“Miracles” by

Pastor Mike Mings 

     The most important miracle in my life was when I became alive in Christ (born again) at the age of 8 and then when I received the Holy Spirit at the age of 12.  That being said I’m going to chronicle some of the miracles that have occurred in my life.  I hope and pray that this book of miracles brings hope and sparks faith in you to believe God.

 God’s Miracle Working Power

      In Acts chapter one Jesus told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father, that is to say the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that Jesus said couldn’t be poured out until He had ascended unto the Father. 

      Jesus said that when we receive the Holy Spirit we will receive “Dunamus” miracle working power in our lives and can be witnesses of Him to all the world.  This miracle working power should be in operation in believers and the church today so the world can see that God is real. 

     Let’s see what the Apostle Peter said on the day of Pentecost when those 120 or so in the upper room received the Holy Spirit and the fire of a prayer language of unknown tongues. 

(Acts 2:16)  For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.

 (Act 2:16)  But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;

 (Act 2:17)  And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:

 (Act 2:18)  And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:

 (Act 2:19)  And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath…

 (Act 2:21)  And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

  “And I will show signs in the earth beneath that whosoever shall call on the name (authority) of the Lord shall be saved (delivered).”

 Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

Mar 16:16  He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

Mar 16:17  And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

Mar 16:18  They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

      It is the operation of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer that opens the door for the miracle working power of God to function and operate on a regular basis in our lives.

      It is also as we put our trust and faith in our Father God and take hold of His promises through faith and the confessions of our faith that we can receive all the good things that God has prepared for those that love Him.

  Heb. 10:23 “Let us hold fast to the profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful that promised.”

 Heb. 6:12 “Instead of being lazy, you should be imitators of those who through faith and patience are inheriting the promises of God.” (literal translation)

 The Fire Releases the Power

      John the Baptist said, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance but he that cometh after me is greater than I, he shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” 

      Now I used to think that the fire was the power of the Holy Spirit but in Acts chapter 2:4 the bible says; “There appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of “fire” and it sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they all began to speak in tongues as the Holy Spirit gave them the utterance.”

      We see in this scripture that the fire is not the power of the Holy Spirit but the fire is actually the prayer language of tongues that we receive when we are filled with the Holy Spirit.  Now there is some confusion as to whether or not we must speak in tongues when we receive the Holy Spirit, but the Word is clear that they all began to speak in tongues when they received the Holy Spirit.  In my 35 years of ministry I have never seen anyone receive the Holy Spirit without receiving the prayer language of tongues accompanying it. 

      Remember that John the Baptist said that he that cometh after me is greater than I and he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire, and with fire, and with fire.  You see when we receive the Holy Spirit, the fire or these tongues of fire always accompany it, always.

      I received the Holy Spirit as a young man of about 12 years old.  Back then we really were not taught about the importance of praying in tongues.  I just knew that when I received the Holy Spirit that I got this language that I could speak in that I didn’t understand. 

      Some people think that these tongues aren’t that important simply because they don’t understand them.               After I received the Holy Spirit I didn’t pray in tongues again for probably about a year.  Then I got “refilled” with the Holy Spirit and prayed in tongues again.  That was the way it was most of the time back then, as most folks just didn’t understand the real importance of praying in tongues.

      One week we had a traveling minister come to our church and he was teaching us how to resist sin.  Now I was striving to live for God and desired to live holy so I listened closely as he taught us how to resist sin.  You see I was a teenager and those hormones were beginning to kick in.  You know what I mean.  I saw a good looking girl and all the sudden thoughts would begin to come into my head that had nothing to do with righteousness or holiness.

      One of the things this minister told us was that if we were tempted to sin that we should begin to pray in tongues, that is if we were filled with the Holy Spirit.  He said that it is hard to sin if you are praying in tongues.  Well, that sounded good to me so that’s just what I did.  I began to pray in tongues off and on all through the day almost every day.  Remember those hormones?  I had lots of temptations.

      After a few months of praying in tongues on a daily basis the Lord spoke to me one day as I was praying and called me into the ministry to preach the Gospel.  Also I began having dreams and visions from the Lord.  Then the gifts of the Holy Spirit began to rise up in me and supernatural manifestations began to operate in my life.

      One time our pastor told those in the church to pair off and lay hands on one another and pray for each other.  As I placed my hand on a lady’s forehead and began to pray she hit the floor like someone hit her with a baseball bat.  It really shocked me because we didn’t have that kind of thing happen in our church.  I really didn’t know what was happening but I did know that the power of God was actively flowing through my body.

      When she got up she wasn’t hurt a bit.  In fact she was very much blessed of the Lord and healed in her body.

      At the time I didn’t connect the praying in tongues with these manifestations of the power of God but many years later as the Lord was teaching me about the importance of praying in tongues He brought back to remembrance those early years in my life and this is what he told me. 

      The Lord told me that praying in tongues releases the “Dunamus” miracle working power of God in our lives.  He told me that the fire of the tongues releases the Power.  He gave me an example of a gallon of gasoline.  He said that there was power in the gasoline but that that power is not released until it comes in contact with fire. 

      The Lord told me that in that same way, when we receive the Holy Spirit we will have “Dunamus” miracle power available to us but we need to spend a lot of time praying in tongues, that is lighting the fire of the Holy Spirit in our lives so that the Power can be released. 

