No longer on a Californian adventure.
No longer thousands of miles from 'home'.
Still living the adventure.
Still seeking more.
Still learning, changing... and learning!
A word of destiny over writing has inspired me to write. A place to form some thoughts, articulate ideas and work the writes muscle in me! A response to a prophecy, to just give it a go. An unpublicised blog; not for an audience (in fact, a little reluctant for one) but a decision to always respond. To never let a moment go. A choice to not look back and wonder 'what if...' A move towards listening to the whispers, and making the most of all I have every day.
So, a new look for this blog...
A new start...
I guess this is pushing the boat out, and we'll see where we land
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Pursuing His Presence
One thing I think we have both been challenged with over the last few weeks, is what it is to pursue God’s presence. For a real, living relationship with Papa God (American term!) to have priority in how I spend my time and do life on a daily basis as I just walk through everyday life.
I know what it is to love Jesus, to live for Him, to worship with all I have, to seek His face and want to see the world change, to want to see the church rise up and take Her rightful place, but I think there’s a new level - of romance, pursuit, encounters, whispers and power. And the cost? My time.
What might my days look like if I started giving each of them to God and choosing to see each moment through His eyes? Or what might I notice around me, if I listened more intently to what God had to say about unfolding situations, or people that I met? What would it feel like to be so hungry that I wake up each morning longing to just hang out with God and hear His voice again? How would I see myself if I spent more time with the one in Whose image I am made?
Honestly, I don’t know the answer to these questions yet. This is the beginning of a new part of a journey for me. What I know is that being in an environment with people who truly love God and see Him work in incredible ways isn’t enough. It’s not fulfilling my potential in Him, it’s just watching other people’s. I know that learning new mindsets and theologies may change the way I think, but won’t affect how I encounter God – unless I encounter Him!
In the midst of hearing some amazing revelations, in learning to step out in faith, to hear God, to encounter Him more deeply, to learn to love others more authentically, I think I have realised that the bottom line is, unless I spend time in the secret place with the One who lives in me, none of this will be mine. It will just be stories.
I don’t want church on a Sunday to be a place we all go to encounter God, but a place where we all share how God has been encountering us all during the week.
I want to be hungry; hungry for an authentic, gritty, everyday relationship with God. I want stories of people I have prayed for in line at the bank, with the cashier at the supermarket and with the person walking the dog by my house....
...I want to see revival; lives changed, hearts mended, bodies healed, relationships restored and people saved – I want to see people sold out, on fire, madly in love with Jesus.
And I know that starts in me.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
So we have been pretty lame about getting our blog out there but here it is. We have decided to do blogs more often!!!!!
So going back to the beginning of last month we had retreat with our Revival group and also another revival group from 1st year and one from 2nd year. It was an awesome time where we got to get to know people super well. Highlights - Em won a game of round Robin ping pong which led to a revvie about personal victory. Awesome. Josh got to pray for some guys and saw some cool healings (head cold gone, shoulder pain gone). The Holy Spirit has been intoxicating both of us and this has been really cool. Josh shared at retreat that he has not pursued the grace of being intoxicated in such an extravert way while we were engaged and then for the 1st year of marriage because he felt that God said that he wanted him to be present and sober in mind so that we could build something together. But that we had our anniversary on the 5th September and “the whack is back.”
Being our here for over 9 weeks means that we have got to know some guys really well and having community around us of people who are all hungry revivalist is just a real blessing.
Highlights of school are that we get Bill and Kris both at least once a week which is so amazing – they are both just different gravy! We honour the heroes! We managed to get two impartations from Bill and also from Che Ann (who is a ledge as well).
We had a week of just prophetic training from Kris which was just the best training on the gift of prophecy and the office of a prophet, what the 5 fold ministry is and the difference between old and new testament prophets. And obviously loads of practical help and advice in how to prophesy.
Within the school you do 4 AMT (advanced ministry training) courses, so we chose to do the married couples one with Danny and Sheri Silk on communication. We choose this one first because although this year is all about learning skills in the supernatural, how to lead, signs and wonders, power etc we also wanted to see what this house thinks/teaches about the practicals of doing life and marriage is obviously one of our main priorities.
We have been surprised and totally blessed by how much bible theology that we are going to be learning while we are out here. Dan Farrelly is a massive legend and he is our bible theologian teacher, along with a woman called Bernie. Both know and love their bible and it is always fun to learn from people like that.
Our activations are different Em is doing ‘Community’ so is going to be working on an estate here in Redding for the year. They went out yesterday door knocking just loving on the estate, offering prayer for healings, general chatting, helping people out with moving house, and letting them know about the food bank we have just started...
