The Holy Spirit and me

God's got it mapped!

2011-10-28T16:55:00.000Z

My Blog posts have rather slowed down to the pace of a gentle stroll recently, one here, one there and it perhaps reflects something God has been trying to tell me for somewhile now, that is, SLOW DOWN!

As believers in Jesus, we are told to follow Him, (Matthew 16:24 ), but so often He ends up chasing after us, picking up the pieces of our well meaning but sometimes out of step endevours in His Name. It is a tricky balance, we are told to go out into all the world and share our faith in Jesus, (Matthew 28: 16-20), but at the same time our eyes must be firmly fixed heavenward, (Colossians 3:2), so that like Jesus, we are always doing the will of his Father, (John 6:38).

In May 2010, someone gave me a "word" of prophesy and like so many "words" we hear, we look to how they apply now, straightaway, not realising that we should store them away in our hearts for later, perhaps months or even years. God is not slow in revealing and bringing His will to pass in our lives, (2 Peter 3:9), we are many times simply too quick!

Amongst the things that were written down for me, the word spoke about getting back to foundations or roots, not to strive and just to BE. It said that God was doing a new thing. Since my retirement from the police, circumstances have come along to start to bring this word into focus and into reality. Without going into details, I know that in order to go forward into all God has for me, I need at this time to slow right down, sort a few things out, get some things pruned, to be ready for the next season.

I still have big dreams for the future, in fact I had a dream last week, that our church had grown to one of many thousands, with a large two part auditorium that had been constructed from other buildings in our town centre. Everywhere, out in the streets, people were standing around, worshipping, in awe of God. The presence of his Holy Spirit seemed to pervade everywhere.

I had a "word" about four years ago about going above the clouds and God would show me what he wanted me to do. At that time it meant nothing, but a few months later, by a miracle and another story, I found myself on a plane to America to the Florida Healing Outpouring, and looking out of the window, beneath the clouds, saw a town. From several thousand feet, a very small town it seemed! God said to me at that moment, (a perception, not an audible voice), set your vision for what you can do according to my perspective, from above. Take towns! It is easy with my power and anointing. I am not saying this is something for me alone, I believe He is stirring others to the same vision, but that "word" is in my heart and I am waiting for God to show me the next move.

God has every detail of our lives mapped out. I was definately led to think a few months ago that when I retired, say at the end of the summer, I would get a job for say three days a week and have two days to do something at our church or to devote it to other specifically Christian ministry. Well, my daughter's illness (as previously mentioned in these musings) prevented me having any serious thought as to employment or anything much at all.

However, after she came out of hospital about six weeks ago, (and incidently, she has recovered so well, that you would not think she had ever been ill - she's just got herself a boyfriend, a part time job and is going flat out to reclaim ALL the time she's lost over the summer...Amen!), I was able to do some painting at our church for a couple of days a week. Then three weeks ago, it was a Monday, I was speaking to my wife discussing whether I was going to look for a job at the moment or not. I sort of concluded I wasn't, but still felt perhaps I should.

Two days later, arriving home from church painting, my wife told me that someone had just rung... wait for it... offering me a job! It turned out to be a supervisor from the police control centre, where I worked before, who wanted someone temporarily to do some back office work. No shifts, no weekends and could be accomodated in three days a week!

Every detail my friends, God has every detail of our lives worked out. All we have to do is trust, have faith, and simply follow the man who has the map.

Two months later

2011-09-09T23:40:00.002Z

Well, it's about two months since my last post and it's been, to say the least, an interesting time. I'm now well and truly retired from the police force, we've had fantastic family holiday in Florida and since last weekend we've got a new pastor at our church who is a real man of the Holy Spirit -and even before he arrived a new freedom seems to have "broken through" at the church. Also, not least, I've seen God work more miracles of healing, but at the same time, my eldest daughter has been in hospital now for three and a half weeks with yet to be properly diagnosed stomach problems.

It's been a bit of an emotional roller coaster, but one thing I know, God is on His throne and has my future, and that of my family, very carefully planned out. All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purposes (Romans 8:28).

In his first sermon last Sunday, our new pastor Keith, shared a vision that God has given him, just a week or so before that, for our Church. Without trying to share the whole story, it was basically of a set of rusty, disused and locked gates that were set in the roof of the church. There was a huge wooden beam set across them with the word "LIMITATION" written on it -describing how we had let what was humanly possible become more real to us than what is Spiritually possible. The beam then disintegrated. The hinges of the gates were rusty and in order for the gates to open the hinges were cleaned and polished. The hinges represented four things; Faith, Pentecostalism, Love and Unity. God was telling us to demonstrate these things and the floodgates to heavens blessing would be wide open. Very exciting!

Our Church, Elim Christian Centre at Chelmsford, is a Four Square Pentecostal denomination, based on the Biblical premises of; Jesus the Saviour, Healer, Baptister in the Holy Spirit, and the soon coming King.

In fact, in a sense, the Kingdom of God has already come to earth. Jesus brought the things of that Kingdom to people when He walked on on it; freedom from sin, healing from sickness, demonic oppression and so forth - none of which are in heaven. He gave us a commission to go out and do the things He did -and even greater things until he finally returns to take us home. (see John 14:12).

Matthew 6:10 says, (part of The Lord's Prayer), "yourkingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven". Our mission is to be involved in bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to earth into the lives of ordinary people in our neighbourhoods and towns.

You can therefore successfully reverse the order of the tenants of the Four Square Gospel and expand them thus:

Jesus has already come and established His Kingdom onearth in us
We must be Baptised with His Holy Spirit to give us His power
So we can go out and speak out and show in practical ways the Good News of the Gospel,drive out the demons from people’s lives and heal sicknesses
And as result we will see people come to Christ the Saviour and have their lives turnedaround by the Kingdom coming to them too

And as new believers are born again, the process starts over, and over and over, until Jesus finally returns, the realities of heaven gradually being brought closer and closer. Jesus came to bring us abundant life NOW! -see John 10:10. We are not just waiting to die and go to heaven. Many of us are saved and STUCK!

On Friday 2nd, I led the worship at our the Chelmsford Healing Rooms Team, Flame of Revival meeting. (see our website here for details). It was a wonderful evening of God pouring out His anointing and blessing.

At the end of the meeting, I was able to pray for some people for healing. A guy I know called Nick asked me to pray for back pain. After laying hands on him, it went instantly!

I then felt I had a word of knowledge about someone with left leg pain and having called it out, found that it was a lady standing only a few feet from me and who had a walking stick. She had chronic pain in her left hip joint which caused her to walk with a limp. The doctors could not do anything. She really believed Jesus wanted to heal her.

I got her to lay her hand on the spot and putting my hand over hers, commanded pain to go and for the joint to become whole and normal. After a short while I asked her if she felt anything happening, and she said virtually all the pain had gone. I took her for a walk, minus stick up the aisle of the church we were in and her limp had gone. She then had a further walk around without difficulty, much to the excitement of her friends, who clapped and cheered! Fantastic!

So, meanwhile my daughter lays in hospital. Many are praying, hands have been laid upon her, but the physical symptoms haven't changed very much. How do I reconcile this with the above miracles I saw? Why has she not been healed in the same way? Has it damaged my faith in God's willingness and ability to heal all?

NO IT HASN'T!. Not one bit. 1 Peter 2:24 and Isaiah 53:5 clearly state that by the stripes/wounds of Jesus on the cross, WE WERE and ARE HEALED. I choose to believe what the Bible says on the matter, not what my eyes see. Her healing IS accomplished. I simply await to see the physical manifestation of it, whether it be by instant miracle, or God's gradual healing or through wisdom imparted to the doctors.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the EVIDENCE of things not yet seen. I have great faith that she will be well and home soon. (Hebrews 11:1)

Do you believe the Word or what you see?

2011-07-10T14:37:00.009Z

We're going through a bit of a tough time at the moment in our family, as one of my daughters has been struggling for some weeks with a not yet diagnosed illness, which has laid her quite low. I and others have prayed much, and although I am confident that God has already moved, the physical manifestation of the healing has not yet come.

On the other hand, three weeks ago, I was in church before one of our morning services, and someone I knew approached with a lady called Chrissy that I did not, and asked if I would be able to pray with her.
Chrissy told be that for the past six weeks, she had been suffering from terrible pains in her right upper leg. She clearly had faith God could heal her, but had received no relief.

I sat with her and asked her to place her hand on the place which hurt. I then simply placed my fingers on her hand and spoke words of faith and rebuked the pain, telling it to go and for healing to flow into all the ligaments and muscles. She said she thought she could feel something happening, but there was not total relief at that moment. I encouraged her to have a walk around and expect God to complete the healing as she went.

Today, I again saw Chrissy at church and she excitedly told me how, although when she left church the pain was still there, it very shortly after disappeared and that ever since, the leg had been completely healed and free of any discomfort whatsoever!

She was really praising God and the experience had clearly built her faith to new levels for how God brings healing.

These two experiences could lead to a sense of confusion, even anger, particularly as the person who is not currently showing signs of healing is my own daughter. It leads me to a question, what do I believe; what the Bible says about healing, or what I can see happening?

The Bible says in 1 Peter 2:24: “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you HAVE been healed.” (my emphasis). This verse clearly illustrates that Jesus died on the cross to deal with our sicknesses as well as for our Salvation.

As born again Christians, at the point of Salvation, (when we receive eternal life), we do so without "seeing" any physical evidence, (although we might perceive a change as the Holy Spirit comes to dwell inside us) and we do this by exercising faith; (Hebrews 11:1 "To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see").

It is also a fact that Jesus died for ALL people, regardless as to whether they actually ACCEPT His Salvation or not. The real difference is what you choose to believe. Salvation is a spirital reality, although a truely saved Christian will inevitably go on to exhibit changes in their life as they grow and mature in their faith.

Logically, we can then apply the same principle to healing. Jesus died once, to take away sickness - in fact He took it all on Himself, so we do not have to. It is a done deal, whether we choose to believe it or not, or even see it or not, although we should expect to see a physical change in someones situation.

Jesus says in John 8:31; “...If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”. As someone once said, the facts might be that my body is sick, but he truth is, I AM healed.

Truth will prevail, I am going to believe the truth of God's Word each time I pray for the sick, regardless as to what I see happen. But my experience is that truth has been setting people free. I've seen dozens of healings and instant miracles in the last few years and will continue to see more.

Refirement - pain has to leave!

2011-07-02T19:38:00.001Z

As I write this, I am approaching the end of the first week of retirement from my thirty years as a police officer, or as several of my friends have told me, my ReFIREment! It really hasn't quite hit home yet and I think my body thinks I'm on annual leave and it's certainly enjoying going to bed and getting up at normal times after the last ten years of shift work.

However, thought of actual retirement is not one that is really on my mind. May that word in no way suggest that I'm simply going to relax and put my feet up (well okay just a little at first maybe although the garden this week looks much better for a good hack and slash!). NO! I am already walking boldly out into all that God has prepared for me, to build on the last few years of fresh revelation from the Bible about our call, as Christians, to heal the sick and lead people to Salvation in Jesus and to live life to the full through power of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.

In fact, having finished my last shift, a night shift, early last Monday morning, God didn't waste any time in giving me another opportunity to see His power at work. That evening, I went to a Full Gospel Businessman's dinner at Leigh on Sea, where at the end of the evening, I was asked, along with several others, to minister to any who wanted prayer.

I saw a couple in their late 50's perhaps, hovering near to the front, so I went up to speak to them and asked what they wanted God to do for them. It turned out that the lady had osteoarthritis, and in particular, her lower back was very painful. Her husband had congestive pulmonary disease and he too had back problems.

Ladies first, so I got her to place her hand where the pain was and placed my hand over hers. I spoke to the pain and told it to go, for her back and body to be healed of the arthritis and for the power of God to come upon her. After a while she declared that she felt much better and the back pain had left. AMEN!

After some further ministry where I spoke healing over her hands, which were quite swollen, I turned to he husband. He clearly had some difficulty in breathing normally and I spoke over his lungs, telling the airways to clear and for them to become clear. God appeared to be doing something.

I then moved on to address his back problem and had an inclination that he might have a leg shorter than the other -a cause of many back problems. Well he said that he did, and sitting him down on a hard chair with his legs lifted, his right leg was half an inch shorter than the other. I commanded the leg to grow out and for his hips and spine to come into line and as I have seen many times before, the leg slowly but surely grew out to be the same length as the other. He said he could feel a pulling on the muscles in the back of the leg as it happened. Getting up to test it out, everything seemed to feel much better!

I then spoke to them about the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and although the lady had previously received and spoke in tongues, her husband had not and it emerged that his Christian life was generally in some trauma. We chatted about this and he agreed that he would really like to receive the Baptism, with the gift of tongues as a sign. We prayed, and he gently received an infilling and spoke in an unknown language. Tears flowed and he seemed to be set free!

I had already warned them that Satan doesn't like healing's and often tries to bring back symptoms. My advice in such situations is to speak again to the sickness and tell it to clear off -for good! ("resist the devil and he will flee from you" it says in James 4:7). I was however somewhat annoyed with his arrogance as a few minutes later, the lady suddenly declared that her back pain had come back again! I immediately told her to lay her hand back on the place and tell the pain to go, I joined her and after about twenty seconds, it subsided and disappeared..

A little later, both left the meeting hall, happy and smiling and as far as I could tell, pretty much pain free. Thank you Jesus, you are a good God, you came to bring release to the captive and gave us the ability, in Your name, to do the same.

Back pain and MS touched by God

2011-06-09T21:50:00.002Z

We are not told to pray for the sick, but rather heal them!

There is nowhere in Jesus' earthly ministry where he went around praying for people and then walking away leaving them still sick and unwell.

Matthew 4:23 & 24 says: "Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them."

If you went to Jesus, you could rely on Him healing you. Jesus - healing, healing - Jesus, the two just went together.

And as I've discussed previously in the Blog, we are told to do the same.

Jesus got his disciples to go out and heal people. In Matthew 10: 7 & 8 He says: "As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give."

Jesus wasn't talking about his second coming or about Heaven when he spoke of the Kingdom coming near, He was saying that HE had come, He had brought the Kingdom of God down, for He IS God, and he brought all the Kingdom benefits here to earth for NOW, for those who believe in Him to pick up and use and enjoy NOW!

Even though, Jesus has since ascended back to Heaven and we await his final return, when He left two thousand years ago, He sent us the Holy Spirit in order that we can continue to experience God's Kingdom on earth. We don't have to wait until we die before we can experience Heaven, we should be having some NOW, lots of it, and giving as much to others as possible too!

In the last couple of weeks I've had further opportunity to pray for a number of people for healing. If I hear about or speak to someone who is clearly suffering with something, I usually try to pray with them there and then. Drawing from the example of Jesus, healing seems to most often flow through the laying on of hands. God's power flows through us to the sick person. I want to freely give to others the power and authority God has given me.

Two testimonies have so far resulted, one was an immediate miracle, the other a healing that was noticed later.

The Sunday before last, I was in Church and had previously been made aware of a man who had a very painful back. It was an acute episode and it had resulted in him having to have time off that week from his employment. He was in the morning service and I really felt constrained to pray for him, such that I nearly got up and did so during the meeting. However, I left it and at the end, I saw him go up and speak to one of our pastors. I could see by the way he was touching his back that he was asking for prayer.

I went up and asked if I could pray too. The pastor and I then laid hands on his back and spoke to the pain, commanded it to go in the name of Jesus and spoke healing into the spine, the muscles, the nerves and all that makes the back function. The guy didn't feel anything happen, but I encouraged him to get up and see what he could do which he couldn't before -to step out in faith. He gingerly started to bend, down, then further and then smiling broadly, announced that pretty much all the pain had just vanished! AMEN!

The second event was last Sunday evening. I have a friend who has MS, and on occasions, it really slows her down and sometimes, because of numbness in her extremities, prevents her from gripping and doing things with her hands. I was aware that the previous week, things had not been very good. We spoke, I offered to pray.

We sat down and I took hold of her hands, and similar to the occasion the previous week, spoke to the MS, commanded it to leave, for the nerves in her fingers and toes to be normal and for feeling to return, for her to feel well.

Nothing immediately seemed to happen, but two days later, Tuesday this week, I got a text from her which read, "Wanted you to know that I realised today that my hands are feeling better and I managed to assemble my wardrobe without too many problems. thank you for praying and Praise God!"

So I step out of the boat and pray, God performs miracles and healing's. This is really not very difficult! If you are a Christian, why are you not doing this? You will see similar results.

The eye is now completely healed

2011-05-24T23:07:00.003Z

God wants us to go and heal people. We know he does, because Jesus said we would do greater things than Him (see John 14:12) and Jesus went around everywhere healing the sick (Acts 10:38). Jesus was doing God's will, so we know God wants to heal (John 8:29).

I believe that the bible clearly shows that God is always wants to heal. One of His Covenant names in the Old Testament is Jehovah Rapha -the God who heals. Exodus 15: 26 concludes;"... for I am the Lord Who heals you".

Interestingly, the passage goes on in verse 27; "And they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees; and they encamped there by the waters." Elim is the denomination of the church which I go to and it was founded on four precepts, that Jesus is the Saviour, the Healer, the baptiser in the Holy Spirit and the coming King - the Foursquare gospel.

In the early days of Elim, whole churches were formed almost overnight as George Jefferys, its founder went from town to town preaching just that message - with signs, wonders and healing miracles accompanying.

It is of limited effect that we preach the news of Salvation only. It is true that the Word of God is powerful -like a two edged sword the Bible puts it in Hebrews 4:12, but Jesus used words AND deeds. The crowds that followed Him knew he was someone with God's authority, because he backed up the words He spoke with astounding miracles! They were signs that caused many people to believe that he was who He said He was; the Messiah.

Jesus' death on the Cross was to set us free from sin and death -and that means sickness. 1 Peter 2:24 tells us that it was by that death that we are healed. We can expect to be healed this side of heaven. Jesus came to give us life so we can live it in full health to the full, not in pain and with disease in our bodies; (John 10:10). The Gospel means "Good News", good news NOW, not just for when we get to Heaven.

I heard some really good news on Sunday. On 18th March, I posted in this Blog (see here) about some people who came forward for healing during our Alpha Course.

This is what I put about one guy, who responded to a word of knowledge I gave about someone with spots in one of their eyes: "A man then came out who said that he had a left eye problem, where abnormalities had previously been detected inside. The opticians and even specialists had not been able to properly diagnose it. Photos had previously been taken and it so happened that he was going back the next day for another examination to see what changes might have taken place. We spoke healing and wholeness into the eye and he said he could feel something happening. Watch this space for an update!"

On 20th March, the update was as follows: "When he went back, although the vessels were still wavy, they were now joined up. There does not seem to be any concern and he hasn't got to go back for a year."

However, he did go for one further appointment last week and saw the top Specialist. She told him that now, there was no problem at all in the eye and it was no different to the other one. All abnormality had gone. Thank you Jesus!

Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)

What are you waiting for, come and get healed, and moreover, go out and heal others in the name of Jesus.

2011-05-19T14:26:00.001Z

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FLAME OF REVIVAL meeting 3rd June

2011-05-18T09:08:00.001Z

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

You are invited to the next Chelmsford Healing Room Team FLAME OF REVIVAL

meeting on June 3rd at the United Reformed Church,

High Street Great Baddow, Chelmsford.

Our guest this month, Andrew Pearkes,

has seen amazing miracles,

including the dead raised!

I will be leading worship.

Come and experience the power

of the Holy Spirit in your life.

Prophetic words and rolling on the floor!

2011-05-02T19:39:00.005Z

I don't think someone wanted me to go to church yesterday. I missed going in the morning as my son was complaining of a headache. My wife had already gone to lead her Bible school class for our first morning service and when I got up later to get ready for the second service, he announced he would be spending the morning in bed!

To be fair, I think he was really feeling a little unwell initially, but by midday, after discovering him on his Nintendo DS, he had managed a full recovery! The first thing I had done when he declared he was ill was to lay a hand on him and command healing, but he also had a paracetamol and I don't think he actually wanted to go to church, so not sure what combination of factors caused him to rise. I like to think it was the commanding healing bit, but I will never know for sure...!

At least this gave me time for some Bible reading -reading 2 Chronicles at present - and then I tried to watch the 11am service at Kensington Temple, but missed some as the Web feed had some issues!

Had lunch at the in-laws and we all had a very pleasant walk in the afternoon. I also started re-reading a very exciting book called The Grace Outpouring, which is about a retreat centre in Pembrokeshire called Ffald-y-Brenin, where there seems to be a real "thinness" in between heaven and earth. I may say something more about this another time as God is currently speaking to me through it.

