It felt like destiny calling…

So this post is way overdue, but it has been a busy six weeks. I did want to fill everyone in on my weekend in Vegas. It was back in January, over the Martin Luther King Day Holiday. It was such an amazing honor to attend Student CPx Concnetrate(Church Planters eXperience) along with my friend Evan DeChant.

Student CPx is a collaborative effort from Campus Church Networks and several groups of friends from across the nation. It’s mission is to train, equip and release impartation to students to make disciples and launch simple churches centered on their campuses. Last summer, my friend Lee went to Lawrence KS for the 2 week training and came back telling me about how he felt so at home and connected with Erik and Jaeson and the rest of the CCN crew. Lee then invited me to go with him in Janaury to Vegas for a weekend follow-up. As excited as I was at the thought of going to Las Vegas with Lee and hanging out with a bunch of sweet Jesus loving people, I really didn’t think that would work out.

Then, in early November, I received a call from Erik Fish one night while I was making dinner. (It was a Chinese stir-fry in case you are wondering) Erik filled me in on the vision of connecting with others from across the nation that shared the same heart and calling for seeing the Kingdom go forward on campuses. He shared about how he sensed God raising up spiritual moms and dads to love, nurture, equip and protect student leaders as they were raised up and released into their destinies. I was now weeping in the kitchen, and no it was not the onions. I felt so connected to what Erik was sharing. Then he made a statement and extended an invitation. The statement went something like this: “Hey Bro, I have just been sensing that this is the stuff that is in your heart, and maybe God is raising you up in your region the same way that he is doing it with others.” Those weren’t his exact words, but that was the point, and it wrecked me. It felt like destiny calling…

The invitation was to come and spend the Martin Luther King holiday weekend in Las Vegas for SCPx. I told him I wanted to come and would ask God to make a way. Erik continued to call and lovingly pursue me about Vegas. I was encouraged and humbled by the phone prayers and text messages that let me know he was believing for God to provide for me to be in Vegas. Miraculously, God did make a way for me to get there, and from the moment Aaron Snow (who led the missional church that was hosting us in Vegas) picked us up at the airport, I felt a sense of belonging and connectedness to this special group of people.

The weekend was amazing, with more sweet stories than I could tell in this post. There were two things though, that were especially significant to me. One was the heart among the leaders to share life together and build spiritual family. Not a spiritual family with one of us at the center, but a family connected to the Father’s heart by our love for Jesus and the unity of the Spirit. Yes, there were spiritual fathers and mothers there, but we met as brother and sisters, and as friends. I was so encouraged, and in fact disarmed by the way that the CCN leaders expressed no desire to control or recruit people into an organization. There was an awareness that the Holy Spirit was not calling us to build a mega ministry, but rather that we would be a family of friends and a network of networks. For certain, there is much for us to learn and share together, but with freedom and support from each other as we each run our leg of the race. In a way, I feel like I have found “running mates”. Those who I can intentionally, but naturally share life together with as we pursue the Lord together.

The second thing that stood out was that this was a God thing. The word “movement” gets thrown around a lot these days, but often only in a hyped up way. (I remember Lee and I talking in November about how if a movement doesn’t move, it is a stationary.) This is definitely not the case with this crew. There is a sense of God’s breath and multiplication on this group of simple church planters, that it is both humbling and exhilarating. From watching students lead training sessions, to witnessing new birth and students baptizing and commissioning students and hearing testimonies of students who were planting churches in dorms, architecture studios and nearby neighborhoods, this is a movement that is moving… FORWARD.

From a personal point of view, I sense that God is directing us to spend more of our time, investing into student leaders in the Pittsburgh/ Youngstown region. Already, we are seeing students stirred up to see the Kingdom of God come on their campuses to the worship and praise of Jesus. We are believing that God is raising up a network of student led, simple churches that will bring the light of Jesus into our region in a way that pierces the darkness and reflects the face of God.

Yes, it feels like destiny is calling… I say “Yes, Lord… I’m in.”

Part of the family...

Prayer Update on Lee

Hello Everyone,

I apologize for not getting an update out sooner, but it has been a crazy few days and I was hoping to have some more concrete news to share by waiting. On Tuesday Night, I went down to the hospital to pray and stay with Lee. It was very encouraging that so many of you responded to our request to cover Lee in prayer for 24 hours. I stayed and prayed through the night, while many of you prayed through the night from your homes. Thank you.

