Blog of a Wandering Christian

A New Perspective on Chilling Out

2010-05-18T08:52:00.000-07:00

As I was reading my Bible I came across this very familiar passage

Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV) "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

This is a beautiful and well loved scripture which I am sure most of us learned early on in our walk with the Lord. It is the source of 1Peter 5:7 “Cast all your cares upon Him because He cares for you.” It sums up in one short passage the route to all rest and relaxation – how to be satisfied with your lot – how to cope with every day’s problems and worries.

I wanted to delve a little deeper into this so I flicked back through my old emails and Twitter messages til I found this alternative translation from the Message Bible.

Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message)

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

Beautiful isn’t it? And so much to the point.

This is what the Lord said to me. “You worry and express concern about all too many things, but, instead of giving them to Me and letting Me deal with them, you keep them and almost encourage them to fester in your own life. As a result, you do start to worry and fret and you leave the door wide open for the enemy to come in and disrupt your peace with all sorts of unnecessary nonsense. Why do you do this when My Word says so clearly to give everything to Me and to let Me deal with them while My Grace carries you peacefully through each and every trap and pitfall of daily living.” He showed me, too, what is meant by that wonderfully evocative phrase, the “unforced rhythms of grace.”

His Grace is all-sufficient. It is sufficient for you. It is sufficient for me. As we grow in His Grace so we learn to give Him more and more and to relax and retain our own peace – also more and more. There is a rhythm to this and it’s rather like being in a boat out on the open sea where the waves pass by with such a regular rhythm. As each wave of trouble heads our way, we are in danger of the wave breaking over us unless we give the wave back to the Lord. That’s when we crest the top and slide gently down the other side waiting for the next wave to head our way. There is clearly a rhythm to this as we find problems and gain release from them. We find a problem and go up with each wave. Then we give it to Jesus and ride the wave gently and easily down again.

So chill out people – learn to use the ‘unforced rhythms of grace’ for yourself and find your peace again. Best thing is to not lose that peace again. Isn’t God’s Word wonderful.

2010-04-19T05:07:00.000-07:00

The Candlestick 2

In the first article I told how the Lord said,

"I am taking the candlestick away from the big churches and the big ministries and I am giving it back to the little churches - the little people." The Lord also said to me today that there is coming a day when He will ask us, "What did you do with the light I gave to you?”

Serious words. Serious question.

In that first article I spoke about the over activeness of many churches. Un-surprisingly perhaps, I received one or two questions about this and they prompted me to seek the Lord again. My response is now this :-

No word such as this applies to every church, but how many churches have program after program yet their only real outreach to the outside and hurting world is a cleverly worded notice outside the church - usually urging folk to "come on in - everyone is welcome." Trouble is the very folk they aim their 'outreach' at are those who wouldn't usually be seen within a mile of the inside of any church. In fact, save for hatch, match, and despatch, they will never come inside a church. The church in response organises more and more activities - but still only their own people turn up. Why is this do you suppose?

The church has spent millions and millions on ‘programs’, yet where oh where is the fruit? Why are we not packed to capacity? Why are we not overflowing?

In general terms, the church is so tied up with its own activity that it has forgotten how to preach or otherwise get the gospel out to the unchurched. Sure it is preached some weeks, but who is there to hear the sermon?

As I say, I do not include every church in this article but if the cap fits, then you, or your church, or any other church to whom this applies, must wear it. There are quite a few churches whose sole purpose is to reach the lost. Yet there are also very many who are too smug and comfortable in their own sanctified complacency. When Jesus returns, He will surely ask each of us that question - “What did you do with the light I gave to you?”

OK then – what or how will you answer when He says to you “What did you do with the light I gave to you?” Did you hide it “under a bushel”? or did you hold it high for all the world to see? Did you even mention Jesus to your neighbours? Or are you too one of those resting comfortably in your own smug, sanctified complacency?

Let me ask you one last question. As the church is supposed to be the Bride of Christ – if Jesus were to come back today, how will He react when He comes to your church. “Well done, good and faithful servants”? or “Away from Me, I do not know you !!”??

CGB @cgbrofmi
19 April 2010

The Candlestick

2010-04-18T13:32:00.000-07:00

The Candlestick

The Lord reminded me this morning of a word I heard the other day. He said,

"I am taking the candlestick away from the big churches and the big ministries and I am giving it back to the little churches - the little people." The Lord also said to me today that there is coming a day when He will ask us, "What did you do with the light I gave to you?”

Serious words. Serious question.

The Word of God says this in Matthew 5:14-16 (NIV)
"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

How many churches do you know where they have every social and service activity under the sun. They have ladies groups, men’s groups, seniors groups, youth groups, and children’s groups. They have mum & toddler club, lunch club, after school club, wives club, singles club and so on. They have bible studies, evening and day time prayer meetings, Sunday Schools, weekday fellowships – the list is almost endless.

Who are these activities for?

I believe that one of the great deceptions and diversions that Satan has made is to turn the church into a kind of social glee club. I believe he has so turned us towards world thinking and busy-ness that we have forgotten to keep doing the Fathers business. We seem to spend so much time on our “Christian Activities” for the people already inside the church that we have forgotten to do those things in the great commission for those outside the church.

Mark 16:15-18 (NIV)
“He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."

The candlestick is the Gospel – it is all about Jesus who said He is the light of the world. The Lord is taking that candlestick away from the big ministries, the big churches, those who are so busy with their own and the enemies own activities on behalf of their own people that they have forgotten to put their light up high for all outside the church to see.

Let me re-quote what the Lord said to me - "I am taking the candlestick away from the big churches and the big ministries and I am giving it back to the little churches - the little people." He also said to me that there is coming a day when He will ask us, "What did you do with the light I gave to you?"

He showed me that we are “little church”, and we are “little people”. The candlestick is the light of His Gospel. It’s our job to make sure our light shines and when it does, unsaved people will be drawn to it like moths round a light bulb. They will want to know what it is we have but they don’t have. What will we say when people ask? We may only have the one chance and we must simply take it."

OK then – what or how will you answer when He says to you “What did you do with the light I gave to you?”

CGB @cgbrofmi
18 April 2010

Guest Post from Karen Anderson

2010-03-30T04:02:00.000-07:00

Healing and Deliverance According to the Bible

When we hear the word deliverance, we tend to associate it with “deliverance from evil”. Our Lord’s prayer includes this in the last line – we ask him to deliver us from all evil as we pray every day. Christian deliverance refers to God rescuing his children not just from demonic and satanic possession, but from bondage, oppression, hardship and temptation as well. We talk of various forms of deliverance:
• Spiritual: All Christians must believe in the uniqueness of God as the only divine being and desist from worshipping or even acknowledging the existence of any other form of divinity.
• Social: It is important that we remember God in all our social activities and avoid taking part in anything that detracts from His greatness and from the teachings of the Holy Bible.
• Physical: This refers to the exorcism of not just demons and other evil forms from the physical body, but also deliverance from our attachment to our bodies. We must not be so caught up in the way we look that we forget to worship God with all the devotion that the deed requires.
• Material: When we become attached and addicted to material possessions, it makes it that much harder to reach God and become one with him. We are so focused on amassing wealth and retaining it that we forget to offer thanks and praise the Lord for his goodness.
Most of all, we need deliverance from ignorance and sin – the first for all that we do unknowingly that is against the teachings in the Bible, and the second for all that we knowingly do just because we are overcome by lust and temptation for worldly and hedonistic pleasures.
Healing takes place when you truly repent for your transgressions and come back to the path of truth and follow the will of God. You must also give up all forms of temptations and dissociate yourself from situations that lead you to sin, knowingly or unknowingly. And most important of all, you must pray to God and ask him to guide you as you go through this deliverance and healing process and enable you to keep to the straight and narrow path.
Biblical deliverance and healing allow you to walk with God and abide in the teachings of Christ his son.
By-line:
This guest post is contributed by Karen Anderson, who writes on the topic of online bible colleges (http://onlinebiblecolleges.net/ ) . She welcomes your comments at her email id : karen.anderson441@gmail.com

The Road to Hell

2010-03-02T01:31:00.000-08:00

There is an old saying in England – The Road to Hell is paved with Good Intentions. I just want to shed a little bit of what God showed me about it – some new light on that simple sentence.

Normally we mean that our own road to hell is paved with our own good intentions – and there is truth in that. Yet there is a greater truth that someone else’s road to Hell is also paved with your good intentions.

Have you ever intended to do something but, well, just never got around to doing it? Of course you did.

How many times have you heard something like a prophesy and said, well we shall see? “If the Lord does it then I shall believe it.”

When you heard about the poor people caught by the tsunami, or the people caught by the earthquake, or the people caught by the typhoon or storms – did you say to yourself, “I should try to help them.” But then thought, “But what use is my few pounds in the middle of such need?”

When we come to face the Lord and we are held to account for all that we DID do and all that we DIDN’T do – what will you say. “Well Lord, I meant to do that but you came back too quickly!”

What happens on the great day when an angel calls out “Chris Bennett, Evangelist, step forward!” “What? I’m not an evangelist. Who is he calling?”
“You”
“But but I’m not an evangelist. I am a pastor, a prophet, a healer. Thats the ministry you gave me, Lord !“
“No – I called you to be an evangelist. Remember that prophecy given to you in 2009? Why didn’t you listen to it?”

You see, we are all called to something and it will avail you very little to say, “yes Lord, I know, I meant to do it – you know Lord – one day I really did intent to do it.”

What do you think the Lord will say to you?

“Oh well, never mind – you did OK although you could have done a bit better.”

“OK – its shame cos I really wanted you to save all these people.” And He shows you crowds of people who were not saved ???

No – He may very well show you the crowds of people who might have been saved if you had obeyed your calling.

Then He may very well ask you for an account of each one of them as to WHY you didn’t preach the gospel to them.

He may show you how each of them who stayed un-saved (some will be saved by someone else) has walked a steady path right into Hell.

He Might even show you that their road to Hell was paved with your good intentions but because you stayed in disobedience to His call, they have gone to Hell.

He might even show you the way to the gates of Hell for being so disobedient saying, “Away from me you evildoer – I do not know you!”

Suddenly the panic grabs you, “But Lord, look at all that I did in Your Name. Lord, I healed the sick – I cast out demons – I gave people prophecies that changed their lives for You.”

“Yes, but I called you to be an evangelist and because you ignored me – because you only ever intended to evangelise but never did it – all these people went to Hell - Lost because of YOU!”

Its time to listen to what God is saying to each one of us. Its time to get ourselves into His will for our lives. Its time to start putting the road to Hell in its place – as a thing of the past !!

RoFMI Visit Report to Norway Jan 2010

2010-01-27T14:10:00.000-08:00

There are moments in ones life when words are simply both insufficient and inadequate to describe things. This is one such moment. I have been back home from Norway for less than one hour and the only thing I want to do is to tell you all about the trip. So . . . . . .

Thanks to my brilliance as administrator, I managed to book us all on two different flights so Jean & John left Thursday morning, very early, while Peter, Keith and myself left early evening. Thanks to the sterling support of our friends in Norway, Robin & Leif, we all managed to get out to the SBI Bibleschool where we were to visit first. It is on the ‘wrong’ (west) side of the Oslo Fjord so we had to take the ferry and were met on the other side by Svein-Kase who took us all to the school where we were made very welcome and allowed to settle in quietly before the first session on Friday Morning.

Friday morning we all joined in the schools daily praise, worship, and prayers. We were warmly welcomed by Reidar Gamst, the School Director, before Keith took the first session – a teaching on Spiritual Warfare. This went down well and started the students, aged between 19 and over 30, asking the first of many questions. After a snack & coffee, Keith once again took the floor for the concluding Spiritual Warfare session. During the session two ‘unexpected’ visitors came in to the lecture room and listened to the remained of the session. We all then had an extended break for lunch, fellowship, and some prayer too.

One of the visitors turned out to be Per Sotorp, a very well known Norwegian gospel artist, who happily agreed to lead an impromptu praise and worship session where the anointing just fell. The impromptu session lasted nearly 3 hours and Per kindly did some requests as well !! We broke at 7pm before the evening Youth meeting Pastor Matthew spoke on the prodigal son and then Peter spoke and gave some words of encouragement and prophecy. There was a dramatic deliverance period and we all got to bed around 01:00. (Well maybe 02:00 or even later by the time we’d had coffee and unwound a little bit.

Saturday morning broke bright, grey, and snowy and over breakfast, it was very obvious there was a change in many of the students. The Lord was touching them and He was ‘doing things’ in many of their lives. We were joined quite early by Jonathan, another team member, who came over late from England. From 11:00 to about 18:00 we had a meeting for the leaders and pastors that Reidar had invited along to meet us; to hear from the Lord; and to be encouraged. I managed a very poor introduction of the RoFMI Ministry and the team – I set out to say one thing – the Lord seemed to change my direction, and I ended up not saying anything like what I wanted to say. I then introduced Peter who spoke at some length about the three rules for any Pastor. Love your people; Love your people; and then Love your people. After lunch together, we had an extended time of prophecy, prayer, and ministry.

Then things started to ‘hot up’ as the Lord took over the rest of the day.

After dinner, we gathered in one of the lounges with a number of the students for perhaps the most amazing time or prayer and ministry I have ever attended, Peter spoke briefly and quietly about the need to “die to self and live for Him”. We then felt led to arrange a space on the floor for a “coffin” so that anyone could throw their unwanted baggage or troubles or problems into the coffin in a symbolic act of repentance and obedience to the calling of the Lord. Several went through the prophetic action of taking the ‘load’ of their own back, and ‘throwing’ it into the coffin. THEN one of the men stood up and ‘laid down’ in the coffin. The anointing of that moment was – well – you had to be there as 14 more people went through the same procedure. There was almost total silence for nearly 2 hours as one by one, people went through the symbolic act of dying to self in order to live for Him. The only sound was when Peter gave a very occasional word of knowledge about what was happening. Most amazingly, one young lady stayed there for 45 minutes and was transported to heaven for the Lord to do His work in her. Amazing, amazing time, and so powerful and anointed. Every person there was changed – all of us !! As we watched the Lord at work we were simply humbled into silence. Finally – as if to tell us it was finished – there was an outbreak of Holy Joy.

An incredible end to 2 days of incredible ministry and worship. However, God was not quite finished as we went to visit a family on site for a final drink and some more quiet ministry as we prayed for their son who has ADHD. Bed around 02:30 again.

Sunday came and we bid farewell to a very changed bunch of both students and staff – and with an invitation to do a full prophetic conference in May. Across the Ferry to the East Fjord and on to Dear friends Leif and Karin-Sophie at their lovely home in Frederikstad. They had invited quite a few people along and we were honoured to find a lot of people wanting to hear from the Lord. Peter spoke briefly asking “What if we could hear the Holy Spirit as clearly as we can hear Satan and his demons?” Two businessmen who came along were greatly blessed with words of prophecy as was a young lady with a wonderful prophetic worship anointing. We ended by going to see Reiden & Wraggs – parents of Robin (Our Norwegian Partner) where they had prepared a magnificent fish supper for us.

Monday morning and Jean & John had to fly early (more thanks for my quite superb admin) while Peter, Keith & I stayed for a while longer. I stayed with Leif & Karin-Sophie and we went for a wonderful winter walk in the snowy sunshine. Cold but breathtakingly beautiful – as my photos will show. Back at the house 20 or more people once again congregated for fellowship, prayer, and prophecy. We eventually had to drag Peter away so we could catch our flight back home and even then, Leif & Tommy who had taken us to the airport waited till we were completely out of sight before leaving us.

Altogether a breathtaking trip. So anointed we could barely speak on the way home. Also so tiring because of the intensity of the whole 4 days. So important too for all the contacts and divine meetings we had. What a phenomenal Lord we try to serve. \o/ Hallelujah & Thank you Lord – ALL glory to You.

CGB ©RoFMI 2010

"Miracle Man"

2010-01-15T14:52:00.000-08:00

Frank Hansen - Miracle Man

During a recent ministry visit to Denmark, we once again met with Frank Hansen – a Christian biker for the past 20 years or more. There is a move of the Lord amongst bikers all over Europe and America. It is amazing how God is using these “outsiders” to reach a hurting and wounded world with His love. Such is the fire and zeal among these wonderful men of God that many are not only willing but are actually risking their life by telling their old group that they are leaving the group or gang – an act perceived almost as bad as treason and punishable by anything up to and including death.

Some of you may recall the story of Frank Hansen who was mown down by a car, (not a truck as I first thought), and inflicted with the most horrendous injuries. Known now as “Miracle Man”, Frank has an astonishing testimony to Gods healing power and grace. In the accident, Frank was consigned to a wheelchair where he stayed for over three and a half years. His foot was virtually severed – held on only by skin and the boots he was wearing. His thigh was broken in three places. When we met him first of all, he had pneumonia. His injuries left him with tinnitus, asthma, loss of the sense of smell, septicaemia, a bent spine which gave him crooked shoulders, and many other things wrong or broken. As I say, we first met him two months ago. The local medical services not only saved his life but they patched him up as best they could.

When we were at a prayer meeting, a lady, who turned out to be Franks wife Bente, came up to me and asked if we could come to their home and pray for Frank. He was very despondent, suffering greatly from pain and depression, and actually almost suicidal despite his own and Bente’s faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. So we went there and, when we arrived, we spotted this rather forlorn and bent figure standing on a second floor balcony and leaning heavily on his stick.
Peter, our leader, called up to him – “Are you Frank?”
“Yes” came the response.
“Are you ready to be healed?”
“Yes” but this time it seemed to come back more as a roar !!

Frank was a sorry sight. He could barely stand let alone walk. He had been wheelchair bound for three and a half years but had recently asked for physiotherapy from the hospital and had learned to balance and walk a very short distance on his own. It was obvious that his right leg was two or even three inches shorter than the left. His right shoulder was three inches lower than his left and his spine was in an S-shape. He wasn’t breathing well although we put this down to the effort he required just to get out of his second floor flat to the balcony. Fortunately, the flats have a lift otherwise he would have been completely house-bound.

We anointed him and started to pray. Peter received several words of knowledge which were all confirmed. As we prayed, I had the ultimate privilege of watching his right leg grow to the same length as the left leg !! We stood him up, and watched his frame become straight !! His spine straightened and his shoulders became square. Frank had a huge grin on his face !! Many tears flowed. Frank told us he had a hospital appointment next week so we told him to get everything confirmed. Over the next few days, we heard from Frank the full extent of his healing as it all gradually manifested. Things like his lungs cleared as asthma and pneumonia cleared up; his sense of taste and smell returned; the ringing in his ears went !! So many things.

