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Good morning, everyone. For those of you that don't know me, my name is Ed Perez. I have

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the privilege of being Ashley's husband. And we've talked about a couple of ideas of how

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I can be involved in this process with you all. And so I'm going to invite you on a 40

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day journey with me. And this is something that this is just out of a book by Cynthia

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Gunther and Arthur Burke called Blessing Your Spirit. And this is something that I

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believe or not I read to Ashley, I would do every morning. As it is morning now. For her

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when we were dating. And just for ease here, because I have to fill in people's names,

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I'll either refer to you all as beloved one or she suggested maybe restful ones to make

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to kind of come with the theme of the rest intensive. But I'm going to do my best to

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do this kind of live and prompt you this is not a professional recording. And so I will

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probably make plenty of mistakes and but I wanted it to be something living in live.

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So I wanted to do it every every day. If I could with you all I might record one or so

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more to maybe over the holidays when I'm not going to have any time alone. Ashley and I

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live in in rather cramped spaces these days. So I'm doing this from my office. But we're going

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to be traveling soon to see my family. And so anyhow, so if you could just prepare yourself

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and want to pray quickly, and then I'm going to get into it. So Father, I don't know what you

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have in store for this group of people. And I wish Lord, I can remember some of their names. But

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I wish I had the list in front of me Lord, but I don't know what they each need. But you do. Before

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the foundations of the earth, Lord, you knew them. Lord, you had an intimate, deep relationship with

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them before they ever came to earth. Lord, you prepared them in some form or fashion before the

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foundations Lord, before that flash that they say happens during conception Lord, where the heavenly,

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the eternal, and the earthly, you know, one enters into the other. That you had a plan, but you knew,

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you know, each of them that you've called to be a part of this rest intensive work. I know this is

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a little irreverent at times, but I used to say to students, it almost doesn't matter who is doing

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the exercises, who's running the school, who's doing these things that Lord when people set

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aside a year, or in this case, six weeks of their time, their resources to pursue you, you're going

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to answer. You're going to see it done almost, you know, inconsequential the people that you've put

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deleted. Lord, I pray today that whatever it is that you want to impart to them every morning,

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every day, that Lord, that this be a transformative agent that there be, as Chris Volatin would say,

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there'd be blue power on it. That there be the salve of your spirit upon everything that we do.

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And we bless you Lord, and we love you. Okay, this is day one. Identity and legitimacy. Beloved one,

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I call your spirit to attention in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Listen with your spirit to

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God's word for you. For you created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's

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womb. I praise you because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I

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know that full well. My frame is not hidden from you when I was made in a secret place. When I was

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woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained

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for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalm 139, 13 through 16. Restful

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one, your father made you special. You are a very special person. Created and crafted and designed

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by God, your father. For the foundations of the world, your father planned for you. You are no

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accident. You do not have to exist, but your father willed you into existence.

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existence. He chose the day and the time you would start your life. He chose your parents

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and wove you together in your mother's womb. He planned your birth order, put you in your family.

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He chose every one of your 23 pairs of chromosomes. He chose every one of your 10,000 plus genes.

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He chose every part of your spiritual heritage. He reached back into your father's bloodline and

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your mother's bloodline. And from generations past, your heavenly father chose different parts

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of your heritage. Some parts are not so beautiful and some parts are absolutely gorgeous. Yet your

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father wove it all together and gave you everything you need in the package of your life to be an

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overcomer. A victor to take the negative parts of your heritage and triumph over them. To walk in

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the beauty of all that God has placed within you. Your father made you beautiful and beloved.

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I bless you, restful one, because you were fearfully and wonderfully made.

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God invested an incredible amount of effort and concentration in designing you. You are unique,

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one of a kind. There is nobody else like you. God has thought extensively about you. Every detail

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of your body, every organ and every cell is the result of God's thoughts. Every facet of your

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personality is the result of his kind intention. You are beautiful and you are beloved. God has

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blessed you with his love. God smiled on the day he created you. He had been waiting for millennia

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for the particular point in time when you were conceived. He had great joy in his heart

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when his plans actually came together. He nurtures your spirit. He watches over you.

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Your world needs you. You bring something to the family that no other person has.

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They need the gifts you bring. Your family would not be complete without you.

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Others in your circle need the deposit that God has placed in your life.

