Category Archives: UK

Interesting remarks by the PM – “an absolutely vital freedom”

Posted on by
3

PostScript Friday 20 June: see also reblog of Gillan Scott’s view and commendable interviews by Paul Burgin with the Rt Hon Gary Streeter MP about the group Christians in Parliament (of which he is chairman) and with Danny Webster, Parliamentary Officer with the Evangelical Alliance, mainly about the role of Christians in the media.

In today’s Telegraph Rosa Prince writes that during Prime Minister’s Question Time, David Davis MP asked about the case of Nadia Eweida. She is appealing to the European Court of Human Rights after  having been barred by her employer from wearing a crucifix whilst working at Heathrow Airport.

Mr Davis described British Airways refusal to allow Miss Eweida to wear her cross as a “disgraceful piece of political correctness”.  He asked the PM why the Government was opposing her appeal to complain that there are no protections under UK law for workers who wore religious symbols.

The Telegraph quotes Mr Cameron’s response: Continue reading →

What’s up with the weather?

Posted on by
3

Taken in case of need, this holiday photo is now serving its purpose – to remind me what wall-to-wall, cloud-less sky is like!  And it’s not hard, but not easy, to recall what lies beneath this azure zenith!  But 8.30am today I walked in warm sunshine, yet a bank of cloud soon rolled over like a gray blanket – but at least it’s not raining and occasionally getting a bit brighter as cloud thins now and then.

Regarded as the wettest April to June (see report and video) since full detailed records for temperatures and rainfall across the UK began in 1910 – they’re forecasting over a month’s rain in 24hrs!  (In the night we heard it like never ever before – it fell so heavily and quickly it sounded like one long roar!)  Even now in July it’s unwise to stow away one’s winter wear!  There have been ‘exceptional’ torrential rains, stormforce winds, at least one small tornado and widespread flooding, sadly with loss of life – all as was anticipated in my dream reported in What’s prophetical about weather? )

But there’s a blessing, nationally and personally – although much earlier than usual, our holiday took place during a fine fortnight with cool winds, and only one wet day. Two winters of abnormally low rainfall left reservoirs and underground aquifers very dry but they’ve been replenished. Also, plans to ban the use hose-pipes have been scrapped. So thank you Lord – let the river of Your Holy Spirit flow…

Over the ‘pond’

On this side of the Atlantic we’ve got away with things very lightly!  Over in the States it’s been a very bad month indeed, as I’ve noted from a couple of blogs. My older cousin south of Tucson, Arizona, is hoping for the ‘monsoon’ as it’s hot and dry (temperatures over 100 degrees F daily) with only a trace of rain this year. The extreme heat then headed eastwards, to affect 25 states and 45 million people, for example:

Now, it’s an interesting and pertinent fact that President Obama had declared June as being devoted to ‘gay pride’, as well as having declared shortly beforehand his personal interest in changing the laws to allow ‘marriage’ for such folk. Many black pastors have challenged and registered strong objections to his actions.

Now, it’s been noted that Obama signed off his official declaration as follows,

“IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand twelve, and of the Indepen-dence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-sixth.” (emphasis added)

Now, is it not an extraordinarily contrary thing to mix this matter with a reference to the life of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour?  Can we not sense where His heart is in this matter and what His response is?  This president has surely put himself in an invidious position and I would not like to be in his shoes.  After all, isn’t it written that Sodom and Gomorrah suffered from intense fire? (Genesis 19:23)  Jesus indicated that those cities  would, however, have repented had they witnessed His mighty works. Furthermore, His statement implies that there is hope for all who do not reject Him (Matthew 11).

Could this be why the United States has been suffering such stupendously atrocious storms, and continues to reap the whirlwind of darker days? (For fuller discussion see  Dr John MrTernan’s Insights blog with journal of events: Defend & Proclaim the Faith.)

I criticised the content of President Obama’s speech in Cairo Speech and expressed reservations about the nature of his faith. After recent ‘clarifications’ on that issue and  his address during the National Prayer Breakfast, I have reviewed my reservations – especially the claim that he may be ‘born again’.  However, I’ve yet to be convinced.

