Navajo Jeff James and Raising The Dead

This story was originally published here on the Bridgeway Church blog.

On April 10th and 11th Greg Morgan and John Carvey brought me (Rick Mann) and Jim Rogers to the Navajo Nation to pray for a congregation in Ganado. While there I got to be good friends with a pretty new Christian, Jeff, who was like a sponge. He wanted everything that God had for him and his family. He asked me on Saturday night if anyone in our congregation at BridgeWay Church had ever experienced someone being raised from the dead. I told him about the Tanzania Team with Jim Rogers and that many miracles, including someone being raised from the dead had been witnessed. Well, Jeff said he wanted that anointing for his family and his church. He had me lay hands on him right there and give him all that BridgeWay had in God's anointing. This guy is hungry for the Lord to move.

Sunday's service lasted from 9am to around 4pm. Jim and I prayed for the fire of the Holy Spirit to fall on the congregation. Many of the parishioners from the Ganado church came back in the prayer line multiple times for the Lord's anointing to fall on them.

The following week I called Jeff to see how he was doing and if the Lord was still on the move there. Jeff said he was glad I called him. He had a huge testimony to share with me. He said that after the BridgeWay team left them on Sunday night, the Lord told him to stay in the spirit. Jeff said that the anointing of the Lord fell on their church in Ganado on Sunday and remained on them after we left. Monday morning he got the terrible news that his cousin had hung himself.

An ambulance took his cousin to a hospital in Albuquerque and kept him on life support until his family could come and say goodbye. They declared him brain dead upon arrival at the hospital. The Lord told Jeff to stay in the Spirit while he went to see his cousin. When they got to the hospital in Albuquerque, Jeff and his wife went in through the doctor's entrance and all of the pass card protected doors just opened for them as they went through. When they got into the room, his cousin's head was swollen and dark from the hanging injury.

The doctors told him that they tested for brain activity and he was declared brain dead. After the family said their goodbyes the hospital was planning on unhooking him. He was essentially dead already. The Holy Spirit directed Jeff to pray Romans 8: 9-11. ". . . .He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you."

After Jeff read this scripture to his cousin, tears rolled down the face of his cousin in response! After that, Jeff says that the doctors retested his cousin's brain activity on Tuesday, the next day, because they saw movement in his cousin's legs. The test showed some brain activity coming back. On Wednesday, his cousin sat up and said "get me out of here! I want to go home!"

Praise God!!!

Testimony From Nigeria

I hope you're blessed by this testimony that was recently shared at Bethel church. This amazing event happened in Nigeria and was reported from there by Jim Rogers. Jesus told his disciples to cleanse the lepers, heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons and preach the gospel. This is what happens when his instructions are obeyed. The sick were healed, lepers were cleansed, the dead were raised and the gospel was preached. Amputees received new limbs and 150,000 were saved.

This is not just for Africa. It can happen anywhere the disciples of Jesus are obedient to their King.

For a longer version of this story, check out the podacst here.

How To Raise The Dead

Surprise "Supressa" Sithole was called at the age of 15 to preach the gospel. In 1997, God connected him with Heidi and Rolland Baker of IRIS Ministries. He shares a dramatic story of the first time God used Him to raise the dead. To view his website go here.

Woman Raised From The Dead On The Road

This story was originally published on the Bethel Church website. The original story can be seen here.

Jon, a young man from Orange County, CA, shared this testimony with us recently:

Jon was driving on the freeway on Father’s Day with his cousin from Chicago, who had prayed the night before that God would use him. They were driving to Jon’s church on Sunday morning. There was a lot of traffic, and he saw two policemen zoom by on his right. There was a big accident. One car was on fire on the shoulder, its front smashed in. The other car also had a smashed front. Two guys were giving CPR to a woman on the ground, her boyfriend and someone else. The cops were already there, but the paramedics weren’t there yet. Jon and his cousin somehow were able to lay hands on her. As Jon was taking her pulse, she died in front of him. So he and his cousin started praying in tongues. Jon saw her spirit and an angel and demon fighting over it. God showed him that her soul was on the line, so Jon was contending for her. Twenty minutes later, she was alive! The policemen kept trying to get him to move away, but he wouldn’t. He kept contending for her soul.

After, the boyfriend hugged them and said, “God is so good.” He gave them his phone number. Her family are all going to go back to church now.

She had broken her C2 vertebra. She’s in the hospital now, so they went to see her. They say sang over her “God heals me, too” to the tune of “God is So Good.”

