There is no way I can possibly communicate what I just experienced this last week. Three of us traveled to Bethel Church in Redding, CA, to attend their “School Of Supernatural Evangelism”. It was a four day school and the meetings lasted all day and a good part of the night. The students were from 20 to 73 years old, men and women, from 14 different countries, and 28 states. The only thing we had in common was a hunger to get closer to the King and His kingdom. To say I was impacted by what was presented to us would be an understatement. I discovered that on an individual level, there is no need to pray and ask God for revival; revival is already here, to those who want it.
Chris Overstreet led, stretched, pulled and pushed us deeper into God’s kingdom. The speakers included Bill Johnson, Kris Vallotton, Kevin Dedmon and many others. All of them painted a different picture of bringing a supernatural encounter to those around us. They showed us that we are a partner with Holy Spirit, kind of like a physician’s assistant. Where we go, Holy Spirit goes. For many, Holy Spirit is trapped in unbelieving, believers. Many in the church are waiting on God, but God is waiting on them. But the number one thing I received from this school is this: LOVE! Everything I do must be motivated by love. Ministry is 5% gifting and 95% love. Chris Overstreet said it best, “No love, no Dove”. I’ll let you figure that one out :-)
Three of the people I met during the conference were from Tasmania, Australia. I will always remember these guys. They were awesome! We hung out quite a bit and I got to go on a couple of “Treasure Hunts” with them during the week. I will share one of these with you.
The lunch and dinner breaks were the most important part of the school because during these times we went out into the community to practice what they had just taught us. On our lunch break on day I got to team up with Pastor Shen, Andrew, and Alan. We had the clues of “Walmart” and “fast food restaurant”. We went to the local Walmart. We split up into two teams. Shen and Alan going one way, Andrew and I the other. Our two teams prayed for 8 people during the short time we were in the store.
Here is what happened. I spotted a women with a bad limp so we followed her across the whole store to the area in front of all the checkout stands. I shared with her what we doing and asked her if a name that started with M--- meant anything to her? She said yes, her young son that was with her was named “Matt”. We also had the name Jacob and another name that started with a J. They were the names of her father and husband. We also asked her if she had something going on in the area of her hip (clue). She told us that her hip was broken (cracked bone) and she needed surgery but had no money. She agreed to let us pray for her. She let us lay our hands on her and we commanded healing to come into her hip. All the pain left! I had just witnessed a miracle right in front of my eyes. This woman was in desperate condition. Her husband only had one arm and couldn’t work. I believe they were living with other family members. Then something happened that wreaked me. My partner Andrew asked her if she had a handkerchief. He believed that if we prayed over it and she lay it on her husband’s missing arm, it would grow out. I was stunned. I stood there feeling like an unbelieving believer even after what I had just witnessed. Andrew’s faith had risen to a higher level. That moment struck me. It’s not about me. Only Holy Spirit in me can do anything anyway. Nothing is impossible with God, nothing. We did have some small papers with the names of some local churches that I had picked up from the conference. We prayed over the paper and gave it to the lady to put on her husband’s arm. If the city of Redding is shocked to hear the story of a man’s arm growing out, it was because of a man named Andrew putting a draw on the kingdom of God.
Then there was the young man and his daughter. We had clues of a black/white hat and bike. He was next to the bike rack, wearing a black and white ball cap. We prayed and Andrew prophesied over him.
Next we went to the cookie isle (clue of cookies) and I could see her from a distance. She was in a motorized cart and I knew what was wrong with her. I had received a word of knowledge (clue) of M.S. Andrew and I approached her and she was right next to the Oreo cookies. We told her she was on our treasure map. I asked her if she had M.S. and she said “yes”. She let us pray for her and share the Father’s love for her. She didn’t get out of the motorized cart but she did have had an encounter with Daddy God. Wow God!
We then met up with Allan and Shen and walked over to the McDonald’s to get a quick lunch before we had to hurry back for the next session. While waiting for our food I noticed a man sitting alone next to the window. He didn’t fit any of our clues other than the clue of “fast food restaurant”. I noticed he was a Vietnam vet by the emblem on his ball cap. I am a Vietnam vet as well. I kept looking at him, would look away, then back to him. I seemed to be drawn to him. Oh what the heck, go for it. I approached him and asked him about his time in Nam and shared a little about mine. Then I asked him if he had anything I could pray for him about, like pain in his body or anything else. He said he had a rotation cuff problem in his left shoulder, was in pain and couldn’t raise his arm without getting a sharp pain in his shoulder. He let me lay my hands on his shoulder. I prayed twice and had him check it out each time. He then raised him arm and moved it around without any pain. God had just healed him in McDonald’s and we got to partner with Holy Spirit in the process. Awesome!
We were eating our lunch when a man approached us at our table. He said “I saw what you did”. I thought that we were going to get kicked out of the store. It turned out that the man was a pastor from another city. He asked us if we were from Bethel Church. We told him that we were just attending a Bethel conference but were not members of the church. He was impressed that we actually prayed for people outside of the church building. He thanked us. I pray that he will take what he saw back to his congregation.
That was one treasure hunt. During the conference, we did this kind of outreach usually twice a day. I will post additional updates soon.
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