Lindsay and
Matt had been building a relationship with Hosea Praise Church over the last
couple of years so it was a privilege and honor to be invited to minister to
them again. The name of the church reflects them well! As our team of 5
(Lindsay, Mark, Sam, Christina, and I) were praying before church and asking
God what He was wanting to do in the service, we all sensed we were about to
enter a very big praise party – quite appropriate for Palm Sunday. And boy did
we ever! If there’s one thing that encompasses the Church in the Philippines,
it’s that they are true worshippers. I think God is so pleased with them
because of their hearts of pure worship. In fact, Hosea Praise Church has had
angel feathers and gemstones from heaven fall during their worship services.
Honestly, I had been hoping to see these gemstones fall from heaven while I was
there – who wouldn’t? We didn’t see that this time but I’m still hoping to
experience that someday here on earth. Perhaps such a thing sounds crazy and
unthinkable to you. I know – I’ve come to realize some things God does are a
mystery though. As the father of Bethel Church, Bill Johnson, says, “it’s a
sign that makes you wonder.” The first time I had seen anything like this was
when I watched the documentary, Finger of God. The director of the film, Darren Wilson, travelled around the world
capturing what God is miraculously doing – including gemstones falling from
heaven, gold dust appearing during services (which has happened several times
over the past year here at Bethel – we like to call it a glory cloud), and other
amazing healing testimonies. He actually didn’t intend to make the film. He had
no budget for it, didn’t have any connections, and had never made a feature
film before. The documentary itself is a miracle considering all of this! God certainly paved the way for him to produce the film and capture
phenomenal miracles on video thus revealing the heart of God for all of
us. I highly recommend viewing this documentary if you haven’t seen it yet.
We met some
very friendly members of the church upon our arrival at Hosea Praise Church
whom we enjoyed chatting with for a bit before the service started. It didn’t
take them long to nickname a couple of my team members. Sam was deemed to be
Justin Bieber, and once they heard Christina sing and play the piano, they called
her Kim Walker. I think Sam and Christina liked their new nicknames. J Soon after we arrived
I asked God to hi-light a church member to me to help me doing a prophetic
painting during the worship. Let me pause here lest you are wondering what
prophesy means. Prophesy is a gift of the Holy Spirit and very simply put, it means
I ask God what’s on his heart to say and then I release that through whatever
means He’s leading me to release it whether it be through art, acts, dance, or words,
etc. If you want to do a more in depth study on prophesy, a good place to start
is with Kris Vallotton’s book, Basic
Training for the Prophetic Ministry. He leads you through several scripture verses
that help unpack this wonderful gift of the Spirit. I have done prophetic
paintings before – but never in front of a congregation and never in
partnership with someone. A young lady
named Michelle stood out to me so I asked her if she would like to paint together.
She was absolutely delighted to do so. Later she informed me she had never
painted before but one would never know from her excited yes to my request. Her willingness and excitement to do something
new encompassed such childlike faith – absent of all fear – which allowed her
to have so much fun as we painted together. Oh that I may respond in the same
way whenever I receive an invitation to do something new for the Lord! I had
actually dreamed about a painting a couple nights prior and in it, there was a
field of purple flowers. So we painted that together and the main message I
felt God was saying through it was simply that it’s a season of multiplication
for Hosea Praise Church. The interesting thing is that they are in the process
of getting a new and larger church building. It will be exciting to see how God
multiplies their church and their kingdom work! Christina also did a prophetic
art piece and found out after she was finished that someone in the congregation
had actually had a dream with her painting in it! It’s interesting that both of
our paintings were tied into dreams. I love how God speaks in so many different
ways!
We also had
an opportunity to share words of knowledge about what God was healing. The
beautiful thing about Hosea Praise Church is that they have taken what Lindsay
and Matt have taught them about healing in the last few years and have run with
it! So much so that the church didn’t have that many sick people. Why? Because
they’ve taught their congregation how to pray for each other when they’re ill! They
see God heal them on a regular basis because of that. There were a few words of
knowledge we received though, and I received the clearest word of knowledge I’ve
ever had before. I was scanning the image of a body in my mind’s eye and as I
did, I saw a bright light – almost like and explosion of light on the left
shoulder. So I asked if there was anyone there with pain in their left
shoulder. And sure enough – the pastor’s Mom came forward for prayer! She was
only able to raise her arm half way before we prayed. Then after we prayed she
was able to raise her arm all the way up above her head! God is so good! After
that I prayed for an older lady who was suffering from leukemia. While I was
praying for her she fell back under the power of God (don’t worry someone
caught her and helped her into a chair). I asked her what was going on and with
tears streaming down her face she said that she couldn’t explain it but that
her knees felt week and she couldn’t stand any longer. I told her it was OK
because she was just being touched by God because He loves her so much.
And then the
worship team started playing again and we concluded the entire morning praising
God for all He had done. I thought that we had an amazing time of worship
earlier in the morning, but the worship at the end of the service went to an
entirely new level – it was indeed the praise party we had anticipated and the
perfect way to end our time there.
Stay tuned…more
to come in the days ahead! J
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