Hunger

To ache, to long. I've been in this constant state of burning desire for the Lord over the past few months. It's been like life wouldn't be worth living at all if I wasn't pursuing something of eternal weight. That deep desire within all of our hearts to pursue deeper things that will truly satisfy our hearts, I've been finding more and more as I give myself to spending time with the Lord in the mornings and seeking Him in the quiet place. I don't want that aching and longing to be satisfied by keeping myself so busy that I don't make time for it. I know that hunger can only be filled by one thing alone, and that is getting to know my heavenly Father and the way he desires to spend time with me.

Hunger for the things of God is something that is placed within each one of us, and depending on what we are filling our time with actually determines the degree that we feel that hunger. To the degree that we don't have a burning desire for a raw, vivid, alive relationship with our heavenly Father, is to the degree that our Spirit has been dulled by the temporary pleasures of this world. What are we filling our time up with? We can sit in front of TV screens, computers, entertainment of any kind and try to get away from that hunger for something that would satisfy, but we actually need to embrace that hunger, and run into relationship with a real God that really desires each one of us individually!

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." Matthew 5:6 When we are hungry for righteousness, for holy things, when we partner with that deep cry echoing from within our hearts that is screaming, "Father I desire to be filled with something that would not leave me feeling empty!" When we wake up a few minutes earlier just to spend some time with the Lord, we create a capacity in our hearts that has been stuffed full of everything else we've been trying to fill ourselves with. Us slowing down and actually wanting to spend time filling ourselves with things from the Word of God actually creates in us room for God to fill us with something! When we create that space and ask, our good Father in Heaven says that He WILL fill us.

A quote from Saint Angela when she was in a place of hungering and desiring the deeper things of the Lord. The Lord said to her, "Make yourself a capacity and I will make myself a torrent." What a promise! The Lord was saying, make room in your dull heart, and I will come like a rushing river and fill you! I want to always keep this gift of longing and desire for the deeper things alive and thriving in my heart! I don't want to let my spirit get dulled and tainted by what this world would say fills. I know that this world has nothing to offer me that will cause my heart to grow in love. I want to fill myself up on things that will last eternally! Another quote that is astounding to me!

"O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still...Amen." A. W. Tozer

This is the desire of my heart right now. I want to want, I long to be filled with longing. I am ashamed of my lack of desire! When we experience the embrace and touch of the Lord, it both satisfies our hearts, but leaves us longing and desiring more of Him. It's a continuous ride of seeking the Lord out, finding and experiencing Him again, but in return leaving us with a deeper longing in our hearts to find whole heartedness in Him and Him alone.

My heart aches, it burns, it's on fire for something that would not leave me feeling empty, but that would fill my heart and cause me to grow in Love for others and myself.

Strength and Honor,

Grace and Peace.

Isaac

The Lord's Faithfulness on Display!

It has been altogether way to long since my last update! We've moved into a new decade, and I've started a new season of life here at IHOP-KC. I had just finished up 9 months of life on Nightwatch schedule last time I checked in, and much has been happening in life since then.

Looking back at the past 9 months of Nightwatch here at the International House of Prayer, I realize it was the Lord's perfect leadership in my life to prepare me for the next stage of my time here. The Nightwatch schedule I think really put me in route to live a lifestlye of dedication to the place of prayer, and really forming in me a desire to find my identity in the Lord.

There hasn't been any other underlined theme in my life lately other than placing myself daily before the Lord and confessing my identity and success I have in Him as a son. Resting in knowledge of knowing that my Father in heaven is so pleased with me and so proud of me for choosing to love Him in return. My primary calling in this life is to be in communion with Him on a daily basis.

Just this past week at one of our Sunday evening services I was talking to the Lord during worship. The reality of the fact of how much more committed to me He was, verses my commitment to Him. He is Faithful in His commitment to me even when I fail in my commitments to Him. As I was just talking to Him about how thankful I was for this fact, He just whispered back to me, "Isaac, I want to do life with you!" How refreshing it was for me to hear, more than my daily plans of spending time with Him in the morning, or going to the weekend services, or learning about Him in classes. He was actually genuinely interested in every other area of my life. My time throughout the day when I'm going from class to class. When I'm at the grocery store, when I'm at home cleaning the house, He is interested in talking to me in those places and finding a friend that would commune with His heart!

