Consecration (Day 8): Realignment and Descent

Two nights ago, after Dar and I had dinner with friends we were driving home from Banff when I noticed a blood red full mead-moon in the sky over our homes in Canmore. The full moon was red due to the smoke in the higher atmosphere from distant B.C. forest fires. Smoke will darken the Sun, but the moon bleeds through... Apocalyptic language is based on such metaphors. The sun going dark and the moon to blood (Joel and Acts 2) is a warning to a city on a hill that will one day burn the day dark and the night crimson!

In 1991, Voyager I snapped a photo of tiny tiny Earth (pale blue dot) from more than four billion miles away. Planet is the Greek word for "wanderer". In Genesis 4, Cain murdered Abel and became "a restless wanderer on the earth."

On the evening of October 27th, 2004 I prayed with a young woman and her pastor for three hours. Over the course of that time we prayed through three major issues in her life.

As we prayed, God would uproot something and replace it with the exact opposite Spirit - the darkness is as light to God (Ps. 139:12), and we must see to it that the light in us is not darkness (Luke 11:35). For example: Where there is lust we confess faithfulness because our intimate longings need realignment; where there is fear we acknowledge love because "perfect love casts out fear"; where there is pride we bow in humility to Jesus our example; where there is death we breathe life which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit; where there is chaos we wage peace - like the epic story of creation where the Spirit of God brooded over the nihil becoming. In this same way Jesus spoke peace over the childish chaos washing his frightened friends out of thier little boat...

Back to praying with the young woman: At 12:16 a.m. I finally spoke about a new alignment in her life. I looked out my drivers side window and pointed above the church saying, "You see those three stars standing perpendicular above the roof of the church." In the rear view mirror, I could see the young woman nodding. "Those," I continued, "are the three stars in the belt of Orion. God has just brought a new alignment into your life. He has uprooted three things out of you and placed three wonders into you. You should feel straighter and stronger now."

The three of us stepped out of the vehicle. I looked up at the moon and noticed a portion of it was red. I said something about the possibility of a forest fire or even volcanic ash...and then it hit me. And as I said it we all burst out laughing, "We just spent three hours praying through a lunar eclipse!? The sun, the earth, and the moon were all in total alignment!"

Coincidence? Not a chance.

There will be signs in the sun,

moon and stars. On the earth,

nations will be in anguish and

perplexity at the roaring and

tossing of the sea.
Luke 21:25

I keep my heart fixed on Christ. My ears are open to His Word. My mouth is full of His praise. My feet are willing to go anywhere in His name. My hands are outstretched to serve those He puts before me. In the valley of the shadow of death, my eyes may fail me, but He is with me. Shaddai's shadow is God's dark place of safety. His darkness out darks all other darkness. All other shadows will pass by soon. Shadows can't find me when I'm hidden beneath those wings in the shelter of the Most High's shadow. His blood has seen to that! And nothing can ever stand between humanity and their Creator for long. The night is nearly over; the Day is almost here (Rom 13:12). Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart!

May Shaddai send us into the darkest jungles and caves of Shaddai's world beaming limb from limb in that glorious person who is our armour of light.

But make sure that you don't get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can't afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don't loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!
Romans 13:11-14

Since the Global Day of Prayer I have found four animal spines in the mountains of Canmore and on the island of Malta. I have picked up these connected and flexible bones and hiked along with them marvelling at the intricate nature of the nervous system of the body asking questions of our Father in heaven, the great global chiropractor.

Too many blindly trust others to be above them. Too many blindly expect others to be under them. Too many mistrust and dishonour and overexpect and misunderstand the other who is out of joint right next to them.... which ends up with nobody actually holding anyone else together, literally getting under the other and "understanding" them... like vertebrae.

Is it possible, that the alignment that is coming into the body of Christ is partially about the abolition of positional hierarchies of authority (every vertebra clamoring for who is going to be the one closest to the head) and more about the gravity and inertia of the coming King of glory who has all authority to bring all things down and out and up and into himself who is above all, in all and through all... moving bones around the valley floor himself, reassembling the spine and limbs of the army of heaven, putting hip sockets exactly where he wants them!

