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.

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...

That was a good night

That is what I said to a friend and his mom as I left a friend's house last night after probably one of the craziest nights (in a good way) that I have experienced in my life. It all started when I was at home group and happened to be in the middle of a game of Uno when a friend called me to invite me to come hang out with the Westerfields. While on the phone it became my turn and not fully paying attention I put down my next to last card and forgot to call out "Uno" thus keeping me from probably winning that game. Oh well...the price I paid to get some breakthrough and and an encounter with God.

I really could have said that it was a good day because that morning I had an amazing time in the prayer chapel. Rather than making myself only lay down, I spent some time just soaking in a chair. Boy was it good. There were a few times where God's presence was so heavy on me that it felt like someone was sitting on me. Actually I guess it would be more accurate to describe it as a really heavy blanket covering my entire body. Then while reading my Bible I felt like I was getting more revelation than I have been getting recently. Maybe I should be reading more...

School was great as well. Danny Silk spoke to us for the last time and was great as always. One of the interns, Israel, talked to us for a while and was stinking awesome! It was amazing. He told the Power Costs and the Healing Anointing dreams which get me every time I hear them. Lastly, Mark Brookes spoke. He can preach. Yeah, I can't even remember what he talked about after what happened last night.

So I went over to the house where we were meeting and saw how few people were there. After a few minutes and a few more people got there Jason asked if we were ready to start. Ready to start? I thought that we were just hanging out. Well, it turned out much better than just hanging out. He asked everyone what they came expecting and pretty much everyone mentioned intimacy. I also mentioned that I was wanting and understanding of how the Spirit is moving so I can work with Him, just as I have talked about only doing what I see the Father doing. Well, that was probably what Jason talked about most of the time. It was phenomenal. I wish I had it recorded because he was talking so fast that my mind could catch very little.

The thing that was scary (in a good way) about it was how similar it was to an experience I had when Todd Bentley was speaking at the Encounter conference back in February. The presence of God was so heavy that I couldn't handle it and felt like I needed to leave. Before I could leave though Todd told everyone that they could lay down on the floor or do whatever, which I took him up on and that helped a lot. Well, this went on last night for who knows how long until I broke out in a pretty good sweat, had shortness of breath, and felt too weak to get up out of my chair. Often all I could do was drop my head in front of me or drop it into the back of the chair behind me. Finally, I got up to go to the restroom and barely felt like I would make it there (it was only 10 steps away). I sat down again because I felt weak like I do when I am about to throw up (even though I didn't think I was going to) and got some cold water on my face. I went back out drank some water before going back out to the room. Stuff was starting to break in the room and I was starting to feel better. Then Jason described pretty much what had just happened to me was going to start happening to some people in the room.

Within a minute or two I felt completely normal again. We started to pray more and again stuff began to break. I didn't understand most of what was going on, but I believe that I am starting to get a grasp on the reality of the spiritual realm. I did catch from Jason that so much of the struggle is in our minds. We forget that we have the mind of Christ and that the Kingdom of God is within us. One of the things that hit me the most that he said had to do with fear. He mentioned that the fear and shaking that happens when we are looking for eggs at the grocery store but then see someone in a wheelchair, our compassion for the person starts kicking at the demonic (that isn't exactly what he said, because I can't remember, so I will try to explain it). When the two Kingdoms collide it produces fear in us. Why? We are feeling the fear that the kingdom of darkness is feeling. He then said that the greater fear that we face, the greater breakthrough will come after it is broken. That is encouraging to me because I am normally very scared!

Although he didn't pray for me for impartation like he did for almost everyone else, I still feel like I got a ton out of those few hours. I can see why the name of his ministry is Kingdom Realities, because it really is a reality of the Kingdom that changes everything. As the Kingdom becomes real to us and continues to become more real we begin to walk in more and more. It is all about understanding the Kingdom. I am so thankful for that opportunity to connect with the Spirit of God because it confirmed to me that my search for understanding is exactly the thing that I need.

Could it be?

If you read my blog from yesterday, you know that I was talking about flowing with the Holy Spirit and doing what the Father is doing. This morning I picked up Bill Johnson’s latest book, Strengthen Yourself in the Lord, and began to read some more of it. Just a few pages into it I became aware that the section I was in was talking about having solitude and how Jesus would only do what the Father did!

A year ago when my only way to hear Bill was through podcasts and downloaded sermons I heard him speak about unusual coincidences being the language of the spirit. This can come in all sorts of ways whether it is really bad traffic or waking up at the same time each night. Well, I find this as no unusual coincidence as I am wanting to only do what I see the Father doing to then read in just four pages about Jesus doing that same thing.

What does it mean? God is just confirming it to me. Why is it important? Because more will be accomplished on accident when I am focused on His presence than on purpose when I am focused on performance. Waiting two hours in a meeting for the Spirit of God to show up in power will create far more miracles than by just praying for people from the start.

I think that is another thing that God is trying to teach me: to co-labor with Him. He doesn’t want to do all the work and He doesn’t want me to do all the work. He wants me to partner with what He is doing. We co-labor with God. We co-labor next to God with what He is doing. He doesn’t co-labor with what we are doing. We are to co-labor with what He is doing. Yet we rest because we only do what we see the Father doing. Amen to that!

Don't ever give up!

