We are writing the experiences we've had from the time that
we made a commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ in 1972 until the
present time. We share our experiences with you so that it may
encourage you or help explain similar things that may have
happened to you. I have noticed that while talking to someone
that they may have similar things happen and have never told
anyone, any comments you would like to make would be appreciated.

It all started in 1971 as my wife was looking out our living
room window in Braidwood, Illinois, something told her that we
should get our Susan, Mitch & Todd - 14 - 13 - 5 into a Sunday
School class, at that time neither of us had experienced any
supernatural happenings or were we submitted to a church, and yet
I suppose that we both considered ourselves good people. We
didn't drink to excess, we were both moral, we had raised our
children to respect others, in fact our children were very well
behaved and liked by most people who met them. We were both
raised in church as small children and like many others had
strayed away because of not having a full understanding of who
Jesus Christ was or what His mission was on this planet earth, 
We both knew Him as a historical figure who gave His life for us,
but did not understand what His purpose was for us.

Even though our experiences have been many on both sides of
the Spiritual Realm in no way are we saying that you should
experience the same things, your experience with the Lord will be
special to you and He knows how to reach you and make you
understand that it is Him. Remember that Satan has powers also
and he is the great imposter, what may look very spiritual should
always be backed up by scripture, the Word days test the spirits
to see that they are from God. Just because a man stands in a
pulpit does not mean that he was put there by God, the only
safeguard is being in the Scripture and Prayer. As Scripture
says and the Word was made flesh and He dwelled among men. Jesus
still wants to dwell among men and we are his body, so when we
read the scriptures and believe that He (IS) then the saying will
come true again "The Word was made flesh" We are His flesh and we
are to be His Ministers and He will work through us, just let us
believe what His mission is, and that it's not by word or might
but by My Spirit saith the Lord.

Shortly after that we started going to church at Joliet
Baptist Temple in Joliet, Ill. It was there that we met Pastor
Earl Webb, a fine man who loved the Lord and had a true desire
for Evangelism, he could walk up to anyone and start talking
about the Lord. He had a church started in Washington School, 
Joliet, Ill., we met there on Sunday morning and Sunday evening. 
The church grew from 250 to 400 in a very short time, we enjoyed
the time we spent at the church, we went there 2-1/2 years. It
was shortly after we made our commitment to Jesus Christ that
some strange things started happening. It was just about the
time the show The Exorcist came out. We were really ignorant
about spiritual things, as a matter of fact no one ever said
anything about such things, or that there was a possible chance
of any kind of spirits in the world.

We had innocently been reading excerpts about the Exorcists
from a newsletter our daughter Susan brought home from school. 
Shortly after that Donna and I were in bed, I had gone to sleep,
Donna was still awake. (I must explain that we lived in a double
wide mobile home.) Suddenly it sounded like someone had tied a
wooden crate on the end of a rope and started pulling it
underneath the trailer, it sounded like it hit every crossmember
on the trailer, the sound was loud enough to wake me out of a
sound sleep. Donna and I both agreed as to what we had heard,
and what it sounded like. We got up and turned on the lights, we
checked the yard and the trailer and found nothing, and our dog,
(who heard the slightest of sound) was asleep in the driveway not
25' from the house. After about an hour we went back to bed. 
Some 10 minutes later (neither one of us was asleep), we were
laying in bed, the doorway to the bedroom was on my side of the
bed, we had changed some walls in this trailer the room we were
in was at one time the dining room, and we had not laid carpet
yet, it still had a linoleum floor. All of a sudden it sounded
like a large dog was walking by my side of the bed, it went along
my side of the bed and turned, went along the foot of the bed,
went to the corner of the bedroom and flopped down on the floor,
(You could hear the claws as they scratched against the linoleum
and as he laid down in the corner, we could hear the sound of his
elbows as they hit the floor. Cold chills ran up and down my
back like lightening bolts. I turned to Donna and asked her if
she had heard what I had heard. She said, "a dog walking across
the floor, and flopping down?" I said "yes". She reached over
and turned on the lights, needless to say that there was nothing
in the room. We were both really scared out of our wits and had
a very hard time getting to sleep.

