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Falling Stars! |
Jimmy Swaggart
Praise the Lord. My name is Alan Richardson and I had a motorcycle accident in September of 1985 which left me a paraplegic. In my case I am completely paralyzed (no voluntary movement) from the middle of my back, all the way down to my toes. I was 20 years old when I had the accident. After I turned 29, a young lady who dated one of my best friends in high school invited me to a “Miracle Crusade” where the Lord Jesus opened my “denominational eyes” to His healing power by delivering a man out of a wheelchair – by obliterating the A.I.D.S. virus that was destroying him. And as great as it was to know about this miracle, it was what the Lord used to give me “eyes of my understanding” – whereby I could now be able to receive the miracle of being delivered from the wheelchair that I am in. I firmly believe that God will not stop there, but that He will use me to deliver others from similar debilitating conditions like the one I have lived with and grown in faith through. This was made evident to me by the Holy Spirit through the miracle in that young man’s life that night. It was the presence of God and the promise of God that changed my life that weekend, and for ever.
I am now part of a prophetic ministry – a ministry of prophets – that is called to “minister to ministers”. It includes imparting that which the Lord has for those called to the “5-fold ministry” who many times have been used to impart spiritual virtue and truth and instruction into our lives. In this case, Jimmy Swaggart Ministries. We are blessed to be used by God to speak and show men and women who have been mightily used of God in our own lives – the correction He directs us to give them. This becomes necessary because a child of God either has become DULL OF HEARING by compromising the commands of God for his life, or because he just DOES NOT WANT to hear every word of God for his life...
What I have to say in this expose' concerning Brother Jimmy Swaggart and Jimmy Swaggart Ministries I speak will both reluctance and sadness of heart. This is because I have been abundantly blessed by the Lord Jesus Christ through Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, over the past 10 years.
I was delivered from the horrible bondage of depression the year following my introduction to the very anointed music of Family Worship Center (the church pastored by Jimmy Swaggart, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana). The Spirit of God ministered His glorious deliverance to me through one JSM’s music videos, bringing me out darkness, and into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).
It was through being delivered from the bondage of depression that I became drawn to Jimmy Swaggart Ministries many times stronger. I made my first visit to this ministry two months afterward, when a precious Brother from my home church in Houston borrowed his sister's car and we made our first visit to Family Worship Center at the tail end of the Thanksgiving Campmeeting, November 1996. The leaders and members and visitors of FWC have been wonderful to know, and have multiplied blessings in and to my life. I can not say enough about the first full Campmeeting I attended there (Thanksgiving 1997), but I can say that it was “life-changing”. In fact I have been associated with the FMHCCI prophetic ministry and its founder, Bruce Hallman, since the LORD brought him and me together at the Campmeeting.
The following passage from the Bible is what the Lord is directing our attention to through this message, that must be the driving force for us as Christians, to be willing to suffer for the cause of Christ in our lives that must be hidden in Him: “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knowth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent [H]is only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through [H]im. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that [H]e loved us, and sent [H]is Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” - 1 John 4:7-11 (KJV)
Now we must speak the truth in LOVE and love speaks the TRUTH – and the Truth often cuts to the heart and is painful, as the “two-edged sword” is meant to reveal the sin in us (Hebrews 4:12). The love of God has been squelched at Jimmy Swaggart Ministries because the spirit of error and the spirit of Jezebel which will manifest in jealousy and in controlling of others dominates the operating of that ministry.
I attended several Campmeetings at Family Worship Center before attending the Easter Campmeeting in 2003. It was another wonderful week in the Lord. When I awakened in my dorm at Jimmy Swaggart Ministries campus the morning I was to return to Houston, I discovered my bowel accident that happened as I was sleeping. A loving Brother named Nolan assisted me in setting up the shower bench that Brother Christian supplied shortly after I arrived at the dorm the previous Wednesday. Nolan carried on a spiritual and comforting conversation with me, and bagged my soiled clothes, before he waited for me to clean off in the shower. Nolan also assisted me in getting my bags to the lobby for my secondary departure time at the Greyhound Bus Station. The man was my angel (messenger from God).
