Category Archives: Jesus

One Day At A Time

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Thank you so much for this encouraging personal insight Bill. It was our motto during disability too. So our repeating it to suffering brethren comes with not only our firm assurance from adversity but also Jesus’ promise to never leave or forsake us. May He favour you immensely.

Bill Sweeney's avatarUnshakable Hope

At the beginning of this trial, so many people, mostly long-time Christians, would advise me to “Just take one day at a time.” I’m sure that every one of these wise people thought they were the first to give me this sage advice. Of course, I always acted as if they were the first to give me that advice and I politely thanked them. (If you are one of those that offered me this advice 16+ years ago, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you that a hundred people already gave me that same advice).

To be honest, even though a hundred people repeated this “Take one day at a time” cliché to me, I really didn’t understand at that time exactly what it meant. Like so many clichés, I think people throw them out to fill dead air space in awkward moments when they have nothing else to say. But…

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One of the most exciting trends in Christianity is the Spirit of God drawing Christians together

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Courtesy of James Mark Long, www.propheticartists.comAnother very good piece on the ‘new era’ in the Church. Our Heavenly Father is (at long last) answering Jesus’ prayer at John 17: 20-26, the full context of which is important for grasping its key buried within – and how He’s going to work through us. Yesterday our apostolic leader spoke along the same lines as Gillan and Richard P. He echoed my opinion that non-believers are such because they see – and know of – widespread division in Christianity. The Holy Trinity is united in their diversity, which is what Father wants Jesus’ body to mirror; “May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent me…”

Work should NOT be a curse!

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Really good one – thanks (and to Kenny)! This reinforces what our visiting speaker said yesterday on Ephesians 4 about God’s purpose for the Church being rooted in Gen 1: reproducing after His kind and establishing the holy pattern of authority, tasks and marriage – ie Adam had an assignment before he had a wife! So, work is important to God – it didn’t come as a result of the Fall. (Therefore, our visitor stressed the importance of our ‘metron’, or sphere of influence in our daily lives.) Click if link fails (most unusually WordPress has been playing up lately)

Amazed by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby

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Charles Moore writes,

I am amazed. I first saw this man 40 years ago, when we were both pupils at Eton. Later, I was with him at Trinity College, Cambridge. He was the shyest, most unhappy-looking boy you could imagine. Now he is 105th in the line that began with St Augustine. He seems to be loving it. I remark on the change, and he agrees. “That’s something to do with the Christian faith,” he says.

The Most Rev and Right Hon Justin Welby had just led Charles Moore into the garden of Lambeth Palace with a tray heavy with coffee cups (sorry no photo), down its wide steps and into wider lawns.  Past editor of The Sunday Telegraph and Daily Telegraph, following The Spectator, who continues to write for the last two, Moore finds fellow Old Etonian Welby to be by far the most relaxed Archbishop he’s interviewed in that ancient abode. (This archive photo doesn’t do justice to that of Saturdays’ News Review & Comment section by Heathcliff O’Malley.)

Charles Moore’s op-ed pieces are expressed now and then upon a firm Christian faith which, I believe, is from a Roman Catholic perspective. I recalled my pleasant surprise when the New Year edition covered His Grace’s pre-inaugural visit to – of all places – a conference at Trent Vineyard Church where the Elders laid hands on him in prayer and blessing (here and a video).  Journalist Charles Moore may have had that event in mind when opening his interview with a question on charismatics  – and got more than he’d bargained for!

More morsels from Moore.:

Is it necessary, I ask, for a true Christian to have had a personal conversion experience? “Absolutely not. There is an incredible range of ways in which the Spirit works. It doesn’t matter how you get there. It really does quite matter where you are.”

Does he know Jesus? “Yes. I do. He’s both someone one knows and someone one scarcely knows at all, an utterly intimate friend and yet with indescribable majesty.” (emphasis added)

(On the Pope’s Ignatian and Franciscan spirituality) It is spirituality that the two men share, and it is overcoming the divisions of 500 years: “One of the most exciting trends in western Christianity is that the Spirit of God is drawing Christians together.”

Where will his discussions with the Pope lead? “I haven’t a clue,” he says, disarmingly. He thinks that the ordination of women bishops, though he vigorously supports it, is the biggest obstacle to unity with Rome, but he also believes that both Churches now accept that they must “walk together’’.

As ever, it is a highly readable and eloquent example of journalism and an interesting informative interview with a man who is, ‘trying to find new ways in which this country, despite the secular age, can give its allegiance to God again’.

But what particularly amazed his interviewer and how did this Archbishop become a Christian? Read Charles Moore’s I Was Embarrassed – It Was like Getting Measles to learn the answers to those and other questions.

