This semester we are offering a new exciting class where we will teach our students how to become Creative Warriors! Our new online class, Creative Warriors: Using the Arts in Spiritual Warfare, starts on August 15, 2023.

Each week we will look at one different art form and how it can be used in spiritual warfare. We discuss real-life examples of using this art form in spiritual warfare, as well as examples of how the arts were used in spiritual warfare in the Bible.

If you take the class, you will have an opportunity to create your own art form each week, to learn how to use that sessions art form in spiritual warfare. You will learn how you can use your artistic expression to declare the destiny that God has for you, your family, and your nation.

We want to train up an army of Creative Warriors that declare and decree what God is saying to this generation through our art and artistic expressions!

If you want more information on the class, just email me here! We also have other great classes that you can take online – check them out at YWAMHollywood.com.

** Please note: Our new class, “Using the Arts in Spiritual Warfare” does not teach the skills for each of the art forms, rather, it teaches how you can use your existing skill, in that art form, in Spiritual Warfare.

There are people that God will put in your path that make a great impact on your future. The ministry that you do together, and the people that you meet because of them, can set the course for your journey for the next season, or maybe even for the rest of your life.

Carol Owens was one of those people for me. Carol, along with her husband Jimmy, founded the School of Music Ministry International. I was a student in their first school in the USA. SMMI was a 6 week training school that became a template for all the worship schools that started after that worldwide. I was working full time, as the Director of Marketing for Pacific Bell, at the time. I had not taken a vacation for over a year, so I was able to take 6 weeks of vacation to attend the school.  I was also the volunteer director of worship at my church, working with five different worship teams. I was simply hoping to become a better worship leader for my local church.

While attending the school, Jimmy and Carol asked me to pray about coming to work for them to help establish Worship Schools all over the world. I did. Because of their obedience to start the school, and to ask me to help, I left my six figure corporate job to become a missionary. I moved into their spare bedroom, and helped them set up worship schools. I have now been a full time missionary, with no salary, for over 30 years. It has been the best adventure with God you could ever hope for. I have traveled to over 60 countries. I have taught students from over 100 countries. I have lived overseas several times. I have never wanted for anything. God has blessed me abundantly. I am forever grateful to Jimmy and Carol for SMMI, and all the lifelong friends I met by knowing them. They opened up their home, and shared their lives with me, and others in our ministry.

Carol passed away this week. She was a great lover of God. She and Jimmy wrote hundreds of songs, and their music, and musicals, (Like “The Witness”, “Come Together,” “If My People” “Heal Our Land”) sparked prayer movements and revivals worldwide. Their fun children’s musicals (Like grammy nominated Ants’hillvania) delighted young saints through the years. They also wrote a wonderful book about how to write, “God Songs.” I am certain that her mansion in heaven is amazing and filled to the brim with ‘treasures in heaven’ that she has stored up because of her faithful service to the Jesus. I love Jimmy and Carol like family. She will be missed until I see her again in heaven.

I encourage you today, to take time to thank God for the wonderful people He has used to connect you to your destiny. And, while you’re at it, contact them, and let them know what a blessing they have been in your life!

But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Psalm 22:3 King James Bible “God inhabits the praise of His people…”

I’ve always thought of this verse as God coming to be with us when we worship Him in a corporate church setting. Which He does. But, this week, I got the revelation that whenever we praise anything, or anyone, God and inhabits that praise. In other words, when we are positive, and say good and encouraging things… When we praise someone’s behavior, or activity… Even when we praise ourselves… (instead of being critical) Jesus comes to dwell there. God comes to be there with us. God comes in the fullness of who He is. 

I believe our sacrifice of praise is similar to sacrifices given to God in the Old Testament that create an aroma that is pleasing to God.

