On We Go In Jesus!

The work continues as the lost are saved, the sick are healed, those with demons are set free, the poor have the Gospel preached to them and new believers are being discipled and grown up into the things of God. Just a couple weeks ago, a young man with a couple of broken ribs was instantly healed. All the pain left his body and he was able to breathe and bend normally! He was very grateful of the goodness of God on his behalf. A couple of neighbors in one of the worst places we are in are both schizophrenic and suffer greatly with anxiety and fear. We looked them both in the eye and told them that they have demons. They begged us to pray for them and when we did, both of them went from a nervous wreck to completely at peace. One of the ladies couldn’t even look me in the eye; the demonic presence was so strong in her. After prayer for deliverance she sat there and talked to me almost normally, looking me right in the eye.

It’s not always pretty and it’s definitely not polished or slick. There aren’t any programs and there isn’t a training school that can prepare you for the worst the devil can do with people. Every day in the trailer parks and low rent apartments is like an episode of Jerry Springer. Fighting, cursing, drugs, sex, sin and sickness plague the poor. It’s our job to bring in the light of God and transform once dark places into lighthouses for the gospel. It’s our job to invade the kingdom of darkness at work in the hearts, bodies, lives and homes of these poor souls. Sometimes it’s instant and a sunburst of God breaks through the darkness and depression. Other times it takes a minute. And by a minute, I mean a week, a month or a year.

We’re undoing generational garbage that has destroyed these folks for years. We’re shining light on habits and patterns of sinful behavior that has destroyed family after family. We don’t win every fight. Some people go back to their darkness. Some have the mercy and grace of God revealed to them only to turn away from the Lord. Some gain their healing, go back to their sinful lifestyle and come out the other side worse than before we met them. It’s our hope and our prayer that every one would serve Jesus with all of their heart, but that’s just not the way it is. It’s our job to love the unlovable, preach hope to the hopeless and faith to the unbelieving. Everyone loves the testimonies of when God breaks through, but few are able to hang in there when things don’t go our way. It takes perseverance and patience. It takes longsuffering and unquenchable faith. It takes a full measure of the Holy Spirit and Jesus!

GROWING PAINS
We’re going through another growth spurt right now as several more believers in our church are getting stable. That is, stable enough to make a weekly commitment to the lost, hurting and dying. That commitment means that a neighborhood will be touched with the Gospel. Imagine that, one believer’s commitment to one night a week means that they can impact two neighborhoods a month! But many, many believers can’t even do that. Their lives are in turmoil and their priorities are way out of whack. They want to be a help, but they can’t. The truth is, stable, mature believers = growth and a spreading of the Gospel. Until you are stable, the lost can’t count on you. Until you are stable, you’ll just be an irregular blip on the radar of the unsaved. But when you get stable and when you get a little commitment working on your life, all of a sudden, they can count on you. When you simply do what you say you are going to do, you stand out form the crowd as one who has integrity.

So now we are in about 25 different neighborhoods now and just keep trucking along, doing what we’re doing. Our core team is being strengthened and expanding, which is good news for the kingdom of God and bad news for the kingdom of darkness. During our weekday outreaches, it’s now common to be sending out 4 or 5 teams to different neighborhoods. Each of them comes back with stories of miracles, healings, prophetic evangelism and salvation experiences. It’s so hard to catalog and keep up with all the testimonies! I have to get them to send me emails detailing what happened each night just to keep a pulse on what’s going on. I am never disappointed.

One of the things I particularly love is hearing the reports of our folks getting words of knowledge and discernment of spirits for people, revealing their hearts and leading them to Jesus. The Lord is so extravagant with prophetic revelation; even more so when we make a determination to use the gift for evangelism. Just about everyone walking out the door now is walking in some measure of the prophetic, which is awesome. Just a few years ago, we would have deified these folks and have them traveling as an itinerant minister when they demonstrated such gifts. It’s not uncommon for the Lord to reveal very specific details about a person, their physical condition, their family situation, etc. What is predictable is their response! When the secrets of a person’s heart are revealed, all they can do is bow down and surrender their lives to Jesus!

The lists of new believers continues to grow. Many of them have been baptized in bathtubs. We had a coworker of one of the new believers take issue with that. He was offended that he wasn’t baptized into a church or inside a church baptismal, as if the water is holier there or something. Believe it or not, this was a Baptist! You would think that a good old southern Baptist boy would just be happy that the lost are converted and being baptized, but religious spirits rarely see the good.

One other interesting thing is the Lord has been sending us people literally from all over the world. We have had several folks in from the UK and this week a gentleman from Australia came all the way out to spend a week with us on the streets, seeing God move. We just know that each of them will get impacted and ignited in the things of God, taking the fire back to their cities, towns and nations. Even here in the states, there have been several folks from across the country coming to visit, to partake and to witness what the Lord is doing here. We are encouraged as others, even in our own city are making quality decisions to take up their sword and engage in this fight!

What are we going for? For starters, we want to see one American city truly and honestly fall to the Gospel of the Kingdom.

We’re going to see it.

PS – It’s my birthday! For a fleeting moment, it’s all about me! Happy Birthday to me!

“The Good Guys Don’t Hide”

That’s a line I heard from a movie some time ago that stuck with me. I actually think that it’s Biblical and we try to practice it in every situation. When we’re witnessing out in the parking lots and the police sweep in to arrest folks that are breaking the law and loitering, etc., at first we wanted to run with all of the other kids. Then it hit me, “Hey, we’re doing nothing wrong! We have no reason to hide!” I mean, after all, we’re out there witnessing to people about Jesus, leading people to the Lord and healing the sick Why should we (the good guys) run like chickens from the police? Sure, there are laws that tell people to not loiter, but we’re not loitering, we’re working for the Gospel! So I made it a policy, “Don’t run from the police”.

