Let God Arise - Part 5

Today I have already chosen you, and I will certainly use you in the plural. I will, at the right place and at the right time, use each one. So as you go and do my work, don't let your own thinking limit or influence you. And neither should you think, in your own way of thinking, that you are able to do anything. But in everything that you do, you should listen to my voice telling you and teaching you how to do it. For as you ask me, I will certainly give my Holy Spirit to be in your midst. And I send my Spirit even ahead of you to open the way before. So I will give my power, I will give my love, and I will give my gifts to you. And then you will feel as you do my work, that it is light. Use faith and use your behavior. Today then, I will use you. So this is the best session of all the sessions that we're going to do this week, because this is about being useful to God. And God good news, because He's going to use everyone. Just in case you have any doubts, I want to look at a few scriptures, and then we're going to practice, because this is a practice session. In 2 Kings, there's a story about a woman who had nothing to eat and only a little oil. And the prophet asks the woman to bring what she has, and she says, I've got nothing there except a little oil. And so the prophet says, as a message from the Lord, go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don't ask for just a few. And so the woman went to all her neighbors, and she got heaps of jars. You can imagine the kind of jars they were, big ones and small ones, and old-fashioned ones and modern ones and dirty ones and clean ones, and cracked ones, all kinds. And then she says to the prophet, there's not a jar left. And what had happened was that as she brought in jars of empty jars, so the oil that was in the first jar multiplied. And it multiplied from jar to jar to jar. But when there were no more jars left, then the oil stopped flowing. And that's a picture for us, because this session we're going to practice and we're going to learn that God wants to use all of us. And the only qualification for being used in God's service is that we make ourselves available. That's all. I hope to blow a few myths in a minute. In John 2, when these sheets come around, if you can actually bear not to look at them for a while, we'll go through them in a minute. In John 2, there's the first miracle that Jesus does. And this is when, as you know, he's going to change the water into wine. This is a typical miracle, because if you look at all miracles, in fact what they are is God doing the extraordinary through the ordinary, or using the natural and making it supernatural. But you'll find in every single miracle that involves God and man, and this is what we're going to practice in a minute, man is required to do something foolish. So let's have a look and see, in this miracle, what foolish thing these servants had to do. In verse 5, Mary says to the servants, do whatever he tells you. Verse 6, nearby stood six stained water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from 20 to 30 gallons. Jesus said to the servants, fill the jars with water, so they filled them to the brim. Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet. Well, there may be something in this miracle that we've never noticed. Here are the servants, very obediently doing whatever Jesus says, and what have they filled with water? They filled washing pots with water. And those pots were to wash feet and hands. And then they take the washing pots to the feast, and he says, now pour them out. Now it's hardly as if they're pouring out wine goblets, is it? What in fact are they about to pour out? Well, I don't know what your bath water looks like, and I don't know what it's going to look like after spring harvest, but that's not exactly what you'd offer your guests at a wedding. But this is what the servants were going to pour out. I mean, dirty stuff with bits floating around. And what happened was that as they did something as foolish as this, poured out what they knew was water, they didn't see it becoming wine. They poured out what they knew was water. It came out wine. And I would like to share with you that in being used by God, all he requires, and this will blow many myths, but all he requires is our availability to be used. That's all. God will use washing pots, ordinary vessels. Now there's a very strange scripture in 2 Timothy 2, and I had a problem as I read this because I read it from a modern version, and the version I read it from is inaccurate because it made a common assumption. Here's what 2 Timothy 2 says in verse 20. In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. Some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the master, and prepared to do any good work. Okay, this seems to be fairly straightforward. Here are the vessels, gold and silver, and some are wood and clay. Some are for noble purposes and some are for ignoble. And the only way I've ever heard anybody teach this passage is you must cleanse yourself before you can be used. That's not what it says. And the translation of the Bible, which I read, also made an assumption. The assumption was that only the beautiful vessels were going to be used. In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. Some are for noble purposes and some are for ignoble. The translation of the Bible that I read assumed that the wood and clay were for ignoble and the gold and silver were for noble. No. