Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
MIRACLES
HAPPEN!
—And can happen to you!
THE HOW-TOS
OF HEALING
God can heal anything
—but how?
THE ANTICHRIST
AND TECHNOLOGY
The future is here!
For a wide range of books and audio
and video productions to feed your soul,
lift your spirit, strengthen your family,
and provide fun learning times for your
children, please contact one of our
distributors below, or visit our Web site
at www.activated.org
Activated Ministries
P.O. Box 462805 Personally speaking
Escondido, CA 92046–2805
USA
info@activatedministries.org
(877) 862–3228
Activated Europe If you were to ask 100 people if they believed in miracles,
Bramingham Pk. Business Ctr.
you would probably get some firm yeses and nos, but the most
Enterprise Way
Luton, Beds. LU3 4BU frequent answer would most likely be, “I’d like to.” Most people
England like the idea of something impossibly wonderful happening to
activatedEurope@activated.org them when they expect it least and need it most, but they figure it
(07801) 442–317 probably never will. They either take an if-it-happens-it-happens
Activated Africa approach, or they think they’re too bad or that their lives and
P.O. Box 2150 problems are too insignificant to warrant supernatural interven-
Westville 3630
tion. The sad thing is, as long as those people don’t expect
South Africa
activatedAfrica@activated.org miracles, they probably won’t experience the miracles they could
083 55 68 213 if they understood how miracles work and did their part.
Yes, there are cases where impossibly wonderful things
Activated India
P.O. Box 5215 happen to people with seemingly no effort or through no will
G.P.O. of their own.—A stranger appears out of nowhere to warn of
Bangalore – 560 001 impending danger; a toddler is lost in a blizzard, wandering help-
India lessly and freezing, when suddenly she comes to a house and
activatedIndia@activated.org
is safe. But most miracles, believe it or not, come to those who
EDITOR make them happen. They are the result of someone’s faith in a
Keith Phillips
loving, caring, interactive God for whom nothing is impossible.
DESIGN “Okay,” you may say, “so miracles are a result of faith. That
Giselle LeFavre
doesn’t help me, because I don’t have that kind of faith.” Well,
ILLUSTRATIONS you can have that kind of faith—anyone can—and it’s not as hard
Doug Calder
as you might imagine. In fact, faith is a gift. It’s not something you
PRODUCTION have to try to work up or earn through your own goodness. It’s a
Francisco Lopez
gift from your loving heavenly Father who is just waiting for you
VOL 5, ISSUE 3 to reach out and receive it so He can begin working miracles for
March 2004
you.
© 2004 Aurora Production AG Do miracles happen? I pray this issue of Activated makes a
All Rights Reserved. Printed in Thailand.
www.auroraproduction.com
believer—and a receiver—out of you!
Unless otherwise indicated, all
Scripture quotations in Activated are
Keith Phillips
from the New King James Version of the
Bible © 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc. For the Activated Family
When other versions are quoted, some
typographical changes have been made
for the sake of clarity and uniformity.
MIRACLES HAPPEN!
After suffering severe abdominal pain and missing my
period for two months, I went to see a doctor. He found a
tumor the size of an orange on the right side of my uterus
The day of miracles is and told me that I had two alternatives: surgery or strong
drugs. Even after asking others to pray with me for my
not past! God is still in the healing, the pain got worse. My faith was being tested!
On my next visit, the doctor did another sonogram.
business of transforming “Have you had an operation?” he asked. “I see only a scar
on the right side of your uterus where the tumor was. But
bodies that need it. He’s still how can that be? There is no sign of an incision!”
Then I realized the Lord had performed a miracle and
the Great Physician. He healed me without surgery or medication. I told the doctor
about the prayer and my life of faith. He was not only
still says, “I am the Lord who amazed, but prayed with me to receive Jesus.
—A.M., BRAZIL
heals you” (Exodus 15:26),
A couple that my husband and I have known for a few
and “who forgives all your sins years asked us to pray for a friend of theirs, a policeman
who was diagnosed with incurable cancer and given only
and heals all your diseases” six months to live. At that time the man had already been
forced to leave his job, and was being sedated because of
(Psalm 103:3 NIV). God can extreme pain.
We prayed together for his healing, and the Lord
heal anything! answered! When the man went for his next checkup, his
doctor told him that “something very unusual” had hap-
pened. Six months later, the man has returned to the police
—DAVID BRANDT BERG force and all those who knew of his illness are calling his
healing a miracle.
—P.L., CHILE
activated VOL 5, ISSUE 3 3
It took a miracle to put the stars in place.
It took a miracle to hang the world in space.
But when He saved my soul,
Cleansed and made me whole,
It took a miracle of love and grace.
