Kansas City Chronicles - Day 1
Tonight I drove 3 hours from Visalia to Santa Monica to stay at my brother's house. After a short traveling reprieve and hopefully a good night's rest, tomorrow I will take a plane from LAX to one of the Mecca's of the worldwide prayer movement: the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. A friend of a friend is paying my way so I can receive prayer for healing. But this trip is about more than honoring the spiritual groundwork that has been laid at this ministry. I am on a search - a very personal quest.
I picked this week because it fit into my schedule. But after the tickets were already purchased I noticed some funny things about the timing of this trip. A little more than 7 years ago I drove to Kansas City with a youth group from Visalia and came back a completely different person. I saw Jesus that week, and my life has never been the same since. Now, I return to my own personal Bethel of divine encounter with a thought to pour fresh oil upon the pillar of my meeting place with God (Genesis 28:18-19). Seven years later I am taking a seven day trip to go and search for the One who first found me so long ago. Seven - the number of completion. A full cycle of life has indeed passed since that experience. And if I've ever needed a new beginning, it is now!
I also found out that this week IHOP will be holding their annual Israel conference during the weekend. Israel holds a special place in my heart. Israel holds a special place in God's heart, too, and I think He has shared a tiny bit of that with me. So neither is this, then, a likely coincidence.
Wednesday is apparently the official day of Pentecost, the Jewish Feast of Weeks, from what others have told me. Sunday, the day I am flying home, is also the global day of prayer. All this to say that I believe I am going to the right place at the right time...
There's a breathtaking prophetic promise in Isaiah 33. After a prayer of desperation from the saints (v.2), God responds with the declaration that He will come. "Now I will rise," says the Lord; "now I will be exalted, now I will lift Myself up" (v.10). Surprisingly, the first thing God does when He comes is to remove the compromise and complacency from His own people! "Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites: "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?" (v.14) But to those who say yes to their God in the midst of such testing, a great promise breaks forth like fireworks of hope in the night sky of pain and struggle: Your eyes will see the King in His beauty; they will see the land that is very far off...Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts; your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet home, a tabernacle that will not be taken down...And the inhabitant will not say, "I am sick" (v.17,20,24). A promise to see the beauty of King Jesus and that eternal city that is our home. And a promise of healing.
I am on a search for more of Jesus. I expect to meet Him this week.
I picked this week because it fit into my schedule. But after the tickets were already purchased I noticed some funny things about the timing of this trip. A little more than 7 years ago I drove to Kansas City with a youth group from Visalia and came back a completely different person. I saw Jesus that week, and my life has never been the same since. Now, I return to my own personal Bethel of divine encounter with a thought to pour fresh oil upon the pillar of my meeting place with God (Genesis 28:18-19). Seven years later I am taking a seven day trip to go and search for the One who first found me so long ago. Seven - the number of completion. A full cycle of life has indeed passed since that experience. And if I've ever needed a new beginning, it is now!
I also found out that this week IHOP will be holding their annual Israel conference during the weekend. Israel holds a special place in my heart. Israel holds a special place in God's heart, too, and I think He has shared a tiny bit of that with me. So neither is this, then, a likely coincidence.
Wednesday is apparently the official day of Pentecost, the Jewish Feast of Weeks, from what others have told me. Sunday, the day I am flying home, is also the global day of prayer. All this to say that I believe I am going to the right place at the right time...
There's a breathtaking prophetic promise in Isaiah 33. After a prayer of desperation from the saints (v.2), God responds with the declaration that He will come. "Now I will rise," says the Lord; "now I will be exalted, now I will lift Myself up" (v.10). Surprisingly, the first thing God does when He comes is to remove the compromise and complacency from His own people! "Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites: "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?" (v.14) But to those who say yes to their God in the midst of such testing, a great promise breaks forth like fireworks of hope in the night sky of pain and struggle: Your eyes will see the King in His beauty; they will see the land that is very far off...Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts; your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet home, a tabernacle that will not be taken down...And the inhabitant will not say, "I am sick" (v.17,20,24). A promise to see the beauty of King Jesus and that eternal city that is our home. And a promise of healing.
I am on a search for more of Jesus. I expect to meet Him this week.
Comments