{Day 10}

I have so much stuff from today. Morning worship was led by William Matthews. It was good.

Morning session of the Kingdom Culture conference was with Kris Vallotton. It's kinda crazy how happy I was to see him in real life. He has a humility that doesn't come through his audio; he's not that cocky in real life. Highlights:

• "You can't love someone more than they love you." - Kris Vallotton
• You are not a sinner saved by grace. You were a sinner, but when you were saved by grace you became a saint.
• If you believe you're a sinner, you'll sin by faith.
• woah, selah
• "You are seated in heavenly places with Christ and told to call God, 'Daddy.'" - Kris Vallotton
• You are actually born to be amazing.
• "I'm the painting, Jesus is the model, and God is the artist." - Kris Vallotton
• You'll always reduce the environment around you to what you believe is within you.
• You teach people how to treat you by how you treat you.
• "Conviction says, 'You're way too awesome to be acting like that.'" - Kris Vallotton
• "I'm not going to sing about me being a loser when God made me to be a winner." - Kris Vallotton
• If you asked for it, He wants to give You more.
• He's the King of kings. "You are some of the kings He's king over." - Kris Vallotton

Whoa. I know, right?

Kathy's parking space

my contribution to Kathy's spot

During lunch, I ate with a girl named Lisa and Jessica. And then someone had brought sidewalk chalk and gotten permission to decorate the parking spaces of Marlene (the Kathy Vallotton of TwinView), Kathy Vallotton, Paul Manwaring, and the 'guest speaker.'

It was our best and only way to say thank you.

Paul Manwaring's spot

After the lovely chalk art, we went and worshiped some more {not with William}. Then it was Kathy Vallotton's turn to speak. She's not a one-liner sort of person, just stories and phrasing that resonates in your heart 'til you want whatever it is. Highlights:

• "Don't ever let someone else put something on you that isn't you." - Kathy Vallotton
• "You never know what is inside you until the opportunity arises for it to come out." - Kathy Vallotton
• Beautiful = Be You 'til You're Full

Fat Boyz

my Fat Boyz salad

me, Anja, Dani, & Amber

Supper with Dani, Amber, and Anja at Fat Boyz. {Which has an ironically good salad bar.} We had a lovely long God-conversation that hit on a variety of topics. Then back to TwinView for pre-service prayer.

I'm serious. If you ever go to Bethel, go to pre-service prayer. It's like the best thing ever invented. I spent a good twenty, twenty-five minutes sitting in a chair and then lying on the floor. It was a really monumental time for me, but I'm not going to write what happened. Here's a {slightly edited} journal excerpt:

     "I don't know what this death defying adventure call that draws me is. But I want it. I don't know what exactly it is that I want, and I don't know how to get it. But I know I want it. God, I want Your plan."
     He said, "Are you sure? You don't have to. I can set you up somewhere cozy and comfortable, and you'd be happy."
     I said, "No. I want Your best plan for my life. The best one. Because I trust You. I trust Your plans. I know they are good, and I want them. I don't want to settle for a mediocre plan if You have something better. I'm willing to go through the trials and the process. I know - I know - You have a great destiny for me. And I want it, because it's what I was made for, and I can't get away from my desire of it. I want Your best plan, God!"
     It was giving my life to the Lord. But what I was giving up was nothing compared to what I was receiving. In fact, the reward was greater than the sacrifice. God's best plan. For the first time in my life, I really trust Him. I know that His plans are good, that they're designed for me. He's not going to ask me to do something that I wasn't designed to do.

God will give you what you want
Not because you want it
Though that is reason enough for Him
But because He gave you the want in the first place
When it all began

Right after all that, I got a prophecy about my writing. It's still the craziest feeling in the world when someone comes up to you and goes, "I see you writing." Haha. "Do you write?" And it's like, "YES!" Double confirmation that I'm supposed to do writing with my life. :) {There was more to that prophecy. I wrote it down. It was mainly just a very happy moment of realizing that God actually wants us to do what we like to do {because He designed us to do it}. For some people, that would be a duh! moment, but it was really cool for me.}

Then we had more worship, this also led by William Matthews and Hunter.

