Jesus Saves In The Slums of Rio
A really cool testimony: we were in a slum in Rio, Brasil not too long ago. Most of the guys were sleeping up on top of a roof of a ywam base there. One of our girls Nicole was up there looking down on the street we were living on and saw a group of a couple of boys who were always hanging out there looking to get a glance at all the foreign women who happened to move in next door to them!! Ahaha. She told me they were flirting with her and I did hear them say they wanted her to be their girlfriend, as did some of the girls to me during that time. These teenagers were longing for true affection; they just did not know it yet.
Nicole came over to me and said lets go talk to those kids! I wanted to go read my Bible some place and did not even really want to go out on the street at that moment, haha, but I did anyway. We went down there and engaged with 2 of the boy’s specifically, who were really listening to what we had to say. We started to just share the gospel of Jesus to them with power. At the end of it we wanted to simply in a very non religious way, just invite them into Christ. Before we did that, I laid down the implications of what it really meant and how they were losing their old life and becoming co crucified with Christ through this confession of Him as Lord. I wanted it to be a holy, serious thing. They still wanted to receive Him and give their lives to Him. Apparently one of their girl friends over heard most of what we were saying and came over wanting Jesus too! So all three of them right there put their hands out as if they were receiving a gift, indeed they were. We prayed with them. The boy who I think was the chief offender in hollering at Nicole specifically was about to be touched by Holy Spirit. We felt to release His baptism of fire over them. So they allowed us to lay hands on them again. We put our hands right on his head and called it forth. The presence of God came on Him so strong he stumbled backwards with NO help from us. I absolutely despise faking or manipulating manifestations of His presence, this boy was getting floored by the weight of Holy Spirit’s fiery love. He looked up at us, with this, “Wow” look on his face. Yep. Wow. That’s my pursing Bridegroom Jesus right there on display through weak, but willing vessels! Thank You Jesus for saving. You are mighty and holy alone! The Lord brought these young ones to Himself! Bom Jesus!
This is the biggest slum in all of South America! 500,000 some people!
So Brent Moose Lough and I were going out for some morning juice at this bomb juice station in the center of Manaus and I see a guy with a cane walking towards us. Well we are becoming Love, faith works through love, so we stepped out in faith in our vast supply of Portuguese and asked this dear fellow what the problem was. He pointed to his ankle, he was in pain and it hurt to put weight on it, and he could not fully rotate it normally. The healing grace and fire filled presence of Jesus started to manifest on his ankle. He said, “It’s warm”! We commanded all pain to leave and for the ankle to be fully restored and fully mobile again. I then took his cane for him and asked him to walk next to me to test it out by putting a little weight on his ankle. All the pain left and he could move it around in a way he has not been able to for 2 years he said! Gloria Deus! He was walking without his cane. I hugged on him and gave him back his cane! haha.
All the while as we were praying for him this lady notices that this guy, Jose, is getting healed. She stops and almost like she is waiting in line for a touch tells us she has pain in her neck and shoulder. We laid hands on her, she felt heat, all the pain left. She tested it out by rotating and moving her shoulder. It was all gone! She smiled with joy and said thanks and simply walked away. We don’t want to be remembered anyway. Come on Jesus!
All the while as we were praying for him this lady notices that this guy, Jose, is getting healed. She stops and almost like she is waiting in line for a touch tells us she has pain in her neck and shoulder. We laid hands on her, she felt heat, all the pain left. She tested it out by rotating and moving her shoulder. It was all gone! She smiled with joy and said thanks and simply walked away. We don’t want to be remembered anyway. Come on Jesus!
My portion is to dwell in everlasting burnings. In the everlasting burnings there is a fullness of grace and intensity that is impossible to put out or step outside of. Once you fully give yourself to the Burning One in this way your destiny is sealed. Part of your identity before Him and in Him will be forever inescapble: one who burns in holy, violent flames of undying love and desire for God in the ever increasing same measures as Jesus does for His Father.
There is a reason grace supplies us with the ability to “fan in to flame” the gift of the fire of His love on the inside. I actually do this as a prophetic act in the natural and it translates from the spirit straight into my present reality. Holy Spirit breathing fire in me and over me is one of the constant modes of operation He moves in on my behalf: the fire sets me free to burn wholly in desire for the Man full of grace and truth whose eyes are like flames of fire towards me. In doing this He gives me His eyes and makes my eyes single for Him through that release, and thus my WHOLE body continuously becomes full of His light which is a direct result of His fire that produces light, heat, and Holy Spirit divine enabling energy.
This kind of burning kills your flesh and ignintes your spirit man to love without limits. My experience is to burn in love with holy fire for Jesus yet not be destroyed by it but be consumed through it.
Burning for Jesus,
From Rio de Janeiro,
Ben
