are going to believe for your miracle. I want to minister a word that I believe will help stir your faith and help to bring some clarity as to why the healing miracle may not have manifested yet. And then toward the end, I want to pray with you. And I believe that the tangible touch of the Holy Spirit's power can touch you wherever you are. I believe that that healing virtue can flow and make you completely whole. I believe that whatever your sickness, whatever your disease, whatever is causing your pain can be miraculously and instantly healed. Jesus still heals. Jesus is still alive. Jesus still has compassion for the sick. I want you to lift your hands and say, I expect a miracle. You watching online, comment it now whether you're watching live or in the replay. I expect a miracle. Holy Spirit, we thank you for that power now flowing. Now let me start by saying this so that there's no misunderstanding. God is sovereign. He can heal anything in anyone at any time. God is sovereign. And I think that sometimes if we're not careful, we begin to treat God as if he's a vending machine. And then we become angry with him if we don't receive the results when and how we want them, especially when the healing miracle doesn't manifest right away. We say things like, Lord, what happened? I had faith. What went wrong? Why aren't you doing it? And we almost have this entitlement to where we focus our frustrations on him. And in this, we have to learn to trust him. Now I know talking about when healing doesn't happen might not be the most faith stirring way to begin a service where I'm talking about your healing miracle. But here's the fact of the matter. If we don't honor God's word, if we don't honor who he is, how can we expect that his power will flow? And so I want to first help you understand the reality of the sovereignty of God as it has to do with healing. Now the Bible does give us certain reasons as to why a healing may be blocked. The Bible does speak on what can block that healing virtue from flowing in your life. I'm going to show you those from Scripture tonight. But before we get into those, we need to talk about what happens after you've done everything the Scripture says to do and the miracle doesn't manifest like you think it should. One of my heroes in the faith I've talked about several times was a man by the name of Steve Romine. Steve Romine was a man who moved very accurately in the word of knowledge. Several of the team here remembers him. He would come to our church and do three night revivals. He would begin to call out sickness in people, not guessing, not trying to fill out the room. I'm talking just pointing at someone and saying, this is what's wrong with your body. He would speak specifically to the issue and then he would say something like the Lord wants to heal you now and they would be healed. Now here's the thing about Steve Romine. Steve Romine ministered this wonderful healing ministry from a wheelchair. Evangelist Steve Romine had MS. The muscles on his body were deteriorating and even in his sickness, he was used of God to bring healing to those who needed it. He would often talk about how he rejoiced and sing other people received their miracles because it gave him faith for his. He wasn't angry with God, even though he couldn't walk. He wasn't frustrated with the Lord's timing, even though he could barely eat and drink on his own and his body would become tired after only two hours of ministry. We'd have to call an end to the service and get him back for the next night. I'm sure he had his moments as he would share with me sometimes, but for the most part in that man, I saw faith and joy and life and the spiritual vibrancy that comes from being rooted in the person of the Holy Spirit. And so he would often talk about that day he'd be healed. I was there in his home as he rested in his bed days away from death. And as I watched him, he was not really aware of his physical surroundings. He wasn't responding to us. He wasn't he wasn't having conversation with us even when we talked to him. It didn't seem as though he could really even hear us. And I remember him just lying in the bed, staring at something on the ceiling. It was as if he was looking into the realm of the supernatural. And he was praying in tongues, worshiping the Lord, even on his deathbed. And I said, Lord, that's how I want my faith to be. Because I would rather go my whole life believing for the miracle than to give up a day too soon and not receive what God had intended for me to receive. Now, Steve Romine is made whole. He's walking with the Lord. He's talking again.  He had a real strange sense of humor. I'll probably share more on that another time. Some of you know I've shared it before. He is perfectly whole in his body now. So when we talk about healing, we have to remember that we're talking about an effect that the power of the Holy Spirit has on a temporary physical being.  Every blind person, every deaf person, every crippled person who was unable to walk, every single one of them now are in eternity. And whatever happened with their physical being, it happened. They enjoyed that miracle for the time that they had on earth. And then they stepped into eternity. And so we have to look at healing from the perspective of eternity. Now again, I'm going to share with you those four things in the Bible that can block a healing. But it's very important that you understand tonight that I am not giving you a formula on how to be healed.  But even standing here now, I have to be open and honest with you. There are people sometimes who leave our meetings not healed. Again, this may not be the best way to begin a healing service. But I want to put this in the right perspective because if it's not placed in its right perspective, it will be very difficult to receive the kind of faith that actually manifests the healing. So it's not like we say, God, I had faith. Now do your part. It's God. I have faith in what you're able to do. And I trust you with whatever it is you want to do. Some might say, Brother David, are you saying that sickness is God's will? No, I'm saying that I don't always understand the timing of God. Look at what the scripture says here in 1st Timothy chapter five, verse 23. Don't drink only water. This is Paul writing to Timothy. He says, don't drink only water.  I look at this verse. I say, why didn't Paul the apostle just lay hands on him? Now here, some believers mistakenly say, well, this is because the gifts at this point had ceased. But no, the record of church history does not reflect that, not even close. So that would be to force a presupposition on the text. Someone say, well, what happened then? I thought the apostles had the ability to wield the power of God. Well, as you look through scripture, you'll see men and women who got anointed, who got used. You can go back to Moses, who God used to demonstrate amazing miracles. You can look at Samson, who had physical strength given to him by the spirit. You can look at all of the prophets, think of Elijah, who called down fire from heaven. And you see the demonstration of the power of God through their lives. But let's be clear about how they worked. These men did not wield the power of God under their own strength. They did not control that divine virtue under their own will. They moved under the sovereign hand of God as God assigned those miracles to them. This is why I say that the gift of healing is more of a series of assignments than it is an ability that you wield on your own. And so we see it here. Paul is saying to Timothy, why don't you have a little wine for your stomach's sake? Now this is not saying that we should drink alcohol. The Bible condemns drunkenness, amen. Okay, so that's not what he's saying. He's talking about medicinal use. Think of Epaphrodites. Go to Philippians 2. Let me show you something else. Philippians 2 verses 25 through 30. Meanwhile, I thought I should send Epaphrodites back to you. He is a true brother, coworker, and fellow soldier. And he was your messenger to help me in my need. I am sending him because he has been longing to see you. And he was very distressed that you heard he was ill. And he certainly was ill. In fact, he almost died. But God had mercy on him and also on me so that I would not have one sorrow after another. Here again, we see another example of someone not being healed until God's timing. Now how should we approach this? I believe that every person you pray over, you should pray with them as if the miracle is right then and there. Every time I pray for someone who is sick, I'm praying with the faith for them to be healed right there in that moment. On one side, we say the miracle is going to happen. God is going to heal you. Expect the miracle.  Believe in the promises of God. Yet on the other side of that, if the manifestation does not occur like we thought it should, we don't leave with disappointment about what didn't happen. We leave with hope knowing that if the miracle didn't happen today, surely it will happen tomorrow. And then when that day comes, you believe in that day. Mercies of God are new every morning. Why shouldn't our faith be new every morning? You persist, Matthew 7.7. Ask, seek, knock when you pray. Persistently ask. Why do we pray persistently if God is sovereign? It's not as though we're forcing him to move. We pray persistently because it conforms us to the will of God. And in being conformed to the will of God ourselves, often we are positioned to receive that healing touch. Keep praying. Keep asking. Be hopeful. Even when the miracle doesn't manifest in the way that we thought it should, we move forward knowing that God is still able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all we could ask or even imagine. We know that that name is above every sickness. It's above every cancer. It's above every deformity. It's above every ailment and pain. We place our faith in God. So if you have faith in God, have faith in God. Your reaction to a miracle that didn't occur is actually a demonstration to you of what your faith was in. Because if we truly trust him, then even when the results are not what we think they should be, our response will always be hope and not despair. And if we despair when the thing does not occur like we imagined it should, then that's demonstration that our faith was in the system. Our faith was in a protocol or a method. Our faith was in our faith when our faith should have been in God. And if our faith be in God, we should trust him with every result. Think of the man at gate, beautiful. In Acts chapter three verses two through eight, the scripture says that he was there every single day since he was a boy, since birth he was sick. You know that he wasn't healed until that narrative in the book of Acts. Yet the Bible says he was at the gate called beautiful every single day. Do you know who passed that gate quite often? Jesus.  He likely heard Jesus coming by and the rumblings of the crowd that followed behind him. He likely heard the shouts off in the distance of those who were being healed. He probably heard the shrieks of those being delivered by the power of God from demonic beings. Yet he never experienced his miracle until God sent the apostles timing. John chapter five verse six. This is in reference to Jesus ministering healing to the man at the pool of Bethesda. And by the way, when he went to the pool of Bethesda, he only healed that man. I don't know about you, but if I was by that pool, and I've been there for days and days, some of them years waiting for those waters to be stirred and I saw Jesus go and touch that man and he walked out healed. And as he left, I would say, wait, where are you going? People often ask, well, if you believe in healing, why don't you go to hospitals? First of all, we do go to hospitals.  