There has been some new developing areas of opportunity opening up for me this summer. I am planning on for sure returning to Phoenix to be a counselor again at the kids camp that I've participated in the last 2 years. Something that has just recently come up in the last couple months is an opportunity to go to Sierra Leone in western Africa for a three week trip in late June. I've really been asking the Lord if this is something I'm supposed to do this summer. I think it would be an incredible opportunity, but there are many logistical things that would need to line up for this to happen. The primary work I would be doing is working with a private non-profit group that is going to help establish an orphanage. I would be going to document and photograph the children as well as the facilities for supporters back here in the states to get a vision for what this group is trying to establish in Sierra Leone. On top of the full time photography work, I would be helping establish a soccer league structure for the community there. I am really excited for this potential trip, and as of right now am planning on going, but again, there will be quite a few things that need to line up in the next month for me to be on a plan to Africa in June!

The Lord has continued to be so faithful as I've been here in Kansas City serving at the International House of Prayer. I've been enrolled in the school here full time since January, as well as being involved full time as an intercessor missionary, I've had quite the busy schedule lately. My time commitments as an intercessor missionary and full time student are about 50 hours a week right now. So, not leaving much time for anything else on a weekly basis, it has taught me ow to be very good at time management and staying on top of things! I'm praying that the Lord would provide a car in the next couple months so that I can be working somewhere to create an income. I am in need of some supernatural finances on a monthly basis right now, and the Lord has been meeting this needs without exception monthly!

This next week will be 1 year that I have been in Kansas City, I can hardly believe how fast time has flown by! I am so blessed to be at a place like the International House of Prayer! Over any other school or scholarship I could have chosen, I am ultimately glad that I came here with no remorse over the decision! I know that the leading of the Holy Spirit has brought me to exactly the place I am supposed to be!

I am making a priority to be more adamant about keeping this updated with what I'm up to. I head to Boston next week to minister on different college campuses in the Ivy league schools. I'll make sure to let you know how that time goes.

Strength and Honor,

Grace and Peace.

Isaac

Identity Issue

It’s official, the Lord has brought my 9 months of consecration unto Him in the NightWatch to a close. He has brought me full circle experimenting with how to live my life before Him. Even though I feel like this season of my life has come to a close, I feel like my journey in this new revelation of how to walk forward in my christian faith has only just begun. That like David, I have taken the time through the mundane of life to figure out it all comes down to Love! I have the empowerment and ability to walk through this life because of this simple yet SO profound truth, “I am Loved by God, and a Lover of God, therefore , I AM SUCCESSFUL! No longer, if I walk in this truth, will I be the judge of myself, because it’s not about what I think (I’m Sinful) He alone is the only one that can Judge me in Righteousness and Truth! I will walk in Freedom of no longer being bound by what people think, because I will be consumed by the thoughts of the Bridegroom God that is ravished by one glance of my eye, or that tiny ‘Yes’ of my heart! I will walk forward in the power of His Sanctifying Grace, because I will realize that it’s not by my Righteousness that I’m saved, but by Grace, and Grace alone. That my strivings in the Pursuit of Righteousness is found as filthy rags if I do not come to the realization that it’s by His Unfailing, Unending Love that I am saved, and continue to be saved from the Pits of Hell! No matter what my striving of Righteousness may succumb to, I will never increase upon the amount of Love and Enjoyment the Lord has over my life! The only thing that will change on this journey of Sanctification is my understanding of enjoyment found in Him! That as I continue to break off sin’s grip, I will become more of Christ’s likeness, therefore my friendship with Him develops all the more, and I am now able to feel the enjoyment over my life more because I have made one step closer to walking as He did. Making my communion with Him increase and became closer knit with Him, it DOES NOT INCREASE HIS LOVE TOWARDS ME IN ANY WAY! BECAUSE JOHN 17 SAYS THAT HE ALREADY LOVES ME TO THE FULLEST OF HIS GODLY CAPACITY! The love of the Father cannot be increased upon in any measure, ZILCH, ZERO, NONE! So why do we think we can increase in His enjoyment over us by our strivings of Righteousness!? The only thing that is going to increase is our ability to be able to feel His love and enjoyment over us. In this reality we have to be found as ones that place our sole identify, the only thing that drives us forward in being, “Loved by God, and being a Lover of God, therefore Successful!” Then we get a reality that we had VERY, VERY, little to do with our coming to love Him. Because when we were lost in our lifestyle of hating Him, and selling ourselves to the sinful desires of our wicked hearts, He was pursuing us, Loving us with the same infinite amount of love then, as He has for us now! When we were dead in the wickedness of our flesh He chose to demonstrate the greatest gift of Love, the giving of His life! Just for the chance, the smallest tiny chance that we would say ‘Yes’ to His love. His infinite Love then that lead Him to the cross is still very real, and very much the same today. He does not change yesterday, today, and forever more! Our walking in 100% obedience and in an identity of a lover of Christ actually brings His love to fullness, because now He can enjoy us! The fullness of His love and enjoyment over us could not be over our lives until we chose to come into alignment of the pursuit of Holiness, because it would go against the very nature of Love! He can love someone that is in sin, but He CANNOT enjoy them or take delight in them in that place. The definition laid forth in 1st Corinthians 13:6 “Love does not rejoice at wrongdoings (sin), but rejoices with the truth.” states right there that Love cannot rejoice (delight) in sin! It can’t, it goes against the law of love. Last time I checked “God is Love” 1st John 4:8, therefore God cannot delight himself in someone that is living in opposition of pursuing 100% obedience! This does not go against the “Dark Yet Lovely” principle from Song of Solomon 1:5. Because we are all sinful in nature, we are only transformed by the power of His love to choose Righteousness over wickedness out of a motive of choosing to love Him, and Him alone. Even when we stumble and give into that besetting sin that we have been fighting for so long, we are still enjoyed by God if we are choosing to make war against that issue, and not let it become something we agree with.

