 amazing God and he's got something amazing for you today. I'm Tom Hollis. Welcome to Hope Today. I'm here with Anna Schmidt and Anna God has always got something up. Oh man, on this Monday, question for you though. Are you curious about how to activate miracles in your life? Well, our guest today, Chris Michelson, joins us in just a few minutes to talk about the key to experiencing more miracles in our lives. And what we can do when we're feeling discouraged and weary in our long suffering. This conversation is sure to inspire your faith and help you experience the fullness of God's promises for you. His new book is called Activating Miracles, Enter into Supernatural Faith Without Limits. Tom, it's so fun to talk about miracles. Well yeah, and I can't wait to hear some of the stories and also to hear about, I mean, he's seeing some tremendous outreaches into Pakistan and other nations where he's just seeing God save so many people and I know miracles are part of that too. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and there are times where miracles can happen instantly and then times where we gotta wait a little more for God's timing and so lots to unpack today. Right, and since it's Monday, we're gonna have a meaningful Monday story in just a little bit. You're gonna wanna stay tuned for that where we talk about how God is reaching through some young people, reaching into some of these elite universities. We'll talk about that more about what God is doing there. But I also wanna give a shout out to a local team here, the Duquesne University Dukes. They won the Atlantic 10 championship and it is their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1977. Congratulations to the Dukes. Congratulations to the Dukes. I can't say that I've watched, but. I didn't watch either, but you know what? Here, I'll just give it to everybody. I'm old enough that I was in college the last time they were in the NCAA Tournament. I was born in 1977, how about that? Yes, all right. Well, Chris Michelson is an international evangelist whose passion is to see souls saved. The sick healed and the church strengthened. Chris preaches the gospel in some of the most remote, unreached and dangerous nations of the world. His ministry is marked by healings and deliverances and he joins us today to share more of his personal story and how we too can activate miracles in our own lives. So Chris, welcome to Hope Today. Thank you so much for having me, Tom and Anna. It's really an honor to be on Hope Today. Well, we're very excited about this conversation all about miracles and activating more of them in our personal lives. So tell us, Chris, what compelled you to write this book? You know, as I've traveled around the world preaching the gospel, we have seen countless miracles. And a lot of times people in the Christian faith think that miracles have to be attained somehow, or that if we're going to see miracles happen in our lives or through our prayers, we have to somehow attain to some spiritual height in order to see those type of miracles. And my experience has been quite the opposite. I have seen miracles since I was a very young Christian just not too long after getting radically saved out of a lifestyle of drugs and alcohol. And we have been seeing miracles ever since and I want to activate miracles in the lives of everyday Christians and help them to see miracles that you don't have to have a theological degree, you don't have to have so many hours of prayer every day in order to see the miracles, that miracles are simple and even a child can pray for the sick and see the miraculous. Truly amazing. And so you say there is a key to activating miracles and it is simply faith. Can you tell us more about that? Yes, absolutely. Faith is really the key to the miraculous. We see it all through the entire New Testament, especially in the lives of Jesus and his disciples. And that when we step out in faith, faith is that key that unlocks the miraculous. You know, one of my favorite passages is the story of Peter when he was walking on the water to go see Jesus. Peter and the disciples are caught in the middle of a terrible storm. Jesus is not in the boat with them. They see what looks like a ghost walking on the water and they were afraid, the Bible says. And Jesus tells them, don't be afraid, it's me, Jesus. And Peter says, Jesus, if that's you, call me to come out to you on the water. Jesus gives them one word, he says, come. And with that one word, Peter steps out of the boat and begins walking on the water to Jesus. Now the Lord showed me many, many years ago that Peter, yes, he was walking on the water. But what was his faith really grounded on? What was he really standing on? He wasn't standing on the water because it's impossible to stand on liquid water. He was standing on the very word of God. He was standing on that word, come. Because our faith, we put our faith in the word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. That day, Peter heard that word from Jesus, the Lamb of God who became flesh and dwelt among us, the very word of God who became flesh and dwelt among us. He stood on that word, he had faith in the word of Jesus and he stepped out into the miraculous and began walking on the water. Yes, you say, we can take God at his word. He is faithful to fulfill his word in our lives through Jesus Christ. So Chris, you have so many stories throughout your years of ministry of seeing miracles happen through Jesus. Can you share one of your favorites? Yeah, you know, one of my favorite stories, we've seen so many miracles in our gospel crusades around the world. Every crusade, we see dozens and dozens of people getting healed, sometimes hundreds