Archive for the 'Salvation Story' Category

The Affilictions of the Righteous

Published
by
carl
on October 10, 2007
in Christianity, Healing, Holy Spirit, Prophesy, Revival, Salvation Story, Tongues and interpretation, ministry and visions
. 10 Comments

We had a little move of God this past summer. We had a little outreach to some urban young folks and saw lots saved, set free and baptized in the Holy Ghost.

One girl showed up and got right (I actually blogged about it here). What I found out later was that this girl had just gotten out of a correctional institution. I still don’t know what got her there but she lost a year and a half to the place. She had gotten out that week and her younger sister brought her to the meeting.

As it turns out, she had been accepted to a Christian College and had gotten a financial needs scholarship. Now she was right with God and was really excited. She was faithful to the meetings and grew in her relationship with Jesus. As the weeks passed she began to develop an unusual maturity in the Holy Ghost. We prayed for her and laid hands declaring that she would see a move of God at her new school.

The night before she was to leave she called me and asked if I would baptize her friend before they left. Her friend had gotten out of the institution the same time and was now going to go to the school with her. She had come down to make the trip with her. I had lead her to Christ a few days earlier and wanted to be baptized before she went.

I went to her house and baptized her.  She came up out of the water filled with the Holy Ghost.  We prophesied over her, declared things of the future, broke off things of the past and watched her glow that you see on a person with a fresh filling.  I then realized that the roof was awfully close to the pool. holy ghost baptism Of course we spent the next half hour jumping off the roof into the pool. This may be the best benefit of working with young people.

All seemed well until I got a phone call a few days later. It seems they had run into a few problems. Without going into details, I later discovered this on the schools website under beliefs

Without meaning to be unfriendly or unkind to anyone, we feel it only fair to say that Pensacola Christian does not agree with the modern-day charismatic movement, and we believe that students who are a part of the modern-day tongues movement should seek their college education elsewhere as they would not be allowed to participate in or promote any charismatic activities.

That could be a problem! I am waaaaay beyond charismatic. And these girls got right with God under the anointing. They were believing God for a move of God in a place that did not believe that God moves anymore. As time went on people around them began to experience manifestations of the Holy Ghost. there were angelic visitations, sovereign deliverances, works of knowledge and prophesies through people who did not know that such things were possible and the leadership of the school was not liking it in the least.

Last week they were brought into the dean of students office and were given an opportunity to promise that they would not pray in tongues. If they did not promise then they would be expelled. To try to keep this story brief, these girls were expelled from the school three days later.

Those that know me know my intolerance for the biblical liberals who have disregarded whole chapters of the Bible by saying that the Holy Spirit ran out of power sometime around the 3rd century. But on another note, how cool would it be to have the testimonies that these girls will have?

—————-
Now playing: Rick Pino - I Can Hear The Sound

Popularity: 18% [?]

The Mission

Published
by
carl
on July 17, 2007
in Christianity, Doctrine, Faith, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Missions, Preaching, Prophesy, Revival, Salvation Story, ministry, salvation and visions
. 8 Comments

This post is one part testimony, two part prayer request.

I have done lots of posts about a Tuesday night outreach I have been leading. last week a lady from my church wanted to come and see what was happening. She later confessed to me that t one point she was actually scared for her safety. I shouted Halleuijah! That means we are attracting exactly the crowd we feel called to reach. The young urban knuckle heads.

Last week we had almost 40 people in a living room and man did it get hot! I was there worshiping when the Holy Ghost said, “Why don’t you take off your shirt?” Mind you, I had on a t-shirt underneath, but I was thinking, “I am about to preach.” Thankfully it was a new shirt because I preached the Gospel that night in a wife beater to a group of young men who find that suitable attire.

Among the (many) people flopping around on the floor was a Mormon girl who missed her flight back to Arizona because of a traffic jam on the way to the airport. One guy who got saved was the roommate of a crack dealer that has been coming (we believe that this dealer is the gateway to nothing short of a revival so please pray for his deliverance and salvation).

This Saturday we are going to have a big blowout with performances and almost a real service. We are expecting over 100 to show up. Here are the flyers: (click them for a larger view)

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click for larger view

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click for larger view

Would you please pray for the lost to be saved? We have gone into every hood we can find inviting people. We really need the grace of God in this thing and are hoping for a real move of God. This is not going to be some Billy Graham crusade. We are praying for the supernatural to manifest. We want miracles, signs and wonders. This generation has heard the Gospel but has never experienced the full Gospel. It is my goal to make that an unavoidable fact.