Second of all, Jesus didn't go to hospitals. The sick came to him. Whether or not you go to hospitals isn't a demonstration of whether or not there's genuine miracles happening in the ministry. But Jesus goes to the pool of Bethesda, heals one man and leaves. Look at what the Bible says here in John 5.6. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, look at what it says there, how it words over it again. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for what? A long time. He asked him, would you like to get well? So not only was there something in the timing, but there was something in the willingness of the man to be healed. I've had people reject healing prayer because they didn't want to lose insurance claims. I've had people get healed in our services, refused to go get checked by their doctor because they didn't want to go back to work. I'm serious. They no longer need the crutches or the brace perfectly whole. Not another day of pain. And that's for years.  They're like, well, I need the, you know, I don't want to really go back now. And they have all these excuses. Would you like to get well? I remember praying for several people at a service in Chicago. And I'm going down the line praying for different people who need healing. And I see a lady seated on the front row. She has her walker.  So I'm thinking she probably won't spray her. I found out she just wanted to cause a scene. I asked her, can we believe for your miracle, very loudly and dramatically, no, instead of focusing on me, why don't you pray over these people? Maybe God will give them a miracle. I don't want him to waste it on me. I was younger, so a little, little less polished. I said, lady, God's not running out of miracles. She got so mad at me. I thought she was going to throw that walker at me. She got so mad. She turned red in the face and she stormed out of that place. I'm thinking you're coming to a healing service sitting on the front row with your walker for everyone to see. And you don't want prayer? That's a whole different subject, of course. Why some people, in fact, I'm writing on it in a new book I'm working on, that some people can't get free because of their addiction to the drama of the bondage. Whole different message for a whole different day. So, so in looking at the scripture, we see several examples where the healing miracle didn't manifest like the people thought it should. I mean, think about Lazarus. Please, Lord, come. Please, heal him. Please, help him. He waited until he died and then said, okay, I'm on my way. So I say all that to preface it. Yes, we are going to talk about faith stirring truths. Yes, we are going to talk about healing. Yes, we are going to talk about expectation and persisting in the miraculous. But I want all of that to be considered against the backdrop of God's sovereignty so that whatever God decides to do, and I believe he'll heal you tonight, whatever God decides to do, that it's always hopefulness because sometimes what happens is people, they're not ready to receive their miracle. They just don't know it. I know that sounds cruel and it sounds like I'm blaming the sick. No, no, no, no. People will be healed tonight. But there are some who are not quite at the place of faith, which is one of the keys. Let's get into this now so that I don't over explain without proper explanation. Now, first of all, there are three reasons as to why God will heal. Number one is covenant. Isaiah 53, 3 through 5, Psalm 107, 20, Psalm 103, 3, covenant. God heals because of the covenant. It's number one, purchased on the cross. Now, I know there are those who will debate that idea, but after looking into the matter myself, I am thoroughly convinced that healing is in the covenant. Number two, he heals because of compassion. Matthew 14, 14, Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped from the boat and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Those of you by the way who want to be in the healing ministry and God has anointed you to take a message of healing to the nations of the world, I'll tell you this, compassion is a key to longevity in the healing ministry. But I tell the guys all the time, Jeremy, Steve, Ishmael, Tim, Britain, don't forget what I'm saying here, Sergio, all you guys, because we do this, we travel, we minister, it can become a system if we're not careful. And if you don't have compassion for the sick, you stop seeing people and you start seeing crowd. You stop seeing stories and you start just seeing crowds, nameless, faceless people. You guys, it's the only way to last in the healing ministry is compassion because your heart becomes hard. By the way, compassion also drives you to become closer to the Lord because you know that sometimes the healing doesn't manifest because you're not living to the same standard. You want apostolic power, you need apostolic lifestyle.  Okay, you got to walk in that kind of perfection. The closer we get to his standard, the greater the miracles will be. And compassion drives you there. Lest you become complacent and say, well, I'm satisfied, it's working, things are happening, the ministry is growing, we'll just stay here. No, there's always greater to see. So number one is covenant. Number two is compassion. Number three is the commission. That's where he sends them to go. Mark 16, 15 through 18. Very clearly, we see that laid out there that those who believe will lay hands on the sick and see them recover. Mark 16, 20, I love this. And the disciples went everywhere and preached and the Lord worked through them confirming what they said by many miraculous signs. So the Lord will cause the miraculous to confirm the message of the gospel. And it's not just healing, it's other miracles, deliverance. You see a demon come out of your relative, that's going to do something to you. I remember we were ministering. I used to hold these healing revivals at my school on lunch break. And I remember I was ministering and there was a kid there. I believe in his particular situation, there were many miracles. So if I'm overlapping some stories, all the miracles happen. But there was one in particular, I think this was the instance where his psoriasis had begun to clear up right in front of his face. His skin disease, that redness, patchiness, the flakiness, his skin began to become smooth right as we began to worship right there.  We are watching it as it's becoming smooth skin. It's a creative miracle. And I remember standing behind me, I overheard someone who was telling everyone behind me, this is fake, it's power of suggestion, or he's acting. And I remember I turned to address him like this. I remember I had my hand up. I said, I went to explain, no, it's the power of God. When I turned like this, I felt something like jolt out of my hand, like an electric shock. It hit him. He fell on the floor, like he landed on a pile of the bricks. He's not going to fake that.  And he gets up, he goes, this isn't real. This isn't real. This isn't real. This isn't real. You guys, he was in church that week. He gave his life to the Lord and was radically transformed by the power of God. Now this isn't always the case because the gospel itself is miraculous that God could save a soul. That's miraculous enough. But God does from time to time cause the gospel message to be accompanied by demonstrations of power. Now I'm not saying that if you haven't experienced a miracle, or you didn't experience a miracle like that at the time of your conversion, that it's not real. But I'm saying that in some cases, God will use his powerful demonstrations to coincide with the communication of the gospel. So number one is covenant. Number two is compassion. Number three is commission. Now let's look at blockages. Number one, demonic power. I'm going to show you in the scripture, Luke 13 11 to 13. Watch this. He saw a woman who had been crippled by an evil spirit. Well, that's it right there. She had been bent double for 18 years and was unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, dear woman, you are healed of your sickness. Then he touched her and instantly she could stand straight how she praised God. Now let me balance this point by making it very clear that though sickness can be caused by demons, not every sickness is a demon. Do you know how you know if a sickness or if a sickness is rooted in demonic power? Here's how you know if a sickness is rooted in demonic power. When you rebuke it, it goes simple and a lot of people get tormented by the idea, especially if they have a lingering sickness and especially because the effects of sickness can be so devastating. We get it in our minds. This is a spirit. It won't leave me. I've had it prayed over and they're attributing to the devil what is actually a natural occurrence in the material world, the sickness. It's also important that we do not confuse sickness for demonic ownership of your physical body. I explain it like this. If demons want to affect the believer physically, they have to do it in one of two ways. One, they have to use a demoniac to harm the believer. You've seen this like for example with some of the, I gotta be careful about the way I say this because censorship on the internet, they listen in and if I say certain phrases, they censor it, but you've probably seen this, you know, like when you watch on the news and all of the kids are running out of the schools, the cops are all there. Those instances, okay, those people in very many cases are demon possessed. You may think that's hyperbole, you may think I'm being dramatic. No, no, no, no, no. In those instances, those people are possessed. Guys, you can see it in their eyes when they're, when they're, when they're being interviewed. There's one recently was just the sentencing supposed to happen today, but I think they moved some things over till Tuesday with, with the Parkland shooter, they called them. I was watching clips of this, guys, I, before the Holy Spirit, I saw demons in his eyes, like legitimately demonically influenced that guy. That is a spirit. Now, in order to harm the believer, a demonic power must use a demonic act. That's number one. Remember, they can use two things. And how do I know this? You see it in scripture. Well, who do you think, who do you think persecuted the martyrs? You think those rulers and those governments and those powers that took the lives of God's elect, you think those people weren't demonically influenced? That's demonic. And so we as believers know that the body isn't the final state, but it's a very sad thing to watch. So if the enemy wants to harm a believer physically, the demon can't literally touch your physical body. Now I have teachings on this, we can go into this in depth later. Someone may say, well, what about this? What about that? I promise you, anything you're going to bring up, we've covered and I don't say that like in a condescending way. I say that to encourage you, it's all covered. And we talk about it in my spiritual warfare playlist on YouTube. But that influence that comes over that demonic gives it power in the material world to use that demonic's body. And then that demonic brings physical harm to the believer. The second way that demonic beings can attack the believer physically is through sickness. Now the demon doesn't have to attach itself to you to send a sickness your way. We see this with Job. When the Lord removed the hedge of protection, the devil was not able to grab Job physically. He wasn't able to go himself and touch the physical body of Job. No, when Satan had the ability and was given permission by God to go and bring a physical attack against Job, he sent boils. In other words, he sent a sickness. Okay, so it can be demonic. But again, if it's demonic, it's the easiest one to deal with. Because if it's rooted in demonic power, then the moment you use the authority of Christ to rebuke that demonic power, that sickness has to lift. It has to. And if it lingers, you do like Jesus said, you go fast and pray, come back and do it again. And if it still remains after that, it's not demonic. It can't be. When you rebuke a demonic being in the name of Jesus, when you rebuke a demonic being using that authority, it's the Holy Spirit himself acting on your behalf. And so demons can cause sickness.  