News roundup on healings

Thank you Jonathan for alerting me to the Lord’s recent activities in North Kent, and to NK Community Church’s pastor Pete Carter for permission to publish his remarks that:

Amazing things are happening in these days. In the last two weeks we have seen more healings at NKCC: a badly sprained hand healed and returned to full function, … Also someone’s car miraculously repaired, regular sightings of angels,

Also, these are additional to his posting on healings last December.

Ashton Parker Update – earlier post refers.

On Sunday we heard an update on Ashton Parker’s eyesight from John Kilpatrick at that morning’s service in Alabama. The boy’s astonished doctor reports that his right eye can now see as far as 20 feet instead of only 3 inches. The left eye had such bad glaucoma that he couldn’t go outside without thick, wrap-around goggles and sun-glasses to protect him from the daylight. But the day after prayer he could watch an outdoor game without them. His doctor confirms the glaucoma has completely gone.   [Update is at 1hr38 of video: click to run/load, then advance by clicking in gray bar.]

Dutch Sheets – Sunday, March 25, 2012 from Church of His Presence on Vimeo.

Another Remarkable Healing – watch clip here

As a drunken driver David had a bad crash, ending up with a broken neck and completely paralysed from the accident. Doctors hoped that by extensive surgery there’d be a chance he would regain feeling and movement to his upper body. That worked but they said, “There was absolutely no hope that he would ever walk again”. They told him to stop worrying about his leges and even refused to authorise  physiotherapy because it would be medically impossible for him to ever walk again,or to move or have feeling in his lower body; ie. he would be paralysed for life and limited to a wheelchair.

David heard about Delia Knox’s miraculous healing but he said it was all faked!  His wife believed he would be saved and healed and, eventually, he decided he had nothing to lose by going to the revival. Around midnight last Friday night the Lord gave him back the use of his legs and then on Sunday morning David managed to climb the stairs onto the stage. A fantastic weekend – thank you Lord!  (See via above video link at 52 minutes onwards).

At 1hr 15 Nathan Morris explains that in such cases of atrophied limbs we need to help those being healed to walk into their full healing, as with Delia and Erin. (Although the wife of a doctor, she was beyond a medical cure. She freely admitted, as a Baptist, to not believing God heals today; but then she saw the clip about Delia – click here for Erin’s own astounding story of what God can do today).

“Doctors may say David’s never going to walk – but guess what, guess what, guess what – WITH GOD, NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE…”  (Nathan Morris, at 1hr16min of video)

Dutch Sheets’ observations, and very instructive teaching upon the significance of this outpouring and on the various occurrences of the miraculous, follow on at 1hr40mins.  He’s of the opinion there’s evidence that this is now going up a phase, to a new level of signs and wonders.

Be mightily blessed as you watch and listen…

“Now we know God IS REAL!”

Friends – some more about revival in the UK:

First, there’s something different in a NE Hampshire church to when we were last there. We were fired up after Hull and expected Fleet Baptist church to be quiet, but when we went in I sensed the Lord was going to raise the roof.

And He did! All the congregation was excited with their birthday weekend with visiting speaker from New Wine and they worshipped as never before! Also, there were a few testimonies, including healing of a badly frozen shoulder.

For Such A Time As This

In view of what happened in Hull (read here) we wanted to know what Nathan Morris thought about his visit there. The following Thursday he excitedly recounted the main highlights to a large audience in New Jersey.:

Bay Revival New Jersey, March 15, 2012 from Bay Revival on Vimeo.

You could wait for the video to load and advance to 1hr27min to hear this fantastic 15 minute report – OR, if your internet connection is slow, here’s just the first account given that evening of Nathan’s visit home:

“I wasn’t ready for the response (for) the nations are crying out..not only out of the Bride but coming out of the world. They’re desperate and hungry for the real, the genuine.”

There were 200-250 leaders awaiting him and who were amazed that one of the UK’s largest city halls was fully booked. They pointed out the last time there was such a huge gathering in Hull was in the 1800s, when crutches were cast away and blind eyes opened – no pressure! What could a young man tell them they don’t already know?

