Interests:Advancing the Kingdom of God by healing the sick, raising the dead and casting out demons; giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and seeing the lame walk; seeing every person with a developmental disability healed, saved, and set free!
On my recent trip to Australia with Bill Johnson I was quickly reminded that exposure to the sun will leave me with a sun burn. We rode a boat down the river into Sydney Harbor and I had to go inside because I could feel the sun making me into toast. Before we had boarded the boat we met a young man who was in a wheelchair due to being in a car accident many years earlier. When I first noticed him I knew that we would end up speaking to him. Within just a minute or two of being near him, he rolled over to our group and began speaking to us. Not much time had passed before he asked us if we were Christians and then we began to pray for him. Although he didn’t notice any change from our prayer, I knew that the encounter would have an impact on me. Little did I know just how profound it would be.
Later that day in a very busy part of the city I noticed a man who had a severe limp and also a shriveled arm. His attempt at walking through the crowd was like a game of Frogger - he just had to wait until it was clear and then make it as far as he could and hope that he wouldn’t get run over. I was paralyzed. I had sunglasses on, but all I could do was focus on his disability and how much he needed God. When I finally came to my senses and convinced myself to go after him to at least talk, he was out of my sight. People were everywhere. It was like loosing your parent as a kid in a busy store. I was then overwhelmed by the need presented by the people within a block of where I was standing who didn’t know that God loves them.
It was hard for me to enjoy my lunch that afternoon as I couldn’t help but think about that man who could barely walk. We then walked back to catch the train to where we had left our cars that morning. I felt God’s presence strongly at one of our stops underground and as we disembarked and continued to walk towards our cars I continued to just focus on God’s presence. Then something caught my eye. It was short, black, and had three wheels. I couldn’t figure out what it was until right as I was walking by it a man was lifted out of a car and put on it. This man had no legs. That was it for me. I was so stunned by what I had just caught a glimpse of that I couldn’t get myself to stop. I’ll admit, I was scared probably more in that instance than I have been in about 2 years. Why? Isn’t God the one who is the Healer? Isn’t He the one who nothing is impossible for? Yes and yes. Wasn’t I commissioned to heal the sick? Isn’t Jesus the same yesterday, today, and forever? Yes and yes again. I don’t know why I didn’t pray for this man. Maybe it was fear that nothing would happen. Maybe it was fear that something would happen and not knowing what to do next. Maybe I was overwhelmed with the feeling of not being ready to handle the situation. Whatever it was, I was getting so wrecked by God over the next 5 hours that someone could just mention the name Jesus and I would cry.
Just as I am prone to sun burn, I am also prone to compassion burn. When I have too much exposure to people who need to be touched by God yet I don’t act, I wind up a mess and need time to recover. Seeing those three men who needed Christ the Healer within just a few hours of each other spiked my desire to see God move in healing. A few days later we were off to another city which meant I had more time to read books about the life of William Branham, who was a prominent healing revivalist in the 1940s and 50s. The miracles Branham saw were so profound. My faith was again sparked that nothing is impossible with God and that all we must do is believe.
We were in our last meeting before coming back to Redding when I felt that there was a man in the back of the room on the right side who was deaf in the left ear. I thought it was 100% deaf, so I called that out but nobody responded to the word. Knowing that I was at least certain that there was someone back there I was to pray for I paid close attention while the rest of the team called out words of knowledge. Pastor Bill called out cancer and said that we need to be like David when he ran out to attack Goliath who had been taunting the armies of God. I noticed a man in the back on the right side whose face was severely disfigured raise his hand acknowledging that he had cancer. I all but ran back to him to find out his situation. I knew that he was the person I had gotten the word of knowledge for. It turns out that he is mostly deaf in his left ear, but not 100%. However, that wasn’t the reason why I tell this story. As I was listening to Bill preach it seemed like an angel pulled my right ear to look to the back of the auditorium right after I remembered the testimony of a man the night before who was 100% deaf in his left ear. It was as though God was drawing my attention to the one person who needed to be touched by Him, just as I had experienced out in the city a few days earlier. Yet instead of allowing the impossible to taunt me, I was reminded that our God invades the impossible and that David ran out to kill Goliath before he was made King. God had touched me in such a way that I quickly acted rather than allowing myself to be burned again. David also had that place with God that when he heard about the Philistines and Goliath he was moved to action while all those who should have been courageous were in fear. It doesn’t matter how well trained you are for battle if you don’t have the courage to fight. Having a burning love for God produces in you the compassion that will run out to defeat the enemy no matter how impossible the circumstance may seem.
Throughout my travels and even at home a common theme is trying to figure out what we can do in order to get what we want from God. Somehow in the midst of our desire for more we have missed the promises in the Bible where we are told that God is good and gives us good things. When we get to the place of needing more we suddenly become irrational in our requests and ask for things that God has already given us. Why does this matter? If we ask for what God has already given us we deny His goodness and the reality that Christ died for us. We replace our victorious Christ with a weak God that has lost control of the universe.