The fact remains, that whomsoever President Obama is acountable to as his spiritual mentor or pastor seems to have ignored Jesus’ instruction to His Apostles, and hence to all those in spiritual authority, about how to make disciples of believers:

“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.  19 Go therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

This is New King James text, but New International Version renders verse 20 as,

 “…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded…”

So just what did Jesus command?

=========================

Back to the blue sky…aaahhh.  And what was beneath it?  A favourite beach….

 

Listening to Jesus in the Palace of Westminster

Posted on by
4

I thank Christen Forster for this post on his Blog about the initial outcome of the special listening-prayer meeting, to which my previous post referred:

“On June 12th 2012 more than eighty Christian leaders from throughout the UK gathered in St Mary’s Undercroft in the Palace of Westminster alongside Parliamentarians for an hour of listening to God in silence. Anglicans, Baptists, Catholics and Christian leaders from a wide cross-section of ministries were present. Two hours of feedback where then held in Committee Room 16 and written submissions made to the organisers. [For more details click here.]

“Below is the initial summary issued by the Organising group, a coalition of ministries under the banner “Together for the Nation” chaired by Maranatha Prayer Community.  A full transcript will be available on request. [See Christen’s blog for more information, as well as my notes below.]

“Many of those who attended have said it was a very special time for them. Apparently this is the first time a group has gathered in Parliament just to listen to God with no other agenda. The summary contains a very sobering and challenging message. We are told to weigh prophecy, because while we see in part and prophesy in part, the seed of God’s “now” word are too valuable to miss.

“Don’t treat prophecy lightly, test it all; hold on to what is good and hold back from what seems bad.”  1 Thessalonians 5:20-22

“So, please read the summary below and where it seems good let it shape and inform your praying and ignore what doesn’t seem right to you.

“It is probably worth observing that like most prophecies to whole nations, it is quite broad – after all, it needs to frame the prayers of a million and more potential hearers and intercessors. So look for your own guidance within the framework it sets out.
If you accept this message, it demands an urgent response involving practical preparation and action. As one attendee wrote: “God is looking for people of skilful hands and integrity of heart who will listen to Him”.

These five themes and words repeated again and again in the verbal feedback session. Other more specific guidance and thoughts can be found in the full transcript.
  • God’s appointed time to judge the nations of the world is very nearly upon us. Our nation and its church have turned away from God and His standards and we are beginning to see and feel the resulting judgement.
  • A remnant of Britain’s covenant past, its Christian heritage and the good fruit of our worldwide missionary zeal, remains. We should embrace our spiritual sons and daughters from the nations who have returned to help us. It is possible that God may yet act out of mercy to avert the very worst of the judgement that we have brought upon ourselves. The Church is called to be the voice of hope and compassion.
  • The shaking of every part of man’s world-wide economic, social, political and religious systems has begun. It will be a time of great humbling, purification and refining in every aspect of society. Only what is built on the foundations that God requires will be permitted to remain – righteousness, truth and justice.
  • When the judgement has run its course, God has promised to restore us. This restoration must follow God’s revealed strategies and guidelines and not be led astray again by Man’s initiatives and good ideas.
  • Because of His great love for this nation and all of its people, God’s heart is breaking and He longs for us to respond to Him, as individuals, as a church, and as a nation. The time to respond is now.

“A theme only hinted at in the list above (see point 4) that struck a particular resonance with me was the call to the church, for reformers and builders to be released and to step up.  We need to prepare for what is coming down, but Jesus is a builder, he clears the way not for destruction’s sake but to make space for the new.”

Notes:

My previous post referred to the forum at which Christen presented a detailed summary of the meeting. If you’d like to listen to those sessions their recordings are available free of charge here.  Christen stressed the importance of recalling and honouring our very ancient Christian foundations, which I’d already had occasion to do in my earlier post Landmark Parliamentary Inquiry and provided a link to a fascinating historical item.