The doctors did test on Lee on Wednesday that showed there was some bleeding in his abdomen. They suspected that a tumor was causing the bleeding, and a friend that was there when the doctors came in, said that the options that doctors present all seemed risky, and not pleasant. The doctors were not real hopeful.

I have to admit that hearing the report was a bit unsettling. I called a few people and asked them to pray. I wanted to send out an update, but felt my information was incomplete and so we asked God to call people to pray and direct them how to. My wife, Adriane, had signed up to pray from 11:30 to Midnight. I joined her, and we worshiped and prayed and told God, that the reports confirmed what we already knew. That the medical community did not seem to have any answer for this. As we praised and cried and prayed, I sensed that God was releasing a strength in us, and while I don’t want this update to be about my prayer time, I do want to share that when we are weary and worn out, and we don’t have any strength, that God comes to us in those times when we will wait on
Him. I was encourages as we went to bed, even though the reports were not encouraging.

We woke up on Thursday and were more encouraged. Lee had sent me a text message saying that the bleeding had stopped “on it’s own”. Yea GOD! I am waiting on an update today, but as of last night, Lee was in ICU so they could monitor his blood count closely. They were thinking they would move him to a regular room today. He was still experiencing some pain last night, so we need to pray that the pain would go away, and that the source of the pain would be healed.

Also, please pray for his family. God has been speaking to a lot of people about the importance of praying for Lee and his Mom (Michelle), Dad (Bud) and brother (Travis) at this point. As Lee mentioned in his request, he has been dealing with cancer for 7 years now. That has been exhausting and put a lot of pressure on this family. Would you pray that God would release strength and healing into this family, and that God would reveal Himself clearer than ever to each member of the family. This is not a generic request for “grace for the family”, this is a specific and intentional prayer focus point. Please join us in interceding for this family.

I will try to put out another update as soon as I get more information.

Blessings,

Brad McKoy

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST for LEE

Hello Everyone,

I hope you have all had a chance to read Lee’s Birthday request. He just texted me a few minutes ago to ask me to pray. He is in a lot of pain and has gone to the ER in Pittsburgh. I am getting ready to go down and pray. Whenever you read this, please pray.

I need to go so I will make this short. I really believe that the cancer that is in Lee’s body is a direct attack on his life. It obviously is manifesting powerfully in his body, but through prayer, we must deal with it spiritually. Jesus dealt with sickness this way, so I am asking you to pray together with me, and with others around the world, that the cancer will be evicted from his body.

I was just talking to one of Lee’s friends who suggested praying around the clock for him. That would be a great birthday gift. So, if you can take a time slot of 15 minutes, half hour or longer, please email sballjr@aol.com and she will post the times in the comment section of Lee’s Birthday Request on his blog.

Thank you for praying.

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Lee’s Birthday Request

Hey Everyone,

I am forwarding a message from my friend Lee Myers. Many of you have been praying with me for Lee for quite a while now, and Lee and I both believe that the power of God in response to prayer has been what has sustained his life. For those who don’t know who Lee is, he is an amazing young man who has a heart for God and an incredible destiny as a world changer. He is currently fighting cancer (death at work in his body). We believe that Jesus said the thief came to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus came to release abundant life. That gives us courage and permission to pray bold prayers with the expectation that God will answer.

Lee wrote the following post on his blog (which is amazing) and I asked if I could pass it on to others who might pray for him. I ask you to join with me in praying for Lee. Pray that cancer would leave his body and that he would be completely healed and restored. We are believing for the impossible, which is just the kind of thing that God loves. Thank you.

(for those of you who can pray for Lee on His birthday and know your way around online, I am sure it would encourage Lee if you left a comment on his blog.)

Blessings,

Brad
return08.wordpress.com

from Lee Myers – the week of November 19th, 2008 – It was around this time of the year 7 years ago when my left leg started to hurt near the hip. That pain turned out to be bone cancer, which is still around right now. That’s how long it’s been. My spirit feels strong right now. In that sense, I feel really good, but as far as I know death is still in my body. I don’t think it’s ok for it to stay there as far as I’m concerned. I pray a lot about the cancer dying amongst other things. Sometimes I don’t know how to pray for myself, and at times it even feels selfish (I don’t think it is selfish). I haven’t directly asked a lot of people to pray for me, but I know a ton of people do, and I’m incredibly grateful for that because I know it’s a big deal. God has actually asked people to pray for me in different ways that I’ve been amazed to hear about… dreams, visions, encounters, etc… I’m always so humbled and amazed at God’s love and concern for me when I hear something like that. It kind of blows my mind and also stirs up a few confused feelings… I wonder why God would go through the trouble of leading people to pray when I feel like He could just answer the prayer without it being asked. I could probably think myself into a coma with that question.

