Drunk in the Holy Spirit

Well I was excited to be at church today.  I had heard all the reports about the holy spirit stirring in our church over the past few weeks and I came with an expectant heart to see what God was going to do. 

It is amazing really, there were so many technical problems: the worship leader's microphone seemed to malfunction and crackle, for some reason most of the words did not appear on the overhead screen (and some of them were new to us).  Yet despite this God came in power.  You know I am certainly convinced that no matter what the the service is like, if you come with an expectant heart you will meet God.  I met with God.

We had a man called Roger Cole come and preach about the Holy Spirit and healing.  He gave a lot of examples of how God has used him to heal others, in Jesus' name.  He was raising our faith for miracles.  And he did. I sat through him giving lots of prophetic words and then a list of ailments for an alter call.  My afflictions were not mentioned and I sank a little in my chair. 

I had the amazing prophetic word given to me a few months ago about going to Bethel and part of the word was a promise for healing.  So I thought "well I can wait a few more weeks until I am there". But I felt God say that he is as much here as he is there.  I can receive His blessing here too.  In my local church.

So I went forward fro prayer.  I have many things I would love the Lord to heal me from, but I felt I should ask for help with my knee.  It has been sore for about 6 weeks since I stupidly went Jogging on it.  (I am not a small lady and I have had major issues with my pelvis and hips for 8 years now.  I was told to never run....and I had.)  So Janey prayed for my pelvis and hips and as she prayed I felt a warmth in my knee.  I asked the Lord to heal me and to fill me with His Holy Spirit.  I began to feel warm all over and then suddenly I was flat on the floor: completely slain in the spirit, just resting in God's presence.  It felt great. When I finally got up from the floor with all the children looking at me worryingly.  I felt so out of it: like I was drunk.   I have never seen anyone slain in our church... so it was unusual to be seen I am sure.

So have I been healed?  I really don't know.  I know I have no pain in my knee or hips, but I will need to get out and walk to see if the healing has been done.

I am leading next week....  I would love to see more people completely filled with the holy spirit.  I can see the Lord moving and I know as we expect to see God move in power we will.  It reminds me about what Will Matthews said when I chatted to him after the Bethel UK Tour in Bath last month.  Someone had asked him whether it was normal for the Holy Spirit to be so tangible when they lead worship: he said that the Holy spirit lives in the people who come and worship and so the spirit moves when the people come with expectant hearts. 

So my expectation for next Sunday is definitely raised...  I cannot wait to see what God does.

Pre-Flight Jitters

So I have only have 13 days to go until I jet off the the USA to be in the Bethel School of Supernatural Worship in California.  I am soooo excited now and a lot nervous.  I do have a fear of small spaces and heights.  I also have a fear of plummeting from a great height to my death.  All these things are not conducive to the love of airplanes. 


So in order to get to Bethel and seeing God's glory I must first get myself to the airport on a bus and then fly on 2 airplanes. 
 
One huge beast of a thing....

....... and one so small I certainly would not be able to swing a cat. 

  
In fact I do not know which one scares me the most: huge or stupidly tiny. 

 I have spent many hours looking at seating options....

• I could sit by an exit and thus be 1st out in the unlikely event of sheer panic.  But I could then be sucked out 1st if the door unexpectedly swung open.
• I could sit by a window thus giving myself a nice quiet spot to stew and sleep???  But, what if the person in the aisle falls asleep I will be trapped forever.
• I could sit near the loo as I am sure I will be spending most of my time in there due to panic in the bowels.  But the toilets for the cheap seats are at the back of the plane and I have seen the series "Lost" so I know sitting in the tail is definitely not a good option.

• I even put my seat on the end of a row of 5 middle seats thinking this would be a safe option.  Nearer the front, nearish to an exit (but not too close) and fully available to shoot to the loo at a moments notice.  But as my lovely friend pointed out I would most probably end up sitting next to a family of 4 and spend the 11 hour flight entertaiing small children.  (I love my kids but I would not like to entertain even them on a 11 hour flight).

