School, Work, and My Future

As some of you know, I have quit my job so I can go to school. A lot of you don't know why or how I'm going to provide for my family during this time. Here is a brief explanation.

I felt a calling to ministry 10 years ago. I have been waiting for the time of fulfillment for this call. We are called to be ministers, but I knew this would be a full time job for me. I've worked in the marketplace this whole time and used those experiences as witnessing tools. I never felt like my jobs were just for paychecks. God is my foundation. God is my provider. Jehovah Jireh can be translated as, "The Many Breasted One." He is my source of income. I may work at a 9-5 job but I'm not doing it for the paycheck. Just like God has called me to one day enter into full time ministry, He also called me to work in the marketplace for the past 10 years. But now it is time to take the next step.

I still am unsure of what my calling completely looks like, but I felt it was time to move on. The organization that I went to Brazil with is called Global Awakening. This is an international organization and it's headquarters are in Mechanicsburg, PA. This is only a few minutes from my house. I have been blessed by this ministry numerous times even before my Brazil trip. After my trip, I knew I needed to do so much more. I saw so many miracles and I watched God move in such powerful ways. I had a lot of trouble going back to work inside a cubicle for 8 hours a day.

My wife and I were praying about what to do. When both of us starting to think about Global School of Supernatural Ministry or GSSM for short. This school is a part of the same organization as I mentioned above. It is only a few minutes from my house and it is not very expensive.

This is not an academic school and it is not technically a college. This is a "hands-on" school that thrusts you into ministry right away. Basically everything I learned in Brazil over 2 weeks, I will be learning in more detail over 2 years. After 2 years, I will be ordained with their network of churches. God is a supernatural God and I want to learn more about that aspect of Him.

Rachel and I didn't really believe this was for us. It sounded great, but it was hard to believe that I should quit my job for this. There was no way for me to work my full time job and go to this school because the hours were simultaneous. After some spiritual confirmations, we started to take this serious. We tested this in every way we knew how, but God kept showing us this was His will. We talked it over with Godly advisors and they also felt this was God's will so I started the application process for the school.

Our plan was that I would work part time while going to school. I started to look for part time work. Even with a part time job, we wouldn't be able to pay the bills. We moved in with my in-laws back in March because we needed more room with my son being born in April. We wanted to save money to buy a house. We are not planning on living off of our in-laws. They do not have the extra money to do that. The money would have to come from God.

We believed that I never worked for a pay check and now that is becoming painfully obvious. God has to provide for us to do this. This is not everyone's call in life and I don't expect people to start quitting their jobs. But this does happen. Elijah lived off of ravens, Jesus had no place to lay His head, Israel lived off of manna from heaven. There are many more stories in the Bible of God providing for those that have none. Also, George Muller lived off of God back in the 1800's and Heidi and Rolland Baker live off of Him today. There are also many more modern day examples.

We continue to pray about this and we feel that I may not even work part time. That has not been completely decided. There is plenty that I can be doing with the church during non school hours and I also may begin to write a book. But whatever we decide to do, God will have to provide. He is the Many Breasted One. I know this is hard for some of you to understand. It goes against all logic. But Jesus said in John 5:19

I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

We feel this is what the Father is telling us. He gives good gifts and He doesn't bring confusion. Please pray with us during this time. He will meet our needs, but we need your prayers just the same.

Spiritual Readings

I have felt a call to full time ministry for 10 years now but God has not opened the door yet. So I have worked at different secular jobs to pass the time away. I have been at an insurance company for 6 years now. I have seen God do some pretty cool stuff. But last week, He did something new.

I sit next to a lady who is into New Age. Another lady came over to her desk to get some chocolate. The New Ager wasn't at her desk at this moment. I heard the other lady speaking to herself saying, "I should really get her to give me a spiritual reading sometime." I looked at a Christian coworker of mine and she looked at me. We knew that wasn't good.

I sat at my desk for a while and felt the tugging of the Holy Spirit. I'd love to tell you boldness came over me and I preached the Gospel, but it took me a while to work up the nerve. I thought about it some more and I decided that I wasn't going to let the enemy (not my coworker, but the devil) speak into her life. I was going to take back what the enemy has stolen. I wanted God to speak into her life.

I approached her and told her that I could do something like a spiritual reading. She seemed kind of freaked out and didn't talk to me the rest of the day. So near the end of the day I decided she was going to get a spiritual reading whether she wanted one or not. So I sent her a prophetic word through email. I prayed for accuracy. I sent it out and then went home.

The next morning, my Christian coworker told me she overhead this lady speaking to someone else saying, "Josh gave me a spiritual reading and it really freaked me out because it was very accurate." The other lady replied, "He just knows things."

Later in the day, some people called me over to their desk. As I came over, I noticed the lady I had given a reading to had printed out the word and was showing it to people. These two women she was talking to asked me to give them readings too. I said, "Sure, I'll send you an email."

As the day went on, more and more people asked for spiritual readings. What started out as the enemy trying to speak into one person's life, ended up being God's heart of love being spoke into 7 people's lives! And that was Friday. As I came back to work on Monday, I had more requests. It's only been four business days since this happened and I've already given spiritual readings to 11 people. I have found out that they are very accurate words which what I prayed for.

Most of these people haven't really been talking to me. I think I freak them out. Actually, I know I do. Several of them have told me that. I keep telling them it is God telling me His heart. But other Christians in the office have told me that these people are coming to them about the words. My fellow brothers and sisters in Christ are able to take the ministry to the next level. What a great time! We truly can and should be ministers even if we aren't called to full time ministry.

Thirsty

I haven't had an entry since Brazil. I felt speechless. I've told my wife a lot about the trip, but I find it hard to share with others. I learned so much. My previous blog entries were just the tip of the iceberg. I understand what John meant when he wrote,

Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. - John 21:25

I only experienced two weeks on this trip, and I feel it would take volumes to show everything I learned.

