Who is this Jesus?

In Matthew 8:23-27 Jesus was asleep, a storm arose, so the disciples woke Him saying, 'Don't you care, we're going to die! It's the end of the world...' Jesus got up, bound the storm, the winds stopped, the boat was safe, nobody died. When these strong fishermen saw the demonstration of the power that this Man had over the elements, they said, 'What kind of Man do we have in the boat?' Just as Jesus was in the middle of that storm on Galilee, today, wherever, whenever there is a crisis, a tragedy, sickness, sin, fear or pain in your life, Jesus is always there!

God is saying to you, Jesus is the only one who can deliver! He wants to reach out to you! You need to find Him, not just for your miracle of healing, but to be set free, delivered from that sin, that problem you cannot get rid of. The drug addict, the alcoholic cannot deliver themselves. You cannot break free - until you have the faith and the courage to step out of your sickness, step out of your sin and come to Jesus! You say, "I cannot see Him!" I will admit, the greater your pain the harder it is to see Jesus. The bigger your sin, the greater your shame, the harder it is to find Him. It's like darkness, you cannot see Him. I have never seen Jesus, but He found me! If you will leave your sin and your sickness and have the courage and the faith to step out in your darkness, you will find new life and new strength. I KNOW what will happen, in that moment of faith Jesus becomes closer to you than ever before! He breaks the barrier of distance, He comes directly to you.

Listen to today's podcast: Who is Jesus?

The Gift of Faith

We all accept the need of faith in our lives especially as without it we cannot be saved, but the kind of faith which moves mountains is different. It is a real gift (see the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12), but also it is demonstrably necessary to those who are called into service. It must be a vital part of our experience if we are to engage in spiritual warfare. The believer who has not yet moved a 'mountain', has not yet begun the real task of the ministry because Jesus went on to say that 'nothing is impossible'.

So often we are limited by our faith and our inability to believe God. How often are we within sight of everything we are desiring, often with earnest prayer and with the clear knowledge that God HAS promised... yet that final step is not taken, we don't go in and possess the land. It occurs in the realms of healing, finance, evangelism and missions, possibly even revival, certainly in most areas of our lives, and especially our service for God.

Believer YOU are so near to the fulfilment in your own life! Why look at the problems which make the fulfilment impossible? Look at Him and then go in and claim the land! Begin to act in the power and authority of your faith. So many times I have had to face the impossible and seen God move in power, and I challenge you to begin to do it yourself!

Listen to today's podcast: FAITH

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The Latter Rain

Through the prophet Joel, God says, 'I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh...' He goes on to talk about the first and the latter rain. I believe that the first rain fell 2000 years ago on the Day of Pentecost, and that today we are living in the days of the latter rain. As a young man I was determined I would have an experience with God that was incorruptible, that could not be destroyed, that would last until the appearing of Christ! In the late 1950s, I heard that the first World Pentecostal Conference in Jerusalem would be held on the Day of Pentecost, in May 1961. - I was determined to be there to receive a new baptism of fire! My Bible says that the church of God began in fire on the Day of Pentecost, and the church will end in fire when Christ returns!

When I got there I was so disappointed. I had gone for only one reason: to be in Jerusalem believing God would send another Pentecost. There were 3000 in the conference: 2999 tourists, and me! Nothing happened, nobody laid their hands on me, I didn't fall over, I didn't feel any power, nothing. I had done everything to be there, spent two years organising, in order to meet with God, and nothing, absolutely nothing happened! And I came home.

Exactly forty years later, May 2001, I was again in Jerusalem in the same hall, this time to evangelise! Before it started I spent days walking round the hall praying and crying to God, "40 years ago I was so hungry, so determined to receive new power from the Holy Ghost, but You didn't do anything! I didn't receive the new fire! What was wrong?"

God answered me, "Forty years ago, after you came here, what happened?" I said, "My whole life changed!" I became a missionary to Israel, coming up to eight times a year, bringing tourists. In order to get to Jerusalem I had to go behind the Iron Curtain, through the communist countries, and God opened my eyes. I made contact with believers, people were pleading with me for Bibles and God began to put a new power in my life. I thought my ministry was just Israel, but God said no, it's with the Russian speaking peoples.

My real experiences with God have never been in a church, or in a conference - not even in Jerusalem, although Jerusalem changed my whole life. It was first in my teenage cry for God - then in my throat cancer - then in my prison that I found God. What will it be next time, what will happen this year? I still don't have enough power, I'm still not satisfied that God has answered me fully, what will it be next? All I know is that it is step by step, and I have not reached the end of the road yet.

Listen to today's podcast: PENTECOST

The Holy Spirit

We need to be changed and transformed by the Holy Spirit. When I first travelled to Ukraine they used to get their milk delivered not in a carton, but in a large container on the back of a carriage. When the housewives saw the man in the street with the milk, they didn't take the first jug they saw in the kitchen which was half full of dirty water, no, they took out a clean empty jug. It is the same principle with the Holy Spirit. We need to be emptied of ourselves so that we can be filled with the Holy Spirit! Our prayer needs to be: 'Lord change me now, not in part but the whole, Jesus touch me once again, as Your Spirit flows over me.'

The revolution when you receive the Holy Spirit has to be life-transforming. In the Acts of the Apostles, the disciples received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, instantly they were no longer frightened and ineffective, but filled with boldness and fire! That's what we need today in our lives and in the church - a new boldness, a new authority, a new power.

This baptism is not just an anointing or a feeling or an emotional experience - it has to be a complete life-changing miracle: it will change your thinking, habits, relationships for the better; it is a complete physical and spiritual change.

'The Spirit of the Lord will come powerfully upon you, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person.' (1 Samuel 10:6, NIV)

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Do Exploits!

'EXPLOITS'! Do we as Christians really understand what this means? German and Russian and Danish translations don't put it strongly enough! It's watered down! Daniel, the exiled Jewish refugee in Babylon, is the prophet best known for his end-time prophecies, from the translation of Nebuchadnezzar's Image to the prophetic visions of the works of the devil, and all the demonic things that are going to happen before the end of the age and the return of Christ. While many would debate the complexities of the visions and their time-scale, here, by the Holy Spirit, the man who is talking so much about all this evil, issues a direct challenge to the Church! He says, 'BUT - in these evil days that are coming - the people who KNOW their God won't be weak! They won't be defeated! They'll be on FIRE! And they are going to do EXPLOITS!' Miracles? I don't know what your Bible translation says, but I KNOW what God is saying! EXPLOITS are things other people can't or don't do! If you're going to do an EXPLOIT, it's something that your friends don't do, something that even the Church doesn't do, something that other pastors, other evangelists don't do. It's going to be something bigger, more powerful!

You can't do EXPLOITS unless you KNOW the power your God has! I have such battles with Christians over the question of belief! I have experienced God doing things that were impossible in my own life - so many times - that to me He has become the God of the impossible! From experience I can say, "With God ALL things are possible, everything He does is a miracle!" What kind of a 'God' do you have? The only limitation God has is our belief in His power - He can do ANYTHING we ask and believe He can do!! Mark 11:23-4. My God's power is totally UNLIMITED - because I KNOW who He really is!

Listen to today's podcast: DO EXPLOITS!