Always ready to do the work of God

This is a testimony from JP and Dina who live in Christchurch with their 4 kids.

So, about 2 weeks ago we decided quite suddenly, that we will make a quick trip on the motorbike to Greymouth. Our 4 kids stayed with my mum. The idea was to farewell our dear friends who were packing to leave for Australia. As we put our bike gear on, I said to JP "I need to pray for someone, we have to find someone to pray for on the way, or in Greymouth." 

We had a lovely trip through Athur's Pass and arrived safely in Greymouth. While talking to our friend, Louise, she mentioned this family she knew, that needed prayer for their daughter.. JP and I just looked at each other and knew that God arranged this trip.

We went to see this precious family the next day. We shared the Gospel with the dad,mum and three kids. We prayed for healing for one of the daughters and then started ministering to the whole family, one at a time. We talked about sin, repentance, discipleship and walking in freedom with Christ. We casted out several demons.

God is faithful and we saw how the harvest is ready everywhere we go. As we go, we must do what Jesus Christ did when HE walked on this earth. 

The trip to Greymouth exceeded our expectations!

God speaks about fasting

There was a kick start seminar run by the Last Reformation held in Auckland. During the training there is teaching on many topics such as: what the gospel is; healing; casting out demons; how to be a true disciple of Christ as well as a chance to go out on to the streets to pray for people for healing. Normally during these seminars God does amazing things with people. It may be with the people on the streets or it may be with the people attending. Something always happens that we couldn't even think or imagine beforehand and God is glorified through it.

The weekend before this seminar, I felt strongly led by God to fast in the lead up to it. I hadn't fasted for a while beforehand and even when I had, the maximum time I had done it for was only around 3 days. This time I felt strongly that I needed to fast for a longer period, so I decided I would do a no solids fast for 7 days until the end of Sunday after the kick start. I didn't know why I was fasting but I knew I needed to be obedient to God.

In the lead up to the seminar I was also struggling to find anywhere to sleep for the Friday and Saturday nights. Auckland is a difficult place to find convenient and cheap accommodation that would house my whole family. Originally we were going to stay at my Uncle's house which was 40 minutes drive away, but it would have been too difficult to organise naps for our kids. We then tried to find accommodation closer to the venue through airbnb.com but it was very expensive. In the end we decided it was just easier if only I went to the seminar without my family. Mike organised for me to stay with someone in Auckland named 'Jordan' who was also going.

During the weekend I had a great chance to get to know Jordan. He is a similar age to me and he also has young kids so we were able to talk openly about a lot of things. I started telling him how I'd noticed something really strange happening to me since I'd started fasting. There were 2 or 3 occasions when I had got a fright while in everyday situations. This is really unusual for me because I never get that at all. I know that other people do though because if you can walk up behind them they 'jump' when you start talking to them. I couldn't work out why it was happening to me though. After I said this to Jordan he said that that sort of thing happens to him everyday. He also mentioned to me that he has anxiety issues, especially when it comes to talking to people at work. I knew that was something that needed prayer so I arranged for 'Gina' (who was teaching at the seminar) and I to pray for him.

When we prayed for Jordan it became apparent after a time of prayer that the anxieties weren't caused by demonic forces within him. One thing Gina said while we were praying for him was that she prayed for him a few months earlier for him to be set free from demons and he was. What he was experiencing now was something different. We still couldn't work out what it was though because it appeared demonic on the surface so we spent some time talking with Jordan. As we were speaking it became clear why I was fasting. I don't remember exactly what was said but I do remember feeling like Holy Spirit was 'screaming' at me, 'this is why you're fasting. He needs to know there is power in it to bring his flesh into submission.' So I said this, and I felt strongly that this was what Jordan needed to hear and do and also that he understood it.

I'd also just memorised this scripture a few weeks earlier:

Galatians 5:17. "For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do."

This all happened on the Saturday evening. I was still planning to continue fasting until the end of Sunday but God spoke to me in a quiet whisper and said, 'that's enough.' I fought it for a few minutes because I'd resolved to fast for 7 days. I realised that if I did that though, I would be only doing out of the pride of being able to say, 'I fasted for 7 days' and not out of obedience. I also realised that the purpose for my fasting had been found out so there was no purpose in me continuing.

