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God had clearly told me to speak on His authority, but I was still struggling with a title. So when I was told that the conference leadership had decided to call this year the “Wild, Wacky Women” conference, I thought, “How is my message on the authority of God going to fit with wild, wacky women?”

Of course, God was in control and He soon brought me around to see that His authority is, in reality, the thing that sets me free — free to be wild and wacky if thatʼs the way He made me!

by Linda Iorio (godcolorart.org)

Itʼs our rebellion and willfulness that undermines our real freedom. I remember one of our sons, when he was about three or four – just old enough to be allowed to play outside while I watched from the kitchen window – was always trying to push the boundaries to make a bigger territory for himself.  I told him that if he wanted to play outside, he must stay in the yard; he was not to go in the street. He had a big, grassy yard to play in, but instead of enjoying his toys in the yard, he would inevitably gravitate toward the street.  One day I saw him standing on the curb and stretching his little leg out to touch the street with his toe! He was challenging my boundary!

There was a good reason why he was not allowed in the street. The street was dangerous because of the traffic. So my rule about not going in the street was for his benefit, not just a capricious restriction on his liberty! Therefore, when I saw him sticking his toe over the boundary and into the street, my love for him required me to punish him, and punish him I did! He was so mad when I brought him inside and spanked his little backside!

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.” (Hebrews 12:5-6.)

When God asserts His authority in our lives, it is an expression of His love for us. He does not delight in our pain, but He does want us to learn to walk in His ways and to be obedient to His commands.

by Linda Iorio (godcolorart.org)

Last night in our small group, one of the ladies advised another, “When you keep running into a wall, itʼs good to examine whether that wall is really God.”

Sometimes the thing that blocks our path is not an enemy but God Himself because we are about to step over a God-given boundary and stick our toe over into the street! Our gracious God could be keeping us from getting hit by a Mack truck!  In such situations, submitting to Godʼs authority can save us a lot of pain and, at the same time, set us free to enjoy being ourselves in the nice green pasture He has provided for us.

Here are some pictures from the Wild, Wacky Women Conference in Indiana. The whole weekend was like a beautiful green pasture with crystal clear water running through it! Thanks, glory girls!

Three wacky women from the Glory Conference: Wrenna, Shannon, and DeeDee

Gloria Cotten

Worship Leaders Christa Shore and Shari Shore Devine led us into the Presence of God

Cathy and Gloria

A member of my family said to me recently, “I feel like there’s a big bullseye painted on our family by the enemy.” But the Cottens are not the only family that is undergoing Satan’s target practice. I know of so many families that are in crisis. Whether the crisis comes from the unstable economic season we are in or from sickness or from loved ones who are not walking with Jesus or from marital discord, the pain of our life-situations tries our souls. In the midst of all the pain, “He Makes All Things New” is a much-needed reminder of the love and blessing of God that are ours as His children. Having God’s perspective is so important!

This morning I read I Peter, which deals with the subject of suffering. I Peter 4:12 tells us ,“do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you.” We Christians are not the only people who suffer! Suffering is part of life on this earth.

Yes, everyone goes through suffering in this life, but the advantage we have as Christians is that the Holy Spirit is with us in our suffering. He comforts us and gives us God’s grace to endure, and He also causes the painful circumstances to work the character of Christ into our souls.

The bottom line is that God causes our suffering to count for our good and for His Kingdom. It counts individually because suffering works more of the character of Jesus in me. And it counts for advancing His Kingdom because the world sees the difference that Jesus makes in our lives and longs for that peace themselves.

Awareness of God’s sovereignty in the midst of our suffering caused the apostle James to encourage us to “consider it all joy when you encounter various trials.” (James 1:2) Job’s suffering silenced his accusers, including Satan himself. Jesus’ suffering purchased our salvation and redemption. And our suffering, if we undergo it with the grace that the Holy Spirit provides, advances the Kingdom of God. We do not suffer in vain. Our suffering counts!

