Receiving but not Controlling the Move of God
In November, God really proved himself to me as the source. As the active portion of my doctoral research came to a close and I allowed myself to rest, God brought me into freedom. Through informal conversations with peers, silent reflection, active ministry, and the in-between times, God invited me to notice patterns of what his Holy Spirit is doing amongst both my Christian and nonChristian friends. I became aware of ways God is preparing the Church in Seattle to work in apostolic teams, modeling the unity and diversity of the Holy Trinity. God’s light is being revealed to the hungry, lost, and broken through prophetic evangelism ministry and inner healing that causes purity of heart and spirit. He is revealing Jesus as the Bright Morning Star (Rev 22:16) that rises above all the trials and tribulations of this world and brings us out of darkness. As we behold the glory of Jesus and point others to behold him, God will wash off every false identity and assignment over the people and land.
Preparation This month, I saw Jesus forming people’s hearts to receive the good things he has for them in 2024. I saw him organically giving rise to solutions and grace for the needs I already noticed. Some people stood up, some people sat down to rest, and others simply listened. I saw individuals step back to hear his voice, surrender false yokes, and enter into the mystery and expectation of this Advent season. Among my open-hearted non-Christian friends, I saw them more actively relating to me than ever. I saw them accept the stories I shared of miracles, signs, and wonders at face value without trying to disprove them, engaging with the ideas and shared emotions because they have love for me. In choosing to relate to me so gently, I sensed them suspending their disbelief and leaving room for the possibility of wonder. I am praying that God would kindle their desire to taste and see his Kingdom for themselves, sending even greater signs as a demonstration that he isn’t just present, but wants to know them personally.
Transcendence In a season where the Church remembers how God chose to do life with us through the Incarnation, God is clarifying that he is in the world but not of it. He is inviting us to behold him.
Beholding his transcendence is teaching us a right reverence and respect for his holiness. Though God relates to our humanity, we give him credit for being beyond our comprehension. God is inviting the Church to rest and lay down our striving so that he can reveal Himself in our weakness. His is our light, our common purpose, and our communal identity. In individuals, God’s “otherness” will create a sense of clarity of identity, wash off false labels, and set people free to flow in their created purpose. As individuals rightly relate to one another and to God, greater freedom in identity will allow the emergence of creative teams that flow together in the Spirit to establish new expressions and ministries.
Just Watch At this point, it is a privilege just to watch what God is doing, receive fresh grace, and collect what he is speaking over this coming Emergence season. I love how God sends clarity far in advance. He is proactive and intentional and will share insight about directional next steps so that we can enjoy the process and steward our present timings rightly.
It is still too early to rush into production mode. The Lord has so much to strip back and purify still in how individuals relate to him and one another. It would be unwise to rush into planning or long-term decision-making because God is loudly speaking about new puzzle pieces that must be added or aligned to create the ministries and teams. It isn’t time to set the agenda, but rather it’s the time to tune in, receive, and take notes. The structure of new opportunities must correspond to the fresh purposes God is revealing right now. The logistical details can be sorted later, but clarity of vision must come first.
Freedom and Ease
Life and ministry became more fluid than ever this month! It really felt like gliding (Isaiah 40:31). Through receiving and ministering in the love of God (Ephesians 3:19), the spirit of peace (Philippians 4:7), and the light yoke of Jesus (Matthew 11:28-30), I was able to both be honest about my limits and offer my time to the Lord. Some of the time I felt the invitation to sit with the Lord and play worship music, letting him minister to me. In the in-between times this month, the Holy Spirit organically brought prayer concerns to my mind. As I inquired of these loose threads, he created conditions for me to bubble up with prophecy over individuals, situations, or land. Having a greater degree of relational safety in the Youth Leaders ministry team, in Sarah Wren’s Healthy Prophetic Mentoring group, and in other informal friend circles allowed me to organically flow in my created purpose more than I have been able to do in the past. Because I feel so supported and accepted, I have a greater sense of freedom. This degree of support feels luxurious, as so much of my experience with ministry so far has been isolating. Instead, this feels like a time of receiving what I’ve needed all along.
This past calendar year, I chose to walk at a deliberate pace and do less. I sensed that by going at the right pace and engaging more deeply with a smaller circle of people, I would be able to engage more deeply with God. Now, prophecy and being in tune with God feels pretty fluent because of the safety of those relationships. Opportunities to prophesy over people and groups are bubbling up in both secular places and in ministry, locally and at a distance, formally and informally. This wouldn’t have happened if I had remained in the wrong relationships, if I had forced myself into ministry before it felt organic, or if I had failed to personally surrender and receive.
