worshipping with the angels

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8Xh5-1nBtc&NR=1

Holly Golightly

I have learned that crafted into the nature of man is the raw need and desire to belong. I even just look at the word "belong" (not being nerdy and looking up etymology or anything like that but simply into my own heart) and I see to be somewhere that longs for you, to be in company of people or just one person who longs for you to be and be with you. "It is not good for man to be alone", nor is God alone but 3 in 1. And what is the difference per say of standing in an elevator with a bunch of other people, in the mere vicinity of another to crossing that line where one does not feel and is in fact not "alone". For those who have found a sense of belonging, they, can sit in there house by themselves and not experience "alone" that which the Creator has declared is not good.

And so, I have a experienced as of late a bit of revelation on this topic, after having watched the film "Breakfast At Tiffany's" starring Audrey Hepburn.

Here are the final lines to the end scene of this film that have so revealed me. Holly has the capability to be anyone for anyone and knows how to get what she thinks will make her happy, by creating these false identities and living on the superficial side of life with people, her apartment is hardly furnished even though she has been living there for over a year and she has not even named her cat because really she believes she will move some place or something will happen or something better will come along so there is no point in settling in. and here in the final scene Paul, the man in love with Holly is willing and expressing his desire to love her.

Paul Varjak: I love you.
Holly Golightly: So what.
Paul Varjak: So what? So plenty! I love you, you belong to me!
Holly Golightly: [tearfully] No. People don't belong to people.
Paul Varjak: Of course they do!
Holly Golightly: I'll never let ANYBODY put me in a cage.
Paul Varjak: I don't want to put you in a cage, I want to love you!

Holly Golightly: It's the same thing.
Paul Varjak: No it's not. Holly...

Holly Golightly: I'm not Holly. I'm not Lula Mae, either. I don't know who I am! I'm like cat here, a couple of no-name slobs. We belong to nobody and nobody belongs to us. We don't even belong to each other.

Paul Varjak: You know what's wrong with you, Miss Whoever-You-Are? You're chicken, you've got no guts. You're afraid to stick out your chin and say, "Okay, life's a fact, people do fall in love, people do belong to each other, because that's the only chance anybody's got for real happiness." You call yourself a free spirit, a wild thing, and you're terrified somebody's going to stick you in a cage. Well, baby, you're already in that cage. You built it yourself. And it's not bounded in the west by Tulip, Texas, or in the east by Somaliland. It's wherever you go. Because no matter where you run, you just end up running into yourself.

And in this God was taught me. We can know about it Him and what He is like and even hear Him say I love you, know His promises, know His story and not be able to receive or experience that love because we don't engage in the relationship. In this scene from the film, the man is sitting there right next to her offering his love to Holly, but she cannot experience that love unless she chooses to enter in to that relationship, unless she says "Yes." And things just started hitting me, to fully experience the love of God we have to say "Yes" once, yes, but over and over and over again, walking deeper into it, otherwise we just know a lot of facts of who He is and what he is like, but never tasting the tenderness of His love.

What did this look like practically, well, it started to unravel and is still unwraveling bit by bit, but I have been in a season now for a couple years where I have moved several times over the past 4 years. And here I am now, in Redding California, and it dawned on me...Ok I'm going to engage in this city. I am home. My license plates have been changed, my phone number has been changed to a local number, I am voting in the California elections and I have chosen to make this place home, to embrace it. I have been thinking things like where in my life is there any doubt in who God is, and pursuing those things and turning them all over to Him, that I might truly trust in Him alone and thereby know Him by experience. At times it has been scary, but even in this He is so faithful that I am monitoring my thoughts and refuse to even say that this has been scary (as a scary rooted in fear) because it takes away from believing in His faithfulness. It is not scary because He is so faithful. Ah, it is all unfolding, what a beautiful process. But faithful He most certainly is. It has been an incredible series of weeks of break through! bless His name forever!

