I've been in America for almost TWO weeks now! Crazy! The first observation that I made was immediately in stepping out of the airplane: it is w-a-r-m. I was extremely blessed to stay at my cousin's place the first night. Yeah, and the second day I tried my best to use the shower but managed to first get really hot water on me and then icy cold! I also fell in love with peanut butter-avocado sandwiches (sorry boys) with a hint of salt, lemon and black pepper! Exactly what heaven on earth tastes like. (Though strongly think this experience might still be perfected with rye bread......) The most beautiful thing in this city called Redding is the presence of God. The heaven is open and the atmosphere is filled with faith here because of the prayers of the saints. (We all know that for believers there is always an open heaven! But it needs to be mentioned that even Jesus couldn't do any miracles among the people of Nazareth [except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them] because of their unbelief! (Mark 6:5) And that's exactly why I think the atmosphere here is so remarkable!) You perhaps know the feeling that when you're praying somewhere and your prayers hit like a wall? I've felt the exact opposite here. I feel POWERFUL here! Here it feels like the Spirit of God has more room to manifest and work through believers! (–trying to find the right language to describe my amazement–) GOD gets to be Himself here! And: He is overwhelmingly good, awe-inspiring to the max, and frighteningly wonderful in every possible way! Bill Johnson The most important lesson I've learned by far is the importance of worship. I've had to encourage and tell my soul to sing to God (like David) because I actually haven't been used to that much of worship. I say this as a worship leader who has always loved to worship Jesus, but there's something in stepping out of your comfort zone even during the worship time. Believe me, I have just wanted to sit back and have a break... but still chosen to praise Him like this was my last day to live. My decision has done something in the deepest parts of me: God has strengthened my soul, extended my capacity to receive from Him and our friendship has grown deeper still. I love it. Reminded of Psalm 84: My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. PRAISING GOD renews fainting hearts! What else could I share? There are so many things that have happened that I don't even have words for. I have seen plenty of amazing miracles already (and this is just the second week??) and smelled the anointing oil in the air in the sanctuary! One day at school I counted all the students that came up to testify what Jesus healed them from. Bill Johnson got a word of knowledge during His teaching and we ended up having: 7 people got healed from ADD, 2 from learning disabilities, 4 from reading disabilities, 2 from massive headaches, 8 from dyslexia, 5 from brain drama, 3 from ADHD, and the rest 6 from all kinds of other defects, like one from the damage that a tumor in her brain had caused. Speechless. I have never in my entire life seen so much power and authority in a room! God touched people and some of them could FEEL like a steel band lifting up from their heads. It was amazing to hear a person who couldn't read aloud reciting the Bible to us! Some told how incredible it felt to finally be able to understand what they read! "God didn't design the Gospel to be lived differently during "modern times" versus "biblical times". It is still biblical times." (Bill Johnson) "If Jesus did His great miracles as God, I'm still impressed. But I'm impressed as an observer. When I discover that He did them as a man, then suddenly I am completely unsatisfied with life as I've known it. I am now compelled to follow this Jesus until the same things start happening in my life." (B. Johnson) Ahhhhhh. What will happen when we start to teach this to our children when they're born? The secret ingredient of BSSM is that there are are actually people here who will talk to us about us and who are committed to draw the gold out of us. We will be learning our identity as the sons and daughters of the most High God and to live in a culture of honor and culture of confrontation. Our prophecies will actually be judged, which doesn't happen everywhere! We'll be focusing on the Godhead this year and we will learn to study the Bible for all it's worth. Exciting times and a lot of work coming up :D! To be continued... MUCH LOVE! May God lavish His love upon you guys! I LOVE YOU and wouldn't be here without your support!
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