Jonathan Brenneman's Blog, page 4

I Can’t Wait To Heal Them!

Don’t Complicate What God Has Spoken Through Jesus!

Today let’s deal with one religious lie that Satan uses to deceive Christians. Satan was completely defeated on the cross, but he tries to get people to lend him their authority by deceiving them with his lies.

Psalm 107:20 (NIV) He sent out his word and healed them…

Matthew 15:6 (NIV) Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

Jesus is the Living Word of God, manifesting the invisible God in flesh. The gospel is simple. Religiosity complicates it. It’s pretty simple to see that healing the sick was urgent to Jesus. He was moved with compassion and healed them all. If it was urgent to Jesus, it was urgent to God the Father, because He only did what He saw the Father doing!

When Is God’s Time To Heal?

In the article 13 Solid Scriptural Proofs Of God’s Will To Heal, we saw that healing is just as much a part of salvation as the forgiveness of sins is. Jesus’s atonement was for our healing just as it was for our forgiveness. So when is God’s timing?

2nd Corinthians 6:2 (NIV) I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.

God is not waiting to heal people, just as He is not waiting to deliver people from sin.

Have you seen every single person who gave their lives to Christ immediately free in every area of their life? I imagine not! But do you tell someone “Today must not have been God’s day to set you free from porn?” Of course not! We continue to hold fast to gospel truth and apply it!

If a guy gives his life to Jesus, encounters Jesus, but then yells at his wife a week later, do we say “The Lord must not have really saved you?” Do we invalidate what God did to deliver him? Or do we remind them of what God did to deliver him and encourage him to go back to it and walk in it?

Many Christians would think that kind of talk to be absurd when talking about moral issues, yet they apply exactly that kind of logic when it comes to healing. Instead of standing firm and applying God’s word and Christ’s redemptive work, they doubt if it was God’s will or timing!

Yes, there are times when we have persevered to see someone healed, but it was never because God was waiting and it wasn’t His will the first time. Rather, God is all-powerful but not all-controlling. There is a way He has chosen to work, and there’s a way His power flows through us, the members of his body. It was a matter of God’s power being released into the situation, but it was never a matter of it not being God’s time yet! Now is the time for Jesus to receive the reward for His suffering, including your whole life and your redemption, healing, and deliverance that he purchased at the whipping post and on the cross! Jesus paid the price because of His love for you, and He wants what He paid for now!

When God Speaks Twice…

In the book of Genesis, Pharoah had two different dreams with the same message, and as Joseph gave the interpretation he said that Pharoah had the same dream twice because God had firmly established it. This double whammy is like Jesus saying “Verily, verily I say unto you…” He said it twice!

Why would God say something twice? God doesn’t need to speak twice for His own sake! He says the word and it is done. But He sometimes speaks twice for our sake to get through our stubbornness and hardness of heart. There are some things that scripture especially emphasizes.

Like Pharaoh having two different dreams with the same message, there are two different stories in the Gospels with the same message about God’s timing for healing.

I Can’t Wait Until Tomorrow!

Matthew 12:9-14 (NIV) Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.

Luke 13:10-17 (NIV) On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing.

Think about what happened. What kind of hard heart would it take to see your sheep fall into a pit, bleating in pain and fear, and to say “I’m going to come back tomorrow because this is the Sabbath.” Yet the blind Pharisees thought as if God had less compassion for a person than they did for their animals. If something fell on your pet dog and injured it, would you wait for a moment to rescue the dog? How can we think that God cares less for people?

When the Pharisees told the people “Come on the other days to be healed, not on the Sabbath,” Jesus called them hypocrites and said “If you pull out your animal if it falls in a pit on the Sabbath, then how can I not heal this man right now?” Religiosity is blind to compassion, and Jesus thought it was ridiculous that they would have more compassion on their animal than on a person who was suffering, and tell someone with a withered hand or chronic illness to come back the next day to be healed. Just as they wouldn’t wait until tomorrow to pull their animal out of the pit, Jesus couldn’t wait until the next day to heal those with needs! They were humiliated when Jesus pointed out the double standard, but instead of repenting, they wanted to kill him!

Long ago, I remember seeing a TV program showing the true story of a child who fell into a well and was stuck halfway down. They had to call the firefighters and work for hours to rescue him. Would you wait a moment if that were your child? How is it that we somehow imagine that God has less compassion for His children than we do for ours? Is He not a better Father than any of us are? We feel compassion because we were created in His image!

Religiosity is blind to compassion and makes it an empty doctrine. The religious have a very strange view of God’s compassion! But these stories of how Jesus responded show us that God’s compassion is not strange and mysterious but is real, and it cries out “They are suffering! How can I wait another day to rescue them!”

If You Honor Jesus, His Priorities Will Be Your Priorities.

If you know Jesus, you will know what is important to Him. One of the things that God has been speaking to me lately is that if we honor Jesus, we will make His priorities our priorities. And Jesus prioritized rescuing people by healing the sick, casting out demons, and caring for the poor. If we honor Jesus, these things must be our top priorities. And if we honor Jesus, His Spirit will manifest among us. Many churches may say they would like a revival, but they dishonor Jesus by making the things that are priorities to Jesus of little priority to themselves. And the reason they aren’t seeing Jesus manifest in their midst is that they do not honor Jesus.

For the Spirit of God to manifest through us in any situation, we should know how God feels about that situation. When you have a suffering person in front of you, it’s not about your qualifications or issues. We sometimes get so caught up in ourselves! Even pride (self-centeredness) disguises itself in the thought “Well, I don’t want to be proud.” But it’s about the person in front of you and God’s compassion for them! God wants to rescue that person and He is looking for someone to join in partnership with Him so that He can manifest Himself through His body the church! Just say “Holy Spirit, I give up on my own strength. Here’s my body. Do through me what you want to do!” Then let the compassion of Jesus grip your heart and move you, overflowing through your mouth. Let Jesus cry through you. Make His priorities your priorities. Honor Jesus, and you will see Him acting in front of you!

The post I Can’t Wait To Heal Them! appeared first on Go to Heaven Now!.

Tending The Garden Of Your Heart

God’s River Flows From The Sanctuary Of Your Heart!

Our last post was “There Are Deeper Waters In God!” We talked about going on in God’s river until we are carried away with it. One statement I made was “The more affected your heart is by God’s presence, the deeper the river gets. The deeper the river, the greater the manifestation of Jesus.” If I prayed and didn’t see God’s kingdom manifest in the situation yet, I don’t ask “Why?” Rather, my attitude is to keep going in God’s river so the manifestation of His glory increases. Look at what Jesus said:

John 7:38 (AMPC) He who believes in Me [who cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me] as the Scripture has said, From his innermost being shall flow [continuously] springs and rivers of living water.

We often want God to do what is our responsibility. Many people blame God when they don’t see His kingdom and peace manifest in a situation instead of taking responsibility for cultivating what is in their own hearts. The church has often complicated what is simple and often expects God to do what is our responsibility. Because of this, the teaching often lacks the very foundational truth that power is in the gospel and flows out of walking in communion with God. The manifestation of God’s glory, including miracles, healing, and prophecy, is simple.

Proverbs 4:23 (AMPC) Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.

In Genesis, God gave mankind a garden to cultivate. Eden was God’s garden. The first Adam sinned, but the second Adam, Jesus, brought redemption and restored us to God’s garden and full access to God’s presence. What is it about those who are always experiencing great things in God? It’s not nearly as complicated as it gets made out to be. They have cultivated something in their heart and entered a “new normal.”

Your Internal Reality Changes Your External Reality!

Two years ago, the Lord said to me “I have a new normal for the church-that should have been normal all along! It’s a ‘normal’ in which the church does the works of Jesus!”

At the end of the last post, I shared a picture of a few boxes of Bibles. I bought them with a donation after a mentally ill lady asked for prayer and I felt like God told me to encourage her to read the Bible because the Holy Spirit would continue to work in her life through that. I saw God healing her mind as she read the Bible. God manifest His glory and ministered peace as we prayed, but His work would continue as she read the Bible.

Then I found out she didn’t have a Bible-and neither did most of the ladies there. So I told her I would get her a Bible. And someone told me she didn’t know how to read. Well, I felt that God spoke to me so I decided to get her a Bible in faith and figured that she could learn to read.

Well, guess what? We took the Bibles there last Thursday and I gave her the Bible, opened it, and she read it! Even though she had difficulty even speaking very well! I don’t know if the person who told me she didn’t know how to read was mistaken, or if it was a miracle, but we brought her the Bible in faith and she read it!

Then other ladies asked for prayer. Many had already been healed but wanted prayer again. Several felt dizzy as I prayed and then it passed as they felt relieved. Deliverance. God’s power rooted up weeds and now we were bringing them Bibles so they could plant something else in the place where the weeds had been.

One lady said she could barely see with her right eye and couldn’t hear anything with her left ear. And her left eye had poor vision tool. Partially blind in one eye and completely (or almost completely) deaf in one ear. Before we went I had cried out to the Lord. “Jesus, help! Here is my body. I yield to You. May it be like You are visiting this recovery house today.” I prayed and snapped my fingers in the ear that was deaf. She heard me. I asked her to cover her good ear and spoke softly in the other one. She responded. I snapped in both ears at the same time and asked if the volume was the same. It was.

I asked her to check her vision and she said she could see a sign that she could only previously see from a closer distance. But it was still not perfect. We prayed again and this time she read another sign with smaller letters and said “I never knew what that sign said! I could never read it!”

Then I realized that I had prayed for her before, the last time when I was there with the group. Most of the other ladies who needed healing had received it, but she didn’t notice any difference in her healing. And I was going to pray more but then I think she went to her room. And now she was healed!

What if I had remembered that and been focusing on that or striving? “We prayed last time and there was no difference…” What if I had disappointment growing like a weed in my heart? But no. I was so focused on the testimonies and what God was doing that my heart was bursting with praise. And now…she is hearing!

I’ve been sharing so many such testimonies. They have become normal for me. But for years I longed to experience such things! What happened? Did God just suddenly decide to do miracles for me, as if He wasn’t before? No! My “normal” changed as I got into the virtuous cycles of testimonies, praise and thanksgiving, and miracles! The seed of God’s word grew in my heart and began to multiply. All I have experienced has grown in my heart so that just a memory and I am in tears because of what I’ve seen Jesus do. And it just increases.

The reality in your heart will manifest around you. So tend your heart.

How To Take Care Of Your Heart

Plant God’s word in your heart by reading and meditating on scripture. Are weeds growing in your heart? Rip them up! Aggressively confront lies and beliefs that are contrary to God’s words. Be ruthless in confronting unbelief! Sow in prayer! You will reap a good harvest if you don’t give up. Be deliberate and disciplined about praising and thanking the Lord in every circumstance. Don’t watch junk on TV but instead fill your heart with life. Keep going over testimonies. Remind yourself of what God has done in your life and what you have seen Him do for others. Write it down!

Philippians 4:4-9 (NIV) Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Heaven’s reality is the reality of God’s presence, and your heart is the inner sanctuary where you commune with God. If you commune with God, heaven is in your heart. We read in Ezekiel about God’s river flowing from the sanctuary. So set your mind on things above, not on things of this earth, and God’s river will flow through you!

Colossians 3:1-2 NIV Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

Be Persistent And Persevere!