After I'd decided to quit my fast I enjoyed some dinner that had been brought by one of the attendees to share. Once I'd finished I noticed a sign on a magnet on the fridge where the seminar was being held which said F.A.S.T. It was the only magnet on the fridge. I think it was something about what to do when someone has a heart attack but it was significant to me in another way. 

Fasting isn't glamorous and it is usually forgotten about but there is power in it. The scripture above says that your flesh is opposed to the Spirit and keeps you from doing the things you want to do. By fasting you deny your flesh and empower your spirit. I believe that it is something that all disciples of Jesus should be doing regularly.

Muslim lady healed

Mike and I went to a popular shopping mall yesterday which was packed with people because of the rain. We approached a few people and offered to pray for them but no-one was interested. We decided to go The Warehouse and while we were there I spotted a lady with a crutch looking at clothes with her husband, so I went over and said, "Can I ask you why you're using that crutch?" She was wearing a head scarf but I wasn't put off by that. I could have easily thought to myself, 'she's a Muslim, she won't be interested.' but I put that aside and stepped out in faith. 

She said she had a lot of swelling in her leg so she needs to use a crutch. She could put weight on the leg but it was uncomfortable to walk on it. She also mentioned that her arm was sore and that she takes a whole lot of pain relief and struggles to sleep every night. When I asked if we could pray for her she was fine with that. We prayed a few times for the leg and asked her to try it out but it was hard for her to tell if that was healed. So we targeted her arm next and after we had prayed a few times she said that the pain was moving up her arm. We asked her a bit more about how her arm got sore in the first place and she said there was no injury and that the doctors couldn't figure out why it was sore. Straight away that said to us there is some demonic activity going on so Mike prayed again and, rather than praying for healing, he cast out the spirit of infirmity. 

Before we started praying for her arm we asked her to lift her arm up as high as she could but she couldn't lift her arm above her shoulder. After we finished praying she was able to lift it all the way above her head. We then shared the gospel with her (and her husband) and left them my number. As we were about to go she mentioned that she had heard about a church that prays for people and sees them healed. They had been planning on going for a while but had got too busy. God knows all and had other plans for the lady. He used us to GO and take healing and preach the gospel.

The harvest is plentiful people. Get out there! We need more labourers!

Repentance, Deliverance, Baptism and infilling of Holy Spirit

Mike, April and Andrew witnessed the Book of Acts in power two days ago, in their very own home.

Mike was sharing the gospel with the husband of a lady whom we shall call Mel. Mel overheard the conversation and showed interest. Mike talked to her over a period of time about repentance and the cost of following Jesus. Mel had shown some interest about wanting to follow Jesus. But Mike continued to challenge her about her decision, to make sure it was a whole-hearted repentance, as Mike has seen many who began to follow but have turned back and not remained repentant.

Two days ago, Mel, with her daughters, came over for lunch at Mike and April's house, as part of our home church meet ups. From the lounge, we could hear April sharing the gospel with Mel, and her daughters who were also present, using the cups demonstration (as used by Torben in The Last Reformation). At this point Andrew and I had left to go home for kids' nap time.

What happened next, as Mike was talking to Mel, was her own confession that she wanted to follow Jesus. Then Mike got Mel to ask God herself for forgiveness. Then she starting manifesting. As April held her hand they began to pray for a prayer of freedom for her, and for all pain to come out of her in Jesus name. Then Mel's face contorted, her head went to one side, like she was gritting her teeth. Then she just screamed and it came out. Just like in the Bible, it shrieked and then came out of her. Mel and her daughters were stunned.

Then April rang to ask for Andrew to come back to help them pray for Mel.

They shared with her some more and explained about the power of water baptism. She was willing. So April filled up the bath and baptised her.

After that they prayed with her some more but felt a strong resistance. Since the bath was not a comfortable place to pray they got Mel out and changed into dry clothes before continuing to pray for her again.

So they all moved to the lounge and prayed for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It took quite a long time for the baptism of the Holy Spirit to come about and for her to speak in tongues. Andrew said it wasn't that God was holding back but that he felt that she needed to feel she was worthy enough of receiving a gift like that, that she was worthy to be loved.

