July 2010

Hello friends and family,

My heart is filled with fresh and clear vision on everything God has for this ministry. I was having dinner a few weeks ago with Cindy Jacobs, who God uses strongly throughout America and the world in prophetic ministry. She gave me a prophetic word that brought confirmation to my heart and was one of the first prophetic words I have ever received as a Christian. It was very simple, but exactly what I felt was needed. It was a scripture out of Habakkuk Chapter 2:2-3:

 

"Write down the revelation and make it plain upon tablets, so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks to the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and not delay." So this month's newsletter will set the vision clear and you will see the progress made as we partner together.

The heart of what God has called me to do comes from Ephesians 4:11,

 

God has given some apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. As many of you know, my heart burns for revival and a move of the Holy Spirit in the church. However, I burn just as much or more for this to happen outside of the church through the people of God. That burden is rooted out of Ephesians 4:11 through the key word equip.  Most evangelists do not fulfill this mandate of equipping the Body of Christ to effectively win souls and mobilize the local church to touch the community with the Gospel.  That is one key reason the church of America is in decline. I feel a tremendous burden to help serve in equipping the local church to win souls right here in America. This is a major component of the vision you and I are partnering in through this ministry. 

This is not just a vision, but a reality by God's grace and help. You read the stories every single month of the numerous churches that are being trained and sent into the harvest fields reaching their communities. Our second component for longterm effectiveness is to help raise up, train, and install evangelism directors in every church that we work and are partnering with. God began to deal with me about this around a year ago. I would see tremendous fruit from the weekend outreach and training but it would not seem to continue long-term. This began to really trouble me.  Pastors today have so much on their plate that it can sometimes be overwhelming to keep everything going all by themselves. I feel like God has given me a strategy to prevent this from happening in the future. I will now stand with the church and pastor long-term after I help identify a key person or couple within the local body and help place them as evangelism director's within their church.  This allows the pastor to release this valuable ministry to individuals that have a burden and an anointing to keep outreach, training, and mobilization a part of the D.N.A. of their church. After a person or couple is identified, we help build a team around them through a specific alter call for those who feel called to evangelism in their city. We often attend a church that does not have an evangelism director or team, but by God's help, we help install a director and a full team that agrees to meet on at least a monthly basis and continue to work on the harvest of souls in their community. It is my joy to say that the Holy Spirit is moving, and this is not just a vision, but it is happening all the time. 

The third component is that I am continuing to work and serve these awesome evangelism directors on a regular basis. Through encouragement, fresh training, team building, and monthly conference calls to speak into their lives. Every month we hold a conference call together and I invite successful leaders in evangelism and church leadership to help speak into their lives. This month Evangelist Scott Hinkle will be ministering to them.  Scott has been an evangelist for forty years, worked as a staff evangelist for Pastor Tommy Barnette for 15 years, wrote years of monthly articles on evangelism for Charisma Magazine, held street preaching clinics for decades, and has planted a dream center in New Jersey. I just wanted you to get a feel for the people who will be speaking into them on a continual basis. Yet again, God in His grace, is taking this past a vision, and making it happen! 

The forth component is to eventually get the directors and churches I have served to do an outreach on the same weekend at different times throughout the year. Wouldn't it be great to have churches and teams winning souls in scores of cities throughout America on the same day working in conjunction with one another? This could lead to multiplied thousands of souls being touched in one day across the country. This is a part of the vision we are bringing to fruition in the days ahead. Your partnership and prayers are a great blessing in bringing this all to reality. That’s why I am so thankful for your partnership. In America, it is going to take team work to make the dream work! 

The fifth component is a burden I’ve shared for years, and am excited about seeing... to mobilize at least fifty churches in conjunction with one another on the same day and in the same city/area to reach hundreds of thousands of souls. At one time, I did not see how this was ever going to happen, but it has fresh life again.  As you may know, Co-Evangelist Daniel Kolenda from Christ For all Nations (the ministry Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke started that has reached millions upon millions around the world) asked me to mobilize cities before they arrive for a crusade. They are going to introduce me to hundreds of pastors during a prayer breakfast so that we can install church mobilization and outreach prior to the crusade. At that point, we will set up major city and region-wide training and outreach that could potentially be thousands trained and 50,000 -  150,000 people reached outside of the local church right here in America. We will meet again on July 12th to discuss exactly how the outreach will be handled, so please be in prayer that we will hear God's strategy and His vision will come to pass, resulting in a fresh wave of evangelism to touch America. The first city is going to be Atlanta, GA.  How many of us wish someone would knock on our unsaved loved one’s door with an anointed Gospel message and an offer of prayer that will release the presence of God?  This is what you are making happen for someone else, and I believe God will make it happen for you! 

