Hello family and friends! How can there only be 16 days left until Christmas?? I can hardly believe how quickly this year is coming to a end! Since I was home for Thanksgiving, time has been flying for me, but here are some updates on what's been happening in my life...- One of the blessings about BSSM is that we have the incredible opportunity to go on missions trips all over the world in April. We chose our trips about 2 months ago, and finally received the results... South Africa, here I come!! :D I'm thrilled beyonds words to be going there, especially because my closest covenant friend (Kate) knows that she is called to do long term missions there. So as soon as she found out, she gave me the hugest hug, and said, "You're going to my love!" The 10-day trip is going to be so jam packed with ministry, everything from bringing love and healing to people who live in the slums of Pretoria, to teaching and training a ministry school in the supernatural, to visiting orphanages, to even going on a safari! I'll be sending out support letters very soon with more of the amazing details of my trip, and if any of you who read this would like to support me in my quest and sow into the healing and restoration of Africa, you can email your name and address to me at m.jadesfire@gmail.com :).
Another incredible work of the Lord that recently took place: my home church just experienced it's second Firestorm weekend! Last Thursday through Sunday, Ventura received a deposit of the Kingdom of God from which I know we will never recover! That has been my prayer since our Firestorm last summer... and I truly saw the fulfillment of so many of our prayers during this past weekend. Not only did we get to partner with the Lord in bring Horizon even more into the fullness of her call, but we also got to bless Ventura County Christian school (where my pastor's wife is principal) and the Ventura Healing Rooms (where some dear friends of mine are leaders). Two things stood out to me more than anything from the weekend... Number one, the incredible timing of the Lord in His preparation and orchestration of all that happened. My church was so primed, in such a perfect place to receive what God wanted to release, and I was just undone by how easy everything flowed because of that divine alignment. Everything from the spiritual atmosphere to the hearts of the leadership was so open and in agreement... I will never be able to fully express how grateful I am for the pastors and leadership of my church. They are so incredible, so hungry, so leaned into the Lord... And the supernatural fruit and transformation that occurred this weekend revealed so powerfully how worth it opening up and preparing ourselves for the Lord can be! The second thing that blew me away from this weekend was how many key people and leaders were impacted by what God was doing! In every place we ministered, we just kept hearing testimony after testimony of God's radical love and power bringing breakthroughs that we desperately needed! At the Christian school, a young man who had been expelled the previous year spent almost 2 hours with one of my classmates, and was totally undone by the Lord and pointed in a new direction. At the healing rooms, person after person received deep emotional healings, and had the wounds in their hearts bound up and covered by the work of the Lord. During outreach in the city, a former-Jehovah's witness (who had just started coming to our church 5 weeks prior) was rocked by manner of our love and honor toward people, and declared that doing evangelism through the leading of the Holy Spirit was WAY more fun and effective than cold-calling door to door! And within my church family, I was wrecked again and again as I saw the Lord release His affirming word over families who've been struggling, bring healing to people who've been pursuing a particular healing for years, and knit together people's hearts with others from churches all over the county! One of my dear pastor's daughters, for whom they've been praying for years, even rededicated her life to the Lord! Those testimonies just scratch the surface of the goodness of our God, and of what He's bringing forth in my church. This weekend was an incredibly significant breakthrough for us, and there will only be further advancement and victory if we continue to press in!
In addition to all those incredible things, God has been doing such a deep work in my life lately, and through the simplest of things! It makes me laugh just to think about it but one of the things He's be showing me most lately is that when I pray and ask Him to do something, He actually does it! Novel concept, I know, but somehow it can be easy for us to forget that promise! In His word He says "Whatever things you ask the Father in My name, believe that you have received them, and you shall have them", and "Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom!" As I was reading back through my journal and the prophetic words, promises, and encounters that I've had over the last few months, I began to realize that the Lord has really been doing all that He said He would do... When I asked Him in our secret place to truly go deep into my heart, and to form His love in me in a greater way, He is doing that very thing. And when I asked Him to root out every last bit of fear in me so that I can be totally free to love Him as He is worthy to be loved, the very next day be began to expose every action or decision in my life that was motivated by fear! And when I asked Him to show me how to lead, how to encourage and empower others with the integrity and passion that will truly change history, He has set Himself to do that very thing. And even now as I think about it all again, I'm overwhelmed by how good and faithful He is... He is who He says He is, and does what He promises that He will do. Who is like Him? Who is like our God, so good and pure and righteous? None. None can compare...