Being back has been different. I'm not satisfied with life as is. To steal an analogy from John Piper, it's like I grew up playing in a sandbox. My time in Brazil was like two weeks at a beautiful beach. To go back to my sandbox feels empty. I've seen more. I want more. And thank God, there is always more.

I can't wait to see what God will be doing at my church. I love my church and I know that God wants to pour Himself out on us. We've had two great services since I've been back, but I want more. I woke up in the middle of the night a few days ago and the Lord was calling me to pray. I was praying in my living room for more of God's glory. I saw a large waterfall coming down on central Pennsylvania. The Lord said, "This is only for the thirsty." Am I thirsty? I can always use a drink; but am I fighting to receive a drop from His hand?

In July of 2007, I went to Washington DC to spend the day with some friends. It was scorching hot. We were walking the mall and we couldn't take it any more. We found a small stand on the one corner and they were selling drinks. It was so hot and they were sold out of water. I hate gatorade, but I needed something. I was thirsty. I wasn't dying of thirst, but I was really dehydrated. I bought the gatorade and shared it with my wife. It was wonderful. It was still gross tasting, but quenching my thirst felt great.

I want to be thirsty for God. Even more than this story above. I want to thirst after Him like it was life or death. I have been challenged many times since I have been home. I will continue to be thirsty. I will continue to chase after His cup.

The best night

Each night has been better than the night before. Last night we were at a hungry church and every sick person was healed. We went to the same church last night. God said that tonight, He wanted to show them how hungry He is for them. I changed the message and spoke about the Father's heart. There were so many confirmations from the Lord that this was His message.

The night before we there were only about 50 people. Tonight there was 150 people. We healed about 15 people tonight. We also saw 17 salvations and 4 blastings. But the biggest miracle of the night was the emotional healings. We prayed for almost everybody and almost all of them needed emotional healing. We counted at least 50 people that received emotional healing, but you could probably count everyone.

We gathered in a circle around the pastor after the service and prophesied over him. He was so gracious. I have been to two churches in the past four days. I would love to see them again in a year or so to see what the Lord has done. Both churches have an amazing future ahead of them. God is so good.

This is a short post because I have to run. This might be my last post before I return home. I'll do another post when I return home. I can't wait to bring this fire home.

The fire has fallen!

Each night has been better than the night before. We went to a different church tonight and I preached again. Before we left for the hotel, I started to feel the presence of God. My face was beginning to go numb and I was getting a little dizzy. This may not seem like the Spirit to you when I describe these things, but I'm getting more familiar with how God moves. He moves differently with each person. But I know that when certain things happen to my body, I know He's present. As I'm typing this my face is tingling. You have to pay attention to how God is moving. He may not tingle for you, you just have to know what He's doing.

As we waited for our van to leave for the church, I began to have a strong desire to see God move differently tonight. I wanted to see salvations and healings, but I wanted God to come in an Isaiah 6 kind of way. On the van, I told the team to expect God to fall in a powerful way.

During worship, I could sense the hunger in this church. It was a church of about 50 and they were such a family. It reminded me of a smaller version of my own church. We played with the kids before the service as they had a special outreach with different games. They had a such a family atmosphere at this church. And this family was hungry. They kept repeating a phrase during one of the worship songs. i asked my interpreter what it meant. They were singing, "Look on me, Lord." This just confirmed the hunger I was already feeling.

I went up to speak and changed everything that I had prepared. I asked for the glory of God to fall. Everyone in the church felt the Spirit come in a powerful way. After a few minutes of crying out to Him, we did words of knowledge. Sometimes, without thinking, God will give you words while you speak. This isn't as common, but it does happen. It happened last night. We were saying the words of knowledge and one of the interpreter's were next. She didn't have a word. The microphone was handed to her, and without thinking she said, "Ana, eye condition." She actually said the name of a specific condition, but I don't remember which condition. She had no name and no condition in her head, but it just came out of her mouth. A girl name Ana stood up with that exact condition. She wasn't healed right away, but that interpreter prayed for her, she was healed.

I spoke for less than five minutes instead of an hour. That was all that was needed. We began praying for everyone and there were many healings. Out of 50 people in attendance, 23 were healed! I think every person that was sick was healed. God has lit a fire in that church and it will continue long after we are gone. We are going to that church again tonight. We plan on doing a fire tunnel. This is where we get in two lines and face each other. Than we have the entire church pass through while we all pray for them. It's going to be awesome.

Salvation!

I preached again at the surfboard church, Bola de Neve. It was even better than the night before. I got to got out and minister before hand. We saw two people healed and we blessed several more. God is really moving powerfully.

While we waited for the service to start, I noticed the worship team was playing It Is You by the Newsboys, but of course they were singing it in Portuguese. I went up to the mic and began singing it in English. They asked me to join them for the worship service. We sang several American songs. It was awesome. Worship was so powerful. What a great opportunity too. I have now led worship on three continents. God is so good.

We did words of knowledge and saw three people sovereignly healed. I then made a call to salvation before the message. I really wasn't expecting much and I wasn't sure if I was going to do it. But I stood amazed as 23 people came forward! There was only about 100 people there total! I guess there was a rehab clinic that came that night and all of them received Christ. And they were exited about it. They were yelling and they were full of joy. What an amazing night.

But it got better. After the sermon, we saw another 17 physically healed, 20 inner healings, 5 received calls into the ministry, and several received a powerful touch from the Lord. God is so good!

I won't go into all of the specific testimonies, but they are all amazing. I love God so much. I will do anything for Him. I can't wait until the Spirit falls on central PA like He's been doing for so many years in Brazil. William Penn prophesied over PA 200 years ago. The fruit of that prophecy is now coming. God will sweet over PA like He has done in Brazil. Now is our time!