It’s actually come in handy a few times. It makes us stand out from the crowd. We’ll be standing there talking to people and preaching when the police will fly into the parking lot, sometimes 3-4 cop cars strong. They are there to break up groups of people, check for drugs and arrest bad people doing bad things. So when they roll in, everyone runs for their cars and tries to get the heck out of there. When we just stand there, unaffected by the police, it makes a statement. A couple of times the police have come to us (seeing that we are the only people left) to ask us what was just going down and who the bad guys are. Because we didn’t run, they assumed we were ok and not doing anything wrong. And we are!

Last weekend we saw this principle demonstrated and it made quite an impact on a group of kids who thought they were hot stuff. Friday we went down to be with a group of believers in Newnan, GA. It was a good time as we were able to preach, teach and minister Friday night and then on Saturday morning, about 30 people descended on the streets of Newnan to preach the Gospel, heal the sick and cast out devils. There were several healings as ankles, arms, backs and necks were healed instantly, on the street, in Wal-Mart and at Home Depot.


AN INVITATION
One of the places that we went was the projects. One minute in the neighborhood and you could discern that there are some rough people here doing some rough stuff. I always like to scan the area, looking for the biggest and most intimidating sinners we can find. We go to them FIRST. It’s like William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army said, “Go for sinners and go for the Worst!” So there was a group of about 6-7 kids, dressed like gang bangers. When we drove through their cul-de-sac, they gave us the “evil eye”. They stepped off the curb, walked towards us and made motions like they were reaching for something in there belt as if to say “get out of here!”

Well to some, that would be a put off, but to me it’s an invitation! All we were doing was looking for a place to park but they were looking to rumble and intimidate. Bring it on! We park the car down the street from them and walk up the long sidewalk headed their way. You could tell right off the bat that they were surprised, as if no one looking like we did (four preppy white boys) would dare approach such mean “gangsters” like them! Whatever. I have learned something ministering on the streets and it's this, “the bigger they are, the harder they fall… to the Gospel!” So we walked right up to them and immediately started with, “Listen, we’re here to tell you that the Kingdom of God is on the earth and Jesus is King!”

They weren’t impressed.

They told us, one by one, how they believe in God and how they pray at night. So I pressed it, “Even the demons believe in God!” (James 2:19) I said. “So that won’t do. My question to you is this, Is Jesus your King and Lord? Is He your boss? Do you go where He says go and do you do what He says do? Do you live your entire life for Him?” They got the picture. We weren’t playing and this wasn’t about “come to church”. We were confronting their spiritual condition and they were getting uncomfortable. After a few minutes they stopped playing and they stopped pretending. They got honest real quick and admitted that they weren’t living right and they were doing some messed up stuff.

We implored them to repent TODAY as there is no guarantee of tomorrow and the Bible says that TODAY is the day of salvation. A couple of the guys even told us that they have been thinking of getting straightened out, but they weren’t quite ready yet, they wanted to live their own lives their way for a little while longer. What a deception! I pulled no punches and went into graphic detail of what a life like theirs can lead to. Sudden, instant death due to foolish behavior is common with these thugs. We even mentioned getting busted by the police and flushing their lives away with jail time. Totally unimpressed by the words we had to say and the message that we had to preach, we pushed in for a supernatural demonstration.

I had to press in to the Lord to get anything prophetically, but after a few minutes of standing there with little to say, it started to flow. The Lord began to show us stuff about how they were into drugs and women. We prophesied over a couple of the guys, revealing giftings and callings in them. I called one guy out as a leader and told him that I saw some young ones watching his every move. He freaked a little and obviously had some younger siblings that he was conscious of. Another guy we called out as a trail blazer and a “doer”. I told him I saw that when other guys were talking about doing something, he would just go and do it! The other guys in the group started telling us that we were right on and that we must know him or something!

We asked the usual stuff, were they or anyone in their family in need of a miracle or a healing? This usually starts a crack in the tough exterior, even with the skeptics. When they see that we are willing to demonstrate our message of the kingdom with a power demonstration (healings and miracles) they open up and give us a shot. Not so with these guys. They just wouldn’t budge, no matter how hard I preached to them on getting right TODAY, they all still held to the deception that some other day they would get right.

So, when they:

1. Didn’t listen to the Gospel of the Kingdom
2. Didn’t give us an opportunity to minister healing to them or their family
3. Didn’t receive accurate prophetic words that revealed their destiny

The last thing I had in my arsenal was a proclamation. I just looked the lead guy in the eye and told him emphatically, “Since we can’t get your attention, then the Lord will have to. In the name of Jesus we're just going to pray that God do WHATEVER it takes to get your attention and help you see that we’re telling the truth.” So after that, we lingered a couple more minutes, but didn’t really have anything more to say.

Then God started to talk.


CHICKENS IN THE HOOD
About 3-5 minutes later, three police cruisers came barreling into the cul-de-sac where we were standing! Cops jump out of the cars and scramble towards the guys we are talking to. And guess who went running? The gentle Christians? Nope. The rough, “I’ll kill you for your shoes” thugs who minutes ago were totally unimpressed with the power of God went running like the chickens and sissies that they truly are! Beneath all of the posturing and pretending were a bunch of scared little boys. It was awesome. So they were running and we just stood there. They apparently had a warrant for one of the guys we were prophesying to just minutes before. They get him to the ground, frisk him and throw him up against the house, slapping cuffs on him. A couple of the other guys disappear to their homes while a few others regroup on a nearby front porch. We go up and talk to them. They’re freaked out but I don’t stop, I’m relentless: “Where did you guys go? What are you guys afraid of? Let me ask you, is that enough of a sign for you? Does God have your attention now?”

