Archive for the 'salvation' Category

The Devil Hates My Appliances

Published
by
carl
on July 19, 2007
in Christianity, Doctrine, Evangelism, Healing, Holy Spirit, Preaching, Revival, ministry, prayer and salvation
. 3 Comments

We had The Mission Tuesday night as usual. But things are never usual at an urban outreach.

I preached on living a double life and how Jesus never changes. I gave a warning about playing in the anointing and then playing in the world. I felt the need to warn the people who come and minister and then lead a double life on the outside. The Mission has become their God time break and then they leave and go back to nonsense.

Don’t fool yourself. Randomly pick 10 on fire young people in your church and visit the pictures on their MySpace page. I guarantee you you will find near pornography on many of them.

I talked about how you can probably live a mildly Christian life and make it to heaven but if you want to be part of the end time harvest it is going to cost you something. And if you throw your hat into the ring and seek the anointing of God, and turn back to the world, the devil will be waiting. Choose wisely I told them.

The conviction fell and I invited all those making the choice for Jesus to come forward for prayer. Among them was a guy I will call Jimmy.

Jimmy had come off and on. He has a (fallen) angel that visits him at night. Sometimes it tells him that he is Jesus. Other times it tells him to do really bad things. I am not making this up. about a month and a half ago he came and ran out of the house at the altar call. I later found out that the angel had told him to come to the meeting, listen to the message, and then kill me and two other guys. After the message he left because he did not want to kill us. Thank you Jesus! This guy is about 6′4″ and over 300 lbs (135 kg, 21.4 stone).

I was happy he wanted prayer . . . for a minute.

When I began to pray he almost instantly began to manifest. He began to grunt and growl. He clenched his fists and tightened his jaw and began to snarl. His eyes turned blood red and he began to stare at me as if I was a lineman on the opposing team. Apparently I had stumbled onto something.

I began to command the demon to stop manifesting and to come out of the man but it would not budge. When the manifestations would increase I would rebuke the demon and tell it that it could not put on a show. I would then command it to leave until it began to increase the manifestations again. There was a minute when the people kind of gathered around, stopped worshiping, and began to stare in wonder. Fortunately my disciple let them to begin worshiping God who is the only one who can truly deliver.

I have found that one of the keys to deliverance ministry is to establish that the enemy has no authority in the person. I normally lead the person in a confession regarding the birth, life, death, resurrection, and the second coming of Jesus. After this I tell the demon that they have no authority and that it has to leave. Sometimes confession of specific sins is required or the renouncing of sin, but you get the idea.

So I say to this guy, “Repeat after me, Jesus is alive.”

He says, “Jesus is a lie.”

Huh? Maybe I heard him wrong, “Repeat after me, Jesus is alive.”

“Jesus is a lie.”

Wow, that sounded pretty clear that time. That was a new one for me. Not exactly knowing where to go from here I say, “Say - Jesus - IS - ALIIIIVVVEE.”

“Jesus … IS … A … LIIIIIEEEE.”

Hmmm. I was a communication major in college so I can make a sentence more than one way. You want to play games? I can play games.

“Say, Jesus lives.” HAH! Try to mess that one up! Got you devil!

He looks me dead in the eyes and says,

“I am alive.”

Wow! Wasn’t expecting that one. We are now on uncharted territory for Carl Thomas Ministries (if there were such a thing). I pulled the ole ace in the hole and the devil trumped me with a joker. But now I was stuck. This thing was like engaging a pitbull. You can’t just attack it for a minute or two and then walk away. One of you is going down. And every time this thing would manifest this spirit of fear would try to jump on me. And I knew if I let it take root that this guy would split my head open.

And I really did not want that to happen. I like my head just like it is.

So I decided that since Jimmy asked for ministry, that was all the authority I needed. I grabbed this guys head with both hands and began to command every demon in his life to leave. I normally don’t use that language because it is not necessary. I normally just declare freedom and the devil has to leave. But we were way beyond niceties.

