It’s been an incredibly tough and intense spiritual battle these recent months – moving not just house but to a very different part of the UK – moving is never easy, always stressful, and moving your home into storage while you’re waiting for God to show you where your next home is to be in that area is also stressful – and the means to live in it!

Moving to Wales was something that God made very clear (it wasn’t the first place of my list where to go, even though my dad was Welsh – the south rather than mid-Wales though!)) and the enemy never likes it when you do what you’re as certain as you can be that you’re doing – and have done – is what God wants you to do, perhaps even more so when it’s not where you thought! With moving to Welshpool definitely clear – I thought I’d be in my own place fairly quickly, but God had other ideas! (it’s been over 8 months so far)- . . It’s been a real privilege to be here, yet the enemy assault has been way beyond anything I’ve known or been through. I’d say in my life, but certainly the 40+ years I’ve been in ministry.

I used to believe that the enemy attacked you at your ‘weak’ points, but many times over the 41 years I’ve been in ministry, I’ve come to realise that he batters you at what you see (possibly) as your strong points. As someone whose passion is to pray for the sick and infirm, it’s infirmity primarily where the enemy has attacked me! In the last few months since I’ve been here in Wales, I’ve been battered with Deep Vein Thrombosis (my left thigh was 11 cms bigger than my right, which made any sort of bending pretty impossible!): cellulitis, the long-term osteoarthritic knees (they got worse when I got here), an abdominal aortic aneurysm, an as-yet undiagnosed problem with my right wrist (well, 3 different diagnoses! – synovitis, nothing – then why is it excruciating?! – and chronic arthritis of the carpal bones and wrist!). It has meant that for 6 weeks I haven’t been able to use my hand, so I haven’t been able to drive. along with being thrown (literally!) off a 6 feet wide bed at 4 a.m by something unseen in a house I rented when I first came here last year, turned out the house was owned by witches, so unknowingly I walked into a demonic hotbed! What is amazing though is that I’ve had the privilege of seeing God heal hundreds of pairs of osteoarthritic knees along with a myriad other things, and I had to battle with myself for a quite a while feeling how could i pray for others if I had things wrong. It took some time to realise that it was a ploy of the enemy to undermine me, by making me feel a bit of a fraud.

The enemy hates it when he assaults us with his ‘spiritual attacks’ – because we’ve done what God wants us to do, and for any Christian who thinks that when you’ve walked ‘through’ a spiritual attack, that’s it, it’s over: WRONG. When you mean business for the Kingdom of Heaven to come to earth, attack is incessant. And often,the enemy isn’t terribly creative, having a ‘go’ at the same things over and over again – health, finance, vehicles, travel, mobility – and my experience, and constant spiritual attack is a possible yardstick to measure if what you’ve done is in God’s will, it’s very helpful, and the great thing is that no weapon formed against us will prosper, and the enemy is already defeated because Jesus crushed him on the cross. So I’m happy that, while the past months have been constant onslaught, it’s confirming to me that I’m in the right place!

Enemy attack isn’t a ‘one-time’ event: it’s a life-long event so long as we realise that we’ve already won, not just in the past but in the future too, and that we’re making a difference through what God’s called us to do. Friends here have said they don’t know how I’m still standing, how I haven’t caved in: I made a decision many years ago that I WOULD never give in, and that I’ll keep going until I drop. Of course, there are times when you have to stop and take stock of what’s happened to you or let the infirmity/sickness/hardship pass – and then get up and put the boxing gloves back on.

Just recently I’ve lost some regular financial support – friends who passed away, lost their jobs, and Brexit fear! It’s meant I’m totally in God’s hands as what I’ve lost monthly now means I can’t afford to rent a flat, and yet I’m sure – and others have confirmed it – that God spoke to me 6 years ago and said I’d have my own home again – again, because it’s 38 years since I last had my own home. Everything since then has been borrowed, rented, lodger, or loaned. Ever since God called me out of banking in 1979, when I gave up a home and a mortgage, it’s only occasionally been ‘stressful’ as God has done what he promised in 1983 – provided home, income (a struggle at times!), and security: but the enemy does all he can to discourage you and tell you that you’re mad. Well, right now, I’m ‘mad'(!) because I’m believing that the provision God promised 6 years ago (and in 1979 when the first promise came) is imminent.

