JOEL 2 GENERATION

more healings

2012-01-16T17:03:00.002+03:00

the number of people I have had the chance to pray for in the past few days has been far more than I normally do. in addition to the people God is touching out on the streets, we also had a church meeting and the Lord brought healing to several people there.

this has just been so encouraging. a summary of some I haven't blogged about:

- man's elbow healed who walked in shop
- eye problem healed
- woman's shoulder healed
- joint problem in man's finger healed
- back pain healed

in each of these cases, the people heard many stories of God's Kingdom and many things about Christ and His Kingdom. the powerful thing is that as we have been speaking about the Gospel, the Lord is confirming His Word by healing the sick and people's pain.

muslim man's arm healed

2012-01-16T16:58:00.000+03:00

I prayed 2 or 3 times for this muslim man's arm and saw nothing happen. then I got one of the Christian women who works in the shop we were in to come and help me. the put her hand on his arm and I joined her in prayer. then all the pain left the muslim's arm. this muslim man witnessed a number of healing miracles and also heard many things about the Gospel.

syrian woman healed after word of knowledge

2012-01-16T16:55:00.001+03:00

while ministering to a number of people in a shop, I looked over at one of the employees and felt the Lord wanted to minister to her. then I got a word of knowledge for a stomach condition. she was shocked as she had one. we prayed. she would only know if she was healed after she ate some hot, spicy food. I told her to test it out. the next day (this morning) I was back in the shop and she testified that she had tested it out and she was pain-free!

I was then able to minister further to her encouraging her to get connected with a group of like-minded believers in her Church.

man "sees" first miracle.

2012-01-16T16:52:00.001+03:00

I had gotten a word of knowledge for a left knee problem. nobody had one but then a man walks in the shop. he has the problem. I said to him, "I'll bet you've heard about a lot of healing miracles, but you've never seen one, right?" He agreed. we prayed and a knee problem he'd had for 40 years was healed. I was then able to encourage him in his Christian faith. His "theoretical faith" became real.

healings in Lebanese hospital and beyond

2012-01-13T20:58:00.000+03:00

Today was interesting. I had my plans and the Lord seemed to have other plans altogether. I found myself in a Lebanese hospital visiting with friends and the Holy Spirit began to give words of knowledge and prophetic words for the staff. I got words about neck problems and two were healed. I had another about a headache and the woman let me pray for a headache that she suffered from every morning. While praying for her, she began to feel the Lord's presence in her arm (I had her put her hand on her head). She turned and began to tell the rest of the staff what was going on. I got to prophesy over another woman. Questions were asked about healing and I told them also that we cast out demons. Several of them were muslims and they had many questions. One of the muslim women I prayed for told my friend after we left that "he is a really good man". I'm just glad she got to experience that God is good - not something muslims often experience.

at another place, I began to ask some the people there if they had certain conditions. I thought I was getting words of knowledge, but none of them seemed accurate. It's important that I say this because at the hospital they all seemed to be right on, but in the second place they all seemed to be wrong. This is often the way it works! Anyway, one woman did have an elbow problem and I had her put her hand on it and we prayed. She was healed. Another woman let me pray for her some dizziness she was experiencing. She testified that she felt better. Her son had a knee problem so I also prayed that God would impart a gift of healing to her to take to him at their home.

after all of this I was able to go and meet personally one of the most significant Christian leaders in the entire Middle East. we talked about miracles of healing and also the casting out of demons.

the day isn't even over yet.