Going to the evening service at our church was unhindered and was really good. I was sitting next to a guy called Aaron, who is really fired up with the things of the Holy Spirit. We were both singing and speaking out in tongues during the worship. There were then two really powerful testimonies from ordinary people who had found God out of lives that had known nothing about Him at all. Wonderful!

During the first part of the service, I felt God draw my attention to a young lady who I had not seen before and who was sitting nearby with a friend. I felt Him telling me that He wanted me to speak to her afterwards, although I did receive any clue as to what about. All I got, was the impression that she wasn't a Christian.

However, when the service finished, Aaron immediately grabbed me and said he wanted me to accompany him whilst he gave a word to a guy that God had pointed out to him during the service! We went over to this chap, who I know a little, (but he didn't), and Aaron told him what he felt God had said. The word was spot on! I prayed over this guy too. It was a real blessing!

Meanwhile, the young lady and her friend were talking in the coffee area and having walked over there, I dithered for a few minutes deciding if I should interrupt and speak. I still had no idea what I was going to say, but very soon, the Holy Spirit made me feel so uncomfortable, that I just had to do it! I was actually in the middle of speaking to another man I know well and I had to excuse myself such was the intense feeling that was coming over me - I was sort of getting hotter and hotter!

I introduced myself to the ladies and I was right, she was not a Christian, (her friend was), but was really actively seeking. Her friend told me that God had brought them together a short while ago in unlikely circumstances, and now God seemed to be causing another meeting that would be a further step along her friend's journey to find Jesus as her Saviour.

I found myself strongly encouraging her not to seek for much longer, but to make a decision, that she had to move from darkness into light. I told her that Jesus loved her very much and had a plan and a purpose for her life, but that to see it realised, she would need to make Him her friend and Saviour. I suggested she read Psalm 139. I then prayed a blessing over her and that the Holy Spirit would bring her to the point of that life changing decision. It was clearly a God ordained conversation. Her friend, seemed quite excited about it all.

After this I went to speak to Aaron again, and as we talked about the Holy Spirit and how we both so wanted to see the power of God and Revival hit our Nation, the Spirit started to stir me and I started to shake and become unsteady on my feet!

At this point I asked Aaron if we could go to a nearby empty lounge room so he could pray with me, but upon entering, I stumbled and slumped to my knees by this sofa and sort of fell across it and rolled onto the floor as the Holy Spirit came upon me even more. Aaron started to shout and groan, interspersed with laughter and I couldn't help but join in.

A couple of people put their heads into see what on earth was going on, as it must have seemed like we'd just come back from the pub which is next door to the Church! I know exactly why people accused the Apostles of being drunk on the day of Pentecost! As we both came back to our senses, I prayed over Aaron and gave him a Prophetic word which included something he had been given on a previous occasion too.

Well, what an exciting night. God is amazing, I love Him! More FIRE Lord! Send the FIRE!

Flame of Revival Meeting Friday 6th May 2011

2011-04-13T17:21:00.002Z

You are warmly invited (and it will get very hot as the Holy Spirit moves!)

to our meeting next month.

Our speaker is Dr Harriet Sleigh, who has a Spirit filled international ministry

Her Website can be viewed: here

I am leading the worship and there will be ministry

and prayer for those sick and needing a touch from God.

We always see God move in miraculous and powerful ways,

but since the New Year, there seems to have been an increase

of the annointing on the meetings.

Heaven is invading earth more and more strongly.

Come and be blessed and take that blessing out with you!

Heaven meets earth and heals toes

2011-04-08T19:52:00.005Z

Last Friday, I was at the monthly Chelmsford Healing Rooms Team Flame of Revival meeting. These evenings are always a time of great blessing, but since the beginning of the year, they seem to have been gathering greater momentum. Heaven is really starting to meet earth.

The Lords prayer contains the words, "Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven". I really believe that God wants us to experience some of heaven NOW, not just when we die and go there and one way to see the divide between Heaven and earth become really thin, is to come to him in praise and worship.

I've had the privilege of leading the worship for the last few. Nothing fancy, I put together a list of songs during the week before, I send them to the guy who plays the keyboard and without any "practice", we turn up, I sing, he plays, another guy plays the bass guitar and we give space to let God come down and meet with us.

We only sang two songs to start with, but as we lifted our voices and hands and our hearts up to heaven, heaven seemed to fall on us. By the end of the second song, together with many of those present, I just stood there singing in the Spirit, eyes closed as the tangible presence of Almighty God lingered for a very long time.

We then paused and spent a minute or so waiting on God to give us words of prophesy and knowledge and probably a dozen people spoke out things they felt God had there and then told them. The worship then continued and heaven continued to invade earth and we met with God in a glorious way for some thirty minutes more.

Our anointed guest speaker John Wright of the Full Gospel Businessman's fellowship then spoke and at the end, upon invitation, three people lifted there hands to indicate they wanted to receive Jesus as their Lord and Saviour (YES!). A number of people then came forward and received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit for the first time and most spoke in tongues.

John then called out a number of words of knowledge for areas of sickness that God wanted to heal, and each time, a person with that exact problem responded and was asked to come out to the front. In the end there were about eight people sitting there. Those of us on the Team then came forward to pray for them.

I motioned to a man to come forward who had a problem with his big toe. It was a long standing problem which on occasions made it very painful. He also told me that he had arthritis in one of his hips. I thought we should address the toe first and I got him to slip his shoe off. I lightly laid a couple of fingers on the toe and spoke healing in the name of Jesus upon it and for all pain to go. I asked him if he could feel anything happening and he said it seemed to feel easier.

God often heals as people "go". If you look in Luke 17, from v.11 there is a story of ten lepers; "On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered a village, ten lepers approached him. Keeping their distance, they called out, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" When he saw them he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean".

I told the man to take a short walk to test out what God had done and told him that we would then turn to addressing the arthritis. He walked a few paces and then back again and so I asked him how it was? He indicated the toe felt much better but then said something about his hip. I didn't quite catch what he was saying at first, but it then turned out that as he was walking, he felt a coolness come over the hip and all the pain went from it! Love it! We didn't even have to pray for the hip and God did it anyway. as the passage in Luke goes on to suggest, his faith made him well.

God did lots of other miracles and healings that night. If you need healing in your body or in your mind, come join us next month. We meet on the first Friday at:
The United Reformed Church, High Street, Great Baddow, Chelmsford, CM2 7HH.
The meeting will be at 7.30pm on Friday 6th May.

Meeting Mormon's in the rain

2011-04-02T19:34:00.003Z

I've often wondered how God manages to co-ordinate so many things. For instance, how does He set up those "divine appointments", those seemingly chance meetings between people which lead to conversations about our faith, and which sometimes leads to greater things, such as seeing other people come to faith in Jesus?

One such "meeting" arose for me last Wednesday whilst in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, having accompanied my eldest daughter to a University interview. The Campus was about fifteen minutes walk from a large Shopping Centre and it was my plan, having left her at the afternoon long interview, to go to the Centre and spend some time browsing.

I had a choice of walking or taking a bus and decided, despite some drizzly rain, that walking was the healthier option. I set off feeling really buoyant, and as there were few other people about, soon found myself walking along speaking out quite audibly in tongues. A guy on a bike did pass by unexpectedly, but he had earphones in so wouldn't have heard me!

In recent times, as that day, when out in the street or in shops or other public places, I have tried to be alert to the possibilities of speaking to people about Jesus, or even finding someone in need to pray for. But sometimes it seems that the more anxious you get to find someone, the more you look, the less the chances you will!

A number of months ago, I remember some amazing encounters that happened on the London Underground - the Tube - having that morning, been a guest in a meeting at the Kensington Temple (also known as KT - an Elim Church) Bible College. There, Reinhard Bonnke's partner, Daniel Kolenda had been speaking. He had laid hands on each of us for an impartation of the Holy Spirit It was a really powerful time and I felt full up with God's power!

At the end, a friend and I and three or four students who were bound for the Tube, staggered out of the College probably looking like like a load of drunks and wended our way to the station. Upon arrival, I remember another student already sitting on a bench there. I was speaking out in tongues quite loudly and as she heard me she reacted by nearly falling off of the bench, declaring that she could feel the power of the Spirit hit her!

Once on the train, a couple of those we were with almost immediately started engaging perfect strangers in conversation about Jesus. I just sat there sort of quietly, (well, not that quietly!) speaking in tongues. It seemed a very natural thing for us all to be doing. The presence of God was tangible. (However, what you do need to know at this point is that usually, NO ONE ever talks to anyone they don't know on the Tube. Apart from the noise of the train making conversation difficult, it is simply not the done thing!).

Later that afternoon, after I had enjoyed lunch with my friend at a Christian coffee shop near Covent Garden, still full of God, I got back on the Tube for my journey home. After a number of stops, an Afro-Caribbean man got on and sat in an available seat next to me. For some reason, at that point I got the feeling that I needed to speak to him, but hesitated, and you might know, the longer you leave speaking after first meeting or seeing someone, the more difficult it gets.

I was just starting to "kick myself" for missing an opportunity, when all of a sudden, the man turned to me and said, "Don't I know you?"! Well he didn't and I didn't, but amazingly a conversation then started where I started talking about my faith and where I had been that morning. I remember asking him of he was a Christian, and he was, and although it seemed he was quite traditional in his outlook, I ended up talking about the Holy Spirit and healing miracles and giving him a copy of my testimony. There was no doubt that God had created an opportunity for us to engage in conversation.

Well, back to last Wednesday. So there I was, praising God whilst walking along the side of an ordinary residential road, in increasingly heavy rain, when seemingly out of nowhere - for I hadn't seen them coming - appeared two young men, smartly clad in dark suits and ties and wearing little name badges. They stopped me and one asked if they could talk about their beliefs or as it quickly turned out, if I would be interested in hearing about the book of Mormon!

I think one of them asked me if I had any belief in God and I lost no time in telling them that I was a Pentecostal Christian, to which he promptly asked the question, "So how did you become a Christian then?". Well, he asked for it! So I spent a short while telling them about what Jesus meant to me and how I accepted him as my Saviour. They too affirmed that they believed in Jesus, although I carefully pointed out the their Jesus was not the same as the one of the Bible (a son of God, but not God the Son). It was however, a very amicable conversation.

There was perhaps little chance of seeing them kneel in the rain and become Christians there and then (or is my faith not strong enough?), but I ended by saying to them that we are all on a journey, that no one, least me knows it all, but that I would pray that they discover the true God and the real Jesus. We shook hands and as they walked away, I prayed and asked God to continue to speak to them .

Later, I thought of lots of other things I could have said to them, but I know that God had ordained our meeting that day and that because I had been open to Him, right there in His presence up until that moment of our meeting, I had said just the right things and that God would use them to lead them closer to the Truth and the real Jesus Christ.

Update on Thursday miracles

2011-03-20T22:47:00.000Z

Just a quick post this time to update some of what God did last Thursday at out Alpha Course meeting. (click here to read that Post). I was able to speak to three of the guys we prayed with and here's what they said:

The injured knee was pretty much recovered - no more pain, just slightly stiff.

The man with the eye problem said he had gone to the opticians for the check up. It seemed that the original problem (in layman's terms), had been that some blood vessels in the eye were "wavy" not straight as in the other eye, and a gap in them was visible -they were not connected up properly. When he went back, although the vessels were still wavy, they were now joined up. There does not seem to be any concern and he hasn't got to go back for a year.

The painful shoulder was no longer painful! And we had also prayed for someone close to him who was ill - that person had now got much better.

Jehovah Rapha -the God who heals.

Miracles on a Thursday night at Elim

2011-03-18T18:28:00.002Z

Last night, I attended week twelve of our church (Elim Chelmsford) Alpha Course. The subject was healing, and rather than only talk about it, it was decided to make it a literally "hands on" experience. Some people left with less than they came in with!

After a great meal, which included birthday cake! (It was someones 40th), we watched Alpha Course pioneer Nicky Gumble on DVD, present a straightforward and easy to understand Biblical view of healing. Normally, we then have a discussion on the evenings topic, but last night, it was not all chat and theory, but became a practical demonstration of how God really does heal today.

I was one of four people, two men and two ladies, who were asked to sit to one side and to actually pray for anyone who wanted to come out, and as we got up, another guy and myself spoke out some Words of Knowledge (see 1 Corinthians 12:8), about particular physical conditions or areas where we believed God wanted to touch people. As Nicky was speaking earlier, I felt God gave me three things; someone getting headaches, another with pain in the left side of their body, and a third person who has a problem inside one of their eyes, spots or something like that?

In all, my partner and I prayed with six men. All of them had physical conditions, some other issues too which they wanted to see God move upon.

The first had suffered an ear infection for the previous week which was not improving very fast. As I lay my hand on his ear and prayed, he could feel heat on it!

One had an ongoing pain in his left side and he felt something happening in his body as we ministered to him and he indicated that the discomfort lessened.

The next guy had a sports injury to his right knee and it had been causing continuous pain and movement restriction for several weeks. I laid both of my hands on it and told the pain to go and for healing power to come in. He felt it get really warm, then got up to test it out, and the movement related pain had all gone. He said it felt like I still had my hands wrapped around it!

Another had back pain which occurred when he stood up or walked around for an extended period. He felt something happening as we prayed and needed to test it out over the next few days to see what might have happened.

A man then came out who said that he had a left eye problem, where abnormalities had previously been detected inside. The opticians and even specialists had not been able to properly diagnose it. Photos had previously been taken and it so happened that he was going back the next day for another examination to see what changes might have taken place. We spoke healing and wholeness into the eye and he said he could feel something happening. Watch this space for an update!

Lastly we prayed for a man who had a very painful left shoulder. Afterwards, he said he could move it more easily without so much pain. We also prayed for some others he knew with illnesses.

(The two ladies also prayed for a number of other women, but I don't know what happened there).

God wants to heal people, about that, there is no doubt. Luke 10: 8/9 says: "When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’". When Jesus came to earth two thousand years ago, the things of Heaven came very near indeed, and He went about proclaiming the Good News of Salvation and healing ALL.

When He died on the cross, rose again and went back to Heaven, He sent us the Holy Spirit to enable us to continue to bring the things of Heaven upon the earth, until His promised second return, when all will be restored and there will be no more sickness, pain or disease. Each of us who are Born Again believers carry the authority to use God's power to do the same, and even greater things than Jesus did.

John 14: 12-14 - "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."

Healing turns peoples attention to God. Healing is a sign that there is a God and He loves and cares very much for them. It is a gift He so wants to give all of us. But he needs radical and faithful Believers to step up, be bold and to be the carriers and deliverers of that gift.The more we step out, the more we will see.

Step out of the boat, you may not sink

2011-03-14T23:02:00.001Z

It is so wonderful to be around people who are on fire for God and who want to see others set free from problems and difficulties, addictions and sicknesses, by telling them about Jesus. In a world that is slowly tearing itself apart, He is the rock on which we can stand.

On the 5th and 8th March, I wrote about some of what I experienced and saw happen last Friday week at the Flames of Revival meeting at one of the United Reformed Churches in our town. But yesterday, whilst at my own church, I happened to speak to a man who was also there on Friday, a very ordinary man, who told me a really exciting story of what happened when that evening, he decided to "step out of the boat" in faith.

It seems that about three quarters of an hour before the meeting, he was nearby at the home of a lady and her 19 year old daughter, doing some work for them on their pond! He had not met either of them before that day. I understand that the daughter was suffering from some sort of physical problem (sorry not sure what it was) and this chap started to talk to both of them about this meeting he was going to where people got healed. Well, the upshot was that amazingly, they both agreed to come along.

As I mentioned in the earlier Blog posts, the presence of God was very obvious that night. The worship was "full on", with the gift of tongues being used by a good number present. The message given by the speaker was without compromise. From what I was told, it didn't seem that the ladies had been to anything quite like it before!

Now I understand that halfway through, the mother decided to leave, entirely why is uncertain, but the daughter stayed, At the end, there was an appeal for Salvation, and she was one of those who came up and received Jesus as her Saviour. PRAISE GOD!

The teller of this wonderful story had a great big grin all over his face and it didn't end quite there as he said that he had subsequently been round to see them, taking some Christian literature (doing some discipling too!).

Never be afraid of telling people about Jesus. Do not water down meetings or be afraid that people will come along and "not understand". Not all will respond positively, or immediately to the things of God, but others will hear the news gladly, and like this young lady, now have eternal life, all because of a loving gracious God and a humble, ordinary man, who was willing to take a risk.

Take a moment now to pray for mum, that she too will find Jesus as her Saviour.

Holy Spirit power at the Catholic Church

2011-03-10T11:30:00.005Z

Not so many years ago, I would probably have run a mile if someone had suggested going to a meeting at a Catholic Church, but last night I went to the Praise and Worship meeting, a monthly event, at a Catholic Church Hall, in the town where I live. It is run by a Spirit filled Catholic lady and supported by people from many different church denominations. Last night, I had been asked to speak and give my testimony.

It was interesting to note that, whilst we were praising and worshipping God, hands lifted, in the main Church next to the Hall, there was a traditional Ash Wednesday service taking place. The congregation from that came out to the car park whilst we were singing. I wonder what they thought!

As usual, I had prepared some notes for my talk. However, earlier that day, I had particularly asked God to take my words and direct exactly what I should say at the time, rather than being tied to what I had written. In other words, to be totally led by the Holy Spirit. Well, it turned out to be so, as other than at a couple of specific points where I read some things directly, I really didn't use my notes at all. It all flowed really well and Scripture verses just came into my head as required to illustrate certain points.

I spoke about how we need the Fire of God upon our lives, that we need to be serious about our faith in a world that's falling apart, that we might be the only "Jesus" people see; that we need to both read AND believe the Bible and then ACT upon what it says; that we need to understand how faith works so that what is unseen in God's spiritual realm, becomes more real to us than what we can actually see with our eyes. I spoke about miracles of healing that I had seen and how everyone who is Born Again, can lay hands on the sick and see them recover. (Mark 16:18)

At the end, I had an appeal for Salvation and re-commitment and four people responded by raising their hands. PRAISE GOD! We then had a time of prayer of ministry. A number of people came forward.

One elderly man, who had a mild form of MS with one leg giving him a lot of trouble, fell out cold under the power of the Holy Spirit and later said that he had felt something happening in the leg.

We ministered to lady with fibromyalga and suffering from depression and during the prayer, I got a feeling that there was an issue of unforgiveness involved that was holding things back. I expressed this to her and immediately, she blurted out that it was involving a particular family member. She then repented and spoke out words of forgiveness for this person. See visibly straightened up and her whole countenance changed, she was smiling broadly and her face almost seemed to be shining!

Another lady had a condition in her spine which had caused the vertebrae to fuse. She had had it for many years and suffered pain at night whilst in bed. We ministered for sometime and she said she could feel "heat" on her back. Afterwards, although we had physically done nothing to cause it, we were quite gentle in laying our hands on her, she said it felt as if someone had been manipulating it. Nothing immediately changed, but she said that after accepting this condition for years, it was now time to press in to see healing come.

God is at work. Sometimes I see immediate "miracles", other times more gradual heeling's take place. God knows the method and timing that is needed. All we have to do is believe and act on His Word. We are God's hands, His feet, His eyes and His ears. He needs US to realise the authority He has given each one of us, to do His work here on earth, AND to go out and do it!

When did you last cast a demon out?

2011-03-08T19:56:00.004Z

I didn't write anything about this originally, as I wanted to spend a little time processing what had happened, but last Friday, at the Flames of Revival meeting, I believe I cast a demon or demons out of a lady.

It is interesting that throughout Jesus earthly ministry, one of the things that he did in combination with his healing ministry, was to go around kicking demons out of people. There are a number of examples in the Gospels.

Early on, Matthew 4:24 says; "News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them".

There are examples of specific people, even religious people who went to "church", whom Jesus delivered from the power of demons. Mark 1:23:

"Suddenly, a man in the synagogue who was possessed by an evilspirit began shouting, “Why are you interfering with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One sent from God!” Jesus cut him short. “Be quiet! Come out of the man,” he ordered. At that, the evil spirit screamed, threw the man into a convulsion, and then came out of him."

Jesus told us to do the same. Mark 16:17:

^"These miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name..."

Well, up to now, although I have prayed for people for release from possible demons, I have not seen anything definate happen. However, the other night a lady came forward for prayer, who it appeared had both personally and through her family history, problems with demonic influences. However, she really just wanted God to speak to her that night and had no specific request. It was interesting to note that she claimed to be Born Again and to have received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. There was no reason to disbelieve that.

I got another guy over to pray alongside me, I held her hands, and just started calling on God to bless her and speak to her. Very quickly, she ended up on the floor, and as she lay there, almost immediately, started coughing. Her eyes were closed but her face became quite contorted and she just kept letting out coughing sounds, not quite choking/gagging, but not far off.

