BSSM. Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry. Moving from coast to coast. Winston-Salem, North Carolina To Redding, California, known for Bethel Church, a giant non-denominational charismatic church.
I said yes because the Lord called me, but I did not even realize what I was saying yes to. I was saying yes to the Trinity, giving my God freedom and access to my life. You know that feeling when you’re little and your dad invites you, “let’s go for a drive” and you say “okay!” before you know where you’re going and what it’ll be like because,
he’s your dad and you want to go where he goes? That’s my journey to BSSM.
YES OF COURSE I’LL GO WITH YOU, DAD! WHEREVER YOU’RE GOING. EVEN IF IT’S THE HARDWARE STORE AND I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT TOOLS. YOU CAN TEACH ME. IT’LL BE FUN! (AND I’LL PROBABLY GET A TREAT OUT OF IT TOO!) Because I know what my dad is like.
I know I can trust his ideas and I want nothing more than to be with him.
I moved to Redding in August of 2019. And the journey began. I left everything I knew, the town I grew up in, my full time paychecks, the beautiful children I fell in love with, all the families I knew, friends, my church I adore, my family, my dog, knowing where to go, the ease of everything. I traded the familiarity for this new frontier.
Before coming to Redding I was given a lot of ideas by a lot of people of what Bethel Church and the school would be like. I was so full of abandon that I laid all of that aside as I stepped into this new frontier for me. I was fully ready for God to do what he wanted to do in my life, and in this year. And he has surely done so much.
/Freedom, tears, laughter, shaking-rattling-rolling, excessive joy, overwhelming peace, heart surgery, physical healing, new levels of intimacy with Jesus, rawness, deep connection, heart healing, stepping out in faith, seeing miracles, these all describe first year for me so far.
//The biggest thing is setting my life ON intimacy with Jesus, Father, and Holy Spirit. My three-in-one God. He is my passionate lover, my best friend, my comforter, my Lord, my Shepherd, my Father, my Savior, my Prince of Peace, my silly, unexplainable Joy.
He is my E V E R Y T H I N G
I am trading in old belief systems for new solid ones that rely on the Word of God, His nature, the Gospel. I am rebuilding my foundation, brick by brick. Knocking down old weak posts for solid gold new ones that will sustain throughout eternity.
I am rocked every single day by the deep, fierce kindness of the Father to sacrifice his son Jesus on a bloody, violent cross to give me his guarantee of my inheritance and adoption, his Holy Spirit indwelling me as his royal castle. The gospel is my sustenance everyday, his is the air I breathe, and I will continue to give it all back to him.
This past few months I have poured out so many tears over my life and Jesus’ faithfulness through the tough. I find myself silenced by his goodness again and again. Last week in worship at BSSM I was sitting on the ground, just gazing at the Lord, listening closely when he asked me to take off my shoes so he could wash my feet. I hesitated and he said, “well, I cannot wash them if you don’t take off your shoes” (Jesus typically is as blunt with me as I am with him and I love it).
I was overcome with his goodness as I removed my shoes (feeling a bit silly but at BSSM we are all being silly in some way or another- it’s required!) and he proceeded to wash my feet as I teared up and ceased to breathe as I realized that this Jesus washing my feet was murdered for me as my God. The gospel. Wow.
You know those moments where you are struck in a totally new way with a reality you have known already? I love those moments. I find myself in those moments all of the time, shocked by how good and holy my closest friend is.
Meeting Jesus on the floor as he is wanting to wash my feet while everyone around shouts his praise is what life with Jesus is like. He wants to come close, but it is embarrassing how loving he is, so sometimes we don’t want to expose ourselves by taking off our shoes. It’s too vulnerable for comfort. But until we take off our shoes, our dignity, our self-righteousness, our pride, we cannot be washed clean by our Savior.
Jesus Washes Feet
Jesus knew that the night before Passover would be his last night on earth before leaving this world to return to the Father’s side. All throughout his time with his disciples, Jesus had demonstrated a deep and tender love for them. And now he longed to show them the full measure of his love. Before their evening meal had begun, the accuser had already planted betrayal into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.
Now Jesus was fully aware that the Father had placed all things under his control, for he had come from God and was about to go back to be with him. So he got up from the meal and took off his outer robe, and took a towel and wrapped it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ dirty feet and dry them with his towel.
But when Jesus got to Simon Peter, he objected and said, “I can’t let you wash my dirty feet—you’re my Lord!”
Jesus replied, “You don’t understand yet the meaning of what I’m doing, but soon it will be clear to you.”
Peter looked at Jesus and said, “You’ll never wash my dirty feet—never!”
“But Peter, if you don’t allow me to wash your feet,” Jesus responded, “then you will not be able to share life with me.”
So Peter said, “Lord, in that case, don’t just wash my feet, wash my hands and my head too!”
Jesus said to him, “You are already clean. You’ve been washed completely and you just need your feet to be cleansed—but that can’t be said of all of you.” For Jesus knew which one was about to betray him, and that’s why he told them that not all of them were clean.
After washing their feet, he put his robe on and returned to his place at the table.“Do you understand what I just did?” Jesus said. “You’ve called me your teacher and lord, and you’re right, for that’s who I am. So if I’m your teacher and lord and have just washed your dirty feet, then you should follow the example that I’ve set for you and wash one another’s dirty feet. Now do for each other what I have just done for you. I speak to you timeless truth: a servant is not superior to his master, and an apostle is never greater than the one who sent him. So now put into practice what I have done for you, and you will experience a life of happiness enriched with untold blessings!”
(John chapter 12, verses 1-17 in the Passion Translation. )
I relate to Peter a whole lot. He is intense, an all-or-nothing guy. Experiences the full-range of emotions. He opposes Jesus washing his feet (as I did and still do sometimes) because it does not make sense that your Lord should wash your feet, it feels wrong and awkward and silly. But he has to if we want to experience fullness of Life and it’s so good as we lay down our pride to be clean and holy like Jesus. So then Peter asks him to wash all of him while he’s at it! But he is made clean. By intimacy with Jesus.
Following Jesus is so costly. But you get HIM and He is what we have craved. He is worthy of our lives. He is worthy of it all. May the Lamb of God receive the Reward for his suffering in my life and in all the earth.
This is just a small taste of my extraordinary journey here at Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry! Let me know what you think! Bless them extravagantly, God! May my story invite you into your own encounter with your Savior. He’s too good to be true, and yet He is.
the journey into joy 