Love - It Changes Everything

Several weeks ago while sitting in the prayer room, I had a vision that simply put, stunned me. I began to see a scene play out as clearly as looking at a movie screen. I saw a board, a red nail, and a hammer. I positioned the nail with one hand and started swinging the hammer to drive the nail into the board. Suddenly the scene changed. The nail had turned into a spike and the board into a hand. Shocked, I stopped swinging and looked over and saw the face of Christ bleeding, battered, and torn. He looked straight into my eyes and said, “I love you, I love you.” Though I was nailing Him to the cross, His zealous love for me was so powerful, so real, that it penetrated my soul. Almost instantly, the vision happened again. I began to see myself swinging the hammer at the spike. As I turned to Him, He looked into my eyes and said, “I love you, I love you.” This time my thoughts were of my sin and how I was the one who deserved the death that Jesus was receiving.

It’s truly the story of all humanity. He allowed His creation, for whom He has unending love, to nail Him to the cross. He saved us from wrath, but He didn’t just stop there. His desire was for us to be with Him forever in His Glory. “Father I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” John 17:24

During our intercession sets at the house of prayer, a constant mandate that we have is to pray that the nations of the Earth would know the love of Christ. We, of course, are to show the Love of Christ in our actions and deeds, but there is a vitally important position that we are to take in prayer for which good works cannot substitute. No good deed can completely give revelation of the depths of His love, for it is beyond comprehension. Only through prayer and the working of the Holy Spirit do we truly know the love of Christ.

“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:14

I am so convinced in my soul that praying this prayer is one of the most powerful, revolutionary, and effective things we can do, that I have dedicated my life to doing it. As day and night prayer is growing throughout all the Earth, there is truly a shifting taking place as the church cries out with one voice, “We want to know the Love of Christ!”

 It seems too simple, doesn’t it?  Simple, yet powerful. For if the nations truly know the love of Christ, everything changes

 "If I speak in human or angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing." 1 Cor. 13

”Treasures in Heaven”

Several weeks ago , one of our faithful supporters passed away.  A few weeks before she died, Matt and I had sent her a note, expressing our thankfulness for her monthly support and how much it meant to us.  At 89 years old, she had spent an entire lifetime living for Christ.

As she entered His presence, she took nothing with her. She had stored her treasures in Heaven.  Empty handed she came before His throne, but in her soul she brought to Him a gift – a life lived for his glory, and a heart abandoned in love.  I imagine His eyes of mercy upon her, filling her soul with unimaginable joy. For eternity He will lavish her with his unfailing love and pour out his affections on her. Crowns of righteousness are hers, and His love is her reward.

I imagine her monthly gift to us was one of many over the years that she had faithfully given for the work of Christ . It’s amazing to me that an 89 year old women hundreds of miles away, helped build a house of 24/7 worship and prayer, run by group of  people in their 20’s. Though her style of worship may have looked a little different than ours, she understood the undeniable power of prayer and the desperate need for the love of Christ to be proclaimed in the earth.

Matt and I want to thank each of you who support us in building His house of prayer. Whether you give 10$ a month, or simply pray for us, your support is allowing 24/7 worship led prayer to continue in our city, and training others to do continual prayer in the nations of the Earth. During your day, take a moment and think about this; whether it is 1 pm or 1 am, continual worship and intercession is being lifted up before the throne, exalting the name of Jesus, and you had a part in it.  You are storing your treasures in Christ, and your faithfulness will be remembered in the halls of Heaven for eternity.

“Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.”

Matthew 6:21