I don't know why but this is one of my favorite chapters in my sequel.  For
those who haven't read it, it runs about 825 lines in length.  I was reading
it today, for some reason, and felt strongly led to put it on echurch.  You
won't be sorry you read it and there are no scarey parts.  In fact, if you
are normal, like me for example, smile, you will cry and you will laugh.  I
always do both every time I read this chapter.  It is copyrighted 2007 and
although it will show up on the listserver archives to the public, I still
felt led to post it here today.  I hope it helps somebody.

snip snip

                              CHAPTER 15

                           RESCUING A WITCH



Ralph got there early and was led to the booth in the back corner
where it was always quiet.  He ordered coffee and said he was waiting
for Pastor Tom so he'd order breakfast later.
     As he sipped his hot black coffee, he examined his thoughts and
feelings.  He felt confused so he knew from personal experience, that
certainly wasn't God.  He was still troubled in his emotions, though.
     "Hi, Ralph," Tom said as he took his place across from him.
     The waitress came right over and said, "What you want?"
     Tom looked up.  "Are you still working here old woman?" he said
without a smile.
     "I ain't too old to turn you over my knee and tan your hide,
Pastor," she grumbled.  "So you best be minding your manners."
     "I keep telling you to quit.  You've made so much money just off
of old Ralph and me, you could have retired 10 years ago."
     "And what, pray tell, would I do at home all day?" she huffed.
     "Well, relax, watch your favorite TV programs, read, take naps 2
or 3 times a day, go for walks, soak your false teeth, eat snacks all
day, and pray for your pastor more."
     "Yeah, right.  These are my original teeth," and she grinned,
forcing her lips back to reveal her white teeth.  What you boys want
for breakfast; it's on the house."
     "No it ain't," Tom said.  I get paid well enough to pay my own
way and so does this preacher sitting across from me."
     "I'm going to put a head on you like a house cat," Maybel
groused, "if you don't pay attention preacher boy.  I said it is on
the house and since I own the joint, I can do whatever I want."
     "Will you take a tip then?" Tom asked; grinning.
     "Nope.  Order."
     The two men laughed and placed their orders.
     "Hurry up with that order," Tom complained.  "I'm hungry."
     "Just for that," the 80 year old woman said as she walked away,
"I'll tell my daughter to cook slowly."
     "That old gal sure is amazing, Tom," Ralph commented.
     "More than that," Tom replied, "she is the best intercessor we
got in the place.  She never misses a prayer meeting or church service
and she yells amen and praise God louder than anybody in the building.
I honestly don't know what we'd do without her.  She loves the Lord,
and knows Him, too, better than any Christian I have ever meant.  I've
learned more from her over the years pastoring than any other single
person and I'm not just being generous either.  Those are truly her
original teeth, too," he smiled.
     "I can believe it, brother," Ralph answered.
     They went back to sipping their hot coffee and after Maybel came
and warmed their cups and walked away, Tom said, "What's up, Brother?"
"I know you are trying to cover it up but I can tell something is
bothering you."
     Ralph stared at Tom but wasn't surprised at his insight and said
as much.  "Well, Tom, I'm thinking of resigning the church," Ralph
finally admitted.
     Tom laughed.  "Join the club.  I've said that about 50 times in
the last couple of years alone.  Just 8 months ago, I even read my
resignation from the pulpit on a Sunday morning.  More than half the
church stood to their feet and said they weren't accepting my
resignation so to shut up and start preaching.  So, I did, and
withdrew my resignation."
     "I'm serious, Tom."
     "I know you are and so am I but it isn't like you haven't told me
this before, you know."
     "This is different," Ralph said speculatively.
     "How so, Brother?" Tom asked.
     "I don't know.  It just feels different to me."
     "What does?"
     "The whole ministry.  The church and everything, I guess."
     "It should.  Your church is twice the size of mine.  The scope of
your ministry has gone international.  Literally tens of thousands of
people have come to know Christ around the world, and thousands inside
prison walls, thanks to Jimmy, and your church has become an
intercessors central hub for the country.  For that matter, the
Hamilton's donated their 1 billion dollars to the ministry for the
spread of the Gospel and Jimmy's legacy and book distribution.  Few
churches can boast of something like that.  With it comes a boat load
of responsibilities, too.  Maybe you are just worn out?" Tom
suggested.
     "That's not it, although I thought about that, but something
isn't right.  Besides, the Hamilton's have over 200 million dollars
from investments and his law practice so they aren't living poor but
God bless them, a billion is still more than I can comprehend."
     "I know all that.  Then maybe we just need to be praying together
about it and find out what.  I think I already know what it is,
however," Tom said matter of factly.
     "You do?"
     "I think so but what do you think it is?"
     "Tom, I honestly don't know."
     "I think you do so tell me if I am right.  Not too terribly long
ago, you killed a man up on the mesa."  Tom stopped there and waited.
     "That feels like it is in the right area, I believe," Ralph
reported.
     "Well, you know how PTSD works.  We've sure prayed through things
along those lines many times."
     "I know," was all Ralph said in reply.
     "Well, don't you think that could have triggered some old things
in the past relating to all the people you killed in Vietnam?"
     "Tom," Ralph protested, "we prayed into so many of those areas of
my past, I've lost count.  Plus, the Holy Spirit has taken me,
literally, to hundreds of other war memories that needed healing and
mind renewing."
     "So," Tom countered.  "You suppose god is all done with you now
just because you've been healed hundreds of times?"
