Healing is Hip!

Four years ago, I began experiencing severe hip pain – mostly when I walked.  I would take a step and as I planed my left foot, the pain would be so intense, it would almost bring me to my knees.  I went to an Orthopedic doctor and he x-rayed my hips, came into the exam room and said “you have the hips of an 80 year old man.  You should not run anymore or do anything strenuous.  Your only option is for me to do a total hip replacement.”  In shock and with a major eye-roll, I limped out of there as fast as I could.  I figured I would just have to live with the pain.  Maybe if I just stretched, it would feel better?  I did massage therapy.  I did physical therapy for a spell, it just didn’t seem to do any good.  I was 32 at the time.  Flash forward to last spring, while at the men’s retreat, a few of my new friends from San Diego put their hands on me and prayed – specifically for regeneration in my hip.  Instantly, I begin to feel this strange heat and warmth inside my upper thigh and hip.  I knew I was healed.  That warmth stayed with me for four days.  Fast forward to October ‘08, I started getting numbness (or a pins and needles feeling) behind my left knee.  I went to a different Orthopedic doctor, he x-rayed my hips, came back into the exam room and said...”what did you do? You have the hips of an 80 year old man. I see fractures, bone fragments, and arthritis (oh my)  What did you do?”  He sent me away to get an MRI and when I returned he offered, “looks like I’ll need to send you down for surgery you have a torn anterior labrum.  It’s not going to get any better.”  He sent me to get a 2nd MRI – I finally got this in a few weeks ago (March).  I went in to his office to get the results, he walked into the exam room with a curious look on his face.  He said “how do you feel?”  I told him “tight”.  He replied, “there’s a lot of this going on in the NFL now.  You have a hip impingement.  Carson had the same thing, did some therapy and was good as new in 2 months.  After a couple months of therapy, you should be as good as new.”  No need for surgery.  No need for a full hip replacement.  I don’t have the hips of an 80 year old man.      This outcome wasn’t the result of hours upon hours of work in the gym or ANYTHING I did.  I didn’t DO anything from October to March – much less 2005 to 2009.  This miraculous healing has happened because of the Lord’s loving kindness and his tender mercy. Over these 4 years, he has dealt with bitterness and rejection in me and delivered me. He just LOVES me and has driven these things out little by little.  He does what he says.  He is who he says he is.  He’s so good and so patient.  Praise God. 

-from David Russell

Small Group Info

What are we going to do in these groups?

You're going to respond individually to the stuff that gets taught.  At the lectures, we'll probably do some big, wholesale repenting--but you need to do some specific, 'retail' repenting, too.  Your small group is there to let you spill the beans of your story, confessing and repenting, then agree with you as you ask for healing.  They might just pray for you, too!  Nice.  

That's really it: say the last lecture was on fear.  So you walk in the door, having thought and prayed about it for a week, with a ready list of stuff you need to unload- events in your life where fear got a hold on you, and thought patterns you recognize in yourself that give place to fear.  You each tell your junk, repent before each other, and then confess God's truth over that issue.  Easy.  Okay, not easy, but simple and straightforward.  You can totally do this.

Who's leading these things, anyway?

Strictly speaking, the Holy Spirit will be leading the meetings.  Yes, there is a Point Man for each small group (really, just somebody that Tait can communicate with, for streamlining purposes), but that guy won't be 'running the meeting'.  You each have the responsibility to prepare for the meeting and come ready to share.  And each of you are going to have to be bold enough to tell the enemy to leave, ask the Holy Spirit to minister and, yes, to pray for each other.

Where are we meeting?

That's up to your small group.  If you have nowhere else to meet, you can meet at the Crossroads Atrium, but a park bench will work better, and a living room is best of all.  Think about it: you guys are going to be praying with each other, getting quite intimate and open, and you don't need to be somewhere where you've got to shout to be heard, or are going to feel conspicuous with your heads bowed or whatever you need to do.  Your group will decide on a place (again, somebody's home is best- why not rotate?) and a time (it doesn't HAVE to be Wednesdays at 7, but haven't you already got that time protected?).  Then you're on!

