Healing in San Jose and San Francisco

On my way back to Singapore from Arkansas, I stopped over at San Jose and spent two days and nights with an incredible group of young people. I got to know this group through Ryan Rhoardes of Revival or Riots Ministries. I didn’t really know him well – I only read his website and knew he and his friends (Dennis Bontrager, Brandon Lee, etc.) were doing the stuff (i.e. healing people) on the streets. So I emailed him and asked if I could spend some time with him and he invited me to stay over at his place for the two nights I was in San Jose.

First day in San Jose

Ryan picked me up from the bus station on the morning of the 12th of July. We went to a restaurant to eat and talk and when paying for the food at the cashier, he asked if the cashier had any pain in her body. She was of course a bit surprised by the question and mentioned that there was some pain in her foot. Things happened so fast that I don’t remember if Ryan asked if he could pray for her or not, but soon he pointed to the foot and said something very short like

Pain in the name of Jesus leave.

He then asked her to move her foot to see if there’s still any pain. She did and was surprised that there was no pain. I don’t remember the exact words or the exact details of the events because all this happened within about 1-2 minutes! Wow – I was amazed at how easy it all was!

Later in the day, some of us went to an upmarket supermarket. We tried to pray for people there without much success – the rich are probably less open to such things. On the way out, Brandon approached a black man who was limping. With as much ease as above, he commanded the pain in the person’s knee/leg to leave and then asked how he felt. The person said better and Brandon hit it another time and more pain left.

All this, for them, was a lifestyle. It’s not an event where they plan to go out specially to heal people. They just live their normal lives and when they see sick people, they approach them and heal them. And by the way, most of these people are not college graduates. They are in their early twenties and don’t work. They do this full time – going out everyday, healing people and touching lives. How radical!

After this, they went to a fast food place for lunch. Next to the road outside, they carried a “Free Healing” sign noticeable to cars and people passing by. A group of about 6 young girls in their teens decided to find out what this weird bunch of people were all about. They were sitting with us for about 30 minutes plus and Jayne Kim (a Korean-American recently touched by this group of people and started hanging out with them) grew a couple of legs out while Dennis prayed that a few felt God’s presence and prophesied over one girl.

On the way back, we stopped by this group of about 10+ mostly Asian Americans who were Brandon’s friends and were meeting during the summer break to do the stuff! We had a cell meeting then went for dinner. I was in a car with 4 other people. When we saw an old lady in a wheelchair while driving, we stopped somewhere so some of us could go to the person to pray for her. She was Hispanic so I spoke to her in Spanish and we prayed for her. This (i.e. people getting out of the car when seeing someone whom they wanted to pray for) happened two more times before we arrived at our destination. I was very encouraged by their passion to step out in faith and pray for everyone.

After dinner, we broke up into groups of two to hit the streets to pray for people. My partner Andrew and I walked around to find somebody. In the end we ended up spending about 30 minutes with an old homeless guy. We prayed a few times over his leg and the pain went down a lot. Then we just spent time listening to him (he said he felt alone and he was encouraged by our presence) and his problems and prayed for him and encouraged him.

Andrew fetched me home after this. He’s a huge fan of Pastor Joseph Prince – his teachings have transformed his life. We prayed for each other before we parted ways. Both of us are new to the prophetic and hearing God’s voice but we tried it out. We prayed and then tried to listen. After I prayed, I tried to listen. Actually, I tried to see. I’m not a visual person but I somehow always ask for something visual because if I see anything, I know it’s not me. Whereas if I hear something, I dunno if it’s from God or just me. I thought I saw a house – a very unclear house, probably just an outline of it – and so I didn’t say anything after my prayer which included that God would provide for him (house probably has something to do with God’s providing I think!). Then we started talking and I wanted to find out if my picture meant anything or it was just me. I wanted to ask him if a house meant anything to him, but I didn’t have the guts and so went the more subtle way! I asked him if he’s living with his family and then gradually asked him if he’s looking for a house and then he shared with me that he has been looking for a house but has been discouraged recently. I told him what I thought I saw and it was an encouragement to both him and me. I think we both took it as God knows what he’s going through and God will provide. Anyway, this was a big encouragement for me as I start to slowly move in the prophetic.

Second day in San Jose

On the second day, Brandon, Dennis and I went to eat Phad Thai for lunch at a local Asian mall. On the way out, Brandon saw a young Asian guy with a brace on his right arm. He approached him and prayed for him and the pain was gone but there was still stiffness. Brandon then commanded the stiffness to leave and the guy felt so awkward about what was happening that he just left though we saw him later taking off his brace.

