Late night query: What happens when you need to use the bathroom but you're faced with this?

Sweet Dreams,

Melissa

Hey Everyone :). I just thought I'd share my Revival Report with you. Each time we finish one of our assigned reading books, we have to do a report on it. However, it doesn't have to be a conventional report, just written out. We can express what we learned from the book in basically any creative way we want! So, I made this painting :).

What I got out of our first book (The World Aflame by Rick Joyner, which ALL OF YOU should read) was that in both the leaders and participants of a revival, being hungry and yielded makes way for the infinite potential of God. Having a desperation in our hearts for Him, and a humility and willingness to submit to whatever He does, makes way for powerful things.

So, there you go :). I have a feeling this will be the first of MANY Revival Report paintings.

Love and Blessings,

Melissa

MAN, today was a mind-blowing day. Have you ever had one of those experiences in which you hear something again that you've heard many times before but this time, it changes you forever because you actually understand it? God gave me one of those experiences today...I sincerely hope I NEVER recover from it.

Pastor Kris talked to us about how identity affects everything that we do. The Bible wasn't joking when it said, "As a man thinks, so is he." We must fix our minds on who GOD says we are or we are in danger of adopting the identity that the world, the enemy or even ourselves have wrongly assigned to us. Let me put it this way...it is difficult for me to become who God wants me to be if I'm constantly thinking about who everyone else says I am. Therefore, I must fix my thoughts who God says I am. Are you guys tracking with me so far? :)

Okay, so now Pastor Kris brought God's love into the mix because with the revelation that whatever we think, we will become, we must see God's all-encompassing, unconditional, radical, passionate love for us as it truly is. We must accept His love. More than that, I must learn to love myself in the same way God loves me. Not an arrogant, self-centered kind of love. I mean that I must see myself as God sees me because I will never let someone love me more than I love me. I must know who I am in Christ so that I can view myself rightly, accept the incredible love that God has for me, and thus, become who God wants me to be. I know, that's ALOT to process! I'm right there processing with you :). But as Pastor Kris would step aside from the pulpit and say, "That's a good word, right there."

ALL THAT SAID, that's not even the mind-blowing part! This is: Daniel 7, starting in verse 9. This passage details a vision that the Lord gave Daniel, and it says, "And behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him..." (after also seeing beasts and other things )Daniel is deeply troubled by the vision and wants to know what it means so he asks an angel next to Him. Good idea :). So the angel begins to explain and says that he hears a horn making war against the saints and prevailing against them UNTIL "the Ancient of Days came, and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom." In verse 26 he continues, "But the court shall be seated, and they shall take away his dominion (the dominion of the one coming against the saints of God), to consume and destroy it forever. Then the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High."

Okay, okay, so at this point we're like, "Well, that's great. I'm stoked for when Jesus comes back so we can get the kingdom and all that other good stuff." WRONG. With an inheritance this HUGE, it's important to know whether the we the saints will recieve this Kingdom in the FUTURE, or whether we have it NOW. Would it totally blow your mind to know that it is ours now? Think about it: All Christ talked about while He was on earth was the Kingdom. "The Kingdom of heaven is like..." "I must preach the Kingdom of God..."... preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick..." "And heal the sick there, and say to them, the Kingdom of God has come near to you..." "But seek first the Kingdom of God and all His righteousness..." "It is My Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom..." Christ was the fullfillment of Daniel's vision! When Adam and Eve sinned, they handed over the keys to the kingdom to Satan (Scripture tells us that he has dominion over the earth) BUT when Christ died on the cross, He was given "dominion and glory and a KINGDOM"! He redeemed that which we had lost! When He recieved the Kingdom, He passed it on to us. Though Satan brought a trial against Him, "the Ancient of Days came, and a judgement was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom."

So, if all this is true, if Christ's work on the cross accomplished what the Bible says it accomplished, then the "dominion and glory and a kingdom" has been in OUR CHARGE for over 2000 years.

Pause. Think. REVELATION.

