Ryan Lawson's Haiti report

Haiti Trip Report - Part V

taken from Ryan Lawson's blog

Towards the end of the night, one of our interpreters pulled me aside and brought me a young man for prayer. The guy standing in front of me was covered in tattoos, had about thirty piercings, with little bits of bone and other stuff stuck in them and he had several amulets hanging around his neck. He looked up at me with some seriously crazy eyes! I could tell by the nature of his trinkets that he was a Voodoo priest. I agreed to pray for him and laid my hands on his head. I called down the fire of God on him and he just stared me straight in the face and smiled. After a moment or two, I grabbed a handful of the amulets hanging around his neck and said, “You are going to have to get rid of these!” When I said that, he let out a nutty laugh and then turned and RAN AWAY! Not walked, not trotted, RAN! My interpreter just shrugged as if to say “What can you do?”

The first night of the crusade was awesome. We came back to the rented house where we were staying totally exhausted, but exhilarated by what Jesus had accomplished. We were eagerly anticipating the second night.


RAINED OUT!
When Pastor Paul picked us up for day two of the crusade, the weather was nasty. The closer we got to the crusade grounds, the worse the weather was with thunder, lightning and heavy rain. I placed a call back home to get our folks praying for the event. Our team stayed in the van praying for the weather to break while it poured on the crusade grounds. The weather didn’t’ let up at all, in fact, it got worse. In spite of the terrible weather, there were still a few hundred people out milling around the field. The crusade grounds backed up to a makeshift tent city and most of these people only had simple stick and sheet shelters to protect them from the sun. They would get just as wet inside the tent as they would in the field and had no real protection from the harsh weather. The band was under a tarp on stage and started to play. So instead of sit inside their tent and get wet, they began to worship as the band played and the singers sang.



Some of the kids we worshiped with

The children came out in force and began worshiping with all their heart. Humbled by their commitment, we got out of the van and began to worship the Lord with them. We worshiped the Lord with all our hearts, singing and dancing with the people for 2-3 hours out in a lightning storm! Maybe 1,000 people were out there before all was said and done. Darkness settled in and the stage lights would not work due to the rain, so we worshiped in the dark, illuminated only by the lightning strikes. It was surreal. Thinking back about it though, this was one of the most memorable moments of our trip and the most powerful. Here were these folks who had absolutely nothing materially, yet they possessed everything of value, the Presence of God! We were ruined by their worship.

After praying for all the sick in a very wet fire tunnel, we went home completely soaked and worn out.


THERE ARE WITCHES IN THE MEETING!
The third night was our last night at the crusade and our last night in Haiti. We prayed fervently that day for good weather and an explosion of God’s power. The meeting began like the others, with fervent worship and praise. We were down in the crowd worshiping with the people when a chill ran down the back of my neck and a tingling ran down my spine. Without even turning around I knew that a Voodoo priest was cursing us. I turned around and there he was, about 50 feet away and staring right at me! It was the same guy from the first night of the crusade. He had all the trinkets, earrings, but now he had a little PVC staff with fetishes hanging from it. He looked me right in the eyes and smiled with a wicked grin.

He was there to make things interesting!

I turned and faced him and smiled right back as if to say, “Let’s do this!” I watched him and he began pacing around the crusade grounds. He pulled things out of a little bag on his neck and spread them on the ground. He spit, he urinated, and he made little circles with his feet and was doing all sorts of weird stuff. I scanned the crusade grounds and could spot a couple other Voodoo priests as well. They were pretty easy to spot. While everyone was worshiping, they would stand there motionless and every once in a while do weird stuff with the hands and face. I walked over to where our team was worshiping and said, “There are witches in the meeting, PRAY!” I walked up and stood on the stage with Pastor Paul to scan the crowd.

Healed of Rheumatoid Arthritis!