So he was rather nervous and prayed that God do something amongst the leaders that only He can do. As he was talking to them about the miracle of paralysed Delia Knox’s healing (see herein under ‘after 22yrs paralysis’), Nathan walked by a lady in a wheel-chair. Unbeknown to him, she and her friends had gate-crashed the meeting because she couldn’t get a ticket for the later public sessions.

“I was speaking and walking up the aisle towards a man… then looked down at a woman sat in a wheelchair. I’d never met her but you could see the paralysis in her face and down one side. She was wearing a bag because they had to lift her everywhere…It was as if God set me up – what I was preaching, it was now time to live it!!

“I said, ‘Do you want to walk?’ We laid hands on her and within five minutes she started vibrating in the chair…from a paralysed state she straightened in the chair and started screaming.

“I tell you there’s nothing like the power of God to wake up leaders…within five minutes that lady popped out of her chair…she started walking down the aisle like this (Nathan staggered, legs akimbo). Within ten minutes she was lifting her hands, falling on her knees, rising up, praising.”

Amidst cheers from the NJ congregation, he carried on, “The leaders had woken up and were ready to listen!”

Nathan explained, it was a Luke 5 situation (see vv 18-19), like the man lowered though a roof by friends, because her two friends said they’d take her from Hemel Hempstead:

“Even though she didn’t have a ticket, they said, “We’ll get you in”. So they chose a service they may be more successful and the ushers didn’t want to question the pastors and slipped her in.”

Their hotel had promised it had accessibility for the disabled – but upon arrival the lift mechanism had broken down. So they promised staff would carry her physically when required to/from her room – “No matter when, we’ll be there”.

But this proved extremely painful (I recall this with Nina) and because of this and the affect upon her nerves, they unfortunately caused an accident on the first attempt.

“And when they got to the room they were asked why they’d come. Her friends said they’d come to a revival where God’s going to heal this woman. The staff said, “God’s going to do what?”

“Her friends said, “I’m telling you, we’ll see this woman walk!”.

“The hotel staff said this: “If we see her walk, we’ll know God is real”.”

So that afternoon they put her into the car and the wheelchair into the car boot.

“She’d only been gone about three hours…and when she came back, she got the wheelchair out of the boot and pushed it into Reception!!!

Those hotel workers gave their lives to Jesus Christ !!”

Elsewhere, Nathan said the staff got to their knees in awe at what they saw! Thank you and praise you Lord!

Pastor Jarrod Cooper provides a photo of the lady in his daily blog and tells how those leaders went wild over her miracle.  Also, Nathan reported that many leaders had told him about miracles breaking out across the UK. (See pastor’s later post with video, as below)

Upon chatting to Nina the next day, Lasette reported the first night’s proper sleep for ages, which is what Nina was greatly relieved about after receiving her own healing for a broken spine (read here).

Back down to Earth…

…with a soft landing after Nina and I drove up north to Hull, Yorkshire, for a 3-day church event that MORE than met our expectations. As mentioned in January, we went to check out on someone and something we’d been watching regularly by satellite TV since Autumn 2010 – Nathan Morris and ‘revival’.

Where and how can we begin to convey the effect of those days?  They tied in not only with what we’d heard and been taught in recent weeks but also directly into my train of thoughts since starting this blog last November.  If you, too, have been blessed with special times and encounters in walking with the Lord then you may understand.

First, however, let me backtrack a little. The week after we had confirmations of our individual callings at a conference in Torquay, a pastor’s wife spoke about a picture she’d received during worship. The impulse and timing behind launching this blog were thus confirmed by the date and nature of that picture, as were personal reminders of the encouraging words given to the Bible’s Esther; that is, “For such a time as this”.

In fact, that was the title of the event in Hull – but, when the local pastor planned it at the end of last year, he didn’t know it was scheduled for the actual dates of the Jewish feast of Purim, which celebrates Queen Esther’s intervention in the plot of her Persian king’s prime minister to murder all their Jewish residents.

