This poem, a mixture from John 1 and Philippians 2 just about does it.
Great stuff!
the fat closed in over it
That has to be one of the yukkiest lines in the Bible doesn’t it? The moment when Ehud the left handed man, stabs fat king Eglon, described with a bit too much detail, thanks.
I saw on the news yesterday that the government are spending £3 million on a campaign to educate kids to the dangers of carrying knives in the wake of this terrible surge of teen killings - it’s hard to get accurate figures, but 26 in London last year is 26 too many! Maybe they should get them reading that Bible story - it’s pretty gross.
The government’s images are awful (I said images, not image, though you could be forgiven…)
(this is the tamest of the pics )
Knife wounds and fingers missing are pretty graphic, and meant to show kids the reality you never get from watching Rambo films or playing your X box 360 “I’m an assassin” games.
I’d have to question though whether a generation raised on violence - 200,000 violent images viewed by age 18 - are likely to be much put off by more images of it. They pay to see stuff like that!
Anyway, the reality can’t be portrayed by a photo.
The smell of blood and fear, the powerlessness of the victim, the shock and horror after a moment of madness. I’ve seen a lot of people stabbed and cut. I was first through the door when a 15 year old girl had just killed her mother with a knife. Unforgettable. It’s given me an aversion to sharp objects in general! I don’t even like watching Casualty and I know they’re doing the operations on footballs and tomato sauce, not real people. Too many kids have exactly the opposite exposure - they see so much of the unreal they’re amazed when their knife actually slices skin or severs an artery.
On one hand we’re told that family can be ‘whatever you want it to be,’ and that we can feed kids minds with all kinds of violent junk - because what they see on TV etc. doesn’t effect them (try telling that to advertisers!), at the same time we wring our hands over a generation growing up fatherless and angry, fearful and frightened - wielding a weapon of mutual destruction.
I may just get back into football
I was put off organised footie after so many fights and scrapes as a policeman, especially for the short time on the Tactical Aid Group, when all we did was dash from match to match where the fighting was thickest. After a while it kind of loses its fun when associated with beer, blood and spit.
After last night’s match, however, I think when we move back to Manchester I’ll be tempted back to the ‘Theatre of Dreams’ again. A great bonding moment with Joel as we jumped around the lounge when United won, as often, it’s a shame it went to penalties and you just expect a bad result when that happens (well it will be for one side!).
My first ever visit was when I was a police cadet at 16. I’d been in all of about three weeks when someone went sick and I got the chance to work the match. My uniform was miles too big for me and though I considered myself a man of the world by then, I probably didn’t even look 14! The job before and after the match was crowd control, which consisted for me and my mate Dean of standing with arms outstretched saying, “Wait at the kerb please,” or “Cross now please.”
At kick off the streets emptied we asked a passing Sergeant what we should do now. “I don’t know - go in the executive box if you want.”
He reckoned without us being daft enough to take him at his word. We went through every security checkpoint, and when asked, “Where are you going?” we just replied, “The executive box.” Doors opened, and we found ourselves watching the match with Martin Edwards, then chairman. After a fantastic time, we walked back to our posts at the end of the match. The Sergeant asked “Where the hell were you?” and when we told him, he went white as a sheet, then red as a United shirt.
I suppose there’s a sermon illustration there for me, about just believing the word, or walking in authority. Or maybe it was just a great first trip to Old Trafford I’ll never forget!
The old joke is that nobody who actually comes from Manchester supports United, though my Granddad Jack was a fanatic of the first order and always wore something red. My older brother rebelled against that and became a City fan, to the disgust of the rest of us. Last night I rang him at half time and he was telling me that in his opinion 70% of city fans would rather Chelsea won the European cup than United (’ because they have a bit of blue…’). Bizarre in my opinion, there’s more that unites us than divides us.
Anyway despite my rubbing his nose in the result this morning, he has taken the loss in good spirits it seems, as he sent me the attached…
Lakeland visit
The top shot is ‘Tiger Town,’ the baseball park we went to the first night. The journey of about 20 hours in total from the UK flight to finally finding it!
The other is the Lakeland Center, where night after night we saw the most amazing healing miracles.
I have a video of the moment when Hannah gave her testimony about having had her back healed, just minutes before. It was on God TV too, but I captured it. It’s 77mb so over the amount I can upload (?) unfortunately! This healing happened independent of anyone, just in the worship - like we read about when Jesus healed a paralytic, ‘the power of the Lord was present to heal.’
