Monthly Archives: March 2014

I mentioned the other day that God is doing ‘unusual’ miracles more and more these days, sometimes even without having to pray for a person. Before you jump all over me and tell me that ‘you MUST pray’, read this:

• Acts 19:11-13

• 11 God worked unusual miracles through Paul. 12 People would take handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched Paul’s skin to those who were sick. Their sicknesses would be cured, and evil spirits would leave them.

I find it a real blessing to find people, even in the crisis of terminal illness, who can laugh not about death, but still find humour in their pain and sickness.

A few years ago, I was in a big hospital in Cali, in the men’s medical ward – though the reality was it was more a palliative ward, as they’d all got AIDS, cancer, TB, and so on, and pretty much all had fairly imminent ‘death sentences’ over their lives. The first I came to was a guy named Rafael (just a hastily written scrap of paper over the head of his bed), with three weeping relatives at the other end of the bed. That can be – if you let it – quite a ‘faith killer’, and it’s why Jesus, and Peter, and – often – Smith Wigglesworth, cleared the room, so there’d be no unbelief to counteract faith.

The bed wasn’t particularly clean (understatement extremis!!!): Rafael looked as though he could be in a coma, and his skin was grey, not the lovely olive Latino colour. Often, in a situation like that, the temptation is to speak to the relatives, but personally, I can’t do that. I remember Alex & Peggy Buchanan doing a seminar – ‘Does she take sugar?’ – about the fact that disability, like Peggy’s (she was wheelchair-bound), often causes someone to talk to the person NOT in the wheelchair, with questions like their seminar title, as though the sick person is brain dead….

As I sat, I could imagine my mum panicking and telling me ‘You could catch something if you sit there! – burn your jeans when you get home!’ Bless her, mum often worried enough for about 20 people when she was still with us, and when I was going to certain countries! I put my hand on Rafael’s shoulder: he opened his eyes, a little surprised to see a gringo sitting on his bed. I used my Spanglish (it’s a bit more Spanish now than then!): ‘Hi, I’m Paul, I love to be here to pray for guys like you to be healed by God, and you don’t look to good Rafael….’ ‘I’m not, I have cancer.’ What’s the prognosis came next: 2-3 days to live.

Do you want to die, Rafael? Ho wold are you? 43, and no, I don’t want to die, but I don’t deserve to live, or be healed. Why? Once I was a Christian, but I backslid, drank too much, become a drug addict, and lived on the streets. What makes you think God won’t heal you? I’ve been bad. Well, I want to tell you that Jesus loves you, and your past is nothing to do with your present right at this moment, so can I pray for you please? Yes.

Where is your cancer, Rafael? I have cancer of the bowel, and the anus….. I normally ask if I lay my hands on the afflicted part, but perhaps, with you, I won’t! He laughed, and said, Please feel free to, everyone one else does!

And, as he laughed, he was healed, and went home with his family…. ok, I had my hand on him, but never prayed, just spoke of Jesus’ love…. Find it hard to believe? Well, the joy of the Lord IS our strength, right?? We limit God so, so much….

and, one of my heroes, Bill Johnson, says this:

• “When the power’s there…God arrives before your prayer”

Yesterday, at 6 pm, I was in a church in Gothenburg with friend Andreas: I have no idea of the name of the church, but the Pastor, Mattias, was so welcoming, and the meeting kicked off with ‘fika’, a spread of cheese, ham, salad, bread, cakes, and tea. It’s a good way of getting to know people BEFORE the meeting.

The area we were in Angered, a district of Gothenburg, and, I was told, where a huge percentage of immigrants live. It also looked, at a relatively quick glance, to be not one of the better areas of this lovely city, so I felt quite at home!

Mattias, the Pastor, has a huge vision, both for his area, and for God to invade it with the power gifts and power evangelism. They have a ‘Healing School’ once a month, and pray for many. He also has a passion – and great connection with – some of the ‘tougher’ young people, and some came last night. I also had an instant connection with him, as he spent a year living in Cartagena, Colombia :)!

He (the Pastor), led with the worship with a keyboard player, Frank, and it was a lovely time. So, with the church’s passion for healing, and good worship, it was an easy platform to speak from. Andreas – whom I’ve only known 3 days (he’s the boyfriend of Bjorn & Maria’s daughter, Kristin) is a really great bloke, and it was great to spend part of yesterday, and the evening (and quite a bit of the night, as it turned out!!), with him. Mattias, though speaking excellent English, asked Andreas to translate: he’s never done it before, and sometimes, in situations like that, your hear sinks as the speaker, but he was terrific, and he’s a young man with a very strong faith and big vision (he and Kristin hope to go to the Baker’s Bible School, in Pemba, Mozambique, later in the year).