The Power of God

Last night was my first night preaching. Since we are in the second phase of our trip, the schedule is a lot easier. I was able to sleep in some which is good because I was starting to get sick because of the physical stress on my body. The church we went to was another Bola De Neve church. This is the surfboard church I talked about earlier. This is another one of those churches, just smaller. It had about 100 people there last night.

The church is located along a strip that is full of shops and people. Before the service, we sent some of our team out to evangelize on this strip. We didn't have enough interpreters, so I stayed at the church with some of the team while the rest of the team went out. When they came back, they testified that they saw 17 physical healings, 5 emotional healings, 3 salvations and 1 person drunk in the Spirit. They took a video of that last one. They person was a worker in a department store and she was caught up in holy laughter. It was quite amusing.

We did words of knowledge at the beginning of the service where we call out certain diseases that the Spirit is letting us know is present. Three people were sovereignly healed at just the mention of the condition. Another two people were healed when I prayed over the congregation.

Next was the message. I had to use an interpreter which I have used before in Kenya. It went really well. There were two salvations in response to the message. Then we sent the team out to pray. There were about another 40 healings and another salvation. Since it wasn't a large church and we had a large team (about 20) I wasn't going to pray for people. But the pastor came to me and pointed to his knee. Without an interpreter, I prayed for his knee and it was 50% healed. I prayed again and it was 100% healed. It's great when even the pastor receives healing.

It was an awesome night and I know it's only going to get better. We are going to the same church tonight. I can't wait to see what the Lord is going to do.

While we were waiting to go to the churches, we were walking around the city looking for people to pray for. We prayed for two men who both felt lighter afterwards. I believe they were set free from oppression and they received peace from the Holy Spirit. The one man thought we were Mormons because he thought that all Americans were Mormons. Jesus brings healing. Mormons don't.

Challenge

We didn't have ministry last night so I want to give an update about some revelations I've been receiving. There are so many so I'll attempt to be succinct. We had a day of impartation yesterday which was awesome, but I won't write about that right now.

Even before leaving for Brazil, I was able to move in the prophetic and I received impressions of angels. I asked that God would increase both of those these gifts. I want everything God has for me. There is always more and there is always enough. God is abundant with His blessings. His storehouses know no end. Jesus said,

I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. - John 14:12-14

I believe these words. I will ask Him for His gifts because I know He wants to give them. I Corinthians 14:1 says

Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.

The Greek here means to lustfully desire the gifts. I have been lustfully desiring the gifts of the Spirit while on this trip. I am constantly feeling angels all over my body, especially my ears. I can't tell you the different sensations I've been feeling. It took a couple of days, but I figured out that the Lord is giving me greater sensitivity to His voice. This is a confirmation of past prophetic words. Also, one of the team member here confirmed it again saying that He sees me as a prophetic worshipper (he didn't know I was a worship leader) and the Lord is taking me to a new level. I have talked to at least two others who are having these same sensations.

I could continue for hours, but I won't. I just challenge anyone reading this to press in. The Lord wants to bless you even more than you want to receive blessings from Him. Just remember, "You may ask Me anything in My name, and I will do it."

Amazing

Another awesome night. I didn't blog two nights ago because there was just too much to type. I had an amazing night of intercession and revelation, but no specific things to share with the world wide web. But last night was different.

I have been praying that the Lord would use me more in healing. In three days, only two people received healing when I prayed. Hundreds have been healed on this trip and I praise God for these two, but I want to see more. I prayed yesterday that God would bypass my mind and my understanding and use me to heal.

I've been giving out impartations and prophecies like I have a never ending supply (which I do) and I've seen people be blessed, blasted and blown away. I feel much more comfortable and in my element doing these things. But healing has been rough. I wanted more.

We were with Jamie Galloway last night. When we came up to minister, we had over an hour to pray with people. And there were a lot of people. We started out with impartation. That got me going. I was in my element and people were dropping like flies. Apparently, Jamie made an announcement after a while that people could come up for healing. i didn't hear this because of praying with people, but people needing healings came up. The first lady said there was pain in her stomach. I looked and in the Spirit, I could see something being cast out of her stomach. I said, "En nome de Jesus, I speak the pain and cast you out. You must leave now en nome de Jesus." She instantly fell back in peace. I told her husband that if she's not healed when she gets up, we'll pray again. She was down for about 5 minutes. When she got back up, she was completely healed!

I prayed for another guy with a broken hand. I said a simple little prayer and he said everything was back to normal. Another lady came up saying she had panic attacks and she was full of fear. Instantly, I saw fear departing from her from head to toe. Lots of spirits of fear where fleeing. I began speaking what I saw and casting out fear. She began to feel the power of the Lord. We changed the prayer so that she would be filled with the Holy Spirit. This mild mannered lady began to receive powerfully from God and got completely blasted.

There were so many other stories from last night, but they're just too much to list. God did an awesome work last night. We aren't doing any ministry tonight as we transition to the next phase of the trip. On this next phase, we will be leading the service. I will be preaching starting tomorrow for the next four days. I'm preaching at two different churches both about 200 people or so. I'm expecting those nights to be the most powerful. Books won't contain the testimonies of what God is going to do.

Can you hear me now? Bom!

As mentioned on a previous post, before I came to Brazil, I had an impression that God was bringing creative miracles. A creative miracle is a healing that takes place where something new was created. In October, I prayed for a lady with metal in her which hindered her range of motion. I prayed for her, and she was completely healed. Either the metal disappeared, or she was still able to move with it in. I've seen x-rays of people who used to have metal and now don't. And I've seen x-rays where the metal was still there, but now it bends like a normal body part. It doesn't matter how it happened, but it was a creative miracle and not just a normal healing.