Another time we had just gone to bed. We had told the 2
boys to turn out the light in their bedroom, about 2 minutes had
passed when a loud noise came from their bedroom, I got out of 
bed thinking they were playing around, I walked into the room and
asked what was going on. I told them to turn on the light, but
when Mitch turned it on it did not come on. I told looked and
the globe which was shaped like a basketball was laying on the
floor, I thought they had been playing around and knocked it onto
the floor. They said, "they had not touched it." I picked it up
and put it back into the socket, now they had just shut the
light off not 15 minutes before. When I screwed the light into
the socket it lit, so I started to unscrew the light, I turned it
2-1/2 turns before it went out, so in 10 minutes it had unscrewed
more than 3-1/2 turns and fell to the floor.

Another time Mitch was laying in bed, he had not gone to
sleep but he had closed his eyes. He opened his eyes and said it
looked like a small child had pushed the paneling out at the seam
and he was smiling at him, and had his hands gripped onto the
paneling with just his eyes and nose sticking out from the
paneling (Mitch was about 15 years old at the time) he said the
boy was looking
straight at him, this lasted about 1 minute. Mitch was pretty
shaken by this. We did not at that time tell our sons about what
we experienced in our bedroom - we told them much later after we
had moved.

There were many nights that I would wake up and have the
feeling that someone was watching me. It was a very scary
feeling. Now no one at church had told us that there were such
things as demons in this day and age, Oh we knew that they
existed during the time of Christ, but we assumed that they did
not exist today.

Some things took place that we could not accept at the
church, so we left J.B.T. and started going to Braidwood Baptist
Church. We could not seem to get involved like we should, but we
continued going. None of this time were we involved in any kind
of Bible Study either at home or at the church. I was to find
out later that without Bible reading and study it is impossible
to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. About a year
later we moved to Pontiac, Ill. We lived there about a year, we
went to church irregularly mostly on Sunday morning, very seldom
any other time.

After about a year I started building a house next door to
the church, we started going to church regularly, mainly because
we could not stay home while living so close to the church. It
was while living at this home that I started reading the Bible or
I should say listening to the Bible. 


We were in Bloomington, Ill. at a Bible Book Store one day,
and I happened to notice the New Testament on cassette tape, it
had different voices and a music background so I thought my 11
year old son Todd would enjoy listening to it, and it would be a
way I could get him involved in the Bible. I bought the set and
took it home. I believe he listened to one tape half way
through. They laid around the house for 2 or 3 months. One day
while I was laying brick on our home I decided to listen to the
tapes. I had noticed a hunger for the Word but I thought I was
being fed through preaching. I listened to over half of the New
Testament the first day. Since I was putting in long hours I
found myself listening to most of the New Testament each day. It
wasn't too long I noticed I was having a relationship with Jesus
Christ that I had not heard anyone speak of before, I started
building and addition on the church that we were attending so I
still had from 8:00am to 10:00pm to listen to the tapes. With
every hour that I listened I noticed a growing relationship with
the Lord Jesus Christ that I could not explain. When I talked to
people about it they could not understand what I was going
through. It was the most blessed and also the loneliest time of
my life, trying to explain something that even I couldn't
understand.

As I listened the words seemed to jump out of the tape, they
had meaning not just history but a living Christ seemed to
manifest Himself to me. I listened to preachers that talked
about a Holy Spirit that didn't operate the same today as I read
about in the Bible, I couldn't understand that since the Word
says that He (The Lord) is the same yesterday, today, and
forever. So I have come to the conclusion that if He doesn't
change then we have changed, (so the falling away of the church),
we seemed to have left our first love, and taken up religion
instead of Christianity (being Christ like). I was told that the
Spiritual Gifts of manifestation of the Holy Spirit passed away
with the disciples, if that were true then the Holy Spirit has
changed, I say impossible. The Lord is looking for a people who
are willing to submit themselves to the Holy Spirit for
cleansing, the job of the Holy Spirit is to clean up the Temple
of God, that temple is us. He wants to purify us and sanctify us
so that Jesus Christ Himself can dwell within us and manifest
Himself through us. We in no way can take the credit for the
cleansing of the sanctifying since it is all of the Lord, our
very existence is of Him and He will use whomever will submit
their lives to His will.

