KINGDOM POWER on the street

A Letter from Jim...

2011-02-01T11:59:00.002-05:00

*For the last year, we have been going every week into a prison here in Georgia to minister to the men there. We've seen lost of miracles and quite a few lives changed. It's a good, long drive and regularly our services are canceled or cut short. It's a little bit inconvenient, but well worth the time and energy. The men there are SO hungry for the things of God! This is a letter we received last week, thanking us for our efforts.

-Ryan

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Brother Ryan,

I felt led by the Holy Spirit to write you and your staff a letter of exhortation. I want to thank you personally as well as David and David, Tamra, Elijah, Rachel Janice and all of the rest of the faithful members of your Prison Ministry team and to encourage you to continue your fight for Christ’s men here at Hays.

As you know, we are all called to continue Jesus’ mission of reconciling the lost to the Father (Matt 28:19 ; II Cor 5:12-21). He has entrusted us, as believers, to carry on in His physical absence. Of course we also know that Christ is not gone, He lives and resides within each and every one of us. The realization of the fact that Christ lives in me has been life changing for me! You and your team have faithfully demonstrated for us here at Hays just what it means to live life in Kingdom power. To utilize God’s power for others and to truly understand that God is not just some distant entity, but rather a very present help here within us; all that we have to do is look within ourselves in order to find Him! How personal and refreshing!

Thank you so much for making me feel like part of your family. I understand that it can be difficult to drive up here week after week only to be turned away, but I would like to reassure you that your love and your efforts are not in vain. You are having a positive impact in many lives here. That is why the enemy works so hard to keep you out! You are your staff are successfully equipping us to live and fight for Jesus. That, my brother, is irreplaceable! Thanks to you we are chewing on the meat of God’s word and not merely nursing a bottle.

Please continue your work in the Lord. We love you and we appreciate you! God bless.

Love in Christ,

James C. Batsel

I Cor 9:16

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Haiti Trip Report - Part V

2010-06-30T09:38:00.002-04:00

Towards the end of the night, one of our interpreters pulled me aside and brought me a young man for prayer. The guy standing in front of me was covered in tattoos, had about thirty piercings, with little bits of bone and other stuff stuck in them and he had several amulets hanging around his neck. He looked up at me with some seriously crazy eyes! I could tell by the nature of his trinkets that he was a Voodoo priest. I agreed to pray for him and laid my hands on his head. I called down the fire of God on him and he just stared me straight in the face and smiled. After a moment or two, I grabbed a handful of the amulets hanging around his neck and said, “You are going to have to get rid of these!” When I said that, he let out a nutty laugh and then turned and RAN AWAY! Not walked, not trotted, RAN! My interpreter just shrugged as if to say “What can you do?”

The first night of the crusade was awesome. We came back to the rented house where we were staying totally exhausted, but exhilarated by what Jesus had accomplished. We were eagerly anticipating the second night.

RAINED OUT!
When Pastor Paul picked us up for day two of the crusade, the weather was nasty. The closer we got to the crusade grounds, the worse the weather was with thunder, lightning and heavy rain. I placed a call back home to get our folks praying for the event. Our team stayed in the van praying for the weather to break while it poured on the crusade grounds. The weather didn’t’ let up at all, in fact, it got worse. In spite of the terrible weather, there were still a few hundred people out milling around the field. The crusade grounds backed up to a makeshift tent city and most of these people only had simple stick and sheet shelters to protect them from the sun. They would get just as wet inside the tent as they would in the field and had no real protection from the harsh weather. The band was under a tarp on stage and started to play. So instead of sit inside their tent and get wet, they began to worship as the band played and the singers sang.

Some of the kids we worshiped with

The children came out in force and began worshiping with all their heart. Humbled by their commitment, we got out of the van and began to worship the Lord with them. We worshiped the Lord with all our hearts, singing and dancing with the people for 2-3 hours out in a lightning storm! Maybe 1,000 people were out there before all was said and done. Darkness settled in and the stage lights would not work due to the rain, so we worshiped in the dark, illuminated only by the lightning strikes. It was surreal. Thinking back about it though, this was one of the most memorable moments of our trip and the most powerful. Here were these folks who had absolutely nothing materially, yet they possessed everything of value, the Presence of God! We were ruined by their worship.

After praying for all the sick in a very wet fire tunnel, we went home completely soaked and worn out.

THERE ARE WITCHES IN THE MEETING!
The third night was our last night at the crusade and our last night in Haiti. We prayed fervently that day for good weather and an explosion of God’s power. The meeting began like the others, with fervent worship and praise. We were down in the crowd worshiping with the people when a chill ran down the back of my neck and a tingling ran down my spine. Without even turning around I knew that a Voodoo priest was cursing us. I turned around and there he was, about 50 feet away and staring right at me! It was the same guy from the first night of the crusade. He had all the trinkets, earrings, but now he had a little PVC staff with fetishes hanging from it. He looked me right in the eyes and smiled with a wicked grin.

He was there to make things interesting!

I turned and faced him and smiled right back as if to say, “Let’s do this!” I watched him and he began pacing around the crusade grounds. He pulled things out of a little bag on his neck and spread them on the ground. He spit, he urinated, and he made little circles with his feet and was doing all sorts of weird stuff. I scanned the crusade grounds and could spot a couple other Voodoo priests as well. They were pretty easy to spot. While everyone was worshiping, they would stand there motionless and every once in a while do weird stuff with the hands and face. I walked over to where our team was worshiping and said, “There are witches in the meeting, PRAY!” I walked up and stood on the stage with Pastor Paul to scan the crowd.

Healed of Rheumatoid Arthritis!

OPEN HEAVENS!
Worship took off! The presence of God rolled in like a cloud and people praised and worshiped with all of their heart. Pastor Paul broke the moment to introduce the team from our church and they all told testimonies of God’s power to heal, save and deliver. He then brought up a gentleman we had prayed for several days before. He testified that he had severe rheumatoid arthritis in his legs and knees and for the last 3 years had received cortisone shots EVERY DAY! He had been in severe pain for years and was totally healed when we prayed for him!

Come on Jesus!

After telling testimonies, Pastor Paul took us through the huge crowd, praying for many people in his church that needed healing and deliverance. A group of about 15 women that were being terrorized in their sleep by demons received deliverance instantly. Wherever we went, people would reach out to touch our clothes and would grab our hands and put them on their bodies for prayer. I was getting totally messed up in the Holy Ghost and for a while totally forgot about the witches in the meeting. We were all done praying for the select folks from his church and made our way back to the stage. There was a guy standing next to the stage in a striped shirt and a big afro. When I walked by, he made all these weird hand gestures at me like he was doing kung-fu. In my Holy Ghost inebriated state I thought, “I need to whack him in the face with my hanky!” He just looked like he needed a good hanky whacking! So I stood there for a minute and hit him in the face with my hanky again and again. I walked away and thought nothing more of it.

The Presence of God in Worship!

THE REST OF THE STORY
The meeting was amazing. The presence of God rolled in during worship and you could feel the glory of God settle across the people. We encouraged folks to reach out and receive their healing and the life of God. We preached a very simple message of the Kingdom, brought many more people to the Lord and then prayed for the sick.

It was glorious.

But the best part was when we were back at the house for the night, sharing with one another all that Jesus did during the crusade. Pastor Paul very simply stated that the best part for him was the prominent witch doctor that came to the Lord that night. We stopped him and said, “Excuse me? What witch doctor?” He then told us of this evil witch doctor that was known throughout the region for killing and maiming many people through his voodoo. He was very powerful, feared and well known throughout the region. I asked him, “Well, who was he?” Thinking it was maybe my buddy with the PVC staff. He said, “Oh, you don’t know? I thought for sure you knew who it was!” I said, “I have no idea, who was it?!”

Pastor Paul told me that when we had gone through the crowd and headed back up to the stage he looked down and saw me standing in front of this witch doctor. I was standing in front of him, hitting him in the face with my hanky! It was the guy I was popping with my hanky on the side of the stage! When Pastor Paul saw me hitting him in the face, he looked down and his hands were shaking. Knowing who this guy was, he feared for my life! But I had no clue! I just thought he was a weirdo that needed a smack in the face with a hanky! Ignorance is sometimes bliss you know… Whatever happened in that moment, I don’t know, but what I do know is that this evil, powerful witch doctor came forward at the altar all and gave his life to Jesus that night!

Jesus is King over Voodoo!

Haiti Trip Report - Part IV

2010-06-24T07:07:00.005-04:00

The Crusade was to begin at 5pm that day. Pastor Paul left before dawn to make preparations for the crusade that night. The problem was that each day in Haiti began at about 4:30am with the bleating of the goats and clucking of the chickens outside our window. Our original plan was to spend the days before the crusade in the tent villages, preaching the Gospel and praying for the sick. Pastor Paul didn’t feel that this was a wise plan and had some real concerns about our security in the tent cities, so we abandoned the plan. Now we would simply wait inside the compound for them to come and pick us up before the crusade.

George beating the heat!

11 hours, in 100+ degree heat, with nothing to do. So we worshiped, we prayed, we ate, we napped, we talked and we STILL had 8 hours.

YAY.

Needless to say, we were super excited when we got word that we would be picked up in 30 minutes. In the van on the way there, Pastor Paul gave me some instructions about the crusade, making sure that I would give an altar call and giving me a heads up as to the order of service. The band would worship for some time and the people would gather. When they had arrived and we had worshiped, we would preach the Gospel and lead people to Jesus. Afterward we would pray for the sick.

All of them.

WEATHER MIRACLE
On the 30 minute drive to the crusade grounds we saw the clouds and weather gathering for a wicked thunderstorm. Dark storm clouds were overhead and you could see lightning in the distance. We had come a long way and paid a lot of money to get rained out! I called our folks back in Atlanta and asked them to really pray for a weather breakthrough. We arrived at the grounds and there were a few hundred people milling around. It was obvious that they were having some serious problems with the sound system and they would periodically break out tarps to cover the sound equipment as a little rain would come and go. Honestly, it didn’t look good. The sky was pregnant and we were about to get dumped on.

They began to worship with only a couple of the instruments working through the sound system, but the vocalists more than made up for the lack of instruments as they sang with all their heart. People began streaming in from all over the place, quickly filling the soccer field. But the longer they went on playing and worshiping, the more ominous the weather became. As we were worshiping I noticed that I was stressing about the weather and getting worried. I closed my eyes and tried to focus on the Lord, not on the situation. As soon as I did, the Lord spoke to me and reminded me of a word Surprise Sithole had given us 6 months before. As a ministry, we were stepping into a place that the Lord had prepared in advance. It was all pre-arranged. An overwhelming sense of peace flooded over me as the Holy Spirit comforted me.

Double Rainbow!

When I opened my eyes and looked up, I saw a diamond shaped opening in the clouds and rain, RIGHT OVER the soccer field! Rain, clouds and weather surrounded us, but in the center, where we stood, the weather was clear! Right behind the stage was a huge double rainbow! The promise of God; it was all pre-arranged!

THE TASK AT HAND
With the weather crisis averted, it was now time to get back to our task at hand; winning the lost and healing the sick! The worship went on and on. They probably worshiped for two hours. Our team jumped off the platform to worship with the people. We danced, we sang and we enjoyed Jesus. The presence of God in their worship was amazing. In total poverty, these folks completely lost themselves in worshiping the Lord. And while they worshiped, people from all over the neighboring villages and towns kept streaming in. When worship wrapped up about two hours into it, the soccer field was full. I looked and 180 degrees around us was filled with people!

Haitians Know how to Worship!

I introduced the team and then began preaching the very simple Gospel of the Kingdom. Through an interpreter, everything takes twice as long and it can take a minute to get into a rhythm, but already Pastor Paul and I had been preaching as a team for many hours, between the Pastor’s Conference and the church services we had done, so it flowed very easily. Many people asked me when I came back what it’s like to preach to a crowd of many thousands and my response is simple, “It’s the same as preaching to a handful of people in a home group.” When you serve God, he’s looking for obedience, not numbers. So the pay is the same, whether you’re helping one person over lunch or preaching to multitudes. This sets you free! You NEVER have to be intimidated with numbers!

Many kids came to the Lord.

We told a few stories of what it looks like when the Kingdom comes to someone’s body, soul and spirit. As far as I could tell, the people were engaged in the testimonies and the message. We encouraged them to lay down their lives and pick up His! We called them to repent, to change the way they think, the Kingdom was at hand! We gave an altar call and many gave their lives to Jesus, including a large group of street kids hanging down at the foot of the stage. Many of these kids were as young as 4-5 years old, but they could understand their need of Jesus and the Kingdom. Many came to the Lord!

FIRE TUNNEL, HAITI STYLE
Now, that many had made Jesus their King and Lord, it was time to pray for the sick! Pastor Paul looked at me and said, “We are going to make a channel. Your team will stand on each side and the people will pass through.” I said, “Oh, a Fire Tunnel!” He just looked at me. I told him, “Never mind, got it!” So we jumped off the stage and with the help of many of his people we formed a “channel” as he would call it (we call them fire tunnels). Before we opened the line, people started reaching out and touching our clothing and putting our hands on them for healing. They were so hungry! Pastor Paul called all the sick and they lined up!

I can’t tell you how many people we prayed for, but it was definitely in the thousands. They started filing through the “channel” and we began to pray. It was total chaos! You read about the “press” in the Bible, when the people would “press” into Jesus and He would touch them or they would touch Him. That’s what it was like. MANY people were reaching out and touching me, manhandling me, mobbing me. No interpreters were needed, if they wanted us to know where it hurt, they simply put our hand on that area or pointed. Some folks would just stand there and look at you like “is that all?” I began to declare their freedom over them in their language, “U Liberte!” We would pray our guts out and then tell them, “You are Free”. This kept the line moving.

After some time, I realized that praying for everyone would be impossible… in the natural. So I told them team over the din of the crowd to simply “get lost” in the Holy Ghost and out of our natural mind. Otherwise we would burn out and not be able to complete the mission. So we pressed into the Holy Ghost and received Grace for the mission! Katie was standing next to me and was gently hugging and kissing all the people on the head as they came through. She probably gave thousands of hugs and kisses!

The Mute Speak!

Many asked me what miracles we saw and truthfully, in a situation like that, we don’t know! The one that stood out was a deaf/mute that came through the prayer line. He looked to be a young man in hid mid-late twenties. All he did was point to his tongue. It was shriveled and I found out later that he had never spoken. I didn’t know he was deaf. I motioned to him to stick out his tongue, which he did. I simply put my thumb on his tongue and said, “Be Loosed!” I then looked him dead in the eye and told him, “Say, Jeze Saywa! (Jesus is King)” He looked right at me and over the din of the crowd LOUDLY said “JEZE SAYWA! JEZE SAYWA! JEZE SAYWA!”

God loosed his tongue!

To be concluded…

Haiti Trip Report - Part III

2010-06-18T09:02:00.002-04:00

Just to give you a scope of the impact we were able to have with the pastor’s seminar, one of the 200+ pastors represented at the seminar pastors a church of 5,000, another 8,000. I met one pastor who has 5 large churches, 2 orphanages and a hospital in a remote area of Haiti. I’m not sure how many churches and people were represented on that Pastors seminar, but if they grasp the message of the Kingdom and their responsibility to equip their people in power, then Haiti will be rocked with the Gospel!

Teaching at the Pastor's Seminar

MONDAY
The following day (Monday) we would finish our Pastors seminar and minister at an 8,000 member church later that afternoon, at least, that was the “plan”. In Haiti, everything planned was a suggestion, everything suggested was quickly forgotten.

We spoke again to the pastors out of Ephesians 4 and encouraged them that they were given to the Body of Christ to equip the SAINTS for the work of Ministry. The Saints were to do the work of ministry and the work of ministry was supernatural! This was revolutionary to them. I honestly don’t think they grasped the meat of the message until we compared their job as leaders to being a coach of a soccer team and the members of their congregation to players on the team! The coach has experience, the coach understands the fundamentals, but the team scores the goals! They had only heard of the one man show, God’s man of faith and power for the hour type thing, another unfortunate export from the church in the West.

We then showed them how Jesus equipped His disciples to do what He did in Luke 9-11 (Thanks Steve!). The disciples were sent out to do the stuff, did it and came back revealing their humanity and sinfulness. The Lord’s response? He sends out 70 others to do the stuff, make Satan fall like lightning and shake the nation. It wasn’t until the next Chapter in Luke 11 that they asked Jesus how to pray. The point? You have 82 people out there doing the works of ministry with little character and no prayer life. Their shortcomings in character weren’t truly revealed until they were used in ministry! The Lord’s emphasis was on setting others free, not perfecting the saints before they can be used of God. This isn’t to devalue personal holiness (by which no man will see the Lord!) or character, but rather to emphasize how the Lord trained His disciples.

This totally blew them away. Bringing it back to the example of a soccer team and their coach I told them that the way to make a player improve was to put him in the game! After playing a bit, then bring him to the sidelines and correct the errors in his game, sending him back out, pruned and corrected to bear more fruit! You could tell. They got it. No longer were they the one man show. They were now commissioned and equipped to equip their churches to get out there in there communities and bring the Kingdom.

Look out devil!

A Lone Man Sitting in the Wreckage

More Devastation

DIVINE APPOINTMENT
We were then whisked off to do a church service at an 8,000 member church. This church’s building was severely damaged during the quake and had been renting a large tent in the yard of a nearby church. Apparently the last couple of days before we had come, the power of God was falling in their meetings. The church they were renting the tent from did not like this and canceled the arrangement. They notified the pastor just before we arrived that they were no longer able to hold services in the tent. They even sent the police to make sure we didn’t meet there. So we had a service time, willing people, but no where to meet!

The pastor was apologetic, but it was out of his hands. He asked us if we would come and pray for a young lady that was living in his church. She was totally demon possessed and literally shaking with the power of the devil. Again, her possession and torment was the result of a witch doctor’s curse. I believe it was her father who was the Voodoo priest. He had cursed her and for several days she had been totally possessed and unable to sleep. She believed in the Lord but Pastor Paul said she wasn’t really walking with the Lord. We can pretend and put up pretenses with our neighbors and friends/family, but the demons know who walks with God and who doesn’t.

The Pastor’s request was simple “Come and cast out the demon.”

You bet.

We had her call on the name of the Lord and ask Jesus to deliver her. We bound the devil and began to pray. We rebuked the demon and commanded it to come out of her. After several minutes of absolutely nothing happening, the Holy Spirit reminded me of this passage:

“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn…” Isaiah 61:1-2

Ministering Freedom to the Bound

The Word says that we are to proclaim freedom for those who are bound. As far as I was concerned, our job was done. We had prayed, we had bound and we had cast out… it was done! So I asked the translator standing there “How do you say, you are free?” he replied, “U Liberte”. I grabbed her chin, made her look me in the eyes and simply said, “U Liberte!” A huge grin broke across her face and she began to weep. She looked to Heaven and began to thank the Lord. She started jumping up and down. We prayed for the Holy Spirit to fill her and she now began to tremble violently under the presence of God! She could no longer stand under the weight of God’s presence, so we set her gently on a sofa behind her. She was happy, she was joyful and she was free!

Pastor Paul looked at me and said, “This is why we came tonight. Who knows what impact this young lady will have now that she is delivered?”

The next day was the start of the crusade. Thousands were expected. This was going to be awesome!

To be continued…

Haiti Trip Report - Part II

2010-06-14T10:06:00.005-04:00

We arrived in Haiti safely with no drama. We quickly got settled in the house that Pastor Paul had rented for our stay. Basically it was like camping indoors. No running water, spotty generator power and HOT, but by Haiti standards, very nice. We had quite a few folks from Pastor Paul’s church working night and day to cook our food, cleanup after us and make sure we were cared for. Their hospitality was wonderful.

Elijah Preaching @ The Pastor's Seminar

PASTORS SEMINAR
Our first day was to be spent doing a pastor’s seminar to over 200 pastors that had come from all over the island. Some traveled 2-3 days to come 300 miles and many had been traveling all day to arrive in time for the seminar to begin. We all crowded into a very nice, but VERY hot and humid home we had to rent for the seminar. The hunger for God was palpable. We were able to share some testimonies of miracles we have seen recently but more importantly how they as pastors and leaders could walk in the power of the Gospel and equip their people to do the same!

We shared the basic message of the Gospel of the Kingdom. That God’s Kingdom was available, it was at hand and it was on the earth! We also shared the commission from the Lord to pray that “His Kingdom come, His will be done, on EARTH as it is in Heaven!” What is sad is that many of these men and women pastor large congregations, they have served the Lord faithfully for many years, but they had never heard the Gospel of the Kingdom! It’s amazing to me that the church has missed the most central message in the Gospel, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”

We called them to change the way they think. We told story after story of the Kingdom coming with power, through everyday believers, through businessmen, mommies and children. You could tell that this was a foreign concept. They were eager to hear more and were hanging on every word, but based on the expressions on their face, you could also tell it was a challenging word to hear. The time came to demonstrate the word and to release the Kingdom. We released the pastors to pray for one another and they froze. You could tell they were thinking, “but this stuff can only be done by the missionaries” type stuff. It took a minute, but eventually we had them praying for each other, releasing the Kingdom on one another. Miracles began popping in the room and several folks came up testifying of what God had done in their bodies.

One Pastor there caught my eye and the Lord gave me a prophetic word for him. It was about him being like David in the Bible and having the heart of a worshipper and a warrior. I told him that his church carried the same heart, that in the presence of God in worship they were changed in giant slayers! Turns out this unassuming man pastured a church of 5,000 people in the heart of Port-Au-Prince!

Preaching on the Streets of Port-au-Prince

After the seminar that afternoon we were able to spend a couple of hours walking the street praying for the sick and prophesying over many people. Pastor Paul introduced us to several people that had been cursed by Voodoo priests and as a result had severe, crippling illnesses and diseases affecting them. It’s hard for a rational western mind to wrap their minds around what the locals deal with on a near daily basis. When the Voodoo priest asks you to do something, you either do it or they may curse you. When the Voodoo priests curse you, if you are not a Christian, they can kill you with their magic or cause great physical suffering with unexplainable diseases, skin rashes and paralysis.

