Thank you to everyone who helped us make our recent seminar so successful! Wow! It was really a ‘best case scenario’ but what I am really excited about is to see the fruit that will soon come of it!
But you know what, when I began to be able to hear God talk to me in conversations I became very nervous that what I had been previously taught by men might all just be wrong. When I heard Jesus explain his word and share his mind on several scriptures, the clarity and insight with which he spoke made me suspect that many of the things I had learned about the Five Fold ministry, prophecy and church administration were simply man’s ways. The more Jesus spoke with me the more unsure I became of topics he had not explained to me. I would simply tell people, this and that may be true but until God explains it to me I have no idea if it’s really right or wrong! It took me about ten years like this to understand the Kingdom, to understand what an Apostle was, to understand even some simple ideas. But I would just ask Jesus, They told me an apostle is this or that, but what do YOU say it is … but on some of these key topics he was just oddly silent. He was teaching me, he was answering me in fact, but by demonstrating the answer to me. And in some cases it took many years.
A Unique Task – A Unique Message
Also God was training me to deliver a specific message to his Body, a unique task he told me that most people do not have. Most people are not given “a message” but instead they are given a role or a task in a way, not ONE specific message to deliver. And when we minister together Ann would get so much personal prophecy and even hear people’s private thoughts and prayers … but God would not tell me anything new. Some ministry nights God would tell me NOTHING at all the whole night, except yes we was guiding me as I shared from the many hundreds of revelations he already gave me, and was telling me what to share, what not to share, and even how to share it sometimes … but when Ann starts praying she would get an hour of very intimate personal prophecy for anyone and everyone, and I began to feel like something was wrong with me. Was I unable to hear God’s voice anymore like I used to?
Then one time we were praying for some new visitors and I asked God to tell me what this one particular boy needed prayer for and God flat out said, “I won’t tell you.” So good, I was hearing God speak clearly alright, but he was just choosing not to tell me anything! Then he said, “If you want to know his personal needs, ask Ann.” So ok, it began to make sense … I had just shared for an hour on so many personal revelations and visions and conversations with Jesus and I was leading the movement of the ministry to do like Paul said, to Demonstrate the Spirit’s Power and also to Teach the Mysteries His Spirit has revealed to us … but I remembered God wanted me to share the work load and really divided the tasks up into two areas, one of me and one for Ann. In fact, when Ann first came to help me I remember God asking me to divide the anointing of the mantle of the mission into TWO and to give her half. He later said knowing personal prophecy about people was distracting me from my task which was to share the revelation of the Kingdom and the administration of the gospel and that no one else could do it, and so I needed to stay focused on doing my part and completing my part of the work. We each have a unique task to do, and the Body only comes to maturity ‘as each does their part.’
The Seminar was Amazing …
Anyway, we overcame several personal obstacles to prepare for this seminar. The material I wrote was 120 book pages long but condensed from about 400 pages of material, and printed 12 copies all organized and formatted in three different ways for three different purposes …. then we got the money we needed, which is still very tight most of the time and with a house of 20 mostly teenagers you can imagine how much money we need for food every day! Anyway then we had to travel 9 hours by ferry, then an hour more by motorbike up into a remote area to train people we barely know to walk in the Power of the Kingdom … I was actually very nervous.
We got there and I asked Ann to pray for me and she knew everything I was thinking! Why are you so nervous?! How can I NOT be nervous? But you know the material better than anyone and wrote all of it yourself! Yes, but what if I’m wrong? I quoted Paul going to Jerusalem to set his revelation before the other apostles to make sure he had not been teaching in vain all this time. I said I have never heard any other human teach maybe 75% of what I am teaching and it makes me nervous. I just want to do a good job. I don’t want to make any mistakes. This is important! Stop being nervous she said–no sympathy! Just get over it, you’ll be fine!
Adapting and Making Changes on the Fly!
And normally we teach first about hearing God’s voice, but I started to skip the first teaching and jump right in with a demonstration first. This helps to get people over false doctrine road blocks that are very common in some people. We take four or five people randomly from the group and sit them in chairs in front and help them open their spiritual eyes to begin to interact with the Lord in Spirit. They then share their testimony and people are blown away! But God told me we can’t do it this time like that. I was going to start with this kind of “fellowship in Spirit” ministry time and then later would explain what we just did, but God said again we can’t because the people need prayer first.