Picture it this way, You’re in a boxing match, and your opponent throw’s a quick little fake so you expecting the right hook, get smacked in the face when you weren’t expecting the left hook to come across and mess you up. You took a shot, true, but you didn’t lose. It’s your ability to stand and continue to make war against this opponent. You might even get knocked off your feet every once in a while, but it’s the resolve in your heart that you’re not going to get knocked out or give up in the fight! As long as you keep fighting, YOU’RE WINNING! So when that sin creeps its ugly head up, and even if you mess up and indulge yourself in it, as long as you repent, bring it into the light and tell the Lord that you still want to pursue Him in love, THEN YOU WIN! That small ‘Yes’ in your heart is what the Lord loves and enjoys. When you bring all that you know you are struggling with into the light, you are pursuing the Lord in 100% obedience. Once again, even if you stumble, if you repent and put it before the Lord, you are still pursuing 100% obedience, and the Lord takes full delight in you! Now the moment you stop making war against these issues, and just settle that it’s just to difficult to pursue the Lord in obedience, that’s when He can’t enjoy you anymore. Once again, coming back to the fact that “Love does not rejoice (delight) in wrongdoings (sin), but rejoices (delights) with the truth (righteousness).”

For some reason we get this idea in our head that when we mess up that the Lord is standing in heaven with His arms crossed looking at us like we’re stupid, telling us we need to get it together. For some people that’s what comes to mind everytime they think of God and that is a false thinking pattern. God is so kind, merciful, and loving, “He delights in mercy” Micah 7:18. That is amazing to me. That when we mess up, we repent and ask Him for forgiveness, that He is actually happy and excited to give it!!! This is such a good picture for me. That we are all like infants learning to walk in different areas of our lives. We are pursuing a holy lifestyle and for some we’re just that little toddler that is crawling around and building up our strength so that one day we can start standing. For others they are standing already and trying to take their first steps. And still for others they have learned to take steps and are even starting to run around. Now what does any earthly father do when their son or daughter falls while trying to walk. He runs to them picks them up, loves them, and encourages them! What dad when their 1 year old kid falls trying to walk runs over and yells at them while their on the ground telling them that they’re never going to get it right, you just keep failing, you’ll never be enough. NONE, it’s a 1 year old baby! Then why do we see God that way? He’s the best Father there could ever be!!!

Jesus portrays the ultimate bridegroom of love, in that He was pursuing me with perfect love when I was living not only in my grotesque sin, but in hatred towards Him. When I was in this place He passionately pursued me with perfect love! He loved me unconditionally! He was long-suffering, pursuing me through all my wickedness. It even led Him to the cross! With every stroke that He was beaten, He had me in mind thinking that I would be worth it all! That if I said yes and came to the knowledge of Him it would be worth it all! But it didn’t stop there! Even now He is in heaven making intercession on behalf of those that are still choosing wickedness. He gave His life, and He’s still pouring Himself out in the longing that He might be able to marry them! When the people that He so dearly loves give themselves away to lesser things of this world, He is still crying out to them, asking for their hand in marriage! Everytime His people choose to give themselves to sexual perversion, love of money, pride, love of possessions, alcohol, drugs, careers...etc. He still pursues them in perfect love! He is still declaring to them that He longs to make this people His bride! “And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord!” Hosea 2:19-20 This is all done in His extravagant love for us as His people, so that we might have fellowship with Him! If we let our identities be found as lovers, then we will be able to walk in humility and power, as Jesus did. Because He knew from where He had come, and to where He was going (John 13:3)! He was able to operate and do the will of the Father, because He was free from every other influencing factor. Because He knew what His status was before the Father was, nothing else could stand in His way. It’s an Identity Issue! If we only knew the success we had in the Fathers eyes as being loved by Him, and being lovers of Him, we would live our lives drastically differently in every area of life. We would finally be free to operate in the move of the Spirit because we would know our identity before the Father, and wouldn’t have a fear of moving in the supernatural!

