Day 4 Bethel School of Worship

After the worship (awesome) my first lecture was by Danno McCollam.  When this man speaks everything in me listens. He is the man I told you about that talks like the clappers.  He is so fast that there is steam on my pen as I try to write it all down.  Hi stalk was amazing.  I have now been and changed my classes so I will be in more of His.  He is so inspiring to listen to.  Here is my recording: I hope the sound is audible on it.

I have been recording his classes ask I cannot write fast enough to keep up.  In this class he was talking about redeeming sounds for God.  God says in psalm 150 that we should praise him on all kinds of instruments.  It says then the earth will yeild it's harvest and all the people on the earth will respond.  He said that our song has an authority over the earth and is linked to the bringing forth of the land. 

What power does your song have over your land?  His talk very much reminded me of one I heard Godfrey Birtil Say.  Maybe that is why I love his music so much: it speaks over the land. 

He spoke a lot about the responsiblity of a worship leader to lead people into God's presence.  He said that we need to meet the people where they are at, bring them to where you are at and then take them to where God is at.   He said:

• We need to go where the people are.  The best fishing is where there is loads of fish.  
• We need to abide in God in private so that we know when he turns up in church
• You need to know where God is leading His people.
• There is no point leading people to where the spirit is not at.
• Just like an ambassador in another country, we need to be ambassadors for God in the earthly realm.
• When an ambassador in another country you speak the county's language.  We have to do the same in the earthly realm.  Why not have music that glorifies God written in the genre or style of the popular music in that country or that generation?  
• Western worship does not reflect the music in the world.  You need to write worship music that is in the style of your country.  Don't copy, we are unique.
• When you sing songs written for your generation, or for your country, or for your church, you will see things shift more in the spiritual atmosphere.
• Sing a bout what you see around you, sing about what is happening in your church, sing the prophetic song over your country. 
• Sounds of your land will have the greatest impact on the territorial spirits of that land
• We want to write songs that make demons cry like little girls.

Then I went to Jenn Johnson's class on prophetic and spontaneous songs.  She gave lots of tips about how to lead worship in a magnifying and exhausting way.  How not to be miserable in our praise. 

• Instead of saying 'I am weary' .. sing 'You are our strength when we are weary'.  
• Even when you are not leading worship or are in the team you should still be praying over the church and leading them in worship by example.  
• We need to pray for our team and ask God to show you what their gifts are so we can encourage them in their giftings and place them in the worship team.
• If God gives you a prophetic word for someone and it is a rebuking word it is best to tell the pastor and get him to deliver the word.  Pastors are nice soft people, prophets are normally a bit loud and often don't have the tact.

Then I went to 'Finding your song' by Danno McCollom.   Yes 2 of his lectures in 1 day (in fact I went to 3, no wonder it is taking me so long to type up).  This was a great lecture explaining the different types of worship song and where to start to write them. 

I am really sorry to interrupt my flow but my room mate is doing stretches with an enormous elastic band and she looks so funny I really cannot concentrate.

Ok back to the flow.  His talk really encouraged me as I have already used some of his principles. He said

• The best place to start is with scripture (it is already anointed!)
• Music engages more of the brain and is really good at helping people remember scripture.
• Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, meditate on it and write from that.
• When singing the psalms find 2 or so hook lines to sing over and get the congregation to sing them between your verses.  It helps keep them engaged and you focused.
• Record your personal worship times so that if a song comes out you can capture it.
• When the church is given a prophetic word, turn it into a song and sing it over the church.
• Write down the themes of the most used 25 songs in the church.  Do they cover all the major theological themes?  Are there any gaps?  Do you need a song for that gap?
• Turn the main theme of a sermon into a simple song to sing at the end of the service as a response song.
• Write about what God has been doing in your life - it could help someone going through it too.
• Every song has a season - most songs take 6-7 years before they reach out over the world.  A lot of the 1990's revival were written in the 80's.
• Declarations have power and your church will rise to the power of the declaration.  Write where you want to be.
• Songs of lamentation need to rise to declaration.  "life is hard" - "Yet I can trust in You"
• Be a good steward of a song God gives you.  Work on it so that you can offer it back multiplied. 
• Write a song that people can run with you on.  Don't make it difficult for people to come with you... it will not bless them or God.

