This past weekend I was afforded the privaledge of attending The Call in Nashville, TN. I came to The Call expecting to go to a new level in many ways. I feel as though because I prepared my heart and was expecting God to move, He did.
On my flight to Nashville I recognized that as we boarded the plane, the person in front of me in line was going to be sittting next to me. Although it was a short flight, I prepared myself to talk with her before we ever got on the plane because I know that there will be times when revival will break out while I am on an airplane. I was able to share with her the journey of moving to Redding and seeing God move in the supernatural. She had an encounter with God because I was able to convey how I went from not believing in miracles to being apart of them on a regular basis.
During The Call I was informed that I would be going with a small group of people from Bethel up on stage to pray for healing revivalists to be released throughout the country. I was also told to get words of knowledge to release for healing to the people who were gathered (and I suppose also who were watching on TV). As we waited backstage I remembered that I have received several prophetic words about preaching at stadiums full of people. I thought, "Lord, I never knew it would be this soon!" In the end, they ran out of time to do that segment, so we didn't end up on stage at all to pray or give words of knowledge. However, I did find a woman who had an injury very close to the word of knowledge that I was going to give (I was going to say broken right foot that didn't heal correctly and she had a broken right ankle that didn't heal correctly).
I have asked God numerous times in my life for an acceleration to take place. I don't want God to move mightily when I am 85 years, I want Him to move mightily now and for it to continue to increase for the rest of my life. What would happen though if I am suddenly thrusted into doing what would only seem possible 10 or 20 years from now? Would I step up as though I was made for that moment or would I shrink back in fear giving the excuse that I am not ready?
Many Christians claim to not be ready when faced with things that are beyond comfort for them. If something causes them fear they claim that God has not prepared them for it yet. Could it be that God is wanting to bring an acceleration to His people who are willing to take Him by the hand and walk into uncharted territory? Having opportunities that are stretching for us now, but are things we desire to do in the future are gifts from God. He is giving us the ability to bring tomorrow into today.
If God has told you that you will preach to thousands, get ready to be handed the microphone. If God has told you that every crippled person you lay hands on will walk, start laying hands on them now. If God has told you that you will start orphanages all over the world, start taking care of kids now. Don't wait for a plate of food to show up in front of you, go prepare it. Too often we wait until God gives us the thing we long for when the reality is that He already gave it to us and we don't even realize it. We wait to be clothed in power before we will pray for the sick but the truth is that they won't be healed until you pray for them.
As my friend aptly stated on a firestorm a few weeks ago, if you don't do anything then nothing is going to happen. If you want to continue experiencing the results you are now, keep not doing what you aren't doing. Did you get that? But if you are wanting an increase in results, take a risk. John Wimber says faith is spelled R-I-S-K. Do something you wouldn't normally do, pray for something that scares you to pray for, and pray for every person that you want to see healed (which should be everyone!). How can God use you to see limbs grow back if you never pray for anyone who has a missing limb? Take a risk and prepare to be accelerated.
Showing posts with label Healing Revivalist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Healing Revivalist. Show all posts
Monday, July 9, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
A Greater Reality
When faced with adversities, it is often difficult to see how we can fulfill our dreams. The reality of what we can see in the natural attempts to block out the reality of what God has called us to. Much like an eclipse, we may only see a glimpse of what we know to be there whereas the lesser reality is what we see most.
My friend Daniel reminded me how we cannot let the lies of the enemy and our current circumstances dictate our future hope. If you dream of being an author, you cannot focus on the reality that you are a poor student, you must focus on becoming an accomplished writer!
The enemy would like nothing better than to keep you from fulfilling your destiny and having a big impact in the Kingdom of God. If he can convince you that you are incapable of accomplishing your dreams then he has gained a small victory. God gives us larger than life dreams so that if we believe His word the devil won't stand a chance at getting in our way.
I dream of being a revivalist. I dream about seeing people saved and healed every day not because I do outreach daily but because I make myself available. I dream about the biggest cities in the world being transformed by the gospel. I dream about massive healing and evangelistic crusades in the US and internationally. However, my current situation does not point to that destination. When I minister on the streets people aren't getting saved or healed at nearly the rate they should be. A few of my friends see people get healed and saved on a daily basis. Literally. One friend told me how she was shocked when she realized one day recently that nobody had gotten healed that day.
When God has called you to the impossible, it is imperative to keep your eyes on Him and not what you see in front of you. We must allow what is invisible to become more real than what is visible or else our circumstances will dictate our future. Our world would be significantly different if inventors gave up when they didn't immediately experience success and became satisfied with the status quo.
How many times have Christians given up on a dream because they thought it was impossible or too difficult? If I remember the story correctly, Reinhard Bonnke was not God's first choice to win millions of souls on the African continent, but he was the first to say yes to the call. How many others are called to change nations but have let a false reality get in their way?
One of the first prophetic words I ever received was so big that I didn't know what to do with it. I often would listen to it thinking, "how could I ever do that?" I didn't have a firm grasp on the reality that God can use anyone to do anything and that He might just want to use me for greater things than I could ever imagine. If we turn our focus to our present circumstances instead of to God we will never see the greater reality that He has called us to and walk in the fullness of our calling.
My friend Daniel reminded me how we cannot let the lies of the enemy and our current circumstances dictate our future hope. If you dream of being an author, you cannot focus on the reality that you are a poor student, you must focus on becoming an accomplished writer!
The enemy would like nothing better than to keep you from fulfilling your destiny and having a big impact in the Kingdom of God. If he can convince you that you are incapable of accomplishing your dreams then he has gained a small victory. God gives us larger than life dreams so that if we believe His word the devil won't stand a chance at getting in our way.
I dream of being a revivalist. I dream about seeing people saved and healed every day not because I do outreach daily but because I make myself available. I dream about the biggest cities in the world being transformed by the gospel. I dream about massive healing and evangelistic crusades in the US and internationally. However, my current situation does not point to that destination. When I minister on the streets people aren't getting saved or healed at nearly the rate they should be. A few of my friends see people get healed and saved on a daily basis. Literally. One friend told me how she was shocked when she realized one day recently that nobody had gotten healed that day.
When God has called you to the impossible, it is imperative to keep your eyes on Him and not what you see in front of you. We must allow what is invisible to become more real than what is visible or else our circumstances will dictate our future. Our world would be significantly different if inventors gave up when they didn't immediately experience success and became satisfied with the status quo.
How many times have Christians given up on a dream because they thought it was impossible or too difficult? If I remember the story correctly, Reinhard Bonnke was not God's first choice to win millions of souls on the African continent, but he was the first to say yes to the call. How many others are called to change nations but have let a false reality get in their way?
One of the first prophetic words I ever received was so big that I didn't know what to do with it. I often would listen to it thinking, "how could I ever do that?" I didn't have a firm grasp on the reality that God can use anyone to do anything and that He might just want to use me for greater things than I could ever imagine. If we turn our focus to our present circumstances instead of to God we will never see the greater reality that He has called us to and walk in the fullness of our calling.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
When we ask, God answers
This morning as I was spending some time praying I was asking God to increase the number of healings that are manifesting while I am around. I have felt that recently there hasn't been much breakthrough in healing, or if there has been, then the people have just not told me.
Tonight I went to a Living in the Supernatural class taught by Bethel's outreach pastor Chris Overstreet with my friend Erica. I have been wanting to go to Chris' classes for the longest time but I have never been able to. Well, tonight was a good night to go. Within a few minutes of being there, God used me to bring healing to two people! As I was greeting two men I felt a muffling over my right ear so I asked them what was going on and found out that one was 50% deaf in the right ear and the other had blown out his ear drum.
The first man could not notice a difference in his hearing because there was so much noise in the room, but as I prayed for the second man God completely healed his ear drum! He said that he used to be able to get air through it and that he would experience a lot of pain when he would get water in it in the shower.
Then the first man asked me to pray for his right shoulder because he could not lift his arm above the shoulder. God completely healed him as he started lifting his arm and explaining, "I couldn't do this before! I couldn't do this before!"
