[b]FROM THE STREETS OF DETROIT:[/b]
The Lord is graciously blessing our street work in Detroit. We are continuing to see the Lord move in power in our midst. Here's a few testimonies from this past weekend:
***Before the weekend, brother Patrick had a vision of calling out a man who had a praying grandmother. Then, when the man responded, he went up and offered prayer, and the man was healed.
During the outreach on Sunday, a guy ran into us who had been converted earlier this past summer during an open air meeting. His name is Red.
Red told us that the reason he has not been coming out to see us is because hes been in the hospital so much because of frequent severe asthma attacks, nearly dying on several occasions. I told him that Jesus Christ can heal him and he said, I know. Well, after talking with him for a while, Patrick discovered that he was the one who had a very godly and praying grandmother who prayed for him often as a young lad. It was a glorious moment when Patrick got to relay the word from the Lord, that God had heard all the prayers of his praying grandmother, and that hes not going to die from asthma, but is going to be made whole in victory and raised up as a Gospel soldier for Jesus! We gathered around Red and prayed, and the power of the Lord prevailed as the lightning bolts of God shot through into his chest. After prayer, he said that while we were praying, everything in his chest was moving around, and that now it was completely loosened and the pressure that had been there continuously had totally disappeared! He said, I know Im healed! And we did too. Praise the Lord!
***Louis was a man who was staying underneath the city in a large underground area where quite a few homeless stay. As I began to deal with him, he relayed his story to me. Years prior, he had been so depressed that he was ready to commit suicide. Having no drugs or alcohol on hand to turn to, he decided to take some pills two bottles. After a while, they kicked in, and he became afraid. As he slipped down the steps in his house, and fell onto the floor, his sister stepped over him and went into her room. He called her, and finally she came out. And he said, Im dying. Call 911. She said, Whats the number? And he said, 911! And she said again, Whats the number? He said, Just hit zero! And she dropped the phone. He took it, called 911, and requested an ambulance. The operator told him, Call a taxi. He said, I dont have any money. Send an ambulance! (Detroit is so bad and low on funds that oftentimes the police or ambulance wont even come to some areas). They refused, and in a little while the police actually showed up. They found him, and then they called an ambulance who came.
They put Louis in the back, and he died on the way to the hospital. He says that he left his body and was traveling through darkness like in outer space, and finally came to stand before a big door with bright light behind it. He claims to have seen Jesus and described what He looked like to me. Then he came back into his body and found himself on a hospital bed, looking at his heart on a monitor and hurting from the black burn marks on his chest from the electric rehabilitator. He told me, I wished I would have stayed dead and entered in through that big door. I said, Wait a minute! Suppose you would have entered through that door and stood before the judgment seat of a holy God. Being a suicide who died in blatant sin and rebellion against Him, do you think He would have said, Well done good and faithful servant, enter in to the joy of your Master? No! He would have said, Depart from Me you worker of iniquity!. He was a total false convert and I expounded on the truths of Gods holiness until he was convinced of his exceeding sinfulness before God and the abiding wrath that he was under, finally admitting he was on his way to Hell.
Then, conviction so seized his soul that he walked away and picked up the guitar that sister Mary had put down and started to play it as a way to shake the conviction. He started playing it and ignored what we were saying to him.
After he was done, Patrick began to deal with him further. He again came under heavy conviction, and finally said he was ready to repent and lay down his drugs once and for all. In tears, he renounced his sin and repented, giving his life to Jesus and wept on Patricks shoulder. Patrick prayed for him to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit came rushing upon him. This caused him to fall backward and hit the ground, at the same time that a demon came leaping out of him. He lay flat on his back in tears. He got up, and said joyfully, It left! (talking about the demon). He was a totally transformed person! Brother Norman and him began to sing hymns and glorify God. It was glorious! And he was filled with such joy!!!
***Ruby was a lady that had severe bronchitis. She couldnt say even but a few words before she would hack and cough. She had been in the hospital in and out and they couldnt help her. After prayer, she testified that she felt it leave and was totally healed from it. I had no idea that they prayed for her, but she came up to me and told me about her bronchitis and that how she couldnt talk without hacking and coughing, but was now healed. For the rest of the time we were there (probably about 45 minutes) she kept rambling on and on, talking and talking, and didnt cough a single time.