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, what is the latter? Ignoble purposes, that's unnoble. He will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the master, and prepared to do any good work. Now, let's look at an illustration in our own lives. I'm sure somewhere at home you've got a cupboard, probably with a relic from Granny, some old cup or something, and it may be quite beautiful. And it sits on a shelf. And you don't drink from it, and you don't use it, because it's a precious thing. So what does it do? It gathers dust. Whether it's beautiful china, gold or silver or whatever, it gathers dust. It's not really even that beautiful, is it? You're just keeping it. Now, what do you use every day? You probably use your old cracked mug. That's the one you use. And what I want to share is this. The one that is used for the master's use is the one that is used, not the one that's very beautifully sitting on the shelf. Whatever it's made of, if it's not used, it's not for noble use. Now, what does this master use? A lavatory? I suppose in the old-fashioned time, he used a pot. Made of what? Well, I don't know if his pot was of silver or gold or wood or clay, but I know that if it was used, it was for noble use. See? I mean, he had to go, and if he used it, it was for noble use, even though it was a pretty humble way for a vessel to be used. It was still used. And I believe that what we need to repent of, what it says here, if a man cleanses himself from the latter, the way in which we need to clean ourselves is this. We need to cleanse ourselves from sitting on the shelf. It's sitting on the shelf gathering dust that is the sin. And we sit on the shelf and we say, Ah, but I couldn't do that. Ah, but I couldn't do that. Ah, but God only uses these people. I'm going to sit around and learn for a while. No. You're not useful if you're not being used. So, in verse 15, Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. Because you see, what the sin of sitting on the shelf in this particular chapter is, in 2 Timothy, is those who are sitting on the shelf are backbiting, quarreling, and getting involved in needless chatter. They're observing men doing the works of God. They're possibly having Bible studies about it. I'm not sure. But they're certainly not doing it. And to become useful, we have to start work. Even if we think we're not much of a vessel. So in 2 Corinthians, we have this beautiful illustration, which I hope will finally convince all of us. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. This lovely illustration of treasures in jars of clay. Verse 7. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. And I remember that I was in South Africa once, and we arrived at a church exhausted. And I'll never forget, I was really tired. I'd spoken 3 times that day. I had backache. And we were to go on in 2 minutes. And I arrived with my team. And I said, I'm really tired. Could I sit down? And they said, We'll pray for you. And I thought, Goodness me, I don't need praying for. I need a chair and a cup of tea. It's extraordinary how people get it wrong, isn't it? And they were a bit shattered by this. Anyway, we finally went on. And the man who was introducing the meeting said, Now I've seen Jackie. I know God works through earth and vessels. So that evening, as we shared what we had to share, we said, Well, welcome to the clay pot group. Because that's all we are. Some of us are a bit cracked even. But we're very glad to be being used. We're very glad that our Lord uses us. Noble use. Because he's using us. And that's why people praise the Lord. Because they can see that we are frail. That we're cracked. We're very, very earthen. Not beautiful. Okay, got it. So, God wants to use all of us. The clay ones. The cracked ones. Even those of us who've been sitting on the shelf talking about the others. How well or how badly they're doing things. That's the same. Get off the shelf. Get cleansed from the dust. And the chatter. And the backbiting. And get to work. Now this is what we do in Hong Kong. And this is what we're going to practice with you in a minute. When people come to know Jesus, they don't understand a whole heap. A lot. Maybe they understand more than you, I'm not sure. But anyway, they don't have a lot of learning. So, the first thing that we do with them, the very first thing, as soon as they come to know Jesus, is we tell them that God has gifts. So, as soon as people come to know Jesus, we pray with them for the power of the Spirit. In fact, they think it's all one. Most of them are very surprised that there's anyone in the world who has a problem about this. They all pray in tongues at conversion. So, that's easy. Now, if you will, pray with the people that you lead to Jesus to be baptized in the Spirit and speak in tongues. That's easily the best way to start. And, you see, people are expecting the Lord to be miraculous at that time. It's only later that they reason things out the other way. You know, some do, some don't. You know, I've got to block all the old things. You know, I wanted the gift, not the giver, and all that stuff that they go around for years about. Get it straight at the beginning. God's gifts are gifts. They're gifts of grace. They're not deserved. They're not for sanctified people. They're not for holy people. They're God's gifts. They're of grace. They're not prizes for spirituality or a few trophies given out to a few chosen men. They're gifts for all Christians. And what are they given to us for? One, is to preach the gospel. So that God's name may be glorified. Two, to build up the church. Okay, that's what they're for. Now I