The trip started with a big surprise. I called the airline about 20 minutes before I had to leave for the airport to see if my upgrade to business class had come in (I had a certificate from a previous trip for an upgrade.) The person on the phone said, "Oh, your flight was cancelled." They wanted to schedule me for a flight that arrived late that evening... only the session that I was supposed to speak at started at 8:30 AM that day. It took over an hour to finally get the closest next best thing... to arrive at 9:30 AM, which meant I would not clear customs and get to the meeting until about 11:00 AM.. 2 and a half hours late for a conference for which I was the main speaker. Originally I had been on a non-stop and this one had a stop over in Chicago. It was one of the most crueling flights I'd ever been on in my life... all the toilets except for two in the back did not work, and I had an aisle right in front of the bathroom, so I had a constant parade of people on top of me. It was a totally full flight, every seat on the plane was occupied. I could go on with details about why the flight was so unpleasant, but suffice it to say that when I got off the plane, I was neither relaxed nor feeling very spiritual.
The flight from Chicago to London was not too bad. As I began to unwind and spend some time seeking God, He began to speak to me about the trip. I began to realize that He had big plans and that what I was experiencing was spiritual warfare. As the flight continued, I realized that I needed to throw away my teaching notes for the Wednesday sessions (meeting with the leadership and intercessors of the sponsoring church) and speak about what God was showing me.
I had telephoned Carolyn when I was still in San Francisco and let her know about the change in my flight. She was arriving at 8:00 AM and someone was going to pick her up and take her to the meeting, where she would fill in for me until I arrived. Some one else was supposed to pick me up about 10:00 AM after I cleared customs. As I got off the plane, I heard the Lord tell me that Carolyn would be meeting me at the airport... and I promptly discounted that as my imagination since I already knew the arrangements. I was to look for someone holding a sign that said Bookham Baptist Church. I was so intent in looking for the sign that I did not look at any people, I just read the signs. I was just finishing reading the last sign and discovering that no one was there to pick me up when I heard a familiar voice call my name. I turned and there was Carolyn, reaching out to give me a hello hug. She told me that I'd looked right at her a few times but I had not seen her because I was so intent on reading the signs. I suddenly realized it really had been God telling me that Carolyn would be meeting me at the airport, and sort of kicked myself for not listening to Him.
They took us straight from the airport to the meeting. The group had moved the meeting to start at 10:00 AM but still had an extended worship time as they waited for us to arrive. Carolyn and I introduced ourselves and then I spent an hour or so telling them what God had been speaking to me about on the plane. It was almost like prophesying, it just flowed out and God seemed to be controlling what I said and giving me lots more to share as I spoke. Everyone seemed to be relating to it well. We took a lunch break and then had a second session, in which Carolyn had a corporate word for them and after that we began ministering to some of the people there prophetically. It is probably an understatement to say "God showed up... big time!" but I can't think of any other words to describe what He did. He met and ministered to individuals and to the group as a whole.
After the afternoon meeting, we were taken to the places where we were to stay, and given about an hour and a half to unpack, nap, etc. Carolyn was to meet with the worship team and I was to speak at a joint kinship meeting in a neighboring community called Leatherhead. That meeting somehow got rearranged and became an intercession meeting for a new community outreach that they were launching, that involved a lot of different groups working together in unity and jointly investing funds into the project. We had a tour of the new facility and we had a wonderful time praying together corporately and in small groups. The jet lag was hitting and I found myself asking God why I was here at a prayer meeting instead of "home" sleeping? Then after the prayer finished the gathered their chairs into a very large circle and asked me to "say a few words," I opened my mouth and God began to fill it about His plans and strategies for this work, and to give encouragements to the people about how to best work with Him in fulfilling His plans and purposes for this work. The Lord can be very encouraging, and He certainly was. He seemed to breathe His life and encouragement into this group. Then Ian (the pastor of the Church that invited me out) closed in a very powerful prayer that tied everything together.