Raised From The Dead in Africa

This is part of the film The Finger of God, by Darren Wilson. After the short discussion on preaching the gospel, we hear the testimony of a man named Francis, who was brutally beaten to death. At the hospital he was resurrected and healed of his injuries. Heidi Baker and Bill Johnson discuss miracles of healing following his story. If you haven't seen the entire movie, I strongly suggest buying copy. (Or two) After you see it, you may want to give a copy to a friend.

Ian McCormack’s Testimony of Resurrection

This is the testimony of a man who was raised from the dead. His name is Ian McCormack. His testimony is available in book form, audio and in several videos. This is a written testimony from his website. The original manuscript can be found here. A video testimony can be found at the bottom of the post, which I highly recommend watching. Several versions of the video testimony are available. One is over an hour long, in which Ian answers many questions about what he was and heard while in heaven.

Ambulance
One night while diving for lobster on the small Island of Mauritius I was stung on my forearm by 5 Box-Jellyfish, which the local Creole fishermen called "invisables" A sting from a Box-Jellyfish often proves to be fatal - as exemplified in Australia where 70 people are known to have died from their stings. Many books quote this particular type of Jellyfish to be among the most venomous creatures in the world.

By the time an ambulance arrived my body was totally paralyzed and necrosis had begun to set into my bone marrow. On route to the hospital I began to see my life flash before me. At this point of my life I was an atheist - but I knew I was nearly dead and I didn't know if there was life after death or whether there was just nothing. As I lay there dying, I saw my mother in a vision praying for me, encouraging me to cry out to God from my heart and He would hear me and forgive me (my mother was the only Christian in our family.) I didn't know what to pray and cried out that if God was real, could He help me to pray. Immediately God showed me the Lord’s Prayer, and for the first time in my life I prayed from my heart and gave my life to the Lord.

Death & Hell
The ambulance stopped and they placed me in a wheel chair and raced me into the hospital. The nurse took my blood pressure twice but could not find a pulse as my veins had collapsed. The doctors tried to save my life by injecting anti-toxins and dextrose into my body, but seemingly to no avail. Within a few minutes I seemed to slip away (apparently life ceased from my body for a period of approx. 15 minutes).

During this time I found myself in a very dark place, not realising where I was. So I tried to find a light switch, thinking I was still in the hospital - but as I reached out into the dark I couldn't touch anything. Reaching to touch my face I found my hand go straight through it. It seemed so bizarre, as I knew I was standing there but couldn't touch any part of my physical body.

As I stood there I began to sense that this wasn't just a physical darkness but that there was something else there. I could feel a cold eerie feeling as though something or someone was looking at me - a spiritual darkness. From the darkness I began to hear men’s voices screaming at me telling me to "shut up" - "that I deserved to be there" - "that I was in Hell". I couldn't believe it, but as I stood there a radiant beam of light shone through the darkness and immediately began to lift me upward. I found myself being translated up into an incredibly brilliant beam of pure white light - it seemed to be emanating from a circular opening far above me (I felt like a speck of dust being drawn up into a beam of sunlight).

The Journey
I entered this opening to find myself inside a long narrow passageway or tunnel - at the far end of the tunnel I could see the source of the light - it was so radiant that it looked to be the centre of the universe. As I continued to look towards this light it seemed to draw me towards it at an incredible speed - I wasn't walking but was being translated along this tunnel towards the source of this light. I watched as a wave of light broke off the source and moved up the tunnel towards me - as it passed through me I could feel a wave of warmth and comfort flood my soul … it was incredible. This light wasn't just physical, but was giving off a living emotion … Halfway down another wave of light - this time it gave off pure peace - followed by another wave - of pure joy. Coming out of the end of this tunnel I found myself standing in the presence of awesome light and power - it seemed as though even the constellations in the universe must find their energy source from this focal point.

As I stood there I wondered to myself if this was just an energy source in the universe or if perhaps there could be someone standing in the midst of this light!!!!! A voice immediately responded to my thought and asked me "Ian, do you wish to return?" Return, I thought!!! Where am I??? As I looked over my shoulder I could see the tunnel going back into darkness.

