Prophetic Hot Tub

My wife and I spent a romantic weekend alone to celebrate our anniversary. Jesus went along and made our vacation nicer than we expected. This is the third story of how God touched people that weekend.

Early in the morning, my wife and I decided to soak in the hotel's hot tub. But we weren't alone. A family of four children and their mom were there. The two youngest children who were about 10 years old were in the hot tub with us. As I rested, God gave me a vision for the boy. I saw him building things with Tonka trucks. Then I saw large yellow construction equipment like backhoes and bulldozers. It seemed like God was telling me the boy likes to build things. I began a conversation with him about breakfast then asked if he likes to build things. He said he did. That led to a conversation in which I told him that God would probably open doors for him in construction. He was surprised that I knew this information, but was glad I shared it with him.

I gave his sister a similar word about her love of dancing. God showed me a vision in which she appeared as a young lady of about 20 years old. She was moving gracefully as a ballerina. I suggested that God may bless this endeavor if she pursued it. She was happy but surprised to hear this coming from a stranger.

Their mother was amazed at the fact that I knew these things about her kids. We sat with her and talked about prophecy and the healings we’d seen that weekend. Eventually she asked if we would prayed for her vision to be restored. She’s was far-sighted.

Then she asked me to pray for her older son who had symptoms of a cold. To be honest, I didn’t expect a cold to be healed by prayer. It seemed off limits for some reason. But I prayed with the same faith as all the other times this week. The boy told his mother (Jessie) that his nose, which was sore and runny felt a lot better after I prayed for him.

Before we left she had me give her oldest daughter a word. I saw her windsurfing off the coast of an island like Hawaii (which turned out to be her favorite place). In the vision I saw that she had confidence on the board and the look of determination. She was moving fast. Then I saw the front of a thin boat, like a kayak and a paddle going through the water. I gave her some insights from this vision and she was encouraged by it. Her mother said it described her very well.

Earnestly desire the best gifts, especially that you may prophesy.....

You never know who will be blessed.

Prophecy 101 by Kris Valloton

I wanted to welcome the new year with a look at prophecy. I thought it might be appropriate since prophecy is about the future. The prophetic gift is one of the most controversial ministries in the church today. Kris Valloton is on staff at Bethel church in Redding, California. He has a great deal of experience in the prophetic ministry and has written several books on the subject including Basic Training for the Prophetic Ministry. In the first video below he discusses what the gift of prophecy is. In the second, he discusses common misunderstandings about it.

Anyone can heal the sick. But the prophetic gift gives us an edge. Through it, God communicates to the healer specific things that can be helpful. Through words of knowledge, we can be given the nature and history of an injury or illness before the patient says a word. Prophecy can reveal God's future plans for them. I hope you find these videos helpful.

Spiritual Hunger Conference

My wife and I attended the Spiritual Hunger conference the last weekend of September. We expected to see some cool things. We hoped to receive instruction and impartation. What we received was an incredible experience. It far exceeded our expectations. And it was more about giving than receiving. Bill Johnson was the keynote speaker, giving a message on the kingdom of God each of the first 3 days. I noticed something unique about him. During the opening night’s message, he mentioned the kingdom of God at least 20 times, but never mentioned the church once. I’m coming to realize there is a difference. I won’t go into it now, except to say that Jesus was a passionate teacher on the kingdom of God but only rarely mentioned the church. It’s worth thinking about.

I brought my guitar along hoping to get some practice in…what was I thinking? We left the hotel room early and came back late every night; tired, but spiritually stronger. I also brought along a few books. It’s not really a vacation unless you return home with clothes you didn’t wear and books you didn’t read. We were busy from morning ‘til night making friends, worshipping our hearts out, praying for the sick and prophesying. I was surprised at something God did to me during worship. I saw many people laughing, jumping and being uninhibited during the conference. I was kinda jealous. So God came after me with a feather and tickled me during worship. The spirit of laughter came over me repeatedly and I went into fits of uncontrollable laughing. The joy I experienced was greater than anything I’ve ever known.

I had a dramatic increase in visions while I was at the conference. For a long time, I’ve seen things in the spirit realm every time I closed my eyes. In the last month of two, I haven’t had many visions or words of knowledge. But at the conference my spiritual eyesight went into overdrive. I saw waves of power sweeping over the crowd during worship as well as a mist or fog settling over the crowd during a message. I saw a lot of heavenly scenes and demonic images. I became much more aware of nature of spiritual battle we are in.