Due to very high interest rates in 1978 and poor money
management we lost all we had. We had to turn our home over to
the bank in order to cover the money we owed them and it was
still not enough. We moved from a 2500 sq.ft. home into and
apartment that wasn't much larger than our living room in the
house. The Lord was definitely trying to reach us, and if I had
been a success I doubt that He could gave been able to. It was
while in this apartment the Lord became even more real than
before. I was still listening to the tapes constantly (day &
night), I would wake up every morning at 2:00 a.m. without fail
and I could feel the presence of the Lord all around me,
sometimes I would just lay and cry silently to myself, other
times I would preach 2 and 3 hour sermons (in my mind), with the
Lord filling my mind and my heart with words. It was a strange
experience because I was aware of everything going on around me
and yet I seemed so far from it, it is extremely hard to explain
the way I felt and the transition that was taking place. 
Show them My Love that I will give you, and you are to give
freely what you are given. When they see My Love in you, when
you do not strike back or try to get even for the evil they have
done, they will see something in you that they do not have, it
will make them wonder what makes you different, how when people
to things that wrong you, you can forgive them, therefore you are
not affected by hatred, revenge, or other such spirits that are
not godly, but rather are demonic.

Several experiences happened to me while we lived in that
apartment, which I will relate, (I am not writing about these to
prove how good I am or how worthy I am) but merely to show that
when a person gives himself or herself to the Lord without
reservation the Lord will reveal Himself to those people, do not
expect miracles or signs, just seek the Lord and His
Righteousness and all these things will follow. One of the first
experiences with visions (or whatever) I woke up as usual and
almost immediately I saw that many people were walking across
this large meadow, I noticed that many were gathered around this
person, they were joyful and laughing and seemed very carefree. 
There was a great crowd following this man, I noticed that the
farther away the people were the expressions changed on their
faces, they went from joyful, to worried, to despair, I noticed
that the ones following at a great distance seemed to be under a
great load or burden. I also noticed that to the left of this
person were people on the other side of the meadow going in the
opposite direction. I remember trying to get their attention and
saying "come follow us, we have the truth and are going the right
direction", they would just stare back as though they didn't hear
or were disinterested, I remember crying because I knew that they
were not going the right direction. I also remember seeing
people walking along the edge of this meadow and I watched them
and suddenly one would disappear as though someone grabbed them
and pulled them into the thick bushes along the edge of the
meadow. I remember asking the Lord what this meant? He said,
"Those following close to me are joyful and filled with My
Spirit, they are like little children with no cares and therefore
are free. The one's farther back are trying to follow me without
making more than a superficial commitment, so therefore are
carrying all there sins and burdens along with them, they have
either been taught wrong doctrine or the spirit of pride will not
let them give themselves to the Me."

The second experience was after waking up every morning at
2:00 a.m. (and I checked the clock to see) for 3 months or so, I
woke this one morning as usual but instead of the presence of the
Lord as I had experienced in the past, He was not there, there is
no way that I can explain what I felt, but as near as possible it
was like someone had removed all my insides, I felt empty. Try
to imagine the most wonderful love experience you have ever been
involved in, multiply that times 10 and you might be close to the
experience that had been taking place for the past 3 months. Now
when I woke up I expected that feeling to be there, but it was
not. I begged the Lord, I cried, I pleaded, I asked God what I
had done for him to forsake me, but I got no answer (nothing) I
cried myself to sleep. Later on that morning about an hour
before the alarm went off I woke up, and I could feel His
presence all around me, it was like He was showering me with His
Love. I lay there and praised Him, I thanked Him, I told Him how
much I loved Him, this went on for 20 or 30 minutes. I then
remembered when I woke up earlier what I had felt, and I asked
Him -"WHY"? He said so you remember in My Word when My Son was
hanging on the cross and that moment He said "My God, My God, why
hast thou forsaken me". "You experienced that so that you would
know what He suffered when I turned my back, because I could not
look upon Him." Believe me the physical suffering He went
through was nothing compared to the spiritual separation from His
Father. (An experience I shall never forget)

