Look on the Map of Michigan and match the numbered lighthouses in your area with the pictures here.
Traverse City House of Prayer
Traverse City House of Prayer Closing Its Doors
March 4, 2011
Dear TC-HOP Family,
We have had a very busy winter. The Traverse City House of Prayer has continued our 22 hours a week, and we have been slowly growing and having wonderful intercession times. We have been having great Bible school teachings, from IHOP during our morning and evening sets. And we (Gary and Janice) have purchased a house in Mayfield on 4 acres with a pole barn and have been renovating the home, believing that we would be using the home for ministry and perhaps housing IHOP interns to come and live here and join us in building up the house of prayer. It has been an exciting time.
But God is doing a new thing now. We felt that this week (for Janice) and in the few weeks leading up to this week (for Gary), God spoke to us individually (without the knowledge of the other) about a new direction for TC-HOP. And then when we talked with one another about what we felt that we were hearing from God, it was confirmed that He truly was speaking the same thing to both of us. We believe that the time is short, and our desire is to come together in unity with our brothers and sisters in Christ, for there is much work to do yet, before the Lord’s return.
And so in obedience to the Lord, and with some sadness, but much excitement about what the Lord is about to do, we will be closing the doors of the Traverse City House of Prayer, after our finally worship and intercession session tonight (Friday, March 4th) from 6p-10pm.
We will after this be praying and worshipping with the Grand Traverse House of Prayer, during many of their Tuesday, Friday and Saturday times. Please see their website http://www.gthop.com for location and times. We encourage you to join us there in praying for our community, our nation, Israel and for the many things on God’s heart. We have also enjoyed praying with the Manton Living Waters HOP, and will be visiting there at times as well.
We thank all those who have given to, prayed for, and served with the Traverse City House of Prayer in the last year and a half. We are eternally grateful!!!
And we look forward to continuing to fellowship with you at the GT-HOP and throughout the community of believers in TC.
With much love,
Gary and Janice Slater
Directors – Traverse City House of Prayer
231-935-4070 or 231-632-0738
garyslater@traversecityhouseofprayer.org
Gary’s Devotional 12-20-10
12-20-10
“Those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it… Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty (lack of focus)… I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest…I should become disqualified.
(I Cor. 9: 24-27). The prize Paul sought was to receive God’s testimony about his life, that he walk in obedience. Paul’s highest goal was to win the prize of presenting this testimony to Jesus on the last day that his obedience was complete and his love for Jesus was perfected. The prize involves offering to Jesus a life of complete obedience and then receiving His response, which includes eternal rewards that express how He feels about us loving Him in this way.
“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected… I do not count myself to have apprehended… I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God.” (Phil. 3:12-14) Paul wrote towards the end of his life that he had not yet attained the prize of the testimony of obedience. God’s testimony about our life is not given until we complete our race. Paul had several years before his race was over. The prize of the upward call of God is to receive the testimony about our life that we finished the race in obedience. Paul was assured of the prize of the crown of righteousness as his race was nearing completion. “There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness…on that Day”
(2 Tim.4:8).
We have a certain amount of years in this life to bring every area under the Spirit’s leadership as our way of demonstrating our love to God. All who are wise will make this their greatest single goal for which they will gladly sacrifice pleasure, money, and even honor in ministry.
The pursuit of comprehensive obedience includes bridling our speech, making a covenant with our eyes and refusing to look at anything that stirs up lust, disciplining our physical appetites, and managing our time (for service and prayer) and our money (to increase the kingdom beyond personal comfort).
Power in our life is found in pursuing obedience. There are powerful dynamics that occur in our heart when we soberly seek to walk in total obedience. God gives us many opportunities to make decisions that prove our love to Him. We will make wrong decisions we regret, yet we have opportunity to change them. If we make right decisions in obedience, He gives us many opportunities to confirm them, or prove them in our character.
Our greatest calling is to love Him in a complete way with love that is perfected. Every movement of our heart in seeking to show love to Him by obedience moves Him, and thus it is not in vain. Do you know the way you move Him? Each time we repent of compromise, it moves Him. The Lord values our journey to grow in love. If we do not quit in our pursuit, then we win.