      The Lord told me that “The Fire Releases the Power”.  He said that is exactly what began happening in my life as a young man as I began to pray in tongues and it is still happening today.

      I encourage each and every person reading this book to make Jesus Christ Lord of your life and if you haven’t received the Holy Spirit yet I encourage you to receive Him by faith and begin to pray in tongues as much as possible so the miracle working power of God can be released and active in your life too.  God is no respecter of persons.  What He has done for others He will do for you.

Cross in the Road

      When I was in high school I had some friends that didn’t know the Lord and they mostly hung out with other unsaved friends but in times of crisis they would come to me, perhaps because they knew that I had a close relationship with the Lord.

      One night a friend of mine came to me in a panic.  He said that his sister and their parents were fighting over her baby.  They had been drinking and they were pulling the baby between each other and he was sure they were going to kill the baby unless we could find someone to help.

      Now the town I lived in at that time was a little town called Lathrop, Mo.  The population of the town was about 1,000 people and we didn’t have a regular police force.  We only had a night watchman that would cruise in his car at night.

     We had to find help or we believed my friend’s baby niece was going to die.  I didn’t really know what to do but to try to find the night watchman.  So we jumped in the car and he began driving around town, trying to find the night watchman.  It seemed hopeless so I cried out to God.  “We need help, Lord,” I said within myself.  As my friend drove down the highway, I looked down a street; to my amazement I saw a huge cross right in the middle of the street.  It was an open vision.  I saw it just as plain as I would see you standing right in front of me.

      I told my friend to stop.  He said “why?”  I said, “ You have to drive down that street”.  He said, “why”?  I said, “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you right now, just drive down the street.”  He went ahead and drove down the street and about four or five blocks down the street was the night watchman.

      He was able to go to my friend’s house, break up the fight and save the little baby’s life.  Thank God He is ever faithful.  When we don’t know what to do.  He always has an answer, if we will only call out to Him in our need and believe He is always there to deliver us.

      That night we needed a miracle and God answered our need.

      I’ve heard it said that God always hears our prayers but sometimes He says yes and sometimes He says no.  That sounds nice and pretty but it doesn’t really line up with the Word of God.  This is what the Bible says about God hearing us and responding to His promises.

God’s Word is God’s will.

 2Co 1:18  But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay.

2Co 1:19  For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea.

2Co 1:20  For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.

      This portion of scripture tells us that the promises of God are not yes sometimes and no sometimes but that all the promises of God in Christ Jesus are yes and Amen (so let it be).

      Here is what the Apostle John said through the Holy Spirit to us about having confidence toward God to always receive what we need from him.

 1Jo 5:14  And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

1Jo 5:15  And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

      Wow!  Notice what God says here.  This says that we can always know the answer is yes, if we know that God hears us, we know we have what we asked for.  That means that as long as we are asking a thing that is His will (God’s Word is God’s will), if we are asking a thing that God has promised us then He will for sure hear us.  This implies that He only hears us when we are asking something according to His will, doesn’t it?  I believe this portion of scripture lines up with other scriptures that clearly states, “God doesn’t always hear people”.

      We can know that God hears us as long as we are asking according to the promise of God.  And God says that if we know He hears us then we know that we already have what we desired when we pray.  Why?  Because it is impossible for God to lie.  If God makes us a promise and we take hold of it by faith, He will always be faithful to fulfill His Word.

 Num 23:19  God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?

Healing Brings Salvation

      In the mid 1980’s I was driving a truck for a trucking company coast to coast.  We were a team operation.  That is there were two drivers in every truck.  While one was driving the other slept and vice-versa.

      We didn’t have any choice of who our driving partner was.  The trucking company just teamed us up with someone.  One time I was teamed up with one of the vilest persons I have ever met.  Everything that came out of his mouth was vile.  Everything he said, did, or thought was vile.

      I thought, “Surely God you could have helped me get a more decent person to get stuck with in this truck.” 

      Then one day we were unloading a trailer load of canned goods in Dallas, Texas.  We had to stack the boxes of canned goods on a pallet and then take the pallet out of the truck.  The boxes were very heavy and we were in a hurry because we had another load we were supposed to pick up that day.

      Earlier in the week I had hurt my foot and was limping so I couldn’t move real fast.  As we were moving the boxes of canned goods I tried to pick up too many boxes at a time and I severely hurt my back.

     My back actually cracked and I heard it and the person helping me unload the truck heard it.  Terrible pain shot through my back and I was hardly able to stand up.  Immediately the thought went through my head “well at least you won’t have to finish unloading this truck.”   

     At that moment I had a choice, “Do I accept this injury and let the other guy do the rest of the unload, or do I stand in faith to receive my healing and continue to unload the truck?”  Now I want you to understand, I was in severe pain and could hardly move but I knew that Jesus took my infirmities and bare my sickness.  I knew that by His stripes I was healed.

     The man helping me knew I was really injured and told me to go back in the truck and he would finish unloading the trailer by himself.  Now I’ve got to tell you, I really was tempted to do just that but I said, “No, I’m healed by the stripes of Jesus”.  You should have seen the look on his face.  He thought I was crazy.

      I was hurting so bad I could hardly stand it but I kept moving boxes and with every shot of pain in my body I would say out loud with my mouth, “thank you Jesus for healing me”.  I continued to do this for about 5 or 10 minutes then suddenly the healing virtue of Jesus instantly flowed through my entire body and I was completely healed. 

