Adventuring

If I can't explore the world just yet, I might as well explore the city.  So thus my recent obsession with "Adventuring", as I like to call it.  The fact that I adventure alone makes it 10x more of an adventure.  So I continue on alone!

I have found that I would rather adventure alone for a few reasons:

1.  I'm a people person and I focus on people when I'm with them.  This takes away from experiencing places.

2.  When you are with people you always have to be considerate of what they want.  You spend half your time and energy deciding what to do and for how long.  

3.  You can't have random conversations with strangers in the same way if you have a friend with you as when you are alone.  

4.  It's much more peaceful and quiet when you don't have to be constantly conversing or thinking about things to say. 

5.  Things are more scary when you are alone and you get more of a rush doing them.  Like walking to your car in the dark in sketchy neighborhoods, or walking through downtown LA alone.  hahaha. 

Here are some of the fun things I have done lately...

-drawing with a random guy named Scott at a coffee shop. 

-cheering on a SOS (Save our Schools) parade during a run.  I yelled and high fived everyone as I passed by them. 

- finding myself downtown on St. Patricks day after working out down there.  I decided to stay and check out the action.  The only problem was that I only had my workout clothes with me.  Thankfully my warmup pants were bright Kelly green so I thought that was a good sign for me to stay.  Now imagine me sitting alone in the bar at Rock Bottom eating a big pretzel, drinking a water, and of course, wearing my green warmups and a sweatshirt. :) hahahaha.

Oh the places I'll go....

The Battle for the Heart

"We are not redeemed so God can have more servants. He has billions of angels who serve Him. We are redeemed so that God could have lovers, those who love Him with all of their strength as He loves them." -Mike Bickle

Guess where I just went

I went to IHOP!!! Yeah!! I have been dying to go for a long time and finally my desire was granted. The Lord is so good to me. I was there for like a day and a half but it was great. You can only watch so many hours on the computer before you just have to go. I got to hang out with some amazing people and spend a lot of time praying and worshiping. What could be better? Here is the thought for the day...

From psalm 65.."Praise awaits you O God..."

Praise is waiting for God. There is praise inside each one of us that is waiting to be released. The Hebrew word for praise here actually means something like "a spontaneous song, a new song". So basically there are songs locked up in us that are released when God reveals Himself to us in a new way. A new revelation results in a new song. As we gaze upon Him in the Word, these songs get stirred up and start to come out.

People who are not saved cannot praise God. Their spirits are dead and all the praise is locked up. Just waiting to get out. The praise awaits...

But when one is born again and gets a revelation that Jesus is the Christ, then the praise is released! And as we gaze upon His glory day after day the Holy Spirit begins to unlock the depths of our spirit and the praise is released. How good it is to praise our God!

Praise from the upright is beautiful...this is how you become beautiful...praise the beautiful God!!!

IPOD's and the Holy Spirit

Sometimes I wish I had an IPOD. I have asked the Lord for it, but apparently he is still fighting the prince of persia for me. I can be patient. I must be content with what I have. My 126mb Rio works just fine. Sometimes people laugh at it, but I am not ashamed.

I realized this summer that I have something better than an ipod, the Holy Spirit!

I just open my mouth and songs come out. And the great thing is, they are always different. I have no gigabyte limit on my "IPOD".

To say the least, I really enjoy the songs of the Lord and it blesses me that He loves to sing over me.

God really likes singing and the Spirit is a musical Spirit. I used to not like to sing at all. My mom would get upset because I was silent at church. She would say, "you can at least hum!". Now I made friends with the singing Holy Spirit and I have been changed. Or perhaps I should say that the songs that were always inside me finally got to be released.

Isn't it crazy that I can open my mouth and sing a song from heaven? Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Blows me away. I'm praying that some of those precious gems in heaven will come down too!

So yes, let the songs of the Lord come forth! Let songs of deliverance be released in me, in my church, and in this city. I will stand with the high praised of God in my mouth and a double-edged sword in my hand!

