The Faint Yes

 “We don’t have to make a name for ourselves and we don’t have to get His (God’s) attention.  We already have His attention, we’re already His beloved ones.” - Corey Russell

I was sitting in the prayer room after a day of battling my emotions -- feeling lonely, insignificant, and unimportant.  As I began to reflect on the phone calls that I expected and didn’t get, or the one I should have gotten and didn’t, I asked the Lord to show me something, anything that would open my eyes to the value of my existence.  Oh how faithful He is!

I read and reread Corey’s statement so many times, and then began to search the Scriptures to remind myself of how He feels towards me.  The first thought I had was of Jesus - His beloved Son in whom He was well pleased (Matt 3:17).  I am reminded when I think of this verse that the Lord God spoke this of Jesus before He did anything.  Jesus had simply said yes in His heart and he made the confession by baptism.  No ministry, no 40 days of temptation, no miracles, merely a yes to the voice of God.  A yes to be intimate with the Father.

At this thought my heart rejoices.  Yet I know there must be more, something for me.  Then He shows me Song of Solomon 1:15:

"Behold, you are beautiful my love; behold, you are beautiful, your eyes are doves.” 

The maiden has done nothing to deserve such adoration.  She isn’t famous or wealthy.  In fact, she is well acquainted with her lack (Songs 1:5), but her heart is His (Songs 1:2), and that is what He finds beautiful.

I need to meditate longer on this truth.  I want it to become like the air that I breathe, second nature.  I need to really get it, to have it permeate my being.   I long to understand the reality that I am His because of my faint yes.  It is the barely audible yes, in the midst of the circumstances that make me valuable.

Oh sweet Jesus, keep showing me that in You I am valuable, so valuable that You left heaven for me, that You endured the cross for me, that You descended into hell for me.  And You would do it again, that is really the measure of my value.      

-Judy Weber

Leaning On My Beloved

I have been meditating on the Song of Solomon for a couple of months now.  I am consistently amazed at the new revelation that I receive of the heart of the Bridegroom for His Bride.

A couple of weeks ago, I was prayer leading a Worship With the Word set in the Prayer Room.  We were meditating on Psalm 84 and we were on verse 5:

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,

whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.

As the singers began to sing about His strength, they were taken to Song of Solomon, and the worship leader began to sing about "leaning on our Beloved" for strength.

Who is that coming up from the wilderness,
leaning on her beloved?  (Songs 8:5a)

At this point, the Lord gave me a picture.  I saw myself as the Bride of Christ.  I was dirty, yet there was a beauty about me that radiated brightly.  I was walking through a valley.  I could tell I was being helped along, and then I saw the Lord, next to me.  I leaned up against him, as close as I could get, and found strength as I continued to walk.  I asked the Lord what it was He was saying, and the revelation He gave me was this:  When I go through hard times in my life, I have always been told that I didn't have to worry about walking during those times, but that the Lord would "carry me through it".  I asked the Lord if He would continue to carry me through the hard seasons, and He said that He was teaching me how to lean into Him, to find strength in Him.  It wasn't that He wasn't ever going to carry me through a hard place again, but His desire is for me to learn how to walk....leaning on Him for strength.  And by doing so, I would grow in spiritual maturity. 

So how do I lean into Him?  Here are a few practical ways that help me gain strength by leaning:

1. Reading His Word.  His words are truth and life to my Spirit.
2. Being in The Prayer Room.  There is a place for you to come and sit, to be with the Lord in an atmosphere of prayer and worship.  You don't have to do anything.  Just simply come and be and allow Him to strengthen you.
3. Worship.  I find that the harder the season I am in, the more I must worship Him.  It helps me to stay focused on who He is, His loves me and the fact that He takes care of my needs.

Are you experiencing a hard season in your life?  Lean on the Lord.  Lean into Him and find strength for your journey.

Fascinate Testimonies

Our youth had a fantastic time at the Fascinate Conference in Kansas City.  God did a work on their hearts and many life changing testimonies came forth.  Below are just a couple of the testimonies from the conference.  Take a moment to listen and let your heart be stirred!

Pray for our Teens at Fascinate Conference

Today is the first day of the Fascinate Conference in Kansas City.  We are expecting a powerful move of God among the 12 teens who are attending from cHOP.  Please remember them in your prayers this week.  Here are just a few prayer points:

1. That God would encounter them.
2. That they would have eyes to see God and ears to hear what He is saying.
3. That they would be fascinated by the Man Christ Jesus.
4. That God would captivate their hearts.
5. That they would receive a greater understanding of God's love for them.
6. They they would desire holiness and purity in their walk with God.
7. They any hindrances or distractions that come against them would be removed in Jesus' Name!

Looking forward to hearing the powerful testimonies from our youth next week. 

Thanks for praying!

Healing Testimony

Pastor Greg began the series on Longing last Sunday.  During the service, he received a Word of Knowledge from the Lord regarding healing.  Here is just one report from one of several people who experienced God's healing touch on Sunday:

“Two things… I was prayed for regarding my hip today and was afraid to test it because I didn’t want to disappoint, went home tested it and it’s strong and pain free. It was a muscle that was torn from the hip ligament, which takes months to heal and are very painful…Praise the Lord!

And most important was Pastor Greg’s message about Jesus’ joy for us. For years when I feel the presence of Jesus I can only cry, feeling I am not worthy in His presence. I was trying to earn my way resulting in not having any joy. Your exclamation today has released the chains that have been on my heart for at least 30 years….

