LA Azusa Now mission trip

I am overwhelmed. 

I’m overwhelmed by God’s goodness, because the number of testimonies I could share from our time in LA are literally way too numerous to count, let alone write out. So as I share some highlights, know that these are only a tiny taste of God’s greater work in LA and far beyond… what an incredible week!

One of our main ministry days was spent at California State University. We broke up into small groups and ministered to people, which practically looked like just talking to people, encouraging them, asking if we could pray for them, telling them about Jesus, and asking God to heal them. 

One of my testimonies from this day was one of many examples this week of me stepping out in talking to someone who formerly would’ve been extremely intimidating for me. My group got stopped by a man named Christopher who wanted me to sign petitions. When my group told him we were from Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry he asked what that means (thought it sounded like aliens or something). I told him we just believe we can have the same relationship with God as Jesus did and can see miracles and people healed! We asked if he needed prayer for anything and he told us he's a fashion designer and really desires the grace of God on his life and favor in his business. We asked if we could pray for him right then and there, and he got excited and said "yeah let's pray!" grabbed our hands, and closed his eyes bowing his head. As we prayed for him and blessed him he agreed in prayer and when we finished he said he felt the impact of our prayers and was super blessed. We returned later on to give him a book of testimonies from Bethel students and he was so excited, he opened it and read a whole testimony of a miraculous healing aloud to his friends on the spot. He then introduced us to his friends and two girls said they really want to be closer to God, so we got to pray for them and gave hugs all around! That night we found out another group visited them later and got to share their testimonies, prophesy, and pray for them. When he found out they were with us and he said he's been reading the testimony book to people and how incredible the stories were! He raved about how cool he thought we were and said he appreciated that we weren’t super “religious.”

Another really cool aspect of our day there was that we got to partner with InterVarsity, which is an evangelical, interdenominational campus ministry. We were asked to activate the InterVarsity leaders in supernatural evangelism, which meant we got to help them learn to hear God’s voice for people and learn how to pray for healing. At the end of the day we all gathered to share testimonies, and many of the InterVarsity leaders shared that they were incredibly impacted and encouraged by the day, realizing for the first time that they could hear God’s voice, and how they got to see God heal people as they prayed! It was a beautiful time partnering with them. As we gathered outside and shared testimonies of many people getting saved that day as well as healings and people getting deeply touched by God, students were stopping to listen in which gave us even more opportunities to talk to them about God and His goodness.

Another day we got to go to part of a Power and Love conference led by Todd White. Bethel students became the leaders of outreach groups as part of the conference is activating the attendees in lifestyle evangelism - going out and loving on people and telling them about Jesus during breaks. My friend and I got paired with a mother and daughter and went to Whole Foods for lunch. We got to share our testimonies with them, pray and prophesy over them, and together we also talked with a beautiful new bride who worked at Whole Foods. She’s Indian and had a Hindu wedding but is a practicing Buddhist. As we told her about why we were in LA we got to tell her some about Jesus and ended up praying a blessing over her and her new marriage. She was so blessed and seemed very intrigued!

That night we led a service at a hispanic church called Restoracion Total. During part of the service we students were taking turns giving “words of knowledge” from the stage, which means we ask God for a specific fact about someone in the room who needs prayer or encouragement. When we call it out, if the word makes sense to anyone we go and pray over them. I had a word of knowledge about teeth pain, and when I called it out one man raised his hand. My friend and I went to pray for him and he told us he has been in continual pain from grinding his teeth for a long time. After asking Holy Spirit to come heal and commanding the pain to leave we asked him how he felt - at first the pain had lessened but was still there, but when we prayed again, the pain was completely gone!

We had so many amazing testimonies from that night. My friends prayed for a woman whose hearing was almost gone and Jesus completely restored her hearing (she was so excited because she had a new baby boy and would be able to hear him!) Another friend of mine got to pray for a man with emphysema and pain in his lungs. As they prayed all the man’s pain left and he took off his oxygen tube able to breathe on his own!

