Sunday, June 26, 2005

Baby Raised From The Dead!

Look out devil! We just had our first "Dead Raising" and we are VERY excited about it! This is the testimony of an eye witness, a young mommy in our church.


Once again, Jesus has proven Himself as King and Lord, even over death!

Ryan


*****************************************************************

My brother had called me a few weeks before his wife was supposed to deliver their baby girl and asked me if I could be in the delivery room with him because he did not know that he could do it alone. My brother is an unbeliever and so I was excited about this opportunity because I knew I would get to pray while I was there. He told me that he wanted me to come because he thought I would be the least religious one in the family and he knew that I would not "do anything weird" while I was there. 0I told him he was wrong that I would pray, and he said, "OK" as long as you do it quietly."

I got the call on June 10, 2005, my brother was calling to tell me to come to the hospital we were going to be having a baby here in a while! I arrived at the hospital and my sister-in- law began to push and the nurse told her that she would call for the doctor to come in as soon as the baby had crowned. The baby started to crown and the nurse called for the doctor. She got a call back that the doctor was in a surgery and that she would not be able to be there yet. The nurse seemed a little scared and began to tell us that she had never delivered a baby herself only assisted in the pushing. The baby's head came out and the nurse said to my sister in law, "You are going to have to stop pushing because the cord is wrapped around this babies neck."

The nurse looked at me and my brother and me and told us that the baby was dead. The nurse went to put her finger under the cord so that she could cut it and could not even get her finger under there it was wrapped around twice and very tight. The nurse got some clamps and began to try to cut the cord. She finally was able to cut it off and she pulled the baby out. The baby was completely purple and gray and totally lifeless. The nurse again turned to me and my brother and said she is not alive, she pronounced her Dead on arrival. All during this I was praying. The nurse took the baby over to a table in the room and hooked her up to some oxygen and began to try to revive her, but then she looked again to us and said, "It's no use, she is gone. She is dead."

I walked over behind this table and I reached my finger in and touched the baby. I said, "In Jesus Name, I speak life to you, you will live in Jesus name." Immediately she jerked her head back and looked over at me and smiled. My brother, the nurses and the doctors who had come in said "What did you just do?" I said, "I just prayed." They all stood there in complete shock and saying, "She was dead, she was not alive, she was not breathing." I said, "I know but Jesus brought her back to life."

My brother was in tears and did not know what to do or say. This has opened a huge door for me to witness to my brother, he has called wanting to talk about what happened and he has all kinds of questions for me. God is awesome. I knew that something was going to happen that day and that I would have an amazing opportunity to witness to them.

Rebekah Engels


Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Miraculous Roadside Recovery!

This is a testimony from one of the young people in our church. He is 17 years old and actively doing Kingdom ministry and miracles.

Awesome!

Ryan

___________________

Jordan’s Testimony

I was driving on Highway 92 and I looked and saw a teenager pushing an older lady in a wheelchair down the sidewalk. I kept driving, but it was like the farther I drove away, the more the Lord was drawing me to pray for that woman in the wheelchair. So I decided I’d turn my car around to see if she was still out there. After I had turned around and drove for about a mile, I saw them again. When I saw that they were still there, I decided that I was going to go and pray for her. I looked for a place to park and the nearest one was a Baptist Church parking lot. I parked my car and started walking towards them.

I felt scared, I didn’t feel like I had any faith and I really didn’t want to do it, but I figured that I didn’t have much to lose if I did. So I kept walking and eventually I caught up to them. I introduced myself to them, and they told me their names. It turns out that the young man was taking his Grandma for a walk. I asked what her problem was and why she was in the wheelchair. She said “I have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.” After she said that, I noticed that her whole body was shaking uncontrollably. I said to her, “The Lord sent me out here today to set you free from this. May I pray for you?” she replied, “Sure.”

I started to pray for her, commanding the Parkinson’s to go. After I prayed for her, I asked her if she could get out of the wheelchair, she said that she wanted to go closer to her car before she does that. I asked them both, “Do you mind if I walk to your car with you?” They said “Not at all.” It then turned out that they were also parked at the Baptist church. I walked with them, and when we got near their car, I asked the woman to stand up out of her wheelchair. She stood up and walked 3 steps on the sidewalk and when she did that, her grandson had this surprised look on his face. He said “Grandma, I’ve never seen you walk like this before!” It turns out that she also had arthritis in her legs and arms, and that was the reason that she wasn’t able to walk!

