Why I Do What I Do

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

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

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

But not tonight.

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

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

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

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

Jesus Knits Broken Bones!

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

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

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

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

Get that! Jesus knits broken bones!

Costa Rica Trip Report

September 1st, 2005

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

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

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

A REVELATION

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

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

My, how things have changed.

A Week In The Life Of A “Normal” Christian

We had a good week this week, what I would call a “normal” week. We were out in the neighborhoods in our community every day, we saw several miracles and several people came to Jesus. All in all, a wonderful week! Monday is my day off, so we begin on Tuesdays…

TUESDAY
On Tuesday, a team went to a house church in downtown Atlanta. During worship, the Lord gave them a couple visions for a visitor attending the group and the man began to cry. In a couple minutes, through the power of God and some very accurate words of knowledge, he was on his knees giving his life to Jesus! Later on that night, they prayed for a paralytic and although he wasn’t totally healed that moment, he began to have feeling in his legs for the first time in over ten years!

WEDNESDAY
On Wednesday, a team went into a neighborhood in Woodstock. We met a few people and got invited back to have a Bible Study. This will be a church n no time at all!

THURSDAY
On Thursday, a couple guys from Orange County, California flew in to come and see what we’re doing and to minister with us on the streets and in the neighborhoods. They had been reading the testimonies on this blog and had to hook up with us!

We had a rather large team, so we went out to the three different neighborhoods in Woodstock. One of the guys who went out with us for the very first time prayed for a lady and she had a bad back healed instantly. Another lady invited a team into her house and they prophesied to her for 30 minutes or so, with her being amazed at the accuracy they were given.

We went to one house and the guy was very confrontational, saying that all this Jesus stuff is a bunch of !@#$ and he was sick of it. I decided to be a little confrontational and it worked! In a minute, we were sitting in his living room, at his invitation. We started to prophesy over this guy and his wife and they were shaken. We prayed for his wife, who had a head cold and Lupus. Her throat cleared up instantly and all pain left and the congestion in her head cleared up in about five minutes. As we are praying for this guy’s wife, he gets agitated and blurts out that he needs a sign from God. We ask him to be specific and he confesses that he has been addicted to cocaine for over 25 years. He says, “If Jesus can take care of my drug problem, I am His!” Sounds like a wager to me! We pray for him, pray for his wife’s Lupus and will be following up.

FRIDAY
Friday started well with a healing at breakfast. We see an elderly guy come in to the bagel place we’re at with a neck brace and a brace on his arm. Come to find out, he has broken his wrist a couple weeks before and had a severe neck injury ten years before. He is in pain with both. Our buds from California start to pray for him and his wrist gets totally healed! No pain, full movement and he has a solid grip! His wife is tearing up and he’s just bewildered! They begin to pray for his neck and he feels the power of God moving in his neck. They get him to take off his brace and he has NO PAIN! He gets great mobility and is sitting there with breakfast on the table turning his head up, down, left and right, all with no pain! The scene was awesome, he’s sitting there with food on the table and a wrist brace and a neck brace next to his food.

We head downtown to Grady Hospital, one of our favorite places. We end up praying for several folks in McDonald’s during a potty break. One lady is crying at her table so we stop by, talk with her, prophesy to her, give her the Gospel and pray with her to give her life over to Jesus and stop running from God. Outside of Grady, we prayed for a couple folks in wheelchairs, contending for paralytics. No one got up today though…

We move on to Woodruff Park in downtown Atlanta and see a guy with a headache healed. They also prayed for a guy with a wrist injury that gets about 60% healing in his wrist. We also ran into a couple of street evangelists while down there. They are preaching the Gospel, but without signs, wonders, miracles and healings. We encourage them to go for the whole ball of wax, preaching the Gospel with signs and wonders following and then pray and prophesy over them. We drag them with us to pray for a couple sick people and release them into the healing ministry of Jesus!

The rain started to pour down and a bunch of people congregated under a covered portico. One of the guys from California takes a stab at stopping the rain in Jesus name and it just rains harder! But hey, we’ll never do it unless we “do it”. It’s like one of the guys from David Hogan’s ministry told me. He said people call in the office all the time and ask why they aren’t seeing the dead raised and the first question they respond with is, “How many dead people have you prayed for?” I mean, you’ll never heal the sick unless you pray for the sick. You’ll never raise the dead unless you pray for a corpse and you will never change the weather unless you speak to the storm!