Christen also reported that the group had recognised that institutions and people had broken past covenants with the Lord (presumably not just our reneging against the one with Israel) – “A tree doesn’t stand without good roots and severe storms are coming!”

Since 1993 the Marantha Community has been committed to speaking out to challenge the steady and deliberate removal of Christian values from our society. The Community  believes that if the people of God speak with one voice, the voice of God will be heard in the land.  Over recent years they have researched prophetic words given to the wider Church and found that common themes emerged, from which collated messages have been compiled – click for their Prophecy page and One Voice Messages.

[Houses of Parliament by Vichaya Kiatying-Angulsee, courtesy FreeDigitalPhotos.net]

Paws-4-thought: a special town in the Thames Valley?

Posted on by
2

Yet again – right place, right time.  Some may think it ‘spooky’ – but please, it’s definitely not some sort of boast.  Maybe, it’s just that I’m alert to these kind of things, or perhaps it’s a  gift of discernment.  Whatever it is, it’s far too frequent to be my imagination, especially as actual physical events are involved.  My last few postings considered a strange series of serendipity which ended up being validated by yet another ‘coincidence’!  So, would you bear with me once again?

Last Saturday I attended a day’s teaching led by Christen Forster, senior leader of River Church in Maidenhead, at The Emmanuel Centre, Marsham  Street, Westminster.  He spoke about authority, power and control in the Church and in the world.

I was particularly interested to learn the outcome of a recent gathering of about 90 senior leaders from church, commerce, culture and politics who met in St Mary’s Undercroft directly beneath the House of Commons. They’d listened to Jesus in silence for an hour and then fedback what they felt He was saying to the nation.

As Christen reports in his blog:

This was a historic event and at the same time a single step in a flow of developments putting the Word and Presence of God back into the Foundation of the United Kingdom. On the floor in the middle of the corridor that divides the House of Commons from the House of Lords there is a Latin inscription. In translation it read…

“Lest the Lord builds the house, those who labour do so in vain…”

Words that remind us that despite the Godless direction of so much policy conceived and enacted at Westminster today, the roots of authority in the UK are in the word and presence of God.

(click on Listening to Jesus in the Palace of Westminster.)

He said that the listening-prayer time under Parliament was unique and it had started and closed with the ringing of a bell – where’ve we heard about that before? (here and here).  Yet even more remarkable was the consistency of the spirit and themes. There was weight and authority in what God is saying yet, being nationally-relevant, it is quite broad. Even so, some points could be applied to us as individuals.

Of the many points I was impressed with the recognition that the nation is reaping the consequences of our moral collapse.  Also, divisions and death in the nation have reflected those between/within the body of Christ. The church must, therefore, be changed, improved and rebuilt and not hold back in proclaiming the Gospel. As a nation we should recall and build upon the former solid foundations of Christianity.  The whole report will verified, signed and published in due course. (Initial overview now available here.)

Next week, there will be a follow-up evening of prophetic prayer for Parliament and government at The Emmanuel Centre (see Kingdom Come).

NOW, I was surprised that Christen briefly referred to two other matters for they are relevant to this blog’s recent posts.:

  1. Healing On The Streets is taking off faster than did the Alpha course!
  2. “Windsor and Westminster” are important in what the Lord is doing!
  3. Jesus is moving evangelists into focussing upon proclaiming the Cross.

[This last from my notes was reserved but is added for cross-referencing here! – 25/7.]

Where did we last encounter a Godly reference to Windsor? – the previous post.  And the next day at a church we’d been invited to, this royal town on the river Thames  cropped up in the pastor’s conversation about the vision for starting that church! So, serendipity strikes yet again!!  Therefore, it really must be of God.

But there’s much more. Here’s what I talked about with Dr Sharon Stone during a conference in February:

After talking about her class in Windsor an image of its Castle’s famous round tower came to mind. This was followed by the notion that its crenellated battlements looked like the teeth of a giant cogwheel which could fit into some sort of invisible socket where earth could get plugged into heaven. 

