Following the River

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We will not experience the fullness of the river until we step over to the other side. However, the Scriptures make it clear that we can drink of God’s river now, here, in this life, even if it’s only in a measure // Bob Sorge // Following the River // p3

We can have a taste of the river now, not just at the end of time. It won’t be to the fulness, but it is to a measure! Just like we see now in part, yet then, we will see in full (1 Cor 13:12)!

I remember being in college back in Australia. I had great big gaps between classes and used to spend them all in the library… One day I happened to stumble upon the section on REVIVAL and RENEWAL. This was where I first found out about the Toronto outpouring, and also where I first read about Rolland and Heidi Baker (I smile, just thinking about it because who knew then that I would ever end up in Mozambique, let alone other nations with Iris).

He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water // Jesus // John’s Book, 7:38 // God’s Word

It started then. Then is when I started to hunger after seeing the Kingdom manifest in my world. I hungered to see the Lord break in in supernatural power. My prayer became, “Lord, please make me a conduit. I want to be a conduit of Your presence, Your love, Your power… I want it to happen so that even if people walk past me they encounter You. So that even just one touch, causes them to encounter YOUR love Jesus, YOUR healing Jesus… so that they get hungry for You…”
Every time I move house. Every time I move states. Every time I move countries. This is the prayer that I always come back to. Lord. It’s all about You.


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Forest Lake, Minnesota! Partnering with and Strengthening Houses of Prayer...

Twin Cities Ministry Trip
In the first week of April, I'll be travelling with a team of IHOPU students to Forest Lake, Minnesota. There is a local church there who have invited us to come and partner with them in strengthening their ministry to the Lord. There will be a gathering of around 20 houses of prayer from all over the state who are coming to be trained, equipped and ministered to! Some of what we will be doing: training in tools for ministering in a House of Prayer; running a youth conference and adult conference at nights; ministry to children; training in outreach and tools for living a life ABIDING in the Love of GOD! We will also be running a 3 day burn - so 24/7 prayer for 3 days. We will be split into three teams for 3 different sleep schedules. I'll be part of the Night Watch so will be sleeping in the mornings. I am so excited about what the Lord will do through us. Not really sure exactly what to expect but I do know that it's conferences and events like these that have impacted my life as a teenager/young adult, so I know that the LORD will impact many hearts from all over Minnesota, as well as our own!

Thank you so much for continuing to stand with me in prayer, love and support :) Please continue to Pray, that I would only be taken deeper and deeper and be filled with such a deeper HUNGER and THIRST for JESUS - the ONE who is WORTHY of it all!!
Much Love and Joy!

Serena xo

You can see the website for the event, here

Life in KC...

Dearest Beloved Friends!

Hope you are all doing great!! Whether you are in a season of smooth sailing or a season of challenges (or both!), may you find JOY in Jesus!!

    "All the Nations they will come, holding broken chains above their head
    They'll be singing: 'We have overcome! By the blood of the LAMB!'
    Jesus YOU, YOU'RE worth it ALL!
    Every Nation, Every Soul!
    All the people will sing Your praises, Glory to the LAMB of God!" - Circuit Riders - "Every Nation, Every Soul" - Lindy Conant

At church last night we were led in worship with this song, and you could feel the power in the song as well as how it seemed that almost every person in the place was really connecting with it. Lord, thank you for continuing to stir up a passion for the nations in Your House of Prayer for all Nations!! This week we have over 40 houses of prayer and ministries from all over America and the world, coming to recruit graduated IHOPU students for their prayer houses and ministries. I am so so excited as we are here to be trained up and sent out to strengthen those who are already out there pioneering new works, as well as to pioneer news ones ourselves.

Visiting the Night Watch!
Not sure if you all know this but this time in Kansas City has been different: I've been doing days, for the first time not on the Night Watch!! It has a definite different feel to it! Also as a music student instead of an intern it's totally different, too.

For example:
FITN Intern: 36 hours a week in the Prayer room
Music Student/Full-time missionary: 24 prayer room or "Sacred Trust" hours to fulfil: 12 of which are completed in the "labs" where we have student worship teams and run our own prayer room sets. 6 more of my hours are done serving either on keyboard or as a group singer in the Hispanic/Spanish teams in the "All Nations Prayer Room", and I therefore only have 2 hours a week in the "Global Prayer Room"! (I know, there're a lot of names. That's why we have all the acronyms..).