Meanwhile, Erica was praying for the second man again who then got healed of headaches through a word of knowledge, arthritis, and then even a problem with the lymph nodes which he could feel drain! All this happened before the meeting started!
When the meeting was about to dismiss Erica felt pain in her left knee and hesitated to give the word as oftentimes people just kind of roll their eyes when a random person gives a word of knowledge. However, I wasn't gonna let her pass it up, so I looked around, thought that I saw the woman who had the pain, and then asked if anyone had pain, and she responded. Erica prayed for her knee and God completely healed it!
Meanwhile I went to pray for a guy who fell off a ladder and has almost no movement in his arm due to swelling. He was able to relax his arm more and regained some of the movement.
Erica and another student named Anne began to pray for another woman. After praying for a while and seeing many things in the spirit for the woman, they were able to usher in God's complete healing of the woman's back. She was so excited because she has been in such tremendous pain. Through words of knowledge about scoliosis, problems with the shoulders, TMJ, and others, the woman was completely set free from the pain and healed of fibromyalgia.
It was incredible how God was giving us the tools to minister to people. God, you are so good! Afterwards we discussed why God uses us since we haven't done anything to deserve it. I didn't think of it at the time, but I feel like He moves through us because we ask to be used and we make ourselves available. If I hadn't acted on the word of knowledge that Erica had, none of that would have happened. When we ask, God answers!
Tonight I went to a Living in the Supernatural class taught by Bethel's outreach pastor Chris Overstreet with my friend Erica. I have been wanting to go to Chris' classes for the longest time but I have never been able to. Well, tonight was a good night to go. Within a few minutes of being there, God used me to bring healing to two people! As I was greeting two men I felt a muffling over my right ear so I asked them what was going on and found out that one was 50% deaf in the right ear and the other had blown out his ear drum.
The first man could not notice a difference in his hearing because there was so much noise in the room, but as I prayed for the second man God completely healed his ear drum! He said that he used to be able to get air through it and that he would experience a lot of pain when he would get water in it in the shower.
Then the first man asked me to pray for his right shoulder because he could not lift his arm above the shoulder. God completely healed him as he started lifting his arm and explaining, "I couldn't do this before! I couldn't do this before!"
Meanwhile, Erica was praying for the second man again who then got healed of headaches through a word of knowledge, arthritis, and then even a problem with the lymph nodes which he could feel drain! All this happened before the meeting started!
When the meeting was about to dismiss Erica felt pain in her left knee and hesitated to give the word as oftentimes people just kind of roll their eyes when a random person gives a word of knowledge. However, I wasn't gonna let her pass it up, so I looked around, thought that I saw the woman who had the pain, and then asked if anyone had pain, and she responded. Erica prayed for her knee and God completely healed it!
Meanwhile I went to pray for a guy who fell off a ladder and has almost no movement in his arm due to swelling. He was able to relax his arm more and regained some of the movement.
Erica and another student named Anne began to pray for another woman. After praying for a while and seeing many things in the spirit for the woman, they were able to usher in God's complete healing of the woman's back. She was so excited because she has been in such tremendous pain. Through words of knowledge about scoliosis, problems with the shoulders, TMJ, and others, the woman was completely set free from the pain and healed of fibromyalgia.
It was incredible how God was giving us the tools to minister to people. God, you are so good! Afterwards we discussed why God uses us since we haven't done anything to deserve it. I didn't think of it at the time, but I feel like He moves through us because we ask to be used and we make ourselves available. If I hadn't acted on the word of knowledge that Erica had, none of that would have happened. When we ask, God answers!
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Carrying my own weather system
Tonight I came across an interesting situation when I asked a man in a large grocery store about why he was limping very badly. I am sure that I have had similar situations in the past, but now I am paying more attention to what is happening. The man went into a somewhat hard to follow story as to how he got injured and showed his disgust at the circumstances which involved the church. I didn't understand what he was referring to so when he mentioned his theological differences after he turned down prayer I asked his affiliation and found out that he was Mormon.
This morning I was contending for an Acts-like anointing where not just my shadow, but anyone close to me would be healed. Not that I am looking for an easy way out, but rather wanting to release the Kingdom in a greater measure than physically praying for people. I still love the tetimony of a group of guys from Bethel that went to the Houston Astrodome to minister to the people who were evacuated after Hurricane Katrina who had a man get healed when he walked by the area where they were gathered. That is what I want as my lifestyle, not just in a moment. I know from Spiderman that with great power comes great responsibility, so I understand that some people might have a problem with me saying that without qualifying it. Well, I'm not going to do that, so please don't tell me how I am in error, but feel free to ask questions.
Anyway, back to the man, understanding that he shut the door on me to pray for him right there I asked him if I could pray for him in my own time to which he answered that it was my choice. I found out his name and shook his hand doing my best to purposely release the Presence onto him as I did so. I really don't want to take no for an answer from people, so I did my best with him to keep talking to him without arguing about the things he said that I disagree with or that I simply know that are untrue.
Earlier in the evening I went to the Sundial Bridge because I thought I would find all kinds of divine appointments there. Well, there weren't nearly as many legal targets as I thought there would be, but I did pray for a dog that was limping since in La Paz we had a dog get healed out on the streets. I was trying to increase my awareness of the Presence as I walked with my party so that when I would see people and make eye contact I could hopefully see something shift.
As we were on our way out I saw a man wearing a back brace and approached him. At first he explained that he didn't need prayer for his back, but again I was trying to release the Kingdom so I asked him if he had any other prayer needs for his health in a way that let him know that I cared. Then he shifted and quickly told me about how he had just had surgery to remove throat cancer that had affected his vocal chords. After I prayed for him he seemed to be different than he had been before. I carried my own weather system into the area and it kicked out the one that had been there.
This morning I was contending for an Acts-like anointing where not just my shadow, but anyone close to me would be healed. Not that I am looking for an easy way out, but rather wanting to release the Kingdom in a greater measure than physically praying for people. I still love the tetimony of a group of guys from Bethel that went to the Houston Astrodome to minister to the people who were evacuated after Hurricane Katrina who had a man get healed when he walked by the area where they were gathered. That is what I want as my lifestyle, not just in a moment. I know from Spiderman that with great power comes great responsibility, so I understand that some people might have a problem with me saying that without qualifying it. Well, I'm not going to do that, so please don't tell me how I am in error, but feel free to ask questions.
Anyway, back to the man, understanding that he shut the door on me to pray for him right there I asked him if I could pray for him in my own time to which he answered that it was my choice. I found out his name and shook his hand doing my best to purposely release the Presence onto him as I did so. I really don't want to take no for an answer from people, so I did my best with him to keep talking to him without arguing about the things he said that I disagree with or that I simply know that are untrue.
Earlier in the evening I went to the Sundial Bridge because I thought I would find all kinds of divine appointments there. Well, there weren't nearly as many legal targets as I thought there would be, but I did pray for a dog that was limping since in La Paz we had a dog get healed out on the streets. I was trying to increase my awareness of the Presence as I walked with my party so that when I would see people and make eye contact I could hopefully see something shift.
As we were on our way out I saw a man wearing a back brace and approached him. At first he explained that he didn't need prayer for his back, but again I was trying to release the Kingdom so I asked him if he had any other prayer needs for his health in a way that let him know that I cared. Then he shifted and quickly told me about how he had just had surgery to remove throat cancer that had affected his vocal chords. After I prayed for him he seemed to be different than he had been before. I carried my own weather system into the area and it kicked out the one that had been there.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Holy Ghost in the kitchen
So that is pretty much the view we were forced to cope with all weekend. Lake Tahoe is beautiful!
Amazing things happened to me the entire trip including the ride home. After a fairly long time of just being drunk in the Holy Ghost, we made a stop in Carson City, and then headed back to Redding. Business was as usual, as it had been on the trip at least, until we started to prophesy over each other. A little ways into it I started to manifest a lot. I don't really know what was happened, however one person said that I was receiving the prophetic words given to other people for myself.