Popularity: 52% [?]

Camp Testimony

Published
by
carl
on July 13, 2007
in Christianity, Holy Spirit, Salvation Story, ministry and salvation
. 2 Comments

I have some really neat testimonies from camp but I just got this one from one of the guys in my dorm. I had mostly older guys. Of the 16 with me half were over 18. Every morning we were supposed to have devotions. I did the bible study thing on Tuesday. Wednesday morning I just decided to invite the Holy Ghost to come and visit.

Some of the guys got really blasted. After devotions they are supposed to go to a morning class. Imagine you are teaching about 300 youth and a handful come in drunk in the Holy Ghost. I was not winning any popularity contests.

Anyway… in that little time of devotion there was a kid that grew up in church but got laid out under the power of God. At the end I asked him, “What happened to you?” He kind of slurred, “I don’t know.”

I got this today on myspace. He put it out as a bulletin to all his friends.

note:the mission is an outreach I am having on the 21st.

Hey friends, I’ve got a bit of a delemma facing me and I could use your help, becuase well, it actually involves all of you (some more than others). As recently as last month I had been consumed with a feeling of inadequacy, defeat, weakness, and heartache. This actually began close the beginning of this year. My world seemed to be catapaulted into a downward spiral and it seemed there would be no way out. See, lets go back into my childhood, I grew up in the church in which I was instilled a joyful pleasure of live and God’s endless wonders.

This jubilee endured into my highschool years but seemed to fade when I fanally encoutered my, “get real” phase. I began to doubt my very importance of a human being. I had veered awry from the ways of God which in turn left me broken hearted and my soul in peices. I quickly resorted to a suicide attempt by consuming 22 500 mg (extra strength) Tylenol pills and about 10 Advil headache relief pills. All that came of this was a sharp pain at my side and a 2 day trip to the hospital. I easily thwrated any thought of suicide to my parents and the doctors (including a hostpital shrink). So I thusly contunued my life vowing not to attempt this again knowing it would send me straight to the firey abyss (’hell,’ excuse my colorful analogys). I then proceeded to do uncharacteristic things such as run from home seeking sanctuary. I would call to God and often hearing nothing through my clouded skies.

I recalled in scripture that God was with the broken hearted and I felt abandoned. I did, though, become happy for a season (a week, tops) but that immediatly fell as I again turned my back to God so his wrath continued to wreak havoc on my life. His wrath being the disconfort of being without comfort. I proceeded to condem his very existance and continued my selfish behavior. I later realized my mistakes and asked for forgivness but I was still drowning in this depression. I still, though, felt alone. My face had not been caught at church only very early on Sundays. I was without friends, those who could understand my torment. My only lament, my brother shows his lack of compassion towards only me. My mother exausted of my behavior.

Those friends of the world, whose words fell flat when they attempted to comfort me. I felt a great distain of everything of this world. Even when I fell to it’s temptations I would rebuke its existance. I pleaded to God to take me from this Earth. I felt a sense of worthlesness to even this world. Suddenly a grand opportunity arrose. An opportunity to get out of this box and away to seek solitude. Even though I had become distant from my friends at my church there was still a strong sense of familiarity and comfort.

One week in Lake Whales, Florida changed my life. For the first time I felt a sense of right and my abilitly to overcome and identify wrong. I felt the doors of my heart oven once again to be filled of Gods Earthly encarnation the Holy Spirit.

Though I still sometimes show scars of this hurting, now, in my spirit I am not thirsty, or hungry or ever will be again, but I still ache. My friends, I love you all the same. But I hurt for those living in sin and succumbing to temtation. The world accepts casual sex and achohol and drugs. Even worse some of you say you know the word of God and truth be told perhaps you truly do. But what is confusing to me is that you choose to deny Christ to follow the world.

With your lifestyle you make a statement to God sitting in his throne that you accept eternal damnation apposed to eternal life in heaven. I weep at the image of my friends of the world being torn apart in the abyss, all for a brief stint of pleasure on this Earth. Even if you feel no conviction or feel indifferent to this, I ask you as a friend, hey, what are you doing the 21st of this month, if your free let me know, I know an event that won’t make you feel awkward and I promise a great time. And if you can’t attend the 21st still let me know if your interested becuase there’s stuff going every Tuesday and Wensday.

