2021

(If you need a good ‘ol fashioned dose of being encouraged in the Holy Ghost, a faith booster and maybe a little provoking, this blog is for you. 2021 was one of the wildest years of my entire life. Not only did it go nothing like I would have envisioned, but it stretched me in ways I didn’t know I needed, expanding my capacity for more of God.)

"Don't hold onto the glory. Tell your story. When you tell your story, He gets the glory." -Kris Kildosher

Something powerful happens when we take time to share our personal experiences of how we have encountered God. The enemy HATES when we testify of what God has done in our lives. ‘Testimony’ in Hebrew literally translates to 'do it again with the same power and authority'. It’s an act of worship to testify of the goodness of God in our lives and share the ways that we’ve seen Him move! The book of Revelation goes far enough to say that our testimonies are a weapon of warfare. (Revelation 12:11) So with that, it only seems fitting to close out 2021 by sharing some of my favorite testimonies (that haven’t made it to the blog already) of how I’ve seen God move this year. I invite you to grab hold of any of these testimonies and use them to prophesy over your own life, praying a simple prayer, “Do it again for me, God!”

I received a prophetic word at a New Years service in January of 2021 that I was going to experience the things of God in ways like I never had before in the coming year. Beyond that, the beginning of the year started out pretty rough. I was bombarded by such anxiety, grief and mental torment that I was crying out for personal breakthrough on the daily. It seemed like no matter how much I was reading my Bible, fasting or praying, I was still hitting a wall. I even flew down to Texas to attend a conference in hopes of finding some breakthrough. God met me powerfully there, but over all, He felt far away. I needed more than a weekend conference. I needed the power of God. I needed a divine intervention. I was being tormented constantly in my mind with thoughts like, “You’re a pathetic loser, no one loves you. Your life has amounted to nothing and will never amount to anything at all. You can’t hear God’s voice. You’ve wasted away your life on a lie. You should just die. Just swerve into that semi truck and end it.” I’m not ashamed or embarrassed to admit these things because they weren’t actually my own thoughts. It was the voice of the accuser trying to get me to believe his lies. (Revelation 12:10) What had been prophesied about meeting God in new ways this year was true, and the enemy didn’t want me to have faith to step into the fulfillment of that promise. Once the enemy successfully gets us to agree with his lies and accusations, he’s won. I was doing my best to renounce those thoughts as they came, repent for any ‘open doors’, and rebuke the lies, but the thoughts just wouldn’t stop coming. By the time February rolled around, I was feeling defeated.

In March, I went to a revival meeting at a church I’d never been to before determined to get my breakthrough. Manifestations of the Holy Spirit were evident all throughout the room. People were receiving healing in their bodies, some were collapsing under the power of God, and others were experiencing an overwhelming flood of the love of God, causing them to bubble over with joy and laughter. People all over the room were praying for each other and seeing the power of God firsthand. I however, wasn't experiencing a thing. I still couldn't push past that “wall”. The meeting ended and I felt hopeless. What was I doing wrong? I continued to praise God despite the storm. Then I remembered the speaker mentioning that sometimes our breakthrough is actually in the baptismal tank - that even if we’ve been water baptized before, there is still power in the prophetic act of baptism. There’s nothing holy about taking a quick dip in the water, but remembering what Jesus has done for us on the cross by dying for our sins and cleansing us of all unrighteousness brings breakthrough. It was below 30 degrees and snowing that night, but I needed breakthrough and was willing to do whatever it took. I was re-baptized in the water that night at the very end of the meeting. I drove home soaking wet in freezing temperatures, full of the fire of God. Those tormenting thoughts left me and haven't come back like that with such intensity since!! When fasting, praying, rebuking, and renouncing weren't working, THE VOICE OF THE ENEMY WAS DROWN OUT IN THE WATERS OF BAPTISM. Praise God!!

Then in April, I was hit with a whole series of unfortunate events, including getting my car broken into. It seemed the enemy was at it again, this time trying to get me discouraged through different avenues. It felt like one blow after another. I was speaking life and prophesying His promises over myself with serious intent. Regardless of the storms we face, He always gives us the power to withstand them, learn from them, and grow in our understanding of His love and goodness because of them.

I was looking forward to attending a retreat in California in May. When I missed my flight for reasons out of my control. I decided I’d had enough. I was done playing games with the enemy. My “this too shall pass” mentality was no longer working. Holy Spirit kindly reminded me to stop playing defense and step into offense mode. I decided to start walking in my authority as a believer and bring the Kingdom into the airport. (Ephesians 6:12) “That’s it! The enemy is gonna regret messing with me. Somebody's getting saved today and God’s Kingdom is advancing today!!” John 10:10 says that the devil comes to steal kill and destroy but that Jesus comes to bring us life and life more abundantly. I knew that my strange series of unfortunate events weren’t God’s will for me.

