The time has come

I'm now switching for real. Bear with me though, it might be a few days before I post again...here's the link:

jessicagliserman.wordpress.com

I'm seriously contemplating a switch from Blogger to Wordpress. It looks better, works better. lets you use your own pictures...so sometime in the near future I'll be moving. I'm still going to update this one for a while though, until I can figure out how to transfer posts.

My time "on the wall"

My schedule (and a ton of other people's) is about to change, a lot. I mean, I'll still be getting up ridiculously early and all that, but the nature of what I'll be doing is shifting. I think that this has been my favorite schedule yet, in terms of how it flows throughout the day. I've gone to bed nearly every night looking forward to what I get to do the next day. (sometimes I'm not so enthusiastic a few hours later at 4:45am, but we won't get into that right now). I'm excited about the chance to serve in different areas and hear new teams, but it's still somewhat sad. I don't know if it's good to have favorites, but...right now, for instance...

• The Sunday 8am: the prayer room is delightfully empty, the music's nice and laid back, perfect for think-praying...I know this sounds odd, but most of my more profound blog material comes out of whatever I'm meditating on during this set. Plus it's cool to have two hours in the prayer room before heading to FCF...
• Sunday 4pm: One of my favorite intercessions. I do powerpoint for this one. It's good because it keeps me from wasting away those lazy Sunday afternoons...
• Monday 6am & 8am: My only real, full day on prayer team. I powerpoint the 6am, which is great because I actually engage better doing that than I do just being in the room. And the 8am has long been one of my favorites...back when Rose used to prayer lead it was my absolute favorite PR time every week. It's kind of a crunch with school, but it's awesome to go into the day with four solid hours of prayer and study behind you.
• Tuesday 6am: For some reason I'm always unusually sleepy during this set. Every week without fail I yawn a crazy amount of times, and almost fall asleep somewhere in there. And that forces me to get up and pace and pray in tongues till I'm half awake again, which isn't a bad thing at all.
• Tuesday 4pm & 6pm: To be honest, I don't like going to the 4pm. I just do it because I have to. Hopefully that'll change someday, but for now I'm not wild about it. When I subbed a couple weeks on powerpoint for that set, things improved a lot-- I was way more engaged. I'm starting to wonder if my spot in the corner just isn't the place to be for an intercession...The 6pm is by far the highlight of my Tuesday. When I switched from evenings to mornings I begged Matt and Cory to let me keep one set with them, and I'm so glad I did.
• Thursday 6am: Another powerpoint set with Grace and Justin. I love this one because it's like a miniature devo for the first half-hour. There's hardly anyone in the room anyway, so Justin just sort of launches...I love it. This team has really grown on me and I'll be sad when they disband.
• Saturday 8am: No really, this one's my favorite. I'm a sucker for solo devo's and obviously since there's no school on Saturdays, I don't feel so pushed for time. Sometimes I come early to catch Ron's set (another good one) or stay late for the 10am. This set won't change with the new schedule, thankfully.

We definitely have a trend here...

These are just a few of the tons of IHOPer blogs out there....it's crazy. I like skimming a couple of them every day, simply because in the swirl of briefings, prayer teams, meetings, and unintentionally overheard coffee shop conversations, you can still miss what's really going on in the hearts of everyone else on the base. Some of these people I don't know at all, others I know by name and face only (or maybe just name or just face); others I see around IHOP on a regular basis. But regardless....here are a few that I check every so often.

