August 29, 2014

 

After the large number of responses to last week's Coffee Break, I realized that much of what is happening currently here in the Yakima Valley, as well as other places around the country, really should be included so as not to leave this simply as an event that took place years ago. Sometimes I start swimming with all of the reports that come in and lose track of certain specific details, but it seems appropriate to at least include things that are happening here in Sunnyside, as well as Toppenish, Yakima and surrounding areas.

That said, let me lay a little more Scriptural foundation for this kind of Kingdom authority.

 

Matthew 28:18-20 (RAC Translation & Amplification): Jesus [keeping his appointment with the disciples] drew near and laid out His designed plan and purpose to them, "All authority and power to rule in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.

 

Go then and make disciples -- disciplined ones -- of all the nations, baptizing and immersing them into the onoma (the very character, makeup and essence) of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

 

Teaching [and imparting to] them to guard and fulfill everything that I have charged you with; and consider this: I am with you throughout all the days perpetually, uniformly, and on every occasion, to the consummation of the age." Amen.

 

There's another part of this imparting and delegating of authority that we need to fully understand and get hold of. Paul, writing to the Ephesians, puts it like this:

 

Ephesians 1:18-21 (NASB): I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

 

Ephesians 2:4-6 (Amplified Bible): But God—so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us,

Even when we were dead (slain) by [our own] shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; [He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him, for] it is by grace (His favor and mercy which you did not deserve) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation).

And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being] in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

By now, it should be very clear that our authority comes by virtue of (1) ALL authority and power to rule having been given to Jesus Christ; (2) Jesus being the head of the whole body -- the Ekklesia; (3) our being IN CHRIST and having His very life, His makeup and the essence of Who He is being in us; and (4) our having been seated with Him in that same place of rulership in and from the Heavenlies.

 

When He speaks into our spirits and our inner beings with a command or some instruction or desire of His heart, He gives to us the full authority to carry out that instruction, along with the backing of Father and Holy Spirit so that the following evidence provides the proof of His Word to us.

 

Walking the streets of the neighborhood where I lived in Long Beach, California, along with the area around the church fellowship, day after day, week after week, month after month took consistency and faithfulness. It didn't bother me that I didn't see any results after the first week, or the first month, or even for many months. I didn't have to see immediate results; there was a mandate in my spirit to stay with it.

 

We had neighbors on either side of our house, neither of whom had any kind of relationship with the Lord. The neighbors just to the west of us were about as loud and foul-mouthed as anyone you've ever heard. I honestly don't remember the time frame between when I first started walking the streets of our neighborhood and when change took place in their home -- and it seems like it was easily two years or more -- but one day the lady of the house opened up her side door when I was trying to till the ground right next to the fence that separated our homes.

 

She expressed her thanks at the faithfulness in praying over them and said that she and her (formerly very foul mouthed) husband were now attending the local United Brethren church just a few blocks from us, and that they had accepted Jesus Christ. It didn't matter to me that two years or more had passed since the prayers had begun. It just mattered that this family was now a part of the Kingdom of God.

 

The folks that lived on the other side of us continuously fought like cats and dogs with each other and we didn't need the windows open on that side of the house to hear them cursing at each other. The day came, however, when things seemed to quiet down. I didn't really know what had happened until one day when the phone rang. The wife called me to say that her husband had been in deep depression. She came home one afternoon to find that he had put a gun to his mouth and blown his brains out in the bathroom. Paramedics had been called by another neighbor and taken him to the hospital barely hanging onto life.

 

She had seen me day after day after day after day stretching out my hands toward the house and praying over them, and she asked me if I would go to the hospital and pray for her husband. I did so immediately. When I walked into the hospital room, the nurses were just pulling the sheet over him after his being pronounced dead. I asked them if I could pray over him and they stepped aside.

