Present Day Encounters with God
Real encounters that have brought on-the-spot healing, release, deliverance and solutions
for people in need around the world.
Introduction
This is "Ministry Like Jesus" in action, in all sorts of places, not just in church or at conferences.
The idea is that anyone can do ministry like Jesus; after all, that's what He said and taught.
The first thing you will notice is that we don't pray for people during ministry.
We don't pray for the sick or other people needing a touch from God because, as far as Scripture goes, there is no evidence that Jesus ever prayed for anyone during ministry. Nor is there any evidence, even though Jesus claimed that His Father did all of the healing work, that He ever asked His Father for a miracle.
Instead, we follow what Jesus taught but which most people don't practice: we speak to the problem and tell it to go, and it goes. Actually, these days we don't even do that: instead, we get the person needing ministry to speak the words themselves and lo and behold, it works!
I frequently ask pastors who pray for the sick what their on-the-spot success rate is, and it varies from 1 in 10 to 2 in 5. When we do ministry like Jesus we can expect to see the same sort of results that He did: around 97% of people will be healed on the spot. The rate is the same whether the ministry is in person, or by text or phone.
This Is Agnes, Just After God Healed Her - Part 1
Agnes is the wife of Bishop Martin Gwila, who was hosting us at a pastors’ conference in Duka Bovu in Tanzania, which started on Wednesday, August 2. As usual, the pastors would be primarily hearing about “The Equality of Men and Women.”
See: www.thechurch.solutions/equality
She met us at the church on Tuesday with their sound guy for a preliminary look around.
I started to speak prophetically about a few of the sort of things that would be covered. They were agreeably surprised and, as often happens, laughing along as well.
Then, after five minutes or so, I changed tack.
“God’s going to heal people as well. People are going to be healed in this room, standing here, sitting here,” I said, as I motioned generally towards some chairs near the back.
I moved towards the front and turned.
“People are going to get healed just by walking in here.” Two women walked past the wide-open door so I added, “Even people outside, just walking by, are going to get healed.”
“It’s not me, I can’t heal anyone,” I went on, “it’s God, the Father.
“Jesus said the same. In John’s Gospel He said that He could do nothing of Himself, that it was the Father in Him who was doing the works.”
Martin, my interpreter, interrupted me.
“Agnes wants you to pray for her for healing.”
I turned to her, smiling, and said, “I’m not going to pray for you. Jesus didn’t pray for the sick.”
This Is Agnes, Just After God Healed Her - Part 2
(Agnes, the wife of the host bishop at a pastors’ conference due to start the following day, has just asked me to pray for healing for her as I was giving a rundown of sorts of some of the things God would do over the course of the week. I politely declined, as always.)
Martin, my interpreter, interrupted me.
“Agnes wants you to pray for her for healing.”
I turned to her, smiling, and said, “I’m not going to pray for you. Jesus didn’t pray for the sick.”
(See: www.thechurch.solutions/ministry)
The thought flashed through, “She should wait for tomorrow,” and then went as quickly as it had come.
The problem with praying for the sick is threefold:
It tends to put the focus on the person who is praying if the person is healed;
It tends to put the ‘blame’ on the person
or God if they are not healed: “It wasn’t God’s timing,” or “If you have faith God will heal you,” are frequently heard; Jesus didn't say that to anyone, ever.
Jesus didn’t pray for the sick.
In John 14:12 Jesus is recorded as saying that if we follow the same methods He used, any believer will see the same results that He did. Check it out now.
“What’s the problem?” I asked her.
“It’s my leg,” and she indicated from the left thigh down. “I was standing on the platform last Sunday and the pain was terrible. It’s been like this for six months.” She moved to the front row chair and sat down.
“It’s worse in a chair. I can just sit like this,” feet flat on the floor, “but I can’t move my foot forward.” She moved her foot forward a little, pulled it back again with a strange look on her face, and then extended her leg until it was horizontal.
“It’s healed,” she exclaimed, with a surprise and joyous look all in one.
She tested it out in several different ways and positions.
“I’m healed, it’s my faith, I asked God to be healed today when you were talking,” she said confidently.
“I don’t know about faith; how much faith did Lazarus have while he was dead in the tomb?” She agreed with me that he would have had none.
“It’s more like the woman with the issue of blood. She heard from God what she was to do to be healed, and she pushed in to do just that. You did the same.”
Faith is not just believing, it’s actually doing something. James, the younger brother of Jesus, got that part right! Faith, just believing something, achieves nothing without appropriate, matching actions. That’s James 2:26
In the end I did nothing except point to the One who does it all.
(When we do ministry like Jesus, around 97% of people get healed or set free on the spot. We hear back later that some of the 3% who leave with the condition are fully free within, usually, a matter of days. The rest we never hear from, much like in Jesus' day.
For details about this ministry that anyone can do, see: Ministry Like Jesus)
One Down, More To Come - Headache
I had walked a long way to get to the pick-up point and it was hot, very hot in Phoenix AZ.
As often happens I wasn't sent enough information to correctly identify where I was to go, and I had been redirected once already. When I finally got there the person who was to help me was nowhere in sight.