Next I went to a class taught by Kathy Vollottan.  She talked about how the devil plants seeds in your garden and you don't notice them until they are huffing great plants with deep roots.  She said

• we need to watch our garden so that we notice when the seeds not of God are sown.  
• Find out what God has created you to be and then be it.  Don't try and be anything else.  
• If you put a plant in the right environment it will grow, like carp in a large pond.
• In life we have to go through processes and if we try and rush or skip the process we will not turn out the way God wants us to.  Just like in how making bread has a process and if you skip a step you will get hard yucky bread.

 Quote of the day....

"Humility is not thinking less of you, it is thinking of you less"

My day was so packed.  I am only up to Dinner time now with still 2 more classes to write about.  I just want to give up now as one of the classes is another Danno McCollam class...

OK brief summery just for my husband who asked for details:

• There is a difference between a prophetic song and a spontaneous or spiritual song.
• There are 3 ways to sing in a  Ephesians 5 v 19 way.

1. Sing with no words at all, just sing a melody.  We practiced this in the class and the sound was awesome.  No tongues , no words just a melody.  It was awesome (so want to do this in church)
2. Sing with understanding: Sing out something like ' I love you Jesus' or 'You are King of Kings'
3. Sing in tongues.  This one brings more freedom than singing with understanding because it says in scripture that when you sing in tongues you unlock secret of the kingdom.

My next class was with Gabriel Wilson.  He was talking about his journey as a worship leader and how God had placed him in a church where the holy spirit was not present and how God showed him how to make breakthrough in his church in the spiritual realm.  It was awesome and he emphasised how important the language you use is.  He said that if you can find a scripture which talks about what you are asking the congregation to do it will help the people to setp out in it.

I was encouraged that he prepares for a Sunday morning on Sunday night like me.  Asking the Lord to show him where he wants the church to be the following week so he can pray into it all week.  He says that he prophesied over his church all week so that when Sunday morning came the spiritual atmosphere had already been broken through.  He said whatever time your pastor gives you for worship, be obedient to that but make sure that the time you have counts.  I also loved how he said he modeled how to worship from the front.  As he was from a non hand raising church he asked his band to raise one hand whenever they could, if they were not playing at all to get on their knees and pray for the church or dance or something to worship God.  He said to keep a prophetic journal so that you could see what God was doing and be ready to sing about it.  He said that as leaders we should tell the church where we think God is taking us so that they can expect it too.

God had been speaking to me all day with prophetic stuff for my home church.  It was awesome how he said the same thing in so many ways.  I am excited about getting home now and seeing God move in the way he showed me.  Bring on the glory Lord :)

And that was the end of the 4th day.

Day 3 Bethel School of Worship

Today my day kicked off with some amazing worship: worshiping for an hour and a half every morning is just awesome.  It is the best start for a day ever. 

Then we had a talk form Jerry Aaronson.  It was entitled ‘good vibrations’.  To be completely honest when he started talking my brain just switched off.  He launched into explanations of sounds waves, hertz and oscillations etc.  It just transported me back into my A-level physics lessons and I kind of drifted in listening until BAM! He caught my attention.  He basically said that every sound has a shape.  Different sounds make a different shape.  Our sound is unique because it makes a different shape for God.  He showed a video of a sound plate with sand poured over it.  Different frequencies were than played into the plate and the sand suddenly made the most beautiful moving pictures.

Then he showed us what happens when you put frequencies though corn flour solution.  

In the beginning God spoke the world into being… I was totally amazed.  There is power in the prophetic declaration.  When we declare something with our voice, with our sound it moves.  Not only to build things but also the take stuff down.  When your frequency matches the item (for instance rubbing a finger around a wine glass) you can break it.  By singing at a certain frequency you can shatter a mirror…  Joshua and the isrealites were told to march around Jerico and then shout.  The walls came straight down.  Their cry destroyed a fortress.

He said that all objects have their own sound.  Everything resonates. 