http://theoffutts.wordpress.com/
http://marcilewellen.blogspot.com/
http://www.heisatthedoor.com/blog/
http://steeno.wordpress.com/
http://beholdandbless.blogspot.com/
http://ianandjocelyn.com/blog/
http://kylegebhart.blogspot.com/
http://rbohlender.blogspot.com/
http://rondowning.blogspot.com/
http://thefightspot.com/
http://zackhensley.wordpress.com/
http://jmotlong.wordpress.com/
http://amandabeattie.wordpress.com/
http://jennypowell.blogspot.com/
http://www.joannareyburn.com/journal/
http://johnloux.blogspot.com/
http://jonathancombrink.wordpress.com/
http://thefarmerfam.blogspot.com/
http://klbohlender.blogspot.com/
http://misskris-anderson.blogspot.com/
http://tracieloux.blogspot.com/
http://jodoria.wordpress.com/
http://matthartke.wordpress.com/
http://wellblueproductions.blogspot.com/
http://blog.hephzibahministries.com/index.php?blogid=1
http://ferventlovefirst.blogspot.com/
http://teitel.wordpress.com/
http://welcometotheadventure.wordpress.com/
http://katchenweaver.blogspot.com/
http://richardlewellen.blogspot.com/
http://heartafteryou.blogspot.com/

Snowgirl!!!

In progress...

Evaluation...

Finished product...


Close-up (we had a few problems...my advice: don't use MnMs for a mouth)



Chief architect with the finished product...

Jesus and the masses

It started with a random reading of the gospel of Luke. I picked it up in the prayer room maybe a week ago with the intention of reading it straight through, just for fun. But then details like this started catching my eye...

“So it was, that when Jesus returned, that the multitude welcomed Him, for they were all waiting for Him…” Luke 8

“And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him, and He asked them, saying…” Luke 9

“And the whole city was gathered together at the door…Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him. When they had found Him, they said to Him, ‘Everyone is looking for You.’” Mark 1

Looking at these verses through my natural grid (as an introvert who thrives on solitude), I was like…whoa…And suddenly I am really intrigued with Jesus’ relationship with the masses, with His responses and interaction with them. Needless to say, I’m still not through Luke yet =D. Here are a few more for good measure:

“From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And He
entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden, for a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him…” Mark 7

“When the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them….Now when it was day, He departed and went into a deserted place. And the crowd sought Him and came to Him, and tried to keep Him from leaving them…” Luke 4

And check this one out--

“Then He took them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city of Bethsaida. But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; and He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing.” Luke 9

He then went on to feed them all. Craziness.

I’ve been chewing on these for a little while now, and I am amazed at how ridiculously well Jesus responded. I mean really-- how would you like to have your quiet time interrupted nearly every time you try to pray?! And not just by one person, but by hundreds or thousands. And not for ten minutes or an hour, but for hours and hours and hours. And to make it worse, they aren’t coming to give you something or to benefit you in any way. They all either want to touch you or for you to touch them. No matter where you go, there are always crowds of people following you around. How is one supposed to handle that?

Jesus walked it out so well that now I’m walking around under perpetual conviction, and stuck wondering…How in the world do you get there? How long does it take for one to have that kind of groundedness in eternal things?

You extroverts out there might not know what I’m talking about, but as one who can hardly handle a five-minute, 1-person intrusion on my alone time, as one who is, in light of all the changes on the base, daily suppressing urges to run away to some itty bitty HOP, this concept is borderline revolutionary. As Corey Russell would say, it’s “in your business.” =D

More thoughts on this later....

Just beyond our backyard in Tennessee. May 2005

Favorite smells

• Cool damp pristine forest (doesn't exist in the KC vicinity, unfortunately)
• A really old hardcover book, published pre-1960s-- they always have that sort of aged, musty, "wise" kind of smell...
• Honeysuckle carried on a warm summer evening breeze. It's amazing.
• Fresh-cut grass
• Horse. Nothin' else like it =D
• Nail polish and gasoline...I know, it's bad to smell it too much....but it's awfully yummy...

Ah...summer...

Ponderations, meditations and observations on the 5th trumpet

"Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. 2 And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit."

And who has that key now?
Are we talking about a literal key here? Can demons really be held back by a locked door?
How large of an area will the smoke cover?
Are we to understand, then, that there is-- and has been for a very long time-- a literal pit full of locusts?
Geographically, where is the pit? I think it's interesting to think about where they would hit first-- Babylon? Jerusalem? Egypt?
How far will they spread? That's some major ocean-crossing, if they're planning on tormenting all the continents...