Winston Churchill’s famous speech has been my battle cry for as long as I can remember. ‘Never give up. NEVER give up. NEVER GIVE UP’. And I won’t – so the enemy will be my adversary for many years ahead yet.

IF, just IF, you want to support what God is doing here in Wales, and in other countries, then I’d be very grateful, as we all need enough to live on. Amazing things are happening here across the Principality right now: and for me, to have my very long time friend Ian Andrews involved, too, is such a blessing. Ian, like those who’ve lived here a while, and me, who’s just moved here, KNOW God is on the move re-digging the wells of revival from 1904, and wow, it’s exciting to see what’s going to happen!

Support:

Stewardship (www.stewardship.org.uk, account 20028331 – Paul Bennison Healing Ministries Worldwide), PayPal (paul@paulbennison.com), and I can send you my bank account details if you need them. It really is a very tough time financially so your help, kindness and generosity will be most welcome – regular support or one-off – which can both be done through Stewardship.

Spiritual Warfare isn’t something that is often preached about, nor is it something weoften go looking for, unless we are determined Kingdom builders. Warfare from the enemy is normally only ‘attracted’ to us when we set our stall to gatecrash his ‘territory’, take on board the really big promises of God for the world, for people we know, for ourselves.

I don’t know who came up with the quote, ‘If you haven’t met the devil today, the chances are you and he are walking in the same direction.’ Fulton Sheen wrote: “Satan has very little trouble with those who do not believe in him; they are already on his side.” Both quotes are very true. I meet a lot of people who don’t believe in a real devil who wants to destroy those of us who want to see God’s Kingdom Come and God’s will be done.

Right now, believing that I heard from God that I should move to Welshpool last July – and I still stand by what I believe I heard God say – the onslaught from the enemy has been so intense – physically, emotionally, financially, and even in some friends who are very close to me – the war I’m in (and believe I’m coming to the end of) has been the toughest of my 50 years as a Christian. And the war would suggest that my being here is right.

I’m desperate, for the sake of the lovely people who have given me a home here, to let them have their home back, and to have my own place. But my, my, the battle to find a place to live and the means to live there, has been beyond belief. There are promises, which I believe totally, but the hold-ups, delays, blockages are the enemy’s way of discouraging, and demoralising me.

Physically, most of you know the enemy has battered my knees for 25 years, what began as an injury morphing into chronic osteoarthritis – and yes, I’ve been prayed for hundreds, maybe thousands, of times – I know it’s a war: but I won’t give in, These last few months it’s been added to by the enemy with deep vein thrombosis AND cellulitis in my left leg, no warning, and making life immensely difficult. But as we’ve rolled over into 2020, I’m determined to get going again big-time, and keep going, keep preaching, keep praying for the sick – in meetings and yes, over the internet – and seeing people healed. Just because God hasn’t healed me – YET – doesn’t mean he won’t use me to be the conduit for his power to heal others.

A friend in another country is under immense attack – with a ‘death-threat’ from diabolical (the dictionary definition of that word!) surgery a major threat. Currently (today) going through a third surgery in the same wound. A believer, a fighter, determined – the enemy sees this person as a threat.

If you’ve ever read – and believed – Proverbs 13:22: ” the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous” it’s very easy – to read (AND it’s a promise!). When you start to move to stake your God-given right to make that verse reality, wow, does the enemy fight you! He’ll do everything in his repertoire to stop that happening, especially theft, corruption of every sort, lies, accusations… BUT – that wealth is there for the righteous, so it WILL happen. The ‘war’ along the way sees Satan as his most devious, venomous, assaulting, and very, very dangerous. ‘But do not be afraid for the Father has chosen to give you the Kingdom’ – and fulfill all of His promises. Spiritual warfare scares many people: but I’d rather the enemy have a go at me as it means he’s rather disturbed by what I’ve done, what I’m doing, or what I’m going to do. I guess at 67 years old, the ‘world’ would consider that I’m past middle-aged (I don’t think I am!) but C S Lewis said this: ‘The long, dull, monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather for the devil.’

