Final day

Well we’ve headed into our final day and it started with a Q&A session with Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton. As per last year it was one of the best sessions. These two guys are so packed with wisdom it’s unreal. I’m going to spend the plane flight home trying to capture everything I’ve learned.

After the morning session I got chatting to Jim. He’s an American who’s lived in Ecuador for 25 years. They started with 1 church with a few missionaries. 24 years later they are now 25 churches some of which have over 1000 people in them. Recently they had a team of students come down from Bethel. On one day the students and locals visited a hospital – and prayed for over 200 people (two complete floors). 75% of them were discharged from the hospital after medical examination. The administrator of the hospital invited them to come back any time!

This is the normality of life at Bethel. I’ve been blown away again at the exaltation of Jesus in this place. Their view of the glory of Jesus is so high, the love of God so extensive, the power of the Spirit so massive, and the identity that we have as believers in Him so mind-blowing that it leaks out everywhere they go. Recently a team went into the mall on a treasure hunt and found a guy and told him he was God’s treasure. “You’re kidding he shouted, I’ve heard about this and I’ve always wanted to be the treasure”. This typifies the effect that these people are having on the community.

Of course it’s not perfect – no church is. But we’ve been ministered to by so many, prayed for and loved and learned so much. More for Bedford Lord!

Profound thoughts

Yesterday was the first whole day of the conference and it was packed.  It was such an incredible atmosphere to be in – wherever you look there are gifted and anointed men and women of faith. It’s just stunning. We’re getting  anyone who will to pray for us! Roydon and Jan have been having a great time here and particularly in the morning session Jan got completely toasted by the Holy Spirit as God’s power poured into her. She laughed and laughed for 15 to 20 minutes as the Holy Spirit ministered to her – it was great to watch! Julian spent most of the day on the floor as God overwhelmed him again and again. We were walking through the resources centre to meet Faith, a friend of Pete Carters (a good friend from England who’s here). When we met her sitting innocently behind her book stall she shook Julian by the hand and he literally dropped to the floor as God’s power hit him. Faith them started prophesying into Julians life with great accuracy – as bystanders looked on and laughed enjoying the moment of another Holy ambush!
It’s not all drunkenness though (some of you will be pleased to hear!). We had some amazing teaching yesterday covering topics from worship to intercession to strategic planning (Roydon loved that one!) to finishing the evening with Bill speaking on taking the culture of honour to the next level.

A few profound thoughts from the day

Standing in line

Standing in line for registration I bumped into Charles the guy who prayed for me last year at this conference. It was a life changing encounter last year for me and was so good to see him again. We also bumped into a lady who a few years ago went to Mozambique with Randy Clarke and Heidi Baker. She told us that in one village the first thing Heidi did was to call forward every sick person. Up came the blind, the lame, the deaf and people with withered and crippled limbs. Every single one of them was healed. She then preached the gospel and multitudes of muslims gave their lives to Christ. Wow.

I was encouraged because Heidi prayed for over a year for blind people before she saw a single one healed. All she had was the promise of God that the blind will see.

Kris Vallotten spoke tonight at the first session calling us to love the lost with no agenda. Like Daniel loved Nebuchadnezzar and Joseph loved Pharoah, we’re called to love from the heart even those who are opposed to God’s kingdom. There is a reformation in the church that will reform the world.

Quote: “If I have to tell someone that I’m a man then I’ve got a big problem. If you’re a new creation and you have to tell someone then your words probably aren’t going to help.”

BBQ Bethel style

Great news from the UK – Caroline’s back is almost 100% better (it improved while we prayed at the church prayer meeting on thursday and she’s now almost completely pain free). Plus apparently we had 8 or so healings on Sunday – thank you Lord!

We had a great time at Bethel yesterday. Worship was incredible as per last year when we were here. In the afternoon we went to a BBQ organised by Simon Munday for the Brits who are in town for the conference. We bumped into some old friends and also met some of the other Bethel students from the UK. The real fun started when Simon Munday gathered all 30 of us in the lounge and the students began to pray. The power of God hit us one after another as the students prayed and prophesied over each one of us. Man alive! I of course ended up on the floor and received a number of confirming words about God giving me blueprints for this next season of ministry and taking a step up in leadership. What struck me again was the supernaturally natural way these guys live their lives – one minute a normal bbq – the next we’re on the floor! And it all seems so normal!

Monday. After an obscenly large breakfast at Lumberjacks ‘the place where real men eat’ (come on!) we came up to Bethel to visit the prayer room. In passing I was in the bookstore (you know it makes sense!) and was talking to the lady serving who was telling me that she had MS for 20 years and came here five years ago and was totally healed. At the time she couldn’t stand for any period and now she stands in the store for 12-13 hours at a time and lifts 50 pound boxes of books without a problem during her day managing the book store. She’s been free for 4 years now and loves to tell her story.

