Unconditional Love calls sons and daughters back home.

So the story is familiar to most of us, a father and his two sons, the youngest son came to his father and asked for his share of the family’s money. The father, rather than try to control, punish or manipulate his son out of the idea, decides to let the son have his way, and so the drama begins.

With all the money he has, the son takes off to a far way land and treats himself with the best money can buy, and with that, he wastes all his wealth in wild living, and to make things worse, a famine hits the land and the whole country goes broke.

In the midst of that recession and with no money left, the only thing left for him was to find a job at a local farm feeding pigs and with a salary so low that he couldn’t even afford to eat what the pigs were eating.

As he hit the bottom, he remembered the life he had at his father’s house, and realized that even his father’s servant had a better life than he now has. One last desperate idea comes to mind, go back to his dad’s land and beg for his dad to give him at least a place to stay and a job to pay for his living, after all, he realizes that the way he treated his father was so dishonoring, that he wasn’t even worthy to be called a son anymore, much more be treated like one. As sad and humiliating as it was to go back with nothing and defeated, he takes off and heads back to his father’s house.

Once he gets close to his fathers house, his father sees him, and moved with compassion, he runs to his son, threw his arms around him and kisses him. The son then turns to his father and says: ‘Father, I made a big mistake, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; but please, make me like one of your hired servants.’

But the father turned to his workers and shouts: ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate, for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found! Hurry, Let’s celebrate!!’

I’m not sure how long it took from the moment this kid left his father’s house to the moment he returned, but during this time way from his father’s presence, love and care, he went from a place where he knew he had rights over everything his father owned to a place where he was gonna have to work and perform to be treated as a servant. See, this kid has now a new mindset, he thinks and sees the world differently. A son became a performer, trying to work hard to earn something he once had for free. A son goes from a place of abundance to a place of survival, just like that. And he knew he deserved that. He came back to the father’s house indeed, but not as a son, but as a servant, as a performer.

Here’s the thing, what this kid didn’t expect to find was his father’s unconditional love towards him. That despite everything he did, he was still a son, he was still family. His survival mindset brought him back as a servant, a performer, but unconditional love made him a son again.

Truth is, if we just look around, we’ll see that all over the place sons and daughters are trying to find their way back into the father’s house, performing and working their way into some sort of affection, acceptance and love. They are everywhere, in our families, workplaces, schools and yes, in our churches. To be honest, sometimes we are the ones walking in those shoes and in need of that love.

So to finish it off, here are the big questions; what would happen if we start to walk in unconditional love? What if, just like the father in the story, we celebrate, champion and fully accept people as they are and love them into a place of true relationship with the Father God?

And two, What if we become fully aware of the unconditional love that has been lavished on us everyday of our lives? What if we open ourselves up to accept that there’s nothing we can do to separate us from the love of God?

Today unconditional love is not only calling us back home, but is also giving us permission to let go of all striving and performance and live in the fullness of our greatest purpose, which is intimacy, as sons and daughters, with our heavenly Father.

Unconditional love is always calling sons and daughters back home, and today is a great day to walk in unconditional love.

Daniel

My Life Psalm

So today I was reading my Bible and came across Psalm 84 and it totally wrecked me!!!

Here it is:

How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty!

My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God.

Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may have her young—
a place near your altar, Lord Almighty, my King and my God.

Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.

As they pass through the Valley of Baka,
they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools.

They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.

Hear my prayer, Lord God Almighty;
listen to me, God of Jacob.

Look on our shield, O God;
look with favor on your anointed one.

Better is one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
 than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.

Lord Almighty,
blessed is the one who trusts in you.

David’s level of desire and hunger to be in the presence of God so inspires and challenges me. He was a man who wanted nothing more than just to be with God and know Him which is so evident from statements such as “Better is one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere’. He was so committed to worshipping and being in the presence above anything else. I want to have that kind of value for the presence of God, I want to have that kind of hunger and I want to keep my focus on that one thing.

