Title: The miracle within
the purpose of this blog is i guess is to keep track of my daily devotion
Matthew Barnett the pastor from dream center LA shared amazing testimonies
i learned that greatest achievements are not success but the miracle that happens inside of you!!!
he share so many amazing testimonies of how lifes are touched
let us start with how his church grow
he started the church with 18 and in 6 months time the attendance dropped to 9 and then 2....
it was so sad....he went back home and cried and cried.....
then God worked a miracle in him and his life changed....its no longer about the size of the church...its no longer about "I"...its all about Jesus...its all about other people
and he go out help people...give children candy....go into the inner city to help...and within 6 months his church grow from 18-600!!!
another story he shared is about the homes he built for drug addicts and prostitute, he was driving past holywood and saw an old hospital...he wanted to buy it for the homeless and drug addict and made it a rehab center however paramount picture already made a mega offer of 16 million usd...and here is he a 23 year old trying to bid for this place....but he just move ahead trust God tell the owners their plan for the building and made a bid of 3.9million....surprisingly the owner rejected the 16 million offer and accepted their 3.9 million!!!praise God
despite making that offer, he did not have that money....he had to pay the 3.9million in 18 months...after 9 months of raising, they did not raised any money at all....
then one day...there is this businessman who was very negative met up with him.....he took him for a tour through the bulding...the businessman was unimpressed with everything he is going to do....but when he saw those prostitutes whos lives were changed....he broke into tears and gave him 1 million!!!he even ask his son who was as rich as him to meet up with Matthew and his son gave him 1 million too!!!in 2 days 2 million were raised!!!
he went on to share a testimony on a prostitute who wanted to kept her baby....when he took her into the dream centre, she was very unhappy...everyone loved her but her attitude was so bad....one day he(matthew barnett) confronted her....she told him her story....she had a baby when a guy pick her up and wanted to kept the baby....the pimp came in told her he wont allowed this to happen, pull out a gun, shoot the baby and use the iron and burn her until she will not be able to have a baby again!!!
they cried together for hours....(sometimes you dont need to be the best counselor, just give her a shoulder to cry on) and he said to the prostitute if someone would love you will you give your life a chance? she said she would and today she is going back to the streets of LA and bringing girls in!!!
he closed with this story
on his way to church...the first day he is pastor....he saw a dead boy by the roadside....killed in a drive by shooting he felt so burdened that he cant preach and went to that house to knocked the door to see if he can help with money....
he went in there were tons of hardcore gangmembers there...he was scared so he gave the mother of the boy the money, pray for her and was about to leave....then a hand touched him and said pastor please stay and pray with us....
he went on to pray a formal prayer as he was scared he might offend the gang members but the Holy Spirit convicted him and he started to pray boldly....in one of the words he said "God may you change the life of these people that moms wont need to lose their child like this"...to pray like this you may be killed anytime as you are offending them but he don't care......
all the gang member were touched by his prayer and when he ask for salvation everyone of them lift up their hands and gave their lives to Jesus Christ!!!
he go on to share a few more testimonies but an important lesson i learned here is that
- its not about me, my dreams and ambitions all the time....
- sometimes when we chase for success we will not get it....but if we choose to run after Jesus Christ, we will find him all the time
- when you build others dream, God will build your dream
- it is more satisfying to help and put a smile on others face than focusing on your own achievements...i personally experience this....sometimes i achieve so much like gaining top results or getting into deans list, it is not as satisfying as building others dreams.......sometimes a tear of joy in the eye of my cg member when we did something for them is better than going up the stage to receive various awards......
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