You will reap a harvest if you don’t give up. Sometimes you have to persevere in sowing. You don’t always see results right away. I had to persevere for a long time. But I now reap the benefits of sowing God’s word in my heart when I was a child and teenager. I reap the benefits of filling my heart with testimonies and meditating on the mighty works of the Lord. Even when I am struggling in some way or having a bad day, my heart often very quickly goes right back to the place of being completely overwhelmed with God’s love, of crying aloud to the Lord and knowing He hears me, of trusting in Him! What’s the secret of the miracles? My heart goes to a place where God’s river flows and I just completely give up on my own strength and yield to Him! Cultivate a heart that cries out to God and relies on Him! My heart goes to a place where I am more aware of God’s presence and impressed with his goodness than I am of any problem! Cultivate a heart of worship.

If we want to lose weight, change our bodies, or gain muscle, it doesn’t usually happen in one exercise session! We persevere to reap the benefits. Tending the garden of our hearts is similar. It takes persistence!

It can be hard work changing the state of things when your heart is full of weeds. But don’t get discouraged! As you cultivate the garden of your heart, even disappointment and pain turn to gold because God’s redemption comes in and even what Satan meant for evil gets turned around for good.

Often people are trying to pull up weeds but they keep sowing more weeds and they don’t plant much good. They want help but go back to watching horror films and shows full of sexual immortality and people screaming at each other. Instead of opening their Bible, they turn on the TV. Then they feel like victims, but they are reaping what they planted in their hearts. Having worked with youth, I’ve seen that so many teenagers listen to music with suicidal, depressed, angry lyrics and say “I just like the music and I don’t pay attention to the lyrics.” Then they become angry, suicidal, and depressed. Many people say they need help but they don’t want to change what they are planting and cultivating in their hearts! And then ask “Why hasn’t God delivered me?”

If you need a change in your life, I want to encourage you to be diligent and deliberate about tending the garden of your heart. It may take patience to begin to see many of the results. But you will reap a harvest if you do not give up.

James 5:7-8 NIV See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. 

Galatians 6:9 NIV Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

James 3:18 NIV Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

The post Tending The Garden Of Your Heart appeared first on Go to Heaven Now!.

There Are Deeper Waters In God!

I Want To Get Carried Away In God’s River!

In the last post I shared some highlights of the mighty works of Jesus that I’ve seen this year, but I had to make another post to continue. We mentioned Jose, our ex-atheist friend who recently prayed and God opened blind eyes, and Karita, who no longer has to have her uterus removed and can have children. The week after Karita was healed, our group went on an outreach to Brasilia, about 4 hours away from here. We went on Saturday and came back on Sunday.

I felt a cold coming on and my throat was feeling sore before we went. I was also exhausted. But I have been in that situation before several times, gone on the mission in faith, and been healed and had a glorious time. So I went in faith and slept in the car.

We arrived at the church in the early afternoon and there was food waiting for us. I was already praying for the trip and I suddenly started sobbing as we were eating because I felt overwhelmed with God’s love. All that the Lord had been doing overwhelmed me. I was the combination of that, of expectation for what was about to happen, and knowing that none of it is my godliness or piety or deserving anything but God in his goodness keeps doing wonders. Actually, I was already teary-eyed and thanking God, but then I put out my hand and felt God’s glory as a weight in my hand so tangibly that I just started sobbing.

Then after we ate everybody introduced themselves and shared a little. And Karita told everyone how she felt heat on her uterus the week before and went back to the doctor, and he said she can have ten children. And I cried all the more, overwhelmed with God’s goodness and one miracle after another.

Another lady from the host church introduced herself and then pointed to me and said “I don’t know who this guy is, but I feel like I can’t stand on my feet when I’m near him, and it reminds me of when Randy Clark came here years ago.” And some of the people in our group said “He was with Randy Clark!”

I have often thought that people who see me sobbing like that might think I’m not all right and not realize it’s just being overwhelmed with God’s love. But with no words, she realized it was God’s presence.

That tells me that we carry an atmosphere and what is in our heart overflows. I would go to the Voice of the Apostles conference every year when I lived in the United States and see so many miracles that my heart would be overwhelmed. I would just get carried away by God. And then when I couldn’t go every year anymore, I couldn’t accept anything less and I started watching Mark Heman’s videos for hours until I would be completely overwhelmed. And in the last few years, I have been so bold and going on outreached that just what happens in my life overwhelms me. The lesson is that nothing is as precious as Jesus is, and we see Jesus in His mighty works, so value what is really important and do everything you can to see and experience what Jesus is doing until you are completely overwhelmed. And even when you are in another place and your heart goes back to the place of being overwhelmed with God’s presence, the same thing will manifest again.

You can get into a vicious cycle of doubt and unbelief that seems to confirm itself because nothing ever happens, or you can get into a virtuous cycle of praise, thanksgiving, and miracles. What you focus on will grow. When you get carried away with God’s love and it produces more miracles and a greater manifestation of God’s glory, which gives you more reason to praise and thank God and weep and rejoice! And that is really what I love and what I want…to be completely swept away with the God’s goodness. I was in Brasilia and my heart was in the same place as it was at those Voice of the Apostle’s conferences years ago, and that lady had no idea naturally why I was sobbing but she felt like she couldn’t stand on her feet just like when Randy Clark had visited the area.

One of my friends who knows Randy said that someone at a recent leader’s conference asked Randy how he has grown so much in God’s power. Randy said that it was humility and continuing to be thankful for what God does. People close to healing revivals in the past told Randy that those revivals ended because they started to take the miracles for granted and lost the thankfulness. Mark Hemans also shared a great message on this recently. Thankfulness is humility, and God gives grace to the humble. Recognize God’s goodness in your life. One of the meanings of grace in the New Testament has to do with power! I know that the overwhelming abundance of miracles in my life is not because I deserve it, but because God is full of goodness and radically generous towards me. It is not by my piety or godliness, but it is the precious name of Jesus!

2nd Corinthians 3:5-6 (NIV) Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

The River Getting Deeper!

The Bible talks about the river of God in Ezekiel, and it’s an important lesson. Although I do not experience so many miracles because of my own merit, what I experience does have something to do with the way I think and believe. And I think very differently!

Often, people ask me “Why was I not healed?” Or “Why was that person I prayed for not healed?” Even “Why hasn’t God done it yet?” Those questions are completely out of my paradigm. They don’t even make sense to me. I never get caught up in them.

That is because I believe that God is all-powerful, but not all-controlling. He is overflowing with goodness and compassion, and His very nature is to heal, but He is a Spirit and is invisible. It isn’t that God didn’t decide to act, but that there is a way that God’s invisible Spirit is manifest tangibly, and it has do with with us entering into communion with His Spirit through Jesus. It has to do with our faith and what is happening in our heart. And it is important to understand that there is an increasing manifestation of God’s invisible Spirit, so if you haven’t seen God’s Spirit manifest in a situation, don’t get caught up in asking “Why?” Just go deeper in God’s river, the manifestation of God’s glory will increase, and more will happen! Get into the virtuous cycle of praise, thanksgiving, and miracles until you are carried away in God’s river.

The more affected your heart is by God’s presence, the deeper the river gets. The deeper the river, the greater the manifestation of Jesus. There are no limits if you believe God. Several times, I’ve seen scenarios in a group of about 50 people in which not a single person who received prayer could find any pain or symptom after. Or maybe only one. More than half the people present received some kind of miracle. It often happens as I am preaching and share testimonies until my heart just gets swept away and overwhelmed with God’s goodness. God’s river flows from your heart, so guard your heart! (We should have another blog post on that topic soon!) Don’t ask why! Thank God, jump in His river, and let His river flow through you!

Ezekiel 47:1-12 (NIV) The man brought me back to the entrance to the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was trickling from the south side.

As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross. He asked me, “Son of man, do you see this?”

Then he led me back to the bank of the river. When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds—like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea. But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.”

The Swamps And Marshes Will Not Become Fresh

Many Christians never act in faith to let God’s river flow, because they are always asking “why?” They are caught up in the trap of self-pity, so they don’t let God’s river of love flow through them to other people. I’ve been caught in self-pity before, and I’m so happy to be free! If you are in that place, the best thing you can do is to get your focus off of yourself and let God’s river flow! Do you need a miracle for yourself? Go minister to someone else!

The reality is that until you start letting God’s river flow through you instead of focusing inward, your heart is like a swamp or marsh that never becomes fresh and you are caught in a vicious cycle in which doubt and unbelief produce disappointment by which you confirm your doubt and unbelief. You can choose to participate in the virtuous cycle of praise, thanksgiving, and miracles, or the vicious cycle of doubt, unbelief, and disappointment. Please understand me! I’m not saying if your life is like a swamp or marsh, it always has to be like that! There was a time when my life was like a swamp. I am saying that as long as you continue in the vicious cycle, you will keep getting the same results, so the way out is to get into the virtuous cycle of praise, thanksgiving, and miracles.

The Mighty Works Of Jesus In Brasilia!

We went on the streets and saw Jesus do miracles one after another. I can’t even remember everything that happened that day. It was too much. Many people were healed of pain. I prayed for several alcoholics on the street and sat sharing the gospel with them. One of them received healing in his back when I prayed, but I was just praying in general to bless him and he got up and found his back was healed. Then he received prayer again and his hearing was restored. People were also being healed of colds, sore throats, and sinus infections. We also baptized a few people who received Christ right there on the street, with water bottles! (I believe in immersion baptism, but there is something about baptizing people right away when they receive Jesus, and there wasn’t a pool right there. But we didn’t just sprinkle them. We dumped bottles of water on them!)

We were back at the church and a newly-baptized and now-sober guy who we found drunk in rags on the street hung out with us the whole time. I sat down and he started saying “I can never thank you guys enough for what you’ve done for me. I know you’ll go to heaven because of what you’ve done!” He still had the old thinking pattern of self-righteousness! And I said, “I’m going to heaven because of what Jesus has done, not because of what I’ve done!” And I explained that I had been messed up and seriously in need of a Saviour, and Jesus rescued me, and whatever good he was seeing in me was only because of God’s free gift of righteousness transforming me! And I explained how to walk in God’s grace rather than trying to please God with our own human effort. This is such a fundamental and important truth, but unfortunately, much of the church needs to re-learn it!

At night Jose and Karita prayed for a lady who had a disability. Her left leg was shorter than the other one. She had three surgeries and her ankle had atrophied and didn’t move. She could only move the tips of her toes. She used to walk only on the tip of her foot, but as they prayed she started moving her foot more and more and the pain left. Before that, she had pain in her knee, back, and whole leg with very strong cramping. She said that she didn’t experience one moment without pain and took medicine for pain 24 hours a day-150 milligrams. You can see her sharing her testimony and walking normally in the video below:

Miraculous Healings From Needing Glasses And More!

That night I was praying for a 15-year-old girl and suddenly felt the Lord leading me to pray for her to see without glasses. She took off her glasses and was soon seeing much better without them! I got excited and just felt the Lord’s power and grace in that moment to heal people of needing glasses, and I started looking for other people who had glasses. Several more people were either seeing much better or perfectly (In their words) without glasses! Most of them had a lot of heat around their heads and felt something moving in their eyes. Some suddenly felt pain in their eyes as we prayed, so I rebuked every spirit affecting their vision and it passed.

