Who do you follow?

I'm a follower of Jesus Christ.

-Oh ok, so wherever you go, it's because you're following Jesus?

Um, well no....

-Jesus doesn't direct every move you make?

No, not every move....

Everywhere you go, Jesus goes. He lives inside you. Exactly who is following who?

Luke 9:23 "And He said to them all. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, daily and follow me."

It seems to me, that if Jesus lives in me (HALLELUJAH!!!), that in a sense.... He is forced to go everywhere I go, right?

Christian is defined by dictionary.com as "christlike" and "a person who exemplifies in his or her life, the teachings of Christ."

I watched a series of youtube videos called "Lord save us from your followers". It was eye opening. As a Christian, I had no idea how people who weren't Christian felt about the body of Christ aka Christians. Watch it if you have time... or at least start. Each segment is 10 minutes long.... it'll benefit you to watch.

What does it mean, then, to "follow after Christ"? There were many definitions for the word "follow" but the one I want to emphasize is "imitate or copy". If we are followers of Christ, His disciples, saints..... then we are supposed to be imitating or copying Christ. WHOA!

Ok, so what does that mean?

Let's start with things Jesus Christ did not do. He didn't judge. Now, Jesus spent a lot of His time with non-believers aka sinners. Their lives were not being lived for God and Jesus showed them the unconditional love of the Father and they became believers! He preached, teached and healed I heard someone say once. Notice how He didn't judge. I would say He was firm and perhaps a little "mean" in today's standards in convicting His followers of doubting.

In Mark 9:19 Jesus is speaking to His disciples after they could not cast a demon out of a little boy "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him (the boy) unto me." The boy was healed and Jesus told the father of the boy and the disciples that anything is possible to the person who believes. Basically, He's saying they didn't believe.... which is why they couldn't cast of the demon and heal the boy.

Is that judging? The definition of judge is: to form a judgement or opinion of; decide upon critically. Personally, I think Jesus just spoke the truth. In fact, I know He did.

Christians get accused of "judging" others a lot. And maybe we do. Maybe we go about saying what we believe to be true in the wrong ways. Jesus came and judged the world of sin. He in fact, took all our sin (and sickness) to the cross, so we don't have to bear the judgement of sin or sickness. We're free from it! GLORY!

But the world isn't free from it. If they aren't Christians. Some Christians choose to live in sin.... notice I said choose. because it's your choice to sin when you're a Christian. Before you were a Christian, sin was not a choice. You had to do it because you were of your father... the devil. Now you're of God, as a Christian, and you should choose Him and His ways! You might miss the mark from time to time, but you should feel bad when you do, thank the Lord for His forgiveness and move on! You also decide to not do that particular sin again. That's repentance.

Whoa, I've gotten off topic..... the point of this blog post is to challenge you and I, as Christians, to be very aware of this Christ we are portraying. Is it the Christ from the Bible, or some other christ we've made up? The Christ in the Bible, the One that I serve, went to the poor and broken hearted and fed them, clothed them, loved them, treated them with kindness, healed them, and showed them His Father's love. They believed on Him because of what He did. His fruit... the works He produced, represented who He followed! Jesus followed God. God lived in Him and went everywhere that He went. God did everything that Jesus did. They were One. Galatians 3:28 says we are One in Jesus Christ. If He lives in us and we follow Him.... then He also follows us since we are ONE together! If we are ONE, then guess what..... I do what He did while He was on the earth because He's STILL on the earth! He's on this earth via ME!!!!

So, once again, the Christ in the Bible, the One that I serve, went to the poor and broken hearted and fed them, clothed them, loved them, treated them with kindness, healed them, and showed them His Father's love. That's the Christ that I am ONE with. He lives in me, and I live in Him..... therefore, I do what He does and He does what I do. I don't want to mis-represent who He is by doing something that He doesn't want to do.....

Healing in Iowa with the McCoys!

Two weeks ago I drove down to Iowa City, Iowa to visit the McCoy's. This was probably the best decision I've made in a long time! They are amazing people :)

FRIDAY night Rachelle and I drove to the mall, walked into the food court. She told me that they like to command the spirit of unbelief and doubt that might hinder healing to leave, so she did that as we walked to the ice cream shop. She got ice cream. We sat near this couple who were also enjoying a treat. Rachelle and I talked for a few minutes before she said, "ok, let's go!" She got up and approached the couple. She asked them if they needed healing anywhere in their body or if they had any pain. They looked at us strangely and said, "nooo??" Rachelle explained why she had asked. Then she asked them if they believed in Jesus or thought that He is real. The guy said that he used to go to church and the girl said that yea, she believed Jesus is real. Rachelle talked to them for a little while longer, then we left!

We then approached two teenage girls. They both said they were pain free and that they believe in Jesus. The one girl kind of ended up telling Rachelle that "her religion was her own personal business" and it was clear they wanted us to leave, so we did.

We began walking down a crowded section of the mall and there was a man sitting on a bench. As we passed the Holy Spirit gave Rachelle a word of knowledge about his back. She veered around and went back to him. He said that yes, he was in pain, this was why he was sitting down. Rachelle asked if she could pray for the arthritis to leave, he said yes. She laid her hands on him and commanded the arthritis to leave. He stared at her :) Then she asked him if it was any better. He said no. She told him to be blessed and we moved on.

