Lover of My Soul (Amado de mi alma)

"Lord of my life"
     by Cristilyn

I was a lost sheep,
Until you found me,
My heart was broken,
But you made me whole,
And now I'm yours.

Took the shame from my eyes,
Dressed me in glorious robes,
And this glow that surrounds me,
Is your very own Love,
And now I'm yours.

Lord of my life,
Yours is my heart,
There's no name above Your name,
Your love for me,
Can't be compared,
You're the lover of my soul,
I am your bride,
You are my groom,
I live for You.

As we walk hand in hand,
you remind me again,
That your love never ceases,
Til the end, You'll be there.

Copyright Cristilyn Expósito, 1998.

      So yeah, no one can spend much time at International House of Prayer, IHOP-Miami, and not realize soon enough that it's all about Love. Oh, how He loves us! The central theme of the IHOP-Miami studies is the Love relationship between God and man. This fuels us into prayer. Acknowledging His love for us and growing in ours for Him is a Love festival! Among my required readings and study materials, (the Core Values), is a study of the book Song of Songs. Wow!! I love this stuff. As you can see I didn't write much all this time 'cos my time has been wrapped up in this. Honestly, I find myself short of words so I'll just post the link and you can check it out yourself if you want. There are videos, I think, and study notes, all free!!

           Mike Bickle's teaching on "Song of Songs":
           http://mikebickle.org/resources/category/biblical-studies/song-of-songs/
           It's 24 Sessions total. I'm currently by 16, I think. 

      The Lord has been encountering me in very special ways. There's been some tearing and pulling but always in love. Welcome to the life of pruning, John 15! It's all good. I must be a fruitful one ; ) I'm learning that this is a season of growing roots for me, not so much about the foliage and flowers... the outworkings of stuff. (Wow, I should seriously consider writing another day...) 

     Anyway, so yeah, most of my weekdays consist of waking up around 7:30 AM (not oversleeping), be on my way to IHOP-Miami Prayer Room by 8:30AM. If I'm the first one there, set up the projector and computer to stream live-worship from IHOP-KC. I begin to worship and encounter Jesus and that goes on for 2 or 4 hours, it goes by fast... unless He's pruning and then I'm either avoiding being in the room altogether, or walking around, talking to other people or giving up and then crying unceasingly. If it's a "normal" day then by 12PM latest I'm either interceding or reading and studying which can lead to more worship or more crying ; ) By 2PM I have lunch with the girls, unless I'm fasting which is usually Mondays. Then I come back, read some more and before you know it it's 4PM and that's when I go home or do whatever else I planned, unless it's Monday and then we have a live intercession session (..session, 3x the charm) which ends at 8:00PM. Wednesdays, we leave at 6PM. So yeah, that's life for me in the IHOP-Miami Prayer Room. It's short to say but hard to live. The Lord is confronting me lately about my spiritual walk and being influenced by the western modern culture. That doesn't mean I'm embracing an amish lifestyle anytime soon, No Way! But I am allowing the Holy Spirit to take me by the hand and challenge all that can be challenged in me. It's only one life and I'm gonna live it for Him wholeheartedly. That's what this is all about.

      I love my conversations with the IHOP-Miami crew. They're always so insightful. Lunch times are goldmines. And then everything takes on a heavenly perspective. I love sharing with people that I come away with feeling encouraged or challenged to grow deeper in the ways of love.. I just love these people!! They are priceless to me!! The girls, especially, have walked with me through what I think could easily be categorized as the most difficult time in my life... just too many changes and challenges in a brief span of time. So I'm thankful to have godly counsel and powerful praying sisters on my side ; ) Love these girls!

     My music and singing ministry/career has been sitting on the bench. The Lord closes and opens doors and right now it's time to sit at His feet and He has made that clear in many ways. I even had a vision of Jesus holding His heart out to me and telling me, "This is what I want you to care for now, this! Work on this. This is your portion right now." And what do you say to that? Sure, Jesus, I'll just be over here doing this thing and I'll spend some time with you when I get back... Good luck. I can't do that. So I'm walking this thing out and seeing where it leads me. It's bound to be good!

     So I'm an intercessor! I've been embracing the call to a consecrated life, the fasted life. As we speak, I'm embarking on a 40 day fruit/veggie fast on behalf of America's moral decadence. It begins with us, the Church. So I'm praying real hard that we consider our ways and rise up and out of gray areas and press into living out our full inheritance in Jesus. Check out this verse: "For the scepter of wickedness shall not rest upon the land of the [uncompromisingly] righteous, lest the righteous (God's people) stretch forth their hands to iniquity and apostasy." Psalm 125:3. It is a war cry so I'm taking my place in the ranks.

"Pray & Act" 40 day Fast: http://www.prayandact.org/?page_id=4) 

Also, I've been studying on the Nazarite vow, "God wants long hairs of the heart"! Here's a few links on that:

         Rick Pino on Nazarite: http://vimeo.com/10037067

         Jesse Engle, a 13 year old Nazarite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjbtvGn625M

         Lou Engle's mp3s: http://www.ihop.org/Publisher/Search.aspx?searchString=nazarite

     Its been a wonderful and terrible journey, terrible because of its difficulty, yet wonderful because of its lasting reward. I'm certain I'll never be the same again. I feel I've grown deeper and matured in my faith more so the last couple of months than I have all my life. So that's a good thing. I'm excited for what God is doing and will do though I have no clue what that will look like 'cos what used to matter, doesn't and what use to be my aim, is no more ; )

    And with that, I encourage you to take on the Christian lifestyle with fervor. Not living to get away with as much crap as you can without getting in "trouble" but to really enjoy this walk we were created for, to have the fullness of God indwelling... I don't even know what that would look like!! Can't wait to find out ; )