Habakkuk 2:14 says, "For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea." Now, the earth is already filled with God's glory according to Isaiah 6:3. It's just that not everyone knows it yet. That's a no brainer statement considering we all can probably think of several people we know personally who are unaware of what God is doing on the earth.
That is what makes Habakkuk 2:14 so profound though. The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. Meaning, everybody's going to know about it! Everybody is going to be aware of God's glory being manifested on the planet. Not just the church, and not just a select few, but the whole earth! How do the waters cover the sea? Completely! The world in its entirety will know that God's glory is present on the earth!
Now here's the thing. I refuse to believe that this is meant to be reserved for the millennium. One key reason being that Habakkuk doesn't say that the world will be filled with the acknowledgement of the glory of the Lord. It simply says knowledge. At the end of this age, like Romans describes in chapter 14 verse 11, "It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me;every tongue will acknowledge God.’”
So what's the difference? Let's use an example. Say your ex boyfriend/girlfriend who you had a rough breakup with a week earlier walks into the same room as you. Chances are that within a split second of you recognizing their presence, your back is turned to avoid eye contact. What happened? You realized they entered the room (knowledge), but you avoided acknowledging their presence.
At the end of this age, the glory of the Lord on the earth will drive everyone to acknowledge who He is (every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess). No such action is described in Habakkuk as a result of knowing of the glory of God on the earth. Which leads me to think that even though all will be aware of it, there will be those who are drawn to relationship with Him, but also those who refuse to acknowledge His presence. Those who turn to greet Him as he enters the room, and those who turn their back refusing to acknowledge He walked in.
Now with that understanding, read Habakkuk 2:14 again through a lens of faith. Something should be stirring up inside of you. The earth is filled with the glory of God, but the world doesn't know it? Wait a minute. There are those in the world who are yet to know how good God is? There are people who haven't encountered the glory and the perfect goodness of the Lord? Something must be done!
That's where we, the believers come in, and that's where being heavenly minded becomes absolutely crucial.
Too many Christians are focused on the things pertaining to the first heaven (earth). For example, so many Christians still believe that despite what Jesus accomplished on the cross, they are still sinners; when in reality we are saints. One can't be a saint and a sinner at the same time. Psalm 50:5 defines saints as those who made a covenant with God through sacrifice. Because of Jesus' sacrifice that established the new covenant, that is every believer. It is perfectly legal for a believer to no longer consider him/herself a sinner because God calls us saints. We are in a covenant with Him and Jesus provided the sacrifice. (I'll write another blog dedicated to describing this better sometime in the future)
Why is this important? After all, isn't it humbling to acknowledge the frailty of our humanity? It might appear to be humbling, but it won't make you a world changer. Habakkuk 2:14 is talking about the entire world knowing about what God is doing on the earth. Bringing this about will require the saints on the earth to focus on things that are above, and not below. I'm sorry, but if you are constantly mindful of your sin, you are limiting what you can experience , to what is possible in the natural realm. And the only way to bring the entire world into encountering God's glory is through supernatural intervention. It's only through Heaven invading earth through the partnership we have with God the Father in ministering to the world, that they will know of his goodness. Everyone on this planet is only one God encounter away from coming to acknowledge Him for who He is. How can we ascribe to bring the Kingdom of Heaven with us to encounter people if we're still wrapped up in our sins, problems, and imperfections. That's why Paul says in Romans chapter 6 to consider yourselves dead to sin. Think higher!
The bottom line is that Habakkuk 2:14 should be a goal for every believer. A Christian should read that and say, "I will give my life to see this come to pass." And the only way we can assist in this glorious assignment is to abandon all other ways of thinking that are not from heaven. It starts with realizing who God says we as individuals are. Sinners saved by grace won't change the world, but saints walking in the full power and authority they were destined to walk in will draw nations to the One they desire (Haggai 2:7). That's heavenly minded thinking. Agreeing with what God says. He says "On earth as it is in Heaven," we say, "I purpose to live to see Heaven invade earth in my life." He says, " As the Father sent me, now I send you," we say, "Lord I accept the assignment you gave me; to destroy the works of the devil."
It's not that complicated. Faith actualizes what it realizes. Faith sees the heavenly realm and forces it into manifestation on earth. The only way to accomplish this is to know what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. Only then can we accurately bring it to earth and as a result, see the world marvel as we present them with the goodness of God. The whole world is dying to know how good God is. Jesus is the desire of nations. Everybody wants a King like King Jesus. Let's not let them down.
Whiskeytown Lake
View of Whiskeytown lake just outside of Redding, CA.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Missions Trip!
So one of Bethel's requirements to graduate is to go on a missions trip. But not just any missions trip. A Bethel missions trip! What that means is... well, I'll just let you read the description of the trip I'm going on;
Tijuana Leader: Mark Brookes Dates: March 27 - Apr 3
Tijuana has been a life changing experience for every student that has gone. We will be based out of a
camp that Bethel has been coming to every year for 10 years. There is Revival breaking out among the
local pastors who have set up a network of churches including the Ensenada area. Teams of BSSM
students will minister as worship leaders, children’s ministers and have opportunity to preach, teach
and give words of knowledge in local church meetings. Open Heavens are over the area and there is
an expectancy for the supernatural in the community. We will also minister on the streets with prophetic
art, treasure hunts, drama and many other forms of outreach. We will visit the legendary Revolution
Street for a large evening crusade using various local churches to assist us in reaching out to the lost.