I’m saying all of this for a reason… It feels a bit selfish at times to ask people to pray for me. I don’t know that I believe it actually is selfish though. When people pray for me in person, it feels really right at this time in my life… it feels like I’m a man dying of thirst that’s getting a drink of cold water. It’s different than all the other times in my life that people have prayed for me. I hope that makes sense even if you’ve never felt that way. I feel the war for my life a lot right now… there is no new medical information to share right now, but I feel the battle.
I hope this comes across humbly to those who read it. If it doesn’t, or if it seems wrong of me to you, then please disregard this… My birthday is coming up in less than a week (November 19). I don’t normally advertise that either, but I’m asking you for something for my birthday. Will you pray for me? I made a request at the end of the previous blog post for prayer, but I thought I should do this. I value the prayers of people more than any other thing (truly truly). Will you pray for me for at least 15 minutes on my birthday? Please pray more if you want, and I’d appreciate it a ton if you’d pray on days other than my birthday. I don’t think I’m asking this out of fear for my life… I don’t want to do things just because I’m scared. I’m not saying I’m never scared, but I’m making this request because I feel like I need to ask even though it’s an uncomfortable thing to do. I don’t pretend to fully understand prayer or how or why it works, but I know it does… and I feel like I need to ask people to pray for my life. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you… (from Lee)

re:Turn approaches

I just wanted to say that getting ready for re:Turn has been good for me. I think it has focused me in on the importance of prayer. One of my new friends, Jack Thomas, recently wrote about prayer in his blog. In the post, he talked about the importance of establishing foundations through prayer. I needed to read that. sometimes it is easy to slip away from doing things with God and His presence, and into a mindset of doing the right things. Prayer is really about accessing God’s presence and living life from that place. All ministry should be an overflow of this kind of lifestyle. I am excited to be doing things with the Father again, and not for Him. I think he likes it too.

Post Call Dreams

Post Call Dreams

There are two dreams that I want to share about. The first one occurred a few days after some friends and I came back from The Call DC. (The dream would have happened between the 18th and 20th of August 2008.) I really don’t remember very much about the dream, but at the end of of the dream someone came to me and clearly told me to check out Matt Staver. I then woke up from my dream and actually woke up my wife to ask her if she know anyone Named Matt Staver. She said no and so I got online and googled the name Matt Staver and found out that he is the head of the Liberty Counsel. The Liberty Counsel’s website says that they are “Restoring the culture one case at a time by Advancing Religious Freedom, the Sanctity of Human Life and the Traditional Family”. The first article I read was about Matt Staver presenting in front of the Supreme Court.

I know intercessors who have dreams like this on a regular basis, but this is a different type of dream for me. I sensed that it was connected to what God had been doing in my heart about our nation and righteousness. Especially about the abortion issue. I have spent more time praying over our country and the abortion tragedy in the last month than in my whole life combined. I have volunteered my voice and my life to God to call the church to fast and pray for mercy and for the ending of abortion.

The second dream was very vivid and came to me on the night of August 30th. The dream had two parts. In the first part, I was with my wife, Adriane, and one of our spiritual daughters, Bethany. We were staying with this women in a nice hotel suite. The woman was beautiful. She had blond hair, and she was very famous. And it seemed her fame was because of her beauty. We were with her to encourage her and pray with her. She was stunning on the outside, but seemed very insecure. The only thing about her beauty, is that it was beginning to fade. If you got close to her, you could see she was starting to age.