Washing the feet of a man lame for 12 years

One of the guys we met was lame for the last 12 years as the result of a Voodoo curse. One young lady had a Voodoo priest ask her to sleep with him. When she refused he cursed her. The next day she developed an unexplainable, burning rash on her skin. When she went to the doctor they tested her blood and ran cultures, etc. The verdict? They found nothing wrong with her! Yet she can barely walk due to the illness. We prayed that the work of the enemy in their life would be destroyed and moved on.

After the street ministry, we then headed right out to a local church, where we preached, prayed and released the Kingdom once again.

A good start, but just the beginning.

Ministering @ Pastor Paul's Sunday Service

SUNDAY SERVICES
The next day was Sunday and we would be ministering at one of Pastor Paul’s 5 church services. Since the quake, the church has exploded. They lost their main meeting facility in the quake and have had to divide the church into 5 different cell groups to accommodate the crowds. They are eager to meet together all in one place. Pray for them that funding would come in supernaturally to allow the construction to be completed on their main sanctuary and classrooms. We would participate in their first service.

What grabbed us all that day was the worship! Pastor Paul’s church knew how to bring Heaven down in the worship! The presence and power of God was awesome. I can honestly say that their worship was some of the best I’ve ever experienced. Here, many of these folks have lost everything, family, friends, houses, but worshipped God out of their total lack. Here we were meeting in a rented home, without a grand cathedral to worship in, but the Presence of the Holy Spirit more than made up for the lack of beautiful facilities. This church is far richer than many in the States because their currency is the presence of God and not paper money.

We preached a simple message and shared a couple of testimonies of the Kingdom coming with power that day. The people responded hungrily to the message. We released the power of God and had everyone praying for each other. Miracles were happening all over the room. Injuries were healed, pains were relieved and many testified to their healing. It was HOT!

9 Story Building Reduced to Rubble

Later that afternoon Pastor Paul loaded us up in the van and took us straight into the city of Port-au-Prince to preach at Pastor Daniel’s afternoon service. This was the Pastor who I had prophesied over the day before. It must have made an impression, he asked us to take the meeting! The devastation in Port-au-Prince was overwhelming. It looked like a warzone. I told several folks that it looked like an apocalyptic movie set. Rubble and destroyed buildings were everywhere. Almost 6 months after the earthquake and most of the city still was in ruins. The international aid that the US and many other countries sent was hijacked by corrupt politicians. We personally witnessed many lots full of heavy equipment, new, clean and totally unused. They should have been busy digging the city out of ruins, but they sit in lots, waiting to be sod on the black market. The UN has a heavy presence in the country but what do they spend their time doing? Were they rebuilding the country? No, they go to the beach! It’s a big joke among the locals.

The church is in the very center of Port-au-Prince. What’s amazing is that this was the epicenter of destruction in the town and yet out of a church of 5,000 people, Pastor Daniel only lost 3 members of his church! What a miracle. There was a 9 story building that bordered the church’s property that completely collapsed, leaving nothing but a huge pile of rubble and perhaps hundreds of dead people inside. The smell was horrific. I had a message for them on David and Goliath, how David was an unqualified shepherd boy that had more courage than the “professional” soldiers. I told them it was time for an army of unqualified David’s rise to the occasion and face the giants of their land, Voodoo, sickness, disease and poverty. We began to release the power of the Gospel in the meeting and told the people to start praying for each other. When we said this, they all looked to Pastor Daniel for permission. He jumped in there and told his folks to jump in and do it which was a huge step of faith on his part, this was all new to them.

Wild Worship!

The power of God hit the house! Miracles and healings started happening all over the place. David Hacker came up to me and asked if we could start worshiping. I asked Pastor Daniel (AKA – Heart of David guy) and he readily agreed! We had one of the most fun worship times we’ve ever had, rejoicing in all that God was doing, praying for people and dancing until we sweat through all our clothes. The next day the phone rang off the hook telling of all the miracles that God did that night, but most encouraging was the body of Christ COMING ALIVE!

TOTAL BLOWOUT.

To be continued…

Haiti Trip Report - Part I

2010-06-11T10:18:00.003-04:00

We just returned from an 8 day mission trip to Haiti. On this trip we stepped into a level of authority and inheritance that we as a church and ministry have never quite encountered. Every aspect of the trip was “pre-arranged” by the Holy Spirit and we were just along for the ride. While there we were able to minister to several different churches, a group of about 200 pastors and leaders as well as conduct a 3 day crusade in a rented soccer field with several thousand people. Healings and miracles occurred, pastors representing hundreds of churches were equipped and encouraged and the power of Voodoo was broken in a public display! It was awesome!

WHY WE WENT TO HAITI
Last year in 2009, two of our young people, Elijah and Jada Drysdale participated in a mission trip with another church. The primary aim of that trip was social in nature, teaching sewing and computer classes to the kids in Pastor Jean Paul’s orphanage. While there, Elijah and Jada were able to share some testimonies about what God is doing in our church with Pastor Paul’s church, encourage Pastor Paul that we can all move in the power of God, as well as pray for several sick people. The impact of their testimonies and the healing of many people they prayed for created a hunger in Pastor Paul for “more” of what they shared. Elijah continued communication with Pastor Paul over several months and Pastor Paul invited a group from our church to come and teach the 200+ Pastors in his Bible school, as well as minister in a large outdoor crusade.

Pastor Paul

When it became obvious that this trip was going to happen and the scope of the trip began to come together, I met with Elijah and we together determined that either Pastor Marc or I should go and help train pastors and conduct the crusade. Dates were set, (May 28th - June 4th) inquiries were made and things were coming together. On Tuesday, January 12th we had a staff meeting at the church and discussed the trip almost exclusively. We reserved plane tickets with our travel agent, priced the trip and spent the better part of the day in the office making fliers, overheads and web pages to advertise the trip. At our Pastor’s lunch, we discussed the trip the entire time and prayed, asking the Lord to give us a heart and burden for Haiti, making it clear that this was something we were to do. We had never received anything from the Lord regarding Haiti before and we wanted to be sure. So after a long day of working on nothing BUT our trip to Haiti and with the map of Port-au-Prince still up on my computer monitor, I clicked on Drudgereport.com to check the news before I stepped out of the office for pre-outreach prayer at 5:30pm.

Of course, this was the day the massive earthquake struck Haiti, killing an estimated 300,000 people and causing an untold amount of damage to Port-au-Prince and the outlying areas. The earthquake had JUST occurred and we had spent ALL DAY working on the trip, BEFORE the quake! I began to shake all over with a terrific sense of God’s Sovereignty and Providence. There is NO WAY that Haiti could have been more front and center in our prayers and thinking before the quake. It’s just not possible. I called Pastor Marc and we both agreed that the Lord was behind this trip and had a wonderful plan for Haiti and we were to be a part. In spite of the devastation of the quake, God had a plan for that country and wanted HIS Kingdom to come and HIS will to be done in Haiti.

We were going and it was pre-arranged.

THE NEED IN HAITI
It took two days after the quake to reach Pastor Paul. 238 of his church members were killed in the quake, yet the 56 orphans in his home were completely spared due to them serving a late meal. They spent several weeks looking for survivors in the rubble, burying church members and mourning their loss. After several weeks I spoke with Pastor Paul for the first time. I told him that we had received an offering for the work and asked first of all if we could come earlier than we had planned and secondly what we could bring. His response amazed me. He simply said, “Bring the Word of the Kingdom, we need the Word”. I said, “Yeah, but we have some money and can bring supplies, food, water, whatever you need.” He said again, “Bring the Word! That’s what we need, the Word of God!” Three times during that conversation he turned down physical aid and simply asked us to bring the Word of God’s present Kingdom and the power of God. This impressed me. Here are people as desperate as any on the planet and they were hungry for the Word of God.

Pastor Paul understands that all the finances and international aid in the world will not fill the void caused by generations of Voodoo worship and political corruption. The ONLY hope for Haiti is Jesus and His Kingdom destroying the work of the enemy.

Tent city where 2 million now live

PREPARING FOR THE TRIP
Haiti isn’t a place you go on a whim, especially after a natural disaster of biblical proportions. With the humanitarian crises alone, you are also dealing with one of the epicenters of demonic power on the earth! It is commonplace in Haiti for Voodoo priests to walk in extreme power, killing, maiming and destroying lives at will with their black magic curses. I heard David Hogan speak on a recording recounting some of the experiences they have had with the demonic. These stories are extreme for us in the west and stretch our ability to even believe them with stories of shape shifters, death curses and the like. He said in this recording that the witchcraft they are dealing with in Mexico is second only to the witchcraft in Haiti!

So we took the trip very seriously. We made a conscious decision to not be flippant about the devil and his schemes. We would not fear him, but we would not walk in presumption either. On a trip like this presumption can get you killed. So we prayed. We fasted. We sought God and we entered into that Psalm 91 secret place of the Most High God. To think that the enemy would let us equip several hundred pastors in the power of the Gospel and conduct a large open air crusade with miracles, healings and the Gospel of the Kingdom without a fight would be ludicrous. The enemy would do everything he could to stop the message from going forth and the power of God to be released. I prophesied to the team, warning them that we would have at least 1 encounter with Voodoo priests. On the last night of the crusade, several of them showed up to mess things up.

It didn’t work.

To be continued…

Exuding Jesus – Part II

2010-03-23T11:55:00.002-04:00

After hitting up the health department, Josh and I headed over to the McDonald’s next door to Grady hospital to have a bite to eat and wait on a buddy of mine. Josh and I sat down at a booth and were just sitting there eating delicious McDonald’s nuggets when a lady came up to the table next to us on a walker, walking terribly slow, obviously in pain.

MIRACLE AT MICKEY D’S

As we were finishing up lunch I got up and asked her why she was on a walker. She went on to tell me that her back was injured 7 years before and has been in constant, chronic pain since. Her doctor told her that she should be using a wheelchair and she declined it, knowing that “once she got in one, she would never get out.” I agreed and congratulated her for refusing the chair and opting for the walker. She told me that she was in constant pain and came into the hospital for weekly pain treatments where she would get an injection. She was at McDonald’s getting a quick bite before heading into her appointment.

I told her that the reason I asked how she was feeling was because her walker got my attention. I told her that the walker got my attention because we have a wall at the church covered in crutches, canes, casts and braces. I told her how we’ve seen God do many miracles and deliver folks from every kind of sickness and disease and asked her if I could pray for her. I had her rate her pain, which was only around a 4, but steady for the last 7 years. I also had her move around and show me her range of motion, which was almost mummy like. This poor lady could hardly move!

I prayed and released the Kingdom of God on her body while my new friend Josh stood at a distance and watched. I told him to watch her face because I knew what was going to happen. When I rebuked and commanded a spirit of infirmity to leave her body and told pain to go, it happened! The presence of God hit us both and we reeled back. She took a deep breath and I asked her, “Where did your pain go?”

Her eyes got huge and tears welled up in them as she said, “It’s… going!” She was literally feeling the pain leave her body. She said it was probably at a 2 at that moment. I prayed again, commanding the spirit of infirmity to loose its grip on her and life to enter her body and we were hot with another tangible wave of God’s presence and power. It felt good! She was beaming and I just knew the pain was gone. I asked Josh, “Are you watching this??” and he nodded, looking a little bewildered. She checked and all the pain was gone for the first time in seven years! I had her moving, bending and doing things she couldn’t do moments before. Her mobility was normal! She was still a little fearful about the pain and took it slowly, but her countenance and body language was totally different from 5 minutes before! She walked halfway out of the restaurant without her walker and told me that she still wanted to hold on to it.

I asked her why she was in such a rush and told me that she was late for her pain management appointment. I asked her what she was going to tell her doctor and she told me she was going to show him that there was no longer any pain and she could do things she hadn’t done in 7 years!

THE FRAGRANCE OF DEATH

So now my buddy shows up and the three of us start pacing the sidewalks looking for folks to pray for. We ended up in a nearby park and I see a group of homeless guys standing around, listening to music. One of the guys was sitting by a wheel chair loaded down with stuff, he was a big dude with nappy dreads and obviously homeless. I walked up to him and asked him whose wheelchair it was and why weren’t they in it? He was nice enough at first, telling me that they just used it like a cart and weren’t actually disabled. I was just chatting politely with him when he asked what I was doing there. I looked him dead in the eye and made the statement I always make saying, “Jesus is King and His Kingdom is on the earth!”

The guy went absolutely insane!

All sense of civility immediately went out the door and the guy transformed in front of me. He started cursing me, calling me names and threatening to hurt me. He stood up, got a few inches from my face and was totally berating me. He said again and again how he was going to cut me and kick my *&% all over the street, etc. etc. etc. He was absolutely FOUL. I was a little surprised, the only thing I had said was that Jesus is King and then he went off. I understood that he was totally demon possessed and I really wasn’t talking with a guy any more, this was a spirit talking to me.

He was intent on my leaving and getting out of “his” area. I told the guys with me afterwards that I have this problem. When demons address me and threaten me with violence and start ordering me around, I have a VERY difficult time doing what they tell me to do. I feel that if I do what a demon is telling me to do, it wins. So I just stood there, taking the threats, taking the abuse, but not budging an inch. Actually, my heart was beating fast, but all I could do was smile. I assured him that I would leave, but not yet. This drove him crazy! He was adamant that I leave, RIGHT THEN, but I refused flatly. I don’t know how long he kept up the tirade and how long I just stood there smiling, but I was determined to not let the demon tell me what to do. After a while, he sat down and calmed down a bit, getting out of my face. I waited a minute or two and then slowly backed away.

I WIN.

We ended up talking to another homeless guy for awhile, praying for several physical problems and hearing an amazing testimony how God had delivered our new buddy from drugs several years before. The ENTIRE time we were talking to our new friend, the angry dude was cussing, cursing and literally spewing out threats from about 20 feet away.

“To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.” II Corinthians 2:16

Exuding Jesus – Part I

2010-03-17T09:08:00.001-04:00

I had a couple of wild experiences the other day that illustrated to me a familiar passage of scripture:

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God.” II Corinthians 2:14-17

I saw very clearly that to those hungry for God or searching for good, I am a fragrance, odor or aroma of life. To those under the influence and committed to the devil, I am the fragrance of death.

Let me explain:

ANOINTING FOR KIDS

Earlier in the week I had committed to a young man to take him down to one of my favorite places, Grady Hospital in downtown Atlanta. He needed to get a certified copy of his birth certificate from the hospital to enroll in a GED course. We went into the Department of Health office across the street from Grady, filled out the necessary paperwork and sat down, patiently awaiting our turn in the crowded waiting room. A lady in the waiting room started staring at me and the young man I was with, doing so several times and making me just a bit uncomfortable. I looked at her, wondering what was up and she asked me, “Are you a recruiter?” I said, “Recruiter?” She said, “Yeah, like an Army Recruiter or something?” I told her, “No, not really an army recruiter, but I do a bit of recruiting.” She looked at me and the young man standing next to me totally bewildered. I explained that I’m just a believer that’s trying to help some folks out.

She began quizzing me about working with young people and then began to tell me about her grandson, who apparently has been doing a bit of hell-raising. Not 2 minutes into the conversation she asked me for my phone number declaring, “My grandson needs to spend time with you, it would be good for him.” I told her she was absolutely right, it WOULD be good for him to spend time with me. She got mom on the phone and everything, setting up a time for me and the apparent hellion to have a little Jesus chat.

The young lady with her (still don’t know the connection) had two kids with her. Watching Grandma’s interaction she held out her one year old and said, “Take him, he needs it!” I was like, “You want me to take your son?!” She said, “Not permanently, but I need help, you can help!” I assured her that I could help, but that she needed to raise her own kids. She went on telling me about her 6 year old daughter, who was sitting there making evil faces at me. This little girl she assured me was “full of the devil”. Mom went on to tell me about how her little precious angel of 6 years would cuss adults out, gets kicked out of school and basically is ruining her life. I was encouraging Mom with Proverbs 22:6 and Ephesians 6:4, telling her that she needed to TRAIN them, not suggest, to DISCIPLINE, not reject them. The little girl over there was shooting me some serious stink eye and basically just manifesting the devil.

Without even asking, I put my hand on her head and spoke the word, “Peace”. She settled down instantly and I continued to pray, rebuking anger and rebellion and commanding peace and joy. She then grabbed on to my arm, TIGHTLY. I sat down next to her as she hugged on my arm and kept talking with Mom. I am not kidding, within about 1 minute, she was fast asleep! She had a death grip on my arm, but her body went completely limp and she just passed out, rhythmic breathing and all! Mom was seriously weirded out and started telling the uncle, “Look at her, she won’t let this man go and now she’s gone to sleep on him!” She started pulling her little away and I told her, “It’s ok, this is good for her!’ Mom looked at me like I had 3 heads and I continued, “Your daughter has been tormented by devils, we prayed and God set her free. Now, she’s feeling the presence of God flowing out of me and it’s bringing her peace, so let’s just let her hang out here.” Mom agreed and we kept talking.

About 15-20 minutes later, she stirred and it was time for mom to go. She gave me a big hug and walked out without a word.

To be continued…

Revival at the Prison

2010-03-12T12:08:00.002-05:00

I’ve wanted to get into the prisons for years. It’s just so thoroughly biblical:

“Then the King shall say to those on His right hand, Come, blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in; I was naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.” Matthew 25-34-36

Looking into it, the only way I could see to get into them was to go with an established group. I got several packets of information and spoke to several different prison ministry leaders, many of which required us to sign a waiver committing to NOT praying in tongues and focusing on other “questionable” practices like praying for the sick, etc.

Needless to say, going in with them would not be an option.

Several months ago, Linda Ruby, a wonderful gospel preaching Grandma and part of our team came to me expressing a strong desire to get into the jails. We prayed and agreed that must get in there on our own and not through some restrictive program that we couldn’t agree with. We asked God for favor and to open the door. As we would learn, the chaplain in a prison is like a pastor and the prisoners in the jail are his parishioners. To come in and minister at his prison, you had to get permission from the chaplain (pastor) to share his pulpit. So after exhaustively testing every possible venue, God opened one door, with one prison chaplain.

That’s all we would need.

GETTING IN

We scheduled the certification, got our nametags and put our first service on the schedule. Now, I’ve visited prisoners in county lockups, but had never been inside a legit prison facility. Barbed wire, guard towers and automatic weapons greeted us as we went in to check out another ministry doing services inside the prison. We wanted to see exactly what the prisoners and chaplain considered a “successful” service. We met some of the prisoners, listened to our new friend preach a fairly lackluster message and eagerly awaited our chance to preach to the men.

A couple weeks later, we went in. We were supposed to have an hour and a half, but things were running late that night, so we really only had about 45 minutes. 45 minutes to introduce ourselves, make an impression, preach the Gospel, lead people to Jesus and heal the sick. More than enough time.

I preached a very simple message of the Kingdom and its King, Jesus. The prisoners sat in rapt attention as I made a distinction between the “gospel” of salvation and the Gospel of the Kingdom and the difference between Jesus as Savior and Jesus as Lord and King of their lives. I told several stories of miracles that we had seen. I promised them that the Kingdom was here, it was now and it would work inside of their prison. I told them that geography is irrelevant to the Kingdom of God and that God was no respecter of persons, what he had done for others, he would do to them.

It was time for an altar call. I thought back to when we visited the other ministry’s service in the jail. At the end of the message, the preacher gave the standard, “Every head bowed, every eye closed.” It didn’t work too well, I’m not sure anyone came up and got saved. So I did something I like to do. I challenged the men saying, “Tonight, with every head held high and every eye wide open, I want to come down here and stand before God and tell everyone that you are making Jesus the King and Lord of your life. That you are repenting of doing life ‘your way’ and you are repenting of your sin and backslidden heart. Why? Because if you can’t come and do that, then you won’t make it anyway!”

They all but ran towards the altar. A rush of men ready to do some business with God crowded the altar. The sick came as well. We prayed a simple prayer together and committed ourselves to God lock, stock and barrel. The presence of God was overwhelming. Many swooned under the power of God and we our team began to pray for them to be filled with the Holy Ghost and healed. One of the men, a guy with permanent impairment to his vision was completely healed, as God dissolved the cloud in his eye as we prayed.

The testimony from one of the men that night was, "I have been in prison for 18 years and in this prison for 8 years and I have NEVER seen a response like the one we saw tonight. Never!"

THE RESULTS

The next morning, I wanted to call the chaplain and see if he was ok with what went on. Would the momentum started by our first service be carried on or quenched? I have seen many a move of the Holy Spirit crushed by insecure leaders, unsure of God’s power.

Here’s the message that greeted my inbox first thing that morning:

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

Pastor Lawson,

I thank God for your coming to the prison. We have been praying for a real Revival to take place within our prison population. I am convinced that your ministry along with some others are helping us reach our goal. I heard about the 25 men that gave their life to Christ last night. My prayers have been answered so continue to pray for our strength in the Lord and the great work here at the prison. This is the first time that we have had such a response during our time working here. I believe that Jesus is doing something special at this prison.

Thank you for being a willing vessel for the master.

God Bless You and Your Ministry.
Chaplain *Name Withheld*

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

That’ll do. Come on Jesus!

Something in the Mail Today!

2009-12-01T16:39:00.004-05:00

Marc & NorthGate Family,

Don’t know if you remember me. I came to your church near death in January. I laid in a chair by the thermostat. Marc each time you adjusted the thermostat you would lay hands on me. Then the church body laid hands on me. I was on Oxygen, chemotherapy; blood pressure was 50/30.

God healed me just a few weeks later. Came back a few months later and you didn’t recognize me. I would like this Oxygen tank to be put on the healing wall.