      Now not only was my back healed but my foot, that was hurt several days earlier that I had been limping on even to that moment was totally and completely healed right in front of that vile, evil man.  I just began to give God glory and praise.  The partner I had didn’t really say much at that point.  He just kept looking at me kind of funny.

      The next day as we were driving down the interstate highway toward California, I looked over and saw tears running down the face of this vile person.  He just looked at me and said, “What do I need to do to be saved?”

      Right there in that truck I told him about Jesus and he received Him as his Lord and Savior.  He even had a desire to be baptized as soon as possible.

      Now I hadn’t been giving him a hard time about his lifestyle.  I hadn’t been preaching to him about how he needed to get saved or he was going to hell.  I’m sure he already knew that.  I hadn’t even been sharing with him all the goodness God had done for me in my life.  But he knew I was living for the Lord by my life. 

     As that man saw the miracle working power of a living God manifested in the life of a believer he knew that God was real and he came to know Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior (deliverer).  His character was instantly changed and that person that I could hardly stand to be around was now a brother in the Lord.  Changed by the miracle worker Himself.

      I could have chosen to lie down in that truck and nurse my injury instead of boldly saying and receiving my healing but if I had, I wouldn’t have been healed and more importantly, that young man wouldn’t have had the opportunity to see the miracle working power of God.

      Because he saw the manifested miracle of God, he believed.  He knew God was real and wanted to be saved.  He wanted to know the living Lord that is concerned and active in the lives of His children.  God is so good.

      Is it really true that someone could desire to repent and turn their lives to God just because they see a miracle?

 Rom 2:4  Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

 Yes.  It really is true.  When people see the goodness of God with their own eyes it will lead many people to repentance.

It’s Too Hot!

      Like I said before, I drove a tractor-trailer truck for a living for a season in my life.  One time I was driving through Phoenix, Arizona on my way to the east coast with a load of produce.  It was really hot outside, 116 degrees to be exact.  Now I know it’s dry heat in Arizona but let me tell you a little secret, 116 degrees is hot no matter how dry or wet it is.

      Jesus said that as long as we live in this world that there would be tribulations.  That is to say we will face troubles.  Not might, not maybe, we will have trouble.  Well He was right.  That day, when it was so hot, the air conditioner quit working on my truck.  I was driving a cab over truck.  That means that the cab set right over the engine.  Now that engine heat rises right up into the cab and with the outdoor temperature what it was, it got so hot in that cab that I just couldn’t physically take it.

      I called the company but they were not willing to have the truck fixed until I got to the terminal in Springfield Mo.  They said that it would cost too much to get it fixed on the road.

      Well I’ll tell you, I got so hot that I felt like I was going to have a heat stroke.  Like I said, I just couldn’t take it any more so I called out to the Lord.  I said “Jesus I need your help.  Your word says that you will supply all my needs according to your riches in glory by Christ Jesus.  So I don’t know how you are going to do it but I’m just believing you right now for relief from this heat.”

      Now either God’s word is true or it’s not.  I just began to praise and glorify the Lord that I had relief from that heat.  I didn’t know how He was going to do it but He is almighty God and more than able to help us in time of need.  God’s Word says that we can come boldly to the throne of grace to find help in our time of need.

      Nobody was there in my truck.  I don’t have any witnesses to this so you are just going to have to believe me or not but this is the absolute truth.  After about ten to fifteen minutes of just praising the Lord for giving me relief from the heat there was a miraculous change in the temperature outside.  The Lord is my witness, the temperature dropped from 116 down to about 75 degrees and it stayed cool for the next thousand miles till I got to Springfield, Missouri the next day where they fixed the air in my truck. 

     Now you may think that God wouldn’t change the temperature in a large area of the country for just one person but I’ve got to tell you, there is just something about believing the promise of God.  I believe God will step over a million people, or even a billion people just to touch the life of one of His children who will only believe and put all their trust and faith in Him. 

     What is interesting about this miracle is that as soon as they got the air fixed in my truck the temperature went back up to over 100 degrees within the hour.  I have had two other times in my life in a similar situation where I was about to overheat and both those times the Lord performed the same miracle, just for me.

      We serve an almighty God who is more than enough in any circumstance of our life.  Yes, Jesus said that in this world we would have tribulations but he went on to say, “but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.”  As long as we put our faith and trust in the Lord nothing is impossible.  Jesus said “only believe, all things are possible for those that believe (put their faith and trust in God).

 Psa 34:7  The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.

Poison Mushrooms

      Several years ago my wife, my little boy and I lived on Table Rock Lake in the Kimberly City area of southern Missouri.  It was a beautiful area and we really enjoyed living there.

        One spring I decided to go out mushroom hunting.  We just loved those morel mushrooms.  I hadn’t been mushroom hunting in many years and couldn’t remember if I really knew what they looked like for sure but I figured it would come back to me when I found some.

      I was searching in the woods in an area that someone had told me that I might find some.  It is really hard to get someone to tell you where you might find some good mushrooms, as most people will keep that as one of the biggest secrets, like a gold mine or something.  Well there they were, a whole bunch of mushrooms on one area.  They looked a little weird but I just figured it had been a long time since I had seen them.

      Well I brought that whole bag home for my wife Kathy to fry up for us.  We ate them all.  My little 2-year-old Daniel just ate them like he was starving.  Within a few minutes after we had eaten I began to feel a little funny.  I was down stairs in the den and thought maybe I should look up those mushrooms in a book I had on mushrooms.

