Footwashing Ceremony

John 13:1-17

Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him,
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God,
*got up from supper, and *laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself.
Then He *poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.
So He *came to Simon Peter. He *said to Him, "Lord, do You wash my feet?"
Jesus answered and said to him, "What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter."
Peter *said to Him, "Never shall You wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me."
Simon Peter *said to Him, "Lord, then wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head."
Jesus *said to him, "He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you."
For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, "Not all of you are clean."
So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you?
"You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.
"If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
"For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him.
"If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

Jeffery and I, through the leading of the Holy Spirit, decided to have a footwashing ceremony. We chose to use this as a symbol for the servant mentality as husband and wife as Jesus demonstrated through this teaching. We will serve him together and will serve one another unto the obedience of Christ through the course of our marriage and ministry as we pursue the purposes of the Kingdom.

Wedding Picture

For those of you that may wonder what happened to me and why I stopped blogging for awhile...

I married Jeffery on September 22, 2006.

Life has been very busy, full of constant change. I am now fully concentrating on my studies. My goal is to finish this degree as quickly as possible. Last year I was only able to work on two credits due to a cross-country move, getting married, etc. I am finishing up the second course right now, just about to start my final essay.

On that note, I will blog later giving a testimony to Jeffery and I. I hope to publish part of this story in a book later on.

I will try to post a couple more pictures.

Life is about to Change Part 2

This will be a post today of minimal detail. I last wrote a post on May 7th. I had a series of dreams and prophetic words/events that have dramatically changed the course of my life.

The last post ended with thoughts of a husband. Well, truthfully, 3 days before that God revealed whom that husband would be. I thought I would keep that information to myself until it was God' s timing.

Anyway, the timing is now. I moved to another province, in obedience to the Lord. Now, in four days I am getting married. The man I am marrying I have known for over six years. It was a surprise when the Lord revealed to me marrying this friend. This friend also received revelation from the Lord that I was to be his wife.

The Lord is good all of the time! I praise Him for His choice in a husband, that He knows me better than I know myself. I will post soon, after the wedding. Right now things are very busy.
Thanks for reading and sharing in with this glorious event!

Life is about to Change

On the morning of May 2 2006, I came to my computer to read my email. This was after having a rather unusual, but positive dream. Below are the email and the dream I have received:

Here is the prophetic word, come through an email:

This word submitted by Lonnie Mackley:

They Will Look To You My dear one, you have spent many years being prepared by Me so I had much of your outer life shut down along with many of the normal relationships that could have possibly distracted you while I was changing you. I allowed only what was necessary and useful in your time of growth and healing to remain in your life, but now that most of your time of transformation is now complete I will be opening up many new and old doors to relationships where people will come to you to receive from Me and to serve. Get ready to get busy locally as well as globally my dear one for I will place you upon peoples hearts and some will even dream of you because I am sending them to you for ministry and to also minister with you. So even though you have just survived in a cave for so very long now I will be changing things and causing your dwelling to be expanded and improved to accommodate all those who will be sent to you. Be willing to be open to the many new things that will come because they are right at your door. Even old friends and family that have left your life long ago will suddenly be drawn to you again and new opportunities to help your community will be opening up very soon so be willing to be joined to others within your area that have finished their wilderness time like you have. I will build large families on large pieces of land so though you have dwelt like a hermit you will now be part of a very large and loving family. They are coming my love and they will look to you so open your heart wide and let them in.

My Dream ( I just finished dreaming this dream immediately before going on the computer to read the prophetic word):

I was stuck in a cave with a bear. Somehow I was trapped inside with this bear where I could not gain access to the outside. I managed to trust God and befriend this bear. I was able to get out of this cave unharmed. I was with this bear for a whole week. While the bear fell asleep I managed to climb out early in the morning under a deck. I walked though portions of this cave in dirt. This opening under the deck was extremely narrow and required thought, courage, and trusting God to get out. I would be in serious harm if someone were to walk on the deck, possibly collapsing my chest as I had to squeeze and push myself out. As I came out into the bright morning sun, there was music playing on a ghetto blaster, clothes on the table…a lot were mine, but alot of the clothes were a man's clothes, and there were balloons for a man and myself. The man came out onto the deck as I was examining the clothes. I told him when he came out that I was not stealing his clothes. He knew I had been with the bear and came out to greet me…he said…”Just in time for your birthday. Yes, in a few days I replied. I said it is your birthday now isn’t it? He said yes. I knew I had to go and re-acquaint myself with some friends who may have questions about the bear, plus I needed to get cleaned up. I saw some friends all in a van and was happy to see them. They were not shocked by my experience. I almost was sad that they weren’t more worried, but were happy to see me, but not over-joyous. But then what shocked me more was the attitude that gee…my primary goal in coming back is to not have them looking at me that way, having to need that attention. I was more concerned with the fact that I had begun to stink a little while I was in the cave and really needed to wash. I felt peace.