suppose that's why you're here, at this particular session, is because this is what you'd like to do. You would like to glorify God in your lives, preach the gospel, and build up the church. So, okay, all of us can receive spiritual gifts. And in a minute, those of you that haven't yet started, you can. And if any of you have had particular problems from your backgrounds or churches where you've come from, we'll pray for you, especially over there in the corner, because we like praying with you. Because we really like overcoming that one. Because the Lord's so generous. You know, He's not a bit mean. He's universally generous and indiscriminate in the pouring out of His gifts. So those of you who've ever had a problem about that, we'd be very happy to settle it. Okay, now you don't have to speak in tongues straight away. You can, if you'd like it. I don't think it's the sign of receiving the power of the Holy Spirit. No. Certainly seemed to be in three out of five occasions in the Acts. And on the fourth occasion, it was clear that Paul later did speak in tongues. In fact, he's the king tongue speaker. He says, thank God I speak in tongues more than all of you. He says this to the Corinthian church. So four out of five occasions we do know that it was very clear that tongues at some time followed. The fifth occasion, it wasn't sure. Just unclear. We only know that a magician wanted to buy the power that he saw when the disciples laid their hands on others. So I don't know what he saw, but he was a pretty good magician. So he must have seen something powerful. I don't think we can say you must speak in tongues. My own experience is it's available to every Christian. It's the one gift which each Christian can receive because it's the only one out of the nine miraculous gifts of the Spirit which you can use to build yourself up. And same reason as we read the scriptures. Therefore, it's very good because you're built up spiritually as you pray in tongues. Therefore, of course, it's eagerly to be desired. But, of course, the other gifts of the Spirit should be asked for so that the church can be built up. Both are right to desire and both are right to use. Now why am I talking about spiritual gifts? Well, I believe that as these are given to all Christians, this is a wonderful place to begin in somebody's Christian life because you see immediately they can know that they're useful. And it also incorporates a whole lot of good theology because immediately new Christians begin to pray for other people and they see God working. They understand grace. I knew nothing. I'd just been forgiven and God used me to heal someone else. And no pride enters in. Just excitement at the greatness and wonder of God. It wasn't because they fasted for five years and read the Bible through three times, you know, that they got it. It was just the grace of God in using a sinner to pray for someone else. So it incorporates wonderful theology. And I don't think anything makes somebody grow quicker than knowing that they're useful. I was in the Walled City. It was just over a year ago and we were praying. And as we were praying, this man had a prophecy and it was a little bit formal for me to understand. So I had to look up some of the words because my Cantonese is very colloquial. And when I looked it up, what he was in fact prophesying was half of Philippians 2. And he'd never read the Bible. Half a chapter of the Bible? What for? Because that's what God wanted me to hear that day. You see, I don't hear preachers hardly ever. I can count. I actually can count the number of sermons I've heard in my life. But I get fed because this brother who was three days old spoke the Word of God at the right time in the right place. It was for me. It wasn't for anyone else. It was for me. Now you see how generous God is in blessing me in the body of Christ. I didn't have to listen to anybody's cassette. This new brother spoke the Word of God and I heard what I was meant to hear that day. And I was encouraged to go on. Who felt better, him or me? I don't know. I don't know. But what it was, you see, was right at the beginning of his life was an understanding of the operation of the body. God used him to bless me. And we both understood that we were needy people given grace by God. He had learned nothing. You know, he was still smoking. I'm afraid he was still taking heroin. I know this shocks you. But God used him because he didn't know any better. He just thought you were supposed to say what God told you to say. You know, he hadn't learned that you've got to filter it or have it approved or whatever. You know, we don't teach them that. We say, come share what you've got. Come share what you've got. The body will weigh this. So right from the beginning they are at liberty to practice. Now you must be in a place where you can practice. You must. You can't practice, well we will in a minute, but it's not a good place to practice in a meeting such as we had last night. Because that would be really frightening if this is the first time that you ever have a prophecy or singing in tongues is much worse. And quite frightening to have to do this in front of a lot of people. But you do need somewhere where you can practice. So you need to be with a small group of people from three upwards who want to learn. And you need to be able to be free to make mistakes. Because you won't be able to learn unless you're free to make mistakes. I mean, people are always saying, how do I know if it's me or God about prophecy? How do you know? Well, it is a bit difficult at the