The Light
I thought - darkness - hospital bed - am I out of my body? - is this real? - am I standing here? - or am I in a coma having some bizarre dream? Am I in my body or out of my body?? (I could cognitively think of the two alternatives.) As I looked back towards the light, it was still there ... I responded "I don't know where I am, but if I am out of my physical body I wish to return." The voice responded "If you wish to return - you must see in a new light." "New light", I thought, "I'm seeing the light." "Are you the true light???" Words appeared in front of me "God is light and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5)." I had never read a Bible before in my life so I didn't know this was straight out of the scriptures. God is light, I thought - that is pure light - I see no darkness here, I have just come from darkness - I see no evil, no shadows - this is pure light - am I standing in the presence of God??? He knows my name and I didn't tell Him, only God could do that - He knows what I am thinking before I even speak, only God could do that. Then he must be able to see everything I have done wrong in my life ... no ... I don't want God to see that. I felt totally exposed and wanted to move away from the light and go back into the darkness where I belonged. I thought someone had made a mistake and brought the wrong person up. As I drew back towards the darkness a wave of light swept through me ... I felt pure unadulterated Love flow over me. Love I thought, how could God love me - I've taken his name in vain - I've slept around - I'm not a good man … but no matter what I said, waves of His unconditional Love continued to flow over me. I found myself weeping uncontrollably in His Presence. It was so amazing that He had totally forgiven me and accepted me as I was.

The waves of Love ceased and I wondered if I could possibly step into the light and see what God looked like. I was so close. ... I asked if I could step in. ..???.. I heard no response but thought if God could love me so much, He wouldn't mind …. As I stepped into the light I found myself disappear into it as it was so radiant - it had the intensity of laser light, yet you could look directly at it. The light seemed to absorb me into it - the centre seemed to be very bright so I aimed for it - I could feel a healing presence coming off this light that was healing my broken heart ... it was touching me deep inside my heart of hearts where no one gets to see … so beautiful.

God
Suddenly it opened up in the centre and standing in front of me was the most awesome sight - I could see a man standing in front of me, but he was not like anyone I'd ever seen before in my life. His garments were shimmering white in colour - garments of light - I could see His bare feet and His hands were outstretched towards me as if to welcome me. I knew I was looking upon God … as I looked toward His face the intensity of the light seemed to increase 7-fold - you couldn't make out the form of his face as the light was so bright - such purity, such holiness, such beauty. I asked God if I could step closer. I felt I could, I wanted to see His face. Moving closer waves of more Love began to flow towards me, and I felt very safe. Standing, now feet away, from the Lord I tried to see His face - but I didn't know that no man can see the face of God and live. And so, as I moved my face into the radiance that surrounded His face, He moved - and all His Glory moved with Him. Directly behind Him it opened out into a brand new World - green pastures, a crystal clear stream, rolling green hills to my right, mountains in the distance, blue skies above, to my left fields interspersed with trees and flowers. As I looked at the grass in front of me I could see the same light that was on the presence of God was radiating throughout this entire creation - totally untouched by man - perfect creation. And in my heart I knew I belonged here, that God had created me to live here - I knew I was home.

Return?
I was just about to enter in and explore, when God stepped back in front of me, and asked me this question. "Now that you have seen - do you wish to step in or do you wish to return?" I thought, "I don't want to return. I wish to step in. I have no one to go back for and no one has ever loved me, all they've ever done is manipulate me and try to control me ... I have no one to go back for, I wish to step in." But God didn't move, so I looked back behind me to say "goodbye, cruel world", and standing behind me in a vision in front of the tunnel was my mother. And as soon as I saw her I knew that there was one person in my life that had shown me love, and that was my mother, and that she had prayed for me every day and tried to show me that this was the way. In my mind I thought, "if I am dead and I did choose to step into heaven, what would my mother think? Would she know I made it or would she think I went to Hell - because she knew I had no Faith? … I realised that it could break her heart and that she would have no reason to believe that God had heard my prayer in the ambulance and forgiven my sins. … I thought, "how can I do that to my mum, it would be so selfish" … and decided I wished to return.

God then spoke to me and said, "If I wished to return - I must see things in a new light." I understood that to mean that I must begin to see through his eyes of Love, Peace, Joy, Forgiveness, from His Heavenly perspective, not my temporary earthly perspective. Looking back towards the tunnel again I now could see a vision of all my family, and thousands and thousands of other people. I asked God who all these people were, and He told me that if I didn't return then many of these people would not get a chance to hear about Him….

I told God that I didn't know most of them and I didn't love them, but that I loved my mother and wished to return for her. God spoke to me and told me that He loved those people and wanted them all to come to know Him. I asked God how could I possibly return back down the tunnel and back into my hospital bed. He spoke and said "Son, tilt your head, now feel the liquid drain from your eye. Now open your eye and see." And I was immediately back in my physical body.