I told the devil to get out of him and leave in the name of Jesus. Then Jimmy began to cough so hard I though I might see his liver. You might not believe this next part but I then saw all these demons standing around looking kind of bewildered like, “What happened?” It was almost funny.

I had someone open the front door and I told them, “Get out!”

Needless to say a real soberness came over the prayer time and several others were delivered that night.

The devil truly is defeated and has no authority in the believer. We can all agree with that, right? But does he have authority in my appliances?

The next day my washing machine completely died. It seems every time I have some sort of spiritual breakthrough, something breaks in my house. Once I had a really seasoned minister who has been mightily used in revival come to dinner. The garbage disposal decided to die as they showed up. I have lost my microwave in these times, my refrigerator, my car has broken down as has my van and various plumbing issues. These regularly happen when I see these types of things. This all leads me to believe that the devil does not mind me so much but he hats my appliances.

Coincidence? Maybe so. But it is annoying none the less.

Remember that old Steve Martin movie, The Jerk? “He hates these cans!”

Popularity: 54% [?]

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)

front.jpg
click for larger view

back.jpg
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% [?]

Outreach Testimony

Published
by
carl
on July 16, 2007
in Christianity, Evangelism, Missions, Revival and salvation
. 4 Comments

I wish I had time to write of all the things that God is doing. I really am blown away by what I am watching around me. I try to start a new post but before I can write the whole thing there are new things to write.

Let me just get one down here.

There is a girl I am discipling that is about to be a senior in high school. She got a job at a large gym. One day her boss said that she could use the facilities if she wants to have a church meeting. The boss is not a believer and the girl had only been working there a few weeks.

I showed up to preach at this national chain gym at 10 a.m. this past Saturday morning. There were about seven people that showed up for her outreach and all got saved. I have preached lots of places. But preaching to a bunch of lost people in a XXXX’s gym on a Saturday morning had not been one of them.

When I finally had the “altar call” there were people bawling. I was simply amazed. I was driving home with a few of my disciples when I said to them,

One day you are going to be telling the story of the day you held an outreach in XXXX’s gym on a Saturday morning and a hlf dozen people got saved and one even got baptized in the Holy Ghost.

Popularity: 30% [?]

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% [?]

Growing Up! - Mark Hadfield

Published
by
carl
on July 4, 2007
in Christianity, Healing, Holy Spirit, Missions, Prophesy, Revival, prayer and salvation
. 3 Comments

I have taken a cadre of young revivalists to try and infect youth groups from all over Florida. While I am gone I have asked some of my friends to post for me. Here is the bio of today’s blogger:

Pastor Mark Hadfield: Mark of Made to Praise Him is Senior Pastor of Inverness Community Church. Mark is leading a church into the glory realm. His writings are challenging and enlightening. I enjoy watching as his church finds its footing in the supernatural. Beyond this Mark has been a friend in time of need.

Growing! Up!I’ve just come back from a morning on the streets in Inverness (Scotland), ministering healing. A group of us have been doing this for 3-4 months now, but this morning was extraordinary.It wasn’t extraordinary because we saw somebody leave their wheelchair, missing limbs grow, restoration of sight or hearing, or rejoice in the death of cancer. We saw none of those things today - and how my heart aches and longs, with weeping, for these to be commonplace.It was extraordinary because God said two things to be me very clearly which broke my heart, and He said similar things to others in the team.

The first thing He said is “now, you take the land”.

Let’s rewind a little in order to understand that.

We’ve been blessed with this amazing sense of God’s presence on the streets ever since we started Healing On The Streets. Every Saturday morning we go to the busiest part of the city centre, set-up some simple PA, raise a 5 metre banner with the word “Healing” on it, and place 6 chairs for people to take if they’d like prayer. Then we all kneel in the busy street and pray, before inviting people to come for healing. The sense of His presence has been just astonishing. There have been times that some of us have been unable to stand under the weight of His glory and we’ve stayed down a little longer than intended. Then people come for healing - and they’re healed, either immediately or over a few weeks, but they’re healed, not merely comforted.

But this morning was different.

I guess it started last night. (Or maybe it started last week?)

