October 2023 Monthly Summary

Explaining October in Pictures

This month, I’m taking advantage of the nonlinear, abstract way God is currently speaking to me to share some updates in the form of pictures and stories. I’ve selected a handful of the pictures above to explain some general trends in how God is moving in my life and the life of my city.

We Must Make Room to Receive God’s Ease, which is coming like a Light rain or Mist

In September, my Youth and Young Prophets (YYPN) team met to prophesy over the generations of the Philipines. When we were pressing in, God gave me an image of intergenerational worship and encounter springing up like mushrooms in the mist. This image powerfully ministered to me this month, forming me to begin to receive God’s ease as he led me to develop curriculum for my church’s youth group. In the abundance of gentle rain and mist Seattle has received this month, I am in awe that God forms me through the times I prophesy over different nations and people.

Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak;

hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

2Let my teaching fall like rain

and my speech settle like dew,

like gentle rain on new grass,

like showers on tender plants.

3For I will proclaim the name of the LORD.

Ascribe greatness to our God!

4He is the Rock, His work is perfect;

all His ways are just.

A God of faithfulness without injustice,

righteous and upright is He.

Deuteronomy 32:1-4

Beyond natural rain, the spiritual ease God is beginning to send to our region this month is palpable. I believe that in order to receive this ease, we as individuals must develop habits of greater dependence on God. I am going to tell a story that illustrates how making room for God will lead to the capacity to receive more of Heaven’s help in a way that is more sustainable for the coming move of God than human effort ever can be.

This month, my youth group director asked me to design a 20-minute training on “Hearing God’s voice” for our youth group. In my morning walks with the Lord around a nearby lake, I asked the Lord to draw my attention to where he wanted me to focus, and show me how to make the training age-appropriate.

As I engaged in conversation with God and passively reflected, he sent fresh ideas about how to present the material, down to even the layout and formatting. He sent tremendous support through our youth group adult leaders team, my Youth and Young Prophets team prayed for us from abroad. While I facilitated, God began to give several students pictures or prophetic for their peers that relate to how he wants to restore them. While the majority of the training focused on intercession and preparing our hearts in love to receive revelation for others, I was amazed that Heaven made it easy for the teens to engage. They could each name at least one person that they had struggled to love. Along with adult leaders, we each reflected on what God celebrated about that person, how the enemy was trying to malign them, what God was trying to reveal about his character to them, and other questions. In discussing these questions in small groups and discipleship groups that met later in the week, Heaven had so much to say!

That same Sunday, I launched the applied thesis portion of my doctoral research. Across five weeks and until Thanksgiving, I will be leading a group of about 8 teens through open-ended discussions about the nature of encounter and the prophetic. Earlier in August and September, I interviewed adults at my church community, asking them to describe an encounter (ex: vision or dream) they had with God and what it taught them about his character. I have now written these stories into one-page case studies, and am using adapted thinking routines from Project Zero to create engaging discussions so that teens can notice patterns in the stories and develop their own understanding of the prophetic and Christian mystical encounters.

When I pray for my church, I pray that all of us will have the grace and courage to reorganize our lives to make room to depend more on God. I pray that we will willingly surrender any yoke that feels too heavy and invite Jesus to help teach us how to rely more greatly on Heaven’s help. I pray for an awareness of our needs, a desire for deeper rest, and clarity in hearing and responding to God. God is setting a banquet before us and preparing us for Harvest, but we first must eat before we are able to collect everyone else. In the Spirit, I have seen Harvest banners in the spirit over our auditorium and banquet tables in the room where the youth gather. The opportunity to thrive, heal, and be restored starts in us and will work its way outward as we receive the grace, ease, and restoration God is sending to our region in this season.

Heart-Searching, Repentance, and Humble Intercession as City-Wide Keys

The keys that my housemate handed me as a result of being in right relationship to her through prayer. Throughout October, I had prayed for myself and for our house to come out of pride, for God to send conviction for wrong actions, repentance, awareness of individual worth, and for people to be motivated by how God sees them as precious to invest in the wellbeing of the home. I prayed that individuals’ eyes would be opened, I asked God to send humility and help us recognize the strengths of each member of the house. I asked God to remove any source of pride in our house, including people if they were unwilling to receive. I spent time alone with the Lord, contending to have more love for my housemates. I chose to surrender anger or offense to God when occasions arose, asking him to be the one to help us receive. Aware that this season is about learning how to relate to Seattle and other indirect cultures, and because direct interactions had been strained, I prayed in hiddenness and used my separate side entrance to the house.