OPEN HEAVENS!
Worship took off! The presence of God rolled in like a cloud and people praised and worshiped with all of their heart. Pastor Paul broke the moment to introduce the team from our church and they all told testimonies of God’s power to heal, save and deliver. He then brought up a gentleman we had prayed for several days before. He testified that he had severe rheumatoid arthritis in his legs and knees and for the last 3 years had received cortisone shots EVERY DAY! He had been in severe pain for years and was totally healed when we prayed for him!

Come on Jesus!

After telling testimonies, Pastor Paul took us through the huge crowd, praying for many people in his church that needed healing and deliverance. A group of about 15 women that were being terrorized in their sleep by demons received deliverance instantly. Wherever we went, people would reach out to touch our clothes and would grab our hands and put them on their bodies for prayer. I was getting totally messed up in the Holy Ghost and for a while totally forgot about the witches in the meeting. We were all done praying for the select folks from his church and made our way back to the stage. There was a guy standing next to the stage in a striped shirt and a big afro. When I walked by, he made all these weird hand gestures at me like he was doing kung-fu. In my Holy Ghost inebriated state I thought, “I need to whack him in the face with my hanky!” He just looked like he needed a good hanky whacking! So I stood there for a minute and hit him in the face with my hanky again and again. I walked away and thought nothing more of it.



The Presence of God in Worship!



THE REST OF THE STORY
The meeting was amazing. The presence of God rolled in during worship and you could feel the glory of God settle across the people. We encouraged folks to reach out and receive their healing and the life of God. We preached a very simple message of the Kingdom, brought many more people to the Lord and then prayed for the sick.

It was glorious.

But the best part was when we were back at the house for the night, sharing with one another all that Jesus did during the crusade. Pastor Paul very simply stated that the best part for him was the prominent witch doctor that came to the Lord that night. We stopped him and said, “Excuse me? What witch doctor?” He then told us of this evil witch doctor that was known throughout the region for killing and maiming many people through his voodoo. He was very powerful, feared and well known throughout the region. I asked him, “Well, who was he?” Thinking it was maybe my buddy with the PVC staff. He said, “Oh, you don’t know? I thought for sure you knew who it was!” I said, “I have no idea, who was it?!”

Pastor Paul told me that when we had gone through the crowd and headed back up to the stage he looked down and saw me standing in front of this witch doctor. I was standing in front of him, hitting him in the face with my hanky! It was the guy I was popping with my hanky on the side of the stage! When Pastor Paul saw me hitting him in the face, he looked down and his hands were shaking. Knowing who this guy was, he feared for my life! But I had no clue! I just thought he was a weirdo that needed a smack in the face with a hanky! Ignorance is sometimes bliss you know… Whatever happened in that moment, I don’t know, but what I do know is that this evil, powerful witch doctor came forward at the altar all and gave his life to Jesus that night!



Jesus is King over Voodoo!

Muchos Milagros - A nice problem to have!!!

This is taken from Kingdom Power on the Street. A nice problem to have! Bring it on Lord over here!
Muchos Milagros
Miracles are normal. The supernatural has become natural. So normal and so natural in fact that it’s now difficult to muster up enthusiasm for the every day miracles that God is doing. Things like the ankles, backs, legs and diseases that run when we pray or the sinner that gets convicted by the Prophetic and gives their life to Jesus. That’s wrong, I know, but it’s a problem we’re dealing with. It’s a better problem than no healing and no power, but it is a problem. We can’t be ungrateful, we must not be ungrateful. Every healing and every miracle is a testament to God’s goodness and His great love for us and the people we are ministering to. Every soul saved and life delivered is a present tense, now demonstration of the power of the gospel.So how do you fight becoming familiar with victory? How do you fight off what I term “Victory Fatigue”? You have to reach back into your history and attempt to remember what it was like when they didn’t get healed, when they didn’t get saved or didn’t get delivered. You have to drum up the old feelings of fear about talking to a stranger or insecurity that are so now long forgotten. Boldness is now the norm. I’m continually encouraged by the new and exciting ways our folks are pressing in and contending for more, but the water level has been raised. We’re not going back to where we were, we can never go back to where we used to be. There’s more, there’s so much more. We know this, we need this. Yet on our way to what is promised we must cherish what has already been realized or we risk losing it.So we tell the testimonies and as we do so, we put ourselves in the shoes of the person we’re praying for and we rejoice. We thank God for what He is doing and has done. We are pressing in for more, but we are honoring what He is doing among us.Check it out.

