God used my dream yesterday
God used my dream yesterday. Not everyone knows this, but I dream a lot. On a good night, I’ll get 10 (two pages in length written out) dreams. I’m not trying to brag, considering I have no control over these dreams and haven’t been the best steward of them. Typically, the dreams are forgotten unless someone provokes one and I explain the dream to that person.
This latter situation (someone provoking my dream and asking me to explain it) happened two weeks ago. My dream centered on a candidate in America’s current main political race.
The dream began to travel quickly from intercessors to leaders. Before I knew it, Cindy Jacobs, Dutch Sheets, and Chuck Pierce were praying against a spirit of deception (python spirit) that was trying to control the candidates and a younger generation still green in voting. Jayde Duncan, of the Duncan household I live in, prayed passionately about the next generation of young voters and explained to the 600 attendees of the Dutch Sheets Ministries assembly that a young son in the house had a dream leading up to these prayers.
As leaders around the nation prayed into the circumstances I had seen in my dreams, I felt empowered. Though nobody knew who the “young son” in the house was, it didn’t matter because I was contributing to something bigger.
The goal was bigger than my role.
This whole situation reminded me of some situations I dealt with in the Middle East. As the leader for a group of friends that went, I made many decisions, but didn’t always know the best direction to take. So, I turned to my assistant leader, Hannah Sheets, and asked her to be my eyes (a seer) and help discern the situations. Whether she’s receiving dreams that are steering the course of The Call, a book or some people in the Middle East she has steered many things without receiving public credit.
I love that. A leader able to make things happen without credit is rare and honorable. I want to do this more often, but perhaps by writing about this I’m giving myself credit. Bummer. Maybe Next time I’ll get it.
Two main lessons I learned:
1. Pay attention to every way the LORD speaks and doing something with His messages (pray, write or communicate them out)
2. Leading without recognition is honorable and exciting.
P.S.
As the service reached a climax, Cindy Jacobs pulled the young girls, the young Deborahs, onto the stage to dance before the LORD. Their dancing was pure and beautiful. During that time, a leader (who was unable to hear why those girls were on stage) got upset that none of the men were representing on the stage. So, he looked at my roommate, Daniel Anderson, and me in order for us to get up on the stage. Immediately, we got nervous. How strange, creepy and embarrassing would it have been for us to dance up their with all the women. Usually things like this do not embarrass me, but I knew it would seem like I was making fun of those girls or having an identity crisis. But, we wanted to obey our leader.
We didn’t. He called us over to him. We told him why the girls were up there (without any boys) and he burst in hearty laughter. After the laughter subsided, he let us stay off stage as men.
Praise God it wasn’t a test of pride, for we would have failed.
He just won't let me sit.
The hotel I work or doesn’t want front desk workers to sit. So, on my first day I stood for many hours (my shift is from 7am-3pm). Funny enough, my last job (Outback) required me to walk for several hours serving customers their Bloomin’ Onions. Working class America just won’t let me sit.
Yes, I started working at a hotel today. The Marriott Springhills Suites in Colorado Springs. Working a job like this is not my ideal—it’s not what I was put on this Earth to do, but I am doing it. For the last year, I’ve been living full time occupational ministry, and that’s not changing. My schedule and position in my church staff is increasing, and now I’m adding this job to it. It’s going to be a lot of work, but it’s worth it.
Many things are changing around me. My roommates just got back from the middle east and we’ve renewed our vision, along with the staff, for Generation Church. Some amazing things are happening. We have our first off campus seeker-targeted service on October 29th, so please keep us in prayer. Our church congregation just finished a 90 day assignment to cancel everything that we are doing to worship our LORD. We didn’t have services for three months. I led the last two Generation Church services and that was a real honor. In last week’s service, some students received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and Fire. Others began flowing in a gift of intercession and prayed for the nation and the nations for about an hour. I never got to preach my sermon, but was grateful to facilitate what the LORD was doing in the service.