The Lord's anointing and energy had hit me when we first started the meeting, and I was not tired at all. But shortly after the meeting ended, the jet lag began to settle in. By this time, I had been up a total of 35 hours with only a short nap on the plane and a 20 minute nap at the house I was staying at.
I slept like a log and felt really refreshed the next morning.
Thursday started the "intermediate/advanced" prophetic conference. I did teaching and activations in the morning session and Carolyn did the same in the afternoon session. God showed up nicely on Thursday and the sessions seemed to go very well. In fact, we could see the power of moving in the groups as people sought the to hear God for each other in the activations.
By Friday morning, God had pretty much taken over the meetings. It started with a strong sense of His presence in the morning worship. Worship went longer than we originally scheduled. Then when I got up to begin teaching, God told me to change subjects and challenge each person to a commitment to His Lordship. I spent a little while explaining what that meant and how costly it could be.. because you give permission for God to break into any part of your life and take over anything He wants to .. including telling us how to spend our time or our money and we have to obey Him. The people responded to God's invitation and we again ended up in some sort of corporate worship and response time. I actually did not know how to handle it to the fullest, so I suspect I cut it off a bit awkwardly, but both God and the people were very gracious. God continued to show up with incredible power in the activation exercises. As I walked around the room, checking on the groups, I could see evidences of His presence/power all over the room. Some people were taking notes as their partner shared what they heard from God for them. Others were crying as they listened. Some where shaking under the power of God as their partners spoke His word to them. Now, I have seen this type of responses from people when a mature prophet is ministering in a meeting... but I have never seen this type of response and power in activation exercises before. A little before lunch, I put them into groups of 5 to practice building on each other's words. We did the activation and I dismissed the groups for lunch. But God was coming so powerfully in all of the groups that most of them just keep going.. many through a large portion of the lunch break.
Carolyn did a song of the Lord workshop that afternoon. She taught first and then we did an activation. It was supposed to be an "exercise" but God sort of took over the meeting and spoke to us as a group through the activations. I was holding the mic for people and Carolyn was pre-screening them. Time and time again the person would look at me and say "I can't do this" to which I would reply something like "God will do it through you." And time and time again the prophetic released in their songs was more powerful than you could imagine. This lead to a time of corporate intercession for the area as God revealed his heart for the area. One of God's themes was turning the hearts of the children to the parents and the hearts of the parents to their young, restoring families and fixing broken households. Somewhere in there the Lord began moving in my heart about how the USA was England's child.. sort of a rebellious teenager. So I repented before them on behalf of the USA and how we have forgotten the nation that we came, the nation that so many of our revivals sprang from, how we pursue our own concerns but don't care much about theirs. And I asked their forgiveness. One of the pastors at the conference repented back to us about how they wanted our resources but did not want us. It was surprisingly powerful. The Lord would fall on individuals as they stood and worshipped.. and we had bodies everywhere.. some shaking, some crying and some laughing. This was not a ministry time, but I felt prompted to walk around the room and lay hands on certain ones as God lead, and there was some sort of impartation that went forth. God definite came down and took over both the morning and afternoon sessions that Friday.
On Friday night we did some prophetic ministry and then we gave a call for a commitment to God's Lordship.. to a serious selling out to His will when it conflicted with our own, of laying our wills on the altar and being totally dedicated to His plans. It was a youth meeting, but there were also many adults from the conference present. To my surprise just about everyone came forward for this altar call, and some of them literally ran to the front. Carolyn and I moved among the people laying hands on them and praying for them and prophesying to some of them. The main focus was individual ministry time, and God seemed to minister to many. We had hoped to do more formal prophetic ministry (into the microphone for various individuals) after that altar call, but it took so long to pray for everyone that it just got too late. I did not have a real sense of how deeply God was working in people's hearts that evening until I began to hear reports the next day. A lot of people made very deep commitments to the Lord that night, laying their lives on the altar. And God met them individually in wonderful ways.
