I love when people make the Word of God come to life, and bed that into transformation that is real. My husband is one of those people, and I love how God uses his analytical, strategic left-brain thinking to release the kingdom. Another brilliant theologian, that I think has so much to say to those of us concerned with fulfilling the Great Comission, is John Drane.

Given that recent research shows that 40% of the population could be considered spiritual seekers, I would highly recommend the following books by John. ‘What is the New Age saying to the Church?’ and ‘Do Christians Know How to be Spiritual?’ are both excellent, challenging and very helpful books from an academic who writes in a clear and insightful way. Grounded in research and personal practical experience, I would ask anyone involved in Source to read them and discuss them.

Let me know what you think! I believe your life will be the richer for it!

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Here is my favourite playlist at the moment! All available on iTunes, except for Selah which is free from Misty Edwards homepage.

Although I have been practicing the art of soaking for a few years, I have been really exploring music for this type of meditation lately. Soaking is a wonderful metaphor for immersing yourself in the love of God. My favourite thing to do is grab a quilt and a cushion and lie on the sofa, which I used to do when my kids had their afternoon naps. I knew that whatever dishes and cooking and laundry had to be done, it was not worth it on a personal level to miss this out. And my family benefited from not having a cranky mum.

I would throw on a CD of music, not the loud bouncy sort I often favour at other times, but peaceful, calming, relaxing music. And I would picture myself in the embrace of the Father, the perfect, kind, gentle Daddy. I would receive the waves of love that came with every pulse of his heartbeat, and breathe in the refreshing of His Spirit.

In the beginning I favoured the ‘I Am’ CD from John Paul Jackson, where he reads out 365 different names and attributes of God, and often I would use music with lyrics, like Misty Edwards and her ‘Relentless’ album. These and others blessed me deeply!

Now I am exploring all kinds of lyric-less music, as it encourages me to a different place spiritually. No longer am I focused on the language centre of my brain, but it takes me to a place of being, an awareness of my heart and spirit communicating and receiving love.

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This year, as part of a very useful brainstorming session, our group came up with the idea of  a taster day (or afternoon as it turned out). We had looked at how seekers very often go to workshops and days like this, and thought it would be a useful way to help them see if they wanted to go on the course. They could catch a flavour of what we were about, and actually engage in responding to Jesus for themselves, whether through art, journalling, soaking or chatting in the coffee zone.

We had a short talk on what the course was about, introducing the basics about Jesus, and an activation through drawing. Then we offered two workshops on hand massage and engaing with your dreams as well as a time they could receive prophecy and prayer for healing, or be free to respond through the art, live soaking music and journalling.

The next taster is on Monday night in Kilwinning, with a similar format.

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I am writing this on the train, having just been to Sheffield for the conference entitled ‘Reaching Out to Mind Body Spirit’. Hosted by Steve Hollinghurst, the weekend has been fabulously worthwhile and I heartily recommend it to you all, it is just a shame that they only intend to have one every second year. However, this news came with the encouragement to build local support, and having met with John and Olive Drane, I think we would like to move forward with having a Scottish group.

I did feel blasted by the Holy Spirit throughout the weekend, in my mind, body and spirit, and the ‘Listening to the Spirit of Jesus’ course was well received. I got to do a 10 minute presentation and a dozen people asked to see the material after, and seemed really excited about it. One or two people including Steve commented that perhaps the language was still not quite ‘seeker friendly’ enough, and Steve said that there seemed to be a disconnect between the flyer and the course, which was interesting. I will pursue discussions with him and others about this.

I had amazing conversations and made some lovely friends. I was sharing a house with Danette, who is on the Burning Man team and involved with Streams in America, and Jo who runs a church called ‘Contemplative Fire’ in the south.  I received incredible insight and healing through the talks we had together and with others! Katrina Moss is an amazing lady who has developed a set of cards called Ruach cards, and I bought a ‘Jesus Deck’ too. Both workshops impressed me with their creativity and both trainers said that the Holy Spirit knows the right cards to bring up.  The interpretation of the symbols and words is essentially like dream interpretation or getting a picture for somebody. This is great if the person doesn’t have a dream because they have difficulty dreaming or remembering, or if you have difficulty getting pictures as I sometimes do on the longer outreaches.

