I Am A Soldier In The Army Of My God.

The Lord Jesus Christ is my Commanding Officer.
The Holy Bible is my code of conduct.

Faith, love, prayer and the Word are my weapons of warfare.
I have been taught by the Holy Spirit.
Trained by experience,
tried by adversity,
and tested by fire.

I am a volunteer in this army,
and I am enlisted for eternity.
I will either retire in this Army in the end or die in this Army;
but I will not get out, sell out, be talked out,
I am faithful, capable and dependable.

If my God needs me,
I am there.
If he needs me in Sunday school to teach children,
work with the youth, help adults
or just sit and learn,
He can use me
because I am there!

I am a soldier.
I am not a baby.
I do not need to be pampered,
petted, primped up, pumped up,
picked up, or pepped up.

I am a soldier. No one has to call me,
remind me,
write me, visit me,
entice me, lure me.

I am a soldier
I am not a wimp.
I am in place, saluting my King,
obeying his orders, praising his name,
and building his kingdom!

I am a soldier.
No one has to send me flowers,
gifts, food,
cards, candy,
or give me handouts.
I do not need to be cuddled, cradled
cared for, or catered to.
I am committed!

I cannot have my feelings hurt bad enough to turn me around.
I cannot be discouraged enough to turn me aside.
I cannot lose enough to cause me to quit.

When Jesus called me into this Army,
I had nothing.
If I end up with nothing,
I will still come out even.

I will win.
My God will supply all my needs.
I am more than a conqueror.
I will always triumph.
I can do all things through Christ.

I am a Soldier.
Devils cannot defeat me.
People cannot disillusion me.
Weather cannot weary me.
Sickness cannot stop me.
Battles cannot beat me.
Money cannot buy me.
Governments cannot silence me.
and Hell cannot handle me!

I am a soldier.
Even death cannot destroy me.
For when my commander calls me from this battlefield,
He will promote me to a captain
and then bring me back to rule this world with him.

I am a soldier,
marching Heaven bound.
Here I stand.

Will you stand with me?



This was our reveile before pray the bible on thursday, and it really stuck out to me. We say we're soldiers in Gods army, especially when your raised in the SALVATION army, but...are we always ready to "pray, preach, or die"? Are we willing to say, I love the Lord more than i love my life? If we're prepared to make a full sacrifice to God, he will do great things and the Devils Schemes will not shake us.

Are you prepared for the Lord?

The Wilderness

This morning I got up early to go and enjoy the fellowship and sermon of the 11 am service at Cariboo Hill Temple. The sermon was on Exodus 17:1-7. 

In our own lives we truly are in a form of the wilderness, we are in dry weary land filled with addiction, sorrow and loneliness and we desire to be refreshed and replenished. And like the Israelites we reach a point where we question if God is even there. Are you listening? Do you exist? And it's in times like these we need to realize that in the wilderness that God is showing himself very plainly. He IS listening, and in the dry land (like Rephidim) that God is faithful and will deliver you.

TWC's Next Top Warrior

So before coming to Vancouverest, I LOVED Americas next top model, could quote it, made it a point to get to watch the new episodes on Wednesday nights, played ANTM, and also related real life to the Show.

I guess thats what reality shows do, they kinda mock or whatever real life. I remember my first summer going on a mission team I told our leader becki, she was like Tyra, and orientation is like ANTM! She didn't really understand. (she didn't understand a lot of my thoughts actually...)

But tonight when thinking about where I am at in my head, spiritually, and just observing the structure and the occurrences here at The War College it reminded me of my fav show ANTM.

I think the role of Tyra switches, sometimes...mostly jonathan...but sometimes its our other leaders...maybe disciplers...Or they could also fit the role of the judges.

I cried a lot today...maybe some legit maybe some not legit...but in the show sometimes i would giggle when the girls cried...sometimes they had a lot of makeup on. Sometimes they cried because of reldivs (relational difficulties), sometimes rebuke from Tyra or photographers, Sometimes they ended up feeling like they sucked at something, or they just missed their family.

So totally relatable to TWC, my day consisted of a lot of those things. and its just hard. reldivs,rebukes,suckyness, are not fun or easy.

Sometimes it gets so hard for the girls they quit and go home. Or they are not actually fit to be ANTM. They have to make a choice to be there, give it their all, learn and apply things to be a better model. I am not here to become a Fierce Model...but a Fierce Warrior, TWC is all about training Warriors to Win the World for Jesus.

so i have to choose to be here, choose not to go home or give up and be defeated, but choose to be a conqueror! I am here to train, and im realizing more n more that im not going to be naturally amazing at the tasks set before me. That i will fall, and get bruised, but get back up again and learn from mistakes and grow more and more. But if i give up i won't grow, i wont fulfill the purpose of training. So i am not giving up. Do you want to be on top? So who will be on top? I hope I can be one who is on top!