This is a time of experiencing community on a team, personal freedom and God breaking out. Come
and experience being used by God to love the poor, love on tons of children, heal the sick, the blind,
the lame, and encourage Pastors as we partner with them to see Revival change a nation. We will end
the trip with a blow up service at a sister church in southern California, hang out on the beach and
enjoy how good our God is. You will be forever changed!!!
Tijuana, Mexico. It's going down!
Tijuana was actually one of over 40 trips to choose from. Some of the other trips were to crazy places like Russia, Central Asia, Japan and New Zealand. Of those 40+, we had to pick 5 just in case they couldn't fit everyone in their top pick. Fortunately for me Tijuana was my top pick which made me super psyched! I cannot wait to see what God does while our team is there! One thing's for sure; He is going to blow up my expectations and show me how good He really is, and how much He loves people.
My housemates are going to some crazy places too. My roommate Ethan is going to England. Adam is going to Alabama. Connor is going to Croatia. Justin is going to the Philippines. John is going to Tijuana with me, and Sam still doesn't know where he's going yet. I am so looking forward to coming back from our trips and sharing with each other stories of what God did. March 27 can't come soon enough!
Monday, September 26, 2011
Just gold dust...
So I've been thinking a lot lately about physical manifestations of the presence of God. Manifestations like gold dust, angel feathers, perfect jewels, manna etc... It's actually hard to ignore here at Bethel because so many people have seen gold dust appear, glory clouds, gold dust falling from glory clouds, and things of that sort. Shoot, I've seen gold dust appear in my hands during times of worship. It's fun for sure, but different. I naturally wondered, why God would do that. After all, the Bible doesn't mention gold dust falling to the ground when the presence of God came.
So came the question. Is God limited to His Bible?
I quickly realized after a few minutes of exercising my common sense that God is not limited to what He's done in the Bible. He can't be. It doesnt't make sense. First of all, we serve a limitless all powerfull God who can do whatever He wants.
Then I started thinking, "What about all the people in the world with HIV/ AIDS?" If God is limited to scripture, then there's no hope for these people because Jesus never healed anyone with AIDS in scripture.
We do know that it is still God's will to heal AIDS patients though, despite it not being in scripture. Why? Because His nature doesn't change. His acts do, and must for Him to be God, but His nature remains the same. That is the reason we can pray for those with new strains of viruses and believe that we have the will of God backing our prayers. That's the reason we can ask Papa to provide for us things that may not have been in the Bible. We can do these things because we know that who He is (the God who heals, and the God who provides) will always remain the same.
When people look at things like angel feathers and gold dust, most of the time they will process these occurances like so. In fact, I myself had to get used to NOT doing this. They will look for it in scripture. If they dont find it, they then say "Well God doesn't change according to Malachi 3, so it must not be from God."
Our job isn't to judge what God is doing based on what He has already done. Rather we must determine what lines up with His nature revealed to us in the scriptures. The Bible among other things shows us 2 things. It shows us what God has done, and what God is like. If we cling to what God has done, we are stopping short of knowing what Father God is like because seeing what He's done is supposed to bring us into a revelation of His nature. And that is where our discernment has to lie. That's the standard. His nature, not His track record.
AIDS? That's a sickness. We know how Jesus dealt with sickness, and God never changes.
The presence of God? It is very real. In fact the Bible tells us that the unseen is more real than what is seen. It manifested physically in the Bible, and God never changes.
So, all that to say just because it isn't in the Bible, doesn't mean it's not from God.
Now what about the why question? Why gold dust? Why do feathers fall on people sitting in their cars, or on airplanes? Why do some places see manifestations of jewels to perfect to be worth anything in this world.
I have no idea.
Why a pillar of fire? Why a cloud? Why a bush? Why not a talking sheep on fire? Now THAT would have been symbolic!
What we can know is that if we understood why God did everything, we would end up with a God that looked very similar to us. And that's just no fun.
Side note... I was going to mention laughter as a manifestation, but there are so many verses on joy being a part of the Kingdom that it would've been too repetitive. Bottom line make room for "new," in your understanding of God. He never changes, but what He does is a whole other story. He's like Domino's Pizza. The pizza is the same wherever you go (thank God), but the specials might be different. Yep. That's right. God is like Domino's Pizza.
So came the question. Is God limited to His Bible?
I quickly realized after a few minutes of exercising my common sense that God is not limited to what He's done in the Bible. He can't be. It doesnt't make sense. First of all, we serve a limitless all powerfull God who can do whatever He wants.
Then I started thinking, "What about all the people in the world with HIV/ AIDS?" If God is limited to scripture, then there's no hope for these people because Jesus never healed anyone with AIDS in scripture.
