The Next Wave is Here: Power Evangelism (Part II)

Last week, we discussed the new wave of power evangelism that is right now being unleashed on the body of Christ. Because this is a monumental shift in the church at this time, we would like to further explore some of the implications, as well as give some practical tips for engaging the supernatural realm in the marketplace.

A Gospel of Signs and Wonders?
Many are afraid to pursue power, signs and wonders today because they associate any supernatural manifestation whatsoever with the miracle-working heretics the scriptures clearly warn about. But scriptures are even clearer about a last-day company of believers who will work true miracles for the glory of God, to usher in the last-day harvest. Are there false signs and wonders being worked in the world today? You had better believe it. Just consider all the New Age gurus, shamans and Far Eastern religions that are performing more legitimate supernatural acts than most average church-goers. These are “legitimate” in the sense that they are really supernatural (not just parlor tricks), however, they are demonically inspired acts of power. Demonic power is real – it is the heresy and lies which lurk behind them which are “false.”
If there is a false, counterfeit sign, then there must also be a true counterpart. Moses’ rod turned to a snake – the exact same miracle as Pharaoh’s magicians. If someone were to turn a stick into a snake in any average church service today, it is almost guaranteed that half the congregation would flip out and flee! This is a bizarre sign, and it looked just like the trick that the sorcerers could do. But Moses had a different power source: Almighty God! And Moses’ sign triumphed over the other counterparts, as his serpent gobbled up the rest.
We do not preach a gospel of signs and wonders. Nor do we preach a gospel of salvation only. Both are only partial truths that can lead to error if left to stand alone. We preach the same gospel that Jesus preached: the gospel of the Kingdom. The Good News of the Kingdom encompasses more than just salvation. And the Kingdom is much bigger and broader than just the church. Church is only part of the Kingdom. Salvation is just the door to enter into the Kingdom. And many people camp there. Many churches preach a salvation message every single week, and the flock never matures past an “avoid hell” mindset. Many never get past that door, never entering into the fullness of the Kingdom. And this is partly what Jesus meant, when he said that many in the religious order stand in the doorway blocking others from entering, even though they never enter in themselves (Matt. 23:13).
Like Paul, we must preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. But we need to unfold the fullness of what that really means, and its implications are eternal and multi-dimensional. If the gospel you are preaching is true (not just theologically true, but also demonstrating the flavor, Spirit, character and nature of Jesus as you preach it), then God will back you up with power. Consequently, we must also recognize that miracles themselves are not a fail-proof litmus test of perfect doctrine. Many wonderworkers throughout history brought great glory to God through their miraculous lives, yet many simultaneously erred on certain points of doctrine.
Moses struck the rock, and God still blessed the people with a miracle. Water gushed out of it. But Moses was told to “speak to the rock,” not strike it. And so Moses was prevented from entering the Promise Land. Moses improperly demonstrated the nature and character of God as one who wanted to strike the people in disfavor. That was not the case: God was not angry with anyone. In this case, Moses erred, but nevertheless, God still used him to work a valid miracle. Many of the healing evangelists of the past century also worked tremendous healings and unusual miracles. They led many to the Lord and inspired many to a higher walk of faith. Yet many of these same men fell into strange and aberrant beliefs at times. This does not mean we should avoid miracles and supernatural power! It just means we should be stabilized in the word and the heart of God. I truly believe that intimacy with Jesus is the key to preventing even the grossest doctrinal error.

Pursue Power
I am fully convinced that there is no danger, whatsoever, in pursuing godly acts of power. The apostle Paul explicitly directs us to eagerly desire the greater spiritual gifts. Those who reject the true power of God will be most prone to succumb to the counterfeit when it is presented. The same is true for the prophetic. Those who most reject true prophetic insight from God are often the most prone to counterfeit prophetic. This is why we have a multi-billion dollar psychic industry today, and many of those calling psychic hotlines are Christians! Where there is a vacuum for the true prophetic, people will eat anything, even garbage. Even in the church today, there are various pseudo-prophetic materials that are extremely popular, but they are not inspired revelation from the throne! They are just guesswork ideas of how the end-times will unfold, and many of the eschatological ideas presented there are not Biblically based. God doesn’t want us trying to figure out the future analytically. He wants to reveal it Himself. If we just get into the Word and into God’s presence, we are not left behind guessing and confused.

