Day 2

What???? I've only been here two full days? It's intense man... it's intense!

Yesterday Lisa and I hung out all day by running around for Hope City. In all that running, we talked alot about all the things that have happened since I left as well as well... what God has been saying.

Mike Bickle on Sunday spoke on prayer and how to pray. It was a message that those at IHOP and those of us associated with the HOP's around the earth have heard many times, but the basics are always good. I wasn't yet here, so didn't hear it, but the "after shocks" I not only heard but have been experiencing.

A woman who lives with Lisa and her family had a dream on Sunday night that basically was a rerun of the service from Sunday. In the dream she heard Mike say "i keep saying it, but nobody is listening". That has, in Lisa's words, "jacked" us all up. I've been a Christian since I was 13. I've been taught how to pray, how to read scripture and how to answer the Sunday School questions with "GOD, PRAYER, or the BIBLE" which ever one fit.

I also have spent 2 1/2 years at IHOP, been hours in the prayer room, but find myself to be guilty of the accusation of YOU AREN'T LISTENING. By the way, it's not Mike saying we aren't listening to him, it's that we aren't listening to GOD. God is getting ready to break into the earth with His glory and when it comes, it will come right along with His judgements. Am I ready for the shaking that God tells of in His Word? Am I grounded enough in His love and truth that I won't be shaken? They are hard questions, especially when even with all my talk of prayer and the importance of it, and the time spent in prayer, I don't know if I can answer with a definate YES, I am listening.

There was a recent car accident here in the city where 3 people died, and it hits close to home for Lisa's family. The quickness in which these young people lost their lives is staggering. Three families torn apart because of one bad decision. It's a little more complicated than that of course, but it made the last two days of asking the question "ARE YOU LISTENING?" even more poignant.

I believe that God is of course full of grace and compassion, but He is also a jealous God, not jealous OF me, but jealous FOR me. He wants my full heart, mind soul and strength. He wants it so much that he will do whatever it takes to get it.

Jesus, help me GET it. Help me HEAR what you are saying. Open my heart and mind and especially the eyes and ears of my heart!