THE ARTIST

 When I first received the Holy Ghost I was working in Austin and I put what little money I had on the offering plate to the Lord. The next day I got an interview as a cartoonist, and in three days I had a job as a cartoonist for a company that made websites for Dell computers. My boss did not like working for Dell and wanted different clients and showed me the budget forecast. She said we needed $25,400 dollars by august to keep this company alive, or it will have to close. She told me to draw two thermometers on some posterboard and put the goal of $25,400 at the top and some gold stars stuck at the bottom, and when we reach the goal, we will know we made the budget for the summer. So I drew the poster, but instead of thermometers I drew two big green and yellow caterpillars standing up like thermometers. She said, "I told you to draw two thermometers, why did you disobey me and draw two caterpillars?" I said, "I don't know. I just felt like drawing caterpillars with smiling faces, it will work the same, see just move the stars up as we reach the goal." and they let it slide. Guess what? Three days later she got a call from Peoria, Illinois, it was Caterpillar Tractor, and they needed an intranet site built. Guess how much the budget for it was? $25,400 exactly. So they got all excited and started on the job. I walked over to the poster of the caterpillars, put the stars at the top, and said, "well, I guess we made our budget huh? Do you mind if I take this poster down now? We have reached our goal and it doesn't really serve a purpose." and so I drew cartoons for Caterpillar all summer. Cody Stromberg

One night I began praying for people and began to weep, I wept all night. I prayed crazy prayers like "Lord I don't know if it is okay to pray this but could you make them just sick enough so they don't go to work in the morning and then make them well again, or maybe could you make their cars not start, or cause them to miss the train, make them a little late, so they could not get to work?" I kept praying and weeping. The sunshine came in my window and I got up. My shirt was wet with tears. I changed shirts and got a cup of coffee, and turned on the TV. There was a plane hitting a tower, 9-11 unfolded that morning. Later I heard that some people survived because they were late for work or missed work that morning. Praise God because He cares for His sheep so much, He does not want one to perish.
On the same topic, I heard later that a Haitian artist had won a special prize and got a special studio in that tower. He was sculpting people with airplanes stuck in their bodies. He filled his studio with statues of people with tiny planes stuck in them, and he was there when the tower fell on him. My art professor friend told me about it because he was on the committee that gave the recommendations for the award. There was a lot of bad art stuff like that. We artists are sort of like the canary in the coalmine sometimes, we warn through our art. In fact, when I received the Holy Spirit, it sort of messed up my paintings. I would paint a picture of a person, then meet that person that week. It was sort of like foreknowledge painting. I went to paint the trees in Northern New Mexico, to practice my plein air skills. But as I painted the trees, fire jumped all over them in my canvas. I came inside weeping with a blazing inferno on my canvas. My sister (I had stopped at her house to paint and visit) asked me what was wrong. I said, gather your children, everyone form a circle, we must pray, a forest fire is coming here. So they formed a circle, joined hands, and I prayed and rebuked the forest fire in Jesus name. They thought uncle Cody was a bit strange anyway, nutty artist and all. Well, a few months later a forest fire broke out and the smoke was so thick they could not drive to Red River, the whole canyon was ablaze, and they had fires all around them, but their little canyon did not burn, and their log cabin was not harmed. Cody Stromberg

One morning i was praying for a woman's throat and tongue. Praying for healing and that she could speak. I was just singing and praying. When I got to church a lady was down at the altar crying. She had not been able to speak for months because her tongue and mouth were numb and frozen. The doctors could not fix it. But that morning as she came into church, her mouth and tongue began to work, and she began to speak normally. She was weeping and her daughter was weeping. I never told anyone about the prayer, we just all thanked the Lord Jesus! Cody Stromberg

We met a fellow the other day that was diagnosed with cancer the day before I met him. He was not much interested in our Jesus or prayer but said okay to it. We prayed and a few days later I asked him how his exam went that day. The cancer was gone. He considered it a misdiagnosis and said he was working on his healing "mojo" so whatever, he got healed but did not recognize it. The next day a man came out to get a fountain who just finished 6 months of chemo for the same kind of cancer and was cleared, but I prayed for him anyway. He loves the Lord and was thankful. The lady down the road was healed of cancer. The girl down the street had bone cancer and everyone prayed and she was healed. I remember praying for a girl with Lupus, the doctor said it was hopeless, but she went back and it was totally gone. God is so good. He heals people. Give God the glory and praise! Cody Stromberg