We came in from downtown, went right into the prayer room for an hour or so, get soaked and marinate in the presence of God and then headed right back out to the neighborhoods. We walk up on a couple good old boys, enjoying the afternoon with a few (dozen) beers. The Lord gives us a word about pain in the left shoulder, one of the guys has the pain, we pray and all pain leaves! We got another word about a knee injury and the other guy sitting there tells us that he has this knee injury that limits the amount of weight he can put on it. He also tells us that when he squats it, and I quote, “Sounds like milk being poured over Rice Krispies! With a Snap, Crackle and Pop!” We pray for him and get him to check the knee. No pain and no, “Snap, Crackle and Pop!” We got an invitation to come back and share more.

Back to the church, more soaking prayer and then off to the parking lot! The police have been cracking down the last several weeks, severely limiting our time with the kids that gather in the lot. Not so this night! They are slow to gather, but in a few minutes we have a pretty good crowd. Our team breaks up into several groups and starts giving words of knowledge, prophesying and preaching. One of the guys we go up to is a big Latino dude. The Lord gives us some crazy accuracy and we start telling him some very intimate details about his life. He goes from angry God hater to asking Jesus to take control of his life and gets born again in about five minutes! I love prophetic evangelism, it makes things so much easier!

We head back home later that night, exhausted but fulfilled.

SATURDAY
On Saturday morning, several folks show up for our neighborhood outreach and a couple guys from Sparta, Tennessee drive in to hang with us. Like always, we pickle in God’s presence for an hour and head out to a couple of different neighborhoods. There is an open air prayer meeting as several people get prayed for and healed out in the open in one of the neighborhoods, we pray for financial miracles and find out where sick people live in another neighborhood.

Maybe it shouldn’t be like this, but the miracles, preaching, prophesying and praying that happen this week all seem normal. The supernatural has become natural!

The Gospel Rolls On!

Sorry that is has been so long since our last update, but things have been crazy! I can assure you that the lack of updates is not due to a lack of stories, but rather a lack of time. The testimonies of miracles, healings, signs and wonders continue to come in regularly.

Here's a couple stories:

A team from the church went to pray for a little boy diagnosed with bacterial meningitis and the next day, the report is that "someone must have sneezed in the other test because there is no trace of bacterial meningitis in the results of the second sample." They discharged the boy that day!

Several months ago, a lady who was pregnant with a little girl that the doctors told her to ABORT 4 TIMES due to some serious conditions they diagnosed while pregnant (Tetrology of Fallot & DiGeorge syndrome) came by the church and we prayed for her during a morning service. Well, she just had her healthy baby girl without the conditions the doctors diagnosed her with! Thank you Jesus!

In the neighborhoods, we have seen multiple healings and miracles with pain leaving bodies, a neck healed, a kidney condition healed, several migraine headaches healed and a whole lot more!

In addition to that, this summer we have become serious and strategic with our outreaches, invading neighborhoods in our city almost every day of the week. We are planting house churches of new believers and discipling new Christians 5-6 days a week!

When I get some more time, I will post some more stories of what God’s been doing.

Blessings,
Ryan

Baby Raised From The Dead!

Look out devil! We just had our first "Dead Raising" and we are VERY excited about it! This is the testimony of an eye witness, a young mommy in our church.

Once again, Jesus has proven Himself as King and Lord, even over death!

Ryan


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My brother had called me a few weeks before his wife was supposed to deliver their baby girl and asked me if I could be in the delivery room with him because he did not know that he could do it alone. My brother is an unbeliever and so I was excited about this opportunity because I knew I would get to pray while I was there. He told me that he wanted me to come because he thought I would be the least religious one in the family and he knew that I would not "do anything weird" while I was there. 0I told him he was wrong that I would pray, and he said, "OK" as long as you do it quietly."

