God as to Water: The Musing Continues
June 1, 2023 by Cup&Cross
Filed under News, Publication, Research
by Kathryn Donev, LPC-MHSP, NCC
and His voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory – Ezek 43:1-7
In the beginning of 2011, thoughts began flooding my awareness about “God as to Water”. Scripture after the next along with revelation came in one instant supported by many questions from loved ones during this period while on the territory of Eastern Europe. Overwhelmed by the ruminations, on July 5, 2011 the topic was dismissed along with written works. In 2022 on July 5, while in North America, the ponderings proceeded. I begin looking for the article which I convinced myself was written over a decade ago, but to no avail. Only disjointed insights were jotted down on paper. The following attempts to expand on something that is far beyond comprehension.
If in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God, then God or the Word was always in existence and all things came from this. Everything was made from Him. He, God, giving of Himself, created the Heavens and the Earth. But this “Earth” was formless, but deep, empty and dark. All while God’s Spirit hovered over the waters, plural. One could imagine this as an omnipresent being floating ever connectedly to the essence of wholeness. Then, division came, but it came only from that which was in the beginning – the Word, God.
Separation of entities occurred; light from darkness for us to see the vault that separated water from water? Splitting water from itself? Electrolysis that happen with an energy input so great that perhaps came with a sound of a mighty rushing wind or sonic boom? With this endothermic reaction, hydrogen stands alone.
Everything in the Universe is made up of matter and energy. Einstein said that “Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be changed from one form to another.” The world depends on energy to provide for all humankind activities. Hydrogen is the base element of our physical universe. All elements and matter can be created from or broken down to hydrogen. That which came from water. The atom in water that is surrounded by hydrogen is oxygen; the element of breath needed to support all flesh on the earth just as God supports all life by His Spirit. The water on our Earth today is the same water that it has always been. No new water has been created. Water is the only element that exists on our planet in a solid, liquid and gaseous aggregate state reminding of the Trinity. The molecules of water are self-attractive. They are drawn to each other to support things. This characteristic of water assists in capillary action.
If it was only God in the beginning then could God perhaps be energetic water; formless, but with infinite depth. Being ever presents in everything. There are over 700 references to water in the Bible and many of these refer to God, in some way as that water. At times He is even referred to a cloud or mist attempting to label His Glory.
and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the LORD’S glory. – Ezek 10:4
In Genesis chapter six, God chose to use water as the means of destroying a sin-cursed world. Thus water became a “dividing line” between the cleansed and the uncleansed. When God delivered the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, he led them to the Red Sea. They were immersed in cloud and sea and there was freedom (1 Cor. 10:1-f). When Jesus healed the man born blind (John:1-f) he used water in the form of saliva as the “dividing line” between blindness and sight. Water is a universal solvent having the ability to cleanse. It can dissolve even gas and can recycle chemicals. There is life in water, without is death. It is mention in every chapter of the 4th Gospel.
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
-John 4:13-14
And the musings continue….