Olive and I would like to have Katrina up to Glasgow in the Autumn to do her Ruach cards training, it is £60 for a day including the set of cards for you to take and use. Each card is a beautiful photograph of a symbolic element: waterfall is the outpouring of the Spirit and the voice of God; eucalyptus is healing, plus colours and numbers like we are used to with dream interpretation. There are 72 in total and I had a reading myself which was very accurate and deeply helpful!

I learned more about the varieties of paganism and heard incredible testimonies of how people had been working with all kinds of seekers and tools.  I got to ask my really difficult questions and share on Sozo. There was lots of space for you to get what you wanted out of the conference and set topics for discussion. I really think when this comes round again in two years, you should seriously consider going, as there is so much going on in England and Europe that is unique and special and wonderful! Let me know if you have any thoughts about a Scottish gathering too, as it is really on my heart to connect and support people in this arena, which they call ‘New Spirituality’ rather than ‘New Age’.

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I had an amazing day at the Light and Life training on Saturday. If you are not familiar with Light and Life, they run evangelistic fairs offering prophecy, healing, art, massage and dream interpretation to reach the spiritually hungry with the goodness of Jesus. I head up dream interpretation for the Glasgow team, and also follow up people interested in Jesus with the LSJ course.

On Saturday I was on the ministry team with Andy, and we had two people get healed. One was a lady who had been suffering from lower back problems for two years and had been unable to sit comfortably all that time. We prayed and she tested it out – the pain had gone!

The other was a lady with sciatica who Andy thought might have one leg shorter than the other. We looked at the legs and  her left leg was over a centimetre shorter. We asked God to make the short leg grow and it did. She had felt the sensations in her body too!

Next Tuesday is the next outreach… will let you know how it goes!

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Today was day 1 of the local spiritual fair, where I had gone with ministry I serve with in this city. We saw six people, that God had clearly been preparing, invite Jesus into their hearts, and I had no doubts that these were genuine prayers taken seriously. We had another three people who really came close, who said they wanted to think about it some more, but they had met Jesus for themselves and experienced the loving message we had for them in powerful tangible ways. Others were healed – all glory to God! I have never experienced such a clear anointing for salvation before – it was all so natural and easy… thank you for interceding for me, I must have had over a dozen that I knew of praying. It made all the difference, bless you!

We were offering ‘prophetic readings from the Spirit of Jesus’ and ‘healing prayer’ and I was so surprised at the openness of people, we were kept really busy from 11 – 5.30. I ministered to a reiki healer, who had an issue that she had not been able to shift herself, but who felt the power of God flow through her and in her own words was ‘emotionally moved’ by the prayer even though she wasn’t sure about Jesus initially. She took a chance and was really blessed.  Another lady was healed of arthritis from a pain level of 6 or 7 to nothing! My partner had a word for her that she should switch from medium wave to FM, or the Father’s wave, and it turned out she was a medium, God really has a sense of humour!

We also have a track record of attracting other stall holders, so a lady from the Psychic Research stall came and I had a picture of a butterfly in pinks and purples emerging from the chrysalis that had confined her, which we felt was unfulfilled dreams and fear, and my partner had a word of knowledge about the kinds of nightmares she had been having. As we prayed through these things she got goosebumps, actually from the butterfly picture onward, she felt ‘stunned in a good way’ and found it hard to stand up at the end. She came really close to Jesus – I pray she invites Him in, as we asked her to consider.

We had two other people who hadn’t intended to come to the fair or any stalls, but felt prompted to come and see only us for some reason they couldn’t explain – God had already been at work in their lives and they invited Jesus into their hearts. We also handed out gift bags with a ‘Father’s Love Letter’, a copy of ‘You Are Special’, a gospel and some other helpful stuff to those who were at that stage in their journey. (There was also the man who came purely to interrogate me on whether I had evidence or proof of what we believed, but I ask God to bless him too!)

It was an amazing day, and I hope that many will come to the next ‘Listening to the Spirit of Jesus’ course, which we advertised as starting on the 20th September… exciting times!

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(For Richard’s awesome story, see the next post down.)

The Belladrum Music Festival Insight Tent was the place of many deep encounters, including healing and salvation. I was surpirsed again how there are so many different flavours to each one. This year I seemed to do a lot of future/career pictures, and some emotional healing.

