Ecstasies, Trances and Raptures

The Ecstacy of Loving God: Trances, Raptures and the Supernatural Pleasures of Jesus Christ by John Crowder
(Preview with Amazon's "Look Inside" feature.)

"Though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with inexpressible joy and full of glory" (1 Peter 1:8 NASB)

It is time to return the joy of the Lord to everyday Christian life. The Greek term for ecstasy is linked with the pleasurable, God-given state of  out-of-body experience recor4ed throughout the New Testament and the Church age.

Author John Crowder shows you how God's active interaction with men and women through the ages has always been marked by supernatural experiences. More than a state of mind, you will see how the nature of God's ecstasy is found in the joy, bliss and inner raptures of His presence.

You will also:

• Learn the history of trances in revival ministries.
• Gain a biblical understanding of Christian mysticism.
• Explore the ecstatic states of prayer and spritual trances.
• Learn how to walk in continued joy and pleasure before the Father.
• Examine miraculous phenomena.
• Be refreshed by the new wind of God's Spirit!
• Be encouraged to drink from the river of His pleasure! (Psalm 36:8)
  

There is no doubt that you can experience the joy and ecstasy of His presence every day of your life.

Ecstasy, or extasis, is the Greek term for trance, and is linked with a pleasurable, God-given state of out-of-body experience recorded throughout the New Testament and the church age. Starting with the apostles ecstatic experiences on Pentecost, the Book of Acts further records trances in the lives of Peter and Paul. From the early church to the Christian mystics of the Middle Ages and the famous revivalists of centuries present, God s movements on the earth have always been marked by these supernatural experiences. In this book, John Crowder takes us on a journey from Old Testament ecstatic prophets such as Samuel and Elijah, to the future ecstatics who will usher in a massive wave of harvest Glory to the streets in these last days. God has always wanted a people who live in the Heavens, even as they walk on the Earth. And the world is hungry for the demonstration of a gospel of supernatural power that flows from a life of divine pleasure.

"The Church has long been amiss in not understanding ecstasy, indeed nearly all our high experiences in our Lord's loving presence. We tend to revile what we don't understand. We have often reacted to the word ecstasy as though it means some kind of off-kilter wildness that needs to be avoided in the name of common sense and balance. John Crowder's book dispels fear and gives historical understanding and wisdom, properly enticing all of us into loving encounters with our Lord. In this time, when the Holy Spirit is calling us all into intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ, this book is greatly needed and should be welcomed by all Christians who seek His face." — John Sandford, Cofounder, Elijah House Ministries

"Combining a depth of historical research and passion for Jesus, John Crowder brings together a rare blend for an emerging generation voice. His writings inspire me, challenge men, and make me turn my head. His calling to take the historical orthodoxy of the Holy Spirit packaged into a 'today's style' is an amazing work of art." — James W. Goll, Cofounder, Encounters Network and Prayer Storm Director

The Miracle Ministry of Revivalist Roger Webb

Roger Webb, an evangelist based in Orlando, FL, is seeing the healing, miracle-working power of God regularly at his meetings. Sometimes broadcast on Ustream, his meetings have brought forth numerous miracles in viewers and he has received many healing testimonies at his Facebook page. He reports some of these here, including: knees healed, dental miracles, torn rotator cuff no longer torn, and relief from asthma, bronchitis, firbromyalgia, and various other pains and afflictions. Also included are healing testimonies — too many to list here — from recent meetings in Fowlerville, MI and Cleveland, OH.

Here is a statement from his web page (www.rogerwebb.org) that speaks of his purpose:

With a mandate, Evangelist Roger Webb is giving a voice to a Sound From Heaven. Boldly declaring a fresh word from Heaven backed by Kingdom signs. The battering ram of the miracle anointing shatter the strongholds placed upon people's lives and pierces through the darkness. An earmark of Back to God Miracle Campaigns is the visible display of the Kingdom of God with in your face miracles!

Focused intent:

1. Calling individuals to turn back to God.
2. Rallying the church to prayer.
3. Fresh baptism of power.
4. Outreach - reaching beyond the walls of our buildings with that power.
5. Miracles for the sick and diseased during each service.

At a revival meeting at Plainwell Assembly of God (Plainwell, MI), Webb reports numerous emotional and physical healings, including:

• A sixteen year old girl with scoliosis found her back was straight after Roger prayed for her.
• A ninety-one year old woman whose broken fingers had been improperly set — the doctor said she would never be able to close her fist completely — received prayer and was able to close her fist with ease. She also prayed that night to receive Christ.
• A pastor who suffered with arthritis received healing prayer and was instantly healed. He went away pain-free.
  
