God’s Way Ministries – New Beginnings
By Don Ware
I was not raised in a Christian home, and to the best of my knowledge, none of my immediate family was saved. At the age of forty-five, while was living in
Osceola Missouri, with my business suffering, I had the misfortune to see a 17-year-old teenager hit by a loaded tractor-trailer. This incident along with my failing business, and
the turmoil in our marital life was changing my opinion as to what life was really all about. I was finding that this world was a very difficult place to live in.Soon we were forced to sell most of our possessions (we had a lot by this world’s standards) and home and move into a small trailer home. Truthfully, I was sick and disappointed with my life. I was asking myself “what was life all about? Is this really all that there is?” I just knew that there must be more.
Shortly thereafter a preacher came in to my business and introduced himself. Even though I knew nothing about the Lord I felt drawn to this man and his message. We met two more times and then he led me to give my heart and life to Jesus. From that day to now it’s been a great and ongoing learning experience in Christ.
I’ll never forget the day that the preacher was praying for me and he said that I would have a gift of healing. After being a Christian for maybe six months, I thought that the preacher was absolutely wrong. I discounted this prophecy quickly, however, twelve years later that prophecy came true. “After attending that church for five years I moved to Belton, Missouri. The church in Belton had scheduled a trip to experience the revival currently in progress in Brownsville Florida. Fourteen of us went to Brownsville along with the pastor and it changed my life forever. What I saw and experienced on this visit was from above and far better than I had ever seen or experienced before. People stood outside the church at 7:00 am in the morning for services that would take place that evening at 7:00 pm. People were receiving healings and spiritual infillings from the Lord while outside this church waiting for services to begin. More of the supernatural was happening outside of this church than I had ever experienced inside of any other church that I had attended. Once we got inside I felt the presence of the Lord like never before. I saw people being healed instantly, I saw people running to the alter, of approximately 6,500 people in that service most of them had been filled by the Spirit; people were lying everywhere. Also I heard testimonies of things that defy gravity and common sense. There were these and many other great things I had never seen before.
After leaving Brownsville, I realized that I wanted to be a part of the great things that I had seen the Spirit accomplish in that revival. I went back six more times. After each of these six visits I would come back to Belton really excited and on fire for the Lord. I knew that God could do the same here that He was doing in Brownsville and was surprised to find that few were interested.
After my last trip I came back to my church on fire and nobody seemed interested (even though it was the church that had initiated the initial trip to Brownsville). To say the least, I was more than a little disappointed and extremely discouraged. As I stood in the rear at of the sanctuary during worship service I was talking to the Lord saying “Lord I give up. I’m through chasing after you. I guess that I am just to do as I have always done before. Like everyone else just come to church Sundays and Wednesdays; then go home and live my life as before.” What I did not realize at the time was that this was exactly where the Lord wanted me. To surrender to Him. I could do nothing in myself – in my own power and strength. I had to “Let go and let God”. Then I felt something come over me like I have never felt before. The feeling of vibrations started on my head and went completely throughout my entire whole body. For eighty-seven days, this vibration moved around my body all the time. My wife wanted me to get an appointment with our doctor, thinking that maybe it was a brain tumor or something in the back. On the eighty-seventh day I walked into the church and two ladies were praying for one another. I joined in and just touched one of the women on the forehead and the Spirit filled her. This was not that unusual as it happened maybe once or twice a month at this church, but what happened next really got me. I saw this sister’s husband sitting in the third pew from the front. I walked over to him and ask if I could pray form him. He agreed. As I touched his forehead he fell backwards over the pew. It sounded like a 100lb bag of potatoes being dropped from the second story. For a moment it stopped the whole service. His head bounced over the back of the pew, I thought I had killed him. I caught his head on the second bounce then laid him out in the pew. I headed for the back of the church telling the Lord I was sorry for hurting or possibly killing him. I was scared and had been weeping for maybe ten minutes when all of a sudden this man got up, gloriously filled with the Holy Ghost, and he and wife were praising God.
I then realized that this was the gift from God for my life that had been prophesied, and since that time I have been praying for people wherever I have met them. In a small prayer room in our place of business there have been over 2,000 people healed by the Lord through this ministry. I have also ministered God’s love in over 60 different churches and have seen many people healed, filled with the Holy Ghost, and changed for life. “Now when I meet people on the street, or I encounter people with problems, I pray for them regardless of where we are and the Lord does His work.
This anointing has totally changed my life. I have seen many people who were demon possessed who were delivered by just a touch. When I pray for people to receive the Holy Spirit it’s almost a given that they will receive. Often when I touch someone the Lord reveals to me what is wrong with them and then heals them. Although at times this does raise a lot of eyebrows, I remind the skeptics that I am not the Healer – I just work for Him.
Brownsville Revival
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Brownsville Revival (also known as The Pensacola Outpouring) was a widely-reported religious phenomenon that began within the Pentecostal movement in 1995. The revival began unexpectedly at Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida. On Father’s Day, Pastor John Kilpatrick had invited evangelist Steve Hill to be the guest speaker for the day, and while Hill was ministering, many witnesses believe that the Holy Spirit began to manifest His power and that hundreds of people came to faith in Christ. Characteristics of the movement included repentance, a call to holiness and manifestations of the Holy Spirit. Some of the occurrences in this revival fit the description of moments of religious ecstasy.
Though the primary part of the revival ended in 2000 when Hill relocated his ministry to Dallas, Texas to resume evangelistic crusades, the church continues to hold special Friday-night services that are a continuation of the event. More than three million people are reported to have attended the meetings since their inception. In 2003, Hill founded a church in the Dallas area where he now serves as senior pastor. Kilpatrick resigned as Brownsville Assembly of God’s senior pastor in 2003 to form an evangelistic association of his own.
The meetings came under criticism by some within the Christian movement and the local news media. The Pensacola News Journal ran a series of investigative articles which focused on the donations raised during the meetings and where those funds went, as well as the claims of miraculous healings at the services and the spontaneity of the revival’s beginnings. The News Journal had initially written glowing reports about the revival from the time it began, but began a four-month investigation after former members told reporters that all was not as it appeared at the church. The series won George Polk awards from such groups as National Headliner, Scripps-Howard Foundation and Society of Professional Journalists, but was roundly criticized by evangelicals throughout the country as a “hit piece” against the church and the meetings. Brownsville Assembly of God answered the Pensacola News-Journal’s allegations by publishing a two-page spread in the News-Journal entitled, “The Facts of The Brownsville Revival.”