Gulf Arab muslim man touched by the Lord

2012-01-08T17:58:00.001+03:00

while in an industrial area today, Isaac of Ninevah and myself both got the same word of knowledge (neck problem on the left side) for a Gulf Arab muslim man. He let me pray for him and some of the pain left. He wanted to know "how" we knew he had the problem. I explained that God had revealed it to us and that as Christians we are commanded to "heal the sick". It was getting better as our time went on. Later another muslim friend showed up and he recounted what happened and explained that "God spoke to them about my neck problem and they prayed for me". He used a very strong word - God "spoke" which is not something you will normally hear a muslim say. I used a softer word when I explained it, "revealed", but he turns around and drops the strongest possible description! Remember muslims believe that God stopped speaking!

it turns out that he has a grandson who is 4 years old and has never walked. we are arranging a time to go and pray for his miracle. I shared a testimony out of a trip we took to Yemen when a young muslim boy was healed who had never walked but got up and walked after prayer.

another muslim man from Iran also asked us to pray for his condition. we are arranging a time to go and pray (I will bring a former Iranian muslim with me for that visit).

God is ON THE MOVE.

turkish muslim man healed and tells of other experience

2012-01-06T09:39:00.001+03:00

i met a Turkish muslim man the other day at his workplace. I got a word of knowledge for a neck problem on the right side. he told me he had a problem there and that it was actually bothering him at that very time. he let me pray for him.

after praying quickly, he told me he felt something "strange" - heat. he began to check it out and all pain had gone. he goes on to tell me that he had another American friend who had prayed for him before and he had felt strange heat in his hand. I love it when I discover that I am part of a process where God has been working in a muslim's life. another "Kingdom Link" in a divine chain of activity.

I gave this man my phone number and told him that I would like to help bring healing to any of his friends or family.

follow up from muslim man healed

2012-01-05T16:51:00.002+03:00

i was back down in the Industrial area again of our Arab city and was able to follow up with one of the muslim men whose shoulder was healed. he told me that his right shoulder was 100% fine but that his left shoulder had gone back to about 1/2 of the pain. we prayed again AND it was the same as the other shoulder. I asked him about 1 hour later if it was the same and it was.

his boss is a former muslim and able to follow up with him directing him towards the healer Himself!

several muslims healed and one we are still waiting for

2012-01-03T17:49:00.001+03:00

today while in the Industrial area of our city, I was able to pray for a few people and see them healed.

one man had a shoulder problem and I prayed for him and he told me all the pain left. that led to another man with a foot condition - I prayed and all the pain left. I was with a former Iranian muslim who knew these guys and so he was also explaining to them the Kingdom of God.

a while later I was able to pray for another man's shoulders that were injured in a motorcycle accident. pain left and he could move with more flexibility.

finally I prayed for an Iranian muslim who was blind in one eye - since his childhood. I laid hands on his eyes and began to pray for him. He worked in the shop next to my Iranian Christian friend. After prayer, I saw no difference in the eye, but I had broken off the shock and trauma from the accident and told him that I was praying an angel would visit him and complete the miracle. pray with me about this.

quick drive-by healing in Dubai

2011-12-29T07:45:00.001+03:00

as I was walking back to our hotel, I noticed a couple of muslim men walking towards me (from Pakistan), and one of them had a wrist brace on. I stopped them and asked what happened. I asked him if he would like to see the pain disappear. He was intrigued by the question. At first I said I would lightly put my hand on his wrist and ask God to heal him. He was hesitant thinking I might somehow grab it and hurt it. So I backtracked a bit and told him that he could put his own hand on his wrist and I wouldn't touch him. (Don't know what I was thinking - I normally don't ask to put my hand on someone in public anymore). He did, I prayed a quick prayer breaking off the shock and trauma from the injury and releasing God's Kingdom in Jesus' Name.

The moment of truth came. I asked him to check it out. He started to move his fingers. He looks at his friend saying nothing (always a good thing). Next he takes off the wrist brace still looking at his friend. The realization hits - he hand is pain-free and healed. So fun to see the reaction!

It was a quick interaction and they were ready to go. I'll bet their conversation turned to Jesus and His healing touch. A Kingdom "drive-by".

Hint: you can ALWAYS stop someone to ask them what is wrong if you see them in a brace, with a crutch, a bandage, etc. it is never not a great way to break into a conversation.

