The Praise Report: Winter 2013

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. John 3:7-9

2012: Year in Review

2012 definitely goes down as a unique year for us. Not only did we continually minister throughout the year in new places we hadn’t ministered before but the Lord kept guiding and surprising us the way He opened unexpected doors as we merely sought to follow the Holy Spirit. We were also blessed to have a Holy Ghost Surf Story published in a new book called Kernels of Hope. It was a blessing to not only get selected to be published in this collection of testimonies, which includes stories from Tim Tebow and Ed Silvoso, but to have had the experience of working with some editors who helped hone and sharpen us in the whole craft of growing in the writing process as well.

Along with all the evangelism, ministry, new videos--check out our channel on YouTube and GodTube, as well as radio and TV we did throughout the year, we also hit a milestone as we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. Praise God! We were encouraged to receive some powerful testimonies of people who have been touched by our videos; to read a testimony from a brother in the Philippines who got very blessed, click here.

20-Year Anniversary

One of the major highlights of this last year was the celebration of our 20th wedding anniversary, Hallelujah! Hard to believe that 20 years have gone by since we said our vows to one another in front of friends and family in Newport Beach all those years ago. Boy, time really does fly by.

It is glorious to see how God's grace, love, power, and mercy has continually worked through his Holy Spirit in our lives to continue to accomplish His will that was announced from the very beginning of time: "A man shall leave his mother and father and the two shall become one flesh." God by His grace is continually working all the time fulfilling that goal in deeper and deeper ways—it is incredible to be more in love and feeling deeper as one with God and each other twenty years on into it all; God truly is amazing.

We give all glory to God to have this testimony in this day of broken marriages. Both of our parents got divorced while each of us were quite young which every psychologist tells you greatly stacks the odds against having a marriage that survives. But praise God the Father, for Christ’s Kingdom and the Holy Spirit are greater than psychology. We are humbled and thankful for His incredible grace, which always turns everything for good in such amazing and unexpected ways, and without which we’d likely find ourselves on the killing floor just like so many others who are trying to clean up the wreckage of a broken marriage. His mercy and amazing grace has continually overflowed by the sheer power of the Holy Spirit, to make us more into one all the time.

We’ll have a blog on how we met later on the web; if you’re not on our email list send us your email to gracewm@flash.net and we’ll add you.

2012: Ministry in Review

Montana

We were blessed to minister in some new areas for us this last year, including Montana, where we did a workshop at a conference. The Lord supernaturally and unexpectedly opened the doors for us both to teach at a workshop together on being “Naturally Supernatural.” We experienced a great move of God’s Spirit and some powerful healings as well. One woman who I happened to pray for opened her eyes right in the middle as I was praying and exclaimed, "Oh my goodness, I can't believe this, the pain is gone!" She had been with constant throbbing head pain for over seven years, which would never stop. She was pain-free for the first time and said that this was also the first time she’d smiled in seven years. The next day she came rushing right up and told us it was the best night’s sleep she'd had in seven years as well—glory to God!

Powerful Healings

We had some other meetings we did throughout the year specifically focused on healing andsaw some powerful results: A woman who was needing a hernia operation received prayer. When she went to see the doctor on the Monday after praying for her, he could not find her hernia. After extensive tests, the doctor was baffled as the hernia had completely disappeared! Glory to God! One woman who had back pain felt the pain immediately leave her as she got prayed for. Another woman who was so sick during the service she couldn’t even stand up, felt the sickness completely leave her and all her strength return, feeling fully healthy again after we prayed for her. One of the services was being broadcast live on the Internet. As Bryan gave a word of knowledge regarding someone with an earache a boy watching reported that he was healed immediately from a terrible pain in his ear. There was also someone who was suffering pain from an illness and as we prayed for her she was released from her pain as well as receiving the gift of tongues after seeking the gift for years, even though we weren't praying specifically for her to receive tongues. Hallelujah! This brings to mind Acts 14:3, which declares: "...the Lord confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders.

Colorado

The Lord also supernaturally opened the door to minister in Colorado for the first time. We were going out there for a family thing but a friend of Mercedes happened to call two days before we were leaving and at the very last minute God opened the door to speak at a church. The Lord led me to speak on being filled with the Spirit and we had many filled and empowered with the Spirit and some healings as well. The pastor told us afterwards they had just happened to teach on the need to be filled with the Spirit for the first time two weeks prior to our coming. This was obviously God's timing as we turned out to be the follow-up, without any planning or knowlege from either the pastors or us. Led by the Spirit a bit later on in the trip we also just showed up at another church of an old friend in Colorado unannounced and ended up speaking and ministering there where many got a fresh filling and were prophetically encouraged to as well. We had a powerful divine appointment when we were led by the Spirit out to Wyoming where we met a young woman who was going to lead worship for the first time that night and prayed for her in a powerful way.