Something has been brought to mind concerning this. As we
look at scripture we notice that the disciples were followers of
Jesus Christ for 3-1/2 years before being filled with the Holy
Spirit. Jesus said to Peter in Luke 22-32, We'll start at verse
31, and the Lord said, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired
to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; 32- But I have prayed
for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren.". It is strange that at this point He
did not consider Peter as being converted. And yet we as
Christians will bring someone into the church and pray a prayer
over them and consider them to be converted, I thing we are
selling instant Christianity and that is something the Lord did
not teach or even insinuate in any of His teachings. There is a
time for planting and a time for harvest, in a sense we are doing
people a great injustice by planting in them a sense of security
which is not necessarily grounded by Scripture. I am a firm
believer in Eternal Salvation, but it starts at the moment of
commitment, and we are constantly being saved from Satan on a
daily basis, delivered from our sins and not protected in our
sins. I believe that at the moment of commitment we are given
the Holy Spirit, and the job of the Holy Spirit is to cleanse the
Temple of God which is our body. If we are not submitted to the
Holy Spirit, no cleansing can or will take place, and thus no
true commitment and thus no true salvation, in other words no
such thing as unconditional eternal salvation. Salvation is
definitely conditional on our commitment or submission to the
power of God's Holy Spirit. I believe the Holy Spirit will cause
us to have a hunger for the Word of God, no hunger no Spirit. 
Somehow I cannot imagine a baby being born into the world and not
have a desire to eat, in fact that is the first sign of a healthy
child, no hunger then you can be there is sickness, and if not
cured then death. Now born babe's in Christ are to be nourished
and tended to just as a new born baby. Can you imagine someone
having a baby and right after it's birth putting it on the living
room floor and pointing to the kitchen and saying, "when you get
hungry go in there and fix you something to eat.". I am sorry to
say, that is what most churches have done, and this is why I
believe so strongly in home cell or home bible study groups, it
gives each individual a sense of belonging, like a family
situation, it's too easy to get lost in a large or even medium
size congregations, and no one knows what is really going on in
your life. Personal relationship with Jesus Christ means
personal relationship's with His people. Therefore He is able to
minister through others and meet each one's individual needs.

It is our jobs as Christians not only to love the new born
babes, but also to admonish them in the ways of the Lord. If we
teach that God is only a God of Love and not a God of Wrath, or
if we teach that He is only a God of salvation, but not a
headline God, then we do not teach the whole truth and if we
don't teach the whole council of our God then maybe we should not
teach anything. We must teach the whole counsel of God and all
of His attributes or we give a distorted picture of Him, thus the
people we teach will never get to know the God of creation. It
is important for them to know of the Father image of God, in this
day and time that becomes more and more difficult because of the
family breakdown, which is Satan's stronghold now. I am afraid
that today's Christian leaders for the most part have produced no
more than a group of church-goers, and when you are more
interested in numbers than you are elevating Christ in these
converts, that is just what happens.

I have found out through my experience as a Christian that most
of the pastors I have come in contact with have introduced me to
the God that they know and not the God of the Bible and when God
revealed Himself to me in a special way and I would tell them
about it they would say that I was wrong. I have been told that
I was crazy, and that I spent too much time in the scripture, and
yet the Bible tells us that we are to search the scriptures daily
to prove those things that they are telling us are true, don't be
deceived these people are not doing this on purpose, they do not
believe they are wrong, and satan is the mastermind of deceit,
back everything that anyone tells you be scripture, and not by
just one scripture but all of them that you can find on the
subject. This is why it is so important to hide the Word of God
in your heart, not just in the mind, but let it become a part of
you and remember that God does not change, and what you read
about him in the Bible still goes for you and your life. PRAISE
GOD FOR HIS NEVER CHANGING - IT'S ABOUT THE ONLY THING WE CAN
COUNT ON TODAY!!!!!!. I am telling you this to warn you that
probably some of the greatest persecution will come from what I
call very religious people, those who go to church regularly and
usually leaders, (this is not always so). That is one of the
questions I asked the Lord when I first started getting static
from the very people that I thought I should be getting support
from. One night while meditating I asked the Lord why this was
so and He said "Read in the Scriptures and find out who
persecuted Me and who it was that had Me turned over to the Roman
soldiers, that was all the answer I needed.

As we continue, we moved again to Augusta, Ga., this time
into almost another time. We met people who were for the most
part no more than one generation away from a Christian or at
least a religious background. It was something else to see the
change in the way most people believe.