Thank you Jesus for healing my back three separate times. Once at a Tracy Harris meeting, once at a Thurman Scrivner meeting, once by sending an angel into my room at night. The angel took my heel, pulled it, and all the vertebrae just clicked back in place, the next morning I awoke and had no pain, it was not a dream. But these were because I used to deliver 1000lb concrete fountains and tables all across Texas by myself, because I liked to drive alone so I could praise, and worship, and pray across Texas. But the last time, when Thurman Scrivner prayed for my back he said, "stupid, stupid, stupid! Don't you know how many people would like to have just one miracle, and you have been healed twice! I want you to repent of lifting things too heavy for you and promise God you will get help next time." So I repented and he said, "You heard him Lord, now heal him." and instantly my back was healed again! Many times I took a trailer load down to Houston and just started delivering it all over town alone. Pots, benches, tables, fountains, from dawn till dark, it was fun. But I noticed something about my customers. I had basically two kinds of customers. People that needed a healing miracle, or preachers. The worldly people seeking Jesus were easy to please and easy to pray for, and some of them had miracles. Lupus was healed, cancer was healed, and other problems fixed by Jesus' love for us. His work on the cross. But there was another group of people that I never could really please, and that was preachers, ministers, nuns, priests, etc. They would come and buy things to furnish their prayer gardens, and I would make fountains, and benches, and scriptures on the benches, or water flowing out of a cross over the beattitudes, or something like that. But they were always really hard to please. "Not this color but that one mixed with this one. Add this, change that, redo this, move it again", etc. I don't know why they were so hard to please, but Jesus seemed to have a big problem with them too in His ministry. But I was and am always glad to pray for people and see God move mightily in their lives. But I approach preachers with caution, because I know they can never be satisfied. They were not satisfied with Jesus in His day, and they won't be satisfied with a real Spirit filled servant today. So send them to starbucks and get back in the harvest.

My wife and I went on our honeymoon to Costa Rica, and we had a great time crossing crocodile infested rivers in a rental jeep, I didn't know that crocodiles were there until later! We came to a special rainforest, the Monteverde Cloud Mountain Rainforest Reserve, and we went hiking on the tour. All the special rainforest birds were being killed by lowland birds who were eating the babies and eggs because of the heat and drought. It had made it hot enough for lowland toucans to come to the highlands, and the rare birds were being decimated. The villages were going to the next town for water, the cows were dying of thirst. It was a very bad drought. I really love animals so I asked everyone in the tour group to stop and said, "lets pray for rain." I prayed for angels to go get the clouds and bring them here and pour out rain on the place. One fellow on the tour laughed at me and said, "Yeah, like that will do any good." and for the rest of the tour he was followed by a swarm of mosquitos while the rest of us were unharmed. I went into gear praying, and kept praying throughout the tour. Then after the tour I convinced my wife to go with me on the longest hike in the jungle. I prayed the whole way, deep prayer for rain. I kept asking for rain at a specific time, I think it was like 6:49, and so when my wife said, "Honey there are storm clouds here." I kept saying "its okay, I told the Lord to send the rain at 6:49. We won't get wet." But when we got to the continental divide and I threw my bible out into the divide commanding the Word of God on the place, there were clouds and lightning with booming thunder. Still, I told my wife how I had been asking for rain at 6:49 and it was not yet time, it was only 3:30 or something like that. How silly. It began to rain and I gave my wife the umbrella, we hiked back, but the trail became a river, the monkeys hollered with joy. We got soaked, crossed floodwaters, got to the room, put on dry clothes, and went to dinner. Sitting there looking at the foggy forest rainstorm I said I wonder why the rain didn't come at 6:49 like I asked for. Just then the heaviest downpour became even heavier, it sounded like someone was dumping 55 gallon drums of water on the roof. I asked the waiter for the time, it was 6:49 and the rain was super heavy. The next day we drove back and everyone was happy, the cows, the farmers, the rain had come, and the animals were safe. (I think 6:49 was the time I was asking for rain, not sure exactly what time it was back then, but I had a specific time request.)

