Beginning of Revelation

I no longer hold any traditional views of Revelation. I no longer believe in the rapture and/or the tribulation or 1,000 year reign. I also believe that most things in Revelation have already happened. And I'm great with that.

I am a part of a glorious and overcoming Church that is constantly wanting to know God more. I don't desire to escape...I desire to chew through, because that's where great faith is found. In the pressing in and mulling over. In the pain and the fighting and the abuse. It's time to keep pushing through because we ARE a GLORIOUS and OVERCOMING Church. We ARE kings and priests, seated in heavenly realms NOW. And WE have all authority. I believe things will get better, not worse. Why live passionately for Jesus if everything is just going to hell? I have hope in a good God that desires to give good gifts to His children.

More to come on this...with Scripture and details. :)

Getting over differences

I'm learning how to let go of what I can't do anything about.

I make quick decisions, some people need time. I immediately see systems and ways of organizing, others don't. Some like to save money, I like to spend money. Some people like to live quietly and keep to themselves, I like to be loud and share stories and hear about other people. I love cats, some love dogs. I'm learning to be un-offendable, but some people actually do it. I'm an open book to anyone, some prefer to be more private. I love books and magazines and art, some love science, philosophy and technology. I love reality tv, others prefer shows of substance.

Some people come to Chick-fil-A and only eat coffee creamer and ketchup packets...I eat chicken strips. True story.

Some tidbits on honor

Honor means to recognize God's glory in another. To see what makes them valuable. Scripture says to "Honor a prophet in the name of a prophet and receive a prophet's reward." If we recognize what God is doing in someone, we are honoring them. We don't have to agree with everything they said, but if we can see what God is doing and how He is moving, then we open ourselves up to the revelation that that person is receiving. We need to be able to see and recognize God in anyone.

In the section of the gospels where Jesus goes back to his home town, He is not given honor. The title of the section is "A Prophet Without Honor" (Matthew 13:53-58). Those in Nazareth said "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't His mother Mary and His brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?" By being critical and not honoring, they are cutting themselves off to the revelation that Jesus brings. And because they were not honoring or open, Jesus could not do many miracles there.

Honor attracts life: "Honor your father and mother so that your days might be long." Jesus Christ honoring us in His death brought life.

You grow from glory to glory through honor.

Honor is the key to passing the baton of revival to the next generation. The way we honor determines what gets passed onto the next generation.

Humility comes before honor. Phil. 2:8 Pride comes before dishonor.

Ministry School

So, I'm a terrible blogger. I can't find a medium between short and light-hearted posts and serious thought-provoking posts. But honestly, I have too many serious thoughts in my head to keep them to myself. So I'll just stick with serious for a bit until I run out of stuff to say. :)

I'm currently in my second year of ministry school at Bethel and its been awesome so far. Part of school is having a life coach that you meet with every other week, and it's just amazing. One of the areas that I really wanted to work on and develop was my life purpose. Although I don't have any huge dream or goal, I've spent the last week writing out all the prophetic words over my life and doing some freehand writing on things that I love. The more I've written and explored and read over my journaling, I've found so many consistent themes: People, traveling/missions, developing and managing teams, the prophetic, taking a dream and developing a strategy to accomplish it, investing in others...etc. For the first time in my life, I'm seeing different gifts and strengths and passions of mine, and how they overlap.

I used to think that my life purpose wasn't big enough or significant enough. But I'm beginning to see that not only can I develop and train mission teams, I can then deploy them to go change the world. I want to see people interact with new and different cultures and help them process the experience they are having. I want to invest in other people's dreams and help them strategize on how to bring them to fruition.

God has created each of us with HUGE destinies that are uniquely designed for US. We aren't competing with anyone to do anything, but if we don't pick up our dream and run, someone else will. So we can't be afraid. We have to get out there and start dreaming and start pursuing and start bringing love to this world. All creation is longing for the sons and daughters of God to be revealed. To rise up. To know who they are and be who they are to this world. It's time to rise up and to shine.

Dreams Pt. 2

Dream 1: I have had two dreams with the Obamas. The first one was:

Barack and Michelle Obama had come to Bethel Atlanta to visit. They were staying with the Coopers. The Coopers were showing them around their house.