It's not harming. No, no, no. It could be physically. That demon using a sickness. You rebuke it, doesn't go, rebuke it again after prayer and fasting. Why? That's the only recourse Jesus gives us against stubborn demons, prayer and fasting. And if afterwards that demonic being does not go or that sickness does not go, then it could not have possibly been demonic because we know biblically speaking that if it is demonic, it has to respond to the authority of Christ. So that's number one. I listed it first because it's the easiest one to deal with. Number two, disobedience. Now, again, let's balance this. Sin can cause sickness. The Bible talks about bitterness rotting the bones. But I don't think it's like some, it's not as, I don't want to use the word. What's the word I'm looking for? There's a very clear reason as to why this works, I should say. Because in sin, there are consequences. You live a lifestyle of drunkenness, that's going to do some damage to your liver. You live a lifestyle of gluttony, that's going to do some damage to your heart. It got real quiet in here. It got real quiet in here. Sin causes sickness. Disobedience causes sickness. Not all sickness is the result of sin, as I'll show you from scripture in a moment, but sin causes sickness. Watch this. John nine, which is one through three. As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. Rabbi, his disciples asked him, why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or the sins of his parents? Verse three, it was not because of his sins or his parents' sins. That's Jesus talking. Jesus answered. This happened so the power of God could be seen in him. So, sickness can cause sin, but not all sickness is caused by sin. First Corinthians chapter 11. Let me show you an example of disobedience bringing sickness to the body in the New Testament. First Corinthians chapter 11, verses 27 through 30. So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup for verse 29. For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God's judgment upon yourself. That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died. Guys, that's New Testament. Now, some could say, but Brother David, in context, Paul the apostle is writing about the communion. Yes, that is the context of what Paul is saying. But the takeaway principle that has universal application is the fact that disobedience is what caused them to become sick. Now, this obviously freaks some people out because they say, well, I'm not going to take communion now, because I don't know what that means. Well, if you look at the context, Paul is very clearly saying that their sin was what? Not discerning the body of the Lord. And what did he talk about before that? He talked about division. So to take communion, an act of unity, one with the Lord, one with each other, and to be at odds with your brother or sister in Christ, that's what caused them sickness. It was division that was causing them sickness. It was hate for each other that was causing them sickness. That's just a consequence of sin, not even just always in the spiritual realm, but it can actually be a practical manifestation of the feelings that your thoughts produce.  Think about the fact that you can go about your day. You can be happy. You can be joyful. You get one phone call and suddenly you have a headache. You feel weight on you. That is a physiological response to the pattern of your thoughts. And your thoughts can be sinful. This is why I say that there's a practical manifestation to this as well, not just a spiritual element. If we carry bitterness, if we carry jealousy, if we carry fear, anxiety, angst, and we're walking around with all of these negative emotions, yes, the Bible talks about these, then that is going to produce also a physiological effect, which brings the body into the state of sickness.   Your immune system begins to lose its power, and therefore you take on sickness, not as a direct result of the fear, but as an indirect consequence of allowing yourself to have thoughts running through your mind unchecked. Bitterness, unforgiveness, jealousy. Oh, you ever feel that? You're scrolling.  I mean, it's easy to be unified, right? Until God gives someone something you've been praying for. And then, sickness. It got quiet in here again. So number one is demons. Number two is disobedience. Number three is doubt. Now, here I have to be very clear. Just because someone isn't healed doesn't mean that they weren't healed because of their doubt. There are people who've had faith for a healing that did not receive it. No one can tell me Paul the apostle didn't have faith for his healing, even though his eyesight began to dim, many scholars believe. I think it had something to do with his original encounter, where he was blinded. Could have been the effects, the physical effects of the glory. You say, how can that be? God is loving. Well, think about, I think it was in the Old Testament where the oxen upset the cart. Oh, what was his name? Uzair or someone like that. And he goes to catch the arc. I don't know. I just thought on this. The name escaped. But anyway, he goes to catch the arc and he's killed instantly. That wasn't very loving or kind. It was just a natural consequence. But that's a digression. So Paul had trouble with his eyesight. You don't think he had faith for his healing? Timothy had trouble with his stomach. You don't think he had faith for his healing? So let's be clear. You can have faith for a healing and it's still not manifest in that way. But we have to be sure it's not doubt. Now, in order to do this, we have to have and allow for self-examination. Many times preachers are accused of blaming the sick. How many stories you hear? I went to a preacher. I didn't get healed. He says, I didn't have faith. And they're just, they're huffing and they're offended. And how could it be? And people come along on the online community. Oh, brother, oh, sister, we feel so sorry for you. Here's our pity. Be energized by it. And they're just taking on all the pity and everyone feels sorry for them. But I'm thinking, well, was it doubt? I mean, could it have been doubt? Think about the defensiveness that comes up when people start talking about faith and doubt. And you said, do you have faith for it? Of course I have faith for my healing. Are you sure it's a doubt? No, I believe God. Bless God. I'm blessed in highly flavor. Of course. Okay, okay, okay. Let's lower the defenses. And let's allow for some serious self-examination. I'm a person, I'm a prayer warrior. I'm moving the prophetic. I've been in ministry. Okay, you can be a saint floating into the room on a cloud of glory. But let's do some self-examination here. I'm not saying everyone's issue is doubt, but I'm saying let's at least have the humility to consider the possibility, lest we miss our miracle because of spiritual pride. The Bible says in Mark chapter six, verses four, five and six, then Jesus told them a prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his relatives and his own family. And because of their unbelief, he couldn't do any miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their unbelief. Mark five 34, Luke 1719, Luke 1842. Your faith has made you whole. Your faith has made you whole. Your faith has made you whole. Now, of course, that's the general rule. There are exceptions. Where was the faith of Jairus' daughter? She was dead. Where was the faith of the Centurion servant? He didn't even know he was going to be healed in that moment.  Where was his faith? Where was the faith of Lazarus? Where was the faith of the man who was lowered into the rooms of the roof to be before Jesus and receive his healing miracle? The Bible says Jesus saw their faith, the faith of those who brought him. So again, all of these things must be considered against the backdrop of God's sovereignty. God can heal anyone he wants anytime for any reason. I was ministering in Southern California and I'm moving down the prayer line and there's these two people standing next to each other. One was a teenage boy and one was a middle-aged woman. This woman was blind. I think it was either her whole life or since she was a little girl. We're talking decades of blindness. The boy that was brought up was walked up by his mom. She held him by the wrist and helped guide him to the platform. I prayed for the woman first. She felt the power of God go through her and she began to see shadows and lights. She had not seen those in decades but the miracle didn't fully manifest like in Mark chapter eight. It didn't fully manifest right away. And so we kept believing and then I felt led to move on and pray for the next person. I said let's keep praying for her but I'm gonna pray for the next person now. I go and I get the story. I asked the mom, what happened? She tells me that her son snuck out of the house, went to a party. He was in a place where he should not have been with people he should not have been connected to. And one of his so-called friends put something in his drink and it caused him to go nearly blind. He was legally blind. He could barely see a thing. It was a horrific story. I prayed for him and after a few times praying his eyes opened completely. Someone ran and got a small print Bible, put it in front. He started reading that no problem. He starts weeping. Gives his life to the Lord right there. I left that service and here I'm going to show you some of my humanity here. I left that service and I was so mad at God. I said Lord because I couldn't get the woman's face out of my head. I mean she was believing. I could see it. There was sincerity on her. I said Lord why did you heal that boy and not that woman? Now here's where my religious side came out. I'm going to be very vulnerable with you right now. Very religiously I said she deserved a healing. He didn't. Yeah I know. Some of you felt the fear of the Lord just hearing that story and I was so upset. I was like Lord like and then I said why did you even need me to pray for either of them if you knew who you were going to heal anyway and these are things I was working through in my heart. My Lord help me help me help me and the Lord told me a couple of things. First of all he made it clear to me that he loved that woman more than I did. I said okay and then he said your job is to pray my job is to heal. Leave it at that. So we look to the word for answers. The Bible makes it clear that when there is faith in the heart a miracle can manifest. When faith is stirred that miracle can be received. Now this doesn't make God a vending machine as I said he's sovereign but in our faith we bring ourselves into availability. With our faith we position ourselves in the posture of trust and say Lord I believe you can. I trust you will. The results are yours. The Bible makes it clear that faith is one of the components of receiving your healing. Now I know that doesn't sound kind or compassionate in some instances. I know it can sound like I'm maybe trying to blame other people for not receiving their miracle but we have to consider this. Finally number four and I won't spend too much more time on this we're going to minister the healing and as I said I want to pray for your healing too. Number four is deception and that is to misunderstand what the Bible teaches on healing. Psalm 103.3 very clearly says who forgives all your sins and heals all your disease. So this is a two sided coin on one side. Let's believe for your healing now on the other side. Let's trust God. Will you all trust God? Let's approach now our sovereign God with sincere cries of faith repenting of wrongdoing rebuking and