Joel calls sound the trumpets and the Lord roars from Zion--The Call Detroit

Why the Call?

            Honestly, I can tell you all before I came here that I had no idea why we do solemn assemblies.  I had been a to a number of these over the years.  The most impacting for me was the Call Sandiago.  It took place in a giant stadium.  I remember standing there and seeing thousands of other believers crying out in prayer against abortion and the gay agenda (specifically prop 8 at the time).  It made a mark in my spirit and I will never forget it.  However, I had no biblical foundation for this clearly divine experience so I just treasured it inside and did not speak much about it.

            In fact by the time the Call Sacramento came up again, my heart was so far removed I could not bring myself to want to go.  I had talked to people in my church about revival hoping that the stirring in my spirit was in fact biblical.  I thought “surely if this is biblical than other people that I respect will want it too.”  But no one seemed excited.  In fact, the people I talked to actually seemed against what I thought was revival.  During the phase between these two calls I had slowly hardened my heart toward solemn assemblies.  I regarded them as purely spiritual hype because I could not justify them in my mind and everyone around me seemed against them.  I thought, “That’s great for those people.  But I feel like I’m called to individual faith.”

            So my question still stands: why the call?  Why gather a bunch of people in a stadium and fast and pray for a couple hours?

            I now believe corporate prayer and fasting is biblical.  When Solomon dedicated the temple he went through every curse that, in Deuteronomy, the Lord warned his people of sending and said basically, “even after this, if we repent and pray will you hear and forgive?” (2 Chron. 6:18-39; Deut. 28:15-44).  Then God gives his famous answer to Solomon that night when he says, “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.  When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:12-14).  This was God's rubric clearly seen throughout the Bible.  Another would be Joel.  But Samuel preceded them all.

            In 1 Samuel 7:9-14 God shows up and delivers the Israelites from the hand of the enemies.  In the same way, I believe along with many others that the Lord wants to deliver America out of the oppression she is in.  But a divine visitation is not something we just passively wait for.  It is something we must prepare for.  Perfect holiness and sin do not mix well!

            How do we prepare?  This is what happened: “ 3And Samuel said to all the house of Israel,"If you are returning to the LORD with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines." 4So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the LORD only.

 5Then Samuel said, "Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the LORD for you." 6So they gathered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the LORD and fasted on that day and said there, "We have sinned against the LORD." And Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah” (1 Samuel 7:3-6).

            The preparation required was to put away their idols and serve only God but also to fast and pray corporately at a gathering.  Why?  Why are they commanded to all gather at Mizpah?  Because this wasn’t just preparation for God to visit an individual, but an entire region.  A corporate visitation requires corporate preparation (2 Chr. 20:3-4; Joel 1:14; Acts 1:14).

Why Detroit?

God is highlighting Detroit for a number of strategic reasons.

Economic hub of America (side note: God's curse in Joel of locusts was supposed to cause a great economic upheaval.  Sound familiar?  Hm.  Maybe America should think about God's judgments for sin.)

Highest Muslim concentration in America.

Literally every Muslim nation is represented there.

Largest mosk in America is located right in Dearborne.  I visited their website.  They call themselves the “Islamic Center of America.”

Is ranked number 1 on the most dangerous cities out of 320 metropolitan areas (http://www.morganquitno.com/cit05pop.htm).

Motown and gospel were birthed there.

A hotbed of racism represented by the 8 mile wall and 8 mile road.  “Built in 1940 this wall presaged the racial divisions that have come to be symbolized by 8 Mile Road” (Detroit Chic) (I actually did not know anything about this wall before the Call so if anyone else is in the same position, I found this article very informative http://detroit1701.org/Black-WhiteWall.htm).

“Yet, rather than having a revolution and tearing down the wall, Detroit has kept this reminder intact. The wall, a sore spot of Detroit, is rarely mentioned and has now become a white wall painted with murals. Perhaps, this is to forever remain as a reminder, until the separation of Detroit is fully unified once again.” (Detroit Chic)

Henry Ford founded Ford Motor Company in 1903 in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.  His fame is the ground that Michigan is built on.  In fact, we are going to be hosting the Call in their home stadium, Ford Field.  Ford was actually extremely anti-Semitic.  In addition, cars in our prophetic dreams have come to symbolize greed, so there’s definitely something there.

My heart:

Again, I came into this movement with not very much expectation.  I did not think that the Lord could move so powerfully over a group of people like he has done with us.  We meet each week in a class called “Dream Stream” where we share dreams the Lord has given us regarding the Call.  We actually spend a lot of time in the Scriptures and throw out ideas of interpretations.

