Archive for the 'Youth Ministry' Category

Rape

Published
by
carl
on November 23, 2007
in Healing, Prophesy, Youth Ministry, holiness and visions
. 0 Comments

So I am working the altar the other day when I went to pray for a girl.  Instantly I knew that there was an unclean sexual spirit at work.  But I did not feel like she was in sin.  That may sound odd but that was my impression.  I asked her if there might be some sort of relationship that she was involved in that the Father may not be pleased with.  This was nothing heavy handed.  Just felt that I had to ask the question.

She was vehement that there was nothing.  I am ok with that.  I don’t run a cult, I am not going to make someone come up with something just to make me happy.   It’s the Holy Spirit that convicts, not me and it is the Holy Spirit that draws, not my words.  I left her alone and continued working the altar.

A little later I came back to her.  I felt like I had a little clearer picture.  I told her that I felt like something had happened and God wanted to heal it.  As I continued talking I told her that God would show her what I was talking about.  As we talked I knew she was seeing it.

Often as I counsel people they begin to receive revelation.  I frequently meet with people who want counsel and before they are done telling me the problem they know the answer.  That’s just how the gift works in me.

So as I was talking I could tell that she knew what I was talking about.  When I felt the time was right I laid my hands across her eyes and told her to see that situation.  This is not guided imagery.  I am not telling people to see anything.  I never tell people what to do or what to see.  I told her that I do not need to know what happened or what the memory was or any of that.  She had a memory that Jesus wanted to heal her heart of.  As soon as I told her to see whatever it was Jesus was pricking her heart about she started crying.  I asked her if she sees it and she answered that she did.

I then told her to look for Jesus.  The bible says that He will never leave us or forsake us. That He would be with us to the ends of the earth.  That means if we are His, He is with us.  When I told her to look for Jesus she started bawling uncontrollably.  I prayed till the peace of God overcame her.   I then asked if the memory had changed and to tell me what Jesus was doing to which she said,

“He is keeping my father from touching me.”

Selah

I wish I could tell you that I was shocked but I wasn’t.  You hear lots of statistics about girls getting touched inappropriately but when you start to see how it ruins girl’s lives the numbers take on a disturbing reality.

I was in prayer about preaching a few months ago and the Lord gave me a word of knowledge that He was going to bring healing to people who were molested.

At the end of my message I told the 150 or so youth the word of knowledge.  I did not pray for a minute before there were youth sobbing all over the building.  Boys and girls.  I wanted to just sit down and cry but I had an altar call for that and one other thing so they could have plausible deniability and the altar was full.  It seems like a majority of the girls that have relational issues that I counsel were molested.  I don’t know how many of the boys.

After the girl I ministered to this week regained her composure she began to make excuses for her dad, “I just want to let you know I did not get raped or anything.”  She was protecting him.  How sad is that.

I wish that I could hear preachers address this in service more often.  Just cut your giving message back a few minutes once a month and say something like, “Men, if you are touching your daughter inappropriately you need to repent and move out of the house until you get some professional help.  Girls and boys, if you are bing molested call the police.”  The fear of the Lord would come upon those who are contemplating it.

I don’t know this girl’s father, he does not attend our church.  I truly don’t know what I would do I he did.

—————-
Now playing: Hillsong United - Lead Me To The Cross

Popularity: 22% [?]

Quick Testimony

Published
by
carl
on October 4, 2007
in Holy Spirit, Revival and Youth Ministry
. 3 Comments

I was working the altar on Wednesday night when I prayed for this girl who got really wacked.  She had been going to this really good baptist church down the street but through relationships wound up with us.  Anyway I got this message from her through myspace (hope you can read teenager):

im still singing…lol… idk how to explain how i feel.. but its amazing… thx so much 4 praying 4 me… after u prayed 4 me it was like i have 2 worship him and i cant control it.. my brother already told me to stop, but i cnt…..

I replied:

Thats awesome. Welcome to revival.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Don’t Forget the Lost

Published
by
carl
on April 12, 2007
in Healing, Holy Spirit, Revival and Youth Ministry
. 4 Comments

So I was working the altar last night for a while. Near the end of the evening a girl I had seen a couple times came up to me and asked for prayer because her back has been hurting for several months.

I prayed for her and asked how her back felt. . . no change. Now, we are just talking about some back pain here. Not blind eyes, not missing limbs, not lupus. A backache. I prayed the prayer of faith and the anointing was so think that my ministry assistant and I both felt like we might fall down. I asked again how she felt.

