In a world filled with sin lurking around every corner of society, one can miss the signs of light shining bright against the darkness.
This very thing is happening in Bakersfield, California, with evangelist Mario Murillo inviting the presence of the Lord to change the heart of the city.
His ministry has been reaping the fruits of their labor in a spiritually starved part of the country, and lives are being changed because of it.
Mario Murillo Ministries isn’t taking their foot off the pedal in 2023, either. If anything, they expect God to do even bigger and better things than in years past.
“We’re going to do a tent crusade on March 12th through the 15th in Bakersfield,” Murillo told Charisma News in an exclusive interview.
“It is a city that is trying to turn to God. It’s a city where our workers are going door to door and masses are being born again,” he continued.
There is a multitude of Bible verses telling of God’s faithfulness when His children seek Him, such as John 15:7 saying: “If you remain in Me, and My words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it shall be done for you.”
God tells His people He answers prayer. If Christians stay faithful and abide by His Word, He is faithful, often in the most unexpected ways.
“The last time we were there…I’m preaching in Bakersfield. We can’t get the people in the tent,” Murillo recalls. “The temperature outside is 40 degrees and people are shivering in the cold, standing out there for hours, lost souls, people that don’t know God.
“My sermon is interrupted by one of the leading drug dealers of the city of Bakersfield, who has in his possession a large bag of marijuana buds, worth a lot of money. And he’s holding it up and he runs to the front, and its like something you’d read out of Finney!
“He’s quaking. We have it on video, he’s quaking. He throws it on the floor and he says, ‘I cannot do this anymore!’ Security came [because] they thought he was going to attack me, but he said ‘No! Give me Jesus right now!'”
Miracles of the heart and much more are not intended to be a rare occurrence but a reality in the lives of Christians who are filled with the Spirit of God.
This is all part of the Great Commission that Jesus gives to His disciples in Matthew 18. He is with every Christian in the world who looks to make disciples in His name. There is a season for sowing and a season for reaping, and many believe now, as hearts are becoming vulnerable to the Lord due to spiritually vacuous situations in life, the time for a harvest has come.
“They want God,” says Murillo. “And what are [in] critical shortage? Workers. We don’t have nearly enough workers. That’s what led me to the book that I wrote called ‘It’s Our Turn Now,” where I describe the greatest undercurrent in American history, is that souls are ripening because of wokeness.
“Americans have had the color of life, the innocence of life, the enjoyment of life has been drained out of them, suffocated by a mask, terrified by a vaccine, told they’re racist, told they’re incapable of anything decent and that their words have to be marked.”
With the hopelessness and joylessness permeating society today, there is only one antidote to the sin of the world: Jesus Christ.
“This what I find 12 minutes into a sermon,” Murillo explains. “I have to stop because the audience wants to get saved…this is why I sit there, and I’m watching prostitutes, homeless people, drug addicts [get] saved, I can’t get enough workers.”
Active participation of the Christian faith is a requirement for those who claim to be followers of Jesus. There is no sitting on the sideline, what God has called one to do may differ from what He has called another for, but there is a place, purpose and calling on every single believer to participate in the Great Commission.
When Christians resist the devil’s lies and press into the Lord, He will show them the path He has set for them. It will not be without its struggles, but He is all the strength and peace anyone needs to answer the call on their life.
Abby Trivett 
Charisma Staff 