from glory to glory

Its been ages since i've written, apologies to readers who follow. This semester has been incredible. it would be absolutely impossible to describe the way that I am falling more in love with My King Jesus, and falling deeper into the trust of my Father who is forever faithful, and to move in tandem with precious Holy Spirit. I have learned to be lost in and lost without His Presence, like Moses on the mountain, refusing to move unless His Presence goes with him for it was all that made him and his people different from all the peoples of the world. The same is so true for us who call upon His Name, the only thing that makes me different is the abiding residence of His Manifest presence in me by His precious unending enabling grace. His love soaked presence, where anything is possible, where every wall must come down, where every sickness must flee, where all wisdom abides, where every chain is broken, where every captive is set free, where the living waters flow and fill my every fiber, where all joy and satisfaction habitate. Oh bless His name forever and ever and let everything within me worship Him. Never doubt His promises, do battle in prayer with the words spoken over your life, for He is faithful!
I have seen healing, walls of pain and hardness fall down at the word of the Lord and people and myself fall in puddle of tears, completely irrational giddy joyous holy laughter, I felt my body tremble and shake in His Mighty Loving Presence, felt the intensity of His jealous love for me, and the complete safety of the Father's embrace. I have dumped my life on His lap, broken my alabaster jar at His feet, and will waste my life the one who has given breath to me and all things. I have learned He wants me to be loved me so deeply its completely uncomfortable and to love so extravagantly and humbly that it's offensive. Thank you precious Jesus. The only reasonable response is thanks.

Healing!

Gotta celebrate the small beginnings!! A couple friends and I prayed for a fellow student who had level 8 pain on a scale of 1-10 in both arms and elbow joints, the right arms was healed almost instantly and the left arm went down to level 2 pain and he recovered full range of motion. woo hooo!!!!!!!!! Thank you Jesus :)

planted

psalm 145:16 "You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing."
psalm 87:7 "All my springs are in You"
John 6:35 "Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, he who believes in Me will never thirst."
John 14:6 "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to Father but through Me."

We are as if great and mighty trees whose roots have been choicely laid in the promise land by the banks of the river of life. Our life bread is this source and this source alone, and when the river runs low our roots grow further into the ground seeking the deeper waters, for we have been planted in this place an cannot be moved, true life comes from the the source that flows by our side and nutrient from soil of its saturation. I am content to be planted in this place.

Revelation 22:1-2 "And He showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, come from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yeilding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

pause

A billow of steam unfurls in a rumble from the inner sanctum of my coffee cup this late morning, as I continue to savor all that God is doing in me, has done, and has promised to do. This past week I have been blasted by the likes of Heidi Baker, Bill Johnson, Kevin Dedmon, Kris Vallotton and now Randy Clark, thats enough Holy Spirit to send anyone spinning, and boy am I tumbling. The more it sinks in that anything is possible with God and that He loves us completely all the time, never stops for a second having wonderful loving thoughts toward us I realize how small is my thinking, I realize there is no room for a second of self pity, for a moment of looking at the lack when I have every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus, when I realize the only reason I am standing alive is because of the Breath of Life in me that holds ALL things together, the sheer magnitude of my understanding of existence is exponentially expanding, and I desire to be possessed by this great love, to become a living expression of it, to release all understanding and say "Yes!" to what I think is impossible trusting and laughing with tickled glee in the great intimate love my of Almighty Papa God, Our Bridegroom Jesus, and Living Breath of Life Holy Spirit.

verses to chomp

ez 47 and rev 22 let loose, relinquish control, and swim in the river, life overflow its banks.

no longer

There must come a point where you look at yourself in the mirror and know, sometimes by choice sometimes by transformation but that you really are no longer your old man. But that you are a new creation in Christ Jesus, and everything that that means. You a free, boundless, limitless in the perfect He. You are completely and totally accepted and chosen by the only one who can really choose.That your life has been written by the Author and illustrated by the Artist. That you are completely satisfied in His love alone. That He is your source. That you are full and satisfied in Him alone. There must come a day when you are beautiful because He thinks you are, when you are are loved because you are His beloved. There must come a day where you own the name that is brazened in your inner man...Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. A name that flows in harmony with inspiration, that is, the act of breathing. The very air is Spirit.
Whether we feel it, or know it to be true, it is Truth. There is no use living in anything other.

be hungry and satisfied.