One girl came in and sat down, and I had some words of knowledge for her about being in a place of choices about her career – I had seen a vision of a crossroads. I then felt that the path she should take was a creative one, which I drew in yellow, and that there was parental or authority opposition but she should go with her heart’s desire because God put that in her. She said this was really accurate and that she was a dancer at the festival. She hadn’t been doing it long but had progressed unusually fast and her heart’s desire was to pursue this. She seemed happily surprised  – a bit stunned really – as she said she didn’t really believe in this kind of thing, but it had obviously got to her and gave her hope and encouragement. Even the sceptics come in and are deeply touched by God!

Another woman came in and I saw a picture for her of a white gate leading to a meadow of peace. I drew a really simple picture and under her huge sunglasses  she started to cry and say it was the most beautiful picture she had ever seen. (This surprised me!) I felt that relationships were causing her stress and she let me give her an impartation, during which she received the deep peace of God and there was more crying. I am trying to learn to take my hands off the Holy Spirit so for a while I didn’t say much, just co-operated with what God was doing. She was so grateful for what some pencil marks on A5 paper had released! Then she went for a spiritual encounter and cried some more and received the Father’s blessing, she must have been with us for an hour, deeply impacted.

Usually in encounters I rely a lot on looking at people’s faces to see how I am doing, but this year many of them had huge sunglasses on, and sometimes it was only when the tears came out from under them, or that they spoke that I saw what God was doing. It was like I could only rely on the Spirit and my experience and felt a bit like I’d been blindfolded. A useful idea – I want to tune in more to the spirit of the person and address that, rather than the evidence of physical sight, although it is very useful to have and watching encounters develop has taught me a lot!

The best thing was the people that came back from previous years, that hung out at our tent for hours just chatting and receiving, even when there were lots of other things they could or should have been doing! Richard and Gail just blew me away with their transformation – since their encounters last year they have been pursuing God, and with amazing attitude came and served with all their hearts.  Please pray for B who clearly has spiritual interest but is pursuing another path. I introduced him to God and he felt His light, so I pray that all the seeds planted by myself and others grow!

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For the last two years I have gone to lead the Life Art team in the Insight Outreach tent at the Belladrum Music Festival. This is the story of how God took one of those 350 encounters to become a life completely transformed, and a tattoo as well!

We were starting to close our tent down at the end of the festival in 2010 when Charity Bowman Webb, the Insight outreach leader came and asked me would I do one more encounter. I was tired but I knew God had the resource and now I am so glad I didn’t say no! I felt that God had gifted this man Richard with love and strength and that He would show Him how to combine the two and express himself in new and powerful ways.

My name is Richard and I live in Inverness, Scotland.

I was brought up on a poor working class housing estate in Inverness, not much money in the house and my dad was an alcoholic and my mum did the best she could for us, the five of us, three brothers my sis and me.While growing up I always said I would never end up like my dad, that turned out to be a joke, I ended up every bit as bad if not worse, (I love my dad by the way).

I started drinking and drugging at 15 years old and for the next 31 years, I left a trail of devastation and destruction behind me, I could not form a lasting loving relationship with anyone, I ended up with 4 children and wasn’t a full time dad to any of them.
My life was a mess and I was trying to drink myself to death, I was lost, lonely and desperate for some good in my life, I didn’t know where to find these things, I now know I was looking in the wrong places.

On the 14th of Feb 2010, I had a drunken fight with one of my sons, I had also sent a nasty text to the girl that I was seeing, I knew nothing of that until the next day, while fighting with my son, I went to punch him but something stopped me,( I believe it was the Grace of God coming into my life), and I didn’t do it. I remember my son leaving the house broken hearted, it broke my heart.

When I woke up in the morning, my then girlfriend had texted me, asking why I had been so nasty with my text, I was shattered when I read it, Valentines Day and I was just a nasty drunk with no respect for anyone or anything, I was at my lowest point ever, none of my children  wanted to know me and I had lost the woman I professed to love. I seriously considered suicide.

Well God’s Grace was at work so somehow I ended up at Alcoholics Anonymous. For six weeks I managed to fight the cravings I was having for alcohol. Then I came across a verse in the big book of AA saying ask God to take away the compulsion to drink alcohol. Now I really wanted to stop drinking, so I got down on my hands and knees and with all my heart I asked God to take away my cravings and compulsions for alcohol.
I’ve never had a drink since that moment nor craved a drink. a miracle right there, that’s when my relationship with God begun.

