Max
Witness of God
The first story that I wanted to get into was, that I am the young adult’s pastor at Freedom Church, and I get to minister to young adults every Wednesday. One thing that we hit on a lot is being a daily evangelist, that we can spread the gospel and bring the Holy Spirit wherever we go. The verses that we hit on are Acts 1:8, which I’m wearing the hat today, but when you’re filled with the Holy Spirit, you’ll be imbued with power.
We look to Mark 16:15-18, for what that power looks like. Everything that Jesus says will follow those who believe in his name, which we believe in His name, we believe that will lay hands on the sick and see them recover, will cast out evil spirits that will speak in tongues that, you know, we will baptize in his name wherever we go, we’ll bring these things. And so a great, I guess, gospel that I’ve gotten to spread has been at Crunch Fitness.
I’m a part-time sales rep at Crunch Fitness. I work the front desk. One of my favorite stories is we had a young man who came in all the time. And one day he came in with a brace on his hand. And I asked him, I said, “Oh, what happened to your hand?” And he said, “Oh, I’m getting surgery on it in two weeks.” I was like, “Oh, no way, like what’s wrong with it?” He told me, he couldn’t supinate or protonate it. And I said, “Man, you know, that’s not supposed to be. You know, Jesus died so that you could have full healing. You know, that’s why it took 39 stripes on his back so you don’t have to have that.” And I asked him if I could pray for it. And he was like, “Yeah, definitely.”
I prayed for his wrist and just commanded it to be healed and whole in Jesus’ name. And we said our amens, and I told him, “You know, you’re not gonna have to get surgery on that.” He goes, “No?” I said, “No, Jesus is going to touch it.” And he’s like, okay, and then we just, we left, and I was like, thank you, Lord, for letting me pray and have that moment, you know, plant the seed, right?
Three months later, he and I went out to get coffee. And I ended up asking him, I was like, “Hey, man, how did that surgery go?” He goes, “Oh, I didn’t have surgery.” I was like, “What do you mean?” He goes, “You said I didn’t have to. I called the surgeon that night and canceled it.” And Jesus that night, released his wrist, and he could pronate supernate completely pain-free, it got completely healed.
So that was why he wanted to get coffee. I just thought he wanted to get coffee. But he wanted to ask, “What happened? Why did this happen? It’s been rattling my mind.” And I was like, wow, like that was, that was a healing that I would have never known of unless we had reconnected. It was awesome to see his faith, to call the surgeon and be like, hey, this dude said, I don’t have to have it because of what God did. And so that was that was that’s one of my favorite stories. Just awesome faith from him. He comes from young adult meetings now. So it’s really fun to get to minister to him more.
So that brings me to the next story of this young girl. She had fallen, and broken her wrist. She had a compound fracture, the bone was like, you know, snapped out, you can’t move this part of the hand because there’s nothing there. And so me and a buddy, we laid hands on it. My friend is one of the most anointed men I’ve ever met. We laid hands on X-ray, like, well, it’s the paramedics take six minutes, Jesus is much faster than six minutes. So we just laid hands on it, we were thinking, what’s the worst thing that’s gonna happen, right? She’s gonna go to the hospital anyway.
When we lifted our hands, the bone was back in place. All she needed was stitches to stitch the skin up. But the compound fracture was no more the wrist was fine. It was just like, the creative miracle was just insane. And so that story has fueled more faith and healings than I think any other story. I preached that story a couple of Wednesdays ago. And we had a girl who came in from Missouri, she was just in town visiting. She has scoliosis of the spine, and her spine looks like an S.
She said, “I just feel like God’s gonna heal me tonight.” And I was like, “I know he is.” And so we preached the sermon. And then I was just praying over people and then all of a sudden she just started screaming and she took off running. She runs to the bathroom and her friends follow her. Later on, I found out what had happened when we were praying. She had felt an insane heat. She said that it had felt like a fire touched her. And that was the scream, then she ran into the bathroom and her friends lifted her shirt and her spine was completely aligned.
Her spine used to look like an S now it is completely aligned. No pain, no discomfort, nothing, like a brand new spine. So we just like we couldn’t even hang on to the room after that we were freaking out. We were just praising. Because like, how do you talk after that? You know, you can’t. So she got touched. That was Elizabeth. She was awesome. She’s a part of a YWAM group. If you don’t YWAM they go around traveling and preaching and stuff. So they were just in town visiting us. So she got touched while on a YWAM missions trip. So I was like, Dude, that’s awesome use that testimony to go, you know, get the kingdom saved.
So yeah, yeah, that was awesome. I have one more story if that’s okay. I started working at Crunch, about a year ago Crunch Fitness. And when I got there, I just gave the Lord my, okay. I was like, I give you my Yes. You know, I saw wherever, Paul, went people got touched, right? In Colossians, he talks about, how it was almost better for him to get arrested because everybody’s getting saved. All the guys that are arresting him are getting saved. So I was like, wherever I’m at, I’m gonna bring the Holy Spirit.
So I was at Crunch. And I was like, I give you my Yes. And since being at crunch in the year I’ve been there. We’ve seen 14 staff members get saved, eight have gotten baptized, and we’ve had multitudes of healings. An entire Hindu family got saved because we prayed over the mom’s ankle and it got healed. She grabbed me by the shirt. She was like, “What did you do to me?” I was like, “I didn’t do it was Jesus.”