I'm learning not to let my feelings get the better of me, so I calmed myself down and waited. Had I not done that I might have missed my opportunity.
When she finally emerged from a side door I was sure there was something wrong as she walked slowly towards me.
“Are you ok?” I asked with concern in my voice.
“Not really, I've got a dreadful headache and a bad cough as well.”
I had not had an opportunity like this for months, a really long time, actually. Three years earlier I had been warned not to pray for people in their work places; the fact that I never pray for people didn't matter, it was offensive to some to do anything that might release someone from sickness or pain without using medicine.
We had stepped into the office to get the sample I had come for. There were no other staff around so I took my chance.
“Would you like to be free of the headache?”
She looked at me suspiciously.
“All you have to do is hold out your hands like this and the headache will go.” I showed her with my hands out in front of me, palms up and open to receive.
“You will feel something happening on your hands and the headache will go.” Then I added, ”God will heal you,”
The pain started to go, and then it stopped going.
“Keep one hand out and put the other near where the pain is, but don't touch.”
Once more, as she moved her left hand to the top of her forehead on the left side, the pain reduced, and then stopped reducing.
“Look up at your hand, and tell the pain to go. Say, 'Headache, Go.' Say it quietly but firmly, as if you are talking to a child.”
She gave me that look again, but did it and the pain went completely. The whole transaction had taken about a minute.
I started to explain how she could get rid of the congestion as well but she wasn't listening - she was looking past me at someone who had walked in the office. Time to go.
Two Down, More To Come - Headache
Having a beard is a bit like owning an exotic car: they both cost more to maintain.
Had I not forgotten the charger for my shaver when I went to Kenya in March 2019 I would not have grown a beard. Had I not had favourable comments from all sorts of people, but especially my wife, I would have gone clean again.
It's grown on me, though.
Fortunately, there's a great men’s hair and beard trimming chain in Phoenix, called Lady Jane's, and the clippers and razors are wielded by women.
Previously, by claiming a senior discount at Great Clips I was paying just $15 with tip, but they don't touch beards. At Lady Jane's I get a good beard and hair job for (ouch) $45, but that's ok, it won't last forever!
And so it was that I rocked in there yesterday morning to get a trim before I left for Kenya and Tanzania. I took a seat to wait for my stylist.
One of the other stylists was booking in clients
when I noticed her groan and lean her head
against the shoulder of another stylist
who had come to the front desk.
It's always scary at first because I don't know what will happen, but I don't like to miss an opportunity to teach about the goodness of God when it becomes available.
“Do you have a headache?”
“Yes, and it's a bad one.”
“How long have you had it?”
“Two hours.” The questions, while mundane, help to build a bridge, and establish a connection of trust. They also give me a little time to think out how I will approach it.
“Would you like to get rid of it?”
That might seem like a dumb question to ask someone in considerable pain but it's important to get approval from the person for what is about to happen.
She looked at me a little suspiciously, gave a tentative Yes, stepped back a little and said, “What are you going to do?”
“It's ok,” I smiled, “I'm not going to touch you. Just hold out your hands like this and your headache will go.”
There were clients and stylists standing right there and others within hearing distance, but need often overrides modesty.
She stretched out her hands and said,
“What's this for?”
A stylist nearby said immediately,
“That's for receiving.”
I was pleasantly surprised at having an unexpected assistant, but lots of people, women especially, are open to alternative healing and therapies of one sort or another. They often talk about “energy” or “universal energy” or mention “the Divine,” but I tend to be straight forward about it all.
I know where all healing comes from: when God told the Israelites, “I am the Lord who heals you,” He could have been saying it to anyone, pagans included. One God, one healer. If you get healed or set free of pain or addiction it was God, no matter what you used or took or had done to you.
I smiled and nodded in acknowledgement and said, “God’s going to heal you.”
At first, nothing happened with the headache but she could feel tingles in her hands. Most people get it when I say, “That's God’s handshake.”
“It will go,” I said confidently, partly because headaches of any sort are the easiest things to get rid of, and partly because I've never had a problem getting rid of even one of them. Neither has God. ;-)
We had been standing there for about 20 seconds when her face changed a little, and she said, “It's changing.”
Then it stopped changing.
“Put your left hand up near where the pain is, but don't touch.” More pain left. She started touching the tips of her fingers to the areas of pain but that didn't help - she was trying anything to get rid of it.
“Put your right hand up there as well.”
“The pain is still there,” she said after ten seconds or so.
“Well, put that hand down and keep it out. This time I want you to look up at your left hand near the pain and say to it, ”Headache, Go completely and don't come back.”
She looked embarrassed,
or maybe offended and said,
“I'm not going to do that!”
“You want the pain to go, don't you? Do it, say it quietly and firmly as if you are talking to a child, and it will go.”
She did it, but she couldn't help smiling as if it was just a bit ridiculous, too. To her surprise the pain left just like that.
Forty minutes later as I was leaving she thanked me again for what I had taught her.
Deliverance With(out) Manifestations - Woman With Crutches
We were into healing time at a small conference on the outskirts of Nairobi.
Normally when there is a group we ask those with pain or sickness to stand and hold out their hands before God. Just by doing that most people lose the pain or sickness within less than a minute.
