As You Go…

We have a few friends in South Atlanta that are hungry for a move of God in their city. No longer simply content to attend meetings, folks in several churches down there have started to hit the streets and “do the stuff”. A few weeks ago they invited us to come down to the Southside and go out on the streets with them. We were more than happy to oblige. It is our desire to equip the saints into powerful Kingdom ministry and we’re convinced that if folks are teachable and willing to take a just a few risks, God will use them dramatically.

And you know what?

We’re right!


4 OF A KIND IS BETTER THAN A FULL HOUSE
Friday night, we ministered at a city gathering and the fire of God was there in full force. There weren’t that many people there, but the folks that were there were HUNGRY. The truth is, I would rather have a dozen hungry folks than 1000 disaffected, burnt-out “professional” Christians. A “professional” Christian is one that has been in the game of “Churchianity” for too long. They are pew warmers whose only skill is criticizing and critiquing anyone actually doing anything. They are unstable, uncommitted, unfruitful and much more interested in hearing a nice message on Sunday morning than they are living for Jesus on Monday morning.

Well, that was free...

Anyway, the folks in Newnan were NOT those people. They were hungry and teachable; a dangerous combination for the kingdom of darkness! So Saturday morning we preached the basics of the Lord’s ministry, Matthew 10:7-8. The Lord simply told His disciples to:

1. GO, not stay…
2. PREACH, not suggest, argue or reason…
3. THE KINGDOM, not a watered down, “Jesus loves you”…
4. HEAL THE SICK, not pray for them or ask God for their healing…
5. CLEANSE THE LEPER, once again, not asking, doing…
6. RAISE THE DEAD, command form, not a suggestion of what’s possible…
7. CAST OUT DEVILS, not counsel them or conversing with them…

SO WE WENT “OUT”
And it was awesome. About 30 people went to three different locations and in each location the Kingdom of God broke out. Many folks were going out for their first time, but everyone returned with great joy as the sick were healed, the lost were saved and demons were cast out. South Atlanta is so ripe for the Gospel that I was struggling with jealousy! The area is full of the poor, the projects, the hungry, the hurting and dying masses of people. In the neighborhoods that we went, we were so well received that I didn’t want to leave! Five seconds out of the car we ran into a couple of guys and preached the Gospel to them, encouraging them to make Jesus their King and Lord. The Lord gave us some prophetic stuff, but it really didn’t go anywhere. So we moved on.

An older gentleman came hobbling up with what was obviously a hurt leg. His eyes were bad and looked like he had cataracts and what might have been a liver problem or something. We spoke to him of the Kingdom of God and he told us that he had cataracts and also ulcers. As we prayed for him he said that he felt heat run all through his body. We responded with, “Heat is good!” When we asked him, he wasn’t convinced at all that he would be making Heaven. We told him that he can be sure, spoke to him out of Romans 10:9-10 and right then and there he made a confession of the Lordship of Jesus, asking the Lord to change his heart and his life. He immediately invited us over to see where his house was so we could come back and visit with him and his entire family next week!


MY FAVORITE MIRACLE
Each time we go out, their is a "banner" expereience. Something so awesome that all you can do is just worship Jesus for it. But this one took the cake for me... My absolutely favorite miracle came to a young lady that obviously had been through the wringer physically. She had experienced meningitis, strokes, kidney failure and blindness. She was looking down most of the time while she was talking so I asked her how her eyesight was. I was standing barely a foot in front of her and told her to look at me. I said, “what do you see when you look at me?” She replied, “I can barely see you, you’re all blurry”. Playing around, I told her, “well, since you can’t see me, I’ve got to tell you that I’m really good looking and handsome!” The guys with me thought this was a riot. We spoke to her of the Kingdom of God and how there is no blindness in Heaven. We then told her of the Lord’s Prayer and how Jesus told us to pray that the Kingdom would come to earth, “as it is in heaven”. She eagerly allowed us to pray.

She was having severe neck pain at the time due to a recent surgery to put a shunt into her neck. She wouldn’t even let us touch her neck it hurt so badly. So we extended our hands and the brothers and I prayed our guts out for the Kingdom of God to invade her body. After praying we asked her how she felt and she told us that she was light headed. We had her check the neck pain and it was all gone!

But that wasn’t the best part.

I told her to look up at me and tell me what she could see. As soon as she looked up, you could see the difference in her eyes. Before they looked all cloudy, but now they were bright and clear! She looked right at me and exclaimed, “HEY! YOU ARE GOOD LOOKING!” We exploded in laughter and praised God that He had healed her vision right then and there! She was so blown away that she invited us back to her house for a follow up visit to check on her kidneys and to teach her the Word of God. On the way back, the guys with me commented on the miracle and said that indeed God had healed her eyes, but we needed to pray that God would give her better discernment!

Ha-Ha.

All in all 9 people met the Lord and about a dozen miracles took that place that afternoon. I made sure to tell the newly invigorated group that there was a party in Heaven. Why? Because the lost had come to the Lord! And why had they come to the Lord? Because a few people decided to preach the Gospel instead of sleep in! Good choice.

Go God!