It was like the friends weren’t in shock or in alarm because they knew I had to go through that experience. Very interesting. Also, the need to wash fits in with a santification process the Lord has led me into starting mid-April. My focus is to press into the Lord allowing Him to strengthen and build my character, while washing away the impurities that prevent me from walking closer to Him.
What is even more fascinating is that every time I have had a dream about bears, it has been in fear. They have been out to hurt or harm me. For years I have been having nightmares about bears...until now. Interesting. After I thought I should go visit the bear if I was able to befriend him…then it occurred tome…no, the bear may be different if I were to voluntarily go back in. This time with the bear was for a season.
After reading the prophetic word about coming out of the cave, it was an amazing moment with the Lord. He had been communicating to me through several sources.

The Lord has been speaking to me about a husband for awhile now. I know that I am ready and God has a man ready for me. Coming out of the cave and seeing the clothes, the man, the balloons, etc. really made me wonder. Hmmm...am I about to meet the man whom will one day be my husband? Or...God will reveal that man to me? It is interesting that we were both in the 'birthday' moment. My earthly birthday is just 6 weeks away. In this dream our birthdays were close together. I do not know why or exactly what it represents.

I am not sure what all of this means nor will I try to figure it out. I know the Lord will reveal more in His timing.

Healing on March 8, 2006

This is long overdue to be giving God glory through this medium for the healing that happened on March 8th, but better late than never. I have been giving God glory, praise and honour everywhere and anytime I can.

One week before March 8th, as I was having dinner with the ladies in my prayer group, I had mentioned to the ladies that I wanted prayer to be set free from worrying about what others think, second guessing myself, etc. I mentioned that I had suffered from low self esteem in the past due to the many traumatic experiences I had suffered. I said to the ladies that I wanted to be set free from this as God is planning to take me forward in ministry and use me in a way that will bring glory to Him. The Lord gave me a vision to show me that all I have been doing is mowing my lawn. There was a root that I kept mowing over, but only trimming it, not removing it. The grass was very green and well manicured, etc. The Holy Spirit impressed upon me that I was doing alot of work to improve my self esteem, confidence, etc...but the root remained. I told the ladies about the vision and we agreed to pray all week and then the following Wednesday we would pray for a full, complete deliverance from the bondage of the enemy and have the root removed.

I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was that the Lord was finally going to heal me in this area of my life. I did not know what to expect but had great anticipation of the power of the Holy Spirit. The Lord has been using us ladies in an amazing way. We are seeing the Lord do awesome work!

The first part of the ministry was that the Lord revealed that curses had been spoken over me as an infant. Some of the surrounding components confirmed that this was indeed, true and from the Lord. We broke off the negative words (such as the term 'spawn of satan'), asked the Lord to bless, prayed prayers of forgiveness and took back the ground the enemy had stolen from me. I am not a child of the enemy, but a CHILD OF GOD! Hallelujah! We spoke these words in the power of the Holy Spirit and praised God! As this was prayed I felt something release from me, like a roar... something demonic. Satan no longer had a foothold and the enemy could no longer have camp in my life in that area. Satan had no choice but to flee as the Lord healed me.

At this point we realized there was more work that needed to be done and that this root was still present. Us ladies went into more serious prayer and intercesion. What happened next was incredible, almost beyond comprehension. The Lord used as as pieces of a puzzle, bringing piece by piece together. The Lord decided he wanted to do spiritual surgery with me and wanted me to lay down and receive. Sooo...as a group we all praised God and prayed. We sang and worshipped, allowing the Lord to do His work.

As I was laying down, the Lord started to speak to me through vision and the subtle voice of the Holy Spirit. I could not do anything but wait, listen, watch and recieve. I was powerless in my own strength. The Lord showed me the root and what it looked like. TheLord, the Master gardener, started to remove the dirt around this root ever so gently, being careful not to break fragments off. The Lord was smiling at me and looked like this job was effortless to Him, the entire time filled with joy and peace. I wanted to help the Lord remove the ground, but I could not move toward Him. All I could do was watch. As the Lord removed most of the dirt, I could see wha5t the root looked like. It was deep, and had many different root fragments. The inside of the root looked like a spine. When I looked into the hole I could see a little whitish worm. The Lord said "Don't worry child" and flicked the worm out of the hole away from the root.

