...and most importantly.

I didn't even say what initially inspired me to write tonight! I meant to say that I am excited to live out my life in a radical way. I am excited to not only speak about it, write about it, and sing about it, but actually to LIVE out radical re ignition with my actions. I was reading in Isaiah and God says something along the lines of, "those who keep the sabbath and choose those things which place me...". WHOA! I can choose to please God with my actions! And I plan to do that. I will not compromise by willfully doing anything that draws me away from the Father's heart. Call me radical, but I would only take it as a compliment! I'm talking about little things, the sins we Westerners tend to "wink" at. Things like watching gross movies and listening to music because maybe the artist is Christian and drinking a glass of beer because it is relaxing. Before you shut off to me, hear me out. This is not religion I am talking about here, this is a pure act of relinquishing my rights as a pure love act of sacrifice to God, in hopes to please Him. Agree with me or disagree, but it is not you I am living for, and it is not you whom I'll answer to. A good friend of mine once said to me, "the simple actions we make in this short, meaningless life will dictate how we will with Jesus for eternity!" and I couldn't agree with a statement more. I will be hated by this world, I will be spat at and laughed at and turned down by many in my own church, but I will be in communion with God, and I will be filled with His presence and joy during the tough and the easy.

I want to seriously challenge you tonight. I want to to take an emotional step back from your busy life and think about the "little" things that you let slip by in your life. Think of the "little" things you personally compromise in because of laziness, because of pride, because of sheer rebellion. Think about how important those little things are to you, compared to being intimate with the Father. That's it, just think about it. If you want, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal in you any hidden sins or parts of your heart that have become calloused to this messy world. 

Why not be radical? Why not call heaven to earth? Why not actually try living what we say instead of expecting other around us to first act out this biblical lifestyle?


Now seriously, good night.

radical reignition? sure let's call it that.

It's 2 in the morning, and with this jet lag I will never sleep. So I will not lay in bed doing something unproductive (if you know me well, go ahead and do a little "haha") but instead I will write about my very eventful day. I am in a pensive mood for two reasons. One, because of my extremely intense day but also because 2 in the morning is a special hour for me. I remember many nights with close friends at 2 in the morning. I remember the sweet sounds of an acoustic guitar mixed with prayers and songs and words of wisdom and revelation from the Father to us. I remember resting in the presence of God with some of the most passionate, loving, interesting and beautiful people I have ever met. I remember that fat cat, the smells, the pictures on the wall that I would pretend to study as I soak up every minute of my surroundings. I remember this all so vividly as if it was last yesterday that I experienced this, and not five months ago. I also remember coffee and waffles, two of my favorite things. I remember chocolate milk while I was on my period  and so completely exhausted from the Burn sets we played previously that evening. Yeah, you get the point, now I'm totally rambling.  I fully understand no one will read this, but that is comforting in a way because I can write freely and creatively without a worry. So yes, I will write about my day while listening to a poor recording of a song I wrote called Dove and a bit of Misty.

My day started off in a lovely manner! I called my parents who just this morning returned to the US from their free cruise, and they were very excited and bubbly with stories and laughs. I can immediately upon hearing them share their experience understand that I have changed so much since last April. Instead of being frustrated and jealous because they went on a cruise without me, I was so overjoyed for them to experience such fun and relaxation! I'm just being extremely honest and open here. Isn't that awesome?! I want to be known for who I really am. I now want to be know for my real thoughts and actions, both good and bad. Pride is defined by "the inability to be known for who you really are" and that is the opposite of what Jesus tells me to be. He says in Colossians 3:12 ish to clothe yourselves with humility, so here I am, living out what I am expecting of other people around me to the best of my ability with the power of Holy Spirit! Haha! I am rambling so much I am making myself laugh. Ooooohkay. I chatted with my dad but unfortunately ran out of time before the conversation was over to talk with my mom because it was time to go to church! I went to The Bridge with my lovely host parents whom I love so much, Dave and Laura. (They are awesome people, and I might go into detail about them later, I have a feeling I will not sleep tonight.) Pastor Ian spoke of re-ignition, and it was SUCH a timely and spirit-led preaching. I think it might have been the first time I noticed a drastic change in a local church community from apathy and disinterest to going forward in a Biblical manner to advance the kingdom of God and meet Him in the most intimate way. I know for a fact and believe with all my heart that it is because of the prayers of His righteous people in this community that this change has and will continue to take place. I can't remember everything Ian spoke on, forgive me, but the jest of it was focused on John 20 and Acts 1:5-2:ish. Ian was talking about when Jesus returned to His disciples after His resurrection and taught them for forty days. At the end of this teaching time He breathed on these 120 and baptized them in the spirit. After this event took place He told them to wait for the Helper (Holy Spirit) to come to them. So 120 of Jesus' crew went up into a small cramped room and waited. For ten days. Can you imagine what kind of attitude you would have after ten days of waiting for something to happen, but not really knowing what that something was? (I know that I, personally, would have an attitude of a diva! I might not show it outwardly, but God would see that I was being a diva, and He would laugh at me because I didn't know any better.) Anyways, these people, His church, they waited. Then on day ten, BAM the empowerment of the Holy Spirit came!! In Acts 2 it says His Spirit was poured out on every one of those people and they began to speak in all types of tongues and prophesy! I don't think it said exactly that, but bear with my rough translation for now please. So Pastor Ian went on to tell about how the beginning of baptism of the Holy Spirit is at initial acceptance of Jesus and water baptism, but the empowering of the Holy Spirit, where we see God move His hand in our lives supernaturally through prophesy and tongues and all that, should happen everyday! I definitely agreed with him (maybe a bit too vocally than most church-goers are comfortable with) and was so happy to see that message being preached in the church!