Gulf Arab woman "surprised" by revelation

2011-12-29T07:32:00.001+03:00

while walking through an area of restaurants in Dubai, while we passed a table with 2 Emirati muslim women, I got a word of knowledge for a neck problem on the left side. I told my wife about it and she approached the woman as I walked on.

when I do this I am always thrilled when Desert Princess gets "delayed". if my wife rejoins me quickly, that usually means nothing happens (the word is wrong, they aren't interested, ect.). sure enough she is delayed and doesn't rejoin us for about 5 minutes.

the woman had the condition and was again most surprised that God would "reveal" something so specific. she was healed after Desert Princess prayed but kept asking "How did your husband know?"
In that brief interaction, my wife was able to share with these muslim women about the Kingdom and the power that Jesus has given His followers to know things and to heal the sick in His Name.

They didn't ask for my wife's number so she just left it as a seed sowing opportunity. One thing these two muslim women discovered was that followers of another faith had power and revelation that their faith lacked.

healing right before our very eyes

2011-12-09T18:01:00.001+03:00

my wife and I have been working with a group of teenagers at Church for a couple of months. much of what we have emphasized has been fundamental stuff - Lordship, Love and the Kingdom of God. we've been teaching them what the Kingdom looks like - when there are sick, it looks like healing. when there are the demonized, it looks like them getting set free. it looks like God speaking prophetically. it looks like those who are rejected, being loved.

we've done some praying for the sick and also we've shared a number of testimonies throughout the weeks of people being healed. today was a golden opportunity to "swing the bat" as one of our youth limped in and could barely walk. a bad collision in his basketball game had left his knee swollen, painful and unable to be bent.

one of the youth join me and we began to pray. after the first prayer, he said it felt "cold" (not the thing that happens when people are laying hands on you in a warm room). after the second prayer, the same sensation. I had him get up and begin to walk to test it out. It was still painful. He was walking with a significant limp and still was in pain, but as he walked, it looked like it was getting better. Back to prayer once last time. We prayed again and spoke "peace" to those inflamed areas. Then before a group of teens (some who haven't seen this kind of dramatic healing), he got up and began to walk normally. He turned around in total disbelieve. He knew that God has touched him. That was enough though. He knew that what he had to do was to try to go up and down stairs, something he couldn't do at all before. He leaves the room and then returns with a huge smile on his face. No pain, no problems on the stairs!

it was a glorious morning. as teachers to these youth, we realized that more was "learned" in what happened than we could have ever taught them.

it's as simple as....

2011-12-07T09:19:00.001+03:00

this morning I'm thinking of how GLORIOUS it is that God has made our assignment so incredibly simple. the Jews had counted up 613 commandments from the OT. How absolutely confusing! (of course, Paul tells us later what the purpose of all those laws was, "tutors to lead us to Christ"). Jesus comes along and boils 613 down to 2 - nice Kingdom math! "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength AND Love your neighbor as yourself". Paul thinks about it and decides some years later - "still too complicated"! He boils it down to 1 single commandment in Galatians 5 - LOVE OTHERS. That's it. Just go and LOVE and as we love others with the Love of God, we are in fact LOVING GOD with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. I used to hate math, but I love this Kingdom math. 1 simple equation - Go and Love and in doing that we are fulfilling EVERYTHING God requires.

waging war on personal unbelief

2011-11-27T15:56:00.001+03:00

this is definitely a theme of this blog, but there is no doubt that "unbelief" is my biggest, single problem as I seek to live this Kingdom life of the miraculous.

even as many of us will wage war on other things in our lives in this season, be that war on consumerism as Christmas approaches, or the war on our waistlines and fitness levels as we are confronted with our massive amounts of our favorite foods along with weather that makes us prefer our couches, let us recommit ourselves to warring against our unbelief - our unbelief that circumstances won't change, that sicknesses aren't going to be overcome or even that our unbelieving family members will ever open their eyes to see the truth of who Jesus really is.

this is the season TO BELIEVE - to dare to think that God will invade our lives and relationships even as He invaded the Palestinian countryside so long ago.

surprising encounters for a hindu man

2011-11-27T15:53:00.001+03:00

a few months ago my wife led a hindu woman to the Lord. over the past few weeks her husband has attended several "Encounter God" meetings. The first one he was more of an "observer", but in the last two meetings God has met him in remarkable ways. this past week he was taken into a visionary experience where he saw Jesus. He knew after it that he has a "choice" to make. The other option in the dream was a demonic presence. He is now actively seeking. We are watching in amazement as God does things that we have personally never encountered (i.e. the quality/type of visions).

