Don't Miss It!! At Any Cost, Don't Miss It!!

I was hugely stirred and motivated to read these comments in Bill Johnson's "When Heaven Invades Earth" last night (read Terry Virgo's review of the book here);

"History is filled with people who prayed for a visitation of God and missed it when it came ... As has been stated, quenching the Spirit is probably responsible for the end of more revivals than any other single cause. Even those who have embraced the move of God often come to a place where their comfort zone is stretched about as far as they are willing to go.

They then begin to look for a place to settle - a place of understanding and control. The second greatest reason for a revival's end is when the Church begins to look for the return of the Lord instead of pursuing a greater breakthrough in the Great Commission. That kind of hunger for heaven is not encouraged in Scripture. It turns the blessed hope into the blessed escape.

To want Jesus to come back now is to sentence billions of people to hell forever ... I believe the desire for the Church to be in heaven now is actually the counterfeit of seeking first the kingdom. There is a difference between crying for heaven now and heaven here! If revival has brought us to the end of our dreams, does that mean we have reached the end of His? A revival must go beyond all we can imagine - anything else falls short".

There's so much coming - but when it comes, let us (by God's lavish grace) do nothing to hinder it or cut it short!

Critics of Rob Rufus Rear Their Heads ...

Rob Rufus has always alluded to the incredible amount of criticism and virtual abuse he receives for unashamedly preaching the message of glory and grace and I have always wondered what these people look like. I was interested in that in the space of two quotes, two critics have arrived. The quotes they so objected to were these; "Rob Rufus on the Florida Outpouring Critics" and "Rob Rufus on the Gift of Tongues". On the one hand I am sure Rob Rufus does not need the likes of me to come to his defence but as these criticisms have been posted on one of my blogs I feel I should at least address them.

"Mark" addressed the "Florida Outpouring Critics" and said this;

"All we have is the bible. It is not about experience, emotion, or what gifts are being presented. It is about the written word of God. I find your words offensive ... Rob Rufus, the apologetic community is watching you and NCMI, and unfavorable reports are coming out from SA and Aust".

I think a comment like this scarcely requires an answer - these "heresy hunters" again and again fall into the same cliches. On the one hand they say; "All we have is the Bible - it is not about experience ..." and yet on the other hand do not carefully and sensibly respond to the Scriptures that Rob himself has quoted and cited in defence of the viewpoint he is preaching. "I find your words offensive". It's so easy to become very emotional about the positions we are defending and I did want to answer "Mark" - but on the other hand I suspect there is nothing I can say that would appease his offense. My only suggestion could be that he stops looking at blogs where he may find Rob Rufus's words. I suspect he won't as these people often feel it is their "Christian duty" to answer such worrying quotes to themselves.

His final comment; "The apologetic community"?! Who and what on earth is that and what on earth does "unfavourable reports" entail. Again I object to the "heresy hunters" carefully coded words of warning that are so frequent and so labourious. It was something I was very used to at my home church and it usually went something like this; "Good men are very concerned". "Anyone who is discerning should be worried". "Beware of "certain" so-called preachers". These self-appointed heresy hunters have taken it upon themselves to "warn the Church" of such dangerous men and yet can offer no objective warnings. "Unfavourable reports"? Where are they? Let me read them first-hand and maybe they can be taken seriously.

Then "Tim" found Rob's quote on the gift of tongues almost as upsetting as "Mark" - maybe more so as he cast doubt on Rob's very salvation - something that proves he is obviously bolder than many. I would not like to take the place of God deciding who is and is not elect. "Tim" too took a very cliched approach to answering the issue of the gift of tongues;

"Rob this shows your true colors, this is new age and is part of the occult. The spirits that you refer to are not from the God of the Bible but rather a twisted version that is based in the occult. The talking in tongues that charismatics often talk about is exactly the same as used by sharmas, witch doctors, hindus etc ... May God have pity on you, you need much prayer and obviously salvation".

