The Lord broke out in our service yesterday. Church started about 10:45, but there were hints that the Lord had special plans even before the service began. Our church has been involved in a week long conference about reaching our cities for God. It was sponsored by Harvest Evangelism and many of the Argentine Revival leaders came to our area for a week and held several meetings and a conference. There was a project on Saturday where churches from all over the Bay Area came to San Francisco and joined with churches there to prayer walk and bless many parts of the city. (I was unable to participate in that because I had to work that day.) The next day our pastor, Rodney, planned to have some of the people share testimonies of what God had done as they ministered "in the streets" of San Francisco. A strong anointing had come on many who participated in this.

I was in the kitchen getting a cup of coffee when Rodney grabbed me and told me that something powerful was going on in the youth building (the same building the church offices are in). He said that the spirit was so strong there that he really felt it when he walked in the building. The youth (High School/College) were all praying for each other and the spirit was so thick in the room that it practically knocked him over. Service was about to start. I wanted to go over and check it out, but I had to stay in the main building as I was to do an announcement about our upcoming conference. Russel, one of our elders came up as Rodney was talking to me. They were sharing how God had been doing great things and pouring out his anointing at the conference and Rodney wanted those who'd been at the conference to pray for others to impart that anointing. I planted myself in front of both of them, put my hands up in the typical "I receive" posture, and said "I can't wait til the end of service, pray for me now." Both laid their hands on me and I could feel the power and presence of God flowing through them. I was struggling to remain standing. It could not have lasted more that 60 seconds when Rodney stopped and said, "You can't get drunk in the spirit now, you have an announcement to do. Let's go do it."

So we left the kitchen and went into the sanctuary to announce our upcoming prophetic conference (that starts Thursday).

After the announcement were over, Rodney took the mic and stood on the floor just in front of our platform. He was about to say something, but stopped and broke out into a big grin. A very light Holy laughter broke out over the room. After a few minutes of that, Rodney decided to start with a testimony. (Many from the church had been a the Harvest Evangelism conference the previous week and participated in the outreach to San Francisco on Saturday.) He asked one elderly lady to come up. She came up using her walker. The fact that she was using a walker instead of a wheel chair was a miracle in and of itself. You see, she'd had a stroke on the previous Monday and been confined to a wheelchair and was on heavy oxygen. The doctors were not hopeful at all and she was not expected to live a whole lot longer. But the Lord had spoken to her adult daughter that this was not yet the time for her mom to "come home", so she was full of faith. The daughter brought her mother with her, wheel chair and oxygen, to the conference and one of the Argentine leaders prayed for her. She got out of her wheelchair and began walking!! That was her testimony, and she'd not needed her wheelchair since she'd been prayed for. We all praised God. This was someone we know, someone who'd been on our prayer chain because of her stroke on Monday. So we all knew this was a genuine healing and not a "fake." She walked back to her chair without her walker and we all praised God.

Then the worship started, and oh did the Holy Spirit break out!

For me personally, the last several weeks have been insanely busy, as I am involved in organizing/sponsoring two conferences and a missions trip. I also lead a ministry and work a full time secular job, so I have been overworked and exhausted. Suddenly the Lord was on me and I was refreshed. The weariness left me, the feeling frazzled left me and I was aware of only Him. In fact, His joy began to explode out of me, and I ending up dancing for almost the entire worship time. In fact, many people ended up dancing during the worship. I felt a great sense of celebration and of His presence. After a while the celebration and joyful praise was replaced by a sense of His tangible presence in the room. At one point I glanced around the room and could see that many were lost in His presence.

Worship went a good long time. When it ended, they took an offering. I was trying to write my offering check and Russel came and sat near me and put his had on my shoulder and prayed for the Lord to give me more. God had been all over me anyhow, and when he laid his hand on me, I found that I could not write the check and I just had to worship. By the time I could finally write the check, the offering was over and I had to run my tithe to the back room where the ushers take the offering.

I got back to my seat, and Rodney was teaching briefly on what God is doing in our mist.. and then he opened it up for testimonies. The level of faith in the room just kept raising as person after person shared neat things the Lord had done during when they'd gone to the streets to pray blessings and minister. Most of the youth were not yet in the main service, which was highly unusual. Just before he started the testimonies, Rodney sent one of the youth who was there to go get Jason (a college age youth), who he wanted to give a testimony. The youth sent Jason back over, but he himself stayed in the youth building where renewal style prayer had broken out. Near the end of the testimony time, Rodney sent Jason to go get the rest of the youth, because he wanted them to pray for the adults. They all came back in and Rodney had them come up front to pray and impart what had been happening in them. (The previous Sunday, one of the Argentine leaders had been in our church and had prayed for the youth at the end of service. He had released an anointing and impartation on them. I personally knew many of these youth, because I had recently done an 7 week teaching series for them on hearing God's voice. The youth that came back with Jason were NOT the youth I knew! God had gotten a hold of them and they were visibly full of the Holy Spirit.)

Rodney had the youth come and stand up front to be ready to pray for people. He did a closing prayer and then invited us to come up and receive prayer from the youth. I wasted no time.. I had been sitting in the front row and I went up the minute that he invited us up, so I was one of the first one up there. I planted myself in front of Jason, and asked him to pray for me. Now, I know Jason and I have been ministering to Jason and praying for him and talking to him for a long time now. Jason began to pray for me and speak blessings over me. Then his prayer turned very prophetic and he covered things that were "right on" that I knew he did not know in the natural. Jason had not been prophetic before this. Now he was ministering to me prophetically. I was excited and delighted, but I did not have much time to ponder this because the power of God began to hit me and I could barely remain standing. When Jason finished praying for me, he gave me a big hug. Then he began to pray for someone else, and I tried to move out the way and found I could not walk. God was still all over me. So I stood there, in the midst of where the youth were praying, for about 15 minutes lost in the Lord and just worshipping Him. I had been so exhausted and feeling burnt out before the service began. But that was all gone now and the refreshment of the Lord was all over me.