A call the intimacy with the living God inside of you. The kingdom is within you. Everything that God could give you, He has already given it to you in Jesus. "It is finished." I have watched a pattern occur in my life where I feel lack in some way and cry out for it, as if it needed to be sent by mail from some place far far away, the kingdom is inside me. God is near, so very near. So there is this incredible beautiful tension of discover the kingdom, that is within us. Our bellies are full in Jesus, yet there exists this incredible groan for more that escapes my lips regularly from some deep unseen place. How do we be satisfied and hungry at the same time? I am chewing on this one, We hunger for the manifestation of what we know to be true and hidden with Jesus, who is within us, waiting to be revealed in increasing measure. So I need only meditate on the fullness in Jesus within me, and I will be satisfied. I've noticed that even as I am aware of this fullness I can feel it and it releases His Presence. Let this year be marked with this intimacy. We are not lacking, but complete in Christ Jesus. As I have heard quoted so often here, "God hides things for us, not from us" like the proverb that says, "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings to search a matter out"

The more I sit, embrace and delight in the fullness of God in me, the more I discover about Him and about who I am in Him, and watch the overflow of Him released. I love you Jesus.

Permission

There is a destiny that God has for your life, spaces in heaven reserved for your access alone, that He alone can take you to. Because He not only loves you so much He died to know you, but He also really likes you and wants to do everything with you, in love all day long. Jesus died so that this could happen; so that you could know Love Himself and pursue a great love story together releasing the sweet fragrance of heaven and precious name of Jesus wherever you go. He will take away every obstacle that gets in the way, fear, doubt, need, pain, sickness, anything that gets in the way of the destiny that He has for you and wants to make happen with you. It's something only you can do, the world will be less without it. It will be great, it will be grand, it will be real. You will be free of every chain and protected in His arms, filled with love and belly blasting joy. And you will be able to give this gift through His love to everyone, to give to everyone the Greatest Love of All, freedom and destiny. You have permission to go chase your destiny. Go.

don't talk, pray.

Just a quick note of truth i've encountered over the past two weeks...I realized that I should be praying a whole lot more than I should talk, counsel, minister or explain. Not by words, but by the power of God. It is a whole lot easier too.

On another note, I was blasted by the joy of the Lord last night with two friends and was left crawling out of church and laying on the parking lot cement laughing with utter and complete joy! Let this year be marked with His Joy! After all it was for the JOY! set before Him that He endured the cross, (hebrews 12:2) and in His Presence is fullness of JOY! (psalm 16) Let me always abide in Your Presence God.

The Story.

"The Demystification of How One Soccer Playing Bible Bashing Woman Ends Up At Supernatural School of Ministry"

