Reflections From The Road

Encounter at Tahquitz

2011-11-06T10:37:00.000-08:00

We just spoke recently at a conference out in the desert in Palm Springs on the Jesus People Revival and Lonnie Frisbee’s impact in that move of God. We also had an awesome time sharing about all the retreats and radical times we had experienced with Lonnie in the desert also in Palm Springs back when it was a regular haunt for the group of us that were hanging out and hanging on everything Lonnie was doing in those days.

After this conference some of us took a hike up to Tahquitz Canyon, the place where Lonnie had his radical vision and encounter with God that became intimately connected with the Jesus People Revival.

When we finally got up to the top, at the little crystal pool where the waterfall flows down into the canyon, we happened to run into a few other hikers. It turned into a divine appointment as Mercedes and I began to witness to these hikers. After sharing the gospel with them for a bit, we ended leading a young lady to the Lord there and then praying for her friend, who was saved already, but who told us she was seeking the filling of the Spirit. It was quite a wild day already, but leading someone to the Lord and praying for her friend for the filling of the Spirit right in the spot where Lonnie had his vision and encounter with Jesus, was something truly supernatural and prophetic.

The Lord then also brought back to my memory a dream both myself and Patrick had in France the night after we had a car accident (a clear attack of the enemy). We both happened to dream the same thing on the same night. In our dreams, we both saw ourselves going up a mountain to a waterfall and there the Lord met us and began to intimately speak to us.

A little later on after praying with those hikers, I jumped under the cascading water coming down in the waterfall and then, suddenly, the power of God struck me and reminded me of the dream and showed me that this was the actual place in the dream I had seen—needless to say, there was quite the encounter with God under that waterfall as the Lord met me in quite a “refreshing” way. Being under the waterfall that you saw in a dream getting hammered by the power of God after a divine appointment where you were just leading one person to the Lord and another into the baptism of the Holy Spirit up in a canyon where one of the major leaders of two revivals encountered Jesus does have that “refreshing” effect –Glory!!

A Little Background...

Well, for those unaware, Lonnie was used radically in the Jesus People Revival. The Jesus People Revival is a real study in missiology, as Chuck Smith let go of entrenched cultural church traditions—to the scorn of many other leaders in that day—and opened up to contemporary music styles, modern forms of dress and language, and most importantly, connected via divine appointment with a Hippie named Lonnie Frisbee who not only was able to speak in the language and style of the Hippie subculture but was endowed with the power of God. Lonnie preached in the cadence of the Hippie people in a way that they could hear and relate to the Gospel message he was bringing, and both he and Chuck Smith found themselves falling headlong into a radical revival that eventually would extend out to other nations. A second wave of that revival emerged in a later context in the 80's in what would later become the Vineyard. This was yet again another missiological move towards contemporary music and styles “a la 1980's” to reach the culture of that time, which was connected with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that began under Lonnie's preaching at what was originally was called Calvary Chapel Yorba Linda—later to become known as the Anaheim Vineyard. John Wimber’s book Power Evangelism (pages 23-27) notes his very first power encounter ever with the power of God as a time when a young man—Lonnie Frisbee—preached at his church (the famed and well-reported Mother’s Day service) and a radical outpouring of the Spirit took place. Wimber’s four subsequent books after this “power encounter” all begin with the word “Power” and his whole ministry was marked by equipping the saints to operate in the power of God; thus, Frisbee’s influence on Wimber can be said to be no less than massive!

I was blessed to be involved in both movements, Calvary and Vineyard, and see the importance and impact of God's power and how essential and biblically central it is to the Christian life, as well as to learn how important the impact of contextualizing the Gospel without compromising the message is.

I encountered “the Frisbeen” at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa and later was baptized in the Holy Spirit through Lonnie's ministry at the then Calvary Chapel Yorba Linda—later to become Anaheim Vineyard. Later we were able to experience even more and learn many things hanging out with Lonnie, a historically significant figure in regards to evangelism and the power of God of our time. It was truly a blessing to spend all those times in that blazing hot desert in Palm Springs and get to listen to Lonnie teach sometimes for hours on end on the importance of learning to walk in the power of the Spirit.

One of the craziest things happened on a hike up to Tahquitz when I was walking ahead of Lonnie and found half an old Bible buried in the sand; Lonnie found the other half a few moments later and began to lay out some prophecies over me. I told Lonnie later, "I thought we were going up that canyon for a hike. Instead, I end up rolling around in the dirt when I was struck by the power of God when you gave me those prophetic words." Wow, what an experience it was, hanging out with someone who had been used so powerfully in two major revivals!!

To get a little overview of Frisbee's ministry click here: http://www.graceworldmission.org/Jesus_ppl_revival.html

(By the way we’ll be speaking at Vineyard Laguna Niguel at their youth service today at 4:00pm in Orange County)

Old Photo with "the Frisbeen" back in the day

"Keep your eyes on the prize"

Adventures in Scandinavia

2011-09-06T14:33:00.000-07:00

We've been experiencing many blessings while ministering here in Scandinavia. We had some awesome meetings in Sweden and Norway with wonderful outpourings of the Holy Spirit's power: It was a glorious to see how many who showed up were touched and filled in the meetings we did. It was such a joy to see God moving that way--people just getting so filled and empowered and impacted by the glory of God.

The priesthood of all believers being equipped for ministry has been a theme the Lord has laid on our hearts while in Scandinavia and we've been excited to see God empowering people with His fire and power in a glorious manner with young and old being being equipped for ministry themselves by God's presence.

We also have had some healing moves of the Lord: a young friend who got touched radically in Sweden by God's power. He was on the ground getting blasted by God's presence and overcome by the love of God for a very long time. He told us later about how he has had asthma but last time we talked with him he told us how he's been running and biking since with no problems. While in Norway we had a man with heart problems we prayed for who reported back later that he felt significantly better. He was so blessed when we prayed for him that he went out and prayed for someone else on the street who was powerfully touched too. Another minister who has had serious throat problems was touched and came back to tell us that he felt significantly better after we prayed for him also.

We did a meeting with about 35 to 45 young adults and teenagers in Norway and quite a few there got radically touched by the Lord and filled with the fire of God. The Lord also poured out his love and grace very significantly on some in a healing way and it was awesome to see the Lord moving in such a way that we were able to minister late into the night since it was a home meeting. We also did some worship in a church service; every meeting we've done has had significant moves of the Holy Spirt with the glory and fire of God being poured out in power.

The Power of God moving deep

We were also able to have a little R and R with some friends here who took us out for a few days of rest on their sailboat. We really appreciated this after traveling for over two and a half months in Europe. We've had incredible blessings everywhere we've been but also had some warfare as we shared before. Getting into Scandinavia turned into a literal nightmare with a bomb scare at the airport and then a sick pilot who stopped the flight right as we were getting on the plane. Then we were rerouted to the wrong destination and were left by the airlines stranded with no means of further travel. On our final leg of the trip that day, the train broke down and we had to transfer to a new one---never had so many things happen in one day before like that, it turned a 4-hour journey into 14 hours. We see now that the opposition came as God had so many blessings in store here in Scandinavia.

Fire and glory falling

Norway was the first country in Europe to receive the Pentecostal outpouring from the Azusa Street Revival years back and the Swedes brought the fire of Pentecost first to Latin America, so we are excited to see God moving in power and reviving the ancient places long devastated by the secularism that has crept in like decay over Europe and the religiosity that the enemy has used to leech the life out of the true Gospel of life and power.

As we've ministered in Europe in places like France and England and Scandinavia we are excited to see what God is doing; it is a blessing to see God moving as we preach and minister in many of these thirsty places. We are reminded of Argentina when we survey the land in Europe: Argentina was one of the toughest places spiritually in Latin America, and yet later had one of the biggest revivals. Nothing is impossible with God!

Getting a few waves on the Nordic coast

The Glory Falls in France

2011-08-15T02:01:00.000-07:00

French views of Paris and Biarritz

“I can’t geet up, I am stuck” were the words of the French pastor who was interpreting in one of the meeting we just did in France. Struck by the glory of God to the ground, he was then glued to the floor and unable to get up and keep interpreting. The move of God’s power through the congregation bowled him over and we were left without an interpreter. I repeated a few phrases in French like Gloire a Dieu! to fill the air, while he laid stuck to the ground as the Lord continued pouring out Spirit in great power.

The glory and light of God fall in power ( above and photos below)

My broken French wasn’t even noticed though as the glory was falling so radically and people were crying out, laughing, some screaming and receiving deliverance. We began to get hammered by the glory as well and the meeting was just completely overtaken by the power of God and was so glorious it just continued on and on with no way to conclude the meeting – God just kept moving and moving!!

When the Lord moves like that it blows out the “in by 10 out by 12” stuff that we call church! The glory just takes over and all the human-planned stuff is left by the wayside while God does His real work of the kingdom: Healing, and pouring out His love, power, grace, and compassion as He transforms hearts and lives with the reality of His presence.

That move of God was phenomenal enough but we've had others following it as we ministered later again in the cities of Tours and then Paris. In another meeting the Lord began to move by His Spirit even during the preaching, visibly touching people with His power even while we were still speaking. He has continued to bless many with power, grace, and healing as well as bring some to salvation and re-dedications as we've continued to minister in France. We had a very powerful time ministering in Paris--the interpretation situation was quite unstable but a woman who just happened to be at the church before moving into another area the next week and who spoke very good English and French volunteered to interpret at the last moment and we had a very radical time. The woman interpreting testified that she was herself touched for the first time in her life by the Spirit of God in such a powerful way as we prayed for her as well. Many received deliverance and the filling of the Holy Spirit and healing power- Gloire a Dieu!

