We have been ministering in Europe recently and one of the places where we ministered was in England. We also had a chance to visit the coast before our next ministry commitments in Germany and France.
We were blessed to stop by the coastal town of Plymouth, made famous because it was from that very place that the Pilgrims set sail in the Mayflower in 1620 to the New World.
After a harrowing journey of several weeks crossing the Atlantic Ocean, where they experienced heavy storms and horrible seasickness, they finally made landfall off the coast of Cape Cod in a place they named Plymouth, after the town where they had sailed from in England.
It was a rough journey for those on board, most of who were believers influenced by the Reformation, known as Puritans. Many of this particular group of Puritans were Separatist Puritans who didn’t feel reform could be achieved from within the establishment Church.
They were greatly influenced by Puritan preachers in England who were emphasizing the Great Commission and thus felt the need to help spread and establish the Gospel of Christ in other parts of the world, particularly in the New World.
Because of this, they were willing to endure the suffering that came with the journey and life in the New World, and thus sustained in this first permanent colony. Other colonies had been attempted before them, such as Jamestown, but most people froze or starved to death and those previous colonies fell apart.
The Mayflower Pilgrims’ Colony became the first permanent colony and thus the reason they are looked back upon as important spiritual pioneers of what would become America.
These were Christian believers who, influenced by the Reformation, sought to extend the Gospel into the New World, as well as the freedom to worship as they desired. Furthermore, they had good relations with the Native People for many decades and many scholars say that this lasted for at least 80 years.
These first Pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower declared in their Compact that they had undertaken this journey, “for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith.”
As we celebrate Thanksgiving Day, let us be thankful for the willingness and sacrifice of these believers to risk their very lives in order to spread the Gospel of the Kingdom, thus laying a rich spiritual foundation that later helped give birth to the United States of America.
October 31 is the Anniversary of the Reformation, and it just so happens that we have been ministering here in Germany this past week and have had a blessed time as the Holy Spirit has been moving powerfully during the meetings we’ve been doing.(We have a little update at the end of this.)
It has also been a blessing to be sharing in some of our messages about Martin Luther and the Reformation, in the very land where the Reformation actually began and took place. Luther had an amazing encounter with the grace of God that is so central to the message of the Gospel. God’s grace is life-changing and it is inspiring to see how it worked through history. Quite a few people here in Germany have been coming up to us and telling us how they don’t hear about this subject often enough.
We got to visit some towns and cities along the way with connections to Martin Luther and the Reformation that are listed below with some interesting facts about them. (If you’d like to get a basic overview of the Reformation, click here.)
The Wartburg Castle: This is where Luther was hidden after the Diet of Worms, keeping him alive from Catholic assassins out seeking to take his life. After the Diet of Worms in 1521, Luther was declared a heretic, and it was open season on Luther-hunting for anyone who would want to take him out. Luther’s Elector Prince “Frederik the Wise” had come into the fold and was convinced that Luther was doing nothing wrong but rather was just teaching the truth from the New Testament. He thus arranged to have Luther kidnapped and hidden in the Wartburg Castle to be kept alive and to help further the Reformation. Though he experienced serious spiritual warfare, his time at the Wartburg ended up being providential, as it was there that Luther translated the New Testament into the common German tongue from the original Greek language. This had a huge impact, as it gave people direct access to the Word of God, it furthered the Reformation, and it also codified the German language into a comprehensive whole, promoting literacy and education in the general population. Check out our new short video filmed on location at the Wartburg:
Eisenach: Right near the Warburg is the town of Eisenach where Luther spent his youth and attended school. There is a Martin Luther Museum as well as a Johann Sebastian Bach Museum because he lived there too. Bach was heavily influenced by the Reformation and the life story of Martin Luther. (Check out this short video we made on Luther and Bach.)
Heidelberg: After Luther posted the Ninety-Five Theses, he gave a disputation at Heidelberg, where he explained and expounded on the doctrine of justification by faith through grace alone in the New Testament. Remarkedly, he said that he must rely on the Holy Spirit completely to lead him into all truth so as to be able to teach this effectively and correctly. Hearing his clear biblical teachings won him followers there, including Martin Bucer who became a stalwart leader of the Reformation and became pastor of the Reformed Church in Strasbourg.