Though you will still not find my name on the sign-up sheet for suffering, I will make the words of Job my confession: ” Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” and the words of Habakkuk my song:
Though the fig tree should not blossom,
And there be no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fail
And the fields produce no food,
Though the flock should be cut off from the fold
And there be no cattle in the stalls,
Yet will I exult in the Lord,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
The Lord God is my strength,
And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet,
And makes me walk on my high places.
Habakkuk 3: 17-19

I have a small group of women I disciple on Tuesday nights. The group expands and contracts like breathing in and breathing out, but there is a core group who have been coming for about a year. From the beginning this group has challenged me. They love to dig into the Word and they are quick to obey what they find there. They love Jesus and are constantly asking Him to direct their lives. All of this adds up to my great need to have my spiritual running shoes firmly laced up every Tuesday night!

This past Tuesday we got into another of many discussions on the sovereignty of God. We looked briefly at the TULIP anagram for remembering the five points of Calvinism:

T: Total depravity of man
U: Unconditional election
L: Limited Atonement
I : Irresistible grace
P: Perseverance of the Saints (Also known as Once Saved Always Saved)

If you’re interested, you can read a thorough treatment of this subject at http://www.calvinistcorner.com/tulip.htm. As I participated in the discussion and listened to the comments (some of them very passionate), the Holy Spirit was disturbing my spirit about something I couldn’t quite get hold of at the time. I intended to ask Him about it later but I forgot. He did not forget!

This morning, my Bible reading program brought me to Matthew 13. As I read Jesus’ teaching on the Kingdom of Heaven, I came to verse 44:

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

I’ve always wondered about this verse. Why did the man buy the whole field? Why didn’t he just buy the treasure? The parable that follows in verse 45 compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a merchant who sold all he had to buy one pearl. I understand that merchant. He wanted the pearl and he did what he had to do to get it. But the guy who bought the field did not start out to own a field but to own a treasure. He ended up with a field containing the treasure.

As I prayed over that verse this morning, God began to show me something about human nature, my own included! We tend to walk in God’s Kingdom the way we walk down the aisles in the Walmart. We look over the “merchandise” and decide what we want and what we don’t want. Some things we readily put in our carts: the love of God, His mercy and favor, His grace for living our lives. Other things we aren’t so sure about and would like to leave “on the shelf,” for the time being at least, things like suffering for the cause of Christ, sharing our faith with non-believers, turning the other cheek. And there are some things that we KNOW we don’t like and don’t understand and would rather not think about at all: does God really send people to hell? did God not die for everyone? wasn’t there something good in me that caused God to choose me? if I do something really, really bad, will I still go to heaven? When we started looking at that TULIP in our small group Tuesday night, we found a lot of things about God Himself that we did not understand. Some of us wanted to throw the whole T-U-L-I-P in the garbage! Several wanted to keep the T-U-I-P but throw away the L! In other words, we want to keep the things about God that we understand and see as “treasure” but we don’t want the whole field of a God Who is BEYOND OUR UNDERSTANDING!

So today I have come to a deeper place of commitment to God my Lord. I receive Him just as He is, all of Him, even the things I don’t understand! After all, He received me “just as I am” and He understood what that meant far better than I did! When you think about it, a God Who fits into my understanding would not be God at all! I need a big God, a God Who is certainly bigger than I am! I am so grateful that the whole field that is God Himself is my dwelling place. And I am so glad that He has relieved me of my spiritual shopping cart! I WANT ALL OF HIM!!

I love You and trust You, Lord, especially the things about You that I don’t understand.

Gloria Cotten

Gloria Cotten (aka Mamma G) is Wellspring’s President. Gloria is the author of In the Beginning and she hopes to write two or three more books in the future. Gloria loves the Lord because He Alone has the words of life. If she could give one piece of advice, it would be to let Jesus love you.

Deborah is from Great Britain, raised on the island of Jersey between England and France. She has a great big talent for singing, playing guitar, and for writing songs that reflect her love of worship. She loves the Presence of God like I do and has a lifestyle of dependence on God that I love. You might even want to visit her website where you can hear some more of her songs: www.deborahpira.com

Deborah is married to Frank who is the reason she came to the US (He’s an American). They attend  Southwind Fellowship Church in Aiken, SC where they both serve on the worship team.

