Intimacy and our true identity are inextricably linked.

We each have a God given need to be connected and that need is seen visibly today with Smart phones, Facebook and Twitter giving us instant access to friends and family, work and the world.

I love to connect with people and so make use of all three but I like to connect at a depth and prefer to actually be with someone. Quality time, touch and words are my main love languages.

Face-to-Face encounters are at risk of being hijacked. I saw a humorous yet sad reminder of this. Two people out for a coffee and one says to the other “Would you mind me strapping your iphone to my head so that at least I can pretend you are looking at me and listening to me when I am talking to you?”

But our real need is to be connected with our Father

We were made for intimacy. It’s no surprise therefore that the enemy does everything to distract us from connecting with God by leading us to find satisfaction in lesser affections.

When I first heard the phrase “Intimacy with God”, it attracted me but at the same time was quite foreign. I thought it was an experience for people who set themselves apart for God like mystics or at least those who were very mature believers.

But I’ve come to see it is for every follower and friend of Jesus. It's what our Sonship is all about. We were made for relationship and to know intimate connection with our Father. Intimacy and our true identity are inextricably linked.

Paul writes in Ephesians 1

‘I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him’

And in Psalm 139

‘O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me, your knowledge of me is too wonderful’.

So why when I know this do I allow other things to get in the way whilst all the time having an ache to connect more deeply with my Father. When I remember those times of connection I have experienced I long for more of the same and even greater.

Like David who said, “my flesh yearns for you”, there can be a physical ache for more of Him.

I love how it’s my Father who is pursuing me and even in my battle with distractions he knows how to get my attention because he knows the way I will recognise his voice. Jesus said, “I am the good Shepherd. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me”

When this happens its like he is wooing us to intimacy. In such moments we are spoilt for anything less.

So it doesn’t come from trying harder or being more disciplined to spend more time with him although a discipline is involved but most of all it is responding to his invitations to keep coming aside with him.

He knows us inside and out and loves us more than we can comprehend.

When I realise the voice of my Father calling to me I want to run to him and respond,

There are times when I read his word and I know its true and there are times when its as though he is right there speaking to me and in those moments I feel such a deep connection with Him and my heart is aroused with intimacy because he is so near.

Just this week He spoke in several ways that got my attention.

A few days ago I was deeply impacted by the funeral of a lady who played a significant part in my life when I first became a Christian. 40 plus years ago she and her husband ‘adopted me into their family’ and loved me in such a way that it led me to ask the question. What did they have that I didn’t?

This lady and her husband had been missionaries in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania since the early 50’s and with their 6 children had experienced trials and challenges not unlike that of Paul in Acts. Close to death, storms, fires, hardships and going without yet always praising and giving thanks to God. As I sat in the service being reminded of the simple gospel that this lady had displayed right to the end I was moved to tears and provoked by the legacy she had left to her family and so many more who had encountered her example. She was described as a prayer warrior, a strong woman, like Deborah, a mother in Israel and someone who had finished the race well.

I knew God was speaking to me through her example….

The following day I read this paragraph in a book by Paul Manwaring “What on Earth is Glory’

‘We mustn’t waste our victories. Each one of them has given us a key to access heaven and bring it to earth in our lives and in the lives of others. Wise stewards don’t simply walk around with the keys, wherever they have access they are about their master’s business’

Again I knew God was speaking to me…

The next day as I was reading the word I read this verse in 2 Tim 2:4

Preach the word in season and out of season…As for you always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry.

This verse God has highlighted to me before in a very personal way and so I definitely knew God was speaking to me. This connection with the Father created an intimacy that led me to act from a place of identity.

It led me to speak to my sister in law the next day. After praying first in my room I decided to ask her at breakfast if she would consider going on an Alpha Course. She has always laughed at our attempts to win her but this time she admitted she had been thinking more about it lately and that an 80-year-old friend of hers had even offered to go with her. I then got to pray for her painful knee and she experienced heat, a lessening of pain and increased mobility. She got to experience God loving her.

My identity is first as a daughter much loved but I am also called to be an evangelist and created to live supernaturally. I had heard the encouragement of my Father saying... Go Claire!