This Saturday feature came a week to the day I read the Telegraph’s Religious Affairs Editor’s remarks about His Grace Welby’s concern over the ‘overwhelming’ sea-change in attitudes toward sexuality (here). In part, he is reported as saying,

“Anyone who listened to much of the Same Sex Marriage Bill Second Reading Debate in the House of Lords could not fail to be struck by the overwhelming change of cultural hinterland. Predictable attitudes were no longer there.

The opposition to the Bill – which included me and many other bishops – was utterly overwhelmed, with amongst the largest attendance and participation and majority since 1945. There was noticeable hostility to the view of the churches.

“In some things we change course and recognise the new context.

“In others we stand firm because truth is not set by culture, nor morals by fashion.

“But let us be clear, pretending that nothing has changed is absurd and impossible.”

Quickly scanned that early Saturday morning, these claims made a deep contrast with what was to come during that mentoring day in Windsor.  I started writing about that in connection with the Book of Esther (here) and will continue to unravel that theme.

Footnote to interview with Asiya Nasir MP

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“The Christian Church is very fast growing in Pakistan. Pentecostals are growing more. Churches are full. There are not enough places to put people. People are trying to set up new churches. People are bringing their friends, giving room for prayer in houses.” Asiya Nasir

The above closing remarks in Asiya’s interview in the previous post are of personal interest because of what I learned several years ago about the fruit of the ‘Toronto Blessing’ in bringing Muslims to Christ in Africa and Asia. In an email a couple years ago I mentioned the work of Iris Ministries and ‘LH’ in this regard.  The Baker’s well-known ministry was radically changed for Mozambique, but Randy Clark also cited a Norwegian’s secret missions to Pakistan as ‘fruit’.

There Is MoreAside: Randy is one of the most humble men of God we’ve been blessed to meet and hear several times. The Lord had promised to open Randy’s eyes when he preached in Toronto Airport Church in January 1994 – the Lord showed up too!  This Baptist pastor from St Louis stayed to preach for the first 42 days of renewal and refreshing that lasted about twelve years. Dubbed as ‘The Toronto Blessing’ it was a powerful, joyous visitation that revealed the Father’s heart of love. However, it perplexed those Christians who think Holy Spirit’s power and gifts ceased after the First Century! (Randy’s personal account is in: There Is More: Reclaiming the Power of Impartation)

In May 1994, young Norwegian Baptist pastor Leif Hetland met pastors who’d returned from Canada at Holy Trinity Brompton in London (home of renowned Alpha Course). On page 164 of There Is More, Randy writes,

“Leif was very skeptical (sic). What he was hearing about Toronto seemed weird. (Upon return) to Norway they were shocked to find that the anointing had been imparted to them. Renewal immediately broke out in their church and many people experienced dramatic healings…etc”.

Regrettably, a leading elder quenched the Holy Spirit’s move. However, a year later the paths of Leif and Randy crossed by ‘divine appointment’ and the latter delivered a powerful prophetic word, of which the gist was, “You are a bulldozer…going into areas that have been untouched”. (See Global Mission Awareness site for fuller words.)

However, this got overlooked until a year or so later during a long recovery from a car accident. In the book, Leif describes what soon happened:

I began to sense a tremendous, supernatural burden for the unreached in the world. There are over 70 million people in Arab nations who have never heard the name of Jesus! I knew I was supposed to be going where no one else was going…

At the end of ’96 a friend of mine invited me to go to Pakistan with him. I realized this was confirmation of Randy’s word. That was the start of many trips to Pakistan where we’ve seen thousands upon thousands healed and saved. By the grace of God, I’ve now been to over 72 countries, many of them Muslim and some of them Communist…

I’ve seen every kind of miracle you can imagine – tumours dropping off, creative miracles where missing parts are restored, blind eyes seeing, everything. God is revealing His glory! Through the revelation of His glory, His goodness and compassion, hundreds of thousands are coming to Christ in areas that are officially closed to the gospel.

Praise the Lord – and Leif isn’t the only anointed evangelist who’s been to those closed countries.

Churches that reflect God’s open-ness

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Richard in Dartmouth, DevonRebecca’s poignant thought reflects what I spotted yesterday. On our day out in the Emsworth-Chichester area I spotted a billboard leaning on a wall by steps up to a church. It read, ‘We are NOW open for prayer and reflection’. Whilst focussing upon traffic I briefly thought, “Why ‘now’?” – it implies a welcome change and encouraging invitation for passers-by to drop in. And there was a similar one a few miles back!

Does extraterrestrial intelligence exist? Part 2

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Science is catching up with scripture, I speculated in Part 1 and readers may have thereby realised I’m not into any normal notion of aliens in outer space. A hint is also provided by this image > (courtesy of Victor Habbick at Free Digital Photos, click image for info).