Again we got involved in another church, a first Christian
church this time a denomination that both of us were raised in as
small children. We went to this church for almost 1-1/2 years,
we did not go to Sunday School. The preaching and the people
were very friendly, and we enjoyed the services very much, the
pastor preached from the Bible, and had some very good sermons -
(My Word will not return void) -. Finally they talked us into
going to Sunday School, after about 1 month we noticed that what
they taught was a Christ that lived almost 2000 years ago. This
is not the Christ that I had been experiencing for the past 4
years. I started asking questions, and so bringing up
controversy over some of the doctrines that this particular
denomination upheld. They told me that the Gifts of the Spirit
and the Manifestations thereof had ceased in the 1st century, we
no longer could have visions from God, and that the Power was not
available to us. In bringing up some of these things, some
agreed or at least were interested in what I was saying and I was
asked to teach a Bible Study at one of the people's homes. Some
just plain rejected us and suddenly we noticed a difference in
the atmosphere of the church toward us. We started teaching the
Bible Study and several started coming and for a period of about
5 months things went real well, we would start about 7:00 pm and
sometimes it would last until 12:00 or 1:00 in the morning. 
There was in this church a young woman (30) who was on a kidney
dialysis machine, she had epileptic seizures, we had a great
burden for this woman. I will continue this later on.

Shortly after starting the Bible Study I was at work one
night and I walked by this room and smelled a very sweet odor and
it seemed to be coming from the room. I went into the room but
there was nothing in it nor was the smell in it. I came back out
and the smell was gone in the hall. I soon forgot about it and
went on about my work. About 2 nights later I was walking in
another part of the building and experienced the same thing, I
checked it out and again the same thing, it seemed to appear and
disappear suddenly. As time went on this experience happened
more and more often and in different places. This was February,
there were no flowers in bloom and driving down the highway a
strange but very fragrant odor would suddenly appear and then
just as suddenly be gone. I told no one of my experiences not
even my wife. About a month after this started happening Jimmy
Swaggart was having a crusade in Macon Georgia, we decided to go. 
When we walked into the Civic Center my wife said "Doesn't it
smell good in here", I could not smell anything - I told her that
they probably put some kind of fragrance in the air handling
system. The song service and message was good as they always
are, it was good to see the Lord use someone like that. After
the service we went to a local pizza parlor, there were only 15
or so people in the place. We ordered our pizza and was sitting
there just talking, all of a sudden this beautiful fragrance
seemed to fill the air, I looked around, no one had walked by,
the closest people were 15' away, I looked at my wife and asked
if she smelled anything and she said, yes, I smell pizza. I
proceeded to tell her of the fragrance that I had smelled,
needless to say she looked at me excitedly. We hadn't talked
more that 2 or 3 minutes when she said, "What is that smell"? "I
asked her what it smelled like", and she said, "Roses, the most
beautiful Rose aroma I have ever smelled." She asked me what the
smell was and I said I didn't know but that I had been
experiencing it for about 1 month, we talked about it but could
not come to any conclusion. We were there for about 45 minutes
after that and the fragrance would come and go, one minute it
would be there and then it would just disappear.

We left the pizza parlor and started back to the motel, 3 or
4 times going to the motel the fragrance would just fill the car
and then just as suddenly disappear. When we got to the motel my
wife said, "I wonder if we will smell it anymore"? We did, not
too long after we arrived it seemed to fill the entire room and
yet it wasn't in the whole room. We talked about this for some
time, we talked about what this fragrance could be, but we did
not come to any conclusion, but we were as excited and thrilled
as we could be.

The next morning we got up (it was Sunday), we could not
seem to find a church to go to, so we ate an early dinner and
started back home. The drive was about 2 hours long. The whole
time we drove the fragrance would, suddenly appear and then just
as suddenly disappear, first Donna would smell it and then I
would smell it, it seemed to fill the whole car, I can only say
it was the most beautiful fragrance that I have ever experienced. 
When we arrived home, we pulled into the driveway and our oldest
son who lived 2 blocks down the street pulled in next to us. We
went into the house and we told him about what we had
experienced. He accepted what we said with some disbelief. 
Later on that afternoon our daughter came over and we told her
the same story, she accepted it in the same manner as our son,
somewhat skeptical. To this point we had not said anything to
our youngest son, who was 16 years old at the time.