They are paying attention. One of the guys says, “Yeah, I need to get right. I have a girlfriend that’s been trying to get me straightened out. She was right, I should get right”. I tell a couple of the other guys hiding on the porch that “The good guys don’t hide”. I told them that if they walked in righteousness like us, then they wouldn’t have to run. All of a sudden, they are all ears. We find another one of the guys literally hiding inside of his house, looking out a screen window to see what’s going on. I walk up to the house and start really PREACHING through the window.

I read him the scripture in Romans 13:3-4, “For rulers are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. And wouldest thou have no fear of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise from the same: for he is a minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is a minister of God, an avenger for wrath to him that doeth evil.”

We tell him once again that TODAY is the day of salvation, not tomorrow. I look closer through the screen and realize that I have been preaching to a whole family gathered on the sofa. Grandma was motioning me to go on and saying "Amen!".

Well, when the day was done, none of them got down on their knees and repented. But one thing I know is this; they were confronted with the truth and will never be the same.

Awesome Testimony

I have a few neat stories to tell from this last weekend. We took a team to South Atlanta again on an equipping/outreach ministry trip. We saw some cool things and some signs and wonders broke out, but when I got back in town, there was an email waiting in my email box that has one of the coolest salvation testimonies ever!

Check this out:

***

From A Lady in Our Church,

Ok, so I have this massage therapist who is an ordained minister at some metaphysical church and into new age stuff. People at work told her that I heal and have psychic power, so she comes to talk to me today. (Editor’s Note – This lady has been walking in and demonstrating the power of God at her workplace for years now, healing the sick, prophesying over people and leading them into salvation and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.) We talk for hours about the power and love of God. I gave her scripture and wisdom from scripture. She has some messed up thinking, but God gave me just the things to say.

Then she tells me she was told to ask me about my church. So I gave her directions and the web site address. Then she asks me to come to the back so she can show me something. She shows me this paper from a numerologist who told her she was going to meet a lady with auburn hair with blondish highlights (Which she has!) that is in a circle of people that is going to show her what she is to do.

So, I said, “well then, let’s do it now!” So I grab her hands and tell her about Romans10:8 believing and making Jesus Lord. She receives it and confesses Jesus as Lord. I then told her that there are some things she has been taught that are against the word of God and Jesus as Lord and God is going to show her what these things are and she will need to bow the knee to believe Jesus instead of this other stuff in order to walk in her high calling. I then told her she needed the baptism of the Holy Spirit. She got it!

She is going home to tell her 19 year old son about this and plans on being at church tomorrow to find her place. She wants to reach the youth (teens) with the power of God. I think we need to get her right out there and I want to go with her.

Now that’s what I call a prosperous day at work.

***

Yup, you read that right, a demonically inspired numerologist “prophesied” over this ordained minister at a metaphysical church that she would meet a Christian and be brought into a circle of people that would “show her the way to go”! You know that that is? An advertisement from the devil! The devil pointed this lady to one of our folks that she could receive the Gospel, get deliverance and get filled with the Holy Spirit! Talking about putting the enemy in his place!

Awesome.

Help From Mexico

The work continues. The miracles continue and the salvations continue. Five or six days a week around here, new believers are being discipled, the sick are healed and the poor have the Gospel preached to them. There isn’t a week that goes by without hearing of awesome healing miracles, financial miracles and salvation miracles. Oppressed people are set free and the lost are saved. I just heard in the last couple weeks of backs that were healed, necks that were healed and a pinched nerve with severe neck pain that disappeared. There is no shortage of signs and wonders, prophetic encounters, healing encounters, words of knowledge and prophecy happening on the streets. In fact, there is more going on than we can follow up on and support.

But that’s a fine problem to have.

A "DAVID" FROM MEXICO
We just had the privilege of hosting David Baker, a full time missionary from Mexico with David Hogan’s Freedom Ministries. In fact, he’s David Hogan’s son in law, married to David Hogan’s daughter Joy. All in all, it was a great weekend of ministry, of getting to know each other and of getting to know the ropes of how they do things down there. We want to know how they do things because they are bearing a whole bunch of great fruit! More than 500 churches, more than 300 “dead raisings” and to me, the most important thing: they have been doing it consistently for the last 30 years!

There is something about gleaning from a ministry that has been proven, that has been through 30 years of changes and refinements all while getting better all the way. It’s different than gleaning from a “Flavor of the month” type ministry. You know the type, here today, gone tomorrow. This was different. The things that they are practicing have been proven to work over the test of time. All I wanted to do was to ask a bunch of questions about the churches, the new believers, leading people to Jesus, how to take neighborhoods, etc. What was interesting to me is that the problems we have been facing with new believers, getting meetings going, etc. are the very same problems that they regularly face. There is a whole set of problems that you don’t know anything about until you are in “the thick of it”, so you are unprepared, until you actually face them. So David was incredibly helpful in identifying problems and sharing principles that work for them.

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE
More than just advice and counsel, the thing that was so helpful to me is the example that these guys set for walking with Jesus. It’s in their lifestyle. Paul continually pointed to his lifestyle and actually told his disciples to follow the example of his lifestyle. Were you to live the way Paul lived, you would get what he got. Talking and hanging with these guys, it’s so obvious the difference between them and most Western Christians.

