Monthly Archives: August 2008

Blessings from Brazil

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I had an email this morning that was such a blessing to me. I was given an amount of money recently for Brazil and was able to forward it to some very trusted people in Fortaleza (this along with Jacarapagua is a place I wish to see transformation come to). I will extract below some of the email to illustrate the shift.

It was also a blessing because in January the Lord challenged me about social transformation in Brazil and taking responsibility. He said: if you take responsibility, then an anointing will come, the anointing will release connections, and connections the resources. I was not to think about the issue of resources but of taking responsibility. I also saw that the last thing I needed was some sort of charity with money going through my hands but simply to be a channel from source to place of need.  (Thanks to Jo as source…) There is much more to learn but I believe for those who are able to walk this path there will be huge resources that will shift. (Much more to say on this in due course.)

One guy who was involved in lots of drugs and is about my age but already has 7 children to care for has now accepted Jesus and involved in a church and helps support his family from making the soap.  Another lady who’s husband was in prison a long time for international drug trafficing also provides for her son through the soap and another guy who is well know in he community as he was very violent and did lots of armed bank robberies has just got out of prison and become a Christian but has to return to spend the weekend in prison every 2 weeks.  Most never bother to go back but he is now determined to clear his name and keep his word – now and pays for his bus tickets to and fro from prison by finding old cocnut shells, cleaning them, sanding them and then polishing them so we can use it as a case to put cocnut scented soap in and we buy them off him.

It is been great as as guys come out of prostitution or drugs or prison and so no one will take them to work and they have no other form of legal income we can give them this skill and help them sell it to earn money.

Just before the course started an elderly lady came to me at about 4 oclock in the afternoon  to ask for 30p as her mum who was about 90 hadn’t eatten all day and so she wanted to buy some soup for her.  I went to see the hut and it was totally empty and bare with the grandma, kids and grandkids all there not knowing where the food would come for.  So I invited her to do the soap course and so now instead of having to return each day to give them some soup the woman now makes her own money from the soup and has been impowered to care for her own family, she even now volunteers in the kitchen to cook for us when we have teams over.

The Last Battle

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I am sitting at the keyboard meditating on a dream I have had in the last few hours. It was a long dream but the salient points are below:

I was involved in a home situation where there was a constant battle, and we had to continually fight to keep moving forward. Eventually I knew we had to get fresh revelation to overcome, and we discovered that there had been a curse planted in the wall of the house.

No sooner than we were getting some breakthroughs at that level, I became aware that there was a large demonic army assembling. I went outside to view them, and they were coming from all directions, and by all means. I heard the words ‘this is the last battle’. Then into the midst of this demonic assembly came a king and his complete entourage. They arrived as one, but they were like a 3-D huge sculpture – I was not convinced they were actually alive. They were from history.

I rebuked some of what was going on: with the words ‘you are coming down’, and this severely weakened them. But I knew this would not be enough.

I thought I would fly (like a bird) out over the army, but suddenly realised that I had never flown before and now was not a good time to try.

I then knew that we had a strategy:

Get everyone together, we are going to wash each other’s feet, we are giong to break bread. They will never be able to overcome us then. There will be casualties, but if we do this we will overcome.

I think the interpretation is clear – but there might be parts you wish to add or there might be personal aspects to it.

First, we live with what is called an eschatological tension – will we see everything take place this side of the return of Jesus? No. Will there be a new heavens and new earth before his coming? No. Will there be a final last battle?

However, I do see it speaking at this time about a shift coming and one we have to be prepared for.

  • Currently the battle is being faced by many at the personal level – the level of the home, the level of the body of Christ. We are surviving but now need fresh revelation, for this opposition to what we are pushing for and it is in the walls (the fabric) of our homes. It comes from the past, even previous occupants – so we expect some fresh levels of deliverance to come through revelation in this next season.
  • Beyond that though there is the gathering of major forces against us. There is a stepping up in the level of warfare. There are and will be some casualties in this – but they are not casualties because of their personal weakness – the Lord works this all together.
  • I probably should have been able to fly (speaking of spiritual experience / going to the heights etc.) but I was unable to do that – and I simply had to come to terms with this was not a good time to do that. I cannot make up for lost time – it is not a time for regret. Are we where we should be – no… but the time is now, and God is with us now.
  • The strategy to overcome is within our grasp. It is the service of one another, the expression of the one loaf and wine that will enable us to overcome. I remember in the dream those who I was with saying – but there are not enough of us, and I replied but if we do this then others will come. We have to express this humility, openness and acceptance of the one body. We must not divide and only seek our own welfare.
  • And finally – part of what is arrayed against us is myth. The king and entourage were not fully alive. They came out of history and were mythological characters. Lies will always be part of the strategy of the enemy. Even lies that we are not far enough forward, we have not had the right spiritual experience. Our weapons are mighty – but simple.

Hope you have some good dreams….

A little photo…

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OK… here is a photo to show that I am not simply making things up. Taken on the beach at Nairn before three of us baptised Gayle’s friend, Julie, in the sea.

On a different note – if you have not read the book The Shack, then do.

Also great sadness to read about the latest scenario re. Lakeland and the Bentleys. It has been very good to read the responses particularly by Doris Wagner. These situations are always disappointing, but given that Lakeland (for me) was always about a sign that a window is open for the miraculous over the Western Church, I am not too disappointed that the place itself will receive less profile. We must get beyond special place, holy centres, to humble people carrying the presence of the Lord in life.

