Sid: My guest is red hot for the Messiah her name is Theresa Griffith Hurlbert; I’m speaking to her from her home in Northern California and God’s given her a very unique gift.  When she plays and instrument and plays eight other different instruments.  When she plays an instrument the anointing of God is so strong that she literally is prophesying to the heart of the individual listening and people have had things that they’ve buried for years from an emotional viewpoint which affects your health.  Theresa you were in a very abusive situation for 25 years and you were dedicated to making the marriage work, but the counselors and the prophets; and you were literally dying you were bedridden 3 times; why is it that you go through such trauma and stress our body it just shuts down, what happened to you?

Theresa:  Well, just like Proverbs you know “The words have the power of life and death,” and if you are constantly being fed like a plant instead of fertilizer your getting acid the body will tense and the organs inside will tense, the immune system will become impaired.  When the organs cannot do their job you self poison and my blood was highly toxic, I was dying.

Sid: There were at least three times your were bedridden five months and what was the physical diagnosis?

Theresa: Chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, Candida and just a whole list.     

Sid: And it affected your brain.

Theresa:  Right.

Sid: In what way?

Theresa:  I had trouble understanding English, I had trouble talking, I had trouble thinking like occasionally my girlfriend would get me out of the house and push me with a wheelchair to go shopping but if I bought anything I couldn’t figure out how to write out my check so she had to do it.

Sid: Now you could not take loud sounds either.

Theresa:  Correct it was just brutal for me and even music I felt that I needed music to comfort me you know asking friends to lend me worship CDs and nothing was soothing enough.  I was creating harp but even when someone would give me a harp CD it was too fast a beat to bring relief.

Sid: You went through this for 25 years and to have it end in divorce to get you out of this horrible situation, you tried everything possible. So you were determined that it would be the Lord.  You were alone for 4 years and it got tough and one day you cried out to God, tell me about that.

Theresa:  Let me first say for people who are thinking about the verse that says “God hates divorce.”  You know I’ve been a Christian all my life and I’ve never heard the second verse preached “and men who deal treacherously with their wives.” So the Lord brought that to my attention when He set me free and I was resisting and saying “No, I’m going to stay married.”  So people need to here that there’s a second half to that verse.  So any way when I had been single for four years the ministry that I have is so difficult because people free according to Isaiah 61 even.  Even political leaders we’ve played for three governments because of that the enemy – we’re taking territory from him we’re setting people free and he doesn’t like it so I go through some intense suffering because of it.  And I cry out to the Lord because if this is my life, please send me a helpmate because I can’t do it by myself anymore.  And He said “I agree with you; in fact I would like you to make me a list of what you would like in a helpmate, and I don’t want you to stop at just the spiritual things.”  I was hesitant to because it didn’t sound spiritual but He said “I want to show you and not only for you be a sign to my people I want to lavish love on them.”      

Sid: So you’re telling me God’s not a respecter of persons.

Theresa:  Right.

Sid: What He’ll do for one He’ll do for all.

Theresa:  Exactly there are visual tangible sign of proof of His love, I made that list; it was 40 things on the list and you know I started with this “I would like him to be a prophetic musician, someone who is intensely intimate lover of the Lord, someone whose at least healed as much emotionally as I am with a sense of humor, someone who is a gourmet health food cook.

Sid: Now that eliminates me (laughing) and a lot of other people.

Theresa:  You know people say a man who cooks is so romantic and I think that he would bring healing if he was a gourmet self food cook.  I had a number in my mind from the Lord thirty-nine, he had to be thirty-nine.  And people my friends were saying “Let that go,” but I felt in my spirit it was a number the Lord had given me.

Sid:  So He knew who He wanted for you before you even and I believe He was putting these in your heart to ask Him for.

Theresa:  Right and my reasoning in my mind was, “I felt that my prime was robbed from me.” I’m fifty years old and my prime was robbed because I was in a prison and I wanted it back.  And the other reason was because…

Sid: You were not in prison with bars you were in a prison of an abusive marriage, but go ahead.

Theresa:   Exactly right, the other reason is because this ministry is so difficult he better be 39 if he’s going to endure.  (Laughing) and Jeff was a construction worker with rebar, heavy, heavy labor in 115 degrees in Southern California and he says the ministry is much harder than what he did in his secular job.

Sid: Okay you’re husband all 40 things you asked for were true with him?