Gloria Cotten

Gloria Cotten (aka Mamma G) is Wellspring’s President. Gloria is the author of In the Beginning and she hopes to write two or three more books in the future. Gloria loves the Lord because He Alone has the words of life. If she could give one piece of advice, it would be to let Jesus love you.

Christina Reed, a most welcoming face!

last weekend in Kernersville! (Eph. 3:20) It’s even difficult to put into words the awesomeness of His Presence that was manifested at the Wellspring Women’s Regional event. One attendee, who received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit Saturday night, said on her blog,

“In that moment it was like everything clicked. God was not calling me to be perfect but obedient. I had been obedient to my fear, not God. I was at peace, true peace . . .”

God knows each of our hearts and is able to touch us in the very spot where we are hurting. He knows how to draw us to Himself, how to communicate with us, how to heal us.

Kris also said, “I wanted every person in that room to feel as I was feeling. I felt like I had been in a fog until that moment. Everything seemed so much brighter . . .” Isn’t that just the way it is with all of us? God touches

us and immediately we want to share it with someone else! Which brings me to the reason I am writing this blog post: I really want all of you who are reading this to experience this Presence of God at the coming Wellspring Regional events. The next one will be August 6-7 at Valley Community Church in Weldon, NC.

Miss Vikki Faircloth, the queen of fellowship!

Then there will be a third event October 8-9 in Raeford, NC at Rockfish Church. God always shows up. How about you?

One woman who had never been to a women’s event before told me that she had given a false email address on her registration form because she didn’t want us bombarding her with literature afterwards. (Don’t you just love the way God works? She actually accepted Jesus over the weekend!) She was now laughing at how fearful she had been and what a good time she was having and was giving everyone her true email address to make sure she was informed about future events!

I’m going to be there! Why don’t you pray about joining me.

Gloria Cotten

Gloria Cotten (aka Mamma G) is Wellspring’s President. Gloria is the author of In the Beginning and she hopes to write two or three more books in the future. Gloria loves the Lord because He Alone has the words of life. If she could give one piece of advice, it would be to let Jesus love you.

After the 2009 Wellspring Women’s Conference, I realized that God had given us a wonderful gift. We had tried out a number of new things at the conference and they were all successful. Suddenly we had MOMENTUM! Women left the 2009 conference talking about the 2010 conference. On the evaluations, women wrote all over the margins with enthusiastic and creative suggestions for the next year. I got emails and Facebook messages with response after response expressing eager anticipation about next year. We have even had donations for scholarships for the 2010 conference already! Now that’s MOMENTUM!!

Funny thing about momentum: when you realize you have it, it becomes very important what you are going to do with it! As we sought the Lord about what HE had planned for 2010, He made it clear that He had not quite finished CHANGING things yet. Gradually, His plan has come into focus. THIS YEAR WE ARE GOING TO TAKE WELLSPRING TO THE WOMEN instead of asking the women to travel to Wellspring. Instead of inviting women to travel to the mountains, we are going to hold 3 regional Wellspring events in 3 different locations across North Carolina. Here are the dates and venues for these Wellspring Regional Events:

May 21-22 at Kernersville Community Church, Kernersville, NC

August 6-7 at Valley Community Church, Weldon, NC

October 8-9 at Rockfish Church, Raeford, NC

We are doing everything we can to make each regional event affordable while still keeping the Wellspring flavor. The emphasis on worship and teaching will remain constant. Our trained Ministry Team will be present at each event for prayer ministry. Chrissy Davidson will lead worship again and I will be teaching in each session. Heather Cotten will again organize and oversee The Nest on Saturday afternoon with additional attractions added to the activities. The character and personality of Wellspring will be much like you have come to expect, but the location and some of the scheduling will change.

Each event will start on Friday at 7 pm and end on Saturday by 8:30 pm. This time frame will cut down on our expenses and will also allow attendees to be back in their home churches for Sunday services. Holding 3 events instead of 1 and making those 3 events accessible regionally will enable more women to participate. We actually anticipate tripling the number of women we are able to involve this year!