Come the day of his hospital appointment, his consultant was expecting a cripple to walk or rather to totter into the surgery. He could not believe his own eyes when Frank strode in and he called a colleague to confirm what his eyes were telling him. Frank asked to be taken off all the drugs and was told they were so powerful that it would take a year to get him right off them. Yet today Frank is on his last couple of weeks of the now very weak drugs. There has been no ‘cold turkey’; no shaking or any withdrawal symptoms at all. His consultant has said that he doesn’t know how or why – but Frank is healed. It’s an incomprehensible miracle medically, but he is fully healed. Frank has witnessed Jesus to him but we don’t know what effect, if any, Franks witness has had. We do know that Frank has since led at least three people to the Lord through his testimony.

On November 20th 2009 Frank Hansen was a broken man apparently destined to spend the rest of his life a cripple or at least a permanently damaged man. Today, in mid-January 2010, Frank Hansen is completely healed and restored to fine health thanks to the healing power of our wonderful God. Bente says that she has the man she first married 23 years ago back again. Frank says the God has given him his life back and he will now spend the rest of it winning the lost back to the Lord.

What an amazing God we serve. Hallelujah \o/

Now here’s a thought.

2010-01-15T14:21:00.000-08:00

Now here’s a thought - and it could really offend some people so be warned.

There was I just minding my own business. I was unwinding ready for the weekend just listening to one of those ‘perfect preachers’ – you know what I mean – guy with a wonderful preaching gift expounding and unravelling the scriptures for us all – exhorting us to “study – study – study”, when a truly radical thought came to mind. I was thinking that if we obeyed the exhortations of all these preachers we would spend 35 hours a day with our noses in the Bible, and we would have no time for anything else !! (That’s not the radical thought)

Now I am not a natural student. I did well at school for two reasons – one I am intelligent (IQ 150+) and two I have a wonderful gift of just passing exams without any revision whatsoever !! Yeah its true – I am lazy AND the most fortunate of men in that I don’t have to spend hours with my nose in the text books. Don’t people like that just offend your sense of justice? Certainly it’s why I was so good at sports as a young man – I excelled at soccer, swimming, and field events. No – it’s not at all fair but hey – I enjoyed it. I enjoyed not studying. I also excelled at languages so I would never have been out of work either. But I wasted a lot of it because I am so lazy

Anyway, back to my thoughts. I was thinking that some people really do spend hours and hours in studies. What does it gain them? Where does it get them? What purpose does it serve? That’s when my radical thought struck me. I’m pretty sure it came from the Lord too !! Try this one for size –

“Some people only ever study My Word. They never use what they learn. They never stir themselves into action. They simply use the study of My Word as an excuse for doing nothing !!!”

WOW – where did that come from? Was that really you Lord? “Yes, some people say they are too busy to actually do my work. But they are simply avoiding it by pretending to try to learn more about Me and My ways through My Word.”

“So why would they do that?”

“They don’t want to get their hands of their minds dirtied by the world. They cannot deal with people so they immerse themselves in other ‘Godly’ activities.”

WOW again. Was this really God speaking to me? Well I began to think about what He said and I realised the truth in there. People love the idea of Christianity; they love the idea of God as He is presented in the Bible; but they don’t really want to serve Him. Why do so many people go to that conference or outreach or teaching event time and time and time again yet they NEVER take any unsaved people with them? Why do so many people treat their church as simply a ‘God Club’ rather than the way of expressing their faith in a wonderful loving Father God?

Before you all start protesting about ‘I haven’t got the time’ or ‘I can’t leave my family/dog/cat to go on the trips you go on’. Yes I accept that. I am not aiming at you personally. There are very many who truly cannot do what I do – they are not called to it for a start. But there are equally many who could do so much more – but they prefer to leave it to others. ‘Don’t want to get involved. Don’t want to get my hands dirty. I mean, some of the people you mix with are rough and common people aren’t they?’ Well, don’t fret – I am more than happy to do whatever I can – just as many are not do-ers, so I am not a study-er. Wouldn’t do if we were all the same now would it ??

Now – There really is a thought for you. Where’s my coffee ??

RoFMI Visit Report to Denmark Jan 2010

2010-01-12T12:00:00.000-08:00

RoFMI Visit Report to Denmark Jan 2010

As winter descended on the UK, so we decided to hop across the North Sea to Denmark to visit our wonderful friends there. Little did we know what the Lord had in store for us on this trip. In order to even get to the flight, I had to leave a day early to avoid being snowed in at home. The precaution was wise as I would certainly have missed the trip had I waited a further 24 hours as the snow set in hard all around the South of England. We were not even sure if any flights would leave on the Thursday morning – let alone leave at 07-15 a.m. But we (Peter, John, & myself) got to the airport in time and the Lord blessed us with both safe and perfectly on time travel. It was the first miracle of a weekend of miracles. God is so good.

We went straight to visit a local pastor in Vallo, just outside Copenhagen and within 45 minutes of landing, the Lord was revealing many of His secrets to Peter and the rest of us. It seems that. Not only is revival coming to Scandinavia, but it is coming very soon and through the ‘unknown army’ of end-time pastors and warriors currently being raised up by the Lord. Many of the very high profile ministries and mega-churches in Scandinavia will not only miss out on revival – they may well actually fall and the signs are already there for those “who have eyes to see”. A short period of blessed fellowship ended when we made our way to “HQ” – that’s Pinsekirken, in Korsor, home of Maureen & Preben Westh the pastors and our representatives in Denmark.

A short rest was followed by fellowship and a delicious dinner with a lovely young lady called Charlotte, one of the Pinsekirken congregation. A drive then to Holbaek about 50 km away to visit the house group of Linda and Soren Gyr. They are soon to become a house group fellowship associated with a church in Kalundborg which is a town a few km away under Pastor Jonar – whom we also visited this trip – but more of that later. A wonderful time of fellowship and prayer with many words of prophecy being given ended our first, rather long, day about 20 hours long actually and even then we didn’t go to bed for another hour as we were still “high” from the meetings.

On Friday, thankfully, we had a nice easy morning and we drove gently to Copenhagen for lunch with the leaders of the local Biker group, “Exodus” – Kai and his wife Annette. Annette is a gifted song writer and there is an anointing on many of her songs. Following a period of praise and worship, led by Annette, we had some more words of prophecy and encouragement for everyone there. This lasted until more people arrived for an early pizza supper which was followed in turn by a larger meeting which provided one of many great highlights. Peter brought a wonderful word about the restoration of prophets to nations to lead them in to revival. These prophets will have much of the power and respect afforded to the old-time Biblical prophets. There was also a word of prophecy to a young couple about to get married followed by prayer ministry. During this time, a man with damaged legs and feet was prayed for. Let’s just say that he arrived on crutches and left dancing – carrying the crutches over his shoulder. During this time I also managed to record the testimony of “Miracle man” Frank Hansen – an astonishing testimony to Gods healing power and grace. In an accident, Frank was consigned to a wheelchair where he stayed for over three and a half years. His foot was virtually severed; his thigh broken in three places; he had pneumonia, tinnitus, asthma, loss of the sense of smell, Septicaemia, a bent spine and many other things wrong or broken – that was two months ago. Today, Frank Hansen is completely healed and restored to fine health thanks to the healing power of our wonderful God. We also spent the night at Franks place ready for a major meeting with the biker group “Exodus” and some of their friends the next day.

Saturday dawned bright and sunny again, and we spent another easy morning but Peter and John managed to fit in a hospital visit to a lady with cancer. On the way out of the hospital, John spotted a young lady with a very new baby waiting by the door. She spoke English and explained that her new son, just 3 days old, had a quite serious stomach disorder. Upon hearing this, Peter introduced himself as a pastor and asked if she would like them to pray for the baby. To their delighted surprise, the young mum readily agreed, so Peter asked for baby’s name. “Oh, we haven’t named him yet” came the reply. Without breaking stride even for a second, Peter started to pray, “Lord, we hold Matthew before you now . . . . “ It was one of those ‘God-moments’ and baby went silent and slept serenely through it all. Mum left the hospital with a broad smile replacing the worried frown when they first met. Only God knows what was achieved in that short meeting.

When they returned, we went to the 2 o’clock meeting when about 25 large leather-clad bikers and their ‘other halves’ all arrived. What a blessing these wonderful spirit filled guys are going to be to the whole of Europe. One man received some wonderful prophecy and promptly announced that he would be going to his present group to tell them that he had to leave because of his new found faith in Jesus Christ. It was pointed out to him that because of the group’s rules, this could quite easily cost him his life – literally. He said quite clearly and quietly that he is prepared to die for the Gospel and for His Lord !! He left later, with his wife, already in prayer for this eventuality. Makes my faith seem so small by comparison – don’t know about you? In the evening there was more of the same with only a slight change of personnel – some bikers left but other people took their places. We learned during the day of some very significant changes to the whole biker community because of the activities of these particular amazing men and women of God. “Outsiders” to many but blessed and wonderful men and women of God nevertheless.

So to Sunday. During the morning, Peter & John went to Kalundborg while I stayed in Korsor. Both meetings were extraordinarily blessed and many received words of encouragement and prophecy to enrich their day. In Korsor, not one person failed to come forward when I put out an appeal for ministry and prayer. I was staggered – Preben was delighted. Peter and John had similar results in Kalundborg with Pastor Jonar and we all congregated later in Korsor for the evening meeting. It was amazing because without any collusion or comparing of notes, in the evening Peter & John repeated almost word for word that which I had spoken in the morning !!! Another astonishing God-moment.

Monday saw us visiting two young ladies with a vision for the future and a ministry dream that is amazing. We stayed with them for two hours before going to visit a couple from Prebens church where much blessing flowed along with the tears. It would be wrong to even try to explain – just accept my word for it. And so a final meal with Preben & Maureen before setting off on the long trail home. Despite all the bad weather we arrived just 20 minutes late – not bad when there is so much snow and ice everywhere – with temperatures to match.

I cannot begin to do any real justice to this trip. That revival is starting to come to Scandinavia there can be absolutely no doubt whatsoever. Once again, the Lord proved how faithful and true He is and we are left simply saying – “Why us Lord – why us?”

Move just 4000 cubits

2009-12-19T07:14:00.000-08:00

A friend just reminded me of this passage. As I read it, the Lord spoke to me. See what you think.

Ezekiel 47:1-12 AMP
1THEN HE [my guide] brought me again to the door of the house [of the Lord--the temple], and behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple was toward the east; and the waters came down from under, from the right side of the temple, on the south side of the altar.
2Then he brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around outside to the outer gate by the way that faces east, and behold, waters were running out on the right side.
3And when the man went on eastward with the measuring line in his hand, he measured a thousand cubits, and he caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were ankle-deep. 4Again he measured a thousand cubits and caused me to pass through the waters, waters that reached to the knees. Again he measured a thousand cubits and caused me to pass through the waters, waters that reached to the loins. 5Afterward he measured a thousand, and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the waters had risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over or through.
6And he said to me, Son of man, have you seen this? Then he led me and caused me to return to the bank of the river. 7Now when I had returned, behold, on the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other. 8Then he said to me, These waters pour out toward the eastern region and go down into the Arabah (the Jordan Valley) and on into the Dead Sea. And when they shall enter into the sea [the sea of putrid waters], the waters shall be healed and made fresh.
9And wherever the double river shall go, every living creature which swarms shall live. And there shall be a very great number of fish, because these waters go there that [the waters of the sea] may be healed and made fresh; and everything shall live wherever the river goes. 10The fishermen shall stand on [the banks of the Dead Sea]; from En-gedi even to En-eglaim shall be a place to spread nets; their fish shall be of very many kinds, as the fish of the Great or Mediterranean Sea. 11But its swamps and marshes will not become wholesome for animal life; they shall [as the river subsides] be left encrusted with salt and given over to it. 12And on the banks of the river on both its sides, there shall grow all kinds of trees for food; their leaf shall not fade nor shall their fruit fail [to meet the demand]. Each tree shall bring forth new fruit every month, [these supernatural qualities being] because their waters came from out of the sanctuary. And their fruit shall be for food and their leaves for healing.

Move just 4000 cubits

Why are we, as a people, so afraid of the Holy Spirit in action that we dare not get more than our feet wet?

Most people get feet dampish

A few go in to their knees – like paddling in the sea

A few get waist deep – getting scary

A very few brave souls go for it and take to swimming.

What does this passage promise us who dare to venture into the deep realms of the Spirit?

1. Trees on each side

2. Clean water teeming with fish

3. Trees that give new fruit every month without fail !! Leaves of healing

So what?

These trees supply shelter – they supply food – they provide health
And for meat – the river provides the fish.

Where are these things? By and in the River of God.

OK – So . . . . . ?

Where do you stand in or by the river of God – the river of His Holy Spirit that flows from His Holy Temple? Are you afraid to move into deeper water? Are you afraid to get your feet wet – or get your knees wet – or your waist wet – or even of getting in so deep that you have to swim?

Why?

Is the Word of God to be believed or not? Do you believe whatever God or His Word says to you?

There is provision in the river of God. There is food and shelter there. There is healing and health there. He doesn’t promise an easy ride. He doesn’t promise there will be no more difficulties – in fact Paul promises the opposite. But He does promise His hand upon you – His provision for you “every month”.

What are you afraid of? Get in deeper. Move those 4000 cubits further down stream. Say to Him, “Yes Lord, I want to swim in Your river. I want Your provision, Your healing and health, to shelter in the place where You are providing. Come Holy Spirit Come. Do your work in me today – right now – this very minute.” If you say that today, you’ll never regret it even for one instant.

CGB 19 Dec 2009.

The Days of 'Greater Things'

2009-12-14T08:08:00.001-08:00

I heard the Lord saying - "Get ready; get ready - I am about to release My Spirit to do all He wants to do through you and others. Get ready for 'greater things'; get ready for healings you never dreamed possible; get ready for salvations that will shock the world of those about to be saved; get ready for even little children to manifest My Spirit and to do My work. Give ME the Glory - all of it - I will not share My Glory with anyone. Get ready to see Me in action as you have only dreamed - I am the Lord God Almighty; that is My Name. Get ready to see the beginnings of a revival to end all revivals - but let Me do the work. You only need to do what I say - obedience is the only key. Get ready. Get ready."

I pursued this with the Lord and He said this – “I have put My people in place ready for the end-times. These are not simply ‘yes-men’ but rather those whom I have chosen and placed are those whose heart is like My own. Men and women who will hear from Me; drop everything, and do whatever I ask at whatever the cost – even though their own lives and the lives of their loved ones are in danger. My Word speaks of ‘greater things’ and this is the season when I will manifest these greater things for My own Glory – yet men and women will still try to steal some of the Glory so those I will replace by using even little children to bring about the greater things that will absolutely dumbfound the medical and political world. Even the Moslem communities will take notice as I bring healings and salvations to them too. “

The Lord also gave me this warning. He said, “Take seriously the duty of giving Me all the Glory. I am a jealous God and I share My Glory with no other.” Finally He added, “I will do things amongst you that even you could not imagine – such will be the magnitude and publicity attached to some of the work of My Spirit during these days. Yet time is short – I am assembling my angels ready to bring these things to you. I am also assembling – calling to position – those I bring with Me when I send My Son to you again in clouds of Glory. Be prepared – End time revival is set in My eternal agenda. The day is set. It is appointed. Time is short. Be prepared and ready for My call to arms.”

CGB 14 December 2009

RoFMI Trip Report to Norway - December 2009

2009-12-08T00:39:00.000-08:00

Anyone who thinks that getting up at 03:45a.m. to get to an airport at 05:00a.m. in order to catch a flight leaving at 06:45a.m. is fun, needs serious counseling. Some person with a very strange sense of humour (me!!) had booked us onto a flight leaving at an unearthly hour just to save a few pounds. So it was that four cheerfully bleary-eyed travelers piled hats and bags into a taxi at 4:30 in order to head for Norway on a cold December morning. Trust me - that driver was well worth the tip – bless him.

I have to start here by saying that, as the nature of our trips is changing, so the reporting and journals like this are becoming more difficult. It was easy when we visited - went to well organised meetings, and came away again. Now, however, the meetings are becoming far more personal and therefore more difficult to report. The bare bones of this trip are simple. Arrived Oslo Rygge Airport at about 10.00 on Wednesday 2nd December. Had meetings Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and came home on the Saturday 10:20 flight arriving safe and sound back at Stansted at about 11:30. It’s not so much the meetings that were important – it’s much more the truth that God never wastes our time on these trips and it’s the lives that He used us to touch that are of far greater importance than “just another meeting”. It’s not just the meetings, it’s the little incidents along the way – some of which were so important to someone that the details will never again see the light of day. So let me try to get some semblance of interest into this for you.

From the airport, our wonderful host and partner in Norway, Robin Christiansen, whisked four of us – Peter (our beloved leader), Jean & John, and me, Chris – to his parents house in Frederikstad where Peter & I were royally housed for the whole trip. Jean & John went on to a lady called Anita, who with her family, entertained them. After a rest and some lunch for all of us, we travelled about 90 minutes to a place called Frogner and a chicken farm North of Oslo, where we met the farmer Bjorn and some of his family, their 7000+ chickens and the family dog. We were there for about 2 hours and let us simply say that we were allowed to bless them greatly through both words of knowledge and confirming prophecy. After prayer and some hot soup, we left for Frederikstad once again.