I've started getting up at 3am this past week to go to the 4am sets (last set of the Night Watch), and it has been brilliant. The sweetness that I get from being able to spend more time sitting before the Lord and not concentrating so much on the music, or trying to translate the small amount of spanish in my head that I know, is more than worth it.

Yesterday our music classes were canceled because of an inner healing seminar that the school was running, so my day looked like this:

4am Intercession set - Ashley Prior's team was leading, which last week the Lord was so moving in that set that although they're meant to transition teams at 6am, they kept going all the way til around 7am! Contending for a culture of LIFE. This is one of the issues which is SO on the Father's heart! Please pray for the Nations' babies, as we have a voice to speak and they do not!! Speak up for the silent!

http://www.ihopkc.org/prayerroom/archives/  Watch the 4:00AM Fri March 08 session. Try watching from 1hr 34 mins. Praying for LIFE starts at 1hr40min.

6am - spent some time working on homework in the cafe next door, where my friend who works there so sweetly brought me a mango smoothie! Thank you Jesus!!

7.25am - got picked up to ride to the JPR (Justice Prayer Room, where the All Nations PR sets are held) where we had briefing and then did another intercession set, praying for Venezuela also for the Hispanic intensive starting on Monday! (Pastors and leaders coming from all over, including Juarez, Mexico! Please pray for them for the LORD to encounter their hearts! Open hearts for revelation!)

10.15am - Spent time with another Iris family member, who went to Harvest school and staffed the next one in 2009. It's the first time I've gotten to spend time with her apart from during spanish sets! Yay Jesus!! She and her husband have a heart to move to Spain and be involved in House of Prayer/other Missions work there!

12pm - This is normally my "lab" time in the student worship teams. Because of cancelled classes, we spent it in the Global Prayer Room instead. Two Worship with the Word sets in a row, with Justin Rizzo's team leading first (one of my FAVOURITE teams as a lot of the time they have orchestral instruments such as french horns, strings, flutes/whistles, percussion... think film music/celtic/hip-hop/rap :) and Misty Edward's team leading at 2pm. I had to walk up and down a lot so I wouldn't fall asleep, and got to partner with JESUS in praying with what was on HIS heart!

4pm - got a ride back to my place, where my landlord was working on pipes to get them to unblock... seems like America isn't so far from Africa after all ;) sat down to eat some dinner and write to all of YOU!

6pm - Encounter God Service at Church. The current theme the Lord is having most people dig into around here at the moment is John 14-17, about Abiding in Love...

The same love the Father has for Jesus, Jesus has for us!!  Let that sink in for a bit... The intensity to which the Father Loves Jesus, Jesus loves YOU (and your friend, or not-yet-friend...)

Training for the Nations!

I don't think we EVER get over the training stage! Life with Jesus is a constant, never ending training and learning to go Low, to receive HIS love (this one, yet again, I've realised I need help in!), to love Him, to Trust Him, to obey His voice...

I'm here in Kansas City, Missouri having just moved house 2 weeks ago and getting ready to move house again in another two weeks!! Apparently this nomadic lifestyle just never ends either :) We ARE sojourners and foreigners on this earth - just passing through - so I guess this makes sense!

After obeying HIS voice and heart, to rest for 2 weeks in England, I arrive in KC on the 20th december and spent the next 4 weeks sharing a twin (single) bed with one of my best friends. Thank you Hannah for your generous heart and thank you Daddy for always providing! Moved into my current place ready to start school...

Once in a while I still have this thought of: wait. What am I doing here again? How is this to do with my call?? Then I have my first class. Our teacher starts talking about seeing Houses of Prayer raised up in every single nation. My KeysETT (Keys, Ear Training and Theory) teacher starts talking about teaching us how to teach so that we can go and teach children in dark, far away places how to play and sing to the Lord. I get to my audition for another class and the guy auditioning me says: "Imagine you're trying to lead a prayer meeting in some nation like Papua New Guinea and you have no electricity and you're the only instrument." and in my mind I'm like... oh! I did that already! in Mozambique...

Lord, send me. Here I am. Send me.


some Praise points:
Jesus is teaching me about TRUST. and LOVE - HIS Love :)
He is providing!!!
I'm getting connected with some of the Hispanic ministries community here - and it's stretching and growing and good!


some Prayer points:
the roommate HE wants me to have, in the place HE wants me to live :)
Oh that I would go deeper, and Love Him to my full capacity, and receive HIM to my full capacity
my studies :) :) TIME with Him in the secret place
Connections
continued health


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Random fact: one of my classes is "Life of a Worshipper". or LOW. . .  It's all about going LOWER still :) :)

Living a laid down life in the West!