One time I went to Rome to memorize the paintings, I was eating dried fruit from my coat pockets, a very low budget artist trip. I had a little pocket bible and took it everywhere. I was walking and praying quietly in the Spirit and was lead down a street, then another, then another, finally I was at the edge of the tourist section and the Lord wanted me to go further. I was not sure, was it safe, what was there? Why should I go? But I obeyed the Lord and went on with the walk, it is hard to explain, but while prayer walking I seemed to make some witches angry. I know it sounds odd, but I saw them in the spirit, they were making threats and very angry. But I obeyed the Lord and went on prayer walking, praying over the town, following the leading of the Lord. I crossed a highway, went through a park, still the Lord lead me onward, into unknown territory. I had no idea why I had to go this route, there was absolutely nothing on the map of any tourist interest at all, everything cool was the other direction. Finally I crossed over a hill and another big road, and over this hill I came upon a building, "The Italian National Museum of Painting" my eyes lit up, wow, it was not on my tourist map, cool! I went inside and stayed all day memorizing the paintings as best I could. They had many rare paintings I had only heard or read about, and here were walls and walls of them. But right when I was having such a blast looking at all these masterpieces, the Lord showed me to go back. I was not wanting to do so. But it seemed pretty important. So reluctantly I left the great museum and headed back. The evening was coming, as I crossed the park, gangs began to emerge and roam the place, the sun was setting, it was getting really dangerous there, but I was safely back in the tourist section, and back to my room. The Lord knew my heart's desire and lead me right to a national treasure that was not on the map. How many wonderful things will the Lord show you if you only trust Him?  

One night I came in just exhausted, and down, from a long rodeo show and some hard work. I laid on my bed and the Lord said, "What do you want Cody?" I said, "I want my old High School friends to get delivered from alcohol and drugs. I don't even want Scott smoking cigarettes or drinking coffee." This was a crazy prayer as Mike was the son of a Wembledon champion, and as a rebellious rich kid, he was drinking almost a gallon of whiskey a day. Scott was off on his quest to be a rock star, he had become a heroin addict for about 10 years. I had not seen them for about 15 years. I was not sure why I prayed for them. It was just something I wanted to do. Two weeks later I got a call out of the blue from Mike. He had checked into AA and was off the bottle. He said, "Did you hear about Scott?" I said no. He told me that two weeks ago Scott had quit heroin and was completely off drugs, he said, "its weird man, he is totally off drugs, he's not smoking cigarettes, he even quit drinking coffee." I was sort of amazed. That is exactly what I prayed for, and God answered my prayers.

My father in law had a torn rotator cup that stuck up like a big old goose egg. I prayed all night, the next morning a preacher on TV said, "someone out there is getting a torn rotator cup healed" and it was healed and smooth and flat again. But he went out roping calves that year and messed it up again, once again a big goose egg on his shoulder. We all prayed and it went flat again. Praise Jesus, He heals us! My in laws do a lot of praying for people and see a lot of healings.

One night I prayed a long time in a thunderstorm for a friend I had not seen in a decade. I found out two weeks later that he was riding a 250cc motorcycle through my town, in that rainstorm, on the highway, that night, on his way to see his parents. Jesus cares for the lost.  

I was making a fountain for a couple and they had me put scriptures on it. The fountain was looking good, but they had many health problems. I prayed for them every time I came to work on it. But it seemed I was not getting them healed. So I told them about Tracy in Texarkana, who was having a meeting. I told them about how many miracles I had seen there. They drove the two hours the next morning and I met them there at the meeting. I was behind them praying all the way through the sermon, up the aisle, and into the prayer line. When Tracy saw the man, his eyes got very big, he stared in amazement. I'm not sure what he was seeing. Tracy looked at him very seriously and said, "You are not here by accident." and then laid into him with powerful prayer, breaking off things. Finally he called another minister over to continue the ministry while he attended to the other people in the line. That night the man did not need any medicine, the pain was gone, and the next day he was pain free and medicine free. Sometimes you have to get them into the right place to deliver them. Jesus sets the captives free!  

Cody Stromberg
https://www.facebook.com/cody.stromberg

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