Last year I concluded that science is catching up with what God is doing. I read scientists had found electrical stimulation of paralyzed rats’ spines had brought spectacular recovery of mobility (see New Scientist). Their description, “It was incredible to look at”, and explanation reminded me of how a lady paralysed for 22 years was healed the previous year. A powerful surge of invisible energy was tangibly felt in a worship-charged atmosphere. For details read under ‘Delia Knox’ in God heals today – video clip testimonies.

A bit more background – personal and scientific

Allow a little nostalgia…this scientific topic reminds me of sitting on tall stools alongside a solid oak workbench bedecked with Bunsen burners, equipment and sink. This main lab was a square room with tall Georgian-style windows filling two adjacent walls that cornered the upper storey of my grammar school. Our chemistry master, donned in his constant robe of long white coat, was wont to make this amusing aside when teaching about atomic and molecular structure:

We can talk and talk about electrons and ionisation, and theorise about their orbits, but the fact remains we never actually know where they are – it’s very possible some in this room have just returned from a trip around the North Pole!

[‘Traditional’ orbital notions are now thought incorrect as sub-atomic matter is in a state of frenzied flux.]  The main physics lab at the opposite front corner of the building was where we studied heat, matter, electricity, light and mechanics of classical Newtonian science. 17th Century physicist and mathematician Sir Isaac Newton is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists of all time and as a key figure in the scientific revolution.

interfrc-waves.jpgNewton formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation, and made seminal contributions in optics. He thought of light as a stream of extremely fine corpuscles, or particles (also known as photons). About a century later, however, physicists were finding light could behave like ripples or waves in water (see Young’s Interference Experiment and Wave Propagation).

Yet, any attempt to pin down light as being definitely a wave or a particle failed. This dual nature of light became known as the ‘wave-particle duality’.  Phil Mason explains on page 63 of Quantum Glory,

The best that could be said was that light acts like a wave when one type of experiment is performed, but it acts like a stream of particles when a different type of experiment is being performed. Light travels as a wave, but departs and arrives like a particle. (…but) how can something be simultaneously a wave or a particle?

In ordinary scientific investigation, even in the small-scale microscopic world, we accept something as one of the other – but not both at the same time!  And at the much smaller atomic level of matter that’s what was discovered to be happening for streams of electrons. It was a huge shock to the scientific world

In early 20th Century Max Planck investigated heated bodies and found energy was  radiating in discrete measures or packets, which he called ‘quanta’. Soon, Loius de Broglie postulated there’s no fundamental difference between energy and matter at, or below, the atomic level because both behave as though they’re composed of either particles or waves. Then a father and son, Joseph and George Thomson, received Nobel Prizes 30 years apart for their experiments proving electrons are particles (father) as well as waves (son)!  The evidence for wave-particle duality has since become overwhelming.

Over lunch

Coffee BreakWanting something a bit lighter to read over lunch after writing thus far, I opened up one of the 3 Favourites tabs on my PC taskbar. Each list is the depth of my monitor screen and I spotted an unfamiliar link of an item I thought worth reading sometime and clicked on it. S-p-o-o-k-y, it happens to be on quantum mechanics and had sat unread as just a link since New Year – and one of that blogger’s latest posts refers to Newton! Therefore, for anyone whose taste buds have been tickled and fancy some more fascinating food, dip into Dr Ruth Bancewicz’s Science and Belief posts:

In part 3 I’d like to consider how these fundamental discoveries may reveal a deeper understanding of God and possibly about extraterrestrial communication.

Tonight in Cwmbran, after Hull and Wolverhampton…

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“WHY HAVE CHURCHES KEPT QUIET ABOUT KNOWING JESUS?” a Muslim wants to know.

Nathan_banner-390x238This man explained to a packed Hull City Hall last Saturday night that he’d been trying to find out more about God. As a result, he had a divine encounter and found out who Jesus Christ really is. But he didn’t know how to worship or pray to Him, so had to seek the help of Christian friends. Hence his complaint to them, and now he wants to share his good news with fellow Muslims.  His was one of the most touching personal testimonies at last week’s  ‘Days of Wonder…’ 

Here are a few more.:

A testimony that started the three days was a ‘follow-up’ from a lady who’d suffered the same severely debilitating handicap but had been healed on Nathan’s previous visit 15 months ago. (Her smile features on the video clip at the foot of this invitation.) This time we found ourselves sitting behind her, and her friend told us how she herself had been healed from an allergy after last March. Upon accompanying her friend to tell Nathan, it became another occasion for thanking Jesus for what He’d done.

Nathan-Morris at CwmbranAmongst many testimonies of healing, we heard a Polish-Welsh lady excitedly welcome Nathan Morris in advance for speaking tonight at Victory Church in Cwmbran, Wales. She wasn’t the first we’d heard claiming they’d watched  The Bay Revival on God TV ‘ by chance’, but were amazed when Nathan immediately addressed them direct – over the airwaves – about their need for repentance/healing, with which Jesus then blessed them!