Preaching together at a French service -- we've been doing more ministry together--sharing the preaching, teaching and praying for people--than any trip in the past!

It is a glorious thing to see the Lord move so powerfully in a place as dark as France. It is one thing to go into a place that is quite alive and see God do some awesome works but quite another to go into such a dark, dark country and see such a radical move of God: The light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it!

As well as seeing the Lord move so gloriously we have also had some wild divine appointments and some blessed encounters with fellow believers. We just happened to run into a young french guy who was in relationship trouble and approached us about how to make a call to the United States—guess we’re not as incognito as Americans as we would hope to be. We talked with him a bit as he was stressed about his girlfriend in the US and it opened an opportunity to witness to him and even to pray for him right there out on the walking corridors of Biarritz. We were also blessed to connect up with some fellow believers from Christian Surfers as we mutually passed through the southwest of the coast of France and enjoyed a bit of fellowship and a few waves together and prayed and talked about ways to reach into the French and Basque culture—surfing can be a good tool as they are quite hip on it here. We also had a divine appointment with a German guy that let me use his longboard when we came across some small waves further up the coast and the topic of Luther was a good segue to talk to him as well.

Getting blessed with a bit of warm water and French surf in-between ministry. A good way to get the batteries recharged and meet unbelievers.

Spiritual Battlefield With Fiery Darts Flying

Like I said it really is quite awesome to see a move of God like the one we just had in a place like France since France is definitely a heavy battleground spiritually. It is all the more awesome when God moves in such an oppressed place but it does not come without a heavy price. For it is truly a very dark place spiritually, a recent study by missiologist Peter Wagner reveals the depth of the spiritual darkness as the average French person is more likely to go to a physic or spiritualist than an actual doctor when in physical need. Darkness covers the land and thick darkness the people as the actual Bible-believing regenerated Christian population remains below 1%. Think about that for a moment – less than 1% percent of the population is saved! France’s history is also riddled with persecution of vital Christian movements that have sprung up in the past which they deliberately sought to wipe out (we will touch on that in a moment).

As well as experiencing the glory of God we have also definitely felt the sting of the spiritual battle every time we have touched the ground in this nation and this trip is no exception. We have already experienced so much spiritual warfare in the short time while here that it is stunning. From the moment we crossed the Channel from England to France and came upon the ground here we have experienced intense spiritual warfare. While passing through Normandy, on the way to our ministry destination, and seeing first hand the incredible sacrifice made by those Americans and British soldiers who liberated this land from the hand of the Nazis during WWII, the Lord began to truly speak to us about the price of liberty. Shortly after God visited us so powerfully we were in a car accident. Praise God we are all ok and not hurt, except for some soreness in Bryan’s back, but we were definitely shaken up quite a bit. The deductible for car rental insurance in France is quite high so we definitely could use your prayers and financial support (link) as we have been hit by the enemy while walking in the glory—walking in God’s glory and power is so awesome but it also makes you a target of the enemy as old friends like Harald Bredesen and Lonnie Frisbee used to remind us from the pages of Scripture.

Rows and rows of crosses at Normandy speak of the American and British soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice to liberate the occupied land of France and Europe. A new wave of soldiers of the cross are needed to see spiritual liberation in Europe today!

The warfare has continued with other things like clothes being destroyed. Right before preaching we were getting ready to go to the service when Mercedes just barely touched a barely warm iron to some pants I was going to wear which immediately did the weirdest thing and began smoking and smoldering and had a strange huge hole burned into them and were rendered useless, neither of us have ever seen anything like that before – it is a hard thing to deal with as you only bring so many clothes when traveling and a lot of other clothes have been ruined as well, I barely have anything left to wear and have had to buy other clothes; it seems like I’m leaving a trail of clothes behind throughout Europe on each trip. Anyways, we can definitely use your prayers and financial support, anything you can donate at this time would be definitely appreciated (Make a donation) as we have recently had quite a few extra unexpected expenses like train tickets and clothes that we weren’t planning on having to get; after the accident we had other unexpected charges like the car deductible we mentioned too.

Battles of the Past Reflect the Intense Warfare

As I have said, the sting of the spiritual battle is something we have experienced every time we have touched the ground in this nation, some things that happened here to us in the past are:

One time a car we were using started by itself with no one in it and lurched forward when I was standing in front of it and sought to run me over and then ran into a wall and caught on fire –can you say “Spiritual Warfare!?!” Another time, a room we were staying in started to catch on fire. And on yet another occasion when we were crossing the border and coming into France a train conductor one time began yelling at us for no reason whatsoever the moment we crossed into France. We have been targets of pickpockets but they were thwarted. Our last time here we began to receive the news of the death of my younger brother while driving through France into the Balkans – one of the heaviest things ever to deal with while on the mission field.

Understanding the situation through their History of Spiritual Darkness, Oppression, and Persecution—This is France!

As stated before, France’s history is riddled with persecution of vital Christian movements that have sprung up in the past, which they sought to literally wipe out:

In the 1100’s a pre-reformation group called the Waldensians sprung up in the South of France seeking to turn back to the Bible, praying for others for healing and following Christ fully. They were severely persecuted as the French State aligned with the Catholic Church in a literal crusade—known as the Third Crusade—to wipe them off the face of the earth. When the Catholic leader came upon the town of Beziers he was asked by the lead soldier if they shouldn’t sort out the Catholics first before the killing began to spare their fellow Catholics. The Leader replied with the infamous statement, “Kill them all and let God sort them out.” The few surviving Waldensians were driven into the hills of Switzerland to try and eke out a survival.

Later during the Reformation, a Reformation group of believers arose called the Hugenots who again sought to return to a biblical faith. A massive massacre was launched against them slaughtering somewhere near 100,000 Christian believers in Frace, including women and children. The remaining surviving Hugenots fled for safety to the English Port and Protestant city of La Rochelle where the Catholic Cardinal Richelieu issued a blockade so no goods or supplies could get in until all were starved to death. French reform leader John Calvin himself also had to flee to Switzerland to stay alive and carry on the work God called him to do there.

The American revolution had many Christian influences and aspects to it stemming from the Protestant Reformation. England’s and Scotland’s Reformation directly influenced the American Revolution and march towards liberty as well.

A Purely Secular Revolution and a Society Chained to Empty Philosophers

France’s Revolution was nothing like this at all, and in fact it was completely contrary to the Christian-based ideals that influenced the early Americans: Because of the severe corruption of the Catholic Church the leader of the French Revolution Robespierre sought to completely expunge every aspect of Christianity from French society and life. He even went so far as to create a new calendar so that no Christian holidays like Christmas or Easter could be celebrated and so absolutely no vestige of influence from Christianity would remain in the French society he sought to create. Furthermore, the French Revolution took a path that was so bloody that it is said the blood from the guillotine flowed waist-high down the streets of Paris. England, it is said, was spared this heinous violence specifically because of the impact of the preaching and ministry of George Whitfield and John Wesley and the Methodist Revival.

France does not know, nor has it experienced, hardly any of this revival nor reformation history and thus remains chained in the medieval dungeons of darkness bound to its failed secular philosophers and mindset that is pulling the whole of Europe down into the bottomless abyss.

Historic views at every turn (above and below)

Thinking of themselves as enlightened, the French are perhaps the most in darkness of all the European nations, having known very little of any kind of lasting vital and true Christian impact.

It was France recently that had the lines in the European Union Constitution removed recently that referred to Europe’s unique Christian history—they couldn’t stomach a reference of any kind to Christianity—the ghost of Robespierre lives on as they vie for that purely secular state like the old defunct Soviet Union—any comparison with the US because they are both western democracies truly ends there.

It is no wonder the intense darkness one encounters here but then it is even more glorious to see God break through and touch lives!! Needless to say we can us your prayers and support while ministering here and other places in Europe.

On Some Other Notes—News You May or May Not Have Heard About!

Looks like we left England at just the right time! As you’ve probably heard on the news, the English nation was consumed by four days of severe rioting, with people even being killed in certain areas. In fact, the very street we were staying on in London was shown on the news as one of the places hard hit by the severe rioting. Some of the very stores we shopped at and walked past every day have been torched and looted and burned to the ground while the “do-nothing” police merely looked on like a bunch of spectators.

Europe in general is reeling from a debt crisis as is the US, and France’s credit rating looks like the next one to take a hit. The French economy as well as the rest of Europe is feeling the pinch!

Ireland is being hit hard on many different fronts, the economy is in tatters and the Prime Minister of Ireland and the Archbishop of Canterbury (England’s spiritual leader in the Anglican Church) both recently stated that the Catholic Church has lost all its credibility and can never be trusted again due to the child sex abuse scandals involving Catholic priests—the situation and cover ups over here are even worse than the US if you can imagine that! It continues as a denomination that won’t reform itself! Spain, Portugal, and Italy are all reeling from the debt crisis as well and are constantly in the news here as they teeter on the brink!

Everything that can be shaken will be shaken—God indeed is shaking the nations!!

Thanks for your prayers and support as we proclaim the true Ruler of all Nations' sovereignty and power and glory!

Blessings, Bryan, Mercedes, and Patrick Marleaux

The Lord's Leading Through England

2011-07-29T12:13:00.000-07:00

Ministering at Hollybush in North Yorkshire, England

We have seen the Lord do amazing things as we continued on traveling and ministering our way through England. We just recently passed the date where we have been in England over one whole month already. We came to the Island nation just open to whatever God might want to do, thinking we would be here maybe only a few days or so. However, the Lord has been opening doors all over and continued to lead our steps so we have just stayed here and ministered as He has led us.

