So we figured out how to stream Live 8 all day. AOL was broadcasting live from all the stages today–London, Tokyo, Moscow, Paris, Philadelphia and Canada. I got up at the ridiculous (for us) hour of 7 a.m. to catch U2 opening in London. Thanks to my brand new Bose speakers, these teeny weeny little things that transmit the sound of a massive stereo from my computer, we filled our house with sounds from around the world.
This event is just amazing–in that it literally consumed the news for a day. For one day we were relieved of Iraq and even the normal slime of MTV and given a taste of something noble. But last night we were reading about it, we really felt God’s hand in it–that he was directing hope to Africa. Money or not, it seems like a wave of blessing going out to the continent.
Some bite-sized thoughts on live 8:
when artists mobilize to voice like this, it is really powerful. Music makes a very big space on the earth, if anyone doubts it!
Some artists that we can pray into Jesus–Richard Ashcroft, Madonna, the singer from Razorlights, Dave Matthews. Sometimes you can see when someone is going to “pop into the kingdom” as Derek puts it–and we really feel that around these special people.
Funny, because this week I was listening to “Bittersweet Symphony” by one of my old favorite CDs and we were walking about last night singing it… and telling Derek that Richard Ashcroft (the singer) is made to open realms of heaven. And what do you know, there he was this morning, right after U2, on stage with Coldplay to perform this amazing song this morning. He has a job to do–I am praying for his discovery of God and deliverance.
Bono is a general in the spirit. He’s pretty much doing his job and consecrating things to the Lord.
The Irish have a passion for justice, and it is going to get louder. You can see this obviously in both Bob Geldof and Bono. I once had a dream about Ireland. It was a lone bloody warrior at the end of the world and was limping, bruised and beaten, and complaining about it rather loudly, but its heart was still throbbing and it still thrust its sword out. The love of many will grow cold, so it says, but the Irish were made to make it to the end.
Eagles are going to land in Scotland during the G8 meeting. This is really a time for the intercessors!
Africa is on the rise. In general we are going to be hearing a lot about Africa in the next 10 years. God is going to change the face of the entire continent. Poverty is a spirit before it is an economic problem. This is a continent that has the world’s richest gems buried in its ground. Diamonds! The world has stolen them, but Africa is going to access supernatural power like few other nations, and this is going to transform many other nations. They are, along with Australia and Norway, one of the places in the world that are going to be the new “New World.” They are going to develop their own ways of doing things outside of even America’s influence.
Jamaica is supposed to be a island of color warriors. It feels like a lot of reggae gets stuck in repetition and a weak protest that never really breaks out into real liberation. Not just liberation from the colonizers, but the liberation from the enemy!
This brings me to a thought I’ve been having lately. A lot of protest art is just reactionary, and this is kind of a trick to keep artists from actually being real freedom warriors. There is genuine protest, but then there is just reaction to the past or to perceived limitations. So few artists–even watching them all day–really believe and know that they can go where no one else has gone before.
Berlin rocks. Boy, is that city intense! Another place of destiny.
