Saturday Chuck and I went to see a movie together for the first time in a while. We spent the morning getting prepared for dinner guest coming Sunday afternoon and wanted a break. He went to the movies a couple of weeks ago with a great young friend from church to see the latest Indiana Jones movie which is just not my thing. I had my hands over my eyes most of the time at only Indiana Jones movie I saw years ago.

So I chose The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. I thought that we had seen The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but now I am not sure. I have never read the books. The movie was very good, but the symbolism for the most part escaped us. It intrigued me enough to make me want to see the first one again.

The one thing that I loved was Aslan, the lion who gave his life and came back from the dead. The only one who saw him at first was the youngest child, Lucy. Because she was the only one who saw him and the way he was calling her looked impossible they chose to ignore her and go the way that seemed right to them. Well, isn’t that typical of us humans.

Through out the whole movie they tried to fight the enemy in their own strength and their own plan. All this ended up in defeat and the loss of many lives. Finally they sent Lucy to find Aslan realizing He was their only hope. She was chased by the enemy the whole time she was trying to get back to Aslan, but when she came close to where he was the enemy was stopped. She ran to him and hid herself in his mane as he smiled and my heart melted. What a picture of our Lord’s love as we run to him.

The thing that really did something in my insides was the lion’s roar. My friend, Zoe, had a dream once where a lion walked up in her church and stood up on his back legs with his front legs on the pulpit and roared. Hearing that was a wow moment for me, but Saturday I had a greater understanding of the power in that roar.

Joel 3:14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. 15 The sun and moon will be darkened, and the stars no longer shine. 16 The Lord will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem; the earth and the sky will tremble. But the Lord will be a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the people of Israel. 17 “Then you will know that I, the Lord your God, dwell in Zion, my holy hill. Jerusalem will be holy; never again will foreigners invade her.

The Lord in his incomprehensible love and patience will stand close and watch over us as we do our own thing and make our own plans. Then when we are at the end of our strength and the enemy has us against the wall we call upon him and he comes to save us. He would be justified to just turn and walk away and say hey, you made your bed now sleep in it. But His love is greater. One roar from the Lion of the Tribe of Judah and our enemies who are his enemies are toast and we are saved.

One of my favorite songs lately is by Misty Edwards named “People Get Ready”. With drums beating she sings ” I can hear the rhythm of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, I can hear the rhythm of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. People get ready, He is doing a new thing, so we are singing a new song. He is not a babe in a manger any more, he is not a broken man on the cross, he didn’t stay in the grave and he is not staying in heaven forever. HE IS ALIVE. People get ready, Jesus is coming.”

I too can hear the rhythm of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah and he is about to roar. There is about to be a shaking beyond what we have ever seen. With that roar everything that can be shaken will be shaken and no evil thing will stand and the righteous will bow to their King.

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

Tuesday morning I received a call from my friend Debbie informing me that she had just gotten a call that her husband Cliff had coded. Most of her family had gone to the beach after the wedding which was a gift from Cliff and Debbie.  Cliff has been in the hospital since May 28th when he coded while trying to make funeral arrangements for a friend. He has been through open heart surgery, infection, and blood clots since then. I ran and jumped in some clothes and called two friends on the speaker phone while I dressed so they would pass the word to pray. Thank God we have not progressed to camera phones, that would have been an ugly sight.

I picked up Debbie and we rushed to the hospital. The doctor called on Debbie’s cell phone just as we were leaving Regent Park and Debbie could not understand what he was saying. She handed the phone to me and between his accent and the muffled sound it was hard for me to interpret. I did understand that they needed permission to do a heart test and Debbie gave permission. We told him we would be there in about 20 min.

Shortly after getting to the waiting room and letting the ladies at the desk know we were there the doctor came. He said our friend Cliff basically died for about 6 minutes. They had to do compressions and his arrhythmia was the worse kind, it was not the kind you can shock and get reversed. They had incubated him and he was now on a respirator. The heart test showed that his heart was functioning well. He felt that he did not have brain damage because he followed commands before they sedated him. Once again death had come and had been defeated. The doctor spoke every possible bad thing that could happen to Cliff and I stood there listening as he told all this to Debbie. When we sat down I turned to her and said “ok Debbie, we condemn every negative word that was just spoken and we declare them null and void” and she said yes.