     "Well, no.  I don't think that but you would suppose by now, I
wouldn't have such things that bothered me."
     Tom laughed.  "Sounds like a little pride creeping in to the
picture."
     Ralph looked up from his coffee cup.  "I never thought of pride
being an issue but that makes perfect sense."
     "Ralph," Tom said, "pride is a killer and comes in many different
forms and colors.  Believe me; I know.  I have been triggered dozens
of times over the years that ended up in areas of pride that I never
knew was there.  In fact, I think it is my number one area of healing
for me.  Everybody seems to have a particular area that the Lord
focuses on because he knows we needs those areas fixed.  For some, it
is sex.  Others face fear.  It can be physical, emotional, spiritual,
or mental.  It can be money and that means maybe too little or a pile
of money you don't know what to do with in the first place.  I remind
you, what you did in the war was both by order and for your country.
Politicians screwed it all up, I know, and thousands up thousands
suffered, not to mention their families and relatives and friends,
I've been to the Vietnam war memorial you know, so I know, as a
result.  You are one of them.  You killed the man up on the mesa,
well, he wasn't a man, he was a murdering heinous evil piece of
garbage.  He is likely responsible for hundreds of drug over doses,
not to mention thousands of addicts he created.  Need I remind you,
you were called back into active duty for the mission and given orders
to kill to stop the spread, or at least, the link of drug smuggling
into this area of the country?  You accomplished your mission, too."
     "I know all that's true, Tom, but you definitely hit on something
with that pride bit.  I've never once even thought of pride being a
blockage."
     "Ralph," he encouraged, "you know exactly how to pray.  Go home
and follow it back to the source.  It's there and it needs healing.
It is a wound, a scabbed over a scar, and Jesus wants to make it
whole."
     "How do you know?" Ralph said, knowing the answer already.
     "I was praying for you about a month ago and the Lord spoke to my
spirit and told me."
     "Why didn't you say something before now?" Ralph wanted to know.
     "You're a mature Christian man.  You don't need me telling you
everything.  Right now, you already know something of what's going on.
Besides, It wasn't time.  You know how God works.  Everything is on
His time; not ours."
     "You are right.  I'm forgetting the basics, I guess."
     "We all do that.  We are together on this thing, Ralph, because
we are brothers.  Don't ever forget that.  If you don't get any where,
call me, or use one of your people at church, and pray together with
someone so we can be in agreement.  I'm always available.  Shoot,
you've even prayed with me when I've been facing adversity so don't
let pride block you any more.  Find out where it goes and let Jesus
bring healing."
     Ralph sat for awhile, finished eating and then said, "thanks,
Tom.  That's it.  I feel it.  I don't feel bad about killing the guy
or burning the girl's eye.  I thought I might feel like a judge over
them or something but I have prayed that through and it never once
struck pay dirt.  So, I'm clear on that but this issue of pride
definitely has roots."
     "Go home, ralph, and let Jesus do it up; the whole thing.  If
there's more, He'll show you; you know that."
     Maybel filled coffee cups up a final time and Ralph said,
"There's something else, Tom.  I have had this super strong feeling,
that won't go away, to go to the prison where Flame is incarcerated,
and witness to her."
     "It sounds like God to me," Tom laughed.  "I knew that, too."
     "It figures," ralph laughed.  "I have a feeling she's going to
get saved."
     "I wouldn't be surprised brother."
     Ralph was right, too.
     They tried paying the bill but the woman at the cash registers
shook her head so the two pastors shook hands outside and parted ways
to head back to their own homes.
     After the strip search, Ralph sat across from a man who said, "I
just have a few questions, sir.  First, have you been to a maximum
prison before?"
     "Yes, sir, I have.  More than once."
     "Oh, really.  How so?" he asked almost disinterested.
     "My brother was in max for awhile but eventually was transferred
to death row and then, for his last year, amazingly enough, he lived
in general population."
     "Your brother?" the man said; his eyes widening.
     Ralph shook his head.
     "Who is your brother, if you don't mind me asking," the man
quickly asked.
     "James Hart," Ralph replied casually.
     "James Hart?" the man almost exploded.  "The James Hart?"
     "Yes."
     "Jimmy Hart that wrote the book?"
     "That's him and that's me; his younger brother."
     "I don't believe it; I don't freaking believe it," the man said
twice as loud as was necessary for the size of the small office in
which they were seated.
     "It's true," Ralph confirmed.
     "Pastor Hart?" he said with a question to his voice as he looked
down on the paper Ralph had filled out upon entering the prison.  "You
are Pastor Hart?  The one Jimmy mentions in the book?"
     Ralph smiled.  "That's me, sir."
     The man nearly jumped to his feet, leaned across the desk, his
large belly flopping over his belt and hanging almost down to the desk
top, and stuck out his hand.  As they shook hands, he said
enthusiastically, "Well, it is a pleasure to meet you, Pastor Hart.  I
was Born Again reading Jimmy's book a year ago last week.  My whole
family is saved now as a result.  Jimmy is my hero.  I can't believe
I'm actually meeting his brother.  What a miracle."  He sat back down.
     "I'm thrilled to here you were saved through reading my brother's
book.  To date, at least based upon records we have kept, over 50,000
people have been saved reading Jimmy's book and about 3,000 inmates."
     "Well, I can believe that.  Praise God Almighty," the man
bellowed.  "Wait till the warden hears this.  He got saved two years
ago reading Jimmy's book.  Half this facility is filled with dedicated
Born Again prisoners because of Jimmy's book."
