- The Blueprint of “Renewing Your Mind” November 24, 2011
- Decisions that Define Us – Graham Cooke November 23, 2011
- God. is. with. You. September 30, 2011
- Weekend Trip September 29, 2011
Business Conference and Sunday Meeting
Published September 24, 2011Two weeks ago (Sept 8th-Sept 11th), I attended a life-changing business conference with Ryan. The meetings went from 9am to 9pm and we were constantly meeting people all day. The conference had about 800 people, many of them ‘soloprenuers’ learning how to make a brand for themselves. Many of them were excited to network so everyone was proactively getting to know each other.
We had some pretty cool opportunities to minister to people there, but here’s one of the stories from the last day of the conference:
On the last day (Sunday, Sept 11th), we decided to wear our “free healing shirts” because we realized that there were a lot of New-Agey folks who were interested in healing. Anyway, during the last lunch, we were eating at Togo’s. While we were in line, I overheard two ladies behind me talking.
“L” was talking to “J” about how she didn’t want to eat pizza because they didn’t have her special crust. So I asked, out of curiosity, “what’s your special crust?”
It led to a conversation about diet and how she was gluten-free. After the conversation started to fade, she said, “So your shirt says, ‘just ask.’ Ask about what?”
I had a jacket on, so she couldn’t see the whole shirt. I opened my jacket up and said, “free healing.”
“How do you do that?”
“Well, do you need healing for anything?”
“Yes, I have a headache!”
“We can take care of that for you.”
“How do you do it?”
“MMmm.. It’s easier if we just show you,” Ryan said.
I put my hand on top of her head and commanded, “Headache, GO.”
We told her to check herself. “Wow,” she was impressed. She said there was still some pain down her right shoulder, so Ryan went for it and the pain immediately left. She still had a hint of pain lingering somewhere in her upper neck.
Both “L” and “J” were impressed. They asked again, “How did you do that?” Ryan showed them his “Jesus” tattoo.
I started explaining to them how this was what Jesus did when he was walking the earth. He would constantly be healing the sick, casting out demons and setting people free. They liked what we were saying…
Ryan ended up paying for their lunch, and we continued to converse. Finally, “J” told us that she was dealing with back pain. So to demonstrate authority, Ryan told “L” to lay hands on her friend.
“Do I have to put my hand on her back?”
“No, you can put it anywhere. Actually… just put your pinky on her shoulder,” Ryan replied.
Most of “J“‘s pain left. I put my hand on her back, commanded it to go and she said it was gone.
“Completely?”
“Yea!”
After we got our food, Ryan told them that they probably had one leg shorter than the other. “J” said that she was a personal trainer, and she knew for a fact that one of her legs was shorter. Both of their legs grew out, both of them felt it, and both of them were very interested in what we were doing.
They asked again, “How do you do it?”
At that point we just started preaching the kingdom. We talked about how healing wasn’t about a method, it’s about a person. How so many people are in a constant search to find peace. We told them that we have peace; peace is a person, not a state of mind. We started to preach Jesus and the fullness of Christ in believers (Col 2:8-10), that no other religion can say that they have found the ‘fullness of God’ except Christians.
They were interested. So I told “L”, who was a massage therapist, “So the next time you’re working with a patient, and you want to heal them, just say this, ‘Holy Spirit, if this is real, teach me how to do it’.
At that point, they told us that they had to get going. They were so excited about everything we told them.
You don’t realize how bright your light is until you get out in the darkness.
If you make ministry an event, it’ll never flow like a lifestyle.
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Our intent with the group is to provide a place for people to gather, develop relationships with each other, intentionally invest in each other, and learn to serve one another (learning to love by practicing).
A lot of times, people come to the meeting because they need healing in their body. Well, the mother of the lady whose house we were in, had been dealing with arthritis for 10 years.
From experience, and most of the cases of arthritis I’ve seen, she was more on the severe end. Her back was bent over, her arms looked stiff, she wasn’t the happiest person in the room…
Before I ministered to her, her arms could only go up about a fourth of the way up, she had trouble getting her arms straightened, she had intense pain even if you touched her hand, her back and shoulders hurt with the slightest movement…
That’s what I started with. Easy.
I’m a son of the King. I have Holy Ghost power flowing through me. Easy.
For the first 5 minutes, we didn’t see any change. I prayed probably ~10 times and each time, I would ask, “Is there any change?” She would consistently say, “It’s the same.”
When I first started out doing this stuff, hearing “it’s the same” would shake my confidence.
*crap I don’t see any change, that must mean it’s not working*
I still get the same thoughts running through my head even now, but I’ve learned how to not act on it and not let affect the way I see and the say I move forward.
We walk by faith, not by what we see. Faith doesn’t ignore what is seen. Faith just has a conviction that what you see will change.
