Connecting

Charlie and his beautiful wife and two teen-aged daughters picked us up for church last Sunday morning. Friends of Lucy. This was one reason we came to this tourist haven; not just to enjoy the sun, the beautiful Caribbean Sea, which we haven’t seen yet, and to escape the cold of Portland, both weather-wise and spiritually. but to find a church that believes in miracles and one we could be a part of and do something for God.

They met in a rural area, a small, chalk-white building, cut into the tangled jungle, white plastic chairs and Mexican smiles, hugs, and kisses by the dozen. During the worship, Laurie felt faint, so they transported her in her wheelchair to a car parked by the entrance, where she could rest in hear the music. The preaching was mostly in Spanish, but Cecil, a retired airline pilot with Japan Airlines, sat next to me and translated, and then I sent him out to the car to translate for Laurie.

At the end of the service, they carried her in her wheelchair up the nine stone steps back into the church and to the front to be prayed for. The worship and music was intoxicating. They pulled her up from the wheelchair, and with support, she walked for about 10 minutes. If love alone could heal, she was healed a hundred times. She definitely felt a supernatural strength flowing through her body when they prayed, and her legs noticeably strengthened from that point onward.

God heals in several ways. One: Miracles. These are instantaneous, supernatural acts of God. I believe the main reason Western Christianity has gone Laodicean is what I call “the death of Pentecost.” I’ve seen far too many miracles in my own ministry in South Africa, including a dramatic healing of my own back, that doctors said without surgery I might never walk, to ever have doubts on the subjects. Good Christians differ on this doctrine, but to me, it’s not a doctrine but a living reality.  Two: Healing. This is where God heals you quicker than the natural healing process. Three: Doctors. God uses doctors and medicines to heal people. Four: When we get to heaven.

Right now, we are believing for a supernatural healing, as Laurie is doing physical therapy and feeling a little stronger every day, but we’re still believing God for a miracle.

After church, Charlie and his family hosted a food fellowship with half of the church. Laurie was up for eight straight hours, by far her longest.

I’ve posted a video of the church praying for her, which follows:

Author: Changing from Glory to Glory

I was saved in the "Jesus People Movement". You can see the movie, “The Jesus Revolution,” it was just like that, the real deal. I cut my long hair and never looked back. We were the last revival America has seen. Many of us became preachers, including myself. In 30 years, my family and I planted churches in Canada and South Africa. We saw many conversions and healing miracles, especially in South Africa. Much of our ministry overseas involved standing against the false revivals of charlatans like Rodney Howard-Brown and Kenneth Copeland, also known as “Dominion Theology” and the New Apostolic Reformation. My family paid a great price to stand against these false revivals, even in my own church organization, even to this day. Before salvation in 1976, I fought in the Vietnam War, a bronze star, and then like many disillusioned young people of my generation, I became a hippie. Vietnam wasn’t just about giving us hippies an excuse to get high and medicate our anger, but it was an attempt at stopping Communism’s aggression in Southeast Asia. We failed, and millions of innocent Vietnamese and Cambodian people died, the eventual result of all tyrannical takeovers. Now, in my latter years, I find myself fighting again, here at home, only this time it’s a global takeover, where even our own nation is against our freedoms. God impressed on me as a young convert that I would see the Rapture of the church, and now we are very certainly living in those days just before the Tribulation Period, also called “Daniel’s Seventieth Week,” and “Jacob’s Troubles,” a time when God’s wrath will be poured out upon the unbelieving world. This judgment is not for the Church, the Bride of Christ. We’re going up in the First Resurrection. Paul says to “encourage one another with this hope.” Personally, I’m ready to go home to heaven. We’ve had a great run, Laurie and I, and we had many unforgettable apostolic experiences building churches on the Word around the world. Now, I live on the northwest Oregon coast, and with the help of my beautiful wife Laurie, I write romantic, time traveling comedies about the End Times. View all posts by Changing from Glory to Glory