Not so long ago, I was in University Hospital, Cali, Colombia, to go ward to ward praying for the patients. Began in the men’s terminal ‘medical’ ward, a wonderful place to raise MY faith and save the lives of lots of men.
In bed 1 was a man so emaciated, and grey skin, not the lovely olive colour of most Latinos, he looked like he was in a coma or at least deep sleep, even dead. These were men with few days, even just hours to live.

I sat on Rafael’s bed (a scrap of torn paper with his name in felt pen at the top of his bed, and heard my mum whisper from 6000 miles away – Paul, it’s filthy, you’ll catch so many diseases. When you get back to the apartment burn your trousers!!!) and gently put my hand on his shoulder to wake him if he WAS only sleeping. He opened his eyes, looked surprised to see a gringoe (any foreigner in Colombia is a gringoe!) sitting on his bed.

I said to him that he didn’t look too good (wouldn’t have blessed him to say you look like death warmed up!) that I was Paul, and I’d love to pray for his healing because I love Jesus and believe he’s the healer.

He told me he’d only got a very few hours to live from what the doctors said, I heard myself say ‘no problem’! (whaaat?? am I out of my mind?).He told me that in the past he’d been a Christian, but backslidden became an alcoholic and drug addict, and lived on the streets for the last 7 years. Because he’d backslidden, he said he didn’t deserve to be healed. I told him that that sort of comment wasn’t in my Bible, and Jesus loved him, and his honesty.I told him about Jesus, healing people, and telling us that by putting OUR hands on people and they’d get well too.

So what’s wrong, Rafael? ‘I’ve got bowel and anal cancer’ was his answer – it shocked me as at that time I’d never come across anal cancer. He was wearing a little short nightshirt, and before I could stop him, he SHOWED me the effects of anal cancer… I still have the picture in my head!

I told him that maybe laying hands on his afflicted part would be ‘difficult'(!) and as I put my hand on his shoulder, he laughed at the hands on the anus comment – dying, 2-4 hours to live, and still a sense of humour…

The moment he laughed, he shouted. ‘I’M HEALED, I’M HEALED!!’ and pulled up his nightshirt both to have a look AND show me (thank you so, so much, Rafael!!). Needless to say, it had a huge impact on all the dying patients around him, especially the doctors and nurses! They kept him there another day or so to check up on the miracle, and then – as a street sleeper previously – WENT HOME to live with his sister who’d previously disowned him.

I was sitting on the bed crying like a baby…

There were about 50 men in that ward, most of them dying, and everyone was healed except one.

That ONE was the only Christian in the ward. I asked if him if he wanted God to heal and he shouted ‘NO!’ Rather taken aback I asked why. ‘I’m angry with God because he didn’t let Moses into the promised land!’ Absurd reason! I said to him that when/if he got to heaven, ask Moses if he’d had swapped or exchanged going into the promised land, or being glorified with Jesus in Matthew 17…

The damage a religious spirit can do to you…

I find it, even now, almost unbelievable that 37 years ago, through prayer from Ian Andrews, that God has used me to see increasingly wonderful miracles as well as a myriad ‘less’ amazing healings. I’m one of those people who’d have said ‘God can’t use me, I’ve nothing to give, a no one, shy, lonely, and from age 12 (1964/5) to 1987 was ‘pew’fodder’ and always would be until I got so bored I’d give up forever. Then life changed, I owe so much to Ian, Jackie Pullinger, and China for that. Meeting ex-dead ladies in China was significant (meaning they were no longer dead – I shook hands with them and hugged them). Then my life really began, and I could never be a pew-filler again, I’d die if church was all I had… and church without being able to use the gifts of the Spirit…

