So if I’m honest, it’s a tad hard to write a blog post that contains one week in which you literally moved out of home, moved to the other side of the planet, moved in with three guys you’ve never really met before, started a new school, met some of the most amazing people and been pushed more than  you ever have. It’s a little tricky but i’ll give it a go.

The journey over here took best part of 30 hours door to door. It’s the longest i’ve ever traveled, and in all honesty, It wasn’t the best way to start the year. Nine hours from Gatwick to JFK, then a night on the floor at JFK. After what felt like forever in the most empty, strange airport terminal i’ve ever been in, we finally boarded the plane to Atlanta. At this point i’m so tired I literally fall asleep as soon as we take off. Of course only to be awoken by the flight attendant asking if I wanted a cookie, sure I thought, never going to say no to a cookie. So lesson one of America, Cookies are not Cookies. It’s a biscuit. The kind you get with your coffee at a Hospital.

We land in Atlanta and the spirits of Molly, Tim (My travelling people) and Myself are pretty low. As much as it’s only one journey left, it’s a solid 6 hours to Sacramento from here. So I sit down on the plane, and have the best view across America I could ever of imagined.

Anyway so fast forward 10 hours and we’re in San Francisco picking up some other BSSM students before heading to Redding. (Can you see how this was getting a little draining?) I’m honestly not sure how I didn’t explode and die at this point. All I want is to sleep. Maybe it was the amazing pulled pork sandwich we had, not just the sheer amount of Caffeine an American “Small” coke, but somehow I’m aware enough to see the Golden Gate bridge.  It’s nice, but the traffic in San Francisco keeps us for another hour. Our driver Nicole shares her amazing testimony and it rocks us completely, it’s like a foreshadowing of the year to come..

Finally we arrive in Redding. Enter sleep.

Two days past, and its the World Premiere of the New Holy Ghost documentary film, after the showing we made our way to Westside pizza. Where there a casaul Fire Tunnel (This is where people made a “Tunnel” and pray for you as you walk through”). It’s got kinda crazy, but God was there, so it’s all good.

So after a few days of orientating ourselves in Redding, it started to get hot. Now I get it, those of you in England at the moment are sat in your Jumpers and socks in September, wishing you’d got the fire fixed for this winter. This is not the case in Redding. So at the moment, 102 Degree Fahrenheit, that’s 39 to the rest of the world.

Nevertheless, we made our way down to Wiskeytown lake. This is the most surreal experience for anyone who lives in the UK. Straight up something out of coming of age American College film, we all bundle into two cars and drive convoy for 30 minutes through winding mountain roads with the radio blasting. There are some serious advantages to living in California afterall. I’ve adapted to the weather much faster than I expected, and much faster than those around me. 100 degree weather seems very normal.

Wiskeytown is beautiful. I'm so blessed to have a place like that so close to my house. School really kicks off next week, so I'll let you know how that goes after the first full week is over. For now, I've had two full days at BSSM, and it's rocked my world. I've got a ton of reading to do, and a load of reports to get done. This course is a lot more academic work then I expected, but its all amazing content, so no one really minds.

I’ll round this one off here to prevent a this becoming an essay, i’ll tell you about school in my next blog. For now, be praying for Finances for my friends, favour and jobs for people in the School, and that God would destroy expectations and replace him with what he wants to do.

Peace and Wildest Blessings.

Matt

Redding, CA from Matt Higham on Vimeo.

BSSM Update 1 - Journey + Wiskeytown

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BSSM Update 1 - Journey + Wiskeytown

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In the last few days I've been in Genesis. For me, this isn't always the easiest book to read, honestly, I find it full of difficult concepts to grasp. Scientific oddity and logically fallacies seem to be fraught all the way through it. For me, it's my Biblical battleground. I contest for revelation here more than anywhere else in the Bible. It's often where we mine the hardest where we find the most gold though. And that's just whats happened here.

In Genesis 2:19, we read that God had "Formed every beast of the Ground,and every bird of the Heavens, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them." How many times have you read this verse? How many times has it just been another verse?

This verse describes a gift that God gives to his people. But it's more than that, I think it's a declaration. It's God demonstrating his radical generosity and love. We had no right to name what God had created. We read in Deuteronomy 10:14 that the Earth is Gods, and everything in it. Ever considered the massive privilege that Adam has at this moment?

God's gifts to us are always bigger and more radical than we can ever imagine. Can you picture that moment? Adam's reaction to God's gift, was it awestruck wonder? Did he dance around? I can tell you what it wasn't. Fear. It wasn't fear. What we read in Genesis 2 is pre-fall. There is no fear in this relationship, Adam knows only God. Trusting him implicitly.  The gift that God gives him is a challenge to be overly and massively creative. There's no mention of Adam not feeling qualified, or feeling inadequate.

"Lion"

"Leopard"

"Viper"

"Elephant"

I honestly feel like some of us are in this season at the moment. We've been given a task, it feels like its huge. Maybe its raising the finance to do BSSM, maybe you've not paid tuition yet, or maybe your VISA situation is still in question. There's a Biblical president, right here at the start of it all, that although God's gifts can seem overwhelming,often challenging, we're to trust that he knows what we can handle so much more than we do. So start naming the animals.

Generosity of Genesis

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Generosity of Genesis

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It's almost at the ten day countdown to BSSM. If I'm being really honest, this hasn't been the joyful moment I thought it would be. I'm sure in time i'll be excited, and i'm sure it's natural to have some feeling of sadness in leaving your home, but recently I found myself feeling increasingly isolated from my English friends. Maybe it's just the lack of connection there, having more in common with those at Bethel then those going to study conventional courses here at home. This is not to say that I don't have masses of love for my Sixthform Family, I just relate to those at Bethel more.