That was a mouthful. But God is Good =)

Be Blessed,

Isaac

Just been Thinking about Love

I look around me and find that at the end of the day there are very few things that truly satisfy me. This last year I’ve really found that the Lord has been shaving out of my life slowing all the excess “things” that I had for so many years tried to replace His love with. The the superior pleasures truly only come from above. I’ll find myself doing different things throughout the week; reading a good book, writing a nice letter, watch a movie with friends, go out to eat with friends, play sports...etc. But I’ve found that nothing really satisfies my heart like the way the Lord does when I take time to spend time in His presence letting Him love me. Lately I’ve been practicing while in the Prayer Room to just sit before Him and pray to myself, “I’m loved by God, and a lover of God, therefore I’m successful.” Let all the accusations come against me, deny them, and say it again. “I’m loved by God, and a lover of God, therefore I’m successful.” Once again, repeat process. And maybe do that for 15 minutes to a half hour, and just let the Lord come and speak the way He feels about me. The way He moves my heart is unlike anything I can find in this world. The spiritual high I get after walking away from sitting in His presence is better than any fake substitute this world could offer me. A scripture that I’ve fallen in love with since being here in KC is, “Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His Word, for Your love is better than wine.” Song of Solomon 1:2 Inviting the Lord to come and invade my little life with his all consuming, never ending love. Letting his love come and satisfy my heart more than any intoxication of this world.

This past week I was sitting in the Prayer Room before the Lord just sharing with him my commitment to Him, and how I had chose to serve Him, and that I would never choose another. And so clearly the Lord just spoke back to me out of Hosea 2:19-20. The Lord spoke to my heart and said, “You think that you’ve committed yourself to me, but actually I’ve been the one pursuing you the whole time. That while you were in your sin, while you were choosing the lesser pleasures of life, I was searching you out. While you sold yourself for the cheap things of this life, I was offering you a ring to come and marry me, and run away from all the cheap counterfeits. That when you had made yourself a prostitute for money and the wine of this world, I called you beautiful and pure.” He just painted this picture in my head of how yet I was His enemy, He loved me, and died for me! I could just picture myself as a bum on the side of the road strung out on crack, deep into a life of drugs, alcohol, and sex, and down the road drives this limousine. Out steps the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He actually gets out of His luxurious car, in His suit, and calls me to come get into His car with Him. Instead of taking His friendly offer, I actually swear at Him and start running down the street through crowds of people. Instead of getting back in His limo and driving off, He actually starts chasing me down the street, and calling after me and telling me how much He loves me and cares about me. How He wants to take me back to His house and get me out of my current situation. He wants to give to me a superior pleasure and joy, instead of the counterfeits I had been pursing. When I finally slowed to a stop, and allowed Him to come and pick me up off the ground and carry me back to His fancy limo, He started whispering to me that I was so worth the whole ordeal. That He enjoyed the process of the cross because I was now in His arms. Every whip and stripe on His back He enjoyed because He was here holding me now. Even though I was filthy as dirt, He desired to take me from that place and start taking me through a process of washing me clean.

I am the beloved Bride of Christ. I am a promised Son of God. My righteousness is as filthy rags if I do it in my own strength and strivings. It is by grace, and grace alone that I have been made beautiful. That He can look at me and say, “I want you,” is truly a miracle in and of itself. The God that all the 24 elders, and angels, and 4 living creatures have been able to do for all of eternity past has been cry out day and night never sleeping, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is, and is to come!” The miracle of God grace towards me is truly a mystery to my mind. But one thing that I do know, and rejoice in, is that He loves me with the same amount of love that He loves His Son. That the infinite amount of love that He can pour out, He pours it out on me. This notion has been thrilling my heart for the past months, and I think I’ll go right on allowing in to guide my heart into a new dimension of love for myself, and others.

