April 2024 Monthly Summary

Intergenerational Alignments

This April, God highlighted how he is causing me to reap the benefits of the sacrifices wise elders made to bring reformation to the Church. It has been humbling and put me in awe. And it’s made me all the more passionate that the next generation will not have to repave highways that we paved in tears.

I rely on them to lead so I can play my part in this season. Rather than prematurely being rushed into being an elder, my piece of the puzzle is crucial in that I am meant to be a bridge between different generations and contexts. I can still lead in the role he’s given me, but in most contexts except Generations of the Nations, I don’t have to break new ground except to affirm what others are establishing. It’s a relief to see how well they respond to the needs of vulnerable people. Rather than taking on false responsibility, I can just focus on this intergenerational piece that is mine.

This month, I agreed with a friend’s prayer for the elders of a specific nation to be softened so they can receive new grace as easily as babies. As I considered how God is moving in an older generation of prophets, I saw willing surrender and transformation in Generations of the Nations.

In general, this year has been much more about strategically aligning with individuals than addressing entire communities. It’s a beautiful, peaceful thing to recognize that if we all continue flowing in the same direction, new expressions will emerge organically.

At work in April, God kept deepening a friendship with a younger prophet in her mid-20s. I began to see how Gen Z’s values in the prophetic may differ from Millennials, the Silent Generation, and more. As someone who straddles the boundary between Gen Z and Millenials, I am grateful to be a leader she can depend on. I can sense the Lord’s delight in her eagerness and joy; simultaneously, I am aware of moments when her value for truth may require caution. Despite being someone who values sincerity and makes a point of crossing boundaries to relate to diverse people groups, she is even more brave than I am. It’s a privilege and a gift to begin to see God moving in Gen Z within my region.

Celebrating Nobility and Maturity

This month, I saw God inviting individuals to undergo a leadership formation process reminiscent of Jesus’s life.

1. Surrender
2. Willingly putting oneself in a low place, humility
3. Jesus lifting you up
4. Grace flowing down to others from being seated in Christ, greater oneness

Though this pathway remains a choice, it is a training ground for embodiment. Allowing God to take you on this character-formation journey creates a kind of nobility. At this particular time, God is assembling communities of individuals who have gone through this inner formation and purification process to eventually dig new wells.

Numbers 21:16-18

¹⁶ From there they continued on to Beer, the well where the Lord said to Moses, “Gather the people together and I will give them water.”

¹⁷ Then Israel sang this song:

“Spring up, O well!
    Sing about it,
¹⁸ about the well that the princes dug,
    that the nobles of the people sank—
    the nobles with scepters and staffs.”

Then they went from the wilderness to Mattanah [“Gift”], ¹⁹ from Mattanah to Nahaliel [“Inheritance”], from Nahaliel to Bamoth [“High Place”], ²⁰ and from Bamoth to the valley in Moab where the top of Pisgah [“Peak”] overlooks the wasteland.

Recognizing the Nobles

At a time when God is still gathering individuals to the right places and groups, recognizing elements of nobility in others is a kind of confirmation that you are with the right people. In celebrating what nobility looks like, I think of the description of Jesus in Psalm 45. Just like Psalm 31, Psalm 45 can be interpreted on various levels.

Psalm 31	Psalm 45
Personal sense: Describes characteristics of noble character in women for friendship or relationships	Personal sense: Describes characteristics of noble men for friendships or relationships
Abstract sense: Describes the right role of the Church to Jesus	Abstract sense: Describes nobility in leadership (45:1-9) and who men and women are called to be partnership with Christ (45:10-17)

Rather than just thinking about the personal sense of Psalm 45, reflecting on the characteristics of nobility and maturity described in the verse can prepare us for this era of increasing embodiment.

Based on Psalm 45, Mature Leaders:

• 45:2 Speak in ways that “are anointed with grace”.
• 45:4 Value “truth, humility, and justice”.
• 45:5 Words that find their mark.
• 45:6 Do not just value God’s righteousness, but see its power to protect them.
• 45:7 Choose purity and receive joy.
• 45:8 Beautifully offer God a sacrifice of their lives, not despising the cross because of his surpassing worth. Demonstrate his restoration, healing, and comfort through God’s grace in response to their yieldedness.
• 45:9 Keep company with honorable women (both actual women and companions in general). In an abstract sense, they rely upon the Church vs. being too independent/isolated.
• 45:10, 13 Allow the Lord to delight in them, guard what is precious, and reserve their treasure for the right people and places.
• 45:11 Honor God.
• 45:12 Allow others who are rich in spirit to seek them out.
• 45:14 Keep company with pure and trustworthy people, sharing the benefits of their elevated place.
• 45:15 Enter into the high places as a community.
• 45:16 Create a shared legacy with Jesus. God’s character is formed and reflected in both Jesus and the Church.
• 45:17 The spiritual inheritance they pass onto others and their memory becomes a generational blessing.

Worship

Music

Names of God

Each month, I give God a name that aligns with scripture and how he revealed himself to me that month. This month, I spent the majority of time knowing him as,

• “God who Makes the Hard Ground a Place of Springs“

Verses

• Isaiah 58:6-14, especially 14
• Isaiah 60:17
• Reflecting on Moses’ Experience, Exodus 19:9, How God supported him
• Reflecting on Joseph’s Process, especially as it relates to timings, truth, and God’s initiative
• Desert or Hard Ground into a “Place of Springs”
  • Psalm 107:35
  • Psalm 114:8
  • Isaiah 35:6-7
  • Numbers 21:16-18
  • Isaiah 41:17-19
  • Isaiah 44:3-5
  • Ezekiel 47:6-12

Media

Movies

After Yang (2001)

The dance sequence in this movie is so bomb! The synchronicity of the family’s movements reminded me of recent comments from the Lord related to internal alignments and community.

Prayer Requests

• For now: To continue to be aligned and plugged into the right places. To continue encountering the individuals God wants me to meet.
• For the future: To have wise elders in each place God is grafting me into. To be able to play my part without false responsibility. To simply embody the right relationship with servant-elders in ways that allow Gen Z + Gen Alpha to play their part.