Stories From The Road

Sorry for the lack of updates. There has actually been a lot going on. Lots of travel, lots of equipping, tons of miracles and a whole bunch of salvations! It’s official; it doesn’t matter where we go, if we preach the Gospel of the Kingdom, miracles, healings and salvations break out!

JONESBORO, GEORGIA
Several years ago, the Lord started speaking to us about Jonesboro, which is a little suburb south of Atlanta. The Lord started telling us prophetically that we would have a work in Jonesboro and there would be a move of God that would break out there. In the Civil War, Sherman’s army tried to break through the Confederate lines north of the city of Atlanta and was repelled. They circled around to the south of Atlanta and finally broke through in Jonesboro! They ended up marching through Atlanta, burning it to the ground.

So we began investing in Jonesboro late last year and have continued through this year, taking teams down there to equip and hungry saints and then to get out on the streets. The stories coming from those outreaches have been tremendous. Whole families have given their lives to Jesus as the secrets of their heart are laid bare through prophetic words and words of knowledge.

I was with a team down there and we had a gentleman with us from a local Baptist church down there. Officially, the church’s doctrine is that the age of miracles has passed away with the death of the Apostles and the giving of the Scripture. That may be so, but the gentleman with me witnessed a NOW demonstration of the power of God as a guy we were preaching to went from having a heart that was stone cold to the Gospel to a heart that was tender, down on his knees, weeping and giving his life to Jesus, and in a matter of a few minutes! He was relating to his pastor at a lunch after the outreach that maybe we really had something that could aid soul winning!

LIBERTYVILLE, CHICAGO
Last year at a conference we were hosting, I met a pastor from a church in Libertyville, Chicago. She had heard about the stuff going on with us and wanted to meet me and see if we would come soon to her church and work with her folks in getting them “out of the seats and into the streets”. The invitation came at the first of the year and off we went, just a couple of weeks ago.

The format was simple; teach on the Kingdom, get people free from bondage and filled with the power of God and set them loose on their community to preach the gospel with signs and wonders. There was a good group from the church that came out, a lot of young people and a few young couples, eager to hear from God and do something with it! The only “hiccup” is that we were in Chicago, in February trying to release people to move out in the marketplace. Which, at -20 degrees wind chill, would only be inside a mall.

Everyone was eager to practice what they had been taught and maybe a little nervous, but off we went. Would you believe it, the Gospel even works in Chicago! What was very cool is that several folks that were very shy and reserved ended up being dramatically used by the Lord, getting accurate words of knowledge to impact the Lost!

MILLEDGEVILLE, GEORGIA
Last year, while in Newnan, Georgia, preaching the Kingdom and taking people out on the streets, I met a young man down there who was part of a college group in Milledgeville. He was excited at what we had seen over that weekend and wanted to hook up. We traded emails and have been communicating ever since. He got a place to meet and set a date and invited us down to the college campus to equip there folks in “doing the stuff”. We were more than happy to oblige.

Milledgeville was off the hook! The group of young people there was so hungry and full of fire. The results were predictable, God showed up.

One of my favorite stories was of an older woman whose house a team had entered. As they were talking with a family member at the front of the house, one in the group got a word of knowledge about arthritis in the hands. As it turns out, an older lady in the house was experiencing arthritis pain at that moment. As they prayed for her, not only did all the pain leave her body instantly and mobility was restored, but gold dust appeared on her hands as they prayed. Everyone was freaked out at that one!

Here are some comments on the weekend from John Minix, our main contact down there:

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On Saturday morning, over forty people gathered to prepare to invade the projects. (Editors Note: actually, it was 56, I counted) Ryan taught out of Matthew 10:7,8 on healing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing the leper, and casting out demons and includes many personal and practical examples. Then David Dixon taught about prophetic evangelism while also including numerous personal examples. After a time of soaking, 12 groups are formed and literally swarm two housing projects and a small community. After an hour of preaching the gospel, people begin to return with so much enthusiasm and so many testimonies that many of the people can hardly contain everything that God had done.

There were a total of 12 salvations, and 10 instant healings. One healing was a report from someone prayed for a week earlier that was healed of diabetes. The other healings were ranged from arthritis to back pain to a healing of an ingrown toe nail. There was one lady that experienced gold dust. The word of knowledge was flowing freely through many people that had little to no experience what so ever in operating in that gift.Since then, on Sunday, numerous students prophecy over their waiters and waitresses and a couple of students were involved with giving words of knowledge to three goth kids in a Wal-Mart parking lot and leading one through deliverance from demonic oppression. Monday, one student ministered to a homeless man in Macon who was instantly touched by God.

Praise GOD!!! All Glory To JESUS!!!

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More to come, we’re off to the Congo in Africa next week! Pray for us!

Blessings,
Ryan

On The Road Again…

Things here have been relatively slow ministry wise for the last several weeks and over the holidays. It’ always like this and after a few years, you can appreciate the slow times because you know the roller coaster is just slowly making it’s way to the top of the hill and you are about to go screaming down a hill at Mach 2 any moment.

WEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!
For the last year, we have been receiving requests literally from all over the world to come and equip, train and release believers to walk in what we have been seeing these last couple of years. We have been very selective about where we are going and frankly have been turning down more requests than answering, just not feeling that the time is right, etc. Well, something has shifted because we have received a rash of invitations and are saying YES! We just feel like the Lord is creating a hunger in His people to take this Kingdom message and run with it! What’s cool is that the requests are based almost exclusively from the testimonies of what God is doing here. So, instead of say, going to Africa to preach the Gospel and come back with some testimonies, we are going to Africa BECAUSE of the testimonies! It sounds upside down, but I think that this is really the way it should be.

So, we’re taking teams of folks from the church and going to quite a few places over the next couple of months. The biggest and possibly the most intense trip we will be taking is to AFRICA! Namely, the Congo. Why are we going to the Congo? Long story, but basically it involves a guy from our church spending a year there as a missionary and making a disciple who has taken what he’s been given and run with it! We’re going to support what they are doing and train and release the indigenous folks there to take the power of the Gospel out on the streets! With me, it also involves a giant African angel that stood at the foot of my bed and told me three different places that I would be going in the near future (the Congo was on the list). Startling to be sure…

Anyway, we leave in about two months and I need to raise $3000 for the cost of the trip. I know that many folks have read these testimonies and passed them on to friends and family. So, if you have been encouraged by what you’ve read here, would you consider giving to help make this trip possible?

All donations given through my church are tax deductible and we will immediately issue you a tax receipt. You can give in either of two ways:

By Check - Made payable to:

NorthGate Church of Atlanta
ATTN: Ryan Congo Trip
PO BOX 2190
Woodstock, GA 30188

Online - With a credit/debit card here:

http://ngca.org/donations.htm
*Just be sure to write in “Ryan Congo Trip” in the notes line.

I look forward to the trip report from Africa!

Blessings,
Ryan

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UPDATE:

I just got word that my entire trip price has been covered through ONE DONATION! Thank you Jesus! If you were even thinking about giving, maybe wait until the next trip!

RYAN

The "Lord’s" Banquet

Last night, our church hosted a beautiful Christmas Banquet, complete with fine china, ornate crystal, delicious food and live entertainment. We spared no expense to make our honored guests feel like part of the family. Many folks in the church elaborately decorated their tables and showcased their creativity (which is abundant), giving their tables their own personal touch. The buffet line was absolutely amazing! It was decorated to the nines and brimming with copious amounts of delicious turkey with dressing, hams, casseroles and desserts.

In planning our annual Christmas Banquet this year, we decided to forgo the usual way we do our annual Church Christmas Banquet and were provoked to follow the Lord’s specific instructions for having a banquet. Did you know that the Lord spoke specifically about having a banquet?

“And He also said to him who invited Him, When you make a dinner or a supper, do not call your friends or your brothers, or your kinsmen, or your rich neighbors; lest they also invite you again, and a recompense be made to you. But when you make a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you shall be blessed, for they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” Luke 14:12-14

When we first got the word out about how we would be doing our Christmas Banquet this year, the response was amazing! Money came pouring in to cover the considerable cost of hosting such an event. Also, volunteers from the church came out in force. We actually had too many people offering to serve and host tables! The dedication to detail and folks giving their very best was awe inspiring.

The next step was going around to all of the neighborhoods and communities that we have been ministering the gospel in these last few months and years and invited all to the banquet. We also made special efforts to invite and bring in many from the Latino communities that we have been in. Many of these folks are living in abject poverty all within about a 5 mile radius from the church. Many of them are sick and infirmed, as well as demonically tormented. In short, they need Jesus.

We were a little worried as to who would come and not come, but as it turns out, we had over 60 folks from all over the community that we brought it or who managed to make it out on their own, filling our tables with our extended “Family”. It was an awesome sight to see our guests come in and be loved, accepted and welcomed by our church family. You had successful businessmen and upper middle class families mingling with the poor and strong believers mingling with unbelievers. The whole mood was ecstatic and you could feel the presence of God brooding over the place.

As part of our outreach team that has been ministering in these neighborhoods the last couple of years, it was such a treat to see many of the folks we have been preaching to in the same place at the same time. It made our efforts “real” and really helped me see the fruit of our labors these last few months. It also was great for our church to connect with the folks that they have heard about in testimonies, but never really met personally.

During the course of the night, several folks, moved by the love of the church towards them, gave their lives to the Lord. There was prayer for healing going on and prophetic words given. A group of Hispanic men asked us when they could come back for a Spanish speaking service (it’s in the works, trust me!) and several folks that have never stepped foot in the church before promised that they would be back.

All in all, it was a great success and we are so pleased with the Lord and His goodness, as well as the amazing generosity of the Lord’s people.

Going Out With A Bang! - Part II

Hey There,

Here's the OTHER account to what happened at our last High School football game of the year... Remember, both of these accounts come from teenage girls out preaching the Gospel with signs, wonders, healings and miracles at local football games on Friday Nights.