I saw a new ear, new legs, a new heart, and I know there's more! I've been waiting to see it and pray for it. We were in a service tonight led by Randy Clark. We were called to the front to give words of knowledge. This is where our team would mention a body part or condition that was given to us supernaturally from the Holy Spirit. When talking about words of knowledge before, I felt the Lord telling me to speak about the ear. But tonight I felt nothing.

Every time we've talked about words of knowledge on this trip, my left ear tingles. In my vision, I saw that it was a woman who received the new ear. I always planned on speaking this. Tonight, I felt the power of God, but my ear felt nothing. I was getting no other words of knowledge. I knew I didn't have to give one, but my faith was high and I wanted to share. I asked the Lord to give me some kind of sign to tell me to speak this word or to shutup. I felt nothing.


I decided to go for it. The Brazilian congregation was told to stand up when they heard their condition called out. There were about 40 of us and I was in the middle. By the time it was my turn, there were already many people standing for other conditions. I spoke the word, "Creative miracle. Female. Left ear completely gone." I saw one lady stand up, but we went down the line so fast, I wasn't sure if it was in response to my word or not.

We wanted to see if some were sovereignly healed by just hearing the word. Some were, but not that lady. Then Randy prayed over everyone. More were healed, but not that lady. Then they told whoever wasn't healed, they need to go to the team member who spoke that word. Now was my chance!

To my surprise, three ladies with deafness in their left ear lined up in front of me. All of them had their ears, so it didn't fit the word exactly. But it didn't matter. I was going for it! I grabbed an interpreter and we began to pray. We prayed for the first lady several times. We really fought for her. But she wasn't being healed. She didn't even feel the Spirit. I felt the power, especially in my right hand. My right hand was shaking a little and I felt a slight tingling sensation throughout my body. But she felt nothing. And she wasn't healed.

We prayed a blessing for her, then moved on. It was difficult to move on because we worked so hard and nothing happened. But we began praying for the second lady. She saw the other lady not get healed. We fought and fought for her. Nothing. Nada. Zip. I asked if she felt the presence of the Lord and she said she felt a little shaking. My shaky right hand was on her, so I didn't think anything of it. I think even if I pressed in more, she wasn't going to receive. We moved on.

By now, I'm exhausted. My interpreter didn't say anything, but I could tell by the look on her face she thought the same thing I did when the next lady came up. "Oh no. Just make it stop. Nothing's happening. Now this lady is here with her husband and they've seen two others with the same condition go away without a change." But we pressed on and prayed for her. We fought and fought and fought. Nothing.

We asked her if she felt anything from the Spirit, and she said she felt a little shaking. Same as the previous lady, but this time... my hand wasn't on her. I realized that with my shaking and both of these ladies receiving a little shaking, than the Spirit must be here. I explained this and we thanked the Lord. We fought and fought and fought. We asked her if she felt any different. While she spoke to the interpreter I was thinking, "Come on God. This has to happen. Don't let her give the same answer. I'm exhausted and nothing's happening!" The interpreter quietly said, "She's 60% better."

I was filled with faith. We wanted 80%-100% better. We prayed again and fought and fought and fought. This time...80%. We wanted more so we fought so more. 95%. We continued. After a while, it was almost there. She said she a little bit more. So we prayed and fought so more. Then came the words, "En todo." All. Complete. 100% healed!

As the burden was lifted, I felt such joy. I prayed a blessing on her and her husband. As I walked out, I saw them from a distance telling some of their friends. These 30 somethings were acting like 12 year old girls. They were so giggly and exited. One of her friends looked over at me and I just laughed. Praise God.

In all, 71 received sovereign healings, about 20 salvations, 5 deliverances from demonic oppression, and through the direct prayers of our team of 40, we saw an additional 97 healed. Including my one deaf ear.

Darkness and Light

Yesterday started differently than the rest. I jumped up at 2AM in great pain. I had a charlie horse in my right calf. I haven't had one of those in many years, and this is by far the worst one I have ever received. I was trying to be quiet since my roommate was sleeping. I had to stop rubbing it because to even touch my leg caused even greater pain. This was severe. I said, "En nome de Jesus" (in the name of Jesus) and it stopped suddenly. It wasn't like a normal healing. This was weird. It stopped and I instantly knew this was demonic.

I've heard stories of past years where demons would manifest in the hotel rooms. We prayed over our room the first night, but we didn't pray this night. I noticed that one part of the room was darker than the rest. I knew an evil spirit was in the room. I know this sounds like fiction, but this is real life! I woke my roommate up because I wanted to pray. After we prayed for the spirit to leave, he said that he was having a dream at the exact moment I woke him up. The dream was about spiritual warfare and he said we were getting clobbered. He said it wasn't a good dream at all. So for those of you reading this that thought I might be exaggerating, you can see that the evil spirit was tormenting us both.

I felt the spirit wasn't completely gone so I went to the intercessor's room to have others pray. The spirit left and the rest of the night was fine. The thing is, I never felt any fear. I was the edge of fear and it was very serious, but I wasn't afraid. I knew that this meant the enemy thought we were a threat. What the enemy used to discourage us, completely encouraged us because we knew we were making an impact.

That night we went to a large church that is on fire for God. It is a surfer church. The pulpit is a surf board and the offering boxes and old skateboards...literally. It's called Bollo De Neve, which means, Snowball Church. Will Hart was the evangelist that came with us. The Spirit was heavy and ready to fall. The anticipation was building and everyone wanted an impartation. We expected to pray for the sick, but the Spirit wanted us to pray for impartation.

