a smoldering flame
In the time leading up to Passion '07, I call our pastor Matt and tell him I am taking a break from ministry for a few months. The emotional trials of the year have caught up with me. I know I need to take a break and just hang with Jesus during the time I would do ministry and see what He has for me.
The same day I prayed the following: Jesus, I'm laying down everything you have given to me in ministry, and asking you to tell me what I should pick back up. Don't let me do anything that will get in the way of our relationship.
Then I sat down on my floor and cried. Surrender.
If you have ever asked this of God, you know it feels like free falling. All you know of how He uses you is stripped bare, and what's left is just you and God. And His refining fire.
"For everyone will be seasoned with fire," Mark 9:49. God's holy fire is his love, his mercy to us. It is challenging, it is painful and it provokes our faith, but it is His love that brings it and takes us through it.
It's in this freed and wrecked state that I arrive in Atlanta for Passion '07, to lead an intercession team. I am certain it will be an act of God if I am used there. Therefore the Lord said: "Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths, And honor me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me,...Isaiah 29:13
This is the verse God gave me as a jumping off point for intercession at Passion. God spoke Isaiah 29 into my thoughts the night before as I prayed. I want to trust I am hearing from Him, but I am unsure. I tell him this.
From deep within me, where Jesus is, hope begins to invade my spirit. He reminds me that I have asked Him to use me as an intercessor at Passion, and that He has found me faithful. That He loves me. To go read Isaiah 29. God's great like that.
I have so many great stories from Passion to share with you. But I wanted you to first hear this part of the journey. That as I arrived in Atlanta I felt far from being a fiery tower of His strength; more like a smoldering flame the Holy Spirit was breathing on to keep lit. Yeah, it's a good place to be, a little flame kept from being blown out, sheltered by the hand of the Father.
For You, O God, have tested us. You have refined us as silver is refined. Psalm 66:10
The same day I prayed the following: Jesus, I'm laying down everything you have given to me in ministry, and asking you to tell me what I should pick back up. Don't let me do anything that will get in the way of our relationship.
Then I sat down on my floor and cried. Surrender.
If you have ever asked this of God, you know it feels like free falling. All you know of how He uses you is stripped bare, and what's left is just you and God. And His refining fire.
"For everyone will be seasoned with fire," Mark 9:49. God's holy fire is his love, his mercy to us. It is challenging, it is painful and it provokes our faith, but it is His love that brings it and takes us through it.
It's in this freed and wrecked state that I arrive in Atlanta for Passion '07, to lead an intercession team. I am certain it will be an act of God if I am used there. Therefore the Lord said: "Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths, And honor me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me,...Isaiah 29:13
This is the verse God gave me as a jumping off point for intercession at Passion. God spoke Isaiah 29 into my thoughts the night before as I prayed. I want to trust I am hearing from Him, but I am unsure. I tell him this.
From deep within me, where Jesus is, hope begins to invade my spirit. He reminds me that I have asked Him to use me as an intercessor at Passion, and that He has found me faithful. That He loves me. To go read Isaiah 29. God's great like that.
I have so many great stories from Passion to share with you. But I wanted you to first hear this part of the journey. That as I arrived in Atlanta I felt far from being a fiery tower of His strength; more like a smoldering flame the Holy Spirit was breathing on to keep lit. Yeah, it's a good place to be, a little flame kept from being blown out, sheltered by the hand of the Father.
For You, O God, have tested us. You have refined us as silver is refined. Psalm 66:10