 

It was a rather strange way to pray. I didn't do a "Lazarus, come forth" kind of prayer. What I said to the Lord was this: "Father, in Jesus' name restore life to this man so that he has an opportunity to accept Jesus Christ into his life before he steps into eternity. I know he blew his brains out, but restore enough cognitive ability in him to hear the truth of the Gospel and respond. Give him his life long enough to get to know the Lord Jesus Christ."

 

Immediately the sheet began to move as the man stirred. The startled nurses grabbed it and pulled it back to see the man's eyes open and seeing. I lifted up my hand and said quietly, "Thank you, Lord!" and left the hospital. It was quite some time before I heard that the man had been transferred to an intensive care unit, and then to an extended care facility before being released to go home. His wife had sold the house next to us and they had moved to the San Fernando Valley to be close to the extended care facility.

 

She later reported to me that her husband had lost a lot of the motor abilities. He could barely feed himself, and was wheelchair bound, but his ability to see, hear and respond had been restored. During the eighteen months that followed the attempted suicide and the prayer over him, a minister came to the extended care facility and shared the Lord with him. He accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour and finally passed on into eternity a year and a half after blowing his brains out. I marvelled -- and I still marvel -- at the faithfulness of God to restore life into the man after he had died and give him enough time to come to know Jesus Christ.

 

The house just on the other side of this one (two doors down from our house) was occupied by a family who had a daughter who was between the age of my oldest daughter, Debbie, and daughter #2, Melodie. The girls often played together and would be in our back yard. This girl (I'll call her Karen, for the sake of this story) would sit at the dining room table while her mother was having a very early morning cup of coffee when I was doing my walking and praying and declaring Kingdom authority.

 

It was many years later that Karen connected with me while Della and I were in Texas. She somehow tracked me down and told me how they would watch when I stretched out my hand towards them and prayed over them, and then walked on to the next house. She said that first her mother accepted the Lord, then she, then her brother, and finally her father. At the time of this conversation both she and her mother had been baptized in the Holy Spirit and were speaking in tongues.

 

Let's bring things a little more current and up to date. Throughout the years, Della and I have been prompted by Holy Spirit to walk the streets where we have lived and pray over the area. When we came back to the northwest in 2006 and began the fellowship here in Sunnyside, we occasionally walked the streets to pray over certain areas as we felt specifically instructed. The then-police chief was a gentleman I'd met years before and had gotten to know reasonably well. The gang activity in Sunnyside was at an all-time high, and it wasn't uncommon for us to have shooting on our street. Three houses at the end of our block were shot up at different times.

 

I called the police chief and asked him for the names of the gang leaders in the area. He provided me with the names of the leaders of 13 different gangs. We began to pray over them every day. Periodically we would hear news relating to one of the names on the list. Della and I frequently prayed that the presence of the Lord would so fill this valley that when people tried to take drugs, it would be impossible to get high -- that they would have to leave the valley in order to experience drug highs.

 

A year from the date that the chief gave me those names, we had this report: four or five (or six -- I don't remember exactly) of them had accepted Jesus Christ. The rest of them were either dead or in prison. Chief Ed Radder retired and his deputy, Phil Schenck -- a committed believer in Jesus Christ -- stepped in. Today, gang activity in Sunnyside is at its lowest point since 2006. The once-frequent shootings are almost completely non-existent.

 

But there's more! Lawrence and JoAnn Goodnight have been part of our fellowship for some time. The Lord has really made them a part of our family! Lawrence is one of these guys who can walk the streets and minister salvation to perfect strangers at the drop of a hat. More than that, he has a vision for this kind of ministry. He joined forces perhaps eighteen months ago with Don Pirozok from Spokane, who has a similar vision. They began walking the streets of Sunnyside together, as well as streets of Yakima and other places here in the Yakima Valley. Day after day, they've walked the streets, even having the boldness to knock on doors and lead (in some cases) entire families to the Lord. Lawrence and Don began to report daily conversions and house ministries began to pop up all over the valley.