Normally, when I feel the Spirit on me, I feel tingles. But as I prayed, the tingling was so intense, my face was literally numb. My stomach became numb and I knew the Lord wanted me to place my hand on the stomachs of the people I prayed for. As I did this, people was keel over slowly and begin to fall facedown. I always wandered why people fell backwards when the Spirit came on them. I prayed in the past that if the Lord would use me in this, I want them to fall facedown like in Leviticus and other parts in the Bible. I was giving impartations of the glory of God.

There were some healings last night. A man with braces on his legs was able to walk without them. Another man who had extreme shortness of breath that hindered him from walking up stairs was healed completely. I prayed for my interpreter's father and his neck was completely healed. He had a compressed nerve in his cervical spine that was causing radiating pain into his arms. He said he was completely healed. I prayed for his knees as well, but nothing happened. I am not shaken by this. How can I be when the man received a touch from the Lord!

I could go into so much more but these posts are already ridiculously long. Keep praying for me and for the people down here. And start expecting things to change back home. God is doing these same things through us. Now is our destiny! Now we will walk in supernatural power!

King of Glory, have Your glory!

An amazing second day. Each day keeps getting better.

Worship has been blowing my mind. I've been receiving such revelations and I've been crying like such a little girl. I'm not a cryer, so you know it has to be the Lord. Musically, this might been one of the best bands I've seen. Not just worship bands. Not just Christian bands. But one of the best bands I've seen, period. I've seen a lot of shows throughout the years, but their musicianship is amazing. But not only that, the worship of the Heavenly Father is breathtaking. God is so evident. I can't explain it all. Part of me can't wait to lead worship again and spread this fire, but the other part of me wants to never lead worship again because I can never reach this anointing on my own. But God gives graciously and I'm believing that for me and my church.

I'm a team leader, which means I'm responsible for 6 of the youth. We meet together and pray together. And they come to me with questions that I usually don't have the answers to, but I know how to get them. They're great kids and I love working with them. I'm not much older, but being a daddy gives me a different understanding of the Fathers heart. I have looked my team like my own. I know the Lord is going to bless us.

I asked them what they wanted out of this trip and the consensus was near unanimous. They all want to hear more clearly from the Lord and to see the angelic. These are two areas that I have some experience in and hope to grow in myself. I know that Lord placed us together and we had an awesome time of prayer lead by Timothy Berry that we would each receive this. God poured down on us. I felt a strong heat, like a fire resting on my back and neck.

I also signed up to be a preacher. We had three sessions today explaining what's going to happen with that. That's not for another week, so I'll explain it here later. But we had a time of impartation today for the preachers and teachers. I received a lot from the Lord but didn't understand most of it. We went down to worship right after, which if you don't remember from above is amazing, and the Lord began revealing things to me. Everything from the impartation began to make sense. I saw the eyes of the Lord, like the wheels in Ezekiel, and they were covering the walls of the entire room. They were searching to and fro for true worshippers. I think everyone of us, all 300 or so, were true worshippers tonight. There were enough eyes to watch all that was going on. Nothing is beyond the Lord. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4).

All I have to say now is, Mais Senhor! (More Lord!)

I Made It!

After approximately 25 hours of traveling, I made it to Brazil. We had long layovers and delays because of hurricanes, but I'm here now. Praise God.

There were about 15 of us flying out of Harrisburg together. Even though we didn't know each other to start, we grew a quick bond. We watched out for each other and laughed a lot on this long journey. As we got to Sao Paulo and waited for our buses, we met even more people. Friendships come easily. I'm sure my facebook account will have many new friends in the coming weeks.

I think one of the best things about the group of us (13-29 year olds) is that everyone is on fire for God and wants to see Him move in poder (Portuguese for power). I know people who want to experience the miraculous, but sometimes, I feel that I'm kind of out there on a limb. I read about past revivals, and current ones, where people experience God like the way people experienced them in the Bible. But not everyone is comfortable with that in current times. I feel at home with all of these new friends (a couple hundred of us). All of them are nut jobs like me. We actually believe God can part a sea and heal the blind. He did it before, He continues to do it, and He'll do it through us!

Our bus ride was about 6 hours from Sao Paulo to Curitiba. When I was awake, I got amazing views of the Brazilian countryside. As for mountain ranges, it is very similar to Pennsylvania. But the trees and forests are much more lush with a larger variety of plants. Palm trees, banana trees, banana tree fields, pine trees, and many other kinds that I couldn't identify. What a beautiful country.

We got to the hotel around 9pm Curitiba time (one hour before EST) and after getting kind of cleaned up, we had an awesome night of worship. I forget the name of the worship team, but I'm bringing home one of their CD's. I don't usually cry that much in worship since I'm leading it so much. But to just sit and soak while an anointed team rocks the house is a true blessing. I still prefer to be playing guitar and singing, but it is a nice change every once and a while.

I should be able to update this daily, so I'll go ahead and close this out. Mais poder! Vem aqui! (More power! Come in the place!)

YPI: 2 Days Away!

I was praying this morning for my trip to Brazil. As I neared the end of my prayer, I was soaking in the presence of the Lord. He began to show me an army of large angels boarding onto planes that were headed straight for Brazil! Then I saw the angels lined up in Brazilian worship services and they were are holding weapons. So many times when we hear about angels with weapons, they are holding swords. But this was a modern army of angels and they had very large guns that took two hands to operate. They were very similar to grenade launchers.

One angel would point the gun towards someone and shoot. It shot a new ear! It wasn't fast like a bullet, but it gently went towards the recipient and gave them a creative miracle. Another angel shot new legs at a cripple in a wheelchair who stood up immediately and began worshipping and dancing. Another angel shot out a new heart for an old man. This wasn't just a young heart, it was brand new, fresh off of the assembly line!

I knew the Lord was telling me to expect these and other miracles. We are praying for healing but we'll also see creative miracles and other things we can't possibly expect because these are things that have never been seen before!