I simply felt led to pray over her in tongues, then to bind satan's power over her life and to bind any demon that was causing her distress. I then told any such demon to leave in the name of Jesus. She continued to cough for some while as my friend and I prayed, then she suddenly became very still and peaceful. At this point it seemed whatever was there, had gone. She lay for a while then got up, feeling tingly, where I assumed the Holy Spirit had left His mark.

From reading about those who regularly see demons cast out of peoples lives, coughing is a very common symptom of a demon deciding it was time to leave! The authority we have, through the name and blood of Jesus, leaves them no choice but to vacate.

I thank God for the opportunity to bless someone and to increase my knowledge and experience of the work He has set each one of us to do in His name

Send the FIRE today!

2011-03-05T23:18:00.001Z

Last night I was privileged to lead the time of worship and praise at the Chelmsford Healing Room Team's "Flames of Revival" meeting and towards the end, the presence of God was so strong that I started to shake!

I've said before on this Blog, that the Bible talks about God inhabiting, or dwelling within the praise we bring before him, and last night, He certainly did just that.

At the end of the nineteenth century, William and Catherine Booth founded the Salvation Army. Their motto was "Blood and Fire" -the blood of Jesus shed on the cross to redeem man from sin and the fire of the Holy Spirit. Looking on the moral and spiritual decay of the world and of the church, they realised something radical must take place to bring people back to God.

William wrote a song which started; " ‘Oh God of burning, cleansing flame, Send The Fire. Your blood-bought gift today we claim, Send The Fire. To burn up every trace of sin, to bring the light and glory in, the revolution now begins, Send The Fire today.' click here to listen He knew that the only way mankind could again find their sense of moral urgency and spiritual fervency and expose the truth and the light of Jesus from the morass of life, was for them to experience the FIRE of God. The same is surely true today.

There were perhaps sixty or so people present last night and as we too sang that song and the fire seemed to fall. For over half an hour, we immersed ourselves in the worship of our Almighty God, at times singing in "the Spirit", in tongues. By the end, I was starting to shake, such was the anointing that was present.

A pastor from a large local church then spoke, principally from Matthew Chapter 8: 1 to 4, where Jesus healed the man with leprosy:

When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

The man said to Jesus, "if you are willing", and Jesus replied, "I am willing" and he was healed. Power transferred from Jesus to the man and reversed the infection, put it to flight, destroyed it and made him completely whole. We were reminded that we can make the same claim on that power today, that we can be healed by a supernatural download of Gods healing energy - his FIRE in effect.

We then had a time of ministry and a number of us ministered to those who were unwell, had physical and also mental health issues. Many were very obviously touched by the FIRE. Some showed immediate signs that something had happened, others I know will later bear testimony of what God did and will continue to do.

God wants to heal, God wants to restore, He wants to do it through His FIRE and he wants US to be the carriers, the conveyors of that FIRE to others.

I had the privilege of throwing my arms around and greeting two guys last night who had previously experienced that healing FIRE. One, many, many months ago, who came to a similar gathering, right shoulder largely immobile, in pain, and waiting for an operation. He said that he knew God could heal him, but I told him that God not only could, but wanted to. Laying my hands on the joint, I remember feeling two distinct movements, sort of "pops" and upon asking him if he could do anything he couldn't do before, he proceeded to violently swing his arm around like a windmill shouting at the top of his voice , "I'M HEALED!". He never needed that operation and last night, he was still completely healed.

The other guy was the one I blogged about on 27th January, (see Chicken pie and miracles). His back, which has been so painful for months, and which had been instantly healed with all pain gone, after I asked people to lay hands on themselves and pray for healing at a Full Gospel Businessman's dinner, was still perfect, not a twinge!

Frankly, I want to see and experience MORE. I'm hungry for the anointing and power of God. Not just for it's own sake and for my own benefit, but so that I can take it and see it touch, save, heal and restore our lost world.

One person in particular last night,will never be the same again. A homeless guy was brought in by someone. I'm not sure he had ever been to anything like it before, but he came forward at the end and accepted Jesus as His Lord and Saviour.

Get on fire guys, get burning for God, cut the excuses, the time is now. Lord, send the fire today!

A thick and heavy presence

2011-03-02T11:36:00.004Z

Do you ever feel the presence of God? The Bible says that if we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us, (see James 4:8), and that's not just a command for us to carry out, but it is also a promise.

I have frequently find myself experiencing something quite tangible going on when I am praising and worshipping, praying or being prayed for. Most usually, it happens when I'm in at church or at a special meeting, but occasionally at home too. I love to worship God, lift my hands to Him, sing and sometimes dance and shout out praise to Him (the shouting bit is easier if others are too of course!), and often I can be doing this, feeling nothing in particular, when suddenly, something physically starts to happen within me. Sometimes it's barely perceivable and no one else would know, other times, I physically shake and can't help but groan or cry out, and sometimes end up on my knees or laying flat on the floor, as a strongly overwhelming sensation of power literally feels like it is flooding and coursing through me.

Frequently in the past, and occasionally still now, I get a real intense feeling of "electricity", pins and needles, in my hands and lower arms. On one occasion this incredible feeling went right up to my shoulders! The "electricity" in the arms is usually accompanied by a tightness in my chest resulting in breathing deeply and heavily. It is an amazing sensation!

In recent times, I have often found myself experiencing similarly intense, but slightly different feelings. I have found my left hand and sometimes leg shake, (maybe connected to he fact I'm left handed?), or a "heaviness", like something pressing down on me. Sunday before last at the end of the evening service, I felt like I was being pushed down in my seat. When I got up, I still felt something was resting upon me for over half an hour, until it was time to go home. A similar heaviness came over me last Sunday as well.

So what is this all about? As Christians, we have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us. Romans 8:9-11 talks about this and how His Spirit can interact with our human body and GIVE US LIFE!

"You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you."

When Holy God comes into contact with mortal man, something is going to happen. A reaction is going to take place. In the Bible, there are many references to people falling down to worship God. Falling down speaks to me not simply of getting carefully upon ones knee in a dignified manner, but literally falling, dropping, becoming prostrate.

Ezekiel 1:28 says; "Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell face down, and I heard the voice of one speaking".

When God's presence comes, when we allow Him to draw near to us by opening ourselves up to receive an encounter, He really does want to meet with us. We may not all shake, tingle or fall -I certainly don't always - but don't exclude the possibility. Maybe it's like God giving us an embrace, a cuddle, an assurance He is there and loves us so much. And not least, it is a sign that He has and is empowering us to go out and do His work:

Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Do you need charging up today?

Take a grain of faith and see miracles

2011-02-12T18:12:00.005Z

Biblical faith is a funny old thing you know. You can't see it, touch it, smell, it, hear it or taste it with any of you five senses, and because of that, many people simply can't fathom it at all. Yet when you look ever more closely at the author and perfecter of that faith, Jesus Christ (see Hebrews 2:2), somehow you can start to see, touch, smell, hear and taste... what ordinarily we would call impossible.

Hebrews 11:1 says that faith is a substance. (Dictionary: "that which has mass and occupies space"). The passage says it is the substance, it is being absolutely sure of things we hope for, and it is the evidence, the certainty of what we cannot physically see. It points to the fact that the physical realm in which we live our daily lives is not the highest authority, the final word in what is possible. There is a Spiritual world out there which is far superior and as Christians, we can and should tap into it. In fact, the tap should be turned fully on, and we should be flowing in it!

Hebrews 11:6 goes on to say: “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” We must seek God with everything we have and if we do, the promise is that He will reward, we will be given power from heaven to tangibly give away to a needy watching world.

About four years ago, it was the discovery, indeed revelation of some of the depth of this simple explanation of faith, that set me on a collision course with the miracle working power of God. For the first time I discovered how, by acting on it, people could be healed and released from pain before my very eyes, in the same way that Jesus and then the disciples operated throughout the New Testament.

1 Corinthians 12, talks about the Gifts or Annointings that Christians can operate in through the power of the Holy Spirit. Not natural power we possess, but Heavenly Supernatural power. Taking healing as one of these, (see verse 9), the Bible talks about giving Christian Believers "gifts of healing". However, I don't believe that when I see people healed that I receive a gift to heal, but rather that God gives the person who is being healed the gift. He simply uses me, as I operate in faith as a conduit for the gift to be delivered, or in other words for His power to be released.

If that is true then, by inference, if I don't do my bit, then God can't do His and He would have to find some one else to be the conduit or channel instead. Frankly, if we don't minister to the sick, they will stay sick! God needs human hands to do His work, but not those who have "arrived", or are perfect of who have reached some lofty height of spirituality, but those who simply recognise and move in God's kind of faith. And it only need to be the size of a grain of mustard seed!

I certainly haven't arrived anywhere, but I know I've left! I know God has so much more for me, and for you, if you set your heart towards Him and step out of the boat in faith.

The cork is going to pop!

2011-02-02T23:39:00.002Z

From the west, people will fear the name of the LORD, and from the rising of the sun, they will revere his glory. For he will come like a pent-up flood that the breath of the LORD drives along. “The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,” declares the LORD.

The above passage from the Bible is from Isaiah 59:19 & 20. It is not a really well known one, but I feel God laid it on my heart to challenge you that Revival is on the way for this nation and that if we press into God, the cork so to speak is soon going to "pop"! The passage above says it will if we take Him seriously!

Many times in recent months I have cried out to God, (sometimes in deserted places quite literally loudly cried out for Him), to move in revival power. Great Britain in many ways is no longer great and its citizens desperately need a Saviour and I know His name is Jesus.

I had a meeting to go to at our Church tonight in connection with intercessory prayer, but I knew I did not want to just go to another "so so" meeting and I prayed all the way down in the car, that somehow God would break through. Upon arrival, there were only nine of us, but as God set the minimum number to be present at two or three (see Matthew 18:20), that was more than enough!

Well, we just started worshiping God. Nearly everyone immediately got down to praying and praising in tongues, singing in tongues, really going for it! This simply wasn't going to be an ordinary meeting. I could feel the tangible tingling presence of the Holy Spirit and at one point had no choice but to kneel down - I think I would have fallen over if not!

After a considerable while, our pastor then told some amazing stories about people who were not Christians and had no church background, who have recently wandered into our church and had a supernatural encounter with God. I don't remember all the details but one was a guy who went for a walk to consider how he was going to kill himself, happened to walk past the church building, was drawn in. This guy was touched by the power of God and subsequently brought 4 or 5 other men to the church.

There was also a woman who came along for the first time and hearing a sermon on Leviticus (not your normal Book of choice for Evangelism), enthused after that she had heard a message from God and that it was what she had been waiting to hear all her life. I don't think she'd ever read a Bible before. She later brought a friend along, they were prayed for and started shaking as the power of the Holy Spirit spontaneously hit them!

These people were un-churched, hadn't got a clue about the Bible or anything, but God saturated them with His saving power, just like that! There were other similar stories too.

Now non Christians who haven't a clue about church turning up and being whacked by the power of the Holy Spirit sounds like the start of a Revival to me and so we then all prayed a lot more. We prayed strategically for breakthrough, for the power of the enemy to be broken. We declared that Jesus had the victory, that souls WOULD be saved

Of course, it is an individuals personal decision as to whether they accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour or not, but we can pray that circumstances arise which lead them and people are put into their path who can witness to them about the Good News of Jesus. Our testimonies as Christians are so powerful here.

Our prayers carry great power. In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells his disciples on four occasions that they don't get, because they don't ask. (See Chapters 14, 15 & 16). If you ask anything which is in the will of God, He WILL do it. Is it His will to see people saved? To see this Nation changed? YES IT IS!

So what are you (and I), waiting for, get praying.

Chicken pie and miracles

2011-01-27T13:35:00.001Z

On Monday morning this week, I turned to farmer and evangelist Angus Buchan's book of daily readings, A Farmers Year, and found that the verse was from Zechariah 4 v 6: "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit", says the Lord"

I have often previously been reminded of this scripture by the Holy Spirit and it was an entirely appropriate verse for the day, as that evening I was to give testimony at the Full Gospel Businessman's (FGBMFI) dinner in Southend, and afterwards to minister to people to receive healing.

About 60 people gathered at the Arlington Rooms, in Leigh on Sea and we enjoyed a really good meal of home made chicken pie, roast potatoes and veg. It was even better on my table to chat with several men whose lives were so obviously sold out to God.

After the meal, I was able to share testimony of what God had done in my life, from bringing me to a Saving knowledge of Jesus, to more recently, stepping out in faith and seeing people blessed, filled with the Holy Spirit and have wonderful miracles of healing take place in their lives.

I mentioned the many legs I've seen grow out as bones have seemingly lengthened or backs and hips have adjusted. There was the young lady whose broken toes mended in front of my eyes enabling her to immediately jump up and down on them and carry her crutches home. There was the man whose shoulder was painful and frozen and needed surgery, but instantly was able to raise and swing it around and no longer needed an operation. At another FGBMFI meeting a man who was sitting with his Christian GP experienced healing in his foot, which the doctor had been unable to diagnose. There was also the lady who turned up at our church one Saturday night with terrible back pain and looking for prayer, found our pastor and I in the foyer and when prayed for, suddenly (and it was sudden!) became completely pain free as she felt God move something in the base of her spine. These were just a few of the many things I have seen God do, as I've stepped out of the boat and ministered healing in His Name.

I spoke of the importance of having faith to see God move. When God promised Abraham that he would be the father of many Nations, he walked by faith and looking beyond his age (he was nearly 100 years old), and the seeming impossibility of having children by his equally ancient wife Sarah! He believed God, and the Bible says God credited to him as righteousness. He saw beyond his physical condition and believed what he could not see was more real. The Spiritual realm is greater and more real than the physical world we live in.

Understanding and moving in Biblical faith is I believe a key factor in seeing miracles. Another is persistence and even desperation. I spoke of the woman, mentioned in three of the Gospels, (so God clearly wanted to make a point with this one), who had an issue of blood. She forced her way through the crowd to touch the hem of Jesus garment and was instantly healed. I believe we have to pursue God to receive all he has for us.

At the conclusion of my testimony, I gave an appeal for Salvation and was excited that a lady put her hand up to receive Jesus into her life. I spoke to her afterwards and it seemed she had been a churchgoer for some while, had been baptised and confirmed but had never really understood that a relationship with Jesus was actually required!

Before asking people who wanted prayer for healing to actually come forward, I was then led to get people, in faith, to lay hands on themselves and ask God to touch them. One man in particular, who had told me before the meal that he was going to get his bad back healed, said that at that point, as he touched it, he felt tingling run up and down and all the pain left!

I had some words of knowledge I believe for several ailments to be healed and a number of people then came forward and several of FGBMFI members also took part and laid on hands.

One young lady had a weak ankle and as I spoke and commanded it to heal, she could feel some unusual "clicking" and movement in it and she could feel a difference as she walked.

A number felt the power of God touch them. One lady who I prayed for was obviously feeling something, but afterwards, the guy who had been standing behind her in case she fell under the Spirit's power, seemed to feel more and felt a "jolt"! (It's interesting how I rarely feel anything whilst praying for people, although others frequently do, but I have learnt not to rely on feelings it's that faith thing again!).

So a wonderful evening in God's presence, lives touched and changed. I know I must press in some more...

Come to dinner and be healed too!

2011-01-21T20:35:00.001Z

Jesus was always interested in peoples physical, as well as their Spiritual needs, for instance, when the wine ran out at the wedding, he produced some more on the spot, from water! He turned a little boy's lunch into a feast for 5000 and went around healing all he came into contact with, as well as raising a few from the dead! And he preached the Good News of the Kingdom of God.

The Southend Branch of the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International (FGBMFI) is having their next dinner on Monday 24th January at Leigh on Sea, and I'm the speaker - see their website here.

They too are interested in people's physical needs and we will be having a lovely meal. I will then be speaking about the Good News of Jesus, what he means to me and has done in my life and then as people are prayed for, we are expecting God to heal those who are sick and unwell.

If you are interested in coming along, it is not too late, see the website for details or contact me. It could change your life.

You might think you are a little bush, but let God set you on FIRE!

2011-01-17T13:26:00.002Z

The snow now seems just a memory but at the moment rain is falling heavily outside. We are over halfway through January already and Christmas is packed away in the loft. It can be a difficult time of the year where summer sun still seems a long way off.

Sometimes all we seem to have in our lives is the sound of winter rain, but rain permeates and refreshes the ground. Spring inevitably comes and all that preparation allows things to grow. We too cannot live without water. I am reminded of a passage in Isaiah, Chapter 55:

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

I am being continually reminded at the moment that I need to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus, to let His Word soak through me, that without remaining focused on Him, my mind so quickly returns to purely earthly things. Ironically, Christmas has the tendency to "de-focus" me from my walk with God and I have been making suitable course corrections in the last couple of weeks.

I went to Kensington Temple (KT) an Elim Church in Notting Hill, London, last Sunday evening with a friend and had a wonderful time in the presence of God. Someone once said that it is impossible to have a bad service at KT and they are right. Where as in some churches people who are demonstrative in their worship to God "stick out", at KT, those who sit or stand passively are greatly in the minority! David Reidy, visiting from Hillsong in Australia, led the worship, Roberts Liardon, a prolific author and present head of their Bible School spoke and Heaven just seemed to open up. it was an amazing time. At one point I felt such a physical touch from the Holy Spirit that I had to go down to my knees, as His power flowed upon me.

At the end, about thirty people came forward to receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. I had earlier noticed, sitting near to me, a mum with her two young sons. The eldest, about ten was joining in with the worship, speaking and praising in tongues. At the end, his younger brother, perhaps eight years old also went forward to receive. Fantastic!

This Sunday morning at our Church, Elim Chelmsford,we also had a wonderful time of praise and worship. Pater Mike Sherwood was encouraged to dance before the Lord! and a number of us joined him and danced down the aisle, out the back doors and in again - not seen for some while in our church! There is such liberty and freedom available through Jesus, but it is up to us to exercise it. He has taken our shackles off, but we can so easily live as if they are still there. (Fear of man so often).

This was followed by an outstanding word from pastor Mike who spoke on the book of Exodus. (Listen here) One point really stuck with me concerning the story of Moses and the burning bush, which was on fire but was not consumed. (see Chapter 3). Like Moses we might consider that we are small, weak little bushes, not capable of doing anything for Him. But when the fire of God is allowed to burn upon us, we become mighty for battle and for great exploits. It is not our strength, but HIS. Not by power, not by might, but by His Spirit. (Zech 4:6).

The Bible also says, God inhabits the praises of his people, (Psalm 22:3) - this is how we obtain that power - and draw near to God and He WILL draw near to you (James 4:8).

As the rain falls, get burnt up!

Hundreds of thousands turn to Jesus in Britain

2011-01-03T16:44:00.005Z

I bit the bullet on New Years Eve and went to London with one of my daughters and two friends, to see in 2011 on the banks of the river Thames and to witness the usual spectacular firework display. We spent a pleasant afternoon in Covent Garden, (watching some street theatre involving a man with a 8ft unicycle!), and then onto Oxford Street, with a nice meal at a Spaghetti House restaurant, before arriving on Embankment just before 8pm. We were hoping to meet up with other members of the family including my son who were travelling up just for the evening.

There were a lot of people about. All day, there had been crowds of people moving around London, but now, standing opposite the London Eye, there were VAST crowds. We marked out our spot with a little groundsheet, but soon had people stepping over us to get past. For the next couple of hours, many more streamed in, filling every part of the street in all directions until there was little room to move in any direction.

The other members of our family never reached us, unable to get through the crowd or past the security barricades erected to control them.

Nonetheless, in the main, the atmosphere was festive. Radio 1 was blasting out music - well I think it was music! - from enormous speakers positioned not far away. We had a group of older teens next to us who were having fun playing games and later on dancing. Many of the crowd were swigging from beer cans or wine bottles and getting in the spirit so to speak. However, the effects of this slowly but surely became apparent. Suddenly a fight broke out a few yards from us and police dashed in to drag an inebriated guy away. The older teenagers became quite raucous and another group of younger kids barged there way towards the front and got really silly, setting off smoke capsules and pushing each other around. Then, after over four hours of waiting midnight suddenly approached.

The fireworks themselves were actually well worth the wait. I've seen a few good displays over the years, including at Disney in Florida, but this did exceed anything I've seen before by some margin. However, eight minutes later, it was all over and despite the encouragement by Radio 1 to boogie on, it was time to head home... along with, according to estimates, about 250,000, (a quarter of a million) other people. I sensed that the journey back to Chelmsford was not going to be a quick one!

