Midnight Prayer

A midnight gathering of five, the number of grace...
Entering quietly, rejoicing in togetherness,
Eager to seek His face, to remember His promises.

Worshiping.

Interceding.

Calling forth His purposes for our nation.
Aligning ourselves, bowing low in repentance,

Remembering the power of His death and resurrection.
It never gets old - the blood still cries out, still makes new!
We eat, we drink, we remember, we weep.
We are strengthened by His body and blood.

Voices joining together,
Ezekiel 37
pages turning, murmurs of agreement.

Prophesying over the valley of dry bones.
Precious Body of Christ - let your bones come together,
let tendons and flesh cover you,
let the breath of the LIVING GOD enter you.
Rise up out of the grave
Dance before the KING!

Canada LIVE!!
Fulfill the destiny for which you were created.

You will bring healing to the nations..
For He has proclaimed it and it will come to pass.

Thy Kingdom Come, here in Canada
Thy Will be Done in our nation.

Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Butterfly Extravaganza

Sweet gathering of friends to celebrate a miracle.
Gift bags in hand, we enter with smiles and anticipation.
One in our midst is experiencing a dream come true and we are hovering excitedly about, laughing, loving, rejoicing.



Posing in pajamas,
Admiring wedding attire,
BLING!
Lovely Lingerie,
LEOPARD PRINT & ZEBRA!!
Modeling... giggles
Chocolate fondu with white wine,
CREAM PUFFS!
More pictures and laughter,
Ticking TIMERS!
A journey revealed in a journal
Prayers of thankfulness
Gifts for all
Painted BUTTERFLY rocks!
Symbols of HOPE


Answered prayers...

"Write down the revelation
and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it.
For the revelation awaits an appointed time;
It speaks of the end and will not prove false,
Though it tarry, wait for it.
It will certainly come and not delay."
Habakkuk 2:2,3

Tea Time

Fall is here for sure!!!

Today as I drove my daughter to school I delighted in the bright apples hanging like gigantic candies on the trees...so many different shades of red, so brilliant against the green leaves. Oh how I love living amidst the orchards and vineyards and mountains. I feel simply spoiled to see such incredible beauty on a daily basis.

These days the apple pickers are busy bringing in the harvest and bit by bit my lush landscape will turn to brown and grey. Sigh. So I make tea and enjoy cuddling into bed with the warm brew and my laptop. The shorter days have begun. I am glad that there are still apples on the trees outside my bedroom window and the sky just peeks out between the leafy branches. Changing seasons...

My "housemates" of the past six months are moving out this weekend! It has been such a precious thing to have my niece and her family living with me. Oh the fun of hearing those happy voices from the kitchen, smelling the delicious aromas that fill the house as exotic meals are cooked up and watching the little people play around the house and yard. God's goodness to me in a quieter season of my life. Now I will trust Him to fill my life and hopefully my home with new experiences and people.

I've begun teaching at the school but it has been a disorganized start. My desk disappeared so I'm feeling a bit lost trying to set up my workstation in other areas. I need to go out desk hunting so that I can feel more settled as I work with the kids. There is so much need and I feel overwhelmed knowing that I can only do so much. I'm grateful that God will be there working alongside me and giving wisdom. It's such a responsibility and privilege to have one on one time with these kids to speak value into their lives and to help them gain the basic necessity of reading. Oh how some of them struggle. I admire their courage and am grateful to be a small part of their lives for this season. May God use me to bless them I pray...

powerful pain

I have struggled with an "eye affliction" for several years now despite visits to specialists and various attempts to rid myself of the problem. It has surprised me how pain in one's eye can be so consuming and distracting. Such a small area yet so loaded with pain receptors. Perhaps because it is such a delicate and important part of the body it needs extra insurance that when there is a problem it WILL NOT be ignored!

The pain I struggle with as a result of this affliction comes and goes and thankfully is not a frequent visitor. However in this past week I had about four days of discomfort and I noticed that I was growing increasingly desperate with each day that passed. The wearing power of pain puts an amazing magnifying glass on one's ability to persevere and rejoice in the midst of trial. I found myself whining and speaking far too often of the trial I was undergoing. It's not like I was physically incapacitated by the problem but I was crawling into bed and curling up trying to sleep or disappear. The exhaustion brought on by this discomfort was emotional and physical. Almost embarrassing to admit that I can succumb so easily to a physical trial that is barely noticeable unless someone looks at the little swollen reddened area on my eyelid.

I found myself telling the Lord "it's not like I'm asking for the full meal deal here - just the eyes - if you could just heal my eyes". And I began asking for prayer - thankful that I have a community around me that is more than willing to pray if I ask. And then this morning as I sat in the car before going into the school to teach two good friends popped in to encourage me and they were only too happy to speak to the Lord on my behalf and to call forth healing, rebuking the infection. I was so grateful for the intercession on my behalf and later as I was out shopping I realized that I was pain free and I thanked my precious Jesus for rescuing me again.

It's interesting how the natural so often speaks of the invisible in our lives. The problem in my eyes is caused by blocked oil glands and I need the Lord to apply eye salve so the oil can once again flow over my eyes restoring their comfort and ability to see properly.