What does a life laid down for Jesus look like here in the West? When it comes down to it, it really looks like much the same as it does “on the field”.

It is a giving over of your will, your emotions, your every thought, desire and every breath to Jesus. It is laying down… on the concrete or the carpet more than the dirt! Both physically and emotionally. And letting Him love you, day by day. It is a CHOICE, day by day, to choose to LOVE. To love HIM and to love each one in front of you. No matter if they bug you, if they do something that just really annoys you or even seriously hurts you… choose love, and choose life. Choose to speak words of life. To Look Up. To look up to the sky, to look up to heaven, to look up into HIS eyes, be filled with HIS heart and HIS perspective, HIS joy and then to look around and see with HIS eyes! Feel with HIS heart! It is a choice to be with Him every day… to let the ins and outs of everyday life force you even, to NEED Him. And to know that that is okay. Not even just okay, but required. 

It is those who truly need and who KNOW their need, who will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. We come to Him low and in need only to be lifted up and set in high places. Ephesians 2:6. The poor in Spirit inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. Both in the time to come, and the time that is now.  For after you have looked into His eyes, and looked around… you see what is here on earth and what needs to be changed to be like Heaven… you are filled with the heartbeat of Heaven and He has given you the power to release that! 

So stop what you are doing. Be filled with Him, and then go about your day continuously being filled and overflowing all around you… oops, there’s a bit of Heaven leaking out of me onto you! Didn’t do it on purpose, it just HAPPENED because He’s the kind of God who fills to overflowing!

LOVE the Lord your God with ALL your heart, ALL your soul, ALL your mind, and all you strength, and love your neighbour as yourself.  

Fixing our eyes on that which is unseen...

Hi Friends!

I am sorry that it has taken me so long to update again! Life here feels very full, as life on any missions base always seems to be!

After I finish this internship March 30th, I have 30 days to leave the country otherwise I get deported. We are two thirds of the way through with just 4 weeks to go!

Lately in pretty much all of our classes and also at church, all our teachers and Mike Bickle seem to be talking about the exact same things without even checking with each other. You know how that works when the Lord wants to highlight something? Yes. I even watched a video from Planetshakers church (back in Melbourne, Australia) and it just happened to be Ps Tim Hall speaking on Hebrews 11…

So what everyone is highlighting and what the Lord is really giving me personal revelation on lately is eternity. The importance of fixing our eyes on the coming Kingdom and eternity even when sharing our faith with others. Pointing towards eternity and the coming reign of our literal King Jesus is the only thing that truly gives hope and sets our priorities straight right now in this age.

In the time of the New Testament writings, the Roman ruler Caesar would be constantly overtaking new territory. When a new city or region was won, Caesar would send his “gospel messengers” out to all the people with the message that he has conquered the kingdom, and a new kingdom has come, but he and the Romans will let you live IF you will bow down and worship him. Therefore when Jesus came and started announcing his new kingdom, it stirred up the current rulers to anger as they saw it as a rebellion. The Kingdom we live for now has come, but it is yet to come. It has come in part and we see that through the body of believers in bringing an invasion of Heaven to Earth. Yet the fullness of it is yet to come when Jesus comes back and conquers the armies of the earth to establish His full reign…

Throughout all of the New Testament, and even the Old, we are consistently pointed towards Jesus and to the Kingdom to come.

“By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God… All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country – a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” – Hebrews 11:8-10;13-16

The book of Hebrews was written to Jews who had accepted Jesus and were in danger of turning their back on Him to go back to their old faith. This was at a time when the Roman rulers were persecuting the Christians viciously yet Judaism was legal, therefore to be a Jew was easier and safer than proclaiming Jesus as Christ. How did the early Christians survive the persecution they had to go through? How do Christians in persecuted countries today continue to endure? How do lovers of Jesus in the west sincerely and radically follow Jesus without getting our hearts and spirits dulled by the “worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things” – making us distracted and unfruitful? (Mk 4:19). How do we even just get through what may seem to be the mundane-ness of life?

We fix our eyes on Jesus. We fix our eyes on the cross. We fix our eyes on the coming heavenly city. We fix our eyes on the Revelation of Jesus as given to John his disciple (see book of Revelation).

“He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep for what he cannot lose” – Jim Elliot.

Any amount of time compared to eternity is zero. Therefore our whole 70 years (I like to say 120) really IS just a vapour, it is literally absolutely nothing compared to the life we will live in the heavenly city. Yet the life we live now determines what kind of life we will have for eternity.