 After church I went home and finished my phone conversation with my parents. I talked to all three of my sisters and my mom and then ran out of skype credit just as my mom was saying how she would love to move to Canada with just me and staff a school with YWAM. Then I kindly reminded her she has three other young children who need her at home. She responded by saying parents in the Navy do things of this nature all the time. I think it was God's timing to shut the conversation off there. Thanks to Dave and Laura and their awesome hospitality, I could use their skype to finish up that conversation, while taking caution to leave out any comment concerning the previous discussion of abandonment of children for the ministry.

After that call I had an awesome time at my school graduation. Dave and Laura took me. In the car they asked me what my favorite coffee drink from this great place Zucchini Blossom was and I told them. Then a few minutes later they re-entered the church with that same drink! They are dear souls. It was a bitter sweet gathering, but I know I will see all my classmates again at some point in time. Maybe not all at the same time, but somehow each of them one way or another. Something deep down in my spirit tells me I will be back here in Medicine Hat, Alberta again. I didn't even have a proper goodbye with any of my classmates, which was weird for me. But anyways we shot footage for the Pursuit internship promo video, which is always fun for me because I love words, but the guys in my class needed me to coach them on how to stand and where to look and stuff. It was a good, fun time.I felt a release from that place for now to grow and experience the world for myself. I am eighteen and I have so much to do before settling into one place, especially a place so far from home.

Then I had dinner with Willie and the Daw family. I had an amazing talk with Sarah Daw, so awesome in fact that I don't even have enough energy to write it down (not that any of this is blog worthy, I'll probably just delete it in the morning, but you know what I mean). I so enjoyed the time Sarah took out of her family dinner to give me advice about going home and about vision and about really everything going on in my life and my walk with Jesus. I appreciate her friendship, and I know I will know her well my whole life.


Then I came home and was able to skype my good friend, Ben. We talked about how everything was changing, how every one in our "family"  is either going away or will be going away from home. We talked about time and growing and prophesy. It's always a good time talking to Ben. I don't think he knows it yet but he is a very big encouragement to me.

Then....here I am.

I am covered with pillows and blankets and I am getting frustrated with my broken glasses that keep falling off my face. I'm sure you would chuckle now if you could see me here in the middle of the night, typing away.

Back to the point of being real, I am struggling with bitterness towards some things. So much so, that I find myself talking about it with other people. I can feel my heart saying "Stop! You are gossiping. You know better, God has shown you better!" but my dumb mouth keeps babbling on and on. My heart does NOT want to stay bitter, but my mind does not know how to rectify this situation. So Holy Spirit come, help me, guide me into the way that would best mend this hole in my heart towards this specific issue.

I will say it again, even though I have said it many times, I am in love. I am in love with Jesus, my bridegroom and my redeemer. I cannot wait to be married to Him one day, and I feel that day will be soon! If you don't know what I'm talking about, facebook John-Mark Gal and he'll tell you all about it. Or just study the book of revelation and the parables that Jesus taught and Holy Spirit will show you. I am IN love with Him, I tell you. It's very real! So real in fact that it's almost painful to ponder. The true cry of my heart is that this zeal the Lord has given me for His house will not turn into my own enthusiasm over time, but it will continually create in me a clean heart, one worthy of His affections, and it will guide me on the path of righteousness, ever seeking to be further up and farther into the deeper things.

As deep calls unto deep, and as my pillow cries to my head, I relinquish my right of free speech for the night. I hope that as you read this, if anyone does, that you will become less interested and less curious about me. I hope this because I am , in fact, very boring and dull compared to the glory of the Father that awaits you in the very special way God created you to commune with Him. I challenge you to find out what that way is. I feel I am just starting to develop this unique love language, and already I am enamored by His creativity and knowledge of who I am and the knowledge of the perfect way in which I can relate to Him.

Good night!

Why, hello.