(NB: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s gift to President Obama during their meeting on 5th March was a scroll of the book of Esther – read full story here)

Bookings for Such A Time As This had sold so rapidly that we two and our travelling companion had to sit right at the back of the 1200-plus auditorium for two nights and then, for Saturday, in the gallery above the balcony!  But way up ‘in the gods’  the worship was heavenly – the presence of the Lord was such that two hours into the service everyone entered (and maintained!) a hush of reverential awe for over an hour!

Afterwards, everyone received impartation prayer from evangelist Nathan.  Is it any wonder then that the Holy Spirit visited one of the city’s Anglican churches during their Sunday service?  (Read about it here)

On the first (Thurs) evening of his return to Hull Nathan preached upon and ministered into the need for repentance, and on Friday focused more upon healing.  Nina and our companion were mightily affected by the power of the Holy Spirit that night and this carried over into the next day, and beyond!

Saturday morning was ‘free time’ and we visited the nearby attractive market town of Beverley.  As we approached the Minster it’s bells started to peal out a deep, sonorous song.  Immediately this magnified the strong, physical weight of Holy Spirit’s presence in both ladies – they were ‘blasted’!   Upon trying to take a photo of the Minster I found the actual wind to be so strong I had to hold onto the metal railings for support!

That afternoon was a time for healing on the streets in Victoria Square outside Hull City Hall and many youngsters received prayer and were healed – see photo and pastor Cooper’s blog.

Healings had commenced from the outset on Thursday afternoon with a lady paralysed down her right side being healed. Her  accompanying carer became redundant and the wheelchair no longer necessary!  It was a delight to find them sitting on the row in front of us for the daytime teaching programme in the church hall.  So, as well as the excellent teaching, we had a lot in common to talk about in view of Nina’s healing from immobility.

Also noteworthy were the dramatic healings of a lady from cerebral palsy and a man in a wheelchair from the paralysing effects of a stroke. For more see the pastor’s 11-part daily blogs, Behind the Scenes.

We were particularly touched by noisy Nathan’s gentleness when he sensed a lady wasn’t a believer.  He broke from ministering to those who’d come forward to speak quietly to her about Jesus and how he’d been rescued from a life of addiction as an unbeliever. Thus, this nurse received the best miracle – salvation – as well as healing for a hearing problem.

Nathan updated us on the healing of young Ashton Parker’s blind eyes. It’s deep effect upon him was plainly visible.  We had wondered how the boy could speak about the colours of clothes and Nathan explained that his mother had taught him what they’re like by holding coloured cards up against his eyes.

IF YOU’VE NOT SEEN IT, DO WATCH IT HAPPENING on ‘Latest Video’ on the Bay Revival home page. (Ashton is at 3min40 into the short clip.)  See also this posting.

Incidentally, for those who don’t know, Nathan’s grimaces and soaked shirt and jacket are a result of the Lord’s fire within him.  Right after Hull he went to New Jersey, where he told those assembled, “When I speak about Jesus, my belly boils!“.  No wonder he’s an exceptionally passionate preacher.

Read also >> Follow-up on Healings in the UK

Update on review of Clearing the Ground

In the 3rd part of his review of this Parliamentary report, Gillan Scott looks at turning the tide against the myth of secular neutrality.

His sterling summation may assist Church leadership in understanding how legal issues may or may not be changing, and what can be done in the meantime. Just a few snippets, to whet your appetite and I’d like to emphasise elements of his concluding paragraph:

Re. the courts

Given the levels of religious illiteracy in government and other public bodies highlighted earlier in the report, reservations were made about the capacity of the courts to take an active role in deciding what is or is not reasonable in relation to the accommodation or manifestation of belief. In particular concern was raised in relation to the courts lack of acknowledgment of the orthodox Christian belief that marriage should be between on man and one woman….

