All of us have
experienced dealing with fear in some aspect of our lives. Also, many of us may not
have known we had any fear until we were confronted in an uncomfortable situation which
turned to torment. Therefore, we may conclude that we are not perfected in God's
love, because I John 4:18 states: There is no fear in
love; but perfect love casteth out fear: Because fear hath torment. He that
feareth not is made perfect in love. Love is perfected in our
hearts by obeying Jesus' word.(John 14:23) Even though we were born again, baptized
in water, and baptized in the Holy Spirit with evidence of speaking in other tongues, our
house was no exception.
When Candace was born, Kathy and I were excited that God had
blessed us with a child to be raised by the Spirit in the kingdom of God. She was an
easy baby with minimal natural difficulties. However, at about 10 months of age, we
began to notice it was harder to get her to go to bed at night. We prayed, played
worship music or Doyle's teaching tapes, laid down with her, or combined all of the above
to no avail. In fact, the situation grew worse over the next two years.
Finally, after fasting and prayer many days, Kathy and I were praying in Candace's room at
1:30 a.m. one night, and she was crying and sobbing uncontrollably. The power of God
filled my heart, and jointly, Kathy and I began to resist this spirit of torment.
All of a sudden in the corner of the darkened room, I saw a shadow of what appeared to an
image of a person. Kathy noticed it simultaneously, and we set our hearts to command
that spirit out of the house in Jesus name. The shadow actually moved from the
bedroom to the hall, and I found myself pursuing it until I reached the front door.
I literally opened the door and commanded that spirit of torment out of our house.
Thank God, I didn't think about what I was doing, but I continued to yield to the power of
God in my heart. The results were astounding! We returned to Candace's bedroom
to find her sound asleep, and she has never been bothered again. Glory to God!
In another experience, Ashley, born in 1986, was also an
excellent baby and no problem to put to sleep. We would put her in bed, turn on a
worship or teaching tape, turn out the light, and shut the door. We never heard a
peep out of her except for one time. For some reason this night, the devil, who
doesn't need a reason, decided to torment Ashley. She had been upset all evening,
which was highly unusual. So, when I put her to bed, I continued to pray for her,
and God revealed to me about this spirit that was tormenting her. As I began to
command the spirit to turn her loose, the devil spoke to me, "You can't get this
spirit off of her." Without even hesitating, I retorted, "You're
right! I can't, but the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead and dwells in me
can! In the name of Jesus, I command you to turn my baby loose!"
Immediately, Ashley's countenance changed, she stopped crying, smiled, rolled over, and
went to sleep. My mind was astonished, but my heart knew she had been delivered by
the power of God!
To continue with Ashley at about the age of 2, she came
under a severe attack that appeared to be an allergic reaction. Almost her entire
body was covered with red splotches enhanced by tremendous itching, which is horrendous
torment. We couldn't discern what spirit was attacking her, and I saw the more
anxious I was, the more tormented Ashley became. "Anxiety" is
"fear", you know. Finally, I decided to get her some relief somehow until
we could determine what spirit this was coming against her. We called the doctor,
and he prescribed something over the counter to relieve the itching. She got
somewhat better, but I knew this was not the true answer. The next day, Kathy and I
fasted according to Isaiah 58:6, Is not this the fast
that I have chosen? to loose bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to
let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? We
prayed all day loosing her from 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation curses on all sides of each
family, loosing us, or anything that we thought could cause this problem. At one
point, Doyle came to exhort me not to be afraid to loose ourselves from curses through him
or any of his family, which we had already begun to do. However, it was encouraging
to have confirmed what we were doing was the right thing. At the end of the day, we
could see little change, and I could see the medicine was not really working.
However, the Spirit of God inside of me had strengthened me in prayer, and I was no longer
afraid for Ashley. The power of God filled my heart, and I cried out, " I know
this medicine is not the answer, and you are, Jesus! I don't care what generation
curse this is or where it came from! I just command this curse to be loosed off her
body in Jesus name!" Within a matter of seconds, Ashley quit crying because of
the torment from the itching. The itching subsided, and within minutes, the
redness began to disappear. The curse had been broken, and there has been no
reoccurrence since. Praise God!
Rachel, our third daughter, was born in 1990, and she was
the easiest birth Kathy experienced with the three girls. Rachel was born 17.5
minutes after we arrived at the hospital. It was really a miraculous experience, and
I guess made the devil mad. When I took Rachel to the nursery, everything was fine
except I could tell she was tormented. Even the nurses commented that they did not
understand because all was normal. Well, I went back to Kathy's room, and we
discovered both of us were somewhat apprehensive(fear) about the birth because of what had
happened when Ashley was born. That did not last long, however, as we prayed, and
God set us free from that fear. I went back to the nursery and found Rachel had
completely calmed down and had gone to sleep. Praise the Lord!