After a prolonged time in the presence of the Lord during the final night’s exceptionally high praise, everyone was in tears upon seeing a 4-year old walking across the stage – at the far left of the stage were his leg braces and wheeled walking frame!  In tears, his (then) non-believing father told Nathan the boy was born with cerebral palsy. However, his son was now grinning as he walked freely and properly – completely unaided!

In a different vein, we were saddened to hear from a young man of his fathers’ suicide. In the first conference session he attended this man couldn’t tolerate being there and simply had to get out – possibly with suicidal thoughts. But he just couldn’t get out of the building!  Then he met Jesus – as was clearly evident from his radiant recounting what had happened. Praise you Lord for your saving grace.

As an aside, it was a pleasant surprise to meet Nathan’s wife Rachel and his supporting team: two more Nathan’s and Jordan. Nathan Marrow keeps tabs on testimonies as well as introduces folk to Nathan for recounting their healing. (Evangelist Nathan’s Facebook page has more news of healings.)

Latest update of the Outpouring in Wales

Read latest brief report of saved souls and healings and watch this short video:

PS: I pray readers who long for a touch from the Lord to help them through the turmoil of physical and emotional hardships may find encouragement in the above accounts.  Those who are really struggling may find Why Me? helpful, as have so many folk – the Lord bless you and keep each of you.

The Unstoppable Church

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Let me share the blessing of a holy tension since having re-blogged/commented upon media opinion about a supposed demise of the Church. As stated in my previous post, I recalled hearing of reports from Wales and now made opportunity to check them out.

Yesterday’s church group covered a lot more detail about Rev Richard Taylor’s visit to mid-Sussex and what he teaches. So this morning I searched for a suitable podcast or video to listen to whilst doing the final part of our renovations.

If you were interested in my last two blogs then perhaps you’d like to set aside an hour to hear pastor Richard soundly refute secular scoffers, as well as allay the concerns of my fellow blogger and his readers. Richard trashes the falsehood of media opinion as well as churchgoers’ unbelief. He also tells how God changed and healed him from a life of severe drug addiction and consequential crime.

Enjoy his tongue-in-cheek Welsh humour and be mightily blessed:

The Book of Acts Part 11 – The Unstoppable Church from Victory Church on Vimeo.

The Church’s biggest crisis?

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Detail from Eagle-eyed by John Mark Long: www.propheticartists.comBiggest crisis? I think not! Nor that ‘Christianity is facing a catastrophic collapse in Britain’, as one religious affairs editor sensationally posits. I agree in the main with Gillan, especially that the church has failed in its duties, and that our encountering Jesus is key. This must be personally experienced and practised outside church walls. Yet how many have that personal, continual relationship? How many encounter God in church today? How many ministers allow His weighty glory to come into ‘their’ meeting? That is, does God attend church?

Thankfully, our Lord’s rectifying the lack of anointed leaders who regularly meet and hear Him, and who can thus teach and disciple ‘hard-core believers’ in doing so too. (Last week I met one such 30 years-old who’d visited the underground Chinese church. They have to worship in silence yet their deafening praise arose before God’s throne!) So it’s not only an intellectual issue as Gillan explains, but also and more essentially one of moving into revelatory and prophetical insight as well as accessing heaven direct.

Imho, the remedy is for church to be remodelled upon the pristine New Testament Church where the presence of Jesus was the sole authority, and Holy Spirit the sole power base for all ministerial and missionary activity. Then, the designation ‘Christian’ would revert to its original meaning of ‘Little Christ’, or ‘Anointed one’: those functioning with the very same power and authority as did their Lord and Saviour. Then, will real revival to which Gillan refers – and others foretell – begin. And it will. Father is already making the Bride a suitable spouse for His Son…

Invisible Jigsaw

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INVISIBLE JIGSAW was this blog’s original title, but the present one was impressed upon me for launching by Advent 2011 – yet it’s a good fit  for why I’m writing. But both titles  work, for God is working globally to perform His will: it can be likened to His placing massive, states-wide, jigsaw-shaped pieces onto the earth and dropping them into our times – like completing an invisible jigsaw puzzle.  He and the heavenly hosts are the only ones who can see it – unless we can penetrate the veil…

The name of this invisible jigsaw puzzle is, ‘Thy Kingdom Come!’

I’d forgotten completely about all that until a new-post advice for a contributor’s blog popped into my email’s in-tray.  This was the latest of Tony Puccio’s dreams/visions: When you come Together…The Body of Christ. Therein, he writes.:

1 Corinthians 14:26 NIV ‘What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.’

The Lord showed me a vision 02/26/2013 and in this vision I saw people gathered around an oval table. The table was low to the ground so that you had to sit on the floor. The people I saw sitting there around the table each had a piece of a puzzle. As they all worked together, the image  on the puzzle began to take shape and when they were finished, the picture was of Jesus Christ. He was the center of the meeting. Each one had to do his part in finishing the puzzle and it was not left to one person to do the work of the group. This is how real relationships are built and what church done Jesus’ way should foster.