Following the mass of humanity out onto Whitehall, we turned towards Trafalgar Square only to join many thousands who were already there. We were then corralled and controlled by police on horses and gradually exited in batches onto Trafalgar Square. The whole of Whitehall was awash with closely packed bodies, most patient, but some seemingly desperate to shove their way through in any way they could. (A guy next to us nearly came to blows with a drunk who pushed into his partner).

After about thirty minutes, of stop/start shuffling forward, we eventually arrived at Nelson's Column and turned onto the Strand for a long walk back to Liverpool Street. It was all quite surreal. Traffic had been cleared from normally congested streets, right until we reached the Bank of England, and we made our way along, the crowd gradually thinning, saw streets strewn debris of bottles, carrier bags and the occasional scattering of vomit! Some staggered, some sang or shouted, others were being held up by friends. Dozens and dozens of police officers loitered all along the route. The occasional ambulance or police van passed by blue lights flashing. It felt a little like being in some sort of disaster area!

We eventually arrived home at 3.30am.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The next day, I was reading an email from Cfan, Reinhard Bonnke's organisation which was giving details of their latest crusades in Ogbomosho, Nigeria. There was a link to on line video footage of day four of the event, (Watch it here), which drew a crowd of 275,000. (Similar to the crowd that gathered to watch the fireworks).

I watched Reinhard's fellow evangelist, Daniel Kolenda preach the Gospel of Jesus to this vast assembly. Many thousands appeared to respond to the call for Salvation. Reinhard himself then spoke to the crowd about receiving the Baptism, the infilling of the Holy Spirit, again thousands upon thousands responded in praise and apparent speaking in other tongues as The Spirit swept through the vast open air arena, changing peoples lives forever. I watched people testify as to miraculous healings that had taken place - the deaf hearing, the lame walking and the blind seeing.

Daniel said, "Tonight, after I preached the Gospel, Evangelist Bonnke prayed for the 275,000 people gathered on the crusade field to also receive the Baptism into the Holy Spirit and I had to choke back the tears as the roar of the crowd caused the ground to tremble."

What a contrast to the night before! What were the New Years celebrations really all about? How many people's lives will be changed through hearing the chimes of Big Ben and watching a few pyrotechnics!?

The Ogbomosho Crusade is said to have had, over five nights, an attendance of over 1.4 million. Cfan recorded over 782,000 decisions to follow Jesus. In 2010 Cfan saw over 3.4 million decisions overall.

It challenged me, challenged me through and through. We serve the same God here in Britain as in Africa. The same God can and WILL move here in Great Britain, in the SAME mighty power. BRITAIN WILL BE SAVED, but God needs YOU, YOU and ME, to stand up and be counted, to boldly proclaim the Gospel message. Do you have the faith to see it, I do.

Romans 1:16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Christmas time -have some more wine!

2010-12-27T12:32:00.000Z

In the purest sense, Christmas is a wonderful time where we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus. "God made flesh", the creator of the universe sent "The Word", His Son, to live with mortal man, in order to restore that relationship He had with Adam and Eve in the beginning. As a result of Jesus' subsequent death and resurrection sin was conquered and death has been forever banished for those who accept the message of New Life that He brings.

Whilst these truths remain absolute, the appearance of Christmas here in 2010 does not always make this reality so clear. Increasingly, Christmas revolves around buying the latest games console, having the most expensive foods, scoffing loads of chocolates, drinking lots of alcohol, even if you hardly drink the rest of the year, and generally maxing out on everything, including your credit card.

Where is Jesus? I only saw one shop in Chelmsford with a nativity scene in the window, and that was The Entertainer, in Springfield Road. There was a notice by it on the window talking about the true meaning of Christmas. (I know this chain of shops has a Christian ethos and they don't trade on Sundays). Well done!

However, I have to confess, that to some extent, as usual, I got caught up with all the preparations and festivities, not the alcohol part I would add, but "Christmas" has taken a lot of my time and energy over several weeks now. Presents and decorations and food and all that stuff have focused my mind. Despite being "the (real) reason for the season", Jesus has been a little sidelined. Prayer and Bible reading, my communication with Him has unfortunately reduced as these other so called "important" matters crowd in. It's not ideal.

In another way though, the wonderful truth is that no matter what I do or don't do, I know that Jesus has not moved an inch from my life. He can't because he dwells inside me! I am Born Again, filled with His Holy Spirit, forever changed, renewed, glorified, sanctified, a child of the most High God! He is still fully engaged and active in my life and as I have gone from place to place, whatever my business, He has shined out of me into a dark world! I am not despondent.

Nonetheless, I know that for many months now, God has called me to stay on the edge of what He is doing, to explore the boundaries of what humanly we consider to be reasonable or even possible, to move in faith, not by sight, to be a doer of His Word, not just a carrier.

2011 is just around the corner. I intend to see more people Saved, healed and delivered from the powers of darkness this coming year. I retire, or as someone said to me, "re-fire" from Essex Police in just under 6 months now. Things are destined to be very different.

Faith without works is dead and useless (James 2:17). I WILL put mine into action and see God do amazing things.

When did you last work a miracle?

2010-12-13T17:46:00.000Z

Last Friday evening, I went along to the Chelmsford Healing Rooms Team, Revival Fire meeting, at the United Reformed Church in Great Baddow. Towards the end of the evening, I ministered to a young man who, there and then, received a miracle of healing.

These monthly meetings held with the aim of enabling people to experience and be built up and encouraged in God, by a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit. We regularly see people healed, sometimes by way of an immediate miraculous demonstration, or else receive subsequent testimony. People are often filled or baptised in the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues. Other anointings or gifts of the Holy Spirit are also regularly demonstrated as God determines in our meetings. We often see people making a decision to become a Christian. They are truly wonderful times of refreshing and blessing. (The next one by the way is at 7.30pm on Friday 4th February 2011 and then on the first Friday each month -all are very welcome).

The latest meeting was as usual a powerful time. We started with praise and worship (which I have been leading recently) then had a time of testimonies and a time to pray and listen to God and then share what we believe He had said; typically we hear a Bible verse or two, or picture of something, to encourage and build up those present.

I had a picture of an old sailing ship with several masts. I felt God was saying that there was no way one person could raise all those sails - it needed teamwork. Then, once all the sails are raised, the ship will sail along as intended and God will guide its path. I felt God was encouraging people, perhaps a specific person or persons present, to take an active part in a church and not try to live their Christian lives in isolation.

Our speaker was a lady called Penny Ianson, who has an International prophetic and healing ministry. She spoke on Elijah, from 1 Kings Chapter 17, which starts; "Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe...". (I understand that the word Tishbite, is sometimes interpreted as "stranger"). Penny made the main point that Elijah, although going on to do amazing things, (such as raising the widows son from the dead -verses 17 to 24), was actually a "nobody"! This Chapter is the first time he is mentioned, we know nothing more about him at all. He was just an ordinary man, but one who clearly knew an extraordinary God. Verse 24 says; "And the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.""

There is a saying, "words are cheap", and certainly it is easy to talk about God, to argue this and that, but Paul, in 1 Corinthians 2: 4-5 says; "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power." Elijah certainly demonstrated God's power and so did Paul.

With this in mind, after Penny had spoken, we had a time of ministry, and many were clearly touched by the power of God, some ending up on the floor! Whilst all this was going on, Penny called my over and asked me to speak to a young man in his 20's, who was one of two people accompanying her that evening, and who were visiting from France. It transpired that he had problems with his left leg caused by a previous hip injury. The leg was about 1 cm shorter than the other and he was unable to rotate his foot outwards to any great degree.

I sat him down and holding his legs up, heels together, the leg length difference was certainly noticeable. but I have seen God resolve such problems many times, so I simply told the leg to grow out and the joints and inner workings of the leg to sort themselves out (speak to the mountain Jesus said). Within a minute, the leg had equalised in length with the other. I spoke to the muscles in his upper leg and hip area that they would loosen and become normal. Presently, he was able to twist his foot out noticeably a lot more than before. He then stood up and found that he felt more balanced and no longer had to walk slightly on outside of the sole of his foot which he had been doing to compensate for its shortness.

He then told me that due to twisting his right ankle on many occasions during sports activities, it's ligaments had become stretched and it was prone to further twisting with little provocation. He demonstrated how it would turn excessively I therefore laid hands on the ankle and told it to tighten up. He said he could feel something happening and at one point a sharp pain! After this, he said that the ankle felt stronger and he could no longer flex it so much.

He went off so happy and rejoicing in God!

The Bible says this kind of stuff should be "normal Christianity" and tells us to go and do it. I don't claim to have a gift of healing, but I do know the Healer, Jesus. I haven't arrived, but I've started! If you know Him, you can do this too... yes you can!

You need a good pruning

2010-12-11T19:34:00.001Z

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful."

A few weeks ago, I picked up a secondhand copy of the book, My Father is the Gardener, by Colin Urquhart. It tells the story of a fictitious church called St Gabriels, where no one, including the vicar appears to be Born Again! After one of their members, a man called Tom has an encounter with God, through two "chance" meetings with Spirit filled Christians, eventually nearly the whole church become a real followers of Jesus and they too become full of the Holy Spirit. They see the lives of almost all they come into contact with changed and renewed, with people healed physically and mentally and their lives set free in service for God.

Much of what happens in the book focuses around the story in John 15, where Jesus describes Himself as being the vine and His Father as being the gardener or vine tender. Whilst the characterisations are a little superficial, and written over 30 years ago daily life is now somewhat different, the doctrine that it presented nonetheless spoke to me quite deeply. I could see elements of my own life and of those around me reflected in the story.

The passage from John talks of how as Christians, we can do nothing apart from God, illustrating this by saying that Jesus is the vine and we are its branches and that if we remain attached to Him, He will nurture us and cause us to bear fruit. If we choose to go our own way, He cannot do that, and ultimately we will be ineffective, we will "wither and die", and be cut off and burnt in a fire. (hell?)

We spoke about the passage at our Lifegroup this week, but before this one of our members read something that she had looked at during the week from an old daily Bible notes book. It was actually a reading from April and at the beginning it spoke about how we need to have a "perpetual Easter time" experience in our lives (even at Christmas time). We then read John 15 and in the resultant discussion, saw how Jesus, "The Vine", was the perpetual source of life itself, that His blood shed on the cross, still flows like sap that gives life to a plant.

We observed that if a branch dies or is cut off, that sap ceases to flow. Also that a larger branch may be attached smaller ones and the sap has to flow through one before getting to another. We also felt that the flow of "God's sap" in our lives can be blocked by disobedience, perhaps by sin taking a hold of us. If we do not have a close relationship with God and with fellow Christians, we not only affect our own lives, but everyone around us too. It is all about loving God, loving Him and loving others. Another member of our group said that we in the same way as Jesus loves us, we must love ourselves too.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." John 15: 9-12

We are ALL important links in God's plan for seeing Salvation come to this world, we cannot do it on our own, stay close, let God prune you, He is certainly pruning me.

Consider a snowflake

2010-12-07T13:48:00.003Z

LORD, our Lord,

how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory
in the heavens.

When I went out yesterday, there was a very fine shower of sleet, almost a mist falling. It coated everything like icing sugar, trees, bushes, fences, walls, everything. As I drove down the road, it looked just like a scene you might see on the front of a Christmas card. Yet there was nothing of "Father Christmas" about it, rather a sign of the presence of Father God. It was very beautiful and I started praising God out loud as I was driving.

At our Lifegroup last week, (where I remembered to take some yummy cakes, but forgot my Bible!), someone observed that snow falls silently, making not a sound, and individual flakes are so delicate, transient, melting at the slightest degree of heat. Yet as snow flake upon snow flake falls, they lock together and combine, they make something of great substance, which can be moulded and used to make snowballs, snowmen and even compacted to make structures of human habitation like igloos.

The snow of the last week or so has caused disruption to travel and work and school. It has blocked roads and paths and driveways (certainly mine requiring much sweeping!) and has literately brought normal life to a standstill. For instance, my daughters four day High School Musical production, for which they had practiced long and hard for weeks, was sadly abruptly cancelled as ice made the School site too dangerous. There was nothing they could do.

I found this wonderful passage in Job, Chapter 37:

⁵ God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways;
   he does great things beyond our understanding.
⁶ He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’
   and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’
⁷ So that everyone he has made may know his work,
   he stops all people from their labour.

You and I might be tempted to think we have it all together in this life, that we have our daily lives and our futures all mapped out, that we are in control, but know this, God is on His Throne and my life and yours are subject to His will. He will send the snow and the rain to remind you that He is the Boss. When He does, perhaps we need to stop and consider if God is trying to tell us something.

Don't give up meeting together

2010-12-04T18:02:00.006Z

"...No man is an island, entire of itself..." John Donne (1572-1631).

Even though I have been really realising how much God wants to bless me for many months now, and learnt many wonderful truths and had some great experiences, all too easily thoughts creep into my mind, which cause me to hesitate and question whether or not I am really on the right path. When I am alone with my thoughts, it can sometimes be difficult to know if they from God, or if they are sneaking in from elsewhere!

The Bible is a great stabilising factor in my life, because I know that ultimately, my thinking needs to line up with God's Word. But sometimes the Bible can be difficult to interpret and it is easy to misunderstand what is being said. I've learnt that context is very important and if a verse or portion of Scripture comes to mind, I now try to check out what is written before and indeed afterwards, to make sure I discover fully the point of what the writer was actually trying to say.

I try to make the Holy Spirit my guide. John 14:26 says, "But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you." When Jesus went to Heaven to be with His Father, he promised not to leave us alone, but to send us the Holy Spirit be our teacher and guide through life. On many occasions I've found that a passage of the Bible will "leap out" at me as the Spirit illuminates it to me.

However, there is another crucially important way that I stay on track, and that is to have fellowship and interaction with other Christian Believers. 1 Corinthians, Chapter 12 talks about how we are all part of "The Body of Christ" and how each of us have different roles to play. Verse 27: "Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually."

As Christians we all have an important part to play, and one of these roles is to encourage. instruct and generally build up each other in our faith using the knowledge and understanding we have been imparted. None of us know it all, but working together, we can help to keep each other focused on the truth. The truth WILL set us free.

During this last week, I met with some friends to discuss our next Healing Rooms "Flames of Revival" meeting (at the United Reformed Church in Great Baddow, 7.30pm Friday 10th December for anyone interested in coming along). It was right in the middle of all the snow we've been having and when we got talking, one of them said that en-route he got held up, had missed the turning to the house we were meeting in, and had started to feel, in his words, really "grumpy"!

As we all chatted, shared what God had been doing, prayed, my friend's face started to brighten. He then felt led to share a testimony of how some weeks ago he was prayed for concerning his heart problem, that he had been led to believe would require surgery - possibly a by-pass. As he was being ministered to, "something" seemed to happen he thought. Subsequently, the symptoms he had been experiencing subsided and more recently he had gone to hospital for an examination which resulted in the doctor declaring that no surgery was required. We were able to rejoice over what had happened, marvel at God's love for us, and talk about His desire to heal us, something my friend had been struggling with. He left feeling really encouraged, with a smile on his face.

Hebrews 10:24-25 "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

does it all leak out by Monday lunchtime?

2010-11-29T22:31:00.002Z

I am continually being challenged not to be a "Sunday" Christian, you know, the sort of person who goes to church each week, gets all full of God's Glory and enthusiasm, then leaks all over the place until about Monday lunchtime, when they limp through the rest of the week back to church again for another refill. Okay, perhaps it's not quite as drastic as that for most Christians, but you hopefully get what I mean, life happens and it tends to knock God to one side and you off balance.

I know I am making progress in this area and although it is fair to say that I still "leak" quite a lot, I am well aware of it, and most importantly try to do something about it! The crucial thing for me is to keep mty focus on God EVERY day, well every moment if possible. When I feel that I am becoming empty, that other things are taking greater place and are interrupting my walk and communication with God, I know I have to address them, QUICKLY! A great way to gain the ground back quickly is to pray, praise, sing, shout to Him, especially using the anointing of Tongues to build up my faith, and not least to get my Bible out. When we call on Him for help, He always answers.

In fact, the more I keep my eyes on Jesus and reduce my focus on "the World", I find I encounter less and less of these weekday emergencies. For instance I love to listen to a variety of anointed Bible teachers on MP3 as I am out and about and around the house (see the links to the right hand side of my Blog). I read good Christian books and publications and Internet articles and inspiring video clips of miracles, worship and encouraging events. I really minimise my intake of TV, listening to radio, reading daily newspapers or secular magazines or absorbing to too much opinion on news and current events, which can be so negative.

What you fill your life with, will tend to then spill out of you. Just as sponge soaks up any liquid it touches, if you soak in worldly things, you will fill up with them. And don't think you can "mix and match" and get away with it, because if you soak up good and bad, the good tends to get polluted, not the other way around! Conversely if bathe in good things and are squeezed, guess what will come out?

Luke 6:45 "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks."

Proverbs 4:23 "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life."

A good test; what are the first words that come out of your mouth when you stub your toe?!

There is really no excuse for letting life take control of us, to pull us down, for us to be constantly sad, to regularly become angry or upset at people or situations. Jesus came so we can have life and live it to the full, but we are responsible for keeping ourselves full of His Holy Spirit and taking what He has freely provided for us.

John 3: 34-36 "The One that God sent speaks God's words. And don't think he rations out the Spirit in bits and pieces. The Father loves the Son extravagantly. He turned everything over to him so he could give it away—a lavish distribution of gifts. That is why whoever accepts and trusts the Son gets in on everything, life complete and forever! And that is also why the person who avoids and distrusts the Son is in the dark and doesn't see life. All he experiences of God is darkness, and an angry darkness at that." (The Message)

There is an old song:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
in the light of His Glory and Grace

Go back to Church this Sunday FULL of Him - it will make such a difference - to everyone.

I've never pushed anyone over

2010-11-27T00:36:00.000Z

Have you ever fallen under the power of the Holy Spirit, or prayed for someone who has? Have you ever watched it happen and thought, he pushed him! or did they just fall backwards on purpose? I've certainly been prayed for and fallen. I've also prayed for people who have fallen... and no, I've never pushed anyone over!

Personally, I tend to fall quite a lot, but not always. I've never been pushed over and in fact some of the most intense experiences I've had with God have been when no one has actually prayed for me at all, and the power of the Holy Spirit has just spontaneously come upon me. Typically, my fingers start to go tingly, breath becomes short and often a feeling of "electricity" - a pins and needles type feeling goes up my arms to my elbows -once it got right up both arms to my shoulders! When this happens, it's difficult to stay off of the floor!

However, I remember once being prayed for, falling backwards, laying on the floor and feeling nothing at all. I lay there thinking I was a right fraud, when all of a sudden the power of God started to hit me in wave after wave! I started groaning and moaning and even convulsing! It was an amazing experience, I was still in fully aware of what was going on but I submitted - it seemed God had to get me into the right position - one of surrender - before He could do what he wanted to do that night. On another occasion, the Spirit hit me in a service and I shot sideways in my seat and bumped into a man sitting two chairs away!

From the other perspective, I've prayed for many people and some fall, some don't, some shake, some cry out, some lay motionless. I was praying for a guy earlier this year for headaches and neck pain and all of a sudden he just dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes, landing right on his face! He got up later smiling and none the worse (phew!).

When I came back from the Lakeland Healing Revival in Florida in 2008, where I had gone with my friend Roland, we had an evening of ministry and we saw virtually every one of fifty people present fall as they were prayed for

All of this a difficult area for some and I can understand why. Certainly there are no references in the Bible to people being lined up and falling over as the Apostles laid hands on them as we do it, but there are references to people being over come by the Spirit's power. For instance:

1 Kings 8:11 "so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD."

John 18:6 "When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground."

Acts 9:4 "He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”"

Revelation 1:17 ^"When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last."

Also, we are told to lay hands on people to receive the Holy Spirit:

Acts 8: 14-17 "When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit."

Here's a quote I found: "Kathryn Kuhlman commented that many had asked her to explain this (being slain in the Spirit), but that she had not found any adequate explanation. She said “All I can believe is that our spiritual beings are not wired for God’s full power, and when we plug in to that power we just cannot survive it. We are wired for low voltage; God is high voltage through the Holy Spirit.”"

At the end of the day though, it's not all about the falling over, it's more about what you choose to do when you get up again, and I can safely say that God has done some tremendous work on my life after I have submitted to the Holy Spirit in this way. Also, I believe it is God demonstrating that He is real, showing His love to us, perhaps giving us a foretaste of the glory to come in heaven.

Never be afraid of the things of the Spirit. God wants you to know His power and to minister that power to others.

She felt "electricity" all over her body

2010-11-24T16:31:00.002Z

I had the amazing privilege of visiting a lady yesterday and to pray for her to be released from addiction to alcohol and smoking. At the same time she was filled with the Holy Spirit, feeling "electricity" all over her body!

