Greetings Friends,
You are loved by God! You are his beloved, a child of the King, an heir of the Kingdom of God! Nothing can seperate you from the love of God. Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Tonight was another amazing night at "A Church Without Walls." I'm eager to share the testimony God gave me tonight. Many of you know, that there are many faithful prayer warriors praying for our ministry. We believe God is doing something new and even now He is breaking down the walls of American Christianity. We believe that we are in the last days and He is pouring out his Spirit as He said He would in Acts 2:17-18. ('In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy." We believe that He is raising up an army of unrelenting warriors that will raise the "Banner of Salvation" for all nations. We believe that he is bursting the bondage of comfortable Christianity and exchanging it for the power and authority of Christ. We believe that we have the power to trample serpants and scorpions and to overcome every power of the enemy; nothing will harm us. It's an amazing power that we've been given! As you act in it, you will crave more of it. As you rest in it, you will experience a greater love for the Savior and watch strongholds of the enemy torn apart. Tonight was amazing!
Tonight at around 4:30 pm, I arrived at W. 19th Street in Norfolk. I had a Kettle of vegtable soup, 2 loaves of bread, peanut butter, coffee, water, cookies, bibles and the Spirit of God. Last week, I parked off-site, but this week, I drove right to the "wall" where the homeless were. I pulled up on the curb, got out and opened the back of my van. I decided to play a Misty Edwards CD that one of my friends let me borrow and I had it pretty loud. There was only one man sitting on the wall. I felt strongly that God wanted me in this spot though, so I stayed. I started opening plastic cups, bowls, boxes of spoons, etc in an attempt to get ready to feed the people. I looked back and 3 people were walking up to the van. I said, "Would you like something to eat and drink?" They accepted and before I knew it there were 15-20 approaching me, many people began to surround my van waiting to be fed. The Lord gave me this word as I was driving down there tonight. As I was praying, I felt like he was saying, "I want you to wash their feet tonight." I was like, "WOW God, are you sure?" Those words wouldn't leave my mind. As I was serving them food out of the back of my van, I had a picture in my mind of Jesus washing the disciples feet. I realized at that moment that serving them food and giving them bibles, was my way of washing their feet. I immediatley thought about the story of the two greatest commands - "1st - Love the Lord your God with all your strength, soul and mind and 2nd - Love your neighbor as yourself." As I handed them food, I began to declare, "I want you to know that this bread and this food will leave you hungry again later this evening, or tomorrow, but the bread of life - the word of God I'm giving you will satisfy you forever." The bread of life is the only thing that will satisfy your real hunger. I was very busy for awhile, unable to keep up with the amount of people who were coming waiting at the van. I began to tear up, as I thought about how God had been faithful once again. I thought about the first night I went to Norfolk, he gave me Mira - just one. The next time he gave me two - Victor and Carlos. Last week he gave me 4 and this week he gave me more than I could count. I also realized that I had no fear at all. I started thinking, "wow, I have like 20 people around me right now and I'm not even scared"...then I heard God say, "Perfect love cast out fear." It hit me...I was loving God by loving others and fear was cast out!
After the serving of the mass rush...people trickled in here and there. I started picking up trash and talking to people, just introducing myself and having small talk. Loving on them and encouraging them as God provided the words. Everyone was sitting on "the wall" mingling amongst themselves as I was cleaning up. Once I was cleaned up, I felt like God was moving me to a group of 4 ladies. God started giving me the gift of Prophecy right there on 19th street. God gave me a word for a lady named Sheri. "Sherri many women have given out of their abundance, but you Sherri, you given out of your poverty. God sees that and you have caught his gaze."
For DeDe this word was given, "DeDe do you not know that you are my daughter and I am your father? Why do you think that I have forgotten you? Don't you know that you are precious to me and that you are beautiful in my eyes" Dede started crying immediately. I asked all of them if we could pray, to which they agreed. We gathered in a circle all holding hands - which was intiated by Mrs. Sherri - I started to pray. Again, the power of God came over me and I denounced the work of the enemy and declared the blood of Jesus over these lives. (Thanks to the faithful prayer warriors that have been praying for me this week the Spirit was unleashed) When we opened our eyes, I noticed a man standing there and God gave me a word for Him immediately. I said, "I believe God wants for me to tell you to quit resisting Him." Too late....I already said it. :)
Then off to the left I noticed a group of thugs. 4 guys that didn't take soup, wouldn't accept anything from me the whole time I was there. I felt God prompting me again...I had no fear at all...it was unbelievable. I walked right up to them and I said, "Men of Valor..I come to you in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants you to know that you are warriors. However, not warriors of darkness, but you are warriors for the Kingdom of Light! Right now, the enemy is running away in your life. Right now, you are the strength of God's army." You're strength is only found in the name of the Lord and as soon as you reject me you will be stripped of this strength. You will go from a warrior to a foe. Choose ye this day whom you will serve!" I stopped and looked for a minute and they were starring at me...One of them said to me, "Thank you sir." The others echoed his thanks. I said, I bless you brothers with the love and joy that is found in God and God alone.
The night was coming to a close...I felt tired and felt as if the time was up. However, the moment of the night was my encounter with a young man named Anthony as I was packing up. He approached me and said, "Do you have anymore coffee?" Unfortunately, I was all out. :) I said, "Anthony, I don't believe that God sent you over here to me to go away with nothing. I said, "what is it man that is robbing your life?" He paused and looked at me and said, "It's hard out here man" I said, I can't imagine what you're going through, but God is a faithful father. When his children ask him for bread, he will not give them a snake." I said, Anthony, if I gave you this bible would you read it?" He said, "yes." I handed it to him and said, "The bible says, Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you" I said, "the temptation is for us to seek shelter, food, money, jobs, companionship, but our only hope is God. If we find him, we will be satisfied and all these things will be added to us." I also said, and you know what the greatest thing is....the bible says, "When you seek him with all of your heart, YOU WILL FIND HIM!" He's not a distant God. He loves intimacy with his children! This is the very reason why he died for you! You see...before Christ, Adam disobeyed God creating seperation between God and man, but Christ was crushed, crucified, burried and ressurected so that the curtain could be torn from top to bottom! We can have a relationship with him again. He said, he would read the bible! I said, do you have a blanket Anthony and he said, "No." I had two blankets that I laid down in the van to set the soup on, so I said hold on a second. I moved all the soup and handed him the blanket. I got in the van to pull away. Only Anthony and Atree were left sitting on the wall, both of them were waiving as I pulled away. My heart was torn as I got in the van and heard the heater turn on...I turned it off immediatley and thanked God for all that he has provided for me. I'm praying that God would give us a house!
Standing in awe tonight,
Jimmy
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