Well, we have returned to Kansas City! Our group got back last Sunday (the 13th) evening around 9:30. When I stumbled out of the car at my house I was met by two of my housemates who serenaded me with a song. It was super cute. :D ANWAY. It’s remarkably good to be back—we had a long week in Detroit, but it was phenomenal. God moved powerfully while we were there, and I’m going to try to summarize the most impacting parts for me personally, as well as examine what happened during and after theCall.
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| Ford Field packed with thousands of people! |
There were about thirty of us who drove up to Detroit—about four people in each vehicle. We all made it there safely and promptly, praise the Lord! We stayed in Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit, at a phenomenal and gracious church. We were well supplied by dozens of people who wanted to serve us and bring us meals and clothes and whatnot. We didn’t have to pay for anything other than gas on the entire trip!!! It was amazing how richly we were supplied—people came and cooked us dinner constantly and almost every church we went to fed us!
Us girls stayed in the church basement, which had a kitchen, two showers, a gymnasium (which served as our bedroom) and lots of other rooms where other people from IHOP were staying. A group from the Gateway House of Prayer in St. Louis joined up with us, as did a few people from the Justice House of Prayer in Washington D.C. It was crowded, but wonderful. There was never any drama, gossip or dissension because we were all rooted in unity in the Lord. It was amazing.
In the week we were there we had various prayer meetings at the brand-new Dearborn House of Prayer, heard a few guest speakers, listened to area pastors share, went to three different churches for pre-call rallies (at these our teacher, Sam Cerny, would share a message and then those of us in TCI would minister to the congregation by praying for them one-on-one), evangelized in Hamtramck (the predominately Muslim suburb of Detroit where the call to prayer is broadcasted over loudspeakers five times a day), talked to students at college campuses, prayed over Ford Field… Yeah. Stuff like that. We prayed a lot. Haha… Our days usually began around 8 or 9 AM and ended around 10 PM. We were busy, but nothing was too hectic and we all got enough sleep, praise the Lord!
The actual call event began (for me) at noon on the 11th, when we began helping out with registration, picking speakers up from the airports, setting up, organizing and doing random stuff to help out. The doors to Ford Field opened around 5 PM and droves of people flooded the stadium. I would estimate 20,000 people were there that first night. Anyway, at 6 PM the event began. We went all through the night with worship, prayer and corporate repentance. Morning came and we spent six more hours doing volunteer work. Finally TheCall ended at 6 PM on Saturday, the 12th. Our group was up for about 36 hours total—after TheCall ended we went out to eat and then rushed back to the church to clean it intensely. We then got a few hours of sleep and left on Sunday at 8:30 AM.
TheCall event itself was totally different than I had expected. I thought there would be hours to just minister and pray for other people. I thought we would see massive healings break out in the entire stadium. I thought my TMJ jaw problem would be healed in an amazing encounter with the Lord. I thought we would see the presence of God tangibly in the form of a “glory cloud” or angelic visitations.
But TheCall came and went suddenly, and none of those things happened. In fact when midnight rolled around the majority of the people left, and the morning of the 12th dawned with a sad realization that very few people had stayed; maybe half remained through the night hours. Around 2 or 3 AM I began to feel irritated—partially because of a lack of sleep and partially because my expectations were not being met. I wondered why we were doing this and what the purpose was. I began to lose vision. We had amazing worship music and a great time, but to me all it really felt like was a Holy Spirit dance party (which was wonderful! Please don’t misunderstand me; I’m just being honest here). I wanted to see the visible glory of the Lord. I wanted healing. I wanted great revelation of God’s nearness.
But it didn’t come.
So I was left wondering, as I’m sure you may be wondering now as you read this, “What was the point?”
The answer to that lies in my personal revelation as well as the mystery of how God pours out revival.
TIMING
God’s timing is something the world has always been baffled by. God says He will do something, and then takes ages to do it, and in the wait we lose heart, backslide and become bitter and angry. The reason the church so struggles with this is because we don’t understand His timing. Now, I’m not claiming to fully understand this, but we talked about it in TCI class after TheCall and a LOT of clarity came.
Throughout the Bible the return of Jesus is likened to giving birth. His return is the great culminating moment that comes after much labor and intensity and preparation—like a woman has to go through 9 months of waiting before she can actually hold that baby in her arms. The church similarly has to wait and watch for the Lord’s return, and sometimes we get a rush within us that says, “SOON! HE’S COMIN SOON!” and we all get excited and think that tomorrow is the day… and then tomorrow comes and nothing happens. It’s like we feel a contraction and think that the baby is about to come—we rush to the hospital and sit in the waiting room, feeling the contractions and thinking, “YES! TODAY IS THE DAY! IN JUST HOURS I WILL HOLD MY BABY!!!” and then the nurse comes over and says, “Nope, it’s a false alarm; go home.” And then there is a remarkable amount of disappointment.
