As TIRELESS overcomers, founders of FWHope.org, feeding many thousands, with a hand-up to a very poor area, JoAnn & Orlando Reyes’ bold faith story will inspire and convict you to “love each other”. And now a stroke survivor!
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A Faith Story Full Of Hope With JoAnn Reyes
A good and beautiful day, you beautiful souls. This is Charla Anderson, host of The Charla Anderson Show, Collector and Connector of Fascinating People, and Everyone is Fascinating, especially YOU! We are on this extraordinary platform WinWinWomen.com and WinWinWomen.tv. We’re streaming live on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and soon to be on podcast with Podetize. We are all over the place. You’ll find all the replays on CharlaAnderson.com.
I am doing an Overcomers Series, and it may be the whole theme. I love that we have an amazing amount of people that I personally know that are miracle survivors and have done amazing work with their lives, and overcoming things. Every one of us is an overcomer. Some of us have big old stories to share. I’m very honored to have you tuning in with us.
I don’t know why I started this, but I love that I started having a breathing exercise and a mini meditation at the beginning of every one of my shows. This episode is no different. It is 22 seconds to center, breathe, and feel to get some calmness in. We’re going to do 7 seconds in, breathing in calm. We’re going to do a hold for 4, and 11 seconds out, breathing out gratitude. Will you join me with that? Here we go. Breathe in calm for 7 seconds. Hold. Breathe out gratitude and release. Thank you. We are now more centered. We’re more grounded. We can feel more confident. I love that. You can do that anytime, day or night. Anytime you feel stressed, it’s a great mini meditation right there in the middle of the day.
We’re going to talk about miraculous healing for this episode. My guest is JoAnn Reyes. She’s been the Cofounder of the HOPE Center in Fort Worth for decades ago now. They feed tens of thousands of people every year and every week, I believe. We’ll find out more about that. She’s a tireless leader. She’s the most humble, hardworking, committed, and bold-faith person that I know, and one of my favorite mentors. JoAnn, I’m so grateful to have you with me on the show. Welcome.
It is good to be here. It’s always fun to be around you and to be part of what you’re doing.
Years ago, when we first met, there was a miracle for that. Everything is a miracle, including this. I called you and asked you to be on my show. You said, “I’ve been wanting to get back on the stage and the public forum again.” Here you are calling me after I’ve had a year of recuperation, right?
Yes, I have. In January 2022, I had a very serious stroke. I’ve been recovering from that ever since.
It’s been over a year. That’s amazing. You look great. The world was praying for you. I’m certain about that. You’ve been a prayer for others for so many years. You’re such a delight and a calm influence. You have never ever given up on your bold faith in overcoming.
You guys have overcome so many things since I met you, which was in 2010 maybe. It was somewhere around there. That was a miracle story of how I found you guys. It was through Jeffrey Larson, I believe. It was an amazing time that we had together. Sporadic as it is sometimes. Let’s go back in time a little bit because so much of your history is building. You’ve been in ministry for so many years. I know that bold faith requirement to keep pushing through, overcoming, and finding the right niche, which I feel like you guys have done an amazing job.
You were born in Tennessee. You’ve got a Master’s in Religious Education from Southwestern Seminary. It’s where you met Mr. Orlando or Pastor Orlando, everybody’s favorite pastor. Orlando knew from day one that you were getting married and you were shocked. I remember some of those old stories. There are two couples in my life that I have learned that bold faith message. Who I am is bold faith and no fear. The reason I can say that is because of you and Orlando primarily. Please, let’s go from there. You got your Master’s degree. You guys got in ministry. You were doing whatever the Lord led.
I was teaching school and Orlando was finished up at the seminary. He then got a call from Kenneth Copeland’s office to come by the office. They were looking for someone to work with Kenneth, and someone had recommended Orlando. I quit teaching school and went with Orlando. We started traveling the United States with Kenneth. It was an exciting adventure.
Orlando was hired to be an intercessor. To pray for eight hours a day is what I understand. That’s pretty remarkable for anybody to do that. You ended up building coffee shops. It was all ministry-led. It was revival time.
We are experiencing that again with the Lord moving on college campuses, the way He is so miraculously. Back then, we were traveling with Kenneth, and we began to see that out in California. The Jews movement was being birthed. They were having mass baptisms in the ocean. All kinds of people were getting born again. They were wearing bumpers stickers and buttons on their shirts. They were walking the streets.