Just a couple of days ago we preached at a very powerful meeting at Hollybush Christian Fellowship, a church in North Yorkshire. God moved in awesome power as we saw many renewed and empowered with a fresh wave of the Holy Spirit that swept through the fellowship. Many were filled with the Spirit and ministered to as God’s presence moved gloriously upon the meeting. We saw a number of people ministered to very powerfully who came forward for prayer and healing power was released. In fact, Patrick and a few other young guys prayed for each other and each were ministered to by one another and some healing took place there.

How God set this up is equally incredible. We had been ministering in Darlington in the Durham area and having some powerful spontaneous meetings there. Before that we had been in Newcastle in Northumberland as well as having a powerful time in the city of Southport over by Liverpool. Our friend Heidi in Southport is an old pal through meetings Lonnie Frisbee used to do; Lonnie’s name and heritage keeps ringing the bell for revival in so many places.

Well, our friend in Darlington had talked to the pastor in North Yorkshire and found out that he hadn’t heard from the scheduled preacher for that evening’s meeting. He thus wanted us to come over to the church that very night and be ready for anything that God might want us to do. The other preacher never showed up and so we ended up doing all the preaching and ministering in a church of a couple hundred people where we had a very powerful time as God poured out His power with mighty manifestations following—truly a glorious and blessed time. We both shared different Holy Ghost Stories and passages from the Word and saw a double impact as God poured out His presence in double portion! We also had a woman share what a unique experience it was for us to pray for her, this was just in a casual setting at a lunch at our friends’ home, as she had only been prayed for once before; she really experienced God’s touch and wind and fire and healing as we laid hands on her.

Visiting Lindisfarne, early center of Celtic Christianity in Britain.

We had a chance to visit the island of Lindisfarne, center of Celtic Christianity as well as the location of the first Viking invasions. We have also been blessed with fun surf all over the place. In fact, a Polish pastor who was ministered to when we prayed for him in a home meeting asked us to come fishing with him, but the waves were too big for the boats to go out or to even fish from shore. I had the boards with us so we went surfing instead and happened to get 4 to 6 foot bowls with offshore winds with only about 6 other guys out or so, all on the East Coast of England! Waves like this anywhere else in the world, even in Cornwall or California, would have been packed with the typical ten thousand other surfers fighting for each wave. Since it happened on the East Coast, there just weren’t that many surfers around to catch it—even on a Saturday—Glory.

After a month in England with plenty of ministry in so many places we are over to France now for some ministry there. Our friend arranged a complimentary travel passage for us across the English Channel, which is a huge blessing as all this transportation expenses do run up the bills. We were blessed to see the famed White Cliffs of Dover as we pulled out of the Channel crossing over to France. In fact, we will be preaching this Sunday in Tours in two different church services, as well as a bit later in Paris at a church there. We appreciate your prayers as we continue carrying out the work God has called us to do here in Europe.

Twists and Turns on the Road

2011-07-06T03:21:00.000-07:00

Scenic views along the English Coast in Cornwall

We just had a powerful move of God in a spontaneous meeting in Newcastle, in the north of England. We connected through a mutual friend with a sister in the area who set up a meeting that turned into a powerful Holy Ghost time. God moved in great power with lots of manifestations and demonstrations of His power, grace, and love with a lot of prophetic encouragement coming through for all there including ourselves, we were able to give and receive! We were repeatedly encouraged with just how “brilliant” God’s timing and connection was with our coming there at this time – truly divinely orchestrated! Every last person in that meeting was touched powerfully by God including children!! Those willing to listen to the Holy Spirit and respond receive blessings beyond measure – those too busy, pre-occupied, and averse to any risk – well they just miss out because as John Wimber used to say “Faith is spelled R. I. S. K.”

Little twists and turns can turn into unexpected blessings when you’re following the Lord. After ministering in London and seeing some of its historical sights we had headed out on the road:

We stopped at a little side of the road food store while traveling through the English countryside and while taking a moment to read some Scripture a woman asked what we were reading. Turned out she was a fellow believer who herself was on a small journey wondering what God’s purpose was for her on this little travel she was on. We talked a bit and then we ended up praying for her right at the gas station and she received a revelation from the Holy Spirit that this moment now with us was a divine appointment and then she realized a chance meeting she had with someone earlier who had a death in the family that she comforted was also a divine appointment. “Yes! Divine appointments! That is why God led me out, I didn’t get it before, now I do!” So we were mutually encouraged by the presence of God and for us another divine appointment along the way—we had one earlier with a Korean girl we spoke to as well. John wrote in his third letter that the brothers who went out were faithful in serving the Lord even though the people they ministered to were complete strangers, 3 John V.5.

Newcastle was the northernmost border of the Roman Empire

with many historic Roman ruins still intact

We took a quick turn off the road to look closer at some directions and found a beautiful medieval English castle in the rolling green hills. A little tour through it led us to find that the early Protestant Charismatic founder of the Quakers, George Fox, had been jailed there for evangelizing in the area. The Quakers were a radical group formed out of the Reformation who sought to fully follow the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit. They would meet and simply wait on the Spirit and when someone had a leading, that person be it a man or woman, would share a short message or verse or prophecy or song depending what the Lord was leading. They didn't follow regular church structures or systems and for this reason they were heavily persecuted and eventually fled to the New World of the American colonies like the Puritans. Being jailed was a danger they lived with as George Fox experienced in this castle. Interestingly enough John Wimber was a Quaker and came into the reality of Quaker history when he came into the fullness of the Spirit. It can surely be quite an endeavor to find places like this castle, so it was such a blessing to just “stumble” upon it by the leading of God and get to see up close a place that reflects the price others have paid for the Gospel.

We ended up at the coast later and found not only a beautiful sunny day—quite rare in England—but also a nice swell running with glassy, fun conditions. We grabbed the boards and headed out for a fun unexpected surf session on the English waves. Traveling with a board can be a pain for sure—at times I thought why not just throw it in the Thames and be done with the burden—however when you come across some fun waves in these little nooks and crannies you are glad you have your own equipment, even though not on a surf trip, a few waves here and there refreshes and gives chances to witness to others who will never come in to a church. Furthermore God’s little rewards make all the enduring you’ve gone through worthwhile—which is very illustrative of the rest of the journey of the cross as well. You endure so much when you travel and seek to serve the Lord—long lines and travel hassles are common and it is not all endless fun and frolicking—however God blesses and rewards us with all kinds of little and big blessings as we follow his leading!

We also had a radical day in the glory and grace of God with Davey “Grace” Vaughn in Wales. The presence of God was so manifest in overflowing glory and joy as we reveled in the revelation of the incredible mercy of God. We also had opportunities to share the love of Christ with others spontaneously, as people regularly come up to him as he was featured on UK big brother. After being flooded with the love of Jesus all day we headed out and got lost in Wales and while trying to find our way back to the right road we somehow, by the sheer grace of God, ended up at a great surfing pointbreak which had waves similar to San Miguel in Mexico and grabbed a few fun Welsh pointbreak zippers--a real gift after getting lost and it topped off being in the glory all day long!

Grabbing some waves along the English Coast gives us a

chance to witness to people who would never come to a church.

Patrick

Bryan

Euro Update--London

2011-07-01T04:30:00.000-07:00

We had a very powerful move of God when we preached in London, England this week. In fact one of the elders of the church had three of his sons get powerfully baptized in the Holy Spirit for the first time as well as some other kids who got powerfully empowered by the Holy Spirit too. One of the elder's sons had been quite far from God and was brought into a new relationship through God's touch.

We had absolutely no jet lag at all even though we had just arrived--thanks for your prayers! We did have some intense spiritual warfare just trying to get into Europe. For the first time in over 10 trips to Europe we were held for some time and questioned--more like grilled--extensively and basically had some accusations that had no application to us leveled at us for no reason, until they came to their senses and realized we were Americans and not trying to emigrate to Europe.

We have a more extensive update with lots of miracles, divine appointments, and lots of other stuff that God has been doing, check it out by clicking here: http://www.graceworldmission.org/news/pr_summer_2011.html

May God's richest blessings be upon your life!

Bryan, Mercedes and Patrick Marleaux

How to Get a Free Hotel Night in the Scottish Highlands!

2011-06-22T12:05:00.000-07:00

We were traveling through Europe doing some different ministry when we headed up to the Highlands of Scotland on our way to their Outer Isles for our wedding anniversary during a short window of time we had available.

You just have no idea how interesting something is going to be when you stop to take a look, which is what happened when we decided to go to Stirling Castle on the way. What was planned as a quick stop for a couple of hours turned into the whole day when we discovered how much there was to see there, including the history of King James whose name became synonymous with the King James Bible.

Our extended visit at the castle, along with a quick look at old Nessie on Loch Ness, put us into dire straits when we got deep into the Highlands. It was high summer when the sun way up north there only dips a bit around the horizon and never really goes dark. Losing track of time in these conditions is really easy, which we did and found ourselves in the middle of nowhere late at night—though you couldn’t tell it was night—with that sinking feeling all hitting our stomachs. "Man we haven’t eaten anything all day!" Caught up in the activities and adventures we just forgot to eat.

Things were not looking good as we were hours up into the wilderness with nothing around and time was slipping away. The hopes of coming across anything that might be open in these remote parts to grab a bite seemed extremely dim.

