A Home for Sanctuary House of Prayer – Part 2

Read Part 1 here…

Back in Calgary a few months later and we found ourselves at a fork in the road with several different options before us.  Joe had been offered a really great job opportunity that would require us to move to a different city.  We were also being asked to help head up the leadership of a ministry by a great couple who had mentored us in prayer and intercession.  And then I think it was me who decided to throw in the monkey wrench of proposing that we move to Winnipeg to be a part of this new budding house of prayer.  The thought of it was scary and crazy, but so tempting!  Yet these other options were also really great and we were having a really hard time deciding which path to take?  Finally, we felt the Lord say that it was our choice and that He would bless us no matter which one we chose.  In the end, we had to follow the desire of our hearts to be in a place where the main focus was simply to minister to the Lord in worship and prayer – we could think of nothing better!

After taking a trip that summer to visit Sanctuary House of Prayer and meet all the awesome people who were a part of it, our decision was final and in September 2006 we picked up and moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba to join them!  I vividly remember the first time I attended and sat down in the back row by myself (Joe was still in Calgary and would be coming in a couple weeks) and as I opened my Bible and journal, with the prophetic worship happening on stage, I broke down in tears, I was so happy to be there!  It didn’t matter that it was small, that the sound system was terrible, that the musicians and singers were amateurs, that there was no air conditioning – these people loved Jesus, the presence of the Holy Spirit was there, and I felt His delight over it all.  Something in my heart came alive and I knew we were where we were supposed to be.

Fast forward nearly 4 years and I don’t think any of us expected that we would still be in that small building with bad sound and no air conditioning – ha!  I think we’ve grown as musicians and singers over the years, but the most important thing is still that it’s all about Jesus, His presence, and ministering to Him.  Joe and I have had the privilege of hosting hundreds of prayer meetings in our own home as well, which has been an incredible blessing to us and our family.  There have been many challenges and trials, growing experiences, joyful and fun times, intense encounters with God, tears, laughter, and hours of prayer and worship that have brought us to a new season at our little house of prayer.  As of September, exactly 4 years since Joe and I moved here, we will no longer be able to use the building that has been graciously provided to us by the church who owns it.  We have longed and yearned and searched and prayed for a building of our own probably ever since we began, but the time has come where our prayers are now being lifted up in earnest, as we need a place of our own more than ever!

I wanted to share a little bit about our journey and how we came to Sanctuary House of Prayer because I wanted to give you a glimpse into why we love this place and why we are passionate about seeing this ministry unto God continue in our city.  Not only do we want to be able to continue to gather to worship and intercede on behalf of Winnipeg as we have been up until now, but we long to be able to one day do this 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Jesus said that He would return to the earth to bring justice in response to day and night prayer, so that is what we want to do!  Not only because we desire to see justice and righteousness established on the earth, but simply because He is worthy and deserving of non-stop, continuous worship and adoration!  In heaven, there is ceaseless worship around the throne of God, and Jesus Himself taught us to pray, “on earth as it is in heaven”, so we would love to see this happen here and now.

Recently we held an assembly where we gathered for a focused time of worship and prayer and brought in a guest speaker and worship leader, Justin Rizzo, from IHOP.  While he was here, he shared many things that really encouraged us in what we’re doing, but one thing that really struck home was a prophetic word he gave us where he shared about a vision that he had seen of a whirlwind of God’s presence that was in the place where we currently meet.  Similar to the cloud and pillar of fire that was with the Israelites in Exodus and which led them through the desert, Justin shared with us that he felt we would move when the whirlwind moved – as God’s presence leads us, that is how we will know where to go – it won’t be us moving and hoping He follows us! So, this is the place we find ourselves – needing to trust in God’s perfect leadership and that He will truly lead us to where He wants us to go.  He is not surprised by these events and He knows exactly what He’s doing!  He is the One who is building His house of prayer in this city and He wants it even more than we do!

So, for anyone who reads this blog, in the weeks ahead, I would like to ask you to partner with us as we pray and seek God for a home for Sanctuary House of Prayer…

1.  PRAY!  Please pray for a building for us, that we will find the right one, that the Lord will provide the resources needed, and that we will follow His leadership throughout the process.

2.  SHARE!  Tell your friends and your friends’ friends, your relatives and your relatives’ relatives, your co-workers, your neighbors – anyone and everyone!  You never know where there might be a connection that could help us find our new home!

3.  HELP!  If you see or know of a suitable building for sale – tell us, if you have millions of dollars you want to get rid of – by all means do share, if you have or know of a space for rent or lease or free – we’ll take a look at that too!  Any lead or donation or anything would be super helpful to us at this stage in our journey.

While we do not know exactly how the future will unfold, we are excited for whatever God has in store and to see how He is going to write the next chapter in our story.  Thanks for reading and for joining with us in this adventure!

A Home for Sanctuary House of Prayer – Part 1

I want to share a little about our journey that has brought my husband and I to Sanctuary House of Prayer and what God is currently doing in our midst…

Before I met my husband Joe, I knew nothing about the International House of Prayer (IHOP) and was simply enjoying life in Calgary, Alberta where I had been living for over four years.  I loved Jesus, was going to school for Computer Programming, volunteered part-time at my church, and figured I would probably stay there forever?  Then my life got turned upside down when this handsome, tall, charming man entered my life and swept me off my feet with poetic, romantic words from the Song of Songs, wooing my heart with words about my Bridegroom Jesus that I never thought I’d hear coming from any man!  To find someone who was this in love with Jesus felt like a direct answer to my prayers and it wasn’t long before I was head over heels in love.

