Tag Archives: Healing

Coronavirus: A Missionary’s Perspective

A missionary friend shared the following on social media yesterday in regards to the coronavirus. People all over the world are panicking. Information is conflicting, some of it very hopeful and some of it incredibly grim. While I have reasons why I believe it isn’t going to be half as bad as many projections, I think that regardless of what happens we need to have hope, walk in peace, and fix our eyes on the Great Physician. I hope the following, from someone who deals with the poor, the sick, and the downtrodden daily, offers a different perspective on how we can position our hearts toward faith:

 

“We are flying home today from India where at the moment it is far safer in regard to the spread of the virus- than it is in the US.

It’s interesting to watch as these world events unfold but even more interesting to see it from a third world perspective.

We have worked here, along with our 2 daughters when they were younger, for over 31 years. Mere words don’t do justice to the atrocities we have seen during our time here. Some so shattering we have never spoken of them.

When we felt the call to India we knew that call would take us to the lowest of the low, to those who lived in unspeakable squalor. Where sewage ran in the streets, cardboard and plastic were used as walls and ceilings- and along with the stench and the heat would come the flies. Thousands of flies.

Bear with me a moment as I share just one story with you. During the formative years of our ministry we found ourselves working in Calcutta. Where early mornings before the sun rose, dump trucks would work their way through the streets picking up and discarding the bodies of street people who had died overnight.

It was the stifling heat of one afternoon that drove us out of our hotel room and onto the streets. I held the hand of our little daughter as we meandered up and down the narrow pathways. After sometime we turned a corner to head back and suddenly realized we had stepped into a small leper colony. I think they were as shocked as we were. Everybody froze.

Without hesitation my husband extended his hand to shake the fingerless hand of one of the men. I reached out to hug one of the women with open sores, who then proceeded to break down and cry. When they realized someone was open to touch them, to hug them, they lined up and one by one they buried their faces into our chests and wept. We spoke no Hindi, they spoke no English but it did not matter. Enough was being said.

After some time we returned to our room, removed our dirty clothing, showered long, ordered tea and stared into the ceiling. We did not sleep that night and there have been many sleepless nights since.

From that day our journey has taken us to a place where we along with our teams work with sex-worker children who potentially have AIDS, with trash picker children who carry disease, and run a hospital that sees some of the worst of the worst—and as long as we can we will continue to do so.

So I said all of that to say (and please forgive me) I might be a little embarrassed right now.

Embarrassed by the hoarding of food in the US while the fight for us and many ministries here to feed slum children one meal a day is very real.

Embarrassed by the closure of church community at a time when community is needed now more than ever. While all the doors are shutting, I wish ours would remain open.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying I have not felt fear. I have felt fear for my 91 year old Mother living in Florida and my eight year old grandson living in Georgia. I have felt fear all my years of serving in India.

But fear does not own me like my faith does.

Don’t get me wrong. We DO need to operate in wisdom. We DO need to be prepared.

But we also need to be the light when it is the darkest. We need to have open hands, open hearts, open pantries and open doors.

This virus will dry up and go away as quick as it came. It will not survive.

I pray we can all look back with the satisfaction of knowing we did not miss this divine moment. I pray we see this obstacle as the opportunity that it really is.

I don’t know about you but I am personally tired of talking about church. I am tired of just going to church.
I want to BE the church.”

-Missionary Friend-

 

 

Soup and a Prayer – Prophetic Ministry in the Everyday

About nine years ago, I met Barbara and her husband Roy. She was admitted to the hospital for a stem cell transplant and we met at that time. She has since been cancer-free for many years, and we were able to reconnect years later when she tracked me down over social media.

Recently she shared an encounter she had as she was going about her day and just being intentional about hearing and obeying God as she went about her day. This is reminiscent to me of the directive that Jesus gave the disciples in Matthew 10:7-8 which says, “As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.” It wasn’t that she went to have a “full time ministry” job of some kind, but that she chose to be intentional about ministering to others in her “as you go” daily life. I hope the testimony below encourages you “as you go” about your daily life as well!