On our first visit to the Cardiac Intensive Care Debbie and I laid hands on Cliff and quietly prayed individually. Cliff was very sedated and did not appear to know we were there. I prayed in the spirit under my breath as they were moving all around him. While standing and observing my friend on a respirator with tangled tubes everywhere, I got the word turnaround and that word kept coming to me the rest of the day when thinking of Cliff. With this word came peace.

Cliff had 50 pounds of fluid on him and has had for almost a week. He has one kidney and that is a transplant. They have been debating putting him on dialysis and have not done it because the blood work showed the kidney was functioning. The surgeon told us he was going to try to convince the kidney doctor to go ahead with the dialysis. We really prayed about this because we felt that could have been a contributing factor to his code.

I did not go in for the last visit because Chip, Cliff’s son, came and they only allow two people at a time. Chip needed to see his dad. I brought Debbie home after that visit and told her to call us if she needed anything during the night.

When I woke up yesterday and had not gotten a call I thanked the Lord that Cliff had no problems in the night. We headed back to the hospital to make it for the 9 am visit. When we walked into the ICU there had been a turnaround. Cliff’s bed was up in a sitting position and he was awake. They had turned the respirator way down and were preparing to remove it. The doctors came and one by one they removed the arterial line and two IV’s and stopped another medication. They were talking about moving him today into a private room and to rehab in a few days. Also the dialysis machine was pushed by his bed and they were about to start that.

On my last visit the respirator had been pulled and Cliff was talking some. He was covered head to toe because he was cold, but I too had been freezing in the waiting room because the air condition was set to produce snow. This visit was cut short because they admitted a new patient to the unit and needed us out of their way.

I left Debbie in the waiting room with my handy throw to keep her warm and headed home. Her family was on the way with Cliff’s CPap machine and they were going to take her home. I drove away so grateful for the Lord’s intervention into Cliff’s life.

Saturday the daughter of our friends Cliff and Debbie had the first official Indian wedding at the Catawba Reservations in decades. The reservation is located about 10-15 miles south of our house in York County, SC close to Rock Hill. Cliff is still in ICU at Carolina Medical in Charlotte but his grandson set up a webcam and Cliff could see and hear the wedding and everyone in attendance could see and talk to Cliff.

Before the wedding began there was the washing of hands. Water is used as a symbol of purification and cleansing. The bride and the groom wash away all past wrong and memories of past loves. In doing this they purify themselves for each other as they start their lives together.

Then there was the Saging which is a purification ceremony. There was smoke coming out of this little bowl and the lady took the feather and went on the inside and outside of the wedding circle and pushed the smoke toward each person in the wedding party and those attending.

There was a basket exchange. The baskets contain whatever the bride and groom bring to the marriage. The items in the basket symbolizes what each feel that they offer the other. Their individual families bring the baskets and the bride and groom laid the baskets down at each other’s feet.

The wedding vase has two spouts coming from one vessel. As individuals, they bing together different strengths and they come from different families and backgrounds. They have had different experiences. The two spouts represent each as individuals. As husband and wife they will continue to be individuals, yet will always drink from the same vessel of life. The common vessel represents all that they share together.

The wedding blanket is carried by sisters/siblings, and the tying of the blanket symbolized the union of the two lives. After the vows were taken they laid the blanket on the floor behind the couple and attendees brought cards with words of blessings, prayers and gifts and threw them into the blanket as they greeted the bride and groom. The blanket was then folded and carried to a safe place by the mothers. It can not touch the ground until after the wedding is consummated.

The bride and groom communicated by webcam to her dad who was laying in a bed in ICU. We too got to say hello.

After the wedding there was a pretty traditional reception with the cake cutting and toasting. There was however some ceremonial dances, one of which was considered sacred and could not be photographed.

Yesterday my friend Lydia and I had a venture into unknown territory. Fresh Fire Ministries is having a conference in Concord, NC. A young man from my home town, Jackson, MS, who is an associate of Todd Bentley’s was preaching and I wanted to hear him. We decided to go at the last moment so we rushed and got ready and headed out with a yahoo map giving directions.

The ride to Concord from our house should have been about 51 minutes, but this is about the third time lately that the internet map was totally off the wall. We turned off the exit on Hwy 85 that was given and it split into Hwy 29 and Hwy 49. The Yahoo directions said to go to 29 which we did. However, since the arena was on 49 we saw much of Concord we were not looking for including the famous Lowes racing tract. After 2 hours of traveling, 2 stops to clarify directions and a half a tank of gas we arrived at the meeting an hour late. Ok, a GPS just moved to the top of my want list.

