A Response

I have come accross many people who, because of their experiences, tell me that in reality the fullness of the kingdom modelled by Jesus is not always for us, now. This is just a quick response - to hopefully put accross a different view on this.


The gospel is salvation and salvation (‘soteria’) is an all-inclusive, holistic term that restores all that was lost at the fall. It means forgiveness, healing, prosperity, deliverance, safety, rescue, liberation and restoration.

Now if we believe that we already have one part of the word (‘forgiveness’) then we also, legally, have the rest of it – as in Jesus has already earned all this for us. Now I will be the first to say that we haven’t fully pulled in our legal inheritance yet, but it’s not because it is impossible in our time. It is why we need to keep contending and praying ‘your kingdom come as it is in heaven.’

I know that not every person that comes to me for healing gets healed at the moment. So, I can lower the standard of Holy Scripture to meet my level of experience, or I can pursue more of the Kingdom and change my experience. We know that God hates sickness like he hates sin. So he wants us out of sickness, right now. The father can’t want us in sickness to teach us things when it cost Jesus everything to get us out of it – the Trinity can’t be divided. It says that Jesus did what he saw the father doing and Jesus healed every sick person that came to Him for healing. So the problem is not with God.

We also have been justified, so there is no good beating ourselves up either, particularly when Jesus took the beatings for us.

So the last thing we can look at is the demonic – and we are in a battle there. But the gates of hell cannot prevail against the church – so we have not just a legal right to health, but also we are on the winning side. That’s not to say we aren’t going to have disappointments on the way – but if we know it’s our inheritance we will fight more for it and see more and more people healed. We can’t pray ‘your kingdom come’ and then not really expect it to manifest. There is no sickness or poverty or demon oppression in the kingdom – so when we pray ‘kingdom come’ we are pulling all that onto earth.

When Jesus sent people out he told them to say that ‘the kingdom of heaven is (present tense) at hand’ then to lay their hands on the sick and heal the sick, raise the dead and cast out demons. That was the gospel according to Jesus and Jesus is perfect theology. Jesus never preached the gospel without demonstrating it in power. They cannot be separated. Where people have chased this biblical example of the gospel, they have found it. In Mozambique, they have had 60 people raised from the dead because they take Jesus at his word and they also see countless deaf people healed. In Redding California cancer rates have dropped 50% since they started praying and healing the sick.

And just a little end note!!: When Jesus said the poor will always be with you, He was doing it within a specific context. He was talking to a bunch of people who had the privilege in time and space to have the physical Lord Jesus with them. Jesus was speaking to them. They were always going to have the poor with them in their lifetime, because the kingdom was not going to be fully established across the planet in their lifetime. They had a unique privileged choice to spend on the physical Jesus in-front of them or the poor.

It is different for us - we don’t have that same choice. For us if we spend on the poor we ARE spending on Jesus – for what we do for them we do for Him. But just as that is different, so He was not making an eternal or universal statement when He said ‘the poor will always be with you’. Instead He asked us to establish the kingdom (which has no poverty in it) and to practically help impoverished people out of poverty.

All in all, we owe the world a divine encounter. Have fun doing it!

You need to read this book. Seriously.

The Bible is only truth, if you get the truth from it.


The Bible is a book that we give so much power over our lives to. We use to build organizations, families, lives and ministries upon. Hadn't we better understand what it actually means - not what we've heard it means (traditions of thought) or what we think it could mean. We give it far too much power to not understand it.

'How to read the Bible for all it's worth' teaches you how to work out what the books of the Bible are actually saying. Once you've worked that out then you are equipped to apply it to life.

I had to read this book as part of a course. I started reading it thinking this was for the clueless people who totally needed a guide to the Bible. I also thought it would be boring!

But it has changed my life and my relationship with the truth i base my life upon. How scary to base a life on something that isn't necessarily there in the text! It's also scary to now see that so much of the stuff great christians get from the Bible - is not what it was saying to us. Scary!

Do yourself the biggest, most essential favour ever and learn how to read the Bible.

God Invades...!

My friend Darren, writes about last friday night outside starbucks in Redding California. He, and my other friends there, have been at school of ministry too. It's cool to hear that they are just doing the stuff...!!!

Darren writes...


