WAR STORIES FOR THE JOSHUA GENERATION

War Stories for the Joshua Generation shares with you some of my experiences on the climb up my spiritual mountain. It is a climb that has gotten steep and lonely at times, but it is a climb that has been worth the trip. It is a climb that I hope you men of the Joshua Generation will join with me in taking. The higher you get on your spiritual mountain the more you will affect your generation.

The height that you reach on your mountain is not up to me, and it is not up to God, it is up to you! The call up the mountain comes from a still, small voice from within you; it is a voice that is easily muffled by the noise and excitement of our everyday lives. If you will answer the call, and learn to follow the still small voice of the Spirit of God within you, you will become "One of the Happiest People on Earth."

MY FIRST HEALING MIRACLE

In March of 1976, just five months after attending our first FGBMFI meeting, my wife Barbara and I drove to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, to attend our first Regional FGBMFI Convention. 

On the last day of the Convention Barbara and I attended an afternoon teaching session on divine healing taught by a man by the name off Joe Poppel.  After teaching the group for thirty minutes, Joe suddenly stopped and announced “If there is anyone in the room who has a clinically short leg, come up here and God will heal you!” For a number of years I had been suffering from chronic back pain. The Doctors had determined that my left leg was about 5/8”shorter than my right leg. 

I jumped up from where I was seated and ran to the front of the room, and up the steps leading onto the stage.  But by the time I arrived where Joe Poppel was standing, another man had gotten in front of me.  That man had a 3” lift built into the sole of his right shoe.   Joe Poppel set the man down in a chair and lifted the man’s legs, so that those in the audience could see the 3” lift. Then in a quiet voice Joe prayed “Jesus please lengthen this man’s right leg and heal him.” I watched the man’s leg grow out three inches right before my eyes. 

Finally it was my turn for prayer. Joe Poppel set me down in the chair, lifted my legs so the audience could observe my short leg, then in a quiet voice Joe prayed the same simple prayer, “Jesus please lengthen this man’s left leg and heal him.” I watched as my left leg lengthened I felt the pain leave my lower back. 

After I returned from the Canadian Convention I witnessed to anyone who would listen. I would tell them how I got born again, how I got baptized in the Holy Spirit, and how God lengthen my left leg. 

At one of the Seattle Chapter Meetings several months after Joe Poppel had prayed for the healing of my back, an usher by the name of Gene Williams asked me to give my testimony in the King County Jail meeting he was conducting the following  day.  I agreed to do so, and the next morning I spoke in Gene’s Jail Meeting.  After I spoke, I asked if anyone wanted to receive Christ as their Savior. Two prisoners responded and I prayed with them to accept Christ as their Lord and Savior.

When we were getting ready to leave the jail meeting a young black man who had just received Jesus as his savior Jesus asked me, “What did you just say about your leg a minute ago?”  I explained to him again how my left leg, which was 5/8” shorter than the right leg, grew to the same length as the right leg and I was healed.  He said, “Wow! I wish that Joe guy were here”.  One of my legs is 1-1/2” shorter than the other and my back is in pain constantly!” Gene Williams said to the young man “Well we are going to fix that leg right now!  Bring that straight backed chair over here and set in it.”  The young black man jumped up and said, “Wow, does it work every time?” then he sat down in the chair and sure enough, his left leg was 1-1/2 inches or so shorter than his right.  Then Gene Williams said, “Bob come here and pray for this man.”  Suddenly my mind shifted into high gear, I desperately wanted to find a way out of that jail room, but I was trapped I had to pray for the man.

I had been meditating on the word of God every day; I had been reading the Bible, and other spiritual books on divine healing, ever since the day I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. After I got over the initial shock I got ahold of myself.  I picked up the young man’s legs like Joe Poppel had done to me, and prayed a lengthy prayer but nothing happened.