I promise you, you won’t regret it and it’s not like ill drop you off and then leave you alone there. Seriously just give me one shot to show you the truth of what real joy looks like. And for those of you who really want to see me drunk, like wasted for real, this is the place for you. Oh, by the way this is actually Rich not some like chain letter. So give it a shot, I’ll give you a ride if you need one.

Popularity: 32% [?]

God is Sovereign

Published
by
carl
on June 22, 2007
in Christianity, Salvation Story and holiness
. 1 Comment

I had to come up with a witty headline and some copy to make this an actual post.

If you have a minute, and you obviously have nothing better to do if you are here on this blog, go read this story.

We never know where God is leading us. But He truly is sovereign.

 edit:  Wow, I used the wrong link and now I have no idea where this article was.  If you came here from a trackback, would you please let me know where this article is?

Popularity: 41% [?]

Tuesday Outreach Recap

Published
by
carl
on June 14, 2007
in Holy Spirit, Home Church, Missions, Preaching, Prophesy, Revival, Salvation Story, Tongues, ministry, prayer and salvation
. 6 Comments

In line with my decision to blog about all things mundane Acts 19:11, I had a fun time at The Mission, the outreach we are doing on Tuesday nights.

I worte in earlier posts about some young men that got right and are now doing some spirit filled hip hop.  Well I am leading their home group as a missions base.  Each week they try to get as many friends from their former life to come to a group we hold on their back porch.

The group starts at 10 p.m. and I leave around midnight.  In those two hours anything can happen.

Last night we had over 20 folks there with about four who had never steped into a church in their lives.  I preached on sanctification through the power of the Holy Ghost.  Some real Keswick type doctrine (I am pentecostal you know).  Then I had ministry time.  This is when it gets fun.

Last week I cast the vision for the group.  At the end, I said that everyone who was there was going to receive power to reach their lost friends and a burden for the lost.  I told them that I was not going to have an altar call.  The fact that they were there meant that they were in.  If they did not want God to use them to reach the lost for His glory then they would have to leave.  One girl did.  I saw her through the sliding glass door a little later crying.  Appearantly she was trying to get out of the house but she couldn’t.  The Holy Ghost would not let her.

She said, "I kept saying, ‘I gotta get out of here.  I gotta get out of here’ but I couldn’t."  She showed up back on the porch weeping.  She recommitted her life to Jesus, received deliverance and the Baptism in the Holy Ghost.  Needless to say, she showed up back this week.

This week all the lost confessed their need for salvation and many were touched.  To make a long story short, I left at midnight.  I wanted to leave before the police shoed up.  There were a half dozen young men rolling around on patio laughing and yelling under the power of the Holy Ghost.  We could not get then to quiet down.  The mother of the young men came out to try to get them quiet.  Her nine year old son followed.  We prayed for him and he hit the ground praying in tongues for the first time.

As Bill Johnson would say :Good stuff.

Popularity: 55% [?]

The Bapitsm in the Holy Ghost

Published
by
carl
on March 15, 2007
in Christianity, Holy Spirit, Prophesy, Revival, Salvation Story, Tongues, Youth Ministry, holiness, ministry and salvation
. 10 Comments

I really try to be nice to visitors. I try to think what it must have taken for one of my youth to get one of their secular school friends to come to church with them in the middle of the week. I went through elementary, high school, a stint and a half in the military, and half of college a heathen so I don’t know first hand what it takes for a ninth grader to witness in school but I remember what the peer pressure felt like so I really admire the work the kids are doing in bringing their friends.

We ran some numbers and in the last year we have gone from getting anywhere from 60 - 80 kids on Wednesday nights to averaging 125 now. We have baptized 26 so far this year alone. This leads to the point of this post.

Have you ever ministered to someone and at the end still could not tell if anything was accomplished? I trust that God is faithful to complete the work he began but sometimes I want a little evidence of the work of God.

We have all lead someone in a prayer of salvation and at the end were still not convinced that the person was saved. That’s right! I said it. And let me go one step further. I have seen to many outreaches that came back with a stack of decision cards but not a single convert.

I was in a church that had a month long city crusade that claimed something like 4,000 “decisions for Christ.” Not a single person got baptized from that crusade. What does that tell us? Nothing really. But if 3,000 people got joined to the church and got baptized in the next six weeks, we would call that revival.

