PREFACE
In order for most people to be able to believe even one word of this … it will be necessary for me to explain a few things. Surely, many of you will benefit by hearing WHY the churches have failed drastically to lead the world into being a more civilized place for everyone to live. This is about the church neglecting a vital part of the gospel.
Jesus and His disciples evangelized with signs, wonders, and miracles, which confirm the Truth of the gospel message. And so did Peter and Paul and all of the other apostles! God always intended that His New Testament church be the model for all future churches! The gospel plus confirming miracles is called “the full gospel”. Paul said “in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God … I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.” (Romans 15:19)
Paul made it clear in Ephesians 4:11 that God chose and called certain men to lead the church with 5 ministry offices: apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher. Not only that, but He gave to each of them one or more of the 9 spiritual power gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12. These were not only valuable in the spreading of the gospel, but they were also used in the healing of multitudes of people of their many physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual problems.
Now after the original apostles died off, BIG problems arose in the church! Some men who were NOT chosen/called by God wanted to be in control of the churches, and these men did NOT have the spiritual gifts mentioned above -- so they found some excuses to eliminate the importance of these gifts in the church!
These men of influence who wanted to control the churches could NOT allow themselves to appear to be less spiritual than any church members. Their power, prestige, influence, and even their jobs, depended on their continuing this doctrine of “cessationism” (unbelief in God’s desire to continue to perform miracles).
Sadly, most of today’s church organizations stand against the use of the spiritual power gifts for the same reasons as above. And sadly, most church organizations also teach other doctrines that are directly opposed to clear verses of Scripture!
IF God’s chosen method of evangelization had NOT been rejected by the church, the world would have been evangelized long ago. But, despite the church’s long-held doctrine of cessationism, God performs miracles among those who believe in them or where there is little unbelief in them (such as in some foreign countries).
Hopefully, you are now more open to accept that today God does still perform signs, wonders, and miracles.
This testimony will give you a better understanding of God! I was an evangelist for years, and have gone through my memories, notes, and diaries to summarize the high-lights of my major spiritual experiences. I swear before Almighty God … every word of the following is the truth!
Years before being sent to Bulgaria: After losing a tennis match, I was sitting alone (wearily) when God said very clearly within me in a medium-volume voice: “When are you going to have had enough of this?” (i.e. playing so much tennis, etc.). I was shocked ... I was not at all a religious person. Absolutely no one else was anywhere around at the time. I knew for sure this had to be God! I was about age 40. Approximately 3 years later, I was curious about a newspaper ad and I dragged a friend to see an evangelist who was broadcasting live via satellite from Brazil. We sat in the front row, and I was overcome by the gospel message and was “born-again”. I really didn’t know what had happened … but about 6 months later (Billy Graham’s time-frame also!) -- my ideas, opinions, attitudes, interests, etc. began to change, and I started devouring the Bible and going to an evangelical church.
Months before first going to Bulgaria: I woke up with a major muscle pull in my back (it must have been the way I slept). During many years of playing basketball and tennis, I had several of these types of injuries, and I knew this one would take about 10 days to heal. At 9 am, an elderly lady from our church phoned and asked me how I was doing. I told her I was in pain and why. She said, “No problem!”, and told me to put my right hand where the pain was and we would pray in agreement about it, and the Lord would take care of it. So, we prayed with faith “in the name of Jesus” and instantly the pain was gone! For the next several months, I had a very slight pain in that area of my back. I kept saying to people, “Isn’t it obvious that God wants me to remember His great healing power, and also when and how He healed me.”
My first evangelizing trip (1992): I joined a missions organization, which was taking 60 people to Bulgaria. In the capital city of Sofia, at the last moment I was switched from the team going to a city on the western border to the team going to a city located right in the middle of southern Bulgaria. Later, I realized that it was God who caused this, because this city was where He wanted me to set up a central home base for future evangelizing all over southern Bulgaria. I took the bus alone to 2 villages and God gave me tremendous love for the people. In Bulgaria prior to July 1991, it was: “illegal to mention the name of Jesus or quote a Scripture verse in newspapers or on radio or on television. Bulgaria had been the most Stalinistic of all the Communist nations in Europe; even more so than Russia itself.” (from page 6 of the book “Fire From Heaven”)
USA ••• For several years I had been desiring to receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Many years ago, a world famous evangelist said: “If you do not receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit, you are living in a weak and impoverished condition.” Returning home from church one evening, I said dejectedly to my wife, “I probably won’t get it until I’m 93!” God’s sense of humor was: I received it in 1993! >>> There were 15 of us attending our Sunday night church service. I was standing at the front facing 6 people who were on stage: our pastor and his wife, a visiting evangelist and his wife, my wife, and the piano player. We were all praying for me to receive this special Spirit-baptism. After a few moments, I heard an angelic choir singing loudly (and with loud instruments). Later, my pastor said he heard me speak a few words in tongues, and I kept saying, “They all had microphones!” (because of the loud singing). Everyone on the stage also heard the angelic choir, as did two in the audience. We definitely heard all of this “in the spirit” (and not with our ears); one reason was the angelic choir and instruments were not on the tape recording of the meeting.
Bulgaria ••• One time, our car died late on a Friday afternoon, and we pushed it to a mechanic’s shop. They really didn’t want to help, but God had other ideas. One mechanic rushed off to the parts store before it closed to get a water pump, and another one stayed late to install it. Later, our Bulgarian friends said it was quite a miracle for them to stay so late on a Friday afternoon; that this is absolutely unheard of in Bulgaria! ••• Another time, we were driving through steep mountains when the radiator boiled over with the temperature gauge showing “HOT”. All we had were about 4 cups of cold water to put in the radiator, but the gauge showed “COLD” all the way to our church destination -- where the Holy Spirit helped Tony (who knew only a few words of English) translate very well for me. Later, when Tony's church heard about this, they were really amazed because Tony didn’t know English. ••• Another time, a policeman found us parked illegally, and he also found several violations with my driving documents. He said the total fine could be as much as 20,000 leva ($400), but after some discussion (and many silent fervent prayers) he let us go free! About an hour later, we went to order 30,000 more gospel tracts at the government printing company; half of the cost had to be paid in advance and amazingly it was exactly 20,000 leva! ••• In total, I made 9 trips alone to Bulgaria over a 15-year period with the average trip length being 2 months.