Can I skip the small groups and just come to the lectures?

You're asking if you can just get some info but wimp out at the personal risk of being real in front of some dudes who're in the same spot as you and just want to help one another get free.  Um, no you may not.  The point of the class isn't to Learn Cool Stuff, it's to get free and learn (by experience) how to deal with the enemy.  It's also a great crash course in ministering to each other, because that's what you'll be doing.  You can't learn that sitting alone, even if you've got a Bible with you.  We were made for community, and that's going to happen in this class.

You are really pretty good at answering my questions.

It's pretty easy, seeing as how we're the same person.  But thanks just the same.

Late to the Strongholds Par-Tay?

Gents:

I have had around 10 men inquire about joining the Strongholds class (which begins the evening of April 22nd, a Wednesday, at 7pm in Crossroads' Kids' area, room 154, for 13 weeks, ending July 15) who didn't make the December meetings.

As it is, I have no plans on repeating this class, so I want as many guys as want to be involved to get in on it.  I didn't do the December classes to raise the bar for entry; what I intended to do with those meetings was to make sure we were all on the same page before getting into the nitty gritty of specific spirits' tactics and how to deal with them.  We have to be on the same page with foundational issues like:

- Are demons real?  Did they just go away?  Isn't it just kooky folks who believe in goblins?

- If the kind of demons that Jesus dealt with (and taught his followers to deal with) are still out there, how are they arranged?  Where do they get their assignments from?  What's their goal?  How do they operate?

- Do these demons attack people at their core?  If I'm a believer, can one still come after me?  

- What business do I have talking to a demon?  Who's more powerful, me or him?

- I've heard people blame illness on 'spiritual oppression' or some other kind of spiritual mumbo-jumbo.  Is that kind of talk legit?

WE WILL NOT BE ANSWERING EVEN ONE OF THESE QUESTIONS IN THE CLASS.  THAT's why we did the December classes.  The classes starting in April will assume we're all in agreement to the answers of the above questions.  

So what I'm REQUIRING of guys who didn't make it to the December classes is that you listen to two lectures and get notes to study.  You can find it all here.  This isn't just so that you agree with me; it's so that everyone in your small group will be on the same page.  It will NOT be okay for the small groups to get bogged down, for instance, in minutiae about how Jesus cast out demons, when we're trying to deal with your personal history of addiction.  The small group times are crafted to do very specific things (namely, be a place for you to confess and be ministered to), and canNOT be a discussion board.  If I sound a lit-tle protective, it's because I am.  A lot protective, actually.  

Again, I'm asking any guys who want to join in to listen to the MP3s, STUDY the notes (not just a cursory glance), and THEN get back to me.  AFTER you've done those things, email me and tell me you want to be in the study, and I'll happily add you to the roles and make sure you have a small group.

Hope this makes sense to everybody.  Email me with problems.

Here's the schedule

April 22- Week 1- Bitterness, envy, jealousy lecture
April 29- Week 2- Bitterness processing w/small groups

May 6- Week 3- Accusation lecture
May 13- Week 4- Accusation discussion w/groups
May 20- Week 5- Occult lecture
May 27- Week 6- Occult discussion in groups
June 3- Week 7- Rejection lecture
June 10- Week 8- Rejection discussion in groups
June 17- Week 9- Unloving, Addictions lecture
June 24- Week 10- Unloving discussion in groups
July 1- Week 11- Fear lecture

July 8- Week 12- Fear discussion in groups
July 15- Week 13- Walking Out lecture

Here are the guys

As stated previously, if you're not on this list, then you're not in the class--at least in my mind.  So this is the list for checking: 

1) Am I here?

2) Which of these guys might I like in my small group?