Strasbourg: This city used to be part of Germany and today it is in France. It was a free city and a refuge for many persecuted Protestants. The Reformation in France amongst the Huguenots had heavy persecution break out against it, and many fled to safety to Strasbourg, amongst other places. Amongst those fleeing who came to Strasbourg was a theologian named John Calvin, who Martin Bucer would go on to mentor. Calvin would move on to Geneva from there.
Marburg: Roughly 20 minutes away from where we were ministering in the town of Giessen is the town of Marburg, Germany. It’s connected to the Reformation through the Marburg Colloquy, which was when a group of the main Reformers was asked by the Landgrave Phillip to join together for discussions on the Reformation including Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, and Martin Bucer.
Here's a little update on our recent ministry in Germany:
We ministered at two different church services this past Sunday in Giessen and Frankfurt, as well as preaching the Sunday before that in Giessen also. We have also been teaching at a number of different meetings during the week in Giessen, doing six meetings altogether. The Holy Spirit has been bringing many into a fresh experience and encounter with God, filling, renewing, empowering, healing, as well as having some who rededicated themselves to Christ and received Christ for the first time, including a young man who was from Iran that got radically touched by God’s power and was overcome and gave his life to Christ! Hallelujah!
Praise the Lord, it’s been a blessing to see the Lord moving like this and also get to experience these Reformation places!
We have been blessed to experience the Holy Spirit moving amongst us as we have been ministering. Here are a few highlights from what the Lord has been doing:
Salinas
We ministered recently up near the Bay Area in the city of Salinas at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship. Salinas is a very historic town with deep roots in California’s development and is the home of writer John Steinbeck as well as one of the main centers of farming and agriculture for the state.
We had a blessed time ministering together at the Vineyard Church with our friend Dave who was baptized in the Holy Spirit some years ago through our ministry when we were ministering in Hawaii. Dave had a dream later on, about us coming up to minister in Salinas afterwards. We have been going there off and on since then and have been blessed to see many get filled, set free and healed over the years through the power of God.
In this recent meeting at the Vineyard, we were already experiencing the Lord’s presence moving amongst us after preaching and sharing but then it turned into a more radical ministry time when a prophecy came forth about the Lord bringing a fresh outpouring… I called everyone forward and pressed into the word and the fire of God just poured out with a fresh empowering with many ending up on the floor receiving for some time, praise the Lord!
We also had a divine appointment later on where we ended up ministering to a friend of Dave’s whom the Lord touched powerfully as we prayed for him, he had recently yielded to Christ after experiencing some trials. The Lord ministered to him as we prayed for him and was renewed and encouraged.
We have had some ups and downs over the years with some leaders in that area who were less than excited about the work of the Holy Spirit happening through us. Nevertheless, on this trip Dave took us to visit a pastor with whom we had preached at his church long ago, which back at that time was not so open to the work of the Holy Spirit... However, the pastor has come around all these years later and is preaching the same message at his church now that we preached back then … sometimes you plant a seed thinking nothing came of it… yet it sprouts and grows all these years later, thank you Jesus!
It was also a blessing while in the area to get out to take in some of the awesome views out on the nearby Monterey Peninsula.
Orange County
We were blessed to join the newlyweds Patrick and Emily at a small fellowship where they lead worship in Orange County doing the worship with them as well praying for some people at the meeting when they were sharing the message together that evening. We prayed and ministered to some different people who got ministered to by the Lord’s power and it turned out that one of the people we ended up praying for was an old friend from the Anaheim Vineyard from years back. Was an awesome time praying for her as well as catching up after all these years. She wrote us later to tell us about how powerfully and personally she was deeply ministered to when we prayed for her, thank you Lord!
Patrick and Emily also joined us as we ministered in Orange County at a Hispanic service. We had a powerful move of the Holy Spirit at Centro Cristiano Esperanza after preaching on the righteousness that God credits to us by faith in Christ and how He gives us the Holy Spirit freely through faith by grace as well! We were glad to have Patrick and Emily there helping us pray for people! We had an awesome outpouring of the Holy Spirit that touched many who were there, including a couple of young girls who were about 10 to 11 years old that were filled very powerfully with the Holy Spirit with many manifestations of God’s power while tears streamed down their little faces! Many others who were there were also filled, empowered, and refreshed by the Lord’s presence, as well as a couple of people who also surrendered their hearts to Christ! Hallelujah!
