Children who know God are my heroes

The past couple of days have been aaaaamazing. Tonight was the first night of the Children's Equipping Center Malachi 4:6 Summit. May I remind you once again that Malachi 4:5-6 is the verse that God gave me for my future ministry. So we just happened to be signed up for this whole conference, as Intro to Ihop interns. Of course. And I am so thrilled.

I overheard some tired grumblings of people who didn't want to go to this, but I was pretty stoked. And it MORE than met anything I thought it would be. Worship was led by a man, and 4 kids probably around 12 years old. I think this was the best spirit-led set I have been to since I've been here. It was wonderful. These kids were ON FIRE. Prophetic singers. Wow. And one girl even prophesied over the whole group, people were set free, lots of tears, it was amazing. Oh, and this was only the introduction to the weekend. There was one girl who kept talking about the visions the Lord had been giving her, and they were so right on. She talked about one where she saw a cup, and it was full. As the Lord poured more into the cup, it overflowed. Then she saw Jesus, and He told her that she doesn't have to give to others out of the cup, only out of the overflow so that she doesn't dry up. She prophesied that over us, and you could just see the anointing all over her! The bottom picture is everyone crowding around the children to pray the fire of God over them. It rocked. There were kids weeping before their Lord. They just want to know Him.

There will be breakout sessions tomorrow and Saturday, I am going the one about handing children the Spirit of Adoption, and not letting one go unnoticed. We will be talking about actual adoption, and the foster care system. My heartbeat.

We have been getting more teachings on the nature of God. This week has been titled, "Tending The Garden." There has been a lot of time for us to be ministered to regarding wounds in our hearts, and it has been a great time for everyone. Emotional, but healing. And God has been showing me a lot of deep things in my heart. He keeps showing me that I am a deep deep deep cavern, and that ONLY He will fill me. He WILL be my only Comfort, my only Refuge, it's my destiny be made whole in God, and to OVERFLOW!

In our small group this week, we studied part of the chapter of Allen Hoods, "Excellencies of Christ" called, Beholding Christ in the Beauty of Holiness. Once again, I will type some of his notes, or quotes that I wrote down that he said. It really really affected me this week. It's a lot, but it's worth the read, the contemplation.

~We know God because He CHOOSES to reveal Himself. He lets us in.
~"Holy" is far above everything else. There is God, and then there is last place.
~God is eternally happy.
~The radiance of all His attributes, working in perfect harmony, perfect purity, perfect potency, and perfect gladness, is His holiness.
~God loves to delight the senses of the ones formed in His image. He constructs reality around revelation.
~He is pleasure immeasurable and delight consummate. The highest honor and joy He could give us is to base our relationship around the subject matter of Himself.
~The reason we exist is for pleasure. You're the one creature made to mine the depths of the living God. Everything for you has been built around the revelation of God, Him letting you know something about Himself.
~Everything in reality is constructed around God revealing Himself.
~When we get to know someone, we reveal a little at a time. It's the nature of love to give in increments of unveiling, to get a response...to unveil more.
~God comes in ways to make our hearts respond.
~We mostly don't believe that God loves to reveal Himself. The accusation of the enemy is that God is stingy.
~We are chosen to be in His image, to interact with His depths, that no other creature gets to. FOREVER. "Our fallen peanut minds can only hold so much." He is waiting to give us a resurrected body to blow our minds!
~Beloved! Do you know what you were made for? You were made for God!
~Adam. When Adam opened His eyes for the first time...there was God. Can you imagine?
~The garden. Adams job was to tend the garden. Before there were weeds, when water came up out of the ground. So, what did tending the garden look like? It wasn't what we would consider work. Adam was to tend the place of encounter.
~(A, this is for you!) Gardens are a place of encounter and love. We were made for encounter and rulership flowing from intimate communion with the living God, the Ruler of all things...All of creation was in order when Adam communed with God.
~We were designed for intimacy, and we will not function properly until we have it. We are not creatures made just for knowledge.
~Knowledge of principles and rules can never sustain the life of humanity. Knowledge outside of communion with God always leads to independence and self-exertion, for man was made for God to reflect God.
~A companion. A bride. God used loneliness to cultivate something in the heart of Adam. Loneliness became the birthplace for longing and desire.
~Adam named the animals (acknowledging his authority to name and rule), God brought them to him in two's. "Can you imagine the pain of Adam as he named them, two of each kind, all the while recognizing his lack of a companion and discovering the power of a new emotion?" Cultivation of longing.
~The foreshadowing of the Cross: the Bride of both the first and the second Adam (Adam, and then Jesus) will come forth through the suffering love of the Groom. The wise God sets forth the story of His Son and His Bride from the very first. Adam longed for a companion (this was not an alternative plan). Adam longed for a companion. In his longing, the heavenly Father satisfied his heart. He put him to sleep (or, on a cross) and from Adams' (Jesus') broken side God fashioned a beautiful spouse (us) for His beautiful son, and brought her to Adam. It is the story of the ages. The Bible begins with a wedding, and ends with a wedding. "The two shall be one" is the first prophecy in the Bible.
~It's not good for this desire to go unfulfilled. It's not good that love is scorned.
~We are saved because God REFUSED to be without us.

God loves ME.