“One of the convicts got down on his knees with his elbows on the jail house bench and prayed, “Please God, let it grow out, don’t disappoint him.  Show these men you are real!” While this was happeningI was still holding onto the man’s legs so I boldly commanded that leg to lengthen and the leg literally shot out one and a half inches. Gene Williams said “it is done,” and the young man jumped up and down shouting, “God healed me! God healed me!.  Then the jail guard took the young man the other prisoners back to their cell block, to presumably to tell the other Prisoners what God had done for him in the Sunday FGBMFI jail meeting. As for me I could hardly wait to tell Barbara what happened in the Jail.

The scripture’s says “This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee.” (John 4:11) Well Sunday July 24^th 1977 was the beginning of signs that Jesus did in Bob Bignold’s life.  And God wants each of you Joshua Generation Men to be so filled with His word and His Spirit so that He can work signs in your life.

In the next “War Story For The Joshua Generation” I will share with you how I encountered and dealt with the first demon spirit that manifested in my presence. 

In Jesus' Name,

Robert W Bignold

National President

In the second “War Story for the Joshua Generation” I have shared with you the first time I experienced a healing miracle as a result of my prayer.  After I was baptized in the Holy Spirit I experienced an insatiable hunger for the word of God.  I spent every leisure hour reading my Bible and Christian teaching books on the subject of faith and healing.  I also made it a habit to pray a great deal in the Holy Spirit (in tongues).

One of the principles taught in God’s word is that every word (or teaching) should be established by at least three witnesses (Matthew 18:16).

Now based on this principle let’s look at what the Bible teaches about divine healing.  Below are three scriptures which reveal that healing is in God’s plan for mankind. 

The first witness is Isaiah 53:4-5.  “Surely He has borne our grief and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.”

The second witness is Matthew 8:17 “When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick.”

The third witness is 1 Peter 2:24 “Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.”

These three scriptures reveal that it is God’s will to heal men.  It is also very important that we establish in our heart that sickness and infirmity come from the devil and not from God.  Acts 10:38 tells us “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

And 1 John 3:8 tells us that “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning.  For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”

Jesus Himself said that “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.  I have come that you may have life, and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

It is also very important that you as a believer establish these scriptures and others like them in your spirit by mediating on them (thinking upon them and confessing them with your mouth) day and night.  Meditation on God’s word will build faith into your spirit, in order that faith will be in you, when you are put to the test, like I was put to the test that day in the King County Jail.

Several weeks ago Chris Burge, our National Director in charge of the Joshua Generation Outreach sent me a link from the Elijah Generation Newsletter, with the subject line "Strengthen the Foundations."

In the early part of 1975, I met Barbara, a Christian lady who would later become my wife. At the time I was a forty-three year old divorced guy who owned and operated a Seattle area Architectural and Engineering firm. I occasionally attended church, but I had no relationship with, nor understanding of a living God. About a year after we met, Barbara and I were married.

When we returned from our honeymoon, I noticed a book entitled Power and Praise, which had been left on our living room table by my new Methodist mother-in-law. The book was written by Merlin Carothers, a retired Lt. Colonel in the United States Army. Carothers had served with the famous 82nd Airborne during the Second World War; he was a master parachutist with over 90 jumps... He was my type of man. I thought Power in Praise was success motivation book. But as I read the first few paragraphs of the book I realized that Colonel Carothers was talking about God's gift of eternal life, and three months later as a result of reading that book over and over, faith developed in my spirit and I asked Jesus Christ to become my lord and savior.

I continued to read, and reread Power in Praise for another seven months, I was particularly the interested in the third chapter of the book which was entitled "Power Unlimited." In that chapter Carothers talked about the baptism in the Holy Spirit. He explained that "The very first free gift God wants His new children to ask for is the baptism in the Holy Spirit. He said they needed it to grow." He went on to share that Jesus had told His disciples that they would “receive the power when the Holy Spirit came upon them”. (Acts 1:8). One evening, seven months after I was born again, faith arose in my heart and I asked Jesus to baptize me in the Holy Spirit. A few words that I didn’t understand began to come up from with-in me, hesitantly at first, and then more boldly I spoke out those words, it was an experience that radically changed my life.