Online: Meri’s Meeting on St Patrick & Lonnie Frisbee
We ministered at an online meeting with our friend Meri whose Zoom meetings have grown to be quite sizable with many people online from different parts of the country.
We shared about St Patrick and his evangelistic ministry in Ireland where he preached the Gospel as a missionary, having returned to Ireland due to a vision from the Lord, after being held captive there previously as a slave after he was taken by force from Roman Britain as a teenager. The Lord worked through his situation and led him to come back to Ireland bringing the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit.
You can check out our video that has more of the story of the Real St Patrick at the Grace World Mission page on YouTube. We also shared about Lonnie Frisbee and what is called “incarnational missionary outreach” which is a missiology term to describe how, by having the same culture, clothing, style, etc., Lonnie Frisbee was able to relate and reach out to the hippies effectively during the Jesus People Revival, which was recently portrayed in the Jesus Revolution film. You can check out some of our videos that have more of that story on our channel: www.youtube.com/graceworldmission as well as all of the other videos we mention in this update.
Speaking of Lonnie Frisbee, we’ve been involved in some different Home Meetings in different areas over the years, sometimes called Prayer Fests, sometimes not official Prayer Fests but doing the same thing—which is gathering some people together to pray for the fullness of the Holy Spirit—amongst other things. We had an especially blessed home meeting in Carlsbad recently hosted by our friend Lauren, the Holy Spirit unexpectedly showed up in the early part of the meeting! We were just beginning…just talking with some of the people there about Lonnie Frisbee and the Mother’s Day Outpouring when the Holy Spirit took over and began moving way before we expected and we spent the rest of the night praying for each other as the Lord moved by the power of His Spirit! It was a powerfully renewing time! We have a piece we did on Lonnie Frisbee and the Mother’s Day Outpouring that you can check out on our Grace Notes blog.
Colorado and More Encounters Via St Patrick’s Day
Speaking of St Patrick, we had a wild divine appointment and encounter as we stepped out in faith recently. I was discerning that the Lord was leading us to head out to Colorado. However, we had nothing planned nor set up ministry-wise, but we felt the Holy Spirit leading us out that way for something of that nature…so we loaded up our vehicle and started driving out in that direction, making some stops on the way.
One of the places we felt led to stop through on the way was Death Valley. There, we encountered an unusual prophetic sign at Badwater Basin, which is the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level. Badwater is an ancient dried-up lakebed. However, it was filled with water at that time when we stopped there! Hurricane Hilary (a Cat. 4 hurricane) came ashore last year in Southern California as a Tropical Storm and then stalled over Death Valley filling up the Badwater Basin with water while wreaking havoc on the national park which had to close for 3 months afterwards. While we were there and taking in the unusual phenomenon of this ancient dried-up lakebed filled with water at that time, the Lord gave me this Scripture: Behold, I am doing a new thing, now it springs up, Do you not know it? Indeed, I put a way in the wilderness, In a desolate place—floods. Isaiah 43:19 (Literal Translation) You can check out a video about this visit on our YouTube page.
So, we ventured on after that, buoyed by that sign from the Lord—it's not always easy stepping out on faith when you don’t know what the plan is. We continued on towards Colorado, which is quite a long drive, and as we crossed the border into Colorado, we got a phone call from a friend we have ministered with over the years, inviting us to come to his church shortly after that and minister. We let him know, Hey, we're already on our way.
We ended up ministering on their special “Mission Sunday Service” which also happened to be on Saint Patrick's Day! The Lord had a plan…we just had to be obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit and follow! We shared about the missionary work of the real St. Patrick and also about how the Holy Spirit works in empowering us as believers to make us witnesses for Christ. There was a group of young men who were there who were baptized in the power of the Holy Spirit with some very powerful manifestations and gifts of the Holy Spirit flowing forth. We also ministered while we were in Colorado at the YWAM base in Denver with our friend Rosko. We shared about some of our own missionary adventures and then moved into equipping young people for an upcoming missionary trip praying over them for the empowering of the Holy Spirit as well.
