One day I decided to go prayer walk my old university in Dallas. It had been bothering me how they would not let people speak the name of Jesus or Christianity there, but students were only allowed to use the word "spiritual" and not mention Jesus. (A Methodist University in Dallas!) I had a bottle of olive oil I had been praying over as "anointing oil" and so I went out to pray.
I prayer walked the stadium, claiming it for Jesus and anointing it, I prayer walked many buildings. I prayer walked the art building, anointing it, and went inside the painting department and hid a bible way up under the sink, and anointed the rooms, the easels, etc. While I was praying, my old friend the tenured professor saw me and said, "Cody! What are you doing here?" I said, "Just visiting." He said, "You are just in time, we are going to hear an art history candidate, and vote on whether he will be a professor here or not. Would you like to come to the meeting?" I said okay. My hands were dripping in olive oil from anointing everything, but I just managed to wipe them off, and went to the meeting.
I came into the room and sat among all the professors, the candidate began to give his talk. He was an expert on some guy in California that was a huge occultist who made his art shows into occult ceremonies and people that went into the galleries unwitting participants in his dark magic workings. He wore a hood and did all sorts of sorcery and called it "art". He was going all around California doing his ceremonies as "performance art" on the high places. This professor was just so in awe of him, making him out to be such a great artist, it was creepy.
Finally he told about how the "artist" tragically died when his house slid off the mountaintop. I wanted to get up and cheer! But I remained silent, praying quietly. I prayed all the way home over that. I did not think the university should teach its students how to be art-sorcerers and do creepy stuff on the high places. But I told my professor friend my views too. The man did not get the job as a professor.
But when I got home, though I had only been gone about 3-4 hours, while I was out praying over Dallas, a customer came in and bought $3000 in merchandise, then one bought $4000 in merchandise, then a man called from Florida and bought about $50,000 in a wholesale order. My mom, an elderly widow who owned the business, was ecstatic and overjoyed, sales had been almost flat-lining all month, but while I was out praying, she got nearly $60,000 in sales effortlessly!
I think if you will go do God's business, God will take care of your business. Later I told a fellow about this, and he got all excited and wanted to go prayer walking with me, so I went with him and we prayer-walked the superbowl, his idea, but his motives were all wrong, and no sales came in, nothing at all. I later found out he was a pretty phony Christian in many ways. Its not about doing something to get something. It doesn't work that way. When you just get lost in doing the Lord's work, he will take care of the needy widows in your life.
I was out driving around praying one day and I drove by a gallery where an old friend who was worldly, owned and operated it. I suddenly stretched out my hand toward the gallery and began commanding healing for his kidneys and liver and all sorts of things. The light changed to green and I had to drive on with the traffic. Later I visited my old professor friend and mentioned the gallery owner. He told me that he had fallen very ill and was in the hospital with kidney and liver problems and would probably need a transplant. I told the professor, "That is strange, I just prayed very hard for his kidneys and liver today." The next week my old friend was out of the hospital and doing fine. The professor got kind of addicted to my prayers, I prayed him out of a couple of hospital visits, in fact, they released him at 9am to go home, but his wife called me and said he won't go home, he wants you to take him home. I said, "I'm out working. I cannot possibly get there until late tonight. Just take him home, he is well." But she said he would not go. So that night at about 10pm I came and wheeled him out of the hospital and back home. When he was back at his desk, he wept, and then he got his comfort back, and slipped back into his worldly role. People need God when they are desperate, but when they think they can handle it, they put God back on the shelf. You know, we should always be desperate for God, because we always need Him much more than we realize!
I delivered a fountain to a fellow on a large wooded horse ranch, with a nice brick home, and a metal workshop. He told me how he and his wife lived in a trailer dealing drugs, and someone came by and shared the gospel with them, and they got saved and filled with the Holy Spirit and cleaned up their lives. But they had a problem, how would they pay the rent now that they were not dealing drugs? They were down to their last $200 bucks and it would not pay the rent, and their tattooed friend who was also suddenly a new creature in Christ Jesus was going to preach the gospel in Mexico, so they sowed the $200 into his ministry, and some things happened miraculously in their finances, and he also got a job at a factory that made machined parts.
He studied his bible every lunchbreak, and was mocked by all the factory coworkers. The Lord told him to buy his own metal lathe machine, which he did after studying manuals and finding a used one. He asked the owner if he could have it shipped to the factory because he did not have a forklift to unload it. He continued to read his bible and sow tithe into the mexican mission. The metal lathe arrived and he got it home and got his first contract too. Suddenly the factory closed and all the workers were laid off, told to just sweep the floors and clean up on their last two weeks of employment. But this fellow asked the boss if he could go ahead and go home because he already had so much work to do on his used lathe and new contracts. So he drove away with the dock workers staring at him.