Josh’s activation is treasure hunts, which is awesome fun, in the training he got to pray for his friend’s leg to grow out and it did!!! Then when we went out on the first day last week, my team interrupted some guys doing Raiki and spoke to a guy and girl next to them who were on my treasure map, I got the name, place, colour of clothing and problem they needed prayer for. Thank you Jesus. So we prayed for the girl who had a bad tooth (other person in my group had that) then her back and then I felt like I should check her legs so we did and one was shorter than the other so we grew that one out as well. Shiggy, Shibby, Bumba. We went out again yesterday and got names, clothes and illnesses and saw some cool healings, deaf ears improving, damaged knees getting better. So much fun in the glory.
Other highlights of being out here are that we have both had out two weeks opportunity to lead our small group of 5 crazy revivalists. Everyone does it for 2 weeks then as a team you chose your fearless leader to do it from the New Year.
Josh has found a place to play football (soccer) with loads of BSSM guys on a Monday which is cool. We have been waterfall cliff jumping - check facebook for pics. We have been on a rope swing by a beautiful lake near here. Em has climbed a massive mountain near here (we are talking 5+ hours walking).
We are both enjoying the books we are reading but interestingly for both of us it is the books that are focused on theology that are giving us the most excitement.
There is so much more we could say, but will leave it there, and try to update this a lot more often.
Until then...
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
It's Chico time!
It's crazy to think we have only been here for 3 weeks now... In some ways the time has flown, but so much has happened, and this place is already feeling like home.
The last couple of weeks of school have been mostly orientation and hearing the values, customs and expectations of the school. We have had the privilege of hearing Bill and Kris a few times, and even Mrs Johnson (legend). It has actually been pretty mind blowing, and hard not to be more than a little in awe of these total giants!
For our church services, we have been allocated the Twin View location, so we aren't ever at Bethel for that ( so you won't see us on tv!) but they video link in to the main speaker in the mornings and the evenings have been a 3-4 hours worship session! The worship here is so heavy! I think we sang only one whole song in the last meeting we went to that lasted almost 4 hours! We really have been led into new realms of worsihp by the worship teams here.
One thing which is really cool about this place is they are really clear about who they are and what they stand for. They release people to be all of who they are, yet clearly communicate the culture that they have chosen to cultivate here. It is so intentional, and protective of their church and city, but ultimately totally freeing. Love it.
We have alreayd been challenged by loads! One thing is by their spirit of generosity - the way of breaking a poverty spirit. That you should give out of a place of honour and thankfullness, not just someone else's need or your own excess... I guess it is easy to think that we will be generous when we have enough cash to splash, but live fairly tight-fisted in the mean time! So we are learning to live in the balance of that.
They also have a very strong culture of honour, and they ask all guys to open doors for the ladies, to give up their seat if they need to etc! It means Josh now opens the door for me, which I actually quite like (except that he has to wait for all the ladies to go through, so I am always losing him in a crowd!)
We are going on retreat tomorrow to a YWAM base in Chico, which should be a really great opportunity to get to know a few peeps a bit better! Our Revival Group has about 60 people in it, so still don't know everyone yet! I am pretty shocking with names and faces so I'm so glad we have to wear name badges! In our first RG meeting, the first 'getting to know you' game was putting all the name badges in together, everyone picking out one, and then asking God to tell us whose badge we had! No pressure...! Crazily enough, I actually got mine right! Oh yeah.
We got prophesied over at school today, which was really cool. They were bang on for both of us and reall exciting!
Gonna go now - it is so hot here, I am melting in front of the screen! 39 degrees c yesterday!
Have loved seeing the pics of the Jesus Culture tours. Banning said there is a new breed of revivalist coming out of the UK at the mo! C'mon!
Big love,
Josh and Em xx
The last couple of weeks of school have been mostly orientation and hearing the values, customs and expectations of the school. We have had the privilege of hearing Bill and Kris a few times, and even Mrs Johnson (legend). It has actually been pretty mind blowing, and hard not to be more than a little in awe of these total giants!
For our church services, we have been allocated the Twin View location, so we aren't ever at Bethel for that ( so you won't see us on tv!) but they video link in to the main speaker in the mornings and the evenings have been a 3-4 hours worship session! The worship here is so heavy! I think we sang only one whole song in the last meeting we went to that lasted almost 4 hours! We really have been led into new realms of worsihp by the worship teams here.
One thing which is really cool about this place is they are really clear about who they are and what they stand for. They release people to be all of who they are, yet clearly communicate the culture that they have chosen to cultivate here. It is so intentional, and protective of their church and city, but ultimately totally freeing. Love it.