For one, they are hyper-committed.
The level of commitment to the Word of God that would get a standing ovation among Western Christians is the baseline for these guys. Actually, I agree with them. They are normal. It’s the Western mindset that’s abnormal. All of the basic issues that you end up wrangling with most believers here in America are settled issues for these guys. No questions asked; just absolute obedience to the Word of God. Issues like authority, integrity and giving (time, finances, etc.) aren’t argued with or debated, they are strictly observed. They are respectful, full of integrity and quick to spend themselves for the Gospel. All of their decisions are governed by the Word of God. They don’t overlook things in their relationships with friends and family and strictly hold to the Word of God’s standards as they understand it.

Secondly, they are dead men.
I’m not saying that they are not human, they are people with all of the drawbacks of humanity like you and me; it’s just that unlike most of us, they have crucified their passions and desires to such a degree that they (passions and desires) are irrelevant to the will of God. Selfish ambition, agendas and self reliance are things of the past. Like I said, these are issues that you are constantly dealing with over here with Western Christians. I believe that the reason it’s so hard for Western Christians to determine the will of God for their lives is because they have so many lusts and desires vying for their attention that it can be difficult to center in on God’s plan. The answer? DIE. Die to your self, your will, your desires and get in there, just laying down your life and serving the Lord for the sake of the Gospel. After a little while, you’ll be good and dead and it will be much easier to determine God’s plan for your life, since your plan for your life sailed long ago.

Thirdly, they are “lifers” that aren’t afraid to get planted.
Most believers that I know always want to keep their options open and would never lock themselves into a location, a work, a job or a church. It’s like they have a plan “b”. If things don’t go great, they will be moving on to the next place, the next work, etc. These guys are not like that at all. They make a decision to work, live and die for a people in a country and stick with their decision. That is such an uncomfortable thought for most folks that they ignore it totally. Saying stuff like, “I’m feeling led”, they flit about from place to place, looking for greener grass. But how different would things be if we could get a few believers to settle down, get planted in a territory and make a commitment to win their city to the Lord?

Yes there would be difficulty and yes there would be trials staying and working in the same place with the same people, but there would also be fruit! A fruit tree (which we are called to be) can’t bear fruit if its’ roots are being pulled up every year or two! Why do we think that we can bear fruit when we are constantly moving from place to place, city to city, and work to work? The fact is, we can’t and we don’t. Now you know why.

I for one am inspired by laid down lovers of God, free of agendas, free of selfish ambition and totally dead to self. It’s a refreshing alternative to what is epidemic in the states; powerless preachers and prognosticators, philosophizing for profit.

Stability

Sorry for the long gap in between posts, but this month has been extremely eventful for my family. We’re in the process of selling our home and moving and it’s been CRAZY. Actually, I really want to tell the awesome story of what God is doing with us in relation to our provision and finances but that will have to be in another post.

What we’ve been going through, as a ministry can be summed up in one word: Stability.

Now, stability is a bad word to most Christians? It means “boring”, “tired” or “tedious”. But it’s what we are going after right now. I appreciate the short bursts of growth, power and forward momentum. But until we reach a place of stability, those bursts will simply come and go, leaving us disheartened and disappointed, with the taste of revival lingering in our hearts but without the substance of revival in our midst. When we have stability, we have the whole enchilada. When the supernatural becomes natural, then we are reaching a place of stability. I don’t want another “drive-by” touch of revival. I want to wake up with it, go to bed with it and have it in between.

In the last year and a half we have had a pretty sustained burst of forward momentum. Don't get me wrong, not everyday is neon and lights, but quite steadily for the last 18 months we have been moving forward at an explosive pace. We went from having weekly believers meetings to teams going outside the church, taking the Kingdom everywhere they go six days a week. We went from having no house churches to about 15 of them. We’ve been catapulted into taking part of the greatest move of God in history. It’s going on right now all across the world as normal, everyday believers pick up their sword and enter the fight for the souls of our cities. We’ve been catapulted from complacency into action, from revelation into manifestation and from being meeting centric to being equipping centric. We have been catapulted into being doers of the word and not hearers only, putting feet to our faith. Actions have been added to our belief and good fruit is the result.

Now we have to maintain, grow and develop something that’s still very much in its infancy. We have to change the baby diapers and start to grow up an infant move of God. The new believers have to be discipled. The touch of the Kingdom of God in their lives must become their lifestyle. Everything that has been gained must be cultivated and kept. Every foot of ground that we have taken in lives, in neighborhoods and in our city must be fortified and expanded. The groups of two three and four believes must become ten, fifteen, twenty and thirty. The house meetings where believers are being discipled need to start bursting with life. We want these living room meetings of new believers to be standing room only!

THE EVERYDAY MIRACULOUS
Not to say that there aren’t miracles happening. In fact, just this last Sunday we had over and hour of testimonies of salvations, healings and miracles. We have had multiple financial miracles in our midst, family members giving their lives to the Lord and instant answers to prayer. An infection in the arm was healed on the streets in Atlanta and bleeding in the brain was stopped as a couple of believers agreed in prayer. In a house church meeting last week, a man with reduced vision due to cataracts and a burning in his stomach (possibly an ulcer?) was instantly healed when he received prayer. His eyes cleared up and the pain left his stomach right away. Did that take place at a big conference or special meeting? Nope. It was just Tuesday; yet another day in the week when believers are stepping outside the walls of the church to “do the stuff”. Actually, there is hardly a day that does by that I don’t get a phone call, get an email or get told an awesome testimony of the “Everyday Miraculous”.

There are trials and there are tests. Some of the new believers have fallen away from the faith, being taken captive again by sins that once ensnared them. It hurts all of us when something like this happens. We are praying, we are fasting and we are believing God to break their hearts once again. The enemy strikes at our progress and we strike back. Just a few weeks ago, the work came to a grinding halt for a week because at a church picnic there was an outbreak of food poisoning. Dozens of people were taken out from their jobs, schooling and ministry for over a week. Every step is contested by the enemy, but we’re just not going to give him much air time in talking about his work.