This is an incredible image of the Lord’s timing. You see when we get a little taste of revival or when the Holy Spirit moves in a little way, we expect a great awakening to come right after. We expect that the culmination and the return of Jesus is right around the corner, so we build up our expectations and then… nothing happens. We’re left confused and frustrated with God because He didn’t meet our timing.
To put it simply, TheCall Detroit was a contraction, not a birth.
But does that mean nothing happened? NO. Each contraction pushes a pregnant woman closer and closer to giving birth. TheCall Detroit has pushed us closer to a great, worldwide revival, and we cannot be disappointed with that!!! There was no glory cloud; I personally wasn’t healed, but mountains were moved in the Spirit and the world saw an incredible gathering of people committed to fast and pray.
Another important thing to consider with the timing of God is this: God will sometimes give an amazing promise and then wait a long period to answer; moreover, He will sometimes do the POLAR OPPOSITE of what He has promised. Let’s look at Joseph as an example of this:
God told Joseph that he would be a ruler. Joseph gets excited and tells his brothers. They are not too keen on this thought, so they throw him into a pit. Then they sell him, fake his death and Joseph ends up hundreds of miles away from his home as a slave in Egypt. Not very ruler-like. Then Joseph ends up in prison when his master’s wife, who was upset that Joseph wouldn’t go to bed with her, lies and claims Joseph tried to rape her. Again, prison isn’t the place for a ruler. Joseph has to wait in prison FOR YEARS until suddenly he takes a place of authority when he interprets the dreams troubling the pharaoh. There was a long season of trial, tribulation, suffering and pain before the promise was quickly fulfilled.
So why would God do this to Joseph? Why would God do this to us? I believe it’s a test of our faith. What was Joseph putting his hope in? What are we putting our hope in? Are we clinging to our expectations of a coming revival, or are we clinging to the God who promised? You see, our expectations will fail us. I can expect certain results and when those results don’t come, I will be discouraged and fall away from my faith in God. BUT IF I PUT MY ENTIRE FAITH IN GOD, I WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED! When I don’t see certain circumstances coming to pass, I won’t lose heart because I know that I serve a good God who fulfills His promises in His timing!
So that’s that. Immediately after TheCall this stirred us up, because we know that things are going to change. We haven’t seen an immediate change yet, but just you wait until a few years from now. Keep Detroit and Dearborn on your radar and watch to see how massive change comes… To all of you who partnered with us in prayer and fasting, thank you. Detroit is a gateway to the rest of the nation and ever second of every prayer made an eternal impact. The promise might not be fulfilled for a few years, but THEY WILL BE FULFILLED.
Ehehehe… this blog is already way longer than I intended. Thank you guys for bearing with me. We’ll see how much longer it goes!
PERSONAL REVELATION
What God revealed to me during TheCall and the days leading up to it was quite phenomenal. I’ll actually briefly mention how He spoke to me during my 40-day fast, as well…
The Prophetic
Halfway through our 40-day fast I had three prophetic encounters, all within about a week of each other. Two of these were dreams that were very clearly from the Lord. The first was immediately after an evening prayer rally among the students at IHOPU where we talked about compromise. That night I had a vivid dream about compromise. The second dream was an answer to one of my prayers—I had been asking God for encouragement or a prophetic word for a certain person, and in a very roundabout way He answered my prayer in a dream, which I was able to share with that person. My third encounter came at the prayer rally I mentioned earlier—one of my friends walked past me and I heard God speak clearly within me. It wasn’t all big and powerful like, “TELL HER TO GO TO AFRICA FOREVERRRRR.” But it was a little word from the Lord; He just wanted me to tell her how much He liked something she was doing. I was obedient and told her, and it remarkably impacted her because it affirmed what she had been going through for a few days! It was so wonderful to see the Lord using me to speak truth to people. My prayer has long been, “God make me into your mouthpiece. I want to be used by you to simply get your word from Heaven to earth!”
