If Jesus disarmed principalities and powers, made a public spectacle of them and triumphed over them on the cross (Col. 3:15) – and if we are seated in heavenly places with Him (Eph. 2:6) – and we’ve been delivered from the kingdom of darkness (Col. 2:13) – and we have power over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19) – and we’re endued with power from on high (Luke 24:49) -

WHY are Christians sick, sad, sorry slaves to sin, circumstance, and the devil?

I think it’s because we’re convinced of our own powerlessness, and we’re not CONVINCED of Christ’s victory. We give intellectual assent to salvation – Jesus paid for my sins, that means that I don’t have to and I’ll go to heaven when I die – without fully understanding what that means in the here and now. We’re not convinced of His glory or His supremacy. Oh, sure, we SAY we are (and to say otherwise would be blasphemy, right?). But do we live like we’re convinced?

Here is my prayer for today…

“…that He would grant you (and me), according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — to know the love of Christ which passes all knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:16-19)

I keep coming back to this passage in my devotional time because I don’t think I’ve gotten it yet (which is different from not having it – if that makes sense!).

The width. The length. The depth. The height. Knowing the love. Filled with all the fullness.

The victory.

But in that half-awake, half dream state, my mind turned to something that it shouldn’t have turned to and for a few minutes I contemplated something that is sin. Then in the deep recesses of my mind I heard a word – “Desecration” (hey! I know that Voice!) – and still in that half-awake, half dream state I spoke to desecration and commanded it to leave me.

Instantly I was awake (and I mean six shots of espresso awake) and my contemplation of that sinful thing was gone. It was like it fell like a house of cards in the wind.

So I wandered into the kitchen (Ken was still asleep) and pondered what just happened. I’m fairly sure it wasn’t a dream. So I talked to God about it, told Him I was sorry for letting my mind wander, and I felt His forgiveness (which – going back to my post yesterday about discernment, I often “feel” things God’s doing as well). Then I talked to Him about a variety of other issues going on, and I felt (and still feel!!) His presence and His love in such a powerful, tangible, literal fashion that I’ve started weeping a couple of times and at times I can hardly type… but I wanted to share with all of you what He’s up to this morning around here… what’s He doing in your hearts and your worlds today?

Anyway, for some reason my first fully cognizant thought as I stumbled out here to make the coffee was, “I bet a lot of people wonder why the House of Prayer movement does what it does” (If you aren’t familiar with the House of Prayer movement, they’re folks who pray and praise God 24/7/365, in a highly organized fashion. They call their method “harp and bowl” after a verse in Revelation 5:8; it’s basically prayer and worship together, in responsive fashion. See ihop.org for more info)

Our church isn’t affiliated with IHOP in any way, but I’ve been extremely blessed by their ministry on GodTV and their website. A friend’s church is seeking to go to 24/7 prayer but I haven’t seen him for longer than ten seconds to inquire if it’s on the same format or what (Theirs is an AoG church – a bit different doctrine than the HOPs at one major juncture (eschatology))

So I was sitting here sipping my coffee and coming into wakefulness. My morning routine consists of getting Ken’s breakfast, packing lunch, laying out clothes for him, and then sitting here at the computer running through my email and feed reader for about 15 minutes until the coffee hits. Lo and behold, this morning there was a long post from Tim Brownlee of “Not So Daily Timmy” titled, “MY HOUSE” shall be called a house of prayer…. that addresses this very question from an insider’s perspective.

Here’s a great little excerpt:

Isaiah 56:7 clearly says that God’s house is to be a House of Prayer for all nations. If something is called by a particular name that should mean that’s what it is known as.

Now, there’s something to consider: Is YOUR church known as a house of prayer (or is it just called that?) I’m not arguing that everyone needs to shift to this 24/7 format – but perhaps we need a major shift of focus in what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, and why we’re doing it…

If you want to read something REALLY cool, scroll down to the heading, “A Visit From Jesus”.

ARRIVAL

Thursday morning we packed up and headed down to Charlotte. Our hotel (Best Western Carowinds) was quite nice. They let us check in early. We got a bite to eat and headed over to Morningstar fairly early. We’d never been there before, so we drove around and saw the big field where Friday’s meeting would be, and sort of self-toured their campus.

I’d heard that Morningstar had bought the old PTL (Jim Bakker) campus, but since the whole PTL thing blew up years before I cared about what Christians did, I didn’t know about it. They sunk bazillions of dollars into the place, and apparently even though it was opulent, some of the workmanship was shoddy – especially on the high-rise apartment building that’s going in right next to the church (which meets in the former lobby of the big hotel). Opulent doesn’t even describe the hotel/indoor mall/church… it looks like something out of a fairy tale (and yes, there IS a castle on the premises too – but it seems to be boarded up for now.) Morningstar bought it for 1.6 million in terrible disrepair, and they’ve been fixing it up ever since. It seemed to us that where they were able to preserve the beauty of the place inexpensively, they’ve done so – but where that would cost too much they’ve opted for plainer and more practical.