At night, the group had their weekly house church meeting which was televised on the Internet through Ustream. We discussed about Christ being in us and we being in Christ. Then we prayed for people. Rather than begging God or asking of God, the prayers were prayers of command and declarations, understanding the authority we have in Christ. This is something I’ve been reflecting upon the past few months – what is the role of and what is intercession in the light of the New Covenant.

There was also a place for chatting while the meeting was being screened through Ustream. One person typed out a word of knowledge about a pain in someone’s hand then typed out a prayer and the person’s hand got better. A Korean American girl later on said that she was so mad (with the devil) over a situation that she’s about the hit the streets (to heal people). I liked that!

After the cell ended, we went to a restaurant for supper. On the way out,the Korean American girl saw a table with a crutch and went up to ask if she could pray for the guy with the crutch. He said yes and pointed to his leg. I think he either didn’t have one leg or that he had a prosthetic/fake leg and she was shocked but still prayed that God would grow the leg. About 10 minutes later on the way home, she and I got out of the car for a while at a Petrol Station. We came across a person on crutches and we asked if we could pray for him. To our surprise, this person too had a prosthetic leg! So we commanded the leg to grow starting from then on.

Later that night at home, the guys (Ryan, Dennis and Brandon) decided to produce a video in response to what they believe are ridiculous claims by Christians using the power of God to stick coins to walls. The video is here.

Overall, I had an awesome two days in San Jose. I observed young Christians doing the stuff and got to practice healing with them. I had extensive chats with Ryan and Dennis about healing and the prophetic. I asked them tons of questions and I’ll share more of what I learned in future posts.

At the San Francisco Airport

I left San Jose early in the morning on the 14th July. At the Greyhound bus station, I somehow managed to miss my bus. I arrived before the bus left but due to a misunderstanding and me being absorbed in reading a book, the bus left without me! I panicked a bit (as I didn’t want to miss my plane!) but managed to get a train to San Francisco Airport. I had to pay a bit more but I claimed God’s promise that all things worked for good and believed not only to be at the airport on time, but have time to walk around healing people! I was so pumped up after the previous two days!

I arrived at the airport, checked in early and started to go through the security checks. I saw from afar a person walking awkwardly with a walking stick and with one leg obviously shorter than the other. I told God I wanted to pray for this guy although I was too far behind the line. When I passed security, he was already out of sight. I just walked around and told God I wanted to find him. I approached a lady on a wheelchair and prayed for her. I asked to pray for another lady on a walker who wasn’t interested. And while waiting to board the plane, I approached a guy with a walking stick and prayed for him.

To my great delight, I did eventually find the guy I wanted to pray for. I approached him and asked to pray for him. He said he had to catch his plane. I told him it would only take a while. He agreed and I led him all the way to a chair where he sat down. Now, I had never grown a leg out before. The first time I saw this kind of miracle on Youtube, probably a year ago or so, I was simply amazed. I thought I’d never have that kind of faith to do this kind of thing for many years. But since then I’ve heard of and seen so many legs growing out that I asked Michael whom I met in Arkansas and has grown out so many legs how come it seems so easy to grow a leg out. He mentioned that he’s never heard of a leg not growing out when commanded to. Perhaps there’s a deeper meaning to this?

So anyway, I stretched his legs out and then started commanding his right leg to grow out. By the way, I heard that 9 out of 10 people have one leg shorter than the other. This sometimes causes back pains but it may not necessarily disrupt life so people don’t realize it. Most legs need to be lengthened by maybe only around 1 inch or less. For this person I was praying for, one leg was probably about a good 3 inches or more shorter than the other.

As I commanded, the leg started to grow out. It still wasn’t the same length as the other so I continued on, getting him to stand up a few times and asking if he felt any difference. On one occasion, I could feel the power surging through his legs as it lengthened. I spent a few minutes in all just speaking to the leg and commanding it to grow out in Jesus’ name. There were people around us who probably thought I was nuts. But before I could finish growing his leg fully out, he said he had to rush to catch his plane so I let him go. But I asked him if there’s any difference and he said it definitely felt different. I walked him to his gate and he told me he was a Christian.

Anyway, I think this was my first real crazy experience doing it by myself! It’s something I’ll never forget!