beginning, you know, and your heart's going, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, I better not say it because it might be me, not God. Well, what you need to do is to be in an environment where you're with friends, okay? So we practice with the church. Take the world on later. And most of us are afraid of the church, though, you know. Oh, what happens if they judge me, you know? You must be free to be able to say, look, I don't know if these words I've got are from God or if it's just me. You have to be able to be free to say that. And they'll say, share it anyway. And you share it, and you don't have to say, thus saith the Lord, my people. You know, you don't have to do any of that. You can just say what you think you heard. And afterwards, probably somebody will come and say, that was exactly what I needed to hear. And you'll know, oh, that was from God. That really was from God because it will be confirmed. And next time when your heart goes, boom, boom, boom, boom, you've got some words, you'll think, well, you know, it was a bit like this last time. And then you do a double check with God. You or me? If it's you, please confirm this. And you've still got this, these words. And at the beginning, it will probably only be one sentence. It won't be a whole thing, you know. You couldn't remember a whole thing. So you say your one sentence, even if it's something very simple like, I love you, my children. And then you get the next sentence and so on and so on. And this is how you begin, using gifts. And you practice. You might just get a sentence at the beginning and the next time you'll speak two or three. I had a friend in Hong Kong. I'm really jealous of him. Actually, he reads his prophecies and he gets them in Chinese characters like on a scroll. I'm really jealous. I'd love to be able to do that. I get quite blind. But that's how he gets his. You need to be in an environment where together you can ask one another, how do you get your prophecies? How do you hear from God? And somebody will say, well, my heart goes really quick. Somebody else will say, I feel really hot. Someone else will say, I feel really cold. Somebody else will say, well, I shake a bit. And then you can know that's how they get their prophecies. It doesn't mean to say, you've got to shake or get hot or cold. When we try to have what other people have had, that's when we get religious. But it is helpful to hear the ways in which God touches other people. I found when I first began sharing spiritual gifts in a meeting, I got a really big nudge from God. I mean, really big. And one of the ways I know that it's from the Holy Spirit and not me is that it's always with me, accompanied by reluctance. Always. Oh, God. Not me. Not me again. I mean, a nice long prophecy would be lovely, but why do I have to keep speaking in tongues? I mean, people say it's the least gift, and I'm really fed up. It would be great if I could have one of those lovely pictures or something that everyone else gets, you know, and I get this silly tongue thing again, and he says, you or me? Oh, right. You invented it. And I die. Now, who wants to speak in tongues in public? Ah. I die. I mean that. There's only one thing worse than singing in tongues in public. But, you know, if you feel reluctant to share gifts, it's a fair indication that it's God, because you see, those who don't care, those who, oh, I've got a word from the Lord, you know, that is when it could be possible that they begin to walk in their own flesh, because they like to be heard, and they like to have authority. So if you have a feeling of reluctance, when your heart's beating and a verse is going through your head, or you've got a picture, or worse still, you think it's a message in tongues, it's quite likely God. You check back with him. And then with your friendly group, you say, well, I've never done this before, but I've got a picture, and I don't know what it means, and then you say it out loud. This is how you start growing in gifts of the Spirit. Now this is how we teach our people, right from the beginning. The second time they come, they're usually three days old, still on heroin. They are intending to get off, it's just that we make them wait, because we can't take them into our house quicker. And so what we teach them the next time is, now I've just prayed with you, now you come with me and pray for someone else. And they say, I don't know how, I don't know how. It doesn't matter. God's given you a prayer language. Put your hand out and bless him. Me? Yes, you. God can use you to bless someone else. And for somebody who's been an addict or a criminal and despised for years and years and years, actually to feel God wants to use me to help someone else is the most blessing thing that we can do. Because they understand, even now, pretty dirty pot, God wants to work through me. So they learn, from the very beginning, to make themselves available. And that's the whole secret of being used by God. Even when things are not cleared up in our lives, we make ourselves available. Now this is not, of course, a substitute for holiness. And it's not an alternative to walking with the Lord. We do that at the same time. So we teach our people to know the Lord and listen to him, and if they can, to read the scriptures, and to work out with their behavior, and so on and so on, to understand the body of Christ, submission to the body of Christ, and so on and so on and so on. We teach them that as time goes on. But right at the beginning, right at the beginning, we let them all know they