This is church.

The only reason for the gathering of believers was to re-assemble the body of Christ with each part, ie., the foot, the hand, the eye, etc. doing its part so that the church, Christ’s body on earth may be edified and that Christ may be glorified.

They did not gather because of a charismatic leader, I.e., a pastor.

They didn’t gather because of church programs.

They didn’t gather because of the worship team.

I then rebogged that post with this comment:

This….was delivered by ‘God-incidence’ just now to my email’s in-tray.  It’s so very appropriate because, after waking this morning, I was contemplating how the Lord connects and reveals things to me as a thread or ‘train’ of scripture, teaching, thoughts and insights – but the idea of their also being pieces of a jigsaw dropped (appropriately) into mind!

A couple of days later Tony was given a follow-up, which is as follows:

I had a dream 02/28/2013. In this dream I saw a huge crayon. What was unique about this crayon is that it had no wrapper on it and the crayon had a multitude of colors the first being white.  This is significant because in light, white is the presence of all colors, and, we are to walk in God’s light and in so doing, But if we live in the light in the same way that God is in the light, we have a relationship with each other. And the blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from every sin. (John 1:7) Even though white is the presence of all colors in light it is the absence of all colors when it comes to pigment. 

I saw this crayon color everything white, pretty boring, I know. But the only way to get to the next color in the crayon was to totally use up the white. Even though the crayon contained all these colors white was the only on visible. I then saw the colors in the crayon separate and when this occurred things began to take on a whole new look. Colors were mixed and reds and whites became pinks, other colors were paired with each other and provided contrast. While the white in the presence of light represents our fellowship with one another and the Lord; the pigment represents the physical aspects of color. In fact, in pigment, white is the absence of color. I believe that the colors in this dream are representative of people’ s personalities and characteristics all of which were apart of the crayon but until separated into their respective individual colors they remained hidden from view.

In my previous posting, I mentioned people coming together each having a puzzle piece and that the completed picture of Jesus was dependent upon the cooperation of the individuals gathered. So it is with the crayon in my dream. We must realize that none of us have the capacity to draw and color the picture by ourselves. We need the cooperation of the body….a description of this provided by Oksana who blogs under the name Talitha Kum [and may be found in commentary to Part 1 on above link].

In my humble opinion, these are exceptionally significant and related to how the Lord is building His Church in this ‘new season’, as at the close of my previous post.  There are a few issues on this, however, which I’d like to address soon – perhaps over a cuppa?

[Jigsaw image is courtesy of Thanunkorn at FreeDigitalPhotos.net]

Archbishop of Canterbury’s approach to banking continues to win admirers

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Courtesy of James Mark Long, www.propheticartists.comVery interesting news indeed Gillan, especially in the light of prophetic words for 2013 about working with God ‘to restructure governmental and legislative structures’. Also, your concluding paragraphs mirror that prophet’s emphasis upon seeing issues from God’s perspective.

Sit alongside prophetic teachers in conversation

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Thank you to Andy for publishing this video on Decree because it reminded me to watch this fascinating discussion. We were privileged to have heard and met these two mighty men of God several times in the UK.  I unequivocally recommend readers who want to learn more about the Kingdom of God to set aside an hour to listen to these two friends.

First, however, let Andy introduce them to you…

Faith Changing Testimonies and The Great Cloud of Witnesses, and lots more – Paul Keith Davis with Bobby Conner

“I love watching this discussion and teaching time in this very special episode of the Voice of The Bride Webinar, where Paul Keith Davis sits down with dear friend Bobby Conner.

“They dive into wonderful conversation concerning these last days, commissioning of the sons of God, and the Great Cloud of Witnesses.  We also hear some incredible stories from Bobby that will challenge your faith and encourage your spirit!

PKDavis“Paul Keith and Wanda Davis founded WhiteDove Ministries after the Lord sovereignly sent a beautiful white dove to them as a prophetic sign of their calling. They now travel extensively speaking at conferences and churches, imparting the end-time mandate of preparation for the Glory and Manifest Presence of Christ.

