Just a quick testimony: I preached yesterday :)

Just thought I'd share this fun story with you guys - Part of my third year internship classes involves training and activation in PREACHING, and yesterday we preached our second sermons of the year! :). My sermon was called Love and Power: The Fruit of Intimacy, and I was SO pleased with how it went. It could've have been better in some areas, and I really wish we weren't limited to 6-8 minutes but all in all, it was some great, new experience under my belt :).

The testimony from that time was this - while I was preaching, a guy in my class named Preston was so overcome by God's presence that he wrote this awesome poem/song about my message! One of the biggest desires of my heart is that by sharing my own encounters with the Lord, those around me will be ushered into encounters of their own, and I got to see that happen! SO much fun!

This is what he wrote (read it in a spoken word sort of style) :

"A beautiful song of process, they lost this
But you found it, can't get around it,
A seal upon Your heart, to start to believe it
Is written on Your arm, so it's time to receive it.
This is love, He is love, and you ARE love."

Ah, I love it! Spontaneous creativity!

Enjoy His presence,

Melissa

Revelation anyone? :)

Hey beloved Family and Friends!

Jesus just gave me some incredibly freeing insight into resting and abiding in Him, so I thought I'd share the bounty with you! He's been promoting me in so many areas of my life, inviting me into places of greater responsibility and influence but in processing all of that with Him, I was honestly feeling a bit overwhelmed my it all. My heart is to steward well everything He gives me but with all the increase that's been coming my way (new connections with people in the arts and other realms, new levels of trust and influence in leadership, etc), I've been unsure as to whether I'll be able to invest in the growth of all these things! Ah, but thank You, Papa God, for the words of life that only flow from You... He reminded me, with the sweetness and strength that He always does, that He never sets me up to fail - only to succeed- and that He's giving me all these things because HE thinks I'm ready. His confidence in us is SO empowering! :D He is so wonderful!

Anyway, so the revelation He gave to me was through John 15:16 and 26, and 16:13-15. Apart from abiding in Him, and receiving GRACE from Him, we can do nothing. And this is what rocked my heart this morning, "You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear much fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you." How incredibly refreshing to know that HE has CHOSEN us! As we make intimacy with Him our priority, He causes the fruit to come forth in our lives AND He guards that fruit. Not only that but we also have the Holy Spirit as our Helper, our paraklete - which means intercessor, comforter, helper, advocate, and counselor. Jesus tells us in Chapter 16 that when the Helper comes "...He will guide you into all truth...whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you."

So whether we're in the midst of promotion and increase, difficult circumstances, or just our everyday lives, if we rest in the Holy Spirit, He will declare the resources of the Father over us. ALL THINGS that the Father has have been freely given to us by Jesus... how generous and full of love He is! ALL grace, ALL peace, ALL wisdom - He has said "Everything I have is yours."

I don't know about you, but I am SO eager to know this kind of fellowship with the Holy Spirit constantly! There's is so much more available to us than we can possibly imagine...

I love you all! Be refreshed and strengthened in Holy Spirit today! Let Him be your Helper! :)

Blessings,

Melissa

Ready for an update? There's MUCH to tell!

Hey Family and Friends! I hope you haven't all lost interest in this blog since I've been quite terrible at keeping it up to date over these past few months! I apologize for not keeping my priorities in order when it came to letting you know what God's doing in my life! I love you all SO dearly, and cherish your support and encouragment more than I could ever say.

On to the update! Gosh, I honestly don't even know where to begin... For those of you who haven't heard from me in LONG time, I'm now in a 3rd year internship at the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry in Redding, CA, and I'm LOVING every moment of it! I'm serving an incredible woman who is the head of the Prophetic Arts department and an overseer in the 2nd year program, and I couldn't have asked for a more empowering, encouraging, wild and crazy, passionate person to pour my life into this year. My leader is one of the boldest risk-takers I know when it comes to pursuing the things of God... She is radical when it comes to the arts, LOVES people, and releases identity and freedom to all she touches. It's SO much fun to serve her, and I am being stretched in all kinds of new ways.