Throughout out the preachy bit, I could sense faith rising: that’s one of the (few??) things I know that God has given me, to assist Him in raising faith levels. The response was instant as the invitation for healing was given.

I’ll just list those I can recall right now, rather than ‘tell their story’, though there is a story that happened at the end I have to write!

• A lady, Annamarie, I think: just wanting desperately the power to see God heal through her, and – like I used to be – very shy. God gave the first and dealt with the second…
• Desmond: a lovely man, I guess in his 60s, from Sri Lanka. Long-term, deep depression, his face sad and strained, no trace of of much else in his face – and carrying ‘guilt’ as he hadn’t been what he knew God wanted him to be. I prayed for him, that Jesus’ sweat blood, from Gethsemane, for the healing of every emotional and psychological disorder, would percolate down through his skull, and into every area of his emotions. Andreas had a lovely word of knowledge about how Desmond had built a wall around his heart, to protect himself, neither letting God in OR out. He just sat there as God’s Spirit and Jesus’ blood did their stuff, and Andreas and I just sat and watched as not only his face changed (huge smile) but his whole persona was transformed. I kept him with us to pray for other people, which blew him away, and he saw others healed….
• Names are fading now…. but three major different back issues were presented to us, and then of course to God(!): all were healed, instantly, pain going.
• Two more deaf ears were opened
• A lady with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome, just in case you don’t know!), other colonic problems, and terrible pain in her stomach. Healed – thank you Lord!!
• Linda, with horrible ‘after-effects’ from brain surgery 2 years ago, was also transformed. God spoke right into her own emotional insecurity, too – she was one of the ‘hearing ex-deaf!
• Ulle, a lovely gentleman, was just filled with faith
• Stig, with a streaming cold, also had something much more serious, which my tired mind can’t remember (if it comes back to me, or when I see Andreas again Saturday!) I’ll tell you. The cold all but disappeared, immediately.
• A number of major back issues were healed.
• And there were more….as always!

Some of the young people I mentioned above, were there. Right at the end, one – Armin – came a sat down and said ‘Prove to me that God exists then!’. I think his background was muslim – many in that area are muslims: asked him, do you have pain? Yes, bad pain from many years back when he was beaten badly. He was just a typical teen: these days perhaps more precocious, arrogant, and a challenge to authority. Where’s the pain, Armin? Two main areas, the middle, and somewhere around the sacroileac area. His face, which had had a slightly ‘defiant’ smile instantly turned into utter amazement as all his pain went….you know something major like that has happened when the response is ‘What the f*** happened?’!!!!! He’s on his way into the Kingdom! A friend of his, David, 15, also had bad back pain: he’s already saved, and God just removed all pain from is back and shoulder. Putting his jacked on was always painful for him – until late last night….

It was lovely to see long-time friend Anne Lucca, who lives in Gothenburg with her terrific son, David: not seen them for about 3 years, David’s doubled in height! Seven years ago, in my friend Stojan’s church, in Kungsangen, God did a major instant healing miracle on David’s ankle and lower shin. He hadn’t – if my memory serves me right! – been able to run, or play sports, but he leapt off the platform and ran that evening….

From a 6 pm start, Andreas and I left the meeting at past 11 pm, and took Anne home: so we were only back in Borås about 15 minutes to one. Totally knackered… and could I get to sleep with all that Holy Spirit adrenaline flying around my body? Well, yes, but not until 4am!!

GOD IS AMAZING, ASTONISHING, POWERFUL, AND GOOD!

Today is a whole mass of people coming to the house here, for another ‘doctor’s surgery/waiting room’ scenario.

As a storyteller, who loves to relate stories of what Jesus is STILL doing, it is such a blessing when you see it impact a group – or, as over this weekend – groups of people. It raises faith, it gives hope, and it brings healing. I occasionally – perhaps more than occasionally – get ‘told off’ by people for raising people’s hopes. I truly find that hard to understand, as, if I, or someone very close to me, were to be terminally ill, I know that I’d rather die HOPING than spend my last days, weeks, or months, HOPE-LESS. Proverbs 13:12 says: ‘Hope deferred MAKES the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life’.

This weekend, and today especially, God has really turned up with His precious Presence. During the worship, Rut (Ruth) and Simon took us into the Presence of God, and then, at one particular point in my time, the Holy Spirit totally impacted all of us in the room. And, as a result, people were healed….

Sarita, unable to lift her right arm above horizontal, and that with extreme pain, had her arm vertical in moments. Oh… names… help! A lovely couple, in their 70’s, were both sick: the wife with fibromyalgia for 34 years, in great pain, and totally exhausted, drained, and weary, but with a wonderful sparkle in her eyes despite that, had her pain levels decrease markedly. She’s going to ‘risk'(!) leaving off her pain medication…. Her husband – Pelle, I think – had severe pain in his spine and lower back. My new good friend Tomas got down the ‘feet’ end, and, of course, one leg – the right – was a good couple of centimetres shorter than the left. But only for a few moments….and, consequently, the pain level subsided.

