There has been a lot of craziness going on around here lately. Two weeks ago Roger brought a team from the Cause base in Ft. Mill, SC, and things haven't slowed down. Last weekend was our Passionate Pursuit Conference at IHOP-Atlanta, which brought some amazing experiences with the Lord, new revelation, and the shifting of paradigms. Things haven't slowed down, nor will they for a while. I sense a mounting up of some sort, in the spirit, and in my life personally.

This week all my roommates moved out to another condo about 4 houses away. I opted to stay in this condo, with mismatched furniture and old carpet, as opposed to moving with the other girls to have new carpet and new IKEA furniture. I have had 4 addresses in the last year and this move would've made it the 5th, which is one of the reasons why I didn't move. In addition, I get to live with some other cool girls, one of whom I have shed many tears and groans with in intercession. Also, 3 new Fire in the Night interns will be moving into the basement, so that will be interesting. The best part is that I will be able to keep my room to myself (for now anyway), which is a total blessing from the Lord.

This weekend all of my family will be in town for my sister's wedding reception, so pretty much all weekend I'm going to be tied up with that. It'll be interesting to have my mom, dad, and stepmom all in the same room for only the third time ever since the divorce/remarriage 6 years ago (one other time hardly counts, because the room was a huge auditorium where they were in the audience for a play I was in). Fun family times. Hopefully there won't be any family fueds.

Tonight was the first night of our Passionate Pursuit Conference. Allan Hood and Corey Russell are in town from IHOP-KC to preach along with our very own Billy Humphrey. Tonight Allan preached. At first, I thought he'd never get to it, because he started talking about God raising up a House of Prayer in Atlanta and a bunch of us staffers are on the edge of our seats, about to go into travail. Literally. I have tears streaming down my face (not hard to believe), and this groan is about to start coming out, but I fight it back a bit, because I know that he is probably going to end soon and go ahead and preach. So, he ends the first little portion with a prayer and a good many of us get rocked from the get-go. Then he starts in on his real message. It was about having an eternal mindset based on the teachings of Christ in Matt. 16 and John 12, unto empowering us to die in this age. Yeah. God's been talking to me a lot about this topic lately, more from the raw edge of just dying to self and enabling Christ to live in and through me, so the message really struck a home run for me. It was as if God was speaking directly to me, "See, Liz, I really DO want you to die."

UGH. It sounds so morbid if you don't have a revelation of why one must die. But, that is what we are asking for - revelation. I did Randy's little quiz once that supposedly determined what preacher you are most like and I couldn't even finish the quiz because half of the questions I either didn't understand or hadn't given any thought to them. One of the questions was something like, "Do you favor experience with or revelation of God?" and I was all about experience. However, I am beginning to understand that in order to fully experience God, one must have a revelation of Him. So, with all that said, revelation is moving up real high in my books. If we have a true revelation who God created us to be and of eternity we will live our lives completely different. Even though I have chosen to be in the House of Prayer serving God at the moment, that doesn't mean that I have a true grip on the eternal benefits. I NEED A DEEPER REVELATION OF MY ETERNAL CALLING. There is still too much of me in me. God, you must increase and I must decrease! This has been my prayer for a little over a year now, and He continues to ruin me afresh with it almost daily. Thank you, Jesus. Give me grace to die.

BattleCry

Last week Roger and a crew were in town to minister at my church and to Bound4Life Atlanta. We had a great time and I met some more of the Cause family, who I am very proud to call "family."

On Friday we converged upon the steps of Atlanta City Hall for a BattleCry. This is absolutely ginormous. I actually saw with my own eyes (and was a part of) a cry coming from this generation saying, "Enough is enough. You have come this far and no further!" to the unrighteous media in our country, including TV, newspapers, magazines, Hollywood, Nashville, etc. We were covered by a local station 11-Alive News. They actually gave us favorable coverage and I believe it is ALL because of prayer!





This is literally the beginning of a youth movement that I believe will usher in the second coming of Jesus. This is the beginning of the fulfillment of the Ezekiel 37 prophecy, where the dry bones come to life and form an army! The uncircumcised giant of the media can no longer taunt the armies of the living God! C'mon!