As if the farm experience was not blessing enough, when we got back ‘home’ Peter received a phone call just as we were all about to have dinner. It was important so he took the call from a friend and pastor in the Gypsy Church. He had recently returned from Romania where previous prophecy was fulfilled to the great joy of everyone there. However, there was another important prophecy fulfilled there too. A 36 year old mother of 6 children was taken to hospital where she subsequently died. This is confirmed by the fact that the procedure for admitting a dead person to the mortuary requires the issue of a death certificate. The family, all 6 children, went along to the mortuary and asked if they could pray for their mother. The doctor was very sympathetic but said that he was sorry that they had lost their mother but he would arrange counseling etc for them all. The children persisted with their request to pray for their mother because, as they poignantly put it, “We want our mother and we need to pray for her.” The doctor agreed but pointed out that the woman had been dead and in the mortuary for 9 hours. The children prayed and their mother was restored to life and full health before their eyes – and to the complete astonishment of the medical fraternity. Hallelujah \o/

On Thursday, we again travelled about 90 minutes to a Bible School in, or rather just outside a place called Vestfold where they have some 20-odd mostly residential students training for various ministries. We spent quite a long time with many of the students who, despite being Pentecostal, had never been exposed to our type of ministry before but who were, nevertheless once again greatly blessed. I think it would not be an exaggeration to say that for some of them, the fire of the Holy Spirit fell for the first time and they were extraordinarily blessed. We spent a lot of time with each of them and everyone received prayer before we left, rejoicing once again in the goodness of God. The School director exchanged email addresses with us before we left and said that we would be welcome there again when we return in January. Just one wee incident – while at the school we recounted the history of the RoFMI ministry and were asked the question – “So how did you get into Norway?” (meaning how did we get our first contact in Norway). The clever answer came back (to the huge amusement of the students) – “Ryanair”.

We returned home to Reidun & ‘Wrags’ (Robins parents) where they had prepared a full traditional Norwegian Christmas meal for us. Wonderful – no other comment will even begin to describe it.

Friday was an easy day and we drove the 50 minutes into Sweden – something we have all wanted for some time. We went to a supermarket where prices are apparently much lower than in Norway. Sweden & Norway are separated at this Southerly point by a fairly wide wooded gorge with a river flowing through it. There are two bridges – the old bridge and the new one – both toll bridges of course but there is no need for passports and only selective customs activity so we were able to bring back all the chocolate etc with no problem. However, we wanted to pray over Sweden so we stopped right next to the old bridge on the way back. We prayed there for Sweden and Norway and we received quite a lot of revelatory knowledge about various spirits including a suicide spirit resident on the bridge which we were able to come against. We anointed the ground where we prayed and took some remarkable photographs. It was quite late and quite dark but when we reviewed the photos it might as well have been midday and sunny – everything was so clear. It was only the lights on the toll station by the bridge which revealed the true hour at which the photos were taken.

In the evening, we heard about a local, very well known, Gospel artist who was in need of a word from the Lord. Peter received a word for him which he rated as so important that, if the man could not meet us this trip, then Peter said he would fly over there just to meet with him and tell him the Word from God. Confirmation of its importance came when Peter shared just a very small part of the word with us and we all simultaneously felt the touch of the Holy Spirit on us in confirmation. As it turned out the additional trip will not be needed as the man drove from Oslo to meet us then drove back again afterwards. He and Peter spent about an hour together and we heard later that he was so excited by their conversation that he spent over an hour on the phone to the pastor who introduced us on his way back to Oslo !!

Following this, we all had a meal and fellowship with Anita and some of her friends. Once again, the words of knowledge and prophecy flowed for the people we met and all of them were touched including one guy who is not (yet) a committed Christian.

So what is the conclusion after this trip. Well, based on our own experiences and the reactions of all those we met with, Scandinavia is indeed ripe and ready for revival. There is a hunger there which, very sadly, the local church does not seem able or is unwilling/almost scared to satisfy. Many of the things we experience as a matter of course or even as daily events in our ministry are almost alien to those we meet. There is neither the expectation nor the faith for them. However, there is a hunger which cannot be described and which, when the experience is sampled, there is a great rise in both faith and expectation levels.

Peter is off to Brussels next week then we are taking a break til January 7th (Denmark) and 21st (Norway) and we know there are many queuing up to have us fellowship and or minister in their meetings. As Peter said on the way home – 2009 has been the year of opening doors. 2010 will be the year of going through the open doors.

Yes Lord – AMEN & amen.

Personal Holiness

2009-11-25T07:47:00.001-08:00

A while back, the Lord spoke to me. Fortunately I wrote it all down as He had me re-visit what He said just this morning.

Listen to what the Lord is saying now – “The days are coming when many shall turn to me. Those who doubt now, those who do not believe in Me now, those who have wandered off like lost sheep. I am raising a new end-time army of believers. Those who will believe despite what circumstances scream out to them; those who believe despite and whatever the world throws at them; those who will believe through the worst possible persecution – even unto death. The world is turning against Me”, says the Lord, “ but I already knew this before I laid the foundations of the earth. The world does not realise this, yet even if they did, yet they would still despise Me. And they will despise you too because you speak My Name – because you believe in Me and in the One I sent. Even so,” says the Lord, “because your hope is steadfast and is rooted in Me, yet will I uphold you; yet will I justify you even in the worlds eyes. Do not lose sight of My Kingdom for it shall be your reward. Do not bow the knee to anyone but My Son for He is your saviour. Always remember that I, the Lord God Almighty, love you and I am with you – even to the end of the age. I am your provider. I am your Father. I love you – even you.”

Is this not happening to us right now. Everywhere we turn, the enemy seems to be waiting with one 'problem' or another ready to try to afflict us. Even the Church seems to be ambivalent & yet the Holy Spirit is using us more and more to reach those considered un-reachable - outsiders - mis-fits - yet even these, when confronted by the Lord Jesus Christ, embrace Him with a passion and zeal that puts us and so many of the churches we visit to shame.

The Lord is speaking more and more to me, at least, about personal holiness - about returning to our first love for Him. Is this just me or are you getting that message too? Certainly the time of Amos 8:11 is here NOW. There is a mighty hunger and famine for hearing the Word of the Lord because that which is being preached right now is, in far too many places, 'ear-tickling' that the people want to hear as against that which they need to hear.

What am I saying ??? Be prepared for anything and everything - even unto death. The Lord is going to use any who are willing to lay down their life for Him. The harvest they shall inherit shall be beyond even their wildest dreams. The Lord will honour those who honour Him. Where is our loyalty today? What does scripture say?

"John 12:24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds."

Just one question remains - will you die to self in order to live to Him? Will you return to your first love and give Him everything that you are, everything that you have, everything that you hope, and everything that you want to be? Personally, if there is only a 0.01% chance of me being involved in end-time revival, I will give up everything to be there. Then I will be able to say, like Simeon, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word." Luke 2:29

I Hope I have offended you in some ways! Although this was not my intention when I started, and it was not intended as a sermon, a quote comes to mind - "It is a poor sermon that gives no offense; that neither makes the hearer displeased with himself nor with the preacher" George Whitfield.

So I leave you with this thought - what will you do this day to serve the Lord?

Revival in Scandinavia

2009-11-21T11:29:00.000-08:00

I have just come back from a 4 day, 11 meeting trip to Denmark. This is not so much a trip report as my testimony of what is happening and what is about to happen in Scandinavia.

The RoFMI (Rivers of Fire Ministries International) team has been on 30+ ministry visits since October 2008. In that time, we have been to Norway 4 times and Denmark 7 times – with more visits already in the diary. Why so many? Well, we believe that the Lord has promised us to be used to help bring revival to Scandinavia. Indeed, we believe He has given us a firm timetable of visits up to and including June 2010. So what is our testimony that backs up these claims?

In ministry this year we have seen miraculous healings, events, and words of inspiration and knowledge way beyond normal expectancy. We have seen cancer healed. We have seen people transported into meetings from miles away. We have seen barren-ness healed. We have seen miracles of healing after accidents that have flown in the face of belief and completely baffled the medical profession.

But these are ‘ordinary events’ to some people. What is it that affirms your belief that some sort – any sort of revival is coming to Scandinavia. First of all we have the Word of the Lord. This is backed up by the hunger we see in ordinary people who are becoming more and more desperate for ‘something more’ to life than just life without God and without seeming purpose. We are seeing the established churches in decline and seemingly either unwilling or unable to grasp what the Holy Spirit is quite clearly saying to them. We see the beginnings of revival amongst ‘outsiders’ – traditionally non-church groups like Gypsies and Bikers. People the world shuns yet who, when confronted by the love of Jesus, embrace it with a zeal that puts us all to shame who call ourselves Christians. We also see prophecy coming to pass amongst these groups. Things like people walking in off the street, not even knowing why, yet somehow knowing they have to be in the meeting.

But the clincher for us is an event so like the start of the Hebridean Revival of 1949 that it would shake even those who were part of that wonderful time. Very recently, in Norway, some old ladies were praying for revival. That evening they were joined by someone we know who ‘just happened to be in the area’, and who was invited along. That evening, 24 young people from all over the town, came to their house under conviction of sin asking how they might be saved! These were not one or two groups of young people but one here, two there, maybe even three in one group – but no more. The Holy Spirit not only convicted them of their sin but He led them to the only house in the town where these wonderful old saints were praying for revival.

To me, that seems to be perhaps the start of revival. Please people, please – don’t grieve the Spirit when you see these signs for yourself. Don’t shut Him out. Don’t stop Him. Open your arms and welcome Him. Be still – listen to Him and do whatever He says at whatever the cost. God is no mans debtor – He repays His ‘debts’ both instantly and with added blessing. We need revival not renewal. Renewal is for the church – revival is for the unsaved sinner. Revival is coming – Jesus is coming – soon. Very soon.

In Sickness and in Health

2009-10-28T04:06:00.000-07:00

When Jesus says that we, the church, are His Bride, it reminds me of the marriage ceremony I went though with my late wife, Linda, those many years ago. The man who married us was a lovely minister called Rev Tom Earis – I’ve always remembered him because he reflected Jesus to us. Part of the vows we exchanged were “in sickness and in health, until death us do part.”

So it was that I found myself recently in a hospital, some 1500 miles from home, in a foreign country (Spain) being treated for Renal or Kidney Stones. I found I was drugged up quite a lot to quell the pain but in my more lucid moments I also noticed an almost tangible presence of the Lord. I was reminded that the Lord is with us always – ‘in sickness and in health’. He is with us; He speaks to us; He acts for us; He comforts us; He listens to our prayers; He heals us – all because of what Jesus did for us at Calvary 2000 years ago. He is ours and we are His, ‘in sickness and in health’, for ever because there will be no more time, there will be no more ill-ness, no more death, there will only be health and it will last for ever and ever. HALLELUJAH \o/

His presence becomes more noticeable when we are alone with Him – when the world cannot noisily intrude – when He has our complete and undivided attention – when, in fact, we are in that place of utter dependency upon Him. That is when He carries us. That is when He provides for us. That is when He speaks to us and we speak to Him – one on one – at a very personal level.

God never wastes a moment of our time. Whilst in hospital, God sent hurting, damaged people to me, so that I might give them an encouraging Word from Him. Isn’t that astonishing? – He allowed me to be ‘tied down’ so that He could bring people to me. He tied them down with me so that He could minister through me to them because I was in a position to hear Him and talk to them; and they were in a position to listen to the words God had for them through me that day.

Truly God is with us in sickness and in health. He speaks to us in every situation if only we will listen to Him and stay obedient. If we keep our eyes upon Him at all times, He will and does speak to us; He guides us; He loves us through His Holy Spirit. He is our everything, every moment of every day, regardless of the situation we are in. Abba Father God is our everything.

Lets just acknowledge that occasionally – eh ?? What say you ?

Miracles Today ??

2009-10-13T04:07:00.000-07:00

Do miracles happen today – You better believe they do !!

Lets first have a look at one of Jesus’ miracles - the Woman with Issue of Blood
Mark 5:25-34 “And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?" - "You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?' " But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."

Did this woman deserve her healing? Probably not - although she would almost certainly win any sympathy vote. Did Jesus in any way reject her for her actions? No. Quite simply, she needed a touch from Him and she reached out to Him. She only needed just that one touch.

These are some stories of others who have reached out to touch Jesus. They are taken from two very small ministries – RoFMI & Jesus Will Heal You.

Little Peter – a baby thought to have no chance of survival – now a bouncing and energetic toddler. His Grandmother brought only a photograph to be prayed over.

Christian – Christian is an octogenarian. He had cancer. The doctors had given up on him – he had reluctantly laid down his ministry. His family refused to give up on him. Now he is completely restored and leading a house group with all the energy of a much younger man.

Frank – a biker badly injured in an accident. One leg shorter than the other – spine beginning to twist. We watched his leg grow back out and his back and shoulders straighten. He is now back on his Harley Davidson, ministering to bikers all over Europe.

Tove – a housewife with circulatory problems. God has given her a new heart !!

Steven – son of a pastor. Hurt in a kite-surfing accident when the wind dropped him on to a hard beach and then dragged him along. Thought to have broken his neck & his back. Miraculous healing from injuries. Now perfect.

Tracey & Ruben – FIRST Ruben was transported into a meeting having broken down on several miles away. NEXT, they received a prophecy about children. NOW they are expecting their first baby – despite doctors telling them they had “no chance” !!

Buildings in Lorca – A pastor in Lorca, Spain had a prophecy about new buildings and a ministry among refugees & migrants. Within three weeks, the towns mayor offered them a building next to the Immigration offices !! Now their ministry is reaching out to and helping many people.

WWW.Jesuswillhealyou.com – This web site offers prayer and encouragement to those seeking healing. In six months since the launched, they have received thousands of emails from all over the world – about 200 per week – and praise reports of hundreds of wonderful healings.

A lady in Glasgow had cancer, She emailed Jesuswillhealyou.com. She received prayer. Now she is free of cancer.

Another lady in Walton, nr London had suicidal depression. She emailed Jesuswillhealyou.com. She received prayer. Now she is free and praising God for her new-found salvation.

A baby in the Phillipines, born with cancer. A single email asking for prayer to Jesuswillhealyou.com and he is now reported completely healed.

Matthew 4:23 “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.” He is still doing it today.

Did any of these people deserve to have God heal them? I don’t know but probably not. Were some of these people more righteous than others? Again, I don’t know but probably some had a higher level of faith while others had no faith at all.

Were all of these people in need of a touch from God ? YES they were. Did they get their touch & if so, how did they receive it? YES they did - All of them came to Him in one way or another. Some prayed, some were simply brought to Him. Others, like the woman in the story, reached out to touch Him.

What difference did it make? NONE whatsoever – the Bible tells us that Jesus healed every one. In a way – they all reached out to Him to touch the hem of His garment.

Do you want to reach out to Jesus – perhaps touch just the hem of His garment today? Can anyone pray for you today?

Email me Chris RoFMI cgb.rofmi@ntlworld.com or go to http://www.jesuswillhealyou.com and leave your prayer request today.

Ear Tickling must STOP

2009-10-05T07:56:00.000-07:00

How many of you have a computer at home or at work? And how many of you use your computer to ‘look up’ things on the web. How many of you know that the initials of the World Wide Web have great significance? How about this then – in Hebrew script the letter W is Vov so it becomes not the WWW but the vov vov vov. It looks like a number 7. This in turn when translated from Hebrew is also 666 !! Interesting eh ??

Have you noticed the amount of ‘questionable prophecy’ around at the moment?

1 Corinthians 14:3-4 “But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church.”

This is getting quite serious. Huge amounts of prophecy, or so-called prophecy, most of it coming out of America, and some other places, is being hailed with such words as,

“So-and-so shares a great word for breakthrough - especially financial breakthrough and .......”

And again - “God wants to use your current situation to bless you and release finances and favour into your life.”

This “wonderful” prophetic word is being put out over the whole World Wide Web as being the latest “encouraging now-word for YOU in your current situation.” The prophecy is then absolutely lapped up by the readers and they love it – its what they wanted to hear right now. In the current financial market, who doesn’t want to hear that God is on their side and is going to look on them with favour and increase their finances??

As I read this today, the Lord asked me a question. He said this, “Hmm – looks good doesn’t it? But tell me, how does this edify, or encourage, or strengthen My people in Africa or India or China?” The penny dropped quite quickly – I was reading a ‘word’ aimed especially for the people of America - perhaps Europe too – yet here it was going out all around the world to ‘every tribe & tongue’. Looking back, I noticed that this was one of many similar words given out from America. Words that look good, even popularist, that would please the listening American audience. Please don’t get me wrong here – I am NOT having a go at the USA here. I am bemoaning the ear-tickling peddlers of good news who use the system by giving their audience exactly what they want to hear - “Its going to be all right – cos God is on YOUR side and fighting YOUR corner.” And the huge majority of it is coming from – you got it – the USA. The fact that these people might also line their own pockets, by increasing demand for their speaking engagements because they speak a popular message, is almost beside the point isn’t it?

Have you not noticed that the number of ‘ear ticklers’ is increasing? Almost everyone rising to popularity in the Christian Media in America is an Ear Tickler ! Even well loved and internationally known big ministries bearing much fruit occasionally slip into ear tickling mode. Listen to what the Word says about this :-

2Tim 4:1-5 “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.”

Why would people “turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths”? Because they are hearing a message that they really want to hear. Its not the message they need to hear but it is one that they want to hear.

This is all so sad. The Lord must be so very sad watching all of this happen. When I mentioned earlier that He had asked me questions about what I was reading, I thought then that He sounded a little sad – resigned - almost expecting this situation. But then, He is God. He knew this would happen. That doesn’t stop Him being sad about it though – does it? He will, after all, have the final word when He judges us.

As the scripture says, “But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.” So – Please – Stop all this ‘ear tickling’ nonsense. Let our prophecy be for the strengthening, encouragement and comfort of the church – the Bride of Christ. Please let us return to prophecy that is from the Lord and not that which comes from ourselves.

CGB

5 Oct 2009

The X Factor

2009-10-04T07:02:00.000-07:00

There is so much worldly nonsense on TV at the moment – all vying for the inevitable viewing figures. Each one subjecting ordinary people to stress and pressure like nowhere else on earth. One of the main contenders for Stress Program of the Year must be The X-Factor, which pits some very talented unknown singers against each other in a bid to display the elusive X-factor to judges and public alike and win the $million prize plus the coveted recording contract.

This week, the program plumbed new depths by introducing even more greed, jealousy, and covetousness into proceedings. The program was filmed in the garden of the presenter’s wonderful California home. Huge palace of a place, it had several acres of lush green ‘gardens’, almost Olympic sized swimming pool, plus all the trimmings of the very rich. This place had the lot and it was hung like a carrot before contestants saying – “look what you too could own with a bit of fame and fortune if you win X Factor”.

Well it started me thinking about some of the things Jesus spoke to us about and, eventually I arrived at Matthew 16:13-28. This is where Jesus starts by asking the disciples for their views about Himself. Verses 13-20 “When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." - "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.”