KINGDOM INVADES THE GAME

This testimony came in from Erin. They were at a high school football game recently and were having a slow night. So what did they do? They decided to liven things up!"Several of us were in a group...we walked around for a bit...talked to a few people and nothing happened. Now, when I say "nothing happened" I mean, we gave some people prophetic words, and they were totally right on. We prayed for them, etc. But nothing really "took off". :)So, I had this thought, "I'm not leaving until either something happens, or I preach the gospel to all of these kids".Sooo, I stood up on the stone wall and shouted "Hey guys! I have some awesome news! Jesus is King and the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!"I then told them we were here to prove it, and asked them if they needed healing, etc. They didn't, but they had friends and family that needed healing. So we prayed for them---which kind if got the attention of some kids... Bottom line, an hour later we were still there---healing kid’s ankles, knees, and hands. We taught the kids that since Jesus healed them, they had authority over that particular thing now. And we encouraged them to heal their friends and themselves...which they did!!! And their friends got healed! It was awesome!!!"

TELL THEM THEN SHOW THEM

An outreach team was in a local neighborhood and ran across a group of about 8-10 young people and started prophesying over them, releasing the Kingdom and telling them about the power of God.A few minutes later, they went into the home of a lady we have been ministering to for several weeks and found out that she had injured her wrist, was in severe pain and was wearing a wrist brace. Not content to merely tell them about the power of God, they decided to SHOW the young people what they were just talking about. They called the kids and had them pray for the lady with the injured wrist. It was healed INSTANTLY! No pain, full mobility and she gave us the wrist brace! It's been added to the trophy wall!

LUMP DISSOLVED, ANKLE HEALED

One of our outreach teams prayed for a woman that had several lumps in her breast. After coming back they found that she had gone to the doctors, had a mammogram and the lumps had dissolved!They also found out that she had pain in her ankle for the last 5 years after breaking it in an accident in two places. She couldn't go up or down stairs or put pressure on that foot and her toes wouldn't bend very far and always felt like they needed to pop but wouldn't. We prayed and she tested it out and she then went up and down stairs 3 times with no pain and then she moved her toes in like she couldn't before and when she moved them every time they would pop!

HOLY GHOST HIP REPLACEMENT

An outreach team was in a local neighborhood and prayed for a lady with severe hip pain during an equipping event we hosted recently. As they prayed for her, all pain left and she was able to walk normally without pain or lack of mobility. But that's not the best part...The team came back a couple of weeks later only to find that she had been to the Doctors and demonstrated her lack of pain and mobility to her doctor. The Doctor was so surprised that he ordered a batch of X-Rays to see what had changed. What our outreach team did not know was that she had no cartilage in her hip, which was the cause of her pain. She was actually scheduled to have hip replacement surgery.The doctor verified that where she once had NO cartilage, she now had PERFECT CARTILAGE! She is now pain free and has cut down on many of her once needed medications.Come on Jesus!
Posted by Ryan Lawson at 12:00 PM

Fall on the Rock

There is a very good analysis of Jesus' phrase, with Bible examples here on the Kingdom Power on the Streets blog by Ryan Lawson.

Make that Western Idols(UK included)

This is a timely word from Kingdom Power on the Street blog. It is the same subject area as my friend Michael Hammond wanted to cover in his next book on marriage. In the meantime his wife has sadly divorced him . You would have thought this would submerge the book and the subject completely. But here it is sprung up in a different form, written by a different evangelist. In short it probably only means that if Michael's book ever gets published it will have explosive resurrection power!
...Give you an example of Michael's life. Probably his lowest point. Right while the divorce proceedings are ongoing; skewed , I would say,in the wife's favour...he's lost immediate access to his kids, one of which is quite strong in God...
A Job -ian situation I'd say...