Come on Jesus!

Blessings,
Ryan

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Hey Ryan!

Yeah it was AWESOME!!!!

I was SO provoked by Sarah’s story (from last weekend), that all this week I have been telling the Lord that I am grateful if only 5-6 kids get born again, but that I wanted to see crowds of kids getting born again too...and I totally saw it!

So here is the story...

We actually drove to a football game at Roswell, but the kids over there said that they didn't have a game. So, we left and went to Lassiter. It was so full of kids, I guess because it was the last game...but I had never seen that many people at a football game!

So I looked at Katie and said, "Katie, we absolutely have to go for it...it's the last game, we can't hold back." and she totally agreed! So we went to the corner of Lassiter where there was a HUGE crowd of kids just screwing around. I walked over to them and shouted, "Hey all you guys, come here! I have something really awesome to tell you!"

So all of these kids stopped and stared...haha! Me, Katie and Rebekah, started prophesying to these kids one after another. It was awesome! Then, Stephanie, who was also at that game came over and joined us...

Okay, this is funny...all of the kids started saying, "OH my gosh! You guys are what they were talking about/warning us about in our prep class...". We couldn't figure it out, but we think people are talking about what we have been doing at their football games in their prep classes! :)

We then asked them if they were born again, and most of them seemed unsure... Then one of their moms came over, cuz she was really curious about what was going on...so we told her that we were preaching the kingdom to all of these kids...and get this...she starts telling all of the kids there that they need to listen to us!!!

So, we told all of the kids they needed to get born again. So about 10 kids got on their knees ready to give their lives to Jesus!

BUT WAIT IT GETS BETTER!!!!!!

All of these kids around us were watching, so I stood up and shouted, "Hey, you guys, we are giving our lives to Jesus and making him our King. Come on you guys get on your knees too, and give your lived to Jesus too. AND THEY DID! 10-15 kids got on their knees too! So I think between 20 and 25 kids got born again and got filled with the spirit! I think that happened at least three times...I would look over at Katie and she would be on her knees with a huge group of kids, and so I would get on my knees with them and then she would look over and I would be on my knees with a huge group of kids and so she would get on her knees too!

Then we started calling down the Holy spirit, and the fire of God onto these kids. They were so open and hungry it was so freaking awesome! They literally started falling back, and when I say falling back I mean FALLING not stepping!!! Katie, Stephanie, and I actually had to catch them so they didn't hit the ground!

IT WAS AWESOME!!!

So awesome that I guess we drew too big of a crowd because we got approached by 3 cops and a Lassiter guy. They told us that we couldn't do what we were doing anymore, and we couldn't touch the kids anymore (even with permission). He said that he appreciated what we were doing but that what we were doing was meant for inside a church, not football games. :)

We were really compliant, so they left, etc. So we turned around to all of the kids and told them what the cops had told us. We told them that they didn't have to leave, and that we could still call down the Holy spirit and the fire of God without touching them at all. So we did, and kids started falling back! They were saying that they felt a hot burning all along their backs and their heads...we didn't even tell them that they would feel heat or anything!

So that started drawing another crowd, and around 10 kids gave their lives to Jesus! Then, since we couldn't touch them, they decided to touch each other, and they started calling down the Holy spirit onto their friends, and their friends started falling back! HAHA!!! So, by that time we had really upset a little Jewish girl. She came over to us and was all like, "stop, stop! I am mad!" and I was like, "why?" Then she said that she was mad because we were converting kids to Christianity, and she didn't like that, and she didn't think parents would like that either! So I told her that we couldn't stop. She wanted to argue, and I didn't want too, because such awesome stuff was happening... So I said, "listen chick, I believe what I believe just as strongly as you believe what you believe, nothing you say can change my mind".

I told her that every tree will be judged according to it's fruit and that I was seeing WAY too much fruit to stop. So she got really mad and left...

About 5 minutes later we got approached by the Lassiter guy, and he said we were not welcome to do this at his school, and that we had to leave... So we did... hahahahaha!!!

IT WAS AWESOME!!! I think at least 50 kids gave their lives to Jesus! I get so excited just thinking about it again! Sorry the story was so long! SO much happened, I didn't want to leave any of it out! :)

Erin

Going Out With A Bang! - PART I

A couple of week ago was our last Friday night football game outreach at local high schools and we went out with a bang! Kids got healed, prophecy was flowing and nearly 60 people gave their lives to the Lord, on their knees, in front of all of their friends. The spiritual hunger of this generation is intense.

Once again, I asked the young ladies that were at the center of it to give their account. We’ll probably do this in two parts.

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KATIE’S ACCOUNT

Okay, here's my part...

One pretty cool thing about this night was that, for me, the past 4 or 5 weeks I had gone out, nothing really happened. Maybe a healing or two, which is awesome, of course. But then I get back and another team has like 20 something healings and a bunch born again, etc. So I really wanted a good night, especially since this may be the last game this year for us.

