Somebody get happy!

So I finally got smart last night and put my laptop in its normal spot next to my bed so that I could write down my dreams when I wake up in the middle of the night. Sure enough, I had a dream, woke up, and wrote it down. One person that was in this dream had never been in any of my dreams until the past two nights. Anyway, I woke up early to get some time in with the Lord. It was fitting that Pastor Kris talked about how something only has value when it costs us something. Well, I have loved my time with God in the mornings and this morning was no different. I think it was probably my favorite time of praying in the Spirit ever. Of my goals that I wrote about a few days ago I have been doing very well on the praying, soaking, and reading the bible, all of which I do in the morning. I have not been as consistent in spending an hour reading other books, but have been reading a few pages each day.

Church was super cool. I was digging worship as I have learned again how to enter in when it isn't my choice of music. Eric Johnson, Pastor Bill's son, shared this amazing story about an 8-year-old that learned not to be afraid of snakes (the devil). I am not doing the illustration justice right now, but he made several great points about how we need to put the devil in his proper place of being small and only having the authority that we hand over to him. Pastor Kris told a story that I have heard many times, but after he told and just began to talk was amazing! When I went up to pray for people I felt an impression on my right knee, so I turned to Banning and asked him if it was hurting, which it wasn't. Ten seconds later he went to go pray for a man. Fifteen seconds after that he tells me to get over there and explains how not only did this man ask for me to pray for him, but also that it was his right knee that he came up to get healing for! So Banning and I just declared healing in a second over him, without praying, and told him to go walk and test it out. He reported very much the same as I did with my knee problem from a month ago in that, it didn't feel nearly as weak when he was walking and that he felt more stable. Praise God!

Fast forward to the evening and I showed up to pre-service prayer a few minutes early. Since I have been having such a good time praying in tongues the past few days, I didn't hesitate to start walking around the room even though there was no music on yet and I was the only one doing it. Sure enough I could feel God's presence almost immediately and was then getting touched by some angels and the Holy Spirit. Later I was with several other people and was starting to get a little bit drunk in the Holy Spirit. I was laughing so much that now my throat is just a tiny bit sore from it. I kept falling over and laughing. Ah, being happy is so much fun! I now have the feeling that the summer is going to be a blast!

So, I don't think that I have ever had quite the experience that I had during worship tonight. It was amazing. I have had other experiences that were incredible, but I think this one tops them all. I thought I felt that something special was happening (which normally does not happen) and after just the third song Pastor Kris gets up to share that he feels such a special anointing in the room that he hasn't felt anything that strong since the Jesus Movement 40 years ago! WOAH! I was already going crazy, but that just kicked it up another notch. It was fantastic. On top of that, a good friend of mine that I have been constantly praying for was finally back from her surgery a month ago. I didn't realize just how special this is until now, but I had been praying that she wouldn't need any more rods put in her back because she would be healed, and guess what, she didn't need any rods! She still needs to be completely healed though. While praying for her I got a couple words of knowledge, one for pain in the left ear, which left completely, and another for headaches which lessened. Also, pain in her knee went away while I was praying for her feet. God is so awesome!!!! I can't believe how faithful He is! Oh and while I was praying for my friend, she was praying with one or two other people for a woman with a large tumor. After the second time of prayer the woman had an astonished look on her face and could not find the tumor!!!! JESUS!!!!!

I almost forget to mention what got released during this time of worship before I prayed for my friend. In addition to the healing anointing, Pastor Kris also said that there was an anointing to break cycles, not only including bad addictions, but also including bad thought patterns of fear or loss of hope. He explained how many lose hope when things they are praying for don't get answered. I totally felt that I had lost hope and it was also fitting that Kim Walker sang prophetically about dreams that were forgotten due to lost hope or bad memory would be restored. Well, I have dreams of people getting out of wheelchairs among other things that I have definitely lost hope on in a very general sense. Actually, I think it would be more accurate to say that I don't carry those dreams with the same level of faith that I once did.

Nearly two hours into the service Danny Silk finally got up to preach. I sat with some friends who were susceptible to getting drunk in the Holy Spirit on purpose just because I know God is giving me some freedom and joy. I was not dissappointed. After Josephs and Marys were called forward to be released we ended with a big fire tunnel. Much later I got to pray with an awesome guy, Scott, for a woman with cancer. You can tell that Scott has been around Pastor Bill by the authority that he prays with. Not a gift of faith, loud authority, but rather a soft-spoken, rock-solid healing theology authority. He got a clear word about her not being able to sleep and the whole time we were praying I could feel the fire coming off of my fingertips. She is gonna be healed.

Somebody get happy! God is good!