When I was in High School, I ran on the cross country team.  I had been running competitively for only 2 years, and only in track and field, so this was new to me.  Towards the end of the season, I had worked my way onto the varsity girls’ team and was slowly climbing the ranks.  At one of the last races of the season, I felt my right knee start to have intense pain.  I was benched after that race, and could only ‘run’ on the elliptical machine.  My season was over.  I went to a doctor to try to figure out what was wrong with my knees and was diagnosed with patella tendonitis and lateral insertion of the patella tendons.  Essentially, the muscles around my knee caps were not strong enough to hold the tendons in place, and so they were flexing over the edge of my knee cap when I walked or ran, and would get inflamed.  I lived with the pain in my right knee for three years before I met Paul Bennison.  I was attending a Young Persons Discipleship Training School in Perth, Australia in January 2003 when I met Paul.  At that point, I was struggling to go up and downstairs, and could not walk without significant pain in my knee.  I had discussed with a doctor that when I returned back to the States, that if there was no improvement, that I may need surgery to correct the problem.  Paul came and spoke about healings and miracles, and was a vessel for the Lord to open my heart to hope for a miracle.  At the end of the week, Paul met one-on-one with each student and gave a word from the Lord.  After my first meeting with him, I felt such a burden to have him pray over me again, and also to pray for my knee.  The second prayer totally unnerved me.  He spoke God’s love into my heart, and then prayed for my knee.  I felt a burning sensation all over my knee, and couldn’t even get out of the chair. The sensation lasted for about 3 minutes, and then slowly faded.  When I was able to stand again, I knew the Lord had healed me.  It’s been 10 years now, and I am still pain-free!  Praise the Lord!  Paul Bennison boosted my faith, and inspired me to trust for a miracle.  I now have a burden in my heart to pass along the amazing gift the Lord gave to me to others who struggle with knee problems.  I have seen a handful of healings over the same problem I had in the last 10years.  I am so grateful to Paul for inspiring such faith!

“On March 8th at Seaford, following the evening meeting, Paul asked for people to go forward for prayer. Paul was already praying with someone next to him, so I sat quietly beside Paul and waited.  He turned to me and asked me to pray for the person with him.  It seemed the most natural thing to do and as I extended my hand to pray, before I said a word, I felt all the pain leave my body.  I did not realise how much pain I had been in – back, arms, shoulders, legs, hips and feet.  Paul then prayed and sealed the healing work of Jesus in my body.”   John Kennett, Fresh Springs Christian Fellowship, Seaford.

O meant to tell you. I met Diane 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!.

Be encouraged!

Yvonne

With the prophetic words of GOD i received before i meet you, with our prayers (church of Lisieux and yours) we have the miracle !

Gabrielle (the little girl of 3 years old in the same class of my son Ilan) is healed ! Gabrielle was healed from cancer Franck, Aude, Ilan and Debora – DIPPA PRISO Family Lisieux

Today a very dear friend of mine from Sweden posted the beautiful ‘Blessing’ song on Facebook – in Swedish. It’s really lovely, especially as Sweden is high up the list of my favourite countries, and a wonderful place to go.

On the video, there are many churches named that I’ve had the privilege of preaching in, and praying for people. And quite a few people I know singing on the video.

On my first visit I was in a lovely church in a city, Vasteras, and it was a great meeting. I had a good friend, Heidi, with me, a very prophetic young woman with a healing gift, too. There were three men at the front in wheel-chairs, very clearly stroke victims. I’ll be honest, at that time I sued to leave people in wheel-chairs to the end in the hope that everyone else would have gone home or someone else would pray for them (!)

This night I knew I had to go to them first, and knew which one should be first. I held his hand as he was unable to shake hands, introduced myself through the Swedish translator, and asked his name. ‘Jose Luis’ ‘That’s not a Swedish name, it’s Latino’. ‘I’m Latino’ he replied. ‘Where from?’ ‘South America’. I said that was a big continent(!) -which country? One in the north that’s very dangerous, foreigners don’t go there. I said that could apply to most Latino countries, which one? Colombia? ‘Yes, I’m from Colombia’. I was there 4 weeks ago. You were in COLOMBIA? Yes. Which part are you from – by now I was speaking some Spanish to him…. ‘the south, a city no one goes to as it’s far too dangerous’. That covers a few cities! – Buenaventura, Medellin, Pereira…. ‘You know those cities?’ Yes, but I think you come from Cali. ‘You know Cali?’ Yes, I was there 4 weeks ago! ‘ Which part of Cali are you from? ‘The east’ – I said the east was pretty big, was it Agua Blanca? ‘You know Agua Blanca?’ Same answer again… Yes, I go there often. What street in which district are you from? Turned out I’d stayed on one street and he’d lived on one that joined it at right angles! His face was a picture, you could see in his face faith rising because God had clearly put us together.