Praying for something to alleviate our growling stomachs didn’t seem to bring much relief; no manna flakes appeared on our windshield so we drove on heading north towards our destination. Right before the road was about to take a steeper hike into even higher mountainous country I noticed a little dwelling we passed on the side of the road. There was no sign or anything so I didn’t have any idea even what the place was—it just looked like an old home or building--but the Holy Spirit impressed me to turn around and go back to it.

I had no idea what to expect. If anything, it could be empty. It turned out however to be an old B & B that had formerly closed, but just had been bought by a young woman and her husband that very week who were renovating it and had just happened to have put up a couple tables for eating.

We asked if they were open for dinner but we were out of luck. But then the woman there remembered that she had made some soup and happened to just have a few bowls left of it if we were interested. Anything tastes great when starved so I don’t know if it was some of the best split pea soup we ever have had or that we were just so famished that it seemed like it. Whatever the case, we filled ourselves with as much soup and bread as we could and then God opened up a door as the young lady sat down and talked with us. The Lord gave us a great opportunity to interact and share Christ with her for some time in a pretty relaxed atmosphere. God had obviously had more in mind for us than only food and we rejoiced at His hand displayed in the situation.

When we shared where we were headed she gasped and said, “You best be moving on. You have a lot of territory to cover to make it that far while it is still today.”

We rejoiced for a while at what the Lord had just done while we drove and drove towards Ullapool, Scotland where we had a room booked for the night. But then rejoicing turned into yawns after a while when extreme road weariness set in.

We arrived after 11:00pm looking forward to a good night’s sleep but no one would respond to our knocking on the door of the hotel and the door was locked. Nor could we get an answer when we tried calling the clerk’s personal number that had been emailed to us with the reservation.

We kept trying for quite some time to no avail. We decided to get out of the cold and huddled in the car but it didn’t take long to realize we’d be dealing with hypothermia in these northern conditions (we were near almost artic territory) if we slept in the car.

I got out and started walking around in the parking lot praying in tongues hoping to get warm and get some kind of answer from on high.

After I walked around for a while I sensed the Lord leading me around to the back of the hotel where I found a back door slightly ajar. I pulled at it and it opened and next thing I knew I was inside the hotel. I walked up to the front desk and there lying on the counter was a paper with our names on it, and a key to the room we’d booked, but no clerk.

I called Mercedes and Patrick in and we decided to just head to the room since we had prepaid anyway. We actually got a good night's sleep in spite of the weird conditions of no desk clerk anywhere to be seen.

The next morning we ran into the chagrinned desk clerk who asked if we were the Marleaux’s. “Yes” I said, and then I asked “and so where were you last night?” He profusely apologized and then confessed that he had drank a bit to much beer and fell asleep while stepping out for a moment over at a friend's, basically totally left his work post, he explained, as his face turned as red as a boiled lobster.

He then asked quizzically, “But how did you get in the room?” “Well, that was a God thing,” I told him as I explained what happened while witnessing to him.

He looked quite amazed and didn't know how to respond really and then just said “Listen, everything is free for you: Your stay--we'll refund the whole thing--go eat all the food you want. Just sit down and order breakfast—eat all you want; it’s all on the house.”

Those Scottish breakfasts aren't cheap and are more like a dinner with more food than you can imagine: Eggs, sausage, potatoes, vegetables, beans, bread, juice, coffee and on and on. We ate our fill and rejoiced in how the Lord had turned two tough situations into major blessings: meeting our needs at the renovating B&B and now giving us a free room and food there in that hotel in the Highlands of Scotland—Highlands can also mean high-priced so a little divine comp on food and stay here and there is certainly welcome. The Lord met our needs and turned everything around for good and then some, while opening the opportunity to witness about His grace as well.

Glory to God !!!

Soul Surfer:The Movie and Reflections on Kauai

2011-04-08T13:35:00.000-07:00

Some scenes and spring surf from Kauai and Oahu

I just recently saw a screening of Soul Surfer, a new movie that will be premiering tonight April 8 about Bethany Hamilton’s story. Hamilton went from rising surf star to shark attack victim. She had her arm bitten completely off by a tiger shark while surfing on Kauai’s North Shore and had to endure an intense recovery from such a traumatic event. Learning to surf again with one arm, as well as going through the trying process of understanding how bad things can eventually be conquered and overcoming severe adversity, it is inspiring to see someone overcome such a serious trial in their life.

On another level the movie stirred a lot of reflections for me since Soul Surfer was actually shot on the island of Kauai itself, where my own uncle lived and where I was first introduced to surfing and gave it a try. It brought on some vivid memories of days there in Kauai:

I was just a little guy around our son’s age when I was eating lunch with my family at The Waiohai, a resort on the South Shore, and noticed some kid out there ripping up some waves. He looked about my same height and age of about ten years, so it caught my eye. My aunt said: “You could learn if you gave it a try. I think your uncle has an extra board in the backyard somewhere.”

My uncle was a surfer but had gotten more into windsurfing over the years so the board had been abandoned in some bushes in the backyard. I dug around and found the board and cleaned it up. It felt like it weighed a thousand pounds, so my dad had to help me carry it down to the beach.

I’d heard you needed wax for surfboards so we got some out of my uncle’s garage, but then I was perplexed: “Where does it go? Probably on the bottom like skis.” I said. As I waxed the bottom of the board some guys coming down the beach yelled out: “Hey haole, you waxing the bottom, what you a potato-head from Idaho, you some kind of kook ehh.” Well, those sure were some encouraging words, but it did lead us to the conclusion that the wax goes on the deck, not on the bottom.

I tried paddling out but didn’t get far trying to go through the soup with that heavy barge. So back to the beach, where we found a little cove with some micro waves that seemed more fit for a first try. A few paddles and pushes from Dad and I was up and riding some six to ten inchers on the islands.

Stoked from just those little waves, I got my first board shortly after getting back to the mainland and persevered through freezing water and harsh conditions, wearing only a beaver tail wetsuit, enduring endless wipeouts, crashes, and dings to the head and body, to actually finally learn to surf.

The transition from warm water Kauai to freezing water in California, and from a 10-foot log to a 5’10’ shortboard, slowed the progress a bit, but somehow I pushed through and kept going.

This was the time before the plethora of today’s surf schools and soft boards when “we did walk in the snow both ways uphill to school.” Back then you literally froze if you wanted to surf in California--wetsuits were just not that warm in those days--and learning was up to you and wasn’t always encouraged by other “local” surfers. We only had the regular hard boards in those days so when you fell, which is a regular occurrence while learning, and the board hit you, it was often a painful experience with actual blood oozing.

I spent time on Kauai on numerous surf trips over the years, hanging out at my uncle’s and surfing pretty much most of the spots the island has to offer.

The thought of the shark attack Bethany Hamilton experienced couldn’t help but stay in the back of my mind while surfing the very same spot on Kauai’s North Shore on a recent trip. It was a windy day so I was out there all by myself, which always adds to that eerie feeling. It was enough trying to avoid the long hold downs by some macking sets, but while I was paddling up a big wave face I was bumped hard by something large from behind. I nearly jumped out of my skin and didn’t really want to turn around and face what it was. Once outside I turned back and was relieved to see only a huge sea turtle—I could wipe the sweat off my brow, even while wet in the ocean, after that one. That definitely got my blood pumping.

Her story, as heavy as it may be, and its connection with surfing, has opened up numerous opportunities for Bethany to share her faith and be a bridge to others about Christ’s love.

God has also used surfing in our lives not only as a sport to stay healthy but to speak into our own lives as well as using it as a bridge to reach out to others:

After getting out of the surf on Kauai one day we went to grab some hamburgers. We happened to start talking to the girl taking orders at the burger stand and one thing led to another and we ended up sharing Christ with her. She told us that others had been talking to her a lot about “this kind of stuff.” Well, God had us there to explain a little more about what others had been trying to share with her. After talking a while and explaining the gospel to her, we asked if she would like to pray with us to receive Christ as her savior. Well she agreed it was time for a change in her life and we prayed right at the burger stand and a new believer was born again into God’s kingdom—Hallelujah!!

It turned out that one of those who had been sharing with her before us was headed off to Surfing The Nations that day—the same place we had just come from ministering a couple days before—wow, God really has a way of making things intersect!

The film Soul Surfer can be used as a tool for outreach. Hamilton, with God’s grace, has come back from one of the most traumatic and intense accidents a person could suffer. Recovering from injuries, accidents, serious illness, traumatic events, and the like can be a daunting task, pushing you beyond any resolve you may have on your own. Through my share of a long string of injuries, I have learned that drawing deep into God is the only way to move forward. Even though we may not understand all the why’s at that particular moment of some personal tragedy, it is still possible to let God minister to us and work in and through us. God worked in Bethany’s life through all the difficulty of recovery and readjustment, and can do the same for anyone who will open the door to His grace.

Last time I was on Kauai I was getting out from surfing some double to triple overhead surf at Hanalei Bay. I happened to walk right into Bethany Hamilton while heading to the car, meeting her briefly and talking with her a bit. It hit me while driving away that the challenge of surfing those large waves that day was enough in itself, and yet she was out there, going for it and charging those big waves, with only one arm. That’s something truly impressive.

Ministering with Surfing The Nations in Oahu

Pray for Egypt

2011-02-05T13:35:00.000-08:00

The protests in Egypt are something that the Christian community should be keeping in prayer.

