Hispanic Harvest!

The Lord spoke to me 2 years ago and told me that there would be a great harvest among the Hispanic community. He told me that their culture was very open to the supernatural and that if we went to them there would be a strong release of signs, wonders, healings and miracles to confirm the preaching of the Gospel. Since that point, we have been endeavoring to learn some Spanish and mix with the Hispanic community. Also, when we go to preach the Gospel to the poor here in Woodstock, many of the poor happen to be Hispanic. We have just begun to see the first fruits of that harvest.

This week, we went out with Rosa, our Spanish teacher to a community that is probably 90% Hispanic. It’s a little duplex neighborhood here in Woodstock that is run down and not much to look at. In the evenings, groups of Hispanic men sit out on there front porches and lawns just relaxing after a hard days work. We went at a good time, when many of them were hanging out and started to walk up to them, one house at a time and simply tell them that Jesus is King, His Kingdom is on the earth and that they need to bow and give their life to Him.

The first person that we approached was a young guy sitting on his front porch, watching a kickball game in the cul-de-sac. We tell him that Jesus is King and His Kingdom is on the earth. While our Spanish teacher is speaking to him in Spanish, the Lord shows me a couple very simple characteristics of this guy. I see that he is a man of truth, like Nathaniel in the book of John. I ask if I can share that and start talking about how the Lord is showing me that he is a man of truth, the Lord is pleased with that and that God specifically wanted to bless him in his work because he has remained faithful to speak the truth, even when it hurts. He starts tearing up and just looks at me like, “How did you know that?” He opens up, tells us about all of his problems and says that he knows that he is not right with God. We tell him that today is the day to get right with the Lord and he agrees. Through tears and the presence of God, He dedicates his life to the Lord, repents of His sin and welcome Jesus as his King and Lord! He agrees to welcome us back in a week or two, where we will get him baptized and added to a house church in his neighborhood.

We’re excited, I see that while Rosa is starting the conversation off in Spanish that I have a moment to ask the Lord to show me something for them, unlike when I am leading teams myself and have little time to “feel out” words of prophecy.

We come up to a group a guys sitting on their front porch. There are 5-6 guys standing on this one porch area and 4-5 guys sitting on the duplex porch right next to it. They have been watching us go around and are eyeing us, some of them mocking and ridiculing as we come up. They think that we can’t understand and are surprised when Rosa and I greet them in Spanish. We’re in a groove now, while Rosa is giving them “The Kingdom of God is on the earth and Jesus is King” I am asking the Lord for words of knowledge, discernment of spirits, etc. The Lord shows me something for the obvious leader of the group and I start sharing what I see. It’s fairly low level discernment of spirits, nothing fancy, we are just calling destiny and purpose out of them, things the Lord has planted in them like leadership, gifts of healings, etc.

Next thing we know, we have been there over thirty minutes, prophesying over all of them, just one after the other. They were mocking when we first arrived and kept at it for a few minutes, but soon their mocking becomes silence, their silence becomes rapt attention and their rapt attention becomes awe. They are in awe of God. They simply can’t comprehend that God would send someone to them to speak of their destiny and purpose. They begin to tell us that they are abused and treated poorly by their daily employers. The majority of them are illegal, so they have no one to tell but us. They go out every morning and hang out in a square, where business owners, landscapers, and others come by and pick them up for day labor. Some treat them and pay them well, most do not.

They tell us that they are hungry for God, but because they cannot regularly attend church meetings because of their work schedule and because of this, most churches do not want them and reject them. I tell them that when Jesus walked the earth, He walked among the people and the common man. We tell them that we are bringing them the word of God and will come back, if they are hungry. They are elated and ask us to hear more. We preach the Gospel to them and speak of repentance, giving their lives to Jesus and making Him King and Lord of their lives. We tell them that they cannot be ashamed of the name of Jesus and ask if they are ready to give their lives to Him. To our surprise, they all said yes! They pray with us, some kneeling with us in the dirt, some crouching down. In just a couple of minutes, nine men give their hearts to the Lord!