 

Soup and a Prayer

I am beyond excited. As I got in my car to run my errands I said okay Lord, put me on. What’s on your agenda? And immediately came to my mind was “Go to Shari’s and order a bowl of soup. There will be a man wearing a plaid jacket that I want you to pray for.”

I did my errands and waited for my ‘soup run’ at the end of that time, feeling that was the way I should go. Before I went into Shari’s I asked the Lord for specific conditions that I would be praying for. I wrote them down so I could show the man a page of things I had already written before I met him so it would just add to the authenticity of God’s divine direction.

I went in, found a table, and ordered my bowl of loaded potato soup. That’s a bowl mind you, as instructed, not a cup, and I couldn’t finish it all so brought half home for my husband Roy. I finished and went to check out and still hadn’t seen anyone who fit the description God gave me. As I sat waiting for my turn to pay and a man walked in to order a pie. He was wearing a plaid jacket!

After this man made his transaction I engaged him in conversation and told him basically what I told you. I asked him if he had any of the conditions that were on my list, which I showed him, and he said his wife was at home sick with vomiting . . . so I checked that off the list. Next came knee and back problems, both of which he had! I learned his name is Ben, and he’s a believer. I got to joyfully pray for him and encourage him.

it brings me to tears to think of the measures that God goes through to get people’s attention, to let them know how much they are loved. I told Ben, I said “Do you realize God has His eye on you, and how much he loves you that he would set it up for me to pray for you?” I let him know how extravagant God’s love was for him to send me to specifically seek Ben out so he could be prayed for and encouraged. I’m just saying this is the best half bowl of soup I’ve ever had. I’m jumping for joy!

Praying Medic’s Divine Healing Course

Dear Friends of The Rising Light,

I’m excited and happy to announce that my good friend Praying Medic’s long-awaited Healing Classes are now available!  It’s been a long road and a lot of work for him to put this training course together, but you can now enroll in classes that will help equip you to release divine healing.

The course is self-paced, which means you can do them all in a week or do one a week for fourteen weeks, or whatever fits your lifestyle.  You get a lifetime membership, so you can review and retake classes at any time.  And the homework?  Destroy powers of darkness.

If this sounds good to you, then click the link below to learn more and sign up.  I’ve already got my account—come join me!

Enroll Today:

divine healing prayingmedic supernatural signswondersmiracles holyspirit

Sign Up Here

 

Praying Medic has mentioned that he plans to make additional courses in the future on hearing God’s voice, seeing in the spirit, and more, so stay tuned for future updates on new and exciting opportunities to learn how to share God’s love with demonstrations of the Spirit’s power.

For those who are unfamiliar with Praying Medic, he has been a Paramedic for over three decades.  In 2000, while an atheist, he encountered Jesus in the bunk room of a fire station and that encounter radically changed the course of his life.  In 2008 the Lord spoke to him in a dream and told the Medic that He would heal his patients if he would be faithful to pray for them.  Praying Medic didn’t believe in healing at the time, but he began to pray.  In 2009 he began a blog, the Mobile Intensive Prayer Unit, to chronicle the work God was doing through healing and miracles around the world, as well as to share some of his own experiences of learning to move in healing and miracles.  Eventually he moved over to PrayingMedic.com.  After blogging for years, he published his first book in 2013 called Divine Healing Made Simple, and in 2016 he appeared on Sid Roth’s show Its Supernatural (the video is below).

He often writes about healing, but also covers dreams, deliverance, hearing God and seeing in the spirit, spiritual travel, politics and economics, and more.  He infrequently speaks at conferences and other training events, preferring to focus on writing books, podcasting, and now teaching online courses.