I did in fact leave a response to "Tim". Once again the cliched response of cessationists (as I presume these people are) is to point to the counterfeit of the New Age as "proof" that there can be no genuine gift of tongues. This again was something I heard all-too frequently at my home church. "We must beware the counterfeit". "We must be careful of the spurious". "We must beware of abberations". My simple reply is this; I do accept and agree that the Bible instructs us to "test the spirits". But the Bible does not call us to "reject all spirits". There is a testing to be done! If all gifts of the Spirit, all experiences of God, all heavenly encounters, all visions and dreams had deliberately and objectively stopped when the canon of Scripture was closed then why are we asked to "test" and "prove all things" and "cling to what is good?".

If all that is around is the counterfeit then we simply need avoid everything experiential and simply as "Mark" calls - cling to the Bible and the Bible alone. But the ironic thing that these "Word people" claim is that it is the very Word of God that outlines these gifts of the Spirit, these heavenly encounters, these visions and dreams. It is the BIBLE that gives us our expectation! If I am to be persuaded that these things are "not so" then I want to see some Scriptural evidence rather than "dire warnings" of the New Age.

These comments have given me a taste of what Rob must receive weekly and even daily maybe - and he has my fullest sympathy and support and prayers! If I have been unjust in my portrayal of these critics then I am open to correction. In my opinion these two comments are simply "destructive criticism". As my friend Lydia challenged;

"If you find Rob's words offensive then you have a problem with God's word, because he is speaking straight from Scripture, 2 Tim. 3:5 ....talks about people with a form of godliness that deny the power, have nothing to do with them".

The lines are being drawn in the sand it seems, and the only secure foundation we have is the Word of God. Not tradition. Not the teachings of one's favourite evangelical celebrity. The Word of God.

Living a REAL Life!!

I have a confession ... I went to see "Mamma Mia" on Monday night after we got back from Ibiza and I loved it SO much that I wanted to post and encourage all to go see it if you can! But I didn't ... because I was worried that I would be judged by Pharisee commentators. But I was at the gym today listening to Rob Rufus's latest sermon; "Attitudes That Attract The Empowering Grace Of God" and he made a point that devastated me and highlighted a lifetime of hypocrisy and performance pressure within me.

Rob was talking about Bill Johnson and the church at Reading and how he loves the fact that they operate in awesome supernatural anointing power but they are real and love hunting, fishing and surfing etc. He said;

"I want to see generations birthed who can sustain high level power without getting weird".

So that set me free - and I hold up my hands and apologise for being still bound by the fear of men. So I can stand up now and say that there is NO WAY on earth that I can ever see myself liking hunting, fishing or surfing like Bill Johnson and Rob! But I don't think that was the point Rob was trying to make. The point is that I shouldn't be ashamed of having a life of activities that I enjoy and am unashamed of - that keep me from becoming hyper-spiritual and weird!

For example I love going to the gym. I've just taken up running again quite seriously. I love reading all sorts of books under the sun (I read Theo Paphitis's new book on holiday) and I am a sci-fi nerd and love all sorts of films like Starwars, the Matrix, Heroes, Harry Potter - basically films that were roundly condemned by the youth leaders at my home church as "New Age" and who would angrily condemn any of us young people who did enjoy such "abberations"! Anyway to get to my original point - I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED "Mamma Mia"!

Here's a clip - you get to see Meryl Streep and Julie Walters do things you've never seen before!;


I defy anyone to go in, see it and not come out smiling - even if you aren't an ardent ABBA fan! My point to all this? I am learning thanks to Rob and Bill Johnson and people that it is okay to be "real" - and to manifest the anointing, you don't have to be weird and odd and fast all the time.


Because I am the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is crazy about me (that's something else Rob said!)!!

No-One Else Dared Join Them!!

Well we're safely back in Birmingham - landed at half past one and noticing the temperature difference! It's been quite a week and there's lots to reflect on and tell. Thanks to all who took the time to leave comments - I know there's a bit of diversity of opinions on comments. I for one really appreciate them - even the angry anonymous ones ... who I note has been suspiciously quiet lately. Does that mean I am becoming an "acceptable blogger" or has he given up?! Anyway that aside it's been an interesting week in the UK so I see.

Brighton

I was very interested to read what happened at the Brighton conference last week - most of the talk of course centred around new Christian celeb Driscoll (like Luke, I too switch from calling it "Together on a Mission" to mainly just "Brighton conference"!). There are of course the obvious very well-documented reports which I am sure most are aware of. I, myself took particular interest in Mark Heath's comments - an opinion I always trust. Also worth reading is a question I have pondered quite often ... what other guest speakers would be a helpful input to the conference. As I guessed they would - my parent's pastors made the trip down to Brighton to hear Driscoll and brought an SGM opinion to what they thought of the conference.