I had to write this because of what happened tonight.
It's about 12:55 am and we just got back from discovery village.

A couple hours earlier ...

I had got to discovery village at about 10:30 to meet joel, karen, and camille. We end up talking outside starbucks and just hanging out. There are two black guys that we end up meeting, charles and garland. They came from LA and are visiting; and I realized that I had seem them both at school earlier. Anyways, charles and garland come over and they both actually come and sing for us since they told us they lead worship down at their church in LA. They both finish and charles ends up getting me drunk and I fall down laughing!

Well, 4 girls, who are in high school we find out,sitting down besides us were watching charles and garland sing and laughed with us; after I fell down, however, they come over and start asking Karen "Is he (me) okay?" I'm still laughing and Karen starts explaining to them what's going on. I eventually get called over there and we talk to them about our youth kids and how they have been seeing angels and getting crazy encounters. Karen tells one of the girls that she sees fashion over her and she gets the chills and tells us that she wants to be a fashion designer when she grows up! Well, I feel the prophetic wave coming up and I start gathering words of knowledge.

Two of the girls start talking to Karen and Camille and we have two of the girl's attention. I am talking to one of them and I tell her, "Hey, this might sound totally crazy and I could be totally wrong, but I just see you with a lot of children." She almost but doesn't quite understand and I ask her if she likes children. She is a little shocked and she asks me, "How did you know that?" I tell her that I see her loving on children and I saw her as a teacher, loving on children that never had love growing up and that she was changing many children's lives through it. She begins to cry and she tells me that she's wanted to be a teacher since growing up and earlier that day, those 4 girls had been talking about her and children! While she's crying, I start prophesying about how she's been wanting something real and she is getting freaked out; telling us that for weeks now, she's been crying out to God to see if God is real or not.

Karen on the other side with Camille, ends up praying for one of the girl's back because of back pains. She gets instantly healed and starts freaking out while telling her friends that she never had this feeling before. We continue to minister, giving out words of knowledge and prophesying over the girl's lives. Karen and Camille end up praying for the other girl who had an ulcer in her stomache which caused pain and she couldn't eat regularly for the past 3 weeks. They finish praying and she says that the pain is all gone and she felt a cold touch on her stomache! She starts freaking out and begins to cry!

I walk over to the pair of girls Camille is talking with and as we talk, I had this word for one of the girls about family troubles. She instantly gets freaked out and walks away crying. Her best friends tell me about the recent situation in her life with family and when she comes back, she apologizes for walking away but we say it's fine. Me and Camille end up prophesying over her life that God wants to heal the family and is all about restoration. We start to teach them on the "misconceptions" about God and they all start to ask us questions because of their particular stage in life. This whole time, they are telling us that "It feels right to be here right now" and we tell them that it was totally God who set them up! I think 2 of them used to go to church but had never felt God this way.

Karen and Joel are talking to the other girls and start leading them through some stuff. Me and Camille walk over and find out that two of the girls have sculiosis which is a disease on the spine which makes it hurt a lot. Me and Camille put our hands on one of the girls back and as soon as I begin to pray, Camille feels a snap on her spine and starts laughing! Camille asks the girl, "DID YOU FEEL THAT?" and she ends up laughing and says, "YES" while her other friend who got healed of the ulcer is watching all of this! She then tells us that there is no more pain and that later on, she had to have gotten a surgery for it! All of the girls start telling us that they never had felt anything like this before. They got healed and touched by the Holy Spirit and it was fantastic.

All 4 of the girls are getting radically touched and we start telling them about Bethel and how they should come and they were so excited about coming. We still end up ministering to the 2nd girl who had sculiosis and all of us, including the girls, are praying for her. Karen is ministering to her prophetically and starts calling out the peace and destiny over her life while the rest of us are praying for healing. At the end of it, she is crying and we ask her about the pain. She tells us that it's all gone now!

They are all so overwhelmed at thinking "We are so glad that we came to discovery village tonight!" We end up praying and prophesying over charles and he falls over crying and laughing which got to show the girls how to minister to other people. We have them start laying their hands on him and praying over him and after a while, we have them pray over garland since he is getting drunk as well.

