The past four weeks have been wonderful!
Towards the end of July, I had the honor of speaking at the youth camp for Heartland Church up in Iowa. After the camp’s conclusion, I ministered for three nights at a series of revival tent meetings at Heartland’s Ankeny campus. I also had the privilege of preaching at both of their Sunday morning services that same weekend.
It was amazing to hear testimonies from youth being powerfully impacted during the camp. I heard youth share how it was their first time truly encountering God or the first time that they truly surrendered to Him! Each service was uniquely powerful as we watched God back up His Word with His Presence.
One of the great joys of this trip was having my wife, Beth, and our two youngest, Elijah and Zoe, fly up for the tent meetings! My only regret is that there were so many people I didn’t get a chance to see!
Upon returning home, I heard a testimony of a man who experienced the joy of the Lord in the tent meetings and was subsequently healed of arthritic pain in his hands!
Additionally, I heard another great testimony from a family who attended the tent meetings. When they went to a nearby restaurant for lunch, the cashier asked how they were doing and the mother replied, “We’re doing great! We just returned from the tent meetings at Heartland!” The cashier was intrigued: “Oh, is that what’s going on? I was thinking how I wanted to have a drink of what they’re having over there!” The mother explained that they weren’t drunk as she supposed, but instead drunk in the Holy Ghost! She invited the cashier to attend the church sometime in the near future.
When I think back on those tent meetings specifically, I’m encouraged by all of those who responded to the altar call for salvation night after night. Many were powerfully touched by the anointing after their prayer of commitment!
After a brief stop back home in Florida, I flew out to minister in the beautiful country of Colombia! I believe this was my fifteenth trip there overall!
During the first night of the conference, we saw between 20-30 people respond to the altar call for salvation. The next day, I spoke on joy in the midst of suffering and the anointing began to land on the room as there was a wild, crazy outbreak of joy.
As people were still being touched by the joy of the Lord, a pastor tried to wrap up the service with some teaching but couldn’t make it through. Eventually, he had to surrender the microphone because he was so overwhelmed by God’s Spirit! It’s always a joy to see what God does as He pours out His Spirit!
One quick testimony from my time in Colombia: a woman shared that after I touched her hand during the service that all of the pain in her back left her body!
I walked away from both of these trips in awe of the simplicity and power of God’s Word. As the author who wrote the book itself, I’ve found that the Holy Spirit loves to back up the preaching of His own word!