We were involved in the ‘Treasure Hunt’ workshop Friday afternoon taught by Marc Buchheit. Having done them before, we were asked to lead a group who hadn’t. We spent a few minutes asking God for clues then set out. I had a couple of visions – a bend in a river with geese on it and two people, one with red hair and one with black hair. The river was right behind the conference center. One of our guys had an impression of flowers. There were hanging flower baskets on the bridge over the river that led to a park. We took off across the bridge and found my two women sitting in the grass on the other side of the bridge. We prayed with them for healing.

One of the men in our group, Robert had some very specific clues. He saw the Washington monument, an alligator purse and the word ‘patient’. We walked a block and came to Washington Street. We could see an optometrist office 2 blocks away and felt that was where the ‘patient’ might be. There was actually a sign above the door we entered that said, ‘patient entrance’. There were two women in the waiting room – both had alligator purses! The first woman didn’t want prayer, but the second one suffered migraines. After we explained what we were doing she let us pray with her.

We continued the hunt at a café. We weren’t picking up any more leads so we decided to give our waitress some encouraging prophetic words that she gladly received. Friday evening was a special night for me. God healed my heart of the condition I’ve had for over 25 years. I’ll post my testimony about that when I collect all the evidence. We witnessed about 200 people healed each night at the conference. I wish I could say my wife and I were healed of our chronic neck pain, but we weren’t. She received prayer from many people that weekend. We met Cal Pierce, who prayed for her on Saturday night. She still has neck pain. But I believe we’ve heard from God about the timing of her healing, we believe its coming in November.

One of the main callings God has upon my life is healing. John Lake was one of the most prolific healers ever. He started the healing rooms; his grave in Spokane. Cal Pierce visited that site monthly before God called him to his present ministry. I heard the Lord tell me to go to Lake’s grave. He said He’d meet me there.

We clicked with a group of new friends; Robert whom we met on the treasure hunt and his son Jeramy and a woman named Gwendolyn. The five of us drove to the cemetery. We spent a few moments in silence seeking God’s presence at the grave site. Benni Johnson told an amazing story of waking up angels at strategic places. We decided to wake up a few angels at Lake’s grave, and yelled out WAKEY WAKEY!

The spirit of prophecy descended on the group. We spent the next 3 hours prophesying to everyone who came near us. People drove up one after another and parked, saying that God told them He’d meet them at the grave site. The company of prophets grew to about 10 or 12. As people left, a few more would arrive. We encouraged one another with dozens of words from God. As we put my wife in the center, people gave her the impressions they received from the Lord. I saw an image of a beautiful lighthouse and told her she was a bright light to those around her. As I was speaking a man drove up and parked. He told us he saw a bright column of white light coming from the center of our circle. He said, “I don’t know what you’re doing, but keep doing it.” The five of us remained together for the rest of the conference. We went to lunch and dinner together and prophesied to the waitresses. Between speakers we sat in the grass outside the conference center and prophesied to friends and strangers.

As I left the hotel each morning, I heard about the continued flooding in the southeast US. Atlanta had 21 inches of rain fall in just a couple of days. God told me on Friday to make a prophetic declaration to stop the rain. I heard Him tell me again Saturday morning. I didn’t really believe in this kind of thing. Robert, Jeramy and Gwendolyn told me of some cool experiences they had making prophetic declarations about the weather. Bill Johnson said something Friday that gave me more confidence. He said, “When you’re hearing God’s voice and you declare what you hear from heaven, you become the voice of God. All creation obeys you.”

We decided to go for it.

Saturday morning we stood on the conference center lawn and declared an end to the rains in the Southeast. God’s been teaching me to command things to happen. I commanded the winds of change to move the low pressure system out to sea over the Atlantic Ocean. The others made similar declarations. When we checked the weather Sunday morning, we watched the radar loop with amazement. You could plainly see the storm front that had been stalled for weeks moving out to sea. Sunday’s forecast was for plenty of sunshine.

We went to the conference expecting to receive from others. Although we're young in the prophetic life, God used us often to bless others. That surprised us. We see ourselves as newbies who require more training and mentoring before we’re really able to be used in ministry. Apparently God doesn’t see it that way. It was amazing to see the hand of God moving in power as we stepped out and followed His lead. We’ll always be growing and learning and always be unaware of something until God shows it to us. We’ll always have need of spiritual fathers and mothers. But God can use us (and you) every step of the way. It’s an awesome adventure. We can’t wait to go back next year!