ADVANCED SCHOOL OF KINGS—NEXT WEEKEND! August 10-11, 2018, With Jon & Jolene Hamill, Martin & Cindy Frankena, Foxchase Golf Course, Stevens PA. For more information or to register CLICK HERE
KEEP THE FIRE BURNING! Please consider investing in Lamplighter today. Help us share Christ’s heart and word in real-time, releasing God’s breakthrough from Washington to Washington to Jerusalem! CLICK HERE TO CONTRIBUTE.
DEAR LAMPLIGHTER FAMILY,
The sun is beginning to set, lighting up the Allegheny River in the valley below as a few stragglers make their way downstream in canoes. I’m not trying to eavesdrop. But sometimes with the updrafts you can hear every word, even a mile away.
We are visiting Jolene’s mom. Most of the year she lives in Florida, in a nice retirement community where golf and gossip fill the days and dancing lights up the nights. But every summer she insists on coming home.
Home to Phyllis is a renovated hunting cabin on top of a mountain in the middle of rural, western Pennsylvania. Stunning beauty, lots of deer, no air conditioning. And the only thing breaking the solitude is a continual stream of Hallmark channel romances. Not 24-7 news.
In DC we are a brisk walk away from the hallowed halls of Costco. Here a lumbering walk down the mountain’s dirt road lands you at a little store called, well, the Little Store. They sell basics. Eggs and bacon. Pancake mix. Deli meats. Honey packaged in bear bottles. And of course, the very best ice cream in the valley, complete with homemade waffle cones.
It’s a land literally dripping with milk and honey, now that my cone fell apart. Jolene’s mom insists that God lives on this mountain. I’m more and more inclined to believe her.
My spot is the deck. I started to write about a thousand times here today, but got sidetracked by praying. Can’t remember the last time that happened.
Talked with our friends Russ and Julie and they assuaged my ridiculous sense of guilt over achieving so very little at such a critical time. I mean, we’re in the middle of a vital fundraising campaign for Lamplighter. The debate over fake news is boiling over. The Manafort trial resumes. Security threats are surfacing.
And perhaps most calamitous of all, President Trump is tweeting again 🙂
Russ and Julie literally instructed me to write and let you know we took a weekend break. Fulfilling the words I’ve been preaching about most of the year as priority number one on God’s heart. Get away with Jesus for a while. Rest. Recover first love devotion. Jesus, just for the sake of Jesus. I’m not consciously aware of what all we gained this weekend, but a scripture did jump off the page at me. “My horn is exalted like a wild ox,” the psalmist wrote. “I shall be anointed with fresh oil!”
I agree. Make us wild in You! And please, more oil for our lamp, Lord!
Another passage also struck me. It’s from our book Midnight Cry, which I haven’t really taken time to read since we published it. It’s actually a pretty good devotional guide!
And seeing how we are the authors, the editors, and the publisher, there’s not a problem with sharing an excerpt with you. From our second chapter, “Burning Lamp Awakening,” here’s a vision the Lord gave me a few years ago of Jesus tending our lampstand to keep it burning bright. We are grateful to all who are sowing in prayer and finances to keep Lamplighter shining!
Vision: Jesus Tending Our Lampstand
It seems only right to close this chapter with a recent vision which made His care for us very real.
Though I’ve had many prophetic experiences, to my knowledge Jesus Himself has only appeared to me twice in the 30 years I’ve been walking with Him. The first time was in 2002. The second time was more recently, in January 2014, when I awoke from sleep to the vision below.
Jesus was dressed in a deep red robe, holding a menorah. It was barely burning. This flickering menorah was the only light that illuminated Him.
Jesus cradled the menorah in His hands, very close to His heart, and then wept into it. As His tears and breath fell upon the fire, the lamp literally began to blaze.
Jolene and I were attending “Holy Spirit Over Metro DC,” a key regional conference at the time. And it’s clear the vision was conveying Holy Spirit’s work in metro Washington DC and many other regions. Tending our corporate lampstands, the light against the darkness, which have been in danger of flickering out.
But the vision of Jesus cradling our menorah first represented Jolene and me, and our personal lampstand. He cares far more deeply about our our first-love devotion than we could ever imagine. He wants our personal affection to shine!
And like a lover’s gaze towards her beloved, that shining brightens His own countenance.
First Love Fire
I am so grateful that Jesus Himself is holding our lampstand close and tending it with such care in this hour. All that the lampstand represents—passion and intimacy with Him, Throne Room access and ministry effectiveness, even regional breakthrough—He is desiring to preserve. He’s making every opportunity available to you and me for this preservation.
But your response is needed. In Revelation, Jesus is pictured standing among the lampstands when He gives the following admonition:
“…You have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent” (Revelation 2:3-5).
It’s important to note that amazing breakthroughs soon accompanied this vision. I experienced first-hand how the same God of our first-love devotion has committed Himself to work with us and preserve this fire longterm. He will reset our lampstands and relight the flame!
Here’s a precious secret to keeping your fire burning. if your eye is single, your body is full of light. The enemy has tried to divide and scatter many of you in 2016 and 2017. Therefore the Spirit’s work for 2018 begins with restoring your focus on Jesus. From this you will find the fire of your passion ignited again. A burning lamp awakening!
Please consider investing in Lamplighter Ministries today! We are believing God for $12,000. Praying continually that all donations be met by the Lord in a release of perpetual provision on your behalf. Oil in the Spirit, covenant wealth in the natural! Your donations are vital as we move towards upcoming Rome to Jerusalem tour. More on this soon! CLICK HERE TO CONTRIBUTE.