taking authority over every demonic power making ourselves available to him. You know I've watched prayer lines with people. I sometimes feel like I could do a lot of really interesting studies in psychology just in the many different positions I've been in with lots of people but I watch people sometimes while I'm praying and you'll see me calling people out up on the stage come come come I'm looking for two things when I lay hands on people one I'm looking for a manifestation of power resting on them it's not always physically visible but it's there and two I'm looking if they're looking at me if they're watching me I move right on and I've watched people come and believe for their miracle and I've seen those with hands lifted staring at me like this watching me across the platform I very rarely have ever seen them healed because they're so worked up some people are so worked up that God can't minister to them because they're so wrapped up in just how desperate they are that that they're they're they're leaving no room for faith they're not approaching in faith they're approaching in fear and then I've seen those even with some of the most severe sicknesses and diseases hands lifted eyes closed tears streaming down their face they're just thinking about Jesus and they come out of the wheelchair their tumor goes away God heals them now again all these things are mysteries I can give you glimpses to the scripture at the working of God's healing power I can give you glimpses of truths but ultimately there's no method to miracles it's a simple positioning of yourself repent of all sin yes get that right rebuke any demonic power that may have tried to attack you and then accept believe the truth that that demonic power has to obey the moment you say that has to it has to and then just begin to look to the I sense the anointing so strong right now and then just begin to look to the Lord and receive that healing touch how do you receive you forget about the sickness you forget about the need for the miracle and you focus on him tonight I laid a foundation with the teaching from the word of God something solid that you can grasp and take with you something that shifts our perspective to sing healing to the correct lens we need faith we need to repent of sin we need to come against demonic power we need to understand the truth and most importantly we need to trust God's sovereignty all those things considered the scripture instructs us lay hands on the sick and they'll recover you know the bible tells us and I love the way the king james version words this that they brought the sick to Jesus and the bible says no matter their sickness as many as touched him were made whole I've seen God's power move church I watched the face of a little girl deaf in one ear light up when the moment received her healing miracle her mother brought her to me after the service a little girl a little uneasy a little uncomfortable with the situation you know moms sometimes pray for my child there she was just nervous not really sure of what to expect and the moment I looked at her I could see the Lord was going to do it I can't explain that to you I can't explain that to you I can't explain that to you don't even ask me it's a mystery I just saw this one's gonna happen I placed my hand on her and she jumped like this because there was like an electric shock that went through her body and then I started to test her ears her face she looked she looked just like someone I don't know startled her or scared her she was shocked her eyes got real big she began to look around her ear opened completely the mother the next month brought us the doctor's report in fact the medical experts were so confounded that they ran test after test after test after test said this cannot be because this test shows that she's hearing out of this ear and she should not be hearing out of this ear a woman came in unable to walk without assistance you remember this one issue where they're two she comes into the service people reported barely able to move each step looked as if she was about to fall over people had to help her into her seat and she sat there in the service the entire time she comes screaming up the end of the service I'm praying for the people massive people at the stage believing for God to touch them and a woman begins to scream at me please I need healing please I'm in pain please I'm in over every voice I heard her Sergio you remember that they brought her to the stage and when they sat her on the steps she wasn't even able to sit up straight her her legs and back were so so badly damaged guys I'm praying for her and it wasn't God's slaying power she fell off the stage she falls off the stage and begins to scream even more she's she's she's lying on her back trying to to move she she can't and and she's saying it's been years I can't walk I can't walk I'm in so much pain and then she begins to crowd I'm deformed I'm deformed I'm deformed I'm deformed again there was a moment of faith a cry to the healer Jesus then we began to pray for that woman and as that woman's lying there on the floor she begins to kick her legs up she begins to roll just a little bit and we felt like a rush of God's power come down onto this woman you guys by the end of that service she's running around the building screaming I can walk I can walk I can walk what was that it was God's healing power church I've seen tumors disappear deaf ears open blind eyes open it was one woman who knew she was healed because her eyes got blurry when she was wearing her glasses and it wasn't until she took them off that she realized she was completely healed there was a little girl who came to a service her her her knees were crooked she was born with crooked legs hobbled to that service it was so packed her and her mother could get nowhere near the front they were in the back of the back right by the foyer we had people packed into the foyer there were people sitting on the grass outside we placed the speakers there were people in their cars listening to the service and this girl was way in the back and here's what she told her mom she said it's okay mom jesus can touch me back here too that night she did not receive her healing at that service but on the car ride home as they're driving the mother felt a little disappointed she felt bad for her daughter wondering if maybe maybe the lord would do it another time as they're driving home that little girl says mom do you hear that mom said no i don't hear that she said something sounds like it's popping like popcorn and when they got home that little girl's legs were perfectly straight it's god's healing power you know what i love about miracles miracles need no explanation miracles need no argument i've seen people with skin disorders so severe that that there was redness and patchiness and flakiness and that skin be completely restored people with sexually transmitted diseases completely healed not a trace of it in their system i've watched as the lord has delivered drug addicts of the most severe kinds of drug addictions leaving with no cravings never to touch drugs again some of them in ministry today that's what jesus does that's what jesus does i was praying for a man who had a stroke his left side was paralyzed i believe it was 12 years that he hadn't walked 12 years he's sitting in his wheelchair his wife had rolled him up to the front before the preaching even started and just as i was getting ready to send them away and tell them i'll pray for him during the prayer portion of the service the holy spirit said you pray for him now we prayed that man for the first time in over a decade began to walk his movement completely restored there's a video online of a woman in orlando i think you were there for that one too you get front row and all these one side of her body her hand withered drawn in hobbled used a cane when she was greeting people in the front she would greet them with the other hand because she was only able to stretch this one out in a certain way or a certain length the holy spirit as i'm preaching god is my witness as i'm preaching i begin to hear myself say where's that woman from the lobby god wants to heal her right now i said did i just say that i can't explain that to you and they bring this woman down to the front and right in front of everyone she drops her cane begins to raise her leg and stretch out her hand and she began to dance around that venue i gotta find it we have it on our channel that woman began to rejoice her miracle done that's the healing power of god church i can tell you miracle after miracle story after story tonight is your night for your story for your miracle believe it believe it believe it stand your feet all across this room you watching online believe for your healing too i want you to begin to write it in the comment section write what you're believing god to do for you you could even put names of your loved ones names of family members who you're believing for healing even if they're at the verge of death i believe god can raise them and restore their physical bodies i believe that with all my heart there's no formula if there's anything we've learned tonight there's no formula there's no method there's nothing special that we can do it's simply approaching father god in the name of jesus and saying lord have mercy on me that your healing virtue flow through my body and i believe tonight many will be made whole but what i want you to do for the next few moments is just lift your hands and i want you to begin to be lost in this worship i want you to detach from this world as we ascend to higher places and as we worship you online included the healing virtue is going to flow we're gonna sing hallelujah a simple chorus and as we sing this simple chorus i want you to focus your mind on jesus when jesus becomes more real to you than your sickness you'll be healed when jesus becomes more real to you than your sickness you will be healed expected believe it receive it tonight as we put our faith in the word of god and the promise is that he has declared you forgive all our sins you heal all our diseases we come to you now healer healer healer jesus the lamb of god the ancient of day the resurrected lord we come before you now and we throw ourselves on your sovereign compassion and mercy we thank you that every sickness and every disease has to bow to the name of jesus and father i pray that as we focus on you in this moment that you by your holy spirit would lean in press in and make your people whole hands lifted eyes closed all across this room voices and sing hallelujah needed at god's right hand see him now church eyes of your heart behold him as you sing singing with the angels now as heaven invades earth a miracle just focus on him now it's our faith in you see him seated at god's right hand as you sing he sits upon a throne eyes like fire lightning flashes before him radiating the glory of god the resurrected lord the very same who walked the shores of galilee jesus the lamb of god look to him now look to him now as you sing he's looking at you this eyes of fire he looks at you and that love and that light and that peace and that joy fill your being we honor you jesus even now that healing virtue is flowing even now that healing virtue is flowing lift your voice and sing again look to jesus now how Jesus that we sing to him over this place sing it to him keep this power from on high place your hand on your sickness right now wherever you're sick and body i want you to place your hand on that sickness right now if you have a pain in your head put your hand on your head if there's a problem with your leg put your hand on your leg you watching online do this too i don't care if it's the replay that tangible touch of his power is still here i'm telling you it's like electricity on this room right now place your hand on your sickness this is your first act of faith this is