Our hope (Titus 2:13; Heb 6:13-20) is the promise of Jesus’ return and the age to come – where there will be no pain, no sin, no tears, and not only ourselves but all creation will be restored to it’s former and intended glory. Fixing our eyes on Jesus and eternity will cause us to care more about the things of God. About His heart, about the lost, about His ways…  It will cause us to be more firm with ourselves in matters of honour, holiness, purity, and accountability as well as embolden those who are leaders to “encourage and rebuke with all authority” (2:15) without letting anyone despise them. It is what puts a holy fear and joy into our hearts to encourage each other daily and even more as we see the return of our King approaching.

From my journal:

“Why do you want to see Serena?” (that was God. I want Him to both give me 20/20 vision and also open my eyes to the spiritual realm more).

Because I was made that way. I am both natural and supernatural. I am in this natural world and my body is limited to it, but I am made SPIRITUAL and to experience the Spiritual realm too! And it helps me come alive. To realise the GLORY and MAJESTY of You… even just studying Ezekiel 1 and Revelation fills me with AWE of You… oh LIFE is made to be COLOURFUL!!... You are WORTHY!

I was like, oh, Christ, if you could just stay there and even just looking at You fills me with wonder (I was kinda pushing him away and scared of having Him near me… as He is so HOLY and OVERWHELMING). And I want to be filled with wonder. But no! I DO want you with me! I don’t get – it overwhelms me that you would love me and why you want me with You. But I want You! I DESIRE You! YHWH. I desire fellowship with the three. And the One. Yet the three… You are the only one I worship…

I hope some of this spoke to you.

Ezekiel 1 and Revelation 4 are both visions of the throne room. I encourage you to read them sentence by sentence and IMAGINE it!! Ask the Holy Spirit to show you what He is like!! All of Revelation is good and makes complete sense! (It was my favourite book as a child but then people told me it’s confusing so I stopped reading it). Use the eyes of your imagination to see and use the letters to the 7 churches to encourage you in your faith! He loves to reward us!

That is some of what the Lord has been and is doing in me during my time here. He is also doing a lot of healing in me and character building. Both ESSENTIAL for life as a go-where-you-take-me-laid-down lover!

Blessings and TONS of love to you!

I am praying for you.

Please pray for me that I will sleep easier, longer and deeper, and that my heart would be completely open for all He wants to do in me as well as what He wants to speak to me.

Love Serena J

An Empty Vessel...

2 Timothy 2:20-22...

"In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. 

Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart."

I want to be an empty vessel again! Completely empty. My life is a blank canvas. There is no past, no future, only the NOW. I just want to be with you, NOW... I give up anything and everything that you have ever led me into, now... so that I can do just that. Be with You. Now.

I want to be empty so that only You can fill me. Fill me, fill me, fill me to overflowing so that if there IS anything else in me, it will just be stirred up and overflow out of me...

Here in the Fire in the Night internship at Kansas City, that is my prayer... Lord, fill me up so much that all else will be spilled out... everything else is worthless except this one thing - to KNOW You! to GAZE upon Your beauty!! I want to be completely empty of everything except You!

Now this is a dangerous prayer because as I have well been finding out, when the other stuff gets stirred up... it spills out... and it can be pretty messy. God doesn't just do things behind closed doors. He does things in front of everyone else too. Lucky I have a GREAT family of roommates, interns, leaders and friends here! Also 35 hours in the prayer room every week doesn't hurt!! Plus 14 hours of class and 3 hours of church... Not to mention small groups (which I LOVE!) Thank you Jesus!!  Seriously, when you are in an environment specifically set up for engaging with the Lord that much of the time, it really does help with purging everything else out.

When I was first here back in July '11, I had not much of an idea what IHOP was all about. I came because God spoke to me to come. My church doesn't have any connections with this place and so I would check every single thing that they said and make sure it was in the bible! I have to admit my heart was a bit closed off because I wanted to make sure that they weren't some weird group of people teaching weird things. Yes. So in the prayer room one night, God started showing me the colour yellow. First, I was inside a yellow slide like the ones you find in McDonalds playgrounds! Then he reminded me of the yellow safety house signs that we were taught about in Primary school in Queensland. Ima Safety House was this yellow house-person... We were taught that if we were walking to and from school, and found ourselves in a situation that seemed unsafe (think car pulling up next to school children offering them a ride), all we had to do was look for a house with the yellow safety house sign on the mailbox and we could run in there and be with safe people.

