Home » Posts tagged 'Miracles' (Page 9)
Tag Archives: Miracles
The author
Micael Grenholm, a Swedish charismactivist, apologist and author.
The Role of Suffering in the Charismatic Movement
Image: Michael Clarke
We have now entered the holy week, the last step of lent in which the liturgical year remembers the passion, that is suffering, of Jesus. In my experience, it is not so common among Pentecostals and Charismatics to talk about suffering as something achievable. Rather, our emphasis on healing has often made us think that pain is always evil. And while I am convinced that we should always pray and work to alleviate involuntarily suffering, we should also be ready to suffer for Christ’s sake – and even count it as a joy! (Mt 5:11-12)
After all, we follow a crucified God who told us to take up our crosses and follow Him (Lk 14:27). He told us that we should expect persecution and turn the other cheek when attacked (Mt 5:39). We are also told in the Scriptures that we will experience spiritual trials and hardships (Jam 1:2ff.).
This may seem hard to sync with the Kingdom message of fighting suffering through healing, deliverance, poverty reduction and peacemaking. But it is one of the Kingdom paradoxes – while we should alleviate suffering, we should be ready to suffer. We should not seek suffering or be happy when others suffer, but when we are affected by suffering, which undoubtedly will happen from time to time, we should not interpret it as being abandoned by God but see it as a humiliating experience for us to identify ourselves with Christ.
Many Charismatics who experience a lot of miracles and breaktrough has also gone through deep pain. Smith Wigglesworth, the British Pentecostal healing preacher who raised several from the dead, lost his wife in the beginning of his ministry, and he himself got very sick in kidney stones. John Wimber prayed för thousands of people who got healed, but he died in a very painful fight against cancer. Heidi Baker is living in revival in Mozambique but just before the breakthrough she, her husband and her daughter were very, very sick and they had barely any money to continue.
(more…)
Holy Spirit Explosion in Stockholm, Sweden
One and a half year ago I attended a Healing School conference in Malmo here in Sweden, arranged by Global Awakening and New Wine Sweden. Randy Clark, Bill Johnson, Tom Jones and Will Hart were speaking in 26 different sessions about how to pray for the sick and seeing the Kingdom of Heaven manifest on earth. Many miracles happened during that conference, as can be seen in the video above that I made. For example, a guy named Magnus was damaged in a car accident 21 years earlier and got metal plates to stabilize the body, something that made it impossible for him to bow down entirely. He named and claimed his healing and bam – he could touch the floor.
With this wonderful conference in mind, I was excited when I attended the New Wine leader’s conference in Stockholm this week where Randy was the main speaker. It was the same message – healing does not belong to the church margins but is at the heart of the Kingdom – but he had some new wonderful testimonies that illustrated his points. For example, he showed us this powerful video about a woman getting healed from metal constraints, just like Magnus:
Randy Clark
I like Randy. Even though I think his former mentor John Wimber (someone I keep comparing him with) had a slightly sounder theology at some points, I love his passion for Jesus, the Kingdom, and the spiritual gifts. His ministry, labeled by Wimber as apostolic, has changed the life of millions – including Heidi Baker. And God surely blesses his meetings through marvelous signs and wonders.
At the first night of the leader’s conference, a man started to shout joyfully and clap his hands. It turned out to be Pekka Liljeblom, a passionate Pentecostal evangelist – and a Facebook friend of mine. He got up on stage and explained that about 30 years ago, he got hurt in a boat accident and damaged his left eye. Since that day, he could only see ten centimeters with it. After receiving prayer at the conference however, his vision got restored with 90 %. He could now see to the other end of the room! I spoke with him two days later and his vision continued to improve.
“Show us that Jesus loves Zulus, and show us that whites can love blacks”
Flag of SA
From Jesus Army’s Radical Christian History series:
A building seating 10,000, crammed to capacity each week. 1,000 seekers daily. Healings. Deliverance. Radiant joy. A story from a revival of old? No. It is happening today in South Africa.
