The Multiplication of Ministry – Part II

We’ve had a real breakthrough in the last couple of weeks. Deaf ears have been opening like popcorn! In one 14 day period in the last couple of weeks, we have seen 6 partially and totally deaf ears open! From older folks to little kids, it just doesn’t matter; there has been an unusual anointing to open deaf ears and blind eyes. Vision problems, from total blindness to simple things like near sightedness have been healed recently. I believe it’s because we’ve been thumping a spirit that has held the Western church captive for a long time, the spirit of stupor.

STUPOR
We first heard about the spirit of stupor several years ago from Bob Jones. He told us that we as a church and ministry had an anointing to break the spirit of stupor off of the American church. He gave us this scripture as the text:

“Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not; nor do they understand.” Matthew 13:13

The spirit of stupor in a nutshell allows the believer to hear, but not understand and to see, but not perceive. That’s why you can hear the same messages, read the same scriptures over and over and yet it never really takes hold and your life isn’t changed. We’ve been preaching the Lord’s Prayer over the last several years and it’s amazing; everyone has heard the Lord’s Prayer and most have memorized it, yet very few actually hear and understand what the Lord is saying to us in it! The spirit of stupor is DEFINITELY at work in the American church. We’ve been battling against it, many times rebuking it off of the people and I think the breakthrough that we’re seeing in the healing of blind eyes and deaf ears is directly tied to us coming against this spirit.

IN OKC
As I mentioned last week, we were just in Oklahoma City the week before last. We had been invited there by Brian Blount, a good friend of ours that we have known for many years. Brian has a vision for the churches to unite in Oklahoma City and take this Gospel of the Kingdom to their community. He gathered folks from several churches together and set up a weekend of equipping and ministry called Harvest Fest. We were excited to be there and 10 folks from our church were able to make it with us. 5 minutes into the city and I just knew that God would be doing great things. And He did.

Here are some of the testimonies from the weekend:

THE BLIND SEE, THE DEAF HEAR, THE LAME WALK!
On the first night that we arrived in the city, we were given the Thursday night service at a local church there. All in all, the service went well and before the night was done, someone who was deaf in one of their ears and wore a large hearing aid just to get by was hearing perfectly, from a distance! Also, one gentleman who had difficulty walking and was in severe pain and discomfort in his hip for some time was instantly healed, he could walk perfectly! One of the ladies that we prayed for received a miracle in her eyesight. Before, she needed glasses to read fine print and had generally bad eyesight at close range. After receiving prayer, when she put ON her glasses, it was blurry, when she took them OFF, she could see fine! We saw her the next day and she verified that she had received a miracle… I don’t know why we didn’t get her eyeglasses!

The following night (Friday) night, we had a WILD ministry time where many folks received some very strange, but powerful deliverances. There were multiple people that started literally vomiting as we prayed for the fire of God to come on them and they were delivered from all sorts of demonic garbage; addictions, bondages, etc.

SEE ONE, DO ONE
At that same meeting, there was a young lady, who was deaf in one ear that came forward for prayer. One of the young mommies on our team had gone last year to Mozambique and spent some time with Heidi Baker, who has an unusual rate of healing for the deaf and blind. The team in Mozambique was praying for a young girl that was deaf and not seeing immediate results. They called Heidi over and asked her to help them get the little girl healed. When Heidi found out it was about deafness, she said, “Oh, that’s easy! You do it like this!” She then licked her pinky fingers and then put them in the little girls’ ears. They prayed a short prayer and the little girl was instantly healed!

Back to the story in Oklahoma; so, they bring up this young woman with deafness and I tell them quickly to get Kathie (the young mom who went to Mozambique last year) because Heidi showed her how to get deaf people healed. Kathie walked right up, did what Heidi showed her and they prayed. Just a few minutes later, the young lady was hearing well! It must really be easy!

All in all there were dozens of miracles that we witnessed and quite a few folks met the Lord for the first time. Several hundred folks attended the meetings and several churches in the city were affected and there people were lit on fire! 70+ people were equipped and went out, preaching the Gospel with signs and wonders in their community and multiple communities were shaken with the power of God!

Come on Jesus!

The Multiplication of Ministry – Part I

Sorry it’s been so long since our last update. LOTS of cool stuff has been going on. In just the last couple of weeks, several folks that were unable to walk without the aid of canes and crutches and been healed. Several deaf ears and blind eyes have been opened and multitudes of diseases have been healed. More than that, hundreds have been equipped and released into the harvest field to “do the stuff”.