can be used in gifts of the Spirit. Otherwise, what tends to happen is, you get a dichotomy in the church. And you get a whole lot of people that say, oh well of course there are different gifts, and you can speak in tongues, but I make the tea. I don't see why you shouldn't speak in tongues and make the tea. And I was in Christchurch in New Zealand a few years ago, and there was this man. See, they'd got confused about ministries and gifts. And somebody had gone and taught them, you can all have a gift, or you've all got one. And if you pray long enough, you'll find what yours is. Well, he decided his was stacking chairs. So he was the, I always say this wrong, chair stacker. So he stacked chairs for years and years and years in the church, you know. He was one of these faithful servants who loved to have around stacking chairs. And I said to him, you know, it's great that you're stacking chairs, but you know, you can heal the sick as well. And he had resigned himself to the fact that stacking chairs was his bit, you know. It's what they used to do with women. You know, you can arrange the flowers and make the sandwiches. Why not heal the sick as well? Plenty of sick women making sandwiches with you. So... So I prayed for him. And when I prayed for him, he prayed in tongues. Again, you haven't got to pray in tongues when you receive the power of the spirit. But if it's going, why not? And you're sure there will be some evidence of the power of the spirit upon you. So you could prophesy instead if you wanted. So he prayed in tongues. And then we only had a few days with him to teach him a bit. We taught him how to prophesy. We taught him how to interpret gifts of tongues. We taught him how to get words of knowledge. You can learn these things. We're going to practice in a minute. And... Mercifully, he had a minister who was helpful. And the minister went on teaching him. And we get such wonderful reports about this anointed chair stacker. You know, in the few weeks after he received the power of the spirit and started using the gift of the spirit in his daily prayer time, which is when you should use tongues, and when he was with other people, when he was stacking chairs and so on, he led more people to Christ than in the whole of his Christian life. He opened up his house. He's got people, street people, Maori and Islanders living in his house. And he has the most amazing healing ministry. And he had been content to stack chairs. Now, fine, I'm very glad he went on stacking chairs. Because I think what we would look for if people are coming to Hong Kong, we would look for people who are servants. We'd look for the chair stackers. We'd look for the chair stackers first. We wouldn't look for the people who could prophesy and speak in tongues. That's easy. Because if people have the right hearts to stack chairs, it's very easy for us to pray for them to receive the other gifts and to teach them how to use those. You can do that in a few days or a few weeks. But if they think that using spiritual gifts is their qualification for the mission field, it won't do. You've got to have the willingness to be a practical servant as well. So both are important. So what we're going to do right now is to learn how to do some spiritual things, which all of us can do. There's a lady here who's just born today. Her name's Anne. I've got good news for you, Anne. Because God's going to give you some gifts today and he'll use you to pray for other people if you're willing. It doesn't matter if you don't know how because it doesn't depend on that. If you're willing, you can be in it. So it could be somebody who's on their first day. It could be somebody who's in their 50th year of being a Christian, gifting from the Holy Spirit is for all. The other, I must leave you to work out in your churches and your home lives the relationship with the Lord, the practical working in the way that you share your houses, your belongings, etc. and work with people in the church. I must leave you to work that out on your own. But right now, what I want to do is to go through a model of how we can pray with people. So you've got a sheet of paper there and you can now look. Oh, all those people with their hands up haven't. So if you've got a husband or a wife and you've both got one, would you please give them up? Okay. Okay. Bo Kang. Okay. Bo Kang is going to share with you how he gets Words of Knowledge, which are one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. First of all, I pray without ceasing that God will use me in His gifts. And especially before a meeting, I don't stop praying. This is because they're under instructions from me. You will all get prophecies. You will all get Words of Knowledge. It's okay. I'm on a completely safe wicket there. It's the Word of God. It says whenever you come together, you will each have, everybody will have, every time you come together. That's completely certain. The only reason that it doesn't happen is people haven't been trained and they're not expecting it. So they come to meetings and wait for the speaker to do all the stuff. The Word of God in 1 Corinthians 14, 26 says whenever you come together, each one has. That's why they're under orders. Okay? All of you pray at least half an hour a day in tongues and come to the meeting with something. You didn't understand what I said because the Bible says every time you come together to seek Him, He'll give us... So I also ask the Lord if He'll give some revelation to me. For instance, who would need to be healed or who would need to be set free? Now, I've