David gave his life to the Lord when we met him in the starbucks line. He was so overwhelmed by the Fathers love as we prophesied about his destiny.

This woman had very bad pain in her stomach and as we prayed together, all her pain left. Her and her husband then told me about their recently adopted daughter who has down syndrome and so we joined together to pray for her and released healing over her body. They were really encouraged by what God was doing.

My first day in LA

No one filled out a card! No one was saved and no one was healed!!

I want to encourage those of you that felt worn out and beat down yesterday because your own stepping out and evangelising didn't quite have the success rate you were hoping for.

Let me first be clear. My group as a whole was amazing and had a very high success rate, seeing lots of fruit from their evangelising. They were on fire but personally when I shared I felt people were not interested and I even experienced some pretty strong opposition to what I was sharing. There is a temptation for us to forget our identity in this moment and fall into comparison, or wonder why our techniques aren't as effective! Am I not qualified for this? Am I bad at sharing the gospel message? What a crock of lies from the enemy!!

After a pretty difficult day the Holy Spirit reminded me that just because I came back to the church with a bag full of leaflets, it didn't make me any less successful than those that distributed all theirs. How do you measure success?

In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul says he planted seed, Apollos watered it but it was God that made it grow. I planted some seed into some very hard soil yesterday but that's what I am called to do. I don't need to see the fruit. The fruit is not my responsibility but God's. He called me to minister to some hard ground yesterday and I was obedient. Were you obedient to the prompting of the Holy Spirit? Did you step out and speak life into people?

It's wonderful to read all the wonderful testimonies of healing, salvation and deliverance but if you were obedient to the voice of the Holy Spirit and even then experienced no fruit, you had a successful day. Remember that your Father is proud of you and everyone that acknowledges Jesus before men, he will acknowledge you before His Father (Matt 10:32).
Bless you all,
Paul.

The God of Miracles

This week was a defining week in my journey to discover more of Gods goodness. On Monday morning last week, over 2000 students left Redding by bus to bring the good news to Los Angeles. It was a 10 hour drive down there and an uncomfortable one for me as I woke up Monday morning with a sharp pain in my lower back.

We stayed in the Sheraton Hotel and had shared bedding, four to a room. I barely slept that first night as it was a new environment and the pain had now increased from my back all the way down my right leg creating an uncomfortable numbing sensation. I was worried that I would not be able to walk on the first day of the trip!

We met in the lobby each morning and my pain level had not decreased much from the previous night. Each day some people stayed back to recover from various sicknesses but I didn't tell my pastor that I was in pain because I didn't want to miss out on the days events.

We loaded on to the bus and as I sat there anxious that my back would not improve, one of the girls asked if anyone needed healing for anything. I raised my hand for prayer and as a few gathered around me to pray, I started to feel a sense of Gods presence. Earlier that day Johnny had laid his hand on me and felt a lump that was about the size of a grape moving around in my lower back. When the girls prayed over me on the bus my pain completely disappeared and I could barely feel the lump in my back as it had dramatically decreased in size! Jesus healed my back before we even arrived at the college campus to minister to students. I was so thankful and encouraged in my faith in this moment.

We had a great day at the college campus on day one although my own day was a struggle as the seed I planted was falling on some very hard soil. I strengthened myself by remembering who I was in Christ and it was not me that was being rejected but Christ. God says we are wholly accepted and loved. He took on the chastisement that brought us peace. He was the one who was despised and rejected so we could walk in freedom (Is 53). We had a wonderful service on the college campus that evening where two girls gave their lives to the Lord. We all gathered around them and welcomed them into the family, celebrating their decision to follow Christ. They were introduced to the senior pastor and his wife and told they would now be their spiritual parents.

The next day we ministered on Venice beach. There was a lot of spiritual activity there and people were very hungry for encounters with the Father. We prayed with many people that day including Satanists, psychics, business owners, homeless people and anybody else God highlighted to us. We saw God heal people of sicknesses and diseases and many gave their lives to the Lord.