Their was definitely something major happening. It is hard to describe. I'll just mark it down as a very significant day (weekend and season) in my life for a few reasons. More on that some other time. :)
Today was our moving day - again. So I am writing from my home for the next two months. I will have my own room for the first time since moving to Redding and will be sleeping on a regular bed for the first time as well. There is an office big enough for Jeremy and I and there is also a pool (feel free to come over!). It should be a fun and exciting summer as many new things are going to happen. God is on the move! He is only waiting for us!
While talking on my cell phone tonight at a birthday party in the kitchen I started to get drunk. I figured that I shouldn't keep it all for myself so I distributed some to a few others. I was talking with a revivalist in Miami, FL who just connected with one of my old pastors. I am so excited to hear the revival reports that are going to come from them out of South Beach!
Sunday, June 10, 2007
The Normal Christian Life...
Today was another good day in the Kingdom. People got saved, people got healed, and people received prophetic words that will catapult them into their destiny.
In the morning I did prophetic art during worship. I have never done it before and haven't painted since elementary school. I'll admit, other than not knowing the basics about painting like drying off the brush, it was a lot of fun and not hard at all. During the rest of the meeting our row was just getting whacked some more. Man, has it been fun. I can't wait to go on more Firestorms in the future.
We gave words of knowledge and a bunch of people were getting healed. God is so good! After changing a flat tire and then taking it to get fixed we arrived for our afternoon outreach to hear an amazing testimony from the pastor's wife. One girl who just graduated from BSSM called up the pastor's wife's father to pray for him for healing of his detached retina that left him completely blind in that eye. She prayed over the voicemail as they weren't home. Meanwhile, at lunch, the man takes of his sunglass type things, covers his good eye, and tells his wife that he can see her and the outlines of some other things as well! God is so good!
There were some awesome testimonies from our outreach time. In addition to the seven people who got saved, many others got prophetic words. One boy, who I made a balloon sword for, told me that he has been to many nations already (like 10!) after I prophesied that he would go to many nations. Other children were taught to prophecy and learned to hear God's voice with training from our team. Yea God!
The evening meeting was amazing. We prophesied over every person there. It was great. I think our whole team was drunk. The people were experiencing new things and had things spoken over them that created a grace for them to walk into. I even received an amazing word from one of the mothers on our team. I feel funny saying mother since it was perfectly delivered like Cindy Jacobs! It was so powerful! Definitely the most impacting word I have gotten.
People got healed of stuff. One girl on our team asked a lady if she had problems with her right knee which led to finding out she had all sorts of problems. The report when we left was that all the pain was gone! Woohoo!
In the morning I did prophetic art during worship. I have never done it before and haven't painted since elementary school. I'll admit, other than not knowing the basics about painting like drying off the brush, it was a lot of fun and not hard at all. During the rest of the meeting our row was just getting whacked some more. Man, has it been fun. I can't wait to go on more Firestorms in the future.
We gave words of knowledge and a bunch of people were getting healed. God is so good! After changing a flat tire and then taking it to get fixed we arrived for our afternoon outreach to hear an amazing testimony from the pastor's wife. One girl who just graduated from BSSM called up the pastor's wife's father to pray for him for healing of his detached retina that left him completely blind in that eye. She prayed over the voicemail as they weren't home. Meanwhile, at lunch, the man takes of his sunglass type things, covers his good eye, and tells his wife that he can see her and the outlines of some other things as well! God is so good!
There were some awesome testimonies from our outreach time. In addition to the seven people who got saved, many others got prophetic words. One boy, who I made a balloon sword for, told me that he has been to many nations already (like 10!) after I prophesied that he would go to many nations. Other children were taught to prophecy and learned to hear God's voice with training from our team. Yea God!
The evening meeting was amazing. We prophesied over every person there. It was great. I think our whole team was drunk. The people were experiencing new things and had things spoken over them that created a grace for them to walk into. I even received an amazing word from one of the mothers on our team. I feel funny saying mother since it was perfectly delivered like Cindy Jacobs! It was so powerful! Definitely the most impacting word I have gotten.
People got healed of stuff. One girl on our team asked a lady if she had problems with her right knee which led to finding out she had all sorts of problems. The report when we left was that all the pain was gone! Woohoo!
Monday, June 4, 2007
Don't miss the prayer meeting!
Ah, God is good.
It has been a long day of hard work, but there is a satisfaction of being able to relax after working hard. My back is a little stiff after 9 hours of working, but the first thing I did as I got in my car to drive home was to thank God for giving me that job. Being able to admire God's creation while I work and on the drive to and from work doesn't hurt either.
Well, I'll back up to last night. I went to soak before pre-service prayer and God's presence was thick! When I went over to the church I was one of the first ones there and started to get whacked a little bit before anyone else was really there. Did I mention that God is good and that I am having so much fun? Pretty soon more people arrived and God kept coming as well. At one point I was about to fall backwards when a guy that I normally walk around with came out of nowhere (which is funny because he walks really slowly like I do while there) and caught me. The rest of prayer kept getting better as our group of 3-5 people with arms around eachother's shoulders started, stopped, spun around completely (I'm still not sure how we pulled that one off!), almost fell over a few times, laughed a lot, and fell over a few times. Then we had a bonfire at the end and sure enough me and my "dancing partner" (lol, that guy I just mentioned) fell over and almost took a few people with us.
Worship was so much fun! There has not been a worship set during a meeting in the past 3 weeks that I haven't loved. That is good! It isn't because the music was always the greatest, although it usually was, but rather because I have decided to worship whether I felt like it or not.
Eric Johnson spoke, which doesn't happen often on a Sunday. This is the first time I have heard him other than at school or one time at a Friday night service. He was great. He talked a lot about what I have been thinking about recently, just in a slightly different context. He talked about our spiritual inheritance and not trying to pay for what we have been given for free. I found myself realizing that I am still trying to pave my own way instead of building upon those who have gone before me. If they already have breakthrough in it and it is my inheritance then why am I still trying to get it on my own? After having a good ole time in the fire tunnel I went to the grocery store to pick up some lunch making supplies for work. While there I prayed for a few people. It was quite refreshing after many awkward attempts while down in Sacramento of Saturday. Nothing happened that the people noticed which I happily say to show that I am not just trying to share healings. It is a growing process for me right now as earlier yesterday I went to Costco and didn't pray for the people whose paths I crossed who could use a healing or two.
Finally, on a very random note, I wanted to share about something that just happened. I bought a pair of shoes less than two weeks ago since the pair I had been wearing were really falling apart. Really! So as soon as I bought them I started to wear them sinc my old shoes were now in such bad condition. Since the only way to return shoes is if you don't wear them outside your house I didn't see any value in keeping my receipt. Especially since I got them right before I moved I was trying to get rid of things I didn't need. I think the thought went through my mind about something happening to my shoes so I decided to keep the receipt and I put it in my checkbook. Today when I got home from work I was taking off my shoes right before going into the apartment when the loop that holds the shoelace in place broke. So I called up the store where I bought them and explained what happened and they are going to let me replace them because I have the receipt and the box (I can't remember the last shoe box I got rid of unless it was really old). It could just be an unusual coincidence, but I think it was the Holy Spirit telling me to keep the receipt!
It has been a long day of hard work, but there is a satisfaction of being able to relax after working hard. My back is a little stiff after 9 hours of working, but the first thing I did as I got in my car to drive home was to thank God for giving me that job. Being able to admire God's creation while I work and on the drive to and from work doesn't hurt either.