PARTNER’S MEETING

After we registered for the partner’s meeting, we ate a nice and inexpensive lunch in the church’s Missions Cafe, then wandered through the bookstore and such. While we were eating, we got to say a quick hello to Rick Joyner. I gained a lot of respect for him over the two days we were there. Many senior pastors of important ministries expect everyone else to do the work, and the pastor expects to sit in the air conditioning and get the glory for it. Rick was out there talking with team members, making sure they had what they needed… and on Friday he was out driving a golf cart around working!!

Eventually we bought a book and got in the book-signing line. I highly recommend that everyone read Todd’s latest book – The Reality of the Supernatural World. He signed it for us, and chit-chatted, and shook our hands. I do admit that it’s nice to know that it’s possible to be touched by Todd Bentley and NOT end up on the floor!!

The partner’s meeting was nice. We weren’t sure what to expect. They talked a lot about the work in Uganda, especially with the child soldiers (made me cry!) and they took up an offering, of which 100% of it goes to that work.

IMPARTATION

Afterward, we had a healing/impartation prayer line. This time when Todd touched me I went out on the floor (most folks did) and I had an experience with God that was just incredible. I could feel the heavy weighty kabod glory of God, and peace and warmth and love flowing through me. I just lay there for a long time, just drinking in His presence. After it was over, no one wanted to leave!!

FRIDAY’S REVIVAL SERVICE

On Friday, we got up and found the Starbucks We eventually made our way over to Morningstar. It was a big open field, but fortunately the main building was open and air conditioned, so before the service started at 5, we were able to go in and rest a bit. We sure got sunburned! But interestingly the sunburn doesn’t hurt…

CARNIVAL?

I’m sure a lot of people who see it on GodTV or youtube will say, “It had a festival (or carnival) atmosphere”. Well, sure. If you get a coupla thousand people together in a big open field, and make sure their needs are met, it’s going look like the county fair minus the rides. People need to potty – and so there were portapotties everywhere. People need to eat, and drink, and so there were food vendors (most of which were reasonably priced!). People also brought in coolers with dinner and bottled water. Since it was in a field, most people brought lawn chairs or blankets to sit on. People want to buy stuff, so the bookstore had a tent with books and t-shirts and such. Music or video was playing. Was it a festival? Yes!

One neat thing is that it was 08-08-08 and it was 88 degrees (the temp dropped 10 degrees between Thursday and Friday — THANK GOD!!). Still hot but not enough to really cause trouble.

The worship was great, but it was a little difficult for us to get into because we didn’t know ANY of the songs. The musicians were fabulous, and we did pick up on the choruses of a few songs along the way. So, we just had to determine to worship the Lord despite that. It was good dancin’ music!!

A VISIT FROM JESUS

The first highlight of my evening was when Todd announced that they were going to have a special commissioning for ministry prayer for people ages 25-40. Bob Jones had given a prophetic word prior to the meeting about a “new breed” of Christians – which I took to mean the younger generation rising up and really believing in, and acting upon, God’s Word.

So I stood up along with hundreds and hundreds of others, and Todd prayed over us all. Mid-prayer I suddenly couldn’t really hear him any more. It’s not like I went deaf – it’s more that my focus changed and his voice became part of the background noise.

I had my eyes closed and my hands raised and I was praying to receive everything that God wanted to give me.

Suddenly my eyes were filled with light, and out of that light I saw Jesus coming toward me. I was filled with awe and holy fear and anticipation all at once. I started crying, because I could feel His love for me. He stretched out His hand (I saw the scars!!) and He touched each of my hands, and my forehead. I very nearly fell out on the ground!! Then He was gone from my vision…

I’m not sure how to describe what I felt in those moments, except that after He had gone from my vision I could sense His presence in a greater way than I ever could before. For me, that’s really saying something, because the instant I was saved I could feel Him there with me, and that sense of Him has been growing ever since. And yet Friday that grew so much more that… wow.

I also had a literal sense of commissioning, and a confidence in God and in His ability to use me, to strategically position me, to speak through me.

I’m sure the heresy hunters will have a field day with my vision of Jesus… oh well. I think I’m going to make a heresy-hunter-hunter’s site this afternoon They need to get over themselves and read the book of Acts. They might even get saved…

RAIN

At one point, Todd brought up a young man from the Morningstar school (they’ve got a K-12 school there apparently). He and several friends had been to Lakeland, got some, brought it back and kicked off revival services there – they’ve got meetings 6 nights a week! That was one on-fire kid!! During the offering, they played a video of revival services there… WOW. People giving glory to God and burning with passion for Him – healings and miracles – and twice, rain… you could see on the video that literally drops of liquid were forming out of thin air and falling from above. It was WILD!!