      I found them.  They were called “false morels”.  They looked kind of like morels only different and they were POISON.  It said that the symptoms were that they caused severe illness and sometimes death. 

      Right there I had a choice to make.  You see God promises us that if we eat or drink any deadly thing that it will not harm us.  He said that He would give His angels charge over us lest we dash our foot against a stone.  I had to decide, do I believe the promise of God and thank Him for keeping my family and me healthy or do I panic.  I decided to believe God.

      I felt as if my wife might get upset if I went ahead and told her I had given my family poison mushrooms, so I just didn’t tell her right then.  I just called out to God and began to thank Him for his healing and preserving power.  We had given thanks over our food and the Word says that it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer. 

      You see either God’s Word is true or it is not.  I believed God and covered my family with words and prayers of thanksgiving and faith and we all were just fine with no sickness or symptoms whatsoever.  That being said my wife did forbid me from picking wild mushrooms for quite a while after I told her what happened and showed her in the book that they were poison a few days later.  Well, maybe she didn’t actually “forbid” me but I promise she didn’t suggest I do that any more for a long time.  I have a really good wife.

 1Ti 4:4  For every creature (created thing) of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:

1Ti 4:5  For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

Both Boys Are Dead

      A few years back my wife and I were out shopping in Kansas City.  We were in our first year of a church we are pioneering and it is the church we currently pastor, Living Word Church in Lawson, Missouri.  We were about to go into Penney’s to get some clothes when we received a frantic call from my sister in law saying, “the boys are dead”.

      She frantically began to tell me what had happened.  She had been in the house talking on the phone while her children and a boy she was babysitting were playing outside.  She lived way out in the country and her nearest neighbor lived what must have been about a block or so away.

      While she was in the house the children had strolled over to the neighbor’s house and was playing with a ball.  Apparently one of the boys had thrown the ball over the neighbor’s fence into the swimming pool and decided to crawl over the fence and get it.  One of the boys was 3 years old and the other one was 4.

      Neither of the boys knew how to swim but one jumped in the pool after the ball and began to drown.  The other boy jumped in after him and they both drowned.  My sister in law’s daughter ran to the house to let her know what had happened.  She estimated they had been dead over 15 minutes is what she told me.  When she got there they were both floating face down in the water. 

     When she called me she was on the way over to the hospital.  She had started CPR on the two boys and had called for an ambulance.  When the ambulance arrived they started treating both boys.

      When Rhonda called she told me that they were on the way to the hospital and she didn’t know if the boys were alive or dead.  They had placed both boys on respirators at the hospital and put them on life flight helicopter to transport them to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City.

      As soon as she told me what happened fear came against me.  I had a choice right then, do I begin to speak words of doubt and unbelief or do I believe God?  I immediately began to speak words of life over the boys.  I told my wife Kathy what happened and that we might have to raise those boys from the dead.

      We drove to the Hospital and waited for the helicopter to arrive.  If was about 5:30 in the afternoon when the copter arrived and they rushed both boys into the hospital with respirators breathing for them.  Both boys looked dead and lifeless.    

     We waited in the waiting room for several hours without any word.  The mother of the boy that had drowned that was being babysat was a nurse and she kept saying that she had seen cases like this and it was worse than we could imagine.  Another pastor was also there and we had everyone in the waiting room stand up to pray.  We joined hands and began speaking life over those boys.  Just as the Shunemite woman did in the Bible we began to speak over those two boys, all is well; thank you Lord, all is well.

      About 9 o’clock they called my sister in law into the doctors room to talk to her.  They had told her that they didn’t know if the boys would live.  They said that if they did that there would be a good chance they would never be the same.  They would probably at least have brain damage.

      When she came out she was pretty upset but we just kept speaking words of life over those boys.  We were now allowed to go in and see my nephew.  Rhonda went in first and after that I went in with her sister.  When we went in Jason was lying there totally limp and appeared to be lifeless.  The only action was the breathing machine that was breathing for him.  Every time the machine went in and out you could hear the water gurgling in his lungs.  They were still full of water. 

     As we stood over him the nurse standing there kept telling us that they didn’t even know if he was there.  She just kept saying, “Now we don’t know if he is here”.  She was warning us not to have hope, that if he did live he could be like a vegetable.  Well his aunt that was in there with me said to me, “doesn’t the bible say something like if two people will agree in prayer and ask for something that God will do it?”  I said, “Absolutely it does”.

      I laid hands on Jason’s chest and every time it went up and down I could hear and feel the water.  I said “chest I command you to clear up right now in the name of Jesus” then I laid hands on his head and said, “Mind I command you to be sound in the name of Jesus.”  As I spoke over him with words of faith the nurse was standing right there and she heard me say it. 

     I took Rhonda’s sister out and brought back in my father who was Jason’s grandfather.  I said dad feel his chest.  You see his chest had been full of water and they expected it to take several days for it to completely clear up.  His chest was no longer gurgling as the machine was breathing for him.  

      Then I spoke to Jason.  I said, “Jason this is your uncle Mike and your grandpa, in the name of Jesus I command you to wake up!”  When I did his eyes fluttered.  Then I said it louder, “Jason this is your uncle Mike and your grandpa, I command you in the name of Jesus to wake up!” 

