DAY 8: FROM CRISIS OF NEED TO VISION OF POTENTIAL
PRAYER CALL TONIGHT! 9-10 pm EST. Conference call number: 805-399-1200 access code 552-690. Use *6 to mute/unmute. Invite your friends to join us!
Thank you for helping us remain in DC! To donate, see http://lamplighterministries.net. To partner monthly, please write us at [email protected].
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First, an update. We shared Monday how our funding for housing in DC has shifted dramatically—even causing us to question if it is financially feasible to remain in the region. While praying, I felt the Lord say that “what was carried by few will now be carried by many.” For this reason we felt to invite you into the miracle God desires to bring.
THANK YOU LAMPLIGHTER FAMILY for responding! We are off to an incredible start in our monthly partnerships. More than $500 in new monthly donations have been pledged! Please consider how the Lord desires for you to help. Becoming a monthly partner will help us tremendously as we stand with you for the Lord’s work here. A one-time donation is also totally appreciated!
Our goal—really our mandate— is a stable base of at least $3500 per month. May sound like a stratospheric goal to begin with, but please remember the cost of housing in metro Washington DC is quite literally insane. A few congressional leaders even choose to live in their offices for this very reason.
Vision of Potential
I guess you can say we’ll be living out of our our office as well! Above all else, please get your prayer engines going and pray with us for provision. Our goal is to receive a home that is strategically placed, large enough to facilitate key prayer meetings and also host guests.
Transition is always such an adventure, isn’t it? Perhaps the most trying aspect of transition is to shift from a crisis of need to a vision of potential. Now this is so important for each of you as you move forward in your respective transitions. Don’t just “fake it til you make it.” Instead, let the pressures you feel be formed into an authentic cry before God’s Throne. Remember in Exodus 2, God heard their cries and remembered His covenant!
But don’t stop there. In your communion with the Lord, allow Him to extend your vision beyond your current challenges into His dream for your future. It’s worth noting again—let the Lord shift you from a crisis of need to a vision of potential!
Learning this in process! But here is a vision of the potential God is affording Lamplighter for His work in the region. Back in November, long before we were even aware of a need to transition, the Lord prophesied into our next move. He gave me the following vision of a “Roundtable House,” where strategic prophetic gatherings and prayer meetings would one day be hosted. We originally shared this vision on January 7 of this year.
The Roundtable House
On November 12, 2012 I awoke to the following prophetic dream while visiting Paul and Cheryl Amabile on Cape Cod. They are dear friends of ours, and both our prophetic revelation and ministry journeys have run on parallel tracks. The night before, on 11-11, we had the honor of ministering in Plymouth MA with Linda Clark. We celebrated the anniversary of the Pilgrims’ signing of the Mayflower Compact—establishing our land and government by covenant with the Lord. We were honored to consecrate “Crown & Throne” to the Lord on this very anniversary.
The dream on 11-12 seems to be about securing a “prayer home” in a marketplace that emphasizes apostolic community. In the dream, Jolene and I were looking at a glass house built right in the middle of a large shopping area. The house was exceptionally inexpensive—only $32,000—and was near large mountains.
David and Tracey Ruleman were showing us the house and selling the house. Though they served as real estate agents my the dream, they actually pastor the Gate DC.
The house was large and spacious. It had a very unusual kitchen area. In addition to appliances, the kitchen area had a glass or plastic pulpit with a very large table. The pulpit and the table both made of clear glass, and the table was round. The round table had round benches around it, almost like a picnic table.
The apartment/condo was very close to a 247 Fitness Center in the mall. Very large bedrooms featured wooden floors. Large windows showed the mountains and the traffic outside. I believe there was a very big road with a lot of traffic as well as lots of mall traffic. But I could not hear the noise from the outside; only when the cars beeped the horn did I hear anything. So it was as quiet as most rural homes, and more quiet than most urban homes.
Securing the House
I sat down to talk with David about putting a $500 deposit on the home to take it off the market before someone else tried to purchase it. In the dream I would have signed the papers immediately, but needed to show Jolene the home, and she was still en route. Tracey Ruleman at that time was working with another client, I think at the roundtable. The price was amazing, everything in the apartment was amazing, though parts of the apartment were unfinished. Everything seemed very upscale, and I could not figure out why there wasn’t more demand for the apartment/ townhome/ condominium, I don’t know which one it was.
Towards the end of the dream, just as I was waking up, I saw a gang of young kids with shotguns walking through the mall. They were acting like security staff. I couldn’t figure out were self-appointed or were actually sheriffs, but they patrolled the mall. I never heard any gunfire but it was like they were going into the mall and they didn’t seem to be on the “up and up.”
I don’t know how the apartment was integrated into the mall but it was like there was a row of houses close to the inside center of the wall. I didn’t know where was—I thought perhaps Colorado Springs because of the mountains but I didn’t know in the dream where I was.
The Ruling Roundtable—Interpretation
Biblically, mountains often represent government. God seems to be indicating a ministry house or prayer center that impacts both government and marketplace. The mall could represent a shopping area, or could also represent proximity to the National Mall from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol and Supreme Court. This “Roundtable House” was close in proximity to a 24/7 fitness center. I believe the 24/7 fitness center represents 24/7 prayer, and also ndicates training and strengthening towards this end.
One of the reasons I believe the “Roundtable House” is in Washington DC is because David and Tracey Ruleman were the agents. Again, they pastor a work called “The Gate DC.” Can’t make this up! Their last name, Rule-man,resonates with the “Crown and Throne commission” to RULE from the HOUSE OF DAVID.
Now lets explore the imagery of the table. As shared yesterday the Lord is putting a major emphasis this year on roundtables. Where people from different streams share insights and giftings that bring a more complete expression of His heart and work. Like the elders before the Throne, participants will gaze on God’s majesty and together legislate His Kingdom expressions in the earth.
A kitchen table conveys community. God desires mature expressions of apostolic community, with people of different strengths who are united by a common cause, sharing not just their labors in the gospel but their very lives.
His Name will be Great Among the Nations!
Finally, the cost. Somehow the house was priced at only $32,000—and required only a $500 deposit. Jolene and I both agreed—deal done, we’ll take it! That said, despite much debate, we remained relatively clueless about the meaning of the numbers. At least until responding to our last-minute invitation to the OneThing gathering with IHOP-KC. Crazy that we participated in a 500-person leadership roundtable as part of a 32,000 person gathering!
Can’t make that up.
At this leadership roundtable, leaders from prayer centers, churches and missions agencies across the earth convened to focus on accelerating the dream articulated in Malachi 1:11.What a verse for 2014 and beyond! And what an honor for all of us to be a part of this move. The cost at this time may seem great. But when we see the magnitude of blessing and impact for Jesus here and in the nations, it will be more than worth it all!
“For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord of hosts!”