HEALING

Todd started to call out words of knowledge. One was for a pain in the side, which Ken’s had for months. He reports that it’s gone. There were several dramatic healings that night.

MINISTRY

When we sat down, a mom and daughter sat next to us. It was obvious that both had health problems, and that the daughter had some muscle problems. She didn’t move right, speak right, etc. God spoke to me, “crack cocaine”, torment, and the name Ashley, and several other things. We planned on praying for both of them during the healing ministry, but late in the evening the daughter took off. The mom told us she was laying down in the car, feeling really awful. So we prayed with the mom (who’s on dialysis), and went out to the car. We prayed with the daughter, confirmed the accuracy of those words of knowledge, counseled her about unforgiveness and a few other things, and ended up going out for a late-night dinner with them. Lovely people. It’s hard for me, when I do God-encounter ministry like that, because it’s rare that I find out what happened afterward. They’ve got our phone number, maybe they’ll call us one day.

CAR WRECK

We were just about to pay and leave the restaurant when my cell phone rang. Why would Kayti be calling after midnight? I answered and she burst into tears. She’d just had a car wreck… and I’ll continue about that in my next post.

I’ve been watching the Lakeland revival for a long time now. Long enough that when it’s not on, it seems strange to watch “other” shows that were normal for us prior to revival. The revival’s been happening now for something like 112 days, and we’ve probably watched 90-95 of them. We’ve missed a few nights due to travel, and some due to church or family events. One thing that I like about it is that it’s really not about Todd Bentley. Nights he’s not there are just as good as when he’s there. We’ve been introduced to a number of preachers we’d never heard of. I’ve greatly enjoyed the preaching of Roy Fields (yes, the worship leader), Bobby Conner, and Steven Strader, and quite a few of the other Fresh Fire affiliates.

As an aside…Another thing I like is that the music is not always that great (to my ear, anyway) but that the focus is never on the musicians, not on the worship leader, it’s on Jesus and that profound sense of worship, and the anointing, are present regardless of who’s at the keyboard and whether that last note was in key (no one seems to care because their focus is above )

Anyways… our current favorite preacher is the guy who’s ministered the last two nights – Ryan Wyatt of Abiding Glory Ministries in Knoxville, TN. He’s very bright and biblically spot-on, but also funny. He’s not afraid to dish it back to the heresy hunters either . He’s made some comments about the occult that I’m not so sure about – but I’ll tell you something that I’ve not said before. I’m learning not to say, “That’s not so”… and instead say, “That’s not been my experience, nor the experience of those I’ve ministered to.” More on that later.

Ryan’s done a lot of preaching the last two nights. The man’s a whirlwind. Some of his points sum up to this – we’re not living up to our potential in the Kingdom. I know that’s probably not news to anybody – but I’d like to examine some Scripture and address some core beliefs in the church, and then invite readers to comment. Some of what is below is straight from Ryan, and some of it’s my own ruminations. Since I’ve spent much of the last two days and nights pondering what he said, it’ll be awfully difficult to sort out what’s “his” and what’s “mine” – we can just assign it all to the Lord, for His glory, and not worry about human inspirations. Also note that I’m not trying in any way to summarize all that he said, because he made a lot of other great points.

Here’s a good snippet on youtube of Ryan preaching, and what I’m about to talk about…

Point # 1 – Jesus didn’t preach a gospel of salvation. He preached the gospel of the Kingdom.

That one just comes and smacks you upside the head. “The gospel of the Kingdom” is a direct quote from Matthew 9:35 (I just found it – not sure if Ryan referenced it or not).

Jesus began His ministry by saying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17) and as He went, He preached salvation… and healing, and cleansing, and deliverance, and resurrection from the dead, and provision, and and and…

Why have we utterly lost track of, “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons.” (Matthew 10:8).

Salvation is necessary and what I’m about to say should not be taken to diminish that grace and gift of God in any way… but the Bible is clear that salvation is not the sum total of our inheritance from God.

Point #2 – Jesus came so that we could become sons of God.

Romans 8:14 says, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are SONS OF GOD.” (emphasis in caps is mine) and then in verse 16 and following, the indisputable word of God says, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ…”

Woah. What’s that mean? But wait – there’s more. Galatians 4 says that in the fullness of time, God sent Jesus to redeem us, “that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” (emphasis mine)

Point #3 – If Jesus inherited the Kingdom of God (Hebrews 1:4), and we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, then WE ALSO inherit the Kingdom. Right along with Him.