Something really hit me through this though. My Earthly isolation, is just a Heavenly invitation to intimacy with the king. If God has you here, it's for a reason. For me, it hit me that this actually isn't a season with people, despite what I first thought this time would be. My expectation of emotional goodbye dinners and lots of coffee dates has been peacefully replaced with a simple expression of gratitude and intimacy. His plans for our time are so different to what we often make them. My plans to be busy up until the day I left had removed a huge amount of time spent with him. Precious moments with him overshadow my feelings of loss towards my home as I move to the other side of America. More than that though, they've become a foreshadowing of the promised encounters at BSSM, and that's more of a delight than any time spent on earth ever will be.

His invitation to you today is simple, and it applies whether you're feeling isolated or not. Intimacy is available and his pursuit of you is proof that he wants to be close. His intention towards you is made clear through Jesus, it's just up to you to ask him to be close.

Isolation and Invitations

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Seasons

As I sit writing this, it's the morning before my Brother is getting married, and it's such a different season to where i was this time last year. I've just graduated from Ringwood Sixthform, where I spent three years of my life, Honestly it's going to be incredibly strange without it. However, I am so excited to start Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry in September. Its such an oddity, this time last year I was waking up to find most of my friends moving on, I found myself at a bit of a loose end to be honest. I was remaining whilst most of my peers, if not all my peers that I'd grown up with, were moving on. 

Life moves in Seasons.

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I never got round to finishing this blog post, if i'm honest I totally forgot about it in the wonder and awe of the marriage. Today, just over a month after the start of this post was written, I've just got my results and the season of my life where I'm in Ringwood, even in England, is coming to an end. Transitions are so strange, as much as I'm wanting to spend time was those around me that I won't see for a whole year, I'm so eager to just go and jump into BSSM. I feel like this is a real tension for all prophetic people. We talk about seasons, as if one where we have to wait for something are bad, and the ones where we receive and are taught are good.

This is not the truth. In fact, this is a lie of the enemy.

You see the fact is, we don't decide what season we find ourselves in. God does. Rushing from one place to another only leads to you missing what God has for you on the way. So in the last few weeks before I leave, I'm doing my best to live in the moment. As much as there is prep work to do, there's so many amazing people I need to catch and talk for hours with. Part of my struggle in this is learning that the emotion of leaving those closest to you is all part of the process and journey that God has you on.

It's in this, that he speaks, and he prepares you for the seasons that we really look forward too. I guess what I'm saying, is that maybe we should be more excited for the times where God is preparing us, getting us into the shape and order that he needs us, because I think there's promise there.

Seasons - Graduation and Bethel

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Seasons - Graduation and Bethel

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UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. 

Here's something that I've noticed over the last few year. Despite the efforts of the Church to block any agenda that's passed through the Courts to allow Gay Marriage (Whether here in the UK, or abroad as recently seen the US), the simple fact of the matter is, we've lost. No one wants to say it. No one wants to admit it. But the efforts to prevent equal rights for the LGBT community, have failed. 

If I'm honest, I cannot sit here, writing this, and say I'm grieved, and it might not be for the reasons that you'd think. I'd like to explain why. If you're upset, angry, even offended by the recent development in the US that legalized Gay Marriage, i'd like you to read on. If you're for Gay Rights, I'd like you to read on. To be honest, I feel like this is something I'd just like the world to hear. 

We live in an ever growing, highly diverse, fantastically multicultural planet. I love it, I love sharing and debating, and being influenced by those who I don't agree with. This is the first point i'd like to make.

Those you disagree with are just as valuable as you, and you can learn more from them then those you agree with.

 You see it's an attitude that we all hold sometimes, and it's a dangerous one. It say's, we do not agree, therefore you're point has no value, and I cannot learn anything from it. I'm just as guilty as anyone else at this. In fact, there will be people reading this now, who I've done this too. I've learned the value of those I disagree with the hard way. Years of arrogance now fall into a total admiration for those that are willing to stand and say "I disagree". You're more likely to be taught, and mentored, by those who disagree with you. However, and this is what I think we are missing at the moment, there's a way of doing it. 

As a Church, As a Planet, We are obligated to Call out the Value and Worth in others, even if we disagree.

I struggle to see how people can miss this in the Bible. Jesus, goes to the cross and goes and shatters hell unconditionally for you and me. Now let me rephrase that, Jesus, unconditionally, goes to the cross, and goes and shatters hell, for the last gay couple that just got married. Why? Worth and Value, should be what we focus on. Yes, if you are in the spiritual authority to call out those around you, do so. But always out of a place of calling them to a position of worth and identity. Jesus knew that some wouldn't follow him, yet he loved them so much, that he did it anyway. What Love is so scandalous, that despite us not even caring about him, he would still make a way? Church we are obligated to follow in Jesus' footsteps. In every issue that we tackle. 

It's okay to disagree, I love that we don't agree on everything. Even in the Church there are huge disagreements, Calvinism, Yes or No? I guess my cry and my prayer for everyone, is that we would become more unconditional in how we see the Value and Worth in other cultures, beliefs and Orientations, rather than being so sure in ourselves, that we have to be right all the time, and therefore miss what we could have.

So why aren't I upset about the Ruling in the US? I was reminded today how God uses everything for Good. Maybe, just maybe, this is what we need. A jolt to the system, a wake up call. I'm excited to see how God uses this to bring us closer together as a community. I'm excited to see how the community grows, and how Revival comes through this. That's always his plan after all. 

Father, Thank you that despite the differences that divide us, there's no space between you and I. There's no distance between you and us. The veil is torn, and you are so good. Bring your peace, and bring your Joy to those who are unable to see the Value and Worth in others, highlight how you see them, and how precious you are to them in your sight. Bring unity and identity. 

Unconditional Love - A Journal of my thought's towards Gay Marriage

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