A Meeting in Heaven

It was a pretty amazing weekend at Tierra Nueva. We were into our second of three weekends learning about the combining of the social prophetic (speaking out against injustice) and the charismatic prophetic (learning to hear God's voice to speak words of comfort, encouragement and building up). The class is called "Lift Up Your Voice."

Today we got to hear from Brad Jersak, a pastor from Abbotsford, BC and the author of "Can You Hear Me? Tuning in to the God Who Speaks." I have bought this book for and recommended it to more people than any other book. It is the most accessible book on learning to tune in and hear God. It has powerfully transformed my prayer life and the way I read the bible and talk to others about Jesus because it invites us into a dynamic interaction with Jesus instead of leaving messages on some divine answering machine in the sky. Throughout the book Brad has "tuning in" exercises and he led us through several today. I want to share one with you and then I will share how I met Jesus in that same exercise.

Brad called the exercise "The Pearly Gates" (unfortunate name). He was teaching on Revelation 3:20 where Jesus says, "Behold (look intently), I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with them and they with me." He connected this directly to two verses later in Revelation 4:1 where John says, "After this I looked and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, Come up here and I will show you..." So, right after Jesus has made a statement, John steps into it. That is our invitation, so here we go.

Use your imagination to start. Our imagination serves all sorts of things for us, so let it serve your faith. Imagine the door in heaven and as the command of Jesus goes, "Come up here" -

• Go up to the door in your mind and what do you see?
• What do the gates of heaven look like? It could be anything.
• Jesus is waiting there. How does He greet you?
• What did Jesus' face look like? What was His expression? His eyes?
• What does He want to show you?
• Now, see His wounded hand. He wants to put His wounded hand on a wounded place in you. What happens?
• What promise is Jesus speaking to you in this place?

As Brad led us through this, even before I got to the door in my mind I saw a huge book lying open. When he asked what the gates looked like I tried to push the book image away, but let it come back when he said it could be anything. The book was enormous.

I pictured Jesus standing looking into the book - it was bigger than Him and He seemed to be peering down into it like a well. He turned and looked at me and smiled big and said, "Oh good, you're here! I've been waiting for you. I have so much to show you!" His smile was open and His eyes were fulled of unfeigned affection and delight, both in me and what He wanted to show me.

The next thing I knew, He took me by the hand and we climbed up onto the book. It was bigger now and it seemed alive and like we were going to sink down into it.

My neighbor sitting next to me in class kept exclaiming and crying and laughing. His meeting with Jesus was very powerful and real. Mine was cool, no doubt, but still seemed to be something I might manufacture.

About this time Brad asked us to see Jesus' wounded hand being placed on a wounded place in ourselves. I imagined the hand but before I knew it Jesus had placed it over my heart and waves of something I wasn't manufacturing starting coming out of me - it didn't hurt but it seemed that He was taking pain or grief or hurt away. The waves were so powerful that I was gasping for air between them and tears were running down my face.

Too soon Brad asked the next question. I wasn't ready to be done with whatever was happening, but I felt Jesus say, "I am always with you. Really! Not just in your imagination as wonderful as it is. I am right here. Now."

Thin Spaces

Many people have argued against going to specific places where God appears to be pouring out and healing and setting people free on the solid ground of saying that God is at work everywhere so why would I need to go somewhere else to "experience" God in these ways. I don't. I know that.

But there is something about getting away - first- to a place where I give God all my time and attention and I get to worship a lot and receive a lot of prayer. And - second - getting away to a place where other people are pressing in to worship and know God more for extended periods of time. But it is the third one that is unsettling - for whatever reason or for many reasons, God seems to pick places. We want to throw that out because the Temple is gone - we are the temple of God now; His dwelling place.

The Celts had an understanding of thin spaces; spaces where two things intersect - the sea and the land, the forest and the field, a burial mound; this world and the Otherworld. These were places where the unexpected happened, where the Otherworld and Eternity was bound to break through because it was a thin space. It makes me wonder about people and places that focus themselves on desiring God to visit, to show up, for revival; where worship and prayer and fasting desire more than anything to come into the Presence of God. Maybe God visits those places in particular ways because the first and the second thing are happening regularly there. Maybe its something else completely and isn't meant to be analyzed. I think we are meant to be thin spaces where other people encounter God.

