Pilgrim Heart

Want to see a Resurrection?

This is what the Kingdom of God is all about!

"The kingdom of God does not consist in word, but in power" (1 Corinthians 4:20).

I believe the Todd Bentley paraphrase of this scripture is "Bam!"

The Radiance of the Majesty of God's Presence

Not so long ago I would have been sceptical about this sort of thing, but as I'm coming to a deeper understanding of God's glory now I'd say, "with God nothing is impossible."

Happy are the People...

...whose God is the LORD! (no Jon we're NOT going to sing that one during the heap offering!)

Many others are posting on Without Borders 07, it was a great week. One thing that struck me is how happy everyone was - it seemed a real characteristic of the week. As usual Ruth and I barely sat down (certainly not a week for taking any clothes off!) - but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and so did the kids. This verse seems to sum it up:

"The blessing of the LORD makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it." (Proverbs 10:22)

The real testimony to the veracity (is that the right word?) of the week will be the fruit that the Word and the Spirit produce in my life and my family in the coming months, and I am expecting it to be abundant! Praise God!

Do You Believe?

To my surprise there are several clips of healings worked through the hands of A. A. Allen on You Tube. Here's one of a man being healed of cancer - stirring stuff!

Can't quite work out how to enbed from You Tube - I know I should be able to...

A Redeemed Holiday

We got back from France on Saturday afternoon having had a great break in the sun (and a little rain!). But the fact we ever got away in the first place was only by the grace of God.

As we were packing the final few things on Sunday evening for a 4am Monday start to our trip I noticed that the MOT on our car had expired - meaning it was illegal to drive it. So 8 hours before we were due to leave, with the kids in bed expecting to be woken at 4am to leave in the dark, the holiday was at least seriously delayed. We prayed frevently, and admitted our failings to God, and went to bed unsure of when we would be leaving.

Next morning, having been woken up by some very confused children who wondered why we were still at home and it was light, Ruth hit the phone at 8am to try to find a garage and I hit the phone to find how we could rearrange the crossing.

Ruth's second call got the best response possible - "bring the car round now and I'll have tested by 9am". The amazing thing is that our 11 year old car past the MOT without even needing a new lightbulb! There must have been some angel-mechanics working on it overnight.

We managed to change our crossing for a relatively small sum (£44), having first been told it would cost £212, and were got to France only 7 hours behind schedule.

To be honest it was the best drive on holiday ever for me - I was so thankful to God - our holiay had been redeemed! It would not have been unusual for the MOT test to have found something that would have taken days to fix, but everything worked out in the best possible way.

This is my testimony - God is interested not only in the essentials, but also the things that are just there to bless us - like holidays. I had messed up - but God sorted it out. I'd lost our holiday - but God restored it to us! And we had a fantastic time, spending part of our holiday with friends and part just as a family. Things seem much more precious when they've been lost and then found!

Here are some pics we took...

(1) halfway up the Aiguille du Midi (not so many smiles when we got to the top!)

(2) sunrise (yes sunrise!) over Lake Annecy

(3) Looking out to sea from Sete

(4) the tallest road-bridge in the world at Millau

Apostles in Action

A house is built by wisdom and becomes strong through good sense. Through knowledge its rooms are filled with all sorts of precious riches and valuables. [Pr 23:3-4 NLT]

One of the things that struck me in the ministry at Without Borders 06 was the demonstration of the apostolic and prophetic ministry in action. This post will focus on apostolic ministry, and even if you weren't there hopefully these observations will help in understanding the role apostles play in the church today.

Apostles are given by Christ to see his spiritual house - the Church - built according to God's heavenly pattern. We were privileged to hear 3 apostles minister and each showed a different facet of apostolic ministry.

Bryan Shutt spoke about the kind of people God has made us to be - this is a primary calling of ongoing apostolic ministry - to bring the people of God into a realisation of what He has made them to be. This is Paul's heart as he writes his epistles, expressed nowhere better than his prayer for the Ephesians,

I pray that the eyes of you heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. [Eph 1:18-9]

I know that for me personally, and also for many people I have spoken to since, Noralv Aseland's message on Remember the Poor brought a new depth of revelation and understanding of God's heart and purpose. Although I have long known what the Word says about the poor - and particularly remembering the poor being an emphasis of the Jerusalem apostles and of Paul in Acts 15, I had not fully grasped before it's central position in the Kingdom purpose of God. This is another key function of apostles - to bring forth fresh revelation from God's Word - and in particular to show God's people how all of God's Word co-ordinates in God's eternal plan for the world.

Keri Jones announcement of a project to visit every nation of the world and proclaim the prophetic Word of God and to bring a message of peace to people of peace illustrates supremely a vital apostolic function - to keep God's people focused on their mission the ends of the earth - the ultimate outworking of our commission (see Matt 28). He also clearly conveyed that this plan is not just some wild scheme, but a response to a specific word from God, to be undertaken with diligence and integrity. This also emphasises the ministry of apostles as equippers of the saints for works of ministry (Eph 4:12). Keri didn't ask for money so he could fulfil a call of God, but equipped and envisioned God's people to do it themselves under and apostolic instigation.

This for me was one of the things that made our time together so exciting, important and of eternal worth!

Sermon Summaries

I've uploaded a powerpoint file with brief sermon summaries of the preaching at Without Borders 06. A reminder for those who were there and a taster for those who weren't! CDs and DVDs of the ministry will be available soon here.

Download without_borders_06.ppt

Stafford Update

I spent the day at Staffordshire Showground yesterday helping set up the Main Auditorium - all is going well and yes it's still hot and sunny. We have come up with a solution to the heat for the choir though - we can position the baptismal pool behind the choir risers so you can jump off the stage straight into the water - if we put a bit of Daz in then you can wash your costumes at the same time!

Ruth has gone over this morning to prepare the children's ministry rooms and I am left to collect Seth from nursery, the other kids from school, pack the car, take the kids to their swimming lessons and then head over to Stafford towing a caravan for a friend. Ruth has left me a list - so that will be fine then!

Today is the Day of Salvation

We had a great prayer meeting at our house last night - we began by thanking God for the 2 people saved at our Alpha Course meeting on Monday night! Thank you Jesus!

God challenged us as we prayed to pray and live in expectation of what he will do: Jesus is the Saviour of the world - that means he saves people, he has told us that the harvest is ripe, and we know that the gospel works. We are the light of the world, and we have a commission to preach the good news!

So today I live in expectation that today is the day of salvation: the only qualification anyone needs to receive the gospel is that they are lost, the only way they'll hear the truth is if we tell them - expect to be the bringer of salvation today!

The Power of Prayer and Machiavellian Machinations

Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One. "Let us break their chains," they say, "and throw off their fetters." The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. [Psalm 2:1-4]

Like me you have probably received emails and other encouragments to pray against the government's proposed law on religious hatred [see here to find out why!]; last night the law was defeated by 1 vote.

I do believe that this was an answer to the great volume of prayer that has gone before the throne. What is interesting is to see the earthly manifestation of this divine intervention: from an earthly perspective the government were defeated becasue the Tory whips managed to fool the Labour whips into thinking that the Conservatives would not turn up to vote in great numbers, the Labour whips believed the rumours and consequently didn't get all their available members in to vote and the government lost by one vote.

Tony Blair left the chamber before the vote and by not voting himself sealed his own government's defeat. The underhand, whispering tactic of mis-information brought about a defeat motivated by party political point-scoring and not ideology; and in all this plotting and turmoil we hear the voice of God, laughing at the vanity of human power and bringing about his righteous rule.