MULTIPLICATION
The season that we’ve been in has been one of addition, but we are strongly feeling that we are entering a season of multiplication. The Lord is highlighting areas of the States, areas of the world and people groups where we are being sent to equip the saints to do the same stuff we are doing; Power evangelism and house church planting. We don’t necessarily feel called to just plant churches in other countries, but we feel a calling from the Lord to establish church planting movements in other cities, as well as in other countries. In just the last month or two we have received multiple invitations to several places around the states and also Africa, India, Pakistan and Eastern Europe. Truly, God is up to something.

To me, the true sign of success in ministry isn’t having large, well attended meetings or a sparkling church building that houses an unstable work. It would be to have a growing, thriving ministry that is stable and bearing much fruit, week in, week out, month in, month out and year in, year out.

But that's just me.

A Baptism Of Fire – Part II

OOPS.
Next thing I know, I am standing between the two groups, telling them to back down and not fight. I don’t know what happened, my feet just walked me over there before my brain knew what was really going on. So I find myself standing between the two sides of guys ready to rumble and I am telling the ringleaders to back down, that there will be no fighting tonight. One of the guys, through his obscene threats and cursing stops to tell me to, “Get the @#$% out of here!” I tell him that he doesn’t need to fight, but instead needs to get born again. This spawns a classic line that I will not soon forget. He said to me, “Listen @#$%^&, everyone here is born again, but if you don’t #$%^ move, then I’m going to kill you!”

Awesome.

This sends me into Gospel preaching overdrive. I start preaching to either side of the group, rebuking them for their anger and violence. I start telling them that Jesus is King and His Kingdom is a Kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy, all things that they are sorely lacking. For whatever reason, a couple more guys come up to me and threaten to hurt me. One of them has a pit bull on a leash and lets it at me a bit, telling me what he’s going to command it to do to my private parts (hint: it wasn’t very nice). So two sides are screaming and cursing and I’m preaching and getting threatened with violence! (Sigh) I love this parking lot… Well, the two sides eventually disperse and back down without a punch being thrown. We win! Right?

Well, not really.

Just a few minutes later there is a motorcycle accident. Some guy was ripping through the parking lot when a kid steps out in front of him. The guy on the bike swerves to avoid the pedestrian and the bike hits a truck and spins out on the ground, messing up the truck and the bike’s paintjob. The owner of the bike (the brother of the guy that we were prophesying to) wasn't the one riding the bike and runs down the parking lot to see what happened. When he gets there, the kid who stepped out and caused the accident is very repentant, saying he’s sorry, etc. Just when you think it will resolve without a mess, the same loudmouth from the “almost” fight a few minutes before (the guy who gave me the classic line) starts talking…and talking…and talking. He’s talking smack, defending his friend who stepped out in front of the bike. Next thing you know there are raised voices and the bike owner and his brother (that we were prophesying to minutes before) are getting into it with loudmouth.

Loudmouth starts to walk away, which is too little, too late and big bad brother jumps him, sending him to the ground with a couple punches from behind. He then proceeds to stomp his face (this is where it gets bad) and his neck! I see the foot come down on loudmouth’s neck, followed by a loud “CRACK!”. Loudmouth goes catatonic and is unconscious. Big bad brother who did the whooping’ runs like crazy when he sees that he has really hurt the guy. Loudmouth starts going into a seizure, his eyes roll back into his head and he starts violently convulsing. A couple guys out in the parking lot are EMT’s and volunteer firefighters so they come running over and are working on loudmouth. It’s not good. He’s basically unconscious and unresponsive, choking on his tongue while he’s having a seizure. I run right over to him and start praying…LOUDLY. People are getting on their phones calling 911 and the EMT guys are working on him. I command him to come back and use the opportunity to preach to several people close by, telling them that they never know what could happen, that they need to serve Jesus and stop being crazy!

His eyes roll back and he is able to talk. The EMT’s are asking him to squeeze their hands, which he cannot do. Several folks from our teams gather around the guy and they start praying. The police arrive, send everyone on their way and the paramedics arrive soon thereafter. Our group quickly gathers, gets into the vehicles we arrived in and head back to the church. When we get to the church, I tell everyone what happened and we pray for the kid who got stomped. We still don’t know what happened to him, but we believe that he was healed and will walk again. We'll find out soon enough...

But don’t forget, many people in our group are with us for their first outreach of any kind, much less a bloodbath in a parking lot. A couple of folks were physically ill with fear and intimidation, but quickly overcame to preach, pray and prophesy over the lost. Way to go! All in all, I think it was more exciting to be out there than it was to stay home and watch a rerun of Law & Order… Right?

A NEW DAY
On Sunday after church we gathered to head out for our last outreach of the weekend. Eight teams descended on nearby Woodstock neighborhoods to preach the Gospel and heal the sick. They came back with report after report of healings, miracles and salvations. A group of Hispanic men gave their lives to the Lord as one of the guys on the team persisted with prophetic words, even after they told him he was off. The encounter culminated with a group of them giving their lives to Jesus, so I think that he was right on! We received another report of a lady with a heart condition that had received prayer a few weeks earlier. She greeted the team with a great hug, telling them how God had healed her heart and how she no longer needed the pacemaker the doctors had given her.

After all the teams had returned, we shared stories of things that God had done that weekend and encouraged each other to make this “Kingdom” stuff part of our daily lifestyle.

Jesus is King!