When Afrikaner Erlo Steegen was converted as a teenager he found the cry welling up inside him:
“Lord, I want to preach like You did!” He also felt his heart drawn to his black brothers. After some missionary training he acquired a tent and for twelve years preached the gospel among the spiritually starved Zulus.
Many came to the Lord as a result, yet few continued in the faith. Erlo was indignant that God was not being glorified and so he gave himself to prayer and the study of the Bible as well as reading about past revivals.
As a result God dealt with Erlo, humbling his ambition. Once he was approached by a widow, who begged him to prove the power of Jesus’s name by healing her mentally deranged daughter. With three others he prayed day and night for three weeks, but without success. A broken man, he returned the girl to her mother still unhealed.
Worse still, in a country racked by apartheid and centuries of oppression, the Zulus constantly challenged him: “christianity is a white man’s religion. Show us that Jesus loves Zulus, and show us that whites can love blacks.”
Francis – a Good Name for an Activist Wonder-Worker
Pope Francis
As I hoped, we got a non-European pope! And as I suspected, the non-European pope was quite passionate for social justice. Even though some question marks have been raised concerning Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s actions during the Argentinian civil war in the 70’s, few can deny that he has been working hard against inequality, poverty and oppression as archbishop of Buenos Aires. He combines this activism with simplicity – as a cardinal, he lived in an ampartment instead of the usual palace, he took the bus instead of his chaffeur-driven car, and he cooked his own meal.
Many has pointed to the fact that his papal name, Francis, expresses this concern for the poor. S:t Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) sure was a radical, Christ-like activist. He sold everything he had, preached simplicity, loved the poor, criticised the rich and proclaimed the Kingdom of God. However, the new Pope is said to have another Francis in mind as well: S:t Francis Xavier (1506-1552). He is less well-known but just as radical – as a missionary in Asia he worked hard for poverty reduction and development while he was also spreading the Gospel.
Both of these Francises were charismatic activists. They combined their passion för justice and evangelism with marvelous signs and wonders in the power of the Holy Spirit. Francis of Assisis most famous miracle is probably the stigmata – the wounds of Christ supernaturally appearing on his body. But he experienced a lot. Marilynn Hughes writes:
Jack Deere: The Voice of Angels
Angelic visitation
One of the best books I’ve ever read is Surprised by the Voice of God by Jack Deere. Through a combination of great Bible studies and awesome testimonies, Deere explores what Paul said was the gift we especially should desire: prophecy. Here is an excerpt from pages 137-139, concerning how God can give prophetic messages through angels:
Angels function not only as servants and guardians, they also function as agents of supernatural divine revelation. In the early church, angels were famous for engineering jail breaks (Acts 5:19; 12:7ff.). They also brought supernatural guidance and revelation to God’s servants. Philip was directed by an angel to bring the Gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26). Cornelius, the first gentile convert, was visited by an angel prior to his conversion with instructions for what he should do (Acts 10:3ff.). When Paul and all of his sailing companions were in danger of lsing their lives at sea, God send an angel who brought prophetic revelation to save them (Acts 27:23-26). And the greatest prophetic book, the book of Revelation, was communicated to John through an angel (Rev. 1:1).
[…]
Many people do not report encounters with angel for fear of what others might think. Early in my ministry a lady in my church told me the following story. Neither the lady nor my church were charismatic. Actually, our church had definite prejudices against the gifts of the Spirit. The woman had never wold anyone this story for fear of being thought crazy.
Healing the World: Combining the Gift of Healing with Poverty Reduction
Surprise Sithole
In his great autobiography Voice in the Night, South African pastor Surprise Sithole shares an amazing event that happened shortly after he had met his present co-worker Heidi Baker, director for Iris Ministries, for the first time. Cholera had struck a community, and being a highly contagious disease that could lead to death, most people would run the other way. However, Surprise and Heidi went straight into the fire.