Long story short, I talked to the Lord about it and He basically said that I would have to do it, I would have to step out and be bold and He would back me up. So we had a deal. I'd jump in a group and be bold and He'd back me up with prophetic stuff, etc. Erin had this same word too, so we just jumped right in as soon as we got there.

Erin first approaches this group of probably middle school, maybe younger, kids. She just yells "Hey guys!! I have something to tell you!!" This gets their attention, but only a few came over and listened... about 3 or 4 girls. So we start telling them what we're doing and prophesying to them. Sure enough, as soon as we asked them if we could tell them what God was showing us (at which point I had nothing), He instantly showed me something.

From here on, for me, it's all a blur. We were prophesying left and right, and about 3 or 4 times, I look over and all the kids we had prophesied to were getting on their knees, and the kids we were prophesying to wanted to do it too! So we all got down and they all confessed Jesus as their King (loudly!) and invited the Holy Spirit to come.

This goes on for a while and I thought we should start praying for the kids for God to touch them. So I start with one, Erin and Stephanie jumped in and started praying for a bunch of others, because nearly ALL of them wanted it... Especially after 2 or 3 of them were going "I feel it! I feel it!!"

As we were praying for them to be filled with the Spirit and fire of God, they were falling back. So much so that we had to pull them back towards us as we held their hands. Some said they felt intense heat on their heads, some said they felt electricity going up and down their spines, some felt tingling, etc.

Another cool thing was, a few times as I was standing there prophesying and praying for people, I had this "automatic mouth" thing going and I was thinking at the same time as I was prophesying, "I don't even know what I'm saying... This must really be God". Haha.

That's basically it. Nothing specific. It was just so much and it came so quickly. We also got kicked out. A cop and some authority from the school told us not to touch them and that the religion thing is the same as in school, etc. So we kept talking to them (because they said we could do that), and we prayed for them without touching them. They lifted their hands the same way and they still felt it and were falling back. But again, they came back and told us that we couldn't even talk to them about this stuff and that we should probably just leave because this wasn't the place for that (wrong!).

Okay, I know that was a lot... Sorry. I'm so excited. :)

- Katie

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To be concluded…

AMAZING Testimony!

I just got an amazing testimony from last night’s football outreach in my email. Normally we send out a couple of different teams to two or three different local high school football games. At the game I went to, other than preaching the Gospel to a group of kids, there really wasn’t anything remarkable that happened. That wasn’t the story with the other group that went out at all. In fact, they had an absolute blowout!

Here’s the testimony straight from Sarah (who by the way is 16 years old).

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SARAH’S TESTIMONY

Okay, so I was at the Roswell game with David and Jason… For the first hour maybe, it pretty much sucked…nothing was happening. So David asked if I would feel comfortable going into a crowd by myself and I said, “Sure, why not?”

I jumped into a crowd of maybe 15-20 kids. I told them that Jesus is King and that He had told me some stuff about them (which He hadn’t yet), and I asked them if they wanted to hear it. They said, “Sure”. All of a sudden, I was giving prophetic word after prophetic word, and the kids kept bringing all their friends to me… It was insane!

So then, I was like well all of these kid are going to walk away and not get born again, and that’s not cool. So I told this boy who really wanted to get born again to go around the crowd and ask everyone if they wanted to do it too… He got maybe 12-13 kids, and they all got on their knees and gave their lives to the Lord!

That happened over and over again. The second group of kids that got born again was like five or six and the third group was like eleven or twelve! After that every kid who came up to me to get prophesied over ended up getting born again!

Then this kid who had gotten born again a little earlier, got on his knees again when I was getting a different group of kids born again…I was like ok, what is this all about…Then as I was telling all these kid’s to repeat what I say, he starts telling them what to say!

He led a group of kids to the Lord!!!!!!! Then he saw me calling the fire of God down on all these kids, and he in awe…so I called the fire of God down on him, and he almost fell back! After that, I told Him he could do what I was doing, and told him to just lay his hand on someone and say ”Fire of God”, over and over again… He laid his hands on like the very next kid who came up, and the kid he was praying for really felt the fire of God…The guy who was praying started jumping up and down he was so excited…He then laid hands on like everyone else who came up to us!!!!!!!!

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EDITOR’S NOTE:

All in all about 40 kids gave their lives to the Lord by literally bowing their knees in front of all of their friends and family, making a public declaration that Jesus is now their King! Then, our team (and a new believer) laid hands on them imparting the Holy Spirit and His fire.

What’s cool is that they started with a dud and ended with a bang. They pressed through and saw a breakthrough. Maybe if our team would have pressed through, we would have seen something similar?

I also love that Sarah really didn’t have anything prophetically, but in faith stated that she did. Just knowing that it is the Lord’s heart to speak over the lost was enough to start the prophetic flow! Lots of folks ask us all the time how we get the prophetic stuff and that’s a good example. Many times we have nothing whatsoever; we just step out in faith!

More often than not, God covers our backs!

On The Road Again…

I have a way cool testimony for you. This one will be a quick update.

