Power and Love Conference (July '10): While I had ... - Echo of Infinity

Power and Love Conference (July '10):While I had originally desired to go to the Power and Love Conference in July at my oldchurch, put on by Power and Love Ministries, I had been working at a summer camp, andbetween the summer camp and all the other things I had on my plate in my life, trying to go tothe conference was just too much, so I decided to give up hope and not go. I would have stillgained insight that I hadn't had before by having to be a counselor for the inner-city kids I wasworking with, and so I figured it wouldn't be that big of a loss. It seems God had other plansthough, as the summer camp I worked for got rid of me before the conference, and when I appliedfor a scholarship to go to the conference, I was able to go for free. Looking back, I think I learnedsome lessons and was encouraged in some things that I think God was requiring as mandatory formy life at this time. It would have been nice if he would have politely let me know I was going toget fired and that he wanted me to, but I understand with so many humans going against him, hedoesn't always have the proper messenger or open door to do so.So the conference started on July 7th at 9am. The first speaker was Dan Mohler. This is thekind of guy who walks around with a huge smile on his face and is known for saying "Jesus lovesyou!" A little too in-the-clouds for my tastes, but he did make a couple good points that peopleneeded to hear, like how if people realized how much God loved them, they wouldn't need to befed by a million other people to be able to stay happy, because God loves at a far superior levelthan even the best girlfriend is able to; as well, Dan also reminded me of the point that I shouldn'tlet how I treat other people be dictated by what my needs and desires are, but that I should treatthem in the way that is most appropriate and loving toward them, as far too many times oneperson's loneliness or frustration turns into taking it out on someone else, when really even beingwronged doesn't justify "paying someone back," as paying someone back won't fix the problemthat caused the person to wrong Person A in the first place. So Dan covered both speaking session1 and 2. After both sessions, we paired up typically in random groups of three, and went out tograb meals and to see who we could love with God's agape love that day. I don't fully rememberwhat day was what as far as the testimonies went, but I believe the groups I was with were able topray for a few people and make a few people's day better by socializing with them when normallysomebody wouldn't have on Wednesday. Also, it was the first or second night of the conferencethat a young woman attending the conference, after prayer, had one of her legs grow out to thesame length as her other leg.On Thursday, the second day of the conference, Bob Hazlett was the speaker for bothsession 1 and 2. Bob moves in the prophetic. And seeing how the conference was focused on

eing able to show God's love especially through the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinth. 12:4-11;1 Corinth. 14:1,5), it made sense that part of what Bob taught was that God still speaks todayand that we can hear God's voice (John 10:27, though it's partly a growing process). He had usdo listening exercises that personally went well for me. The first person I was with, everything Isaid to him was true, including that he had a sister, a dog, and that he was interested in dirtbikes. Everything he said to me was true as well, including mentioning that I was interested inworking on my relationship with my brother, that I liked to make people happy (in a good, nondoormatkind of way), and that I had a relative with nervous tics (which I just had found out in avery noticeable way like a week before). Bob ended being my favorite speaker of the conference.I liked him because he was the most relate-able to me, he didn't seem to preach the same phraseover and over again, and he had messages that weren't necessarily old news for me.Again, after the morning and afternoon sessions were over, people got into groups ofroughly 3 and went out to show God's love to people. I believe in the morning I went to a parkwith a mom and her son who was in a wheelchair. While we didn't find a good opportunity tohelp other people, we did get to socialize with each other a bit, so it wasn't a total loss. And Ibelieve in the evening I went out with two slightly younger people, where we were able to buylemonade from a little girl's lemonade stand, I was able treat one of the people with me to somefood, and we were able to socialize with and help some local businesses a little (by buying stuff).I attempted to ask God for specific things he wanted to say to people, but both times the people'sresponse let me know that I wasn't hearing correctly. When we got back, I believe this was whenwe found out that one of the speakers of the conference had an instance in a restaurant where awaitress' leg grew out to the same length of her other leg, another waitress had a skin conditionthat was regularly itchy but the itch went away after she was prayed for, and someone who heardabout the leg growing out came up and asked the speaker to pray for her boyfriend who had beenaddicted to something.On Friday, Todd White was the main speaker for the day. Todd's specialty is the area ofhealing, and he has seen many instantaneous healings take place. He said initially he prayedfor roughly 500 people before he saw a healing happen, but that perhaps a year or two after thatthe healings became too numerous per week for him to have the spare time to write down ajournal entry on each one (even 10 a week would be more than most people with full-time jobscould do a detailed write-up on). Todd spoke on Christians knowing who they are in Christ, abouthow Christians need to stop thinking about themselves as nothing but unworthy sinners, andabout how Christians need to not allow themselves to fall into guilt trips over sins in their past.He also gave his personal testimony of how he got saved and a bit of his life after that. A lot ofthe stuff he said were old lessons for me, so I didn't get much out of it.After Friday's morning and afternoon sessions, we went out again to bless people. In themorning, four other people and I went down to Burger King, Walmart, and Home Depot. Whileat Walmart, one of our female team members went up to someone and talked to them for like a