Terry himself shared a more personal view about Driscoll and what he enjoyed about the contribution that he brought to the conference. Joel Gill wrote two posts so far - here and here. Finally Ant Hilder summarised the conference in just one blog - useful for those of you who don't have the time to read post after post on session after session (plus I was instantly attracted to the fact that here is someone who shares my obsession with McDonald's McMuffins ...).

Lakeland, Florida.

It was quite hard having no access to God TV and not knowing what was going on in Florida! I made-do reading Todd Bentley's latest book; "The Reality of the Supernatural World". More of that to come in a later post! Julian Adams wrote an excellent blog post on Florida. He said;

"I sit writing after having watched some of the Lakeland Outpouring with evangelist Todd Bentley. Man alive, God is moving and using him powerfully. So many healings and God encounters. I have felt the spill over effect of impartation connected to the revival. My friend Richard Maybury prayed for me after returning from Trevor and Sharon Baker’s ministry at the Dudley Outpouring in Birmingham. Since then I have begun to see some exciting miracles and healings".

On the other slightly more cynical hand, I am a subscriber to Evangelicals Now and the latest edition was waiting on the doorstep when I got back. Lakeland, Florida has become enough of an issue for them to address - always a sign that something is here to stay! The review of Todd Bentley's ministry was written by someone called Steve Ridgeway and I was disappointed that once again it was written by a cynic who clearly hasn't taken the time to really investigate what is going on in Florida and has seemingly written his review based on the scare-mongering websites and You-Tube videos rampant against Todd and Florida.

He slates Todd for not preaching the Bible. "While Bentley does occasionally appeal to the Bible when teaching publicly, the appeal is always superficial". But in rather a pot-kettle-black scenario the reviewer also does not use Scripture convincingly to stake his claim as to why Todd Bentley is not within the boundaries of Scripture in his opinion. (Other than quoting Galatians 1). Coming from "Evangelicals Now", I suppose we should not be surprised that he does not like the references to angel Emma and also the manifestations accompanying the healings and signs and wonders.

Interesting point though ... the obvious question to me goes unanswered in this review called "The Gospel of Todd". Is this of God? Is it of the flesh? Or is it of the devil? The reviewer doesn't comment on the authenticity of the healings happening in Florida but merely concludes we should be "gravely concerned" with Todd Bentley ... if we are "discerning" that is ... how I am growing to hate that word when it is used in a context such as this.

It's All About the Church!

The theme throughout these links is the Church! Even disagreements, I notice, are about how best the Church should be. I was thrilled therefore to be taking notes from Rob Rufus's Sunday evening Miracle Healing Weekend - probably one of Rob's best sermons yet - and to hear him deal with something rather obvious from the book of Acts.

"None of the others dared join them".

How is it at your church? Or your conference? Or your family of churches? Or your denomination? Do you make it easy for people to join your church? Rob commented on this verse;

"I am talking about the power of God coming to you to absolutely flood you and equip you and anoint you to walk in His Presence to release you into a new dimension of walking in His Presence from tonight. People in our midst who are sick tonight can get healed while that is happening.

But the focus is to see the power of God released on people. (Acts 5:13) - Because God was so awesome in their midst that people were frightened to casually join that early Church. There was such a density of the concentrated power of God that carnal religious enquirers couldn't handle it! They would freak out! It was too awesome and they didn't join a Church that had such an awesome Presence but God added to their number every single day those who are believing and being saved".

The sermon transcript will be available soon. But it raises a really important question that I've been thinking about all this week. What kind of Church are we building? What are the priorities? Is it the Presence of God? Or is it something else? Are we building a Church that is built around the idea of God - but a Church that doesn't actually KNOW God and His Presence?

On Holiday for a Week!!

This is just a short note to say I am flying from the UK tomorrow early morning for a week's holiday in the Mediterranean with a group of friends!! It will be absolutely lovely to have some real sun (scarce here in the UK!) and also have some quality resting time. I've got a pile of books to do some quality reading and my IPOD is bristling with sermons just begging to be transcribed! I hopefully may get access to an internet cafe while abroad - but just a warning that posting may be a bit sporadic!

