Bethany College of Missions: Contending

Well, it has been a busy time here on the Bethany College of Missions campus and at the same time it has been quiet. The students have been gone for Spring Break last week, but right before they left we had the Contend conference here at Bethany Church. There was just a resting, sitting and encountering of God's presence like I had never felt before. It feels like it isn't just a flighty thing (visitation) of coming and going when it comes to God's presence, but becoming a consistent (habitation) of His presence campus-wide. Where it isn't just an individual or two, but corporately there is a unifying of loving to be loved by God, and to love God in at a whole new level!

It is hard to describe and you would just need to show up and experience it, but a week ago this past Friday, Jaeson Ma spoke at the Contend conference and it left the whole sanctuary weeping and crying out for God to show up in power until about 11pm. I was weeping in my seat for about an hour in revelation of God's love for me. There is a culture of crying out for more of God here at BCOM, which has caused our hunger to grow to levels that I have never seen here. This morning I was reading the sermon on the mount, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." Matthew 5:6 Because Bethany House of Prayer is such a strategic piece of Bethany as a whole and Bethany College of Missions, our hunger has grown and God meets hunger not just casually but with a passion. And we are feeling it!

Lord, we just want to thank you here at Bethany for showing yourself consistently in the lives of not just one, but many. We don't want just little glimpses of Your presence, but want to experience you in ways that blow our minds and goes beyond our earthly intellect or understanding like you say in Scripture. We don't just want to talk about Scripture that is filled with the power of God, but then walk out what we could control in and of ourselves, not even knowing if you exited the scene. We want to be like Moses, being aware of Your glory and wanting to move where You move. Thank you Jesus for shaking us at the core!

Bethany College of Missions: Prayer Room Relaunch

This weekend was the official reopening of the Bethany Prayer Room and we brought it in with a powerful time of God's presence (Check out a raw video here). I know the Bethany College of Missions students are pumped about the new set-up and what God is doing in and through Bethany House of Prayer, and the rumble of what is to come! BHOP now has 40 hours of live worship a week, and I am pretty sure that we are going to bust that number really quick.

This past week I was able to share with some students about the supernatural becoming our reality. Where we walk in this natural world, but shake earth by walking with a heavenly focus and power. The awesome thing is that with prayer at the core of all we do here at Bethany, there is a platform for God to be the center of our focus and energy! Where hearing His voice is not an appendage to our Christianity, but at the core! God first, missions second...and not just in word only either. Where our mission's endeavors aren't fabricated by our own striving and intellect, but where the vision can only be truly successful if God shows up and does what He said He would do.

Thank you Lord for moving our hearts and not just our heads! You are not a Father who just wants our behavior to be right so that you are not inconvenienced, but You care about the state of our heart because that is the pivoting point for whom we will worship down the road. Draw us unto Yourself!

Bethany College of Missions: God's Fingerprints

Right now we have Rich Stevenson from IHOP here at Bethany College of Missions. One of students just came in to my office in between class and was raving about the teaching that is going on! I love that we have modular classes and people can come in and teach specific subjects that God has hit them with over a week or two period. Without that we would never be able to bring in such a wide variety of solid teachers.

Across Bethany's campus you can see the fingerprints of God being left as He continues to mold us as clay, and we continue to soften even more. A potter must keep their hands moist with water as they mold clay on the spinning wheel, to keep it soft. God is raining down on our college campus in ways that we might know His love at levels that keep us humble and full of life as we take Him to the nations! No more trying to keep our heads above water when it comes to spiritual matters; but rather walking on water!!

Last night I was passing by Bethany House of Prayer on my way home with my family, and we couldn't just walk by because of the hunger in our hearts for Him, so we went in and worshiped for a time. There were a lot of Bethany College of Missions students in there praying and seeking God, along with doing worship, etc. And I loved the fact that my little son could just walk around trying to sing and engage people in the midst of that environment. What an incredible place Bethany is becoming for the Lord!

Bethany College of Missions Has Bigger Things Goin On!

Bethany College of Missions just had it's first official college visit day, PARADOX, where there was an incredible turnout! But more than all that, God showed up and moved in power! Check out some of the testimonies at the BCOM website.

It has been 2 weeks since I posted because of some unforeseen things that came my way. Well, what can I say....hmmmmm....there is a stirring going on in the deeper places of staff and student's hearts on campus, and it is only building month by month! There's something bigger going on and I am waiting with anticipation and all that God is going to do with the rest of this year! The Contend conference is happening at the end of this month with Bethany House of Prayer, Bethany Church and us (Bethany College of Missions), and there is so much interest toward this event. So many lives are going to be wrecked by God's presence at this thing, and His name is going to be praised.

But the greater thing about Contend is the fact that we are even hosting it here on our campus. That alone excites us all that we are taking part in a converging of the prayer movement and missions movement of our day! As one of the speakers said at Paradox this weekend, missions is not Bethany College of Missions primary goal...but God is! If we lose God, then we lose in the area of missions and bringing Him to them. We must stay connected to the vine at all times and allow Him to be our source of all that we do. Continue to come Lord!

Bethany College of Missions Visit Day

Just recently a few of us BCOMers traveled to the Rockford Master's Commission and got to know them a little. What great people are there, and God is raising up so many to go and shake nations from that place! In the midst of our time there, we were able to share the vision of Bethany College of Missions, and our heart to see young people raised up to be relevant when it comes to missions of today and seeing Christ come alive in the nations, not just talked about.

Our program is such a paradox in comparison to so much of the Christian missions training out there. Where Bethany College of Missions program is not founded on just getting missionaries to the field, but to create an environment where the heart of God beats and burns on the inside of each student! Where the voice of God is real and heard by those seeking to call buddhists in Tibet out of deception, or atheists in Europe to our God that is real and ready to move in their life. Where our academics and logistics are used to bring more of God's glory in the earth, not just to think up strategies of men that will not affect eternity. We desire for God's agenda to be at the forefront and cause the strategies thought up by man alone to be distanced in comparison. Where sermons or words of Bethany missionaries are birthed from the heart and so reach the heart. Not thought up just in the head, reaching the head of others. We want real change...eternal change in the nations! Change that echoes into eternity!

Losing sight and overcoming reputation, offenses, past sins, just getting a degree and job, being bored and much more! Bethany College of Missions loves raising up those that don't just get a degree, but those that go on past the degree to shake and change nations, making history!