All in all, in just over an hour and a half, ten people give their lives to the Lord, we prophesied over about fifteen and prayed for several people with sicknesses and diseases. Others may call that a banner night, but do you know what I call that?

“Wednesday”

***

PS – If you know of someone in the North Atlanta area that speaks both Spanish and English, send them my way! We need translators!!!

Why I Do What I Do

You hurry home from work to take a quick shower and change your clothes. You gobble down a small meal, intent on not being late. You kiss your kids and wife, rush off to church and arrive right on time. You take your position on the floor, music blaring; you walk into the secret place. You soak in the Presence of God. You don’t strive, you abide. You commune with God, tell Him your fears, ask for boldness and grace. He strips you, fills you and makes you new. You are energized, filled with the Spirit of God for a purpose. You get filled right to the brim and it’s time to go. An hour has passed in the blink of an eye.

You’re part of a team. You look around you and see that you are part of the army of God. Each one has their part to play, with unique callings and giftings, but right now you just feel like a believer. You actually believe what you say you believe and your lifestyle proves it. You canceled things to be here. You arranged your schedule and priorities to allow this. You’ve taken care of your wife and treated her right, she’s happy to let you come. Your kids know you love them and would rather you be home with them right now, but all that they know is that daddy has to go preach to the people. But it’s worth it. You’ll never go back to TV dinners and selfish pursuits. The Kingdom of God appearing in a person’s life is what your life is all about. You’re done with living for yourself.

Tonight, you’re heading to a house church meeting. Last week, you were in a neighborhood going door to door, preaching the Kingdom of God. It was scary, but fruitful. Lots of people didn’t know what to think about what you had to say and just looked at you like, “huh?” when you announced that the Kingdom of God is on the earth. But it was worth it for that last person you visited, that desperate lady at the brink of suicide. You had a part in her eternal salvation. If you hadn’t shown up, she may have killed herself. It was worth a little bit of fear and anxiety about preaching door to door to see her lose her fear at the feet of Jesus. She crossed over from darkness to light and now is a believer. In the coming weeks, you will watch her mature in the things of God as you simply show her what you know about His Kingdom and the Holy Spirit.

But not tonight.

Tonight, you walk into a small house in a run down neighborhood. Just when you are feeling a little uncomfortable, the new believers start to show up and your anxiety disappears in their smiling faces. It’s not a big group, just five new believers, but they are beaming with the light of God. Just weeks ago, they had never experienced life, joy and peace. Now they live in it day by day. They are buzzing to tell you their latest experience with God. They are eager to ask questions and understand more of the word of God. What’s better is that you have the answer to their questions. Not because you studied or worked on the answers, but because you possess the Holy Spirit and He is happy to speak through you. You hear yourself speak of God, His Kingdom and His Spirit. You had no idea you knew what you are saying, but it flows freely, their questions answered, your Spirit quickened.

They go around the room telling testimonies of healings and miracles. One lady had a severe kidney disease. You and your partner prayed for her a couple weeks ago and she woke up the next day without the pain in her kidneys. Another family was in the grip of poverty just a couple of weeks ago, but they were taught that Jesus is their provider and if they will just seek first the Kingdom of God, He will provide everything they need. They heard what was said and immediately applied the principle. Tonight, they are telling the stories of miracle checks showing up in the mail to pay off bills they have had for months. The atmosphere is thick with faith and expectancy. Worship starts on the guitar and the presence of God falls like a thick cloud. Several people start to weep under God’s presence, another starts to have visions of angels and yet another lies on the couch, just soaking it all in. You are just happy to be here in this moment. It’s a sacrifice, but it’s worth it. There is something cosmically right about being here and doing this, like a giant thumbs up in your Spirit saying, “Way to go”.