We saw more miracles the next day, and I was pretty much on the brink of tears the whole time. I prayed for a girl in our group to see without glasses, and her vision didn’t seem to change but she felt fire in her sinuses and was healed of a sinus infection. Why? Don’t ask why! Just keep going in God’s river and it will keep getting deeper! A little boy at the house we were staying at had a short leg that caused him pain when he walked or ran, and God adjusted the leg so it didn’t hurt anymore. We prayed for his mom and God’s fire came on her and drove out her cold, sinus infection, and sore throat. I had already forgotten about the cold that had been trying to come on to me the day before!

On Sunday, so much had happened that some people were joking about all the miracles. But I felt that it is very important to keep the thankfulness and sense of reverence for what God does and to never treat it lightly or take it for granted. The works of the Holy Spirit are precious.

On the way back, the guy driving the car stopped at his parents’ house. Both had colds and his mom had very bad vision and said she might need eye surgery. God healed both of them of colds and the mom felt God’s power in her eyes, took off her glasses, and said she was seeing perfectly without them! The driver’s wife received prayer, took off her glasses, and said she could see perfectly without them! And the driver took off his glasses and saw much better, reading what he could not read before. Still, he put them on again to drive. (We just report these things as honestly as we can without exaggeration.)

Jesus, Multiply Your Mighty Works Through Your Body The Church!

The next day, I prayed for the mother of one of our neighbors and she also testified that she was seeing perfectly clearly without glasses. A new guy, Pedro, had been on the Brasilia outreach and saw the miracles. The next week we visited an orphanage, and one of the orphanage directors was healed. Then we went out for burgers afterward. He asked me the classic question “Hey, how does that work?” Just like Jose and Matteus had asked. And I explained some simple changes in mindset, like knowing that the heavens are open because Jesus’ body was torn, and that we must see the perfect image of the invisible God revealed in Jesus. We have been trained to see God through life, but the only way we can really see God clearly and be sure of his will is by looking at Jesus.

The next day, Pedro prayed and a man got out of a wheelchair. I’m still waiting to hear more of the details.

Jose prayed for another person last Tuesday who was healed of needing glasses. On Wednesday, I visited the Men’s group for the first time in a few months and we saw several miracles and God’s fire coming on people. On Saturday, I went to the recovery house and there were more miracles, including a lady being healed of bad back pain and another lady who needed glasses and didn’t have them now reading very fine print in a pocket Bible (Which she could not read before.) Her husband said “Now you can’t say that you can’t read your Bible because the words are too small!”

Another guy at the recovery house asked for prayer, and I felt like God lead me to pray “Thank you Holy Spirit for fixing his teeth!” He had a tooth hurting badly and it stopped hurting and he said he felt it solidifying. Several other miracles happened. Then on Sunday, I was at an Easter party for kids and someone brought me a lady with bad pain in her legs. I asked my daughter Rebekah (8 years old) to pray for her. Rebekah touched her legs, prayed once, and the pain was completely gone! The lady was quite surprised and relieved.

Just Keep Going!

My throat was sore, I was feeling bad, and I didn’t have enough sleep the morning we were going to Brasilia. The solution? Keep going in God’s river and let it flow out of you! It will deepen. Let it deepen until it sweeps everything away.

I am wearing glasses right now as I share these testimonies. Do I ask why? No! Keep going, thanking God, and giving the riches of heaven to others! Do you get it?

By the way, here are a bunch of Bibles we bought with a donation. I decided to get them after talking to a lady we prayed for who had a cataract and vision trouble. Her vision improved but we didn’t see it 100%. Do we ask “why?” No! Keep going in God’s river, thanking God, and get her a Bible with big letters! And next time, pray again! The Bible on the top has giant letters. It’s especially for her!

And here is part of the hydroponic system that we’ve been building at the Casa da Paz recovery house, soon ready for planting!

Love you guys! Keep following Jesus!

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The Wonderful Works of Jesus!

2023 So Far…

I just realized that I hadn’t written a blog post since last year, and I couldn’t believe it had been that long! I’ve been busy and time flies! So much has happened that it’s overwhelming and I couldn’t come close to telling all of it here. I was going to write a post sharing some encouragement and some of the things God did this last weekend. However, there was way too much that happened this year before that so I’d like to share just a few of the highlights of what Jesus has done and continue in the next blog post to share about last weekend and about going deeper in God’s river. I’m writing the testimonies for myself and not just for you guys, because years later I will come back to read this and remember what the Lord has done in my life.

God’s Fire!

A child, about 9 years old, had a cold at a January missions meeting to start the year. I said “let me pray for you” and grabbed his hand. “God thank you for your fire filling him in Jesus’s name and driving out sickness!” I held his hand for a minute, and he suddenly pulled it away and said “Outch! It’s hot!” and shook it like he had touched a hot stove. Everyone laughed! Even though it hurt his hand for a moment, the sore throat and cold symptoms were gone.

Jesus Went to A Volleyball Game and BBQ!

We were invited to play volleyball on a Saturday and a guy on the other team was rubbing his shoulder. He said it had hurt all night and was bothering him. I walked over, touched his shoulder, and said “In Jesus’s name be whole.” All of the pain was immediately gone and he continued playing volleyball normally. After that, we had a BBQ and prayed for people, and God’s glory came on them tangibly. I believe several people were healed, but except for one woman who was freed from chronic pain, we couldn’t verify or test the other conditions immediately.

Everywhere You Place Your Foot Is Yours!

One of the first outreaches I went on was bringing soup to people living on the street. A few people were healed, including a guy who had a constant ringing in his ear. It stopped immediately when we prayed. Then I was talking with a guy who was crying and saying he wanted to get off of drugs, but the group was already ahead of me. I ran to catch up with the group, but there was a guy who made a witchcraft altar with incense right there on the sidewalk and I stepped right on top of the altar! Everyone was yelling “You stepped on the altar!” It was unintentional on my part, but I do think it was a message from the Lord saying “This is My territory and I’m not impressed with that little altar!”

After that, we went to another area and I prayed for a man in a wheelchair who had constant pain. He felt no pain after I prayed, but didn’t have the courage to get up when I invited him to. Another man had a sharp pain in his arm, level 8 on a scale of 1- 10, and the pain left completely and immediately. Yet another man had thrombosis, swelling, and an open wound with pain level 6 in his leg. As I prayed he felt something moving in his leg and the pain left completely. He was quite surprised and happy and was showing everyone how he could walk with no pain. The swelling was visibly reduced.

I Prayed And It’s Not There Anymore!

At the first ladies’ recovery house we went to, I had received five words of knowledge for healing while I was in the pool with the baby before even leaving home. One was for a lady with a tumor or lump near her throat. When I shared them it was really special because all the ladies immediately pointed to the person who had the condition and said “It’s her!” and she stood up and said “That’s me!” as if she had just won Bingo. And I had our missionary girls pray for them. When the lady stood up with the tumor/lump by her throat, I was so excited because I knew it would be gone.

We had a young girl, Rebekah, maybe about 20 years old, who had just started getting involved in our missions group. She had seen a few miracles as we prayed on the previous outreach, and we’d prayed for her and her friend for God’s fire to come on their hands. I said “Where’s Rebekah? Rebekah, can you please pray for this lady who has a tumor in her throat?” A few minutes later, I walked over and asked “What’s happening?” Rebekah was undone, in tears. “I prayed and the lump isn’t there anymore!” The lady herself and another one of our missionary girls also confirmed that they felt it before and it wasn’t there anymore. Many other ladies also received miracles.

At the end, a very broken lady came and said “Please pray for me. I get nervous and run away and they have to send someone to find me.” We prayed and she felt peace. Then I felt led by God to say “I want to encourage you to read the Bible and the Holy Spirit will keep working in your life through that as He touched you now.” And I found out that she didn’t have a Bible and didn’t know how to read! Well, I felt that the Lord was speaking so she can learn to read, but I told her we would get a Bible for her.

When I talked to the director of the group, she told us that they didn’t have Bibles for the ladies. So I was recently able to buy over 200 Bibles for the ladies at the recovery home and for other missions with a donation we received. I’m eagerly waiting for their arrival!

God’s Love Sees And Pursues Those Who Need Salvation!

I went to another ladies’ recovery house with the other mission group. This time it was a little different. The first one was poor and relied on donations. The second was a place where families sent their relatives and paid a modest monthly fee. However, some of the ladies were there because they had to be there, not because they wanted to. Again, I got about five words of knowledge while I was in the swimming pool before we even left. During the worship, the Lord showed me who two of the ladies were.

One word of knowledge had been for a lady with pain between the shoulders. I saw a certain older lady and felt that it was her during worship, so I went up and asked her. Yes, she had pain between the shoulders! When I prayed it completely stopped hurting but she kept talking as if she still had the problem. I asked her again “Does it hurt now?” And she said “no.” I responded “That is because you don’t have the problem anymore and Jesus just healed you! Why do you think I came over here and asked you if you had pain between your shoulders? Because God loves you and he showed me before I even left my house that someone would have pain between their shoulders, and then when I got here I felt that it was you! God spoke because He wanted to heal you, and the reason it doesn’t hurt now is that you don’t have that problem anymore!”

I also saw a young lady and felt that she was the one with the chronic stomach problems. I had felt there would be someone with chronic stomach problems and nausea caused by a spirit. However, I didn’t get to talk to her yet and then I didn’t see her anymore. So at the end, I stood up to share the testimony of the lady who had already been healed and to share publicly the other words of knowledge. The first word I had gotten in the pool at home was for a lady who had head problems because she had hit her head in a car accident. That lady responded immediately and was healed of a chronic headache. Several other miracles happened. And I said “I feel like there’s someone here who has chronic stomach trouble and nausea, but I think she might now be here right now but was here earlier.” I said that because I had felt it was her but I didn’t see her anymore.

Sure enough, someone brought her and asked to pray for her 10 minutes later, and it was the girl I had felt who had that problem! She seemed really hard-hearted, but God’s mercy was chasing after her!

Jose Is Walking As A Disciple of Jesus!

About a week after that I saw Jose. I shared about him in some previous blog posts. He had been an atheist but he suddenly converted to Christianity and joined our missions group. He saw me praying for an old lady who was immediately healed of severe chronic pain and asked “Hey, how does that work?” We talked and he had prayed for others and seen miracles by the end of that night. Since then, he has been the guy who has understood more than anybody else and has continued ministering healing. He told me he was at the worship event the last Saturday when I had gone to the recovery house and saw 7 people healed, including someone with torn ligaments taking off their medical boot and walking without pain, and a man’s blind eyes opening.

I arrived late for the mission on March 18th, which was in the poor neighborhood where I first met Jose and where we had already seen many miracles. However, I was still in time to see a few people healed, including a lady with an artificial kidney being freed from constant pain, and to celebrate the birthday of the current mission group leader.

You Can Have 10 Kids if You Want!

I got a ride back from that mission. Karita, a tall girl with short blond hair was also in the car. I’d never met her before, but I found out that she was the one who founded our missions group a few years ago but had been ministering in another part of Brazil! She had worked with Mel Tari, the famous missionary who wrote the story of the Indonesian revival in his book Like a Mighty Wind. I said “Oh, I know about him! I read his book! And Heidi Baker worked with him.” Then she was excited about how I was influenced by Heidi Baker and Randy Clark, because she said they are role models for her.