We went to church that night and believe it or not, we
smelled it in church. No one else did so that shows how totally
localized it was. We did not say anything to anyone about what
we had experienced but we did ask people around us if they
smelled anything different?, their response was "No". We came
home and my usual project on Sunday night was to set up the tape
recorder and the small T.V. to tape Charles Stanley, who is a
very good teacher who appeared on cable T.V. As I was setting up
the tape player in the bedroom, the fragrance appeared stronger
than I had ever experienced it before. I called our youngest son
into the bedroom and asked him if he could smell anything? He
said "no". I called him around on the other side of the bed,
when he got back there, he asked, "What is that smell?. I asked
him what it smelled like, and he said, "It smells like rose
perfume, but it puts that to shame." I then went into the
kitchen and called our other son and asked him to come up to our
house. When he got there, he walked in and stood in the doorway,
not knowing what to expect. Almost immediately he smelled the
aroma, his eyes filled with tears, he asked, "What is that
smell"? Again, I asked him, What it smelled like and he said,
"Roses". We then discussed it trying to figure out what this
strange thing was. I called our daughter, I explained to her
again what was going on, she said, she had just put the kids to
bed and could not come over, later I found out why. I then got
the Bible Concordance and started searching scriptures for
anything that might have to do with aroma or smells. I found
nothing. I have learned no matter what a person experiences you
should back it with God's Word. During this time our 2 sons were
sitting at the table with me, Donna was doing some small chores
around the house, in moving around she would suddenly say come
over here and we would all get up and go to where she was
standing, and when we did the fragrance would be in that spot. 
Then one of the boys would move to a spot in the dining room and
it would be there. We all laughed and acted like kids enjoying
this experience. If we would have sense we all would have been
prostrate on the floor worshipping the Lord. But we feel Jesus
was laughing with us in all this glory. I have tried to explain
this in every logical manner I know. As I said, "It was the last
of February, the furnace was running and yet the fragrance would
not be throughout the house". As I searched the concordance I
could not find anything concerning this thing, and just as
suddenly a word came to mind (savior) so I looked it up in the
concordance and there were about 50 verses concerning this, and a
lot of them concerned sacrifice. As we went to bed that night my
wife said, "I wonder if we will smell it again"? I answered, "I
don't know." About 1:00 am she woke up, I had not gone to sleep
yet, and she said, "it was like the whole room was filled with
the aroma, we laid there for a while just overwhelmed by it all. 
That was the last time she experienced smelling the aroma. As I
have said earlier we are to be a living sacrifice, I can only
say, draw your own conclusions. At this time I was working
nights, and I was helping our pastor do some remodeling to his
home. I went into his house the next day to do some work, he had
used the table saw over the weekend and the blade was dull. So I
took it off and went to have it sharpened, the place I took it
was just 2 blocks from my daughter's house, so I stopped by. I
knocked on the door and as I went in my daughter was sitting on
the couch, I noticed she had a strange look on her face but I
didn't say anything at the time. I was there about 2 minutes and
she looked over at me and said "Dad I smell it!", we talked some,
I tried to explain what it was. I could not stay because I had
to go to work. As I arrived home my daughter and my wife were
talking on the phone. She had said to my wife, "Mom I smell it
- I smell it", and Donna - not knowing I had gone to Susan's,
said, Is your dad there?'. When I walked in the door Donna told
me that Susan said, "I had left someone at her house." She said
that for 15 minutes after I had left she sat on the couch afraid
to move, she said that it seemed to be setting on the couch next
to her.

This fragrance became more frequent until it seemed that all
I had to do was think about it and it was there. (BOY YOU TALK
ABOUT WALKING ON CLOUD NINE). One night as my Son-in-Law and I
were returning from work, we were in a 1974 Datsun pickup truck
(small) this fragrance seemed to fill the whole truck, it was as
though someone had dumped a whole bottle of perfume in the cab. 
I sat for about 5 minutes waiting for him to say something about
this fragrance, he said nothing. I finally said, "Don't you
smell?", as I said those words the fragrance disappeared, and the
truck was as void of the fragrance as if it had never happened. 
All this took place over a 4 month period. I have not smelled it
to that degree again. I know now that it was a special anointing
for a special purpose.