This whole ordeal lasted about 2 hours in the front of discovery village. There are so many other details about what happened tonight; the new levels of the prophetic and words of knowledge; teaching the girls how to listen to the Lord and showing them that God is not a God of judgment but a God of love!

It was freaking amazing. God totally showed up at discovery village.
The 4 girls are coming to church on sunday night and we are making them sit with us.

I love Jesus.

Jesus Culture

See more of what we got up to at www.jesusculture.org

Jesus Culture

We anticipated, it came, it rocked and I have the t-shirt.

We anticpated, He came, He rocked and I'l never be the same.



Now, from conference to culture - the church has left the building...

wow wow wow

so much to say!!!!!!

I've been back at Bethel 3 weeks now and so much has been happening i feel like i havn't slept in um - well - 3 weeks!! i had major catch up to do from all i had missed and all the assignments i hadn't done. we've also had a bunch going on - steve buckley, bobby conner, mario murrillo and at the moment Todd Bentley have been spending time teaching at school and preaching here. It has been so good to sit under so many annointings and plug into other people's wells.

friday we saw 100 healings - multiple visable tumors dissapearing instantly, cancers going instantly, asthma going instantly, crippled legs being straightened out, bi-polar getting kicked out, deaf hearing, blind seeing - the lame wearn't walking - they were running and dancing. people that came in on walkers were lifting them over their head and demonstrating their healing - wow what things to see and days to live

This is the year of the billion soul harvest. The day isn't comming, it has come. last week we saw 500 saved, this week we saw 100. But its not going to happen all in Redding - we only have 80 000 on our hands - and believe me thats enough for us to cope with! Its breaking out everywhere, 44 000 weekly in China, millions in Africa, 500 just recently in Muslim Asia...The wave is comming.

What i was wondering yesturday was whether we would be like the famous little girl on the beach that recognised the signs of the impending Tsunami or wether we will be unaware of the signs of the times and miss this opotunity to break out and live in view of the knowledge of what's going on.

What a time to be alive - the biggest revival to ever hit the earth is going on, the demonstration of the gospal with supernatural power is breaking out more than ever before - mighty ones of God are rising up and possessing the land - pulling the kingdom onto earth.

It's a privalage to be on God's team today - with such amazing team-mates!!

Lets go to the next level!! - yeah Jesus!!

Back to the USA

Hi folks! I'm hailing yal from sweet Nashville!

I flew in on New Years Day to be greeted by my friends from Bethel - it was so amazing to see them again - really special to be re-connecting with some of the tribe!

I had a really tricky time getting back into the country and had to have an immigration interview - they are not pleasant things (this being the 2nd in my life). but God gave me his assurance on the plane that i would get into the country and he changed my fear into confidence with the words from an amazing song. I was panicing to be truthful (and very unspiritual). i knew that i needed to conquor the fear before i arrived at the immigration desks, i needed to lay hands on my immigration form - not cowering with fear before the authorities of this world - but with confidence that daddy would sort it out as i claimed my authority over nations.

i started to suddenly see images of Redding, the streets and buildings, then the song i was listoning to said 'what do you see?" i could exclaim 'Redding!'. We have been taught a lot at Bethel about what you see is what you get, what you envision is what you achieve - without vision the people perish.

then the song said "what do you decree?" i immediatly thought 'Access!' - this was what i was claiming!

then the song said (get this for being so right on!):

"I shall roll out my red carpet and you shall walk through with ease"

i had it - i was given the faith to get me through, with ease. it doesn't bear thinking about how close i came to not getting in and what that would mean to me, but actually it was safe with God and i walked through, with ease.

xx Thank you to those praying specifically for this and for all of your love and prayers - bless you! xx

Sarah

Some unoriginal (but rather good) thoughts

These people say that they are mine

they Honour me with their lips but their hearts are far from me

and their worship of me is nothing but man made rules learned by rote

Because of this I will once again astound these hypocrites with Amazing Wonders

The wisdom of the wise will pass away

and the intelligence of the intelligent will disappear...

I was thinking today quite sceptically of a couple of people who claim some really far out supernatural experiences and then I was blown away by these verses in Isaiah 29.

