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Hearing God is one of the most important factors in building a personal relationship with Him. There are no special requirements that qualify us to hear from God. According to Jesus, we only need to be one of His sheep. In other words, to hear God, we only need to be born again. A great benefit of our salvation is to hear God speak to us personally. But despite the simplicity with which we can speak to Him, many Christians find it difficult to hear His voice. That was not the Lord's intention. So how does God speak to us in a world full of noise and distraction? Many Christians are frustrated over this topic, and we used to be one of them. Because of our religious mindset and lack of understanding, we struggled to hear God's voice in the past. We often relied more on someone else - like our pastor, father, friends or spiritual mentor - to be "closer" to God and hear His voice for us. But then a person now serving as a missionary in South America gave us the verse from John 10:27. Although Johann had memorized this verse since childhood, that evening completely changed the direction of our lives. For more than three months, Johann prayed and thought about this verse until it finally clicked, as if a switch had been flipped. Around four years earlier, we began to seek God seriously, ask about Him and open ourselves to His words. John 10:4 says: "When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice." Later in verse 27, John continues: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." Jesus, the last Adam, makes it possible for us to enter into an intimate and personal relationship with God again. When we step out of the first Adam and are born in Christ (born again), we are his sheep. This allows us to hear His voice when we seek Him. In 95% of the time, God speaks to us through His Word. When we need clarity in our walk, we spend a lot of time in His Word and pray in the Spirit. The Bible says that the entrance of His Word gives light and His Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path (Psalm 119:130, 105). Most of the time when we read the Word, we get a " knowing" in our spirit of what we should do. God doesn't usually speak to us in spectacular ways, like through an audible voice, an angel, a dream, a vision or a prophetic word from someone. This has happened at best 5% of the time in our lives. Usually we hear his voice through an inner witness, a silent voice or an inner longing. He has often spoken to us through "rhema verses" from his word. John 10:4 says: "...for they know his voice". This means that every child of God - you and I - can recognize His voice. The bottom line in listening to God is that His voice, no matter how He speaks to us - whether through a dream, a vision, an audible voice, a prophetic word, a "rhema" from the Word, an inner testimony, etc. - is identifiable! Two years after we received the revelation about John 10:27, we went to Costa Rica. We've already shared at length about our time away there. And as you all know, the key to changing our lives was not in the country where it took place, but in the Word of God. For a long time, we didn't understand what exactly happened in Costa Rica that changed our lives so much. But about three weeks ago, almost two years after the experience, our eyes were opened. A guest speaker at our church spoke about Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4. The woman returned to her town and told the locals about her experience with Jesus and what He had said to her, after which many became believers (John 4:39). The people believed in Jesus because of the woman's story and testimony and went to see for themselves. Afterwards they said the following: John 4:42 - "They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” Or take the verse from Job 42:5, in which Job says: "I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;" Ps 34,8 - Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! The key point in Costa Rica was that we heard from God ourselves. That changed our lives! We knew and believed God because of preaching, but we had never heard from Him personally. It is very important that the Word is preached. Because faith comes from hearing the sermon, and the sermon comes from the Word of God. And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? (Rom 10:14) The letter to the Ephesians describes that we have been given the fivefold ministry so that we may be fully equipped. Each of us today still needs the fivefold ministry in order to be equipped for the work of the kingdom of God and to grow into maturity. BUT we don't need the fivefold ministry to have a relationship with God or to hear from Him. We need to reflect on what we have heard and search the Bible for ourselves to see for ourselves whether it is true to what was preached and let it move in our hearts, let the seed sprout. In Joshua chapter 1, God commissions and encourages Joshua as the leader of the people. In verse 8 of the same chapter, God tells Joshua to meditate in the Word day and night so that he will prosper and act wisely. The word "meditate" in Hebrew (hâgâh) means: to moan, growl, utter, muse, mutter, meditate, devise, plot, speak (Strong #H1897) How do we know that we have heard God's voice and not someone else's? When we believe that the Lord speaks to us in some way, we always measure those impressions against what we know about Him. How does what I believe to have heard from Him fit with what I know about His Word, His character and His nature? How does it affect my relationships with others? Is it loving or selfish? Does it bring peace to my heart or confusion? Does it lead to freedom or bondage? These are just some of the factors we use to discern the voices. The only way we can accurately see the things of the Spirit is through the mirror of the Word of God (2 Corinthians 3:18). The Word of God shows us like a mirror who God is, what we have in the Spirit, what Christ does and therefore what our true identity is. The resurrected Jesus, who sits at the right hand of God, is in the realm of the spirit. The words that Jesus spoke are spirit and life (John 6:63). His word was not written down for our brain, but for our heart. It is not about head knowledge but about relational knowledge. Have you seen and tasted how good the Lord is? What do you see Jesus doing? The more we know Him through His Word, the easier it becomes to discern His voice from our feelings or other voices. We can hear and recognize His voice! When we rely on others to hear God for us, we remain babies in our new identity and are hindered in our growth in Christ. There may be moments in life when others hear for us, but this should never become the main thing. It is essential that I and you hear from God personally on a daily basis. We pray that this post will bless you and that you can hear His voice! For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. Romans 8:5 ESV

From the bottom of our hearts! And if the start of the new year hasn't felt particularly spectacular for you and you perhaps don't have any great expectations for the new year, then we have something for you. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 ESV Hope and expectation What are you hoping for? What do you expect? Can't you see much to hope for? Do you not have great expectations? If you believe in the God who created the worlds through his word, then you believe in the God with whom all things are possible. (Lk. 1:37) Nothing is too big for him, nothing is too small. Mk. 9:23 (NIV) “If you can?” said Jesus. Everything is possible for one who believes. A word study of the word everything reveals that everything actually means everything. 😉 And faith is basically trust. Trust that God will keep what he has promised. Let hope be awakened in you and go into this year with the expectation that God wants to show himself in your life and that he will show himself magnificently if you let him. All the best Johann and Betty