We do know that it is still God's will to heal AIDS patients though, despite it not being in scripture. Why? Because His nature doesn't change. His acts do, and must for Him to be God, but His nature remains the same. That is the reason we can pray for those with new strains of viruses and believe that we have the will of God backing our prayers. That's the reason we can ask Papa to provide for us things that may not have been in the Bible. We can do these things because we know that who He is (the God who heals, and the God who provides) will always remain the same.
When people look at things like angel feathers and gold dust, most of the time they will process these occurances like so. In fact, I myself had to get used to NOT doing this. They will look for it in scripture. If they dont find it, they then say "Well God doesn't change according to Malachi 3, so it must not be from God."
Our job isn't to judge what God is doing based on what He has already done. Rather we must determine what lines up with His nature revealed to us in the scriptures. The Bible among other things shows us 2 things. It shows us what God has done, and what God is like. If we cling to what God has done, we are stopping short of knowing what Father God is like because seeing what He's done is supposed to bring us into a revelation of His nature. And that is where our discernment has to lie. That's the standard. His nature, not His track record.
AIDS? That's a sickness. We know how Jesus dealt with sickness, and God never changes.
The presence of God? It is very real. In fact the Bible tells us that the unseen is more real than what is seen. It manifested physically in the Bible, and God never changes.
So, all that to say just because it isn't in the Bible, doesn't mean it's not from God.
Now what about the why question? Why gold dust? Why do feathers fall on people sitting in their cars, or on airplanes? Why do some places see manifestations of jewels to perfect to be worth anything in this world.
I have no idea.
Why a pillar of fire? Why a cloud? Why a bush? Why not a talking sheep on fire? Now THAT would have been symbolic!
What we can know is that if we understood why God did everything, we would end up with a God that looked very similar to us. And that's just no fun.
Side note... I was going to mention laughter as a manifestation, but there are so many verses on joy being a part of the Kingdom that it would've been too repetitive. Bottom line make room for "new," in your understanding of God. He never changes, but what He does is a whole other story. He's like Domino's Pizza. The pizza is the same wherever you go (thank God), but the specials might be different. Yep. That's right. God is like Domino's Pizza.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
I am so behind.
I desperately need to maintain some sense of regularity with my blog posts. Otherwise I'm not going to be able to keep up with everything that happens. Lord help me.
So last night was absolutely incredible. Heidi Baker, an amazing missionary who founded Iris ministries spoke at Bethel's Sunday evening service and the word she spoke just wrecked me. First of all, when you look at Heidi, you see pure love and joy oozing out of her eyes. She has truly captured the heart of Father God and moves to the rhythm of His heartbeat. Her ministry watches over 10,000 orphans, and they've planted over 7,000 churches in the past decade. Impressive numbers, but even if you had no knowledge of the incredible statistics of her ministry, you could know the love in her heart just by looking at her. It's incredible.
So basically, liquid love in a person was preaching. To sum up, her message was about stopping for the one. Recognizing the needs of those who are starving not only physically, but spiritually. 4.4 billion people on the Earth are starving spiritually because they have not heard the good news of the Gospel of Jesus. That's our mission. Not to necessarily make it our goal to reach all 4.4 billion of them, but to simply stop for the one in our everyday lives.
At the end of her message she had everyone kneel down on the floor and invite Holy Spirit to come. She shared a vision she had, which I can't remember in its entirety ( a side effect of waiting to blog about it). Basically she saw chariots of fire going around the world. Two people (believers) were in each chariot and God was holding the reigns of each chariot. He was holding the reigns, as opposed to the riders because each person needed both hands to hold a sword that they possessed. The sword stood for mercy and justice.
As a prophetic act, she asked everyone to kneel, hold up with both hands their sword, and ask that God would show them people He wanted them to reach. She declared over us that God was showing us faces, places, nations, people that we were called to reach. For a while now, I've had this desire to go to China because the greatest revival in history is happening there right now. So I immediately felt a drawing to China. I felt God say that, "Too long has China been associated with dragons." God apparently has big plans for China.
Pretty cool, but when I arrived home, it got better.
Last week, my house dad Daniel went around asking if anyone wanted this plastic sword that he had. Now for whatever reason I just like swords, and he was going to throw it out otherwise. So I said that I would take it. I had a feeling that it would have some sort of prophetic meaning eventually and I turned out to be right. So anyway I kept it in my room by my bedside, not really getting any super divine revelation from it. In fact, most of the time when I left the house I would just completely forget about it. When I came home from the Sunday night service though, I saw my housemate John playing with my sword. He decided to point out something obvious to me that I, up untill that moment never realized. There's a dragon on the hilt of my sword! The word God spoke to me instantly came to memory. What God spoke to me prophetically as I held up my sword on Sunday night, He confirmed with my physical sword which I received a week earlier. Needless to say, my mind was blown.