An intriguing tale indeed, if time permits you I'd like to share this story of the past 3 years or so of my life.
Some time in 1993 in Miami Springs, Florida a nine year old girl fell in love. She fell in love with the sport of soccer. In the midst of family struggles and the crazy advent of puberty and adolescence, this young girl clung desperately to her lover for identity and safe harbor from the confusion all around. But as the years went by she began to experience the affects of clinging to a love that could never really satisfy, and to a persona who was never really she. For little did she know then that the things we do or achieve are not at all the composition of who we really are, and a great sadness began to sink in, little by little, until it over took the now young woman who had never let herself be fully known by herself or anyone else outside of kicking around a silly soccer ball.
Here is where things get interesting. Up to this point I hope you can tell that "she" is me!:) I played soccer in college all four years and every year I sunk deeper and deeper in to depression. By the tail end of my senior year I had learned to manage my depression, but this one day I just did not know what to do, graduation was coming up and I had no plans (after all, essentially soccer was my major in college). And so one cold dark spring day in New York I about to get ready to go somewhere and I was overcome with despair. I fell to my knees and for the first time lifted my head to the sky and said "What am I going to do?!" and I heard "Just pray." So I began to pray every night. Soon later an opportunity came for me to play soccer professionally in Denmark which I within two months would quit to face the great unknown, knowing full well that I was hiding in soccer. And also a man came into my life that while the relationship was brief and less than ideal He shared with me about this Jesus. Four months of wine drinking, mad- journaling, long walk taking, soul searching and a four month long road trip up the East Coast later God came marching into my life. I simply would not settle until this hunger was satisfied, I knew there had to me more. A dear friend I hadn't heard from in 6 years called me and I knew she was changed and somehow peaceful since the last time I saw her. Jesus had gotten a hold of her life and now I could ask her about all the burning exploding feeling in my chest and all my questions! She pointed me to a semi-pro Christian soccer team called the Charlotte Eagles in Charlotte, NC. Now, up until about a year or so before this point I wanted nothing to do with Jesus or Christianity for the majority of my life, I thought this soccer team was going to be a bunch long skirt and turtleneck wearing open toed sandals and no make up kind of gig. Fortunately, they were a bunch of incredibly talented soccer players and beautiful cool women, who would lead me to the Lord and baptize me in the Gulf of Mexico on a road trip. When this happened I knew that God loved me and that He now lived inside of me and I would never experience the degree of the emptiness that depression had over me again. This team would also invite me on my first missions trips. First to Brazil for 4 months!! That was so tough, but awesome! and then later to Ethiopia in April 2008.
This is where the supernatural part comes in so get ready because I know what I experienced and I know I am not crazy. Up to this point in all my Bible reading, I had just assumed that angels and demons and miracles and deliverance and satan was this super high lofty esoteric realm that surely little 6 month old Christian Holly would never experience or only existed back in the Bible day. But how like Jesus to say "You are ready now for I am sufficient." The Lady Eagles took a team trip to Ethiopia where a portion of our trip would be spending time(4 days) and ministering to an Ethiopian women's soccer team. We spent this time with them out at a camp in the bush playing soccer, having fun, and sharing stories. For those four days I began having nightmares where I would wake up literally paralyzed and one night even watched as a dark figure approached me and I could no longer tell if my eyes were open or closed. I was scared. By the fourth day at dinner time we would quickly discover one of the Ethiopian soccer players was demonically possessed as she manifested in incredible strength right in front of our eyes. Leaders immediately took her to a safe place and began praying for her deliverance and exercising the authority of Jesus over her. Meanwhile our team worshiped and prayed for an hour until the lady was delivered and walked out in perfect peace. This was my first experience with the supernatural, unfortunately the dark side of it. But it was not over for me.
A few weeks later, as my second season with the Lady Eagles began, I began again having nightmares in which I would awake paralyzed and would feel and the presence of evil in my room. I would at one point actually see that a demon was in my room for a period of 2 months. In this time I felt helpless against it for I did not know the authority of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit within me. The Bible was a live and well for me and realized that the word of God really was my sword (Eph 6). And that "For in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power." Colossians 2:9-10 Once I began to accept this I would slowly but surely work up the courage to face the demon in my room. And one night I was determined so I sat up in my bed and began to pray until I believed what I was praying and I literally could feel the difference of just me praying and then suddenly I felt myself full of the truth and presence of Jesus, at this moment the demon just left. For it is that way. "Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it" Colossians 2:15 And I understood that Jesus in power was really in me.
This catapulted me into the world of the supernatural Christianity whether I wanted it or not. And if satan is real and has real power over the ignorant I chose to become un-ignorant and began to take authority of the places in my life that I realized satan was having a picnic. One being depression. (Note: I realize that some cases of depression require some medical help and cannot be treated entirely as a spiritual case) There are more things that God has brought up over this past year but as I bring it to the power of Jesus, it must bow down to his precious name and obey.
And I now understand Galatians 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
So if the evil is real, how much more is God's reality, His healing, His miracles, His signs and wonders? And then I read this verse..."John14:12 "Most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father." WHAT???!!! Greater works??? ME???
Now I know it is not about miracles in and of themselves. For what He desires is simply us to know Him and be known. Salvation in and of itself is a miracle and supernatural event. Through His works, we learn what He is like, and Jesus healed every single person that came to Him. And Jesus only did what He saw His Father do in heaven. That tells me a lot about the heart of the Father. And suddenly I realized that I was living under the visage of a lesser Gospel, living under less than what Jesus paid the price for me to have.
But the problem was I was not seeing this in my everyday life or in everyday church. No one was talking about it, but it is right there in front of my face and right in my bedroom! My experience of Jesus has been separate from any ingrained theology or denomination and I realized that the Bible was not fully alive in the place I was in outside of the pages it was written on. Sure there was a whole lot behavior heart modification and studies being taught(which are so valuable), but no interaction, relationship or mention of the Person of the Holy Spirit who Jesus spent a hefty amount of time talking about and even told the disciples NOT to go out and minister until the Holy Spirit came and they received power.
So I have found myself here at Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, where I am letting the Word of God work in and through me. When I look at the ministry of Jesus there was nothing natural about it and if He not only is our example but also lives in us, it doesn't seem that crazy to say "supernatural." Reading the Bible it just seems like the supernatural is everyday Christian life. Jesus is the same today, as He was then, and will ever be. I am unaware of whatever publicity or articles are online about this place, all I know is that I read a few books by the pastors and been listening to their Sunday morning sermons via podcast for the past year and come alive inside. And I am fully committed to follow Jesus and power of His love wherever it takes me, that I may become more free and more filled with Him that I can be like Paul when He says "For the Kingdom of God is not in word, but in power" 1Corinthians 4:20, all coming from the overflow of the greatest commandment of loving God with all my being and life and loving others as myself. And I am watching joyfully as the fruits of the Spirit are manifesting themselves in my life by the incredible working of God. I am free, by the glorious work of Jesus!
So please forgive the length of this address but I felt I had to do it. It was not meant to put anything in anyone's face but expose my journey as I lived it these past two and half years. I want to live transparently, honorably, and passionately for what I believe and know to be true. Bless you for reading this, and thank you so much for being apart of my life.