We were in Egypt some years back and experienced some different aspects to the place. Though it is not an open society, we did find the people easy to talk to and even found occasion to share the Gospel at times—though you gotta be careful. We also noticed how nominal it was—nobody even flinched when the call to prayers would come through the day much less go and pray; they’d just go on with their things completely ignoring it. We also saw firsthand the grinding and abject poverty. I was prepared for that sort of thing in other places like India, but in Egypt it caught me off guard in a land that once ruled the world as one of the great empires of ancient civilization— here was another example of a formerly great empire in the Middle East that had turned completely backwards. The contrast after traveling in affluent Israel, it’s next-door neighbor, couldn’t be more stark.

An example of how dire the social situation is came on a visit to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Egypt created a special division of police called the “Tourist Police” specifically to protect tourists from being harassed by those seeking money, handouts, and bribes, all day long, everywhere they go. Quite literally, one can find himself being followed all day by those seeking handouts if the tourist police don’t intervene. A law exists that tourists cannot be followed more than 100 meters by those wanting handouts, a law that is of course routinely ignored.

While at the museum, I was taking interest in an exhibit of a king who is mentioned in the Bible for battling with Israel: Shishak. A tourist police officer close by noticed my interest and asked, “You want picture?” “Sure, why not,” I replied. He suddenly cleared the room and made everyone leave and then locked the door. “Take picture,” he demanded. I was going, “What?? Man I guess I better take a picture the way this crazy nut is acting.” So I took a couple and he said, “No, no, take more, take more.” I took some more while he stood blocking the door from me leaving or anyone coming in, and then he demanded I take even more. I finally said, “You know, I think I have enough now.” I had every angle of Shishak you could want! While he continued blocking the door he said, “Now bahkeesh!” I was going, “What’s bahkeesh?” “A tip, you pay, you pay for pictures!” he demanded. I pulled out some bills and of course no matter what I offered it wasn’t enough. “How am I going to get away from this crazy nut? He is the police after all.” I finally had to show him that my wallet had no more bills in it and hey, my camera is full now too by the way—I got a mass of pictures of mostly Shishak from my visit to the famed Egyptian museum with all its different antiquities. I don’t mind giving some money to those in need but that was just weird. “Wait a minute,” I thought “that was the tourist police, they’re supposed to prevent this sort of harassment.”

The reality that most in Egypt live on less than two dollars a day gives some explanation about the desperation and the systemic corruption on every level there.

Christians should be praying that one of the main centers of the Early Church—Alexandria was amongst five key cities of the Early Church—could have the Gospel spreading through it once again. The Coptic Church still exists but is marginalized and persecuted within Egyptian society. The current situation could turn a number of ways, some bad, some good. If the wrong people take over it could be very bad. There are other possibilities though: It is important for us to pray that the door opens for a more open society that allows the Good News of Christ to spread within it freely once again. God knows they need it!

Obey ye the promptings of the Holy Spirit! ------- Making the Zwingli Video

2010-11-08T13:33:00.000-08:00

Content on this page requires a newer version of Adobe Flash Player.

Our recent video on the Swiss Reformation will give you a good overview of the Reformation and its spread into Switzerland as well as Ulrich Zwingli, Heinrich Bullinger, William Farrel and the Anabaptist movement. Seminaries charge you a good $1000 per class to learn this stuff, then just barely touch on the subjects, with the proviso that you need to do the hard work yourself to really learn something (why am I paying all this money then? was my question to those professors.) Well, we've done the hard work for you, on many essential historical and theological topics that are insightful and essential to understanding the development of the Christian Faith. Many more of our programs on Historical Christian figures as well as missions, miracles, divine appointments and a whole lot more are available for free by clicking here.

This video actually came to be through a divine appointment: We were in Biarritz, France, after ministering in Spain, when I was taking a walk up the beach along the Anglet shore. As I was checking out the surf, I noticed a guy sitting with his board up the beach and using his board to block the onshore winds while resting behind a little sand bluff. The Holy Spirit prompted me to go talk to him, so I took a step of faith and went over.

He turned out to be an Aussie living in Switzerland taking a surf holiday in France, quite the interesting combination, and a Christian on top of it all, something rarely encountered in this area of France—well, you could say that for any area of France, just even more so for the South Coastal regions.

It was not much of a day for surf due to the onshore wind conditions, so we spent some time talking and hanging out and eventually exchanged information.

Later on, I contacted him on the way to Switzerland and, after talking for a bit, he ended up having us stay for a bit in his flat. It seemed so strange to think we were staying for free here in the expensive city of Zurich, Switzerland, all through a divine appointment while checking out the surf in France. Even more interesting is that we ended up ministering later on in Switzerland as well.

While in the city, we noticed what striking scenery it had. And, also remembering all of its rich Reformation history, we grabbed the camera and threw together some videos, doing our best to avoid what we could of the seeming constant construction noise everywhere, prosperity is all a good and fine thing, but it gets a little annoying while filming.

Well, we did our thing there in Zurich for a bit and then figured it was time to pack up and head out to some ministry we had planned elsewhere. We went out the night before to book some train tickets when something went horribly wrong with our calculations and we were now almost completely out of cash, not a hard thing to do in one of the most expensive cities in the world. I was pretty frustrated and concerned the whole way back to our friend's flat, and spent most of the night not sleeping but mulling over how did we come up so short.

Coming up short of cash happens easily while traveling in Europe, especially in Switzerland--travel books tell tales of American tourists jumping back on the train shortly after they got off and scrambling out of the place as quick as possible when they see the prices.

We had never said a word to our Aussie/Swiss host about our financial situation but when we were headed out the door the next morning he casually handed us an envelope without saying a word to either of us. I opened it up a little later down the road and was surprised to find not a card or letter but a good amount of Swiss francs, which met our needs and then some for that time, this from a guy we just met on the beach in France.

I then remembered that, in the middle of that last night, I had been semi-praying while half asleep in a state of semi-comatose-sleep-waking frustation: “Oh Lord, how much money and gold is stored in these vaults underneath this city…Please Lord, break open a vault and bring us some supply right away.” It was a half-conscious prayer that was born of desperation and frustration, but God knows what we need even before we ask, even if not making some "positive confession" of faith.

Well, Swiss Francs and coins have a very unique look to them and when I thought about it and the generous amount he had given us, it did look like someone had broken open a vault to give us some immediate supply.

We got to stay in Zurich for free in what is well-known as a prohibitively-expensive city, filmed some important videos of the Reformation, and got our financial needs met supernaturally, all through one step of obedience to the prompting of the Holy Spirit when on the beach in France.

When thinking how God supplied our financial needs it also struck me that God sure has a way of answering what was a strange prayer in a most surprising way! Even though he knows our needs before we ask (Matt. 6:8.) He often waits and brings us to that point of having us cry out to Him in prayer first so He can demonstrate that He is responding to our prayers.

Glory!!!!

Remembering 9/11—My Sheep Hear My Voice…Even In The Midst of Chaos

2010-09-11T14:56:00.000-07:00

Newspaper interview in the south of Sweden after 9/11/01

about a crusade we did there and the fact that we were

some of the few Americans traveling at that time

Nine years ago, I awoke to my brother, a pilot for a major airline, yelling on the phone: "Wake up….! Listen man, two jets were just hijacked and slammed into the World Trade Center and another just hit the Pentagon! They've grounded me and my crew in the middle of nowhere, along with all the other pilots; we’re stuck. You’re flying to Paris in 2 days but everything is shut down...it feels like the world is exploding…!!!"

That we actually made it to Paris later in the week through the worst clogged airport and most awful flight experience ever is nothing short of a demonstration of God's grace to us in the midst of such chaos.

After turning on the TV and radio that morning it was all too real: the images of the burning World Trade Center - the very building we had visited just one year before, where we had stood taking a picture right in front of it and prophesying that one day it would be leveled in the balance of God's economy (I thought 100 years in the future when Armageddon takes place, not just one year later.) Glued to the TV, we now watched it falling to the ground on top of itself as people ran frantically down the street trying to escape the furious dust storm created in the wake of its collapse.

All mayhem seemed to ensue for a short while, and it seemed like we definitely were going to be stuck, not flying anywhere anytime soon. We began to pray as to what God's will might be in this situation, since we were scheduled to minister in Lyon, France later that week and everything was pretty much set. The biggest monkey wrench one could ever imagine had just been thrown into our plans. "Lord what do we do?" Every natural thought and every friend and family member said, "Cancel," and yet that still small voice said something I really didn't want to hear: "Persevere and go on to what I've called you to do."

With that still small voice confirmed, we slugged forward, days on the phone re-arranging tickets, resetting travel itineraries, all against the advice and remonstrations of concerned friends and family. Finally, later in the week we had everything arranged, so we thought, and showed up at the chaotic airport to realize we'd only just begun the battle.

We struggled to get through the miles of people strewn around all over the airport, many just camping out, seemingly dazed and confused. After hours of traipsing through the chaos, we finally checked in and were close to boarding, when a certain check-in clerk began to manifest on us. This guy called us over and just began to go off, attacking us on things that had nothing to do with us and complaining about the word mission in the name on our ticket, upset that “how could we be going on a mission at this time when people are being killed and stranded?” (we had ministry-discounted tickets). Ranting and raving, probably from the stress of the last few days, he freaked out and demanded that we pay him an additional $500 dollars for really nothing. It was totally unjustified and uncalled for, and not right, but he held all the cards and said he wasn't letting us on the plane unless we paid. I had to bite my tongue very hard and step aside and pray for a few moments to know what to do. That enemy was coming against us with all guns blazing was clear, and it was making me pretty upset, but the Holy Spirit impressed me with "just pay it and it will be dealt with later."

