Monthly Archives: November 2016

Well – sad, sad day today, in that in two and a half hours’ time, we’ll be heading for the airport – Cali to Bogota, Bogota to London, London to Belfast City… 🙁 – yes, I love being from the UK, I love being in my house, sometimes in the solitude of my own company watching football, cricket, or rugby – but I’d sacrifice home to stay here…. and, who knows, maybe one day, that’ll be God’s plan for a year /few years / rest of my life, that I live in this amazing city, under its ‘cielo abierto’ – open heaven…. what a way to go, though!! Amazing meetings yesterday, perhaps it’d be true to say that God left the best display of his glory til the end….

Davy and Adrian, at my dear, dear friends Hernan and Aida’s church, Nuevo Nacer, New Birth, a gorgeous couple with such big hearts, and so generous, yet so, so poor: a lady in the church with chronic kidney problems, she couldn’t pass urine, Davy prayed for her, and in the middle of the prayer, she got up and went to the bathroom – and emptied the ‘pot’!! A 14 month old boy, born with a severe head deformity, his face ‘scrunched’ up (perhaps because of a bad forceps delivery?), left eye looking at about 45 degrees from straight….after prayer, Davy and Adrian saw him a few minutes lter and the eyes were straight, the head re-shaped to normal…. a man with scoliosis 10 years, couldn’t bend other than the ‘spine bend’ – perfectly straight, able to touch his toes…

Andrew and I were at Restoration Christian Community (Communidad Cristiana Restauracion) – a new church to me, but with a lovely pastor and wife – Francisco & Elena Sierra… God turned up big time, and even before the service began, a lovely lady, Fabiola, one of the church leaders, came to greet us: she took my hands, and it was like an electric shock passed though her… her words – ‘the presence of the Lord is so strong in you, the anointing on you so powerful’ and quite  lot more, totally blew me out of the water. I always ask God for a fresh anointing for each meeting, always ask for an infillin of more of his presence. It seems God answers prayer…. she couldn’t let go, it was like she was holding onto 240 volt electricity cable (in a 110v country!!). Tears poured down her face, and you coud see God visibly moving all over her…. some start to a meeting!

The worship was lovely: though we were under a pretty tight time restraint as the church only rent it until noon, and have to be out by 11.30, so the hall can be put back in its right place. Andrew spoke every well, sharing powerful testimonies of miracles he’d seen on the trip…. I started off in Colossians 1:15ff – and – if you preach, or do public speaking, you’ll know what I mean by this! – sometimes, you speak, and think to yourelf, ‘That was decidedly average/ordinary….even not particularly good’. Other times, you speak, and you think, ‘I really felt pretty good about that one!’. And yet other times, you think, ‘Wow, God took over my mouth, and I was flying today!!’. That’s not boasting – cos normally it’s the middle one…. but yesterday, I know God got me ‘on a roll’… A dear elderly lady, walking stick, still needed the help of her great grand-daughter and a yuong friend, to help her walk. She drew my attention a lot while speaking.

As time was tight, I did a different approach to the healing ministry, like in Tulua last week. I picked on a number of illnesses / infirmities/ diseases, and asked people who had them, to stand, for the guys with me – Andrew, Laura – Johan the translator’s wife – and of course, the ever lovely, ever present  Wilmar – to go round and lay hands on them, while the people sitting around them I asked to do the same. Diabetes, gastritis, asthma, osteoarthritis and other bone infirmaties, cataracts/myopia/macular degeneration, and so on…. We estimated conservatively that, on  a show of hands, at least 70% were instantly healed and KNEW it, others experiencing heat/tingling, etc – things that demonstrate that God is moving….

The elderly lady came over to me when I sat down – I’d actually experienced my own minor miracle preaching and directing the ministry, in that I’d been standing for 2 hours, which I couldn’t have done before this trip, and the help of the doctor, Henry Ramirez, and even more, the daily love and care visits to plunge needles into my muscles (!! – muscle relaxant – brilliant!) of long-time friend nurse, Maria Elena Bagui. My knees hurt once I’d stopped, but because of the muscle relaxant, recovered fast. The lady made her way over more easily than she’d walked into the church: and she knelt down on the raised area that our chairs were on…. she immediately told me that she couldn’t do that – kneel down – for years, and that while I was preaching, she felt God flowing through her, and healing her….her osteoarthritis had gone!! Thank you, Jesus!! I’ve not often, if ever, had someone come and tell me that they were healed during the preach….