The Holy Ghost lives within us. Our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit. That means we carry the literal presence of God within us everywhere that we go. We carry our inheritance with us everywhere we go. No matter what situation we find ourselves in, we’re the heirs of God and He’s right there with us.

So why do we have such little effect on the world around us?

Point #4 – Salvation is only the beginning of what God wants to give us.

This hearkens back to point #1, but I wanted to bring out the other points first. If the gospel of salvation is the only good news preached (and it is indeed good news), it becomes rather like going to Disney and entering into the kingdom through the gates… but never getting on any of the rides, never hanging out with Mickey Mouse, never eating the funnel cakes… just sitting within the gates, doing nothing.

Point #5 – If the Gospel is, indeed, more than salvation, why isn’t the church living in that reality?

I’ve had conversations back and forth for a couple of years with a friend (who can comment and tell her story if she likes – I don’t have her permission to) who was very hurt when God did not heal someone important to her. The central question is, “If healing really is part of the atonement, then why doesn’t God always heal?” – which ultimately has led my friend to question the validity of the Bible and trustworthiness of God.

My answers over the years have ranged from speaking of the natural (since not everyone’s healed, since sin introduced sickness and death into the world) to sovereignty (since God is not our puppet, and since everyone dies a physical death).

I’m currently questioning that thinking – even with my own illness (see my last post).

The Bible says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” (Psalm 103) Why is it that Christians are willing to accept the reality of forgiveness (He doesn’t pick and choose which sins He forgives, does He? No! He forgives ALL.) and willing to accept redemption, lovingkindness and tender mercies… but don’t accept that the Bible really does say that God HEALS ALL OUR DISEASES?

I do see in the Bible that there’s a couple of examples of people not being healed… Paul, from whatever his thorn in the side was – but God communicated that to him. Trophimus was left in Miletus, sick. Was he, perhaps, our forerunner?

Perhaps it’s because the church has preached the gospel of salvation ONLY for so long that we don’t lay claim to our inheritance.

The Bible also says, “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our inquities, The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.” Again – we’re willing to accept His wounding and bruising for our sins – why not His whipping for our healing?

I think it’s because it’s become so ingrained in our minds – even in the minds of people who KNOW and ACCEPT that healing is part of the atonement – that this inheritance is not really ours. We own it, we possess it… but we never DO anything with it. We enter into the gates of the Kingdom, but we never access any of the Kingdom’s benefits.

It’s all right for Jesus to have healed the sick and raised the dead. After all, He’s Jesus. It’s all right for the apostles to have done those things – after all, they were directly commissioned by Jesus. (But weren’t we all? Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15-20)

But the Bible says that God’s no respecter of persons. The Bible says we’re joint heirs with Christ. The Bible says that we’re sons of God. Jesus Himself commissioned us to do the work of the Kingdom.

So why, exactly, are we powerless when we should be powerful?

Is it because God’s word is untrue? Is it because there really is no power? (NO!)

I think it’s because even though we’re supposed to be the children of the Most High (with all the attendant privilege and responsibility thereof), we still live like we’re homeless people.

I know that a lot of people will have a hard time relating to what I’m about to say (and so I’ll say it another way, in a moment)… I use “homeless” for a reason. I was homeless once. I lived on the streets of Bangor, Maine for a season. It wasn’t a long time – just a few months – but I was young, and it made an impression on me that I occasionally still find myself face to face with.

Some terrible things happened to me… I went hungry. I was cold. I was sick. I was raped out there. I literally had the clothes on my back and nothing else.

As a result of the experience, once I began living in a normal place again, I had a very hard time. There was a bathroom with a toilet and shower in it. I didn’t need to worry about danger there. I could pee in that toilet any time I liked. I could take an hour long shower if I wanted to. It was mine. But what did I do? For about a year after I had a place to stay, I was in and out of that bathroom in ten seconds flat. Even though it was mine – it really wasn’t mine. Somewhere deep inside, it took me a long time to accept ownership of that thing.

Another way to look at it – most of my readers can likely relate to this. I haven’t had the impression that anyone who reads this blog is filthy rich – we’re mostly lower to middle class working folks. What would happen if we were suddenly transported out of our lifestyle where we have to pinch pennies and we were dropped into a mansion, complete with servants, polished silver and china to eat from, sparkling chandeliers and enough money to do anything we wanted, any time we wanted? I’m betting that most of us would take a long time to get used to it. Sure, we could settle into some things – but how comfortable would we be in that role? I know I sure wouldn’t be comfortable for a long time. For starters, I’m just more comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt drinking coffee out of a chipped ceramic mug than I am in manicured nails drinking tea from porcelain. If my entire outfit, head to toe, counting shoes, costs more than $20 I’m not comfortable. While I’m sure that if I suddenly became wealthy that I might choose to buy new clothes, there ain’t no way I’m buying Prada. Know what I mean? Secondly, I’m sure that for a very long time I would have a fear of what I had suddenly disappearing (the same thing happened after I got a home, after being out on the streets). I was terrified to use what I had, lest I come to depend on it, and it disappear.