I reluctantly paid the extortion fee to the mission-hating dude and got on the plane—fit to be tied—and went on to have a terrible flight with lots of turbulence and nightmares of being flown into a building by a terrorist every time I closed my eyes to get some rest, that phone call from my brother reverberating in my memory for some time. The airports were a mess all over the world and we had to slug it out through Charles de Gaulle on the other side of the Atlantic, which held the same chaos for our landing, and then struggling on through all of it all the way to Lyon.

When we finally got to Lyon it was like walking on to a calm shore after being caught at sea in a long, drawn out storm. God just moved so powerfully the whole time we preached and ministered, which gave us great confirmation that we had done the right thing. After France, we went on to awesome ministry in many other places like Spain and Sweden and actually had many things work in our favor due to the low amount of tourists and travelers due to the recent events. We walked right into museums that normally would have long lines and actually got some of the best uncrowded waves, in between ministering, at some of the best spots on the continent since all the contests were cancelled.

Remarkably, we actually ended up being interviewed and having our picture run in a decent-sized newspaper in the south of Sweden about a crusade we were doing there, since they were so intrigued that Americans like us would be traveling at that time. God actually worked it all for good at the end of the day and we even got our $500 dollars back from the airlines at the end of it all as well.

It is so important to listen to what the Lord is saying to us rather than what the world is trying to tell us to do. Jesus said: "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me." (John 10:27) As His followers it is so vitally important to learn to listen to that still small voice if we want to be found fulfilling His will in our lives.

Follow the Wind

2010-09-08T12:44:00.000-07:00

John 3:8: The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

We just returned from the Santa Barbara area once again, where we experienced another wild outpouring of the Spirit, much like the one we experienced just a little bit ago!

If you had a chance to read one of our recent previous blogs here you may remember that we had gone there a few months ago through a last-minute phone call of a friend which turned into a major divine appointment (read below). This particular time however, we went up right after attending a wedding in the area feeling the Spirit was leading us to just go by there with no real plans set up for anything other than just stopping by. And we ended up experiencing another outpouring of God's power much like we did a couple months back.

We showed up to one of their meetings this last weekend and gave a spontaneous word right at the very end of one of their services, this was after spending the majority of that meeting out in the street in the middle of a divine appointment that took place right when we showed up, where we were leading a guy to Christ out in the front of their place while the service went on, and then just coming in at the last moment for the remainder of the meeting and giving a word that God put on my heart all of a sudden, which led to the Spirit being poured out at the end of their meeting in a very powerful way.

That move of the Spirit continued on throughout that evening as we prayed with others, in fact we had quite the move of holy laughter late that same night as God moved powerfully on a guy who was new to all this and got radically touched by God in a major way as he got filled and broke out in the joy of the Lord. That infectious joy of the Spirit spread to many others including myself, and we were deeply refreshed, and then the next day the Holy Spirit was poured out throughout the whole day as well.

In fact, the next morning, after staying the night, we woke up to a group of guys who had forgotten their Bible there at the house church where we were staying. As they came in and we started talking with them, one of them had a word that he felt he needed to pray over us. We got blasted first thing in the morning; what a cool way to wake up, and then the blasting continued as others began to spontaneously show up at the house. We then began to pray for them and had another all-day outpouring of the Spirit that went on from morning until way late in the day.

The Holy Spirit was moving so deeply and powerfully over so many lives in such a significant way. It was truly amazing to experience and see God move, touch, and fill one person after another after another, the presence of God spreading like wildfire the whole time to where we just felt like we were living in the glory.

In the middle of it all we had to suddenly rush back for a funeral of a friend who just passed away, and so it was back to the reality of the freeway once we got going, but along the way we stopped by an out-of-the-way surf spot I felt led to check out and even though the onshore winds were howling and every place was trashed and blown out to where it was looking like "victory at sea," this one particular spot was completely glassy, clean, and surprisingly unaffected by the wind, but even more amazing was the fact that we surfed it completely by ourselves. It felt like a surreal scene out of the 1950's, not the overcrowded, overpopulated lineups of the 21st century. Praise God! Such blessings flow when we follow the wind of his Spirit.

As we finished our surf I thought of how the weekend had begun while eating dinner with some friends right before we left to go up north. We were saying a quick prayer in the parking lot as we were leaving, asking God to give us divine appointments that weekend as we headed our separate ways. As the words came out of my mouth, the Holy Spirit spoke: "One is right in front of you." I waited a moment and then I looked over at a young guy walking across the parking lot. The Holy Spirit was pulling at me to go talk to him but I asked for some kind of confirmation. I then noticed he was wearing a shirt with a big picture of Christ on it, that's when the Lord spoke in my heart, "Is that enough confirmation?" I ran over after that and asked him if he had a relationship with Christ whom he wore on his shirt, he said he didn't, but as we talked with him he confessed that many had been witnessing to him and in his own words, "God was chasing after him." The chase was over as we led him to Christ right there in the parking lot as we prayed with him. I knew God had a wild weekend in store when things started like that but the blessings go beyond our expectations when we follow the wind of the Spirit!!!

Divine Israeli Surf Appointment

2010-08-08T16:30:00.000-07:00

Well it's summer, so time for a Holy Ghost Surf Story. This one took place while traveling into Israel from Europe while in desperate need of some refreshing after many planes, trains, and automobiles. We were blessed to get this divine appointment published in a recent book. This book, called True Stories of Heaven Invading Earth in Julia Loren's Divine Intervention Series, has some other cool stories too by people like John Paul Jackson as well as a forward written by Bill Johnson of Bethel Fellowship in Redding. Some time later, we had another radical divine appointment in Spain that was connected to this one, which you can check out in the video and I'll tell more about in a later posting. For now, read below about how God can blow our mind with the way he can answer even the simplest of prayers and meet our needs in such a wild way:

My wife Mercedes and I had been ministering and traveling in Europe for two months already and were leaving the next day to Israel, our next stop on a round-the-world trip, where we had a very unique and powerful divine appointment take place as we came into the Holy Land.

We were departing out of Athens, Greece and traveling to Tel Aviv, Israel when we were notified of a sudden flight change. Our original departure time of 8:00 a.m. was moved earlier to 4:00 a.m. that same morning (El Al Airlines often does this kind of thing to keep terrorists off track with their flights). We had to suddenly leave our hotel and spend the whole night at the airport, all the fun of a root canal without the drilling!

But God had a plan in it all, even the miserable flight delay where we were stuck in the barren Athens airport all night long with nothing to do.

That barren Athens airport posted two rules very clearly on signs all over: “No Smoking” and “No sleeping on the floor.” After hours of sitting around on hard plastic chairs that were designed just right as to make sleep impossible—some cruel, sadistic chair designer must have stayed up late nights designing and testing these awful sweat-producing beasts—a cement floor had never looked so good. It was like a cruel hoax, you can’t sleep in these horrid torture chairs and you’re not allowed to sleep on the floor, aagh!

After sitting for hours exhausted I couldn’t take it anymore and took a look around and went down on the floor for some rest. I was almost asleep, when I felt a kick on my side. I looked up, and saw a soldier with a machine gun towering over me (Athens has long been notorious as a terrorists transit point and thus soldiers are constantly patrolling it). He apparently was there to enforce “some” of the rules as he puffed away on a cigarette and pointed at the sign about sleeping on the floor. “Doesn’t that sign say something about smoking too?” I was about to blurt out in my agitated, just pulled back from the brink of sleep, state. But a good rule of travel is not to argue with a soldier with a machine gun in a foreign country, so I buttoned my lip and got up.

After some more hours of sweating and waiting around it was finally time to check in for our flight. We went over to the counter to now be abused by El Al Airlines, who must have taken interrogation lessons from the Mossad: You are guilty until proven innocent and must be exonerated before you can board their flight. They prod into every aspect of your life and what you are doing until they know more about you than you do! We had it coming hard at us, as we had been traveling for over two months already, all over every part of Europe, which set off red flags with them and they really gave us the third degree. Every part of our stuff was disassembled, every past ticket and place we’d been was checked

out to see if it was true, question after question, it went on for almost two hours. They even went so far as to read Mercedes’ diary and then test her on it to see if it wasn’t just some fabricated fantasy made up by a terrorist who could finally get on board and blow up the plane.

We were extremely exhausted, dazed, and a little rattled once we were finally cleared of being international terrorists and allowed to board our plane. I dropped like a rock down into my seat, and in my state of exhaustion and jangled nerves I prayed the craziest of prayers: “Lord I am so worn out I need to do something fun.It would be so great to go surfing in Israel.”

It was a crazy prayer because I didn’t even have a surfboard with me and the surf conditions in Israel, being that it is on the Mediterranean Sea, rarely get over one foot. But God is greater than our circumstances.

We needed a battery recharge with some recreation involved after too many trains, planes and automobiles during our travels the past two months, and this night in the torture chamber of the Athens airport and the El Al grilling was the straw breaking the camel's back. God knew our weariness and was about to answer in a miraculous way.

After landing in Israel we disembarked, glad to be done with flying and airports for the moment, and began to make our way through the terminal when Mercedes noticed something very strange: the theme song to the famous surf movie “Endless Summer” was playing over the terminal loudspeakers. We both looked at each other and laughed and thought how strange, to hear that in Israel of all places, especially in the airport over the loudspeaker. I’ve never even heard that song on the radio in the States. In spite of the jet lag that was fogging my brain, it suddenly dawned on me: “I believe this is a sign from God; I prayed on the plane to go surfing while we are in Israel and I think God is going to answer that prayer somehow.”