Christ's authority, "all authority in heaven and earth", is ours. Satan has no power over us because this is no longer his kindgom. Is this clicking with you guys?!?? Because my mind is totally blown away!! Over and over, my spirit keeps repeating, "If God is for us, who can be against us." There is absolutely NOTHING stopping me from praying for the sick and seeing healing, for sharing the good news of the Gospel and seeing people saved, for seeing His Kingdom expanded on earth as it is in heaven! Nothing stopping me except me not realizing WHO I AM, and the authority given to me by Christ.

Like, I said, I will never be the same again.

Well, was that enough of an unload for you? :) If you would like a CD copy of this teaching, please let me know! I have reitterated it to the best of my ability and recollection but it is in no way perfect. Just doing my best to impart all that I'm receiving because this revelation belongs to you too!

Please give me feedback!

Be blessed and EMPOWERED by your place in the Kingdom,

Melissa

My latest accomplishment: CURTAINS! :D

I thought I'd let you guys in on my triumph! I haven't done any serious sewing since 8th grade Home Ec so I'm pretty excited that I was able to create something decent :). It's a miracle I was able to thread the machine! So, Mrs. Logan (my Home Ec teacher), wherever you are, YOU'RE WONDERFUL and have taught me well! Take joy in the fact that you gave me life skills!

Enjoy the pictures! I love my new room!

Blessings,

Melissa

The Word of the Day is TESTIMONY!

Wow, everyone, this morning's message was AWESOME! More than that, it was a faith-builder and a mind-transformer. Pastor Bill spoke about the connection between meditating on testimonies(Psalm 119:24,99) and gaining wisdom. Testimonies = a written or spoken history of God's nature among men, and wisdom = comes from encountering the character/nature of God. He spoke of the incredible power of simply speaking of what God has done, the power in the DECLARATION of the deeds of the Lord. Man, today he told us testimony after testimony after testimony of all the miracles they've seen at Bethel. A man who needed knee-replacement surgery dancing in the aisle because GOD performed it during worship. A woman who couldn't afford medical care COMPLETELY healed of apendicitis. A man who had suffered for over TEN YEARS with a crushed ankle received prayer, and his ankle was totally restored. A man with NO HIP JOINT walking up and down the stairs because of his healing. He even told us stories of people who were healed just because a testimony was spoken forth about God healing someone else with the same problem! It's just amazing! In Pastor Bill's words, "These things can't help but happen. It's the way He is."

The main thing I want to pass on to you all is just the power that testimonies carry. As we speak of the miracles God has performed in our lives (or even someone else's!), it enables those things to be duplicated. As we remember all He has done and keep our eyes fixed on what He is doing, we activate a connection with the history of God. No testimony ever gets old or loses power because HE DOESN'T CHANGE. So, technically, all we need is the Biblical accounts of Jesus' works to justify our faith for those very same miracles today! :)

Check this out, this blew my mind: the root of the word testimony means "do it again". HELLO! And it makes complete sense. Because God is no respector of persons, and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, these testimonies are His very NATURE, and He WILL repeat them!

So, in light of all that, remember what God has done! He doesn't allow us to observe His works just so we'll be ENTERTAINED. We are ARMED with stories of His faithfulness and power. He wants us to carry that standard of His nature into our next situation.

I hope this blesses you all! Oh, also, if you want to be TOTALLY BLOWN AWAY by some amazing worship, Brian and Jenn Johnson just released their newest album, and it is PHENOMENAL. Literally, as I was just playing the CD in my room, the presence of God came down, and I couldn't help but drop what I was doing and worship. So powerful! Anyway, you can order that at www.brianjohnsonmusic.com .


I love you guys! Be blessed!

Melissa

Hey Everyone!

I have SO MUCH to tell you about my BSSM retreat but I'll start you off with some pictures :).The first one is of Mt. Shasta on our drive up but the rest are so various that I'll just leave them unexplained. I WILL say that the scenery out there is absolutely stunning, and that I have most definitely found some new places for hiking :).