We had some divine appointments in the mountains while we were skiing afterwards where we ended up using the story of the real St Patrick as a bridge to share the Gospel with some different people. One of those situations was quite remarkable: After a long day in the mountains where we both skied and rode bikes afterwards, we were quite hungry…to put it mildly…but places to eat were already closed when we got back, so we were praying what to do. We stopped at a bench to take a breather in this little mountain village and we found a boxed-up package of food from an Irish restaurant nearby. This food had been obviously forgotten. We waited quite a while and no one was around… the village had become quite a ghost town at this hour. We prayed and waited and got the confirmation that “the Lord had provided.” The order had not been touched nor had been opened up. After waiting for some time and realizing no one was ever coming back for it, we finally had ourselves a nice Irish dinner …divinely provided.
Then the next day we had some leftover Irish Stew from that food and we were beginning to eat some in a little hotel we we're staying in. A service worker there was quite helpful in assisting us with getting it heated up and even giving us some bread to go with it. We ended up witnessing to her and once again using Saint Patrick as a bridge to share the Gospel and it turned out—that of all the wild things happening with all this already—that her name was Patricia! Wow! So, we were witnessing to her using St Patrick as a bridge for sharing the Gospel while eating supernaturally provided Irish Stew while witnessing to a person with that same namesake! Wow again! We prayed for her and the Lord touched her heart! Along with experiencing a unique divine appointment and a unique form of provision, amongst other things, the Lord was really putting an exclamation point on the way the story of the real Saint Patrick can be used as a bridge in sharing the Gospel!
Holy Ghost Ski Stories
We have recently completed some new videos. One in particular shares some more wild “Holy Ghost Ski Stories” that we’ve experienced in the mountains where we have had divine appointments and encounters, including leading people to the Lord, and praying for others who were radically touched by the Lord!
We are also thankful to be celebrating 32 years of marriage, having just had our anniversary. It was also just a year ago that our son Patrick got married, so we have a lot to be thankful for!
The Lord has continued to do a profound and deep work of healing and restoration in our lives—passing milestones often brings up things from the past—not always easy to confront things you grew up with that caused pain but praise God, the Lord has the healing balm in His merciful hands that He pours out through the Holy Spirit, hallelujah!
Historical Perspective
There has been a systematic indoctrination going on in many of our nation’s campuses for a long time… Decades ago I experienced the extreme bias in secular universities of leftist professors who don’t teach but rather try and indoctrinate, and things have only become worse with this these days.
What a difference when I went to Fuller Theological Seminary, where actual learning was encouraged along with dialogue. I didn’t have to agree with every last thing or else have the professors attempt a public humiliation…There was allowance for freedom in thought and actual learning. While there, I found that there was also access to a wide range of resources they had to offer in their huge library, especially on historical topics.
We have been working to put those insights into action and inform and teach on the rich Christian History that led up to and involved so much of Western history, as well as America’s founding, which we have garnered through our own studies as well as during our Christian educational backgrounds.
This is something that has by and large been omitted from a lot of the teaching going on in many public schools these days. Moreover, we have also brought a unique “Spirit-filled” perspective to the topics, which is not normally found when these topics are taught or shared.
We have a wide variety of subjects ranging from the Reformation to revivals, to historical ministers and missionaries, and more. Videos and audio programs can be accessed on: YouTube, SoundCloud, iTunes, and other services, as well as music we’ve produced on: Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, and YouTube, as well as books that have had stories from our ministry published in them listed on our web page at www.graceworldmission.org
We greatly appreciate your prayers and support as we work to do our part to share the blessings we’ve experienced through our rich Christian heritage, as well as minister the fullness of the Kingdom of God to others.
Many blessings to you and may the Lord pour back to you pressed down, shaken together, and running over!
Praise God! Jesus died on the cross and rose again victorious over sin and death! "God credits righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” (Romans 4:23-25 NIV) He died to give us eternal life through simply believing upon Him as our Savior and Lord and He also gives us his Holy Spirit freely!
Road Adventures: Signs, Wonders and Resurrection
We were venturing out on the road recently, and just headed out seeking to be led by the Holy Spirit. We knew that the Lord had something He was leading us to… but we weren’t sure what yet. On the way, after being on the road for a bit and stopping for some adventures, with nothing set up, the Lord suddenly opened the door to minister in Colorado, which we responded with: “Well, we are in range to make it over there so we will be there!”
