Tonight, there is a cry for no compromise. It has been boiling over at the house of prayer (www.anhop.asia) for a week right now. First day of the new season of internship and the staff gave us a big and very much needed hit on the head. It knocked us awake. Attitude towards the Word, spirit of performance, punctuality, sense of responsibility towards everything (not just big, important or spiritual things), being faithful to our calling, steadfastness, alertness... To conclude, we are being trained to become mature forerunners with a life message from God, not just young people who are spiritual and passionate but immature - kind of the state we are starting from right now. It will be a quick work, He says. Praise God.
Yesterday was a day filled with God outbreaks and fleshly struggles. From the moment I opened my eyes in the morning, I felt like one moment I was at war with my flesh and the next moment He was releasing intense breakthroughs in the spirit through me. When the devil tried to tempt me (which was often), I had to use all the spiritual strength within me to side with God and utter a barely audible but firm NO. At the 1-3pm set which I led, God broke out near the end and issued out a war cry among the interns. I know that God is up to something when the 30 people inside the chamber were shouting at the top of their lungs to these lyrics:
"The battle is raging, the devil is raging, and I don't want to be sleeping, when the battle is raging, wake me up! I don't fight as one who beats the air, give me eyes to see and ears to hear. I put on Christ, make no provision for my flesh, I put on the whole armor of God, leave no open door for darkness. I take the scroll, I eat the scroll, I open up my mouth and let Your word come forth, I take the sword of the spirit. Blessed be the Lord my rock, who trains my hands for battle and trains my feet for war!"
After being a little bit down and dejected that same afternoon, Clara and I hid in a darkened room, locked the door, and sang our hearts out. I saw His children walking on a rainbow of promises. First, it was a little boy and a little girl. Then came a bunch of orphans with laughter spilling from their mouths. (I don't think it's a coincidence that we were in the "children's room" at anhop). When I finally saw all the different broken people in the world running joyfully on the rainbow of promises, I knew that He was telling me it is possible, though there is so much hurt. Clara and I kept getting revelations, I kept writing songs, and she kept seeing visions. What finally blew us apart were the following few lines which reminded us of what we are truly living for, so deep, so gentle yet assuring: "I'm more than what these ashes say, for they will fade away when He comes for me; My love is real before His eyes, He's ravished by the sight of one glance from me."
As for tonight, it was a power encounter for me. Towards the end of the day with my head to the ground and 5 hands on my back, I cried out for a life of no compromise, of purity in the deepest places in my heart. I cried out for a life that embraces holiness and the cloak of humility which brings divine protection. I cried out for patience and unending love for the prophetic musicians God has given me to train. He is releasing the apostles today. He is confronting the spirit of religion which brings control and fear into the Church, robbing the Bride of all her most valuable identities - of sonship and of being a lover who will reign and rule with Him. I know that He is searching for hearts completely yielded to Him, and as long as there is a weak but willing "yes" in my spirit, His grace will cover me. Someday, not too long from now, His apostles will be brought before not just spiritual principalities but physical governments that side with the kingdom of darkness, and they shall tear them down with the fire and the power that comes with the spirit of Elijah. But first, we must cry out for refinement and for Him to turn the fires of the furnace a few notches up. We must live a life of no compromise, starting this second. I refuse to believe that it is not possible. With Him, nothing is impossible! I will fall again, again, and again, but I will still repent, get up, though bruised and battered, and keep walking. We are all but weak and broken vessels. The moment I think I've got it, I am doomed.
Release the war horses Lord!