Several weeks later, I felt led to come in through the front door. One of my housemates whose name means “Sunlight” started a conversation with me. She told me that lately, she had felt stirred to settle down more, after having considered the house more of a landing pad for the first 6 months she lived there. She admitted that she had been noticing things that were in need of cleaning and repair, and felt stirred to buy a mop, paint her room, and organize the rest of us to create quarterly deep cleaning days. I mentioned that sometimes, choosing to invest in our living quarters is a representation of choosing what we want better for ourselves.

After our conversation, I realized that the sounds of late-night vacuuming coming from the upstairs several nights in a row were evidence of God changing her heart. I repented further for not understanding how heart change and transition in our house would be messy and judging the process. Our conversation helped me remember how generous God has been towards me in my formation process. Since then, I have continued to pray for our house, the individuals and the work of true community God is doing in it.

A Strategy for Seattle in General, the Ministry or Organizational Context Doesn’t Matter

When Youth and Young Prophets prophesied over Seattle in August, God left me with a clear portrait of timings for the move of God. He told me to contend for genuine expressions of humility and teamwork, and that as adults humble themselves, it would produce oneness that would sweep the generations up in a restoration-focused move of God. I have now seen that contending for these prayer points is effective in my house and youth group team.

At work this month, God showed me that this prayer strategy is actually effective for Seattle in general. I chose to avoid a power struggle with a coworker and simply pray for heart change. God opened up an opportunity for me to share the experience with my boss, and we both agreed that healthy teamwork and humility are the strategies that have been bearing fruit in our retail context, as she works to expand her leadership team. She is not a Christian, but she expressed her approach of genuine love, contending to see the best in people, and forgiveness. While I have seen her capacity to sustain this approach wax and wane because of the complicated environment of our neighborhood and because continuously maintaining this perspective is hard as humans, I recognized that her heart attitude is what God has been using to form this workplace for himself. I am amazed by how God has allowed her to discern an approach that feels like Jesus and am praying for her to have an experience with the Holy Spirit that reveals that this is who Jesus is.

Dressing for the Weather: Birthing New Expressions

At work, God used joy to invite me to demonstrate the work he’s doing in me in this season. As Seattle dipped into the 40s this month, God had already inspired me to have cold-weather gear and pantry goods on hand. One day as I was at work reflecting on being dressed for the season, I had the opportunity to participate in a Halloween celebration that involved wearing glitter. I normally am not a fan of the occult and dark influences mixed into Halloween, but the use of glitter appealed so much to my sense of sanctified joy that I decided to join.

Naturally, I began to consider how to incorporate glitter into a Harvest celebration that my church’s Youth group would be hosting. I decided to focus on one color, and then add more layers of blue so I could dress as Water. Only after the fact did I realize that the imagery of washing, water, and meeting with God under the service relates to a work he’s been doing through my dreams to help me yield to the leadings of his spirit. He has shown me imagery of what my Spirit looks like to become more comfortable with surrender and more flexible to receive new expressions of ministry. Since my spirit was reflecting on these things, I organically chose to dress similarly to the imagery of water I had been internalizing. It was really funny!

I believe that water and washing are significant to the move of God happening in Seattle because it relates to inner healing ministry and restoration. I believe that God is causing deliverance ministry (which I often see symbolized by the imagery of fire) to combine with this thread of inner healing and restoration to create new expressions of worship, both here and abroad. We must be humble and intentional to work with others who are operating in different streams in order to see those new expressions birthed.

Meeting the Lord in the Kitchen: Personal Reflections on Ministry Development

One of the most frequent ways I meet with the Lord in this season is through cooking. During the day, time spent in the kitchen or in my current storehouse retail work context has been both healing my fear of lack and a time of meeting with the Lord. At night, dreams of cooking, being in God’s storehouse and serving at a banquet help me spiritually participate in the greater works he’s doing in me, in Seattle, and in our world. He often uses imagery of ingredients from different nations as well as preparation styles to speak to me about curriculum development and prophecy. These are three main ways that God used my interest in cooking to form me this month. When possible, I’ve included a picture of the dish(es) that caused me to reflect on each point.