I asked him if he wanted to be healed (!) – he did – so I suggested he get up out of the chair. I didn’t feel with what God had done ‘surreptitiously’ that I needed to pray: his withered bent left arm straightened, and his right arm which was completely still in his lap both moved to the arms of the seat, and unaided he got out of the chair. It was incredible. His wife and kids were laughing and crying, Jose was laughing….

The next guy spoke good English – Tony – same condition as Jose: what do you want God to do for you? ‘I want what he’s just had!’ nodding towards Jose, who was now walking out of the church. So I said ‘Well, get up and be healed in Jesus’ Name’ – which he did, instantly! To say he was over the moon would be an understatement – the same as me!

The third guy, Peter, was the same – what do you want God to do for you? It must be getting easy for you after those two! His answer was like a kick in the stomach. ‘If I’m healed and get out of my wheel-chair, will I lose my benefits?’ I told him that doubtless he would – but at late 30 years old, he’d have his life back.

‘Please don’t pray for me’. You could have knocked me with a feather. Who would prefer benefits to miraculous healing? It didn’t take the joy of the first two guys away but it made me realise – as I had previously – that some people DON’T WANT to be healed. They come forward for the attention, maybe, but I know quite a number of people who’d prefer to use the excuse of illness or disability than be blessed by God and healed.

It’s one of the things I ask God about before I ‘waste time’ praying for someone who doesn’t want what God wants to give them. It’s sad, but true. Many others got healed that evening in Vasteras, so it was a great evening, but I’ll never forget Peter….

Back in the early 1970’s, when I had just become a Christian, two or three men had a major influence in my life – Clive Calver, though who I was saved; Graham Kendrick, who’s love, patience, and spiritual insight got me set free from a lot if the past; and David Pawson, a Baptist Minister then unlike any other I came across in years. His Bible teaching provided a foundation for my faith that I still live with today.

In the seventies, I began working for Youth for Christ in my spare time, in East Sussex, and organised among many other things, a monthly charismatic teaching evening as many of the village churches had no input on anything to do with the Holy Spirit. I approached David with fear and trembling as he was SO well known, with such a worldwide ‘famous’ teaching ministry. Never dreamed he’d come to Pilgrim Hall in rural East Sussex to speak to 300 people!

He did. Regularly. As a result we became friends, a friendship that strengthened and bonded in 1981 when British Youth for Christ organised a controversial nationwide tour, ‘Let God Speak’ where David spoke 32 times in 36 nights about hearing God’s voice and what he was saying to the church. It was incredible.

Why we grew so close is that I was his driver for the tour – from places like Inverness to Plymouth to Belfast to Cardiff – all over the Uk. Sitting in the car with him, I just soaked up what he was saying, and when he wasn’t saying anything just soaked up the presence that was around and in him.

Another tour on the ‘Normal Christian Birth’ followed, and I was with him again. At the end of 1983 I left Youth for Christ and went for a period of study time at Roffey Place Christian Training Centre. David was one of the main lecturers during the first term: it was amazing stuff.

It was also funny, because he was so well known and so well read, at coffee and lunch breaks all the students wanted to ‘corner’ him and pump questions into him (maybe some wanted to disagree but I don’t think so!). My little students’ quarters was close to the lounge, so David would come to my room to hide, and we’d just chill, relax, and laugh.

