So I'm finally back in Redding. Yay. I'm so glad to be in one spot for the time being. It seems like all that's ahead of me is only good things! Isn't that great when you find out that everything in your life is for a REALLY GOOD future and hope for you?? It's great when you figure out that everything will ultimately be okay for you and its gonna be a great ride, no matter what people say, think, or believe about you?? Life will go on, beyond what people's dumb opinions are of you and me! Wooo! I'm so glad that I'm good. I'm so excited about the future! What does God have in store for us? What does he have in store for me, you, the world? He said it's only good things, so its gonna be only good things! The Kingdom is expanding. The kingdom of darkness is being dismantled. The Sons of God are coming into their fullness! The 7 mountains of influence are being taken for the kingdom! Everything is building up for only amazing things! What if we started living our lives as if we actually really loved life? What if I just started choosing to live life to its fullest? What does it mean to live life to it's fullest? I guess in my opinion, it would be to do everything that you love, everything that's needed, everything that empowers, everything that expands, everything that builds up for a better purpose, everything that exalts the King, everything that is pushing the boundaries... What are we waiting for? What is it that we're waiting to get? Is it approval from the people around us? Is it fear or resistance, unknown, rejection?? What if we just chose the mindset that said "It's impossible for me to fail"? What would it look like for us to shift our focus and change? What does it look like to live life from the Kingdom's perspective??

How Good is Our God...

So my car broke down... but who cares!!! Oh my goodness.. I had an amazing, possibly life changing conversation with a friend of mine who is unsaved. Wow! God is so good. My friend was totally rocked!! He wants to come up here to see me. He's in school down in L.A. so I'm gonna see if he'll come up here... How crazy would that be... He'd be so done. He'd be saved, baptized, and slain in the Spirit by the end of the week. He'd be so done! Oh Jesus! Make it possible! Jesus is so good! Just think on that. Jesus is so good... He is so good!!! WOW!!! WHO IS THIS MAN that we worship!!! Who is this one who breaks all mindsets, all chains, all bondage, all craziness? Who is he? Just start pondering that! God you are so good!

Lord, release a fresh impartation of the awe of you! Release your heart for us and open our eyes to see you more!! Yay! Thank you God for being so wonderful. Thank you for being so good! You are our good God and we worship you!

Talking to a Witch...

Haha... So yeah... I talked to a witch for like the better part of an hour this last week at our apartment complex's hot tub. He's this really good guy originally from Vegas, but grew up in Northern Cali. I just started talking to him, asking him regular friendly questions, and he all of the sudden just started opening up to me about his life, his past, his family, his coven, his girlfriend now, her life, etc. I just about know everything about this kid. lol He's 19, and he's living with his girlfriend with her two kids. He turned to witchcraft when he was 13 after having an encounter with a couple demons that tried to kill him. Not sure why he went to witchcraft when that's like the thing that instigates communication with demons... Anyways, he began telling me that he grew up in a controlled church environment, and got tired with that. (Story of most people who have left the church...) But he understands the dynamic of healing in the name of Jesus, interestingly enough...
He was telling me this story of when he was little like 13, his mom was really sick and she asked for him to pray for her because "God always hears the prayers of little children..." So this is how he explained it to me: "I put my hand on her and I started praying for her Benny Hinn style, like on the TBN station, and rebuking a demon of sickness that was on my mom..." (Okay, HOW CRAZY IS THIS!!! When he was telling me this, inside of me was like what!!!!) Needless to say, she was healed. lol He told me that many people prophesied into his life about becoming a minister, but he had a hard time receiving that as a kid. I think it had to do with some wounds with his fathers (multiple stepfathers).
He told me all of this information about witchcraft, covens, and such things like that. As I talked to him, I was totally aware of the Presence. I knew that there were two angels sitting right next to me and I was protected from anything that he was saying. I understood that we both had power over our lives, but the one who is living in me is so much bigger than what could ever be in him. Now I wasn't being unwise, just very confident that I knew what the presence was doing.
He's now my personal prayer project. I'm praying for him, his girlfriend, and her kids. The girlfriend is a Christian, ironically, and he "left" witchcraft for this girl and says that he's a Christian, but it's more that he's saying it to appease her, I think. So I'm praying for a radical encounter with the presence for their whole family! So if you want to pray for them with me, that would be great!
His name is Christopher and the girlfriend's name is Amanda. Her girls' names are Alexis (7) and Yvonne (4). So yeah! More developments to come on that story. :)

Also, I found out that night that Redding is the #1 city in America that has the most witches per square mile. Ironic, eh? I knew that this city was spiritual because of Bethel, but interesting that it has the opposite working against it like that... So be praying for Redding as a city to come to the saving knowledge of Christ! WOOO!!