The Jesus movement was starting. There were all types of ministries, homes, and bible studies. Different ministries were springing up coffee houses. We were out there in the middle of that. The Lord began to show Orlando that we needed to have that here in Fort Worth. We came back from there and started the Cornerstone Coffee House Ministry. It was amazing. The anointing of the Lord was so powerful during that time. We met in an old nightclub. Orlando had a vision of what we were supposed to need. I recognized the house. He described it to me. We went over there and it had been a nightclub.
The Lord works crazy. He uses people with skin on. He uses real people. I’m going to add right here because we’re not talking about religion here. We’re not talking about the God-in-a-box religious program here. There’s no religion involved in what we are talking about. We’re talking about hope in bold faith and healing and overcoming. I want to throw that out there in the beginning. God doesn’t have a box. He uses all of us with skin on. We have miraculous stories to tell about that.
You guys ended up starting Without Walls Church. This was where I met you. You say the church has no walls. It’s the people in the streets. This is the most amazing thing to me. You started the HOPE Center in the Without Walls Church. How many people a week do you guys feed, and how many people a year do you guys feed physically with food?
We don’t provide the food hot. We provide groceries for people. They come to our center and we provide groceries. I don’t have the most current figures, but many thousands of people come to get groceries for their people or their families. We’re amazed how the Lord has raised it and helped us be able to do that.
We found that many places have food in their warehouses that they need to move on because it’s getting dated or whatever. They need to move them before it gets out of date, and they need a place to move them to. We began to contact these companies and say, “We know a place that would like your food.” We have lots of donors that help us have food. We are able to give it out to the people in the community. It’s wonderful.
It’s been going on for how many years?
Around twenty years.
I’ve been there. I’ve witnessed it. It’s amazing. You also provide job training in this place with forklift training, bakery training, and things that are needed. People need skills and an income. Those have been extremely successful, right?
Yes, it has. We found that people who are down and out, many times, they just need that door to open. To give them an opportunity to step out of the pit and into something is a blessing.
Those who are down and out many times just need an opportunity to step out of the pit and into some blessing. Click To TweetIt’s not just a handout, but a hand-up too. You guys are so great at that. I walk into that Walls church. It’s an old warehouse. You’ve made it as beautiful as you can. You feel the spirit going on in there. It’s beautiful. The miracles that I personally have witnessed and you guys have witnessed, you were raising the dead, even almost. I would include you in that. I also witnessed some miracles in the food. I remember one week, you said, “Next week is Thanksgiving. We gave out all the tickets for the turkeys, but we don’t have any turkeys.” How many turkeys did you get?
Several thousand turkeys. It was more than enough. We had plenty of turkeys to give to people.
You were doing it in faith. You were like, “Here’s the ticket to come get your Turkey next week. We’re doing it in faith. We don’t have turkeys, but we expect to have them.” That brings me to where we are in this little conversation of bold faith, speaking what you want. Jesus says, “Ask, believe, and receive.” I don’t think Jesus said, “Beg.” I don’t think He said, “Please, God. Please help me heal this person.” I was taught differently. I don’t think that we need to beg. We ask, believing that it’s already done and open to receiving it. I do believe some of the religious upbringings that we’ve had didn’t teach me that or didn’t teach a lot of us that. When we ask and believe that it’s already done, we receive and release it. That’s another thing. We ask, believe, do what needs to be done, and release it.
That’s what I’ve learned during this new adventure or new journey that I’ve been on. I had a lot of experiences through the years of healing. I pray and asked the Lord to heal me for various things. This time, I woke up and had a stroke. I ended up in the hospital. It was very serious. They didn’t think that I was going to make it. They called all of my family in and so forth.
When I woke up in the hospital, all my grandkids were there. My children were there. Everybody was there to say goodbye. I was like, “I’m not ready to go anywhere yet,” but they were there. I began to realize that something changed. I couldn’t move my limbs and my body. I couldn’t speak and see very clearly. I thought, “What is this?” The Lord began showing me that I had to have a new kind of experience with Him. I had to receive from Him. I asked, but you don’t just ask. You receive. I began to realize my new mission with Him. My new relationship with Him was learning how to receive.
He was a healer. He healed all kinds of paralytic people and people that had paralysis and so forth in the Bible. I knew it was for me, but I couldn’t figure out in my head how He could heal me. The Lord said, “You’ve got to start receiving. You’ve got to quit doubting that I can do it.” I began to listen to the Lord and let him show me where I was doubting. I was full of doubt. Even though I’ve been in ministry all these years, I was full of doubt about my healing.