I got tickled at their boldness one day when they decided to walk into the school administration office and met several secretaries. Lawrence had been in the office a couple weeks prior and had prayed for some of them for healing. On this occasion, however, they led four or five of them to the Lord. And it continues. Walking the streets has turned into more than just prayer over the houses, or the businesses, or the various churches, or even local city officials.

 

Della and I still walk the streets periodically and pray over specific houses or families, but it is a real blessing to see that the vision for this has been picked up by so many other folks. Other pastors and church leaders in the community have also picked up the vision and are seeing demonstrable results. Two or three of us have occasionally gone together and walked into the city offices to pray over the City Manager, or the police department or other individuals. Our entry into the various offices of city officials has always been welcomed and we have periodically prayed with them over specific issues.

 

Sevy and Nancy Barajas are a couple in Yakima with whom we are connected who have picked up this vision and have run with it nonstop. They walk the streets in stages in order to cover a much larger area, and from what we've seen, there's not a day that goes by that people get led to the Lord, healings take place, folks get delivered from evil spirits, etc., etc. Sevy and Nancy have a home fellowship that has grown by leaps and bounds and actually has turned into multiple home fellowships as a product of their daily consistency and faithfulness.

 

There is one thing I'd like to point out before we wrap up. Don't take what I'm sharing here as a reason for you to get out and do the same thing -- NOT unless you have a specific prompting from Holy Spirit. We have a bad habit of seeing the miracles, the blessings and the results that take place with other people, and then trying to duplicate it ourselves. It doesn't work that way. It is important for us to act -- not react -- to what the Lord is saying to us. What works for me, or for our fellowship is not necessarily what God wants you to do. He may well have a different method of operating entirely for you -- and one that wouldn't work for us. Don't try to can what God is doing. It doesn't take any time to become stale and lifeless when we become copycat Christians.

 

That said, I receive emails from folks in India, in Pakistan, in Kenya, in Nigeria, in Ghana -- and a fistful of other places -- where the Spirit of the Lord has prompted them to walk the streets of their towns and villages, declaring the Kingdom of God and the rulership of the Lord Jesus Christ. In some cases, I've heard of whole towns or villages turning to Jesus Christ. What God has done with us is not new. It is happening worldwide. This is an early stage to a harvest of souls the likes of which the world has never seen. America is on the threshold of an awakening that will make the previous "Great Awakenings," such as the one that birthed this nation, pale by comparison.

 

You see, the Lord intends to have a full house. I know there are many prophecies floating around about the judgment to be visited on this nation because of its sins and the falling away that has taken place -- and I'm not ignoring those prophecies. What folks need to realize is that in the face of judgment, there is a fire that cleanses and purifies. Let's not forget that the very first of the Seven Spirits of God (Isaiah 4:4) is the Spirit of Judgment and Burning. That judgment is not for the destruction of a people: it is for their cleansing and their restoration!

 

There are millions of believers who are crying out for the cleansing and restoration of this country -- and there are Christians worldwide who likewise cry out for their nations. We are on the verge of a transformation of this nation like you can't imagine! We are going to see a massive change of administration over this country -- and a return to our covenant status with the Lord Jesus Christ: the same covenant status our nations forefathers and founders bled and died for -- and unless my hearing from the Lord is dulled, we're going to see spectacular change before 2014 has come to an end.

 

I finished the last Coffee Break with a statement that Della and I heard Keith Moore make in one of the Southwest Believer's Conventions we went to that I've never forgotten, and it applies to what I've just shared.

 

When you want what God wants for the same reason that God wants it, you become unlimited and unstoppable!

 

YOU Become the Unstoppable by being in agreement with Holy Spirit! That’s SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY in motion!

 

Let me remind you that if you are in need of healing or deliverance from any kind of torment, please join our prayer conference calls on either Monday or Wednesday of each week at 7:00 PM Eastern. Once again, the number to call is (805) 399-1000. Then enter the access code: 124763#. To get into the queue for prayer, when Randy opens the call up for everyone, hit *6-1 on your keypad. Let us minister to your need for healing!

 

Blessings on you!