Even the earth and stones have a song.  Let all creation praise Him.  God does not want us to sound like another person.  He doesn’t even want us to write songs like other people’s.  He has given us a unique DNA and we all have a unique sound.  It will be your unique sound that will break through the spiritual atmosphere.

The rest of my day was a bit different today.  I went to a class which was not what I expected it to be… and then I went to some others where people were sharing testimonies. It was great to be able to relax a bit and I caught up a bit with my blog.  

Here are some of the different things I picked up from the other classes:

• When you are impregnated with a vision from God, you need to start being hungry for 2.  Start eating for 2.  For you and for the vision God has given you.
• Do we know what we carry? We are not just worship leaders at church.  If we lead people at church, they will also be looking at us to lead in all areas of our life.  Are we leading a lifestyle of worship and intimacy in all areas of our life.
• When your life is going up and down with sin, you may be repenting and starting over but be aware that when you fall, those who follow you may not be able to get back up so easily.

The rest of the day I participated in a band practice.  I played Keys and despite not even knowing the song, and having no time to rehearse I got really positive feed back.  I was so nervous about doing this class.  I think I still thought my piano playing was inferior to everyone else.  I got the best piano review and now I am starting to think… maybe I have already been equipped for where God is taking me. 

After that I went to creative expressions.  This is an opportunity for students to perform something unique on the huge stage.  I had signed up and when it got to my turn I was so nervous.  I played my song ‘where can I go from You’.  There was a house band and they were busy joining in with all the other acts but they did not join in my song.  I thought ‘oh they don’t like it’,  Also they use ‘in ear monitors’ and mine fell out pretty much straight after I started my song.  But I just asked God to bless my song and I sang and sang.

I finished and sat down thinking ‘ I hope that went ok’,  But ever since I have had so many people come up to me and encourage me, saying my voice is anointed and my song rose their spirit.  Even today (I know you think it is Wednesday on my blog but in fact it is Friday that I am writing this), people keep coming up to me and encouraging me.  I have never been so encouraged as I have been here. 

So that was day 3.  A more chilled day, but still so encouraging and mind blowing.  I can feel the Lords presence all the time now.  It feeeeeels Gooooood.

Day 2 Bethel School of Worship

 Wow, today was the most awesome day I have ever had with God.  It was like he was on my case all day (in a really good way).  I had 6 different prophetic things said to me or over me that all coincided.  It was also the most freeing day I have had ever.  

During the worship Steffany Gretzinger broke out into a spontaneous song… (it was from the Christmas song’

                Do you hear what I hear?

                Do you see what I see?

                A song a song breaking through the night.

It was like God was saying...  So

  

•  ‘You need to see what I see in you, you need to hear how I hear you, your song, your song is breaking through the night’

We then had a session  with Jenn and Brian Johnson talking about how we need to step out to a level where we are responding to God with our spirit and not our flesh.  When we praise we break through the spiritual atmosphere. 

I then went to “review my song” and managed to sing one that I had written to be critiqued by Brian Johnson and his lyricist master.  I was so nervous to present a song but decided to sing “Lord release your power”  which I wrote for my local church. The song started as a prayer in journal, to see God’s spirit and power to break through in my church.  I was worried it was too simple but after hearing them tell everyone to simplify their songs I thought ‘Oh what the heck… I’ll give it a go’.  I shook like a crazy woman.  

I sang it and when I looked up Brian had his hands out worshiping.  That alone was great.  Their comments were really encouraging and they loved my passion, simplicity and melody.  I was a bit shocked really.  So I heard God say…

• You can write songs.

After the song review lesson a lady came up to me and said that my song had changed the atmosphere in the room.  She said that the Lord was saying that my songs would change the spiritual atmosphere of my country. 

• Your songs are going to change the atmosphere of your country

The next lecture was by Dan McCollom.  He preached faster than my husband (and that is saying something).  He blew my mind….  I have never heard anything that roused my soul so much.  He was saying that most of the training resources are about how to have better Sunday services.. but he said that Sunday morning is such a small part of worship.  We are too busy trying to get God to ‘fill the room’ that we are missing ‘filling his temple’.

He talked about the 3 heavens and the purpose of worship in each of them.  

