Mercy 3: Sweet Water for Bitter
'Come all who are thirsty, come to the waters.' (IS 55: 1)
Last November DSM wound up a 40-day fast in Minneapolis. We prayed for many things, among them 4 states which had 'gay marriage' bills. We knew these bills were important. The National Supreme Court had determined to decide two 'gay marriage' cases: how the citizens of these four states voted would function as a bell-weather for the Justices.
We fought hard but I knew in my diminished state that something had shifted in the American consciousness. Following the lead of the president, the majority of Americans had adopted the folky, foul view that homosexuality: was sourced in nature not nurture, unchangeable, morally neutral, and comparable to ethnicity, thus deserving 'equal rights.'
Election Day, November 2012. For the first time in US history, each of the four states voted favorably for 'gay marriage.' (Never before in any state election had a popular vote carried 'gay marriage.') April 2013. The Supreme Court upheld 'gay marriage' in California.
Dreadfully clear: the moral majority had become a minority.
That Election Day, we at DSM prayed with the Twin Cities House of Prayer, a venue situated on a campus church of the University of Minneapolis. Midway through our vigil, I took a walk through the campus and was stunned to behold a large minority of students who were almost unrecognizable in their gender identities. With painful clarity I could see how the powerful 'spirit of the age' had conformed these young adults to an image far less than that of their Creator.
Evil is real and effectual in these gender wars. The enemy of our souls is disintegrating the lives of a generation. He loves to desecrate who God deems apt representations of Himself.
Back in the prayer room, the leader asked all men and women who had come out of homosexuality to come forward and testify of how Jesus was setting them free from its domination. Humble, earnest voices witnessed to the God of mercy who met them in such kindness and authority: the Father, revealed in Jesus, who had aligned them with true personhood.
I went out a second time onto the campus but this time I could see that our prayers had loosed a healing flood that was pouring out to the crowds. I thought immediately of Ezekiel 47: the healing waters rising in the temple with power to make even bitter waters sweet. In spite of the majority steeped in such bitter waters, I took heart. God is not discouraged. He attends to the cry of those who plead for mercy on behalf of the 'harassed and helpless.' He will pour out rivers of sweet water upon the humble and broken. He will set them free.
'When this water enters the Sea, the water there becomes fresh. Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows…so where the river flows, everything will live…Fruit trees will grow on both banks of the river…Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.' (EZ. 47)
Prayer Points for November 8th:
• Desert Stream/Living Waters: Georgia, Bev Gammalo, Regional Coordinator. Please pray for the new groups beginning; may the Lord multiply the strong, long-standing groups.
• Restored Hope Network: Apokata Psychological Services, San Jose and San Francisco, CA. Robert Brennan, Director. Specialty: counseling for men dealing with unwanted same-sex attractions.
Living Stones, Glendora, CA. Michael Spence, Director. Specialty: care for families of gay or transgender identified individuals.
• Courage: Please pray for all Encourage members (parents support group), healing for them and their families.
• Cor Project: Please pray for clarity in ongoing discernment of God's will for the ministry.