"They're Doin" It!!"

My noble friends, You Gotta see this!!

EEEEEEEKKK!! IT's SO GOOOOOD!!!

In fact... I'l "GiVe YoU YoUr MoNeY BaCk" if your heart does not burn and cry out with joy as you listen to the video below!! :)

We just laughed as our hearts burned with agreement with Allen Hood, the president of our Bible School here, as he spoke to a crowd of 25,000 this weekend.

We cried through this talk.

~ you can hear it at timer on the video 2:14 ~


Our tears said, YES!!! in agreement for Allen spoke out what God is calling this generation to. AND, they poured out in streams of great joy for we have great affection the beautiful Hood family.

All semester, our Ashley has been in a college-level course that Allen led at The Daniel Academy, called, "Excellencies of Christ". Ashley has come home with a bright heart and has been searching out her beloved, Jesus, in a way that is baptizing our home with firey love for Him that is touching us all...

I have been so blessed by the warmth and wisdom of Allen Hood's wife, Rachel. This family ( they have 3 wonderful boys), is a picture of love lived out so well.

In this video, Allen and his son, Samuel articulate SO WELL What our lives are about before God and what we are up to here at the International House of Prayer.

EVEN SO, we cried with tears of love and swelled up joyful admiration and affection over our dear friend, Samuel Hood, Allen's son, who we has become our dear friend and brother. He opens the time of prayer for his Dad.

Samuel faithfully pours into our sons, Anderson and Jack every week, teaching them piano in our home. He drives over to our little home here and walks in our door with joy and fire in His eyes.

He lays a hug on my kids and jumps with them on the trampoline. He models well what excellent love would look like, coming from an older brother. And he also spurs on some pretty great "Godly brotherly competion" :)~ HEE!!~ as he arrives with reward dollars in his pocket and creative ideas for games for them. It works!! ;) My little boys look for Samuel in the halls of their school...and they are not ignored...but are searched out and singled out as significant as this older teen loves them as well in public as at our house.

On Piano Lesson afternoons, our house swells with music as piano,guitar, and voices sing out to Jesus. Every week is a gem, but I cried the day I heard Samuel tell my boys about making their instrument sing out to God.

"Guys, the Bible says that 'even the rocks would cry out' if we did not give our praises to God. so we are going to let our instruments sing worship to God today"

The Joy and Passion for God is contagious and my little boys are caught up with the joy of the privilege of getting to worship Jesus.

Oh, they are SO beautiful...like little David's on their instruments and as they SING...

...not just a copy of other's style but NEW songs and sounds...

And the example goes further than Piano lesson afternoons...I see this tenderizing of little hearts, joyful expression in music in practice times...

... And, more importantly, rising up the steps from our den, individual,unprompted worship times with God

I have been tickled to witness attempts to reach toward one another in more love as brothers...

And, recently Anderson stepped into his first audition to be a singer for a worship team here, was received onto the team and is enjoying bringing his love for Jesus before other boys and girls...discipleship at its best everyone!! Its a beautiful thing!!

that one generation would tell the goodness of the Lord to another

HOW Different this is then MY memories of staring at the wind-up timer on my piano as a little girl...counting down the insufferable minutes!!...

Yet...not too different of that same young child, a little girl in the 70's who would go into her room to meet with Jesus there...and who would FIND Him waiting there for her every day as she sang and loved to talk with Him and search out in her Bible and in her own heart this living,breathing Word with love and affection for her...who then, in the 80's grew to know the joys of a guitar and a voice lifted before her brothers and sisters in praise and then before the hearth and its babies and toddlers in the 90's...to continue to feel the joy of the Spirit's counsel and joy pouring forth in song and praise through each decade ...

and now,in a new millenium...

He is STILL so INCREDIBLY precious and worthy...

That there is EVER treasure in the hidden places...

And joy in worship...

that song is increasing in her heart And on the Earth...

And...

She finds her children... searching Him out...

TRULY He is LASTING,WORTHY, the only value and joy and light of Life...