Back to Earth
As I opened my eye, I was lying back on a hospital bed with my right leg elevated, cupped in the hands of the young Indian doctor who had been trying to save my life. He had a scalpel or some sharp instrument in his hand and he was prodding the base of my foot like a dead piece of meat. He wasn't aware that I was looking at him. I thought, "what's that man doing with my foot, what is he doing with that knife!!!!!!" At the same time something seemed to spook the doctor and he quickly turned his head to see my right eye open, looking at him… Terror struck his face and I got the distinct impression that he has just seen a dead man looking at him… My eye wasn't moving much and I could see the doctor thinking to himself that perhaps he had hit a nerve in my foot and caused the corpse to twitch, and that he had the evil eye looking at him or something. As for me, I was trying to grapple with what I had just seen. … Did I just see God, has He just given my life back??? As I lay there I heard the voice of God say "Son, I have just given you your life back." I said if that is true God, could you help me to tilt my head to the left and look out of the other eye, as I was getting sick of looking at the doctor’s terrified face. Strength came back into my neck and I opened my left eye to see a whole bunch of nurses and orderlies standing in the doorway looking at me as if the dead had just risen … As my eye locked onto theirs they began to jump backwards out of the doorway. From what I can ascertain I had been dead for a period of some 15 minutes. I prayed to God that night and asked him to heal me and enable me to walk out of the hospital. That night God completely healed me and enabled me to walk out of the hospital the next day.

I asked God what I had become, as I found my entire life was changing for good. God told me I was a Re-Born Christian and that he wanted me to read His Bible. I had never read a Bible and had never heard about being Born-Again. Over the next 6 weeks I read the entire Bible. I have never been the same, and believe that I saw our Lord Jesus Christ in His Glorified form Rev 1:13-18)

Healings Great and Small

This post is about the magnitude of healing we can expect through prayer. I believe God heals in dramatic ways and in ways that seem ordinary. On Jan 21, 2009 I met a friend at a local hospital. Sara is a paramedic like me. I don’t know her feelings about God or supernatural healing. I asked her how she was doing. She replied, ‘terrible’. She's had migraine headaches for 2 days and hasn’t been able to sleep since they started. She said it was a chronic condition she’s had for a while. I asked her if I could pray for her to be healed and she agreed. I put my hands on her shoulders and stood behind her and asked God to take away her pain and that it would never return.

I ran into her again at the hospital on Feb 4th and she shared her story with me. She said that shortly after I prayed for her the migraine headache left. It hasn’t returned since then. Interestingly, she added that on a couple of days she felt as though a headache was beginning but as soon as she was aware this was happening, the sensation left.

I was driving home from work on the 12th of January and I had been struggling with a headache for about 3 or 4 hours. God began to ask me why I didn’t ask Him to take it away. I felt stupid. Here I am praying for others but I’m too proud or stubborn to ask for my own healing. I finally asked Him to heal me – figuring if it was His idea, He just might do it. The headache left immediately and hasn’t returned. I thanked Him for His mercy and compassion and apologized for my stubbornness.

I would like to contrast this story with one that is a little more dramatic. This article has been published by several reputable sources. The doctor involved is a well-recognized cardiologist who gave his testimony of this event at a conference of physicians.

The news broadcast that covered the story is in the video window below

Dan Wooding/TN (July 18, 2007)

(MIAMI, FL)—The audience of 120 doctors from 50 countries sat in stunned silence as a renowned heart doctor produced evidence of how, after he had prayed for a patient who had died and was being prepared for the morgue, was brought back to life after prayer.
Dr. Chauncey W. Crandall IV, who serves at the Palm Beach Cardiovascular Clinic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, made his dramatic presentation on Friday, July 13th at the 4th Annual World Christian Doctors Network Conference in Miami, Florida.
He produced dramatic evidence that was shown on the screen and then, afterwards, agreed to tell the story to Assist News Service in an interview with Dan Wooding.

The following is the interview as conducted by Dan:

Dr. Crandall began by saying that the dramatic incident took place almost a year ago in West Palm Beach, Florida. "We had a fifty-three year old man who came to the emergency room with a massive heart attack and actually his heart had stopped," he said. "The medical people had worked on him for over forty minutes in the emergency room and then declared him dead.