 

Looking Back at the IHOPU Student Awakening

Gabriel Russ, a former intern at IHOP KC, described his experience with the IHOP KC Student Awakening in a lengthy but touching blog article he wrote called “Looking Back at the IHOPU Student Awakening“.  This article is both compelling and touching, and it is my hope that even as you read it, you will be reminded of the kindness, grace, and love of our Heavenly Father who desires to heal, change, and restore our hearts.  The entire article, found originally at his website (see the link above) is posted below:

looking-back-ihopu-student-awakening

“The following is a biographical sketch of the awakening that touched the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Missouri. This was a move of the Spirit that was specifically significant for me in a personal way since I had the privilege of being involved from its beginning. As my season at IHOPU comes to a close I believe it would be appropriate to revisit some of those stories to stir my faith and the faith of those reading to believe for the Lord to do it in other regions of the earth to which certain ones in the body of Christ are being sent. I am convinced that we whom the Lord was pleased to give this move are called to release it into the nations. I think about the coming days when revival is in full stride on a global scale and the ones facilitating it are the very ones I locked arms with for four years and laid on the ground next to as the Holy Spirit was simultaneously reconstructing our hearts. Not everything about this awakening was perfect but its results are undeniable; hearts were set on fire for the gospel, physical healings were commonplace, and they will never be taken away. Many people will look back on that period of ten months and be able to say that their lives never were the same after then. Looking back myself I am overwhelmed with the honor I had in praying for certain ones, which resulted in them being transformed on the spot. Though I cannot remember who they were I can remember the random people who would come up to me a year or so after the awakening ended and would tell me that I had prayed for them at an awakening meeting and they met God. Above all it is a humbling experience to hear things like this. I hope once again to have my faith and the faith of those I come in contact with stirred to believe for another wave of the Spirit that will surpass the last. I believe that the awakening was just the beginning of a new season of revival that the Lord is going to release on the earth. The stories to follow are real accounts of what the Lord did in a period of ten months and are no limit to what He will do again.

On November 4, 2009, only a few months after the ten-year anniversary of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City (IHOPKC), the International House of Prayer University (IHOPU) was having their normal chapel service as they did on the first Wednesday of every month. It was at this time that the senior class had ended a forty-day fast asking for the Lord to come visit IHOPU with a move of His Spirit. The chapel service continued as normal and Allen Hood, the president of IHOPU, called for a time of testimonies. A girl by the name of Mai Aiello (now Mai Fink) took the microphone and began to tell of how the Lord had set her free from self-hatred. She told her story of how she had nearly been raped when she was younger and as a result had deep wounds of shame in her heart that had manifested physically in a digestive tract disorder. She had been in Montana at a healing service a few weeks before where a leader of the church had prayed for her digestive condition to be healed. It was later revealed that the root of this disorder was the brokenness of her heart that had developed a stronghold of shame and despair on her life. This same leader prayed for freedom from self-hatred and shame that had taken hold of her because of a past experience where a boy about her same age had attempted to rape her. When he prayed for her she was instantly set free of all shame and bitterness toward herself that had taken a hold of her heart and her digestive tract was restored instantly. After sharing this story she prayed for everyone in the room who wanted to be free from this stronghold of self-hatred. Many students that night experienced the same freedom that Mai had been given and thus the fire of the awakening had begun to spread.

I remember one particular night before November 11 when I was in the prayer room as a part of a requirement for my internship and there was a group of first-year IHOPU students in a side room who were being particularly noisy. Everyone’s curiosity was a bit stirred by this, which caused the pacing lane in front of the door to the side room to become fairly crowded. Curiosity got the best of me and I eventually ventured into the side room to see what all the commotion was. The door closed behind me and I was instantly met with hands being laid all over my torso. I immediately felt the presence of the Holy Spirit in the room and on my body. There really was a sense of overwhelming peace that came over me. I wasn’t really sure what was happening but it was evident that the Lord was moving.

A week after the chapel service classes at IHOPU resumed as normal and on November 11, 2009 Wes Hall prepared to teach on Israel in the first-year class called Forerunner Curriculum. Nobody had any inkling as to what would happen on this day. At nine in the morning when class began Wes felt prompted by the Lord to wait on the Holy Spirit. This resulted in students being massively touched by the Lord and finding their identity in Him. “Some were lying on the floor, others were weeping, and some were laughing,” said Hall, who led the class with Allen Hood, president of the ministry school.[1] Wes Hall who was a lawyer from England and was normally very reserved was on this day described as “walking like a chicken”[2] and being weighed down by the presence of the Lord. Wes described the event saying he was hanging on to the pulpit and kneeling because he could not stand. He even said that if the pulpit had not been there he would have been prostrate on the floor of the stage. News of this outpouring spread rapidly to the rest of the missions base and soon hundreds of people were joining the class late in the afternoon that was scheduled to dismiss at noon. This meeting would last for over fifteen hours with testimonies of physical and emotional healings happening constantly.