and even thousands of people saying that they have received healing in our crusades overseas. And a lot of times people think that yes, miracles can happen overseas. They happen on the crusade field, but you know, they don't happen here in America very often. And my experience has been actually quite the opposite. Yes, we see the miracles overseas, but one of my favorite stories was a miracle that we saw in a very, a place that was not common maybe to miracles. It was at a funeral. And so we were actually attending my own mother's funeral. She had passed away. She was an elderly woman, but there was something we were praying for and we didn't see the miracle. Of course, we know she got the miracle as soon as she stepped into the presence of Jesus. But we were at my mother's funeral in a small town in central Minnesota where I grew up, a very small town of about 1500 people. We were in a small little Lutheran church, stained glass windows, wooden pews. It didn't seem like a place that was conducive for the miraculous. And we were at the Wake service the evening before to cut a very long story short. An elderly man came walking through the line to pay his respect to me and the family, my family. And when he got to me, I noticed who he was. He was hunched over and he could barely walk. He could barely even talk. And I'd known this man since I was a little boy. I used to play with his kids when I was a little boy. And he came and he was hunched over. And I said to him, I said, what happened? He said, he tried to talk to me and he couldn't even get out one full sentence. His wife, Kathy, had to tell me that he had contracted Parkinson's disease 15 years prior. And as a result, he now was almost crippled by Parkinson's disease. And there's no cure for Parkinson's disease. On top of that, he was taking 15 tablets of medication every single day and he was only getting worse. There that day, in what seemed like the most unlikely situation at a funeral for my own mother, it didn't seem like a place conducive for the miraculous, but I blurted out, can I pray for you? And to be honest, I think I was actually a little surprised at what came out of my mouth. He said, oh, sure. And I began to pray and I said, in the name of Jesus, I command all Parkinson's disease to leave right now, be healed in Jesus' name. It was a very short prayer. By this point, time was running out and I wasn't able to check him. He left the church that evening and he messaged me a couple of weeks later telling me how he had gotten off all Parkinson's disease medication. He was completely healed in the name of Jesus. No more Parkinson's disease symptoms and two different specialists at the Sanford Clinic in Fargo, North Dakota, both confirmed he is completely healed. It was miraculous and he no longer has Parkinson's disease anymore in Jesus' name. Praise God, what a fantastic story, Chris. I love that. I love that it was a quick prayer too. Well, why don't you speak to that? Is it something that we have to pray in a certain way or pray the right way or pray long prayers? I mean, what have you seen? No, you know, the Bible says that it is the prayer of faith that will raise up the sick person. It doesn't say it is our long prayers. It doesn't say that it is our most eloquent prayers. You know, it doesn't say that, you know, that it is these long drawn out prayers that heal the sick. It's the prayer of faith. You know, and a lot of times if we really just stand in faith, we don't need to pray a long prayer. And that many times I pray a very short prayer like that. And if I have time, I ask the person immediately as soon as I'm done praying, how do you feel? Now, I didn't have time in that situation, but I encourage people. Most of the time, the miracle doesn't happen during the prayer, but it happens in that moment right after we get done praying where we take a position of faith to say, I believe something has to change now and you ask that person that you prayed for, how do you feel? Has anything changed on a scale of one to 10? Where was the pain and where is the pain now? And most of the time it is in that moment where they begin to check their body and look for the miracle that they see the miracle. So Chris, I so appreciate you sharing about the miracle at your mother's funeral, but also you said how you had prayed for a miracle for your mom to take place. And yet you didn't see it happen here on earth, but you know that she was healed instantly as soon as she stepped into heaven. I know there are so many people out there watching today who are believing right now for a miracle. They're praying for a miracle and maybe they haven't seen it right away. They're in that long suffering period. Can you just speak encouragement and hope into their heart? Absolutely, absolutely. You know, my friend, don't put your faith in your situation and don't put your faith in your experience. Evangelist Smith Wigglesworth used to say that I'm not moved by what I see or how I feel. I'm only moved by that which I believe. And he was talking about the very word of God. Put your faith in God's word and stand on the word regardless of what's happened so far and what's happening currently in your body. Oftentimes it's not the first time we pray that we see the miracle, but when we do see a miracle, it always happens the last time that we prayed. Amen. So the point is don't stop praying. There's been so many times I have seen miracles happen in people's lives the third time I prayed for them or the fourth time I prayed for them or the fifth time I prayed for them. Don't stop praying. Don't stop believing and contending for your miracle. And listen, if you don't see it on this earth, we know that the Bible