As I have said only my immediate family smelled this. My
daughter-in-law was visiting her parents, and even though my
son-in-law was in the same truck, he did not smell it. It is
impossible to explain, words cannot describe what happened, as
one person said - you may argue with my theology but you cannot
argue with my experiences!

To go on to explain what this was all about I will try to do
- As I said there was this young woman in church with all these
things wrong with her. God revealed to me that she would be
delivered from all this if we would just believe. As we
continued to believe God, our daughter, (who had begun to have a
very close walk with the Lord, after her experience with the
aroma.), had a vision and in that vision she saw this woman in
our rocking chair, with a particular blanket we have, laid across
it and she was sitting in the chair with the Bible study group
laying hands on her, and she was to leave that chair completely
healed! Then one week the people that were having the Bible
study could not have it at their home, and another person had
invited this woman to the Bible study which meant she was going
to be at our house. Every thing seemed to be falling into place,
the night came and because of my unbelief and doubt we didn't go
through with the vision, and thus the healing did not take place. 
I take full responsibility for not following the Lord's will. If
you want to be miserable have the Lord lead you to do something
and not do it, because I know it was the Lord's will for her to
be healed. It is the Lord's will for all persons who have been
afflicted by satan to be healed or Jesus Christ would not have
made it so much a part of His ministry. I understand now that
the anointing that I had received was for that purpose, and now
having failed my Lord I am living with much regret, (for our
young friend Joyce, died a short time later), and yet praising
the Lord for allowing me an opportunity to even do as much as
fail, hoping there will be a next time and that I won't be so
weak and give in to the (spirit of doubt and unbelief), which
definitely are not of the Holy Spirit.

It was during this time that the Holy Spirit taught me about
intercessory prayer, (before Joyce died). The ladies of the
church were taking turns driving her back and forth for her
treatments at the hospital. One day she called the lady that was
handling coordinating the women in the car pool and told her that
it would not be necessary for them to drive her to and from her
appointments, so the lady asked, "is there anything else they
could do for her?", she said "yes, that they could raise her 13
year old daughter", but she did not elaborate as to what she
meant. The message reached us just as I was about to go to work. 
Immediately I thought something was going on and that maybe she
was thinking about killing herself. As I left for work I was
quite concerned about her and that night whenever I had a chance
I would stop and pray, I would rebuke satan in her behalf and
anything else I could think of. Around supper time I noticed
that I was so tired that I could hardly walk, if I wanted to go
from one place to another I had to force myself, finally I went
home. Now I had a good night's sleep the day before so there was
no cause for me being tired, that was on Thursday night. The
following Sunday at church I noticed that this young woman seemed
to look different, because always before, even though she seemed
to always have a smile on her face you could tell she was tired,
Monday was her day for treatment. The pastor was about to start
his sermon when she raised her hand and asked if she could give a
testimony? When he said "yes" she began to tell how all of a
sudden on Thursday night she felt this sudden burst of energy,
she could not explain it, but she said she had not felt better in
her life. At that time I did not connect her feeling better with
my becoming so tired, in fact it was much later that the Lord
revealed to me what had happened. He reminded me of the woman
with the issue of blood that she had for 12 yrs and the
physicians had not helped. She said "If I can but touch the hem
of His garment I will be healed", and she touched His garment. 
Jesus turned around and said who touched me?, His disciples asked
Him, "You asked who touched you with this crowd around you?". 
His reply was "someone touched me for I felt virtue or (power)
leave me". So when we have a true burden for someone and we
really care about what happens to them, if we pray in earnest
then there should be power leave us and actually go to that
person and they will receive strength, now whether you are
rebuking satan on their behalf or strength is going to them
either way they will be helped. In allowing the Holy Spirit to
operate through you, you must have a compassion for others or
(LOVE), this Love is God's Love manifested through an earthen
vessel and Paul would say, and that is just what we are a vessel
to be used of God to benefit others. The true definition of Love
is "sacrifice", giving of one's self for others, this is what God
has called us to do. This is what Jesus Christ did for us and
after all was He not setting an example for us to follow? 
Christian does mean to be Christ like.