USA ••• At church, about 30 people were praying over me concerning my upcoming trip when one brother had a vision of me in a complete Orthodox priest’s outfit, holding a staff. In the vision, the people around me were bound by chains and when I touched their chains with the staff they fell off to the ground. Our interpretation:
priest’s outfit … the people will see me as a man of God
staff … represented God’s authority & power (like Moses)
chains off … people will be set free of spiritual bondages
We believed that all of this concerning the vision was to give me more confidence, and to convince the church to support me with their prayers and finances.
Bulgaria ••• During my first 2 trips alone, my #1 Bulgarian partner (Tony) and I had to use words in Bulgarian, English and French to be able to communicate effectively. ••• We visited deacon Dinko, and as we were leaving, he and his wife were praying for us when God gave him a vision of many angels around me (and on both sides of the road ahead of me), protecting me as I travelled. ••• Tony’s sister and I prayed for Tony’s painful toothache and red swollen gum, and they were healed almost instantly! ••• The Lord blessed Tony’s sister by instantly healing her painful lower back when Tony and I prayed for her. The next day, she and I prayed for a young lady who had an inherited spirit of occultism (from her grand-mother’s connection with a Muslim priest); she felt something moving in her stomach and her expression changed, as in: “she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction” (Mark 5:29). The young lady’s evangelical mother said that she had been praying every day for 7 years for this day of deliverance for her daughter! ••• Another young lady prayed to receive Jesus and was delivered of intense nervousness and stuttering; indeed we saw a tremendous transformation in her speech and whole countenance! ••• In another village, the Lord instantly healed the first lady we prayed for, and she ran around the village telling people about it. ••• In another village, one lady’s paralyzed right arm was healed immediately, and a gypsy lady with a crutch had her painful hip instantly healed. ••• A man living next to us (in the home base where we were staying) had terminal cancer with only 3 months to live; we prayed for him and he accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior; we also prayed for his healing, and 2 days later, the family called us from the hospital to say the doctors had just told them that the cancer was now in regression!
Bulgaria ••• In one church, all 8 ladies who came forward for healing were “slain in the Spirit” (knocked over by the power of the Holy Spirit) and healed of what was afflicting them. ••• In the city where we were staying, the Lord really ministered to 3 gypsy believers: Ilia was delivered from spirits of depression and suicide, his sister (who was close to death in the hospital) was healed, and another young man in the hospital was also healed. ••• In one village, I sprained my ankle while playing frisbee (I heard quite a crunching sound), but when I got up off the ground I felt no pain at all, and I knew that God had healed it. ••• We distributed Bibles, New Testaments, gospel tracts, “Jesus” videos and DVDs, giant “Jesus” movie posters, frisbees, super-balls, etc. ••• During the 9 trips alone, I was driving all of the time and was stopped by the police maybe a total of 20 times for various traffic, driving, and parking violations, but I received only one $2 ticket during all of that time! ••• While going to more than 1200 villages, the Lord protected us through persecution from the army, police, communists and communist mayors, Orthodox priests and believers, and Muslim emams and believers. Praise God!
USA ••• 10 years earlier, God told Yvonne and I to stop praying for my father’s salvation … that He would take care of it. ••• Now in Bulgaria, for the first time in 7 trips, God persuaded me through 5 separate events (it’s a LONG story) to return home one month early! This was incredible, but because I did go home early, I had a couple of weeks of needed rest before getting a call from my sister in Canada who said that my father was in the hospital again and maybe I should come home soon. And I arrived exactly 24 hours before he died. During the day of his death, I hasppened to be the only family member to converse with him. He was in a private room (which should have been semi-private), and I felt very comfortable praying out loud (so he could hear) for more than half an hour -- as I thanked Jesus, and praised Him, and covered the whole room, and us (with His blood, inside and out), i.e. chasing any demons out of the room who might have been there. A few days later, after the funeral, Yvonne called to say that God had assured her very strongly that my father was in heaven! It seemed to us that his salvation was the result of God’s efforts to get me home one month early!
Bulgaria ••• We met 3 Pentecostal believers who were persecuted by their village and were called “insects” (i.e. praying mantises); one of them (who was talking in tongues a lot) said: "God sent you to sow seeds in the village; and also so everyone who hears the gospel message will have no excuse." This was a confirmation of what the Lord had told me years earlier: “I’m sending you to 2 types of people (the elect and the non-elect)”. In the same village, God restored one lady who had lost her faith because of the terrible difficulties that her blind husband was experiencing. ••• Some older folks had kept the seed of faith for more than 60 years, all through the communist years until that very moment. E.G. 2 elderly men cried the whole time together while they were saying the sinner’s prayer. Praise the Lord!
I complied this to show that God really deserves to be praised and glorified for who He is, and for the wonderful things He has done! Also, my experiences show that God provides for and protects those He sends forth to do something for Him, and He confirms with signs and wonders that His precious gospel is the Truth.
If you would like to receive Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, pray something like this from your heart: “Lord Jesus, I believe that You died for my sins and that You are the way to eternal life with God in Heaven. I ask You to forgive me of my sins, and I wish to receive You now as my Lord and Savior. Please manage my life from now on.” -- This will get you started on the road to eternal life with God in heaven!