Truthfully, our outreach schedule has lessened of late; we’re only doing 3 outreaches a week instead of our regular 5-6. Translation: Less time spent preaching to unbelievers = fewer miracle stories. But its okay, many of us needed a break as we were approaching burnout after investing heavily into a bunch of folks that wouldn’t change! Rick Joyner says it like this: “The moment you stop learning and being teachable is the moment that you cease to be a disciple (pupil, student) of the Lord”. The wall we ran into over the last year or so is that folks who were so grateful and tender to the Holy Spirit just months ago have now hardened as they did not choose obedience to the Word of God over their opinion and lifestyle. People like that get hard instead of tender and refuse change over staying right where they are.

So, we’re on the hunt for teachable, tender people that will run with hunger and fire with the Kingdom of God. Is that you?

AT MORNINGSTAR
Over the last couple of years, we have been to a few places in Georgia and around the southeast, imparting what the Lord has taught us to whoever will listen and run with it! This stuff is easy and once you get a change of thinking, the results are normally fantastic. Anyone and everyone can be used by God to bring the Kingdom of God here to earth! All that it takes is a willing, teachable heart and a little bit of faith (spelled R.I.S.K.).

Our buddies at Morningstar Ministries near Charlotte, North Carolina have a great school of ministry there at the old Heritage USA grounds in Fort Mill, South Carolina. For years we have been fed by the teaching and prophetic ministry that’s come from them. In fact, both Pastor Marc and I are part of their Fellowship of Ministries. But after hearing what the Lord has been doing here, they decided that they want some of what we have! We were thrilled to be able to give back to a ministry that’s given so much to us and stood with us when things weren’t that great. So Pastor Marc and I went up there last week and had a great time teaching students, imparting boldness and stirring up believers to walk in the supernatural power of God and destroy the works of the enemy!

Probably the coolest thing that happened was some of the students taking what they heard to the streets after the morning class that we preached. They went out in a group to the place with the most people that they could think of: Wal-Mart. They wandered the aisles looking for an opportunity to bring the Kingdom of God and guess what? They found some!

The first person they [rayed for had something wrong with her leg. If I remember correctly, she had a brace and everything. She was in severe pain and had extremely limited mobility, from an injury, I believe. So the young people from the Ministry School went up to her, asked her what was wrong and said “Hey, can we pray for you?” As they did, the Fire of God came on the lady and the pain left her leg. In no time at all, they had her demonstrating her healing by doing things that she couldn’t do before without pain! And in the Wal-Mart aisles!

But that’s not even the coolest thing that happened.

A lady came walking in and they all noticed her. She was wearing an Indian head dress and a leather vest with all sorts of marking on it. She stood out like a sore thumb! So this lady overheard them praying for the lady with the leg and asked for prayer for herself. They prayed for something (I can’t remember what it was now) that was relatively minor and the Lord touched her. Seeing that this stuff is real, she sheepishly told them that she has terrible vision and can barely see her hand in front of her face. In fact, they later found out that when she goes shopping at Wal-Mart, the manager has an employee literally lead her by the hand and go shopping with her, because her vision is so poor!

So the students all gather around, asking the God who invades the impossible to invade the impossible and grant this woman her eyesight. They told us later that they were so scared they could barely pray, but pray they did! As they prayed, they all felt a tangible anointing come on them and they all starting praying with boldness and faith, right there in the store! They asked the lady what was happening and she said that her eyes felt hot. As they continued to pray for her, the heat increased. When she finally opened her eyes, she could see all the way down the aisle! Her vision was absolutely perfect! She was rejoicing, the students were rejoicing and even the Wal-Mart employees were rejoicing. They had a little worship service right there in the aisle and brought the incredible testimony of God opening blind eyes in the aisle of Wal-Mart back to the School of the Spirit meeting that night!

See, God will even use noobs that trust him…

Constant Change Is Here To Stay...

You’ve heard it said and we’re living it! So many things have changed around here in the last couple months. Change is good though. I remember a couple of years ago when we were praying and believing to see a miracle or a healing here and there. I remember when we were shocked, SHOCKED to see someone give their lives to Jesus. Now it’s totally different. We see miracles when we want to. That’s right, we make a decision, “Am I going to preach the Gospel and see God’s power move, or am I going to stay home and sit on the sofa watching a Law & Order rerun?” It’s really simple; if we preach the Gospel of the Kingdom, God comes rushing to our aid with demonstrations of the Spirit’s power and we see salvations, healings and miracles. If we choose not to preach and instead stay home, we are guaranteed that we won’t see God move like that!

I’ve got a sacred cow that I want to fry too… If we simply GO TO MEETINGS, but don’t get out there and mix with the lost, yeah, we’ll have good meetings and we may even see a few people healed, but we will not see the glorious release of God’s power that we see among the lost! Honestly though, did Jesus die on the cross so that we (believers) could have good meetings only? We’ll be blessed and refreshed, but what about our neighbors, our cities and our communities? We can be selfish and keep the power to ourselves with a little bless me club and obsess over our miniscule problems, but what about the lost? They need the power too! The Gospel is for the poor in spirit! Your problems really aren’t that bad, trust me!