With much love, blessings & gratitude for your faith,

Rhonda Whitmore

Arlington Texas

Muchos Milagros

2009-11-04T12:00:00.003-05:00

Miracles are normal. The supernatural has become natural. So normal and so natural in fact that it’s now difficult to muster up enthusiasm for the every day miracles that God is doing. Things like the ankles, backs, legs and diseases that run when we pray or the sinner that gets convicted by the Prophetic and gives their life to Jesus. That’s wrong, I know, but it’s a problem we’re dealing with. It’s a better problem than no healing and no power, but it is a problem. We can’t be ungrateful, we must not be ungrateful. Every healing and every miracle is a testament to God’s goodness and His great love for us and the people we are ministering to. Every soul saved and life delivered is a present tense, now demonstration of the power of the gospel.

So how do you fight becoming familiar with victory? How do you fight off what I term “Victory Fatigue”? You have to reach back into your history and attempt to remember what it was like when they didn’t get healed, when they didn’t get saved or didn’t get delivered. You have to drum up the old feelings of fear about talking to a stranger or insecurity that are so now long forgotten. Boldness is now the norm. I’m continually encouraged by the new and exciting ways our folks are pressing in and contending for more, but the water level has been raised. We’re not going back to where we were, we can never go back to where we used to be. There’s more, there’s so much more. We know this, we need this. Yet on our way to what is promised we must cherish what has already been realized or we risk losing it.

So we tell the testimonies and as we do so, we put ourselves in the shoes of the person we’re praying for and we rejoice. We thank God for what He is doing and has done. We are pressing in for more, but we are honoring what He is doing among us.

Check it out.

KINGDOM INVADES THE GAME
This testimony came in from Erin. They were at a high school football game recently and were having a slow night. So what did they do? They decided to liven things up!

"Several of us were in a group...we walked around for a bit...talked to a few people and nothing happened. Now, when I say "nothing happened" I mean, we gave some people prophetic words, and they were totally right on. We prayed for them, etc. But nothing really "took off". :)

So, I had this thought, "I'm not leaving until either something happens, or I preach the gospel to all of these kids".

Sooo, I stood up on the stone wall and shouted "Hey guys! I have some awesome news! Jesus is King and the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!"

I then told them we were here to prove it, and asked them if they needed healing, etc. They didn't, but they had friends and family that needed healing. So we prayed for them---which kind if got the attention of some kids... Bottom line, an hour later we were still there---healing kid’s ankles, knees, and hands. We taught the kids that since Jesus healed them, they had authority over that particular thing now. And we encouraged them to heal their friends and themselves...which they did!!! And their friends got healed! It was awesome!!!"

TELL THEM THEN SHOW THEM
An outreach team was in a local neighborhood and ran across a group of about 8-10 young people and started prophesying over them, releasing the Kingdom and telling them about the power of God.

A few minutes later, they went into the home of a lady we have been ministering to for several weeks and found out that she had injured her wrist, was in severe pain and was wearing a wrist brace. Not content to merely tell them about the power of God, they decided to SHOW the young people what they were just talking about. They called the kids and had them pray for the lady with the injured wrist. It was healed INSTANTLY! No pain, full mobility and she gave us the wrist brace! It's been added to the trophy wall!

LUMP DISSOLVED, ANKLE HEALED
One of our outreach teams prayed for a woman that had several lumps in her breast. After coming back they found that she had gone to the doctors, had a mammogram and the lumps had dissolved!

They also found out that she had pain in her ankle for the last 5 years after breaking it in an accident in two places. She couldn't go up or down stairs or put pressure on that foot and her toes wouldn't bend very far and always felt like they needed to pop but wouldn't. We prayed and she tested it out and she then went up and down stairs 3 times with no pain and then she moved her toes in like she couldn't before and when she moved them every time they would pop!

HOLY GHOST HIP REPLACEMENT
An outreach team was in a local neighborhood and prayed for a lady with severe hip pain during an equipping event we hosted recently. As they prayed for her, all pain left and she was able to walk normally without pain or lack of mobility. But that's not the best part...

The team came back a couple of weeks later only to find that she had been to the Doctors and demonstrated her lack of pain and mobility to her doctor. The Doctor was so surprised that he ordered a batch of X-Rays to see what had changed. What our outreach team did not know was that she had no cartilage in her hip, which was the cause of her pain. She was actually scheduled to have hip replacement surgery.

The doctor verified that where she once had NO cartilage, she now had PERFECT CARTILAGE! She is now pain free and has cut down on many of her once needed medications.

Come on Jesus!

Fall On The Rock!

2009-10-10T11:59:00.001-04:00

Many times I have used the expression, “fall on the Rock!” It’s become something of a mantra for me when talking to other Christians. What I am doing is warning believers to embrace the cross and take initiative in humbling themselves. Lots of folks just look at me, kind of understanding but not really comprehending what I am saying to them.

Let’s make it clear:

And He looked at them and said, What then is this which is written, "The Stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the Head of the corner? Whoever shall fall on that Stone shall be broken, but on whomever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." Luke 20:17,18

In context, the Lord was telling the story about the owner of a filed that rented out his field to vinedressers. When the Lord of the vineyard sent his servants for fruit, the vinedressers beat and sent them away. Ultimately the Lord sent His son to them and they killed Him. The climax of the story is the owner of the vineyard coming back to take possession of his own vineyard and killing the workers that He hired! The point of this story is simple: be a good steward, the King is coming BACK.

Then the Lord tells them something amazing, He says:

“Whoever shall fall on that Stone shall be broken, but on whomever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." Luke 20:18

He tells them that He is the stone. More than that, He is making a statement that ultimately we will ALL be broken, regardless. It’s like we have no choice in the matter. God says that we can be broken big or broken small, but we WILL be broken! Of course, I would rather be broken in pieces than ground to powder and I don’t know anyone who is in their right mind that wants to be ground into powder. Big pieces are better.

So how do we fall on the rock?

TWO STORIES
There are two stories in the Bible of people that came to Jesus that illustrate this story very well. Both of them we are very familiar with, but did we understand the message? The first is the story of the rich young ruler:

“And behold, one came and said to Him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? And He said to him, Why do you call Me good? There is none good but one, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. He said to Him, Which? Jesus said, You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and mother, and, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The young man said to Him, I have kept all these things from my youth up; what do I lack yet?” Matthew 19:16-20

This young man came to Jesus seeking a good thing, eternal life. When Jesus gave him the answer, “keep the commandments” his response revealed his heart. Instead of humbly accepting the Word, he still sought to be justified and replied: “which commandment?” Jesus gave him a laundry list including don’t murder, don’t steal and don’t commit adultery. The young man tells Jesus that he has in fact kept ALL these commandments, yet still profoundly feels lack and Jesus’ response is extreme:

“Jesus said to him, If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in Heaven. And come, follow Me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions.” Matthew 19: 21,22

Jesus tells him, “Ok, if you want to be perfect (complete) go and sell EVERYTHING you have and give it to the poor, then come and follow me.” Jesus upped the ante and basically told the guy, “Give it all away”. The man went away sad, because he was rich and had many possessions. This story is a dramatic example of the cost of the cross and for years has inspired many folks to give everything they have away to pursue perfection. Now, that’s noble, but I think we are missing the point.

Let’s look at another rich man that came to Jesus, Zaccheus:

“And going in, He passed through Jericho. And behold, there was a man named Zaccheus, who was a chief tax-collector. And he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus, to see who He was. And he could not because of the press, because he was little in stature. And he ran in front and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him. For He was to pass through that way. And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him. And He said to him, Zaccheus! Hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house. And hurrying he came down, and received Him joyfully.” Luke 19:1-6

We find the same basic story, a man of resource came to Jesus, but this story ends much differently than the last one. We know that Zaccheus had wealth because he was a tax collector and tax collectors became very wealthy extorting money from Jews as they gathered tax revenue for Rome. We also know that he was dishonest:

“And seeing, they all murmured, saying, He has gone in to stay with a sinful man.” Luke 19:7

The people were offended with Jesus because He was staying with a sinful man. Zaccheus was a known liar and thief. Yet this story ended so differently than the previous one with the “righteous” young ruler. In hearing the murmuring of the people that he was a wicked man, Zaccheus response was immediate:

“And Zaccheus stood and said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor. And in anything I accused anyone falsely, I restore it fourfold.” Luke 19:8

Zaccheus stood and willingly gave HALF of his possessions to the poor and returned four-fold what he had stolen and defrauded. Jesus’ response was awesome:

“And Jesus said to him, This day salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham.” Luke 19:9

Jesus proclaimed over Zaccheus that salvation had come to him! How is that? The rich man was REQUIRED to give his ENTIRE house to experience the blessings of salvation and Zaccheus got off with only giving HALF! How does that work?

“And whoever shall exalt himself shall be abased, and he who shall humble himself shall be exalted.” Matthew 23:12

Simple. It’s a heart issue. God looks at the heart. The rich young ruler thought he was hot stuff, so the Lord raised the bar to a level that he couldn’t reach. Instead of humbling Himself, the Lord had to do it for him! The rock (Jesus) fell on the rich young ruler and he was reduced to powder. Trust me, we don’t want God humbling us, he does a much better job than we ever could. Zaccheus on the other hand humbled HIMSELF. He fell on the rock. His sacrifice and repentance was acceptable in the Lord’s sight because it was willingly offered.

The moral of this story?

FALL ON THE ROCK.

Miracles by Madden

2009-10-08T11:15:00.004-04:00

For you guys that don’t know Madden, Madden is a young lady that went to our church for a couple of months before leaving for college. Before going to college, we hung out on the streets and “did the stuff”. She also went with us on the team to Indiana and we saw all sorts of cool stuff. Well, Madden has continued to take the reality of the Kingdom with her everywhere she goes, “As She Goes”. Here is a note that she posted on Facebook about her Adventures in God:

*edited for length.

Do You Believe In Miracles? I do.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Jesus is King.

If you are "religious" you won’t like what this is about, and I am okay with that. Every Tuesday & Thursday for the past few months I’ve been with people in downtown Atlanta. The people I enjoy being with do drugs, they drink, and some of them are even homeless. I do not hold that against them, in actuality it makes me love and care for them even more. A group of people from NorthGate (www.ngca.org) go all over Atlanta and share about Jesus. Simply share what Jesus has TOLD us to do in Matthew 10:8.

"Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give."

To my “religious friends:” I have “stepped out of the box.” This box was put around me by the church. The chains of religion. Rules. Regulations. Fake Sunday smile. The typical “STANDARDS” of a church. Jesus didn’t have standards for the people who really wanted His heart. He never once said, “Get on your best clothes, shining shoes, newly cut hair, and come sing a hymn to me.”

I made this note to share with you the awesome things that Jesus is doing through me & my friends on a daily basis. He says ask and we will receive, so I am asking for supernatural experiences everywhere I go.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

August 4, 2009
I prayed for a lady that has been unable to walk, [in a wheelchair] for 14 years, she walked.

August 6, 2009
- A few friends and I prayed for a lady with hip pain. It was an 10 on a scale of 1-10, and went to a zero. She could walk again without any pain.

- A friend and I prayed for a guy's headache. It left instantly.

- A friend and I prayed for a guy's knee, it was a 6 on a scale of 1-10, pain left and went to "less than a 1."

August 13, 2009
- I prayed for a lady's headache, gone instantly.

- A few friends and I prayed for people in ATL tonight. 3 of them claimed Jesus as their King. New brother and sisters, that's what's up!!

- I attempted praying for a limping lady at Waffle House, and she dominated me(not a good dominate either). hahaha (Matthew 5:11)

August 17, 2009
- I was in class today, started a conversation with a girl next to me. She told me she was Methodist, but is now agnostic. I became very interested and I asked her what happened? I answered some questions she had and told her it’s not about church/religion, but relationship. I told her that I love Jesus with all my heart and that His power proves to me that He is real. I explained to her about deaf ears opening and blind people seeing. She then went on to tell me she has a brain tumor and constant headaches. I prayed for her headache, (starting was an 7/8 on a scale of 1-10), afterwards it was a 0! Thank you Jesus. I am believing for NO TUMOR, SHE IS TOO!

August 31, 2009
- I was in my dorm room with a friend that lives down the hall and she said, "Madden! Do you have any medicine? My back is KILLING." I replied, "Well, I believe I do but I could always just pray for your back and you won't need medicine." From what I understand, she doesn't do the whole "church thing" but she gave me permission to pray for her back. She said it was a 6 on a scale of 1-10, I prayed and nothing happened. But, her shoulder then began to hurt. I prayed for her shoulder, all pain left. I made her stand up, and then I prayed for her back again, all the pain left. Jesus is so awesome and showing Himself on this campus! YES!!

September ??, 2009
- A friend of mine has back pain, went from a two to a zero. Jesus is King over small pain too!

September 16, 2009
- A random guy at Wesley (organization on campus) was wearing a ankle brace. He said he felt pain, I prayed, and IN JESUS NAME all the pain left him instantly.

September 17, 2009
- I prayed for a friends "KILLER HEADACHE" and in Jesus name all of the pain left him on the spot. It was awesome, and Jesus is King over EVERYTHING. (Even hangover headaches)

September 19, 2009
- The same friend and I were walking around Wal-Mart waiting for Jesus to show us someone else. A man names George stuck out to me, so we talked to him. At this point George has two hearing aides and a knee brace. His knee was hurting as a 12 on a scale of 1-10. We prayed and commanded the pain and deafness to leave his body and it did! The pain went from a 12 to a 8, then to a zero. He said that before he has no cartilage in knee, but we prayed and afterwards he felt more strength than he ever has felt before. He was planned to have double knee replacement, but not we are all believing for this to not happen!! We walked away for a while, then we went back to talk to George again. We asked him how his hearing was and he took his hearing aides out! My friend and I began to whisper to him and he was talking back and having a PERFECT conversation. He said, "I can hear! I can hear without these hearing aides!!" After our whispering conversation he put the hearing aides in his pocket and walked away!!!! As I was praying I prayed, "Fire of God, burn these hearing aides up NOW in Jesus name." When we were talking later he told me, "My hearing aides are being burnt up. If they are not used the battery burns them up!" Deafness and a knee replacement DESTROYED in Jesus name!!!!

September 29, 2009
- A few weeks ago a friend told me that she possibly has breast cancer. We had people from NorthGate pray over a hanky, then we sent it to her in the mail. Today she is cancer free! Jesus is King over all sickness and diseases.

- Last night a friend of mine had a migraine. We prayed for it, and nothing was happening. We kept praying for it and the migraine went from VERY painful to nothing at all! We're believing for no more migraines. Migraines die in Jesus name!!

October 7, 2009
- I prayed for a guy who was weighed down with depression, anger, confusion, and also a hand that was broken and never healed. I prayed for his emotional problems, and Jesus healed my brother in Christ of those. I then prayed for his hand, and the bone snapped back into place! He was wearing a hand brace, took it off, and showed me the literal difference! It was insane, and Jesus can do unbelievable things. We started a wall of medical equipment in the Wesley Chapel!!

- After praying for him, a girl came up to Lydia and I and asked us to pray for her knees. Apparently she was born with her femurs twisted, and as a result her knees were out of place and her feet were twisted to the side. She has never been able to run around, sad. Lydia, Heidi, and I prayed for her knees and commanded them to get BACK IN PLACE IN JESUS NAME and THEY DID! It was a supernatural miracle, and it was the coolest thing to witness, her knees literally snapped back into place and she was able to jump around. I loved it! Jesus is King, and ALL sickness WILL BOW!

- Neck pain healed in Jesus name, Jesus is KING over all pain and sickness!!!!

Madden Sandlin

America’s ONLY Hope

2009-10-01T11:40:00.004-04:00

Freedom and personal liberty are being stripped away at historic levels, our national debt is rising and the flood of immorality threatens the fabric of this land called America. Called to be both the salt and light of the world, more than I have ever seen, Christians are feeling the urge to “do something” to affect the situation. Many organizations both inside and outside the church are responding to the groundswell in the Christian community offering a/the “solution(s)” that, through some clever Biblical exegesis seems right, righteous and Biblical. From protesting to praying, Christians ARE mobilizing in record numbers for purposes, both political and moral.

Yet in all our fervor, it seems that we are neglecting the simple solution that Jesus gave us for all the ills of humanity:

Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom.

Yeah, I know, just saying that seems so tired and worn. It’s not nearly as exciting as maybe protesting, picketing or a prayer vigil. But it’s what we have to work with. How did the Gospel become so unpopular among Christians? Why is preaching the Gospel with power something we never do? Why will we pray, fast and worship for years on end but neglect preaching to the lost? Why can we mobilize for a march but not for preaching the message? Why are we so free and bold to “tell is like we see it” in a political discussion online yet so scared to tell our neighbor about Jesus?

How did preaching the Gospel become the last resort?

WHAT WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN
I believe that most Christians don’t know what we have been given in the Gospel. If we did, we would be more vocal about Jesus and His Kingdom than we would be about voicing our opinion on the latest newsbyte. I am not saying that political action or commentary is bad, it’s not. I’m not saying that prayer vigils or fasting is bad, it isn’t. It’s just not what Jesus told us to do to save a lost and dying world, that’s all.

I get the feeling that we think our problems in this day and age are unique, new and different than the ones Jesus faced in his generation. Maybe they are of a different scope and magnitude, but Jesus’ words and His solutions to the problems of humanity are timeless! They will work, IF we use them.

Boldly and brazenly I will tell you exactly WHY we as a country have found ourselves in such a dire predicament: We don’t preach or live the Gospel.

If we did, there would be no abortion problem, no national debt, near 100% employment and no healthcare debate. There would be no reason to protest immorality, pray against corruption or fast for righteous judges.

THE ABORTION SOLUTION
Abortion is the termination of life inside the womb. In the vast majority (95%) of abortions performed in the US, the main factor is not the health of the mother or baby or an abortion of a child caused by rape or incest but rather a simple inconvenience on the part of the mother. That’s right; most babies are aborted because the presence of a child in the mother’s life does not suit her. Juniors’ presence isn’t convenient so let’s kill the baby! From 1973 through 2005, more than 45 million legal abortions occurred in the US.

It’s right that the church is outraged over such a holocaust of the unborn. But her chosen solution to end this siege on life is unbiblical and largely ineffective.

God’s solution to abortion is simple. Preach the Gospel to the lost that are having abortions, leading them into a relationship with the Lord of Life. No Christian, full of the Holy Spirit would or could ever consider abortion as an option. If you have, you are not saved. That means that every person you have ever led to the Lord eliminated one person from the pool of eligible abortion participants. It’s actually very simple. Instead of being reactive against the sins of lost people, why not bring in the lost? Seriously, if the church spent one tenth of the time she spends protesting, praying or fasting about abortion in actually preaching the Gospel to people that have abortions, abortion would be a non-issue in a matter of a few years. Let’s have a real life movement that takes all the research that’s been done, identifies the primary recipients of abortions and mobilize to preach the Gospel to that demographic!

Why don’t we stop trying to change the laws that sinners cower under to excuse their sin and just get down to the dirty business of winning the lost?. What about a life movement that is pro-active instead of reactive? Why are we acting surprised at what sinners do and the laws that they pass? And speaking of immoral laws, here is the solution to the problem of liberal activist judges that pass laws that corrupt the fabric of our society: Preach the Gospel to lawyers.

Fewer lost = less sin.

It’s so simple no one will do it.

THE HEALTH CARE SOLUTION
A huge topic in the news now is the great Health care debate of 2009. Both sides generally agree that insurance premiums are skyrocketing and millions of people in America don’t have access to quality health care. Both sides are also proposing “solutions” that are extremely complicated and expensive.

What can the church do about this HUGE problem?

Look at the church in the book of Acts! When they prayed, people were healed. So many in fact that they brought in the sick from the surrounding towns and they were ALL healed! (Acts 5:16) Healing is as much in the Atonement that Jesus provided as the salvation of your soul and the forgiveness of your sins. The church has lost the conviction of this fact and has abdicated her responsibility to heal the sick to the government. Government is not responsible to heal or provide for the healing of those in our land, the church is! Jesus sent His disciples out in Luke to:

“And He sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.” Luke 9:2

Preach the Gospel and heal the sick; two things that the church won’t do. We’ll protest and we’ll pray but we have been called to preach and heal! Maybe instead of supporting one side over the other in the healthcare debate we should open a new front in the debate! What if our city or our town was recognized in the news as being one of the healthiest cities in the nation? Say it’s not possible? It’s already happened! From 1915 – 1920 John G. Lake trained a small group of minister’s that prayed for the sick and ministered healing full time. In 5 years they had over 100,000 documented cases of healing and were declared to be the healthiest city in the US! If Christians got serious about healing the sick, maybe a third option would open in this great healthcare debate? Our Gospel is free, it works against any disease on any demographic (even illegal aliens) and the trained practitioners can reproduce rapidly!

“And He said to them, Go into all the world, proclaim the gospel to all the creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned. And miraculous signs will follow to those believing these things: in My name they will cast out demons; they will speak new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will be well.” Mark 16:15-18

American Idols – Part II

2009-09-17T20:31:00.016-04:00

In my last article on this subject I went after two primary American Idols. And idol is something other than God that we put our trust in. The point I was making is that I have been to several different countries, many of them known for their idolatry. In these countries, the idolatry is obvious, with shrines and graven images being displayed all over the place. I have heard the condescension in the voices of “enlightened” people here in the West as they roll their eyes in disgust at the heinous idolatry of the people of India and their 300 million “gods” and goddesses”.

But are we just as idolatrous?

I believe that while we here in the “enlightened” west are in fact VERY idolatrous, our idols are just not as obvious. We serve gods (world rulers in fact) like Mammon & Self. We have placed our marriages, our families, our callings and eternal destinies on the altars of Mammon and aborted millions of innocent babies on the altar of Self. And we do so with the greatest of confessions. Many a family and marriage has been destroyed to the mantra of “I’m just trying to be a good provider, giving my family what they deserve”. Many a baby has been aborted to the mantra of “they wouldn’t have had a good life anyway, with their mom being so young/poor, etc.”