At least twice, we ventured out of the hotel suite into the hallway. Both times we were mobbed by fans, mostly men, who wanted to be close to this woman. But when they got close to her, they would begin to realize she was aging and they would start mocking her and rejecting her. Both times we went back into the room and she would fall onto her bed and we would gather around her and try to comfort her and speak life over her. The second time we went out into the hallway, as the men began to mock her, someone called out a name and a date. (I am not sure about this, but as I have thought and prayed about it, it seemed like the guys name might have been Tim Hueber and the date was in the spring of 1973. I am not as certain of these details as of the other parts of the dream.) Everyone started laughing because this woman had been present when something very bad had happened to the man. Hearing this, she began to sob and ran back into the room.

The dream transitioned at this point. I did not see the woman any longer, but was aware that we were all still there with her and we were at the same hotel. I opened my door and looked out into the hallway of the hotel and President Bush was there, greeting people. He was at the hotel for a conference or convention. Everything seemed very presidential. He was walking down the hallway with secret service agents escorting him. I shook his hand and thought, “Cool, I just shook hands with the President of the United States.”

The next thing I was aware of in my dream, about two hours had passed and I was walking back out into the hallway from our suite. I walked up to a coffee counter in the lobby and stood there for a minute. I remember thinking that it was late in the day, because there were no doughnuts left in the case. As I was standing there, President Bush walked out of an office that was located behind the counter. He looked tired. The other thing that stands out to me, was that this time he did not seem very presidential. There were no Secret Service Agents to protect him. It was just the two of us in the lobby at a coffee counter. I remember thinking that “They are trying to forget him. He is not the face to the party any longer.” After thinking that, I reached out my hand to him and he grabbed it. As we shook hands I said. “I want to thank you because I believe you have done what you thought was right, and I appreciate that.” When I said this, he leaned over and put his head on our handshake. He seemed exhausted. I leaned over him and said, “Don’t forget the prophesy about the burning Bush from Texas who will do more to end abortion than any other.” As I said this, he began to weep. He was broken over abortion. He shook his head as I told him not to forget. Then I told him, “I know you are tired. But finish strong. We will be with you in these last few months, Watching and praying for you.” As I said this, it seemed to encourage him and he stood up. As he did, he told me, “You know, we are only one heart beat away.” After he said this, he turned and walked back into the office. I stood there, watching and praying. The last thing that I remember in my dream was a Secret Service Agent coming to me and saying that everything was okay, and that I could leave and that they would take over from that point on.

My Thoughts…

I would like to point out a few things about this dream, specifically the second part. I do not believe that this dream was political in nature, nor do I believe that the abortion issue is a political one. This is about righteousness. I am not going to attempt to interpret this dream. I have had several people give insight into the dream that I believe to be accurate, but I feel compelled just to share the dream itself. I do want to say that I feel that the dream does have a specific sense of timing. In the dream, President Bush was still President, but was no longer the leader of his party. I watched some of the Republican Convention and was struck by what the commentators were saying. That the first week of September was the transition point of leadership in the party’s leadership. That the republicans were “trying to forget Bush, and that he was no longer the face of the party.” I believe the dream was an invitation to pray for President Bush in this specific time frame. And that we should be speaking prophetically over his destiny and the ending of abortion.

I know and love people who love President Bush, and I also know and love people who despise him, and/or disagree strongly with him on most of his policies. Liking him is not the issue. The issue is calling the church to watch and pray for the President to be refreshed and have the courage and strength to govern these last few months with righteousness.

Please pray and call others to pray in this season.

If you have insight or interpretation for this dream, please contact me.

Blessings,

Brad McKoy

bradriane@gmail.com

Abi’s Teaching Me

So… my little girl is two years old now. I can’t believe it. In some ways, it seems like only a few weeks since my little girl reached out and wrapped her little finger around my hand just minutes after her birth. In other ways, I can’t remember what life was like before she joined our family. God truly blessed me with a wonderful wife and little girl.

Over the past two years, my little Abi has taught me so much about love and the Father’s heart for me. I have realized that every amazing thought or feeling that I have ever had towards Abi is just a token of Papa God’s heart for me. I have also realized that the joy and love that I feel when Abigail looks at me and grins also can be found in God’s heart when I gaze at Him.

These things are really cool to me, but they have been going on for quite a while and I want to talk about what has happened over the last two weeks. I hope that what I am about to say doesn’t offend or frighten anyone, but it is so sweet and I feel really good about telling you. A couple of weeks ago, Abi looked up at me and said… “I worship you”. I was blown away. I was really excited about this, not because I feel worthy of worship, but because of what my daughter’s statement said to me.