Increase Your Faith Level
There is a simple formula for stepping into power evangelism: Believe!
If we just believe the scriptures, then all things truly become possible. Although we tend to agree intellectually with the validity of wild miracles in the Bible: the parting of the Red Sea, the calling down of fire from Heaven on Mt. Carmel, etc. – the truth is, we really don’t have a deep, heart-level belief that much of this is true. Otherwise, we would begin to emulate it in our own lives!
Furthermore, the greatest thing we must come to believe is in the reality and close proximity of God at all times in our everyday lives, no matter how we feel. Diving into the Word, and becoming saturated with His glory presence will propel us to a greater degree of supernatural manifestation.
Signs haven’t followed our message, because the church has not believed. I do not speak of “saving faith.” Salvation is not based on the miracles you do or do not perform. There are degrees of faith. And to the degree you believe, so will your life demonstrate the miraculous. Faith is increased by hearing the word of God – both the written logos and the inspired rhema.
Are there levels of faith? “According to your faith let it be to you” (Mt. 9:29). “I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel” (Mt. 8:10). It is clear that Jesus quantifies faith. It comes in exponential levels. “If you have faith as a mustard seed …” Clearly, our faith must be increased, in order to press in for the higher realms of the miraculous. One little mustard tree grows a mighty tree. But how does this happen? Overnight? No. Faith must be partnered with patience. It is by faith and patience that we inherit the promises. Many give up praying for healing after only a couple of tries. Their faith lacks patience. Patience will test your faith, to see if it is real. Satan lacks patience. If you keep your faith in tact, you can often wait him out.
So there is faith, but there is also patience. There is faith, but there is also love. These virtues overlap, but they are also distinct. I am convinced that if we pursue the love of God first and foremost, then faith will be added to us. Love conquers all.
We should also understand that seeing is believing. Do not forget the testimony of miracles that you have already seen, because these testimonies serve to bolster your faith in the future. So we honor small miracles, and keep them in remembrance, in order to build our faith for bigger ones. If I see one little miracle, it becomes a platform for me to step up on that same level of the miraculous and beyond. If I watch someone get healed of a broken arm at a revival meeting, then seeing is believing. I can tap into the remembrance of that testimony and believe for healing the next time I am praying for a sick person. For God, there is no difference between healing a head cold and raising the dead. Both require the same substance of faith.

Divine Alliances Being Forged
Along with this outpouring of power evangelism, divine alliances between ministries will allow the body of Christ to strategically pinpoint cities and regions. People will travel from miles to sweep entire cities, where literally everyone in a large metropolitan area will hear the gospel preached at once – often within a day’s time. The prophet Joel tells us that the Lord’s army will literally take nations in a day. Imagine when the church functions efficiently in such unity and power, responding to the “now” words of the Lord to such a degree that massive offensives can be launched at a national scale. Not just someone saying, “I am a national-level prophet.” But I’m talking about an outpouring where everyone hears and responds on such a broad scale, regardless of denomination, title, rank or position, that thousands of believers buy plane tickets and converge en masse on a foreign nation armed with the power of the gospel. Truly, the Lord is about to be head over his church again, by the Spirit, in the same way that He desired to lead Israel without a king. And we will respond corporately and strategically to His voice without the need for hyped programs that are really just geared to build up someone’s individual ministry.

We will see churches populated overnight. There have been individuals in scripture, like Jonah who took a city in a day and Elijah who turned a nation in a day. But there have also been foretastes of this scale of corporate mobilization in the church as well. John Dowie, who built a whole city in Illinois based on divine healing, consistently assaulted the city of Chicago in the late 1800s, sending in so many teams of healing evangelists that every single door of the entire city had been knocked on by someone empowered with the healing anointing. Dowie was known coast-to-coast.

Part of the setback has been your focus on your own region!

To be a truly effective body, we must learn not to be territorial. God does not care what title is on your building. In fact, He does not even care what flag is waving over your yard. The church is about to identify more with its citizenship in the Kingdom than its citizenship and affiliations on earth. Then, we will not just be focused on getting our own house, our own neighborhood or our own city saved. We will have a much broader Kingdom vision. Though we may be called to a specific geographic area or people group, we never want to get myopic. Often, God will call you to sacrificially focus on cities and regions outside of your own, in order to achieve breakthrough where you live. It’s the principle of losing your life for others, in order to find your own life. It’s the same spiritual principle, only it is broadened to a macro scale for regions. Sacrifice for the life of another’s region, and you will receive breakthrough in your own.

I was raised in the state of Georgia, but left years ago for ministry work in Alaska, as well as the many other places the Lord has carried us to around the world ever since. Just recently, the Lord called us to return back to Georgia, and it is amazing to experience the level of breakthrough here, now that I am returning to the region. We have experienced a tremendous level of miracles, favor and provision. Since our focus has been and remains outward and mission-minded, the Lord is now granting favor on the home front.

I was amazed to see that one of the churches in our home town here had grown from 450 members to 3,200 in just a few years! It is truly the only “mega-church” in town, with a very large percentage of them being new converts. And interestingly enough, the pastor there attributes the tremendous growth and favor of God on this work to their continual focus on mission work outside of the immediate region.