A group of us went into town to pray and worship and we sensed an unusual spiritual oppression. We realised that it was outside of our immediate vicinity. I likened it to sitting in a bubble. We were in the glory, but not far beyond us it was oppressive. We walked around praying. We sat and worshipped. We sensed the bubble expanding and then we sensed a breakthrough.

Then this morning, in addition to the usual ministry, some new things happened. We had a teenage girl who was pregnant come along, wanting us to bless her unborn baby. I’m blown away that a girl that age doesn’t just want her baby on her own, but also wants the best for her baby. She’s precious and I hope we’ll see her again. We had a Muslim woman come for prayer, wanting her family to know God. Amazing! Finally, we had a really wholesome conversation with a kind-of-new-ager whose into reiki and has been preaching syncretism at us ever since we started. This morning he opened up a little. He’s actually very spiritually aware but still looking for a tangible connection with something higher. He talked about visiting our churches.

The “bubble” really had expanded!

God really impressed upon me that we need to keep stretching, pushing, expanding, taking new ground. He gives us an encouraging start and then asks us to build upon it. Isn’t that the heart of a good dad? To get you started, but then give you the experience of taking it further. Does God really need us to do His work for Him, or does He really love us enough to invest into us for our own joy and fulfilment?

Consider the parable of the talents, or the instruction through the prophet Isaiah to enlarge the place of your tents, and to sing for joy who are barren. He gives us the start (a talent, a tent, a promise). He gives us the equipping for the job (the supernatural anointing of the Spirit and His Son’s authority). He shows us what’s possible. He holds our hand. He says to us “you’re my children, you have the best possible start, now go and make something of it”.

I think there’s something squif with our view of God’s sovereignty if we just sit around waiting for blessing to fall out of the sky. There’s also something squif with our view of the Father heart of God if we expect to be jolted out of our comfort zones with an impossible and painful challenge, instead of taken by the hand, given a head start, and then encouraged to develop.

Come on church! How about it? What gentle prod has He given you and what are you going to do with it?

And the second thing God said?

I was standing in the middle of the street during a slack period when the chairs were empty, looking at the scene of people rushing by to do their shopping, and I heard the voice of the Father say very clearly “can’t you hear me calling to them, my orphaned children?”. I cried. I walked over to the PA, turned off the music, picked up a guitar and started singing “Come Through To Me” by Godfrey Birtill. And people came and sat in the seats and received healing.

He trusts us, He trusts me, He trusts you, with what’s dear to His heart. That’s staggering. So how does He feel if we shrug it off instead of doing something about it?

Come through to me … naked heart …
Come deeper … I know where you are.
Come through the storm …
Let it be still … Come nearer …
Leap into my arms.
So let go, let faith rise.
Have no fear, you will fly.
So let go, let faith rise.
Have no fear, you will fly.
Come through to me … broken one …
Come higher … My daughter, my son.
My family … I’m gathering …
Come closer … I’ll make you as one.

Popularity: 48% [?]

5 Things I “Dig” About Jesus

Published
by
carl
on June 28, 2007
in Christianity, Doctrine, Jesus, Preaching, Prophetic and salvation
. 8 Comments

I have been tagged by my friend Mark to share 5 things I really dig about Jesus. This is actually my first meme so I got a little excited. Then I began to think about Jesus and I got even more excited.

Here is my list. It is definitely not all conclusive:

1. He is not of this realm. Though He did come here, He did not stay here and wants to take us where He is. Gal 1:3-4

2. He is focused on things I cannot even see yet. I was praying about my broken washing machine the other day and Jesus showed me a vision of a church I will preach in one day … in London. (thats about 4500 miles / 7100 km away) Truly my thoughts are not His thoughts.

3. When Jesus says He is coming to an event, He shows up. Every single word of knowledge I have had in conjunction with preaching has been fulfilled. I got two words of knowledge for my meeting last night a week ago. I pronounced them and Jesus came and healed.

4. He is always wanting to meet new people. I cannot tell you how many people I have laid hands on who have had a vision of Jesus. He almost always embraces them. That’s really really cool!

