Category Archives: Journal

Back – guess where?! – on Monday – Londonderry, as there is a fast flowing river of people, from both sides of the ‘divide’, to pray for… and loads of testimonies coming back from people already prayed for. That’s such a blessing….to hear the stories from people who’s lives have changed because of a prayer from ministry’s Rodney Trotter (!! moi!!), and because of a direct intervention and touch from the Living God….

Jason (blog, 6 July), who’s healing was so instant and spectacular (and testicular!!) had been told he’d have whatever district nurses are called now, calling every day for up to 8 weeks, to ‘unpack’ and ‘repack’ his wound… they called the next day, checked his surgery,  and said they’d come once more in a few days, and then that’d be it….he was scheduled to off work until mid-late August: he’s going back to work next Monday!

Hilary had on previous visits been healed of cancer: she’d got a terribly painful and hugely swollen right leg – resultant back pain from the leg issues. All the pain went, and it was remarkable to actually WATCH the leg swelling going down! Her brother, Noel, came – not expecting prayer! – but when asked if he had any sickness or pain, soon got some! Long term intense back pain from – if I recall – a car crash years ago – went immediately, and life-long gout pain went instantly. I used to have gout – sadly not because of an excess of Port! – and it’s excruciating.

Again, I could catalogue the people and problems, but what I will say, rather than do that, is that God is pouring out something very special over Londonderry and Limavady, particularly – and far from tailing off, it really is gathering pace. I’ve read of the move of God in Reading, with lots of people getting saved: in a way, I hope this move of God in Derry DOESN’T make the Christian news, as often, when publicity comes, all sorts of people come out of the woodwork, and it can often signal the end of God moving….

I’m very conscious, already, of the enemy beginning to send ‘time-wasters’ for prayer: people who come without any desire to be healed, though saying all the right things, and who take up time, emotion, energy – and I’m asking God for more and more wisdom in order to ‘root’ them out quickly. You’d be surprised – unless you’re one of them!! – at the number of people who respond in meetings, or come to get prayer in the sort of setting currently in Derry, who don’t want to be healed. Some, yes, need sympathy, empathy, and attention: but that’s not why God pours out his healing spirit. Those issues are pastoral, but even then, attention-seekers are incredibly draining. Some of you will know of story I tell of three wheelchair-bound men in a church, all stroke victims, all relatively young (38-46 years)… the first two both wanted healing, without doubt, both responded to the challenge ‘What do you want God to do for you?’ with ‘I want to be out of this chair!’. Both, without further encouragement, began to move their ‘stationary’ left arm, put it on the arm of their chair, and got up… walked out of the church. The third, who was the youngest, when I asked him the same question, responded with, ‘What will happen to my benefits if I get out of this wheelchair?’…. tragically, he didn’t want God to heal him as he didn’t want to lose his benefits, yet he’d come up for prayer – for healing.

As someone who prays for healing, I have to live with the fact that people in the church probably left the meeting feeling that ‘he succeeded with the first two, but failed with the third one’ – when the reality of that man going home in his wheelchair, was that he didn’t want to be healed, and was just a time-waster. Emotionally, he drained me, brought sadness, disappointment, and – for a time – a feeling that I’d failed to persuade him that LIFE was better than a future in a wheelchair.

Lastly, on Monday evening, we saw Dean, who I first met in the Royal Hospital, Belfast, in March, two weeks after he’d had a terrible accident while in a motorbike scrambling race. He’d severed his spine, ruptured a lung and bowel, and had been told he’d never walk again. He’s still receiving physio, but he’s walking: that day in March, he got feeling in his foot and ankle, that he’d not had… his sister was there, shed got an as-then un-diagnosed tumour in her brain, and was really worried. The tumour had gone by the time the diagnosis needed to be made! God is so good, so amazing, so powerful, and so gracious….

Captain’s Log: Stardate Tuesday July 5. Location: somewhere in Londonderry. Time: around 7 p.m.

What happens – or what CAN or SHOULD happen – when someone is wonderfully healed….

A couple of weeks ago, a lovely lady named Irene was incredibly and miraculously healed, a lady who had a ‘shopping list’ of pretty severe illnesses and infirmities – including chronic fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis,  major back pain, and lots more that would depress you if it was you who had it all…. If she did almost anything at all, for the next few days, she was effectively crippled and couldn’t move. Irene felt things happening in her body as she was prayed for: the next day, and almost every day since, she’s called Davy King to report that she’s better and better, and got more and more energy. As a result, her sister, Amy, who suffered for some years with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), breathing was a major issue for her, she couldn’t clean the house because of dust, or even make the bed… going out was an issue purely from the breathing restrictions. Amy’s completely healed – and we heard from Irene that on Monday, she and Amy went shopping for about 7 hours in Londonderry….

