Good morning, everyone. For those of you that don't know me, my name is Ed Perez. I have
the privilege of being Ashley's husband. And we've talked about a couple of ideas of how
I can be involved in this process with you all. And so I'm going to invite you on a 40
day journey with me. And this is something that this is just out of a book by Cynthia
Gunther and Arthur Burke called Blessing Your Spirit. And this is something that I
believe or not I read to Ashley, I would do every morning. As it is morning now. For her
when we were dating. And just for ease here, because I have to fill in people's names,
I'll either refer to you all as beloved one or she suggested maybe restful ones to make
to kind of come with the theme of the rest intensive. But I'm going to do my best to
do this kind of live and prompt you this is not a professional recording. And so I will
probably make plenty of mistakes and but I wanted it to be something living in live.
So I wanted to do it every every day. If I could with you all I might record one or so
more to maybe over the holidays when I'm not going to have any time alone. Ashley and I
live in in rather cramped spaces these days. So I'm doing this from my office. But we're going
to be traveling soon to see my family. And so anyhow, so if you could just prepare yourself
and want to pray quickly, and then I'm going to get into it. So Father, I don't know what you
have in store for this group of people. And I wish Lord, I can remember some of their names. But
I wish I had the list in front of me Lord, but I don't know what they each need. But you do. Before
the foundations of the earth, Lord, you knew them. Lord, you had an intimate, deep relationship with
them before they ever came to earth. Lord, you prepared them in some form or fashion before the
foundations Lord, before that flash that they say happens during conception Lord, where the heavenly,
the eternal, and the earthly, you know, one enters into the other. That you had a plan, but you knew,
you know, each of them that you've called to be a part of this rest intensive work. I know this is
a little irreverent at times, but I used to say to students, it almost doesn't matter who is doing
the exercises, who's running the school, who's doing these things that Lord when people set
aside a year, or in this case, six weeks of their time, their resources to pursue you, you're going
to answer. You're going to see it done almost, you know, inconsequential the people that you've put
deleted. Lord, I pray today that whatever it is that you want to impart to them every morning,
every day, that Lord, that this be a transformative agent that there be, as Chris Volatin would say,
there'd be blue power on it. That there be the salve of your spirit upon everything that we do.
And we bless you Lord, and we love you. Okay, this is day one. Identity and legitimacy. Beloved one,
I call your spirit to attention in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Listen with your spirit to
God's word for you. For you created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's
womb. I praise you because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I
know that full well. My frame is not hidden from you when I was made in a secret place. When I was
woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained
for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalm 139, 13 through 16. Restful
one, your father made you special. You are a very special person. Created and crafted and designed
by God, your father. For the foundations of the world, your father planned for you. You are no
accident. You do not have to exist, but your father willed you into existence.
existence. He chose the day and the time you would start your life. He chose your parents
and wove you together in your mother's womb. He planned your birth order, put you in your family.
He chose every one of your 23 pairs of chromosomes. He chose every one of your 10,000 plus genes.
He chose every part of your spiritual heritage. He reached back into your father's bloodline and
your mother's bloodline. And from generations past, your heavenly father chose different parts
of your heritage. Some parts are not so beautiful and some parts are absolutely gorgeous. Yet your
father wove it all together and gave you everything you need in the package of your life to be an
overcomer. A victor to take the negative parts of your heritage and triumph over them. To walk in
the beauty of all that God has placed within you. Your father made you beautiful and beloved.
I bless you, restful one, because you were fearfully and wonderfully made.
God invested an incredible amount of effort and concentration in designing you. You are unique,
one of a kind. There is nobody else like you. God has thought extensively about you. Every detail
of your body, every organ and every cell is the result of God's thoughts. Every facet of your
personality is the result of his kind intention. You are beautiful and you are beloved. God has
blessed you with his love. God smiled on the day he created you. He had been waiting for millennia
for the particular point in time when you were conceived. He had great joy in his heart
when his plans actually came together. He nurtures your spirit. He watches over you.
Your world needs you. You bring something to the family that no other person has.
They need the gifts you bring. Your family would not be complete without you.
Others in your circle need the deposit that God has placed in your life.
