It's Supernatural

Sid: I’m talking to Tony and Felicity Dale and they have an organization called “House to House Ministry.”  And they make it so simple as how to start a congregation, their principals work with a church, they work with a Messianic Synagogue, they work with a house-group.  But you stated on yesterday’s broadcast Tony you were talking about… I asked you about a congregation that was started in low income housing project.  And since I read this previously it’s almost like a pattern that God will use for almost anyone to start a congregation. Felicity you went on what you called a prayer walk, explain what that is.

Felicity: Originally the Lord told me that I was specifically to walk a particular street here in Austin.  And that sort of prayer walk was in obedience to that. Subsequently to that when the Lord had told us that “Yes, we was to start a church in this particular low income housing project.”  We did go around the area quite a bit praying very specifically for that, we asked the Lord to identify any particular problems that might be going on there so that we could pray against those problems, we were asking Him to bless the area, we were praying for the welfare of the people that lived there, you know for the services that might be involved there like the police, like the teachers, that kind of thing.  We were praying over all very specifically for this area.

Sid:  Okay, your praying for it, it starts dumping on you, pouring down rain, you go for shelter and you bump into a couple to women, and since it’s a very low income area they’re saying “What are you…,” in a nice way, “What are you doing here?”

Tony: Well, we were just hones with them we said “We’re here praying for the area asking God to bless the area and you know outcome their story.  It’s amazing how open people are to spiritual things when we learn to be open. And so they shard that they were Catholic and they were born Catholic and they were going to die Catholic but no they were never going inside a Catholic church again because of some perceived you know miss doing that a nun had you know an incident with one of their kids some years before. And so you know it’s just typical disaffected people with a veneer of religion but no real experience of God but an openness to Jesus.  In fact a belief because of something that had happened when one of their kids was a baby.  Even in God’s miracle working power. So we asked them, “Could we come to their home, could we take the opportunity perhaps pray for them and some of the needs in their lives.  And they were very open to that, and it was in their opening of their home that we recognized that this was exactly what it talks about in Luke chapter 10. When it says “Your looking for a person of peace, and you’ll know them because they invite them into their home, they offer their hospitality, the share their food and that’s what we found.  That we were here eating with them, enjoying their family and beginning to have opportunity to share the Kingdom of God with them.

Sid: So what happened next?

Tony: Well, God began answering prayer and maybe I should get Felicity to talk about this.   

Sid: Felicity, were these general answers to prayers or really amazing answers?

Felicity:  Well, they were very specific answers perhaps one of the first ones was that Rosa was the person of person of peace had been trying to get on to some kind of welfare or disability money from the government for about 2 years.  And whatever one might think of that within a week or two of our starting praying her checks started arriving and she saw that as a very definite answer to prayer.  And it was on the basis of that that she then willingly opened up the rest of her family her circle of influence to us coming and talking about what had happened.  In fact let me tell you the story of James who is her son.  James had told us that he could never ever become a Christian because he had a set of friends, a gang of friends, that had been there for him ever since he was a small kid that had always been there for each other and he knew that if he had to choose between his gang of friends and Jesus he would have to choose his gang of friends, and therefore he could not become a Christian. Which to me shows a really clear understanding of what becoming a Christian means.

Sid: He’s counting the cost.

Felicity:  Exactly, and he says “You know I cannot pay that cost.  So we had a friend come over from England shortly after he had told us this. This friend moves in the power of the prophetic and he said to James. “James, you know the Lord loves he way that you are such a good friend.”  The following week James when to donate blood and within a couple of days he had phone call from the hospital saying “You need to come in for an urgent appointment, you know we found some abnormalities in your blood you need an immediate medical appointment.  And so he was fearing the worst and he prayed and he said to God “God if you will spare my life, from this day on my honor and my respect will belong to you.”  He went and he followed up with a medical appointment, it turned out to be something minor but he told the Lord “I meant what I said, You’ve spared my life, from this day on my honor and my respect belong to you.”  And he then called up you know his friends from the past, this gang of friends that he had and he said to them “You need to understand that today I’ve given my honor and my respect to Jesus and if I ever have to choose between you and Jesus then I choose Jesus.”  And that was his conversion experience.