The remainder keep one hand out and bring the other one near to where the pain is - and most of them will sit down free of pain and sickness within less than a minute.
One lady down the front, though, was in trouble. She had hobbled in very slowly on crutches.
She had pain all over and could not stand easily because of her knees, but she could hold out her hands. As she did so she could feel joto (heat) in them.
"That's healing," I told her. "God is going to heal you."
The pain reduced a little, then stayed.
I don't normally do anything to take away pain or sickness*
- I see my job as teaching people to do it for themselves and others.
Her right shoulder was especially bad, and she could not hold that hand out for long. We always go for the worst area of pain or sickness, but using her good hand to "cover" her knees, even telling pain to go, didn't work.
“Have you had a big fight or disagreement with someone recently?”
She looked down, then said quietly, “Yes.”
“How long ago?”
“At the beginning of the year.”
“Is that when your pains started?”
Again she looked down a little as realisation struck her and she quietly said another Yes.
“We can fix that, you know - would you like to do that?”
With further questioning the story came out.
She and another woman, Mama Wanjugu, had been in business together at the markets. They had had a serious disagreement, a very bad argument; harsh words had been spoken and they had parted bad friends.
“Have you spoken with her since? Did you try to sort out the argument?”
“No.”
“Would you like to sort this out so that you can be set free?”
She looked a little startled at the thought but willingly agreed - she wanted to fix up what she could.
“I want you to face where you think Mama Wanjugu would be now, and say these words after me.”
She half turned on her seat to face in the right direction and started to follow as Yvette translated.
“Mama Wanjugu, I'm sorry that we had an argument, I should not have fought with you.
I forgive you…”
She only got to say the word forgive in the next
sentence before she let out a piercing scream;
her eyes rolled back in her head, and she fell
backwards against the man who had
been sitting beside her.
He graciously held the unconscious woman so she would not fall.
As she gasped for breath I could hear a man's voice trying to speak out through her mouth and vocal cords as she breathed out quickly,
It took only a few steps to reach her side and as I came I was saying, “No you don't, stop it now.” Then, as the loud gasping and vocalising continued I said, “Get out, and go to the place that Jesus sends you.”
The noise stopped and the woman lay still. I checked with Yvette as to where she had been in the sentence and realised (Holy Spirit told me) who was at work.
“Enmity, get out now.” It was a quiet but
firm command, and as the spirit left
the woman opened her eyes and
looked around, completely oblivious
to what had happened.
We started again in the confession and declaration and got through the forgive part without a problem. By the time she said, “I would like you to be my friend again,” the look on her face showed that she really meant it.
This time as she ministered to her knees the pain left completely, as it did in her right shoulder also. She was even able to raise her right hand to shoulder height within a minute or two, and she left without using the crutches.
The lesson was not lost on the people watching. African deliverances are unnecessarily noisy, messy affairs where demons are invited or forced to speak, while the person involved often ends up vomiting or rolling around, sometimes even urinating in their clothes as the “pastor” involved uses demonic forces to put on a show. This just demeans the person, generally to show how "powerful" the pastor is.
Instead, anyone can learn to remove spirits with a word while forbidding manifestations, like Jesus did.
* By myself I can't take away pain or sickness, God does that. But it seems that unless we start things off in the way They have chosen, nothing generally happens. Or, when we do things the way God has established (like Jesus did things), then people get healed of all sorts of debilitating conditions, every time.
"I Can't Do This, But God Can!"
1. Eighty Eight Year Old Grandmother
A friend told me he was praying for his grandmother, so I asked what the problem was.
"Rib pain, joint pain, pneumonia, severe headache, weakness," he replied.
"Well, next time you are with her, ask if she would like God to heal her."
Next morning he came back to me.
"I have asked her and she has accepted."
Even in her weakness she was able to minister to herself in the way Jesus taught. She held one of her hands near her head and said, "Headache, go," and it went. The pain left her head and, as sometimes happens, ended up in her stomach!
How can that happen?
Pain and sickness are spirits, evil, demonic spirits that do the bidding of their leader and afflict people. But people have something better; even sick people have authority, which means that you can tell a problem to get out and it will be done for you as Jesus promised.
Sometimes the spirits put up some resistance to try to frighten people into giving up early. We never give up.
We set people free like this all the time. Well, we don't do it, we get the people who are afflicted to speak the words that set them free. God enforces it - His angels do the work.
Now this weak, sickly, 88 year old grandmother who was still feeling bad after seeing the doctor who had just been with her, could feel warmth in her hand, which means that God was going to do some healing work in her.
This time she held it near her stomach and said as she was instructed, "Pain, get out and don't come back." Pain left instantly and she started feeling better, a lot better. She was still feeling better and getting better the next day.
God does this all the time. He'll do it for you, too.
If you are not sure how to go about it, email from one of the links.
P.S. She had had the headache for a month.
P.P.S. I don't just write up the success stories - this is what happens every time: basically: everyone gets healed on the spot.
(There can be a very small percentage, about 3%, that might go without being 100% healed, but we know some of those have been healed later. Some of the 3% we never hear about.)