During our dating months, I began to learn that Joe had learned all this wonderful language about Jesus as our Bridegroom from teachings he had listened to by Mike Bickle at IHOP and my first personal experience came when he bought me Mike Bickle’s 20 session series on the Song of Songs.  From then on, I was hooked, and soon began to learn all about intercession, harp and bowl worship & prayer, the End-Times, the Bridal Paradigm, and more.  Joe and I both knew that this was something we wanted to be a part of!

After we got married, we seriously considered moving to Kansas City so that Joe could do an internship at IHOP, but we felt like the Lord told us to stay put.  We then got involved at our church in a leadership role for the prayer ministry of the young adult service and we started to implement anything and everything we could from IHOP’s harp and bowl worship and prayer model.  We loved it and were experiencing some really enjoyable times of prayer!  But we longed for more…

In January of 2006, as I was reading the blog of an old friend from highschool (Kristi), I discovered that her husband(Shane) was going to become a full-time intercessory missionary as they launched Sanctuary House of Prayer back in Winnipeg, Manitoba!  Joe and I were so excited just to hear about another young, married couple with the same desires and passions and that there was going to be a house of prayer in Canada!  We had not heard of anyone else doing anything like this in Canada and were simply happy for them.  As we made plans to visit my family for my dad’s birthday that March, we knew we just had to get together for coffee with Shane & Kristi to chat with them about their new endeavor.  When we met up at Cora’s for brunch, we immediately connected and felt like there was finally someone speaking our language!  They encouraged us in what we were doing back at our church and we encouraged them in what they were doing and we left that coffee date not thinking much of it.

To be continued…

(You can read Part 2 here)

Ways to Help the Haiti Earthquake Victims

Like many others, today we are both grieved by the devastation in Haiti and grateful for God’s provision in our lives as we see how much we have to be thankful for in light of so many people’s great loss.  Also, like many, we are asking “How can I help?” 

First of all, we can PRAY.  Some things to pray for…

1. Provision of food, water, shelter and aid to get to the victims.
2. Anointing and power upon the local churches that they could minister effectively to those in need.
3. An outpouring of the Holy Spirit for healing (physical & emotional), resurrection, and salvations.
4. Provision for Christian crisis relief and aid organizations to be able to get into Haiti and help these victims in the name of Jesus.
5. Comfort, strength, and hope for those who have lost loved ones.
6. Revival – that many would realize their deep need for a Savior and turn from their sin and turn to God.
7. For adoptions of Haitian orphans currently in process to be allowed to go through quickly – see article here.  People in Canada and the United States are speaking up on behalf of these orphans and fighting to make it possible for them to be brought home to their adoptive families.

Secondly, we can GIVE.  A warning before you donate, though, is that there are already people seeking to take advantage of this disaster through Haiti charity scams.  Check out this article for ways to avoid being scammed and how you can ensure you give to trustworthy charities.  Now here are just a few Christian organizations that have come to my attention that I think would be worthy of receiving financial aid right now who are seeking to respond to this crisis in Haiti.  I’m sure there are many more – perhaps you can leave them in the comments if you know of some – but here are ones I would recommend…

Compassion International - Because Compassion International ministers through local churches to meet the needs of that church’s neighbors, and because these church partners are respected aid workers in their communities, Compassion is uniquely positioned to assess and meet the needs of it’s sponsored children quickly. This is an advantage of their church-based model in practice for more than 50 years.  Also, Compassion has been given the highest approval rating by both www.CharityNavigator.com and The American Institute of Philanthropy.  They are a trusted charity who is committed to giving all funds raised in response to the Haiti earthquake  immediately to provide for Compassion-assisted children and families affected by this crisis. Any funds raised in excess will be stewarded by Compassion for additional and future disaster relief efforts. You can provide immediate relief to the Haiti Earthquake victims today.
• $35 helps provide a relief pack filled with enough food and water to sustain a family for one week.
• $70 gift helps care for their needs for two weeks.
• $105 helps provide relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain two families for two weeks.
• $210 gift helps care for two families’ needs.
• $525 helps provide relief packs filled with enough food and water to sustain 10 families for two weeks.
• $1,050 gift helps care for 10 families’ needs.
• $1,500 helps rebuild a home.
• $2,100 helps supply 20 families with the basics for three weeks.

Crisis Response International – CRI is a non-profit organization that resources, trains and mobilizes volunteers, churches and other organizations to respond to disasters and other  compassion initiatives in the UnitedStates and world-wide.  Their vision is to train an army of end-time, prophetic, mercy missionaries, mobilized in the spirit of night and day prayer, to release great demonstrations of power, reach the harvest in crisis and rebuild cities on the Kingdom of God.  Presently CRI is collaborating efforts with Haitian national churches to bring relief and mobilize volunteers to the area. This is a tremendous opportunity to bring the Love and hope of Jesus Christ into this hurting area. Reports on CNN stated that people were screaming in the streets “Jesus is coming back and they were calling on God for help.”  Check out their site to see how you can help.