I am humbled and grateful for you bringing that bridge for my poor broken heart. Now my heart will be able to heal.  God Bless you Pastor Greg. God has used you to release so much from my heart which was filled with pain and anguish…Praise be to the Lord who worked thru you for me today!”—Carrie

The Longing series continues this Sunday with the longing to be fascinated and the longing for beauty.  Don't miss it!

Always Faithful

This has been the theme that the LORD has been sustaining me with in these last few months.  I love that He is always faithful, whether it is with the big life altering decisions or with the mundane routine of the day to day.  Of course His faithfulness to me is not based off of my “hard” work, He is faithful because He loves me and has a plan and purpose for me.

However, He enjoys it when I co-labor with Him and press in for the impossible to become possible, for the unseen to become seen.  It is exciting to be in relationship with a limitless God who could easily take care of everything right away just the way I want and yet He wants me to do my part because He knows that I can!  He does not give up on me and if I am looking to the Father or at the life of Jesus Christ, then I know that I am not to give up.

I am more than a conqueror only because He did His part.  Even when it feels like nothing is working and all is crashing down, He comes through.  Most of the time it looks completely different than expected and usually happens at the last minute, but He is always faithful.  I am thankful for the time that He has given me, for His mercy and grace. Even when I drop the ball, turn back, grow faint, shut down, or fall down; He is still faithful!

It is in those times when I do not give up or lose hope that I see Him provide and come through in a way far greater then what I could have accomplished with out co-laboring.  I love those times.  It is exhilarating to live in faith!  No, it is not easy and sometimes I feel like my brain or body is going to have a melt down. Only because His ways are not my ways, but His ways always satisfy in the end.

Yes, He is always faithful and my faith only increases because I realize that His faithfulness satisfies me just enough to make me completely hungry for more! Crazy I know but it is true.  In this age our God is faithful to the end but in the age to come, He is faithful for eternity!


- Blessings
Patrick Atkins

"Lord, Teach Us To Pray"

And it came about that while He was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.”  Luke 11:1

We all know this line from the Bible and the prayer model that Jesus gave following this request from one of His disciples.

I want to highlight these points Jesus made at the beginning and end of the prayer:

1. Our Father in heaven,
2. Hallowed (Holy) by Your name.
3. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.  Amen

We must know whom we are praying to! And we must know that He is Holy!  And we must know that He alone is worthy of all glory, of all honor, and all power!

Where else do we get a description of our Father in heaven and Him being declared as holy and worthy? Jesus was pointing His disciples to Revelation 4, the Beauty Realm, before it was actually revealed to John the Beloved!

“Behold…One sitting on the throne…Holy Holy Holy is the LORD God…Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power.” Rev 4:2-11

I believe Jesus saw this throne room reality at the beginning of His public ministry. I think it was this Beauty Realm reality in heaven that gave Jesus the vision and value of His ministry on Earth.

“Now it came about when all the people were baptized, that Jesus also was baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened.” Luke 3:211.   

1. While He prayed
2. Heaven was opened

Do you think it was possible that when heaven opened, Jesus saw the Beauty Realm?  Could He have seen the Father in all His glory and splendor sitting on the Throne?  I believe Jesus saw all of what is described in Revelation 4. The Father heard His Son’s prayer and encouraged Him by showing Him what was in store for Him at the end of His earthly ministry.  It was more than enough but He also sends Him the Spirit and encourages Him with His audible voice.

He prayed, He saw, He received, and He heard.

“Thou art My beloved Son, in Thee I am well-pleased.”

Jesus is seen praying throughout the gospels and it is said that He prayed alone often. Ex: Luke 5:16, Luke 6:12, Luke 9:18.  During these alone times in prayer the disciples were near to Him but were not engaging in prayer with Him because they had not yet seen the importance and power of it.  But I know they must have observed and seen that it was special.

It was at the Mount of Transfiguration that Peter, James and John got a real dose of Jesus’ heavenly reality.  They saw Jesus in His Glory!

“And while He was praying, the appearance of His face became different, and His clothing became white and gleaming.” Luke 9:29

Again we see that while Jesus is praying a heavenly reality is revealed, this time it is to show Peter, John, and James that He truly is the anointed of God as Peter had stated 8 days earlier in v.18. For the second recorded time in the gospels they also heard the audible voice of the God.  The first being at Jesus’ baptism as read above.  But out of the three times that the audible voice of God was recorded in the New Testament, this was the only one that gave a command to those who are listening. Again, God confirms that Jesus is the One but instead of encouraging Jesus, He gives Peter, John, and James a command.  A command that should be heeded by us as well!

“Listen to Him”  “Hear Him”  “Give ear to Him”  “Give constant heed to Him”

It is not too long after this supernatural experience that brings us back to the scripture at the top of this page, one of the disciples ask Jesus how to pray.  I would guess that it was either Peter or James or John.  Just a guess.  I also believe that they LISTENED TO JESUS when it came to the prayer model that He gave.

Then Peter and the two sons of Zebedee (John and James) got to hear Jesus’ last prayer in the Garden called Gethsemane.  This was unlike any prayer they had ever heard and John actually recorded it for us to hear as well.  I would encourage you all to read and re-read John 16 and 17! Let us not forget Jesus’ words to those that were closest to Him in His last hours.

“Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41

I know there is power in prayer and I know that just as Jesus prayed often while He was on earth and now intercedes for us in Heaven, that we too are ALL called into prayer and intercession.  Jesus is to be the example that we pattern our lives after and if He is in heaven right now interceding then is it not the Fathers will for intercession to be on Earth as it is in Heaven?

I will end with the next three parts of the Lord’s Prayer:

1. Your kingdom come
2. Your will be done
3. On earth as it is in heaven. 

LORD TEACH US TO PRAY, ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN!

-Patrick Atkins
Intercessory Missionary