"3 Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4 They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. 6 In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them."

Will they be really loud-- will we hear them before we see them?
Is there even anything green left for them to harm? I mean, this is the fifth trumpet. 1/3 of the green stuff is already gone, then the water went, then the sun went. Not a happy situation for the earth's vegetation.
Will all people be kept from death, or only those stung? (I'm leaning towards only the stung ones-- it's not like martyrdom will just come to a complete standstill).
If someone is stung at, say, the two-month mark, will the pain go away in three months when the locusts leave, or will it stick around for a full five months?
This judgment targets both the reprobate and the resistors....anyone without the seal of God (unless it's a different kind of seal).
Can anyone harm the locusts? Will anyone try?
How many will there be? They come "out" of the smoke. Almost like the cloud of smoke turns into a cloud of locusts. A bunch.
Assuming that these are demon locusts, will they respond like your average demon? Will they go away when believers tell them to? Even if they can't hurt us, will they carry that "demonic presence"? Will they be able to touch the cities of refuge?
Will people come up with theories to explain these things? Or will they immediately blame it on God?
Will people try to appease the locusts themselves (instead of turning to the Lord)? It seems like this would be a good opportunity for repentance-- they're all suffering and they're all barred from death. Either that, or it will make them madder, and martyrdom will go up.
Will people fake conversion to Christianity for the sake of relief? (because, remember, they want to die)

"7 The shape of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men. 8 They had hair like women's hair, and their teeth were like lions' teeth. 9 And they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running into battle. 10 They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months. 11 And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon."

Why judge the earth through locusts like horses and scorpions with lions teeth and human heads? Is there even anything locusty about them?
Will they be like natural locusts with natural limitations, or will it be more like "spirit locust"? ie, can they fly at high altitudes, go underwater, see in the dark, etc?
Will people try to take their crowns for gold? Haha
How big will they be? Are we talking about your average little shrimpy grasshopper, or something much bigger?
Will Antichrist have any power over them?
Who is Abbadon, and is he the only one, besides God, that can control these guys?
How will animals react?
Do the locusts have to eat? If they do, they're obviously not herbivores.
Can/will they communicate or say anything at all?
How will they exit the scene?

Obviously most of these can't be answered...but it's interesting to think about just the same...

I just thought I'd try to act like all the department heads on the Base and write the whole message in a big run-on sentance in the title...haha...

For the sake of staying regular in my posting:

Geographic Geekdom

Signs that you’re spending way too much time with your atlas:

• You have dreams about a military attack based from the island of Mauritius that encircled Australia and then went on to Greenland; or about living in Sarajevo, Bosnia; or about being in an Australian city where they spoke Korean; or an Egyptian-like religion stemming from an archipelago off the coast of Panama (funny how information gets all muddled in dreams =D).
• You meet a someone who says they’re from the town of Bozeman, Montana, and you know the exact place they’re talking about
• Your extended family refuses to play the “country game” with you anymore, because they never win
• Your atlas is the only present you can remember getting last Christmas
• At age 13 you could write out, in alphabetical order, from memory, all the countries in Africa, and later on the entire world (that one's particularly embarrassing-- I actually spent hours of my precious, pre-move prayer room time filling pages and pages full of lists of African nations in my journal. Dork...).

Sometimes I can't help but wonder what in the world I am going to be doing later on, and what exactly the purpose would be in me liking something so bizarre....*shakes head*. I am truly mystified.

I love you, old prayer room!

IHOP is in for humongous change....the new stage is the least of it....*huge sigh*.....

Me!

Random picture of the day

Me and Susannah, testing grapes at the city market. As you can see, they were a little sour =D.

It's working! It's working! It's working!!!!