I then saw angels shooting a kind of gel out at some people. When it hit the person, it would cover them from head to toe and completely engulf them. I knew that sometimes it was the peace of the Lord and other times it was His love. The point of all of these miracles are to show His love. Mais amor! Mais pas!

I can't wait until just a few days from now, I'll be writing these same miracles down again. When I do, it will be because of testimonies and not because of prophecies. Let it be, Lord. Vem Espirito Santo!

I had a chance to see the Sistine Chapel in person a few years back. I remember learning about it in school, how great it is, how long it took Michelangelo to paint, all of that great stuff. But was it really that impressive? In the Vatican's Art Museum, every door has a sign that read, "This way to the Sistine Chapel". It got old after a while. You think that it's right around the corner, but it's not. You have to go through a very large and extensive collection of art before reaching the chapel. And the art is quite exquisite. You see thousands of pieces of beautiful paintings, sculptures and ceilings. There were plenty of other amazing ceilings that I kept thinking, "Is the Sistine Chapel really so much better? What makes it so special?" I really wasn't expecting much.

As I neared the chapel, I was tired of seeing continuous pieces of art and I was getting kind of bored. I walked in the room and saw hundreds of people staring straight up with their mouths gaped open. I finally looked up and I mirrored every other person in that room. I was stunned at the beauty and vastness of what was before me. It wasn't just the ceiling that was beautiful, but the entire room was a painting! It was so beautiful. I could have stayed there for hours. Every piece of the the ceiling and walls were different Bible stories. But at the center was the most famous part of the chapel.

Adam, who is a representation of Man, seems bothered to even be looking at the Father. His entire body is facing away from God. His hand is barely outstretched towards the Lover of his soul. The Father is nearly falling off of His cloud to reach His beloved. If Adam simply raises his finger, he would be in contact with the Everlasting. But he is not impressed and doesn't seem to care.

It is a heartbreaking picture of man, and a beautiful representation of the Father's love. Not that I have achieved perfection, but I no longer feel like Adam. I want the Lord. I know He wants me more than I want Him, but there is nothing that makes me want to turn my head away from Him.

Psalm 73:25 Whom have I in heaven but You? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

Recently, I have been learning the heartache that so many pastors feel. I have seen people I dearly love just not get the whole picture of the Father's love. I have been ministering to a lot of Adam's. I don't know what to do except to love them. I cannot change them. I leave conviction of sin and revelation to the Holy Spirit. I'm not trying to change them. I know that is fruitless. All I can do is love them and encourage them. There are times I need to be firm, but only when love is behind it.

God's love is furious. I have been praying that I would have His heart for people. I grew up as a bully and always making fun of people who were different. These thoughts still haunt me. Even if I don't act on it, I instantly see the different in people. I have been praying that God would help me see His heart in others before seeing anything else. He has been answering that prayer.....and it's breaking my heart.

Healings!

This weekend was amazing! We had three services and we experienced healings in each service. I believe healings will occur in every service from now on.

Jehovah Rophe is the Lord Our Healer. In Exodus 15:26, God says, "I am the One who heals you." This is a translation of the name Jehovah Rophe. This is a name the Lord gave Himself. This is a revelation that was given in the Old Testament, yet some people do not think that one of His names any longer. I can tell you from first hand experience that His name is still Jehovah Rophe. He never changes.

Our first service was on Friday night. This is our once a month service called Rain. The focus of the Rain services is worship with ministry ranging from the prophetic to healing. A lady from our church was healed of a vicious stomach ulcer. She had received healing for this about a week before, but it came back strong. Now she is walking in complete health. My family had lunch with her on Sunday and she was able to eat things that she had not been able to eat for a while because of the ulcer. God is so good.

I also prayed for a man who had his leg crushed in a work accident a year ago. He's still having major complications and probably will the rest of his life without the Lord's help. He's been prayed for several times in the past, but tonight was different. I saw three angels circling him and reaching into bags of healing and sprinkling him with the contents. As we began to pray, I noticed the angels were focusing on his heart and not on his leg. We prayed for healing of the heart. He is normally a joyful man, but this injury and beaten down his spirits and he has been depressed. We also prayed for his mind. An idle mind is always attacked by satan and his minions. We set him free of that bondage and filled him with thoughts of faith, hope and love. "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:4-5

One of the angels took something from his mind and heart and flew away. We all rejoiced as our brother felt relief and the peace of the Lord. We moved onto the leg. We prayed for a while and found that God was delivering him of pain. He felt his entire leg burn with the heat of the Spirit. I saw the second angel leave with the pain. He still felt pain afterwards, but admitted that it was less pain.

Another person praying with us heard the third angel say, "Mountain be moved. I see healings all of the time. This ain't no thang." We believe the third angel was there to give confidence to our brother. We stopped praying because he was becoming exhausted. We believe that God will heal him completely. We are waiting on His next move.

On Sunday morning, God was powerfully moving. This was Pentecost Sunday and the Spirit of the Lord was strong. A man in our church hurt his shoulder a few months back shoveling snow. He has had pore range of motion since. He felt the presence of the Lord during worship and regained complete range of motion in his shoulder and all of the pain had disappeared! Worthy is the Lamb!

On Sunday evening, the Lord was present to heal at our Harp and Bowl service. This is a service devoted to prayer and worship. God was strong and brought me healing for hemorrhoids. We had a powerful night.

Outside of the services, I am aware of at least two more healings. My brother-in-law was running sound at our worship practice on Saturday morning. He was having an allergic attack that was making his eyes tear up in a way that was hindering his vision. We said a quick prayer and instantly he felt relief and didn't have any more problems. We are praying that this was not just a healing for that moment, but a complete healing that will set him free from the tyranny of allergies completely.