• After the laying on of hands, an elderly man with bad back, knees and elbows was able to move without pain.
• His wife, who suffered from emphysema and had one lung removed, coughed up phlegm during the meeting. At the end, when Roger prayed for her, she coughed up what phlegm was remaining and, to her surprise, found her lung was clear.
  
• A thirteen year old girl was healed of stomach cramp pain.
• Here mother was also healed of a particular pain.
  
• The tumor on a woman's leg disappeared.
  
• Woman healed of bone spurs on spine (She had it for 6 years), and growth on her neck disappeared (it was the size of a small egg).
• Man healed of Multiple Sclerosis (had for 17 years).
• Woman healed of degenerative arthritis in her hips (she called friend and friend was healed of bone spurs on spine also).
• Man healed of injured knee (came in walking on cane left carrying it!).
• Woman's little finger healed.
• Man had financial miracle for his business.
• Woman's wrist and ear healed.
• Man healed of TMJ (a jaw condition).
• Woman healed of digestive problems.

God is still doing today what He has always done in and through His Church.

Heidi Baker: Intimacy for Miracles

Heidi Baker tells of numerous miracles that have occurred in Mozambique with Iris Ministries.




Compelled by Love: How to Change the World Through the Simple Power of Love in Action by Heidi Baker and Shara Pradhan

(Preview with Amazon's "Look Inside" feature.)




Expecting Miracles: True Stories of God's Supernatural Power and How You Can Experience It by Heidi and Rolland Baker

(Preview with Amazon's "Look Inside" feature.)

Christian Healing Testimonies

Here is a blog devoted to Christian healing testimonies: Testimony Share.

Healing in a Grocery Store

Pastor Bill Johnson shares the testimony of a young man from his church who ministered the healing power of Jesus Christ in a grocery store. "If it doesn't work in the marketplace, it doesn't work," says Johnson.

One woman is healed of deafness, another has her hip healed, a musician with carpal tunnel is healed. The young man preached the gospel and these folks received the Lord Jesus Christ.



God is still doing what He has always done.

2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity

2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity:
A 21st Century Look at Church History from a Pentecostal/Charismatic Perspective
by Eddie L. Hyatt

(Preview with Amazon's "Look Inside" feature.)

Overwhelming evidence reveals contemporary Christianity roots in Pentecost!

The world is taking notice and realizing that the fastest-growing segment in Christianity has an undeniable history with a pattern and a rich, deep foundation dating back to the New Testament. Explore overwhelming evidence that reveals how the gifts of the Holy Spirit not only have existed in the centuries since the early apostles, but have also survived the Middle Ages, the politicized church of Europe, and have experienced a spectacular revival this century.

2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity offers convincing evidence that the modern Pentecostal and Charismatic movements are rooted in the two-thousand-year history of the church. Those who identify with these movements will be affirmed in the experience of the Holy Spirit and will gain a new respect and appreciation for the movement of which they are a part. Those outside the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements will also benefit by reading this volume in that they will gain an understanding of this movement that Harvard professor Dr. Harvey Cox says is "reshaping religion in the 21st century."

This book was one of the inspirations for my book Miracles and Manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the History of the Church. It provided a good overview and summary which helped me compile much original source material on how the gifts of the Holy Spirit have been revealed through the centuries.

Expect God’s Mighty Acts Today

Reading Bill Johnson’s book, Release the Power of Jesus, I came across a sermon quote from Charles Haddon Spurgeon. I include it here, with a bit more from that sermon, because it is so good about expecting to see the power of God today:

When people hear about what God used to do, one of the things they say is: “Oh, that was a very long while ago.” They imagine that times have altered since then …Things were in a different state then from what they are now.” Granted; but I want to know what the things have to do with it. I thought it was God that did it.

Has God changed? Is He not an immutable God, the same yesterday, today and forever? Does not that furnish an argument to prove that what God has done at one time He can do at another? Nay, I think I may push it a little further, and say what He has done once is a prophecy of what He intends to do again — that the mighty works which have been accomplished in the olden time shall all be repeated, and the Lord's song shall be sung again in Zion, and He shall again be greatly glorified.

