Like those who dream...

So many things changed at the "When God Dreams" conference... things in other churches, things in our own church, things in others' lives, things in my life... so many chains were broken, so many battles were won, so many dreams were inspired and re-inspired, so many people left truly encouraged... God did great things.

Then Sunday happened for the Stirring, and God blew the gates off the hinges--forget "opening them wider"! MORE people were encouraged, MORE people were changed, MORE people were anointed and filled, MORE people were crying out and breathing in--they were MORE willing to give their lives than ever before. I was only there Sunday morning (which was so powerful enough for my own life), but I heard AMAZING stories about the night services too. I wish there would have been a giant earthquake or something that shook all of Redding...just for dramatic emphasis... but God knows well enough how to get His point across on His own...
And He knows well enough how His Spirit impacts peoples' entire lives better than I do... He knows we don't always need giant earthquakes...

Monday morning I woke up with a passion for a Spirit-filled life like I've never had before. And I got on my knees before God and begged Him to just keep filling my life like my life depended on it! Because, it does now... it really does. Nathan and Derrick both said this the last two weeks of our Acts series at the Stirring: "If you 'can live without' the Holy Spirit, you probably will." Well, I just can't anymore. Nor do I want to. So I begged God... I said, "God, you HAVE to keep filling me... because if you don't, then I won't know what to do!"

And that's how it will be for me... I've already seen the evidence. I've already noticed the change.

I also said a few other things to God--some things about dreams, some things about what He's told me about them. And His Spirit will guide me in those just like the days it takes to approach them... Each day I will say to my Lord, "If you keep filling, I will keep pouring out..." For that is all I can do. Apart from Him, I can do nothing...
Wow... Did I EVER think I would really reach that place--the place where Jesus' words find their reality in the very reality I find myself in?
Well whether I DID believe it or not, I do now. And I'm beginning to see how it has freed me...

How it has freed me up to not only live NOW, but to also dream for what's to come. Because I was always too afraid to hope before. Maybe because I was always hoping too much for the wrong thing...
Because I never knew that when God frees me, He frees me to dream too... that when God takes back those that have been held captive, He takes them back so that they can share His dreams of taking back others...
So that they can say among the nations, "The Lord has done GREAT THINGS..."

This is the song that I dedicate to those at the conference this weekend. This is the song that I dedicate to all the churches there and to all God's children that He brought back from captivity this weekend. This is the song I dedicate to our church--and to Christ's Church all over...
As He breaks fears and chains, as He brings back "the captive ones of Zion," may we really be "like those who dream."

(Yes, again, it's a Kristene Mueller song... what can I say? She is one who dreams.)


THOSE WHO DREAM

When the Lord brought back the captive ones of Zion
They were like those who dream
And their mouths were filled with laughter
And their tongues with joyful shouting

We will say among the nations
The Lord has done great things
We will say among the nations
The Lord has done great things

More than the watchmen wait for the morning
Our souls wait
Our souls wait upon the Lord
For with Him is loving kindness
And abundant redemption

We will say among the nations
The Lord has done great things
We will say among the nations
The Lord has done great things

Those who sow in tears
Will reap in joyful shouting
Those who sow in tears
Will reap in joyful shouting
Those who sow in tears
Will reap in joyful shouting
Those who sow in tears
Will reap in joyful shouting

We will say among the nations
The Lord has done great things...


My friends, my brothers and sisters, my fellow freed-captives...
Let's be like those who dream.

The Lord HAS done great things!!!