When I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God came upon me and empowered me for aservice. Praying quietly in other tongues while accomplishing routine everyday tasks such as driving, or watching television has become a routine way of life for me. It is a way of life that builds up my most holy faith. (Jude 20)

Several months later at my urging, my wife Barbara also asked for, and received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. At the time these changes were occurring in our lives, we were attending a mainline denominational church. Other than Merlin Carothers, the fellow who wrote the book, we knew of no one else who had received the Baptism in the Spirit.

But several weeks after Barbara was baptized in the Holy Spirit we heard about the “Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International”, a group of successful Christian business men who also believed in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We began attending their chapter meetings and found them to be exciting and alive. These men just shared what God was doing in their lives, not five years ago, not ten years ago, but just the previous week. They talked about a living God; some told how He had healed them, and others explained how their marriage had been changed, and others how God had blessed their business. Hearing how God was helping these men in their businesses got my attention; it had never occurred to me that God would help anyone be successful in business. I wanted to hear more; I could hardly wait until the next meeting!

In the next War Story I will share with you how just a few months after I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, God worked a significant miracle though me.

In this first “War Story For The Joshua Generation” I shared with you my experience of becoming “Born Again” and “Baptized in the Holy Spirit”. Now let’s look at what the scriptures say about these two separate experiences. When I was “Born Again” the Spirit of God came into me and began to change me. When I was Baptized in the Holy Spirit the Spirit of God came upon me and began to empower me for service.

In "Getting started in the Spirit" I shared with you my experience of being born again and baptized in the Holy Spirit. Now let's look at what the Scriptures teach about these same two experiences. First let’s look at the four scriptures shown below.

John 14:17 NKJV - "The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you."

Acts 1:8 NKJV - "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

John 4:14 NKJV - "But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."

John 7:37-39 NKJV - "On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.' But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified."

As you read these scriptures you will notice that Jesus speaks of the Spirit within and the Spirit upon. When we are born again the Spirit of God comes into us to dwell with us (John 14:17). And when we are baptized in the Spirit of God comes upon us to empower us for service (Acts 1:8).

We also see the same two operations of "the Spirit within" and "the Spirit upon" in John chapter four and John chapter seven.

In John 4:14 Jesus, using water as a symbol of the Holy Spirit, says, "The water I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of waters springing up unto everlasting life." The King James Version translates it a "well of water." Here Jesus is describing the born again experience, which is the Spirit of God "within you."

In John 7:37-39 Jesus again using water as a symbol of the Holy Spirit says, "out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." Here Jesus is describing the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of God "upon us."

In John 4:14 the Scripture describes an inward location of the waters, or the Spirit. Here Jesus is describing eternal life that the believer receives when he is born again. It is described as a well or fountain within the believer. Eternal life is given to bless and edify the believer.

But in John 7:37-39 Jesus is describing the power that flows forth from the believer when he is baptized in the Holy Spirit. In the baptism in the Holy Spirit the Spirit of God comes upon the believer for service to others. It is described as a river flowing out of the heart. "The baptism in the Holy Spirit is given to bless others."

The Holy Spirit within Us

When the Holy Spirit comes "within us" there are nine fruit of the Spirit that should begin to manifest in our life. They are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control against such there is no law (Galatians 5:22-23). We refer to these as the fruit of the spirit, they grow in you.

The fruit of the Spirit is given to develop your character.

The Holy Spirit upon Us

When the Holy Spirit comes upon us, there are nine gifts of the Spirit that become available to the believer so that he can bless others. They are found in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11. They are: prophecy, divers’ kinds of tongues, the interpretation of tongues, the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom, discerning of spirits, special faith, gifts of healing, and working of miracles. 

These gifts of the Spirit are given so that believers can bless others.

The Holy Spirit within us is given to produce the fruit of the Spirit in the life of the believer. The Holy Spirit upon us is given to empower the believer to provide service to the lives of others.

In Jesus' Name,

Robert W Bignold

National President

Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship in America

Consider this "As many as 70 percent of the boys who are being raised in the church will abandon it by their 20^th birthday." Many of these boys will never return.