God’s Littlest Angels - GLA is an independent, non-denominational ministry founded to care for premature, malnourished, and abandoned children in Haiti. GLA is a faith mission relying on God to provide funding and other needs through churches and donors throughout North America and Europe.  Doctors and clinics refer babies that are in need of intensive nursing care and nutritional support to GLA. The ministry has developed from a Child Survival Center that cares only for premature, malnourished and abandoned infants under 2 years old into an orphanage that facilitates adoptions for children of all ages. Today, the orphanage is a fully functioning nursery with incubators, warming beds, and the capability to provide oxygen, intravenous fluids, and monitoring support for critically ill infants.  While at the same time, providing full-time child care for all of the children.  As I’m sure you realize, they are expecting many more orphans to be coming to them as a result of this disaster and you can help them by donating on their website – just click on the “Donate” button at the top of the right column or donate on their blog by using Earthquake Relief Fund widget in the right column.

Samaritan’s Purse – Samaritan’s Purse is a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world. Since 1970, Samaritan’s Purse has helped meet needs of people who are victims of war, poverty, natural disasters, disease, and famine with the purpose of sharing God’s love through His Son, Jesus Christ.  Samaritan’s Purse is responding to the earthquake that devastated Haiti by providing critically needed assistance, including water, temporary shelter, blankets, hygiene kits, medical aid, and other essentials.  You can donate to their relief efforts here.

World Vision - World Vision is a Christian humanitarian charity organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. The millions of people they serve include earthquake and hurricane survivors, abandoned and exploited children, survivors of famine and civil war, refugees, and children and families in communities devastated by AIDS in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Their extensive global infrastructure enables them to respond where the need is greatest, anywhere in the world. World Vision is on the ground rushing emergency supplies to survivors of the Haiti catastrophe. Your gift now will help distribute life-saving relief supplies – including food, clean water, blankets, and tents — to children and families devastated by the earthquake and aftershocks in Haiti.  World Vision has worked in Haiti for 30 years and has some 370 staff in country. Send your gift to help them today.

Read, Hear And Take To Heart These Words

Revelation 1:1-3 (NIV)
1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place…2 that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.

Jesus, I ask that You would give to me a desire for Your Word and a hunger in my spirit to eat the scroll and partake of these words that are the revelation of who You are.  Where my spirit is dull and where I am complacent and apathetic towards this book, I ask that You would deliver me and that You would sharpen me and cause a zeal and a tenacity to rise up within me.  Jesus, I want to eat the scroll.  Jesus, I desire Your words and I want to honor the prophetic word that You declared to Your church in order to reveal Yourself to us and to prepare Your Bride for Your return.  Stir up longing and hunger to read, hear, and take to heart this testimony of You.

Jesus, I ask that You would bless my mind to read the words of Your prophecy and anoint me with wisdom and revelation to understand them.  I ask that You would bless and open my eyes to see what You are desiring to show me and that my vision would be opened to enter into what John was seeing.  Jesus, as I read, may the words come to life and be branded upon my mind.  I ask for the grace and strength needed to read these difficult words and the discipline and perseverance to meditate upon them continually.  May I enter into the blessing that You promised for those who would read this book, by Your grace.

Jesus, I ask that You would bless my ears to hear the words of Your prophecy.  I pray that I would not be one who just hears these words and then immediately after forgets them, but that I would be one who hears and does!  I ask that I would be one who heeds Your Word and intently inclines my ear to listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.  Open my ears to hear what You are saying and remove anything that is hindering my hearing.  If there be any lies of the enemy that I have listened to and believed, I ask that You would dismantle them and destroy them.  If there be any compromise or sin in my heart that prevents me from being able to hear Your words, would You set me free and cause a turning to occur within me. 

And may I not only be one who hears, but also one who speaks the words of this prophecy.  Jesus, would You bless my mouth and anoint my speech to be a messenger in these last days.  I ask that as I hear these words, that faith would be produced in my heart, leading to a boldness to proclaim the words that I am hearing You speak.  I ask that even as I speak these words in my own prayer life, that the whispering of the truths found in this book would impact me.  I ask for courage to declare Your heart as You have revealed it in this prophecy and that I would proclaim it accurately, in grace and truth.  Would You give me wisdom and grace upon my lips to speak with clarity and authority and power!

Lastly, Jesus, I ask that You would bless and anoint me to take these words to heart.  I ask for You to soften my heart and tenderize it so that the soil of my heart would be open and ready to receive the seed of Your Word.  Would You till the soil and break up the areas of my heart that are hardened by sin and compromise.  I ask that You would enable me to take Your words to heart, allowing them to impact me and transform me.  I ask that this book would begin to pierce me, strike me, and wound me with the urgency of the hour and the reality that the time is indeed near.  I ask that I would not be able to simply glaze over the words without them entering into my heart and changing the way I think, feel, and live my life.  I ask that my heart would be ruined by the corrections You give Your church, by the promises You offer to those who overcome, by the images and events I see portrayed in Your judgments, by the glory of the coming age and the unimaginable beauty and rapture of the fellowship with God that is ours to enjoy in that day.  I ask that it would absolutely wreck me for an average, ordinary life and that I would have these words so burned and seared upon my soul that I could do nothing less than agree with them fully and enter into partnership with You in seeing them fulfilled.

So be it.  Amen.

I am a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain

A meditation on Song of Songs 4:12, 15

“You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain…You are a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon.”