So they had to speak into her that she was loved and that God has accepted her. This broke her down piece by piece. Mike felt to ask her something about forgiveness that she needed to deal with. They just let her do that directly with God. April prayed for peace for Mel and told her that she had already been forgiven.

Mike kept asking the Lord for direction for what to do next. And at this point he began to prophesy over her. It came down to be about Mel needing to be able to trust God. God had told Mel that He won't fail her.

After that word, they could see Mel let out a huge sigh and saw that in her heart she must have just surrendered to Him and put her trust in Him. Then she leaned forward and cried out in the most beautiful tongue they had ever heard. She was singing in perfect tone and had all of them in tears.

When the three of them related this story to me, they kept saying "it was just so beautiful" and couldn't really describe it anymore than that as if words just failed to describe how beautiful the tongue that came out of her was. April heard her sing "Abba Father."

It was also beautiful because all of Mel's daughters witnessed the whole thing.

This is the power of salvation when the full gospel has been preached.

Man got rid of his moon boot after being instantly healed

Mike and Andrew went out on the streets to find people to pray for.

They started off at a Saturday morning market. Andrew saw this guy with a crutch so he asked him what he'd done. He said he rolled his ankle and wrecked the ankle and achilles. He said he normally wears a moon boot but today he didn't want to. He was in a lot of pain. He also said he was due to do 3 months of rehab.

Andrew prayed for him once and the pain was gone.

The man put the crutch down and walked around with no issues. He said he was a Catholic and that he only became Catholic to marry his wife 40 years ago. 10 years ago he had a near death experience which made him serious about his faith.

Andrew shared how to be born again with him and left his name and number with the man.

We found out the next day that the man was able to walk fine with no pain and returned his moon boot to the hospital for a refund within the hour of healing. He also told his daughter about Andrew praying for him. His daughter rang to ask Andrew if he could pray for her back which had been sore for a while. After hearing about what had happened to her dad, she made a comment to say, "It was like Jesus had walked into the store!" She had also been telling her work colleague about what had happened to her dad and the colleague apparently got goosebumps.

That night we (Andrew and family) went to their house to pray for the daughter. Andrew explained to the daughter that there was no charge to this and that it was a free gift from God. Following Holy Spirit's leading Andrew told the dad to lay hands and pray his daughter, to show him that Andrew was nobody special, but it is Christ in him that heals.

Healing Across the Ocean

Andrew has been a member of a Facebook page called 'Divine Healing Prayer Requests' for a while now. He constantly sees requests for prayers coming up. He has ignored a lot of them in the past because they were people from different countries. He didn't believe they could be healed from such a large distance away.

He decided to test his faith by praying for some people.

There was one person, T, who had really bad hip pain who was in Canada. Andrew typed in a healing prayer telling the pain to go. He didn't feel like he could leave it at that though so he asked T how he was and where in Canada he lived. Then he thought about The Last Reformation map where people from all over the world can put their contact details up who could pray for others. Andrew searched for the area where T lived and found 3 people there. He emailed them all to see if they could pray for T and one person went and met up with T and prayed for him.

Andrew asked T about it afterwards and he said the pain was actually worse. Andrew told T that was a good sign because "the night is darkest right before the dawn." He then prayed some more for T and spoke life into his body. T went to bed with 8/10 pain. The pain was "excruciating, like a saw cutting my bones." He has had it for 2 weeks.

The next morning T messaged Andrew to say that he had no pain! He has a powerful encounter with Jesus where Jesus came to him and T felt his presence so thick that the pain instantly went.

Irene got kick-started by Andrew

Dinner with friends

About two weeks ago, we were invited to some friends' house for dinner. Before we left, we asked them if there was anything we could pray for for them. The wife spoke first to say she had been having pain in her achilles. She could walk but every time she put pressure on it it was sore. So Andrew turned to me, while I was in the middle of changing nappy, to go pray for her. Before there was time for any excuses to come to mind, I made myself go towards her and started praying, even though her husband was in mid-sentence.