So…a few nights ago I was alone in my room, fellowshipping with the Holy Spirit (or something to that effect), and having a great time too. I was, say, 20 minutes into it, and planning on keeping it up for at least another 45. I was getting tons of revelation on stuff, and for once I was actually feeling somewhat tenderized to what the Lord was saying. To top it all off, there was new music playing in the laptop and I was typing up all that nice revelation as it came. It was the best quiet time I’d had in quite awhile.

And then Emily knocked on the door.

Just so you know, I absolutely dread intrusions. Generally someone is asking something of me after I’ve made it clear I just want to be left alone, and generally I’m unreasonably reluctant to give in to their demands. Sometimes they’re just dropping in to say hi, but whatever the reason, interruptions of that nature tend to be the end of a decent prayer time. I rarely can get back in the “flow” of things afterwards. I almost always say something or think something not-so-nice, and wind up sinning in some way. And if I don’t actually sin, then I’m highly annoyed and on the verge of it anyway. It’s really a bummer…and it’s all my fault too.

I particularly was dreading a visit from Emily, because she seems to innately know when I’m having an amazing time with Jesus and the computer, and comes to take it away from me. It’s nearly tradition =D. I really should know better than to expect a night without interruptions. But anyways, the situation repeats itself over and over again. She asks, in a slightly demanding tone, I refuse, she asks again, I refuse more firmly and defend my own rights, something along the lines of-- “I had it first and who do you think you are to just walk in and take it?” or worse "I'm using this to get grounded in the knowledge of God and all you're going to do is watch a movie"-- And of course because I’m always the right one *sarcasm*, she gets mad and stomps off and…I win. Yes, I just totally quenched the Spirit, but I won and it’s all her fault for messing with my prayer life, right?

That, in summary, is how it went every time, at least until a couple weeks ago. On that occasion I was again fellowshipping with the Spirit. We said the same things, did the same things, but afterwards I was so convicted that I gave her the laptop after five minutes. I couldn’t take it anymore. It’s a horrible feeling, to overstep the line, to fight too hard for something, and in the process lose what you were originally wanting. So, that was progress, even though I felt terrible and couldn't see it at the time.

But to get back on track....This time our first words were again the same. I allowed myself a flat “No”, hoping maybe she would give up. The sting of the previous encounter was still very fresh in my memory and the sweetness of my prayer time was still lingering, and the combination of the two finally had some impact on my words =D. I literally could not go any farther than that first "no" because it was like an inward shift of values had just taken place, and suddenly absolutely nothing was worth more to me than keeping the communion going on the inside...that was a good feeling. What was even better was knowing that a week, a month, even the day before (in this case, especially the day before), I would've "fleshed out" and gone the other way with things.

As I'm bringing this to its climax I'm realizing that it probably sounds really silly....and several times I almost didn't post it because it seemed kinda stupid....like who else in the world struggles with interruptions to their quiet time? Everyone else is out there having power encounters and I'm over here...learning to keep my mouth shut??? But really, it was extremely encouraging to me-- it's awesome to have specific situations, no matter how small, to be able to pinpoint and say, "See? It works! Three months ago you wouldn't have even thought of doing that!" So I just thought I'd share it anyway....even though I still feel stupid... keep fellowshipping with the Spirit ya'll =D.

Bet you'll never guess what road this is...

I decided to take Corey's class.

I love Wes' teaching style, I love the brain stuff, I love end-times, and I still plan on taking that class at some point. But right now I think I need a good dose of Corey's message....so I'm excited =D.

Seminar Room A

I wound up with a lot of extra time on my hands during the conference, and on one occasion I had an excuse to get into a seminar room early. It was empty, and I was there, and the camera was there, and...I guess I got a little carried away....but here are the results, in a very jumbled, unorderly fashion:

2007

I don't have a whole lot to say about it....except that I'm very glad Onething is over, very happy to be getting back to the normal routine, and very freaked out at how fast time flies.

There you have it. Happy New Year guys.