However, I believe the Lord designed it this way, because a few days later, Joe and I went on a trip to the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, and I had the opportunity to pray for our baby and listen to the Lord speak to me about him/her without any preconceived ideas about the baby based on gender. I really wanted the Lord to speak to me about our baby’s identity and possibly about their name and He was faithful to show me some things.

Now, you’ll have to forgive me, but this is going to be a slightly lengthy story of how our baby’s name came to be chosen…

As I was praying, I recalled how many times in the Bible, babies were named based upon something that the Lord was doing personally in the life of the mother or even what He was saying corporately to His people. So I began to think about what the Lord had been speaking to us and putting on our hearts and He led me to Psalm 132:1-9…

¹ LORD, remember David…
² How he swore to the LORD,
And vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob:
³ “Surely I will not go into the chamber of my house,
Or go up to the comfort of my bed;
⁴ I will not give sleep to my eyes
Or slumber to my eyelids,
⁵ Until I find a place for the LORD,
A dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob”…
⁷ Let us go into His tabernacle;
Let us worship at His footstool.
⁸ Arise, O LORD, to Your resting place,
You and the ark of Your strength.
⁹ Let Your priests be clothed with righteousness,
And let Your saints shout for joy.

Something we have been longing for in this season is for a greater realization of the reality of God dwelling with us. There are multiple facets and levels to the dwelling place of God, the first being the incredible truth that God desires to dwell and abide in us (John 15:4-11; John 14:16, 23; 1 John 4:13-14; 2 Cor. 4:6-7). We are carriers of His presence through the indwelling of His Spirit – jars of clay containing the infinite treasure of Jesus within us!

Secondly, we desire for God to have a dwelling place in our city, that there would be a literal, physical place where He could come and rest and manifest His presence and receive worship and adoration from His people. We long to see a house of prayer established in our city where we could go to worship and pray at any time of the day or night. We long to have His presence in our city, to enjoy being with Him and feeling Him in a tangible way, and so that our city could be transformed by His power to save, heal and deliver the people who live here.

Thirdly, we are eagerly anticipating the day when Jesus returns to the earth and we get to see Him face to face! When He comes, He is going to purge the earth from all sin and wickedness and He is going to make all things new so that He can once again reconcile heaven and earth, that God the Father may come and make His dwelling place on the earth permanently, bringing the New Jerusalem to earth so that we can dwell with God for eternity! (Revelation 21:1-7; Revelation 22:1-5)

As I was praying, I also kept hearing the word “joy”, but didn’t know how it fit in with the idea of God’s dwelling place. But as I read these various passages I mentioned above, I began to notice a common thread of joy throughout them all. When we abide in Jesus and He abides in us, we experience the fullness of His joy in us (John 15:11), when we are in His tabernacle and in His house of prayer, we shout aloud for joy (Psalm 132:9, 16; Isaiah 56:7), and when He comes to dwell on the earth, there will never be sorrow or crying every again – only the sweet, inexpressible joy of being with our God forever (Revelation 21:4)!

My prayer for our baby became that he/she would know the joy of God dwelling in their inner man, but who would also long for the dwelling place of God here on earth, and who would experience joy in the house of prayer as a priest who ministers before Him, as one who simply loves His presence.

A couple weeks later we finally did get to find out the gender of our baby, which is “inconclusively” a BOY!! While the ultrasound technician’s confidence in their opinion leaves something to be desired, we are thrilled and our son Justice is very excited to be getting a baby brother! However, this news presented somewhat of a dilemma in the naming department. We had a name that we liked for a girl, but nothing for a boy. Joe kept trying to convince me that the name could be used for a boy as well, but I was not budging. I was stubbornly insisting that it was strictly a girl’s name and I simply could not imagine naming our son this. Finally he gave up and threw up a prayer to God to speak to me if this was the name for our baby.

The very next day after he prayed that prayer (without me knowing it), I sat down during my morning devotions and I specifically set out to talk to the Lord about this name and ask Him to show me if this was the name He had chosen for our baby. I decided to look up the meaning of the name in the Hebrew, since it comes from the Bible. The name actually means “delight” or “pleasure”, which certainly seemed to fit with what the Lord had spoken to me about the word joy.

I then began to look at all the scriptures in the Bible where this name appears, and since it is actually the name of a place, I only discovered one person in the Bible who had been given this name. It just so happens that it was a man (a point for Joe’s argument), but also a priest who served in the temple! When I went to read the scripture in context, I found myself in 2 Chronicles 29, which is the story of King Hezekiah, who ushered in a season of revival, especially regarding the restoration of the priestly service. The temple was in disrepair and ministry to the Lord had been neglected, so King Hezekiah reopened and repaired the temple and then issued a call to all of the priests to consecrate themselves and the temple and return to the Lord. His charge to them was this,

“My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before him and serve him, to minister before him and to burn incense.”