There are times when we face extended spiritual conflict. We fight, endure, and finally prevail. Yet, don’t forget: our enemy is a thief and he comes to “steal, kill and destroy” (Jn 10:10). You may be so relieved the main ordeal is over that you fail to notice that your joy is gone. You’ve won the obvious battle but now has your peace been compromised? It’s good to routinely take inventory of your soul. Make sure that the full complement of the Spirit’s fruit is operational in you — that “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” are all evident and still growing (Gal 5:22-23).

If you desire to see the reality of God reproduced in your loved ones, set your heart to walk in the fruit of the Spirit. The seed that empowers spiritual reproduction is not found in our religion, but in our fruit.

“Your current difficulties will define for you a new place of identity. Rise up and occupy a new persona in God’s presence! This is the year of your rising. God is calling you up to a high place in His loving kindness and favour.”

The more peace you have during spiritual attack, the more truly you are walking in Christ’s victory. Remember, it is the God of Peace who shall crush Satan beneath your feet shortly (Rom. 16:20).

I’m looking forward to the end of these last 8 months – I’ve no idea how long it’s going to be, hopefully soon – but I know what I’ve learned, I’m more aware than ever of what Satan can do, but even more aware of what he CAN’T do! WE WIN!!

A few weeks ago, I received a friend request on FB from someone I once knew. He was ‘new’ on FB, and to be honest, a very ‘unlikely’ Facebook person. Last time we ‘communicated’ (11 years ago) he was quite abusive and angry even though he’s what I’d call a ‘flaky charismatic Christian’. I was desperately hurt as we’d been close, and quite angry if I’m honest, though – I hope – I managed to keep my cool, composure, and did everything I could to ‘save’ the relationship. In that respect, it was a failure, sadly.I responded positively to the recent friend request as I felt it was an opportunity to reconcile, and messaged him and his wife with a ‘chatty’ message saying it was good to be in touch again and hoped that God was blessing them. that it would be good to hear their news.

Seeing his profile and photos actually opened up a whole pile of extremely painful emotional information for me concerning my (totally) dysfunctional family. One piece of information opened up another that became increasingly devastating and so it went on.

After 3 weeks or so I’d had no reply to my message, so I went back to his timeline/profile, and his account was closed. Seems he’d opened it and ‘befriended’ me to cause hurt and pain. It’s still closed. For some days – a couple of weeks – I was wrecked, hurt, and so blown away that anyone would open a profile here simply to hurt another ‘fellow Christian'(?) brother.

But some time back God (through another friend) spoke to me about not taking offence, more importantly not holding on to offence, as it destroys the person who holds on to it. With God’s help there’s nothing we can’t ‘walk past’ and move on, and I’m so grateful that Jesus gave us the freedom to forgive – his wonderful, famous words ‘Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they do’ was a greater level of forgiveness for something we’ll never experience.

Don’t hold on to what hurt you: it’ll destroy you. I found and reposted this on Facebook today:

I know that if I’d carried the pain of every time someone had hurt me (or – if I’ve hurt someone else, them too) it would have destroyed me long, long ago – long before it would have affected the man who hurt me.

Met with a lovely young mum yesterday with Jonathan and Kathryn, doesn’t yet know Jesus (on her way to that now, and very bold to meet 3 people she didn’t know to be prayed for) – chronically wrecked right knee, and advanced endometriosis. The knee was wrecked merely by turning over in bed and her foot and didn’t turn at the same time: 5 surgeries had only made it worse, and she’s too young to have her knee replaced (she’s 33). The knee made life almost impossible with 2 young children as she could hardly walk. No cartilage, torn meniscus, soft tissue damage, and bones grating together so osteoarthritis on the menu for the future if not ‘on the plate!’. The knee caused her back pain, too, and she felt the weight of the world on her shoulders.
We met in Costa and spent some time just chatting, and as she relaxed and got ‘used’ to us, prayed for her. I didn’t tell her what to expect as I wanted her to tell me what she felt without having any pre-conceived ideas. Kept the prayer relatively short as faith had been raised in her just in chatting.
I asked her what she felt – and she’d had all the ‘right’ reactions(!) – tingling sensation in the whole of her abdomen, heat and tingling in her knee, her face and eyes had changed as the ‘weight’ went, the pain decreased and she felt God working in her… and a good Costa hot chocolate as well!
More Costa meetings like that in the future…Thank you, Jesus for what you did for her,,,,