Others among you say, “Oh, well I look upon these things as great prodigies — miracles. We are not to expect them every day.” That is the very reason why we do not get them. If we had learned to expect them, we should no doubt obtain them, but we put them up on the shelf, as being out of the common order of our moderate religion, as being mere curiosities of Scripture history. We imagine such things, however true, to be prodigies of providence; we cannot imagine them to be according to the ordinary working of His mighty power. I beseech you, my friends, abjure that idea, put it out of your mind. (The Story of God’s Mighty Acts)

Spurgeon knew the mighty acts of God in his own day. He knew about the power of faith to heal in Jesus’ name and experienced many remarkable healings in his ministry. He also had frequent “words of knowledge” about things he could not have known unless God had revealed them to him. I have compiled many of these in Miracles and Manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the History of the Church. God is still doing today what He has always done.

Faithpoint: What God has done in the past is a prophecy of what He intends to do again. If we learn to expect it, we shall see it. What is your expectation?

Release the Power of Jesus

This is a new book by Bill Johnson and includes a number of recent healing miracles and testimonies.

Release the Power of Jesus
by Bill Johnson
(Preview it with Amazon's "Look Inside" feature.)

Did you know that there is power in your testmony? When you share stories of how God has healed and anointed your life, it releases the Spirit to move in other people's lives as well. In Release the Power of Jesus Bill Johnson tells how he observed this phenomena in his and others ministry. Filled with inspiring stories of God's amazing power, Release the Power of Jesus will embolden you to share how God has overcome for you.

For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10). Telling others about the miracles in your life makes God more real for others and causes faith to explode in those who hear what God has done for you.They will begin to see miracles in their own lives because of what God did for you! You will discover how to: Encourage His mercy in everyone around you. Leave a legacy of God's work in your life. Live under the influence of His mighty presence. Release the presence of God everywhere you go. Learn how your personal God stories will set your world on fire as you release the power of Jesus today!

"Because of this book, I will never be able to view the word testimony in the same narrow sense as I viewed it before. It will bring readers to the cleaer terms of why we must and how we can release the power of God to bring order amid the chaos of the 21st century." — Jack Taylor, Dimension Ministries

Salvations and Healing Miracles in Nigeria

CharismaMag.com reports that 800,000 accepted Christ in a series of evangelistic meetins recently conducted in Nigeria's Delta State by Rheinhard Bonnke. Many signs and wonders were also reported. According to Bonnke's ministry statement:

The original gospel comes with signs and wonders, and what we witnessed last week was absolutely glorious. Miracles upon miracles. Without the miraculous the gospel would be an empty shell. But Jesus Christ is the same-today. Miracles identify Him.

Miracle reports include:

• The blind receiving sight.
• The lame walking.
• One man said he was healed of HIV/AIDS.
• "One pastor had been shot in the arm by robbers and the arm had died. He had spent a small fortune on doctors trying to save the arm, but they were unable to restore it and so he was scheduled to have it amputated ... After the prayer, he received feeling in his hand again and use of two of his fingers, and his hand was still improving in real time as he gave his testimony."
• A thirty-five year old man who was deaf and mute from birth, received his hearing and was able to repeat words after healing prayer.
• A thirty-two year old man born lame no longer had to crawl around but was able to get up and walk.
• A woman who was injured in an accident and unable to walk correctly demonstrated her healing by leaping on the platform.
• Tens of thousands received the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Bonnke said,

We ought to have a blazing neon sign in every church with the words: "This Same Jesus." The Jesus we point to is the Jesus of saving grace, miracle power and healing mercy. What He was in the past He still is today. What He did in days gone by He still does in our day. When we preach Jesus as He is, He reveals Himself in confirmation of what is said."

You can find this report here.

God is still doing today what He has always done in His Church.

Healing Miracles in a Netherlands Pub

Joel News International reports on an unusual "miracles and healing" meeting that took place in a Netherlands pub, where many were healed in the name of Jesus. According to organizer Marjan Spijkman,

Nine people, mainly women from the neighborhood, showed up ... God was powerfully present and healed them from reuma [rheumatism], emotional wounds, urination problems, and other hurts. One woman, who was nearly deaf, could hear again, to the surprise of her daughter and the other guests. You know, these women have a reputation in their neighborhood for being hard and bitter. But Jesus Christ touched them, they cried in our arms. Afterwards two women applied for an introductory course about Jesus. The owners of the pub invited us back and suggested that we would use the larger room in the pub, as they are expecting more people to come.

Thorugh believers like Marjan, Jesus is still doing today what He did two thousand years ago, going to where the needy are and bringing them salvation and healing.