experienced something like this. I may have, say, a pain in my leg or a pain in my tooth. But don't be afraid. When you get words of knowledge in this form, it isn't really painful. Sometimes my heart will beat very quickly. And I may feel that my heart is quickened. So I ask the Lord, if this is from you and there's somebody here that has this problem that needs to be dealt with, would you please use me? Thank you. So, words of knowledge are one of the gifts of the Spirit which I've given to Christians. And if I was to do a whole teaching, a teaching on words of knowledge, it would take us about 20 hours. But just very briefly, knowledge, the word of knowledge is not the same as being knowledgeable. Wise men of God, knowledgeable men of God know Him and are wise in His ways. And I go to all the Christians for my advice or for knowledge. The word of knowledge and the word of wisdom are miraculous gifts which brand new Christians can have. And it does not mean that the person that has the word is knowledgeable or wise. It merely means that for a time, and it's an anointed time, God has enabled them to see things which they would normally have no right to see or know. So God reveals to him that there's somebody with toothache. And he knows it because he gets toothache. Another way that you may know would be if you saw the word. Americans very often see words. Chinese don't. And I think the reason that Americans see words is that the people in America are very much in touch with their bodies. And they can respond. So, for instance, it might be there's someone here with a problem of diverticulitis or urolosis or whatever it is. Anyway, be sure if an American has it, they'll know. If you said that, however, to a Chinese, they simply wouldn't know. They'd just understand stomach pain. So God gives some people words. They actually see the words. And some people get words they've never heard of. They start reading out words which they've never heard of. Some people feel the pain. Some people see over somebody. They actually look at somebody and they know that they've got a neck pain. Some people have a conviction about something. These are mostly sicknesses. Me, I have none of those things. I don't hear God saying it. I don't see him. I don't feel it. I don't feel convicted. I just say it. And then as it's coming out of my mouth, I think, oh, God, why did I say that? It doesn't come out automatically. I think it's the most dangerous way of getting them. But anyway, that's how it comes for me. So all those ways may happen. And in a minute, we're going to ask who's got words of knowledge. And tonight, at tonight's meeting, we're going to let you do the stuff at the end of the meeting. So you'll have time, hopefully, between this afternoon and tonight to get some words of knowledge. It could be that the words of knowledge are not about sicknesses. It could be about problems. Now, there are appropriate times to bring pictures, and there are inappropriate times. It isn't suitable, let's say, at the ministry part of a meeting for somebody to stand up and say, I see a picture of a young girl on a swing, da-da, da-da, da-da, you know, and go on for hours because everybody's all ready to pray. So if you get a picture of that kind at that time, you better quickly pray, God, give me the understanding of the picture. And then come up with the answer, which could be there's somebody here who was molested as a child, and God wants to heal you. Now, you'll need to pray for wisdom in the way that you bring words of knowledge. Certainly, in certain places, it's not appropriate to bring them so that the person is exposed. And you must bring them in a way in which somebody can respond to the mercy and love of God and not have to run a gauntlet of people looking at them. So ask for wisdom. And if you think, and you're in a small meeting, that a word of knowledge about a particular problem, for instance, if you think you've got a word of knowledge about someone in adultery, my suggestion is you go to the leader of the meeting and you share it with them, and then leave it with them. And then it's up to them how they deal with it. Don't go and attack somebody with your word of knowledge. Don't go and blackmail them and say, God has told me that you're living in sin, you know. That's probably your suspicion. So don't do that. It's not on. So there are words of knowledge about other problems. Okay, now I'm going to ask Andy. Why not Andy to come up? Now, I'm going out into the streets. And I've been visiting Andy for some time. And Andy's sleeping under a flyover. He hasn't had a bath in weeks. But I'm terribly concerned about him. And I really want to lead him to Jesus. So I'm now going to give you an example of how not to pray for Andy. Andy, can I pray for you? Yeah. Okay. Oh dear God. You know how much I love Andy. You know if Andy would only clean his life up. You know if he'd only read the Bible, how you'd bless him. You understand I'm preaching to him. Which isn't on when you're praying for people. This is just a sly way of getting at them. If he'd only repent. Anyway, God, if it's your will to heal him, please make him better. Oh dear God. In Jesus' name. I think I've got a bad arm. You see, I'm not at all sure God's going to heal him. So I dare not ask him when I've finished if it worked. And this is common. People are always praying for people. They take absolutely no notice of what the poor person's going through. They do a large amount of massage. They do lots of putting their feelings on someone else. Because I'm feeling