Day 8 Bethel School of Worship

Today the worship was loud and we danced a lot.  It was great.  Jeremy Riddle was praying that we would be stubborn and have faces set like flint to God.  I am so pleased I got a picture of him saying this:

Then Steffany Frizzell prayed that we would lose our own minds and take on the mind of Christ. 

After this Christa Black Gifford came and talked about ‘Perfection V’s Excellence’.  It was one of the most amazing talks I have ever listened to.  In fact I went to the book shop and bought her book.  I tried to upload the talk on here but is not working so I will have to try tomorrow.

Her main points were:

• Perfection is the fruit of performance but excellence is the fruit of sonship.
• If you only think you are loved when you do well, you will be a perfectionist.
• Adam and Eve were in the garden in the beginning, before the fall they walked with no shame.  Even in their nakedness they had no self awareness, they were outward looking and had intimacy with God. 
• When the fall happened they then became aware of their nakedness.  They became self aware and inward focussed.
• Some of us are wearing a cloak of shame too.
• But, in the garden of Eden God walked with them.  Now, he lives in us.  So why are we still wearning the cloak of shame?
• Why are we not living like God is inside of us?
• Shame makes us focus on what we don’t have and not on what we have been given.
• When we judge ourselves we also judge others. 
• 1 cor 4 v3-5 says that we are not allowed to judge ourselves or others before Jesus comes back because we are in a supernatural period of grace.  Even when we reach judgement day we will receive praise from our God.
• John 16 v7-11  Christ lives in me.  My sin is dead because Christ lives in me.  Because my sin is dead, I cannot receive judgment for it. 
• The Holy spirit is here to convict you of your righteousness not your sin.  When God points to an area of your life – He is not pointing at your sin, He is pointing you towards the truth about Him you have not realised.  For example instead of pointing at you in your food binge saying ‘you disgust me’ he is pointing at His love saying ‘You just don’t know yet how much I love you.  Bask in my love’
• Again she told the story about the man who was dwelling in his misery of years ago.  Jesus said “I want my stuff back.  I paid for that.  I want it back.  It is not yours anymore!”
• She gave a testimony of how one day she needed a binge fix.  So she snuck into the kitchen and started to devour food.  Suddenly she heard a pop behind her: It was her new husband opening a packet of crisps.  She stood full of shame at being caught.  He said to her, ‘oh honey.  If you need to binge I am just gonna sit here and binge with you.  I don’t want you to be alone in this’.  She said this is what God does in our sin.  He comes to the darkest place, shines his light and loves into wellness.

I have to say I just sat after and cried.  Not in sadness but in relief … as condemnation left me.

 

After lunch I went to a Spoken word class.  I went to this one for my friend Rachael… I have recorded it for you lovely friend.  This is mike last year at Bethel School of Worship:

He gave the history of the spoken word and then performed some of his spoken word stuff.   It is basically dramatic poetry.  He is very good.  I would love to see some of this in our church: another creative expression.  I would also love to see dance and art incorporated into our services too.  I watched a lady paint a picture in the service a few days ago and it spoke so clearly to me prophetically.  

Also he endorsed getting an iPhone to record lyrics and to record poem and song ideas.  I am going to have to save up for one of these.  Might take me a while.

Next I went to another class with Christina Black Gifford.  She was talking about leading in rest.

God does not expect Christains to give every minute to ‘the cause’ at the expense of their families.  God wants us to rest in Him and love our families. 

• God will not ask you to give and give at the expense of your health – we do not need to strive in the Kingdom.
• We get the wrong idea about work and striving though our culture (you must be the 1^st in and the last out to be successful), our families (you have to get good grades, you have to be the best), and the structure of  religion and Church (all about the Sunday service and meetings).  But God modelled rest to us in Genesis 2 v 1-2.  God rested on the 7^th day.
• Jewish people have a day off one a week – always.  But they are very productive.
• When you rest in God He will give you all you need for the rest of the day. You will be more productive. 
• 2 Cron v20   We don’t need to fight the enemy – he has a third of the angels, we have 2 thirds and Jesus, and God and the Holy spirit.  We are on the winning side…  When we rest and praise God defeats our enemies for us.
• Soak and still yourself in the Lord and He will bless you and keep you.

After one more main session we went out to celebrate July 4^th.  I will post about that later.  It was awesome!!!!

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.

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.