—JOHN W. PETERSON
FINDING FAITH
FOR MIRACLES
BY VIRGINIA BRANDT BERG
I CANNOT UNDERSTAND HOW ANYONE Son Jesus Christ, faith in the Christ
CANNOT BELIEVE IN MIRACLES, when the of the Bible, makes for faith in our
Bible contains so many accounts of everyday lives. That’s because real
miracles. Of course, you meet some faith believes in the changeless Christ,
intellectuals who contend—often in and His power brings the same results
an inflated academic style and super- today as it did during His earthly
cilious language—that the miracles ministry and through His original fol-
recorded in the Bible either never lowers.
The power of happened or can be explained scien- Shortly before His crucifixion Jesus
tifically, or if they did happen, such promised, “He who believes in Me,
God hasn’t miracles are impossible today. Well, the works that I do he will do also;
those miracles did happen just like and greater works than these he
changed, so the Bible says they did, and in every will do, because I go to My Father”
case it only took two elements: the (John 14:12). Then after His resur-
whenever that power of God and someone’s faith. rection, when He appeared to His
The power of God hasn’t changed, of disciples, He said that signs (miracles)
power is met course, so whenever that power is met would follow those who believed in
by the faith of some sincere believer, Him, and miracles did follow (Mark
by the faith of you can expect to see a miracle. It 16:17–18, 20). It wasn’t long before
happens all the time! others were saying of the first Chris-
some sincere Faith in the Bible creates faith in tians, “These who have turned the
the miraculous. The Bible not only world upside down have come here
believer, you reveals the acts of the supernatu- too” (Acts 17:6). Those first followers
ral God, but it also imparts faith to and the ones who were to come had
can expect to anyone who reads it with an open such confidence that the supernatu-
heart (Romans 10:17). The Bible has ral power of God was at their com-
see a miracle. a miraculous, transforming effect on mand that they dared to challenge the
our lives, and that gives us faith for mighty Roman Empire and shook it to
other miracles. Faith in God and His its very foundations.
AVALANCHE!
VICTOR WAS A CARABINERO, or police dropped quickly, and Victor wondered
officer, stationed at the remote Chilean how he would ever come out of this
A TRUE STORY, customs compound known as Los alive.
AS TOLD TO Libertadores, high in the Andes on the As Victor would find out later, the
MICHAEL border with Argentina. Since Victor had high winds had caused an avalanche
SHARP received special training in mountain at the top of a nearby peak and sent a
rescue work, he was usually assigned mountain of snow down on the cus-
to dangerous areas like this one. He toms complex.
enjoyed the mountains, but missed his Victor managed to pry himself free
family. from the rubble, found his way out of
It was July 3rd—the heart of winter the collapsed building, and carefully
in the southern hemisphere—and a dug his way up through the snow till he
snowstorm raged outside. With winds reached the surface. Other buildings
of 100 kilometers (over 60 miles) per had also collapsed under the weight of
hour and the temperature at –15°C the snow, killing or trapping most of the
(–5°F) before the windchill factor, Victor others.
and the 57 other people in the camp Moving quickly through the build-
were bunkered in for the night. ings that hadn’t been completely
Suddenly, Victor heard a deep buried, Victor found a few other
rumbling and instinctively looked at his survivors. One was his good friend,
watch. It was 8:38 PM. Since small trem- Eduardo. So much skin had been torn
ors are common in that part of Chile, from Eduardo’s face that Victor hardly
Victor didn’t think much of it at first, but recognized him at first. Victor found
the shaking grew stronger. Then the a needle and thread and managed to
lights went out. stitch Eduardo’s face back together.
Seconds later, the roof collapsed Eduardo’s wife, who was staying at the
and Victor found himself trapped compound, had been killed—instantly,
between a wall and large piece of it seemed.
furniture. The temperature around him Then Victor heard a child’s cry and
NSIGHTS
THE ANTICHRIST
AND TECHNOLOGY
BY JOSEPH CANDEL
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE Imagine what the apostle He works through others—
ANTICHRIST, the future world dic- John must have thought when, mostly unwitting accomplices
tator whose coming is foretold in about 90 AD, he saw a vision who are helping to further his
in the Bible? Is he living now?— of this taking place in a futur- agenda by developing and mar-
Probably. And what about his istic world. People ever since keting the technology, including
new world order? Is the Anti- have been baffled as to how some of the world’s brightest
christ already working behind any such universal, totalitar- minds and biggest financial
the scenes to bring about his ian economic system could powers. A scripture that goes
plan for world economic and be established or policed. But along with that point is Daniel
political domination?—It seems now the age of technology has 11:21b KJV:
so. arrived. With electronic com- He shall come in peaceably,
From all indications, the merce rapidly replacing cash and obtain the kingdom by flat-
Antichrist’s satanic, technology- and virtually everything that is teries.
based system is already being bought and sold being identi- Some versions of the Bible
set in place—“satanic” in that fied and tracked by bar codes translate this as “seize the
the Antichrist will be Satan-pos- and other means, it is no longer kingdom by intrigue”—by secret
sessed (Daniel 8:24; 2 Thessa- inconceivable that the financial scheming or plotting. Either
lonians 2:9; Revelation 13:2–4; transactions of everyone in the way, it sounds as though the
12:9), and “technology based” world could one day be moni- Antichrist is going to rise to
in that he will use technology tored by a centralized agency. power through cunning sales-
to achieve and enforce his near Most of the technology manship rather than solely
total control of the world and already exists, but before the the strong-arm tactics that the
its people. A key Bible pas- Antichrist’s plan can work, it leaders of most past empires
sage about this is Revelation needs to be more powerful depended on.