It’s a little hard to explain but then the thought dropped into mind that such engagement would enable the heavenly kingdom to ‘wind up’ our earthly kingdom – or ‘queen-dom’ – for the Lord’s purposes (eg. revival) – rather like putting a key into and winding up a clockwork toy.

Windsor Castle, courtesy CopyrightFreePhotos

Combine all that with this unique photo Alan May took (original link removed as demand crashed website but see copy here) during Garter Day on Monday 13 June 2011 at the Castle..:

WOW, WOW, WOW !!

Prophecies and visions for Great Britain

Posted on by
1

A new header Prophecies & Visions on this blog covers a brief introduction to Biblical prophecy. It also explains the difference between the office of prophet and the gifting of prophecy. For those interested in how the prophetic may apply to current national and international affairs, links are given to a number of fulfilled reports and others ‘pending’.

First listed is Smith Wigglesworth’s prophecy concerning revival in Britain. Do you know that its two preparatory aspects have already happened?  Or do you know of his prayer partner’s surprise fifty years later upon seeing the same vision?  Or, are you aware of: Continue reading →

If in you’re London this Good Friday afternoon…

Posted on by
Reply

…then perhaps you could go to Trafalgar Square by midday for a couple of open performances which have our highest personal recommendation: The Passion of Jesus.  We’ve booked for a third trip to ‘partake’ in this modern rendition of The Life of Christ, as well as an amazing Nativity, in open fields on the North Downs, south of Guildford. There, the actors mingle among the audience and it seems as though we travel back in time.  It’s as though one’s there alongside Jesus and the disciples, watching and listening to all they say and do.

Continue reading →

The PM’s Surprising Easter Message

Posted on by
1

News from Downing Street yesterday is encouraging in the light of previous events and the spiritual power play in the ‘heavenlies’ for our nation. I’m grateful to Gillan Scott for spotting this and for recognising that its significance warranted his interrupting his break by posting the entire transcript on God and Politics in the UK.

Mr Cameron’s reference to a “Christian fight-back” is especially revealing after many believers have been calling for a stand to be taken against evil that has encroached upon this land. (Readers may recall some of my earlier posts on this here and here,     the latter now having some new links to prophetical material.)

Also, this development suggests prayers for the Prime Minister are in the process of being answered.  Let’s keep praying, especially for Godly men to draw close and that they may encourage and direct Mr Cameron towards our Lord and Saviour (whom he does not deny or reject – Matthew 10:32-33).

Post-holydays update:

Over the break for the holydays there have been a number of posts, some critical, by well-respected Christian bloggers on the PM’s message but which overlook my point. Not so much by coincidence but more the Lord’s quick nudge did I discover that Jarrod Cooper was struck by the ‘remarkable!’ slant of the message and posted its full text on his personal blog as Cameron praises the Christian fight-back!.

Maybe it needs an gifted appreciation of the prophetic to discern what’s going on?

News roundup on healings

Posted on by
Reply

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!”

Posted on by
1

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…

Posted on by
3

…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

Posted on by
Reply

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 ??

Posted on by
Reply

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

Posted on by
Reply

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

Posted on by
3

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…

Personal Plea from MP

Posted on by
Reply

Further to my email below, if you’ve yet to sign the petition please note this plea from a Christian MP on Twitter :

Jim Dobbin MP: There are Christians in Parliament who want to fight to save marriage but they really need the support of the church (My emphasis and here’s the link)

Richard Continue reading →

Special Update from HOTS

Posted on by
Reply

Thank you to Paul Skelton, founder of Healing On The Streets in Bath, for permission to post his recent Special E-News Update, which reads as follows:

HOTS_Bath_Logo_2

The facts behind the story

Over the last few weeks “HOTS Bath” has been thrust into the media spotlight after the ASA ruling against our website and down-loadable leaflet in which we say that God can heal, physically as well as emotionally and spiritually.
Today, we met as a Trust to discuss where we felt Father was leading us from here and feel that it is important for us to do three things at this time.

1. To clarify the facts behind the story.
2. To clearly communicate our own position and response.
3. To give some guidance as to how the Christian community could respond.