Healing room

Having arrived safely, slept well and enjoyed an interesting bagel breakfast with square scrambled egg (go figure) we headed up to bethel church to see the healing room. Every Saturday morning from 9am to 12pm they set up a place where anyone who’s sick can come and receive prayer. My dilema was that there’s nothing wrong with me except a dry patch of skin on my left forefinger and with the best will in the world and irritating though my skin condition is, the thought of turning up to have 2 or 3 people pray over it was more than I could bear. So I decided to accompany the others whose needs were a tad more pressing.

After filling in a short form we went into a dark room with around 150 people. At the front were around 7 musicians leading worship – it was a cross between a jam and a worship session as one would take turns leading a song and then another. It was a really fun atmosphere and the people anchoring would continually exhort you to expect healing in this room before being prayed for next door. And that’s what seemed to happen. People came to the front periodically to share that they had been healed – Julian got some prayer and his leg grew and back pain relieved.

What struck me was the light and fun atmosphere – it wasn’t heavy at all but neither did it feel disrespectful to God. It was fun but reverant and full of expectation. After about 2 hours our group was called through and we were individually prayed for. I accompanied Julian and he had all the pain from his long standing back condition disappear and also his sinus’ open so that he could breathe far easier. He then slipped into a vision and was describing to us an amazing garden that he could see while the power of God hit us and we rolled around laughing. All in a days work

So day 1 and I’m already reminded how serious we can be and how Jesus said that his yoke is easy and his burden light and that we can do nothing without him and everything with. It was the same lesson I learned coming here last year – how can I learn it so it sticks?

It began on the plane!

So there we were standing in the line for the toilet on the plane and we meet 4 others who are heading to Bethel. One was a second year student at the school of supernatural there and within a few minutes she pulls out a photo and starts prophesying over Julian based on what she sees in the photograph. Julian comes and sits down and the presence of God is thick and we both start laughing in the spirit. So this girl Kristen after a while comes over to us and gives me a photo and starts to prophesy that I will know abundance wherever I go and I shouldn’t think the grass is greener because the grass will be greener where I am (Amen Lord especially in Bedford!). Anyway then Julian starts to prophecy over her and we have a mini time in His presence right there in row 35 while everyone around us is completely oblivious! It brought a new definition to in flight entertainment which is just as well as most of the movies were rubbish.

It reminds me again that whatever they are doing to their students in Bethel we need in Bedford – more Lord!

Bethel Leadership Advance

I’m heading out to Bill Johnson’s church, Bethel, in Redding California this Friday. It’s come around kinda fast so hardly anyone knows that we’re going! I’m travelling with Julian Adams and Roydon and Jan Loveley. Julian inadvertantly prophesied last week to Roydon and Jan that they were about to go on a trip that would be incredibly significant – little knowing that he was going with them. Amusingly God!

I have to say I’m getting that expectant feeling again – what will this years visit lead to? When we arrived for the conference last year I was standing in the registration line and asked the guy next to me what was the best thing they had seen over the previous year. In a matter of fact way he replied ‘well we did see a girl healed of HIV’! My jaw hit the ground as he explained that the girl had tested three times positive for HIV and then after prayer had been tested twice more only to be found completely healed. I knew right then that this was not going to be an ordinary conference.

And that turned out to be the reality. We learned so much about creating a church culture that can host the presence of God – you can read more about our adventures here.

So here we go for another year! I’m yearning for an encounter with Jesus that opens my heart for greater ongoing intimacy with Him. I’m desperate for a filling with His power so that we can see the blind see, cancer driven out and the lame walk on an ongoing and sustained basis – that we might fill Bedford and our region with the fame of God. I’m hungry for Him to touch me deeper with His love so that I can give it away. If you get a chance to pray for me that all that would be great. Pray also for increased connections with significant men and women who might come to Bedford to help stir the flame of what God is doing. From last year we got a great connection with Paul Manwaring who’s coming to visit in a couple of weeks (details here) and this time I’m hopefully meeting with Kevin Dedmon, author of the Ultimate Treasure Hunt - the book that got us out on the streets! Bring it on! I’ll be blogging regularly during the trip so check back.

Lastly, if you’re in the praying mood then please remember my wife Caroline. Her back has gone out again and she’s in considerable pain. We really need another miracle there. It’s causing us both to look to Jesus, not allow disappointment to fester and keep believing and praying for the breakthrough. Stand with us if you will..

Battle lines?

