I have just posted Episode 2 of Flee California Now on Youtube. It is entitled, “What You Should Do if You are not Fleeing California Now.”
You can check out the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJT3Kcy_hTE
Check it out, especially if you live in California.
Thanks.
Filed under Calamities, California, Christianity, Earthquakes
What is the plan of action for healing a sufferer of dementia?
Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. (1 Corinthians 14:1 ESV)
In Part 4, I wrote:
Without the gifts of the Spirit, none of this would have happened. The woman with Tourette Syndrome would not have been healed and her daughter-in-law would not have had a baby girl.
The gifts involved in these two miracles were the gift of faith, the gift of discerning of spirits and the gift of prophecy.
I had another Holy Spirit experience over thirty-five years ago. It happened when I was preaching at a small house group. A woman showed up that night, suffering from muscular dystrophy. She used a cane and hobbled over to a chair and sat down.
When I finished my message, I walked over to her, reached out my hand and said, “Let’s dance.”
She took my hand and danced with me around the family room. After a minute or so, I stopped and looked at her. “What do you think?” I said.
Her eyes opened wide. “Oh Lord, I’m healed!” she proclaimed.
The woman carried her cane home, totally healed. The next day, she enrolled at a gym to get herself back in shape.
This happened through the gift of faith and the gift of working of miracles.
None of this was through my efforts. It was the manifestation of the Holy Spirit working in me.
If I could turn the gifts on when I wanted to, I would, but it doesn’t work that way. The Holy Spirit determines when He will manifest Himself in believers, and not us.
Here’s my thinking:
If we want to be used by the Lord to heal dementia sufferers, we need to eagerly pursue the spiritual gifts. All of them. I just don’t believe there is any other option.
Also, it’s my belief that dementia/Alzheimer’s is caused by demons. And I think these demons have built up strongholds in our minds so that very few believers are praying for dementia sufferers to be healed.
Thus, like Jesus said about casting out the demon in the young boy, “But this kind never comes out except by prayer and fasting.” (Matthew 17:21)
It will take the Spiritual gifts, faith, prayer and fasting.
How much fasting? Seek the Lord.
(Conclusion)
Filed under Christianity, Prophecy, Gifts of the Spirit, Faith, Prayer, Fasting, Healing, Deliverance
My new podcast is named Flee California Now! Episode #1 is now available on YouTube and is entitled, “Why would anyone name their podcast Flee California Now?
You can see the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjwQPOoeScE
Check it out, especially if you live in California.
Thanks.
Filed under California, Christianity, Church, Judgment, Kingdom of God, Prophecy, spiritual warfare, Uncategorized
Peter, James, John and Jesus walked back to the crowd after their transfiguration experience. A father approached Jesus and explained how His disciples could not cast a demon out of his son.
Jesus asked that the boy be brought to Him. He rebuked the demon and it came out of him. He was cured at once.
Later, the disciples asked why they were unsuccessful.
He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you. But this kind never comes out except by prayer and fasting.” (Matthew 17:20-21 ESV)
Faith like a grain of mustard seed.
The mustard seed was the smallest seed in Israel. When germinated and under the proper growing conditions, the seed grew into a mature bush within three months’ time to an average height of seven feet tall.
Therefore, when Jesus used the mustard seed as a metaphor for His teaching here, he was talking about the seed’s one-sided genetic focus (or faith) to be the largest garden plant.
The seed never doubted or waivered in its faith to be all God called it to be. The seed could even lie dormant for over sixty years, but when the conditions were right, it would fulfill its genetic calling by growing into a mature plant.
Although the mustard seed is tiny, mustard-seed faith is not a small amount of faith. It is 100%, put-your-hand-to-the-plow-and-not-look-back, all-in faith. It is the pinnacle of faith and where we need to set our sights.
Prayer.
The word prayer, as used by Jesus, signifies the many different types of prayer, such as supplications, intercessions, thanksgivings, praises, worship and more. But no matter what type we believers use, we must draw near to God and believe He will reward our efforts.
Prayers depend upon our relationship with our Father. We must act little children and rush into His presence, knowing He loves us and desires to answer our prayers.
Fasting.
Fasting is probably the least popular of all of the spiritual disciplines. Starving for Jesus’ sake, right?
But as Paul discovered, God’s power works best in weakness. And the weakness God was referring to is our fleshly nature, especially our desire to eat and drink.
My experience on fasting is that we have to trust that God’s grace is truly sufficient, even when we don’t eat for a period of time.
So, what’s the plan of action for healing dementia?