your first act of faith father i thank you for every miracle that you're performing by faith lord i stir up the gift that you've placed on my life by faith i stir up the gift that belongs to you and i your servants who you know and love join my faith with your people and in the name of jesus i rebuke every sickness and every disease it has to go in the name of jesus cancer go blood disorder go arthritis go tumors go skin disease go blindness go deafness go paralysis go i command bones to be set straight i command muscles to be healed i command nerves to come back online in the name of jesus let feeling and movement be restored receive this now church just begin to pray out loud come on you watching do the same just pray out loud and receive this in the name of jesus that healing virtue now begins to flow across this room i rebuke that power of the enemy over your life jesus came to destroy the works of the devil and sickness is a work of the devil we bind every sickness now we declare the healing power of god to flow through this room and across that camera in the name of jesus in the name of jesus receive that healing now some of you are beginning to sense like a warmth come on your body others are sensing like an electricity moving up and down others feel like a weight or like a wind still some are simply feeling the pain going away i want you now act number two your second step of faith i want you right now whether you're standing in this room whether you're watching live or you're watching on the replay i want you to begin to exercise your faith examine yourself now examine yourself see if the miracle isn't done you in this room if there was a pain in your body i want you to begin to move that part of your body you in this room if there was something that caused you pain or that caused you to be immobile i want you to begin to test that now that's your second act of faith you in this room i want you to test your eyes and test your ears look for the tumor check for the skin disease check yourself now examine examine by faith that is the power of god on you that is the power of god on you now those of you in this room if you believe that you've been healed can you just wave at me like this real big so we can see look all over the room church can we give the lord a hand of praise for these miracles what a wonderful jesus we serve her you online if you believe you've been healed i want you to write that in the comment section write your testimony in the comment section the power is still flowing the power still don't you dare turn off that stream don't you dare turn off the video that power is still flowing from start to finish the anointing is flowing like a river and i want you to continue to receive from that now if you're in this room and you believe you've been healed would you do me one more favor i want you to come and stand over here where they're waving at you and i want you to come and testify and tell us what jesus has done for you now i understand that it may be a little bit intimidating especially being in a room where you probably don't know everybody but i want to tell you this your brothers and sisters are a going to rejoice with you for your miracle and be whether you think the miracle is big or small your testimony could be the key to stirring the faith of another who received their healing so come out of your seat now if you believe you've been healed and come stand right over here please you can do that now god bless you those of you who waved at me you can come and stand right here they're waving you down god bless you god bless you and just help guide them there so that they don't go that way yes bring them this way this way what a wonderful wonderful jesus we serve you know what i love about these services is you never know what the holy spirit's going to do you never know what direction we're going to take every service is so different so unique that's the power of god the rest of you you may be seated but do please keep that posture of reverence toward the presence of god and ruben we're going to be bringing him up onto the platform ushers we're going to be bringing him onto the platform i'm going to read some comments here online um they're coming in from all around the world quickly quickly quickly they're coming in uh marie says my neck is healed larissa i believe i'm healed debbie i've been healed guys let me know what the lord is doing specifically i would love to know the story nima i believe my son mom and brother are healed kingdom land writes i am free in jesus name evie way writes i'm delivered judy i feel electricity through my body mama test writes i am totally healed by the name of jesus janet i believe i'm healed cards writes i believe i'm healed many comments i believe i'm healed i believe i'm healed precious writes i'm healed from back pain thank you jesus uh pete wrote yes my knee stopped hurting thank you jesus we give you the glory adrian i am healed these are miracles guys taking place all around the world wow this is what jesus does laura says my arms are healed clara i believe i'm healed there are so many testimonies coming in this is just amazing what's happening ruben what's going on here and ruben we want you on the top of the platform as you're testifying okay what happened this is richard for about three years now has had an autoimmune disease and he says he took a step of faith through that whole process stop taking his medicine but he said he still had aches and pains that would come and go and he said for the past week as well he's had he said he has back pain and it would be excruciating to the point where if he would wake up he wouldn't even want to get out of bed he said this week he was believing for his miracle he came to service he said god touched him he said he has no more back pain and what was all that pain from again please remind me i think it might have been the inflammation when you have an autoimmune disorder it kind of messes your whole body up and it three years ago it was just painful the worst thing i've ever pushed thing ever what happened tonight when the lord began to touch you i was sitting over there and uh i just praising god and just believing god for what he promises are and i gave up my seat and when i gave up my seat and went to the back i felt the healing take place in my body raise the lord can we give the lord a hand up raise hey guys if you don't mind dj please join me and where's gustavo okay bring bring the dj come please join me you're gonna help catch i want you you know what and any please just a distance please i'm not being difficult i promise there's a flow to this i want you all to stretch your hands toward this man in prayer in the holy spirit lift your hands or close your eyes keep praying church keep praying you know if you're watching and you're wondering what i'm doing the people here know me but but you're watching you're saying what is all this number one i don't give every prophetic word on the microphone as some of the things that i minister are personal and for the people alone and i have to honor that i know it's not good for youtube but this isn't about youtube this is about the people receiving and so sometimes i'll go off microphone but you're watching these people fall over like this they're not getting knocked over to be healed that's not how it works some people think oh is that how it works they get up they get knocked over and then they're healed no no no they're testifying of the miracle that has already occurred they've already been healed that's god's power what you see coming upon their physical body now is one of the manifestations that god does through our ministry where there's just this weight that comes on them they feel the power it's like they can't stand up and they fall over like that some people report feeling electricity others feel like a weight but but it isn't coming from me it's not coming from me it's coming from him it's not me it's who's around me on the platform right now that's why i told our camera guy to back up a little because the lord's presence is very tangible here right now and i have to honor that can you pick them up for a second what are you feeling on you right now say again heat like a heat on your body that's the power of god you go rejoicing in your miracle sir no no that sergio what happened here digga this is silvia for a year she's been having pain in the ankle even in her back and the way she described it she said she felt the breath of god touched her and there's no more pain there and how long had you been dealing with that i said how long how long had you been dealing with it about a year about a year how bad was it well they put me in physical therapy and what did you feel when the lord touched you right now back here my back where my spine is what did you feel on your back like a touch like like a like a hand on your back back here and i found his presence church did you hear what she said i'm sorry i don't mean to be rude did you hear what she said i'm like really excited for you she felt like a hand on her back there are miracles happening here this is the this is supernatural i'm telling you before yeah that's the lord's healing power on you you said she's telling me she had pneumonia a couple years back and she felt the same hand touch her that's like like a hand going up your back i went he told me to go to the church and have them pray for me i just kept going and then he told me i can't go back and have them pray for you so i went back to the church and i and you felt the same hand there and i went into the sanctuary where the ladies were having prayer meeting and they prayed for me and as they were praying i felt his hand go up my back that is supernatural how many want a sense that touch of the lord like that lift their hands come on you're watching online lord i pray that the people would begin to fill you right now i i really believe that god is going to do it go rejoicing in your healing god bless you britain what happened here david this is ashley for months now she's been dealing with a pain in her neck and she said during the worship began to go away and when you said to lay hands on the part that they needed healing she laid hands and it was gone and what did you feel come on you just the warmth i'm telling you he's on the platform with us lift your hands stretch your hands toward this sister right here just keep praying in the holy spirit church there's something supernatural happening for her right now lord i pray you cause your people to sense that touch even as they sit in their seats hold your hands out like this you watching online do this too eastern this way nobody move everybody stay where they are eastern you all pray in the holy spirit right now you're watching from your home right now i want to show you something and this is not you know me this is not a gimmick this is not a show it's a very holy moment right now i know there are desperate herding people watching how many you can sense that right now it's it's it's like a such a weight on the room hold your hands out in front of you you watching online please understand this is so precious to me and this is not a gimmick and i'm doing this as i'm led please understand i'm doing it only as i'm led hold your hands out like this church you know me we're a very balanced very reverent people this is the real deal many of you heard of revivals past you don't need to wait hold your hands out like this i want to show you something i don't care if you're a believer you're an atheist you're far from god in your mind you think you are i want to show you something father as i reverently lift this prayer to you i pray that your people and those who do not yet know you would receive this power now in whatever way they're able they'd flow like a river Lord even on those critics who are watching this broadcast now let this power touch their children Lord and bless