We had a powerful move of the Holy Spirit in Colorado Springs at Iglesia Arbol de Vida on Missionary Sunday which we just happened to be there on that date—where we shared about some historical missionaries and we also had a bunch of teenagers, as well as others, getting filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit! Then in Denver at the YWAM Base, we shared about some of our own missionary adventures and prayed over those getting ready to depart on a mission trip themselves, all of it planned by the Holy Spirit…we just had to follow the Lord’s plan as it unfolded!
One of the adventures we felt led to take on the way was to go through Death Valley.
Death Valley Days
Death Valley is the lowest point in North America, as well as having the hottest recorded temperature on earth, and as we went through, we came upon an unusual phenomenon there at a place called Badwater Basin: This ancient dry basin, once a lake in ages past, was presently filled with water!
As we pondered this highly unusual phenomenon, the Holy Spirit fell on me with this verse: “For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:19)And the Literal International Translation for this same verse reads: “Behold, I am doing a new thing, now it springs up, Do you not know it? Indeed, I put a way in a wilderness, In a desolate place—floods.”
Badwater Basin filled with water!
The reason behind this unusual occurrence was due to another rare event that took place some months back: when the first tropical storm to land in Southern California in 84 years, the remnants of Hurricane Hilary—originally a category 4 Hurricane—came ashore in Southern California. After dumping a truckload of rain in Southern California, the tropical storm blew out into the desert and stalled over Death Valley, dumping a whole year’s worth of rain in just one day. Death Valley was heavily flooded, and many parts experienced a lot of damage, causing it to be closed for repairs for months afterward, the longest closure in its history.
It was wild to see such a dry desert place like Badwater filled with all that water! In fact, we have visited here together a number of times over the years, and it has always been 100 percent bone dry… never even so much as a drop in it…it was so surreal to see it full of water! We felt it was a sign from the Lord of what His plans are to come, for His word declares:
“This is what God says will happen in the last days:I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.Your sons and your daughters will prophesy.Your young men will see visions.Your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women,I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the sky above, and signs on the earth below… And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Acts 2:16-21
We were blessed to be friends as well as be mentored by two people who were used to reach unlikely groups that many saw as resistant: one was Harald Bredesen who led many people, such as mainline believers who had formerly rejected and resisted the work of the Holy Spirit, into the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as well as lead many people to Christ. The other one was Lonnie Frisbee, who was also used by God to reach an unlikely group, far-out hippies, who most of society, as well as the body of Christ, had written off, and he led them into salvation and the filling of the Holy Spirit as well.
The Water of Life
There is an implication in the above-mentioned verse from Acts 2:16-21 that as the days become more last, we shall see more of the work of the Holy Spirit! Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as living water, we cannot live without water in the natural, and we need the living water in our spiritual lives as well.
When Christ died on the cross for our sins and rose again, He made the way for our salvation, as well as for His Spirit to be in and with us. His disciples were indwelt with the Holy Spirit (John 20:22) right after His resurrection, and all who receive Christ are also automatically indwelt by the Holy Spirit (1Cor 6:19). Even though His disciples were indwelt, they also needed the empowering of the Holy Spirit. This took place on the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out in power.
Billy Graham, one of America's greatest evangelists, said we need to understand that Paul made a command in Ephesians 5:17 that we are to seek to be regularly filled with the Holy Spirit, on an ongoing basis. The Reformer Martin Luther also said: “You need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit for the rest of your life, on an ongoing basis, lest we fall back to the world and unbelief.” We need to be like the wise virgins who kept their lamps full of oil and burning. Christ holds out an open offer to freely receive of His Spirit, all we have to do is ask.
The Cross Has Made the Way
Jesus went to the cross and paid the price for our redemption, a price I could not pay, one you could not pay, He paid it once for all! He also gives the Holy Spirit freely just as he gives salvation freely. There is, however, a barrier that must be overcome in the human mind and human way of thinking.Everything has to be paid for in this fallen world: you have to pay for gasoline, you gotta pay for your car, gotta pay your bills, gotta pay this and that and the other thing, pay pay pay pay! However, God gives us salvation and His blessings freely.
This is thus something that is antithetical to the human mind and thus the word of God must be dwelt upon to let the Holy Spirit bring revelation so we can grasp this truth. Human teaching that does not line up with the Word of God and His grace only muddies the water and makes it difficult for people to receive. Trying to earn His blessings often becomes a barrier to being able to freely receive.