That’s all I got.

Be Blessed,

Isaac

The Life of.......Me.

So their’s been a bit of craziness here in KC over the last couple weeks. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten a chance to give an update to what I’ve been up to. So here’s life as of lately.

Life as a “Fire in the Night” intern here at the International House of Prayer-Kansas City (IHOP-KC) has been, well, to say the least interesting lately. I guess you get what you ask for. For the last 10 years IHOP-KC has continued in 24 hour prayer day and night. One of their main prayer focuses has been revival in the city. It is truly an amazing feat in itself to run a 24 hour prayer room, but to actually have it going for the past 10 years and actually growing at an extraordinary rate. When the ‘Prayer Room’ first opened 24 hours there was on average from what I hear about 2-4 people in there through the night. There is now consistently about 200 people praying through the night for revival and other topics. The Lord has given a portion of His Spirit here the past month. November 11th the Holy Spirit broke in powerfully in a classroom setting in IHOPU, which lead to 15 hours straight of intense deliverance's and healing’s of emotional and physical needs. For about 10 days straight these meetings continued nightly from 6 p.m. to midnight. Which as an intern, I was required to be at all of them except for on my sabbath, which was AWESOME! The hard thing about an outpouring of this sort, is that it leaves you extremely exhausted each day. Nightwatch is tough as well because we would go to the meetings, get done, eat lunch, and then go to the prayer room from midnight to 6 a.m. So it just made for a very tiring couple weeks. There is still a very strong presence of the Spirit moving and the IHOP leadership team has decided to go ahead and keep the meetings going 4 nights a week. Wednesday through Saturday night from 6 p.m. till midnight they are still having what they call “Awakening Service.” Then on Sunday night they have a regular church service with extended ministry time. The services so far have seemed to kind of reflect on what the Spirit has done in the past week and give direction for a stewarding of the Lord’s presence. So my schedule as an intern has gotten a little more crazy. As busy as it was before, it’s busier yet! But it is so worth it. There has been so much taking place in my heart, and God’s been speaking some things about this upcoming year that are exciting.

In the midst of all the business it was a gift of the Lord that I was able to go home for a couple days and spend Thanksgiving with the family =) Which was as expected, a really fun time! Me and my roommate Caleb drove Wednesday 11 a.m. through the day and got into Michigan Wednesday night 2:30 a.m. The only person in my family that knew I was coming was the father, to confirm it was all good with the roommate coming and all. So the surprise was a success and nice to bring a little joy into my families hearts, and mine too =) Although it was a quick trip there was much accomplished, including our yearly tradition of going Christmas tree hunting! Which this year had a little bit of a spin on it, as it was in the dark! We had to leave Friday night to be back for the Awakening service on Saturday evening. And we had to sleep somewhere during that mix, so it made for a long day. We got back into KC at about 11 a.m. Saturday morning, got a few hours of sleep before heading back into the craziness!!!

I’m excited to be finishing up this season of the internship life, and moving back into a normal schedule (which will include being on days again!). I’ll be moving back into the house which I was in over the summer with Kris Edler, Jay Caple, Joshua Mills, and I think a guy from the OneThing internship named Micah. So it will be a house-full, but I will have my own room once again, for the 2nd time in my life!!!

In January I will start school at the Forerunner Music Academy (FMA) as a 2nd semester Freshmen. FMA is within the International House of Prayer University (IHOPU) college programs. I’ll be aiming to work through the Worship Leading track, which is a 4 year program. So it’ll be moving out of one season and an ushering into a new one as 2009 ends. I can’t believe how fast it’s come and gone!

I’ll be going home for a quick week after the internship to spend Christmas with me family, and my Grandma Colleen and Grandpa Jon. I’m excited to spend time with family. Then after spend the week with them they are coming down to Kansas City for the OneThing 2009 conference! So they’ll be here the 27th and leave the morning of the 31st up to Minnesota where they’ll be visiting my Father’s family. I’m planning on jumping on board with them up there, I’m just not quite sure how I’ll be getting back to KC yet. There might be a bus involved, which I’m not so excited about. Nevertheless, the things we do for family time.

After all that Holiday’s funness it’s back to the grindstone and starting school for me. Can’t wait =)

Be Blessed!