We have alreayd been challenged by loads! One thing is by their spirit of generosity - the way of breaking a poverty spirit. That you should give out of a place of honour and thankfullness, not just someone else's need or your own excess... I guess it is easy to think that we will be generous when we have enough cash to splash, but live fairly tight-fisted in the mean time! So we are learning to live in the balance of that.
They also have a very strong culture of honour, and they ask all guys to open doors for the ladies, to give up their seat if they need to etc! It means Josh now opens the door for me, which I actually quite like (except that he has to wait for all the ladies to go through, so I am always losing him in a crowd!)
We are going on retreat tomorrow to a YWAM base in Chico, which should be a really great opportunity to get to know a few peeps a bit better! Our Revival Group has about 60 people in it, so still don't know everyone yet! I am pretty shocking with names and faces so I'm so glad we have to wear name badges! In our first RG meeting, the first 'getting to know you' game was putting all the name badges in together, everyone picking out one, and then asking God to tell us whose badge we had! No pressure...! Crazily enough, I actually got mine right! Oh yeah.
We got prophesied over at school today, which was really cool. They were bang on for both of us and reall exciting!
Gonna go now - it is so hot here, I am melting in front of the screen! 39 degrees c yesterday!
Have loved seeing the pics of the Jesus Culture tours. Banning said there is a new breed of revivalist coming out of the UK at the mo! C'mon!
Big love,
Josh and Em xx
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Monday 13th September 2010 - Post #1
So, the Californian adventure has begun! We have been in Redding just under a week now, and are loving every minute!
We are staying with Adam, Josh’s brother and some friends of ours from Cheddar, and we have a beautiful little pad in downtown Redding. Looking forward to getting stuck into the community here…
We have spent most of this week traveling, settling in, bit of admin, with a fair bit of sunbathing thrown in! This place is stunning and it’s so easy to connect with God here.
So, school starts tomorrow and we register today. We haven’t been to the church yet, as there has been a conference this weekend, and so they asked students to stay away as there wasn’t enough space for us! Good problem to have!
What has been amazing for us this week, is that because everyone here is so much more friendly than us Brits, and because we have an accent, everyone wants to talk to us! And in almost every supermarket, clothes shop, Starbucks, restaurant, bank we have been in, someone has connections with Bethel!
Last night we went out for a meal as a house before school starts, and the waiter was a guy who volunteers as a mentor for Bethel. Halfway through the meal, he came over and gave prophesies to us as a group and then to Josh and me individually. At the end of the meal, Josh asked if he would pray for us, and he said that we would have to do it outside, as his boss had banned praying at work! He then prayed over each of us, with some pretty spot on words. He got a good tip!
We are staying with Adam, Josh’s brother and some friends of ours from Cheddar, and we have a beautiful little pad in downtown Redding. Looking forward to getting stuck into the community here…
We have spent most of this week traveling, settling in, bit of admin, with a fair bit of sunbathing thrown in! This place is stunning and it’s so easy to connect with God here.
So, school starts tomorrow and we register today. We haven’t been to the church yet, as there has been a conference this weekend, and so they asked students to stay away as there wasn’t enough space for us! Good problem to have!
What has been amazing for us this week, is that because everyone here is so much more friendly than us Brits, and because we have an accent, everyone wants to talk to us! And in almost every supermarket, clothes shop, Starbucks, restaurant, bank we have been in, someone has connections with Bethel!
Last night we went out for a meal as a house before school starts, and the waiter was a guy who volunteers as a mentor for Bethel. Halfway through the meal, he came over and gave prophesies to us as a group and then to Josh and me individually. At the end of the meal, Josh asked if he would pray for us, and he said that we would have to do it outside, as his boss had banned praying at work! He then prayed over each of us, with some pretty spot on words. He got a good tip!
Today we were in a fast food place queuing for lunch, when the guy in front got chatting to us, cos he was from Bethel, and he paid for our bill, and then ate his lunch with us. All good. Turns out he manages Jesus Culture and it was a real privilege to be able to spend a little bit of time with him and hear some of his stories.
We are so excited to see what God has planned for us this year and just want to throw ourselves into every opportunity we get. Yesterday, we went for a swim in a lake in the mountains, and we were both struck by how honoured we are to be able to be here, to have this opportunity to just soak in God this year, learn from some of the Greats, and be given opportunities beyond anything we’ve experienced before. We fully grasp how lucky we are (for all you jealous ones!)
Just want to say a massive thank you to all of you for supporting us, praying for us, loving us. Please keep in touch, cos we want to hear your stories too!
Another day…
Josh and Em
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