As Angie worked on my wife’s hair, I shared with her some of the things God’s been doing with us. Angie has been healed a number of times when we’ve prayed with her in the past. (Go here for one of those stories)
She talks often about her 8 year old son, whom we’ve never met. Last night, while mom did her thing, he sat on a chair near me playing a video game.
My friend, Michael King has been posting videos on Facebook demonstrating how to stick coins to the wall. I haven’t done this much, but we had one experience a few months ago, where a friend’s daughters taught us how to do it.
We went to my friend Tim’s house to get him healed of low-back pain. While we were there we taught his daughters how to heal, by having them pray for their mother’s injured foot. Both Tim and his wife were better after prayer. When we were done, the girls wanted to show us something. The brought out a pile of pennies and began sticking them to the kitchen wall. Since we’d been in their house, I noticed the presence of God was growing stronger. The pennies stuck like crazy.
My wife had never done it before, so we each grabbed a penny and held it to the wall and both of them stayed there for about 5 seconds. One of the girls stuck several pennies on the corner of the wall, where half the penny was hanging over the edge. If you’re inclined to believe this can be explained by surface tension or paint adhesion , when you see a penny half over the edge of a wall, staying there for 20 seconds or so, natural explanations begin to lose their explanatory power.
So there I was sitting in the salon watching Angie’s son, who was riveted to his video game. I decided to try sticking a penny to the wall. She opened her cash box and gave me a penny. I found a place on the wall, held it in place 2 or 3 times and watched it fall to the floor. I forgot one thing; invite the Holy Spirit to join us.
I asked Him to bring His presence into the room and make the penny stick to the wall. And it stuck, for about 5 seconds. Angie was shocked. I did it again and her son looked up and smiled. I did it again and they asked if it was a trick. Then I moved over to the corner and let half the penny hang over the edge and it stuck for about one second. I did this 3 or 4 times and her son dropped his game and came over by me. He wanted to know how I did it.
I explained that Jesus said signs and wonders would follow those who believe in Him and this was one of those signs. I told him, “It’s not magic; it’s the power of God. You can do the same thing, just hold the penny on the wall and ask God to hold it there when you let go.” I demonstrated a few more times, then he held it to the wall and asked God to hold it when he let go. It stuck the first time and every time afterward. He was filled with joy and wonder and forgot about his video game.
People often ask, “what’s the point of it?”
I found out last night, there are several valuable things that come from these exercises. First, sticking pennies to the wall is a tangible display of God’s power to those who don’t know Him that’s difficult to refute by natural explanations. Second, it’s an exercise in which we learn to cooperate with God and sense his presence and power at work. Angie’s son knows virtually nothing about the power of God. But after last night’s experience, he has at least one way in which he can experience God. As curious as boys are, it won’t be long before he finds other ways and his friends might be involved at some point. Third, as we cooperate with God, our faith for operating in miracles, signs and wonders grows. If we start with a simple thing like this, it can grow in many different directions including things like food multiplication and healing.
If you'd like to see videos of coins sticking to glass or forks and spoons sticking to walls, go here.
These exercises are like going to a gym and working out. Working out doesn’t have a great purpose in itself. It’s merely a way to strengthen yourself so that you can operate better when you do other things. Sticking pennies to the wall builds faith for living a kingdom lifestyle. If you spend an afternoon with friends getting to know God’s power by sticking things to the wall, or a glass door, the next time you need to release God’s power for a person with cancer, you might be surprised at how much faith you have to get them healed.
These exercises are like going to a gym and working out. Working out doesn’t have a great purpose in itself. It’s merely a way to strengthen yourself so that you can operate better when you do other things. Sticking pennies to the wall builds faith for living a kingdom lifestyle. If you spend an afternoon with friends getting to know God’s power by sticking things to the wall, or a glass door, the next time you need to release God’s power for a person with cancer, you might be surprised at how much faith you have to get them healed.
I should mention, one more thing - I love the colors Angie put my sweetie's hair. She looks rather amazing.
when I read this post, I felt the power of the Holy Spirit rise up suddenly inside me and I KNEW that I could do this. Funny thing, though, I thought "where" and I picked a wall. Sure enough, the penny stayed there for about 10 seconds. I was so humbled and thrilled. Then I thought about a believing friend and went to see here to show this to her. I couldn't do it. Later next day as I was praying and studying the Word, I felt that presense again and got up and stuck a penny to the wall. Again for about 10 seconds. Definitely His presense must be in action. Next, I must "believe" that I can see it happen. And that "believing" must be in the most basic sense. I can't talk myself into believing. I have to look into my heart and know that what I believe is already there. For instance, I saw Jesus telling Peter to go fishing and catch a fish with a coin in it's mounth. Suddenly, I knew that was a simple thing for Peter. He'd been a fisherman all his life and probably seen many fish with "things" in their mouths. Jesus request didn't stretch Peter too far. This was basic in Peter at the point this was done. As Peter spent more time with Jesus and saw many more miracles, then his basic belief (faith) began to grow and rise to things that were not basic. Jesus asks people if they can believe. And we should ask ourselves this too. Not in condemnation as so often developes in a church setting, but in a basic way. For instance, can I see this broken leg healed? Probably, because I've seen it whole before. Can I see this cancer healed? Maybe not right now, because I've never seen it before. But if I keep working and practicing "faith" then I can get there. I can get to where "there is nothing impossible to him who believes". Thank you for posting this. I have believed in "faith" for so long and in the power; but actually using it seemed so difficult most of the time and I couldn't figure out why. This simple exercise reveals SO MUCH understanding. We are told to just "say the Word" over and over and it will raise our faith. That works somewhat, and over a long period of time. But saying what you already believe, works now. Through the Spirit we can see into our heart and soul to see what we "believe" now. Then we know where to start. With that.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that testimony, Marna. I've definitely noticed that the miraculous seems to be strongly connected to the presence of God. Glad you're stepping out in faith!
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A friend introduced me to this phenomena before the holidays. I researched it and found it is really just a surface tension temporary bond between the penny and the painted surface. Regardless of whether it hangs over the corner or not, it has more to do with the paint finish than the penny. I stuck a quarter to a high gloss painted cinder block, and that was an act of non-religious, non-spiritual scientific experimentation. I also have a couple of pennies that have been up for 25 days now on eggshell and satin finished painted walls. Other pennies stuck for seconds, minutes, and a few hours. What does that say about my faith or the Holy Spirit's presence... nothing at all. Jesus said he would not leave His followers as orphans and that He prayed to the Father to send the Holy Spirit to be with us and in us (John 14). This teaching, that the sticking penny has to do with faith or is evidence of the HS's presence, bothers me, because it opens the door for more erroneous teaching. And it could discourage younger believers if they don't get their pennies to stick on a wall for whatever reason. New Age people also claim this "sign" as they do it, too. They say it is the positive energy that causes it to stick. Rubbish. God created scientific laws, and in this case, the coin and paint work together following the surface tension temporary adhesion physics, which works better on some paint finishes than others. Also, if you get the penny slightly warm in your hand, it tends to stick better. The same is true for forks and spoons that have the right combination of surface area touching the wall and that are light enough not to break the temporary bond. So if your penny doesn't stick, don't feel like you have little faith or that the Holy Spirit is not with you. Just try a wall that has a higher gloss paint.
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