I really pray that you all have an awesome week - where the grace of God freshly falls upon you and His manifest, glorious Presence makes itself so obvious to you! Speak more on my return with revelations I hope God shares while away!!

Rob Rufus on Past Moves of God

One of the sections of the "Life on Wings" interviews with Dr Ern Baxter that I found the most fascinating was when he spoke about past movements of the Holy Spirit. Why? Because we can learn so so much from past moves. We can learn what to expect when God does move but more importantly we can learn from the past mistakes of those who rode the waves of the Spirit and fell at various hurdles. Although Rob Rufus may not have lived through quite as many past moves of the Spirit as Ern Baxter did, I was still very interested to find an extensive comment that he made during one of his sermons in Hong Kong in 2004.

Here it is - Rob Rufus on waves of the Spirit of God:

"I believe that there is a "paddling" Anointing on us the Church to catch a wave of God.

About six months ago, God said to me, “I am going to establish a move of My Spirit in your Church that will touch the world.” The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized or reaped within the lifetime of that opportunity. The prophetic people see the window, they see the door opening.

Jesus warned that in the last days, as the world is coming to the climax and the consummation of the ages, as history is about to be summed up in the return of Jesus Christ, He says in Matthew 24 verse 38 that there will be people just running around, giving and taking in marriage, and they will be distracted by this thing and that trivial thing and that silly thing over there and He said suddenly the end will come and they would have missed out on their destiny and the purpose for which they were raised up. The opportunity of a lifetime must be seized in the lifetime of that opportunity.

In 1905, the Azusa Street Revival broke out in Los Angeles. Los Angeles, a city that was a wild, cowboy town. It was a racially prejudiced city. God broke out in the most amazing ways. The Presence of God came upon a black man by the name of William Seymour – he was a one-eyed black man. God chose a black man with one eye to start a revival in a city that was racially prejudiced. They say that William Seymour could see more with one eye than people could see with two eyes. William Seymour had been kicked out of a white Church, and as he sat outside he said: “Lord, I love you and I wanted to be with my brothers and sisters and Worshipping in that Church, in Your House and they have kicked me out.” He said: “Son, don’t you worry, they have kicked me out a long time ago.”

William Seymour went down to Azusa Street and they had a little house meeting that went to a Horse Barn that could seat four hundred people but it fitted in eight hundred people. They had eight hundred people sitting on boxes and planks, no air-conditioning in the hot heat of Los Angeles. Eight hundred people, some journalists who went there said you had to stick your head under a chair to find a little air left. He described the air and the smell and the stench of horse manure and no deodorants on eight hundred people packed into a four-hundred seater place. William Seymour spent most of the service hiding his face because he was so humble, he did not want to take any glory at all and God came and they had three years of revival where they had twenty-four hour meetings, seven days a week – continual praising and worshipping of God and for the first time in one thousand years people got baptised in the Spirit and a Congregation began to speak in tongues and pray in tongues and people came from all around world. They came in there and they saw little children speaking the Word of God like Oracles and announcing the secret things of people’s hearts and the worship went on for hours and hours and people were slain in the Spirit, lay under the Glory of God and the Power of God came.

Now we look back on that and we say, whoa, it would have been so easy to have been a part of that. No, it was not easy because the statistics say that the revival only lasted three years and in those three years they only saw five hundred people born again. Now, you may think five hundred people is a lot in three years in a revival. That is not a lot.

Just two years ago I was in my home town in South Africa doing a big tent meeting and we saw in one meeting four hundred people come to Christ. I said “I do not want backsliders now, I am not asking for the Prodigals that is the next Altar call. This is for those who have never been saved.” Four hundred people saved in one night. Yet that did not produce a revival in our city, it was a great meeting but that was not revival. There is no revival in Pinetown today, there are some great Churches there but there is no revival, there is no Power sweeping through the City as great as the Churches there are. There are great Churches, but that is not revival. You can have great sophisticated Churches with dignified people but that is not revival.

Five hundred people in three years - that is only about three people a week being saved - that is not a lot. Only fifteen thousand people came from the nations of the earth to see what was happening there and catch it and take it back. Only fifteen thousand, that is not a lot over three years. That is about a hundred people a week.

