JOEL 2 GENERATION

On Tuesday night, we went to the Iranian Fire Celebration at the beach. As we arrived, everyone was sitting in large family groups on picnic blankets and I was a bit worried about language barriers. We walked towards the beach but turned around, as boys were throwing fire crackers. A large group of about six to eight women were walking towards us and since one was uncovered (and I thought she might speak English), I decided to ask them about the Celebration. They didn't speak English but they had very minimal grasp of some words so we were able to communicate a bit. There was one Indian lady with them who spoke more than the others and she translated a bit. They were very friendly. Then, God showed me that one of the ladies had leg pain. I asked if I could pray and they said yes. I prayed once and they phoned their nephew to come and translate (which I was worried about, from previous experience, as he was a young, single man). After he arrived, we prayed a few times and the pain l...

One criticism with many who speak about Christians healing the sick is that they often don’t share about the non-healings.  We don’t want to give the impression that everyone is healed, all the time when in fact they are not. Today I walked into a shop and began speaking with one of the Indian Hindu employees.  I asked if he had neck/shoulder pain because I was sensing something.  He did not (which also shows that words of knowledge aren’t always right!) but he said he had lower and middle back problems.  I asked him to put his hand on the affected area and I prayed a quick prayer in Jesus’ Name releasing healing.  After the first prayer, he told me it was about 50% better.  He was intrigued.  I asked him to put his hand on his back again, prayed another healing prayer and with a big smile on his face told me that he was pain free and that all movement had returned.  He told me that his back problem had been constant for 2-...

I noticed a woman with her daughter yesterday and the mother had her hand bandaged.  I asked what happened.  She had slammed her hand in a car door and was in pain.  I asked her daughter (about 10 years old) to put her hand on her mother’s hand and I prayed in the Name of Jesus, breaking off the shock and trauma and releasing the Kingdom.  After praying, she looked at me and said, “It’s magic!” wondering what I had done.  I told her that it was God’s power and that Jesus had come to heal her.  She said, “Thank you for manifesting Jesus to me today”. 

Yesterday while out to breakfast with Desert Princess, I told our server that my wife brought healing to people when she prayed.  The first who came was a Catholic woman with a back problem.  My wife put her hand on back, and prayed. She was healed – full mobility with no more pain.  What ensued was a discussion of her getting back into Christian fellowship and we offered to help her find a Bible study close to where she lived. Next a hindu woman was brought up who had a headache.  It was bothering her and it was only the morning.  Desert Princess had her put her own hand on her head, prayed and her headache left.  She clearly had an encounter with the Lord and was shocked. After clearly telling her it was Jesus who healed her, she said,  "I know Jesus is with us always".  We pray that this hindu woman who has now encountered Christ, would be asking questions of the many Christian colleagues she works with.

so I've been limping around pretty badly with a knee injury for about 5 days. today wasn't great. BUT, tonight my son and a friend went to an Iranian restaurant in nearby. I knew our waitress was Pentecostal (Filipina) and I limped in there and asked her if she'd pray for my knee. she said she would. when she finally did, she laid hands on my knee and prayed like a 3-4 minute prayer, praying in tongues and calling on the Name of Jesus. During the prayer, I got a word of knowledge of her wrist and got to pray for her and she was healed! But what happened next? I got up to walk around and test out my knee and NO KIDDING, easily 50-60% improvement - walking without a limp. I got home and was actually jogging a bit around the house. Let's just say that our Filipina waitress brought the sauce tonight! Rejoicing!!!!!

This week a group of us gathered to watch the new film about the life and ministry of Heidi Baker entitled Compelled by Love (available at:  https://www.compelledbylovethefilm.com ) It was a powerful film to say the least.  To see the level of devotion of this woman, and those involved in her ministry to the poorest of the poor, the most broken of the broken, the most abused of the abused, challenged me the core.   Now you will see why I did a "Part 1" ( http://joel2generation.blogspot.com/2014/01/part-1-are-we-expected-to-obey-jesus.html )   post referring to the commandments of Jesus and His teachings.  You see Heidi & Rolland Baker surrendered EVERYTHING to follow Jesus – they gave their lives, their resources, their health, their families – EVERYTHING to follow Christ into the poorest regions on the planet.  Why would they have done something like this?  Here is most likely one of the passages that they have based their entire lives ...

Before I get to the blog post that was on my heart to post, I realized I needed to do a "Part 1" wherein I would address an issue that tragically is sweeping across much of the Church today under the name of "The Grace Message".  An important book has just been released entitled Hyper-Grace: Exposing the Dangers of the Modern Grace Message by Dr. Michael Brown that addresses the errors being taught by a number of well-known Bible teachers today. I will only address one of the errors which is the teaching as Christians we don't need to follow/obey the teachings of Jesus because they are a part of the Old Covenant having come before the Cross.  They consider this some kind of "new Reformation" that will bring freedom to Christians in bondage to commands (which they call "the Law") that they believe we were never intended to obey.  This is foolishness.  The entire Early Church believed that as followers of Jesus, they were to obey His tea...