 

Other ministry throughout 2012

The Lord also brought many into the filling of the Holy Spirit who have more traditional church backgrounds not accustomed to this Biblical Mandate up north and down south, as well as using us in evangelism, leading people to salvation and continued teaching on Bible figures and those in Christian History who experienced the power of God in life-changing ways.

We ministered in many other places where the Holy Spirit was poured out in incredible power and people were empowered and filled with God’s glory, and we also saw people coming to Christ. We had many empowered and filled in a glorious way, as well as about eight people who came to Christ in San Diego recently. We also had many of different denominational backgrounds that are not open to Charismatic things come into the filling of the Spirit up near the Bay Area on the Central Coast as well with people from Baptist, Presbyterian, even Salvation Army come into the filling of the Holy Spirit. We also did an evanglelistic outreach up in that area on a college campus as well. It is interesting to see how God is working and where he has been taking us as we seek to follow the leading of His Spirit, a prophetic guy prophesied about new doors opening in certain areas and we certainly saw that happen this year.

We were blessed to end the year ministering in San Bernardino at a year-end celebration with some good friends at their church out there. God poured it out as we celebrated the end of 2012 and beginning of 2013!! Being close to the mountains we also got to do a little hiking and four-wheeling with some pals out there. We also began the New Year in an exciting and fitting way by having a divine appointment straight away when we went for a little cross-country skiing up in the mountains and met a photographer on the trail from Campus Crusade for Christ who we gave a prophetic word to and prayed for right there on the ski trail, he hunted us down in the parking lot later to make sure we knew it was the highlight of his day!!! Glory!!!

More Recent Ministry

We had an awesome time ministering down south at three different services in one day just recently. The presence of God was so evident as we ministered the Gospel and saw about 12 people come to Christ. The Holy Spirit flowed in great power in each meeting and then accelerated in each successive meeting to where we just had a complete wave of glory and power flowing extra heavily in the last meeting where so many were ministered to by the Lord’s empowering and healing touch.

We were literally there still praying for people for over two hours after the last meeting was long done as the presence of God just kept filling and moving on people so gloriously, it was just incredible. Little kids from 6 to 12 also began to get touched and filled with the Spirit, which is always such an awesome thing to see and brings back some fun memories of traveling and ministering with Lonnie Frisbee who would see little children filled with the Spirit at times as well.

God’s healing touched me (Bryan) that day. I woke up with a severely sore foot and could hardly stand. I’d stepped on a sharp rock a couple days before which really hurt at the time but then went away—I thought (also sting ray scars still flare up when aggravated and bring pain). Here it was hitting me a couple days later, right before we were about to preach at three services which seemed rather strange given it hadn’t bothered me the day in between.


God intervened however, and we ministered for somewhere in the neighborhood of nine straight hours, preaching at three services back to back, without even a single break in between and barely enough time to even get a sip of water the whole day. The amazing thing was that we didn’t feel tired after all that, even though we only got about 4 1/2 hours of sleep the night before. The drive after getting up always seems to be the hardest thing, but once the anointing kicks in when ministry begins everything turns around. I didn’t even notice my foot until later that night when the exhaustion of the day seemed to hit all at once. Before collapsing into bed I thought, Wow! I’d gone the whole day without pain after waking up and barely being able to stand on that foot—Praise God!

Waves: Real and Evangelistic

We also had a blessed time ministering recently in a fairly new church in San Clemente where we experienced the presence of God moving amongst us in a great way. It was a blessing to come and minister there as we have a lot of friends in the area who happened to be there and also reflect upon some of the miracles God has done like the healing of my shoulder as the pastor there was involved in the prayer process that led to its full healing and recovery. The Lord met us in power as well, which brought such a refreshing wave over all of us there as the Spirit of God poured out His presence on us.

Speaking of waves, we decided to go out for a surf session with a few of the guys that afternoon down at San Onofre. We had a fun time getting a few waves and fellowshipping, and then got to experience the way God uses surfing as a bridge to the lost with us, like He so often has done with us in the past.



We were having a little campfire on the beach after surfing, when two Marines came up and asked to share the fire and offered some wood. They were hanging out a while so those who were left at the beach, including ourselves and our friend Mark Whitelock, began to see that God was doing something here. After talking to them a while the door opened to share the good news of Christ with them. They both had religious upbringings and were raised in church, one Baptist and the other Catholic, yet neither had ever had the Gospel clearly explained to them nor personally received Christ as their Savior. It became quite evident that though they were raised in church, it was mostly religious activity they had been surrounded by instead of the preaching of the Gospel. After about three hours of sharing with them, one of the guys actually opened his heart to pray with us and receive Christ as his Savior, Hallelujah!!