So where does that leave me?  I have chosen and then reselected seats 3 times now.  So I am leaving it well alone now.  Ailse seat for the long haul, window seat for the 1 hour tiny plane.  In actual fact I have booked a window seat on the tiny plane but as it is so small it is also an aisle seat :)

 I just have to keep praying about this flying thing.  When I did an assembly for the kids at school a few weeks ago we all talked about our fears and how we can overcome them because God is with us.  We also prayed for our fears and I did ask God to rid that one for me.  I do feel slightly calmer about it.  You will all know in 13 days how it goes.

So  am now in "oh goodness it is actually happening quite soon" mode.  I have been throwing things into a suitcase whenever I think I might need it.  So my hope is that the suitcase will almost have packed itself by next week.

Now before going away there is a certain point in the week when you realise that you must start wearing your manky clothes now to make sure all the nice ones are clean.  Doesn't really apply here though as the clothes I will pack for my trip are my lovely summer clothes and I am certainly now wearing all my winter stuff again because it is so cold here.

I am sure I will be posting again about my preparations.  13 Days to go aaaggrrhh.

Great talk by Kim Walker-Smith

Whilst listening to worship music on YouTube I came across this talk by Kim Walker-Smith.  It is great and sums up how I feel about true worship.  It is all about an encounter with God and a connection with Him.  She talks about how we need to spend time with God to keep the connection, and fight to keep the connection.  As she says if we all came to Church on a Sunday morning, already connected and ready to bring God some glory, what would worship look like then?

It is about 50 mins long but well worth the time spent listening to it. :)

Turning Point

I am not sure how it happened but I lost my connection.  I have been really busy.  Good busy though. 

First I was asked by another church to sing in the town center for a music festival, then I was asked at the last moment to play and sing for another church for the Pentecost service.  These were both great and God was using me out of my comfort zone and it was exciting.

I have also been leading the assemblies in our Christian school every Friday:  I normally do the primary school one, but I was asked to do one for the primary and senior schools.  It was a challange to lead children of such different ages into God's presence, but God showed up and the feedback from the children was extremely encouraging. 

On top of these, this Sunday I organised a Queen's Diamond Jubilee Street party with my house group.  The event was amazing and it really brought the community together.  All good stuff: but all giving out. 

So I have been feeling low and tired.  Suddenly I have gone from praising my Lord all day long to saying "where is God?"

Today was a turning point... The phone rang during lunch.  It was a pastor from another church asking if I would go and lead worship there this Sunday.  Every thing in me wanted to say yes.  I am really enjoying visiting so many churches, and it is so nice to be asked...  but as I went to check the calender and rotas John said I should pray about whether to say yes... "Pray?  I need to give him an answer."

I told the pastor that I would check something and ring him back.  Pray?  When did I last pray about what to do with my calender? Where have I been?  On some other planet?  I have not actually been in my church for 4 weeks...  4 weeks.  The week after next I am leading again... do I really need to be away again, and leading again?  I knew the answer was no.  I need to receive from God and not just give out. 

So I rang him back and told him I needed to have a week just "being" in the presence of God.  But everything in me wanted to say yes and do it. 

I want to seek God and do the things He wants me to do.  I have really enjoyed just worshiping Him again today.  Not planning a set, or a talk, just worshipping my God because He is worthy.  I even put on my worhip music and running shoes and headed out in the rain for an hour.  I love walking and praying, I have not done this for weeks and I know That I have lost my connection because I have simply just not spent time with Him.

So a turning point.  I am on the road again, and I am very much looking forward to worshiping in my church this weekend.  The Holy spirit has been moving in power over the past few weeks I have been away... so I cannot wait.