Who do we say Jesus is? Do we say He was a prophet? Do we say He was a good man of God? Or do we say, like Simon Peter, “He is the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This view of Jesus can only come to us from God’s Holy Spirit, who leads us into all truth. This question and answer is followed by the first Word for the Church which was to be built around Simon Peter – “.. I will build My church and the Gates of Hades will not overcome it!” The Church will never be overcome by the world or by Hell – that is Gods promise to us.

Then, Jesus goes on to reveal even more about His death. Verses 21-28 “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. "Never, Lord!" he said. "This shall never happen to you!" Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."

There is an interesting little scene played out here too. When Jesus explains His death, Simon Peter takes Him to one side and berates Him !! But Jesus, who just 2 minutes earlier had prophesied that this man would be the Rock on which the Church would be built, says to him “Get behind me Satan !... you have the mind of men not of God.” Having said this, though, Jesus went on to explain that if we are to come after Him, then we too must take up our cross and follow Him. He adds a very important rider to this by saying, “What good will it do a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his soul? What can a man give in exchange for his soul?”

At this point my mind went back to the X Factor – what good will it be to any one of those contestants if they win the prize at the cost of their soul? God reminded me that this is why the x Factor is so aptly named. The X-Factor comes into play when we forget about the cross of Christ as we pursue the things of the world. The X-Factor ?? That’ll be the Cross. That’ll be Jesus - hung there to die for you and me. That’ll be salvation for our souls – Hallelujah \o/

Signs of the Times 2

2009-10-03T05:08:00.000-07:00

What a week we’ve had. All sorts of doom and gloom in the news. Typhoons, earthquakes, tsunamis – all kinds of natural disasters. Thousands killed and hundreds of thousands homeless. Talk about a confirmation of the Signs of the Times that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 16:2-4. A body could get weary of listening to it all – sombre faced TV news casters giving out all this bad news. Not a trace of good news anywhere – except perhaps for Brazil as they “won” the vote for the 2016 Olympics.

So then, as Christians, what are we supposed to do?

Well actually the Bible is quite clear on that. Take a look at Romans 8:18-39

Paul says this “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. ...... in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. “

Whatever we are going through right now will be more than compensated for us when we are revealed as sons of God. Sons of God !! What a promise. Then he goes on to say this (particularly relevant today)
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.....as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

So thats what all these natural disasters are – creation groaning as we await our adoption as sons and the redemption of our bodies – the Rapture !!

“For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.”

This is almost the same as Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Our hope is in our faith and our faith is our hope !!

“....but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.....in accordance with God's will.”

Hang on – this is a glorious promise, that the Holy Spirit is in intercession on our behalf – He is praying for US !!!

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,”

One of the great and most quoted verses of scripture. Yes, we KNOW that God works in ALL things for our good. This is why we praise Him in ALL things – in the good times we praise Him – in the bad times we praise Him. Our praises rise like incense before His throne – He inhabits our praises !! What else do we want?

“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”

Another wonderful promise of scripture here. Those who He foreknew, thats ALL of us, are predestined to be like Jesus, we are called, justified, and glorified before God. Hallelujah \o/

“What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”

Why do we worry so much? God is our provider – Jehovah-Jireh God our provider. He will provide all things for His children.

“Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns?”

If God has justified us, who then can condemn us. Satan will certainly try but all we need to do is to quote this verse back to him. He was defeated once and for all time at Calvary – he cannot condemn us or defeat us if we trust God.

“Christ Jesus, who died - more than that, who was raised to life - is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”

Yes – Jesus is sitting right beside God interceding for us. We have the Holy Spirit doing so on one hand ‘with groans that words cannot express’, and Jesus doing so on the other hand. We have got it made !!!

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? "

This is the beginning of perhaps the greatest statement Paul ever made regarding our position in Christ. None of these things can separate us from Him.

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

Not only that but we are already ‘more than conquerors’ through Jesus because He loves us.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

On a personal note – these two verses (Roman 8:38-39) were the first two verses that ever struck me as I started on my Christian journey. There is such a wonderful promise here, written with such power and conviction – How can anyone ever doubt after reading these amazing words of faith and promise.

My message in all this is simple – take heart for the Kingdom of God is so much nearer than you may believe. Despite all the doom and gloom – despite the economy – despite the job situation – despite the natural disasters – and despite all the ‘sabre rattling’ of nation against nation. Jesus is coming again soon but until that glorious day we have these promises of scripture upon which to hold and stand firm.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

2009-10-02T02:37:00.000-07:00

2nd October 2009 – what a week this has been !

More storms with not just one but two typhoons in the Philippines. This led to floods there and great destruction by the wind. More earthquakes with not just one but three seriously big ones around the world, leading to massive destruction. There has even been another tsunami in the Tonga area of the Pacific Islands again causing huge floods and destruction. The number of dead in all of this will probably be in the thousands. The number of homeless, those having lost everything, will number in the hundreds of thousands.

As if this were not enough, we have had Iran & North Korea threatening to produce nuclear weapons of mass destruction – as if the weather needs a helping hand – and threats are made against many nations; in particular against Israel.

Finally, we have more stories of crazed gunmen getting into schools and worst of all, threatening messages spewing out all their bile and hatred purporting to come from well known terrorists.

Have I rung any bells for you yet? Let me give you one final hint

Mark 13:8 (Amplified Version)
“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines and calamities. This is but the beginning of the intolerable anguish and suffering only the first of the birth pangs.”

Even now, there is more talk about a single European currency; a single European President; the demise of America into 6 pieces and total loss of position as a world power. All of these things point to One World Order ! Ten world leaders and one super-leader. That is to say, TEN boastful horns and Antichrist – Daniel 7 ....

You will no doubt be pleased to know that none of this has come as a surprise to God. In fact I believe He was rather expecting it. You see, some 2000 years ago, Jesus said, “When evening comes, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,' and in the morning, 'Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah." Jesus then left them and went away.”
Matthew 16:2-4

Surprisingly, Jesus meant exactly that when He said “you cannot interpret the signs of the times.” and again when He said “A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah." So the question remains ...... Have you worked it all out yet? Four little words – that’s all.

“SIGNS OF THE TIMES”

There has never been clearer indication of the signs of the times. The Lord has never spoken more clearly to His prophets. Amos 3:7 “Surely the Lord God will do nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets.” What more do you want to hear?

It is very simple, there’s no rocket science here. The Lord is saying very very clearly “Get ready. Be prepared. I am coming again SOON.” Will you be one of the 5 foolish virgins?

Matthew 25:1-13
"At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
"At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'
"Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.'
" 'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.'
"But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
"Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!'
"But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.'
"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”

CGB October 2009

© Chris Bennett 2009

A Word of encouragement for this time

2009-09-18T02:17:00.000-07:00

Listen to what the Lord is saying now – “The days are coming when many shall turn to me. Those who doubt now, those who do not believe in Me now, those who have wandered off like lost sheep. I am raising a new end-time army of believers.

Those who will believe despite what circumstances scream out to them;
those who believe despite and whatever the world throws at them;
those who will believe through the worst possible persecution – even unto death.

The world is turning against Me”, says the Lord, “ but I already knew this before I laid the foundations of the earth. The world does not realise this, yet even if they did, yet they would still despise Me. And they will despise you too because you speak My Name – because you believe in Me and in the One I sent.

Even so,” says the Lord, “because your hope is steadfast and is rooted in Me, yet will I uphold you; yet will I justify you even in the worlds eyes.

Do not lose sight of My Kingdom for it shall be your reward.
Do not bow the knee to anyone but My Son for He is your saviour.

Always remember that I, the Lord God Almighty, love you and I am with you – even to the end of the age. I am your provider. I am your Father. I love you – even you.”

cgb

© Chris Bennett 2009

RoFMI Ministry Trip to Denmark September 2009

2009-09-16T00:51:00.000-07:00

After a two month break the team consisting of Peter, Jean & Keith Perrin, and myself set out once again for Denmark. Little did any of us realise what a significant trip this would be – but more of that later. This was Jean & Keith’s first trip with RoFMI. The trip was to include a seminar on Spiritual Warfare and, as Jean & Keith worked for Derek Prince Ministries for a few years, they were our first choice. Also, just for a change, I went along as camera man and gopher with no speaking schedule at all – So why did I lose my voice when we came back ???

So off we went, bright and early on Thursday the 10th September. Safe flight negotiated, we started with a tour of Copenhagen for Jean & Keith as they had not been there before. After lunch back at Pinsekirken in Korsor, with our hosts Pastors Maureen & Preben Westh, we set off for Bo & Bente Schultz who have a home church close to Copenhagen. About 18 people turned up including visiting pastors from other local churches.

So Peter kicked off with several testimonies of miraculous happenings – like the man who spoke very little English who started to translate for us when the young lady assigned to the job could no longer do so; or the barren woman who was prophesied to have children and is now pregnant; or the elderly man healed of cancer with his ministry completely restored. There were other examples too. As Peter explained, the Jesus of the Bible is still the same today – the Jesus who calmed the storm and stilled the wind is the same Jesus working His miracles today. He spoke about knowing our authority in Christ. He called for words of knowledge and prophecy to everyone present and a lengthy period of ministry followed with several people receiving either prophecy or deliverance from oppression and bondage.

On Friday morning we did something different – we had a tour of Korsor as, although we have stayed there five times in all, we have never had a look round the town. After lunch we set out for Lohals, a town on Langeland where we have visited before. Pastor Sven-Ole was there to greet us all (about 10 people went) so quite a few of us gathered for a time of anointed praise and worship. Jean was first up with a testimony then Peter spoke on Simeon and how he “saw the salvation of the Lord” – that passage of the Word that gives us the words for Nunc Dimitis “Lord now let thy servant depart in peace . . . . “

Peter went on to describe what happened at the Gospel Channel in Iceland and prophesied that similar things were about to be birthed in Langeland. He said Langeland is blessed because “God has chosen it a s a place of residence” He addressed the doubts of some older people there by pointing to Reg Chapman and Arthur Burt – two 90+ year olds still working and bearing much fruit for the Lord in old age. He pointed out that Arthur Burt – an assistant to Smith Wigglesworth – has been promised by the Lord that “you will see the end-time revival” and that therefore, time must be quite short !! He closed by saying that all of this is Gods Promise.

There followed an anointed time of prophecy, words of knowledge and ministry. Peter was given a very strange song to sing – “I’m gonna wash that man right out of my hair” !! Very odd until we learned the reasons behind the song. We were also taken back to a prophecy we had given some time ago about revival fires standing ready but unlit all around Langeland. We saw angels standing ready to light the fires and we were instructed by the Lord to release the angels to light the revival fires on the island. This was one of those precious moments when everyone present seemed to be deeply affected by the anointing and presence of God in that place.

Saturday – Seminar day on Spiritual Warfare. Quite a few people came to Pinsekirken for this teaching event from a lot of churches throughout the southern half of Denmark. Pastor Preben had put in a great deal of work to ensure that many came along to hear it all. Keith and Jean shared the teaching over three sessions but we only really scratched the surface as the full teaching could take around 9-12 hours and we only had three sessions of just over an hour’s teaching. They explained why and how Christians can have demons, how they attach, who they are, why they stay, and their authority to do so !! We were also taught about our authority to deal with them. We learned about the cause and power of curses, self-imposed and spoken by others including those from God or from Satan. There was a protracted ministry session afterwards and many people were prayed for and helped – released. Lots of smiling faces.

After dinner with Maureen & Preben, Peter Jean, & Keith went round to visit a family living close by whom we had met before. They had a blessed time of fellowship and prayer with Tony, Ohn, and their daughter Nanna. While they were there, I stayed with Preben to sort out some ‘admin’ and to discuss future visits. We will be going back a couple of times just to meet folk in their homes and fellowship with them there. This is a new departure for us but we feel led to do so by the Lord and the people certainly want and appreciate it – especially those who may be sick or otherwise unable to come to church when we are there. A little more of this later.

On Sunday, Jean & Keith stayed in Pinsekirken, while Peter and I went to Kalundborg, where we visited last time over there. Pastor Jonah and his lovely wife were there to greet us with their children. We discovered that, in accordance with prophecy previously given to them, new people have indeed joined them. One man, a teacher, had applied for over 350 jobs in Denmark and Sweden. The man is a theology graduate and speaks six languages fluently. He saw the job in Kalundborg and say it had to be a written application – no email ones would be accepted. He called and they welcomed his call and said they would accept an email application and he got the job with no trouble at all – Gods provision for him and the church there. Also, on Sunday morning. A young lady came for the first time. She was from Romania and her testimony is astonishing. Told by her church in Romania that if she did not cover her head in church, she would go to hell AND taught that women must not only sit apart from the men in church but MUST remain silent or be thrown out and again, presumably, also being consigned to hell again. See a little later for her testimony. Suffice to say now that it is very moving example of how God’s hand protects us.

Peter spoke to the people about how God loves them and regards them as beautiful no matter what the world may say to or about them. He updated them with testimonies and prophesies given last time we were there. His theme was simply “Come unto me all who are heavy laden . . . “ He explained that God is a God of ‘suddenlies’ because God used Jesus to pay the price for us with His precious Blood. He explained that God crucifies us, (the team), daily so that we can bring His love to people. Prayer and ministry followed.

Sunday evening Peter was up again and he started by going over the visit so far. He encouraged people by reminding them of Jeans testimony of God’s love; he told them of the word he had for the pastor of the local Lutheran (State) Church about prayer meetings in their church – about “re-digging the old wells of the old established churches in Denmark – Lutherans and Baptists in particular. He said that God “Will sweep through those churches – changing everything, even their constitution ”!!

He then startled some people by calling for testimonies from some unsuspecting saints. Pastor Hans-Ole Kofoed gave his testimony of fulfilled promises and prophecy. Then came Dorina, the young lady from Romania who I mentioned earlier. When she was younger, her mother was unable to look after her and she was transferred into a local orphanage. At age 10, the orphanage was approached by a Romanian agency who wanted to send the children on holidays to Italy. People were lined up for each child. However, because her mother was unable to sign the appropriate form, Dorina was not allowed to go !! It turned out that the ‘holiday’ was a scam. The host families in Italy didn’t exist and the purpose was to gain children so as to remove their vital organs for organ sale/donation purposes !! Dorina completed her education and now speaks 6 languages and is working in Kalundborg. She came to the church that morning because they have a man preacher !! As Peter pointed out, we had met her in the morning and by the evening, she had come to church without a headscarf AND she had just spoken and addressed the church !! Her face when she realised these things was a picture. Our God is a wonderful God.

So finally to Monday. Before we cam e home we had three visits lined up. We visited Pastor Kofoed in his church in Ringsted – a town about half way to Copenhagen and the airport. We had a short time of prayer and fellowship there. Then we went on to a man called Frank who is a serious biker (Harley Davidson’s!!) He came to the Lord a while ago and is involved in the Biker Church – a group who ride around the country taking the Gospel of Jesus Christ to fellow unsaved bikers. He had a serious accident 5 or 6 years ago and has been unable to ride since then. We prayed for his healing and are awaiting an update although I do have to tell you that I watched his leg grow about half an inch and I watched his shoulders completely straighten while we prayed !! Hallelujah. Finally, we popped into the main hospital in Copenhagen where a lady in Preben’s church has had a heart operation and is waiting for a pacemaker to be implanted. We had another anointed time with her in fellowship and prayer.

So home we came, full of praise for our wonderful God & Saviour. We know we will go back many times and indeed Dates in November, December, and January are already under discussion – mainly for home fellowship and individual visits.

Lead on Lord – we are willing. Next up – we are doing the same seminar for the C of E in Romford, London (Essex) next weekend !!

Testimony of Miracles in Spain

2009-08-29T11:48:00.000-07:00

1 Buildings in Lorca

Rivers of Fire Ministries International – aka RoFMI – has a ministry in central southern Spain around the Murcia area. If you fly to Alicante, then drive south for 100km, there you will find the large industrial town of Murcia. In March 2009 we were on a visit to our good friends and ministry partners out there. We travelled to Lorca, a town some 70km from Murcia where the local pastor had asked us to bless his new church accommodation. Whilst with him, he also asked us to bless his other new building. Apparently there is a law regarding empty buildings in Spain. If they are empty for too long they can be offered to local organisations free of charge for indefinite periods. This was one such building. On a previous visit we had given a prophecy about this pastor working with refugees and displaced people. We had prophesied that there would be ‘hotel-style accomodation’, crèche, language classes and so on – everything newly arrived people could want to start them on their way. This new building was to be their new hostel/reception unit !! We went to bless the building which stands next to a large market square that doubles as a car park on non-market days. Immediately opposite the new building on the other side of the car park stood the local Immigration & Aliens reception offices for the whole area !! Miracles or what?? Furniture and help with the refurbishment has been promised making this our first major miracle in Spain from Jehovah-Jireh God our provider.

2 Miracle Family

On May 15th 2009 the RoFMI team went to Murcia once again. On the day we arrived, Peter our leader said that he could “hear the patter of tiny feet” and he mentioned a young couple whom we shall keep anonymous by calling them ‘Maria & Miguel’. There was a short silence before the pastor told us that they cannot have children – medically confirmed and attested – no chance of children. During the meeting that evening Peter called for Maria & Miguel to come forward but only Maria was there as Miguel was stuck with a broken down car somewhere out on the road. Peter spoke briefly about Philip Airlines (Philip was transported from the site by the river to a town some 40 miles away.) He felt this was so important that we should ask God to transport Miguel to this meeting so he called for him to come forward – and suddenly there stood Miguel, looking somewhat surprised, to gasps of amazement from the congregation. Peter then prophesied children to this medically barren couple. Today, August 29th 2009, we heard that Maria is 7 weeks pregnant – and ecstatic. We all danced for joy at the news. Double miracle – all praise and Glory to God – our wonderful Father in heaven. Jehovah-Rapha God our Healer

What a wonderful God we serve \o/ AMEN

How can God use YOU ??

2009-08-18T03:16:00.001-07:00

I've been thinking about ordinary men whom God changed into extraordinary men. They are just like all of us but, like them, God can use YOU in ways you never imagined - because He's in you and He wants to reach through you and touch the world around you.

Moses parted the red sea Exodus 14:15 “And the LORD said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it.” Can you imagine what an awesome sight that must have been?