But one hundred years later in 2005 from 1905, Five hundred million people can trace their Spiritual roots back to Azusa Street. There have been more people saved and more Churches started from that little revival than any other thing that has happened in the last century. Far more people have come out of that and are worshipping God than all the Catholics and all the Anglicans put together - out of that little one-eyed black man’s meetings because God came and there was a group of people that let Him come and it poured out of them onto the lost.

God sends waves of His Glory to the planet. Some of you know this and some of you have no clue what I am saying because you were part of those denominations that did not let those waves touch your congregation in the past. Over the last hundred years we have had about eight major waves that have come to this planet that hit the Church first.

Surfers know how to ride waves. They paddle out, they position themselves and they catch waves on purpose. If they do not position themselves and deliberately go to catch the wave, they have to start paddling before the wave comes into their geographical proximity. They cannot wait for a wave to be on them and then suddenly start paddling because many beautiful big waves by paddling too late. Now, if they are really good, they can give a little thrust from behind and it takes two or three strong paddles and they can get into a wave. But most have to start scratching long before it gets to them.

You have to be prophetic to catch a wave of the Glory of God. What are these waves? These waves are seasons in the History of Man where the Power of God comes with heightened awareness – much more than the normal times between the waves – and in every wave there is a restoration of a lost Truth that has been lost by the traditions of men. In every wave there is a restoration of what was lost during the Dark Ages. Waves that recover healing, waves that recover the Gifts. Waves that have recovered Elder-governed Churches. There are waves that recover Apostles and dismiss superintendents and executives. Waves that bring the Church closer to what the Book of Acts, the fountain of pure origin is about. Waves that come and they break across the wineskins of Churches and burst the wineskins open because the new wine cannot be contained within the religious wineskins of religiosity.

I have been a Christian for twenty-seven years and I have only lived through three major waves. In the tail-end of the Charismatic Movement, we got broken out of the Pentecostals and broke into Catholics and Anglicans and they all – millions of them – became tongue-speakers. It was an opportunity for those who had got behind to catch up with the restoration. Sadly millions of them rejected that wave, and many of them that caught it are no longer riding the wave that came after that which was the faith movement the Word of Faith movement and I rode that wave and I know that it ended in about 1983.

And then one was called the Toronto, the wave of joy and restoration and refreshing. That came. Actually it came to us in the mid-eighties we were under the rejoicing in God and it came in 1989. In 1993 it came to us in July 1993 in Adelaide for six weeks. And then in 1994 Toronto became famous but that wave began to fade as well. I am telling you, that I know, that I know that I know that there is another wave very close now.

It is not on the horizon. We are beginning to feel the first little, little effects of its’ coming. And in this wave it will not be this emphasis, or that emphasis, or tongues or joy or laughter or healing. This wave is the Mother of all Waves up to this present time. It will have in it everything that has been restored in previous waves – everything will be in this wave. Every surfer knows that every seventh wave is the big one – they call it the “creeper set.” They do not want to be caught on the inside when a creeper set is coming through. They can sit closer to the shore and enjoy the smaller waves and catch them but they are always keeping their eyes to the horizon because if the “creeper set” comes and they are not in the position, they are going to miss it. And that is the one they are waiting for because that is the biggest thrill.

If you have ever caught a big wave, you know what I am talking about. I mean, when that thing flows over you and it begins to get closer and closer in the “green room” – it is like transparent glass around you – pure moving water and energy and as that thing closes in on you, you can feel the eardrums compressing as the pressure in there begins to get compressed and then it literally shoots you out with a spit and a spume – and you have just got to do that again, and again, and again. And I just want to tell you something, you have got to start paddling before the wave arrives. You had better start paddling before this wave arrives; otherwise you are going to miss it. But I promise you this, when you catch the wave, no-one will have to tell you, you have now caught it, you will know you have not caught that wave, that wave has caught you.

Because you go from a “paddling Anointing” to a “thrill Anointing.” No more
just a paddling Anointing to get into a wave. Right now we are in a paddling Anointing. Right now, we are paddling to catch the wave. When we catch this wave we will experience a new energy, a new power, a new Glory, a new Awesomeness of God thundering around us - shaking and manifesting that is phenomenal! We will not have to paddle, once we have caught the wave we will not have to paddle anymore. It will be glorious, it will be magnificent.