David said back then he got asked by a lot of young people ‘how do I speak in tongues’ and David was happy to admit he didn’t have an easy answer. So I said I could help him – just get them to say certain phrases over and over, quite quickly…. ‘Like what?’ he said.

‘Make mine a shandy’, ‘Must have another rubber dinghy’, ‘She came on a Honda’ – and many other stupid phrases – by which time David was roaring with laughter, got out his notebook and wrote them down, saying he’d use them! I often heard him say them in sermons after that, still laughing, but finding that it was a great tool for unlocking people’s fear of speaking of tongues!

He wasn’t JUST a great Bible Teacher either: he had a lot of words of wisdom, knowledge, and prophecy, which I was to benefit from early in the 2000’s. I needed advice on a critical issue, so phoned him to ask if I could go and see him. Never dreamed he say ‘yes. come tomorrow, but don’t tell me what the issue is’.

When I arrived, we sat in the lovely living room overlooking the duck-pond in his garden and he said, ‘God’s shown me 8 things’ and then went through them. He’d got the whole story from the Lord, and said ‘Paul, you’ve got to leave (church name) immediately before it crushes you’. Needless to say I resigned that night from the church!

David was a gentle man – but when he had words that were hard, it was still with gentleness but in reality there was no way you couldn’t act on them. I have many of his books, CDs, tapes, which will stay with me forever.

A wonderful man, a blessing to heaven following his promotion there yesterday, and the loss of a loyal friend to many here on earth.

(This was also posted in a more limited form on Facebook)

With the ‘justified’ fear (among non-believers, surely, and not believers?) surrounding Covid19, I’m grateful that when God called me to do what I’ve been doing for the last 41 years, he removed those fears from me. Four people have been healed of covid over the internet – I wish it was 400,000 but we’re not allowed out, or into UK hospitals tp pray….

What do we have to fear if ‘no weapon formed against us will prosper? If God is our shield and protector? If he watches over us so that nothing will happen to us that will take him by surprise? I grew up knowing those truths – and many more – from the Bible, but have to say I didn’t ‘live’ them – believe them.

I’d give my right arm (though it’s not working too well at the moment!) to get into hospitals to pray for people dying with Covid – in many places over the last 30 years, it’s been my real delight to sit on beds in hospitals with people dying with even more contagious diseases, and see them healed. When God told me that I’d heal the sick ‘in the four corners of the earth’ in 1986, I was terrified. Even a cold was beyond my faith.

But something happened in my spirit when I started to be confronted with countless people with AIDS, TB, leprosy, some diseases in Africa and India I’d never heard of, and somewhere – without really realising it – the truths of the Scripture took root in me and fear disappeared without me realising it.

We HAVE THE AUTHORITY of God, the authority and COMMAND of Jesus to lay hands on the sick and they’ll be healed. Often it doesn’t even need a prayer – in David’s case – further down – it needed a hug and some love.

I’ll never forget Sandra, in hospital in Cali, dying with AIDS at 25 years old, and she was being disconnected from her oxygen tank within 2 hours to be sent home to die. I sat on her bed with a wonderful lady. Glenda Eddis, from Bangor, NI, and we hugged her as she was terrified of the tank going, and dying. Within a few minutes she was running around the ward shouting ‘I’m healed, I’m healed!!’ – while Glenda and I sat and sobbed our hearts out….I’m only sad I never got a picture of Sandra….

But I did get a picture of this gorgeous little jet-black haired fella – no name when we met him, dumped at birth, aged about 4-6 months… TB and AIDS, never named, never hugged… he was so gorgeous I couldn’t help get him out of the cot, and name him – David, a man after God’s heart – and pray. Two days later he was adopted, healed, and with a family.to love and care for him…

And Dennis, in Romania, 30 years ago, with AIDS, and TB, found at 3 weeks old in a shoebox under a hedge, his nose eaten off by rats…. He was healed and looked after by a lovely Christian young woman, Lily. God had his hand on Dennis from conception, I know it, and only through God could a newborn have survived 3 weeks in a shoebox in a field without milk and love and care…Lily loved him back to full life, and people in England helped raise money for a series of prosthetic noses to be given to him – one at the age in the picture, one at about 8-9, another about 16 years old, And a diet of high protein yoghurts and other food for years that were unaffordable to a young Romanian…

As Christians, we have nothing to fear. Disease,death, betrayal, …and I’m grateful that, from a pretty ‘ill’ family, God’s removed the fear of ‘catching’ disease and replaced it with a passion to see incurable diseases healed….