I began to wash my mind out. He says, “Whatever you think, so are you. Your thoughts are what makes you.” I began realizing my thoughts during that time was very negative because I was scared and I was afraid. I didn’t want to be an invalid. The Lord helped me realize and change my thoughts around. He gave me the thoughts that I needed, which is His word. I began to find the words. That comforted me and helped me to see that my thoughts could be His thoughts of power and change my circumstances.
You watched my program with Michael and Gail. I was like, “I watched that heartbeat.” I thought, “If God can create it, He can heal it.” We have to start feeling that and recognizing it. If we have a breath, which is the breath of life, which is God in us, the I Am coming in us. What we speak after I Am is who we are in that moment completely. We have to be careful what we speak.
Every word matters in this whole journey I’m on. I am trying to help people understand. You think, “This job is killing me.” Don’t say that. Don’t say what you don’t want. That’s a whole bunch of what I’m trying to share in this show. You witnessed it firsthand. Matthew 9:29 says, “According to your faith, be it done to you.” According to your faith, it’s done. Why don’t we do it? Why aren’t we taught that?
Orlando got the TV fixed where I could hear the TV because I couldn’t see. I couldn’t move. My limbs were paralyzed at the time. I woke up in this world where I was trapped in this body. I recognized I was trapped in the body. I couldn’t move my body. I couldn’t do anything with my body. The Lord gave me some teachers. Joyce Meyer, Andrew Wileman, and different ones began to teach me that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. I had to quit thinking negative thoughts that would ruin me.
We’ve heard that verse all our lives, but you learned it. You lived it.
I was thinking, “I’m going to be an invalid forever.” I was panicking. I was concerned. I couldn’t move or do anything. It was the strangest feeling I’d ever had. It was to wake up and all of a sudden, I couldn’t function. As I began to listen to these programs on TV, because I could hear them, I began to record all types of scriptures and began to realize that Jesus is with you everywhere you go. The Lord says,
I’ll never leave you or forsake you.” I was feeling like He had left me, but He didn’t.
I began to meditate on who He was and began to get my mind to think the thoughts about what He promised me. For one thing, I began realizing that my mind was full of doubt. I didn’t think I had a doubt, but at the time, because my circumstances were so overwhelming, I was full of doubt. I had to address that doubt, get my mind full of faith, and begin to hear the scripture. I couldn’t read it, but I could hear people talking about the scriptures and telling me, “You are what you think. You’re a healer and you’re a deliverer. It’s in your mind.”
It’s in your vision. That’s the piece that most of us don’t recognize. Jesus said, “You can do what I did and even more.” Even more than Jesus did. Most of us know His miracles and things like that, but He said in John 14:12 that we can do what He did and even more. What I believe we’ve missed in a lot of our traditional religions is how to do that. The how is to thank you. It’s all about gratitude, every bit of it. That’s the key. It is thank you. Thank you that it’s already done. Live as if it’s already done. See it as already done. See things as seen that are unseen. You start visualizing how it’s going to feel when you can walk, when you can hold your grandbaby, when you can step out and do your ministry, or whatever is most important to you. Did you start doing the visualization?
Yes, I did. The thing that I was learning is I was listening to the teachers and trying to deal with my thoughts. My thoughts were bombarding me in the wrong direction. I was having to take control of it. You have to say, “Quit. You’re not thinking that. I’m not letting you think that.” My mind was going crazy. The thing that I began to realize was that the thoughts that changed me were His awareness that imagination is where it starts.
I had to change my imagination. If you have negative imagination, you’re worrying, and that’s where I was. Change your imagination to positive imagination. Positive imaginations give you hope. There’s thinking in the future without hope. This is what changed my concept of the HOPE Center. The HOPE Center is a place of positive imagination of giving hope to people.
If you have negative imaginations, you are worrying. Change them into positive imaginations that give you hope. Click To TweetAs I meditated on the positive imagination, I was able to get out of bed and do things with my grandchildren. I was able to play in the park. It was all these imaginations I was having that were positive. It was an effort to think those thoughts and have those imaginations because my body was screaming at me saying, “That’s ridiculous. You’re never going to do that.” I said, “No. This is what He is telling me.” I began to keep thinking about these imaginations.
I even thought about standing and speaking at women’s conferences. I would see myself on a stage speaking to people. It was interesting. It wasn’t too long ago that I had been asked to speak at a women’s conference. I was asked to speak on this platform. It was amazing how He has changed these imaginations. It is where your thinking starts as you meditate.