At this very exact time, one of the ladies, whom was praying over me and holding my hand mentioned that the Lord was removing something away. I confirmed she was right. That was the only communication I had during this time of spiritual surgery, of God removing the root, that anyone spoke to me.

After the Lord removed the worm I looked and saw that the end of the root looked like a spine with nerve root endings coming out of it. As the Lord removed the final remnants of the soil, I could see the end of it and it was some kind of worm, white in nature, with a yellowish head. Like the other worm, it was alive! Wow! The worm was in the shape of a human spine with many root fragments coming out going through the soil. I aksed the Lord to mkae sure there were no roots left in the soil. I told Him I no longer wanted this root to fester my soil.

The Lord laughed and smiled, like an inside joke...no job is too great for Him! He then placed a fire, like a ball or poof that burned up the remaining remanants and completely destroyed the root. This hole had been left with ashes, providing a firm foundation for fresh growth to take place, nurturing the soil.

The Lord then asked me to hold out my hands. As I did so, he completely filled up my palms, cupped together, with seeds. Each individual seed had my name intricately written on them. The Lord then took some rich, fertile soil and I planted the seeds with Him in this area where the hole had been. The Lord then watered this area and the most beautiful, unique, interesting flowers started to grow. Karen flowers! Completely unique, with a fragrnce that is subtle yet captivating. I could smell the fragrance emanating from these flowers. They were beautifuly pink and white, with a violet/pink whisp coming out of the centre, releasing this fragrance. The Lord then showed me an open vision before my eyes (in the vision I was presently having) and revealed fields and fields of these flowers stretching for miles amidst beautiful green and lush fields...gentle rolling hills of Karen flowers. Such beauty!

The Lord then mentioned it was time to complete the healing. He said that he would remove this from my spine and I would feel a pain later but that I was helaed. The Lord removed this from my spine...the root that I saw in the ground.

At this point he ladies started to gather and pray around me, asking me questions about seeing myself through God's eyes. They asked me to look at God. Why can't you look at Him Karen? I said, "I cannot see Him, I only see a radiating light shining from above on my face as I look up at Him." However I could see myself looking at the Lord and I was radiating and glowing in His light. I looked beautiful. The Lord then spoke to me four words, that I am His Creation, Beauty, Peace and Joy.

I opened up my eyes. I saw myself through his eyes, truly for the first time in my entire life.

The ladies then started to share what they received in the spirit as I was laying on the ground. At this point, I had not told them anything that had happened in vision while I was laying down. They shared that they saw the Lord doing surgery, that there was a tumour in my spine that the Lord had removed and they saw me being stitched up. Wow! They all confirmed that the root was indeed, gone! Hallelujah!

I got up and went to the bathroom, which was a battle when I looked in the mirror. The enemy started to speak lies and I had to take those thoughts and lies captive (2 Cor.10:5). When I came out of the bathroom, the one lady knew I was in battle and so the group prayed again. We prayed for the Lord to seal this healing and to protect me from any spiritual attacks. At the end of this prayer, the lady mentioned that she saw me as a great warrior for the Lord. She saw a huge sword in my hand and said that the Lord was going to use me mightily and powerfully in ministry. Praise God!

After our group, when I went into the car and sat down on the seat, I received a huge sharp pain in my tailbone where I felt the Lord removed the root. I then remebered the words the Lord spoke about feeling pain. I praised the Lord for the healing the entire way home and am continuing to do so.

I have been walking in complete healing, freedom, and liberty since the Lord healed me. I am not caring about what others think, I see myself as a beautiful woman, am more decisive, etc. I notice there are changes in my dealings with others around me, especialy with family relations. I am second-guessing decisons less and less. It has been truly transformational!

Praise you Lord! Praise you Holy Spirit that you have given us the power to pull down strongholds and to set the captives free! Amen!

Off the Rollercoaster

A friend of mine reminded me that I should be treating this blog like a journal. There are many wonderful and challenging things I have been meaning to write about, but have not made the time.

This weekend was a time of happiness, sadness, reflection and direction. The Lord has been teaching me so much in a little time. I have decided to take a step back from the business of my life and pour myself into the Lord. This is another period to humble myself before Him. I also feel to enter into a period of intercession for the 'Street Church' ministry.

