The Simple Key to Supernatural Outpourings of Miracles and Wonders

I am in my tenth year of pastoring a group of 70 students at Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry. I love it!

Some of the most exquisite and dynamic young (and older) people come to be trained in the supernatural here in Redding, California in the one to three year-long school.  It’s so fun to mentor hungry and soon-to-be-world-changing students.  I learn from them so much, even as I train and impart to them daily.

The emphasis of our school is the apostolic/prophetic theme of the Bethel Movement, led by Pastors Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton.  Signs and wonders are encouraged and experienced.  Expectations of miracles are everyday occurrences, while hosting the Presence of the Holy Spirit and His attendant graces are the theme of the teaching and activations.  I participate as much as anyone and ask God for more power each day – in order that, as the Billion Soul Harvest comes to fruition, we may show God’s awesomeness in his miracles and invasion of earth in order that millions come into a vibrant relationship with Jesus.

I delight in students who come with their own “fire” and desire more.  In our weekly Revival Groups we host God’s Presence, worship, ask for more, do activities and care for each other.  Sometimes some students only want to worship and be encountered by God, desiring to spend the two hours in “heavenly realms” without having to be concerned about connection with other students.  They would rather be “drunk” on the floor enjoying Jesus alone than interacting in community and enjoying the Jesus in the other people in their group.

It is a challenge at times to convince such hungry ones that Family is just as important as Fire.  In fact, Family is the incubator where revival must be birthed and only if there is Connection and Healthy Relationships can revival continue and be passed to the next generation. 

If all we are exposed to is Signs and Wonders and Miracles without the opportunities for growth and learning and the “iron-sharpening-iron” gift in Family, the maturity process can be thwarted.  Then we have fierce miracle-workers, without emotional intelligence, cavorting around the world, perhaps making more messes than miracles.  Character and integrity is modeled and inculcated in small groups and one on ones, and we learn as we rub shoulders with others just how much we need to grow to be conformed to the image of Christ.

I find it quite interesting that when you look closely at the required characteristics to be a pastor/overseer in 1 Timothy and Titus, and you whittle down the duplicate traits into a list of 22 unique attributes that pastors (and I dare posit – everyone who names of the name of Jesus) should display, only four have anything to do with gifts and talents (doing ministry) and the rest promote the need for character, maturity and emotional quotient (inside glory).  Isn’t that a telling emphasis from God himself as to what He deems most important?

Oh, how we need more power to display the works – and greater ones – that Jesus did.  But we also need His sacrificial and unconditional love flowing through us just as magnificently.  When power is present and love isn’t, it’s a scaring situation.  And yes, love without power, however, is very incomplete.

Each day I ask the Lord to give me and my students the four attributes that Luke describes as Jesus’ portion each day.  “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52).  I desperately desire more wisdom, more stature, more favor with heaven and on earth.  The word “stature” in the Greek means that Jesus grew not only in height and brawn (outside physical growth), but in maturity (inside emotional growth).  It is the same word used in Ephesians 4:12,13 describing the outcome of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers equipping the saints: “so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all . . . become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”  That we all may look like, smell like, sound like the perfect Jesus who was full of perfect love and perfect power.

It is such a privilege to serve my students here in Redding and see the transformation that occurs in their lives in nine months of school.  Many come from all over the world who display more power and boldness than I do and I ask them to impart that part of Jesus to me.  But then, it thrills my heart when I see the lights come on in their eyes, as they realize their power is even more effective when combined with the safety and maturity of family.  Often my students write a note to me at the end of the school year: “I wasn’t so sure about you, Pastor Paul, because your family emphasis was not what I thought I wanted, but now I see that it is what I needed!  And I now see the value in both Love and Power!  Thank you showing me the heart of the Father and helping me mature so much!”

May the Body of Christ continue to be built up — by Power and Love — so we may all mature and look more like the Head!