April 2005 archives

Today, on the front page of The New York Times, soars an illustration of a big exotic bird with these headlines, "Back from the Dead":

"The ivory-billed woodpecker, whose great size and stunning plumage once moved people to call it the Lord God bird (because that's what they said when they saw it), had long been given up for extinct. The last confirmed sighting was in 1944; the woodpecker's habitat, in the swampy tupelo and cypress forests of the Southeast, has been logged nearly out of existence. But in an anouncement that electrified the birdwatching world, scientists reported that an ivory bill had been spotted at least seven times in the last 15 months in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge in central Arkansas...."

I keep collecting articles like this... last year there was big news in Michigan about wild cougars, who had diminished and scarcely migrated out into Canada were "coming back to Michigan." And we were talking about it with Hannah, who said there were prophecies that the "eagles were coming back to England."

It's so amazing... this has to do with restoration... God bringing back things that were extinct and driven out, the animals responding to the sons and daughters... and I think we are gonna see more of this. They are signs and wonders! And how cool is it that this is the Lord God bird. yeah!

story here: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=634044

The mother of Samuel, the first great prophet, prayed, “ I overcome my enemies, because I rejoice in my victory.” At the start of this great prophet’s life, a mother is rejoicing in her victory. This is the secret of overcoming--to rejoice that He has already done it. Not only does this engage faith, it also declares truth. This was before Samuel her son was even born. We declare victory before experiencing it! So that it becomes clear to all the guard, that it is His cross which wins--it is God who overcomes, and waits for us to claim it!

It is not just that praise lifts us into the heavens by spiritual law; it is that God has already overcome all the areas of stress and turmoil in our lives by His Son’s death. We claim it by rejoicing in it, or as the old folks used to say, by “reckonin it so”. When we reckon that what God says is true, we start to experience it as true. It is true, of course, even before we experience it, but as people, we like and need to experience the actual practical overcoming of Christ.

The way into victory is always death. By death, I mean death to ourselves thinking we can, in our own power, overcome anything! We simply cannot. A key to spiritual growth is starting in this place of death in each area, then going on to His resurrection. We must pass through the deaths of the Jordan to enter the promises of our lands! As the Jordan river was a type of Jesus death, it was also a type of His resurrection--as the waters of the Jordan were rolled back all the way to the city of Adam when the people crossed over! We, too, will see the waters of death rolled back when we enter this baptism of death and ressurrection experientially through our faith in the power of His Cross.

The key is that he had the priest and Judahites singing praises--they were already rejoicing in the crossed over state, before they got there! That is hannah’s secret as well. When we need to cross over, we are to enter the jordan and rejoice--that is the way to overcome pornography, greed, fears, self hatred and on and on. Jesus has rolled back the waters through His cross, but we must rejoice. That is our mitzpah or command in the Spirit--to rejoice, to reckon it done by Christ!

Hi y'all. Lately it feels like I've been carrying an enormous burden for Austin. There is a lot happening politically here right now--many changes in policies and city-growth strategies that I think will determine a lot of stuff. I have never felt such an overwhelming amount of urgency... not since the election in the U.S. In addition to prayers over Austin... it has also shown me how much I love the place I live. This same thing happened when I started praying over our national government. I started growing in love toward the leaders and the city and the people in it.

For instance, we have a high Mexican population here... I would say that Mexicans are about at least a third of Texas. I drove through a Mexican neighborhood last week and suddenly appreciated them in a way I never have... I felt the lord say that their asthetic was not appreciated by white culture very much... and sometimes we think it is too bling bling for us... but this really convicted me as the Lord washed over me with not only His love but His LIKE for the Mexicans and their way. For one, they are very family-centered.... and while most of America and Europe goes down in child-bearing because of abortion and also the general trends against marriage... I mean most people my age wait a really, really long time to get married. Not so in Mexican life... They are very family-focused and this is a great gift to America and to its cities because cities need healthy families before they need economic programs. Families are a symbol of God's relationship to us... and He blesses people through them. All of my early spiritual growth happened not so much in a church but from living with two very special families and their kids... and all their extended spiritual kids.

Anyway, if you seek him on that sort of stuff, please lift up our city to Him that He would prepare the way and that our leaders would have wisdom... from which justice and righteousness flow... just got done reading that passage about wisdom in Proverbs and I was really blown away by it. The wisdom of the Father is so big and transcends time... but I want to seek it like gold!

reading the symbol of the Jordan River...