Saturday we did a basic level workshop on hearing God's voice. I did not get to teach nearly as much of the material as I wanted, because God sort of broke into the worship again.. and it went longer than we planned. In fact, God kept taking things over the whole conference and we were constantly having to adapt our plans and let Him have control. The Lord seemed to meet people powerfully in the individual activations (practice exercises) and you should have seen the delight on some of the people's faces as they realized that the were really hearing God speak to them. A great deal of powerful things happened in those one on one activations. God really showed up.
That evening Carolyn and I did some prophetic ministry and then Carolyn shared, as a teaching, a word the Lord had been giving her about NOW being the time where He is releasing healing, deliverance, evangelism and miracles on His people, for as many as want it. We had an altar call for those who wanted to come up and receive an impartation. The ministry time was simply explosive. I was too busy to keep track of what Carolyn was doing, but each time I would pray for someone, the power of God just exploded. Many were thrown back when I lightly touched their forehead. I had been thinking impartation prayer rather than ministry prayer, so I was unprepared and the first couple I prayed for went down so quickly and I was not even using a catcher. So I got a catcher and kept praying. It was literally bodies everywhere as God broke out on His people. At one point, Carolyn took the microphone and began praying over the people corporately. I continued moving through the crowd and praying for individuals. God's power was so extreme.. a few times I wondered how I was able to keep standing and ministering under this anointing.. I wanted to be on my face before almighty God. But I kept ministering to people and God kept meeting them. God's presence in the room was very tangible. I think ministry finally wound down about 12:30 or 1:00 AM.. and I had to be up early the next morning to speak at a church that was an hour drive away.
I did not get a whole lot of sleep because God was all over me in bed. I think I was shaking and crunching under the power most of the night. His presence was so real and so tangible.
Sunday morning Carolyn and I spoke at separate churches. We did not get "home" until it was almost time for the evening service. We were both feeling pretty tired and drained. The worship did not see as rich as the night before. The difference was that this evening's worship leader did not know how to respond when a song of the Lord was given. So instead of singing some response or building a theme from the "word", he would just play his guitar quietly for a few minutes and then move on to the next song. The Lord's power and presence did not seem to be nearly as tangible as the other nights, but it was still good worship.
I remember praying silently, "now Lord, You are going to show up tonight, right?"
I spoke on "tying it all together" and how God first had us make a deep commitment to His lordship and then how He released giftings and impartations on us once we made that commitment to Him, because He was equipping us. Then I shared how we have to grow up into the anointings and impartations, just like Jesus came as a child and grew up into ministry. I talked about how God will sometimes put us in the refiner's fire to help us get rid of the things that hold us back so we can go all the way with Him.
Carolyn and I prophesied to some people and then Carolyn had some words of knowledge for healings. We asked those who were responding to words to come up front and form a line. Then we had those who felt they had an impartation for healing to come up and pray for them. We had several people report experiencing God's power or a sense of God's presence as they were prayed for, heat, tingling, etc. We had one lady who had a lump that dissolved and went away as two people prayed for her.
Then I invited those who had not been there before to come up for an impartation and those who got prayed for before and wanted more to come up for a second dose of prayer and impartation. Pretty much the whole room came forward. Carolyn and I began praying for individuals and sure enough, God showed up just like He had the night before. The pastors and staff from the sponsoring church also joined us in ministering. God's presence and power and anointing flowed during the ministry time and He seemed to meet everyone who came for prayer. Again we had bodies everywhere and God moving on His people. I believe that the Lord did a lot of impartation during this time.
We had Monday day off to go sightseeing. We had a picnic lunch and then took a boat to Hampton Court. It was great fun. Somewhere in there, I lost my purse, which contained my passport and a fair amount of money. I had a total peace, and I knew God had taken care of it. I also knew that I had better go find it. So I told the others my purse was missing and we backtracked a bit to look for it. It was not in the lady's room, where I think I lost it. It was not where we went upon getting out of there. So I asked a security guard where the lost-and-found was. He checked on his radio to see if they had found it. Carolyn was very worried about my purse.. but I was not worried. God's peace saturated me and I knew I would be getting it back. When we got to lost and found, they had my purse waiting for me, with all of it's contents intact. That was just a demonstration to me of how well God takes care of me.