No change.

Now this was getting annoying. I quoted James 5 and did all I knew how to do. I asked again and she said she felt a little better. I don’t settle for courtesy healings so I asked her how much better. Turns out she was about 50% better. I said that we are going in the right direction and was about to pray again when I decided to ask a question.

I know many of you might be saying that there could be unforgiveness, or bitterness. Maybe there was a specific sin or a generational curse. Maybe we had to tackle a territorial spirit or have her renounce past affiliations.

I am not that spiritual.

I asked her, “Are you right with God?” She shook her head no. I asked if she had ever known God. She shook her head no. Hmmm. We might be on to something here.

I preached the Gospel from front to back and gave her an opportunity to repent for specific sins that God was showing her. I really prefer this method. I will lay my hands on a person and tell them that God is going to reveal specific sins that they need to repent of. He always does. They then have the opportunity to either submit to God or resist His Spirit.

This girl was broken. As tears rolled down her cheeks she mouthed words of repentance for sins that only she and God knew of. After that I lead her in a prayer declaring Jesus as Lord and requesting to be saved and filled with the Holy Ghost so she can have power to not do those things again.

Afterward she looked up at me with the glow you can only see on the face of a new believer. I asked, “how do you feel now.” She said, “I feel really, really good.” I said “That is what forgiveness feels like. How’s your back?”

“The pain is gone.”

I said, “Of course it is. Welcome to the Kingdom.”

Popularity: 47% [?]

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% [?]

A Little Here, A Little There

Published
by
carl
on January 7, 2007
in Christianity, Holy Spirit, Prophesy, Revival, Tongues, Youth Ministry, ministry and visions
. 10 Comments

Bear with me on this one . . .

Back in May I had a meeting with some youth. The Holy Ghost fell in the room and one of the youth I have been chasing after got impacted. I blogged about it in the post “God Loves the Youth.” Here is an excerpt,

There was a kid that I had been harassing to come to my group because I felt God was drawing him but he was avoiding me. Finally he could not avoid it and came. When the Holy Ghost descended he began to bawl. He wound up on the ground coughing up devils and got off the floor praying in tongues and running around the room. He said that when I told everyone to repent of their sins he saw a black cloud in the room and that as I began to pray it escaped through the cracks in the doors and windows. Wish that happened to me at 13!

So this kid had some stuff to walk out. He was the youngest of three brothers. He was very concerned how he was going to live after this. He was supposed to be at a part the next day that was going to have drugs. His other brothers were the leaders of a gang.

They had an affinity for two girls in our church so they would come high to the youth service from time to time. They were trouble makers and over 18 but for some reason we let them hang around.

This young man became faithful to my small group and I began to disciple him. At the end of every meeting he would conclude with a prayer request for the salvation of his brothers. Six months earlier I prophesied over his oldest brother right in the middle of a service that God said, “Peek-a-boo! I see you! You are running from me but the earth is round.” (He later told me that he was so mad at me that he wanted to have me jumped)

Two months after the boy got saved I preached the most anointed evangelistic message I ever preached. The whole rotten crew was there. Conviction began to stir in their hearts. The next week they went to youth camp and got saved. But they had a problem. The older brothers were two thirds of a rap group that were about to be signed but they did not want to do hard core rap any longer. They turned down the offers and went back to the lab.

In the meantime the oldest brother replaced the youngest in mentorship. I really began to pour into him and he started to bring people to my meetings. Three weeks ago I thought it was just going to be he and I in my meeting so I put together a lesson plan on deliverance ministry. By the end of worship there were eight kids that came. Half of which were away from God.

The Glory of God fell in that room and every kid that was away from God got saved and baptized in the Holy Ghost. This has happened to almost the entire crew they used to hang with. They are on fire! The oldest one said to me,

I want to preach. But when I preach, I don’t just want to preach with words.

I said, Amen! And I am sure he will.

Anyway, there is lots more to the story but I will end there. They just gave me a copy of some of the songs they have made since getting right with God. Listen and enjoy.

Popularity: 32% [?]

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% [?]

Revolution Flyer

Published
by
carl
on September 13, 2006
in Christianity and Youth Ministry
. 0 Comments

For those who have no ability, I am a graphics designer. For anyone with enough skills to open photoshop I am an obvious hack. Nevertheless, since I complete projects that I start I tend to do graphics for people.