Jesus said in John 14:27, Let
not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. In Isaiah
53:5, But he was wounded(tormented)
for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities: the
chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
If we will believe what he did through the death, burial, and resurrection, we will
triumph over all fear and all torment. God Bless!
E-mail at terrym@terrymai.com
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In the fall of 1983, God had led me back into full-time paint business, and at the time, he provided work with two home-builders who were building new homes in new developments of west Plano. On one occasion, I went to work on a beautiful bright shiny sunny morning to paint the exterior of a house, and I was thanking God because the weather was perfect for painting outside. I remember standing in front of the house and looking to the south, and with no obstruction to the view some 25 miles away, I could clearly see the skyline of Dallas. I thought, "Man, this is gorgeous!" Well, I began to get busy, set up my paint equipment, and start to work. About 45 minutes later, I noticed a breeze beginning to pick up, and I went around to front of the house to find a dark cloud forming over the city of Dallas. I knew it was a rain storm, and it was broadening fast. In fact, within less than ten minutes, I could no longer see the city of Dallas, and if something didn't happen quickly, I knew it was going to be on me shortly. Now, although I had heard about people in present day taking authority over storms and had read about Jesus commanding the storm to cease in Mark 4:35-41, I had not personally experienced it myself. However, I found myself again standing in the front yard and saying, "Father, you sent me out here to do this job, and I don't believe this storm is of you!" Without thinking(thank, God), I pointed my finger straight into the face of the storm and with a loud voice cried, "I command in the name of Jesus that this storm part like Moses parted the Red Sea! Father, I thank you it is done in the name of Jesus! Amen!" Immediately, my mind was flooded with thoughts, "You're nuts! People will think you're a fool! Storms are acts of God!(Insurance Policies)", etc. I won't tell you that I didn't entertain the thoughts for a second, but as I looked around, God's grace was with me, and I realized no one was in sight to see me. By now, even if they were, I didn't care. I quickly got hold of my mind and yelled, "I bind the devil in the name of Jesus, and I command you to depart from me!" Then, I began to give God thanks as I watched the dark clouds fill the sky all around me. However, within a matter of seconds, which seemed like eternity in my heart, the darkness began to lighten definitively right down the middle. I could see the movement of the dark clouds going around to my right and to my left, and a white cloud had formed over top of me. I really can not describe how amazing this was to my mind, but in my heart, I knew God had moved for me! Thank God! I returned to work, and after about fifteen minutes, the builder drove up. He got out of his car laughing and said, "I knew it! I told all of my builder friends at the coffee shop if anyone is working today, you would be!" He continued, "Did you know it is raining within two blocks of this location in all directions?" I replied, "I'm not surprised, but thank God, it's not raining here!" He also said further that as far he knew from all the other builders, no one else was working, but I had no more problems and finished the exterior of the house that day. In fact, for the next four years painting houses if there ever was a problem with the weather to hinder our work, we prayed believing the Gospel, and God changed the weather on our behalf. To me that is salvation, (safety, soundness, deliverance from every "hindering" influence). Never did we miss any work because of the weather! Praise God!
Although I could share many other experiences God has led me to pray regarding the weather over the past fifteen years, I'm only sharing a couple more, or we might be reading from now on. On a Sunday afternoon in the Spring of 1993, I had been doing some work at the office, and I was on my way back home. It had been harmlessly raining off and on that day, and I didn't think much about it except being thankful for the much needed nice gentle rain. Well, as I approached about four miles from home, I noticed some rough, strange-colored clouds swirling off to the south, and they appeared to be heading toward our house. I was immediately prompted by the Spirit of God to begin to bind the devil over the weather, bind up violent storms, and command tornadoes away from our house. At the same instant, I heard a warning siren sound, and the radio announced a tornado spotted on the ground and headed in our direction by description. I continued to pray harder and harder and charged the tornado, "You will not come near our house in Jesus' name!" Well, I arrived home to find everyone else praying too, and after about fifteen minutes, the rain began to cease, and the storm subsided. We then heard on the radio that no one could explain it, but the tornado turned to the right and went about 3 miles to the east of us. We all began to rejoice and praise God that he had delivered us once again out of the hands of the devil!
To continue, in April of 1995, we met with another rain storm encounter. However, this experience involved hail also. As a common practice, Kathy and I were out praying one night, and it began to rain harder and harder. I decided to turn around and head for home and soon realized that we were heading into the teeth of the storm. It also began to hail at this point, and we were praying with every bit of strength within us against the powers of the devil. It seemed the stronger we prayed, the harder it hailed. It sounded like hail stones larger than golf balls were literally coming through the roof, but we were not moved and continued to fight in prayer. Finally, we mercifully arrived at home, and I looked over our vehicle. Amazingly, there were no dents on the roof with only one small dent in the side, and we weren't even sure that dent was caused by the hail. Praise God!