I feel so "cheated" that I had no idea that God would pour out His Spirit on unbelievers in such remarkable (and truly Biblical!) ways. Seeing them come to faith is so much easier when God Himself is pointing them to Himself and confirming the Word they are hearing.

fundamentalist muslim healed, asks for phone number

2011-11-27T15:47:00.001+03:00

while out with my son, I walked by a muslim man and got a strong word of knowledge for the left elbow. it was one of those words that was unmistakable! I walked 10 feet past the man and stopped telling my son to hold on a minute.

i approached the man who was clearly a fundamentalist muslim (long beard, short mustache, bruised forehead). i asked him if he had a problem with his left elbow which he did. I proceeded to tell him that God showed us he had this condition and wanted to heal him. I held his elbow and prayed a quick prayer for healing in Jesus' Name and the release of God's Kingdom.

he began to test it out and it was pain-free. he seemed a bit taken back and wanted to get my phone number. I haven't heard back yet, but I am sure I'll hear from Muhammad soon.

Egyptian muslim woman healed and prophesied over

2011-11-18T09:31:00.001+03:00

Isaac of Ninevah and I were visiting a muslim couple the other night. the man had been touched by the Lord last year on the streets when we prayed for him and he stayed in touch. as soon as his wife entered the room, a word of knowledge came for a problem in her left foot. she had broken it and it hadn't been properly treated. we prayed and all the pain left. she checked it thoroughly.

Isaac started to prophesy over the couple and saw some significant things - broken relationships with family and WHEN they occurred (accurate). another relative's NAME and that she was depressed (accurate).

all in all we were able to share so much of God's heart - when He is healing and revealing, the sharing part is sooooooooo easy!

another appointment will soon be set up for our wives to go and minister more deeply to this woman.

the Kingdom is coming!

a weekend of healings and encounters

2011-11-14T07:19:00.001+03:00

this past weekend we had a series of renewal meetings with a team from N. America - during the 6 meetings we saw many people healed (young and old), we had many who had powerful encounters with God and even saw a number set free from demonic bondage.

I love it when we can't even count/remember all the people who were touched/healed - so many were being used (our large ministry team and others) to released the Kingdom.

unbelievers were also present and saw God's power and glory for the first time.

waiter's shoulder healed

2011-11-14T07:14:00.001+03:00

a group of us were having dinner. I asked one of our servers how his health was, if he had any pain. he said his shoulder had been injured and wasn't right. I didn't lay hands on him; I didn't touch him at all. I had him lay his hand on his shoulder and then quickly released the Kingdom in Jesus' Name. he started to test it out and said it felt better. as we were leaving, I went to find him and he testified that it was fine - no more pain.

moral of this story - ASK people how their health is and then PRAY for them. something will happen.

when God reveals a name

2011-11-11T07:54:00.001+03:00

it doesn't happen very often, but over the past 10 years the Lord has given me the names of 6-8 people. He then had a significant word or healing for the person involved.

last night while we were waiting on the Lord some prophetic words for a youth meeting, God highlighted a young lady and began to give me some things for her. after some time as I asked the Lord for more information, the name "Diana" came to me. I dismissed it because early in the evening a group of us had been ministering to a woman named Diana in another nation over Skype - so I didn't think it meant anything for her.

to my surprise when I sat down next to her and asked her her name, she said, "Diana". I explained to her that the Lord had given me her name and began to give her a prophetic word. she began to cry. probably not because of the word, but because the Lord had called her out by name. It is an amazing thing when He does that.