We are therefore sending out this special E-News Update to cover these three areas: Continue reading →

Open letter to the editor of the Daily Telegraph

Posted on by
Reply

It’s very interesting how momentum is gathering pace to make this a special year, not only for Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee but also for the whole well-being of our nation. I’m no monarchist but would highly recommend the BBC’s informative documentary, The Diamond Queen.

Headlines and articles within the Daily Telegraph, one of our leading newspapers, are increasingly focussed upon the importance of Christianity in the UK.  (See links at the foot of this post.)  In view of previous posts you’ll no doubt realise my keen interest, and so I wrote today to the editor regarding a fellow reader’s published letter : Continue reading →

E-petition and minister of healing on ASA’s ruling on HOTS-Bath

Posted on by
Reply

Please consider joining me in signing an official e-petition ‘I believe that God can heal’, which reads as follows:

Whether or not we believe that God can heal, we call on the Government to ensure that publishing statements of faith is not banned. This petition is put forward following cases where the Advertising Standards Agency has banned Christian groups from publishing material with the words ‘God can heal’, for example in Bath.

Just a reminder: the issue is not over HOTS compliance with 8 requirements of an advertising code but is about the ASA’s refusal to allow statements of faith. Furthermore, as previously mentioned and now confirmed at point 3 below, this could be construed as the ‘militant secularism’ which the Conservative party’s chairwoman Baroness Warsi referred to in her recent speech.

Thank you Peter for this tip, and pointing out overseas residents may sign too. Thank you also to Martin for drawing attention to a report on The New Street Preachers from Reachout Trust (connected to RevelationTV) and which includes a scriptural assessment of HOTS activity.

Secondly, whilst taking a friend to the airport last night I mentioned this matter to him. As he directs an Anglican healing ministry you may like to know the drift of his remarks, which were as follows: Continue reading →

Muhammed knows more than the ASA!

Posted on by
4

Radiologist Muhammed knows what the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) cannot comprehend – GOD REALLY DOES PHYSICAL HEALING!

How come?  Nina needed a checkup with a 3D scanner recently and, trying to lie back-wards onto the scanner table, she asked the radiologist for assistance because of her spine’s lack of flexibility.  She told him this was due to a vertebroplasty performed at that hospital.  (This procedure inserts bone cement into one of the spine’s vertebrae.) Whilst two cameras slowly orbited Nina’s chest the radiologist delved into her large, paper file.

So I took the opportunity to explain briefly what had miraculously happened 6 years ago after the procedure had left her as officially registered ‘disabled’.  (As she couldn’t walk across a room, a wheelchair plus ‘blue badge’ parking facility was necessary outdoors.)  I told Muhammed that God healed her immediately after Nina had forgiven the surgeon – thereupon she could dance and walk and, thus, fully praise the Lord!

Thinking Muhammed is probably a Muslim, I stressed that forgiveness was key to her healing and twice that ‘God is good’.  He must have been impressed because he said on our departure, “It’s good to meet people of faith – there aren’t many around!”.

‘God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform’ – as averred by the opening lines of William Cowper’s hymn.  Indeed He does, for had Nina’s vertebra been fully restored, or even replaced, then she would not have needed Mohammed’s help, but he would have been the poorer for not seeing first-hand an example of God’s goodness!

1. ASA Adjudication against Healing On The Streets – Bath

A team from many churches across Bath city has been setting up ‘shop’ near the Abbey for three years. As in several towns and cities across Britain, they offer to pray in Jesus’ name for passers by and hand out leaflets listing a variety of medical conditions and  stating the team believes God loves everyone and can heal sickness.  As my friend Gillan Scott reports in God and Politics in the UK:

Their leaflets and website caught the attention of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) last summer after a complaint was made by a single member of the public.   The complaint centred around the claim that God could heal the named conditions as a result of the prayer offered and also that the claims were irresponsible and could lead to false hope to those suffering from those conditions.

[For more see: Complainant – Christian wisdom – secular journalist – political columnist.]