Had some good Jesus-time there, too. I won't give you the whole conversation, but here was something really good:

I asked Him if it hurt, when the nails stabbed His skin
I felt a glimpse of wracking pain, made me grimace from within

Then with a smile He took it back, the memory His own

"Oh, it hurt, but there is so much more to know:

"Torture worse than nails, and pain beyond belief,

"A future never knowing you, it would have always been to Me."

worship

Of course, we were dialoguing, not talking in poetry, but it was a revelation well-deserving of poetry.

Then Eric Johnson spoke. Highlights:

• A perfect man {Jesus} says to an imperfect generation, "You will do greater things than I have done."
• Never use power and authority as an indication of a relationship with Jesus. {re: "Depart from me, I never knew you."}
• "We are God's ultimate temple." - Eric Johnson
• There's no place in scripture that gives us permission to turn off His abundance.
• "Desperation is highly overrated." - Eric Johnson
• Desperation is based on a focus of lack. Hunger is based on a focus of abundance.

 Then we came home, laughed with Jenna about fish tanks - apparently I'm funny - and now I'm typing up this blog post. Or, rather, finished typing up the blog post. Tomorrow: healing rooms and a treasure hunt and possibly ultimate frisbee*.


* Ultimate frisbee is not a code word from some super-spiritual church event. It's just straight-up** ultimate frisbee.

** Or it could turn into revival. You never know in Redding with Bethel people. :)

{Day 9} I Adore You Because

I forgot to mention yesterday about the exercise we did after Danny Silk's talk. Half the room lined up against the wall all over the room, and then the other half {mine} was told to get up and find someone we hadn't talked to. And not to talk to them. {Although Chloe and I kinda disobeyed that one...we introduced ourselves because we just couldn't help it. We were strong very a long time, though, because we were both melancholies.}

Anyway, we were each given 30 seconds to ask God what He adored about that person and get three one-word answers. And then we were to look straight at the other person and say, "I adore you because x, y, and z."

It was really cool. There has been so much stuff I've learned while I'm here that I'm like, "Oh, this works in real life!" Because this gives me two things:

1. How to treat someone when I meet them - or even see them across the room. Ask God what He thinks, and translate that to my own belief about that person.
2. How to treat people I don't necessarily like. Ask God what He likes about that person and act accordingly.

That's all. I'm off to a day of Kris Vallotton {!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!}, Kathy Vallotton {!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!}, and Eric Johnson. Wait, he deserves some exclamation points too. {!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!} It's going to be a good day, and I'm excited. :)

{Day 9}

Long, good day. I was up a bit earlier than necessary, which explains the new 'cast of characters' feature. I was tired of putting parentheses after every name.

Anyway, Jenna gave us a ride to the TwinView campus this morning for the first full day of the Kingdom Culture conference. Worship was led by Chris Quilala, at least an hour long, which was pretty sweet. Then Danny Silk taught on Creating Culture. There are times that he's my favorite, because he shows movie and/or YouTube clips in every teaching he does. It's awesome. Highlights:

• "Culture happens on purpose." - Danny Silk
• "The moment you begin to look at what God isn't doing, you become God's judge." - Danny Silk.
• "What you focus on, grows," therefore, focus on the move of the Holy Spirit.
• "'God is good all the time,' is a decision." - Danny Silk
• In a Kingdom culture, "people are looking for ways to encourage each other."

After lunch, we had a bit more worship, about 30 minutes, which is pretty short, and Sheri Silk taught on Insert Love Here! This wasn't as exciting for me as the others were, because I've heard her do this talk in Austin. But it was still good. And she still ended with the final scene from August Rush, and that made me very happy.

"Movements start from the bottom up. Culture starts from the top down." - Sheri Silk

Then we had a 2-3 hour break. Amber, Dani, and Anja were going to go adventuring again. I was feeling very odd...not quite tipsy, but decidedly...strange, and didn't feel like adventuring. I figured I would stay at TwinView and just journal or something.