“Paul Keith has a unique gift for imparting prophetic understanding of times and seasons with a message of preparation and expectancy for the Lord’s Empowering Presence. He spent many years in extensive study highlighting the ministry of revelation and power exemplified throughout the church ages with an emphasis on the 20th century church. His heart’s desire is to see the full restoration of Biblical Apostolic ministry manifested through the Spirit of Truth residing in God’s people, expressing salvation, healing and deliverance to the Glory of God and His Christ.

bobbyconner“Bobby Conner is a ‘Gentle Giant’ uniquely anointed with refreshing humor and razor-sharp prophetic accuracy that’s been documented around the world. Bobby’s dynamic capacity to release outstanding demonstrations of the miraculous — healings, signs and wonders — reveals the very heart of the Father toward us! Surviving a dramatic abortion attempt by his mother, being rescued again by the hand of God from drug dealing and suicide, the story of Bobby Conner is a display of a man who now walks in his God-ordained destiny to set others free! Out of his deep intimacy with Jesus Christ, Bobby is super-sensitive to what the Holy Spirit is now doing throughout the world! The Father-heart of God, expressed so beautifully through Bobby and his wife, Carolyn, lastingly transforms lives in every service.

“Bobby has an extensive ministry background as a Southern Baptist pastor and he ministers in a high level, proven prophetic anointing. He believes his calling is to equip the Body of Christ to hear and discern God’s voice in these times. He is well-loved and best known the world over for his sensitivity to and leading of the Holy Spirit. Highly esteemed as an internationally acclaimed conference speaker, Bobby has ministered effectively to over 45 foreign countries as well here in the states for many years.”

So, my dear reader, be blessed with this presentation. Your comments below are most welcome…

‘Outside the box’ and at the ‘cutting edge’!

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Cream TeaCream tea – so scrumptious and yummy I wish we could all gather around and grin as we share it and catch up with what happened Wednesday. First thing, I went for morning coffee with a friend from our prayer ministry days. We had not had chance to meet until now.

Before meeting ‘Alan’ however, a local mutual friend, ‘Brenda’, had contacted me with  reservations over Tuesday’s post in view of her work with those suffering depression, as well as dementia. Quite rightly, her objection was that the writer’s list mixed up the sin itself, (eg. selfish or violent behaviour, idolatry and rebellion) with the result of that sin (eg. depression, fearfulness etc).  Consequently, the message lost its impact and was tactless as the latter results can also arise from medical causes and conditions. Hence, my withdrawal of that reposting.

In view of this, it was fascinating how Wednesday morning and afternoon unfolded! With Alan, we discussed how we’d become Christians and, after having seen Nina bring a resurrection message at Brenda’s breakfast group last week, it was hard for him to think of her as having been registered permanently disabled!  (Read her account here.)

But I was more amazed to learn what had happened to Alan many years ago when a virus affected his brain stem.  It caused significant cerebral and neural damage that has left some minor tell-tale signs.  Although one would hope for, even expect, the Lord to heal fully, my friend can testify to how often Jesus has over-ridden those handicaps on occasions. (Likewise with Nina, twice whilst confined to a wheelchair and when praying for the sick whilst in the high dependency unit!)  For Alan, it meant he’s usually unable to take the lead role in ministry, except for the times when the Lord ‘overshadowed’ and directed him. Also, he alluded to times when the condition brings an understanding beyond the ‘mental frame’ of one’s brainbox!

As we and our wives are trained in the nuances of prayer ministry, we recognise it can, however, limit us to working within a prescribed discipline or procedure. And, of course, our own medical situations enable us to empathise and minister to those who are facing situations we’ve overcome or been brought through by the Lord. All this suggests a rich, fruitful field for further discussions.

Then in the afternoon’s house group meeting, Nina asked about our minister’s previous reference to healing one’s DNA. Lindi explained this as a personal revelation from Holy Spirit that enables us to perceive the DNA’s coding and how it’s been affected by our personal and generational history: ie. our inherited physical and spiritual well-being. As this is intimately connected to our individual creation then it also needs to be brought to our heavenly Father to be dealt with before His throne: to which Christians have right of access through the Blood of Jesus Christ.  Our minister gave an example of how this unusual methodology can work in practice.

Hopefully, both person’s accounts are an indication of ‘cutting edge’ insights coming to the wider church that may eventually help those suffering under the medical effects of issues. As Brenda maintains, it’s essential to keep Jesus Christ in the centre and our eyes on Him because such ministry and healing come under His authority and power.

7 great lies in church today – Steve Hill

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Thank you to my friend Revd Bill of Blandford for emailing me with news of Steve Hill’s message published in Charisma Magazine and its News Blog.  I first heard him deliver it in March at the Revival Reunion of worship leaders, preachers and leaders who were in the Brownsville/Pensacola and Bay of The Holy Spirit revivals. So, it’s good to see it in print.

steve-hill-portraitAs with all Steve’s calls for repentance, it is deeply moving  and the fact of his personal ‘resurrection’ brings a poignant emphasis to the urgency of this vitally important matter. It is essential for each of us to make sure we’re in right standing with the Almighty.