Theresa:  All 40 things.

Sid: I’ll tell you what before we get to Jeff we’ll talk to him on tomorrow’s broadcast. I want to talk to you about your music for a moment.  We’ve been playing this week an instrumental called “Bliss” what feedback are you getting from people that listen to this music?

Theresa: Well, we just got a phone call from New Mexico yesterday of a lady who had two surgeries last week; she asked the doctors’ if they would play “Bliss” before surgery, during surgery and after surgery?” And they were happy to do that. She said “No pain and expedited healing process,” the doctor’s were amazed with her healing and they were touched by the music as well.  She also said that she had never felt so much peace coming out of surgery.

Sid: Now according to my notes there are also people with high blood pressure, insomnia tell me about that.

Theresa:  Well, we’re just getting many reports, it’s so exciting to get letters and cards from people saying I work in the oncology unit in my hospital, we’re using it when people get IV’s and they’re just having tremendous peace.  My husband used it for the high blood pressure and every time I play it just takes me into such peace.  And one family there’s a lot of emotional problems in the family and they wrote and said they play it and it just brings all into unity and peace.

Sid: How about children?

Theresa: Children are actually choosing it to go to sleep with at night.

Sid: Let’s hear a selection from “Bliss”

Theresa – “Bliss.”

Sid: Theresa that was from your instrumental “Bliss.” Many times you just sing over someone and they’ll be set free; tell me one case.

Theresa: Well, this situation was running from my ex-husband I was ill, I felt very weak. The Lord told me to go to this lady and sing over her and she was in a wheelchair and I was to put my hand on her neck and just say “Be healed.”  And talk about the Lord using the weak things to confound the wise and His strength being made perfect in weakness; I obeyed Him, the lady was resistant actually and I just let it go I just gave her a word, a word of knowledge, and sang over her and she resisted it.  Her friend after I left said “You know what can it hurt to just accept what she said?”  And she said “Okay, I will.”  And she got up out of the wheelchair and ran and she was totally healed.

Sid: My goodness, and I imagine there were times you didn’t even think you’d have a ministry.

Theresa:  Right.

Sid: Mishpochah you may be in hopeless situation as Theresa was in and if God will do this for Theresa He’ll do it for you.  One of the best ways I know to get out of that hopelessness is to have very anointed music that is setting so many people free.

 

Sid: My guest is red hot for the Messiah her name is Jane Hamon she’s co-Pastor of Christian International Family Church in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida.  Many of you are familiar with her father-in-law Bill Hamon from Christian International and we are featuring her book “Dreams and Visions.” As you said early this week Jane it’s the fulfillment of the prophecy from Joel chapter 2 explain.

Jane:  Well, Joel chapter 2 verse 28 says that “In the last days God’s going to pour out His Spirit on all flesh.”  And that the result of that is that our sons and daughters are going to prophecy, young men are going to see visions, and old men are going to dream dreams. And this is really I believe a promise, a prophetic promise, for this day that we’re living in today, these last days.  I believer that God is pouring His Spirit out on the face of the earth as never before and that He is as a result of that is that we’re going to see our sons and our daughters begin to prophecy, begin to speak the mind, the heart, the will of God.  We’re going to begin to hear God’s voice as never before and in doing that we’re going to hear God’s voice as He speaks to us in dreams and visions and understand the things that He’s speaking so that we can be obedient believers and move on the things that God is saying to us in this season of time.

Sid: Well one of the things I love about your book “Dreams and Visions” is many people that perhaps don’t have a lot of dreams, or never even bother trying to understand their dreams it becomes suddenly activated by reading this.  I guess it’s the old story of whatever you preach starts happening so when they read this book it starts happening.  But how important is understanding your dreams and visions this year as opposed to any other year?

Jane:    You know Sid I really believe that we are living in incredible times. Jesus even said to us that it was so important for us to discern the signs of the times.  And I believe that it’s time for an Issachar generation really to come forth. When I use the term Issachar it says “Of the sons of Issachar that they were those that had an understanding of the times and seasons and they knew what to do.”  And I believe that that’s really the time that we’re living in right now is as we hear God’s voice that we’re going to understand the times and seasons both for us personally in our personal dealings in our personal growth and walk with the Lord, our personal dealings with other people.  I believe that has to do with our businesses with our families, with our ministries. I also believe on national and even a global level that the people of God need to understand the times in which we’re living and we need to be able to prophetically discern them so that we can work with God in whatever acts of obedience He has us to fulfill as well as in times prayer and being watchman on the wall.

