What I learned in the past 10 days:

Healing is far easier than I thought. I made it so difficult and filled it with religious striving - I can only expect God to work if I have done this and that and the next thing. It really is so much more simple. Because I believed I had to do this and that and the next thing to see a healing I limited God by what I believed. It really can be as easy as - healing has nothing to do with me, its all God, My God is powerful, He gave me all authority, and I can command with His authority backing me up. Healing is as difficult to happen in my life as I believe it to be.

I don't have spend my life feeling like I'm too busy to serve in the way that I would like. I can serve more (as I am able) knowing that some of the things I want to believe God for might only be released through service and that all of ministry is an act of service.

In an ideal world, as my heart for others grow, I always care far more for the people being healed than to see the miracle occur. This sacrifice keeps love and serving as a focus not simply the joy of God doing something through me. This sometimes, in the past, has felt difficult as many people I am praying for within about 2 minutes of meeting them and it is harder to care for the people that are unknown. However, greatness in the kingdom of God comes through being a servant.

God is instilling in me a confidence that He will show up and is dependable when I step out.

I cannot allow robbery by formulas anymore. It only causes me to limit God by religiosity.

When people allign themselves to God's Will - Evangelism through the Great Commission - they get bulldozed by the blessing of God and many things they are praying for get answered as they shift from trying to have God do their will to doing His will.

I already knew this, but a refresher: if I am overly concerned with what people think, I probably am valuing compliments too much.

A sure fire way to become spiritually proud or religious and consequently judgmental of others is to try to think that my efforts are what causes God to work in or through me.

If I am formulating ways (fasting, reading my Bible more, evangelizing more, etc.) to try to become more annointed and see more breakthrough and think my actions prompt it rather than God's goodness, I have taken my eyes off of what God says about all authority being given to us through the great commission.

I have no right to ever believe God does not want to do signs and wonders through me because I did not do this or that enough - its not about me.

I need to focus on worshipping God, not over analyzing myself to try to get breakthrough.

The reason why I love being saturated in the Word is not to get smarter but to change what I believe. God responds to what I believe.

How I handle another person treating me poorly when treasure hunting shows whether I cared more about them or wanting a miracle.

Fasting is fine as long as I don't make it a crutch and depend on it more than God.

If I feel fear in a situation and am checking to see if I feel bold or annointed enough I have taken my eyes off of God and put them back on me. This is a good time to worship Him.

I cannot look at my resources, but at His resources.

I don't chase annointing by religious activities. I am a child of God so He annoints me.

If I focus on me when I pray I have my resources when I pray. When I love and serve another when I pray, I am alligning much more with the kingdom getting the kingdom's resources when I pray.

My focus needs to be much more on worshipping God then praying for breakthrough. He wants me to have breakthrough more than I want to. I can rest in Him and simply do as He wants done, not feel like I have to burn myself out.

The focus of preaching should cause people to feel encouraged that there breakthrough is possible, not to make them feel discouraged and without hope. This should be obvious and I knew it before, but I think I probably disqualified people more than qualified. Jesus qualified even the little children!

Essentially, the Lord knocked a lot of religion out of me and put more trust of Him in its place. I don't know if anyone will read this and feel helped, but I am probably writing it more for me to review and go over to remind myself.

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I wrote a note called breakthrough a little bit ago in which I probably should have quoted Bill Johnson in it. Certainly some of the ideas came from him. I wanted to talk a little more about it, and realize that I am sharing His idea and maybe expanding on it a little, which I thoroughly love.

A. B. Simpson said that Sanctification is God's work. It is our responsibility to consecrate, surrender, and dedicate ourselves to Him, but only God sanctifies. I personally love this. Essentially, the breakthrough is God's and we allign with it - as Bill talks about. Many think that there dedication will be what changes them. And while it is true that passiveness and apathy don't change anything, the reality is that if one believes their dedication will change everything that needs to be changed in them, they will probably be burnt-out, very religious, or a workaholic or something like that. The reality is that the dedication needs to be there, but the focus is not on the dedication, but on God the one who sanctifies. In the same way with healing, it is not that commanding a healing as a magic ritual produces the healing, or else one just took their eyes off of the healer. However, if one refuses to ever command a healing, they likely may not see very much of a breakthrough. Is the commanding magical? No, it is just alligning up more with God's breakthrough. Is dedicating oneself to the Lord magical? No, it is just aligning oneself up to God's breakthrough. However, people are complicated and often one thing is not the magic bullet. We like to think if I just do this, then that will change everything. The reality is that if we keep our focus more and more on Him and align as He shows us to is how breakthrough tends to occur more and more. The breakthrough is His and we through His goodness and revelation align more and more with it.

I talked back a bit ago about overcoming. While I hope it was clear, I wanted to make sure that no one thinks that I was advocating that anyone is perfect in this lifetime. Are you kidding me?? I only was wanting to advocate that I refuse to believe that people have to live cutting themselves, injecting things in themselves, snorting things, with a habit of pornography, starving themselves, throwing up what they have recently eaten, under a cloud of constant overwhelming fear, and so forth. This is not the abundant life and to believe that these things have to be a part of life and that there is no hope of overcoming is a bit off from what the Bible presents as truth. Will people who have overcome some of these things do anything wrong ever? Obviously. But one can maintain permanent victory over the addictions that previously entangled them only through the grace and goodness of God. If I did not believe this, I would never have worked at Teen Challenge.