     "Praise the Lord," Ralph said with a smile.  "Old Jimmy is still
leading people to Christ even though he was executed over 3 years
ago."
     "My, oh, my, oh my," the man said in wonderment.
     After several other exchanges, the man said, "Pastor, what are
you doing coming here and wanting to see," he looked back down to his
desk and the paper Ralph had filled out, "Kimberly Janette Garfield?"
     "The Lord told me to come and witness to her."
     "Really?" the man said in utter amazement.
     Ralph nodded his affirmative.
     "Wow," was all the man could think to say.
     Finally, he realized his mouth was wide open and he hadn't said
anything for a considerable time.  "Well, Pastor, this is just
wonderful but I'm going to have to get a clearance from the warden
first.  I don't know what he will say."
     Moments later, the warden enter the room and pumped Ralph's hand.
"What a blessing.  It is my pleasure, Pastor, to meet the brother of
the man whose testimony has saved so many people, including me, and I
just wanted to come down to meet you and to tell you thanks for all
your church and publishing ministry is doing for so many criminals.
"And yes sir re, I'll allow you to meet with Kimberly.  If anybody
ever needed the Lord, that girl surely does.  I've got a meeting to
attend right now but let me sign off on your application to visit her
just to make everything legal."
     When the cheerful warden left, the man behind the desk said,
"Well, that settles that problem but there are some things you need to
know, Pastor."
     Ralph waited.
     "This woman has proved to be dangerous.  You likely know that her
room is 8 by 10 feet.  She has a toilet, a bunk, and a 3 inch by 4
inch window about head high.  The door is solid steel; no bars for
these kind of folk.  Her window, of course, is bullet proof.  She has
a TV built in the wall, recessed, of course, but she has broken the
picture screen three times until we finally put a piece of two inch
think bullet proof glass in front of it.  Her light is also embedded
in the ceiling.  These people try everything.  The walls and the
ceiling are steel, for that matter.  A few months ago, she went into a
rage and slammed her body all around the room.  By the time we got to
her, she was unconscious and was laid up in the infirmary for a month.
At other times, she is as gentle as a lamb."
     "I need to be in her cell with her."
     "We could, of course, chain her and bring her into a safe room
for visitors but she goes ballistic whenever we try that.  Once, God
as my witness, she literally snapped one of the chains.  So you really
don't have much choice.  I'll have two guards standing outside her
door.  We have a camera inside, of course, but these people throw
sh...  I'm sorry, pastor, I'm still trying to learn how to talk as a
Christian.  They throw increment at the guards, they smear urine and
feces all over themselves and the cell walls, and spitting and biting
is a way of life in this place for these lifers.  This girl has teeth
marks all up and down her body and according to the docs, in places
humanly impossible to reach."
     "How is her health otherwise?" Ralph asked.
     We had to sedate her last month but the doc said her physical was
totally normal.  She's just crazy."
     "I know," was all Ralph said, "but I'm hear on a mission from
God.  I can take care of myself, anyhow."
     The man smiled.  "You don't have to convince me, Pastor.  It's
Kimberly you have to control.  She has one eye you know." and it
wasn't a question.
     "I know.  I burned her eye ball out myself with the laser site of
a specialized rifle."
     When the door closed, Ralph stared at the girl in the corner of
the room.  "Hello Kimberly," he said pleasantly.  "My name is Ralph.
Her hair was affright and she looked dirty based upon her face and
skin he could see.  Her smell wasn't too good either.
     "I won't let you rape me," she said with no inflection to her
voice.
     "I won't do that, Kimberly.  I've just come to talk and to be
your friend."
     "I've never had any friends.  Leave," she demanded.
     "I won't stay if you don't wish me to, Kimberly, but I would like
to talk to you for awhile."
     "About what?" she hissed.  "I'm crazy."
     "You aren't crazy," he smiled.  "I know who you are and I know
what is hurting you deep down inside.  I've been personally praying
for you now for many months."
     Her eyes widened in surprise.  She walked to her bed and sat
down.  "I might seduce you," she warned.  "I'm a witch.  I can cast
spells.  I can make you crawl around on all fours and bark like a dog
or crow like a chicken."
     "Not me," he replied.  "You can trust me, Kimberly.  I'm here to
help you.  Sitting on the floor, he began talking to the one eyed
witch as he stared up into her twisted face.
     Later Ralph reported to Tom as they ate breakfast at the cafe
half way between their churches, that he couldn't remember anything
they had talked about."
     "Did she get saved?" Tom asked.
     I was in there 6 hours, Tom.  We prayed many times.  She cried
like a baby and I literally held her at times.  The demons tried their
best but you know how far short they fall compared to the power and
authority of Jesus."
     Tom nodded.
     "She got saved three hours into our chat, if that's what you call
it, and she never once, other than the times I held her, left her
bunk.  Jesus healed things in her as if it were light speed.  I swear
I heard demons bouncing off the metal walls when they left at times."
     "You probably did," Tom laughed.  "Serves them right, too."
     "It was the most incredible thing I have ever seen."
     "What happen to the pride?"
     "What?" Ralph said; caught off guard.
     "You know?  the pride we talked about last time we met."
     "Oh, that," ralph said.  "Jesus healed it.  Without that healing,
I never could have gone and witnessed to that little girl."
     "Anything else?"
     "Yes," Ralph said; lost in thought.  "She asked the guards for
permission to take a shower which she hadn't done for weeks they said
later.  The warden said it was absolutely God when he heard the good
news.  She requested I wait till she came back to her cell.  I did."
     "So what happened before you left."