Sid: Speaking of watchman on the wall, what is God showing you for this year for Israel, and for this year for the United States?

Jane:  Well, I believe for Israel that it’s going to be really a year of advancement in God’s purposes. I see things moving forward on God’s time table and on the God’s program and agenda for the nation of Israel. But at the same time it is going to be a year of upheaval and a year of national restructuring.  I see that the Lord is bringing new structure into the government of the land and that it’s going to be a real season of the opening of God’s purposes upon the civil government over Israel. I see that it’s going to be a time for believers all over the earth really need to pray for the civil leaders, the governmental leaders, that are over the land of Israel because God is contending with them.  As things are shifting in the land as there is turmoil and even as there is a new season of turmoil and danger that’s coming upon Israel that it’s going to be very important that we’re praying for the leadership of the land that there response to some of the strategies that the enemy is setting up are very proper and very measured strategies and that they’re not reactionary.  I’m must sensing by the Holy Spirit that there are some things that the enemy wants to inflame and that God does not want the leaders of Israel to respond to.  And I believe that their responses are going to proper in measure because the saints of God are really praying for the leaders.  I feel like this is going to be a time, we’ve been talking all week long about dreams and visions. I really feel like this is going to be a season where God is going to pour His spirit out on those civil government leaders over in the land of Israel.  And some of them are going to receive dreams from the Lord, they’re going to receive visitations from angels. I realize that some of these people are maybe not even believer’s in Jesus believer’s in Yeshua.  Some of them are agnostics some of them don’t believe in God at all. But I believe that this is going to be a year that God is going to contend with them and pour His Spirit out upon them and that they’re going to actually hear God’s voice to bring forth God’s purposes through dreams and through Divine manifestations that God is going to bring forth upon them.

Sid: You know Jane I believe there is a supernatural connection between the United States of America and Israel.  It’s almost like our fates are tied, our destinies are tied together.  What do you see happening in the United States?

Jane:  Well, I believe again that this is the year of vigilance for the United States. I believe that it’s not a time to let down our guard in anyway shape or form. We have been praying and believing that God would bring our nation into a righteous shift that it would shift us back to righteousness and that this would happen on every level.  This would happen on a government level, that this would happen in this spiritual level and in both Israel and in the United States God is breathing His breath of revival upon our lands and I believe that it’s really time for us to really rise up and lay hold of it. Really seize the day in the Spirit.  I believe that there’s some very important things that are going to shake both in this nation as well as in Israel during 2006 and this is a time for the church not to be shaken.  You know it says in Hebrews that everything that can be shaken will be shaken so that which cannot be shaken will remain.  And I believe that it’s another season of shaking for our nation as well as for Israel and that it’s important that we stay in a place of alignment.  I feel like the enemy would like to set up some things happening in Israel that would cause the United States to fall out of alignment with Israel and I think that that’s very important thing for the believer’s in the United States to really pray for.  Our President, pray for the leaders that are in our land that we stay in covenant with the nation of Israel.  I feel like that this is a season in the United States God obviously blesses those that bless Israel and as our  nation stays in that proper place of alignment that there is a blessing that is coming to our land.

Sid: Jane we are in history at this precise moment it is so important that God’s children hear from God. I believe God’s given you an anointing to pray for those that want their ears opened, their eyes opened, they have prophetic dreams.  Would you pray for us right now?