While we were writing this testimonial, we realized that we had already unconsciously written about it in all our previous blog posts... Do you remember us saying that the calling for our lives will be revealed here in the USA? And that we are to trust God and believe his prophets? And that we believe that the will of God will be revealed in our lives in three stages? And that we have already seen a small part of our future? Yes? Then we'll take you with us on our journey, because something very interesting happened at school on October 19, 2023. If you don't understand what we mean, you can read our previous blog posts to get an idea of what we're talking about. 😉 October 19, 2023 totally changed the direction of our lives. As mentioned earlier, we had already seen a small part of God's will for our lives. This involved just a glimpse of a picture in our hearts with little detail but enough information that we knew what it was about. We didn't share the picture with anyone, just had a few conversations with each other about it and couldn't really put it all together. On October 19, the instructor spoke in class about various things, including the need for more pastors and what it means to serve as a pastor. After he finished this point, the instructor shared a prophecy given by the Spirit to us students. He said that this prophecy is for a person in this room and that it is about the call that person has on their life. He started by saying that the person knows what God's vision for their life is, and expressed it. Part of it was exactly what we had talked about weeks and months before. The prophecy included a vision built on three stages. He clearly described what each stage was about, followed by a few specific details. When he spoke of the last stage, it almost exactly matched the picture we had seen, and the prophecy even extended the picture! And BOOM, Johann's heart was almost beating out of his chest. He knew immediately that this prophecy was for our lives because it was so specifically given. At the end of the prophecy, the instructor said that this person needs to repent (change their thinking) because they don't want to take the first step. And that was true. Because the first step is to be the pastor of a church. Not forever, but for a certain period of time. And that's something we both never wanted to do. We had agreed on this topic for years. Nevertheless, in the weeks before, some of our conversations had gone in the direction of us possibly serving as pastors one day. God had already awakened something in our hearts in this regard. At that moment, Johann had so much going through his mind that he couldn't follow the lessons for the rest of the day. "What just happened here? Surely it can't be? How did he know what we had seen as a picture of our future?" It is clear that we are connected to each other through the Spirit and in Christ and that the Holy Spirit opened this up to the instructor. Once home, Johann told Betty everything that had happened at school. We then replayed the lesson recording and Betty immediately confirmed that this was exactly what we had been talking about for the past weeks and months. We both had our struggles, especially with the first step of being pastors. It made us think for several days. But we decided to be obedient and answered the call. We now see that we have already had encounters with all the prophesied steps in the past. God prepared us years in advance without us understanding it. During our conversations about the vision and prophecy, several events from the last few years came to mind that were already an indication of our calling. At the time, however, we didn't think much of it. For example, Johann recalls these four encounters in the last few months alone where we were associated with the pastor's ministry. When we arrived in the USA, we had to tell customs what our goal was with our studies. "We don't yet know what we're going to do after our studies," said Johann. The official then said: "I have to enter something into the system. You have to give me an answer." We both looked at each other, wondering what we should say. As this took a while and he realized that we were a bit overwhelmed by the question, he said: "Shall I enter Pastor? Is that ok with you?" We simply confirmed, but didn't think anything else of it. The second encounter was in the first week of school. During the long break, when Johann went for a walk around the lake, two female students (about 55 years old) approached Johann and one of them asked: "Are you a pastor?". "No," said Johann. He realized that she didn't like this answer or at least expected a different answer. "I was a youth leader before I came to school here," Johann then said. The woman nodded, but the disheartened look remained. As the woman looked sad, Johann asked if he could pray for a specific request. She then told him that her best friend had just died and that she would be glad of a prayer. The third time was when Johann had given his second short sermon at the school. The leader said in the feedback session: "You could be a pastor or at least serve in a ministry role." One of the last encounters was a few days before the prophecy. Johann took one of our roommates to the airport in Denver because she was flying home for a few days. During the 1.5 hour drive, she surprisingly asked if Johann could imagine being a pastor. We do not yet know how, where and when we will start. God knows when the time will come. It is not a problem for us should it take several years before we enter into our vision or calling. Because there are always two steps before you enter into God's will for your life: Calling and Separation [see definition at the bottom] (being set apart from or set apart to something, set apart for a purpose). And both of these things were put into us by grace before we were born. The time between the calling and the separation can be short or long. The calling can be recognized and accepted, but the separation or fulfillment of the calling has not yet occurred. Both come from God. The Bible gives us several examples where this principle can be seen. For example, after Paul was called, he was allowed or rather had to wait more than 14 years before he entered into his calling. Joseph waited and persevered for over 13 years until the vision given by God was fulfilled. Elisha ran along with Elijah for 10 years after his call before he then took over Elijah's ministry and so on. But what about the time between God's call and the separation? Between calling and separation there is another huge key to the kingdom of God: faithfulness. No one in the business world or in church starts at the top. Faithfulness is proven at the bottom when we work or serve for someone else. How can we expect to be set above much if we are not faithful in the little things? Faithfulness is not something that can be taught or instilled by someone else. It is something you choose to do or not to do. And the Bible gives us several areas in which faithfulness is shown in life: Acceptance and submission to appointed authorities, stewardship of money, stewardship of things that don't belong to us, etc. One of God's greatest attributes is his faithfulness: our Father is often described as faithful in the Bible, and Jesus Christ is described as faithful before he is called true! What about qualification? We are not suggesting that qualifications or the pursuit of a degree is bad. But qualifications and character must be built on a foundation of faithfulness. Degrees of any kind will open some doors. We too are getting a degree, which will certainly open doors for us. But we have decided that until we are separated, we will not try to open or break down any doors. The doors that God opens cannot be opened for us by any person or degree, nor can they be closed again. We stir the vision we have received in our hearts and pray that the image will continue to unravel. But as we wrote in the last blog post, the vision is not our focus or our heartbeat. Our overall vision - to know God - is and remains our heartbeat and focus, even if we have stepped into our received calling. Definition Albert Barnes: Separated - The word translated “separated unto,” ἀφορίζω aphorizō, means to designate, to mark out by fixed limits, to bound as a field, etc. It denotes those who are “separated,” or called out from the common mass; Act_19:9; 2Co_6:17. The meaning here does not materially differ from the expression, “called to be an apostle,” except that perhaps this includes the notion of the purpose or designation of God to this work. Thus, Paul uses the same word respecting himself; Gal_1:15, “God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace,” that is, God designated me; marked me out; or designed that I should be an apostle from my infancy. In the same way Jeremiah was designated to be a prophet; Jer_1:5.