     "She asked me to please return and I promised I would once a
month.  They gave her fresh prison clothing and standing in her cell,
with two guards standing at the open door with guns out, she threw her
arms around my neck and I hugged her back.  She kissed me on the cheek
and I squeezed her so hard, I lifted her feet clean off the floor.
She said she loved me, Tom, and I could feel it in her voice and in
her body and in her heart.  It was the strongest form of God love I
have ever experienced.  I feel it even now talking about it.  I kissed
her forehead as I let her down and began to cry.
     She said, "Don't cry pastor.  I'm free now but I want you to come
back in case I need more prayer.  The demons are gone.  I mean it,"
she confirmed.  "They are totally gone.  I have never felt this light
before.  I feel clean inside and out."
     I held her hands in mine for long minutes as the tears rolled
down my cheeks.  She let go and touch my dripping tears with her
fingers.
     She prayed, "Lord, thank you for this man.  Bless his ministry
and thank you for saving me."
     Ralph began crying then and so did Tom.  "Brother, I tried to
make an appointment to go see her the next month but she was dead.
She had died in her sleep."  Pulling a piece of paper from his Bible,
he laid it out and pushed it across for Tom to read.
"Dear Pastor Ralph,
     I am going home to see Jesus in my sleep tonight.  Thank you
Pastor ralph for your love and for the love Jesus shined through you
into my heart.  I'm free now forever.  Life was worth it just for
this.  Jesus says for you not to worry because He is coming to get me
and this is His will.
Signed,
Kim.
P.S.  I asked for Jimmy's book and read it.  I will tell your brother
hello for you tonight when I see him."
     The two men were still crying and wiping  there noses as they
drove in the opposite directions to their respective churches.
     Ralph walked to the large pulpit as the music died away.  Laying
his bible down, he opened it.  "Good morning everyone," he said
pleasantly.  A few responded.  "I'm glad for those who are here.  The
rest of you that aren't here, maybe we can make it up to you
eventually,"
     Laughter.
     "I was thinking, as I sat waiting to preach, and I have done this
literally hundreds of times over the years, about how blessed and
honored I am to pastor this church.  We have gone through a lot
together.  Some things were, quite frankly, pretty hairy, too.  That's
an old term we used back in my youth."
     More laughter.
     "I have never once stepped to this podium without feeling humble
and feeling humble isn't my normal way of acting."
     Additional laughter.
     "I really don't want to think about having to build larger
facilities, but the way things have been going,  and as you can see,
and feel, today, the place is packed out.  I see a few chairs set up
out in the vestibule.  A lot of people have gotten saved in this place
and others, I'll have to check the records, and baptized, too, for
that matter.  That would be interesting.  Millions of words have been
prayed, taught, and preached from here as well.  Shoot, some of you
parents were just tiny kids when I first came here.  We even had a
dirt parking lot, for crying out loud, and every time it rained, you
couldn't even park without having to be toed out.  The church even had
to buy a jeep for that very purpose.  Boy, those were the days.
     "You aren't resigning today, are you pastor?" a voice boomed from
the back.
     Ralph laughed.  "I'm sorry.  I guess I was starting to sound like
I was preaching a funeral.  The answer is, no, I am not resigning but
thanks for clearings that up.  I was just reminiscing in my old age, I
guess.  I'm just trying to say, thank you, to everyone for giving me
this privilege of serving the Lord.  It is still hard for me to
believe that people will come to church, dedicated as they can be, and
listen to me preach and even put money in the offering plate.  I just
wanted you all to know how much I appreciate you.  It's like the old
Gospel preacher once said, the ground at the foot of the cross is
level.  I feel so close to everyone in this church and although I've
said it before, I just feel good today and wanted you all to know it."
     "With all that out of the way, I am going just to visit with you
today on a topic which I have never used before at this church.  I
keep a file on my computer which contains all my sermon notes, the
title of the message, if any, and other related information such as
the date of when I preached it.  In this way, I try not to repeat
myself.  I try not to repeat myself," Ralph echoed again.
     Laughter.
     "I'm sure I do repeat things, it isn't that, and some things need
repeating, but I was surprised to find in my records that I have never
preached on this topic.  I don't know why, especially since it changed
my life so much over the years, but apparently I haven't.  If, on the
other hand, you've heard me teach on this subject before, just
consider the source," and Ralph laughed with several others.  "So, no
pulpit pounding or yelling today.  Well, at least I don't think that
will happen."
     "Turn in your bibles to Romans chapter eight.  I won't get there
for awhile because you need to hear some background information first
but I promise, before noon, we will get to the passage of Scripture.
Let's all stand first for a word of prayer."
     When they were once again seated, Ralph said, "I'm preaching
today on The Perfect Will of God.  You boys up in the sound room, now
you know the title of the message, The Perfect Will of God, so you can
put that on the tape and CD when folks request the message.
     As most of you know, when I was pastoring my first church, I had
taken over from a pastor who no longer wanted to be in the ministry.
He had gotten into a business adventure and was making way more money
than the church could pay him so he resigned and turned the church
over to me.  I have no idea why.  Half the church didn't want me for
their pastor so they left.  We had a good 50 people left, though, but
three months of back bills I never knew about until I took over.  God
brought us through and we were all caught up within about 6 months.
     During the next 5 months, however, I had a sneaky spiritual
suspicion that the Lord did not want this church to continue.  I
fought back as hard as I could.  I bound demons, cursed the darkness,
and begged God to let me keep this church.  It was my life's dream to
pastor.  How could god allow it to close?  Yet, the feeling wouldn't
go away because I strongly felt in my spirit that the Lord was saying,
it was never a church and it was an illegitimate church and He wanted
it to close.