This dear lady, (I'll call her Sue -not her real name), had made a decision to follow Jesus about two months ago, after some Christians I know from another church in Chelmsford had been doing some door to door witnessing. Sue had been most wonderfully "saved" and her life was already transformed in many ways, but certain issues were still holding her. The lady pastor of the church had felt prompted to ask me to come and minister to Sue, so I went along with her and another lady member.

As we sat talking, Sue told me how that, in her past she had been deeply involved in occult practices - seances, tarot cards, automatic writing, ouija boards, you name it! - but it was quite clear that Jesus had now totally transformed her life from darkness into His wonderful light. She told me what happened when her Christian visitors had first prayed with her to receive Salvation, excitedly describing how she felt a physical release, a joy inside of her, like something inside of her being opened up. Then after her conversion, how she had gathered together all her occult books and paraphernalia and burnt them! Sue spoke how she now knew that all she had followed and been involved with before had been a lie and a deception and without any doubt, Jesus was the way, the truth and the life.

However, two particular habits from her past life, smoking and drinking, continued to have a hold on her and she recognised that she needed to be free. Sue also described how, although she had felt much more peaceful and was sleeping much better than she ever had, she sometimes felt stress come upon her, causing a tightness in her chest and pains in her legs. She was suffering a little with this as we spoke.

The four of us prayed. Sue held her hands out in surrender to God and placed them on top of mine. The other ladies laid hands on her shoulders. I prayed that the Holy Spirit would come and fill her and release her body from the effects of nicotine and alcohol dependence and spoke to all stress and pain in her body, telling it to go in the name of Jesus.

I felt no physical sensations myself at all, but after a minute or two, Sue's eye's opened wide and she exclaimed how she could feel "electricity" coursing all over her body! We prayed some more and I spoke peace over her and she felt a cool soothing sensation come over her and all the discomfort melted away from her chest and legs. I then spoke to her about receiving the anointing (gift) of tongues and presently, tentatively, she started to speak in a new language. Praise God!

Before we left, we all encouraged Sue to continue in her walk with Jesus. Already she had been avidly reading the Bible and we encouraged her to use her new "tongue" to praise God and build herself up every day. Also that she continue to go to Church and be around other Believers who would encourage her in her faith.

This is what it is all about! Jesus said go make disciples - heal the sick, drive out demons - see people transformed and set free by the power of the Gospel through the Holy Spirit. It works folks, it really does - just go and use what God has given YOU to set the captives free.

Noses and shoulders healed!

2010-11-22T14:25:00.000Z

I had the awesome privilege of once again speaking and ministering at Braintree Elim Church yesterday evening. I had previously spoken there on two consecutive Sunday's in September, giving my testimony of how God has given me the faith to pray for the sick. and in the name of Jesus see healing's and miracles. I had also spoken, amongst other things, about how faith and unbelief can affect our ability to receive healing. On those evenings we saw God move; for instance, pain left, legs "grew out", and He touched people in many other ways, and subsequently there were a number of testimony's as to what He had done.

A man stood up last night and testified of a healing that God had brought to him after the September meetings. It seems perhaps a small thing, but was not a small thing to him. He had a blockage in his nose. The doctors could not help. He had it for many years and had received much unsuccessful prayer. He said that after I prayed for him there was an immediate improvement, but then it got worse! However, he stood on God's Word (in faith) and believed he had been healed, and then shortly afterwards, his nose completely cleared and has been fine since. The devil does not want us well and often tries to put the symptoms back on us when we receive healing -resist the devil and he WILL flee! (James 4:7)

Last night was no different. God truly moved in power! I spoke about how God's love forms a wrapper for everything he does, for God IS love. However, in order to appropriate that love, we must in turn love God and reach out to receive it from Him, and love and show forgiveness towards others. If we don't we can limit His ability to act. People responded and so did God as the Holy Spirit fell upon the meeting.

Jesus, when answering a question about the greatest commandment said in Mark 12: 29-31 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

Luke 6 25-38 "But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

One of the miracles I saw last night was God healing a lady with pains and movement restriction in her arms. She could only lift her right one to just below shoulder height, before it became too painful. Also, she had only become a Christian very recently and had previously been involved in another kind of healing therapy, which I knew has its roots in demonic power. Well demonic powers are no match for Jesus and I laid my hand on her shoulder and commanded pain to go and for full movement to return. It took a couple of minutes, but after testing it a couple of times, she announced that the pain had gone and demonstrably, she could now lift it high in the air - thank you Jesus, she turned to you and you just showed her that you love her very much.

A free CD changed my life

2010-11-21T00:13:00.002Z

Whilst at the Spring Harvest Bible week at Minehead in April 2007, the first of a series of events occurred that changed the direction of my life forever. It was nothing to do with some great discourse heard at a seminar, nothing to do with the Holy Spirit falling upon me in worship, and nothing to do with a mighty man or woman of God preaching a powerful and challenging message in the Big Top,

So what was it that set me on this collision course with God that week? Well actually it was rummaging around in a container of CD's in the resources area, marked "FREE, HELP YOURSELF"!

It was not until a few weeks later, that one evening I was looking for something to present at our Lifegroup (church home group), when my hand reached over to the place I had left the three CD's that I had previously appropriated, blew the dust off, and saw that one was entitled "Faith", by an American preacher I had never heard of called Andrew Wommack.

Andrew, now one of my favorite preachers, (click here for his website), spoke simply and clearly, explaining that without faith - real Biblical faith - you will achieve little in your Christian Life. I realised that in order to take possession of all that God had for me, I must understand how God's kind of faith works.

I now see it like this:

Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

Faith is "substance", it is real, it is tangible, and firstly points towards something that is definitely going to happen, in this case to our ultimate destiny, to eternal life with God. God's faith not something that might take place if you're lucky or things work out.

Secondly, having faith is like acting as if you have something now, even when you cannot yet physically see, hear, touch, smell or taste it. It's like irrefutable evidence presented to a courtroom.

However, for this to make sense you must know what to base that faith in, for it is not some pie in the sky thing!

Romans 10:17 "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

Simply read the Bible, let God speak to you through the words on the pages by His Holy Spirit, believe what you read as being entirely true, and most importantly ACT UPON IT! (James 2:20 says faith without works is dead, or useless).

At this point, I blew some more dust away, this time from my Bible, and have not looked back since.

now you don't see it, now you do!

2010-11-19T20:41:00.003Z

I was recently browsing the new updated website of our denomination, the Elim Pentecostal Church, and found a page containing articles from our monthly Magazine, Direction. One linked to a piece which I believe was written in 2003, by a man called Amos Pike, who at that time was 90 years old. He was describing how, in 1932, as a young man, he was present at a series of Revival meetings in Exeter, where none other than Elim's founder George Jeffreys was ministering.

It is an astounding account of the miraculous healing power of God and perhaps the greatest was concerning a 9 year old girl who was blind. Here is an extract of what Amos recorded:

On the Wednesday night of the crusade, there were almost the same number people who wanted to be prayed for. “Lord Jesus, just now!” George prayed again and again. As he got to the middle of the line, Pastor South told him that there was a mother and her nine-year-old daughter who had been born with no eyes at the meeting. This woman had to take her daughter to the hospital every four weeks, so that the empty sockets – that may have become infected easily – could be cleaned. So, once again, everybody was asked to pray. Then a hush fell over the congregation and God’s presence could be sensed strongly.

“Lord Jesus, give this little girl her eyes, just now!” prayed Pastor Jeffreys. I was on the platform just a few feet to the left of him and, as he said, “Just now!” her eyelids flicked open. Suddenly, this girl who had been born with no eyes was looking at us – with two beautiful, big blue eyes!

The article then goes on to describe what happened next, when the next morning, she went to the hospital and saw the doctor (literally!). You've just got to read it: (click here and scroll to "Memories of Miracles")

The Bible says that Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). If you are prepared to step out in faith, I tell you we WILL see such miracles in our day.

She became taller!

2010-11-18T16:02:00.000Z

Last Thursday I blogged about the time when I "heard" (then saw) someones leg grow out and as a result an old man received relief and healing from back pain. I said that I had subsequently seen this repeated many times. However, on one occasion I have seen BOTH legs grow out!

In July 2008, having been ministering at the Healing Rooms for a few months, a lady came in who I hadn't personally seen before, but who had previously been along for ministry. My friend Roland knew all about her situation but at first I didn't really grasp exactly what she was there for, other than there seemed to be an issue with her legs that needed prayer. I was asked to lead this, so I sat her down, raised her legs and was somewhat puzzled to see both legs were exactly the same length.

It was then that discovered that the reason she was there was because she wanted to be taller! She was indeed quite short and it seemed she had come along a couple of weeks before and both legs had grown out about half an inch! Well, I felt a little uncertain about this as I was thinking we were there to heal those who were obviously sick, not to perform cosmetic surgery?! But nonetheless I carried on with the ministry, trusting that God knew what He wanted to do.

Well, I used a word of command on first her right leg, telling it to grow out in the name of Jesus, and indeed, slowly but surely, it moved out to be about three quarters of an inch longer than the other. At this point I really hoped God knew what He was doing, because otherwise this could be embarrassing, sending someone out lop sided! But I need not have worried, because having made a similar declaration over the other leg, that too moved out until both were perfectly aligned again. Incredible!

The next day, I was sitting in our garden at work and I was musing what I had seen and sort of asked God why he had done it. His answer was quick and decisive -because I love her.

John 10:10 The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows). (Amplified Bible).

God really loves you and He wants to overflow His life, His power, His healing touch into you life, today. Ask anything in His will and you shall receive. He wants to bless you!

Nothing happened, but then...

2010-11-17T18:41:00.001Z

Just over a year ago, one Saturday evening, I was sitting in our Church foyer talking to one of our pastor's while a youth meeting was going on inside. If I recall correctly, we were discussing the moving of the Holy Spirit and miracles of healing.

Presently, a lady who comes to the Church popped her head in and beckoned the pastor over. He then brought her over to where I was still sitting and it transpired that she was at that moment suffering from serious back pain brought on by a chronic condition, and she had felt led by God to find someone at Church to pray with her. Some ten years before, she had been involved in an accident and had injured the lower part of her spine. She had since been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. When the weather got colder, the condition would sometimes flair up and cause great pain.

I asked if I could lay my hand on her back -she suggested this should be done VERY gently! - and started to minister to her. (Lay hands on the sick and they shall recover the Bible says). At first, I assured her that Jesus had done all that was necessary for her healing two thousand years before on the Cross. I spoke words of faith over her to receive the manifestation of that healing and moved on to speak to the pain, telling it to go. (Jesus said, speak to the mountain , not to God about the mountain). However, nothing seemed to be happening so I suggested she got up and tested things out. (Sometimes healing comes as you exercise your faith and move - ten lepers in the Bible were healed as they went to show themselves to the priests). But the pain was still there.

I then considered whether the pain might be caused by a demonic influence, and spoke against, and rebuked any such spirit that might be at work. (Jesus often cast out evil spirits which can sometimes be the cause of pain and sickness). Still no change.

A little more discussion about the condition and cause then revealed that her coccyx had been crushed in the accident. It then occurred to me that a creative miracle might be required to repair the damage, so I asked God to provide one and to reform the base of her spine and for it to become normal again. I continued to tell the pain to go, in the name of Jesus, and that the power of the Holy Spirit would come upon her.

It was then that she suddenly said that she could feel heat in the base of her spine and almost immediately that she could feel some movement happening. Moments later she announced that ALL the pain had gone, stood up and did a little dance, praising God!

John 14: ¹² Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

And this means YOU!

I'm David, not Dave!

2010-11-16T12:18:00.003Z

My parents called me David, but to some I am known as Dave. Don't get me wrong, I won't refuse to answer to "Dave", nor will I make any issue of it, but the fact is, my name is David.

I've always had a strong affinity to the Biblical David, although, at 6ft 5in tall, you might think I would be better matched to his adversary Goliath. I should however at this point make it clear that although my life is far from perfect, I've never committed adultery or killed anyone.

Like David, I have a burning passion for God which causes me to want to press into Him, know Him increasingly and to see other peoples lives changed by the power of the Gospel. (Acts 13: 22 "...I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.").

One particular way in which I perhaps emulate King David, is my desire to worship God with all my heart, my strength and my mind. I've always been a demonstrative worshipper and unashamedly so, I love to sing, clap, sometimes dance and shout before God. He is worth every ounce of effort!

My namesake got himself in trouble over this with his wife Michal. 2 Samuel 6 relates the story, as he brought the Ark of God to the City:

¹⁴ Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the LORD with all his might, ¹⁵ while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets. ¹⁶ As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart.

She was critical of David for making such a spectacle of himself in public and in front of all the servant girls, but David's reply was thus:

²²...I will celebrate before the LORD. ²² I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”

And the passage concludes by saying that Michal had no children until the day she died.

Never let any one's opinion or criticism dampen or crush your enthusiasm and desire to serve God in the way you believe he is telling you to do it. God is your judge and he judges well, looking upon the heart. And if you criticise others, be prepared for consequences.

Are you prepared to look undignified today?

A thief and a liar

2010-11-15T10:11:00.004Z

At Church last night, before the service started, I had the opportunity to stand and talk to another of our long standing members, who on Friday had turned up at the Healing Rooms, Flames of Revival meeting. He had never been there before and we were talking about how good it was to see Christians from all different churches coming together to worship God and see His power displayed. (And no, he hadn't read my previous Blog post, "Wot! Not in my church...!").

Whilst we were speaking, another lady walked by who I knew is shortly due having an operation. I also knew from previously speaking to her, that she was not at all at peace about it and in fact she looked it too! We spoke briefly and I offered some words of encouragement, but then felt I should pray with her, to which she readily agreed. I immediately called the chap to whom I had been speaking over and asked if he would join us.

After praying strongly for healing and for peace and joy to flow into her heart, and God certainly did something, she went off into the main part of the Church and I continued my chat with my friend about ministry and healing. It was at that point that he revealed that many years ago, in our Church, he was involved in praying for the sick and he saw people healed. He revealed that on a number of occasions he saw back pain and associated aches and pains disappear from peoples bodies as he laid hands on them.

Furthermore, he also revealed that at that time, God seemed to give him the ability to pinpoint the point of the problem in people's backs, he would run his hand down the spine area and he would "know" where to stop and pray.

Yet, this man had not prayed in such a way for many, many years, and he himself stood before me last night holding a walking stick and suggested to me that how could he pray while he was like that?

John 10:10 says, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." Know this, and I made it clear to him as well, satan is a thief and a liar and wants to steal your health and steal your anointing and ministry for God.

Romans 11:29,^"for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable." you can't lose your anointing. If you have seen the sick healed once, God will not withdraw your ability to do it again. This is the same for anything, lack of use and sin, cannot remove what God has previously called you to do.

I'll leave you with this; I was speaking to God recently and saying how great it would be to see someone get out of a wheelchair as I prayed. He gently reminded me that I hadn't actually prayed for anyone in a wheelchair yet...

I'm a Barbie Girl

2010-11-14T22:39:00.003Z

There's a hideous song that someone once wrote about Barbie, I'm sure you know the one I mean, if not look here - Barbie Girl song . One of the phrases says, "Life in plastic, it's fantastic" and for many people out there that is about as deep as life gets!

Society in Great Britain has become very "plasticy", disposable even; it's about buy now, pay later; get your kicks today and think about the consequences tomorrow; who cares if it breaks, throw it away and get another one; fed up with your partner? kick 'em out and find someone else, there's plenty more fish in the sea! AS LONG AS I KEEP SATISFIED, WHO CARES!

Well, all that might be generalising a tad, but to a very great extent, that is the world we live in and even as Christians we all too readily get sucked into its rhythm and march to its drum beat, often without even realising it. In recent months God has really been challenging me about how I live my life, in but not of the world. How can I be different, set apart, but still be in touch with all that is going on around me and more importantly, relate and be a witness to those who do not share my faith in Jesus?

If you are thinking the same, try this good advice from Romans 12: 1&2, here in The Message version-

"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."

Revive yourself you lazy thing!

2010-11-13T18:05:00.002Z

Although I had become a Christian in 1980, and was Baptised in the Holy Spirit in 1982, it seemed that I was still missing something. Much of the Bible seemed so difficult to understand, I believed it was the inspired word of God, and yet to be honest I had never even read it completely through. There were periods when I did read and digested portions - well I knew most of the familiar bits, the Sunday School stuff, and I am not saying that God didn't speak to me through it more deeply from time to time, but largely, it was a book that needed occasional dusting to avoid embarrassment when fellow Christians visited my house.

Also, I was gripped with certain sin issues which would time and time again, leave me utterly defeated in my walk with God. Yet I knew deep down that God still loved me and despite it all, I dusted myself off and kept going. I remember sitting down at one point and thinking that the best I might hope for was to live the rest of my life out, doing the best I could for God, "thorn in the flesh" upon my back and eventually sneak into heaven, dumping it by the door way on the way in, hopefully without St Peter noticing!

And yet, I really loved God, loved worshipping Him at church, often felt His physical presence upon me as the Holy Spirit made me tingle and shake. I wanted to move on with Him, I wanted to see others saved and set free, I WANTED TO SEE REVIVAL! ...but how?
There was still something quite fundamental missing in my thinking.

In 2006, this desire for change became much stronger and I started to realise more and more, that whilst God in His Sovereignty can do pretty much what He likes, in actual fact He needs us to do it. For instance in history, behind every period of Christian Revival there were men and women who were prepared to stand up and be counted, to pray and to step out boldly faith and to bring that revival into being.

Matthew 11:12 says, "From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it". The famous healing evangelist, Smith Wigglesworth had a favorite saying, "If the Spirit doesn't move me, I'll move Him.” James puts it even more strongly; Chapter 2:20, "You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless (or dead)"

In other words, I had to revive myself, God wanted to work through me and if I were truly to be His hands and feet, I had to do more than just sit around waiting for Him to pull my strings! And gradually, as I have picked up my Bible and read it, allowed the Holy Spirit to speak to me through its pages (and yes I have now read it right through!), I've actually got out there in that power, seen people saved, filled with the Spirit, healed and set free.

Do you want some of that?

I heard a miracle happen

2010-11-11T16:28:00.002Z

It was about February 2008, that at close quarters, I heard with my own ears, then saw with my own eyes my first real healing miracle.

For many, many years I had been part of my church, read some books about healing, heard stories, seen videos, more recently read about and watched such things seemingly happen on the Internet, but truly I couldn't really say I had ever seen a miracle. Okay, I remember once, sitting in our church and watching a man being prayed for and saw him lift his arm up and someone said he had received some sort of healing, or something. There was even a lady who got out of her wheelchair in a service and walked a bit - although I think she could walk a bit anyway? So I didn't have any real experience or indeed any expectation of such things happening where I was.

In 2007 things started to change for me and although not a story for this moment, in a nutshell, God started to show me very clearly that it was His desire and will to heal everybody, and that he wanted to do it through ordinary Christians.. like me!

So here I was, early in 2008 at the Chelmsford Healing Rooms, (used to meet on a Tuesday - bit like a doctor's surgery but where people came in and were prayed over), where I had just started to become involved as a member of the Team. I was with my friend Roland, who heads things up, and an elderly man in his 80's came in with chronic (long standing) back pain.

Now, I know very little about medical matters -although I've had back pain and it's not very pleasant, when day after day it nags on at you. Doctors can't always diagnose or prescribe a cure for back pain - which is why we have other professionals and "alternative" remedies aplenty who will attempt relief -sometimes it must be said with success. However, I know that God knows all about backs - well he created them after all - so it stands to reason that He knows very well how to fix them!

Now Roland had much experience, and not least faith, when it came to dealing with back pain and he knew that some pain is caused by one leg being slightly shorter than the other, (Google it - very common - causes all sorts of other problems in the body as well), so he sat this gentleman down squarely on a hard chair and lifted up his legs, heels together, to have a look. There was about half inch difference between the two.

At that point, and even though no one had yet prayed or anything, I heard a creaking noise and I watched, amazed, as one leg slowly grew out to be equal with the other. The man then got to his feet and pronounced that his back felt a lot better! WOW! (Oh and the creaking noise? - well it wasn't his leg creaking, it was his shiny leather shoes rubbing together as the leg moved out!).

So this was my first miracle! God had worked a miracle right in front of my eyes! But I am pleased to say that if God does something once, He wants to do it again and to date I have seen over fifteen legs grow out, (as well as many other amazing healing's and miracles), as I have held peoples legs up, in faith and letting God do what He does so well, heal the sick, through an ordinary Christian.

Wot, not in my church...!

2010-11-11T00:06:00.002Z

I had the great privilege tonight, for the third time, to go along to the monthly Praise and Worship evening at the Catholic Church in New London Road, Chelmsford. One of their members, a lady called Jane, holds a meeting there on the second Wednesday (note, none in December), in the church hall, starting at 8pm.