MAMMON (CONTINUED)
Concerning Money and Mammon, Jesus was very clear that our primary pursuit was NOT to be our personal welfare and the accumulation of material things but rather the pursuit of an invisible kingdom and the King Himself!

“But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.” Matthew 6:33

We were created to pursue a Kingdom and a King! That is our primary purpose, our ultimate pursuit. God knows how He made us and gave us strict marching orders to go after His Kingdom and His righteousness and NOT the necessities of life! Isn’t that bizarre? This isn’t license to the lazy to do nothing because the Bible goes on to say,

“For while we were yet with you, we gave you this rule and charge: If anyone will not work, neither let him eat.” II Thessalonians 3:10

No, this command of Jesus was for the type “A” personality, the go-getters and the “doers” of the Word. The Lord’s commandment to “seek FIRST the Kingdom and His righteousness” was more of a direction or marching orders for productive people. He’s aiming us in the right direction, telling us to go after Him FIRST. If we would pursue Jesus and His Kingdom FIRST, then the provision for our daily bread would manifest MUCH easier. Imagine the words of Wisdom and direction you would receive as you lingered in the Presence of the Lord before work in the morning. Imagine the peace and ease that you would carry into your workplace and career as you became more conscious of Him than your circumstances and limitations y spending time with Him every day. Sales would come easier, the pressure would be off and you would soar in your career, working and providing for you and your family without pressure, fear or guilt. Your priorities would be in order and you would rest well knowing that you are RIGHT.

People, our #1 priority is to pursue the King and His Kingdom. That means what it means. Seek God FIRST, not your paycheck. The same devotion that you pay towards your career, your education and the betterment of your financial standing, invest that in God. The promise is wonderful! IF we will seek Him FIRST, He will GIVE unto us ALL that we need!

PRACTICAL APPLICATION:
When we’re talking about seeking FIRST His Kingdom and His righteousness, what are we talking about? We’re talking about the actual pursuit of God, but FIRST! So, how do you pursue God first? Make Him your #1 priority of your everyday life by seeking Him FIRST! Complicated, isn’t it? Practically speaking this means that we spend time with the Lord in worship, prayer and the Word at the start of our day. I’m not advocating a “quiet time” where we give the Lord a small slice of our day and then ignore Him the rest of the day, but I am saying that we make Him a priority and pursue Him FIRST. Turn on the worship music, lay down on the couch or floor with your family and worship God together! Read the Bible and seek Him in the Word, feeding on His Presence and His words, they are life! (John 6:63)

SELF (CONTINUED)
Jesus came walking the earth preaching a foreign message to the self-absorbed inhabitants of this planet. He said things like,

“For whoever wants to save his [higher, spiritual, eternal] life, will lose it [the lower, natural, temporal life which is lived only on earth]; and whoever gives up his life [which is lived only on earth] for My sake and the Gospel's will save it [his higher, spiritual life in the eternal kingdom of God].” Mark 8:35

He told people that if you held on to preserve your own life you would be guaranteed to LOSE it! But more incredibly, the way He prescribes to save and preserve is to GIVE IT AWAY for His sake! This Kingdom is an upside down Kingdom! Save it and you lose it or lose it and you save it!

The problem with Christians is we simply don’t believe that. We are vainly attempting to preserve our lives, our families, our schedules and our money all with the hope of saving ourselves and the ones we love. Yet we are losing our marriages, losing our families and losing our fortunes. Our kids grow up and don’t serve the Lord. We’re disillusioned with church, in debt up to our eyes and bitter against our spouses. Why? Jesus told us why! He said that if you would seek to save your lives you WOULD LOSE IT! Yet we spend our entire Christian lives trying to prove Him wrong!

The answer to our American dilemma is VERY simple: count your lives as nothing and LOSE them for His sake and you will FIND them! Consistently, the happiest people I have ever met with the most solid marriages and families are the ones that have completely LOST their lives in service unto the Lord.

They have less money because they give what they have and sow into the Kingdom, yet somehow they are always a conduit through which blessing flows and they seem to have more than the person that withholds their fortunes and loses their life savings in investments or the stock market. Kingdom economics; give and it comes back!

They have less “free” time than their self-preserving friends, committing large portions of their lives to the work of the Gospel and laid down service unto others yet they have a superior “quality” of time, free of bickering, anger and animosity within their marriages and families. They might spend a good amount of time helping others through “crisis” but for themselves, they spend much less time on “crisis” control within their own homes.

Their marriages and families are stronger, yet they spend less time & money on them than their self-serving friends. Many of them have never seen the inside of a counselor’s office, yet daily walk in healthy marriage principles. Their kids are better behaved and well adjusted because Mom and Dad discipline according to what they read in the Bible! Their kids also stick with a Jesus they KNOW on a daily basis in the home and not just one they hear about every once in a blue moon at church.

Jesus is right folks! Give your lives away for His sake and you will TRULY find them.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION:
In the Kingdom you GIVE and it COMES BACK! That means that practically we have to give ourselves, our time, our money, our service and our lives for the sake of the Gospel.

Invest your wealth IN THE KINGDOM and not only in this world and its resources. Give to the poor, give to your church and really invest, expecting a return as you would a popular stock or investment scheme. The Kingdom is a good investment!

Invest your time IN THE KINGDOM and not only on your personal, vain pursuits and self interests. This means that you willingly GIVE your time to benefit others! Preach the Gospel, heal the sick and raise the dead! It is ALWAYS good time to preach the Gospel. Offer your lives as a living sacrifice to God as you lay down your life for your friends.

So we’ve just touched on two common American idols, but are there more?

You bet.

American Idols

2009-09-11T09:37:00.003-04:00

In the last couple years I have traveled to several different countries, each known in its own way for their idolatry. And while the idolatry of India, Africa and Central America may be terribly obvious, with their shrines, offerings and devotion to inanimate objects and deities, it has struck me that we in the West are no less idolatrous.

Certainly, the idolatry of India is pronounced. It’s said the Hinduism has produced some 300 million “gods” and “goddesses”. Everywhere we went throughout the country there were small shrines with incense, food offerings and candles being offered to pagan deities. On the streets, in restaurants and even in the dashboards of taxis we used. Shiva the Destroyer and Ganesh the blue elephant are terrible to behold in all of their fell demonic glory. Yet in Mexico, the shrines and the offerings were identical but the images lovelier. Instead of Ganesh and Shiva they worship Mary, the mother of Jesus and other saints. The most obviously demonic was “Holy Death” or Grim Reaper. To them, the one the Bible calls “the last enemy to be destroyed” is worshiped as a saint. How bizarre.

Yet, when I come home to America, we revel in our ingenuity and glory in our intellect. Certainly we are far too advanced of a civilization to worship dumb idols and erect shrines to our gods. Or are we?

As I look around my home in the States I see the same look of devotion and commitment to “gods” other than the one true God and His Son, Jesus Christ. We erect shrines all right and we give costly sacrifices and offerings at the altars of our idols, they are just prettier than the gods of India, yet no less captivating. Remember that the true test of devotion to an idol is how much we trust in it rather than God and I would venture to say that our trust in many ways is NOT in the Lord, but in other things.

MAMMON
Without a doubt here in the United States we worship money. Jesus called the Spirit behind the love of money and the pursuit of things Mammon and made a startling contrast saying, “You can’t serve both God and money” making the Spirit of Mammon one of the ultimate adversaries or enemies of true worship of God.

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand by and be devoted to the one and despise and be against the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Matthew 6:24

Yet in the US and especially in the church, the pursuit of money and things is a full time obsession. Christians are urged from the pulpit to exercise their faith to get more stuff and be more comfortable in ever larger and larger homes, cars and excessive lifestyles. The #1 destroyer of marriages in the US is financial pressure as people are pushed to the brink to pay the bills for the stuff we don’t really need!

Aren’t we exhorted in the Gospel to be content with what we have, whether little or much? I don’t see any encouragement whatsoever to better our life situation by the accumulation of more and more “stuff”.

“Not that I am implying that I was in any personal want, for I have learned how to be content (satisfied to the point where I am not disturbed or disquieted) in whatever state I am.” Philippians 4:11

“For we brought nothing into the world, and obviously we cannot take anything out of the world; But if we have food and clothing, with these we shall be content.” I Timothy 6:7-8

There is virtually NOTHING that we here in the US will not do for money. We sacrifice our time, energy, calling, marriages, families and eternal destinies for the pursuit of things and are encouraged and cheered on by many in the church. Our lives are virtual graveyards of relationships, destinies and callings sacrificed to our favorite idol with benefits, Mammon.

Now there is nothing inherently wrong with money and I would MUCH rather be comfortable
driving a nice car and living in a nice house than some piece of junk. But the Biblical response is to seek FIRST the Kingdom and God will give us everything we NEED, not necessarily all we WANT. Instead of sacrificing our walk with God and our marriages and families for the sake of money, why don’t we like Paul learn to live contentedly with less for the sake of the Gospel?

Mammon, the pursuit of “wealth” and other “things” are a true American Idol.

SELF
In the United States, one of our ultimate idols is the pursuit of “Self”. We have self-help, self-awareness, self-consciousness and self-discovery. The doctrine of Oprah and Dr. Phil have infected the pulpits of the church. We are drowning in a sea of self love as we are encouraged more and more to “discover” who we are and love ourselves. In the church we have a very serious plague of selfishness as we hop from place to place to see “what’s in it for me” and all the while making place for “me-time”.

But isn’t the EXACT opposite nature of the Gospel?

“For the others all seek [to advance] their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ (the Messiah).” Philippians 2:21

The Bible says that pagans run after and are concerned after their own interests, but NOT those of Jesus Christ! If we are to be the salt and light we are called to be, let’s start by maybe sacrificing our personal interests for those of others. Isn’t that the very definition of love?

“No one has greater love [no one has shown stronger affection] than to lay down (give up) his own life for his friends.” John 15:13

Our willingness here in the United States to sacrifice all on the altar of the demon god of self is proven. In the name of “self” we have slaughtered countless innocent children while indefensible in the womb. We call it abortion. But the worst part of it is in the why. Why have millions of babies been aborted? Because the children we would have had would be an inconvenience to our selfish lifestyle. The ultimate blood sacrifice of human life is done all in the name of self.

Make no mistake America, we are no less devoted to our gods than the heathen of India, Africa or Central and South America. If devotion is measured by what we are willing to give up in pursuit of our demon gods, we win.

Summer of Miracles!

2009-08-07T10:45:00.002-04:00

Wow. We’ve been having a pretty interesting and “full” summer of healings, miracles, salvations and lots of ministry trips. I can honestly say that the last two months has been the busiest that I think I have ever been. Taking the time to actually write down all that God is doing has proved to be pretty difficult. I’ll get to the backlog soon I hope and actually write about some of the things we have seen and experienced in some detail, but in the meantime here’s a quick update:

INDIANA
We just returned from a ministry trip to Indiana. It’s a real long story how God set the whole thing up, but basically I had LOTS of prophetic confirmations starting over 2 years ago. When the opportunity to go presented itself, I jumped on it. It was good, and I think the beginning of something in Indiana for us personally and corporately as a mission.

We connected with a church in Angola, IN (http://www.thevisionchurch.us) and some good folks in Fremont, IN. The basic point of the weekend was to bring the fire burning here, up there! I would say “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED”. As part of what we do, we not only preach and teach the stuff, but two of the days we were actually able to take the people from the church out on the streets with us to “do the stuff”. We saw some pretty cool miracles.

LESBIANS MEET A HAPPY GOD
I was with a small group from the church in a low rent trailer park near the church. We were just walking around looking for opportunities to release the Kingdom “as we went”. I ran across two young ladies and the Lord started showing me some stuff for them. They were really impacted by it and came under some real conviction; mainly because they sheepishly confessed that they were a lesbian couple. They were shocked that God would reveal something GOOD about their lives and destinies. I’ve almost never had to bring down fire and brimstone with unbelievers, normally all I have to do is reveal the kindness of God and they fall apart under conviction, giving their lives to Jesus. So the Lord showed me their histories and what they had been through and as I told them how God wanted to redeem them and bring peace to their lives, with tears in both their eyes they happily turned to Jesus and asked (with their own mouths) for Jesus to come into their lives and rescue them from the mess they made!

“Or do you despise the riches of His kindness, and the forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” Romans 2:4

I COVET YOUR CANE!
We were just finishing with the now totally undone lesbian couple and saw a couple ladies walk by on the sidewalk, one of them with a pretty serious limp and walking with a cane. One of the ladies in our little party instantly recognized her as being the lady from Wal-Mart who greets folks as they walk in. I followed them to their doorstep where I asked them why she was walking with a cane. She went on to describe a horrible accident that she had suffered many years before, with surgeries and now arthritis had set into her knee. After asking some questions I told her, “Do you want to know why I asked you about your cane?” She was like, “Yeah, why did you ask me about that?” I went on to tell her that “I covet your cane.” She looked at me like I had three heads. I explained that at our church we had an entire wall covered with canes, casts, crutches, braces and that I had the perfect spot on the wall for hers!

She was pretty weirded out so I proceeded to tell her about the Kingdom of God and how God’s desire is for His Will to be done and the Kingdom to come to her, HERE ON EARTH. She invited us in to her home and we stood in her living room, explaining the Kingdom to her. She went on to tell us that she was diabetic, had osteoarthritis, etc. etc. etc. I told her the testimony of a lady that had just recently been totally healed of osteoarthritis and she smiled brightly. I asked her to check her knee and check her pain. She rated her pain at 8 – 10 on a 10 point scale. I was giddy before praying for her because I just KNEW what was going to happen. God was going to TOTALLY deliver her of all her stuff and we would get to see a miracle!

We prayed a simple prayer and commanded the pain to GO! When we did, the Power of God went out from us and hit her like a flash! She jerked so hard she almost went through the back wall of her trailer. I had to totally support her weight with my arms to keep her from crashing into a drawer behind her. She said, “OH MY GOD!” and started freaking out. Tears ran down her face as she was getting blasted by God. She immediately started saying, “I can’t believe this, I can’t believe this!” We told her yes she can believe it. She was trying to compose herself and I asked her where her pain went. She started to check it, bending over and moving all around, something that she couldn’t do only moments before. She was touching her toes! We had her check her arthritic knee and it popped! When she showed us her knee, it had straightened out! We had her walk in her house and she dropped the cane and walked perfectly normal!!

She told us, “Well, one leg USED TO BE shorter than the other!” God LENGTHENED HER LEG without us even praying! She walked up and down her hallways with tears streaming down her face, in total shock. Jesus healed her of arthritis in her knee, the effects of surgery in her right knee, osteoarthritis throughout her entire body, a short leg and I believe her diabetes!!

Come on Jesus!

Multiple Miracles!

2009-06-19T10:04:00.002-04:00

Several weeks ago I went with a Pastor from Kentucky to Grady Hospital in downtown Atlanta. The Pastor was here because he had heard some stories through Sid Roth’s TV program and My Dad’s appearance on there. He had also read my Dad’s book and wanted to see it for himself. That day, our goal was to see the Kingdom of God come with power and destroy the work of the enemy.

Mission accomplished.

RIGHT FOOT, RED FOOT, BLUE FOOT
We got to the Hospital and just hung out for a few minutes, asking the Holy Spirit what He was doing. I was with another brother who immediately took off after a young lady that was totally demon possessed! (She ended up getting delivered of her demons!) He went after her and I just sat down on a bench where lots of folks were hanging out. A young man came walking out of the hospital on crutches, strongly favoring his right foot, which had seen better days. It was totally mangled and you could barely call it a foot. It was bruised, broken, bloody and poorly wrapped in a bandage. With great care he made his way over to the bench and then sat down with a thud, unable to put any weight on it.

I was sitting next to him and asked him what happened to his foot. He said that he was in a car with his girlfriend, coming home from a party, late at night. They got into a terrible car accident and his foot and ankle were crushed. His girlfriend was in much worse shape and when the paramedics showed up, they sent her by helicopter to another hospital. He was taken to a hospital where he was quickly bandaged up and the wound was cleaned. When they were treating him, he kept asking about his girlfriend and they wouldn’t tell him her condition because of privacy laws (they weren’t married). So before they could set the broken bones he jumped up and walked out of the hospital, still bleeding mind you, to go find out what happened to his girlfriend. She wasn’t doing very well and needed several surgeries, but was now recovering at Grady Hospital.

Fast forward to today. It had been 6 days since this all had taken place and now we were in front of the Hospital where he had been visiting his girlfriend and also had seen a doctor. They told him that he had to come in and have the bones re-broken so they could set them, since it had been more than 72 hours since the injury. So here he was, in pain, visiting his girlfriend who was in pain and about to have his foot and ankle re-broken. He was having a bad day.

I told him why I was talking to him in the first place. I told him that I noticed his crutches as he walked up and that I wanted them. He looked at me like I was crazy. I told him that I had several pairs of them hanging on the walls of our church and that I knew the perfect place for his! Again, he looked at me like was totally NUTS! I told him, “Let me explain”. While I was speaking to him, this huge man came walking by very slowly, in obvious pain and sat down next to me on the bench. Now there were three of us on the bench. I then told him about the Kingdom of God and the effect it has when it comes on people like him, who have injuries and need crutches. What brought it home is when I explained to him “On earth as it is in Heaven”.

The big guy next to us was watching and listening intently now as I asked if I could pray for the guy’s mangled foot and ankle. He was like, “Sure, go for it!” But before I would pray I had him stand up and try to put weight on the foot and rate his pain. Every ounce of pressure on the foot brought intense pain. Just standing there on his crutches he was in intense pain. His pain was a 9 or 10. So we prayed. I don’t know what it is, but over the years we have developed a real breakthrough in pain and especially broken bones. I knew exactly what was going to happen. I was so confident that I directed my Pastor buddy from Kentucky to watch his face. I told the pain to “GO!” And it left!

The look on this guy’s face with the busted foot was a million dollar look. His eyes bugged out and his jaw dropped. I said, “Where’d the pain go?” He was dumbstruck. He literally couldn’t communicate. I could tell that he had absolutely NO grid for what had just occurred. It was awesome. We had him check the foot, put weight on it and then put ALL his weight on it. He had NO PAIN!!!

HEALING LEADS TO HEALING
The big guy sitting next to us was obviously affected. I could see a tear in his eye and I asked him, “Are you seeing this?!” He said, “Of course!” I said, “This is REAL, you know!” He fired right back, “I know, I know!” I asked him what was wrong with him and he said something about his leg. He had a long standing injury and lots of pain. He had plates and screws in his shin, limited mobility and some pain. I told him that God is no respecter or persons and what He would do for one, He would do for another! He let us pray for his leg and the pain left! He had tears coming down his face and I asked him if there was anything else as he was still moving pretty slowly. He called me close and explained to me where his REAL pain came from.

19 years ago he had an injury where he crushed one of his vertebrae. The doctors had done EVERYTHING they could do and for 19 years he had been in excruciating, blinding pain. 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. The only relief came from serious drugs (Opiates) and after so many years of using them, he was hooked. He said that his normal pain level is a 10 and the drugs would take it to an 8. He was actually at the hospital to pick up his prescription. He had taken the drugs a little while before and was at an 8. I told him that God could take care of this and he weakly smiled, scared to believe, even for a minute or two. Before he could think about it, I had him do something that caused him pain. He was walking like a mummy, very stiffly and not bending his back at all! I had him try to bend front to back and back to front and he could barely move either way. I had him try to bend side to side and he could hardly move at all. Then I told him, “Watch this!”

I put my hands on his back, commanded the pain to go and the vertebrae to be healed in Jesus name. We commanded the Kingdom to come to his body. When I told the pain to “GO”, I felt the presence of God surge out of me into his back. I knew he was healed. So I asked him the same question I asked the other guy, “Where’d the pain go?”

He started to check it, the tears ran down his face and he said, “It’s gone!” I had him bending side to side and front to back, all without pain! He even missed his bus while talking to us. I started to apologize but he stopped me saying, “I’ll get another bus, this was WORTH IT!”

19 Years of the devil’s work destroyed!

Stopping for “The One”

2009-06-12T10:48:00.001-04:00

Over and over I have heard Heidi Baker speak and write about stopping for “the one”. She uses the parable that Jesus told of leaving the 99 “found” sheep for the one that was lost. It really does show the heart of God when you bypass the crowds to go to that one special person that is on the heart of God. Over the years we have seen this play out as we go out, seeking to bring the love and power of God to our community. There will be nights when it seems like the Lord is drawing us to that one person and seemingly past other people. Just a couple weeks ago we had such a powerful experience where we searched a large apartment complex for “the one” and we found her!

TROUBLE SHOOTING
One of our teams had been referred to a large neighborhood several weeks before. They had been plugging away at this particular complex for several weeks without a lot of outward fruit. They had been praying for the sick and prophesying over everyone that moved but hadn’t really seen a breakthrough. The hunger for discipleship seemed quite low. That night I decided to go with them and check the place out, wondering to myself if perhaps we needed to just pull up stakes and move on. I mean, Jesus told us in Matthew that if it didn’t work when we preached to go somewhere else!

So Betty and I went with them. We got to the neighborhood and it seemed like a pretty decent place. Everyone seemed happy; lots of people were out and about. It’s a strange neighborhood in that it’s in the middle of nowhere, totally hidden from public view. The complex consists of several very large apartment units that are “stepped” throughout a large neighborhood of large rolling hills. The front of the apartments is a complicated mess of balconies, stairways and hallways. Very few people were actually out in the parking lot, they were all sitting on their porches and balconies with a bird’s eye view of the neighborhood. When we got there everyone was looking at the 6 of us, all white, some young, some middle aged and so on.