So, God told me that here at IHOP I was as safe as I ever was at Planetshakers. This time round (2nd track of internship) I found that I was coming into it ready to dive deep, not only dive deep but dive headfirst, into everything God had for me. I felt like I was totally ready to trust the leadership that God has put over me here and just go for it - surrender to God completely and to trust and honour His appointed authorities...

Here is a quote from one of my teachers:
"I want your hearts to burn - that's the goal... but I also want you to cognitively get it." (get it in and from scripture and get it with our minds)

Oh that our hearts would burn for You Jesus!!! and oh that you would help us to get it... because we need it :)

From my journal - during an intercession set for Israel (yes, God likes to interrupt us sometimes. We want to be set in our ways and do everything according to a time schedule but sometimes God just wants to do heart surgery...) This was during one of those times where the gunky stuff was being stirred up. By the way I am not sharing this because I don't value the secret place with Jesus. I am not sharing this to show off myself. I am sharing this, because I know through the place of my vulnerability, my friends (and any other randoms who read this) who may be going through similar things are encouraged and helped... so, overabundant blessings to you!

"God. I want you to break me... Even if you need to shatter me completely. I want and I welcome whatever it takes... I want to be remade as a noble vessel. An empty vessel. For YOUR purposes... I need it. I cry out for it. Because I want to contain You... I'm so tired and over change. But I know I need more. My heart is open for whatever you want. Give me grace to be open God... You hem me in... and it is hard to kick against the goads... Give me grace God. Help me Holy Spirit. and give me JOY."

Later, in the soaking chairs, He said "I love you. I delight in you. Why would I shatter you?"
He is holding my heart...
In all gentleness and caring...
But still Lord, I want the breaking, because I KNOW you hold my heart. I want to be made perfect. You will complete what You started!

I love my God.

That is all.


_________________________________________________________________________

The Israelites in the Desert.


Hebrews 3:7

"So, as the Holy Spirit says:
'Today, if you heart His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for 40 years saw what I did.

That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.' So I declared an oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'

See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.


But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called TODAY, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.

We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. As has just been said:

'TODAY, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.'

Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?


So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief."

Another key:

Disobedience - even in our hearts - hearts are VERY important to the Lord - legally opens ourselves up for the spirit of the air (the enemy) to work in our lives.

2011 wrap-up, and what's next!

2011 – stepping out in FAITH

Currently I am mid-air on a plane from Paris to Kuala Lumpur, where I will be visiting friends and relatives, as well as sharing at a church there. I didn’t realise it at the time, but myself and a friend spent our 1 year anniversary of graduation from Mozambique releasing the Love and purposes of Jesus over the city from the Eiffel Tower! What an awesome, God-organised place to be to remember such a significant event in our lives!

It is now just over a year since graduation from the Iris Harvest School of Missions, and just over nine months since leaving Australia in March 2011.

In that time, the Lord has led me to:

- 5 Continents: Australia, Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe

- 18 Countries

- I have slept in 48 different beds, not counting planes, trains, buses and cars… These were of various levels of comfort, from a hard wooden bench covered with a blanket in the Buddhist prayer room of refugees in the Himalayas, to sleeping on the roof of an RV and waking with dew all around me, to sleeping in a comfortable big bed with a hot water bottle in England with the room all to myself!! (I realised that that was just the third night in 9 months where I was in a room all to myself… thank you Jesus!).

Border crossing Craziness

Zoe knows how to spend border crossing time...

Cross-roads in Honduras

Jesus is so good and I have had the privilege of serving with the most amazing people: In Asia with many men and women of God, some of whom have left absolutely everything behind to start new works in different countries; In Africa at the Pemba base of Iris Ministries, where again there are numerous men and woman who are living laid down lives!; North America was a time of consecration on the Night Watch at the International House of Prayer – 6 hours a night in the prayer room, some of the people who were over me there have lived 8 years serving and interceding in the Night; Central America – with the most amazing, adventurous, giving, beautiful team of Iris revivalists who I am proud to call family; and in Great Britain and Europe, seeing fellow Harvest School graduates living out a life of LOVE in a western context, however Jesus leads them…

I have had the honour of witnessing the power of the gospel in action: healed hearts, ears opened, eyes seeing, and many encountering their Saviour and the ultimate pursuer of their hearts, Jesus Christ. Thank you so much for all of your prayers, emails of encouragement, and financial support. YOU are just as much a part of this harvest as I am!

Fire Tunnel!!! Hearts healed, JOY poured out!