      This time he came totally awake and alert and the nurse began exclaiming; “He’s here, he’s here!”  You see she had kept telling us that they didn’t even know if he was here.  When Jason came awake he was totally and completely healed by the power of God.  What was also cool is that the other boy was also completely healed that very evening. 

      They wouldn’t take the breathing machines off till the next morning when the doctors came in but when I called in the next morning and talked to the nurse I asked her detailed questions about how the boys were doing and she told me everything was normal. 

      They kept the boys for about 3 days I believe just for observation.  I don’t think they could believe what happened.  They kept bringing new doctors in to tell them the story.  I think everyone familiar with the case knew the hand of God was in on those boys healing. 

     This is one on the most powerful miracles I have ever personally seen in my life and I just wish everyone could have been there to see the power of God concerning these boys being raised up from death to life.

 Joh 14:12  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.   

She Had a Stroke!

      In about 1980 I had just gotten out of Bible College and Kathy and I were working with an Assembly of God church in Ennis, Texas as the youth pastors. 

      We ran a bus ministry in that church and bussed in children from all different kinds of races and economic status.  We actually did get some criticism from one or two of those elders in the church for bringing in some “undesirables” (they actually used much worse words that I would rather not put in this writing) but I just told them that all those children needed the Lord just like everyone else and I told those elders that they just needed to pray through and get right with God. 

      That didn’t go over so well.  Maybe I shouldn’t have done that but I didn’t want them to go to hell for hating children just because they were poor or not their favorite color.

      Besides working for the church I also worked for a company called Joy Petroleum, which made oil-drilling equipment.  I worked as a machinist and sometimes I painted the parts.  One night I got an emergency call from my wife.  My mother had called from up in the Kansas City area to let us know that my sister was in the hospital and that she had a blood clot in her brain that had caused a massive stroke.  We were told they didn’t know if she would live or not.

     I immediately began to pray.  As I prayed the Holy Spirit spoke clearly to me and said, “If you will go right up there and lay hands on her she will be healed.”  That night I left work early and borrowed a car from a friend that got really good gas mileage and we headed to Kansas City.

      We arrived at Liberty Hospital in the wee hours of the morning and even though they weren’t going to let me in at first, even though I was her brother, I told them I was a minister also and was definitely going in to pray for my sister.  They let us in. 

     When we got in her room we were told that she was paralyzed on one half of her body and that she had a blood clot lodged in her brain.  We were also told that they couldn’t really do anything about it.  I laid hands on her and prayed like the Holy Spirit had instructed me to do.  Now sometimes when I lay hands on someone I don’t feel anything but this time I felt the power of God all over that place.  Even though she was asleep I knew she was healed.

      We left the hospital and went to my parent’s home to get a few hours of sleep before we came back to the hospital.  When we came back later in the morning and my sister was sitting up in her bed completely healed.  We visited and after a while the doctor came in.  I believe he was from another country.  They had taken my sister in for tests when she woke up healed and they could no longer find any sign of the blood clot in her brain.  This doctor said that it couldn’t have just disappeared and that it had to be somewhere. 

     Well, I just told that doctor exactly what happened and that my sister was healed by the power of God.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a doctor get so upset in all my life.  I think he thought I was crazy or something.  I’ve just gotten used to that by now.  That doctor got so upset that he refused to come back in my sister’s room the rest of the time she was at that hospital.

      They could have just went ahead and sent her home but they were so determined to find out what happened to that blood clot that they kept her for 3 more days running tests but to no avail.  She really was healed and there was nothing they could say or do about it.  They just had to let her go home.

     I truly believe that the reason my sister was healed was simply because of our obedience to the leading and directing of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to lead, guide and direct us.  Jesus said that He only did what He saw the Father do and he only said what He heard the Father say.

      In everything Jesus said or did, in the work of the ministry, He only did under the direction of the Holy Spirit.  I am persuaded it is that precise reason my sister was miraculously healed by the power of God.  We only did what the Holy Spirit told us to do.

 Rom 8:14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

My Arm is Broke

      As I said earlier, I pastor Living Word Church in Lawson, Missouri.  Well a few weeks back on Sunday morning a member of our church came in with a cast on his arm and it was in a sling.  When I saw him I said, “Rick, what happened to your arm?”  He told me that the day before, while he was at work, he walked out in front of a semi truck and it hit him and broke his arm and tore up something in his shoulder.

      During service I just felt in my spirit that I should call him up for prayer.  I invited others in the church that would also like to agree with us in prayer to join us.  As we were praying we spoke to the bone in that arm and commanded it to be whole in the name (authority) of Jesus.  Then we spoke to the shoulder and commanded those tendons and ligaments to be whole in Jesus name (authority) also.

      The next evening Rick called me at home, this was Monday evening, he said that he had to go back to the doctor that day and when they x-rayed his arm again it was no longer broke. 

      They pulled up the x-rays from two days earlier and his arm was broke on that x-ray.  So they took a total of 3 more x-rays but they showed it still was no longer broke.  They could have taken 100 extra x-rays and it still would have been healed.  They went ahead and took off the cast.   

     Wednesday night he came to church with no cast and an arm and shoulder that was healed by the power of God and he was without pain.

      This same man had been healed a few weeks earlier spontaneously in our service from another shoulder injury that he was scheduled to go into the doctor for the next day.  In the middle of the meeting he began swinging his arm around and saying, “It’s healed, it’s healed.” 