As soon as we got there I felt a leading from the Lord to just hang back and watch. The kids went out ahead of us, found folks and began to prophesy and preach the Gospel. I watched the reactions of the crowd and still didn’t feel lead to jump in. So we sat and waited. Betty was ready to go and preach, but hung out with me as I told her to just sit tight. We were there much longer than I would normally sit doing nothing; after all, we were there to preach! However, I had an unusual compulsion to wait on the Lord, even though that’s what we do throughout the week and before we go on outreach.

After some time of just sitting there I asked Betty to walk with me. I wanted to see the entire neighborhood and felt that somewhere in the labyrinth of apartments and balconies there was some “one” that needed the Lord here tonight. So we walked… and walked! The place was huge! We passed building after building, group of people after group of people going up and down several hills, all the while looking out for an open door. People stared, wondering why we were there, but didn’t do more than the occasional smile. We made our way to the back of the complex and came upon the last apartment building. We passed a small group of 5-6 people; they were all drinking and from the sound of it had been at it a while. But one of the guys in the group called out to me and said something in his drunken haze, I can’t remember. What I did know was that was my open door. I turned on my heels and went over to them.

THE ONE
The group was rowdy and not making a lot of sense. They were talking about some basketball game and slamming Vodka like there was no tomorrow. We made a little small talk, told them of the Kingdom of God and asked if anyone was sick. Several left the group and several others clammed up, some trying to hide their drinks, suddenly uncomfortable. I told them to not let their beer go warm on account of me! We did what we do and honestly, they just weren’t paying attention. I was silently asking the Lord for Prophetic Words to blow them away, but nothing was coming. I looked at Betty, wondering if maybe she had something and she shrugged her shoulders, telling me without words, “I’ve got nothing”. I was just about to walk away and leave them alone when a young lady, sitting on a staircase about 20 feet behind them squeaked out “You can pray for me.” She was probably only 19-20 years old, beautiful, but obviously troubled. I saw right away that she had wrap on her wrist and asked her what was going on with her wrist. Her head hung low and she told us she hurt it. I asker her how and she didn’t want to give up all the details.

We went over to her, sat down on the stairs with her and asked her what was up. Again, I was asking the Lord for some great prophetic word, but was getting nothing. So we listened and asked her what she needed prayer for. Tearfully, over the next half hour she told us about losing her daughter, losing her home, losing everything really. All of this was because she had a serious anger problem. We knew it was a demon. In her rage, she had hurt other people, going to jail and losing her daughter. In her rage she had punched holes in walls and recently, through a window. She unwrapped the bandages on her wrist and showed us some terrible cuts that needed immediate medical attention. She had done this the night before when she flew into a rage. I was thinking, “This little thing is capable of such amazing anger, rage and violence… wow!”

We didn’t have prophetic words, we didn’t have anything flashy. All that we had was compassion and a listening ear. After her testimony of the horrors of what the demon had worked on her life, we simply told her the truth. We told her that we ranged over her entire complex looking for her. We told her of a God that would single her out among everyone in her neighborhood to bring her life, hope and deliverance. Tears ran down her face as we told her that Jesus could set her free of this anger. We plainly told her of the horrible consequences of her sin, but the power of God to deliver her from her bondage. Without any convincing, without any hype and strangely for us, without even a demonstration of God’s power she gladly repented, turned from her life of sin and asked Jesus to forgive her and set her free of anger. As we prayed, the glory of God hit us all as she tangibly felt the anger leave her body.

She eagerly gave her life to Jesus on the steps of the apartment. Why? Because the Lord had us bypass the crowds and stop for her, the one.

Good In The Hood!

2009-05-19T15:59:00.001-04:00

This song by Tye Tribbett has now been named my unofficial theme song for our Urban Outreaches into the tougher parts of Metro Atlanta. It just seems like the Kingdom breaks out in an awesome way in the poorer “hood” areas. It seems like every time we go out there, people respond to the message of the Kingdom. There are healings, lives are changed through prophetic words and people are impacted greatly.

IT’S SNOWING IN THE HOOD!
One of my favorite things that I personally love about being in the hood is being white. Yeah, I said it. People don’t know what to think when some crazy white dude goes rolling around the hood talking to people. To make it better, I normally am not alone and regularly have several folks with me. This makes quite the scene in most neighborhoods we go to and actually helps us get our foot in the door.

Case in point:

A couple of weeks ago we head into a new neighborhood in a real rough area of town. Folks are out, it’s getting warmer and everyone is out having a good time. Lots of folks are getting drunk and there’s quite a “ruckus” going on. Enter stage left. I and several other VERY white people come marching into this situation and there is a group of ladies standing to our left. Their tongues nearly fall out of their mouth and their eyes are huge looking at us and wondering what in the heck we were doing there! I look at one of the main ladies and am standing probably only 15-20 feet away from her. I look at her, see her staring at me and say to her, “I can see you, you know”. She quickly checks herself and realizes that she has been staring, covers her mouth and is obviously embarrassed. I tell her, “It’s ok; I would wonder why this crazy group of white folks is here in my neighborhood too!” The whole group of ladies starts saying that they didn’t say that and I tell them, “You don’t have to say it with your mouth; you’re saying it with your expression!”

So now they are all ears wondering, “Why are these people in the neighborhood?” I tell them that we know Jesus and His Kingdom is on the earth. I tell them that we pray for sick people and God heals them! I ask them if any of them are sick and they say that they are doing fine. We chat a little and one of the ladies in our group gets some prophetic stuff for one of the young ladies. It’s right on! We have their attention and they tell us that we need to pray for a lady several doors down. At the moment they send us to her door, a lady looking very haggard comes to the door, in obvious pain. We start talking to this lady and find out that he has several conditions, but the one giving her the most trouble is congestive heart failure. One of the symptoms is difficulty breathing. We prayed for her and we ALL felt the power of God. She immediately began to breathe totally normally and felt filled with strength! She could hardly believe it and walked up the stairs to her apartment without any difficulty breathing! Come on Jesus!

WE SCARED THE “HELL” OUT OF THEM!
There was a large, angry group of people on the other side of the street fighting with each other, cursing, yelling and just getting rowdy. I looked at the group and asked the Lord to give me something for one of them. My attention was immediately drawn to a young man sitting in the center. This guy looked like bad news! He looked angry and was definitely giving off the vibe, “STAY AWAY!” As I looked at him, he looked to me like a wolf. Knowing that the lord sometimes uses simple impressions like that, I asked the Lord if He was trying to tell me something. I simply heard in my spirit a reversal of the scripture about wolves and sheep, “This man is a sheep in wolves clothing”. I knew that the Lord was giving me something for him, so I crossed the street towards the group and the young man. As I did, several people scattered, but this guy stayed put. I just walked up to him and told him, “Sometimes God shows me things for people and I believe that He is showing me something for you… Do you mind if I tell you what I see?” he shrugged and said, “sure”.

I started by telling him that the Kingdom of Heaven is right in front of him and that he simply needed to change the way he thinks to see it! Then I began to explain the word I saw for him. I told him that he was a sheep in wolves clothing and that he gives the impression off to many people that he is rough and ruthless, like a wolf. But God knows that he is tender and soft, like a sheep underneath all of that exterior stuff he puts up. He looked up at me like I had just punched him in the stomach! Two young ladies sitting next to him went, “Oh my God!” and started walking away. I was like, “What’s going on? Am I not telling the truth??” They told me that only they would know that and how did I know that? I went on to tell him that God was calling him to live a life without compromise and that he could live for the Lord and never have to pretend anymore. As I spoke to him about his hypocrisy, he broke out in this huge sweat, out of nowhere. It was barely 70 degrees with a breeze out, so there was no natural reason for him to sweat. He swallowed hard, looked up at me and said simply, “You nailed me with that one. Look at me sweating like this, what’s up with that?!”

I told him that he was feeling the power of God and that God was ringing his bell and had his number. I strongly preached the Gospel to him, calling him to repentance and he heard every word. He got up and said he needed to be alone, walking inside the house. I’ll call him a “Pre-Christian”.

THE LIONESS
The Lord began to show me a simple prophetic picture for her one of the young ladies that was standing by the thug whose mail we just read. When I looked at her, I was simply reminded of a lioness, or female lion. As a lady on our team began to speak to her I was quietly asking the Lord what that meant. The Lord reminded me of how the picture we always see of a lion is of the male and that they are the ones people take pictures of and celebrate. But that in nature, it is the female lioness that did the bulk of the work, taking care of the pride and even doing the hunting for the male lions. The Lord gave me a very simple word for her that her “man” got all the attention and credit when in fact she was the one doing all the work, holding the family together.

I started by telling her that when I looked at her she reminded me of a lioness. When I said that her jaw dropped open, her eyes filled with tears and she started shivering and quivering all over. I knew I was on track so I finished giving her the Word. She was VERY obviously shaken and impacted by what I said, but I still didn’t understand why. I asked her what was up and she told me that lions are very significant to her and she had even named her son “Leo”. In short, God was talking her language! The rest of the word for her described her home life EXACTLY. She was absolutely undone and scared out of her mind. We call these “face plant conversions” like we see in I Corinthians 14:25.

She and her sister both gave their lives to the Lord standing on that curb, directly as a result of the Lord revealing the secrets of their hearts! We have kept up with her and she has invited us into her home to have a Bible Study and to grow in the things of God.

Look out, more good from the hood to come!

"Presence" Evangelism

2009-05-12T16:50:00.002-04:00

We’ve been experiencing a new phenomenon of sorts. There has been a marked increase in the number of people that have recently approached us for all manner of healing, deliverance and ministry. Over and over again we’ve been hearing, “There’s just something about you” or “There’s something in your eyes!” The list goes on and on. This is a novelty to us because for years we have been the ones approaching people for ministry, not the other way around!

DELIVERANCE FOR BREAKFAST!
I have a friend that I workout with several times each week. We get to the gym around the same time, workout and regularly meet up for coffee at the local Starbucks afterwards. The other day ago I had jumped on the treadmill, plugged in my iPod and was walking furiously away to a series on healing and the miraculous that I had downloaded on the internet. I had only been on there 10 minutes or so when a lady we had seen at the gym before got on the treadmill next to me. She said hi and started making small talk. I had to stop the recording I was listening to her to politely respond. No sooner had, “Hi, how are you” come out of my mouth than she started to unload her life story on me! She got very detailed and started weeping and shaking, explaining to me how she has been getting ill as a result of panic attacks. She described how a chill would run up her leg and then she would start to hyperventilate, going into a full blown anxiety attack. Her sleep had been disturbed and her life had been turned inside out lately as financial fear and life stuff had caught up with her in the form of these panic attacks.

She began to tell me about how she had been praying and asking God to help, but God really hadn’t come through for her yet. She then realized that she was unloading on me and apologized saying, “I’m sorry I don’t even know if you are religious… Are you religious? I replied, telling her, “I really try not to be!” She seemed surprised by my answer and I told her, “I know what you mean though. Yes, I know the Lord.” As she went on describing her situation and the symptoms she had been experiencing I quietly told her, “These panic attacks are not merely physical and psychological, they are an attack from the devil and a demon. You don’t need counseling, you need deliverance!” She looked at me and said in a whimper, “Can you help me?” I said, “Sure! We’ll get you delivered, right after the workout!” The entire time we were talking we were walking briskly. I decided that the thing to do would be to wait for my workout buddy from church and then we would pray for her and get her delivered out in front of the gym.

I went back into the locker room and got my buddy, telling him “There’s a lady out here that has a devil, we need to get it off her. Can you help me come and pray?” He said sure and we walked out of the locker room together. We took our new needy friend out in front of the gym and explained to her the Kingdom of God, telling her that this thing was a demon and we’re going to get rid of it! Before we prayed, we prophesied to her that this was the last panic attack she would have and would be a different person after we prayed. So right there in front of Gold’s Gym we prayed for her, casting out this demonic attack of anxiety and fear. As we broke its power and commanded it to come out, she became limp and literally fell into our arms. We had to hold her up to keep her from going down! The presence of God very obviously came on her and she smiled with a big grin!

We invited her to a church service the next day and while there she received more ministry., Since that time she has caught up with me at the gym, letting me know that since we initially prayed she has been delivered, been sleeping well and hasn’t had a panic attack since!

THERE’S SOMETHING IN YOUR EYES!
Some friends and I were at a local hospital where we regularly pray for the sick. While there we just walked by a group of ladies and they reached out and grabbed me by the arm. They said, “There’s something in your eyes!” I said, “You’re right, there is something in my eyes. Do you want to know what it is?” They said, “Please, tell us, I feel like you have something for me!” After getting over the initial shock that they were approaching me I told them that what they were seeing was God’s Spirit inside of me! I explained that I am filled with God’s Spirit and if they wanted it, they could have Him in them too! I told them that when He comes to them, He comes to rule and reign and when He comes, He comes to destroy sickness and disease. I asked them if they had any diseases and sure enough they did. One lady had an issue of blood for the last 30 days and the other lady had diabetes and high blood pressure. We just reached out, touched them and God’s presence just came all over us all! One lady began to cry and was like, “What is that?!” I told her that it was God’s Spirit coming on her physical body. We couldn’t check their symptoms immediately but they promised that when they found themselves healed they would glorify God.

There was one girl sitting on the bench with them that wouldn’t let us pray the first time. But after she saw the other ladies have an encounter with God she became curious and let us pray for her. No sooner had I touched her than she began to swoon in her seat, start to cry and exclaim, “I can feel it, I can feel it!” God’s presence just washed over all of us right there and we had us a little worship service, praising God for touching all of us with His manifest presence!

YOU HAVE A BEAUTIFUL AURA!
My buddy and I swung by a local Starbucks after our workout, and ran into an eclectic group of kids. One of the guys was wearing big bell bottomed pants with an open shirt and was sporting quite the Mohawk. The young lady that was hanging all over him was wearing a string bikini top, torn jeans, was barefoot and half naked. The other young man looked like he was just along for the ride. In the line waiting for coffee the two crazy looking kids started making out passionately. Ick. I stood right behind them and started making kissy face noises, voicing my displeasure. Ha-ha. Real mature, I know.

Out in front of the store, they were getting in there car and looked over our way. I waved at them saying, “Bye, little hippies!” They started walking over to us and the young lady with them was kind of lurching, acting real weird and was saying, “Something tells me that we need to meet you!” I quickly responded, “You do!” She then began to tell us that they could see something in our eyes and I quote, “You have this big, beautiful aura!” I said, “I know!” They sat down with us outside the Starbucks and began to just talk to us, asking questions I know were designed to illicit a judgmental response. They asked questions about politics, the legalization of marijuana, etc. When we didn’t react, they were intrigued. I just sat there, asking the Lord for something for them prophetically. After a few minutes, the Lord gave me a word for the young man who looked out of place. When I started to share it, all three of them freaked out, two of them jumped up and were saying, “This is too wild, I know we were supposed to meet you!” The word the Lord gave me was right on and they started asking, “How did you know that?” I was able to explain to them about how the God of the Bible knows everything about everyone and from time to time will show us something to prove that He is real and He is interested in and loves them.

The word of knowledge opened the door and we walked though it, spending a while explaining the Kingdom to them. They didn’t give their lives to the Lord but happily heard it, we exchanged numbers and have now made some new friends.

Let’s call them “Pre-Christians”!

UMT Weekend Report

2009-05-04T13:28:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago, we hosted another UMT or Urban Missionary Training Weekend here at the church. It’s a weekend training module that we have developed to get folks from being totally “green” at doing the stuff and bringing the Kingdom to walking in the power of the Kingdom, quick! We have some teaching and foundational theology that we preach and teach, followed immediately by the actual “doing” of the work. Folks from all over the country flew and drove in to be a part of the training and outreach and as usual, God showed up.

MY TEAM
Our team had the privilege of having a cameraman with us to document the miracles and ultimately to produce a video documentary of the power of the Kingdom being demonstrated on the street. I’m excited about the project and there will be more to come on that in future updates. But the good thing is that every testimony I’m telling here that happened with our team can be documented, on video. I have a saying around here that says, “The truth can hold up under intense scrutiny!”

One of the first folks we talked to was a gentleman who was grilling outside of his apartment. When I first looked at him, the Lord gave me a word that I have had before. When I looked at him I had a gentle vision of a spider web. It’s a picture that the Lord has given me before to describe someone that’s trapped in a situation/circumstance where they feel that they can’t get out of. So I walked up to the guy and told him, “Hey, sometimes the Lord shows me things for people and I believe that He was showing me something for you.” He indicated that he wouldn’t mind hearing what I had to say so I started to explain to him what I had seen.

As I spoke with the little understanding that I had, the Lord gave me more. I saw specifically that he was actually involved in the drug culture and that he had a desire to do right, but circumstances left him feeling trapped in a lifestyle of sin and compromise. The Lord also showed me that he had a “Nathaniel” type personality like Jesus recognized, “Here is a true Israelite in whom there is nothing false”. The Holy Spirit was showing me that he had a love for truth and despised hypocrisy in all its forms. The Lord also gave me some direction about his current girlfriend and that he needed to marry her and “do the right thing”. It was pretty confrontational and direct. His mouth dropped open and he started nodding in the affirmative. He then told us that he had come outside to clear his head and was just praying, “What do I do?” Immediately after that, we walked up and explained his situation in detail. The “What to do” was turn to Jesus, renounce his lifestyle of compromise and ask the Lord to deliver him.

Right there in front of his now smoldering grill he gave his life to the Lord, asking God to rescue him from the foolishness of his actions. It was real, it was authentic and a true conversion. He was repentant and honest, asking the Lord to please rescue him. It was awesome!

HANDICAPPED SIGN & WONDERS
Our little band walked through the apartment complex looking for an opportunity to demonstrate the Kingdom. We had to step out of the street as a car full of people passed, but what got my attention was the handicapped parking sticker hanging from the rear view mirror. I told our little team, “Target Acquired!” From experience, I know that a handicapped sticker most certainly means an opportunity for God to destroy the work of the devil! We waited for the car to park and walked over to the folks as they were getting out of the car. I asked them, “Who is handicapped and needs the sticker?” They pointed to a lady sitting in the front passenger side of the vehicle. She looked sickly and emaciated and asked us why we were asking. We walked around to her side of the car as she tried in vain to get out of the vehicle. She was obviously too weak to even stand up on her own. I knelt down and explained to her that we look for folks that are sick and needing healing so that we can pray for them and demonstrate the power of the Gospel. I looked her in the eye and told her that it was a great day for her and her family! She looked at me like I was crazy!

I explained to her that God’s will is that His Kingdom would come and His will would be done ON EARTH as it IS in Heaven! We came to find out that she needed everything! She had asthma, bronchitis, a high fever, was recovering from cancer treatment and the cancer was in remission. She also had several other symptoms, was in extreme pain in her abdomen and very weak. We asked her if we could pray, “On earth as it is in Heaven” and she agreed. I had her check on camera her physical limitations. She was very short of breath and wheezing and she was completely exhausted, running a high fever. We started to pray for her and the presence of God overshadowed us. It was obvious to me that the Lord was touching her physical body and I asked her what she felt.

On the first check her wheeze and shortness of breath were both gone. On the second check the pain in her abdomen was gone. In just a few minutes strength had come back to her and I asked her if we could take a walk. Without a problem she stood up from the car and began to walk with me as I held her arm. Her apartment was up a flight of stairs and normally she would have to stop 3-4 times on her way up. She walked up with me without taking one rest and sat down in her apartment without pain! Oh yeah and the fever broke as well! By this time her family was gathered around and I was able to explain to them that the Kingdom of God had come near to them! Grandma was initially planning on going straight to bed but with her newfound strength she got up and began to cook for the entire family!

MS HEALED!
Another team in a community just a couple of miles from where we were at encountered a young lady that was walking like a mummy, in obvious pain. They asked her what was wrong and discovered that she had Multiple Sclerosis, just having returned from the hospital in severe pain and experiencing an extreme lack of mobility. They prayed for her, commanding the MS to leave her body and the Kingdom to invade! Right away, the pain left her body and she began to move and do things that seconds before were impossible! The team watched as the lady excitedly began to run up and down the stairs with perfect mobility and NO PAIN!

One week later the young lady attended a service that we were conducting in the Jonesboro area and testified personally to the mighty healing and deliverance that she had just experienced, still PAIN FREE and in perfect health!

Come on Jesus!

As You Go… Home!

2009-02-02T10:22:00.001-05:00

The other day ago I was on my way home from work. Just about a ½ mile from my house I spotted a woman at a 4 way stop. She was older looking and the look on her face was simply “bewildered”. She looked confused and upset, almost acting like she was unsure about crossing the street. I motioned her across the street, assuring her that I would let her go if she wanted. But she just looked at me. I rolled down the window and asked her, “Are You Ok?” She started babbling something about going to the pawn shop for grocery money or something and I could barely understand what she was talking about. As she was talking, tears started to run down her face and she was very obviously upset. I asked her if she needed a ride and she didn’t respond. I just opened my door and said, “Get in”.

So she gets into the car and I settle her down telling her that it’s going to be ok. I asked her, “Where are you going?” She just whispered, “Home”. I asker her, “Ok, where is home?” “That way” she pointed down the street. I said, “All right, I’m going to take you home, just tell me what’s going on, you look upset”. After she took a couple of deep breaths and started to calm down she explained that she had just walked a couple of miles from her home to pawn a bracelet and a necklace to buy grocery money. She told me that her social security check was late and she was out of grocery money. More than that, she was in severe pain as she had osteoarthritis and shouldn’t even be walking. Apparently, her doctor had suggested that she should use one of those motorized wheelchairs to get around in as she wasn’t fit to walk more than a few feet. I asked her if there was anything else bothering her and she told me, “Well, I have colon cancer”. It was quite advanced and she was experiencing some terrible symptoms and in constant pain.