When I first heard about the meetings, I was at another monthly meeting, called Souling and Healing, also held certain Wednesday's, at Hall Street Methodist Church, which is organised by a man called Mike.

I am involved with the Chelmsford Healing Rooms Team, and we have a monthly meeting, Flames of Revival, on the second Friday each month at the United Reformed Church (URC), in Great Baddow (see my last post).

Now, at each of these meetings, we see God move by His Holy Spirit in powerful ways. There is annointed worship using contemporary worship songs. People speak out and sing in tongues. Prayer for healing takes place and we sometimes see results immediately or often hear later of wonderful physical and emotional healings that have taken place. People sometimes shake and fall over under the power of the Spirit and receive the infilling or Baptism of the Holy Spirit. The anointing, or "gifts" of the Spirit are frequently seen in action. We pray for our town. Not least we have seen Salvation's.

Now, I go to Elim, a Pentecostal church, but I love going to and taking a part in these other meetings as well. Jane is a Catholic, but comes to the weekday meetings at the Methodist church and to the URC. Mike is a Methodist but goes to he Catholic meetings and to when possible to the URC. Many other people, from many other churches in Chelmsford, and beyond, go to one or more of these meetings, and meet with God in a real way. (I should also add that these are not the only mid-week church meetings going on in Town -just three I happen to be involved in).

So if you are a Christian who is part of a particular church here in Chelmsford, know this; God is firmly on the move all around our Town. The people of the churches in Chelmsford are on the move. Don't ever judge a church by its size or denominational label and don't ever think that YOUR church is the only vehicle God will use to turn this Town to Jesus. Be part of a particular Fellowship, that's absolutely fine, but remember, we are all members of "the Church" in Chelmsford, all brothers in Christ.

Perhaps you need to get out more...?

Positioning for the presence of God

2010-11-10T13:04:00.002Z

I woke up early on Monday afternoon, (following my night shift, in case you think I was just being lazy!), and was immediately conscious of God talking to me about praise and worship. Not in an audible voice you understand, but just in the way he was directing my thoughts. What came to me was in no small way connected to the fact that I am leading worship at the Healing Rooms, Flames of Revival meeting this Friday 12th November at the URC (United Reformed church) in Great Baddow -oh and it starts at 7.30pm and you are all welcome!

Well, advert out of the way... I started to think about how essential it is that we position ourselves to receive the presence of God into our lives - His love, peace, joy, power so that we can live fruitful and passionate lives with not only the determination, but the ability to get out there and fulfil the Great Commission (see Matthew 28 v 16 -20 and Mark 16 v 15-18).

So often, we look to great men and women of God, both now and in times past and believe that God has somehow specially anointed them beyond and above ordinary mortals and that for us, their exploits - mass evangelism, healing, miracles and the like, for us are simply unattainable.

Well, I tell you straight - this is a lie from the pit of Hell! God does not only use apparent "superstars", people who wear a white suit and those who have a German accent! Yes He does use such people, but such people are human like you and God wants to use YOU!

Anyway, back to my bed... I started to think about how important it is to position ourselves to receive from God and that once we have received, we are in a position to give out. We cannot give what we don't have. There was a New Zealand pastor who came to our Church, Elim Christian Centre, in Chelmsford back in 2007, called Warren Moar (he has sadly since died). This was at the start of the period when God started to speak to me in a profound way and during the Sunday service he gave me a prophetic word which spoke about learning to understand how to speak and move in the things of the Holy Spirit. During his preaching that day, he also spoke about "Getting under the spout, where the blessing pours out" - that we must continually position ourselves in everything we do so that we can at all times clearly hear God's voice

One of the best ways I believe to hear God's voice and to meet with Him is in worship. It can be corporate, like at church or in an evangelistic meeting, or a personal experience, perhaps at home. I am an enthusiastic worshipper in church and at other meetings, but I also spend a lot of time praising and worshipping God whilst going about my everyday life - speaking in tongues, singing (in English and in tongues), perhaps just reflecting on passages in the Bible. But the key is, you've got to position yourself to do it.

What do you do with your time? What fills your day up? What do you watch, read, listen to? What hobbies take up your time, what friends do you associate with and where do you go with them? How much of your day is spent thinking about the things of God, verses the things of the world?

You don't get a sun tan sitting in your lounge watching TV, (well not unless you have a sunbed!!). You don't hear the rustling of leaves in the trees whilst at an outdoor rock concert. You can't see the beauty of a sunrise if you stay in bed! Get the idea - what fills your life and the decisions you make will affect and potentially limit your ability to hear God's voice and therefore to be able to react and to do what He is saying.

I remember several year ago getting into a particular computer game, "Doom", which basically consisted of wandering around various buildings blasting demons and monsters which jumped out at you. I knew something was wrong when, after doing this late one Saturday night, the next day, whilst taking Communion at church, all that was going through my head was machine gun fire and exploding creatures!! I stopped playing it, it was not helpful.

The Bible says, in Matthew 6 v21 and Luke 12 v24, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Where is your heart -where are your eyes and your ears looking and listening? is it helpful? Where is God in it?

I encourage you, get under the spout where the blessing pours out, listen to God's voice and be blessed and then go out and bless others.

Banana farm in Zambia

2010-11-09T20:26:00.002Z

I first published this on Facebook on 7th April this year. It is now 7 1/2 months to go...

Out of a whole week at Spring Harvest - well, four full days actually - it's interesting how God seems to plant just a few small thoughts. Thoughts though that are probably destined to grow over the next weeks and months.

On the first morning, a guy called Pete Greig told a story about when his parents retired.

His father was a senior police officer and his mother a nurse and it seems that when they stopped work they pottered around and generally became a bit bored. They then went to visit some missionary friends in Zambia for three weeks and when they came back calmly announced to the rest of the family that they had bought a farm there.
Neither of them had any farming experience not even a vegatable plot!

It seems that seven years later, they have a sucessful banana plantation, employ 50 people and I think run a school .

Well that got me thinking. I've got a little over 14 months before I retire from the Force myself. All I know at the moment is that God is speaking to me about giving the rest of my life here on earth to His service. He hasn't told me exactly what yet, but what He has now said as a result of hearing this story I believe, is expect the unexpected.

My present gifts and abilities and aspirations are not necessarily the key to His plans. (Although they might be?). He can actually use me for anything if I am open to His call.

Here I am Lord, send me. Whatever and wherever it is - and that may well mean not moving geographically at all, I don't feel led to at the moment - just prepare me to buy my "banana farm in Zambia", when the moment comes.

A Teflon Christian

2010-11-09T11:08:00.007Z

The Bible says that this side of heaven we will only ever know "in part" and it will be as if we only see heavenly truths through a "glass darkly". This is true, but I believe as Christians we have to position ourselves so that we can see more clearly. If, day after day, we sit at home TV on, newspaper in hand, radio blaring, computer games reverberating in our ears, then our perspective on heaven will accordingly be "dimmed".

God is constantly transmitting His love, His favour, His knowledge, His power, through His Word (The Bible), through Creation, when engaging in praise and worship and when we have communion with Him in prayer. This does not necessarily mean locking ourselves away in a room for hours at a time - although it might! - but often, and certainly for me, just by spending time thinking, meditating on Him as I go about normal everyday tasks. It is such a blessing.

I watch TV fairly infrequently these days, I love to put on some anointed teaching MP3 instead of having the radio on. Speaking in tongues,(praising God in an unknown language) is something I do every day, several, even many times a day and everywhere I go (Asda is fun!). I find it so important - Jude 20 encourages us to build ourselves up by praying in the Holy Spirit. It works!

Don't think though, that I am too spiritually minded to be of any earthly use, I still have to live in "the world" - my job in the police control centre involves a good download of "world" everyday! But staying close to God does make a wonderful difference to all that.

I heard someone somewhere talking about being a "Teflon Christian" -nothing "sticks" - problems, difficulties, worldly influences, sicknesses, fears, concerns, all just tend to slide off, if you are coated with God.

Get coated today!

I'm back!

2010-11-08T20:13:00.001Z

Well, after 4 years, I'm tentatively back on Blogger! Not sure if it will last, but thought I might use it a bit more of a platform for news and views about the amazing journey God has been taking me on over this period. Facebook is not the ideal medium for expressing possibly controversial viewpoints so Blogger might be it! However, these posts will be imported to my Facebook account as Notes - so we'll see how it works out...

Summer Days

2006-06-27T08:27:00.000Z

despite a bit of rain here and there overall we still seem to be having pretty good weather of late. We had a particularly fine day on Saturday when we paid a visit to Legoland.

There was a prediction of a rainy day, but the clouds quickly broke and by the time we arrived at just after 9am, it was warming up nicely. The park was due to close at 6pm, but due to the nearby Ascot races and the probability of traffic chaos, Legoland was to remain open until 7.30pm.

We had a marvelous time made even better by the fact that apart from the cost of petrol and £5 on ice creams, the rest was paid for on Tesco vouchers. We avoided the wettest ride but several others squirted water around which of course delighted the children. Apart from the rides the Lego village is superb with many well known buildings and landmarksmodeledd in Lego bricks. There was also a brilliant 4D theatre with 3D movie and airborne effects (snow and wind!)

If you haven't been to Legoland - well worth it!

On the fitness front, I've still been out running. The last two times were on Friday when I did 5 miles and by a few seconds beat my record for this distance, managing it in 43 mins 51 secs. I went for a brisk 3 miler yesterday. A trip to the ice rink is planned for Thursday.

I've also started some arm exercising using my 50p spring device I brought from Springfield Church fete. I did 75 repetitions this morning - which at 5.25am was not bad!

Peter hits the ice!

2006-06-18T13:12:00.000Z

This lovely weather we've been having is not really compatible with bothering to keep one's blog up to date and I've resorted to producing this at work on my PDA in-between 999 calls and e-mailing it to Blogger!

For various reasons (not only the weather), I have also found it impossible to go for a run since Tuesday which has filled me with guilt. I do intend to put this right though tomorrow morning at the latest.

After a pleasant ice skate on Wednesday, the next day I was going to accompany Helen to her Live Life fitness session at Riverside where ice skating was again on the menu. Peter was going to come along too for his very first go on the ice and he was very excited about it. Unfortunately at the last minute Helen threw a wobbly and refused to go, so I took Peter on his own and went in as full paying customers. It didn't cost much more luckily due to a special after school rate.

Having donned his size 3 skates, I guided a rather shaky young boy to the rink and having got my balance sorted out, (it would have been really embarrassing to have slipped onto my you know what in the first seconds!) I helped him on. At first he was slipping and sliding all over the place and I kept thinking he would end up doing the splits, but after a while he started to get the hang of it and with a bit of help from the barrier was able to get around slowly but unaided by me.

I was really proud of him. He didn't give up after 5 minutes as I thought he might and even after one fall flat on his back still bravely got up and carried on. Well done son, you're a chip of the old block!!

A peacefulish week

2006-06-11T16:32:00.000Z

Last week was a relatively peaceful affair in the Gilbey household as Helen went away with the school to the Isle of Wight. She had a really good time in beautiful weather as did we back here. We must have had tea in the garden most evenings, which is usually an occasional event. It is even hotter today and we enjoyed a BBQ - really relaxing.

I went for a 3 mile run on Thursday when it was quite warm, but to no ill effect. However, I was going for one this afternoon but thought better of it and instead went for a cycle ride with Peter for an hour or so -although it was very low speed with frequent stops!

We went to the Springfield Green Church fete yesterday afternoon -during the football , about which I've no interest - and had a great time. Peter and I both won coconuts (although we don't really like them to eat!) and I bought a spring loaded arm exerciser for 50p which may assist in my latest exercise idea to increase my upper body strength.

Helen and Rachel proceeded to win a voucher each to have their hair cut and dried at the salon at Canons Health Studio - very nice too - would have not been a lot of use to me though!

It was exceptionally busy at work last night with a very high number of calls into the early hours (I was kept on to 3.45am). Almost all of them were caused by too much alcohol. All very sad.

Kessingland -the photos

2006-06-11T16:25:00.000Z

Camping and things

2006-06-06T19:21:00.000Z

After the church weekend, we went away camping for 5 days with Peter and Helen Washington and their three girls to Kessingland in Suffolk. Although it was a bit chilly and occasionally damp, we nonetheless had a great time together.

We were pitched next door to a wildlife park and more specifically adjacent to the bird enclosures. It was quite surreal to wake up to the normal domestic birds singing, but interspersed with some weird sounding tropical noises plus a parrot doing wolf whistles!!

I was able to keep up my jogging (in fact I went for a 4 mile run during the church weekend as well -getting up at 6.15am on the Saturday and jogging through Hoddeston) and did two runs of 3 then 4 miles. Peter accompanied me on the first, which conveniently took us down to the sea front in 1½ miles, but he chickened out on the second morning. Okay, he was recovering from a leg injury so he did well to do the first one!

We visited the Wildlife Park -called Africa Alive on the Tuesday, then the next day went to Pleasurewood Hills -who'd have thought a woolly hat and gloves would be required on the last day of May! We then spent Thursday at Great Yarmouth and after the rain stopped, had a pleasant day, particularly the 14 piece bargain bucket at KFC for lunch!

I still haven't gone back to work yet -I've got that to look forward to tomorrow at 5.45am - and have been keeping fit the last two days with another 4 mile run on Monday and two ice skating sessions, including a lesson today.

Just a word to the wise. Don't do a 4 mile run in the morning and then go ice skating straight after. It kills your legs and makes you really wobbly!! The lesson today went better and I can now go backwards, albeit a little unsteadily, quite well.

Some photos of our holiday will follow -Blogger does not seem to want to upload them presently!

High Leigh -the photos!

2006-06-04T15:45:00.000Z

Having arrived home from our camping trip (more to follow soon about that), here are a few "interesting" snapshots of our weekend away at High Leigh.

The first one is one of a certain person laughing but if you can guess what it was all about, bear in mind that if you post a comment to tell me, it may be edited to protect the innocent!!

Remember you can "double click" on the photos to enlarge them in a new window:

One hundred today!

2006-05-28T20:28:00.000Z

Welcome to my 100th post since starting this Blog.

Well, we're home safely from high Leigh and armed with a proper keyboard, I can reveal a few more details of my encounter with the Holy Spirit last night. I need to say firstly, and this will seem a bit vague, that what I am going to describe is an experience which has and will have much wider implications than its physical manifestation alone. There are surrounding circumstances which I can't go into and which are undoubtedly going to need working through. However, the bottom line is, that God, by his Holy Spirit has done for me something pretty spectacular and I give Him praise and glory and thanks.

By way of background, I have been a born again Christian, for around the last 26 years. A couple of years after that, I had a further encounter with God in that I received what is often referred to as the "Baptism in the Holy Spirit" - a powerful personal infilling of the power of God as described in the second chapter of the book of Acts. One manifestation of this has been that I can speak in "tongues" - if you like a spiritual language one use of which is for use in personal praise and adoration to the Lord.

The other manifestation of the receiving a "touch" or visitation of the Holy Spirit has been occasional physical experiences of the power and love of God which literally flow through my body. For instance, one sign of this has commonly been an intense tingling in my arms -not dissimilar to pins and needles, but without the numbness and perhaps like the feeling of an electrical charge. This is usually accompanied by an intense feeling of "power", almost pressure in my chest area, which has the effect of shortening my breath. A very intense and invigorating experience. There have been other types of experiences too, some of which I had last night and which I will describe.

These physical encounters with God have in the main been infrequent - although there was a period some 5 or 6 years ago when for a couple of months they seemed to occur weekly - and happen purely when God decides to give them. Unlike tongues, which I can speak at will, I cannot conjure these experiences up. However, when they do they always occur with my consent. God will never force his Holy Spirit on anyone.

When one has had such moments, they tend to make you hungry. They make you hungry for God, hungry for more -very hungry -sometimes starving!!! -not just for the actual physical experience they bring, pleasurable though they are, but as I have learned, the impact that they bring on my life, usually in a particular area where God wants to sort something out. (Although I believe some experiences have been given by God purely to bestow His love upon me for that moment -a bit like a parent picking up and giving a crying child a cuddle to assure it they are still there and that they care for it!).

Anyway, so what happened last night? -okay we're nearly there, but I need to set the scene a little further.

I last experienced a physical infilling of the Holy Spirit several months ago now in one of our services. It was a particularly intense one, such that the pins and needles feeling went all the way up to my shoulders, where previously hands to elbows has been the limit! I was very hungry, hungry and expectant that God would meet with me this weekend.

On Friday evening, the worship was really powerful - I understand that during the week , the band had themselves received a real blessing from God whilst they practiced. However, although I felt that God was close, there was no "infilling".

On Saturday I was starting to feel almost quite desperate for God to meet with me and spoke to several people about my desire to see God move -not only upon me I should add, but upon us all.

The meeting started and once again, God felt really close, but by the time the initial worship time ended, still nothing further -although by now my expectations were high. The speaker Nigel spoke about the need for us to have the power of the Holy Spirit in us to successfully get out into the world to witness for Jesus. We then commenced a further time of worship, where the Holy Spirit was invited to turn up! People were encouraged to go forward to be prayed for.

It has previously been my experience that God will infill me without necessarily being prayed for, (although I have often been prayed for and as a result have been equally blessed), so I did not initially rush to go forward. And as I stood there in the meeting room praising and singing to God, so I felt His touch start to come upon me. It was akin to hearing a distant rumble of thunder that gets louder and louder and more and more intense or feeling a wind start to blow as a breeze then increase into a gale! I felt a tightness start to come upon my chest, my hands then arms started to gently but unmistakably tingle and the Holy Spirit started pouring out His blessing upon me. I felt moved to kneel, then lay on the floor on my front, by my seat and felt the waves of his power and love envelop me. I found myself continually praising Him in tongues. After a few minutes the intensity of the feelings gradually subsided.

Now you might think me ungrateful at this point, but despite all that God was doing, I still wanted some more! A LOT MORE! -I had been here before and I sensed that God had some more for me, but that I needed to get someone to pray for me to receive it!

I got to my feet and made my way to the front and having stood there (a little unsteadily I should add) for a few moments, I was greeted my one of our pastors, Tony, who is no stranger to praying for me and who knew what usually resulted - i.e me laying flat on my back! There were however some chairs just behind me so I made a note to just sit down if required!

Well, it all happened then! Tony started to pray and I started to feel this ALMIGHTY "presence" of God start to engulf me. It was somehow different to what I have experienced before and I sort of staggered and had to grab hold of Tony for support. I then had terminal difficulty in standing up and sat down abruptly on two chairs. God continued to move and I started to slip down between the gap in the chairs! I was aware of some hastily summoned furniture removers doing something with them and quite quickly after that found my self laying on the floor, this time on my back.

Now in what was happening to me, I was fully aware of what was going on around in terms of hearing people singing and praising, but in order to receive the blessing God was pouring out it was appropriate to keep my eyes shut, so I was not aware of exactly what was occuring round about.

From a sort of a feeling of "power" being upon me, I believe God then turned His attention to a particular aspect of my life and a deep remorse came over me, such that I started to cry and indeed sob uncontrollably - quite loudly! It was as if the Holy Spirit was delving deep into my life and extracting certain things and casting them out of me. I think I know what, but I won't go into details. All this continued for a considerable time and eventually, the intensity diminished.

After a further period I then remember hearing the meeting being wrapped up and people starting to leave and after a while opened my eyes to see Tony and Simon, who helped me up. However, they shouldn't have bothered because there was no way I could stand up. My whole body felt vaguely "tingly" and my legs lacked any sort of strength to remain upright, so I plonked down on the platform and promptly collapsed backwards, lay down and continued to receive a blessing from God. This time, it was more of a feeling of God just being there -an elation which caused me to shout out in tongues and praise him (the band were still playing at this time and I remember it was that song, Holy Spirit come -well he certainly was!!).

After a while, a real feeling of happiness came over me and still laying flat out with my legs dangling over the edge, I started to laugh! Laughing in the Spirit is a real experience! I have personally done it probably only twice before and it probably sounds really stupid, but it is simply a Spirit given uncontrollable and raucous laughter -God giving His joy. I think someone else got it too for a time.

Well gradually, the feelings did subside and after a while I was able to make it out of the room -one of the very last to leave. I've never had such an intense or varied encounter with God before.

Praise God. Thank you Lord. You knew I needed it and you knew exactly why!

I felt compelled to blog this story, I'm not sure exactly why. Do you need to experience the power of the Holy Spirit in this sort of way? -why not ask him. It could change your life.

The Holy Spirit came!