News spread to the entire IHOPKC community that something unusual was happening at the Forerunner Christian Fellowship (FCF) auditorium Just about 2 miles down the road from the main Global Prayer Room (GPR). It was early afternoon and the One Thing Internship (OTI) that I was a part of was in our normal core class. This is where I first learned about the meeting that was taking place down the road and I was not a little curious about what exactly was going on. That night the GPR went on as normal and the 24/7 prayer meeting continued. A group of interns and myself begged our intern director, Ron Downing, to allow us to go to FCF instead of our prayer room commitment. He declined our request and stressed the importance of keeping our sacred commitment to be in the prayer room. All of us decided however to hold our own prayer meetings in side rooms where we experienced the joy and delight of the Lord. The ushers – whose duty it was to keep the prayer room quiet in order to maintain a sacred atmosphere of prayer – didn’t know what to do with us. Some demanded that we keep quiet while others came into the side rooms and were overwhelmed with the joy of the Lord and thus unable to continue ushering. Ashley Prior was leading worship at 8pm that night and she and her team became overwhelmed by the power of the Spirit. It was evident that the outpouring they were experiencing at FCF was not contained by those four walls but had spread to anyone who was hungry for it.

We were all pleased to learn that at 10pm that night the leadership of IHOPKC had planned to relocate the GPR to the FCF building for the remainder of the night. Our curfew for our internship was normally 12:15am but for this particular night Ron allowed us to be at the meeting until 4am. I remember the first night being like nothing I had ever seen before. People everywhere were laid out on the floor completely lost in the presence of the Holy Spirit, others had the appearance of being intoxicated (often referred to as “drunk in the Spirit”), and some were shaking uncontrollably. There was also another group of people who felt nothing and even were laughing at and making fun of those who were being touched physically. It was an unusual night to say the least but was filled with power and freedom. I remember the entire back row section where the bleachers are being one long “fire tunnel” where anyone who was passing through was immediately apprehended by a dozen intercessors releasing the fire of the Spirit on them.

The next day signs were posted on the doors of the prayer room, which read something like this, “Due to the unusual move of the Spirit the prayer room will move to the FCF auditorium tonight at 6pm.” That day my internship had our normal “Burn Class” with Corey Russell, one of the senior leaders at IHOPKC and attributed with his fiery personality and passion for the knowledge of God. Instead of teaching he called for a time of ministry. I went forward with many others with a desire to know God as my Father. A young man laid his hand on me and I instantly fell on the floor and was overwhelmed with the love of my Father and began crying out loudly and testifying, “I am a son of God! I am a son of God” That same day some interns gathered around me and prayed for my legs to grow longer (I have always wanted to be taller) and that day I grew an entire inch! It is hard to explain what actually happened in me but I remember laying my head down to sleep that night and being overwhelmed with a sense of security. The only way I know how to explain it is that I felt as though I had been an orphan my entire life, had just been adopted, and was spending my first night in my new parents’ home.

The following week – all IHOPU classes being cancelled – the leadership of IHOPKC decided to hold nightly meetings from 6pm-12am and introduced the name they were giving the movement as the “IHOPU Student Awakening.” IHOPKC soon released the following statement on their website: “The Lord began an awakening amongst our students on November 11, 2009. Since that time, we have been holding extended meetings as the Lord continues to pour out His presence. Before November 11, the Holy Spirit began moving in the hearts of the students to prepare them for this move of God. The students passed through a season of confessing sins, repenting, and engaging in several twenty-one-day, student-led fasts.”[3] They began with a two-week trial run of meetings from Wednesday-Saturday from 6-12 and then made the decision to continue these meetings until the Lord told them to stop.