Well, I'll back up to last night. I went to soak before pre-service prayer and God's presence was thick! When I went over to the church I was one of the first ones there and started to get whacked a little bit before anyone else was really there. Did I mention that God is good and that I am having so much fun? Pretty soon more people arrived and God kept coming as well. At one point I was about to fall backwards when a guy that I normally walk around with came out of nowhere (which is funny because he walks really slowly like I do while there) and caught me. The rest of prayer kept getting better as our group of 3-5 people with arms around eachother's shoulders started, stopped, spun around completely (I'm still not sure how we pulled that one off!), almost fell over a few times, laughed a lot, and fell over a few times. Then we had a bonfire at the end and sure enough me and my "dancing partner" (lol, that guy I just mentioned) fell over and almost took a few people with us.
Worship was so much fun! There has not been a worship set during a meeting in the past 3 weeks that I haven't loved. That is good! It isn't because the music was always the greatest, although it usually was, but rather because I have decided to worship whether I felt like it or not.
Eric Johnson spoke, which doesn't happen often on a Sunday. This is the first time I have heard him other than at school or one time at a Friday night service. He was great. He talked a lot about what I have been thinking about recently, just in a slightly different context. He talked about our spiritual inheritance and not trying to pay for what we have been given for free. I found myself realizing that I am still trying to pave my own way instead of building upon those who have gone before me. If they already have breakthrough in it and it is my inheritance then why am I still trying to get it on my own? After having a good ole time in the fire tunnel I went to the grocery store to pick up some lunch making supplies for work. While there I prayed for a few people. It was quite refreshing after many awkward attempts while down in Sacramento of Saturday. Nothing happened that the people noticed which I happily say to show that I am not just trying to share healings. It is a growing process for me right now as earlier yesterday I went to Costco and didn't pray for the people whose paths I crossed who could use a healing or two.
Finally, on a very random note, I wanted to share about something that just happened. I bought a pair of shoes less than two weeks ago since the pair I had been wearing were really falling apart. Really! So as soon as I bought them I started to wear them sinc my old shoes were now in such bad condition. Since the only way to return shoes is if you don't wear them outside your house I didn't see any value in keeping my receipt. Especially since I got them right before I moved I was trying to get rid of things I didn't need. I think the thought went through my mind about something happening to my shoes so I decided to keep the receipt and I put it in my checkbook. Today when I got home from work I was taking off my shoes right before going into the apartment when the loop that holds the shoelace in place broke. So I called up the store where I bought them and explained what happened and they are going to let me replace them because I have the receipt and the box (I can't remember the last shoe box I got rid of unless it was really old). It could just be an unusual coincidence, but I think it was the Holy Spirit telling me to keep the receipt!
Sunday, June 3, 2007
While I was out...
So I missed yesterday, but I'm back again today! On Friday, I got a call to do some construction type work for a guy who lives just north of Redding up on a mountain. So I went up there and worked for a few hours after taking in the breathtaking views and then rushed home to take a shower before driving down to Sacramento to hear Todd Bentley. God is so good!
It was well worth the trip. Although we missed almost all of worship due to me getting off of work after we had planned on leaving, the meeting was still great! I have never seen Todd Bentley so drunk in my life! Drunk in the Holy Spirit for those who are wondering what kind of conference I was at. So we had a blast laughing and after the meeting we went out to Denny's with a bunch of friends.
After just 4 hours of sleep I got up the next morning to have my time with God. It was so good. It has been so good since school got out and I got myself to plan on spending time with God rather than just hoping that it fits into my day. Speaking of which, had I not planned it into my morning yesterday I would have never gotten a chance as we were busy the rest of the day.
One of Todd's associates, Jerame (not Jeremy) Nelson, spoke about dreams in the morning session. It was incrredible. I felt like I no longer had any need to worry about not remembering my dreams as the Lord will seal them in your Spirit and sometimes never intends for you to remember them. While waiting to leave after the meeting I prayed for a woman in a wheelchair who uses it because it is hard for her to walk. After prayer she started walking around and didn't feel the pain in her leg!
After grabbing some lunch we headed to the mall to go pray for people to be healed. Again I learned some valueable outreach lessons of how to deal with ministering with people. God still moved, but at times there were awkward situations that came up when neither person knew what the other was thinking or going to say. As we were leaving, the Lord was just touching me when one of the other Bethel students called me to find out where we were. Well, she answered the phone praying in tongues which did not help when I was already jerking around a bit. :)
We showed up to the meeting early to get seats and I saw the women that Jeremy and I had met when we came to see Todd in February after we just flew in to San Francisco from Atlanta. One of them was on crutches and started to walk without them after prayer. I believe she may have had a little pain left over, but by that point I noticed the woman in the wheelchair that I had prayed for that morning. She was sitting in a regular chair with the wheelchair empty next to her! She said that she walked in pushing the wheelchair up the hill! Praise God!
I went back and started to pray for the women and we all started to laugh and get rocked a little bit more. After a few minutes I went to talk with another woman in a wheelchair and her husband. They were an amazing couple and I prayed for all sorts of things for them. He has had cataracts since birth and then God gave me a word about his hearing so I prayed for his ears as well. She has been paralyzed for 37 years and was getting rocked when I prayed for her. The words of knowledge kept coming as God showed me that she had pain in her neck (which she had broken as well) and in her shoulders, as well as deafness in her ears.
Then I went to go back to my seat when several people asked me about my shirt, which was made by one of our interns in first year. I ended up going over to pray for them and we all started to get drunk. Several of us. Then more people came over and the drunkenness increased! Yay God! Some people were just staring at us, but oh well, I had fun!
Then came along a man and a woman. The man had Parkinson's and the woman had MS. As I was praying for the man he stopped shaking and only had a faint tremble. I asked him if he had hearing loss and he did, so I prayed and he responded that he was hearing things that he couldn't hear before. Praise God! At this point the meeting was starting so I prayed quickly for the woman with MS after sharing with her the testimony of a woman getting healed of MS and ME at Bethel a few weeks ago. Praise you Lord!
Worship was fantastic. After having been drunk in the Holy Spirit and having prayed for so many people I was just ready to enter in. It was so nice having Brian and Jenn Johnson and a band from Bethel leading worship. It also helped that I knew all the songs! I honestly can't remember much about what Todd talked about because God was really birthing something in my spirit. I do recall him talking about building your spirit man by praying in the spirit, soaking, and reading the bible. Not that it is some formula, but we can't expect to get closer to God and the Holy Spirit if we don't spend any time with them.
Then it was impartation time as Todd was going to pray for everyone. I was glad that he explained how we should prepare ourselves just to remind me that I should stir myself up (which I already had been doing) and that regardless of what we feel, we should receive by faith. Just because we don't feel a jolt of power doesn't mean that God didn't deposit something in us. I know that God gave me something even though I didn't feel like something major happened. So we got back on the road to head back to Redding.
We were still drunk all the way home, don't worry, we weren't so drunk that it was unsafe to drive, and got back at 1:45 am at which time the neighbors came out and introduced themsleves and we talked for about 5 minutes. Boy was that random. God is gonna get them! After two hours of sleep I was back at it and going for more in the prayer chapel. There really has been an increase as I have pursued God, received impartation, and then given it away. By doing these every day I have been growing a ton in a short period of time.
Just after I got to the prayer chapel one of the security guards came in. He was a student and so I prayed to give him what I had just received. he got rocked pretty good, as did I, and then he told me that he felt someone touch his left shoulder as I touched his right. That had never happened to him before!
I was good and drunk at church before we even started. Thank you Jesus! I fell into my seat at one point just as it was getting started. Worship was fantastic again. It felt like something broke as I went forward and began to dance. Some of the pastors were right behind me and I felt that they broke through what I had been poking at. Anyway, it went from feeling dead, to very alive in a matter of moments. A song or two in I had to prop myself up using the handrail for the stairs going up to the stage. It didn't help for long as I fell down onto the stairs laughing.
At one point I stood up only to fall back down within 10 seconds. I then remained on the ground for the rest of worship. God is so good! Danny Silk continued his message on the role of women in the church. It was great, you should definitely listen to the podcast. During ministry time I approached a man who came forward needing healing from cancer. Come on God! Cancer is one of things I pray into every morning that every person who comes onto the property would be healed. He felt some heat and I released the joy of the Lord onto him, although I think God got me better than He got him. Haha. I fell to the floor and the guy I was praying for kept standing. Oh Jesus, I can't wait for tonight!!!!!