Is this the way the church views the Gospel? Has salvation-only become so ingrained in our psyche (like homelessness) that we aren’t ABLE to enjoy our full inheritance? And we’re even so wobbly about salvation itself that it’s easy to go to extremes – to take it for granted or as a license to sin, or to condemn ourselves for past wrongs that God’s forgotten about.

So what if my sickness has nothing to do with God’s sovereignty? What if God really wants to heal me, just like He promised (and God cannot lie)? Maybe we’re not seeing mass healings and resurrections from the dead and deliverances because even though we give intellectual assent to the possibility, we really don’t believe? Maybe it’s because we, as a body of believers and as individuals, have so fixated on what we can “prove” that the only “unprovable” thing we’ll believe is salvation? (Just ask yer average Christian about the supernatural – they’ll either tell you that it’s heresy or that it doesn’t exist)

What do we need to do, to break loose from this unbelief (Lord, I believe – help my unbelief!)… what do we need to do, to truly live out the reality of being sons and heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, carriers of His manifest presence everywhere we go…. ?

More on that, I guess, in my next post.

Your blood

speaks a better word

than all the empty claims

I’ve heard upon this earth

speaks righteousness for me

it stands in my defense

Jesus it’s Your blood

I’ve got a pretty good list of songs going as I clean house -

• Agnus Dei
• Revelation Song
• Beautiful One
• Son of God (by Hillsong)
• I stand in awe of You
• Your Name
• As the Deer
• We will dance
• I will run – Misty Edwards
• Let it Fade
• Giants
• You won’t relent – another one by Misty
• Amazing Grace – My Chains are gone
• How Great is Our God
• Let the River Flow
• Holy God
• In Christ Alone – Avalon
• King of Kings & Lord of Lords
• Better is One Day
• Dancing Generation

i’ll add some more to the playlist, next break…

Gateway Worship - Revelation Song lyrics

Worthy is the,
Lamb who was slain
Holy, Holy, is He
Sing a new song, to Him who sits on
Heaven's Mercy Seat
[Repeat 2x]

(Chorus)
Holy, Holy, Holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is, and is to come
With all creation I sing:
Praise to the King of Kings!
You are my everything,
And I will adore You…!
Yeah! 

Clothed in rainbows, of living color
Flashes of lightning, rolls of thunder
Blessing and honor, strength and
Glory and power be
To You the Only Wise King,
Yeah

(Chorus)
Holy, Holy, Holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is, and is to come, yeah
With all creation I sing:
Praise to the King of Kings!
You are my everything,
And – I - will - adore You!
Yeah! 

Filled with wonder,
Awestruck wonder
At the mention of Your Name
Jesus, Your Name is Power
Breath, and Living Water
Such a marvelous mystery
Yeah... 

(Chorus)
Holy, Holy, Holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is, and is to come, yeah
With all creation I sing:
Praise to the King of Kings!
You are my everything,
And – I - will - adore You! 

Holy, Holy, Holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was, and is, and is to come,
With all creation I sing:
Praise to the King of Kings!
You are my everything,
And – I - will - adore YOU…

(Chorus) (Repeat at a cappella)

Come up lift up His Name
To the King of Kings…
We will adore YOU Lord…
King of heaven and earth
King Jesus, King Jesus
Aleluya, aleluya, aleluya!
Majesty, awestruck Honor
And Power and Strength and Dominion
To You Lord,
To the King, to King
To the King of Glory

(Singer: Kari Jobe)

Song lyrics | Revelation Song lyrics

We had pretty much decided to go to the Cabarrus Arena for more ministry under Todd Bentley, but when we mentioned it to friends and they got excited – but wouldn’t have been able to go on their own – that settled it. We were going!

Here’s an account I wrote on another site:

We didn’t see them, but apparently there were protesters there last night with large signs, “Beware of False Prophets”. Probably a good thing I didn’t see ‘em. Given the proximity to where he lives, I’m reasonably sure that Bud would have been among them and I’d have gone and said a few things to him.

We got there early and there was already a good crowd. Sat for a couple hours outside, and ended up being among the first inside because one person in our party is handicapped.

