David’s flimsy tent

We are in the day's of David's maturity. Nathan has promised, prophetically, that Solomon would build the temple. David has stored up some materiel for it, but it's not done yet. That's where we are today.

There are three places of worship:

1) There is the tabernacle, outside the city. The tabernacle is where the worship services happen for all Israel, all of God's people. The established, trained, anointed leadership is there, doing the things that God has commanded them to do. The place is rich and full of tradition; it's full of gold and purple and busy with worshippers and bloody with sacrifices. The only problem is that the Ark of the Covenant, God's presence, is not there.

2) Inside the palace grounds somewhere, hidden away in a back room or a private courtyard somewhere, is a small tent. It's neatly set up, but there are no priests, no crowds of worshippers. But the Ark is there. David and his household -- or at least those who desire to be in God's presence -- worship there, drawn by the passion they see in their king.

It's hard to believe that such an insignificant little tent can hold so much of God!

3) There is the temple. David wrote Psalm 27; it says so in the Bible. He wrote this line in verse 4 "One thing I have desired of the LORD, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD, And to inquire in His temple." [emphasis added]

David dwelt in the temple of the Lord, inquiring of God, beholding His beauty. Only one minor problem: there was no temple. David's son, Solomon, would build it years later, after David died.

But David worshipped there by faith, and it was the high point of his spiritual life.

That's a picture of us today.

1) There is a structure that has all the well-trained religious leaders, and all the ceremony and trappings and beautiful buildings. All of God's people come there to worship. It's rich and full and busy.

The only problem is that God's presence is not there.

God still loves those folks; They are obeying His commands, and they're praying to Him, and He's answering their prayers. They're doing mighty works in His name and according to His will. His hand moves among them.

But His presence is not to be found.

2) There is another structure that has none of those blessings. Sometimes they meet in small out-of-the way storefronts; sometimes in space rented from the well-trained religious leaders. Sometimes they meet in homes.

But God's presence is there.

3) There is a place of solitude, a different one for you than for me, where God's promise is alive and rich and real. I can go there. I CAN GO THERE! God waits for me there. It's not "real" there. The marble and the cedar and the silver and gold aren't there. Not yet.

But God is there. I can behold His beauty there. I can inquire of Him there. I can dwell there. And finally, here's the application, or at least my application:

I have decided to spend my life, to squander my life, looking for tents and trying to find the unseen temples. I want to draw as many people with me, from my circle of influence, into those places.

I want to watch as their jaws drop open and their eyes bulge and their knees shake. I want to help them to see the unseen, to learn about that place of intimacy -- one on one, just like lovers -- where they're alone with the creator of the universe staring into each others' lives.

I want to blow their minds with reality!

Blessings! Lots and lots of blessings as you crowd in next to me and a few thousand of our brothers and sisters into that little tent in David's spare bedroom.

David McLain, from Firefall Zine

May 08, 2006

Word For Oregon from Australia

I kept seeing a 'smog' over Oregon, and I asked the Lord what this was, and I felt He said that it was 'apathy' and 'articulation'.

I didn't understand what God meant by 'articulation' and I felt Him say that the enemy has articulated his attacks so precisely and in such detail, and in his stupidity (as satan is silly) he is screaming his attacks over Oregon loud and clear, articulating them really well and, that God is calling intercessors to wait on Him for a strategic way to break this smog that is preventing the move of God from coming to Oregon now.

Then I heard as follows:

"Oregon, Out of the pit you come! Oregon out of the pit you arise! Oregon out of the smog you shall come. I declare that this place is to be a place that is after My own heart. A nation that is going to raise its hands in worship to Me. For you ask how a place can all be saved...and I tell you that as My fire spreads across your land, you will see hands raised that you never imagined.

My people now is the time to hear My strategic plans to crush the enemy. For do not 'wait' any longer for the move of My Spirit, I am waiting to pour it forth, but you must come to Me and truly seek Me and seek My heart and My plan for this place, and as you do and walk in this the chains and smog shall disappear.

This smog is causing MANY to not see Me and not see My love and freedom for them, and this smog is habouring a great deception over this place. As My people rise up and pray like never before, praying as I am leading, chains will break and smog will clear, and this place shall be set on fire for Me.

Out of Oregon shall many leaders arise in the coming days that are going to go to other places and nations and teach many how to listen to strategic plans that I am setting forth to defeat the enemy."

Lana Vawser (Perry), Australia
24th November, 2007
sparkalina@gmail.com
http://sparkalinaplace.blogspot.com/

Spilling to the Northwest

We feel that the Lord is showing us a strategic connection in this hour between the Northeast and the Northwest regions of the country. I believe there is divine strategy and intercontinental connection being released in this hour that literally corresponds to the anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition exactly 200 years ago.

Lewis & Clark Intercontinental Connections

While Lily was praying for me recently, the Lord showed her a large arch, underneath of which was a tall tree whose roots extended and tapped into the lightnings and power of God. At the time, I did not understand the prophetic significance of this.

Earlier this month, we visited Seaside, Ore., the site where the famous explorers Lewis and Clark turned around at the end of their long journey to the Pacific Ocean after crossing the span of continental America. Lewis and Clark pioneered a route across the country that would serve to open the nation up from one end to the other.

Our visit to Seaside corresponded exactly to the time that Lewis and Clark turned around and headed back eastward 200 years ago. It was at this site that they made salt for their journey back. The Lord told us that this was a place of “turning,” and that we should move back to the East Coast. We immediately relocated to Atlanta, closing a six-year season on the West Coast.

On the journey to Atlanta, we stopped at the St. Louis Gateway Arch, and the Lord had me stand underneath it as a prophetic act. This place was a strategic launching place as a “final outpost” when the West was being explored, and it was considered a gateway city. Even now, the Lord is opening a gateway between spiritual deposits on the East and West Coasts of America and Canada, and those who drink from both streams will sink their roots deep into power evangelism. The awakening that is happening on both coasts of the nation is going to mature as there is connection and cohesion in the body of Christ. During this time, Lily began seeing open-eye visions of lightnings, as bright as camera flashes in her eyes. This happened eight times, symbolizing new beginnings and the spiritual shift that is coming to America.

Also underneath the Gateway Arch stands a famous courthouse where the Dred Scott case was tried. Dred Scott was a slave who sued for his freedom. As these cross-continental connections begin to take place in the church, there is going to be a breaking of the spirit of slavery, as well as the orphan spirit, both of which will be replaced by a spirit of sonship and adoption.

Apostolic Connections: Shifts in Leadership Models

To summarize what the Lord has been showing us, there are coming connections between the East and West Coasts, as well as the north and south. These are not “church connections.” The Lord is shifting us from the church age to the Kingdom age. These are apostolic connections, as the Lord is even now releasing an emerging apostolic movement.

As regional apostolic centers and leadership models emerge (there is even now a completion in some of the pioneering that has taken place to this end, just as Lewis and Clark completed their westward trek and turned around), it will be vital to cross-pollinate and stand under this canopy of mutual submission and fellowship that this arch represents. There will be no single region that “owns” this coming revival, nor any single ministry that can take credit for it. But in the place of unity and cohesion, we will see the “commanded blessing” of multiplication (Psalm. 133).

John Crowder, Sons of Thunder
via his blog