trip report#5 - releasing people into visions (both Christians and muslims)
One of the things we saw again and again on this ministry trip was the way God was willing to release His people into visions when we laid hands upon them and asked him to do this. How many of you know that we have NO POWER to release people into visions apart from the Holy Spirit? I was amazed again and again at how faithful God was to allow His children to enter into their Acts 2 inheritance ("your young men will see visions")when we simply asked Him to do so.
In one particular service, we had as many as 25 people gathered together - all of whom wanted to enter into a vision from the Lord. Many of these, perhaps as many as 1/2 had NEVER had a visionary experience from heaven before. For some of them, as soon as we began to pray and asked the Holy Spirit to come, pictures and even low level visions began to come to the people gathering. As they would share with the others what was happening, what they were seeing, more were released into visions. By the end of that ministry time, most of the 25 who came forward had had a vision of some sort - some very high level, video-like. If only we knew what we could give away!
(Note: for those who at this point are fearful of opening doors to demonic deception, I would encourage you to go back and listen to my podcast "The Fear of Deception - crippling believers everywhere". As one of our guest ministers said again and again, "when we ask the Holy Spirit to come, it is HE who comes".)
As uncomfortable as some are with praying for believers to receive visions, what we saw happen amongst the muslims we prayed for will make such people really unsettled. Interestingly, the promise in Acts 2 speaks of God pouring out His Spirit on ALL FLESH. As many times as I have read commentators who try to explain away the plain meaning by qualifying that it means the whole church or all believers, what we are seeing when we lay hands on the lost is that ALL FLESH means ALL FLESH.
I will briefly share about two amazing encounters that muslims had when we laid hands upon them. One was in a home meeting wherein a Moroccan muslim man came as we prayed for him and laid hands upon him for healing, he had a closed vision. He is a man who has actually had many dreams and visions before this encounter and who we believe is quite close to the Kingdom of God, but has not yet entered it. This particular encounter was so powerful (more than any other he had previously had), that he left the meeting completely soaked in his own persperation. The vision he had he described to us which spoke of God's light coming upon him and his family. Since that time, his wife has testified that a major change has taken place in his life - a despair and anxiety has been broken off and she testifies to having a "whole new husband". It is amazing what one encounter with God will do!
Another man who had a vision was a Yemeni muslim man who actually came to us to receive a prophetic word. He had heard of the prophetic gifts that Christians have and came to see for himself. He actually said beforehand that if he saw this gift in operation, he would become a believer. I will let Isaac of Ninevah describe the prophetic ministry this man received in his blog post, but again I can say that this man had a vision just like the Moroccan before. As we laid hands upon him, the Spirit of God came upon him and opened up for him a vision and his whole body was tingling as the Holy Ghost was coming.
This should really challenge us all to at times stop talking (the Kingdom of God is NOT a matter of words...) and to actually lay our hands upon whatever unbeliever is in front of us and ask them if they want to have an encounter with God. This is not the type of evangelism training I ever received, but I can tell you that there is no evangelism that is more fun than this type!!! Go for it - you'll be surprised to see what God will do.
In one particular service, we had as many as 25 people gathered together - all of whom wanted to enter into a vision from the Lord. Many of these, perhaps as many as 1/2 had NEVER had a visionary experience from heaven before. For some of them, as soon as we began to pray and asked the Holy Spirit to come, pictures and even low level visions began to come to the people gathering. As they would share with the others what was happening, what they were seeing, more were released into visions. By the end of that ministry time, most of the 25 who came forward had had a vision of some sort - some very high level, video-like. If only we knew what we could give away!
(Note: for those who at this point are fearful of opening doors to demonic deception, I would encourage you to go back and listen to my podcast "The Fear of Deception - crippling believers everywhere". As one of our guest ministers said again and again, "when we ask the Holy Spirit to come, it is HE who comes".)
As uncomfortable as some are with praying for believers to receive visions, what we saw happen amongst the muslims we prayed for will make such people really unsettled. Interestingly, the promise in Acts 2 speaks of God pouring out His Spirit on ALL FLESH. As many times as I have read commentators who try to explain away the plain meaning by qualifying that it means the whole church or all believers, what we are seeing when we lay hands on the lost is that ALL FLESH means ALL FLESH.
I will briefly share about two amazing encounters that muslims had when we laid hands upon them. One was in a home meeting wherein a Moroccan muslim man came as we prayed for him and laid hands upon him for healing, he had a closed vision. He is a man who has actually had many dreams and visions before this encounter and who we believe is quite close to the Kingdom of God, but has not yet entered it. This particular encounter was so powerful (more than any other he had previously had), that he left the meeting completely soaked in his own persperation. The vision he had he described to us which spoke of God's light coming upon him and his family. Since that time, his wife has testified that a major change has taken place in his life - a despair and anxiety has been broken off and she testifies to having a "whole new husband". It is amazing what one encounter with God will do!
Another man who had a vision was a Yemeni muslim man who actually came to us to receive a prophetic word. He had heard of the prophetic gifts that Christians have and came to see for himself. He actually said beforehand that if he saw this gift in operation, he would become a believer. I will let Isaac of Ninevah describe the prophetic ministry this man received in his blog post, but again I can say that this man had a vision just like the Moroccan before. As we laid hands upon him, the Spirit of God came upon him and opened up for him a vision and his whole body was tingling as the Holy Ghost was coming.
This should really challenge us all to at times stop talking (the Kingdom of God is NOT a matter of words...) and to actually lay our hands upon whatever unbeliever is in front of us and ask them if they want to have an encounter with God. This is not the type of evangelism training I ever received, but I can tell you that there is no evangelism that is more fun than this type!!! Go for it - you'll be surprised to see what God will do.
Comments
Post a Comment