It was well worth the trip. Although we missed almost all of worship due to me getting off of work after we had planned on leaving, the meeting was still great! I have never seen Todd Bentley so drunk in my life! Drunk in the Holy Spirit for those who are wondering what kind of conference I was at. So we had a blast laughing and after the meeting we went out to Denny's with a bunch of friends.
After just 4 hours of sleep I got up the next morning to have my time with God. It was so good. It has been so good since school got out and I got myself to plan on spending time with God rather than just hoping that it fits into my day. Speaking of which, had I not planned it into my morning yesterday I would have never gotten a chance as we were busy the rest of the day.
One of Todd's associates, Jerame (not Jeremy) Nelson, spoke about dreams in the morning session. It was incrredible. I felt like I no longer had any need to worry about not remembering my dreams as the Lord will seal them in your Spirit and sometimes never intends for you to remember them. While waiting to leave after the meeting I prayed for a woman in a wheelchair who uses it because it is hard for her to walk. After prayer she started walking around and didn't feel the pain in her leg!
After grabbing some lunch we headed to the mall to go pray for people to be healed. Again I learned some valueable outreach lessons of how to deal with ministering with people. God still moved, but at times there were awkward situations that came up when neither person knew what the other was thinking or going to say. As we were leaving, the Lord was just touching me when one of the other Bethel students called me to find out where we were. Well, she answered the phone praying in tongues which did not help when I was already jerking around a bit. :)
We showed up to the meeting early to get seats and I saw the women that Jeremy and I had met when we came to see Todd in February after we just flew in to San Francisco from Atlanta. One of them was on crutches and started to walk without them after prayer. I believe she may have had a little pain left over, but by that point I noticed the woman in the wheelchair that I had prayed for that morning. She was sitting in a regular chair with the wheelchair empty next to her! She said that she walked in pushing the wheelchair up the hill! Praise God!
I went back and started to pray for the women and we all started to laugh and get rocked a little bit more. After a few minutes I went to talk with another woman in a wheelchair and her husband. They were an amazing couple and I prayed for all sorts of things for them. He has had cataracts since birth and then God gave me a word about his hearing so I prayed for his ears as well. She has been paralyzed for 37 years and was getting rocked when I prayed for her. The words of knowledge kept coming as God showed me that she had pain in her neck (which she had broken as well) and in her shoulders, as well as deafness in her ears.
Then I went to go back to my seat when several people asked me about my shirt, which was made by one of our interns in first year. I ended up going over to pray for them and we all started to get drunk. Several of us. Then more people came over and the drunkenness increased! Yay God! Some people were just staring at us, but oh well, I had fun!
Then came along a man and a woman. The man had Parkinson's and the woman had MS. As I was praying for the man he stopped shaking and only had a faint tremble. I asked him if he had hearing loss and he did, so I prayed and he responded that he was hearing things that he couldn't hear before. Praise God! At this point the meeting was starting so I prayed quickly for the woman with MS after sharing with her the testimony of a woman getting healed of MS and ME at Bethel a few weeks ago. Praise you Lord!
Worship was fantastic. After having been drunk in the Holy Spirit and having prayed for so many people I was just ready to enter in. It was so nice having Brian and Jenn Johnson and a band from Bethel leading worship. It also helped that I knew all the songs! I honestly can't remember much about what Todd talked about because God was really birthing something in my spirit. I do recall him talking about building your spirit man by praying in the spirit, soaking, and reading the bible. Not that it is some formula, but we can't expect to get closer to God and the Holy Spirit if we don't spend any time with them.
Then it was impartation time as Todd was going to pray for everyone. I was glad that he explained how we should prepare ourselves just to remind me that I should stir myself up (which I already had been doing) and that regardless of what we feel, we should receive by faith. Just because we don't feel a jolt of power doesn't mean that God didn't deposit something in us. I know that God gave me something even though I didn't feel like something major happened. So we got back on the road to head back to Redding.
We were still drunk all the way home, don't worry, we weren't so drunk that it was unsafe to drive, and got back at 1:45 am at which time the neighbors came out and introduced themsleves and we talked for about 5 minutes. Boy was that random. God is gonna get them! After two hours of sleep I was back at it and going for more in the prayer chapel. There really has been an increase as I have pursued God, received impartation, and then given it away. By doing these every day I have been growing a ton in a short period of time.
Just after I got to the prayer chapel one of the security guards came in. He was a student and so I prayed to give him what I had just received. he got rocked pretty good, as did I, and then he told me that he felt someone touch his left shoulder as I touched his right. That had never happened to him before!
I was good and drunk at church before we even started. Thank you Jesus! I fell into my seat at one point just as it was getting started. Worship was fantastic again. It felt like something broke as I went forward and began to dance. Some of the pastors were right behind me and I felt that they broke through what I had been poking at. Anyway, it went from feeling dead, to very alive in a matter of moments. A song or two in I had to prop myself up using the handrail for the stairs going up to the stage. It didn't help for long as I fell down onto the stairs laughing.
At one point I stood up only to fall back down within 10 seconds. I then remained on the ground for the rest of worship. God is so good! Danny Silk continued his message on the role of women in the church. It was great, you should definitely listen to the podcast. During ministry time I approached a man who came forward needing healing from cancer. Come on God! Cancer is one of things I pray into every morning that every person who comes onto the property would be healed. He felt some heat and I released the joy of the Lord onto him, although I think God got me better than He got him. Haha. I fell to the floor and the guy I was praying for kept standing. Oh Jesus, I can't wait for tonight!!!!!
Friday, June 1, 2007
How will we respond to crisis?
I read an article last night that was talking about cancer as being a third wave disease from the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. What would happen if the 40,000 workers who were exposed to the toxins at ground zero came down with a cancer type that has no treatment? I can tell you what I would do, I would organize a team to go to New York City to see every last one of them healed!
After Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast almost two years ago, a team from Bethel went to minister to the evacuees that were living in the Astrodome in Houston, TX. God showed up in amazing ways as people were healed of things that had kept them in bed or in wheelchairs and God even healed a man who walked by the team as they were praying for someone else!
Not that I can't ever experience a normal life, but I believe we are already living in a crisis situation where many are dying without knowing Jesus. I have had the tendency to live my life as normal amidst the brokenness of the people surrounding me. Each day is an opportunity to save someone from their own crisis situation - there is no need to wait for a national disaster to jump into action.
The people that we see during our normal activities could be drowning inside and desperately in need of a touch from God. However, without the covering of a crisis, it is easy to dismiss their demise as one of a million problems that can't all be fixed by one person. It doesn't have to be one person, but unfortunately in the church today the majority of the EHRs (Emergency Healing Revivalists) are just a handful of people (and I am NOT one of them yet). They are the few that produce the vast majority of the testimonies. The saying that 20% of the people get 80% of the work done may be true, or the percentage could be even more lopsided in the scarcity of the revivalists that harvest most of the crop.
Revival comes when God moves, but it also requires radical obedience by His people. When Peter was threatened to never talk about Jesus again in Acts 4, his response was to ask God for more boldness. He didn't back down, but asked for God to do more of what had just gotten them in trouble (healing the sick!). Lord, grant your servants boldness to take risks when we face disasters on a personal level in our daily lives!
After Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast almost two years ago, a team from Bethel went to minister to the evacuees that were living in the Astrodome in Houston, TX. God showed up in amazing ways as people were healed of things that had kept them in bed or in wheelchairs and God even healed a man who walked by the team as they were praying for someone else!
Not that I can't ever experience a normal life, but I believe we are already living in a crisis situation where many are dying without knowing Jesus. I have had the tendency to live my life as normal amidst the brokenness of the people surrounding me. Each day is an opportunity to save someone from their own crisis situation - there is no need to wait for a national disaster to jump into action.