After a quick prayer of commanding healing the pain left her. She was very stoked. I was very stoked too, as it was the first time I saw someone healed through my prayers. I think the key for me was to not think about it too much before doing it.

Lawn mowing

We were at this lady's house to check out her lawn with the possibility of mowing it for her as a job. When Andrew tried to shake her hand to say hello, she said she was sick so wouldn't. Later, she said she had a chest infection and was going to the doctor later that morning. She was coughing and was feeling pain in her throat.

Andrew told her that, "We are Christians and we pray for people and God blesses them. We have seen people healed through our prayers. Is it ok if we pray for you?" The lady agreed. Andrew told me to pray for her. So I told the sickness to go and chest to be healed. I prayed 3 times but she said there was no obvious change for her.

Sore knees healed

Andrew walking home for lunch

There was a kick-start seminar run by The Last Reformation in Hamilton. Part of the seminar was to go out on to the streets and pray for people. The training venue was two minutes walk away from my home and I was walking back home to have some lunch before heading out to pray for people.

I heard in the training how Torben Sondergaard (who founded TLR) approaches every single person that walks past him while he is kickstarting people so I thought I'd try that out. I saw two separate ladies walking towards me and I asked them both if they had any pain at the moment. The first one I talked to didn't so then I asked the second one. She said she had sore knees so I told her that I pray for people and God heals them, and asked whether I could pray for her. She said yes so I prayed for one of her knees then asked her to bend it. She said it was a bit better. I said that I wanted complete healing so I said I would pray again. After the second prayer she said it was much better. Then she tried the other knee and she said that was still sore. So then I prayed a general prayer of health over her whole body and after that both her knees were a lot better.

After that I shared a short gospel message with her. She said that she had been thinking about going back to church for a while now but has been caught up in worldly ways. I wanted to talk with her more about healing and God but she had to catch her bus. She invited me around to her house to talk with her and her husband though. She just lives two minutes walk from my house and I have been around a few times to talk with them about God. Her knees are still great and her husband had pain in his knee too which I prayed for and that was also healed.

Family holiday in Fiji turned into a mission trip

April's dream

Mike and April (with their son, Elijah) were planning to go for a holiday in Samoa.

When April was looking at accommodation in Samoa she saw one resort that reminded her of a dream she had about a year ago. In the dream, she was at this resort but then heard the ground rumbled and saw the ground crumbled towards her. Then, she woke up.

Weeks before the holiday, Mike often saw himself praying for Fijians and sitting in their homes.

So they decided to go to Fiji instead.

Arriving in Fiji

The first few days in Fiji, they simply rested. Then they decided to look for opportunities to share the gospel. While sightseeing, they saw a lady selling fruit and asked if she had any pain or anything to pray about. She said not her, but her husband, who has had a sore back for a while. They prayed over a tissue and told the lady to give it to her husband. They never heard from the lady again.

So they kept walking to the other side of the road and saw a man waiting on the side of the road. Mike asked if he had pain but he didn't. So Mike just talked to him about Jesus.

Lela

Back to the resort, Mike was sitting at the tourism desk and chatted with a lady, Lela, about the Gospel. She said she was a believer. She had been praying and wondering about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues as she's seen some people do it. So Mike talked to her about water baptism.

Mike preached the same sermon as pastor's prepared sermon

The next day, Mike and April went to a Pentecostal church service, mostly in Fijian language. The visitors were then invited to share. Mike had a clear vision to share about sowing and reaping and the importance of sowing the Gospel. The congregation listened attentively. If you sow money you will reap money but you can't take money to heaven with you. But when you sow into the Kingdom of Heave you will reap eternal fruit. Later, the preacher stood up to preach his prepared sermon in Fijian. Mike and April found out later at lunch that the sermon was also about sowing and reaping.

Healing the waitresses

It is now two days before they were due to leave Fiji. Mike prompted April to ask the waitress, Talia, at the resort whether she had any pain. She said back and shoulder pain. April prayed for her and she went away to carry on with her job.

