Jun 7, '08 11:35 PM

 

 'Mornin'!

So much to say, and so little time!  Guess I'll just have to increase my frequency of posts again.

How're you doin' this fine day?  Anyhow?  Yup.  That's what I thought.  If you were any better, you'd be dangerous.

Told you I'd update you on the story of the three-year-old girl who was raised from the dead at Arnold Palmer Hospital.  There's obviously more here than meets the eye, but let me share what I know at this moment.  In the days and weeks to come the full story will obviously vet itself, but here's a sketch of what took place two weeks after she was resurrected.

She was in the process of making a full recovery.  The parents had been overjoyed seeing their daughter progress from death to life.

Whether they were friends of the family or not is not known at this moment, but two women who claimed to be "spiritualists" -- they were allegedly "New Age" healers -- went into the girl's room where she was lying in bed.  No family member was present when they entered the room, and what happened exactly while they were in the room is unclear.

What is a fact is that one hour after they left, the little girl died suddenly.  No accusations have been made against the two women, but the fact that the girl died under such mysterious circumstances after being in the midst of a full recovery is baffling, to say the least.  Although the parents called Todd Bentley's ministry immediately, asking for a second raising from the dead for their daughter, I'm not aware that the girl came back to life.

In the midst of such outstanding miracles -- more than 20 people have been raised from the dead across the 60 days of this outpouring, including a local person whose story I've just heard about in the past couple of hours -- it seems puzzling to believers that such a thing could happen. There certainly are many questions surrounding the three-year-old girl's second death.  Hopefully, we'll have some clarification of these events in the days to come.

As soon as I've had the opportunity to verify the story of a man in Yakima who was just raised from the dead, I'll share it.  What I've heard thus far comes from a medical doctor, and the details are nothing less than startling.  More to come on this story.

One thing is abundantly clear, and I believe this bears directly on the second death of the three-year-old girl.  There is spiritual warfare going on.  Demonic spirits and "rulers of darkness" have taken aim at this stupendous outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  We can start pointing at individuals and all that, but the truth is that the opposition to what is taking place in Lakeland, Florida is not embodied in flesh and blood but in the realm of the spirit.

Obviously there are people who give themselves over to evil spirits, whether knowingly or unknowingly, and become the tools or media by which Satan exercises opposition.  It is important for us as believers not to get too caught up with looking at people as the instruments of evil, but rather target Satan and his princes through the exercise of spiritual authority given us by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Any opposition we see taking place right now to this marvelous outpouring is going to be short-lived.  The power of God on display through the multiplied thousands of people who are coming to know Jesus Christ personally in this outpouring and the corresponding tens of thousands who are being healed and delivered and set free will shortly put an end to Satan's power to oppose.

In our last Coffee Break, I told you about the angelic retrieval of our son's shredded cashier's check just over two weeks ago.  Here's another event that just unfolded this weekend.

Warren Bogart is a land developer and building contractor who is a part of River Worship Center's growing family.  Sunday afternoon, he invited the entire fellowship out to his home in Prosser for a barbeque dinner.

Della's mother was one of the participants.  Just before leaving the house, she decided to wear a pair of earrings given to her by her late husband.  In fact, these earrings were the last gift she received from him just prior to his death in 2001.  As earrings go, they weren't overly expensive -- the set cost perhaps $1100 -- but Mom attached great sentimental value to them.

Folks at the barbeque commented on seeing these earrings -- and they were quite striking with three rows of small diamonds in a hoop arrangement.  Leaving the afternoon festivities around 5:00 PM, and driving home, Mom suddenly realized she was missing one of the earrings.  I wouldn't call Mom panic-stricken, but she sure was upset to think she'd lost one of those earrings.  She asked me to call Warren and have him take a look around the place to see where she might have dropped the earring.

Warren spent some time walking all over his place and checking every place where Mom had been to no avail.  He called to report his disappointing findings, and then shared how a similar event had happened to him a few years ago with a couple of diamond rings he really enjoyed wearing.

Warren had done what we did with Chris' cashier's check and sent angels to find them.  He didn't bother hunting everywhere to try and find the missing rings, but once a week he would open his jewelry case to see if the rings were back.  For six weeks (I think I have that right) he checked his jewelry box regularly.  The seventh week, when he opened the box, the two rings were back in their usual slots.  He had faithfully declared the Word of the Lord during those weeks and watched expectantly awaiting the return of the rings.

His comment to me on the phone was, "Let's just do this same thing again.  The angel of the Lord knows where that earring is.  He'll return it and put it in her jewelry box."

And that's exactly what we did.  With our memories fresh concerning the cashier's check, we commanded the ministering angels to go forth and find that missing earring and return it.

As late as this morning, I was still searching places where Mom thought it could have dropped, even removing a cover under her automobile passenger seat to see if it had fallen there.  Late this morning, Della suggested Mom do what Warren had done and check her jewelry box.  She did.  You don't have to have any great imagination to understand me when I say that there was a whole lot of shouting and dancing when she saw both earrings.

It may seem like a trivial thing to command angels to retrieve such things as missing earrings or expensive sunglasses, or cashier's checks, or keys, but most of us as Christians have forgotten -- or maybe just not realized -- just what we have at our disposal as believers.

One more miracle, and I'll quit for today.

This one is personal, and it followed two days after my being healed of arthritis.  Della and I were sitting in Mary Ellen's living room in Red Deer, Alberta listening to the Lakeland Outpouring on her speakerphone.  She had called Della's mom in Sunnyside, who put her phone in front of the TV so we could listen.

Earlier in the day, I had shared with Della for the first time the fact that over the past year or so, I'd been experiencing what seemed to be an enlarging prostate.  The result was that I was constantly having urination difficulty with repeated trips to the restroom and being awakened numerous times during the night by increasing pressure.  If you've ever experienced this, you know exactly what I'm talking about.  It is both a nuisance and a serious distraction.

Todd Bentley received a Word of Knowledge concerning someone receiving healing who had prostate cancer.  I looked at Della and shrugged my shoulders.  Quietly I said to the Lord, "If he calls out prostate problems or an enlarged prostate, I'll know that's your Word for me."

Not five minutes later Todd said, "There's someone either watching by television or hearing on the telephone whom the Lord is healing of prostate problems.  I believe it is an enlarged prostate."

The absolute accuracy of this Word of Knowledge was breathtaking.  Suddenly I felt my groin area get hot -- so hot in fact that I couldn't stay sitting down.  I leaped out of the chair and shouted to Della, "That's me!  That's me!"

The heat lasted for nearly three hours.  Need I tell you that the prostate problem vanished?  I don't think so.  You KNOW I received my healing.  The proof has been in the days that have followed.  All I can say is, "Whewww!!!  What a relief!"

There's more happening even as I write this, but I want to get this Coffee Break out.  I'd have published this earlier in the week but with High School graduations taking up our week's activities (Sandra Lopez and our granddaughter, Savannah, both graduated this week from High School) there's been little time to spend in the office.

See you again on Monday or Tuesday of next week.

Healing is the gift of God.  It is part of the Blessing of Abraham restored by the Lord Jesus Christ to and for all who believe.  Do not for a minute think that sickness or infirmity is a blessing from the Lord.  It is a curse from Satan.  Jesus came to redeem us from that curse!

The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow!  (Proverbs 10:22)  Be blessed!