A Baptism Of Fire – Part I

What do twelve year olds, grandmas in their 60’s and working fathers all have in common? Well, for one thing, they all can heal the sick, perform miracles and lead people to Jesus! At least 17 people met the Lord, dozens of healings and miracles occurred on the streets and the Gospel went forth with power this weekend as we hosted our first “Boot Camp” style conference where participants not only heard the Word, but did the Word! There were some bugs and it was a bit complicated mobilizing 40+ people in teams to hit the streets, but all in all, the fruit was good. It was awesome to see so many Christians mobilized to get out there and “do the stuff”.

We had a very eclectic group including folks from our church, folks coming from several states and even one from overseas. You could tell from the first minute that everyone was hungry and teachable. Most had either been drawn in by the stories and the miracles they heard were happening here so they didn’t need convincing that there was more to their Christian walk than simply attending a weekly meeting. We preached to them, we ministered freedom from fear and a qualifying spirit and then sent them out to obey Matthew 10:7-8 on Saturday morning.

AS YOU GO...
Four teams went out to four different places. All four teams saw tremendous displays of God’s power. One of the teams went to a local mall where casts, canes, crutches and wheelchairs were all invitations to “engage” the work of the enemy. Well, engage they did. There were a BUNCH of miracles that took place in the mall as people with chronic pain from injuries and diseases in just about every area of the body were healed instantly. Necks, arms, legs, hips and backs were healed, just to name a few. All in all, it was a great “baptism” of sorts for the folks new to getting out there and seeing God move in the marketplace.

Another team went to Grady Hospital, our local pool of Bethesda. Going to Grady gives you an almost 100% chance to see God save souls and heal the sick. It happens every time. This time they weren’t disappointed as God healed many people of sicknesses, chronic pain and disease, people met the Lord and were filled with the Holy Ghost. One guy, after receiving healing for asthma immediately wanted to minister healing himself! So the team took him with them and he ministered alongside, “doing the stuff”. A perfect manifestation of when Jesus said, “Freely you have received, now freely give.” (Mat.10:8)

SATURDAY NIGHT FIGHTS
After preaching and ministering Kingdom stuff Saturday night, we gave folks the option of coming with us to a very HOT spot for ministering to teenagers, or take it easy and minister to their waitress at a local restaurant. To my surprise, the vast majority of people decided to come out with us to the parking lot. We hadn’t been there for a couple months, mainly because the heat from the police had been so strong, ruining each outreach. But this week, we decided to go. Ten minutes after arriving, I was asking myself, “Now, why did you come here?”

It was INTENSE. There were a couple hundred kids out and they weren’t exactly in a good mood. There was drinking going on, cars and motorcycles peeling out up and down the parking lot and lots of anger in the air. There were over 35 of us, broken up into groups of three and four. We split up and headed into the fray. Several groups were treated with hostility and sent away, other groups got some breakthrough. One of the groups got some words of knowledge for this girl that really opened her up to the Gospel. She was told that she needed to repent and make Jesus King and Lord of her life and she readily agreed. Now here’s a sight I love to see. In the parking lot, in front of all her friends, she gets down on her knees and gives her life to Jesus! Our rule is to not make it easy and make sure they are serious before committing their lives to the Lord.

The group I was with had a word of knowledge for a guy that was too old to be out with all the kids. He was drinking and just chilling out when we came up to him with destiny words about his gifts, callings and life. He listened, but didn’t really receive… Little did we know that before the night was out, he would be involved in a crime. While we were talking to him, I suddenly became aware of a “situation” brewing just a few feet away. Two different groups of guys were facing each other, both with a loud mouthed “spokesman” threatening each other. Not sure what it was all about but all I knew was that things were about to boil over any minute.

To Be Continued…

Response to “An Open Letter to My Enemies”

We’re gearing up here for our first “Boot Camp” style conference later this week, where half of the scheduled meetings will in fact be outreaches into the community. We have a very interesting and eclectic group pre-registered, ranging from people who attend our church to a guy from England and some folks literally from all over the nation. I think that the people who will be coming are hungry for MORE in their Christian walk. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they won’t be disappointed. It seems that every time we even think of reaching out to the lost and dying, the Lord comes rushing in with awesome displays of His power and glory. Bottom line, I’m excited that more will be equipped, trained and released into the harvest fields.

Look out devil, here we come.


A FOLLOW UP
I did want to make a follow up response to the “Open Letter to My Enemies” post I made a couple of weeks ago. Immediately after sending that letter out I received a flood of emails from people who were surprised, shocked, flabbergasted, but generally supportive. The responses ranged from, “Really! People have said those things to you?” to, “What can I do? I feel so sorry for you!” I really appreciate the responses as they were very encouraging and only a few people took themselves off the list after I sent that. But the letter was so, how shall I say it, “aggressive” that I feel a response is warranted.

Many folks questioned if I have really heard those things spoken to me about myself and my family and the answer is: Absolutely. I have heard every one of those things said to my face and all by professing “Christians”. This blog is not a work of fiction, but real life stories of what we are seeing and experiencing on a daily basis as we attempt to get out there and advance the Kingdom of God. I purposefully attempt to understate and conservatively estimate all figures, reactions and responses for the sake of integrity.

Also, many asked me what event provoked me to write such a letter and the answer is simple. There really was no single event that “pushed me over the edge” but rather the daily pursuit of the Kingdom and the almost daily reports of gossip, slander and backbiting that result. In fact, I had for weeks been sitting on the contents of that letter and a good fight over my daughter’s health brought it out of the closet. But honestly, I am immune to “white witchcraft” and “Christian curses” at this point. It’s with pity that I look on people whose only joy in life is to tear others down, not with fear.