Fully funded Dear friends One more time, THANK YOU for your generous donations and prayers. God has given in abundance! We have now received $3400 of the $2500 goal, which is 136% more than needed. The overflow will be donated to Charis Bible College's general missions budget. As important as finances are, I appreciate your prayers - not only for me personally, but for the work of our entire team in Wyoming. Prayer is the fuel that will allow us to enter into open doors and spread the good news. I mentioned in the initial blog post that God had put it on my heart to believe for another student's fund. Logan is currently at $1950, so if you would like to support Logan, you can do so here: https://grouprev.com/charismissiontrip23-24-logan-crutchfield My prayer is that every seed you sow flows back into the kingdom of God. Thank you again for your prayers and financial support! See you in the next blog post! - Johann 😉

Are you seeking God's will for your life? If yes - then you are not alone. It seems that many people, regardless of nation, language, gender or age, are looking for the answer to this question. They have a longing to find and fulfill God's will for their lives. It is something that was put into every human being before birth and is waiting to be discovered. After God spoke to Johann in early 2022 that we should stop serving as youth leaders immediately, we were initially confused. We had just returned from Costa Rica, had both discovered the gospel in a way we never had before and were on fire to share our revelations. We had never sought to stop this ministry. Rather the opposite. At first we thought that this could not have been God's voice. However, after the same call came again and that already replacements were being prepared, we were ready to stop occupying the place of the called ones. Afraid of the reaction of quitting so abruptly and also simply lacking trust in God's plan, we put our own timeline into God's order. This led to many unnecessary problems and misunderstandings. It was evident to us that God had taken us out of the ministry because He had prepared something else. And we want to live in the will of God. That's how we ended up in Woodland Park, USA. In this blog post, we'll take you through a part of how God prepared us for our future calling. «If identity in Christ is our goal and not the vision or calling God has for us, and our motivation is to love people before we do «jobs» for God, we can build a lifestyle that is rewarding and fulfilling to find God's will for our lives.» We realized that in the past we were more concerned with what God's vision is for our lives than with our identity in Christ. Thus, we were always looking for a ministry or task that would fulfill us. It was also veiled from us for a long time that the purpose for which we were created and the vision or calling for our lives are two different things. To fulfill God's call for our lives, we must first understand God's purpose for us. Every created thing and every word of God has a divine purpose. When that purpose is understood, we can cooperate with it for our benefit. If we do not understand the purpose of a thing, we misuse it or lose its usefulness. Motivated by performance, we cannot do anything to prove something to ourselves, get something from God or earn God's love. God is not primarily interested in us doing tasks or services for Him. God, our Creator, is our husband (Isaiah 54:5) who loves us and He is not a slave master, scientist or someone who experiments on us. It is His desire to give His bride (His church or body) more than enough - an abundance that surpasses anything His bride could ever ask or even imagine asking for. Not because we serve Him through tasks or ministries or because we please Him with our obedience, but solely because He loves you and me unconditionally and loves to care for us. Because He wants to have a relationship with us. It is a relationship that is not based on works, but on love! This is also the difference with religions, among other things. Religion will never allow us to get to a place where we are constantly well or where it will ever be enough. Christ made a perfect sacrifice for us so that we can come back into a relationship with Him and rest in HIM. If we truly understood what Jesus did on the cross and that He changed everything with His death and resurrection, that understanding would transform our lives. When God sent Jesus into the world, it was so that we could have eternal life (John 3:16). And this doesn't just mean that we will have eternal life after our physical death, but that we will be drawn into a deep and intimate relationship with Him. «And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Joh 17,: (ESV)» Here we are talking about the fact that eternal life consists of knowing the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent. Because according to the Bible, relationships are primarily about giving and not receiving. In our relationship with God, He has already given everything and we respond in faith. David asked God a question in Psalm 8:3-7 and received also an answer. Mankind was created just a little lower than God. According to David, God sees a glorious, majestic, worthy, valuable human being living on this planet to rule with compassion over all of His creation. God created us for His pleasure and to give us His kingdom. In the new covenant we are a child of God through and in Christ and through that we can know God. This in turn means that if you are born again and live a grateful life in reverence for God, your destiny is fulfilled! Out of this purpose and identity, we are equipped, empowered and free to follow our calling as a new creation and not as an obligation we must fulfill for God. If we live out of our identity in HIM, we will align our decisions and our lives according to who we are and not according to what we should do! Finding God's calling on one's life puts many Jesus followers on the path to burnout. Many people experience guilt, shame and confusion because they don't know what the true meaning of God's purpose for them is. Calling is not something we achieve, it is more a part of who we are. The more we are rooted in our new creation identity as an adopted child of God, the better we will hear, obey and follow God more than we can ever imagine. Talent is not the basis for our calling - nor is it based on our performance, qualifications or what we are good at. The purpose of our life is to know and love God. And then we can love people because God's love will overflow in our lives. When we understand God's heart and purpose for our existence, we can be at rest in HIM at all times. From there, we are then free to willingly participate in the callings God has for us. Over the last few years, we have also learned that it is dangerous when the vision or calling from God becomes the heartbeat for the ministry that is being carried out. Sooner or