I got the call on June 10, 2005, my brother was calling to tell me to come to the hospital we were going to be having a baby here in a while! I arrived at the hospital and my sister-in- law began to push and the nurse told her that she would call for the doctor to come in as soon as the baby had crowned. The baby started to crown and the nurse called for the doctor. She got a call back that the doctor was in a surgery and that she would not be able to be there yet. The nurse seemed a little scared and began to tell us that she had never delivered a baby herself only assisted in the pushing. The baby's head came out and the nurse said to my sister in law, "You are going to have to stop pushing because the cord is wrapped around this babies neck."

The nurse looked at me and my brother and me and told us that the baby was dead. The nurse went to put her finger under the cord so that she could cut it and could not even get her finger under there it was wrapped around twice and very tight. The nurse got some clamps and began to try to cut the cord. She finally was able to cut it off and she pulled the baby out. The baby was completely purple and gray and totally lifeless. The nurse again turned to me and my brother and said she is not alive, she pronounced her Dead on arrival. All during this I was praying. The nurse took the baby over to a table in the room and hooked her up to some oxygen and began to try to revive her, but then she looked again to us and said, "It's no use, she is gone. She is dead."

I walked over behind this table and I reached my finger in and touched the baby. I said, "In Jesus Name, I speak life to you, you will live in Jesus name." Immediately she jerked her head back and looked over at me and smiled. My brother, the nurses and the doctors who had come in said "What did you just do?" I said, "I just prayed." They all stood there in complete shock and saying, "She was dead, she was not alive, she was not breathing." I said, "I know but Jesus brought her back to life."

My brother was in tears and did not know what to do or say. This has opened a huge door for me to witness to my brother, he has called wanting to talk about what happened and he has all kinds of questions for me. God is awesome. I knew that something was going to happen that day and that I would have an amazing opportunity to witness to them.

Rebekah Engels

Miraculous Roadside Recovery!

This is a testimony from one of the young people in our church. He is 17 years old and actively doing Kingdom ministry and miracles.

Awesome!
Ryan

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Jordan’s Testimony

I was driving on Highway 92 and I looked and saw a teenager pushing an older lady in a wheelchair down the sidewalk. I kept driving, but it was like the farther I drove away, the more the Lord was drawing me to pray for that woman in the wheelchair. So I decided I’d turn my car around to see if she was still out there. After I had turned around and drove for about a mile, I saw them again. When I saw that they were still there, I decided that I was going to go and pray for her. I looked for a place to park and the nearest one was a Baptist Church parking lot. I parked my car and started walking towards them.

I felt scared, I didn’t feel like I had any faith and I really didn’t want to do it, but I figured that I didn’t have much to lose if I did. So I kept walking and eventually I caught up to them. I introduced myself to them, and they told me their names. It turns out that the young man was taking his Grandma for a walk. I asked what her problem was and why she was in the wheelchair. She said “I have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.” After she said that, I noticed that her whole body was shaking uncontrollably. I said to her, “The Lord sent me out here today to set you free from this. May I pray for you?” she replied, “Sure.”

I started to pray for her, commanding the Parkinson’s to go. After I prayed for her, I asked her if she could get out of the wheelchair, she said that she wanted to go closer to her car before she does that. I asked them both, “Do you mind if I walk to your car with you?” They said “Not at all.” It then turned out that they were also parked at the Baptist church. I walked with them, and when we got near their car, I asked the woman to stand up out of her wheelchair. She stood up and walked 3 steps on the sidewalk and when she did that, her grandson had this surprised look on his face. He said “Grandma, I’ve never seen you walk like this before!” It turns out that she also had arthritis in her legs and arms, and that was the reason that she wasn’t able to walk!

She was still shaking in her arms and legs, so I asked her again, “Can I pray that Jesus would remove this Parkinson’s and arthritis 100%?” She said, “Of course!” I prayed for her again, and this time her grandson is praying with me because he’s so excited that she was walking the way she was! I start commanding the arthritis and the Parkinson’s to bow to the name of Jesus. I said that Jesus bore this Parkinson’s and arthritis on the cross over 2,000 years ago so that she would not have to endure it. After I got finished praying for her, I looked at her hands and her feet. They went from shaking like a fish on dry land, to COMPLETELY still! Her grandson gave her a hug, and then felt her hands and said, “Grandma, your shaking is gone. Your shaking is gone!” Then she said, “I can’t believe this, I’m not shaking anymore!”

