turned around and looked at me. "Are we all good?" I asked. She ran off and got her ball.

But that's not all. I think if dogs can be saved, Zoe is IN! My mom dog sits once a week and tells her all about Jesus. My sister and I were in another room while Mom and Zoe were playing and we were snickering about the lesson going on in there. "Zoe's probably the only dog in the world that gets the gospel preached to her." I said. But Mom heard me and yelled back, "When Jesus comes back, every knee will have to bow, so she might as well know now!" Bwhah ha ha ha ha! We were laughing then, but that knee that's gonna have to bow is now in fine shape to do so.

Two For One Night

The other night, my sister got home and there was a teenage boy she's acquainted with out on her sidewalk pacing back and forth waiting for her to get home. He'd been in a fight and hurt his punching hand. She took him inside and got him settled down and prayed for his hand. The pain left right away and there was some other thing on the same hand that he said kept getting lighter and going away. He left and she settled in for the night when there was a knock on the door.

He was back, this time with a girl in tow, who had a broken hand. So my sister sat them down, explained that Jesus died on the cross for our healing as well as our salvation, it was available to anybody that wanted it, and she prayed for the girl's hand. She got done, asked her to check it out and the girl started to open and close her fingers. She was so excited and kept opening and closing them, then she started poking around because she could feel the break before, where the bones were separated. No break.

Then she looks directly at Jill and says, "Do you believe in 2012?" This had obviously been bugging her. Jill said "What do you mean? Like the apocalypse?"
"Yeah." She explained that the bible says that no man knows the day or the hour, but that God does give us signs of the end times." The conversation veered down some different roads from there, God's love, the book of John, Grandma's church, etc. They left really happy.

This is so ideal in my mind, where they just show up at your house, where God just shows up at your house! How cool is that? The problem is, God shows up at our houses more than He shows up in the churches. It's sad, but He's a gentleman. He doesn't go where He's not wanted, or if they wanna keep Him on the bench the whole time, He obliges. She knew when she was talking to the girl about healing, that God was just gonna have to do it. She never said maybe she'd be healed. It was a simple done deal. Woulda been awkward if He hadn't healed her. Lucky for us, He likes to do that stuff.

You can see people get healed too, start here.

Lovers vs Workers

Most Christians will tell you they believe in salvation by grace and not works, but their actions say otherwise. And maybe they really do believe they're going to heaven based on a decision alone, but so many are running around trying awfully hard to make their Daddy happy.

It's easy to tell a lover from a worker. Workers are not the happiest bunch, and there's a sense of duty around everything they do. Their motive is to please God. They operate out of their own strength - which is just flesh - and they expect something back. Either acknowledgment from those they help, or for God to move on their behalf, crown in heaven, they've got something in mind, even if they won't admit it. A lot of it is "Hey Father, look what I did!" I don't mean to imply that workers don't love, but it's not the primary motivation, and they are not resting securely in their Father's love.

Lovers place a high value on obedience to God, but they don't act out of duty. They are compelled by Love. Through resting in that Love, they change things everywhere they go through little effort of their own. Their working comes out of union with God. Love is like a tangible thrust that fills their sails and propels them into action with a happy ambition. Lovers will out work the workers any day of the week.

Lately when Jesus has been showing up (yes I see Him) it's been to talk to me about rest and remind me that I'm starting to operate from my own strength, which is just flesh and we know that's weak right? He's trying to save me from a life of prostitution. Because if you're a worker instead of a lover... Yeah.

If you're tired, you're worn out, you're frazzled and grumpy, then you've been working. The cure is always the same. Jesus. I'm not real big on the Message bible, but I do like the way Matt 11:28-30 is in there. "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

So we gotta remember that we are the branch connected to the vine. (John 1:1-17) Our primary purpose is to "abide". Just as the sap flows from the vine into the branch, we also are tapped into that continual infilling of the Spirit, which enables us to produce fruit and continue to grow. There is nothing required on our part beyond just staying connected. The fruit just happens. Now, you can be in a dormant season, so if you don't see fruit, don't panic and try to squeeze some out through your own effort. Stay connected to the vine. If there's areas of your life not producing fruit, God'll take care of it. Just rest in His unconditional love.

Tired Lil' Radicals

The Healing Rooms Ministries in Spokane put on their annual Spiritual Hunger Conference last we so we went up for that and crashed at a friend's place. Healing Rooms teams from all over the world fly in for this thing, and then there are people like us with no affiliation that just come for a good time. Speakers were Bill and Beni Johnson, Cal Pierce, Jim White and others with Kelanie Gloecker doing worship.

You gotta be there at 8 am and you're getting back 10:30 at night, all us out-of-towners are crashed at my friend's. She said she didn't have any furniture so it was air-bed city. I was out in the hallway/stairwell and my roommate prays out loud in her sleep. Intercession going all night. I got tired by Thurs night. Thursday morning some guy came over and told us we should go to John G Lake's grave, told us there are angels there. He then handed us a map. We all agreed that was something we oughta go do. John G Lake started the Healing Rooms in Spokane and on the way there, my friend who lives there was telling us about a dog that got run over and they laid the dog on the grave site and it was resurrected.