So I’ve decided this is my life Psalm, this is how I want to live my life. I am committed to being with God above all else. I don’t just want to do things for him and know all about him, I want to learn how to BE with Him, how to be in his presence and stay there sometimes without even having to say a word. That is true friendship!!

Christine xo

Last update from the US (for now).

Hello friends,

We are into our final week of school!! It’s so hard to believe we are on the final stretch, it feels like its gone so fast but at the same time it feels like we’ve been here forever and it’s truly become home. We are sad to be leaving this amazing place and especially leaving all the people we’ve become so close to over the last 9 months but at the same time we are so looking forward to seeing you all at home and sharing all we’ve experienced and seen this year.

This year has truly been life changing in so many ways. We came here primarily to get more activated in the supernatural, to grow in our gifts and get more prepared for ministry but God’s vision for this year was so much bigger than ours. We did get all we came for but we also got a lot, lot more. I think one of the biggest things that has happened this year is the transformation of how we see ourselves. We have both grown in our identity as a son/daughter of God and what that actually means. We have had new revelation of the father’s love for us and our identity as children, that he loves and accepts us 100% all the time and we never have to strive, perform or try to earn his love and acceptance. There is so much freedom in truly, truly knowing that and that’s what we have and still are experiencing. We’ve come to see ourselves as heirs of God which means we are royalty, not merely sinners saved by Grace as so much of the church have called themselves for years. God has a much higher opinion of us than that and it’s time to start seeing ourselves as He does and living from that place of royalty and sonship- it’s a lot more fun and a lot easier.

Another major thing that has happened in us this year and that Bethel is so good at is that we’ve really learnt how to do life well. By this I mean we’ve learnt how to live in a healthy way with healthy relationships with each other and with others, where we get our needs met. This is so important and not many churches teach on it or even acknowledge it. God has given us emotional and relational needs, not only spiritual needs and its so important we get healthy in these areas in order to live well. We’ve learnt a lot of tools in this area to do with communication, having healthy boundaries, doing healthy confrontation and more, that are all vital for successful living and to have a successful ministry.

These are just some of the things that God has done in us this year, there is too much to write it all down but to me they are probably some of the most important. We need to know who we are and how to do life well in order to be able to minister effectively to people. We need to know that we have the kingdom of God living inside of us so we can release it to others and see them saved, healed delivered. So thank you for supporting us both financially and prayerfully this year, it has been so beneficial and such an incredible experience.

So what’s next for us?

As some of you know, we have been praying about going to Brazil after the school. We have been in touch with churches and different people about that and everyone is really excited about us moving over, it’s pretty set that we will be going and working with my parent’s church.

There we’ll be leading the youth and getting involved in different social and evangelistic projects (such as outreaches to homeless, street kids, poor neighborhoods and working and ministering to prostitutes and transvestites). Another big thing in our hearts that we will be doing there is to start classes to teach and activate people into the prophetic, healing, evangelism and into this culture of  Love and Honor that we have been learning here at Bethel Church, and eventually develop and plant a school of ministry over there, which takes us to my next point.

Bethel School of Ministry’s 2^nd year is a lot more focused on leadership; the program is designed for us to keep growing and learning but also to equip us to take this culture outside Redding as leaders. During second year we get to lead 1^st year students at different outreaches and mission trips, and get to be a lot more involved with the church. We also get to travel more with Bethel Church leaders (like Bill Johnson, Kris Vallotton and others) in ministries trips around the US and the world, which is such a blessing and honour.

Also, in 2^nd year we get more specific teachings in the areas that we feel called to, such as, Christine and I get to take a class on school planting with the person who oversees all BSSM around the world, which is pretty amazing, We get to see how they do things on day to day bases, how they deal with everything and also get to receive a lot of their wisdom just by being with them.

We feel that personally and ministry-wise that 2^nd year would be really beneficial for us, not only for everything that we could get out of it, but also to go deeper in relationships we've made here and for building life long partnership in this place, which we think will be essential for us in the future. We also feel that there’s still so much we could and want to get from doing life in this environment and culture.