The saying "We weren't meant to for time, our beings are eternal" comes to mind right about now. I remember at certain times in the past two months trying so hard to make moments last, to ingrain certain landscapes or Filipino faces into my mind, but I also remember moments in bed late at night anticipating when I would hold my family in my arms at the Norfolk Airport. Times wishing that my teammates and I had more in common, or desiring to sit down with my closest friends and worship the lord with instruments and vocal chords. As I sit here and even try to write one single thought down I am unable to. Every moment, every tear, every prayer answered, every pain that was taken away by the blood of Jesus, all of this comes together to form one thought in my mind.

"Who is man that you are mindful of him" Psalms 8:4

Who am I Abba that you are mindful of me? Who am I that you would choose to send you son to die for me? Who am I that you would choose to send me to be your hands and feet, to love like you love, to bless like you bless, to give life as you are life, who am I? A good friend of mine recently asked me, "If you can sum up this trip in three words, what would they be?" and as hard as it was to answer this question, with some thought I answered, "Humility, patience, and purelove." Even though purelove is one word, the English language doesn't have a word for it, and love is such a overused, underrated word we use these days I thought it proper to combine pure and love into one word. I answered humility for many reasons, one being based on the verse above,. I cannot fathom my Father's grace that He would love me through my selfishness, my pride, my ignorance and arrogance. I am humbled by the Filipino people who are so open to love, so open to listen, so open to feed, to clothe, to share even when they have nothing. I am humbled more every time the Lord reveals to me more of His Word to me and I realize how dumb I am sometimes when I choose to disobey Him. I answered patience because my team situation. Of course I love them all so much, they bring so much joy to my heart and soul, and I couldn't have picked a better outreach team. I think the main difference was purely of culture, and even though people views Canadians and Americans as the same, we are not. Americans are aggressive by nature, outgoing by nature, and me being an extreme case of aggressive and outgoing it was sure to clash with Canadians who are introverted by nature, calm and reserved by nature, and soft spoken in the extreme form of the word. I think I was ill prepared for the differences of Canadian culture and my own. God really used these differences during outreach to refine my character and to teach me to be patient with communication and with everything, really. And purelove because God's purelove, when shone on my face, cast out all fears in me. Fears of inadequacy in worship leading, fears of needles, motorcycles, and cockroaches. These all seem like pity fears, but everyone has something they fear, something that God will challenge them to face if we let Him. His purelove was transferred form me to the beautiful young faces of Filipino women as I was able to speak life, healing, and prophesy over them. I'm so thankful to the Lord for teaching me a bit of these three things during the past two months in the Philippine Islands.

Hopefully one day I will write more experiences and testimonies down, but I am too overwhelmed with change for any of that right now. 

Here is my last entry from my journal during our 12 hour flight from Manila to Vancouver:

"It's five in the morning, or something like that. Everyone else is in a deep sleep, dreaming of who they will meet at the conclusion of this airborne journey. At the same time I am staring out my window at the starts and clouds intricately breathed into perfect position. Suddenly a flicker, then a burst of hot red sun explodes into the horizon of white evaporation around me. Who but an airplane traveler can experience such a  wonder! All I know right now is that God loves me enough that even when all else is asleep, He let's me in on His mystery of Creation. I can't help but ponder how much greater eternity will be with this same Savior who loves me. "

3 days until departure! (Outreach as a lifestyle)

"I have been transformed more each day with the revelation of how deep, how high, how vast the Fathers love is for me. The arrows of His grace and mercy have shattered into the core of my heart. Now my heart is beating to the rhythm of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and things will never be the same!"

 This was my ending statement of what God has done in my life since I have come to the Pursuit DTS. It is so hard to believe that three months ha already gone by. It was flown past so quickly, but yet so much transformation has happened in my life. It is just a constant reminder to me that we are eternal beings, that this lifetime will pass away like a fleeting wind. That our memories are in the end meaningless, and nothing in this lifetime will carry over into the next. While this is a scary thought, it is also comforting to know that we were made for SO much more than this life. How awesome!


Well, today is Friday and we have 3 days until we leave for Manila. SO many emotions are going through my head right now, mostly of excitement and anticipation! All lecture business is coming to an end, and we are starting to meet as a team of 10 instead of 26. SO WEIRD! But awesome. I know God has chosen these specific people for His specific purpose these next two months! Bags are packed, spirits are stirred and hearts are broken for the Filipino people.


My heart on going on this outreach is just to continue living a "lifestyle of outreach" in my life. I have seen a lot of DTS teams come in and out from outreach with expectations that they are going to "fully live a life of testimony for outreach" or " To see people touched and healed with God's love while on outreach" but then don't continue to walk the walk or talk the talk even when they return. This reminds me of Paul when he writes a letter to the church of Philippia (ironically). He said is Philippians 1:15-18  " It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice." Now I'm not saying that other people's ambitions are wrong or falsely motivated. I just mean that I personally do not want to have any false motivation going on outreach, but instead I want  to just continue what I've been living out here in Medicine Hat! There have been so many incredible testimonies of God's faithfulness these past three months. We have seen many healed and seen many miracles. There was horrible flooding here about two weeks ago, so bad that we couldn't meet in our normal building. We met that week at a local church, but prayed long and hard and declared that the rain would stop in Jesus' name and it did!! It was sunny and hot for 8 days straight after that. Also I have had $3,000 of donations anonymously for my school that payed for my whole plane ticket and the remainder of my lecture funds! So awesome. God is so faithful.