The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart,
And saves such as have a contrite spirit.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the LORD delivers him out of them all. -Ps. 34:18-19

A couple of things happened on Thursday that blessed my heart that are worth blogging:

First, God woke me up early (6:20 am) and I actually got up. I immediately got dressed and was heading to the HOP when I remembered that it was the National Day of Prayer and that there was a prayer meeting going on around the flagpole in front of the Lilburn City Hall. I decided to go and check it out. I drove up, parked my car and began to walk to the circle of intercessors. However, I stopped only a couple of paces away from my car as I began to hear a man preaching/praying. I was a little late anyway and it was way too early for me to deal with preaching from an unknown man, so I looked on for another moment, then left. It really blessed me to see a group of people (mostly adults) circled around our flag, praying for our country. Then I realized that there were possible many groups of people gathered around the nation to pray. I praise God that many prayers were being lifted up on behalf of our country and I believe that God is on the move. It is good that there is a specified day that peopole will gather and pray for our country, but what about the other 364 days? We need to see this happening more often...

Next, as I sat in the prayer room through 2 intercession sets, I heard something that really gripped my heart. There is this precious intercessor in the House named Jacob, from Kenya. He has one of the most purest hearts of anyone I know. When in the House of Prayer he can either be found on the mic or taking out the trash. He has such a servant's heart and you can genuinely tell that he loves life, loves the Lord, and appreciates even the smallest jesture of love. So, on Thursday, he gets up on the mic, during both sets, and prays for the United States. During the 4-6pm, he was the first one to pray for our country, and during the 10-12, he was the second to do so (after me, and he wasn't even in the room when I prayed). Here is this guy, who is praying for "our nation" when he is orginially from Kenya. I love how someone originally from another country really gets it and stands in the gap because they understand that WE ARE IN NEED OF GOD TO COME AND HEAL OUR LAND!!!

Introducing my Roomies

Since this was such a good picture of all of us I thought I would post it and tell you all about my wonderful roomies. From L-R: Rachel Seibel, Ashley McLean, Ashley Lewis, Jamie Burns, me, and Melissa Harpe.

In addition to being amazing roommates and women of God, they are also helping plow the ground at IHOP Atlanta. Each one plays a vital role in serving at IHOP, as worship leaders, prayer leaders, and prophetic singers. Not to mention they each have very cool personalities.

Rachel: We lovingly call her Rachy and sometimes "Pearl". She has an amazing ability to juggle full-time classes, part-time work, and part-time IHOP. My favorite thing about her is that she is a compassionate and patient listener. She also makes me laugh a lot.

Ashley M: She is an amazing leader and her gifting is to just plain love on people. She'll go hard in the prayer room all day and then invite anyone she can find over just so she can cook for them. She is always the first to say, "let's pray about it" and always prays right then and there.

Ashley L: Just got married 2 weeks ago and no longer lives with us :( . I got to share a room with her for 4 months and she is a wonderful friend. She always knows the right thing to say and has a fun, charismatic personality. She is also an intercessor and I have seen her get hit with intercession and stay on the floor for hours. She is definitely well-balanced. If I had it to do over I'd share a room with her every time.

Jamie: Truly a forerunner. God consecrated this one years ago and she has been obedient to the calling. I had the privilege of meeting Jamie in Costa Rica 3 years ago on a study abroad trip, then God used her to get me to IHOP. She is fun to be around, witty, and very straightforward.

Melissa: I learn something new about this girl almost every day. She is so much fun and can get pretty much whatever she wants (little sis syndrome). Even though she is highly motivated, she is laid back and almost always laughing. In addition, she is thirsty for the Word, and loves to talk about Jesus. Her favorite flower is the Gerber daisy ;) .

So, I could write for hours on my roomies, but just wanted to let you know that I live with the best girls in the world. God is so good!

God is so wonderful. When we pray, He delights to answer our prayers, especially when we are praying according to His will. One thing I've been praying for a while now is that I would know the Lord's heart toward me. This prayer has only intensified over the last 5 months, while I've been at IHOP, maybe because I am realizing just how much I DON'T know about His heart.

It sure is amazing how He will use our circumstances and emotions of our hearts to point back to the greater reality of His heart. Lately, I've been wrestling with a certain ache in my heart and yesterday the Lord was so faithful to use it to point back to Jesus. The deal is that He longs for me. He longs to be with me. He desires to hear my voice and to be heard. He is burning for me to run to Him. Yes, I read it and hear it a lot, but I am starting to get a truer understanding of what He is feeling, because somehow, He has allowed me to experience it too.

It is painful, yet wonderful.