“In solemn truth I tell you, anyone believing in Me shall do the same miracles I have done, and even greater ones, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask Him for anything, using My name, and I will do it, for this will bring praise to the Father because of what I, the Son, will do for you.” (John 14:12,13)

For many years, during and after seminary, I asked leading theologians, pastors and students, “What does this passage mean? How can I and other believers do the same miracles that our Lord did when He was here in the flesh – and even greater ones?”

Surely there had to be some mistakes in the translation of this passage, for I saw little evidence of this supernatural power in the lives of the Christians around me or in my own life.

But I had wrongly interpreted what Jesus said. I was thinking only of the miracles of physical healing. God still heals the sick and almost daily I pray that He will touch the ailing bodies of ill ones. God sometimes heals them miraculously, though mostly He works through the skill of surgeons and the miracle of modern medicine.

Yet, while physical healing is certainly valid and very desirable, I realize more and more that a greater miracle is the miracle of new birth. For the body that is healed will one day die, but the person who is introduced to Christ and experiences salvation will live forever. The main reason our Lord came to this earth was to “seek and save the lost,” not primarily to perform miracles of physical healing. Frequently, we are privileged to experience the reality of our Lord’s promise as He enables us to “seek and save the lost” in greater numbers than He did while He was here in the flesh.

For example, in 1980, during the Korean Here’s Life World Evangelization Crusade we saw more than one million people indicate salvation decisions during the week.

Bible Reading: Matthew 21:21-22

Today’s Action Point: Beginning today, I will claim, in the name of Jesus, that He who dwells within me, who came to seek and to save the lost and is not willing that any should perish, will do even greater miracles in and through my life than He did while here in the flesh. By faith, I will experience and share the Supernatural life of Christ with others.

I lost my dad to suicide at the age of five.

No matter how much I tried to get better, I kept falling flat on my face. The unbearable anxiety and suicidal thoughts occupied my soul. The ugly reflection from my mirror flooded my mind with atrocious lies. You are never going to get well! You will remain living with this hell! You will never escape and be free! I picked up drinking again, hoping to find relief. Escaping from the monster in the mirror forced me to run towards things even more gruesome.

I needed a way out

Then one night my turbulent way of living caught up with me. I couldn’t handle my extreme highs, lows, and the stack of baffling conditions I juggled. I didn’t want to continue on the wild roller coaster ride any longer. I couldn’t handle the disabling hours in the bathroom, nor tolerate the self-destructive behavior in the bars. I felt ashamed of my life and needed the madness to end. Out of dire desperation, I prayed to God.

“God, I don’t want to wake up to see another day. I’d rather be dead! If you must keep me alive, then you have to help me get better. Please rescue me from this misery! God, let me die!”

To my surprise, when I awoke the following morning, I prayed to God to guide me into a church. It was Sunday morning and for some odd reason I longed to be in his presence. I fought a dreadful conflict in the bathroom as I prepared myself to get ready. The tormenting obsessions nearly destroyed me but I survived the onslaught, the hideous grooming ritual.

As I got into my car, a strange feeling encompassed me. I had no idea which church I was heading to. As I drove down the street, it felt as though a gentle hand was chauffeuring me. I pulled up along the side of an unfamiliar church. I hesitated for a moment, deciding whether to park my car or not. Is this the one? Look at all the people. Will they stare at me because I’m ugly? Should I go in or not? Within a few seconds, an incredible sensation empowered me, urging me inside.

Finding relief in a church

As I walked towards the entrance, several parishioners greeted me with open arms. This made me feel welcomed, so relieved. I found a seat and immediately participated in the singing taking place. I’d never done this before, but my heart longed to connect. The songs were uplifting and joyous.  I cried as I joined in. I don’t recall the exact message spoken, but it infiltrated my heart. As service was about to end, the pastor asked everyone to close their eyes and bow their heads for prayer. After a minute or two of prayer, he announced an altar call, something unfamiliar to me.

He asked, “Is there anyone who would like to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior? Please raise your hand.”

Without hesitation, I raised my hand.  I knew in my heart, right there and then, that I needed Jesus Christ in my life. I had no idea the pastor was going to ask all of us, who raised their hands, to go up for additional prayer. Right away, I walked up to the front. The pastor had me recite a special prayer, accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord.

Shortly after, elders of the church prayed over me. Tears poured down my face as we prayed together. Later, as I walked towards my car, I felt different. I didn’t feel dirty and ugly. I wasn’t troubled! I feel like I was finally alive!