I am excited to be able to lead worship for my team during outreach. Our goal is to buy a guitar during the trip and leave it there at the end of outreach. We will have a lot of time to love on the people, to pray for the sick and watch them be healed, to preach about the love of Christ and to share testimonies. More to come on outreach when I get to Manila!


Please continue to pray for the unity of our team to stay strong!! I love you all and can't wait to share about what God is doing in Asia!

Choice.

Watch this on youtube before you read this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvhGeNzdRZA

I choose not to focus on evil. I choose not to focus on fear. Because when I focus on evil I focus on the absence of God, and that is just dumb.

It's so simple! Don't focus on the negative. Focus on giving thanks and praise to God for ALL the grace and goodness He has put before us. 

Ephesians 5:20

The simple sentence that defines us.

 "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." 1 Corinthians 13:1-7

Now this is a passage of Scripture that is very commonly quoted among believers. If you have gone to church for more than three months, chances are you have heard to read this passage. A speaker last week told us to look up this passage and read it out loud. Everyone read it agreeing that love is pretty stinkin' sweet, and agreeing that we all have areas of love to work on. But the next thing the speaker said totally rocked my world. He said this:

" If God is love (1 John 4:8,16), and He is, than I want you to replace the word love in this passage with the word God..."

 What an amazing revelation on that Scripture!! This might be something you already have revelation on, but it was totally new to me. I got a prophetic word from someone the other day and they told me God wanted me to read more about His character in the Bible, so that I can know Him better. I don't think there is a more simple description on the character of God in the whole Bible! I'm getting even more revelation on it as I type! 

So often we as Christians in the western church feel like Holy Spirit is the most "neglected" of the Holy Trinity, but really it can just as easily be God the Father! What perfect love the Father has for us! (1 John 4:18) This is something I don't think I understood the meaning of until today. Our speaker this week's name is Ron White, and he is an awesome father of our faith. He talked about the father heart of God, and at the end he stood at the door to give everyone a real hug and father's blessing. Since I have an amazing, loving, Godly dad I didn't think this would be a struggle at all. "Just go and hug the nice old man, and then I can eat some yummy lunch!" was the thought that passed through my head and I skipped to the front of the line to hug Ron. As soon as he hugged me, he took me by my shoulders and looked straight into my eyes. I don't think anyone has ever done that before, so fearless and so intentional. He said the simple phrase.. "I love you. Do you know that?" As soon as this phrase left his mouth I already has tears streaming down my face. What a simple phrase, one sentence, yet I don't think anyone has ever said that phrase to me so meaningfully ever in my life. I know this was because God was using Him to speak to me, and I realized at that moment the smallest fraction of the love my Father in heaven has for me. I began to realize that most people's love for me is based on what I do for them, which is fine because I know that's how I can love sometimes. But to have a perfect stranger come up to you, who has never talked to you before expect in introductions, can look into your eyes and say I love you and mean it so purely. I knew this was because God had loved Him in that same way. I broke! What an amazing thing to experience. I don't think I will ever forget this day because I saw into the Father's eyes, and I saw His perfect love for me that wasn't based on any performance or attitude of my own. 

Ron had another good quote today and I thought it was cute: "We are called human beings not human doings for a reason!"

So let's just "be" with God, let's let Him LOVE us just because, and out of that a real desire to lead a holy and pure life will come out of that. But if we do not have love, we have NOTHING! Focus on that intimate relationship with the Father today, instead of trying to please Him with your actions. 

Shout out to Michelle Malpaya and Ben Larson who actually read this. You guys are awesome and I miss you :)

Prayers are so dear to me.

Verbatim (out loud) prayers are very important. I am realizing this a lot lately. For example: when someone innocently asks me to pray (out loud) my desires to God, I start sobbing. "What? Where did that come from?" I ask myself in my thoughts. "Why is it so hard to just tell God your deep longings?" I realized then how afraid I was to ask God anything for myself! It seems really stupid as I'm typing this out, but I think it's important to write this down.

So after my little sobbing party, I started to whisper the deep longings of my heart:

"Lord, make me fearless. Give me your heart for people who are un-loved by everyone. Give me your heart for my enemies, and people who have hurt me. I long for intimacy with you, and I long to have a husband who is wholeheartedly devoted to you!"

This seems like an easy prayer to pray, but it felt like five hours as I was muttering it out of my mouth! Afterwords I felt like a HUGE weight was lifted off of my shoulders. I feel more free! Who would have thought.. If you have never talked to God out loud about your hidden desires and passions, I encourage you to do so!!