Eat that devil.

If you’ve been reading this site for any length of time, you are aware that we’ve been out there, “doing the stuff” for some time now. The last 5 years have been a roller coaster of supernatural events, with incredible displays of God’s power and glory. As a church and ministry, we’ve seen the supernatural become a lifestyle. Now healings, miracles, signs and wonders have become our daily bread.

A few months ago, the Lord used some very dramatic signs to get my attention. These signs pointed to a message that He was speaking to us: “There is an awesome multiplication of ministry on its way.” We knew that we were on the cusp of multiplication, the air has been pregnant with what the Lord was about to do. We have seen all these things, but a hunger for more is growing in our midst. And we’ve found ourselves asking, “If the Lord could do what he’s been doing with one church, or one ministry, what could He do with multiple churches and multiple ministries?”

We’re just now starting to see.

IT’S THE END OF THE CHURCH AS WE KNOW IT
My Dad wrote a book last year titled; “It’s the End of the Church as We Know It”. The book was published by Destiny Image publishers and is currently going around the world. In the book, he explains and details the ride that we have been on as a church that has been pursuing the Gospel of the Kingdom. It’s not theoretical or philosophical, it’s reality; and it’s hitting a nerve.

Several nationally and internationally known ministers, who happen to be our friends, have read the book and are standing with us to get the message out. The message is simple: “There are 168 hours in every week, who are you as a Christian, the other 166 hours a week that you are not in church?” When the book came out, the Lord spoke to us to begin to hold conferences that aren’t just conferences, but events that would mobilize, equip and send the church into the harvest fields, as well as change the culture of the church from spectator driven to interactive. We held our first one just last week and have another couple on the horizon. If the first was any indication of what the Lord was speaking about, we’re pretty excited.

Last week at this conference, we were able to take about 120 people out on the streets, many for the very first time and release them to bring Heaven to Earth in a tangible way. We just returned from a trip in Oklahoma City, where we took about 70 people out on the streets, doing the stuff. On both weekends, many folks met the Lord, multitudes received prophetic words and miracles happened everywhere we went. There was an authentic hunger within the group; a hunger that took us by surprise. We are used to folks wanting to come to conferences and many of our conferences are packed out events. But in the past, it has seemed like few were interested in actually doing ministry. Since the first of this year it seems that things are different. The saints are fed up with being fed and finally realizing that they must give away!

Here are some of the results of that hunger.

IN THE ATL
Here in Atlanta, we had two different outreaches on two different days. On the first day, the weather was bad and the teams were restricted to indoor locations only, and with 120 people too! No big deal, we have lots of places to go! We hit several nursing homes and businesses around the church. One of the groups got kicked out of a store, but just about everyone else had a good time. The prophetic was really flowing and a bunch of people received prophecies and words of knowledge. Several folks were saved and there were dozens of healings. My favorite one though happened at a nursing home. One of our teams encountered an older gentleman; I think that he was 85 years old or older. When the team preached the Gospel of the Kingdom to him, he said, “I have never heard that!” The team called him to repentance and he responded, giving his life to the Lord and receiving forgiveness after 85 years+ in sin!

85 years of the enemy’s work destroyed!

The next day we had better weather and about 100 folks to send out into the highways and byways. We headed out and broke up the 100+ people into small groups of four and five. Right away, people started getting saved and healed. One of the folks that got healed was an elderly woman who was actually in the waiting area of the emergency room. One of our teams got in there and asked her what was going on. She was deaf in one ear. The team told her of the Kingdom of God and released healing over her. In just a couple of minutes that deaf ear opened! She could hear just fine!

Another team encountered a guy that was on crutches. They found out that he had a broken ankle and was in pain. As the team preached the Gospel of the Kingdom to him, he dropped his crutches and began to walk without them. At first, he was still in pain with limited mobility, but as he walked in faith, the power of God touched him and all pain left him! He walked up and down without any pain and without immobility! The crutches are hanging on the wall at the church!

Another team encountered a man that was just released from the hospital. He had been in a car accident and was walking out the door of the hospital wearing a neck brace with severe neck pain. One of our teams told him of the Kingdom of God and prayed for his neck. As they prayed, his neck grew strangely warm. The team asked him to take off the brace as the Spirit was obviously moving on him. As he did, they prayed again and this time ALL pain left his neck and ALL mobility was restored! He gave us the neck brace and it is also hanging on our church wall!

These were just a few of the stories in the last couple of weeks.

More to come!