Everything changed

Something inside me vanished. I felt all cleaned up inside. The obsessions and anxiety disappeared. For the first time in years, I felt good about myself in a healthy way, not in a self-destructive manner. I attended church on a weekly basis. I began to break out of the shell I was locked up in. The greatest feeling anyone could ever experience—imagine a prisoner, set free after being wrongfully locked up for over thirty years.

If you feel lost there is hope for you. There is hope for the aching heart that can not love. There is hope to the one that might be thinking about taking their life. Cry out to God and He will send you help.

For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” (2 Corinthians 6:2)

God is ready to help you right now. Today is the day of salvation.

Do you want to accept Jesus just as Barbara did? All you need to do is pray. Prayer is just talking to God. There is no right or wrong way to do it. God is not concerned about the words that you choose, he cares about the state of your heart. He hears you, the words aren’t that important. You can pray a prayer something like this:

Jesus, I want to know you personally. I know that I am a sinner and that nothing I could do can make up for that. Thank you for dying in my place and paying the price for my sin. I know that my sin doesn’t separate me from God anymore. Thank you for forgiving me. I know that you love me and that I will spend eternity with you. I want you to be my Savior. Come into my life and take control, make me the person you want me to be.

God invites us into relationship with him. He’s not here to condemn, although our sin makes us guilty. God is inviting us back, ready to welcome us home.

When the DRIME team was here on their mission trip, I met a woman named Malee at one of our ministry times. She had many questions about God, and I decided that I would visit her once a week to continue to share about God, read the Bible, and pray with her. My friend Anun comes with me and together we are getting to know her and her family, as well as teaching them about who God is.

The last time we visited her, Anun shared from Acts 17:22-28 and taught Malee about how God is the creator of the world. Malee admitted that she always used to wonder why things are the way they are. Why it takes a man and a woman to have a child, why we are born the way we are, why there is male and female, why there is marriage, where life comes from, etc. She said she stopped asking those questions a while ago because she could not find any answers. She really liked learning about God as creator.

Malee also shared with us that the night before we came to visit she had a very bad stomach pain; it wouldn’t go away and it was keeping her from sleeping. Her husband and children were all sick so she was the one taking care of them, and so she couldn’t afford to be sick herself. So she decided to pray to Jesus and ask him to take away her stomach pain. She had no idea where that thought came from, because it never crossed her mind to pray to Jesus before. But she was desperate for help, so she did. A few minutes after she prayed, her stomach pain went away! She told us this, still a little bit in awe of the whole situation! We were so excited to hear that she was praying, and that God was answering her prayers.  We were encouraged by her story and in turn, we encouraged her to keep praying to Jesus. We assured her that he wants to hear from her!

I’m so excited to keep visiting with her, praying for her and teaching her more about the God who loves her so much! Would you pray for Malee with me? She is getting closer each day to knowing God as her personal Lord and Saviour.

Janna is serving as a base planter in Thailand until December 2011, and has been on staff with DRIME since 2009.

We had been performing at the plaza and were finishing our ministry time, putting the sound system and our stuff away, when I saw two girls observing us. It was then that I walked over to them and asked if they had seen the dramas we had been performing. “No,” they said “you just finished when we came.” I told them a little bit about what we had been performing and started to talk to them, presenting Christ to them.

Mariana seemed indifferent, whereas her sister was more interested. At first, her reaction intimidated me – it seemed as if everything I said to her went straight through and she wasn’t listening. I tried to catch her attention somehow, when God showed me a deep sadness in her eyes, coming from many wounds in her life. I felt God saying to me: “Tell her this!” But because she seemed to ignore me, I was afraid to tell her this – I thought these words would drive her even further away, leaving everyone in an awkward situation.

However, something in my head kept insisting on telling her these words. So I stopped in the middle of the sentence I had been speaking to share this message with her.  I told the same thing to her sister Isabel.

At that moment, Mariana’s eyes started to water and both girls started sobbing quietly. I told them that God is the one that can heal the wounded hearts and fill them with joy. At this moment I told them about the things God had done in my own life. Then I asked them if they wanted to repeat a prayer accepting God into their lives. Right away, both girls said yes! After they prayed to receive Jesus as King and Saviour, I also prayed for Mariana and Isabel. God’s presence came down to this plaza, touching their hearts and starting to heal the years of hurt that had experienced.