The other day with the most testimonies was the day of the Azusa Now event. From 8am to 10:30pm, we gathered in the LA Memorial Coliseum for worship, prayer, and the preaching of the gospel. It was one of the best days of my life. In worship, I experienced the joy of the Lord more strongly than I ever have, dancing, shouting, and worshipping with all in me, and still feeling like I couldn't express my joy enough. The Father's presence and love was so tangible, and I saw people weeping and laughing and getting delivered in worship, so moved by His nearness and love.

I got to pray with so many precious individuals. One man who had herniated discs in his back and pain for 10 years was completely healed. I got to pray with a woman with MS. As I prayed for her healing she felt a lot of heat in her body, which is often a sign of the Holy Spirit’s presence to heal. She still had pain, but she felt it reduce, and we are believing the Lord will continue the work of healing in her to completion. I also got to lead her in prayer for renewed relationship with the Lord, because in her illness she felt very distant from Him. She wept as she repented and felt his peace!

I saw God deeply touch several individuals as we got specific words from Him about how He created them, and as He broke off lies and bondage, replacing them with His truth and love. At one point someone in a wheelchair who had had people praying for them for a long time got up and began to walk, healed, in the center of the coliseum where everyone could see, resulting in extreme rejoicing of everyone present!

I heard lots more stories of years of pain dissolving in a moment, deaf ears opened, blind eyes seeing, and many, many individuals choosing to give their lives to Jesus!!

Hundreds more testimonies have been written out on the Facebook page called BSSM Flood LA 2016 - you can find it at this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/207775382929291/

I’ll include some of my favorites below…

Two groups’ bus drivers gave their lives to the Lord on the day of our journey back to Redding!

God healed a woman paralyzed for 10 years.

Someone prayed for a Kardashian and she was completely healed. George Lopez went through a group’s joy tunnel. Someone got to pray and prophesy over one of the top 5 American Idol contestants who was signing autographs - she cried and hugged him a long time and it’s all on paparazzi footage here.

This woman was almost completely blind but God restored her sight almost completely! She shares her testimony in this video.

This man's hearing was restored!

This week was altogether beautiful. I have been continually amazed over and over at the Father’s desire to be involved in the most minute details of our lives, to show us His love, to win His children’s hearts back to Himself. I have grown so much. I’ve punched fear of man in the face over and over, and I’ve truly come to believe experientially that God wants to and does work through me supernaturally. I’ve led others well in things I’ve only just learned myself in the last few months.

Our God is so good. How blessed am I that I get to spend the rest of my life as His vessel to see Him change the world and win hearts back to Himself?!

I would be more than happy to share more with any of you if you want to hear more stories or explanations about my trip. Again, thank you thank you thank you so much for your support both financially and with your prayers. You have given me an incredible gift, being able to be a part of God’s work this week.

Love,

Cassandra

reno and a psychic fair

This weekend I had the privilege of going on another ministry trip to Reno, Nevada with a team of students from my school. We had SO many powerful testimonies from this trip, but I want to share just a few highlights.

We spent a lot of time on Friday doing outreach to the homeless in the city. My friend Helena and I got to sit awhile with one sweet homeless woman named Chance. Chance happily hugged us several times, and she lit up as we told her how beautiful her eyes are! She asked for prayer for her family members and for her knees. When we laid hands on her knees and prayed, she told us she felt the Holy Spirit come fill her with peace, her knee pain went from a 10 to a 3, and feeling returned to her feet which had been numb! I am learning more all the time, it is so easy to just stop for the one and love on them right where they are. I am reminded of Peter's response in Acts 3 to a beggar, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk."

Saturday was a completely different and new kind of adventure - we did outreach at a psychic fair! It's a bi-annual fair with a quite inexpensive entrance fee, full of booths offering psychic readings of all kinds, New Age resources, and items for sale such as crystals and wands. Our team got connected with a Christian man and his wife who have been having their own booth at this fair for a little while now. They name the booth "Majestic Spirit" and offer "spirit readings, dream interpretation, and healing" among other things. Unlike other booths, these services are offered for free, and instead of using psychic techniques they tell the individuals they are connected to one and only one spirit, the Spirit of the Creator or the Holy Spirit, as they receive prophetic words ("spirit readings") and welcome the presence of God to come and touch them. In this way, they are not flaunting the fact that they are Christians and yet they minister very effectively and when doors open they tell individuals about Jesus and connect them with churches who practice the prophetic and are active in the supernatural gifts if they are interested.