Our misunderstanding of spiritual authority stems from our lack of alignment to the three persons of God. The Son didn't identify himself as a ruler. He identified himself with the earthbound dusty mouthpiece servant of God in the Son of Man. He was the most refreshing teacher around yet he was marginalized and rejected and cast outside. He didn't sin because he had a "Son of God day pass"... He wouldn't break fellowship with the Holy Spirit. And he had to work to maintain that relationship just like everyone after him was called to. He got low, really low, below his own followers feet. His vertebrae were already out of joint by the time he fell on that vertical altar of wood.

Some believe the Father was somehow "detached" during the passion of his beloved Son. Did the Father turn his face away? Is that what any Father would do when he is witnessing his one and only son take his last breath? I imagine three heavenly heads and necks siezed and focussed on one another in the midst of that mutual agony. And this is the crux: God knowingly suffered and died! God was willingly crucified. The three persons of God prepared themselves well in advance to be crushed and broken and rejected and annihilated and descend further into their creation than they had ever descended together before.

You've heard me tell you, 'I'm going away, and I'm coming back.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I'm on my way to the Father because the Father is the goal and purpose of my life.

I've told you this ahead of time, before it happens, so that when it does happen, the confirmation will deepen your belief in me. I'll not be talking with you much more like this because the chief of this godless world is about to attack. But don't worry—he has nothing on me, no claim on me. But so the world might know how thoroughly I love the Father, I am carrying out my Father's instructions right down to the last detail.

Get up. Let's go. It's time to leave here.
John 14:28-31

The Poor Knights of Christ

This is the staircase up the inside of Arch de Triomphe in Paris. I still don't quite have my feet on the ground or any words to express the deep stuff going on in my heart. How deep does this rabbit hole go? Cypher's words echo around in my head, "Buckle up Dorothy, Kansas is going bye-bye!"

There were so many levels to this adventure. For one thing, it was deeply personal.

I spent my first four days in Europe with a close friend as he uncovered more of his family heritage in the City of London. God gave this man access to The Mansion House where he saw a huge painting of an ancestor and stood (for the first time) where his grandfather once stood as chairman of the Trustee Savings Bank... the only connection ever with his grandfather outside of a black and white photograph taken in the same location in the 1960's. We had coffee with a business leader at world renown Lloyd's of London. We visited various air force memorials as my friend's father was an RAF pilot shot down near the end of WWII. We even got a chance to have a tour and sit down for three hours with Phil Togwell of 24-7 Prayer's London City Boiler Room. I wanted someone from 24-7 Prayer in the UK to hear my orphaned friend's life story of ongoing adoption and reconciliation.

The next leg of the journey led me to Malta to be with Marty and Kari Nish for a few days. Canadians have such a wonderful peace making role in the world. I was introduced to beautiful Maltese who have a wonderful healing role in the world. They are a nation of beautiful healers. Marty and Kari introduced me to Malta... not just welcomed me, but took me into a deep place with them. It was an honour to have them welcome me into the heart of what they are becoming more and more a part of there. Malta is a very strategic kingdom gateway for so many reasons... chief of which is the Maltese themselves... not the limestone under them, but them! Peace makers learning to heal and healers learning to wage peace. Such is the uni-diversity of the one, the three and the many living and breathing within the body of Christ. It was so much fun building an altar out of limestone!

From Malta I got into Paris a few hours before Dar arrived on the bullet train from London... so I had the day to walk around the core of the city. I met Dar at the train with wine, cheeze, and bread. Our romancing around France was under way. We had a fantastic time all over Paris. The long walks, the Arch, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the cruise down the Sienne, the Latin Quarter, the shopping, the food... a city worth spending more time in.