They were astounded that the Lord had been so good to them. We were all shouting and praising the Lord, right there on the side of the road during rush hour! I prayed with them one more time and this time we are all but crying because the presence of God was so strong. As I was heading to my car, I looked behind me and I saw Grandma pushing her own wheelchair!

Praise the Lord! Jesus is King!

Riot! – Part III

The Conclusion...

This guy in front of me is livid. We’ll call him, “red shirt”. He’s pacing back and forth like a wild animal about to pounce on their prey. Why is he angry? He’s angry because we have gotten in his friends and his face, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom. It’s good news that made him this mad! Another reason is that all of these kids here claming a relationship with God. They all attend church and believe that they will make it to heaven. They should be happy that we are preaching the Gospel, but they aren’t. Our example in preaching the Gospel reveals what they really have; dead religion. And they don’t like it.

“Red shirt” starts making threats, telling me that he’s going to kick my @#$ and kill me. He tells me that he and his friends (gathering all around) are going to wipe us out. He tells me that I should shut up and go away… or else. The tension is HIGH. A couple guys from my group have my back, the rest of the group is now praying in tongues. The volume of their prayer increases as the threats increase. The angry Muslim guy from earlier makes a reappearance, this time with a friend or two. Instead of just anger on his face, there is a wicked grin. Something’s up. We have a choice. Back down to avoid bloodshed or keep going, throwing caution to the wind. We choose the latter.

Feeling ten feet tall and bulletproof and having an assurance of angelic protection, I take a step closer to “red shirt” and say in front of all his friends, “I defy you, the power you operate by and the anger inside of you, in Jesus name!” This sends him over the edge and he lunges at me. Out of nowhere, this little teenage girl with a scar over her left eye jumps in front of the guy stopping his charge and starts telling him that we’re not worth going to jail over. I disagree and politely ask her to let him go. Now she is standing between me and her very angry boyfriend. She starts into me with a series of questions on why we don’t just walk away. I explain to her that her boyfriend is full of the devil and the devil in him is attempting to order us around, but we just won’t take orders from the devil. She is warning me that he will hurt us if she lets go. I tell her to please not stand in the way and let him get to work. She starts a semi religious diatribe on peace, all while holding her boyfriend back. I remind her that I am as calm as a lake in winter and it’s her boyfriend that really needs the sermon.

Now she goes off! She is livid, screaming and yelling at me. Her boyfriend starts yelling at me, the gathered crowd starts yelling at us. Spit flies. I get a huge goober right in the face, I get shoved a few times. A couple folks in our group get spit on and pushed. I feel like I am in a blender, there is so much turmoil going on. Our group prays louder. The Muslim guy hands “red shirt” a pair of brass knuckles from that go over three knuckles and it has some kind of spike on it. I know now why he was smiling. I tell “red shirt” that he had better get to work, what will his friends think if he just stands there looking angry, afraid to hit an unarmed preacher? I present my right cheek to him and draw an “x” saying, “Start with this one. But you know what I’m going to do after you hit this one? I am just going to turn the other cheek, give you a big grin and say, Jesus loves you!” This is all “red shirt” can take; he has passed the point of no return and again lunges at me. But someone pushes past me from behind and jumps in front of me and him!

Before I could even recognize it, several young men that we had led to the Lord over the last couple months come up from behind us and stand between us and our aggressors! We had been wondering how committed these new believers were, not seeing a lot of fruit of their conversion, but here they were standing between us and a whipping! These new believers came up and said, “We got your back”. This one guy, a dancer we had talked to a few weeks before, stands up to “red shirt” and says while pointing at me, “If you are going to hit him, you will have to go through me!” I don’t know what happened, but involuntarily, a tear ran down my cheek. I was blown away! This was their way of standing with us and showing their commitment to the Lord Jesus. They were ready to brawl! The only problem is that they don’t understand that we don’t fight with natural weapons. We have to explain this to them because we are about to have a huge fight!