Number 2:

Barack and Michelle wanted to start coing to ministry school and church with us. They wanted to be trained up by the Coopers and our teams. They came on several firestorms with our second year class, and kept asking lots of questions trying to understand how we did ministry.

The second dream about the Obama's is very significant. Paul Manwaring helped me to see the significance of it on Sunday at church through his message. He talked about how we need to get people out of the church. We shouldn't be training up followers...we should be training up leaders that will then take what they've learned and use it for the world. He said we should be having government leaders come to our church because of our training...because we are known for equipping and sending out, for giving vision, purpose, and tools to fulfill dreams. So that solidified that what he was saying was something that God was wanting to do. We need to get our talented and gifted believers out of the church so that the world can be impacted with God's love. It isn't the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick.

Recent Dreams

I dream all the time. Every night I feel as if there is something significant God is trying to tell me. In talking to Jasmine at work yesterday, I was compelled to write down more of my dreams on my blog. I journal them as often as I can, but let's be honest...I get tired of doing that. So here are snapshots of my dream life from this past week.

Series 1- I've had several dreams about me being pregnant and giving birth. The most significant and recent of these dreams was 3 nights ago. I was several months into being pregnant and Bill Johnson was in town for his conference in December. I started going into labor during the conference and Lauren Brownlee took me to the hospital. My family also came but they sat outside the hospital building...not even coming inside. Lauren went with me into the delivery room. We were told we needed to go there in case they weren't able to stop my contractions (I still had 4 months to go). So Lauren and I went into the delivery room, they gave me an IV (a new kind that I'd never seen before), and before long the contractions had stopped and I was free to leave.

My only thought so far about this dream is that I am about to birth something in the Spirit, but it is not yet time. Bill coming to Atlanta will perpetuate the growth of this "baby" or "dream," but it will still not be time for it to be released. So I've just been declaring that this dream will be born at its appropriate time.

Dream 2: I was sitting in church, and a girl I know from church in Marietta was standing at the front of the room with her husband. The pastor was telling us a story about this little girl somewhere in the Asian Pacific who's parents had passed away. She had grown up abused and raped for most of her life, and now she had no where to go. The pastor continued to tell us that my friend and her husband were adopting this little girl and that they were going to pick her up that week. I started crying because this is a huge dream of mine, to adopt someone in a hopeless situation. After the pastor finished, my friend caught my eye and came up to me. She told me the next child in this situation would be mine.

For years I've wanted to adopt children from all over the world. I want kids of every color and ethnicity in my household. Korea has been the main place that I've wanted to adopt from, but recently my heart has been opened to parts of Africa and Eastern Europe. I don't necessarily want to go through an agency that is going to take a year+ for us to complete the process. I'd rather hear of a need and jump at the chance to adopt a child out of his/her present situation. This dream gave me hope that there'd be a way for it not to take months and months for me to have a child. I feel like God is clarifying my vision and dream for me and showing me that there is a possibility to do things differently than most.

I'll try to continue to post dreams as often as I can. However, sometimes there are ones I can't share for various reasons. I'm still learning how to steward this gift that God has given me so I'll be posting those that I am able to share, and those that I've received revelation on. I hope you will be encouraged by my dream journey.

Islam on Capitol Hill

Several weeks ago, I had a dream that I thought nothing about at the time. I dream constantly so at some point, I just have to be selective about the ones that I pray into more and question. So I didn't realize the significance of this dream until last night at ministry school.

I dreamt that Ahmadinejad (the current leader of Iran, whom the United States does NOT have a good relationship with) and another man came to North Carolina. I saw them in a boat out on water at night, and they were building a bomb.

I talked to a coworker about the dream the next day because she's from Iran and we had a laugh about it. However she made sure to mention that if he ever came to the US, that would be a terrible thing. We don't have a good relationship with him, nor does he have a good relationship with us. Most peace talks have been anything but peaceful.

