San Diego

So last Wednesday I loaded up my car with 4 other people for a trip down to San Diego for the West Coast Prayer Rumble. By the time we were in Los Angeles we were still trying to figure out where we would be staying that night. Luckily one of the guys remembered that his friend had moved back to San Diego to live with his parents so we gave him a call and had a place to stay for the night. Well, they ended up hosting us all 4 nights! Talk about a blessing!

So the Rumble was incredible. It had its select moments of awkwardness, but that typically happens when people take up many offerings and are trying to get a group of people that might be reluctant to give. Haha. No, but really, it was awesome. Banning kicked it off, followed by Jesse Engle of Justice House of Prayer (JHOP) San Francisco, and then Banning again that night. In the evening it was fun as he starting giving words of knowledge and people started to get healed. At one point I stood next to a woman just to bless her, and after feeling the Holy Spirit, she tells me to pray for her friend's ankle. So I do real quick (it is during the meeting) and it gets healed, so when Banning hears that her ankle gets healed, he says, "I didn't even call out left ankle, that was gonna be my next one!" Anyway, that was super. I hope that it encouraged/challenged everyone to step into the supernatural power of God.

A quick side note. Being at the Rumble really made me realize how different it is to be at Bethel versus not be at Bethel. While we love what God is doing here and pray for more, there is a sense that it is nothing out of the ordinary. Meanwhile, from so many people we talk to, or rather listen to, it is as though what we see in Redding is out of this world. I really don't know how to explain it. Take Mike Bickle for instance. I would think that if he prayed for people a fair number would get healed. However, it seems as though he contends for miracles like I contend for Down's Syndrome to be healed. That is, contending for something I have never seen. I really don't know what it is. I pray for the sick and recently it seems like anywhere from 25-90% of the people get healed depending on the day. I think I will seek the Lord on the this and perhaps write a blog about it in the future because it really interested me this past week.

The second day was Brian Kim, Corey Russell and Lou Engle. Brian and Corey are both out of IHOP and their love for God and passion is evident of that. Man! I am glad I bought the CDs cause they were something else! There were times where I disagreed with what they were saying WITHOUT what I thought was a necessary explanation of bringing a balance, but nevertheless, they were outstanding. Lou Engle is something else. Wow. Such a father. Again, I am glad I bought the CDs. He challenged the heck out of me not just with that message, but throughout the Rumble (more on that later).

Ok, so I haven't talked about what was perhaps my favorite part of the Rumble, worship. WOW. Two different groups led, alternating sessions. Jonathan David Helser and Isa Covertier. They were amazing. The sound that Jonathan's band put out was so fresh and the lyrics were so powerful. I bought their CD and have been listening to it in the car ever since. Isa's band was SOLID. Wow. They just kept taking us into the presence of the Lord. Seriously, I spent so much time in God's presence at the Rumble. It was amazing. At one session I spent 2.5 hours just enjoying his presence during worship and then the message as well (hence the need for getting the CDs). But yeah, wow. Check them out on myspace.

On Saturday, the 10th and final day of my fast, we were at UC San Diego all day for prayer, worship, and yeah, I think that was it. It was great. And went to the back of the auditorium we were in and paced back and forth for breakthrough for the uncurable diseases. Oh God was firing me up. I went to pray for a man with a bandage on his head, after I did I felt an impression in my right foot so as I asked him I looked down and saw that his right shoe had a 4-5 inch sole on it. He had cancer when he was a kid that stunted the growth in that leg. I prayed and prayed and prayed and didn't see his leg grow out. He said he felt God's presence and also that his other (good) leg was feeling even stronger, so that was good. Later as we went out on the campus to pray I saw a woman with a cane so I stopped and prayed for her, she was kinda in a rush so I didn't make her test it out right there. It is really getting so easy to pray for people. If you want to pray for people, just get with someone else who does, go with them for a little bit and then try it out, it isn't very hard.

We heard from Lou Engle about the history of UC San Diego and their library which just so happens to be "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" with a 560 foot serpent leading up to it. It was intense. So we prayed and declared and had a good time. Back inside out of the cold. I got to sit in on a meeting about some cool stuff coming to San Francisco and how we might get to play a part of that, but again, more on that as it becomes public. I asked for Lou Engle and his wife to pray for me as I am going out to Georgia Tech a month from today and ended up with some pretty sweet prophetic words to carry in prayer. Thanks Lou! On top of that, they showered us with his two books and then his wife also gave me his worship CD all for free. They were such incredible people. They really taught me a lot this weekend.

Well, after it all ended we headed out to get some dinner, which would be my first meal of 2007 as I ended my 10 day fast. We had some mexican food and boy was it good. :)

The next morning we went to the church where Banning would speak and quickly my body reminded me that the meal I had last night was the first one in a while, but don't worry, I will spare you the details, but I did end up in the bathroom at the same time as another guy who broke his fast. Haha. Anyway, this church was taking me back to Tallahassee. It was multi-ethnic and multi-generational and the worship was straight up Hillsong. Banning's message was on fire. We have new lyrics for the "this little light of mine..." song. They are, "This huge freakin' fire of mine..." haha. He was talking about how so many Christians hide their light so that it won't go out but in Matthew 5 Jesus actually tells us that we are the light of the world. That's right, Jesus said I am the light of the world. It was great. He challenged them to take their faith public.

We got to give words of knowledge and saw many people get healed without anyone praying for them. It was sweet. There were many great testimonies of people getting healed. I will put up a video of one man's testiomny in the next couple of days. It was intense. So, after that we grabbed a quick bite to eat at Panda Express which was so good! I had some Kung Pao chicken that on one bite I thought my face was gonna turn into fire! Haha, it was good. So we said goodbye to our host and hopped on the Interstate at about 2:30-2:45 pm for our 11 hour drive home. We got stuck in some pretty good LA traffic but then made it up almost to Sacramento before we stopped for dinner. Near Bakersfield there was a stretch of highway that looked incredible! It was mile after mile after mile of straight highway and so since it was at night, all you could see were tons of lights. I wish I had gotten a picture or video of it, but we were coming down from the mountains and it was kinda curvy so I decided not to.

Well, I pulled into the driveway at 1:30 this morning to find everyone asleep. I changed into my work clothes and headed over to the prayer house to read my bible and pray before going to work. I am so glad that I did. It was incredible. I didn't see anything or hear an answer when I asked, but I believe there were angels in there with me. I felt something that I had never felt before. Something from the Rumble really changed me. Changed the way I think about the Holy Spirit and challenged my love and devotion to God. I was challenged to pray even more and fast for the coming harvest. Wow. It was just incredible. I believe breakthrough is here and I am taking it public. I got a few words at work, a few were right and a few were wrong. Nevertheless, my light is gonna shine brightly at Target because I am the light of the world! It is my responisibility to reach people with the gospel and I will hopefully never point fingers again. Thank you Lord for the work you are doing in my life. Increase the level of intimacy I have with you and pour out your spirit to confront the works of the enemy.