Irrecoverably Mind-Blown! Kona Week 8

So one of the phrases that Dave Bryan, our speaker last week used was he wants to “stretch our hearts and minds to irrecoverable proportions.” This is a great way to describe how I feel right now! I honestly will never be the same. I feel like layers have been ripped from around my mind, heart and eyes and I now see and understand things more clearly than I did before.

(This picture is me stretching myself.. haha!)

The more you know, the more you realise you don’t know.. my grids for understanding God, faith and life have been blown apart! Dave shared a story about one of his friends whom Jesus took to a beach and the sand was white and pure and stretched as far as the eye could see in front, behind, and to the side, with the ocean on the other side. The sand represented truth/knowledge about God. Jesus picked up a handful of sand and said to the man “this is all that mankind has ever known or found out about me”. He then held one grain of sand, turned to him and said “and this is all you personally know about me”. So Dave’s friend now prefaces his viewpoints with “according to my current, limited understanding…” There is so much that we just don’t have any idea of! God’s thoughts and ways are so much higher and more wonderful than our own (see Isaiah 55:8-9) that me trusting myself and my own plans more than I trust Him is plainly ridiculous!

This week’s teaching has been on becoming mature sons and daughters who are heirs of the kingdom (“Huios” sons in Greek). I have been greatly challenged about the way that I live my life, the way that I think and the way that I understand the physical realm and the spiritual realm. Dave says “we are eternal spiritual beings having a temporary physical experience”. Just pause and think about that for a moment.. this physical life, body and world is a tiny blip in the grand scheme of our eternal lives where we are part of Jesus’ body and ruling and reigning with Him forever! I always knew that the spiritual realm was real and I’ve known about angels and demons for as long as I can remember. However I think I took a lot of things metaphorically that are actually real so they lost their significance. For example, soul ties are real cords in the spiritual realm that tie you to different people that you need to cut (through prayer) if they are unhealthy. When we confess our sins and God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9) that literally happens spiritually – our sin disappears from the spiritual realm. Here’s another one – Jesus is the light of the world and He lives in us by His Spirit. So therefore as we walk around, spiritual light emanates from inside of us. Truly! New age people (who are often more in touch with the spiritual realm than we are!) can have a hard time even looking at Christians because of how bright they are!

Here’s some food for thought.. if you asked the average person on the street whether a witch or a Christian had more power, what would they say? I can almost guarantee they would say a witch! Because they walk in and use the power they have! Yet their power comes from the devil, who is a created being and has a miniscule amount of power in comparison to the Almighty God! The same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us (Romans 8:11). We say it! We learn it! We sing it! Do we actually believe it? And if we did, WHAT would our lives look like? We should be living lives that are more supernatural than the lives of witches and warlocks are! What would our lives look like if we were unafraid? I want to see people encounter the God who knows them by name, loves them and wants them to be with Him so much that He died to make a way, and who wants to heal them and set them free. I want to see people raised from the dead! Why not? Jesus said we would do that and more.. very plainly. Another of Dave’s friends has raised 43 people from the dead and is frustrated that he hasn’t walked on water yet! Do we dare live lives that look like this! Now there is plenty more I could tell you – this is just to whet your appetite and reignite the fire that God’s put inside you! We are not supposed to be living boring lives, sitting on our hands and waiting for Jesus' return! We can be fully alive now – we can go into the darkness and reclaim souls for the kingdom now! We can bring light, hope, justice, mercy, healing now. People everywhere are waiting for us to tell them about Jesus. And in this day people are wanting spiritual encounters (deep inside I think we all know we’re more than mere physical bodies!) and the church in the West, on the whole, is not open to that - so people are turning to the Occult instead. Dave suggested that Hollywood is even more spiritually aware than the Western church...?!?!

Obviously we can’t walk around with our head in the clouds – we need to be grounded in the Bible and certainly love people over everything else. There is no point in operating in signs, wonders and miraculous powers if we are not loving the people we’re interacting with, it becomes arrogant and meaningless. But just indulge me for a moment and imagine that we all lived lives that were fully alive, fully free and expectant of God to move and show up in miraculous ways on a day-to-day basis. Wouldn’t that be amazing!! And fun!

Let me know what you think. I would love to hear of spiritual experiences you have had (I’ve heard all sorts of things these last few weeks so try me!!) I would also encourage you to prayerfully and sensitively talk to people around you about this sort of thing – just to raise the faith level. I feel like as a nation the UK is far too rational and unbelieving, we are way behind other nations of the world on spiritual awareness! We need to think and dream bigger and raise our expectation of what God will do. If you would like to hear more stories from this end, message me – I have plenty to tell.

Right.. prayer requests

I only have 3 weeks left here! Please pray that it will be a rich time of learning, living and enjoying the community around me here. I am expectant for continued amazing conversations and times of prayer, ministry and intercession.
I am leaving Kona on 29th March – I will be going to the Middle East and travelling alone due to prices and pre-booked tickets. So keep that date in mind and prayer covering over that. Everyone else leaves around 25th so I will have a few days of buffer time on my own here to pray and prepare my heart for what God has next which is a real blessing.
Another friend from our course left suddenly and unexpectedly last night. Please pray for her as God has been doing awesome things in her life while she has been here. It’s a good reminder that the battle is very real and raging and we need to stay alert!
My roommates have family members that are here now and arriving soon to visit so please pray for them – that their families will capture what God is doing here in the short time that they can be with us, and that they will be overwhelmed by His love and irrecoverably changed!
My room, my small group, Colleen my wonderful mentor, our school and our leaders.
God is speaking to me a lot about worship and my voice - I've been stepping out massively in worship leading since I've been here. And also just being free to worship in a totally recklessly abandoned way is incredible. Please keep praying as I continue to step out in this area.

That’s all for now folks!

So much love to you all – thank you for continuing to journey with me. I am indebted to you for your love, support and prayer.

Please keep messaging me with how you’re doing, I love to hear!

Hannah xxx