They become possibilities. You think of what’s possible. You believed it for everybody else. All those years, you believed it for everyone else. I know that. Having to shift, Deuteronomy 7:15 says, “You shall be free of every disease.” Why don’t we believe that? Why do we think we have to do all these outside things and leave things outside of us when we’ve been given this incredible immune system?
The Lord has given us that.
We must recognize that we have everything inside of us. We’ve been gifted that and given that. Why don’t we act like it? Why don’t we act in bold faith? Why don’t we believe that we are more powerful? God is in us. We breathe in the breath of life. Why don’t we believe it? I do believe a lot of that is because if all of us believe that, then there would not be a need for a lot of control in the government and all that kind of stuff. They can’t control people that believe that they can be healed and can do all things even more than Jesus did.
I knew this in my head, but somehow, it had gotten into my heart. It was that my healing has already been provided for me. I wasn’t waiting for God to heal me. He was waiting on me to receive it.
Don’t wait for God to heal you. He’s waiting for you to receive it. Click To TweetThat is so key. It gives me chills hearing that.
I began to say, “Show me how I received my healing, Lord.” I was lying on my bed. I was able to do anything. He said, “You’ve got to receive your healing. It’s like salvation. You have to receive me as your Lord. For me to be your Lord and save you, you’ve got to receive your healing by faith.” I meditated on that. I struggled with that for a while, but finally, I came to the place saying, “Lord, I know you took the stripes from my health, my healing, and faith.” I received that healing for me.
“I lay it at your feet.” We don’t have to beg like, “Please.” It’s, “Thank you that it’s done.” You release it and receive it. That little piece right there is this big stumbling block for people that don’t understand. The more you focus on what’s wrong, the more you get what’s wrong. The more you feel upset, the more you get upset. The more you complain, the more you get what you are focusing on. It’s so simple, but we might’ve been taught wrong. We certainly haven’t been taught this message very clearly.
This message is a message that my husband has taught for years about receiving from the Lord and walking in it. Somehow, I missed it or something because I kept thinking healing was in the future. I had to wait for it to come. The Lord said, “The healing is already yours. You’re waiting on the manifestation of it. The healing is yours. Grab it and accept it. Trust me to manifest it in your life.”
Was it a split-second moment that you recognized that or did it evolve as you started living in it?
I kept listening to these programs about how you’ve already got it. It was a program that was on TV. It said, “You’ve already got it.” He was talking about your healing. I said, “I haven’t. Where is it? I can’t move.” The Lord began showing me, “You got it. The Lord gave it to you when He took the stripes on His back like He gave salvation when He died on the cross. He didn’t have to die again for you to receive salvation. You’d accepted it.” He said, “Your healing is the same way. He doesn’t have to take stripes again for your healing. You accept it. He is your healer.”
We had a lot of people praying for me to be able to do that. The whole church was praying for me. Orlando was praying for me. It was amazing. The Lord had to turn that switch inside of me from fear. He told me, “You are doubting.” He said, “I couldn’t do anything in my hometown because of their unbelief. You have got to believe this and accept it.” It was a struggle in my mind and my heart. A lot of people were praying for me. Orlando was laying hands on me and praying for me. It’s amazing how it began to happen. I began to believe it, and it began to turn around.
That’s when your belief changed. Something is coming to my mind that Orlando preached. His messages have always been, “If God said we can, we can. It’s a matter of fact.” He accepts it. I accept it as well. He talked one day about having authority. Jesus gave it. This isn’t arrogance that we could be healed. There’s an authority that we can be healed. We speak in the authority that we have. He was talking about nobody would go in the backyard or someplace because of this big old dog or whatever. He took what he called authority. He walked right through and those dogs didn’t bother him at all. It doesn’t matter what the story is.
What I did the next week, and I remember specifically, is I thought, “I have authority over me.” I was sitting on a front porch in this little house. Mosquitoes were crazy. I took a video. I don’t even know if I ever told all of you this, but I took a video of the mosquitoes swarming all over. I said, “I have authority over my body.” In this video, 1 or 2 would touch, but they didn’t land. I was like, “It works.” This was many years ago. If it works for dogs and mosquitoes which are out there, imagine what we can do when we see it as already done.
I have so many people I know personally that have been on their deathbed. When they shifted their mindset and they said, “I will not let those thoughts in. I will not let that negative energy in.” In fact, I know people that have removed people from their lives that are going, “You’re healed.” They came from debilitating, horrific accidents and have metal all in their bodies and stuff, but they chose to do that.