It doesn’t make me immune from being ill: but osteoarthritis isn’t contagious – I just got hit with it by the enemy. Faith trumps fear every time: fear makes us vulnerable and the enemy loves the wrong sort of vulnerability….

The Battleground of the Mind
You will remember that the location where Jesus was crucified was called Golgotha, which means “place of the skull.” If we will be effective in spiritual warfare, the first field of conflict where we must learn warfare is the battleground of the mind; i.e., the “place of the skull.” For the territory of the uncrucified thought life is the frontier of satanic assault in our lives. To defeat the enemy, we must be crucified in the place of the skull. We must be renewed in the spirit of our minds!

Once we become blessed – consumed – by a vision from God, we enter a realm of battle with Satan and his miserable demons that we’ve never encountered before. But if we are truly serious about wanting to honour Jesus for what he’s done for us and see His Kingdom come and His will be done, then we’ll get a vision of what God wants to do with and through us. Vision is something that grows, evolves, increases – as does the opposition from the enemy! Our ‘problem’ is that WITHOUT vision, Proverbs 29:18 says that ‘Without vision the people perish’ – not just the world, who we fail if we don’t live in vision for the Kingdom and revival, but US, too. There are so many ‘churchians’ or ‘Christianised’ people populating our churches who think being a Christian is JUST Sunday morning’s meeting. Or in these ‘Coronavirus’ days, the YouTube/Zoom/Skype ‘meeting’. Without a vision, people are doomed to wander aimlessly.

I grew up in a very quiet (shy) Christian home – my dad and mum were saved at a Billy Graham crusade meeting at Haringey, North London – and went to a Baptist Church in Walthamstow, close to where we lived. Because I was born very sick, doctors recommended that my parents moved out of London to the coast, where we went to another very evangelical church in Eastbourne for many years. I had no concept that God had a plan for my life, and truth be told, I was a ‘pretend’ Christian until I was confronted – in a different church (that my friend Andy & I had gone to because that church had young ladies which an Eastbourne Baptist church didn’t in the late 60’s/early 70’s. didn’t have! It’s amazing how the Lord ‘leads’ you, huh??!! ) by an evangelist, Clive Calver, who saw straight through me and my fake faith.

It wasn’t long before I gave my life to Jesus, by which time I realised just how boring and unsatisfying my Christian life had been. Then vision started to arrive from God – though I argued with God about it as it meant quitting my (then quite successful) career in a bank – so reasonable salary, subsidised mortgage, good pension (though I hated the job!). The argument lasted 5 years before God won, and in 1979 I went full-time with Youth for Christ. (No salary, massive mortgage, no pension!). I knew God would win the argument, but I was persistent! What developed rapidly was that my life went from boring with no vision to challenging, enjoyable, and with a vision that began to grow and grow.

Of course plenty of people told me I was mad to walk away from a good career. But the ‘career’ I’ve had for the past 41 years has been phenomenal, taking me all over the world (literally) – 110 countries (much the paranoia of my mum while she was alive, she was convinced I’d get some dreadful disease or die from something I ate!

Would I have seen tens of thousands healed in England if I’d stayed as a bank clerk? I doubt you need me to answer that one. Would I have seen limbs grow from nothing, cancers disappear, leprosy go, AIDS removed from a large number of people, and four people raised from the dead? I doubt it very much.