REPENT!
So, one of the major things that has changed around here is our minds, the way we think (repentance). We used to think that a move of God is totally sovereign, that the only way you would see God move is by praying, fasting and waiting on Him. But that’s not the case! God is moving! We just have to agree with Him and do what He is doing! We can, by faith, step into a move of God and actually create our own “Wave” of the Spirit. Time after time these last 6 weeks, our teams have created a revival out of thin air! People were just there having a nice football game and hanging out, but our teams decided that they wanted to see God move in power. So what did they do? Did they call a fast, confess a prayer several times a day and wear a wristband? Did they send out a 21 day prayer focus? Nope. They cleared their schedule (harder than you think) and showed up at church at 6:30pm on a Friday night. They sacrificed time with their loved ones and recreation/fellowship time to have a revival! And guess what, they HAD a revival! Dozens have given their lives to the Lord, hundreds of miracles have taken place and the Gospel has been preached with POWER!

Here’s the strange thing, if they don’t show up, God doesn’t move. This was illustrated to me over the last couple of weeks. I had an appointment a couple of weeks ago on a Friday night that prohibited me from going to the game. Guess what, I DID NOT have a revival, but THOSE WHO WENT, did! Last week, I was under the weather and dealing with some stuff at home, which prohibited me from going to the football game and guess what? I DID NOT have a revival, but THOSE WHO WENT, did! Once again, illustrating to me that all of our prayer and fasting won’t produce a harvest. You can declare a harvest to your field all day long, but until you roll up your sleeves and get to work in that field, that harvest WILL NOT come in. Jesus said the fields were ripe unto harvest 2,000 years ago, so what does that make them today? One person in the field, working together with God produces and actually brings in a harvest more than 1,000 people in a prayer room or 5,000 people in a conference meeting. Sorry, but I’m right about this.

Now that my axe has been ground to a fine edge…

AN UPDATE…
We’re losing daylight as the nights come quicker and quicker. That means that our ability to get out there when people are home during the week is fading fast. We’ve found out that we have a heavy “harvest” season that runs from the beginning of daylight savings time to the end of daylight savings time (April – September). After that, we have to follow up with and cultivate what we have produced during the summer. Now that daylight is gone, our only real opportunity to preach the Gospel to unbelievers is during the day or on the weekends. We have a team of mommies that go out each week to local nursing homes and visit the widows (James 1:27), but that’s about all that we have found that works during the day.

More than that, we are now having to face the cold, hard reality that many of the people we have been preaching to over the last 2 ½ years are not running with the Gospel we are bringing them. Now many of these peopl are ones that we follow up with and have house church meetings with. But most of them are apathetic in their faith and cold in their love towards God. This is very disturbing. Why? Because so many of these folks came to the Lord as a result of a dramatic display of God’s power. Many of them were healed and saw miracles and many of them came to the Lord as a result of a word of knowledge or prophetic word. You would think that this would give them a “leg up” on making them dedicated followers of Jesus, but that’s not the way it’s turning out.

When people don’t repent of their lifestyles and make quality decisions to follow the Holy Spirit and forsake the things of this world, then lukewarmness and apathy result. One of the reasons for the mediocre long term fruit that the Lord has shown us is this: Many of the folks we are preaching to simply put our gospel into their religious/traditional/southern paradigm of what church is/should be. They file their miracles and encounters with God that we bring them into their nice little religious file under “I believe in God now” almost totally ignoring the fact that our Gospel says follow Jesus with ALL your heart, ALL your mind and ALL your strength.

I’ll write about this more in depth, but the long and short of it is this: We will not let our outreaches be reduced to “visiting” lukewarm Christians that refuse to change and grow in the things of God. We will invest in the hungry and the desperate, not in people who are self-satisfied and lukewarm. So we’re going into the Spanish community. My gut tells me that they will RUN with this Gospel…

We’ll see, won’t we?

Are You Ready For Some FOOTBALL?

Sorry that the updates have been infrequent this month… Crazy busy. It’s primarily due to a team from our church and a mission trip to visit Heidi and Rolland Baker in Pemba, Mozambique, but that is the subject of another update.

Anyway, it’s Friday night and I’m home with the kids. I just got them to bed and sat down at the computer to write out what’s been going on lately. Our outreach schedule says that I should be out taking a team on an outreach tonight, but alas, I am home. Why? Well, mainly because my wife INSISTED on going to a football game tonight. It’s not because she likes football either. In fact, she couldn’t give a rat’s hind end about the game of football. The reason that she wants to go is because in the last three weeks, we have seen several dozen kids give their lives to the Lord, over 50 instant healing miracles and a couple hundred kids get their mail read prophetically; and all at high school football games!

Last year, my buddy Joel in California gave us a great tip: Go to high school football games. They are fantastic opportunities to see the kingdom of God break out in power. Evangelistically, it’s like fishing in a barrel! There are literally hundreds, if not thousands of kids hanging out and this generation is ravenous for the power of God! If you bring the power, more often than not you will see the Kingdom of God break out and the fire of God spread all over the school.