God really does speak. He's always speaking. Listening is the key. Listening and expecting to hear His voice. One of the pastors here said something so true one Sunday morning before worship. "Expectations are the only things that can kill faith." By lowering our expectations of what God is going to do, we automatically lower our faith level. Now it's hard for the one who has never heard the voice of God before, because they have no experience to draw faith from. Hard, but not impossible. And even if it was "impossible," that word is not in God's vocabulary. It has no meaning in the realm where He is, and it certainly has no power. God will speak to those who wait and listen. And He will do it in ways that you would never imagine. Case in point, my 2 dollar plastic sword, no doubt from either Party City or Wal-Mart. Just listen. He loves to speak to His children!
So God's put it on my heart to go to China. How that's going to happen, your guess is as good as mine. But God gives you the desires of your heart for a reason. There's a reason I feel so attracted to China. It might be years before I can act on that, but whenever it happens, I am for sure bringing my dragon sword with me!
So last night was absolutely incredible. Heidi Baker, an amazing missionary who founded Iris ministries spoke at Bethel's Sunday evening service and the word she spoke just wrecked me. First of all, when you look at Heidi, you see pure love and joy oozing out of her eyes. She has truly captured the heart of Father God and moves to the rhythm of His heartbeat. Her ministry watches over 10,000 orphans, and they've planted over 7,000 churches in the past decade. Impressive numbers, but even if you had no knowledge of the incredible statistics of her ministry, you could know the love in her heart just by looking at her. It's incredible.
So basically, liquid love in a person was preaching. To sum up, her message was about stopping for the one. Recognizing the needs of those who are starving not only physically, but spiritually. 4.4 billion people on the Earth are starving spiritually because they have not heard the good news of the Gospel of Jesus. That's our mission. Not to necessarily make it our goal to reach all 4.4 billion of them, but to simply stop for the one in our everyday lives.
At the end of her message she had everyone kneel down on the floor and invite Holy Spirit to come. She shared a vision she had, which I can't remember in its entirety ( a side effect of waiting to blog about it). Basically she saw chariots of fire going around the world. Two people (believers) were in each chariot and God was holding the reigns of each chariot. He was holding the reigns, as opposed to the riders because each person needed both hands to hold a sword that they possessed. The sword stood for mercy and justice.
As a prophetic act, she asked everyone to kneel, hold up with both hands their sword, and ask that God would show them people He wanted them to reach. She declared over us that God was showing us faces, places, nations, people that we were called to reach. For a while now, I've had this desire to go to China because the greatest revival in history is happening there right now. So I immediately felt a drawing to China. I felt God say that, "Too long has China been associated with dragons." God apparently has big plans for China.
Pretty cool, but when I arrived home, it got better.
Last week, my house dad Daniel went around asking if anyone wanted this plastic sword that he had. Now for whatever reason I just like swords, and he was going to throw it out otherwise. So I said that I would take it. I had a feeling that it would have some sort of prophetic meaning eventually and I turned out to be right. So anyway I kept it in my room by my bedside, not really getting any super divine revelation from it. In fact, most of the time when I left the house I would just completely forget about it. When I came home from the Sunday night service though, I saw my housemate John playing with my sword. He decided to point out something obvious to me that I, up untill that moment never realized. There's a dragon on the hilt of my sword! The word God spoke to me instantly came to memory. What God spoke to me prophetically as I held up my sword on Sunday night, He confirmed with my physical sword which I received a week earlier. Needless to say, my mind was blown.
God really does speak. He's always speaking. Listening is the key. Listening and expecting to hear His voice. One of the pastors here said something so true one Sunday morning before worship. "Expectations are the only things that can kill faith." By lowering our expectations of what God is going to do, we automatically lower our faith level. Now it's hard for the one who has never heard the voice of God before, because they have no experience to draw faith from. Hard, but not impossible. And even if it was "impossible," that word is not in God's vocabulary. It has no meaning in the realm where He is, and it certainly has no power. God will speak to those who wait and listen. And He will do it in ways that you would never imagine. Case in point, my 2 dollar plastic sword, no doubt from either Party City or Wal-Mart. Just listen. He loves to speak to His children!
So God's put it on my heart to go to China. How that's going to happen, your guess is as good as mine. But God gives you the desires of your heart for a reason. There's a reason I feel so attracted to China. It might be years before I can act on that, but whenever it happens, I am for sure bringing my dragon sword with me!
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Adoration
So this is what I've decided to do. I have decided to use this blog to write about all the spiritual experiences I have while I'm at Bethel, and I'll use my tumblr to write about everything else. I may have to adjust that line somewhere down the road because as I become more aware of the spiritual realm, that world is going to grow and the occurances of the "natural world" are going to seem less "natural" and more spiritual. Anyway, I'm sure you'll see what I mean simply by reading the two and recognizing how different they are.
A few nights ago I was at Bethel's prayer house which is open 24/7. Eventually I will take pictures of it because pictures really are worth a thousand words. Especially when it comes to a place as beautiful as the prayer house. However, I do have to explain that outside, in the back of the house there are gardens surrounding a pool. They aptly named the pool, the pool of Bethesda- the pool in the Bible that would be stirred daily by an angel. Flowing into the pool from a stack of natural rocks is a miniature waterfall which creates the incredibly peaceful sound of flowing water. It's awesome. Leading to the garden in the back of the house there is a path that runs from the entrance of the prayer house, and around the side of it to the back.