Oh God I want to see wonders but not because I'm a hypocrite!Though now I'm thinking 'ok i still don't want to be an unbelieving hypocrite, but i know i need to still have my mind messed with by some wonderous works of God'. God come out of the box I've put you in! I don't want to just upgrade the size of my God box, I want him out of the box (whatever that looks like (gulp!))!!

Photo Fountain

For a bountiful selection from the last few months in California check out:

http://picasaweb.google.com/dreamsarehere/CaliforniaFall200602

xx

Back to Britania

OK. I know. It's been a shockingly long time and it's bad!! it's been crazy to say the least but i finally got all set for going to the UK, packed up, fitted in a quick trespassing trip to a hot tub and made the trip down to San Fran for my flight. We stopped off at the Golden Gate Bridge on the way, which was more amazing than i had expected.

Was great to see my mum's smiling face at Heathrow - felt just like Love Actually - and had a whirlwind weekend of sleeping at strange times, speaking strangely (spoke at both services on sunday and they could hear my accent both times!) and hanging out with strange peeps - no not really - it was great to be see my long lost homegroup.

Now I'm in the UK I've been forced to cross over to the dark side and entered the depths of myspace - if you want to keep in touch that way give me a shout at http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=137799383

xx

Marriage of Ministries

On Sunday We had Roland and Heidi Baker with us for the marriage of Iris Ministries and Bethel - they aren't merging but have entered a covenent relationship. Iris already have their US offices at Bethel and Elijah & Kristalyn (their children) live here too.
Heidi spoke at the morning services and in the evening we had the marriage - it was a really good time. everyone was encouraged to lay something at thier feet - money towards the wedding pressent (a well drill for mozambique) or just a shoe lace - whatever!


They jumped down and insisted on hugging everyone - much to Bill's bewilderment! Time isn't a factor for this mozambiquan couple - we were in church 9 hours on Sunday- truelly African! (the woman on the far right lives with me and is the office manager for Bethel - she's also highly prophetic - which is great when you loose the car keys!).

Signs that Make You Wonder

God first...!!

OK so are you ready to put British rationalism to the side for a moment and check out some stuff that's going on. it really helps me to remember what Aslan said about the suspicious and synical dwaves in The Last Battle - 'They are so scared of being taken in, that they cannot be taken out [into heaven]'. Yes lets weigh things and be wise, but let us not be so confined to what we think that we miss Gods out-of-the-box approach right in front of us. Oh God let us not be pharisees and miss you infront of us because you don't fit within our ideas!

There have been gem stones turning up in churches and homes that Bill has visited in the mid-west and east coast. I've seen pictures of them - there's a whole box in one place. they are just appearing on floors and clothes and in peoples hands as they worship. One lady has the scar of where the gem came out of her hand. One pastor had one by his bed and it woke him up in the night vibrating. They are often hot to the touch and leave a hot spot on your hands where you held it. The biggest ones are bigger than the hope diamond. Many of them have been sent to experts in the field of precious stones. They have all come back with the report that they are perfect and that they are made of a substance that has never been found on earth. We had never had one at Bethel until sunday when one was found by a cleaner after the morning service. I held it and it was amazing - perfectly cut about 5mm high and 4mm wide (see my pic above).

Who are we to say that these things are pointless? In the same meeting a man who was completly blind in one eye was healed during worship and after the service i saw him freaking out again - he had just regained hearing in an ear where he had had his eardrum sergically removed some 20 years ago!

Stretching make us able to do things we couldn't do before...

It feels like everything God is speaking about to me is then repeated in some sermon at the moment - its amazing confirmation but very stretching! we were talking about being 100% focussed on our calling and not compromising and then overcomming fear to step into ministry situations we don't think we can do!!

As you all know, as soon as i'm behind a microphone i freak out! Its not a place i feel comfortable in and so generally avoid! But who knows that we all need to be free of fear and walk in confidence in all areas so that we can be flexibly used todevelop the kingdom in whatever way we need to? So, I've been avoiding the microphone, as per usual. But as it happens twice in two days I've gotten to share and pray over the whole school.

One of the words that got me to Bethel in the first place was ' if you can't get rid of the fear, then go scared, but go!' and the other day after i had been behind that microphone a couple of times, the woman teaching said 'if you can't get shot of the fear, then preach scared and beat it that way!' - wow - was so timely!