Coincidentally (I think not), this verse has been a prominent one that the Lord has given to us corporately at Sanctuary House of Prayer, where we attend. We have prayed this verse countless times, asking God to raise up men and women who would love Him wholeheartedly and who would be called to stand, serve, minister and burn before Him. I was stunned when in the very next verse it lists the priest with this name – Eden. He was one of the very first to respond to the call and to consecrate himself to God and who was among those who worshiped the Lord with the instruments of King David’s tabernacle. They worshiped, played music and presented offerings to God, praising Him with gladness and calling the entire nation to return to God as well.

Wow!! I was blown away that the one person in the entire Bible who is named Eden was a priest who also longed for the dwelling place of God to be established in his nation and who desired to minister to Him there. It quickly became obvious to me that this was in fact the name that God had chosen for our child and it also confirmed all the things He had spoken to me earlier.

Not only this, but the Garden of Eden also happens to be the original dwelling place of God where He first lived and walked with mankind before sin entered the world. Eden was truly a place of delight and pleasure, where man walked with God in unhindered, unbroken, perfect communion and this is exactly what Jesus is returning to the earth to restore!

If our baby had been a girl, I may have never searched out the name so thoroughly and discovered these things! But, an added bonus is that if the ultrasound technician’s prediction is wrong, our baby will still be named Eden.

The name is continually growing on me and I am falling in love with my little boy Eden and can’t wait to meet him! Another fun little tidbit is that my initials are JRE and the first initial of my three children – Justice, Rayah, and Eden – match my initials! So, that’s just a special little gift from my Father to me.

“Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.”
Psalm 90:14

For the last couple months, I have been attempting to join with the “Summer Maximize Your Mornings Challenge” (aka “Hello Mornings”) hosted by Kat at Inspired to Action, which encourages moms to get up early before their kids wake up to spend some quiet time with God in devotions and prayer for your family. Though I have been far from perfect and maybe averaged 50% (that is probably a generous estimate) in getting up early, it has still been really good for me and I intend to keep going with it and hopefully make it a regular habit. Kat has a free e-book to help moms create an effective morning routine which was really helpful, even though I haven’t yet implemented all of her suggestions (like having a morning exercise routine - baby steps, people!).

Though I am definitely not a morning person and I used to LOVE sleeping in, having kids who wake up at 6:30am or earlier has required my lifestyle to change and I have sort of been forced to become a morning person. I never would have dreamed that I would intentionally choose to get up any earlier than was absolutely necessary, but I discovered that if I didn’t get that time in the morning with God, it was extremely unlikely that I would find the time later during the day with all the demands of work, motherhood, social events, ministry, etc.

I am still figuring out what routine works best for me, as I find it’s difficult to do all the things I’d like to do in just one short hour in the morning – like read my Bible, journal, pray, listen to teaching, etc. – yet, I’ve come to really enjoy that time alone with God. I am really blessed that my husband Joe was willing to work out a little deal with me, where I get up at 6:00am on just 4 days of the week, and he takes care of the kids and feeds them breakfast, etc. until 7:00am at which point I have my breakfast and then he leaves for work at 7:15am. Then, in the evenings, he gets to have some quiet time with God from 6:45-7:45pm and I put the kids to bed. This has worked out pretty well for us and I have usually curled up on a comfy chair in our living room and Joe tries to keep the kids from pestering me too much.

But, this last weekend we made a slightly impulsive purchase that we’ve been thinking of for a while, but we unexpectedly found a good deal on a second-hand patio set at a garage sale, so yesterday and today, I went out onto our deck in the backyard, all cozy in my pajama pants and housecoat, for my morning devotions. Most mornings this summer, the sun has been up LONG before I arose, but this week, it was just rising as I came outside and the sky was blanketed in beautiful warm pink and purple hues (my iPhone picture above doesn’t come close to doing it justice). There is something that is just so good for the heart when you’re outside as the morning dawns, before the sounds of traffic and the whir of the air conditioning unit kick in and all you hear is the wind blowing in the trees, the crickets chirping and the birds singing.

Watching the sunrise, I felt like the psalmist, filled with awe at God’s wonders and I felt a kiss on my heart of His unfailing love that filled me with songs of joy. He is truly worth getting up early for!

Prayer & Giving
Joe and I enjoy giving to various causes that we are passionate about, but we realized that we felt somewhat disconnected from the things we were giving to and that it was important to not only give financially, but to also pray for these issues.  So we are starting a prayer meeting with just the 2 of us once a week and we’ll focus on one of these issues per month in a rotation.  This month our focus is praying for the ending of human trafficking (modern-day slavery). 