The ASA noted, ‘We acknowledged that HOTS volunteers believed that prayer could treat illness and medical conditions, and that therefore the ads did not promote false hope. However, we noted we had not seen evidence that people had been healed through the prayer of HOTS volunteers, and concluded that the ads could encourage false hope in those suffering from the named conditions and therefore were irrespons-ible.’

They ruled: ‘The ads must not appear again in their current form. We told HOTS not to make claims which stated or implied that, by receiving prayer from their volunteers, people could be healed of medical conditions. We also told them not to refer in their ads to medical conditions for which medical supervision should be sought.’ (My emphasis)

Although one can be rather stirred up over their banning the HOTS-Bath’s adverts of  prayers for healing, some of the reasoning seems sensible.  However, some elements give cause for concern because they belie not so much an apparent rejection of God but suggest an over-arching policy of political control.

First, on casting my eye over the ASA assessment there clearly is a bias in favour of the complainant’s claim that HOTS-Bath volunteers themselves heal medical conditions, and that HOTS’ testimonials are misleading.  Although the ASA discussed the issues with HOTS and their responses are reported upon, an unreasonableness is evident in a close reading of the adjudication document itself: no leeway whatsoever is entertained.  All four complaints are upheld.  No compromise is allowed – isn’t this dictatorship?

Also, there appears to have been outrageous demands to kowtow to ASA’s denial of God’s ability to heal sickness, as may be inferred from HOTS-Bath’s initial response     (also, see here for later and here for latest news):

We are disappointed with the ASA’s decision, and will appeal against it because it seems very odd to us that the ASA wants to prevent us from stating on our website the basic Christian belief that God can heal illness.

The ASA has even demanded that we sign a document agreeing not to say this, which is unacceptable to us – as it no doubt would be for anyone ordered not to make certain statements about their conventional religious or philosophical beliefs. (My emphases)

2. Proof of Political Direction

This issue has unsettling similarities with my own experience with the North Somerset Primary Care Trust three years ago this month.  I wrote to its CEO objecting over the decision to suspend a nurse on the grounds of having prayed for a patient.  Nurses were then ordered not to pray for patients and so I wrote that this directive could put lives in jeopardy, and gave a real-life example, as follows:

Had such an edict been in force during my wife’s emergency admittance to hospital in 2005 she would possibly have lost her life!!

Nina had been in a life-threatening situation where she could suffer an anaphylactic attack at any time and her immunologist was trying to get this under control by means of an extremely high, and thereby dangerous, dose of steroids. But one night her throat closed up and the staff had quickly made preparations for a possible emergency trache-otomy to open her up in order to breathe – a dangerous situation!

A nurse who’d not served in that unit asked Nina if she could pray and Nina nodded as an orderly hooked up the heart monitor. The nurse began praying and right away Nina’s throat opened up and she could breath properly again: wildly oscillating readings quickly calmed down and stabilised.  Afterwards, over an early morning tea the night nurse confided she was there only for that night and had been asking the Lord who she should help – an angel indeed. Thank you Lord.

My concern over the PCT’s directive was ignored by the CEO’s standard reply for he proudly proclaimed adherence to diversity and equality policies – THAT SAYS IT ALL!

Furthermore, since publishing this post I’ve heard that another national Christian body has also been unable to agree to the ASA’s demands over statements of physical healing. Thus, on the face of it, I ask: is the ASA deliberately trying to gag the Gospel of Christ?

3. Proof of Healing

The ASA Adjudication noted, ‘testimonials on the website and in the video…were insufficient as evidence for claims of healing. We therefore concluded the ads were misleading.’ I assume this would have been because there was no ‘proper’ medical evidence.

Paucity of documentary proof has admittedly been a weakness of various ministries involved with Christian healing, yet such documentation compiled by New Age practi-tioners has enabled them to be permitted to work in recognised medical facilities.

In order for Christians to gain better recognition by the medical profession the renowned Randy Clark has launched a Christian Healing Certification Program.  No doubt this will include their astounding videos of a number of people from whom surgically implanted metal rods, pins and screws have miraculously disappeared!!  As there was no ill effect then their bodies were sufficiently healed to enable full physical activity!