That night I was walking along that side pathway with an unbelievably clear sky above me. As I walked past this one spot I was hit with an unusually tangible presence of God. It felt as if I stepped into a circle where angels were worshipping and adoring Jesus. There was such a sense of adoration for the person of Jesus that it literally took my breath away. What was unusual for me was that I was able to discern exactly what was going on in the spirit. Literally, Jesus was being adored. That's what the angels had on their minds. I paused for a second just to be in that place and continued walking. The sensation left. So I walked back to that spot and BAM. Tears started forming in my eyes because there was so much love being poured out onto Jesus in that one area it was overwhelming.
I stayed there in that spot and did the only thing I could do- kneel down and join the angels that were so obviously present, in adoring and loving Jesus. Ever since that moment, my ability to connect with God in worship has increaced so much! It's like I just turn my thoughts on Him, and that same sensation comes over me- as if those same angels join with me whenever and wherever I begin to worship.
Today God told me why that was. He told me that angels of adoration are attracted to me. When I worship, they like to join me and adore with me. And it feels strange but awesome. I'll be worshipping by myself but I won't feel like I'm alone. It's like whenever I start singing, praying or even just thinking about the goodness of Father God, these angels of adoration are just attracted to that like a magnet and immediately join in with me. Sometimes I hear them when I stop, saying "Don't stop, don't stop! Just keep going! Go deeper go deeper!" It's incredible.
A few nights ago I was at Bethel's prayer house which is open 24/7. Eventually I will take pictures of it because pictures really are worth a thousand words. Especially when it comes to a place as beautiful as the prayer house. However, I do have to explain that outside, in the back of the house there are gardens surrounding a pool. They aptly named the pool, the pool of Bethesda- the pool in the Bible that would be stirred daily by an angel. Flowing into the pool from a stack of natural rocks is a miniature waterfall which creates the incredibly peaceful sound of flowing water. It's awesome. Leading to the garden in the back of the house there is a path that runs from the entrance of the prayer house, and around the side of it to the back.
That night I was walking along that side pathway with an unbelievably clear sky above me. As I walked past this one spot I was hit with an unusually tangible presence of God. It felt as if I stepped into a circle where angels were worshipping and adoring Jesus. There was such a sense of adoration for the person of Jesus that it literally took my breath away. What was unusual for me was that I was able to discern exactly what was going on in the spirit. Literally, Jesus was being adored. That's what the angels had on their minds. I paused for a second just to be in that place and continued walking. The sensation left. So I walked back to that spot and BAM. Tears started forming in my eyes because there was so much love being poured out onto Jesus in that one area it was overwhelming.
I stayed there in that spot and did the only thing I could do- kneel down and join the angels that were so obviously present, in adoring and loving Jesus. Ever since that moment, my ability to connect with God in worship has increaced so much! It's like I just turn my thoughts on Him, and that same sensation comes over me- as if those same angels join with me whenever and wherever I begin to worship.
Today God told me why that was. He told me that angels of adoration are attracted to me. When I worship, they like to join me and adore with me. And it feels strange but awesome. I'll be worshipping by myself but I won't feel like I'm alone. It's like whenever I start singing, praying or even just thinking about the goodness of Father God, these angels of adoration are just attracted to that like a magnet and immediately join in with me. Sometimes I hear them when I stop, saying "Don't stop, don't stop! Just keep going! Go deeper go deeper!" It's incredible.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
A rude awakening!
Today was a fun day. I was feeling adventerous so I decided to do something really extravegant. Something I would remember for years to come and be able to tell my children about. Can you guess? I'll give you a hint. It involved me traveling to a local pizza joint, purchasing a regular cheese slice, and ingesting it for the sole purpose of comparing it to New York's pizza. Need another hint? Hopefully not. I mean if you need another hint to understand that I went rattlesnake hunting then you need some serious help.
Anyway, I did try the pizza. Or should I say, "pizza." Now as expected, I do have a few (12 to be exact) complaints. However instead of just writing them down in a boring list I think it would be much more fun to write down a series of highly dramatic idioms that describe my "pizza" experience here in Redding. I may even throw in some sarcasm. You know what? It was that bad, I have to throw in some sarcasm. Let's begin shall we.
So what exactly IS it like to eat "pizza" outside of New York state?
It was like diving into a pool of low expectations and coming out more dissapointed than expected.
It was like wandering through a desert hoping to arrive at an oasis only to find more desert.
It was like being mauled by a bear and coming out of it with no limbs and only half your organs still inside your body. You expect it to be bad, but THAT bad?
It was like watching The Room. For those of you who have seen The Room, enough said...
It was like swimming in a lake of crushed dreams and hopeless futures.
It filled my mind with thoughts of pain and torment. And then I realized that these thoughts were only an extension of the pain and torment my taste buds were experiencing.
It was so bad, immediately after I finished I drowned out the taste with massive amounts of peanut butter... I hate peanut butter.
