IT IS FINISHED
The last of September, I had come to a very
crucial point in my life. Having dealt with some extremely serious health
problems for a very long time, I was in a real situation of life or death.
I had gotten several prophesies that the devil was trying very hard to kill me,
but that I refused to die. But on this day, I could literally feel life
draining from my body. I told God that if He didn’t do something, I knew
that I couldn’t hang on to life much longer.
God had just given me a
spiritual dream which gave me wisdom and strategy as to how to destroy this
enemy once and for all. After crying out to God, I had a vision. The
basis of the vision was that my enemy had been immobilized by the hands of
God. The instructions God had given me involved a process that lasted
throughout the day and ended at the home of Jim and Carla Barbarossa, directors
of Step by Step Ministries. They had no idea what had occurred during the
day. As I and other guests sat at their table to have dinner, Jim made the
announcement that the Lord has spoken to him at midnight the night before.
He had instructed Jim that when we sat at the table to eat, a certain person was
to pray and then we was to blow the Shofar. Not knowing what had
transpired during the day, Jim began to blow the Shofar. Now please
understand that my experience with people blowing the Shofar has been to hear a
sound comparable to that of a dying buffalo. This sound, however, was
beautiful and supernatural. It’s hard to explain in words what flooded my
spirit, but it consisted of great peace and glory – the presence of the Lord was
very real to me. As if by supernatural means rather than as the result of
a decision to do so, I stood to my feet with my hands and face lifted to
God. I worshipped Him from the depths of my heart as the sound from the
Shofar seemed to bring His glory all around us. Jim seemed to have a
supernatural ability to blow the horn an unusually long amount of time. In
addition, the tones and slurrings it made were very uncharacteristic of my
experience with Shofars. When he had finished, the silence that followed
was interrupted when Jim shared with us what the Lord was instructing him to
say. He said that the Lord showed him that though he didn’t know what it
was, that there had been a long, hard battle, but that IT WAS FINISHED. As
he repeated several times that it was finished, I knew that God was speaking
specifically to me about the battle I had been fighting all my life. After
that, Carla brought our 2 T-shirts to show us which she has just purchased the
day before. On them were pictures of Jesus displaying an expression of
“victory” and the words: “It is finished”. What a wonderful
confirmation. Needless to say, a wonderful time of praise followed.
It is now the last of October, and I have
never again experienced the extreme physical attacks of the enemy trying to
bring death upon me. He is bound. I am continuing to walk through
complete healing, but I have no doubt that the enemy who was trying to bring
death upon me has been defeated! Please understand the Jim blowing the
Shofar is not a magic potion. Sometimes we as Christians try to put God
into formulas. If we hear or someone or a method that God works through,
we try to make that thing the means and end of our victory. I know that
Jim would not have you follow after that. However, how can we explain how
God uses certain things? I believe that God is working miracles across the
world not through Jim’s horn, but through his OBEDIENCE to use the horn as
instructed by God. I thank God for His touch, as well as the obedience of
Jim and Carla to be led by the Spirit of God.
– South Bend,
IN
PASTOR BARBARA
BUNTON