"They called me in to evaluate the patient towards the end of his treatment where they had unsuccessfully tried to revive him. The nurse was preparing his body to be taken down to the morgue when the Holy Spirit told me to 'turn around and pray for that man.' When the Holy Spirit talks to you, you have to respond. It's sometimes a quiet voice and this was a quiet voice and to honor the Lord I did turn around and I went to the side of that stretcher where his body was being prepared.

"There was no life in the man. His face and feet and arms were completely black with death and I sat next to his body and I prayed, 'Lord, Father; how am I going to pray for this man? He's dead. What can I do?' All of a sudden, these words came out of my mouth, 'Father, God, I cry out for the soul of this man if he does not know You as his Lord and Savior, please raise him from the dead right now in Jesus name.

"It was amazing as a couple minutes later, we were looking at the monitor and all of a sudden a heart beat showed up. It was a perfect beat; a normal beat; and then after a couple more minutes, he started moving and then his fingers were moving and then his toes began moving and then he started mumbling words.

"There was a nurse in the room—she wasn't a Believer—and she screamed out and said 'Doctor Crandall, what have you done to this patient?' And I said, 'All I've done is cry out for his soul in Jesus name.'

"We quickly rushed the gentleman down to the intensive care unit, and the hospital was by now buzzing about the fact that a dead man had been brought back to life. After a couple of days he woke up. He had an amazing story to tell after I had asked him, 'Where have you been and where were you on that day that you had that massive heart attack? You were gone and we prayed you back to life in Jesus name.'

"He said, 'Doctor Crandall, it's the most amazing thing. I was in a dark room and there was no light. It was complete darkness and I felt I was in a casket and I kept repeating that I was so disappointed.' He said the disappointment came from the fact that none of his family, friends or colleagues, had come to visit him. Then he told me, 'All of a sudden, these men came in and they wrapped me up and they threw me in the trash.'

"Dan, he was in hell that day and as he told me that story, I cried out, 'Lord, this gentleman needs to accept You as Lord and Savior.' I then explained the salvation message to this man as he sat in that bed and I held his hand and I cried out, 'Father God, in the name of Jesus, I pray that this man accepts you as his Lord and Savior right here in the intensive care unit.' He held out his hand and accepted Christ as his Savior with tears rolling down from his eyes and now he's a child of God.

"I told him, 'You never have to be thrown in the trash into total darkness now. The life of Christ is in you and the light of the kingdom of Heaven is on you now."

I asked Dr. Crandall if there had been any brain damage to the patient.

"No there was no brain damage at all; his brain was completely normal," he said. "I was most concerned about his hands because his fingers were completely black and he had some numbness in his fingers and his feet, but now that is totally resolved."

I asked Dr. Crandall if he could give the name of the man and he said he couldn't as the patient had requested that it would not be revealed.

"All I can say is that he was fifty-three years old and he was a car mechanic," he said. "He had a family who were Believers, but he left them twenty years ago because he didn't believe in the Lord. His family continued to pray for twenty years for his salvation, and his ex-wife was on her hands and knees praying for the salvation of her ex-husband, who came to know the Lord that day."

I then asked the doctor if he had seen other similar miracles in his practice.

"I've been witness to three cases of people being raised from the dead," he said. "One other case was when another patient came to the hospital with a massive heart attack. It was on the very day that I received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and I'd been praying for weeks that I would receive this mighty baptism that the Lord can give us. We were working on this patient that came in again with a massive heart attack and who didn't survive in the operating room.

"All of a sudden, that Baptism of the Holy Spirit hit me and I started speaking in a spiritual language and crying over this patient who, in the operating room theater, had passed away. And then, within five or ten minutes, the heartbeat came back and life came back to this patient. Once again, the nurses who are not Believers looked at me as if to say, 'There goes Doctor Crandall on another case."

I concluded the interview by asking Dr. Crandall what he would like to say to doctors who do not believe in supernatural healing.

"I would just like to say to my colleagues and physicians out there, that the Lord is real. We've seen many miracles and we pray for our patients daily. There is not one week that goes by that we don't see a mighty miracle in our office. The people need this; they need the power of Christ in their life and they need the power of Christ for healing.
"I would just encourage my fellow doctors to get involved in a church, meet with a minister, and attend a healing service run by people that believe in the power of Jesus Christ. We love our colleagues in medicine—we pray for them."

I would like to close with this thought; If God heals us with his supernatural power it is a miracle. Every miracle is in reality just as miraculous as another. There is no big or small miracle - Every touch of the divine Father is special and to be treasured.