Andrew’s Facebook post from yesterday:

• Today we were at a church called “Church of Christian Restoration”. The Pastor is Francisco (beside Paul). Having prayed for a lot of people, we prayed for individuals. One of the people I prayed for was Victor. That’s the 2 of us in the second pic. He looks like a fairly fit 30 something, but he had stomach cancer. When I put my hand on his abdomen, I could feel it to be distended and hard. We prayed with him for some time, and I could physically feel “movement” in the abdomen as we prayed. I also felt there were spiritual issues to be resolved. After we dealt with these, I could see that Victor was feeling physically drained. However, I could also clearly detect that the distension in his abdomen had gone. The cancer had gone. I could still sense there were spiritual issues being dealt with however. I told him to stay put in the seat, and not to let anyone move him until he was ready. Victor sat in this seat for 45 mins. During this time he also went to the bathroom 3 times, to be physically sick. This was all sorts of things that did not belong on his body being ejected, and moreover rejected from his body, including his cancer!

Our final ’round’ of meetings – Thursday, with another church new to me, pastored by a lovely guy with a huge vision – Edwin Suarez: a hospitable honouring big hearted man with a church to match – and today, Sunday, with another (new to me) church – Christian Church of Restoration pastored by Francisco Sierra, in the north of the city: with my dear dear friends Hernan and Aida Gonzalez, of the church ‘Nuevo Nacer’ in the very dangerous barrio of Simon Bolivar. Andew and I went to Francisco’s church, as he knew of me and wanted me there, Davy and Adrian went to Hernan’s church.

Thursday was a huge night of reconciliation for a family that Andrew prayed with,beginning with the grandmother, who had no reationship at all with her daughter, and had gone to court to get her grandson taken away from his mum as she was ‘incapable’ of looking after him – and won. Mum went to court to get him back, and lost. Yet, remarkably they were both in the same meeting on Thursday…Andrew suggested to gran that she began to show the daughter love: not easy – but she she did it. t was unreturned by the daughter – who then began to manifest all sorts of demonic presences in her life. Andrew was casting everything that moved out (!) – and they vacated as commanded! – and then mum got saved. The physical visible change in her demeanour was amazing.

I had a dear man – 87 years old – with so many things wrong, from head to foot – but with a totally unwavering faith that God was going to heal him. God did – beginning with his head – chronic non-stop itching: body – osteoarthritis (I do manage to attract them!), what sounded a horrible thing to have, too – a fungal infection in his man bits(!) – not outside, but inside….and osteoarthritic knees. God healed all of them. I think it’s pretty safe to say that all the people Andrew, Adrian, and I prayed for were healed…. God s just so flipping amazing, he really is!  Thanney and Davey stayed working on the new roof at Wilmar’s church – the fact it was completed Friday is itself a miracle: the church have been praying for that roof – or the provision for it, for 5 years, and Thanney, Davy, Adrian, and Andrew – starting from scratch, including buying the raw materials – had the whole structure completed in 4 days.

It effectively doubles the size of the size of their church sanctuary: enables them to hold informal meetings, run their cafe, and much more, in the newly covered area, which before had been covered (roof only, not the sides) with a tarpaulin, that blew off in any wind or rain storm here.

Thanney’s post on Facebook today:

• The promised photo of the finished roof and more importantly I was invited to their service this morning and they translated into English for me I felt so humble at the way they had treated me. I gave a bit of a talk and done some praying for them before I left. God is good and he has moved in so many different ways. God bless see you all very soon. Txx

I’d have to confess that I think to wake and get up at 0500 on a Sunday for church is rather outside outside my bounds of delight! But – it was to go to Tulua (pronounced Two-lwah), a city I’ve come to love going to, made many friends among pastors, leaders, and members of some great churches, and seen God do some amazing things. There have been many healings and miracles there over the last few years of tripping north towards Bogota for a couple of hours (Bogota is 8 hours north). Church was at 0900: the hospitality of Iglesia Manantial de Amor (Springs of Love), was outstanding – coffee immediately we arrived, cooked breakfast about 30 minutes later: the care they took of us was exemplary. Really lovely lunch after the service, too….

Again, all the guys spoke – a bit nerve wracking maybe in front of a good few hunded people. Adrian spoke well about the determination to get to Jesus for healing – many walking miles, waiting hours, but all were healed. Interesting that when you read the account in Matthew 15:29ff, Jesus saw the crowd for healing, and SAT DOWN. Those who know me, and know my ‘style’ will know that I’ve always sat down to pray with people, individually. To me, I don’t care how long it takes. I don’t see anywhere where Jesus got them to stand in a line, walked along the line, shouted at them to be healed and pushed them over…. yes, I know, not everyone’s pushed, but there’s a psychology about being among the ones who DON’T fall over, and many go over under ‘peer’ pressure. Personally, I’d prefer to stop people falling over, so you can ask them, ‘So what are you feeling?’, ‘Has the pain gone?’, ‘Any unusual sensations?’, ‘Do you know that you’re healed?’….

Adrian was very visual on Sunday! Picked on one poor Usher, and jumped on his back (Adrian’s a big bloke!), and had the man carry him up the quite steep stairs to the lectern (I had a wee bit of trouble walking up them with my ailment!!) – demonstrating that people were carried to Jesus. I’ve seen many carried to meetings, when in the wets, they’d have stayed home…. then he reversed the roles, and carried the no doubt terrified Usher (quite a big bloke!) DOWN the stairs the other side of the platform! Point made, though – desperation, expectation, belief + Jesus = healing.