And yes we normally do a token kind of “rebuking the enemy” prayer when we start to help people open their spiritual eyes and never had a problem in years of doing this kind of ministry but it seemed that God was warning me this was not going to be normal and so this wouldn’t work. The teaching Jesus gave me focuses on a few key revelations: one is Grace as the Power to overcome (it does not mean forgiveness), one is the conversation explaining Isaiah 61 (which is the model of our New Life he said as we experience restoration of inner healing, deliverance and enlightenment, etc.), another is the Mind of Christ … but also at the center of this teaching is HOW the Holy Spirit trained Paul to minster which he shared in 1 Corinthians 2.
By combining Isaiah 61 (we are sent to heal the broken hearts, release the captives, give sight to the blind, etc) and 1 Corinthians 2 (come in a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, etc) we come to a key component of the ministry that leads people to be able to embrace the Kingdom — experiencing the actual ministry of binding up the broken hearted, which we call inner healing. It is not in talking about it, not encouraging people to have a good cry once in a while, not counseling or–God forbid–psychology! This is brought about by EXPERIENCING the power of God in the Holy Spirit moving as he flows over open hearts to heal deep wounds, often hidden wounds in people’s private secret hearts. It is painful, briefly, but the freedom it brings will last eternally He told me. It is not blanket prayers or affirmations or memory verses, because he told me strongholds must first be dealt with and so people each need a personal experience and personal ministry directed by the Holy Spirit … that’s why general prayers don’t work to accomplish this kind of transformation, its because the strongholds in their lives must be dealt with first he said. So this kind of ministry takes time and personal attention to be effective. This is one reason why this seminar needed to be small, but also why it has to be very personal.
So how do we lead people to be able to interact with the Holy Spirit in their open spiritual eyes if their hearts are still so broken they can’t let him get near? Simple. We can’t. The people God had chosen to come to this seminar all live way up in the mountains and lead quite austere and at times quite difficult lives. The burdens they carry daily would crush most people. But they carry them cheerfully for the most part, but they are still burdens. So as I began to understand the needs of the people chosen to come to this seminar we shifted our ministry to indulge them in inner healing for as long as we needed to before coaching them to open their spiritual eyes and teach the mystery of God revealed to us. God said they needed prayer first, and not 2 minutes of token, blanket platitudes, but real, deep, heart-healing, gut cleansing, Spirit-moving deliverance and healing. And we let God move and so God himself provided for the needs of his people.
What’s the evidence of God moving? Well, first the music team could not show up. The pastor’s wife said she could play guitar, but just a little, and another lady there could sing, but just a little. I prayed and God said, Ha! This is my will! It’s not an accident! I chose her to do this! I saw it as an accident we were adapting to, but God had planned it this way! It soon became clear why. All they could do was worship with just a few simple songs but with 100% sincere and honest devotion. It was the kind of purity of unadorned worship that the Holy Spirit adores.
We asked people to focus their attention on the Lord, to open the eyes of their hearts, and then to fix the eyes of their hearts on Jesus … and yes a few saw his glorious Light and felt his presence, but few were able to interact with him much. But we kept them in this active kind of prayer focus while we prayed for people one by one and when we did they began crying under the healing presence of the Holy Spirit. We didn’t tell them we were going to be praying for inner healing! It just started rolling over them. Then a few other people came in late and walked right in and also began crying! I didn’t know if it was real or they were just doing what everyone else was doing, but as I asked them one by one what was happening they said they were seeing the Lord and he was touching their hearts in wounded areas they were normally hiding away from him.
Forgiveness …
One young man began yelling loudly and I came over to him to ask what was going on and he began to speak: It was Jesus! he said. Jesus was telling him HE MUST FORGIVE, HE MUST FORGIVE, Oh! It was so painful when he spoke, and the man was yelling in pain as Jesus was talking with him! He told me some of the things Jesus was telling him about his unforgiveness and was helping him let go of the deep, deep pain and anger. Wow, that was deep ministry! Afterwards his spiritual eyes were opened and he began to interact with the Lord more freely. God knows what we need and is leading us to draw near to him but first has to make the path or the ‘way of the Lord’ in our hearts straight!
Deliverance and Restoration
Another lady looked very hard. Her face looked dark and she smiled but it looked forced. You can see years of hardship in some people’s faces. The darkness is an indication of witchcraft and trauma. But then she began to vomit. She kneeled over and spit up and lurched and heaved up from the depths of her inner man, the pit of her stomach, the inner chambers of her belly and God was delivering her from yes, witchcraft attacks and trauma. People knew her and said she has very severe hardships and trials often. God was healing and delivering her as only he can. After giving her many tissues, and cleaning up the floor and recovering from the gut-wrenching ministry her face began to GLOW. Her smile looked so real and motherly and I saw love like a real mother’s love in her bosom to comfort and love God’s people. It was hidden before, but when God restored her the beauty of his love IN her began to shine. Later he said she was going to be a prophet and powerful in prayer and intercession.