It was actually the Catholic guy who opened his heart and received the Lord. We have talked about the Reformation many times. Amongst the important things in discussing this and talking about the Reformation is the goal that re-generated Christians know what the Gospel is and what it is not, in order to be equipped and able to share effectively, and with clarity, the message of the Gospel with others. We have been working on putting together materials (will of course take some time) so born-again Christians can know what it is that we as evangelical Christians agree with Catholics, for example: The Trinitarian understanding of God, and which things in Catholicism are un-biblical like: Adoration of Mary or the teaching of Mary as Co-Mediatrix with Christ. When you have understanding you can share clearly what the Gospel is and reach into people’s lives with the message of Christ and help them understand their need for relationship and regeneration in Him. Thus when one knows what things are in agreement with the Bible be it in: Catholicism, Eastern Orthdoxy, or whatever, as well as which things aren’t, one can then share the Gospel effectively with those who may have a religious background but haven’t received Christ as their Savior. The Body of Christ needs to get equipped for a coming harvest and not be overtaken by the popular mush that washes out the reality of the need for the Gospel, for Jesus declared: “You must be born again.”

Jesus People

We also ministered at a Jesus People event recently, at an old haunt of mine of what back in the day was called the Newport Vineyard, where I used to be a youth leader in the college group and a Bible study leader of a home group I had started back then that became part of the church later. The Newport Vineyard is now renamed The River. We were blessed to share about times we’ve had in the past with Lonnie Frisbee and the outpouring that came about at what was then called Calvary Chapel Yorba Linda, which would later become the Anaheim Vineyard. We were doing baptisms together later at Corona Del Mar where we used to live and where I was baptized as a teenager after stumbling into Calvary Chapel in the days of the Jesus People Revival. So it was exciting to baptize our son Patrick right in the very spot in CdM where I was baptized all those years back. We also got to have some fun leading worship on the beach with the guitar in that old spot where Lonnie Frisbee had dunked so many in the Jesus People days!!!

Speaking of the Jesus People, we were doing a little documenting of that revival ourselves while attending a family wedding, which we combined with some ministry and outreach in the general Bay Area. While taking a few pictures in the Haight-Ashbury district of some of the famed people on some of the murals, and trying to figure out who was who in the pictures, a guy came up and helped us figure things out and then said, “And my picture is right around the corner.” I thought he was full of baloney at first, but it turned out he did have a picture up on the mural and was a famous magazine reporter back in the day. I listened to some of his stories and then shared about the Jesus People Revival with him that also broke out there on the Haight. Prophetically, some hippie guys sitting on the sidewalk playing guitars blurted out, “Yeah! And there is still life in that revival!” Wow!!! God’s heart is to continue to pour that life of the Spirit out even more again!

We also did some meetings up there in Salinas in a Vineyard, as well as Harvestlands Church ealier in the year, and a home and then at an evangelistic outreach where we preached at the college there after some music was performed. Evangelism on a school campus in America is not only tough ground but has become something of a rare and persecuted thing, groups like the ACLU and others of the ilk are always coming against any activity like this. We were glad, however, to take advantage of the favor that some of the believers in the area had garnered with the school to be able to set something up like this on a public school campus and were glad to have shared the Gospel in a public forum, and to have had response. A guy came to the Lord as well as others we prayed with to re-dedicate their lives to the Lord, and sharing with many others the Good News of Christ while planting seeds of the Gospel. One of the sisters working with us said there were a number of people listening who had tears in their eyes as they heard the message. We remember that Jesus taught about leaving the 99 to reach just the one and we rejoice with the angels in heaven when even one turns to Christ – especially in a setting like that, College Campuses these days are not a friendly format to the public preaching of the Gospel.

Eternal Perspective

With so much emphasis on what can be visibly seen and building man made things, it is often overlooked when the true work of the Gospel is carried out. Man in his fallen, earth-focused, carnal state so wants what the visible eye can see. We, however, seek to follow the path that the Lord Jesus and His Apostles and disciples carried out, which was not creating structures that will completely turn to dust and ash in the end and be meaningless and worthless, but rather to do eternally-lasting work. Preaching the Gospel in God’s power and ministering in that power as the Apostles and Christ did is so overlooked, it is often completely unrecognizable to what is supposed to be the church in our day, having become almost completely fixated on temporal things, when its focus should be on the eternal. Yet, for those with spiritual eyes to see the value of the eternal Gospel of Christ and the importance of His Kingdom extended through His power, we ask you to prayerfully consider lending us your prayer and financial support. You are merely lending to heaven as we do heavenly work—heaven pays pretty good interest too I hear!!

May God richly bless you!
Bryan, Mercedes, and Patrick Marleaux

© Grace World Mission, Inc.