Now, I have no doubt that this wave is coming. It is so close, I can feel it, it is beginning to lift, we are paddling for it. My only concern is how much of the Church is going to catch it, how much of the Church world will catch it because tradition shows when waves come, most of the Church has rejected the wave. When the Messiah came, most of the religious orthodoxy rejected Him and said He was not the wave, He is not the Messiah.

But all I know is when this wave hits, every Church and all groups and leaders that catch this wave – they are going to ride a wave of such Power and even if it is only a remnant or small part of the Church that catches this, this wave is going to have such Power it is going to carry us with such Anointing and freedom and joy and authority and peace and visions and dreams and reality that it is going to splash out onto the world and multitudes of the lost are going to come into this wave. I prophesy that the most who will participate in this wave are going to be the lost people that come into the Churches that are riding this coming wave".

The sermon was; "Why is Faith So Important? (9)" - 30th October 2005.

Let him who hath an ear to hear - hear what the Spirit is saying to the Churches.

Such as We Have, We Give You!

Rob Rufus on the leper at the Gate Beautiful;

"So we have that man was begging for alms and they said; "Silver and gold we don't have but what we have - what we have". You can only give what you have! "What we have!". What did they have? Some kind of cerebral Bible information? If that is your experience - just Bible information then all they could have done is to take the cripples hand and give him an experience of Bible information. What did they have? The Son of God breathing on them. What did they have? Pentecost! What did they have? Tongues of fire! What did they have? Sounds of a mighty rushing wind! What did they have? Drunk in the Holy Spirit - inebriated, uninhibited, joyful dancing and singing and freedom! What did they have? Jesus!".

"Sunday Morning - Miracle Healing Weekend" - City Church, Hong Kong - Sunday 22nd June 08.

I Went Shopping in Wesley Owen ...

I am and have been trying to limit my Christian book shopping since our large spacious 2-bedded apartment in Birmingham is bursting to the seems with Christian books such as Lloyd-Jones, Owen, Goodwin and Spurgeon. But when I popped into Birmingham's Wesley Owen - I saw two books and a DVD I couldn't resist buying!

1. "Journey into the Miraculous" by Todd Bentley.

2. "The Reality of the Supernatural World" by Todd Bentley.

3. Morningstar "Baptisms of Fire" DVD by Todd Bentley.

I'm flying off on holiday on Monday for a weeks much needed holiday somewhere hot in the Med - so this shall be my holiday reading! Book reviews to come! It will be great to actually read something of a man I have been watching with such interest.

Don't Let HIM Pass You By!!

Todd Bentley brought this prophetic word and then goes on to expand on it - but it's incredibly challenging. The word directly addresses the critics. The luxury of standing and waiting and watching isn't going to remain for much longer for Jesus is walking on by. "We can't wait another decade ... we're hungry and we're not going away!" - Todd says!

I do recommend all watch it - whatever your views on Lakeland! Because this isn't about a man. This is about Jesus walking on by!!



DON'T let Him pass you by!!

Pentecostal/Charismatic Post-it Notes Hits 1,000 Quotes!!

For those of you unaware, a group of us run a blog of quotes called; "Pentecostal/Charismatic Post-it Notes" and it's aim was to draw together quotes about all theological issues but mainly those concerning Pentecostal/Charismatic issues. I wanted it to be a forum so that anyone with an interest in these sorts of theological topics could use the labels and search to their hearts content. One of the key quotes I read and was given by Dr Stanley Jebb that prompted me to try and gather these altogether was by C H Spurgeon and he said;

"The man who never reads will never be read. He who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves that he has no brains of his own ... You need to read".

I know that traditionally Pentecostal/Charismatics are not renowned for being theological with a passion to "search the Scriptures daily and see if these things are so" - in this blog I wanted to change that perception.

I noticed the other day that it has just had it's 1, 000 quote added! Ironically the 1, 000th quote was by John MacArthur.

There are many other issues and authors that are worth reading about all added by my group of friends. Jesse's quotes are here. Scott's quotes are here. Julie's quotes are here and Pete's quotes are here (oh and my quotes are here!). What else may interest?