tells us there's no tears in heaven. There's not gonna be any more pain. There's not gonna be sickness, disease or sin in heaven that we know that you will receive your miracle ultimately when you walk into the presence of Jesus. But I wanna encourage you today to stay in a position of faith, stand on God's word and believe for your miracle on this earth, put your faith in Jesus and don't be discouraged. Your miracle may be right around the corner in Jesus' name. Amen to that. That is a good word, Chris. And I just wanna tell anybody that if you need prayer, you can call our prayer line and someone there will pray with you in faith as well. Chris, I'm just wondering about, you're going into places like Pakistan and having these crusades and seeing thousands upon thousands of people coming to the Lord. Just tell us, why do you go there and what do you see as God doing in the next few years here in evangelism? Absolutely, I really believe that we're in a time and season right now in the Christian history that God is really pouring out his spirit. I do believe Jesus is about to return that his return is very, very close. And I believe that as we get closer to the return of Jesus, that we are in that time of incredible increased harvest right now on the earth leading up to the return of Jesus. God is pouring out his spirit. We've been going into the nation of Pakistan and we have been seeing thousands and thousands of people receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior. To date, we've actually now seen over two million people in our ministry from various countries around the world who've received Jesus as their Lord and Savior. And God is really doing something very special, especially in the nation of Pakistan. We've been focused on that nation quite a bit for the last number of years and God is doing something incredible there where literally tens of thousands of people are showing up to our crusades and the vast majority of those in attendance are receiving salvation every single night. A lot of people think that those from other religions are especially from that part of the world that those people are anti-Christianity or that they are some kind of radical person from that religion. But the opposite is actually true. They're actually very open to the gospel. And if we will just go and bring the gospel to them, we have seen the power of the gospel at work and seeing thousands of people getting saved in Jesus' name. It's exciting to see what God is doing all over the earth. And so, Chris, in this last minute that we have, can you just pray for our viewers that miracles would be seen in their lives today? Absolutely. If you need a miracle, I want you to lift one hand to heaven and then put the other hand on the body part that needs a miracle. If you have a lot of body parts that need miracles, just put one hand on your head and let's pray and believe for your miracle. And when we get done, I want you to check your body and look for the miracle in Jesus' name. Father, we pray right now in the mighty name of Jesus. I take all authority over all sickness, over all disease, over every pain and every incurable disease. And we command it to go right now in the name of Jesus. Be healed right now. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Now, I want you to check your body, look for the miracle, and let us know how God has healed you today in Jesus' name. I love that so much. We love hearing about the miracles of God. So, Chris, thank you for your heart and for what you are doing in Pakistan and even right here in the United States. We so appreciate your book. Again, it's called Activating Miracles. Enter into Supernatural Faith Without Livets. Chris, thank you so much for your time today. You're very welcome. Thanks for having me. What a great time. How great is this to see God doing miracles like that? Yeah, it's important that we talk about the miracles of God because they are still happening every day. Amen. Well, we're gonna take a quick break. After that, we're gonna have a meaningful Monday story about some people reaching out into what might be considered hard territory right in America. We'll be right back. Discover what God's word has to say about healing and deliverance. Bestselling author John Eckhart makes topical Bible study easy with his new book, Scriptures for Faith, Deliverance and Healing. This handy reference is for those who wanna have a greater understanding of healing and deliverance to incorporate God's word into their prayers. Eckhart also includes targeted commentary to highlight key scriptures and life application. His spirit-filled perspective will enhance your time in God's word and encourages the spiritual disciplines of memorization and meditation. Request scriptures for faith, deliverance and healing as our thank you gift when you support Cornerstone Television this month. Request your copy today. If you want to strengthen the ministry of CTVN, share your best gift by visiting us online at ctvn.org slash donate or call us at 888-665-4483. Thank you for your partnership. Hope happens here. Well, just jumping from that powerful conversation we had with Chris Michelson and his report on all the people that he sees coming to the Lord in Pakistan and other nations, there is a story about a Christian youth organization that just launched its eight-week evangelism tour at elite secular universities with a hope of reaching approximately 75,000 students with the gospel. The Christian Union and non-profit evangelism ministry initiated its third annual See U Rise event on Sunday. This year's theme is Jesus Disrupts. I like that. Matt Bennett, founder and president of Christian Union said the theme was chosen to