Jane:  Yes, Father we thank you so much that we are living in the last days. Lord that you desire to pour Your Spirit out on all flesh. Lord and I believe that Lord that the result of that outpouring is that we will begin to have our spiritual eyes opened, our spiritual ears opened and Lord that we can begin to receive from you the revelation that we need to move forward in Your Kingdom agenda for this hour.  And so I pray right now for those that are in the sound of my voice Lord that they would begin to receive that mantle of revelation. Lord that their spiritual eyes would begin to see, that their spiritual ears would begin to hear.  Lord that every spirit of blindness and deafness that has kept them Father out of the realm of the Spirit of receiving the revelation would be broken.  And Lord that their spiritual receptors Father God would begin to be activated.  That Lord as we are awake Father we will hear Your voice Lord as never before.  As we pray Father that we are going to see visions, as we pray as we worship Father God we’re going to see the supernatural begin to take place in front of us Lord.  And even as we sleep Lord right now I speak and decree an activation of Your dream anointing upon all those that are listening Lord that we’re going to hear Your voice; Father that we’re going to understand what it is that You are saying whether You speak to us literally or symbolically, and Father that we’re going to have a clear understanding of what you’re asking us to do as a result of that of which You have spoken.  And Lord I pray Father that You will not cause us to be hearers only Lord just to have our ears tickled and say “I had a wonderful little dream,” but Father that we will be hearers and doers of the word that you speak. Father I thank You that there are key revelations that are going to come to some business people and I thank you that there are some key revelations and insights that are coming Lord that are giving them the answers to something’s that they have longed sought after as a result in regards to breaking open their business to next level.  And I thank you Lord that there are even some spiritual leaders that are coming into a new season of revelation where they feel like they’ve been hitting a road block, their resources have been cut off, they feel like there things that have been cut off from them.  And I thank You Lord that You are giving an answer to them by the mantle of revelation not just by good wisdom or counsel but Father by the Spirit of Revelation.  And then that You’ll give them the wisdom to walk that revelation out. I thank you Father Lord there are even some people that are politically positioned into some governmental positions.  And Lord I pray Father for a double portion of your mantle to be upon them during these key and strategic times Lord.  Let their ears be opened to hear the voice of Your Spirit.  And Lord let their eyes see that which You desire them to do. Lord I pray for clarity in the interpretation of dreams and visions Lord that each one Father will be able to hear Your voice, know Your voice for surety, let it bring a revival in their own spirit Lord for the purposes of God so that they can move forward and advance Your Kingdom.

Sid: In Jesus Name amen.  Thank you Jane so much.

Sid: I have on the telephone a young man that was much younger the first time I met him. His name is Tommy O’Dell and I’m speaking to him at his office in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Many of you are familiar with his grandfather T.L. Osborn. Tommy would it be fair to say that you’re grandfather has seen more miracles and more salvations than anyone on earth?

Tommy: I think that’s really possible because he’s been preaching for about 60 years now all around the world. Has maybe won more souls in front of huge audiences face to face, and seen more great miracles than any man that has ever lived.

Sid: Now listen your mom is his daughter; she’s a wonderful evangelist in her own right; your father’s in ministry; you’re raised in this family of people that love the Lord. How in the world did you slip into drugs?

Tommy: Well I think this is a mean world. You’ve probably heard the statement that God has children, but He doesn’t have grandchildren. Everybody’s got to make that personal decision, and that’s the beautiful thing about…

Sid: But you know what, I think most people take it for granite. If you have a family like that you’ve seen it all, heard it all, know it all, and you’re born again.

Tommy: Well it’s true a lot of people have that assumption, but you got to have that personal revelation, that personal experience.

Sid: Did you see miracles before you had that personal experience?

Tommy: Well I did, I did…

Sid: So how did you see miracles and not become born again? I don’t get it.

Tommy: I never doubted God’s existence because I was so blessed. Like the Bible says “That many prophets and kings have desired to see the things you’ve see.” They didn’t see them I saw them. I went on campaigns with my grandfather in Monterey, Mexico when I was I guess about 11 years old. I actually was the one that captured the picture of cripples walking that they used on the cover of Faith Digest his magazine. So I never doubted God’s existence, I knew that God was real. I knew that God was a healer, and I believed in Jesus. What I didn’t believe was that Jesus was the only way to be saved.

Sid: Out of curiosity, you had these doubts in the beginning stages. Did you keep them to yourself, or did you talk to your family about it?

Tommy: I think I kept it to myself at first, then later I was very vocal. When I began, they say experimenting with drugs, but let’s be honest most of don’t wear lab coats or have little beakers. It’s more for fun at first you think it’s just a big party. I didn’t have any conscious awareness that I was trying to numb some deep pain in my heart; I was just living it up just having fun. Then later, actually very quickly for me it became serious because I got involved in real heavy drugs, and ended up just burning out my brain.

Sid: Now your parents tried to help you out by sending you to a foreign country with some missionaries. Where was that?

Tommy: They thought the best thing we can do for Tommy, because I had already dropped out of school…

Sid: Oh here it is, Kenya.

