Hi folks, this is an email I had this morning from one of our elders. I thought you might enjoy it?

 It goes:

 

"Hi Mike,

 

I thought I should let you know what has been happening up our way, recently.  

 

Travelling home from my recent visit to Cwmbran and your wonderful hospitality, I had a wonderful time of fellowship with the Lord, fuelled in part by our conversation, all of which set me up for our Healing Service that afternoon.  

 

We had a lovely afternoon during which one 80+ lady, who has been coming to our services for several months, gave testimony to the healing of her leg.  She had been experiencing pain in her knee for several years and has medication for pain relief but during the previous week it had become unbearable.  

 

Over a period of 24hrs or more she had had no relief, despite her medication and finally slumped down on her bed in tears and cried out to the Lord.  Instantly the pain left her.  

 

I have seen her several times since then, including at this afternoon's meeting and each time she has declared, "no pain, Praise the Lord."  Her testimony has really inspired the group and

we had another lovely meeting this afternoon, listening to one of your recorded talks from the last Llangasty course in March, this year.

 

I have also received a phone call from a lady called Iris, who I have had regular contact with over some months now, as her son has been battling brain tumours for 12 years. Things had got particularly bad as he was having frequent seizures, but a recent scan showed that the tumours had not grown as would have been expected and that his bloods were so good that he could take another two courses of chemotherapy.  

 

This sounds small mercies, except that after 12 years this young man, a strong Christian, had begun to give up hope.  

 

His mother has been believing for a miracle for all this time.  Since our contact, she has been praying and giving thanks as you have taught us.  She was delighted, just before the last scan, that the seizures stopped for a few days and that that, combined with the lack of growth and the fresh treatment, has given Ian back his hope."

 

That's it, folks! That's why I'm in this Ministry of the Cross. It's all the glory and thanksgiving flowing heavenward that turns me on!

Jesus Christ has a passion for the healing of the sick and I have a passion to stand with him while he does it.

 

I remain grateful to the medical profession for all that it does for us and I recognize that science was invented by God, but I ache as a Christian for those who suffer. Great leaps forward in medical science have been granted to us in recent years. God reveals to his people his creative and re-creative power. But I have a strong sense that there is a mountain of healing blessing available which could be missed if the church fails to focus on the power of the cross.

 

We thank God for the contributions made to the body of Christ by faithful leaders and teachers in the Church's ministry of healing evangelism, who point us to the word of God and encourage us to receive from him, according to his covenant promises, in the power of the Holy Spirit; but there is much to do. The well-known leaders are not called to do it all, and we need all hands on deck! So this book, The Passion to Heal, is written for those countless thousands of faithful men and women whose names are never in print, and whose faces are never seen in the church newspapers or on Christian television, whose quiet and unsophisticated toil in prayer bears fruit in the kingdom of God, and who want to see works of the kingdom of such magnitude that Jesus is glorified by everyone who comes to him. 

 

The so-called 'ordinary' Christian, who will not be singled out for any honour or attention, and is often hungry to see more spiritual fruit—more people coming to a personal knowledge of God, more people healed—is the one who can play a key role under God.

 

We tend to believe that effective Christian lives are not lived in the context of the ordinary, and yet the opposite is true. We sometimes focus too much on the high profile Christian—the writer; the person with the 'platform' ministry—and forget that 'great' Christian lives are only those which are subservient to the word of God. 

 

Jesus said to his disciples, "You are my friends if you do what I command" (John 15:14), and that obedience to him is what matters and makes the difference. Countless saints who started out along their road with Christ in quite ordinary ways are now numbered among the 'greats', and this only because of their obedience to God. 

 

The early disciples were simply ordinary people who became extraordinary because they fell into God's will for their lives. It really is the 'ordinary' people of the church who carry on the work of the gospel. We may think, quite wrongly, that our lives are much too ordinary for us to be effective in God's service, as we cope with jobs that may be less than exciting; our mortgages, and so many family and household needs, but the truth is that it is for us, in the midst of our everyday life, to heal the sick and to tell people that the kingdom of God has come near to them.

 

There is a great deal to do, and we should know what we are doing. We have to be about the business of the kingdom, but we should know our business and know it well. What most matters, though, is our relating to—and opening ourselves up to—our extraordinary God. He is capable of doing more for us than we could dream of, and longs to show us even greater things if we will work with him. How do we do that? Can we see greater things?