I could go on and on but I'm actually out of ideas. Figure that one out... The point is, it was bad. It wasn't terrible ( I was just having fun with the colorful descriptions), but it definitely wasn't as good as I would have liked. It tasted like cheap microwave pizza that was just heated up in the oven instead. BUT! They did have the courtesy to conveniently cut my slice in half thus eliminating the daunting and agonizingly tumultuous task of folding it in half. How kind. Now I'm not going to name the name of this particular pizza shop (Luigi's) but it doesn't matter because it's not their fault. Who's fault is it? Canada's. And that settles that.
Anyway, I did try the pizza. Or should I say, "pizza." Now as expected, I do have a few (12 to be exact) complaints. However instead of just writing them down in a boring list I think it would be much more fun to write down a series of highly dramatic idioms that describe my "pizza" experience here in Redding. I may even throw in some sarcasm. You know what? It was that bad, I have to throw in some sarcasm. Let's begin shall we.
So what exactly IS it like to eat "pizza" outside of New York state?
It was like diving into a pool of low expectations and coming out more dissapointed than expected.
It was like wandering through a desert hoping to arrive at an oasis only to find more desert.
It was like being mauled by a bear and coming out of it with no limbs and only half your organs still inside your body. You expect it to be bad, but THAT bad?
It was like watching The Room. For those of you who have seen The Room, enough said...
It was like swimming in a lake of crushed dreams and hopeless futures.
It filled my mind with thoughts of pain and torment. And then I realized that these thoughts were only an extension of the pain and torment my taste buds were experiencing.
It was so bad, immediately after I finished I drowned out the taste with massive amounts of peanut butter... I hate peanut butter.
I could go on and on but I'm actually out of ideas. Figure that one out... The point is, it was bad. It wasn't terrible ( I was just having fun with the colorful descriptions), but it definitely wasn't as good as I would have liked. It tasted like cheap microwave pizza that was just heated up in the oven instead. BUT! They did have the courtesy to conveniently cut my slice in half thus eliminating the daunting and agonizingly tumultuous task of folding it in half. How kind. Now I'm not going to name the name of this particular pizza shop (Luigi's) but it doesn't matter because it's not their fault. Who's fault is it? Canada's. And that settles that.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Expectations
So my fourth day of being in Redding is coming to a close and the reality of what life is like here is starting to settle in. I've been to the lake, I've seen the mountains, I've gone to the services at Bethel and I've experienced the wonder of $1 movie theaters. Super 8- INCREDIBLE! Anyway, now that I'm mostly settled in I can start to focus on the real reason I moved across the country.
Every person that comes to Bethel comes with a level of expectation. Bethel truly is an amazing place where miracles, healings, and deliverances are common. Just today at the sunday night service a man shared his testimony about how he came to Bethel in October of last year with a case of serious dislexia. Well, he's dislexia free now. Good news for him being that he's a pastor. Imagine trying to read a passage of scripture to your congregation with dislexia. "Jesus wept," and "Wept Jesus," are very different. Anyway he's free of that burden now which is awesome.
It's stories like this that feed the expectations of everyone who visits there. This especially goes for the students of their ministry school. I feel like we have such high expectations of what we're going to experience while at Bethel simply due to the incredible testimonies that come out of here. We expect radical encounters with God; we expect to see visions; we expect to have incredible prophetic words spoken over us. And rightfully so. Our high expectations don't intimidate God. He is more than willing and more than able to encounter his children in radical ways.
What I found though, for myself at least was that my expectations were turning into expectation driven anxiety. Knowing that encounters are commonplace here, I began thinking... "Ok, when is that going to happen to me? What kind of encounter am I going to have. Will it be a dream? Vision? Will I be taken up to heaven and experience the throne room of God? When will it happen? Probably when I'm not expecting it. But I can't help thinking about it every time I pray or worship."
Those are just some of the things that I've pondered since I got here, and it started bugging me. It was getting pretty annoying actually. God spoke to me though and what He said really put my mind at ease. So I figured I'd blog about it because, as of 3 days ago I am obsessed with blogging.
He said, "Stop trying to write your story. Let me write it for you."
Those of you who know me, know that I love to write so you can understand how relevant that word was to me. By trying to create the conditions of my encounter beforehand I was actually robbing God of his right to write the story of my life. The right I gave Him when I said, "Lord come dwell in my heart." God has a way of speaking to you in a way that fits you. A way that you can relate to. Moses probably being the exception because I'm sure he had little to no experience with burning bushes. Although it wasn't a radically new or deep word, the way He worded it really drove the point home. It's not up to me to ponder the whats and hows and whens of my life. I may love to write, but my life story is one story that I can't write. God, my loving Father who knew me before creation already has all my steps planned out. He's already written my story, and He's got everything under control. So to everyone who desperately longs to encounter God in an incredible tangible way, I would say just be faithful. Just do what you have to do. Pray, read His word, spend time in the secret place, and don't dwell on having the encounter before you have it. You'll just drive yourself crazy like I have done.