(Continued in Part 6)
Filed under Christianity, Deliverance, Prayer, Uncategorized
The following is an excerpt from my memoir, The Hunt for Larry Who:
In the midst of the auto sales drought, I felt the Lord wanted me to fast. How long? I had no idea. Why? I did not ask and had no clue. So, I began fasting by drinking only water and morning coffee, but eating no food.
Did things improve for me? Heavens no! My auto sales drought continued.
On the fourteenth evening of the fast, a former client’s wife phoned me. I had mentioned to her husband that the Lord could heal his wife of her long-term ailment.
“Larry, do you really believe the Lord can heal me?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“When can you pray for me?”
My pastor, her husband and I showed up at the woman’s house two days later. The sick woman’s daughter-in-law was also there to support the woman. We chatted a bit until I felt the presence of God descending upon us. I walked over and began praying for the woman.
I discerned a demon caused her ailment rather than being a physical issue. As my prayers increased in tempo, I felt an inner urge to command it to leave.
“Go!” I proclaimed.
Then, I spun around and looked at the daughter-in-law.
“You’re going to have a baby. Fix up a room for your new baby,” I prophesied.
The daughter-in-law broke down and cried. She eventually collected herself enough to tell us how she and her husband had just undergone extensive tests at a Sioux City hospital, discovering they could never have children.
That night, on the sixteenth day of the fast, I ate again.
The woman phoned two nights later.
“Larry, do you know what ailment I suffered from?” she asked.
“No.”
“I had Tourette Syndrome,” she said and explained how her tics and rants kept her housebound and away from public gatherings for years. “I’m totally healed. Thanks.”
A year later, I received a card from the daughter-in-law announcing the birth of their baby girl.
So, what is Tourette Syndrome?
Tourette Syndrome is a disorder that involves repetitive movements or unwanted sounds (tics) that can’t be easily controlled. For instance, you might repeatedly blink your eyes, shrug your shoulders or blurt out unusual sounds or offensive words.
Tics typically show up between ages 2 and 15, with the average being around 6 years of age. Males are about three to four times more likely than females to develop Tourette syndrome.
Although there’s no cure for Tourette syndrome, treatments are available. (Mayo Clinic)
So, how can this help with healing dementia sufferers?
(Continued in Part 5)
Filed under Christianity, Deliverance, Fasting, Healing, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare
This article came about because of close friends, both around my age. The wife fell and was going through rehab. Next, her husband died of a heart attack. Then, I learned the wife suffered from dementia/Alzheimer’s syndrome.
I messaged a son-in-law to learn how the wife was doing. He messaged back that she was struggling and the stress only exacerbated her dementia. One of the family members stayed with her during the night and part of the day.
I replied that we would continue to pray for her, also leaving a praying hands emoji with my comment.
Would Jesus have just tossed out a general statement like that and left a prayer emoji?
No, absolutely not! Jesus WOULD have healed her. So, what am I doing wrong?
Somehow, I had just accepted dementia as being one of those tough-luck, too-bad-for-you disorders. A disease that I really never gave a second thought about, even though the families of the seven million sufferers in America live with the sad debilitating symptoms on a daily basis…and with no hope of a medical cure.
Neil Cole, in his book, Pray, summed up my attitude on dementia: “We often underestimate Jesus as well. We pray for things that are far less than what He could actually do.”
So, what is dementia?
Dementia involves a decline in the mental abilities you need for daily living. It develops when there’s damage to the parts of your brain involved with learning, memory, decision-making and language.
It’s not a specific disease. It’s a clinical description of a set of symptoms caused by underlying brain diseases. The most common cause is Alzheimer’s disease.
If you have it, you might forget the name of a close friend or loved one. Or you might get lost in the neighborhood where you’ve lived for many years. It isn’t part of normal aging and may shorten a person’s lifespan.
How did Jesus handle sickness?
The news about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics and He healed them. (Matthew 4:24)
Somewhere amongst the above diseases is dementia. So, what does Jesus want us to do?
Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. (John 14:12)
So, how can we possibly heal dementia sufferers?
(Continued in Part 4)
Filed under Christianity, Faith, Healing, Spiritual gifts, spiritual warfare
Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother Lazarus would not have died.”(John 11:24 ESV)
“Everyone in the story, including Jesus’ enemies, believed that He could have healed Lazarus if He had arrived sooner. His power to heal was unquestioned, even by His opponents. But they were limiting Jesus’ power. None had the imagination to think about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.
“We often underestimate Jesus as well. We pray for things that are far less than what He could actually do. Even those of us with faith and enough experience to know better, still expect lesser things of Jesus than He is capable of doing.)