This was really encouraged when we were witnessing in Detroit. Our evangelism tactic is basically what we call a “treasure hunt.” Before going out to evangelize, we ask God to highlight people to us by giving us bits of information. God might tell us to go to a coffee shop, or to find someone with a red shirt on, or to find someone with the name Caleb or anything like that. It’s amazing how the most random pieces of information (that sometimes we think we’re just making up) are actually from God and how He leads us to the exact person He wants us to speak to! Before my group left on our first treasure hunt I was encouraged by a few older students to be bold when approaching people. Usually when my group approaches someone to talk to them about the Lord, I’m the one standing a bit behind everyone just to pray. I usually don’t speak except to confirm something the ‘leader’ is saying. But on that day the older students began to tell me that it was my assignment to prophesy and start up conversations, too! I was made to hear the voice of the Lord, too! It emboldened me and since then I’ve been seeking opportunities and stepping out in faith. Sometimes God highlights a person to me, but sometimes I just end up praying to myself.
I have not arrived and I still feel remarkably naïve and weak in the prophetic. The more I learn about it the more I realize I know so little, but that’s okay. The fast and TheCall have given me a fresh desire to pursue the Lord in this area and to boldly declare His word!
Voluntary Weakness
There is a prayer I pray every morning. It’s about a page long and one part that strikes me afresh every day is this: “I commit to voluntary weakness through radical prayer, fasting, giving, serving, forgiving and confessing. Give me grace, Lord!” It’s really simple, but it basically encompasses Matthew 6, in which Jesus gives a remarkable exhortation. When we do those six things mentioned in the prayer, we become voluntarily weak by giving up something. By fasting we give our physical strength; by praying we give our time; by giving we give our resources (especially our finances); by serving others we give our honor and reputation; by forgiving we give our reputations and by confessing we give up our pride and are humbled. So why is voluntary weakness important? Because God uses us in our weakness! When we are strong and powerful we think we can do everything in our own strength, but when we are weak we rely FULLY on God. In 2 Corinthians 12:9 Paul says, “Each time he [Jesus] said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.”
This came to life for me on the fast and especially the 36 hours we were awake for TheCall. There were times when my physical strength was sapped and when I was exhausted from lack of sleep. I sat there in my chair at the stadium feeling tired and useless and pathetic, but I knew that God was delighting in my weak prayers. As I struggled to engage in corporate prayer, I knew God was smiling because I had to work out of His strength and pray for His grace to sustain me. By my own strength I was basically useless, but when I gave Him my feeble, exhausted human frame He used my prayers to establish His purposes!
God’s Constancy
This truth held me up during the 40-day fast. There would be moments when I would be irritable or hungry or tired; in those moments I got snappy at people and did not carry myself like a child of God should. The truth is this (it’s also a part of the prayer I pray every morning): God doesn’t change. Even when we feel crummy and irritated, God is still the same. Even when we feel like He is far off and distant, He is still the same being. Our circumstances cannot change the facts of God. Those facts are these: God loves us even in our weakness, God rejoices over us, God wants us to partner with Him by prayer, God has saved us by grace through the death of Jesus, God is good and faithful, God is loving… and on and on and on.
Something about these just snaps me back into perspective when I’m feeling irritated. God is still the same. My circumstances cannot change Him, so I shouldn’t be swayed by my circumstances, either. Just as God is still the same, my identity is still the same. When I am feeling down I am still: A child of God, loved by Him, seated with Him in heavenly places, walking in the full authority of what He has given me, a vessel of the Holy Spirit… and on and on and on!
Endurance
This was the final thing that was a subtle focus of all the time leading up to TheCall and at the event. Before we began our 40-day fast, we watched a documentary called “The Endurance” about Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated expedition to Antarctica in 1914. Basically he and his crew were stranded in Antarctica for two years before they were able to make it back to England (amazingly not a single one of the men died). Two years. In Antarctica. In the early twentieth century. Our teacher then told us that we would similarly have to endure. That there would be times and opportunities to give up and stop fasting and stop praying, but how we are called to be those that do not lose heart! This culminated in the 36 hours of being awake for TheCall, one girl looked at me and remarked, “Remember that movie? Now is really the time to endure!” And she was right. We pressed on and finished well.
So now that TheCall is over we’re all resting. It’s baffling to think that it’s really over. We spent months preparing for it and now we’re simply waiting to see what comes of it. There will be change; we’re certain of this.
Thank you again, everyone, for all of your prayers and for joining in with us as we prayed, fasted and helped spur the nation back to God. Thank you for bearing with me on these long blog posts as I ranted and raved about everything you could ever imagine. Thank you for every fifteen-second prayer given on our behalf!
May God bless each and every one of you! May you all have a wonderful, love-filled Thanksgiving!
Blessings
Rachel
(Originally posted November 20th on Tumblr)
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