I spent the weekend cleaning my office/store room. I love decluttering.
I threw away and shredded about 15 years worth of bookwork, receipts, and bank statements. I got behind on this when I started having kids and kept adding a box to my store room each year. It's funny how fast over 15 years can go by.
I also threw away about 200 sermon and conference cassettes. They were just taking up space in my basement. Being indiscriminately ruthless, I threw out a box of workshop manuals that I had written. If we're ever involved in something like that again, I think I would want to rewrite the teaching material.
Interestingly, I realized that I have over 50 cassettes of prophetic words spoken to us. These I will keep. I pulled out a couple of memorable ones to listen to. It was strange to listen to them in a different context than when I initially heard them. I might share a couple of them that seem appropriate here later.
I'm becoming more organized than I've been in quite a while. I've always been worried that I would die while my office was a mess and no one would be able to sort through all the papers.
A couple of random things:
Today I saw a bald eagle standing in the field by the road. He seemed so big, like maybe over 3 feet tall. Are they that big?
At the library tonight, I found Anne Rice's book, Christ the Lord, Out of Egypt. I'm looking forward to reading it, and I'll let you know what I think.
7 comments:
male bald eagles, the larger of the two, can be as tall as 35 inches.. but usually not much taller.
useless information from a report i did in elementary school. maybe i need a spring cleaning...
Re-writing old manuals...
Sounds familiar, only from a youth ministry standpoint.
Throwing out old conference and sermon tapes? Yeah, only a few have survived our purges.
Old prophetic tapes/notes? Funny how many of those words turned out to be "on", but nothing like we assumed they would look when we first heard them, eh?
Of course, with all the research I've been doing this past year, I've added to the clutter with about fourteen big binders of notes, articles, etc. A future purge will probably deal with them.
I'd be interested in hearing how your take on those prophetic words has changed from then to now.
Doesn't that feel good?! I do get behind once in awhile and find that I start shoving stuff in boxes in the attic or basement. That's when I have to get a grip or pay later.
But that's funny about the words you've been given...you've inspired me to pull out the box I have full of them and take a listen...will be interesting what I find.
Thanks Kelly. You never know when those things will come in handy. :)
Robby,
I think I haven't moved often enough. Over 20 years, things start accumulating.
I'll let you know about the prophetic words. It was interesting reading your post about dusty dreams while I was in the midst of all this cleaning and reminiscing.
Lilly,
I've always planned on typing all of mine out and saving them in written form. I'm not sure I'll ever have time to do it though.
Wow, 50 tapes of prophetic words? You guys have gotten a lot of prophetic prayer! Over 8 years that would average about 6x a year.
I know what you mean about perspective. But there is a couple of reasons for that: maturity for one, we're a bit further along in our understanding of how God works and communicates to us, his timetable, etc...and we also have more understanding and experience in knowing that not every word is "spot on" for any number of reasons.
But the other part, the I-took-the-red-pill part is intriguing. That is the part I would like to dialogue about, but I'm not sure where to begin.
My husband and I left our charismatic church in November, slipping out quietly through the backdoor. Hardly anyone noticed, and I'm ok with that. (yeah, sure I am, pass me another Zima, honey)
A few days ago someone from the church called. She had a word for our family. I like this woman. I have ministered with her and I know she has prophetic gifting. She is a gem of a person and I enjoy her so much. She just bought a home about a mile from my home and we are certain to develop a friendship beyond the whole churchy-know-ya thing. So I listened to what she had to say.
"I don't think you're supposed to leave, Pam. I think God showed me that your family is to come back."
Oh.
She had a picture, she said, of a flower in a pot that was blooming, but not growing. "The flower is fine, but it's not going to grow anymore." The inference was quite clear.
I like this woman a lot. I knew it was a risk for her to call me and present such a word to me. So I affirmed her for that and told her that she probably has heard something from God for us, but I know that prophetic people often mess up in the interpreting of words. Jerry and I have no inkling whatsoever to return, but thank you for thinking of us.
Of course I tuned in to God, did a quick check in, Was that a word from you for us to go back? Um, no.
I talked to Jerry about it. Nope, not a change of heart or anything like that.
The next day a leader from the church called and talked to Jerry. "I don't normally call people who've left and ask them to come back but I want to ask you guys to come back. Tell Pam I'm understanding the emerging church and we're trying to change."
Wow.
Jerry and I talked about it, tuned in to God once again (Are you talking to us here?) and concluded Nope, doesn't seem like we are meant to go back.
Are these folks from our church trying to spiritually manipulate us? I don't think so. They are good people who follow God and His Spirit the best they can just like I do. I appreciate that they miss us and feel strongly about us returning. But I think some wires got crossed and messages mixed up. Apparently this sort of thing happens to other people too. A friend of mine left her charismatic church after 30 years. Two dear women, power house intercessors told her, "God does not want you to leave". She and her husband knew otherwise.
I think what I am gleaning from these words of the Lord is that we need to be cautious about what we call the word of the Lord. John Bevere has an excellent and sobering book out called Thus Saith the Lord? that deals with the casual attitude many of us have about throwing words of the Lord around like they're frisbees.
I like the term you and Rob use, post-charismatic but not post-Holy Spirit.
This weekend I am going to Seattle with my friend Suzanne to a Whatever Happened to the Holy Spirit? conference. Some of the workshops sound intriguing, like "Why I left the Holy Ghost Parade". I'll be sure to let you know what insights, if any, I gain by listening and talking with others.
This would be a great topic to explore more, reassessing and redefining our experiences as post-Charismatics.
Pam,
If you see David Ruis there (he's one of the speakers), tell 'im Rob McAlpine says "hi" and that he really needs to respond to his emails more frequently (some things never change...). :)
Oh, and that he still owes me a Guinness.
Pam,
Thanks for sharing that.
I appreciate how you weighed and considered these "words."
Being out on the wilderness trail without a map leaves one in a state of continually checking in to find out if we're still on track.
Sometimes it becomes difficult sorting through the many voices in order to hear the one voice we are following and balancing that with being able to discern God's voice in another person.
I can't wait to hear about your weekend!
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