Beautiful Guatemalan family who encountered the love of Jesus

The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these...

Worship in an El Salvador church

4 hours after the beginning of the service..!

2012 – Jumping off the cliff AGAIN…

Earlier this year in Maputo, Mozambique I had to attend an interview with the US embassy to get a student visa for the United States. The form which the school had given them stated that I needed 6 months to complete my studies there (2 x three month internships, of which I completed the first one). However miraculously they gave me a 5 year visa for the States, which later made sense as soon after arriving in Kansas City, the Lord spoke the words “North America” to me and set my heart on fire for this particular country… the first “Western” country apart from Australia which He has spoken to me significantly! He also mentioned that Kansas City was to be my base to go out from for the next period of time.

I decided that I would spend the next year partly in Latin America with the Iris team, and partly in Europe and Australia depending on the Lord’s leading. I would aim to get back to Kansas City by September 2012 for track 2 of the internship.

I had a job interview (for 3 months minimum, perfect!) all lined up for Melbourne when I was planning to return late this month. I have to admit I was looking forward to living a “normal” life again, spending a few months working hard and saving up, and being completely involved in my local church again. However God had other plans…

A few weeks ago I found out that if I don’t return to study in the States within 5 months of leaving, I will lose my student visa. This means that I have to return for the January intake of school. I prayed about it and felt the Lord’s confirmation in my heart to return early. I actually felt His presence stronger than I had felt it for months, impressing on me to return to Kansas City sooner rather than later.

Not going back to Australia to work and having to jump into this next season with no income, completely by faith that the Lord will provide feels SO scary, like jumping off a cliff!! However He reminded me that this is what I’ve been doing anyway for the past nine months! I am trusting Him completely to provide, and believing for friends and partners to stand with me in fulfilling His purposes through my life.

What 2012 will look like:

Internship starts on the 5^th January, where I will plunge back into the Night Schedule. This means waking up at 11pm, going into the prayer room from 12am and then being in classes before midday. My bedtime will be 3pm each day. I will be in passionate pursuit of learning more and more of this Man called Jesus, who is also God! I will also again be a part of a company of people who have chosen to stand watch during the hours of the night, interceding for the church, the lost, the government, the Nations, the ending of Human Trafficking and anything else the Holy Spirit leads us to pray for. Check out http://www.ihop.org and http://www.ihop.org/nightwatch/ for more information! You can also watch live streaming and archived prayer room sets from here.

Sunrise outside the Prayer Room after the Night Watch

Internship finishes on March 30^th, and then it's whatever Jesus leads me to next! It could be rejoining the Iris team in South America, or working for a period of time, or returning to the 3^rd world in other ways. I say returning to the 3^rd world, as my time in the United States is also just as much the mission field! All of the over 1000 staff at IHOP are considered “intercessory missionaries”. They are part of outreach and justice works 25 hours a week, and are in the prayer room another 25 hours a week. We all depend on support from the body of Christ, although some find part time work where they can. I am not allowed to work for income in the United States on my student visa. I want to do ONLY what my Lord JESUS wants me to do, and nothing else… Even as I type this I am feeling a bit out of depth in moving back to Kansas City, as the way I’ve been living life is not stable in any sense of the word according to the way the world thinks! Yet I KNOW that the Lord leads me rightly. My life feels so rocky and confusing sometimes, yet JESUS is the rock of ages and I stand firmly on Him and His WORD! ALL the promises of God are YES and AMEN! I am looking forward with joy to this next season and rejoining my Kansas City Family J

Please email me if you feel to be involved in this journey in any way! Or if you want to be added to my email list! Or if you have any prayer requests! I would love to pray for you!

Love and More of Jesus!

Serena

New Album from the NightWatch at Kansas City

One Thing I Desire... the REAL Jesus...

I want to really encourage anyone who can, to get to the One Thing Conference in Kansas City this year. Registration is FREE and I am really stirred up in my spirit for this - what they are talking about is so my heart for right now!!!

http://www.ihop.org/onething/   December 28th-31st 2011

Songs that Draw me Deeper and Higher

"Pour My Love On You" - Misty Edwards (IHOP) (I think originally Phillips, Craig & Dean)

I don't know how to say exactly how I feel

And I can't begin to tell You what Your love has meant

I'm lost for words

Is there a way to show the passion in my heart

Can I express how truly great I think You are

My dearest friend

Lord, this is my desire

To pour my love on You

Chorus

Like oil upon Your feet

Like wine for You to drink

Like water from my heart

I pour my love on You

If praise is like perfume

I'll lavish mine on You

Til every drop is gone

I'll pour my love on You

"Wounded One" - Davy Flowers (IHOP NightWatch Staff)

Worthy is the lamb who was slain

Who broke down the great wall of enmity and gave me His Name

How gracious is my Redeemer

King Jesus, Son of the Highest

What could I possibly give to You but the fragrance of my

Hallelujah

Holy is the man of sorrows

Destroying the works of the evil one all with Your own blood

And mercies before and behind You

Such beauty all around You

How could I ever repay You but with the fragrance of my

Hallelujah

Praise be to the Wounded One!