Karita was suffering from several physical issues, including two fibroid tumors. The doctors said she could not have children. She had a lot of bleeding and the doctors wanted to remove her uterus, but she refused because she wanted God to heal her. She was engaged and both she and her fiancee wanted kids. So while we were stopped, we got out of the car and prayed for her. She felt heat in her abdomen and all the pain and issues left.

That week she returned to the doctors. They told her she is fine and can have 10 kids if she wants! She told me she can make a testimony video, so I am hoping to have that on my YouTube and add it to this post when we have it!

Stay tuned to read about what Jesus did on our last trip to Brasilia and for encouragement to go deeper in the river of God!

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Equipping The Saints To Minister Healing!

Two weeks ago, I took off work to preach in several churches in Sao Paulo. Then this week, I taught a “Heaven on Earth” Seminar in Brasilia. Last year, the Lord told me “I have a new normal for the church-which should have been normal all along! It’s a ‘new normal’ in which the church does the works of Jesus!”

I am quite happy going to a poor neighborhood or to homeless people on the street, ministering healing, and talking about Jesus there. However, there is so much work to do that the need is overwhelming. After I see a person delivered or a miracle like a brain tumor disappearing, I sometimes start crying and thinking of all the other people in my city that have similar conditions because I know Jesus is the answer but I can’t get to everyone and I need help! It’s time for the church, the body of Christ, to rise up and do the works of Jesus!

So even though I often prefer going to a place with dirt roads and board shacks in the middle of nowhere, there is a need to recruit laborers for the harvest! Jesus said that the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. My goal is not just to have a healing service, but to teach and encourage other Christians to start walking in God’s power.

The Holy Spirit’s Move In Campinas, São Paulo

The time in Campinas was very busy. I preached 7 times in two days, and ran around praying for people during much of the time before, after, and in between those meetings! There were so many miracles happening so quickly that it was too much to keep track of. But here are some highlights:

A lady had a steel plate and two pins in her knee, and also pain from thrombosis in her leg. I had said that someone’s stomach was being healed, but I think all she heard was that someone was being healed and she said “that’s me!” She grabbed onto the word, a wind blew over her, and the pain left. She was bending her knee normally, which had been impossible with the plate. The pain was also gone from her back. I’ve seen this happen several times. A person didn’t even hear what the word of knowledge was for but got excited and was healed anyways even though it was a different condition than the one described.A woman had a cataract surgery which went bad and blurred her vision. A great heat came around her head and everybody near her could feel it when they got close. She began to read, which she was previously unable to do.A woman sitting beside me at the bus station had broken her arm 15 days earlier and had lots of pain. I held her hand and prayed for 15 seconds, commanding the bone to be restored. She both raise her arm and moved her hand with no pain. I felt God directing me to pray for a certain woman when I had everyone minister to each other. She said she just wanted prayer for her son but I said “God is generous. It’s not a matter of just you or your son. He has plenty for you too. What do you want for yourself?” She told me she had diabetes. Later she testified that she was healed of diabetes. Of course we didn’t have the medical confirmation at that time, but she said this because she felt a tremendous heat on the area of her pancreas and was convinced that she was healed.In one church with 60-80 people, we couldn’t find a single person who left with pain in their body. I asked three times for anybody who still had pain to raise their hand and to check and make sure by moving their body and pressing where it previously hurt. Various people healed in the shopping center and a pharmacy-a few of them weeping. A lady healed of sciatica pain in the shopping center came to me later and asked me to pray over a photo of her son. The owner of a pharmacy invited me to pray for employees and they were healed. One had pain in her uterus. Her body got hot and the pain left, and I said “God was healing more than the uterus, He was also healing your blood.” And she pulled up her sleeve and showed me the band-aid where she had just had blood taken for a blood test because she was having problems in her blood.Let The Presence of God In Your Heart Challenge The Unbelief In Your Mind!

On Monday morning I saw this guy passing on the other side of the street. I ran across the street to pray for him.

His leg was rotting and had a large open wound at and above the ankle. He said the only reason he didn’t die from a snakebite was that he didn’t have circulation in his leg. He smelled like he was homeless and I could see that he had abused alcohol before, although he didn’t smell like it at the moment. There was a lot of pain in his leg and back.

The condition looked really bad! But I make a habit of challenging my own unbelief, telling those thoughts to shut up, and acting. So I started praying for him. The compassion and presence of God in my heart took over. Soon all the pain was gone. Then he crossed the street to have coffee and breakfast with us.

He kept talking for a long time, telling his story, and I kept praying for him several more times. He also had a condition in his eyes and God’s power came like fire on his eyes.

As we were going to the car about an hour after we first met him, we saw him leaving. He was swinging his crutch and holding it off the ground instead of leaning on it.

I felt like the Lord said “Let my presence in your heart challenge the unbelief in your mind!”

Healing Of A Brain Tumor!

In May a friend in the UK had asked me if I’d be willing to pray for a lady in Malawi who had a tumor in her brain. He gave me her number and I sent a message through WhatsApp saying “My friend told me that you would like Jesus to heal you.” We set up a time to call and I prayed for her over the phone. I didn’t hear anything for six months after that.

Then after my trip to Campinas I sent the testimony and picture you see above of the guy who left swinging his crutch to a bunch of my WhatsApp contacts. My friend in the UK and the lady in Malawi both responded and told me what had happened after we prayed. Here are the screenshots:

She had a 4-centimeter brain tumor which was causing convulsions and went from South Africa to Malawi in a wheelchair for surgery. After we prayed over WhatsApp, they did a brain scan and were shocked to find no tumor. The convulsions stopped, they canceled the surgery, and she returned to Malawi walking!

Jesus’s Mighty Works In Brasilia!

Last weekend I taught a three-day seminar in the capital of the country, Brasilia. Again, there were many healings as the people ministered to each other and as we prayed. The pastor has a great heart and a desire for the whole church to walk in God’s power. He would like me to come back and go to drug and alcohol recovery homes with them as I have in Goiania. He’d also like to have a healing and evangelism crusade in a very poor region of the northeast of Brazil. I was somewhere in that area before and when we stopped at a house, they didn’t even have a toilet but instead had a bucket behind their house.

On Saturday before the service, the pastor took me to pray for an 80-year-old man on a nearby farm. His leg had already been healed after the pastor prayed for him, but he still had some issues including partial deafness in one ear. I whispered in his ear and he didn’t even perceive that I was saying something. I prayed and did the same several times. After a few minutes, he realized I was whispering something but didn’t understand. I prayed a little more and whispered again “What is your name?” This time he not only heard that I was whispering, but he understood and responded!

Jesus did much more during those days. At the end, many people were bringing pictures of family members on cell phones to receive prayer, or even calling family members. I had them hold their hands over the phones and they felt power flowing through the phone with the picture of the family member!

Will You Consider Partnering With Our Missions In Brazil?

There are many opportunities opening up to minister at churches, and I feel like the Lord is leading me to do so. In some ways, the religious environment can be difficult for me. In fact, I refused the offering at one church because the way they used guilt and compulsion to get the people to give grieved me. I am happy to receive free-will offerings as long as they are from the heart, motivated by love, and not of compulsion or “give to get.” We pray for people the same way whether or not they give anything, and Jesus touches them! Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12:14 “What we want isn’t what is yours, but you.” I feel that it’s so important to look at people to see how we can bless them, rather than through the filter of seeing what they might be able to do for us! However, for those who want to contribute and are able, it is a tremendous help and blessing to enable us to reach people few others are going to!

I’ve been working 6, and sometimes 7 days a week teaching English. I often do local missions on Saturday nights and take vacation days to preach. My contact in São Paulo would like to have me go every two or three months to do a healing school and share at local churches. He also said he can send me to Congo, Africa and to Belem in the North of Brazil. Other opportunities are also opening up.

I feel the need to speak at churches and teach other Christians to walk in God’s power because the harvest is white but the workers are few! The need is tremendous. The churches do give offerings and pay for travel, but just those trips take all my vacation days and can be exhausting. My passion is going to poor places and recovery houses and I don’t want to be unable to do that anymore because of preaching in churches. Those trips cost me! I pay for my transportation, and I often pay for outreach expenses and bring basic foodstuff donations. I go because God’s love compels me, but I also need to take care of my family.

I’ve been so busy preaching in churches that I haven’t been to the House of Peace recovery house for about two months. The pastor there is planting a church and would like our help with evangelism. I and a friend in Brasilia want to do an outreach ministering healing and bringing food and clothes to people making their living by scavenging in the garbage dump. There are opportunities to minister in poor neighborhoods in São Paulo and Brasilia, bringing and training groups, as well as to go to drug and alcohol recovery houses in Brasilia. We have seen so many miracles and great moves of God in such places! There is a mission to the poor region in the Northeast and opportunities in other areas where children sometimes only have one meal a day and prostitute themselves to eat. There are other opportunities I expect to arise among indigenous people, due to prophecies I’ve received.

There is so much work to do equipping the saints and taking the gospel to those in need that I could very easily be busy with it all the time. The fruit has been tremendous. I’m happy and content with my work teaching English. Yet as God provides and as I’m able, I will reduce my English-teaching days to be able to more fully dedicate myself to the work God has sent me to do in Brazil.

If you’re able, will you consider contributing any amount monthly to enable us to continue and expand these missions? For no reason but love and the desire to participate in the gospel!

You can set up a recurring donation to Jonathan Brenneman with Zelle or Paypal using the email quierofuego@hotmail.com. (Zelle is better if it’s available through your bank, as there are no fees) We also hope to be able to accept donations through a nonprofit organization soon.

Much love to you all!

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If You Want an Atmosphere of God’s Love and Glory, Confront Sin!

This word confirmed much of what I’ve said in the last several months and described much of the church where I live. My word about muddy water…A pure gospel message deals with what is hurting people.

https://fb.watch/fORM9tfEut/

Where was I experiencing an atmosphere of God’s love and glory? Casa da Paz, where they are confronting what is killing people.
When I was a kid. Weeping and wailing, then laughing.
Mark Hemans. Confronting sin. Lots of Holy Laughter. Do you want more holy laughter? Confront sin.
My word…season of sowing in tears to reap with laughter.

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What does “the Flesh” Mean in the Bible?

Hi guys! I know it’s been a while since the last post. Our second little girl was just born a month ago, so things have been busy! While taking care of the little girl, I’ve been learning more Greek, and I just read the book of Romans in Greek for the first time.

One of the most harmful and most common erroneous beliefs I’ve seen in the church is a misunderstanding of how the Bible uses the term “the flesh.” Because of this poor understanding, many Christians don’t even believe it’s possible to live a victorious Christian life of walking in the Spirit and in communion with God. They think the normal Christian life will always be a struggle with sin and there’s nothing they can do about it. And if that’s what you believe, it will probably be what you experience!

Romans 7:14-25 (NKJV) We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

I have repeatedly heard Christians read this passage and interpret it as “We still have our flesh, and the Christian life is a constant struggle with it. We’ll always mess up because we are human. We’ll never really be free until we die.” Do you see how harmful such a mindset is?