No matter how good a life one might live, nor how many good works one might do, no matter how much one may fast, or pray, or seek to do good works… it can never be sufficient in itself nor supersede the work Christ has already done for us. There is only one sacrifice that is sufficient, and Jesus made it for us when He, as God's spotless, unblemished, lamb of God, who was without sin or stain, laid his life down freely for us on the cross, to redeem us. Jesus went to the cross and died for us because we cannot do it for ourselves; we cannot pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps or be good enough, and we can never do enough good works. We are sinners who need a redeemer and redemption.
Praise God Jesus is the redeemer who wrought that redemption on the cross, and through simple faith in Him alone He freely gives us that redemption, as well as by that same grace gives us His blessings.
The Bible says: “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things.” Romans 8:32. God, in offering up His own Son as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, has already given us the best. Thus, by that same grace, He will give us His blessings when we ask in faith and humbly rely on His grace.
Understanding Christ’s Payment and Redemption
Paul in his most systematic and comprehensive epistle, lays out clearly in Romans 3:21 – 25 Christ’s payment for us:
“But now, completely apart from the law, a righteousness from God has been made known. The Law and the Prophets testify to it.This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all and over all who believe. In fact, there is no difference,because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God but are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
Righteousness only comes through faith in Jesus Christ.
The Bible says righteousness is credited to us when we believe upon and receive Christ. We cannot create a righteousness of our own to recommend ourselves to God as justification.
God justifies us Himself through the sacrifice of His son on the cross and through faith in that sacrifice and receiving it by grace. Jesus offered himself up as God's once for all sacrifice for our sins on the cross.
It is apart from the law: Paul uses the law and works often interchangeably, and is saying no attempts to keep the law on your own, nor seeking to be without sin on one’s own terms, can ever suffice, we must look to Christ alone as our redemption.
Paul goes on to say “all have sinned” and as he states earlier in Romans 3:10: “There is no one righteous, no not even one.” One cannot make themselves righteous through their works, law-keeping, prayers or fasting. All have sinned therefore they must find redemption outside of themselves. As Paul, a man who was a Pharisee and religious person, yet whose heart was dark, realized when he encountered Christ: all his religious works and religiosity were a pile of dung and worthless (Philippians 3:1-9).
Paul is emphatic in his teaching: “It is by grace we are saved, through faith, it is the gift of God, not by our works, so no one can boast!” Ephesians 2:8-10
It is by grace, and grace alone, meaning unmerited favor is given us through faith, thus it is not by our works, not by our striving, nor our good lives, but by God’s grace through Christ’s redemption are we saved and by that alone. We are called to do good works of course as believers, but those good works do not merit salvation, they should be a result of knowing and walking with the Lord and being led by His Spirit.
The Subtle Deception of Familiarity
Some will no doubt say: Well, I'm familiar with all this, this is nothing new. And in their zeal to find some fringe new secret revelation, they go off into the weeds and soon they don't see the forest for the trees. As Luther declared: We can never know, understand, teach enough, preach enough, on this great truth of Christ’s great redemption for us. Its depths can never be fully mined.
We must therefore as the Scripture says: Fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And let his Word and his Spirit continually open our eyes more clearly unto the magnificence of all He has done for us through His death and resurrection.
The Holy Spirit and God’s Peace
Romans 5 says: Now that we understand this justification that comes by faith through grace, we have peace with God. Though we may have trials, tribulations, difficulties and spiritual warfare in this life, we must understand that we have a relationship with God that is solid, secure, and nothing can separate us if we are in Christ.
Peace with God is the longing of every human heart: Though people may not understand it, it is what they are longing for, it is what the heart seeks. Praise God, we have it through Jesus Christ, who paid the full price when He died on the cross for us and rose again to give us life. Not only that, but Romans 5 goes on to say that He gives us the Holy Spirit, and it is in the infinitive form when he says “gives” meaning He has, He does, He will! We need to learn to live in and walk in the Spirit. The Scripture declares that the Spirit gives life, the flesh counts for nothing.
Times of Refreshing
There are epochs in history where the Holy Spirit is poured out corporately in great measure. Personally you can always have as much as you want, all you need to do is ask and believe and receive: “How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13) In these corporate outpourings, however, there is typically a heightened understanding of the great redemption of Christ, His work on the cross, and the righteousness that comes by faith. This is something that has been altogether missing in many modern attempts people have had to whip up a revival on their own.