Treasure Seeking

 I was really provoked by this quote from a book I am reading…

'Beholding the glory of the Lord in the face of Christ involves the discipline of beholding Christ in the faces of one another. 2 Cor 5:16

We must learn to say of the people we meet what Mother Theresa said of the poor she served: “Each one of them is Jesus in disguise” for as we learn to see Christ reflected in the faces of one another we begin to use the measure He used in honouring us to honour one another. This creates a flow of life, a flow of grace which brings what is unseen to the surface in our lives and closes the gap between earth and heaven' What on Earth is Glory by Paul Manwaring

Christ has shown us the highest honour through dying in our place and giving himself completely for us

In the same measure, he has called us to honour one another as though they were Christ himself.

It got me thinking that when I meet people who don’t yet know Jesus I am struck by how many of God’s attributes I see in them despite them living a life separate from him.

I didn’t always see people this way or notice this but I should not be surprised for God created and redeemed us all to display his glory. We are all uniquely and beautifully made, we all have a God given calling and destiny, and we are all loved by Him in the same measure. The only difference between a follower of Jesus and someone not yet following him is whether or not their spirit has been made alive in Christ.

A while ago I got speaking to a lady in a cafe who had come in for her lunch break and who asked if she could join me at my table.

As we talked she told me she was in marketing and how she had been part of ‘the hard-nosed corporate world’ as she described it but how she had left that because she wanted to make a difference and was setting up her own marketing business and website to help people.

I was struck in that moment how she was displaying God’s heart of compassion, of generosity and how she was without realizing it connecting with the God who had made her. Up to this point in the conversation, I had not referred to God at all but as I began to affirm and encourage her I saw tears in her eyes. I told her that the compassion she felt came from God who had made her and who wanted her to know Him. This led on' to what she did and didn’t believe and how she saw herself as a Buddhist but I know she was impacted by what I'd said.

Another example, just last week Tony and I went out into Bedford to see who we might meet and share God’s love with. We met a guy who was manning the AA Breakdown stand in the Town Centre. Sadly he was very adamant about being an atheist but what stood out to us both was his compassion and faithfulness as a father and husband caring long term for his wife who had been on dialysis since she was born. She was currently sick and waiting for a donor. Through talking to him we learned he was getting up very early doing everything for his wife and their children, travelling a distance to work and then to return in the evening to do the same and all with apparent cheerfulness and devotion. We were able to encourage him for the husband and father he was and call out the greatness in him.

Just today in Costas a small team of us were meeting and we got to speak with and encourage two of the senior staff there. I was struck again by the vision, passion and wisdom they were carrying in the way they were relating to and training their staff and how motivated they were by these values that were based on encouragement and seeing the best in people.

Now you could be thinking are we not then just encouraging ‘good works’ when Jesus said it is not by your good works that you will inherit the Kingdom of God? No, I believe it is showing honour to those who God has made to be like him and helping them to connect with who he is and who desires relationship with them.

As we love and honour people we will see the treasure in them.

Releasing the Kingdom

Isaiah 61 reminds us of what God has anointed us for, what we were called for, our job description if you like… which is proclaiming the Kingdom wherever we go. We get to bring good news to the poor.

When people are in despair we get to release hope, when people are sick or broken we get to bring healing. When people are anxious and distressed we get to bring peace…

Basically we get to deliver the good stuff…because God is good ALL THE TIME and he wants people to know him.

This morning a few of us were in the town looking for ways to love people and show them the goodness of God.

Tony and I said hello to Brian who was sitting on a seat and asked if he was doing ok.

This led to us sitting with him and just being interested in him and his day.

He straightaway told us he was trying to avoid someone who wasn’t being kind to him and he was anxious. We showed him love and acceptance and he relaxed and seemed more peaceful.

After a little while we asked him the question ‘If God could do a miracle in your life, what would you ask him for?’ His answer was “to give him a new life and new friends”

We told him Jesus had come to give him a new life and that he had died on the cross to make that possible. Brian knew some of the story of why Jesus had come and we told him some more and then got to pray for him to know the love of Jesus for himself. He told us he would like to come to church. He kept calling us his friends and repeating our names and asked if we would chat to him again. We gave him an invite to the Kings Arms.

One of our other friends met a young Romanian man who approached her on the street for help in finding his way to an appointment. She quickly realised he was in the wrong town and wouldn’t make it there in time. She offered to ring for him and explain why he would be late and to rearrange it for him for the following week. She also got to thank the person on the other end of the phone and tell them how amazing they were. She could tell the employee didn’t often get encouraged in that way

Another friend met a girl she had met the street before. The girl asked for prayer to help her stop drinking and my friend got to pray for her and to buy her a coffee and a jumper because she was cold.