• Partnerships and the Table of Nations: In general, God uses my appetite to direct me to new partnerships he’s forming amongst my ministry partners. For example, he had me adapt a Moroccan dish in September as I polished a national prophetic word for my ministry friends in rural France, only to discover that God has been calling them to increasingly reach out to Middle Eastern and North African refugees there. Though it may sound weird, God often uses my cravings to direct me to which nations to focus on (ex: lots of Vietnamese food lately). As I invent new recipes that combine ingredients from different regions (ex: spicy olives from Palestine and potatoes from the US), I feel God drawing me into conversation about possibilities and even asking for my input.

• Increased Clarity and Ease: Early this month, I noticed that my executive function and timings carried more clarity than in past months, and I was able to create familiar but complicated recipes with refinement in half the time it normally takes me. God provided grace to respond to timing challenges and streamlined opportunities so they would remain in his light yoke. In order to step into this grace, I had to believe that the time God has given me for preparation, both before work each day to cook lunch and also more broadly in this season, would be enough. Trusting that I will be ready enough and have received enough by the time the next season starts is hard, but God keeps making things easy. Seeing the favor and ease he’s adding to different projects makes me less scared and more able to trust that the same God who provided resources, friends, mentors, ministry partners, time, land, freedom, and joy in the past will continue to increasingly provide these things.

• Fresh Bread vs. Staleness: In November, I asked God how to navigate the danger of accumulating more ingredients than I need. I wanted to avoid hoarding because Jesus teaches us to rely on fresh bread (Matthew 6:11). If we fail to continuously receive, we will eventually be consuming decayed food which may kill us. In response to my inquiry, God told me to use what I already had prepared in order to meet the majority of my needs this month. This symbolizes not trying to hoard too much knowledge, training, or insight, and trusting that God will keep providing as we go. It also symbolizes trusting the adequacy of what he’s already taught me instead of feeling like I have to rush to accumulate more to prove myself.
• Flexibility: By challenging me to use what I already had stored, God showed me that he wants to increase my flexibility in the kitchen, now and in the coming months. Later this month, God reminded me that creativity isn’t just about learning to apply new ingredients but expanding my application of the same ingredients to new contexts or demands. Good recipes (strategies, blueprints, curriculum) meet a need while still being familiar enough to not overwhelm their audience. This relates to working with individuals in my ministry context to suit the needs of the church and region.

• Local Collaboration, Helping Process Raw Materials, and Provide: Yesterday, a friend from church gave me some fresh apples that were growing on her land, including some varieties that the previous owners had specifically, locally cultivated. For those who don’t know, Washington state is famous for its apples, and I happened to be at the right place and right time when she and her husband had plenty to share. I used the apples to make some slow cooker applesauce with apples, a little sugar, water, cinnamon, a lemon, a little salt, some double bourbon vanilla extract, and a dash of vanilla whisky. Right now, God is calling us in Seattle to create new expressions that will nourish our neighbors. It was exciting to me to be able to share extra portions with my housemates, who are not Christian but noticed the quality of food is worth receiving. To me, this relates to how Jesus is revealing himself as a Tree of Life to our region and city, and how his health, wholeness, holiness, and beauty will meet the deep needs of the people who are eager to receive it.

Decorating the New House: Celebrating Jesus as a Tree of Life

This week, I decorated my door windows in honor of how God is beginning to reveal Jesus as a Tree of Life here in Seattle. In 2020, the enemy planted the first seeds of COVID-19 in the US in Northern Washington state, using this region to multiply death and sickness. In 2023, it’s such a great delight to see how God is releasing a fresh wave of his spirit over this region that is related to life and wholeness, resulting in inner healing ministries increasingly beginning to form and bubble up now and in the next five years. I love how this particular move of God is both intergenerational and restoration-focused and is spiritually opposite to the occult, cursing, and other forms of evil. I love how God is using churches and other integrity-focused organizations to promote humility and true expressions of teamwork, rightly ordered individuality, and expressions of community. Amazed by our emergent, genuine desire for repentance and holiness, and how it is forming here as a pure influence on America, causing American Christian spirituality to be associated with purity abroad. Excited to see how this specific experience of God’s character will combine and intersect with the unique ways God is revealing Jesus to the nations.