It actually said a few things. First, I feel like the prayer that my wife and I have been praying for her since we found out that she would be joining us is being answered. We prayed for a child that would have a heart of worship. I have known for a while that this is true. Every time we take her into an environment of worship, she gets into it. From the time she was only a few months old, she has loved worship music and being in God’s presence.

When she said, “I worship you”, it also made me think that she knows that worship and love for someone go together.

When I was a worship pastor in North Carolina, I taught a series on worship. While doing the study I learned that the New Testament word for worship meant to cherish or adore, like a dog for his master, or a child for its father. I also learned that the English word worship was originally “worthship”, and that it had everything to do with value and honor. So, while I do not want my daughter to worship me instead of God, I do want her to love and adore me, and find my worthy of her honor and affection.

Each night, we try to take time to read a Bible story to Abi and then worship and pray together. I believe that she is connecting our love for God with our praise and worship of Him.

So I tried to tell a few select people about Abi “worshipping me”. I was greeted with a lot of weird looks and “yikes” type expressions. I realized then, that the word “worship” has become so spiritual, that maybe we don’t really get what it means. Maybe it has become more of a formal thought process towards God, than actually giving passionate love, affection and praise to God.

This makes me sad. As a “worship leader”, I often look out at a crowd of people and wonder if they are connecting to God in their hearts. I don’t think I do this to judge them, but I just wonder sometimes if all of our music, and dancing, and flagging and art, and PowerPoint’s, and guitars, and whatever other accessories, really help us find the heart of the Father to say,”Hey, I LOVE YOU!” I am not against any of the above, but they are a sorry substitute for engaging the heart of God.

When Abi tells me she loves me, it both captures and moves my heart. She is my daughter, but at the moment that she says “I love you sooo much daddy”, I am very aware that I belong to her as much as she belongs to me. I think it is like that with God too. Part of the beauty of living in a love exchange with God, is that while He is jealous for me and let’s me know that I belong to Him, He also identifies Himself as my God. He belongs to me, because He created us that way.

That makes me want to scream like crazy. I am my beloved’s and my beloved… He is mine! Yeah!

One last thing from Abi. This happened today. We were hanging out in my chair. (another cool thing… she thinks that my chair is her chair. She squeals with delight to try to beat me to my chair. Everyone else in the house knows that it is my chair, but my daughter… she knows she belongs in my presence, and so that makes this her chair too. but back to the story) I fed her a very beautiful Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich and she looked up and said…”Daddy, I adore you!” My heart melted all over my chair and ran down into the carpet. I was like “Oh, I adore you too little one.” This was sweet, but this next part was where I learned some more. She immediately got down and went and found her mommy and said “I adore daddy”.

Adriane thought that she was cute so she cam and told me about it. I was like “Awe…” But then I thought, and don’t be mad at me for being to sappy or spiritual, but I thought… “WOW!” She adores me so much that it was natural for her to go and let someone else know.

This is important, because while people don’t necessarily want to here about our opinions about theology, they will be changed by the demonstration of our passionate love and adoration for a real and living God.

Think about Psalm 40, where the psalmist says, “You have put a new song in my mouth, even praise to my God. Many will see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.” Abi modeled this for me. I know I am not God, don’t get too worried about that. But my little girl had a natural heart to let me know how she felt about me, and then she had to run and let someone else know. This is how worship and mission should flow. We enter into the presence of the King and we worship Him. We are drawn to love Him by His love. The closer we come to Him, the more we experience His delight over us, the more we want to go tell everyone else of our love.

I have known this in my head, but God used my little two year old princess to teach my heart. Thank You Father. May I be as passionate about loving You and telling everyone about You as my Abi is about me.

Praying for Lee… “but we press on”

Wednesday, 16 January 2008 – I am writing to give you an update on the condition of Lee Myers and to request prayer for him. Many of you know that Lee is a young man that is just amazing. He has been greatly used by the Lord in spreading the gospel and building up the body of Christ. God has used Lee’s simple faith in action to see many people receive physical healing, and Lee has been a catalyst in sparking passion for Jesus on his campus and several surrounding campuses. For the past year, Lee has been fighting cancer. Many of you joined us in praying for Lee in the summer last year when Lee’s left leg was amputated.