Tommy: I dropped out of school, I ran away from home. They said “Tommy please would you go to Kenya?” Thinking that that would get me away from the peer pressure, not realizing the best thing they could of done for my friends was send me there because I was the peer pressure.

Sid: Hmmm.

Tommy: So went they sent me to Kenya, of course I found the same kind of people there. They looked different, but they still you know the same kind of drugs. There I got involved in Hinduism. That’s what really began… See before I was just I guess you’d call me a backslidden Christian. You know…

Sid: Except you were never really there in the first place, but I understand what you’re saying.

Tommy: Yeah. I was saved when I was 7 years old… I never had a vibrant spiritual life. The typical preachers kid of that era where you just kind of assume they’re all going to have their falling away time. That was assumed as part of your journey in Pentecost at that time. Of course what a horrible attitude because kids don’t have to have that experience.

Sid: Paint me a picture Tommy of what you look like, what was going on with you at the bottom when you were just totally out of control.

Tommy: Wow. See it all started all fun and games, but then it became very serious when the addiction just… it’s like an anaconda it just constricts and constricts until it becomes the only thing you can think about. At the end, I was living on the streets; I was covered with my own vomit. It wasn’t a pretty picture usually my pants were stained with my own urine…

Sid: Now how did you support yourself?

Tommy: I would drill selling drugs.

Sid: Hmm.

Tommy: Of course at that point… at the very end there was not even no concept of supporting myself. I slept wherever I passed out. My eyes would barely focus; I’d drool at the mouth; my hair was real long and even falling, you could just take and pull and hunks would fall out.

Sid: Now how old were you?

Tommy: I was almost 17.

Sid: Oh my goodness.

Tommy: It was already over my teeth were brown; my grandmother said I looked like an old man, but the old young man. You couldn’t hardly tell what age I was because I had just used so many chemicals.

Sid: How was your brain, your verbal skills?

Tommy: I could barely talk. To carry on a 3 word conversation was a real chore. My dad said I would walk humped over like a gorilla kind of humped over and a stupor; sometimes forget who I was what I was doing. At that point so many brain cells had died that there was no return for me. It wasn’t a matter of getting cleaned up and going back to a normal lifestyle I was permanently brain damaged.

Sid: Tell me about that worst and yet best night of your life… Did you overdose by the way?

Tommy: Yes I did.

Sid: So I mean it was only probably your parents and grandparents prayers that stopped you from dying in that state.

Tommy: Yeah I believe that. My grandmother said when she prayed for me she actually saw me like in a vision with some sort of dark murky substance like a dark cloud over my head, and staggering and trying to find my way. She prayed for me and interceded for me during that time. My father never gave up; my mother kept praying. That night I was with friends late at night, they were getting sick of being around me. Before I was very popular…

Sid: You mean your own druggy friends were getting sick.

Tommy: These were close friends.

Sid: Now tell me, how did your parents deal with this? How did your dad deal with this?

Tommy: Well my father it was devastating for him. People actually told him “The best thing you can do for Tommy is knock him over the head commit him to some institution and they’ll keep him there in a padded cell, or medicated somewhere where he can’t do any more damage to himself.” The best that they could hope for in the natural was to have me permanently institutionalized. You can go to mental institutions all over this country, all over the world, and see people that are burnt out just like I was. Hopeless, nothing you can do for them.

Sid: But your parents are believers. Now they’re praying. Was there a special way your dad was praying?

Tommy: Well my dad was working for Kenneth Hagin at the time. He went into Kenneth Hagin’s office and asked him. He said “I don’t know what to do, I’m at the end of my rope I’m desperate.” He said “Jerry every time you think of Tommy I want you to cover him with faith and love.” So at first it was real hard to do, but every time he thought and every time he wanted to worry he would do that. He would say “Father I put him in Your hands, I cover him with faith and love.” Then he would quote the scriptures “The seed of the righteous shall not perish,” then the devil would immediately speak to him and accuse. Righteous? “Yeah I’m righteous by the blood of Jesus. I cover him with faith and love.” In a short time, he wasn’t even able to worry about me.

Sid: My goodness that is realm of the Spirit we all should be. (Laughing)

Tommy: That’s right, well peace just flooded his heart. That’s what the Bible says to do instead of being filled with anxiety, and fear. Just make your request known unto the Lord and the peace of God which passes all understanding, in other words, there is no human reason for it; will fill you. So to answer your question, I was friends late that night and I began to overdose. I actually felt myself dying and they had looked back and thought I, in the backseat and thought I had already died. So they stopped the car and they were afraid of getting stuck with a corpse.