We’re driving to her house, only a few miles from where I live. I start by telling her, “Honey, today is a good day for you!” I can’t help but smile and she is looking at me like I’m crazy! She can’t understand why I could smile in the face of her many terrible diseases and circumstances. But I know something she doesn’t! The Kingdom is here, at hand, in the car with both of us. The King is here! I said, “There couldn’t have been a better person in the world to stop and give you a ride home!” She says, “Ok…” so I told her, “let me explain”. I tell her, “I’m a believer and...” She interrupts me saying, “Oh, I’m a Christian, I go to church whenever I can, but without a car it’s pretty difficult…” I jump in and say, “Hold on now, and let me finish my sentence.” She sits quietly in the seat and hushes up for a second.

I continue, “I’m a believer and this is a great day for you! It’s a great day because I am the answer to your problems!” Now she’s sure I’m nuts. So I said, “Listen, God is with me and He’s here to take care of your problems.” She just smiled politely. At this point, we’re driving up the driveway of her run down home in a run down neighborhood. She tries to get out of the car, saying “Thank You” and I stopped her. I told her, “Listen; there is a cost for your ride home.” She looks at me in shock and starts telling me, “I have no money; I don’t know how I’ll pay you…” I said, “No, not money, the cost of the ride is that you allow me to pray for you!” She lets out a huge sigh of relief and says, “Ok”.

So I start interviewing her, asking her what the symptoms are of her Osteoarthritis. I have her check to see her mobility and ask her what her pain level is, “0 is absolutely pain free and 1 is excruciating pain, where are you?” Without hesitating, she says, “A 10!” She reminds me that she shouldn’t be walking, yet today alone, she’s walked several miles to the pawn shop. “So, standing her right now you are in blinding, excruciating pain?” “Yes!” she says. I take 1 minute to explain to her the Kingdom of Heaven being at hand. I tell her that in Heaven there is no colon cancer or osteoarthritis and that Jesus told us to pray that His Kingdom would come and His will be done. If that Kingdom is done in her body, all pain will go!

I look her dead in the eyes and say, “Watch this!” I reach out my hands and grab hers and I firmly say, “In the name of Jesus I command all pain to go! Heaven come into this body!” I literally feel the power of God shoot out of me into her and she jumps back with eyes wide open! The look on her face was absolutely priceless! She screams, “What did you do!!?” I start laughing and ask her, “What just happened?” She said, “I felt a surge go through me!” I said, “Where’d the pain go?” She started to examine herself and look for the pain and said “It’s gone!” I replied, “Really? Then if you have no pain, check yourself, what can you do?” She started to do stuff that she could not do just a couple minutes before, back bands, moving her neck, reaching down to touch her toes, etc. She just started weeping and couldn’t speak, so I asked her again, “Where’d the pain go?” She said, “All the pain left when the goose bumps came!” (You can’t make this stuff up!) I told her, “Jesus just healed you; His Kingdom came into your body!” She started thanking the Lord and then quickly said, “Do it again!” I prayed for her a couple more times and each time she got hit by the Presence of God harder and harder!

I emptied my wallet and gave her what money I had. By the time I left, her financial needs were met, her physical needs were met and she was as happy as she could be! The Kingdom of God had come near her!

Passing It On

2009-01-09T10:41:00.003-05:00

Several years ago, we were “pregnant” with a vision to see the people of God walking in the power of God. We had prophecies, promises and scripture to back up our belief, but very little experience of what we believed. Then, Bill Johnson came to our church for one night and told story after story about how people in their church were walking in the power of the Kingdom. What it did was give us “permission” to do what we knew we could do in our hearts. Almost overnight, testimonies started coming in and have consistently been rolling in for 6 years now. This has been the most exciting and glorious few years of our personal lives and corporate ministry.

One of our main callings as a church and ministry and one of the passions of my life is to “pass it on", training and equipping the people of God to walk in the power of God. It’s a blast to be used by the Holy Ghost, but WAY more fulfilling to see others pick up the torch and go for it! Well, just last month, my Dad was on Sid Roth’s Television show, “It’s Supernatural” to be interviewed. This show goes all over the world and Sid has a pretty good international audience, so it’s good exposure for our message. About a year ago his book “It’s the End of the Church As We Know It” was released and they read the book and wanted him on. He went on and told several stories of people being healed in public places.

Since the interview, our website has been getting hammered and we have been receiving a steady stream of emails from folks literally all over the world. Many of the requests are for prayer for healing and we have sent out 100+ anointed hankies (Acts 19:11-12). But some of the requests have been from folks for additional materials and instructions teaching them how to get out there and “do the stuff”! Very exciting!

One of the emails is from a gentleman named Todd. From the interview on Sid Roth, to the books and materials we sent him, Todd got “permission” to just get out there and “do” what was in his heart to do. Listed here are a few testimonies of what he has seen only in the last couple of weeks!

Awesome!

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

Sent in from Todd:

MIRACULOUS HEAD TRAUMA RECOVERY

A 10 or 11 year old boy had an ATV accident on December 27, 2008 and his injuries included a fractured skull, damaged brain stem, fractured neck, and fractured back. Doctors had to pick skull fragments out of his brain and told his family that brain stem injuries are inoperable and that they expected definite brain damage if he even survived for 72 hours. We went to the hospital and prayed over him the following Monday. Long story short, less than two weeks later he is breathing on his own, alert, walking, talking, eating and going through physical therapy. They will take his neck brace off in a few days, because there is no more evidence of a neck or spinal fracture, and they plan on sending him home on February 2. The hospital staff is amazed and said they have never seen such a severe head trauma case recover so quickly.

NO MORE CRUTCHES

While I was waiting to pray for that kid I came up behind a lady in her late fifties on crutches in the hospital lobby who was in obvious pain and moving at a crawl speed. Being the great man of faith I am, I said “God if you have her step into a waiting area I’ll know this is you and I’ll pray for her.” She hobbled right past the waiting area. Since that didn’t work I scraped up my boldness and asked her what was wrong and if I could pray for her. She said arthritis had been causing so much pain for the past 18 months she had to use crutches, which messed up her back too. So in the main entrance of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital (it couldn’t be somewhere discreet) I put my hands on her knees, declared Jesus is King over arthritis commanded things to come back into order. She walked around and said her right knee felt great but the left one still hurt. When I prayed for the left knee something in her leg snapped and startled both of us. After praying three or four times the pain in her back and knees went away and she walked off without crutches.

TWO HEALED IN A GROCERY STORE

I decided I would stop by a Kroger grocery store on the way home from work one day to pray for some folks, and when I asked God what he wanted to do I saw a lady in an electric scooter. So I tracked down the first person I saw in a scooter and asked her what caused her to need the scooter. Diane told me she had severe pain that shot up her leg when she walked. After a couple brief prayers the pain was gone from her knees and she could walk much better. Then I noticed another lady in scooter twenty feet away, so I asked Diane to go tell her what God just did to her. (Figured she should get right to work in the Kingdom) This lady proceeded to tell me how she was driving a semi truck ten years ago and was hit by a train, thrown hundreds of feet, resulting in constant pain since then, which prevented her from working. The first time I prayed she said her neck felt a little better. After I prayed the second time, putting my finger on her lower back, she looked at me and said “What did you do?” The pain in her neck and back was completely gone, she had full range of motion in her neck and could stand without any pain for the first time since accident TEN YEARS AGO. She said the pain went from an 8 to zero on a scale of 1-10.

DEAF EARS OPENED IN THE PARKING LOT

The next day I went back to the same Kroger (which we have now declared property of the Kingdom of God) and took along my buddy Scott who wants to move in this kind of stuff. I told him God showed me someone with a walking cane and someone with hearing aids, so, a little nervous, we went looking for them. We prayed for a lady in an electric scooter who had arthritis, broken ankle, knee replacement, and after several rounds of praying she experienced a measure of relief in her neck and back. She said “Both of your hands are really hot.” While she was talking, Scott spotted a guy with a cane, but by the time we were done he got away from us. Next we camped out at both entrances looking for hearing aids. Scott called me and said he saw two people in a car in the parking lot using sign language so we walked up, asked if someone was deaf and found that the driver, Lenny, had been completely deaf since birth. We stuck fingers in his ears, laid hands on him, rebuked deafness, commanded the ears to open, and then asked his wife to see what was different. He signed to her that he could feel the vibrations from my voice, which he never felt before, and that his hearing, which was previously zero, was now a two or three! Very cool.

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

Here is a word of instruction from Todd:

"I tell people that the secret to moving in healing is this: “There is no secret.” Just do it. When Jesus said “These sign will follow those who believe” he was referring to people who believed those signs will follow them. I have seen equal or even greater success praying for people outside of the church, probably because they don’t have the preconceptions, religiosities and unbelief that plague most Christians."

Way to go Todd!

The Drought Is Over!

2008-12-16T17:25:00.003-05:00

Sorry for the lack of updates... Don't know what to tell you, I just haven't gotten around to update the site! LOTS has been happening, LOTS more to come too! in our church service this Sunday, half of the meeting was miracle stories! The miracles and healings continue and people are being equipped to walk in the power of God. In fact, one of the things I wanted to do was direct you to some brothers that we work with who are seeing miracles and the Kingdom come with power as they hit the streets of Jonesboro, GA. and Winston Salem, NC.

http://urbanoutreachministries.blogspot.com
This is the blog of some friends of ours in North Carolina, Paul & Renee Erbe. They have been hitting the hood in their areas and seeing some AMAZING miracles. The Blind see, the deaf hear and the poor have the Gospel preached to them! In fact, they are in the process of relocating to the South Side of Atlanta to work with our new church plant down there.

http://jonesboroga.blogspot.com
This is the blog of a good friend of mine, David Dixon. David's part of our church and has been leading teams to the south side of Atlanta for the last couple of years. This Sunday, we had our first Sunday service with a church comprised of folks that have been reached through the outreaches in those neighborhoods. Very cool! The miracles and healings that they have been seeing are tremendous. Check it out.

Bunch of posts of those two blogs and that should keep you encouraged until I get around to writing up a fresh update with my stories.

Come on Jesus!

Two Empty Wheelchairs!

2008-08-22T13:44:00.003-04:00

Sorry that updates have been so sparse, but when lots of stuff is happening, it’s sometimes difficult for me to stop and write down all that’s going on. I actually have felt the Lord drawing me to do some more writing. So, in wrapping our India trip report: India was intense, but I think the trip was really significant, both for us and also for the kids and staff involved at the youth camp. You can read more testimonies here. (Look under “Youth Camp in Northern India”.

Anyway, what we’ve really been into the last few months that I haven’t really talked about at all is the high-crime, low-income areas of the inner city of Atlanta: “The Hood”. I LOVE the hood! Government housing is one of the most violent, gang-ridden, immoral and faithless areas of Atlanta… and I LOVE it! Light belongs in the darkness and in the hood, there is deep darkness. Teenage pregnancy, abortions, alcoholism, drugs, drug dealers, gangs, violence, drive-by shootings and a host of other demonic activity fills these places. We first discovered them a year and a half ago and weren’t really able to concentrate much time in there until this year. Since we have though, I don’t think that we will ever want to go back! Miracles have been happening with great frequency and we seem to be having quite an impact on these areas. People are getting saved and Jesus is being proclaimed as King!

“MR. JOE”
We met “Mr. Joe” on one of our first visits in the hood. We had discovered this particular neighborhood, being told about it by folks we were ministering to in another area. Mr. Joe is an elderly gentleman that we first met as he rolled around in a motorized wheelchair. We asked him what he was in the wheelchair for and found out that he had Chronic COPD and asthma. He told us that whenever he took even a few steps he would be out of breath and exhausted. Of course we told him of the Kingdom of God (There’s no COPD in Heaven, is there?) and asked if we could pray. As we prayed over him, an unusual anointing came on him and he said that he felt what could be described as a “swirling” over his head and he felt “all light” like power was flowing through his body.

That day, he didn’t try anything new, but thanked us for praying for him. The very next week we were back in the neighborhood and were greeted by the smiling “Mr. Joe”. He told us that he had DEFINITELY experienced a change in his breathing and his condition had greatly improved as he told us of all the new things that he could do as a result of his progressive healing. Weeks later, he doesn’t need the chair AT ALL and is only using it as a comfortable easy chair that he sits in on his front porch. We bought him a couple of rocking chairs and he has promised that we can have the chair to hang on the wall at church as a testimony of God’s power! Mr. Joe has rededicated his life to the Lord after this miracle and each week greets us and we have a good time encouraging him in his new-found faith!

JOHN
We met John, again by seeing someone go rolling by in an electric wheelchair. When we caught up with him, he was standing by his wheelchair, propped up on a car that he was trying to wash, obviously with great difficulty. We asked him why he was using the chair and he went into a laundry list of symptoms that he had been experiencing for many years. Just in the last few years he had several heart attacks, strokes and open heart surgeries. In 5 different open heart surgeries, veins were taken from his legs and put into his heart. After each surgery, the circulation in his legs would get worse. Now, it was so bad that when he stood up from his chair, in a matter of minutes his legs would start tingling painfully and then suddenly go numb, one leg at a time. Living a normal life outside of the chair was impossible to him, after only a few minutes standing, he would have to sit again. In addition to that, he was totally addicted to “uppers”. He said that while working as a trucker for almost 20 years, he would have to take drugs just to keep him awake on the long night hauls. As a result, for the last 16 years he had slept only an average of 1-2 hours per night! No wonder he had no strength to stand!

He allowed us to speak to him and we told him of the Kingdom of God. We told him that in Heaven, there is no one using a wheelchair with an inability to walk and according to the Lord’s Prayer we were instructed to pray “On earth as it is in Heaven”. He let us pray and as we were asking him what happened as we prayed, he told us that he could breathe better! I was like, “What? You never said anything about your breathing!” As it turned out, he forgot to even mention his severe asthma, but as we prayed for everything else, God touched his lungs and he was instantly healed of asthma (and we didn’t even pray for it!). He began to take deep breaths and thanked us profusely. We told him that we would come back and check on the other symptoms.

Two weeks later we were back in his neighborhood and encountered him, WALKING ACROSS THE STREET! We ran him down and asked what was going on and why wasn’t he in his chair?! He started with, “You’re not going to believe this…” I interrupted and said, “Yeah, I bet I will”. The first thing that he told us is that from the day we prayed for him, every night he had been sleeping AT LEAST 6 hours, many times 8! For a 16 year insomniac, this is a big deal! And the best part is, NO DRUGS. Total, peaceful, drug free sleep! He had experienced a HUGE boost in his strength as a result. More than that, he hadn’t had the first bit pf pain or numbness in his legs for two weeks! The circulation in his legs was NORMAL. God had restored what all the surgeries took away from his ability to walk! Each morning he had been getting up early (well rested and WITHOUT the aid of his wheelchair) and walked the 1/4 – 1/3 mile to the convenience store to get his coffee! All without pain! More than that, the 20 + pills that he was on every day were now totally useless. Without us even telling him and just because he felt so good he had stopped taking all the prescriptions that he was on! We stood in front of his apartment and praised God together.

Come on Jesus!

India 2008 – Part II

2008-07-23T10:32:00.003-04:00

*Removed due to security concerns.

India 2008 - Part I

2008-07-08T16:34:00.003-04:00

*Removed due to security concerns.

What We've Been Up To!

2008-06-04T10:12:00.002-04:00

Sorry about the infrequent updates. LOTS has been going on. Literally, we've been meeting, sometimes night and day for a month. There is a fresh move of God on the earth today and we have been thrust in the middle of it. Things have settled down a little this week as we are discovering that the Glory of God is HERE TO STAY!

I'll write more about that and the things that have been happening in our city, but until then, you can read some of the miracle reports that we have seen in the last month RIGHT HERE. This outpouring of the Glory of God has definitely made things go up a notch or two with regular healing of blindness, deafness, tumors and cysts shrinking and terminal cancers being HEALED!

Come on Jesus!

PS - I'm heading off to India this week with a team from our church. I am sure I will come back with some awesome stories of God's Power being displayed. If you think of it, pray for us!

What’s Going on Here?

2008-05-09T09:50:00.002-04:00

Perhaps you’ve heard of the Lakeland Outpouring? www.freshfire.ca What started as several nights of meetings has become at the time of this writing, a global phenomenon where multiplied thousands have been touched and healed through an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. What’s going on here has been fed by what’s going on in Lakeland, but actually started several weeks before anyone here went to Lakeland.

During a weekend of meetings with Surprise Sithole with Iris Ministries last April, there was a palpable hunger for God released and every meeting ended with a pile of people on the floor, crying out for more of God’s presence, power and glory. The presence of God in those meetings was profound! Lives were changed; people were delivered and set free of many bondages as we became desperate for Jesus!

OUR VISIT TO LAKELAND
So, coming AFTER our meetings with Surprise, a few weeks ago, I began hearing reports by email about a "REVIVAL" or "OUTPOURING" going on in Lakeland, Florida under the ministry of Todd Bentley. Now, I am pretty much used to folks in the ministry exaggerating the effect or outcome of meetings and I was skeptical, to say the least. After the reports kept coming in and after watching snippets of several services on GodTV, I was relatively sure in myself that this was NOT a major move of God. I saw so much flesh and what I believed was hype that when people began emailing and calling asking for my opinion, I told them, "It doesn't really look like the real thing".

Several people I know attended the meetings and all said the same thing, "The TV doesn't do it justice, the presence of God is AWESOME. Go!" I was still unconvinced and struggled with some of the ministry style and verbiage being thrown around at the televised services. What started to convince me was seeing John Kilpatrick and Steve Hill at the meetings and make reference to the glory of God they were feeling there. That was all it took. I went to Brownsville in 96 and experienced the glory of God there firsthand.

So on Monday night, April 28th, I made the decision to go and check it out. If I had any doubts about the authenticity of what was going on there, they all faded away when I sent an email out to our church, telling them that I was going. When I pressed "send" the presence and glory of God fell on me so strongly that it almost took my breath away. And it's been on me ever since. We spent two days in Lakeland and attended two services. The healings are real. One young lady that we met in line is a missionary in Africa. She was born deaf and during one of the services, she received her hearing! The presence of God is REAL. During worship especially, the glory or "weight" of God's presence would descend on us. Several times, it got so strong that it almost hurt! Yes, there is flesh and I wouldn’t do or say many things that are done and said in the meetings, but God met us there!

During one of the services there, Bobby Conner prophesied that this glory would be incredibly contagious and transferable and would be stronger at home than it was at Lakeland. Before we even got home we experienced this. I picked up the phone the day after our first service and called my Dad to tell him what God was doing and as I spoke to him the power of God fell on him and he had to pull his car over to the side of the road, the presence of God was so strong. I spoke to another friend from Oklahoma and just speaking about what God was doing, the presence of God fell on him in his car as he shook and vibrated under the Presence of God!

What was different about this presence that we were feeling in that it came back to our hotel rooms with us! It came back to our bedrooms and was with us in the car! The electricity and weight of God’s presence was so strong one morning down there that it took me almost 15-20 minutes to get my contacts in, I was crying so much!

BRINGING IT HOME
Our team came straight from the services in Lakeland and most of the team went to an impartation service that we were holding at the church that evening. Would you know that the same presence, power and glory that our team experienced in Lakeland came home with us and got all over our church body too?! Many folks in our church that have seldom or ever experienced the manifest presence of God shook, cried and vibrated under the electric glory that God has graced us with! We have been walking in a wonderful level of healing and the miraculous, but this took things up a notch! Miracles are so easy in the glory!

I came straight from Lakeland and had to honor a previous ministry trip I had scheduled in Alabama, although I wanted to be home with our home church. A couple from our church came with me, folks that had not been to Lakeland and before our first service in Alabama I released on them what was on me. In the booth at Applebee’s they shook and nearly fell out in the glory of God as the “weight” or “kabod” of God’s presence came on them!

In Alabama, many of the folks there had not even heard about what has been going on in Lakeland. The same glory of God that we experienced fell in those meetings, and even stronger! The Sunday service in Alabama ended in an almost 3 hour pile of quivering, sobbing and vibrating humanity, all deeply under the presence or “weight” of God.

Since then, we have been having meetings every night for several days and in each service, the presence of God gets stronger! Several healings have happened during the services, most even without prayer! But what is stealing the show is the presence of the Lord. Many have reported that the presence they are feeling at home or in our services is STRONGER than what they felt in Lakeland. I would agree!

THE KABOD OF GOD
What hit me the day before we left to go to Lakeland I had felt only one other time. I went to a conference in Toronto in 2004 and while there, the presence of God came on me resting like a weight. It actually feels like someone is sitting on my chest. Breath is almost labored, but gloriously so! It feels like trying to breath under water! In Toronto, this presence cam eon me for about 15 hours and during that time, the Lord spoke some things to me that have dramatically altered the course of my life, producing good fruit.

When I hit the send button on the email to our church, the presence came again. It came and it has not left! It literally feels like a weight resting on you. In this atmosphere, the Lord has started showing us that it’s the glory of God! In the Old Testament when the glory of God is mentioned, most of the time a Hebrew word, “Kabod” is used. The literal translation of the word Kabod is “weight”. What’s been happening here is that the literal “weight” of God’s presence is coming in people and not leaving! It’s messing with our lives as even the most basic tasks become quite difficult under the weight of God’s presence. Tommy Tenney has talked about the glory of God and said, “The anointing (for ministry) is exhilarating and invigorating, the glory is incapacitating!” But in a wonderful way! It’s like God saying, “Thanks for all your help, but I’ll just step in and take care of things”.

Moses cried out for the Presence of God in Exodus 33 and asked that God’s presence would go with them.

“And he said to Him, If Your presence does not go with me, do not carry us up from here. “ Exodus 33:15

That is exactly what God s doing. His presence is walking with us and we and others around us are aware of it! Isaiah 60 says,

“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of Jehovah has risen on you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples; but Jehovah shall rise on you, and His glory shall be seen on you.” Isaiah 60:1, 2

That word for glory is "Kabod” or “weight” Isaiah 60 is being fulfilled! We have declared this scripture and certainly the times and peoples of earth are dark! But God’s glory (weight) is here, resting on His people! We have prayed and asked God to send His glory and He has! Rejoice!