They had to argue with the health workers for a long time before they could enter the hospital tent. Inside, the stench was horrible and the suffering of the people even greater. Surprise writes:
“Heidi walked straight into this disgusting, foul-smelling, life-threatening mess. She knelt down beside people to pray for them. She lovingly wiped the perspiration from their foreheads. She took the children in her arms and hugged and kissed them – pouring out her life again and again. Her courage and grace amazed me, and I tried my best to follow her example.”
As they prayed, more and more got healed, rising from their beds with their symptoms gone. For those who weren’t healed, they loved and hugged them and brought them clean water. Amazingly, neither Heidi nor Surprise came down with Cholera after this event.
Blind Woman Healed in Front of 200,000 People!
Evangelist Daniel Kolenda reports on the Christ for All Nations website:
The Multitudes. Photo: CfaN
Dear Mission Partners,
Have you ever witnessed a miracle? Watch the video above!
As many of you will be aware, Ivory Coast has been plagued by many years of civil war. Terrible atrocities have been committed and much blood has been shed in this place. In fact, our crusade field bears a grim reminder of the desperately wicked condition of fallen humanity. At the back of the crusade field there is a distinct area where curious mounds of dirt are grown over with thick weeds. As our bulldozers were clearing the field in preparation for the campaign, we were asked by officials not to clear that particular area because it is a mass grave where countless unidentified corpses are buried. Yet, this week, this very field, once the scene of death and destruction on a massive scale, has been transformed into ground zero for a historic harvest and a mass Holy Spirit outpouring. It is a striking metaphor of God’s redemptive work through the cross.
Mali: Hunger, Terrorism and Miracles
While Mozambique, DR Congo and South Sudan also are facing enormous humanitarian crises, Mali is perhaps the African country which has most problems right now. Islamists supported by al Qaida have taken control of the northern parts of the country to practice extreme sharia laws, and to stop northern Mali from becoming a terrorist state, France is cooperating with the Mali government in a military offensive. In the midst of violent conflict are millions of civilians that already were poor, hungry and sick before. The result is disastrous. UNHCR reports:
Since the start of the conflict in northern Mali a year ago, more than 150,000 refugees have fled to neighbouring Mauritania, Niger and Burkina Faso, while nearly 230,000 have sought safety in other areas inside Mali. […] Most are living in poor neighbourhoods with little or no access to housing or vital services such as clean water, education and health.
People fleeing the current fighting between French-backed government forces and rebels in the north of Mali tell alarming accounts of atrocities. A former resident of Gao, who left the northern town after recent air strikes, told UNHCR that food and fuel were in short supply.
“The situation in Gao is difficult. The rebels took all the medicines from Gao hospital. I saw dead bodies everywhere, in the yard of the hospital,” said Agesha, who fled the town last Sunday.
I strongly urge you to support Christian Aid’s West Africa Food Crisis Appeal, which will bring food and humanitarian relief to the people in Mali and surrounding areas. And I also urge you to pray for this country. There are few Christians in this country, and because of the rise of extreme Islamism, they are severely persecuted. Yet, the main thing Mali needs to get rid of war, poverty, terrorism and hunger, is a mighty Holy Spirit revival. They need a miracle, and they need it now.
Conscious about this urgent need, I was so encouraged when I found this testimony concerning a miraculous healing which occured on a Christian clinic in Mali three years ago:
(more…)
Why I as an Activist Love the Gifts of the Holy Spirit!
This text is also published at Jesus Radicals today.
Photo: Iris Ministries
The Pentecostal and charismatic movements have a bad reputation among Christian anarchists and activists. There are too many examples of healing evangelists who control the masses through manipulation and hysteria, with promises of supernatural encounters only to gain money and status for themselves. Furthermore, many Pentecostals and charismatics support nationalism, war, discrimination and inequalities. They bless the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, they preach a prosperity gospel where strong faith leads to great wealth, they deny climate change and don’t care about the environment.
Yet, I am totally convinced that every Christian activist should embrace the gifts of the Spirit and pursue signs and wonders. Why? Because the mess I just described is of course not genuine a fruit of the Spirit, it is a result of what I call the Corinth Syndrome, when charismatic Christians portray their own crazy ideas and practices as divinely inspired.