Revival continues…
2018 Revival Harvest Campaign: REBUILDING the WALLS
2017 Prophetic Revival in Bulgaria: The Search for Holiness Continues
2016 School Youth Revival Takes Over Delbarton, West Virginia
2016 110 Years ago, the Azusa Street Revival Began with a Fast
2016 The FORGOTTEN ROOTS OF THE AZUSA STREET REVIVAL
2015 Why Revival Came? by Dr. Charles Conn
2015 La France District Revival
2014 25 Year Revival Cycles in Bulgaria’s Protestant History
2014 Revival Harvest Campaign 2014 in Varna and Signing of the Scrolls
2013 End of Days Revival Series
2012 12.12.12. Revival at the End of the World
2012 Revival Harvest Campaign 2012: Revival Must Go On…
2011 WAR ON THE SAINTS: Revival Dawn and the Baptism of the Spirit
2011 Historic Pentecostal Revival Tour in Bulgaria Continues
2009 Revival Begins in Chicago
2008 Revival Bulgaria 2 Film Released
2007 Revelation Revival Continues
2007 Revival in Bulgaria Again
2006 Mission Maranatha in Revival
2006 Healing in the Midst of Revival
2005 Revival in Bulgaria Again
2004 Revival Harvest Campaign Results
2004 Is There Revival in Bulgaria?
2003 Postcommunist Protestant Revival in Bulgaria
Read also: 25 Years of Miracles
God as to Water: The Musing Continues
October 15, 2022 by Cup&Cross
Filed under News, Publication, Research
by Kathryn Donev, LPC-MHSP, NCC
and His voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory – Ezek 43:1-7
In the beginning of 2011, thoughts began flooding my awareness about “God as to Water”. Scripture after the next along with revelation came in one instant supported by many questions from loved ones during this period while on the territory of Eastern Europe. Overwhelmed by the ruminations, on July 5, 2011 the topic was dismissed along with written works. In 2022 on July 5, while in North America, the ponderings proceeded. I begin looking for the article which I convinced myself was written over a decade ago, but to no avail. Only disjointed insights were jotted down on paper. The following attempts to expand on something that is far beyond comprehension.
If in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God, then God or the Word was always in existence and all things came from this. Everything was made from Him. He, God, giving of Himself, created the Heavens and the Earth. But this “Earth” was formless, but deep, empty and dark. All while God’s Spirit hovered over the waters, plural. One could imagine this as an omnipresent being floating ever connectedly to the essence of wholeness. Then, division came, but it came only from that which was in the beginning – the Word, God.
Separation of entities occurred; light from darkness for us to see the vault that separated water from water? Splitting water from itself? Electrolysis that happen with an energy input so great that perhaps came with a sound of a mighty rushing wind or sonic boom? With this endothermic reaction, hydrogen stands alone.
Everything in the Universe is made up of matter and energy. Einstein said that “Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be changed from one form to another.” The world depends on energy to provide for all humankind activities. Hydrogen is the base element of our physical universe. All elements and matter can be created from or broken down to hydrogen. That which came from water. The atom in water that is surrounded by hydrogen is oxygen; the element of breath needed to support all flesh on the earth just as God supports all life by His Spirit. The water on our Earth today is the same water that it has always been. No new water has been created. Water is the only element that exists on our planet in a solid, liquid and gaseous aggregate state reminding of the Trinity. The molecules of water are self-attractive. They are drawn to each other to support things. This characteristic of water assists in capillary action.
If it was only God in the beginning then could God perhaps be energetic water; formless, but with infinite depth. Being ever presents in everything. There are over 700 references to water in the Bible and many of these refer to God, in some way as that water. At times He is even referred to a cloud or mist attempting to label His Glory.
and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the LORD’S glory. – Ezek 10:4
In Genesis chapter six, God chose to use water as the means of destroying a sin-cursed world. Thus water became a “dividing line” between the cleansed and the uncleansed. When God delivered the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, he led them to the Red Sea. They were immersed in cloud and sea and there was freedom (1 Cor. 10:1-f). When Jesus healed the man born blind (John:1-f) he used water in the form of saliva as the “dividing line” between blindness and sight. Water is a universal solvent having the ability to cleanse. It can dissolve even gas and can recycle chemicals. There is life in water, without is death. It is mention in every chapter of the 4th Gospel.
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
-John 4:13-14
And the musings continue….
Revival Harvest Campaign Continues…
9/1-5 Florida
9/11-16 Tennessee
9/18-25 Georgia
10/2 South Carolina
Prophetic Revival in Bulgaria: The Search for Holiness Continues
The Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 did not take believers in the Eastern Block by surprise. They had been fervently praying for God to intervene and He did. Perhaps the greatest miracle of the 20th century was Communism falling on its own. If suffering with the Regime had been an eschatological expectation, the fall of the Regime was an eschatological celebration. And through all these times, the search for deep, biblical holiness after the heart of God never stopped. For the people of God, that search was always miraculous and prophetic.
I
n the spring of 1989, a Danish journalist by the name of Johny Noer came to Bulgaria with a prophetic message. For years he had lived and travelled in many countries with his family and coworkers in a convoy of several trailers. They met the start of 1989 with a seven-day fast on the island of Pathmos where God told them to travel to Eastern Europe and proclaim the fall of the Regime. The Convoy did so through many difficulties paying a high price to minster in Bulgaria for the next three months.