"The voice of him who cries in the wilderness, Prepare the way of Jehovah, make straight a highway in the desert for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked places shall be made level, and the rough places smooth; and the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of Jehovah has spoken." Isaiah 40:3-5

For years we have done exactly this. We’ve cried out against injustice, we’ve sought to bring equity to the world’s system. We have attempted to bring the high things low and the low things high and make the crooked placed straight. But NOW, in God’s timing, the glory (or weight) of God is being revealed!

WHAT DO WE DO WITH THIS?
Exactly what Jesus did. When Jesus started His ministry he went to his hometown, was handed the scriptures and quoted this scripture,

"The Spirit of the Lord is on Me; because of this He has anointed Me to proclaim the Gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim deliverance to the captives, and new sight to the blind, to set at liberty those having been crushed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." And rolling up the book, returning it to the attendant, He sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on Him. And He began to say to them; Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears.” Luke 4:18-21

Jesus was AWARE of the Spirit of God RESTING UPON HIM. He took this power, presence and glory to the lost masses, preaching the Gospel to the poor, healing the sick, binding the brokenhearted and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor! We should do likewise!

So when the glory or “weight” of God comes upon you, DRINK DEEPLY! Let it permeate; let it saturate you until you are AWARE of this fact, “HE IS WITH YOU! HE IS IN YOU!” Rest in His presence! Don’t be so quick to jump up and “work”. Let His glory overshadow you and change your nature, habits and desires! Fall in love with Jesus!

On a personal note: The presence and glory of God has rested on me for over a week now and I can barely sleep and hardly even want to eat, which is impressive because I am a big boy! Within one week of feasting on the glory I have lost 13 pounds! This is the most genuine and tangible presence of God I have EVER felt. And it's incredibly contagious and transferable! MANY in our church have reported the glory resting on them for days now changing their habits, desires and lifestyle! All we want is more of Jesus!! Now tell me that's not an authentic move of God!

Blessings,
Ryan Lawson
www.ngca.org

We're In a Move of GOD!

2008-05-07T07:40:00.001-04:00

Folks, we're in a move of God! Perhaps you've heard what's started to break out at Lakeland, Florida? (If you haven't, go here: www.freshfire.ca)

Anyway, we went down there and God really touched us. We brought the fire of God back and a move of God has started here as well! You can get more details by keeping up to date with the latest bulletins that we're sending out.

Click here to read the latest bulletin about the Outpouring.

Two Noteworthy Miracles

2008-04-02T14:50:00.002-04:00

I wanted to share with you a couple of noteworthy miracles that have happened here recently. These are miracles that have really increased our faith and encouraged us that truly, “nothing is impossible with God!” As we have been sharing them among ourselves and others that we meet, they have brought a “spark” of encouragement to their faith to press in for the impossible to become possible!

DEAF AND MUTE
A couple of weeks ago we had a wonderful woman of God spend the weekend with our church family. Her name is Shampa Rice. She’s just awesome! One family attended the meetings and brought with them their little four year old boy who has severe hearing problems. I’m not sure exactly how much hearing loss he had, but it was bad enough that his speech had been affected. When he spoke, he spoke unintelligibly and only his parents could really understand him. He came in with these huge hearing aids on both ears and it had what appeared to be a drainage tube attached to them. Definitely not something that a little 4 year old needs!

Now here’s the best part.

He, like most everyone else that night received prayer from our main speaker. But after an instant healing did not manifest, several folks in our church gathered around him, asking mom and Dad if they could pray. Little kids, mommies, grandparents and businessmen all pressed in to “take care of this”. So many people from our church in fact that I had to ask them to back away and let the little kid breathe! You should have seen the look on their faces… I would say the look that they had could best be described as “restrained jubilation”. You see, we’ve been seeing LOTS of deaf ears opening up; almost everyone we pray for lately gets their deafness healed. It’s like they all KNEW what was going to happen.

So they pressed in and began all praying for his healing. Someone asked his parents if they could remove the hearing aids and they did. They kept praying and then began to test the little boys hearing, asking could he hear them. After a few minutes, they got the Mom and Dad to speak to him from behind and the little boy swung his head, responding to their calls! You should have seen the face on his Dad!

His dad came in acting calm, cool and collected, but after hearing his little boy call his name clearly and respond quickly to the slightest whisper, again and again, they were floored! Dad was SO blown away that he simply couldn’t believe it. For more than an hour after his child started hearing and speaking, he kept testing his little boys hearing, in total disbelief, each time his child responded. Tears streamed down his face and he worshiped God. I asked him what this did for him and he said, “This stuff is real!”

STAGE 4 CANCER
Just uttering that word, “cancer” and many people have a hushed awe fall over them. To add to it, “Stage 4” in the medical realm is almost a death sentence. There is no Stage 5. Stage 4 is the end of the line, death is near. But there is a name that defeats Stage 4 Cancer; it’s called the name of Jesus and the Power of the Holy Ghost!

So we received a call from a good friend of ours, asking if we’d speak with a friend of his. This guy’s brother in law had recently received the Stage 4 Lung Cancer death sentence from his doctors. He is 45 years old and has five beautiful daughters. When we heard of that, our heart went out for the family, but more than that, a cry inside said, “NO!” This man has 5 beautiful daughters to walk down the aisle and give away in marriage! “NO!” 45 year old daddies and husbands should NOT die of that disease! Even though he lives about 4 hours from our church, we immediately began to plan a way to get to him and see that this disease got off of him!

Spontaneously, after speaking to this gentleman’s brother in Law, my Dad called and said, “Let’s go!” on a Saturday afternoon. Sure it would make for a late night, but what better thing is there to do than to destroy cancer and release an entire family from the grip of this disease? So my Dad and the brother in law hopped in the car and began making their way to the young man dying with cancer. They received approval that it would be good for them to come and pray and on the way, my Dad got the brother in law filled with the Spirit and speaking in tongues for the first time in a long time!

THE DIAGNOSIS
In December of last year, the guy dying with cancer, Steve, began having breathing problems. When he went to his doctor, he received the terrible news that he had serious lung cancer, with a large tumor growing at a tremendous rate in his lung. They ended up going to a Texas oncology unit, apparently one of the best in the country and received the grim diagnosis that he had Stage 4 inoperable lung cancer. The doctors literally sent him home to be with his family and to be as comfortable as possible before he would die. SO he went home. He had long since stopped working due to his failing health and couldn’t even get out there to swing a golf club, one of his favorite pastimes.

So my Dad and the brother in law show up charged and full of faith, defying the diagnosis of cancer and proclaiming that the Kingdom of Heaven is on the earth! They spoke the word of God, released the fire of God and imparted the life of God! Surely, cancer couldn’t abide the LIFE!

He immediately began to feel more energy and strength than he had in some time.

Several days later, he went back to work for the first time in months.

A few days after that, he felt so good that he played a round of golf.

Three weeks later, as he went in to his doctor’s office and in his own words, from an email written just a few days later:

“We went this morning to have the 1st X-ray/scan since we were diagnosed. We did lab work, had the X-ray, and went into a patient room for our exam. “The Doctor” came in, said the blood work looked great, said my lungs, heart sounded great, said my liver, body etc looked and felt totally normal. He interrupted the exam and said "Oh I forgot, you had a lung scan today, let me go track it down." He was gone a minute or two, he came busting in the door and said in a loud voice "Your tumor is GONE!” We said what? He said come and look, it is GONE! He took us to the viewer and sure enough, the primary lung tumor that started all of this appears to be gone. Clearly by his voice and reaction, this was not expected; clearly God could not have given us more clear evidence of His involvement.”

Steve is healed. He will be walking down the aisle with all 5 daughters.

Proof that Jesus is King and cancer is NOT!

The Multiplication of Ministry – Part II

2008-03-13T09:41:00.002-04:00

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

2008-03-06T09:51:00.002-05:00

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!

Geography Is Irrelevant – Part II

2008-01-21T10:39:00.000-05:00

We were leaving one location and heading to another. We had been invited to minister to a group of young men, ages 13-18 at a boy’s home in the mountains of North Georgia. These are kids that have seen some terrible things. Many of them have been abused and/or neglected and their parents have lost custody or given up custody for one reason or another. I knew walking in there that we would need to come “packing” the power of God, as these kids would not be impressed with just a good message. No, the message would have to come with Power!

I’ve said for many years that ministry to kids is a proving ground of sorts. The question is, “do you have the anointing with you?” If you don’t, then the only way to capture the attention of young people is programs, games and “fun”. Nothing wrong with pizza parties, but it’s hardly training to walk in the power of God and make a difference on the earth. See, adults will be polite. If you are unanointed, they will still smile and encourage you. Kids… not so much, Kids will mercilessly let you know that they are bored. I remember several years ago when my wife and I were preaching to a group of kids ages 7-12. I was giving them everything I had and thought I was doing ok. Not great, just ok. One of the younger kids around 8 years old raised his hand and asked me very politely when I acknowledged him, “Mr. Ryan, are you done yet?” Very humbling.

So I knew that these kids would be a challenge. That age range (ages 13-18) coupled with the life experiences that these kids have had would make a very tense ministry situation; one that would REQUIRE the power of God. No power = no effect. But the flipside is that if God showed up, it would be something memorable.

And if you are a regular reader of this blog you know that God showed up!

HOSTILITY
When we arrived, it was obvious that the young men at the home weren’t expecting us. I don’t think that they were told that we were coming until we arrived and once we arrived they didn’t know what the heck we were doing there. They eyed us suspiciously and greeted us icily. They were told to gather in the living room and did so begrudgingly. We weren’t exactly a small group, there were 7 or 8 of us and we didn’t exactly fit in. We were asked beforehand if we could come by and hang out before the meeting to get to know the boys. I declined the opportunity and here’s why. My thought was that I knew it would take some serious prophetic revelation to open the group up spiritually. If we had spent some time hanging with the boys then the stuff that the Lord gave us could be tainted with natural knowledge. So we walked in the home, shook a few hands and started the meeting with absolutely no knowledge of the kids we were getting ready to minister to.

Like I said, the kids were far from interested in being there. We were pulling them away from their fun on a Saturday. But we had something to give them! They were slouched over in their chairs and on the couches. Some of them were fighting falling asleep. A couple others mocked us, whispering not so quietly to their friends and laughing right in our face. Nice, what a great way to start. The director of the home simply told the boys that we were there to speak to them and they should listen to us. After a very brief introduction it was my turn to talk. I started politely at first, telling the kids why we were there (to preach and demonstrate the Gospel of the Kingdom of God) and started telling them a few testimonies of what God had done in the last 24 hours. It was awesome stuff, deaf ears opening, 13 year injuries healed, etc.

It went over like a lead balloon.

These kids couldn’t care any less. They went from disinterested and quietly mocking to irritated and openly mocking. They were making faces, falling asleep and intentionally disrupting things with their questions and comments. But I have dealt with kids this age before. I know that one thing and one thing alone will get their attention. Power. Forget what I said, it’s what we would do that would capture their attention. Now was the time. We were about to lose the meeting and have a small scale riot. This is the moment and the time that most would have given up, wrapped the meeting, shook and few hands and gone home with their tail tucked between their legs, bound and determined to NEVER expose themselves to such a hostile ministry situation again. And it was hostile. Every fiber of your flesh is screaming for relief from the awkward silence. Your face gets flushed from embarrassment and it’s all you can do to keep talking. Every eye is on you and you get NO assurance from your team. They are feeling as bad as you!

So what do you do? You lean on the arm of God and swing for the fences!

THE TURN
I looked dead in the eye of one of the young men. He was very obviously a ring leader of bad things. He was the most open in his mockery and was openly challenging our spiritual authority. I saw very quickly that if we could capture him, then the rest of the room would fall. I addressed him personally and began speaking not to the room, but just to him. I told him flatly that he was a disrespectful and mocking little twerp. But that was easy to see. What I was pressing in for was some gold, hidden deeply in the mines of his heart; I was looking for something of value. And I saw it! The Lord showed me that he was like Peter in the Bible. Great things would happen as the result of his boldness, IF he could conquer his cowardice.

I looked him in the eye and told him, “There was a man in the Bible that was much like you; a chicken. He had convictions, but lacked the courage to stand by them, like you. When faced with public scrutiny, he denied those he loved the most… like you.” All the air was sucked right out of the room. You could have heard a pin drop. I was dressing down the ringleader and very publicly. I could hear the air being sucked in between the teeth of the directors of the home. No one had EVER talked to their kids like that! If it wasn’t for the shock, I think that they may have sent me packing right then and there… But I continued…

“Yeah, so this guy was a chicken and a wimp, like you. He had convictions, but lacked the courage to stand by them, like you; and then he betrayed his best friends when faced with peer pressure, like you… but that’s not the end of the story.” I had their attention, now for the prophetic revelation. “But this man, Simon, would not remain Simon, but his name and his nature would be changed and he would be called Peter. Peter means a rock, an immovable object. He would later be called a Pillar of the church and through his bravery and conviction would lead and guide the church for decades.” Everyone in the room went from slouching in their seats to literally sitting on the edge of their seats, from disruptive to attentive. They knew this young man’s history and bore witness to what was being said. “How did this guy know these things about him???

The prophecy was simple, “God is about to change your nature from cowardly to bold, from fearful of men to the fear of God and he will give you the courage to stand for what you believe in, even in the face of intense persecution.” Bulls-eye. The word hit the kid right between the eyes. It also unlocked the prophetic and my team jumped in, giving word after word to the once mocking young man. We went around the room, giving words to every single one of the kids, calling out destiny and purpose in their lives. Several of the words were alarmingly accurate and extremely detailed. One of the kids loved computer and received half a dozen words about computers. Another loved to work on cars and was given a word that he would run a car shop. Another one of the kids was the “scrapper” in the group, always getting into fights and he received several words about wrestling and fighting with God. It was awesome.

The kids sat in rapt attention for 2 hours as they were prophesied over again and again. They hung on every word. Some teared up as the secrets of their hearts were laid bare. They were absolutely rocked! THEN I was able to preach this Gospel of the Kingdom of God and call then to repentance and lives of laid down love before God. They responded. One of the kids after hearing about the healing power of God stood up and got right in my face saying, “If what you’re saying is true, prove it!” I told him quietly, “that’s what we’re here to do”. He stretched out his hand which was swollen and inflamed. He had hurt it playing basketball earlier that day and demanded that we take away the pain. Our team gathered around, praying for the hand. After about ten seconds we stopped and I asked him to check it out. He stretched out his hand and his eyes got as big as saucers… “OH. MY. GOD. IT WORKED! IT WORKED!!!” He started bouncing around, telling everyone in the room that it worked! All the pain went away and within a few minutes so did all the swelling. The rest of the kids jumped out of their seats and started asking for healing.

We went around the room, praying for all the kids individually. Many were healed, several were delivered and most every kid in the room dedicated themselves to serving the Lord. We’ve been invited back to work with them some more and I will write up the details as they come in.

Nothing is impossible with God… even teenagers!

Geography Is Irrelevant – Part I

2007-11-29T12:57:00.000-05:00

“Geography is irrelevant to the Kingdom of God!” Those are the words that David Hogan spoke to me several years ago and they produced a conviction in me where I know that I know that everywhere we go, God goes with us! It doesn’t matter if you are in

America

or Africa,

Georgia

, Tennessee or Alabama, if you preach the message of the Kingdom of God, results will follow. For years I struggled with the lack of results and tried changing the method. But what needed to change in us was not the method, but the message!

Everywhere we go, when we preach the right message, we get results! The last few weeks as we’ve been out on the road, preaching in different cities and communities we’ve seen the power of the Gospel at work. The deaf hear, the lame walk, souls are saved and believers are equipped as we preach this glorious Gospel of the Kingdom!

THE GOSPEL WORKS IN GADSDEN, AL.
We took a team from the church to Gadsden, Alabama where a hungry group of believers form several different churches asked us to come and do some training and equipping and take people out on the streets. We normally do a Friday night equipping and ministry meeting followed by an outreach on Saturday morning/afternoon. The meeting on Friday night was good and there were actually several healings and miracles that happened during ministry time, but we hardly even include those testimonies anymore. Healing is the Children’s bread and should be as natural as having a meal. But I tell you that what happened during the outreach time that day was awesome!

EFFECTS OF POLIO HEALED!
During the outreach in Gadsden, one of the teams ran across a man suffering from the effects of polio. He had withered limbs and could only walk with the help of his cane. His legs had very little strength as a result of the polio. The team told him of the Kingdom of God and commanded strength into his legs. He literally felt virtue enter his legs and for the first time in years began to walk without the aid of his cane! The cane now hangs on the wall of our church as a display of the glory of God!

HOLY GHOST HIP REPLACEMENT!
Our team encountered an elderly gentleman who was sitting on his front porch. He was waiting for a hip transplant surgery, was in constant pain and had lost much of his mobility. The ball joint in his hip had deteriorated significantly. We told him of the Kingdom of God and asked if we could pray. As we prayed, we commanded the hip to be healed and Heaven to come into his body. We then asked him to stand do something that he couldn’t do. Within a few minutes of prayer, he told us that the pain was completely gone! Moments before it was in severe pain (An 8 on a 10 point scale). So we asked him to do things that caused pain before and he did so, all without pain!

We left him by telling him, “Looks like you just got a Holy Ghost hip replacement!”

THE GOSPEL WORKS IN RINGGOLD, GA.
The following week we headed out for a whirlwind ministry trip to Ringgold, Georgia just on the border with Tennessee. In 48 hours we would preach in Ringgold, GA, Chattanooga, TN and Dalton, GA. To make a long story short, one of the elders of the church there in Ringgold attended school with one of the ladies in our church. After hearing of the miracles and healings happening here, he, his wife and another elder from their church in Ringgold visited the church a couple of times. They went back telling the pastor and the congregation in effect, “We need what they have!” So we arranged a trip and headed out to do some equipping, training and take people out into the streets.

Normally our approach is to equip to the believers “as they go!” There is always cool stuff happening in the meetings, but that’s not our emphasis. Normally the bulk of what we see happens out on the streets, not necessarily in the church… but not this time!

61 YEARS OF DEAFNESS DESTROYED!
At the meeting there was a lady present that had been deaf for 61 years. She had recently seen a measure of healing after prayer from an African missionary who visited the church, but the deafness returned the day after. She had become an expert at reading lips and had hearing aids that gave her enough hearing to get by.

Several members of our team took their time with her, reading to her the scripture and encouraging her in her faith. After a few minutes of continual prayer the folks praying with her started snapping their fingers near her ears. After a few minutes she jumped one of the times that they snapped in her ears. She could hear, without the hearing aids! They tested her hearing and she could hear perfectly!!! The next day, she ran up to one of the team members and said, “Say something!” They asked her, “Can You Hear?” very softly. She jumped up and down saying, “YES! Yes! I can hear!” She ran up to me in the church and gave me huge hugs and kisses, grateful for what the Lord had done for her.

61 years of the enemies work destroyed in Jesus Name!

TO BE CONTINUED…

UMT Intensive Report – Weeks 5 & 6

2007-11-14T17:13:00.000-05:00

Sorry it’s been awhile since the last update. We’ve been on the road a bit over the last couple of weeks and the traveling and doing some equipping take some big chunks of time. We’ve been several places and I will write an update soon as to all that the Lord is doing. As usual, healings, miracles, salvations and the saints being equipped! But first, I wanted to wrap up with a report of the last couple of weeks at the football games.

WEEK 5
After the previous week’s blowout we had a bunch of hungry folks ready to advance the Kingdom of God show up for our fifth week of outreach in our UMT. We went to three different schools and sent 3-4 teams to each school. During soaking before the outreach I got a warning in my Spirit that the enemy was angry about the harvest we brought in the week prior and would be throwing everything he had at us this week. Sure enough, wouldn’t you know it that almost all of our teams had a very difficult night with a LOT of mockery, ridicule and rejection. Our team was snubbed at almost every turn at the high school we were visiting and I was assuming that was the state of most everyone else. One of the teams told the story about a young man that had a torn ACL and was in pain and wearing a brace for his knee. After receiving prayer, he was jumping, bending and moving his perfectly healed knee! That’s a healing! Those ACL injuries can take as long as 6-8 months to heal properly with rehab.

In spite of that, the general tone of the night seemed to be rejection and mockery. So after outreach, I was busy consoling people that it’s not always wide open heavens and to not be discouraged when a 17 year old young lady on our team, sheepishly raised her hand and said almost embarrassingly, “Well, I had a good night!”. They had gone to the school where the week prior there was something of a healing revival. Turns out that the young man who got out of the wheelchair was not only there and healthy, but he actually started in the football game that night! Imagine that, going from unable to walk in a wheelchair to starting on the football team in 7 days! Not only that, but there was such a stir caused by the healing revival the week before that our team simply and easily led 25 kids to the Lord that night! All told, more than 30 kids got saved that night and there were about a half dozen miracles.

Not bad for a “slow” night.

WEEK 6
Week 6 was our last week of the program, which is little more than an invitation to come and be with us as we bring the Kingdom to local high schools. After 5 weeks of outreaches, a little bit of teaching and encouragement, the change was evident. Over the last few weeks you could literally watch some of the folks attending transform before your very eyes! We had people that had never led anyone to the Lord lead their first person to the Lord, people that had never given prophetic words begin to prophesy accurately and people that had never witnessed a healing or miracle see and demonstrate the power of God through their own hands! More than just the results we see when we are out there; the most exciting thing for me is to watch believers get “turned on” to their commission to advance the Kingdom of God through signs and wonders.

It was, as I call it, “nice”.

