So excited to be releasing a new instrumental CD album. For many years people have been asking me to make one and here it is finally! Last year I talked with a friend of mine that plays the piano very well and mentioned the possibility of doing an instrumental album together. At first we just talked about it, but finally after some time we decided to do the recording and this past December began recording. It’s all improvised music that we played at the same time, so that things I played on the violin influenced what the piano played and what Kyle played on the piano influenced the violin in the improvisation. We’re already planning to do another album in the future!

“Bow & Ivory: Streams” is a spontaneous instrumental duo of piano and violin recorded improvisationally by Kyle Barr and Sebastian Angulo. As you listen to this album, let the melodies and sounds flow over you to refresh and strengthen you!

The Lord has been doing powerful things in my life and through my ministry this past year. I have witnessed the moving of the Holy Spirit to bring physical healing and emotional healing, to restore relationships and families, and to set the captives free. I have experienced this in the US and in other nations. I want to take a moment to share with you about some of these different experiences and am including two videos in which I also share some of the story for those who would prefer to view the videos! In brief, I have been blessed to live in Northern Iraq for 3 months in the beginning of the year serving refugees and local believers, I traveled to Italy in the summer to minister to a wonderful group of Charismatic Catholic, and have had the opportunity to minister to many in the United States. I will give more detail to these experiences in the rest of this newsletter!

Time in Iraq!

As I mentioned and as you may know, I had the opportunity to go to N. Iraq with students from our Missions and Prayer School (MAPS) at the Fredericksburg Prayer Furnace (FPF). I have served at FPF since 2009 and currently continue to serve there full-time leading and teaching at MAPS. MAPS is a 2 year school where we train students theologically and practically to serve the purposes of God in the unreached nations of the world (Matthew 24:14). Part of the 2 years of training include actually going to an unreached nation and serving there for 90 days during the 4th semester. I went this year co-leading a group of the 4th semester students along with Leah, another leader at MAPS. Our experience in N. Iraq was unforgettable as the Lord connected us with amazing new friendships and used us to bless so many people’s lives. We witnessed healing occurring regularly through our ministry in different refugee camps and as a result different people decided to surrender their lives to the Lordship of Jesus! There was one spontaneous gathering I got to be a part of when we ministered in a tent of 4 refugees. We started out with these 4 refugees but God began to manifest His healing power. As people were getting healed the numbers in the tent began to grow and people were coming into the tent pointing to where they needed healing. There were about 16-18 people in addition to the 4 we started with when I had the opportunity to share the Gospel! The wonderful thing is that this is just one of the many testimonies of what we got to witness as God brought hope to those that had none.

My time in Italy was much shorter than in Iraq and yet the Lord did so much in those 6-7 days. Every day I had the opportunity to minister to individuals and groups as the Lord opened the door. My mom came with me on this trip and one day as we were walking with a couple in downtown Bari they commented about how the husband had some hip problems. I prayed for the man and he was healed. That evening at a worship gathering he shared what the Lord had done for him and many others experienced healing as well! I also had the opportunity to do some sightseeing while I was there which was nice though for me the greater joy was to see the power of God at work in people’s lives! Nothing wrong with vacation, I’m just saying that for me a good vacation is experiencing the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. I had gone to Bari, Italy to minister at a retreat and finally the weekend came for the retreat. The first day went well and I shared about the value of intimacy with God through worship and prayer, communion with God. The following day I shared about the 9 gifts/manifestations of the Holy Spirit that are mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12 starting in verse 7. After sharing on the gifts we took a break for lunch because of the time and followed lunch with a time of prayer for impartation of the Holy Spirit. It was an amazing time as many of the group were young believers, some of them no more than a year of walking with the Lord, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Many of them could not remain standing as the Holy Spirit would pour upon them. There were many more powerful moments in that retreat though I will highlight one more moment here. The last morning of the retreat I shared about God the Father. During this session I shared many keys to freedom as we know the truth about who God is. Many people experienced deep soul healing as truth shone in their hearts. We even witnessed families and leaders being reconciled as the Lord was doing a powerful work of healing. That moment was more than what I could have imagined or that I can presently express in this newsletter. I felt so blessed to have had the opportunity to be a part of such a deep work that God did in that community.

I had the privilege of ministering at Clarksburg House of Prayer in West Virginia in the middle of July. I am still hearing testimonies of what God did during these 3 days of ministry. I preached Friday and Saturday night and on Sunday morning. On Friday night I got a word of knowledge from the Lord and knew that God wanted to heal someone’s right shoulder. It turned out that the woman whose family was hosting me was there that night and she needed healing. I briefly prayed for her right shoulder and as she moved her shoulder she heard a crunching noise that she had never heard before and did not hear again. I found out later that the pain that she had had constantly for 10 years was gone. That night she slept lying on that right shoulder which would have been very difficult to sleep because of the pain, and woke up with no pain or swelling in her arm. Throughout the day the next day she was being surprised as she was finding herself doing what she had been unable to do for 10 years! I felt very welcomed and like I was among family in my time in West Virginia. A man that I had not met before gave me 4 books that were all on a particular topic. The cool thing is that day before I had decided that I would buy some books on that very topic. And much more happened!!!