      He told me later that he didn’t really know if this healing stuff I had been teaching was really real until God had healed him by his power.

      Now both him and his wife are laying hands on other people and they are getting healed.

          By the way, he got copies of both x-rays.  One broke, one healed.

Jam 5:14  Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name (authority) of the Lord:

 Jam 5:15  And the prayer of faith shall save (deliver or heal) the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; 

 We’re Out of Gas!

     In the early 1980’s my wife and I were doing traveling ministry.  We were preaching a revival in an Assembly of God church in Waxahachie, Texas.  God really moved by his Spirit.  We had several people saved, healed and filled with the Holy Spirit. 

     Back then we had a little travel trailer we pulled around with us and we lived in it during meetings.  As I was praying and meditating on the Word of God in that travel trailer one day the word of the Lord came to me by the Holy Spirit and began to teach me about faith.  The Lord told me that, “Faith doesn’t say I believe I am going to get something, Faith says I HAVE IT NOW!”  Well that day I really began to get a better understanding of faith and I really needed it because when we got through with that meeting that lasted eight days we got a check for $50.  I was so shocked that I just donated the money back to the church. 

      Now this was our only source of income and we had driven all the way down to Texas to do this meeting and one other meeting the next week, however we did do better financially on that one since they gave us $76.  That one I didn’t donate back to the church.  We needed to get back up home to Missouri. 

     Understanding faith really helped on our way back to Missouri because half way through Oklahoma we were unable to find a gas station that was open and we ran out of gas right smack in the middle of nowhere.

      I called out to the Lord.  I said, “Now Lord I wasn’t negligent about not looking for a place to get gas, there was just nothing to get.”  I really didn’t know what to do but to believe God.  I knew God’s word said that “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”  So I quoted that promise to the Lord.

      I said, “Lord, I don’t know how you are going to do it but I just thank you right now that all my needs are supplied through Christ Jesus.  I thank you Lord that we are going to be able to go down this road and get back to our home in Missouri.”  I didn’t know how the Lord was going to do it but I believed my need was met.  I didn’t tell God how to do it, I just continued thanking Him for his supply.  I thanked him that “I have it Now!” and somehow I really believed that I did. 

     As I continued to pray and thank the Lord for his goodness and supply, suddenly I heard a voice in my spirit man.  It said, “Start the car”.  Now even though I knew in the natural that the car was out of gas and that cars don’t run without gas, I obeyed the voice of the Spirit and started cranking the starter.  The engine didn’t even start to turn over and I just kept cranking until the battery started running down.  Just about the time it wouldn’t crank over another time, it started.

      Somehow I was in a place of supernatural faith and it didn’t surprise me a bit but my wife was very surprised, to say the least.  I estimate that we had to drive about 50 miles before we found an open gas station.  This was when there were supposedly Gasoline shortages.  We drove 50 miles with no gas in a car that got about 8 miles per gallon pulling that travel trailer.   

    By the time we stopped at that station my wife was a nervous wreck.  Well, I don’t know about a wreck but she was very nervous.  At least that is the way I perceived it.  I just looked at the price at that station, thought it was too high and suggested we go on down the road and find a cheaper place.  I wish you could have seen my sweet little wife when I suggested that.  I just figured if we could drive 50 miles without gas then we could drive 51.  Well I submitted to my wife and we went ahead and filled up where we were.

      Now back to that church where we only received $50 for eight days work.  The revelation of faith that I received from the Lord there and the miracle that I received because of that understanding of faith on my way back home has been worth more to me than if I had received $10,000 at that church.  It is not always about money.  It is about following God and being obedient to his direction.  When we work for the Lord he will always pay us for our work for Him. 

     Also I’ll tell you what happened at the next church where we only received $76 for a week.  One night a young man with a crippled foot or ankle came forward on crutches for prayer and the next night he came back totally healed.  Also another night the visible glory of God filled the ceiling of that sanctuary I don’t know if anyone else could see it but I could and I couldn’t lift my hands up into it without falling under the weight of that anointing.

      Now to tell you the truth, I was disappointed with those small offerings but what kind of a price can you put on those kinds of miracles in your life experience.  I’ll tell you, when I need a miracle again, I can always look back and remember what God has done and know that he is able and willing to do it again.  Even as I am writing and recalling these events the tangible anointing of God is covering me right now.

      I know that the only reason I was able to believe and have the kind of faith that was needed for this miracle to occur was that I was imparted with a special endowment of the Gift of “Special Faith” by the Holy Spirit. 

     I just “knew” that car had to start because of that impartation of “Special Faith” by God’s Spirit.  I’m careful to give God all the glory here because it was His gift in operation here and we simply submitted to that gift.

 1Co 12:1  Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.

 1Co 12:8  For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;

 1Co 12:9  To another (special) faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 

1Co 12:10  To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:

 1Co 12:11  But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

 We Need $2000.00

      Several years ago I was ministering with a church in Excelsior Spring, Missouri as the associate pastor.  I wasn’t receiving a full time salary from the church so I made money from other enterprises.  One of the things I did for money was to buy and sell antiques. 

     Now I don’t handle the paying of the bills in our household, my wife does.  I don’t really think about our bills.  I just tell my wife to let me know if we need more money for bills.  Well, one day my wife walked up to me and said, “We need $2000 to pay some bills in the next few days.”  I asked her how much we had in the bank and she said $100.  I said, “OK I’ll get the money” not having a clue where the money was coming from.