At last September’s Revival Alliance Gathering John Arnott of Catch The Fire spoke about dvds he’s produced of medically verified accounts of healings in services.  As Nina’s healing was during one she agreed to go on video. Unfortunately however, no footage was available because her ministry took place off-camera.

In The Bay of The Holy Spirit Revival most healings are evident in their ‘before’ and ‘after’ manifestation, and a number people have returned with medical confirmation of their healing. For example, Crystal Caro brought a medical statement to there being  ’no known medical explanation’ for her miracle!!  Her surgically constructed bladder had been replaced by a real one after prayer at the revival meeting.

One mother spoke about the disappearance of a tumour the size of a golf ball from her son Caleb’s brain!  ‘Before’ and ‘after’ scans were shown on a later broadcast. Don’t we have a good God?

In the revival’s early days 18 months ago, the first to receive sight was a man who’d had eight operations to restore his sight, but all failed. He went home from the revival and returned with his whole family of unbelievers who ackowledged that God does heal and wanted to get right with him!  Then there’s the young lady who could only hear through  a digital box on her skull but which is no longer needed.  An older lady who’d had five strokes and whose family were thus unable to look after her, was collected by her sister and driven 500 miles to the revival – she returned home healed, and to save her family!

Have you wept with a young boy upon regaining sight in a blind eye?  Or seen Alanna’s tears at being the butt of kid’s jokes at her limp? She cried, “I can’t take it any more” but upon receiving prayer was healed of cerebral palsy, then walked properly and was soon to run and use a trampoline. Praise you Lord!

We’ll NEVER forget Delia Knox, getting out of a wheelchair after 22 yrs of paralysis and learning to walk again into her healing, which was seen around the world by satellite tv – what an awesome, MIGHTY testimony! (Evangelist Nathan Morris and her husband, a bishop, said they both felt an immense power surge around them during the service.)   This miracle was also reported in the UK press’ tabloid Daily Mail – but they twisted its truth by failing to acknowledge it was done through Jesus Christ!  Did they not realise the high cost of refusing to acknowledge him before men? (See Matthew 10:32-33)

So take your pick from many more testimonies on The Bay website. Would the ASA be able to watch anyone being deeply moved upon their receiving God’s healing grace?

Also, let’s be aware that local doctors occasionally send patients to revival services in Mobile, who then testify to receiving a healing.

PRAISE THE LORD THAT WE HAVE DOCUMENTARY PROOF OF NINA’S HEALING FROM PERMANENT DISABILITY!

Click here to read her full story

Is Britain’s backbone back?

Posted on by
4

Normally, I avoid reading whilst walking but after getting the newspaper last Saturday its banner headline grabbed me:

Don’t legalise gay marriage, Archbishop warns Cameron

The opening paragraph read:

Marriage must remain a union between a man and a woman, says the Archbishop of York, and David Cameron will be acting like a “dictator” if he allows homosexual couples to wed.

“AT LAST!” mused  after reading the article. A senior establishment cleric in England  is making a stand against ungodly trends. Could this indicate our nation’s spiritual backbone is re-appearing?

Back in 2004 I’d been confronted with a vision of the British Isles being torn apart because the very fabric of society is so thoroughly rotten. (There’s since been many  reports of breakdown in family life.)  A great tear in the ground from Scotland down to the middle of England opened up – BUT out of it grew a gigantic rock, just where the Pennine chain – our geophysical backbone – is located.  (See pre-blog email.)

I realised this may indicate that the nation’s ‘spiritual spine’ will be restored when men and women of God stand up sturdily for the Gospel of Christ, as in recent centuries.  Now, it occurs to me that this is the only way we can ever hope to regain the description ‘Great’ Britain, simply because it is God’s way.

Could that gigantic tear in England be prophetic of last year’s riots?  And could our sovereign’s sterling stance in her Christmas broadcast herald the appearance of the Rock?

How say you?

Interested readers should visit my above page of visionary reports.

May they stir you deeply in your spirit..