The Reformation was a return to a focus on Christ and his work on the cross for us and His grace given freely to all who believe: A return to the righteousness that comes FROM God and is by grace! This became the foundation for the revivals that followed in its wake: in England, in the early American colonies, and on and on!
George Whitfield, known as the Grand Itinerant, who was one of the main leaders of the mass revival in the early American Colonies known as the Great Awakening, regularly preached on: “The righteousness that comes from God.” As Nathan Hale came into a meeting Whitfield was about to preach in, he walked into the Holy Spirit’s atmosphere and was touched by the presence of God and a word came to him: “Are you trying to create a righteousness of your own by your own works?” He was convicted and surrendered his life to Christ and was born again on the spot without a word even having been preached yet.
We are told that the Lord will bring times of refreshing. We thus must turn and fix our eyes on Jesus who did it all for us on the cross. It is Him, Jesus Christ, whom we are to glorify and lift up, Christ whom we exalt!
As we celebrate Easter, let us fix our eyes on Jesus and receive freely the abundance of his Spirit, letting Him pour out on us, bringing refreshing, renewal, and filling every dry empty place in our hearts and making them full! Hallelujah, He is Risen!
2023 was a unique time in that our son Patrick got married. We were stoked to celebrate with friends and family as Patrick and Emily were joined together. The Lord blessed Patrick with a beautiful godly bride in Emily who also grew up involved in missionary adventures herself. We tend to have our own little ideas, thinking that maybe this person or that would be good to introduce our son to, none of that human effort ever went anywhere though.
It was, however, an unexpected word that the Lord gave me, which at the time seemed to have nothing to do with what happened later—meeting a young lady—that actually connected Patrick and Emily.
We had recently connected with Dave and Natalie Hess on the coast for some lunch after years of emailing one another but never being here in the US at the same time.
However, the Lord’s timing is so different than our own and He knows what needs to happen and when.
After connecting with them and getting to know each other, we were getting ready to leave to go to a meeting they were hosting, when I saw Patrick getting ready to do something else and I told him: “I just got an impression from the Lord, and I think you are supposed to come to this meeting with us tonight.”
We celebrated 10 years of ministry in Canada on our latest trip there last year. This video shares about the supernatural way the Holy Spirit led us and opened the doors to begin ministry there!
We were actually going to dinner with Dave and Natalie first, and Patrick wasn't even invited…but I just brought him along because the Lord gave me that word! It was important to listen to the Lord versus following social decorum.
I figured Patrick was just supposed to come with us and help pray for people at the meeting after dinner…
Instead, the Lord had a different plan and he met Emily who wasn't even supposed to be there at that meeting that night either. They connected at that meeting and went to an evangelistic outreach down on the coast together shortly after that.
Mercedes and I actually ran into them down there at the outreach and we also had a divine appointment with an old friend down there. As we were all talking with them, I got a leading from the Holy Spirit to have us all pray together in our own little circle of about 8 of us, off to the side, over by the beach. As we joined hands to pray, the Holy Spirit just fell on all of us in this little prayer circle with power and grace and we all ended up down on the ground as the Holy Spirit moved on us all with His presence, hallelujah!
The police actually showed up and started giving the guys leading the outreach over on their platform a hard time and they were just staring over at us as not knowing what to think of this strange little group off to the side and down on the ground getting hammered by the Holy Spirit! While the Holy Spirit touched us, I got an impression from the Lord that He was doing something significant in this relationship that was forming. That was quite a wild night being their first outing together.
After about a year later of them going surfing and to ministry outreaches etc, Patrick proposed, and they began making wedding plans. They are now married and leading worship together regularly! The worship leading thing was another word I had for Patrick early on. However, the Lord had to bring it to pass himself in his own way!
I had a word while on a trip that Patrick would lead worship later—this was in his early teens. I tried to help that word get going in my own way—which met a lot of resistance—but the Lord had his own plan, which he worked out in His own way, in his own time, that I didn’t foresee. Praise the Lord! His ways and thoughts are higher than ours!