So Jesus, I ask for healing in the natural and in the spiritual. If I am somehow allowing blockage to create any kind of blindness in the spiritual realm I ask you to grant me the ability to push past the hindrance, to get rid of that which prevents clear sight. I command any spirits of infirmity or blindness to be rendered powerless in my life by the powerful name and blood of Jesus Christ.

"

The lamp of the body is the eye,
if therefore your eye is clear
your whole body will be full of light"
Matthew 6:22

I want to have clear eyes...I want my whole body to be full of light. I want the Body of Christ to have clear eyes, so that the Body of Christ will be full of light in a society of increasing darkness.

"Because you say 'I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing'
and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,
I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire..
.and eyesalve to anoint your eyes that you may see". Rev. 3:17,18

So Jesus, I don't know exactly what this is all supposed to mean, but if I ask I shall receive, so I ask for the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation so that I may have the knowledge of Jesus and see what I am supposed to see. I ask for the ability to buy eyesalve so that I can see clearly...and I ask this for the Body of Christ as well.

Thank you for endlessly rescuing us. For giving us visible, even painful reminders of our need to pray and to call out for supernatural intervention.

Inspiration

I found the blog of a friend today and was inspired to do a posting, simply for fun. I noticed how she was able to post just a few lines one day and wax eloquent the next and it's all good!! I must let go of that "something" inside of me that says "if it's not just right it's better not to do it". (could that possibly be something as horrible as perfectionism at work inside of me?)

Well, I'm going to try to break free from the old mold and be a little more spontaneous and less serious about this whole blogging business! In school I tended to try to get things "just right" and life is too short for that! I've probably missed out on alot of opportunities due to that high achiever tendency. The pursuit of excellence is good, but sometimes you just need to "hang loose'!

So, here we go...just a few lines today to say "CARPE DIEM"!! (To prove my newfound freedom is at work here I'm not even going to look up the spelling of that word - haha!) Let's see if this allows me to visit this place more often!

Failure... or Not

It's nearing the end of summer. I lay here in my sweet bedroom with the sun shining in through the window, trying to figure out my state of mind. I'm sort of trying to analyze my feelings and thoughts. I say "sort of" because part of me is too afraid to go there all the way.

I will begin by saying I didn't do really well with the difficult thing I last posted about. I feel like I just barely passed the test, if at all. It makes me disappointed with myself for not being a superstar, for not putting on a lovely show and making everybody feel good, including myself.

There just didn't seem to be anything in me to put on the show, so I ran away from home. I was afraid of the small talk, underlying tension and pretending. I just did the bare essentials and they were really really bare. Nobody said much of anything regarding the difficult thing, and the most honest I got was telling someone involved that I wasn't able to stay to converse because there was still too much pain inside of me. Now, I must wonder if that was because I didn't draw on God's strength to do the very hard thing in a brilliant way or if I was supposed to get more real with myself and those around me. I still don't know and I've talked this thing out with several people. I feel like I've let God down and I'm afraid of asking Him. I know that sounds crazy because He is my best friend, but I'm feeling a little cut off lately.

I've been in a funny place these last couple of years though. Running out of gas to do the simple things that used to bring me life and that were so easy to do. They also made me look good and people would comment on how impressed they were with me. (In a round about way of course) Now I realize it was all God's grace that allowed me to do any of it in the first place. A good realization, but humbling too. I am definitely feeling smaller and smaller, and more and more insignificant. Struggling with simple things and not feeling really spiritual or strong or disciplined.

Wondering if I've run out of gas because of a "lack" on my part, not fulfilling my part of the deal or if God is simply pulling me away from so many things and so much busyness into Himself. I do feel like I've been pulled away from things, but I don't feel pulled into God as a result and I wonder if that is my fault?

I must remind myself that He is jealous for my affection, amazingly enough. That He's not disappointed with me. That He just wants me to draw close to listen to His Heart and to love from a place of being loved. I trust that He will show me if I really screwed up and that He'll help me to make it right if I did. I do want to live more honestly though and that part felt good. I just need to make sure that my honest living is not misinterpreted if I don't communicate properly. We are to "speak the truth in love".

Jesus help me to do this. To speak the truth in love. To trust you enough to listen again and to rest in your adequacy. I'm just limping along and I want to be carried by you for awhile. Carried so close that I can hear your heartbeat and feel your breath and just know your awesome power to transform my mistakes and redeem my failures.

I'm asking you to wash me with your costly blood and tears so that my hard heart will soften and my fears will melt away.

A Hard Thing

I'm being asked by the Father to do a hard thing. A very hard thing indeed. I need to extend kindness and grace and hospitality to one who has deeply hurt me and my family. Amazing the feelings that spring up from some hidden place; not feelings of mercy, but of anxiety and resentment. Thankfully I know that though the enemy would now like to taunt me I can operate out of the mind of Christ and do that which is humanly impossible "through Christ who strengthens me"!! I don't have to rely on myself but must call on Him who is able to do "exceedingly and abundantly MORE than all I can even ask or imagine.

So Father, I'm asking for a miracle. That I would pass this test. That I would love as you have loved me and forgive as you have forgiven me.

I choose to roll out the welcome mat in the Spirit. I renounce the spirit of division and strife. I welcome the Spirit of Jesus.

Come Holy Spirit and guard my heart and my tongue. Come and be present in this place.

Strengthen me with your righteous right hand.

I thank you in advance for miracles, because you're in the business of making them happen!!

I just need to trust and obey...