Please be praying for me! I have a few things that came up today that I need to be chewing on. Plans for the future, and finances still! I need about 5,000 still for my school all together.

If you want to make a monetary donation, here is the address!

Beach Fellowship c.o Wynter Poe
1817 Virginia beach Blvd.
Virginia Beach, VA 23454

Every little bit helps. Consider yourself a partner in this amazing opportunity to reach out to the public school system in the Philippines! The government there has opened the doors for us to share the gospel openly to all the middle and high schools!! SO awesome. So please please please be praying that our whole team will raise the money we need to make this happen!

Weekending

Today has been un-eventful in the best way. Last night we all went over to Ryan and Sarah's again to watch the Finger of God sequel, Furious Love. I so recommend you watch it! You can check out the movie at: http://furiouslovethemovie.com/ By the time the movie had finished, I was feeling soso sick. I had a fever and I couldn't get off the couch! Bummer, but I was prayed over and I belived for healing. I went home and slept very nicely until 1 in the afternoon. Today I have been catching up on laundry and all that non-exciting stuff that needs to be done, but also reflecting on my week. Pastor John Mark Gal was here speaking this whole week. He is an amazing man of God from the little city of Empress, Alberta. He came and spoke on the the Bride of Christ, and it rocked my socks off for sure. Although every word that came from his mouth was astounding and note-worthy, the one thing that stuck out like a sore thumb was his attentiveness to Holy Spirit. He would be in mid-sentence and stop to listen to what God wanted Him to speak on. Every time he would lay down his rights and soeak out what Holy Spirit was saying, the words pierced my heart like an arrow! That is the kind of attentiveness I want to have.

It's been really fun to exercise my singing more with Amanda Falk and Dayna Van Dam. What women of God!! Misty Endwards once said: "Worship ALWAYS grows boring if I focus only on the music but when I focus on the Man I can play simple melodies for hours and not even notice." What a fun and very true statement! When we let the Spirit give us the songs to sing, worship is not a chore anymore but a time of relaxation, reflecting, and being in awe of the Glory of our Creator. Oh, how I love Him! Worship times set for 45 minutes turn into hours and hours of forgetting where we are because we are so in love.

Word of encouragement for the day: Do not think that just because you are in your hometown, going to work and church and school (and any other mundane activity) that your God doesn't want that same intensity, that same fiery passion, that same Spirit habitation everyday with YOU! You have a father/friend/lover who is PASSIONATELY pursuing you. He wants to be with you where you are, He wants to hear your every though, He wants to converse with you about the "little things" and so much more. So do not give into compromise of everyday life! Live your life FULLY for Him, and He will see to it that you feel all the love and affection He feels for you. Do NOT be afraid of what other people think, even what other Christians think, because jealousy in your relationship with God can me masked by fake concern.


I love you all, doesn't matter who you are, because CHRIST who lives in me loves you all more than you can comprehend! Shalom, peace be with you and in your homes.


Read and meditate on Psalm 11:7 today.




p.s. below is a picture of two classmates and I! Aimee Aitkens on the left, and Sarah Selk on the right.

Gleaning , soaking, seeing Him work.

Angels are jealous of the redemption song the Lord sings over us. What a crazy thought.

As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, ¹¹seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. ¹²It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven--things into which angels long to look. -1 Peter 1:10-1

I challenge you to meditate on this verse! Ask the Holy Spirit for revelation on what exactly it means.

This weekend has been so incredible. Not because of some hip hop festival (even though that was very fun) and not because we sat around and ate all the time (even though this weekend consisted of much eating). No, it was because we allowed the Holy Spirit to move. It's because we yielded our rights and wants and feelings, and because of that the Lord delighted in us in a new and incredible way. Friday night we all went over to Ryan and Sarah Daw's house to watch the Finger of God documentary and the Lord stuck me with a sense of urgency to get on my knees and pray. We stopped the video and starting crying out for more of the Spirit right where we were. Immediately we began to feel Him at work in our midst! We prayed for everyone individually and interns were freed from mental bondage, slammed in drunkenness, I saw a vision of white light and the eyes of The Lion of Judah, and so much more. By the time we had finally calmed down, there was a tangible wind of the Spirit moving through the room. No windows or doors were open! We were all on the floor in silence soaking for a long while. By the time we were aware of any time at all, it was 3:00 in the morning! It was 4:00 by the time we finished watching the documentary, and we were so filled with joy at what God was doing in our midst, just hanging out in the living room!