later, when we face obstacles, this leads to great difficulties and identity crises in our lives. If we only burn for God because we are doing a service for HIM, we have missed the real and important point. Service for HIM does not determine our value. Don't get us wrong here, vision is an important part of ministry or business, but it is not the heartbeat. The heartbeat of the vision comes from your and my personal and intimate relationship with God. And that's super important as God has been speaking to us specifically over the last year and a half. What does it mean to fulfill a ministry? Ministry is our relationship to and with God that leads to an abundance that impacts others. Overflow is when your heart has been transformed into God's heart (Ps. 37:4) Your vision or calling will be this overflow The overflow will look different for each individual No one's overflow is more important than someone else's The fulfillment of our calling is the fruit of our new creation identity in Christ. If all believers, with their own unique callings and roles, live out their identity in Christ, the world will see a healthy Christian body. Do not feel left out here if you do not yet have a clear revelation about your calling: A calling becomes visible in lots of different dimensions. There is so much more to this subject. As already mentioned, this short blog post is just intended to lay the foundation for our second testimonial. Because on October 19, 2023, we received confirmation of our vision or calling for our life as a family. See you in the next blog post. 😉

What's on our minds... We've previously shared a bit about what our daily life looks like between MO-FR. We organize the weekends so that we have as much time as possible as a family. We always act very spontaneously here. On Sundays, we often head into downtown Colorado Springs after church. We walk around the park, drink coffee, enjoy the weather and look for people to bless. Most of the time, we make time for the homeless people. Depending on the person's condition, we have short or longer conversations and, if necessary, we always have something to drink with us or hand out food. We may tell you more about this in another blog post. Update #Loveyourneighbour Little by little, we are getting to know the neighbors in our area. And there are actually quite a few of them. 😊 Some of them have roots in Germany or have been there before, which led to longer conversations. The first family came to visit us. A young family with three children. We had such a good time with them that we are already planning our next meeting. They offered to help us whenever we had questions or needed anything. Betty now joins the wife for a dinner and craft night that her mother is organizing. We pray that doors will also be opened to the other neighbors. Thanksgiving is celebrated in the USA at the end of November and Johann has a one week school vacation during this time. We would like to bring a little joy to our neighbors and are in the process of working something out. Thankful or anxious? Thankfulness is often forgotten in our lives. Especially in recent days, weeks, months and years, where the world feels like it is falling apart at the seams and negative headlines flood the news, we quickly forget to be grateful and lose ourselves in worry. The Bible repeatedly calls us not to worry. Phil. 4:6 - "Be careful for nothing..." 1 Pet. 5:7 - "Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." And when it says: "Be careful for nothing", then it actually means, be careful for nothing! In the parable of the sower, Jesus draws our attention to the fact that (Mk. 4:19) the cares of this world... choke the word and it becometh unfruitful. And in Luke 12:26 he asks us why we worry about anything at all if we can't even do the smallest thing. To follow the "worries" means to be devoured by the devil in the end (to drink down, that is, gulp entire - devour, drown, swallow (up): Strong Dictionary)! (See also the context of 1 Peter 5:7.) This is not a state we wish to be in personally. We don't want to waste our time meditating negatively (meaning: thinking negatively), which also means spending intimate time with the devil or explaining to God what is bothering us during 80% of our prayer. This only makes our worries big and strong, so that they build up strongholds in us and God becomes very small in the situation, which results in unbelief. Instead, we throw our worries on Christ by telling them how great God is and what Christ has done for us. We focus on the finished work on the cross, worship God, magnify HIM and remember who we are in Christ. As a result, worries become very small, lose their power, strongholds are torn down and disappear. Our prayer time has turned into a time to thank God and remember what Christ has done for us. We are not saying that we do not bring our problems or worries to God in prayer. The "sandwich method" helps us by first thanking/praising/worshipping God, then mentioning the problem and then thanking/praising/worshipping God again. We can confirm from our own lives what a big difference it makes when 90% of our prayer magnifies God. We have every reason to be thankful, don't we? ...God has given us everything through Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:32) ...he has brought us out of darkness into light (Col. 1:13) ...he has taken all curses upon himself (Gal. 3:13) ...he has cleansed us from all sin and justified us (1 Cor. 6:11) ...given us a new identity (Eph. 4:24) and eternal life (John 3:16) ...we are his sons and daughters (2 Cor. 6:18) and no longer children of wrath (Eph. 2:3) ...over 3000 promises written down, which still apply TODAY (Gal. 3:29) ...his Spirit as a deposit (2 Cor. 1:22) and thus the fruit of the Spirit, which also includes joy at all times (Gal. 5:22) ...and there are so many more scriptures than the few listed. Thankfulness will change your mindset and focus! Jesus is waiting for you! If you don't know Christ yet, then we can tell you that he is waiting for you with open arms! He laid down his life just for you! He wants to make your past forgotten, bless you and give you back what has been stolen from you over the years. If you desire this, accept his offer - eternal life ( knowing God = intimate relationship). You can pray the prayer below and receive your salvation by faith through God's grace. God hears you, forgives your sins and gives you a new heart and his Spirit. This is a promise that he has given! Prayer: "Jesus, I need your help and forgiveness. I desire to start a new life with you as my Savior and Lord. Show me how I can live this new life that you have promised me. Through faith in your word, I now receive salvation. Thank you for hearing me and answering my prayer. Amen." The moment you commit your life to Jesus Christ, the truth of His Word immediately takes effect in your spirit. Now that you are born again, you have a new identity.