Isaac

Wilderness

I really feel like the Lord has impressed it upon my heart to be one that walks on the paths through the wilderness. To be one that lives by few words spoken, and more seeking. That my power and anointing is not going to come like a rushing wind, or some crazy manifest spirit. But I’m to be a faithful servant of a burning lamp, that keeps the fire burning by cultivating oil time and time again. Though periodically there may be times of great fillings, it will come through the mundane faithfulness in serving, as in serving Christ. The Lord privileged me to be raised in a way where I don’t need the crazy break throughs, but simply always trusting Him! That my Faith and Power is a slow rolling snowball affect. Though I am moving slow, I am continuing to press on with endurance gaining more volume, more mass as I roll

The place of surrender, obedience, and wilderness. The road, and most of the time path, of humility, traveled by few, mostly overgrown, hard to recognize. But with my sword I break and cut every vine that stands in the way, and keep pressing on! I probably won’t see many companions along the way, but there is one that sticks closer than a brother, with Him I will walk, with Him I will travel, lead me on this journey Lord. I commit to walk this path.

This leading to the wilderness that I’ve been feeling over the last few weeks I believe is directly related with the way I will be using my tongue. As 2009 has been a year of prayer for me, I believe 2010 holds a journey of learning to be a man of few words, and a man born in the wilderness. To live in such a way where I take the secrets that the Lord whispers to my heart, and pray and meditate on them in that wilderness of silence. In this way to start letting these things become kindling fires in my spirit, that would grow to be bonfires of passion for the Lord as I cultivate them and savor their taste in my inner man. More than anything this season of my life may be a chastening and disciplining, but I know that the Lord disciplines those He loves. Though it may be painful at the moment that it will go on to produce a harvest of righteousness and peace. This only increases my assurance that I am a son of the most high, for what father that loves his children does not discipline them. In the same way I am a son whom my Father loves, therefore will be disciplined and loved much, that I might love much.

Awakened to Love

How fast this past week has flown by. I can’t believe that I’m back in Kansas City already getting back into the groove of Nightwatch and Fire in the Night mode. What a privilege it was to be able to spend the past week in Atlanta, Georgia with some of my favorite people. I went expecting to spend some good quality time with Mark, April, and her family, and God really just blew my expectations to bits and as always relpaced them with something more than I could have imagined. Upon arrival into the Atlanta airport Mark was not able to pick me up from the airport because he had actually just accepted a job doing some carpentry work, so the first day I was there he had to go into work till about 3 in the afternoon. Which was ok, because this meant I got to meet “Momma” and spend a little time getting to know her. Immediately we connected well and I found my 2nd mother =) It was so encouraging to talk with her, and hear what the Lord had done in her life up to this point. It’s always so awesome to hear what the Lord is doing all around the world and even just here within the states. The whole point of this trip to begin with was to be able to get down there and spend some time with Mark and finally get to meet April and her family. It’s been such a blessing to watch this relationship unfold between Mark and April as their focal point together has been the Lord since I have had the privilege of being apart of the process. What has been so encouraging to me personally is that this is the type of dating relationship that I have always had pictured in my mind, but have never witnessed it actually take place first hand. It’s been an answer to prayer to just know that dating can be done in a Godly manner that in the end both the guy and girl in the relationship are fully focused on what the Lord is doing in their life, but also in life of the person they are dating. So it’s been comforting to know there is hope for me in the years to come. I’ve never dated, but the Lord is starting to reveal to me the beauty of process, and how He feels about the seriousness of it. That ultimately the first girl I ask to start “getting to know” will actually in essences be the daughter of the creator of the universe! So I know that if He says He wants His daughter home by 9, I know He means it. I look forward to the days of creating my own history in the Lord with my future wife and creating memories of the Lords faithfulness in our lives together. I think the Lord has awakened my heart to love, only because He’s awakened my love for Him. I am starting to understand His love for me, I am understand that it’s ok to love myself, and now I am able to start to love others. I can’t give love out of love I don’t know myself. Today I was reminded of one of my favorite verses in the Bible, “I am my Beloved’s, and His desire is for me.” Song of Solomon 7:10 That Jesus truly desires me, everything about me. My weakness, my unfaithfulness, my insecurities, my quirky doings, and my weak weak love. He desires it all! I think we could all use a new revelation of the Lords love for us. I know I could!

Strength & Honor,

Grace & Peace.

Isaac

Yeahp...

