Sunday, December 25, 2005

Christmas Greetings from Sons of Thunder

We hope you all are having a blessed Christmas season. As we reflect on the birth of the Christ child, our prayer is that the Kingdom purposes of God are birthed and made manifest in your own lives at this time of year.

We want to thank you for all your love, prayers and support over the past year. We will soon be sending out a 2005 year in review with photos and highlights, but for now, we would like to give you a brief ministry update from the past month. Also, be sure to look for our upcoming prophetic words for 2006

Vancouver Ablaze
The month of November began with the Vancouver Ablaze evangelistic outreach, where Che Ahn and Nolan Clark joining up with the ministry team. Some of our friends launched out to do prophetic evangelism right in the occult sections of the secular bookstores. Our 16-year-old nanny hit some of the grittiest streets of Vancouver, reaching out to heroin addicts and prostitutes.

Abbotsford/Dallas Ablaze
Following Vancouver, we joined up with the Supernatural Conference in B.C., with our friends Charlie Robinson, Ryan Wyatt and others. Then it was off to Texas for Dallas Ablaze, hosted by Keith Miller and Stand Firm World Ministries. Patricia King, Bobby Conner, Kevin Prosch, David Herzog and the Michael Larson Band were part of the conference. I shared a brief word that the Lord is bringing a jubilee season of restoration to the Dallas area, reviving the same deposit left behind from the Voice of Healing Revival that tapered off about 50 years ago. Gordon Lindsay, founder of Christ for the Nations, was based in the Dallas area. He held together this loose affiliation of independent healing evangelists that swept the nation with the remarkable miracle-working power of God, until that move tapered off in the late 1950s. The 50-year jubilee season is now coming to an end, and what the Lord had to withdraw from a generation that was unprepared for such power, He is again releasing to us, giving us another opportunity to operate in His dynamic healing anointing.

Miracles in Georgia
In between those events, Lily and I ministered at a few spots in Georgia. We joined up with our good friends Jim and Kathy Drown at Daystar, and we also held several meetings in my hometown of Griffin, Ga., where the healing anointing literally exploded. I sensed strong angelic activity from the onset during services at New Beginnings Church, and here are just a few highlights of what happened:
> Pastor’s wife’s left ear opens
> More than half congregation receives physical healing
> Girl’s eyesight improves
> Women healed of arthritis
> Backs, slipped discs, necks and shoulders healed
> Many filled with Holy Spirit for first time

Santa Rosa Conference
After our Georgia meetings, I joined up with Jerame Nelson for a conference in Santa Rosa, where the Lord ignited a fresh hunger for the miraculous and there was a powerful time of impartation and prophetic ministry. Several testified to receiving physical healing there, as well.
I had a strong sense that the Lord is about to release a fresh wave of the Lonnie Frisbee mantle in that region, and we are hoping to return to California for a series of meetings to follow up there in February.

Sabbath Rest
It’s rare that the mission field brings you to the Caribbean, but when it does, who’s going to complain? Part of our itinerary included joining the team for a tropical cruise earlier this month. Lily and I were able to take a much needed break, while still enjoying the ministry and company of Bobby Conner and Larry Randolph during this “conference at sea.”
Taking rest from our labors is more important to the Lord than we often realize. Our primary call at The New Mystics is to pull aside and minister to the Lord. This supersedes our ministry to the church and to the world. That means taking the time to be still before Him. It means operating in and through and for His presence. It entails walking in Sabbath rest.
Our own overseas travel schedule is toning down over the next few months, and the free time is allowing us to fill a number of ministry invitations in North America. But the time is also allowing us to draw near to God in the Secret Place of the Most High. Patricia King recently told me that the Lord is drawing me into another season of soaking in the Son. And I know that my own dissatisfaction with “ministry as usual” is only going to be resolved as I pull aside for an extended gaze into the eyes of Jesus.
We would also appreciate your prayers over the next few months, as I am compiling a volume of work on the Song of Solomon. This explains our somewhat abrupt departure from the Song of Solomon weekly study. Our goal is to get the Word of the Week teachings rolling again by the first of the New Year.

We pray blessings on you and your families as you take this time together to celebrate. Have a great Christmas, and a happy New Year!
Love and Blessings,
John & Lily