Partnering with us.

So there’s a few ways you can partner with us for the next part of our journey:

One of the ways is prayer.You could keep us in prayer. Pray that God would continue to open doors for us to walk in the fullness of our destiny, for Him to keep bringing people that will pour into our lives as well as people that we would be pouring into, for relationship and partnership that will bless and help us to keep growing, for our families and more, whatever you feel like God is saying over us, declare it and pray. We highly appreciate your prayers.

You can also partner with us financially. Having shared the great stuff about second year, we still have one challenge, it costs just as much as the 1^st year of school, $4200 each.

During the summer Christine and I will be working to save up for the year ahead, and if you would like to partner with us financially, you could donate online on www.ibssm.org, by clicking on the ‘Give Online’ and then ‘Give to Tuition - Make a donation to a student's tuition.’ Then just put one of our names in and donate.

Also feel free to contact us for any information on other ways you could support us.

We 100% believe in what God has been giving us, and in what He’s gonna do in and through us in Brazil and other places where we’re getting involved, and for that I believe that your partnership with us, whether through prayer, financial or in any other way is reaching and affecting more than just our lives, but it is an investment in the expanse of His Kingdom. We have had so much favour and grace during this season here at Bethel, we think this has created momentum for so much more, which makes us excited about all that God will do next year.

So this is it for now, can’t wait to see some of you guys in Ireland soon, and please get in touch if you want to spend some time together, we’re looking forward to it.

Love and Blessings

Daniel and Christine Oliveira

 

Mission Trip stories...

Hello everybody,

Well, we’ve been back from our mission trip a few weeks now so, think it’s about time we updated you all on how it went. It was an amazing trip, so much happened in and through us (too much to write it all down here) so I’ll just give you some of the highlights for now and pretty soon we will try to give more details on everything that God did during those days.

More than anything else, this mission trip was a time to step into a supernaturally natural lifestyle for us. Through healings, miracles and through seeing people being loved by God and accepting Jesus into their life, both Christine and I were activated into this mindset and a deeper realization that wherever we go and whatever we do, we carry the kingdom of God with us -the fullness of it. God was showing us in so many ways what it looks like when we walk consciously that Jesus, the Hope of glory, lives inside of us.

I hope you enjoy reading the stories and that somehow, our week would encourage and bless you guys.  

So it all started on a beautiful Monday morning, we left Redding at 5.30am and didn’t get to LA till 6pm or so. Once in LA we decided that go out and eat would be a good idea, the plan was to walk to a Mcdonalds (located only a few blocks away from where we were staying) eat and walk back to unpack and get things ready for the week ahead, normally, it shouldn’t take us a lot of time to do that, the thing was, God had other plans for the night.

On our way to Mcdonalds we were overwhelmed by the amount of homeless people we met. We decided to stop and talk to some of these guys, soon enough we were sharing about God with pretty much everyone we met or walked passed us on the street. On that ‘walk’ to Mcdonalds we saw God stepping in and people getting healed, saved and delivered. It was so much fun to just love people and see God showing Himself to people. The short walk had turned into a long spontaneous outreach. And yes, it set the standard for the rest of the trip.

In LA we were mainly working with an organization called Hope for the Homeless. It was great just to serve them and help them out with their weekly outreaches. They were a team of about 5 guys who faithfully serve the homeless of L.A week in, week out so we got to encourage them, prophecy over them and teach them more about the prophetic and supernatural, which they loved. Two main outreaches we did with them were at Venice Beach and Skid Row. These two places were full of homeless people, the need was quite overwhelming and we quickly ran out of food and other supplies we were giving out, but we never ran out of love J. Everyone we encountered was hungry for prayer, hope and encouragement and we got to give out lots of that.