In the kids play area we approached 3 different people. Two of which had pain and agreed to prayer. The first lady told us she was healed and believed that Jesus was her healer. That was cool. The next guy and his wife ended up totally edifying us and building us up. They were Christians and the guy writes Christian poetry. He asked if we wanted to hear two of them. We said yes! They were wonderful :) Then before we could lay hands on him, he suddenly had to leave, so Rachelle grabbed his hand and blessed him real quick!

The third person was this man who smiled at Rachelle like he knew her. I personally, think he had been watching us the whole time and just wanted us to come over to him :) So we did, he said Rachelle looks like someone he knew. Anyway, he told us he had pain all over his body because his job is really stressful. We both laid hands on him and Rachelle commanded the pain to leave and peace to come over him. He said he felt better and asked his kids if they wanted to go to church on Sunday :)

SATURDAY we got to hang out and spend time fellowshipping and praising God before heading out to pray. After lunch, Bryan came over to join us and we went to the "pedestrian mall" which is an area full of bars, homeless people and drug dealers. Turns out there was a HUGE football game going on and all of the college students were at all of the bars and hanging out in the walkways between. Rachelle and I approached several VERY drunk guys, who coincidentally, were pain free..... but we were able to bless them and I know they felt the love of God flow into them. Jason waited with the kids while we prayed and Bryan wandered around praying for different people. Rachelle, Bryan and I approached a girl with Cerebral Palsy. She was very hesitant to prayer. She said she had been prayed for sooo many times and sooo many strangers had approached her but that nobody had in the last few years. She asked who we prayed to. We said Jesus. She made it apparent that she believed in Him along with other gods.... so as long as we were praying to the "divine being" all was good. She said she was very "at peace" with her condition. Rachelle said she didn't want to disturb her peace, but that we'd really like to pray for her. She consented. So Rachelle laid her hands on her, commanded sickness to leave. The girl said "ok, thanks, bye" and quickly left with her friend. I forgot to mention that meanwhile, as we approached this girl it began to POUR rain, so Jason commanded the rain to stop. It did, so we could finish :)

Then Rachelle stayed with the kids, who were enjoying running through a water fountain and playing on a playground. They chose not to heal the sick that day :( It's ok though, they're amazing kids and they've got incredible parents!!!!!

Jason prayed for a drunk girl who said her wrist hurt. She said it was better. Then Jason took me over to this area where the homeless are. There is one woman that Jason and Rachelle have been ministering to for weeks, so we went and talked with her! She was AMAZING! She is saving money, and almost has enough, to move to CA with her dogs and a few of the other people there to begin a new life :) Jason blessed her with money. I do hope she's on her way there now. Anyway, she had been healed of many things in the past month, but now she said her legs were sore from bike riding. Jason commanded the muscles to loosen. They did, but not all the way, so then I took a turn. She stood up and said it felt a lot better. We prayed a 3rd time before leaving. There was another woman there, Gene, who had an ear infection that was huge and close to her brain. She had to have surgery in a few days. She wanted healing for a headache though. So, we commanded the headache to go, she got kind of woozy under the power of God and said the headache was gone! Then we asked if we could command her ear to heal so she wouldn't need surgery. She said sure, so we did! I trust, she cancelled the surgery :)

SATURDAY NIGHT Jason and I drove 45 minutes in POURING rain, which we commanded to stop and it let up for us to finish the drive safely, to a small town where Kat and Roger live. Jason and Rachelle are teaching Kat and Roger about healing the sick, so they were a good couple for me to minister to! Jason told me I was going to do it all, and I was excited :) We RAN into the house, as the rain picked up again. Kat told us she felt something shift in the spirit realm as we approached. COOL!!!!!! We talked with them briefly before getting them healed. Roger was first. He had knee pain (something with his meniscus), arthritis in his fingers, back pain and a wound on his foot, I think he twisted his ankle or something. So, he sat in a chair and I commanded healing to flow into his body. He immediately began shaking under the power of God. The devil was leaving :) He stood up and said he felt about 60% better (?) so I hit it again. This time mainly his hands and the arthritis. He was able to make a fist with his right hand, which he couldn't do before! Hallelujah! He then went to the stairs with Jason to test out his knees while I prayed for his wife, Kat. Kat is an AMAZING woman :) She had knee pain as well, sinus issues and hormone irregularity. I commanded it to leave and she sat back under the power of God. She didn't move for a few seconds and just kept saying, "wow... wow....wow" Then she stood up and went to the stairs to see if the knee pain was gone. It mostly was. And she could feel her sinuses draining. She sat down and I hit it again. She felt a lot better and the knee pain was totally gone! GLORY!

Meanwhile, Jason was praying for Roger some more. He worked on commanding all spirits that don't belong to leave and so on. Roger got BLASTED with the Holy Spirit! haha, it was amazing!

We then sat and had brownies and ice cream with them afterward! Wonderful people!

As Jason and I drove back to Iowa City, I realized I was no longer the same. I had taken the red pill (The Matrix) and I now had a new reality. I no longer live like the rest of the world. I am officially different ;) PRAISE GOD!

I did not want to leave the wonderful presence of the McCoys. They blessed me with a beautiful prayer before I headed back to Minnesota.

The McCoys are raising up 4 beautiful children in the CHRISTIAN lifestyle! The kids are already experiencing the power of God in their dreams, visions and experiences with their mom and dad. Seeing the way Jason and Rachelle live life, was the BEST experience for me! I needed this trip and it was gooood for me! I am so thankful to them. They opened up their home to a complete stranger from Facebook and welcomed me like family :) AMAZING!