13:16–17: and widespread. It stands to Through the various forms
He [the Antichrist’s right- reason, then, that the Antichrist of mass media, the Antichrist
hand man, the False Prophet] would get behind research and is doing everything he can to
causes all, both small and great, development in such fields as convince the world that these
rich and poor, free and slave, to microchip technology, biotech- new technologies are beneficial
receive a mark on [or “in”] their nology, and the Internet. and necessary. What he is not
right hand or on [in] their fore- Also, the technology is not saying, of course, is that he will
heads, and that no one may buy enough in itself. The Antichrist eventually use them to suit his
or sell except one who has the also needs to sell the world on evil purposes. Consider these
mark or the name of the beast, it. It appears that he is busy at developments.
or the number of his name. that, too, and he is not alone.
G
G
TECHNOLOGIES done for Alzheimer’s patients that might not be an obstacle
Video cameras now moni- and children. much longer. Governments and
tor and record our faces and industry are setting international
movements in many stores and BIOMETRICS standards and expanding their
public places. We have learned Biometrics is the technology electronic networking by shar-
to accept this intrusion into our of collecting, processing, and ing information, services, and
lives because of the benefits: storing details of a person’s technology. As more countries
It discourages crime and helps physical characteristics through turn to the latest technology to
apprehend criminals. Likewise, such means as fingerprinting, help solve their particular social
the monitoring of Internet com- thumb scans, retina scans, and economic problems, they
munications helps curtail child hand geometry, face recogni- expand the network’s reach and
pornographers, terrorists, and tion, voice recognition, and capabilities. The level of techno-
other threats to our common digital macrophotography. logical development now varies
good. Biometric identification has greatly from nation to nation,
As electronic databases caught the interest of both gov- but the whole system could
replace filing cabinets, more ernments and the commercial be “online” in a relatively short
and more data about us is sector because it is far more time.
being collected, stored, cross- foolproof than more primitive
referenced, and shared. Now forms of ID, such as photo ID Proponents of these new
that nearly everything we do cards or signatures. technologies and cooperative
leaves behind a “data trail,” efforts always point out the
combining information from CASHLESS COMMERCE positive aspects, such as con-
different sources can re-create The shift from cash to elec- venience, security, lower costs,
a person’s activities with aston- tronic commerce helps curtail and improved quality, speed,
ishing accuracy and detail. This drug trafficking, counterfeit- and efficiency in the delivery
reservoir of personal information ing, and theft, not to mention of goods and services. Little is
is especially helpful to mar- the greater convenience and said about the negative aspects
keters, and it is big business. security that electronic com- of this public intrusion into what
Financial privacy has become merce affords. So-called smart were once private personal
a thing of the past, as financial cards now contain microchips affairs. Under the banner of sci-
institutions and others now that store not only the owner’s ence and technology, and more
routinely put the details of their financial information, but also recently “the war against terror-
clients’ lives up for sale. medical records and other per- ism,” the governments of the
Other data-gathering tech- sonal information. The logical world are rushing to complete
nologies help complete the next step would be to eliminate the Antichrist’s economic and
mosaic of information that can the plastic card and embed the political system for him—the
be collected on individuals. chip directly into the owner, say very system the Bible warns
For example, computerized “on their right hand or on their against.
“black boxes” are being built foreheads.” Don’t be duped into following
into cars, and location-tracking this false messiah or receiving
chips into cell phones and other GLOBAL NETWORKING his mark! Follow the true Mes-
electronic devices—innovations As amazing as these new siah, Jesus Christ. Then you’ll
that consumers are being told technologies are, the Antichrist be on the right side, the winning
are for their own good. Similarly, will not be able to fully set side, when Jesus returns to put
microchips are being implanted up his new world order until a stop to the Antichrist’s wicked-
under the skin of pets for ID and it’s all pulled together into an ness and set things right (Rev-
tracking purposes, and pilot integrated network with uni- elation 14:9–11; 19:11–21). •
at I can perform
forgiveness, believe th
, and I will. Best
the miracle you need
start of a whole
of all, this can be the
which you experi-
new life with Me in
prayers and a
ence more answers to
e.
greater closeness to M