Got some grief for my last post and apparently I’ve been naughty so here’s a little caveat or two;

Firstly, when I say ‘were on the right track’ I should have added “for us”. I wasn’t meaning to indicate that anyone else was on the wrong track but simply that I felt the Lord confirm to me that were on the right one for us. That’s not to say that numbers are an indication that you’re on the right track – of course numbers of people can all be wrong!

Secondly apparently that post will be seen as drawing battle lines which is not helpful. Again not my intent. I’ve learned loads and continue to do so from other churches and bless them on their journey.

Having said that someone once said to me that if you never say anything that upsets some people you’re probably not saying anything. The fact of the matter is that there is increasingly a danger that due to certain successes elsewhere we might be led into a model of Sunday meetings that focus extensively on preaching and less on worship and demonstrations of Gods power. In my reading of NT church life if we settle for this we’ll have missed something. All three of these aspects need to be powerfully and consistently demonstrated – Christ exalting preaching, worship AND signs and wonders. Let’s not settle for anything less.

We’re all on this journey to encounter more of Jesus and give it away and I love the fact that we can sharpen one another on the road. In love of course

In God’s presence

What an outstanding weekend we just had with Julian Adams and Janet Brann. For those who don’t know them Julian and Janet both have an incredible prophetic gift – incredible. Personally knowing most of the people they prophesied over left me weeping at the accuracy, the sense that God was in the house and that He cares so deeply for his children

Here’s a few things I learned

1/ Honour releases life. We’ve been studying honour as a church and the fact that it releases life. One practical outworking is that when we have guest speakers now we stand and applaud them as they come to speak. The effect on the atmosphere was tangible. Both Julian and Janet commented that is was so easy for them to prophesy because of the faith that was in the room developed by the sense of honour.

2/ People come for the presence of God. I’ve been wrestling somewhat recently as many church leaders seem to be following a certain US church named like a chocolate bar on an incline. Don’t get me wrong – there is much to learn from this church. But my concern is that their emphasis does not seem to include signs, wonders and miracles – the power of the kingdom of God. This weekend reassured me that we’re on the right track. God’s presence is the most important thing and when it’s evident people will come because they are hungry not for a gospel that is merely talk but for one that is demonstrated with power.

Jonathan Edwards on signs of a true move of God part 2

Jonathan Edwards goes on to write about the things that we can expect from a true move of God. Savour this stuff – it’s an awesome testimony of what we can expect!

1/ Jesus is exalted. “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God dwells in him and he in God” Edwards points out that confess means more than acknowledge – it is the establishing and confirming of a thing by testimony. “So if the Spirit that is at work is seen to convince them of Christ and lead them to him, confirming their minds that he appeared in the flesh, that his is the Son of God, and was sent to save sinners; that he is the only Saviour, and that they stand in great need of him; and if he seems to beget in them higher and more honourable thoughts of him than they used to have and to incline their affections more to him, it is a sure sign that it is a true and right spirit.

2/Operates against the interests of Satans kingdom. 1 John 4:4 “you have overcome them because greater is he that is in you that he that is in the world”. “So we see that if the spirit that is at work lessens men’s esteem of pleasures, profits and honours of the world and takes their heart off the eager pursuit of these things and engages them in a deep concern about a future state and eternal happiness which the gospel reveals and puts them upon earnestly seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and the spirit that convinces them of the dreadfulness of sin, the guilt it brings and the misery to which it exposes must indeed by the Spirit of God”

3/ Causes a greater regard and love for scripture. 1 John 4:6 “Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know hthe Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” “Every text is a dart to torment the old serpent. He has felt the stinging smart thousands of times; therefore he is engaged against the Bible, and hates every word in it: and we may be sure that he never will attempt to raise persons’ esteem of it, or affection to it”

4/ Spirit of truth leads men to truth. “If a spirit leads men to truth and convinces them of those things that are true, we may safely determine that it is a right and true spirit. For instance if we observe that the spirit convinces men that there is a God, and that he is a great and sin-hating God: that life is short and very uncertain; that there is another world; that they have immortal souls, and must give account of themselves to God, that they are exceedingly sinful in nature and practice and desperately in need of help – the spirit that works thus operates as a Spirit of truth”

5/Spirit of love increases love to God and man. 1 john 4:16 ‘So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.’ “Therefore when a spirit brings many to high and exalting thoughts of the Divine being, and his glorious perfections; and works in them an admiring, delightful sense of the excellency of Jesus Christ; representing him as the chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely, and makes him precious to the soul, and convinces us of the wonderful free love of God in giving his only-beggoten Son to die for us and the wonderful dying love of Christ to us who had no love to him but were his enemies, it must indeed be the Spirit of God”

I don’t know about you but just basking in these words excites me about what God is doing and planning to do amongst us! Let’s cry out and press in for the true move of God!