The other day two people from another religion came to my friend’s house while I was there. As they were talking my friend stated how she doesn’t watch the news because it is so full of bad reports. The young man at the door stated that there is only bad news in the world. Just as I would have, my friend quickly said that lots of good things happen but that most people don’t focus on the good, but only on the bad. The young man at the door quickly changed his argument to agree with my friend. These people at the door believe that healing today is from the devil. Since when did the devil and God change job descriptions? In the Bible the devil came to steal, kill and destroy and many demonic spirits were the cause of sickness while Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil and to give life to the full. For most people it is easier to believe the bad news than the good news. In that sense it is easier to believe that we are not fully equipped by God than to believe that He has already given us everything we need.
In Ephesians 1:18-20, Paul says, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead...” Paul was telling us to pray so that we will eventually be given something of value, he was praying that our eyes would be opened to the hope that God has called us to. He is also praying that we would understand God’s great inheritance in us and that we would understand that we have His incomparably great power, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead!
In 2 Corinthians 12:9, Jesus speaks to Paul and says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Many people interpret this passage to say that it is God’s for us to be sick. I disagree. It is God’s will for us to be in complete surrender to Him. That means that He is the Lord of my life. The Lord over everything. The words that Jesus spoke to Paul show that Paul already has all he needs. Even though he feels weak, Jesus has made him strong. My own experience with this has shown me that when I am in a tender place of relying on God and not on my own strength, that is when I am strong. When I grab the wheel to take control of my life I am choosing to allow His grace to be lifted off of me. When my hands are off the wheel I am allowing Him to do what He wants, yet I might not understand where I am going. That is a place of weakness in the natural because I don’t have control. Yet in the spirit that is my place of greatest strength because He is in complete control of every circumstance.
Many people have a strange mindset about healing in that they actually have something to do with the person being healed. There very well may be truth to this, however let me reassure you that we don’t heal people, God does. God can still heal people even if you don’t fast the first three days of each week. Most people I have come across are entrenched in a mindset that they must do things to earn a healing anointing. My bible says that Jesus gave His disciples authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness (Matthew 10:1). Not only that but then He gives them instructions to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy and drive out demons (Matthew 10:8). Then, in the frequently quoted great commission He tells the disciples to go and make disciples, teaching them to obey everything He has commanded them (Matthew 28:18-20). Why do some Christians chose to believe some things but not others when then read that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8)? If He is the same, then when great crowds come bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and others afflicted by disease then He will still today heal them all (Matthew 15:30, 14:35-36, 12:13, 12:22, 9:33, 9:22-25, 9:6-8, 8:13-16, 8:2-3, 17:18, 20:31-34).
So why contend for grace? When we understand His goodness and grace we will learn to flow with what He is doing, while giving thanks for what He is doing, and not focusing on what He hasn’t done. When I first realized that God would do miracles through me I was so concerned about not being anointed enough to do the stuff. After seeing many miracles in Brazil I suddenly became concerned about what it would look like if people I prayed for weren’t healed when I was the person who was preaching. God doesn’t give us fear, but rather His will is for us to be joyful always, to pray continually, and to give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). When I was praying for people that night I had so much fear and unbelief. A few people did get healed, but because I was focusing on what I can’t do and not on what He can do my expectation was for each person to walk away without being healed. Our expectation should be that Jesus loves even the worst of sinners and will heal every person. Until we believe the fullness of who Jesus is and see it manifest through our lives we have reason to contend for understanding that results in experience.
How do we contend for grace? Reading the bible is a great place to start. Prayer that is focused on declaring things that align with Heaven is another great way. Jesus taught His disciples to pray on earth as it is in Heaven (Matthew 6:10). Are there things around you that don’t exist in Heaven? Reinforce in your mind that God is good and that He is love. Romans 12:2 says, “do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will.” When we renew our minds to think about what God thinks, our lives are transformed. When we fully believe that God will heal every person we pray for it is impossible for more people to not be healed. When we pursue a relationship with God we will know His attributes. Knowing these attributes transforms us into being like Christ, who lived in right relationship with God and healed every person who came to Him.
Here is one amazing testimony out of many from yesterday in Medford, OR.
I spoke out a word of knowledge that a lady gave me for problems with the right wrist and a guy close to me raised his hand. Josh went over to him and just tells him to move it around and the man finds out that he is completely healed. Josh found out later that this man was working on a construction site 19 years ago when he fell 45 feet onto cement and just crushed his body. He was in a coma for a month but then had amnesia and couldn't remember anything for the next three years. God has restored him from that. The man was only able to rotate his arm just a little bit and couldn't have his palm facing up. He got full mobility back. Josh asked if there was anything else wrong and the man's neck was hurting from the accident. Josh touched it and told the man to test it out and he was completely healed!