them and give them a bright future in you there are critics watching now people who are watching looking for things to criticize i don't curse you i bless you in the name of Jesus and i pray God's goodness and mercy would follow you all the days of your life may your children know the same holy spirit who's here with me now touch your people some of you are sensing like electricity others are feeling like a weight some like a heat that's the power of God i command the some of you are watching you're not even born again and you've got demons in you those demons are coming out now that sickness is being healed now i give you the glory Lord don't rush this moment just receive receive receive there it is right there some of you are sensing that real strong on you right now that's the power of God Lord increase it on these people too touch your people let that weight come down on the room let that weight come down on the room guys begin to take your seats i'm reading the testimonies and the prayer requests as they come in online right now and so many are sensing that touch of God on their lives so many are being healed the Lord tells me that there are many watching who are into new age practices there's no spirit more powerful than the holy spirit we don't serve God for power he redeems us from sin saves us from the wrath to come there are many people in the new age watching this they're drawn to it because of the power like simon the sorcerer was drawn to the apostles but the day i invite you you to give your life to Jesus to trust in him for your salvation what does that mean it means a to acknowledge you have sinned against God you have all of us and because all of us have sinned against God we deserve the punishment the fullness of the penalty for that sin which is eternity in hell that is that is the absolute truth you say how could a loving god send people down how could a just and holy god not it's interesting that when it comes to the sins of others we demand justice when it comes to our own sins we crowd for mercy there's nothing any of us could ever do to earn salvation you could stop sinning today live the rest of your life in perfection and still fall short of God's standard even one wrongdoing even one sin violates the holiness of God and so we turn to Jesus knowing that he lived the sinless life died upon a cross taking the wrath of God and giving salvation and forgiveness to those who believe in what he's done not by words less than he managed to those believing and believing unto righteousness when you truly put your faith in him he gives you a new nature new desires and sin begins to lose its power in your life he's speaking to you now


Sima, can you hear me? Yes. Can you guys hear me? Yeah. Okay, awesome. Okay. Okay, so my name is Medea Benjamin with Code Pink, and we are so pleased to be joined today by Sima Alhamdani. She is a Yemeni American researcher, analyst, writer, consultant with the Atlantic Council, and we're here to talk about the update on the war in Yemen. So thank you so much, Sima, for being with us. Thank you for offering me this platform to share more about Yemen's war. So first let's start off on why the American people know so little about what's going on in Yemen. Why is the media so terrible on covering this issue? Is it because reporters have such a hard time getting in there? And if so, aren't there Yemenis inside who can be getting out the word? What is going on? So multiple things are happening at the same time as one would expect during wartime. So on the ground the situation is frazzled, it's escalating, it's very live, things happen sporadically, and it's really hard to get reports that are accurate. So both sides of the conflict have been known to fabricate some some information. So it's really hard to kind of authenticate what's going on in the ground, especially because no third party agents are present on the ground to document what exactly is happening. For example, what I mean by that is yesterday there was an airstrike on the port of Hadeida and a fish market and the people who are responsible to document that attack are the same people who are accused of conducting the attack. And so it's really hard to kind of get accurate news, which is one thing. And then on another level, it doesn't seem that America is really concerned with Yemen because there's so many conflicts in the Middle East and they're trying to lump Yemen's conflict in the middle just because Yemen is so far away. Americans don't know enough about what's going on in Yemen. And also it's not in the interest of the current administration to kind of highlight what's going on in Yemen since they are allies of the Saudi and United Arab Emirates Coalition who are parties to this conflict. So all of those issues together mean that there is this war going on that the U.S. is so involved in and that we can't get any traction in terms of getting people to care about it. You know, it's interesting, Sama, when people learned about the immigration issues on our borders in Texas and the children being torn away from their families, how the outpouring of the American people really led to a change in policy. And yet, the few times when we've seen some of the pictures coming out of Yemen, I haven't seared in my mind one that I saw yesterday of this mother over her little baby and the sticks of the legs. And I couldn't get it out of my mind all night long. I feel sick from seeing that picture. And knowing that is just one of so many babies that are literally wasting away. Are Americans not seeing those photos? Or if they are seeing those photos, why don't they care about it enough to rise up and say we have to stop this? So on the issue of separating families, I think our audience need to know that Yemen is one of the countries that's currently on the temporary protected status list. So they are part of the TPS countries, but they are also ironic. Wait, wait, wait. That is a TPS country. So the homeland security in the U.S. is granting 10 countries temporary protected status to its citizens because of the political situation or humanitarian disaster in their country. Now, what's interesting in Yemen's case is that it is one of those countries that is on the list and they've extended their ability to some Yemeni citizens around a thousand individuals in the entire United States to stay in the United States, but they're not extending it past 18 months. And at the same time, they are banning Yemenis from coming into the U.S. Now, what's interesting about this is that the American administration has shown support to the Saudi led coalition and has supported the Saudi led coalition and the Emirates with multi-million dollar deals of weapons. So the weapons that are used in this conflict are manufactured in several countries, but the U.S. being one of the main countries that's supporting this conflict. Now, the U.S. does not want the Yemen issue to be in the news because it would contradict their position on protection of human life and the issue of protecting civilians because what's happening in Yemen is atrocious. Now, you talked about children in Yemen. We know statistically that about 130 children die a day in Yemen. And this is just an estimate because we haven't had the chance since the war started to go in and actually get accurate numbers of those deaths. So it is a very terrible humanitarian crisis. I think Yemen's war is constantly hijacked by the narrative of the Saudi Iranian proxy war. And I think that's unfortunate because right now, for example, just as of yesterday, even though there were airstrikes that were taking place in Yemen, there is a ceasefire on both ends that was announced on August 1st that's supposed to stay in place for two weeks. Now, with the ceasefire in place, obviously both sides of the conflict are violating the articles of the ceasefire, but at the same time, it's important for the U.S. to kind of, you know, if you're not going to be able to make a decision about what's happening in Yemen accurately, at least promote and push for peace. And I think that's where the role of the average citizen comes into play. You know, this is ultimately Americans can speak to their senators and congressmen about what's happening in Yemen and the role that they want their country to have in that, you know, being in the U.S., it feels like such a remote place so far away. We don't know enough about the Yemeni people, but I think ultimately everything that's happening in Yemen now is going to come to the surface. Well, let's see. Let's step back a little and give people a little more information about what's going on there. Could you, for those who are new to this issue, I know it's a complicated situation, but could you simplify when you say the two sides, who the two sides are? So it is really difficult to simplify because now we're talking about a war that's taken place for three years and it started originally as a local conflict where the Houthis took over the capital Sana'a and then they signed a treaty with the government of Yemen, a partnership treaty where they were going to rule the country together. Of course, the Houthi militia group is backed by Iran and this militia is generally really misunderstood in American media because some people assume that the Houthis are Iranian, which isn't true. They're not like Hezbollah or like other groups. However, nonetheless, what happened is it was kind of a local conflict and then mushrooms into a regional conflict when the Yemeni president resigned and then he escaped to the south port city of Aden. From there he flew to Saudi Arabia and then regional involvement began and it began with Saudi Arabia involving the United Arab Emirates and Qatar at the time as well as many other Arab countries in a conflict against the Houthis. Now what's interesting is at the beginning of this war the Houthis were partnered with former president Ali Abdullah Saleh who since, you know, since about a few months ago he was killed by the Houthis who are his partners. Now, if I try to explain this where it's going to get really complicated. Maybe we shouldn't get too complicated. On the surface you have the Houthi rebels on the ground who are backed by Iran and then on the other side you have the Yemeni government that is backed by Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Now, when you say it like this it seems like there are two clear sides with a bad and a good side but unfortunately in Yemen's war we always say that there are no heroes. There are only criminals. Those two sides are fighting for control of Yemen. Yet at the same time both sides are committing violations against civilians. They are destroying their livelihoods and Yemenis seem to be trapped between them. Now if you look at Yemen as a map on a map what we see is that the Houthi rebels have controlled the same more or less portion of Yemen for the past three years. They have some advancements and then they shrink. And then the Arab coalition that is supporting the government is controlling the majority of the other land. Now the threat is and here's what's really terrifying is most civilians would like the Yemeni government to return to Yemen and to operate but the problem is the Yemeni government has failed to return back to Yemen meaning they struggle to take control of the portions that have been free from Houthi control and they really struggle to provide services to the Yemeni people. And so it seems that the lands that are not under Houthi control are a little out of the government's control and that they are a bit chaotic which is terrifying because if you look at Yemen it's a country with about 29 million people. The majority of them are not involved in this conflict yet they're all suffering the consequences of it. And one of these consequences has become cholera which is a disease that has been eradicated a long time ago. There's an easy cure to it. It's just the tab