JUST LAST WEEK...
My wife was inspired to jealousy because one of the young mommies in our church was powerfully used by God. Imagine the picture of what happened, a young mommy with her tiny 2 month old baby in a Baby Bjorn kid carrier sleeping soundly while she boldly preaches the Gospel to a rowdy group of high school kids in the concession area of a football game! Kids are being healed, kids are getting saved and there is mommy and baby right in the middle of the melee, prophesying, healing and leading people to Jesus! The prophetic revelation that she was getting was startling! She received several names of kids best friends, she told them what their parents did for a living and told them all sorts of intimate details about their lives. Now, I would pay serious money for a picture of that scene, wouldn’t you?

Well, that’s what happened last Friday and that’s not even all of it! Also last week another couple of young ladies from the church “got into it”, as we say. They had over 20 instant healing miracles in a little over an hour! Backs, necks, ankles, knees and arms all healed! Pain disappearing, mobility returning, swelling leaving and people doing things that they couldn’t do barely two minutes before prayer. After a power demonstration and the preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, they gave an invitation for kids to give their lives to Jesus. In one fell swoop, eight kids got born again! And that was just one football game out of three that our teams were at.

My favorite part of these two girls’ testimony that they gave last Sunday was that they were slogging away, praying for the sick and prophesying over people for over an hour before things started to break loose. They were being mocked and ridiculed by 11 and 12 year old kids as they prayed and nothing happened. At one point they thought to themselves, “What are we doing?” So what did they do? Did they turn tail and run away? Nope. They just kept going. They kept praying and they kept prophesying. When healing broke out, it broke out BIG.

THE WEEK BEFORE THAT…
Was just as good! One of the teams that went out had some healings start to happen right after they got there. They found a couple of kids with injuries; broken arm and sprained ankles. As they prayed for them, all the pain left and their mobility returned and kids were able to do things that they couldn’t do. The result? They run away only to come back with their friends and friends’ friends. In no time at all there is a hungry group of young people desperate for a touch of God! Necks, backs, arms, legs, ankles and necks are being healed now; each healing produces more excitement and the expectation builds. Someone with a herniated disk in their back experiencing severe pain and limited mobility is healed on the spot. Another kid with a busted ankle who can’t fully extend his foot is running up and down the sidewalk demonstrating his newfound mobility and lack of pain saying, “I’m healed! I’m healed!”

One of the kids comes up to my brother Jordan, who is 18 years old and asks him sincerely, “Are you Jesus or something?” Totally flabbergasted that the sick are healed and that these strangers (us) know all sorts of supernatural revelation about them, their only thought is, “is this guy the Lord?” They explain, “No, we’re not Jesus, but we know Him and His power is at work inside of us!” They explain the Gospel of the Kingdom and exhort many to follow King Jesus with all of their hearts and lives. They are all professing Christians, but are confronted with the reality of Heaven that speaks loudly against their dead religion.

AND THEN THE WEEK BEFORE THAT…
What I would call a Biblical miracle takes place. One of the girls in our church takes her kid brother, who is ten years old with her to a game. In no time at all they “get into it”, prophesying over kids left and right. The young guy (who is ten years old, mind you) stands side by side with his sister healing the sick and prophesying over kids 5-20 years his senior. Imagine a line of high school kids, lining up in front of a ten year old kid, waiting expectantly for the word of the Lord coming from his lips or the healing touch from his hands! Did you just hear what I said? These are high school kids! You know, kids totally obsessed with being cool that they will do anything to maintain their “cool” status… Well, what’s cool about waiting in line to hear from a ten year old?

You know, who really cares when he is dispensing the power of God!

The Real Deal

We just got through having a meeting with Surprise Sithole with Iris Ministries (www.irismin.org) in Mozambique, Africa. We had met him earlier in the year and were given the opportunity to host him again. For those of you who don’t know who he is, let me sum up. This guy is currently overseeing over 8,000 churches in 28 nations! He is a true apostle who has seen the Lord and has raised the dead many times. In addition, he and many with him have been beaten, stoned and suffered greatly for the Gospel. There is just something about spending time with someone like that, that can greatly change, shift or clarify your perspective. We were able to take him to dinner and over dinner I was able to ask him questions and pick his brain about what they are doing out there n Africa.

I was just telling my wife how much I can glean out of little impromptu meetings like that. When David Hogan was here in 2004 I had a couple of questions to ask him. When he answered them I was able to move forward in faith with what I knew the Lord was telling us to do. The result? We now are preaching the gospel on an almost daily basis and into 28 places every month! Pretty good fruit from a little conversation I would say.

REMEMBER YOUR LEADERS!
Soon after I got baptized in the Holy Spirit, the Lord spoke something so important to me about who I should learn from and what I should learn from them. He gave me this scripture:

“Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.” Hebrews 13:7

If you pay attention to this scripture, it was save you a bunch of time and energy and greatly increase the produce of your life! This scripture says that we are to remember our leaders and consider the OUTCOME of their way of life! That’s where we get so tripped up! We don’t heed this scripture and follow after what leaders SAY, not the FRUIT or OUTCOME of their way of life! So basically, we are to look at our leaders FRUIT, not their great messages, not their revelations or even their personalities. FRUIT talks, everything else walks!