Apparently there was such a crush of people to get inside, they’d only let them indoors in batches, and by the time it was done they estimate 5000 were turned away – no room. It was a PACKED house. They even set up overflow, and people were out in the parkinglot and ON THE HIGHWAY worshiping ANYWAYS even if they didn’t get in. Todd said that there was SIX MILES of traffic jam and well over 2000 cars turned away… but they had their own Holy Ghost party out there (that sorta proves they weren’t there to see Todd don’t it?) We prayed for the folks on the highway, and know that someone who was out in the parkinglot got healed!!

I saw two angels there… one above the stage, and one there on stage after Todd got there. Might’ve been his angel, I don’t know.

The worship was incredible. We were able to get right up front – maybe 6 human rows back. I had a hard time getting into it at first because I didn’t know the songs (until he started to sing Agnus Dei), and there were also two ladies having a social behind me and catching up on each others grandkids. During WORSHIP? Aieeee. I almost turned around and hushed them, but I said, “Lord, focus them on You” and a few secs later they did! I ended up on the floor twice… once just because I wanted to be on my knees worshiping, but the other time was because the GLORY of God was so heavy, I couldn’t stay on my feet. I didn’t want to fall on the people behind me and didn’t really want to test my theory about no catchers needed in a crowded event with a concrete floor. So I got down on my knees and then just about layed down because it was that “heavy heavy weighty weighty” glory that’s been mentioned a few times.

Once we picked ourselves up, Todd shared some of his testimony and gave an altar call. I’m not sure how many got saved but there were quite a few hands raised. I’m hoping and praying… we bumped into a couple from Level Cross when we were outside. Asked where they go to church – they haven’t found one yet. She’s recently saved and he’s unsaved, they came because the docs had found a mass in his throat they think is cancer and he wanted to be healed. I pray he was among the saved, and also that they either come to our church or find another good church to go to!

After that Todd spoke a few verses on healing and miracles started to happen – just like Lakeland but with a Southern twang.

It was AWESOME. We got back home at about 2. Ken’s so exhausted he might take half a day at work and come home to rest. He was actually jumping during worship last night… never seen him do that before!!

I’ll add more in a bit.

As for me, I’ve been feeling rather out of sorts lately. Nothing “wrong” per se, just out of sorts. I lay in bed two nights ago feeling odd, and finally got up and got out my “improvised” dance flag and went outside in the middle of the night to dance and pray. I felt something break as I prayed. Yesterday I woke up sick as a dog (and interestingly the dog was sick too – same symptoms). It almost felt like I was detoxing from something, though I think it was probably a virus that’s going around… Ken’s had it, Mother’s had it… but since it felt like detox I decided to run with it… made a very strong preparation of ginger and tumeric. Some to drink and some to bathe in. Since then I’ve felt much better.

In fact, I woke up this morning early, energized, and so powerfully hungry for the presence of God that I’ve actually been shaking. I’m going to sign off in a minute and go spend some quality time with Him!

My “improv” dance flag is a rather tattered green scarf that I used fusible hem stuff to make a channel for the dowel. It’s ugly… BUT it makes the nicest sound when waved and acquires a sort of elegance in use. I figure that since warfare’s ugly, it will do for now.

I did find some LOVELY dance flags on ebay. The seller combined shipping, so I got the lot of them for a VERY reasonable price. Two white, six red, and two blue. She’s VERY nice and great to work with. She even sent me a teaching she did on the subject of worship. Here’s a link to her store. She’s got a few other dance items, and several very pretty clothing items.

Speaking of ebay, I’m selling some things. A good friend/church member is an ebay seller, and since I don’t have the patience for it, I asked her to sell our old antique store items. Visit Emtfirelady43 Collectible Corner to see what she has for sale!

Glory to God!

Is the anointing transferable and contagious?

Oh yes.

I promised that when I got back, I’d blog about the revival. I’ve done so much talking about it on the women’s forum, in countless emails, on the phone, to strangers on the street, it’s going to be hard to sit and write it all in one place!

I’m going to post a warning – if you have no experience with Things Pentecostal/charismatic and with revival, this post might sound quite odd.  If you’re curious about any of it, feel free to ask

So… we left last Thursday night and stopped in Savannah for a few hours sleep. Continued on to Lakeland, and met up with Kayti and Isaiah (her boyfriend) late Friday morning. (He’s such a NICE young man!) We were able to check into our hotel early, change clothes and eat a nice lunch, and then head out to the Stadium.

Last weekend, the revival was held in the Joker Marchant Stadium, where the Tigers have their spring training. It’s *nice*. Very clean, easy to get to in the city, good concessions (we didn’t try any personally, but lots of folks around us did). Nice.