2006-05-27T22:50:00.000Z

I'm writing this from my PDA in my bedroom at High Leigh Christian Conference Centre in Hoddeston at the end of the second night of our church weekend away. It has been posted by e-mail. I'll have to be brief as I'm using a character recogniition program which is a little more tricky to use than a keyboard .

To cut a long story short, I have really been longing for a fresh and powerful annointing of the Holy Spirit - and tonight I got it! I will post more soon!!

A holiday on mice!

2006-05-24T14:16:00.000Z

I've decided that the mice (if we have any left) deserve a break from being massacred, so I've taken all the traps in for the time being. Our local magpie was getting a bit too adventurous with them and I've also caught a couple of slugs too. I did find a dead and somewhat bloodied sparrow on the lawn last week though - I suspect its met our magpie too - what a pain!

Talking of pains, on the 17th I suffered a slight hamstring pull in my right leg over during a 3 mile run. It didn't completely "twang", but was a little tender and sore. However, not wanting it to stop me altogether, three days later I did a nice slow 4 miles and it seemed fairly okay. A faster 3 miles on the 22nd found it almost back to normal which is good.

I had a proud father moment on Monday. Helen went to Melbourne Sports Stadium for an inter school "Cup Stacking" tournament - you don't know what cup stacking is? Well you had better put it into Google and find out! - and came a way with a team bronze medal for her school. She was very proud -she said it is the first thing she has ever won!

I went skating this morning and I must be achieving something, because the head professional said good morning to me for the first time! There was a large party of junior school children to watch out for today and they were slipping, sliding and crashing everywhere, so care was needed.

One thing that made me really pleased was that I was better than virtually all of them!! -which I wouldn't have been able to say a few weeks ago. I made some progress today skating backwards and providing I got the technique right to start with, found I could travel backwards fairly quickly - keeping a careful eye for collapsed and out of control children as I did so.

No falling over at all today again which is encouraging. The thing I need to get to grips with next seems to be skating on one leg - the left one isn't too bad, but skating on the right is quite difficult as it is my weaker leg. I am really thinking I should get my own skates now as consistency is difficult having a different hire pair each time - although the ones today had been fairly newly sharpened, which helped I think.

Well, 2 weeks off now and looking forward to the church weekend starting Friday. I have got most of the camping equipment assembled too for Monday - I understand the weather is looking up for next week (I hope).

A cough and a splutter

2006-05-16T00:28:00.000Z

Suddenly I have a moment to catch up on my blog. I was taken ill at the beginning of last week and had to take two days (Monday & Tuesday) off of work -which is very unusual -I think that makes a total of 3 days in 3 years now. I didn't feel to good on the Sunday before and got someone to pray for me...

...I spoke to him last Sunday and he said that people he's prayed for before have died -so perhaps I was blessed after-all!!

Despite being laid low, I was anxious not to miss too much running, so on the Wednesday I popped out for a gentle 3 mile run before Lates. Friday saw a 4 miler. I may go out for one later today as well.

On the lets go and fall flat on my face ice skidding front, I am pleased to report things are looking up. I had a lesson booked this morning, but as I hadn't been since the last lesson, I thought I had better do some practice, so went yesterday as well.

I am pleased to report that I didn't fall over once on either day and by today felt much more confident and stable. Both days the rink has been almost totally deserted -apart from the usual few die-hards - some of whom I am starting to recognise.

By today, after a little more tuition, I am finally able to go backwards in a reasonably seemly manner -short bursts, but at the best managed, I think right along one (short) side of the rink. I still have to watch it when I first get on the rink as it takes a few minutes to relax and get the leg muscles used to it, but all in all, balance is improving measurably each time.

Yesterday though, I got heckled! I then saw the culprit, a chap from work sitting by the rink. He was there with his daughter who was doing an exam later. At least he knows now I wasn't lying when I said I came skating!

Well, soon be the church weekend -looking forward to it -hopefully won't be ill this time - I was REALLY ill -I managed to drive there but literally couldn't get out of the car on arrival and ran a fever all the first night. We're then going camping with Peter & Helen Washington for a few days in Suffolk, so will be spending tomorrow getting our camping stuff from the loft and blowing the dust off! Hope the drought doesn't suddenly end next week!

Crash, Bang, Wallop!

2006-05-07T15:34:00.000Z

It's the end of another energetic week in the Gilbey household and yesterday (Saturday) we were pleased to be able to go with Peter to the Boys Brigade Cross Country and Tug-of-War championship afternoon at Hylands Park. Peter took part in both events and although not really the build to make an outstanding tug-of-war contestant, he manfully pulled for all he was worth and their team won most of the contests.

I was also really pleased to see him do well in the running. I'm not sure of the distance, but I guess it was somewhere around a mile, but out of some 40 lads, he came in 9th. Pretty good considering he was one of the youngest as well. A bit of coaching for next year might pay dividends!

No more mice have offered themselves as a sacrifice since I last blogged - they have probably become extinct. The magpie has been checking out the traps though just in case -serve it right if it catches its beak in one. Check out the picture of my proposed new lounge onament!!

On the personal running front, I went out yesterday and did a record 4 mile run in 34 mins 29 secs - average pace of 8 mins 36 secs -this beat the previous best over this distance by 16 seconds.

I had my second skating lesson on Friday and both before and during, things did not go too well in the falling over and looking an idiot department. I have found that I need several minutes to get my balance sorted out when I first get on the ice and on this occasion I didn't give it enough time as within a couple of minutes I had had a spectacular backward tumble. I've subsequently got a slightly sore shoulder to remind me about it.

I managed to fall over again before the lesson and at least twice whilst under instruction -although in my defence, it was whilst attempting unfamiliar manouvres. I was shown how to go backwards, skate on one leg and another technique for skating forwards by turning both feet in and out in a wavy motion. I managed all with some success - practice is all that is required now...

Peter's race -note Rachel wielding a large stick!

Eighteen and a bit!

2006-05-03T18:38:00.000Z

What lovely day it's been today and despite spending half of it in bed after nights, still managed to get out this afternoon to do some gardening. (Groan!).

We caught another mouse today -well I think we did, because one of the traps had a thin strip of furry flesh in it, caught under the arm of the trap. The rest of the mouse was nowhere to be seen, although Julie did see our magpie eating its breakfast on the lawn this morning!

I got out for a 5 mile run yesterday -I ran up to the Chancellor Park estate and beyond along a footpath to the edge of New Hall Convent. It brought back memories of some 27 years previously when as a lad, some friends and I used to hang about near the Convent (which is also a girls school -now you know why!). One day we were walking along the same footpath and one of our number jumped up and looked over the tall wall there into the area where there was a swimming pool. He was spotted and just before we reached the gate to the grounds, we were confronted at a distance by some nuns armed with big dogs!

I remember we were shouted at and everyone, bar me who had a bike with me, jumped into a corn field to hide. Everyone then had to sheepishly come out of the corn and were closely questioned as to what we were up to. (Just going for a walk of course!). I recall we were asked for our names -I was asked first - and I for some reason, "John Smith" or similar came out of my lips! Those were the days...

Don't get these in your garden!

2006-05-01T09:19:00.000Z

Of mice and magpies!

2006-04-29T10:21:00.000Z

I can't believe it's Saturday already, I don't know where this week has gone. I was pleased to have the first 4 days off, but am now in the middle of my second early shift, with another 4 days to work before I can relax again.

I say relax, but it's been a fairly active time during which I've been out for a couple of runs (3 and 4 miles), been swimming and also on Tuesday for an ice skating session. That's not to mention walking down the town and back one day and an evening cycle ride with a friend... phew!

I even went out for a short run with Peter one afternoon -he managed ½ a mile before giving up!

Ice skating was good again. I hadn't been on the ice for 2 weeks and for the first few minutes felt a little unbalanced, but after that found I could zip around pretty well. I continued to practice my snowplough stops and was finding I could stop without losing my balance more often! I really could do with some skates of my own though -the hire ones are really naff -I managed to break a lace on one this time.

On the wildlife front, the woodpecker has disappeared for the time being -probably a good job. A thin weedy squirrel was seen in next doors garden (where a trap still sits) -Julie said it was probably a baby one looking for its mummy! (see previous blog -now living happily at Channels Golf Club). It was however eying up next doors 2 white guinea pigs, which freely roam the garden, so what its motives where we're not sure.

We have also reached a grand total of 16½ mice caught in the garden. A "½" I hear you ask? -well this was due to our local magpie finding the dead rodent in the trap and deciding it would make a nice breakfast. It was missing it's head when found! Yuk!

Woodpeckers -who'd have 'em

2006-04-24T04:28:00.000Z

A squirrels tale

2006-04-22T23:13:00.000Z

All the naughty squirrels have gone from our garden and to make sure any return is short lived, my neighbour still has a trap set in his garden. It's a shame in one way, but they are a bit of a nuisance and I really don't want our loft invaded again. However, we seem to have a new visitor to keep us awake!

Before mentioning this though, just to say that last year we had an owl living nearby. I used to hear it "twit-t'wooing" on the way home from nights -usually in the grounds of the hospital opposite Springfield parish church. It occasionally strayed to the oak trees at the back of our house and frightened the children! I haven't heard it this year yet.

Our present oak tree incumbent has woken Julie up several times now -although I haven't seen or heard it myself yet. We have a woodpecker! I did hear and see one not far away by the railway line a few weeks ago whilst walking back from church. It was a the top of an old dead tree making a right racket. Could well be the same one - had red markings I believe.

I hope the oak tree won't be felled into our garden -it would make a right mess!!

Just to finish off, I should say that all this wildlife activity has not prevented me from going running and I've been out three times this week at 4 miles a piece. My weight was back down to 14 stone 11 pounds today. Phew!

The sin of gluttony at Spring Harvest!

2006-04-18T05:52:00.000Z

Well here I am, two weeks holiday finished and safely back from five days away at Spring Harvest in Minehead.

It was the first time we have been to Spring Harvest since having the children and decided half board silver accommodation was a good idea compared to the draughty self catering we had experienced before at Skegness. Certainly the chalet was warm and comfortable -except the duvet was too small and Julie kept pulling it off of me in the night!

It was an enjoyable mix of spiritual input and leisure activities. We had anticipated the children would want to go swimming every day -but in actual fact, we only went once and the other days they opted for the free fairground rides (normally we refuse to go on these sort of rides because of the cost). I did have a go on some of the rides the first day, but then felt slightly sick, so took up a photographic role for the remaining days!

The nightly big top celebrations were brilliant and on the last night (Christian) pop star Daniel Bedingfield (who?) joined us and even lead some worship.

The BBC were on site for Songs of Praise and on Friday, they recorded a programme for Pentecost Sunday. Rachel went with some of the other youngsters from her group. It seems they had the camera on them quite a lot, so we will get our video recorder cranked up when it is screened.

Yesterday, on Easter Sunday morning, we all crowded into the Big Top (around 5000 people I guess) for a live Songs of Praise. The atmosphere was fantastic. Whilst the programme was obviously carefully planned for the morning, there was no real constraint on how we worshipped and everyone did there own thing, with flag waving, clapping, cheering, dancing the lot!

Unfortunately, we sat in a position not heavily populated with cameras, so I only managed a few shots of the back of my head and one from the front with my face obscured!! Nonetheless, a great experience.

I managed a couple of 4 mile runs along the seafront during the week and on Saturday, there was a "fun run" on site. However, it was not much fun as although it was only a mile or so, everyone cracked off at a very rapid pace and it was more a sprint! I didn't time it, but ran much faster than usual -but was pleased to find I hadn't even broken out into a sweat when we finished. I wasn't quite so pleased that a bloke who I kept pace with for most of the race and who looked about 60 beat me! Still, there were lots of others behind -many younger than me.

Now the bad bit. I mentioned earlier that we went half board.

I have never seen such a large dining room in all my life! It must cater for around a thousand people. On the first evening, we were welcomed in and a kindly lady said to the effect, "...just help yourselves to a much as you like". Of course, I ignored this advice and stuck to a light salad and plenty of fruit for afters...

...alright, I can't lie, I didn't have a salad, I had loads to eat and the next morning at breakfast and the next and the next, also had loads - cereal, a kipper, full fry up with bacon, sausage, eggs, fried bread, baked beans, then toast. Some evenings I had two main courses, two , three desserts, I just felt obliged to go beserk!

I knew I had sinned and upon our return, before going to bed, I stepped on the scales to find out the wages of that sin. (Not death fortunately). I had been around 14 stone 12/13 pounds before we went and to my horror, I found I was now 15 stone 5 pounds!!

However, I normally always weight myself first thing in the morning, and overnight I somehow lost 4 pounds!, weighing in yesterday (and this morning as well) at 15 stone 1 pound. So, a net gain of at least 2 pounds -and I've got 4 Easter Eggs to eat as well!

Well. no use in beating myself up, I will return to moderation and restraint for the next few weeks and see if I can get a few pounds off.

Here are some pictures of our exploits (not the eating ones though!)

The Big Top

Diane Louise Jordan -
Songs of Praise presenter

At the fair

Getting Steve Chalke's autograph

A week of leisure

2006-04-09T08:52:00.000Z

I'm currently in the middle of 2 weeks off work, which is really great, especially as I work a 6 days on and 4 days off shift pattern, which gives me 14 days for the price of 6!

It's been a fairly busy week though. Helen had an early celebration of her birthday on Tuesday/Wednesday with a sleep over and swimming at Colchester (as it falls next week while we're away at Spring Harvest) and it was my birthday on Thursday.

We all had a healthy (yeah right!) trip to the Aroma Chinese Buffet at Freeport and had a great scoff. Well, the healthy bit was that I got 10% off due to being a police sports club member! Afterwards, we went to the place of my ancestors, Finchingfield, (I know my great, great grandfather Ezekiel Gilbey was born there) and walked around the churchyard spotting "Gilbey" graves!

On the real exercise front, I went ice skating on Monday and all went very well indeed. I had a slight slip onto one knee only once and found my balance was improving such that I was able to do some rudimentary snowplough stops as well. I had better improve this though, as I've noticed my wrists are a little sore since starting skating. I thought it was due to falling over, but I think now it is all the colliding with the barrier I've been doing!

I am amazed that in only a couple of months I've gone from nothing to being able to get around the rink reasonably fluidly. I can now watch all the others stumbling around the outside!

As I've already mentioned, we went swimming on Wednesday, but this was more of a splash around than a serious swim. On Friday I went for a 5 mile run in a leisurely time of 48 minutes.

Jan asked a question on the last entry as to how motivated I am to continue to get out running. In one way I am surprised that I am still keeping it up, as often things I get interested in and excited about can start with a burst of enthusiasm then dwindle. Although I have tempered the distance I have been running over the winter period, and despite the freezing temperatures we have experienced, I have remained pretty motivated. Since 23rd May 2005, I've run approximately 440 miles - nearly 17 marathons!!

In the last year I've lost one and a half stone in weight and along with a change in diet (virtually no caffeine and much more food containing fibre), it has really made me feel good about myself. I've had very few headaches, which were a regular feature before, and I definitely have much more energy. The fact many of my trousers fall down without a belt is also a testimony to the fact!

I really don't want to go back to the old ways and continue into middle age as a couch potato, gently spreading myself over the sofa!

Anyway, I'm typing this before the second morning service and will soon be hopping on my bike to head down to the church - another thing I would have thought twice about before.

Sorry mice!

2006-04-04T02:09:00.000Z

Had a brisk run before night shift tonight and it was so brisk that I set a new record for 3 miles - 24 mins 23 secs, which beat the previous one by 12 seconds. Very satisfying.

Earlier that afternoon I was also doing some gardening and had a bit of a chat to our neighbour. Now you will be familiar with the saga of the mice in the loft, which have been ripping all our cardboard boxes to bits, well I think I've solved the mystery of why I've never caught any...

...there weren't any in the first place!

My neighbour related a story about having squirrels in his loft. It seems they have been enjoying a fun game of "box stripping" in his house. They must have run out of boxes and hence popped next door to do ours as well. The reason they had suddenly been absent was that he had trapped four of them in his garden and deported them to a new existence elsewhere.

So mystery solved, but 12 little mice have paid the ultimate penalty for their squirrel cousins naughtiness. sorry!

Any one want to buy some mouse traps?

I want to go to bed!

2006-04-03T02:54:00.000Z

It's currently 3.53am and I really want to go to bed. However, there is still another hour and three quarters or so to run of my night shift - I hope I can stay awake.

We got another mouse yesterday -no not a pet - but after along gap, another one bit the dust in one of my outside traps. The loft mice seem to have gone on extended leave -we haven't seen or heard nose or tail of any of them lately, which is good news.

Also, I found an interesting picture of a mouse trap that looks a bit evil!

Running continues. I had a 3 mile run on the 29th and on the 1st (and no it's not an April Fools joke), I did 4 miles in a new record time of 34 mins, 45 secs -average pace 8 mins 45 secs and average of 6.8 mph.

It's now 4.17am and I'm still tired. Goodnight!

Lesson 1

2006-03-28T14:00:00.000Z

Well, it finally arrived -and went - and I have now had my first ice skating lesson!

To be honest, it was all a bit of a blur, but despite being just 15 minutes long, I have definitely learnt from it and afterwards, trying to practice what I was told, it has already made me feel a lot more confident. My instructor is Vicky and she only stands around 5' 2" tall, so it must have been an interesting sight us circling the rink.

The first thing she addressed was my technique and with knees a little more bent and leaning a little further forward and with a bit of adjustment to the motion of the legs and feet, I found myself going much faster. In fact afterwards, I had to tell myself to slow down a bit, or else I had this nasty feeling I would come a cropper.

In fact, I'm fairly sure I didn't fall onto the ice at all this time (becomes difficult to remember at my age), although there was one close call during the lesson itself. The other thing Vicky tried to teach me was how to stop using a what's called a "Snowplough".

Now I'm still working on my balance and gliding forward in a rhythmic motion is fine, but doing other things whilst in motion is a bit more tricky. I sort of got the idea of how to do this stop (vaguely) and was better balancing after the lesson, but during, was not very good at all and had a few wobbles. It was during one of these wobbles, that I somehow stumbled forward to the side rail and executed a beautiful "face plant" right into the perspex wall. There must have been a really nice squashed impression of the right side of my face for a moment, particularly for all those from a school party who were unfortunately standing there and watching. I even heard some "gasps"!

No damage done and even my number 49 boots, specially requested after being so comfortable last time didn't cause my feet much grief, so all in all it was a successful morning. The next lesson won't be until the end of April, but at least it gives me the chance to practice and get even better balanced.

Just to add that I haven't totally neglected my running and went out Sunday night for a 4 miler. In addition, I even went swimming yesterday whilst Helen was keeping fit on the trampoline and did around 30 lengths. Be good to get back to work tomorrow for a rest!

Slip sliding away!

2006-03-25T04:28:00.000Z

Helen demonstrated an improvement to her health on Thursday morning, much I think because she really wanted to go ice skating that afternoon after school. This was handy, because it gave me a free morning to pop down the rink and improve my skills before I accompanied her there. I didn't want show her how well I could fall over!

It took me a number of minutes to re-gain my confidence and get the boot adjustment right, but was soon gliding around quite well. The surface of the ice left a bit to be desired though, particularly at one corner, where it was positively rough in places. I don't think it helped though that the skates I had seemed a bit blunt.

Whilst it isn't the best measure of skill, I only tripped over once which wasn't too bad, and my Dutch Windmill impressions were somewhat diminished over previous visits too. It was noticeable though, that towards the end of the two hour session, my legs were getting tired and it was more difficult to keep balanced properly.

So, practice over, I returned home to prepare for the afternoon visit with Helen.

She did very well, trying to let go and shuffle around without holding on to the edge, but did have couple of falls, which dented her confidence a bit. We only had about 35 minutes, so things didn't progress very far. This time Peter came along to spectator and ran around the perimeter cheering us on!

In-between lending some encouragement (I couldn't actually help too much as I would have ended up losing balance and falling myself!), I managed a few circuits and felt I was doing even better than in the morning. It could well have been the boots as they seemed to fit better and held the ice more firmly. They were no 49 -I will ask for them again!

I think I am now definitely in need of some tuition, to get my posture and technique right and now have the first lesson booked for next Tuesday at 10.30am. I'll soon be up to the standard of the infant school children that were whizzing around the ice Thursday afternoon!

The lesson that wasn't!

2006-03-22T23:12:00.000Z

Firstly, I got it slightly wrong previously as my skating lesson was due to be today not Tuesday. However, unfortunately Helen has continued to be unwell so I had to cancel it to look after her whilst Julie was at work. Will try again next week though with one booked for Tuesday morning.

If she's better tomorrow, we might be able to go to her keep fit session at Riverside when for the first half, they will be going on the ice. It's only for 3/4 of an hour though -but if we can go I can hopefully help to prize her away from the side - unlike last time when I was the wrong side of the perspex!