I’m often asked if people who are healed by the power of the Holy Spirit through prayer ‘stay’ healed. The answer to that is – YES – many do. Only ‘many’? There are numerous reasons why some people DON’T keep their healing – maybe that’s a blog for another day – but for most who are miraculous healed, their healing stays with them.

In my own life there are some great testimonies – healed of celiac disease (incurable) when I was 13, in the days before healing was even ‘around’ or ‘controversial’ in the church (no one prayed for me, I believe God was preparing me for what was to come in my future!). Then healed of a chronic back condition when I was 18, terrible constant pain caused by a hole in my spine’s neural arch – not good for a regular (and not too bad!) rugby player to have constant back pain… A guy named George Tarleton came to our home fellowship to pray for me – put in touch by ‘lifelong’ friend Clive Calver – and when I went to get my back x-rayed afterward, as George suggested, there was no hole…

I’ve been able to eat anything since being healed of celiac, and apart from ‘usual’ tiredness/exhaustion/uncomfortable beds in some of the more ‘exotic’ (lol!) countries I’ve been to, I never have backache. Celiac healed 54 years ago, hole in the neural arch healed 49 years ago! Thank you, God!!!!

I received this message from my very dear friend Yvonne Pressdee last week – she thought I’d be blessed by it (I was!) – testimony from a church she and John used to lead:

I met D**** who used to be at the Green and we were talking about you – you may remember her because she was due to go Into hospital for an operation on her shoulder the next day and you prayed for her. When she went to hospital the surgeon said there was no need for an op but if she had any more trouble, she could ring him straight away and he would fit her in. That was 10 years ago and she hasn’t rung him yet!.

Wonderful Jesus!! Thank you!!! And bless you D****, and thank you, Yvonne!!

Being someone who will never give up – unless I have no choice – I’ve fulfilled all the meetings that have been asked of me in these past months, even though preaching is challenging for my knees, and in the days following I REALLY know it’s been challenging! I’m still convinced that God will heal these knees: and having pursued the ‘surgical’ route, mostly because people have pestered me to have my knees replaced (!) I’ve discovered that realistically it’s not a route open to me. Why? Because the really good (and nice) orthopaedic surgeon at one of the best Ortho hospitals in the UK (Gobowen, Oswestry) told me that he could do it, that he could have me walking pain-free within 3 months, he then discovered both my history (pulmonary embolism 5 years ago), and my family’s history of deep vein thrombosis, and I was told that instead of 3 months and ‘healed’ I was a 50-50 or worse ‘candidate’ to die of clotting blood on the operating table… not a difficult decision for me once I knew that! And, having looked at what the osteoarthritis in the knees had done to my legs – if I stand with my feet together, it looks like the horse has bolted from between my knees! – he said he could make SOME improvement to the shape of my legs, but not much…

And he must have been prophetic ahead of my reaching (or not!) the operating table, as, within three weeks, the enemy had bludgeoned me with pretty severe DVT AND cellulitis in my left leg. It wasn’t hard to know that something was wrong as my left leg swelled up to 10 cms (2.5 inches for Americans!) bigger than my right. The DVT has had a humongous impact on my knee(s) as the swelling on top of the osteoarthritis had severely impacted my mobility. Daily blood thinners should ultimately reduce the swelling, but of course, the increased pain in my left knee has put more pressure on my right knee (which was the worst one pain-wise).