I think the best way to describe these past three days is "moving from glory to glory" because it didn't quite feel like a blowout, "mountain top" experience per se but rather just another step in an amazing process of transformation. I can honestly say that I will never be the same because of what God did at this retreat. You'll probably hear me say that a thousand times over these next nine months, and I'll mean it every single time with the utmost sincerity. God did such a work of increasing the passion and desperation in me...He got me to seriously ask myself, "How far are you really willing to go? Will you sacrifice even your dignity to have more of Me? Have you become possessed by this promise?" All those questions just stirred up an incredible hunger in me. And listen, I've been on my face before the Lord in the past but at one point during the first night's service, in a time when the Lord was just moving and working on us, I found myself on my face, crying out with more desperation than I ever have in my life. I didn't care...I didn't care if I was louder than the person next to me, I didn't care that there was even anyone else in the room...I just wanted more of Jesus. It was an awesome breakthrough for me into new levels of hunger for God.

God also did an ENORMOUS work in me in regard to worship. As some of you know, I've been trying to kick the last remnants of a cold for the past few days but I still have a bit of a runny nose and my voice is all messed up. So as a result, I was completely unable to sing for the entire duration of the retreat. Ahem. I was COMPLETELY UNABLE TO SING for the ENTIRE DURATION OF THE RETREAT. Needless to say, I became slightly frustrated because, as the Lord has created in me the heart of a worshipper, singing is at the core of my very being! And given that fact that all this fresh passion and hunger was being birthed in me, it was AWFUL not to be able to express it in the best was I know how! But that's where the Lord caught my attention. He opened my eyes, and helped me to come to a completely new understanding of the HEART of worship. With literally no sound coming from my mouth, I moved into ways of expressing my love for the Lord that I've never tried before. I'm not even sure if I can put it all into words but...all I know is that, when I CAN sing again, the worship that will come out of me will be that much more purposeful and passionate because I have a new understanding of what the Lord desires.

One last thing before I go :). I want to share, at least with those of you who are a part of my generation, something that was spoken over us my one of my pastors. He said that there is something within us that he has never seen before: divine justice. Though some have gone before us with this same stirring in their hearts, our generation has a POWERFUL cry within us that says, "This is NOT OKAY. The sick are getting prayed for but they aren't getting healed! Weapons formed against us are prospering! Things are happening in our world that completely contradict what I KNOW to be the Truth." It is a cry that says, "I WILL NOT ACCEPT ANYTHING LESS than what I KNOW God desires for us to walk in." How many of you have that same cry? The cry that says in the face of unanswered prayer, "This person came to me expecting to encounter You but they left having only encountered me. I MUST close the gap between heaven and earth so that when someone comes to me, they get what they would have gotten from Jesus Himself!" Is that clicking with you guys? Because I'm just on fire about that! Wah!

Anyway, I could keep going on and on for hours but I'll give you guys a break :). It was an incredible weekend and there's so much more to come.

Ask the Lord for more and He WILL pour it out! I love you and bless you all!

Just a quick update before I head off to retreat!

The whole school is heading up to JH Ranch until Thursday, but I will be staying until Saturday. They've asked about 50 of us to stay behind until Saturday to help out the Ranch with anything they need because they're basically hosting us for free! We pay for food but everything else comes from them. What an AMAZING blessing. So, anyway, my Friday belongs to them :).

This week is bound to be incredible. From everything we've heard about past retreats from the pastors and interns, it's like turning up our normal school days ten notches! I can't even imagine anything better but who knows we serve a God that wants to give us "exceedingly abundantly above all we could ask or think"? :D So, yeah, I'm really excited. Please keep me in prayer, that I'll be completely open to all the Lord wants to do, and that He'll continue to bring our class together in unity of purpose and passion.

I love you all! I'll fill you in as soon as I get home!!

Blessings,

Melissa

IT'S TESTIMONY TIME!

First off, I have to say, WOAH. Not wow this time. Last night's service definitely warrants a WOAH. I cannot even begin to describe how powerful a night it was. Worship was incredible, lasting over an HOUR, Pastor Bill Johnson spoke and it was just...powerful, powerful revelation about our generation. He talked about a number of different things but on of the main ones was that, God has not spoken promises and commands in THIS time, over THIS generation so we can pass off the resposibility that comes with those words to someone else. Does that make sense? He's is speaking NOW because He wants us to act NOW. Why would God speak promises about the salvation of the Nations only to put those promises into a time in the future where they can never be saved? No, it is OUR responsibility, and we must be obedient. That was the gist of his message but there was SO MUCH more to go along with it. If this stirs up any of your hearts, PLEASE let me know, and I will send you a copy of the message. No joke. I already have a list going of those that I know need to hear it but ANYONE who wants a copy, I WILL GET YOU ONE.