He got more contracts and kept sowing into ministries the Lord showed him to help. One day he was told about a ministry in downtown Dallas that fed the homeless, it was going to close if they didn't get $4800 that month. So he prayed, Lord if you will send the contract I will tithe on it to that ministry, but I don't have the $4800 to help them right now. The next day he got another contract a large one, and the tithe on it was $4800. He gave the lady the money to keep feeding the homeless in downtown Dallas. He kept sowing and growing. The horse ranch he was on came at a miraculous price, with everything they were looking to have.
Then he took me into his factory next to his house, out there in the peaceful woods. His only employees were three sleeping dogs laying around on the floor. Inside the metal building, several metal lathes churned out parts for cables and things. Each lathe was connected to a computer that told it what to do. On each lathe was a magnet holding a piece of paper with a picture of a pastor and his church. Some churches were in India, or Indonesia, or Africa, etc. I asked him what the pieces of paper with the churches were for? He said that the tithe money from each contract for each machine went to a specific church.
So one lathe, spinning out little metal parts, was for a specific contract, say $50,000, and the tithe on that contract was going to that little church in Indonesia, and so on, for every machine in the building. He was the only employee, all alone there among his humming machines, so he played his guitar and wrote praise music, and hung out with the three dogs. That is what I saw, that is his story. These three abide, seed, time, and harvest. Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.
Cody Stromberg
You Hold the Key
I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. - Matthew 16:19
The Greek text of that scripture would literally read, "I give you the keys of the kingdom. Whatever you declare locked on earth is locked in heaven and whatever you declare unlocked on earth is unlocked in the heavenlies."
The heaven Jesus was talking about there isn't the heaven where God resides. He was talking about the battle zone, about the heaven where Satan's forces are operating.
He was telling us that God has given us power to bind the wicked spirits in heavenly places and to loose the angelic powers of God to work in our behalf.
Philippians 2:9-10 says, "We have been given a Name which is above every name, and at the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow!" Where? In heaven, in earth and under the earth. That covers it all!
As believers, we have total authority over the powers of Satan. We can take authority over the evil spirits that are trying to destroy this nation. We can take authority over them in the Name of Jesus and pull down their strongholds.
It is time we began to realize how important we are to world affairs. Since the day Jesus gave us the Great Commission, the life or death of the world has been in the hands of the Church. We are the ones who have the mighty Name of Jesus and the awesome strength of the gospel to bring life and abundance to every creature. We are the ones whose prayers can change every office of authority in this land.
It's up to you and me to begin to intercede right now and use the power God has given us. We may come from different lands with different backgrounds, but we all have one thing in common--Jesus Christ is our Lord. And that alone is enough to alter the spiritual complexion of this earth.
I prayer walked the stadium, claiming it for Jesus and anointing it, I prayer walked many buildings. I prayer walked the art building, anointing it, and went inside the painting department and hid a bible way up under the sink, and anointed the rooms, the easels, etc. While I was praying, my old friend the tenured professor saw me and said, "Cody! What are you doing here?" I said, "Just visiting." He said, "You are just in time, we are going to hear an art history candidate, and vote on whether he will be a professor here or not. Would you like to come to the meeting?" I said okay. My hands were dripping in olive oil from anointing everything, but I just managed to wipe them off, and went to the meeting.
I came into the room and sat among all the professors, the candidate began to give his talk. He was an expert on some guy in California that was a huge occultist who made his art shows into occult ceremonies and people that went into the galleries unwitting participants in his dark magic workings. He wore a hood and did all sorts of sorcery and called it "art". He was going all around California doing his ceremonies as "performance art" on the high places. This professor was just so in awe of him, making him out to be such a great artist, it was creepy.
Finally he told about how the "artist" tragically died when his house slid off the mountaintop. I wanted to get up and cheer! But I remained silent, praying quietly. I prayed all the way home over that. I did not think the university should teach its students how to be art-sorcerers and do creepy stuff on the high places. But I told my professor friend my views too. The man did not get the job as a professor.
But when I got home, though I had only been gone about 3-4 hours, while I was out praying over Dallas, a customer came in and bought $3000 in merchandise, then one bought $4000 in merchandise, then a man called from Florida and bought about $50,000 in a wholesale order. My mom, an elderly widow who owned the business, was ecstatic and overjoyed, sales had been almost flat-lining all month, but while I was out praying, she got nearly $60,000 in sales effortlessly!
I think if you will go do God's business, God will take care of your business. Later I told a fellow about this, and he got all excited and wanted to go prayer walking with me, so I went with him and we prayer-walked the superbowl, his idea, but his motives were all wrong, and no sales came in, nothing at all. I later found out he was a pretty phony Christian in many ways. Its not about doing something to get something. It doesn't work that way. When you just get lost in doing the Lord's work, he will take care of the needy widows in your life.
