A lot has happened since my last update in May.I have been busy with prison ministry, street ministry and planning several upcoming trips to the mission field in Mexico, Africa (2 planned trips in 2010) and possibly The Philippines and India.
I have also spent a considerable amount of time in equipping others in healing and prophetic evangelism.
I recently made another trip to Minnesota to train, teach and equip the saints there on the subjects of walking in the Spirit, personal healing and prophetic evangelism, and on the necessity of walking in love, both toward the saints AND toward our enemies.
As soon as I stepped off the plane in Minneapolis, the brother who picked me up at the airport (Jackson) and I decided to redeem the time and engage in some street evangelism. We first conversed with a man from Liberia who was sitting in front of the courthouse. After a few minutes we could see that the Spirit of God was convicting him of sin, righteousness and the Judgment to come. After a short time, he went down on his knees and, to all appearance, surrendered himself to Christ.
A little later, we were approached by a big man who was wearing gang paraphernalia. He was a very huge, tall man. Jackson handed him a gospel tract. He looked at it and said, "praise the Lord!". When he said that, I heard sadness in his voice. Immediately, I began to see into his life in a way the was surprising and even astonishing to all of us. I told him that God showed me that he was a backslider, and that God was trying to rescue him from certain death! I said to him, "Last night, your wife begged you to surrender to Christ! But, you put her off. You told her you need to get over the financial 'hump" that you're facing first, and THEN you will get things right with God! Someone has offered you a lage bag of something illegal to sell to get you out of a financial bind, but if you go through with it it will cost you your life, and your immortal soul!" He looked astonished, and told us he had his wife on the cell phone. He said, "Every hair on my body is standing up! Everything you just said is all true! Are you listening to this baby? Here let me put you on 'speaker-phone'".
Over the next 20-30 minutes, revelation, word of wisdom and word of knowledge continued to flow through me . It was incredible! This man suddenly dropped to his knees and began to repent and confess his sins! You could hear his wife weeping over the speaker-phone! Before we left him, we prayed for him, that God would strengthen him with might, by his Spirit, in the inner-man... When we prayed that, suddenly, without any expectation of it, he began to speak with tongues and shake violently! Hallelujah!!!
Before we left him, we exchanged phone numbers, and finally went our way. As we turned to leave, Andrew took off his expensive hat (it represented his gang affiliation), hung it over the parking meter and walked away.
The next day, Jackson and I arrived at the camp site, where a group of men were gathering to be trained and equipped. We spend the evening with them in prayer and worship, and afterward I shared with the brothers. Again, the "word of knowledge" began to operate through me, and I pointed to a man seated across from me as we sat around the campfire as the Spirit began convicting him about his backsliding. In a few moments, this man burst into tears and trembled all over with emotion. Within a short time, he [began to confess, repent and surrender himself to Christ. Afterward, he, along with several others, received a powerful baptism in the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues!
The next day, Andrew, the big man who had gotten saved on the street in Minneapolis, called me and asked if he could come to where we were, which was about an hour from Minneapolis. We said, "of course!" and Jackson gave him directions over the phone. When he arrived later that afternoon, we allowed him to share his testimony, to the astonishment of the other brothers who were there.
Many very interesting things occurred during my time there. Time and space will not allow me to share all the details. But to sum it up: many backsliders returned to their 'first-love", many saints received a powerful baptism in the Holy Spirit, sinners were brought into the kingdom of God and many saints were equipped for the ministry of reconciliation. To God be the glory!
Andrew invited us to stop by his home on our way back to the airport on the final day of our visit. He wanted us to meet his wife and family, and she was very excited to meet us. While there, his wife received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and his sister-in-law, who was a prostitute, and his mother-in-law, fell on their knees on Andrew's back porch-deck, and with tears, surrendered themselves to Christ. As soon as I arose from my knees in praying with these two precious souls, Andrew informed me that it was time to go to the airport.
