“Thank you.” to all of you who partnered with us last week end for our “FREEDOM!…to dance and sing” retreat.
Each time, Father seems to take us still deeper into his love! Those who came spoke of how our opening prayer, “We See Your Presence”* was instantly answered and this presence was tangibly felt throughout the weekend. With ‘worship from the heart’ and ‘fellowship as it’s meant to be‘ the team then testified about how God’s grace had met them in their weakness….. and Jesus had set them free! Armed then with hope and instruction from the word of God, people entered into their personal prayer session – and emerged, transformed by the Spirit of God!
In the closing circle Tom commented “That is the first time I have seen at the end, every single person in the room (of every shape and size!) freely and joyfully dancing and singing around the communion table” – the location of our fifth and final step together, as we – Receive the Father’s love!
In response to my email request beforehand to ‘Praying Friends”, two of you had echoed back to me a phrase I had used about our Father’s,
…“beautifully precise and personal care for ALL HIS CHILDREN.”
Let me give you a very personal example of how we saw this happen……
I woke the day of the retreat to discover I had lost my voice! So I asked our first born Robin, who is now part of the team, to step up and lead. The first night ended with his sharing one of his own songs written to describe his journey home as ‘a prodigal’. It begins, “Life creates the conditions for life”. The gentle Spirit of Life swept across the room as he repeated the powerful final line……
“And we’re never gonna die when we’re perfectly aligned!….No we’re never gonna die when we’re perfectly aligned”
The next day a book ‘just happened’ to arrive in the mail for Robin. A friend of his had somehow been prompted to buy it and send it to him. It was by one of his favs – Jesse Lee Peterson. Flicking through it his eyes settled on chapter 22. The number 22 has always been “Robin’s number’ It represents “Sons of Light” the chapter was entitled…….
Just as Robin was ordained to open up the retreat, so we saw it had been ordained that he finish it off by reading the moving story of how Jesse and his prodigal son after many years and much pain had been brought together again – by their loving heavenly Father. As they say, ‘There wasn’t dry eye in the house.’
I hesitated momentarily, – then went ahead, and with my gravelly voice croaked out a painfully a propos version of ‘Sealed with a Kiss’** depicting that and this wonderful reunion of father and son.
I’ve written before about how we often find our personal story has been a microcosm of what is or is to come in God’s big story in the world. For example you’ll remember how for a couple of years we had to learn how to deal with our local neighborhood bully by going to the ‘divine court’ in heaven and simply ‘not complying’ on earth, This happened just prior to the Global neighborhood bully emerged in full force two years ago! Again this weekend, we encountered our Father’s,
.…”beautifully precise and personal care for ALL HIS CREATION.”
Mid retreat I received an email from a friend (and blog reader) who is now a missionary in Thailand. He and his family had been a part of our fellowship during the exciting time when we had just moved in and were together finishing off building, “The Big Green House” He drew our attention to the fact that this weekend there ‘just happened’ to be another Global initiative for FREEDOM!…The Freedom Convoy.
I had just been teaching about the smiling face of Dad conveying his loving heart. Listen to Sheldon – how his words and face convey (or would that be convoy : – ) our Father’s heart!!
As I played this, I pointed out how we had also just taught about Forgiveness, and were hearing God speak not just through the Trucker but through the interviewer, Tucker who commented, “They snarled at you…. and you smiled back!
At the beginning of the weekend we had been lead to read Psalm 139 and spoke of how ‘fearfully and wonderfully made‘ each person was, and the remarkable fact that, “If the three feet of DNA in each of your 7 trillion cells was joined together, it would circle the earth……. 2 million times!” As the psalmist would say…… SELAH!
Then just as the retreat drew to a close, another ‘Praying Friend” and blog reader from Ireland…..on the other side of the GLOBE from Thailand!…..was prompted to send us this video.
So in the light of such HEAVENLY ORCHESTRATION………….
both at a PERSONAL and a GLOBAL level.
How could anyone doubt, but that…..
God our Father, our Creator and our Redeemer will bring in due season, each Person, and ‘The Whole of Creation’ into, “the glorious liberty of the children of God.”
The passage of scripture we were lead to at the end, was Micah 4, which begins,
“In the last days
The mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established
as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills,
and peoples will stream to it.
2 Many NATIONS will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the temple of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths.”
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.“
Micah then describes how this GLOBAL FREEDOM! will flow from PERSONAL FREEDOM!
6 “In that day,” declares the Lord,
“I will gather the lame
I will assemble the exiles
and those I have brought to grief.
7 I will make THE LAME MY REMNANT,
those driven away a strong nation.
The Lord will rule over them in Mount Zion
from that day and forever.
We do not promote or charge for these retreats, merely inform people and ask they contribute toward their food if they can, and then trust God will ‘gather the lame’. Robin of course with his amputation, in a literal fashion represents “the lame”, but it is those who come in a ‘weakened’ state, knowing their need and ready to be set free who experience this liberty,…….freed now, “to serve before our Father’s face.” ***
On the fly leaf of this ‘used’ copy of the book we discovered it had been signed by the author, and addressed to Steve (Crown) and Diane (Divine) – It ‘is ‘the lame’ whom God has graciously gathered, who will be Crowned as Overcomers, and who will in turn with Him, become, the Divine ANTIDOTE for this ailing Globe.
Hallelujah!
* from Good Morning’ Dad
**https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYUWycW14QA
*** “I Am Your Son O God.” from Come Lord Jesus.