Open House! Open Heaven! Meeting Joseph Garlington

Last weekend I stopped at an Estate Sale and as I was leaving I noticed an Open House across the street so I decided to just go have a look as we often get decorating ideas or landscape ideas this way.  The Realtor was a nice man and greeted me at the door and as he began to show me around I noticed he was limping.  As we descended the steps to the basement, he apologized for walking so slow but he had some growths on his feet that had been cut out several times and kept growing back.  And as he walked down the steps he turned sideways and took one step at a time sideways while holding onto the handrail with both hands.

When we got to the bottom of the steps, I mentioned to him that I thought God could heal him and he responded that he would take anything at this point.  I then shared a brief testimony of how I prayed for a man at a local restaurant with bone spurs, and after the prayer I had asked this man to walk across the parking-lot of the restaurant barefooted, and he was healed and never had to go to the doctor like he originally had planned to do that very day.  In fact I had just verified this story a few days earlier as it had been nearly a year ago and he was still well.

So I offered to pray for this Realtor and he agreed, so I just prayed for about 30 seconds and suggested to him that there is a miracle when you check.  I then asked him to walk across the basement and as he did this he proclaimed that there was substantially less pain.  I had him walk a second time and it improved even more.  So then I asked him to go back up the stairs and come back down.  He literally just walked up normally without using the handrail and then came back down normally too with a quick pace and had no pain whatsoever.  

He later told me he was Presbyterian and had been taught the healing miracles stopped with the apostolic age, and that he never believed that healing was for today…. and he paused thinking about his next statement, and then concluded, “until today”.  Isn’t that amazing.  He went from an open house to and open heaven, and had a Kingdom Encounter with God while hosting an Open House.  God loves to go to Open Houses too, and this is not the first time I have bumped into Him at one.   

Last weekend at our monthly Saturday Prophetic Intercession Seminars, Jason shared a new song he wrote called “Open Up the Heavens,” and then he was invited by our pastor to share this song at the second worship service on Sunday as well, and the people at the Saturday seminar and then Sunday service really entered in quickly to the presence of the Lord with this new song. At the seminar the people spontaneously sang in the spirit and went into a prophetic mode and I just stood there as the leader and watched it unfold in front of me.  It was an amazing awesome thing to behold.  We love for the people to have Kingdom Encounters that are orchestrated and ordained by the Lord.   Jesus is amazing!  Someone say, Open up the Heavens!

Two days ago I encountered a lady in Walmart that I had previously met one time and I asked if she had a need for prayer and she said that her lower right leg had been burning for several months.  I asked if it hurt right then, and she responded, oh yeah.  So I offered to pray and spoke a 20 second prayer and asked her to check it out and she said the burning pain was completely gone.  I asked her to walk with me and let me know how her leg was doing and she was totally amazed that with every step the entire leg was healed of all of the pain.  Open Walmart, Open Heaven!  That is the best deal you will ever find at Walmart too.  

The Bible tells us that we are to be the salt of the earth, but for many Christians that means that they only share that seasoning with others in church on a Sunday morning.  But that would be like opening a bag of chips or a can of nuts and then dumping in a whole lot more salt.  That would just really taste bad.  We are to be the salt of the earth to others who have never tasted the goodness of the Lord, and not just dump salt on things that are already salty.  I will write more on this subject in my next blog post.

This week I had the honor of meeting Bishop Joseph Garlington, pictured to the left.  We first started hearing him years ago at the Pensacola Revival and more recently as he is a annual guest at the church we attend here in Omaha.  Then we discovered that he ministers and speaks with Bill Johnson and Randy Clark, and in fact, Jason and I heard him twice a few weeks ago at the Voice of the Apostles Conference in Orlando.  He also oversees a large network of churches and ministries across the country and around the world.

Brother Garlington is also connected with Pastor Sam Hinn who is my new pastor friend from Orlando.  Some have asked me if Sam Hinn is related to Benny Hinn, and the truth is that Sam is Benny’s younger brother. I don’t think of Sam as being Benny’s brother, but rather that Benny is Sam’s brother.  Sam has his own teaching ministry and is very anointed and became a friend of mine earlier this year.  He is pictured here with me.  He is a great friend whom I admire and look up to as well.  I mentioned to Bishop Garlington that Sam was going to write an endorsement for my new book coming out this fall, and he inquired about the title and the subject.  Through that conversation course, Bishop Garlington decided to take my book “Willing to Yield” home with him on the plane and then asked me to send my other two books to him which I have already done.  It is my hope that he will write the foreword for this next book of mine.

I am so honored to meet these men of God.  Add to that list my three hour dinner with Sid Roth earlier this year and my personal time with Gov. Sam Brownback, both pictured below and you can tell that God is really opening some incredible doors for me this year.  By the way, I was just asked by the Mayor of Omaha to join the Faith and Community Task Force here in Omaha.  That is also a great honor just like being asked to be the Nebraska Representative for the United States Prayer Council.  So many wonderful opportunities.  God is amazing and I am grateful and happy to be a part of His family here on earth.  Open Heavens!