General and to the testimonial Dear friends, Thank you for the feedback that has reached us in the last few days about Johann's testimonial. The baptism of the Spirit is a topic that generates interest and discussion, even controversy and a few questions. We realize that people with many different backgrounds of faith read our blog. Also, we all stand at different points regarding faith and the knowledge of God. We are not on dopamine, running from one miracle, experience or adrenaline rush to the next. These are all things that may give some "fulfillment" for a short time, but are not our focus and what we are reaching for. Our identity is in Christ, or if you rephrase it as man, that identity is in the born-again spirit, which is also called "Christ in us." We define our relationship with God not based on feelings, emotions or experiences, but on our identity and intimate relationship with Him. As described in the testimonial, God has revealed Himself to us in a way like never before. It is not that we have been seeking or praying for this experience either. We don't focus on external influences or manifestations. But when these things happen, glory to God that we can be there and witness them! Furthermore, we are very aware of the limitations of our blog. We don't have the space (and also not the assignment) to publish our insights in extensive teachings or to write as detailed as in a book. Our intention is, as already described on our front page, to let you participate in this stage of life, to make God great and to give a little insight into the things God reveals to us. You will also find our motivation described in the section "This is us". We don't wish to convince or condemn anyone to the contrary of their insight here. If you get something out of our blog and it blesses you: Praise the Lord! We are very happy to personally answer your questions and thank you for approaching us with openness and goodwill. Our foundation is and remains Christ and His finished work on the cross. As long as we agree on that, we have no trouble disagreeing on other matters. We love you and bless you with 2. Cor. 13:14: «The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.» Love Greetings Betty und Johann

Johann was baptized! But not with water, because he accepted the water baptism in 2012 at the age of 16. On the first day of school he accepted the baptism known as "Baptism in the Holy Spirit". What had happened? First of all, I do not want to motivate anyone to copy my testimony to their life. It is the way God went with me. Therefore, I am not going into every single detail. You should not be motivated to seek the Holy Spirit for the sake of experience or gifts. At the same time, this blog post is not a teaching lesson or sermon. I grew up with the teaching that miracles ceased with the end of the apostles. And that speaking in tongues, as described in the Bible, does not come from God. With regard to spiritual gifts, until two years ago I did not know of a single person who had brought even one of the described gifts to manifest in his or her life. Accordingly, I believed that when I was born again, I received everything I needed to live. Also, I believed that speaking in tongues is something from the devil and that people who do such things are not Christians. The Holy Spirit was just a concept I encountered now and then when reading the Bible, but I did not have a close relationship with Him. This changed about 1.5 years ago after I heard a sermon about the baptism in the Holy Spirit for the first time. The rejection in me was present during the whole sermon and also after the sermon, a battle was raging inside, but in the beginning the whole subject left me cold. I thought to myself, "I am born again and with being born again I received the Holy Spirit." For what, then, the baptism of the Spirit! Further, I was taught only that there is ONE baptism and not multiple. I began to ask God in my prayers if there was more than I had been taught so far. After some time, I realized that I had to find an answer for myself. What does the Bible say about the "baptism in the Holy Spirit" or what does baptism mean in general? I started to focus my attention on this topic in the Bible, read books about it, made pro and con list and checked everything with the Bible. After about half a year, it was clear to me that the Bible does not speak about only one baptism. I started to let the word of the Bible work on my heart and renew my thoughts towards this subject. On March 12, 2023, three days before we left Switzerland and moved to Germany, I had a dream. And for the first time in my life, a voice told me to write down the dream. When I woke up from the dream, it was the middle of the night. My whole body was wet and extremely uneasy, total fear was upon me. Knowing that my words have power, I immediately spoke against it and a total peace came over me. For several days and weeks I was thinking about the dream and wanted to know from the Spirit what the dream meant. And he gave me the interpretation. The dream was about the baptism in the Holy Spirit and that there was something inside me that was choking the scattered seed and keeping me from receiving. Months went by and I got no revelation about what was keeping me from receiving. Until suddenly the topic caught up with me again in the USA. On the evening of Aug. 11, 2023, I went to a conference in Woodland Park with a housemate. During the worship time, while I had my eyes closed and was singing, I suddenly felt that I had no ground under my feet and was floating. I quickly opened my eyes and was glad that I was still standing in the same place and everything was the same as before. A few minutes later I closed my eyes one more time and again I had no ground under my feet. I opened my eyes to see that everything was the same as before. This was so strange to me that I decided not to close my eyes anymore. During the next song, when I had my hands raised halfway up in the air, my arms were supported from below and almost completely stretched up in the air. I quickly looked at my arms, but there was nothing and no one holding my arm. There was no one on my right, in front, or behind me. Only my housemate, who was standing to my left. But she had her hands down and was not paying attention to me. That's weird, I thought, and put my hands down... I didn't know what it all meant at that moment. We drove home that night and I was telling her in the car, in my then broken English, what had happened. She just looked at me with wide eyes and said, "I was speaking in tongues during worship and the Spirit gave me the interpretation that it had been for you. I saw Jesus, he was standing between us." Now things are getting weird, I thought to myself. She also confirmed to me that my body was not physically floating. I wasn't quite convinced that I hadn't imagined something and that it had been real. The next day we went to the same conference one more time. Betty and Elijah came with us as well. During the sermon, when Elijah got a little antsy, Betty, Elijah and our housemate went outside. Now I was sitting all alone in a row. In front of me was the aisle and behind me were two rows completely empty. During the sermon, I was sitting in the chair normally, my head was pushed up slightly but with some force, so I was looking at the ceiling. I saw nothing except the light, ventilation pipes, etc. Immediately I had to think of the last evening. I realized, something is happening here, this is not imagination. Something is happening and I don't understand what it means to me... After I lowered my head again, I had to think of Samuel from the Bible when God called him and he answered after