Now for the testimony! Well, to give you a little background, I've been feeling like I've been trying to get sick over these past few days, so I've been praying against it. And last night during the service, my symptoms were getting progressively worse. My throat was painfully sore, my nose was stuffy, I was getting achey and feeling a bit feverish. BUT when Pastor Bill began to pray over us an impartation of all He'd spoken about, I immediately began to feel better! Praise the Lord! The pain in my throat was gone, and my nose was alot less stuffy. So I kept praying for a little while, and then just turned to the girls next to me (second year students) and asked them to pray for me as well. Though I wasn't back to 100%, I felt even better after they prayed over me. So, I went home believing that I would be 100% better by today.

Now that I'm up, I have good news and news that still needs prayer :). The good news is that my throat is no longer sore, Praise the Lord, and my nose isn't stuffy! Yay God! The news that needs prayer is that I'm still feeling a bit weak and wobbly, and my glands are really swollen. So PLEASE PRAY! We have our retreat this week, and I don't want ANYTHING to distract me from what the Lord is doing. NOTHING is going to stop me from going but if you all could pray for my healing, I'd be very thankful :).

So, that's the scoop! Our God contines to be amazing and true and so much more faithful than I could deserve or imagine :).

Blessings on you all! Let me know if you want a copy of the message!

Good evening!I don't have much to say as far as the deep stuff going on up here (though there's a TON) but I wanted you all to see pictures of some of my new friends :). From the top, the first is a picture of me and my friend Zoe, the second is me, Zoe and Sarah, and the third has another of my friends, Amy. They're all awesome girls! TOTALLY ON FIRE for the Lord! It'll be great to get to know them better as the year goes on :).

Well, I seem to begin every post with "Wow" but I just can't articulate my feelings any other way.

Wow. I can hardly believe that I've only been up here for a week. ONE WEEK and I've gained more wisdom and revelation than conference after conference put together! In fact, going to BSSM every day is basically the spiritual revelation equivalent of attending a weekend conference :). One major difference: at a conference, you get to go home and ponder it for the next few weeks whereas at Bethel, they just keep dishing it out and dishing it out and DISHING IT OUT. It's all good but...have you ever been in a place that you're so full you think you can't process any more but you can't help but keep asking God to pour out all He wants to give? Yep, that's basically me right now :).

This week has just been a process of God increasing the hunger in me. Every day I feel just a little bit more freedom, and every day another measure of hunger, another measure of passion, another measure of joy comes...It's funny but I can see and feel change in me already. I can't even FATHOM what I'm going to look like once this year is over! It's going to be incredible! I'm SO excited for the transformation and promotion that the Lord is going to bring.

I love you all, and am praying that God will move in your lives as powerfully as He's moving in mine. Let me leave you with a question: What are you hungry for?


Earnestly seeking,

Melissa

Hello again!

Wow...I've been completely inundated these past two days. There has just been SO MUCH being poured out on us, sometimes it's bit difficult to soak it all it. I want to give you guys just a taste of some of the teaching we've been receiving up at Bethel. Some of it is so profound that it makes me just want to sit there and chew on it for an hour. Honestly, I think Bill Johnson (Bethel's Sr. Pastor) is more filled with wisdom and revelation than pretty much any other pastor I've heard. It's NUTS. Here are just a few snippets from the past two days...I hope they rocks your socks!


If you understand everything in your Christian life, you have an inferior Christian life. Our God is a God of mysteries. If you understand it all, your God is the same size as you.

Bethel made a focused prayer effort for 3 months against cancer and as a result, the hospitals in the area have seen a 57% DECREASE in cancer admissions.

Every revelation about God is ultimately about us because we are made in His image.

What do I do in the face of unanswered prayer?? Well, my failures don't change the words on the page. God’s Word still says what it says. If it’s God’s will and God’s nature yet it’s not happening in my life, where’s the problem?

If something matters to us, it matters to God because we have the capacity to glorify Him in it.

Discipline is the backstop that catches stray pitches but you are to be known for your PASSION.

You will stay encouraged if you watch what God is doing and not what He hasn’t done. Focusing on what hasn’t happened only justifies your unbelief.

