Tag Archives: proclaiming

God’s Favorite Kid

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I have a friend that I often joke with, saying, “I’m God’s favorite kid.”  And the banter goes like this:

I’m God’s favorite kid because I’m the most blessed!

Oh, no you’re not!  I’m His favorite because I’m more blessed!

To which I reply: “No, I’m more blessed because He gave me you for a friend!”

And she replies: “You’re right, you are more blessed than me!”

Today was one of those days when I truly feel like I’m God’s favorite.  Of course, He doesn’t have favorites, but today it just felt that way.

After breakfast we met at the church and took a bus up the mountain to pray for Sofia from up there.  About 70 people from the local church joined us.  The participation of local people in these prayers for the capital cities is significant.

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The mountain was covered with snow and there were people skiing and sledding all over the mountain top.  Nevertheless, it was sunny and much warmer on the mountain than back in Sofia.  So from our perch overlooking the city we prayed, proclaimed, and worshiped Jesus, the Lord of Sofia.  And we sealed the prayers with Holy Communion.

When we returned to Sofia we went to the Parliament building to pray for the new government, whoever they turn out to be (as you may recall, the government all resigned three days ago when our team arrived in town).  A policeman came to see what we were doing, and when we explained that we were praying for the government, he shrugged and walked off.  Several minutes later another policeman approached.  Two of our group walked over to meet him so that prayers could continue uninterrupted.  One of them, a pastor, explained what we were doing and asked the policeman if he could pray for him.  The policeman shrugged, but didn’t say no, so my pastor friend and the other man prayed for him.  The policeman remained skeptical.  He probably thought that we were crazy, but harmless, so he walked off.

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Next to Parliament is the university, so we went to pray there.  Our host, Bill, had given some of us Bulgarian New Testaments, so one girl decided to do an important prophetic act and bury the Word of God right there on campus.  The only problem is that we didn’t have a shovel or any other kind of digging implements.  So we had to find ground soft enough to dig up with a stick.  The rest of us laughed about how silly this looked, and cracked jokes about how the Christian bookstores should sell shovels, too.  But once it was buried, we got back to the work of praying, and one topic for prayer at the university was abortion.  Bulgaria has 3 abortions for every live birth—imagine that!  Together with the 3rd highest suicide rate in the world, no wonder the population is shrinking.

After all this, some of us were very hungry, having not had any lunch—me included.  There was a lot of discussion about where to eat, when to eat, and whether to eat together.  In the end, some went back to the hostel, while others went to eat.  Bill offered to take me to a big toy store.  I had told him that I always get my grandson a bear from every new country I visit, but I hadn’t had any luck finding a suitable bear in Bulgaria yet.  All the bears I had seen so far had scary eyes.  I can’t give my grandson a bear with scary eyes!  So we went to the toy store, and I found a great bear right away.

Then Bill asked me what I wanted to do next.  I told him that I hadn’t had lunch, so I wanted some dinner.  He was very pleased when I said that I wanted to have some typical Bulgarian food.  So he called Vasha, his wife, and they discussed where to take me.  She was just getting off work, so she would be joining us.  They took me to a place that was typically Bulgarian in décor, in food, and in music—wonderful!

They asked me a few times what I was hungry for, but I just insisted on typical foods.  Bill was so happy for the opportunity to share some of his favorite dishes from childhood.  He insisted on getting a few dishes to share, knowing that it would be far more food than we could possibly eat.  Vasha told me that later I would probably see people dancing the Horo.  Which I did!  There was a birthday party across the room, and when the band played the Horo music, the women all got up, laced arms, and danced in a circle.

Bill kept asking me what I was smiling about.  I just said, “I’m so happy!”  Today, I’m convinced: I’m God’s favorite!  God is good!

Speaking to the Foundation

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Usually an essential means of changing the spiritual atmosphere of a city (especially an ancient city like Sofia) is to speak to the foundation of the city.  This is one thing we did today.  We went to the place in the subway where the ancient foundation of the city had been exposed when the subway was excavated.  There were 12 in our group, 3 of whom are Bulgarians.  The number 12 is important because it means government.  Three of course is the number of the Trinity, so signifies God’s presence in the government.  Half of us were men and the other half women.

First we prayed above at the place of the statue of the goddess of wisdom, Sofia, and then we formed a line, the men facing the statue and the women each with a man at her back, facing the Parliament building.  Then we switched places and the women prayed facing the statue and the men facing the Parliament building.  Thus an important demonic powerline was broken.  And that was important for what came next.

Then we prayed at the foundation of the Eastern Gate and then spoke to the foundation and to the gate.  Speaking to the foundation involved proclaiming that the city, originally founded on human wisdom, is now founded on the true cornerstone, Jesus Christ.  We also made proclamations that the people of Sofia and of Bulgaria are now free in Jesus Christ.  We proclaimed:

Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.  Who is this King of glory?  The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.  Psalm 24:7-8

These kinds of prayers and proclamations may seem strange, but they are Scriptural.  In fact, any time that you use Bible forms, and especially words and phrases from the Bible to speak to a troubled place or situation, it brings all the power of Heaven into that place or situation.  This is why memorizing Bible verses is so important: they will be there when you need them, like money in your pocket or arrows in your quiver.

Tonight the pastor told us that because of past deceptions, he is not at all trusting of new people who come into his church.  But he said that because the government resigned on the day we arrived, it was a message to him that we had come in the power and authority of God Almighty.

Tomorrow we will go to the mountains just outside of town to speak to the mountains.  For this Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.  Nothing will be impossible for you,” (Matthew 17:20, emphasis mine).  You don’t merely pray about a mountain, but you’ve got to speak to it before it will move.

God is good!