by | May 22, 2024 | Living Proof Tent Crusades
Each night we meet under the Tent, God moves in a new way, and the final night here in Michigan was no exception.
Catherine Mullins and her team really set the tone for the night with their incredible leadership in worship. They weren’t there to perform, they were there to worship our Savior, and they brought us along with them.
When Mario took the stage he said, “Night after night you’ve shouted, but I think there is still shout left in you!” And the place erupted with a mighty roar as the people shouted praise unto God.
The roar continued for so long! It went on for many minutes with no interruption and no wavering in intensity. There was no question that the Spirit of God was here, and no question that the people felt and responded to Him.
Mario began by saying the most dangerous devil on Earth is the religious devil. Because it’s the only demon strong enough to go to church. Nothing will prevent miracles more than a religious spirit.
When a religious spirit grips a group of Christians, they are paralyzed and three things go out the window.
The first is prayer.
The second is soul winning. The church becomes obsessed with surviving, and the devil tells the pastor there is too much to do and too many problems in the church, much less to reach out to the lost.
The third, Mario said, is something God had to work out in him: Lack of faith.
The disciples saw that a Samaritan village was offended because Jesus had passed through their village rather than going around it.
“And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?” (Luke 9:54 NKJV).
We have written off American cities and declared some of them unreachable. God wants our churches full and overflowing with those who might be considered ‘undesirables.’
Mario said, the people we were told to target and market are the ones who are killing the churches. We need the “wrong” people. We need some Harley Davidsons in the parking lot and some tattoos on the arms of the ushers.
Jesus responded to the disciples this way:
“But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of” (Luke 9:55 NKJV).
Mario said the verse that goes with this is the story of Samson, found in the Book of Judges.
“So he (Samson) awoke from his sleep, and said, “I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!” But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him” (Judges 16:9 NKJV).
Mario told how Samson had expected the power of God to come on him as it had every other time, with supernatural strength. The disaster wasn’t just that the Spirit of God had left, but that Samson hadn’t even realized it.
Mario said this is the greatest sin of the American church: when the Holy Spirit left, we just kept on going! We kept planning, kept thinking, and kept building, without the One Who is in charge.
“For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” And they went to another village” (Luke 9:56 NKJV).
The city Jesus spared that day became a wicked place after that. A city that embraced black magic and witchcraft and came under the domination of a sorcerer. A city that would not have been there if the disciples had their way.
Stephen was martyred and great persecution broke out and the church was scattered. Then Philip went down to the very city that the disciples had wanted to destroy.
Mario said, I’m looking at you, and you’re telling me New York City is beyond God? Detroit is beyond God? St. Louis is beyond God? San Francisco and L.A.? ‘No!’ you say. ‘God can’t do it!’ But I’m telling you, not only can He, but He is going to do it!
“Then Philip went down the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them” (Acts 8:5 NKJV).
Philip went to a witchcraft city in Samaria, while at the same time Christians were being killed in Jerusalem, in what is supposed to be a Holy city. And if God isn’t moving in Jerusalem how is He going to move in Samaria?
Mario said we’re doing the same thing. We’re waiting for revival in Tulsa, Orlando, and in the Bible Belt. But it’s not happening because our God is greater than any regional religious spirits. And the Bible Belt better understand that they may be bypassed because while you may not have fentanyl, you have hypocrisy. And God is not a respecter of persons.
Mario described this verse in Acts where Philip went to Samaria, as ‘the impossible revival.’ While the religious town is killing Christians, the sorcerer town is getting the Holy Spirit.
Reading further on in the Book of Acts, Mario read where it describes the sorcerer as having the reputation of being ‘the great power of God’— which reveals how far gone they were. He then asked, “Why didn’t that stop the revival? There were no conferences held there, no word of a visit from other preachers or evangelists, no planting or preparation of the soil?”
He again asked, “Why didn’t that stop the coming revival? Because our God is an awesome God!” And the audience erupted in great cheers of praise.
How did Philip handle the darkness and depth of perversion and corruption? He didn’t alter his message. He didn’t study sorcery and learn the terminology, or dress like them. He didn’t come in with a version of Jesus they might like. He told them what they had was a lie, that they were worshipping the devil, and that they were in sin. And he preached Christ to them.
Mario spoke directly to those in ministry and said, “You have been targeted, marketed, condemned, and manipulated. You have been told that if you do this or that, you’ll be able to reach the culture. But Philip went down to Samaria and preached Christ to them. And with one accord they gave heed to him because demons cried out and cripples jumped up and walked.”
The Gospel is enough!
“And there was great joy in that city” (Acts 8:8 NJKV).
Mario then began to tell a story from his time at UC Berkely. He recounted how he walked onto the campus and heard Jane Fonda cursing America and God, and the student union building was packed. It was ironically called the Free Speech Movement.
She cursed God, then used her fame to challenge the students to stand up and scream and curse America. Mario raised his Bible and pointed it to the hall where she was speaking and prayed, “In the name of Almighty God, I will stand in that hall to a bigger crowd than is there now. And I will lead them into a shout to God that is louder than the one they are currently cursing God with today!”
In a few weeks Mario went to apply for a permit to use that student union building. The application read:
“No religious organization shall be allowed to use this building. Prayer will not be allowed in this building. No one is permitted to convert anyone else to a religion in this building.”