Steve refers to a raft of deceptive doctrine and errors severely affecting believers’ lives, especially in the United States, namely:

  • overemphasis on prosperity
  • exaggerated view of grace
  • antinomianism – ‘anything goes’
  • deification of man (humanism)
  • challenging the authority of the Word
  • rejecting doctrine on existence of hell
  • universal reconciliation.

The full content of this message may be read here. It is directly connected with Steve’s warning given from a dread vision of a spiritual avalanche, covered earlier here.

Bill makes these observations:

Having spent a couple of weeks among believers of diverse backgrounds, it is easy to see whole areas of misunderstanding of the truths of scripture. How vital that we encourage all to focus on Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth.

[I’m grateful our church minister, Lindi Masters, is firmly against easy grace and taught in depth on grace and ensured familiarity with foundational teachings listed in Hebrews 6:1-3; The Peril of Not Progressing is NKJV’s very apt heading for these verses!]

To listen to Steve deliver his profoundly moving message click here and scroll forward to 2hr 16min. This commences with an introduction by Revd John Kilpatrick and Steve begins in acknowledging his spiritual heritage from mentors David Wilkerson and the   English evangelist Leonard Ravenhill, whose mentors were A.W. Tozer and Smith-Wigglesworth.

God is in the House(s)

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Courtesy of James Mark Long, www.propheticartists.comAmen, and Lord may Your Holy Presence come and put the rising spirit of rebellion and anarchy under Your feet…Thank you to Gillan, for I believe this is more timely than we may conceive, and to Richard Parkhouse for your contribution too.

Lion Bites on the Glory of God

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Lion-Bites-logo-2012Two recent daily prophetic words from Glasgow Prophetic Centre are relevant to this blog’s predominant theme since early March of a new day or season in God for His people. The first word was published a week ago on 4th April, and the second is  today’s word – to both of which I would add graphically.:

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
As the waters cover the sea. (Habbakuk 2:14 NKJV)

cruise0132

MY GLORY RISES

This is a new day; it is not like the days of old gone by. Forget the former things, forget the difficulties that have kept you barren and bound. Do not compare what you perceive to be your own inabilities against the magnitude of the mountains that you face. This is a new day and I am doing a new thing.

Look up into the heavens, look up with the eyes of your spirit and see what I am doing!

Look up and see: My Glory arises above you, it is ever so near. My Glory arises above you, so pull it down, pull it down!

Pull it down into your circumstances and the situations that you find yourself in. Pull it down into your relationships and see restoration. Pull it down and see hard hearts melting. Pull it down and see salvation. This is a new day and a new season.

Isaiah 60:1-5
Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; but the
LORD will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to
your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes round
about and see; they all gather together, they come to you. Your sons will come
from afar, and your daughters will be carried in the arms. Then you will see and
be radiant, and your heart will thrill and rejoice; because the abundance of the
sea will be turned to you, the wealth of the nations will come to you.

cruise0131

THE  COMING OF MY MANIFEST GLORY

Prepare for My coming Glory. Set your face towards Me and fix your eyes on Me, for I am coming to release My Glory over all the earth. Have you heard? Have you not seen? I am shifting and shaking all that hinders the entrance of My Glory to the earth. Do you not feel it?

Align your heart with My plans and purposes for the earth and your nation, for I am coming soon and there is a short time to fine-tune your position for the coming of My manifest Glory. Be alert and be one who will not be moved from the position of receiving all I have for you. For I have much to release to you; and much for you to release to see
My Kingdom come in increasing measure. I am pouring in and I am releasing the greater measure. Stand fast. Hold your fine-tuned position. Do not be moved from
where you are, aligned with Me. For I am bringing – and I am releasing – the fullness: the full measure of My Glory for this time.

It is time for the release, so prepare now.

Haggai 2:9
“The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,” says the Lord Almighty. “And in this place I will grant peace,” declares the Lord Almighty.

[Sunset Towards Cuba by RB, 4 March 2006 from somewhere en-route from Jamaica to the Bahamas.]

Now is Come the Time to Change Your Focus

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Jesus & Holy Spirit - credit kzlam36.blogspotYet another word ‘dove-tailing’ (as one would expect) with what the Lord is revealing today. It’s like a holy weft being woven in the Bride’s wedding dress, or the veil which will cover our glorious radiance…

“A season unlike anything I’ve lived in” – Dr Sharon Stone

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Arise, shine;
For your light has come!
And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.
2 For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
And deep darkness the people;
But the Lord will arise over you,
And His glory will be seen upon you.
3 The Gentiles shall come to your light,
And kings to the brightness of your rising. (Isaiah 60:1-3 NKJV)

Note that verse two begins in the imperative mood, ‘Behold!’, or ‘See’ (as in the New International Version of the Holy Bible) – ie. notice and look at how dark the earth has become with a gross/thick (KJV/NIV) darkness upon everyone – rather like today, is it not?  Without itemising everything evil that’s afflicting unbelievers and secular leaders most rational folk can tell that a form of unnatural darkness is overtaking mankind.