half hour, with the person basically pouring out her woes to our team member. I was able to usesome of the time to give some advice to some people who were shy about going up to randompeople, and before I left Walmart was able to pray for a guy who had an amputated leg.Unfortunately, I had to merely say a quick prayer for the guy because he was getting back towork, so I didn't get a chance to find out if the leg grew back later on or not. Over at HomeDepot, the guy I was walking with started talking to a lady near us and later asked if she hadanything she would like prayer for. She said she would probably have broken into tears if she gotinto talking about it, so he simply told her we would pray for her after we left. After we got back,we heard that one group that went out ended up driving to somebody's farm from clues that Godgave them, and actually had gotten from God the first name of a man that lived there, and wasable to tell him that God loved him and some other stuff. As well, there was a teenager who wentout with a group who got someone's first name and the fact that the person had stage 4 cancerfrom God, and walked up to the person and was like "Hey soandso..." This eventually led tothe teenager being able to pray for the person, who then wobbled a bit and fell to the ground, andthen got back up about a half hour later saying she felt good. It is assumed that the person gothealed from the stage 4 cancer, though this wasn't able to be verified. Another group was able topray for a woman in a wheelchair who couldn't walk well, and after prayer she was able to rundown the aisle of the store.Saturday was the last day of the conference. The morning session was split between BobHazlett and Todd White speaking. The afternoon session was a question and answer session withall four of the main ministers involved (Tom Ruotolo being the one not mentioned yet, who did alot of the admininstrative talking). The morning session I thought I was alright, though thequestion and answer session seemed to get cut a bit short because so many people wanted to givetheir stories about how their outreach times went before the afternoon session started. Some ofthe speakers mentioned again that growth in the Christian walk came first and foremost out of arelationship developed with God, which I was glad for, because people need to be remindedthat greater amounts of Bible knowledge don't necessarily mean a greater personal holiness orability to love (look at the devil, he's got the whole Bible memorized). They also restated thatJesus healed everyone who he attempted to, and that Jesus was our example as a man, and soseeing everyone get healed when we pray/step out is possible, but that it's possibly our own lackof understanding of spiritual matters that causes us to be able to see said healings come to pass(because Jesus paid the price for everyone to be able to be healed on the cross). I would love tohave the full understanding of how that spiritual dimension really works; but for now, I'll justhave to pray and know that (generally) at least something good is happening, as God's agenda isloving on people, and when I ask, that's what he sends down.We went out on Saturday to bless people again. In the morning, I was paired up with theteen that I had done the listening exercise with. It was a random pairing, so it was interesting Igot put with him again. Him and I went out again. We went down a main plaza street in a localtown. We ended up praying for a couple people we had talked to, though they weren't around at

the time. I had asked God for a message/something for a lady in a thrift store I went into, but itbombed out. But I tried asking God again in a different store for someone else, and I correctlypicked up that the person liked a particular music artist. I also got to pray for a lady who said shewas living in a homeless shelter. And while not on Saturday, one of the days of the conference Ifelt that God said to me "diner," which led my group and I to an old mom and pop's diner wheremy group-mates talked to the owner for like a half hour and later got to pray for him. I alsocorrectly picked up from God that he had a daughter and that he had an old car (like antiquekind of cars), which lead to me mentioning that God was going to help restore his relationshipwith his daughter more, and that God was going to give him the resources to fix up one of theold cars he may have been wanting to fix up (prophesying over him- 1 Corinth 14:3). After theafternoon session, I went out with 3 other people. We ended up stopping at a pizza place to eat.I didn't buy anything because of financial constraints, but I asked God if there was anyone hewanted me to do anything for, and I felt that he was pointing out a guy that appeared to be themanager. While the rest of my group was eating or waiting to eat, I decided to write down a notewith what I thought God was saying to me for the guy I felt God had pointed out. I asked him toread the note, but he said he would have to read it later. We ended up going to a nearby park rightafter eating, where I missed hearing God again when asking for something for whoever Godwanted to give me something about on the beach, but I was able to entertain a group of little kidsand the adults with them for a moment with my poi, and was able to amuse a couple teenagersby pushing them on a playground toy that gets people dizzy. On our way back to the church, I hadmy group stop back in at the pizza place to see if the guy had read the note. The guy told me thatI was "close," but that I had given the note to the wrong person. The guy still looked busy, so Ileft the discussion at that, and proceeded to go back to the church. Once back at the church, Ididn't stay for the final night session, because Dan was speaking, and I figured the topicwouldn't really be much different from the happy-go-lucky messages he had given previously inthe conference. I decided to go home early, and so that was the end of my conference experience.Overall, I think the conference was one that was necessary for me. While I didn't personallysee any instantaneous healings take place, God reminded me that I am indeed able to hear hisvoice at least at times. God also reminded me strongly how important the practical ways ofshowing love, like stopping at little kids' lemonade stands or simply asking how a randomperson's day was, are. The conference has encouraged me to engage people more while doingthings like buying groceries or walking around campus at school, and that people are oftenappreciative of others asking them if they have any prayer requests. It also encouraged me tobelieve that God's goodness and love really is as big and amazing as it is said to be, but thatpeople's blindness to it causes them to live out lives that miss out on a lot of the things thatcould happen, because they think and exist differently than they would have if they hadunderstood it (John 17:3), and they also make poorer choices than they would have if they hadunderstood it. Seeing has how I want to start seeing instantaneous healings take place when Ipray for people, and I would love to get into the habit of being able to "pick up on things" fromGod about people so I can bless them while I'm out in public, this kind of conference was thekind of conference I needed. And hey, I got in for free, so I guess I can't complain.