She was still shaking in her arms and legs, so I asked her again, “Can I pray that Jesus would remove this Parkinson’s and arthritis 100%?” She said, “Of course!” I prayed for her again, and this time her grandson is praying with me because he’s so excited that she was walking the way she was! I start commanding the arthritis and the Parkinson’s to bow to the name of Jesus. I said that Jesus bore this Parkinson’s and arthritis on the cross over 2,000 years ago so that she would not have to endure it. After I got finished praying for her, I looked at her hands and her feet. They went from shaking like a fish on dry land, to COMPLETELY still! Her grandson gave her a hug, and then felt her hands and said, “Grandma, your shaking is gone. Your shaking is gone!” Then she said, “I can’t believe this, I’m not shaking anymore!”

They were astounded that the Lord had been so good to them. We were all shouting and praising the Lord, right there on the side of the road during rush hour! I prayed with them one more time and this time we are all but crying because the presence of God was so strong. As I was heading to my car, I looked behind me and I saw Grandma pushing her own wheelchair!

Praise the Lord! Jesus is King!


Friday, June 10, 2005

Riot! – Part III

The Conclusion...

This guy in front of me is livid. We’ll call him, “red shirt”. He’s pacing back and forth like a wild animal about to pounce on their prey. Why is he angry? He’s angry because we have gotten in his friends and his face, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom. It’s good news that made him this mad! Another reason is that all of these kids here claming a relationship with God. They all attend church and believe that they will make it to heaven. They should be happy that we are preaching the Gospel, but they aren’t. Our example in preaching the Gospel reveals what they really have; dead religion. And they don’t like it.

“Red shirt” starts making threats, telling me that he’s going to kick my @#$ and kill me. He tells me that he and his friends (gathering all around) are going to wipe us out. He tells me that I should shut up and go away… or else. The tension is HIGH. A couple guys from my group have my back, the rest of the group is now praying in tongues. The volume of their prayer increases as the threats increase. The angry Muslim guy from earlier makes a reappearance, this time with a friend or two. Instead of just anger on his face, there is a wicked grin. Something’s up. We have a choice. Back down to avoid bloodshed or keep going, throwing caution to the wind. We choose the latter.

Feeling ten feet tall and bulletproof and having an assurance of angelic protection, I take a step closer to “red shirt” and say in front of all his friends, “I defy you, the power you operate by and the anger inside of you, in Jesus name!” This sends him over the edge and he lunges at me. Out of nowhere, this little teenage girl with a scar over her left eye jumps in front of the guy stopping his charge and starts telling him that we’re not worth going to jail over. I disagree and politely ask her to let him go. Now she is standing between me and her very angry boyfriend. She starts into me with a series of questions on why we don’t just walk away. I explain to her that her boyfriend is full of the devil and the devil in him is attempting to order us around, but we just won’t take orders from the devil. She is warning me that he will hurt us if she lets go. I tell her to please not stand in the way and let him get to work. She starts a semi religious diatribe on peace, all while holding her boyfriend back. I remind her that I am as calm as a lake in winter and it’s her boyfriend that really needs the sermon.

Now she goes off! She is livid, screaming and yelling at me. Her boyfriend starts yelling at me, the gathered crowd starts yelling at us. Spit flies. I get a huge goober right in the face, I get shoved a few times. A couple folks in our group get spit on and pushed. I feel like I am in a blender, there is so much turmoil going on. Our group prays louder. The Muslim guy hands “red shirt” a pair of brass knuckles from that go over three knuckles and it has some kind of spike on it. I know now why he was smiling. I tell “red shirt” that he had better get to work, what will his friends think if he just stands there looking angry, afraid to hit an unarmed preacher? I present my right cheek to him and draw an “x” saying, “Start with this one. But you know what I’m going to do after you hit this one? I am just going to turn the other cheek, give you a big grin and say, Jesus loves you!” This is all “red shirt” can take; he has passed the point of no return and again lunges at me. But someone pushes past me from behind and jumps in front of me and him!

Before I could even recognize it, several young men that we had led to the Lord over the last couple months come up from behind us and stand between us and our aggressors! We had been wondering how committed these new believers were, not seeing a lot of fruit of their conversion, but here they were standing between us and a whipping! These new believers came up and said, “We got your back”. This one guy, a dancer we had talked to a few weeks before, stands up to “red shirt” and says while pointing at me, “If you are going to hit him, you will have to go through me!” I don’t know what happened, but involuntarily, a tear ran down my cheek. I was blown away! This was their way of standing with us and showing their commitment to the Lord Jesus. They were ready to brawl! The only problem is that they don’t understand that we don’t fight with natural weapons. We have to explain this to them because we are about to have a huge fight!