Wes Hall and Allen Hood were placed in main leadership of the movement and were the facilitators of the meetings. During the awakening a new department was introduced called the Testimonies department. There was a section closed off during the meetings with stacks of paper on clipboards available to anyone who had a testimony of healing or deliverance to write down and it was documented in IHOPKC’s records. Most of the testimonies that came out of the awakening were a result of people who were in the congregation praying for those who raised their hand to receive prayer. Wes and Allen prayed for a few people but mostly the Lord was working through His entire body. As these testimonies began being shared it became evident that the Holy Spirit was not only moving in the small community of IHOPKC but was visiting the city of Kansas City.

On one occasion there was a man who worked at a casino in downtown Kansas City who had begun backsliding from the Lord. He also had issues with his wrist and was in constant pain. One night he was considering how he should return to the Lord and saw a shuttle bus from IHOPKC and decided to follow it. The shuttle led him to the FCF auditorium where the awakening service was being held as normal. He walked into the service and was a little surprised by what he saw to say the least. People gathered around him and began praying for him, which resulted in his wrist being healed instantly. He rededicated his life to the Lord and, after sharing his testimony, Wes Hall prayed for him, he fell to the floor, and was laying on the stage for about an hour under the power of the Holy Spirit.

There was another girl named Ashley who was a part of the One Thing Internship that took place after my internship had ended. The entire internship after mine was a quite interesting one actually in that many salvations and much deliverance took place among its members. Ashley had come to IHOPKC from Texas drunk or high and wanted nothing to do with Jesus. She had been raped about a month prior to coming to do the One Thing Internship and had developed a deep sense of self-hatred, which caused her to give herself over to a lifestyle of drugs and alcohol. She had done this to rid herself of all the bad memories of her past that were constantly oppressing her. When she arrived at IHOPKC against her will she was not happy with what she encountered. She was convinced that the place was a cult and began contacting her sister who had forced her to come and begged her to get her out. She eventually came around and thought she would try this thing out, so she had her core leader, Rachel Weyman, pray for her. As soon as Rachel prayed for her the memories she had of her past were completely gone. She would try to think of a negative memory from the past and was unable to do so. All she could see was what she described as whiteness. Before she was set free Ashley said that she had a vision of Jesus standing before her with His arms open telling her all she had to do was run to Him. In the vision she was literally unable to move though she wanted to run to Him. After being set free she was presented with the same vision but this time she ran to Him and embraced Him. After this, she and Jesus began break-dancing together. The last part sounds unusual but it was a testimony to Ashley that Jesus actually cares about things she cares about and loves her for who she is. I do not have time nor space to tell of the rest of the testimonies that took place within the One Thing Internship alone. It may be safe to say that the entire internship got saved though.

The main message that was released in the awakening was that Jesus doesn’t only love His people; He likes us. Allen Hood began trumpeting the message of Isaiah 62 where the Lord speaks to Israel saying, “…You shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord will name. You shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no longer be termed Forsaken, nor shall your land any more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the Lord delights in you, [4] After this message was given people everywhere began writing on their bathroom mirrors the word “Hephzibah” to remind themselves of the way Jesus sees them. This was the reason for all the miracles that were taking place. Jesus was healing thousands of people physically and emotionally not because we were begging Him to – we weren’t – but it was rather because He genuinely delights in us and wants His people walking in wholeness. This was the message preached almost every night but it never got old. It wasn’t just words being articulated by a gifted preacher, but it was a real message that was being confirmed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The leadership of the movement did well to give the Holy Spirit room to move from what I saw. Wes Hall gives his own take on his experience as a leader in an interview on March, 9, 2013. “I think the biggest challenge as a leader is you want to take your responsibility seriously as part of an organization but you want to let the Holy Spirit move as freely as He can. And sometimes it’s walking that tension where the Holy Spirit wants to move and you take the microphone. [You have to trust] the Holy Spirit to do what He loves to do; that’s the hardest thing to do. I think sometimes the Holy Spirit [wanted] to do things and I took the microphone too soon to be honest. I think when you’re the leader you can end up taking yourself too seriously and end up jealously guarding something that you feel passionate about, not even realizing that the Lord is jealously guarding it more than you are. [The biggest temptation is to] adopt behavior styles and ways of acting that you did spontaneously under the anointing of the Holy Spirit without thinking about it. And you want to get back to that place so somehow it’s in your subconscious that ‘If I do these things, if I move this way, if I speak these phrases the Holy Spirit will move in the same way.’ It becomes a ritual. It becomes like a religious spirit [and we think] if we do these things the Holy Spirit will move in this way. If we stand and say ‘Come Holy Spirit’ the Holy Spirit will move. It’s not rooted out of malice, it’s rooted in hunger to see the Lord move more. But the reality is when God wants to move He’s going to move. I can’t manipulate God, I can’t make God do something He is not doing. The biggest thing is recognizing when the season is birthed and recognizing when it’s over and moving with the Lamb.”[5]