We met a lovely woman at Venice Beach called Victoria who was in her forties and was living on the streets with her partner. We talked with her a while and heard a bit of her story and then found out she had back pain so we prayed for her back and the pain eased and she felt the presence of God. We also encouraged her with some prophetic words we got for her and just loved her the best we could in that short encounter. We could see how impacted she was by God’s love for her, it was beautiful.

We also set up a ‘Destiny Reading’ table at Venice Beach, which was a lot of fun. There’s quite a lot of mystical stuff going on in that area, and our Destiny Reading table team was pretty amazing. People were coming over for us to read their destiny and we got to prophesy and speak true destiny over their lives, some people were rocked by what God was saying to them and kept asking how did our guys knew so much haha, it was amazing to share God’s heart with them through all that. Our God is so creative. 

At skid row we met and talked to a lot of broken hurting people but one that stands out is a woman called Shelia. We talked with her for a while and found out that she’d been baptized years ago, a few of us got to speak truth over her life and remind her that she was a princess in God’s eyes, that she was a daughter and that God was longing for a living relationship with her. She was so undone and overwhelmed by God’s love, it was beautiful to watch. Her sister came over to us while we were praying for her and started to pray with us, by the end of the prayer Sheila was trying to describe to us how she felt the Holy Spirit while we were speaking, there was such a purity in that moment, by then we were all feeling God’s love and presence around us, we would’ve stayed in that place with that woman all day if we could.

A lot of people got encouraged and saw hope in that place that day, which is incredible considering how ‘dark’ that area is.

Also during our week, we went to Disneyland. We thought it would be a good idea to have a day off to relax and ‘rest’ our minds from all the intensity of school. We got there, split people into teams of fours and went on to have fun.

A couple of hours later we came across our missions trip leader and she start to share how they had been praying for people and that someone got saved and a girl walked out of a wheelchair. Christine and I looked at each other and to the rest of our team, and we knew what we had to do. Here’s the story.

A couple of months ago Bill Johnson shared a message that really challenged me, long story short, he was talking about how God speaks through parables, how sometimes He hides things not from us, but for us, that in the process of searching and finding those things character and faith are built, and that builds the foundation for the revelation that was hidden in what he said. Why does He hide it? Because He wouldn’t give us something that we are not ready for, and also because if we could see it, we could have it, that’s how things works in the Kingdom.

So once we heard what God did through our leader, we knew we had to go after the same stuff. Christine, I and our two friends saw this girl on a wheelchair not long after that, we told the girl that God had just healed someone at Disney and asked if we could pray for her, she said yes. We pray, God shows up and heals her, she walks, haha, two years after a horse felt on her leg she feels pain free again, Come On!! Then her mum asks if we could do the same for her nerves problem, we then explained to the girl who got healed that the same God who healed through our prayer could use her, and we asked if she would like to pray for her mum, as she had just experienced the power of God, even though she was quite surprised and nervous, she says yes and prayed for her mum, God shows up again and her mum felt a lot better by the time we left her. How awesome is that?

After that we started to pray, prophecy and encourage other people around the park. Our day off  had turned into a fun God-filled day. On total 4 people got out of wheelchairs and some other people gave their life to Christ on that day. It was incredible. On that day God really spoke to us all about living a ‘supernatural’ natural lifestyle. That just like Jesus said in Mark16.17-18, signs and wonders would follow those who believe. We learned that there’s no ‘turn off’ ministry time and ‘turn on’ fun time, we carry the Kingdom of God with us wherever we go, that Jesus the hope of glory lives inside of us, therefore He’s with us anywhere, anytime, and that He’ll always back us up if we decide to step out and release his kingdom into places and people’s lives. It was a good day.

After that day there was a shift in our ministry times, we felt more confident that God is always good and that he had good plans for every single person we encountered on our way.  We got to minister more homeless, prostitutes and transvestites at the red light district on Friday and Saturday night, and on Sunday we got to speak at a meeting in the Angelus Temple building, which was a lot of fun, we saw more people getting healed and rocked by God’s love. On Monday morning we drove back to Redding and that was the end of our mission week.