We rented a car and were on our way out of the airport parking lot about to head straight toward Jerusalem to check into our youth hostel—the only thing in Jerusalem that would fit our missionary budget—and then go see some of the city, when, sensing an impression from the Holy Spirit, I suddenly pulled over and told Mercedes: “Listen, I believe the Holy Spirit is prompting us to go straight to the beach at Tel Aviv right now instead of going to Jerusalem.” It seemed kind of wild but she agreed we should step out on faith in what the Holy Spirit was leading. After that sign from God in the airport with the Endless Summer song it seemed like we should go for it and completely change our plans at the last moment, though we had no idea what, if anything, might be in store. We made our way toward Tel Aviv with the destination of Hilton Beach in mind, the one surf spot I had heard of in Israel.

When we pulled up to Hilton Beach I was blown away by what I saw: peeling, 4- to 6-foot waves breaking right in front of my eyes in Israel! The flight delay had caused us to arrive in perfect time with a swell that had blown in from a storm in the Mediterranean Sea the night before. This was something miraculous in an of itself, as Israel rarely ever gets good surf, rarely even getting surf over one foot as previously mentioned.

The only thing I needed now was a surfboard! I went around to a few surf shops in the area to see about renting a board but they wouldn’t rent surfboards. “You have to buy one for 800 dollars” was their answer “That’s twice as much as in the U.S. No thanks!” was my response, since there was no way I could afford that much money at that moment.

We headed back to the Hilton Beach parking lot and I stood there watching the surf, a bit bummed out thinking, “I have to stand here and I only get to watch these waves now.”

I stood there lamenting my plight, now feeling tortured and disappointed; there’s nothing worse for a surfer than to see good waves right in front of him and not to be able to ride them, it’s like a dog on a chain who can’t reach far enough to eat a bowl of food in front of him. As I stood there salivating over the waves, but becoming increasingly bummed out that I wasn’t riding them, I noticed a small black Nissan Sentra with a young Israeli surfer guy in it pulling up next to me to check out the surf. As I began talking with him, I found out that he had just come back from a surf trip to California and had visited Huntington Beach, which is only 5 miles from where we lived. This was an amazing set of circumstances to meet an Israeli who had just come back from a town right next to ours in California; it caused us to hit it off immediately and we spent some time talking.

About twenty minutes into the conversation I noticed something: “Hey, you’ve got two surfboards in your car here!” I exclaimed. He responded with an incredible statement: “Yes, and it is very strange. I never bring two surfboards with me to the beach, but for some reason today I put my board in the car and I don’t know why but I went into the house and grabbed my other board and put it in the car too.” “Wow!” I responded. “You know I was just standing here looking at these waves without a board and praying that I could surf here today somehow. How about you let me use your extra board and we go surfing together?”

He paused a moment and said that he normally doesn’t loan out his equipment, but then stated that he would make an exception today as he felt these were unique circumstances and that he could trust me. “Praise God!

This is an answer to the prayer I was just praying.”

How miraculous it all was: This guy bringing an extra board like this when he never brings an extra one to the beach, then meeting him after being led right here by the Holy Spirit down to this beach in Tel Aviv, the fact that he had just returned from Huntington Beach, California, the music at the airport, the prayer on the plane, the change of the departure time by El Al Airlines that made us be right on time this morning for this divine appointment, and for the swell that just now hit, and it was all happening here in the Holy Land!

We surfed a couple hours and had a blast in those unusual Israeli-Mediterranean waves. As I was paddling back out from a wave I thanked God that I was getting to surf in Israel and reflected on how incredibly God had answered my prayer. At that point the Holy Spirit spoke into my heart once again: “Invite him to lunch to thank him for loaning you the board.” To which I responded with a vigorous “Yes, Lord!”

After we were done surfing we went out to a really cool and very authentic Israeli restaurant. As we were sitting there enjoying our Israeli meal, I felt led to share the Gospel with him.

He had the most flabbergasted response: “You are a normal person, you are a surfer, AND you are religious?” I explained that I wasn’t really religious, but that I just had a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Living in Israel his whole life he associated religion with fanaticism and dour servitude to religious rituals, and thus was unprepared to meet someone who had an authentic relationship with God, yet still was normal and did fun things like going surfing and enjoying the beach. It was very apparent that surfing, and eating, and just hanging out with him and then naturally sharing the Gospel had had a major impact on him regarding the reality of who and what Jesus Christ and the Gospel are all about.

We were able to spend time there that day with this young surfer guy and share the good news of Christ with him. This is a person who in no way would have ever listened to a presentation of the Gospel in any other format whatsoever for he was a committed atheistic Jew who hated religion—not unlike so many in Israel, which a lot of American Christians are surprised to find when they visit the Holy Land on tours.

The leading of the Holy Spirit had brought forth a divine appointment that helped us to recharge our batteries. I got to surf incredible waves in Israel of all places, while Mercedes got to enjoy the warm Mediterranean sun on the beach. More importantly however, was the fact that the seeds of the Gospel were effectively planted in the life of a closed-off, hard-hearted, religion-hating Jew who never, ever, would have listened to a thing anyone said about Christianity and salvation had I not first connected with him on a friendship level with surfing and having fun. He was so impressed he invited us to come to stay at his home if we came back through his area, something he said he doesn’t normally do.

It was incredible to reflect at the end of it all how God used our airline change to bring me to exhaustion and cause me to pray to go surfing in Israel. That along with it causing us to come into Israel at just the right time when there was an unusual swell—swells in the Mediterranean are rare and only last one day because they’re so localized—which meant we came at just the exact right moment.

To think how the music from Endless Summer played in the Airport terminal right as we walked through and then the Holy Spirit led us down to the beach in Tel Aviv where we had this incredible divine appointment with this young Israeli who just returned from California and “just happened” to bring two surfboards to the beach—something he never does. Then we got to surf together in some great Israeli waves, another miracle in itself. Then as we ate our Israeli lunch we had the glorious opportunity to effectively share the Gospel with him in a powerful way that touched his heart to the point where he was significantly impacted by the reality of the message. Not only were our own batteries recharged but our faith was incredibly buoyed by the miraculous outstretched hand of God in all these circumstances!

It was an incredible divine appointment where God showed that not only does He work everything for good, but He also knows our hearts’ desires and prayers, and answers them in ways that work together to bless us and glorify Him and His name as we follow the leading of His powerful Holy Spirit. To God be the Glory!!!

Blessed are the Flexible

2010-07-01T11:28:00.000-07:00

We just returned from a ministry trip that was filled with unexpected divine appointments and powerful unplanned meetings where God did many awesome things (you can read even more below on the previous story too.) This trip up north actually started out of a divine appointment where we prayed for a brother named Dave in Hawaii who got filled with the Spirit at STN and experienced God’s love and power for the first time in his life when we ministered there, who then invited us to come up to the Central Coast to minister with some groups he is involved in.

Check out this video and how God by His Spirit orchestrated things on both sides in Hawaii which then led to these present moves of God. Make sure to read this story as well as the one below it about the unexpected moves of God up and down the Cali Coast.

I was in Sweden when God had first led us there where a divine appointment would happen that would open up our ministry there. I was trying to adjust our schedule for a meeting that a friend was setting up with an American pastor/missionary, feeling a bit frustrated in getting things worked out, when our friend said something that has stayed with me ever since: “Blessed are the flexible.” Many Scriptures reflect this idea though our cultural biases towards rigidity and overscheduling everything, especially in church, blind our eyes to this truth. However this is a truth that Jesus calls all his followers to walk in, cultural and ecclesiastical resistance not withstanding.

"The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." John 3:8

Regardless of the resistance in our culture and especially in church life to walking out this truth, it is something God seeks to work into our lives. When we are willing to listen and yield to and heed to the leading of the spontaneous guidance of the Spirit awesome blessings await us that are completely unexpected.

We just had a radical divine appointment in Santa Barbara on the way down the coast as we were coming back home from a ministry trip further north. To see it come to pass, however, we had to be willing to be very flexible.

A friend who happened to be staying in Santa Barbara called us late at night right near 11:00pm while we were driving home through that area and asked us to come visit her and some friends in Isla Vista at the last moment. We felt God’s hand was upon this even though it was late and we were tired and culturally it was very akward to show up at someone's home so late and unplanned like this. We went over and ended up actually spending the night and miraculously wound up in an all-day outpouring of the Spirit the next day.

This group of mostly college students near UCSB were all interested in hearing about Lonnie Frisbee and how God worked through him back in the Jesus People Revival and Vineyard Outpouring. Having had the blessing to travel and experience firsthand God’s work through Lonnie, we were stoked to share some stories. We also had a short video to play. Right in the middle of watching this video, God sovereignly started moving on people in power which sparked a Holy Ghost outpouring where we began praying for people and powerful manifestations began to take place. Other students and friends kept showing up and coming in to this spontaneous prayer meeting as God kept pouring out His Spirit all day long; this unplanned meeting which started in the morning continued on until around three in the afternoon with lots of powerful moves, fillings, and empowerings of many lives.

I finally realized we hadn’t eaten, drank, or consumed anything or taken a break the whole day—this is the kind of fasting that is worthwhile though—when God is in the midst of it versus that other forced dead kind which Jesus criticized the Pharisees for doing out of dead ritual.

It was an awesome time and just when I thought I’d keel over from all the focus and intensity of praying for others all day long without any sustenance, I was offered some sardines to remind us of our Euro mission trips and a few laughs.

