Monday
Set to head off for Redding, CA to visit Bethel Church (a Holy-Spirit filled church!!) and I was just like bleh. Traveling with Sarah, Jasmine, Ruth, and Sarah's sister, Alice. As soon as they arrive at my house around noon, we head off for the 9 hour drive to Redding.
yes, surprisingly it only took 9 hours. So Sarah graduated this past quarter, so only 3 of the Core at UC-Riverside actually went on the trip (me, jasmine, ruth, alice is at ucirvine). We arrive at Henry & Sandra's house, meet Seth & Lauren and eat at Red Robin for dinner and return to Henry's apartment.
There Henry shares with me his testimony from the streets of NY, to evangelizing to kids in the projects of NY (lower queens, brooklyn, etc etc) and his heart for the kids on the streets (south central, ny projects, etc). Then he introduces me to Mr. Bill Johnson and his books! Highly recommends to read his stuff. And we just continue to speak about the supernatural
which in actuality is more natural than our reality. He talks about treaure hunts (which I will explain right below this paragraph) and just the Holy Spirit testimonies. Shares his music collection of Lecrae, Trip Lee, Flame, and other Christian rappers, awesome time.
Treasure Hunt! So treasure hunts are when a group of people gather, ask the Holy Spirit for items, and write them down on what they call a Treasure Map. They follow the items/clues that the Holy Spirit gives them, creatively and subtly searching for the treasures. The treasures are people who are isolated, alone, devastated who just need God's word and love. (Read Luke 15:8-10) And then once there, God heals them of physical and spiritual pains and the group prophesies over them.
Anyways so our first day there was amazing.
Tuesday
So Tuesday morning, Henry & Sandra make us eggs and toast for breakfast (alice is staying at Gareth Simmons' place) and we go pick up alice and head over to Bethel for a class session of the Supernatural School. We attend the 1st year class, and divinely it just so happens to be Bill Johnson speaking the ONLY day we have time to attend a class!! (I hear Bill Johnson is really busy and even though Bethel's his home church, he has to arrange time to speak for 3 hours for the classes)
All I have to say is that if you can get a copy of one of Bill Johnson's sermons, it's heavy and loaded and will just be revelation after revelation.
as i write this i can't even sit still, just read couple chapters from The Ultimate Treasure Hunt and listening to Kristene Mueller's Those Who Dream, and my spirit is just alive right now, shaking in fear and joy (maybe it's the energy drink? but definitely some of it is the Holy Spirit) anyways so Bill Johnson just illustrates and explains Proverbs 13:12 in a way where you know that God is speaking through him.
"12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life." (Proverbs 13:12)
So the first half a lot of people understand. When hope is postponed and put off (like when you pray fervently for something and it doesn't come to fruit), it makes our heart sick, vulnerable to spiritual attacks and this is one of the main sources as to why people backslide,
because of hope deferred. But the second part is amazing. But to understand it we must understand the tree of life.
In the beginning, God sent an angel to block Adam and Eve from the tree of life because it would keep them in a permanent state of sin in which they could never be redeemed. Thus the tree of life keeps someone in a permanent state. Thus, a desire fulfilled (your eternal purpose, on this earth and in heaven and in the new earth/heaven) now becomes your permanent state. Your desire aligning with God's plan for you and when that is fulfilled you realize THAT is your purpose for eternity and that desire fulfilled is your tree of life!!
Bill Johnson is OUT OF THIS WORLD, literally. He is on another plane, but not to idolize him or anything but giving honor and respect to where it is due. Every sentence is like a proverb, like you need to chew on it literally. Anyways, so the service ends, we go eat at Luigi's pizza, Seth treats us out (and I just met the dude). And Seth's small group of children ministry leaders along with Seth begin to prophesy over me as I share my story. I miss that. I long for one day when Young Nak becomes a church filled with spontaneous spirit led prophecies with no weirdness or pedastool under it. It is natural and normal!
Anyways so that night after the pizza and prophecy, we go to the Children Leading Small Group/Teaching Session and as they share testimonies, at one testimony, Christopher's, he just can't get past the phrase
So I put on my shoes and he just laughs after that phrase over and over and so do I and the Holy Spirit just gets us drunk!! We begin to laugh hysterically with the joy of the Lord inside of us for hours and hours! Even just typing this out, the memory of it fills me up with the joy of the Lord! Laughing as I write this!! Amazing I love it. Literally I can see why people asked the disciples if they had drunk wine. We were all red, making jokes (of course clean, healthy) and just laughing at everything! If it wasn't at a church and at a house and my parents walked in they might've thought we were drunk!! But it was just so awesome!! Anyways that ends and I meet Joel, a guy from Oregon and as he is still feeling a bit buzzed from the drunkenness he shares with me his story and how he ended up as being a 1st year at Bethel's school and he shares with me Bethel's culture. Amazing night indeed.
Wednesday
So Wednesday, our last day rolls around (crazy how Tuesday our only full day at Bethel, is like the PERFECT day, blessed, anointed, ughh I love God!!) We stop by Manhattan Bagel (BOMB, the california classic is delish, a bagel layered from bottom to top, cream cheese, avocado, egg, tomato) Anyways, after we leave to head back home, but I contact Deyvid Lam and we decide to stop by Justice House of Prayer, San Francisco. Drive over to SF, and you can feel the spiritual battle.
Funny note, I cannot handle SF, it is CRAZY, it's just too much for me Spiritually and Physically, and Deyvid says the same exact thing for LA. Hahaha, truly for such a time as this that we are placed where we are, with our respective personalities perfectly fitting our environment (Yes i believe environment has molded us that way, but also there needs to be some DNA/personality that makes you love the place) and I find out Deyvid is moving to KC through divine confirmations, amazing story. I love Deyvid.. his story amazes me and he is still 18 years old. Praise the Lord!!
We eat at Chow in SF, some fancy bougie restaurant, where they charged me an extra 1.50 for swiss cheese in my veggie burger hahhaha.
(btw, listening to this cd and have to mention it.. go buy it or something)
And anyways so Deyvid just shares his testimony to our group, and we just are blessed to hear his AMAZING testimony. Deyvid, if you ever read this, I love you you are a man of God, I will see you in KC this summer!! Anyways, so after that, we part ways and JHOPSF sticks to my mind and maybe we will get a house in Riverside and start a prayer house.
So now we are back here at our respective homes in Southern California. Total miles driven (not including local drives in individual cities) is around 1,200 miles + an extra 100 for local miles. So yeah ahhaha nuts. Can't believe I solo'd the drive up to Redding.. God's grace truly
I'm so stoked and excited because I plan to have a Treasure Hunt this Saturday at 6pm. If you want to come, respond to this post, or email me or just show up to Young Nak College side parking lot around 6-6:30pm.
oh yea and pssst my camera arrived woohoooo! just in time for treasure hunt