Dream Language

God is so good! Today has been a wonderful day of using my free time to get things done and also spend lots of time with God. I came to the realization this morning that as long as I am at home and my roommate isn't, I have no excuse to not pray in the Holy Spirit and soak to the extent of my heart's desire. Some days I just don't feel like going to the prayer chapel since it can often be crowded and I realized that I need to learn how to pray in tongues and soak elsewhere!

God has been giving me a lot of dreams recently. They have varied greatly but have all spoke to me in some way. Many times I am having two or three dreams each night. Today in addition to two during the night, I went into a dream while I was soaking this afternoon. (There was a slight pause in my blogging train of thought as I could not type in anything in my browser for the past 20 minutes or so. Now back to your regularly scheduled blog.) I have been reading a book by Todd Bentley called "The Reality of the Supernatural World." It seems like it has been a key of sorts to open up new experiences for me, which have manifested most frequently as dreams. Addtionally, my friend Jeremy has been speaking very highly of James Goll's "Dream Language." I read the forward of it recently before going to bed and sure enough I had several dreams that night.

Ironically, the dream I had this afternoon had James Goll in it, even though he didn't look like any of the pictures I have seen of him. However, he looked fairly close to the real thing and I knew in the dream that it was him. In it there was something to do with his book "The Seer" which I own, but have not started reading yet (I think I will read it next after dreaming about it!). Interestingly enough one of the pictures that I saw on the book in the dream is not the actual picture that is on the book. However, in the dream the picture revealed the secret to a mystery that opened a huge door and led to a dramatic encounter with God! I believe that this is the first time that I have ever had a dream about having an encounter with God. I have had dreams about cripples and paralytics getting healed, but never about getting blasted by the Holy Spirit.

I feel kind of funny saying it, but I feel like I need to hire a dream interpreter. Perhaps I should just start to meditate on my dreams so that I can get the interpretation myself. That sounds like a better idea. However, the idea of seeking help isn't totally wrong either. Jeremy pointed out to me the other day how dreams are just as valuable as a prophetic word and understanding what God is saying is just important in a dream as it is through prophecy.

Dreaming with God

I have been dreaming a lot recently. Last night was the first night in probably the past two weeks that I woke up and couldn't remember having a dream. The thing about my dreams is that they have always seemed to be very short. I could write them out in four or five sentences on my computer. On Wednesday at youth group, Linda read some dreams that some of the youth were having. Some of them were really long and when I found myself asking God to give me longer dreams I remembered to be thankful for the dreams I have been getting.

Well, that night I had a longer dream. It had many sections to it which is very unusual for me. The next night I had an even longer dream which took up almost two pages typed out. So on my way to the church that morning I was asking God why I wasn't having dreams that were of real life events that I would see unfold. Again I remembered to be thankful for what God had just given me, realizing that I have seen an increase in dreams over the past few weeks.

After spending some time praying and soaking I had the unique opportunity to minister to the Pastor on Call team at church. Joaquin, who is one of the first year pastors and also the director of the healing rooms (he also led the mission trip I was on), led the meeting. He began talking about Benny Hinn learning about the Holy Spirit through watching Kathryn Kuhlman. She would wait for the presence of God before she would ever go out in front of a crowd. Then she would preach for hours until she recognized a shift in the spirit, at which time she would begin calling out words of knowledge and point to different areas of the crowd and people would get healed without anyone ever praying for them.

He also talked about how when the apostles prayed in the book of Acts they were so engulfed with the Spirit that when they went out the Spirit would just leak off of them to heal people. Men like Charles Finney would walk into a room and without saying anything people would fall to their knees crying out to God, repenting of their sins. There is something huge about moving with the Spirit of God. I am just beginning to realize how important this is.

At school we got to hear from Pastor Bill. We watched a clip of him on TBN Thursday night. God, help me to honor people as much as he does! I have never heard him say anything negative about a person before. It blows my mind. The last question that someone asked him was about a subject he had talked about maybe two weeks ago. I mentioned it here as well because I thought that it was so important. He stressed to us that a radical encounter with God does not make us anything better than someone who has never had such an encounter.

He again stressed how we must give honor to the small things that God gives us. The presence of God being in our midst is as big of a deal as a big encounter that could change our lives forever. The problem is that we put a measure on it, deeming it unimportant. He also told us to engage God's presence and not just enjoy it. I believe that is what great revivalists have done. They recognized the presence of God coming into the meeting and then engaged it. Sure some may have worked out of their anointing, but when they wait on the Lord, they aren't waiting so that they can fall asleep, they are waiting to set up an ambush, so that like Kathryn Kuhlman, when the Presence comes, the miracles immediately follow.