We finally got a bit of a break around Christmas. But right after, counseling and training kicked into high gear! Here's a breakdown:
* I'm training 2 church leaders in healing prayer (and doing a lot of praying for them - the freedom God is bringing them is so amazing!)
* Every Sunday night @ 9:30 to midnight, I am now praying for and training some Timothies (house church leaders). Last night was our first time together - 10 showed up. And it lasted until 1:00 in the morning. Good thing I could sleep in! Each week we will cover another aspect of healing prayer. Their questions are so intense - it is what they deal with daily. Here are a couple just from yesterday:
> How do I stop the intense headaches and nausea I get every time I command Satan to leave?
> How do I help my friend find freedom from drug addiction?
* This training time has led to setting up some individual appointments (via Skype) with some of these leaders. I begin New Year's night @ 9:30 pm - please pray! I have appointments with 5 people in Iran over the next 2 weeks. And the Paul (leader of leaders) is working on setting me up with another 3 people in the near future.
* I'm also continuing my work with the local Iranian church to train their telephone follow-up counselors (who call in during their satellite TV show broadcast in farsi all over the world). I'll be helping to train them to handle some of the tough issues they face daily.
And it's only beginning! I've put in the column to your right some of the prayer points you can focus on. So keep us in your prayers!
Monday, December 31, 2007
Sunday, December 16, 2007
ANOTHER FIRST!
When believers in persecuted countries gather together, it is at great risk. When they are together longer than a few hours, it is at tremendous risk. But a group did just that recently - for the first in-country Christian conference in Iran! I have just received a summary of that conference. The two topics? Leadership and Inner Healing. What follows is one of the leaders own words (I've tried to leave the English as she wrote it, though I've put in parentheses some clarifying remarks). Read and be blessed!!!
Salaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam Baba (Daddy) Mike - how are you ? Baba Mike, the conference was miracle of God . Let me tell you from the first: me and S had 4.35 hours to teach I had 3 hours and the rest was for S. I started with explanation of healing prayer and explained the difference between healing prayer and spiritual warfare because our Timothy just knew about spiritual warfare and they think healing prayer is same. After that I started to explain about how somebody can be wounded but cannot remember (this was the first session). After that I asked all of them to start praying about their wounds. Oh Baba Mike suddenly Holy Spirit came and touched all of us - you should be there! How God healed so many of us. They cried, they talked to Jesus, they prayed some of them loudly, some very quiet, some just keep quiet and look and think deeply. Oh Baba Mike it was so wonderful. It took about 2 hours. One old man about 70 came to me and cried and talked about when he was the age of 8 and God healed him immediately. I cannot explain that night - it was very holy.
For second session I talked about kids inside (this is at the heart of my recent teaching) - they really love this topic. They had hundreds of questions. Oh lord, Baba Mike, it wasn't me talking to them. You know, after finish I listen to my session. I talked about so many things that I didn't know before. Baba Mike, I told them that Pastor MG teach all of these lessons to me and they know you as Baba Mike now. After second session I told if you want go for a break and then we will have a prayer session. They said no, we don't want break. Just add the time of break to our prayer session.
For second prayer session I talked about the names and stones (this is a prayer time where you allow God to remove all of the negative, old names and labels you have received and replace them with His name for you. When God reveals this new name, the person writes it down on a white rock to keep – see Revelation 2:17). How wonderful it would be if you could be there. So many of them got the new name. When we were praying, God showed me that there is one person there that many people called him or her “orphan” while he/she was baby. Suddenly one old lady about 70 came to me and cried and said “It’s me because I lost my mom and dad when I was a baby. All of my relatives called me orphan and I grow up with this name.” So we prayed for her and she got a beautiful name from God.
For third session S talked about 6 steps for kids (this is a prayer process to help people find inner healing and freedom – it is at the heart of what I’ve been doing recently). And it was good. We realized that S is very amazing in individual healing prayer and during those nights she and me had so many healing prayer times individually with people. During those healing prayer times we realized that S is wonderful with personal healing prayer and I was good in teaching and mass (group) prayer.
So Baba Mike I want to thank you so much. I miss you alot. This was very good experience for all of us. God bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeess you my dear Baba (the Iranians extend words for emphasis).
E
Salaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam Baba (Daddy) Mike - how are you ? Baba Mike, the conference was miracle of God . Let me tell you from the first: me and S had 4.35 hours to teach I had 3 hours and the rest was for S. I started with explanation of healing prayer and explained the difference between healing prayer and spiritual warfare because our Timothy just knew about spiritual warfare and they think healing prayer is same. After that I started to explain about how somebody can be wounded but cannot remember (this was the first session). After that I asked all of them to start praying about their wounds. Oh Baba Mike suddenly Holy Spirit came and touched all of us - you should be there! How God healed so many of us. They cried, they talked to Jesus, they prayed some of them loudly, some very quiet, some just keep quiet and look and think deeply. Oh Baba Mike it was so wonderful. It took about 2 hours. One old man about 70 came to me and cried and talked about when he was the age of 8 and God healed him immediately. I cannot explain that night - it was very holy.