Whatever the case, I've found some places like that. A prayer room in a church basement on Capitol Hill in Seattle. A church where people are getting healed in Redding, California. A church in Toronto where people are experiencing deeply the love of the Father that heals. If you want to hear an amazing testimony of that, go to www.fpcbellevue.org and click on Sunday, Feb. 1 sermon by pastor Scott Dudley, my long time friend. I got to be with Scott in Toronto a few weeks ago and prayed with him last Tuesday and I must say that he is a different man - the old has passed away and, behold, the New! It is a beautiful work of the Father, the Son and the Spirit that is beyond my description. Some other time I'll write about how God met me there.

Communion, Tierra Nueva Style

So, I was leading the bible study tonight at church and then communion. We usually have bread that is given to us by the local bakery but the weather and holidays have kept it from coming so I ran across the street to Los Antejitos grocery and grabbed a couple small breads from their bakery. The only ones without frosting had sesame seeds so I figured that would work. As I spoke of Jesus taking the bread and giving thanks and breaking it, I broke the bread and found it was filled with cream cheese and jalepenos! Now, that is communion! Jesus is hot!

Morning Reflections

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the authority to become children of God...

I wonder how many ways, all day long, I don't recognize Jesus, or receive Him. It is hard, sometimes, for it seems like it takes a lot of attention on my part; a lot of work to turn my attention away from so many things to Jesus, and then to feel like Jesus isn't there in the way I'd like; that my time with Jesus isn't necessarily or obviously fruitful. Reading scripture feels this way often. I know I am looking for the dramatic, or at least a clear interaction.

Even as I wrote that on December 26, the image that came into my mind was of a soaking hose watering a garden. The watering isn't fruit, but it is necessary to produce fruit in the garden. And a soaking hose isn't a gusher. A gushing hose waters only the top inch of soil, while the slow, regular soak goes deep and takes the roots deeper for better plants.

As the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My Word that goes out from My mouth. It will not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

There are many parts to the producing of fruit in my life, and when I focus on one over the others, especially one I can't control... God is at work in the things that don't seem to be giving the big payoff. Soak up the Word - it need not be "revelation!" for your spirit to receive it.

Tierra Nueva Christmas

Our bi-lingual service has become tri-lingual - English, Spanish, Mixteco - its beautiful! As I read the story of the birth of Jesus in a manger among the poor and the outcast, it comes in sharp relief as I sit there among the poor and marginalized and I see that the gospel is truly good news for the poor; that Jesus would come and be one with them, one of them - not born in Jerusalem in a royal family among people of power, lofty and unapproachable. Jesus is the one who comes to the Mixteco families living in Mt. Vernon in an apartment without heat and a few blankets and little food.

Answering Prayer

Sunday evening was the bi-lingual worship service. We spend an extended time in praise and then in prayer with teams moving around the room praying for people. We heard the testimony of Florentino who lost his job because of a work-related back injury. Last week he came to the Spanish language service and Jesus healed his back. Now we are praying for a new job!

This week I was teamed with Gracie Ekblad. The first person we prayed for was Lolitto, a friend from Honduras who lives in the building. He had a lot of pain from a knot in his neck that spread down his arms and across his ribs. As Gracie prayed in Spanish, I prayed in tongues, asking Jesus to lift off the things that were burdening him. Lolitto said he was depressed, so I prayed for the Holy Spirit to come as Comforter, and he began to feel heat. We continued and in a few minutes the pain was all gone and he was feeling fire down his arms and hands. He has no pain today - thank You, Jesus!

We prayed for a single mom, who had come in after hearing that we communicate with spirits. Gracie was very clear that we communicate only with the Holy Spirit, so we began to pray for the Spirit to lift various things off her. She said she felt something pulled out of her and felt much better afterward. We strongly encouraged her to turn to Jesus and ask Him to inhabit all the rooms in her and for her to turn away from anything but Jesus so He could close all the doors that let those other things in, but she wasn't willing to do that. Jesus, continue to call her to Yourself.

Keepin it real, prayer

Talking with Ramone a few weeks ago about a big problem he was headed into, we turned to prayer. As we began, Ramone prayed, "Jesus, I know You heard everything I said; so don't act like You didn't..."