So back to the visitors.

One of the young girls that I am discipling brought a girl last night. This girl has a Aimee Semple McPherson call on her life and is on fire for God.  Now like I said, life is hard enough for these kids so I try not to freak out the kids that they bring.  But sometimes the Holy Ghost is not as concerned about people freaking out.

Right in the middle of worship I got this burning buzzing prophet thing that came over me and I knew it was for this girl.  I asked her if she ever felt the presence of God (if you have never asked this question, just take the bewildered look as a no).  I promised her that by the end of worship that she would.

During the last song I went and laid hands on her head and the Glory of God began to be poured out on her.  Almost instantly she began sobbing.  To make a long story short I told here she was a hellbound sinner in need of a Savior.  She received Him and tried to describe to me the deliverance and salvation she had just experienced to no avail.

After service she answered the altar call (which was just a formality at this point) along with another visitor girl.  At the altar last night was that forceful fall in the spirit anointing.  It looked like people were getting “struck” by the Holy ghost instead of a gentle breeze.  You know what I am talking about.

I get to visitor girl #1.  Now this is the first time she has ever been to church.  She endured a hundred kids singing to God while some guy was casting the devil out of her.  She heard a message on the attack of the enemy, now she is standing in front of a stage and kids are falling all around her.  I don’t know that I would not have left.  I prayed fer her.  She went down.  She stayed down.

Now I get to visitor girl #2.  This is also the first time she ever went to church but the girl who brought her is not exactly a red hot ember.  I get up to them and immediately the both of them begin bawling uncontrollably.  It was really something.

I lead visitor #2 in the sinners prayer and began to pray for her and it was like heaven was opened above her.  She did that falling thing where people try to reach out to grab something to keep them from falling but they are already halfway down.  (That one always gives me a chuckle.  Its like they are looking for the guardrail or something.)

To keep another long story short, while #2 was on the ground twitching I had to cast the devil out of her friend.   After which I asked her, “How do you feel now?”  to which she said, “REALLY REALLY GOOD!”  (I call it sweet deliverance)

After a while her friend got up a little dazed.  I told her that now she needs power to live for God. And here is the point of this whole post.

Immediately she got baptized in the Holy Ghost and began to pray in tongues.  No doubt what happened to that girl that night.  One more added to the Kingdom.

Popularity: 47% [?]

Youth Ablaze

Published
by
carl
on September 22, 2006
in Christianity, Holy Spirit, Revival, Salvation Story and Youth Ministry
. 2 Comments

Sometimes we can really take for granted when we are in the midst of a move of God. My youth group is one such instance. I have posted on it lots but here is a message one of the youth sent to me today (not the real names):

member the first day of school when you said to me and pricilla that you wanted testimonies in a few weeks about what God has been doing through us.

well… i have 2.remember debrah? she came for like the last 2 weeks but couldn’t come this week. well… God moved through me and touched her which helped her build up the courage she needed to go to churhc. she is baptist and not really religous. but the 2nd time she came… she fell in the Holy Spirit. That part is her testimony but mine is God moved through me to touched her so she could come to church and get touched herself.

Now last wednesday… member a spanish girl with cornrows sitting next to me? Well… she is one of my closest friends at school. I never pushed it on her that she needs to go to church or whatever. i mentioned it once or twice. But not last wed but the wed before she had a dream that i called her up. and the only thigs i said was “you need go to go church” then she said “i know but im just really busy” “well you know you need to go” “i know” well bye” “bye”. nd that was it in the dream. she told me and i told her that was confirmation that God wants you to go to church. So she came with me on wed and she ended up getting saved.

…snip…

I hope there are more testimonies for you to hear in the future.

love ya carl

- kerri

Maranatha!

Popularity: 21% [?]

Quick Report

Published
by
carl
on March 17, 2006
in Carl's Writings, Christianity and Salvation Story
. 1 Comment

Thanks to all those who were praying for our youth meeting. i do not have time to write a full report but will have one up by the end of Monday. I was a little late getting to church because this happened at dinner.

isaacsaved.jpg

My wife and I began to weep as we watched our first child get saved by God’s grace.  Believe it or not, the night just got better from there!

Popularity: 10% [?]

