An Amazing ten days in Jerusalem

I can't believe how long it has been since I last blogged. I must do better in 2009. In fact I realise I should have blogged when I was actually in Jerusalem and not wait til I got back. But then my first blog would have been me moaning about the cold.

Yes it can be cold in Jerusalem in the winter, in fact it feels much colder than the numbers suggest perhaps because you expect the Middle East to be warm.

I wanted to go to Israel for five days just to pray about 2009. But God and El Al airlines ( not the same thing) had other plans. So I booked for ten days, was ill the first few days because my weak heart does not do cold weather or hills very easily and would happily have flown back. What seemed to happen was I relived experiences from the past 20 years. Literally people I had not met for 20 years suddenly appeared in my path. I relived the illnesses and the couple of years at the end of the 90's when I was depressed. By the Saturday I was at a very low point but somehow I knew that that was the end of it and that the last few days would give me a glimpse into the future and that would be much brighter.

Literally the weather transformed and for the last seven days we had far better weather than is normal at that time of year. I seemed to experience all the struggles of the past only to be given hope that the future looks very different. As different as a rainly day from a sunny day. It all seemed a little weird because on the face of it I didn't get miraculously healed and things are on the face of it as bleak as ever and yet I have this deep faith and belief that this is a year of blessing and God's favour. I hope against hope because if you can see it already it doesn't need faith. I come back stronger in spirit and my body will just have to keep up.

God bless you more to follow.

P.S. I did rather embarrass myself when standing at Damascus Gate Jeremy Bowen the BBC reporter walk passed and I said something like "oh, your the guy off the BBC how are you doing ?" we shook hands and he walked on, two english men connecting in solidarity in a distant land.

Its just a bit of pain

This post will be short and maybe a little incoherent. I experiencing as much pain as I think you can without passing out from the pain. I am drowning in my own sense of self pity and wondering whether I am a complete whoos for complaining so much about a jaw ache. It was supposed to be a straightforward extraction so I agreed to let a student dentist take it out. In the end she could not do it and the doctor took over because in order to get it out they had to drill round it to prise it out of the jaw so I am missing a bit of my bottom jaw. But I am so aware that somewhere in Africa today mothers have watched their children die from starvation. There are Christians in prison in places like North Korea who have been tortured today. I will probably go to the doctors in the morning if it still hurts and get some more powerful pain control and in a few days I will only feel a bit sore. It really wasn't that bad a day.

Update on Seasons

Wow - I was visiting some dear friends at the weekend and the husband had just come back from spending time on retreat in Moravian Falls. They prayed for me and the husband saw a vision of me sitting in a restuarant called "the four seasons" and God told him "he has been seeking understanding of the seasons but tell him all the seasons are at once to me and I can move him from one to the other in any sequence that I like". Phew ! that was a surprise to me because my friend knew nothing about my blog or what the winter means to me.

I didn't feel it was a rebuke from God to say stop thinking about this rather I think it was a message about how God can work without regard to our circumstances. That is the amazing thing with God you can be in circumstances of need that should cause you to feel like you were in darkest winter but in fact you can experience the sunny warmth of his love in the midst of the darkest circumstances. King David understood this secret. I love Psalm 42 where he writes in verse 5-6:

5 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and 6 my God.

My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.

He knew how to praise God and lift his own soul. In verse 8 of Psalm 42 you read :

By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me—

I love the way he could praise his way out of Winter into Spring and find new hope even though his circumstances had not changed.

There is one time in David's life where he demonstrates this ability in a real life situation. He was living in exile in a city called Ziklag and some raiders ransacked the city and stole his men's wives and children. They were so distressed that they were talking about killing their leader. It says in 1 Samuel 30 v. 6 "But David found strength in the Lord his God". It doesn't say how he did it but I have a hunch it involved some singing. Any way he lifted his spirits and found the strength to chase after the raiders and get all their women and children back.

I so want to be someone who knows how to do that, to lift my own spirit so I can keep going by strengthening myself in the Lord. The race belongs not to the swift but to the persistant one who keeps going. The one who can find springtime in the midst of winter.