It’s hard to keep these stories short as they are packed with testimonies of God’s working in people’s lives! In short, the Marked Teen Camp is a camp that our youth ministry at FPF has been doing for the past 5 years. Each year it is very powerful and this year was exceedingly abundantly above what we imagined in many ways. Many young people turned their lives back to God. There were several times where the Holy Spirit poured out on the young people and on anyone that got around what He was doing. On one of these occasions, for 2.5 to 3 hours young people were on the floor crying out to God for their generation and experiencing the power of God coming on them. They were 2 hours late to lunch, that’s how you know that they were experiencing the higher pleasure of knowing God! One morning I taught on healing and before we laid hands on any person several youth had already experienced healing! The youth prayed for one another and they were used by God powerfully to heal each other. What I have shared here does not do justice to all that the Lord did during this camp but this will have to be all for now. I’ll share a video here that recaps some of the experiences at the camp.

                         

This past Sunday morning I shared from John chapter 10 verse 10. As my dad was getting into the car to head to DC with me Sunday morning he asked, “What time is it? My watch says 10:10 AM.” The actual time was 9:30 AM but my dad’s watch had a dead battery and was stuck on 10:10 AM. I knew in that moment that God was speaking to me about John 10:10! I sensed that the Father was asking us “What time is it?” And He was giving us the response, “It’s John 10:10.” The enemy has stolen, killed, and destroyed all over the earth and even in our lives and families. But the Son of God, Jesus, has come that we may have life and have it abundantly! It’s time to see the salvation of the Lord! It’s time to see the ministry of Jesus at work in our lives that destroys the works of the evil one! Jesus is still at work today, and will work through His people, the church, to destroy the works of darkness. Sickness, death, depression and fear, broken families and hunger, these are all works of darkness and it’s John 10:10 time! Let’s believe God’s Word and take a hold of His promises.

Let’s pray this prayer to the Lord: “Father, I thank You that You work all things for the good of those who love You! I declare that it is time for the works of the evil one against me, my family, and my community to be destroyed by the power of the Blood of Jesus! I declare healing over my body and over my family in Jesus! Name!”

I praise God for what He is going to do in your life! “Jesus, I thank you for the breakthrough! I ask that you will continue to make Your name great in our lives and in the nations of the earth!”

Blessings!!!

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Fellowship of sharing in His Sufferings

A reality in friendship and partnership with God that is not so exciting to think about but definitely very real, is suffering. All throughout the Scriptures we witness the lives of men and women who experienced deep friendship with God. When we examine their lives, we will find that most of them suffered. Intimacy with God is not a fairytale, but it is a love story! David, Daniel, Abel, Noah, most of the apostles, and many more: all of these suffered for the sake of Christ. Jesus himself suffered for us. He said, if they persecuted me they will persecute you.

It is important that we are aware of this reality, and that we count the cost. It was through these trials that the Lord prepared His people for mighty exploits, and great authority! Those who entrusted their lives to the Lord in the midst of their suffering, Were the ones who were entrusted with great authority and finished their race well. The Bible says about David that he fulfilled the purposes of God in his generation! (Acts 13:36). And that came with much suffering involved.

There is actually a fellowship in the sufferings of Jesus Christ! And the great news is that, just as there is fellowship in his suffering, there is also great fellowship in His joy that follows! I want to weep when the Lord weeps, I want to laugh when he laughs, and I know that when I suffer for his name, he weeps with me. “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:10).

The good news does not promise that there will be no troubles, in fact Jesus tells his disciples to expect tribulation, but the good news does promise fellowship with God who will comfort us in our troubles and greatly reward us when we follow Him. He will give us the strength to face the trials and to have victory in the midst of them.

We don’t have to look for suffering in order to fellowship with Christ. I do not desire suffering, or look for it. But if we are going to take up our cross daily to follow Jesus we know that we will face it soon enough. When God called the Apostle Paul into the ministry he sent out Ananias with a prophetic word for him. Acts 9:15, “But the Lord said to Ananias, ‘Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry My name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for My name.”

Hebrews 10:32, “And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barack, Sampson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, Who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouth of lions, quenched if fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; who’s weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated – the world was not worthy of them!”

John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Partnership and Intimacy with God

God is looking for partners on the earth. He wants friends that will agree with Him and even begin to think like Him. Those who will do what they see the Father doing. Jesus modeled this partnership for us when He walked on the Earth. He told His disciples “I only do that which I see the Father doing.” God was not satisfied with just getting the job done, He wanted the job done through friendship. When God rested upon God, He began to reveal the Glory of the Father on the earth!!!