On Friday, we arrived at about 4pm, and the atmosphere was already amazing. The gates didn’t open until 5:30, but the crowd was enormous – and festive. There were people with shofars, flags, drums, tambourines, and other instruments of praise… even a bagpiper!! I wasn’t expecting it… most of the Christian events I’ve been to in the past have been less dramatic in that sort of way. Quite honestly it put anything I’d ever seen at a pagan festival to shame.

There were people already worshiping before the music started, which was awesome! The people with the shofars seemed to all be in tune with one another… one would play, and then another, and then another, echoing around the stadium. Many of the people with worship flags lined up at the very top row of bleachers. The bagpiper played. All of it really ushered in the Presence of Almighty God. When the music started, there were 12000+ people crammed into that stadium… it was PACKED standing room only and people were apparently being turned away, because there were about 1000 more on the hillside overlooking the stadium! I’ve never been in a crowd that large, all of us praising the Lord before!!

Roy Fields is an awesome worship leader. He sings several songs that we knew already, but many more that we didn’t. My favorites are “Holy holy” and “Dancing Generation”. I don’t have the words to Holy Holy… I think Matt Redman sang Dancing Generation originally:

Your mercy taught us how to dance
To celebrate with all we have
And we’ll dance to thank You for mercy

Your glory taught us how to shout
To lift Your name in all the earth
And we’ll shout to the praise of Your glory

It’s the overflow
Of a forgiven soul
And now we’ve seen You, God
Our hearts cannot stay silent

And we’ll be a dancing generation
Dancing because of Your great mercy, Lord
Your great mercy, Lord
And we’ll be a shouting generation
Shouting because of Your great glory, Lord
Your great glory, Lord

There’s nothing on earth like worshiping with thousands of other people – knowing that there are countless more doing the same in churches, homes, and even offices worldwide! We shouted praises to God until we were hoarse, and then we shouted some more!

As the service began Friday, there were two youngish Muslim men standing down near the bottom of the section we were in. Both of them ended up on the ground under the power of God! As far as we could tell, no one had been near them, praying for them, or anything – it was all God’s doing!

Both nights there were a lot of healings and testimonies and impartations. It’s hard to say now what happened on which night, because they all sort of run together. We saw a little boy who’d never walked before get up out of his chair and walk several hundred feet across the ball field and up onto the stage. A lady who’d had a heart condition and had been bedridden for YEARS had to be carried out of the stands to the stage so they could pray for her. She’d not walked on her own in YEARS. Todd prayed and she went down under the power. He said, “Pick her up”. As she stood, a demon manifested (we could all see it) and he cast the thing out. Down she went. “Pick her up!” They got her back up and he prayed and she fell a third time.
When she got up, Todd had her walk across the stage on her own. Then she began running. She ended up running back up into the bleachers. Talk about the crowd going wild!!  I could type up hundreds of testimonies just like that one.

There was even a lady at our hotel who told us that God had healed her of Chron’s disease the night before at the revival – and she hadn’t believed in healing until then. She thought the whole revival was a fraud, she’d only come because her friend wanted her to! She was practically glowing, she was so overjoyed!!

There was another lady sitting in the seats behind us. Todd called out a word of knowledge that someone with a jaw problem was being healed. She SCREAMED “Oh my GOD that’s ME!” and made a beeline down to the stage, opening and shutting her mouth all the way – something she’d been unable to do prior to that moment!

Both nights, HUNDREDS of people were saved. HUNDREDS. There’s not much more beautiful than that.

After GodTV cut off at 11, there was impartation each night. Todd is committed that each and every person that attends the revival services needs to take this anointing and fire back home with them. It’s working – there are spreading pockets of revival breaking out WORLDWIDE… Atlanta… Charlotte… Belfast… a prison in New Zealand… everywhere!!

Friday night, he laid hands on every single person in the stadium. It took five groups that completely circled the outer edge of the ball field, and a good couple hours… it was past 2 when we left (we were in the last group). On Saturday night, he had all of the pastors line up on the field – there were at least 600 of us!

Todd has an amazing anointing. If you’ve never been to a Pentecostal service of any sort, you probably won’t know what I’m talking about when I say that someone “fell under the power” or they were “slain in the Spirit” – basically, it means that a person was prayed for and BOOM! They end up on the ground, and if it’s genuine, God’s doing work in them. They won’t be the same when they get up from there. It’s happened to me before. Not often, but often enough that I know what it is. It’s like a short circuit in the brain, in a good way. I think that perhaps it happens so that God gets you out of your normal realm of conscious control. Sometimes I’ve gone completely unconscious and didn’t know anything – including how much time had passed. Other times I’ve just laid there, completely without control of my body. And other times, I’ve been quite aware of what God was doing in me. There are people who seem to carry this with them and virtually everyone they touch as they pray ends up on the floor. Our friend Holly Noe is one like that.