Being up there was scary but i knew i needed to speak and both times i prayed over the school the spirit touched people which was so cool - i was so honoured to be used by God and give Him glory even though it was hard to be up there!

***Heidi and Roland will be with us this weekend for the mrriage of ministries that's happening on Sunday between Bethel and Iris. Looking forward to Heidi speaking on Sunday - she has a lot to impart and it will be great to just absorb all she has. - I'l give you some feedback next week!

leaders conference

I have loved this week. We have had a leadership conference here with pastors and leaders from all over the US and the world comming. From the 'big names' to the faithful survents qiuetly building the kingdom somewhere, they are all welcomed with such honour and such a heart to build them up and impart all that Bethel is.

They were getting truelly wacked yesturday as drunk and disorderlyness broke out over dinner! It was the crazy Bulgarian again, back after a couple of weeks! It was catching - half the servers (school of ministry students) where out with it, Bethel staff were piled up in heaps and the pastors were roaring drunk!

i loved being involved and welcoming them all to Bethel. As the overseer of our house is the office manager for Bethel we help her at conference time. From little admin jobs in the office building to doing registration, its such a privalge to serve and represent such a house.


If you want the CD's from the conference give me a shout.

xx

the crazy bulgarian and other things

So a week ago we had Georgian come speak at school. The most outragious and contagious person we've met - he is drunk, preaches drunk, gets people drunk and ministers out of drunk - its insane - but so so much fun! this guy is so overflowing with the spirit that people would get blasted just being near him - particularly if he fired his imaginary guns in your direction! He works a lot in hard to reach areas - muslim countries and enclaves and at home in the muslim ghettos of bulgaria where mny are saved by his 'hug' ministry as he passes on the touch of the Holy Spirit. He took the evening service too and we had a fire tunnle and a bit of a dance session into the late hours!

I realised that i havn't shown you the school/church. I will get an exterior shot at some point but in the meantime here's a pic of the main sanctury/ 1st year class/ christian school gym!!

It's pretty modest - they can only cram a 1000 people in at one time and with a home population of 3000 and a continual flow of visitors, its just not cutting it. There are 80 000 people in Redding, and when they all come into the kingdom (even when spread around the many great churches) there just isn't the space at the moment. It's perfect for school though - we fill it but there's still space to dance like lunitics and only occasionally knock someone out! Its such a place of freedom, naturally and supernaturally. We've had crazy swessions in this room - sometimes with the whole school dancing in the ailses, on the stage, in their seats. but my favourite session was just 2 of us with the music cranked up late at night - filling the empty space with dance and worship and prophesy. Its pretty special.

Introducing...!!

This last week has been the most intense for me so far - kinda a culmination of the other weeks which softened the ground for the Holy Spirit to work on me! It's so special! so this (above) is the new Sarah - she looks pretty similar but believe me - she's not the same!!

So other than hanging out with the Holy Spirit i've um been well um hanging out with the Holy Spirit - this is what i do a lot of ==>

- journaling - can't quite keep up with myself! We have a lot of reading, study and homework to do - so i have my nose in a book a lot! we're reading the whole bible this year and studying it in class as we go - its so good.

I'm really knowing daddy's love - he's provided me with some really key friends who are just pulling out the gold in me - yesturday we just had the giggles as we stepped into a new level of joy - its just so fun! Bill was sharing a profound messege with the first year of school - which was amazing too! All about not checking yourself for motives because it shifts your focuss of Jesus and His glorification - the devil loves to cripple us by getting us naval gazing!

You know His blessings are just so spectacular - i needed a car while i am here bacause it's built around cars here and your totally stuck without - so i prayed a momentry plea - 'God i don't know how but i need a car - can you sort it out for me?' the next day my roomate said i can car share her car - you wanna see the car God provided for free?... ok check this out for heavenly provision...

And after recieving financial blessing i just prayed for another guy at school who was struggling financially and he got an incredible financial blessing within a week! its crazy - we don't understand it all - but lets keep passing it on!!

Bless you all!