We got to the graveyard and started walking around, we had no idea where to go. Jill and Jeanette are the better "feelers" and they were walking around with their hands out walking toward the power. Kinda like the hot/cold game. I kept going to a tree, but it wasn't his headstone. I kept looking toward that tree though. Turned out I was just on the wrong side of the tree. So we soaked up all the impartation we had time to get, and we were wondering how far away this extended. I said it had to be a 50 foot radius of Holy Spirit action, so one of em walked right and the other walked left. Jeanette paced it off. 50 feet exactly, or as exact as shoe measuring gets.



Friday, there was a workshop we decided to skip in favor of taking a nap, but we wound up going to Medical Lake instead. We got in in our conference clothes, oh well, it was fun. I got super drunk in the Spirit and Mom thought for sure someone was going to have to collect me from the bottom of the lake. The last thing I was able to say was, "I gotta get in a little deeper." I didn't realize God was gonna take that statement symbolically. I was laughing and shrieking and tears and not being able to breathe for laughing. We were not the only people there.

An hour of laughing later, we're back at the conference and Jim White gets drunk in the Spirit taking the offering, then the band gets hit, Cal Pierce gets up to speak and can't. He slides down behind the podium laughing, so Jim takes the mic and says "Here's Bill". Bill Johnson gets up, I thought he was gonna lose it there for a minute but he was able to stay up. And it was a good thing too cause 40 people got their metal rods and plates removed including this lady I prayed for.

Credit to Jill Ricci for the photo.

We got back late and we were tired and hungry. Everybody is lined up on the couch eating zuchinni bread and not saying a word. My friend walks in, looks at us, "How can such peaceful people be so radical?"

Saturday morning I went in for the morning prayer. There was some lady on the floor laughing, I stepped over her to get to the book table. When I came back she was still going and she'd got a hold of somebody's legs and was passing it on to him. From there it went person to person and they got a drunken huddle together, so we went up and got in on it. It got bigger and bigger and when my friend walked in, she had seen this so many times at our house she was sure Jill and I instigated the whole thing. Nope, not us, not this time. Later on after the morning session, the laughing lady grabbed me and hugged me, told me she loved me. I said "I love you too, God bless and stay whacked." She said that they had prayed for her to receive the joy of the Lord the night before and she had been like this ever since. My laugh muscles hurt today as I write this, so I can only imagine how she's feeling by now.

And Saturday night? One big drunk fest. Cal got to talk for a little while, actually, he was up there unnecessarily long because nobody was listening at the end. I started out laughing at other people, someone laid hands on me and then it was an authentic drunkenness which is way more fun, but hard on the abs. This is NOT how it went last year.

The point of me telling you all this stuff, and there's plenty that I'm leaving out,is that you aren't going to get this at home. There is a trend of doing church on the internet or tv, and that's really an awesome thing, I'm not knocking it at all. If you can't get there in person, by all means, but there are people doing live streaming when they are in the same town. And I know, that all the things I did and experienced here is not everyone's cup of tea, but whatever your cup of tea is, I guarantee you are supposed to get out and interact with the rest of the body of Christ. There comes a point where you don't need another good sermon. Some of you have had decades of those. You need God in your life, you need to feel the tangible glory, not just head knowledge. You need people who can put the missing pieces in your puzzle, and people who can pray for you. Go outside and be sociable. And here's a video for those who need the "drunk in the Spirit" bit explained to them. He got it for the first time about like I did. All by myself, praying.

Walking and Hanging Out On Limbs (Me mixing metaphors again)

I was walking down the street today feeling fairly humiliated via my own doing and I did a quick Facebook mobile post: "Someday I'm going to grow up." What I actually meant was "Someday, I'm going to mature in my Christian walk and stop embarrassing myself continually." You see, the problem with doing what I'm doing, is that all the fruit is out on the limb. I'm spending an inordinate amount of time looking like a monkey, and constantly falling out of the tree.

So yeah, walking down the street, thinking that I'm done putting myself out there, at least until I get over this most recent boo boo, when I turn up the next street and I see my guy that I prayed for get up out of his wheelchair and walk out to the corner to meet me. And then I thought, "Yep, pretty much worth it." So what if I mess up and fall on my face some more. My ego takes a hit, but that's probably a good thing. I'm stumbling but he's walking.

So he yells out from up the street, "Hello honey, how are you?" I said "I'm good how are YOU?" "Reeeeeeeal good, how far do you walk every day?" I told him eight miles. "Eight miles! I'd be happy if I could walk one mile, but I got this far!" And his wife was out too and I'd never talked to her before, but she was wanting to pray together so we stood out on the corner and prayed, then she told me all about how he was doing. He's in progress.

I'm in progress too, I'm gonna keep on truckin. God's cool with the process. Parents watching their children learn to walk don't get upset every time the kid falls down. God's not up there going "Stupid kid's never gonna get it. She should just stop trying. What a moron." That'd be ludicrous. No, He's smiling and holding out a steady hand and picking me back up when I'm down by showing me something that went right. The proud Papa.

When I left my guy, he announced "I'm gonna walk up there! And then I'm coming right back here! (Pointing to the next street - how many times have I heard little kids say that!) "Good plan. Don't overdo it." I said. Afterwards I walked up on a group talking about me. "Seneca? She's out there." I walked up behind the person and said "Yeah, I am out there." I'm finding my next limb.