The final component is to raise up other young evangelists and release the same vision and strategy for America. We are already sending out young evangelists in baby steps right now. I teach at Heartland School of Ministry where I am equipping these young evangelists, as well as meeting with different students from other Christian colleges who have come to me for help. God has placed me in an area in my hometown where I am able to help equip many young men and women to carry the torch all across the globe.

A SPECIAL WORD FROM JOE: 

 

 

In our culture today there are many distractions that seduce our thoughts away from simple, life changing biblical truths - such as "we live by faith and not by sight." I have found myself many times sharing the Gospel with a lost person and being focused on what I see. I am constantly having to retrain my mind not to live by the things I see.  The decline of biblical values in America is one of those distracting things. An amazing scripture I try to live by is found in 1st Corinthians 4:18: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”  In our culture today we must live by this truth in ministering to the lost that are bound up by strongholds from drugs, homosexuality and Islam to plain old secularism.  The enemy wants us to focus on the bondage rather than on the God Who can break the bondage. He would like for us to get caught up in the stronghold rather than anchor our faith in the unseen that can change the seen.  One day while going door-to-door in Irving TX we came to the door of a lady who was about to shut the door right in our face before we had a chance to say a word. That day my faith was set not on what I was seeing but on the unseen. God told me to rebuke depression just as she was shutting the door. I did so before the door was completely shut. She heard me and immediately opened up the door and came outside. I asked my wife to put her hand on her stomach after she had come outside and rebuke the infirmity. I did not know she was sick. She was touched mightily by the power of the Holy Spirit. She came to church the next night and testified that she had been severely depressed and had not left her house in three months. She also said that God began to heal her 30-year intestinal problem.  If we had focused on the natural and not the supernatural, we would have missed this marvelous opportunity.  It is a constant reminder to me that we must stay focused on the unseen and what God can do instead of what is temporary.

JUNE SUMMARY

Well, the month of June was absolutely marvelous. We were even able to do an outreach in our own neighborhood with a church in my hometown. Trisha and I led three people to the Lord. It’s amazing to see how God opens doors when we step out for him. During the outreach in Red Oak, we were able to leave behind an evangelism team, and the pastor is going to serve as the evangelism director in the short-term. The pastor told me that God used this weekend to change his church.  After the Sunday morning service, I was told that a young lady that I prophesied over to be healed of a sleep disorder has been able to sleep every night soundly ever since. He told me this young lady had not been able to sleep in years! Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Lampasses, TX was another amazing time. It was an outreach weekend for the church on Father’s Day, so several father’s were in attendance. The alters were full of people getting saved and right with God. One young lady even met us in the back of the church to hand over her cigarettes, and said that she had been living a double-life. Praise God for conviction! There were many miracles that took place, as well. One lady was around 50% deaf, and God opened her ear.  Another young man was suffering from tenisia, which is an ear infirmity where the person continually hears a ringing/buzzing sound in their ear. He testified of having this problem for a solid year with no relief, and for the first time in that year, he could hear without ringing/buzzing. God healed him. 

I was also in Hammond, IN, Witchita Falls, TX, and spoke to hundreds of thousands on TBN’s Praise the Lord Program. TBN emailed me after the broadcast and told me their first-time salvations and re-dedications were above average for the week.  Throughout the month, there were numerous healings, many set free, and well over a hundred people saved at the alters of the churches I had the privilege to minister in. 

Another exciting announcement that I can’t leave out, is that Trisha is expecting our first child.  She is planning on quitting her job after she gives birth, so we are believing God to meet all of our needs.  Again, we thank you for your much needed prayer to maintain what God has birthed. Your partnership through prayer and financial support are vital and help us so VERY much. If you are not partnering with us at this time through financial support, would you please stop and pray to the Father and ask Him if He would have you partner with us to help reach America? Thank you for your consideration.

Together in the Harvest,

Joe Oden