Sid: I can understand.

Tommy: We had a lot of stuff in the car and I think they didn’t want to go to jail. Getting stuck with a corpse there would be a lot of questions to answer. So they stopped the car opened the door and lifted me out of the car, and left me there next to the street and drove away. Never expecting to see me alive again. There in the darkness I felt myself dying; I actually felt my spirit leaving my body.

Sid: You knew that was happening?

Tommy: I knew it yeah, and I remember that very very clearly. I didn’t know if I had already died, but I called out on the name of Jesus. I didn’t call on the name of Buddha, although I had studied Buddhism, I didn’t call out on the name of Shiva, or Krishna, or any of the Hindu deities using chanting in my mantras.

Sid: I’ll tell you what, hold that thought

Tommy: Okay.

Sid: I have on the telephone Tony and Felicity Dales they’re heads of a ministry called House to House Ministry in Austin, Texas.  I’m interviewing them on their book “An Army of Ordinary People.”  A must read if you really want to know what the Holy Spirit is up to at this moment in history. On yesterday’s broadcast you were telling me something so fantastic about how countries are being affected in such a radical fashion; take Cambodia there were 600 Christians in the entire country a decade ago what’s happened there?

Tony:  Well, it’s incredible exciting what’s happened a young American missionary went in there understanding the principals of these simple church movements and identified 6 lay people who were ready to work with him in church planting.  And that first year they planted 6 churches, then the next year it grew to you know in the region of 10 and then 24 and then 60.  Within a decade it had grown to the place where there were an identifiable 100,000 Christians within the country and this all through simple house church movements.      

Sid: Now I’m going to take you back to the early 70’s, the charismatic movement, you’re both medical doctors, you’re in England and a phenomena occurred these house churches; tell me what you observed after they started all over the map something happened explain that.

Tony:  Well, you know it’s interesting because this movement there in the UK was called the “British House Church Movement” because all of us were starting churches in our homes.  But we didn’t have any Biblical framework of home church, this was a descriptive terms and as God blessed these churches got bigger and moved from our homes into local school halls, or you know borrowed other church facilities, or bought local cinemas or whatever.  And over the period of 70’s and the early 80’s what had begun in homes really became the mega church movement of the future.  So the large independent charismatic churches in the UK now nearly all grew out of the house church movement of the 70’s.

Sid: Now because you’re there I want you to be candid. I’m sure wonderful things are occurring right now but did it lose something when it left the home and became a mega church?

Tony: You know it really did but a lot of that we didn’t understand at the time, you know were moving with the light that we had and God was blessing and you know people were getting saved, they were getting filled with the Holy Spirit, there was life and so people were congregating to these new churches.  But yes, as we got big we without realizing it we lost the every member participation we began to see things led more and more from the front and so even though most of these church began with real team leadership the larger they got the more important you know “The Leader” appeared and this type of thing.  And so there were all sorts of core values that we were letting go of really without realizing it.

Sid: So what’s the answer who would not want a mega church?  But what’s the answer, now you can look back, what could you have done to have kept the vibrancy of the Holy Spirit?

Tony: You know it’s very hard to say what you could do in retrospect, but prospectively and certainly this is where Felicity and I found ourselves you know back in 1996 when we were starting home church here in Austin.  We said “There were things that we would do differently, instead of just getting bigger, we would multiply; instead of focusing on leadership we would make sure that everybody remained actively involved and you know everyone participating.” Really understanding it means what it says in 1 Corinthians 12.  You know giving honor to the weaker member so that we’re seeing the body of Christ in all of its beauty and not just some of the more obvious gifts.

Sid: Well, you actually had some of those choices to make here in the states in Austin, Texas. You started you know it’s kind of…I find it fascinating the different types of groups that you started. One group was for business leaders, tell me about that.