The majority of this trip's journaling moments have been hijacked. This was no exception. I went outside to finish my lunch sandwich - which I hadn't finished because I wasn't hungry because I'd put Rev3 in my shake that morning - and met a BSW student named Brittany. We talked and really connected within minutes, and then her mom pulled up from being at the Bethel campus Kingdom Culture conference.

Long story short, I ended up going to the grocery store with them, then to Yaks coffee shop {iced, blended chai with white choclate, mmmm!}, then to the house they're staying at, which is about 15 minutes out of Redding proper and in a nice neighborhood with tall pine trees. It was great to see another part of this area. {Although, I'm not going to lie, as I realized that we were leaving Redding, I was beginning to wonder if I'd just done something really stupid.} {But I was also pretty sure the whole time that God wanted me with them.} Anyway, they homeschool and actually flew into Phoenix from New York with their dad and brother, then road tripped up to Redding, and then the guys flew back home. Very cool family, I think. And then we went back to TwinView.

We'd been told earlier about a "pre-service prayer" that they had in one of the adjoining rooms at 6pm. Being there, and not wanting to miss anything, I went in. It's really cool, just some of the Bethel intercessors there to pray for you and prophecy over you and whatever. There's some cool music going on, too. Anyway, they prayed for me, and actually prophesied something over me that I got last November.

Flashback: Last November, I received a word that there was a waterfall of different colored jewels raining down. Each one a revelation, and I could pick one whenever I wanted.

The prophecy this time was that there was a basket covered in gold glitter, with different colored stones inside. As soon as she said different colored stones, I knew that she would next tell me that I just needed to take them. And that's what she said; they represented gifts. There were different colors, each one with a different meaning: pink - healing; blue - revelation; red - the blood of Jesus; gold - glory; purple - royalty. I did the...the what's-it-called: when you act out the prophecy. Of taking the stones/gifts and putting them in my heart. I counted them out in my head as I "took" them, and I got each one. And then she said, "He wants you to take the green one, for new growth."

And I'm like yes!, because this is what I've been wanting over the past week, newnewnew growth. It was just so perfect, and I took that one, too. Anyway. If you ever get the chance to do pre-service Bethel prayer, you should do it. Just sayin'.

Then more worship. Again, really good worship. At least an hour long again, and really, really good. By the end of it, the drummer was facedown on the floor. That should tell you something. I really like worship at the TwinView campus. It's more intimate...without any of the hype. Not that the hype is undeserved at 'main Bethel,' it's definitely not, but that at TwinView there's nothing to live up to. Does that make sense? I like them both, but TwinView is more relaxed.

Paul Manwaring spoke tonight about glory. He spoke really fast, and all of us were hard-pressed to get good notes. But I did my best. {This is another message to download. It's a bit ground-breaking, at least for me.} Highlights:

• The word shekinah is actually not found in the Bible. It's a word used by Old Testament scholars that meant: the dwelling place of Him who dwells. The following are {in Paul's opinion} the shekinahs of history.
1. Eden
2. the tabernacle of Moses, which cost about $16,000,000,000
3. the temple of Solomon, which cost about $60,000,000,000 and was only 1600 square feet
4. John 1:14 {And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt {tabernacled} among us...}
5. 1 Corinthians 6:19 {Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?}

WHOA. {i.e. SELAH}

• "God's glory is the result of God expressing Himself." We're what happened when He expressed Himself.
• The definition you place on glory will define where you expect to find it.
• Science {finding out new things} is to technology {putting them to work} that theology is to the Kingdom.

Then we went to Dairy Queen, but I didn't get anything because the white chocolate chai this afternoon wasn't my most brilliant idea and now I'm fighting a sore throat. I just had a nice salad with an orange and my vitamins...and lots of water. So hopefully it will be gone in the morning.