Attention was then turned to the problems relating to relationships between local authorities and churches or Christian organisations…Following recent high profile court cases regarding the religious beliefs of those wishing to foster or adopt, there is now some confusion about the place of religious people as prospective foster parents and adopters. Local authorities lack guidance as to how they should work with people with religious beliefs.

Re. tolerance

The report believes that the bar has been set too low as to what constitutes ‘insulting behaviour’. As it stands, judgment is based on the subjective feelings of the person who has been offended. This application of the law has in several cases led to an undue restriction of the freedom of expression.

Re. ignorance

The final part of this section considers the ignorance and deep-seated lack of understanding about the nature and outworking of religious belief in government, the courts, local authorities and the media. The report finds that there is an urgent need for better coordination of government policy in relation to religious belief. Currently the way that the human rights, legal, and community aspects of religion and belief are handled is too complicated.

Conclusion

The final recommendation of the need to bring religious awareness and education into government presents a challenge to faith groups. This is extremely unlikely to happen without the proactive support and work of faith groups. If the Church and Christian organisations wake up to this need and begin to coordinate and develop a strategy to deal with it, then the benefits to society could be considerable. It is a big challenge, but one that needs to be seriously addressed with a good deal of urgency.

At present I’m seeking the Lord’s perspective on all this but realise it may relate to the word given through Bill Johnson about 1st Sept 2011 being “the day things changed in the UK”  (the Inquiry started in August 2011).

Also today, I picked up on the word given in Clifford Hill’s Feb 2012 Newsletter.

Let us mull over these matters…

Healing versus Human Rights ??

Dear Friends – a couple of today’s news items may seem unconnected, but probably not so from the Lord’s perspective:

The Blind ARE Healed – UPDATED in posting 28 March

On Sunday we heard Rev John Kilpatrick speaking excitedly about 8 year old Ashton Parker who received his sight last Friday during a revival service in Dallas and showed a photo of the boy between him and Nathan Morris. Continue reading

Clearing the Ground–brief update

Further to my previous, Gillan Scott has reviewed the Inquiry’s finding on the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) as not being fit for purpose. The official 4-page Executive Summary of the preliminary report may be found here.

You may disagree with me that the EHRC is an authoritarian body. However, a recent posts about the ASA reveals my grave concern – no pun intended, but it drew upon a  real life or death situation – over the implementation of Equalities policy within hospital. (See ‘Proof of Political Direction’ sub-section of Muhammed knows more..). Hence, the Inquiry’s recommendation for a review and restructuring of the EHRC is, in my opinion, quite proper and long overdue.

In advance of the report’s release, last week’s Sunday Telegraph reported the Inquiry:

(Had) heard submissions saying that the EHRC had been “hijacked” by secularists to the extent that it was now “ideologically biased” against religion. It condemns the commission for inviting secular humanists groups with “tiny” memberships to discussions intended for faith groups, saying the policy effectively shut down formal consultations with religious organisations. “With secularists using a veto to block most proposals by religious groups, the EHRC group eventually ceased to function formally.”

Aughton Ainsworth, a firm of solicitors involved with a number of the cases cited by the report, told the inquiry: “The EHRC has been so thoroughly ‘infiltrated’ by an anti-Christian bias that even when the EHRC tries to do the right thing it is ‘hijacked’ and forced to backtrack”.

It is hardly surprising, therefore, to read in the published report about the EHRC’s failings and that,

After numerous requests, the commission did provide a very brief written response that consisted of material already in the public domain. Initially unable to find the time to attend either of two dates offered to them to give oral evidence, after the sessions concluded the EHRC offered to meet the committee for discussions. We hope that following the publication of this report we can develop a more fruitful dialogue than we have experienced to date.

Finally and returning to the Sunday Telegraph, a fascinating interview with the former Home Secretary Charles Clarke reveals his opinion on the Labour government’s big mistakes, for example:

Is Clarke saying that Labour let the Church down? “Yes, I accept that. Lack of engagement is the way I would put it. Our tendency was to say, ‘That’s not a matter for us.’ We were ill-equipped to deal with the issues raised by faith, and that was a mistake.”