"And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." Eph. 5:18-19

Is this it?

Lately I've been seeking after an understanding of the heart of God and His fervent love for me. I've been listening to IHOP (International House of Prayer) and have been revolutionalized by their intimacy through singing the word.

So often we go to God asking things like "What should I do next?" or "Why is this or that happening?" or "Who am I to marry?" or "What do I do with this problem?" or "What is the right decision to make in this situation?" We are so worried about doing the right thing or not doing the wrong thing. We are so worried about having a perfect understanding of what God is doing in our lives. I realized that God will answer questions, but why not spend my time asking the questions that he really loves? Like..."Who are You?" "How do you feel about me?" "What moves you Lord?" "What are you thinking right now?" "Why did John the Baptist eat locus?" "Will you tell me your secret name?" "Do you like it when I sing to you?" "What should we do today?" "What do you think about this person?" "Will you sing over me?"

Somehow my whole purpose in life is to search out the heart of God and be intimate with Him. Are you joking me? How can it be that simple? But that is what He wants. Maybe I can't sit alone in my room all day worshipping with my guitar, but I can still worship all day long while I'm doing life and just do life with Him. And not only survive, but really enjoy and rejoice in Him all day long. Am I really allowed to enjoy God all the time? It's too good to be true...but that is the call on my life. To have a good old time with the Lord day and night and draw everyone I can into the same intimacy that I experience. Sounds good to me. I'm all in.

Season of singing!

Oh praise the Lord! The winter is gone, the snow is melting, and the river of God is flowing down again. I feel a huge shift in the spirit right now and I believe this is going to be a summer of joy and singing! Yes, praise the Lord for the song of the Lord. I was really enjoying prophesying in song last summer and as interns went on the song of the Lord came less and less. It was kind of sad and made my life a little dry. But alas! The song is back....it's a season of singing again!!! Yes!!!!

A few words for me, for our church.

"When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought at as child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things."
1 cor. 13:11

"Sing, O barren, you who have not borne! Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you who have not labored with child! For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman" says the Lord. Is. 54:1

The Silent Prayer

Today at interns was one of the most intense days of the year. We had extended prayer today (1.5 hours) and probably more than half the time we just sat/layed there. Not in the way where you are so overwhelmed in the presence of God and it's real good, but in the way where you feel so dry that you have nothing to pray. So you just sit. I can't speak for everyone I suppose, but this is what I felt. Jery was leading and we started with worshiping. "Let's bless God today" he said. I felt so empty and I maybe had a minute of worship in me over a 20 minute time span. I told the Lord, "I can't bless you right now. I have nothing to give you Lord. " I tried a little bit but then I said. "This is lame. I'm not going to just give you lip service. Better be silent then give you something that isn't real." So I just stopped and sat. Little by little everyone else began to stop trying and we all just sat. And sat. And layed. It's not that I've been slacking on spending time with the Lord, or I didn't pray before, I just had nothing to pray. I felt restrained by the Holy Spirit to not pray. But yet, I was praying. So I sat there and fixed my eyes on the Lord. He didn't say anything. I didn't say anything. It wasn't really pleasurable at all. It was actually very dry and wearisome in my spirit. But I was worshiping God by just waiting on Him. I felt like a dry, cracked, empty vessel and like I was just to sit there and present myself to Him. Here I am Lord, and I now realize that I can do nothing apart from you. I can't even pray apart from you. I can't even pray when I'm walking in the Spirit if you don't want me to. So I prayed the prayer of silence. And sat some more. It was quite painful, but less painful then if I had been compelled to try to "press in" or "stir myself up". Praise the Lord we were all on the same page. And so we sat in the nice, dry, desert of a prayer time. Why? I don't know. Because He's worth the wait. Because He was doing something. Because maybe we just needed to be still and know that He is God. I don't know, but I must say, it was a very interesting day. You're the best Lord, and you crack me up. :) Literally Lord, you were a nice hot wind today and I'm dry and cracked after hanging out with you. haha. I love my life.