I never know when the LORD is about do something crazy. Well, sometimes I do. Last Thursday, I went to a cool missions gathering, where missionaries from all over the world assembled to share their stories through video and music. It took place in a bar in Denver. At the event, this girl said the moment I entered the room she was attracted to my “anointing” and had to talk to me. She and a friend approached my group and we began to talk. It wasn’t awkward at all, and before she told me why we were talking, I began to prophesy to her. Turns out the prophesies were relevant (she mentioned as her eyes watered) and that she was one of the organizers of the event. At that point, she told me that she had wanted to talk to me ever since I walked into the room. Two days before that, I spent six hours talking with a world renown missions strategist, Fred Market, and that was unexpected and provoking. I feel like the LORD is about do something crazy—crazier than me working at a hotel.. The LORD is doing great things because He is great, and it seems He doesn't want me to sit when there's a world that needs me to stand.
Peace out,
Pradeepan
Hold me Accountable.
As I do more and more life, I’m realizing that if I don’t reflect, evaluate, capture and articulate some experiences, I lose them. I want to start updating my life adventure frequently (it’s been over a year since I’ve last updated my xanga). So, I’ve moved over to blogspot, and want to post rants, evaluations, reflections and media (videos, music and sermons) on here at least weekly--if not daily.
Stay tuned for stories about my trip to Jordan, week of traveling with the Tony Hawk Tour and living in Colorado Springs.
Please hold me accountable by commenting and asking me to write (I will take requests).
-Pradeepan
Generational Curses and you.
We're Cooking on Gas!I spent the last month in Kenya. Now I’m in Minnesota. In Kenya, my host frequently said, “We’re cooking on Gas!” to communicate that something good was happening. Today, I said, “We’re cooking on Gas!” to tell my father that we were literally cooking on gas—a gas stove. He had no reason to laugh and he didn’t. Two hours before this happened, Pastor John Mathews visited us (This Lutheran pastor gave my family a house on his church’s property when we had no where else to live. This man led my baby baptism). Catching up was nice. During that time, I learned something about him. Pastor John Matthews is the president of the International Bonhoeffer Society (http://www.dbonhoeffer.org). This was cool because a group of friends and I read through The Cost of Discipleship, a book by Bonhoeffer, this last year. If you’re looking for a book that will kick your butt as hard as Tozer’s The Pursuit of God, read it. Additionally, I discovered that Pastor John had been a friend of Bonhoeffer’s best friend, Eberhard Bethge, before he passed away in 2000. This man had been a friend of my family before I was even born, yet I didn’t know about his international prestige. I wonder what else I don’t know about people. I wonder what you don’t know about the people in your life—even your family. Whenever I want to learn something about my family, I badger my father or mother. Sometimes the only way to get a story out of my father is by putting a drink into him (not an alcholic). Sowing and reaping. My dad knows how to cook (on gas, wood and electricity). He knows how to cook really well. Sometimes my friends come to my house (while I’m not there) just to eat his food. Why is he a good cook? Simple. He grew up without his father. Through the ceaseless badgering, I found out that my great grandpa (on my father’s side) was the Chief or “Maniakaren” of Kaliamkadu (a village near Jaffna in Sri Lanka). My grandpa, then, left this legacy and became a leader in the Sri Lankan Navy. My father was born, and my grandpa once again left his legacy (my father) behind, so my father grew up without a father. Then, his mother left him. On the other side of my family line, I discovered that my great grandpa was an Anglican Priest, Church planter and Christian songwriter. This surprised me because my parents were Hindu until they came to America. My grandma ran away (from India) with my grandpa (a Hindu) and birthed my mother (in Sri Lanka). My mother went to India for the first time this last winter and met some of her cousins for the first time. The incredible thing about that trip is that almost all of her family in India is in the ministry (evangelists, pastors, church planters, etc.). In fact, she saw a whole town celebrating the people of my family because they had just finished translating the Bible into the town’s language. Also, churches are still singing songs that my great grandpa wrote. When I became a born-again Christian and accepted my call to the ministry, I thought I was the first. Through a lot of badgering and research, I discovered I inherited a rich heritage of Christian ministry and village leadership. Exodus 34:6-7 says, “And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and fourth generation.’” This passage tells us that choices don’t affect individuals. Choices affect generations. This principle is neutral—it works for good and bad, like sowing and reaping (if you sow something good, you reap something good . . .). People call these Generational Curses and Blessings. It’s a serious issue and unless someone does something to stop the cycle, it continues. Are their trends in your family that you have noticed? Have you ever wondered why certain things never work out for you? Have you ever said, “I’ll never do the things my parents have done.”