NASB:
Pro 22:24 Do not associate with a man given to anger; Or go with a hot-tempered man,
Pro 22:25 Or you will learn his ways And find a snare for yourself.

There are many areas in scripture that talk about anger. I could not find the scripture or version that says a man with a spirit of anger will defile you. This verse was the closest I could find. The word learn here can also mean to utter. Therefore the teaching is pretty clear: when associating with someone of such a disposition, you will and can be affected. I noticed lately that I have been more prone to bouts of anger and irritation. Not only that, but so have some brothers and sisters around me. This is not the fruit of the Spirit. Friends of mine suggested there was a root of anger that had infiltrated itself in amongst our ministry.

After much prayer, I realize where this root is coming from. There is an individual amongst our group that needs serious deliverance ministry. I am praying for the Lord's intervention as soon as possible. If you are reading this, I would ask for your prayers.

I do not know how many will read this post or respond as I am not writing regularly now. If you have dealt with such a situation in your ministry, I would like to hear your stories and how the Lord helped you.

Time for His Power and Blessing

Below is a word that came though the email today from a prophetic group I belong to. This word spoke to me (see my response following the word). Perhaps this word is for you too?

This word submitted by Lonnie Mackley

Time for My Power and Blessing

You have labored hard over these long years of preparation and purification, and although you did fight and hesitate at times, you always surrendered to Me in the end and you did not withhold even your most precious things from my hand.
You have let go of that which offended and hindered, and now you walk in purity and holiness because you cooperated with My daily training.
You have let go of the past now, and you have forgiven those who wronged you. You have eagerly obeyed me, when you knew clearly that it was I that was speaking to you. Slowly but
surely we made progress together day by day and the good changes that came were lasting ones.
Now it is finally time to begin to walk forward. It is time to believe for new things, and it is time for My power and blessing to flow through your life. Though you were held back in the past, and you seemed to have many false starts that just ended in more time of preparation, now you are ready to obey my voice and conquer the new land I am sending you to.
Trust me just as much now, as you have in the past; Obey me just as much now, even though it would seem, that you have more freedom to make choices.
I would call you to feed upon, and listen to me even more-so now, as we enter this new time of increased power, blessing, and service. I delight in restoring all that was sacrificed, and I delight in blessing you in front of those who judged you as a failure.
You bore my reproach in order to be obedient to my calling, and in order that My heart might be formed in you so that you could serve in My power and love.
Now I have a strong, reliable foundation of holiness, obedience, and love in you that I can build very high upon. Before, the cracks of pain and sin in your old foundation would have caused it to fail under pressure.
Now I will build a great house of blessing upon that foundation, for it is built upon Me, your Rock, and this new place will be a haven and storehouse for all I send to you. Be of good cheer my child for my time of power and blessing has finally come for you.

Last night as I was doing homework, as usual the Lord started to fill me up. Last night I wept, mourned and humbled myself before the Lord. I want to go further with the Lord. It feels as if sometimes I am having false starts like the word above said, but really it is my time of preparation. The last five months have been periods of brokenness, followed with great joy in the Lord. I have achieved forgiveness in areas that were difficult to forgive no matter how many times I said 'I forgive'. One area has been a struggle now since the end of November 2004, even going back to July 2004. Finally about one month ago, the footholds were broken and forgiveness in my heart is complete. Praise the Lord!

I have been obedient in areas that did not make sense to myself or to others around me. Some of these periods have come with great tribulation, yet always finished in a greater strength in knowing who I am in Christ Jesus.

This word is a fulfillment of a prophecy I received in 2004 with regard to the Lord working on those weak areas of my foundation. The foundation would be sealed in those weak areas as the Lord continues to work on me and I continue to pursue Him. I am looking forward to the blessings that the Lord will build on that foundation as I pursue serving in the Kingdom.

Thank you Lord to giving me direction to the questions I sought last night as I cried and wept before you. Thank you for your abundant grace and love.

Extreme for satan to Extreme for Jesus

Below is an account of a ministry experience from Monday February 13th. I wanted to share this email to others in order to glorify God.