After finishing our prayers, Isabel told me: “During the prayer I felt something I can’t understand or explain myself, but it fills me with joy!” I’m very happy and thankful because God used my life and my mouth to get to and touch the hearts of these two girls. I give God all the praises for what happened in their lives! This experienced helped me realize that presenting the gospel face to face and witnessing God working in people’s lives is the BEST!

DRIME Paraguay is starting their second year of ministry – please keep them in your prayers!

Think of 19 Ways to encourage someone today

“Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones” (Proverbs 16:24).

I grew up in an alcoholic home where both my parents drank and were verbally and physically abusive.  There were not a lot words that brought life or encouragement.  Maybe that is why I remember two moments so vividly.

When I was in my early teens, a lady who was like a second mother to me said, “Mike, you are a good boy!”  I remember thinking, “Am I?” No one had ever said that to me. Those six words gave me a new picture of myself.

When I was attending university, my father said, “One of the neighbors told me that you were on the dean’s list.  I’m proud of you.”  I can’t remember any other moment quite like that one, in terms of my dad’s words to me.

Solomon says that “Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones”  (Proverbs 16:24).

Bring healing and sweetness to someone’s life today through your words.  Bring some as well to yourself by embracing what God says about you as His child in Ephesians 1:3-10 and Ephesians 2:10

You are:
1) God’s Best Work/Creation,
2) Chosen/Adopted as His Child,
3) Forgiven and Redeemed as His Wayward and Disobedient Son/Daughter and
4) Blessed with Everything that a Loving Father can give His Child.

Questions: Tell us about a time when someone said something so encouraging to you that changed your attitude about yourself in a positive way.

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Psalms 51:10

God creates my pure heart, not me. It is his spirit within me that cleanses and “re-creates” my heart. It is his power, his grace, his hand, his works, his abilities, his strength that creates this pure heart. My heart becomes pure not because of what I can do, but because of what God has done through the blood of Jesus Christ – and what God can do in transforming my heart into what he wants it to be.

God speaks my pure heart into existence; this is a Genesis moment, where God speaks into the chaos, the darkness, the void, and from this creates a pure heart within me (Psalm 51 MSG).

God can create something from nothing; he can take a heart that is broken, impure, failed and create in its place a heart that is whole, pure, and purposeful.

God loves me and wants to pour his grace into my heart. He wants to see me pure, and he wants to see me succeed – so much so, that he takes an active role in creating my new, cleansed heart. My role – my job – is to submit, humble myself before him, ask for his help.

Think like this: God is the one who purifies my heart. My heart is not purified by me, by my noble efforts, by my good thoughts, by my ability to follow the rules. Rather –

· My heart is purified by God creating a pure heart within me.

· My heart is cleansed by the living water flowing through me.

· My heart is cleansed by the blood of Christ scrubbing away the stains of my sin.

· My heart is cleansed by God breathing his spirit into me.

· My heart is purified solely, and wholly, by the power of God – and not by anything extra that I can do.

That is why the only path to a pure heart is to confess my sin and acknowledge my need.

The heart God creates, then, is no longer cynical or distrustful. It is no longer damaged or broken. It is a pure heart.

So what?

· A pure heart produces faith – “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.’” (Mark 11:23)

· A pure heart matches God’s heart – Syncing with God’s heartbeat means you focus your heart on those things that matter most to God (Colossians 3:1-2) and you let go of anything that hinders your ability to align with God’s heart (Hebrews 12:1). Jesus matched his heart with the Father’s heart (John 5:23; 6:38; 16:17-18).

· A pure heart is undivided – God wants your whole heart committed wholly to him: “To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” (Mark 12:33)

· A pure heart is a fresh start – Ask God to create in you a fresh start. (Psalm 51:10).

Question: What does it mean to have a “pure heart”?

Whether our sexuality was stolen from us or we gave it away, we experience a loss. But unfortunately many of us don’t allow ourselves to grieve those losses. Psychologists tell us that there are five stages of grieving; denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Writing out our life map begins to move us beyond denial to truth. That can make us angry. And it should. When we’ve been used and abused, or have fallen victim to wrong choices in our life, we experience anger. But often we direct our anger inward, causing anxiety and depression, or outward to the wrong people. Broken people intentionally and unintentionally hurt other people. Processing our anger in a healthy way is asking God to show us who shares responsibility for all that’s happened to us and the choices we’ve made.

The goal of this exercise isn’t to make us angrier, but instead to allow God to show us that we alone are not to blame. And then to surrender our hurts and anger to Him. One way we do this is to write anger letters to everyone God reveals who shares blame for what’s happened in our past, including our own choices. We didn’t have sex alone. We didn’t perform our own abortion. Although God wants us to acknowledge our part in wrong choices, there are others who need to bear some of the responsibility.