Jesus, my Beloved, my Bridegroom – I want to be a spring enclosed and a sealed fountain^a that is kept pure and undefiled for you.  I desire to be a vessel for the living water that comes from your throne^b, a jar of clay that contains the treasure^c of the presence of your Holy Spirit within me^d.  As I drink deeply of the water that you offer me, would that same spring of living water well up in me to eternal life^e.  As your bride and as your wife, I long to be one whom you can come to and drink deeply of the fountain of my heart and that it would satisfy you and give you joy^f.  I desire that the well of my heart would be deep^g and rich and abundant, bringing you great pleasure and delight when you taste its water. 

Would you help me to, above all else, guard my heart, since it is a wellspring of life^h.  Help me to keep my heart pure and untainted by the mud and pollution of the worldⁱ.  Jesus, I desire for the wellspring of my heart to flow with righteousness and holiness, uncontaminated by sin or compromise.  May my fountain be yours alone, never to be shared with other lovers seeking to take a drink and steal what belongs to you^j.  Would you place a seal upon my heart and a lock that only you can open – a sign that I am yours and that you are jealous for me with blazing love^k.  Would you also seal any cracks or points of weakness that hinder me from being able to keep your presence in my life^l – make me like a spring whose waters never fail^m, a woman who is in constant communion with your Spirit and continuously being filled with your lifeⁿ.

Jesus, would you give me understanding^o and wisdom^p, would the words of my mouth drip with purity and righteousness^q, and may I have the fear of the Lord so that I could be a fountain of life^r.  Help me to see my heart as the rare treasure that it is, as a sweet, refreshing spring for my Beloved, so that I would guard it rightly and keep it pure for you.

a Song of Songs 4:12
b Revelation 22:1
c 2 Corinthians 4:7
d John 7:38-39
e John 4:13-14
f Proverbs 5:18-19
g Proverbs 18:4
h Proverbs 4:23
i Proverbs 25:26
j Proverbs 5:15-18
k Song of Songs 8:6
l Jeremiah 2:13
m Isaiah 58:11
n John 10:10
o Proverbs 16:22
p Proverbs 13:14
q Proverbs 10:11; James 3:9-12
r Proverbs 14:27

Jealousy Is A Husband's Fury

In the past several months, I have had a recurring dream where the main theme is relatively the same and the details are just slightly different each time.  In these dreams, I am being approached by a man who begins to flirt with me, flatter me with nice words, tries to make physical advances, and even speaks poorly about my husband.  My response to these men varies – sometimes I listen to what they’re saying, because their flattery sort of makes me feel good, sometimes I react with violence and physically assault them, sometimes I just try to run away, and at other times I have called out to my husband to come to my aid.  My husband’s response was also varied – he was often nearby, but just out of earshot or line of sight – seemingly unaware of what was happening.  In one dream, he approached me and the man who was flirting with me and he began to speak words of love to me and kiss me.  In another dream, he firmly took the man aside and warned him to stay away from me. 

Since I believe that the Lord speaks to me through dreams, I have begun to ask Him what He is trying to say to me, since apparently I’m not getting the message, as He’s having to repeatedly give me the same dream to try and get through my thick skull!    To be clear, I don’t believe these dreams are literal and I don’t think the Lord is trying to warn me about committing adultery against my actual husband – I love my husband dearly and am committed to stay true and faithful to him for all of our days.  What I believe these dreams are, is a picture or analogy for my relationship with my heavenly Bridegroom, Jesus.

In Proverbs, it says that “jealousy is a husband’s fury” and in Hosea, the Lord talks about how he will jealously win back his adulterous wife, Israel, and block her path from going after her other lovers.  In Hosea, Israel’s other lovers were wealth, food, possessions, and worshipping other gods, forgetting her first love.  I think I can often be tempted to console myself that I am not committing adultery against the Lord, because I don’t think I’m being unfaithful or completely giving myself away to other loves.  Yet, what I believe these dreams are suggesting, is that I need to be wary of not just committing adultery, but also of even listening to the flattering words of these other loves that would seek to steal my affections from my Husband, if even for just a moment.  It may seem innocent, but in reality, it is very dangerous.  I don’t know much about what people have experienced when they’ve gone through unfaithfulness in their marriage, but I’m sure it wasn’t a sudden decision to go and commit adultery – it probably began with simply listening to someone’s flattering words. 

I’m beginning to realize that I don’t just want to avoid committing adultery against the Lord – I don’t even want any suitors!  I don’t want to even allow them to whisper their alluring words in my ear.  I want to respond to their flirtation in the same way I would respond in real life if a man approached me.  I wouldn’t stand for it!  I would definitely tell my husband about it and I would clearly let the man know that his advances were unwelcome and to stop, because I’m a married woman!  Similarly, if I think about the things in my life that distract me from the Lord as suitors who are trying to steal my affections from my Husband, I think it would help me to respond to them with a greater severity and sobreity.  These things – whether they be television, surfing the internet, busyness, even doing good things when I know I need to spend time with the Lord – are all trying to flatter me and flirt with me and tell me how much they want to be with me and that I’ll enjoy their company more than my Husband’s.  They try to convince me that they will bring me more joy and satisfaction and that He doesn’t really care about me that much anyways.