Rob Rufus's quotes are here.

Ern Baxter's quotes are here.

"Together on a Mission 2007" are here.

Baptism in the Holy Spirit quotes are here.

Ephesians 4 Ministries quotes are here.

Hope to carry on adding quotes as they arise through reading!! And trust it proves of interest!!

The BIGGEST Baptism Service Ever!!

One of the criticisms levelled against Lakeland and the use of the term "revival" is that revivals involve non-Christians getting saved and joining the church. I don't think after last night that criticism can carry much weight anymore. When we turned on God TV they were well into baptising new converts and some re-committing their lives to God. We watched it for at least two hours and saw almost a hundred people get baptised gloriously and there were still just as many in the line waiting.

I managed to take a few video clips. The first one is here. Todd baptises some children (there were dozens of children who professed their faith gloriously!) and then goes on to speak to those of us watching;



Here's the second video:



The third video is particularly special to me because Todd baptised a group of Asians who looked like they came from China/Japan/Hong Kong sort of region and they responded so passionately to being baptised! Some of them ended up being baptised several times falling under the power of God!! I felt it was such an awesome prophetic statement of what God will do throughout the South Pacific Rim.

I really hope these videos prove to be as much blessing as they were when we watched them!! What a baptismal service ... I just couldn't get over how different it was to my own. So dignified and so controlled. If the power and the glory of God is being poured out over the earth in such ways as it is in Florida and if Florida is just the beginning then I think here is a taster of what baptisms are going to have to be like!!

Todd Bentley is Coming To Birmingham, UK!!

Phew ... I get up for a day's work at the end of a long, horrid week (for those who don't know I have been involved in a couple of very serious meetings at work regarding the discipline of a senior collegue accused of some nasty stuff. I've been asked to give evidence and HATE the feeling that I am snitching but am required to be honest - not sure yet whether it will go to court or not) - it's raining here in Birmingham and it's ... not a good feeling.

BUT!! Then I had God TV on in the background and over-heard that Todd Bentley will be coming to the United Kingdom AND to Birmingham!!

Outpouring in Birmingham, England with Todd Bentley - NEC - Sep 20, 2008 - Sep 23, 2008

Will be keeping my eyes peeled for details but the event is going to be free!! Right here and now I extend an offer to any blogging friends who feel the tug to come over to the UK - if you can get here in any way you can come stay with me and we will attend the meetings all together!! This effectively answers my prayers as to whether I should go to Florida or not. We will be able to experience first-hand hopefully Todd Bentley's ministry - what's going on and the anointing on his life. And I'm EXCITED!! I hope you know me well enough by now that I am not going to be going and will lie if I experience or encounter nothing. I will report truthfully.

So ... who's coming!??!

Newfrontiers Conference in Europe!!

Many thanks to contributer Shawna for this really exciting link. The European Newfrontiers Conference sounded pretty exciting and obviously I have heard Rob's report on it here but the audio links are now available here! We have;

Session 1: An In Between People - Henk Kersten

Session 2: Mixing It With Faith - David Holden

Session 3: A Covenant Of Grace - Rob Rufus

Session 4: Moving Into More Faith - David Holden

Session 5: Being Obedient To Faith - Rob Rufus

Session 6: The Wrath Of God And The Grace Of God - Mike Betts

I am greatly looking forward to working through the sessions because sadly we missed hearing Dave Holden speak at last year's "Together on a Mission" - and he is one of my favourite Newfrontiers speakers without a doubt. I haven't heard Mike Betts or Hank Kersten before - but obviously I hope to bring out the transcripts of Rob's sessions as soon as my horrible week calms down!

Rob Rufus on God TV!!

Both Pete and I were very excited to turn on God TV today to see if we could follow anything from Lakeland in Florida - and to see that Rob Rufus was speaking!! It was his second session from "Together on a Mission" in Brighton last year and it was so awesome to re-hear the truths and the power that was being presented from the platform. I must admit it did make me so hungry to be back in a conference setting again soon and exposed to a ministry of grace and glory.

Here's a clip:



It is so excited to see the prominence that God has given to Rob and to the message of grace and my prayer is that it progresses and progresses. The world needs to hear it!! The world is desperate to hear it!!