The goal of this exercise is to surrender our anger to God. To honestly express how other’s choices have hurt us. I encourage people to use ‘I’ statements when they write their letters. For example: “I was hurt, angry, sad, etc., when you ___________. Rather than make it a list of behaviors, it’s important to acknowledge how others’ choices hurt us and how that makes us feel.

But one word of caution. These letters are between us and God and not meant to be given out. The goal is not revenge or retribution, but healing and restoration. In some cases if God leads, we may give our letter to the intended person. But only after prayerful consideration.

Following anger, people often experience sadness or grief. This is normal. Anger is a huge emotion, and can be draining. When God removes our anger, the emptiness can leave us sad, resigned, empty. Don’t worry, this is normal. This is part of God breaking our hearts so that He can heal us. One caution for those who’ve struggled with depression, or are currently on medication for depression—please get medical advice if you feel that you’re slipping back under that deep, dark cloud. Or if the depression lasts longer than a few weeks. I know, I’ve been there. If so, you may need to get on medication, or increase an existing dose.

God uses the next step—forgiveness, to lift us out of our grief or sadness and move us towards acceptance. In addition to acknowledging where we need to ask for forgiveness from God for our part, we need to forgive others for theirs. I find it interesting that in the Lord’s Prayer, asking God to forgive us and forgiving others are related…as if one is contingent on the other…”and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matt. 6:12). Miraculously, God uses this step of forgiving others to set us free from their hold on us. Forgiveness is the gateway to healing, and to the final step of grieving–acceptance.

Are you ready for the next step? Return to the main article for more information, the next exercise and four books that can help you on your way.

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That’s essential if we want complete healing, and have the kind of emotional and physical intimacy God desires for us to have in marriage. Also, because of the bonds we’ve created with other partners, we need to trust God to sever those bonds so that we can have our bonding hormone restored, allowing us to bond fully in a present or future marriage. Healing restores all our relationships, because we’ll finally be able to reconcile ourselves to us. Being at peace with ourselves, frees us to be at peace with others.

Let the healing begin

For the past several years I’ve had the privilege of watching God heal hundreds of people from their sexual pasts. God led me to write a bible study for sexual healing, and through twelve chapters we lead people through a grieving process for their sexual pasts. I want to encourage you if God is bringing to mind things you’ve yet to heal from, that you’ll have the courage to join me and countless others in the following steps to healing:

1. Healing the wounds we’ve accumulated from our past.

2. Grieving the losses we’ve experienced.

3. Exposing the lies we’ve ingrained because of our past.

4. Breaking ungodly sexual bonds.

Healing the wounds we’ve accumulated from our past. Some wounds we’re aware of, but many we’re not, until we let God show us how our past is still hurting us today. When we let God show us how our past has hurt us, He’s able to heal our brokenness. But the first step and often the hardest is acknowledging what’s happened to us. And with abuse or trauma, often we can’t remember clearly what’s happened. But God knows our whole story, every detail. And when we give Him permission, He’ll show us our story. Here’s an exercise that can help you see your own story.

Grieving the losses we’ve experienced. Whether our sexuality was stolen from us or we gave it away, we experience a loss. But unfortunately many of us don’t allow ourselves to grieve those losses. John Townsend and Henry Cloud in their book, How People Grow, say that “Grief is the one pain that heals all others. It is the most important pain there is.”[1]

Because many of us feel responsible for the loss, we often don’t feel we deserve to grieve. But the truth is, we do deserve to grieve, even more, we need to grieve. In fact God grieves right along with us. He feels our pain, bears our burdens. He even collects our tears, King David tells us in Psalm 56:8, “Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll—are they not in your record?” And as we grieve, God is able to comfort and heal us. Here’s an exercise to help you walk through the grief process.

Exposing the lies we’ve ingrained because of our past. For many years I believed that God was the one who was heaping shame on me. I was certain He was disappointed with me, and no matter how many times I asked for forgiveness, I still had shame. But as I allowed God to heal me, I discovered that He did not see me the way I saw myself, the way the enemy tried to make me feel.

He did not see me as sinful, dirty and unrighteous. Instead because of what Jesus did on the cross, and my acceptance of His forgiveness, God saw who I was in Christ–holy, righteous, blameless, forgiven. Yet I’d been living out of the lie of the enemy. Once I saw the truth, the enemy could no longer deceive me with this lie.  Here’s an exercise to help you see how God views sex.