Well, if I think about the way my husband would respond if a guy was making advances at me, he would definitely take action if it was required and come to make his claim of me clearly known!  In the dream where my husband came and began to kiss me and tell me he loved me, I felt so affirmed and reassured in his love and it was like a slap in the face of the suitor who had just been trying to convince me that my husband didn’t really care about me.  In the dream where my husband forcefully dealt with the suitor and told him where to go, I was extremely relieved and felt like he had rescued me from a situation where I was feeling weak and not handling it well on my own.  What I believe the Lord was trying to show me is that, if I let Him, He wants to demonstrate His love and affections for me in such a way that it will shatter all the lies of my suitors and will leave no room for doubt about His feelings for me.  He wants to erase any misgivings I may have about His commitment to me and His passion for me.  He wants me to have experiential knowledge of His love for me so that I will never be tempted to find my satisfaction anywhere else.  And He is just waiting for me to ask Him to come to my aid - as my heavenely Husband, He will gladly deal with any suitors and show them that I belong to Him and Him alone!  He will jealously display His Husband’s fury on my behalf and scatter them before me.  All I need to do is look to Him and He will run to my rescue, displaying to me His passion to possess my heart entirely. 

So, for example, if I’m in the very face of temptation and I’m feeling the urge to go rent a movie (I’m not saying watching movies is wrong – only when I know that I need to spend time with the Lover of my soul & to watch a movie would mean choosing to be entertained over intimacy with my heavenly Bridegroom), I could in that moment, lift my voice and say, “Jesus, this movie is flirting with me and trying to steal my affections from You.  I know that it cannot satisfy me and that You are exceedingly superior, yet it’s alluring words are tempting me to be unfaithful to my commitment to love You wholeheartedly.  Jesus, would You come and demonstrate Your jealousy and passion for me right now!  Would You fight for me and speak to me Your words of love so that I will be able to violently resist this suitor and rediscover confidence in Your affections for me.  You are my Husband and I do not want to even listen to the flattery of this suitor.  You are my first and only love.  I am Yours and You are mine!”

Weep With Me?

On Canada Day, I heard the news about Dr. Henry Morgentaler, the “father” of abortion in our nation, being awarded the Order of Canada, the highest honor a Canadian civilian can receive. To say that I was grieved and horrified would be a gross understatement. I had hoped those responsible for making this decision would take note of the poll done at the Globe and Mail which had shown that 92% (over 300,000 votes) of Canadians opposed the idea of him receiving this award, but sadly they did not. They also seem to have forgotten about the poll done by CBC which showed that the top wish of this generation of Canadians was to see abortion ended in our nation. I was then confronted with the question – how should I respond??

A friend of mine mentioned to me in a recent email her desire to “stand in the counsel of the Lord” (Jeremiah 23:18) and to be one who is His friend, who hears what is on His heart and what He is saying. This moved me to go before the Godhead and ask them – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – what is Your counsel for me? I was overwhelmed with so many emotions – mourning, anger, confusion, uncertainty – what was the right way for me to respond to this injustice? There were many options before me – more polls that I could participate in, government officials that I could email or call, ways to spread awareness for this issue and seek to have this decision revoked, etc. I began to ask myself what God’s messengers had done in the scripture and I was reminded of those who stood up to corrupt leadership and spoke boldly against the sin that was taking place in their nations. I thought of the prophets who confronted the spirits of godlessness and rebellion with fiery words straight from God. And then I thought of those who simply prayed…and wept.

I believe that there are those who are called to be a voice before the people, those like Faytene Kryskow of 4MyCanada, who I greatly honor and admire for the ministry she is doing among the politicians and in government circles. I greatly encourage you to write letters to the media, to email and call our nation’s leaders, to make your voice heard on behalf of the unborn who are being murdered daily. This is a completely valid and important way that we as Christians can make a stand for righteousness and holiness and calling the people to return to the Lord. As for me, I may or may not do any of those things, but I am writing this blog post to share with you that last night, as I pictured myself sitting with the Trinity, I heard the Father ask me this question, “Weep with us, Jacquie?”

“Yes,” I replied.

Yes, I will weep with You.

As Joel said, “Let the priests, who minister to the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar; Let them say, ‘Spare Your people, O LORD’.” (2:17) And as Jesus said, “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?” (Luke 18:7)

So I wept.

I wept for the lost destinies of aborted babies. I wept for the soul of Dr. Henry Morgentalar. I wept for the leaders of our nation. I wept for the grief in my Father’s heart. I wept for the brokenness of those women who are suffering from regret and physical pain from their abortions. I wept for the sinful condition of Canada. And I asked Him to spare us and to show mercy. Forgive our sin and heal our land. Relent from Your anger and bring us back to You.

As I cried, I received a fresh revelation of my God – from eternity past, He chose to be known as a loving Father, and this is one of the reasons why His heart is so intricately interwoven with these precious babies who have been lost. He is a Father who loves children, who created each and every one with tender affection, and who had dreams in His heart for them. He weeps for what could have been, and so I wept with Him. I also saw Jesus, the Son, who is always interceding for us, asking the Father with meekness, love and passion to end abortion in Canada, and so I wept with Him too. And then I saw the Holy Spirit, the One who helps us to pray when we don’t know what to pray, the One who also intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express, and I wept with Him also. Seeing this picture of the Trinity – the tender Father who desires to see abortion ended in my nation, the loving Son who gave His life for the sins of the world, and the Holy Spirit who collects the very tears I was crying – it caused my heart to swell with love for Him all over again. He is truly beautiful and good and He will make things right again. As we cry, He will bring justice. As we weep, He will shift things in the heavenlies. As we pray, He will listen and answer.