Few minutes later April saw another waitress limping, her face was really in pain. She had stopped in the hallway unable to move because of the pain. This time, April told Mike to go pray. Mike called for the waitress to come over instead. "Are you in pain?" he asked, "Is your foot sore?" April said, "Mike can pray for you." So Mike prayer for healing. April prompted him to pray for the pain to go as well. Then they told the waitress to try out her foot. She did a stomp! Then looked at them and smiled! Then she stomped a few more times! Mike told her it was Jesus, Jesus.  She wasn't limping anymore.

Mike then met Ritah, who had been cooking eggs over the counter for them. She handed the plate of eggs over to Mike but didn't let go of it. She asked, "What are you guys doing?" as she had been watching them pray for the lady who was limping a few minutes ago. She asked Mike if they could go to her house to pray for her husband.

Baptising waitress and husband

Ritah's husband had a stroke and was left with a shoulder pain and could only work two days a month. Mike prayed for his left arm and shoulder and each time the pain decreased.

Ritah explained to them that she goes to the Methodist church. There have been Christians who have come to their house but they couldn't understand what they were saying about the Bible. So Mike explained the Gospel to them through a visual demonstration using cups. This was the first time they had heard the Gospel in this way. Mike told them to be saved and be obedient. Repent, be water baptised and be filled with the Holy Spirit. So both Ritah and her husband wanted to be baptised. Mike baptised the husband first then straight after that Mike asked him to baptise his wife, Ritah.

After the baptism they both received peace and clarity of their eternal destiny. They now know where they're going after death.

Mike prayed for them to receive the Holy Spirit. But he didn't see them speaking in tongues straight away.

April's massage lady

One day before they were due to leave Fiji, April went for a massage. As she was lying down, she was debating in her mind whether to share the Gospel with the lady, Karish, who was giving her the massage. April wanted to relax so she asked the Lord whether she can just have a break from preaching the Gospel.

Five minutes before the end of the massage, Karish asked April how she has liked Fiji. "I'm so glad I came to Fiji. We were planning to go to Samoa but God warned me in a dream not to go there." Karish grabbed April's hand and said, "You are a blessing to be here!"

She continued to tell April that her husband was in prison in Samoa, serving a really long sentence and it was only his second year. She also had a two year old son. Due to pressure from her family she left Samoa and moved back to Fiji where she was originally from. Her family was Buddhist, Karish was the only Christian. "God is my only strength, please pray for me." Her family had been pressuring her to divorce her husband but she didn't feel that was what God was telling her to do, and she still loved her husband. But just to please her family she sent for divorce papers but her husband never got them.

By this time, April really had to go as her time was up and Karish had another client appointment. She told Karish, "God has heard your prayers. I'll keep praying for you. Don't let go of Him." Then Karish praised God and felt like there was a relief, as if this was the first she had shared this burden with anyone.

Lela's baptism

Later, April saw Lela from the tourism desk. She told her about the baptism that happened last night. Lela was very interested. She has a sister who had been reading the Bible and wanted to be baptised. So she went to the SDA who willingly baptised her. When Lela heard about this she wanted to be baptised too but couldn't find anyone to do it for her.

April explained the Gospel to her. Lela wanted her family and children to be baptised too. So April explained to Lela that once she is baptised she can in turn baptise her own children but also that God deals with us individually. Lela was baptised later that evening and prayed for the infilling of the Holy Spirit too. She was very happy and was thanking God constantly for the new creation.

After Lela's baptism, Mike and April were invited to her house. Days before this, she was shy about showing her house because it was only the size of a shack. But they told her that it was her family, not her house, they wanted to meet. Lela's children sang to Mike and April. However, they were singing songs that had a sorrowful spirit, pleading God to do something. Mike rebuked that spirit and preached the Gospel to them using the chessboard concept, that we no longer need to plead God for anything. That He is more than willing. They were very focused in listening.

All this time, Mike and April's driver had been watching and listening to what had been happening. Though he showed no interest at the time, turned out he was excitedly telling people what he had seen!

The day Mike and April were leaving Fiji

The next day, Lela seemed changed and was happy. She said to April, "I am free to go anywhere now to worship."

April saw Talia again and spoke to her about baptism again. But as they were leaving in two hours they weren't sure whether there would be time to baptise her as Talia was still working. Nevertheless, April encouraged her to get baptised.