As long as the church goes where it’s gone before, we don’t need signs. But if we want to move into new territory, we need signs in order to lead us there.

Be willing to do whatever is takes! “If you WON’T do what you CAN do, how will you ever do what you CAN’T?”



That's just a FRACTION of what's being poured out on us. Think about it.


Be Blessed,

Melissa

Alright, now I want to give you all a peek into the worship at Bethel. It is AMAZING. If I could imagine what the throneroom of God looks like, this is the closest thing to it because people are so totally free and so completely enraptured by God's presence. Looking around the room, I couldn't help but think to myself, "This is what true love looks like."

For those of you who haven't seen worship like this before, let me give you a bit of insight :). The front portion of the sanctuary, just in front of the stage is left wide open for people to worship freely any way they want to. People can dance, jump, and even use giant flags or banners to express themselves as they praise and worship the Lord. It's such a moving thing to behold. Also, if you'll look closely at some of the pictures, you'll see artists set up on stage with their easels. This is something I've only seen in a few churches but Bethel calls it "prophetic art" (they have an entire department in the School of Ministry dedicated to it). Basically what that means in the context of worship is that, a team of artists (usually BSSM students) sets up on stage, and simply asks the Lord to reveal to them pictures or words during worship, and whatever God shows them, they paint it. It's awesome to see how the paintings change as worship goes on too. They'll start out one way, and then someone else will come in and add something that completely changes the piece, or maybe they'll just turn the canvas on it's side and the message of the picture will become totally clear. It's AWESOME, and I'm going to do everything I can to get involved with it :).

Anyway, enjoy the pics! And please comment! I want feedback on this one!

P.S. That last picture is a shot of the entire Bethel campus (as seen from highway 299)

And here's some more! I won't explain every one though b/c there are too many :). Actually, I WILL say that, yes, that is a teeny tiny kitty in one of the pictures. It was playing around in the Taco Bell drive-thru!

Here are the pictures I promised! (Oh, and please pardon the typos in my last post. I just saw them :).

The first ones are some lovely views of my car. It was PACKED. Props to Daddy for doing an amazing job!

The pic on the side is an AMAZING Kodak moment that I encountered. There was a huge fire on a mountainside nearby so the smoke was creating a really eerie atmosphere over the lake. I almost crashed my car trying to get a good shot! :)

And here's a random one of my feet :). That one's for you, Jenn!

I FINALLY found some reliable wireless internet! And wouldn't you know, it's in the church sanctuary ;).

Well, I feel a bit strange giving you this first update because I attmepted to post one earlier, and after writing out everything that has happened to me since I got here, the connection freaked out and I lost everything thing. If you know me, you know that I can be persistant but also that I get frustrated by little things like unreliable internet :). Needless to say, I'll give you the reader's digest version of everything I tried to post before: the past week has been INTENSE. It has been difficult and emotional and overwhelming, wonderful and incredible and TOTALLY God. Sunday was probably the most difficult day so far but it was also the most rewarding. My parents left that day, and that was....so hard. It was like...standing on the edge of a cliff, all by myself, for the very first time. Mom and dad, I love you SO MUCH that I cried for an hour. But what God did after that was even more amazing.

I went to the evening service and it was so freeing and incredible. First of all, the sanctuary was PACKED. There are 350 first-year students alone, PLUS the second and third year students (200ish), PLUS a ton of people from the church congregation. It was AWESOME! I can't even describe the joy and excitement and comfort I felt to be worshipping in the presence of God, and in the company of scores of people who were passionately in love with Him. INCREDIBLE.

So, that was Sunday. I'll send pictures of the drive up to Redding, and a few of the worship so you all can see :).

I'm getting kicked out the sanctuary now but I'll give you all another update soon!

I love you all, and covet your prayers over me for strength, boldness, and openness to all that God has for me up here!

Blessings and grace over you all,

Melissa

Okay, anyone who remembers this moment in Seniors '06 history, props to you. You know why this picture is so HILARIOUS.

"Fifty stars on the American flag?!"

"Uh, Guti, there were only thirteen on it then."

"Thirteen stars?! You're out of your mind Ross!"

Yeah, remember that? One of the best days EVER in Econ ;).