that you put in water. It's great medicine that can easily clear water. So cholera is a product of contaminated water. And in Yemen's war the situation is so bad that people are dying from such diseases. And while these two parties fight over power what's happening is that these 29 million people who are not white, who are not wealthy, who are not privileged are dying. And we can see them die because we can't relate to them. They're not important enough. They don't have a voice like the rest of us do. So you said that these two sides are fighting and there's outside support for each of them. But I think it is important to recognize that the majority of the damage that is being done, especially to the infrastructure, is being done by the bombings. And those who are doing the bombings are the Saudis. Isn't that the case? And can you get more specific about the U.S. role in that? So you have a situation where you have an enemy on the ground. Those who go from house to house kind of trying to conduct military searches, trying to station themselves on the ground. And this is why it's really risky in this conflict. The Houthi rebel group was able to kind of operate on the ground. They don't really have the air capacity to launch a military effort the way that the Arab coalition is able to. And so you have them entrenched in the middle of heavily populated areas. And so when the Arab coalition and the government retaliate, they tend to hit civilian areas. And they're not very careful about their targets. They're not very careful with their targeting. And because of the weapons that they are using, the destruction is very strong and severe and vast. And a lot of times it's traumatizing because it's bombs falling from the sky. So on one end you have the Houthis that are backed by the Iranian pretty much military. What's interesting about that role is that we're not sure to this day the Iranian support is far less than it is today. So this war that is meant to kind of control and weaken the Houthi militia and their Iranian support has in fact strengthened it and almost welcomed further involvement from Iran and Yemen as the war continues. Now it's scary for Saudi Arabia because Yemen is their neighboring country. Yet at the same time their reaction seems to be extremely different. Their reaction seems to be extremely disproportionate and extremely severe and harsh.  But it doesn't seem that their bombs are curbing the influence of the Houthi militia. They are just terrorizing the Yemeni population. They are destroying Yemen's infrastructure and they're leaving Yemen to rebels. You know, what is left when a country is bombed through the air and then you have not just the Houthis in Yemen now you have other militias on the ground that are trying to take control of every area that's free or if I am a sheikh or for example, if I am a war lord and there is a portion of Yemen that I can take control of, I will take control of it. And that's the dynamic and the impact that is happening in Yemen today. What about, can I ask about the role of Al Qaeda and ISIS hasn't this war created more chaos and opened the space for them to grow inside Yemen? So what's interesting is Al Qaeda has had a presence in Yemen for a while and ISIS tried to appear as a contender to Al Qaeda and the Arabian Peninsula at the start of the war and they conducted a few operations but it seems that the ISIS war was directly between the Houthi rebels and ISIS in which they kind of launch attacks against each other. They then kind of disappeared for a while and then reappeared and now ISIS and Al Qaeda are said to have conflict amongst themselves about who's going to take control of Yemen. Now what's interesting is that the U.S. while supporting the Houthi militia who at times has been accused of fighting alongside Al Qaeda and ISIS against the Houthi militia, the U.S. is still conducting drone strikes in Yemen overnight in random locations in which they have their own intelligence and so at times you see this war within a war kind of thing where you have a war against the Houthi rebels but then at the same time sometimes those who are fighting are also being targeted by the U.S. and so then you have Yemenis who are against the Houthi rebels kind of confused by that because the U.S. is supplying weapons to destroy the Houthi militia yet at times it is attacking those troops and those people who are fighting the Houthis because according to their intelligence they might have some ties to Al Qaeda and the Arabian Peninsula and so it is a real mess and it's not clear where the U.S. clearly stands on this because one we know that the U.S. definitely wants to defeat terrorism in the Middle East and definitely Al Qaeda and the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen. On the other hand we also know that they want to sell weapons for multi-million dollar deals to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. We also know that Trump's administration is very much against Iran and the Iranian nuclear deal and they'd like to negate it. Now what's interesting is in the past few days Trump seems to have kind of slightly changed his message towards Iran and is looking forward to having a talk with them. But the reality is no matter what happens between the U.S. and Iran, the reality is Yemen's war has started and to stop it Iran is important to kind of bring people to the table but they're not as important as the Saudi-led coalition. The Saudi-led coalition is not fighting via proxy. They're fighting directly and their presence and their role in my opinion is far greater than that of Iran. So let me put in a plug here, sorry to say since you brought up that the U.S. is arming not the Saudis and the Emirates but is also involved in its own drone strikes ones who are gaining are the weapons manufacturers and for those people watching this who want to see another way they can get involved please go to the codepink.org website or divest from the war machine.org and look into our divest from war campaign because in the larger perspective the only way we're going to stop these wars is to cut the influence of the military industrial complex that continues to profit from these wars. But getting back to the specifics of Yemen Sema, you mentioned the issue of Hodeidah and the port there. Could you talk about the importance of that port and go a little bit more into detail about what is happening there and if you think the ceasefire will hold? Yeah, so the port of Hodeidah is one of many ports that Yemen has but it is the port that supplies the majority of Yemen's humanitarian aid to the territory of Yemen that is under Hodeidah control. So it is essential in terms of humanitarian supply. It's a lifeline and the area of Hodeidah has been considered a red line by the Obama administration. In the past few months it's been the site of conflict, direct conflict where the Hodes and the Yemeni government supported by the Saudi-led Arab coalition are engaging in direct warfare. Now what that has done is a lot of the civilians that live in Hodeidah had to flee their homes and about 74,000 families not people, families have fled Hodeidah and a lot of them are going to other cities seeking refuge a lot of them are also going to other parts of Yemen that are the sites of airstrikes and on-ground war. They are living in schools they are a lot of them are attempting to return to their homes and so some of them when they announced the ceasefire the head of households the men have kind of tried to return there but it's really it's an unstable place to be. It is already one of the most devastated sites in Yemen meaning that it is one of the poorest areas of Yemen and right now there's a surge in the outbreak of cholera in specific locations in Hodeidah so this port is where the majority of the north of Yemen gets its supplies and it's now you know the supplies the humanitarian aid is continuously stopped from entering to the port of Hodeidah whenever war flares up or whenever a conflict just kind of starts it's kind of a touch and go situation and what the UN Martin Griffiths is trying to do is to use the port of Hodeidah which is like the worst imaginable scenario for a humanitarian crisis. He's trying to use this particular situation to convince all sides to come to the table and just yesterday he announced that in September he will be inviting all sides to Geneva to kind of put together a document that will end this conflict and will allow the continuation of aid into the rest of the city. Now he's not the first UN envoy to come work in Yemen he's actually the third UN envoy since the wars began and generally I'm slightly more optimistic about his role than other UN envoys primarily because he is from the UK and because he has kind of like an outsider perspective and is using his position to kind of bring everyone to the table but what's alarming is that we've seen in the past that all parties claim that they want peace but when it really comes down to it they don't trust each other they want absolute victories and they feel like if they sit at the peace table they're about to get stabbed in the back and it's also at this point about public image how do they come out of this war?  And to the average civilian who's dying on the ground in Yemen none of that matters but ultimately in the bigger scope of things in the geopolitics of the region it's important how this conflict is going to look like at the end. So let's get back to the issues of what we could do here in the US there have been some attempts in Congress particularly in the Senate can you talk a little bit about that and what people could do if they're interested in getting involved in pushing their elected officials on this issue? So in the past we've seen the issue of Yemen pick up I think mostly because Americans are starting to know more about it and congressmen and senators are starting to know the role of the US and they're starting to protest what the US is doing there and one of the things that they try to do is invoke a law that was actually put in place during the Vietnam War where they would kind of Hello? I'm not sure if you can all hear me I think we lost some she was in the middle of talking about what was happening in congress and it is important to keep the focus on pushing our congresspeople we came close with a vote in the Senate to try to stop the US weapons sales to Saudi Arabia where 44 senators voted in favor of stopping that but we need 51, we need a majority so there will be other times to do that but we need to be pushing our congresspeople to say we don't want to be involved in the war crimes of the Saudis and the Emiratis in Yemen and so you can call your congressperson or senator and not reference it to any particular bill but say that you don't want the US to be supporting any military involvement in Yemen and we don't want the US to be involved in selling weapons to Saudi Arabia the other thing that I wanted some to comment on is that she has a really exquisite photo exhibit that she did that shows both the beauty and the tragedy of Yemen and it's on matted very large photos that has been shown in the Senate atrium and it's going to be shown on the house side as well but it's easy to travel and people could get this exhibit to put up in their schools and their universities and their libraries and their places of worship and so if you are interested in doing that you could write to us info at codepink.org about how to get that exhibit traveling around the country how to get it into your neighborhood and I have a feeling that we will not be able to get her back on again so I want to thank Samah for her time and her incredible knowledge and work on this issue and sharing that with us today and thank all of you who tuned in we will have another update in two weeks on the situation in Yemen and we hope to have Samah back with us. Thank you so much for joining us today.