On the next flight out, I shared my testimony of salvation with the man I sat next to on the plane. He wasn't ready to accept Christ just yet, but we talked about the Lord for the next two hours. I shared my testimony again with my Uber driver. He was so touched that he asked me to pray healing for his body. Once we got to my destination, I prayed for him. He’d been in and out of the hospital with severe colon issues for months now and was scheduled for a colonoscopy a few days later. The power of God hit him and he said he felt a warmth in his body and knew that God had just healed him. He recommitted his life back to the Lord right there in the car. He wept crying out to God in repentance. He came to the retreat center that weekend and received even more prayer and even more breakthrough. A few weeks later his tests from the doctor came back totally clear! Praise God!

That same weekend, the power of God hit me in such a way that I’ve never experienced in my entire life. (just like that pastor prophesied in January) A group of 12 woman prayed for me, speaking the word of God into me for over 3 hours. “I pray that you would mark her with the Father's love, with a fresh baptism of the Father's love.” My entire body was shaking uncontrollably under the glory of God late into the night. It was so intense that people watching thought I was getting delivered. I’d never experienced the weighty presence of the glory of God like that before. I couldn’t get off the floor, even if I wanted to. I was being baptized in the love of the Father. I’d been baptized in the Holy Spirit when I was 17, and baptized by the fire of God later in life, but this was something new. That’s the beauty of serving an infinite God - there’s always more! He never runs out of new ways to express His love for us! It was so intense. It physically felt like liquid gold honey was being poured down from heaven into every crack and crevice of my soul. I couldn’t get up and eventually needed help doing so. I was so drunk in the spirit and full of the love of God after that. I had a fresh encounter with His love that radically changed me. This was a defining moment and I haven’t been the same since. The rest of my year is evidence of that. Some of those women continue to speak into my life still to this day. A couple days later, I witnessed the power of God bring deliverance to a friend of mine when we hugged. She fell to the ground mid-hug and another woman and I cast a demon out of her. It was the love of God flowing through us that caused a demon too literally manifest with a simple hug. That’s the power of the love of God.

To anyone reading this testimony, hungry for a fresh baptism of the love of the Father, I pray Lord, that you 'do it again with the same power and authority'! Bring breakthrough to people’s lives the way you have mine and break off anything in them that limits them from receiving your love!

A lot happened in May. A few weeks after my wild encounter with the love of God during that retreat in California, my family got hit with some devastating news. A family member had been the victim of an attempted murder and had been unconscious for days in a hospital without any form of I.D. on him. He called us from the hospital once he recovered enough to do so. He was in bad shape. A police officer had found him left for dead in the middle of oncoming traffic and brought him to the hospital. A ‘RING’ doorbell system gave detectives an audio recording of the event. It sounded like the guys who tried to kill him realized halfway through that they got the wrong guy. It was a wrong place at the wrong time scenario that left our family overall pretty shook. They almost succeeded in killing him right in front of my parents house. It was a miracle he was still alive. News of the event sent my sister into a nervous breakdown. None of us really knew how to handle any of it. I was shocked. For a few months leading up to this, I had been praying for my brother. One of the biggest prayer points I felt from the Lord was to pray a hedge of protection around him. This seemed like an odd prayer because my brother wasn’t in any trouble that I knew of. I was amazed by the faithfulness of the Lord to keep him alive and assign me to pray so strategically beforehand. A few days after we got the news, a dear friend of mine called me. Not knowing what had happened, she asked, “Hey Becca, hows your brother? The Lord’s had me praying for him.” Our family rallied around the presence of God during that time and we started praying as a family for the first time in almost two decades. The Lord used that tragic event to start bringing revival to my family. God is so faithful. Regardless of what the enemy throws at us, He uses ALL things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)

It was in June that the Lord invited me to put in my notice at my job and go on a grand adventure with Him. For all the details, check out my blog Lay It All Down. What I didn’t write in that blog was what happened right after. That same night, some friends and I sat down in my half empty living room and one of my friends said he thought he might need deliverance. As we prayed he began too full on manifest, screaming right there in my living room. Up until that encounter with the love of God, this wasn’t a normal everyday thing in my life. I had been watching Isaiah Saldivar videos on deliverance all year (he has great content - check him out) I did what he teaches based on the word of God. We commanded that spirit of infirmity and addiction back to the pit of hell where it belongs and it left him. That experience built even greater expectation for whatever the Lord was going to do at the tent revivals in Kentucky that summer. I was feeling the ‘drawing’ of the Holy Spirit so strongly (John 6:44), but honestly I had no idea what the future had in store. I most definitely did not expect that the Lord was about to lead me all over the country. I gathered with some sweet friends and they anointed my feet with oil and spoke words of life into my next season.