I was out driving around praying one day and I drove by a gallery where an old friend who was worldly, owned and operated it. I suddenly stretched out my hand toward the gallery and began commanding healing for his kidneys and liver and all sorts of things. The light changed to green and I had to drive on with the traffic. Later I visited my old professor friend and mentioned the gallery owner. He told me that he had fallen very ill and was in the hospital with kidney and liver problems and would probably need a transplant. I told the professor, "That is strange, I just prayed very hard for his kidneys and liver today." The next week my old friend was out of the hospital and doing fine. The professor got kind of addicted to my prayers, I prayed him out of a couple of hospital visits, in fact, they released him at 9am to go home, but his wife called me and said he won't go home, he wants you to take him home. I said, "I'm out working. I cannot possibly get there until late tonight. Just take him home, he is well." But she said he would not go. So that night at about 10pm I came and wheeled him out of the hospital and back home. When he was back at his desk, he wept, and then he got his comfort back, and slipped back into his worldly role. People need God when they are desperate, but when they think they can handle it, they put God back on the shelf. You know, we should always be desperate for God, because we always need Him much more than we realize!
I delivered a fountain to a fellow on a large wooded horse ranch, with a nice brick home, and a metal workshop. He told me how he and his wife lived in a trailer dealing drugs, and someone came by and shared the gospel with them, and they got saved and filled with the Holy Spirit and cleaned up their lives. But they had a problem, how would they pay the rent now that they were not dealing drugs? They were down to their last $200 bucks and it would not pay the rent, and their tattooed friend who was also suddenly a new creature in Christ Jesus was going to preach the gospel in Mexico, so they sowed the $200 into his ministry, and some things happened miraculously in their finances, and he also got a job at a factory that made machined parts.
He studied his bible every lunchbreak, and was mocked by all the factory coworkers. The Lord told him to buy his own metal lathe machine, which he did after studying manuals and finding a used one. He asked the owner if he could have it shipped to the factory because he did not have a forklift to unload it. He continued to read his bible and sow tithe into the mexican mission. The metal lathe arrived and he got it home and got his first contract too. Suddenly the factory closed and all the workers were laid off, told to just sweep the floors and clean up on their last two weeks of employment. But this fellow asked the boss if he could go ahead and go home because he already had so much work to do on his used lathe and new contracts. So he drove away with the dock workers staring at him.
He got more contracts and kept sowing into ministries the Lord showed him to help. One day he was told about a ministry in downtown Dallas that fed the homeless, it was going to close if they didn't get $4800 that month. So he prayed, Lord if you will send the contract I will tithe on it to that ministry, but I don't have the $4800 to help them right now. The next day he got another contract a large one, and the tithe on it was $4800. He gave the lady the money to keep feeding the homeless in downtown Dallas. He kept sowing and growing. The horse ranch he was on came at a miraculous price, with everything they were looking to have.
Then he took me into his factory next to his house, out there in the peaceful woods. His only employees were three sleeping dogs laying around on the floor. Inside the metal building, several metal lathes churned out parts for cables and things. Each lathe was connected to a computer that told it what to do. On each lathe was a magnet holding a piece of paper with a picture of a pastor and his church. Some churches were in India, or Indonesia, or Africa, etc. I asked him what the pieces of paper with the churches were for? He said that the tithe money from each contract for each machine went to a specific church.
So one lathe, spinning out little metal parts, was for a specific contract, say $50,000, and the tithe on that contract was going to that little church in Indonesia, and so on, for every machine in the building. He was the only employee, all alone there among his humming machines, so he played his guitar and wrote praise music, and hung out with the three dogs. That is what I saw, that is his story. These three abide, seed, time, and harvest. Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.
Cody Stromberg
You Hold the Key
I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. - Matthew 16:19
The Greek text of that scripture would literally read, "I give you the keys of the kingdom. Whatever you declare locked on earth is locked in heaven and whatever you declare unlocked on earth is unlocked in the heavenlies."
The heaven Jesus was talking about there isn't the heaven where God resides. He was talking about the battle zone, about the heaven where Satan's forces are operating.
He was telling us that God has given us power to bind the wicked spirits in heavenly places and to loose the angelic powers of God to work in our behalf.
Philippians 2:9-10 says, "We have been given a Name which is above every name, and at the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow!" Where? In heaven, in earth and under the earth. That covers it all!
As believers, we have total authority over the powers of Satan. We can take authority over the evil spirits that are trying to destroy this nation. We can take authority over them in the Name of Jesus and pull down their strongholds.
It is time we began to realize how important we are to world affairs. Since the day Jesus gave us the Great Commission, the life or death of the world has been in the hands of the Church. We are the ones who have the mighty Name of Jesus and the awesome strength of the gospel to bring life and abundance to every creature. We are the ones whose prayers can change every office of authority in this land.
It's up to you and me to begin to intercede right now and use the power God has given us. We may come from different lands with different backgrounds, but we all have one thing in common--Jesus Christ is our Lord. And that alone is enough to alter the spiritual complexion of this earth.
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