So out we went to three different high schools once again and Jesus came with us. The high school I went to with a group was one that we had never been to before. We’ll definitely be back! Walking up, you could tell that this place was ripe and ready for the Gospel! Ten steps in the door, one of our teams spots a guy with a cast on his arm, approaches him and tells him about the gospel of the Kingdom. That was where they stayed ALL NIGHT. For the next 2 hours, they hardly moved. Crowds of kids came up to them asking for healing, salvation and prophetic words. After a couple kids on the team got some prophetic stuff for a group of kids, other young people came up to others in the group and asked them, “Can you do what they are doing?” (Meaning, getting prophetic words and words of knowledge). They replied, “Sure”.

One of the girls on the team had prophesied before, but never “wholesale”. That night she sat there and for two hours she gave accurate prophetic words and words of knowledge like an old pro! Another one of the ladies on the team had never seen a healing “out there” and that night she saw two instant miracles happen underneath her hands! You need to picture the site, a middle aged woman absolutely surrounded by high school kids, hanging on her every word! In fact, she drew such a crowd that the faculty came up to her and asked her to leave! She was escorted out of the gate by security! The kids she was ministering to were crying “Let her keep going!” But not before a group of young guys heard the Gospel and came up to one of the young men on our team and asked very literally, “So, we need to get saved and make Jesus King, how do we do that?” We were more than happy to oblige. Before the night was over, we saw a bunch of folks getting saved, lots of healings and miracles and TONS of prophetic words being given, demonstrating the goodness of God through signs and wonders!

The night ended like all good nights end at the football game, with a security guard escorting us out for preaching the gospel!

Come on Jesus!

UMT Intensive Report – Week 4

2007-10-26T11:03:00.000-04:00

WOW. We had a total blowout last week at the games. By the end of the night we had 61 kids give their lives to Jesus very publicly, on their knees. We had about 50 healings and miracles that took place, ranging from the healing of broken bones to torn ligaments, injuries of every kind, tendinitis, carpal tunnel, etc. One of out teams got thrown out of the game by the principal. Why? There were too many kids receiving ministry and not enough kids actually watching the game!

Come on Jesus.

We’ve been meeting up at the church and heading off to several local games. This last weekend we went to three different games. All of them had a different “flavor”, if you will. At one of the games there was a healing blowout, at another one there was a prophecy blowout and at the other game, a salvation blowout. Figure that.

PROPHETIC BLOWOUT
At one of the games we had about 10-12 of our folks there. They reported that there was hardly anyone visibly sick at the game, everyone looked healthy. See, we instruct our guys that when they go out to look for anyone visibly ill. That means that if you have a cast, cane, crutch, brace or even a good limp, we’ll approach you and see if we can pray for you! That approach is in line with Luke 10 and the instructions that Jesus gave to His disciples:

And into whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. And heal the sick that are in it, and say to them, The kingdom of God has come near you! Luke 10:8,9

So, they were looking for the sick and not finding them. The next weapon in our arsenal is the prophetic gifts. So the young folks in our group waded into the fray and started prophesying over everyone they met! The accuracy that the Lord was giving the team was startling and several of the kids began to break down and weep under the anointing. In less than 2 hours, 25 kids gave their lives to Jesus as the secrets of their hearts were revealed!

Now we say there was hardly anyone sick there, but the kids that were, got healed! I walked up to one kid with his arm on a sling and asked him what happened. He had just destroyed his arm and had pins and screws put in it. I asked him, “Are you in pain?” He responded that he wasn’t. I was a bit puzzled and asked again, “No pain? Are you sure?” “Yeah man, I am feeling, NO PAIN!” So I told him, “Well, if you were in pain, I would pray for God to heal you.” He and his girlfriend with him looked surprised and said, “Two other people have already prayed for me tonight… And it worked!” I feigned surprise. The girlfriend chimed in and said. “I was there, I saw it. They prayed for him and it worked!” I was like, “Really??!” They were incredulous, trying to convince me, “I tell you no lie, they prayed and it worked!” Funny. That was two of our teams that had prayed for him and got him healed. He had NO pain and 100% mobility, although his arm was in a hard cast.

SALVATION BLOWOUT
At another school that we had teams in, the “theme” of the night wasn’t the prophetic, although it was in operation, it wasn’t healing, although it was happening, it was simple boldness to declare the Gospel of the Kingdom to people and their response with salvation. As our team preached the Gospel, with boldness, more than 2 dozen kids responded (conservatively) by giving their lives to Jesus! 25 kids at one school, giving their lives to the Lord on their knees as a public declaration of repentance and service to Jesus!

HEALING EXPLOSION!
Lastly, at one of the schools there was a complete and total healing EXPLOSION! My brother Jordan was there at witnessed the whole thing, here is his testimony:

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By Jordan Lawson

We were at the game, nothing much was really going on, so we found a group of kids and just started talking to them about the kingdom of God and the healing of the sick, and as we were preaching to them, they started mocking us. One of them said "If we bring our friend over here, can you guys heal him? His leg is broken" I told them that of course God will heal them, because there are no broken legs in heaven. So one of them went and got their friend. When he showed up, I noticed that it was the same guy in the wheelchair that one of our groups had prayed for earlier! When he showed up, 30+ people gathered to witness the healing. So we preached the Gospel to the guy in the wheelchair and told him that Jesus is King over broken and sprained ankles and that God wanted to heal him today. So we got down on our knees, laid our hands on his ankle and called down the Fire of God and commanded healing into his leg.

While we were praying, we could hear the crowd around us mocking what we were doing. We persisted, declaring the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and commanding healing for his leg. Right when we finished praying, I told him to get up out of his wheelchair and do something that he wasn't able to do before we prayed. Right when he stood up, he had the "Deer in the headlights" look on his face. He looked at me and said "Oh my God!! I can stand up! It feels totally normal!" When he had said that and when the crowd witnessed him standing up out of his wheelchair, they erupted in applause instead of mocking! They were all freaking out, and even some of them started praising God! At this point, it TOTALLY broke out! Then 60 + people started pressing in on us, saying "Can you pray for me? Can you heal me? I have this problem and that problem".

It was INSANE! There were kids all around us asking us to pray for their healing from every kind of disease and injury. The guy who was in the wheelchair stood up and started walking and got his mom who was working in one of the concession stands to tell her what had happened. After he started walking, healing broke out among the crowd. There were kids getting INSTANTLY healed of broken fingers, broken wrists, broken arms and knees, and injuries and illnesses of all different kinds including tendinitis, colds, strep throats, and etc. They were ALL getting healed INSTANTLY! This one guy who had a cast on his forearm/hand came up to me and said "I broke my wrist the other day, can you heal it?" We prayed for the guy, and seriously, not 10 seconds later he started moving his wrist with the deer in the headlights look on his face. He was bewildered! He said, "I can move this hand just like the other one! There's absolutely no pain! I can't believe this, this is incredible!" I then told him to take off his cast, and he took it off and threw it towards me! It was absolutely amazing!

While all this was happening, wheelchair guy broke through the crowd and came back to me with his mom with him this time. His mom looked rather puzzled and asked, "What did you do to him?! What happened to him? How can his pain be totally gone?" She didn't seem to believe what had happened to her son at first. Her son replied to her saying, "They prayed for me mom! They healed me!" We then replied to that saying, "Jesus healed him of his injury. He doesn't need his wheelchair anymore."

And just in case any of you don't know, we've started a collection of casts, canes, crutches, wheelchairs, slings, eye patches to have at our church to show off for the Glory of God. So, knowing that we're "trying" to collect these items, I tried to get the wheelchair from him. I asked him at first after he got healed, "May we have your wheelchair to show off for the Glory of God?" and at first he declined. Then I told him that we would purchase it from him if he decided to give it to us. He wasn't totally declining anymore, but he was still leaning more towards a "no" answer rather than a "yes". So to continue on with the story, his mom is there, amazed that her son is healed but still not able to figure out that the Lord had actually healed him. Then she witnessed us heal 3 more people of a broken finger, broken wrist, and a person with bad knee problems and she started praising God for what she had seen! I asked her if we could purchase the wheelchair from her since she was the rightful owner of it. She said "Just take it!"

The crowd was growing, and growing in numbers. The “press” got to the point to where I and the two ladies who were with me were all separately praying for groups of sick people! It was astounding! This continued for about 2 hours or so. After it was all said and done, the principal of the school came out and asked me what had been going on. I told her the truth that we were healing the sick and preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She then said that she didn't want us doing that and had us escorted off of the property by a police guard.

Jesus is King! Praise you Jesus!

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Jesus is King! Even on Public High School Campuses!

Update On Edouard

2007-10-24T16:26:00.001-04:00

Hey There,

Here is a quick update on Pastor Edouard in the Congo. Edouard, as you may remember is the pastor that we ministered with in the Congo a in March, whose baby got sick and died as we were in his village preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom.

You can go here for the updates on that trip:
Adventures In Africa - Part I
Adventures In Africa - Part II
Adventures In Africa - Part III
Adventures In Africa - Part IV
Adventures In Africa - Part V
In Memory of John Wesley

The update was written by my friend David Dixon.

Blessings,
Ryan

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Edouard Update
10-20-07

It has been a while since I sent out word about what is happening in the

Congo

. Many of you have asked "what is happening with Edouard?" By some standards people might say that his situation is rough, others would say he is doing awesome. Me? I say that the times and trials that he and his church are going through are rough, but he is handling it beautifully.

A month or so ago, I called Edouard to see how he was doing. I learned that his wife, who if you haven't been keeping track has been trying to kill him since the death of their son John Wesley, was pregnant. And the baby is Edouard’s. Since that time she has given birth to a baby girl. Edouard has not been able to see the child because of the repeated attempts on his life. Though he has sent many invitations to his wife to come home and all will be forgiven, she has repeatedly refused and threatened his life over and over again. Edouard asks that we pray for the health and safety of his baby girl.

Despite the problems, persecution, assassination attempts, and arrests, Edouard is raising up a church that is continually preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom with power. Just last week a pastor from the Northern Region of Congo came to visit Brazzaville, where Edouard lives, and asked to speak in Edouard's church. This Pastor is much older and has been with their denomination for a long time. He brought with him another Congolese man who calls himself an apostle. They thought that they could help Edouard by giving him advice on how to pastor and grow his church. They preached for three days in Edouard's church during a "revival service". They came in thinking they could help but left shocked and stirred by what they saw in Edouard's church. They spent much of their time praying for the sick with very little results so Edouard called up a young man to help them pray. When the young man prayed people were instantly healed. The visiting pastors said "who is this young boy?" "He is the 10 year old son of one of our members." The visitors were astonished and became even more astonished when Edouard asked many of his congregation to come up and help pray for the sick after the services. Many people were healed instantly by normal members of the congregation. When the visiting pastors were alone with Edouard they asked how this could happen in his church. They left very happy and stirred up, asking Edouard for his help in teaching their people back in the northern region.

Through it all Edouard has stood strong and as we had hoped, his vision has grown not only to build his church and train them to preach the Gospel with power, but to train others outside his church. Many pastors that are seeing the fruit in his life are asking him for help. His vision now is to raise up an apostolic center where people can be trained and sent out to neighboring villages and bring the Gospel of the King and His Kingdom. Please pray for him as he continues to preach the Gospel in a country that so desperately needs it. Edouard was once a full time teacher but now since the growth of his church he has had to spend more time preaching the gospel and teaching the people. Our prayers and support will allow him to do this even more effectively.

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You can support Edouard and the work in the Congo by going here:
http://ngca.org/congo.htm

UMT Intensive Report – Weeks 2 & 3

2007-10-18T12:44:00.000-04:00

I’m going to roll a couple of weeks updates into one. The last couple of weeks have been great. The saints are being equipped to get out there and do the stuff and last week we had an explosion of God at a local high school football game. It was off the hook!

Also, in the next few days I hope to post a quick update on Edouard, our Pastor friend in the Congo. We’ve been hearing some good things back from Edouard and the church there and I’d like to share them with you.

WEEK #2
Our second week of the 6-week UMT High School/College Intensive was a great one. Jim Drown is an absolute fireball! He has been seeing Middle and South America lit up with the power of God over the last ten years as he’s been taking teams into the streets and prisons as well as holding citywide crusades throughout Peru and other nations. He has a wealth of real life experience and his life and testimony was and is contagious! He is a living, breathing picture of what revival looks like! Of course, after the meeting we were raring and ready to go out there and hit the streets with the power and glory of God.

NAMAAN
We entered the fray of the parking lot by approaching a rough and tumble group of burly guys with what we thought was a word of knowledge. Turns out, we had the word of knowledge totally wrong! But this one kid that was standing to the side looked bewildered and confused. While the other guys were talking to the guy they missed the prophetic word for, I asked the confused kid what was going on and why he was so wierded out. He was taken aback that we would walk up to a stranger and start preaching and talking about what he called the three things you NEVER speak about with strangers: politics, religion or sexual orientation.

I told him that he had bought the politically correct lies spewed out by pop culture and that frankly, he was a chicken to stay so safe in conversation. He asked me what we were doing there and I told him that we were bringing life where there is death, peace where there is anxiety and joy where there is anger. He was listening, but asked why I thought that what I believed should be told to people that believe differently. I told him flatly, “Because what you believe is wrong”. He looked at me like I had three heads. I continued and told him that Jesus said that a tree is known by its fruit, good fruit, good tree and bad fruit from a bad tree. I asked him what was the fruit, or produce of his beliefs. I asked him if he had peace, joy or righteousness. I could see in his eyes that he was anxious and fearful.

He still asked, “Why do you think you have the right to speak to other people who believe differently?” I told him the story of how we don’t just tell, but demonstrate and that the demonstration gets people’s attention so that they will listen to us. He asked me what I meant and I told him how the week before we had seen a ladies blind eye opened in Jesus name and two cancerous tumors the size of golf balls shrink under our hands. Now he was listening intently. He stopped me mid-sentence and said, “You might not believe me, but I have been seeking and searching for Him… I desperately need help.” Like a diamond in the rough, we discovered this kid among a bunch of rebels. This kid was seeking the reality of the Holy Spirit and he found it. We prophesied over him, spoke destiny to him and before the night was over, he had heard and tasted of the Gospel of the Kingdom.

Lots of other stuff happened that night as our group boldly proclaimed and demonstrated the Gospel among a bunch of crazy young people, some who are agnostic, pagan or just plain rebellious.

WEEK #3
We were all looking forward to last week. Last week we took teams to local high school football games and wouldn’t you know it, GOD showed up! Three sets of teams to three different local games. Every team had encounters with unbelievers, many were prophesied over and more than a few healings took place. The Gospel was demonstrated on local high school campuses! But at one of the schools we went to, it blew up!

A GOOD START
There were three teams of 3-4 people that went to the school I was at. We had seen some cool stuff at this school before and were expecting great things. I could tell right away that we would have to tread lightly and show wisdom as the police presence was so prevalent. The main place where we preach and demonstrate the Gospel is the concession area and there were six Sheriff’s deputies encircling the area. Most of the kids that hang there are middle and high school kids with almost all the parents in the stands. So when we walked up, I and another obvious “grown-up” stood to the side and cut the younger guys (or at the least the ones that look younger) loose. It was a very unique experience for me. Normally, I am almost always right in the middle of things, but this night I got to just stand there and watch a move of God grow and break out.

Very cool.

Robert and I had just been standing there, sipping our drinks for a few minutes when one of the groups walked up to us and handed us a pair of crutches! I was like, “what’s this all about?” and they told me that some kids knee and calf got healed. He walked into the game using the crutches, in pain and walked away, without the crutches and in no pain! Still, among the accurate prophetic words and scattered healings, there wasn’t much of a stir being created yet.

A STIR
One of the teams approached a young girl with a brace on her wrist and hand and asked if they could pray for her. She was taken aback until they showed her the unused crutches I was hanging onto. Wrestling with her religious arguments, finally the group was given the opportunity to pray for her. It wasn’t the result of the prayer, but the fact that the team wanted to pray that broke things open. They explained the gospel of the kingdom to a gathering group of middle school kids. You could see them being attracted to what was happening. It was like turning on a blue light and watching the bugs come racing to get zapped! The more people stopped to listen to the team preaching, the more people would pay attention and the group grew. After preaching to them, they asked who wanted to respond by pledging their life to serve Jesus and advance His Kingdom. About 15 kids all raised their hands and jumped in. They were commanded to bow their knees and give their lives to Jesus. Without hesitation, all the kids that raised their hands and even a few others hit their knees and prayed LOUDLY for salvation and repentance.

They say that success breeds success and it’s true. As the kids were bowing, giving their lives to the Lord, a new group of kids walked up to see what was going on. After another brief explanation of the Kingdom of God, the group pressed a girl forward who had lupus. The new believers in the group were told to extend their hands and pray healing for her in Jesus name. Probably the highlight of that night for me was watching these brand new Christians ministering healing LOUDLY, "IN JESUS NAME, BE HEALED!!!" which drew more people.

Now there was a buzz. All the kids that walked by stopped to hear what was being said. Our group decided that the new believers needed a touch of the Holy Spirit and told them of the fire of God and that they needed to be filled with the presence of God! They broke up and each of our 8 team members there had a group of 10-20 kids surrounding them asking for healing, prophecy or a touch from God. I watched as they extended their hands and released the Holy Ghost on these kids and their friends. Without being coached on what the Holy Spirit’s touch is like they started saying that they felt heat coming from their belly and moving up their chest.

One unsuspecting kid jumped into a mass prayer as he walked by and was at the back of the huddle of kids. I saw him walk up, extend his hands as they prayed, “Fire of God!” and immediately fall out under the power of God onto the cement! No one was even paying attention and it was hilarious to see him jump up from the ground, dust himself off and look embarrassed as he tried to regain composure. All in all, there were dozens of kids touched by the power of God an about 20 of them confessed Jesus as their Lord and King, publicly, in the dirt. Many miracles happened as tendons and ligaments were healed, broken bones were knitted back together and pain left the bodies of many who were injured or sick. The game was near wrapping up when the police got involved and started to break things up, so we decided to call it a night.

What will Jesus do this week?

UMT Intensive Report – Week 1

2007-10-03T16:40:00.000-04:00

Well, this last Friday and Saturday we began our 6-week UMT High School/College Intensive and it started with a bang! Over the weekend of equipping and activation we had two astounding miracles occur.

Here’s what happened:

EQUIPPING & RELEASING
We’ve learned over the last couple of years that it’s not the amount of or quality of spiritual information that Christians have, but rather the amount they are actively putting into practice. All Christians have heard the Lord’s Prayer, yet few are actively doing what the Lord instructed us, His disciples to do. His instructions start with:

“Father in Heaven, Hallowed be Your Name,
Your Kingdom come, Your will be done,
On Earth as it is in Heaven…”

The Lord actually told us to pray the will and Kingdom of God, as they are manifested in heaven would come to earth! When Heaven comes to earth, miracles are the result. Impossibility bows in the name of Jesus as possibility takes its place. Our prayer and our mandate as believers is to bring heaven to earth! This is what we preached on and taught on both Friday night and Saturday morning. But all that information means nothing unless we are ready and willing to put it into practice! This is why we go out and do outreaches as part of our equipping...

So, our team, comprised of business men, house moms, grandmas and students divided up into teams and headed into the inner city to preach the Gospel, heal the sick and cast out demons. We go downtown because it’s what I call a “target rich environment”. The teams are instructed ahead of time to spread out and find anyone with a visible ailment, be it casts, canes, crutches, wheelchairs, braces and even a good limp! We then tell them that the Kingdom of God is at hand and then get them healed!

MIRACLE #1
One of our teams was at a local hospital. While there, they encountered a woman who recently had a stroke and lost use of her right side. She was getting some of the use of her limbs back, but since the stroke her right eye had been blinded. All that she could see was colors; she could make no distinction of shapes, etc. The team told her that there are no blind eyes in Heaven and that if Heaven came to her body, she would be healed! They asked if they could pray and she agreed.

As they prayed, they asked her what was happening. She responded that something was going on and that she was starting to see shapes. Like Jesus in the Bible, they prayed for her sight again. This time she started to get excited! The first words out of her mouth were, "They are going to think I was lying to them in the hospital!" The team had her cover her good eye and started checking the bad eye, holding up fingers in front of her. She quickly called them out without any problem. They backed up and got about 12 feet from her and she continued to make the distinction of shapes as her vision was completely restored!

MIRACLES #2 & #3
I was with a couple other team members and we were in a local area park that is frequented by the homeless. While there, we encountered a gentleman who had recently been bitten by a brown recluse spider. The venom had devastated his leg and he was in intense pain and the wounds were itching terribly. On of our girls on the team asked if she could pray for him telling him that there are no spider bites and intense pain in Heaven. As she prayed, the pain and itching left the wounds immediately! The man was excited and the team continued to minister to him encouraging him with prophetic words.

Meanwhile, a couple was in the park watching this exchange from a distance. The young lady in the couple walked up to the team and asked for prayer. As we found out, she had just been released from the hospital after being diagnosed with cancer in her abdomen. There were two visible tumors at the top of her hip, both about the size of golf balls. She had gone to the doctor because she could feel the masses as she walked and they caused her discomfort. The team, freshly instructed on bringing the Kingdom of God told them woman that there is no cancer and no tumors in Heaven. If Heaven came to her body, she would be healed!

One of the girls on our team prayed and within a few seconds, the first tumor completely disappeared! We all were excited and the lady we were praying for began weeping and rejoicing. You should have seen her face! Her husband was standing right there, in awe of what God was doing. We didn't didn’t stop praying, but continued to pray for the other tumor to be destroyed. Within a minute it had shrunk to the size of a marble, another few minutes to the size of a pea and just a couple of minutes later, it had completely dissolved! We all went nuts! Everyone was rejoicing and praising God right there in the park as the presence of God overshadowed the whole group! The lady fell out under the power of God and we were able to prophesy to the couple about their destiny in God.

All in all, a good start, don’t you think?

PS – If you want to come, you can be a part:
http://ngca.org/umt.htm