ALL NATIONS CHURCH THE POWER OF GOD THROUGH PRAYER

THE WATCH

NASHVILLE, TN – The power of prayer is a question many people wonder about but a revolution of what God wants is happening through a remnant of people who are seeking the will of God in Charlotte, North Carolina. It happened on the "Watch of the Lord" on Friday night while American’s were involved in the war with Serbia. "There is a dimension of the Spirit into which you can step and knowledge comes that is supernatural knowledge. Several months ago when we were in a war with Serbia, we were in the watch on Friday night. "I saw a vision from an old movie with Spencer Tracy named A Man Called Joe. I said, "What is this," and the Lord said, ‘Step into it.’ As I stepped into it, I suddenly had a revelation come to me. It was in the realm of supernatural knowledge. I saw that either right then or some time in the future an American pilot was in trouble or was going to be. I’m seeing him in trouble right now, we are supposed to pray for him. I had several watchmen come and our people in the armed forces appointed angels to be over every Air Force pilot that was in Serbia. In an interview the next day with the pilot, he said he was flying over Serbia and a missile hit him going at Mach 4. He lost total control of the plane and an unseen hand came and pulled the ejection lever, the angel flew down with him and covered him. The Serbian ground forces with dogs were 30 feet away from him and they could not detect him because the angel covered him. He was there until his buddies came to rescue him. That’s what I mean by there is another dimension into which God wants you to step." These were the words of Mahesh Chavda at Belmont Church in Nashville, Tennessee.

PRAYER SINCE 1995

Since 1995 a prayer meeting has been going on at his church, All Nations Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Chavda’s were raised up at this moment for a leadership role in the body of Christ to bring people back to the supernatural power of prayer. When you mention his name to people in this river move of God, very often they say, "Who is he?" But if they read his book about the Watch of the Lord they begin to see God in a new realm. The Chavda’s move in some very controversial signs and wonders but several healings have been verified by medical doctors.

On Saturday night the meeting started with a powerful worship and the presence of God at Belmont Church. We knew this would not be an ordinary meeting. As we came to the church fifteen minutes ahead of time, the streets were lined with cars. Every available place to park was taken and the church was filled to capacity. They were a hungry group ready to hear and see the man of God in his first ministry session in Nashville. Chavda came at the invitation of an old friend, Mickey Robinson. The meeting moved in a flowing fashion as the river of God flooded the church. I said to my wife the next day, how can you write a meeting like this - I can’t describe how we felt, you had to be there to actually feel the cloud that was present. The thing that set the meeting up on Saturday night was the Watch of the Lord that went on at Belmont on the Friday night before. At the same time in Chavda’s home church in Charlotte, intercession was being made for the work in Nashville. This pattern of prayer has seen many find break through into the supernatural display of God’s power.

WHERE THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS THERE IS FREEDOM

Chavda came to the pulpit and as he spoke we noticed an accumulation of gold specks all over his face and on his suit. He took one verse of scripture and began to sing it over and over again. II Corinthians 3:17: Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. God’s presence settled in as over and over he sang the word of God. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. The more this word was sung the more the power of God flowed through the service. People were waving their hands up and down as freedom began to touch the service. Hope was building as he moved toward the people for prayer. My wife and I stood in line and as he began to minister a power came over those on whom he laid hands on that was hard to describe. One man told me the next day as Chavda spoke over him he lost all consciousness as he was laid to rest on the carpet of the old Belmont Church for a long period of time.

Chavda is not your normal Pentecostal Minister, "I'm an ordained Southern Baptist Preacher, but don't tell anyone." God moves through him in the powerful gift of the word of knowledge. Immediately he began to call out the sicknesses in the audience. Prostrate Cancer, TMJ, heart problems, and Breast Cancer were called forward out of the audience. "This is a powerful place, I can feel faith working here -- I really feel the presence and the freedom of God within this church." The building we were in had a history of being a Church of Christ but the music on the stage and the movement of the Spiritual gifts through these anointed men of God was clear. He joked with his audience on the following Sunday night by saying that he was a U.S. Citizen. "I was raised in Africa so you could call me an Afro-American but my daddy was an East Indian and so you might call me an American Indian." The testimony of All Nations Church is one of the supernatural Holy Spirit. In the following testimony Pastor Chip Hill of Monterey, Virginia, explains how the healing of his sister-in-law from an incurable lung disease brought revival to his small town.

Chip Hill, as a pastor from Monterey, Virginia, came to the All Nations Church to attend the Second Wave of Glory Conference in November of 1999. After being prayed for, Pastor Hill received a mighty impartation of glory and anointing at the conference. What Hill didn’t know was that it would be taken home with him to stir the people in his small Virginia town through an amazing miracle.