What is FAIR Principles of Effective Learning? FAIR stands for Feedback, Activity, Individualization, Relevance. We need to give feedback to students as they progress to mastery of the expected learning outcomes. Activity, we need to engage the student in active rather than passive learning. Individualization, we need to relate the learning to the needs of the individual student. And relevance, we need to make the learning relevant to the students in terms of their carried objectives.


One thing that we've talked about, and we'll hopefully get into it in the Q&A, is just how fast the new cycle is.  So before we start, let's start with the patriotic song. You're welcome to sing along. This is something I did actually before they dropped the Mother of All Bombs. So I needed to kind of upscale this next time, but let's start this off. So that one, I have to give a little credit or a lot of credit to the woman who sang that, a good friend of mine and voice actor slash singer, Stephanie Regio, who, you know, clearly I couldn't do that. And in the early days of my animation, I was doing all the voices until one editor finally said, it just sounds like it's you doing all the voices. I said, well, because it is. So this next one, I'm sure some of you remember when Trump mentioned the terrorist attack in Sweden and how everybody kind of laughed at him. And then lo and behold, a couple days later, there was a riot and some immigrants burnt some cars.  So let's take a closer look. We can dig a little deeper into Sweden and the evils of Sweden in this cartoon. Which attack in Sweden is right for you? Is it the last night in Sweden attack? Sorry, nothing happened last night and people are laughing at you. How about the attack in Sweden on January 5th? Oh, sorry.  What about the 2010 Stockholm bombings? Almost. Well, this one did have a real live Iraqi-born suicide bomber who injured two. Sweden's open-door immigration policy didn't begin until 2013. Try again. The horrific Swedish school attack of 2015, perhaps. Not quite.  How about some immigrants rioting in Sweden? Yes, congratulations. Now you may justify your immigrant-blocking anti-asylum policies using real Swedish violence because there's always an attack that's right for you. As you can tell, sometimes I get into researching these things and that's one of the benefits of animation is you can stuff a lot more information into there and to give you a little insight into what I'm doing, like the devious backstory of political cartooning, at least in my mind, is that you're trying to sucker people in with humor and cartoons and funny things and hit them over the head or stick a bunch of information in their brains that makes them think like you do a little bit. So now that you know the secret, sometimes what I do is I will just turn the cartoon over to Trump and just let... Kind of imagine what it would be like if we just let him take charge of cable TV more than he already has, anyway. Tonight on Trump TV, terror attacks ignored by the mainstream media and more. By now, thanks to Kellyanne Conway, you've heard of the Bowling Green Massacre, the absolute worst imagined massacre in the history of imagined radical Islamic terror massacres. It was just awful. The kittens, the children, the horror. Not alternative reality attacks were also ignored by the mainstream media. Ever heard of the Paris attacks? San Bernardino, the Orlando nightclub attack? Of course you haven't, because the media was too busy praying to Mecca. Never mind that the overwhelming majority of radical Islamic terror victims are Muslims. It's Christians who matter. No matter what some so-called judges in our so-called country say, just as General Frederick Douglas MacArthur, President Trump's new pick for Secretary of the Crucifying Army, Trump TV, making America safe again. One executive order at a time. And don't forget, be sure to buy the money. There's incredible designer products available now on QVC. So I was very happy to hear someone hiss Kellyanne Conway. One of the best things, and better than any award that's ever lucked out to hit on me, I was drawing Kellyanne, that caricature of Kellyanne Conway. And my daughter, who's five, came up to me and she looked at the drawing. A lot of times I'll draw with her and she knows what I do.  It's like a caricature's dream to have someone come up and say that. So anyway, I was happy to hear the hiss. So this next one, speaking of the news cycle and just how quickly things are changing and how quickly you struggle to keep up as a cartoonist. One of the things that I've started to experiment with is basically poor man's motion capture. We can talk about this later if anybody is more curious about it. But essentially animation, as you probably know, is super tedious and super labor intensive. And through the miracle of computers, it's become a little less so. And so one of the things that I've started to tinker around with is motion capture. And I won't show you now, but it's basically on a laptop, I can build one of my characters and then essentially either I'll say the word or I'll put in the audio from one of my voice actors. And when I move my head, my character moves its head. When I blink, they move their eyes. It's just, it blew me away and I practically started crying the first time I saw it after all the hours spent. So anyway, that's a long wind up to including other members of the Trump family. And now that little Jared Kushner is on their eyes, I had to bring him in here. Yes, I do. You just say it, sir, and I'll promise. Well, these feet aren't scrubbing themselves. That's the stuff. Thank you, sir. I apologize for... I apologize for sticking that song in your head for the rest of the night, because it will be there, just like it's in mine. Okay, so one last cartoon, but I can't believe I got this far without showing much of anything. No pun intended. About Russia. So this next one is a little bit deeper look into Russia and some of my favorite characters who came from Russia, who I kind of co-opted here. News in a nutshell. In the news today is From Russia with Lovsky. When we last left Agent Vladimir and Trump Tasha, Russian hackers have just broken into the Democratic National Committee. Russia and from Tasha deny it, blaming everyone from Democrats to Chinese to a guy in a New Jersey basement. But they're pretty much the only ones who think that. So Trump Tasha mocks the very intelligence agencies he's sent to command in a few short weeks, all the while touting an imaginary landslide. Meanwhile, a literal friend of Russia with hundreds of billions at stake in Siberia is tapped ahead the U.S. State Department. If oil oligarchs are good enough for Russia, why can't we have one too? The Cold War is over. So what's a little tainted election among friends? Perhaps Trump Tasha's Agent Vladimir has a dark side. This is the case of a Russian fishing expedition weaponized by Democrats who helped Agent Vladimir tip an election in Trump Tasha's favor by clicking on an email link. Mutt says Trump Tasha, the CIA, FBI, NSA, and Republicans in Congress are weak losers. So there, good night and good tweet. All right. And I will leave it at that. Thank you very much.


June 27th marks the 100-year anniversary of aerial refueling. To celebrate this significant milestone and critical capability, the U.S. Air Force will be flying four KC-135s over the southeastern portion of Oahu. So the KC-135's mission is air refueling. It's pretty much an airborne gas station, so it allows other aircraft to extend its range. It allows us to take the fight to the adversary. It allows fighter aircraft to project their air power. And it allows other aircraft to get to where they need to without having to do multiple stops. You know, it's very special to me growing up being born and raised in Hawaii to be part of the Air National Guard and to serve my country and to protect the people and state of Hawaii and to serve my country. I'm very proud of it. It's something I take to heart and it's something I love and wake up excited to do every day. The best part of this deal is we're just using a normal training story. We're not using any additional resources or any additional personnel. And we just want to show off to the public and celebrate the 100-year anniversary of air refueling and just spread the Aloha. Right behind me, you can see is where the boom operator sits. And that's the boom pod. And as pilots of the KC-135, we're basically driving him to work and he flies the boom into position. So a receiver aircraft comes up behind the KC-135 and the boom flies the boom into position and makes contact with the receiver aircraft so we can pass critical fuel to either extend the range of aircraft or increase their time over station. So typically for fighters, we're increasing their time over station or increasing their range. And the same with bombers, we're increasing their range and their ability to reach out and touch the enemy. It's pretty unusual to see heavy jumbo jets in formation in a low altitude. So we're going to be flying over Hickam and Kalei Loa and Punchbowl at a relatively low altitude as compared to normal. And you're going to see four large jets come across at the same time. So we're just demonstrating our skill set and our ability to fly in formation closely and handle these large aircraft which is necessary to do the missionary refueling. So you know, we're out there practicing our skills and demonstrating air power. Yeah, during the flyover, we really just want to say hello to the local community. Our unit and the wire guards made up of members of the local community and we're always looking to recruit more members. So we want to say thank you to the local community for support and we appreciate you for letting us fly our aircraft here.