What they and our group found as we interacted with so many various types of people attending this fair is that they are all extremely spiritually hungry, and many of them have been hurt or bored by the church. Some of them have the ability to see things in the spiritual realm or have had some spiritual experience which churches have not been able to explain, often telling the individuals they are crazy and unwelcome. Yet when they encounter the Prince of Peace and experience the love of the Father they just want more!

So our team got to take turns being in the booth and ministering that way to individuals, and the rest of the time we walked around the fair and socialized with other attendees and the people who ran the other booths. Many of my team experienced an incredibly heightened ability to hear God’s voice and be able to give words of knowledge (like saying, “do you have pain in your right shoulder?” and being right about it), and to give accurate prophetic words, and see God completely heal people when they prayed. God cares so much about these people, and they were so open to all God wanted to do! I shared some of my team members’ testimonies on my Facebook page, but to keep it personal I will share one of my own experiences from the day.

A couple of my friends and I went out of the fair to get coffee from a coffee stand. As we chatted with the two ladies running it, my friend Jim got a word of knowledge about knee pain. When one of the workers confirmed she has knee problems we asked if we could pray for healing. At this point she told us she does Reiki, which is a New Age healing technique through the laying on of hands and channeling energy. She told us she already does Reiki on herself and others, but we told her our healing is very different, that we get the power to heal directly from the spirit of Christ. This interested her and she happily agreed for us to try! My friend Jim and I laid hands on her and invited the Holy Spirit to come, commanding the pain to leave and her knee to be healed. As we prayed she told us she could feel heat on her knee, which is a common way the Holy Spirit shows up to heal, and she told us she could feel healing taking place. As we chatted with her more she told us her husband consults witches but that they aren’t very helpful, and we suggested she try directly asking the same one who healed her, the spirit of Christ, when they need answers, because he talks to us and would love to talk to her and she doesn’t need a medium - she said she would try it! Jim also had an accurate word of knowledge about her husband having back and neck pain, and we prayed for him as well. She even told us that her husband wrote a book about a demonic encounter and wanted us to read it, and in return I recommended Kris Vallotton’s book Spirit Wars, which is about spiritual warfare from a Christian perspective, which she seemed eager to check out!

There was a platform at the fair which was mostly used by older men from other booths to play tribal or otherwise interesting music, but when we were given some stage time we took full advantage of the opportunity to sneakily release the presence and worship God. Three individuals from my team danced with flags to worship songs, and another guy did spoken word. I can’t express how powerful that was, having worship music playing in a room full of psychics, witches, and people who are just very spiritually hungry but looking in the wrong places. Several of the psychics from other booths came to tell the dancers how much they loved it, and we saw people get deeply moved, one woman in particular weeping as she watched.

Finally, members of our team had the opportunity to actually directly share about Jesus with several individuals as they opened up. One young guy in particular was getting continually targeted by members of our team with super accurate words of knowledge and prophetic words for his life, and as they talked with him they were able to share the gospel and he gave his life to the Lord!!! When someone asked him what he would do the next day he said, “I’m not coming back to this psychic fair, I’m going to church!”

I’m learning that God is completely in love with the people we often consider the furthest from His reach. As an introvert, talking to strangers in general can be stressful for me, yet I can honestly tell you that for the first time I went a whole weekend of outreach with little to no anxiety whatsoever! I’m learning how not to strive. It’s not about me, but I get to be me, and God loves to use me! Yet it’s his job to do the heart work, my job’s just to love. Loving isn’t hard. And oh the joy it is!

Azusa, Reno, and a woman healed

Hi everyone! I haven’t blogged in awhile, though it’s been on my heart to write for a few weeks, and finally I’m making time for it because I have lots of exciting news!

First of all, I owe an update on Azusa Now. Most of you probably know that I’m going on a mission trip to LA with all of Bethel Church and School in April to be a part of a stadium evangelistic event called Azusa Now that is going to shake the nation! (You can read more about it here). Many of you have sown into this trip, above and beyond what I even expected, and I am incredibly blessed and thrilled to say that I am fully funded, and have even received quite a bit over my minimum, which means the extra I’ve received will go towards my team fund and enable my friends to go who do not have such a developed support base! I feel so covered and loved, and I know the Lord will bless each and every one of you for what you have sown into this move of God. Thank you!!!