So I’d really value your prayers for healing – DVT, osteoarthritis, cellulitis as I hope – and pray – the fairly early in the new year, I’ll be moving into my new home, and I need some legs for that, as well as preaching opportunities that come in. There are a number of overseas opportunities next year too, needless to say Colombia will feature a few times! – and of course, the revival in mid-Wales….

Back in the early 1980’s I’d been working for a ‘centre’ of British Youth for Christ’s (BYFC) national ministry for a few years, covering much of East Sussex. My role was to organise/participate in evangelism in towns and villages, organise events, visit schools and prisons to share the good news of Jesus. I never really saw myself as an ‘upfront’ speaker/preacher – I was – and still am – pretty shy (there might be some who’d question that(!) but it’s amazing what you can overcome with God’s help!

In 1983, BYFC organised a small conference, with a small invited audience, that seemed to be ‘outside’ of their brief as an evangelistic movement. It was on Healing – then very marginalised, and somewhat (in certain doctrinal circles) controversial. I’d become extremely interested in, and convinced by – God’s supernatural healing , as I’d been healed twice in earlier years – once from celiac disease, and then from a hole in my spine that caused incredible back pain. Though the conference was invitation only – about 50 people – and all of the delegates were the then ‘well-known’ leaders of that era: and I wasn’t – but I knew I had to be there however out of place I’d feel as a shy guy!

The speaker was Ian Andrews,pioneer of the wonderful God-given ministry of healing, and a founder of Chard Christian Fellowship, a pioneer church in healing from the sixties. The conference was where God got hold of me, and through Ian’s ministry, I knew – though terrified! – that I was going to embark on a whole new phase of life that involved praying for the sick all over the world.

Ian has been the instigator of numerous revivals in the past 30 years, one of his great gifts is ‘ushering in’ the power of Holy Spirit and seeing whole churches, towns, and cities turned upside down. Ian and I have remained in contact since that conference, and when I came here to mid-Wales just knew Ian would be the man to invite to begin a whole new transforming life for this area.

So, for just two days early this month, Ian was here in Welshpool, and a small village a few miles away, Abermule. The area has a history of ‘rejecting’ the Welsh revival early in the last century, and of not allowing John Wesley to preach here, so spiritually a rather tragic history!

On the Saturday evening, in Welshpool, a good number came – more than were expected to be honest – as Ian spoke, the Presence of God was tangible, it seemed touchable: and he got people praying for each other as well as praying himself – and to say the power of God was cut loose would be an understatement. A lot of people were healed and were confident in what God had done enough to testify in the meeting.

But in little Abermule, a much bigger number of people came – and Ian, from years of experience of being in revivals – knew that revival was right on the brink in this little Welsh community as numerous people testified to being healed, set free, touched by the lovely power of the Holy Spirit. When we talked later on, Ian felt that if we’d had a third evening of meetings, ‘full-blown’ revival would have broken out – and doubtless we’d still be having meetings even now!

All being well, it’s our hope – plan – to have Ian back in February, and in the meantime we’ll be continuing to ‘welcome’ revival to the county of Powys, and to Abermule especially!!

GIVING TUESDAY

Today is Giving Tuesday, a movement where people give to a cause they’re passionate about and inspire others to take action.

I’m not sure if you’d consider the ministry God has called me to be something worthy of support, but I’m so grateful to those who do give to the work of preaching the gospel, seeing many, many sick people healed, encouraging and releasing others into ministries they never dreamed they could or would have, the provision of beautiful purpose-built homes for street kids in Colombia to keep them out of the hands of narco-traffickers, and the provision of a hospital wing in West Africa, multiple numbers of toilets in bush villages in Africa and so much more.

This year, for quite valid reasons, I’ve lost (for me, at least) considerable monthly support (so far in 2019 it’s well over £300 a month, £200 quite recently). and because of more recent mobility limitations, a good number of ministry opportunities where I might have received an offering – which are infinitely more valuable than you’d imagine!

If you feel ‘giving Tuesday’ is something that might inspire you to see me fully back in harness in 2020. I’d be grateful! Message me if you would!