Let the Poor Rise Up and Walk!
Acts 3 is one of my favourite Bible passages, since it presents a great example of how the gifts of the Spirit are tools both for evangelism and activism. When Peter and John went up to the temple to pray, they passed a lame man who was begging for money. Peter said to him: “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” (v. 6).
The man, who had been lame from birth, gets completely healed and starts jumping and dancing. People wonder what’s going on, Peter preaches the Gospel and explain that God did this miracle in order to give glory to His Son, and many of the listeners get saved. This single healing both rescued a man from the boundage of poverty and made it very easy for Peter to evangelize.
Heidi Baker, a charismatic missionary to Mozambique, shares a modern example of a similar event in her book Always Enough (pp. 167-9). A woman asked her to pray for her husband, named Carlos, who had been lame in his legs for two years. Heidi came home to their mud hut where the man was sitting on a reed mat with a pair of scissors in his hand, cutting up little pieces of paper. He sold this to the local matress vendors, earning just a couple of cents a day.
Hotel Bar Revival in Redding, California
Red Lion Hotel, Redding, CA
A month ago, I wrote about how my friend Simon Adahl was released in the gifts of the Spirit after Matthew had told him to love his enemies. Since then, he and his good friend Orjan Armgren have led many to faith in Jesus through the gifts of the Spirit, especially the gift of prophecy. When people experience a miracle, it is hard for them to deny the existence and power of God.
About three years ago Orjan told Simon: “The Lord wants us to go to Redding in the United States.” “No way!” Simon said, “there are so many strange people in the US, they don’t need two more!” He really didn’t want to go, but he agreed to pray “Lord, if it is your will let it happen and fix the money and so on.” He hoped that nothing would happen.
A few days later, they were visiting a prophetic woman, and as soon as she opened the door she exclaimed “You are going to the US, I pay it all!” Oh crap, Simon thought for himself. “The Lord has told me that you are going on the first of November!” When Simon checked his calender, he had no work between the first and fifteenth of November, and his wife was by coincidence also free from work on exactly those days so that she could take care of their child.
Orjan had said that they were going to visit Bethel Church. When Simon checked their website he saw that they arranged a “Leadership Advanced Conference” for pastors and leaders. It was only possible to participate if one got an invitation from the church. He emailed them: “Hi my name is Simon Adahl and I don’t even want to go but the Lord has provided for us in a supernatural way for us to come.” They got the invitation.
(more…)
More Iris Relief Miracles in the Philippines
Two weeks ago I wrote about how Iris Ministries combine humanitarian relief with supernatural healing in their response to super-typhoon Bopha that has created an urgent humanitarian situation in Mindanao, Philippines. After I had written my blog post, I discovered that one of the members of the response team, Christian Jung, has an excellent blog together with his family where he publishes information and pictures from the operation. In the midst of their aid distribution, the team shares words of knowledge, heal the blind and experience a multiplication miracle! Here’s some of what Christian writes:
Montevista, Philippines Wednesday, December 19, 2012 . Distribution in Barangay Kamansi and Concepcion
Yesterday our team traveled over treacherous roads along cliff faces with armed military escorts to Barangay Kamansi where we distributed aid to 125 families. 40 children prayed to receive Jesus in that place. Over 15 sick people came to us for prayer. All of them were instantaneously healed, including a blind woman. Then we traveled to Barangay Concepcion where distributed aid to another 50 families. We continue to pour out the love of Jesus to these precious people who have lost so much. Love always looks like something. We capped off the day sharing stories of miracles at a conservative Baptist Bible College. Love to you all!
Nabunturan, Philippines Friday, December 21, 2012 . Distribution in Compostela and Nabunturan
Just arrived back in Davao City from the Compostela Valley. Wow! I stand amazed at how God can use our little lives to carry the Father’s heart to the poor and the broken. Today our Iris Relief Philippines 1st Response team did a food distribution in Compostela. A church building that was still standing was packed with 193 families waiting to receive relief. We had words of knowledge for 25 people… who ALL received a healing touch from Jesus. Then the miracles of God worked through our hands confirmed the message of Christ as 230 people entered a personal, hand-holding relationship with Him this morning.