A couple guys from our team and I start to tell our new believer friends that this is not how we do things. We don’t use physical violence to prove our point. We literally have to pull them off “red shirt” and his crew. But it has already begun. They were the spark that set the forest fire! Sides square off, there is pushing, shoving and more spit flying. Out of nowhere, people with two pit bulls come into the center of the crowd. I see a knife out of the corner of my eye. People are getting baseball bats and paintball guns out of their cars. Our team is praying at the top of their lungs, literally screaming in tongues! Everyone in the parking lot is pressed into this tiny area, about 200 people all touching each other in a tight circle. I see that the situation is totally out of human control and is now boiling over. Something rises up in me and I realize that we can stop this from happening. I wade right in between the two groups and start proclaiming, “PEACE! In Jesus name, PEACE!” I walk through a wall of people commanding peace at the top of my lungs. Instead of anger and hate, there is bewilderment in their eyes. They are looking at me proclaiming peace and my team praying in tongues and they don’t know what to think!

I switch to preaching the Gospel and start proclaiming that Jesus is King and His Kingdom is on the earth! I start rebuking the entire crowd for their desire to see bloodshed and violence. I start proclaiming to them that this is the fruit of religion and that they must turn from their lukewarmness and come to the feet of Jesus! Two guys on our team take my lead and start preaching too. We go in three separate directions, wading into the crowd, preaching at the top of our lungs! There are three preachers preaching with all their might and a handful of prayer people praying with all of their might. In the spirit, you could feel the aggression and tension being drained out, being replaced with wonder and amazement. These kids are looking at us like we are flying! We are connecting and have their attention. The guys that were so ready to fight have been stripped of their anger and now are just standing there with their hands in their pockets, looking dumb. We openly defy them and their demons, proclaiming Jesus. The crowd disperses and breaks up. Some folks gather across the parking lot, but the battle is over. We have won!

A few people come out to us saying, “I’m with you guys, way to go!” We start telling them to come with us and preach the Gospel. Several young guys that just gave their lives to the Lord earlier that night are treated to a display of the power and courage that comes from the Gospel. All in all, four people gave their lives to the Lord that night and countless others are witness to the overcoming power of God in any situation.

Jesus is King!

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Riot! – Part II

John is totally possessed. He’s right in his friends face, trying to stop him from hearing what we have to say. I rebuke him in Jesus name for being a mocking devil and he eventually moves on. Erin finishes with this guy, giving him the opportunity to get born again. He chooses not to, rejecting the grace and mercy of God displayed to him that night. It’s ok though, we’ll be back.

We move on to another young lady and the Lord shows us that she struggles with extreme anxiety and can’t sleep because of it. She acknowledges that this is right and we start talking to her. Our troublemaker, John, starts to hang around, listening to what we are saying. He comes right up to me and says, “What do you see for me?” I say, “Do you really want to know?” He says, “Yeah!” I look at him and the Holy Spirit says, “John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer”, I understand this to be an extreme sexual perversion that will ultimately, one day lead him to kill. So I say, “Ok then, what I see for you is extreme sexual perversion, on a level most people wouldn’t understand”. He just gives me this vacant look, like “How did you know?” and walks away.

We continue talking to these couple of girls, but it’s obvious that it’s going nowhere. John comes back up a few minutes later, gets serious for a second and then says, “You have no idea, you have no idea!” He’s talking about this thing with sexual perversion… Before I even know what I am saying, I hear myself say, “Yes I do. I know that left unchecked, you will kill one day.” His eyes about pop out of his head, he looks dead at me and says, “Get it off me!” I say, “Are you serious? Because if you aren’t for real, if you don’t serve Jesus and get filled with the Holy Spirit, it will come back 7 times stronger and wipe you out!” He says, “Yes! Get it out! You have no idea what this thing is like; I can feel things crawling in my skull! I can’t sleep at all…” I say, “Jesus will deliver you, but one thing is necessary first, you have to get down on your knees, give your life to Jesus and cry out to Him before I pray for you”.