In fact, one of the most significant things about this new season is that it has been one of great promotion for me. Spiritually, relationally, emotionally, and creatively, God has been cultivating so much growth in me, giving me TONS of direction and vision for my future, connecting me with some of the most amazing people in arts realm, and ever increasing my love for Him and what He's doing in the earth :). In fact, the painting with the gem in the center and the two flows of color coming out totally represents where I'm at and what God's doing right now! The gem represents me - He told me for years that I'm called to walk in purity in a very significant way but only recently has He begun to unfold more of what that means. It's not just about having a moral standard of purity (though that's part of it). It's about walking in unity and partnership with His nature at all times... One passage of scripture He's rocked me with over and over is from Matthew 5, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God." There's something about radical purity of heart that ushers us into encounters with God! God has told me that I am to be that standard of purity in such a way that through my life and artwork, people are awakened and brought into the revelation of the relationship and encounters that are available to them - they will see God face to face. That is SO my heart's desire! Do it, Lord!

Haha, but that's just part of my painting :). Another thing God's been answering for me in this season is the desire of my heart to walk both in LOVE and in POWER. I'm convinced that the only way for Him to be FULLY seen through my life is if BOTH of those aspects of His nature flow freely, in partnership, through me. My journey started with the pursuit of love - genuinely, purposefully asking Him to show me what REAL LOVE looks like. 1 Corinthians 13 cannot be just words on a page. Not if He is to be truly known. Not if we want revival. Not if the intimate knowledge of His glory is to cover the earth like the waters cover the sea. We aren't called simply to understand His love - we're called to be love. On my journey of Him unfolding this revelation (over the summer and during these past couple of months), He wrecked me with 1 John 4:16 as well - "And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him." Wow, that wrecked me, and still wrecks me now!! I was pursuing THAT, that unity with Him and receiving from Him is such powerful ways throughout the summer, and then finally, He surprised me with something. A little girl named Erica who I'd been teaching art to at my church, came up to me with this sweet little card, thanking me for teaching her. But at the bottom of the card, inside a handrawn heart she wrote something that meant THE WORLD to me. Instead of saying "i love you", she wrote "You are love." And it was the word of the Lord straight into my heart! He was telling me that I had become the very thing I'd been pursuing with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength! Ah, He is SO good!

After that day, He began to tell me that it was time for the season to shift - it was time to learn about walking in power. The funny thing was, after eating drinking breathing love love LOVE for so long, it took a bit for me to shift my focus :). One day I was spending time with Him, and was reading through the same passage in 1 John 4 that I'd been pouring over for months. But it wasn't resonating in my heart like it had been. And silly me, was wondering WHY. And then He spoke to me VERY clearly , "Why are you reading that when I said you are love, and that this season's about power?" Eeps, He was SO right, and I LOVE it when He speaks to me that way, and brings me back into alignment with what He's doing. Thank You, Jesus :). So that has been my recent pursuit, learning what it looks like to combine the love that is at the core of my very being with the power that I know I'm called to release into the world. Recently He's been reminding me that the source of that power is the PERSON of the Holy Spirit. So many people talk about "power" or His "presence" like an inanimate object... and for a long time, I didn't know how to describe Holy Spirit or relate to Him like I could with Jesus or Father God. But He's a person. The anointing is a person. The power flows from partnership with a person, and that makes so much sense to me. Love and power are the fruit of intimacy with God. It is only through real, open, face to face relationship with Him that we take on His very nature - the radical love and raw power that will transform this world. There is no pursuit more worthy than to KNOW HIM...

Well, there's an update on my journey, and just a glimpse of what's been happening in my heart :). I love you all so much, and my prayer is that God would release you into a season of greater revelation of Himself - that you would know Him more than you've ever known Him before!

I appreciate all your covering and prayer as I continue my internship this year! Though my life is INCREDIBLY busy, I will do my best to keep this thing updated in a more timely fashion! Please pray that God will continue to stretch and grow me, and that I will STEWARD well all the increase, favor, and connections that He's bringing me.

Love and blessings,

Melissa