7th June 2018
I wanted to share what I experienced and saw during church on June 3rd. During one of the worship song the words "Unfailing love" leapt out I heard God say my love never fails you. I closed my eyes and was standing on the shoreline looking at the sea, I then saw Jesus running towards me, then a mighty wave rushing at me, I couldn't move the wave crashed over me, I felt the force of Gods love, rushing through me, covering me, felt the weight of his glory could barely stand , it felt incredible, felt such freedom, I let out such a scream as wave after wave after wave came crashing over me.
It was an amazing encounter with the Father.
Someone prayed for me during this time and she saw an 'exchange taking place between me and my Father, it's a completely unfair exchange because of his incredible grace. As I just be me and worship him He exchanges all He has with me....His victory, His healing, His goodness all His incredible promises.
We are heirs to the throne. As we receive all of this goodness from Him he then commissions us to be who he made us to be."
I believe and understand that only through total Surrender, total trust in God will he begin that exchange and share a deeper intimacy with us.
Aileen Lewis
Posted by Maureen Hopkins
15:50
7th February 2018
This testimony starts back in February 2017, when I had some prophetic pictures drawn for me by three School of Ministry students at Bethel.
One picture was of me having a cloak of many colours like Joseph and the artist saw me as a noble knight of integrity. I had been going through a period of self doubt, unsure of my future and had lost my compassionate heart. All the pictures spoke to me and over the next few days many people prophesied over me. These impacted me and combined with the teaching at Bethel and a Sozo (I had been sceptical of having one but would thoroughly recommend it), I experienced a new level/relationship with Jesus and it is awesome.
Posted by Maureen Hopkins
14:18
5th June 2016
This is the fourth of a mini series of blogs we've produced on 'worship.' You can read the other three here as we explored Who we worship, Why we worship and last time, How we worship.
Today, we want to ask the quesiton 'How do we worship God (part II)?'
Posted by
06:53
7th April 2016
Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song (Psalm 95:2)
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name (Psalm 100:4)
I will sacrifice a thank offering to You and call on the name of the LORD (Psalm 116:17)
Worshipping God should always start with thankgiving. If God is who He says He is, then He is altogether higher, greater and stronger than anything in this world and altogether our Saviour and provider. Thanksgiving allows our immediate focus to be on Him, even when we are anxious and concerned about life's circumstances.The Bible asks us in everything start our prayers to God with thanksgiving (phillippians 4:6). Thanksgiving reminds our very soul of all that God is, and all that He has done.
What a great place to start your day? What a great way to face any situation - 'God you have done so much and I will remind myself of these things!' This is fundamentally right and appropriate but as ever, we also benefit from this as faith rises within us as we utter the words of 'thank you God!' By comaprison many social commentators bemoan how rude people can be in modern life. In particular they despair about how people neglect to be grateful – specifically that they fail to say thank you. Author Lynn Truss says that ‘saying thank you is way of positionng ourselves in humility. It brings with it recognition that we need help, that we can’t do life on our own, and it demonstrates a grateful heart.'
So what does thanksgiving look like? It could be keeping a ‘thankful list’ of things large and small, so you armed and ready with your thanks. It could be seeking out testimonies and stories of what God is doing, and indeed sharing you’re own journey of who you see God to be, an how he has provided for you and those around you. Maybe bring thankfulness into all aspects of life - the office, the car, the dinner table, your worship. Paul Manwaring one of the leaders at Bethel Church, California often says that starting meetings with good news and with thanks is culture shaping. He did this here in the UK as a prison Govener before moving to the USA, and the shift in perspective of the whole team was significant.
Wouldnt it be great if we were known as people who oozed with gratitiude and thankfullness?
Reflecting also on Psalm 100:4, which says that thanksgiving leads us into His presence, I am reminded that if we want to draw closer to God, we need to start with thanksgiving. Let's be ready with our lips and hearts to express thankfullness straight away when we come before God!
If our worship is strongly flavoured with thanksgiving and honour of His name, we will have a very healthy worship diet! There are of course many other aspects of sung worship, ways, means, and how we can worship but in this next season can I challenge you to be ready to give thanks, and to praise His name? Come ready on Sunday mornings to thank Him and start everyday by coming into His presence with thanks.
In our modern day culture of convenince, express service, and a ‘me’ focus, let us take the time to worship with thankfulness and a renewed focus on the Name that is above all others. Let’s not allow the ‘great I’ to take precedent over the ‘great I AM’
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10:13