Samuel anointed David 1Sam 16 “So he asked Jesse, "Are these all the sons you have?" "There is still the youngest," Jesse answered, "but he is tending the sheep." Samuel said, "Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives." So he sent and had him brought in. He was ruddy, with a fine appearance and handsome features. Then the LORD said, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one." God chose the unlikeliest one.

Elijah said at Mount Carmel “He who answers with fire – he is God” 1 Kings 18:24 “The god who answers by fire—he is God." Fire fell the prophets of Baal were routed and God was worshipped. God answered Elijah's prayer.

Elisha had Jehu anointed in 2 Kings 9:1-3 “The prophet Elisha summoned a man from the company of the prophets and said to him, "Tuck your cloak into your belt, take this flask of oil with you and go to Ramoth Gilead. When you get there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. Go to him, get him away from his companions and take him into an inner room. Then take the flask and pour the oil on his head and declare, 'This is what the LORD says: I anoint you king over Israel.' Then open the door and run; don't delay!" What a fearsome man Jehu must have been?

Daniel in the furnace Daniel 3:22 “Therefore, because the king’s command was urgent, and the furnace exceedingly hot, the flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego.” The furnace killed ordinary men but God preserve His people.

Peter denies Christ church built on him Matthew 16:16-18 “He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Enough said ??

So who were all these (and other) wonderful people?

Moses – He was an ordinary man who heard from God, but he killed a man and became an outlaw, he was 80 years old before God could use him.

Elijah – He was an ordinary man who heard from God. He had his fears and worries. God sent ravens to feed him. He spoke to kings and leaders. Like Enoch, he didn’t die – he was taken up into heaven.

Elisha – He was an ordinary man who heard from God. He spoke to kings and leaders. Unlike Elijah - he died of an illness.

Daniel – He was an ordinary man who heard from God. He interpreted dreams. He rose to a very powerful position. God rescued him from 'certain death' twice.

Peter He was an ordinary man who denied Christ but who came back to lead the first church. He was the ‘rock’ on which Jesus built the first church

John Wesley – He was an ordinary man who heard from God. He walked and rode thousands of miles to preach the Gospel and he wrote hundreds of hymns.

William Booth – He was an ordinary man who heard from God and as a result he founded the Salvation Army.

John G Lake – He was an ordinary man who heard from God and God gave him and astonishing healing ministry.

Billy Graham - He is an ordinary man who hears from God and went on to preached to over 50 million people.

Reinhard Bonnke – He is an ordinary man who hears from God.He had 3Million+ peope in one meeting and 1Million+ came to the Lord that day

Benny Hinn – He is an ordinary man who hears from God. He leads a world wide miracle healing ministry.

This list is almost endless. These were all ordinary men whom God turned into extraordinary men. All of them were called to deeper relationship with God. All of them had that deeper visionary experience. ALL of them OBEYED gods call – and look how He used them.

All ordinary men who did or are doing extraordinary things for God because He chose them and they accepted His call. S what is the Lord showing you? Who wants to go deeper with God today? He is calling – will you answer? Will you say Yes Lord – I will pay the price. God is going to use YOU in ways you never imagined - because He's in you and He wants to reach through you and touch the world around you.

Don’t ask “Why me?” Rather ask “Why not me?”

© Chris Bennett 2009

Hope for the 21st Century

2009-08-08T06:24:00.000-07:00

Who knows that God speaks to His prophets before He does anything? Who knows that, although we may no longer have prophets in the mould of Elijah or John the Baptist, nevertheless there are prophets today who are used by the Lord to convey His words, His warnings, His hope to the world before He allows things to happen? Why does He do that? I believe it is because above all things our God is a loving Father who gives hope to His children. “He so loved us, John 3:16, that He gave us His Son that WHOSOEVER believes in Him shall not die but SHALL have eternal life.” What else do you think Calvary was all about – it was to give us a hope for the future, a hope for our children, a hope for our grandchildren and the generations following them – always assuming He doesn’t return before then.

The signs of the times that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 16:1-4 “The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven. He replied, "When evening comes, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,' and in the morning, 'Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah." Jesus then left them and went away. “ There is a great deal in Christian media today about these “signs of the times” and I believe it is right that we are currently entering into the ‘last days’ spoken about in Daniel, spoken about in Ezekiel, and spoken about in Revelation. The one text that the Lord has given me is from Amos 8:11 “The days are coming," declares the Sovereign LORD, "when I will send a famine through the land— not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD. “ These days are surely upon us right now as the world searches desperately for a word of hope – a word of comfort – a word of sanity amongst all the madness breaking out all around them. There are countless words coming out daily about the judgements of God upon this nation or that nation. There are countless words coming out daily about the doom and gloom; the financial disasters of a world monetary system in meltdown and on and on and on.

These are the signs of the times!!

These are the warnings given to the prophets before God acted. I first read of all this way back in the late 90’s – we were warned, but how many of us took too much notice.

I want to insert a word of personal testimony here. Back in April 2007, my darling wife was taken home to the Lord. My world was empty. Yet the Lord had told me to be like Ezekiel 24 – turban straight; shoes fastened; act and be normal – with the promise as to Ezekiel, that God would sustain me. Amazing thing happened – I did and God did !! People said how strong I was and how well I handled everything but to those with an ear to hear I told them the truth of it. I did my mourning in private and the Lord carried me through – to the world, triumphantly !! Then about 6 months later, the Lord told me to sell up and move !! I was 64 – what did I want to move for? I was planning to work through to 68-70!! Why give up a great little job and change everything?? Not only that, He said to retire early !! You gotta be joking. No – no jokes – He was serious. So I sold up, cashed in and moved to my current rented apartment. When it eventually came to retirement date, like everyone else in that position, my retirement plans were cashed in for annuities. These were not very big at all as I had started them late and had then been un-employed for over 10 years so they were small. Yet when they were cashed in, I got the maximum I could possibly have expected from them. Now hear this – just TWO DAYS after they were cashed in, the markets collapsed and I was standing pretty with my full pension. OK it was small but it was bigger than many in the same boat because the Lords timing for me was PERFECT. He had told me to move, He had told me to retire. I had done both and He took care of me in my obedience.

So what has all this got to do with today’s ‘signs of the times’; today’s ‘end times’ events. Well, today I heard a voice of hope – a voice of encouragement – a voice of faith. I listened to a man many of you know – David Wilkerson. He spoke about the hope, the love, the life we have in Jesus even in these desperate times. The Lord then spoke to me about His promises and of passing this Good News on to the world waiting so desperately to hear ‘the word of the Lord’ as spoken by Amos.

Firstly, our wonderful Father God is a loving God – John 3:16 says it all. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

We can take all our cares to Him 1 Peter 5:7 because He cares for us.” Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”

He is the God who heals us Exodus 15:26, He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you."

He heals all our sickness and forgives all our sins, Psalm 103:1-3. “Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits - who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,”

By His wounds we ARE healed Isaiah 53:5. “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.”

Our hope is in Him Hebrews 11:1. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. “

Please tell me how much more we need to be told these things and yet many still do not believe them.

Gods word is GOOD Numbers 23:19, “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?”

His plans for us are GOOD Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

He even gave us His phone number Jeremiah 33:3. “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”

If the Word of God does not lie, then these are all trustworthy sayings.

Listen to what the Lord is saying now – “The days are coming when many shall turn to me. Those who doubt now, those who do not believe in Me now, those who have wandered off like lost sheep. I am raising a new end-time army of believers. Those who will believe despite what circumstances scream out to them; those who believe despite and whatever the world throws at them; those who will believe through the worst possible persecution – even unto death. The world is turning against Me”, says the Lord, “ but I already knew this before I laid the foundations of the earth. The world does not realise this, yet even if they did, yet they would still despise Me. And they will despise you too because you speak My Name – because you believe in Me and in the One I sent. Even so,” says the Lord, “because your hope is steadfast and is rooted in Me, yet will I uphold you; yet will I justify you even in the worlds eyes. Do not lose sight of My Kingdom for it shall be your reward. Do not bow the knee to anyone but My Son for He is your saviour. Always remember that I, the Lord God Almighty, love you and I am with you – even to the end of the age. I am your provider. I am your Father. I love you – even you.”

CGB August 7 2009
© Chris Bennett 2009

A Golden Opportunity

2009-07-31T11:16:00.000-07:00

What a world we live in !! What a desperate state of affairs we are building for our children to inherit. What a failure for us – what a victory for Satan !! People throughout the world are turning to look at the great faiths of the world – desperate to see something better than they see in the world at the moment.

We are living in an increasingly desperate world - a world desperate for something better - a world desperate to hear from God. Amos 8:11 "The days are coming," declares the Sovereign LORD, “when I will send a famine through the land - not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.”

The world is getting ever more desperate for ‘something better’. They have looked at the world – particularly their own world – and they have seen how shallow, how false so much of it really is. People are beginning to realise that they must seek out that ‘something better’ – whatever it is.

The time that the prophet Amos spoke of is here – now. It is a present reality. We are now living in the days of desperation so eloquently spoken about by Amos. So what on earth is the Church doing about it ?
How the devil must laugh as we preach the world rather than preaching the Gospel or teaching from the Word. Jesus said "Feed My Sheep". Who are His sheep? I think that every human being can be one of His sheep – but we are feeding only those sheep already inside the sheep-fold. We are not spreading the Gospel outside the comfort of our sheep-fold.

And what Gospel do we preach in these days of such desperation? Have we watered down the Gospel? We don’t hear much about sin, about grace, about repenting and dying daily to self so He can be seen more clearly through us – at least not in most churches and most pulpits. If there's no gospel message of sin, grace, repentance, and salvation there is nothing at all and we fail those who need to hear the Gospel message.
We hear much about the prosperity Gospel. The prosperity gospel is, in my opinion, really "the ear-ticklers gospel" (2 Tim 4:3-4 ) - it’s what the audience wants to hear rather than what’s truthful. The Prosperity Gospel is also false, worldly teaching by those who would twist Gods Word to their own ends and profit via emotional blackmail.

Oh - As we sit in our smug self-satisfied 'sanctified' complacency the Lord must weep over our luke-warmness. Send us a fresh injection Your Holy Spirit and Fire Lord. The Lord weeps over our lack of faith and our lack of belief in His Word. Not theology, nor liturgy, nor what we think the Word of God says – but what it actually says – in context and as it is supposed to apply to our lives. The trouble is that, not only have we watered down the Gospel, we have also seen fit to omit huge important chunks of it from our teaching. We think that an hour spent listening to a preacher talk about Jesus followed by two minutes spent saying the so-called ‘Sinners Prayer, and that’s it – we’re saved. Where is the life change? Where is the broken, true repentance? Where is the full gospel message of sin, grace, repentance, and salvation?

Brothers and Sisters, we are living at a time when God in His great mercy and love has given us a golden opportunity to spread His real Gospel throughout the world. We’ve had one (poor) model already – at Lakeland, Florida in 2008. That we wasted most of that opportunity was down to our own sin alone. Ignore what happened among the leadership – look at the effects around the world during that time of revival. We had the technology and we used it. Media, TV, Internet – all combined to take news of what was happening in Lakeland right round the world – to virtually every nation – as it was happening. The anointing in the meetings was transmitted over the airwaves and through our computers and TV sets into every home open to watch what was happening.

If we could only learn. People this is what it’s all about - LESS of us, more of HIM. If we would only stand back, let go, and let God do things through us, despite us and because of us - because He loves us so much. Whatever we think, His way is ALWAYS best and we must learn to let Him do things. This is the Golden Opportunity for us to make ourselves available to God the Holy Spirit so that He can use us to present the Gospel His way. He leads us into ALL truth so let Him lead us into sharing His wonderful and glorious gospel – the ransomed, healed, restored, and forgiven Gospel. NOT the “sign here and you’re saved” Gospel but His saving, redeeming gospel of Salvation through the glorious Blood of Jesus Christ.

AMEN?
CGB 31 July 2009

Persecution in the West

2009-07-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

There is a great persecution coming to the Western Church. A short while ago I gave a word that mentions persecution coming to the West. Since that time, I believe the Lord has been showing me more about this fast approaching end-time event – in fact its upon us now!

The (Western) world has finally got so sick and tired of the Church’s hypocrisy, its political meddling, its greed, and quite frankly its own sin, that they have turned on us. As Steve Gray spoke in his book, “Strike the Match” (p53)

“When the followers of God are not all that different from those who don’t follow Him, what is there attract the non-believer? When we are a powerless, unethical people in opposition to the standards of God, how do we hope to spur anyone to salvation? It is hard to convey the hypocrisy, self-indulgence, and greed that are engulfing our churches as worthwhile adverts for Jesus.”

That is not quite an exact quote as I have changed a word here and there for clarity. What truth and wisdom in those words. Steve Gray has not been alone in revealing this but, like all the rest, he has been roundly shunned and ignored by the great majority. Alas, the Church has not heeded these words in the slightest and the world has finally said “Enough is enough – the church has had its say, and yet the Church has never once followed its own preaching.” Why do you think so many people turned towards other religions or no religion at all. Why do you think those other religions, Islam in particular, have grown at such an alarming rate. Why do you think that their, still very much minority, voices are being given so much freedom? Could it be – could it just possibly be, that the Lord has allowed this so as to start the shaking He has promised??

I believe that the Lord has been showing me that there is coming a persecution to the Church of Europe and America, and to individual Christians. It will be of such magnitude that we will discover first hand what it was like to live under a repressive regime like the old Stalinism or Mao-ism. Christians in Europe and, particularly, America will be imprisoned for their faith. They will be publicly reviled for their religion and for their support of Israel. Many many thousands will flee Christianity as it becomes, to them, a stumbling block. As it was said by Paul in scripture :-

Romans 9:31-33 (NIV)” Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone." As it is written: "See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."

These statements referred to the prophecy in Isaiah

Isaiah 8:14; “... but for both houses of Israel he will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.”

Yet there is hope for later in Isaiah it says -

Isaiah 28:16 “So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.”

It is my belief that there is a truth here that we have long tried to ignore simply because we don’t like the sound of it. Jesus Christ is not only the Son of God, He is not only our Lord and Saviour, He is not only the one who died for our sins that if we believe in Him we might have eternal life. Like it or not, Jesus Christ is also the stumbling block that will cause us to be persecuted , beaten, put in prison, humiliated, humbled before all men – in almost exactly the same way as the first church did 2000 years ago.

So why does scripture also say that the one who trusts in Him will never be shamed nor dismayed? We will never be shamed nor dismayed before God !! His Grace always was, still is, and always will be sufficient for us. He always was, still is, and always will be the way the truth and the life. No matter what persecution we may suffer in the days ahead, we will, like many before us, bear it with faith intact, we will bear it with dignity, and we will bear it for His sake and we will NOT be shamed nor dismayed before the throne of God. He will acknowledge us and be our fortress, our strong tower, our peace, and our all in all.

And this is our hope, that in whatever the coming persecution throws at us we may :- “Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” Ephesians 6:13 NKJV

One last thing for you to consider – I believe the Lord is saying that this is NOT the great tribulation spoken of in the Bible – this is going to happen before those days.

CGB 25 July 2009

A Word from the Lord - Revival In America

2009-07-15T14:41:00.000-07:00

Revival In America

I see the Glory Cloud coming to small town America. Not the great big ministries but the smaller ones who are pleading for a touch from God. I see a grass roots revival from small churches everywhere - starting in the North West and spreading all over. Holy Spirit led revival \o/

I see the Glory Cloud descending in your meetings and not one person is still standing. As with the priests when Solomon dedicated the temple, they could not stand in the Presence of the Lord.

1 Kings 8:10-11 " When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the LORD. And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled his temple. "

Amos 8:11"The days are coming," declares the Sovereign LORD, “when I will send a famine through the land— not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.”

These days are here right now and the Lord is listening for the fervent prayers of a righteous man.

James 5:16 “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”

Then He will listen to your prayers, He will hear when you call upon Him; and He will heal your land.

2 Chronicles 7:13-15 "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.”

Listen – Do you hear the sound of rain approaching?

Look - Do you see a cloud the size of a man’s hand? Look SEVEN times.

I see a very dry place where the wind suddenly starts to blow. Very little at first, but it builds and builds until it’s a storm force wind bringing the fresh rain of revival – not as a spring shower but as a mighty torrent. And with revival is coming the very presence of the Lord God Almighty and no man shall stand in that presence. You shall not cry out for healing – it will just happen. You shall not pray for the unsaved – they shall walk in off the street – convicted of their sin before they know what is happening. You shall not ask for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit – it will happen to anyone and everyone.

Joel 2:28-32The Day of the LORD"And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; “

So – Are you ready. The Lord God Almighty is ready to start right now.

He is coming – He is coming – He is coming.

Get ready – Be ready. He will not wait for you but He will find those who are ready; who are prepared for His coming; who are desperate for a touch from His Holy Spirit.

Chris Bennett, RoFMI, 7 April 2009

How NOT to get Baptised in the Holy Spirit !!

2009-07-15T14:35:00.000-07:00

My testimony of Holy Spirit Baptism is quite amazing.

I came to salvation in Dec 2nd 1962. Then, I ran away from God for 25 yrs 62-87 approx. In 1987 I started work in a town about 30 miles away. While there and during my lunch break, I met a now very good friend in the local Christian book shop. He welcomed me and offered me coffee - anyone who does that is a friend for life !! So we started to talk about things of Christianity and we had noticed a thing called the Baptism of the Holy Spirit which neither of us new a thing about. So we made a pact to study it as best we could and eventually, my friend came up with some meetings on Tuesday nights at a place about 20 more miles away.

It was called Roffey Place and was a Christian ministry run by a quite famous British priest and author, Colin Urquhart. (Doubt you've ever heard of him) Roffey had just started running a course on the Baptism so we joined quickly and eventually we both went forward for prayer to receive it.

Nothing happened. Not a thing. Zilch !!!

Colin's wife Diane prayed for me and she said, "Chris, you have received it. You just have to pick it up!!" Well I had no idea how to 'pick it up' but I prayed and I prayed. Still nothing !! About 7 or 8 months went past and I was driving to work one day when I prayed again for God to show me how to 'pick it up'.

I suddenly sensed the Lord say to me, 'OK, pull the car over.' At this point you need to understand that I was driving a very narrow country road with no room to accommodate parked cars, nowhere to park safely, and lots of traffic - just room for two lanes of cars - one in each direction.