God knows we all need him to touch our respective cities and regions. And He is so pleased when He sees that we have a heart for our home lands to be reached. However, He wants to expand our love to the foreigner as well. On an individual level, this principle especially true, as evangelism of any sort requires us to step out of our own comfort zone to reach out to others.

Francis Xavier, the great missionary to India and Japan in the 1500s, operated at an intense level of power evangelism. He led 700,000 to the Lord, with many dead raisings and 500 pages of firsthand documented miracles recorded at the time of his death. Xavier regularly levitated off the ground during communion, and once an entire town was instantly healed of a deadly plague just because his boat pulled into shore that day at the dock!

Although Xavier’s primary work was the mission field, he also had a dramatic impact on his own homeland of Spain. His letters and revival reports from his Far East exploits paved the way for taking ground in his own home region for the Kingdom.

But sacrificial mission work, though noble -- and church growth programs, though well-devised -- are not enough. We need comprehensive and daily strategy from the throne room of God, we need the manifest hand of His power and we need a generation that walks in bridal intimacy like never before, in order to bring in the last-days harvest.

The voices of the prophets must begin to come into strategic alignment so the body is not flailing. It is imperative that we know the times and seasons for specific regions. We are coming to a day when God will say “now is the time for Indianapolis.” All of the prophets will agree, and ministries from around the nation and beyond will pour resources and planning into taking Indianapolis in one massive offensive. There is commanded blessing in the place of unity.

Tips for Engaging Power Evangelism

Obviously, there are no formulas to working miracles. The only formula is to get anointed! You must be utterly dependent on the Holy Spirit. However, there are a few practical pointers I would like to suggest that the Lord seems to be using with us:

>>Stay full of the Spirit! – as I said before, this is foundational for the miraculous. Lots of people flop and crunch and manifest and wiggle because God shows up in a church service. But how consistent is their walk? Does God disappear when they are at the grocery store, or are they no longer “drunk as you suppose?” (Acts 2:15). The apostles were not afraid to have physical manifestations of the Spirit of God right out in public. Lots of people leave their ecstatic experiences with God in the closet, or in places where it makes them look more “spiritual” (in a conference, meeting, etc.), but not in places where they could be mocked or persecuted. This often disqualifies us for the “greater glory” that could show up when we follow His River into the streets. I like to drink in public.
Not everyone experiences God with manifestations, but everyone can know His presence. It is actually His presence that brings the boldness you need to approach people. In Acts 4:31, after the apostles prayed, “the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” The infilling brings boldness. It is the wine of God that enables you to say things confidently, because you are so inebriated in His presence that you don’t care what other people think.

>>Seek Signs & Wonders! – Jesus says that a wicked generation requires a sign to believe. But He never said that He wouldn’t give them one! I would suggest that it is a wise people who seek signs, in order to convert a wicked generation around them. A lot has to do with motives. Do you seek God’s power just to be entertained, or because you love Him and want to demonstrate and experience His glory? For those who believe it is wrong to seek signs and wonders, they may have a few doctrinal conflicts with the apostles of the faith who prayed, “Now, Lord … enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:29-30). To enter into the things I am talking about will require much more than a casual, “Well, if God wants to do it, then His will be done …” That kind of fluffy garbage – waiting on a lightning bolt – is why much of the church is so apathetic today. We should have read the scriptures enough to KNOW what His will is. And we need to be full enough of Him in order that we can step up and fulfill His will with our delegated authority. We must aggressively pursue the miraculous.

>>Go two-by-two – I now understand a very practical reason why Jesus commissioned his missionaries to go out in pairs. It keeps us accountable to the vision and the common goal in mind. This way, when your waiter comes to the table in the restaurant, you don’t back down and think “Maybe it’s not really her time to hear and see the gospel.” Your partner is there to remind you that you are on a mission, and someone just swam into your net!
I find that I am much more effective in evangelism when I am with someone else. And spiritually, your combined presence drives more demons to flight, because when two or three gather, there is Jesus in the midst of us.

>>Get around anointed people – Find someone who already moves in this stuff and hang around them. Watch them. Let the anointing rub off on you. Healing and the working of miracles, much like the prophetic, is a transferable anointing. Don’t be foolish and say, “Well if God wants to move, he can do it here on my turf.” Go to where God is moving. If it means traveling 800 miles to a conference or making a pilgrimage somewhere outside of your own back yard, do it! I have met many people who refuse to go to conferences or spiritual watering holes because they have no perception whatsoever of how resident or transferable anointings work. It boils down to their arrogant presumption that if God is truly moving, it must involve themselves first and foremost. They have problems receiving from others, either out of pride, jealousy or hurt. That is why God will often use foolish vessels to carry his greatest power, because it requires us to humble ourselves all the more in order to receive from them!