     Due to various circumstances, and I don't want to make this a
long story, we did close the church, gave everything the church owned
away to a couple of other churches, and people went their various
ways.  It was the hardest thing I ever experienced.  I cried myself to
sleep for weeks.  A darkness covered me and I began having anxiety
attacks.  I never got any Christian counseling because the way I was
raised, you didn't do that.  I never really was placed on any
medications because the way I was raised, you never did that either.
I simply suffered in my misery.  I eventually told myself, although
now, of course, I know it was the Enemy speaking into my thoughts,
that I had failed myself, my family, and God.  The last one was the
worst of all.  I had failed God.  The next two years of my life were
the darkest I had ever dreamed possible.  The third year wasn't very
good either but it was better.  I was out of work for a total of 3
years due to my depression, although, again, you never called it that
because spiritual Christians, and Godly Christians, never got
depressed; not ever.
     We were seated in a church service one day, a church we had found
not far from our home, and the pastor had drifted into preaching mean
sermons.  I mean it.  He was just mean to his people.  The membership
had fallen off, the offerings were way down, and he was trying to
spiritually and Scripturally goad us into performing for the Lord.  Of
course, you've all heard me preach on the woes of performance based
spirituality many times.  In fact, it is still my hobby horse, you
might say.  At any rate, I had gotten to the point that I simply
rarely listened to his Mickey Mouse sermons any longer.  I loved the
man, he was a wonderful preacher, he could sing like nobody else, and
his organ playing was out of this world.  I have never heard anybody
play the organ like that man and at that time, I never even liked
organs.
     One day, he was preaching on the perfect will of God.  He started
out mean and ended up mean.  So, I naturally turned him off within a
couple of minutes of his sermon and practiced my day dreaming.  I was
pretty good at it, too.  I was so depressed and things were so dark, I
couldn't let myself listen to this man pound on me in my state of mind
and damaged emotions.  So I went to day dreaming every Sunday.
     This Sunday, as I was day dreaming, I checked in once and awhile
to see if the pastor was saying anything worth hearing.  When I
realized he wasn't, I went right back to day dreaming and shut him off
from my hearing.  Suddenly, I heard him say that if you were any kind
of a Christian at all, you would know the perfect will of God for your
life.  This was one of those times I stopped day dreaming to check in.
Wow!  He blew me away.  I had already failed at everything; I had even
failed God, for crying out loud.  Now, here was this guy telling me,
if I didn't know the perfect will of God for my life, I was worthless.
Shoot, due to my depression, I wasn't even sure I was Born Again, let
alone aware of God's will for my life.  My heart sank.
     Just about that same time, I heard a voice.  I had been filled
with the Holy Spirit about 10 years earlier and you have all heard me
tell that story so I won't get into that now.  Anyhow, my point is, I
knew when I heard the voice of the Lord.  The problem was, of course,
I felt so lousy, such a failure, I couldn't hear Him often but this
time I heard His voice loud and clear.  He told me, the second this
knucklehead preacher told me I wasn't much of a Christian if I didn't
know God's perfect will for my life, that I was His perfect will.  I
immediately doubted what I heard because I felt so poorly about
myself.  The thought wouldn't leave me so I took up arguing with the
Holy Spirit about what He'd just said.  After several minutes, I
finally, out of frustration, told the Lord, Look, if this is true,
show me in the Bible where this is and I'll believe you.  He did.  He
immediately said, Romans eight.  I had that chapter nearly memorized.
It was my favorite chapter in the Bible.  As I sat in the pew, I went
over the whole chapter, or so I thought, and finally told the Lord
that there wasn't a thing in that chapter about me being His perfect
will.  Yet, the words remained.  The average person would have gone
home, got out a Bible, and looked that chapter over.  Not me.  I was
too smart to be fooled by any fake voice in my thoughts.  It was, I am
sorry to say, literally 2 years later before I looked it up.  I only
did it then because the Holy Spirit just wouldn't let it go.  I
stopped my work that day, turning off my equipment I was using, got
out my Bible, and told the Lord I would read the whole chapter and
when I got to the right verse, He would have to show me because I was
convinced no such revelation was in that chapter of God's Word.  He
answered me by showing me the verse.  When I saw it, I nearly jumped
out of my chair.  I kicked myself, too, for putting it off for 2
years.  I even told myself how dumb I was not to have looked it up 2
years ago and if I had, I wouldn't have suffered as much spiritually
and emotionally.  Praise God, though, I know the truth now.  This
morning, I want to briefly share it with you.  I trust it will set you
free as much as it has me."
     Looking down at his opened Bible, Ralph said, "So, if you haven't
turned to Romans chapter 8 as of yet, please do so now.  I'm sorry.
Let me correct myself.  This is where we will end up so if you have a
Bible book marker of some type, place it in Romans 8 but right now, I
need to show you some things in Philippians 2 and verses 5 and 6 if
you please."  He listened to all the Bibles pages turning and smiled.
He'd always like that sound; like falling leaves in the fall and each
one a miracle, too.  "Do you have it?  Philippians chapter 2 and I
will read verses 5 and 6 to you from the King James.
     Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ.
     Boy, that verse is so powerful.  You could meditate on that verse
alone for months until your meditator fell out on the floor but let's
continue.
     Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal
with God.  How powerful is that" Ralph asked.  This passage, if you
look up the Greek words, simply means our minds should be in agreement
with God's.  If our thoughts do not line up with His Word, we have a
problem and conflict and confusion and that is not of God.
     Now, there is another verse I want you to see, so turn to
Ephesians 5:1.  Ephesians chapter 5 and verse one.  You won't believe
this verse is in the bible.
     Waiting a minute, he said, "Got it?  Good.  Let me read it to
you.  Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children.  The
definition for (follows) in this passage is (imitators).  Think of
that, folks.  We are to be imitators of God.  Well, how does God act?
We've never seen Him.  No, that's right, but we have seen Jesus work.
So we have an example since Jesus is God.  Right?"
     Several amens."
     So what Jesus did, we can, and should do.  Right?"
     "Amen echoed around the auditorium.
     The problem is, on the other hand, if we don't know who we are,
we cannot be in agreement, or of the same mind, with Jesus.
     Now we can go back to Romans Chapter eight."  Pages turned.  "I
want to read Romans 8 and verses 29 and 30 to you so follow along as I
read.  On second thought, I'm just going to read verse 29 to you.  He
says, For, ( that could also read, because,) so let me read it that
way for clarification purposes.  Because whom he did foreknow, he also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he
might be the firstborn among many brethren.
     "We are the many brethren; those before us, too, who have all
been resurrected, and will be resurrected at His coming.  Jesus was
the firstborn, or it simply means, the first, of the resurrected of
the New covenant established with His children.
     The word (conformed) means, basically what you think it means.
The word is used only twice in the New Testament.  Its definition is
(made of the same form as another).  It comes from two Greek words
which translate as, (union) and (arrangement of parts).  In other
words, let this mind be in you that also was in Christ.  This is a
definite reference to God, coming down to earth in human form, being
born of a virgin, the arrangement of parts as a human development
conceptions and fetal growth of the baby Jesus in His mother's womb,
and his fulfilled life and ministry, death, burial, and resurrection,
as well as His ascension.
     I could go into a lot more detail but the point is, or should be,
easily seen.  The perfect will of God is you, or, said another way,
you are the perfect will of  God.  With his voice rising in volume
with each phrase, he said, "This means you don't have to seek the will
of God.  This means you don't have to work for it, exercise for it,
train for it, educate, for it, study for it, memorize for it, live the
most holy disciplined life out of every other member of the body of
Christ for it, sing for it, worship for it, fast for it, pastor for
it, become a missionary for it, or even pray for it.  Because, you are
the perfect will of God just as you are right now as a Born Again
Believer."  By the time he reached the end of his structured
utterance, his voice was louder than anybody had ever heard it and
Ralph had no problem yelling when he preached.  Almost the entire
church was on their feet, clapping, shouting, and praising God louder
than Ralph had ever heard them before and he had been in some pretty
wild services in the past.  A few began walking up and down the
aisles.  One man jumped up on the pew bench and cupped his hands
around his mouth and began shouting praises to God.  Several of the
people in the aisles began running instead of walking.  A man near the
front walked to the front of the pews and fell on his face and began
to pray in tongues.  Several others were praying in tongues around the
auditorium and none too quietly.  Ralph suddenly noticed his hands
were in the air and he, too, was shouting praises to God.
     A woman started dancing and soon others followed.  A lady on the
back pew began praising the Lord and shouting louder than anybody in
the place, saying, "Halleluia to Jesus, halleluia to Jesus, halleluia
to Jesus.  Praise His Holy name."  Ralph wasn't exactly sure what had
happened but Jesus had certainly made His presence known.
     He looked down at the people and a cloud, or at least it looked
like a cloud, came drifting slowly in through the open doors that open
into the auditorium and blanketed the entire congregation.  It hovered
near the ceiling.  He blinked and looked again but it was still there.
He smelled perfume, but it was a hundred times more powerful than just
perfume.  He suddenly felt intoxicated but whatever it was, was holy,
he knew that much.
     He saw an elderly woman, in her wheelchair, parked right at the
first pew.  It was Mrs.  Youngfield.  She hadn't walked for 15 years.
Her legs were even shriveled.  She had her hands lifted and was
yelling as loud as everyone else.  Ralph suddenly, and totally
unexpectedly, pointed directly at her and the second he did, the old
woman stood straight up.  He started to step toward the stairs to run
down off the platform to catch her because she was falling forward.
His right foot froze in mid air.  The woman was walking toward the
front.  Ralph couldn't make his feet move no matter how hard he tried.
Mrs.  Youngfield was walking.  Her legs looked perfectly normal from
where he stood.  He watched her gaining strength with every step, or
it appeared that way to him, and she finally ran right up the 3 steps
and on to the platform.  By this time, the old woman had kicked off
her shoes and was running back and forth across the wide platform and
shouting, "Glory to God; glory to God.  I'm healed; I'm healed by his
Word.  Glory to God in the Highest."
     Another elderly man strolled up to the front, he was at least 80
years of age Ralph figured, and he pointed at Ralph and said, "Pastor
Ralph?  come down and pray for me."  Ralph didn't know why but he did
as asked.  When he got down on the floor level with the man, he saw
the man's Coclhelear implants peaking out from behind his ears.  Ralph
reached out and touched the man's shoulder and the man went down like
a tree that had just been chain sawed.  He swore later that he heard
the word, "Timber"!) shouted inside his head when the man went down.
Ralph bent down to see if the man was hurt but to his amazement, the
man's hands flew to his ears and he yanked the highly specialized
hearing devices off.  His arms flew into the air and he began yelling,
"I can hear, in Jesus name, I can hear."