Begging. A passage of Scripture that has shaped my life every day for decades occurs twice in the New Testament. In Matthew 9:37-38, Jesus tells us that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
His solution is not a program for leadership development or a teaching curriculum to produce more ministers. No, his solution is far more effective and simple. We are to pray for more workers – but not just pray. The word used is translated in some of our Bibles as “beseech.” What exactly does that mean? It means “to beg as if your life depends on it.”
We’ve all watched the scene in a drama where the hero is suddenly at the antagonist’s mercy. With a gun barrel inches from the good guy’s forehead, we see a sly grin on the bad guy’s face as he says, “Beg me for your life.”
When Jesus instructs us to beg as if our life depends on it, this is not what is happening. We must realize that He is the Lord of the harvest – it is His field. It is His desire to have a plentiful harvest even more than ours, so He is not wanting us to bend our will to His own. Instead, He is inviting us to want it as badly as He does.
When we beseech Him for this, we are being summoned to His level of concern, not the other way around. We don’t bend God to our own desire; true spirituality is quite the opposite. You can be sure that God will hear and answer this prayer, because it is His idea. It is actually His command for us, and it is His desire much more than ours.
When my children were young and in vulnerable situations, I would beg the Lord to watch over them. When my babies had a high fever and I felt helpless, I would beg for their healing.
(Both of the above excerpts are from PRAY: Finding Ways for Ordinary People to Connect with God by Neil Cole, 2020, Starling Initiatives Publications Series, eBook on Amazon, pages 40, 58, 59)
I believe that our prayers for Dementia/Alzheimer’s sufferers have underestimated the power of Jesus. We have prayed things for the sufferers that are far less than what Jesus could do for them.
And begging?
I believe that we are in a season that we can beseech the Lord for healing for dementia/Alzheimer’s sufferers.
But to do so, we have to make up our minds to be a part of the Church that hates losing!
(Continued in Part 3)
Filed under Christianity, Gifts of the Spirit, Prayer, Intercession, Encouragement
A little more than thirty-five years ago, I was the treasurer of the St. Edmond’s high school athletic boosters’ club and made an error, causing a financial problem in the boosters’ checking account. I prayed and asked the Lord for His help before calling the bank.
I phoned and explained the problem to a bank officer. She quickly told me the error would be handled and the funds restored into the checking account. I was so excited by how easily it worked out.
“Oh Lord, You care about small things, too,” I said aloud after hanging up.
“I care about all things,” said an audible voice.
I jumped off the stool and bowed down on the kitchen’s tile floor. Tears streamed down my face. I shook, wondering what would happen to me because the voice seemed so loud and so holy. I stayed in that position of reverence for several minutes.
This was the only time I have heard the audible voice of God in my thirty-nine years of walking with Him. Yet, I am still amazed at His response to my simple prayer. Maybe God wants to be invited into every part of our lives, even the mundane and the ordinary parts..
Now, I want to contrast the above situation with a recent problem that I had concerning a bad tire on the car I drove for U*B*E*R share rides. The problem nagged at me in the middle of the night. I eventually went downstairs an hour earlier than my usual waking time to seek the presence of the Lord.
“Lord, You are my refuge and my fortress; in You, I trust. So, help me in this situation,” I cried out to the Lord.
After waiting on the Lord, I felt the Holy Spirit speak Jeremiah 12:5 to my heart: “If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?”
The Lord rebuked me!
He let me know that if I couldn’t trust Him with my life’s issues in today’s America, how would I be able to trust Him when major calamities hit our nation in the near future. Ouch!
And yet, His rebuke settled my heart. I was freed from my doubts and fears.
“Prayer is not about getting God to agree with our answers for our problems, but it’s about positioning us to stand with God and His answers for our circumstances,” said Tyler Staton, the head of the 24/7 Prayer Movement in America.
How can these two contrasting prayers prepare us for prayers of healing the sick and raising the dead?
(Continued in Part 3)
Filed under Christianity, Prayer, Prophecy, spiritual warfare
Last Friday, one of my first U*B*E*R riders in Fayetteville, Arkansas, was a twenty-two year-old gal from Texas. She mentioned that she was a senior at the University of Arkansas, studying to be an English literature teacher in secondary education.
Our conversation continued until I dropped her off near her place of work in campus town. I headed off to my next pickup who happened to be a journalism major.
Before the young man stepped out of the car at his drop-off site, he said, “One of your riders left a headset here in the backseat.” He handed me the headset.
“That’s great!” I proclaimed, knowing the headset belonged to the young gal because she mentioned how she liked to listen to audio books.
I usually tell riders before they step out of my car to check whether they have their keys, cell phone, wallet or whatever else because if they leave anything behind, my wife will sell it on eBay. They always laugh but they do take the time to check before shutting the door.