Today was amazing as well. We went to church this morning, and then went to Asia Gardens for lunch. While I was in line for Mongolian something totally divine happened. This girl named Cassie came up to me in line! I know this seems totally insignificant but actually it was a divine appointment. I had met this girl randomly at Tim Horton's coffee shop two weeks before, and I saw her again in the middle of nowhere Friday night when we were lost and stopped for directions. I knew God had an agenda in mind for this girl, so I told her it wasn't by accident that we had met randomly so many times! I invited her to this upcoming encounter night where Stacey Campbell (amazing prophetic woman of God) is teaching and Amanda Falk (amazing worship leader with such a heart after God's) was leading worship. If you read this, please be praying that she will be compelled to come and that Jesus will be able to live inside of her!

So we get to the girl's house after lunch to pray for Stacey's arrival, for protection for her, and for increased revelation and hunger in our own lives. We end up soaking for some 4 hours in the presence of God, not moving or saying a word. It went by so fast :) Then we started praying and one of the staff dudes with us got a call about some Messianic Jews interested in a bible study that we have of Sunday nights. We were all so hungry to learn about Israel and the history and prophesy about God's chosen people! So they ended up giving us so much clarity of God's Word and about certain things we were wrestling with in our minds. My brain hurt from all the knowledge, but I was so hungry to know the things of God that questions just kept coming back up! Before we even thought about it, it was 11 o'clock. We got to pray for this couple and their niece, and the man told us how much he had been longing for a group of people to teach and disciple in the ways of the Bible. How awesome!!

This is so how God works. EVERYTHING for the benefit of those who love Him. There is no limit of creativity or power that God will bless us with simply if we give Him room to do what He wants! His plan is the best.

Prayer requests! I need about 6,000 more dollars for the rest of my lecture phase here, as well as for our upcoming outreach to the Philippines. Also, pray for a release in faith and zeal to take what I am learning to the streets of Medicine Hat! I am so longing to do evangelism in the city, and I know God put this yearning in me.

Be blessed, be filled with the Spirit and the knowledge of Jesus, and don't forget to meditate on 1 Peter 1:10-12 today.

Another lesson in faith.

God wants us to be obedient! In fact, He requires it. To have a heart after 100 percent obedience, we need to stretch our faith muscle and get into shape! God is my personal trainer in faith this week for sure. I'm totally trusting God with my heart, soul, and mind in the area of finances! He WILL be faithful to His promises when I am faithful in my attitude and heart posture with Him!!

I love Jesus more and more every day. Hah! He is so un-boring.

Read Hebrews 11.

Be blessed :)

Hm.

I do not like being an emotional roller coaster. I was told today that God did not create us to be this way. Then I started to try and be level-headed about everything, and that did NOT work.

I'm interested on how tomorrow will end up, but as of right now this whole inner healing thing is just turning me into a hot mess. And when I say hot mess, I mean a wreck.


Meh. If you read this, please send God a shout out for me. I'm needing encouragement.

Sidetracked, but much needed post.

So I still have a lot I want to write about what I'm studying in Revelations, but I have an awesome night of eating crow and I wanted to share what I learned!

This was teh second Sunday for me in Alberta, and I ended up going to the same church I went to last week. We are allowed a period of three to four weeks to try out the churches in the area, and then we pick one and stay with it (I love that concept btw). We were about a half an hour late to church because the girlies slept in, and it was snowing like a blizzard outside so I was distracted with that I guess, and I was in a hurry to get to the car with shoes and breakfast in hand. I just had put my things down at my chair at the church when I almost automatically got a check in my spirit about the pastor. Something was weird about him, and I was totally distracted. The whole service I was thinking about nothing else than the check in my spirit about this dude! We was extremely loud and he would come down from the stage and he had a little in-our-faces attitude. Most of the interns went to this specific church this morning so at the end we were all meeting in the back figuring out lunch plans. The pastor then comes up to us to meet us and ask us where we were from and all that jazz. Nomally, this would be an awesome gesture, and I would really appreciate it, but because for some reason I had it out for the dude, this just made me more upset. We then left church and had lunch at one of the families houses, and then I got dropped off at my house.

The rest of the day went on like normal. We attended a youth service at another local church that we all really love. We again got there a bit late, but still in time to catch a bit of worship. For the announcements they played a Miley Cyrus song and for some reason AGAIN I was feeling cynical ( I REALLY do not like being that way, or people who act cynical...) and I couldn't understand how mainstream pop music about partying could fit in with church. Then the youth pastor gave a message that really smacked me in the face!

The pastor talked about Judas, and betrayal. He has a very unique outlook on the whole story and I thought I would share it. The context of the night was out of Matt. 26 where is talked about the woman with the Alabaster jar of perfume. For those of you reading with no Bible, I will give the reference (kudos to Biblegateway.com):

The Precious Ointment

⁶Now when Jesus was in Bethany, at the home of Simon the leper,

⁷a woman came to Him with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume, and she poured it on His head as He reclined at the table.

⁸But the disciples were indignant when they saw this, and said, "Why this waste?

⁹"For this perfume might have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor."

¹⁰But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why do you bother the woman? For she has done a good deed to Me.

¹¹"For you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have Me.