She felt the power of God go through her and sensed that she was healed (if you wonder whether such ‘feelings’ are biblical please read what happened to the woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment).
Now you could feel that, and do nothing to test it, but she wanted to make sure - and she’s brave - so she bent down and touched her toes three times in front of me! Amazing! If God hadn’t healed her I’d have told her off because the physio said that was the last thing she should do with the way her back was damaged. On the video she’s got this amazed look on her face as she’s bending down and touching the ground, doing what we were told she could not do having had the diagnosis (confimed by MRI scan) of degenerative disc disease. Her mum cleared out her room - it was full of boxes of strong pain killers! She doesn’t need them now - praise God.
This coming Friday evening at 7.30pm we’re having another meeting with prayer for healing, at East Horsley Village hall.
GODISNOWHERE
Yesterday morning, as part of our “40 Days of Community,” our L1FEgroup (what we call our midweek groups) went out around the village, picking up litter. The parish council here provide the bags and the grabbers, and the faithful few from the village who usually do it were, I think, encouraged to have the extra hands. So much so they gave gloves to put on those hands.
I ended up outside Cranmore, my designated patch being a lay-by just set off Epsom Rd to clear up. I’d passed a few places on the way that were fabulously litter free already, so I was looking forward to having little to do but feeling good about civic duty done. But when I arrived, this spot really was a mess.
I was with Zoë and our friend Clare, they had their yellow jackets on and my ‘grabber’ didn’t work so I stood there watching for a bit - in supervisory capacity - until they realised passersby may have thought the ladies were on day release from nearby HMP Send, and sent me off for one that worked. When I came back they were off up the road a little. Then I saw it - tucked into a bush, the wire bin provided by the council was, old, broken, and completely overflowing. Somebody really should do something about this!
Well there’d be no point leaving it and just in picking up the bits around it, as soon as I left and the wind blew all this stuff would go everywhere – so I set about transferring the contents into bin bags.
It wasn’t long before I found that some dog loving person had decided that although this was not a dog-poo bin, it was on their route, so they’d been throwing the mess in there. Lovely. They had a big dog (sorry).
Not a pleasant job, and I started thinking, ‘I could be at home now, I’m preaching tomorrow and hadn’t had the time I’d like to be able to prepare the talk.’ I took a break for a minute and got my little Bible out of my pocket. I ended up mainly preaching on Matthew 3 and I had a look at that. But my other reading, Isaiah 6, kept drawing me – as I picked up old McDonalds wrappers, fag packets and bags of dog poo.
My last post looked at this passage is some detail (When God Comes to Church), but one phrase kept on coming as I looked at the bin in the bush.
Literally, the angel’s song goes, HOLY HOLY HOLY is the Lord God of Angel armies…
The whole Earth is FULL FULL FULL of his GLORIOUS GLORY.
Now it’s the second line of what the seraphs called to each other that grabbed me- The whole earth is full of his glory. God is nowhere? God is now - HERE! John N Oswalt in his commentary writes on this section; “This statement indicates that God’s presence (his glory) is not restricted to a temple.”
There’s no doubt Horsley is a nice part of the world. Lovely actually. But this layby was a mess, and this bush was the worst of it, spoilt by lazy drivers and dirty dog walkers. Yet as I just got to work on the mess, tidying it up, I became aware of God - right there. Like Moses at a burning bush one day - because there was nothing special about the bush, just the glory of the God who inhabited it. The whole earth is full of His glory.
It may have been that what we were doing really was kingdom of God thing, clearing away the rubbish and beautifying the earth in a simple way, I don’t know. But as I stood there, bin bag in one hand and grabber in the other, I suddenly became as aware of the love and presence and power of God in that place, every bit as much as any worship meeting I’ve ever been in. I felt myself starting to shake a little, close to being overwhelmed by the love of Jesus. Some people came up and I had to kind of hold myself together – instead of shaking more or speaking in tongues or generally going mad for Jesus (next time I might not repress it)!
Anyone who thinks this unusual or strange needs to read Brother Lawrence’s classic, The Practice of the Presence of God. This soldier turned Carmelite monk wrote in the C17th: “I make it my business to rest in His holy presence, which I keep myself in by a habitual, silent, and secret conversation with God. This often causes in me joys and raptures inwardly, and sometimes also outwardly, so great that I am forced to use means to moderate them, and prevent their appearance to others.”