Sid: Now have you’ve seen many and in this particular group, let’s focus on this one, have you seen many healings or miracles like that?

Tony: We got a phone call one day while we were meeting that one of the fairly close family members down in San Antonio was in very very serious condition following a kidney transplant.  And we began to pray and just ask God to do a miracle, I mean basically the story had come from the hospital to us and from my medical background it was very clear that this young lady was dying.  Well, all I can say is that the response to prayer was absolutely dramatic, the girl turned around just over night the hospital re-contacted the family and said “We cannot explain what’s happened but the rejection has been reversed, everything is going smoothly and the girl has done fantastically.  So yes we have seen God move powerfully in answer to prayer.

Sid: I know when I go into a meeting whether it’s a large group or a small group I know when the presence of God is there. At these meetings that you’ve been describing all this week, you know whether the presence of God is there or not.  Do you feel His presence?

Felicity:  That is so important what you’re saying yeah, in fact the presence of God was so strong throughout these meetings with this housing project church that was starting. And it had then sort of spawned off of some other groups into other housing projects that actually led to one of the problems and weaknesses because we didn’t want to leave.  We loved going and just hearing the answers to prayer week by week and we stayed really longer than we should have because our experience tells us that these churches grow best when having help them get on their feet.  We move out of the way so that God continues to use them, I think of one meeting which would be fun to describe. Not that unusual you know a bunch of kids outside where we’re all sharing a meal. You know Hebrew’s talks about not yet resisting to the shedding of blood of whatever.  Well, any way we these kids come in and they’d been having a fight and there is blood all over the place from a bloody nose. So the kids are separated, the offending member is hauled upstairs and is given around sort of chewing out by the young man that Felicity had mentioned James.  At that point James’ mom Rosa goes upstairs and chews out James and says that he’s being unfair on this young man and they get into a shouting match and they come downstairs and the atmosphere is terrible.  And we’re saying “Lord what do we do?”  And it is incredible how God can move in because we sit down, there was perhaps 10 of us sitting around and then all of a sudden the presence of God comes and we’re exploring; you know how do Christians handle disagreements and how do you bring discipline to a young child in a very rough environment where if he says the wrong thing to the wrong person he might find himself shot.  And all sorts of incredible relative things are discussed and the word of God is broken open.  And about 45 minutes of this we bring all the kids back in and we begin worshiping the Lord.  And I remember we’re listening to this joyful noise and noise is probably the right word as everyone is worshiping the Lord.  And we open our eyes and we see these kids who previously had been fighting with their eyes closed and their faces just looking up to heaven and their hands raised and their just worshiping the Lord from the bottom of their hearts and singing at the top of their lungs and even if it’s out of tune you just say to yourself, “Oh Lord, this is church, this is Your presence among Your people and it’s so precious.”

Sid: Now, I find that many churches, or house congregations, get bogged down in fellowship and really don’t reach the unsaved; they just love each other so much and they have so many social events and so many things in they’re busy calendar there is no room for the unsaved.  What would you say to that?

Tony: I would agree with you and I think it’s one of the serious potential weaknesses of any movement like this that is based on small groups.  And one of the things that we feel key is that built into the DNA of these groups is an understanding that Jesus has commanded us to go.  You know our role is to go into all the world and as groups we can go, as individuals we can go, and in fact one of our principals of multiplication is that we’re not looking to invite people to come so that our group gets bigger and bigger until it needs to divide.  No in fact our principal more is that is where we go out into the community and maybe one of our friends, one of our contacts is coming to the Lord, then we break off from the original group and we help them start a new one so that it’s more like a budding strawberry plant.   

Sid: I’ll tell you what we’re out of time right now…