We had plans to be at this same arena for the 7 pm meeting since Todd Bentley was flying in for one service. After our ordeal of trying to find the arena we felt it was a very good thing that we had this adventure on our first visit rather than missing the night service. As it turned out had we taken that long to find the arena last night we would have for sure missed the meeting.

Lydia and I headed back home about 1pm to grab a nap and a bite to eat and head out again for Concord about 4:45 pm for the 7pm service. We had no problem finding our way this second time but there was another obstacle to overcome, thousands of people. The traffic was bumper to bumper for about a mile when we arrived. I had to park the car in the back forty so I let Lydia and Karen out to try to get us seats while I parked. Thank God for cell phones!!

I parked and walked back to the arena front door to find that there was a crowd of people outside including my friends and they were not letting anyone else into the arena. For quite a while it looked as if we were not going to get inside, but finally they opened the door again. Lydia and Karen got through the guards and they stopped the flow again with me outside. I think maybe I was too tired to be upset or more than likely it was just the peace of God. But somehow I just felt I was going to make it and you guessed it God made a way.

When I got inside they had made contact with another friend who told us she had 3 seats saved that we could have, but when we finally got through the massive crowd the seats had been taken and her belongings removed. Now remember this is a Spirit Filled Christian conference….what is wrong with this picture.

We were however, able to find good seats and sat down with a deep sigh. We were told that there was 3 miles of cars lined up on Hwy 49 that could not get in, so we were very blessed to have a place.

There were a number of people saved at the meeting and numerous ones who were healed. One lady was healed outside the arena when people prayed for her. A man who had blown out his knee in a sports injury and came in pain and was having much difficulty walking was now jumping all over the stage.

My little friend from church, Virginia, gave a testimony of her healing in the not so far past. She had chronic obstructive lung disease, asthma, emphysema, and two tumors close together in a lung. She was on oxygen 24/7. She could not breath real deep or it would cause her lung tissue to tear and bleed. She was dying a slow death and she is a young single mom of two beautiful daughters. She checked herself out of the hospital to go to a conference where Todd was preaching. He had a word of knowledge that someone with a lung condition was being healed and she would know it was her because there were two tumors close together. She could hardly walk prior to this because her legs felt so heavy. Someone pushed her forward and she was told she ran to the altar, however she does not remember it and knows there was no way in the natural she could have run. He prayed for her and that is the last she remembers until she woke up staring at the ceiling. The next day she ran, I think she said 3-4 miles and has been running every other day since. No oxygen and no inhalers since. Man, if that won’t make you a believer in the power of God nothing will.

A young man came up on the stage who had developed pancreatitis and had been in such severe pain that he could not work and his wife had to quit her job to care for him. They had lost everything including their home because of this illness. God touched him in the meeting and he was completely out of pain. The wife was just undone. Todd asked her what this healing meant to her and she said they had just gotten their life back. He told his staff to get their information because he wanted to financially sow into their lives to help them get started again.

After the service he laid hands on everyone who desired to have an impartation of the healing anointing. As you can imagine it took quite a while to lay hands on the thousands that were in attendance. I pulled into the parking space in front of our house about 1:30 am with my car tank on empty and my spiritual tank on full.

John 15: 13-1513 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

If you look into this little girls eyes you can tell what is going on in my life the last few days. There is a longing within my soul to know my friend in a deeper way than I have ever known Him and I vacillate between weeping and dancing.

Friend according to Webster means: to love, a person whom one knows well and is fond of; intimate associate, close acquaintance. A person on the same side in a struggle, a supporter or sympathizer, one who is helpful and reliable.

The God who spoke everything into being and holds it together calls me friend. He chose me to be a friend and tells me that I sit with Him in heavenly places. That is just mind boggling. He wants to be with me, He wants to talk with me and share His secrets, and He wants a relationship.

Jesus has been faithful to me and always proved to be a good friend. I wish I could say that I had always been a good friend to Him. I wish I could say that I never disappointed Him or hurt Him. Lord I so desire to be a good friend to you.

Psalm 27:8 My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face, Lord, I will seek.

Is it just me or has the intensity of attacks of the enemy increased? It especially seems to have increased in the last few months which is also when the increased hunger for the presence of God and the healing revival started in Lakeland and other places across the world.

My email box is getting constant hits for prayer request. These prayer request are serious life threatening situations. Yesterday I went to have lunch with a few of my friends and they shared how weary they were from all that has happened in their family which has also drained them financially. She said “it is like we are slowly bleeding to death”.