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying we don’t need church. William Haig said a few years ago he didn’t need church - he could go for a walk instead. But people who withdraw from church end up too often self centred rather than God focused, we only learn to love God and others in real (messy) relationships, anyway scripture is clear as to whether Christians need to belong in church or not.
I love St Mary’s Church that’s a short walk from that lay-by, and for 1000 years people have worshipped him here; it’s a prayer soaked place. But God’s glory isn’t contained in any building. God “does not live in temples built by human hands.” The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it! Isaiah saw the train of the robe of God (some scholars think he was actually referring to the hem), filling the temple, because God can’t be contained in what we make – whether Westminster Abbey, Canterbury Cathedral, a baseball stadium in Florida, or our imaginations. But we get to touch the hem of his garment, and his glory flows to us and through us. I have said elsewhere that this recent meeting with God in Lakeland felt like liquid fire and lighting and lava flowing through me. Weird? Wonderful!
It can happen anywhere! Maybe that’s why healings and impartations are being reported from Lakeland by people all over the world watching on TV or the internet? God’s with you now! He is not contained by geography. Jesus sometimes said to people, “I don’t have to go to the house to heal the sick, go home and you’ll find it’s been done.” Maybe our God can’t be contained? Maybe the only limitation we can put on him is our lack of faith!
Steve Turner wrote in Being There : “We imagine a sacred part of our lives which involves praying, attending church, singing hymns, and reading the Bible, and a secular part involving eating, drinking, reading the newspaper, and painting the house. Is that the way God sees it? Does he wish we’d hurry through the mundane but necessary activities of sleeping, child rearing, and earning our keep until we get down to the real business of Bible study? Would a really ’spiritual’ life consist of a seven day week full of church-centred activities, or was the Dutch art historian Hans Rookmaaker right when he said that Christ didn’t die in order that we might go to more prayer meetings but in order that we might be more fully human?”
When God comes to church
When we were in Lakeland they kept talking about how you could ask for and receive a burning coal, to take back with you to where you’re from. Of course that’s coming from Isaiah 6. It was the year King Uzziah died. That king had a long and (mostly) distinguished rule of 52 years. He became king at the age of 16 following his father’s assassination. He started out really well and was faithful to the LORD for a long time - that is the measure of a governmental success in scripture - and during that time he and his nation prospered.
Unfortunately one day he made a terrible mistake, when he entered the temple to burn incense, a duty reserved by the LORD for the priests only. Pride comes before a fall. It says, But when he was strong his heart was lifted up, to his destruction, for he transgressed against the Lord his God by entering the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. (2 Chronicles 26:16)
He was confronted about his sin, got angry instead of repentant - and ended up a leper, living out his last days in tragic isolation, while his son Jotham ruled in his stead until he finally died.
Lesson? Don’t try to light your own fire! Don’t step outside your anointing! How often do leaders try to light something or set something going themselves when God hasn’t commanded or empowered them? Uncommanded labour is just tiring and leaves you empty, disillusioned, powerless and lonely (been there, done that, got the t-shirt).
So when Isaiah went into the temple, he was probably at a very low ebb. A wise and good king who’d started well but finished terribly had died. The nation’s in mourning.
But then, unexpectedly, GOD WAS THERE! Imagine, finding God actually in church! It’s amazing where he might turn up you know 
What happened when God came? He saw the Lord on his throne of glory, High and lifted up - and his train filled the temple! He saw strange visions of angels, the seraphim heard them calling and declaring the praises of God in worship. That whole huge building quaked and shook!
Surely if that was available under the old covenant, we should not be surprised as believers in a greater covenant that when God manifests his presence it’s with similar and even greater glory? If the ministry that brought death…came with glory… will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? (2 Cor 3:7 & 8). Why would you be surprised that he who shook the temple causes people to shake? Why would you doubt that the angels who are ministering spirits sent to serve us who inherit salvation still come - and that people of faith still see them and hear them as did believers and sinners and even a donkey?!
Does not the Lord still inhabit the praises of his people? (Ps 22:3 NKJ). And is Jesus the same, yesterday, today and forever; mighty to save - a healing, miracle working God?