HOW YOU CAN RESPOND
There were quite a few folks that were really stirred by what I said and when emailing me simply said, “What can I do?” Here is what I would say to that question:

Get in the game and get in the fight. Pick up your sword and start hacking away at the kingdom of darkness. Don’t make excuses for a lack of power and glory, just press in to God. Don’t argue or perfect your theology, prove and demonstrate your theology. Stop complaining about the church and be the church. Simplify your life. Cut out the excess and the things that have no eternal value. Get about God’s business and lay down your agendas. Get off your seats and get into the streets. It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. There are multitudes of lost and dying ones who need what you have! Lay your hands on the sick and believe for their healing. Kill cancer and wipe out Aids. Stop tolerating devils and cast them out! Take responsibility for your neighborhood, friends and family. Stop waiting on a Sovereign move of God and go start one! Lead people to Jesus and get over your fear. Talk to strangers; tell them your testimony and what God has done for you. Bring light to where it’s needed and don’t keep it under a cover. Be the salt and be the light. Get out there and “do the stuff!”

Blessings,
Ryan

Murder, Interrupted

This week, we enjoyed watching God orchestrate a miraculous intervention that totally transformed the lives of two people. Two people, rushing headlong into hell were sideswiped by the Holy Spirit and we got to be a part of it. It was absolutely mind-blowing to watch the Lord flex His “Sovereign” muscle. And again, to drive home a point that I make here quite regularly, it wasn’t an accident and it didn’t happen by chance. We were in the right place at the right time and we were there on purpose. It’s like God is waiting on us to position ourselves to be used by Him. So many Christians have this idea that we’re waiting on God, but I’m telling you, He’s the one twiddling His thumbs waiting for us to get into position. Once we are in that right place at that Kairos moment, God intervenes and gives us a show that they couldn’t even dream up in the movies.

It started with a team going to a place near downtown Atlanta that is famous for being a crack and prostitution capital. Every other person on the street is either a crackhead, crackhoe or crack dealer. It’s fast becoming one of my favorite places in the world to be. Anyway, a couple in our church works down that way and they have been going down once a month to grill some food and bless the homeless and poor. The food is like a mousetrap that draws them in and once they’re in, we get to give them the Gospel, both barrels. Last time we were there a BUNCH of healings and salvations took place, so we were very excited to get out there again.

Almost as soon as we got out there it was obvious that this time would not be like other times. For one thing, the crowds were much smaller with only a straggler here and there instead of being bum rushed by a mob. Also, the other times, the main focus is the food with the Gospel being secondary. Not so this time. Some people walked up, received prayer, gave their life to the Lord and walked away without food! How weird. There was a peculiar anointing to lead people to Jesus and an unusual spirit of conviction too. Several times that day, in the first two minutes of conversation I had people confessing their sins to me, only to give their lives to Jesus and be filled with the Holy Spirit immediately after. They weren’t just ripe; they were falling off the tree, right into our lap!

ENTER PLAYER #1
As we’re sitting there, waiting for folks to show, a middle aged guy in work clothes walks up asking for food. We get talking with him and I simply tell him that Jesus is King and His Kingdom is on the earth. I then ask him if Jesus is the King and Lord of his life. He tells me honestly that the answer is no. He relates to us how he just got out of jail about 2 months ago and has been in there since he was sixteen! Just released from prison after being in there over 24 years! Anyway, his mother died and that’s why he was in Atlanta. After his mother died, he has been contemplating eternity and spoke with a pastor at a Christian bookstore about his eternal destiny. To the pastor’s credit, he had answered many of this guy’s questions, but had failed to get the guy to bow the knee and “give it up” to Jesus.

We were STRONGLY encouraging him to give his life to Jesus and he told us that he would get saved “tomorrow”. I asked him, “Why tomorrow?” and he told us that he had something to “Take care of” before he gave his life to the Lord. After digging a little more, he broke it down for us. He and another guy were on a job together and the other guy had stolen a bunch of paint from the boss, only to point the finger at our guy. Needless to say, our guy was ticked and that thing he had to “take care of” was the guy who lied to his boss about him. To “take care of” meant a little more than a simple conversation too. I mean, someone who has been in jail 24 years since they were sixteen is not messing around.

ENTER PLAYER #2
Some others on the team took our guy aside and were encouraging him to give his life to Jesus. As they were talking to him, I saw another guy come walking up to the food line. As he walked up, I saw a vision for him, so I walked right up to him and shared the vision I had for him. He instantly broke down and started confessing that he was addicted to crack and asked for prayer. I gave him the gospel and he quickly accepted the message, repenting of his sin and asking forgiveness from Jesus. It was quick, but it was a meaningful and powerful salvation experience. The presence of God overshadowed the guy and he was feeling the power of God rip through his body. Way cool.

What I didn’t know is that as I was talking with the now ex-crack head guy, our buddy who wanted to get saved “tomorrow” started to tremble with rage. When the guys ministering to him asked him what was going on, he told them, “remember the guy that I was going to “take care of” today?... That’s him!” pointing at the crackhead guy. As it turns out, the crackhead was the person that the “tomorrow” guy had been looking all over for so he could mess him up. Our guys pretty much had to restrain him from doing anything and just kept talking to him about the mercy of God.

The now ex-crackhead got a plate of chicken and sat down just a few feet away from the guy who wanted to get saved “tomorrow”. Tomorrow man waked over to me and was telling me the whole story of how it’s a miracle that he hadn’t done anything to the other guy already. I told him the story that Jesus told about the man who owed the King $100,000 and was forgiven the debt. Then, the man whose $100,000 debt was forgiven went out and strangled a man who owed him $10, throwing him in jail until he paid every penny. When the King heard about this, he had the man whom he had shown mercy brought before him and questioned him as to why he hadn’t shown mercy to his fellow man. As I told “tomorrow” man this, he got the story right away. Who was he to not forgive his fellow man of a minor offense when the Lord was willing to forgive him of his major offenses? He broke and decided to give his life to Jesus right then and there.

