Wednesday, March 21, 2012

blog, otr

Wed 21, 2012

TRAVEL
Wow. Like, WOW! What a day Wednesday was! I woke up at about 5:30 am Australia time. My uncle Ross picked me up at 6:00 and dropped me at the airport before 7:00. After a delayed 11:00 departure. We were then airborne. About 12 hours of flying time saw the plane land in LA just before 7:00am. So Wednesday began, again! 

Thank you International Date Line for giving me a new day, (even though you will take it from me when I go home...). 

So I got the hire car about 9am then I needed coffee, badly. It had been about 18 months since driving on the "right" side of the road so I left a bit funky driving but it all came back to me quick enough. Not too much "driving by braille". Got to the hotel that the good people of New Hope Corona had organized for me and had Mexican Food with Ps Ron & Ps Otto. The fajita's were out of this world. Then the sweet ol' Mexican mama who owned the place gave us a free dessert. the three of us couldn't finish it there was so much... They know food here in America!

Then I slept. Three hours later I got up and got my stuff together for Wednesday night church.

Getting to church I met Ps Ron King's wife Delonda. What a sweet lady! 

CHURCH
Ps Ron's son in law Greg led worship and led us right into the presence of God it was beautiful. Then they struck up the Delerious song "Rain down" and the place went banana's. I had asked Ps Ron over lunch what the philosophy or direction of this church was. He gave a simple one word answer, "love". Man I could feel the love of the Lord in the house as Greg led us to the King to worship.

I was invited to speak and totally strayed from my notes. But God showed up. The Lord was just moving among the people. They were so hungry for the Lord, I could feel the hunger I began. So I kept sharing mostly different stories of what we've seen the Lord do by His power and love, to touch broken or hurting people and I just knew this was doing to be a long meeting!

At the end of the meeting five people gave their lives to Christ and we open up the alters for ministry and away we flew in the Holy Spirit.

PRAYING FOR HEALING
The Lord was so kind. We started off praying for people by Word of Knowledge (1 Cor 12). The first was for people with pain in the base of their ribcage in their back close to the bottom of their ribs. Out came a couple of ladies in pain, they went back to their chairs with no pain, glory to God. Then there was a bunch of other words and God met the people right there. one was for sharp shin pain for which another lady mended prayer, another was for headaches behind the right eye and into the back of the skull. Two people needed prayer for that and felt the Lord touch them as we prayed, then it went on.

As we opened it up for whatever was in people's hearts the Lord had really built faith in people and they came forward to meet the Lord like a bunch of dry sponges to a bucket.

There were so many people needing prayer and God was there to meet them. Some were touched instantly others had to be patient to share their testimony, to see if they were in fact healed. It was quite interesting, most people who had pain that came and went had no pain in the meeting so we prayed in faith that they would see NO pain return.

One lady we prayed for had had a operation on her throat and when they removed the cancer from her thyroid they had accidentally damaged her vocal chords. We prayed for her, it was awesome, I asked her to sing, she was a singer. As she sang she was hitting notes she had not sung for years. I asked her how it was going, I did not know if anything had happened. She started laughing and said, "well I can sing higher." PRAISE GOD! She had always been a worshippers and desired to sing like she had before. The room broke out in praise to the Lord.

One thing I find to be so beautiful is how the Lord loves His people. We can never understand the power of His love in all of it's fullness. 

We prayed for a lady who had a brain tumor. As we prayed I could sense she was tense. Poor old lady, she was wound. So tight about here medical condition that she could hardly receive the prayer. So I just asked the Lord what to do for her. Se was crying - probably would have been too! I just felt the lord love for her flood the moment. And I said to her don't put Amy pressure on yourself right now, just let the Lord take the pressure right now, you've put yourself under enough 
Pressure for long enough. Just let those "everlasting arms" carry you here. She burst out crying and the Holy Ghost flooded her. It was beautiful to see how the Lord just met her in her pain.

I often think to myself if I were the one needing healing how would I want the Body of Christ to pray for me? So I asked the people to pray for her how they'd like to be prayed for if they had a tumor. They responded in kind!

We didn't see anything change on the night for this lady but I know something shifted so please keep her in prayer. 

I think that the power of God and the moving of the Spirit is so simple. Sometimes we forget that his power moves through His love. If we just find His love to minister through, His power is inevitable if we simply hold to His Word in simple faith and love.!

The night went on and on we finally got out of there at about 10 or so! Thank you Holy Spirit and thank you for those of you who prayed. 

Thus ended Wednesday after a quick feed. I rolled into be and missed and slept like a log. What a day!

PRAYER
Please keep me in prayer as I am on the road for the next two days, then I will be preaching again in Fresno on Saturday morning to a men's group. 

ALSO please keep Vicki and the kids in prayer as they are not with me on this trip. 

Keep tuned for further posts on this blog. I will be keen to keep the stories of His power coming...

God bless you, talk soon,

Tosh

http://www.toshsturgess.org.au