The last service they conducted before being extradited by the authorities was on Easter morning at the Black Sea port city of Varna. Thousands of believers arrived from all over the country. The use of an auditorium was not allowed so they gathered outside the small Pentecostal church at the cities outskirts. They were surrounded by a dense police cordon of several hundred K9 patrols. Under these circumstances, the sermon could only be short and simple. In fact, it contained the exact words the Communist Police forbade Pastor Noer to say: “Let My People Go!” A prophecy was given that Communism will soon fall. It was fulfilled exactly seven months later on November 10, 1989.
But there was something else that happened at that memorable Easter morning. Two large scrolls were brought into the church. There, over 5,000 men and women signed their names as a testimony of their dedication to God and preaching the Gospel until revival breaks through in Bulgaria. Beside a petition to the government for religious freedom, this national declaration affirmed the search for holiness, which even Communism had not been able to stop in Bulgaria.
In the fall of 2014 our ministry invited Pastor Johny Noer to Bulgaria again. His second visit marked exactly 25 years since the Fall of the Berlin Wall. After a week long crusade in a dozen of Bulgarian cities, several thousand Christians gathered again in Varna and signed two new scrolls containing the Second Varna Declaration. The event was just like a quarter of a century ago and made clear that revival cycles take place on increments of 25 years – a period where two generations overlap. It also proved that the search for holiness has not stopped in Bulgaria.
Read Also:
Masters in Chaplaincy Program in Bulgaria Continues
Just this past week our students of the first Masters in Chaplaincy Program in Bulgaria finished their classes of the Theology Module. This is the second of three sets of courses designed to equip active chaplains in Bulgaria for a new level of ministry in the armed forces, medical establishments and correctional institutions. The theology module incorporated various subjects from several schools of thought giving the students a solid theological background on a master’s seminary level for their future ministry. We are now ready to approach the last of the three modules, which deals with clinical psychology and Christian counseling, which will involve the students in a set of research assignments and practicum curriculum contributing directly to the writing and defense of their masters’ thesis prior to graduation from the chaplaincy program. Selected thesis will be published by the university’s press as a new volume in their innovative series and turned to NATO’s research foundation as a proposal to consider chaplaincy within the Bulgarian Army, which still remains the only armed force within the Alliance’ structure which does not implement chaplaincy into their missions.
2011 Historic Pentecostal Revival Tour in Bulgaria Continues
We continued our Historic Pentecostal Revival Tour in celebration of the 90th anniversary of the First Bulgarian Pentecostal Revival with the Church Leadership Summit in Silistra – an event that has been in prayerful planning for almost two years now. It involved a day of leadership training for the pastors and workers of all churches in the Silistra region. Silistra – is a port city of northeastern Bulgaria, lying on the southern bank of the lower Danube at the country’s border with Romania. The town is a major cultural, industrial, transportation and educational center with many historical landmarks including a Roman port, remains of the Medieval fortress and a Turkish Ottoman fort. But our purpose there was not religious tourism, but rather to bring valued principles of church leadership and growth to the heart of this major educational center of north-eastern Bulgaria.
The training took place all day on Saturday with breaks in between for fellowship and discussion. We started the morning sessions with an introduction to the subject of Church Leadership and Team Work, while the afternoon brought in a major way the lecture of Structuring the Church for Growth with a review and consecutive discussion groups. It was well received and time for questions at the end was very inviting. As always, it was encouraging to watch church leaders from various denominational groups and religious backgrounds opening for learning and change, while engaging in a healthy dialogue together. Many inquiries regarded concerns of motivation which lead to an invitation to return and hold another training event specifically on the subject of Internal Motivation within Church Leadership. Then in the Sunday service, we brought a message on the Last Day Prophecies.
The trip was also very important to our ministry, as last time when we were in Silistra six years ago we signed the contract for publishing the New Bulgarian Translation of the Bible beginning with Gospel of John. It was a great joy and even greater blessing to be back and meet with our friends at Eagle Publishers. There, we discussed recent and future projects as well as new ministry opportunities in light of their new technological capabilities. We hope to partner together on several projects including a 140th anniversary of the first Bulgarian Bible of 1871, the new translation of the Gospel of Mark, our research essays on Bulgarian Protestant history and of course the long awaited Sunday School project for the Church of God. We were able to pick up several containers of Christian materials including our new translation of Matthew, which will be given to the participants at our 2011 Ministry Camp in July.