     Ralph heard the word "Aids," so loudly in his ears, he couldn't
have missed it.  He knew exactly, somehow, what that meant.  He stood
and walked down the aisle and stopped in front of a young lady who was
only 19 years old.  She was crying and ringing her hands.  She had
been at the home for a month and had multiple tattoos to help cover up
the needle marks on her arms.  The tattoos weren't working, Ralph
thought, because the wounds were still quite visible.  Tests has shown
she was HIV positive.  "Not any more," the voice said authoritatively.
"Pray and I will answer."  Ralph didn't touch her as he prayed.  The
girl never knew he was even standing there until she heard him say, "I
bring total healing to you in the mighty name of Jesus."  Her head
snapped up and her eyes stared at him.  "What was that?" she said
loudly.  Ralph didn't answer because he didn't know what "that" was.
"I felt something inside of me," she announced.  "It felt like
something left my body.  I fill clean inside."  Later, new tests would
reveal the HIV was gone.  "She raised her hands and began shouting
praise to God which she had never done in her life.
     Ralph walked up and down the aisle praying for people the Lord
led him to.  He stopped at a blind man holding his white cane.  "God?"
Ralph queried.  "Is this the man?"  "Speak, came the powerful words
but do not touch him.  "Sam, he said, "I command you to see in the
name of the True Lord Jesus Christ."  without even thinking, Ralph
then said, "Hand me your cane; you won't be needing it any longer."
To Ralph's horror, the man's eyes literally fell out of his eye
sockets and dropped to the floor.  "Holy God Almighty," the man said
softly, "I can freaking see."  Ralph looked down at the two artificial
eyes laying on the floor and then looked back at the formally blind
man.  "You have eyes; beautiful blue eyes," Ralph said.  The two men
grabbed each other in a bear hug and they both almost fell out into
the aisle and began dancing around.
     A man who had been on crutches due to a broken leg, kicked off
the boot he had been wearing, dropped his crutches, and ran for the
front.  He grabbed old Mrs.  Youngfield and whirled her around 360
degrees; her feet 4 feet off the platform.  "I'm healed, too, sister;
I'm healed, too."
     Suddenly Ralph felt a hand pulling him back and he quickly turned
around; releasing the blind man who danced away yelling, "I can see
everybody; I can see.  Look at my new blue eyes."  .  Ralph saw that
no one was there and no one was close enough to have touched him.  He
saw a woman he had prayed for in prayer sessions many times standing
10 feet away and looking sternly at him.  She was 5 foot 2 and weighed
400 pounds.  Her kidneys were failing, her liver was shot, her heart
was failing, and she had been morbidly obese since she was 6 years
old.  She'd tried every diet and even surgery twice and nearly died so
they had to undue the surgery.  Ralph remembered she was raped by a
neighbor teenage boy starting out when she was 5 years old.  He had
continued his hideous act of abuse for 3 years until she finally told
her parents and he was taken away.  Ralph knew in his heart that her
obesity was directly connected to that part of her life.  She had been
to many doctors but her health had become so degraded, additional
surgery was impossible.  They had been in a half a dozen prayer
sessions and she was making progress but outside of a miracle, she
wasn't going to make it.
     "Go," Ralph heard and he felt himself walking toward the large
woman.  Stopping in front of her, he waited; saying nothing.  "Speak
the words," Ralph heard, "It is done." Ralph said, "Milinda  Hold on
to your underwear because God is going to heal you right now."  Then
he repeated what he had heard.  "It is done."  The woman's clothing
almost fell off her body as she grabbed to keep herself covered.  Her
underwear slipped right down her legs and gathered around her ankles.
She kicked off her now oversized shoes, and stepped right out of her
underwear as two other ladies ran over to escort her out of the
auditorium.  When she returned, she couldn't have weighed over a
hundred pounds.  She had a rope they had found from some place tied
around her waste.  Then things got serious.
     It was midnight and Ralph stood looking around the auditorium.
The place looked trashed.  Everyone had left except for a couple of
men who were on the staff.  "What a mess," Henry said.
     Ralph laughed.  "You can say that again."  Eye glasses by the
dozens, two wheelchairs, a white cane, lots of shoes, men and womens,
a pair of crutches, 3 leg braces, hearing aids, one set of prosthetic
eyes, a pair of huge women's underwear, 3 casts from formally broken
arms and legs, one neck brace, dozens of bottles of discarded
medications, the largest woman's bra ralph had ever seen in his life
which he new must have been sister Melinda's, containers of insulin
and needles, jellyfish looking ugly blobs that later would be analyzed
and discovered to be cancerous tumors, warts as big as the end of your
thumb, chunks of dead skin, huge scab like things that had pealed off
of bodies and fallen to the floor, a set of false teeth, a woman's wig
and a man's toupee, and something as big as a basketball that looked
uglier than any thing Ralph had ever seen.  He had been standing no
more than a dozen feet from the woman personally when he saw it drop
from beneath her skirt.  Later it was learned to be a 50 pound tumor
that had been a ovarian cyst that had literally never been medically
detected because she was just considered over weight.
     "What is that thing, one of the men said pointing to the
basketball sized object?
     "I don't know," Ralph said, "but it looks like a dead octopus but
with way too many short legs."
     Ralph pointed and said, "That looks like a wedding ring over
there.  What would that be doing there?"  Ralph walked over, being
careful not to step on anything, and picked it up and brought it back
to where the two men were standing and held it up.  "That isn't any
piece of junk either.  I wonder who it belonged to?" Ralph thought out
loud.