The next day we went to central LA where there was a lot of gang violence in the past. It was a lower class area of LA with a lot of poverty and crime. We connected with a hispanic church there and ministered to people on the streets both black and hispanic, inviting them to encounter the love of the Father. I think people were so surprised to see our team of mostly white people in the area that even that was enough to engage people in conversation and bridge the gap of racial division.

The next day we were focused on the area surrounding the Coliseum stadium, where the Azusa Now event would happen that coming Saturday. The very first person that was highlighted to me that day was Thomas (pictured in the yellow) who was sweeping the streets in the rain. As I approached him I felt so much of the Fathers compassion for him. We prophesied over him and called him into his Godly identity. He was so touched that he accepted Jesus into his life there on the streets.

He was embarrassed because he was dirty from cleaning the streets but we were able to give him hugs and tell him how loved he was. I imagine the prodigal Son was also filthy on returning to his Father and yet his Father embraced and kissed him. God is looking for his children to return to him regardless of their state or condition.

The next day we were up early and on our way to the coliseum as this was the big day! Bethel teams and other world ministries had flown in the previous day to usher in a new wave of the Spirits outpouring. It was an incredible day of unity between the churches who gathered

with one heart, to see Gods spirit pour out over this land and the nations. A Catholic leader on stage, fell to his knees and kissed Lou Engles feet as a mark of repentance for how the Catholic church had treated the protestant churches. Lou then did the same and there wasn't a dry eye in the stadium of 90,000 people.

Shawn Bolz prophesied over people from the stage through words of knowledge and Bill called out various diseases and sicknesses that God wanted to heal.

We were the ministry team for the event and went around all day healing the sick and casting out demons. Gods power was manifest all over the stadium. We saw multiple people get out of their wheelchairs, arthritis healed, blind eyes and deaf ears were opened, Fathers return to their sons, mothers to their daughters and many more miraculous signs throughout the day and week.

I cannot write everything that happened this week in words and do it due justice but only say, God is a good Father who loves his children. He is still the healer and restorer of the broken. Jesus Christ died so we could experience our Daddy' love and give it to the next person. The Holy Spirit is moving in the church through signs and wonders and this generation will see the greatest outpouring of the Spirit where we will be part of a billion soul harvest. We owe the world an encounter!

Judge not!

When recently sharing a concern I had about the body of Christ with a friend. She responded by telling me that only God can judge and it wasn't my job to judge. I have an issue with this response for a number of reasons mainly because the discussion was about a correction (which she didn't believe in either), and not a judgement. Correction is very different to a Judgement although I believe both are important and necessary. It is true to say that God is the ultimate Judge and He will make a final decision on Judgement Day. Casting a judgement on something or someone is giving a verdict, sentence or punishment whereas correction is giving a person a chance to change before the final judgement. It is done out of love and a concern for the other persons soul.

People who don't like to be corrected by others often interpret it as judgement and quote passages like Matthew 7 "Judge not, that you be not judged." Well that settles it so, the bible is clear. We are not to judge others. Wrong!! People who quote this fail to quote the rest of the passage which says in verse 5 "first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brothers eye." When we have looked within ourselves and with purity of motive and heart we can indeed remove the speck from our brothers eye. In fact, the bible says one day the saints will judge the world. One day we are to judge angels! If we don't learn anything about pronouncing righteous Judgement on the earth now, how are we going to be a good stewart of what He has called us to later? It is my responsibility to love people so well that I am effected by their poor choices and I don't just 'turn a blind eye'. We must be a people who value correction when we are steering the ship in the wrong direction. Pointing out an error in the church or in an individual needs to always be for the benefit of the church or the person and not to prove ones own knowledge or wisdom. This being our motivator is stupidity and not wisdom!

Proverbs 27 says that iron sharpens iron, and so one man sharpens another. Lets be a people who value the sharpening of others, recognising that it is for our own benefit and for the glory of God.