******* REVIVAL FIRE!!! *******
A JOURNEY INTO HIS LOVE...
Daniel Black
December 2008/January 2009
Wow. What a year 2008 has been, and what a long time since I have written you all. I hope this note finds each of you doing well. This has just been one of those times in life where I simply don't want to sit and write, but tonight I'm literally forcing myself to sit down and write. There is a lot more to be said on what I write, but want to keep it all brief so I don't consume your day with reading, ha. So here we go on this journey…
…LAYING HOLD OF HIM…
"Only the man who lives in fellowship with divine reality can be used to call the people to God" –Frank Bartleman
2008 saw so many twists and turns in my life. From working in a health company and ministering on the streets of San Francisco, to traveling the American west coast and two Asian nations preaching the Gospel, to finding a quiet retreat in the snowy mountains of northern California. Tonight, I find myself in a similar place that I did last year, and that is desperate for a fresh touch of Jesus! A couple of weekends ago, I found myself in a place of prayer before attending a Christmas party, and I read Isaiah 64. One verse in particular stood out to me. Verse 7 read: "…And there is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of You…" And I felt the Lord had put this verse before my eyes as a challenge: was I one who would stir myself to take hold Him? As the sounds of wild drumming music played behind me I felt a new passion of desperation and abandonment stir within me. I had made a resolve a couple of years earlier to be a man set after His face, and that resolve within had seemed to have killed over. It had been a difficult season of fire, testing and trials. The rivers of oil and wine that I had been enjoying months earlier seemingly had dried up, and I was living off of reserves from the storage well, which I have to say is not enough of God. I have heard it said time and again that you can have as much of God as you want, and when I know there is more than what I have now, and there is a superior level available to that of where I am at now, it stirs me to abandon all else for the pursuit of Him. It's not just a challenge to me, but to each of us: Who will take hold Him? Who is willing to go lower still? Who is willing to yield completely that we may possess Him, that we ourselves may be possessed by Him? Personally I am renewing my commitment, fervor, and passion to be wholly His. Of what possible good is it to speak to multitudes, to see miracles daily, to even touch a heart if I have not laid hold of the Perfect One of Heaven. What good is anything if I do not possess the Divine? How can I reach a broken heart if I myself am not completely filled with His precious love?
Nothing is as important as simply being possessed by His amazingness. To often we are consumed by doing something for God. Let me sing a song, let me lead someone to Christ, let me do for you, and in all our doing we forget to lay hold of Him. In all our getting we lose sight of Him. We fail to see that it is in simply being that everything else will begin to flow. We have something to give someone because we have been with Jesus. Oh the love, oh the joy, oh the supernatural endowment we receive when we have been with Jesus! "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus" (Acts 4:13).
"He made darkness His secret place; His canopy around Him was dark waters And thick clouds of the skies." Psalm 18:11-12
I feel many of us recently have been going through a rough season. I feel many have struggled to keep themselves in the love of God, and have simply wandered what is going on. Why has the day turned to darkness? What used to be a flowing and lively river has seemed to freeze over with thickened ice. We wonder these things and just can't quite see God. The beautiful thing is that God makes that darkness His secret place. That night which seems to have blotted out the beauty of the day, God has planted Himself there to meet us with His love. Jude 21 says: "Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." In the midst of the darkness, we find an invitation to presence of His love. In that secret place we are able to look for never ending mercies. Julian of Norwich once said, "Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, it is laying hold of His willingness." Prayer to me is a place of communion with God, a place of giving and receiving love. The beautiful thing is, He is always willing to give of Himself to those who are willing to receive of Him. It is ok to embrace the dark night that has surrounded us if we are willing to lay hold of the invitation to simply be with Him. This place has been specially created for us to lay hold of Him in love.
"God came to my house and asked for charity. And I fell on my knees and cried, 'Beloved, what may I give?' 'Just love," He said, 'Just love.'" -St Francis of Assisi
JOURNEY OF LOVE IN ASIA
What can separate me from His love? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God!
In August, I had the wonderful opportunity of traveling to Asia to work alongside Shara Pradhan of Iris Ministries and a wonderful team that I have grown to love as family. It was a journey filled with adventure and lessons in His love. I would say this was probably to date one of the most incredible trips I have ever taken to Asia.
In my first week, I had the most amazing time visiting the St. Steven's Society's Shing Mun Springs. A beautiful piece of property that is housing for recovering drug addicts and runaway teens. The complex is seated high above on a large hill and has an amazing and beautiful view of the city of Hong Kong. I was blessed to just sit and listen to their stories, to love and pray on the men and staff of this amazing place. The St. Steven's approach is not one of counseling and attempting to fix problems, but is different in that they introduce them to Jesus and allow His presence to fill their lives and heal their inward wounds. Most of these men were hardened criminals and drug addicts. It is amazing how many of these men live drug free and productive lives through allowing Jesus to transform them.
I listened in tears to one man's story, who also is considered a papa at St Steven's. He has been with them over 20 years now. He was one of the first people that they found. This man at a young age lost both of his parents, and was introduced to the triad gangs. He said he committed many, many bad things during this time (the triads are an ancient and ruthless crime group who are known for drug trafficking, contract murder, money laundering, gambling, prostitution, car theft, extortion, and other forms of racketeering) he also became addicted to drugs. 3 years later, he came to know Jesus and began the journey into freedom from addiction. What he discovered was that the more he was in Jesus' presence, the more free he became. The more he worshiped, the more he discovered the wounds that were deep within became healed. Today he lives his life layed down for others, leading them out of addiction and into freedom.
