Silent As the Grave

This weekend I did a 24 Hour silent retreat. 24 hours devoted to God. I got home from work and gathered my self in the carriage house. The Lord and I were going to have a party and I was bringing the dip! I started off my time writing a letter to God telling him about my day and nonchalantly stating what I wanted to get out of this time. I then waited for a time and asked God what his reply was. Simply put REST was his response.

Well OK I thought. We will talk latter. So I began to read.

Now silence for me is a funny thing. As I read I begun to notice the silence. Silent as a grave was an understatement. So I decided to move into the upstairs prayer room. It is not as quiet and it has a balcony.

After i moved every thing I attempted to chat with the lord, and while he was patient I firmly got the feeling I was not going to hear much. So I began to talk. I bet I was a sight, out on the balcony having a conversation with who appeared to be me!

It was a great time to state out loud to God what I believed about certain things. I also shared some dreams wit him! It was awesome, especially as I got to watch a storm come in.

As it begun to darken I lit several candles and begun to read. Soon it was time for bed. After I said a quick prayer I drifted off to sleep.

I woke up at 7:15 (I think) and got ready to go out for breakfast with God. Noe that was an experience! I realized that God loves dinner dates! I choose Bob Evens. As I looked at the two sunny side up eggs, bacon, biscuits, and one good lookin strawberry crepe, I asked God what he got. He replied with a chuckle "The Fisherman's Catch". "Really? What is that?" I asked.

He replied, "A couple of fish and some gooood company!" I had to laugh at that!

The whole time God was laughing and sitting across the table with me.

Then I remembered that I needed to get a card for a friend. So Off we went to Myer. This card run ended up being a shopping trip. I bought a dress and a card and honestly I really felt like God was there.

So I went home and took a nap. Before I fell asleep I saw God as this old man with a really long beard. He was sitting on a chair reading a book and looked at me and said, "Rest. I will protect you." So I woke up and thus my silent retreat ended.

After the retreat my soul was still feeling heavy. I still did not feel as though I had heard God. That night Meridith, Sara, and I went to see the movie Soul Suffer. It was a really good movie. One of the verses it talks about was Jeremiah 29:11

"For I Know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, " plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

That really just fed my soul. Then Latter that night we wanted some chez sticks. So we went to Arbys. As we were going there we were talking in a accent. So when we pulled up to the order box the accent continued. But by now I was laughing so hard that I could not speak! So Meridith ordered in her accent. The box was silent when suddenly some one asked, "Are you from Britain?" We laughed and Meridith replied, "Yea." Silence. "Cool!" the box replied. We burst out laughing! When we pulled up to the window we not only got out food, but also a Arbys VIP free combo card. When we saw that w burst out laughing! It was awesome.

The next day was Sunday. I met with Mim (my coach for calibrate) and as I was waiting I heard a man on the radio say "When you don't do something because of fear, you are really being selfish. we have to realize that this is God's story and he is writing. Once we realize that we don't need to fear!" That really spoke with me.

As I met with Mim I told her about my struggles with work. It is really heavy there. They constantly are talking about and making sexual jokes. Sometimes they tease me cause of innocence. There is also alot of negativity. Friday, before I left work one of the guys who is married asked me if he was single would I have dated him. That really made me sad and disappointed in him. Then God gave her this picture. It was of a child playing in the mud in the farm yard. Well in the farm yard there is more then just mud. Anyway, The child was me and the mud was Donatos. And she said this silent retreat was a time for God to wash off the mud. But by this time some of the mud had dried on and so it required a bit more scrubbing. So God is cleaning me. Also That maybe the heaviness is a way of God asking me to Intercede for the people there.

So Monday morning I asked God how do I intercede for these people? Several things came to mind but the one that spoke to me the most was when Jesus interceded for humankind on the cross. Jesus simply said "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." This is how we should intercede for people. We have the power to "snatch them form the fire and save them" (Jude vs. 22-23). That is what I believe God is asking me to do. I ask all of you to please join me.

Praise report: I am officially appointed to RMM as an intern to Thailand! So God willing This time next year I will be on my way to Thailand!

I leave you with Zeph. 3:14-20!

My this ring true in your lives as I know it will in mine!

God bless!

Danielle