You close the meeting with prayer, hug a few necks, and are surprised to feel genuine compassion and love for these new friends. You head home, exhausted but fulfilled. Suddenly all of the trivial concerns of life have been brought into perspective. Money, bills, houses, cars, jobs and relationships all have their purpose, but no longer dominate your thoughts. You are concerned with seeing what you saw tonight and what you saw last week happen more and more. One life at a time, transformed by the power of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is your priority. But now the Lord gets busy on your behalf, setting up raises and bonuses at work, checks in the mail, gifts and surprises. People give you vacations for free. You’re grateful and thankful, but most of all, just in awe of God. You’re determined to make this even more of a priority and arrange your life to accommodate your addiction to the Kingdom.

If this is what happens just one night a week, what if I gave two?

Jesus Knits Broken Bones!

This just happened a couple days ago and I thought I would share it with you.

I received a call on Tuesday morning from a friend who owns a sign company. He was out of town but just received news that one of his employees was injured in a work related accident. An awning from a sign that weighed a couple hundred pounds had come loose from the wall it was attached to, fell on him and knocked him from the ladder he was standing on. He was knocked unconscious and the paramedics were called. They rushed him to the emergency room, where he was in intense pain and disoriented. The attending physician diagnosed him with a broken collar bone, a broken arm and perhaps a broken shoulder. They put him on morphine and ordered some x-rays to see how bad the damage was.

This is where we come in. We get a call right after he arrived at the hospital, asking us to go and pray for him. Another brother and I head over there and I call a friend on the way, asking him to meet us. We get in to see him, pray for him for about two minutes and simply decree that there will be no broken bones, only some bruising. As we are walking out, the other brother I called came walking in. He walked in and prayed along the same lines. But here’s the good part.

Barely more than an hour later, we get a phone call saying that they just got the x-rays back and he has NO BROKEN BONES and they were sending him home with some pain relievers for the bruising!

Get that! Jesus knits broken bones!

Costa Rica Trip Report

September 1st, 2005

A team from the church just returned home from our Costa Rica trip with Johnny and Elizabeth Enlow and the Daystar Team in Norcross, Ga. We were a team of 8 in a larger team of 41. The team was as diverse as could be with kids as young as four and several folks in their sixties. In addition, there were eight different churches represented on our team. All in all, it was good for our team to experience a different culture where they didn’t speak the language, as several of our young people had never been on a plane, much less go out of the country!

We had a good time and saw some cool stuff, doing prophetic ministry in a couple of churches and with a group of Pastors and ministry leaders. There were several healings with a couple of deaf ears opened, migraine headaches, and old injuries healed, etc. We saw several people delivered from demons too. One of the coolest things we saw was the steady stream of divine appointments and opportunities with key leaders in the country.

Concerning Johnny Enlow, I have never seen such favor of God in action. In the short time we were in Costa Rica, Johnny was on television twice giving a word he had for Costa Rica and the shows that he taped will air in 58 countries and 4 continents. I saw how you can do more in a week with the favor of God on you than you could in five years without the favor of God. Way cool to watch.

A REVELATION

One of the biggest revelations that our team had on the trip is that we see as much or more of the supernatural and miraculous happen here in the states, on the streets of suburban Atlanta, than we did in a third world, developing country on a mission trip! It’s no mystery and there’s no magic formula, we just spend lots of time with people that don’t know Jesus and while we are with them we are actively looking for the Kingdom of God to invade every impossible situation.

I remember praying for years for a release of miracles, signs and wonders, salvations and baptisms in the Holy Spirit. I remember the prophecies of what would start happening “on the streets”. Looking up from the rigorous activity and heavy ministry schedule, you could almost forget that we are now living in and manifesting what was promised years ago. In fact, I can’t remember what life was like without a steady stream of healings and miracles any more. Stories of healings, miracles, signs and wonders are coming in all the time. It’s become normal for cancers to be healed and for tumors to shrink. It’s become normal to get accurate words of knowledge and prophecy for strangers on the streets. It’s totally normal for the Lord to give us words of knowledge that lead people to get born again and give their lives to Jesus.

My, how things have changed.