     "I know, "Pete said.  "Well, I don't know her name but I was near
the front when she walked up.  She was tattooed every where you could
see.
     Ralph interrupted by laughing at what Pete had just said. "Pete.
Half the women in this church are tattooed.  So are half the men.
Shoot, I even have tattoos.  More than half this church are former
dopers."
     As if Pete hadn't heard his pastor, he continued.  I saw her rip
her ring off, tossed the ring on the floor, and started praising God,
her hands up, and jumping higher than a 7 foot NBA basketball pro."
     "What color hair did she have?" Ralph asked Pete suspiciously.
     "Couldn't miss it in a country mile.  Neon Pink!" he said boldly.
"I kind of like it, too," the single young man said without realizing
it.
     "Lord Almighty," Ralph said reverently.  "That's a lesbian I've
been praying with the last month.  She is married to another woman.
Well, not in this state, but they drove to Vermont and got married.
They've been together 10 years.  I just led Pinky, that's her nick
name, to Christ Friday.  Thank you Jesus!" Ralph shouted.  "She gave
up her mate."
     "Henry said, "She's going to need some help, then, Pastor."
     "She sure will, Henry.  Now we need to reach her mate for
Christ."
     None of the 3 men knew it yet, of course, but within a year, that
pinked hair tattooed, formally lesbian young x-drug addict, Moreen
Kline would be married, to Pete and they would have their first of 4
children less than a year later.
     As Ralph and the men looked over the auditorium, Ralph jokingly
said, "I think we saw just about everything in the last 13 hours a
body would want to see.  Except, I guess, we didn't see anybody raised
from the dead."
     Pete said, "Oh, yes we did."
     Ralph looked at his friend and said, "We did what?"
     "We saw someone raise from the dead."
     "What do you mean, Brother."
     "Well, I was back with all the ushers when this started.  I saw
old man Bill Osman heading out of the auditorium and followed.  He
didn't look good at all.  In fact, he looked granite gray.  Some of
the other ushers ran over as he stepped into the foyer and Bill went
down as if he had been run down by a truck.  I knew he'd been having
heart trouble and even surgery.  I go over and play chess with him
every Thursday night.  I've only won a single time in three years.  I
don't know why I keep playing against him.  Anyhow, everybody hit
their knees and started praying as I turned him over.  I yelled for
somebody to get the doc.  Brother tim came running out as if he were
in training for the olympics and dropped down on the floor and began
CPR immediately on Bill.  He yelled for somebody to get his bag out of
his car.  I jumped up and ran out the front doors and around to the
back.  His car was parked on the opposite side of the lot.  It took
forever to get the bag because his car was locked so I took my suit
jacket off, held it over the back seat passenger window, and literally
punched it out.  By the time I got back, the ushers were crying, Doc
was on his knees and looking down at Bill.  Doc said, "He's dead,
Pete.  I don't get a pulse, he's not breathing and I can't hear his
heart either.  Give me the bag and I'll check further but he's gone."
I handed over the bag, Doc pulled out his stethoscope and started
placing it in various places around Bill's chest.  I started praying
in tongues.  Nobody, as far as I was concerned, was dying on a day
like today.
     All of the sudden, Doc yelled, "call an ambulance.  His heart is
beating again."  Before anybody could fish their cell phone out,
Bill's eye's snapped open and he said, "Doc, what are you doing?"  His
voice was mountain creek clear, too, his color was normal, and he was
smiling.  Doc told him he just had a heart attack.  "Not me," Bill
said.  "I feel  fine.  In fact, I feel 30 years younger," and the old
boy stood up on his own power.  "I was dead," Bill reported, "and I
saw Jesus and Heaven but He told me I had to come back because He
wasn't finished with me yet.  Halleluia," and then the place erupted
like Mount Saint Helens."
     "Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus," was all Ralph could say.  "I wish I
could have been there to see it."
     Henry spoke up and said, You will, Pastor.  I checked.  All video
and digital cameras were running from the very beginning.  The sound
boys got everything taped, both in audio and video, from 6  different
angles and that includes what happened in the foyer because Bill was
laying half in the aisle and half in the foyer.  Plus the surveillance
camera was running full blast at the time Bill went down and got up.
The sound boys said they'll put a whole set of tapes together so the
world can see it all just about like we did."
     No one said a thing because there wasn't anything to say.  It had
been done as the Lord commanded.
     The reports that came in over the next few months only added to
Ralph's pastoral astonishment.  It appeared not a single person didn't
experience some type of healing during the 13 hour service.  Ralph
retired when he was 72, if you call his traveling and preaching and
teaching retirement, but for the next 19 years, not one person in his
church died and he conducted no funerals.  Lots of weddings but no
funerals.  Bill died a week after Ralph turned the church over to his
son, James, whom the church insisted he be the next pastor, and he
conducted Bill's funeral at the church.  The man was 106 years old and
had 20-20 vision when he died in his sleep one night.
     "Well," Henry said, "shall we hire a crew to come in and help
clean up the place?  We can't expect Larry to do all this by himself."
     "I don't know," Ralph yawned.  "I kind of like it the way it is."
     "You ever been in a meeting like this one, Pastor?" Pete asked.
     "Nope.  I've read about some in Smith Wigglesworth books and
heard about others, but this beats anything I've ever seen.  You
couldn't make this up if your life depended on it."
     "I'd say," the man continued, "God was in this place today."
     "Amen, Brother," Ralph said.  "Let's lock up and go home."

End of chapter.