 “Present as an aroma pleasing to the LORD a burnt offering.” Numbers 15:7 NIV

And the priest shall burn all on the altar as a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the LORD. Leviticus 1:9 NKJV

Through Him, therefore, let us at all times offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, which is the fruit of lips that thankfully acknowledge and confess and glorify His name. Hebrews 13:15 Amplified Bible

I believe that God is saying that our sacrifice of praise becomes the aroma that draws God to us, just as the sacrifices did in the Old Testament. Our praise catches His attention. Creating an atmosphere of praise, and encouragement, and being positive releases the aroma that draws God into our experience.  When we draw near to God, He draws near to us! 

Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you… James 4:8a BSB

I want to challenge you today to create an atmosphere that is positive around you. Praise God for all He is, and all He has done. Speak blessings over people. Encourage them. Praise their behavior. As we do, I believe it draws God to us, and allows Him to step in to the situation in the fullness of who HE is! For God truly does inhabit the praise of His people.

Be sure to encourage those around you today. The Bible says in Hebrews 3:13 NIV: But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. Have a great week!

Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. 2 For behold, darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness is over the peoples; but the LORD will rise upon you, and His glory will appear over you. 3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Isaiah 60: 1-3 BSB

Happy New Year! Every year, I spend time with the Lord, asking Him what He wants to say to me about the upcoming year. This year, I heard the Lord say that “2023 will be a year of great glory!”

I also felt that He said to me “2023, Just wait and see!”

I felt that the Lord was meaning two things with the “Wait and see” word. 1) He is going to do great things this year, and He is excitedly saying, “Just wait and see!” AND 2) I felt that the Lord told me in 2022 that “Everything you know is about to change.” And that there will be a great freedom coming to the earth that is beyond anything we have experienced before. I felt that He was telling me to WAIT on some of my scheduled projects and investments, as things would be changing and I would be wasting my time working on those things now. So, “Just wait and see.”

I pray that 2023 will be a GLORIOUS year for you, and that the Lord will direct your steps!

Remember – Don’t shrink back from God’s call on your life. Life is too short and too precious to waste. The world is counting on you. But, you’re not alone. We are here to help. We’ve trained students for the last 40 years from over 100 countries, and now you can take some of our classes online. We hope you’ll check out our new online course “Live Streaming Video Production School” that is being offered this semester, with the class starting on January 16, 2023. You can enroll in a class today!

… Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Hebrews 12:1 & 2 

Las month, I had a dream. I want to share some of it with you today.

In the dream, I was in a car driving down a road, about to get on the freeway. BUT, I got distracted and missed the entrance, and was about to drive over the edge of a hill/ cliff. I knew that I’d be driving into a steep valley and that my car would crash. I said, “Oh no!” and quickly turned to the right to drive on a railroad track instead, knowing a train could be coming at any moment. Then, I reach another road, and I pulled off to the right, away from the mountains on my left. When I stopped the car I was shaking. 

 I was so mad at myself for being distracted and not paying attention and missing my entrance to the freeway. If I had just paid attention, none of this would have happened, and I would be safe, and where I was supposed to be going. And, I wasn’t doing something wrong, I was just not paying attention. I was listening to the radio, and adjusting the vents on the A/C – And then I looked up and I was headed for a crash, and going off the road, and missed the freeway.

 It only took one second of not paying attention and I was headed off the road, down a steep hill, wrecking my car.

 I knew the only way to get back to my entrance on the freeway, where I was supposed to be, was to get back on the railroad track and pray that a train wasn’t coming down the track right then.

I want to encourage you today, to pay attention to what it is that God has called you to do. If you aren’t sure what that is, our class, “Discover and Do Your Destiny,” is a great place to start. It will help you have the tools to keep you on the right road, and to focus on the things that are important. It will help you pay attention each day and not be distracted. You don’t want to get off course. You are almost there. It’s time to get on the freeway! 

Remember – You don’t want to miss your entrance to the freeway because you are distracted and not paying attention. If you get off your road, and on the wrong track, you could get hit by a train. And, then, to get back to where you can enter the freeway, you’ll have to backtrack – by driving back on the track – and risk, again, being hit by a train. You can learn to stay on the road to your destiny in our class, “Discover and Do Your Destiny,” that starts on January 15, 2023.