On a similar note came when my family was eating at a friends house (the lady who was healed of the ulcer and her husband). We got there and I instantly noticed that they have two cats, which I am allergic to. I went to the bathroom and prayed a healing over me once and for all. I know that as time goes on, I'll be invited to people's homes and I don't want to turn them down just because they have a cat. I cast out the allergy and prayed that my sinus' would work properly. I prayed the the histamines in my body would not be irritated and that they would work properly. We were at their house for a couple of hours and I never had one problem. I am also believing that this wasn't a one time thing, but a complete healing.

The Lord is good and He is still Jehovah Rophe. He always has been and He will be until we no longer need healed. Praise the Lord!

A New Mission

So I am no longer fasting. It was going really well and I knew it would be great to go the distance, but I ended it so that I could commune with some friends. Eating together is a great ministry tool and a great way to bond with friends. We had an invite come up to eat with some friends at their house. I knew this would be a great way to minister to them. There are ways around it so I could have stayed on my fast, but I decided to end the fast.

I know the Lord is full of grace and that there was no shame in ending it. This was by far the longest I had ever gone. It's funny.
When you're fasting, you want to eat. But after this fast, I missed the times of hunger. Misty Edwards sings, "Hunger is the escort to the deeper things of You." I missed my times with the Lord

Interestingly enough, but not surprising, I've had some rough times since the fast ended. I have definitely come in contact with the world and it's lusts. I saw a picture on the morning I broke the fast of an angel taking a long pair of tongs and sticking them into my mouth and shoving it down into my stomach. He pulled out a small black circular object, a little larger than a golfball. It was filthy looking. It had the essence of something dark and evil. This really concerned me. I prayed about it but I didn't understand the picture.

Over the next few days, I realized that this ball represented two things. First, it represented me. It was the last remaining piece of "Josh Garner" that was left inside. Galatians 2:20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." By removing this last remaining piece, I am becoming fully Christ's child.

Also, I believe this piece that is being removed is the world. We are not to be of the world. We are not to look at our time here as a time to plan our escape. The Lord has us here to be cities on hills. We are not to want us to be taken out of the world. But He was showing me that He wants the world taken out of me.

This picture was timely. I have had encounters with this world ever since then. I have constantly been praying this prayer, "Take the world out of me, Lord." Some times I chose the wrong path. But I keep praying that this picture would come true and that I would be crucified with Christ.

Fasting: Days 3-5

One thing that is completely amazing about this whole fasting thing has been the fact that I haven't been really hungry. My mind really wants food, but my stomach hasn't really felt hungry. I have felt extra tired and a little weakened, but I'm doing great.

Before I had my final meal prior to the fast, I prayed that God would strengthen me with this meal like He strengthened Elijah. In 1 Kings 19, Elijah was depressed and suicidal. Jezebel wanted him dead and he wanted to just give up and go to the Lord, but the Lord had other plans. Elijah went to sleep under a broom tree. Broom trees are known to be breeding grounds for scorpions. Living in that environment, Elijah would have known this. The idea would be, anything warm blooded sleeping near a broom tree would be surrounded by scorpions through the night for warmth. When he woke up in the morning, the scorpions would be frightened and sting him. But on this occasion, an angel woke Elijah up and obviously saved him from the scorpions. The angel gave Elijah a meal. He ate the meal and went back to sleep. He wasn't getting the fact that God found his life precious. The angel woke him up a second time and gave him another meal. Then verse 8 is what I prayed for myself. "So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God." Many people read this in a way that believes this meal gave him enough strength to not eat or sleep for 40 days. And not only that, be he walked in the desert for those 40 days of not sleeping or eating. That's pretty fantastic! I prayed that kind of strength over myself and I have definitely seen the results.

Mother's Day was one of the days that I fasted for. During pray before our morning service, I saw an angel in the corner of the room. There were four other adults and three kids (including my daughter) in the room with me. The angel pointed to my pastor and then he pointed up towards heaven. He pointed at another, then he pointed down. After pointing to the third person, he pointed side to side. He finally pointed to his heart after pointing to the last person. I took this as these four people were to lead the prayer time in our service. Our pastor was to pray for people that God was going to exalt, lift up and even give visions of heaven. The second person was to pray for people that God was going to bring low and humble and not necessarily because of sin. The third person he would use to pray for others to be sent out for missions. The final person was to pray for people to have revelations of the Father's heart.

I told these four people about what God wanted to do. We decided to not tell the people what each person represented so that people wouldn't choose the person with the anointing they wanted. We decided to let the Spirit guide the people to the right individual to pray for them. We had such amazing time of prayer and the people were used so strongly.

I also had the strongest confirmation about my angelic visions that I've been having. All of my confirmations up to this point have been subjective. That's good enough for me, but God is great and wanted to show me and everyone else that this is the real thing. When I saw the angel in the room, he also pointed at my daughter Taylor who was sitting in my lap at the time. He then held up his hands like he was holding her up as an offering to the Lord. I knew that is what he was doing for the other children in the room as well. I knew the Lord wanted me, and all of the parent's to offer their children to Him this morning. Since it was Mother's Day, I knew this was a message He wanted to portray especially to the moms. I mentioned this to the pastor and his reply was a confirmation to us both. The sermon that he had prepared was about parents offering their children up to the Lord. He even had this printed on a handout! He was pretty nervous because that's not a normal Mother's Day sermon. This vision was a confirmation to him that he was doing the right thing and it was a confirmation to me and to others that the things I've been seeing are from the Lord. What a blessing! What a Father!

Fasting: Day 2

Well, day 2 was a little weirder than day 1. I went to the park again at lunch time and I was exited. But God was teaching me a new thing. Asking for the impossible, like make the flowing water stop, had become easy for me to do. Now I felt the Lord asking me to walk on water. Not only that, but that bank that He wanted me to crawl down towards the water was steep and muddy. If I went for it, there was no safe way. It was all or nothing. I fought Him on this for a while. I strongly doubted this was from the Lord. I was upset. We had a great day the day before and now He's making me mad.