***Anderson was a gang leader. He was sent to where we set up and preach to spy us out and bring back a report to his crew. However, he came under the conviction of the Holy Ghost instead! Patrick ministered to him for quite a while. Anderson said to him, Either you guys are totally crazy and out of your mind, being white folk and coming down here, or youre men of God and the real deal. The Lord gave Patrick a prophetic word about Andersons past and he was convinced by the Holy Ghost. Later, he asked Patrick, will you be my pastor? to the which Patrick replied, How about I be your brother, and Anderson started to cry and said stop it, dont do this to me in front of all these guys. He renounced his sin and gave it up! After we left, he got beat down by the Muslim gang for hanging around us.
Today, Patrick went and picked him up and hung out with him for the day. Anderson repented from his sins, and got filled with the Holy Ghost when prayer was made. He said something to the effect of, I know youre the real deal because you got the juice. He was referring to the Holy Spirit that filled him and gave him the peace and joy of Christ. This new brother said hes been a gang leader for years, and totally understood all the things Patrick explained to him because he related it to gangster theology (religious people BEWARE!!!) about forsaking all to follow Christ (he said that if you just want to give 80-90% allegiance to a gang theyll slit your throat, so its the same with Jesus, you have to give Him ALL by life or death), about blood covenant (Anderson explained New Covenant truth by relating it to gangster covenant and brotherhood), and about a revival army of Gospel soldiers (Anderson said its just like a gang but instead of evil, it fights for good and for Jesus)! He was also hearing voices in his head that told him terribly wicked things, and was on medication to try and silence them. But he got delivered from this demon, it left, the voice disappeared, and he threw his medicine in the street and put it down the sewer because he doesnt need it anymore! Anderson said hes got a whole crew of gangsters that are eager to hear his report on us, and if were the real deal for Jesus. He said were going to see them come to the Lord and is bringing them out to hear us preach next week.
***Moses was a man with a bad shoulder. He couldnt move it. When Patrick and the team with him prayed, it was healed. They asked him, Did you feel anything when we prayed? He said that he did and that it moved around inside. Patrick told him to do something he couldnt do, and the guy moved his arm around freely with no pain at all. There was a man next to him that saw all this take place and was absolutely amazed at what he just saw! And, another soul came under conviction, heard the Gospel, and repented of his sins giving his life to the Lord.
***There was a man who walked up to me on Sunday and said, I cant take it any more. Im tired of this. I said, Whats the matter? and noticed the guy was crying. He said, Everywhere I go, God follows me. Im a backslider. I said, What causes you to backslide? He said, Alcohol. I explained how Jesus Christ can set him FREE from the bondage of alcohol and destroy all the works of the Devil, and explained true repentance and forsaking all to follow Jesus by faith. He said, Im ready. I prayed with the guy, he gave up his sin in tears and renounced it. Praise the Lord! What a wonderful opportunity to just stand there and have the convert walk up to me in tears and conviction and already half way converted! God is the best evangelist of all time!
***Wally was a backslider that repented of his sin about three weeks ago when I preached a sermon called Be sure your sin will find you out. Saturday, he came up to me out of the blue, filled with joy, and said, Hi Josef! How are you doing? I said the Lord is great! After talking with him for a while, he is still following Jesus and walking in the freedom of the Gospel. He ran an art studio out of an old building in Detroit. But he told me that hes shutting it down, and converting it into a warming shelter for the homeless at night to hold Bible studies out of and teach people about Jesus! Hallelujah!
There were many other people who we got good witness into and who came under conviction glory be to the Lord. And saints, these brief testimonies are from just TWO DAYS of outreach on the streets of inner city Detroit. Can you imagine what mighty things the Lord could do with a whole army of sold-out Gospel soldiers who hit the streets full time for Jesus?!!!
May GOD get ALL the glory. Praise be to His holy name not for making the devils subject unto us, but for writing our names, and the names of some of these precious souls, in Heaven!!!
[b]MAY THE LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN RECEIVE THE REWARD OF HIS SUFFERING!!!!!![/b]
Dear soul, if you read this testimony report and you have any known sin in your life, or any secret sin, that you know stands between you and God and defiles your conscience, I need to warn you now in love and urgency: REPENT! If you have any sort of compromise in your life that you know Jesus does not smile upon, then repent. Hes coming! The King is coming soon! And youd better be ready for the day of His wrath is at hand. He will not smile upon sin, compromise, or lukewarm-ness. His blood has the power to set you free from ALL sin and make you clean and pure and holy. Dont play games with God. Those days are over and the days of the end are at hand. Hes coming!
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Josef Urban
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