Dawn Xiana Moon: Melodic folk pop infused with passion and honesty. From Chicago.

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Wednesday, January 19, 2005

KC MO Part III: Trust

(Continued. Read Part I and then Part II.)

And that’s just the thing, the guys from the International House of Prayer (IHOP) understand God’s love in a way that I don’t. A way that I long to. Take Allen Hood, the head of their Bible school, for example—he started talking about this love and started weeping. And continued weeping as he continued speaking for an audience of 10,000. Apparently this is not unusual; one gathers that when he lectures in class he does the same thing. This wholehearted understanding only comes from one thing: spending time with the ultimate lover, praying, worshipping, and fasting. Yes, fasting, this concept that finds basis in the Bible but that we in the Western world forget, even hate. I don’t like fasting; I love food, which is probably the reason that I’m a good cook (and to further prove this theory, I only know how to cook food that I really like and specialize in chocolate). But if that’s what it takes to grasp perfect love, then by all means sign me up.

And if perfect love drives out all fear, IHOP fears less than I do: case in point, they deliberately don’t maintain a savings account. While this seems crazy to me, they’ve been led to do so and God has provided; every month their accounts balance out, never owing, never gaining. It’s a trust that I want with everything in me. IHOP wanted to host the conference (Onething) but not charge admission—a 10,000-person conference for free. Difficult when you don’t have a savings account. So they got all kinds of deals and needed $300,000 to cover all the expenses; they sent a letter out to a couple hundred supporters nationwide and got $100,000. One night at the conference they took an offering and received $80,000. And then they prayed: God, if we’re headed in the right direction, if you want us to keep hosting these conferences for free then bring $120,000 on the last night, no more, no less. They took an offering on the last night and guess what they got? Yup, exactly enough to cover the cost of the conference, no more, no less.

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