I returned to Houston where I attended church and lived with my mother for several more months until it was time for Jimmy Swaggart’s Thanksgiving Campmeeting. I called to make reservations to stay in the dorm for the Campmeeting, and was told that I must bring a person [attendant] with me if I planned to stay in their dormitory for the Campmeeting. She told me she was sorry, and that she was doing what she was told to do by requiring I bring an attendant to stay at the dorm with me. This would be the required for every Campmeeting I planned to attend.
I had sent a check in as a deposit on a dorm room, but now I would have to locate someone in Houston that either wanted to attend the Campmeeting or would be willing to stay with me for the five (5) days of “Camp” in Baton Rouge. I was not able to locate anyone who would travel with me to Baton Rouge for the Campmeeting, so I had not choice but to cancel my dorm reservations. The sister that makes the reservations for lodging for the week of Thanksgiving and graciously said that she was “so sorry”. I was very disappointed and sorry that I missed what must have been another great Campmeeting.
In December of 2003, I attended another “Miracle Crusade” like the one where I gave my life to the Lord. In November of 2003 (the month prior to the Crusade), the Lord arranged once again for my deliverance from the spirit of depression that month – my second deliverance during my Christian experience. And what a marvelous deliverance He is. The second period of depression I suffered lasted for a period of 47 months. During one of the services at the Miracle Crusade in Waco, Texas, the LORD ministered to me by splitting the number “47” apart in the numbers “4” and “7”. He did this in order to show me the “4th” month and the “7th” month, and through these two particular months was the message that me and my dear Brother were to attend two particular campmeetings. They would be held during the “4th” month (April) and the “7th” month (July) of the following year. So through the fact that I endured 47 months of depression, the LORD gave me a instructions to attend the Easter Campmeeting at Family Worship Center (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) and the July 4th Campmeeting (World Harvest Church, Columbus, Ohio). Now the LORD did this in order for me to make reservations for 2 people at attend the Campmeeting at Family Worship Center/Jimmy Swaggart Ministries. I was able to tell the Sister that makes the reservations at JSM dorm that I would be bringing someone with me – for the Easter Campmeeting (2004) – as I believed I would – because the Lord gave me instructions to be in attendance. The Lord sent me to Jimmy Swaggart’s 2004 Easter Campmeeting to fulfill mission, which was to challenge what was said to me concerning an attendant being necessary in order for me to stay in the dorms during Campmeetings.
My Brother in the Lord did not feel that he received any instruction to attend the Campmeeting in Baton Rouge, or the one in Columbus, either. But my mission concerning the first Campmeeting (Easter, 2004) was clear in my mind: To check in and stay in the dorm as I usually have, in spite of “the powers that be” at Jimmy Swaggart Ministries having made it mandatory that I bring someone along with me. That’s what I did. Before and after Campmeeting services at the Family Worship Center church, I made an effort to avoid the Sister that makes the Campmeeting reservations, for fear that she would somehow recognize that I had not met the requirement for bringing a person with me in order that I might enjoy the benefits of remaining in the dorm for that and upcoming Campmeeting weeks.
In a way, I brought someone to the Campmeeting with me. My mentor whom I met at my very first Campmeeting at JSM in 1997 was available for me to keep in close touch with during the Campmeeting. That is Brother Bruce Hallman, who has been heading up the FMH Children’s Club ministry in El Paso, Texas, for 10 years. While I was at the Campmeeting in Baton Rouge, Brother Bruce was in El Paso and he was used of the Lord to pray with me and confirm what the Lord had for me to accomplish, as well as to minister encouragement to me. What the Lord wanted me to do was to speak to Sister Frances Swaggart, the person who delegates a great deal of responsibility at JSM. I was to speak to her on following the last night service (Saturday) of the Campmeeting. During my conversation with Brother Bruce before I approached Sister Frances, I asked who he thought was over the dorms at the church. He said that he was pretty sure that it was Frances. When I heard that, I was ready to turn back from my mission, for fear!