introduce students to how radical Jesus is. Some of the schools that the campaign will focus on include Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania. Just want to thank Michael Grabowski from the Christian Post for this story. Anna, this is tough territory. I've been to some of those places with the gospel and some of that area and it can be very dry as a desert in there, spiritually speaking. Some of these like Columbia or Harvard or Yale or some of these places. But God, what's amazing. This is what I love about this story and what I love how it ties in with what Chris is doing is that when God said go into all the world and preach the gospel, he didn't say it, don't go where it's hard. He said go and when go, and I've seen it over and over again, when we go to areas, even areas that are hard and we trust the Holy Spirit and share the gospel boldly and unashamedly, people come to the Lord. So I'm so excited for Christian Union and how they are going into these areas. I mean, Harvard was founded as a place to train men for the gospel, you know? Ministers for the gospel and it's slid very far from that. But God still has a plan. Yeah. And I think that these stories really remind us that miracles are not at all about us, right? Like we can get into our human pride and think there's really something that we have to do or we have to set the atmosphere or we have to pray these long elaborate prayers. We have to do things just in a certain way to see these miracles. And yet miracles are not about us. They are fully in 100% about Jesus, about standing on His Word and like let's sit back, humble ourselves under Almighty God and watch Him do His thing. And so even in these hard places where it seems dry, where it maybe seems unlikely and yet our God can take a dry wasteland and turn it into something so fruitful for His Word to be accomplished. I mean, it's so true. And you know, sometimes these places like a foreign country that is almost 100% another religion or like an elite university where there might be a heavy dose of atheism in that area or skepticism. We think, how am I gonna share the gospel here? How am I gonna win an argument? Well, you know what, you're not gonna win an argument against some of these people in Yale or Harvard, but that's not what we're there for. We're there to share the gospel. And I praise God for anybody who debates and goes in with an apologetic platform. But you know what, the simple gospel. You know, the Bible says this, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation for the Jew and for the Gentile. So if it's the power of God, all we need to do is share it. Let it go, let it out, let our testimony be something that impacts someone, our testimony of how true the gospel is, our testimony that we know God and that it's awesome and you can know them too. Those things are what are gonna attract people. And you know what, pray for miracles and see a whole lot of arguments and a whole lot of intellectual arguments start dissolving when someone gets a miracle. Yeah, that's very true. And you know, my heart too is to just speak into those of you at home who have been in that long waiting period, waiting, praying and believing for a miracle in your life. And you know, we talked about healing miracles, but maybe even you're looking for a miracle to happen in a relationship to see relationships restored and just from a personal story. So I have been praying, believing, like standing on the word of God to see relationships restored in my life for years. And I remember doing this Bible study and reading something about like, what if the miracle is not in the circumstance that you want to see changed, but what if the miracle happens through the long suffering that the miracle that God wants to do first is in my heart, is in your heart? And let me tell you something that intrigued me. I was like, what is it that God wants to do in my heart? What is the miracle here first that needs to be activated? And so it was through that long suffering where God really showed me that Jesus Christ is enough that even when all precious things on this life are stripped away and I'm like, God, what are you doing? Why is this not all working out the way that I think you would work it all out? It's because he wants to show me that he is enough. And today, my friend, in your long suffering, in your waiting to see a miracle, in your healing, in your finances, in your family, know that he will sustain your heart through it. And he wants to refine your faith, that make it pure as gold so that you can go out into this earth and be used in such a mighty way by him. And what I have seen is that as God has done this miracle in my own heart to transform me, to trust that much deeper in who he is, that I'm seeing these other relational breakings be restored. I'm seeing all areas of my life be restored, revived, and whole. God, gosh, I just humbled myself before God, saying, God, you get all the glory for this. There was nothing that I did to see these miracles happen, not only in my heart, but in the hearts of those around me. It's just so many miracles. Our God is the God of the impossible. Keep declaring his word, keep standing on it, and believing in your mighty God. He loves you so much. On tomorrow's Hope Today, learn how to stand firm in your faith when the world is falling apart. Bible teacher and author Robert J. Morgan takes an in-depth look at the book of Philippians and shares how you can live confidently in a world characterized by chaos and weariness. Don't miss tomorrow's Hope Today. Cornerstone Television wishes to thank all our faithful viewers, whose consistent prayers and financial support have made this program possible.