The Bible uses the word “the flesh” in different ways in different passages and contexts. I want to make the case to you today that “in my flesh” in Romans 7 does NOT mean “in my human condition.” Rather, walking in the flesh is the opposite of walking in the Spirit, and we can all walk in the Spirit through the free gift of righteousness and by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

“The Flesh” in Romans 7 Does Not Mean “The Human Condition”

1 John 4:2-3 (NKJV) By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.

Many New Testament writings, especially 1st John and Colossians, contradict the claims of a heretical group called the Gnostics. The Gnostics believed that the material world was base and corrupt but the spiritual was pure.

Because of this, the gnostics denied that Jesus came as a man. How could a holy, sinless God inhabit a human body? This was impossible in the gnostic belief system. The gnostics saw salvations as the spirit being liberated from the body. Many Christians today think like gnostics because they think only death will free them from sin by freeing them from the body, instead of trusting the completed redemptive work of Jesus to free them from sin while then are still in their bodies.

“In the flesh” in Romans 7 does not mean “in the human condition.” Jesus came as a human and was sinless and holy.

Have you ever read the book of Romans in just one sitting? I have. I’ve also read chapters 1-8 in one sitting many times. The way I described above that many people interpret Romans chapter 7 contradicts many verses in other parts of Romans. You say “we are human.” But there are two kinds of humans. There are those that are in Adam, and those that are in Jesus. Which human are you in? Are you in the first Adam, or in the second Adam Jesus Christ?”

Romans 5:12-21 (NKJV) Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.

Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 5 contradicts the idea that “in the flesh” means “in the human condition.” We who are saved are righteous humans found in the second Adam, Jesus Christ, so that we can reign in life through the man, Jesus Christ.

Some Bible translations interpret the Greek phrase “in the flesh” as “in the sinful nature.” Then many Christians read Romans 7 out of context and erroneously conclude “I will always struggle with sin because I just have that old sinful nature.” Because of their wrong understanding of Romans 7 and what it means to be “in the flesh,” they are considering themselves alive to sin. But that contradicts what Romans says in the previous chapter.

Romans 6:1-11 (NKJV) What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6 teaches that if we are in Christ we have died to sin. It is past tense. We must consider it a fact that we are dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus. Romans chapter 7 does NOT teach that Christians have a living, active sinful nature so the Christian life will be a constant struggle. Because of this wrong understanding, many Christians don’t even believe it will ever be possible for them to walk a victorious Christian life in the Spirit. But Paul himself, who wrote Romans 7, also wrote Galatians.

Galatians 2:19-21 (NKJV) For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.

The next chapter of Romans also makes it quite clear that “the flesh” does not mean “the human condition” and that the description of walking in the flesh in Romans 7 is not talking about what the normal Christian life should look like. If “the flesh” meant “the human condition” then Romans 8:9 would be saying that Christians are not humans!

Romans 8:9 (NKJV) But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

What Does “In the Flesh” Mean in Romans 7?

The context of Romans 7 is abundantly clear. Paul uses the term “in the flesh” to talk about living under the law.

Romans 7:1-6 (NKJV) Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

Paul is not talking to Christians about their current condition when he speaks of the flesh in Romans 7. He is describing living under the law. “We were in the flesh” is the past tense. This old condition of being in the flesh contrasts with our new condition of being in the Spirit. Paul expounds on this topic quite a lot in the book of Galatians as well.

Romans 8:1-8 (NKJV) There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

The Principle of First Mention

Some people talk about “the principle of first mention” for Bible interpretation. They look for the first place a word or phrase is mentioned in the Bible for insight about its meaning. The first use of the phrase “in the flesh” in the Bible is found in Genesis 17.

Genesis 17:9-11 (NKJV) And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.…Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

This ties into one of the major themes of the New Testament, especially the books of Romans and Galatians. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees who relied on the flesh and the fact that they were circumcised and natural descendants of Abraham. When they were offended at his teaching that he was the real bread from heaven, Jesus said “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63) They were thinking of natural things (the flesh) but Jesus spoke of spiritual realities. We see the same in John chapter 3.

John 3: 3-8 (NKJV) Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 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.”

The Jews relied on the flesh, meaning that they were natural descendants of Abraham and were circumcised, but Jesus said that the flesh profits nothing and you must be born of the Spirit. The real manna from heaven was spiritual. The birth that was important was not the birth in the flesh as a descendant of Abraham, but being born from above. The circumcision that is important is also in the spirit, not in the flesh. The real children of Abraham are his spiritual descendants.

John 8:15,39-41, 44 (NKJV) You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one….They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?… They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.”… You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. 

This is exactly the subject that the book of Romans expounds on.

Romans 2:25-29 (NKJV) For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? And will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.

Romans 4:1-5 (NKJV) What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.

Romans 2 explains that the real thing that makes a person a Jew and puts them in covenant with God is not the flesh or the natural things, but spiritual circumcision. Romans 4 says that Abraham was not justified by the flesh, meaning by his own works or by physical circumcision, but by faith. Multiple other New Testament references show how the term “in the flesh” refers to being under the law.

Philippians 3:1-10 (NKJV) Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same things to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation! For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.

Philippians chapter 3 makes it clear that living in the flesh is trusting in natural things and self-righteousness under the law. Living in the Spirit is living in the righteousness that is from God by faith! The book of Galatians tells us the same.

Galatians 4:21-31 (NKJV) Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar— for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children— but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written:

“Rejoice, O barren,
You who do not bear!
Break forth and shout,
You who are not in labor!
For the desolate has many more children
Than she who has a husband.”

Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.

Contrasting Life in the Spirit with Life in the Flesh

The law is good, but we are powerless to keep it. Living under the law is not living by the empowerment of the Spirit, and we have to die to the law to live by the empowerment of the spirit. (Romans 7:1-6) Paul does not describe the normal Christian life in Romans 7. He describes living by mere human ability, trusting in natural things, and seeking to establish our own self-righteousness under the law. Those who live thus are spiritually dead, spiritually blind, and spiritually deaf. They have no spiritual eyes to see or ears to hear.

The body is holy. “We will always sin because we are human” is Gnostic heresy. But we were never meant to live by only natural things. We were never meant to live apart from communion with the Holy Spirit. We who are saved are in the second Adam, Jesus Christ, so as to exercise dominion in life! If the Spirit of Christ lives in you, you are not in the flesh!

Those who try to live Christianity by mere human ability are walking in the flesh. They can never please God and life is a constant struggle. But those who receive the Holy Spirit and the Promise of the Father through faith can live a victorious life in the Spirit!

Those who try to establish their own righteousness are living in the flesh. Those who receive the righteousness of Christ by faith are empowered to walk in the Spirit! Let’s make that even more clear. Those who approach God boldly through Jesus and receive every promise and blessing of God in Jesus are living in the Spirit. Those who try to attain the promise and blessing by a way other than through Jesus are living in the flesh.

A lot of the church today is living in the flesh. A lot of the church thinks the Holy Spirit’s empowerment is optional and they can “do” Christianity on mere human ability! A lot of the church doesn’t think that Jesus is sufficient so they try to attain God’s blessing by works, by tithes and offerings, and so much more!

Those whose mind is set on the flesh focus on the outward things. Those whose mind is set on the Spirit are in inward communion with the Holy Spirit. They boast in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh! Walking in the Spirit produces power, but walking in the flesh results in powerlessness.

If your Christian life has been a constant struggle, it may be that you’ve learned human religious traditions that are keeping you walking in the flesh. Let God’s word challenge those traditions and ask the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of your heart to the gospel. You can walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit! You can live a life of victory upon victory, glory upon glory in Jesus! You can know what it’s like to live with a clean conscience. Am I saying you will never fail again? No, I’m saying that your normal experience can be unbroken communion with God, rivers of living water flowing from your innermost being, face radiant with God’s glory! And if you do fall, you get back up quickly again and overcome by the power of the Holy Spirit.

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The Cloud of God’s Glory!

Why Should You Settle For Less Than Heaven On Earth?

2 Chronicles 5:12-15 (NIV) All the Levites who were musicians—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun and their sons and relatives—stood on the east side of the altar, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps and lyres. They were accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets. The trumpeters and musicians joined in unison to give praise and thanks to the Lord. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, the singers raised their voices in praise to the Lord and sang:

“He is good;
    his love endures forever.”

Then the temple of the Lord was filled with the cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God.

Do you see the cause and effect in this passage of scripture? Does it inspire you? It should! This happened before Christ was revealed and before the way was opened for all of us to enter the Holy of Holies! We have a better covenant and better promises than they did! And even so, when they sang and gave thanks, God’s glory manifested so they could no longer stand to minister.

Why should you experience anything less when you have full access to God’s presence in this New Covenant (something the Levites in 2 Chronicles could barely imagine) and you have been raised and seated with Christ in heavenly places?

Did You Know You Can Cause A Cloud Of God’s Glory To Form Around You?

1 Corinthians 12 is known as a passage on “spiritual gifts,” but as we’ve studied elsewhere, the idea of “gifts” as “special superpowers” is not found in the original text. Verse one would be better translated “I don’t want you to be ignorant about spiritual things.”

I notice a lot of ignorance among Christians about spiritual things. I minister to people of several other religions and notice they understand a lot more about spiritual things than many Christians do. They know the mechanics of spiritual things, but they don’t have discernment and are deceived. They have received evil spirits that disguise themselves as angels of light and end up bringing oppression into their lives. But at least they know, better than many Christians, how the spiritual world works.

The spiritual world works through declaration. There is cause and effect. In those spiritist religions, there is something they do to open themselves up to a spirit and invite its influence. There is something they do that causes that spirit to manifest. There are things they do that cause a house to become haunted so that paranormal events occur. It’s not just a mysterious “gift.” There is cause and effect.

This is what I would like Christians to understand. There are things we do that release the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. There are things we do to open ourselves up completely to His influence. There are things we do that result in angelic activity and tangible manifestations of God’s presence. It’s cause and effect. And it works for anybody who puts it into practice.

The declaration of God’s glory, combined with a heart on fire, causes the manifestation of God’s Spirit.

While a lot of Christians are sitting around hoping God might do something incredible, or saying “that’s not my spiritual gift,” people who aren’t even Christians are acting on spiritual principles of cause and effect with very real and tangible results. They are demonic manifestations, but they have far more manifestation than many Christians because they understand the spiritual world better than many Christians.

How To Set Your Heart On Fire!

John 7:38 (NIV) Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.

Matthew 15:18 (NIV) But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart..

Romans 10:8-9 (NIV) The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 

Proverbs 4:23 (RSV) Keep your heart with all vigilance; for from it flow the springs of life.

Anybody can act on spiritual principles of cause and effect in order to see God’s glory manifest. It’s all about your heart and your mouth. Your heart is your garden. You cultivate it and you decide what you plant in it.

Fill your heart with God’s glory, then release it through your mouth. There are three important components of this.

1. The first is filling your heart with God’s glory by filling it with His promises, the message of the gospel, and testimonies.

Meditate on the promises of scripture and on the message of the gospel. Fill your heart with scripture. If a scripture is speaking to you, write it down and keep going over it. I used to write scriptures on my arm and on my wall with permanent markers, but you can also use a notecard or whiteboard! Take some time to listen to praise and worship music, and find what moves your heart. Find what moves you to tears. Speak and sing in tongues. Cry aloud to Jesus! Proclaim scriptures out loud.