the third time, "Speak Lord, for your servant hears." I spoke these words after that. Another two weeks passed and we are on our first day of school. Several speakers shared information. And then there was a change in the schedule for the day. One speaker dropped out just before her speech and someone else stepped in. He spoke about the baptism in the Holy Spirit and what it did for him. In the middle of his sermon he says, "All of you who have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, raise your hands." I turned around and about 98% of the students raised their hands! WOW, I thought, there are between 1,000 to 1,500 students here... At the same time, I just thought, don't ask who hasn't been baptized in the Holy Spirit yet! And what do you think was his next question? Correct, his next question was, "Who wants to be baptized in the Holy Spirit?" I turned around because I was sitting in the second row from the front and at first no arm went up. A visitor then came forward who wanted to be baptized into the Holy Spirit. My arm stayed down. The instructor called him forward to the stage. While the man was still walking forward, I abruptly stood up. This is the moment I have been waiting for over a year, I thought to myself! Also, my dream came to my mind. So I slowly walked towards the stage. As I walked forward, my legs and then my whole body began to shake. Fear was spreading in me! It was the same feeling as when I accepted Jesus as my Savior for my life around 7 to 8 years old. And these are two different things... Which is quite interesting.... In front of the stage, two people started praying over me. And nothing happened... I wasn't waiting for a physical manifestation, but for the speaking in tongues to come out of my mouth as promised. (Not to be confused with the spiritual gift given for the general public. I am speaking here of the personal speaking in tongues). As the people continued to pray, many thoughts went through my mind. "I told you that you would not speak in tongues. People didn't tell you the truth!" or "You're not emotional enough, you shouldn't just stand there and wait for it to automatically come out of you. Throw yourself on the floor or start screaming..." And all such weird stuff was going through my head, which I stood against inside. And also one of the people unexpectedly said, "You may not experience the manifestation until a few days later." To which I promptly replied, "No, I know it will happen here and now! I'm just blocked inside."The person grabbed me by the back of the neck and we prayed together again. Then the blockade broke inside me! It was as if a barrier would break and the power of the water flowed through me. Immediately my tongue was released and speaking in tongues came out of me automatically. We let it run for a few minutes and then stopped. Since that moment, by the grace of God, speaking in tongues has been given to me that I can start and stop at any time I want. I thank God as often as I exercise it for the gift He has given me. It is not something that I have earned by any work. It is a part of the work of redemption and a promise that he has given us, of which I am biblically convinced, which is available to everyone by faith. But everyone do their own research to see if they believe it is biblically right or wrong.

Hello friends, I'm very happy to share with you what the support of people like you is doing in my life and in the lives of many others. We are beginning to see a wonderful harvest for the Kingdom of God already! Here are two recent testimonies from students who have returned from their mission trips: "God used my mission trip to show me that no matter what you have done in the past, no matter where you have been, if you submit to God's will, He can and will use you to change the lives of others simply by giving a testimony. I am grateful for the change that has taken place in me." - Matthew "On my trip to North Carolina, we worked at a transitional home for people who are between two life situations. We celebrated an outdoor service for them, and at the end I did an altar call. Two little girls came forward and I was able to lead them to Christ. I felt so honored that God had used me. Afterwards, I was able to tell them about God's faithfulness and nearness, even in their difficult situation. From then on, I knew that their lives would be changed forever.» - Carigan https://www.wyomingnewsnow.tv/2021/01/21/college-students-from-colorado-took-mission-trip-to-fremont-county/ Report from the Mission Trip 2021 Further information about my mission trip We will be spending the week in Wyoming exclusively serving on one of the largest Native American reservations in the US. A few years ago a German couple started a ministry there after graduating from Charis Bible College. This year they completed the building with housing units so we can stay overnight on site. We will be allowed to serve in a lot of different ways in prisons and rehab centers, at several events, etc. We will also be able to do hands-on labor and be active in current construction projects. In the next time we are preparing as a group for the mission trip. There are different nationalities and age groups represented, which makes the whole thing even more exciting for me personally. 😉 Thank you for choosing to partner with us as we will take the gospel to the world. At this moment, I am grateful that God has already provided for me with $550 of the $2,500 goal. I pray that every seed you have sown will flow back into the Kingdom of God! Lives will be changed, hearts will be healed, and people will be set free. With your contribution, you are making a difference for eternity. Very best from Colorado, Johann

...to make Him known As part of their education at Charis Bible College, all second-year students go on mission trips. After more than a year of intensive teaching in the Gospel, over 800+ students are sent out all over the world to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. Among other things, this trip gives us students the opportunity to get active and put into reality what we have heard. While on the mission field, we participate in ministries such as street evangelism, youth and children's ministry, preaching in churches, prisons, and rehab centers, etc. From the end of November to the end of March, groups are sent out weekly to different cities and countries. International students accomplish their outreach, for various reasons, in the USA. My mission trip will take me with a group of 14 people to Wyoming, USA from 12.11. - 12.18.2023. 😊 Among other things, I will be able to preach the gospel and share God's love in the city during my birthday and my son's birthday. 😉 We will probably also be able to serve on the Indian Reservation. I will let you know here when there is more information about the trip. I will also try to provide you with daily updates throughout the week. We are expecting great things and I am really looking forward to spending time with the group. You can be a part of sending me out to Wyoming. The seeds you sow in the form of financial giving or prayer will produce a guaranteed harvest in your life and in the lives of the people we serve. If you would like to contribute and send me out, you can use the link below. Please use the link shown to donate specifically to the mission and not one of the accounts on our website. See also the note at the end from the blog. Thank you! https://grouprev.com/charismissiontrip23-24-johann-nachtigall We were given the following milestones by the school: Until 10.20.2023 1500$ Until 12.05.2023 1800$ Until 02.20.2024 2100$ Until 04.01.2024 2500$ When we received the first information in the first week of school and what amounts we needed for the Mission Trip, the spirit spoke to me to believe for my contribution and that of another person. This person is Logan Crutchfield from the USA. Logan suddenly stood before me the first week of school and said that he had a specific word from God to deliver to me, which he did. 😉 The Spirit had already spoken to me about funding before meeting Logan and he subsequently made it clear to me that Logan was the person for whose contribution I should believe. If you have the call to support Logan, below is the link to his profile. He is not in the same group as me. Currently, it is not confirmed when or where he will be going. https://grouprev.com/charismissiontrip23-24-logan-crutchfield Note: All donations are non-refundable. In January 2024, you will receive an email with a year-end receipt for all tax-deductible donations made through said website. To know God and to make him known.

