Week One - Becoming Alive

Day 1   Wednesday 9-29-10

Today when we were at the first orientation meeting, I began to feel a shock, or a chill go through my chest every minute or so. But it was a good feeling like tummy butterflies. While I was wondering what this feeling could mean, I suddenly got a picture in my mind of one of those shock machines things doctors use to revive hearts. I thought, wow! I bet God is wanting to revive my heart again! Make it alive!

A little later, there was prayer time for us newbies while the leaders and the 2nd track interns came around to pray for us. Two leaders came to pray for me. Here is a quote from each of them:

"Make the Word come alive to her!"

"Make her heart fully alive again!"

Wow! God really does want my heart to be alive so He can speak to me!

Day 2    Thursday   9-30-10

 Isaiah 62:5-6

     For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you; And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall you God rejoice over you.

     I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent.

  

What really stood out to me today was the fact hat Jesus not only loves me, but He likes me to! I have to train myself. When I am singing a song with words like, "We are trophies of His mercy" or "I was blind but now I see, I was lost but now I am found, I was dead but now I'm alive.", I have to shift my thinking from just thinking that those are random words that I am saying to actually declaring them over myself and believing them.  

Day 3     Friday   10-1-10

John 7:37b-38

     "If anyone thirsts, let her come to Me and drink.

      He who believes in Me, as the scriptures has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."

  

This verse came up as my apartment was listening to The Power of a Focused Life by Mike Bickle. One thing he said caught my attention. "We need to jump start our hearts to get them flowing." Again with my heart becoming alive! Then he said another thing while talking about our heart situation. "God's word has morefire and power than our hearts are cold and dead."  A flowing heart is our inheritance. As the children of God, we are all entitled to heart that lives. As our father, God is eager to give it to us! Mike Bickle said a phrase I had never heard before. "The verse was illuminated in my heart." I want that! When I hear that, I just imagine this warmth filling my heart from the Word. We can never have a flowing heart until we thirst for it. We have to want it.

Day 4     Saturday     10-2-10

  Psalm 34:18

     The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.

Hosea 14:3b

     ...For in You the fatherless finds mercy.

 Tonight at the awakening service (which is basically a mini revival that is going on at IHOP. You can read about it and how it started on the website), the Lord helped me deal with some issues I had with my birth-father. When we walked in around 7:30pm the worship team was singing a song with the lyrics "You are a good, good Father". When I was born, Steve refused to hold me. I believe that even though I was just an infant, that affected me, as has continued to do so my entire life. The next verse was written so it was like God speaking to us. "I seek you, I find you, I hold you, I never let you go." I cried hard and long, but I could feel God doing a work in my heart. My revelation tonight was this:

      The love and acceptance of my birth-father will not sustain m. But I already have the Love and Acceptance of my heavenly Father. I am His daughter, and out of all His children, I am His favorite one. He chose me. He is my Father, my Daddy. I can crawl up on His lap anytime I please. He has adopted me into His heavenly family. I am no longer a child of the world but a child of the Most High. He delights in me, He rejoices over me. I don't need to work for His approval because I have already received it. He sees me as innocent and pure in heart. I am a princess; but not a wimpy Disney princess! I am a princess in the courts of heaven because my Father is the King of Kings and I walk in and under His authority. Yes, I am worthy of His love. Because He paid the price for me. If I was the only one on this planet, He still would have sent Jesus to die, for me! Even if I had the best earthly father on the planet, his love could not compare to the love of God. Abandonment and rejection cannot accompany me to the throne room any longer because I am no longer abandoned or rejected!

  For the first time, I feel like a daughter. I have the feeling that I always wanted when I imagined what it would feel like if I had a good father-daughter relationship. It's so different. But good. Praise Jesus! :)

There's one thing I want to set straight. IHOP is not a cult, false religion etc etc. So many people think it is because it is a very charismatic environment. No. Everything they teach here, they back it up with God's Word; and I mean everything! You don't have to agree with what they believe, but it's not fair to IHOP, or me, to go as far as to call it something it's not. As far as fasting goes, it is not mandatory and they only encourage you to fast if you are physically able. Yes, every Tuesday is their "fasting day" and yes the first Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of every month is their Global Bridegroom Fast (as in Jesus is the Bridegroom, the church is the bride). But contrary to popular belief, they do not force you to do it. People who are on Staff and are at the University and very strongly encouraged to fast on those days...but if you are going to apply for staff, or going to be a student, you know going into it that it is one of the things IHOP asks you to do. It's not like it's a surprise. They teach and encourage a "fasting lifestyle". A person who fasts once a week to give that time to God, will get more out of their fasting than a person who fasts for 20 days, once every 4 years. And yes, the Bible does call us to fast. But it doesn't even have to be food, or food in it's entirety. What, when and how long we fast, is between ourselves and God; and IHOP recognizes that.

With the whole "that school isn't accredited, so it doesn't count" thing. It can take up to 10 years to have a school accredited and IHOPUniversity has only been up and running for about 2 years now. They are slowly in the process, but they don't want that to be their main focus, so they aren't rushing it. Besides, it does count...although it does depend on what church I would apply to. For example, if my dad had the job of hiring someone, and there were two choices; one with a degree from Nebraska Christian College and one from IHOP, I know that if all of the other requirements fit, he would pick the person from IHOP because he knows how it works and he respects IHOP. So it all just depends. 

So, all in all, I just want to warn you. Don't believe everything you hear. If it's not directly on IHOP.org don't believe it right away. God is moving here, He really is and if you don't believe me, go back and re-read what I just wrote; it's incredible. And the Devil will do anything to stop this so he is gonna try and make people believe that IHOP is not of God. So please, just be mindful of things you read and hear. If you have questions, feel free to ask me, because even if I don't know the answer, I can ask a leader here.

Thank you for reading! I'll write again soon!