So much of vision-less Christian life is down to fear. I remember when I got my first invitation to travel – to Ghana – I was terrified. Even after travelling to some very (in my mind, and in reality) risky countries, and been unharmed and not been ill, when I was invited to Colombia in 1996 I was more terrified than ever. But I went – and it’s now my second ‘home’ (maybe even in my mind, my first home) and I love it with a passion.

I remember many years ago asking a ‘strong’ pastor to go with me to an African nation. No fear was his response, I won’t like the food. And the creepy crawlies. So I asked him to go to Colombia. No fear, I might get kidnapped, shot, the food, and creepy crawlies…. Where would you go then? Australia was his reply. Where they happen to have the 10 most dangerous snakes and 10 most dangerous variety of spiders! Fear stopping vision.

Yes, sure, there’s danger. Sure we’re not going to fall in love with all the food (cat, dog, snake, cow’s lips, cow’s intestines, and one or two (or more!) things in India wouldn’t make the gourmet list in London restaurants.

Vision might NOT take to China to eat cat and risk arrest, or India and risk Delhi-belly. It might take you to your town centre to approach people and ask them if they need prayer, or become a preacher (which is pretty daunting when THAT call comes!).

What I can almost certainly guarantee is that you appear in the cross-hairs of Satan’s binoculars, and you will come under attack. I think it was A W Tozer who said,

“if you haven’t met the devil today, chances are you and he are walking in the same direction”. Of course, Jesus said it, too. “In this world you WILL have trouble, but don’t be afraid, I’ve overcome the world”/

And with vision you attract the devil’s attention. But the Bible is a book for visionaries – No human being can exist long without purpose; neither can a people group. Vision is almost as essential to human existence as oxygen. Without a vision—people are doomed to wander aimlessly.

Pastors can be more focused on people showing up in church sitting in every service, than being focused building them, encouraging them and sending and releasing them into society to change the culture around them. We are moving from church to kingdom. Jesus Christ, our Apostle, was SENT to earth to change and transform all things through Him laying down His own life, and to reproduce Himself through sons and daughters becoming apostolic in their mindset.

God wants a people whose lives are dedicated to bringing the Kingdom to earth – ‘Your kingdom come, your will be done, ON EARTH as it is in heaven’. And who want to see revival come through the persecution that follows

“Never underestimate the power and anointing that grows in a man or woman who is wholeheartedly pursuing the Lord.”
Graham Cooke

Since I last wrote here, about being ‘Under Attack’, the whole world has come under attack! The enemy has launched a broadside at our planet that could never have been foreseen, and as far as I’ve heard and read, nothing has affected so many countries, in such a short space of time, nor brought so much worldwide fear.

It’s not specifically a spiritual attack, as it’s not solely targeting Christians,but the attack is very much affecting Christians as there’s now no chance of meeting together. Where we’re at in a way is where the Israelites were at after the plague – and Coronavirus is without doubt a plague.

Much is being written and broadcast about Corona so I don’t plan to, other than to pray for people who have lost family members, and others who are currently victims of the disease.

Could it be that God hasn’t intervened in stopping coronavirus because he wants those of us who claim and own his name

The parallel in Scripture is when the church was dispersed after the plagues – are we in a similar situation as churches are forced to disperse and meet using zoom or skype or meet alone or as families in homes? Some of that might be answered dependent on how long the limitations are put on the population

What is evident is that Satan has launched all-out war against the planet, there has been nothing so widespread like this since the Second World War. Assaults like Corona instantly bring fear for many people, including Christians despite what Scripture says so often ‘do not fear’. Jesus said so often ‘don’t be afraid’ many times, chastised the disciples for being afraid. We know the spirit realm is real, and even though we don’t (often) see angels and demons.

Walking through the valley of the shadow of death is vital in developing our character, authority, and spiritual power, Paul talked of sharing in the ‘fellowship of Christ’s sufferings’, (Phil 3:10), and Psalm 116:15 ‘Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his saints’.

This is a word given to me recently, but in many ways – in part – it applies to us all. Just stand.

