- Feb 17, 2006
- 6,555
- 130
- Gender
- Male
- Faith
- Calvinist
- Marital Status
- Single
- Politics
- US-Republican
You will also see some unbelievable chess moves made by God in this story to help a few other people out.
This story is a whopper! Per the article we have on homosexuality in the Current Issues section of our site, give a copy of this story to anyone you may know who is gay and really struggling as to whether or not God can really heal and deliver them from this condition.
As I said in that article, the power of God can deliver any homosexual from this condition if they really want the deliverance. This story proves that point without any shadow of a doubt.
1. The man's name was Matthew Manning. He said he was sexually molested by one of his older brothers before he was 10 years old. All of the cool kids at school used to make fun of him and he was not getting any true nurturing love and acceptance from either his family, friends or school.
As a result of craving some type of unconditional love, he started hanging out at a park that was known to have gay men frequenting it. This was when he was only 10 years old. He said he literally became a practicing homosexual at the age of 10.
He said he would go to the park whenever he would have problems at home. All he was looking for was a hug from an older man. This obviously led to other things in the park and he always felt shame and guilt afterward, but it was the only place he could find any type of unconditional love and acceptance from anyone.
As a result of all this in his early years, he became a full pledge homosexual as he got older. He was also raised up in a Christian school and recalls one of the teachers always making him memorize Scripture verses.
2. When he got old enough, he joined the Coast guard. And where did he first get stationed at after joining? San Francisco - the gay capital of the world! He said he was out saving people during the day and then going to gay bars and living the gay lifestyle at night.
During his time with the Coast Guard in San Francisco, he had a horrible experience. He did not know it at the time, but a serial killer had been operating in the area killing gay men and throwing their bodies off of a bridge.
One night as he was sitting by himself close to the bridge and water, a man approached him from behind, put a knife to his throat and told him to follow him. This man had told him that he had been sent to teach him a lesson. When Matt asked him who had sent him, the man replied back "You'll find out when you end up burning in hell."
Matthew did not know it, but he was being accosted by the guy who was the serial killer. The man took him off to the side and molested him. During the molestation, Matthew was able to break away and run to safety. There was no doubt that this guy was going to kill him. He immediately went to the police to report what had happened. Initially, the police thought that these were all suicides from the bodies they found floating in the waters, but later this guy admitted to killing other people as you will see further down in the story.
3. After all of the above, Matthew continued to live the gay lifestyle. During all of this time, he had encountered numerous street preachers trying to get him saved and delivered from the homosexual lifestyle. He thought all of them were judgmental and wanted nothing to do with any of them or even God Himself. He figured, like most homosexuals, that he was born with this condition and that there was nothing that either he or God could do to change his condition.
Then one day he met a woman and her five-year-old son who were out preaching on the streets. This little boy comes up to him and tells him "Jesus loves you, Jesus loves you." He had heard all of that before and was not really moved by it. However, the little boy kept trying to get him to come to his church, which was just around the corner.
Initially, Matt had no desire to check the church out. However, one day as he was driving past the church, he literally heard an audible voice say to him - "This is the last time I am going to ask you."
He knew right of way that this was the voice of God talking to him. Beset by some fear from this statement, he decided to check the church out. When he walked in, they had a band playing very lively worship/praise music and he initially thought that he had walked into a cult.
As he went to sit up front, he saw the little five-year-old boy who had been witnessing to him earlier in the streets. This boy was sitting up in front where they could see each other. Then here is where miracle #1 occurs.
As Matt was gazing around the church, he was not really being moved by anything he saw. And then all of sudden, he looked over at the little five year old boy who had been witnessing to him out in the streets. The little boy was standing up, hands held straight up in the air and he was crying. He was praying to God and the words he was praying to God were - "Please God, show Matthew that we are not all nuts in this church. Please God, show Him that You are real."
When Matt saw this little five year old praying with that kind of sincerity and intensity - he was immediately touched and moved. He said that when he saw that, he knew that this was the agape love he had been searching for all of his life - someone that could unconditionally love him for who he really was.
Matt then gave his life to the Lord that night and got saved, but told God that he would have to change him on the inside to handle his homosexual desires for men.
Matt continued to go to church and began to study the Word. However, he also continued to live in his gay lifestyle. He said the desires were still there and he figured he'd still act out on them since God had not taken away these desires.
