Wert - day 10

Sunday, June 12, 2022

Raining when we woke up this morning.  I had new pain and made the comment to Mike that something new hurts every day.  I used to be able to scamper on the beach barefoot and climb sand dunes and hike uneven uphill trails for miles with no effect on my body at all.  Not so much anymore.  I hobbled to the bathroom feeling old and sore.  A song entered my head.  I took a shower.  I was reading in First Corinthians, and chapter 12 verse 7 jumped out at me, and I felt the Lord impressing upon me that I should pursue the gifts of the Holy Spirit not just for myself but to benefit the whole body of Christ.  As we were leaving for the 10:30 service at Bethel, I could already feel the Holy Spirit stirring in me and a sense of anticipation that He was going to do something during church, not just Bethel but also my home church of Trinity.  

When we got there, I saw Kris Vallotton, who is a rock star in my mind because he taught a lot of the classes (via video) from the class I took last year.  I approached his bodyguard (yes, he has a bodyguard: a big guy with a secret service earpiece) and asked if I could meet Kris.  He facilitated that for me and even took a picture of us together.

I was in awe of him and the fact that I was actually there at Bethel, which is a pilgrimage I've wanted to make for awhile.  Bill Johnson (an even bigger rock star to me) was scheduled to preach, which is what I had hoped for when we planned this trip, but his wife was sick so Kris was going to preach (which would have been a close second for me) but he felt like Chris Cruz had a message, so he turned it over to him.  I was disappointed but still happy to be there.

(This whole paragraph is about my awesome experience at Bethel Church.  Skip it if you're not into it.  The travel adventures continue after this paragraph.) During worship, I closed my eyes and saw a white light in the middle of my field of vision and a bunch of smaller different-colored lights encircling it.  The white light stayed stationary but the colored lights twirled all around it.  The more they moved, the bigger and brighter the white light got.  God told me that He was the white light, and we were the colored lights, and our worship was magnifying and glorifying Him.  Then Jesus said, "Do you want to come up here?" and I said, "Yes!" and He said, "Lift your arms up to me like a little kid who wants to be picked up."  I raised my arms as high as I could, and Jesus reached down and picked me up and I was among the colored lights, moving with them.  Jesus was moving among us.  After several minutes, He caught my eye from across the expanse, and we started walking towards each other.  When we got close, we wrapped our arms around each other in a tight embrace and he came into me as if by osmosis, but I could feel the substance of Him in me.  My whole body was vibrating on the inside, and I felt His healing power flowing through me.  I felt like a brand new creation, energized by His power and love. Nothing hurt in my body.  I became vaguely aware of the worship song being sung at Bethel and it seemed far away from me.  I realized it was the same song that had been in my head early this morning, and I went back down to join in singing it.  I felt like I had one foot in heaven and the other in the sanctuary.  Eventually I came all the way back down and realized I was all wet.  I thought maybe it was from swimming in the glory, but probably it was from tears and sweat.  Mike said that he saw me with my arms up high and tears streaming down my face.  Chris Cruz preached a message right to me about things I have been pondering and praying about for over a year.  It was inspiring.  And it reminded me of the verse that had been highlighted to me in my reading this morning.  I got words for a couple people from Trinity and I saw a vision/word for a lady in front of me.  I started the service in awe of Kris Vallotton and ended it in awe of Jesus. 

Last night we talked to the couple next to us at a restaurant.  They recommended visiting Sundial Bridge and Turtle Bay.  So we did that today after church.  The rain had stopped and it was a perfectly beautiful day to walk across the bridge and tell the time by the giant sundial's shadow.

 Next to the bridge, there's a wonderful walking path along the Sacramento River.

We saw hummingbirds, butterflies, and all kinds of plants.

Those look like tasty California grapes, don't they?  They are not.  They are evil, nasty horrible tasting things that probably aren't even edible.  

Torch lily

And there was a parrot aviary with beautiful birds.  You could buy food to feed them, but of course we don't have cash, so we just watched other people feed them. But then this happened:

This bird hung out on my head for a long time, even though I wasn't feeding it.  It was great!  It didn't even poop on me.  

Mike had a close encounter with some birds too, and an even closer one with a fish.

It's been an amazingly awesome day, and we're going back for the 6:00 service at Bethel tonight.