Our Hebrew friends 😉 August 25: School starts for Johann On the 25th of August, school started for Johann. A few days before, the whole picture opened up to him, why we are going to Charis Bible College as a family here. During his personal Bible study, the Spirit spoke to him through a Rhema word from the Bible. It is about the story in 2 Chronicles 20:20-25 where the Moabites and Ammonites fought Jehoshaphat. And they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. And when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed.” - 2. Chronicles 20:20 ESV The last part of verse 20 spoke directly to Johann. Jehoshaphat trusted God and his prophets, so he gave the received word to the people. He was victorious, which can be seen in the verses that follow. Humanly speaking, Jehoshaphat's actions did not make sense. Sending the musicians and the choir to war before the armed fighters would naturally mean sure death for these people. But that was the instruction from God to the prophets and Jehoshaphat believed it and so gave it to Judah and the others. Johann wondered, "Why does this verse speak to me so strongly? Where is Jesus in this story? This is a historical record from the OT, so why the strong sense of stirring in me?" Two things following each other have led to the triumph here, which should not be interchanged or only partly carried out: Trust in the Lord so that you may be comforted (grounded) in HIM, and Believe in the word of the prophets, and you will succeed. And especially the words "comfort" and "succeed" stood out strongly. What do the words mean in the original text? comfort = “âman” → like a parent, care for, build up or support, nurture, be safe… (Strong Dictionaries) succeed= “tsâlach” → push forward, go over, come mighty and break out… (Strong Dictionaries) And this is what we would describe as the word we received from the Spirit for our situation and calling out of these verses: If we put our trust in HIM, He will care for us like a parent and build us up for His work. The Spirit encourages and reminds us of all that Christ has already accomplished. He will direct our focus completely to HIM. And at the same time, we need a push forward in our ministry. And this happens through His appointed prophets. We are to trust in both so that we can come into God's calling and bring forth fruit. Does this mean that we shouldn't check what is said in school with the Bible? This should remain far away (#Paulus 😉). The Bible is very clear that we should check everything, that also applies when we sit in church on Sunday and the word is preached. Meanwhile, Johann was also taken down from his sometimes one-sided spiritual high horse. Correction was necessary to restore the biblical balance between the priesthood of the believer and the fivefold ministry of Eph. 4:11-13, to be equipped for the ministry and to grow in wisdom and maturity. When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take their spoil, they found among them, in great numbers, goods, clothing, and precious things, which they took for themselves until they could carry no more. They were three days in taking the spoil, it was so much. - 2.Chronicles 20:25 ESV The school is currently the right place for us, because here people give us the necessary steps to break out into the fullness of our calling. God wants us to see, live out and pass on all the prepared fullness. The harvest will be different when we bring these things together. We have been blessed so that we can be a blessing. Maybe you're wondering now why we keep talking about the calling? If not, you can also skip directly to the next section 😉 This section is important for at least one reader... We'll only go into it briefly so as not to turn this post into a book 😉 . In the sabbatical we went through the entire epistle to the Romans for just about 7 weeks. And there Romans 12:1-2 changed our life and became our prayer: «…that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.» Rom 12:2 KJV. We believe that God shows us His will in 3 levels. The context gives the instructions on how you can find the will of God. We decided to become the living sacrifice and offered our lives to Him. With this decision, our lives changed significantly. And after the seed rose in our hearts, we made the changes that the Spirit showed us. And yes, the first calling is to be and remain with God, but don't miss when He shows you the next steps. «And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach…» Mark 3:14-15 KJV. As mentioned before, just a brief glimpse of how God has spoken to us in this period. When God sends you to a place or to perform a service, He will also prepare you for it. However that preparation may look for you. Trust in the Lord and listen to His voice and RESPOND to it! AMEN?! Thus, we can already say here that our goal is definitely to go into full-time service for the Kingdom of God according to God's timing. We also already know what the goal and calling is for us as a family. We have only seen a small part of the big picture, but that is enough for us to know which direction to go. One question that we have been asked independently since July has been with us daily and has a strong influence on our future. It is the question, "Are you willing to pay the price?" This question greatly stretched us in the beginning. We both asked ourselves the question, "What is meant by price?". And after prayerfully asking what it meant specifically for each of us, we had to stop and take a breath after hearing the answer... It definitely has an impact in many different areas of our lives… And what does Johann's usual school day look like? Every day a 40min car ride about 700 meters in altitude stands on the routine. The lessons always take place from Monday to Friday from 8am to 12pm. Johann spends most of his time on campus together with about 380 other second year students. The total of more than 1'000 students are between 16 and >86 years young. Johann has already met many different people from different nations and ages which has led to interesting conversations.. School for Betty With school officially starting at Woodland Park, Betty has also begun investing time each day in studies. With online study, she can work at her own pace and remain flexible. Classes at Woodland Park are recorded every 3-4 years and the videos then serve as teaching sessions for online students. Betty spends the mornings with Elijah and if he naps for more than half an hour, she even manages to watch a lesson early. :-D Around 1 p.m. Johann is home and after lunch he takes over Elijah. So Betty has the afternoon free to study. When Elijah is in bed in the evening, we both have some time for self-study, to catch up on some work, to spend time together or with other people.