So fast forward to last night at ministry school. Audra got up and wanted to share something with the class before things got going. She told us that this Friday, all the Muslims in the country are called to come and pray at the Capitol in Washington, DC for 15 hours. They want it to be a day of "unity" for Islam. Buses are being sent out from every state to bring as many Muslims as possible to DC. As if that wasn't significant...that 50,000+ Muslims are gathering to pray together....Audra then said that they would be led by Ahmadinejad and another man, Qaddafi.

As soon as she said that, I remembered my dream. As a class we spent 15 minutes interceding for all the Muslims in the country. Bethel has such a strong stance on not praying destruction or anything negative on anyone, so we just released blessing over the Muslims. We released encounters with God...that they would experience God in radical ways on Friday...and that God would show up and His presence would be undeniable.

I shared my dream with some of our leaders and we were seeing that the bomb that I saw was not necessarily a physical bomb, but that Ahmadinejad and Qaddafi were going under the radar, and they were wanting to release something in our nation that will forever change the face of it. Never have I been so motivated to rise up in my identity and exercise my authority as a follower and lover of God.

History belongs to those who pray. We, as Christians, have been given all authority. And we have a responsibility to stand up in the face of potential adversity and to declare and pray the opposite. The Church cannot afford to sleep through this huge and potentially earth-changing event. This is the time when our identities are called forth. We are given a chance to alter the course of history. If we do nothing, nothing will happen. And nothing will change. We can call forth heaven. And we have a responsibility to do that this Friday. So ARISE AND SHINE FOR THE GLORY OF THE LORD RISES UPON YOU.

Dreaming Big

I have two dear friends at work that are about to take a huge step of faith and follow their dreams.

They've been married for 5 years and have always wanted to end up in Colorado. For awhile they thought that they wanted to open up a Chick-fil-A out there, so he's been finishing school and training to be an operator, while she has been doing marketing for Chick-fil-A. Long story short, they met a couple who is moving out to Colorado to plant a church and Jasmine and Adam have decided to go with them. They are leaving their condo, furniture, jobs, and unfinished school in Atlanta and embarking on a brand new journey together. They are trusting that all the appropriate doors will open, that they'll find a place to live, get furniture, new jobs, and be able to build a church from the ground up. Dream pursuing is not for the faint of heart.

I'm so encouraged by them because so many people have big dreams and things they want to do, but never manage to take the first step. But Adam and Jasmine are some of the first people that I've known to just drop everything and pursue the things God has placed inside of them. They may never finish their work at Chick-fil-A, but they know that Colorado is where they want to be, so they're going to start there. And be in a state that they love, with the beautiful Rockies out their back door, pressing into God's heart for what He wants to do in Colorado. They are living life bold and unhindered, and radically chasing their dreams. Getting to watch the beginnings of this process is such a joy and a privilege for me.

I want to chase after my dreams the way that Adam and Jasmine are doing. Abandoning all that's familiar, and straining towards the promises that lay ahead. God has so many great things in store for us, but sometimes we have to get out of our comfort zones and trust that He wants to give us all that is in our heart to do. So let's dream big and press in further for the courage to move out in faith.

"And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues....they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well." Mark 16:17-18

Books

"You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read."

-Charles E. Jones

I love this quote...mainly because I love to read and I love to meet people. Now if only I can read the books that are enjoyable and edifying and meet the people that will leave lasting impressions.

I've been devouring books recently. This summer I read Angels and Demons, Sheet Music, Dance Into Destiny, The List, My Soul Cries Out, and the Time Traveler's Wife. Each book was incredibly different and fun to read. I decided I had to put the religious, self-help books aside and start grabbing for more real pieces of writing. Writing that had personality, character, compelling stories and Truth that was hidden between the lines. The Time Traveler's Wife was one of my favorites that I read. It's so interesting to watch authors unfold themselves through page after page and chapter after chapter. You learn so much about an author by the way they write and the words and phrases that they use. The things that they choose to highlight or conceal. In some ways I feel as if I'm getting to know people through reading eclectic stories with lots of personality. So I'm going to try to keep up devouring books, especially the ones that allow me to experience other people in new and different ways.

Ordinary

I will not be satisfied with ordinary. I will not be satisfied with an ordinary marriage, or an ordinary household, or an ordinary job, or ordinary friends, or an ordinary life. The God I serve is not ordinary, therefor I will not be ordinary.