A couple guys from our team and I start to tell our new believer friends that this is not how we do things. We don’t use physical violence to prove our point. We literally have to pull them off “red shirt” and his crew. But it has already begun. They were the spark that set the forest fire! Sides square off, there is pushing, shoving and more spit flying. Out of nowhere, people with two pit bulls come into the center of the crowd. I see a knife out of the corner of my eye. People are getting baseball bats and paintball guns out of their cars. Our team is praying at the top of their lungs, literally screaming in tongues! Everyone in the parking lot is pressed into this tiny area, about 200 people all touching each other in a tight circle. I see that the situation is totally out of human control and is now boiling over. Something rises up in me and I realize that we can stop this from happening. I wade right in between the two groups and start proclaiming, “PEACE! In Jesus name, PEACE!” I walk through a wall of people commanding peace at the top of my lungs. Instead of anger and hate, there is bewilderment in their eyes. They are looking at me proclaiming peace and my team praying in tongues and they don’t know what to think!

I switch to preaching the Gospel and start proclaiming that Jesus is King and His Kingdom is on the earth! I start rebuking the entire crowd for their desire to see bloodshed and violence. I start proclaiming to them that this is the fruit of religion and that they must turn from their lukewarmness and come to the feet of Jesus! Two guys on our team take my lead and start preaching too. We go in three separate directions, wading into the crowd, preaching at the top of our lungs! There are three preachers preaching with all their might and a handful of prayer people praying with all of their might. In the spirit, you could feel the aggression and tension being drained out, being replaced with wonder and amazement. These kids are looking at us like we are flying! We are connecting and have their attention. The guys that were so ready to fight have been stripped of their anger and now are just standing there with their hands in their pockets, looking dumb. We openly defy them and their demons, proclaiming Jesus. The crowd disperses and breaks up. Some folks gather across the parking lot, but the battle is over. We have won!

A few people come out to us saying, “I’m with you guys, way to go!” We start telling them to come with us and preach the Gospel. Several young guys that just gave their lives to the Lord earlier that night are treated to a display of the power and courage that comes from the Gospel. All in all, four people gave their lives to the Lord that night and countless others are witness to the overcoming power of God in any situation.

Jesus is King!

Riot! – Part II

John is totally possessed. He’s right in his friends face, trying to stop him from hearing what we have to say. I rebuke him in Jesus name for being a mocking devil and he eventually moves on. Erin finishes with this guy, giving him the opportunity to get born again. He chooses not to, rejecting the grace and mercy of God displayed to him that night. It’s ok though, we’ll be back.

We move on to another young lady and the Lord shows us that she struggles with extreme anxiety and can’t sleep because of it. She acknowledges that this is right and we start talking to her. Our troublemaker, John, starts to hang around, listening to what we are saying. He comes right up to me and says, “What do you see for me?” I say, “Do you really want to know?” He says, “Yeah!” I look at him and the Holy Spirit says, “John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer”, I understand this to be an extreme sexual perversion that will ultimately, one day lead him to kill. So I say, “Ok then, what I see for you is extreme sexual perversion, on a level most people wouldn’t understand”. He just gives me this vacant look, like “How did you know?” and walks away.

We continue talking to these couple of girls, but it’s obvious that it’s going nowhere. John comes back up a few minutes later, gets serious for a second and then says, “You have no idea, you have no idea!” He’s talking about this thing with sexual perversion… Before I even know what I am saying, I hear myself say, “Yes I do. I know that left unchecked, you will kill one day.” His eyes about pop out of his head, he looks dead at me and says, “Get it off me!” I say, “Are you serious? Because if you aren’t for real, if you don’t serve Jesus and get filled with the Holy Spirit, it will come back 7 times stronger and wipe you out!” He says, “Yes! Get it out! You have no idea what this thing is like; I can feel things crawling in my skull! I can’t sleep at all…” I say, “Jesus will deliver you, but one thing is necessary first, you have to get down on your knees, give your life to Jesus and cry out to Him before I pray for you”.

John goes on to mock about this requirement to get down on his knees, but I can tell that he’s serious. He’s terrified about this demonic control on his life, he knows that he’s powerless to stop it and he believes that Jesus can take care it. So, through his mocking and jeering he ends up getting on his knees. A whole group of his friends is watching intently now, all of them mocking and ridiculing. John looks right at me and says again, “Get it off me”. I remind him, “Are you serious?” “Oh Yeah” he says. “Ok then, pray this with me.”