2 Timothy 1:12

BAM! Thats how this verse hit me, I tingled all over.

2Timothy 1:12 For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless, I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that day.


So. As I mentioned in an early post about getting to know the person of the Holy Spirit, not just about Him. When I read this verse a lot became clear for me, I realized that I knew a lot of God's promises and a lot things that I know to be true about Him based upon certain Scripture that I have read, but that still does not mean that I know Him! Punched in the face...POW!
I realized that this is what seperates Moses from the Israelites. The Israelites knew God's promise for them and lived in a continual state of being in want and cashing in their promise...a cold business transaction that God willingly in His love accepts. But Moses.... Moses saw God face to face, He knew His Presence, He glowed from it. It was from this posture and relationship that Moses could not help but ask God Almighty "Show me your glory." And that was the OT! The lesser covenant! Where the Presence resided in an object, but now...it resides in us. He wants to know us, not for anything we could do or any promise we could keep...(Abrahams faith alone made him righteous, no work, no labor...just faith), and our relationship to Him should be the same, just because His Presence is so sweet, it is where we shine with His glory that we are free to show to the world. It is His presence where Paul can say, "I know Him." Anyone can know the promises of God, but only those who go to the secret place, to the "thick darkness where God was"(Ex20:21). And so I have set off to know Him and to know His Presence and when it comes into the room like a friend, I want to be able to recognize His Presence. I even think we can go so far to say that our physical bodies were built to be able to sense it. After all His desire was to inhabit us.

Psalm 91:1
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of His wing.

I am learning to practice the Presence, and like Moses refusing to move until it comes.
I was really encouraged, (well sort of) by some of out pastors here who have had incredible encounters with God, some students asked how did it come to you, and they have repeatedly said its crying out in the secret place, creating your own private history with God. When you go into meet Him to not have any agenda and setting all of your affection on Him, and just see what happens....
I have only experienced a little bit, but I have been repeatedly reminded to be thankful for what I do get and have and God will pour out more. Be thankful, be in love.