I have one more testimony I'd like to release to you all that speaks of His faithfulness to bring His children into freedom. Yesterday I was blessed to take part in Bethel's 12th annual Holiday Feast, an amazing event in which the Bethel Church family hosts a beautiful afternoon of food and blessings for the homeless and low-income members of our community. The whole sanctuary and great room were set up with decorated tables, and over 700 people were bused in to be blessed with food, music, drama, new clothes, gifts and toys for the kids, and even more! I hosted a table with my dear friend Kate, and we got to spend our afternoon with some of the most wonderful people, a father and his two young children, his sister, his sister's caretaker, and another sweet woman from the Redding Rescue Mission. Everything that happened was so good, but the one breakthrough I want to share was this: Steve, the father of the two children, shared with us at the start that he had been a drug addict for 30 years, and that it has just been in these last two years that he has been clean and free from that addiction. He was so thankful to God for that breakthrough but expressed to us that he still desperately wanted freedom from his remaining addiction to cigarettes. He told us that he asked God every day to take away his desire for them but had yet to see it happen. So we talked together, got to pray with him and soak him in the presence of God, and then enjoyed some dessert. Even then while we were eating, he told us, "Even right now, every time I eat something, I get the craving for a cigarette! I want one so badly..." Then, the drama team got up to do their performance. I can't explain the fullness of what they portrayed but it was POWERFUL. It was an incredible portrayal of the freedom we can have through relationship with Jesus Christ, and wow, I was crying, and so many people were touched. After the drama, Steve just kept saying "That was my life, that was exactly what my life was like..." And then as we talked and fellowshipped together some more, all of a sudden he said to my friend Kate, "Oh my gosh. I have my hand on my pack of cigarettes right now, and I have absolutely no desire to smoke them." We couldn't help but start jumping around praising God! She even asked him if he was willing to throw them away, to seal the work that God had done, and with a smile on his face Steve crushed the entire carton of cigarettes in his hand, and went with Kate to throw them in the trash!! COME ON, JESUS! That is the kind of love that Jesus wants the whole world to experience, and those are the kind of breakthroughs that I live to see!
I hope what I shared brought encouragement, strength, and joy to you, and I pray that God will bless you with an increased revelation of His love and power. Before I sign off, I have something very trivial to add to this post: my Christmas list :). Several of my friends and relatives have been asking me for it so I figured this would be a good spot to make it available. I'm often not very good at thinking of things for people to gift me with but here are a few wants and needs:
- The soundtrack to Pride and Prejudice, and/or cds of instrumental music, especially with violins. I'd would love to have some new music to paint and soak to :).
- A liter-sized Nalgene (or some other brand) water bottle. You know those hard, colored ones that have become so popular these days? Yeah, one of those!
- I know there's a specific name for this item but I'm not sure what it is (a lexicon maybe?) I would like a reference book that enables me to look up particular words from a passage of scripture, and be able to find out their Greek and Hebrew meanings. For example, from the verse "Adam knew Eve, and she bore a son", say I wanted to look up the word "knew" in Hebrew, and to find out that word yada means a whole lot more than just an experience of sexual intimacy but can also be used to describe face to face encounter or intimate, personal relationship. Hopefully that makes sense :)...
- Art supplies are always a HUGE need for me (being an artist is by no means cheap :)) so if you're looking for something easy, Michaels is a one-stop shop for me.
- Sheesh, listing things off like this feels a bit selfish to me but... I also really love the store Forever 21, so any sort of thing (earrings, new wallet, clothes) or a gift card to there would definitely put a smile on my face and a spring in my step :).
Okay, that's enough for now! I'll love anything that has heart in it! Home-made gifts from people I love are my favorite! Anyway, I love you all so much, and can't wait to come home for Christmas in 2 weeks!
All my love and blessings,
Melissa
P.S If you have questions about the artwork I posted, email me, and I can tell you their back stories and meanings!