While in Silistra, we also received a special invitation to view the art gallery of one lady from the church. Her husband and she spent over 40 years painting Christian oriented murals, portraits and so forth, which have been preserved over these years and put on display. With every piece came a story and the story will continue to live on for years to come.
After the morning service on Sunday we left immediately and traveled to the old Bulgarian capital city of Veliko Tarnovo where we ministered to the newly formed Bulgarian Church of God congregation there. Although still relatively small in numbers, they have grown in size since our previous fellowship together last year, moving from home group meetings to a rented conference room in the city center. Regional Bishop, Pastor Vassil Petrov, shared with us of their search for a new method of ministry in which we were able to offer some suggestions for such transformation. From there we traveled to Gabrovo where we where able to further fellowship in the regional bishop’s meeting.
Late Monday morning we traveled to Kuzanluk where the first Baptist church in Bulgaria was established in the 19th century and where some of the first baptisms with the Holy Spirit in Bulgaria occurred in the early 1920s. We were able to inspect the ongoing church renovation there while meeting with leaders of various churches.
Please keep us in your prayers as our journey is long and the days are but few here in Bulgaria. Yet the reward of the ministry is great and the satisfaction makes things easier watching this great nation awaking for a revival with God once again. We have noticed great spiritual change since we returned with the effects of the economic crises here. And with over 400 miles driven, 4 days traveled, 5 lectures delivered, 2 sermons preached in this part of our commemorative Pentecostal Tour, you still cannot put a price on the salvation of a human soul. Go to the ends of the world to preach the Gospel is still the command. Whatever the cost.
Masters of Chaplaincy Continues in Bulgaria
The Masters Program in Chaplaincy Ministry is continuing at the Bulgarian Evangelical Theological Institute under the patronage of the Bulgarian Chaplaincy Association. It purposes to prepare chaplains in all professional areas as military, prisons, hospitals, and so forth. as it draws theological students with baccalaureate and masters degrees in their respective fields.
After successfully finishing the first module in chaplaincy in September, the students are now engaged with the second module of theological studies. All courses are taught by graduate professors from Bulgaria and the United States, at the Institute’s extension in the town of Yambol, where Cup & Cross Ministries’ headquarters are also located.
The current theological module includes the following courses:
1. Introduction to the Old Testament
2. Introduction to the New Testament
3. Church History
4. Systematic Theology
5. Religious Pluralism
6. Cults and Religions
7. Homiletic
8. Hermeneutics
National Leadership Seminar for the Bulgarian Church of God Continues
Levels 3-5 of the Leadership Seminar were presented on Saturday afternoon in the Gabrovo Church of God. The following topics were covered: 21 Laws of Leadership from a Biblical Perspective, 52 Leadership Principles of Jesus and 17 Laws of Teamwork for Churches. Plans have been made for the seminar to be held in Bourgas, Sofia, Samokov and Russe.
On Sunday we delivered a message entitled 10 Signs of the Last Days. This is a sermon accompanied by a powerful media presentation that informs of recent developments in Bible Prophecy and urges believers to prepare and stay ready for the final hour of Biblical eschatology.
After the morning service, we traveled south to meet with pastors in Kazanlak and Stara Zagora and reached the city of Dimitrovgrad located South of the Balkan Range. We were invited to speak to the hundreds of young people from Bulgaria, Ukrain, Russia and Molodva who had gathered there for a youth rally. As planned and expected we announced the release of the newest of our ministry websites – a GodTube like web community called Bibliata.TV.
Revival Harvest Campaign Continues
On September 1, 2003 Cup & Cross Ministries International launched Revival Harvest Campaign 2003 – a cross-cultural evangelistic event that purposes to enhance the ministry of your local congregations and reach to the unchurched in your community. The Compaign has already completed several successful ministry events and has impacted churches in Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi and Illinois. If you would like your church to participate in this endeavor for the Kingdom, please contact us.