Now, when there’s a prayer line, there often IS an expectation that people will fall (and there are “catchers” at most services.) Not everyone does and that’s all right, you don’t have to fall down for God to do a work in you. I’ve never seen anybody levitate at a service like this, but I’ve seen people who didn’t fall down seem to walk six inches off the ground If the anointing is present there’s usually some sort of sign that the person has received something, but it varies from person to person.

There are some ministers who will quite literally push people on the ground. I can’t stand that. I don’t mind someone who’s quite animated (like Todd Bentley and the ministers who work with him. Perhaps “animated” is an understatement though!), but I’ve actually been in a prayer line before where someone was trying to push me further and further back til I fell. Um… er… no. If I’m going to fall under the power, it’s not gonna be YOUR power, bub. It had better be God’s.

I said that to say this: if you’ve fallen under the power before, you have an internal expectation that it might happen again. I do believe that there’s some folks who simply fall out of expectation that they WILL fall… (or because they feel that they’re expected to). I’m not one of those people. I won’t do a “courtesy fall”. In fact, there’s been a few times I’ve decided I’d fight falling down. It hasn’t worked.

As Todd went around the line laying hands on people (with his classic “BAM!”), I was actually prepared NOT to fall down. I wasn’t going to fight it or anything – I just wasn’t expecting it (in spite of hundreds of other people doing so all around me). Both nights, as his hand touched my forehead, I thought, “Well – i’m going to stay…” and about that time, I found myself on the ground. I don’t even remember falling or anyone catching me. I was just down.

Friday night I went completely OUT for a minute and as I came back “to”, I started to giggle. And then laugh. I mean belly laugh! There was such an infusion of the JOY of the Lord in me, I couldn’t help it. I laughed off and on for the next two hours, and when we got back to the hotel I could barely sleep even though it was past 3AM!! I got up the next morning with a ton of energy, too.

Saturday night the same thing happened. His hand touched, he walked past me, and the same thought came - “Well, I’m goi…” – and as he stepped past, BAM! I was on the ground.

Here’s where things got interesting. I didn’t go unconscious but I wasn’t exactly aware of much in the physical sense. I could hear what was going on around me, and I could feel my body a little, but I couldn’t move or open my eyes for a long time. The pastor next to me – lovely lady from England – went down like a ton of bricks, on top of me. Now, there were catchers everywhere, a whole team of them. Since I didn’t see what happened, I don’t know… I think she might’ve just fell at a funny angle.

I felt her elbow hit my throat – almost. It touched but not with the force she was falling at (HARD. She hit the ground hard enough for me to hear!) Then I felt what I have to describe as a hand between her elbow and my neck and I felt her arm being PUSHED up and away from my neck. If she’d hit me full force, I’d have needed emergency prayer for healing because I’d have been seriously injured. But the Lord kept her fall from harming me!! I’m not sure this poor lady was able to receive much from Him – she was so worried about me! As I became more aware of my body I felt her gripping my hand and asking if I was ok. I started to laugh again and I laughed until I couldn’t laugh any more. Then I did!! There were people around me doing the same.

Now, I’ve heard of what’s called “Holy Laughter” before. It was the hallmark of the Toronto Blessing. When I first heard of it, I spoke against it… and then one day in church, I started to laugh. It was completely Spirit-driven. It wasn’t like what I just described… this was a gentle thing. It happened a few times over the years, always accompanied by a sense of overwhelming joy that would last for days. One day when we were at LCAG, our friend Tom was quite literally overcome with laughter. He hee-hawed and held his belly and cried, he was laughing so hard. That’s what it was like Friday and Saturday night.

Although I’m not giggling like a fool any more, I am still suffused with a level of joy and faith and assurance and peace and love and hope and EXPECTANCY that is far above and beyond anything I’ve ever experienced before. Like I said at the beginning of this exceedingly long post, this anointing IS transferable and it IS contagious – and I know because I went and I got some. No $3 bag of God here… I want ALL of Him.

More love. More power. More of His glory. More of HIM.

So what is revival? It’s a radical encounter with our radical Lord that transforms us into His image and sends us back into the world with His love and power evidenced in our lives.

If you’re reading this and you haven’t been following the events of the revival, there are four ways you can experience it for yourself (because it’s ongoing – indefinitely!) You can watch the live feed on the Internet at 10am and 7pm Eastern time, at freshfire.ca or at UStream. You can watch the 7pm service live on GodTV (DirectTV channel 365). You can go to one of the many homes and churches around the world that serve as overflow rooms (including ours!) Or, better yet, travel to Lakeland yourself. You won’t regret doing so!