From Foster Care to ‘Lightning Rod for Healing’

Marcus Dygert is a “lightning rod for healing,” at least that’s what Bethel’s Bill Johnson says.

Dygert, who serves in a variety of capacities at Randy Clark’s Global Awakening School, says that prophetic word came in 2010.

“He told me, ‘You need to press in for healing for other people,’ and he prayed over me, and so I did,” Dygert says. “I started seeing God really move. I started see all these amazing things. God’s healing cancer, growing out bones, and I’m really seeing God move in mighty ways.”

Dygert’s story began long before his encounter with Johnson, though.

He wasn’t supposed to be a minister. Rather, he comes from a family of criminals. Dygert grew up on the streets and lived in a storm drain tunnel at one point before he ended up in foster care. While he was under the state’s supervision, a caseworker even told him he should go into a juvenile detention center because he would be a career criminal anyway.

But God had other plans. Dygert devoted his future to the ministry in 1996.

By 2010, though, when he went to Johnson’s healing service, he was ragged and broken—literally.

He was born with three kidneys, but doctors removed two. In 2000, a fall caused him to blow out multiple discs in his back. Six years later, surgeons attempted to correct his spine by fusing metal rods. Though Dygert was a husband and father, he was burned out and constantly in pain.

While at Johnson’s healing service, he accepted a word of knowledge about kidney stones. Healing struck, hence the “lightning rod” label Johnson gave him a few months later.

Shortly after, a hernia forced Dygert to check in at the local hospital, where a routine check revealed what the doctor called a “creative miracle.” Both kidneys had been fully restored.

“I was blown away by that and praising God, just glorifying God,” Dygert says.

And his ministry continued. In one instance, Dygert had a word of knowledge in a small group that applied to an attendee’s cousin. The attendee called up the cousin, and Dygert prayed over him. The cousin was in hospice with stage 4 leukemia. One week after Dygert’s prayer, the cousin walked out of the hospital.

Despite his part in these miracles, though, Dygert still endured horrific pain.

During his hernia repair surgery, the surgeon severed the femoral nerve.

“It was the most severe pain experience of my life, and I got to the point where I just couldn’t take it anymore,” Dygert says. “It got to the point where maybe I could get out of bed once a month … where I just really wanted it to be the end of sorrow and pain.”

At the same time, Dygert was considering attending Clark’s supernatural ministry school. So Dygert issued God an ultimatum.

“You kill me or You heal me,” he told the Lord.

Peace instantly flooded the room, and a figure approached.

“I just knew this was Jesus walking in my room. He came to the side of the bed, knelt next to the bed and started praying. I was still in pain, but I had this peace. … He started telling me that He and the Holy Spirit are interceding for me, that He knows my pain, He knows what I’m going through,” Dygert says.

Jesus also told Dygert he needed to commit to Global Awakening.

The Lord supernaturally provided, and Dygert moved his family from Texas to Pennsylvania. His daughter even prophetically dreamed about the house they now live in, which the family takes as more confirmation from the Lord.

Though Dygert was in school, he continued to work full time to provide for his family. After two years at Global Awakening, Dygert was granted the unique opportunity to drive Clark to a conference in New York.

Instead of working through the commute, Clark talked with Dygert for more than nine hours and built an incredible bond. For Global Awakening’s third-year internship portion, Clark selected Dygert to be his intern.

While traveling with Clark, Dygert has seen even more creative miracles: COPD healed, teeth growing in, restoration of a surgically removed rectum, kidneys and livers returning.

“When doctors are baffled and can’t explain it,” that’s a creative miracle. And it’s something he walks in regularly.

Dygert says a life like his comes from obedience.

“It doesn’t matter where you come from. That doesn’t determine your future, but your past. Your future is determined by what you do with today. If you allow God to grab hold of you, He puts you in your destiny. I’m nothing special. I’m just the guy who says, ‘God, do whatever you want with me.'”