After a few minutes, he finished his plate of food, had a drink and said that he was ready. We led him to the Lord and he repented of his sins. He asked God to forgive Him and received the blood of Jesus. We prayed for the Holy Ghost to fill him and he got seriously touched by God. But that’s not even the best part. As we’re getting ready to leave, he pulled me aside and told me, “You know, when I said that I was going to mess the crackhead guy up, I meant a little more than just beat him up”. “What do you mean?” I asked. He then told me with an icy look, “I was going to kill him. Today. That man was going to die today and it was a miracle that you guys were here. If you guys weren’t here, he would have died and I would be going to jail for the rest of my life.”

WOW.

An Open Letter to My Enemies

First of all, a disclaimer:

“Enemies?!” you say? Oh yes, enemies. Believe it or not, there are quite a few people out there who really don’t like me and to the point where they would align themselves in direct opposition to me, my ministry and even my family. But are these folks just sinful, wayward unbelievers without a clue? Nope. They are self professing, Holy Ghost filled believers in the Lord Jesus. They go to church and they pay their taxes. By all accounts they are good people. But they have a dark side. When they don’t like what you do, what you stand for or what you believe they actually “pray”, to God, for your destruction. They secretly hope for the downfall of your life, marriage, ministry and family. They “believe” for you to commit a grievous sin against God. Why? They want what you live and stand for to be discredited. They want to be right more than anything, even at the expense of your wife, your kids and innocent unbelievers that your ministry may affect.

I know these things because, when pressed, they will let you know what they really think of you. You see, I’m very confrontational. If there is something under the surface, I go after it. And when I go after it, I find all kinds of disgusting stuff. If you can get them past the point of being polite and really invade their private world, they will let you know what’s really on their mind. They have actually said things to me like, “I pray to God that you commit adultery!” or, “I pray that you get sick and die of cancer!” I even had one very sick individual gloat when my one week old daughter was hospitalized for a kidney problem. Why? Because it showed this person that we weren’t perfect concerning healings and miracles. They were actually happy that our daughter was sick because it “proved” their point that we were wrong concerning healing. Once again, these were all professing Christians who go to church and “serve God”.

So what have I done to rally a mob of angry “Christians” against me?

I’ve taken a stand against impotent, powerless Christianity. I’ve dispensed with the pleasantries of “Churchianity” to pursue Kingdom Christianity. I’ve let go of all the excuses for why they don’t get healed, repented before God and asked for grace and mercy so they can get healed. I’ve stopped “trying” to serve God with an outward show and now serve God out of my heart with the grace given to me. I’ve stopped pretending to be nice and started getting real. I won’t pretend to be your friend when we’re not. I’ve cut all of the unproductive relationships out of my life. If you aren’t pursuing God, I’ll drop you like a hot potato.

So what’s the fruit of my lifestyle? Almost daily I get the privilege of seeing the power of God in action, Sinners are saved, the sick are healed and the Kingdom of God is advancing with POWER! Miracles are the norm. Churches are being planted, new believers are being discipled and demons are being cast out. It’s exciting! But that’s not what this is about…

Here’s the letter:

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

To My Enemies,

I love you.

No really, I mean that. I’m not just saying that because Jesus told me to. It’s authentic. I really do love you; and for a variety of reasons. Yes, your scowls are unsavory. Your gossip and slander sometimes really hurt. Your "white witchcraft" and “prayer” curses, while not very powerful, sometimes get through and sting a bit. They are especially unwelcome when directed at my family. But I forgive you. You don’t know what you’re doing. For I’m sure that if you did, you wouldn’t keep on with what you do. Yet, in spite of all of what you do to me, my family and my ministry, I love you.

I love you because you are an ever present reminder of what I have come out of. Every once in a while, I’ll attend a religious church meeting just to be reminded of the games, the gossip and the religious politics that I have escaped from. You remind me on an almost daily basis what it’s like to hope for and not have. Your lifestyle is a landmark to me of what not to do and where not to go. I remember playing make believe Christianity and it’s because of you that I haven’t forgotten. You keep me sharp and on my toes. Whenever I start to “coast” I get a friendly little reminder from you in the form of gossip that snaps me right back into reality.

I love you because your ministry provides the contrast to make mine look really good. You see, when I meet unbelievers or burnt out Christians, it’s always because of religious people like you that I have something to offer. When they have been fed barrels of religion, just a teaspoon of the life of God brightens their eyes. When they have been given excuses as to why God won’t heal them, all I have to do is give them a demonstration to get their attention. Your social, feel-good Gospel makes mine seem all the more radical, and I appreciate you for that.

I thank God for you. You make me feel alive! You remind me that I am standing for something, in stead of falling for anything as I once did. I am energized by your gossip and slander. I am motivated by your curses and backbiting. I am moved to action by your accusations. The name-calling especially gets me going, my resolve is strengthened and I am determined to serve God with all of my heart and prove you wrong. Every miracle, every healing and every salvation is a testimony against you and your “ministry”. I like you because you make me laugh! In spite of your colossal personal failures, you somehow manage to find something wrong with the “way” I do things. I have to say that I sincerely appreciate your creativity in fault finding, it is truly awe inspiring.

I’m sorry, but in spite of your best efforts, my marriage, my family and my ministry will continue to blossom and produce good fruit. We are immune to your disdain and we are insulated against your witchcraft. We pray heaps of blessings upon you and thank God for you daily.

Because of you, we are truly blessed.
Ryan & Family