So Lord, we pray for Chris, Amanda, Alexis, and Yvonne. I ask Lord for crazy crazy love encounters with your presence in their lives! I ask that you would invade their apartment now and your word run swiftly! Angels come into that room and break open the doors. We bless their household. I bless their family. I bless that place with the presence of Jesus. Bring freedom. Set them free! Let them come to loving knowledge of you, Father! Divine encounters in Jesus name! Amen

Preaching, Birthdays, and the Glory

This week was crazy!!! Amazing. Stressful. Crazy. Holy Spirit. Yeah. This week was preaching week for me! Crazy! I've never had to put a message like this together before. Usually it's someone shoving a mic in my face and saying to me "Talk". So I talk. You hand me a mic, Shannon will have something to talk about. But preparing a message like this was pretty nuts! I had incredible warfare over getting this message together, but I pressed through it and it ended up really pretty well put together. It was incredibly stretching.

What I taught on was Psalm 37:3-4, "Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the Land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight in the Lord, also, and He shall give you the desires of your heart." I taught about trusting the Father leads to Feeding on His Faithfulness, and when I feed on his Faithfulness, I will trust in Him more. But when I feed on His Faithfulness and Trust in Him, I'll delight in Him. When I delight in Him, I trust Him more and feed on His faithfulness more. It's this perpetual cycle of God's faithfulness and goodness over our lives, and as we do these things, as we Delight in Him, we WILL get the desires of our hearts.

It's a great passage if you get a chance to read it. Look at my diagram to see what I mean about the cycle. It's very self-explanatory once you see it and read what I just wrote

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So Yeah! Great stuff! It was my roommate's birthday this weekend too. I put on a party for her. I cleared out our living room and our dining room. We had a dance party in our living room, and had everybody passed out in the Spirit in the dining room. It was super heavy tonight. The presence was so here in our house. It felt amazing! I haven't been this drunk in super long... it was amazing. I'm planning on staying on this place for a while. Let's go from Glory to Glory. :)

So I impart to you guys the drunken Glory, ooey gooey Honey Love of the Presence to be opened into your rooms and your house holds. I impart and declare for open portals of Heaven to be unlocked in your houses. We bring the presence wherever we are! We are walking Holy Spirit encounters. Lord, release a revelation of that. Thanks Jesus!

Preaching -- The Father

So we have to preach this week at school to our class and get constructive criticism from the leadership and our classmates. I'm in the process of still getting my message together... I was really having a struggle with getting it together at first. Just not feelin' the "Flow" of the Spirit. (Which is totally just a feeling because we constantly have a river of revelation flowing in front of us, above us, and around us, all we have to do is reach down and grab what we need... it's all part of that whole "Drink, and you'll never thirst again" deal...Anyways, another message for another time.)

I was first going to speak out of Psalms 27. Pretty typical intimacy IHOP-bred teaching, but as I started to try and develop my points, I found that I couldn't even come up with points to develop... So I sat waiting for the Spirit to move on something, some scripture... Argh... sometimes that's tough considering that I had been marinating on Psalms 27 for the last week and when I finally have time to develop it, it doesn't work out. So here I was only with one day left to switch my message before the first day that its supposed to be finished. Well oh well... I sat there for a while.. Asked what the Holy Spirit was saying, and He wasn't saying much... or maybe I just wasn't hearing much. lol
So my roommate Katie bounced into my room.
She's a perky-happy all the time kind of person and is one of the most serving women you'll ever meet. She's always like "Can I help?" or "Can we do it together?" or "We should do it together!" She's quite prophetic too. She was praying over me over some stuff and hit everything I had been thinking the last three days on the head. Amazing. I love her...
Anyways, she came in and helped me get going again on a new message; asking me questions about what the Lord is feeding me on during this season. And this season, I believe for me, is learning how to just be in the Father's arms and get to know who this Amazing Father is. I have fantastic relationship with Jesus and with Holy Spirit, I believe, but I think my relationship to Father God has been interesting. I feel like its a place where I have been comfortable with where I've been at in my relationship with him, but now it's been stirring in my heart, how much I need to not just know Him, but to REALLY KNOW Him... Like you can know your favorite movie star. You can know their birthday, their favorite ice cream, how many people are in their family, but not have relationship with them. All it is is a bunch of facts. So here I am. I Know about God the Father and sure, He and I have had a pretty solid acquittance with the Father. That was for last season. I want to KNOW Him. So this is what I'm preaching on.... but in a much more concise, developed, better presented manner than what I just laid out. Oh well... I guess ya'll have to hear it for yourself someday :P

I'll tell you how it goes...

By the way, I think I'm gonna start ending each blog with a prayer of impartation for what I talk about. So here we go:

Hey Daddy, I ask that you would release in Jesus Name a deeper revelation of your love to them. I ask that you would release a hunger for pursuit with your heart and to really have relationship instead of knowing a bunch of facts. Would You release the same grace that you've given me over those who read this to go after Your heart. God we want to know your heartbeat. We need to know what you are thinking about this season. We need to know what you think about us because that is the only thing that we can solidify our Identities on. You are our protector and provider. You are the shelter and strong tower. Show us the meaning of Resting on Your chest and hearing what Your heart has to say to us. Let us learn how to lean on You and not on our own understanding. Daddy, we love you. We bless your name. You are so good. Amen!