"The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after Him." -A.W. Tozer

Here’s my 2021 location map history, courtesy of the Google Maps App

My soul followeth hard after thee; Thy right hand upholdeth me. -Psalm 63:8 KJV

When I first made it to the tent revivals in July, I thought the Lord might be leading me up to Indiana to stay with a family I’d met at the revival and potentially teach sewing classes there. (read that story here) I flew to Colorado to pack up my sewing machines and drive to Indiana. I ended up staying there only one night. (to get caught up on how the Lord got me there and what He did along the way, check out this blog, this blog and this blog) Walking by faith sometimes looks like getting it wrong. Instead of staying in Indiana, we both felt the Lord directing me to go check out another tent revival that they’d heard about.

So in August, I made my way from Indiana back down to Kentucky again and I joined a handful of people going out to do street evangelism for the event. We would invite the people we’d meet to come to the tent revival that night in the park, where there would be miracles, signs and wonders and most importantly, the preaching of the gospel. We finished up a whole day of evangelism and went to the park to setup. Someone wanted to continue evangelizing at the skate park right next to the tent and I gladly joined them. They asked if any of the kids needed healing in their bodies. One kid had messed up his foot skating, and after the man prayed, the pain left the kid’s body. Praise God! This caught the other kids attention. They sat at the top of the skate ramps listening to what we had to say. We took turns sharing our testimonies and when we did an “altar call” and invited kids to come and receive Christ, literally HALF OF THE KIDS IN THE PARK CAME FORWARD. Praise God! Some of the kids came back to the tent revival with us and two of the them were baptized with the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues right there in the tent! One of them decided to get water baptized too. It was in that same tent the next night that I STARTED TO SEE OUT OF MY BLIND EYE. This was a wild experience for me. I am still trying to totally process it. I have had optic nerve hypoplasia (big words for blindness) in my left eye since birth. I’m still believing for full vision in my left eye, but none the less, I was able to read the logo on someone’s shirt with my blind eye and I’ve never had that experience before in my entire life. I think it’s safe to say that I have more “light perception” now in that eye than I did before. Thank you Jesus! Continue to pray for me though! Even though I didn’t receive full healing, I’m still giving God praise for that breakthrough. It was a beautiful moment and we all praised God for it! I was even invited to share the story on a local radio station.

It was also in August that the Lord led me to journey to North Carolina to continue to minister as a volunteer with the tent revival teams. They were hosting another tent revival, and just like the others before, the power of God was showing up like crazy! This revival was especially important to me because it was there that the Lord prompted me to start writing. (you can read that story here)

I stayed with a friend of mine in North Carolina for a bit after the revival, and one day she took me to a beautiful lake for a walk. We passed a man gazing into the lake by himself and I felt an overwhelming desire to pray for him. I mentioned this to my dear friend and awkwardly approached him to ask if we could pray with him. He had actually come to the lake to seek God. In fact, he had completely changed his plans for the day to do so. Instead of going to the gym, he came to the water and waited on the Lord. As we prayed and prophesied over this man, encouraging him in the things of the Lord, my heart was overwhelmed with how faithful our God is. The man started to tear up. He was simply obedient to go stand on a bridge and spend time with God. He had no idea that the Lord was going to meet him there with other members of the body of Christ to encourage and edify him with words of knowledge about his life and wisdom as to how to proceed with whats going on in his world. That’s how good our God is. He leads us besides still waters to restore our soul. (Psalm 23) When we seek Him, we always find Him when we seek Him with all our heart. (Jeremiah 29:13)

It was also in August that I got really sick. After almost two months of travel (the longest I’d been in the same place was 5 days), my body was done for. As much as I’d experienced God do incredible things all summer, it was still emotionally taxing not knowing where my money for bills was going to come from and not knowing what was next every week. I met an incredible elderly couple, not afraid of COVID at all, who took me in and nursed me back to life.

In September, I started praying and asking God for a safe place to decompress for awhile and process the last few months with Him. Mind you, this blog post is a ‘highlight reel’ of sorts, but SO much had happened in such a short amount of time! (Not all of it was good, and there were lots of hard things too that you can read about here) As much as I’d enjoyed being a free bird all summer, I was ready for a nest. When I’m traveling, my favorite places to process and rest with the Lord are prayer rooms. There’s something so comforting about being in environments like that. I started dreaming with God. Was there some sort of environment near a prayer house where I could rest? Like it says in Matthew 7:7, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” God is SO faithful. I spent the months of September, October, and November, frequenting different prayer rooms in different parts of the country, resting with the Lord, writing, and processing all that the Lord had done.

One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after:

that I may dwell in the house of the LORD

all the days of my life,

to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD

and to inquire in his temple.

Psalm 27:4

I ended the year in December with family, celebrating the holidays and continuing to let the Lord go deep into the places of my heart that need a fresh touch of His love. God is so good. I still am not sure exactly what next week holds, or where God is leading me next, but one thing I know for sure, He is faithful! He has proven Himself to be a faithful provider and lover of my soul every step of the way. The journey is not yet “over”, and I’m not sure where I’ll land just yet, but I am so expectant for 2022 and all that God has in store!! May the Lord take us all from glory to glory as we transition from this year to the next!

Happy New Year! -Becca