      I have a website on the Internet for selling some antiques and I also do some business on e-bay.  About two weeks earlier I had listed several items up on e-bay, about $3800 worth of antique glassware and nothing had sold.  Normally I was selling about 70% of what I listed and if this had been the case we would have had the money to pay those bills. 

     That night we had church and just before the offering I was thinking about what I needed to do to get that money to pay those bills.  I felt in my spirit that I should sow an extra seed offering.  My wife and I were already tithers, that is we give the first 10% of everything we make to the Lord through our home church but I felt like I should sow a special offering for this particular need. 

      I thought, in my mind, “I’ll give $25” but something said deep down inside me, “No give $50”.  I said within myself, “I don’t want to give $50, I only have $100.” But something said again down inside of me, “Give $50”.  I realized that my flesh wanted to give $25 but the Lord was leading me, in my spirit man, to give the $50.  My flesh didn’t want to give the $50.  Sometimes we miss the blessings of God because we do what we decide to do instead of following the direction of the Holy Spirit.

      You see one of the things Jesus did for us was to give us the Holy Spirit to lead, guide and direct us and He will always lead us into blessings and favor.  We may not always see it at first but if we are willing and obedient we will be able to see the deliverance of the Lord in our lives.  

     I’ll be honest with you, my flesh didn’t want to give that $50 but I knew it must be God because I knew the devil wouldn’t be telling me to give more to God than I really wanted to. 

      I went ahead and wrote out that check real quick before my flesh could convince me not to and I forced myself to be a cheerful giver.  Now the word says that we should be a cheerful giver. We can choose to obey God.  We don’t have to feel cheerful to choose to be cheerful.  We don’t have to be controlled by our feelings; we can simply choose to do what God says even if we don’t feel like it in our flesh or emotions. 

      I just thanked the Lord that he was supplying all my need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.  You see, I didn’t have to give that $50.  I didn’t have to give anything but that is what the Lord was leading me to do and if we want to have good success in receiving from God we had better get in the habit of obeying the leading and direction of the spirit.  I really believe if I had done my own thing instead of following the direction of the Lord, I would have missed the miracle the Lord had for our family.

      God’s Word says that if we will give that it shall be given unto us, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over shall men give unto you.  God’s Word is true.

      As soon as I got home from church that evening I opened my email and there was an offer from someone of $800 on a piece of glass that I had listed at auction about 2 weeks earlier.  Normally I don’t get offers on items after the auction ends so this was an unusual thing.  Also this was an item that I would have been willing to sell for much less so the offer was a very good one.  I was excited.  My seed was already producing fruit.

      I immediately called my Pastor and told him the good news.  I shared how we had a need of $2000.  I shared how we sowed a specific seed for that need.  I shared how the harvest was already coming in.  He joined my excitement.

      I want you to know, that $800 was nice but remember we needed $2000.  Well, that was just the beginning.  Within less than 24 hours of us giving that seed offering to our church, we just kept getting more, and more offers for items I had listed for a total of about $3500 in sales.  After my cost for the items I had made over $2200 worth of profit.  That was enough to pay our bills and pay our tithe on the profit.  We reaped our full harvest within less than 24 hours of planting our seed.  God is so good. 

     The next evening we had a church gathering and my pastor wanted me to share the good news of our giving and receiving of the $800 but I told him, “You haven’t heard the rest of the story”.  So we shared with all our friends in our church family the miracle God had supplied for us and we all rejoiced together for the goodness of the Lord.

 Luk 6:38  Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

 
 I See a Demon!

      The Word of God says that we should desire spiritual gifts.  Years ago, when I was a teenager, I went to a camp meeting and there was a minister there teaching on the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  On the night I was there he was ministering on the gift of Discerning of Spirits.  As he told stories of this gift operating in his life I began to desire this gift.  I told the Lord, “Lord I would like this gift”.  He gave it to me.

      This gift operates in different ways.  Sometimes I will just know what spirit is operating in someone.  Sometimes I will know what anointing of the Spirit is upon someone.  Sometimes I will just know if someone has a devil and the intent of that spirit.  But one other way this gift operates is that sometimes I actually see the spirit.  Here are just a couple of examples of how this miracle gift has manifested in my life.

      In the early 1980’s when my wife and I were just starting in the full time traveling ministry we ministered primarily in Assembly of God churches.  The Assembly’s were who I was licensed through and I hardly knew there even were even any other full gospel churches.  Well, I knew there were, but I was raised Assembly of God and up to that point never considered ministering anywhere else.

      We were holding a weeklong revival in a fairly large Assembly of God church in northern Missouri.  A church with two or three hundred people was considered a fairly large church back then.  Now after I preached I would usually invite people who had needs to come forward for prayer.  I would just have them line up across the front of the church and I would go down the line and minister to them individually. 

     This one particular night I came up to a lady and asked her, “What do you need?”  She began to explain to me that she suffered with severe migraine headaches.  She said she had been to the doctors and had done everything she knew to do but nothing had given her any relief.  She said that she was suffering from one right then and her eyes were red and watering. 

      Just as I began to lay my hands on her and pray, I saw a demon sitting on her shoulder.  It had one hand on each side of her head.  I jerked my hands back and stepped back.  I realized her problem was simply that demon of infirmity.  I thought to myself, “Now that’s an easy fix”. 

