Power of the Kingdom is being released!
One of the most challenging verses to Christians in the Bible is Mark 16:17-18, “And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”After reading these verses one has to ask, why aren’t we seeing these signs today. Recently God has been doing great things with people involved in the School of Discipleship who are actually following Jesus by living his life. They did not just make a decision for eternal life but are learning to live the abundant life Jesus brought us. Let me share a few stories. A worship leader who has done worship for us in services, called last week and wanted me to go and pray for His mom. I heard the Lord say, “go now.” His mom had a large tumor in her stomach and tests also confirmed she had breast cancer. As soon as we begin to worship before praying, the Lord said, “this is much ado about nothing.” I asked the Lord are you sure that’s not even a bible verse and He repeated it. Then I got up to lay hands on her and anointed her with oil and you could feel the power of God really strong. Later she told her son she had felt so hot when I prayed she almost passed out. I left telling her son God did something today. I believe your mom is healed. About three days later he called with the report his mom had just gotten back from the doctors. The tumor in her stomach now looked to be benign and they cannot find any breast cancer, wow. We rejoiced at what God had done.
Later in the week one of our members, Jay called on the way to the hospital. He was the man who God opened his blind eye during a prayer session a couple of months ago. God said, command a spirit of infirmity to go. I did and he began to announce he could now see out of his eye. But now he was having terrible pain in his back that felt like a slipped disk. He walked with a limp anyway as he also had degenerative nerve damage in one of his hips. He called to say he would not be able to make a meeting. He asked me to pray and I prayed a simple prayer. He said, “when you said amen.” It was like a shot of Demerol went into my back. By the time I got to the emergency room it felt much better. The Dr.’s ran all the tests, MRI, X-ray and came back with the report, “your back and vertebrae are fine.” Jay said, “what about my degenerative hip damage? The Doctor said, “we don’t see any problems anywhere. Jay is back at church now walking like he never had a problem.
Another young man was telling the story about the lady who got prayer and was healed of cancer and the young woman said my Dad just died of cancer. But he got saved before he died. I found out later this was a man, named Randy, I met at a restaurant and he was coming to our church but he never made it. He got very sick. One Sunday my phone rang before service and it was Randy in the hospital. He was crying and saying he was not sure he was saved. I told him he needed to totally surrender to God and he said, he wanted to do that, so I prayed with him before service. Randy died a few days later so he never made it to church but he entered the kingdom of God that day. These are the signs that should follow believers the Bible says if we are truly building the kingdom of God that is within us. I share these stories to encourage and proclaim God is faithful and His word is His power. Amen! We could not do what we are doing without your prayers and support. May God richly bless you with the truth that you are accepted and loved by your God.
Dr. Stephen L Gray