part1 - a story
I keep feeling like this is the new year. For some reason, seeing the "12" for December on calendars has seemed synonymous with January somehow - a new year and beginnings. I really feel as though this is the time of something new in God. Many would say, "in the Lord" or "in the Spirit" (or the like) to mean it's spiritually true, but end up implying what they're talking about will have no real impact in the natural world. However, through the journey I've been on the past few months, I really do believe that that which is "in the Lord" is the true reality, not only superceding the natural order, but entering it, shaking it, bringing heaven that all things might be made new. There's just such a new level or place (I don't really like the word "level" for this stuff, but it'll have to do) that God has brought us in the Spirit. A few months ago, Paul heard "Deep Waters" for the name of what we thought would be a church plant. Lately, however, deep waters have been the subject of much of my meditation and poetry, and prayer. I saw deep waters pour over my friend L. on Monday night as a group prayed in our apartment. It's like we have what we've always heard prophesied and spoken, and seen in the Word, but never saw manifest. It's like those words were seeds planted in our hearts, implanted and grown into us, and now that it's happening, it's not something foreign or beyond reach - It's who we are. It's Psalm 75:2 - We have entered a sovereignly appointed time.
Ever since the New England Aflame conference last month, my awareness of God's intervening presence has been so real. Aaron Evans said on the last night there that all of us are so much further in the Spirit than we know. I know it's true. I've felt the winds of heaven on my hands and arms daily since then. I can put my hand next to a friend's and they'll feel it. I showed five people yesterday at Starbucks. Things like that are so outside of where I would be without a God that is faithful in my inability, intervening from eternity, now. Monday night, we were praying and I put my foot gently on top of C.'s as she sat between two friends on my couch, feeling strangely led by God to do so. In that instant, she felt as though a knife went into the bottom of her foot, slicing to her heel and up the back of her calf. Then her tendons began to be cut loose at one end. J. and I saw angels ministering to her knee before she even told us what she felt happening ("It's healing!", she squealed), using feather quills like needles to sew, or a scalpel. Then she felt it happen to her other leg. Later, she told me that she's had severe tendonitis from her hips to her ankles, and has been in severe pain for months as a dancer. She studies dance at a nearby college. The outward lump that was on her foot was completely gone after about 45 minutes of this supernatural surgery, and she stood, stretching her legs (once her strength returned), free from pain for the first time in months! Hearing her retell the story two nights later, between giggles, laughter and tears of joy, completely blew each of us away! She even added that the angelic ministry occurred again the next night, in her dorm room, and supernatural lights in the form of crosses began appearing outside of her and L.'s room while it was happening. God really is beginning to move in the Northeast, and He seems to have a strong interest in the arts. I had a similar experience with a violinist from the Peabody Institute in Baltimore about three weeks before this, and it's only increasing. I love that "of the increase of (Jesus') government, there is no end", and that Jesus spoke of the real world when He said, "the kingdom of God has been advancing from the days of John the Baptist until now".
After C. shared her story two nights later, she and others began praying for each other, and our friend R's ankle was about 90% healed at the time of our prayer. M, who has been saved for two weeks and had been shy of the supernatural, ended up sprawled on our tile floor from the fire of God. Powerful peace fell on some. Laughter on others.
His love remained on all.