As I later shared this with my husband, he asked me the question, “Have you wept like a virgin yet?” He was referring to the verse in Joel 1:8 which says, “Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth grieving for the husband of her youth.” Joel was saying that the judgment coming was so severe that they would mourn like a bride who lost her husband on their wedding day. The tragedies are comparable, for we weep for the unborn who never had the chance to live, just like the bride who never had the chance to enjoy the love of her husband. I know I haven’t wept yet with that level of mourning, and yet if this is what is required, then I ask again for the grace to weep.

Whatever you do, I encourage you to stand in the counsel of the Lord. Ask Him how He would have you respond and then be obedient. Whether your voice is heard before the courts of man or before the courts of heaven – it matters.

Here are some links that will give you direction on what you can do practically:

• Cast your vote in online polls & read the article submitted by Faytene Kryskow
• Call or email government officials
• Write a letter to your local media
• Join the Facebook group

Also, if you haven’t already, you might be interested in reading my series “Weep Between the Porch and the Altar“.

Weep Between the Porch and the Altar – Part 3

Welcome to the third and final part of this series! I would encourage you to read Part 1 and Part 2 to get the background and setup for this concluding piece. However, to briefly recap…

In Parts 1 & 2, we are introduced to the verse in Matthew 23 where Jesus says to the Pharisees, “upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.” I then go on to explain the differences in opinion on which Zechariah Jesus is referring to and my reasoning behind choosing the Zechariah found in 2 Chronicles 24 who we find was stoned in the temple court. We then linked this with the verse in Joel 2 where the prophet sends forth a call to the priests to “weep between the temple porch and the altar” – the exact same location as Zechariah’s brutal murder. We see the strong connection between the sins of our forefathers and the need of the present generation to acknowledge, repent for, and turn from these sins.

For the Pharisees that Jesus was talking to, they honored the prophets of old whom their forefathers had killed, believing they would have acted differently had they lived in those times, not recognizing the darkness of their own hearts and the spirit of murder within them which would lead them to crucify Jesus. Yet Jesus promised them that they would be proven guilty and that the state of their hearts would be exposed as he sent them prophets and teachers whom they would persecute and kill, thus filling up the measure of the sin of their forefathers. This would seal their judgment for eternity and would occur in response to the cries coming from the blood of every righteous person slain. So how does this apply to us today?

I have found it quite significant that recently a billboard advertising campaign has been launched across Canada that is bringing attention to the issue of abortion in our nation, asking the question, “Have we gone too far?” AbortionInCanada.ca is putting this issue in front of our eyes, reminding us that we cannot ignore this injustice in our land, for currently the unborn have no protection from being aborted right up into the 9th month of gestation! According to AbortionInCanada.ca, “more than three million unborn babies have died from abortion since 1969, when abortion was first decriminalized in Canada”with the annual average being somewhere around 100,000 abortions. On Wikipedia’s article for Abortion in the United States, they quote the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as saying “there were 854,122 legal induced abortions in the US in 2003″. The Bound4Life website says that in the USA “an estimated 48 million babies have been aborted since 1973. Approximately 24% of all U.S. pregnancies end in abortion”.

Is it possible that the same thing Jesus was rebuking the Pharisees for is occurring today in North America? How many prophets, teachers, evangelists, worship leaders (or to sum it all up – prophetic messengers of all types) have been sent to us by the Lord to preach the message of Joel 2, “Return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning”? And how many of these messengers have been killed before they even saw the light of the sun or said one word? How many millions of aborted babies and aborted destinies are crying out for justice, even as Abel’s blood cried out from the ground, and are testifying against us in our perceived innocence? How can our generation think we are any different than our forefathers who condoned slavery and persecuted and killed out of racist hatred, when at our core we are just the same – maybe even worse – for on our hands is the blood of countless babies?

But if their blood is crying out for God’s just judgment to come to our land, what is our hope? Can we escape or lessen the judgment that is surely coming? Can we appeal to the heart of Jesus that longs to gather us under his wings, if only we were willing? As he said, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” (Matthew 23:37) Can we touch the heart of God who declares Himself to be “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and [who] relents from sending calamity”? (Joel 2:13) I believe we can.

The message of Joel is for us today – both the church and unbelievers are being called to return to the Lord with all our hearts, with fasting, weeping, and mourning, to rend our hearts, to gather in solemn assemblies, consecrating and purifying our hearts (Joel 2:12-16). Yet we as the church are called specifically, as priests (for we are a “royal priesthood” – 1 Peter 2:9), to weep and mourn in the place of identifying with the sins of the shedding of innocent blood. Between the temple porch and the altar, where a prophetic messenger was slain, the priests were to cry out to God, “Spare your people!” (Joel 2:17) In the same way that Nehemiah wept, mourned and fasted on behalf of Israel, confessing the sins of his forefathers, his own generation and himself personally, appealing to God for mercy, we can stand in the breach between our nation and God’s wrath (Psalm 106:23).

While we may or may not be able to go directly to the location of the abortion clinics, we can go there in the spirit and operate in this priestly function, interceding for our nation and taking a stand for life. We can ask the Lord to give us the spirit of travail and to impact our hearts with this burden, that we would be able to weep and mourn with the heart of Jesus over these lost lives and destinies. For “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express” (Romans 8:26). Even as Nehemiah was praying before the Lord day and night, this is the kind of response Jesus is looking for to the injustice in our land, for he said in Luke 18:7, “And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?”