For second session I talked about kids inside (this is at the heart of my recent teaching) - they really love this topic. They had hundreds of questions. Oh lord, Baba Mike, it wasn't me talking to them. You know, after finish I listen to my session. I talked about so many things that I didn't know before. Baba Mike, I told them that Pastor MG teach all of these lessons to me and they know you as Baba Mike now. After second session I told if you want go for a break and then we will have a prayer session. They said no, we don't want break. Just add the time of break to our prayer session.
For second prayer session I talked about the names and stones (this is a prayer time where you allow God to remove all of the negative, old names and labels you have received and replace them with His name for you. When God reveals this new name, the person writes it down on a white rock to keep – see Revelation 2:17). How wonderful it would be if you could be there. So many of them got the new name. When we were praying, God showed me that there is one person there that many people called him or her “orphan” while he/she was baby. Suddenly one old lady about 70 came to me and cried and said “It’s me because I lost my mom and dad when I was a baby. All of my relatives called me orphan and I grow up with this name.” So we prayed for her and she got a beautiful name from God.
For third session S talked about 6 steps for kids (this is a prayer process to help people find inner healing and freedom – it is at the heart of what I’ve been doing recently). And it was good. We realized that S is very amazing in individual healing prayer and during those nights she and me had so many healing prayer times individually with people. During those healing prayer times we realized that S is wonderful with personal healing prayer and I was good in teaching and mass (group) prayer.
So Baba Mike I want to thank you so much. I miss you alot. This was very good experience for all of us. God bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeess you my dear Baba (the Iranians extend words for emphasis).
E
Saturday, December 15, 2007
DICKENS OR LUKE?
This Christmas season, I've been reading a book of devotionals about Christmas. Here's one that struck me. It begins with a quote:
"Without poverty of spirit, there can be no abundance of God."
We love Christmas because, as we say, Christmas brings out the best in us. Everyone gives on Christmas, even the stingiest among us, even the Ebenezer Scrooges. Charles Dickens' story of Scrooge's transformation has probably done more to form our notions of Christmas than St. Luke's story of the manger. Whereas Luke tells us of God's gift to us, Dickens tells us how we can give to others. A Christmas Carol is more congenial to our favorite images of ourselves. Dickens suggests that deep down, even the worst of us can become generous, giving people.
Yet I suggest we are better givers than getters, not because we are generous people because we are proud, arrogant people. The Christmas story - the one according to Luke not Dickens - is not about how blessed it is to be givers but how essential it is to see ourselves as receivers.
We prefer to think of ourselves as givers - powerful, competent, self-sufficient, capable people whose goodness motivates us to employ some of our power, competence and gifts to benefit the less fortunate. Which is a direct contradiction of the biblical account of the first Christmas. There we are portrayed not as the givers we wish we were but as the receivers we are. Luke and Matthew go to great lenghs to demonstrate that we - with our power, generosity, competence and capabilities - had little to do with God's work in Jesus. God wanted to do something for us so strange, so utterly beyond the bounds of human imagination, so foreign to human projection, that God had to resort to angels, pregnant virgins, and stars in the sky to get it done. We didn't think of it, understand it or approve it. All we could do, at Bethlehem, was to receive it. A gift from a God we hardly even knew.
The strange story of a virgin birth to a peasant couple in Judea demonstrates that the solution for what ails us has very little to do with us. One rabbi writes that, as a Jew, he is impressed reading Matthew's account of the Nativity by how utterly passive the actors are. The first word of the church is that we are receivers before we are givers. Discipleship teaches us of the art of seeing our lives as gifts. That's tough, because I would rather see myself as a giver. I want power - to stand on my own, take charge, set things to rights, perhaps to help those who have nothing. I don't like picturing myself as dependent, needy, empty-handed.
It's tough to be on the receiving end of love, God's or anybody else's. It requires that we see our lives not as our possessions, but as gifts. "Nothing is more repugnant to capable, reasonable people than grace," wrote John Wesley a long time ago.
So God comes to us, blesses us with a gift, and calls us to see ourselves as we are - empty-handed recipients of the gracious God who, rather than leave us to our own devices, gave us a baby.
-- William Willimon --
"Without poverty of spirit, there can be no abundance of God."
We love Christmas because, as we say, Christmas brings out the best in us. Everyone gives on Christmas, even the stingiest among us, even the Ebenezer Scrooges. Charles Dickens' story of Scrooge's transformation has probably done more to form our notions of Christmas than St. Luke's story of the manger. Whereas Luke tells us of God's gift to us, Dickens tells us how we can give to others. A Christmas Carol is more congenial to our favorite images of ourselves. Dickens suggests that deep down, even the worst of us can become generous, giving people.