More Lord!

miracles in South Asia

2011-11-09T13:19:00.003+03:00

on our recent trip to Sri Lanka, we saw a number of miraculous healings and had some opportunities (or at least my wife did) to deliver some from demonic bondage.

I don't remember to be honest all the people we prayed for because in the course of about 4 days we prayed for probably 50 different people from Buddhist, Christian and even Muslim backgrounds. Mostly Buddhists though.

I just wanted to highlight a few of the healings we saw.

I approached a man in a cast and prayed for him one afternoon and all the pain left. a bit of the pain returned (stiffness too) and he called me the following day to meet again. we prayed again and all the pain in hand and wrist (which were broken) left again. he was quite taken back. a Buddhist man and his wife.

another man had pain in his side and leg - we prayed and he could walk normally again without pain.

while on a trip to the south, I prayed for a young Buddhist man whose arms had been affected by an accident he had while a teenager. I prayed and all of his arm began to tingle and wouldn't stop. we didn't see the healing completed while there, but I told him that the Lord had begun a work and would complete it. He will get back to me via email to report on what happened. following that, I got a word of knowledge for a back problem of another Buddhist guy standing there. we prayed for him. it wasn't hurting at the time, but I assured him that "the Lord reveals things to heal things". finally another man with a stomach problem asked us to pray. he too felt the presence of God.

after teaching about the miraculous to a group of Christian workers, I asked if anybody wanted to go out and "see some miracles". A group of 3 decided to join me. we walked out onto the streets and met a group of soldiers/guards. one of them had pain in his heels. we prayed and he was healed. another Buddhist man had a shoulder problem. I had another Buddhist man (who we prayed for and who wasn't healed) to join me as my "ministry team". I figured if he wasn't healed, he would at least get to be a part of another man's miracles. And so he was! the shoulder was completely healed. another one of our team prayed for a man's stomach that was healed. and finally we met a man who had been a Catholic as a young man but was somewhat syncretistic now (believing in Buddha too) and the Lord healed his shoulder and neck problem. we also prophesied over him and encouraged him strongly to return to Jesus and worship Him alone! he was listening as it was Jesus who had just healed him! that was all in about 1/2 hour of just walking 200 yards outside our hotel.

while at the airport when leaving, I found myself standing at the "Buddhist Information" shop (basically the shop that has all the books to propagate Buddhism and convert non-Buddhists). what a place for a word of knowledge! I got a distinct word for a problem that started in the back and came clear through to the stomach. the woman had that condition. I asked my wife to come over and she began to pray for the woman who was healed! we got a great photo of her ministering with the "sign" in the background! that led to a series of others - we prayed for 3 women and another man who all received healing - all Buddhists! one man was a real seeker but just needed someone to really walk him through things and introduce him to Jesus. he was healed of an 8 year chronic lower back problem. another woman was healed of a headache. that was just a fun time.

we got to pray for a number of others - a woman who was bleeding was healed, another woman who had some demonic bondages was set free as the demons were cast out (or off?) of her.

I should also say that there were many we prayed for who were not healed which is always heartbreaking. I don't want to give the impression that we don't also have encounters where we don't get the result we are praying for.

death to self, so that....some thoughts

2011-10-29T15:50:00.000+03:00

the message of death to self has been central to historic Christianity. all Christian traditions have emphasized this teaching. Jesus dropped the first bomb on self, "If anyone would come after me, he must DENY HIMSELF, pick up his cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9:23) and later "I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2:20) being perhaps the most concise verse expressing this teaching by the Apostle Paul.

I think that for the most part this teaching has fallen on hard times - being neglected, seldom taught and only rarely modeled. our culture promotes self at every level - and much of the Church is following the culture. let's face it a strong emphasis on laying down our lives, denying ourselves, forgetting about our own "rights" and getting our focus off of our all important "feelings" isn't going to fill seats in the churches. "self" is catered to all over the Body of Christ - to our detriment.