I also have new information about what my team is going to be doing there specifically. We have so many people going from Bethel that we will be divided into smaller teams and assigned specific areas of LA. During the week leading up to the event, my specific team is going to be in the northeastern part of LA doing ministry and evangelism, partnering with area churches and organizations. Two leaders my team will specifically be partnering with are Todd White and Shawn Bolz, which is a high honor and extremely exciting! Todd White is known for his dreadlocks and appearances in Darren Wilson’s documentaries on the miraculous, the Holy Ghost movies, in which he does street evangelism and sees God continually heal and turn hearts to himself! We will be helping with one of Todd’s Power and Love conferences being held that week. Shawn Bolz pastors a church in LA and is an incredible prophet of God. He has a prophetic gifting such that he calls out strangers’ phone numbers, addresses, birthdays, etc. before giving them words and encouragement from God (this shows people how intimately God knows every part of their lives, filling them with faith in order to receive the words God has for them). You can find either of them on YouTube if you’re curious.

As weeks go on, I become more and more excited and expectant about what God is going to do in LA that week! I truly believe it is going to be a time of such revival that it will not only be a historical event to remember but it will change the future of America and beyond! I will be excited to share more specifics as the time draws nearer.

I also want to share an update about the ministry trips I’ve been taking to Reno! We have taken two trips since my last update, and the second was just this last weekend. To be honest, the trip before this last one was difficult for me. I felt very uncomfortable much of the time, struggling with feelings of being fake and unnatural as I approached people on our outreach. In truth, fear of man is a very real thing, something I am continually fighting to get free from! But praise the Lord, this last trip was extremely different for me. I experienced so much freedom to be myself, to relax and have fun! We did campus outreach on Friday and just focused on loving on people and seeking opportunities to tell people about Jesus. We saw many impacted, and some of my teammates lead a few individuals to the Lord!! It was incredible! A lot of my experience this last weekend was ministering to the staff of Awaken, the organization we partner with which is fighting sex trafficking in Reno, through prayer, prophetic encouragement, and worship. It is an honor to be able to come alongside and encourage these men and women who are pouring themselves out for the gospel of freedom to impact the city. We also did outreach in the Reno mall, and I personally had some breakthrough as my friend and I approached a 40-year-old man sitting alone and were able to fully share the gospel with him and pray for him! He was extremely receptive, open about his struggles, and really wanted to receive the freedom and love of Christ. Pray with us that Todd encounters the Lord in a way that changes him forever! Our next trip is in March, and we will be going to a Psychic Fair to share the love of Christ with the New Age adherents and witches of Reno - it’s going to be awesome!!

Finally, I wanted to share a testimony of healing. My Revival Group did outreach here in Redding a few weeks ago, and my group went to a coffee shop. There was a sweet woman doing the cooking, a believer, who has had severe back pain for a long time. We asked if we could pray for her back, and as we prayed, she said the pain was slightly relieved, though still bad. Another member of my group asked if she would sit down, and asked whether one of her legs is longer than the other. She said yes, and it was evident which was longer as she held her legs out. I shared with her that when I was in college I had the same problem, and when friends prayed for me my leg grew out and I’ve not had problems with back pain since! (Yay God!! My chiropractor even confirmed the change the next time I visited him for a checkup!) This filled the atmosphere with faith and as I picked up her legs to pray I literally felt her shorter leg pop out, even before I finished praying! The woman gasped and began to sob! She stood up to check how she felt and she sobbed, “The pain is gone! The pain is totally gone!” She was completely wrecked by the love of God, that he would care to heal her in this way, and we all rejoiced as we hugged and celebrated with her! This was one of my first experiences with seeing someone healed while I personally prayed for them (though I see people healed when others pray all the time, since prayer for healing is a continual part of our meetings here). I am so encouraged and am continuing to go after healing just as Jesus did, expecting more and more breakthrough!

That's all I have for now. Again, thanks so much to each and every one of you for your encouragement, love, and support. I feel so blessed and pray you experience the Father's nearness and love in a new way today!