Geography Is Irrelevant! - Part I

In May 2004, we invited David Hogan with Freedom Ministries to our church. David Hogan is a hero of ours as he has been on the mission field healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead in Mexico for over 25 years. They have over 600 churches, a whole mess of powerful believers and their ministry has seen over 300 people raised from the dead! That's some good fruit and we would do well to listen to a man like that! When he was with us, I made sure to ask him what they would do if they were in Woodstock, Georgia, instead of a third world country like Mexico. I guess I was thinking that the strategy for reaching suburban Georgia would differ for reaching the Indians in the mountains of Mexico. When I asked Hogan the question, he pointed his long finger right in my chest and said something that I won’t forget. He said, “Son, geography is irrelevant!” He was telling us that no matter where you are, what people you are working with, the gospel is the same.

Here in Woodstock, this has proved true as we have seen the same power that works in Mexico and other third world countries move here in a middle class, Laodicean-American society. The sick are healed, the lost are saved, demons are cast out and even the dead are raised! But all that is to tell you this…

Several weeks ago, our team was invited to Murphy, North Carolina to work with a group of young people that hangs out in the town square on Saturday nights. It’s a very similar setup to what we see over at Barrett Parkway and sounded interesting. So we made our plans, set a date and went there over this Saturday night. Sure enough, David Hogan was right. It doesn’t matter what the strongman’s name is, it doesn’t matter where you are or what the lost call themselves, the Gospel is the same!

After meeting our hosts and eating a great Barbeque dinner (thanks for the dinner suggestion, Rick!) we headed out to see what God would do on the streets of Murphy, North Carolina. I instructed the team to maybe take it a little easier than we do in Georgia; after all, we were just visiting, right? We broke up into two groups with half our team going one way and the other half going the other way. We were going in there to bless, encourage and uncover with the prophetic gifts but the night quickly jumped into full scale spiritual war! The first group of kids that we approached were hostile to the Gospel and a fight nearly broke up as we proclaimed to them the Kingdom of God.

Do you know what the main point of contention was? We told them that Jesus comes to give abundant life and that it was the enemy who comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). We told them that in every story, there is a villain and a hero, the Devil was the villain out to destroy and the Lord was the hero, who comes to heal and rescue from darkness. They were ready to start throwing punches when we announced to them that it wasn’t God who kills people with cancer and premature death, but the devil! I mean, how messed up is the church (these were good old Baptist boys) when you almost get beat up for saying that God is good and doesn’t destroy people with cancer? I have nothing against Baptists, but if anyone is preaching and teaching their people that Jesus is the author of sickness, disease and death, I don’t care what denomination you associate with, YOU ARE A DEVIL.

So, we called them devils, rebuked them for being lukewarm and called them to walk with God and be on fire for him. We told them that they would be better off ice cold (Revelation 3:15) and headed to hell than going to church and proclaiming God with their mouths but denying Him with their lives. They didn’t like that much and got pretty hot around the collar. Lots of yelling, cursing, threatening and red, angry faces. One of the guys looks at my shirt which says, “I Raise Dead People”, brandishes a buck knife, points it at me and says, “If you raise dead people, what if I gut you right here and you die? Will you raise yourself from the dead?” I looked at him dead in the eyes and told him, “I certainly hope my team would be able to get me up”. I then took a step towards him and said, “But you know what? I’m a big boy and it might take you awhile, so you better get started and do what you have to do because I am going to preach to you!”

Predictably, he put the knife away, got in his car and took off. That’s one of the characteristics of wicked people; they run away, even when we aren’t chasing them (Proverbs 28:1). Chickens, every one of them. But we kept preaching and the Lord even showed us a couple of things prophetically that got right to the heart of a couple of them.

One of the girls on our team got a word for one of the main talkers in the group that brought him to tears. This kid was quite the “redneck” with a thick southern drawl and he looked like he could hide his own Easter eggs, if you know what I mean. Anyway, one of our girls tells him that he is in fact very intelligent and that he has a brilliant mind that God has given him. She even told him that he hides his intelligence from his friends to fit in. When she was saying this, the kid was denying it profusely and I was thinking to myself, “Well, she might have missed this one”. But she kept persisting and after a minute or two of denying it, his demeanor changes, he speaks without a drawl, sounds very intelligent and tells us in a completely serious tone that he has a 4.3 GPA. Tears welled up in his eyes after his whole façade was revealed with a word of knowledge.