Faith sees the end result from the beginning.
There were a few times, after checking herself, she would shake her head, look dejected and she would say, “Sorry…” and I would respond, “This has nothing to do with you, there’s no pressure, it’s not on you!”
Then finally, we saw progress. She said that her hands were hurting less, and her back/shoulders felt looser. I asked her specifically how much better, and she said her hands were 50% better.
I could tell she was very encouraged with the progress. It was a breath of fresh air after not seeing any change for what seemed like an eternity.
After the 50% progress, we kept going. We prayed again, commanding muscles/tendons/bones/ligaments to be healed, whole, and restored. I asked her, “Any change?” again. It looked like every bit of discouragement jumped back on her. She sighed and said, “No…”
She looked like she wanted me to stop, as if she couldn’t believe that I was willing to spend the time with her, so I said, “You’re worth it.” She sort of flinched as I said it. It seemed like she had a hard time believing it. For the next minute, I just kept saying over and over, “You are worth it. You’re in His family. You’re His daughter. You’re worth it. You’re worth it. You’re worth it.”
It took a bit, but it started to click for her. When it seemed like it registered for her, we continued. It was like a snowball effect after that. Before, she could only raise her arms a fourth of the way up. We prayed, it went to a third. Again, and it was half. Again and it was three-fourths. Again, and her range of movement was almost completely restored.
She was beaming after that. There was still some lingering pain in her hands at that point, but it was noticeably less. I quickly commanded the last bit of pain to leave, and it left instantly. To my knowledge, she was pretty dang close to 100% restored. We didn’t see the swelling in her joints decrease, but most of her functionality was restored.
After we were done, I told her to hug her husband the way she hasn’t been able to for 10 years. They hugged for a long while. It was a sweet moment.
Her daughter earlier mentioned to me that they had flown out to San Jose for this single purpose — to be healed.
“Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.” – Matthew 9:35
“ And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.” – Matthew 10:7-8
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What’s God’s will for my life?
Published September 16, 2011This was probably the most prominent question in my life when I was growing up as a believer…
I spent most of my time searching for this elusive “God’s will” whenever I was trying to figure out which direction to go.
Should I go to this event?
Should I choose this option or this option?
Which job should I take?
Which school should I go to?
And then in the midst of the decision that I picked, I hoped and hoped that I didn’t miss God, that I didn’t choose the wrong one and now I’m missing out on “God’s best” for my life.
Fear, regret, and cautiousness plagued my life rather than faith, thankfulness, and confidence.
I found the greatest freedom when I realized that God actually trusted me to make decisions.
When a son is growing up and asks his father, “Dad, what should I do when I grow up?” The father will probably say, “Son, you can do whatever you want! I will always love you be right behind you.”
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” – John 3:6-8
When I realized that the wind blows where it wishes, that the wind doesn’t ask God where it should blow, I realized freedom. No longer, paralyzed in fear of ‘missing God’, hesitant in making decisions, but now freedom realizing God is behind me in every choice that I make. I can’t go wrong.
And even if I pick the wrong one, my Father is wise enough and powerful enough to help me learn from it, and overcome my mistake. That’s the reason I was sent a Helper/Counselor/Comforter.
Obviously, there are choices that are good, choices that are better, choices that benefit in some ways and benefit in other ways.
But it’s the freedom of knowing… you can do anything. Yes, you can actually CHOOSE.
Regardless of how the situation unfolds, God’s able to work it out for the good, and He’s able to shine through you whatever the choice you make. Understanding this made me free to confidently make decisions knowing that I’m backed up by my Dad. I have no regrets about “what if I had chosen a different path?”
I make a choice, I represent my Father and what He stands for, and I rock it out. He’ll give me wisdom along the way, and I’ll dialogue with Him along the way.
This is a whole lot more freeing than “Ohh brother you want to be careful, you don’t want to miss God!“
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Lesson from Finland
Published September 10, 2011Two months ago, a few of my friends shipped me to Finland for 3 weeks to do there what I already do here.
I was surprised, since it was my first international trip that was at someone else’s request.
I lived with Samu (who I had never met up to that point) and his family for 2 weeks. I did 2 meetings during the first 2 weeks and then 2 more meetings during the last week. It was cool to get acquainted with the culture and see what the people were like.
Finland is a very developed nation, and from what I was told, people are very closed unless it’s a foreigner. Despite the internal culture, we still saw some people get rocked on the streets one guy even ditched his crutches after Samu ministered to him.
They organized 2-day conferences in each city I was in. It was definitely a stretch for me because they had me speaking up to 6-7 hours per day, granted, everything was translated so it took twice as long as normal.
Every session that I taught, with the exception of 2, was recorded on video. I already have 1 session put up on my YouTube channel and I’m in the process of editing some others.