5. He is absolutely on fire for the Father’s business. I don’t have any lost friends. I don’t have any lukewarm friends. All my friends are focused on the Gospel and on fire for God. But Jesus stands out from all of them. He has more revelation to share, more testimonies to give, more prophesies to proclaim, more exhortation to declare, more fire to impart than anyone I have ever met by a long shot. Hanging out with Him is more fulfilling than with anyone else. When my friends get together we preach to each other all night each building upon what the other said. With Jesus, you speak once, then spend the rest of the conversation trying to get your mind around what He says in return.

Ok, I stretched that last one a bit but I only had 5 remember?

So now I am supposed to tag 5 others so here we go:

David - Sure to be something firey.
Michael - Sure to be something well thought out and doctrinally sound with that Vineyard flair.
Chet - Can you say graphics?
Rich - If he completes it, (remember that “imminent” post on Ted Haggard back in November of last year?) it will be in several months and contain thousands of words. Some pro-gay group will surely comment on it and tell how Carlton Pearson is the greatest man since Moses.
slw -  Don’t ask. I have no idea what slw stands for.

For some reason trackbacks do not work in this theme so make sure you comment here with a link to your post.

Popularity: 62% [?]

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% [?]

Crystal Cathedral Video

Published
by
carl
on April 24, 2007
in Christianity, Holy Spirit, Revival and salvation
. 3 Comments

I read over at Michael’s blog about the mass baptism at the Crystal Cathedral when Evil Kenevil spoke. You can read the whole article here in Christianity Today.

I have read lots of commentary about this including lots of people who called the whole thing fake.

Praise be to God I found the video. Here is the actual baptism video but you can see the testimony of Robert keneivil here.

OK, so they don’t dunk. But the man gave an altar call for people to “take a leap of faith and invite Jesus Christ into their heart. And if you do that I will baptize you right now.”

If salvations touch you then you have to see the video. At the end, when he was done, there was one young man who sprinted up the isle to get baptized before he was done.

I was really touched by this video.

Popularity: 45% [?]

What’s The Point?

Published
by
carl
on April 18, 2007
in Christianity, Doctrine, Holy Spirit, Revival, holiness, ministry, salvation and visions
. 4 Comments

The three or four of you who have followed this blog know that I gave up trying to be a popular blog guy a long time ago. I post what God has been speaking to me. Well, here is what He has been talking to be about.

What is the point of your life? Reader, I am not asking you. I am telling you that is what God has been asking me.

We preach about eternity all the time but we live for the moment. We don’t really believe that life is a vapor. We worry about retirement as much as the world does. We worry about our reputations and are scared to startle the authorities in our lives with radical ideas.

Last week God began opening a ministry call to me. At first I could not get it out of my mind. I knew that God was in it. I was so excited what He would do. I knew that I would have to birth it in prayer but I was ready to commit my life to it. In the next couple days, I began to realize friction that it may cause.

That’s a real diplomatic way of saying that I was scared of the repercussions. I am worried what the leadership of my church would say. They have been inferring a very different direction for my ministry. One that I never bought into. I am worried what the people who hole my ministry credentials will say. Because of relationships involved, I would have to meet with them. And this has eaten at not only my excitement, it has taken a toll on my faith on what God would have me do. But God is sovereign.

I was listening to a sermon by Heidi Baker the last two days that stirred me. Then, while working on one of my other websites, I watched the video that is at the end of this post. Then it hit me.

Galatians 2:20 (Listen)

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I was no more a slave of God than the lost. I was no more His servant than those who mocked Him in the flesh. I was more worried about my reputation and comfort than I was for the people that He died to save.

I was in a spiritually abusive church for a while and allowed the controlling spirit channeled by the leader to begin to kill the prophetic word in me. Right before my final meeting with the leadership I swore to God that I would never again allow the gift of God in me to bow to a man again.

And yet I almost did it. But the man I was forcing the gift to bow to was myself. Unclean man that I am.

This may sound melodramatic but I am convicted and heartbroken. Convicted because I was sure I was more sold out to Jesus than that. Heartbroken because there are tens of thousands of people going to hell all around me and I am not giving my life to the cause that my Savior died for.