I have heard Bill Johnson say several times that you never know when it might be the time that God heals somebody. Similarly he says that it is ok for us to live in mystery, not knowing why things happen the way they do, but knowing that God is ALWAYS good regardless. Just think of how hopeless a situation could be for someone who has been seeking healing for years. It would probably get to the point of not wanting to waste their time in prayer because nothing ever seemed to happen.

On Wednesday right after school was over with I was slowly walking my way to my car when some students stopped me for prayer. I had just come from revival group where my leader and other individuals prayed for me when we ended and the entire group prayed for me when I showed up. On my way there, the Junior High Pastor prayed for me and before that another 10 students or so had been praying for me in the lobby. Even though my body and mind werre exhausted I told them they could pray for me. Another one of our first year pastors joined them and I decided to test it out by walking. For the first time since Sunday I was able to walk without feeling like my knees were going to collapse!

The funny thing is that I almost turned them down because I just wanted to get home and sleep, which is really funny since it has been almost impossible for me to sleep even though I am spending 10+ hours in bed. And foolishly the thought ran through my mind that their prayers wouldn't do anything. WRONG! I am glad I said yes to them and whether it was just from my obedience to receiving prayer or maybe that act of physical obedience caused a spiritual release of some tiny amount of faith on my part to get God to supernaturally strengthen my knees in an instant.

This can apply to other things as well. I want to see people who are paralyzed get healed. I have not seen that happen yet, but if I pray for 1,000 people who don't get healed I am not going to stop! Also, when I moved out to Redding I made a point of spending time soaking so that I could feel the presence of God. I would go to the prayer chapel day after day for hours at a time not settling for nothing. Those months of pressing in led me into an incredible January and February of experiencing God on a whole new level!

So here is my charge to you: If you are seeking healing, do not turn down prayer even when you would rather just go on your way; If you are seeking God, do not stop seeking Him when you don't seem to be getting anywhere; If you are seeking breakthrough in healing for others do not stop praying for them in faith no matter how many aren't getting healed; Don't ever give up!

Is God the Biggest?

Bill Johnson often says that we must keep our awareness of God's presence at the forefront of our minds. We cannot allow for other things to become bigger than our awareness of His presence. Until Monday night I thought I had that figured out pretty well and that no matter what the circumstances, my awareness of God's presence was the biggest thing in my mind. Let me explain.

Late Sunday night I noticed that my knees were starting to hurt. I didn't think too much of it because I had spent a longer time kneeling during worship on Sunday night than I normally would, so I figured it would go away soon. Well, on Monday my knees were hurting worse so I decided to just lay down in bed and rest. For several hours I was aware of God's presence as a lay there. Well, by that evening I was having trouble sleeping and my knees were hurting really bad. In the middle of the night there were several times in which I audibly grunted due to the extreme pain that I was in.

When I woke up Tuesday morning I was in horrible pain. By now my back was also sore from being in bed for so long. Additionally I could hardly walk because of the pain and my knees also felt like they were going to buckle underneath me. I quickly became aware of how often I use my knees, from the slight bend to wash my hands in the bathroom sink to getting out of bed, rolling over in bed, and going up and down stairs. I ended up going to the prayer chapel hoping that being in His presence would heal me, but I was so miserably in pain that I could not even become aware of His presence. At this point I also had a terrible headache and so I ended up making my way over to the main building to just take it easy before school.

On my way there I almost fell over a few times. It felt like someone took a baseball bat to my knees and that they were going to buckle from underneath me. This isn't just soreness, I know what that feels like. My back is sore, as is my neck and collarbone, my knees just downright hurt. I was miserable the whole day at school. I couldn't concentrate because of the pain and the headache. I ended up just going home after school and skipping my Tuesday night homegroup.

Being able to lay down helped some and several hours later I noticed that my knees weren't hurting when I wasn't moving. A few times in the night I got up to use the rest room and quickly discovered that they were still hurting and still wanted to buckle under my weight (and I am not heavy!). However, I didn't have the killer pain at any time like I had the previous night or during the day so I woke up thanking God for the improvement. However I hardly slept all night due to my back and neck hurting and woke up with my collarbone also hurting.

My headache was so bad that I felt like I was in slow motion, so when I was getting very far trying to do homework, I decided to lay down and try to get some sleep. That didn't work for the sleeping part, but I did manage to have my headache go away temporarily while I put my pillow on top of my face. I managed to finish it (thank you God that I had already finished Dann's homework on the weekend!) and went off to school still in a lot of pain. My headache kept getting worse so I ended up just laying down in the back as Kris Vallotton spoke. After a while I couldn't handle that either so I went out to the lobby.

More and more people prayed for me but I was still hurting the same after school ended. I ran into Joaquin in the hallway and he and two other students started to pray for me. I tested it out by walking and found that my knees weren't getting weak as I walked. They prayed again and I walked even more, with less pain, but more importantly, without feeling like my knees were going to buckle.

I mention all this to say that with all the pain I was in I kept that as my focus instead of God's presence. Let me just say that God did not cause me to be in this pain to teach me a lesson, but He sure did use it to show me that I let this circumstance come between me and Him. How quick I was to allow my circumstances to take my focus away from God. Thank you God for your presence and for being bigger than the most excruciating pain I have ever been in!