      The 1^st heaven is the realm of man.  The purpose of worship in this heaven is saturation.  Psalm 72v19 says the whole earth should be filled with his glory.  By worshiping we create the spiritual atmosphere.  God is a creator God and His creation declares His glory: so when we create we declare His glory too.  We need to be creative in the church as this brings Glory to the Lord.  We need to break out from just worshiping in church.  We need to take our worship into schools, into hospitals, into old people’s homes.  Wherever we worship, we change the spiritual atmosphere .  

      The 2^nd heaven is the realm of the fallen.  The purpose here is to displace the darkness with light.  When you cast out something bad out you have to fill the void with light and glory (otherwise you are leaving them open for more darkness).   

      The 3^rd heaven is the realm of God.  The function of worship there is for God’s pure delight.  We are seated with God now… we don’t need to wait to die.  Even when we have technical problems, or feel like we can’t sing: we still bring delight to God.   

•  I am an atmosphere changer.

In the dinner break I had my private singing lesson so we literally ran to ‘in and out’ and grabbed a burger.  In the queue a lady tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if I was from England.  I get asked all the time: my accent normally gives me away.  I said “yes you heard my accent”.  She said “no… I have never heard you speak.  I just sat way behind you in a main session and I saw this huge banner over you.  It said Mother and Heart for England.” I didn’t know what to say.  She saw my passions.  

• God has given me purpose: motherhood and passion for my country.

     Then I went to my singing lesson.  I had been told by the music teacher at my secondary school that I could not sing.  I could especially not sing high: “You sound like a drowned rat when you sing high” were the words that resonate in my mind.  I had tried to cover this with transposing every song down and singing with a very breathy voice.  This is the very reason why I have been getting sore throats all the time.  When she realised I was holding back and singing ‘petty’ I told her about had to been said to me.  She completely rebuked the comment and cut it off.  She said I had a great voice.  As she showed me how step out I found a voice I never knew I had.  It was like a release.  She has given me exercises to practice… but more than that she restored me.  She said “You do not know what sound like.  You are an amazing singer”.  I am not saying this on here to big myself up: I just had never heard this before.  It had been said to me before but I had never heard it: she is a professional voice coach, an extremely qualified voice coach trained by Michael Jackson’s voice coach.  I believe it now.  

• I can sing and God likes my song.

Then I went straight into my flagging class.  Ok, this is the class I was most looking forward.  Every time I hear music I want to dance… but to be fair dancing is difficult to do when you are self-conscious.  But, dancing with a flag is much less cringe-worthy (and acceptable in church).  So I was hoping to learn some great moves.  This class was not what I expected at all.  But it was far, far, far better than I thought it would ever be.  It was prophetic flagging.  We were asking God for a picture and then creating it with our flag.  Something happened in me.  Suddenly my lack of freedom and low confidence disappeared and my inner dancer just shone through.  I danced with my flag. I danced and danced.  Then she had half of us lie on the floor while the other flaggers danced and prayed over us.  I have never known a spiritual atmosphere like it.  It was like I could see God and hear him so clearly.  While I was on the floor he spoke to me and showed me a picture.  It was of a volcano.  God said “This is you, you smouldering.  But now what I have put in is going to erupt: your light lava is going to go everywhere, seeping into every crevice.  It is going to change the atmosphere.  

• You have been waiting for this and you are going to erupt!  It is going everywhere, changing the atmosphere.

So, God spoke to me today as you can see in so many ways.  Like he was validating me the next thing he has for me.

I know this blog is long today, but I needed to get it all down to remember what God has said.

On our way out of the school we bumped into a few guys singing with their guitars in the car park.  I said to the girls that we should join in.  So we started to sing with them.  Then someone pulled over a bin and got out his drum sticks.  Another got out a mouth piano and suddenly the worhip just stepped to another level.  With my new found freedom I grabbed my pashmina and stepped up on the bench and waved it with all my might.  I danced unashamed and undone by my God.  Then someone said that we should pray for rain as Colorado was being consumed by bush fires.  We all broke out into ‘let it rain’ and I did a rain dance.  Yep a rain dance.  After about 15 minutes of awesome worship someone got a call to say that it had just started to rain in Colorado.  We just worshiped God for his greatness, then we had a call to say that Colorado was now on a flood warning.  Is that not amazing.  Wherever you are you can change the spiritual atmosphere.  Who needs sound equipment, a set, an amazing hall to break through in worship?  We had a bin, a pashmina and a bin.