      Jesus said that he has given us authority over all devils.  Jesus said that in His name, we as believers have all the authority we need to cast out devils.  Jesus said, “In my name they shall cast out devils”.  No demon can stand against the authority of Jesus Christ when exercised by faith through a child of God.

      As I stepped back, I just looked right at that demon and pointed my finger at him.  When I did he just looked right at me and he looked kind of dismayed.  He was shocked I could see him.  I pointed my finger at him and said, “Devil I command you to leave in the name of Jesus.”  Instantly he was gone and instantly she was healed.  Her physical problem was totally caused by that demon that had taken up residence on her shoulder.  As soon as he was gone, she was healed. 

     There are demons that can cause all kinds of infirmities but all of these infirmities are not always caused by demons.  If it is a demon it can simply be cast out and the person will be healed but even if it isn’t a demon they can still be healed through the prayer of faith.  Jesus provided for all healing for our physical bodies through the stripes he bare at Calvary. 

     When the devil leaves us we need to guard ourselves and not give him place again.  Usually he will come back to try to attack us again but if we will submit ourselves to God and his Word and resist the devil, he will flee from us.  I gave her these instructions and she left totally healed by the miracle working power of God.

      It was about 1999 that my wife and I were in bed just getting ready to go to sleep when suddenly a sharp pain hit my knee.  If felt like a knife stabbing in my knee.  It hurt me all night long and I hardly got any sleep.  I got up the next morning tired but had a lot of work I had to get done so I worked all day and my knee wasn’t bothering me that day.

       That evening as I sat down in my recliner to relax suddenly that sharp pain hit my knee again.  I looked down at my knee and was startled.  There was a demon sitting on my knee.  He had one hand on each side of my knee just like that lady’s case years earlier.  My wife was in the kitchen fixing supper and I hollered out, “Kathy, there is a demon on my knee!”  She thought I was being wacky.

      I just pointed my finger at that demon and commanded it to leave in the name of Jesus and instantly it left and instantly the pain left my knee.  Later that night I woke up from a deep sleep with that same stabbing pain, only now it was in my wrist.  Even though I couldn’t see it this time, I recognized it was that same demon.  I said firmly, “I told you to leave.  Now you leave in Jesus name and don’t you ever come back.”  Instantly the stabbing pain left and he has never been back. 

Luk 13:11  And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.

Luk 13:12  And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.

Luk 13:13  And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.

  You Should Pull the Plug

      The last few years of my father’s life he had lots of health problems.  He had more than one heart attack which severely damaged his heart.  He also got lymphoma cancer which had spread all through his body, including even his lungs.  The cancer kicked in over 6 years before he went on to be with the Lord.  There were several miracles that kept my father alive or he most likely would have went on to be with the Lord 10 years before he did.  I am going to just share a few of these miracles with you.

      When my dad first got lymphoma cancer they started chemotherapy but doctor pretty much let me know that it was hopeless and that my father didn’t have much time to live.  The cancer had already spread throughout his body and even into his organs and lungs.  We just prayed and believed the Lord for that cancer to leave and within a few months the cancer had completely cleared up.

      About two years after my father had been healed of cancer my dad and mom came by our house one day.  My mom said, “Mike I want you to look in your fathers ear.”  When I looked I was shocked.  The whole inside of his ear was black and discolored.  It looked like the skin was actually rotting and being eaten away.  I never had seen anything like it.  Years later I saw some pictures of skin cancers in a cancer center and they looked just like my father’s ear looked.  My mother said that the doctor told them the cancer was probably coming back on my father starting in his ear.  It was on the same side of his head the cancer had started before.

      As I sat in my living room thinking about that ear I just felt a prompting in my spirit man to ask my father if he would like me to pray for his ear.  So I said, “Dad would you like me to pray for your ear?”  He said, “Yes I would”.  I immediately went over to his chair, laid my hand over his ear, and commanded that ear to be whole in the name of Jesus.  I said, “Ear I command you to be whole in Jesus name.  Cancer I command you to leave in the name of Jesus.”  This time when I prayed I didn’t feel anything.  I didn’t feel the power of God fill the room.  I didn’t see his ear instantly clear up.  I didn’t see or feel anything supernatural at that moment but what I did do was believe that what I said happened when I said it. 

  Jesus said in Mark 11:24, “What things soever you desire when you pray, believe you receive them and you shall have them.”  In the Greek it says that we should believe we have already received them when we pray and then we will see that we have them.  Men say, “I’ll believe it when I see it.”  God says, “You won’t see it until you believe it.”  If we are waiting until we see that we have something before we believe we have it we are going to be waiting for a long, long time with no results.  God says we have to believe we have the promise of God when we pray and then we will see it.  That is faith in the promise of God. 

     Like I said, when I prayed I didn’t see anything but I did expect results.  God says in the book of James, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”  When we pray we need to expect results because God’s Word is true.

      About 2 weeks later I went by my parents house to see how my father was doing.  I went in the house and seeing my mother I asker how dad was doing.  She said he was outside and that I should go and ask him.  I went outside and seeing him I said, “Hi dad, how is your ear doing?”  He said, “Oh, it is all black and eaten up inside.”  I said, “Let me see it.”  As I looked in his ear it was completely normal.  His ear was completely healed.  There was no scaring, no discoloration, nothing abnormal.  You would have never known anything was ever wrong with it.  The last time he had looked at it there was no