When it came to mind that I’m going to do these overcomers, I was calling you, not knowing you’d had the stroke. I know you as an overcomer. I know you have bold faith. I know all that. Now it ratcheted-up level because of your own life and your own experience here. What a gift to me that you’ve chosen to spend your time sharing.
I know you were on stages anyway all those years. I’ve always sat at your feet listening to your teaching and loving your humbleness, your hard work, and your faith. It’s so beautiful to see that you’ve overcome this horrific moment. It was a moment in your life. It’s miraculous healing. You can’t call it anything else. You’re 100% healed because you are. You’ve got a few more little kinks to try and get that walking a little better. Otherwise, you are healed.
I’m a healed person.
You’re walking in it and speaking it, which manifests it.
Orlando and I walk over a mile a day. I have my little crutch with me to help me be stable. He walks with me. We’re walking it out. This is my time to lay hold of the promises that are mine already. I’m not going to let go of it. The devil can’t hold me or us down because we’re determined to experience the fullness that God has for us.
I’ll be 70 this 2023. You’re in that age range.
I’ll be 80 in July 2023. Can you believe it?
You’re a decade ahead of me. You look amazing. You are amazing. You give. You’re such a generous giver and an excellent lover of people. I’ve witnessed it so many times. You put bold faith and trust in people that don’t necessarily receive it well or use it well. It doesn’t make you stop loving them. You continue to put them out there and help them grow.
I know many times, you’ve been taken advantage of, but that doesn’t stop you. That’s not what we’re here for. We’re here to not get our feelings hurt because somebody did something but to continue to love. Unconditional love is God’s love. Gratitude is the key. Forgiveness is the key too, which is the forgiveness of ourselves and others. That’s another key, but another story for another day.
We all are challenged to wash our thoughts. That’s the word. I’ve known the word for years, but somehow, I need a fresh bath of my mind with the word to rinse out those native thoughts that come against me and make me think that I can’t do something or I’m going to be stuck in this body. I’m not stuck in this body in Jesus’ name.
Thank you very much, folks, for joining us here on the show. I’d love to see you every week as we continue overcoming and learning how to overcome and be overcomers and examples of overcomers for others. Thank you very much for our time together. Always remember, choose joy.
Thank you.
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I’m Charla Anderson, host of The Charla Anderson Show, Collector & Connector of Fascinating People (and EVERYONE is Fascinating!) on live TV, streaming, and podcasts. As a Ziglar Legacy Certified Trainer, a retired award-winning flight attendant, Olympic Torchbearer, a personal development junkie, an Inspired Speaker, a Published Author, and Your Courageous Coach, I want to share my passion for living life full-out, saying YES to intriguing opportunities, and encouraging YOU to do the same. Let’s jump on a discovery call and get to know each other. Find all things Charla at CharlaAnderson.com/links.
On The Charla Anderson Show, We discuss Mindset, How much Your WORDS matter, Princess to Queen energy, mantras, HOPE, Faith, Miracles, Overcoming, and much, much more, including learning from amazing guests.
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Important Links
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- https://www.FWHope.org/
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- https://www.Facebook.com/JoAnnReyesTX
About JoAnn Reyes
As TIRELESS overcomers, founders of FWHope.org, feeding many thousands, giving a hands up to a very poor community, JoAnn and her husband, Orlando Reyes have a Bold story of Faith and HOPE that will inspire you that God will never leave you or forsake you in the most difficult and hopeless situation. They learned the real meaning and source of HOPE as they walked through a very serious and devastating stroke that left JoAnn’s body with paralysis on the right side of her body and unable to speak or barely able to see.
She felt trapped in her body with only the ability to hear. In the medical world they gave her little hope …but God taught her that faith is substance that is found in HOPE. Many people began to pray for them and together they cried out to the Lord and He heard them and delivered them from all their fears. She has been able to understand how to receive the healing Jesus has provided for her.
By His stripes she WAS healed. She had to learn how to receive her healing. Just like Salvation was provided by Jesus dying on the cross so she could be born again, for it to be hers, she also had to receive Jesus as her Lord. She also had to learn how to receive healing. It was already provided for her at Calvary, and she had to learn how to receive it, just like she had to learn how to receive salvation. Today she is a walking Miracle. She and Orlando are walking a mile a day and JoAnn is on her way to complete recovery.