I was just thinking it would be good to take a break and get a surf in before it was too late when one of the many surfers there offered to take us out for a surf break too.

We scored some fun, sunny, 2 to 3’ clean and peaky, zipper-like waves right straight out at Campus Point. I queried how often it broke this time of year like this since I can’t ever remember seeing these kinds of waves like this in this area of Santa Barbara in the summer since the Channel Islands block most summer swells. The answer was never, "it never breaks this time of year."

Another blessing, and a quite refreshing one on that day, of the willingness to be flexible and let the winds of the Spirit lead the way. We would have missed that outpouring God wanted to bring and the fun out of season unique surf session if we had just done the culturally acceptable and easier thing on our weary bodies and had just headed home rather than showing up at someone's house we didn't know near midnight to end up sleeping on the floor after sleeping in others' homes for the past few weeks already. There was unplanned blessing awaiting we knew not of but we had to pay attention to the leading of the Spirit to tap into it.

Jesus words about letting the winds of the Spirit lead the way are not just some far off idea for another Bible study but something to be applied to our lives as we learn to do what Jesus told the early disciples to do: "Follow Me."

"The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." John 3:8

Getting some surf up the California Coast

MINISTRY IN THE

CENTRAL CALIFORNIA COAST

Divine Appointments in Salinas from David Estrella on Vimeo.

We had some radical meetings as we traveled on a preaching tour through some different areas of Central California. We spoke at some different places in Monterey, Salinas, and Santa Maria, from a Presbyterian youth group to some different Calvary Chapels to a Foursquare church as well as Freedom Christian Fellowship to home meetings. The cool thing is that wherever people are open God pours out His Spirit, all it takes is an open heart and faith.

We have seen many young people really filled and empowered as we've been sharing how God wants to empower us to use us to reach out to others. It is radical how the Lord put that immediately to demonstration on the way home right after ministering to the Foursquare Church in Salinas where we saw a radical outpouring on the youth and teaching on being used to reach others and divine appointments and being used to touch lives:

After the service we were driving back to where we were staying but I kept having a sense that God wanted us to do something other than just head back home and I was praying in the Spirit seeking God's direction and our friend Dave who was hosting us and who was filled with the Spirit when we prayed for him at a another ministry occasion, felt that maybe we should stop, I agreed and led by the Holy Spirit we went into this parking lot where some people were coming out of this college. We just felt led to get out of the car and began to pray and seek God if there was someone he wanted us to talk to. I started talking to this lady and as I talked to her I was trying to be tactful but the Spirit of God just caused me to blurt out and ask if she knew the Lord. She said yes and we asked her some other questions and stuff. Then we were asking if she had any prayer requests and our friend Dave had a word of knowledge and began to ask her how her walk with God really was and she began to confess that it wasn't very good at this time and then he said the Lord showed him that she was backslidden, at that she began to tear up and weep and we began to pray with her to turn her life back over to the Lord.

Right there in the parking lot of a local community college we were praying for her as people walked by looking on and she was gloriously re-connected with Christ and filled with his love. We had another divine appointment shortly thereafter where we prayed for another woman in a pizza restaurant who was a Christian but needed a fresh touch of God's power and boy did he bring it.

We kept on witnessing to others throughout the night and later as we sought to record some of what God did on video the Spirit of God fell on our son Patrick who experienced the love of Christ in a marvelous and intimate way and who said he feels led to share now with others and preach too! Glory!!!

God put to demonstration what I had just been preaching and teaching on that very night about reaching out through his power even as we drove home from church. The Spirit of God indeed makes us witnesses as we are filled with his power as our friend Dave got to experience and now share with others. Praise the Lord!!

We got some fun surf too while in these areas.

Bryan getting a cold water snap in Carmel.

Road Warrior Lessons

2010-04-10T14:56:00.000-07:00

If you didn't get a chance to hear our live on-air radio interview with Laetitia Gotte who works in Romania with street children who literally live in the sewers of Bucharest, you can now listen to it online by clicking here. Be sure to check out our over 100 programs available on iTunes as well, all for free. Also, take a look at our Christian History Timeline, it gives you a chronological perspective of different events and key figures. We’re not talking here about just a bunch of dead guys but about a truly living history where the Holy Spirit perspective is involved!

While we ourselves are from the US and Laetitia and her cohorts are from France, we somehow found ourselves on the road together for over 4000 miles through numerous countries particularly in Eastern Europe, in a tiny VW Golf packed to the gills with junk, clothes, and food, going night and day with little sleep for weeks on end, while enduring trying to sleep in some of the most difficult circumstances imaginable and yet we all are still friends.

Hanging out, ministering together, and doing the interview while Laetitia was visiting here in the US brought back some wild memories from that long and winding road adventure.

One in particular was of an especially rough night. We had already been driving in the little car that day for 8 hours, traversing through the hills of Romania and descending the long straight flat lanes of Hungary when we finally stopped by Lake Balaton for a little break. At that point I thought I had already had as much of sitting in the little car as I could possibly handle that particular day, after weeks and weeks on end of the same activity. And yet, after a little food and walking around, it was back on the road for more fun sitting jammed up to our necks in the little car again.

Ten hours later, after having passed through Slovenia and crossed the border into Italy, we found ourselves in quite the predicament. It was coming upon two o’ clock in the morning and we couldn’t find a place to stay. We’d made the supremely intelligent calculation of arriving into one of the most touristed areas in Europe in the middle of the night in the middle of tourist season and of course everything was full.

Nobody in the car had any strength left to keep going so we finally pulled into one of the most dreadful locations one could imagine for spending the night, an Italian truck stop. Not only were there bright lights shining everywhere giving it the appearance of a border check point – rough memories from earlier in the trip—but extremely loud trucks were constantly coming in and going out and coming in and going out every few moments!!! That, along with the fact that they left their extremely loud generators running with a hideous racket sound going all night long, gave the place the overwhelming feel of something like what sleeping on a busy airport tarmac must be like, a great place to catch a few zzz’s. All I could think while surveying our surroundings for trying to get a bit of slumber in this location was “this looks like all the fun of a root canal without the actual drilling.”

I’d been in that car for 10 hours beyond what I thought I could take that day already, and was not too stoked while realizing this is where we were about to spend the night. We were already exhausted from lack of sleep from the last few weeks already, the last place we’d stayed had six cats that exacerbated allergies and the news of the recent death of my younger brother was not allowing me much sleep either. This is the kind of travel where God really does some stretching on your soul!! No cruise ship tour here bro just hard-core roughing it for the sake of the Gospel.

The final blow came when Laetitia’s brother Nat, who had been driving last, in exhaustion rolled back the driver’s seat right on top of my legs pinning me to one spot, while he immediately fell asleep. Stuck as I was and unable to even move a little to get even the slightest bit comfortable, my flesh and soul were being stretched to the very core at that moment.

“I’ve been in this car 18 hours and I’m not gonna spend another moment pinned here like some rat in a rattrap.” I protested to everyone snoring—all were already fast asleep from road exhaustion—as I opened the car door.

I wiggled my legs out from underneath the seat, while Nat and everyone else snored away, and rolled out onto the cement. A few moments on that cement made it clear that this wasn’t any better.

Finally I spotted a patch of grass at the back of the truck stop and made my way over to it; I fashioned myself a little bed out of some towels and few other things and laid down.

Surely this wasn’t a safe idea, lying out on some grass in the middle of a foreign truck stop; however, it was flat, soft, and wasn’t the car—that was all I cared about at the moment.

I laid down my weary head on some more towels and said, “Lord, what are you putting us through here?”

In that moment I was immediately reminded of a saying from some modern day warriors known as the Navy Seals who teach in their intensive military training: “You can endure ten times the amount of what your mind tells you and what you think you can.” Here I had been ten hours beyond the limit of what I thought I could go that day as the Lord reminded me of this.

The Lord had been having me read some of their stuff recently as preparation for some of the inevitable hardships that come with mission trips and traveling ministry in some of these wild and distant locations and here it was now being applied directly to me.

The Lord then spoke: “You are a warrior and will endure it and grow from it.”

The next thing I knew there was a glorious awareness of God placing some warrior angels to stand watch right over me. I could feel the Lord’s awesome presence in a remarkable way and the presence of His warrior angels as I fell into a much-needed deep sleep.

Though it was only a few hours of rest, the next thing I knew we were getting up and drinking some Italian cappuccinos and heading off for a little tour of the famous city of Venice, which just happened to be close by.

As we walked around the city of Venice that morning, enjoying the sights and sounds of this famed Italian city on the water, I wondered, “Where am I getting this strength to do all this walking after such a night?” and was reminded again, “You can endure ten times the amount you think you can.”

Persevering and enduring through trial and tribulation is something all too forgotten in the shallow pop Christian culture’s message of “Live your best life now” and candy-coated Christianity being peddled in so many places these days.

We sometimes need a little reminder that people like Paul the apostle suffered all kinds of terrible hardships in his quest to preach the Gospel and wasn’t able to just “positively confess” or use trite little sayings to get himself out of the very heavy suffering that he endured at times.

Paul was doing anything but “living his best life now” while choosing to suffer for the sake of preaching and spreading the Gospel of Christ. In actual fact, he had given up “his best life” as a fat cat Pharisee and chose instead to suffer for the sake of Christ’s truth, going often without food or shelter while being hit hard with persecution. (2 Cor. 11:23-29)

He had to learn to persevere, as we all need to do, and to endure through all kinds of trial and tribulation in order to come to that place where his trials were indeed turned to gold.