Quite an admission, and look at the woeful results!

Landmark Parliamentary Inquiry

Could this slow the rot?  Does it mark the low-tide in our national fortunes and favour with The Almighty?

Clearing the Ground is a preliminary report into the freedom of Christians in the UK published by Christians in Parliament in conjunction with The Evangelical Alliance.

I understand it is of landmark importance to leaders and believers within every church denomination. Therefore, we should be aware of its findings and so I’ll give links to an excellent summation by my friend Gillan Scott. Before that, however, I’ll provide a short detour into very little-known history.

First, the Parliamentary report opens very briefly:

Christians in Parliament, an official All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), chaired by Gary Streeter are launching ‘Clearing the Ground’ a preliminary report of the committee’s findings.

The Clearing the Ground inquiry were tasked with considering the question: Are Christians marginalised in the UK?

This report reflects the findings and views of the committee and is issued by Christians in Parliament.

The Inquiry was instigated in the light of media reports and court cases and, if taken seriously by the government, has the potential to define how legislation should accom-modate religious belief. There’s a suggestion it may even rewrite iniquitous equality laws!  Furthermore, as PM David Cameron proclaimed, “We are a Christian country”, then perhaps we can hope for improvements. I have good reason to believe he’s supportive of Christian social campaigns.

Early British Church History

The very necessity of this Inquiry is an indictment of our post-imperial history and an affront to our national dignity of over 1900 years as a Christian land. Do you know that Christianity was already well established before the Roman Church’s mission to send Augustine in AD597 to the court of Saxon King Aethelbert at Canterbury?

The early church historian Eusebius and British historian Gildas stated the Christian faith had arrived here in the time of the original Apostles – before 37AD!  Furthermore, the precedence of the British national church ABOVE ALL OTHERS, including Rome, was recognised by no less than four official church councils in 15th Century. This was based on the donation of land in Glastonbury for a church by King Arviragus to Jesus’ uncle Joseph of Arimathea, and between AD179-190 King Lucius established more churches (details here).

Antiquarian John Chapel writes, “It is claimed that the ancient British royal family converted to Christianity within 20 years or so of Jesus’ death”. (Linus and Claudia mentioned in Paul’s 2nd letter to Timothy would have been children of King Caractacus, and the later Emperor Constantine’s Christian wife Helena was of that family.)

The Inquiry’s Findings

The Inquiry’s findings reveal the extent of ‘religious illiteracy’ at all levels of British society. That is, regrettably Britain has become what would have been called in my childhood, a heathen nation!  But we’re simply reaping the degradation that my generation engineered.  For my part, I sincerely repent for having taken part in the 1960’s rejection of a holy heritage and specifically encouraged a liberation in cultural ethics and ‘New Age spirituality’.

The descriptive term at the turn of the Century for Britain was ‘Post-Christian’. Have we now gone worse: ‘religiously illiterate’?  The good news is, however, it’s yet another call for Christians to take a stand – where’ve we heard that before?

At Arise, Frontline Generals! conference we attended in Torquay last week the Lord presented personal surprises. One, was things we have in common with a couple who sat beside us, and one of these being a vision received a year or so before and related to mine of 2004 (read here) of Britain’s restoration – the sleeping giant awakes!

Gillan concludes his initial post on the Inquiry by quoting the report’s final point:

Christians need to take seriously their historical role in leading and serving in public life, and church discipleship needs to account for this role – because the gospel is good news for society.

He is to be highly commended in taking great pains to provide articulate analyses and summation of the report’s findings. Thus, they facilitate a good grasp of these issues:

Clearing the Ground: a Game-changing Report

Clearing the Ground: a Review –

Part 1: Religious illiteracy is strangling freedom of belief

Part 2: The Equalities and Human Rights Commission is not fit for purpose

Part 3: How to turn the tide against the myth of secular neutrality

Part 4: If the Church doesn’t defend justice, who will?

Exciting times, are they not? Lead us onwards Lord…