¹²"For when she poured this perfume on My body, she did it to prepare Me for burial.

¹³"Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her."

Judas's Bargain

¹⁴Then one of the twelve, named Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests

¹⁵and said, "What are you willing to give me to betray Him to you?" And they weighed out thirty pieces of silver to him.

¹⁶From then on he began looking for a good opportunity to betray Jesus.

¹⁷Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?"

¹⁸And He said, "Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, 'The Teacher says, "My time is near; I am to keep the Passover at your house with My disciples."'"

¹⁹The disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover.

Now I want to highlight verses 13-14 for one sec. I had never seen it like this before, but Judas went to the chief priests right after the disciples were lovingly corrected by Jesus concerning the woman with the alabaster jar. Judas was the same as all the other disciples, loving and following Jesus with whole-hearted abandonment, seeing/ witnessing miracles and lives being changed by the thousands. In that split second between being lovingly rebuked by Jesus, and betraying him, what was going through Judas' head? Probably the same kind of stuff that goes through my head when I am lovingly (or not so lovingly) rebuked by a pastor, or Spiritual leader, or even by the Spirit. WHOA! That hit me like a ton of bricks. Partially because of my perpetual problem submitting to the leadership put in front of me, and partially cause of my nasty attitude all today towards every pastor/ leader!

See, the other 11 followers of Jesus did not fall away after Judas betrayed Jesus. They stayed passionately, radically and whole-heartedly after the preaching of the Gospel and sharing Christ's love with anyone they could! And they ALL died serving. So if all those disciples didn't let Judas' HUGE mistake distract them from focusing solely on Jesus and their ministry, why the heck would I let other people's "mistakes", or even a pastor's teaching decision, distract me from loving and praising my Jesus? It shouldn't!! Who am I to judge how a pastor does something! I have NO idea how to lead a youth group, or how to preach, let alone run a whole church! I immediately realized and repented for my horrible attitude of cynicism. I am going to now focus on ME, and MY problems, and I will practice living out the Beatitudes silently, by example. Then when pigs fly, and I am perfect, will I be able to look at someone and judge or mentally correct their actions.


Thanks you, Lord for showing me where I need to work on. You are so faithful to come alongside us and help us grow to be more like you. Thanks for showing me how much I NEED you, how much I NEED to learn, and how much I will NEVER be perfect. You are the perfect one, Jesus. I will forever live to be more like you.


Goodnight and amen!

Seven Misconceptions About the End Times - Corey Stark

Today in class we talked about the book of Revelation. The more I thought about it, the more I didn't understand why I had never thought to study Revelation before. The End Times study gets so overlooked. You would think that as the younger generation, the generation that will probably be here when the 3.5 years of tribulation is going on, would want to know what God's battle plan is, that He clearly tells us about through scripture!

Now I really can't talk, because before this morning I had no clear desire to read about or study this particular subject, and I was a bit stressed that The End Times was our main topic for the week. But God seriously revealed some major flaws in my belief system today. I wanted to highlight a little bit of what Corey was talking about in our afternoon session on things that are falsely taught in churches and everywhere else. Everything he teaches (and I mean ALL of it) is fully backed in scripture. I didn't believe some of what he was saying, then I looked up the verses and it was plain as day! It's crazy how we can go so far on what we have grown up learning and believing, without ever testing it to the Living Word of God! I'm copying word for word from my notes so that I don't get confusing haha

MISCONCEPTIONS
A. Jesus will return at any moment: The Apostle Paul teaches that Jesus' second coming and the gatherine of teh saints, both occur during the same period of time at the 7th trumpet (1 Cor. 15:51). This follows teh great falling away (1 Tim. 4:1-3) and the revealing of the Antichrist (2 Thes. 2:1-4), which occurs at the "Abomination of Desolation" to being the Great Tribulation (Dan8:13; 9:26, 27,;11:31; 36-39; 12:11; Matt 24:15; Mark 13:14; 2 Thes. 2:4; Rev. 13:14-15 (shadows Daniel 3:1-30; Ezek. 8:1-6)

B. The church will be raptured at any moment: The popular pre-tribulation rapture view teaches that the church will be "raptured" at any moment and therefore, miss the great end-time drama. The word "rapture" comes from the Latin word "raptus", meaning "snatching away" (1 Thes. 2:19; 4;16-17; 5:10; 2 Thes. 2:1). The Bible teaches that the church will be "caught up", however, the issue is one of timing. The church will go through Tribulation in great victory and power, being "gathered together" at the end of the Tribulation, rather than at the beginning (Mt.24:29-31). The rapture occurs when Jesus returns to the planet at the 7th trumpet (1 COrinth 15:52). This is a serious mistake that will leave many unprepared for the end times.

MORE TO COME tomorrow, I'm exhausted :)

JOY!