Yet I suggest we are better givers than getters, not because we are generous people because we are proud, arrogant people. The Christmas story - the one according to Luke not Dickens - is not about how blessed it is to be givers but how essential it is to see ourselves as receivers.
We prefer to think of ourselves as givers - powerful, competent, self-sufficient, capable people whose goodness motivates us to employ some of our power, competence and gifts to benefit the less fortunate. Which is a direct contradiction of the biblical account of the first Christmas. There we are portrayed not as the givers we wish we were but as the receivers we are. Luke and Matthew go to great lenghs to demonstrate that we - with our power, generosity, competence and capabilities - had little to do with God's work in Jesus. God wanted to do something for us so strange, so utterly beyond the bounds of human imagination, so foreign to human projection, that God had to resort to angels, pregnant virgins, and stars in the sky to get it done. We didn't think of it, understand it or approve it. All we could do, at Bethlehem, was to receive it. A gift from a God we hardly even knew.
The strange story of a virgin birth to a peasant couple in Judea demonstrates that the solution for what ails us has very little to do with us. One rabbi writes that, as a Jew, he is impressed reading Matthew's account of the Nativity by how utterly passive the actors are. The first word of the church is that we are receivers before we are givers. Discipleship teaches us of the art of seeing our lives as gifts. That's tough, because I would rather see myself as a giver. I want power - to stand on my own, take charge, set things to rights, perhaps to help those who have nothing. I don't like picturing myself as dependent, needy, empty-handed.
It's tough to be on the receiving end of love, God's or anybody else's. It requires that we see our lives not as our possessions, but as gifts. "Nothing is more repugnant to capable, reasonable people than grace," wrote John Wesley a long time ago.
So God comes to us, blesses us with a gift, and calls us to see ourselves as we are - empty-handed recipients of the gracious God who, rather than leave us to our own devices, gave us a baby.
-- William Willimon --
Friday, December 7, 2007
A FIRST!
Just talked with the pastor of the Iranian church. He told me they recently had their very first in-country conference for Christian leaders. This was a great risk - and a great success! What made it especially exciting for me is that one of the two main topics of the event was Healing Prayer (what I've been teaching them for the past year).
Two of my best students led the teaching and healing times and many were set free. I've yet to get the full scoop on this, and I'll write more when I do. But I'm just awed and thankful that the lessons God has taught me over the years are now blessing and empowering these special brothers and sisters. Please keep praying with me for them!
Two of my best students led the teaching and healing times and many were set free. I've yet to get the full scoop on this, and I'll write more when I do. But I'm just awed and thankful that the lessons God has taught me over the years are now blessing and empowering these special brothers and sisters. Please keep praying with me for them!
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
A TESTIMONY FROM IRAN
I received these powerful and encouraging words from one of the house church leaders in Iran. She was reflecting on a trip she and some others took to a distant city to encourage and train some new believers. Most of my ministry with her has been online - but, as you can see, it is still life-changing. God works powerfully in this country - and quick!
I've shortened the names for safety - and added in parentheses some comments for clarification. For those of you praying for me and supporting me financially, thank you!!! Your prayers and support are helping to set people free - 1/2 way around the world.
Baba (Daddy), I don’t know how should I say thanks to you any time that I need help you helped me. Just I'm crying here and if I was there just can hug you and say thank you to you. Keshish (Pastor) Mike, in my last trip to Sh, with N, P and Na, in the last day, when I saw the faces of my sisters in the Christ there and how they changed and when they told me about their freedom during that week, I liked to flight (I wanted to fly). And it was because you learnt me; you learnt me what to do and how to help people; how to go deeper and deeper with them. Helping us first for healing ourselves and then teaching us about this. How to destroy their walls (meaning, how to help them let down their walls). And how to help me. When I was in Sh, especially in the last day my heart rejoice because of their changing and it was because of you. You listened to the voice of God and came to Turkey for us, with a difficult situation and first helped us and then teached us. Really merci (thank you), Keshish Mike.
I've shortened the names for safety - and added in parentheses some comments for clarification. For those of you praying for me and supporting me financially, thank you!!! Your prayers and support are helping to set people free - 1/2 way around the world.
Baba (Daddy), I don’t know how should I say thanks to you any time that I need help you helped me. Just I'm crying here and if I was there just can hug you and say thank you to you. Keshish (Pastor) Mike, in my last trip to Sh, with N, P and Na, in the last day, when I saw the faces of my sisters in the Christ there and how they changed and when they told me about their freedom during that week, I liked to flight (I wanted to fly). And it was because you learnt me; you learnt me what to do and how to help people; how to go deeper and deeper with them. Helping us first for healing ourselves and then teaching us about this. How to destroy their walls (meaning, how to help them let down their walls). And how to help me. When I was in Sh, especially in the last day my heart rejoice because of their changing and it was because of you. You listened to the voice of God and came to Turkey for us, with a difficult situation and first helped us and then teached us. Really merci (thank you), Keshish Mike.
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