She Can See
March 18, 2005
Bakersfield, CA
GOD HAD IT ALL SET UP
What do you do when you’re the son of the founding pastor and your mother, his wife of almost 50 years, dies from cancer? To compound that, several other leader’s spouses have also died from cancer. For David, now pastoring the Bakersfield Community Church, there was never an option. Those were the circumstances when we met in Redding this past November. It was a God set-up, as he asked Carol and me to pray for a greater healing anointing. Well, God blasted him, and later his staff when we were invited to pray for them. From that came an invitation to come to their church for a weekend of pouring into the leaders and prayer ministry team for a greater healing anointing. As it turned out, it was a year almost to the day of this past weekend when David’s mother died. What is important with this church and its leaders is that while it hurts terrifically, they haven’t backed away from believing for healing—if anything they’re pressing in even more. They just needed a little “boost” and that’s what we were there to provide.
WE CAME OUT LIKE THE “ENERGIZER BUNNY”
We had a glorious time. It was interesting to view everyone’s reaction when we told them we were going to Bakersfield. It doesn’t get the highest respect. But maybe it’s just the kind of place God likes to pour out His special anointing. This church, Bakersfield Community Church, is awesome. Solid leaders, great people, dept free, great worship, vision, and a sense of the destiny on them. And hungry!! If it hadn’t been all so great, they would have worn us out. We ministered Friday night, all day Saturday and then that night, led the Sunday morning service and held a healing service that night. Where that kind of schedule can sometimes tire you out, we were energized—the anointing and presence of God was just so strong. There were so many things that happened with different people, but I’ll focus on just two.
“THERE’S NOT GOING TO BE FALLING, IS THERE?”
I noticed one young woman sitting with our contact person and she often looked like the proverbial “deer in the headlights.” I had a sense she was a little uncomfortable, and it was fully realized when we went into ministry time. With most of the floor of the room littered with bodies, I took her by the hand and led her around the room, stopping to have her lay hands on several who were sitting up. Of course, the power of God flowed thru her and down they went again. I told her she was a “carrier of the Glory” and that got her attention. She loves the Lord but she just hasn’t been comfortable with all the manifestations. What I didn’t realize until later was she had whispered to our host before we began ministering “people aren’t going to be falling are they?” Just one of her fears. She came back the next day and even entered into praying for someone when we went into clinic time. Then I got to pray for her—and God became more real than ever before to her. And she did what she feared the most—she laughed! The next day she gave her testimony to the church, exhorting them not to give into fear and not to hold back from God! I live for those moments. Another “little ole me” released.
A SPIRITUAL BATTLE—WE’RE BREAKING A STRONGHOLD
Sunday night, we held a healing service. I taught on “The Four Degrees of Faith.” And I think I learned a valuable lesson. As I started to speak, taking care of details, establishing a connection with them, praying for the ministry team, there was such a great response from them. But as soon as I began to teach it was like they sort of glazed over. It’s not that they weren’t with me—they just weren’t with me in the same way. I believe it’s that spirit of unbelief that hangs over the North American church. It’s a stronghold and when you come against this you’re doing spiritual battle. Carol encountered the same type of thing several weeks ago when she led the Healing Service at our church. What we’ve finally realized now is we’re in a spiritual battle when we take on such subjects. In hindsight, I think we should have exposed it right then, recognized it for what it is, and done battle in the Spirit against it to stir up faith.
SHE CAN SEE!! AND, HIS LOVE CASCADES DOWN UPON HER
But God is so faithful—He came in great power anyway. So many healings, and so many of the prayer ministry team being used. But for one woman, it was definitely her night. Dolores has (had) a degenerative eye disease that was causing her go blind in her right eye, and is supposed to eventually affect the other eye. Our host went and knocked on her door before the service and encouraged her to come. Two important lessons there—the faith of others can really be important, and most times we have to “come” to where Jesus is. That “He knows where I live if He wants to heal me” kind of thinking isn’t helpful most of the time. During the ministry time, I suddenly felt a tug on my trousers and looked down to see a little five year old girl looking up at me. She said, “could you pray for my mommy, she’s going blind?” I melted—how could you resist that? I had Dolores look toward the back of the room where a bulletin board was and she couldn’t see anything on it—all a blur. I prayed for about 5-10 minutes and then checked in with her. It was the emotion that tipped me off first. She dissolved in tears and buried her head in her hands. When I finally could get her to look, she could describe all the pictures on the board, and pick out the flags of several nations that were pinned on it. Then it hit me. Carol and I had talked about it on the drive down. It’s “His kindness that leads to repentance (changing of the mind).” He’s the kindest person we know, and He loves to pour out His love. He did that with the healing and now He wanted to take her further. Sometimes you can tell by the countenance or features of a person that they’ve had it hard, that they’re carrying some baggage. So, I prayed for her and the Father washed over her like a great wave of liquid love. Down she went. After praying for her some more and giving her instructions to just “soak” in the anointing, she remained down for another hour and a half. When she got up, she was smiling and she said she felt “lighter”. Moreover—she looked different!! His love brings the opportunity for heaven to break into earth and accelerate the changes to any situation. Once again—WOW.
BUSY APRIL
In two weeks we will be at The Lighthouse in Santa Rosa, CA. to do training on “Setting The Captives Free.” The following weekend, we will be back in Santa Rosa at Hope Chapel West, and then we will be doing three weekends of our “Takin’ It To The Steets Healing School.” Check our website for details. If you’d like to know more about how to overcome the fear of taking the power of God into the marketplace, or if you’re interested in having a Healing Service, please feel free to contact us. Blessings.
Bill & Carol Dew
Dewnamis Ministries, Inc.
dewnamis@sbcglobal.net
www.dewnamis.com