Rich Mullins once said that God, "bloodies your nose then gives you a ride home on His bicycle." Earlier in the day I read from Haggai 2:6-7 "This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,' says the LORD Almighty." And from Hebrews 12:26-27 "At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, "Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens."] The words "once more" indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain."

The Lord has been increasing my faith, but He showed me that my faith still has a long way to go. It is easier for me to move in faith by walking on water if everything is set up for me to fail. Meaning, if the Lord asked me do walk on water, I would like step the water to be easy to get to instead of me climbing down a muddy bank. Also, if I was in shorts and bare feet and the water wasn't very deep. That way, if it doesn't work, I'll be alright. But He set this up for me where it was all or nothing. I even sensed that angels were putting down boards on top of the water for me to walk on.

I climbed down as safe as can be and touched the top of the water with my shoe. But I didn't let my weight shift on that foot. I wasn't going any further than that. I climbed back up the bank and walked away in anger. I wanted the angels to follow and to meet with God like the day before, but I knew they stayed behind. The further I walked, I began to sense fear and an evil spirit. I immediately turned around to head back towards God and the angels. The Lord said to me, "Align yourself with Me and I will protect you. If you leave My covering, you will be exposed."

I think this entire event was stretching me more and more to believe the impossible. The rest of the day, I felt an increase in faith. Even though I didn't follow through with my steps on the water, the Lord still increased my faith. I needed to drive somewhere new and I didn't have directions. I told God that I'm aligned with Him and that He is my cover. He lead me to the destination better than any GPS. I didn't make one wrong turn.

This is all fairly new and pretty weird to me. I've only recently begun to be aware of the spiritual realm around me. I don't physically see it, by it is almost like I imagine it. But I know it's not imagination. I have felt His presence too many times for it to be just me. I invite the Lord to correct me, but all He does is encourage me. God is so good. I praise His Name. Hallelujah.

"Those You love, You will chasten. Everything that can be will be shaken. Everything that can be will be shaken. Only You remain. Only You remain. Only You remain. Only You remain." - Shaken by Paul Baloche

Fasting: Day 1

I started a fast today that I plan to last for about 2 weeks. This will be the longest fast I have ever done. During my lunch, I went to Lower Allen park to be with the Lord. He lead me to a quiet meadow that is away from the majority of the park. I've never seen this part before. It had a small open area with beautiful green grass. It was encircled by an array of trees and you could hear the Yellow Breeches because it was a stone's throw away.

I felt the presence of the Lord right in the middle of the meadow. I got down on my knees and began to worship. In my spirit, I felt the presence of angels. I looked and in my mind's eye I saw several tall angels surrounding me. They were about 30-40 feet in length. I knew they were here to help me. I realized how small I was in comparison. It humbled me to know that God delights in using me when more efficient servants stood all around me. I felt the Lord speak Jeremiah 29:11 over me. "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." I felt the blessing of the Lord and my mind raced with the blessing He has in store for me. He continued to say "I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you." I felt refreshed.

I began to leave so I could head back to work. I looked back and sensed the angels were coming with me. There's not a lot of things more encouraging then 30ft angels following you where ever you. I let some pass by so I could follow them. After a while, I realized they weren't ahead of me anymore. I looked back and sensed them signaling to come back to them. I came back and they lead me to the water's edge. A smaller angel was on a park bench on the other side of the water. He waved to me. This is all so weird to me. God is this me? Show me if I'm crazy or if I'm making this up. Until You do, I'll keep on believing this is from You.

The Lord reminded me of the summer of 2008. I love sitting beside creeks and rivers to worship the Lord. That summer, I was doing that a lot and almost every time I felt the Lord give me a strange command. He wanted me to command the water's to stop. This is completely impossible. But with God.....I was reminded of when Joshua stopped the sun in the sky. I know God can do anything. I would command the waters with complete faith that they would stop. Nothing would happen. At least, not in the natural realm. Little did I know, but God was stretching me to believe the impossible.

In September 2008, I went to Kenya for a missions trip. They were experiencing a severe drought and were in desperate need of rain. Even greater than the cries for rain, were the cries for the Lord to visit Nairobi and heal the hurts of the people. We were leading a pastor's conference and when it was my turn to speak, I felt the Lord give a prophecy about rain. He said it was going to rain and it would be a sign to all of those there that He would rain down His Spirit on Nairobi and all of Kenya. The pastor's believed this at once. The next day, it began to rain a little. We were all so exited. We left after that to go on Safari. We heard that it began to pour in Nairobi. When we returned to Nairobi, everything was sopping wet. Apparently it had poured nonstop for 3 days.

God used my impossible prayers of stopping the waters to believe Him for bringing rain to an arid place. Today, He was asking me to command the waters once again to stop. I went to the water's edge and commanded it to stop. Then I felt the Lord leading me to find a stick to put in the water. I found a stick that was fairly long but not long enough to reach the water since the bank I was standing on was pretty high. Instead, I felt I needed to throw it into the water. As I did this, I felt the Lord's presence all over me. I knew this was a prophetic act and something like this might be coming my way down the road. I felt the Lord telling me that He is backing up my words with power like He did in Nairobi. I'm going to Brazil in less than two months for another mission's trip. I believe the Lord will bring power to my words. He continued to speak over me, "I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you."

As I left that place, I noticed that some of the angels stayed behind, waving to me as I left. But I continued to have 6 large angels go with me. There is something significant about the 6 angels. I'll have to expound on that later.

The Lord taught me much more today, but this entry is long enough. If this is just the first day of the fast, I can't wait to see what else the Lord has in store for me.