May anyone who read just fall more and more in love with the Lover of our souls.

Covenant

http://www.biblestudymanuals.net/jewish_marriage_customs.htm

http://gracethrufaith.com/selah/eternal-security/the-covenant-relationship/

Okay, so someone mentioned this phrase and truth about our status as believers"I am convenentially bound to the Uncreated One." And so, I thought to myself..."You can't just hear something like that and not look into it at least a little bit." So I started to look up covenants and what they looked like to our ancient Hebrew brothers and sisters, and what that now means for us as were are in marriage covenant with Jesus. The two websites above show different kinds of covenants, covenant of brotherhood that Jonathan and David made, and also marriage covenant. I found that it really enriched my view and understanding of what God has done with us. It would be a whole lot to type out but I wanted to offer the websites so you could check it out at your leisure. Enjoy! I hope they bless you as they did me.

HEALING!

A woman who had MS for 30 years and was in a wheel chair with only the use of her right arm was healed this morning at the healing rooms at Bethel, she pushed her own wheel chair out of the healing rooms! YEA JESUS! There is video on my facebook page if you have facebook!

I will paste the testimony:

This happened on October 31, 2009 at the healing rooms at Bethel Church. This is the best time to be alive!!! --- This is the story she gave to the testimony writer. --- Terry from Redding, CA In March, she was given 6 months to live. She was diagnosed with galloping Multiple Sclerosis about 29-30 years ago. She wou...ld have a burning skin sensation like running an iron over a bad sunburn (pain level 10) constantly, no painkillers would work. She had limited movement/mobility with her arms, and her right hand was clenched up in a fist (for the past year). She had lost her sense of balance, and would often fall, so she also has had 5 years of back pain (level 10). This morning, she didn’t take any pain medicine, and after she came in for prayer, she felt a healing warmth over her back (she could tell she was getting healed). ALL the burning pain left, she can raise up her hands all the way up, side to side, her right hand was no longer clenched! She can open her hand wide and touch every finger to her thumb. She regained her sense of balance and she then she was able to stand up and dance! Her husband, Jeff, said that earlier that week, Terry was feeling very hopeless, because she felt unworthy to ask God for help and healing. She was near the brink of taking her own life until she finally decided to yield herself and came to the healing rooms! Terry plans to go to an MS center in Sacramento to get all her tests redone to share the goodness of Jesus!

a promise

just wanted to share this promise,

Psalm 112:1-4
Praise the Lord!
Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
Who delights greatly in His commandments.
His descendents will be mighty on earth;
The generation of the upright will blessed.
Wealth and riches will be in his house,
And his righteousness endures forever.
Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness;
He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.

Blessings, heavenly encounters, grace, and deeper revelation of Father's heart to all who read this.