Really good prayer meetings take two hours

There are set times for cooking certain foods. Cook an egg in 7 minutes and its going to be hard boiled which is fine but if you like your eggs soft boiled 3-4 minutes is the maximum. Timing can be crucial and this post only applies to life in the western world and for that matter life in the UK. I can' t turn to any scirptural evidence for this assertion it is just one of those things I have observed over the years and hundreds of cases have proved it to be correct. I first noticed this during the 1980's and so for twenty years I have watched examples of this. I would be interested to know if it bears out in the USA. I have to say I have been in prayer meetings that lasted minutes when on the mission field that had the desired result. In particular on occassions in Russia where we had an urgent need we would pray and minutes later we would get the answer. But I don't think I have ever been in a prayer meeting that lasted less than two hours which was very good or even very effective. This observation may be crucial for churches all over the UK because often a church prayer meeting will be timed to last one and a half hours. The first half hour might be worship or chatting about where people are at. Then you get down to business and pray and that barely last an hour. Then you go home feeling like you have done yoru duty but boy was it hard work and you don't look forward with anticipation to the next meeting. Prayer is a chore. Something happens in the last half hour of a two hour prayer meeting. It takes an hour and half to break free from the earth's gravity. After that you begin to soar. I was reminded of this last week at a prayer group I am part of because I could see the same pattern repeating itself. The first half hour we chatted about the economic crisis, then we got down to work and the first hour was hard going. Then suddenly in the last half hour revelation began to flow. We received insights into things that had happened years before that were still dragging the church back. You had the sense that we were engaged in breakthrough prayers and as we prayed into these things faith rose that things would change as result of these prayers. If we had been asked to stay we probably would have stayed longer such was the thrill and excitement of it all. Years ago when I was a home group leader in the SW London vineyard I held a prayer meeting once a month in my apartment and I saw the same thing. People would roll up at different times in the evening from work and it would be slow getting the thing going but at the two hour point when they would continue that long suddenly it would take off. One time it was difficult to get the people to leave at the end of the evening , there was just one prayer request they wanted to make. I think they realised in their spirits that we had touched heaven and this atmosphere prayers would make a difference. Once they sensed that all kinds of things needed our prayer attention and we could very possibly have continuned through the night. If you can explain to me why this is I would love to hear your theories. All I know is in the UK it is futile having a prayer meeeting lasting less than two hours they simply don't work. But go that extra half hour and you break through to glory.

The Winter Season

I can tend to look forward to the Winter season with some trepidation as I seem to suffer somewhat from SAD and its not my most enjoyable time of the year. I think even people who aren't aware of it affecting them still suffer a loss of joy and enthusiasm. I don't know anyone in the UK who looks forward to the wet dreary weather that is so prevalent here from October onwards. That's what I used to love about the winters in Canada, no matter how cold it got you always had days of sunshine even in the middle of winter and the sun dancing on morning snows was just amazing. This year I am fighting back by God's grace and seeing the winter in a more positive light. We will do best in life if we learn to co-operate and make the most of the seasons we go through. I have friends with long term illnesses who are truly going through a winter season in their life. People like fishermen and farmers know how to make the most of the winters. Not just endure them but use them to prepare for the Spring season when suddenly there are opportunities to sow and even to reap an early harvest. BUT ONLY IF YOU ARE READY. Success belongs to those who prepare the best during the winter months. I am getting up earlier so I can pray longer and finding that I am more productive. I am seeking the high places in prayer so I can be best placed to sow and reap in the Spring season. I am paying attention to things in my heart that need to be put right which maybe I ignored over the summer because there was a sunny day to enjoy and things to do. I am going to make sure that I don't wear myself out in my day job but keep restful over the winter. I am taking a weeks holiday but not going anywhere but staying at home and resting except one day I am spending at a healing day. In fact I am taking advantage of several healing days allowing other ministries to minister to my heart spiritually and emotionally. I am using the winter months to take along hard look at how I have done this year and what I can do better next year. Where God has lead me this year , what I have learnt and what I need to do differently next year. I am cleaning my barns and mending my nets to use the farmer/fishermen analogy in the spirit. I am resisting the pressure to make major ife changing decisions and setting any course changes for fear that I will respond out of the dreariness of winter and take short cuts and give birth to Ishmaels. How does God want you to use this season so you can be most fruitful in the Spring ?? God bless you.