The people that we see during our normal activities could be drowning inside and desperately in need of a touch from God. However, without the covering of a crisis, it is easy to dismiss their demise as one of a million problems that can't all be fixed by one person. It doesn't have to be one person, but unfortunately in the church today the majority of the EHRs (Emergency Healing Revivalists) are just a handful of people (and I am NOT one of them yet). They are the few that produce the vast majority of the testimonies. The saying that 20% of the people get 80% of the work done may be true, or the percentage could be even more lopsided in the scarcity of the revivalists that harvest most of the crop.
Revival comes when God moves, but it also requires radical obedience by His people. When Peter was threatened to never talk about Jesus again in Acts 4, his response was to ask God for more boldness. He didn't back down, but asked for God to do more of what had just gotten them in trouble (healing the sick!). Lord, grant your servants boldness to take risks when we face disasters on a personal level in our daily lives!
Thursday, May 31, 2007
A step in the right direction
So after a ridiculously productive morning in which I had everything I wanted to do for the day done by 8:15, I feel like I somewhat squandered the rest of the day. That might be the problem with waking up early is that if you run out of things to do you feel as though you are wasting time.
God has really been putting it on my heart recently that it is time to step out in faith and see Heaven invade earth. Time to get back to the passion that I had back in November and December when I wanted to see people get healed every day. That means that every day I need to be out giving God the opportunity to give people a life-changing encounter. So with that being on my heart, my faith has been increasing and my prayers times have gotten more passionate. Well, during my prayer time two days ago I felt that I was getting a word of knowledge for a man who was in there. I didn't talk to him that morning, but this morning I felt the same impression so I approached him. It turns out that he didn't have pain or deafness in either ear, but if he had and he had gotten healed, I think it would have been one of the more obscure times that people have gotten healed - at 5:30 in the morning!
After turning in the keys to our old apartment, Jeremy and I went to Winco so he could get some groceries. I was on the phone most of the time with a guy who I was hoping to work for. It is possible that things could still work out, but I am not so sure. Thankfully, I have other contacts that I can look to from people that I have talked to in the past week. While I was on the phone we passed at least a dozen legal targets (wow, I haven't said that in a while! A legal target is someone in a wheelchair, wearing a cast, with hearing aids, etc...). Finally, after I got off the phone, Jeremy realized that he forgot to get oatmeal, so we headed over in that direction. Right before we got there I saw a legal target (I almost feel bad for saying that, but it is the truth that God is setting us up when we don't have to get a word of knowledge to know where someone is in pain). So after following Jeremy for just a moment to the next aisle, I immediately turned around to talk to the guy.
I'll admit I noticed a sticker on his wheelchair that tipped me off that he was a Christian so I knew that I at least had that open door. I talked with him for a few minutes and found out a little bit about him before finally praying for him. I discovered something that I have never realized before in approaching people - I didn't pray for healing how I normally would have because of what I knew about him. Well, lucky for me, God can still do whatever He wants, regardless of the words used in my prayer.
It is a step in the right direction for me. I know this may come as a shocker, but that is the first time that I have prayed for someone when not on a planned outreach in quite a few months. As a friend told me last week, "the worst thing that could happen is that they say no." She was right. It is possible that I will inadvertantly offend people along the way, but better to plant a seed and give God an opportunity to change their life forever than to allow the fear of offending people to cripple me into being scared of approaching anyone and keep me from walking into the fullness of my calling.
God has really been putting it on my heart recently that it is time to step out in faith and see Heaven invade earth. Time to get back to the passion that I had back in November and December when I wanted to see people get healed every day. That means that every day I need to be out giving God the opportunity to give people a life-changing encounter. So with that being on my heart, my faith has been increasing and my prayers times have gotten more passionate. Well, during my prayer time two days ago I felt that I was getting a word of knowledge for a man who was in there. I didn't talk to him that morning, but this morning I felt the same impression so I approached him. It turns out that he didn't have pain or deafness in either ear, but if he had and he had gotten healed, I think it would have been one of the more obscure times that people have gotten healed - at 5:30 in the morning!
After turning in the keys to our old apartment, Jeremy and I went to Winco so he could get some groceries. I was on the phone most of the time with a guy who I was hoping to work for. It is possible that things could still work out, but I am not so sure. Thankfully, I have other contacts that I can look to from people that I have talked to in the past week. While I was on the phone we passed at least a dozen legal targets (wow, I haven't said that in a while! A legal target is someone in a wheelchair, wearing a cast, with hearing aids, etc...). Finally, after I got off the phone, Jeremy realized that he forgot to get oatmeal, so we headed over in that direction. Right before we got there I saw a legal target (I almost feel bad for saying that, but it is the truth that God is setting us up when we don't have to get a word of knowledge to know where someone is in pain). So after following Jeremy for just a moment to the next aisle, I immediately turned around to talk to the guy.
I'll admit I noticed a sticker on his wheelchair that tipped me off that he was a Christian so I knew that I at least had that open door. I talked with him for a few minutes and found out a little bit about him before finally praying for him. I discovered something that I have never realized before in approaching people - I didn't pray for healing how I normally would have because of what I knew about him. Well, lucky for me, God can still do whatever He wants, regardless of the words used in my prayer.
It is a step in the right direction for me. I know this may come as a shocker, but that is the first time that I have prayed for someone when not on a planned outreach in quite a few months. As a friend told me last week, "the worst thing that could happen is that they say no." She was right. It is possible that I will inadvertantly offend people along the way, but better to plant a seed and give God an opportunity to change their life forever than to allow the fear of offending people to cripple me into being scared of approaching anyone and keep me from walking into the fullness of my calling.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
He's always speaking
"I thought to myself, 'What would happen if the washing machine flooded?'"
Not much later we received a phone call and rushed out the door to respond to a flooded garage. After helping clean up some of the mess and putting the drainage hose back where it belongs, our flooded friend realized that the Holy Spirit had warned her of what was going to happen, but she hadn't recognized it. My roommate then responded that He is always speaking and that it is up to us to listen.
Yesterday I was rushing to our old apartment to get my clothes so that I could go to where we are now living to take a shower and get to the church for a meeting. On my way there I saw two cars on the side of the road. Seeing that there was an officer on the scene and that all the people were standing outside their vehicles, I felt a sensation in the big toe of my right foot. Having never stopped at an accident before I wasn't quite sure how to approach the people since the officer was writing up what happened. It could have just been me feeling the Holy Spirit, or it could have been a word of knowledge for one of the people (I think it was a word of knowledge). I have been so used to not getting words of knowledge "on-the-go" that I doubted the validity of it until I had already talked myself out of stopping.
Regardless of how much we recognize the voice of God, we must awaken ourselves to what He is doing and what He is saying. Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing. That has been my prayer in recent months - that I would know what God is doing so that I could do it and nothing more. Had I been waiting for God to speak like the sick people at the pool of Bethesda were waiting for the angel to stir the waters I would have jumped at the opportunity. Now that I think about it, that is how I want to start living - eagerly awaiting an assignment from the Lord whether it is to give someone an encouraging word, or to pray for someone to be healed of an incurable disease.
Eagerly await the voice of God, the Language of the Holy Spirit. When you hear your spiritual phone ringing, don't hesitate to answer because you may miss the call.
Not much later we received a phone call and rushed out the door to respond to a flooded garage. After helping clean up some of the mess and putting the drainage hose back where it belongs, our flooded friend realized that the Holy Spirit had warned her of what was going to happen, but she hadn't recognized it. My roommate then responded that He is always speaking and that it is up to us to listen.
Yesterday I was rushing to our old apartment to get my clothes so that I could go to where we are now living to take a shower and get to the church for a meeting. On my way there I saw two cars on the side of the road. Seeing that there was an officer on the scene and that all the people were standing outside their vehicles, I felt a sensation in the big toe of my right foot. Having never stopped at an accident before I wasn't quite sure how to approach the people since the officer was writing up what happened. It could have just been me feeling the Holy Spirit, or it could have been a word of knowledge for one of the people (I think it was a word of knowledge). I have been so used to not getting words of knowledge "on-the-go" that I doubted the validity of it until I had already talked myself out of stopping.
