Blessings Overtake Us

This has been a season of God's blessings overtaking us! We are seeing many prophetic words fulfilled, and are having our faith stretched as we plan for the future.

In early 1997, Bishop Bill Hamon prophesied that God would send us a key couple to help administrate the ministry, and thereby free our time for other activities. The key couple, Mike and Wendy Caulley, arrived in June, and are already a tremendous help and blessing.

In 1996, Pastor Greg Railey prophesied that we would receive a large grant for the "necessary expansion of the Ministry." The grant has come, thanks to a wonderful Christian Foundation in Texas, and we are in the process of expansion.

Why is expansion needed? We have sensed that in addition to doing seminars, training, overseeing the CI/PHW Healing House, and raising up other Healing Houses, the Lord wants us to get our books into bookstores, to write courses for Bible Colleges and Christian Universities, create a special version of the RTF ministry suitable for use in Cell Group based churches, and to develop an area of courses and ministry for business men and women. We are taking our vitamins, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, and our wonderful staff, we are moving ahead in all of these areas. Please keep us in your prayers.

In May 1997, a lovely woman named Sandy received the following prophetic word though Sharon Stone.

"In another area, I'm taking the OLD SHAME out of you. It's some things that you have just tucked away, rather than dealing with them. I'm going to begin to deal with some OLD SHAME, even some OLD SHAME concerning motherhood and some OLD SHAME concerning pregnancy. I'm going to show you that where you've tried to carry it, I've already carried it (on the Cross). Daughter, we can't both carry it, so I'm going to lift it from you. You'll know that it's once and for all on Me."

We knew nothing of this prophecy, as a team of us ministered to Sandy in the Spring of 1998. Again and again, the Holy Spirit brought back to her remembrance deeply painful events around her pregnancies and early years of motherhood. Weeping, she received the Lord's forgiveness, forgave herself, and let go of the "OLD" SHAME and guilt that had encumbered her for so many years.

Mark 16:17

Most of us take demons very casually, or dismiss them (as we once did) as only a "Bible concept" rather than a present day reality. Others treat the very subject of demons with fear and dread. Many have the attitude that, "If I leave demons alone, they will leave me alone." We wish that were true! Demons will not leave us alone. For demons, Christians are a primary target.

As God calls the church to grow up, and to purify Herself, we encourage you to find out what scripture says about demons. As you study the Biblical pattern of how Jesus dealt with them, you will see how to take the authority God has given you, to protect yourself and to free yourself.

Demons afflict, harass, and torment Christians. Many times, secret, hidden, ongoing sin has demonic forces behind it, adding to the pressure that causes one to fail, "one more time." Although we believe that demons can not possess us, since we are owned by the Lord Jesus, demons can oppress us.

We would add an eighth "entry way" to this list: being under anesthesia, or being so heavily medicated or drugged that one's normal defenses are down. These all show that satan does not play fair. He and his hordes of demons choose one's weakest moment and the weakest place in one's life to attack!

Demons affect our minds, wills, and emotions. They whisper lies to us, such as, "Nobody cares about you. You are a loser with no hope and no future, so why don't you just hang it up?"

Derek Prince says that in the past forty years, between 1952 and 1992, the number of teenage suicides in the United States almost tripled. "In 1992, more teenagers and young adults died from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, strokes, pneumonia, influenza, and chronic lung disease combined. In almost all these cases, according to my diagnosis, the demon of rejection opened the way for the demon of suicide."

Furthermore, demons can be a key factor in some diseases. We have experienced people receiving miraculous healings as a result of deliverance. These include healings from colitis, diabetes, dyslexia, and various kinds of pain. Last August, while in Siberia, a man's collarbone straightened and became perfectly normal as we ministered deliverance, after being crooked from a break for nineteen years.

Jesus healed the mute, deaf, and blind by expelling demons. You might reread Luke 13:11-16, where Jesus heals a curved spine (scoliosis), declaring that the woman had been bound for eighteen years by a "spirit of infirmity".

Demons also invade our minds, promoting unbelief about God, and about themselves. They want us to think they don't exist, or to be fearful that they "might" exist. In Restoring the Foundations, we have Betsy's account of her deliverance from spirits of the fear of death, totally changing her life.

This story was shared by British Evangelist, Nick Pettingale, who is personally acquainted with Chrissy Chapman, a British medical-missionary worker in Burundi, Africa. She was there during the war between the Tutsi and Hutu tribes in 1994. This conflict had resulted in the slaughter of 250,000 Africans, as well as twenty relief workers at the missionary station. By the end of this war, the food and medical supplies were all gone.

In the week following the end of the shooting, Chrissy helplessly watched the tragic deaths of 700 children from the plague. Again and again she cried out to God, "WHERE ARE YOU IN ALL OF THIS???!!! There appeared to be no answer. She had come to the end of herself, her resources, and her faith.

One morning she went out to turn away the line of people who daily came to the mission hoping for food and medical help. She approached an old man who was sitting on the ground, waiting for something to eat or drink. As he held out his cup to her, she said, "Sir, I am sorry, but we have nothing to give you. The food is all gone. We have nothing even for ourselves. I have cried and cried to God, but I cannot find Him. I'm so very sorry."