There are so many ways we get to bring the kingdom. Jesus knows exactly what is going on in people’s lives and the way to their hearts.

His desire is that they become oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified and that cities might be restored.

An extraordinary week in Clarens

The last two weeks have been pretty life changing! Someone prophesied that March would be a significant month and it certainly has been so far!

Tony & I have just come back from 9 days in beautiful South Africa, a country we love so much. We went to join Julian and Katia Adams and their Frequentsee team (http://frequentsee.org) who were running a four-day School of Supernatural Ministry for the leaders of the newfrontiers church in Clarens and the surrounding area. It was exciting to part of their first school on a mission field!

We went out with a few friends and also made some more, those who had come from other churches in the UK. Sharing a house together was fun. After the evening meetings we enjoyed cheese and wine and on the last night praying and prophesying and sharing communion together.

Clarens is a beautiful town surrounded by mountains in the Free State province of South Africa near the Lesotho border. It’s a town where there is much poverty, with many people still living in shacks and waiting for better housing and where there is a high incidence of HIV/Aids and sickness.

It was such a privilege to be part of this church that serves the poor and broken of their community with such love and joy.

The Dihlabeng church has seen an outpouring of God and we went excited to see what the Father would do, expecting to see miracles and to be a part of them. I had recently felt God speak to me about this being a season of pressing through the natural into the supernatural and God had shown me a picture of going through the wardrobe doors into Narnia. This had been followed by a powerful encounter at the Prophetic Forum in Bedford, which we attended just before flying to Clarens. Julian had brought a word during one of the sessions that evangelists might be feeling their feet burning. I wasn't aware of my feet burning but in the same moment the Holy Spirit fell on me powerfully and I began to run very fast on the spot and then in all directions, North, South, East and West. A friend behind me called out "Go Claire" and immediately, without thinking about it, I ran down the side of the room and fell through some double doors! As I fell through the doors God reminded me in that moment of what he had said and I knew it symbolised a breaking through. Someone then prophesied over me that greater things were yet to come and that in 4 days time I would be part of a miracle and that we should make a space in our suitcase because of what we would bring back!

One of the highlights was the time we spent worshipping and lingering in God’s presence. Personally I encountered God’s love in a fresh way. In the times of worship I experienced a new place of joy and freedom as I realised the unending, unceasing, unhindered flow of his goodness towards us. Seeing where we sit next to the Father because we are in Christ, I began to realise its like standing in the continual flow of his love, which means nothing hinders it and nothing is impossible.

We had outstanding teaching from Julian & Katia, Dave from Solihull, Ryan from Durban and Marco and Stef from Bedford on sonship, identity, sounds of the Kingdom, our authority, spiritual warfare, joy, the power of adoption and the Father's love and all followed by times of ministry.

Tony and I were part of the ministry team and so we got to give and to receive throughout the week. 

There is something about 'going' that releases you to give and I know I stepped out more in getting alongside people and bringing prophetic words.

God spoke prophetically to us through the week with further confirming words about going to the nations! Mother of continents and mother of nations were spoken over me.

In the afternoons we divided into teams to bless people in the local township. Often as time was drawing near for us to leave there was heavy rain. On two occasions Julian led us to command the rain to stop and that’s exactly what happened!

Tony and I joined a small visitation team (3/4 of us plus someone local who could translate for us) to visit people in the township who were sick or in need and who were known to the church. Sometimes we prayed for their healing first and then shared the gospel and other times we shared the gospel and then prayed for their healing. Over the three days our team alone saw 5 people come to Christ and 5 people touched physically in their bodies.

Day 1 we visited a young man, Hansi who was in his twenties who had suffered a stroke 8 weeks previously. He was lying in bed and couldn't speak. We prayed for him several times but didn't see any physical improvement. We asked him if he would like to know Jesus and he nodded. One of our team shared the gospel and with nods and eye movements he responded to Jesus. I had noticed an inhaler on the side as we entered their home and prayed for his mum, Julie, who had asthma. After taking three deep breaths she said she felt better. We also had the joy of leading her to know Jesus. Some of the local people worship ancestral spirits and visit and pay the witch doctor for medical help. They know of Jesus but don’t know him personally.