Ministry Development this Month

This month with Youth and Young Prophets Network, there were several celebrations and strategies worth sharing!

• Sifting the Timings for Nations: This month, God has been teaching me to discern when to have YYPN meet to prophesy over the youth of different nations. It has to do with recognizing the degree of urgency when there is a quickening in my spirit as God highlights a region. While God is leading us at YYPN to generally prophesy over Asia right now, I have a list as long as my arm of nations that God has highlighted in dreams. But God in his kindness is helping me learn to rightly order the nations in terms of priority and his present work. For example, a few weeks ago, I was at my Church’s pre-service prayer with two friends. We were standing by the woodcut map of the world in our lobby and I sensed so much of God’s yearning for Malaysia. For YYPN’s November meeting, I initially felt to focus on Vietnam, but couldn’t shake this sense of absolute *yearning* for the church in Malaysia to be established. It had led me to pray in tongues while walking in the morning, even causing tears from the sense of burden, which I then had to surrender back to God. I made the decision to switch YYPN’s November meeting to Malaysia, but was waiting on confirmation. This Friday, I still recovering from a head cold and wasn’t able to attend my church’s separate Friday morning Praying for the Nations meeting. Autonomously, someone else in the group felt led to have them focus on Malaysia.
• Sifting the Timings for People: As I’ve managed to surrender to a greater degree this month, God is also directing my attention to notice details about the season of sonship, transition, maturity, and eldership he is bringing people through. It has been useful in my local context and with YYPN, because it has helped me understand what role to play in conversation (the friend, the elder, the sister, the role model, the daughter, the mentee). I believe that God is doing this fine-tuned discernment training so that I can operate more easily in my ministry contexts.
• Understanding Synchrony: Due to this synchrony, I’ve asked the Praying for the Nations group to be praying for YYPN to have exceptional clarity of vision during our November Malaysia meeting. As per their interest, I will also be sending some members a copy of the YYPN Malaysia word once it’s processed. Due to the synchrony, I’ve also invited YYPN to join the fast that my church is leading from November 7-9th, which overlaps our meeting. I also asked them to pray for us to be able to receive more of God. I truly believe that by choosing to join us in prayer and fasting, God will equip them with the same spiritual food, a portion of what he is pouring out in Seattle at this time.
• Ease in Bubbling Up Personal Prophecy: In addition to curriculum development, multiple times this month I have unexpectedly bubbled up with words to share with friends who were yearning after God for fresh water. Through interactions with them, it’s been as though I’m aware of a sense of yearning, and their desire for more of God nearly pulls the revelation up and out of my senses. When I am unexpectedly bubbling up with a word, it’s different than times I intentionally inquire of the Lord by seeing in the Spirit. I get a sense of pressure or clarity on my forehead, and it makes me squint or have this sense of something passing through my mind, like a strainer. And then I start to distill what I’m sensing into words, starting with just a few words as I begin to speak and then increasing in clarity and complexity. I’m so grateful for the mentorship I’ve been receiving from Sarah Wren’s Healthy Prophetic ministry, which has made operating in my prophetic gifts much more lighter and fluent.
• Clarity and Levels of Influence: For my own sake, I developed an organizer that helps me identify different levels of how I am hearing God for regions and movements. Doing this exercise was necessary to help parse where to focus my attention. This exercise helped me synthesize what I know about how God is moving in my local context, in my studies, and in the different prophetic groups I lead or participate in.

I’m aware that as God expands prophets, it’s helpful when we can do exercises like this to focus our attention. While I won’t have the capacity in my schedule to teach using this activity yet for several months, I have included a blank copy of the organizer so that individuals can reflect on their different remits and responsibilities with the Holy Spirit.

Prayer Requests

• Last month, I asked God to help me synthesize and weave together all these skill sets and new opportunities. This month, I’m praying for a greater work of oneness, that God would be further weaving together Seattle and other regions together in order to partake of the same graces.
• Prayers for greater peace as God brings me into maturity. Less fear of making decisions, greater freedom, and greater trust that God will redeem even my mistakes.
• Prayers for even more joy and freedom in this season! To believe that increasing responsibility means greater joy instead of obligation. For God to redeem experiences of manipulation or control by showing me that he will keep causing the light yoke, opportunities to receive and not just give, and freedom in leadership instead of constriction as I trust him to make the way straight.