Beloved, your father wrote your days in his book. He has already read the final chapters,
although we have not had that privilege. Your life is not a random thing. He is looking forward
to the chapters of the story. He has already written. He designed in your spiritual heritage
your generational blessings go back a thousand generations. There is a spiritual treasure chest
of generational blessings with your name on it. Those are being released to you incrementally
over the course of your life at the appointed appropriate time. All this is God's master plan.
God has foreseen your pain. He promises that because of his love, his power, and his blessing
upon you, he causes pain and negative things to be transformed into good things before the end of the
story of your life. We don't know everything about you, about who you are going to be,
or what you are going to do, but you are loved. You are a blessing to your family,
and you are a life giver in the world. You are special, and we celebrate God's miraculous design
of who you are. I bless you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
Now, this is just me praying here. Father, I had no idea what today's reading was,
but I remember when I used to do those conception of birth prayers, which I'd have to explain to
you all what that means, but it was basically walking people through the time of their
It was basically walking people through the time of their conception to
their birth. Scientifically, they've proven that the time in our womb is very formative,
not just in our physiology, but in other things. Roots of rejection and things can begin at that
time. I was always fascinated, Father, by the part of conception. There was this great sense
of excitement and wonderment in the heavenly realms of all the anticipation and leading up
to this person coming into this world. My prayer today, Lord, for each and every one of them,
Lord, is that they have a moment today of that flash.
of your unbridled joy and expectation and investment and, in a sense, your guarantee
of your involvement through all eternity, but in their individual life, but in the planning,
the conception, the very beginnings, the origins of who they are.
Lord, I pray today, God, that you would blanket them with your words, the Word of God, the
words, the reminder of the words that have been spoken over them, and the words, Lord,
that you speak over them about who they are individually, not just about their scriptural
identity, but the individual, unique, fingerprint-like, genetically specific identity of who you've
called them to be, and, Lord, who and what, what is it about them that you love so much,
and that, Lord, that there be an element today of you speaking forth and reading aloud from
their book. Lord, from your Word, all things were established. Lord, and there are things
in our lives that are yet to form and to be done or that have been locked up as a mystery,
but Lord, that there be a place to come to rest and to know that there's an aspect of
our lives that are so enmeshed in you that it is almost like if we can come, as Graham
Cook would say, to understand the magnitude, the majesty of God, the more we realize how
large you are, Lord God, the more we come to realize that it's almost, there are certain
aspects of our life that we just can't screw up. So today, Lord, I pray that you would
bless them like a kiss on the cheek or on the forehead, or as I used to say, Lord, that
some of them, Lord, that they need to be wrapped up like a little love burrito to feel and
experience, Lord, you maybe in a way that they never have, that you would touch them,
Lord, in a deep place. Lord, that you can, almost like I see these dark spots in people's
souls, Lord, and that your finger would gently touch those spots and bring healing and to
pull the draughts and to draw these things gently from them, Lord, and that, Lord, you
would remove every single stumbling block as we are all on this journey together, that
you would take these things from us, Lord, every stumbling block that would keep us from
coming into the fullness of receiving all that you are and all that you are wanting
us to be and what you're wanting us to get. That, Lord, you would really help us in the
18-inch journey from the knowledge into being, that it make it from our head and into our
heart, and that, Lord, that you would adjust our filters, that you remove all of the self-protection
where we've had to be strong on our own. If we didn't do it, then it wouldn't be done,
etc., etc., and that, Lord, that there be an element of sitting in you like never before,
and that, Lord, that you would help us to stretch us to imagine that our home is really
heaven and we're called to be ambassadors, which means we're just representing. We have
a little embassy in our home, our walking physical bodies are an embassy where the laws
of this world, so to speak, do not, the laws of this world do not kind of pertain to us
a little like the Matrix or how Jesus walked through walls or whatever the case is that
we're anchored in that place. The culture of heaven is really our home, and that we're
seated with you there, that we're in you and you're in us. We are united. We're living
in union, and you have promises, Lord, of you sitting at the right hand of the Father
interceding for us, and that all that you did, and more greater things will we do. But,
Lord, the weight isn't on us. Help us to just do what we know to do, Lord, and the rest
is all on you, and the victory has already been won. We bless you and we love you, Lord.
In Jesus' name.