Regardless of how much we recognize the voice of God, we must awaken ourselves to what He is doing and what He is saying. Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing. That has been my prayer in recent months - that I would know what God is doing so that I could do it and nothing more. Had I been waiting for God to speak like the sick people at the pool of Bethesda were waiting for the angel to stir the waters I would have jumped at the opportunity. Now that I think about it, that is how I want to start living - eagerly awaiting an assignment from the Lord whether it is to give someone an encouraging word, or to pray for someone to be healed of an incurable disease.
Eagerly await the voice of God, the Language of the Holy Spirit. When you hear your spiritual phone ringing, don't hesitate to answer because you may miss the call.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Purposeful Planning
At one point this morning it seemed as though nothing could go right. It is partially my fault for checking my email and seeing that there was something for me to update on Jesusculture.org, but regardless, it set me off to a bad start almost 5 hours after I had woken up (and yes, 5 hours after I woke up was still the morning, and it was probably before a few of you woke up).
Interestingly enough, this isn’t the first time in the past week that making an update on the Jesus Culture website has gotten me rather mad. I would not think twice about it other than the fact that I do not get angry with people. Fortunately I am getting angry at the internet or the website not working properly instead of getting angry at another person, and double fortunately I am not getting angry at it when anyone is around, however, I don’t want to get mad at anything except for a holy anger at the devil.
I was running a little bit late to help my friends because of trying to squeeze in more than I had allowed time for. Then I went to the post office to finally put in my change of address form but I couldn’t remember the new address. Then I noticed that I could have done this online. So I drove to the old house to find that nobody was there giving me the opportunity to go back to the apartment to get my mail forwarded online. Then I check my email and see that the website was needing a pretty important update. The internet worked long enough for me to see that somehow the link to the page I was updating got messed up. Then when I knew it needed to be fixed, the internet would not work. After getting a phone call back from my friend asking if I was still coming I tried one more time and this time it worked! Thank you Jesus! So after 15 more minutes of fixing the problems and updating the site I was on my way.
I lacked planning and didn’t have my priorities straight to follow through on the commitment I had made to help my friends. Soon after arriving to help them I realized another important lesson: If you don’t know your purpose then you are almost completely useless and ineffective. I felt very out of place as I stood around wondering how I could help. I didn’t know my purpose and because of that simple bit of knowledge, I didn’t get much accomplished.
It is my goal this summer to have a purpose, some of which I have already laid out, so that I know what I want to do and what I need to do in order to accomplish it.
Interestingly enough, this isn’t the first time in the past week that making an update on the Jesus Culture website has gotten me rather mad. I would not think twice about it other than the fact that I do not get angry with people. Fortunately I am getting angry at the internet or the website not working properly instead of getting angry at another person, and double fortunately I am not getting angry at it when anyone is around, however, I don’t want to get mad at anything except for a holy anger at the devil.
I was running a little bit late to help my friends because of trying to squeeze in more than I had allowed time for. Then I went to the post office to finally put in my change of address form but I couldn’t remember the new address. Then I noticed that I could have done this online. So I drove to the old house to find that nobody was there giving me the opportunity to go back to the apartment to get my mail forwarded online. Then I check my email and see that the website was needing a pretty important update. The internet worked long enough for me to see that somehow the link to the page I was updating got messed up. Then when I knew it needed to be fixed, the internet would not work. After getting a phone call back from my friend asking if I was still coming I tried one more time and this time it worked! Thank you Jesus! So after 15 more minutes of fixing the problems and updating the site I was on my way.
I lacked planning and didn’t have my priorities straight to follow through on the commitment I had made to help my friends. Soon after arriving to help them I realized another important lesson: If you don’t know your purpose then you are almost completely useless and ineffective. I felt very out of place as I stood around wondering how I could help. I didn’t know my purpose and because of that simple bit of knowledge, I didn’t get much accomplished.
It is my goal this summer to have a purpose, some of which I have already laid out, so that I know what I want to do and what I need to do in order to accomplish it.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Some like it hot...
It's heating up! yes, that is the forecast over the next few days for Redding.
I am starting to believe that it is imperative for me to live a life of radical faith in which every day I am doing something that streches myself. For instance today I heard the story of some students (not at Bethel) who for a few hours read and prayed scripture about Jesus and Peter walking on water and then for several hours attempted to do it until one walked across the pool that they were at! Think about it. How can we expect to do the impossible if we are too worried about trying in the first place. It is time to turn up the heat!
I am getting back to that place of desperation and I am actually feeling the heat on a situation when I would need a jolt of faith. I am so thankful that the desperation for more has returned because it honestly was not fun to be in the place of not even wanting to pray for people. I would rather be sweating because I know that I should approach them than just walk away without hardly giving it a thought. It is time to turn up the heat on the devil!
I am starting to see why the devil seems to have so much authority on the earth (notice how I said "seems", because in reality he doesn't!). It is because we don't do anything to keep him from prowling around and doing as he pleases. If we would be on the offensive then he would have no option other than to retreat. Come on! How many of you know that you could stand in a fire pit as long as you wanted as long as there was no fire. In the same way, if we put no pressure on the devil then he isn't going to give up quickly. Of course in the end, he has no option because he has already been defeated, but what is our purpose if we refuse our right to co-labor with God? Let's turn up the heat on the devil and go out and help God to kick him out of here!
Saturday, May 26, 2007
You may want to write this down...
God is good.
Oh wow, what a day I had yesterday. I woke up at 4 am to take a classmate to the Greyhound Bus terminal and after I dropped her off I thought it would be fun to go to the prayer chapel. Good choice. As I prayed I was more aware of His presence and also angels than I have been in a while. After that I had some good soaking time and then went home. I read my bible and made some breakfast. Lol, the only thing I "made" was the bagel that I cut in half to put in the toaster.
Later, when I was reading "The Reality of the Supernatural World" by Todd Bentley, I was hit with some pretty good revelation about the need to maintain spiritual disciplines. I don't want anyone to start debating with me, so I won't touch any specifics, but it was easy to relate what he wrote to my own personal experiences of having trouble doing something when we haven't been doing it regularly. For instance he gave the example of having a hard time getting back into doing meetings after having a week or even just a few days off. However, if he has been doing meetings every day then it is no problem for him to get going the next day. Likewise, revelation from reading the bible comes best when we actively read it every day. If I make a habit of ministering to people in public it becomes easier to do, but if I don't do it for a while, it is very difficult.
Something really seems to be happening in the spirit for me. Maybe it is because I am spending more time in prayer (it isn't because of performance, but rather familiarity!) and in God's presence. Last night at pre-service prayer I was really getting touched and started to laugh a lot, which I haven't done in a while. I went on outreach and was on a team with two of my favorite people. These people would blow you away. We had a blast and ministered to a lot of people. It all started with one of them following arrows they saw in the spirit and then passing it off to the other who felt that we should go to IHOP (Pancakes, not Prayer). So I pull in and before we even get inside the building we immediately found people that matched several words of knowledge. One man's knee got healed and another one's vision improved.
While talking with our waitress and telling her how great she is, I start to think that we should bless her with a large tip and immediately after I think that my friend gives a word of knowledge that we were supposed to bless a Native American and she happened to be one (I wouldn't have guessed it and we actually ran into more Native Americans before we left that did look like it). So we end up leaving her a large tip and after ministering to many other people we headed back.
We didn't make it far before I noticed a man walking on crutches, so we did a U-turn and pulled over to talk to him. We prayed for him and my friends both prophecied over him. While we were praying I could feel heat transfering from my fingers to his knee. He was really touched. It was awesome. So we went to a street that our group leader had written down that has nothing on it except for one intersection. Well, there was a car stopped at that intersection. Turns out one of the girls was teaching the other to drive. We were able to pray for them and just let them know that God thinks they are awesome. After that we finally went back to the church.