Well at this low point, with no money, apart from dole money, we met at a Rheinhardt Bonnke breakfast in London Central hall and talked and prayed.(Bonnke prayed over us and everyone present was anointed with oil- shortly afterwards this blog was born) And this is what Michael told me. He'd just been given the opportunity free of charge of having a run of programmes on Voice of Africa Radio in London. This is all fairly typical of Michael's walk in God. The extreme highs and lows of an evangelist. In the five minute walk from the station to the Havant Church conference, Michael had led three people to the Lord on the streets. Jose Ascua was so impressed he asked Michael to pray for him, and Jose sort of fell over backwards among the musicians while they were having lunch.

We are impressed from the Lord that it is the right time for Michael to reissue "Claiming The Promises"first, before the marriage book. So we are looking for dosh, or advance paid orders. This would be through the Christian Supplies Trust (UKregistered charity:1028509) that Christine and I run.

Meanwhile back to a synopsis of what Michael would have written on , but Ryan Lawson has written himself on his blog.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

American Idols – Part II


In my last article on this subject I went after two primary American Idols. And idol is something other than God that we put our trust in. The point I was making is that I have been to several different countries, many of them known for their idolatry. In these countries, the idolatry is obvious, with shrines and graven images being displayed all over the place. I have heard the condescension in the voices of “enlightened” people here in the West as they roll their eyes in disgust at the heinous idolatry of the people of India and their 300 million “gods” and goddesses”.
But are we just as idolatrous?
I believe that while we here in the “enlightened” west are in fact VERY idolatrous, our idols are just not as obvious. We serve gods (world rulers in fact) like Mammon & Self. We have placed our marriages, our families, our callings and eternal destinies on the altars of Mammon and aborted millions of innocent babies on the altar of Self. And we do so with the greatest of confessions. Many a family and marriage has been destroyed to the mantra of “I’m just trying to be a good provider, giving my family what they deserve”. Many a baby has been aborted to the mantra of “they wouldn’t have had a good life anyway, with their mom being so young/poor, etc.”
MAMMON (CONTINUED)
Concerning Money and Mammon, Jesus was very clear that our primary pursuit was NOT to be our personal welfare and the accumulation of material things but rather the pursuit of an invisible kingdom and the King Himself!
“But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.” Matthew 6:33
We were created to pursue a Kingdom and a King! That is our primary purpose, our ultimate pursuit. God knows how He made us and gave us strict marching orders to go after His Kingdom and His righteousness and NOT the necessities of life! Isn’t that bizarre? This isn’t license to the lazy to do nothing because the Bible goes on to say,
“For while we were yet with you, we gave you this rule and charge: If anyone will not work, neither let him eat.” II Thessalonians 3:10
No, this command of Jesus was for the type “A” personality, the go-getters and the “doers” of the Word. The Lord’s commandment to “seek FIRST the Kingdom and His righteousness” was more of a direction or marching orders for productive people. He’s aiming us in the right direction, telling us to go after Him FIRST. If we would pursue Jesus and His Kingdom FIRST, then the provision for our daily bread would manifest MUCH easier. Imagine the words of Wisdom and direction you would receive as you lingered in the Presence of the Lord before work in the morning. Imagine the peace and ease that you would carry into your workplace and career as you became more conscious of Him than your circumstances and limitations y spending time with Him every day. Sales would come easier, the pressure would be off and you would soar in your career, working and providing for you and your family without pressure, fear or guilt. Your priorities would be in order and you would rest well knowing that you are RIGHT.
People, our #1 priority is to pursue the King and His Kingdom. That means what it means. Seek God FIRST, not your paycheck. The same devotion that you pay towards your career, your education and the betterment of your financial standing, invest that in God. The promise is wonderful! IF we will seek Him FIRST, He will GIVE unto us ALL that we need!