10.10.06

Hey y'all! By the 11th I will have been here a month - which is kind wierd. things have been pretty crazy and busy recently. I've started training with the children's department at church outside of school hours - which is an amazing opotunity. There is such a strong belief that kids don't come with a childsized holy spirit - which means hey walk in expectation that the kids in the school and childrens church will walk in the same demonstrations of the supernatural as any of the adult population. Infact they are serpassing - one small group of kids trained up in the bethel culture have seen the first dead person raised back to life and health! Bethel re offering a year long training course with pratice to learn how to release and encourage kids into their full spiritual potential - now! So that's keeping me busy!

School has also stepped up a notch. We now have outreach, small group and home group requirements, time in the prayer centre, homewok, biblical study and books to read and report on - its busy busy but good - really good! the pic above is a shot of the infinity pool a the prayer centre - it runs off into a waterfall - its such a great place to look out over the valley, to wade in the water and to spend time with Jesus.

Thankyou everyone who is praying for me and supporting me in so many ways. I am so thankful to be here at this time and know i am in God's perfect will for me at this moment - that's exciting! I'm learning so much (head and heart) and can't wait to grow more!

xx

California Dreamin

Its been a week and a half but feels like a age since i've been living in very sunny California - its been intense, beautiful, normal, very different and familier all at once! It's been tough leaving the UK and all the people a care about the most, but as i'm gradually settling in here - i am begining to love the people and the place.

Redding in northern Cali is 2 1/2hours north of San Francisco and has a population of 80 000. The city is on the edge of the mountains and far enough out of the way to be it's own world. Bethel Church has a ministry school of 500 (inc all 3 years), church population of 3000 and a large christian school. It sits on a big campus on it's own small hill overlooking the mountains - and is always busy!! there is a road leading to the church and its constantly got traffic - everyday this church building is a centre of community and kingdom business!

Here's a view from the prayer garden. The littleprayer house is open 24-7 and the garden is inspiring with an infinity pool from which to pray...

On tuesday the whole school left redding for retreat a couple of hours north into the hills - so beautiful! My housemate Emily, a second year and myself stopped on the way up to test out my lonely planet guide and go find a waterfall it raved about. we walked up a railway line for 30min and came to these falls:The pic only shows a fragment of this spectacular fall. apparently loney planet were guiding the rest of the world too - we met several other students on the tracks inc a brit - Robert.

What is 'church'?

I have an inkling that Christian community is a relevant outworking of what church was, is and could be. Rather than it being exclusive – can community actually offer the base and security of acceptance and ‘good Samaritan’ style love, that reaches and importantly keeps reaching, people where they need it and where they can make sense of it?

It’s not a simple thing because nothing is where humans are involved. It takes love of community, of people, of God and a humility that says ‘not my will but yours’. It takes loving discipleship style leadership, that model and inspire the love that makes it tick. But is it all idealism. And if it is, what does that say about church.

I want to be part of something that holds people in Corinthians 13 love and not just attracts them in that way. That’s real isn’t it? Hospitality not just for the ‘seekers’ and students, but as a characteristic across the community.

I think this is worth trying – it’s what we preach but think is radical in practice!! He he! I think it’s also worth a shot in missional contexts. If we’re asking people in other cultures to be shunned by their families and communities when they choose to follow jesus, we sure as **** better have a greater community and family that they are welcomed into. Not once, but for the rest of their lives.

'watch where you walk'

As anyone can tell you, I am not the biggest fan of snakes in the world. I have had many interesting encounters, lots of grace and just a few scares – but we’re still not great friends.

So, curled up with Moses (the cat not the man) last night, I was reading my lonely planet guide to California, and happened on a bit about bears, lions, rattlesnakes and spiders – ‘oh joy’ I thought…

Tigers and bears – fine. Apparently with the tigers you fight off aggressively and the bears you play dead – good, got it, not a problem. The snakes you avoid – right ok. And the spiders get everywhere.

The most notable of which is our little friend the Black Widow. I was surprised they lived in the states – thought they just inhabited the bottom of the world they call Oz.

I can tell you now the size (15mm body) and colouring – black to brown top with orange/red hourglass marking on the bottom (if you ever see it – I thought). It’s amazing what you can retain!

So since then spiders have been dropping out of everywhere – even my hair! I’ve never had a fear of spiders, and I don’t intend to start one now. But I just want to shout ‘Ow Maaaan!!!’ not another thing to watch out for!