Hovering over the Gulf

With so many emails and prayer requests going out about the oil spill, about God judging the Gulf even the US, this painting from a friend came as a refreshing reminder of Father’s positive redemptive purposes for the Gulf. 

“I had the picture in my mind for a couple of weeks, but I wasn't real sure of the full meaning. I kept seeing Father waving His arms over the face of the deep. His glory shown all about Him and the ocean was very dark. As I began painting it, I remembered the prayer sent out from Mahesh. I had already been praying about the blood of Jesus redeeming the Gulf and it dawned on me the painting was our prayers.  With each stroke I could see the oil and the blood in the water. I felt the Father's breath on the water breathing life...until finally the water was redeemed to it's original state. The painting became a prophetic act of my...our agreement with the Father for His redemption of the Gulf.”

**Painting and story used with permission of artist. 

Jesus knows your phone number

The wife of a man in western Algeria became very sick. Her husband tried everything, taking her from doctor to doctor and nothing worked. He was advised to try sorcery, which also failed. One night he had a dream in which a man appeared to him and said, “You’ve tried everything but nothing has helped your wife get better. Only one man can help you and I will give you his number.” The man awoke and called to his son, “Hurry! Get me a pen and paper!” The son returned and his father quickly wrote the number down. Though the father had never had any contact with a Christian, the Holy Spirit gave him the number of Rachid, head of church planting and follow-up for OM Algeria. He called the number.

Rachid answered, having no clue who the man was, and listened to his story. Rachid answered, “I cannot help you but there is One who can, the Lord Jesus Christ.” He led the man to the Lord and his wife was soon healed. As of this writing, she was still opposing the gospel, but please pray that the Lord would open her heart

Leonard Ravenhill

“Such praying men are always our national benefactors. Elijah was such. He had heard a voice, seen a vision, tasted a power, measured an enemy, and with God as partner, wrought a victory. He knew the mind of God. Therefore he, one man, strangled a nation and altered the course of nature. By the key of faith, which fits every lock, Elijah locked heaven, pocketed the key, and made Ahab tremble. Though it is wonderful indeed when God lays hold of a man, earth can know one greater wonder—when a man lays hold of God.” Leonard Ravenhill

Healing service in the Middle East

While in the Middle East we were blessed to lead a healing service, the one where you invite all the sick people to come and after telling them how much Jesus loves them, you demonstrate His love by healing the sick... It was so much fun!

This one old lady from India kept coming up to me with different pains in her body. I would pray for her back and she would thank me and start crying and smiling, and then 10 min later come back with a pain in her leg or something. I think she just liked getting hugs and wanted someone to just love on her.  It was so precious. 

Two of the more extreme healings was of a man who had gone blind from diabetes. We prayed for him and after quote some time he started seeing a little, and then more and more. It was so awesome to see him recognize his wife and waiving at us when we waived at him. God is so good!

The other one was a older woman who had taken a 4 hour leave from the hospital where se was staying. She came in a wheelchair and still had the needle and tubes in her arms for medicine. Apparently she had tremendous pain in her legs and this was her last hope for healing. I was off praying for someone else and suddenly heard a big commotion behind me. Laughing, clapping and dancing - the old lady was the one dancing on the stage, Jesus had taken away all her pain and gave strength back to her legs!

My friend told me when God heals His people it’s because of our covenant, and when God heals people on streets or anywhere where there isn’t really any “faith”, it’s just pure grace - because He loves and because He is good. Our trip just made this so much more clearer for me.

Pete Craig

“For 30 years the church has been meeting to say 'Come Holy Spirit'. Maybe the Holy Spirit is now saying, 'Come holy people'. He's inviting us to a thousand new meeting places, where new sounds and sights burn the eyes and break the heart! Could it be that the Holy Spirit is weary of attending our meetings and hungers for our presence at His? Are you coming?"

How to respond to God's invitations

“Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, and Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshipped.” Exo 4:29-31

The progression: 

• signs and wonders helped them believe 
• they realized God was watching over them and was concerned about them
• they bowed down and worshipped

How many times is that the way we respond to a miracle? I just came back from the Middle East where one day, I went up to a young man and asked if he had any pain in his left wrist. A big smile came on his face and he said “yes, how did you know that?”. We explained to him that God had shown us about his pain, and that He wanted to take the pain away by healing his arm. The young man was amazed and allowed us to pray for him, and then God healed him! Then we told him that this was a sign of God’s goodness, and that God cared about him. We left him knowing that some other team members would be back to follow up with him. We praised God as we walked away.

I listened to some guys teaching over the weekend and he made reference to Luke 10, where Jesus sent out the 72 and when they came back they were so excited that even the demons submitted to them, but then how Jesus showed them what they really should be doing - worship God. The teacher said to do like this: after a great nights ministry, go home, go to the bathroom, open the toilet, sit down next to it. Now tell it exactly what happened that night, the highs, the lows, how you felt, the people that you met - everything. Then get up, close the toilet and leave the bathroom. That’s what a relationship is about - just being with the one you love. 

“Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” John 14:23

My wife and I just bought a house - we made a home together - and it was really interesting learning about our relationship. We are both pretty task focussed, and I praise God for our friends who told us - after you move in and get settled you’ll realize that you hardly know your spouse anymore. Between “stuff” it’s easy for relationship to take second place. Because of that wisdom, we stayed focussed on our relationship and came out stronger! In the end, “making a home together” has less to do with the place and getting through the to-do list, and more with “who” is making the home together and how is that relationship being grown. 

Turkey

• In Turkey, to be a Turk is to be a Muslim. Ask the Lord of the harvest to break down this presupposition and bring in a swell of people into the Kingdom of God! 
• The majority of Turkish provinces still have no believers. However, ads for a Bible correspondence course are allowed, as well as TV and radio programs.  Pray that many people in these remote areas would realize that the Lord is speaking to them through these programs.
• More than 40% of Turkey’s population is under the age of 21, yet there is little effort to reach youth.  Pray for a witness to students and for Turkish believing families to have an impact on families in their apartment buildings and neighborhoods.