From the desk of Steve Shultz:
I have gone to church with Mike Brink for more than a decade. It is an independent church. I have always said that if I was really sick or needed ONE local man to pray for me it would be Mike Brink (well, I guess it would have to be two, because I love to have my own pastor, Denny Cline, pray for me). Though unassuming, Mike is also a never-quit prayer warrior.
At times Mike and Denny and several other of our group have attempted to raise the dead. I'm not sure you can say we have yet succeeded but I'm glad we tried. It's all in the Bible you know. We are attempting to regain that part along with many others. "These signs WILL follow those who BELIEVE" and "The Kingdom of God is at Hand"—these passages in Mark 16 and Matthew 10 include healing the sick and raising the dead.
Mike Brink is so full of faith and firmness in prayers for healing. I have watched him pray and not give up. I have a special regard for Mike, because he has demonstrated his own faith by his example of tenaciousness in praying for the sick. He believes strongly in healing. He truly will NOT QUIT, even though we don't always win. Through his tenacity, he has taught hundreds on persistence in prayer.
Now, here below are some resources that will be a great help to you and it will help us too by ordering them:
Mike Brink:
Pray and Don't Quit! At Any Moment, God Can Do a Miracle!
Jesus—Proven Over and Over
How do you pray for people who are dying? Or for friends who face diagnoses of terminal illness? We must look to the Lord, considering Him faithful who made the promise.
I can tell numerous accounts about Jesus healing people all day long and never run out of amazing miracles to tell. For example, there was a young teacher who had become totally disabled. She was bedridden and dependent on friends to lift her from bed, into a wheelchair and to the bathroom, where they did everything for her because her body was shutting down gradually due to an inoperable 4-inch cancer tumor on her spinal cord. Jesus instantly removed it.
In another example, a mother lay comatose in ICU with an inoperable, irremovable blood clot in her brain, medically hopeless. Jesus touched her, and the next day she motioned. The next day she wrote and the day after that, she was walking and talking.
And how about the woman a couple months ago, with the three metal rods in her back held in place by 75 titanium screws who, after He touched her, could touch her toes? And the men whose PSA readings (prostate-specific antigen - cancer readings) plummeted from 4+ to acceptable levels—1.1 in one case, after the prayer of agreement with Jesus? There are so many others, I could talk all day. Each is a precious story of its own. A love letter.
"Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, how I've proved Him o'er and o'er; Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus, oh for grace to trust Him more."
Really, I have proved Him over and over. But my purpose in writing is to share with you what we are experiencing in praying for people who face medical death sentences, but do not see the instant miracle.
When You Don't See the Instant Miracle,
Pray and Don't Quit!
"...Any moment God can do a miracle."
I remember after reading about John G. Lake, I was praying for Tommy for over a year, daily, hands on (this was before anyone ever heard of healing rooms where people could come to get prayer). But Tommy died of cancer. Some years later, we prayed for Betsy for a year. Betsy died of cancer. And for others, too.
Either these discourage you or make you resolute to push on for the miracles. I want to share with you why we push on for the miracles.
A man got bone cancer and it looked bad. On recommendation of a mutual friend, he came here to Albany, Oregon for one week last winter, accompanied by his wife. Different people prayed for him each day. They attended church and the healing rooms. We prayed. We laughed in the Holy Spirit. They went home encouraged. But the symptoms progressed. We have prayed for his healing together by phone several times a week. About a month ago, he told me he had more faith for healing than at any other time in his life. He teaches the Bible. As I write this, he survives only by blood transfusions and is now unable to walk and on heavy pain meds. He told me that medically, the end is very near. Even now he says, "But any moment, God can do a miracle."
Consider Him Faithful Who Made the Promise
When Larkin had a colon cancer removed last summer, they told him that if tumors came back there was nothing further they could do for him. A routine CT scan in January showed they were back. Larkin and his wife flew out here within a week, where people would pray for them for healing, knowing God heals today. And pray they did. Larkin and Julia flew home after three months, having pursued their healing more assertively than anyone I ever met (inner healing, personal ministry sessions, "root causes" courses, constant intercession for each other, healing meetings, healing rooms in two cities weekly, Sunday church services, and daily "soaking" prayer times with prayer ministers).
Larkin insists he simply knows God healed him here. He lights up to talk about Jesus and about God. In his own words, he speaks Paul's definition of faith. But their symptoms worsened. I say their symptoms, because his wife also had a colon cancer removed last summer at nearly the same time. Julia describes it as seemingly touching your spirit, the effect is so pervasively debilitating. She also has fought breast cancer for over a decade without mastectomy surgeries or chemo. Still, friends here pray for them: special times of intercession, daily Skype, and so forth.
So pray we do, waiting on the Lord for wisdom and revelation, in peace, in expectation. We pray as with our Friend at midnight, our Judge who will give us justice against our adversary, without quitting, because we consider Him faithful who made the promise. It's all about Him—if He said it, we get to believe it, because we believe Him.
Encouragement to Keep Praying Without Quitting
Because His mercies are new every morning, and the manna fresh every day, anything I can tell you is necessarily incomplete for you. I can share, however, a synopsis of some of the encouragement the Lord has given us during this season of praying and not quitting.
Each of the following bullet points has a history with us in our prayer times in these many months and deserves its own article, but you might remember the list better than more thoughts of mine. For adding to it yourself, seek the Lord and listen to His voice. As you seek the Lord, Scripture will open in ways you did not see before. He will highlight a Scripture you did not understand before. Revelation will come every day or week, enough for the time, to keep praying and not quit.
My synopsis:
1. We know what will happen if we don't pray. If we don't pray, we won't see the miracle; our friend will die.
2. Anyone can have faith for death...
3. ...but we, as Christians, of all people get to be different. Read Hebrews 11:11 and Romans 4:17-28.
4. Jesus said pray and don't quit: Seek, knock, ask; knock even at midnight, when all Heaven has to be roused; pray and don't stop. Read Matthew 7:7-12; Luke 11:1-13; Luke 18:1-8.
5. Paul said, when we have done all, stand. Read Ephesians 6:13.
6. Don't give up a day before your miracle! Read Acts chapters 27 and 28.
7. Our prayer will move the mountain. We will see the miracle.
Again, pray we do, waiting on the Lord for wisdom and revelation, in peace, in expectation. We pray as with our Friend at midnight, our Judge who will give us justice against our adversary, without quitting, because we consider Him faithful who made the promise. It's all about Him—if He said it, we get to believe it, because we believe Him.
This is resolute in me now: Pray and don't give up.
Mike Brink
Jesus Pursuit Church
Email: brinkmike1@gmail.com
Mike Brink is the executive pastor at Jesus Pursuit Church (until recently known as Albany Vineyard) and has been there since its birth in 1994, where he oversees pastoral ministry, with a personal focus on healing (body, soul, and spirit) and raising up others to minister healing in Jesus' name. Additionally, Mike has directed the Healing Rooms of Albany for nine years.
