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.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
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 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.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
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!
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!
Friday, July 9, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
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."
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."
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
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.
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.
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