Divine Appointments
We have had numerous divine appointments over the last year. Each unique in its own way, here’s a couple highlights:
There was a recent divine appointment that took place just a few weeks ago: We started conversing with a young lady up in the mountains. One thing led to another, and we began sharing the Gospel with her and as we did, the Holy Spirit began to visibly move upon her heart, and she began tearing up! She then shared that she was a believer who had drifted away from the Lord in the last year. She knew that the Lord had arranged this moment of us sharing with her. We prayed together with her as she re-surrendered her heart to Christ while tears fell down her face! Praise the Lord she was a prodigal that has come back home!
It was one of those moments that required us to slow down and pay attention to what the Lord had in store, something that requires constant learning in this go go go world!
We also had a divine appointment with a security guard at a beach mall. We ended up in a conversation with him and it turned out he was a believer. We shared and then prayed with him about the filling of the Holy Spirit, and he was greatly touched and encouraged as the presence of the Lord filled and renewed him, hallelujah!
We had another divine appointment driving along the coast on our way north on a ministry trip. I was about to get off the coast route and get on the freeway…when I sensed a check and felt I should stay on the coast route at the moment. We finally stayed in a place where we ended up ministering to one of the Hispanic housekeepers the next day who we ended up talking with and then prayed for! She responded to a word I had “about a burden she was dealing with” turned out she was a believer who had an estranged son that was weighing heavily on her heart… the Lord touched her with His presence and buoyed her heart…the maid ministry continues on 😎!
Ministering Our Way Up The Pacific Coast Trail
We were blessed to minister our way along the coast in 2023 all the way from San Diego up to the northern tip of Vancouver Island in Canada at Port Hardy.
We experienced the power of God being poured out as many were baptized in the Holy Spirit, others received Christ into their lives, along with many others who received healing and breakthroughs along the way.
A few moments that stand out: A man in Port Hardy receiving Christ as his Savior and also getting empowered with the Holy Spirit right after he was so overcome, he had tears and snot just flooding down his face as he was getting so touched by the presence of the Lord!
There was also a First Nations lady there who had received Christ as we ministered on a previous trip and shared how she now regularly attends Bible Studies and is serving the Lord! A woman in Salinas who received tongues finally after many years of praying and seeking the Lord for a breakthrough in that area, she along with many others was overcome by the presence of the Lord and impacted powerfully.
There was an old friend who was just radically overcome by the presence of the Lord as we prayed for her while she experienced a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit and healing that was releasing her from some heavy burdens, this along with others who surrendered their hearts to Christ as well rededicated themselves to the Lord, along with numerous others who were touched and filled as the Holy Spirit was poured out in power at the CDO Church in Downtown San Diego just recently as we preached and ministered there. Many were also touched by God’s presence and filled with the Holy Spirit, along with others who received healing, as well as some who received Christ in North County San Diego, Santa Barbara, Costa Mesa, Orange, and San Clemente and down in the Southern Border Region, as we ministered in those areas.
Deeper Healing
Looking back at the last few years 2023 is actually the first full year where things were not hampered by lingering Covid restrictions. It was only the latter half of 2022 when a lot of the restrictions were finally done. It is an unusual time we have all lived through that still requires some reflections and processing. On our end we are thankful of how the Lord can: “Work everything together for good.” (Romans 8:28)
That unusual season of Covid was actually something where the Holy Spirit began to take things to a whole deeper level in the area of healing of past things that involved growing up in broken situations in both of our lives.
This felt unusual at first since we have both already experienced healing like that before, however, this was on a much deeper level. Moreover, He’s God and we are not, and the fruit has shown the wisdom from on high that surpasses the weakness of our puny little human minds.
One thing needed on this journey was a surrendering of the will and human reasoning—possibly some of the hardest things we can ever lay down—the path did not make sense at first, but the Lord knew the end from the beginning.
His infinite divine wisdom surpasses our lowly human intelligence. While there may always be some things still to walk through in life, that season of intense healing has brought forth divine fruit that continues to bless us! Hallelujah, He is able to work everything together for good!
After walking through that season where the Lord did so much deep stuff, we have both been blessed to experience new levels of freedom and peace in certain areas of our lives and there has been a definite strengthening in our marriage—things just went from good—to even better.
This involves some of the mystery of the divine grace of God. He has taken us both on a journey that may have been a bit tough at first to embark on and walk through, but in the end, things have gone from good… to even better! Praise the Lord!
We pray that the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ refresh and renew you as you walk with him into this New Year and beyond!
We thank the Lord for each and every one of you and always really appreciate all your prayers and support.