so bad about him. I make him feel bad. He may actually really be needing to sit down, but I'm not looking at him, so I wouldn't know. I'm just praying at him. I'm putting my emotions on him. And when we've finished, I dare not ask him how he feels in case it didn't work. So I go away. But I did pray for him anyway. And he? Well, I have no idea what he felt about it, because I wasn't watching. So we're going to do it a different way. There's a model here. Now, this model, you don't have to use it. This is simply, we're going to go through step by step a way in which we might pray for someone. Of course, you can skip to step 5. You haven't got to do 1, 2, 3, 4. But what we're going to do here is just cover some of the things which we should cover. Okay, Andy. How can I pray for you? I've got a stomach pain. Okay. So, he's got a stomach pain. And I'm going to ask him a question. I'm going to ask him, how long have you had your stomach pain? Do you know why it came? Oh, I've had it for about a month now. I don't know why. Okay. Now, this is a natural interview. I'm asking him, what's wrong with him? And he's replying that he's got a stomach pain. At the same time as listening to what Andy's saying, I'm listening to what God is saying. This is the other level that we're doing the interview. And God is telling me, it's not his stomach problem at all. But he's feeling rejected because he was thrown out of home. So, I'm listening at two different levels. Now, be careful. B says, this is not a medical interview. Some people are dying to tell you their whole medical condition. And they'll go on for hours and hours and hours and hours. So, no need. We're not doctors. So, all we want to know is where the pain is, really. We don't want to know what the last physician said. And the interview may take a few seconds. The interview may take a few minutes. But it is, of course, helpful when you're praying with somebody to find out why you're praying. Okay? Sometimes people come forward at the end of a meeting. And they've come forward because they want to receive the gift of tongues. Or they've come forward because they want to repent. Or maybe they've come forward because they want you to pray for their aunt. And it's not very helpful if you just pray at them. And then they go back to their seat with their need unmet. So, it's helpful to just have a few words. How can I help you to pray? What's your problem? Or what did you come forward for? And the interview is complete when you have understood the cause of the condition. Now, I think I heard from God. I'm not sure, but I think I heard from God that his stomach is not the problem. But there's another problem. Now, this is very, very usual with words of knowledge. In fact, more often than not. Just to give you an example, a friend of mine wanted to get words of knowledge. So, he came to a meeting a few years ago in Hong Kong. And he said, God, I really want a word of knowledge tonight. And he got toothache in the left side. And he said, God, have I got toothache? Or is this you? And the toothache moved to the right side. And he didn't dare say anything. But right at the end of the meeting, when it was all over, he thought, well, I really blew it, so I'll share it anyway. And he said, I suppose nobody's got toothache, have they? And two people came up. And one person said, well, I've got toothache on the right side. And the other one said, well, I've got toothache on the left side. And so he took them and prayed for them. And both of their toothaches went. But the second one, God just used the toothache as a hook. And this often happens with words of knowledge. Somebody comes up, like Andy, to have his stomach prayed for. Or she came to have her toothache prayed for. And in fact, she became a Christian. Because it was just a way of getting her. And you see, anything can happen once you start praying for people. God sorts out all kinds of things. And it's very, very normal that up to as many as 80% of illnesses are caused for some psychosomatic reason. It doesn't mean to say they're not real illnesses. But the reason he's got this bad stomach is that he's had a bad experience in life. So really, there's no point in my praying for the stomach. I want to pray for his bad experience in life. And then the stomachache will go. Okay. So, step two. This is what I did instantly. But this is a way of finding out what is the cause of the problem. Now, somebody may have the problem for an actual reason. E.g., had a car crash. If somebody says they had a car crash or something, and that's why their leg is broken, it's worth asking God, did the enemy send it? Was this person on their way to do the works of God? Did they get interrupted? Because it may be that that was a deliberate intervention by the enemy. In which case, you can pray against that. And the leg will get better. And the person will be released to service. So it's worth finding these things out. Sometimes people have a quarter disease. This would be a natural thing. Sometimes people may be sick as a result of a social sin. Emotional, social, familial. This could be a history of disease in the family. Cancer seems to be inherited sometimes. Asthmatic conditions. Various other things. If people have those diseases, I usually check, is this in your family? And then I cut people off from their inheritance through the family and release them to the inheritance of the Lord. Because some people feel they're sentenced to have an illness because it's a family one. And we know from Scripture that the sins of the fathers are not visited