I have had many experiences in which a promise of scripture or the lyrics of a song moved my heart, so I focused on that and the result was a physically tangible manifestation of God’s glory. There are certain lyrics that I find move my heart. For example, when I’m listening to the song “Break Every Chain” I get to the part that says “All sufficient sacrifice! So freely given, such a price. For our redemption, heaven’s gates swing wide…” At that part, I often find that suddenly the tears are flowing freely and I’m crying aloud to Jesus. My heart is completely open. When your heart gets in that place, keep it there! Play the song several times if need be.

Often recounting what God has done in my life spontaneously brings me to tears. Write down or record what God has done for you and through you. Remember how you were first saved. Spend time watching, listening to, and reading testimonies. When your heart is suddenly overwhelmed and you are either laughing or in tears, your heart is in a good place. That’s the start of an electric atmosphere in which a cloud of God’s glory is forming around you.

Take every limitation off your Christianity, because God’s glory is extreme and unlimited! Many Christians have so many limitations that come through in their religious talk, disqualifying themselves from the promises of scripture. T.L. Osborn asked “Is God limited by living in you?” Find promises in scripture to challenge and remove every limitation from your heart. God can do far more than you can ask or imagine according to His power at work in you.

2. The second is releasing miracles by acting on God’s word.

Act on the truth you have filled your heart with. Don’t let it just be theory. Act like it’s true. Act like you really are seated with Christ in heavenly places, and have God’s riches to give to the world. Act according to the truth that you are in Christ! You are His hands and feet and have been sent with His authority! Lay your hands on people and rebuke the sickness, pain, or demons afflicting them!

This forms a virtuous cycle with the first and third points. There is something about persevering in miracles. I pray for as many people as I can and I keep talking about what God has done. Miracle upon miracle and testimony upon testimony build up what is in my heart and the manifestation of God’s glory increases. Miracles and healing testimonies also fuel praise and worship to keep your heart burning.

The miracles and testimonies inspire praise in other people and begin to build a culture of miracles. They start to set other people’s hearts on fire!

3. The third is continuous praise.

This forms a virtuous cycle with the first and second points. Praise flows out of what you have filled your heart with, and praise also fills your heart and directs where you want it to go. Praise triggers miracles, and seeing God’s miracles fills your heart with praise. The effect of praise and worship coming from a burning heart is the tangible manifestation of God’s invisible Spirit.

Singing to the Lord as they did in 2nd Chronicles 5, and talking about what He has done, are both praise.

As you talk constantly about the Lord, His goodness, His miracles, and His Word, heaven begins to manifest spontaneously. You may begin to tangibly feel currents of God’s power and love flowing through you. The manifestation increases as we go on, so that even your proximity may expose evil spirit and people are spontaneously healed in God’s glory even without the laying on of hands.

You Stop Asking Certain Questions If You Understand How Spiritual Things Work

When Christians don’t understand how spiritual things work, they often ask questions like “Why didn’t God heal that person?” A lot of Christians then allow what they don’t understand to stop them from seeing Jesus and walking in faith.

When you understand spiritual things and also understand the gospel, you understand that God is an invisible Spirit and it’s His nature to heal, so it’s not a matter of God deciding or not deciding to heal someone, manifest His glory, or send revival. God’s glory manifesting is a matter of cause and effect. Just as we can do certain things that result in the effect of God’s glory manifesting around us, we can continue doing those things so that it intensifies. As it intensifies, the manifestation increases and you begin to see things happen that you weren’t seeing before.

Persevering in miracles intensifies the manifestation of God’s glory around you. And here’s a big key I have learned: This is true even when you stepped out boldy, spoke God’s word, and didn’t see a thing happen, but you didn’t let it stop you from seeing Jesus and you went on to minister to the next person just as boldly. Don’t worry about what you didn’t see yet. Just keep going.

On Saturday I saw a guy in a wheelchair at the open-air market before we went to the recovery house. His legs were paralyzed. I laid hands on him and commanded the spine to be restored. I said “I release God’s glory in all your body in Jesus’ name.” I didn’t see a thing happen but what’s important is that the fire in my heart stayed the same. I didn’t ask questions. I’ll do the same with the next person.

I have often seen an increase in the manifestation of God’s glory around me and miracle after miracle right after stepping out to pray for someone like that and not seeing a thing happen! Just keep going and declaring God’s praise all the more, and as the cloud of God’s glory around you increases, so will the manifestation, the miracles, the healing! Stop asking questions and just keep praising the Lord and declaring His glory until you see it manifest, and then keep going so the manifestation of His glory increases!

Progress In The Last Few Weeks

Every healing is so special, because it shows God’s love for the person. It’s about so much more than the healing. It’s about God’s love being revealed through it, and it’s about our hearts seeing Jesus and His goodness through the miracle so our hearts are consumed with His presense and the cloud of God’s glory over us thickens.

Here is an account of some of the highlights in the last three weeks. I couldn’t tell you all the stories any more than I could tell you every meal I ate over the last three weeks. Sometimes we pray for so many people and things happen so fast that we don’t remember every detail.

On July 8th, a Friday, I had a break of about two hours between classes and I walked to a store nearby to put a new protective covering on my cell phone screen. On the way back I met a man at the bus stop in a wheel chair. I prayed and the pain was gone so I asked if he wanted to get up. He got up and walked with no pain. Then I prayed for his son, and his son tangibly felt God’s peace come over him.

The next day was a big BBQ. It was behind the church building, and a cleaning lady let us through the building. As we were going I saw a dark spot in my mind’s eye on the right side of her lower back. I asked and she had pain there that was affecting her whole leg. Jesus healed her quickly. At the end of the BBQ various people were healed, including the guy who grilled the meat and previously couldn’t lift his arm very high. He lifted it with no shoulder pain. Others were healed of back pain. A woman had a nodule in her throat that she could feel with her fingers, and after praying one time she could no longer find it. A woman had bladder stones and felt heat as we prayed, then felt no more pain.

On the 14th I was at Casa da Paz, the recovery house I most often visit. I spend the afternoon working on our aquaponics project, and then preached at night. There were many new people and healings one after another. A special one was the case of an old man who had been screaming and having trouble sleeping because of pain in his shoulder, and now he was moving his shoulder without pain. I could tell it moved the hearts of the people around. It was also great to see him touched by God because after persevering before, praying various times for an issue in his feet, without seeing much progress the first few times. Persevere. Believe and you will see the glory of God!

On Saturday night I went to an all-women’s recovery house with the “Mova-se” missions group. The lady missionaries were doing most of the personal ministry, and the guys prepared the food. After the preaching I shared three words of knowledge. One was a vision of God’s power hitting a woman’s lower abdomen like heat. Another was a vision of a man hitting a woman on the head with something wooden, like maybe a broomstick. Another was of a right lung that was bad and God was restoring.

These were very brief, mental visions. Women responded very quickly to each one. I also shared the vision I had at another recovery house of a huge screen going beyond my field of vision, covered with green checkmarks, pointing to the truth that every one of God’s promises is yes and amen in Christ. We asked anybody else who needed to come for healing to also come.

Our lady missionaries did almost all the praying and I just coached them on how to pray and asked the women what they felt before and after prayer. “Just put your hand on her back, command the pain to go in Jesus’ name, and thank God.” Every single lady who said she had pain or physical symptoms before prayer testified that it was gone after prayer. I lost track of how many there were. One of the best parts for me was that it was the lady missionaries doing the praying, not me. I have been working hard to help them to understand that I don’t have a gift of healing and this is about Jesus and who He is, not about me, so you can do the same thing.

On Saturday night, July 23rd, we went to another recovery house. That was the evening that I prayed for the paralyzed guy in the market. Before I left home, I had felt like I might encounter someone with a broken arm. On the way from the market to the recovery house, there was a bad accident and we stopped to help. A 16-year-old boy was laying on the side of the road bleeding. We called an ambulance. I put my hand over him and kept releasing God’s power. There was nothing I could see happening but we don’t look at what we see but what is unseen. The mission’s leader is a doctor and looked at him, and comforted the mom explaining that the boy had no serious internal injuries, but might have a broken wrist. Another guy in the accident had a broken arm. Was the word of knowledge for him? We didn’t have a lot of time but I also prayed for him. We couldn’t see anything at the moment but who knows what I’ll find out in heaven!

On the way, I had three or four impressions of physical issues we would encounter at the recovery house, and I got more words of knowledge during worship. Before I could even give words of knowledge, Jose had prayed for a person’s lower back and all the pain left. That had been one of my words of knowledge. Then he got a word of knowledge for an old man, and he was healed. I had just been teaching Jose about words of knowledge in the way on the car, and I encouraged the others in the car to be attentive for them.

Jose had a vision of a guy walking without his crutch. It was one of those ones that has a brace for the arm, and the forearm goes inside it. Jose found him during worship, prayed for him, and he moved his knees with no pain. I took the crutch and encouraged him to walk without it. He walked up onto the stage without his crutch and testified he had no pain.

After the worship and the message, I gave several words of knowledge. Nobody responded to some of them and I thought maybe I had missed it, but then we found people with those conditions after the service! I had felt God touch a specific spot in the lower right side of my abdomen during worship. The pastor’s son had been feeling a constant, sharp pain in exactly that spot and complaining about it for days. It disappeared during worship before I even shared the word of knowledge, but we would not have known what God had done if not for the word of knowledge, and the little boy might have just thought it disappeared by chance instead of realizing that Jesus had healed him!

After the service we talked to people specifically. I found a guy with a bad headache and called Guilherme to pray for him. If left instantly. I had been teaching Guilherme for some time, but at first he would only pray timidly, asking God to touch the person. This was the first time he prayed boldly and commanded the pain to leave, and he saw Jesus do two miracles through his hands. I was very happy about that!

I overheard a lady complaining of pain. It was on the right side of the upper back, which had been one of my words of knowledge that nobody had responded to! I called one of our female missionaries to pray for her as I talked to other people. Later I checked back, and she had been healed of that and other issues.

I felt impressed to talk to a certain guy and found he had pain in his right forearm, which had been another word of knowledge nobody responded to, as well as pain in his chest and joints. All the pain left the first time I prayed. I told him “Look at how God loves you! He showed me this condition while I was still in the car on my way here! Did you hear when I shared it from the front?”

Another lady mentioned her shoulder had been healed and I don’t even know if it was spontaneously under the cloud of God’s glory, as the little boy was healed during worship, or if one of our team members prayed for her.

Get More Hearts Burning Until The Glory Cloud Covers The Whole City!

It’s one thing to get to the place where your own heart is burning and bursting with the Holy Spirit. You’re constantly on the verge of tears, you may sometimes feel currents of power and love flowing through you, and you start to become aware of a cloud of God’s goodness all around you.

Then there are those times when you persevere in miracles and healing and suddenly it’s like the air is electric because other people’s hearts are moved and overwhelmed with God! That happened when we were ministering to the homeless on the street and a guy was healed of pain on one whole side of his body from a car crash. Most of the people were gone already, but for the few who were there it was heaven touching earth and more miracles followed.

But my goal right now, what I’m working for, is to see other hearts burning long term, so that they live this way even when I’m not around, and so that we can burn together and the manifestation of God’s glory intensifies even more. Can you guys agree with me for that, in the church of Goiania?