            Personally the Lord has transplanted my heart into this movement.  I find myself weeping for America and all her perversions: abortion, sex trafficking, homosexuality, and now for the Muslims and the ending of Islam.

            I’m so excited to be a part of a team that is so grounded in the word and so close to the Lord that he reveals his heart to them.  I’m so excited for the word that Lou gave us the first day that the Lord said about the Call: that God will roar like a lion at Ford Field (Amos 1:2; Jeremiah 25:30).  Why is that exciting?  We didn’t even know Ford Field was home of the Lions!

Prayer requests:

·      The Fast—You can pray for us as we’ve been fasting for 40 days in preparation.  Pray that we do not grow weary. 

·      Pray for the team that is over there now (including Lou Engle).  Pray for protection as they stand on 8 Mile Road and in all that they do.  Pray for more divine appointments.  Muslims are getting led to the Lord already!

·      Practical things—Pray for finances for the Call and travel safety.

·      Pray for us to get even more fired up about doing evangelism in the week leading up to the call.  I know I just got a divine appointment in Wal Mart that not only humbled me but fired me up to go deeper in my Bible and prepare to witness.

·      Pray for the 24 hour period of the call itself.  It’s the first 24 hour call so pray that all those volunteering for the event the whole time would have strength to make it through.  Pray the Lord release the spirit of adoption on a fatherless generation (note: Allah is not a father.  Only our God is).

We leave on Saturday, November 5 and the Call Detroit is 11/11/11.  I write this not just to be informative but so that you pray.  Please join me and pray for America.

http://www.thecall.com/Groups/1000080537/TheCall/Events/Detroit/Detroit.aspx

Xmen and Ihopu

I tend to love analogies so here's some random thought that has popped into my a head a number of times.  In asking the question of, who are ihopu students?  The only thing I find them analogous to is xmen.

The first thing I would like to say is this is not to put ihopu kids, myself inculded, onto some kind of pedastal above the rest of the church.  In fact, in one of my following points you will see that we are just as screwed up as the rest of the church.  My point is to (hopefully) comically categorize the breed (myself included) that comes here.

Xmen and ihopu students are both gifted.  Corey Russel, one of our professors likes to joke about this.  One day he said, "I can't even walk into some restaurants.  One time I did and said to my wife, 'honey, we got to go.  Why?  I don't know why?  Maybe there's some demon chef!"  Of course you can't really got the full effect of this quote on a blog because Corey's pretty hilarious in real life.  However, the point was that, what he said, he was a "feeler."  He discerns spirits through feeling.  Afterwards he had us all raise our hands asking, "are you a seer?  Are you a feeler?  Are you a hearer?"  He then joked about our giftings and how in real life we can't seem to make sense of them to our friends.  But they are real and true giftings!  Just incredibly unique sometimes.

Xmen have been taken out of regular life by Xavier to delve deeper into their giftings through training.  They are accepted in this environment.  Similarly ihopu students can't settle for normal church life.  They are awakened with dreams.  They fast.  They pray.  They are so burdened that "church" just isn't enough.  They have to embrace their calling.

Part of this is their callling as forerunners.  We are called in this generation to tell the world of Jesus' second coming.  This will save a generation.  In the same way, Xmen are not noticed until they save a generation.  When all else fails, they come on the scene.

Xmen training (as we have seen in the movies) is marked by nontraditional methods.  Xavier has to push a student off of a high point in order to get him to fly.  Ihopu is the same way.  We stand and sing in tongues.  Its a Bible school but most of the classes are spent in the presecne of the Lord, on our faces weeping.  Its very strange but God is definitely doing something.

Lastly, xmen are shunned by the world.  Ihopu has been called a cult.  They have been marginilized by the church who does not understand why we give ourselves to night and day prayer.

Finally, the xmen are in training.  That is, they're not superheroes yet.  They still have a lot to learn.  This is poignantly seen in teh last film when they're all using their super powers in silly ways, joking around.  They didn't take the call seriously.  I came here looking for superheroes and found a whole lot of broken people like myself "in training."  It was a comfort as well as a challenge.

Conclusion?  Heroes are not dead.  In fact the Lord made us to be heroes.  He made us to do great thigns for his kingdom.  We may feel small and somewhat insignificant but we are impacting the world.  We are the weird, dorky church kids, shunned by our own kind but pulled out of our regular circumstances by one guy (Jesus) to a higher calling.