From Paris we rented a car and drove south and spent time in: wine country... I have never seen so many grapes; Clairvaux Abbey - founded 900 years ago by Bernard; Taize prayer community where we saw hundreds of youth from all over Europe who'd come for a week of silence and Gregorian chants; Cluny - once the largest buiding in Europe under the Benedictines, now just a remnant whose stones were sold away; Dijon - pretty little mustardy place; Arles - where Van Gogh did most of his painting; Le Thoronet Cistercian Abbey where Dar had a profound encounter with God; Cannes - film festival haven and Paris of the Med where Dar recovered from her experience at Le Thoronet; Nice was nice - I braved the med surf and waved to Marty and Kari in Malta; and then the spectacular A8 riviera drive into Italy where we had a four hour Italian lunch at a little remote abbey property some friends are interested in buying... and then the race back to Nice to get our flight to London and ultimately home. It was as romantic as I could possibly imagine romantic to be!

This trip was also deeply educational for me. I've been studying the Templars, Hospitallars, and Cistercians for six months... But I didn't think, at the start of all that study, that I would end up at Temple Church in London or sit on the roof of the former Grand Master of the Knights of St. John's palace in Valetta, Malta or walk among Cistercian and Merovingian abbeys of France. It's like everything I've been studying has been opening up in real time and space right in front of me... which makes me wonder why I've been reading so much about the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Global Issues, Economics, Micro-Finance amidst this desire to raise up and fund an entire army of young warriors, the poor knights of Christ. The only way to fill an armory is to have an adequate treasury... for a more than ready army!

Yesteday was my first day back in the office. For the last eight months I've driven from Canmore to Calgary. Everyday there was a detour where a bridge was being built. I willingly took that detour everyday... I had no choice. But, yesterday I found myself driving over a brand new bridge... a bridge that was only opened for the first time yesterday... and I thought to myself driving over the new bridge, "This isn't a coincidence!" And at that moment my fuel light came on "BING!" and I knew it was more than significant that we are crossing a new bridge and it's time to refuel for big things ahead.

I've been saying to young kingdom leaders for years, "You just go wherever you are called to go and I will do everything I can to help get you there!" Now it's about discovering, developing and deploying 10 000 master cadets... discovering them internationally, developing them locally and deploying them globally. There is nothing old wineskin about this. And there is no rude anarchy in this. These are intercessors and warriors and proclaimers and healers and peacemakers and the leaders of leaders of nations amidst the growing kingdom of Jesus Christ on this his earth at this his time. They will come from the richest and poorest families on the planet. They will be Falasha's and Rothschild's with a full hearted vow of poverty... the kind of "poor in spirit" poverty that receives the keys to the bank and then gives all the wealth away with all the skill and all the integrity found in Joseph, Esther, and Daniel.

It's not about the money... It's about the people. However, wealth will follow this vision around the globe. Sheba gave Solomon a mountain of her wealth because he answered all of her questions. The Cistercian abbey's we visited were whole towns... So many people building something wonderful together in prayer, commerce, trade, worship... huge stone buildings still standing after hundreds of years. Stone and light legacies to the power of friendship and prayer. Clairvaux has survived 900 years, including becoming the most nortorious Napoleonic prison, which insipred Victor Hugo's Les Miserables - and it still stands there today... the imprisoned abbey!

It's time to pick up some big stones as we cross through these waters and build something that will last the next thousand years!

From today's reading in W. Glyn Evans "Daily With the King":

My influencing others to follow Christ must begin with my believing them. That is, I must convince them that I believe that they are the proper objects of God's love and Christ's redemptive sacrifice; that they are in themselves of infinite worth and value to God; that God will guarantee every effort to save them, if only they will turn to Him.

When you come right down to it, a disciple is only as fruitful for his Lord as his credibility is to the people who listen to him. Peter found Jesus because of Andrew, Paul because of Stephen. They had to be convinced by men first. They were believed in; therefore, they believed.

I cannot believe in men, and therefore cannot persuade them, unless they see in me the innocent love that is characteristic of the Spirit-filled disciple. Thus, I am believable only to the extent that God's love appears unmistakably in me.