Finally, in December, 1998, I awakened one morning to discover ice all around our house on the walks and the driveway. Well, I placed some sand on the pavements, so that we could maneuver around, and I began to pray. By evening, much of the ice had melted, but the weather reports called for more rain turning to ice before morning. In fact, it was to be worse than the previous morning. Immediately God's power rose in my heart, "This is enough!" I told Kathy, "The devil snuck in on us this morning, but he's not doing it again!", and we began to bind the devil over the weather and command his power broken over the temperature. I know we were not the only ones praying, but isn't it good to know God hears our prayers? Well, we awakened the following morning to find no ice and dry pavement! Praise the Lord!
I'll conclude by saying that I do not spend all of my time demanding the weather to be perfect. However, if the weather is a hindrance to completing God's will for my daily life and salvation is deliverance from every hindrance, God leads me to take authority over the weather, which brings salvation. Jesus said in Luke 9:23, If any will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross(gospel) daily and follow me. This is really where I saw God was to be involved in everything in our daily lives, even the weather.
E-mail at terrym@terrymai.com
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Throughout the years in the paint business, I established a reputation of honoring my word. If I told someone I would do something, I would fulfill it. If I told someone I would meet them somewhere, I would be there. If I found that the situation was not possible, I would straighten it out before the fact and not allow it to lapse with excuses or just ignore it. After all, if we're working toward pleasing God, he honors his word and expects no less from us. Well, I found by experience it was not the same with most builders and other sub-contractors. It was like none of them ever did what they said that they would do. I have come to see, however, the attitude of most people is the same, but it did not give me an excuse to be like them. Initially, that did not appear to be fair, but I learned because I honored my word to others, and particularly toward God, he caused me to succeed over the deceit of others.
One specific experience in l984, we were painting a new 2500 sq. ft. custom home, and some people came through examining the paint work. Upon completion, one of the people expressed how wonderful the paint work looked, and he would like us to paint his new house. I didn't need the flattery, but I did appreciate the job offer. I mention the flattery only because many times this attitude was followed by other deceitful practices, and this was no exception. Upon questioning about the job, I was told the house, although larger in size, was very similar in style to the present house we were painting. However, after the agreement and acceptance of the job, I soon realized alternate procedures were needed and more work was involved. Further, the builder began to make demands outside the boundaries not originally discussed in our agreement, but nothing was in writing, and I was already committed. My thought was, "Whatever happened to a man's word?" Inside, I really wanted to tell the man what he could do with his house (not nice), and I wanted to quit. However, I knew that was not the will of God, nor overcoming. Besides, if I quit, I realized I would meet up with the same situation, probably worse, down the road, and I didn't need that. So, I just prayed that I would not enter into temptation, and God would come to our aid. Hebrews 2:18 says, "For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour (come to the aid) them that are tempted." God began to move, and the builder agreed reluctantly to pay for some extras, but it still brought us short. Then God said to ask our wives to help us, and God even sent Doyle to assist also, and we were victorious to finish the job! Praise God! Except this is not the end of the story.
Remember, I began the testimony about development of a reputation with people. Because my word was honored toward God, it was accepted with most people. With other builders it was understood upon completion of a paint job, I would receive full pay, and upon completion of the house, I would return to touch up marks that occurred with the finish of the house. However in this instance, the builder held back several hundred dollars to make sure I would return. Well, I returned and completed the touch-up, but the builder didn't show. I tried to find him, but it was as though he had vanished. Actually, his intent was not to pay me, but we completed our end of the agreement, and God knew it. After about two weeks, I heard God say one day, "Go get your money!" Well, I knew the subdivision of houses (several hundred) where he lived, but I didn't know the exact house. So, I decided to go and believe God would show me. As I arrived at the housing addition, I heard God say, "Turn here!", then "Turn here!", etc, and finally "Stop!" My mind said, "You're nuts", but I thought "What have you got to lose? Besides, I believe this is God!" I rang the doorbell, and the builder was shocked when he opened the door and saw me standing there. He exclaimed, "How did you find me? I've been gone to California for ten days and just arrived home twenty minutes ago!" Well, God knew and waited to tell me to go until that day. I didn't tell him, but I was almost as amazed as he was. He quickly wrote me a check just to get rid of me, but I didn't care because I got what God sent there to get. God is in the business of miracles, and he had just performed one for me and caused me to completely overcome unto salvation. That is Paid In Full!!
I was just reminded here how God honored his word when he sent Jesus, and Jesus paid the full price for our sins when he died, was buried, and rose again the third day. Paul says in II Corinth. 5:15 that we should therefore not live unto ourselves, but unto him. God will always pay in full if we obey him.