The day was spent listening to their stories and praying for them and prophesying over them. I was so elated!!! I watched as they wept as they heard the reality of God's heart for them, as His presence swept over them, His love filled them. There are so many cases that have proven Jesus works. The love of Jesus is enough. The love of Jesus is enough to heal the past, is enough to mend the present, is enough to create a future. Jesus said behold I make all things new again. After going to St Steven's and seeing this for myself, I have to ask myself do I believe this? Am I willing to let His love cover me? Am I willing to let love in? Am I willing to allow love to overflow? Am I willing to let love transform my life? Am I willing to let love consume me? After meeting men like the little papa, I have to ask myself to what extent I am willing to lay down my life for another, even for ones I have never met. What cost am I willing to pay? How low will I go in ardent love for Jesus?
Our team had the opportunity to see a youth camp of 250 kids get impacted by the fire of Jesus....we prophesied over almost all of them!!! There was at least 50 that responded to a call to the nations as full time missionaries laying down their lives...The Father's love was a strong message as many Chinese live in much shame, and so many found healing in Papa's arms....I don't know how many young men wept in my arms as I just poured out the love of Papa over them. One young man refused to let go...I held him for 10 minutes before the camp staff forced us apart so I could continue to pray for people...so many students were just shocked by the extreme love and passion and pleasure that God had for them. I can't count how many were broken when I told them that God was proud of them, He thought they were significant just the way they were, that they didn't have to strive for His love...I was simply blown away by their pure shock of His love...
We were able to minister to minister quite a bit within the Revival Chinese Church in Hong Kong, where we saw Jesus show up mightily. In two evenings of revival meetings, we saw the church really touched by the power of God in prophetic activation, miracles, and impartation for supernatural visitation. One night we prayed over the children, and all of the children were covered in gold dust, from head to toe! It was real beautiful to see them encounter Holy Spirit!!! I was with two others and we were activating people into the prophetic and visitation realm. It seems like as soon as it was announced that we were praying for people to have heavenly visitation, the whole church seemed to bombard us and all of the other teams as well all at the same time. This is the same church whose pastor just got back from a visitation to heaven. A literal sea of people invaded us! We ministered non stop for a good hour to hour and half straight. Just imparting into people. It was simply beautiful. Quite a few people got caught up into visions of God after prayer, many just received the impartation, while others caught the "joy bug." I can't count how many hit the carpet. We had to keep moving so people wouldn't be on top of each other, ie holy dog pile. Jesus showed up so beautifully. After some time, alot of the young kids came along and wanted to help pray as well. They were so filled with His presence...it was beautiful. We all had a blast just encountering God and sharing that encounter with the beautiful Chinese people.
We had the opportunity to spend with some students from a local Hong Kong School. Many do not know Jesus. We had an amazing time with them, simply loving on them, and receiving their love for us. We had moments and opportunities to pray for all of them, to soak them, to love on them, and prophesy over them. I think we made some friends for life, and I know God made some new friends as well. =)
Our time in Hong Kong saw many committing their lives to Jesus and several notable miracles! =) We saw a man who hadn't walked in seven years walk for the first time, someone who was dealing with allergies completely healed on the spot, a girl who had one leg longer than the other saw her shorter leg grow out, a person with a skin condition touched, amongst others! God moved greatly!
I have felt the love of God increase like never before. After our time in Hong Kong, we traveled to Indonesia to be apart of a large conference that Che' Ahn, Cindy Jacobs, and Stacey Campbell were keynote speakers along with several Asian apostles. Our team was Stacey Campbell's ministry team. This time was simply out of this world. 1500 people from across Asia came together to seek the face of Jesus and receive and impartation of fire. I have never seen the desperation that I saw in these people. They exemplify the revival that is happening in Asia. They have learned how to lay hold of Him. We ended the conference with a fire tunnel. When some would go out under the power, they would literally crawl through the prayer line because they had to have all of God they could get! Oh that we would be so desperate for all of God! We can have as much of God as we want!
There are so many more stories to share from 2008, but no time at the moment to share them. Thank you all for your support and giving that made it possible for lives to transform across the world! 2008 has been a year of growing, a year of laying hold, a year of being in Him. Even more so, it has been a journey of love. I pray this 2009 finds you filled with His love overflowing, with peace and joy, with goodness and mercy following you always. I am excited to see where it is going to take me personally. I love the journey! It is incedible and amazing! I am looking to return to Asia this year, hopefully on more than one occasion or on extremely extended trip for several months. I am also looking forward to a return to San Francisco, as I miss her streets and the people therein. It is going to prove, I believe, to be the most successful year in harvest thus far! Believe for dreams to become realities, but mostly for His love to come and enrapture me!
This verse is abounding in my heart right now and so this is what I leave you with today: "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure." (John 2:1-3)
Happy New Year and much love in Jesus to each of you my friends,
Daniel Black
"Arise, shine; for your light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon you, and his glory shall be seen upon you." (Isaiah 60:1-2 KJV)
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