We would like to thank everyone who supported us on this mission trip, as I said, not only did we get to love on people and see them getting saved, healed and delivered, but we were transformed by God’s love for us and revelation of His Kingdom. We were activated into this lifestyle of His goodness. This wouldn’t have been possible without your prayers and support.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading our mission trip ‘report’, and we pray that you would somehow be encouraged to seek more of God and His Kingdom, and that you would be more aware of what you already have available through Christ, the hope of glory who lives inside of you.

We will be updating this again pretty soon, as we only have less than 2 weeks left of school, stay tuned!!

Love and Blessings

Daniel Aloe-vera

Hey everyone,

We just wanted to write a quick update before we go on our mission trip to L.A on Monday. Firstly, a huge thank you to everyone who helped us with this trip, we really appreciate it. We’ll be away for a week with a team of BSSM students in L.A working mainly with two different ministries there- Hope for the Homeless and Oasis of Hollywood.

During our time there, we will be doing a variety of different things such as- homeless ministry in some of the cities worst neighbourhoods, kids ministry including an Easter outreach, 2 nights out in the red light district ministering to working girls, transvestites and whoever else we encounter over there, we are going to the ER of a local hospital to pray for people and will probably be doing some Treasure Hunts as well as some other things. Our goal is just to love and serve the people we encounter and demonstrate to them the love, honour and value they deserve, all the while bringing the supernatural. We are believing for salvation, healings, miracles, signs and wonders and really just want to serve the ministries we are partnering with. Fun fun.

We are so excited to go and release everything we’ve been learning and receiving at Bethel over the last 7 months and see the Kingdom of God expand in L.A. Please partner with us in prayer over the next week or so. We really need people covering our team in prayer. We are going to some of the most dangerous places in this country, so please pray for our safety and protection and also for our journey down there and back (we are driving- it takes about 10 hours). Also pray for unity within our team and of course that we’d see God touch so many people through us and we’d bring transformation and revival to the streets of L.A. Come on!!

We will update you all, with testimonies etc when we get back.

 Love you all!

Have a great week!!!!!!!

Daniel & Christine Aloe-vera.

Hello from Redding!!

Hey everyone,

Well it’s nearly the end of February, which means we have less than 3 months left here at Bethel- time is going by so fast. Life often feels like a whirlwind here, there is always so much going on that its hard to sit down and actually give a summary of what’s been happening- there is just so much!

The school has really gone up a level for us since we came back after Christmas, it feels like we’re growing, learning and changing at such a faster pace. The first half of the school was really focused on identity and knowing who we are- the royalty we have as his children and the authority we carry. Bethel’s message in this area is so unique and powerful, they choose to see the gold (as we call it here) in everybody and really empower people by love, honour and through the prophetic. This type of environment brings so many breakthroughs to people as they begin to really see themselves as God does. We have really grasped this and more than ever we know who we are- we are royalty, a son and a daughter and heirs. This means we don’t have to beg God for stuff or perform for love and acceptance- we are his children so he loves us completely, 100% right now. We’ve also got revelation of how much authority and power we carry as His children and when we know this, it’s just so easy to release. It’s not hard to pray for people for healing and into impossible situations because we know the authority we have as His children. Kris Vallotton’s teachings and his book ‘The Supernatural Ways of Royalty’ on this subject are so good and fresh and you should definitely check them out if you want a greater revelation of who we are as Gods children.