So here is someone else's YouTube upload of our worship time.  Yes I am the one dancing on the bench at the back with the pashmina....

This is the rain song... and a fantastic testimony from someone who just led someone to the Lord

So I am done now.  If you have read down this far – WELL DONE!!!!!!!

Amazing God

Ok .... I am writing to say that I cannot possibly put all the amazing things God has been saying to me and doing in my life here today.  I get home so late and there is so much.  I may have to catch up on this blog when I get time.  Today was the most amazing day I have ever had with God... and I cannot wait to tell you about it.  But now I am going to sleep. :)

Day 1 Bethel School of worship

I am really struggling to download pictures and the videos I have recorded are taking me hours to download on this netbook.  So it will probably be that I just write, add photos when I can and then upload videos when I get home on my husband's computer.

The very first thing we did was register and sit in line. The line went all around the building.  But the atmosphere was electric with anticipation.

 I had the most awesome day today.  I have been in the most amazing worship environment. The worship was so good: 500 people all with a passion for God and worship to just come together and give God glory. 

Today Bill Johnson gave a talk and said that when we spend time alone with God and learn how to recognise his presence on our own, we will begin to see it in our corporate worship.  It manifests in people in different places:  Bill feels it like a fire on his shoulder.  We spent time asking God to show us how we feel His presence.  As soon as he said that I had the feeling in the bottom of my stomach that I feel when I get a prophetic word.

It excited me to think that if each member of the church learnt in their private life to feel God’s presence, it would be awesome when we all got together.

When we asking God to show his presence to me gold dust began to appear all over my not book, and my hands.  I had seen this happen on a documentary before I left home and I remember thinking.. “why would God do that?  Why not heal or do something important and life changing”.  But in that moment I realised that God sometimes just wants to bless us and show us how much He loves us.

He also talked about how when we get a bigger boat from God we need to make sure our anchor grows too.  We need to spend more time with God anchoring ourselves in the word.

Next Kris Vallotton was talking about how you become what you think you are.  Like Jacob: his name meant deceiver.  He deceived and was deceived. But God chose to change his name. He was living under his old name – but God wanted to step into what God had for him.   So Jacob needed a new name.  If we think we are rubbish we act like rubbish.  If your faith is in your sin you will be a sinner.  If know the King is your daddy, you will be part of His royal family.  If you know your identity as a prince or princess you will act like it.  Stop behaving below your identity.  We are predestined!!!!!!!  When you were born and were a child you knew that you were amazing.  You wanted to be superman or a doctor, or great missionary.  It is life that knocks the identity out of us. We are told we are no good.. but we are made in His image – we are his kids!

Then I went to a vocal class.  It was my 1^st vocal class ever and it was like a light switched on in my head.  I have now found the source of my constant sore throats:  It is because my technique means that my vocal chords are open too much.  I have booked a private lesson tomorrow and am really excited to get some help with my singing.

 

It was a totally awesome day but I am going to have to get used to the lack of down time.  I am classes until 10pm and 1 hour for lunch and 2 for dinner.  By the time we get home we only have time to eat something quick at dinner time.  Tonight I had a bizarre combination of raw corn on the cob, bacon and a cheese toastie. 

I cannot wait for tomorrow….  I am so excited 

Sunday service and all things yummy

Today I woke at 5am.  It is improving.  I managed to stay in bed until sound 7am and then I got up to skype my kids.  It was so so so good to see them again and chat to them.  I have really missed everyone: a lot!

Then we got to go to church for the 1st time.  Because there are so many of us here we were asked to go to the other campus where we were going to have our own service.  It was amazing.  The worship was great.  There were seats and we rushed to get ones at the front.  But then when the worship started everyone went to the front and worshipped God there. I thought how awesome would that be in our church if when it started everyone just came to the front.

