When I lived in Switzerland I used to love doing the tourist thing and take the train through the breathtaking mountains. It was a sight to behold as the jaw-dropping beauty raced past my speeding train. As an avid photographer this presented both seemingly endless opportunities and endless frustration. Within seconds of an incredible photo presenting itself before my eyes, it was gone. Oh, what a great shot!...there it goes. Oh, what another great shot… too late, its gone. What is the purpose of my ramblings of memories past, you may well ask. The past few weeks have felt just like that - too much happening and not enough time to capture it.
My trip to LA (That’s Los Angeles, not a line out of Doe, Rae, Me) was short but good. The first night was a night of breakthrough for me personally. Francesco (my crazy leader with a classic NY accent) declared over the microphone that I had something to bring to release freedom. As I walked up to the front I felt like I was in a slow motion scene from a movie. Having just arrived 15 minutes earlier after a 12 hour drive, my mind raced trying to remember what he’d said I was to pray for. My prayer came from the Holy Spirit, directly out of my mouth, completely bypassing my brain. I can’t really tell you what I prayed. After a short pause, I kept hearing a song in my head. ‘I am free to dance. I am free to run. I am free to live for you. I am free’. In a moment of Holy Spirit boldness, I asked if I could sing the song. As I started to sing my unaccompanied solo, the people started dancing. After a few minutes it looked like a party had just erupted as people swung each other around and danced with abandon. The atmosphere shifted significantly and freedom came into the place! When I sat down again I could barely believe what had just happened.
Francesco is the word of knowledge king which was fascinating to watch. In one of the meetings he told us to ask God for a specific time that God was healing a specific condition and to interrupt him while he was preaching. At 12:51 one of the team jumped up and said that God was healing shoulder issues right then. Sure enough, suddenly people felt heat going up their arms and their shoulders were healed. This happened several times and was saw breathing problems, back problems and more healed.
It was a Spanish church that we went to. Not being able to leave the country due to visa requirements, I could not go the South America for my mission trip. So the Spanish church in LA was the closest I could get. On the last day, at the Sunday service, I was asked to give a prophetic word for the church. Later that day, I found out that there was a woman in the church who had been given a prophetic word in the past that she would release prophecy in the church. Culturally, women do not operate in things like preaching or prophecy. Our team consisted of 8 women and 4 men, which brought an interesting dynamic into this church. When this woman saw me prophesying from the front it broke something open for her as she had now seen in modeled in front of her. Yay Jesus!
On the way hope from LA, we made two very different stops. The first was lunch in Disneyland!! Yay, it was a little girls dream come true. Ok, it was only for an hour and I didn’t see Mickey Mouse, but I can say that I’ve now been to Disneyland. The other stop was William Seymour’s grave. In 1910 William Seymour prophesied that in 100 years there would be an outpouring of God's Spirit and His Shekinah Glory that will be greater and more far reaching than what was experienced at Azusa. At this unassuming gravesite lies a great man of revival. We all took turns to lie on the ground and absorb any impartation of anointing that was available. I wonder what that kind of revival looks like? We live in interesting times!