John goes on to mock about this requirement to get down on his knees, but I can tell that he’s serious. He’s terrified about this demonic control on his life, he knows that he’s powerless to stop it and he believes that Jesus can take care it. So, through his mocking and jeering he ends up getting on his knees. A whole group of his friends is watching intently now, all of them mocking and ridiculing. John looks right at me and says again, “Get it off me”. I remind him, “Are you serious?” “Oh Yeah” he says. “Ok then, pray this with me.”


Ryan: “Lord Jesus”
John: “Lord Jesus”


Ryan: “I make you the Lord and King of my life”
John: “I make you the Lord and King of my life”


Ryan: “This day, I am finished with the devil and the kingdom of darkness”
John: “This day, I am finished with the devil and the kingdom of darkness”


Ryan: “I repent of my sin and receive forgiveness by your blood”
John: “I repent of my sin and receive forgiveness by your blood”


Ryan: “Right now, I renounce anger”
John: “Right now, I renounce anger”


Ryan: “Rage”
John: “Rage”


Ryan: “Lust”
John: “Lust”


Ryan: “and Sexual Perversion”
An evil glare comes over his face, the most evil grin I’ve ever seen washes over him and we’re looking right at the face of the devil! His lips start to quiver and his eye starts to twitch.

John: (in a whisper) “I can’t say that one”.


Ryan: “Oh, you’ll be able to in a minute! In Jesus name I bind you, sexual perversion! I also rebuke and bind all of the effects from being molested as a child!”
John: (Breathes out deeply) “Whoah! I feel all dizzy!”


Ryan: “Now say it with me! I renounce sexual perversion, in Jesus name!”
John: “I renounce sexual perversion, in Jesus name!”


Ryan: “Just sit back, relax and let God touch you. In the name of Jesus, I rebuke this demonic stronghold and command it to come out of him, in Jesus name! Holy Ghost, fill him with your power and might, change his life! Come and claim him!”


John reels and pitches to one side, obviously inebriated by the Holy Spirit. I smack him on the belly and command all of the demons to come out of him for the last time. He looks up at me with a completely new countenance, it’s shining and bright. At this moment, the crowd is very agitated. They are ticked off that we are messing with their poster boy for the demonic. I feel a sharp pain between my shoulder blades, like a burning and realize that someone is putting a cigarette out on my back! I jump up, swatting at my back and scream, “Who did that?!” Everyone denies it. I turn back to John, still on his knees; I give him my hand and pull him up off the ground. He stands up, can hardly walk, he’s so drunk in the Spirit and immediately starts to shout to everyone, “This stuff is for real! I didn’t believe it, but now I do! I thought it was just a joke, but it’s real!” He goes to several people, gets right in their face with the testimony of what God has done for him. He’s totally blown away and has no idea what’s going on. All he knows is that one minute he had a demon and now he doesn’t.

I turn around and there is a guy in a red and white shirt right in my face. He’s just standing there, looking at me with hate in his eyes, he’s turning red, he’s so mad. I look right in his eyes, give him a big grin and say, “Jesus loves you!” This makes him all the more angry and he starts pacing back and forth, muttering threats under his breath. I tell him to speak louder, no one can hear him. We square off, I face him flat footed and put my hands behind my back saying, “What are you going to do?” “Kick your @#$!” is his reply. “Well, do what you got to do, because I will do what I have to do. I have to preach to you!” I start preaching right to his face, telling him that Jesus is King and Lord and that His Kingdom is on the earth. I tell him that in the Kingdom of God, there is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. I tell him that there is freedom from anger, hate and the death that he is living in right now. A BIG crowd gathers. They see that there will likely be bloodshed and they want in on the action. My team is standing with me, forming a tight group. I can hear them start to pray under their breath in tongues. The pot is about to boil over...

To be continued…

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Riot! – Part I

The night started off peacefully enough. I remember when we arrived that I felt ten feet tall and bulletproof. I told the team that I was with that, “I feel Dominion!”. I couldn’t explain it other than to say that I felt invincible. Turns out that before the night was over I would need that anointing.

We sent half the team off to prayer walk the lot. The other half would jump in the fray of people and see what the Lord would do. A couple guys from our team walk over to some friends of a few new believers and get to work. Our team immediately starts prophesying some very accurate stuff. The kids are blown away. Before the night is over, they will all meet the Lord through a demonstration of God’s power.