Then someone gave a prophetic word about how God sees the sacrifices we have made to get to the school: money, family, jobs.  He said that God sees our sacrifice of praise and is going to move in power in our lives.

We had Kris Vallotton give the talk.  It was really good.  It took me a while to understand what he was saying and he kept cracking jokes so it was difficult at first to make notes.  But when he got going it was great.  He was talking about abiding in God and to abide in God we need to be pruned to keep bearing fruit.  He said that we do a lot for our bosses that we might not want to do but we do it to be obedient and to get paid.  We turn up on time because we want the money.  But, do we turn up to church on time to get more love?  Are we obedient to all that God has asked us to do.  He said that if we want to be transformed we first need to be informed and to be informed we need to be instructed (ie accept God's training).  By the way it is very different when someone preaches here.  The congregation join in and make loads of noise saying things like "preach it brother" and "you have word".  It is crazy to watch.  American speakers must come to England and think we are all either bored or asleep!



After church we went to Luigi Pizza with some other students.  4 of us shared a pizza and it was the biggest one I have ever seen.  It was also the most delicious pizza I have ever tasted.  It was so great not to cook and it was the 1st time I got to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine.  All the Americans were worried I would fry in the heat.  (it is not too hot here at the moment: only about 25 degrees).  They think it so funny how white I am.












Then we went next door to Cold Stone which is an ice cream place.  It was so tasty.   I am glad I only had a small one as it was very rich and I could not finish it.

 

Tonight I went to the evening service at the main Bethel church.  :)))))

 Jeremy Riddle led worship and the glory cloud came.  Yes gold dust was just hovering up near the ceiling.  I saw it.  With my own eyes.  It is a real thing.  I had a speck of gold on my hand. 





At the end we went through a fire tunnel where people pray and you get filled with the holy spirit.  It was awesome to watch and definitely something we can do in our local church. 

I didn't manage to get any pictures of the Glory cloud but it looked like this one:

After we went to In and Out burger.  Thanks Jamie for recommending it.  It was an amazing burger not like the thin limp ones we get in the UK.  In and out also print scripture on their napkins and cups etc.  We didn't get to eat until after 9pm.  I am struggling to adjust to this eating at odd times.  I need to cook at home again tomorrow as 2 fast foods in one day is not great for my stomach.  We have not had much time to relax yet and our classes start tomorrow which will be full on.

A great but exhausting day

Firstly can I say I am so jet lagged and tired that I have not checked this post for mistakes and am really too tired to arrange all the photos to fit around the text properly.  I am so so so tired.

I arrived at the airport at about 5.30am.  I wanted to be the 1st on standby to check in.  The lovely lady told me though that the time you arrive does not mean the order of standby.  She said the flights were all full but there were 8 flights today so I should get onto one of them.

I waited at the gate and got chatting to the other people who arrived also on standby.  6 of us in total.  The plane only holds about 25 people and we were told it was full full full and we would probably not get on.

We discovered a few of us were all going to Bethel School of Worship and another lady said she went to the church so we decided to pray for our tickets.  We prayed - like in the terminal - in front of all the other passengers.   And..... We all got on the flight.  PRAISE GOD!

The flight was amazing.  Much better than the huge plane.  It was like gliding and the views were stunning.  It was a tiny plane though:




I arrived at Redding to find they were doing building work on their little terminal.  So this was baggage reclaim....  a small tent in the car park.

I then got picked up by my host who then took me around walmart at some speed to choose food for the week.  I was jet lagged and considering the pace we went round I am so pleased I have things that might go together.

So this is my new home:  Huge.  It even has a veranda with rocking chairs
 

 Then home and making the dinner.  It is a real luxury to cook in such a big kitchen on a huge cooker.  One of my room mates thought I should have a photo of that.

 After I unpacked a few of us went for a walk up the hill to see Bethel Church.  It is a huge hill... but a lovely walk after being cooped up on areoplanes so long.

We spent an hour in the 24/7 prayer room and it was amzing to take in the views whilst praying and flag waving and stuff.  Beutiful.


So now it is 9.10pm local time, 5.10am UK time and I have been up for 19 hours so I am heading to bed.  Tomorrow is my first church service... and hopefully a trip to the International House of Pancakes....