Kansas City Chronicles - Day 6 (freedom for the captive)
The disciples waited ten days after Jesus ascended to heaven until the Spirit was poured out upon them at Pentecost. Saturday night, ten months after I started to experience the ominous symptoms of Lyme Disease, I experienced a Pentecost of my own.
I spent the afternoon again at the conference sessions, this time with Daniel by my side. This time both of us struggled to pay attention, which made me feel a bit better about the previous afternoon. At one point I felt a vibration next to my thigh, signifying a new text message on my phone. It began, "This is the most boring sermon I have ever heard..." It was from Daniel. He was sitting next to me. I looked up at him and we both started quietly cracking up.
That night I returned to the awakening service by myself. My symptoms had again intensified through the afternoon, and I arrived with pain in different parts in my body, a feeling of mental sluggishness, and just flat out fatigue. I struggled to find God in any way for the first hour of worship.
After awhile, the music softened and Wes Hall announced that we were going to "wait on the Lord" in silence. At this point I began to feel a little more peaceful, so I sat up in my chair and set my mind on the Spirit. A few more moments of silence passed by, and Allen Hood stood up and declared a prophetic phrase into the still and sound-less air: "Jacob, I have not forgotten you."
The arrow of God's word pierced my heart with powerful precision, and before my mind could catch up with things or really understand why, I was doubled over, crying. Again.
Suddenly, in my mind's eye, I saw the feet of someone with a long garment walking down a musty corridor. I knew it was Jesus. He walked slowly, yet with purpose and resolve. A verse I had read earlier in the day was quickened within me: "For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him" (Hebrews 10:37-38).
The camera lens of the inward vision shifted outwards and to the side, and I discovered the setting was a prison. I saw myself in one of the cells, hunched up against one side of the dark wall. I looked as bad as I usually feel - depressed, worried, and pain-stricken. I looked back again at the Man in the corridor, and realized He was coming to save me.
The even-paced Man began to speak directly to me. These things says He who is holy, He who is true, He began. He was using the exact phrases that He used with the church of Philadelphia in Revelation 3. After this first line, He paused and let the words sink in. They became intensely personal. He is so holy, I thought to myself - beautiful to behold, higher and more glorious than anything we know on this earth. And He is true - every promise He has made to my life is true. He is not a man that He should lie!
The Lord spoke each sentence from the passage in Revelation to my heart, letting each truth percolate into my very being and find personal application to the present season of my life. I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name. He knew how little my strength was, and yet He was still pleased with me! The promise was an open door - He would set this captive free in His perfect time. Healing, restoration, and deliverance was my inheritance, from the lips of Jesus Himself.
...Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. As He had spoken to me throughout the whole week in various ways, He was saying that this trial was preparing me with courage and endurance for the future. An hour of trial is coming upon the whole earth soon, and the leaders of that day are presently being trained in the fires of testing. I heard what I have needed to hear so many times this past year - that this season is not in vain.
Finally, He gave me the promises of Revelation 3:12. A promise of spiritual authority, and better than that, to see God and the eternal city. The vision ended with me still in the prison cell. But a new hope burned within me. The hope of His Coming...
In retrospect, I now see that all this served to prepare me for what happened next.
I spent the afternoon again at the conference sessions, this time with Daniel by my side. This time both of us struggled to pay attention, which made me feel a bit better about the previous afternoon. At one point I felt a vibration next to my thigh, signifying a new text message on my phone. It began, "This is the most boring sermon I have ever heard..." It was from Daniel. He was sitting next to me. I looked up at him and we both started quietly cracking up.
That night I returned to the awakening service by myself. My symptoms had again intensified through the afternoon, and I arrived with pain in different parts in my body, a feeling of mental sluggishness, and just flat out fatigue. I struggled to find God in any way for the first hour of worship.
After awhile, the music softened and Wes Hall announced that we were going to "wait on the Lord" in silence. At this point I began to feel a little more peaceful, so I sat up in my chair and set my mind on the Spirit. A few more moments of silence passed by, and Allen Hood stood up and declared a prophetic phrase into the still and sound-less air: "Jacob, I have not forgotten you."
The arrow of God's word pierced my heart with powerful precision, and before my mind could catch up with things or really understand why, I was doubled over, crying. Again.
Suddenly, in my mind's eye, I saw the feet of someone with a long garment walking down a musty corridor. I knew it was Jesus. He walked slowly, yet with purpose and resolve. A verse I had read earlier in the day was quickened within me: "For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him" (Hebrews 10:37-38).
The camera lens of the inward vision shifted outwards and to the side, and I discovered the setting was a prison. I saw myself in one of the cells, hunched up against one side of the dark wall. I looked as bad as I usually feel - depressed, worried, and pain-stricken. I looked back again at the Man in the corridor, and realized He was coming to save me.
The even-paced Man began to speak directly to me. These things says He who is holy, He who is true, He began. He was using the exact phrases that He used with the church of Philadelphia in Revelation 3. After this first line, He paused and let the words sink in. They became intensely personal. He is so holy, I thought to myself - beautiful to behold, higher and more glorious than anything we know on this earth. And He is true - every promise He has made to my life is true. He is not a man that He should lie!
The Lord spoke each sentence from the passage in Revelation to my heart, letting each truth percolate into my very being and find personal application to the present season of my life. I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name. He knew how little my strength was, and yet He was still pleased with me! The promise was an open door - He would set this captive free in His perfect time. Healing, restoration, and deliverance was my inheritance, from the lips of Jesus Himself.
...Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. As He had spoken to me throughout the whole week in various ways, He was saying that this trial was preparing me with courage and endurance for the future. An hour of trial is coming upon the whole earth soon, and the leaders of that day are presently being trained in the fires of testing. I heard what I have needed to hear so many times this past year - that this season is not in vain.
Finally, He gave me the promises of Revelation 3:12. A promise of spiritual authority, and better than that, to see God and the eternal city. The vision ended with me still in the prison cell. But a new hope burned within me. The hope of His Coming...
In retrospect, I now see that all this served to prepare me for what happened next.
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