Brazil – Sunday April 26, 2009

Sunday morning service

Boy was it hard to wake up today. Brother Paulinho did a great job of doing his best to get us to church on time, but we were so exhausted that by the time we got there it was already 8:45 a.m. which meant that church had been going for about fifteen minutes already. The worship was in full swing, sisters were dancing in the aisles and up in front of the altar.

I went to the office where the preacher waits and waited upon the Lord to tell me what to speak. He spoke almost immediately that I was to speak on the Scene. This of course would be the scene that was revealed when Brother Branham was preaching the seventh seal.

As you might remember Brother Branham said that the third pull is in three parts. That one part was revealed yesterday (that would be the sixth seal opening or the entire book of redemption being revealed and opened). The second part was the opening of the curtain so that we could see the scene. The third part was the seven thunders.

The drama takes place in the scene or the context that is laid out. Our lives are also lived within a context. As I spoke the Holy Spirit came down so powerfully, I could tell that once again the Holy Spirit was directing me to give examples that were being ripped right out of the very hearts of the people who were in the audience.

As I spoke about the scene in their hearts, and how Jesus was knocking on the door, people could no longer stand it. The entire church became an altar. People began to pour out their hearts to the Lord as I was yet preaching. They streamed to the front and I could tell that many for the first time were coming to grips with the fact that even though they were not worthy Christ Jesus, our Savior loved them and was there to transform their lives.

When I finished the pastor could not even speak. The people were groaning so loud and hard that to utter a word would have been totally superfluous. He eventually just asked me to pray for the people. There was such a strong anointing as I prayed. After the prayer they began to worship. What worship we heard! You could feel the real genuine worship in the hearts of that people. People were shouting "Abrigado o Deus" (Thank you God), tears were streaming down their faces, joy shone through their eyes.

When the pastor got ready to dismiss the people, he said that God had awoken him up at 5:00 a.m. in the morning. He knew that God wanted to speak to him. He meditated upon the word, and remembered something that Brother Branham had said. He said, "I thought it this morning, and now I am going to say it right now. Whenever a man thinks that he is so elevated that he thinks that he needs no one else's help, that he needs no help from the exterior, then sin is at the door."

He repeated this several times, and then he just looked at me and the tears began to streak down his cheeks. The church began to cry and roar again with relief as they sensed and understood that their pastor had at long last found a minister that he could have confidence in and ask help from. Brother Paulinho lost it. He began to scream out and cry because that had been his heart's desire when he made the arrangements for us to visit the church in Caxias do Sul.

After church the brother asked me to go out first and shake the people's hands as they left. As I shook the people's hands I was struck at how many people actually wanted to shake my hand. Actually that would be an understatement. It seemed as if their entire life they had been waiting for an opportunity to shake my hand, and all of a sudden there I was to shake hands with them. They had so much love pouring out of them as they greeted me.

Many times as someone would hug me or shake my hand we would both break out in spontaneous cries and praises unto the Lord. Many of the young pre-teen girls as they approached would just throw out their arms and run into my arms with joy in their eyes. Later, we went to eat together, and had fellowship. Everyone at the table was so excited. Finally, we had to cut our visiting short because we had a three hour drive back home where we had to get ready for service that evening at 6:00 p.m. at Brother Virgilio's church in Canoas.

Sunday Evening

After arriving at Brother Stockmann's house, in Sao Leopoldo, I took a small twenty minute nap and then jumped into the shower. I got ready for church and we left because church had already been going on for over twenty minutes.

When we got to the church in Canoas the place was jumping. I got to the minister's room and began to seek the will of the Lord. Shortly the Lord told me that I was to speak on "Judging all spirits whether they be of God or not," and tying that in with Jesus saying that "The words that I speak to you are Spirit, and they are Life."

After many special songs and congregational worship I was given the pulpit. It was about 8:15 p.m. they had been in church worshiping for two hours already. The first thing I did was to establish the time guidelines. I said, "we have three options. I can either give the five hour version, the three hour version, or the one hour version. Which do you want?" The people laughed mightily and then everyone began yelling "The five hour version."

With that establish I began talking about judging spirits, but not the spirit of your brothers and sisters, but the spirits that infest your mind. If spoken words are spirits, and we know that a thought expressed is a spoken word, then we see that the beginning of a demon is a thought. So your thoughts are from either Satan or God and it is your job to discern which is which. I began to talk about the demon of doubt that sits on your shoulder and tells you how to interpret what you see.

Basically, I was all over the place, and many times that very demon of doubt was very noisily sitting on my should telling me that I had been wrong, this was not really what I was supposed to be talking about because the reaction of the people was not anywhere near what I thought it should be. But I told that lying demon to shut up, that I was sure of who had directed me what to speak, and that I would continue on no matter what.

After I was done speaking I prayed for the people. I felt the presence of the Lord very strongly. When the pastor took over, he was very intense. He was so excited he was pounding the pulpit. I had a hard time understanding him, but basically he was telling the congregation that "No, I have not had time to talk with Brother Bernabé about your problems, no I did not invite him to come, no I did not invite these ministers to come. God himself brought them here, God himself sent an angel to us to deliver to us the very words of life that we needed to hear."

After church many people with tears in their eyes told me that what I had spoken was exactly what they had needed to hear from God. We went to eat, and returned home, where utterly exhausted I longed for bed.

Interview with brother Stockmann

However, as I wearily sat down, Brother Stockman began to ask me a few questions, and as I began to talk to him and to share with him my vision for the future, and how I was working with Brother Bernabé G. García to promote the kingdom of God, he began to get very excited. He had never thought of working the way that I do, but he immediately sensed that it was the right way to go. He expressed that he wanted to be a part of all I do. We began to talk some doctrinal points. He was very excited. We ended up talking until 4:00 a.m. in the morning. Finally, more dead that alive I staggered off to bed.