Yesterday, I was able to go out for a bit of a run though and set a new 3 mile record! I notched up the distance in 24 mins 35 secs -an average pace of 8 mins 12 secs to the mile and average speed of 7.3 mph. (Not quite up to Commonwealth Games standard, but not bad for an old man like me).

Mind you, today I have a bit of a stiff neck -goodness knows how it might be connected, but you never know! - although it could be connected to some new chairs we have in the control room. They are not very comfortable and have a plastic back with holes in it -a bit like a garden chair! They have loads of adjustments, but they don't seem to adjust sufficiently for a chap like me who's 6'5".

They're not cheap ones though -the retail price is around £500 to £600 each! And they have a 12 year guarantee. however, I sat on one yesterday and one of the arms was broken (it was like that already -honest!)-we've only had them a few days, so it doesn't bode well for their longevity.

Anyway, I'm sitting on one now typing this - only 2 hours to go........zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Ice Skating -session 5

2006-03-18T17:11:00.002Z

Saturday morning is probably not the right day to practice one's skating skills as the skill you seem to need most of all is to dodge everyone else - the place was packed!

Unfortunately Helen was unwell this morning, so I set off with Rachel and met one of her friends and my brother Colin and niece there.

I had pre-prepared my feet so to avoid blisters and I seem to have got it cracked! Anti-perspirant foot spray, several plasters and two pairs of "coolmax" socks did the trick - very comfortable!

I felt that I did quite well today and by the end of the session was gliding around pretty fluently and with much more balance than even last time. That's not to say I didn't wobble a few times (read lots) and did a fall to one knees four times and rather stupidly on one occasion came into the side, leaned back too far and ended up on my backside! However, I successfully negotiated on two separate occasions children who fell in front of me without coming off my skates (although it was close!), which pleased me.

Rachel was very good as well and was even attempting some turning on the spot in the centre at one time.

In fact, over-all things are going very well. I noticed lots of people stumbling around the outside of the rink like I did on my first attempt. There was another trail of blood as well as a little boy had his finger run over by his mother after he fell!

My first lesson is on Tuesday -so Dancing on Ice here we come! (Okay, I'll wake up in a moment!). Will keep you all posted.

A weighty problem?

2006-03-17T15:37:00.000Z

All was going well with the weight loss program, up until Christmas that is and it was then that the lure of festive fayre swayed me just a little from my healthy eating. Don't get me wrong, I'm not really putting anything on -and weighed in at about 14 stone 11lbs this morning (from a peak of about 16 stone 5lb this time last year), but I'm still conscious of a little midriff bulge that it would be good to reduce a little further. So watch out for news of a few more pounds shed over the next few weeks - possibly!

Despite the continuing freezing temperatures - I thought we were in for a cold Winter, not Spring! - I have still been getting out there for my run's, although I did think twice about it yesterday before finally steeling myself and getting out there.

For the record, on the 14th I did 3 miles and yesterday, the 16th was 4 miles.

Tomorrow is ice skating with the children day. I will be taking appropriate blister prevention measures this time. I read up about blisters and discovered that it was a combination of sweaty feet and damp cotton socks that was to blame. Apparently the skin becomes much more susceptible to tearing when the moisture can't get away and the skin is softened.

This time I have a cunning plan with some strategically placed sticking plasters and some "coolmax" moisture wicking socks. However, I still have the remains of the blister on my right heel -which burst - but have used a special blister plaster on it -which is really good. They are clear, have a shiny outer surface and a special padded centre and a skin tight fit and promote healing -available from Savers for £2.29 for a pack of five if anyone else out there is interested. I will have to be careful tomorrow and will try to pad it further as well.

Ice Skating - session 4

2006-03-13T17:24:00.000Z

Just so you don't think I've abandoned the running for this new ice skating thing, just to say that I went out for a nice little 4 mile run first thing on Saturday morning. I ran a route that took me down Duke Street and right through the High Street for a change.

Today, I did however pop down the rink to practice my jumps and turns (dream on!) -well actually the goal was not to fall over too many times.

I am still experimenting with boot size and sock thickness and having decided 13's are definitely too roomy, I last time tried some 12's with thin socks but with a few small blister marks. Today, I wondered if 11's might be any good and to help thinks along, applied a few strategically placed plasters and micropore tape on my feet. The ploy was partially successful as the previous pressure points seemed relieved, although unfortunately micropore tape was the wrong thing to put on my heels and both ended up with blisters. I think it's back to size 12's with a slightly different sock combination next time - all very complicated this - or do I shell £95 for my own comfy skates?

Anyway, having got the skates on, around 10.15am I cautiously ventured onto the ice and was pleased to find after only a short time that my balance was noticeably better and I was finding that I could glide (I was going to put "gracefully", but perhaps not yet) a fair bit further on each foot. In fact, I also found that I was not sweating so much as before, which suggests I was putting much less effort in!

In fact, things were going really well and up until about 11am, although I had done one or two quite minor "windmill" impressions with my arms trying to keep upright, I had remained on my feet. (Oh alright, there was just one little indiscretion when I stopped, lost balance slightly and gently went down on one knee for a moment).

I was really quite chuffed and each time I skated past the bit where the professionalss sit, I sort of found myself glancing at the chap who was on duty there to see if he noticed my prowess (he pretended not to of course!).

A (rather plump) lady in her late 40's who I had seen before also spoke to me as I swept past her and complimented me on my action, saying I had clearly improved from when she had seen me on a previous occasion. She must have known what she was talking about because she had nice white skates on a opposed the nasty blue hire ones

Now, I'm sure it wasn't a prophectic voice, but I then found myself starting to think of that little saying, "pride cometh before a fall" and had a nasty suspicion that it might apply to me...

...and yea verily it did come to pass as whilst passing the aforesaid ice professional and at a point directly level with his gaze, I did trip asunder and stacked it un-gracefully upon the surface of the ice. (Oops!)

Well, no damage done and I am pleased to say that was the last time my feet broke company with the ice -well apart from the occasional sit down at rink side for a swig of water that is!

So, all going reasonably well -now have a couple of lessons booked over the next two weeks for a bit of a "try out" and hope to go again Saturday (blisters permitting) with the children.
Helen is even due to go Thursday week during her "keep fit" class and I hope to be able to give her a hand this time (remembering last time when she shuffled around the perimeter with me following her around the outside!).

Can't be bothered to post...

2006-03-10T22:56:00.000Z

Sorry, can't get the enthusiasm for a long post. Last run was 3 miles on Tuesday. Weather been too grotty to get out there since -will hopefully try tomorrow.

Will be hopefully out on the ice again next week.

I've worked a 10 hour early and I'm tired and I'm going to bed...so there!

Heading for burn out?

2006-03-06T19:54:00.000Z

I last went for a run on Friday 3rd, but I increased to 4 miles, which I finished in 38 mins (average pace of 9 mins 30 secs). However, I've decided a more multi-pronged attack to this fitness lark is a good idea, so today, with Julie at work, I went really mad!

I started off at 10am with a cycle ride down to the Ice Rink and spend a couple of hours skidding around trying to keep my balance. I was more confident this time and by the end of the session was doing much better in controlling the urge to wobble and crash dive onto the ice. I managed lots of circuits well away from the edge and only "stacked it" onto my backside once! (There were 4/5 minor stumbles onto my knees, but these were fairly controlled affairs). No one else seemed to bleed or get carted off to the first aid facility today which was encouraging too.

I also was a little more comfortable in my skates, as I decided to wear thin socks and laced them up really tight - still got a bit sore on the left foot though. Hire Skates are just not up to it. I've found out were there is a skating supplier in Chelmsford -just over the road from Riverside near the Post Office Delivery Office -so may well pop down there tomorrow to have a look at some skates (only one month to my birthday!)

I then cycled from Riverside over to see my mum and dad in Broomfield, before riding home and walking to pick Helen and Peter up from school.

At 4pm I then took Helen to her keep fit club back down at Riverside (although I did use the car this time) and went swimming with her for an hour and a half. Rachel came too and managed to brave several jumps from the top diving board. (Mind you, it took her at least 10 minutes of staring over the edge to pluck up the courage to jump!).

This keeping fit is really fun - anyone else fancy a bit of day time skating or swimming, cycling or running? - we could start an Elim Keep fit small group -we could then pray for everyone's injuries to recover afterwards!

Ice is nice!

2006-03-01T22:55:00.000Z

Yesterday, despite a 10 hour early shift, I managed a quick 3 mile run after work. It was very cold though and my woolly hat and gloves stayed on the whole time! On the way back I jogged past Boswell's school and found Rachel outside having just finished her drama club. She looked really pleased to see her old dad jog up to her in his lycra running trousers in front of her friends!

Today, I am on a 4pm to 2am shift, so having the morning free decided to put it to good use in my new quest for ice skating freedom. I turned up at the rink at 10am and was one of the first in the queue and was one of the first on the mirror smooth ice. After a rather hesitant start, I found I was quite a bit more "balanced" than Saturday and was able to stay away from the side of the rink all together. I hadn't got it all together though and did have a few wobbles and when I let my concentration wander, couple of slightly spectacular falls onto my backside -as well as some minor stumbles!

Apart from a small blister on the instep of my left foot, I got away without major injury, which was just as well as the first aid room was fairly full by the end of the session. A school had clearly got the day off, as there were quite a few youngsters there. On a couple of occasions I saw bodies laying on the ice with people crowding around and at one point heard a loud thud behind me as someone tripped and slammed into the side barrier. Later, from another incident, I was able to follow a little trail of blood spots across the rink to the medical facility!

It all really begs the question, WHAT ON EARTH AM I PLAYING AT!! The things you do for your kids -I hope they are grateful! Rachel keeps going on about getting a hamster -so the following cartoon seems quite topical!!

More exercise?

2006-02-27T10:25:00.000Z

I've been out for a couple of runs in the last week. However, on the 20th I set out as usual only to find that my GPS watch wouldn't work - it would work on the chronograph setting, but as soon as I attempted to connect to the satellite receiver, the display would disappear! A flat battery was later diagnosed. So I can only say I ran approximately 3 miles in somewhere around 27 mins.

On the 23rd, with new battery installed, I did another 3 mile run in 25 mins 21 secs - average pace 8 mins 26 secs to the mile and at an average of 7.1mph.

Both Peter and Helen had not been feeling very well last week and I think that I picked a few of their bugs up as I've had a few cold like symptoms this weekend. But it didn't stop me doing something on Saturday that I haven't done for around 27 years...

...well it was Rachel's 13th birthday and she decided to have an ice skating party at Riverside.

I had a bad experience the last (read only) time I went ice skating before when I was 16, in that I badly twisted my ankle. I hadn't wanted to go again, until a few weeks ago when Helen tried skating at a fitness course she's on at Riverside. I watched her bravely cling to the sides of the rink whilst slipping and sliding round and really wished I could have joined her to help her out (as daddies normally do when their children are in trouble). I thought then that maybe I could give it a go and vaguely looked at a leaflet concerning lessons.

However, having done nothing about it, it was Rachel's party that at last steeled me into action.

I tried size 12 boots first, but with two pairs of socks -one pair very thick - I soon had to change over to size 13's! My first steps onto the ice were extremely precarious and I can see why Helen gripped the sides so hard! I had some gloves on but they were a bit "slippy", which didn't help, so I took them off only to promptly catch the side of my hand on something sharp and cut it!

Following a visit to the First Aid Post -where the man took several minutes (literally) to get the wrapping off of the plaster (good job I wasn't bleeding fast!), I set off again around the rink edge. It was slow going as every time I encountered someone else clinging to the side I had to pluck up the courage to let go and move around them. Still, it wasn't going too badly until to my horror, someone came out onto the ice with a set of green cones and placed them right across the rink at one end so some lessons could take place. This meant to get back to the other side, I had no choice but to cut across the whole width of the rink with nothing to hold on to - or give up!

Well, in for a penny in for a broken leg... I went for it and survived without a fall! That's not to say though that I didn't have three or four minor slip up's and lots of wobbles during the rest of the session, but only once fell on my backside and managed to keep from pulling anyone else over -although one lady had a close shave!

I felt fine for the remainder of the day, but have since had a few aches and stiffness in the area of my hips no doubt due to some different muscles coming into play. My legs otherwise feel fine which is probably a testimony to all the running I've been doing.

So is this a one off foray, or will I have another go... watch this space!

Oh, and one last thing - another garden mouse bit the dust last week and the loft blighters have now got several trays of poison to enjoy!!

The trip to London

2006-02-20T23:33:00.000Z

Here are some piccy's of our trip to the Capital. Don't forget you can double click on them to enlarge. (The "Chinese" ones were taken with my PDA!!)...

The London Eye from St James' Park

Julie enjoying her soup at Mr Wu's

Some ducks which weren't enjoying themselves
in China Town

A Cave Bear in a shop window near Victoria!

Julie trying to enjoy the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain (what fountain?!) in Hyde Park

A night on the Town

2006-02-19T14:32:00.000Z

Well here I am safely back from our night away and already I'm back at work (ho hum!). Julie and I had a pleasant trip to London SW1 and enjoyed an evening at Her Majesty's Theatre, Haymarket, watching the fabulous production of the Phantom of the Opera.

We travelled from home to a small hotel near Victoria in style (courtesy of very nice gold Rolls Royce) and strolled to Theatre Land via Buckingham Palace and St James Park. The Queen was in but couldn't get to the window to wave to us. We then found China Town where we enjoyed a very tasty "all you can eat" Chinese meal at Mr Wu's. (Fantastic value at just £4.95 a head -nothing posh but what value! -you try getting anything like this in Chelmsford of an evening -who said eating out in London was expensive!).

The Phantom was all I had heard it to be. The music, the staging and special effects are stunning and although this wasn't cheap, is well worth the expense. You need to book early though as I understand in its 18 year history at this theatre, there has never been an empty seat!

Yesterday morning we walked to Kensington Palace, via Sloan Square, Chelsea and Hyde Park (where I've never seen so many joggers of all ages and different shapes and sizes in my life!) and spend a delightful two hours of getting to know it's history and about its former occupants.

The afternoon was spent at Covent Garden -where we called in to The Vine coffee shop run by the London City Mission. There was some chap we thought we had seen before working there. I think he's called Roy!

Following a trip back to Victoria to retrieve our case, we enjoyed another "all you can eat" meal in the form of pizza and trimmings and arrived home about 7.30pm. It seemed like we'd been away for ages.

Although I haven't jogged for a few days now, the amount of walking we did will make up for it. It's a pity Hyde Park isn't a bit nearer to Chelmsford...

Hopefully some pictures will follow soon.

I'm back!

2006-02-15T17:06:00.000Z

I think I must have run into a little bit of "Bloggers block", as I haven't really had anything to say for a few days. However, I should at least keep things up to date on the jogging front, lest you think I have given up!

I've continued to do a bit here and there, but have kept the distances to between 3 or 4 miles for the time being. Here is a quick summary:

6th 3.27 miles in 28 mins 7 secs average 8 mins 35 secs per mile
9th 3 miles in 27 mins 34 secs average 9 mins 10 secs per mile
12th 4 miles in 26 mins 7 secs average 9 mins 6 secs per mile
15th 3.25 miles in 30 mins 22 secs average 9 mins 24 secs per mile

It's half term this week and I've been off work since last Saturday. We've had a fairly low key week so far - a walk to the park on Monday, a game of Monopoly (Peter won by bankrupting everyone when he got hotels on Park Lane and Mayfair) and a ramble through the woods on Galleywood Common yesterday where we encountered a rope swing which the children thoughly enjoyed. I was going to have a go but remembered seeing similar things going wrong on You've Been Framed on TV. I didn't want to fell any trees! Today we went for a walk to the Essex Police Museum.

On Friday however, I have arranged a little mystery night away for Julie and I - she knows we're going somewhere, but that's all! I may reveal all (or at least some!) after the weekend...

Blogger's playing up?

2006-02-06T09:24:00.000Z

I think something's has gone wrong at Blogger HQ. I created a post on 4th Feb. but could not add any photos to it. When I tried to do so today the post did not seem to exist. I think something glitched!

Anyway, no point in crying over spilt milk, so here is a rough re-write:

I've been out running three more times since last I posted;
- on the 30th, 4 miles in 35 mins 4 secs - average pace 8 mins 46 secs
- on the 1st, 3 miles in 28 mins 8 secs - average pace 8 mins 38 secs
- on the 4th, 3 miles in 25 mins 22 secs - average pace 8 mins 26 secs

The mice are still being very naughty - the other morning, Julie called me upstairs to hear a right racket going on in the loft. It sounded like a whole army of rabid rats attacking a cardboard box! When I ventured up there, a box belonging to one of the children's toys was well gnawed and a pile of "gnawings" was stacked seemingly for removal!

I promptly laid ten traps all around the area, but so far with no result - I'm sure some high pitched tittering was heard a little later though! Alan Webb has suggested poison is the only answer - I think it has nearly gotten to that stage...

On a different theme, (switch off now if you are a woman!) I was pleased to get a great deal just recently a PDA/Phone -which is a not only a fully functional mobile phone, but runs Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 operating system. This gives me a Calendar, Address Book, Task facility, notes - both written and audio recorded, a VGA camera (still and video), access to e-mail and full Internet access via GPRS, a MP3 player, Bluetooth plus the ability to download any number of programs from the Internet. It fully synchronizes with my desktop computer too -both via cable and wirelessly.

One very useful program so far is a free Bible called "E-Sword". Once you install the basic program, you can download various Bible versions, commentaries, dictionaries and daily study notes. I've got three Bibles Good News, King James and the ESV (bit like the NIV). They can be read separately or in parallel. I have two commentaries, including the concise Matthew Henry's - a dictionary and a couple of sets of notes -one by Charles Spurgeon.

So if you see me "playing" with my organizer on Sunday, I'm not playing tetris -although that might be tempting during some sermons!!!

It's amazing how much technology has marched on. Back in 1994, my very first computer ran at a speed of 25 mHz and has 4 MB of memory with a 170 MB hard drive - all very respectable -although it had no sound or CD drive!

This little contraption runs at 400 mHz and has 128 MB of memory and has a 512 MB storage card... and try fitting my first computer in your pocket! It also cost over seven times LESS than the original one! Bit like science fiction come true really.

Spot the difference between my Phone/PDA and an original Star Trek Communicator (yep, mine looks much more futuristic!):

Live Life to the full

2006-01-29T22:48:00.000Z

Quick update - had a 3 mile run on Thursday. No mice caught for ages, despite 10 extra traps! Went swimming on Saturday with the girls at Colchester whilst Julie was at a Children's Conference in Eastbourne - great fun (Peter had a day playing football with the Boys Brigade).

One thing that made me pause and think during the week was something I was given at Lifegroup on Thursday. It was an extract from a sermon given by Kyle Lake, pastor of University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, who died in October last year after being electrocuted while standing in the church baptismal during a morning service. Lake received a shock while adjusting a microphone before baptizing a woman. I understand that the sermon was given in the same service in which he died.

"Live. And Live Well. BREATHE. Breathe in and Breathe deeply. Be PRESENT. Do not be past. Do not be future. Be now. On a crystal clear, breezy 70 degree day, roll down the windows and FEEL the wind against your skin. Feel the warmth of the sun.

If you run, then allow those first few breaths on a cool Autumn day to FREEZE your lungs and do not just be alarmed, be ALIVE. Get knee-deep in a novel and LOSE track of time.

If you bike, pedal HARD... and if you crash then crash well.

Feel the SATISFACTION of a job well done-a paper well-written, a project thoroughly completed, a play well-performed. If you must wipe the snot from your 3-year olds nose, don't be disgusted if the Kleenex didn't catch it all... because soon he'll be wiping his own.

If you've recently experienced loss, then GRIEVE. And Grieve well. At the table with friends and family, LAUGH. If you're eating and laughing at the same time, then might as well laugh until you puke. And if you eat, then SMELL. The aromas are not impediments to your day. Steak on the grill, coffee beans freshly ground, cookies in the oven. And TASTE. Taste every ounce of flavor. Taste every ounce of friendship. Taste every ounce of Life. Because-it-is-most-definitely-a-Gift."

A ministerial visit

2006-01-25T20:17:00.000Z

We were pleased to have a visit today from an esteemed member of the Church Ministry Team.

She supposedly came around to see Helen to get to know her a bit more for when she goes up to year 7. However, she was caught red handed getting a bit of practice in for her expected baby with the girls dollys!

Still running!

2006-01-24T18:56:00.000Z

Just in case you thought I had forgotten about the running -i went out this morning and did 4 miles.

I also took delivery of 10 mouse traps -watch out you loft varmints - move out whilst you still can!