Here are the facts of Lee’s current condition. Just a short time after Lee’s leg was removed, the doctors found cancer in Lee’s abdominal wall. They did surgery in the fall to remove the cancer. Then, about a week before Christmas, Lee started experiencing discomfort from an excess build up of abdominal fluid and went to the doctors. Through the process of draining the fluid, Lee began experiencing a lot of pain and ended up in the emergency room. They did a scan at the hospital that would ultimately reveal that there were “multiple tumors” in Lee’s abdomen. The doctor’s analysis was that some of these tumors were growing pretty fast. Lee and his parents began meeting with doctors after the New Year to discuss treatment options. And that is how things were going until last week. After Lee had the fluid drained off again towards the beginning of last week, he was pretty sick from the pain. His parents took him to the hospital Friday, and he has been there since then.

That is an overview of what has been going on in Lee’s body, but that is not the whole story by far. Lee travelled with us to Kansas City in November for a leaders gathering. On the way home, we spent some time at a Wal-Mart waiting for a tire to be changed. Lee and his good friend Jeremiah ended creating an in store display by decorating a smiley face volleyball with sunglasses, a hat and various items from the sporting goods department. It was quite funny. The reason why I am telling you this is because when you open Lee’s phone, there is a picture of Lee and the volleyball man with the words, “but we press on”.

That is where we are now. Faced with a situation that does not look good to our eyes or sound good to our ears, we have an open invite “to press on.” Lee nailed it in a blog that he wrote a few weeks back. In Lee’s Blog, he wrote “…The tension is between pressing in and praying for stuff that’s not right in our lives to be corrected and pressing on into God and what He has for us regardless of what’s going on (pressing on vs. pressing in). They don’t really conflict with each other but it’s tough to do both at once… Never praying for the messed up stuff in your life to be made right isn’t what God wants, but if your life stops while you pray and wait on something to be fixed because you can’t go on until it is, you’ve just turned your problem into the biggest thing in life — it’s now even bigger than God and his grace to press on at all times. (That’s a bad thing)”

To be completely honest, my heart is broken when I see Lee suffering in pain. (I used to feel somewhat guilty about these types of feelings, because the whole lack of faith thing. Only it is not so much that my faith is lacking as much as it is that I see someone I love deeply, in a lot of pain. I stopped feeling guilty when I noticed that Jesus became vulnerable to our pain. He was called the man of sorrows. He even stopped to cry at Lazarus’s funeral, even though He was getting to turn it into a “welcome back” party.) But God is bigger than all of the brokenness that is going on in this situation right now. That really frees me to go after praying for my God to destroy the cancer that is trying to destroy my friend, even when my eyes don’t see the evidence that anything is changing.

The book of Habakkuk has come to mean so much to me over the last month. The book chronicles the burden of the prophet Habakkuk. I don’t claim to have a full understanding of all that is written in those three chapters, but I am encouraged by what I see. Habakkuk seems to be really honest with God about the hurt and frustration that he is living with. “How long do I have to cry out?” But it doesn’t seem to me that he is accusing God, or trying to make God do something. There is so much relevant good stuff in the book that I won’t get into, but I will add one more thing from the song that Habakkuk sings at the end. My paraphrase of the song goes something like this…

“Though I am standing in a middle of a garden, and there is no food…
Though I am hanging out in a barn, and there are no moos…
Though I am standing with the Healer in a hospital room…
Yet, I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
The LORD God is my strength;
He will make my feet like deer’s feet,
And He will make me walk on my high hills.”

I went to visit Lee today, and he was in a lot of pain. He really couldn’t talk much, so my friend John and I just sat there with him and tried to love him and pray the best we knew how. At the end of our time, after we were through praying, I told Lee that we were going to continue to stand with him and pray. That we were not ready to give up. That we would press on.

I know this email seems disjointed, but I am getting ready to ask you to join me in doing two things, and I want you to understand the heart that it comes from. I do not speak for Lee or his family or any of his other friends. I am writing you, simply as someone who loves Lee and believes God. For me, it comes down to these two thoughts.
1. God is good. I can trust Him. He is not waiting to heal Lee because we haven’t put the magic words in the right order. He is not looking for a formula or counting how many syllables of prayer have been uttered. He loves Lee more than I can imagine and He sent His Son to die for Lee’s sin and disease. It is not my job to make God heal Lee. I don’t have to scream louder or pray longer to pry healing from a stingy dad’s hands.
2. God has made us delegated authority on this earth. He has commissioned us to see the Kingdom come here like it is in heaven. I believe we are responsible to represent Jesus and the greatness of His kingdom to the world around us. Our target is to be with and like Jesus. He has given us His Spirit, so that we would do the same things that He did, and Jesus said that we would do even greater things. I am commissioned to model an impossible lifestyle that demonstrates the love and power of God on this planet.

