Gill and I returned home on Sunday night tired but filled with gratitude to God for the great time of ministry in Christian Life Camps Bay, Cape Town. I must confess: I did not take photos of the church and/or leadership meetings, or even the Saturday quiet retreat! I just took pics of beautiful Camps Bay itself! Forgive my carnality!
On the first Sunday (15 April), and during the week, I taught on the call for every follower of Jesus to minister healing to others in the name of Jesus – what we call “equipping the saints.” This included me teaching the practical 5 step model of healing ministry. All those who came to this session practiced it with excitement and good feedback. For many, if not most in the congregation, it was a first to lay hands on people, and to see God work through them in ministering some measure of healing to others. Hopefully some will become really “hooked” on the joy and adventure of doing this Kingdom stuff … laying hands on anything that moves, speaking God’s words of healing by the power of the Holy Spirit!
This past Sunday morning (22 April) was a blast! I spoke on receiving healing in one or more of the six dimensions of human personality: spiritual healing, psycho-emotional healing from past hurts and bad memories, healing from demonizations, physical healing, relational healing, and healing of death and dying. Many people responded all over the congregation in both the 0800 and 0930 morning services. All we could do was general ministry to those who responded, with everyone else standing up and laying hands on them to impart God’s healing presence. It was really wonderful. There is NOTHING like the quiet moving of the Spirit, the pregnant presence of God that fills the atmosphere, with people crying softly, others trembling, and many being touched and freed up in all sorts of ways. There is NO substitute for God’s manifest presence. It cannot be engineered, manufactured, hyped, or pretended, just invited.
I didn’t send out a report after this trip because when Gill and I got back home one of my teeth became seriously infected. I’ve been through two weeks of the most terrible pain. The short story is that I had to have dental surgery to extract the tooth and to scrape the infection from the jawbone. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy!! Anyway, I’m now recovering and I want to share with you our experience to thank those of you who prayed for us – God answered powerfully!
Anointing with oil
When I wrote Doing Healing, Randy Clarke from the USA wrote an endorsement for the book. He was the guy God used to start “The Toronto Blessing” in the mid 1990s. He has since left pastoral work and has started an international ministry called Global Awakening, with Schools of the Supernatural in various places, to equip followers of Jesus to do Kingdom ministry in the power of the Spirit. He sent a team to South Africa to set up a GSSM. It started in February 2011, hosted by Harvest Church in Umhlanga Rocks, Durban. Randy is on record as saying in a number of places that, in his view, Doing Healing is the best book on healing out there! What a commendation! What an honour!
Alexander teaching
So he invited me to teach Doing Healing at GSSM SA, from the Wednesday to the Friday, about 10 hours of teaching and practice. We were hosted with such generosity and kindness – treated like royalty!! There were 12 students and 5 staff members and one or two guests who came for the lectures. What great fun! I so enjoyed having quality time to teach eager students and then to practice ministry – for them to receive and to learn ministry. I was totally in my element, realizing that working with committed disciples/students who are in a structured process of learning, is one of the best things I can do with my time and energy. There is a real sense of impartation that takes place over a few days of intense time together in worship, prayer, teaching, discussion, and ministry.
Students ministering
Gill thoroughly enjoyed the trip as well, also getting stuck in during ministry times. We prayed for many students with a good flow of the prophetic gifts of the Spirit – insight, knowledge, wisdom, healing, deliverance, etc. There were some really strong power encounters and manifestations of the Spirit. Gill and I came home filled with joy and gratitude to God for such an awesome privilege that we can do this for God’s people. And what lovely people we met! We are the richer for the whole experience. We say thanks to Rosanne for hosting us, and to the GSSM staff and students for an amazing time together. Perhaps the best way to communicate something of the experience is to include an email from the GSSM administrator with brief comments from the students:
Ministering the kingdom
Hi Alexander,
Here are some of the comments/testimonies our students had following your time with us!
He was naturally supernatural, real and sincere…that really spoke to my heart
His love and compassion just flowed
He demonstrated the Word with power and love
One of the things Alexander said that really impacted me was, “the whole of me is
the most important part of me.”
“The prayer over me really touched me…healed a memory from many years ago.”
