In May, 3 communities launched the Divine Experiment, two for the first time, one for their second time. One community is in South Minneapolis where about 10 congregations and ministries have joined together in the most ethnically mixed neighborhood in the United States! 150 nations and 100 languages are spoken in the Phillips neighborhood. It is very challenged in terms of crime, poverty and many forms of devastation. But the Church is hungry and crying out for the Lord to visit them! The second community is Anderson, Indiana where a team of leaders has been pursuing transformation for many years with much encouraging fruit! The Lord is exploding in their midst with His presence and power! The 3rd community is N. Omaha who is going through the Divine Experiment for the 2nd time this year. In January the Lord showed up in power, healing many and breaking through in dozens of ways in their midst. See the January testimonies of their journey!
Ron: “One accomplishment of the last couple of weeks is that I’ve been letting loose of anger. . . . To me it boils down to the feeling I’m carrying sin, so don’t sweat the little things. Everyone has trials and tribulations, not just me.”
Bonnie: “Before the Divine Experiment, I had a real problem with depression. I realized during this period that it was pride, pride and sin were the cause of my feelings. I gave it to God. I was on a high for two weeks, and then felt a bit of the depression coming back, but I gave it to God. I now recognize what it is and I’m giving it to God.”
Renee (New Hope Baptist Church): “My mother said ‘With everyone praying for me I feel better than I have in a year.’ Also, I’ve found that my anxiety has really gotten under control the last couple of weeks. .
Steve: There had been a total of 22 salvations during this Divine Experiment!
Jacob: “The neighborhood around our church has virtually disappeared for the past two weeks. This has become a place of peace.”
Jacob: Every Wednesday evening, our church holds their “Kids Club.” It engages elementary and middle school children living in the neighborhood of the church – some attend other churches, some attend no church. Members of the church from a southern suburb have been working with the neighborhood children for almost three years now. In the process this ministry has opened doors of faith with members of the church and created nice relationships with the kids and their families. Since early spring the children have been learning about the gospel. Suddenly on Wednesday the Holy Spirit broke loose and took control. A women came from a different church was at our church because of the Divine Experiment prayer meeting. She was outside the church with her children and those from the Kids Club. The loving work of almost three years was brought to fruition and six children, age 8 to 13, were saved! If it had not been for the Divine Experiment Luz Elena would not have been there. If she had not been obedient to the call of her heart to attend the prayer session, she would not have been here as the final agency of God needed to bring in the harvest for which so many had toiled in love.
A church member’s mother was healed of serious illness.
· A church member who had been looking for a new job suddenly received several offers after many months of drought.
· “I am now able to understand God’s word better. Things I have been reading my whole life, I get them now.”
· ”I feel convicted that sometimes I need to shut up and listen to God.”
“I was at the Juvenile Detention Center early this morning and I was meeting with a dozen girls. Praise the Lord, eleven of them prayed for salvation with me. Hallelujah.” -Yvonne
“I was praying to the Lord at the altar giving everything to him and asking him to let me see him face to face. I was crying and crying and adoring. I then sat down and continued. When the meeting was over, I tried to get up but I couldn’t. It was like I was intoxicated. I was completely filled with the Holy Spirit. I was laughing and giddy, but I fully knew what was going on around me even though I had no control over my body. My husband had to lift me under one arm and help me out of the church. I got outside and I fell down in the grass. It was raining and I got all wet, but I didn’t care I felt so uplifted by the Spirit. I’ve never had this experience before. Nothing like this before, and it lasted all night! Even this morning I still felt giddy – all night. It is a new experience for me. But the Holy Spirit filled me and it was incredible.” Luz
“The prayer theme for the day was ‘He will lift me up.’ During the service, Jacob came up to the microphone and was praying into the prayer points, and he had just gotten to a point where he was pleading to God to lift us up. Mike and his wife and his son Elijah [17 months] were there and Elijah was running around and Mike was following him. Suddenly the boy stopped, turned to his dad and raised his arms wanting to come up. Mike picked up the boy at exactly the moment Jake was praying ‘Father, lift us up.’ This is a picture that will stay with me forever. It is a picture of how we are to be child-like with God. Elijah’s father knew what he needed, and so does our Father. This moment was a gift of the Holy Spirit to me.” -Karen
“Transformation is taking place, and we see it in and around New Hope Church. We see people being delivered from tobacco and alcohol. We see it in our environment. The crime rate was so high the Minneapolis police had declared the immediate area out of control. Yet we’ve seen the entire block cleared of crime centers. The houses used for this purpose are now vacant and boarded up, or vacant and for sale. Last Sunday our assistant pastor got up and repented in a way that I know pleased God. We’ve had more visitors to our hard core worship service than ever before. Transformation is taking place.” -Jacob
“The landlord of the building where we have our ministry had told me that he was going to raise the rent from $1525 to $2,500 a month starting in June. There was no way we could afford this. I went to God and told him that the Divine Experiment has started and I didn’t want to take time away from Him to deal with this, to pack and find a new place. Today, I called the landlord and he told me that it would take two or more months to rent out the space and we could stay until then. He would even pay the utilities. ‘How much rent do you want to pay?” he asked. I said, ‘One-hundred dollars,’ and he replied ‘One-hundred-fifty.’ I said, “sold!” This is a rent and utilities discount of about $3,000 per month! – Steve
“A person called me [at work] and he said he was ready to say the Prayer of Salvation. He’d been in mental illness, came out of it, and called the Salvation Line because he needed Jesus. He said the prayer and when we were talking he gave me his full name. I asked him if he was related to a famous man with the same last name. That man is his father. So now there is a new Christian inside the home of an influential artist! The other day I also lost a large sum of Money Orders. I prayed about it and went back to the agency and they had found them. I’ve also been asking the Lord for housing. Just last night the man with whom I’m staying said to consider his home my home.” -Jim
“I was outside and all of a sudden I saw the presence of God. It’s like a light cloud with swirls. It was going in the opposite direction of Lake Street and it was touching all the houses. It was touching the houses. There’s one house at the end of the block and it settled there. And I know that, at that moment, someone in that house was saved. I don’t usually share my visions, but this was so beautiful, so powerful.” -Libin and Dorcas (Iglesia de Dios):
“I went to a local restaurant where I bumped into a suburban pastor and his friend from a rehabilitation center. I started to tell them about the Divine Experiment. The pastor and his friend were so interested that came to the evening prayer meeting. Soon the man from the rehab center was praying out using the open microphone. Later, the pastor came forward and cried out to the Lord as well.” -Steve
“Last night I received God’s grace through reconciliation with my son. God has shown me that I can walk in love no matter what the circumstance I am in. I don’t have to be fearful, and must stay united with my family – with my wife and son. God’s grace will help me to be a right father to my son and a right husband to my wife for he wants us together.” -Michael (Iglasia de Dios):
“I was getting married in June and I needed to make some extra money. I asked for God’s help and set a goal of $300 in a three-day garage sale. The first day I raised over $500 and finished with over $800! God has been so good to me!” -Molly