God uses my wife, Cathy, in mysterious ways. It’s so mysterious I don’t even understand it. All I know is that my wife has been given the ministry of tears. She can’t open her mouth to preach a sermon without crying. She gets very emotional when she preaches. Let me tell you what I mean.
I got a call one day to do a television interview, and I asked Cathy to go along with me.
“I don’t want to go,” she told me.
“Come on,” I said.
“But they want to talk to you,” she said.
“Well, talking to me is talking to you,” I explained. “Come on. I want you to be with me on the program.”
“I don’t want to go,” she insisted.
Man, she was reluctant. I had to drag her onto that program with me, but I finally got her to go. She sat right there on stage with me as they interviewed me. They asked me to go over my testimony and explain how the Lord delivered me from my heathenistic lifestyle and got me into the ministry. I started talking about it, and before you knew it, I was preaching. I had the Holy Ghost working through me, and I was preaching the gospel to those people.
After a while the host of the show said, “Isn’t that wonderful? People in the television audience, I want you to get on your phone and call if you’re being touched by the power of God.” Then he turned to me and said, “Now, you have your lovely wife with you.”
“Yes,” I said, “this is my wife, Cathy.”
He turned to Cathy and asked, “Cathy, would you please tell us how it happened that you got saved before Jesse did? What happened?”
Now, I knew that Cathy usually didn’t preach without crying. So I was ready to see her start crying, but I had no idea that everyone connected with the whole show was going to start bawling too. Cathy started talking about how the Lord had come into her life, and sure enough – Boo hoo, hoo – she started to cry.
I looked over and saw Cathy crying, and it made me cry! I started going, “Oh, bububububububu.” Now Cathy was crying, I was crying and then the host started crying! He just looked over at the two of us blubbering away and started crying himself. He forgot all about me.
Once that happened, the phones started ringing off the wall. People were being touched. It was wonderful. That precious gift of tears from the Holy Ghost went right through that camera and into the homes of the people who were watching.
For example, one woman called and told Cathy she would share her heart with Cathy because Cathy had gotten that heathen of a husband saved. At that point, my tears stopped, and I said, “Wait a minute, ma’am. I used to be a heathen, but I’m not a heathen anymore.”
“Yeah,” she said, “but I don’t doubt there’s some traces of it still in your life.”
“All right,” I said, “it’s time to take the next call.”
We had fun that day watching the Lord use Cathy to minister to people. Like I said, He always used tears during Cathy’s sermon to get through to people. Well, that was about to change.
I’ll never forget the first time Cathy preached a full sermon. It was a blessing, because it was a shock to me and everyone else. One day Cathy came to me and said, “I’m going to preach without crying!”
I thought, Praise God. I’ve got to see this. Hallelujah! She’s crossed her Jordan. She’s possessing the land!
Cathy made up her mind to preach a full-length sermon without tears, and she did! She went out there and “jumped across the Jordan.” The Hittites were there, but she just kept going. She started preaching a mile a minute. She said, “I want to tell you what God said… and I want you to turn to the book of Genesis… and Jesus… I want to tell you, He’s Lord…!”
Now, my wife doesn’t usually talk fast. In fact, I talk a lot faster than she does, but when she started to preach that day, she talked at lightening speed. She talked so fast that she preached an hour’s sermon in two minutes. And when she was done, she stopped and said, “Now that’s the truth!” It had authority.
I heard that and thought, Who was that? Was that my wife? Hey, let’s go back a few verses because I missed something. Did that get on tape?
It was too fast!
“We tried to get it on tape,” the tape guys said, “but it was too fast.”
Afterward, Cathy was concerned about her delivery. Naturally, she wanted to know she did well, but it had nothing to do with that delivery. I want you to get the point. It had nothing to do with delivery. What Cathy said in those few minutes changed people’s lives. God supernaturally sped up people’s hearing. The audience went, Wrrrr, werrrrr-yeah. I got it! It was powerful.
As a result of that message from the Holy Ghost, people came to the altar, bawling and squawling, and got saved like never before. I heard one person say, “That’s the way I like preaching. You can understand it.”
It was a miracle. God moved on Cathy’s heart, and she entered into a new flow. That’s why you can never get bored with the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost won’t always minister the same way every time. But if you’re bored with the gospel, and if the Bible is stale to you, then you need a refreshing.
Ask God to open up his Word to you and make it alive to your heart. Don’t ever let the Bible get old. Learn to expect surprises from God that will bless you.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers
Jesse Duplantis, minister of the Gospel, motivational speaker, television personality, and best-selling author, has been in full-time ministry since 1976 and is the founder of Jesse Duplantis Ministries, located in the Greater New Orleans area of south Louisiana in the United States of America. With over four decades of sharing his unique blend of humor and faith around the world, generations of believers have been inspired by his messages and countless numbers have come to know Jesus Christ as Savior through his ministry.
Known for his unflinching, status-quo-breaking messages and humorous take on experiences in the life of the believer, Jesse continues to draw large audiences of believers through social media, television, and meetings held around the world. With speaking engagements booked years in advance, Jesse Duplantis continues to keep an intense traveling schedule, flying throughout the United States and the world preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. With no booking agents pursuing meetings for him and no set fees imposed upon churches for speaking engagements, Jesse chooses his outreach meetings based on the same two criteria he always has: invitations that come in and prayer over each one. This uncommon way of scheduling in today’s world means Jesse’s many followers may find him speaking in some of the largest churches and venues in America and the world, as well as a great many small and growing congregations, too. No church is too big or small for the Holy Spirit, as he says.
Side by side with his wife Cathy Duplantis, the co-founder and chief of staff of Jesse Duplantis Ministries and the senior pastor of Covenant Church in Destrehan, Louisiana, Jesse continues to fulfill his life’s calling by daily taking up the Great Commission of Jesus Christ: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Through social media, television broadcasts, books, and other ministry products, as well as through many evangelistic meetings, the JDM website, the JDM app, and Voice of the Covenant magazine, Jesse Duplantis continues to see growth in his ministry and expand each year while maintaining his roots. Jesus is the center of his life. The salvation of lost people and the growth of believers is the purpose of his ministry. And for both he and his wife, every day is another day to “Reach People and Change Lives, One Soul at a Time.”