After the first few weeks, which felt a lot like a vacation, we finally settled into the U.S. for real. A lot of organization had to be taken care of. As with any move to another country, you first have to get to know the laws and customs. With all the cultural differences, we are glad to have roommates who grew up in this country and can help. We are very grateful for all the people who gave us assistance and helped us out especially in the early days. We spent some time thinking about which transportation we should use here in the USA. There is hardly any public transportation in our area. All of our housemates brought one or even two cars. In the beginning we were allowed to use their cars, but soon we realized that we also needed a car of our own. So we looked around on the common auto-buying sites. We noticed that cars in good condition for a good price leave the marketplace quickly again. Sometimes the cars are already sold after less than 12 hours. Since Johann always wanted to sleep at least one night over it and seek God in the situation, many good offers passed us by. 😉 However, in this case Johann held on to wanting to make a decision out of rest. One evening we spotted a car that had just been posted at 10pm. We waited until morning and knew that this car could be the one. A good price and relatively low mileage. After the test drive - the same day - it was clear that this was to be our car. We drove to the bank to withdraw the money for it. But at all banks we ran into the problem that with a foreign account we could only withdraw $1,000 a day. To get more, we need to create an American bank account. This was not in our interest, so one person helped us and paid the money forward. We were able to experience again that the right people are in the right place at the right time. This is our loyal companion for the next time ;-) Two days after we bought our car, we had a flat tire. We were just about to go shopping, saw it and started laughing at first. For whatever reason... 😊 Our housemates immediately offered us a car so that we could do our shopping. When we came back, one of our housemates had already removed the broken tire without much fanfare and mounted the spare wheel. He then also took the broken tire to his place of work the next day, where he could have it patched free of charge, and then also exchanged the spare wheel for the patched tire again in the evening. That's just a little snippet of how we live together as a housing community. Everyone is super helpful and supports without big questions where need is seen. «Love your neighbour»… A call from the Bible that we also frequently ran into on merchandise in Switzerland. We had engaged with this statement during our time in Switzerland and we enjoyed spending time with our neighbors there. (Greetings at this point to all our neighbors who are reading along 😉) We also want to make great ties with our neighbors here in Colorado Springs. The fact that we are often out and about with Elijah, walking rounds around the block, soon led to many neighbors taking notice of us, since hardly anyone else is out walking. Elijah is a ray of sunshine and many conversations arise because people are simply drawn to small children. 😊 We also experience this again and again on the go when shopping. So we have had several very good and interesting interactions. We hope that some will soon take heart and make use of our invitation to coffee & cake. The love of God for our neighbors and also for the people in the city is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. In Colorado Springs we have seen and experienced people like never before in our lives. People with obvious big problems, be it physical or spiritual. And yet we love the people here and want to pass on the love of God. We have been blessed so that we can bless other people! AMEN! Next blogpost In the next post we will give you an insight into the first weeks of school. After that, there will be a first feature about Johann's future mission trip. We will also share about that here in the blog. 💡 Lightbulb-Moment (In the future, this is where we share with you a short revelation that we got.) Did you know that in Genesis 8:8-12, the three different ages of the Holy Spirit are symbolically represented by shadow images? Shadow images means: pictures are used to explain spiritual truths. V. 9: the dove is being sent out ➞ does not find a resting place ➞ returns The age of the OT (Genesis to Malachi); the Holy Spirit came upon certain people at certain times to perform a certain ministry and then left them again. In the age of the OT, the Holy Spirit did not find a resting place. V. 11: the dove is being sent out ➞ returns with an olive leaf ➞ no more judgment Age of the Gospels (Matthew to John); the olive leaf in the dove's beak symbolizes the end of God's judgment on sin. This judgment was placed on Christ. V. 12: the dove is being sent out ➞ does not return anymore Age of the church (Pentecost until today); the spirit comes and dwells in the believer forever. This promise was already prophesied by Joel in the OT and was fulfilled at Pentecost.