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Impacted! Revolutionary! Tremendous! Best thing that has happened to me in 20 years of walking with the Lord! Everything has changed! Convicted, repented, anointed!
These are just a sampling of the comments I have heard in recent months from the many people I have encountered whose lives have been affected by the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Below are just a few testimonies of the visible demonstrations of the signs and wonders that I have seen follow the Lord's works. I have witnessed these signs and wonders in many regions of the world throughout my travels with CBN.
In spite of the political turmoil in Manila, Philippines, we saw countless supernatural demonstrations of the power of the Holy Spirit during a recent visit. Many people's backs were healed, including a young woman who had scoliosis (Curvature of the spine). In front of everyone, the bones in her body realigned and she cried out, "My bones are straightening and it doesn't hurt!"
In another incident a woman asked me to pray for her as I was leaving the building where I had been speaking. As I prayed, she got down onto the floor and began writhing and hissing like a snake. She was demonized by a spirit of divination, which scripture identifies as a "python spirit" (Acts 16:16). I commanded that spirit and some others to come out of her in the name of Jesus and, of course, they did.
She did not know the Lord before that night, so as she was still lying on the floor she prayed with me and asked Jesus to come into her life to be her Savior, and to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. As she sat up following these momentous events I asked her for her name, and she said, "My name is Grace!" "It certainly is!" I responded.
In a separate gathering I prayed with a 13-year-old girl who was deaf in one ear - As I prayed, the Lord opened her ear instantaneously!
A "wonder" of another kind occurred while I was interceding with a group of Filipinos for the Asian nations.
We were praying in harmony until I realized everyone had stopped and I was the lone voice in the room. I asked why everyone had stopped praying. Connie Reyes, one of the co-hosts of the Manila 700 Club, responded with great excitement, "Because you are praying in Tagalog, the native tongue of the Philippine people and you are giving glory to God!" This was truly the tongues of men and angels, a piece Acts revisited! (Acts 2:1-11; 1 Corinthians 12:11, 1 Corinthians 13:1).
Then, the greatest wonder of all . . . While talking on the street, (Street Talk) on camera, with a young man who admitted to being a liar and cheat, he admitted that he needed to change, but he just couldn't. After ten minutes or so of conversation about his need for Jesus, I had an opportunity to pray with him and he became a Christian right on the spot, and on camera!
During a recent The 700 Club story, that was also broadcast on the Scott Ross Show, I reported at the side of a dead man I found lying on the street in Kiev, Ukraine. It was not clear how he died, but people frequently die of overexposure and malnutrition in this former Soviet state. People who depend solely on the government for support must subsist on a $6.00 per month stipend. I don't know how many of them survive, obviously not many.
However, CBN's Office in Kiev assists in operating a soup kitchen to feed these people on a daily basis.
When I visited this soup kitchen, I had the opportunity to talk and pray with several of these dear people who live on the margins of society. The Lord extended his compassion to them, not only by blessing them with natural food, but also by allowing them to see the "Bread of Life," Jesus Christ in action as a number of people were healed of various maladies right on camera.
These are the experiences that make all the traveling and effort worthwhile.
These miraculous events, however, are not confined to the Philippines. In Nashville, Tennessee, during a retreat with a group of men and following a time of teaching, the Holy Spirit moved upon us, confirming the Word by healing bodies and stirring the men to pray, prophesy and give words of knowledge (1 Corinthians 12:4-11).
None of these men had any previous experience functioning in the "supernatural" power of God. However now they are "armed and dangerous" in the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:18).
Following our retreat my wife, Nedra, and I had opportunity to minister to Paul Bane's New Hope Community Church where singer Barbara Mandrell and her family attend. Again, the Lord broke through with signs and wonders preceding and following the ministry of the Word.
That same evening we met with couples, including country singer Ricky Skaggs and his wife Sharon and pop singer Donna Summer and her husband, singer/songwriter Bruce Sudano.
Once again the Holy Spirit was powerfully present as the Lord healed people physically and emotionally. Ricky Skaggs spoke prophetically. Nedra sang a spiritual song. Everyone entered corporate intercessory prayer and my eldest daughter, Nedra Kristina, ministered in the word of knowledge and prayed over her parents a word of blessing!
A few days later, we had a small "family reunion" with a number of people, now living in Nashville, that I had pastored at our former ministry, Love Inn Community Church (now Covenant Love) in Freeville, New York. The majority of folks, including singer, songwriter, guitarist Phil Keaggy and his wife Bernadette, are all involved in some way in the Christian music industry in its emerging center, Nashville.
We then returned home where we discovered the Lord did not confine his miraculous working exclusively to other cities and nations. While having lunch in a local Virginia Beach, Chinese restaurant with Gordon Robertson and a friend and media consultant to CBN, Dave Hummel, the Lord once again did the unexpected.
Years prior to our meeting, Dave had fallen and broken his right thigh in five places, his hip, crushed his left knee bones and two toes. He was literally being held together by pins and needles as he had a steel plate, a steel rod and steel screws in each of the injured areas.
As our business conversation ended I asked Dave about his condition and he described the aforementioned physical disabilities with the prognosis that he would probably be crippled for the rest of his life, which he said he was willing to accept.
However, with a quiet nudging the Holy Spirit indicated to me that God had another plan.
I asked Dave if he would allow me to pray for him. He said "Of course." It would be one more prayer added to the many already being prayed on his behalf. This time it was God's moment.
In the middle of the lunch crowd in this Chinese restaurant David Hummel was instantaneously, miraculously healed and "went walking and leaping and praising God" out of the restaurant and into the parking lot(Acts 3:1-10)!
It is my firm belief that it is God's "Kairos" moments -- His appointed time -- to answer the persistent prayers of many millions of people who over the years have been asking for a genuine visitation of God.
It is my heartfelt prayer that this move of the Lord will be more than "tongues and tambourines" or a "cosmetic renewal," but a genuine work of the Holy Spirit that will be accompanied by fire burning off the wood, hay, and straw in our lives and religious activity (1 Corinthians 3:11-17).
Which brings me Below the Bottom Line in three words:
PRAY! PRAY! PRAY!
I find it difficult to adequately articulate what is happening to me personally in the realm of prayer, but something has changed (Matthew 6:6).
I urge you to take the time to enter in to the secret place with the Lord (Psalm 139:1-5).
Ask Him to examine your heart. As you pray in the Spirit He will intercede for you in harmony with God's own will (Romans 8:26-28) and in so doing fit you into His plans and purposes.
It has recently been said, "the future belongs to the intercessors." Your prayers can shape that future now, in your life, family, and in the special calling God has for you.
I am personally asking for God's chosen intercessors who will stand in the gap on our behalf. As was recently prophesied to me in Manila, we are stepping up to the next level in the purposes of God.
One person is not an army; we are all in this together. We need your prayer.
I'll continually keep you informed.
"Your people shall be volunteers in the day of your power." (Psalm 110:3)
Scott Ross welcomes your feedback.
A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.