Some of you may have a feeling or know that this is something you are called to do full-time, to be a priest that ministers before the Lord in the temple – or in more modern-day terms, to function as an intercessory missionary in a house of prayer. This is just one of the ways God is raising up the prayer movement across the globe, but regardless of whether you are being called to this kind of role in a full-time capacity, we all have a responsibility to pray and be willing to be a voice on behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves. A simple way to start is to make the Bound4Life Covenant to Pray, Vote, and Obey.

1. PRAY – There is a simple 22-word prayer you can pray whenever the Lord brings this topic to your remembrance, or whenever you see the LIFE bracelet, should you choose to get one. The prayer goes like this: “Jesus, I plead Your blood over my sins and the sins of my nation. God, end abortion and send revival to [your nation]“.
2. VOTE – Covenant to vote for candidates that are actively pro-life. We cannot pray for abortion to end and promote those who support it.
3. OBEY – Covenant to obey God as He leads you into works of compassion and justice. We must always be willing to be the answer to our own prayers.

For me, this has become very personal lately, being pregnant with my first child, whom we have chosen to name Justice (you can read the story of how we chose this name here). It feels so real and there is such a conviction in my heart that this little one could be one of these prophetic messengers that the Lord is sending to my nation to call the people to return to Him. This has put such a resolve and a fight within my spirit to pray for the protection of the unborn from the spirit of this age that would seek to “kill, steal and destroy” (John 10:10) these precious lives. So will you join with me? Will you weep between the porch and the altar?

(For more resources on the issue of LIFE and ideas on how you can get involved through prayer in the courts of heaven or through action in the courts of the earth, check out some of the sites in the LIFE category on my Links page.

Weep Between the Porch and the Altar – Part 2

If you haven’t already, I would recommend first reading Part 1 of this series, but to briefly recap, in Matthew 23 Jesus was rebuking the Pharisees for their hypocrisy and their false belief of their own innocence in regards to the slaying of the prophets of old. He then prophesied judgment, saying that they would persecute and kill the messengers he was going to send them, as a way of filling up the measure of their forefathers’ sin “and so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar” (verse 35).

I have chosen to relate this to the story of the priest Zechariah in 2 Chronicles 24 who is described as having been murdered “in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple” (verse 21), but as I mentioned in Part 1, it could also be referring to the prophet Zechariah, although we have no record of him being killed in this manner.

After reading this passage in Matthew 23, I was immediately reminded of Joel’s prophecy in chapter 2 verse 17, which says…

Let the priests, who minister before the LORD,
weep between the temple porch and the altar.
Let them say, “Spare your people, O LORD.
Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn,
a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’”

To me there appears to be an obvious connection between this verse and our story of Zechariah, as Joel is calling for the priests to weep “between the temple porch and the altar”, which is the exact same location of Zechariah’s slaying. Now, depending on which view you take on when the book of Joel was written, as well as which Zechariah you believe Jesus was referring to, this can affect how we interpret this passage and connect the dots. Again, as I mentioned in Part 1, I have chosen to take the standpoint that Joel was writing just prior to the Babylonian invasion, which puts him between the two different Zechariahs.

Now, regardless of which of the 4 viewpoints you take of when Joel was written (from the early 9th century BC to the same period as Zechariah the prophet), if we were to go with the view that Jesus was referring to the prophet Zechariah, then it’s possible that Zechariah would have been familiar with Joel’s writings. Also, as was mentioned in Matthew Henry’s commentary, if he was taking sanctuary in the court of the priests from his persecutors, he could have been in the very act of intercession, “weep[ing] between the temple porch and the altar”, crying out for mercy upon Jerusalem just before he was murdered. This is powerful imagery if you were to preach on martyrdom and praying even for your enemies as Jesus did on the cross or as Stephen did while he was being stoned. However, there are a lot of “ifs” in this scenario that don’t make for a very strong connection in this way.

If we take the story of the priest Zechariah from 2 Chronicles 24 who was stoned in the temple court, then again, regardless of the 4 viewpoints of when Joel was written, Joel’s prophecy would have probably come after Zechariah’s murder. In this case, there is a strong reason to believe that this call to intercession was closely linked to the need for repentance for the sins of their forefathers. It seems very symbolic and significant that the Lord would call the priests to weep and mourn and cry out for mercy in the exact location that a brutal act of injustice occurred. This also ties in with what Jesus had against the Pharisees – they were able to acknowledge the sins of their forefathers in slaying the prophets, but they could not identify with them or realize that this same darkness was in their own hearts and acknowledge their need for repentance. Nehemiah was a great example of someone who was able to see the sins of his father, his nation and himself personally, praying…

…let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against you. (Nehemiah 1:6)

The Pharisees however, perceived themselves to be innocent of the blood on their forefathers’ hands, blind to the fact that they were about to crucify the very son of God and many of his followers and apostles. In fact, Jesus would ensure that they would be proven guilty and that the state of their hearts would be exposed by his promise to send them prophets and teachers whom they would persecute and kill, thus filling up the measure of the sin of their forefathers. This would seal their judgment for eternity and would occur in response to the cries coming from the blood of every righteous person slain. In Genesis 4:10, the Lord says to Cain regarding the murder of his brother Abel, “Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground”, and Zechariah, as he lay dying, cried out, “May the Lord see this and call you to account” (2 Chronicles 24:22). This is not unlike the prayer in Revelation 6:9-10 of those who had been murdered because of the Word of God, who called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?”