Instead, just understand that 1) It's ok to want to have an encounter with God, whether it be a vision or getting caught up into Heaven and experiencing the tangible love of God. It's ok for children to want to encounter the love of their parents. It's natural in fact. This blog was just about crossing that line of expectations into expectation driven anxiety. And 2) God desperately wants you to encounter Him in a tangible way. He promises that He will satisfy all those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Righeousness is a person. His name is Jesus. Anyone who hungers to encounter the person of Jesus will be satisfied. Don't sweat it.
Every person that comes to Bethel comes with a level of expectation. Bethel truly is an amazing place where miracles, healings, and deliverances are common. Just today at the sunday night service a man shared his testimony about how he came to Bethel in October of last year with a case of serious dislexia. Well, he's dislexia free now. Good news for him being that he's a pastor. Imagine trying to read a passage of scripture to your congregation with dislexia. "Jesus wept," and "Wept Jesus," are very different. Anyway he's free of that burden now which is awesome.
It's stories like this that feed the expectations of everyone who visits there. This especially goes for the students of their ministry school. I feel like we have such high expectations of what we're going to experience while at Bethel simply due to the incredible testimonies that come out of here. We expect radical encounters with God; we expect to see visions; we expect to have incredible prophetic words spoken over us. And rightfully so. Our high expectations don't intimidate God. He is more than willing and more than able to encounter his children in radical ways.
What I found though, for myself at least was that my expectations were turning into expectation driven anxiety. Knowing that encounters are commonplace here, I began thinking... "Ok, when is that going to happen to me? What kind of encounter am I going to have. Will it be a dream? Vision? Will I be taken up to heaven and experience the throne room of God? When will it happen? Probably when I'm not expecting it. But I can't help thinking about it every time I pray or worship."
Those are just some of the things that I've pondered since I got here, and it started bugging me. It was getting pretty annoying actually. God spoke to me though and what He said really put my mind at ease. So I figured I'd blog about it because, as of 3 days ago I am obsessed with blogging.
He said, "Stop trying to write your story. Let me write it for you."
Those of you who know me, know that I love to write so you can understand how relevant that word was to me. By trying to create the conditions of my encounter beforehand I was actually robbing God of his right to write the story of my life. The right I gave Him when I said, "Lord come dwell in my heart." God has a way of speaking to you in a way that fits you. A way that you can relate to. Moses probably being the exception because I'm sure he had little to no experience with burning bushes. Although it wasn't a radically new or deep word, the way He worded it really drove the point home. It's not up to me to ponder the whats and hows and whens of my life. I may love to write, but my life story is one story that I can't write. God, my loving Father who knew me before creation already has all my steps planned out. He's already written my story, and He's got everything under control. So to everyone who desperately longs to encounter God in an incredible tangible way, I would say just be faithful. Just do what you have to do. Pray, read His word, spend time in the secret place, and don't dwell on having the encounter before you have it. You'll just drive yourself crazy like I have done.
Instead, just understand that 1) It's ok to want to have an encounter with God, whether it be a vision or getting caught up into Heaven and experiencing the tangible love of God. It's ok for children to want to encounter the love of their parents. It's natural in fact. This blog was just about crossing that line of expectations into expectation driven anxiety. And 2) God desperately wants you to encounter Him in a tangible way. He promises that He will satisfy all those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Righeousness is a person. His name is Jesus. Anyone who hungers to encounter the person of Jesus will be satisfied. Don't sweat it.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
This one's for real.
Just as I promised, I am writing another entry to fill in the many blanks in my first blog. And don't worry, it's the middle of the afternoon, I'm well rested, and am beyond ready to do this (like a boss)! So lets have fun shall we?
So on Wednesday August 31, I started my trip to Redding, California in order to attend Bethel Church's School of Supernatural Ministry. It's a magical place where Heaven manifests on Earth in the form of miracles, divine healings, and In and Out Burger. Seriously, if you have never had a burger from In and Out, you are missing out on what is possibly the closest resemblance we have in the real world to the absolute goodness of a krabby patty. But I digress.
My trip there was pretty uneventful. My flight from JFK airport to Los Angeles left around half an hour late, but somehow managed to arrive 15 minutes early. I flew on Delta airlines which is cool because they have mini TVs on the back of every headrest. One of the game options they have is a trivia game where you can pit yourself against the other passangers in a battle of who's the smartest. As it turns out I was the smartest out of 10 other losers who decided to fly delta that day. I was a little bit afraid though because I used my real name to sign in, and the man in the seat next to me was also playing. This could have been an issue because at the end of each round it would post the rankings of the participating passangers AND their seat numbers. So the guy next to me, who I JUST beat by a hair by the way, not only knew that it was me who beat him, but my name as well. Thank God He didn't say anything to me because somehow, the fact that I guessed on the majority of the questions didn't seem to me like it would be any consolation to him.