I remember scanning the large crowd, looking for a place to begin. I focus in on a girl that we had spoken to months before. The Lord showed us that she was having night terrors, really bad dreams that kept her from sleeping. We walked over to her to see what was up. The first words out of her mouth are, “The dreams stopped”. We’re blown away. The kindness of God was revealed to her! I ask her what she’s going to do about it now. “Be good” is her reply. “Wrong answer” is mine. A couple of the girls from our team start working with the group she is with and I start explaining to her that the Christian life is not mere morality, but a complete abandonment to the Kingdom of God. She decides that she does not want to giver her life to Jesus, in spite of the fact that Jesus took away her night terrors and now gives her peaceful sleep. I warn her that today is the day of salvation, but she and her friends aren’t budging.

Come to find out, the group of guys she’s hanging with is planning on fighting another guy in the larking lot. We get them to point out the rival group and before walking over to speak to them, we rebuke them for wanting to get into a fight, telling them that the only reason they are into fighting and violence is because they have nothing better to do. We walk over to the group of young men that they are getting ready to fight, walk right up to the biggest guy (the ring leader) and tell him simply, “You won’t be fighting tonight”. He looks at us and angrily says, “What?!” I said, “You heard me, you won’t be fighting tonight.” “Why not?” he replies. “Because you will be too busy getting born again” I say to him.

This totally send his rage over the edge and he immediately starts to curse me out, saying to get the $%^& out of his face or he’s going to beat the $%^& out of me! We have realized something out there with the lost. We can never respond to threats. It is equivalent to obeying the enemy. When they tell us what to do and threaten physical harm we just simply can’t respond! Jesus is King, not their demon anger of hate! Anyway, we don’t back down and proceed to preach to this VERY angry guy the Kingdom of God. His fighting friends get involved and start to get in my face, telling me what they will do to me if I don’t stop preaching. I ignore them and continue to preach the Gospel, all the while rebuking their demons of hate and anger.

An angry young man comes up to me and says, “I am Muslim, so what are you saying, do you think that your God is better than mine?” I reply, “This is what I am saying, Jesus is King and Mohammed and Allah are nothing! They will both bow the knee to Jesus”. My new angry Muslim friend explodes in rage and jumps at me, but a friend of his jumps between him and me, stopping him from attacking me. I continue to tell him that Jesus is King. More than that, Jesus is a good King and not an angry god like Allah. In doing so, I am aware that this guy’s core temperature is going through the roof!

In no time at all, I am confronted with a gaggle of very angry young men, all intent on killing me. I receive death threats, being told that I will have my throat cut, I will be stabbed, shot and beaten to death, along with my friends. Our reply? “You guys do what you need to do and we’ll do what we need to do. We MUST preach the Gospel to you!” A couple peacemakers come up to us and warn us not to keep preaching or these guys will beat us up. We thank them for their concern and inform them that we are here to preach the Gospel, not to bow to anger and rage.

At this moment, a couple of police officers walk through the parking lot with a couple of observers (wearing bullet proof vests, mind you!), scanning what’s going on. The kids I am with see them and back off of us a bit. One of our main persecutors, a religious kid who goes out of his way to cause us trouble walks up to the cops and starts pointing me out. I walk up to the police, point to the religious kid and say, “He doesn’t like me much”. The kid is telling the cops that we are out there preaching to them and tell them about hell and things like that. He is telling them that they don’t want to hear what we have to say and can the police please remove us. The police office looks straight at him and laughs! He says, “Welcome to America, it’s called free speech! If you don’t like what he (pointing to me) has to say, then go home!” The kid walks off all dejected, as the VERY angry young Muslim guy walks up to the police and says, “I am Muslim and this guy says that His God is superior to mine, can you stop him?” The police office looks at him and begins to mock him saying, “Hello?! Welcome to the United States, we have something here called freedom of religion and freedom of speech! It’s probably why you and your family moved here in the first place!” The Muslim kid walks off angrier than ever, being humiliated by the police.

After coming to our defense, the police continue to walk through the lot. We are almost instantly encircled with more angry people than before. One kid in particular starts to mock us, saying that he is God! We walk up to him and the Lord shows us a couple of instant words of knowledge about him. He is obviously under the influence of something, so what we say to him goes straight into his spirit. One of the girls on our team, Erin, gives him a word of knowledge about himself and it’s absolutely on the mark! Before he can get control, his eyes start to water and he just looks at her with amazement. His friend, John, jumps in there and starts to tell him, “Don’t let them (us) talk to you! They are crazy, don’t listen to what they are saying!” Erin continues and gives him some words about his dad, these cut him to the heart and he is obviously shaken, saying, “Go on, you must be psychic!”

To be continued…