So how does this apply to us? The answer to that question is coming in Part 3…

Weep Between the Porch and the Altar – Part 1

Recently I have been reading the book of Zechariah, which is a fascinating book, to say the least. Zechariah had some pretty intense visionary experiences and insight into the end of the age, as well as a unique glimpse into the jealousy of God for Israel. On a completely different note however, I became especially intrigued when I stumbled across a verse in Matthew 23 that appeared to reference this Old Testament prophet. In verse 35, Jesus is coming to the end of a rather harsh rebuke to the Pharisees for their hypocrisy and their false belief of their own innocence in regards to the slaying of the prophets of old. He proceeds to dispense judgment by prophesying that they will persecute and kill the messengers he is going to send them, as a way of filling up the measure of their forefathers’ sin, saying “and so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.”

Now, to start off, I’m going to take a rather scholastic approach to this subject in this first blog entry with some research information to help set the foundation for the more applicable content that I will write about in the subsequent entries. Ready? Here we go!

At first it seems obvious that Jesus is referring to the prophet Zechariah who in his book, in the first verse, is identified as the “son of Berekiah”. Logically, this also makes sense for Jesus to start his account of shed blood with the first murder of Abel and end with one of the last of the prophets recorded in the Old Testament. And although there is no record of Zechariah being murdered, here is a possibility mentioned in Matthew Henry’s Commentary…

Perhaps what Zechariah spoke in his prophesying concerning Christ of his being sold, his being wounded in the house of his friends, and the shepherd being smitten, was verified in the prophet himself, and so he became a type of Christ. Probably, being assaulted by his persecutors, he took sanctuary in the court of the priests (and some think he was himself a priest), and so was slain between the porch and the altar.

Alternatively, some find Jesus’ reference to be obviously connected to the story of Zechariah, son of Jehoiada, found in 2 Chronicles 24. According to Matthew Henry, the name Jehoiada is very similar to the name Berekiah and it was common for Jewish men to be referred to by more than one name. The clincher however, is that there is a clear account of this Zechariah being murdered “in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple” (vs. 21), or as Jesus said, “between the temple and the altar”.

So which Zechariah is it? I don’t know – and I don’t think anyone can prove either case conclusively. For the sake of this particular series, I will mostly refer to the priest Zechariah, son of Jehoiada in 2 Chronicles 24, but may reference the prophet Zechariah as well, just for argument’s sake.

The next scripture I want to introduce is found in Joel 2:17, which says…

Let the priests, who minister before the LORD,
weep between the temple porch and the altar.
Let them say, “Spare your people, O LORD.
Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn,
a byword among the nations.
Why should they say among the peoples,
‘Where is their God?’ “

I think you can already see where I’m going with this, noting the obvious connection this verse has with our story of Zechariah, as Joel is calling for the priests to weep “between the temple porch and the altar”, which is the exact same location of Zechariah’s slaying. However, before we can go there, I want to examine yet another dilemma we encounter as to the differing opinions on the timing of Joel’s writing…

1. 9th century BC- During the time when Joash was too young to govern and the priest Jehoiada did so in his place (2 Kings 11; 2 Chronicles 23-24). One of the reasons for this argument being the focus on the elders and priests as being the leaders Joel appeals to, instead of a king. This also happens to be the same period as our priest Zechariah.
2. 8th century BC- Roughly contemporary with Amos who prophesied during the reigns of Uzziah (also called Azariah) of Judah and Jeroboam II of Israel (Amos 7:10; 2 Kings 14-15). This school of thought is due to Joel’s placement in the Bible and some similarities in language used by Joel and Amos.
3. 7th-6th century BC – Roughly around Josiah’s reign (2 Kings 22-23; 2 Chronicles 34-35). Since Joel prophesies only to Judah and Jerusalem, it implies a timing after Israel was no longer a political kingdom (722 BC). This school of thought would argue that Joel’s references to the temple are because it was written before the temple was destroyed by the Babylonian invasion in 586 BC. Many of Joel’s references to the “day of the Lord” and the warnings of a great army also point to the coming destruction of Jerusalem at this time.
4. 6th-4th century BC – Roughly contemporary with the prophet Zechariah. This opinion uses the same argument of the lack of mention of a monarchy, since Judah had no king after the exile. This opinion believes that the references to the temple are actually the second temple which was rebuilt around 515 BC.

Now, I read many different articles on the dating of Joel and nobody seemed to agree with each other. Everybody has their reasons for believing one of the theories above. I found it particularly interesting that two of the opinions line up with both of our Zechariahs, yet ironically I have chosen to go with neither of these, and will be writing from the point of view of the third theory, which places Joel’s writings just prior to the Babylonian invasion – the view that is used in Mike Bickle’s Studies in Joel as well as David Malick’s article (see sources below).

So, I realize this was a lot of facts and possibly uninteresting information, but I wanted there to be an understanding of where I am coming from and the research and reasoning behind my particular point of view for the next parts of this series. Stay tuned!!

Read Part 2
Read Part 3

Sources:
Matthew Henry’s Commentary – Zechariah 1, Matthew 23
Bible.org – An Introduction to the Book of Joel – by David Malick
Hosea, Joel and Amos – by Bruce C. Birch (pg. 126)
Studies in Joel- by Mike Bickle (pg. 4)
Wikipedia – Book of Joel

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