Fighting Fire with Fire

Revival is here, it is unstoppable! Across the city of East London, and across South Africa we have begun to hear stories of God visiting his people in a new and fresh way. It is not just in one church or stream, there is no one church that can claim a monopoly, in fact the greatest stories appear to be coming from ordinary Christians, not the famous pulpit personalities of our day. It is “The day of the Saints” and the pace is accelerating.

Almost exactly two years ago Alice, my God-daughter, lay in hospital fighting for her life. The doctors feared the worst and began to prepare her parents. They believed that at best Alice would survive disabled for life no one had ever completely recovered from this disease however they realised they were losing the battle for her life. This beautiful, vivacious fourteen year old was lying in bed, she couldn’t move below her chest, she could no longer swallow more than a little water and was unconscious most of the time. The grim faces of the doctors inspired little hope.Colin-one of our leaders, Victoria-Alice’s mother, and I gathered around her bed and laid hands on her praying for a miracle. As soon as we did something changed, a tangible presence filled the atmosphere, it felt like someone else had entered the room. The Score changed! I heard myself say to her mother “Alice is healed, she just needs to recover!” Only later would I realise how accurate those words were. Doctors were able to trace the course of the disease in her body and found that in the nick of time, amazingly, the virus had died right across her body. It had been searing it’s way up and through her spinal column and if it had gone a little higher it would have shut down her heart, if it had burned through a little more it would have severed her spinal cord leaving her paralyzed, as it was it just suddenly died! Later her father asked the docs when it had halted. Some time on Thursday afternoon came the reply. We had prayed at 2 o’clock. Over the next few weeks and months, displaying great courage, Alice fought her way back from the brink of death. months later her father sat with one of her doctors who remarked “We call Alice our miracle child” her father replied “I know she is a miracle, but why do you say so?” “Because no one that we know of has ever recovered completely from this disease, one third of patients die, one third are severely disabled and the rest have at least partial handicaps for life. Alice is a miracle! “

To mark the anniversary of her miracle the young woman who was not supposed to walk again just completed a gruelling 18 day trip hiking, canoeing and cycling down the fish river. Not bad for a girl who was never going to walk again!
Since that first break through we have seen hundreds of healings ranging from headaches and back pain healed to deaf ears opened,legs growing out, blood diseases disappearing. Not only that but the manifest presence of God has been increasing in our services and in our “soaking” services that we had grown used to seeing the strangest things. People staggering as if drunk, a room full of people laughing, shaking, crying, rolling and even dancing as they encounter God in a tangible way. Last week one of our pastors had to be driven home after church she was so overcome by God’s presence, she was literally drunk on his love. People have seen visions of angels, had gold dust appear on them, people have been saved, restored, empowered and encouraged. Across South Africa testimonies are increasing of miracles signs and wonders.

Next week we are holding our supernatural family week, a conference designed to “Raise a generation of Superheroes” We aim to teach children how to live in encounter with God, to prophesy, to heal the sick and to do signs and wonders. It is going to be explosive. The angels are gathering in East London for the release of wildfire.
This is what I meditate on as personally my wife and I face one of the greatest trials of our lives. It seems from scans that the baby we are expecting shows signs that seem to indicate that there is a high risk of some sort of “chromosomal abnormality” -something like Downs syndrome. God is birthing something new in South Africa, and he is raising children to do it, the enemy wants to kill or twist what God is birthing. So I am listening for his voice…and I hear him in the silence saying “Hold the course , Son! Hold the course!”

So as we believe for your kids, please be praying for my little one, because this is what I believe;