It’s been seeming like lately that just when I get to a point when I feel like I might have my emotional make up under control, and think I might have an idea with where I’m headed in this life, I get some new revelation or break through and go broken and tenderly back to the Father and ask Him what He is thinking. It’s a continual process of learning that I’m wrong 100% of the time, and He truly knows what is best for me, and I, am just a little simple minded man that He chose to create and work through. Why God chooses to use me, I never will know. But I guess that is a testimony of Grace in and of itself. The tender, loving, compassionate God that we serve, has blessed us so abundantly to associate with us, but not only talk to us, but actually call us sons and daughters. That after seeing all the yuck, filth, and slime, He says, “Yeah, I desire you, and I know the way that leads to righteousness and holiness!” I’m currently in the school of humility, you might ask, “How’s that going for you?” I would say, “Um, it’s humbling.” Even in the context of letting the Lord use me and being a tool, I still so often stop, stare, and wonder, “Lord, why me?” I’m so stinkn’ messed up!

I think for a long time I have known it in my heart, but just in the last week ish, the Lord has been revealing a path for me to follow. A new concept of relationships, life experiences, and decisions that I will make in the upcoming years. I feel so strongly that the Lord has called me to the wilderness place. To walk down a path that is travelled by few. My first impressions of this place was denial, I truly didn’t desire it at all! But having a couple different occasions of letting the Lord describe it to me, I have come to a decision that I will take the path, but there is much uncertainty as to what this path will hold for me. I think more than anything I’m tired of a journey filled with biographies, books, articles, conversations, and lectures on this God I supposedly love. I’m tired of getting to know about Him, I want to actually meet with the God/Man that I hear all these amazing things about. It’s time we established a long lasting relationship. I want to get to know Him by asking Him questions about His heart. I want to be walking with Him on this path through the woods when suddenly a tree almost falls on me and ask what His opinion will be in that situation to escape.

Ok, there’s a whole bunch of random people in the prayer room tonight and it’s been distracting me all night. I’m gonna go ask the creator of the universe what’s on His heart. =)

Track 2 Continued...

So it’s been almost two weeks now that I’ve been back in the swing of internship life. How do I feel about that, I’m not quite sure. I love the fact that I’m in a community setting again regularly interacting with people my age that are striving for the Lord at the same level of intensity that I am, so that’s been refreshing. Although today I remembered once again the part of internship I’m not such a huge fan of. Which is getting blasted in the face with more than enough information that you and your mother can handle!!! There might be one subject that that the Lord is impressing on your heart, and I’ll spend time on that subject in the prayer room for a while, then after attending a week of your different classes, you get smacked in the face by about 8 different topics and you have to go into the prayer room and decide which one you are going to give all your attention and focus on. Tonight for example we went to the Sunday evening service as usual, and it was about giving extravagantly, which was really good. The only problem was, I really wanted to respond to the message and spend some time in the moment with the Lord talking about it, but I had to run out the doors get on a shuttle and go to my next 2 hour class! Not complaining or anything, but it seems like we have so much in our schedules that you really don’t have enough time in a day to process it all. I absolutely love the program, I just wish they have made more time for us beside the prayer room to search out some of these subjects that have been exposed to us.

So, it’s been nice to get to know my roommates a little bit better over the last couple weeks, spending time with them here and there. As one of my roommates blogged what his first impressions of us as roommates were, I felt compelled to do the same. For their sake. =)

So there’s JD, my immediate roommate, whom I met first out of all the roomies. After getting to know him a bit more and more, I’ve found him quite humorous, musical, fashionable, and outdoorsy, being he himself is from Alaska. It’s refreshing to watch as he has dived right into all that could be offered here at IHOP. I can already see the Lord starting to get ahold of his heart and encounter him. So AWESOME! He reminds me of family a little bit because of his taste in humor is similar to that of me families.

Jack is another immediate roommate, he came a few days late in the track, but it’s been a pleasure to have him in my room as well. He is from Detroit, so not very far from my homecoming habitation. Jack recently found the Lord and has been on a radical journey of discovering his identity in the Lord and placing all value and trust in the Lord. It’s been so encouraging to watch his newly converted zeal as he goes for the Lord with everything he’s got!!!! I’m excited to see what the Lord continues to do in him and through him, as I believe he will be a powerful tool for the kingdom!