"I cant, Lord. there's nowhere to stop."
"Pull over"
"Cant."
"Pull over."
"Cant"
And so, somewhat disappointed, I drove on to my destination knowing I had lost an opportunity. Next morning, the same thing happened.
"Lord, help me receive this baptism. PLEASE."
"Pull over."
"I cant, Lord. there's nowhere to stop."
"Pull over"
"Cant."
"Pull over."
"Cant"
"Lord - do I have to stop. Cant you just do it?"
Don't you love naive and foolish questions???

BANG !!

The Lord took me at my word and baptised me there and then. I was doing about 50mph at the time.

I was all over the place. I was shouting, singing, praising Him in other tongues. Speaking in English. Speaking in my new tongue. Speaking in English. Speaking in my new tongue again. Backwards and forwards - in a totally joyous party for 2 - Holy Spirit and ME - and the car was still doing 50mph.

Do you know - the next time I knew what was happening, I had pulled up in our work car park and put the handbrake on. I have no idea how or when I got there. I only know I arrived safely with no knowledge whatsoever of 40 minutes of driving through country lanes and villages. The Holy Spirit drove that car - I didn't know what day it was let alone have the nouse to drive a car properly.

That lunch time I went to the Christian Bookshop to meet my friend. He took one look at me - poured out coffee and closed the shop ! "OK," he said, "Its happened. I know that because your face is shining like gold. Tell me about it."

And that is how I came into the baptism of the Holy Spirit in July 1989. Isn't God wonderful. Hasn't He got a great sense of humour. He must have laughed at me that day - as well as taking joy and pleasure in fulfilling my hearts desire. What a wonderful God we serve.

Amen??

© Chris Bennett 2009

The Shaking

2009-07-09T15:19:00.000-07:00

A Prophesy for the Church for the End-Times

Vision & Word - Wednesday evening 8th July 2009 around 10p.m.

I became aware of masonry and bricks falling all around me. I asked the Lord what was happening and He said, “Its My shaking.” He went on to show me that the coming shaking will be to the church and it will be bigger than 9/11 – of greater impact. But it will be a self-inflicted wound. Three ‘huge’ ministries (well known on TV) will fall along with hundreds of others. Millions of dollars will simply disappear leaving an enormous financial scandal.

It will be God shaking His people preparing the Bride for His Son. God will be clearing out the bad and keeping the good. Pruning the dead branches and throwing them on the fire. The aftermath will be a meltdown of the great denominations as they struggle to retain their wealth but they will lose 60% of all their wealth – land, property, and much of their historic artefacts. It will just disappear.

There will be a consequential rise in atheism and some persecution of the church and Christians in Western countries while the African and Asian church will make enormous strides forward. God will shake and destroy much in the Western Church of Europe and North America but He will prosper those of Africa and Asia. He is making His church HOLY.

The shaking will last for a season then the New Church will rise. Later, revival will begin – small at first but growing and growing into fully-fledged world-wide end-times revival as prophesied in the Word of God.

Am I a voice in the wilderness? Am I calling in vain for the Church to repent of its ways. Its denominations, its greed and hypocrisy. The Shepherds are those under greatest danger. Hear the Word of Ezekiel :-

Ezekiel 34;1-16
The word of the LORD came to me: " . . . . . Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? . . . . You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. " . . . . . . . This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. . . . . I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak . . . . .”

Also those who ‘tickle the ears of those they speak to – who say that which those fickle people – who just want to hear nice comforting words, who shy away from truth and hard words from the Lord.

Then there is the flock and they will fare little better than the shepherds. They need to repent too. Hear what the Word says about them :-

Ezekiel 34:17-24

" 'As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats. . . . Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet? . . . See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. . . . I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. . I the LORD have spoken.”

Of the African & Asian churches who will begin to prosper during this season however the Lord says this :-

Ezekiel 34:25-31

" 'I will make a covenant of peace with them . . . . I will bless them and the places surrounding my hill. . . . The trees of the field will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the LORD,. . . . . . They will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid. . . . Then they will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them and that they . . . are my people, declares the Sovereign LORD. . . . You my sheep . . . and I am your God, declares the Sovereign LORD.' "

Who will listen? Who will repent of their ways before the Lord shakes you to the ground? Am I a lone voice – a voice in the wilderness? I think I probably am for who will listen to an unknown prophet crying out to the Lord for His people. I do not tickle their ears as they want.

2 Tim 4:3-4
“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”

CGB 9 July 2009

21st Century Presence of God

2009-07-05T01:17:00.000-07:00

Well here we are again Lord. I know you have something to say and I am listening.

The few comments I have received for this blog have been so encouraging but the overwhelming feedback I am getting is from the Lord and He started to speak to me about His presence when I was responding to one of those comments.

The manifest presence of God is a tangible thing because the Glory Cloud of His Presence is not only tangible but visible too. It is tangible in the sense that, as in the days of Moses, when we come into His presence, we too cannot stand; we too need a rope tied around us to pull us out; but we will not die in His presence as the High Priest did in those olden days. This is because of what Jesus won for us on Calvary.

On Calvary, Jesus conquered death. On Calvary Jesus redeemed us from sin. On Calvary Jesus paid the price for everything we have ever done or will ever do in order to bring us back into the manifest presence of God the Father. Calvary was the price for us to come back into Gods presence – nothing else could have done it for us. So when we praise and worship Him today or any day, we would do well to remember what it cost to bring us to this point.

But the Lord is not satisfied with us just coming into His presence and we should not be satisfied either because there is more to come – more of Himself that He wants to share with us. More for us to experience of Him. He wants more in that we have very rarely actually seen the Cloud of His presence as did Moses and the Children of Israel. He wants us to actually inhabit that cloud – just as He inhabits that cloud. Wow – what an amazing thought. To be in the very presence of the Lord God Almighty – on such Holy ground. He wants such intimacy with us as did the 1st Century Church. He wants for us what very few people have ever experienced. He wants to walk amongst us and talk with us as He did in the garden of Eden except that we cannot see Him. Or maybe we will – who knows except God Himself?

Can you even begin to imagine such a situation? I mean, there you are, middle of praise and worship, and suddenly – oh wow. First thing is that you feel the tangible presence. You carry on with your worship and the Glory Cloud becomes visible. Such is this presence that the ONLY thing we can do is to carry on worshiping Him – giving ourselves wholly over to praising and worshiping God – when suddenly He is actually standing in our midst in such a way as we cannot even dream about right now. He is talking to us individually – one on one. Every person present is totally healed of everything because sickness cannot abide in His presence. Down, down – on your faces. You cannot stand in His presence. Shoes OFF – this is Holy Ground. Nothing but the wonderful peace and presence of God. We are being made Holy in His sight just by His presence – despite our sinful natures.

THIS is what the Lord God Almighty wants for us mere mortals. This is what He wants for His children. This is where He wants to take us in the 21st Century Church. I see people running into that presence, drawn in by it, knocked down by it as they fall under the anointing, healed as they enter, saved and baptised in the Spirit in a moment. Changed for ever and ever.

It can be like this. It will be like this one day soon. Amen Lord – Let it be as you have shown us. Your Kingdom come – Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen Hallelujah.

© Chris Bennett 2009

21st Century Liturgical Correctness

2009-07-04T06:55:00.000-07:00

Wow – I feel like the Lord has been running back and forth over me with a large Mac truck. He is speaking so much to me about 21st Century Church. I started typing a short message on my computer and Blammo – there He was again saying, “Can I say something here please?” Oh boy – here we go then –

There is a new sin overtaking the Church - it is called Liturgical Correctness. Rather like Political Correctness, it is aimed at dumbing down church by taking all the spontaneity out of our services. But this is rather more than just another step in the decline of the Church – rather it is specifically a Pharisaic spirit which contends that we do things ‘decently and in order’. The really dangerous thing here is that this is quite Biblical. 1 Corinthians 14:40 “But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.”

I remember as a kid going to both Sunday School and to Church where everything was done ‘decently and in order’ – A hymn, a prayer, a reading, a prayer, another hymn, the sermon, another prayer, final hymn, final prayer, the blessing, GO HOME. The real trouble with this was that there was absolutely no room for the Holy Spirit to move in those meetings (there still isn’t) and as a consequence the meetings were dry and lifeless. There’s an old joke where the punch line has God laughing and saying, “Man I’ve been trying to get into that church for years!” But it wasn’t much of a joke because it was too true to be funny.

“Everything done in a fitting and orderly way.” OK – someone please define ‘fitting and orderly way’ ?? There is nowhere in scripture which defines ‘fitting and orderly way’. Sure, there are passages that speak of two or three bringing messages in tongues – with interpretation. We can prophesy, we can bring words, we can do all sorts of things – but in what sequence and why does it all have to be done in the same sequence every week. The Church, in the days of yore (centuries back), decided to lay down rules for services – they called it Liturgy. And liturgy seemed good to us for very many years – it was what church was – past tense – WAS. And it was good – you could go into a new church and you’d know what was happening because of where you were on the hymn list or what prayer was being said. Catholicism went a step or two further by insisting that their services all over the world were held in Latin so you would go anywhere and understand exactly what was going on. And it seemed good to us. Nowadays, there are still very many who will not let go of their beloved liturgy.

Liturgical correctness has infiltrated our planning, our very thinking, and it is STILL stopping the Holy Spirit in His tracks. The Holy Spirit is a gentleman – where He is not wanted or not invited or baulked by our ‘liturgy’ – He withdraws. It was not always so. In the 1st Century Church, we are told in Acts 4 that, “After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly” (Emphasis mine) Let me ask you – when was the last time the power of the Holy Spirit shook the place where your church was meeting?

So, please, let us stop being Liturgically Correct. Let us give our meetings over to the Holy Spirit completely. Let us return to whatever seems the best way of holding 1st Century meetings in the 21st Century. Yes we praise and worship together for God inhabits the praises of His people. Yes we pray together. Yes we have prophecy and testimony for the edification and encouragement of all. But there is a sense that says – who cares what sequence EXCEPT that I believe P&W must always start us off because P&W brings the manifest presence of God – the Cloud of His Glory. After that comes in, who knows what may happen? And to quote a well known sports commentator – “And quite honestly - who cares!”

© Chris Bennett 2009

21st Century Praise & Worship

2009-07-03T15:14:00.000-07:00

A friend just remarked about praise & worship (for which she is the keyboarder) “I'm always in awe of how God's presence shows up. That is the true joy and honour.” To which I replied “Amen - Always amazes me too but it really shouldn't. Where 2 or 3 are gathered etc. He's already there we should expect Him” It’s at moments like this that I almost inevitably spot a little flag waving in my mind’s eye. Its God, of course, saying, “Excuse me please, Can I have a wee word about that?” Last time He did this I was up til after 1 a.m. typing His and my collected or inspired thoughts down. Why do people wait til its late to send me messages like this??

Well, the Word does say that “where 2 or 3 are gathered in My Name, there shall I be also.” Yet so often our expectations seem to reflect our faith levels and we really don’t expect Him to “show up” or “put in an appearance”. SO much so that when His presence does manifest itself in any way, we always seem to be utterly gobsmacked – that’s colloquial English for amazed.

My trouble is that, as a ‘sometime prophet’ (as my on line bio reads), I see many things in visions from the Lord. Increasingly of late I have been seeing the golden Glory Cloud of His presence over meetings, over churches, over towns. (Not yet seen it over a nation but it’s coming.) It is truly amazing to behold and it carries power even in a vision – so much so that I frequently sit down before I fall down. It’s almost Old Testament in the way I cannot stand in His presence – even in a vision !!

So what is it about our level of faith or our level of expectation? Why do we regard our churches, our meetings, even our own lives in such low esteem that we do not expect anything special from our loving God. He is always in our meetings, whether we realise it or not – His Word promises that much. I believe our trouble is that we have ignored Him or suppressed Him for so long that even He may be surprised to be allowed to manifest His presence among us. The Holy Spirit absolutely delights in making His presence known among us. When someone is leading or just joining in a song and their face shines – THAT is the Holy Spirit trying to say hello to the rest of us. Yet we ignore Him because we have little or no expectation of His divine presence. That is just so incredibly sad.

So what’s to do? I suggest we increase our expectation levels because we KNOW He is already among us when we start our meeting – where 2 or 3 etc. I suggest we acknowledge this in our hearts and give ourselves to praise and worship in a new more whole hearted way. EXPECT the Lord to manifest His presence and when this happens DONT QUASH Him – you will grieve the Spirit and He will leave you alone again immediately. Let us RAISE our Faith levels to a new heightened expectation of the manifest presence of God. Expect to even SEE the Glory Cloud of His Presence in your meetings – but don’t expect to stay on your feet for long. You will be on Holy Ground!! It might not be a bad idea to show your expectation by taking your shoes OFF before you start. This may well say to the Lord that you are acknowledging His presence among you and that you are indeed on Holy Ground.

When the anointing and the presence comes – it will be a whole new ball-game from that moment on. Your praise and worship will never be the same again. All because you lifted your faith and raised your expectation levels a little bit. God will raise them much higher when He “shows up” and WOW – I see it already – your faith will rise exponentially. Your expectation levels will hit unprecedented heights. His presence will bring passers by in off the streets and they will fall in the anointing because, like us and like the priests and Levites before us, they will not be able to stand in the presence of the Lord God Almighty. Amen – let it be so Lord. \o/

© Chris Bennett 2009

21st Century Church

2009-07-03T03:22:00.000-07:00

What is the 1st/21st century church? The Lord has been pouring His words into me. Its been a quite amazing couple of days.

So tonight, when a friend wrote about getting out of the comfort zone of our cosy Sunday meetings, the phrase "In the round" came leaping to the fore. Staggered by my own creative ability (NOT) and amazed by my ability to think deeply about those things on which I have either no experience or no knowledge whatsoever, or both, I took the road of last resort. "OK Lord", says I, "Please explain - what is 'in the round' supposed to be - please?"

He took me back to a period of my life when I was planning and (almost) booking the Millennium Stadium for an outreach meeting to celebrate the centenary of the Welsh Revival. OK - let me try to explain (this could be a bit disjointed)

When we read that any pop star is doing a concert or a well know evangelist has taken Wembley Arena or Stadium for a crusade, they either have the venue set up 'theatre' or 'in the round'. Theatre is the traditional way with the stage or platform set up at one side with access and egress handy for the 'star' to get on and off the stage. In the round on the other hand is much more daring - ask Louis Palau :o) In the round is when the 'platform is in the very centre of your venue completely surrounded by the audience. When Louis Palau did this once, "to be close to the people" there was such a crush he was trapped on the platform for a few hours. So 'in the round' in the sense of holding church meetings would be much more intimate and almost cabaret style in its set up.

So, I wondered, how would it work for a Sunday morning service. Well obviously the P&W team would need to be in their usual position - but, the meeting leader, pastor, and any visiting speaker, would need to be comfortable with with a roving mike (hand held or radio) AND be prepared to be right in the middle of the congregation amongst the people. Some will not be comfortable with this. THEN, because the congregation would be sitting at tables with coffee etc, we need to add their ability to go grab another coffee, nip out for a comfort break, and their general amusement and fascination with the new scheme of things and you just about have it.

Let me tell you here that the most successful meetings our ministry has had, has been when the speaker comes down from the platform and walks around or even sits amongst the audience. It is always much more intimate and personal - some would say its too close up and personal. However, every time we have done it, the people LOVE it because their pastor and the speaker is not aloof and far off - he/she "is right here amongst us."

Problem is space and venue - have you room for all the tables. Do you HAVE all the tables. Can it be done in the traditional setting in a standard church with rows of seats. And so on & on & on. Lots to pray about and consider. Yet . . . . .

I have to say that I am quite excited by this idea just sitting here typing this all out for you. I want to give it a go.

© Chris Bennett 2009

The 21st Century Gospel

2009-07-01T12:06:00.000-07:00

Have we watered down the Gospel? I dont hear much about repenting and dying daily to self so He can be seen more clearly through us. Jesus gave us just two things – a cross so we can follow Him daily, and eternal life so that, if we run the race, we can be with Him forever.

Are we, the shepherds, guilty of tickling the ears of our flock and not feeding and cultivating them as we should. How the devil must laugh as we preach the world rather than preaching the Gospel or teaching from the Word. Feed the church meat not more milk.

The prosperity gospel is really 2 Tim 4:3-4 "the ear-ticklers gospel" - its what the audience wants to hear rather than whats needed. In my opinion, the prosperity gospel is evil - a ploy by the enemy to distract us from where we should be going. Only my opinion mind. I mean - you try preaching the prosperity gospel in Africa or India or China. It will then be the ridiculous gospel. What do you think ? The prosperity gospel is really 2 Tim 4:3-4 "the ear-ticklers gospel" – it is also not Biblical. Oh you can quote Jeremiah 29:11 ‘plans to prosper you’ etc – but did Jesus ever quote this passage? I think we frequently take it right out of context when applying it to ourselves. Am I off the wall here? Its a hard one. But it is definitely being used as an 'ear tickler' by some and that surely must be wrong??

We rarely, if ever, now hear of denying ourselves & taking up the cross as a true follower of Christ. I havent heard that message from the pulpit for years:( Right - Gods provision is one thing. Jesus actually said that It is harder for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven etc - To me, Prosperity gospel is mainly about greed for more and more – excess to our needs.

I believe God calls us into something. Being no mans debtor, He calls, He equips, He provides. SImple really. I believe there is a move towards a 1st century church in the 21st century. The first century church was about relationships – with God first, then with each other. Its beginning here too. Is this the new move of God ?? Thats it - return to our first love; the joy of our salvation. Rev 3 - How I wish you were hot or cold etc. We've grown lukewarm. I also believe the days of the mega-church are numbered. The Lord has been showing me this of late. Smaller is better it seems. Amen??

God is NOW replacing ritual with relationship.

© Chris Bennett 2009

Rivers of Fire Ministries International

2009-06-23T08:28:00.000-07:00

Rivers of Fire Ministries International or RoFMI for short, is a prophetic ministry aimed at helping the church to prepare for end times and for revival. We are a small group of more mature Pentecostal Christians and we have travelled all over Europe in order to minister to pastors and leaders in Mercy not in judgement - even though judgement may be deserved. We always minister in mercy and love.

Since October 2007, we have made 23 visits to Belgium, Spain, Denmark, Ireland, Iceland, Norway, and one trip to the USA. We have even ministered in the UK too. We have invitations to the USA, to Greenland, to the Faroe Islands, and we have diarised events pending in Spain and Denmark. All this as of June 2009. We have travelled 40,000+ miles.