Opposition arose to the movement from certain ones accusing IHOPKC of being a cult and brainwashing their students. Some were saying that the spirit that was being poured out was a demonic outpouring and warnings went out on the Internet to anyone who would read them to stay away from the Awakening. More research reveals that those speaking out against the movement had a problem with the ministry of Mike Bickle to begin with. Thus their views were biased at best. The biggest opposition however was not that the outpouring was demonic but that there was no outpouring at all and was simply man-made hype. Mike Bickle answered this accusation by admitting that some people would act in the flesh but concluded that this fact does not annul this move of God. Regardless of these oppositions the awakening continued to strengthen and its influence increased. Testimonies began coming in via the Internet of people who were watching on the live Webstream or on GodTV. Some testimonies of people being raised from the dead were given in this way.

On October 9, 2010 the leadership of IHOPKC ended the nightly awakening meetings after many of the senior leaders heard from the Lord each individually that it was time to bring them to a close. The awakening meetings were discontinued in order to take a step back and prepare for the next greater wave. Mike Bickle released this statement at the end of the meetings: “The awakening leadership received a word from the Lord from several people, leading them to the conclusion that it was time to discontinue the awakening services for a season. At that time, the nightly meetings were full of life and full of people, yet Wes Hall, Allen Hood, and the awakening leadership team responded in obedience to the word from the Lord. It is very unusual for leaders to stop such meetings when they are full and successful by every human standard. The fruit from laboring for eleven months in this time of awakening (November 2009 to October 2010) is very good. We received over 6,000 testimonies of emotional and physical healing from all over the world and we have had the privilege of baptizing over 1,700 people. I am very proud of the excellent leadership of Wes Hall and Allen Hood and their team. The IHOP–KC family is in a much better place because of their labors.” Unlike other movements in the past the awakening ended at the choice of the leadership and no scandal was involved. So now, nearly three years after the end of the awakening things have returned to normal, but the expectation for another move is always on the minds of IHOPKC staff and students. Though the meetings have ended the awakening still continues and we wait for the Lord to move again.”

 


[2] I have heard Wes describe himself in this way many times

[3] The IHOP blog –the official video of the IHOPU student awakening (link no longer active)

[4] The New King James Version. 1982 (Is 62:2–4). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

[5] Wes Hall quoted on March 9, 2013

 

Amazing Miracles in America

Recently Torben Søndergaard came from his home nation of Denmark to visit the United States. Here is what happened:

It really doesn’t matter where Torben goes. He sees miracles wherever he goes. On his website, TheLastReformation.com, you can see miracles wherever he visits whether that be Burger King or Walmart. Why do miracles happen wherever Torben goes? It’s because he walks in Jesus Christ and has the Spirit of God in him and… he knows it!

Torben is not content to bring Jesus and God’s miracles wherever he goes. Torben has dedicated his life to also teaching other people how to walk in Christ Jesus to bring God’s love and miracles to the whole world. In August 2013, Torben will start teaching a free online course so he can mentor as many people as possible! Hope you sign up — I know I’ll be there!

Here are a few of the many videos on Torben’s YouTube Channel