Romans 8:14-19

"For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry our, "Abba, Father." The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children, then heirs -- heirs of God and join heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with [Him], that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy [to be compared] with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God."

Bless You!!

Football... Preaching...and Questions...

So... here I am. I'm not entirely sure what to write today... I guess I'll just let it flow... So I went to this sports bar that is in town here for the Vikings vs. Saints game this afternoon. I went there alone because all of my friends here in town were either previously busy or staying bed all day. lol. Yeah So I decided that I was gonna go and see if there was anyone there that I knew and join with them. Well luckily I did find a guy friend who is in my Outreach to hang out with his party. I love this sports bar. It isn't one of those sketchy, weird, old-plastered men approaching you kind of a bar. Which is wonderful. I've gone to this bar many times just to watch four football games go on at once. It's a great place to unwind and watch a good game. Anywho, the game was incredible. I was hoping that the Saints would win. I think it's "prophetic" lol I think its a sign of the Saints in the U.S. and the globe are coming from the low place, the tail instead of the head, and heading to the top. God is placing the Saints of the earth in positions of influence and power for nations, for governments, for people... So that's my take. I believe that they will win the superbowl, but we'll see. It could totally be just a game too, that I've taken way out of proportion, totally possible :P.

I have to preach here coming up... like maybe Tuesday or Friday for 11 minutes in front of my class. I've only preached really twice. Both of those times, I barely had something prepared and ended up speaking from my heart anyways. But this is a practice practical preaching exercise. I'm not too worried about it, at least at the moment. It's 11 minutes out of my entire life and its just the small beginnings before I'm preaching to larger crowds. This is a great opportunity to get evaluated by friends and peers who will help me grow in this area, because I feel like this is something that I'll be doing for the rest of my life.

Preaching... Oh yes... I want to get to that point where my life is the message and not by what I say on a pulpit or street corner be the message. What does it look like to be a message? How did Jesus do it? He carried the message of the Kingdom. He was the Kingdom. I mean all of the simple answers would be that he healed the sick, raised the dead, preached the gospel, and died on the cross, but I don't think that's just it. I think that there's much deeper...deeper, not concepts, not quite mindsets... deeper, maybe heart attitudes and postures. What does it look like to have my heart posture being, like Jesus, the message of the Kingdom? What would change in my life? What would I be living like on the inside? What would be shown on the outside? What would be my affect on the world if I had an internal world, a heart posture, a heart attitude that was completely focused on the Kingdom coming on the world?

(When I think of all of these questions, it is all off a base of intimacy with the Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit. I can do nothing without having a close relationship with God. I have to hear the heartbeat of God before I can even move into this thinking. But if I am hearing the heartbeat of God, my natural response will always be about His will and His Kingdom.)

What would it be like...?

Greatest Message I've Ever Heard...

Have you ever been in the middle of a movie and thought to yourself, "This has got to be the best movie I've ever seen..."? (I did that with Avatar and The Dark Knight...) Well I had one of those moments today... just with Kris Vallotton speaking to 2nd year instead of watching a movie that I spent $10 on... Kris talked specifically today about how we as a company need to shift our mindsets from "this generation" only to "multi-generational" thinking. Example: We as Americans look at this terrible economy and say, "Oh my goodness! How horrible is our economy or government or whatever... How are we going to get out of this season as a nation??" When as people of "multi-generational thinking" should not just be asking "How do we get out of this recession?" and be asking "How can we prevent another recession from happening to our children's children's children's children? What can I do now to create a successful future for them and the government they will live in?" Hopefully that makes sense.
I was blown away by this message because it started making me think about the legacy that I will leave behind... What will that look like? What am I doing today that will affect my children's children's children's children? What do I need to start doing to leave a legacy that will bring prosperity to my line and not hurt, lack, or disappointment? This is one message that has been so timely, so accurate for what my heart has been asking the Lord recently. I'm still chewing over it. So as I become more ingrained in this message, I'll probably post more. I just thought I'd give you a taste :)
That's one thing I've developed since being here... is asking questions to myself... and pondering... like What will my legacy look like? What will my great, great, great grandkids say about my life? What is it that I'm growing in now? What is it that I need to grow in? How am I affecting the people around me? Why am I feeling this way? Is there a deeper root issue to why I feel this way? What is the truth that God has to say about me? Holy Spirit, what do you think about me?.... stuff like that... these are the questions for me, at least, that put me to action. Get me to do something about my life when I'm not happy about an area that I need to build muscle in. So yeah... Jesus is so good. :)