responding

The past few days there has been a magnified intensity it feels like of God's attention on my life, on the things that I've been crying out for, it's incredible and exhausting. The past two days at school were the most incredible days of responding to and crying out for the presence of God in community I have ever been apart of. It was a glimpse of what revival is going to be like. There has been this momentum building of hunger for God for His glorious presence. You could feel this anticipation and expectancy in the air at school.
On Thursday of this week we were worshiping God, the music was great and people were encountering God like they usually do, but something shifted in the room and in the worship and as a body we just decided spontaneously and harmoniously that there was about to be a violence in our faith (matthew 11:12) our worship became a cry, a plea, a sacrfice, a celebration before Him. It was beautiful everyone was dancing before God like David did, singing in unison and then in their own language, I can only imagine what God saw and how He felt about His kids worshiping Him.
The room felt so sweet and just JOYOUS! The stage and the aisles flooded with students dancing wildly. You could feel burdens and strongholds in people's lives just breaking off. It was incredible.
And then the next day, Friday, a student was sharing an incredible God story from her weekend where this guy that she had met was heavily into Satanic worship but just saw her encountering God in so much joy that he asked her what she was experiencing and she told him it was the Holy Spirit and that if he wanted he could experience it to. He told her that he did and so she prayed for him to encounter the Holy Spirit and he did! He just started laughing uncontrollably with joy and he said he wanted to know Jesus after that! It was crazy! Something was just released into the room while she was sharing this story. When she finished we just shouted out to God to be rocked by the Holy Spirit! And well...He came into the room and we just busted out into worship(you couldn't help it) and encountering the Spirit, some people were shaking from His presence, some weeping, some laughing and shouting praises. Bill Johnson was about to start speaking to us but he just stood there at the podium and let us respond to the Spirit's presence...for 40 minutes! We were praying, and singing just broke out, no instruments no leader nothing just His kids singing and loving Him. And it ended as Bill just lead us in "Oh, Come Let Us Adore Him" . It was so powerful and I got to feel the Holy Spirit like I never have before my spirit was fluttering within me. And there was nothing else for your being to do but worship, it was instinctual and outside of my control. Shear joy and goodness was penetrating every part of you that caused your spirit to bend to the Source of it all, whose very nature is love, joy and only good.
My prayer is for God to teach me to recognize His presence, it is too sweet to miss and something we weren't created to live without.
God is too good to be true all the time.


psalm16:11 In Your presence is fullness of joy;

psalm 97:5 The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord,

psalm 149:2-3 Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. Let them praise His name with dance; let them sing praises to Him.

psalm 30:11-12 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever.

2 Samuel 6:14 Then David danced before the Lord with all his might

Let the Son Of Resurrection in!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYESNOPpXV4

It's been a minute...

It has been big minute since the last time that I shared, for a couple reasons, the main one being that the past couple weeks have been kind of hard for me and I haven't understood it all and haven't had something clear to share. We have been learning a lot about our identity and God's character. In short, a lot is being stirred up and has yet to settle. However, there is something I think of value to share.
One of the main reasons I came to Bethel was because I knew they were experiencing here the closest thing to the authentic Gospel, save things that seem to happen in my experience only in places like Africa, a Gospel of God's awesome outrageous supernatural love.
I am in a place where miracles and signs and wonders happen on a regular basis as a normal part of the Christian life, this supernatural dimension of Christian normalcy is clearly missing in a huge part of today's church. I don't say this with accusation, but I say this with heaviness of heart because it is a huge part of the Father that we as a body are missing out on. It is a place personaly that I am yet to break into, but I know for I both have seen and believe it to be who God is and who He has sent us out to be for His Namesake.
Anyway, in all this, the staff has made it clear to us that the living in the supernatural as a goal in and of itself is not the point. As in all things of God, He desires relationship, and I am learning that the supernatural is born and carried out through a relationship with the person the Holy Spirit and a lifestyle of sweet worship to Him. Also, we've talking about to never stop talking about the things that God has done and is doing, to never stop sharing testimony, for it was when Israel forgot that they stopped seeing and experienceing Him and would fall. (Rev19:10 ..Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. )The Senior Pastor Bill Johnson said in so many words the other day, being friends with Holy Spirit just for the stuff He can do or give you is just like being friends with someone for what you get out of it, they won't be friends with you very long.

Here is a cool story from class the other day:

So Bill Johnson has just finished lecturing on stage in the main sanctuary and it was Q&A time from the students. The first student stood up and ask Bill "We heard you were a worship leader before you were a pastor, what made you decide to change, how did that happen for you and would you ever consider leading worship for us?" And as he was asking the question it began raining on the stage! It was raining outside pretty heavily anyway, so my first thought was that it was a leak or something, but firstly the water wasnt falling like a leak it was falling like rain falls and secondly there was not water or wetness anywhere where it should have been landing. Bill said that he was afraid to answer the question after he saw the rain! It was so neat!

Let it rain Lord!!!! "Psalm 68:8 The heaven's also dropped rain at the presence of God"

Luke 1:37"For with God nothing will be impossible"

dang..let's just worship Him folks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoIAOm4sYVk