So other than winning airplane trivia by accident, my trip was long and boring. 16 hours of reading, waiting, sleeping, and drinking starbucks. Eventually after 2 airplane rides and a bus ride I arrived in Redding. I was met by 2 of my roomates, Ethan and Sam, who sat on a bench holding a carboard sign with my name on it. I could tell instantly that we were going to be close friends. Especially Sam, because up untill that point I don't think I had ever met a legit Canadian. They took me, after I used the bathroom, to the prayer house at Bethel which is open 24/7. What an amazing place! It's a small circular building on top of a hill. It has windowssurrounding almost the entire main prayer room which allows you to have an incredible view of part of the city, and the mountains beyond the city limits. More impressive than the view though, was the tangibility of the presence of God in that room. It didn't take long before my body just began to tremble from the weight of God's presence. It was awesome!
The next day we went with a few other friends to Whiskeytown Lake. I'm not going to describe the lake simply because I took pictures and posted them on facebook. Also, I'm just lazy and descriptions are boring to read. After spending some time at the lake though, we went to a frozen yogurt shop. It was called Spoon Me, and boy did my taste buds get spooned! I couldn't help but think of Michale Jackson going there with a huge dose of false hope.
Anyway, life here in Redding is truly awesome! I still haven't tried the pizza though. I actually had a dream last night about eating New York pizza for breakfast. I'm almost positive that the pizza I ate in my dream will taste better than the pizza here, but who knows? I could be wrong. I don't think so though. Why? Because I WON AIRPLANE TRIVIA AND I'M A GENIOUS! That's why! Well, that's all for now!
So on Wednesday August 31, I started my trip to Redding, California in order to attend Bethel Church's School of Supernatural Ministry. It's a magical place where Heaven manifests on Earth in the form of miracles, divine healings, and In and Out Burger. Seriously, if you have never had a burger from In and Out, you are missing out on what is possibly the closest resemblance we have in the real world to the absolute goodness of a krabby patty. But I digress.
My trip there was pretty uneventful. My flight from JFK airport to Los Angeles left around half an hour late, but somehow managed to arrive 15 minutes early. I flew on Delta airlines which is cool because they have mini TVs on the back of every headrest. One of the game options they have is a trivia game where you can pit yourself against the other passangers in a battle of who's the smartest. As it turns out I was the smartest out of 10 other losers who decided to fly delta that day. I was a little bit afraid though because I used my real name to sign in, and the man in the seat next to me was also playing. This could have been an issue because at the end of each round it would post the rankings of the participating passangers AND their seat numbers. So the guy next to me, who I JUST beat by a hair by the way, not only knew that it was me who beat him, but my name as well. Thank God He didn't say anything to me because somehow, the fact that I guessed on the majority of the questions didn't seem to me like it would be any consolation to him.
So other than winning airplane trivia by accident, my trip was long and boring. 16 hours of reading, waiting, sleeping, and drinking starbucks. Eventually after 2 airplane rides and a bus ride I arrived in Redding. I was met by 2 of my roomates, Ethan and Sam, who sat on a bench holding a carboard sign with my name on it. I could tell instantly that we were going to be close friends. Especially Sam, because up untill that point I don't think I had ever met a legit Canadian. They took me, after I used the bathroom, to the prayer house at Bethel which is open 24/7. What an amazing place! It's a small circular building on top of a hill. It has windowssurrounding almost the entire main prayer room which allows you to have an incredible view of part of the city, and the mountains beyond the city limits. More impressive than the view though, was the tangibility of the presence of God in that room. It didn't take long before my body just began to tremble from the weight of God's presence. It was awesome!
The next day we went with a few other friends to Whiskeytown Lake. I'm not going to describe the lake simply because I took pictures and posted them on facebook. Also, I'm just lazy and descriptions are boring to read. After spending some time at the lake though, we went to a frozen yogurt shop. It was called Spoon Me, and boy did my taste buds get spooned! I couldn't help but think of Michale Jackson going there with a huge dose of false hope.
Anyway, life here in Redding is truly awesome! I still haven't tried the pizza though. I actually had a dream last night about eating New York pizza for breakfast. I'm almost positive that the pizza I ate in my dream will taste better than the pizza here, but who knows? I could be wrong. I don't think so though. Why? Because I WON AIRPLANE TRIVIA AND I'M A GENIOUS! That's why! Well, that's all for now!
2 Days In.
This is going to be a very short blog due to the fact that I am excruciatingly tired, but I had to start writing something, even if it was minimal. So on Thursday at 1 in the morning I arrived in Redding after traveling for 16 hours from Long Island New York. (More details to come on the trip, which even though it was incredibly boring, some good old fashion truth stretching can fix that).
So far, I've encountered God in so many ways, met really awesome people and had some crazy awesome bburgers and frozen yogurt. Vague? Yes, but it's also almost midnight. 3 AM if I were in New York. What I'm trying to say is that I'm going to sleep. Peace out! I'll write a more detailed blog about my experiences later.
So far, I've encountered God in so many ways, met really awesome people and had some crazy awesome bburgers and frozen yogurt. Vague? Yes, but it's also almost midnight. 3 AM if I were in New York. What I'm trying to say is that I'm going to sleep. Peace out! I'll write a more detailed blog about my experiences later.
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