Luke 10:17”And the seventy returned with joy, saying, “ Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name”
Luke 10:20”Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven”

I met Ryan 3 weeks ago after Street Church, Ryan is in his mid twenties and came up to me and said,” that he was a follower of satan and heavily into witchcraft, he also claimed that he cast spells, and curses and had power in the spiritual realm”. Ryan said he prayed to his god all the time and his god was satan. I could tell in the Spirit that Ryan was telling the truth. I explained to him that satan is a liar and a deceiver and that he only comes to steal, kill, and destroy, and if he continued following satan he would ultimately end up in total destruction in hell. He started to argue and I just looked him in the eyes and asked him why he was so empty and lonely, and I told him to look at his life and see where satan had taken him. Then I started sharing scripture with him, and I asked if I could pray for him, he said I cant let you touch me, it hurts me whenever a Christian touches me, he said he had entered a church one time and felt like he was going to burn. He then he walked away from me.
Last night after the message, outside the Salvation Army, I was handing out the last slices of pizza and I gave a piece to Ryan, not recognizing him, he came up to me and said to me,”I need help, following Satan is superficial”, Ryan started to confess some of his sins and share about his life. He has a child who he is not allowed to see, because of his lifestyle, he stated he was a drug dealer, and heavily into witchcraft, and darkness, I asked John Naud to come over, because I felt in the Spirit that it would be a battle for Ryan’s soul, since Ryan had opened himself up completely to the enemy. We talked about repentance, and he said he would repent, then we asked him if he believed Jesus died on the cross for his sins, he said I believe he died on the cross for sins, but not mine, I have done to much. We started quoting scripture to him and he started to shake and the demons started to manifest physically, we were sitting down on a bench, and Ryan started to shake, cough, facial contortions, grunt, growl, and spit. We had Ryan say the sinner’s prayer and then prayed over him for the filling of the Holy Spirit. Ryan was set free last night and is a new creation in Christ; he has gone from a child of darkness to a child of light! Ryan is respected on the streets as a tough guy, pretty boy, drug dealer, and his friends came around and were asking him if he was OK, they did not understand what was going on. As we were leaving, one of Ryan’s friends said this to Ryan,” you didn’t repent did you,” and he pointed to the Bible in Ryan’s pocket, Ryan said,” yes I did, I am not yours anymore as he held his Bible!” I believe Ryan will now live extreme for Jesus Christ.

Rob is going to disciple Ryan; Rob lives a few doors down from Ryan at the Salvation Army. Lets pray mightily for Ryan this week that
he would feed on the word of God and grow in Christ, and that he would never go back to darkness.

We had much fruit at all locations last night; we praise God for His work in and through us, what a privilege it is to be part of His redeeming work.
I cant imagine ever leaving the front lines of the battle for souls, this is where you truly see and experience the power of God, and it opens
your eyes to the unseen battle that goes on for peoples souls. Thank Jesus that greater is He that is in us then he that is in the world.

A man that works at the Drop In Centre has been against our ministry for a year now, and has done everything in his power to shut us down, even
locking the doors so people can’t come over to the park to get pizza, calling police, physical threats, etc. When we started preaching outside
the Drop In Centre a year ago, this man said, “ how can you preach when there are Muslims who stay here”, Art replied, “Muslims need Jesus, and so
do you”. A miracle took place this past Sunday before Street Church, this man came over to Art and apologized and hugged Art. Last night he came
over again and apologized to David, Arts brother and said he went to Centre Street Church on Sunday morning and responded to Jesus and he has a changed heart.

A reminder to never give up on anyone for salvation!!

Live life in light of eternity, and get into the action if you’re not already!

Lawrence

February Already!

Wow...it feels like a long time since I have written on this blog. Life has been so busy praising Jesus and building His Kingdom, it is hard to find spare time. Most of my free time is spent in the word, worship and prayer. Hallelujah!

My trip home to Ontario over Christmas was wonderful. It was great to see family, friends and acquaintances. I had an opportunity to talk much about Street Church. I hope the DVD encouraged them. We now have a DVD that has been produced and is now available. We also have a web site up and running: www.streetchurch.ca

Ministry has been wonderful, with many people every week coming to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour! We are seeing people regularly healed, released from demonic bondage and literally seeing lives changed! Some are off drugs, alcohol, walked away from prostitution, are no longer on the streets, some are preaching, evangelizing, etc.! Glory be to God!

I will try to write when I can, but school, work and ministry fulfill much of my time. The Lord has me working on a special project, in obedience to Him. I want Him to be glorified through all I do!

I pray for the women we prayed for this evening for healing. I pray they will confidently walk in faith and seek Jesus with a deep thirst. I pray for all the workers to be well rested after a long two days of ministry. I pray for all those who heard the messages tonight, that the Holy Spirit is continuing to work on their hearts. I thank you Lord! Amen!