Ryan: “Lord Jesus”
John: “Lord Jesus”

Ryan: “I make you the Lord and King of my life”
John: “I make you the Lord and King of my life”

Ryan: “This day, I am finished with the devil and the kingdom of darkness”
John: “This day, I am finished with the devil and the kingdom of darkness”

Ryan: “I repent of my sin and receive forgiveness by your blood”
John: “I repent of my sin and receive forgiveness by your blood”

Ryan: “Right now, I renounce anger”
John: “Right now, I renounce anger”

Ryan: “Rage”
John: “Rage”

Ryan: “Lust”
John: “Lust”

Ryan: “and Sexual Perversion”
An evil glare comes over his face, the most evil grin I’ve ever seen washes over him and we’re looking right at the face of the devil! His lips start to quiver and his eye starts to twitch.

John: (in a whisper) “I can’t say that one”.

Ryan: “Oh, you’ll be able to in a minute! In Jesus name I bind you, sexual perversion! I also rebuke and bind all of the effects from being molested as a child!”
John: (Breathes out deeply) “Whoah! I feel all dizzy!”

Ryan: “Now say it with me! I renounce sexual perversion, in Jesus name!”
John: “I renounce sexual perversion, in Jesus name!”

Ryan: “Just sit back, relax and let God touch you. In the name of Jesus, I rebuke this demonic stronghold and command it to come out of him, in Jesus name! Holy Ghost, fill him with your power and might, change his life! Come and claim him!”

John reels and pitches to one side, obviously inebriated by the Holy Spirit. I smack him on the belly and command all of the demons to come out of him for the last time. He looks up at me with a completely new countenance, it’s shining and bright. At this moment, the crowd is very agitated. They are ticked off that we are messing with their poster boy for the demonic. I feel a sharp pain between my shoulder blades, like a burning and realize that someone is putting a cigarette out on my back! I jump up, swatting at my back and scream, “Who did that?!” Everyone denies it. I turn back to John, still on his knees; I give him my hand and pull him up off the ground. He stands up, can hardly walk, he’s so drunk in the Spirit and immediately starts to shout to everyone, “This stuff is for real! I didn’t believe it, but now I do! I thought it was just a joke, but it’s real!” He goes to several people, gets right in their face with the testimony of what God has done for him. He’s totally blown away and has no idea what’s going on. All he knows is that one minute he had a demon and now he doesn’t.

I turn around and there is a guy in a red and white shirt right in my face. He’s just standing there, looking at me with hate in his eyes, he’s turning red, he’s so mad. I look right in his eyes, give him a big grin and say, “Jesus loves you!” This makes him all the more angry and he starts pacing back and forth, muttering threats under his breath. I tell him to speak louder, no one can hear him. We square off, I face him flat footed and put my hands behind my back saying, “What are you going to do?” “Kick your @#$!” is his reply. “Well, do what you got to do, because I will do what I have to do. I have to preach to you!” I start preaching right to his face, telling him that Jesus is King and Lord and that His Kingdom is on the earth. I tell him that in the Kingdom of God, there is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. I tell him that there is freedom from anger, hate and the death that he is living in right now. A BIG crowd gathers. They see that there will likely be bloodshed and they want in on the action. My team is standing with me, forming a tight group. I can hear them start to pray under their breath in tongues. The pot is about to boil over...

To be continued…

Riot! – Part I

The night started off peacefully enough. I remember when we arrived that I felt ten feet tall and bulletproof. I told the team that I was with that, “I feel Dominion!”. I couldn’t explain it other than to say that I felt invincible. Turns out that before the night was over I would need that anointing.

We sent half the team off to prayer walk the lot. The other half would jump in the fray of people and see what the Lord would do. A couple guys from our team walk over to some friends of a few new believers and get to work. Our team immediately starts prophesying some very accurate stuff. The kids are blown away. Before the night is over, they will all meet the Lord through a demonstration of God’s power.

I remember scanning the large crowd, looking for a place to begin. I focus in on a girl that we had spoken to months before. The Lord showed us that she was having night terrors, really bad dreams that kept her from sleeping. We walked over to her to see what was up. The first words out of her mouth are, “The dreams stopped”. We’re blown away. The kindness of God was revealed to her! I ask her what she’s going to do about it now. “Be good” is her reply. “Wrong answer” is mine. A couple of the girls from our team start working with the group she is with and I start explaining to her that the Christian life is not mere morality, but a complete abandonment to the Kingdom of God. She decides that she does not want to giver her life to Jesus, in spite of the fact that Jesus took away her night terrors and now gives her peaceful sleep. I warn her that today is the day of salvation, but she and her friends aren’t budging.

