There’s a good reason, my mind raced back to the night someone tried to kill me on the U. C. Berkeley campus. In a few days, we will take the biggest risk in the history of Mario Murillo Ministries. We are about to invest more money, train more soldiers, and cast the deepest, and widest net for souls in California.

Believe me, praying over 5 Miracle rallies in Churches, followed by 5 meetings with leaders, culminating in 5 Living Proof Tent crusades is overwhelming tonight. It is a crushing weight.

God answered in a strange way. Instantly, I was taken back to Berkeley—back to that fateful day on campus. Why was God taking me back to this day? What did it have to do with Living Proof California?

I recall that day in Berkeley as if it just happened. I am so terrified of witnessing that I am pacing and praying all day on a hillside above the campus of 44,000 students.  I ask God: “How do I reach a generation of students who are bent on Marxist revolution?”

One voice within me argued, “You must study the great modern apologists of the faith and give an intellectual defense of the faith.  Immerse yourself in the writings of Francis Schaeffer, C. S. Lewis, and G. K. Chesterton.”   The other voice said simply, “It is not by might nor by power, but by My spirit.”

The answer came emphatically that night.  I am sharing my intellect based “apologetic faith” with a flower child in front of the Student Union Building of Cal. Berkeley at about 11 p.m.   What I could not see was the massive, angry radical, stealing up behind me.

This atheist Goliath grabs me by the neck and begins choking the life out of me, I realize the words of great Christian intellectuals are useless now.  I am sure that young campus radical did not understand why he felt this sudden rage against me.

The powers of darkness understand what was at stake here: Miracle based soul winning is a grave threat to Satan, and demons will stop at nothing to kill miracle ministry before it is born.

God orders me to take my stand in the power of the Spirit, and in my own faltering way I did.  My assailant suddenly stopped and stood stunned by something he saw behind me in the shadows.  To this day I do not know what startled him, I only know that he released his grip on my throat and I ran. As I ran, I affirmed my commitment to the Supernatural Gospel of Christ.

That did it! We began telling people they could come and be healed. Having settled the question in Berkeley, we announced our first healing rally.  I was such a raw recruit that I stood in front of the audience, frozen in fear.

In the crowd that night a young man lay unconscious on a couch at the back of the chapel.  A mixture of LSD and heroin had put him into a coma.   Supernaturally, by the power of the Holy Spirit, he woke up and his symptoms vanished.   He came to the front and knelt in utter adoration of God.

This single healing launched ten years of harvest on the Berkeley University campus.

I returned to the present and heard this phrase: Declaring miracle healing to a skeptical public is not theatrics. It’s a solemn duty.”

We now know that our problem is not just the budget or the magnitude of the task.  Our issue was with miracles. There is so much skepticism, and there has been so much abuse, that we felt a soberness about miracles. We don’t want to be confused with any of the charlatans who operate freely today.

Is it even right to publicly offer hope to those medical science can’t help?  Is it right to raise the expectations of those who have given up on everything else? Then it hit me: Jesus, at the dawn of His ministry made this very public announcement:

Luke 4:18: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; 19 to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

He did this, so that the miracles can be released.  And that is precisely what we, the church of Jesus should do.  We must go public.

If what say we say about Christ’s power to save and heal is false, then we are, as Paul said, the worst liars in history.  But if it is true, we must offer it freely and publicly, or we are the worst traitors in history!

So what if some have abused the gifts of the Spirit. Does that mean we do not do it right—by the power and leading of the Holy Spirit? So what if some say miracles are not for today? Do we go by man’s word or by God’s word?

I have my answer. Not only is it right to offer hope and declare openly the available miracles of Jesus—it is our duty.

In our tent, the rules of the street will die. In our tent, the chains of sickness and despair will fall off. In our tent an entire generation of Californians will find the life they were born to live. Do what you can to get involved in this most holy mission to California.

P.S. Our very first event for Living Proof California is in Chico. Join us for monumental miracle meetings. Here’s a video message from Mario.

https://www.facebook.com/mariomurilloministry/videos/593175321244358/