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

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.

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)

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

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

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.

Blank nothingness is all that she can see. Anything else could only be a dream. Faint. Not even black and white. Just faint grey. Won’t you awake?

How could someone so fair and so full of life just lay there? Lifeless? I am sure it is not what she has chosen. Hopes dashed. (Dis) appointed by disappointment. Surely she will not sleep away her destiny, and yet that seems all she can do. Sleep.

How did she end up here? Was it the seduction of abeautiful but poisoned apple? Did she play in an enchanted field of poppies? Was her heart searching for something that seemed too illusive to continue?

For now, this beauty seems destined to barely breathe. The only motion that is detected is the slight rising and falling that comes as she inhales and exhales.

She lay there alone. Motionless.

All of her “friends” missed her when she first disappeared, but soon they went back to playing their childish games. Maybe they didn’t miss her at all.

Is there any way that this tragic tale can have a happy ever after?

The wind blows and changes the scape around our sleeping beauty. She continues motionless. The chains of slumber seem to tighten with each shallow breath.

It seems that there was once a legend of a kiss that could awaken the deepest sleep. Is there really a prince looking for a bride? Is He waiting for her? Where is this champion and if He cares why has He not intervened?

Is there really a love that is true? A love that wakes the dawn? Is there really a life that can infuse the emptiness that has settled all around this lonely heart?

There is a prince. He longs for His bride. Do not confuse what you have not seen with what His heart is capable of.

There is a love that is stronger than death. This love can is brilliant and able to cut through the darkest night.

There is a life that is worth living. It is worth giving everything for. It is worth waking up for.

There is a voice that whispers, though it may seem faint. The whisperer is persistent. He knows what and who He wants. He will not be turned away, but neither will He take. What he longs for can only be given. And so persistently He calls in hushed tones.

“Awake, my love. Live, my fair one. Love and receive my love. Wake up, sleeping beauty, wake up.”

date:sunday,july 1

time:6pmuntilwe’redone!

gatheringplace:faithgospelchapel

Join us for a time of pressing in to the Father’s heart as we worship,pray, and seek the King’s face. We will be praying for breakthrough for our nation and region. We will also be praying for “The Call”.