When God came to Isaiah he came with conviction, with cleansing, and then with a call. My friend Mark Stibbe has been emailing me about his time in Lakeland as he’s there right now. I will leave him to publish his own assessment but yesterday he reminded me, “the Holy Spirit is the limitless and unlimited presence and power of Almighty God. And he is uncontainable…”
Isaiah found that whatever the nation looked like, the real King was still on the throne that day! The length of a king’s robe signifies his majesty. Our KIng’s robe filled the temple!
The angels cried out, “Holy, Holy Holy!” Why? Some scholars say it’s because in Hebrew one way to express a superlative is by repetition. For example, we say, ‘good, better and best.’ But in Hebrew you could just repeat the word to express a superlative, similar to ‘Vanity of Vanities’ or ‘King of Kings.’ Other say it’s just a chant, Holy, Holy, Holy - because He is! So if anyone complains that the worship chorus is too simple, tell them you’re just trying to do it like the angels.
That recognition in the worship of who God really is brings conviction. “Away from me Lord, I’m sinful!”
Spurgeon said, “God will never do anything with us till he has first of all undone us.” Isaiah became undone before he could do anything,
That was certainly something I felt in the very simple worship at Lakeland. No great band, showy flashing lights, or technological paraphernalia (all great stuff, but if I want that I’ll go to see Oasis). All there was when the presence of God was most powerful and tangible for me was a lady singing, a keyboard and drums. Sins committed recalled, but not to condemn - to cleanse and restore.
Oh, and angels ascending and descending. That evening when Hannah was healed, in the worship, I had a vision of angels dropping down gift after gift on me, I thought ‘that’s wonderful’ - but I knew it wasn’t it. There was even a bicycle among the gifts, and that’s one of my favourite things!
Then I saw them bring a golden word from God, a page from the Bible, I thought, ‘That’s fantastic!’ - what more could a preacher want? But then I knew it wasn’t it either.
Then the Lord gave me his heart.
That’s it! Those who hunger and thirst WILL be satisfied.
A burning coal ( a ‘live’ coal) comes from the altar. What Uzziah could not do, God does. He brings the fire we cannot and should not try to self generate. He convicts, He cleanses, and then the call. “Who will go?
After conviction comes cleansing, and after that comes a call. I said, “Me Lord! I want a coal! I want to burn for you! I’ll volunteer! (That’s one of the reasons I’ve got my hands up!). Send me! I don’t just want to go, I need to be sent by you. Commissioned to fulfil the call.”
He said, GO!
Last night, we held a meeting at the place where we meet for L1FE, which ran well over three hours, and it was so - well, easy. When the Spirit is there, there is liberty. No hype, just God coming to church. Hannah gave her testimony, I preached because this has to be founded in scripture, and then the Lord took over. The coals are starting to ignite in the UK.
An email I recieved this morning says, this:
Along with I hope many others, may I share with you what happened to me last night? During the worship I several times felt a gentle tingling all over me and a need to try to sing in tongues. I asked for prayer from Emma … and during that time I felt her hand really warm on my shoulder. I couldn’t actually hear what she said because the singing was too loud, but it didn’t matter. When I got back to my seat I started shaking all over for several minutes, and in the next worship time I did sing in tongues…wonderful release ! I have not felt the Spirit like this before….
Brits - should you go to Lakeland?
For the Brits - BA just announced further reductions in their latest sale.
For example, they are advertising return flights from London to Tampa or Orlando (Orlando’s a bit closer but Tampa has the better beach
How much? £329, book by 13th May, for travel in May or June. Click here for more.
THE WRONG QUESTION
Well there’s been interesting responses to yesterday’s post – to say the least. First off, the traffic to the blog has taken off exponentially, with hundreds of new readers and subscribers (if that’s you – welcome, if you’d like to, click over there on the right!). I suppose it’s not my skilful prose but the subject matter that’s drawing attention from all over the world, it’s the question I posed yesterday which still stands about Lakeland – is it revival?
Some people say yes. They look at people being healed, recognise that were there’s a lot of Spirit there’s also going to be a lot of ‘flesh’ and can come to terms with that – no, rejoice in it. It’s been wonderful that there have been so many people who have known about Hannah’s back problems, and are rejoicing with those who rejoice over its healing, and thanking God (by the way the girls went to pray for people at the Leatherhead theatre last night and I’m told it was amazing time!).
