The Key to Consistency

I remember the first time I ever prayed for someone with a serious condition, and actually expected anything to happen:

I was 18 years old and I had just finished reading John Wimber's book Power Healing. For weeks afterwards I sensed God speaking to me, telling me to go pray for a fellow college student who had gone blind due to diabetes. Of course I resisted! In my mind, it was far too risky to walk up to a blind person and ask him if I could pray for him to receive his sight right there. What if it didn't work and I looked like a complete idiot?

But the Holy Spirit kept pulling on my heart, teling me He was in this thing. Sometimes, I would work up the guts to do it for a brief moment. I would walk up to the man with great confidence, only to turn away at the last second (I figured since he was blind he would never know I was there!)

Then one day, it occurred to me: I either believe this stuff or I don't. It was time to either go big or go home. After a meeting one morning, I found the student and told him that I sensed I was supposed to pray for him. As I invited the Holy Spirit's Presence, he was thrown back in his seat, power surged through him, and heat began to radiate out from behind his eyes. My first thought was: "It really works!"

We continued to pray, and the man began seeing shades of light as God touched him. The healing had begun progressively, and I was immediately ruined for anything less than the message and ministry of Jesus. After what happened that day, I could never go back!

Since that time, I've seen hundreds of tremendous demonstrations of power, and I've seen long stretches of time where we've prayed and absolutely nothing has happened. In fact, sometimes people get worse or even die.

How do we keep our expectation strong in those times when God doesn't seem to be breaking through?

I think the key is to remember that this is the mission Jesus has given us. He's told us to announce the Kingdom, to heal the sick, to drive out demons and do all the things that He does. This is His initiative. Our call is to simply obey Him and take the risk to step out when we sense Him speaking to us.

Let's just do this for the next 100 years or so, and you will see far too much to ever turn back. Keep following with everything you've got!

The Kingdom Announcement

Over the course of the past 7 weeks, I've been teaching a VBI course on the Kingdom of God at the Halifax Vineyard. We have a number of students working on a Diploma in Kingdom Theology through VBI, and this class is one of the required credits.

During last night's class, we explored our call to announce the presence of the Kingdom of God, and out of that announcement, to do the ministry of the Kingdom.

As we were nearing the end of the lecture, there was a tangible sense of angels moving around the room. I had everyone stand up, and then I simply invited this Kingdom that we've been studying to come in a tangible way "on earth like it is in heaven."

The Spirit of God began touching people powerfully through prophetic words and healings. Power surged through different ones as God encountered them. One of our students was standing by herself near her desk with her hands open, when she was hit by such power that she fell backwards to the concrete floor and hit with tremendous impact! She was totally unharmed, and as she lay there the Spirit of God empowered her dramatically.

Other students were released from hindrances and experienced the Presence of the Holy Spirit with weeping, supernatural joy, and powerful shaking.

A woman with an injured tailbone was healed, as the Spirit of God swept across the room. This was a great theology class!

When we expect God's kingdom to come, pray for the kingdom to break in, and announce its presence through the Holy Spirit, so often we see these wonderful demonstrations of God's mercy toward us.

Let's keep doing this everywhere we go!