PRACTICAL APPLICATION:
When we’re talking about seeking FIRST His Kingdom and His righteousness, what are we talking about? We’re talking about the actual pursuit of God, but FIRST! So, how do you pursue God first? Make Him your #1 priority of your everyday life by seeking Him FIRST! Complicated, isn’t it? Practically speaking this means that we spend time with the Lord in worship, prayer and the Word at the start of our day. I’m not advocating a “quiet time” where we give the Lord a small slice of our day and then ignore Him the rest of the day, but I am saying that we make Him a priority and pursue Him FIRST. Turn on the worship music, lay down on the couch or floor with your family and worship God together! Read the Bible and seek Him in the Word, feeding on His Presence and His words, they are life! (John 6:63)
SELF (CONTINUED)
Jesus came walking the earth preaching a foreign message to the self-absorbed inhabitants of this planet. He said things like,
“For whoever wants to save his [higher, spiritual, eternal] life, will lose it [the lower, natural, temporal life which is lived only on earth]; and whoever gives up his life [which is lived only on earth] for My sake and the Gospel's will save it [his higher, spiritual life in the eternal kingdom of God].” Mark 8:35
He told people that if you held on to preserve your own life you would be guaranteed to LOSE it! But more incredibly, the way He prescribes to save and preserve is to GIVE IT AWAY for His sake! This Kingdom is an upside down Kingdom! Save it and you lose it or lose it and you save it!
The problem with Christians is we simply don’t believe that. We are vainly attempting to preserve our lives, our families, our schedules and our money all with the hope of saving ourselves and the ones we love. Yet we are losing our marriages, losing our families and losing our fortunes. Our kids grow up and don’t serve the Lord. We’re disillusioned with church, in debt up to our eyes and bitter against our spouses. Why? Jesus told us why! He said that if you would seek to save your lives you WOULD LOSE IT! Yet we spend our entire Christian lives trying to prove Him wrong!
The answer to our American dilemma is VERY simple: count your lives as nothing and LOSE them for His sake and you will FIND them! Consistently, the happiest people I have ever met with the most solid marriages and families are the ones that have completely LOST their lives in service unto the Lord.
They have less money because they give what they have and sow into the Kingdom, yet somehow they are always a conduit through which blessing flows and they seem to have more than the person that withholds their fortunes and loses their life savings in investments or the stock market. Kingdom economics; give and it comes back!
They have less “free” time than their self-preserving friends, committing large portions of their lives to the work of the Gospel and laid down service unto others yet they have a superior “quality” of time, free of bickering, anger and animosity within their marriages and families. They might spend a good amount of time helping others through “crisis” but for themselves, they spend much less time on “crisis” control within their own homes.
Their marriages and families are stronger, yet they spend less time & money on them than their self-serving friends. Many of them have never seen the inside of a counselor’s office, yet daily walk in healthy marriage principles. Their kids are better behaved and well adjusted because Mom and Dad discipline according to what they read in the Bible! Their kids also stick with a Jesus they KNOW on a daily basis in the home and not just one they hear about every once in a blue moon at church.
Jesus is right folks! Give your lives away for His sake and you will TRULY find them.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION:
In the Kingdom you GIVE and it COMES BACK! That means that practically we have to give ourselves, our time, our money, our service and our lives for the sake of the Gospel.
Invest your wealth IN THE KINGDOM and not only in this world and its resources. Give to the poor, give to your church and really invest, expecting a return as you would a popular stock or investment scheme. The Kingdom is a good investment!
Invest your time IN THE KINGDOM and not only on your personal, vain pursuits and self interests. This means that you willingly GIVE your time to benefit others! Preach the Gospel, heal the sick and raise the dead! It is ALWAYS good time to preach the Gospel. Offer your lives as a living sacrifice to God as you lay down your life for your friends.
So we’ve just touched on two common American idols, but are there more?
You bet.