Come to find out, the group of guys she’s hanging with is planning on fighting another guy in the larking lot. We get them to point out the rival group and before walking over to speak to them, we rebuke them for wanting to get into a fight, telling them that the only reason they are into fighting and violence is because they have nothing better to do. We walk over to the group of young men that they are getting ready to fight, walk right up to the biggest guy (the ring leader) and tell him simply, “You won’t be fighting tonight”. He looks at us and angrily says, “What?!” I said, “You heard me, you won’t be fighting tonight.” “Why not?” he replies. “Because you will be too busy getting born again” I say to him.

This totally send his rage over the edge and he immediately starts to curse me out, saying to get the $%^& out of his face or he’s going to beat the $%^& out of me! We have realized something out there with the lost. We can never respond to threats. It is equivalent to obeying the enemy. When they tell us what to do and threaten physical harm we just simply can’t respond! Jesus is King, not their demon anger of hate! Anyway, we don’t back down and proceed to preach to this VERY angry guy the Kingdom of God. His fighting friends get involved and start to get in my face, telling me what they will do to me if I don’t stop preaching. I ignore them and continue to preach the Gospel, all the while rebuking their demons of hate and anger.

An angry young man comes up to me and says, “I am Muslim, so what are you saying, do you think that your God is better than mine?” I reply, “This is what I am saying, Jesus is King and Mohammed and Allah are nothing! They will both bow the knee to Jesus”. My new angry Muslim friend explodes in rage and jumps at me, but a friend of his jumps between him and me, stopping him from attacking me. I continue to tell him that Jesus is King. More than that, Jesus is a good King and not an angry god like Allah. In doing so, I am aware that this guy’s core temperature is going through the roof!

In no time at all, I am confronted with a gaggle of very angry young men, all intent on killing me. I receive death threats, being told that I will have my throat cut, I will be stabbed, shot and beaten to death, along with my friends. Our reply? “You guys do what you need to do and we’ll do what we need to do. We MUST preach the Gospel to you!” A couple peacemakers come up to us and warn us not to keep preaching or these guys will beat us up. We thank them for their concern and inform them that we are here to preach the Gospel, not to bow to anger and rage.

At this moment, a couple of police officers walk through the parking lot with a couple of observers (wearing bullet proof vests, mind you!), scanning what’s going on. The kids I am with see them and back off of us a bit. One of our main persecutors, a religious kid who goes out of his way to cause us trouble walks up to the cops and starts pointing me out. I walk up to the police, point to the religious kid and say, “He doesn’t like me much”. The kid is telling the cops that we are out there preaching to them and tell them about hell and things like that. He is telling them that they don’t want to hear what we have to say and can the police please remove us. The police office looks straight at him and laughs! He says, “Welcome to America, it’s called free speech! If you don’t like what he (pointing to me) has to say, then go home!” The kid walks off all dejected, as the VERY angry young Muslim guy walks up to the police and says, “I am Muslim and this guy says that His God is superior to mine, can you stop him?” The police office looks at him and begins to mock him saying, “Hello?! Welcome to the United States, we have something here called freedom of religion and freedom of speech! It’s probably why you and your family moved here in the first place!” The Muslim kid walks off angrier than ever, being humiliated by the police.

After coming to our defense, the police continue to walk through the lot. We are almost instantly encircled with more angry people than before. One kid in particular starts to mock us, saying that he is God! We walk up to him and the Lord shows us a couple of instant words of knowledge about him. He is obviously under the influence of something, so what we say to him goes straight into his spirit. One of the girls on our team, Erin, gives him a word of knowledge about himself and it’s absolutely on the mark! Before he can get control, his eyes start to water and he just looks at her with amazement. His friend, John, jumps in there and starts to tell him, “Don’t let them (us) talk to you! They are crazy, don’t listen to what they are saying!” Erin continues and gives him some words about his dad, these cut him to the heart and he is obviously shaken, saying, “Go on, you must be psychic!”

To be continued…