Generation to Generation

Published
by
carl
on March 2, 2006
in Carl's Writings, Christianity, Revival and Salvation Story
. 1 Comment

Edward Kimball, a faithful Sunday school teacher in Chicago, Illinois, driven by a heavy burden, finally decided to share the gospel with a young shoe salesman by the name of Dwight Moody. Moody prayed to receive Christ as his Savior that day, and later became one of the most passionate preachers of his generation. Some time later, a well-known author, by the name of F. B. Meyer was so moved by the might and power in the message of Moody that he embarked on the evangelistic trail with the message of the gospel. Of the many who came to a saving knowledge through Meyer’s ministry was a young college student by the name of Wilbur Chapman, and Chapman went out to proclaim the message of Jesus.

During one of the evangelistic tent meetings held by Chapman, a young ball player hired to help erect the tents was ignited by the gospel message and influenced to step out with all his life’s energy to take that gospel to all. That sportsman was the famous Billy Sunday. Sunday’s zeal for the gospel took him at one point to Charlotte, North Carolina, where a small prayer group was formed after one of Sunday’s meetings. Mordecai Hamm, a member of that men’s prayer group, was moved to become an answer to his own prayer for laborers by holding crusades throughout the city of Charlotte. At one crusade where few converts were won, the message did transform the life of one tall lanky boy who became one of the world’s greatest gospel preachers to this day—Billy Graham (Wilson 1984).

Popularity: 9% [?]

Steve Hill, Charity James

Published
by
carl
on January 16, 2006
in Christianity, Holy Spirit, Revival and Salvation Story
. 17 Comments

I have listened to this over and over for the past couple days listen download. How I sometimes long to be in a service that had this kind of call for holiness. One of the words we got for 2006 regarded holiness and I have been convicted yet again.

Everybody knows where the major players are but does anyone know what happened to Charity James after the Brownsville Revival (She sang Mercy Seat every night)?

Anybody know?

Popularity: 38% [?]

Personal Revival : Testimony time

Published
by
carl
on December 21, 2005
in Christianity, Revival and Salvation Story
. 0 Comments

Buddist to Christian. glory to God
Full story here
Here is a snippet:

Anyway, back to the story? On July 12, when I was in Sec2, I went for cell like on every other Monday afternoon. I’m not sure who was there, the usual people I guess. We started with icebreakers (i don’t remember what we did) and then began worship. The theme was on evangelism. First we sang “It is now”. Then we sang “Take me in”.

Take me past the outer courts
Into the sacred place
Past the brazen altar
Lord, I want to see your face
Take me past the crowds of people
Who long to sing your praise
I hunger and thirst for your righteousness
But it’s only found one place

So take me in, to the holy of holies
Take me in by the blood of the lamb
So take m in, to the holy of holies
Take the coal, cleanse my lips
Here I am

those last two lines. “Take the coal, cleanse my lips, Here I am.”
I sang it and I cried. My eyes were opened, and I saw how terrible what I had done was. I had betrayed the trust of my friends, I had manipulated their feelings for my own sake, so that I could feel good, so that I could satisfy my own stupid desires for attention and pity.
I knelt there and cried. I don’t really remember what happened next, everything passed a blur. I remember there was a third song, but I don’t remember what. I don’t think I absorbed a single word of word that day either. All that went through my head was knowing what I had to do.

Popularity: 6% [?]

The Korean Missionary Movement in the NY Times

Published
by
carl
on December 19, 2005
in Christianity and Salvation Story
. 0 Comments

This is a good read.

You can find this article here

December 19, 2005
Helping North Koreans Defect Is Easy Part, Missionaries Find
By NORIMITSU ONISHI
SEOUL, South Korea - In from the freezing cold on a recent Sunday morning, sitting on the heated floor of a cozy apartment in northeast Seoul, the North Korean defector seldom looked up at the South Korean missionary who had been trying, for the last year, to convert him to the Christian faith.

The North Korean mechanically checked the messages on his Samsung cellphone and restrained his two daughters from using hymn sheets as telescopes to peer at the half-dozen North Koreans in the home church.

When the South Korean started strumming his guitar and led his congregation in a hymn, the North Korean’s lips barely moved, even as a young man next to him raised his hands, palms up, and intoned, “Can’t replace the Lord with anything!”
Continue reading ‘The Korean Missionary Movement in the NY Times’

Popularity: 6% [?]