There was another builder for whom I painted, and actually, he attended this ministry. God blessed him and sold all of his houses that I painted during a three year period. Then he began to question some things God told the ministry to do, and he began to try to get me involved with his unbelief. God continued to strengthen me to tell him the truth, but he rejected it. As a result of rejecting God's word, he began to lose money, lost his own home, lost another house that he owned, and ended his business in bankruptcy. During the entire time, however, he paid me in full for my work. In fact, I later learned from other contractors that I was the only sub-contractor who was paid in full from over 20 other sub-contractors he had used!! I thank God that obedience brings blessings, and I thank God for his grace and mercy on our lives! After all, when we obey God in word and deed, he always Pays In Full!!
E-mail at terrym@terrymai.com
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Before I truly began to serve God, I was professionally trained in vocal music, and I sang professionally in opera and many classical music performances. I always believed that God gave me the talent to sing and gave him credit for it, but I had no idea what true purpose he had for my life. Raised in traditional religion, I thought I was supposed to expound upon the talent God gave me and develop it to the greatest position possible. I had no idea that I was to ask God what to do with the talent he gave me. In fact, I didn't even know I should ask God for anything beyond what I couldn't do for myself. Pretty shallow self-righteous religion, huh? Well, when God led me to discover about laying down my complete life, I realized it meant music too! I came to the decision if it meant I would never sing another note again as long as I lived, I would do it. I know that is extreme, but unless you have done what I experienced as music was my whole life, you will not understand the extent of the decision I had to make not only to God, but to myself. Yes, I know the scriptures about praise and music to God, but my decision was in reference to no performance for people anymore unless God ordained it. God in his mercy very gently has taken the desire from my heart to impress people with singing, to live for applause, or even to perform period. He then began to give me the desire to sing unto him and to worship and praise him only. Soon, I began leading praise and worship at bible studies that Doyle was having at the time. Then I was asked to sing special music at meetings that we were having. To be honest at first, I was hesitant because I knew I had laid performance down. However this time, it was different because I now was lifting my voice unto God and not for the approval of people, and God began to honor it. To my amazement, the Spirit and power of God began to move as I would sing, and people began to get set free of oppression and devils, etc. At the time, I honestly couldn't explain it nor understand it totally, but I thought, "This is greater than any applause or anything the world could offer! Thank you, Father!"
Time passed, and it had been about five years since I had done any professional singing performances. Then one day, I received a phone call from a long time friend who was directing a performance of Handel's "Messiah" and wanted me to sing the Bass arias. Well, initially, I thought, "No!", but in my heart it seemed as though, "It's okay, go ahead." It is astonishing what God will use to deal with a person's heart, and this was no exception. So, I agreed, but I soon began to realize, "Hey, you haven't done this kind of singing for several years, and you are not in the same vocal condition to sing without a microphone as you have become accustomed!" Needless to say the devil played on that doubt for a while, but finally I overcame it, and I decided I was going to have to believe God. I also reminded him that he was the one who told me to do it. Well, performance time came, and I told Jesus, "Lord, I thank you for the honor to lift up praise unto you, and I commit this time as worship unto to you for your honor, praise, and glory!" The performance was presented at a large Methodist church in South Dallas, and I had been told that there was a group of charismatics within the congregation, but I really didn't give it much thought. However, at the beginning, there was congregational singing, and I noticed some of them lifting their hands, which, of course, in the Methodist church is not common, but it didn't bother me. At this point the Tenor soloist, with whom I had performed in years past and knew he was a highly competent singer, leaned over and said laughing, "You see those people lifting their hands? They speak in other tongues!" I replied without hesitation, "So what? I do too!" At which, he turned and said nothing to me the rest of the evening. During the presentation, I saw first hand how it is not wise to mock God. As I stated, the Tenor was an accomplished singer, but he had one of the worst performances I had ever heard. As for me, God blessed me with possibly the best performance I had ever experienced with the "Messiah", and he also performed a miracle for me while I was singing one of the arias. This particular aria had a lot of long virtuoso runs with lots of notes to sing in one breath. In the middle of one of the runs, I realized I didn't have enough breath to complete the run without stopping. My choices were stop,take a breath, and look stupid, run out of breath and look stupid, or believe God! At that instant, all I thought in my heart was, "Jesus!", my diaphragm just expanded with air without taking a breath, and I completed the aria with minimal effort unto perfection! Glory be to God! He proved to me his ability(power) in me was beyond mine, and he would anoint and honor whatever he ordained if my heart would glorify him, even Handel's "Messiah". Needless to say, my mind was overwhelmed at the power of God, but my heart was ecstatic, excited, and strengthened because of the miracle God did for me. You know, that's why God does miracles, so you and I might believe. Well, he has made a believer out of me. No, I haven't performed any more "Messiah's" since and don't care if I ever do, but I have seen the power of God daily, and that is of much greater importance to all of our lives.
E-mail at terrym@terrymai.com
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