It is not enough for me to think that “whatever happens is okay.” It’s not. When I see Lee in pain, I am not thinking that this is “okay”. Tolerating what Jesus didn’t tolerate is not acceptable. I believe as a delegated authority of heaven, I am to be faithful to exercise that authority. Again, to be honest, I know that there are times that I fall short in this area. Sometimes I obsess about the way things are now, versus the way they should be. I could allow that lack of expertise to paralyze me, but as our friend Banning says, “Let’s live what we know”.

So we trust God and know that He has to touch Lee, and at the same time, we step into the place of authority and exercise our faith by praying and asking God to come. We declare the truth of the Word of God over Lee. We tell the cancer to leave Lee’s body, that it is evicted by the authority of heaven.

So, I am asking all of you to join me and many others in praying for Lee. I am asking you, I am calling you to pray and intercede with passion and a renewed view of our Father. We are not looking for the prayer of “trust” that says ‘whatever’ is okay. We are looking and asking for people to pray for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. We are praying that the pain and disease that was purchased on the cross by the blood of the Lamb would be removed from Lee. We are praying for strength and hope to fill Lee and his family. That the shalom of God would be with them. We are also praying that the leg that the thief has stolen would be restored. (We really do want to see everything that Jesus paid for be redeemed.)

I am also asking you to trust our Father in an expectant way. Let us not allow the cancer that we are praying will be removed, to become bigger than our God. Never allow “trusting God” to mean embracing something that Jesus didn’t, but let us never allow ourselves to forget who He really is. He is Love.

I will finally close this update with a thought that has been with me for a week or two. It is the story of the friends who carried the cripple to see Jesus. They got to the house where Jesus was and it was so packed they couldn’t get in. So they got discouraged and turned around and went home… Sorry, I was reading out the wrong book. What they really did was they climbed up on the roof and tore it up. That’s right, they ripped off the roof, so they could get there friend to Jesus. When ‘plan A’ failed, they said to themselves, “This is not how we planned it,…but we press on.”

I know that Jesus is alive and well today, but I have to admit, there have been several times in the last year when I have said to myself, “Man, I wish I could just pick Lee up and take him to where Jesus is.” I feel like my heart is provoked or compelled like the friends in the Bible. They were moved to action by two things. The fact that their friend was crippled and the fact that Jesus could heal their friend.

My heart says: “Take Action, Lee is in pain and our God will save.” This may seem foolish to you, but I want to rip off a roof and get my friend to where Jesus is. I was feeling that maybe for the rest of this week, and especially this weekend, we could all set some time aside and bring our friend to Jesus. God told us to come boldly to Him in our time of trouble, and Lee is in trouble. Whether people gather and pray together at some central location, or do it in their own homes, I am asking for you to consider dedicating some focused time to pray and fast for Lee. Let’s take time to worship and adore the Lord, to give thanks and to intercede.

For those of you in Western PA/ Ohio, if you are interested in gathering here and praying together, let me know and we will find a place to meet. For those of you across the country and around the world for that matter, I ask you to consider joining together with a few believers and really praying for God’s Kingdom to be poured out in this situation.

Some of our friends have suggested praying around the clock over the weekend. If you would be interested taking an hour slot, let me know. I don’t really care when you pray, but I just ask that if it is in your heart to pray, that you do so.

If you know other people that would join us, please forward this to them or call them. If your church has a prayer list or prayer chain, I humbly request prayer for Lee.

If you feel like the Lord is speaking something to you or your group that you think we should pass on, please email us and we will forward it to other praying people.

Thank you for your time and endurance. Thank you for pressing on with us.

With an expectant and grateful heart,
Brad McKoy

PS – I know many of you may want to contact or visit Lee. Again, I am not speaking for Lee, but I know that he has not really been up for a lot of calls or company, but you can email him if you would like. If you don’t have his address, just email me and I will forward it to him. Thanks.