There are many other things that the Lord has revealed to me
and has performed many miracles in my behalf, and I am forever
grateful that He is a forgiving Father. Who else would allow us
to fail so miserably and still forgive us? The secret is not
being perfect, though we should, the key to Christianity is
constantly reminding yourself of who you are and who God is and
noticing the great gap between and understanding that yielding to
Him, will allow Him to close that gap, and draw us nearer to
Himself. Just be content with who you are and not what you are. 
Remember you are a child of the Most High God, and any way you
look at it that is quite an honor. And also that He chose you,
you did not choose Him, and that is according to scripture. We
are His by adoption, if we choose to accept His Perfect Gift -
The sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ for our sins - and all He
wants is a willing vessel through which He can continue to serve
His Chosen Ones, His Body the Church (and I don't mean a
denomination or an organization) but a living, vibrant, organism
- something alive, and no denomination fills the bill. Just as
matter of record take the first 5 letters of denomination, change
2 letters around and look what you have - denom - demon - another
one santa - satan - no letters replaced just switched - just
something to think about. To nominate means to bring together
when you put (de) in front of it, it means to divide and I
believe that satan is using denominations to divide the Body of
Christ, because divided there is no power. I also believe that
satan will bring together denominations and bring forth a
symbolence of unity when in fact there will be no unity, because
each one will want to keep their own little beliefs that divided
them in the first place. But, I am seeing people being raised up
in every denomination who, are truly seeking the Lord and they
are being used as lights within each denomination who, but as in
the days of old, there are some who just don't want to see the
light, and would not recognize light other than the fact that it
reveals the darkness within themselves, and that they don't want
done. There is a passage of scripture that several years ago I
ran across and I didn't understand - Revelation 3-15 I know thy
works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold
or hot. I pondered this passage for a long time before the Lord
gave me the meaning. One night while I was meditating on the
Word this verse came to mind, and so I asked Him what it meant,
because I thought it would be better to be Luke warm rather than
cold. He explained, that when He was in one body, the body of
Jesus of Nazareth that there were three basic kinds of people, 1. 
Those who were truly seeking Him. - 2. Those who were very
religious - 3. Those who were demon possessed." Now if you will
think back to what the Bible has to say about it, this is what
you will come up with. 1. Those who were truly seeking Him
always found and recognized Him, they may have followed without
full understanding, but they still followed Him. 2. The Demon
possessed, they were probably the very first to recognize Him and
they always tried to reveal who He was, and they also recognized
and knew the Power He had available to Him, I would be safe in
saying that today the safest place for a demon today is in most
churches because that is satan's stronghold. 3. The ones who
didn't recognize Him were the religious crowd, they would not
recognize the Power of God in operation in and through man, in
fact they said He was demon possessed, that it was the power of
satan operating through Him, how sad. In facto most religious
denominations will say the same thing today. We are entering
into the Latter Reign of Jesus Christ but many are not going to
recognize it. He revealed to me that He came in the Flesh to set
up His Spiritual Kingdom and now He is coming in the Spirit to
set up His earthly Kingdom. I think the thing that surprises me
most is the fact that the static I get is from the religious
crowd, the worldly people will write you off as some kind of a
harmless kook. Jesus was no threat to the Romans, He was a
threat to the religious leader of His day.

I hope as you read this, that it will give you some insight
as to similar things that may be happening in your life, or that
there is more to Christianity than just going to church on Sunday
(although I believe that is necessary), you see He set up His
Church so that all the members would minister to each other, and
the Shepherd or Minister in nothing more than an overseer, he is
to keep his flock in green pastures, so they don't starve to
death spiritually. A very tough and demanding assignment. May
the Spirit of Light open your spiritual eyes and give you
understanding. Remember that each one of us are to be
ministering the GOSPEL which covers every need of the Body of
Christ. I believe that when a person is lost, they need
Salvation, when a person is sick, they need healing, anointing
with oil and the prayer of faith and intercessory prayer (power
prayer), when a person is in need of finances they may need help
- (they may need to be taught how to manage money) but I think it
is all a part of the Ministry of Our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ) and let Him have the HONOR and GLORY and let us just be
vessels used by Him to complete God's calling for us, AMEN!!! 

Love In Christ
Harold Stopher