{Day 8} Banning Leibscher

Last night we went to the TwinView campus for the first time to begin the Kingdom Culture conference. {As much as they love us School of Worship people, we take up a lot of room. So they have live worship and live speakers - the same speakers who are speaking at Bethel - at TwinView just for us, and any other overflow!}

I'm not sure who led worship last night. Anna (host) said it might have been Ryan and Haylie, but she was just going off the fact that the girl had a English/Australian/South African accent. {I'm getting better about telling them apart...but not that much better, yet.} Brandon and Luke played bass and drums, respectively.

And it was amazing worship. I'm not going to say it was better because it's hard to have "better" worship, but it was definitely good. The element of "omgosh, Jenn Johnson is leading worship!" was gone, and it was just straight up worship with other people who love God. Anyway, it was really good. We did some old songs like "Holy & Anointed One," "Arms of Love," and "The More I Seek You." And we ended with the best bridge:

"I don't want to talk about any other lover/You're the only one 'n' there will be no other for me now/no other for me now."

Apparently it was spontaneous once in Bethel from Steffany Frizzell, and it's stuck around. I wouldn't be surprised to find it in a song someday.

Banning Liebscher {Leeb-sher} spoke. It was my first time to see what he looks like or hear him speak.

Wow.

Let's just say it was a very convicting teaching - perhaps the most convicting of my life, and I've heard a lot of teachings - and I was a bit wrecked at the end. There are going to be some changes, changes that will be better in the long run but that I'm not particularly looking forward to now.

What, you still want highlights?

• "Community is a massive deal, and community is a choice. And there is a war against that choice." - Banning Liebscher
• John 17 is "a prayer of community and oneness."
• Life without grace is a slip-n-slide without water.
• "If community was easy, it would not be a humiliating act." - Banning Liebscher
• "Community flat-out works." - Banning Liebscher
• "The decisions I make in community are safe decisions." - Banning Liebscher
• Sometimes God feels silent because God intends to speak through people.
• "If you're disconnected from community, you've disconnected yourself from the voice of God." - Banning Liebscher
• "The Lord is not going to bypass discipleship." - Kris Vallotton

Then we went to home with another student by a rather interesting route {okay, we were lost for a few minutes}, ended up at McDonalds, where I got french fries. Salty, greasy stuff has been pretty low on my menu, so that was really good. But not exactly what I wanted. I'm still searching for that. I still haven't found what I'm looking for, in terms of salt and grease.

Actually, I think I may be having MSG withdrawals. Which is weird, because I don't eat that much MSG in the first place.

i am turning into my mother
with my protein fix of choice

yes it's my arm. no, it's not a tattoo. but i really like it.

the view when i wake up in the morning.
those lit windows are the bathroom.

Anyway, that was pretty random. We're about to go back to TwinView for a day of more Kingdom Culture, so I will update later!

Days 8/9/10

As I haven't talked extensively with Raymond concerning what's going on at Bethel, I don't have a lot to report.

I do know that there's another conference going on that is a part of the Worship School (but also independent of it). It's called Kingdom Culture, and people have come from all over the world. So he is having full days, with the school in the mornings, and the conference in the afternoons and evenings.

There are so many people (because of the conference?) that they have moved some of the worship school into another building. He assumed it would be a live feed, but they are having live speakers. We think they are giving the same talk twice in two different locales.

Tuesday night, he went to the heart/cell/home/life group of the man he met in the healing rooms. Very cool. They opened up the evening with a live blast of a shofar, and the Spirit of God just showed up. Thick. Right away. Just dropped. Thick. They proceeded to worship (they had an excellent guitarist and a djembe player) for an hour. Then they just sat and discussed what God had showed them during that hour.

A story was told on stage about a Japanese kamikaze pilot being shown honor during World War II. I have found it on the internet so I don't have to retype it. Read it here. I'm sure you could find out more about it if you cared to do so.

Domestically, there are 10 people currently staying in the house where he's at. I believe that 5 live there and 5 are there for the school. There is a writer/marketer and a chef, among other occupations. If you hear me mention Jeff, he is the owner and Dad's roomate.

All in all, it seems to be going well.