I knew I had a job to do and that I could not bail out on my mission for the Lord. I set out at the usual time to attend the evening service and for my meeting with “Miss Frances” that Saturday. There is a short bridge or ramp that was built so that members and visitors of Family Worship Center have a safe way to cross the busy street in getting from the dorm to the church. When I have to make my way over the ramp by myself, I always use a “slalom” approach in getting up the steep grade. But on this night, I ascended up the ramp directly, by the might of the Lord – in a straight line! This was encouragement for me, from the Lord, and put the intimidation back in the devil’s camp. After the Saturday night service came to a close, I approached the platform where I saw Sister Frances gathering her things to make her way off of the platform. I called her name, and she did not hear me. I began to feel the fear that I would fail to get her attention and speak the word that I had prepared to deliver. But one the church elders noticed me, and he got her attention for me. Frances walked over to the railing that I was sitting next to and greeted me. I told her I had something to confess to her, that I had been required to bring someone with me to Campmeetings in order to be allowed to stay in the dorms, but was disobeying those instructions by staying in the dorms that week. Her reply was, “Well, we’re glad to have you.” It was the following day that Gabriel Swaggart walked over to the place where I sit during church, and said, “You've got to stay, you’re part of the family...” This was a reassurance for me that I have a place and an influence with Jimmy Swaggart Ministries...
The Scripture that applies to the situation as described is 2 Corinthians 6:1-13. In verse 13 the Apostle Paul declares that his “heart is enlarged” toward the church at Corinth. But like the church at Corinth that Paul was addressing, the hearts of those directing the ministry at JSM were not “enlarged”, in that the love of God was lacking as evidence by the stipulation that I bring a person from Houston with in order to stay in their dorms for Campmeeting. As a highly functioning handicapped person, this is not the kind of response I would ever expect from Jimmy Swaggart Ministries. Sadly, this is a picture of the spirit in the ministry today and I have experienced rejection from the ministry myself after having been blessed by participating in Campmeetings during the previous 5 years. I am not looking for anything from JSM other than that they conduct the affairs of the ministry the way that God would have them to do it – GOD's way – is the only way...
Brother Jimmy defines the prophetic ministry (the prophets) as that which calls the Church back to righteousness. The Church is not hearkening unto the word/voice of the Lord, yet he – Jimmy – rejects the prophets that are sent to him. He has been proclaiming that he doesn't need any prophet [the prophetic ministry] to speak into his life, saying “I can hear from God, too.” Yes – he and any believer – can and should hear from God. Yet when we allow ourselves to be intimidated by discomfort or by the devil to “bury” the word and directive of God to our hearts as did the man in the Bible who was given the one talent that remained unfruitful, make the truth of God into a lie. God’s word is designed to operate and remove certain areas of our “sin nature” through hearing His word and then obeying the command that He has given us. This is the process of sanctification and being formed into the image of Christ. But when we choose to entertain and retain the “sinful flesh” through rejecting God’s word that would serve to change us – we begin to be deaf to God in that area. Then God seeks to speak to and send a prophet to the individual to minister the word of God to the person who is hard of hearing, exposing the disobedience (sin) that has become a part of that person's life. So that they can make a course correction for their “ever-living” lives.
And this message is being sent out for that very purpose: to bring about a change in the lives of precious saints and ministers at JSM who seem to have lost sight of the meaning of ministry: people! The love of Jesus must be the order of the day if the saints are going to receive the ministry God wants them to have. The Spirit of God is He who knows the hearts and the needs of men, and ministries called of God must walk in obedience to the commands of Jesus so that people will receive what God has for them. To God be the praise.
I am truly grateful to have the blessing to fellowship and have some effect upon the Jimmy Swaggart Ministries family that I have come to know. That and for what God has done and will do in the lives of His people and the world. And Jimmy Swaggart Ministries be touched by the hand of God to minister to hearts that number in the millions around the earth, once again. Amen.
Alan Richardson
El Paso, Texas
8/27/05
[See Jimmy Swaggart Trashes Knee Worshiping Frances! (8/14/05) and The Word - Error In The Ministry! [An Open Letter To Jimmy And Donnie Swaggart!] for more details on "Frances Worship".]
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