Truly only

ONE THING is worth

all our time'

all our focus'

all our admiration and affection,

and that ONE THING is a PERSON I adore and WILL search out,

to "BEHOLD HIS BEAUTY"

ALL THE DAYS OF MY LIFE (Psalm 27)


Samuel speaks here (on the video before his dad's talk) about children being raised in an environment SATURATED with the Lord.

KIDS,

consecrated to Him.

And,

I want YOU to know, beloved friends,

ANY of you...who have hearts for God.

Who are on a walk with Him...

or who have children...

Maybe some that you are crying out in prayer over...

Maybe perhaps one that is caught up in the dark Spirit of our Age?

I really want to encourage you, where ever you are, right now, in your walk.

You AND your kids CAN live lives full of light, loving God with sincerity and joy.
He is RIGHT HERE. And as we reach for Him. He swoops us up with great desire for us in His Presence and Love. We are SEEING it in kids and adults all around us...

We are living it for real in our family...

Samuel says, "At the end of the day, I want my Life to be worship to God." and "I want my life to be an instrument of praise for Jesus."

Amen, preach it, brother, Samuel.

For Real. There are REALLY kids like this out there, you all!!

It is NOT too late for holiness and passionate love for God in our generation and in the generation coming up RIGHT behind us. Oh, THIS truly is our normal in Christ. It can be our inheritance. It REALLY can be.

Any family can make a choice for the very highest for their kids in God. Friends, we don't have to seat belt ourselves in to our culture. We really don't have to "lose" our teens into rebellion as they age up or even in the "tween" years. we don't have to lose our children to media or hand-held entertainments,video games, and computer screens. There really is more for them...and for us...and its NOT too late!!

We have met many kids like Samuel, who have bright spirits...who are so full of Christ's love that the love is contagious and sets many hearts around them on fire..who are disciplined and are already discipling the next generation after them..

Who are preaching out,

Searching out the greatness and the goodness of our incredible God...

Who are bright and shining lamps in this day...

and who I want to BE LIKE!!...


We know and are experiencing that God is increasing His Presence in this next generation...GOD in His greatness has let this next generation catch a vision of God that is FAR beyond Sunday-only Christianity...and its BEAUTIFUL!!!!

...and..to look in the fire in their eyes...I will give my life as a foundation to lift these ones up...for as parents in this generation...our ceiling will be their floor...

Many of you have asked us, "But WHAT do you DO as Intercessory Missionaries...

"what's the point?"

Some sweetly :)

..some not so sweetly ;)

but that's really o.k....

for, we know...that

Yes

, what we are called to...

it IS counter cultural...

Yet...

It is actually quite normal according to the example that we find in the Bible....

We found our hearts so stirred as we looked at the words on the pages...and then purposed our lives to truly obey them in a literal, every day walking it out..


THIS (video below) is an EXCELLENT description of our hearts, our passion, and our daily vocation.

24/7 Prayer is only our constraint... :) God is infinitely worth MORE than 24/7 prayer!! :) We GET to do prayer. It's our privilege of being born again. Because NOTHING compares to Him...

and HE truly is our greatest reward.

And this brings such real joy for we truly are "hard-wired" for Him!! :)

It's happening, oh,its taking place!!...God is answering the Lord's Prayer, "as it is in heaven"...they are never going back...You NEED to know and hear these stories...and hear Allen's humor :) For,as he says, ..."God is going viral!!" :)

Oh, people, this is SO GOOD!! PLEASE take a moment on the first day of your New Year to consider the most Glorious ONE and What He is about on the Earth right now. What YOU are invited into.

HEAR how God is moving...in worship to Him lifted ALL OVER THE EARTH!!

SEE the "such a time is this" that we are living in!!

I hope you REALLY LOVE this video...we heard so many people talking about this...how their hearts were incredibly impacted as they laughed and enjoyed the joy and humor in it as well.



We love you! Blessings in Christ!! We're NEVER going back!! :)



"...for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations" (Isaiah 56:7)