I’ve also had one or two e-mails via the blog which I ended up spamming because they were from sources I didn’t recognise, and when I looked at the content of the sites they linked to, they seemed to have already made their minds up that this is not of God but has to be of the devil. A tattooed bloke who shakes and shouts? People crying and laughing and carrying on? All too weird – certainly not from God. They have never been, they’ve never seen, they’ve never sensed the presence and power of God there, but they know it’s wrong; illegitimate - of the devil.
This morning I was reading with my men’s group out of John 9. You know what comes before that? The end of John 8. Read it and you’ll see that some ascribed to Jesus and his miracles both illegitimacy and evil origin. (Verse 48 is particularly nice!).
In John 9 Jesus comes across the man born blind. His disciples spend time theologising about his suffering and its origin. They debate the human condition, bewail the sins that cause it. Their question? “Who sinned?” All they don’t do, is anything that helps.
I like how the Message puts Jesus’ reply. “You’re asking the wrong question.”
I’m not saying we shouldn’t weigh the source, but if you’re asking, who sinned – the answer is… EVERYONE. Todd Bentley, Paul Cain, me, you. If you look online you’ll find some evidence and lots of accusation about anyone and everyone involved (by the way, still reading that biography of Whitefield, a fantastic preacher and a wonderful godly man now so often hailed and lauded. Boy did he take some stick!).
I’m not so naive to imagine some of the accusations against Bentley et al. are correct. But Jesus was pretty clear it’s not just people who live in glass houses who shouldn’t throw stones (in fact, if you lived in a glass house, where would you shower?). I for one wouldn’t want all my sins paraded on-line, and people spending their lives looking for things wrong with me would find plenty of material, but I thought the devil was the accuser?
(PS I just got the following comment, which I’m not approving, to show the love that abounds here from a brother or sister…) You vile deceiving heretics and enemies of the gospel when will you repent and face reality and the true gospel of Christ and His sound doctrines the HOLY BIBLE. You filthy enemies of God you will pay dearly for supporting your fellow tools of Satan who lead others into doctrines of devils so they may blaspheme God and end up in hell along with you if you don’t repent. You filthy vile deceivers you dare call yourself Christian. Sick filthy heretic.
If the wrong question is ‘Who sinned?” Maybe the better question is, “Who saves?”
Jesus went on to do something, well, pretty weird. It’s almost too embarrassing to think of the Son of God making spit-mud pies! Then he does something degrading! He smears it on the blind man’s eyes - where’s the respect for dignity or decorum there? He even puts some of the responsibility for whether he’s healed or not on the man, by getting him to do something that looks like faith (he has to walk round the place and wash off the mud himself, Jesus didn’t lead him by the hand.).
Jesus didn’t have to do any of that. He could have just said, “Be healed!” (even ‘Bam!’ as Mr Bentley does?) as on other occasions. He could have just done ‘Drive By Healings’ if he wanted and not even engaged with the man. People baulk at the idea of ‘touch your TV screen and get the healing…” but didn’t Jesus sometimes say to the effect of, “Go on home, I’m not coming to lay hands on anyone, I don’t have to be there physically to heal spiritually.”
And to compound it all, having done it in the wrong way, he does it on the wrong day! That’s what really got the religious riled. (See my blog entry ‘What Day is it?)
I discussed with the guys this morning whether we thought Jesus did that on purpose. It’s been said, “He offends the mind to reveal the heart.” Was he provoking a reaction to see whether they were more concerned to protect things being done ‘properly’ (even if nothing was done?).
It’s entirely possible to have the form of godliness but denying the power thereof – go to a church near you this Sunday to confirm that; or look at the dire stats and predictions published yesterday, much being the consequence of just such a travesty – a church with pomp but no power and presence. Moses said to God, “We’re not going anywhere with out you!” But too often we’re not going anywhere because we’re without Him. The glory days are consigned to a golden age, with people worshipping a (Deist?) God who used to be powerful (he even wrote a good book!), but now has kind of lost His divine stuff.
Actually, Jesus didn’t waste a lot of time with people who’d already made their minds up not to believe (verse 22 tells us they’d ‘agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was the Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue’). ‘There’s none so blind…’
They saw a man born blind saying he’d been healed. They said:
- He wasn’t a man; we’ll ask his parents instead!
- He wasn’t born blind; he must be a liar!
- He wasn’t the same man; because that man was blind!