Glory and honour to the Son

We ascribe worth, and give love to You Lord

Let the fragrance of our love go forth!

We pour our love on You in the middle of the Night

We pour our love on You in the middle of the Night

We lift our gaze

You are higher!

(this one is coming out by the New Year on the new Night Watch album! Watch for it on iTunes!)

an URGENCY for the Nations! Bringing the Bride in!

There is now even more of an URGENCY in my heart regarding the nations.
Last Friday night during our Encounter God Service, the Holy Spirit just broke loose with JOY and we had a huge JOY party! It was so good and felt so free!

Then on the Friday night church service, we had just finished 2 hours of worship, praying for the sick and hearing many testimonies of healings especially bad backs and Scoliosis. It was awesome too because one of my friends had bad knees so that she couldn't run and would find it painful even sometimes to walk. We prayed for her and it got 30% better. So we prayed again and again and it got all the way up to 80% better. We are believing for complete healing!

So it came time for the preaching. The leader who heads up the NightWatch here was preaching on Isaiah 62 and 63. As he was preaching I could sense and see in my mind's eye the presence of God filling the whole auditorium. Jesus the Judge of the Nations was sitting on His throne and He was so big that all I could see was His feet and up to His knees. The preacher got up to a particular point in His message, then stopped... There was silence for a few seconds, then he started to sob and sob... He couldn't keep speaking so asked Misty and the worship team to come up and he left the stage. I was kind of not stirred up a whole whole lot, just excited that Holy Spirit was doing something. Then all of a sudden my housemate who is sitting in front of me started to wail. I was happy because she normally isn't like that so I knew God was doing something.

The next thing I knew I was hurled forward with such force that my mouth hit my knees. I was screaming and Heaven just invaded that place with the fear of the Lord. All I feel was just this FEAR of the Lord, not a bad fear, but a healthy FEAR of HIM and His HUGENESS. All I could see were tribes, unreached tribes who didn't know Him and were continuing in their animism... My heart felt as if it had been pierced. I was screaming and grieving on the floor as I felt His HEART for His BRIDE!

There will be a time when Jesus comes back, when He goes - ENOUGH! When He will come and do whatever it takes to get His BRIDE back and save her from the injustices of this world!

We sometimes don't really want Him to come back yet, because we want to be able to finish studying, or get a career, or get married or have a family. Yet the child who is trapped in sex trafficking doesn't care about that - that child just wants Him to come back now!

"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come." Matt 24:14

This word nations in the greek actually means to all people groups. This is why I am going into the nations, this is why my heart and focus is so much to the unreached, as Jesus will not come back until they all have heard.


There is an URGENCY in my heart regarding the NATIONS. The harvest is ripe. The Lord is coming. They have not heard. We as friends of Jesus the Bridegroom King must go out and prepare the Bride for His coming! It is not only just about getting people saved. It is about preparing the bride to know how to keep her lamp burning. It is not just about salvation as the first step. It's about INTIMACY with Jesus as the Bridegroom as well as imparting that urgency in the new disciples to reach the lost around them.

If you have questions, email me.

Notes from the teaching that weekend can be found at http://www.ihop.org . It is called "Armegeddon: The Beauty of Jesus as the Man of War" Go down the the bottom of the page and click on teaching notes. You can also listen to the mp3, but the mp3 is from the Sunday, not saturday service... as it actually includes the whole thing.

Stateside

So, here I am at the International House of Prayer, Kansas City, Missouri! It has been an interesting journey getting here for sure - and Jesus has been so in it, every part of the way :)

It was in Nepal in April earlier this year, that I was praying about direction for where the Lord wanted me during June-August. I knew that I would be in Asia until May, and I knew that I would most probably be in Latin America starting from September. So I had this 3 month period of time free for I didn't know what!