I saw a news report where some young men went for a hike in the California mountains and took their canine buddy, a huge pretty boxer. The boxer stirred up some bees and they attacked him with a vengeance. The owner tried to rescue him and the bees turned on him as he tried to pull his dog to safety. The attack on the owner was so intense that he had to drop the dog and run for his life. The dog was overcome, but the owner lived. However, the owner remained covered with bee stings from head to toe and had to have medical treatment.

Isn’t our enemy at times like a swarm of hornets or bees. There are multiple attacks from every direction. Your washer breaks, your mom has a stroke, your child gets sick, your tooth falls out in your hand, you lose your job…on and on and on. I have also noticed that if you are doing ok and you start interceding for someone and pulling them to safety these demons start after you trying to make you drop the one you are interceding for.

The plot of the enemy is to get us to faint and the word says that this plot will be prevalent in the last days….I believe we are there. There is good news for modern man, Isaiah 40:28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. 29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

We are in a war, but our leader is the Captain of the Host, a mighty warrior. We must stand together, praying and encouraging one another. When we see another beginning to faint we need to grab their arm and pray that the power and strength of the Lord would flow into them. Those that stay within the ranks will win this war, those that wander out of rank will be overcome.

Today the Steven Curtis Chapman family is on my mind strongly. No matter how strong your faith in the Lord you still grieve when you loose someone you love. You don’t grieve as the world grieves, you grieve with hope. This family needs us to continue to lift them up in prayer and especially pray for the young brother that accidentally ran over his sister. May the Lord’s grace, comfort and love cover them like a blanket.

A number of years ago the Lord spoke these words, “Ask Of Me Gold”, to my dear friend Zoe. She has been faithful to do so even though I don’t think she yet has a complete understanding of the meaning. Zoe is very faithful to study out and pray over the things the Lord speaks to her in that still small voice or gives her in dreams or visions and He has filled her with wisdom from above.

Yesterday one of our pastors, Peter Wyn, taught on Israel in the last days. In the morning session as he talked about Solomon’s temple and described the Holy of Holies he made the statement that the walls were of pure gold. A picture of the gold walls came in my mind and has remained. There are times that it is like the Holy Spirit gives my spirit understanding and it has not gotten to my intellect enough to put into words. This was one of those times. With this picture I was overcome with a longing for His presence.

Solomon’s temple was done to perfection and all of the furnishings for the inside of the temple were of pure gold including the door and it’s hinges and the walls. Gold is pure when it has no other mineral in it such as silver or copper. It is made pure through extreme heat. It is a weighty metal but the purer it is the softer it becomes, easier to mold and bend.

1Kings 8:6 The priests then brought the ark of the Lord’s covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim. 7 The cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and overshadowed the ark and its carrying poles. 8 These poles were so long that their ends could be seen from the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are still there today. 9 There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt. 10 When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord. 11 And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple.

Would you say that the Lord was pleased with this temple, His new dwelling place? A place prepared by human hands and overlaid with pure gold, a place of no mixture.

I heard Mike Bickle read something about John G Lake who had one of the strongest healing ministries I know outside of our Lord. This man saw many many creative miracles and was an instrument God used to heal multitudes. Disease died in his hands. But when someone was trying to compliment him or talk about how great the miracles were his response was “I am the hungriest man alive”. He could have become puffed up and pretended he was Mr Super healer, but instead his hunger for the presence of God was so strong that he was consumed with seeking more of Him.

We are now the temple in which the Lord chooses to dwell. Is this temple lined with pure gold or is it a mixture? Is it a place that He is pleased to dwell? His presence is the most valuable thing in my life and I want to be able to say I am the hungriest woman alive. I want this temple to be a place that He is pleased to dwell and that His glory fills. That means submitting to the the refiners fire. Purity only comes through the fire.

Malachi 3:1 “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty. 2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness,

Lord, I am asking of you Gold.

June 8, 2008.

Humble yourself and ask for what I tell you to ask. Many think it was My great prophet Elijah that causes the fire to fall but that is not the case. No. My servant prophet Elijah inquired of Me and I gave the prayer, the fire and the rewards of obedience. I say unto you, humble yourself and command My hand as I direct you. The fire I intend to fall will fall and seasons and times will change. I tell you this is the season of My visitation among you. Do not be slack; rather, but be alert and available. Put on your cloak of humility and humble yourself simply to ask. 1 Kings 18:36-39 “At the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, today let it be known that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and I have done all these things at Your word. Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The LORD, He is God; the LORD, He is God.” Ras Robinson*