Bognor Regis

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A real quick heads up:

I am in Bognor Regis September 16-20. This will be for prayer sowing seeds style but also for some teaching and activation in the prophetic. There will be a limited number of team places so if you wish to be included you need to let me know as soon as possible.

August 10: 2 things

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So today woke up at 6.00am – not too abnormal. But two things had changed (does all of life come down to 2 things?). A minor event had taken place – I woke up a year older. Yes it is my birthday and I am now the best age ever… I have loved every age I have been.

The second change though is awesome. Yesterday, at the Italian Chapel in Orkney (long history there, but a place I always go to each time I visit here) I proposed to a wonderful lady Gayle Crawford, and she said ‘yes’. She now has a ring that has been made on the island… Sweet.

The jewellers gave us a chilled bottle of bubbly, so by the water with the wind blowing the waves over the rocks (temperatures are not Mallorcan here!) we had a celebration.

Two more days here, then down to see Roger and Sue Mitchell en route to home, and 112 days before a very important day in Surrey. November 30th.

Sorry no photos but am uploading these posts via a mobile SIM card. Suffice to say Gayle looks beautiful… and I am happy.

How can you endorse..?

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Some will have already picked up on this reply by Bill Johnson. I have known Bill for 10 years. Known for his passion for the supernatural power of God, but it is his deep humility, integrity, and his the way he honours others that has always impacted me. I trust his reply impacts you too…

Bill Johnson was asked in an email, “How in God’s name can you endorse Todd Bentley?” This was his response:

Have you spent time with Todd? Do you know him? Have you watched him with his wife? Or have you seen how he treats his kids? Have you spent any time with his staff? Have you been to his ministry? Has he been to yours? Have you laid hands on him and prayed? Has he laid hands on you and prayed? Have you grieved over tragedy together? Have you celebrated victory together? Has he sought your counsel? Has he traveled a great distance just to meet with you privately for advice? Have you ever received his counsel? Have you been in the room when God has showed up on him, and used him in stunning miracles? Have you seen him operate in the word of knowledge or the prophetic? Have you met with his counsel of elders? Have you personally benefited from his gift? Has he benefited from your gift and ministry? Has he ever honored you for who you are in God? Has he partnered with you as a friend? Have you sacrificed for his welfare, or that of his family? Have you sought God with him? Have you ever worshipped the Lord with him?

I didn’t think so. I have. And I’ll continue to support those who I have walked with in life and ministry. He’s my friend. More importantly, God calls him friend. And if you and I were ever friends in that level, and people hated you and turned against you, and started web pages to tear down your ministry, and criticized you to your friends, and wrote against you in Christian magazines, and criticized you on the radio and wrote emails to other conference speakers and authors, I’d still be your friend.

By the way – criticism in the form of a question is not a question. But to respond to your statement, “How in God’s name can you endorse Todd Bentley?” It’s easy. I do it in God’s name.

Brief thoughts on transformation #15

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Thanks to all who have made comments on the last set of blogs on transformation. Here are a few last comments:

Humility is such a key to see the kingdom advance. It cannot be about replacing those who rule with another set of people who rule in the same spirit. We are involved in warfare and those who follow the Jesus’ path will face marginalisation. They will not be allowed to ‘buy and to sell’ if they refuse to be marked by the number of the beast. Hence when we think about the gates, success is not to take the top position, and replace wrong domination with another form of domination. Servanthood, turning the other cheek has to be the prevailing spirit.

This is why I suggest that the main task is to change the culture, so that exploitative ways no longer are the norm. This change will take place from the bottom up. It will be God’s favour that enables someone to connect and make a difference from the top down – but they will not occupy that top down position with that spirit of domination.

There will be alternative models that have to be developed (light to the world) as well as engagement in the situation (salt of the earth). The latter will involve a measure of ‘compromise’, in the sense that we will not be able to be perfect in all our interactions within a fallen world, but our interactions must carry integrity. We will be called to work as redemptively as possible. To make choices that move the situation toward the kingdom – after all that is how the imperfect OT law seems to operate.

If the consummation is about a restored creation, and that God is working through a redeemed people to bring about, then transformation is not a recent novel idea, nor is it something that we will experience in permanent form, but is the task before every generation.

What a time to be alive. There are amazing clashes of culture and of kingdom values. These are days when old paradigms are being challenged, when old patterns of church are being shaken. These are days of the kingdom advancing.

Let the prophetic imagination run wild.

Scotland: a clootie well

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I have been away from home and am in Scotland these past few days and will not be home till Aug 17th. This is a very significant time for me. A time of preparation for the next phase.

Currently I am in Inverness for a few days, and yesterday joined some people for prayer – one place was at ‘The Clootie Well’ (the cloth well). It is one of the most oppressive places I have been to. It is a well, deemed to have healing properties. People come with their prayer requests – tying cloths to trees (my guess is there are thousands of such cloths, shirts, trousers, etc. tied there) asking for healing. The pain of hopelessness is evident, and the use of the place occulticly.

Sometimes in praying in these places, there is little tangible shift – yesterday there was a distinct lightness afterward. More – and continual consistent – prayer will be needed.

Thanks to all who have contributed to the blogs on transformation – I will make a few more comments tomorrow. After that I will not likely blog too much over the next few days until back hom.