Breaking ungodly sexual bonds. The bonding of sex is not only physical, but also spiritual, emotional and mental which includes the chemical and hormonal bonding that happens. Although we’d like to believe that breaking up and moving on severs that bond, in truth, only God can sever the ‘one flesh’ bond He’s created through sex.

The bible says that this bonding is a mystery. In other words, it’s unexplainable, supernatural, something only God can do. So it makes sense that only God can completely sever this bond. In this step we ask God to show us everyone we’ve created a sexual bond with, and write out a sexual history list. Then we pray through each name (or memory if we don’t have a name) asking God to sever the bond we’ve created—at every level, spiritually, emotionally, physically and mentally.  Here is the prayer to pray.

Really Good News…           

Oxytocin is God’s super-human glue that is released in a man and woman during sexual arousal and release. When we’ve created bonds with others through sex, we can damage our bonding hormone, causing us to release less and less with each subsequent partner. But I have amazing news! Preliminary research is showing that as we heal, our brain heals, allowing us to release oxytocin again. Isn’t God so kind? Regardless of how our bonding hormone was damaged or depleted, when we let God heal us, He even restores our ability to bond. That’s what God told us in Joel 2:25, ‘I will repay for the years the locusts have eaten…” God promises to pay us back all that the enemy has robbed from us—even oxytocin.  Here’s an excerise to walk through the process of breaking sexual bonds.

I want to leave you with one final word of encouragement. Its true…healing isn’t easy, and it doesn’t happen overnight. In fact it can be quite painful, and take longer than expected. But this I can promise: it’s worth the journey. I would never want to go back to where I was, broken, clothed in shame, stuck spiritually, emotionally and physically.

For 25 years shame was my constant companion. But when God restored me 8 years ago, that’s when I really began to live…that’s when I became free. What a feeling! I wouldn’t trade it for anything. And it’s not just me. Everyone who’s had the courage to trust God with their pasts, regardless of how hard the journey, not one has ever said they wished they could go back to the way things were.

I’m praying that this is the day you’ll say yes to God, and begin your journey to a life of freedom. You’ll never regret it…I promise.

When you’re ready to talk, we’re here to help:

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One way to help see your own story is to write your life map.  Divide your life into four segments based on years: 0-12 yrs, 13-19 yrs, 20-30 yrs, and 30-present. As you focus on each segment, pray and ask God to show you what happened during those years. What trauma did you experience? What happened sexually during these years? What other painful things happened during this time that may have made you vulnerable? As you work through each segment, God will begin to show you behavioral patterns in your life and how earlier experiences led to choices later in life.

After you’re finished with your life map, write out your story in a journal format. Trust me on this. There’s something that happens when we write things out rather than just keeping them in our thoughts. Hidden truths become clear. Everyone who’s willing to trust God with this step find it to be one of the most significant steps in their healing journey. It’s most certainly the beginning step.

Are you ready for the next step? Return to the main article for more information, the next exercise and four books that can help you on your way.

When you’re ready to talk, we’re here to help:

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Request prayer

1.  Ask God to bring to mind everyone that you’ve created a sexual bond with—voluntarily or involuntarily. Wait quietly, allowing God to bring names to memory.

2.  Write down on a piece of paper the name of every person. If you don’t know it, write a description of the person or event.

3.  Ask God to show you His perspective of each bond.  If the bond was created through your own choice, ask God to show you why you participated, and the part you played. If the bond was created through someone else’s choice forced on you, ask God to show you how that event affected you.

4.  Pray that your heart will be humbled and your spirit contrite (Psalm 51:17) so that you will experience true repentance.Please note: If you’re praying for someone who’s sexually abused or raped you, you do not need to ask forgiveness for your violation of that person, because he or she violated you. However, you still need to ask God to sever the negative bond that has been created with this person.

5.  Pray the following prayer with each name or incident:

“Lord, I ask forgiveness for sinning against you and against my own body. In the name of Jesus, I sever and renounce the bonds I created with _____. I release my heart tie with this person physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I choose by faith to forgive _______ for their violation against me. Please forgive me of my violation against _______. Please remove the negative emotional baggage I’ve been carrying around with me. Restore to me a virgin heart—as though I’d never been with this person, and heal me completely of the damage this sin has caused me and my marriage. Thank you for your forgiveness. I accept it fully. Amen.”

Return to the main article for more information and four books that can help you on your way.

When you’re ready to talk, we’re here to help:

Free, private mentoring by email
Request prayer