I am posting this one because nobody over 17 will ever see it any other way. (And I pay the bill for this blog)


The concept I had was kind of a retro punk look.  I am not sure I acheived that but what can you do?  That little map took more time than I care to mention.  It consists  of about 14 layers.  The layout might look a little funny because this is the pretrimmed graphic with the bleed. If I weren’t so lazy I would have cropped it before posting.

Popularity: 13% [?]

God Loves the Youth

Published
by
carl
on May 30, 2006
in Christianity, Holy Spirit, Prophesy, Tongues and Youth Ministry
. 2 Comments

I have been a bit behind on sharing what God has been doing so I will have to hit the highlights.

I lead a youth small group now. I have the feeling that I will be moving out of youth ministry soon and I sense a great urging to impart some things before I leave. So I started my little group.

The first meeting I had four kids in the middle school ages. One kid got saved and the other three got baptized in the Holy Ghost that first meeting.

This past Friday, I had to lead the Friday night youth service so I brought my group to be my ministry assistants. There is nothing greater than ministering to people who do not doubt the power of God. They don’t have to have faith, I will bring that, but they can’t be filled with doubt. Doubt is a real ministry inhibiter. When you preach to a group of doubters you have to plow for so long it almost isn’t any fun.

At the beginning of the meeting I told the group that I don’t do normal church. I got saved in college after serving in the military and I only know how to be on fire for God or on fire for the world. There is no in between. If I am at church I expect to see the manifest presence. Otherwise I might as well be watching television. I told the youth that I was going to preach and at the end we were going to pray. At that point the Glory of God would descend in the room and people would be changed.

So preached and preached and preached till I felt like there was some sort of breakthrough. Then I asked the Holy Spirit to come, and come He did!

Continue reading ‘God Loves the Youth’

Popularity: 18% [?]

Crest of the Wave

Published
by
carl
on May 5, 2006
in Christianity, Healing, Holy Spirit, Prophesy, Revival and Youth Ministry
. 1 Comment

This is a follow up to the previous post where I wrote about the Holy ghost happenings at the youth service.  This is what happened after the service.

There was this girl there that had come for the first time the week before.  We send out a 15 passenger van and pick up kids whose parents don’t come to church and she and her friend were on the van.  (little side note, the girl in this post and this post is the one that invited her and her friend to come) Last week we had some group come minister.  The worship was anointed and performed well.  After the message the leader had an altar call for people who want to be radical for God.  She came forward and I felt like my wife was supposed to minister to her.  She was severely troubled.

But here she was.  Back the next week and God put her on my heart.  I began to pray and God gave me a vision for her.  After the service I asked her if I could talk to her.  Right then they put on some music and I could not even have a conversation.  We took her into the office and closed the door.

I shared with her a vision that God showed me that He had marked her for Himself.  Tears began to flow down her cheeks.  She then began to detail her problems chief among them was major anxiety.

My wife began to pray for her and the anointing came into the room.  She was getting touched but there was definitely a block.  We stayed there for a good ten minutes praying but there was still a block.  I am not always the quickest guy, I will admit that.  The whole time I thought she was backslidden so I asked her, “Are you saved?”  She said, “Am I what?”  I could have kicked myself.

I told her the story, quoted the scriptures and gave her an opportunity to be born again.  She prayed that God would forgive her and cleanse her.  She promised God that she would change how she lived.  I didn’t tell her to say any of this.  It was her and the Holy Ghost.

I then evicted all kids of things that no longer had a right to her, canceled things that were spoken over her, and declared a new day.  This was the unstoppable tide.  This was the wave that we could not block. 

Isaiah 43:21

the people whom I formed for myself
that they might declare my praise.

The joy of the Lord came over her and she began to laugh.  I asked her, “How do you feel?”  She simply said, “I feel like I am not going to have to worry so much anymore.”

And Jesus keeps coming.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Another Wave

Published
by
carl
on May 4, 2006
in Christianity, Holy Spirit, Prophesy, Revival and Youth Ministry
. 4 Comments

delray.jpgHad our youth group last night. My normal job is to pray at the end of worship. I really enjoy this because I get to track what God is doing in the service and make some prophetic declarations over the music. I don’t know why but I really enjoy that.

The night before I felt lead to take my kids to the beach to play. The wind was blowing a bit but the kids had a good time digging in the sand. The sand was a little steep near the shoreline so I kept the kids away from the water knowing that one wave is all it takes to get one overtaken. Isaac found a coconut and burried it hoping that a tree would grow. I took this picture while I was there.