Jesus once told me he wants to restore his broken fortress of Zion. I saw him over Jerusalem and it was in RUINS! How can we repair this fortress? He held out one dusty brick in his loving hands and said, We can restore it one brick at a time … We are living stones being built into a temple for the habitation of the Lord! This is what Jesus was doing to her, restoring this one brick in his temple so she can now carry his presence for his glory that was now shining through her. What a wonderful ministry to be a part of! And truly may Jesus be eternally praised! Amen!
Restoration is the Training
But yes a few people began to interact with the Holy Spirit in meaningful visions, but just a few. What I expected would take 20 or 30 minutes of ministry before we got to our real purpose I thought, ended up taking all evening until quite late. We even started Day Two by continuing the ministry of Day One–it took over half of our planned time together and was not even a planned part of the ministry! But this is what was needed to train their leaders to function in the flow of the Power of the Holy Spirit which they can now do to help minister to the needs of the rest of the church community.
Another lady was very special God said, and when I got near her she was only talking in tongues. She is leading one of the new church plants. I coached her to focus on Jesus and ask him a few poignant questions, (Who do you say you are? … Who do you say I am? … Do you love me?) and she did, but only in tongues. And I asked her to tell me what Jesus was saying in answer to her questions and she told me, but only in tongues. Jesus told me she was special and to give her space. Later when we shared she said she didn’t see heaven but saw Jesus standing on a hill that she knew was Zion. He was on a beautiful hill talking to her for a long time but no, she did not see heaven. Really, I asked? Where exactly is Zion? Is that on the earth somewhere? Hmmm. She looked confused until she realized it WAS heaven she was seeing but she just didn’t understand it at the time. We had a good laugh!
Another man, also a pastor, saw the Lord, saw parts of heaven and even saw his house in heaven but only from a distance. He was not ready to get closer than that yet. He will. He did the next day I think, or certainly buy the 3rd day but I’ll get to that soon. His wife was crying. I asked her to ask Jesus, Who do you say you are, Who do you say I am? … I forget the answer to the first question but the second one completely left her undone. He simply told her she was his faithful servant. She began bawling. He said she was faithful, forgiven and loved by him deeply but it seemed like she harbored a deep sense of guilt and unworthiness maybe. I asked her to ask him again a few times to clarify his feelings towards her. This was no longer doctrine but when he speaks to your open heart you have no filter to process it, because we now with unveiled face are beholding the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the image we are beholding, from Glory to glory. She was so deeply released from guilt and condemnation, questions I KNOW her doctrines answer but her head (doctrines) and heart (experience) didn’t line up. God can heal us from lies of the heart so our hearts can experience the doctrines we believe in our heads, and they can become aligned he told me. She was very deeply touched by ministry the Holy Spirit initiated and lead on His own without me knowing what he was going to do for her. We must minister in a demonstration of the Spirit and Power of God! We must let the grace (power) of God ministry ALONGSIDE of us, let him move WITH us! Amen! The results are awesome!
Teach by Example
So the first day of our teaching seminar I didn’t do any teaching. I shared a little afterwards and people were red-eyed from crying so much, several were clearly delivered and set free and everyone, minus no one, was touched by the undeniable presence of God. I call that 100% success!
What was really cool also for me was to see Ann go from person to person leading the personal interactive ministry. She normally just prophesies to them but this time took it one step further and was being guided by the Holy Spirit into leading people to an interactive experience ahead of me, following the Spirit prophetically as you call it and going ahead of them to lead them into their own personal interactions. And then she would tell me, ‘Oh she sees this and that and needs prayer for that and this,’ and let me follow up to minister to them as God showed her according to her revelation. We are a good team!
So what was also good about this was the real needs of the people were met in a way to prepare them to receive more the next session. We don’t need people to UNDERSTAND being healed, we first just want them to EXPERIENCE being healed! The explanation and understanding can come later. But this is also the very thing Jesus taught us to teach them, so we were actually DOING what we HEARD Jesus say was the right way to minister! It is the DOERS who get blessed! So it was an object lesson in what we were about to teach them the next day as to the right way they need to minister to other people! And we didn’t even plan it this way!
So Day One was a huge success. Nothing went to our original plan … but everything went perfectly as God had planned it … Amazing. We left late, drove 30 minutes down the mountain to rest and so ended day one …
… to be continued …