As a proof of Gods provision for this ministry, we started with a gift of £1000.00 We have done all of the above ministry trips. We have already paid for the trips later this year to Spain and Denmark, and we still have approximately £1000.00 in the ministry funds in bank funds and foreign currency.

We believe God is changing the ministry and we are seeking financial support on a regular basis to enable us to answer what we believe to be Gods call to other places where perhaps they are less likely to be able to contribute anything to help fund us. We have all received Gods mercy - some of us in greater measure than others but we also believe it must be made available to those less fortunate than ourselves so we are seeking to find Gods way of funding our future perceived path in the will of God. We believe that maybe setting ourselves up as a charitable enterprise may be the way forward but we await Gods leading on this.

If you, reading this blog, feel led to help us then please let me know. @cgbrofmi on Twitter. or leave a comment here and I will pick it up later.

May God Bless you abundantly more than you can think or dream. Cup pressed down and running over. Amen

With all love in Yeshua

Chris Bennett

RoFMI Visit to Spain June 19 to 22 2009

2009-06-23T06:12:00.000-07:00

What shall we do on the longest days of the year? I know – let’s go to Spain. Let’s go back to see those lovely people in Murcia once more. So it was that our 7th visit to Murcia was birthed, and that’s why Peter, Jonathan, and Chris set out on a dazzlingly ordinary Friday evening in the middle of June to visit a country and region not renowned for its summer icebergs and snow. Another thrilling adventure in faith had begun. The ‘plan’ was to simply meet with as many of the people as we could at a personal level and to fellowship and love them.

We arrived at Alicante airport at around 23:30 – late for some but not our wonderful hosts Armand and Neumi who cheerfully pitched up to pick us all up. Jonathan was taken poste haste to Pastor David’s house in Murcia while Peter and I were taken a little further to Alcantarilla where Armand & Neumi live. We actually managed to exchange all the news and views and get to bed by 3:00a.m. – quite an impressive start all in all.

Up by something vaguely early o’clock next morning, we still had no real idea what our itinerary was and, praise the Lord, it was not to be as intense nor as full as the previous week in Denmark. Neumi had to go to school – she is studying to become a hospital administrator – so off she went at 08:30 leaving Peter & I in the tender care of Armand. So where are all those icebergs I wondered? Well it was 23C in the shade at 08:00 so I guess they were hiding somewhere cool. Then Armand came up with a terrible idea – let’s go to Mama Mia’s for breakfast. Let it be clear here that this Mama Mia’s is a wonderfully sinful establishment in sore need of a couple of good prophets sorting it out. We immediately set about their hot chocolate stock reducing it quickly by one portion “Prophets Ambrosia” and some coffee, juices, and pain au chocolat and tomato & mozzarella slices. Hmm – not bad – temperature is about 30+ by now so no chance of an iceberg sighting.

After much relaxation and planning picked up Jonathan and set out to find Ruben & Tracey together with Tracey’s Mum & Dad over for a holiday. The idea was that we have lunch together. Another excellent relaxing time ensued and an excellent lunch was dutifully consumed. Just a quick by the way here – the temperature on Saturday (or was it Sunday) reached 46C – 115F. That is a tad warm.

I expect you’re all wondering if we did any work at all this trip?? Hmm?? Well yes as it’s important to us to make as many people as possible there know that our ministry is different..We don’t just pitch up, preach, and run. We want to be available to the people and to show them even just a little bit of Christ’s love for them.

So a little later on we did go to Pastor David’s house for their Friday evening Bible study. Pastor David spoke about Acts 1:3-17 and we found ourselves back at the scripture Peter spoke on last week about the woman who broke the alabaster box of perfume over Jesus’ feet then dried it all with her hair. This all led to the presence of the Lord and the fact that His presence affects us in different ways. David gave a very powerful talk on the fragrance of our praises and the fact that faith is a risk. Moses risked his faith to part the Red Sea. Joshua risked his faith to fight battles. Faith is risk and if Satan cannot steal our praise & worship, then he cannot steal your salvation or destiny in Christ. Prayer and ministry time was both anointed and powerful as we found ourselves delivering precious words of confirmation and encouragement to the whole company assembled there – including cousins Miguel & Maria visiting from Australia. Back to the apartment in Alcantarilla and an early night at 02:00 – after ice-cream in a place almost next to Mama Mia’s.

Sunday morning saw a great change for us – no church meeting! SO instead we went back to Pastor David’s home and did some serious planning for a prophetic worship conference we are holding over there in October. More of that another time.

For lunch on Sunday we went to Orihuella, another nearby town, for lunch with one of the families from David’s church. About 16 of us sat down to eat and we were all truly blessed. Peter was fulfilling a promise he made to them on an earlier trip and they were all so very pleased to have us there and minister to us through a meal. About 3 hours and several prophecies later, we came away and made our way back to Murcia for the Sunday evening service at Pastor David’s church.

Pastor David preached on Genesis 28:10-22 where Jacob wrestled the angel of the Lord. David’s theme was that we can all have an encounter with God so powerful that it changes the DNA of the land. There are also those encounters when God is present and we don’t even know it until later. On the main theme, if we had such a powerful encounter as Jacob there, Murcia would no longer be a place of lemon trees. It would be known as a place where god inhabited the church and a place where you can have your own encounter with God. Once again a very anointed and powerful ministry time followed and many people were greatly blessed and had their own encounter with God.

We finally managed to get to bed by 1a.m. in order to be on the road by 07:30 and at the airport by 08:30 for our return flight. On the way back home we realised just how tiring consecutive weeks of overseas travel and ministry can be and we slept a good part of the way home. I finally left Peter snoozing happily in his own home – a posture he maintained for quite a while apparently.

So – what did this very short trip actually achieve? Unknown at the moment – all I can say is that we are regarded, and regard our hosts in return, as family and it is sometimes just good to visit and encourage them (and ourselves) by fellowshipping with everyone in the church and not just the pastors and their families. We love them and we know we are loved by them – do we need any other reason to keep going back? OK – maybe we do but what do you think the October conference is intended to be for if not to move them on and help them get really established, ready for revival in their country.

Highlight for me was the ministry time in church on Sunday evening when so many received a touch from the Lord. Also to hear David preaching was a revelation and I received much from his teaching.

Peter - As for me I have been finding over the last 2 visits that the lord has been changing my perspective of ministry The Lord has been directing me to relationship more than just teaching or preaching. It was such a joy for me to be released in that way especially in Denmark and now in Spain. I am very fortunate to have a team developing around our ministry that are seasoned teachers and preachers such as Keith Turner and Keith and Jean Perrin. Although I still teach / preach I am being released more into spending time with the leaders and their congregation on a more personal level which to me is very important.

Highlights for Spain have to include David's teaching. This is my first time of hearing first hand as part of a congregation .Other times I would be doing the teaching myself as a guest speaker. David has a way of getting deep into the nuggets and bringing out the things in the word that most other people miss. Had it not been for the fact that we were released just to spend time building up personal relationships I would have missed all of that for myself and my team.

Another highlight has to be the change I have seen in Armando our host. When I first met him the Lord seemed to join us at the hips and I could see such promising future for him with the Lord. Over the last couple of visits I have been getting to know him better. This last visit Chris and I had the pleasure of staying with him and his lovely wife Neumi I can only say that after a weekend together Armando has become just as crazy as we are. He is a true friend indeed and I will be throwing him deeper in the water in our future ministry in Europe.

I think the best highlight for me was perhaps the meal we had together with the family from Orihuella on Sunday afternoon I had been wanting to visit their home for the last 3 trips to Spain. Sunday was fathers day in UK and I had a card from Ruth with a present. I opened these at the table with my own family in Spain and it was so precious. Far from home, but also being at home.

2009-05-31T15:43:00.000-07:00

Pentecost 2009

As we were interceding and praying for the sick in our evening service tonight, the Lord showed me something which I believe to be of great significance at this time for both the UK & USA.

As the prayers were going on, I saw what looked like water filling the room up. I asked the Lord what I was seeing. He said, “This is My healing balm for this area.” As I watched some more, the room completely filled up although, of course, the people were still praying.

Our churches have a ministry call Jesus Will Heal You (www.jesuswillhealyou.com) and Pastor Richard had been giving us some details of the prayer requests received this week. This was where all of our prayer and intercession was directed. Pastor Richard had left a file of the requests standing on the music stand which doubles as a lectern. As I watched, about one third of the healing balm was absorbed into this file – each page taking in the balm needed for that prayer. I asked the Lord about this and He said, “Expect miracles this week and every week from now on.”

Then as I watched further, another third of the balm seemed to waft out of the windows into the surrounding area – it simply went as a mist and disappeared over the surrounding buildings. Again I asked the Lord about this. He replied, “This is my balm for this area – I am healing your land.”

Finally, the remaining third of the healing balm was absorbed into each of the people present in the meeting – pastors, men, women, and even the children. The Lord said, “Tell your people to expect real miracles. As people come to them, they will lay hands on them and they shall be healed – body, mind, soul, and spirit – complete healing will be theirs."

The Lord must have sensed my next question “What is the purpose of all this”. He said simply, “I have heard your prayers and this is My answer.” I was impressed in my spirit that this was not just for our church but for every church. .” I was impressed in my spirit that this was not just for our town or city – it is for every town and city. .” I was impressed in my spirit that this was not just for the UK, it is for the USA and for many other countries around the world.

CGB 31 May 2009

© Chris Bennett 2009

RoFMI Visit to Murcia Spain May 15 to 18 2009

2009-05-24T14:02:00.000-07:00

RoFMI Visit to Murcia Spain May 15 to 18 2009

Isn’t it wonderful how Gods timing is always perfect? So this wee band of Gods warriors found ourselves on a plane headed yet again for Spain – THIRD time this year alone – 6th time overall. It’s like visiting family now. Not to be caught short by an excess of meetings we went in a bit mob-handed with 6 of us travelling so let’s start with the team sheet

Team Sheet – Peter Barnes leading, Ruth, John, Keith, Jonathan, and myself – Chris. A motley assortment of talents but nevertheless a team whom the Lord has chosen to use from time to time. Actually, Jonathan couldn’t get away Friday so he joined us mid-way through Saturday just for the 2 days available to him. Whilst we whole-heartedly approve of a keen attitude, this may be a bridge too far as he shows the rest of us up a bit. Can’t have that now can we??

Anyway – we arrived in Alicante airport around 14:55 and the drive to Murcia passed quickly as we were all greeting and exchanging news with our hosts. It’s about an 80km drive south from Alicante to Murcia so we had a little time to pass on the way. After a welcoming meal together with the wonderful Parraga family, Pastor David is the Senior Pastor and our host, we all set off once again for David’s church which he shares with the Nigerian church in Murcia for an evening meeting.

Pastor David opened up and then called upon a visiting pastor, Pastor Victor, to say a few words. I have rarely, if ever, heard a better 5 minute ‘sermon’ It was about the feast when Herodias daughter asked what she truly wanted surprised the king by asking for the head of John the Baptist on a plate. Then Pastor Victor asked everyone what they would ask for if they were ever asked such a question. It was a really powerful ‘sermon-ette’ which went down very well indeed. Next up was Keith giving us some biblical teaching on receiving all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Finally Peter stood up and spoke about wanting to give a prophecy to a young married couple – Tracey & Ruben. Ruben’s car had broken down and it was doubted he would get there at all, so Peter spoke about ‘Philip Airlines’ – you know the one which transported Philip from the eunuch’s chariot to a place many miles away. Peter called for Ruben to arrive – for God to transport Ruben into the meeting. We looked up and THERE HE STOOD !!!! He looked somewhat surprised by his reception !! Everybody gasped in complete amazement – especially Tracey – and shaking, they came to the front where Peter delivered his prophecy to them. That prophecy, I can tell you, is a wonderful confirmation of great joy to them. What an amazing start – if someone being transported into the meeting was the first miracle, and Peters prophecy to Tracey & Ruben was the second, what else could we all expect ??

Saturday dawned bright and shining (33C temperature – that’s over 90F to some of us) Off to another town, Lorca, where we had an all day conference arranged for one of Pastor David’s planted churches. Lorca is a town some 60km Southwest of Murcia. Quite a few people were there and expectations were quite high – given the previous days events :o) First session, Keith was first up giving some prophecy teaching. He quoted Revelation 19:10(b) and the Revelation 1:3 He gave several instances of prophecy in use and ha gave some instances of what prophecy is NOT. He used 1 Corinthians 14 as ‘the prophets manual’ and made the important definitions that prophecy is both Foretelling (something in the future) and Forthtelling (a word disclosing the present) Keith also gave very clear definition from scripture of the purpose of prophecy – 1 to grow the church(1 Cor 14:3) ; 2 guidance (Acts 13:1-3); and as a sign of unbelievers. Who can prophesy – anyone (Ephesians 4:11) In an intermission Peter gave 5 minutes on how prophecy is his ministry and how it works in practice. Finally, Keith went through the prophets of old to show how they were all ordinary people who had normal human frailties – e.g. Jeremiah was a depressive; Elijah was moody; Ezekiel was a mystic; and so on. He went on to describe how prophecy is received through prayer, meditation, visions, dreams, trances, impressions, the audible voice of God, angels, music – Daniel even gave a prophecy written on a wall !! Peter wrapped up a long and busy morning by answering questions.

Lunch followed and then a surprise start to the afternoon. We were asked to go and bless the churches new building !! Peter prophesied in March that someone in government would give the church in Lorca a building for their use – that it would be used as a ‘refugee centre’ and that there would be another building given which the church would use as a hostel/hotel for 80 people. This new building was given to them by the Mayor of Lorca less than one month later. Almost directly opposite the building, across a car park, is the local Immigration office where all refugees have to register !!!! How’s that for fulfillment of prophecy ?? Hallelujah \o/ We had a tour of the three storey building and saw how it will become a day centre type of thing with areas for meetings, a fitted kitchen (already in place), a crèche, a cafe, and so on. What an amazing God we serve – Miracle number three. We blessed and anointed the building – all its entrances - and threw out any residual demonic influence still there.

Back at the ranch we started the afternoon with some praise and worship. 90 minutes later and with everyone present having a wonderful time with the Lord, Peter then reminded them of the prophecies about these additional buildings and prophesied further about things still to come – signs and wonders, 300+ people queuing to get into the church (which only holds 100), 5 churches being planted; multiple meetings nearly every day of the week, changes in local laws to allow this church to grow, future provision of all the furniture and fittings needed. He also spoke of the people receiving words of knowledge because – what is the best way to get someone’s attention – give them a word of knowledge that only they know about. “How do you know that?” opens all doors. There followed extended ministry time and ended with Peter ‘giving his own gifting away’ by laying hands on half a dozen people – “That which I have I freely give to you”. Then the dancing started – led by Peter who (to be kind) is not designed for dancing – and yet who, like many larger people, can be very nimble on his feet. THEN we had a real surprise when Pastor David announced that he was going to ordain two new Pastors. Peter and Keith then formally inducted Pastor Pedro as the pastor of Lorca and David’s son David as a Pastor in their own church at Murcia. It was a very moving moment of affirmation for both men of God as they were received by their church with prolonged applause and cheering. I may have all of this on film as I was filming most of the weekend (including the moment when Ruben appeared in the church). If we manage to get some of it on the web-site, I will let you all know. We finally made it to a Spanish pizza parlour to conclude the evening – exhausted but totally exhilarated.

On Sunday, Peter went to a new Ecuadorian church in North Murcia – I think they want to affiliate to David as well – while John & I stayed in Lorca for their morning worship. We had a time of praise and worship after which Pastor Pedro introduced me. I thought I was going to speak on 1 Cor 13 ‘Love’ (a personal favourite of mine) Well I stared speaking on this and then the Lord had me address honesty and forgiveness in marriage and in life. It became a rather more serious word than I imagined but, as I said at the time, like Peter, I never know what I am going to say next – I simply wait upon the Lord to give me something and off I go. However, it proved to be a word in season as ministry went on for over 2 hours and every person present came forward for prayer and a word from the Lord. It seems to have gone down quite well so I just give all the Glory to God \o/. One very exciting moment occurred when I was literally almost knocked off my feet during ministry as angels swept into the building. It was an amazing moment for me and although some didn’t see anything, everyone felt a sudden change in the atmosphere. Later, we were even invited to go to Ecuador !! We had lunch in Lorca before returning to Murcia around 6 o’clock.

Meanwhile in North Murcia Peter, Keith, Ruth and Jonathan had a good time at the Ecuadorian Church. About thirty people gathered in what looked like a small warehouse and Peter spoke from John 2 where Mary said of Jesus " Do whatever he tells you ". And they did. Everyone was ready to do what Jesus wanted them to do including receiving more of the Holy Spirit. The whole church was prayed for and Peter's prophecy over the pastor confirmed a dream the pastor had the night before which reduced him to tears. What a privilege it was to be there !

Evening came and some 20 of us assembled in David’s house for a time of praise, worship, prayer, and prophecy for all the leaders and pastors of the group of churches we had visited. Also there were Pastors Alf & Katherine from Sweden, the parents of one of the Murcia worship team leaders. There was much prayer and prophecy that evening and three or four people were released further into their ministries. A truly anointed and blessed time – not too much detail as much of it was personal.

So we came to the time of reflection before we flew back again. The over-riding impression – yet again – is the amazing hunger for the things of the Lord among all the people in Spain. There was immense breakthrough for Lorca – even the city seemed more free and less forbidding than on our previous visits. The churches of Murcia and Lorca under Pastor David Snr are experiencing great personal and corporate breakthrough and a unity which must please the Heart of the Father. They have also affiliated themselves with IPHC through RoFMI !!! It truly is an enormous privilege to go visit with them and to be allowed to minister there. God always always always gives us something to Glorify His name for. It is an amazing place. What a joy to just share some of it with them. What a joy for Pastor David to see his son coming into the ministry with him – and there’s four more children to come into the ministry later – watch this space David – it will happen. Next trip ?? Who knows – only God. We are ready.

Chris Bennett Co-ordinator RoFMI

A Revival Of The Heart of Jesus - This is MY heart too

2009-05-09T04:12:00.000-07:00

A Revival Of The Heart of Jesus
Rev Heather Butler
Global Bridges of Prayer
Wales UK

The Lord has for this last 2000 years been preparing a people who will know his voice, who will follow his lead, and do things the way that he did them.