We then went to visit a married couple called Abraham and Miriam. Miriam had a very nasty ulcer on her leg covered with a bandage. She had been in constant pain and not sleeping at night. After praying for all pain to go and she said the pain left and then she began to rub her leg which she had not been able to do because it was too painful to touch. She didn't want to take the bandage off but was due to have it dressed the following day and so would let us know of any change. We asked her if she knew Jesus and I had the joy of leading her to the Lord. Tony then led her husband to the Lord and had a word for them that they were like Abraham and Sarah. We then found out that they had not been able to have children and so we told them the story and got to pray for God to open Miriam's womb, something we will have to await news of. We prayed she would sleep well and when we visited them two days later we found out Miriam had had the best nights sleep and was out visiting someone. Previously she had spent most of the days in bed!

Day 2 We visited a home where there were three women and a little boy. At the time it was raining heavily and there was also a major power cut in the area. It was hard to see in their house and embarrassingly I nearly sat on a lady who I hadn't seen sitting in the corner...not the friendliest way to make an entrance! I got to pray for one lady who said she had pain in her head, her ears and her eyes. I prayed a short prayer commanding all pain to leave and she said it had gone, not sure who was more surprised! A team member prayed for the second lady who had had pain in her knees. She too reported all pain had gone after being prayed for. The third lady was very shy and even with loving encouragement didn't want to receive any prayer. As the rain was still very heavy we began singing and praising God and when we had finished the rain had stopped and we went on our way.

Day 3 We went to the home of a blind lady and her son. She was nearly 100 and her son was in his sixties. We prayed twice for her sight to be restored and were very excited when she started saying she could see the colour of the translator's t-shirt and make out our faces, wanting to touch them. She even saw light shining on Tony's forehead. She said how happy she was. She knew Jesus. Tony led her son to the Lord and we have heard since that he and his sister are going to attend a discipleship group at the church. There is some further news, which we have found disappointing and that is that when a team visited the lady yesterday her blindness seemed to have returned. We don't understand and are very sad to hear this but know God is good and he clearly touched her that day.

Each evening there was a tent meeting in the centre of Clarens to which the whole town was invited. We met for a time of worship and prayer before hand and the next three hours was filled with very exuberant praise and worship, followed by preaching and praying for the sick. These four nights were extraordinary. The tent was packed with men, women and children and many who were standing outside the tent too. Over the week 127 responded to Christ, and 100 healings were recorded.

Deaf ears were opened, knees and feet were healed, backs, stomach conditions, ovaries, skin conditions and in just about every part of the body we heard of healings. Words of knowledge were brought and testimonies were shared at the end of each night.

There was dancing, there were congas, the music was loud and there was constant praise and worship going on, particularly from the Mamas. Sometimes Julian had to ask for quiet to hear testimony. Praying on the ministry team was sometimes challenging both being able to hear plus finding someone who could translate for us... but it was exciting and faith stretching. Sometimes the less you know and the less you speak, the better. People were being healed without anyone touching them. A mama brought a little girl to me who had pain in her ears and partial hearing. Two of us prayed for her and after praying twice all pain left and she could hear normally. On the first night I prayed for a lady who had pain in both her knees. She fell under the power of God and when she got up she said all pain had gone. It was wonderful to hear her share at church the following Sunday, with tears running down her face, how God had healed her.

The first night a lady was brought in who had had a stroke and was paralysed down her left side. Julian asked another lady and I to sit with her and pray in tongues and just love her. She had come in with some pain, which after we prayed, disappeared. This encouraged us and we began to command paralysis to go. I held her paralysed hand and sometime later she said as we held her hand she began to get a small amount of feeling in it and was able to feel three of her fingers. There was a doctor there who said this was remarkable. She testified at the end of the evening and Julian got everyone to reach out and pray for her. That night I felt such love and compassion for someone who at the start of the night had been a complete stranger. I found myself crying for her in a way I hadn't experienced before. She came back every night to be prayed for and we wait to hear of what God will do.

The last tent meeting on the Saturday night was incredible with many receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit and falling down under the power of God. At one point I got caught in a mass falling of some very large women! There were more healings and salvations and praise, worship and dancing as only Africans seem to know how!

On the Sunday morning Julian’s team travelled to various local churches to minister. Tony and I decided to visit the Dihlabeng church.  It felt like a continuation of the night before. Several shared stories of how God had healed them. As different people brought contributions during worship a mic was passed around. Joyful giving of both money and material gifts were made and following a preach from 1 Samuel about Hannah, half the church then responded. We got to pray and prophesy over a few people and then sadly it was time to say goodbye. People who in just one week, who had been strangers before, had now become friends! It’s hard to describe the joy, love and laughter we encountered amongst a group of people, many of whom have so little… yet have so much.