My very first ministry trip of the year!

Hey Everyone!

I just had the most incredible weekend! I went on my first Firestorm trip with Kevin Dedmon, and we had the joy and honor of totally rocking a church in San Diego! For those of you who don't know what a "Firestorm" is, I'll explain: Firestorms are weekend trips in which a team from Bethel equips, activates, and empowers other churches who are hungry for revival, miracles, healings, the prophetic, powerful outreach, etc to become part of the DNA of their church. We lead at least 3 services throughout the weekend, bless the church leadership by ministering to them with prophetic words, take them on "treasure hunt" outreach into their community, and impart as much of Bethel's revival culture as we can. The "fire" in Firestorms is all about releasing the Father's heart of passion over people, and bringing them into a revelation of His love for us as sons and daughters of His Kingdom. The "storm" is all about changing the atmosphere! When a storm is on the way, you can feel it, smell it, even taste it in the air, and these ministry trips are with the purpose of equipping churches to change the spiritual atmosphere of their cities and regions by releasing the manifest presence of God.

So, that said, we had an amazing time releasing God's goodness over the church in SD. Our ministry focus emphasized healing and miracles, and all together, we saw between 150 and 200 healings in our 4 day visit! SO CRAZY! God was moving so powerfully, and the variety of miracles was incredible! Everything from backs, hips, and heads healed of all pain to breast tumors dissolving, endomitriosis healed, cysts disappearing, legs growing out, and more! One of the most fascinating testimonies was one of a man who had cut off the end of his thumb (up to the first knuckle) with a skillsaw. Our leader Kevin grabbed the man's thumb in his hand while several of the guys on the team began to pray for it, and lo and behold, his thumb began to grow back! His thumb nail even began to reform! Come on, Jesus! Another really amazing thing for me was that I got to share my testimony of being healed from lactose intolerance with the congregation. Releasing to them the power of what God has done in my life, I wanted them to really know that whatever He has given them is theirs to give away and bless others with! So I ended up asking anyone who wanted healing from lactose intolerance to stand, and got to pray over 9 people! By the end of the weekend, I heard from 3 of them that they had been completely healed, and I have full faith that the others were too! Hallelujah Jesus, that makes 31 people who have been healed as a result of God's miraculous work in me! :) What fun!

All in all it was a phenomenal weekend of blessing and being blessed, stepping out to see others stretch and being stretched ourselves. I saw so many people's lives touched and transformed by God's goodness and power, and personally gained experiences that changed my life. Though it's an odd thing to say in light of all the wonderful works God accomplished, I'm actually in an interesting place after this weekend... In addition to seeing a more concentrated amount of healings than I ever have before, I also personally encountered alot of people who didn't get the breakthroughs they wanted. I prayed for half a dozen or more people who were desperate for healing but didn't get their full healing... Yes, God worked healing in their hearts and I was able to usher in blessing and kindness to them but I'm not satisfied with merely that. Jesus didn't sacrifice Himself for incomplete breakthrough, and anything less than total healing is inferior to the price He paid. This cry has been freshly stirred in my spirit, that no one would leave an encounter with me without having received all they would have gotten from Jesus Himself. I will not settle for anything less than what He has made available to me... because He deserves the glory, and the world is longing for that healing and freedom. So with that, I press on!

Blessings, Keep running,

Melissa