Now here is where miracle #2 comes in. One night while in a church service, he gets slain in the Spirit. While resting in the Spirit on the ground, he gets a vision and sees Jesus standing in front of him. As soon as he sees Jesus, he starts arguing with Him in reference to his homosexual desires and the fact that he can't get rid of the desires. Jesus then looks him straight in the eye and says to him:
"Every time you commit a homosexual act, you are committing that act against Me."
Jesus then says something else to him that I can't recall verbatim, but it had something to do with His sacrificial death on the cross and that His death on the cross had already set this man free from this condition. Matt said that when Jesus said all of this to him - it was the "truth of God" cutting into him to go against a lie that he had been living all of those years. Matt was still trying to hang onto his homosexual lifestyle and yet serve God. When Jesus spoke these direct words to him, he knew that he had been living a lie and that he had no more excuses for remaining in this lifestyle.
Right after Jesus said all of this to him, he got up and literally started puking all over the place. I believe the puking was God's way of vomiting all of the contamination that was in this man from his homosexual lifestyle all those years. I also believe there was a possibility demons were being expelled out of him at this point.
When he got up and went outside the church, he heard God say to him that he would heal him from this condition if he would agree to witness to other homosexual men about God's grace, mercy and power to set these men free from this condition. Matt agreed with God on this condition and he said from that day forward he has never had another homosexual encounter and has lost all natural desire for it!
4. Now hang on - the story is not over.
Matt then proceeds to totally serve God. He then joins the church's prison ministry team to preach to criminals behind bars. As he is doing all of this, he suddenly starts to get physically weaker. He couldn't swim as long as he used to, his endurance and stamina are weakening, and he starts having problems with his intestines. He goes to a doctor, tests are run, and he finds out that he has full-blown AIDS - he is HIV positive!
He then starts yelling at God - how could He do this to me? God had healed him from the homosexual lifestyle and he was fully serving God and now all of a sudden he comes down with AIDS. God then very quickly tells him that the AIDS he has come down with is not as a result of any judgment being passed onto him by God - the AIDS has come upon him as a "consequence" of the homosexual lifestyle that he had been living in earlier and that he was simply reaping what he had sown all of those years.
Matt then received realization and revelation that what seeds you plant in the ground will grow. And if you plant seeds of destruction, then you will eventually reap death and corruption as a result.
God then tells Matt that He will fully heal him from the AIDS, but only if Matt is willing to agree to forgive everyone that has ever wronged him in this life - including the man who had given him the AIDS.
Matt at first wrestled with God on the issue, but he went ahead and did it. He forgave his brother who had molested him, he forgave his parents who had not properly loved him, and he forgave the man, whoever he was, that had given him the AIDS. Matt said he did not feel any forgiveness towards these people when doing this before the Lord, but he went ahead and confessed it out with his mouth and gave it all to the Lord.
Shortly after doing all of this, Matt's AIDS takes a turn for the worse. He literally comes down with all of the symptoms of AIDS and ends up bedridden just waiting to die. As he is in bed literally dying from this disease, he keeps telling the doctors that God is going to heal him. Everyone thought he was crazy. They had also put him on AZT, which eventually makes him sterile as you will see further on down in the story.
Then one day as he was lying on his deathbed literally waiting to die, he gets a Word of Knowledge from the Holy Spirit to speak out this Word of Knowledge to the man who was attending to him in the hospital. God tells him to tell the man that he knows that he is gay! Matt speaks the Word of Knowledge out to the man. The guy can't believe Matt would know something like this since they did not know each other. This man had been a Christian, but had turned away from God.
This man then tells Matt that if God will really heal him like he is claiming, then this guy would give his life back to Jesus and turn from his homosexual ways!
Then here is where miracle #3 occurs. While in bed dying from the AIDS and being hooked up to the life support machines, all of a sudden his vital signs start to rebound! Several doctors come running back in, check out the machines and tell him that they don't understand it - but that all of his vital signs are rebounding back.
Matt literally stands up in his hospital bed, starts jumping up and down saying God has healed him. They then do some more tests and tell him that even though his AIDS has miraculously gone into remission - that he is still HIV positive - the AIDS bug is still in him and that it could re-activate at anytime during his life.
As a result of the above miracle, the man who Matt had spoken the Word of Knowledge to earlier gave his life back to Christ and renounced his homosexual lifestyle!
Matt then continues on his walk with God believing that God will someday complete the healing and completely take out the HIV virus where he will no longer be HIV positive.