The Jordan river represented the death and work on the cross of Christ--recall the waters were turned back to the city of adam. This is a different river than the Red Sea which was about deliverance from our Egypts. This is about receiving the land!

The priest had to be fully dead to stand in its center. As we approach the land promised to Christ, we must be fully IN Him--all must die that is not in Him, and be placed on His cross.

The book of Joshua gives us a map, not just of where we are at locationally in history, but also what we must go through in order to enter our "lands". Every area of our lives must go through a death and resurrection in order to cross the Jordan.

The priest, levites and judahites crossed over first. So they had to go through this death to self first. Christ of course experienced death before all of us--He alone could roll back the waters of the Jordan all the way to Adam, so that we might be able to die also, and begin to recieve His inheritance.

Any and every area of our lives which has not experienced the baptism of the Jordan will, if we are going to go into the lands He has promised.

Many of those being asked to enter their "lands" are also having to go through many deaths currently. This is a good sign that we are entering the baptism of the Jordan. The more He brings up in us areas not yet dead, the better. It is a privilege to die first. it is, in fact, like Christ--who is the only one who could really die first. We join Him in His death, so that we may be in and with Him as He receives His lands through us!

Remember also that the general body or other tribes were 2000ft back. Just as we are about 2000 years back from Christ death. He went first as we are being asked to do. We must not turn and ask those not yet near the banks to die. They will see the glory and follow! The general Body of Christ is being asked to prepare to approach the Jordan, but others are at its edge. It is good to be exactly where He has each of us!

Went to a gathering recently, and heard a friend speak on increasing perception--that God's further incarnation into His People would mean that the symbolic and the logic parts of their minds would be joined in a new way.

He was talking specifically in the context of the restoration, of God making men whole again. there is to be a flow from the symbolic part of the mind and the sorting or naming parts.

the restoration of the imagination...
the enlightenment period obviously idolized one part of man's mind--its reasoning or logic aspects; then the 20th century saw an artistic reaction to that in its exploration and even eventual idolization of the "unconscious". The surrealist often threw out reason all together in a somewhat reactive way. But what does it look like for man's mind to be whole.
We find ourselves looking more to the celts or the native americans or, the jewish mind for clues. But I think that our capacity as image bearers of God has not been fully expressed yet.

The way that the "back" of the mind and the front are to work together, for instance, is not fully understood. This has to do with God's restoration of the symbolic in His People first and then in all of creation. He is a unified expression--behold, oh Israel, God is ONE. So there would be no disconnected bits which did not have a clearly meaningful expression....
...you see that the church was able to separate abstract doctrine from the actual Person of Christ very early on in its history. So that one could talk of the law without knowing the law giver; or speak of the theology of the cross without having gone to it. This gap appears to be in a process of erosion currently, as the reality of the thing symbolized is invading the symbols again! Christ is returning into the image of cross in a way that has great mystery and wonder!
What does a renewed mind look like in the end?!

I'm still a bit shocked, when I get with jesus in His labour space, at how few of us--including me half the time- are actually willing to get spiritually "slimed" in order to hang with Him as he works.
I mean all of our neighbors and those we swirl around, are artist and and creative types, and there is lots of witchcraft, sorcery, lustful perverse stuff etc around them. But people ARE His harvest, and The Man is busy tending each person with such meticulous care. He has searched and knows each plant!

Today, i was talking with this local police woman. She is also an artist, and was really broken and open to words from God. She cried twice in our conversation, as His words went in. I kept thinking that each person I talk to daily, needs to know what He is saying to them, but how often do I tune in and offer that--not enough.
Anyhow, my prayer space this week had this deep meditation on Jesus the Labourer Farmer. He was so busy tending each single plant; and there were so few people helping out. I thought of how many people, he had saved out of bondage and how few of them were willing to go labour with Him, and it made me sad. He really is so noble to be working so hard with little help, and willing to bear or feel all the slime as He works. I really want to be there with and in Him as He works!

I'm not talking about just building church, but really labouring into people's lives in the way He is, for one, to get to see how subtly He works, and to gain that wisdom knowledge. i don't see another way to know Him on that level, but by actually working with Him!
I've wondered a lot this season, what keeps us resisting growing up spiritually. One thing is that to choose to labour means we are not going to just get to hang in the glory space, but will get dirty.

There was this great moment in my vision yesterday as i was praying, where jesus was spraying off everyone who had been working that day, with this huge glory sprinkler. There was this feeling of great satisfaction--the satisfaction that His soul has when He sees the harvest of His Own labour!

"He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied!"
(exclamation point, mine!!)