He spoke truth into “closed” areas of my heart
I learned a lot about discernment too and to hear what God is saying to me
They were also encouraged by the prayers and declarations spoken over them. The two students who received deliverance thank you for your compassion during the process.
Things during this school year have naturally been building…one teaching has built upon previous teachings and our students are seeing how their foundations are being firmed and strengthened. Thank you and Gill both for being a part of this process. You are both treasures 🙂
Forgive me for repeating myself, but my reports are a means of feedback because of your prayers for me on these trips and ministry events. The older I grow and the longer I go in ministry, the more I am convinced that the intercessory prayers of God’s people makes many, if not most things possible. I am slowly losing my self-awareness and ‘fear of pride’ in asking people to pray for me. It is a desperate and intense spiritual battle out there – I know it firsthand – and I know your prayers make a difference. So you need know how things went!
I was in Ethiopia for the Easter weekend, leading an international “mission partnership” team of three of us: Noah Giteau, leader of the Kenyan Vineyards, and Svanhild Kjondal, pastor of Larvik Vineyard in Norway. The reason for our trip was to do leadership training for the local Vineyard pastors – how we see and do biblical leadership in the local church in relation to “translocal” ministry and leadership. This arose because of unresolved conflict between two senior leaders in Ethiopia; so our ultimate motivation was to mediate reconciliation.
It was an intense and exhausting trip with long meetings from morning till late evening – plus some really stressful emotional stuff. I understand what Paul means when he refers to the care of the churches weighing upon him. The training went well. It never ceases to amaze me, and challenge me, to see the hunger in Africa for God’s Word. There is definitely something envious about the humble and poor (of spirit) – people who live very simply and are close to the oral means of learning. They are so sincere and intent, listening for hours, asking questions, still wanting more! No “sound bites” or 10-minute sermons here! It is an awesome and humbling privilege to teach such people. There were about 20 leaders representing about 15 churches and plants in different parts of Ethiopia. On Easter Sunday I preached in a church plant in Addis Ababa and then enjoyed spicy Ethiopian food and amazing coffee from freshly roasted beans!
Some of the training participants
We had to prevail upon one of the leaders in the dispute to meet with the other for a reconciliation meeting as per Jesus’ instruction to not even worship if there is unresolved offense (Matthew 5:23-26). Eventually he agreed. It began well with apologies and forgiveness. Then things went horribly wrong! After 3 hours of intense discussion and appeals, because of the intractability of one of the leaders, there was no reconciliation and we had to withdraw our working relationship from him. His elders will meet and decide what they want to do regarding their pastor and ongoing relationship with us as his/their leaders – to push him back to reconcile with us or to withdraw from our leadership. So it ended in a sad mess. I felt like tearing my clothes and sorrowing with repentance for God’s intervention. Pray for the written report we have sent to those elders and the pastor concerned, and to the international leaders to whom we are accountable. God can turn this situation for good.
After lunch roasting coffee beans
I conclude with a few observations. To reconcile, no matter what the issue or who is at fault, requires humility – putting aside pride, power and position. If one party hardens their heart there is nothing one can do to mediate reconciliation until that person – and/or the Lord – softens their heart. Unresolved issues, conflict and division in relationships, is NOT caused by differences in beliefs or doctrine, or “personality clash”, or the many other reasons we tend to give. My experience and scripture tells me it is because of “carnality” – power, prejudice, “selfish ambition”, “vain conceit” (1Corinthians 3:1-4, Philippians 2:1-5f, 4:2-3). Jesus said people divorce because of “hardness of the heart” (Matthew 19:8).
Africans say that when leaders fight it is like dueling elephants that trample on the ants – it is the people that suffer. We see it in children when parents quarrel and quarrel, then get divorced. Psycho-emotional violence is far more damaging than the injuries inflicted by physical violence. The pain caused by unresolved stuff in human relationships looms larger than Mount Everest; it is more destructive than the tsunamis that devastated Indonesia and Japan. The need for reconciliation, for relational healing and health, for harmony and wholeness in community, is greater than ever before in my estimation. And what bliss (heaven on earth) when we experience Shalom – God’s peace, harmony and wellbeing – based on loving, right relationships, in families and in churches and society!
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