Aaron Morgan   Adam Elrod   Andrew Peters   Andy Rittichier   Bill Patterson   Brett Cassidy Brett Little   Bryan Kaiser   Carroll Roberts   Chris Browning   Chris Heiert   Colin Manly   Darin Yates    Dave Richey    Dave Shay    Dave Stansbury    David Githuku    David Russell David Schuster    David Valentine    Don Hunter    Geoff Ranson    Greg McElfresh    Gregg Wells    Jason Eads    Jason Singh    Jay Schneider    Jeff Holland    Jeff Schlaudecker    Keith Harper    Kyle Ranson    Lucas Cole    Mark Botto    Mark Matson    Matt Bonne    Matt Wilhelm Michael Beausejour    Michael Kuremsky    Michael Lake    Nathaniel Wildstone    Paul Argenta Paul Caron    Paul Owens    Peter Zimmer    Ray Stolarski    Rob Rendle    Rob Seddon    Ross McLain    Sam Hills    Sasha Grieco    Seth Sanborn    Seth Williams    Steve French    Steve Rose Steven Hromadka    Tait Paul    Tal Richards    Tim Kaiser    Tim Senff    Tom Hagerty    Will Skillman

Miraculous Deliverance Through Blood Healing!

Three Friday nights ago I was with our Bible Study.  One of the group members got a text about the 13-year-old son of a friend.   He had a strange rash and fever, and was rushed to Children's Hospital.  Our group members sent texts out to folks to pray right then.  I felt prompted to go be bedside with him.  At 2:45am I was allowed to go back as the boy’s minister.  I prayed over the boy and was prompted specifically to pray over his blood.  So I did.  His fever broke right then… the first time in days that it was normal.  The family (aunts, uncles, friends, grandparents) and I prayed together.  A peace fell on us all.  An intimate circle of strangers for me.   But a brotherhood in Christ for everyone around.

 

The hospital brought in an infectious disease person to evaluate the situation the next day.  The news was that the boy had contracted a very rare Mena Caucus that has been known to kill in a matter of hours.  Three days later the boy was at home receiving treatment.  The next Sunday, I was at church services when a woman came up to me and gave me the biggest and warmest hug ever.  It was the boy's mother!  She said that she'd made a promise to God that if her son came home alive she would find a church, and now she was doing just that.  God Be Praised!! He has risen and risen the dead in me.

-Dave Shay

Prayer Silences the Accuser!

In early December, a man came into Crossroads and was generally disruptive, drawing attention to himself by singing VERY loudly and carrying on as such. When I approached him at a table and asked him to stop singing (that kind of thing is part of my job at Crossroads), he immediately accused me of being a member of the "Klan" and trying to keep him from singing about Jesus. I asked him his name after sharing mine, and he told me he would not tell me his name, because if I knew it I would ask him to leave. I told him I wouldn't, but he continued to refuse to give me
his name. He became more and more belligerent, making all kinds of claims, including that I was keeping people from hearing about Jesus and that I was wrong to think he was possessed by a demon (which I had NEVER said a word about). As he spoke I noticed that his eyes were continually rolling back in his head. 

He kept repeating that I had no authority to remove him, and that he was here with permission. At that point I figured I was dealing with something more than just a disruptive dude hanging out in our atrium. I began to look around for some back up, but saw no one. At that point I told this guy/thing that I wouldn't ask him to leave (the man), but that he would be silent. He said he would not, at which point I asked him if I could pray for him. He got VERY loud at that point, and said I absolutely could not. Oh well. The SECOND I began to pray that this thing would be silent in this guy, he shut up. I took a peek up to see what was going on, and the guy's eyes were back in focus and he was just staring up at the ceiling. So after praying for a minute or two, I stopped, and to my right there stood one of the other guys from our class, Dave Stansbury. Yes!

As Dave tells it, he was standing across the atrium when he saw me sitting at the table, and something in his gut told him to come help me. He said he immediately heard "Leave it to the professionals" and "You have nothing to offer there," but Dave remembered he DID HAVE AUTHORITY and he walked on over. Thank goodness. When Dave introduced himself and asked this guy his name, the guy looked at him a moment, then said "Flanagan. My name's
Flanagan." We had a nice conversation with Flanagan for a minute or two, then he  (Flanagan) said "I'm going to leave now." To which Dave replied "Great! I'll walk you out." And away walked my friend Dave and Flanagan, who was not the same person who had walked in.

Dave ended up praying for this guy again in the parking lot before sending him on his way. So...way to go Dave! Thanks for listening and responding.

-From Andrew Peters