Awake, O my Soul!

Last night I saw such a clear image of beauty.
A few of us were gathered around a hospital bed of someone going through a rough time. As the person was sleeping, Cherie was sitting right down near her face and started gently singing 'beautiful one i love, beautiful one i adore...'. The beautiful part was that the person started twitching, like their soul was starting to awaken slowly. Then after a few minutes they opened their eyes and started engaging with Cherie.
It was just beautiful. It was like their soul was engaging with the song and was starting to stir faster then the physical reaction of the body. It was so pure and gentle and honest.

   I'm not feeling the greatest today, and here's why: I loath welfare day with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns, and I just got two shots in the arm.

   Firstly, it's not that I dislike welfare, I think that it is a good way for the government to help those who can't work(even if it's not much). But when the money is being so greatly abused like it is down here, I get really frustrated. There is also a lot more blatant drug use and a lot of anger on the streets, because now that welfare is here people can pay back their dealers for whatever they owe.

   Secondly, I got a pneumonia shot and a flu shot today; they were scary but still WAY better than high school. I'm dreading not feeling so great in a couple of hours, but I'll just have to deal.

And KETTLES START THIS WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have You Heard The Bells Yet?

This Saturday was the official "kick off" for kettles in downtown Vancouver. A bunch of us got all "hockey-ed" up and set up our kettles at the gates outside of GM place, because a Canucks game was happening that night (WE WON). I remember just when we started, there was a homeless man standing there waiting to panhandle when the game was out. It was really funny because Hannah and I knew that he was trying to tell us to leave in the nicest way possible. There were a lot of people who didn't seem into the Christmas spirit at all, or people who were yelling at us because the band was playing Christmas carols. But I kept ringing those bells. There were 2 amazing parts of the night that are still sticking with me today. The first was a little boy, and in his hand he had his first allowance he had ever recieved. His father told him what happens to the money that goes into the kettles, and the little 7 year old boy decided to throw his 5 dollar bill into the kettle. Also, the homeless man who was trying to get us to leave in the first place came up to the kettle and said "Here's everything I collected tonight, and I realized it belongs to you guys..." it was SO BEAUTIFUL!

PRAISE THE LORD!

Victoria Brigade

614 Vancouver's Corps Officer, Aaron White preached at Highpoint last week. Check it out here:

http://www.pointful.ca/?p=387

Lately, God has really been talking to me about trusting him. Not only as an individual person, but as a whole body. I feel like he wants his entire church to really come together and be united in him.

Thats really all I have to say, but It is kind of powerful.

A story for the spirit!!

As I have already established, for those regular readers, God has been stretching and humbling and growing me in intercession.

So here is for a neat experience to share-

Wednesday night I was getting the coffee machine ready in the community coffee shop, and I suddenly felt a deep urgency to pray. I just felt a heavy burden, it had no name or face to it but I knew the burden was not mine. So, I spoke out in the spirit for about 30 minutes before the urgency passed. [Mind you, Im mighty glad that nobody else was around because I was called to my knees and utterences just seemed to deeply pour out of my soul...it was quite bizarre!!]
So, I thought not much more of it for a while as I had my mind occupied with Recr8.

Then, I had to take a few people out for a bit of street ministry who had come down to Vancouver for the week from Alberta. While we were walking and talking we got on to the subject of giftings and we had a wuality conversation on what intercession is. In the process, I was able to share my experience from earlier on in the evening...and discovered at the exact time that God had called me to engage in the spirit and pray, there was an intense debriefing happening with this group who were down here doing ministry. Someone was pouring out their soul on an issue they had been carrying with them.

So being a woman of faith, I don't believe in coinsidence. I believe that this was a working of the spirit- that the event was covered in prayer. Not because of anything that I am or any special thing that I can be, but simply because it was a moment of pure direction by the spirits leading. So, I believe God is at work! At it is always exciting to see little pieces of the kingdom and to receive encouragement.

My reason for sharing is so that all glory and honor and praise would go to The Lord! Because He is living. And active.

Hallelujah!!

Hey, so I haven't bogged in quite a while, but I figured that I should really get on it so that my squad doesn't yell at me for getting us a bonus blessing...

Anyway. Lately I have come to the realization that I am not at the War College to help people, or save the world, or whatever. God has brought me here to work on me. Call it selfishness or narcissism, but I love myself, and I want to be whole: I want to stop being a broken, lonely person. I want to be a woman who basks in the glory of God. I want to be holy and righteous. I want to know what my purpose is both in life and within the body of Christ. And I want to cry, unreservedly, because I know that God looks on me with adoration and grace. Man, I just want to cry; without thinking that I am being weak or wanting to hold it back because it hurts, but to glorify God in my vulnerability, to break down not only my own walls and reservations but everyone else's too. 