OK, so that was kinda long, I will save you by making a new post for what happened Saturday morning at the Healing Rooms...
To Be Continued...
Oh wow, what a day I had yesterday. I woke up at 4 am to take a classmate to the Greyhound Bus terminal and after I dropped her off I thought it would be fun to go to the prayer chapel. Good choice. As I prayed I was more aware of His presence and also angels than I have been in a while. After that I had some good soaking time and then went home. I read my bible and made some breakfast. Lol, the only thing I "made" was the bagel that I cut in half to put in the toaster.
Later, when I was reading "The Reality of the Supernatural World" by Todd Bentley, I was hit with some pretty good revelation about the need to maintain spiritual disciplines. I don't want anyone to start debating with me, so I won't touch any specifics, but it was easy to relate what he wrote to my own personal experiences of having trouble doing something when we haven't been doing it regularly. For instance he gave the example of having a hard time getting back into doing meetings after having a week or even just a few days off. However, if he has been doing meetings every day then it is no problem for him to get going the next day. Likewise, revelation from reading the bible comes best when we actively read it every day. If I make a habit of ministering to people in public it becomes easier to do, but if I don't do it for a while, it is very difficult.
Something really seems to be happening in the spirit for me. Maybe it is because I am spending more time in prayer (it isn't because of performance, but rather familiarity!) and in God's presence. Last night at pre-service prayer I was really getting touched and started to laugh a lot, which I haven't done in a while. I went on outreach and was on a team with two of my favorite people. These people would blow you away. We had a blast and ministered to a lot of people. It all started with one of them following arrows they saw in the spirit and then passing it off to the other who felt that we should go to IHOP (Pancakes, not Prayer). So I pull in and before we even get inside the building we immediately found people that matched several words of knowledge. One man's knee got healed and another one's vision improved.
While talking with our waitress and telling her how great she is, I start to think that we should bless her with a large tip and immediately after I think that my friend gives a word of knowledge that we were supposed to bless a Native American and she happened to be one (I wouldn't have guessed it and we actually ran into more Native Americans before we left that did look like it). So we end up leaving her a large tip and after ministering to many other people we headed back.
We didn't make it far before I noticed a man walking on crutches, so we did a U-turn and pulled over to talk to him. We prayed for him and my friends both prophecied over him. While we were praying I could feel heat transfering from my fingers to his knee. He was really touched. It was awesome. So we went to a street that our group leader had written down that has nothing on it except for one intersection. Well, there was a car stopped at that intersection. Turns out one of the girls was teaching the other to drive. We were able to pray for them and just let them know that God thinks they are awesome. After that we finally went back to the church.
OK, so that was kinda long, I will save you by making a new post for what happened Saturday morning at the Healing Rooms...
To Be Continued...
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
La Paz, Mexico - Highlight video
Here it is. Now that I am done with it I wish I had done more with it, but oh well, not bad for the first video I've ever made.
In other news, I am finding that I am getting back into really enjoying soaking again after several months where it has been difficult. It sounds dumb, but I used to just do it every spare moment I had. I am getting back to that again. Before school, after school, after youth. Watch out world, I'm about to be full of Jesus!
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Language of the Spirit
God has really been drawing me in recently to seek His voice. With the events of this week there have been a lot of questions that I have been asking. Most of the time my question has been about trying to understand what He is doing, such as, “God, what are you doing in this?”
As the school year nears its end, I can’t help but realize that I need some new goals for the summer. Right at the top of that list is to understand the language of the Spirit. While I might have maturity, character, and other things down solidly, I feel that I am definitely lacking in the area of understanding the Holy Spirit and even what my own spirit is feeling in any given circumstance.
Growing up one of my biggest frustrations was never feeling like I could hear God. I would ask God about things and never hear his answers. It was like a person who is only five feet tall trying to dunk (yes, Muggsy Bogues dunked a few times, but he was 5’3”). After so many times of trying and never getting an answer I began to expect that I would not hear God’s voice. I would even tell people that I don’t hear God or worse yet, that I can’t hear Him.
Since then I have learned that it is not a good thing to say things like that about yourself because they become true. They also create an escape route out of any circumstance that would require that ability (some even call it an excuse!).
Without going into the details of what I was asking in one of the situations, I basically said, “God, I know you are good, but I don’t like this and you gotta make it stop by a certain day or I’m gonna make changes so that it has to stop.” Well, I said that Friday night and on Saturday it was fixed. My deadline was tomorrow night, so I am pretty happy that God worked ahead of schedule.
With what God has put on my heart to do, I understand the importance of being in step with Him and with what He is doing. Jesus healed everyone who came to Him, but not everyone in the world got healed while He was in ministry. He went where the Father sent Him. While I love the idea of praying for every person I ever come across that has a healing need, the reality is that it is not practical for one person to try to bring healing to the entire world. There must be an army of believers who are mobilized, not just one who takes on the task of praying for each person they come across who sneezes or wears glasses.
I want to walk into a store and understand that the Holy Spirit wants to do something, not spend every free moment out in the city looking for the next person with a limp. I know that my schedule will become such that I will be traveling enough that I will be trying to get the most out of my time at home so it wouldn’t be practical if I returned home just to spend hours at the store because I kept seeing people needing physical healing. Many of the great Healing Revivalists of the 1950s got burned out because they would minister constantly and people would line up for prayer at their homes. The majority of them were only in effective ministry for a few years. I don’t believe that God would want us to do something that we can’t keep up for very long. Jesus would even go away to be with God. He would just go hide up in the mountains so that He couldn’t be bothered. We should probably do something like that. Minister and then rest. Jesus knew what the Father was doing. I want to follow His lead.
As the school year nears its end, I can’t help but realize that I need some new goals for the summer. Right at the top of that list is to understand the language of the Spirit. While I might have maturity, character, and other things down solidly, I feel that I am definitely lacking in the area of understanding the Holy Spirit and even what my own spirit is feeling in any given circumstance.
Growing up one of my biggest frustrations was never feeling like I could hear God. I would ask God about things and never hear his answers. It was like a person who is only five feet tall trying to dunk (yes, Muggsy Bogues dunked a few times, but he was 5’3”). After so many times of trying and never getting an answer I began to expect that I would not hear God’s voice. I would even tell people that I don’t hear God or worse yet, that I can’t hear Him.
Since then I have learned that it is not a good thing to say things like that about yourself because they become true. They also create an escape route out of any circumstance that would require that ability (some even call it an excuse!).
Without going into the details of what I was asking in one of the situations, I basically said, “God, I know you are good, but I don’t like this and you gotta make it stop by a certain day or I’m gonna make changes so that it has to stop.” Well, I said that Friday night and on Saturday it was fixed. My deadline was tomorrow night, so I am pretty happy that God worked ahead of schedule.
With what God has put on my heart to do, I understand the importance of being in step with Him and with what He is doing. Jesus healed everyone who came to Him, but not everyone in the world got healed while He was in ministry. He went where the Father sent Him. While I love the idea of praying for every person I ever come across that has a healing need, the reality is that it is not practical for one person to try to bring healing to the entire world. There must be an army of believers who are mobilized, not just one who takes on the task of praying for each person they come across who sneezes or wears glasses.
I want to walk into a store and understand that the Holy Spirit wants to do something, not spend every free moment out in the city looking for the next person with a limp. I know that my schedule will become such that I will be traveling enough that I will be trying to get the most out of my time at home so it wouldn’t be practical if I returned home just to spend hours at the store because I kept seeing people needing physical healing. Many of the great Healing Revivalists of the 1950s got burned out because they would minister constantly and people would line up for prayer at their homes. The majority of them were only in effective ministry for a few years. I don’t believe that God would want us to do something that we can’t keep up for very long. Jesus would even go away to be with God. He would just go hide up in the mountains so that He couldn’t be bothered. We should probably do something like that. Minister and then rest. Jesus knew what the Father was doing. I want to follow His lead.
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