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There is one thing that I did catch in Finland:
During one of the weekends, there was a music festival in Oulu.
So if you could imagine that whole area in the middle, along the water, and around those two large buildings, jam packed with hundreds of goth teenagers drinking, smoking, and just hanging out.
While Samu and I were just strolling around, I noticed something:
These goth kids know how to do family better than most Christians.
It didn’t matter where you came from, how old you were… as long as you looked like them, were interested in what they were interested, you were like family.
They had a community where they naturally cared and served one another because they considered each other family.
So it got me thinking. I basically realized that you can either spend all your time, deprogramming and then reprogramming Christians to do family, OR you can find a community of people who already know how to do family and then just bring the kingdom.
The latter sounds much easier, but it’s the one that I haven’t done much of… but a few examples of people who already know how to do family? High school (sports, clubs, extracurriculars), college frats, ethnic groups, gangs, prisons, AA.
Any place where people consistently spend time with each other has potential to be a place where a family-like community can exist. It’d be so easy to bring in a new message and watch the entire family shift as a whole.
We are currently in the midst of invading my old high school’s Christian club and potentially influencing the entire high school. It’s definitely one of the most hopeful projects that we have going on.
I think Bill Johnson really hit it when he said (paraphrase), “When you lose the concept of family, you lose the concept of the Kingdom.”
Family is the most natural place where love develops. Across every cultural boundary, the love of the Kingdom is frequently found where families are. Obviously, referring back to the teenage, smoking, and drinking community in Finland, doesn’t mean I think their lifestyle is ok… but the fact that they understand family is what I took from it.
This is a HUGE part of the Kingdom. But even beyond just learning to do family, Jesus takes it a step further… we’re to treat people like family with people who don’t love us back. Jesus was clear, anyone can love those who love them (Matt 5:46). To do the Kingdom is to love those who can’t love back, because that’s what He first demonstrated to us (Rom 5:8, 1 John 4:19)!
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Seeking What You Already Have
Published August 8, 2011originally posted here
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I’d be disappointed if I got married and my wife spent our entire marriage crying out for me to be with her. Don’t you remember our wedding when I promised never to leave you or forsake you?
People cry to God as if they’re divorced, never living like a marriage has taken place, continuously making vows to Him; never being taught of His vows to us.
Christianity is a life of celebration, not weeping; a life of enjoying, not seeking. Meaning, when you seek Him you find Him and you no longer need to continue seeking Him.
A couple weeks ago I was “seeking” a guitar. I found one. I went and got it.
I’m not on craigslist everyday for 3 hours seeking guitars like I was for a week. Why? Because I found my guitar, and I have my guitar… now I enjoy my guitar :].
Let me ask you this. Would it be ridiculous if I started making posts about how I’m seeking a heart, and seeking a liver, and seeking a kidney?
Yeah. People would call me crazy and say, “Why the hek are you seeking stuff that you already have inside of you?”
Do you think Tin-man continued seeking a heart after the Wizard gave him one? No.
Do you think the cowardly Lion continued seeking courage? No.
Do you think Scarecrow continued seeking 80’s style latex pants? Hek no.
Why not? Because they spent that whole 2 hour movie seeking that stuff, and then, they finally received what they had been crying out for the whole movie.
It would be ridiculous if, rather than enjoy something they had been LONGING for all of that time, they just decided to go on seeking it, ignoring what they now had.
People spent thousands of years seeking closeness/oneness with God. Then a nice little ‘Wizard of Nazareth’ came along and gave people what they had been seeking and crying out for the whole time. People were supposed to enjoy what they received after that, not act like they didn’t have it.
that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. - Philemon 1:6
The early church enjoyed what Jesus did, they didn’t try to get Him to do more.
I know what I’ve received, now I enjoy it. When I didn’t know what I had, yeah, I spent my life seeking it.
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Related Posts:
- Grace as a ‘License to Sin’ & God’s Disinterest in Our Sacrifice January 28, 2012
- Questioning Everything January 24, 2012
- Deception, Persecution, Freedom, & Dinosaurs January 20, 2012
- Incomplete Vs. Complete Forgiveness November 25, 2011
- 20 Rob Rufus Quotes On Law vs. Grace November 23, 2011
- When Kids Pray… November 20, 2011
- Five Ways Jesus Revealed Grace February 1, 2012
- Do Everything Jesus Said? January 29, 2012
- The Happy Gospel, by Benjamin Dunn January 24, 2012
- Jesus miracles at the hospital..Holy Ghost! January 31, 2012
- Stephanie’s crooked leg straightens out and she comes home to the Fathers house! January 27, 2012
- Incredible Jesus miracles and salvation! January 14, 2012
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