Caleb Pettus, oh Caleb. Or should we say “Captain Dread Beard!” I knew Caleb from track 1, he is the only other track 2 guy in our apartment. It’s been fun to reminisce about the old days of track 1. It’s been neat as well just to have someone around that I’ve known from the past days. We’ve made trips to Holt’s donut shop already, and I’m sure there will be many more to come as the track continues on. He has already had a few words from a couple different people telling him to be expectant of his healing. Caleb is a Hemophiliac, which makes playing guts extremely difficult. =)

David Vaught is an Arkansas boy. From day 1 I found him to be Mr. Fix-It man. There have been numerous appliances in the apartment that were not functioning properly we when moved in, and he has taken the liberty to fix them. Amazing! Wish my brains worked that way. It’s been neat to watch him find a groove that works for him here at IHOP. I can tell he has a very hungry spirit, and is growing spiritually at a extremely fast rate. I don’t think he realizes how much is going on in him. Or maybe he does and the Lord is doing His magic on him.

David Rich, another native Michigander. He is officially the youngest in the group at 17. It’s nice not being the baby anymore. We pick on him often, but he seems to be able to handle himself fairly well. Out of all the roommates David Rich seems to be the guy that I’ve connected with the best. We have quite a few similarities in upbringings as well as interests. It’s been fun to get to know him little by little. Even though he reminds me in a great deal of them preppy Grand Blanc boys, he has broken a lot of my presumptions that I made of him, based on a first impression. We crack each other up on a regular basis, but also have had a few real good heart to hearts. He’s got a tender heart that really desires to find the Lord during this time here at IHOP. I’m trying to convince him already to stay for track 2 right off the bat so he doesn’t have to do what I did and go through the agony of getting back into the routine. I’m excited to see what Jesus drops in his heart!

That was alot of personal profiling.

Well, I did a photoshoot the other day for some friends of mine, so I’ll have those pics posted soon enough. It’s just hard to get consistent enough internet, and time enough to post pictures around here. I am pleased how they came out, and look forward to doing some more shoots for different people!

Only 8 days till I get down to the dirty south!

Strength and Honor,

Grace and Peace.

Isaac

Peanut Butter Knuckles

How do I explain it? It’s like dipping your apple in Jiff peanut butter, scooping out a nice glob of tasty goodness you come to a realization that you got peanut butter all over your knuckles. Kind of good, kinda stinks that you just got gobs oil all over your hand. My time in the second track so far has been good, but difficult to get through this first week of orientation and those such things. Tonight being my first night back in the Prayer Room for 6 hours it’s been nice to once again sit before the Lord and let Him captivate my heart. Unfortunately the first meeting as a corporate track that we had I left my Bible in the classroom, one of the core leaders later told me she saw it on the floor so she put on a chair for me to grab later that evening when we were back in that room. Well, another group came through in those couple hours and someone picked it up. So most unfortunately I haven’t had my Bible the last couple nights. I mean, I have one of my Bibles, but not the one I’ve been studying out of the last few months, so that has been kind of frustrating. The rooming arrangements have really been quite a pleasant surprise. We have a convenient apartment size of only 5 guys. It’s me and one other guy in my room, and the remaining 3 guys are sharing the bigger room of the apartment. It’s me, JD (from Anchorage Alaska), David Vaught (from Little Rock Arkansas), David Rich (from Traverse City Michigan), and Caleb Pettus (from Flowerance Alabama). Truly we have a great group of guys as it’s been evident even the first couple days that we are all here to encounter the Lord and go deep in the Knowledge of God! So it’s been really exciting as a small group of guys to get excited about the things of the Lord together. Today we took a little time as we were all sitting int the living room together to do some, “Soaking time with Jesus.” It was so refreshing to spend sometime outside of the prayer room inviting the Holy Spirit and just communing with the Lord. IT WAS AWESOME! When we got done I wasn’t sure what kind of reaction I was going to get from the other guys, if they just we gonna think I was weird and really spiritual, or it was going to be something that we as an apartment were going to start enjoying together on a regular basis. And it was refreshing to hear from all of them that they really enjoyed it! I have set my heart to really encounter the Father heart of the Lord this track, and really to become more sensitive to His thoughts and feelings towards His people. I want our friendship to be a normal occurrence and not a draw out awkward silence. I know this next 3 months is going to go by in a flash and I want to really be purposeful with all of my extra time and how I spend it. I know there will be a tendency for me to want to draw back at times because of the rigorous schedule, but when else will I be able to take a consecrated 3 month sabbatical like this? Let’s just push hard for 3 months straight and then when I’m done take time to think about all the tiredness I just experienced! So, it’s my desire to start drinking Living Water and to thirst no more. To serve and love the way Jesus loved! I desire all that the Lord would entrust to me in this next season!