Transformational and Increasing Glory of God

Windsor 2Now however, there is far more than hope, there’s the supra-natural light that originates in and comes from the Living God.  In last Saturday’s  mentoring day, Dr Sharon Stone developed upon the opening theme of her prophetic words for 2013. As before, she stresses that busy-ness prevents encountering the glory of God.:

“Right now”, says Sharon, “We’re in a time when we need to cultivate the glory of God in our lives and you need time to be able to do that. And to be glory carriers that attract the glory of God you need to be ‘set apart’. So if you’re so busy you don’t have that time you end up with a theology of God’s glory rather than the intimacy and the relationship, and the presence and the power that the glory of God has the ability to bring.

“I love the scripture that says we’ve all fallen short of the glory of God because…(it can also) mean we were intended to live in the glory of God. And so we have to get to a place where God is restoring that back to us. When Jesus brought us into restoration,  glory is one of the things He’s restoring us to.

“Glory can come when we spend time in the manifest presence of Jesus. But we are in a season unlike anything I’ve ever lived in before, one where His glory is more readily available to us than at any time I’ve ever seen. And we’re seeing more of His glory being poured out, we’re hearing of more encounters with the Presence of the Lord – it’s no longer being a wonderful testimony of one out of a thousand people any more, but you’re hearing 99 out of a 100 talking about encounters with the Lord…

“And here’s the reason why we’re talking more about this: we believe the prophetic consensus of the season we’re in is as in Isaiah 60 [see above and full text here].

A definition of God’s glory

“Let me give you a definition: the glory of God is the fullness of ALL that God is and ALL that He has…it is part of His provision, His miracles, His blessings upon you…there is nothing that you desire that is not in the glory of God…

Rev Dr Sharon Stone, Senior Minister Christian International Europe; courtesy CIE“In that scripture we have contradiction: great glory and great darkness upon the earth. That’s always been a contradiction, but what is different about it right now, there is an extreme in this area now…No longer is it just darkness and glory, now it is great, gross, darkness – but it is not only the glory of Jesus but now it’s also His Presence and His glory rising up on you  – and it’s going to bring an attraction of others to you…”

Sharon considers the contrasts in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and reads verses 7-9, which the NIV heads as The Greater Glory of the New Covenant. The NKJV has:

7 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. 10 For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. 11 For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.

12 Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech— 13 unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. 14 But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. 15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

“There have been those who have been able to put up with your words and overlook you, but they’re not going to be able to ignore the glory that God is going to put on you! (As explained in those latter verses) there is something about the glory of God that is now going to separate you out from others around about you (and those verses) mean the glory is going to be visible to one or more of the five (natural) senses…

“So that means people around you are going to be able to see something, hear some-thing, taste something, feel something or smell something. The glory that’s going to  manifest upon us in this day is going to be a mighty, a mighty, witnessing tool and I believe that once we learn to cultivate the glory of God, once we learn how to carry the glory of God, once we know how to attract the glory of God, we’re going to see that it affects relationships around about us….”

So, my reader, it was a privilege to receive such teaching of which this brings a glimpse of a tremendously blessed day.  Sharon spoke of her first encounter of the glory when a young pastor and of later learning how to endure its weightier power – verse 16 is key.

At the close, fellow prophets brought words from the Lord, one of which reminded me of what the Lord had once brought to my attention regarding the Wedding of the Bride and Lamb-Lion of God of Rev 21:9). (That insight is recounted in Revival:1 – glory stories.) But what happened in these precious moments cannot be conveyed…

I have learned to be no longer surprised by our God of Surprises because those words and ensuing worship brought time forward and took us deeply in our spirits to…

Our a copy of this prophetic painting was received on Easter Saturday, and about which I wrote in the last two posts. So it’s no wonder I was also hit hard by and had to re-blog “Come, and do not delay, for the hour is near and I would have you for my Bride”!

Of particular interest are James Nesbit’s notes about the origin and connection of this painting to its inspirational predecessor:

Arrrival - about

May these images speak to you and bring you revelation, light and prophetic insight into the eternal purposes of the King and His Kingdom.

Come, and Do Not Delay, for the Hour is Near and I Would Have You for my Bride

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Courtesy of James Mark Long, www.propheticartists.comOH MY, Oh my…how well this word weighs with the closing thoughts of my previous post. I wanted to schedule this ‘re-blog’ for Saturday but that facility’s not available. Yet it just so happened on Saturday that Rev Dr Stone taught on the increasing, transformational glory of God being released. It is now more accessible than ever before and this school of prophets were highly blessed to sense the Bride meeting her Groom (as in the place of ‘Arrival’ – see previous). Words are inadequate to describe what happened but which strongly confirms this re-blogged prophetic word! Amen