Blessings,
Gary
Gary’s Devotional 11-22-10
11-22-10
God’s ultimate purpose for His creation is to provide a family for Himself and a Bride for His Son as His eternal companion to reign with Him forever. The guiding principle of God’s activity throughout history has been to raise up a prepared bride for His Son. The Father set His heart to train the Bride to willingly prepare herself to rule the earth with Jesus. “For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” Rev. 19:7
The inheritance that the Father promised Jesus is a people who He fully possesses. God will cause all creation to bow in obedience to Jesus, “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow…and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,” and Jesus will receive a people who fully love Him, “The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul…” (Deut.30:6)
Jesus loves us to the same degree that the Father loves Him. We will love Jesus to the same degree the Father loves Him. We will be equally yoked to Jesus in love, as Jesus will not be unequally yoked to His bride. From before the foundations of the world, God’s ultimate purpose was to have a people who were blameless in their love for God.
Human history began in Eden with Adam and Eve joined as a bridegroom and bride.
Paul interpreted Gen. 2:18-24 as speaking of Jesus and the Church. In the relationship of Adam and Eve, we see a prophetic picture of Jesus joined to His Church as a bride. “A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”
Eph.5:31-32
Natural history ends in an Eden-like city with Jesus and His people joined as a bridegroom and bride. (Rev. 21-22) The New Jerusalem is call the Bride because it was prepared for the Bride and is where she experiences a face to face relationship with God. Natural history ends with a Bride who has been made ready for her marriage to Jesus. The history of the redeemed before the wedding feast is the preparation for their life after it. ‘The marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready… He said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’ (Rev. 19:7-9)
Jesus began His public ministry at a wedding (Jn. 2:1-12) and He ended it declaring that the kingdom of God was like a wedding. (Matt22:1-14)
Jesus began His ministry to the apostles by revealing Himself as the Bridegroom God and ended it by calling them to cultivate intimacy with Him as the Bridegroom God. Jesus’ ministry was first introduced by John the Baptist functioning as a friend of the bridegroom and ended by the Apostle John revealing the Bride. “The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come!” (Rev.22:17) It shall be, in that day…that you will call me (Jesus) “My Husband” (Hos. 2:16)
Blessings,
Gary
Gary’s Devotional 10-25-10
10-25-10
Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Mt. 22:36-40)
People who love Jesus will love others much more. It is impossible to love Jesus and not love people more. The greatest anointing of the Spirit is to walk in the two great commandments by loving Jesus with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves.
Love for others, like loving God, flows from regularly encountering God’s love for us. “We love Him because He first loved us.”(I Jn. 4:19) To walk in genuine love as defined by God is much more than sentimentalism. It takes seeking to love Jesus with “all” our heart, mind, soul, and strength. To walk in love requires the Spirit’s power to energize us; we regularly need our emotions stirred and strengthened by the subtle impressions of the Spirit. “The love of God has been poured in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” (Rom. 5:5)
Only by loving Jesus and ourselves are we able to consistently overflow in love for others. We must love God first and ourselves to have power and energy to properly love our neighbor. We can only love our neighbor in the overflow of loving God, for only in being loved by God and in loving God can we properly love others.
“But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. (Luke 6:27-28,32-33) This demanding commandment requires a comprehensive re-ordering of how we think and process life. We by nature are self-consumed, so it takes the power of the Spirit to walk this out.
We are not called to love others “instead of” ourselves but “as” ourselves by using the same standard in measuring love for others as we use for ourselves. We are to seek our neighbors’ benefit “with the same focus and energy,” as that we seek for ourselves.
To love others as ourselves is to value their longing for significance, acceptance, and success as being as important as our own. Because all people are created in God’s image, they deserve to receive love from us just as we receive love from God.
We are not to dismiss loving ourselves, but we enhance it by loving others with new depth. We will experience God’s tender compassion as we show it to others. Loving others is the greatest work of the Spirit and it’s the ultimate proof of His work
in the human heart. As we love God and ourselves, we overflow in love for others. It is the visible measurement of our invisible love for God.
Blessings,
Gary