Sadly, I had not said anything to the young gal.
That Friday turned out to be busy for me with rides to Northwest Arkansas Airport, Springdale and other surrounding areas. I received no messages from U*B*E*R saying the young gal had contacted the company about her lost headset. But I did take the time to check out the value of the headset which was $159 on Amazon and almost $300 on other sites.
At the end of the day, I felt the Holy Spirit whispering to my heart that I needed to drop off the headset to the gal at her place of work. Yes Lord, I thought. I headed toward her place of work.
Now, to set the scene: it’s Friday afternoon. One day before the big Texas versus Arkansas football rivalry game in Fayetteville. The gal’s place of work is a favorite college bar and grill in the midst of other college watering holes in the middle of campus town. And the University of Arkansas – like most universities – lacks enough parking spots by about 75% on most days.
I drove around the gal’s place of work and, of course, there were no parking spots and traffic everywhere was looking for non-existing parking places. No hope, except for a miracle.
Driving down a one-way street, I prayed: “Lord, You are going to have to open up a parking spot for me or I’m going to have to wait till Monday to return the headset to her.”
Almost instantly, a car up ahead pulled away from the curb. I pulled into the space. Next, I walked three hundred feet to the bar and grill.
The place was packed with people standing in line to be seated. I passed by them and headed toward the bar where an older man was filling a pitcher with draft beer. I explained to him my dilemma of the headset and the waitress whose name I didn’t remember. He looked at me like I was an idiot because of how busy he was and the masses of people standing all around us at the bar.
Then it happened. The young gal walked up to pick up a drink order.
“Here she is now,” I said to the man.
The gal looked at me and saw the headset I held up for her to see.
“You’ve made my day when you showed up with my headset. Thank you. Thank you,” she said and walked off with the headset in one hand and a drinks tray in the other.
I left and walked back to my car.
How could a seemingly insignificant prayer like asking for a parking place prepare us for prayers of healing the sick and raising the dead?
(Continued in Part 2)
Filed under Christianity, Gifts of the Spirit, Kingdom of God, Prayer, spiritual warfare
For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective… (Hebrews 4:12a AMP)
The Bible contains 1,817 predictive prophecies. To date, approximately one half of them have been fulfilled. The remaining ones are expected to be fulfilled during the End-Times. Given God’s omniscience, He will always be 100% accurate.
Now, think about an Isaiah or Daniel or Zechariah or another prophet speaking an End-Times prophecy over 2,000 years ago. The words were spoken and written down for future reference. Yet, these are not just dead words penned on a scroll, but are living, powerful time-bombs awaiting their appointed times to explode forth in fulfilment.
Bless the Lord, you His angels, mighty in strength, who perform His word, obeying the voice of His word. (Psalm 103:20 NASB)
Who makes sure the Bible’s prophecies are fulfilled at the exact time specified by the Lord?
I believe God’s angels are assigned this task. Somehow, these chosen angels can hear the DNA guidelines within the prophetic words and know when the prophecies need to be fulfilled.
In 2 Kings 19:32-34, Isaiah spoke a powerful prophecy to King Hezekiah of Judah that the Assyrians would not come into Jerusalem or even shoot one arrow at the city and that the Assyrian army would retreat back to Assyria.
That night, one angel went into the camp of the Assyrians and killed 185,000 soldiers.
Gabriel gave insight to Daniel, Mary and Zacharias so that the prophetic narrative could be moved forward.
Michael fought the prince of Persia so that Gabriel could finally speak to Daniel. It is Michael who will arise when Israel is facing defeat in the End-Times. It is Michael who will wage war against Satan and his kingdom of darkness, casting them out of heaven and down to earth.
And it is an unnamed angel who chains Satan and throws him into the abyss for a thousand years.
These are only a few examples of angels carrying out God’s prophetic words.
And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. (2 Thessalonians 2:6-7 NASB)
So, who or what restrains the Antichrist?
I believe that Michael – the archangel who defends and has charge over Israel – is the one who restrains the Antichrist until God’s appointed time for the Antichrist to appear on the world scene.
Now, don’t go thinking that Michael uses a metal sword or a spear to restrain Satan from pushing his Antichrist agenda ahead of time. No, not at all! Michael uses the prophetic words of the Bible as his sword. And he probably tosses in a few, “The Lord rebuke you!” in Satan’s direction every so often.
Okay, I will hang my hat on Michael as the restrainer.
Filed under Antichrist, Christians, Day of the Lord, End-Times, Israel, Jerusalem, Prophecy, spiritual warfare
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Larry Who 