 

The Passion to heal – Revd Mike Endicott. Published by Terra Nova Publications Limited 2002

See the book at:

http://shshop.practiceinabox.co.uk/index.php?page=shop.browse&category_id=9&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1

Sharing an email with you –

Hello again Mike,

 

I am old enough to have spent years ('off and on'!) reading all the wonderful promises Jesus made, reading about all the 'happenings' in Acts, attending churches considered to be 'lively' and 'spiritual' and looking around me and wondering about the stuff that wasn't happening - motivated (among other things I hope!) by my own need and strong desire for healing!

 

Your recordings (not only the CD but I have been to www.simplyhealing.org

and downloaded other recordings - thank you!)

 

They preach and teach all the stuff I have been thinking and wondering about all these years!

Thank you for some answers!

 

Mike's Meds - Pictures of Jesus

 

This is mark 9 on the question of prayer.

 

"After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, "Why couldn't we drive it out?"

He replied, "This kind can come out only by prayer." (NIV)

 

Some other translations have 'prayer and fasting'.

 

We must not for one moment suggest that all sick folk are demonised, heaven forbid! But there is a general point here worth making about effective kingdom healing. After all, the disciples were concerned about the effectiveness of their ministry.

 

The last word here, 'prayer', is most interesting. There are a number of words for 'Prayer' in the Greek and this is a very particular one. The Greek word used here comes from a putting together of two other Greek words: The second one is the word for prayer which is normally understood by Christians, that is something like, "Oh God, please.....Amen" and its derivatives. There's nothing wrong with that.

 

But the first part of the Greek word here is a very strong word for closeness. It means to haul in tight to you. The two words are then put together and are used here in a way we have not been properly explaining out of our own ignorance. They are a very strong hauling close of the kingdom, or of the king, in order to achieve a kingdom work.

 

How do I do that? The answer is not in the words used, it lies in worship and thanksgiving and meditation. What picture should we meditate on?

 

I enjoy the scene at the beginning of Revelation where the Jesus of today appears to John. The emphasis of the picture being painted is that this is of the Jesus of today. This is how he is, now. Worth reading again! It shows him with fire, like the sun. It shows him standing patiently among the lamp stands, holding the spirits of the church in his hand. The lamp stands are the churches around us today.

 

Two things always strike me: these are lamp stands, not ready-glowing lamps. They are out. They do not serve him as they are not alight. And he holds in his hand the spirits of the churches so he could light them if he wanted to. But he himself is the light. The scene has a great air of patience, as he waits for us.

 

Jesus is waiting for the church.

 

I like to meditate on the fact that this is still the patient Jesus today. He did not appear to John because John knew some religious trick or other to persuade him onto the island. He was there all the time.

 

What has happened is that, through thanksgiving and worship and meditation, John has opened himself up to seeing something which was right up close behind him all along.

 

And it is thus with the kingdom of God. It is here right alongside us and right alongside the person who longs for restoration.

 

We must strongly indulge in 'prayer' as the Greek word has it in Mark 9 above. When we give thanks and worship and meditate on the king and his kingdom and the cross and all the rest that we do, we should meditate on his nearness, knowing all that we do about his true character, and hold a picture of him in our minds of how he is today.

 

We often use, in teaching kingdom dynamics, the analogy of the car aerial and its effect. When a supplicant's faith aerial rises it has exactly the same effect as opening a door in that person to allow the kingdom into whatever part of life is in need of it. I am suggesting that meditation and worship and thanksgiving should raise our aerials, and put into the Christian's mind a picture of Christ today, the only reliable picture I know being the one in Revelation. And here it is:

 

"I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord's Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: "Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea."

I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone "like a son of man," dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

"Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches."

Revelation 1:9 – 20 (NIV)

 

Our King waits patiently for us among the churches. Is he truly filled with power and authority? Is he waiting for me?

 

 

Every blessing

 

Mike

 

-------------------------------------

 

Revd Mike Endicott
Director: Order of Jacob's Well

 

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Twitter feed link:

 

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International Resources for you:

 

www.simplyhealing.org
and
www.jacobswell.org.uk

 

Special Resources web for USA, Canada

 

www.mike-endicott.com