Bountifully Blessed at Bethel

Olive at Bethel, Redding CA.

We have been very tardy in updating the Blog since we got back to Canada. But wanted to back track a bit and share our experience we had spending 6 weeks at Bethel Church in Redding CA. 

When we arrived it was a Sunday night service and the place was rockin' Sunday evening worship was in full swing and you could feel His presence in the room. It is really amazing to be in a service where everyone's heart is tuned into the Lord. After service was over we found a place to boondock for the first night. The next day we booked into the Premier RV park for a month, which is about a 5 minute drive to Bethel...very clean bathrooms and friendly service. We headed back up to the church to work in Hebrews Coffee Shop and soak in the atmosphere... it's like a spiritual hot tub....without the pruning of your fingers! The first week we met the most amazing people from all over the world and spent time talking to them about their experience attending Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry. All the comments were positive and they couldn't say enough about how blessed they were to be going there and how it has changed their lives. We met an older couple in their mid seventies that were in first year, very sweet, and they said Mark and I should check out the school…well we did and we are enrolled for this fall 2012 and really excited about what God has in store for us in our first year.

God will knock your shoes off!

For the past year I had also been praying to feel the weight of the presence of the Holy Spirit upon me. I had seen others tremble and go down under His presence but I had never felt that before. Well while we were at Bethel we attended the “Dream Conference”, which was great! Well just before we were to take a break from the conference Andrew (one of the organizers/speakers) said that the children from the school were all in the sanctuary and were getting “whacked” by the Holy Spirit…prophesying, getting “drunk” (not in a consuming liquid form but drunk in the presence of God). He asked if we would all like to go through a fire tunnel that the kids were setting up (this is where there are two rows of kids, one on either side, and you walk down the middle). Sure we all said, there was about 70 - 80 of us.  Well as we walked into the sanctuary I could feel a weight in the air, it was warm and peaceful. As I entered the fire tunnel the small children from kindergarten to grade 8 were speaking words over us and all of a sudden I was finding it very hard to stand, my knees were getting wobbly. I managed to walk through the tunnel and take about 4 or 5 steps out of the tunnel and fell to my knees. I just couldn’t stand under the weight of His presence. It was so amazing…and with His presence came such a feeling of peace that filled my entire body. After a while I thought I would be able to stand and managed to walk half the way across the sanctuary, although very wobbly, and a young boy came over to me extended his hands said a few words and down I went again. I sat there laughing and thanking God for showing me what being in His presence, in a small way, feels like. It is a feeling that I never want to loose and will press into Him to carry His presence with me.  To be able to show others what being with God is like….well that is a gift to be shared.

Ever since that time… the minute I turn my focus to Christ I feel His presence, it is amazing.

We spent ever chance we got fellowshipping with the wonderful people we met there, and can’t wait to get back to see them again. Love to you all!

I also have to share one of the many encounters we had…besides, people having extreme pain from cancer and walking out with no pain at all, a tumor on this ladies ankle disappearing, surgical metal plates disappearing… Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. John 14:12

One evening during worship the Holy Spirit showed up…and worship continued for two hours…it was like a spiritual rave for the Lord. Mark and I looked up towards the ceiling and said to each other what is that floating in the air. The whole front of the sanctuary ceiling was shimmering with gold dust. We were singing and watching it and it would get bigger and smaller but it never fell to the ground it just hovered above. I know some would try to explain this away, with one logical reason or another but Mark and I both believe that is was the presence of the Holy Spirit, a Glory cloud. It was wonderful to experience. It happened again on another night and spread almost to the back of the sanctuary again nothing fell to the ground. When you experience things like this how can we not have faith that our God is bigger than anything we can imagine. And what is even more indescribable is that He loves us and wants to have a relationship with us. Bountiful Blessings to you.