As the small pastoral band came back home from Charlotte on that November day, Phyllis Outten, the sister-in-law of Hill, came to the door in a desperate way -- unable to breath, she was choking and gasping for air. Phyllis had a condition known as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease or COPD. This is a disease doesn’t allow the lungs to receive and channel proper amounts of oxygen to the blood, and thus affects the heart, lungs, and other vital organs. Gradually the lungs cease to function as they should and a slow suffocating death process begins that may last for several years until the heart stops. It can cause a tragic death experience.

POWERFUL MIRACLE IN VIRGINIA

Phyllis had been seeing a specialist at the University Hospital in Charlottesville, Virginia, for two years, as well as her own family doctor in Marlinto, West Virginia, but nothing had relieved the misery she was experiencing. Both doctors knew there was nothing they could do to stop the progress of the disease, and that in time, Phyllis would die. As she came though the door that God-ordained night on November 14, 1999, she was laboring to get her breath and something needed to be done. Without a moment’s hesitation, Darlene Hill, the pastor’s wife, laid a hand on Phyllis’ chest and began voicing a desperate prayer for God’s help. Suddenly, without a warning, Phyllis fell backwards to the floor under the power of God. She remained there for fifteen or twenty minutes, vibrating powerfully under an invisible cloud of glory. What transpired was miraculous and thrilling -- another marvelous example of God’s sudden, sovereign handy work in an act of unmerited redemption.

Phyllis laid there and saw Jesus standing over her with bright, warming rays of love and power pulsating from Him and showering down over her. Although she could not see the vivid features of His face, she knew it was Him, and that she was safe in His awesome, manifest presence.

While Pastor Chip Hill had been upstairs he heard the commotion of praise and glory in the living room. As he came down the stairs Phyllis was lifting herself from the floor, quite overcome with a spirit of worship and adoration for the God she had just encountered. As she worshiped Him with every fiber of her being, she noticed that her breathing was no longer impaired, and that she was breathing better than she had in years.

Chip, she cried, "I’m healed!" she exclaimed. "Jesus has healed me! Jesus has healed me!" All we could do was stare in wonder-fathoming the miracle that stood before us.

The pastor explained that Phyllis had struggled a lifetime with the idea that unless she somehow pleased Him enough, God wouldn’t do anything for her. She knew she didn’t deserve to be healed, and so somewhere along the line she stopped believing for Him to help her.

The healing of this one individual caused revival to burn in the local church. She did not just receive a healing from her lung disease but as she got up from the floor she was touched by God in an unusual way. Standing in adoration and praise in the pastor’s living room people began to notice that gold specks began to accumulate on her hand. Gold specks were not the only manifestation, in Phyllis’s mouth every filling was turned to a beautiful gold that is still there today. The healing of her lungs was verified by doctors as a miracle work but the real miracle was when the news of what had happened to Phyllis began to go through the church. The expectation of hope came and the mighty presence of the Spirit of God caused revival to come to their country church.

AWESOME AWAKENING OF POWER

Prayer is a vital part of any ministry. The fact that these signs and wonders happened was not the main thing that got people’s attention. People knew Phyllis had suffered for years and that she had no hope of recovery. Her recovery was an injection of hope to people who had no hope. It caused people to believe in Jesus. It caused them to take an account of their lives. When Jesus healed in the four gospels it caused the masses to flock to Him. Jesus healed in the church and He healed outside the church. The greatest witness to that generation was to the outside of the church because the people of religion could not contain what was going on right before their eyes. Religion today tries to hide the truth from people but when it comes down to the facts, the validation of a healing can disprove the skeptic and the religionist.

Mahesh and Bonnie Chavda are two people raised up through the experience of being called by ordinary people into ministry. In one of his early books written about his life -- the power that was displayed before a group of people in Lubbock, Texas, caused them to ask him to become their pastor. The Chavdas are very controversial in the body of Christ but Jesus was also controversial. The patterns of prayer and the testimony of prayer is causing people to change. Change is an essential ingredient in the body of Christ.

In Nashville the Chavdas caused people to change their approach to ministry. The power of prayer has defeated religion through the testimony of the miracles it has brought.

There is a church in Charlotte, North Carolina, that has sought the mind of Christ on their knees and it is now bringing a full revelation of God’s power through to those who want to know. The greatest testimony of any revival will always be found in the pews. It is that testimony that will defeat the plans of man and religion. No one can explain Phyllis’ miracle but Phyllis. Just like the blind man before the Pharisees of the Herodian Temple -- I was blind but now I see, it was the testimony of Jesus that brought the witness of power to them. When they could not receive the miracle, these stiff necked religionists drove the testimony from the Temple into the streets of Jerusalem.

If you know what God wants then you can move in freedom, not having to please man. Mahesh and Bonnie Chavda have given the body of Christ a refreshing of hope. Only God knows how deep their work will go but for now they have the formula and the example of what God wants for his church today.