Testimonies

I have enjoyed every Vineyard Holy Spirit night I have attended. The worship is wonderful and it always ushers me into the presence of God. I come away touched and encouraged, but until this last Holy Spirit night, I have not really had a powerful personal encounter with the Holy Spirit. I waited and hoped, but nothing significant happened and I was a bit disappointed.

Prior to the last Holy Spirit night on October 13, I had become aware through messages preached by Mark Stephenson that my heart had been hardening due to some difficult things going on in my life. This led to the conviction that the lack of a powerful personal encounter with the Holy Spirit was because my heart was hard. I wasn't letting the Holy Spirit in. As we headed to Holy Spirit Night, I decided that if I was going to have a meaningful personal encounter, I had to pursue Jesus rather than waiting for Him to come to me. I needed to cry out to Jesus to break down the hardness that had formed around my heart so he could come in.

I think my heart condition stemmed primarily from buying into Satan's lie that I was not loved. I came into the Holy Spirit night filled with a desperate need to feel loved, and I knew the love and acceptance I was craving had to come from Jesus. While I was praying for Jesus to break down the hard shell that had formed around my heart, I pictured myself sitting at His feet with my head on His knee. I pictured his hand patting my head and prayed that I would feel his loving touch and acceptance. I sought this earnestly. After a while, I physically felt a sensation in my chest like the hard shell was breaking. I began to feel warmth and the love I was so desperately seeking. I began to cry which I recognize was an outward sign of the breaking down of my walls.

About that time, one of the pastors came by and put his hand on my shoulder and began to pray for me even though I had not asked for this. It was a very nice and encouraging, somewhat general, prayer, but after just a few words, he stopped speaking. After a pause, he said he felt strongly that Jesus wanted him to tell me some things. Then he started sharing what he felt Jesus wanted him to say to me. He said "Jesus loves you". "He values you." "You are precious to Him and He sees you much differently that you see yourself." He said, "Jesus wants me to know that the things I say to myself are not true of how He sees me." Everything he said was something I needed to hear. Through this pastor, Jesus spoke love to me. Jesus met me personally where I was and answered my prayer. I left the service overwhelmed and humbled by the knowledge that I am important enough for God to single me out and make sure I received His personal touch. The touch I needed. Amazingly, He did that for me at the same time he was doing it for a bunch of other people in that room. It was powerful!
-Rose

Meeting with the Inner Healing and Deliverance Ministry was the most impactful and liberating experience of my life.

I accepted Jesus into my heart very young but did not have a real relationship with him until my 20s. My life had been full of abuse, trauma, sickness and broken relationships. In fact, my earliest memory is of abuse. I was a very damaged person who the Lord patiently cared for and guided into a deeper walk with Him. Even through an abusive marriage, single parenthood and many dry spiritual years that seemed stagnant, He never abandoned me. In recent years my spiritual life has accelerated, there have been many battles and many victories and I decided that, if anything was still hindering me going deeper with the Lord, I wanted it gone.

The prayer team took me through forgiveness, release from trauma, generational curses, and occult involvement. They made sure all windows and doors of my spiritual house were secured, then proceeded to help me clean house.

I have never experienced such a feeling of lightness, joy, peace, and purity. It’s like an enormous weight has been removed, a weight that had been present so long, that I was unaware it was not part of me. Within a few days I even noticed changes in my confidence; I now feel more sure of who I am, because of Whose I am. I have noticed a major shift in attitude that has spilled into every area of my life.

Thank you Sweet Jesus for your sacrifice that I may be whole. Rev 12:11 says it all, “they overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony”. There are no words that can clearly convey the liberation I felt. Even now, I find myself dancing because of the victory that I have experienced.
-D.B.

After over a decade of living for myself, I rededicated my life to Jesus Christ in October of 2023. A few months later, while spending time with the Father, He told me to start praying. I began to pray and immediately felt the power of the Holy Spirit fall upon me. This seemed to spark a reaction within me, and without understanding what was happening, the demon attached to me began to manifest. [A demonic manifestation is when a demon causes outward spontaneous physical reactions.]

 I was delivered of something that night as I felt a presence leave me. With no understanding of the demonic or deliverance ministry, I went on with my week as normal. But the Lord was not done with me yet.

Over the next few weeks, I experienced another demonic manifestation and sought two family members to help pray with me. They had never prayed through deliverance with anyone before but were willing. While we prayed, a couple of things left me, but I was still manifesting and soon very little was happening to free me from it. After a point of time, a VCC pastor arrived to help. As the pastor lead the prayer session, I soon found peace and freedom in Jesus Christ. After a number of prayer sessions, I have continued to experience greater and greater freedom and here is what I have learned: Deliverance ministry is not what Hollywood portrays—it is nothing to be afraid of.. Our intimacy with Jesus deepens the more we get free. It’s not easy but freedom is available through Jesus Christ.
-K.F.

For the past decade or so, I was intentionally hiding myself away from a real relationship with God. Many different reasons and experiences factor into that decision, but the main one was due to a crippling fear that had a grip on me. I have always been able to discern spiritual things. Because I didn’t know my authority in Christ I ended up shutting my gifting down.  From then on I was comfortable living a life as a surface level believer.

Fast forward to fall 2023, my three year old daughter began to tell my husband and I about the angels she was seeing in her room and in her dreams. She would describe their appearance and how they would sing over her at night. Once she said Jesus laid with her in bed to bring her comfort and rest. We were amazed! We had only just begun reading her kids Bible but hadn't discussed angels yet. God nudged me in that moment - as her mom I needed to address my fear and deepen my relationship with God so my kids would grow to understand their strength and identity in Christ.

So, I made an appointment for prayer. I went with full faith that I wouldn't leave the same - I absolutely didn't! I was delivered from a lot of demonic oppression and received a lot of inner healing as well. The biggest thing I learned was that the fear, anxiety and panic I dealt with for so long was all just a bunch of smoke and mirrors. Satan doesn't want you knowing your identity, he doesn't want you operating in your gifting or speaking truth. But you know what? God does. He will give you peace in your heart and joy in your life. Praise God for still loving me even though I was scared. Praise God for guiding me every day. What a sweet freedom I have found in Him. God is a wonderful Father!
-K.S.

I never thought I would be writing a testimony like this. Inner healing and deliverance were actually not on my radar until the past year. I thought the darkness, grief, heaviness, and brokenness I was walking through was just “my life”. I bought the lies that said “it’s for others, not you. It won’t stick. Your family will disown you. Others will think you’re crazy”. Late last year I reached a point where I needed help.

I began looking into options at VCC. I began in December with an inner healing and deliverance session with the prayer team. Jesus freed me from the spirit of death and several generational curses on my family line. I walked out free and with the knowledge of knowing that my life doesn’t have to be like before.

January through May 2024 I participated in Living Waters at VCC, it also brought much healing to wounds from my family and wounds I inflicted upon myself.

On September 18, 2024, I had a second inner healing/deliverance session at VCC. In this one, Jesus physically healed the backs of my legs from a painful rash that doctors could not diagnose. I have also had an autoimmune disorder in which my toes and feet turn purple and that too was broken. My feet and toes, for the most part and most of the time, are a normal color now. Most of all, Jesus showed me that I don’t have to live with lies surrounding my life. It has ignited a spark inside me to see others set free as well.
-A.N.N.

My prayer session with the inner healing and deliverance team was awesome! The deliverance team was very respectful and did a great job at making me feel as loved and comforted as possible. The prayer session was very healing and transformative on my life. I have felt a greater sense of peace and closeness with the Father since my prayer session. I am so happy I chose to follow God's guidance in receiving prayer!
-J.F.