I’m much more excited when I see someone else experience God doing a miracle through THEIR hands than when I myself pray and someone is healed. Then they see that it’s really about who Jesus is! And I’m so excited to see how many miracles have happened in the last two weeks through the hands of the people in our missions group who I have been encouraging and teaching for months now. (Most of the teaching has been in the car or in conversation over hamburgers after an outreach in which I prayed, miracles happened, and people asked me questions later!)

There is a lot of work to do. God’s heart overflows with compassion. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few! We need more workers in God’s harvest!

Yesterday I wrote a list of some of the miracles that had happened the night before and sent it to the missionaries’ WhatsApp group. Many of the miracles had happened through THEIR hands. The leaders/founders of this local missions group replied. “Wow! This is what we dreamed of when we started! And now we are living it!” I sensed an unprecedented excitement and expectation.

A culture of the miraculous is starting to form, and I’m going to keep persevering to see more people set on fire, burning bright so they will persevere and continue even when I’m not there. When my heart is in the place of praise and bursting with God’s love and Christ’s compassion, I walk around with a cloud of God’s glory over my head. And if enough hearts start burning, we will soon see a cloud of God’s glory resting over this city. Let’s build a big old bonfire, and see it scattered by the winds of heaven to become a wildfire that runs through Brazil! With every miracle, every person touched by God, that is what I want to see. Every heart captured and acutely aware of God’s glory, and people crying aloud with all they are to Jesus! Surely the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

If you liked this post, you may want to check out my Heaven Now book trilogy. It’s full of insight into understanding simple gospel truths and exercising heaven’s dominion on earth. It’s also filled with testimonies of what happened when I put these truths into practice. I’m sure these books will encourage you and help you learn to walk as a heavenly person. Not only that, but your purchase supports our missionary work in Brazil and in every other place we go!

The post The Cloud of God’s Glory! appeared first on Go to Heaven Now!.

How Impartation and Fullness in Christ Work Together Without Contradicting Each Other

You Have Nothing Lacking In Christ!

In the last post, we talked about how impartation and having fullness in Christ are both biblical but seem to be contradictory. I believe having a wrong understanding of impartation can make you feel like you are lacking and really hinder you from walking in God’s power. On the other hand, rejecting impartation can also cause you to miss out. Let’s talk about how impartation and having received fullness in Christ go hand-in-hand.

Colossians 2:9-10 (NIV) For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.

Colossians 2:10 (ERV) And because you belong to Christ you are complete, having everything you need. Christ is ruler over every other power and authority.

Many versions express verse 10 as “You are complete in Christ.” This is where it may seem like impartation contradicts the scriptural promises of what we have in Christ. As we have examined in other articles, every manifestation of God’s grace is in Christ, who dwells fully in every believer. If we know God’s promises we live from a perspective of spiritual riches and abundance, not of lack. Not every believer has been given the fullness of Christ’s ministry, but every believer has been given the fullness of God’s Spirit. We may excel in a certain area depending on where God has placed us, but all of Christ’s riches are available to each of us.

The Holy Spirit Teaches Us What We Have In Christ

John 16:13-15, 23 (RSV) When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.  He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you… In that day you will ask nothing of me. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, he will give it to you in my name. 

John 17:10, 20-23 (NIV)  All I have is yours, and all you have is mine…“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—  I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Jesus’s words in the gospel of John also talk about the fullness we have in Christ. We are in Jesus and all that the Father has belongs to Jesus. We have received the same glory the Father gave to Jesus. The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus, reveals Jesus to us, and teaches us what we have in Jesus.

Paul says the same thing in 1st Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 2:9-12 (NIV) However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen,
    what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
    the things God has prepared for those who love him—

these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 

The passage speaks of the unlimited riches we have in Christ, including every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. But we need to understand what God has freely given us, so the Holy Spirit makes us understand what we have in Christ. God has revealed what we have through Scripture and continues to reveal it as we walk in communion with Him and the Holy Spirit teaches us.

We have everything in Christ, but we are growing in the knowledge of God and of Christ. You can have spiritual riches available to you because are risen and seated with Christ, but live like a pauper because you have become spiritually dull of hearing.

Hebrews 5:11-14 (RSV) About this we have much to say which is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need some one to teach you again the first principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food; for every one who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.

This is the case for many Christians. There are so many Christians who have been in church for decades but are still focused on their own needs and living from a perspective of lack instead of knowing the riches they have in Christ and giving away those riches to the world.

There are various ways that the Holy Spirit works to reveal to us what we have in Christ. One is reminding us of what scripture says and making it a heart-revelation that we live out. That’s why we can simply teach people that Jesus commands his disciples to heal the sick and gives them power and authority, and the result is miracles. We can teach people that Jesus’s sheep hear His voice, and they receive prophetic words. We can take a promise of scripture such as “I am seated with Christ in heavenly places” and act on it, and the result is a miracle, as when God challenged me “If you really believe you are seated with Christ and in Him have access to everything that’s in heaven, then you have what that woman in a wheelchair needs. So why don’t you give it to her?” I acted based on scripture and God’s power was released. That is the Holy Spirit teaching us through scripture.

So How Does Impartation Fit In With That?

I see impartation as another way that the Holy Spirit reveals to us what we have in Christ so that we grow in the experiential knowledge of Jesus.

Language and walking on two legs are built into the human DNA. Most animals cannot learn to walk on two legs, and if they do it’s almost always only for a short period of time. No animals can learn to communicate with language as humans can. But babies don’t start off walking on two legs or speaking fluently. They learn what they have and they learn to use it. Babies hear people talking until they also start talking. That is impartation.

Another great analogy is that of sympathetic resonance. This is what happens when a tuning fork is struck and it causes another tuning fork of the same frequency to also vibrate, or a note played on a stringed instrument causes another similar string to vibrate. It’s what happens when a singer hits a certain pitch, causes a glass to vibrate, and breaks the glass. Sound is the manifestation of the frequency of a string or instrument, just like every “grace-effect” is a manifestation of God’s nature.

This is closely related to our article Communion With The Holy Spirit. The gift of righteousness gives us the same nature as God. Having the Spirit of Christ indwelling us means that God’s DNA is inside of us. The external manifestation of God’s Spirit resonates with and awakens what is inside of us. This is another way that the Holy Spirit teaches us what we have in Christ and teaches us to walk in it.

We call this “impartation.” The Spirit of Christ is manifest through another Christian or the presence of God is carried by an angel, and that causes what is inside of us to respond.

Psalm 42:7 (NIV) Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.

In the last post, I shared some of my personal experiences with impartation. One was when Randy Clark prayed for me and I physically felt something move in my belly. And I have wept with compassion more than ever before since then. Was all that compassion already included in the Spirit of Christ indwelling me before that? Of course, it was! But the external manifestation of God’s Spirit increased my experience of what was already inside of me. It resonated with the Spirit of Christ within me. This is one way of “growing in the knowledge of God,” as scripture says.

Another way of growing in that compassion is putting yourself in a place where the manifestation of Christ’s Spirit is needed, and acting in faith. It’s kind of like a dad in the old days throwing his son in the water to teach him to swim. Except that you’re jumping in the water! You’re taking risks because you believe what the Bible says, that you are rich in Christ and He wants to bless the world through you.

I have grown in the knowledge of Jesus in both ways: through impartation and through taking risks even when I didn’t feel like anything was going to happen. Just believe what the Bible says and act on it!

Since God works through impartation and the laying on of hands, we should value them. However, a wrong understanding of impartation can hinder people from walking in God’s power if they feel like they have lack or don’t have enough of God to minister in a situation. A wrong understanding of impartation hinders people from acting in faith based on God’s promises. You have all these solid promises of God in scripture but a wrong understanding makes you disqualify yourself because you feel like you are lacking something rather than being complete in Christ.

Even people who are already walking in power and regularly seeing healing miracles fall into this. Maybe you are used to seeing people healed of back pain and headaches, but now you have a person with epilepsy in front of you and you feel like you haven’t had enough impartation yet for the Spirit of God released through you to crush that disease. And you no longer pray with confidence because of it!

That is why we need to hold the truths of impartation and fullness in Christ together. A wrong understanding will either discard the truth that we have the fullness of Christ because of its emphasis on impartation or will discard the truth of impartation because we have fullness in Christ.

Receiving Something Doesn’t Always Mean You Didn’t Have It Before!

We have everything in Christ, and there is more. Both are true. We must see impartation as centered on the all-sufficiency of Christ and growing in the knowledge of HIm. There is a greater manifestation of God’s grace that can flow through your life than what you have known so far!

A Christian who walks in God’s power thinks differently and feels differently. There is the memory and emotion of what they have seen God do and the glory of the Lord revealed through his works filling and overflowing the soul. This can rub off on the people around and create a culture of power in the church. The reason it can rub off on other Christians is that they have the Spirit of Christ within them in order to be able to recognize and learn from the manifestation of Christ’s Spirit through another Christian. So if you want to walk in God’s power, do both. Don’t walk in a perspective of lack. Believe you have fullness in Christ and act accordingly. And also get around other people who are walking in God’s power.

Some things are mysteries and we must accept what scripture says before we fully understand them. Then the understanding begins to come.

Every Christian has all of heaven’s riches available in Christ, but we need each other! We are a body! We strengthen each other and build each other up in love!

Every Christian has fullness in Christ, but not all of Christ’s ministry has been assigned to every Christian.

Cells in the human body have specializations, but the DNA of the whole body is in each cell! It is the same in the body of Christ.

Jesus himself had the fullness of God dwelling in Him, but he received ministry from people and from angels. He was strengthened by angels.

Romans 1:11-12  (NIV) I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong—  that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.

1 Thessalonians 2:8 (NIV) …we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.

The word translated “impart to you” in Romans 1:11 is the same in Greek as the one translated “share with you” in 1 Thessalonians 2:8. The word translated “gift” in Romans 1:11 is “charisma” which is actually “grace” in Greek. We have abundant grace in Christ, yet we can share in God’s grace.

Thus the idea of impartation in scripture does not imply lack and a biblical understanding of impartation should not leave us with a mentality of lack. The gospel is freely available to all, and God’s grace is abundant in the gospel. The idea is not of one person giving a special superpower to another person, but it is of sharing Christ with each other and growing in the knowledge of Christ. The fact that I share God’s love and God’s grace with other Christians does not negate that they don’t already have God’s love and God’s grace. But this is how the body of Christ builds itself up! “Fellowship” is translated in the same way as “communion” in several languages, and it communicates the idea of sharing something in common. Fellowship builds us up as we share in God’s grace.

Some people are targeted with a specifically powerful impartation that results in a specific manifestation. How do we understand that? We all have the fullness of Christ’s spirit, but we don’t all have the fullness of His ministry. We are set in different places. Somebody who is set in a certain place needs a particularly powerful “strengthening” for what they are about to face and for where God is playing them. Does their need for strengthening mean they didn’t have fullness in Christ before? No. All the fullness of God dwelt in Jesus yet he was strengthened by angels.

Until we reach the full measure of the stature of Christ, some people will excel in certain areas more than others. But God’s intention is that they equip the rest for the work of ministry, not that they be seen as elites who have a special spiritual gift that other Christians don’t have!