? It could be that you are under the power of a generational curse. There is a way out. To reverse the curse, Jesus gave us the way out: “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” People ask me why I have so much favor. Considering that there has been so much pain in my family, it’s a valid question. I have made a choice to not walk in the inheritance of my Hindu family (divorce, alcoholism, rage, etc.). I didn’t even choose to walk in the inheritance of my Great grandpa (the Anglican priest). I have denounced any ties I have to my family, and, through faith, received the promises of my Heavenly Father. Is this possible? Do I have the right to choose which family legacy I inherit? Yes. At eight years of age, King Josiah did it. “Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jedidah the daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath. And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the ways of his father David.” What does this prove? It proves that our biological fathers don’t dictate whose ways we walk in. David was not the biological father of Josiah, yet this eight-year-old king inherited his legacy. As Galatians says, we receive the promises of our fathers through faith. Like Josiah, I suggest that you choose to inherit the ways of your Heavenly Father and not your earthly one. Flesh births flesh. Spirit births Spirit. By walking in the Spirit, in all the ways of your Heavenly Father, you’ll find that all generational curses are reversed. God is totally capable of turning a curse into a blessing. “Nevertheless the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam, but the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loves you.” God loves you and wants you to walk in crazy blessings. Our Heavenly Father knows what He is doing, even if our earthly ones do not. Be careful to not curse your parents for the mistakes they have made, for Romans 12:14 says, “bless and do not curse.” All you have to do is denounce the curse and receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. You have to make the choice, though. “’And you shall eat it as barley cakes; and bake it using fuel of human waste in their sight.’ Then the LORD said, ‘So shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, where I will drive them.’ So I said, ‘Ah, Lord God! Indeed I have never defiled myself from youth till now; I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has abominable flesh ever come into my mouth.’ Then He said to me, ‘See, I am giving you cow dung instead of human waste, and you shall prepare your bread over it.’” So, what are you cooking on? Because of the sins of our fathers, it might seem that we have to cook on “human waste,” but God is giving us a way out. Stay tuned in for more articles on curses. |
Die for my Enemies
“Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7–8)
As of now, typing is rather difficult. Even though there is no snow today (December 19, 2006) in Minnesota, lying down in the heat consuming, hardened grass may not have been the best way of resting, especially for one hour. It was worth it, though. As I rested on the frozen ground, after jogging through a suburban community and dense woods, I decided to soak in the mysterious, Minnesotan blue sky. In my peripheral vision, a few trees and bird silhouettes bordered my view. For me this was a needed and refreshing experience. Because of that time spent outdoors, my forearms and fingers are, only now, beginning to function normally—typing is starting to get easier. In order to fully absorb the environment and beauty around me, I gave up my warmth to the chilly night and deep Earth. Like I said earlier, I did that for an hour.
When I stood up, I drunkenly stumbled towards my house, away from the trees. A lady surprised me as I walked home. Somehow I did not sense her presence (though it was dark) and she walked by with a German Shepherd on a leash. Frequently when I see people, like that lady or a close friend, I think, would I be willing to die for that person? It’s a startling thought. In this world, many people never reach their full potential. In fact, it is rare that a person whole-heartedly strives towards the greatness inside each and everyone of us. I fully plan on finding my greatness in God. Why, then, would I sacrifice my life for someone that will never be something great? On top of that, why would I die for someone that I’ve never met? Even that raises other questions in me. Would I die for someone that I don’t respect? Who am I to judge a person's worth? Would I die for a child molester?
This has been really hard for me to understand. So, I searched the Scriptures. I found that Jesus Christ “died for the ungodly” (Rom 5:6). The verse following this says that “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (5:8). Christ died for us even though we were His enemies (Rom 5:10). Before dying on the Cross, Jesus told the disciples that “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Before this, he says “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you” (15:12). If I am going to love people like Jesus did, I have to be willing to die as He did. From now on, I choose to recklessly love. In order to enjoy the Minnesota Outdoors, I gave up my warmth. In the same way, in order to love people, I am willing to give up my life.
If you ever hear me say that I love you, know that I mean it—even if it costs me my life.