One Thing/The Call, 28-31 December, 2007

I returned home from Kansas City, Missouri, USA on January 2 after the most incredible conference I’ve ever attended (and I’ve been to so many over the years I can’t even count them!). My friend Sara Victoria, who has been in KC at the International House of Prayer for the last month, told me about One Thing just a couple of weeks ago. I very strongly felt I was to go, and everything from already having time off work, to cheap flights ($280 return!) and a place to stay (with the family Sara Victoria was with) fell into place very quickly. I left with a sense of expectation and have returned with all expectation far exceeded by what I heard, saw, and experienced there.

Sara Victoria and Gil picked me up from the airport the night I arrived in KC and we had a car accident on the way to Gil and Debbie’s place. I don’t tend to assume every mishap is "from the enemy" but in this instance really felt it was an attempt to keep us from a "date with destiny" (to use Michael’s words!). A teenage girl who was going too fast for the slippery conditions slid onto our side of the road around a corner. Gil swerved and avoided a head-on, and the ditch, but she took out the whole left side of the van. Thankfully none of us were hurt, and insurance for the van was sorted out the next day. When God plans for us to be somewhere, nothing and noone will stop that happening! We all felt very grateful for His protection.
After registering the next day, Sara Victoria and I were lining up in Bartle Hall waiting for the conference to start, and we literally bumped into our friend Michael from England! We’d known we’d all be there, but had no idea how to connect in the middle of approx. 20,000 people! So that was very cool. God takes care of all these little details so much more effectively than we can! Mine and Sara’s friend Sylvia, from Ottawa, ON. arrived late that night. I think it was quite significant that in the middle of a big conference focusing primarily on issues pertinent to the USA, there was a little group of us representing four other Nations - Canada, England, Ireland and New Zealand...countries for whom God’s heart breaks and yearns for also.

It’s hard to put into words what’s been imparted to me over these few days. It felt like pieces of a puzzle were being put together in so many ways. Over the last few years God has been doing a work of healing and restoration in my life, laying a foundation for deeper trust in my relationship with Him, and revealing Himself as Father, Friend, Counselor and "Home." Throughout One Thing He began to impart a deep fear of God in my heart (not the run-and-hide kind of fear, but the kind that invokes reverance and awe!), and I began to feel the depth of the grief and anger of God over the sin, pain, and chaos in this broken world. In the past I was too caught up in my own brokenness to see much further, but I am being awoken to see the world which Jesus gave His life to redeem through the filters of having tasted of that redemption myself. The words of a song by Sufjan Stevens come to mind, "He woke me up again..."As members of the Kingdom of God, we are a part of something so much bigger than ourselves and I’ve always known this, but know I KNOW it! I feel gripped by the call of Jesus to partner with Him in prayer in His fulfilling of eternal purpose which isn’t just limited to this earth, but the future new earth which will be revealed when His Kingdom comes in it’s fullness.

I’ve always loved worship and prayer, and have felt increasingly called to "waste time" in God’s presence over the last couple of years but have struggled with being consistent in the middle of a busy work and study schedule. During a session at One Thing, Holy Spirit asked me to make a life-long commitment to daily spend a specific and significant amount of time, which He named, in prayer. I was a bit shocked as it felt impossible, but after bargaining a bit (okay, I’m a slow learner!) I said "yes." I’m trusting that as I’m obedient to do what God considers priority, He will help me work my other "priorities" (full-time work + full-time study all in one!) around it. Being outside of time, I’m sure He can manage this somehow! Now I’m getting over the fear of not being able to do it, I feel really honoured that Jesus would ask me to set aside this time for Him, and I’m really excited about what each days holds for our time together. One speaker at the conference said "we need God to love God" - it’s so true, I could never have done this before, but the time in prayer today went so fast and was such a joy. He is so faithful to enable us to follow through with what He asks.

On 31 December from 12 noon - midnight was "The Call"...there were apparently 30,000 people there and it was one long prayer/worship/fast gathering. I doubted I’d be able to actively engage in prayer for that amount of time, but it was almost as though we were caught up in another time zone and the first time I checked my watch, nearly 5 hours had passed! There could be no better way to end a year and see in the beginning of a new one. For a few hours the prayer focus was on abortion and Lou Engle gave a very sobering word (it will be available to listen to on the International House of Prayer website, www.ihop.org) on this, bringing an undeniably prophetic word about the seriousness of this "holocaust" and the implications for nations which allow it and churches which do nothing about it. A lady shared about how many years ago she was in an abortion clinic waiting for her turn, and heard someone say, "Not this one! Not this one!" The voice kept repeating, and she thought it was her husband who was there with her. They didn’t follow through with the abortion (the baby-now-teenager was on stage with them!) and realised it was the voice of Jesus they were hearing. Lou Engle said it was the voice of Jesus’ intercession to the Father this lady heard. What a challenge to us to learn to listen, and pray in agreement with the very prayers Jesus Himself prays...

Along these lines, I’ve been feeling challenged again by a picture I saw during a prayer meeting at church a year or so ago. There was a huge, vast room full of people. They were lying all over the floor, with no room between them. They were in various states, all of them sick, injured, or dying. A person walked into the room carrying a guitar, and not even seeing all the bodies, walked over them, stood in the middle of the room, and "led worship." After doing their thing, they left, and another person, also seemingly blind to the desperate state of the people everywhere, walked over them and played worship music on a piano. They left, the scene is repeated with another person who trampled over all the bodies, stood in the middle, and preached up a storm, then left. A fourth person enters the room and actually sees all the people lying everywhere. They are horrified and shocked, and then notice Jesus right in the middle, kneeling beside one person. The fourth person walks up to Jesus and asks, "What are you doing? How do you know where to start?!" Jesus looked up from the single person He was tending to and said, "I am doing what I see my Father doing. Will you join me?"

Through the time at One Thing, I am feeling an increasing "fear" of operating out of my own good ideas in life and ministry, and doing what I think is "right" to do. I fear getting out of step with Jesus and walking to the beat of my own drum, so to speak....because I see more clearly than ever that by doing so, it’s not only me that is affected, but the lives of others, and even the heart of God. Learning to live and minister out of a place of intimacy with God and obedient surrender isn’t just about feeling peace and joy and fluffy spiritual feelings (although that all happens!), but is a life-and-death issue with consequences that impact eternity.


"I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star." The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life" – Revelation 22:16-18