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Beloved, your father wrote your days in his book. He has already read the final chapters,

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although we have not had that privilege. Your life is not a random thing. He is looking forward

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to the chapters of the story. He has already written. He designed in your spiritual heritage

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your generational blessings go back a thousand generations. There is a spiritual treasure chest

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of generational blessings with your name on it. Those are being released to you incrementally

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over the course of your life at the appointed appropriate time. All this is God's master plan.

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God has foreseen your pain. He promises that because of his love, his power, and his blessing

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upon you, he causes pain and negative things to be transformed into good things before the end of the

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story of your life. We don't know everything about you, about who you are going to be,

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or what you are going to do, but you are loved. You are a blessing to your family,

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and you are a life giver in the world. You are special, and we celebrate God's miraculous design

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of who you are. I bless you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

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Now, this is just me praying here. Father, I had no idea what today's reading was,

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but I remember when I used to do those conception of birth prayers, which I'd have to explain to

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you all what that means, but it was basically walking people through the time of their

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It was basically walking people through the time of their conception to

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their birth. Scientifically, they've proven that the time in our womb is very formative,

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not just in our physiology, but in other things. Roots of rejection and things can begin at that

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time. I was always fascinated, Father, by the part of conception. There was this great sense

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of excitement and wonderment in the heavenly realms of all the anticipation and leading up

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to this person coming into this world. My prayer today, Lord, for each and every one of them,

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Lord, is that they have a moment today of that flash.

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of your unbridled joy and expectation and investment and, in a sense, your guarantee

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of your involvement through all eternity, but in their individual life, but in the planning,

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the conception, the very beginnings, the origins of who they are.

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Lord, I pray today, God, that you would blanket them with your words, the Word of God, the

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words, the reminder of the words that have been spoken over them, and the words, Lord,

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that you speak over them about who they are individually, not just about their scriptural

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identity, but the individual, unique, fingerprint-like, genetically specific identity of who you've

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called them to be, and, Lord, who and what, what is it about them that you love so much,

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and that, Lord, that there be an element today of you speaking forth and reading aloud from

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their book. Lord, from your Word, all things were established. Lord, and there are things

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in our lives that are yet to form and to be done or that have been locked up as a mystery,

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but Lord, that there be a place to come to rest and to know that there's an aspect of

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our lives that are so enmeshed in you that it is almost like if we can come, as Graham

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Cook would say, to understand the magnitude, the majesty of God, the more we realize how

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large you are, Lord God, the more we come to realize that it's almost, there are certain

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aspects of our life that we just can't screw up. So today, Lord, I pray that you would

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bless them like a kiss on the cheek or on the forehead, or as I used to say, Lord, that

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some of them, Lord, that they need to be wrapped up like a little love burrito to feel and

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experience, Lord, you maybe in a way that they never have, that you would touch them,

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Lord, in a deep place. Lord, that you can, almost like I see these dark spots in people's

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souls, Lord, and that your finger would gently touch those spots and bring healing and to

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pull the draughts and to draw these things gently from them, Lord, and that, Lord, you

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would remove every single stumbling block as we are all on this journey together, that

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you would take these things from us, Lord, every stumbling block that would keep us from

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coming into the fullness of receiving all that you are and all that you are wanting

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us to be and what you're wanting us to get. That, Lord, you would really help us in the

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18-inch journey from the knowledge into being, that it make it from our head and into our

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heart, and that, Lord, that you would adjust our filters, that you remove all of the self-protection

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where we've had to be strong on our own. If we didn't do it, then it wouldn't be done,

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etc., etc., and that, Lord, that there be an element of sitting in you like never before,

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and that, Lord, that you would help us to stretch us to imagine that our home is really

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heaven and we're called to be ambassadors, which means we're just representing. We have

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a little embassy in our home, our walking physical bodies are an embassy where the laws

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of this world, so to speak, do not, the laws of this world do not kind of pertain to us

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a little like the Matrix or how Jesus walked through walls or whatever the case is that

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we're anchored in that place. The culture of heaven is really our home, and that we're

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seated with you there, that we're in you and you're in us. We are united. We're living

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in union, and you have promises, Lord, of you sitting at the right hand of the Father

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interceding for us, and that all that you did, and more greater things will we do. But,

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Lord, the weight isn't on us. Help us to just do what we know to do, Lord, and the rest

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is all on you, and the victory has already been won. We bless you and we love you, Lord.

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In Jesus' name.