His walk was clearly seen and understood by all, who could fail to understand him as they watched and listened to others testify to his love and his kindness to them. This was not a Gentle Jesus meek and mild, this was a radical man of God, who knew how to deal with every situation in a Godly way, with love humility, grace mercy, wisdom and power. Jesus was a man who cut against the grain and carved a pathway through hearts of stone, establishing foundations of love to be built upon even today.

Jesus was a man who knew how to handle the powers that came against Him, and who understood fully the authority of the Father invested within Him to change the Spiritual atmosphere where ever he went. He challenged the ungodly, and the religious men of His day, He is more than able to teach us today the right way of doing these things in love.

Jesus tore down the legalistic Spirits that came against him and the disciples, he had a plan that He stuck to no matter what the cost, to bring the fullness of the kingdom down upon the earth in power and might in order to seek and save the lost.

The coming revival will not come in the package we all expect or want, but I believe that love will be the key that opens doors in many broken peoples lives this coming year.

This love is raw and real, it’s a love that pulls out all the stops, that dares to believe that there is great potential within each man woman and child that see’s beyond who we are in the natural, and boldly steps out into the realms of the Spirit to bring signs and wonders upon the earth.

These people will not be self seeking admirers of the world and money, but rather self sacrificing individuals who display the fullness and richness of the Fathers heart, a heart that reaches into the depths of mankind to bring a response that needs an answer.

This love is not weak, it’s passionate, it’s fierce like the flames of a red hot fire, it burns with compassion for those who are being lost. This love takes us to the limits of ourselves, and enables us to enter into the realms of the Spirit where we are able to learn to react to many in the way that Jesus did.

Why did people follow Jesus? The bible tells us that there was nothing physically that would draw your attention to him, and yet, there was something about this man that drew people like moths to a lamp. They had to go see for themselves if this man was truly the son of God.

Can you imagine the depth of emotion of those bound by every infirmity who were suddenly set free for all to see! Can you see and hear the commotion, the tears of joy, the dancing, the singing and cheering, the chatter of the crowd as they looked on in amazement, the stir it caused throughout the whole city.

The kingdom of heaven impacts nations, when we dwell within the heavenly places it devastates the plan of the enemy against us, against our nations. When our eyes are truly opened we begin to see the reality of a living Lord who is more than able to release us into that same call to the nations.

This revival is about a revival of the heart, a revival of the heart of Jesus. In Hebrews it says that Jesus is the very imprint of the Father, the light being. When we are filled with His Spirit we are enabled to walk as He walked, tearing down every obstacle, removing every stone, leaving a fragrance of life in places filled with the stench of death and decay .

When we truly understand His heart, and hold onto those same principals and teachings then we will begin to see real change in our lives, and the lives of others. Jesus lived for others, and so should we, impacting them in ways that shake the very foundations of their beliefs, breaking open those graves of death and destruction, and bringing the life force of Jesus into the heart of those living in our community.

Jesus is great in places of death, in places where all is lost, where there is no hope in the natural order of things, but, we serve a supernatural Lord, who challenges the depths of hell with his love and reaches into the hell of peoples lives and plummets the darkest realms to bring light healing and salvation breaking every hold and claim of the enemy upon them, and releasing them by His blood. His blood is enough, it is as powerful today as it ever was, and has not lost the authority or the power it ignited on the cross, it is as fresh, and as pure and as clean today, washing the darkest heart as white as snow.

We have misunderstood the relevance of this love. We have seen the power of the healing, the power of the word, the power of the Spirit to move upon a nation to bring much change, but we have not understood the real power of the heart of Jesus, and what it could mean for our family, community and nation as we move in that same spirit.

Out of the heart flows the issues of life.

We are told to guard our heart for it is the wellspring of life, but how do we guard it, the word tells us to guard it with the breast plate of righteousness, but what does that mean for us today. It means that our protection is doing things the Lords way and not our own, righteousness simply means doing things the right way! When we are right with the Lord then we are one in the Spirit, and we leave the mark of Christ on everything that we do and say, we leave a lasting impression upon those who come to be set free, who come to hear the truth, who come to be saved.

To know Him is to Love Him, and to love Him is to love others in that same sacrificial way, that they in turn would learn to love Him and others, and the cycle goes on.

The love of Jesus is strong, he attacked verbally and spiritually all that came against the lives of those he ministered to. He called the religious white washed sepulchres, he held nothing back for the sake of the knowledge of His saving power. Get to know his words, read the red writing in your bibles, what did Jesus say, what did he do, what did he teach, how did he deal with the people of his day, how do we emulate him. Its all in the word, not hidden, but wonderfully bold enough to see.

One of the problems we are faced with today is that many are afraid to love or allow themselves to be loved , many are not able to respond to it because they are afraid of love, love has hurt them, they have suffered an attack of the heart, and are unable to allow love to be part of there lives because its to painful. For this reason we must learn to persevere in our love of those who give nothing in return, we much be trust worthy, we must become a people of prayer who’s attitude is to reach out to the lord for wisdom and help as we reach out to help others.

We must become an expression of the deep, deep love of Jesus that is sold out that will go chase after those sheep that are running in the opposite direction, we must first understand the heart of the shepherd, and only by being in the lords presence will be understand his heart, and move in His way into every situation.

Our love should always be a love that forgives and forgets the circumstances that hold us and many captive, where love abounds forgiveness begins. Where sin is washed away new life takes hold, and the breath of the one sent to save is breathed into the lives of others through our breath.

A person who does not know how to love needs to be shown the real love of Jesus to change their views on life and every circumstance.

Love is the Key, it turns in the locks of hearts grown cold and hard, and brings a fire that melts and warms comforts and brings life rich and beautiful.

Revival of the heart is essential for life. Is your heart in good condition, if not , you need to exercise those muscles so that they will beat strong and bold, that they will carry the lifeblood back into the body and enable it to do the work of the lord until the end.

Love is the most powerful weapon that we have, love created mankind, and the devotion and the love of a father who refused to let go of the creation of His hands. Love totally annihilated death, as true love entered that place devoid of the presence of it, and it shattered to pieces the hold it had over everyone of us who dared to believe it, love stripped infirmity of its power over us, so that by His blood His stripes we are healed, true love stands in the face of the enemy and says I am not afraid, if the Lord is for me who can be against me.

Every barrier, every act of the enemy forged against you will not prosper. You are a mighty weapon of mass destruction, what you hold within your heart released by the Holy Spirit is enough to enable you to stand against the mightiest foe, and declare that the authority of Christ invested in you is greater.

Its time to come into the chambers of His love, to grow in understanding, no longer taking its power for granted, but learning to release it upon the earth once again everywhere we go.

We are the redeemed of the Lord, we are entrusted with His heart, change the spiritual atmosphere over your nation because of the depths of His love today. His love is a miracle in the making, walk in it and be amazed.

Amen

RoFMI Prayer Team

2009-05-07T03:28:00.000-07:00

As RoFMI expands its horizons and travels to more places and countries, I believe we have an exponentially expanding need for prayer cover. So-o-o-o

I have put together a distinct email group of those folk I believe will be happy to pray for RoFMI (River of Fire Ministries International) as we seek to do the Lords will for both ourselves and for those to whom we have the privilege of ministering.

If you would like to be a part of this, then I would welcome the chance to have you join us. Also if you think there are others you believe would join us then please feel free to invite them too.

Please prayerfully consider this and respond as you feel led by the Holy Spirit
Thank you & God Bless you all abundantly

With all love in Yeshua

Chris
Email me through our 'trainee' website http://rofmi-uk.com/Contact_Us.html

Finding Home by Brad Huebert - a review

2009-05-04T01:27:00.000-07:00

When I was asked to review Brad Huebert's new book, 'Finding Home', I was surprised and a little worried. I have never reviewed a book before, not seriously I mean, and anyway - what if I didnt like it? What if I found it boring etc etc - the questions rolled on. Well I needn't have worried even a little bit.

Pilgrims Progress 21st century style - Finding Home is the story of one man's search for more of God. It is an old fashioned yarn told by a master story-teller. Full of twists and turns and not a few surprises, Brad Huebert skillfully weaves a 'modern day parable' as he traces Ivan's journey through life. My own faith was built up with every page and now I cant wait to send a few copies to my friends and to new Christians wanting to be encouraged in their own search for more of God. I know its anachronistic but - Every home should have a copy of this book !! No - really. Go buy it for yourself. You'll not regret it.

Chris Bennett 4th May 2009

Finding Home by Brad Huebert
ISBN 978-0-595-51778-7

Little Peter

2009-05-03T15:23:00.000-07:00

Little Peter

Hi - I want to tell you a story. It is a true story and one so amazing that it may cause you to rethink where you stand before God. It is the story of Little Peter.

In January 2008, our RoFMI ministry team was visiting Denmark for the first time. RoFMI is a prophetic & healing ministry based in Essex and we go out regularly all over Europe. We had a meeting in our hosts church and as is our usual practice we gave out a call for anyone who wanted prayer.

An older lady came to the front. She was holding a piece of paper which she proffered to our Peter who was leading the meeting. It was a photocopy of a baby. Not any old baby, but a quite premature tiny tot with wires and tubes attached to every available space and then some more. “This is my Grandson Peter – he was born a few days ago and needs your prayers.” was all she said.

Peter looked at the photo and said to the Lord, “Lord, I don’t think this baby can possibly survive – can he?” At that instant, the paper became quite hot to the touch. Peter didn’t rub it in any way – just had it laid flat on the palm of his hand. He asked the Pastors wife and she agreed it was hot – so hot that she dropped it straight back on Peters hand. He asked the Grandmother and she too said it was hot. This caused Peter’s faith to rise and he prayed for a miracle for Little Peter.

Then last September when we returned to Denmark once more and we found Little Peter was actually alive but still struggling. He still had tubes and was on fairly strong medicine. His lungs were especially weak and his blood was none too good either. So we prayed again for this little fighter – for new lungs, kidneys, and liver. Once again we had to leave him with the Lord.

Now in April 2009 we returned once more to Denmark for some more meetings. During a meal break the door suddenly burst open and there was a very happy Mum with baby Peter in her arms – COMPLETELY healed. No more wires or tubes. New lungs, new kidneys, new liver – restored and healed by the power of God. Although he is not completely out of the woods yet, Little Peter is well on the road to a completely healthy normal life. He is still a little small, but he is sturdy, quite heavy now and robust – and FULL of energy just as a child should be.

ISNT GOD GOOD ?? Hallelujah \o/

A Word from the Lord - Revival In America

2009-04-21T07:13:00.000-07:00

Revival In America

I see the Glory Cloud coming to small town America. Not the great big ministries but the smaller ones who are pleading for a touch from God. I see a grass roots revival from small churches everywhere - starting in the North West and spreading all over. Holy Spirit led revival \o/

I see the Glory Cloud descending in your meetings and not one person is still standing. As with the priests when Solomon dedicated the temple, they could not stand in the Presence of the Lord. 1 Kings 8:10-11 " When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the LORD. And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled his temple. "

Amos 8:11
"The days are coming," declares the Sovereign LORD, “when I will send a famine through the land— not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.”

These days are here right now and the Lord is listening for the fervent prayers of a righteous man. James 5:16 “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”

Then He will listen to your prayers, He will hear when you call upon Him; and He will heal your land. 2 Chronicles 7:13-15 "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.”

Listen – Do you hear the sound of rain approaching? Look - Do you see a cloud the size of a man’s hand? I see a very dry place where the wind suddenly starts to blow. Very little at first, but it builds and builds until it’s a storm force wind bringing the fresh rain of revival – not as a spring shower but as a mighty torrent. And with revival is coming the very presence of the Lord God Almighty and no man shall stand in that presence. You shall not cry out for healing – it will just happen. You shall not pray for the unsaved – they shall walk in off the street – convicted of their sin before they know what is happening. You shall not ask for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit – it will happen to anyone and everyone.

Joel 2:28-32
The Day of the LORD
"And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; “

So – Are you ready. The Lord God Almighty is ready to start right now. He is coming – He is coming – He is coming. Get ready – Be ready. He will not wait for you but He will find those who are ready; who are prepared for His coming; who are desperate for a touch from His Holy Spirit.

©Chris Bennett, RoFMI, 7 April 2009

WHY – Do ‘bad’ things happen to Christians

2009-04-13T05:20:00.000-07:00

WHY – Do ‘bad’ things happen to Christians

There is always something isn’t there – goes wrong I mean. But just as there is always something wrong, so there is ALWAYS God there to carry us through. Let me explain with a little story :-

This is my own testimony of the years from December 2005 until now.

On 20th April 2007, my wife of nearly 36 years, Linda, was taken home following a long fight against the ravages of cancer. It was a dark time for all of us but there are three wonderful moments during that time that will remain with me for ever.

At Christmas 2005 we celebrated with our sons at their houses. Our youngest, Iain, with his lovely wife Nicki, told us of the impending arrival of our first grandchild. Great rejoicing and celebrations. It was Linda’s mum’s first great grandchild too. Then in February a lump appeared in Linda’s side and we went to the doctor.

In March 2006, we learned that Linda had advanced cancer of the liver. She started all the usual chemo therapy treatments and then I received a Word from the Lord June 2006(?)

Ezekiel 24 (AMP)

“16Son of man [Ezekiel], behold, I take away from you the desire of your eyes [your wife] at a single stroke. Yet you shall neither mourn nor weep, neither shall your tears flow. 17Sigh and groan, but not aloud [be silent]; make no mourning for the dead; bind your turban upon your head and put your shoes on your feet, and do not cover your beard or eat the bread of mourners [furnished by others]. 18So I spoke to the people in the morning and in the evening my wife died, and I did the next morning as I was commanded.”

Then these three amazing & wonderful things happened

First, on 29 July 2006 she saw, held, and loved our first grandchild – Riley
Second, at Christmas 2006 she heard about our second grandchild, Sam coming. As it turned out, he arrived after she died.

The finally, Linda came to salvation in Our Lord Jesus Christ just three weeks before she died.

All three events brought us great joy together and gave Linda a reason to keep fighting right to the end. One other important miracle was that at no time did Linda ever suffer pain or even major discomfort during the whole illness.

On the 18th April 2007, I received this email “I want to remind you of a conversation we had a very long time ago. You told me that God had promised to bring Linda to faith and you could not see how it would happen. As far as I can tell that has happened - He has kept his promise. You will be together in heaven. He has healed her spiritually and shown her how much you love her through your tender care during her illness. If He should choose now to take her home despite all our prayers and wishes then He has still kept his promise because heaven is her true home and the location of true and perfect healing.

Our god is true and holy and he will do what is right even though we may not fully understand. Whatever happens I will uphold you in prayer and with my friendship. As your arms weaken and fall I will hold them up so that you can carry on praising Him.”

On 20th April 2007 at 5:50 in the afternoon, the whole family were with her as the Lord took her home. I held her hands and it was very peaceful. I received two text messages that day. “I have just seen Linda in heaven. She is absolutely amazed. She is so excited she doesn’t know what to do first.” Then this beautiful text “The Lord just said to tell you to “Receive My peace – Linda has just cast her crown before Me.” I cannot tell you the peace I had during that season. All I can say is that Gods Grace IS sufficient for me.

Then, in October 2007, Peter invited me to join him on a RoFMI ministry trip to Brussels - which I went on. It was the start for something truly amazing in my life. Since that trip we have been on 16 similar trips to Spain, Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Ulster, USA, and Brussels again. Now in 2009 we have been to Norway, Spain (twice), and Iceland. Denmark, and Spain again in the diary.

WHY?? There is also the biggie – why, despite all our prayers and apparent promises, did God allow Linda to die ?? From my perspective, I can say that I don’t fully know right now but that I will be able to ask Him later – when I join Linda in heaven. That probably doesn’t help most people, so let me say this. Sometimes God doesn’t allow us to see the whole or even the greater picture. Sometimes there is a greater purpose to be served by Him taking them home to Himself that we may not know or understand. Probably, it serves His perfect will better this way and that He has plans for all of us that are actually better served by allowing Linda to die. Why? I just cannot answer that yet, but believe me, I am truly believing that something better has come out of this. I am trusting God to reveal this to all of us as time passes. I just want to remember an incredibly brave, funny, stubborn, and utterly loving & loveable woman to whom I had the enormous privilege and pleasure of being married for nearly 36 years.

And now – who knows. Only God does and I love & trust Him totally. God is always faithful – Rom 8 28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” The greatest miracle is Linda’s salvation. “Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven” - Linda loved the Lord. She is healed, she is home, and she is happy – that’s all that really matters.

Early in 2009, a lady whom I have never met – although we were going to meet as she was going to come and pray with Linda, but It never happened for whatever reason. She called me and said that the Lord had put a scripture in her mind and said to call and give it to me as a prophecy. Apparently, the Lord was specific about using the Amplified version !!
2 Timothy 4(AMP)

“1I CHARGE [you] in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, Who is to judge the living and the dead, and by (in the light of) His coming and His kingdom: 2Herald and preach the Word! Keep your sense of urgency [stand by, be at hand and ready], whether the opportunity seems to be favourable or unfavourable. [Whether it is convenient or inconvenient, whether it is welcome or unwelcome, you as preacher of the Word are to show people in what way their lives are wrong.] And convince them, rebuking and correcting, warning and urging and encouraging them, being unflagging and inexhaustible in patience and teaching.
3For the time is coming when [people] will not tolerate (endure) sound and wholesome instruction, but, having ears itching [for something pleasing and gratifying], they will gather to themselves one teacher after another to a considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and to foster the errors they hold, 4And will turn aside from hearing the truth and wander off into myths and man-made fictions. 5As for you, be calm and cool and steady, accept and suffer unflinchingly every hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fully perform all the duties of your ministry.”

One other miracle - The Lord has now released me into full time ministry with Peter and RoFMI. Finally, a friend called me and said “It seems to me that this would simply have been impossible 2 years ago.”

Is there any more to say?

NB Sometimes there is a greater purpose to be served by Him taking them home to Himself that we may not know or understand. Probably, it serves His perfect will better this way and that He has plans for all of us that are actually better served by even allowing our loved ones to die. A GREATER PURPOSE – GOD’S GREATER PURPOSE – NOT OURS.

© Chris Bennett 2009