So what I do is simple. I scour the earth for people who have a significant ministry along the lines of what I want to see in my own life. The result is that I have found a few who actually LIVE what they preach about! Many talk revival, but who is walking in it? Many have theories on city taking, but who has conquered a city? Many have prophecies about revival, but who is living in one? Whose lifestyle is PRODUCING what they preach? Who actually has the FRUIT of the Gospel, not just pretty words about the Gospel?

My list is short, I don’t know about yours. But David Hogan in Mexico and the guys who are working with Freedom Ministries and Heidi and Rolland Baker and whoever is working with Iris Ministries are on my list. SO when these people speak about their lifestyle, you can take it to the bank! When I started doing in our neighborhoods what David Hogan does in the villages of Mexico I started seeing what he sees! It’s not rocket science! When I imitate their faith, I get what they have! I have seen this work with Hogan and now I am looking forward to seeing it work with Surprise Sithole.

LESSONS FROM SURPRISE
Well, when Surprise was here I had a few more questions to ask him. Most of them centered on equipping and releasing leaders, something that they are doing a spectacular job of! I mean, do the math, 8,000 churches in about 7 years. 7 years x 365 days a year = 2,555 days. And they have panted 8,000 churches in 2,555 days! That’s over 3 churches planted EVERY SINGLE DAY! That’s crazy folks! And these are BIG churches! Many of them involve entire villages that come to Jesus as a result of the power of God being displayed. Many of these churches have 500, 1,000 and more!

One of the keys to their spectacular growth is because they can get in a place, preach the gospel, impart to leaders and leave leaders that produce other leaders! They aren’t churches in and of themselves, they are church planting churches! So when they plant one church in a village, many from that village will go out and plant churches. They plant one church and that church plants ten churches that plant 10 churches each! Talk about multiplication! It’s like MLM for Jesus!

So the questions I had for him were about raising up leaders. Our folks that lead people to Jesus and are discipling new believers can get worn out pretty quickly, especially when people don’t change or act crazy. And a lot is depending on them. Many times if we don’t show up in a neighborhood and lead everything, then nothing happens! What they have managed to do is QUICKLY release new leaders to lead people. With my American (business) mindset, this seems so hard to do. But that’s what I got from Surprise! Here’s a guy that oversees over 8,000 churches in over 28 nations and he is one of the most childlike, simple and joyful people I have ever met! Most church leaders that I know lead one church and are covered up in worry, doubt and fear about finances and people. Far from childlike, they are about as fun as a heart attack and have the personality of a head of lettuce. They more resemble CEO’s than childlike simplicity.

TWO QUALIFICATIONS
So as I peppered Surprise about raising up leaders, two qualifications emerged for their leadership. Now these two qualifications are so simple and so biblical that they have absolutely no place in the Western church. I guess that’s why we don’t raise up church planting movements that plant 8,000 church in 7 years and lead and disciple over a million people to the Lord in that same time frame? So, putting all your ridiculous notions of what leaders should be like, are you ready to hear how they qualify leaders in Africa?

QUALIFICATION #1 – “HUMILITY"
Surprise told us that when they are raising up leaders, they never select the person who pushes themselves forward and desires leadership over others. He told me that they are the ones that produce all the problems. I can say that in our own ministry, that has absolutely been the problem. It’s like the more they want authority over others, the worse of a leader they turn out to be! So they look for the person sitting in the back, who doesn’t push themselves forward. They are looking for humility and childlikeness. Children aren’t looking for positions of leadership, yet unless we become like a child we can’t enter the Kingdom! So they award humility, not persistence. We have given people charge before basically because they wore us out with asking, asking, asking! But in every case it has turned out badly.

Lesson learned.

QUALIFICATION #2 – “DRUNKENNESS”
I kept asking and he kept telling. He said that the ones that drink of the Holy Spirit the most are the ones they are looking for! He said that the ones who get absolutely plastered in the Holy Ghost make the best leaders. The ones that stay full, get filled and keep drinking are the ones that will best take the move of God to higher and higher levels! I thought about this and besides being a command (Be filled with the Spirit!) being filled with the Spirit is EXACTLY what leaders need. They don’t need to be full of knowledge because knowledge puffs up. They don’t need to be full of good ideas or human gifts because the church isn’t built by human wisdom or ingenuity. They need the Holy Ghost! The church is built up and strengthened through the power of the Holy Spirit! So what we need is more of the Holy Spirit and the power of God!

How simple and how profound. What this did for me is make it so simple. We are looking for people who are full of the Spirit and who are humble. They can take the move of God to the next level. Their humility allows them to be led by the Spirit. Their being filled with the Spirit enables them to accomplish much more than the one full of themselves!

Look out world! Here we come, armed with the simplicity of the Gospel!