Today, I was at REI in San Diego hanging with the family. I saw a lady being pushed in a wheelchair by her daughter. I followed them, approached them from the side and asked, “hey, do you mind me asking why you need the wheelchair? what happened?”

She and her daughter looked a little skeptical and cautious but the lady said that she couldn’t walk very well. 

“Is it your knees?”

“Well, it’s my ankles and my knees. I have tendinitis.”

“So is it hurting right now?”

“yea..”

“Here let me pray for your legs real quick!”

They breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that i wasn’t crazy, asking such weird questions. “Oh, go ahead!”

I introduced myself and laid hands on her knees. After commanding it to be healed, I told her to stand up and walk. She said, “Well, i can walk, there’s just pain when i do it.”

“Just walk!”

She stood, walked, no pain. All gone. She was surprised. 

I started to explain how Jesus did this stuff all the time (healing the sick, casting out demons), how I’m just a normal believer, and that every believer is empowered to do what Jesus did. They were intrigued. After a few minutes, another family member showed up, so I asked if she needed healing as well. 

The lady that was just healed said, “Yes!! She has a bad neck!” 

I prayed for her twice without any result, and then on the third, she was 70-80% better. By then, 3 more family members had gathered. They started asking me about which church I went to (turns out they were catholic).

Long story short, my brother connected them to his church and I told them about a college fellowship at UCSD called Origins that does/teaches what we do. The daughter who was originally pushing her mom in the wheelchair piped up and said that she wants to go there. Apparently, she’s transferring to UCSD in the fall and I was able to get her email to connect her with good friends!

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This was never meant to be confined in a building. This was never meant to be reserved for super-saints that are dead or 50+ year old pastors who have been doing this for 20+ years. 

The same Holy Spirit is in every believer. The same authority is delegated to every believer. Every believer is seated in heavenly places above every principality, might, and power (Matt 10:1, Luke 9:1, Luke 10:19, Eph 1:21-23). Every believer has the life of God in them. Just as every believer can minister to God as a priest, every believer can set free people who are bound by the devil because they are kings (1 Peter 2:9, Luke 4:18, 1 John 2:27). 

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A few days ago I was in LA with family. We were parked downtown while my relatives were all running some errands. I stayed in the car because I wanted to read. 

After a few minutes, I saw a guy heading my way with a neck brace and a sling for his arm. He was smoking, wore a hat, looked pretty ragged and dirty. He stopped ~15 yards away to smoke. I opened the van door and sat there reading, waiting for him to pass by.

A few more minutes pass and then he starts heading my direction. Just as he walks past the car, I say, “Hey man, what happened to you?” I thought he was going to ignore me, but he stops, turns and tells me what happened. “I fell off a wall and hit my face.”

“How’d that happen?”

He told me about his police confrontation 2 weeks before and said he must have gotten too jumpy and caught his legs on the wall as he went over. He ended up messing up a few of his vertebrae and broke his arm. 

“Man… how much longer you need the brace for?”

“4-6 weeks…” and he explained further about what his doctor said.

I got up from the car and headed towards him, “dude, check this out, my friends and I go heal the sick all the time, you want to get better?”

“Oh yeah, of course.”

I introduced myself, shook his hand, commanded his neck to be healed and told him to test it out. 

All the soreness he had was gone. I told him to take off the brace and he moved his neck around. He tested it and had the most mobility and range of movement since the accident. He said his arm was already doing fine, and then he thanked me for the blessing and said he had to go.

He walked off holding his neck brace. 

A few days before that, I was on vacation with family in the grand canyon. I saw a lady with a bandage/wrap around her knee so I asked her what happened. She said that she just had an operation done and was recovering. 

“Is it hurting right now”

“Yeah, I can’t put too much weight on it…”

“Here, let me pray for you” as I reached out my hand, “What’s your name?”

I shook her hand and then put my hands on her knee. Commanded her to be healed and then I told her to bend her knee. She said it was a lot better. 

“Is there anymore pain?”

“A little”

I laid hands on her knees one more time and then I told her to walk. 

She lifted up her cane and walked flawlessly. 

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This is the call of the believer. Demonstrate Jesus. Set people free. Destroy the work of the devil. 

It’s not about gathering in big piles of salt in a church building. It’s about spreading out, salting and preserving the world around us that has been torn apart with hate because of religion. 

We have made a pedestal out of what should be the lowest common denominator. 

The supernatural wasn’t meant to be reserved for a specific day in a specific location for specific people. It’s meant for anyone who has become the temple in which the Holy Spirit, who raised Christ from the dead, resides.

It’s not about saying “Jesus loves you” “Jesus died for you”. It’s about you actually loving the people you encounter on a daily basis and demonstrating that the power of Jesus is alive in you. 

It’s not about flippant church cliches. It’s about legitimately giving people hope. Giving people legitimate answers to their problems. 

When’s the last time your gospel actually sounded like good news to someone?

When was the last time you loved someone without an agenda? 

How are the people around you ever going to encounter Jesus if you, being His body, do not represent Him?

How are you being leaven to the world around you? Or has the leaven of the world around you affected you?