So mark your calendar for the event you plan to attend — or mark your calendar for all three! We are going to have a blast at the WELLSRPING REGIONAL EVENTS in 2010!!

Oh, and the theme for this year’s events is: PRESENCE! Stay tuned for more updates soon.

Gloria Cotten

Gloria Cotten (aka Mamma G) is Wellspring’s President. Gloria is the author of In the Beginning and she hopes to write two or three more books in the future. Gloria loves the Lord because He Alone has the words of life. If she could give one piece of advice, it would be to let Jesus love you.

This banner also greeted the women when they entered the Arc lobby

This banner and the next one greeted the women as they entered the Arc lobby

Oh my what a conference we had! I know I always feel this way after our conferences, but this really was the best one ever! The new meeting room was fantastic — so much space for the dancers and flaggers and the artwork. The lighting and sound quality was so much better than we have ever had as to be in a different league altogether! And wasn’t the decor awesome?!! It’s a good thing I got there early because I was in tears the minute I walked into the arc — tears of awe and blessing!

Before this conference my faith was challenged to believe God to show up in power and with miracles. But He really did what He said He would do. From the very beginning His presence was so real! The board met in the meeting room at 2 PM on Friday “to invite the Holy Spirit to fill the room with His presence” only to find that He was already there to welcome US! By the time Saturday evening arrived, we were all saturated, so there had to be an overflow! Some were laughing, some were weeping, some were jumping up and down while others were pinned to the floor, some were dramatically delivered while others were quietly relieved of life-long oppression, but all of us worshiped the King of Kings with all our might and experienced the joy of His presence and the intimacy of His touch on our lives.

I am hoping some of those who were there will share their testimonies here so we can all be blessed. Many shared with the group on Sunday morning and it blessed us all to hear what God had done in others. As soon as we can get it done we will post the audio files from the conference here on the website so that you can listen or download them, so stay tuned for further developments on this site!

These banners flanked the doors inside the meeting room.

Ladies begin to arrive on Friday for the first session as a member of the male intercessors' team looks on

Attendees Camryn Smith, Connie Regan, Laryssa Toomer and Jennifer Simpson enjoy before-meeting fellowship.

The Arc, our meeting room for general sessions.

Mama Emily takes a minute to enjoy watching seeing her daughters be blessed as Cheryl and Mary confer

Kathy draws during worship

The other day, the Lord spoke this to me: “Breakthrough prayer is personal! Let’s get personal and see a breakthrough!” I recalled 2 Kings 4 when Elisha had developed a relationship with the Shunammite woman and her family, staying in their home, sharing meals, seeing a child brought to her, etc. When the child became ill, Elisha says, “she is troubled in her soul, and the Lord has hidden it from me.” He knows the Lord could have told him, but instead the woman was required to seek him out, in faith and friendship. When Elisha’s servant goes ahead of him, healing doesn’t come. The breakthrough comes when the long-time, trusted friend, Elisha, arrives and, in a very personal way — mouth to mouth, eye to eye, body stretched out on the boy — raises up the boy.

Regarding finances, I suspect many women have looked at their budget and resigned themselves to staying home. They have not made their desire to go to the conference known to their husbands. If their hubby knew, he would rearrange things and have heavenly wisdom to get his wife to the retreat. It would be great if husbands knew it was happening and insisted their wives go!!

One of the strengths of Wellspring has always been the relationships that are formed among the women. It’s always as though God spreads a special covering of safety over the conference so that women are eager to help one another and open to receive help from one another. By the time we are grown up, almost everyone has experienced betrayal of one kind or another so that we do not find it easy to trust again. But as I begin to open my heart to God, I find that He graces me to open my heart to His people as well, especially to my sisters. So I encourage all of us not have guarded hearts toward one another and especially not toward the Lord. We serve a Lord Who loves us better than we can ever love ourselves. And everything He has for us is good!

On the word about finances: The women who have been serving behind our information tables at Manna on Sunday morning tell me that an unusual number of men have been stopping by to get information on the conference because they want their wives to go! Interesting . . .