When we truly know who we are all striving and performance goes and we are free just be ourselves and let God work through us and so everything is so much easier and so it goes up a level.  Also, we’re given a lot more opportunities in the second half of the year, we are both prayer servants now and so we get to be on the prayer ministry teams after services and at some conferences. I have also joined the healing rooms team here at Bethel, which sees hundreds of people every Saturday morning coming from all over the country and world to receive prayer for healing of everything from a common cold to terminal cancer. It’s an amazing atmosphere of faith, hope and joy to be in, there are a lot of people every week who get healed of all types of conditions right there and then and many more who send reports back after they’ve been to the doctor that the cancer has gone or the tumour has shrunk. In my team last week we saw knee problems improving, feet being completely healed and free of pain, back pain leaving and many people being touched by the presence of God and experiencing new levels of peace and joy. Another week we prayed for a little girl whose dog had attacked her and bit her on the left eye, which had left her blind in that eye. As we prayed, the swelling in her eye went down and she started to see shadows and a bit of colour, which was amazing. Daniel has also had the opportunity to be his small group leader and therefore has been learning a lot about really good leadership and has had opportunity to encourage and speak into his groups life.

We also got the opportunity to go to Randy Calrk and Bill Johnson healing school in January. This gave really good practical and theological teaching on the area of healing as well as seeing hundreds of people healed over the few days. This week the annual prophetic conference is on which we will get to see some of the sessions which is exciting as this is an area we both feel we have been really growing in. Bethel has really taught me the effectiveness of prophetic evangelism, often when we’re out on outreach we ask God for some encouraging words for the people we encounter and what God says about them always really blows people away. They encounter the love of God and how He knows them and they always leave feeling really encouraged and we often have the opportunity to ask them if they know the Lord or want a relationship with him.

We leave for our mission trip to L.A in just over 4 weeks now and we are so excited to see what Gods going to do through us there. There is some information down below about what we’ll be doing if you want to check that out. We leave on 26^th March and are there until 2^nd April, while we are there we will be partnering with Hope for the Homeless Youth as well as several other ministries in the area to bring the love of Jesus out into the community. Our outreach will include: Skid Row, pimps and prostitutes, feeding the homeless, ministering in bars, Pasadena IHOP, youth ministry and much more.

This is gonna be a amazing opportunity to learn more about God's love for us and to minister to others. so keep us in your prayers during this time. We will be encountering a lot of very broken people there who really need loved and so we are believing for salvation, healing- physical and emotional and for them to be filled with hope, joy and faith.

So that’s some of our news for now. Thank you again for all your love, encouragement and support, we love hearing from you!

Christine & Daniel

LA mission trip!

Hi here friends!!

 So we've been attending Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry in Redding, CA. Here I have been learning more about God’s love and moving in the presence of God. Through the experience of God’s love I have begun a journey with God to learn how to release His presence and lead people in new and creative ways to build them up within the culture of honor to see dreams and visions come to pass.   

As part of the school, I have been selected along with 30 others to serve on a mission’s trip to Los Angeles, CA from March 26th to April 2nd. While we are there we will be partnering with Hope for the Homeless Youth as well as several other ministries in the area to bring the love of Jesus out into the community.  Our outreach will include: Skid Row, pimps and prostitutes, feeding the homeless, ministering in bars, Pasadena IHOP, youth ministry and much more.

One of our main focuses for our trip is Joy and Laughter! I ask that you partner with me in prayer to see the Joy of the Lord impact the people we will be ministering to. I also ask that you guys would partner with me in finances as God uses me to bring the Joy of the Gospel and emit the light of God’s kingdom in Los Angeles! “For the Joy of the Lord is your strength” -Nehemiah 8:10 KJV

I’ve already been able to pay $375 off of the total $700 for the mission trip leaving only $325. I would greatly appreciate any donations, every little bit helps, $5, $10, $20 or more will help me.

Financial gifts may be made online at ibssm.org. This gift is tax-deductible and you will receive a statement at the end of the year for your tax records. If you wish your gift to be anonymous, please check the anonymous box. This will allow you to receive an end of year statement, but will not allow me to see your name. This gift is non-refundable, and if for any reason we cannot go, the money will support another mission trip sponsored by Bethel Church.

Here's the ;ink to donate:
www.ibssm.org

So online at ibssm.com and click on the part that says give online then choose missions trip and then put one of our names in.

Thank you all for the support, encouragement and prayers!!

Much love and blessings from redding.

Daniel