Five weeks ago, prayed for Barney: he’d got humongous problems through diabetes, giving him gangrene in his leg and foot. Ulcers had exacerbated the problem, and he had a hole in the sole of his foot, he said if you cut an apple in half, you could have put half in the hole in his foot. He was due to have his leg amputated just below the knee, the following week, his appointment with his consultant came two days later ahead of the surgery. Saw Barney yesterday: same leg, same foot (!) – 5 weeks later: the consultant, who for months had been adamant the leg had to come off quickly because of the gangrene, looked at it 2 days after being prayed for, and just said, ‘See you in 3 weeks’. Barney questioned it, as he was expecting to be in hospital within days, and the consultant said, ‘It’s healing’…. same thing 3 weeks later, and he’s due back with the doc in 12 days. The hole is now the size of a 1p piece…what price it’s gone when he sees the consultant in 12 days?

So many people prayed for yesterday who had immediate healings – Jackie, Belinda (who had problems with her prosthetic knee replacements – another reason for me to avoid that!!), Suzanne, Marie – 89, and in great pain with osteoarthritis, especially in her knees and back: it went instantly, Robert, Kevin – who had unbelievably swollen legs with major circulation and water retention problems. The swelling went down visibly in front of his eyes.

And Jason… Irene’s son: he’d had a hair ingrown into the base of his back, and had to have it surgically removed – and then seven more times, the last time it had grown to 145 mms (just under 6 inches), and had become a ‘ball’ which pressed on the base of his spine, with ‘tendrils’ spreading out into his back, and forward into his abdomen. In removing the hair and the ‘tentacles’, he’d had a large amount of muscle removed, which should have been replaced with muscle from his thigh, which the doctors hadn’t done, so he had real weakness and a lot of pain at the base of his spine. Infection spread through his abdomen, and into one his testicles, which became incredibly swollen,inflamed, and – needless to say – incredibly painful. Jason had surgery last Friday, and the surgeon had left the wound open to let the infection out, and for it to heal from the inside out…and when I saw him yesterday evening, walking was a problem, sitting down even more so! He said to get off the couch, he had to lay down and roll off… he said such an ‘issue’ removes all dignity from a guy, so I didn’t add to that by asking to lay hands on the afflicted part… 🙂 !!

Prayed for him, and watched his face… astonishment, as he said he felt incredible tingling moving up his body from his feet, and a lot of heat down through his body from his head. When I’d prayed, I suggested he had a good examination when he showered today (he’d got nurses arriving at 2 pm today to re-pack the dressing), but why not try standing up? He got up so fast, without rolling…he looked stunned! In fact, he just stood there, saying, ‘There’s no pain, there’s no pain…I’ve got pins and needles from head to foot, I’m so hot….’ !! His mum, Irene, rang today, to say that he’s fine today, no pain, running up and down stairs, he had pins and needles and was on fire all night…. he’s totally gobsmacked!

God’s SOOOO amazing…. it’s just stunning what he does….

Back to Derry on Friday AND Saturday – on Saturday with Andy and Carly, Grace, and Pete, from Bangor going with me. A load to pray for Friday, and a truckload Saturday, including a horse….

Friday was yet another trip to Londonderry and the area around… it began with me realising at about 8 a.m. that my car MOT expired on 27 June: and it’s often 2 weeks wait to get it into the MOT centre. I was blessed to find that they’d had a cancellation, at 9 a.m., and relieved to say that it passed, with an advisory concerning the front brake pads… my good friend Davy King blessed me by not only booking it into a trustworthy mechanic, but refusing to let me pay…. bless you, Davy, and thank you!

I’m still getting my head around the geography of the Derry area, as well as what God is doing! First up went to er… fill in the space!… to pray for a lady, Christine: extreme problems and pain with walking, some of it to do with her knees, some her feet… in moments, she was walking without pain, and perfectly normally – once she’d got used to not walking as though she still had the pain! She asked if we’d pay for her mum, I think she is – Betty – mid 80’s, hardly able to walk at all, zimmer frame, commode and bed in the room she lived in and didn’t leave. No existence at all.

Well, Betty immediately got out of her chair in  manner that stunned everyone in the room who knew her: she’d not been able to lift her legs, or really bend them, and was soon doing ‘Tiller Girl’ style kicks from her chair, with no pain, with her sight improved, her sleep (we’ve learned since – which was very bad) took her right through the night, and all pain had gone…

A friend, I think, Carolyn, arrived – with major circulation and water-retention problems in her left ankle and foot. I have to say I’ve not seen such a badly swollen and deformed foot and ankle in my 30+ years praying for people. All that doctors could do was suggest paracetamol for the pain: which was pretty extreme more often than not. Well, Davy got on his knees and got hold of her foot: and as I prayed, he felt – and so did Carolyn. We watched the swelling go down, watched her ‘true shape’ foot appear, and she was stunned…. the pain went, and she was able to stand and walk as she hadn’t been able to for many a day. It was a great afternoon in that farmhouse!

Rather than go on ‘listing’ the miracles and healings, I’ll leave it there: maybe you’re getting bored of reading about them I know for sure that I’m not getting bored being involved in them! I’m still as much in awe 30 years on as I was at the beginning. I think that when that awe stops, that’ll be the day I stop….

Back to Londonderry Tuesday, and maybe Friday this coming week, before heading off on a (potentially) gruelling few weeks of travel, to Romania, with Australia back to back, a short gap, and then to Cali, Colombia at the back end of July, for between 2 and 3 weeks. Knees – get used to the idea!!