- He wasn’t a good man; probably a confederate, and who includes the testimony of crazies who say they’ve been healed?
Anyway, everyone knew his sickness was his own fault, or a judgement from God, his cross to bear – to perfect him through suffering…
The ex blind man’s answers to their questions? Track them…
“I don’t know.”
“I don’t know if he’s a sinner or not.”
“Why won’t you listen?”
“Do you want to follow him too?”
“One thing I know – I was blind, now I see.”
I don’t know whether Lakeland’s a revival. I do know from visiting I’ve got my first love for Jesus back and I’m and full of the Holy Spirit to overflow more than I have been for years (obviously a work of the devil?).
I don’t know whether some (or all) of the people who get to minister on the platform are ‘sinners.’ I do know many sinners were repentant and trusting Jesus for the first time.
I don’t know why not everyone was healed. I do know on the nights I was there God healed so many people the queues were full both sides of the stage, and I know my own daughter joined that line! (“Ask her, she is of age!”)
So before you send me a link to your website explaining why the devil’s behind it all, deceiving and deluding - let me ask whether your God still does that kind of thing, today.
If not, I’ll stick with mine, thanks.
Is it revival?
Well I’m tired - but WOW am I fired up! Just a few hours ago I was at Orlando airport when I got a text from J. John asking whether I thought what was going on out there is revival. My reply? (I’m hopeless at texting so it took ages).. The blind see, the deaf hear, the lame dance and many are saved!
(If that’s not revival, I’m looking forward to what comes next!). The fire is falling!
I heard last Friday about God TV stopping all its programmes because of ’something happening in the States,’ so on Saturday afternoon I thought I’d check it out on You Tube.
I have been reading a biography of George Whitefield, which has increased by desire (and faith) for revival in our nation. I’ve also been stirred up by the increasing depravity in the news, especially the awful things we read about in Austria. When I started looking online at what’s going on out there, Todd Bentley pointed his finger at me, and God called me - revival is my heart cry and His - and I knew I had to go.
Looking at the diary it seemed impossible, but I was so hungry and ‘desperate people will do desperate things’ (interestingly, that’s what anti-revivalist Hank Hanegraff writes all of this off as; which makes me wonder - why isn’t he desperate for God? King David was!).
I prayed with Zoe and tried to book to go online, everything was going wrong, until we recalled a prophetic dream Zoe had (I urge you to listen to it here) back in January, where it wasn’t just me but me and the children wanted to go, higher up, into the pool/ place of blessing, so amazing that it would eclipse former visitations of God by comparison, (‘having experienced God in a totally different way, which is for everyone’). Amazingly, as soon as I put three people in not one, we got a great deal on flights and hotel, except we had to go Sunday - the next morning!
Thanks to the help, love and encouragement of Peter Davis and Glenn Huntington, we were able to drop everything and the three of us were flying to Florida! I’d always wanted to take them to Disneyland, but GODland is even better!
I”ll put more up in posts to come, and some photos, but there’s such a fire in me right now that is going to spread. This is the fulfilment of visions I have had for many years, and how exciting to live in these days! By the way this Sunday just happens to be Pentecost, and the Global Day of Prayer (Come on!).
With my own eyes I’ve seen people getting out of wheelchairs and walking, innumerable deaf people receiving their hearing, the woman a few rows in front came in with an oxygen mask on and was carried in by her family, later she spent ages running laps around the arena (her and her 20 year old daughter who brought her both became Christians that night, well you would wouldn’t you).
And how about Hannah, my lovely daughter? If you watched God TV last night, Hannah got up on stage and testified. She has (no HAD) degenerative disc disease, confirmed by MRI scan, and had the back of a much older person with lots of damage to discs, lots of pain etc., wherever she went for the last year she had to carry a lumbar cushion, and when we went she was on pain killers.
In the meeting – where I saw amazing visions and literally physically basked in the presence of the Lord like I’ve never known before, she felt the power of God go right through her (nobody touched her but God) and I was shocked to see here get up from her seat and touch her toes – impossible? NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE TO GOD. She’s healed – no pain at all.
This anointing is real and it’s transferable! God’s on the move. It’s time to fan the flames all over the UK!
If you have 6 minutes more, it’s worth watching this prophetic word given months ago to Todd Bentley by Ron De Luca a Pastor in NZ who we met over there in Florida who prayed for all three of us. He really accurately prophesies this happening, and particular mention is made of England!
