Bill and I flew together to attend the Signs and Wonders and Church Growth Conference in Anaheim in February of 1987. This was an incredible time for me and for Bill and there were several events that are important to share.
During the first evening of praise, I noticed a man on the other side of the auditorium and felt like I could not take my eyes off him. There were probably one thousand people between me and him and therefore it seemed strange that I kept feeling like looking at him. The thoughts came into my mind “sexual sin”. I thought that this was my own thinking and dismissed it. But I kept glancing over at this guy and finally prayed that if the Lord wanted me to talk to this guy or if there was sexual sin involved then He would have to make arrangements for whatever needed to happen. I really thought I was over spiritualizing on the whole thing.
This guy was on the other side of the auditorium during worship, but somehow during ministry time I turned around and he was standing right behind me being prayed over by four or five people. My first thought was “Oh, Lord, no!” I struggled with doubt for five or ten minutes and then moved over just to watch and listen to them pray for this guy.
Nothing seemed to be happening right then, so as quietly as I could I shared with him what had happened to me in staring at him and that this thought passed through about possible sexual sin. I remember being almost apologetic and embarrassed. He opened his eyes and looked at me for one or two seconds and then fell to his knees weeping while clinging to my shirt. I couldn’t understand his reaction. I put my hands on his shoulders and asked the Lord to forgive him and heal him. It all happened fast and then he was on his hands and knees weeping. The Lord really touched him.
The incredible thing, though, is what he shared with me the following day. He was a pastor in a church in the south and had been struggling with pornography for years. Every Saturday while preparing his sermon, this urge would come over him and he got involved in pornographic material. He was a broken man. He received a brochure in the mail about this conference, and while he was thinking about his own need for healing he heard a voice tell him to go to the conference and that there would be a man there that would heal him. When he shared this with me, I began to weep at the incredible power and love of God. He was trying to show me something and it was working.
The second day of the conference, during a ministry time, Bill and I agreed to go over and pray for a woman that was lying on the floor. Two women were kneeling and praying for her when we got there. They were bent over and what I thought was whispering or praying in her ear. Each woman had an ear. A man was standing up also praying for her. As we stood over her, the women got up and left and I felt the lord telling me to sing to her. The song “More Love, More Power” came to mind, so I knelt down and sang in her ear, very quietly.
When I stood up, Bill asked me what I was doing, and I told him I felt like the Lord wanted me to sing to her. He started laughing hysterically and told me that he felt like the lord told him the same thing. While I was kneeling, he had asked the man that was standing next to him what he was praying for over this woman. He said that the Lord asked him to sing to her, but he did not know what to sing, so both he and Bill sang while I was kneeling and singing.
The Lord is awesome, but that isn’t the end. The following morning, as we were walking to the conference center, two women stopped in a VW bug and asked us if we wanted a ride. After several minutes they asked us if we were the two men that were praying for this woman on the floor. They were the two that were kneeling when we arrived to pray. They asked us if the Lord gave us any word as to how to pray for her. When we told them, what had happened they were shocked and awed and asked what song I was singing. When I told them, they said that was the song the Lord told them to sing to her. He is awesome! They were kneeling when we arrived, singing in each ear!
We saw the woman that day and she shared how she had recently had an operation on her jaw and that it had been wired shut for several months. Her biggest anguish was not being able to sing to the Lord. She had a very gifted voice. When she was on her back, she said that she felt like she could not move or speak, but that people kept coming and singing in her ear. She said it felt like the Lord was singing to her. After all those months having her jaw wired shut, the Lord wanted to sing to her!
It was thrilling for me to see this and to see Bill praise God for the evidence that He had given to him that the gifts are real and He wanted Bill to use them in his ministry at First Baptist.
Brian Warner. Johanna’s Eleven (Kindle Locations 738-778).