We went to Ian's house for authentic British fish and chips.. they were yummy. After that, we went back to church for one final meeting. The thing that was different about this meeting was that Carolyn and I were not running it.. it was a "transfer of anointing" type meeting.. were we got to see the local people move in the same power and anointing that Carolyn and I had moved in. God released some words during worship and the theme seemed to be about raising up missionaries to send out from here to the nations. The more God spoke, the more the people responded and the more they responded, the more tangibly God showed up. We ended up having a break out, no holes barred, worship celebration. At one point it turned into a victory march and we began to march around the church, waving banners and flags and celebrating and worshipping. We were prophetically acting out what God told Joshua, that were ever our feet trod, He will give us that ground.
The group began praying for one nation, following through on God's earlier theme of sending us to the nations. I had been moving throughout the room and praying for individuals as I felt led. There was one fellow sitting way in the back on a bench behind the sound booth. He seemed to cringe and shrink back every time I got in his vicinity. The Lord prompted me to go up to him and talk to him. He is a born-again catholic believer, but not real mature in the Lord. He has been suffering from some bondages and besetting sins and every time I'd get near him, he'd feel horribly guilty. So I ministered to him a bit.. had him repent and then pray an authority prayer to get rid of the demon that was tormenting him. By now they started the victory march. He was amazed because the demon left when he commanded it to. I told him that he'd just used his authority in Christ to rebuke that troublesome spirit and that he could do so again if the spirit tried to come back. You should have seen his face light up when he realized that he had authority in Christ. After that, I asked him if he was ready to join the victory march now. He said "yes" and jumped in.
When we finished marching (I think they went around the church about 3 times), it broke into a wild celebration .. there was a sense of open heaven. It was like the worship had driven away any enemy opposition against this meeting. God's presence was very tangible and He often comes in response to people's worship and praise.
After that died down a bit, they called Carolyn and I up and laid hands on us and had some people prophesy to us. Then Ian, the sponsoring pastor began to speak a word over us. He spoke about God using us together as a team again in the future, and spoke of a threefold cord (which both Carolyn and I understood the third person to be Jim, her husband and my mentor). Then he began to share how this church was the same church that John Wesley last preached in just before he died and how God was placing John Wesley's mantle on Carolyn and myself. Up to that point, Carolyn and I had been standing next to each other holding hands. But when Ian said that Wesley's mantle was falling to us, the power of God just exploded on both of us. I ended on the floor shaking under the power for a while. I have not idea what happened with Carolyn because I was "otherwise occupied."
Just before I got up, the Lord began to give me instructions for the ministry time. I was to have those who had received an impartation from God on Saturday or Sunday nights be the ministry team and pray for each other in the same power and anointing that Carolyn and I ministered in. I explained this to the group after I got up, and then turned them loose. Carolyn felt led to go to the piano and sing prophetic songs over them as they ministered. I walked around the room and put my hands on those ministering and silently prayed impartation for them. The God told me to turn this into an "activation" and move among them helping them learn to pray more effectively. So I would approach someone who was ministering, watch what they were doing, offer suggestions and watch the power level go up. The most common problem I noticed was that they were praying so quietly that the person being prayed for could not hear what was being prayed. I was hoping to see the same level of explosive power that we had seen on Saturday and Sunday night. It was not quite that strong, but God was clearly in the room and many people were being ministered to and met by God.
Just before the ministry time ended, God began to speak to me about how pleased He was with His children there and how it delighted Him to have them ministering to each other in His power and anointing. I believe that God has left a real impartation in these people and this area. It will grow and develop over time, and one of these days, people are going to be talking about what God is doing in Bookham, because God has started something big here. It was fun to come and be a small part of what He is doing there.
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