However, in recent months, the LORD has been drawing a number of us i
nto a fresh and rich depth of relationship with Him. So as to chronicle the baby steps we are taking into this seeming new frontier of relationship with Jesus, I am resurrecting this blog. I hope it serves as a point of reference for each of us as we engage in our exploration of intimacy with Jesus!
First let me establish that a few short weeks back, we began meeting each Thursday night for what we call "Fascinate." Inspired by having read "Gazing Into Glory" by Bruce Allen, we have chosen to encourage each other to learn to become more attuned to the reality of the spirit life than we have been up to this point in our lives.
So to digress a bit, I will post a bit about our Fascinate gathering of June 9. During our worship, Tonya Rainey watched Jesus go to each person in the room and recorded what He said concerning each one present:
Russell:
with great love in His voice, and smiling, the Lord looked at
Russ then looked at me and said, "I am his sufficiency." there was great weight to the word "am"
Jordan:
as He walked in front of Jordan, He began giggling. He seemed to enjoy Jordan. Then He sai
d, "We're walking together." There was a certainty in His voice.
Eileen:
with great affection, He placed His hand on her cheek, then looked at me and said, "She's precious to Me."
Pastor Don:
when He walked over to Pastor, He patted his shoulder a couple of times and said, with a smile, "That's My boy!" Then He
looked at me and said, "he's walking in a new light."
Will:
He walked over to Will and placed His hand on Will's chest. He looked at Will for a while, then he said to me, "I have much more in
store for him."
Jon:
When He got to Jon, He lifted Jon's chin so that Jon was looking strai
ght up at the Lord, and said to Jon, "Keep your eyes on Me. Don't look
to the left or the right." Then He looked at me and said, "I love this boy!" (there was great weight to th
e way He said that He loves Jon.)
David:
The Lord embraced him
in a hug. It was a chest to chest kind of hug and it lasted a while. As they embraced, I could see tha
t there was an exchange happening between the Lord & David....spirit to spirit....deep
to deep. I knew that whatever He was transferring from His Spirit to David's that great encouragement would be a result.
Jack:
He stood in front of Jack for a while, enjoying his worship. Then said, "he'll see things h
e never imagined he'd see."
Bev:
He waited a while before speaking about Bev. It seemed He had many things on His mind. Then He said, "she yearns....and she will be filled."
Now we come to this week's Firelight. We blended our weekly Fascinate gathering with our once-a-month Firelight meeting. The truly astounding aspect of the night was that we CLEARLY were enjoying a spirit of revelation from the very outset. A comment would lead to a realization which would, in turn, lead to an "aha moment." Then an observation would be made and someone would relate it to something said earlier. A scripture would come to mind followed by a thought, that related to a comment and it would connect to an earlier revelation.
This continued unbroken for three solid hours! It was almost as though we couldn't turn around without bumping into a "eureka" thought. We tried to start our worship time but it was almost as though we couldn't stop the stream of thought, scripture, postulations and what-about's. At some point Mike finally, almost unable to contain himself, remarked, "Man, Jack! I don't know what's going on here tonight, but you'll say something and it reminds me of a verse that I'll wonder where to find it and when I open my bible, THERE IT IS!" Then he added, "I can't tell you how many times that's happened tonight just the short while we've been in this room."
It was finally 9:30 when we BEGAN worship. But we were already saturated! Wanting to be mindful of the time, we wrapped up worship at 10 but then interpersonal ministry got started in obedience to the Holy Spirit's direction. We finally ended at 11:00. It was a truly remarkable evening.
In conclusion, I could sum up the theme of the night as revelation on God's BOUNDLESS expanse of all He wants to do in our lives. "New wineskins" was an underlying topic as was "repent" AKA "burn the house down!" The operative word for the night was "enlargement." Lord, give us a greater capacity for Your Presence!