India Needs the Holy Spirit
People from Odisha pray desperately for the Holy Spirit to come
I am grateful and encouraged when I see the massive activism for women’s rights and an end to violence that is going on in India right now as a response to the horrible rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman in Delhi. Having relatives from India and several Indian friends, I feel solidarity with the people and share their distress and there demand for change. However, as a follower of the non-violent Christ who taught us to love our enemies and forgive our transgressors, I feel pain when I see the demands for vengeance, punishment and execution that are frequent in the protests.
When Jesus hang upon the cross, He prayed “Father, forgive them” (Luke 22:34). This does not defend the sins of the murderers, but it brings them love and healing instead of hate and destruction. Something is severely broken in them that Jesus came to restore. He didn’t go to the holy and healthy but to the sinful and sick (Matthew 9:12). And when His Holy Spirit performs miracles among us, even the worst sinner can be completely transformed.
Christopher Alam is an international revivalist born in Pakistan who preach the gospel at big campaigns in Africa and Asia, where he has seen astonishing miracles. He shares in his great book All Things Are Possible how the Holy Spirit changed the heart of a murderer in the late 1980’s, at a campaign meeting in the Indian state of Odisha. Christopher was praying for the sick and the blind saw, the deaf heard and the lame walked – just like in the video above. The people that were gathered were shouting and praising the Lord for the amazing miracles He did.
When the Prophets Are Silent, People Turn to the Mayans
The Mayans – nice people, bad prophets
Musician and prophetic evangelist Simon Adahl once shared on Facebook how he had met a man who, after listening to Simon’s numerous miracle stories, exclaimed: “I had no idea that the church had something to do with the supernatural!” Simon was both surprised and sad when he heard this. Is the Western church so bad at representing God that people don’t realize He is a supernatural being?
I think we are. Even Pentecostal and Charismatic churches in the West often lack the abundance of signs and wonders we read about in the book of Acts. Other churches don’t even believe in it, or they are extremely careful, fearing that they would scare people away if they became “too” miraculous. They view signs and wonders as a danger and a temptation, and thus healers, prophets and wonder-workers are rare among them.
The New Age movement, on the other hand, loves miracles. And I believe that many turn to New Age because they are not satisfied with unmiraculous cultural Christendom that is being offered them in the church. Today, the Maya Calender has recieved massive attention around the world because it ends today, which according to some means that the world is doing the same. And this is not a marginal phenomenon. Around 10% of the global population thinks that there is a possibility that the world end this year because of the Mayan Calendar.
Why are all these people viewing the Mayans as a prophetic authority? Most of them do not worship Mayan gods. Most of them do not live according to Mayan culture. Still, for many the simple statement “the Mayans said so” is a sufficient argument for thinking that the apocalypse may come today, even though they have no plans about starting sacrificing animals to the serpent god Kukulkan. Thus, in order to debunk the theory, Mayan scholars have to argue why the Mayan calender did not predict the end of the world but just an epoch shift, rather than questioning why people view the calender as prophetic in the first place.
Pastor Pratap vs the Demons
Remember the Christian Youth Conference in Odisha, India, that my friends Joel and Steve participated in? Now, we got some video shooting from there. As you can see, the youths were desperately hungry for the Kingdom of God, and the Holy Spirit responded to their hunger. Joel, who by the way just has become co-author of this blog, was awe-struck when he came back to Sweden, and I can see why.
Joel and Steve also got the chance to interview pastor Pratap Pradhan. He is one of the regional leaders of Touching Asia, and a humble man of God. He oversees over 100 churches that they have planted over the years. They help the poor and develop communities while they heal the sick, preach the Gospel and casts out demons. In the interview, Pratap gives some examples of that:
Charismactivism 