Paul, Ephesians 6:13 says to “stand in the evil day”. I felt the Lord saying that you have been in an evil day. At times like that the Lord does not require forward movement from His servants but simply to stand on Him. Do not be tempted to compare your present circumstances to past seasons of success. As Christ did in the wilderness (into which the Holy Spirit led Him by the way) simply stand. The blessings come after this season of standing on “It is written” with the ultimate “get thee behind me, accuser and slanderer”. All my love and appreciation, Michael

Great preacher and writer Tim Keller has been speaking to Premier about the pandemic. Founder of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York – the worst hit place by the pandemic so far, Tim believes it will be hard to pastor when the virus is over, with a large of percentage of congregations out of work, or having experienced devastation, or even got used to ‘doing’ church by YouTube or Zoom.

“I think that almost all churches and non-profits are going to be in a position where there’ll be more to do but there’ll be less financial resources…that’s going to be a problem for ministry leaders everywhere in the country and in the world.”

He compared it to the attack on the Twin Towers and the aftershock then: “After 9/11, which had a huge impact on the city in a way you didn’t see in the rest of the country or the world, it took several weeks at least for us to figure out at our church ‘what does this mean for us in the future?’ We can’t go on with business as usual. We have to find out ‘what is God calling us to be?’ and it can’t be the same. I think that will emerge and I don’t think it’s easy to tell.”

And yet the opportunities to share Jesus will be incredible. I’m frustrated that ‘getting at’ people suffering is impossible, as Jesus heals. Yes, there’ll be opportunities to pray online, but there’s nothing as effective as face to face and arm around someone. Jesus never said ‘lay your hands on the sick and catch what they’ve got’ – but laying hands on a tv screen has only worked once to my knowledge with a friend, Dennis, who was healed of chronic ME.

I love to sit with people, even if only for a few minutes, get to know them, identify and empathise with them, and then see God do a miracle. People will seek God – and are seeking God – as a result of corona, but meeting together, however small the group, is much more effective and relational.There will be zoom, skype, and You Tube fruit, though…!

I’m looking forward to being back ‘on the road’ and back in planes going to people and seeing the miracles first hand. What I do feel is the enemy is going to regret coronavirus – while he might be thinking now he’s winning, his victory is going to be short lived and the Kingdom of Heaven will be extended exponentially, if Christians are willing to sustain the workers.

My own personal income continues to fall – not hugely now like at first as it was very close to Brexit when corona ‘broke’ – but having put my faith in God’s provision 41 years ago, I don’t have any other option now – and DON’T WANT any other option than God providing through his body. At 67, and with gammy legs, and currently with one arm(!!!) I’m probably not terribly employable.

Church, if we want to capitalise on Satan’s ‘mistake’, those of us in ministry need you more than ever. I’m praying that the pandemic will be over in time to go to Colombia in the summer, and then make up for lost time from then on!

I’d value prayer for the provision of a home – the enemy’s stuck his grubby little mitts in the provision of a house, and as a result, my life has been on ‘hold’ for the past year. I’m so grateful for the lovely hospitality I’ve had here in Wales since last July, but I do need my own place, and my home needs to be set free from it’s ‘garage’ prison where it’s been for a year too! If it has survived the Welsh winter rains! And I’m praying for an increase in regular support to replace what I’ve lost – with no church meetings (and so no offerings!) I’m ‘down’ about 50-60% since the start of the year. Bless you!!

It’s been a while since I wrote the last blog – ‘Under Attack!’ – between that one and this one we’ve seen the whole world come under attack from something named after a fizzy drink when I was young,, and what an attack it’s been, and is.

The news and the press are full of almost full of nothing but Covid19 – Coronavirus – so I’m not going to double up. I’m grateful that corona hasn’t killed any of the people I know and love (though a few have had it and recovered, thank God), and grateful, in these days of isolation, that through social media resources I’ve been able to pray for some people with it, and it doesn’t sound much in the light of the number of victims, but three have been healed, for which I also thank God.