Healthy Collaboration Furthermore, because I have the right people in my life right now, flowing together in the spirit is as simple as hanging out. For example, earlier this month, I was with a friend whom I met in our church’s “Praying for the Nations” group. She is a pure-of-heart evangelist who loves seeing people walk in freedom. As we walked together, I noticed signs in the land that God is causing the stripes Jesus bore to heal the land and residents here. When we prayed together, her standing in the gap with me in prayer was powerful. I recognized that while I don’t have to be the evangelist, it can be enough to support her when she feels led to talk to someone knew by asking God for a prophetic word for them. I don’t naturally have any evangelistic bone in my body, so recognizing that I don’t have to play that role but can simply support her and enter into an evangelistic grace through our friendship really set me free from fear.
Ministry Developments
- Greater internal strength rising up, sense of solidity
- Greater mirroring of and partnership with Heaven in worship
- Understanding that God defines nobility in Psalm 16:3 as holiness
- Freedom from fear of man. Recognizing that courage that comes from genuine love is enough for ministry. Seeing the many ways God has made me an heir of the graces that are on my family and redeemed them for right use in ministry.
- Able to minister and bear the fire of God again because I know that it’s not mixed with anything impure or demonic in the contexts I am receiving from. Able to minister knowing Jesus as the Tree of Life and the Burning Bush at the same time.
- Knowing that pure fire ignites passion, kindles creativity, opens up a godly sense of wonder and engagement, provides conviction that resonates in a clarifying way, gives life, revives the heart, and equips us to carry inherited and fresh mantles so that others can walk in freedom.
- Understanding how to pray to break off the heavy yoke over people, to command wells of living water to be opened up so they can drink, to proclaim grace, ease, and freedom over them
- Greater freedom to use fewer words to prophesy, both in speaking and in print. Greater range in general and ease in language use.
- Increased Ease in setting priorities for Youth and Youth Prophet’s Network (YYPN)
Worship
Names of God
- Jesus, My Elder
- As I walked with God early this month, this name sprang to my understanding without much clarity as to why. As the month progressed, I recognized how greatly God has been using elders to help me receive the right expectations, timings, and limits for myself in prophetic ministry. In observing their lives, he helps me notice what the light yoke is meant to feel like. I’m grateful for the people and external scaffolds God is giving me so that I know how to integrate and balance all the areas of my life. He is giving me the grace to fluently hear from him on multiple levels.
Worship Music
Verses
So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
John 11:41-43
Turn from evil and do good;
Ps 34:14
seek peace and pursue it.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
Eccl 3:11
He mounted the cherubim and flew;
he soared on the wings of the wind.The valleys of the sea were exposed
and the foundations of the earth laid bare
at your rebuke, Lord,
at the blast of breath from your nostrils.He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters.
17 He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
18 They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the Lord was my support.
19 He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me.To the faithful you show yourself faithful,
Psalm 18:10, 15-20, 25-29
to the blameless you show yourself blameless,
26 to the pure you show yourself pure,
but to the devious you show yourself shrewd.
27 You save the humble
but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.
28 You, Lord, keep my lamp burning;
my God turns my darkness into light.
29 With your help I can advance against a troop[e];
with my God I can scale a wall.
I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— 12 that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.
Romans 1:11-12
He grants peace to your borders
Ps 147:14
and satisfies you with the finest of wheat.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
Psalm 16: 6, 9-11
my body also will rest secure,
10 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
nor will you let your faithful[b] one see decay.
11 You make known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Media
Books
The Interior Castle, by Theresa de Avila
“Believe me, reflecting on the virtue of God will carry us to much greater heights than if we were to tie ourselves down to our own little land of misery.”
pg 46
The First Night of the Crescent Moon: My Journey from Palestine to Iowa, by George Khal
I read this book, written by my uncle George, to understand both his experience as an immigrant to the United States and to see the history of the Middle East through his eyes. Understanding his view of the Middle East from the 1950s until the 1980s was powerful, giving me a richer perspective on current events between Israel, Palestine, and the Arab states. George’s description of his boarding school in Jerusalem, exploring Lebanon, Jordan, and various other holy places was at times beautiful, powerful, and intense. I feel lucky to know other elements of his story that came after this narrative, of interactions with my dad’s side of the family and the stories of my aunt and cousin. I’m so grateful for George’s influence on my life through joining our family. The Thanksgivings we celebrated with him and my aunt’s family often featured baklava, grape leaves, and other Middle-eastern elements, along with things like pickles, olives, coleslaw, and traditional American Thanksgiving food. His influence paved the way for my sister-in-law to join our family from Sichuan province China, stirred my interest in other nations, and steered me into working and relating across cultures.
Youtube
I enjoyed the imagery of light, life, and celebration woven into this video, as odd as the Tudor period seems.
Prayer Requests
- Continued ease, peace, growth, and right timings
- That God would kindle my coworkers’ desire to taste and see his Kingdom for themselves, sending even greater signs as a demonstration that he isn’t just present, but wants to know them personally.
- Joy and even more freedom in the Holy Spirit
- Strength and endurance to last until God uproots wrongly placed individuals from the land.
- Ease to continue flowing the spirit in doctoral thesis writing, starting in January
Age of the Unexpected 