Tuesday, May 25, 2010

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!

Sunday, May 16, 2010

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.

Monday, May 10, 2010

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!

Saturday, May 8, 2010

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

Friday, May 7, 2010

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.