As I was praying, the Lord gave me a scripture reference of Isaiah 56:7. I opened my bible thinking it may end up being one of those random scriptures about war and bloodshed, as often seems to happen when asking God for a particular scripture (its often just me, not actually him!) but it was actually a legit scripture and not only that, but it leapt out and grabbed me so I knew it was for real!

"These I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

 The Lord had also been speaking to me about a period of 3 months and also about a season set apart for intimacy with Him. Through this scripture and other confirmations, I felt led to apply for the Fire in the Night internship here in IHOP Kansas City.

To cut a long story short, I ended up staying longer in Mozambique in order to apply for a student visa with the US embassy. This meant I had to apply for my Mozambican visa to then be extended. However to apply for that visa extension I had to leave my passport with the office. I realised after dropping it off that they wanted me to pick up my passport again on a Friday, when my visa interview with the US embassy was on the Thursday! I went back to the office on the Monday before the interview to ask for my passport back early. They said that maybe I might be able to pick it up on the Wednesday. So on the Wednesday, I went to the office planning to stay there all day if I had to, as I knew I had to get that passport back! I waited 4 hours and Jesus caused them to give it back! The breakthrough came when my mind stopped thinking like "if it doesn't happen then I can just stay in Pemba longer" and instead, started thinking like "I know without a doubt that my God has called me and therefore I AM going to walk out of here with my passport." I entered a rest, not of "whatever happens happens" but rather a rest filled with expectancy and knowing that something was going to shift. Other people were lining up and being refused their passports, being told they weren't ready yet even though they had been waiting since May (the receipt you are given has a pick up date written on it). So it really is a miracle that I got mine back! They had been telling me "no" all day but who knows that a human "no" is powerless when God has decreed otherwise!

The reason why it was so important I get it back is that my visa appointment with the US was the next day, and if I had to reschedule it would be another 2 weeks. Meaning it would be too late for school and I wouldn't even be allowed in the border.

So praise Jesus - He knows exactly where He wants me and has the power to get me there! My visa was approved on the Thursday, I booked my flights that same day, picked up my passport from the embassy on Friday, and flew out Saturday to arrive Sunday at school - just in time for the end of orientation!

I slept 3 hours over 3 plane flights and 2 layovers, arrived Sunday morning and went straight into the Night Watch that night... Thank you Jesus He has helped my body to adjust not only to a completely different time zone but a completely different schedule.

What does the Fire in the Night Internship look like?
Breakfast is from 2:30-4pm every day, and our first class is normally at 6pm. Sometimes we have another class after lunch (lunch is 7.30pm) at 9-10.30pm or a Night Watch staff meeting. On Fridays and Saturdays we go to Forerunner Christian Fellowship instead of having classes. We finish at the FCF meetings at 11pm and leave back to the main campus in time for Dinner. Dinner is 12am and we are to be in the prayer room by 12:45am, where we stay on the NightWatch until 6am. Curfew is 6.30am and Lights off at 7am. Our Sabbath is Thursdays, where we only have a 6pm class and then have time off until 4am where we go into the prayer room for the last 2-hour watch of the Night.

It is different missing out on mornings but it is so worth it as we get to stand our watch in the Night Season, worshipping the Lord and interceding for the nations.

We also have outreaches at Hope City - the inner city prayer room/outreach centre. At church services I will be serving from time to time as an usher. Classes cover topics such as Intimacy with God, the book of Revelation, Tools for the Prayer Room, the Existence and Majesty of God and the Forerunner Curriculum. I am loving the classes here as they do go so deep into the Word of God!! I have always had a passion for scripture and wanted to study at Bible school, and now God is giving me the chance without me even knowing it was coming! All the time in the Prayer Room too is all based out of scripture.

It is so fun because I did not know much about IHOP at all before coming. I just came because God said go - yet as soon as I got here it felt like home (notice how I say that a lot - it changes everything when your home can be wherever the Lord is)! All the content here and the way that they run everything directly relates to the desires the Lord has been giving me since the early years of my relationship with Him. It is like He is picking up a lot of the desires and things I had forgotten about and just handing them to me all at once... It is hard to explain and I don't have the time to go into it properly - but just be encouraged that it is in the place of obedience to the Lord that you will find all your desires fulfilled and you will be brought into the place of His dreams for you... old dreams once forgotten that you had as a child, and new dreams which He gives us and delights in seeing them come to pass! Obedience to the Lord, even when you do not understand it or like it, praise in the place of despair... I could go on... God is good and desires the BEST for us!! Most of all He desires intimacy....

More later