Felicity: That was the very first group we started, we were involved in business, we obviously couldn’t practice medicine over here and so we moved sideways into business. We knew many unbelievers because of the business that we were involved in. And so we had the idea of pulling some of them together and so we invited about a dozen unbelievers who were involved in the business that we were in. We invited them into our home for pizza and we told them that we were going to look at business principals together and that we were going to use a book as a basis of our discussions it was written by one of the wisest men that ever lived. And so these twelve unsuspecting business people came to our home for supper, pizza, and for a study of the Book of Proverbs.  And it was very interesting, we used a pattern that we’ve used again and again in this kind of context of a very open kind of a discussion where everybody can participate there are no right or wrong answers, but all the time we’re looking to the Bible to provide the authority to provide the basis of the answers that we accept.

Sid: Well, what kind of fruit did you have from such a group?

Felicity: Well, over a course of a year every one of them became Christians and so that was very exciting.  

Sid: In fact there is a funny story you talk about that two of the successful businessman were former ex-drug dealers, tell me about that conversation.

Felicity:  Correct that was a wonderful evening where we found these two discussing together why some of their drug deals of the past doesn’t work because they weren’t following the principals that they were now learning from the Book of Proverbs.  And we were sitting there trying very hard to keep a straight face but just laughing inside that such a conversation were even possible.    

Sid: But I have to tell you as exciting as that particular group you started was the thing that is close to my heart and I believe close to God’s heart right now is a group you started for teenagers, a Bible Club, in which you serve them breakfast tell, me about that.

Felicity:  Well, that followed on from the business people’s one because we were taking those business people to a good church that we were involved in at the time but that moved away to the far end of Austin to sort of a 50 minute to an hour drive and there was no way we could continue going there.  So we went and spoke to the Senior Pastor there and he said “Why don’t you start a church?”  Which was something that we had always resisted the sort of because you know from our experience back in England where there are so many fewer Christians you tend to stay together and you don’t tend to start things you know unless the Lord’s really leading.  And he used an argument that was very persuasive to us because he said “That statistically the best means of evangelism is starting a church.”  And we thought “Okay, we’ll be willing to do it” and we had the teenage kids at the time two was still at home and so we suggested to them that we start a breakfast Bible club with them and their friends.  And we got them to invite all their friends from the neighborhood around us.  And we cooked them a huge breakfast and the kids came for the breakfast but they stayed for the Spiritual activities afterwards.  And again they started becoming Christians and as their lives started changing some of their parents began wondering “What’s happening to my kids.”  And they said, “Can we come too?”  And so we ended up then with a group of many sort of teenage kids and some of their parents.

Sid: Did you see much fruit from those meetings with the teenagers and their parents?

Tony: That was incredibly exciting, yes we did. Over a period of about six months this group it began with 12 to 14 kids it had grown to about 20 kids plus now some of the parents coming because they were seeing the incredible changes in their kid’s lives and then the parents began giving their lives to Jesus as well.  So now we had a multi-age church all though we hadn’t called it that right there in our home.   

Sid: Another area that intrigues me immensely is you started a group in a low income housing project; tell me about that.

Tony: Well, it has a fascinating story because this was just a very clear example of the principals that are outlined in Luke 10, where it talks about Jesus sending out the 70 into everyplace where He was about to go.  And the Lord spoke very specifically to Felicity and said to her “I want you to go and start prayer walking in this particular area.”  And finally after a couple of months she did what the Lord had put on her heart and the second day she was out prayer walking in this rather poor part of Austin she came across this low income housing project.  And as soon as she found herself there on the housing project the Lord spoke into her spirit “I want you to start a church there.”  And you know this was like baffling because we have no natural inroad into a community like Springfield.  But the Lord made it plain, a group of us began praying together regularly for the area, on a few occasions we’d either go individually, or as a group, or Felicity and I would go together to Springfield and walk around the area and pray.  And then one day we were caught in a torrential downpour there, we had parked our car outside of the housing project for fairly obvious reasons wanted to find the hubcaps when we came back. Caught in this torrential downpour we rushed under a balcony for shelter and found ourselves talking with two middle-aged Hispanic ladies.  And one of them Rosa asked us “Well, what are you guys doing here?” I guess we didn’t fit the local profile. So we told her “We had come to the area to pray for it.”  And these two ladies began to open up and through the conversation we asked if we could have opportunity to come to their home and perhaps pray over some of the needs in their lives.  And that was the beginning of an exciting journey of identifying Rosa as the person of peace, of seeing what happens when the Luke 10 person of peace opens their home, you share their hospitality, you begin to touch…

Sid: Listen Tony the miracles that you’ll talk about on tomorrows broadcast but it is so simple and you’ll be so encourage…