When Paul wrote his famous chapter on the armour of God, Ephesians 6. he so emphasised the need to be ‘armoured-up’, in verse 13, that in the ‘evil day’ we’d be able to stand. STAND. Not move, run, hide – but stand. Stand on God and his word. There’s nothing about forward movement – until God says ‘go’.

As you know from the last blog, I’ve never experienced spiritual attack like the last – well – 24 months. I’m not counting in the 20 odd years of ‘knees’ – but these 2 years have been unlike anything I’ve known. I mentioned my right hand in the last blog – I’d never had need to think about how difficult – virtually impossible – it is to live without a hand you’re used to and have used for 67 years! Whenever I get anything wrong with my body, my first thought goes to people I’ve prayed for with that problem – and those I haven’t had opportunity to pray for yet. (With the experiences I’ve had in hospitals in South America, India, and Africa, a large part of me would love to get into the ‘corona wards’ and see them emptied, as has been my joy and the teams I’ve had with me in those places from every type of illness from TB to AIDS to cancer and so much more).

One of my heroes is John G Lake, who went into homes and hospitals at the height of the bubonic plague he was helping doctors, and carrying out the bodies wearing no protection . Lake was asked why he had not contracted the disease, since he used no protection. He said, “It is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” To demonstrate, he had them take live bubonic plague germs still foaming from the lungs of a newly dead person and put them in his hands, and then examine the germs under a microscope. The germs were dead! The energy and presence of God was invisible to the naked eye but magnified under the microscope’s lens—there proved to be a real formidable, existing power that killed the virus. This is how John G. Lake explained why he did not get sick—he carried the cure in his body and spirit to heal disease through the power of the Spirit through Jesus.  In another amazing testimony, John G. Lake asked doctors to bring him a man with inflammation in the bone. He asked them to take their instruments and attach it to his leg while he prayed for healing. Then he asked them what they saw taking place on their instruments. They replied that every cell was responding positively! John G. Lake replied, “That is God’s divine science!”

I’ve always said that I’m not with someone with faith to CATCH what they have, I’m there, with God’s Holy Spirit’s power, to see them healed!!

I purposely haven’t said much about my hand and knees (and boomps-a-daisy!) because they don’t compare to corona, AIDS, and TB, On a trip to Cali with a team from West Church, Bangor, I had the privilege of praying for a young lady with AIDS, with one of the ‘NornIrelanders’. Sandra was 25, dying with AIDS, no future and was being sent home to die, being disconnected from her oxygen tank. She was desolate and near-hysterical. We sat on her bed, and I hugged her for about 30 minutes, telling her in my broken Spanish about Jesus. At which point she got off the bed, and started to run round the ward shouting ‘I’m healed’ – the proof was that she disconnected herself from her oxygen tank!

I’ll do another blog as this one’s getting a bit long! God can heal corona – just like bubonic plague. AIDS, TB, and more… and he says ‘Don’t fear! Just stand….!

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 (south-east England to mid-Wales) – 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 (hopefully within a couple of months), but God had other ideas! (it’s been almost 10 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 travel the world, 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 and of course swelled up with the DVT), 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 4 months 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. It 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 in recent years, 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 fact that you pray for healing doesn’t give you immunity from illness.

The enemy hates it when he assaults us with his ‘spiritual attacks’ – because we’ve done what God wants us to do, when any Christian who thinks that when you’ve walked ‘through’ a spiritual attack, that’s it, we keep walking! The danger is that we think once there’s been a spiritual attack, it’s over: WRONG. When you mean business for the Kingdom of Heaven to come to earth, attack is incessant. 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, we win, and the enemy gets mad!. 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 considerable regular financial support – friends who passed away, lost their jobs, Coronavirus ,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 40 years since I last had my own home. Everything since then has been borrowed, rented, lodged, 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 b6lieving that the provision God promised (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 – and if God’s call includes travel, the means to get there!.

Amazing things are happening here across the Principality of Wales right now: with many sensing that a repeat of the 1904 revival is on the horizon, 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.