I wonder, do you think Wesley or Wigglesworth or Spurgeon gave people piggy backs? 🙂 One of the myriad things I love about Colombia, and Cali, Tulua, and the state they are in, is the expectation, and the huge profile that they give to healing and miracles – almost the reverse in many western churches – primarily, I guess, ‘in case it doesn’t work’ (what a load of….erm…basura (rubbish!) – or the belief that the enemy is clever in inventing new diseases, that cancer is something you pray for in hope rather than expectation (see the last blog and the story of Astrid! – and read back over years of blogs if you want to see hundreds, maybe thousands, healed of it). I get so angry when I hear prayers for healing that include ‘Lord, if it’s your will’. We KNOW the will of God for healing: Psalm 103: 1-5 is God’s social security system (‘forget not all his benefits’) – who HEALS ALL OF YOUR SICKNESS AND DISEASE. We know the will of Jesus for us for healing – ‘I’ll send my Holy Spirit… (then Paul:) and you’ll speak in new tongues….through to gifts of healings (plural) and miracles (plural) and back to Jesus: you WILL lay your hands on the sick and they WILL get well….. ‘This is the Kingdom – heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons, raise the dead: freely you’ve received, freely give’ – Jesus again, Matt 10: 7-8. There’s another of my ‘bugbears’ – charging for ministry. I wonder how much Jesus charged? And how charging its into ‘freely receive, FREELY give…’? Rant over!!

The place was packed – or bunged if you’re reading this in Northern Ireland! Again, people saved – including a young brother and sister, Harold 17 and Angie 20, both having their bodies slowly closed down and destroyed by Muscular Dystrophy. Harold has had a bad time with suicidal and murderous thoughts (those do tend to take on reality here). Thanney led them hrough a prayer of forgiveness, and then commitment to Jesus. I prayed for all sorts of things for them, Peace came over Harold, and Angie felt tingling and heat in her legs, legs which she’d couldn’t feel a few moments earlier…. A lovely young lady, Claudia, paralysed totally for some months, brought to church because  – I know – that her family KNEW she’d be healed> That’s one of the significant differences between here nd the western world: you’re paralysed, have to be carried around in a plastic garden chair – so you go to church because you EXPECT to be healed. All sorts of things happened to her, changed for her – pins and needles in her legs, more heat, a smile so broad it was contagious, peace… She stood for the first time in a long time, yes- with support from family, but it’s the determination AFTER the expectation that God adds even more power to. I really sensed she’d walk again, very soon.

Andew’s Facebook post from the weekend:

• Today we were at the church in Tulua. It was filled, probably 250-300 people. After we had done some “corporate” prayer for some of the most common ailments in the area, there were still lots of people who wanted individual prayer. Personally I prayed for Rosa, who had cysts in her chest;

  Leyla, Erica & Luciana ( mum & 2 daughters ). Erica ( I’m guessing about 12 ) wanted her dad, Hector, to be healed. She told me he is terminally ill with HIV/AIDS;

  A little girl of 4 (unfortunately I don’t recall her name) who was suffering from vomiting and fevers. The doctors couldn’t/hadn’t given a diagnosis.

  Valerie (15/16) who had great difficulty in breathing through her nose. As we prayed for her nose/sinus, I could here her starting to sniff repeatedly as her nose/sinus cleared. She left crying for joy.

  Monica, who was suffering with pains in her arms and legs. She said she could definite feel her pain easing as we prayed.

  Diana & Diego, a mother and son who wanted peace and stability in their lives.

  Maria, a lady probably in her 80’s. She had already had a operation on her brain, and was due for another. They weren’t able to tell us 100% what the issue was (even through my brilliant translator Cesar ), so we prayed for her as best we could.

  Gerardo, a man in his 70’s who was suffering with Tinitus. He left with a smile on his face, and no noise in his ears.

  And then there was my friend in the picture, Pedro. 20 years ago he was shot in the head! You can clearly see the scarring on his skull. He is on medication to prevent convulsions. His speech is laboured. He WAS, badly paralysed down his right side, arm and leg. We prayed for him for quite some time, and, whilst I’d love to say he left skipping , dancing and singing, that wouldn’t be true. What is true, however, he did walk out the building considerably easier than he came in – and that comes from Pedro himself !!!! I believe that his healing will continue over the coming days and weeks. We also prayed for his speech again. I sensed that he was “scared to speak”, so we prayed that the spirt of fear would be lifted from him and that he would start to talk that much, his friends and family would have to tell him to “shut up”. I firmly believe, as does Pedro, that all of this will happen.

  All in all, not “a bad day at the office” !