A number of people with major-league sleep issues came back today to say they have slept, right through, for the last couple of nights…. if you’ve never suffered sleeplessness, as I’ve said already in posts this weekend, you’ll have no idea what that means to the person concerned. It’s like being relieved of a huge weight on your head…

A couple more backs were relieved of pain, Tomas – suffering with his eyes as a result of an old (somewhat psychedelic!) history, saw an immediate change. A lovely man named Rolf was healed – how absurd, this time I remember a name but can’t remember what was wrong! – and a lovely man named Magnus I prayed for last night, for his diabetes, wrote me this today:

• I just want’d to thank you for praying for me and for my diabetes at the saturday evening meeting. I believe that I have started to get complete healed although the blood level was a litle bit too high this morning but in the afternoon it was at normal level, praise to God.

I’d never tell anyone to stop taking medication – I don’t believe that’s my prerogative – but I’ll often say to people ‘you’ll know when you can do it’ – with diabetes, a normal level blood sugar would be a good place to begin that!

And many more… then a great afternoon, lunch with a bunch of great young people – Tomas and his wife Rut, Cornelia, Simon, Lotte, Vello, and Ingalill (both young at heart 😉 – then back to their house for wonderful chat about what Jesus has done this weekend.

And, sadly, my wonderful few days with Vello and Ingalill in Orebro comes to a close tomorrow…. but only for a great few days with Bjorn & Maria in Boras ahead….

Looks, too, as though I’ve gathered my ‘team’ for Cali, Colombia, in October/November! Erik, my lovely translator friend, and Tomas & Ruth, with already ‘booked in’ Simon Allaby – I just think it’s wonderful to be gathering teams from ‘the nations’ to take to my second home – 3 Swedes, two Brits: to go with 2 Brits, 2 French, 2 Mexicans, and a Dutchman next month… and already 2 French for July….wonderful!!!

These few days here in Sweden, after the relatively mild traumas of my passport and my rucksack in Heathrow, have been really lovely. A couple of days in Stojan & Soila Gajicki’s house, where we just talked, and talked, and talked ‘Kingdom Stuff’, and often with their lovely daughter, Sarah, too, was a real time of building up, strengthening an already strong friendship, and a wonderful time of praying with them, for them, and they with me and for me.

Driving through the beautiful Swedish landscape to Orebro yesterday, with glorious sunshine and clear blue skies, was just another aspect of heaven touching earth for me, and then connecting with wonderful friends Vello & Ingalill Vaim very early afternoon was, again, just lovely. Mid afternoon, we drove about 30 kms to visit some friends of the Vaims: this was another amazing surprise for me, as the husband, David Gava, knew me, and remembered – I’m not quite sure why ??!! 😉 – that I drove him apparently very fast (moi – non!!!!!) from where I was speaking and he was a student, in 1998, from Bulawayo to Harare, Zimbabwe…. for me, it was an immense blessing to see him again – he was just 20 years old then, but also because he

remembered, 16 years on, what I spoke about at his school, and that – his words, not mine – it inspired many of the students to enter into full time ministry. Seeds sown, eh…..they grow, when the soil is good.

We were with David and his wife Ingela for hours, again talking loads, Kingdom stuff, eating well, and then another wonderful time of praying for each other. It might not sound much to you to say that David remembered my week with his school, but when this is your life, and you go to places, sometimes, just briefly, you don’t always know what ‘goes in and stays in’, if anything, and it makes it so worthwhile when, all these years on, that it found good ground.

That Youth with a Mission base, for me, and my great mate Nick Lugg, who was with me, was ‘famous’ for some other things…. Nick, kindly, offered to let me have the double bed in the guest room. Maybe he’d noticed the big hole in the corner of the room by the ceiling, and the water pipes and electrical conduit pipes…. and the unidentifiable ‘black bits’ all over the pillow end of the double bed…. I brushed all of those off, and then turned out the light to sleep: soon, to be bombarded by loads more ‘black bits’ like machine gun pellets, raining around my head. It seems that the pipes and conduits were the rats playground, once it was dark, and for a few moments laid there amazed at the number of rats, then hurriedly switched my pillow to the other end of the bed! They ate their way through tupperware containers to get to food…. rat attack!

Perhaps slightly more scary was the fact that the teaching sessions were frequently interrupted by the appearance of yet another python…. life’s not often dull!

It was so good to touch base with David again, meet his wife, and adorable kids, and get from him an invitation to go and minister in Germany with in May, and invite him to Cali with me as soon as he can come….

And so, tonight, anticipation for what God will do is heightened by having a few conversations about bringing his Kingdom to earth. Really looking forward to it! (Though nervous, a little… 🙂 )