Bethel UK Tour

I had the most amazing time last night at the Bethel UK Tour in Bath City Church.  We arrived to find the queue wrapping around the building.  It was a beautiful art deco theater and we ended up right at the very top of the building.  I am very wobbly with heights and this was very very high.  I didn't have much leg room and it was extremely hot.  I could not see the stage very clearly and I was grumpy to say the least.  Then the band came on and Just prayed for the Holy spirit to come.  We waited and it came... like a fire.  We were all connected, we were ready and then we were off.

I forgot about the height, I didn't care that I couldn't see the band clearly (I could see God) and I made a break from my row and danced my socks off in the fire exit gangway.  I have never known worship like it:  I felt the presence of God so tangibly.  The worship team pointed to heaven and we all went there.  As the evening progressed I saw an empty seat further down the balcony nearer the front and I seized it as my own.  Then by the very end I turned to look for my friend and noticed she was not there... then I saw her head bobbing up and own at the very front next to the stage.  I ran down the stairs, pushed my way to the front and jumped like I have never jumped before.  If the roof had not been so secure I am sure it would have blown right off.

Not great qualilty but here is a clip of the evening posted on Youtube:

After the meeting the band were in the foyer chatting to people.  Praying for people.  No star status, just wanting to pass on their passion.  I talked to several of the people including Will Matthews and Jeremy Riddle:

Ok so it is a terrible picture of me... but you can see from the picture how happy I was and how friendly he was.  In fact I think my face stayed that colour for some time after the jumping ended.  Jeremy prayed that I would have the grace to leave my kids next month to attend the Bethel School of Supernatural Worship in California.  He said that he had 5 kids and found it hard leaving them too.  Will Matthews was telling me about the classes he is teaching and thought I should definitely come to those.  They did sound up my street so I will look forward to choosing my classes in the next few weeks. 

4 Weeks to go until I am at Bethel worshiping like that every day for 2 whole weeks.  I am going to LOVE it.

The Lord is the same today

It was such a pleasure to lead worship today.  God answered my prayers and showed up in power this morning.  There was breakthrough in the spiritual realms.

Our God is the same God of Elijah, of David and of Paul.  The holy spirit is alive today and lives in us.  When we call on His name He comes in power.  We can expect Him to heal, we can expect Him to come with His fire.  We can expect to prophesy, to see visions, for chains to be broken because He has not changed.  He is the God who shows his power through miracles, signs and wonders.  We can expect this from our Lord because He has not changed.  When we seek Him we will find Him.

My heart is for God to be in our lives, day by day, so that when we come together to worship we will each bring some of God’s fire with us.   I will expect God to continue to breathe life into our church.  That we may come expecting the unexpected.  Come Holy Spirit in this place, have your way. 

What is Worship?

I was recently asked to sum up what worship is to me.  It was good to think about it.  This was my response.. 

“Worship is my life.  It gives me life.  Seeking God in all areas, asking Him to come and fill me, giving Him glory, spending my time thinking about Him and praising Him.  Seeking His will not mine, falling at His feet and offering my life for Him. For me it is reading his word, being still and feeling his holy spirit, watching the sun set, dancing,  waving a flag, singing.  I love to worship Him by visiting the sick, helping the lost, bringing his light to dark places.  Whatever I do, I want it to glorify the King. I sing constantly, it must be very annoying for those around me…  I just want to sing to Him all day.  I often can’t sleep because I am still singing to Him.   I believe worship comes from our soul, deep within us.  Through the Holy spirit we have a connection to God at all times.  As soon as I look to God I cannot help but worship Him.  He is worthy of my worship.  God has made me creative and when I use my creativity to worship Him, It lights a fire within me.  I used to go to church  on a Sunday and worship.  I would sing a bit and then somewhere near the end of the singing I would connect with God again…  But now something has changed within me:  I no longer come disconnected, I come connected, ready to give my all for my Saviour, because He gave his all for me.  I long for the days in heaven when I can see Him and worship Him constantly, for now I pray for more of His Holy spirit, more of this connection, more of God in My life”