During prayer last night, I was taken back to that picture. I then heard the word “wave.” That’s it, one word. Holy Spirit then directed me to Isaiah 43:16-21. As I looked back to that picture in my mind I saw the tide rolling in with each wave. The Holy Ghost asked me,

“What can stop the waves?”
I said, “Lord, You know nothing can stop the wave.”
He said, “Who can stop the tide?”
I said, “Lord, You know nothing can stop the tide.”

Instantly I knew what the Lord wanted me to say. I saw a heaviness among the group regarding their ability to achieve victory.

The problem with most youth ministry is that it is centered on behavior modification. We unknowingly teach our youth that God’s acceptance is performance driven, and because of that (I think) many stay under condemnation long enough to realize that this whole thing is futile and walk away when they are old enough to make that decision.

So I saw the wave transform into the Spirit of God (metaphorically speaking) and it invading the youth. I did not have the whole word yet but I knew what I was to say.

At the end of worship I got on stage with the band (sorry, I mean platform ;) ) and explained everything I explained here. I told them that i sensed that there were people i nthe building that felt like the world was overtaking them and that God would be victorious in their lives. I began to speak about God being high above the troubles of this world and even our sin. I hit that last verse hard

Isaiah 43:21

the people whom I formed for myself
that they might declare my praise.

I quoted Romans 8:38-39 as the band begin to sing their last song again about God being lifted up. I declared victory in their lives and proclaimed the sanctuary a no devil zone. There was a real funk in the air and I was trying to clear it. Kids were weeping but I felt there was more.

Nevertheless I began to pray for the word and the offering thinking the more would happen later. Right there at the end of my prayer a member of the band wispered in my ear that they wanted to play another sone. This was a real challange to me. I felt like I was leading the service and this was a detour. (just being honest here) What could I do? I decided to error toward grace and could always deal with this later. The band went into this song about feeling defeated. I just stood on stage and prayed. Then I began to listen to the lyrics. They spoke about feeling like the world is crashing in around the person and them asking where they can go? Then the chorus kicked in

It’s there I see you
It’s there I know you are real

1 Peter 1:6-9 is a verse God told us to put on our fridge and now I am watching God tell the youth of my church the same thing. Right there on stage as I was praying on the microphone I had an open vision that I declared as I saw it. I saw an army of youth baptized in fire proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ in their schools. I saw a mob of young prophets invading the malls. I saw them laying hands on the sick and them being made well. I saw a cadre of end time prophets proclaiming the praises of their King. I saw the heavens open and the youth ascending and descending, then spreading the revelation they received. It was really awesome.

At the end of the song I explained to the audience that the worship leader was a Psalmist (though I doubt anyone ever called him that before) and that he hears God in song and that he heard the last part of the prophetic word which was that not only would God overtake those situations but in that very hour of testing he would become closer and more real than ever.

This is only the first part of the story. To me, the second part is far greater, but I have to get some work done.

By the way, this is why I don’t keep a journal. It takes so much longer to write this stuff down and I feel like I am wasting time I could be spending in another encounter.

Popularity: 12% [?]

The Budding Prophetess

Published
by
carl
on April 25, 2006
in Christianity, Holy Spirit, Prophesy and Youth Ministry
. 2 Comments

About four months ago my wife and I prayed for a girl to be baptized in the Holy Ghost. I wrote about it here. In the meantime I have seen a complete turn around in this girl’s life. She has become a flame for Jesus! She was a pretty popular girl at school and decided that following Jesus was more important than being in the middle of unrighteousness. Praise God!

This last Wednesday she and another youth got to bring the message at our Wednesday Night meeting. She preached about righteousness. It was powerful. We had an altar call afterward and many youth came forward to deal with issues in their lives.

My wife prayed for her afterward and spoke some encouraging words to her. She sent me a message the other day regarding that prayer,

hey Carl, your wife spoke truth i relized my gift through out the day.. …………..but i dnt know y. im not good at all y does Jesus still love me . Carl i need prayer plz. pray 4 me its personal im so confused on life ………..

My wife and I confirmed to her that there is a gift of prophesy stirring in her. The day she sent me this note, she prophesied to a girl at school much to both of their amazement. She sees her unrighteousness and does not understand why God would choose to use her. (This is so refreshing when compared with people who present themselves as God’s appointed and anointed.)

So now we get to minister the love of God to this girl who cries out to Jesus, “Son of David, have mercy on me.”

And Jesus keeps coming.

Popularity: 11% [?]