Today is the second day of week two of the Pursuit Internship here in Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. It is so like the nature and heart of God to already be doing a new thing to each of us here individually, and as a whole team! This week out speaker's name is Corey Stark, and he is the executive director of all internships at IHOP KC. (International House of Pray in Kansas City). He is speaking on The Endtimes, the Forerunner Messengers, and on the Spirit of Elijah.

The school so far has been incredible! It is so awesome how God works, bringing exactly who He wants, in exactly the right timing for this school. There are 16 students total, 4 young adult girls, 5 young adult guys, two families and four or five older single women. This DTS is a lot different than most Training School in the past because we are all spread out in different housing all throughout the city of Medicine Hat. Our meeting center is at the Global Prayer House at a building called Central. Central is an AWESOME ministry out of Medicine Hat, with a full gym, full dance studio, and full skate park in the facilities. This is also where the prayer room of Global Prayer House is located. GPH was founded and dedicated in February of 2010 here and has been touched and anointed by God to bring His presence and power to all people seeking out the Father! Our school leaders are Rick and Judy Sorum, great people of the Lord. Everyone is so different, but the Holy Spirit is using all of us together to do what He wants us to in the season.

Yesterday we were all praying and Corey began to prophesy over me, creative arts and joy!! Two things that I really feel God has placed on my heart for ministry. God also began to remind me of issues and areas that I haven't fully surrendered to Him, and I began to release these certain things. As I released my hold on these things, God had room to come in and work them out of me, and begin something new!

There are no real musicians in our group beside me, so I feel like God is going to use that gift to be able to lead us into a deeper level of worship and intimacy, which is very cool.

Prayer Requests!!
Please be praying for me in the areas of focus and finances!! Anyone who knows God knows that when you are coming to a point of breakthrough in your life, that is when the enemy is working hard to distract you. Please pray that the Lord will supernaturally give me a new-found focus on Him, His word, and in intercession! Financially, I am at about 1,000 dollars of the 7,000 that I need for both lecture phase and outreach phase. I have FULL confidence that whatever God's plan for me is, that He will bring it to pass. Pray a supernatural release of finances over me, and for our whole team.

Love love love to you all. I am so blessed to have people like you all to come alongside me in this awesome, new thing that the Lord is doing all over the earth.

Blessings!
Wynter

News

Wow, I have really delayed to blog about what's going on in my life! Today will be my last full day in the States before heading off to the Global Prayer House in Alberta, Canada! There I will be doing a pursuit internship with IHOP and YWAM together.

globalprayerhouse.com

Check it out! Go to the pursuit internship tab and it will tell you all about my school.
We Will be going on outreach as well, as of now to the Philippines but it could very well change.

I know this is a lame blog, and I know I should write more, but I am on a crunch time for packing!


p.s. I chopped all my hair off, and it is semi brown. Don't ask me why, because there was so significant reason.

Read Psalms 62!

Ephesians

I was reading Galatians one morning with my boyfriend, and I skipped ahead a bit to the intro to Ephesians. We have really been getting into the Message version of the Bible for cross referencing and it is proving to be a HUGE help in understanding the Bible more! Anways, I wanted to share the intro to Ephesians form the Message:

"What we know about God and what we do for God have a way of getting broken apart in our lives. The moment the organic unity of belief and behavior is damaged in any way, we are incapableof living out the full humanity for which we were created."

BAM. Chew on that for a bit :)

Yo Mama Froyo

This is my favorite place on planet earth, just in case anyone was wondering. If you are close to me you probably have been here at least once.


...And now I'm really craving it!

Yeah!

I know I should be writing this and getting into a good journaling habit, but so much has been going on lately that I can't even remember which day is what. Last night god totally used my friends and I to minister to each other in a way that will bind us together and free us from depression and anything else holding us back from the loving arms of the Father. Huge visions were seen by multiple people, and inner healing was all over the place! As for myself, well I was just so drunk in the Spirit I almost convinced myself I was actually drunk. We won't mention that I was driving. ;) I am so grateful to have the friends I have, and to serve the God I serve. I know that God has even more than this, even more than our bodies can handle, and that our minds can fathom. I just pray that God will teach us how to handle this blessing of His presence with maturity and knowledge.

All I can say is that I am sooo blessed!

i love word spitting on these things. I love that no one reads this. I love that I'm talking to my self in third person.






Nothing in my life is significantly happening except God using me. So I'm extremely happy! I am getting restless though. I am ready to travel again. Ready to be stretched physically and emotionally. I want to go to tribal Africa and live off of bugs and water. Haha, okay I guess i am getting carried away but I really want to go to Africa. I think I am going to contact my friend Steph to see if her contacts are still good there.

I will never be able to see myself in one stationary place, and even though that is weird that is a desire God placed in my heart, and I will follow after it!

All these people keep asking me about church too and that's exciting. God is really shining through me like never before! And it's totally because of Him cause I mess up everyday.

In the awesome words of Rachel "Without Christ, I am a bitch!"Pardon my french but enough said!