John 5:19, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; He can do only what he sees his father doing, because what ever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all He does.”

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor…

After John the Baptist baptized Jesus the Spirit of God descended upon the Son of God and remained. Jesus ministered in partnership with the Holy Spirit and as mentioned earlier imitating that which He saw the Father doing.

This kind of communion with God was I unfathomable, it went beyond our capacity, and yet this kind of Fellowship is exactly what Jesus died on the cross for. He prayer to His Father in John 17 saying “take the SAME Love that is inside Your heart and put inside of them!”

“I have made You known to them and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them, and that I myself may be in them”
John 17:26

He actually wants to put in us the Love that the Father has for the Son!!!

God is looking for Lovers! He is more interested in our love for Him than in our work for Him, knowing that those who love Him will work for Him and even lay down their lives as He Himself laid down His life! He is looking for partners and I believe that He will find them here in Ethiopia!

God wants His people to care for the things that He Himself cares about. God is in the business of building family not of building factories. A factory worker is not required to care for the product, just simply to do his part well enough. A family requires love to work!

I am glad that the God who created all things wants me to know Him and wants to share with me what is on His heart! This is the intimacy that the Father is inviting us into. Jesus said to His disciples:

“Greater Love has no man than this, that He lay down His life for His friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I have learned from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:13-15

In this same chapter where Jesus called His followers friends He teaches us that the only way we can bear fruit is by abiding in the Vine, that is, by abiding in Himself! Friendship, partnership, intimacy! This is how the Kingdom of God works. There will be many who will come to Jesus on the day of judgment who cast out demons, healed the sick, prophesied mysteries, and performed miraculous signs in the Name of Jesus to whom He will say, “depart from Me, I never knew you!” God is not looking for people that can use His power, He is looking for friends!!!

He calls friends those who do what He commands! What is the greatest commandment? Jesus answered that question in this way: “The most important one, is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment like these” (Mark 12:29-31). Notice how Jesus when answering this question did not separate these 2 commandments one from the other. He was asked about the greatest and yet He answered about the two most important. Why? “We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not live his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And He has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love His brother” (1 John 4:19-21)

“Anyone who claims to be in the light. But hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble…” (1 John 2:9-10).

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not live does not know God, because God is Love. He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him (PARTNERSHIP!!!). This is love: not that we lived God, but that He loves us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:7-12).

Jesus did the great works that He did from an overflow of the love that is between the Father and the Son, and from the love that He has for humanity. Jesus was moved with compassion and he healed the sick! “Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.” (Matthew 14:14)

A man with leprosy came two ham and back to him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touch the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.” Mark 1:40-42

We’re made for the exciting adventure of knowing God and becoming more and more like Him. 2 Corinthians 3:16-18, as we behold the Glory of the Lord we are transformed into His likeness from Glory to Glory! The adventure of seeing and doing greater works than Jesus did! He said, John 14:12, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father!”

Revival is coming to Ethiopia! Miracles, signs and wonders will take place in the streets of this nation. Will there be friends of God who partner with Him at a heart level? God is doing and will do great things, and what He desires is friends that will participate with Him in what He is doing!

(With my friend Hiz in Ethiopia)

“I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; The humble shall hear of it and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together.”

             – Psalm 34:1-3

The past two months have been a wonderful adventure and the Lord has been adding to the excitement! Towards the end of July I went to minister at a youth retreat in Puerto Rico. I flew back and immediately jumped right into the Marked Teen Intensive, another youth retreat type of event. It was Intense! ;) I also travelled to some different churches after the Marked Teen Conference. And am now preparing to go to Ethiopia this fall on another ministry trip. In this newsletter I will share about: Youth Retreat in Puerto Rico, Marked Teen Intensive & the Trip that Followed, and finally, Ethiopia!!!

Good time at the river after the retreat in Puerto Rico!

In this picture, to my right is the young boy that saw in a vision heaven and also hell.

 

 

It feels like it has been a long time since I last updated. So much has taken place in the past few weeks!!! I was in Puerto Rico where many were touched by the Love and Power of God! About 15 people experienced healing in their bodies after receiving prayer and many amazing things happened that I hope to expound in greater detail in an upcoming update. Last week, after landing in Virginia having returned from Puerto Rico, I jumped in to the Marked Teen Intensive and Conference here at the Prayer Furnace. Many more were healed, we have estimated at least 40 different individuals received healing, based on the 21+ that testified one night and 11+ another time and an unknown number another service of which I personally know of 2. I am confident that there were more since I was late to that service and did not get to hear previous testimonies! Anyways, enjoy the video below that expounds on one of the testimonies!!!

If you are unable to listen to the song use this link to be able to hear it :)

http://www.reverbnation.com/eplay/artist_168604