I've gone through seasons in my Christian life where I have gone after this message (or have tried to) and it seems that I haven't gotten very far. Far from "it is no longer I who live..." self continues to be the biggest problem I see in my life. I continue to live a "self-centered" life most of the time.

I didn't realize earlier that there was "purpose" in dying to self. that wasn't emphasized in my tradition. the "it is Christ who lives in me (lives through me)" wasn't really an expectation. I didn't know what that would even look like.

i'm in that season again - death to self if something that I am going after again. It truly is the door to everything else I long for in my Christian life. self must get out of the way; it must be crucified, so that Christ can be manifested through my life.

morning "spill" session - part 2

2011-10-22T20:12:00.001+03:00

after leaving the donut shop we walked past a couple of Muslim guys and a Filipino woman and overheard them say to her, "you need to take medication for your back". we stopped and inquired. Isaac of Ninevah prayed for her - both her back and her stomach were hurting. God began to touch her - we prayed again for her and then Isaac gave her his wife's number to follow up. I don't know if she was completely healed because she needed to check it out over a period of day.

then while praying for her, I got a word of knowledge for one of the Arab muslim guys' left shoulder. he was from Lebanon. he let me pray for him. it wasn't hurting at the time, but only when he worked out. he said he would test it out later that day. I told him it wouldn't be a problem anymore because what "God reveals, God heals".

finally we followed a Sudanese muslim guy into a shop as I thought I had a word of knowledge for a problem in his bicep. he didn't BUT he had a shoulder problem. I asked if I could pray for him and he agreed. I prayed and asked him if he did a push-up would it have hurt before. He said it would have so he then was willing to get down and do a push-up for us in the shop. NO PAIN.

so in the course of about an hour, we approached many and ended up getting to pray for 4 people openly - 3 muslims and a Filipino woman. all of this in a muslim country. love to see the Kingdom come!

morning "spill" session - part 1

2011-10-21T07:45:00.002+03:00

yesterday Isaac of Ninevah and I decided to head out and see what the Holy Spirit would do. We probably were out about an hour just wandering in and out of different shops. while in a donut shop, I got a word about a left hand/wrist issue. neither of the employees working there had that problem and thought it strange I was asking. when leaving, a Gulf Arab muslim man walks in with a wrist brace on his left wrist! I returned to the counter and while he was ordering asked the woman if she remembered what I had just asked her about smiling and pointed to the new customer's wrist. I asked him about the wrist and explained that God had shown us that somebody had a problem with their wrist. He let me pray for him and took off the brace to test it out. I don't know how much improvement he got but at the end he said, "In our culture when somebody has blessed us we honor them by kissing them" and proceeded to kiss me on the forehead. I gave him my number and said goodbye. I've never received a kiss before for praying for the sick!

drive-by healing late last night

2011-10-19T08:41:00.003+03:00

after spending time talking with a Coptic friend about some of the things God has been doing amongst muslims in and through his Church, Isaac of Ninevah and I were heading back to the car. we'd had a great time "talking" about what God was doing, but we hadn't been "doing" anything. As I walked past a group of Filipinos who had just gotten off of work, I "tuned in" and asked the Lord to highlight something He wanted to do. A word of knowledge came for a back problem in a the center, upper back. I stopped and turn to the group of 5 or 6 and asked who had this problem. The man in the middle replies, "I do, are you a pastor"? At least Filipinos recognize the Kingdom's presence! I sat down next to him, we prayed quickly and he was healed. He was a believer and we were all encouraged.

Interestingly, before this yet again we heard about a muslim friend of this Coptic man coming to faith after Jesus visited him. There was a process involved where he studied the Bible for some months, but in the end, the key factor that brought him to forsake Islam was a personal, supernatural encounter with the Risen Christ. He also shared a number of exorcism stories where muslims were delivered from their demons in Jesus' Name.