I was reading a poem by Bradley Hathaway today, and I thought that it would be appropriate to post a link to it, It's called The Hug Poem. 

http://www.lyricstime.com/bradley-hathaway-the-hug-poem-lyrics.html

Grace,

Jessica Walker

On erosion.

One of the main parts of my War College year was learning how to break into smallness, for it is in our smallness that the vastness of YHWH is most easily recognised by those around us. I once thought of it like a child standing near the ocean; the ocean was always huge but the smallness of the child gives us the perspective of just how overwhelming it is. As Christ reveals Himself to us, we are made more and more like Him and less and less like us, we need to learn how to let Him change us - this hurting world needs more than just kids with big dreams, it needs a big God who acts in small things, through small people.
When the people of this world see huge things coming from an army of people just as small as they are who REFUSE to live in a state of bigness and remain humbly on their knees, they will realise that God is working through His people, and hopefully they will want to be one of His people, too.
May The Lamb Who Was Slain bless your journey to be more like Him.


I am small.
You, crashing around me
rolling over me in the morning tides
I hear nothing but the
submission of the sands
feel nothing but the
heartbeat of the waves breaking against my
small, weak, delicate and
ultimately insignificant
body.
You, enveloping my self and
urging me to break into
the bigness that -itself- overwhelms
me.

I, like the rocks upon which I stand,
will give way to the relentless waves.
and You, great Rescuer, will search
for me among the sands
Sweep me up and let the
current rush me away from this
simple, safe and ultimately destructive
shoreline.
-Caitlyn Spence

Feedback

We often host other students from Trinity Western, Columbia Bible College and currently Canadian Lutheran Bible Institute [They are inhabiting The War Room and doing prayer shifts while ministering alongside us].

Here is some feedback from Trinity Western University I'd like to share:

Every year the evening with your leaders make such a profound impression on students' lives- even though its just one evening I know of at least 3 students, who walked with The War College in the DTES.  The students, graduated since, are now working in Missions in slums in El Salvador, Vietnam and Chicago. All said the evening with your leaders were so powerful and planted a seed to serve the Lord in this field. The student who is in Vietnam took the idea of the prayer room and planted it in her ministry. Thank you for being such a blessing!

All Glory to God!

Victoria Brigade!

We have ventured to Victoria to brigade at The high Point corps. The cool thing about being in a new place is all of the cool new experiences! When we were on the bus i was thinking about all of the small things im easily amazed at, and how much i love seeing all the new things I can see. So i loved seeing different houses, stores, more leaves, street names, and bridges! So it was a super adventure getting here, 3 buses and a ferry, and a car ride! that is epic!

So we got here and met the corps officers and got briefed about out time here. So we found out that we are helping to lay vinyle floor, and eating at the ARC, and potential street combat-esque type stuff. so at first it seemed like such a impossible task,and figured that we would not finish. not negative, just not as hopeful as the c/o. So after dinner is when we got the real work done, we had a rythum, it was great! But the floor was for a room that was going to be a shelter at night. We got to write our names on the floor before we put vinyle floor down and a prayer. I was really excited about that. It was cool that our hands had role in making this place pretty and nice. It was a great picture of the impossible getting done, or team work or something.

so victoria is cool, helping is cool, and so is meeting new people.

Release

I feel like God is teaching me a lot about giftings. How they're unique. How they're beautiful, oh so beautiful! How they are meant to bless. Meant to grow. To encourage the kingdom.

God is growing me in intercession; and I've always been a burden bearer.
I believe he is gently encouraging me, showing me things! Speaking. Revealing.

And this week my intention has been to pray through that THE one desire of my heart, THE one desire of my LIFE would be to simply dwell in the house of the Lord. Even to simply be a doorman...oh, to be close to the author of life! To hear. To see. To listen.

More, dear Lord, more!!

Stranger

I'm but a stranger here,

Heaven is my home;

Earth is a desert drear,

Heaven is my home.

Danger and sorrow stand 

Round me on every hand;

Heaven is my fatherland

Heaven is my home.

As I was talking to my friend Rob tonight he made the comment that we're all immigrants and that none of us own this earth so we should all get out, we had a good laugh. But it is true that we are all as believers aliens and strangers to this world.

"Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul."

- 1 Peter 2:11

Conversation continued

Do you want to be my friend?

That is a question I need to get use to asking. I am on the search for 2 more friends that live down here. i like talking to people, and I like loving them. but getting to the step of finding where they live and consistantly seeing them. the other day in army n navy i met this girl she was beautiful and told me about she is a hard worker and likes working. It was a cool conversation. I like the random conversations I have with people, they are authentic and without pretence. So i am praying for some more consistant relationships with peeps who live in my community.