We had our first prayer meeting last night and used the International House of Prayer‘s free prayer room webstream to help us out – they conveniently have a prayer meeting every Monday evening at 8:00pm for the ending of human trafficking that we could easily join in with and add our prayers to!  While I know that there will be weeks when I don’t feel motivated to get off my butt or where I have other things on my to do list or when I’m so focused on my own wants and needs that I won’t want to intercede for others, I am praying that God will give us the grace and strength to carry through the year. 

Ultimately, our goal and desire is to discover what it means to be priests of God and to minister to Him and others daily, wherever we are – at work, at home, at church, running errands, etc. – because this is who He made us to be and because He is worthy and deserving of our worship.

Bible Study
Joe and I also wanted to incorporate some kind of Bible study into our schedule, so we took advantage of the discounts available through IHOPU’s eSchooland registered for a 4-course non-credit audio bundle, which gives us four of the University’s courses in .mp3 format with all the course notes, which we can go through at our own pace.  We are probably going to start with the course “Christology” taught by Stephen Venable, which has 32 sessions, which we will go through 1 per week – that’s 8 months!!  The course description is:

“Through rigorous exploration of the biblical teaching concerning the person and work of Christ, this course seeks to inform the mind and inflame the heart with love. In view of the coming eschatological delusion, it is imperative that believers be established in the truths regarding the Son of God.”

We’ll probably listen to the teachings individually on our own time and then hopefully spend some time once a week together to discuss what we learned, simply meditate on God’s Word, and maybe spend some time in worship, singing about what we’ve discovered about Jesus!

Bible Reading Plan
I’ve noticed lots of people are getting excited about reading the Word this year and many people are signing up for various Bible reading plans.  Last year I managed to complete reading through the entire Bible in 90 days, but when I finished, I found myself floundering and not knowing what to do next.  Without a plan, I was lacking direction and so I ended up not reading my Bible at all!  When I read about some people who had this crazy plan to read through the New Testament in 30 days every month of this year (#NTx12 for those of you on Twitter), I felt like this was the plan I wanted to get on board with.  I’m excited about this plan because I had actually already been wanting to go deeper in the New Testament and this plan offers you the opportunity to “re-start” every month, in case you fall off the wagon.  Plus, it’s extra fun when you have others doing it along with you – several of my friends are joining in as well and it’s great watching the tweets starting already with people’s thoughts on what they’re discovering.  Most people are taking advantage of YouVersion.comwhich has fabulous resources with many reading plans to choose from – it’s easy to sign up for free and create an account that allows you to start a plan, tag verses with your own custom themes, bookmark your favorite verses, create notes with your private thoughts or share them publicly with the community, and much more!  If you’re on YouVersion – come follow me here!  I personally love using the YouVersion iPhone app, but I also enjoy the Blue Letter Bible iPhone app which allows me to highlight passages with my own custom colored themes (up to 7) and view related commentaries, dictionaries, etc.

365 Photography Project
I’ve always thought it would be fun to do a 365 Photography Project where I take one photo every day for a year and I am wondering if this is the year to try it?  I’m a little late, but I think it would be fun!  I’m a little hesitant because it’s also a big commitment and of all the things I’d like to do, this one would probably be the first to get abandoned, and I don’t really want to start if I’m just going to quit.  If my husband is reading this, he is probably pleading with God right now that I won’t do it, because he is horrified by the number of pictures I take and keep stored on our hard drive already – lol – but I am still very intrigued.  I’m thinking that if I don’t manage to take a picture every single day, that I would probably even be happy if I just took one picture per week, which works out well for one 365 Photography Project planthat gives you ideas/themes to inspire you – one for each week of the year.  The other drawback for me is that all I have are a point-and-shoot camera and my iPhone camera – not exactly professional equipment – so I’d have to do it knowing that my pictures wouldn’t be all that spectacular or come anywhere close to comparing with other photographer’s similar projects.  This week’s theme is “Cold”, which is definitely fitting for the frigid temperatures we are experiencing right now – I wonder what interesting photo I could take today???  If I do this, I’ll also have to choose my medium for sharing my photos – whether to post a blog weekly, monthly, or simply put them up on flickr or some other site – I’ll keep you updated on what I decide to do.

Yikes!!  I’m a little nervous about the amount of things I’m getting into, but mostly I’m just excited about the potential for growth and creativity and being challenged! 

Have you made any resolutions or goals or started any new projects this year?  Do share in the comments and let me know!

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!

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)

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.

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.

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“.

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.

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…