LORD,I have heard the report of you, and your work, O LORD, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it;in the midst of the years make it known; Hab 3:2
The trouble with manyana
I was looking at Pharaoh with the ‘we get up early on Friday because we are mighty men of God’ group this morning. We followed a study in my mate Carl Beech’s fantastic book Spadework. Turns out none of us really want to walk like that particular Egyptian. The pride and arrogance he displayed in continually saying no to God is what got him in so much trouble. You think Gordon Brown has problems this morning with the awful drubbing his party is receiving in the local elections around the country? Read the list of plagues - it could be worse!
Unlike Mugabe, at least there’ll be some contrition. No doubt we’ll be hearing from various Labour politicians today about how “…the people have sent us a clear signal that we’re going to listen to and make all the necessary changes… blah blah blah…”
I imagine Pharaoh said something very similar as his nation lurched from bad to worse. He was surrounded by ‘wise men’ who told him he was great, and it would all soon turn a corner and be okay in the end.
This isn’t about Mr Brown, Labour’s misfortunes, or politics. It’s about you and me. Ignoring God.
As God’s spokesman stepped into his palace and demanded, “let my people go,” Pharaoh forgot that all the blessings and wealth he had received which he and his people had received came from God of Israel in the first place, via Joseph (read all about it here). We too easily forget as nations and individuals that without God’s hand of protection and blessing on us, all would be curse and plague.
By the way, isn’t it interesting that many people who would never dream of thanking God when something good happens in their lives, automatically blame Him for something bad?
Much of what happened to Egypt parallels exactly the biblical warnings of the consequences of ignoring or rebelling against God’s laws, one ends up living under a curse of our own making, rather than the blessing He desires for people.
One of the most haunting parts of the account is early on, only the second plague, as frogs teem throughout the land. Pharaoh had the chance to heed the warnings of the first plague when the Nile turned to blood, to let the children of Israel go out to worship God. But his advisers stroke his ego, and he thinks of himself as a god anyway. “Who is this God of the slaves?” Why should the powerful and the rich listen to the God of the weak, the poor and the oppressed? (Is it any wonder the book of Exodus - a goldmine for liberation theologians - is specifically banned as radical revolutionary material in some oppressive states?).
I don’t know, perhaps Pharaoh had Batrachophobia, but the frogs really got to him. He begged Moses to plead with God to get rid of the frogs. He promised he would comply and change the policies so the people could go and worship. So here’s the part that grabbed me. Moses said, “Okay, when do you want this to happen? When do you want to connect with God in this way so that things will change? I’ll leave it up to you to set the time.”
(The frogs picture is from http://www.jackiemorris.co.uk)
What would you say, with frogs all over the place? You’re having a laugh! Surely you’d want them to hop it (ouch) now! Not one more slimy second would I want those amphibian atrocities in my house, in the bed, in my kitchen. Get them out!
Exodus 8:10 “Do it tomorrow,” Pharaoh said.
If there was a biblical award for the patron saint of Procrastination, it goes to this guy. He was going to go to Procrastinator’s Anonymous but they never got round to meeting.
So, where are your frogs?
What are you putting off changing today (even though you know it’s going to create a world of trouble) until tomorrow?
Actually going to that gym you paid membership for? A phone call to sort out a relationship? Someone you need to encourage? Someone you need to let go? I still need to sort my taxes out for this year. It’s the jobs I hate I never find time for. People smoke one last cigarette standing outside the cancer ward, and tomorrow they’ll give it up. When will you write the book? Take the trip? Learn the instrument/ language? Do you think you’ll get serious about finding out about God tomorrow? You’ll pray about that situation and ask God’s help with it tomorrow? Tomorrow never comes. Do it today. Carpe Diem!
The leaders of nations need to stop making promises about changes that will help the poor, break the shackles of debt, feed the hungry and set captives free - not ten or fifteen years from now when they’ll be collecting their pension and writing their memoirs, but today. Now.
What is there to stop us getting rid of the frogs today?
My dad was Irish and he told me about a conversation between a Spaniard and an Irishman where the Spanish guy was trying to teach him about the concept of manyana. “It’s a word that means you’re going to put something off until tomorrow, or maybe the day after, or a day after that…”
The Irishman said, “I don’t think we have a word to describe such a terrible state of urgency.”
