SPOILS OF WAR SPARK HEALING AND FAITH AT NORTH TEXAS CHURCH
“I didn’t think I was going to get deliverance, but I did!”
Those are the words of Mary T., who attended Freedom Night at World Healing Church in Arlington, Texas on Friday, July 31st. What some may have expected to be just another church service turned out to be the day of emancipation for at least one North Texas family. Mary and her daughter Imelda had visited the Freedom Arena in the past, but neither had been in a while. Seated on the front row, the unassuming duo was positioned by heaven to receive the benefits of the cross.
Taking the platform at the end of worship, Apostle Ed Citronnelli, founder of World Healing Church and Host of Freedom Night, set the tone for the evening. “I want you to say one word with me. This is going to establish what you get out of this night. And, in fact, for the rest of your life. Are you ready? Look at three people and tell them, ‘Expect what Jesus promised He would do.’ Tell them, ‘Expectation tonight is the word.’”
This was more than a simple exhortation. Something had shifted in this seasoned leader of the faith. During the Fanning the Flame prayer meeting the evening prior, the Word of the Lord had landed like a bomb. Apostle Ed addressed the group with excitement, but in a measured, contemplative tone as if he were still processing the very thing that he was explaining. What happened for Mary, her daughter Imelda, and many others was an aftershock.
“Expect it, expect it, expect it,” the Voice of the Lord had declared in the prayer meeting. “In My Kingdom: [if] you expect it, you receive it. [If] you wait for it, you will get it… Expecting something is receiving in motion of that something. Expect it. Your expectation puts it in motion.”
Stepping into Freedom Night, that expectation was on full display in the front of the sanctuary. Empty wheelchairs were on the platform. Canes, walkers, and crutches were leaning against it. These weren’t medical artifacts. They were testimonies of healing from crusades past. Spoils of war, as Apostle Ed referred to them, brought back as memorial stones of miracles and moments of God’s power made manifest. Picking up two of the canes, Apostle Ed noted his remembrance of where they had come from, emphasizing that their original owners did not leave the meeting with their conditions. They had been set free.
“As you can see, this person also did not go back with their problem,” he said, placing the second cane down. “Jesus is a healer. I said, Jesus is a healer. He’s a deliverer. And, He’s here tonight.” This marked a transition in the gathering.
Apostle Ed began to lead the room in making a personal decree that abruptly gave way to the word of knowledge for healing. “Bones. Bones. Bones. Circulation, I’m hearing also. Get out of your seat and come up now. You see, we don’t have to have a crusade to heal the sick. Let’s just heal the sick in the Name of Jesus. He said, ‘In My Name, go and do it.’”
Out from their seats, the people came with pain and ailments —pinched nerves, numbness, painful circulation, and more—all publicly acknowledged before they were ministered to. When asked how long they had been experiencing these physical difficulties, the numbers were sobering. Five years, six years, two years, twenty years. All too long in the light of the Gospel.
“How can we be in church worshiping God, when He said, ‘I am the God that healeth thee,’ and we’re not healed?” Apostle Ed asked, bothered by the plight of the believers who stood before him on the ministry line. After a brief exhortation on the imperativeness of keeping speech and thinking aligned with the spiritual reality of received healing, quick work was made of the ministry line. The power of God was on display as people fell and shook under the working of the Holy Spirit.
“If I laid hands on you, begin to check yourself. How do you know if He did it or not?” Apostle Ed challenged as the altar cleared. Noticing Mary T. in the front, her face still wet with water from the healing line, he extended the microphone to her, asking about what she was experiencing.
“I used to hurt when I got up, and I didn’t feel nothing,” she said, giving the congregation and Apostle Ed cause for celebration. Catching up with her after the service, Mary expanded on her experience:
“I didn’t think I was going to get deliverance, but I did. Because I couldn’t walk. I walk with a cane, but I forgot it. And so, I’m so happy that I came, because I got deliverance and I don’t hurt no more. I mean, I couldn’t even walk. I couldn’t even get up, you know? When I’m on the floor, it takes me a long time to get up because it hurts me a lot. But. I feel delivered.”
Mary’s daughter Imelda was also powerfully touched by the Lord in the service.
“I felt like I was trapped. I felt like I was lost,” the young woman shared after the service. “I felt like I was going to give up. I wanted to give up… this was my last place, my last chance to finally be free, to not be enslaved. And it was just an incredible feeling now, that I am now feeling peace, love, and freedom. And that’s why I came here, to get that freedom, get my authority back, my identity back.”
More Than a Service
Freedom Night was fast-paced. Most of what has been described above took place within the first twenty-three minutes of the livestream—a testament to how quickly the Spirit of the Lord began to manifest in the service. The two hours that followed positioned those in attendance to step into a new level of faith. The power of God continued to manifest through prophecy, healing, and deliverance, but in the midst of it all, there was a clear apostolic grace flowing. Not only was the message on the liberty of the Spirit powerful, but the exhortations released were also nods to the life-changing revelation that had been released in the prayer meeting the evening prior.
The service had been intentionally orchestrated to help congregants grasp the revelation and run with it as well. Deep into the service, Apostle Ed pulled the attention back to the wheelchairs, walkers, and other mobility devices on the platform. “Some of these things that we bring back from the crusades—it’s not that we want to carry stuff, but this is a reminder that Jesus is a healer. A deliverer. And this is a visual to encourage someone’s faith that if you need healing tonight, you can be healed,” he said. “…Like these people that were in the wheelchairs started walking. If God can raise the crippled to walk, what about you? What about me?”
This wasn’t only a service. It was a gate into a new era. World Healing Church’s mission begins by declaring the North Texas assembly to be a place of transformation. Over the last three months, this has been true for the attendees, but also for the leaders and the congregation overall. The corporate identity and functionality have shifted. The restoration of the altar of prayer has led to increased power, more team ministry, and the exercise of the gifts of the Holy Spirit throughout the congregation, as opposed to only on the platform. There have been observable changes in the ministries of staff clergy, with powerful corporate moments involving Associate Pastor David Ahart and young adult minister Ronnie Lampkin being experienced since the local church stepped into this season of the renewal of the Holy Spirit on Sunday, May 17th.
Reflecting on the release of revelation that happened during the Thursday evening prayer meeting, Apostle Ed shared, “I’ve been in ministry for a long time. But what happened to me yesterday—I was telling them—changed everything in my life and ministry. You have not seen Ed Citronnelli yet. Get ready. I’m about to manifest. I’m expecting things. And I learned about the power of expectation.”
It was a Word of the Lord that tied all the previous words together. Nearly every week since the Fanning the Flame prayer meetings were added, they have proven to be a training ground for prophetic intercession and an incubator for prophecy. Scripture declares that “we know in part and we prophesy in part.” (1 Corinthians 13:9) Over time, the parts expressed in the prayer meetings have come together to paint an image of end-time revival that is not only spectacular, but is also imminently approaching. The light of the revelation of the Word of God about expectation lands in this context with explosive implications. Not only does it reaffirm what has already been said declaratively, but it calls believers back to a core component of the apostolic message: faith.
Filled with that faith, as the service closed, Apostle Ed stood in the gate of the month of August and made prophetic decrees that thrust the lives of the attendees forward. The month of new beginnings was a few hours away, but many in the room were already standing in the middle of their fresh start. They had been touched by the Spirit of the Lord and equipped by the teaching of the Word. All in attendance had been given a white handkerchief as a point of contact for their faith. They weren’t leaving waving white flags of surrender to the enemy, but victory in Jesus. Their freedom had come.
EN 
ES