Ephesians 4:11-16 (NIV) So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

The more you step out to minister, the more you put yourself in the place of needing to draw on God’s supernatural grace, and the more you will come to know Christ and manifest His glory. Stepping out in faith will place a draw on the Spirit of Christ inside of you and will put you in a place to receive the Spirit’s strengthening and empowerment. Receiving impartation can kickstart a person so they begin stepping out in faith to prophesy or minister healing. On the other hand, some people say they would like a powerful impartation but would do little with it if they were to receive it. Those who were acting in faith before receiving impartation usually will continue acting in faith after they receive it!

Every manifestation of God’s grace is found in His nature, so it’s all about knowing Him. The Holy Spirit, with the fullness of God, dwells in each person who has been born from above, but not everybody is filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit, with God’s glory inundating and flowing out of the whole being. We can be filled to the measure of the fullness of God by knowing His love that surpasses knowledge. There are different ways to be filled with the Holy Spirit, including the laying on of hands, praise and thanksgiving, and filling your heart with scripture.

How This Plays Out Practically

I have recently been teaching other Christians to minister healing and to hear God’s voice. Several of them have now seen Jesus do miracles through their own hands.

The focus is on God’s promises in scripture. I say “The nature of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us is to heal. We add our ‘amen’ to the ‘yes’ that God has declared in Christ, and this releases God’s Spirit into the situation. We aren’t begging God to do something. We are agreeing with what we already know is God’s will because He has revealed it in Jesus. Jesus taught all his disciples to heal the sick and said ‘He who believes in me will do the same works…‘”

It’s all about Jesus, not about some special superpower that only some followers of Jesus get. But I have also been praying and God’s glory manifests on people’s hands. This helps them get started. It gives boldness and experience with the Holy Spirit to help them grow! We teach people what they have in Christ, and we demonstrate it with the laying on of hands.

We have been given fullness in Christ, and impartation helps us to grow experientially in the knowledge of Christ and understand what we have been given. We must hold both of these truths together!

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Impartation or Fullness in Christ?

Impartation is Real!

I began to pray for people and see miracles at a conference with Global Awakening in which I became convinced that it is always God’s will to heal. The main thing that really drove me to pray for the sick was the scriptural conviction I gained about God’s will and the revelation I had of Jesus through the healings. It was all very rooted in scripture, God’s promises, and the nature of Jesus.

Global Awakening’s founder, Randy Clark, emphasizes and preaches about impartation a lot. It’s one of the focuses of their events. And there is a strong scriptural foundation for impartation in both the Old and New Testaments. Impartation is the giving of some spiritual deposit, often through the laying on of hands but also through the direct action of the Holy Spirit or angelic activity. The idea is “Do you want to minister healing? Get around people who minister healing. Have them lay hands on you and pray for you. Do you want to see in the spiritual realm? Get around people who see in the spiritual realm and have them pray for you.”

In my daily life, supernatural ministry became more and more firmly based on the nature of Jesus and the promises of scripture that anybody can grab a hold of. That conviction was behind my actions. We talked about those promises in the last post, “Supernatural Power in the Gospel.” But I was also eager to receive impartation when I went to Global Awakening events, which I did regularly.

At my second Global Awakening event, they prayed for the Holy Spirit to come upon people in power. They brought up to the front those who were feeling fire, shaking, weeping, or having similar manifestations to receive more prayer with the laying on of hands. I was watching the Holy Spirit move and people were crying out, shaking, jerking, weeping, and falling on the floor. After a while, I was feeling really bummed out because it wasn’t happening to me. I thought I had missed it. I was hoping the Holy Spirit would choose me.

However, I saw a girl near me begin crying out and weeping and they started dragging her up to the front. And it was so holy and precious that for a moment I forgot about myself and I started to thank God for how he was touching her. When I did, I also began weeping and getting the “crunches.” (Doubling over) Then they brought me up to the front to receive prayer as well. I was already seeing people healed regularly before that, but I began seeing more.

At another conference, I didn’t notice anything special happen at any specific time. But before that conference, I had wanted so badly to receive words of knowledge for healing and it seemed like I was the worst for getting words of knowledge of hearing God! But there was a huge difference immediately after that conference and I started hearing God specifically and accurately and giving words of knowledge for healing.

Something similar happened at various events where preached. (Yes, he’s a filmmaker now) Brandon’s eyes had been opened on a Global Awakening missions trip to see the activity of angels and demons. After one event, I began experiencing a marked increase in manifestations of angelic activity. And another time, I saw a rainbow-colored angel with my physical eyes as Brandon was preaching. Ten minutes later, Brandon saw the same angel, and after that, I saw it again. I had never, to my knowledge, seen an angel with my physical eyes before that.

Another time, when Randy Clark laid hands on me it felt as if God’s hand reached inside and grabbed my stomach. I physically felt something twist in my belly. The KJV of the Bible talk about “bowels of compassion.” Well, I had already experienced many, many miracles, healings, and supernatural events before that. But after that, I cried a lot. I still do. It would be like God’s love would just possess me and take over me and I would see people healed one after another.

The Conundrum of Impartation Vs. Fullness in Christ

When I went to those conferences, I honored how God touched people in power. And I received from God while I was there. However, the more I went on stepping out in faith, the basis was the promises of scripture. I would feel like I didn’t have enough or wasn’t sufficient to deal with a situation, but I would find a promise in scripture, act on that, and see God’s power manifest.

I was living like that, and then I would go to a conference again and get discouraged at the end because I wanted to see more of God’s power manifest through my life but I felt like I missed it. I was hoping I would be knocked 20 feet back and have a thousand volts of electricity flowing through me for hours on end! And then after the conference, I would feel like I was lacking or missing something. Maybe I didn’t have enough anointing or power for that person in front of me to be healed of cancer.

And then I would think “Wait, what am I doing? Before this conference, I was grabbing a hold of God’s promises and acting according to them, and it was producing miracles. Am I going to stop now because I feel like I’m lacking something when the Bible says that if I believe nothing will be impossible for me, that I have everything needed for life and godliness in the knowledge of Jesus, and that Jesus gave me the authority to heal every kind of sickness and disease?”

So I would go back to relying on God’s promises and see more miracles. Always looking for another impartation felt really frustrating. However, I also always knew impartation was Biblical and what I had seen of God touching people in that way was very holy and precious. In fact, I had experienced it myself.

I also began teaching others and saw them experience miracles just because they learned that Jesus teach us to heal the sick. I taught people based on the promises of scripture that apply to all Christians, and the results were incredible. I also saw other people like Fielding Goharvest and Curry Blake teaching people to minister healing solely on the basis of Jesus’s commission for all Christians. When I heard Curry Blake’s Divine Healing Technician Training on Youtube almost all of it was what I already believed and what I had heard Dan Mohler teach, and I would consider it the most Biblically accurate and thorough teaching on healing I have heard anywhere. It is all based on the concrete promises of God in scripture. I knew what was going on at Global Awakening was God. And great miracles happened there. But just as amazing miracles were happening around people who didn’t even emphasize impartation and just taught that we have fullness in Christ and can heal the sick. I knew very well that children and new Christians could pray in faith and see extreme miracles happen.

As I walked more and more in the supernatural, I also came to understand that things which seem really mystical to some people are actually very simple, based on spiritual principles that work for everybody. Any Christian can hear God’s voice, release God’s power, heal the sick, and cast out demons. But not understanding how God’s power is released and how spiritual things work hinders a lot of people.

There are in general two “camps” among those who teach healing ministry. One tends to emphasize impartation, receiving the anointing, spiritual gifts, words of knowledge, spiritual roots of disease, etc. The other emphasizes the Bible, God’s promises, and acting in faith no matter what you feel. I’m much more in the camp of those who emphasize faith and scripture. You don’t have to feel anything. The power is in the gospel. And as I have recently explained, I don’t even believe in “spiritual gifts” in the sense that they are most often taught, as special superpowers given to certain people. I have shared that there is a strong Biblical basis for all Christians to walk in every one of the supernatural manifestations of God’s grace. I have seen that every one of the so-called “spiritual gifts” can be taught. I have taught groups of Christians to minister healing to each other based simply on the gospel facts that we have authority in Christ and access to God’s presence, and nearly everybody in the group who had a need was healed.

I have seen a quite lot of people miss out because they thought they needed something more before they could minister healing. If they just start acting instead of feeling like they are lacking something, they see miracles.

I’ve seen this so much in Brazil. So many people believe in miracles but don’t act because they are always thinking they need something more. I tell them “You have everything you need in Christ. Just act.” For example, there was a young guy in the Northeast of Brazil who had been told “You need to have the spiritual gift. You need impartation. You need to pay the price for the anointing.” And he was discouraged because he wanted to minister healing. I told him he had what he needed in Christ. I told him “If you can get someone to pray for you for impartation, do it, but don’t think you don’t have what you need to minister if you don’t. Jesus lives in you. Impartation can help you step into walking in that, but the most important thing is that you start to act and pray for people. If you keep obeying Jesus’s command to heal the sick, you will see miracles.” He said he was going to take my advice. Soon later, he saw his first healing miracle.

In fact, even Randy Clark who emphasizes impartation so much, also teaches that healing the sick is a ministry commanded by Jesus for all Christians.

Do impartation and fullness in Christ contradict each other?

I struggled for years to understand how impartation and fullness of Christ could both be true and not contradict each other! If it seems like the Bible contradicts itself on some point, then we usually need to receive a deeper understanding. If we don’t understand something yet, it’s all right to say “I’m not sure how all of this fits together yet!”

If you have everything you need in Christ, nothing lacking, then why would you need impartation?

But impartation and the laying on of hands are in the New Testament!

Some people in the “fullness in Christ” camp which I relate to more strongly have totally rejected impartation and are even hostile to those who teach it. I understand where they’re coming from. It’s incredibly frustrating to always be hoping for more impartation, anointing, etc, rather than just grabbing a hold of God’s promises. Having a perspective of lack and constantly needing something more is unbiblical and hinders so many people from obeying Christ and living a life of miracles. But at the same time, there is more! You have it all in Christ, but there is more that you can walk in than you have experienced so far!

I could never totally reject the idea of impartation even though there have been times that it has frustrated and confused me! I don’t think we can just discard scriptures about the laying on of hands. Nor can I discard what I have seen and experienced with impartation as if it were not from God!

I teach people to heal the sick based on the fact that we have open heaven, we have authority and are raised with Christ, and the nature of the God we are in communion with is to heal the sick. I say “You are spiritually rich if you have Jesus. You have everything, so act like it’s true and start giving away His riches to the world. We are Christ’s sheep, so we hear His voice. We are His body, so we do His works.” Yet at the same time, I recommend to anybody who wants to walk in God’s power to get around people who are, and to let it rub off on them. And if you can, have them lay hands on you.

Well, this post is getting long and I guess I’ll have to leave you guys hanging until the next one! Do you see how the concepts of “impartation” and “fullness in Christ” seem so contradictory? But I now feel like I have come to an understanding of how impartation works without contradicting the truth of having fullness in Christ! I believe this understanding will really help people who want to walk in God’s power. And I also feel like it will increase my emphasis on impartation personally, without diminishing the truth that we have received fullness in Christ and every “grace manifestation” is available to every Christian! In the next post, we will explain how both impartation and fullness in Christ are true without contradicting each other!

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