He said in that moment he threw away his dream. But then God awoke him in the middle of the night. God said, “I want you to rent the student union building.” And he told God, “I can’t, its illegal.”
Mario then saw a vision. He saw the largest library he’d ever seen and on either side were endless volumes of books. The rows were so tall he couldn’t see the top, and so long he couldn’t see the end. On one side were math, science, and history, everything based on fact. The other side was superstition, religion, and all the magic arts, and on the floor was a single Bible.
God said, “Pick up the Bible and put it where it belongs in this library. Does it belong with religion, myth and magic, or with science and fact?” Mario picked up the Bible and put it with the sciences and facts.
Then, when Mario awoke, God said, “Christianity is not a religion.”
.The next day he went to rent the building. While he was filling out the application, the lady there asked, “By the way, is your organization religious?” And he said, “I’ve never been so offended in my life. If anything we are against it.” So she gave him a permit to use the hall.
On the first night 700 students were in the building. He told them, “Beware how much you hate Jesus, because if you back away far enough from dead religion you will back into the arms of God. The further you get from what you deem injustice and falsehood, the more liable you are to find Him.”
After Mario finished preaching, he had to figure out how to ask them to get saved, since he was not allowed to pray or convert people.
So he told them to bow their heads. Then to himself and God, he said, “Now what?”
Hearing from the Lord, Mario told them, “I cannot convert you. Not only do the student bylaws say that, but the Bible says that. No one can be converted except by God.”
Then he told them, “I cannot convert you, but if God is converting you, put your hand in the air.”
Seventy hands immediately went up!
Then he had them stand and come forward so he could talk to them about what it feels like to have God convert you. Then he suddenly began to pray for them, knowing that the person responsible for the hall was in her office, looking out her window at them.
He prayed with them and then the meeting ended. As they finished up, the lady beckoned Mario to her office. He went nervously, knowing he had violated the rules of the application.
She said, “I am not stupid. I know exactly what you did.” But then she teared up as she had him look out at the floor of the hall. She pointed out that the floor is clean, no broken glass, no syringes to collect, and that she didn’t have to call any parents to tell them their child had died from an overdose.
She said, “I’m going to punish you for what you did here. From now on you have to use this hall at least once a month.”
The crowd in the Tent immediately jumped to their feet and shouted!
The third thing Mario had mentioned at the beginning of his message was: Lack of Faith. It goes out the window when there is a religious spirit. He had written off the ability to use that hall and to complete the dream God had put in his heart, when he had previously heard those students cursing God.
The atmosphere began to shift as Mario began speaking directly to the lost in the Tent. He told about a time when he was on a plane with a man whose life was in total ruins, but who was radically transformed when Christ came into his life.
He talked to the people about how they don’t just need to know the sins they’ve committed against God, but also the sins against themselves. That they’ve not hurt anyone, as much as they’ve hurt themselves.
He told them God is trying to give them the life they were born to live. The same voice that clearly speaks of the wasted years is the same voice that says it’s not too late to turn it all around. There is room for many beautiful years ahead.
He had the people close their eyes. Then told them he was going to ask them to find love, peace, and joy.
He asked for those who want to believe in God, but know they are still capable of massive depression, loneliness, anger and frustration in not knowing their future, to raise their hands. He said he wasn’t going to ask them if they go to church or believe in the Bible. “But if there is a storm going on in your soul, why would you allow that storm to continue?”
He then had them respond by raising their hands. And hands went up all over the Tent. They stood and came forward so Mario could pray with them. And once again it was an incredible response. The altar was flooded with people who wanted a new life, to be free of their pain, and the storm, and the darkness.
Mario prayed with them and then directed them to our workers who took time to minister with them.
The response was so large that people had to wait for workers to pray with them. We need so many more volunteers to come to our events. There are so many souls being restored and revived, but we need people to minister to them.
Catherine and her team came back and sang our favorite song, “Look what the Lord has done!” It was an awesome time of celebration as we rejoiced in what God had done!
Mario came back to the stage and had the people raise their hands and pray this together, “I believe in miracles. I believe it’s my turn to be healed by the power of God. Spirit of God, here I am, open, willing and ready. In the name of Jesus.”
God worked in a different way this night. Often we see individual people called out and highlighted for healing. But this night the Spirit moved very differently.
Instead of waiting for God to move only through Mario, God was imparting to the people the same power to do the same works in this place. Rather than having the power end when the Tent comes down, God told them He wants His power to be carried back to their churches and cities and neighborhoods.
This wasn’t the end of a move of God, but a transfer and explosion of power from God.
The Lord then called out specific things that were being healed: heart disease, spine pain, and congestion in the lungs where both lungs were nearly collapsed.
Mario asked for everyone who wants to be used in divine healing to raise their hands. Then he had everyone who needed healing to raise their hands, and had everyone around them lay hands on and pray for them.
As they did, people began to be healed right where they sat. People were getting up out of wheelchairs and walking again, as God gave strength to their bodies.
It was an incredible night of teaching and power. It was an amazing reminder that we cannot write off any person or place because it doesn’t fit our picture of where God should go or how He should work. We need to move as God directs and leads us, and we need to preach Christ, because, the Gospel is enough!
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