Even after that, he and his friends would not bow to Jesus, so we excused ourselves and went on to another group. This group of girls WOULD respond to the goodness and kindness of God that draws them to repentance.

To Be Continued…

Hispanic Harvest!

The Lord spoke to me 2 years ago and told me that there would be a great harvest among the Hispanic community. He told me that their culture was very open to the supernatural and that if we went to them there would be a strong release of signs, wonders, healings and miracles to confirm the preaching of the Gospel. Since that point, we have been endeavoring to learn some Spanish and mix with the Hispanic community. Also, when we go to preach the Gospel to the poor here in Woodstock, many of the poor happen to be Hispanic. We have just begun to see the first fruits of that harvest.

This week, we went out with Rosa, our Spanish teacher to a community that is probably 90% Hispanic. It’s a little duplex neighborhood here in Woodstock that is run down and not much to look at. In the evenings, groups of Hispanic men sit out on there front porches and lawns just relaxing after a hard days work. We went at a good time, when many of them were hanging out and started to walk up to them, one house at a time and simply tell them that Jesus is King, His Kingdom is on the earth and that they need to bow and give their life to Him.

The first person that we approached was a young guy sitting on his front porch, watching a kickball game in the cul-de-sac. We tell him that Jesus is King and His Kingdom is on the earth. While our Spanish teacher is speaking to him in Spanish, the Lord shows me a couple very simple characteristics of this guy. I see that he is a man of truth, like Nathaniel in the book of John. I ask if I can share that and start talking about how the Lord is showing me that he is a man of truth, the Lord is pleased with that and that God specifically wanted to bless him in his work because he has remained faithful to speak the truth, even when it hurts. He starts tearing up and just looks at me like, “How did you know that?” He opens up, tells us about all of his problems and says that he knows that he is not right with God. We tell him that today is the day to get right with the Lord and he agrees. Through tears and the presence of God, He dedicates his life to the Lord, repents of His sin and welcome Jesus as his King and Lord! He agrees to welcome us back in a week or two, where we will get him baptized and added to a house church in his neighborhood.

We’re excited, I see that while Rosa is starting the conversation off in Spanish that I have a moment to ask the Lord to show me something for them, unlike when I am leading teams myself and have little time to “feel out” words of prophecy.

We come up to a group a guys sitting on their front porch. There are 5-6 guys standing on this one porch area and 4-5 guys sitting on the duplex porch right next to it. They have been watching us go around and are eyeing us, some of them mocking and ridiculing as we come up. They think that we can’t understand and are surprised when Rosa and I greet them in Spanish. We’re in a groove now, while Rosa is giving them “The Kingdom of God is on the earth and Jesus is King” I am asking the Lord for words of knowledge, discernment of spirits, etc. The Lord shows me something for the obvious leader of the group and I start sharing what I see. It’s fairly low level discernment of spirits, nothing fancy, we are just calling destiny and purpose out of them, things the Lord has planted in them like leadership, gifts of healings, etc.

Next thing we know, we have been there over thirty minutes, prophesying over all of them, just one after the other. They were mocking when we first arrived and kept at it for a few minutes, but soon their mocking becomes silence, their silence becomes rapt attention and their rapt attention becomes awe. They are in awe of God. They simply can’t comprehend that God would send someone to them to speak of their destiny and purpose. They begin to tell us that they are abused and treated poorly by their daily employers. The majority of them are illegal, so they have no one to tell but us. They go out every morning and hang out in a square, where business owners, landscapers, and others come by and pick them up for day labor. Some treat them and pay them well, most do not.

They tell us that they are hungry for God, but because they cannot regularly attend church meetings because of their work schedule and because of this, most churches do not want them and reject them. I tell them that when Jesus walked the earth, He walked among the people and the common man. We tell them that we are bringing them the word of God and will come back, if they are hungry. They are elated and ask us to hear more. We preach the Gospel to them and speak of repentance, giving their lives to Jesus and making Him King and Lord of their lives. We tell them that they cannot be ashamed of the name of Jesus and ask if they are ready to give their lives to Him. To our surprise, they all said yes! They pray with us, some kneeling with us in the dirt, some crouching down. In just a couple of minutes, nine men give their hearts to the Lord!

All in all, in just over an hour and a half, ten people give their lives to the Lord, we prophesied over about fifteen and prayed for several people with sicknesses and diseases. Others may call that a banner night, but do you know what I call that?

“Wednesday”

***

PS – If you know of someone in the North Atlanta area that speaks both Spanish and English, send them my way! We need translators!!!

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!