I do not plan to turn over any tables in the temple but I do plan to follow God. I invite you to come with me.

Christian Videos

Popularity: 58% [?]

Sometimes We Don’t Understand

Published
by
carl
on March 30, 2007
in Christianity and salvation
. 0 Comments

I went to a youth pastor’s conference a couple weeks ago. I hate to say it but much of what was presented was not very good but some of it was excellent. One presenter spoke about the need for doctrine and how we need to preach doctrine to our youth that they may be firmly founded in the faith. I had just such a chance this past Wednesday.

The man in the picture is Waldyr Nascimento. He moved to the United States from Brazil on the leading of the Lord. He was a successful business man waldyr.jpgin Brazil but moved here to minister. He began to lead the Brazilian ministry at my church and it began to grow exponentially.

About six months ago he stepped down from leading the Brazilian ministry to tend to his companies. It was too bad. When I saw him preach in the Brazilian service I was blown away. I remember thinking that when this guy gets his English down this 500 person crowd will look tiny compared to the flock he will tend here in America.

Saturday night his car hit a pole and he died. That was pretty bad. I had to preach Wednesday night to our youth. Included in the audience was his 17 year-old son and his 13 year-old daughter. His 11 year-old son was in another class.

I did not want to eulogize but I preached on our heavenly hope. I have never used as much scripture in a message as I did that night.

The funeral was today. There were lots of people at the service and lots of people cried thinking of his widow and the children, not to mention what might have been for this family.

All three of his children spoke but his wife was not on the agenda. There were funny stories and lots of tears and an all around miserable time. At the end of the service there was to be a benediction over a video montage of his life.

Just before that happened his wife stopped the service and wanted to speak. She said that her husband never had a service that he did not give an opportunity for people to give their life to Jesus. She then preached one of the most powerful Gospel presentations that I have ever heard. Afterward, she invited those who raised their hands in response to the invitation to receive Jesus to come the front so that she could hug them. She said this is the legacy her husband would have wanted.

A life was lost. Lives were saved. And a woman flowed in the anointing as a way to honor here deceased husband, and give glory to her Father.

If you have time today, would you throw up a prayer for this family? It’s going to be a long road ahead.

Popularity: 24% [?]

Havin’ Church

Published
by
carl
on March 28, 2007
in Christianity, Holy Spirit, Revival, holiness and salvation
. 4 Comments

As I bloged about earlier, I was invited to speak at the home group of some of the young men I disciple. They have a meeting at 10 p.m. in their garage and the expect God to show up every time.

The turnout was around 25 people all aged between 17 and 20.  About a third were completely unchurched.  Some were only churched.  And others were saved.

When I was preparing for the meeting, the Lord showed me an angel of deliverance that would be there.  If that makes you scratch you head it did the same for me. I mean, what are you supposed to do with that information? I can’t preach it since it is not explicitly in the Bible but I can’t act like I did not see it. Either way I had decided to preach Rev 1:18.

The key here is that Jesus has the keys to unlock us from bondage.  Most people are afraid to preach to unsaved young people.  I am not.  To me, there is nothing more exciting to me than a room full of unsaved thugs.     These people deal with the pains of life trying to act hard.  The Holy Ghost shows up and shows them who’s in charge every time.

So I read the Scripture then did a complete old testament survey 101 presentation starting with Adam, through the history of the jews into NT101 through the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus up to his visitation of John.

I then went into Romans 6 and preached the death with Jesus.  I told them that if they give their life to Jesus that He would set them free from the things that control their lives.  I knew deliverance was at hand.

I had a real altar call in that living room and about a dozen of them came forward and kneeled to receive the Lord.  Great right?  Well, apparently that was not enough because then I declared that we were going to have a water baptism.

So last night I had a Holy Ghost water baptism.  (That is the kind that takes longer than 15 seconds per person. Don’t tell anyone, but some got more than one dunk.)

About 10 people were buried with Him (Rom 6:4)  last night in a glorious but cold pool.

Popularity: 26% [?]

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% [?]