We have every walk of life I work with, you know, a Jew, a Muslim an atheist, a nihilist, and an agnostic. So we get to talk to everybody, which is so fun. There was a girl recently who started working there. This girl comes in, and she’s an atheist. And she’s a very outspoken atheist, very hardcore. And so we just started showing her the love of Jesus. I would ask the Lord for words of knowledge whenever she was around, so I could just show her like, I’d point out people and be like, That person has a busted knee. And then we’d call them over and ask them, “Did you hurt your knee?” And they’d be like, Yeah, I tore my ACL. And we’re like, the Lord wants to heal it, and we’d see them walk away.
So she was getting to experience this power and be like, now I have to make a choice, right? Like, is this real? Or is this phony baloney? She was so outspoken, addicted to weed, addicted to partying. And we started to introduce her to the true Jesus the one that loves her. After a while, she came to Bible study a couple of times. And then she got prayed over one night, and she was like, I think I need this. And she just got hit with the Holy Spirit one night, it was radical joy on her radical freedom on her. And now she doesn’t smoke. And she’s telling everybody, I don’t smoke anymore, because I don’t need to, and is happy to not have to smoke.
She has a new Bible with her all the time at work, and she’s reading it. And she’s like, this is amazing, I understand why you guys are so on fire. She’s getting baptized in two weeks and she is at every worship night, she’s at every Bible study and church service. She is just undignified in her love for God. That’s probably my favorite story because I got to see this girl with a stony heart, closed off to Jesus. We got to see layer upon layer pulled back, and then Jesus took it out and gave her a heart of flesh.
A changed heart is the greatest miracle because a knee can rebreak that arm can rebreak an ACL can tear again, but that heart of flesh, like that’s amazing. That’s that’s life-changing for her. And so that’s been really fun. And then, we’re trying to get a missions trip going this summer. And she’s like, I’m in I want it, I need it. I’m like, Dude, I’m not gonna put your fire out. Come on, like, so now all these people just want to be daily evangelists that are getting touched. Now they’re starting to pray for people and see them get healed. They’re starting to pray for people and see them get saved. And I’m like, that’s what it’s about man. Like, you don’t keep it to yourself, go spread it.
Me and my wife took it seriously in our vows with each other. We said we would fulfill Mark chapter 16, verse 15, through 18. If we see sick people, we’re praying for them. If we see hurt people, we’re praying for them. We’re gonna accomplish this, and we’re gonna live it like it’s real. And so that has really sparked our mindset, because not every day do I get the opportunity to preach to 1000 people not every day do I get the opportunity to preach to 50 people, but every single day I at least encounter one person who needs Jesus. And so that’s just been our mindset. We’re gonna be a daily evangelist, we’re gonna do the work.
We’re gonna go grab one a day two a day and you start to get what I believe the kingdom of heaven is supposed to look like. These people who unconditionally love all the time. They go out and they show people that love. We talk about that all the time. It’s not a boldness thing. It’s a love thing. It’s do I love you enough to go pray for you and look weird? Do I love you enough to go share that word of knowledge that I believe I just got and see if it’s true or not or do I just ignore it?
I love you enough to look weird. I want to rip you from the grips of the devil. And I want to give you a big hug and bring you to Jehovah. You know, I don’t care if I look weird anymore. Because the coolest thing in the world is honestly when you go up to somebody and say…I got a word of knowledge for a girl one time and I said, “Your boyfriend raped you when you were 16.” She just started crying. She was like, “How do you know that?” I said, “Jesus just told me and he wants to take that pain away from you.” She and all her friends who are out partying, in downtown Minneapolis got saved. You have to be bold enough to just say the stuff that nobody else will. But then Jesus comes in and he does the hard work. You know, it’s just it’s so fun getting to live a life with the Holy Spirit like that.
What motivates you to pursue others so passionately?
It’s part of my testimony. Honestly, I was a crazy sex addict, a crazy porn addict for a couple of years, even while I grew up in the faith, right, I knew this stuff. I was seeing miracles all the time. And I still found a way to get bound. And his love is what pulled me out. I read the story that Jesus speaks about the prodigal son and his return home. I saw that as soon as the son remembered who he was. WHOSE he was. That he was his father’s son, he could return home. And as soon as his father saw him return he sprints after him. And that was God to me.
As soon as I acknowledged my mistakes, as soon as I said, I need you, he sprinted after me. When I came home, he gave me more than I had ever asked for. This son that came home, wanted to be a servant. But yet God looked at him and said, “You’re clothed in righteousness. I’ve given you authority, and I’ve given you peace. You are my son, and I love you. Let’s feast together.” And so when I saw that clearly, for the first time, I realized how much love he wanted to pour out on me that I couldn’t even ask for. That son never asked for any of that yet the father gave it to him. And that’s a love that’s waiting there for every man, woman, and child.
The second that they decide to just turn their heart a little bit and say, that’s what I need, the father sprints after them, breaking down every barrier to get to them, tackle them, love them, and clothe them. And when somebody reads that story, they will see how much love is waiting for them because this world has such selfish love. Right? If I say I love you, what am I thinking? Come on, say it back, say it to me. I’m not gonna say it again. If you don’t say I love you back. That’s not God. God says I love. I love you. I love you.
I think when Christians start to understand how loved they are, they’ll start to understand how much power they can walk in and how much freedom has been given to them. I think it’s just a love thing that they have to understand that they are passionately loved. So I hope more people come to that realization