I tried a few churches and it was when I went into the barn church in Culloden that I felt God say “This is where I want you, Richard”

I started to build a relationship with God, seeking Him more and more and in August 2010 my journey took me to Belladrum Tartan Heart music festival, where I had the most exciting experience with God through a Life Art drawing I had done by one of the spiritual artists on the team.
Her name was Heather Thorp and she was softly spoken and gentle, she explained to me what she was going to do, then she asked if she could lay her hand on me, I agreed.
Then she started to draw, she finished the drawing and as soon as she gave it to me something powerful stirred in me, she had drawn a heart with a hammer inside with a message saying” no compromise”, Heather said to me,”this is what God has given to me for you,”and it blew me away.
I didn’t know what it meant at the time but I truly knew in my heart it was from God. Wow wow wow. All glory to God.

During this time I had stopped drinking, I was closer to God but my life was still a mess, I still felt lonely, my relationships were not getting any better, there was still something missing in my life.
Then I did the Alpha course and started to learn about Jesus, who He was and who He is.
I work in construction and it was on a building site that I had a personal meeting with Jesus.
My head was in a mess, my life was a mess and I thought I was going to burst and I did, I raised my arms in the air and looked upwards to Heaven and cried out Jesus, Jesus, what am I doing wrong, I can’t do this on my own anymore, forgive me for my sins, I give my life to you, come and be my Lord and Saviour, and He came and gave me peace to get through the rest of the day.
I woke up next morning and put my feet on the carpet, looked in the mirror and thought to myself, there’s something different about today, then I realised I had slept all night for the first time in 31 years and I knew Jesus was in my heart.
My life changed forever that day, my journey since then has been amazing, my relationship with my children is growing all the time, my relationship with my mum and dad is the best its ever been, though I don’t have a wife yet, I’m no longer alone. I also have two wonderful granddaughters whom I love dearly.
I can see now when I look back that God was preparing me to meet our Lord Jesus.

Now back to the heart and hammer, I now know why I was so stirred.

God was speaking to me.

“I am so full of love and I am so strong that My love for you will never be compromised, I will always love you, I give to your heart My love and My strength, to carry on your journey, to freely give what you have freely been given.”

When I finally understood what God was saying to me it had a profound effect an me and I had the hammer and heart tattooed on to my left forearm, what a blessing that has turned out to be, a ministry all on its own, I’ve lost count of the people who have asked me about it, the perfect God given opportunity to talk about God, Jesus and the time I had at the outreach tent at Belladrum.

I will finish with what I think is an amazing story.

I went to Clan Gathering of the churches in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland, for the very first time, I went in to one of the tents and there was a row of the most beautiful paintings, done by spiritual artists, I was immediately drawn to one, it was called the Heart of Creation and it just spoke to me, God was telling me that my new heart was His creation and that He was pleased with me, how great is our God.

I had to wait four days to meet the artist, the artist turned out to be Heather Thorp, we were so excited we were jumping up and down like little children, God had used Heather to give me another message, it was one of the best moments in my life and I will never forget it, our God is amazing.

This is the short version of my life.  SO FAR, God has a plan for ME and YOU. HA HA

All Glory to God!

Richard now owns a Heart of Creation painting and wanted to come and be part of the outreach team at Belladrum Music Festival this year. He served so fantastically as receptionist at our outreach tent this year, he experienced God’s perspective for all the people coming through and even encouraged his daughter to come in, and I had the privilege of doing a Life Art piece for her too. I know this story isn’t over… wait and see what happens next!

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Having art in worship is an amazing thing – the Spirit just starts speaking to people outwith the confines of words, and really seems to get to the heart in a special way. Now I adore words, literature was my degree course for four years but there is something so dynamic about colour and movement that I have fallen in love with, and it is a great way to do outreach too.  It completely thrills me how people come up and share the very different but real ways in which God is impacting them through the art, and next post I will share one very special story with you…

I was so privileged to be working with artists from Scotland and the USA – Aline Lidwell, who was part of my church but now at Bethel, and Anna Elkins who I met at the Bethel School of Kingdom Creativity. She is an amazing poet too, her blog is at http://wordbody.blogspot.com/ .

I felt to paint two scriptures, Genesis 1 v1-3 above and Matthew 9 v 36 – 28 below.

Also painting were Linette Penney Gainham, Beth Sciallo and Josie Fish, amazing women that I have learned so much from. Linette runs all kinds of exciting workshops and sells her amazing paintings through http://www.penneylanestudios.com/ .

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