After about 10 or 15 minutes, I found my legs worked again. The youth were very new at praying for people, so when they were done they would just stand there waiting for the next person to come to them. But at the same time the adults wanting prayer were sort of clustering in the center aisle and a lot of people who'd been prayed for were still standing there (though some were on the floor). So I sort of helped facilitate ministry for a little while, getting those who were waiting for ministry to those who were waiting to pray. I got to observe some of the youth who were praying and they were doing an excellent job. You would have never guessed that most of them had never ministered before. The Holy Spirit was flowing. More adults ended up on the floor. One lady broke into fits of Holy Laughter and the rest of the room sort of laughed with her. It was both humorous and delightful to see the Lord touch her so wonderfully.

After a while, there were not many adults left waiting for prayer. So I decided to get some more prayer. I went up to one youth just as she finished praying for someone. And I asked her to pray for me. Again I was surprised at the level of prophetic in her prayers. She basically repeated everything that Jason had said when he prayed for me. The power and presence of God were all over me and it felt a lot like what I remember the early renewal meetings at Toronto feeling like. It was delightful. Anna, the youth who'd been praying for me and Jessica (her friend who'd been praying for someone else) switched places and then Jessica was praying for me. Jessica was usually a very reserved and quiet girl. But she'd been shaking under the power of the Holy Spirit since she walked into the service. She was the last person who would shake like that if it were not the Lord doing it to her. And she had a boldness I'd not seen on her before. Many people had been powerfully effected by her prayers. Again the Lord touched me and I felt very full of Him. I was so blessed by the ministry the youth were doing.. the renewal anointing was really breaking out as they ministered. God was meeting people deeply and ministry time just was not ending as folks wanted to linger in God's presence.

After Anna and Jessica prayed for me, I stood there again with God all over me. I remembered all the "carpet time" I'd done in Toronto and again in San Francisco when the renewal was there. I thought to myself, I wish I were on the ground.. as it is easier to be lost in Him than when I am standing. I thought about just laying down on the carpet, but decided against it. I stood there and soaked in His presence for a while longer. Then I went back to my seat. Russel went to his just as I went to mine (and he was sitting next to me). So he turned to me and said, "Dorothy, we aren't in Kansas any more. We are going forward in God and we aren't going back."

I said "Amen". Russel was still reeking with anointing, and I am very greedy when it comes to God's presence and blessing and anointing, so I asked him if he'd pray for me. He did, and again I was touched and blessed. One of the youth came over to me and began to pray with Russel. Again, the power of God hit me. This time I truly could not remain standing and I ended up on the floor.

When I went down, the youth followed me down and prayed some more. The power of God was just exploding all over me. I felt like I would not be able to contain much more.. the next thing I knew, I was praying out loud in tongues. I had not thought to myself, 'ok pray in tongues now.' It just exploded out of me. I was reminded of the original Pentecost. I prayed in tongues for a while and then it changed.. I found myself sort of shouting out nothing in particular that came out sounding like "Ho!" or "Yo!" a few times. The intensity on me was so strong that I simply could not help myself.. the power of God hit me and I out came these shouts.

As soon as the folks who'd been praying for me left me, the Lord began to speak to me. The first thing He said was, "Ok, you wanted on the floor so I put you on the floor. I do give my children the desires of their heart." It was funny .. I'd forgotten that I had wanted that a bit ago and now here I was on the ground, His anointing all over me. I began to laugh. I basked in His presence for a while and it was simply wonderful. Then I remembered that I was supposed to be in San Jose because a high school buddy of mine who'd I'd not seen for 10 years was in town and I was to meet him there. I tried to get up. I got as far as a sitting position Russel walked over to me and said, "you're not done yet" and prayed for me. While I did not to back down, I could not get up either. So I sat there and basked in the Lord's presence a bit longer.

Then the Lord called my attention to one of the youth, the one who'd last prayed for me. He had stopped praying for people and was standing there with his eyes closed and his hands uplifted and was swaying gently. I felt the Lord wanted me to pray for him, so I go up and did so. I had no problem getting up this time. I laid hands on him and the prophetic prayers began to come out of my mouth. About then, Russ came back over and joined me. The Lord was all over the youth and down he went. The Lord appeared to minister to him powerfully.

A couple of the youth who'd never ministered before came up to me to debrief.. because they knew I've done a lot of renewal ministry. One of them and been used powerfully, but felt very bad because she did not feel that she knew what to do or what to say. She had not realized how wonderfully God had used her. So I talked to a few of the youth a bit about ministry and then I again remember that I was very late meeting this high school buddy. I excused myself and left about 2:15, and there was still a lot of ministry going on. I am told things did not wind down until about 3:00 PM.

I know that God broke out in a very powerful way. And I was amazed and delighted at the transformation I saw in our youth... and with the level of power and anointing that they were ministering in. I believe this is just the beginning and that there is a lot more to come.

Rodney, our pastor, believes this is an anointing to go to the streets and bring God's kingdom there. I can hardly wait to see what else God has planned!