Things that are overwhelming!

How are you? I pray that you are doing great. As I write to you, there are so many things happening in our ministry for Jesus. This past weekend we had a successful, jampacked meeting in a new city in India. It felt like people were hanging from the lights! Our center in Bangalore is so powerful. Despite persecution and opposition we are seeing explosive growth. Can you believe that we (they) started the church here – in a barn for cows? And now, under the excellent leadership of our pastor Ravi, we are planting churches all over the province!
It says in Psalm 92 that you and I are like the palm tree, we will flourish, prosper and bear fruit in old age, and declare that the Lord is God! You know, the Word of God is clear that “we are like trees planted by streams, a new spring season will always come, we will flourish again and bear fruit in season. It happens over and over again.” But the main thing I heard in my prayer was that “a Hallelujah Moment is about to happen in your life, it will feel like when spring is on its way, with blooming trees ready to bear fruit.”

A “Hallelujah Moment” is when the Holy Spirit breaks through and does things that are overwhelming!

That is when God does “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think”(Eph 3:20). I have experienced this many times: when God does “above” what we have prayed for, he does “above” what we ever could have imagined, and it happens in a miraculous way. As I write this now I am fully convinced that there is a “Hallelujah Moment” on its way in your life! Like when I was in Israel a few years ago and met with some Israeli youth who we had helped home to Israel. This group had been trapped in Russia, so it was truly a miracle that they were now in Israel. When they asked me why we helped them I answered that “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” whom I served, was the One who had helped them. I still remember how the Spirit of God landed in that room with a heavy anointing, everyone got quiet, someone exclaimed “Oh, God did it!”, others got tears in their eyes, realizing that their escape from Russia was a “Hallelujah Moment,” something far above what they could have asked for or imagined. It was a miracle!
 I believe that is going to happen for you soon as well. That is what I sense as I am praying now: that God is doing something, like a huge hug from him to you, and in Christ he will do “above all that you can ask or think,” a true “Hallelujah Moment” is on its way, where you will flourish as never before, and more fruit than you ever expected is ripening now. Amazing!
 
Some of the things happening in April/May:
Israel/Ukraine. Every month 2,000 Jews escape from Ukraine and Russia and come home to Israel after thousands of years. Israel is asking for your help. It costs about $100 for our part of helping one Jew home, and a food package costs $50. During April/May we will help about 200 Jews home to Israel. We are called to bring God’s people home to God’s holy mountain in Jerusalem. I spoke with Israel this week and they are overwhelmed by our support! But I reminded them that the blessing is actually on us, because God will bless the one who blesses Israel!  

The next MEGA gospel crusade: Only one month to go when you get this letter. Our next big crusade is in the mining city of Kitwe in the African copper belt in Zambia/Congo. More than 300 leaders and hundreds of volunteers are now preparing. This is happening “in season” and I believe it will be extraordinary, a “Hallelujah Moment.”
 
We are continuing to construct a church in Zambia with 800 seats, we are drilling 3 new wells in Nepal, continuing to help orphaned street children in Nepal, India, Israel and Ethiopia, and we keep chasing our vision of planting 7000 churches before 2030 in the third world. According to the latest report we have now reached 300 planted churches since October 2024. Things are moving fast now, Tommy!
Everything God is doing today, he does through you and me, through us believers. We are his people, we are his church, we are his body and his temple. Jesus gave his body, his life for you and me. He died so that we could live, and now he lives through us. That is what the Book of Acts is – what Jesus continued to do through us ever since he rose again! That is why your gifts and your prayers are so much more – they are part of all the amazing things Jesus is doing in our world right now.

For many of those suffering, your gift and our help becomes their “Hallelujah Moment,” an intervention by God into their impossible situation.

Thank you for your gift this month. It is so incredibly valuable.
 In the love of Christ,
-Pastor Tommy Lilja