on the children. So we can actually set people free from that one by claiming the words of Scripture. Okay, sometimes people have got problems or sicknesses because of supernatural things. For instance, demonic oppression. I went to America a few years ago and I had a backache. And I had dozens of people praying for me. I mean, I had 27 hours of prayer. Now, you may have watched healers on television or in meetings and you may have been quite impressed about certain of them. In the name of the Lord! Oh, well, that one didn't get healed, but... Sorry about that. Some of them do. Some of them do get healed. And you may have thought, well, it's very nice that one got healed, but what about the other ones that did not? Now, some people, when they get prayed for, it happens to be that their heart is right and ready. The person who's praying has insight into their problem. There's faith around and God does it. But for a rather large number of people, we require a little bit more skill in understanding how to pray for someone. Which means that if you've seen people at healing meetings and one person gets dramatically healed and 99 sort of walk by in a disappointed queue, you've got hope for those 99. Each one can be prayed for. I went to a church in the States which probably has the highest average of healing successes in the world and I was not healed in the first minute or two or three. They prayed 27 hours for me. Not all at once. But the good thing about having 27 hours of prayer was all the things that got covered along the way. I had to forgive people. I had to be set free from all kinds of things. 27 hours of prayer I got. It was real good stuff. And in the end, I was set free from a curse. Now, God could have set me free from the curse in the first five minutes. I mean, I didn't need to wait around 27 hours, but in fact, he wanted my life cleaned up, not just my back. And so, all those things were covered. I had to do a lot of forgiving and a lot of being forgiven, a lot of being blessed. Heaps of real good stuff until I was at the point where that particular curse could be dealt with. And I wouldn't have cut that short by any means. So don't be disappointed if when you pray for people, something doesn't happen instantly. I think the majority of our healings are over a period of time. That's why we like to pray for people again and again. We prayed for... Is he here? The chap with asthma. Where are you? I've forgotten your name. Well, we'll probably see him later. We prayed for him on Saturday and his breathing got easier and somebody had a word about something which had caused that problem and began to pray about it. But it was too late on Saturday to go on, so we said we'll pray for some more yesterday. And we prayed some more yesterday. We didn't pray about the asthma. We prayed about the problem which had been revealed. And he began to breathe completely freely. But we'd like to pray again for him today because, you see, we like doing the job. We don't believe it's just in the name of Jesus and walk off. We want that chap's life and relationship with the Lord and the church and so on to be wholesome so he can walk in his healing. So it could be that people are sick because of a curse. And curses come from all kinds of places, sometimes Christians. And, for instance, you're no use, you're no use, you're no use. And you'll never amount to anything. And you can't do that here. And da-da, da-da, da-da. Parents put curses on children. And they die. I mean, people actually die in parts of their lives when they've been told they're useless. When they've been told someone else is better. This often occurs in families where one brother or sister is preferred above another and the other one feels so useless until they actually become useless. So authority figures can easily put death and sickness on people. And you just need to break the power of those words. Okay, so as the person is telling you his problem and why he thinks he's got his problem, you're listening to God. And hopefully he's revealing to you why the person is sick. Now, if this seems a bit daunting, the way to begin doing it is to do it with other people. So I would suggest that when you pray for someone, you pray in a team. Because one person is going to get all the answers. And I don't like praying for sick people by myself. For one thing, I'm afraid that if they get healed, somebody will think I did it. And that's awful. For the other reason is I don't hear God that well. And I like to have other people who are listening with me so that we can say in the middle, you know, have you got anything? Yes, I've got a picture. Oh God, you've got something. I'm completely black. So we communicate with one another while we're praying for the sick person. One person gets a picture. Another person understands the picture. One person is used in a gift of healing. Another has a prophecy. Another has a gift of faith, you know. So all of these work together. In the end, nobody gets the glory except God when that person's life is cleaned up. So it's fun doing it as a group. And then you learn how to use gifts of the Spirit together. Okay. Sorry, Andy. Step three, how am I going to pray for him? Now I know, or I think I've got a hint, as to why Andy's got his stomach complaint. So I can pray towards God. That is, I can pray in the third person. So God, I ask you to come and heal Andy. God, I ask you to make him better. Now, if I'm praying this way only, I might as well not have him here. I could be doing that when he's at home and I'm at home. Now what I want to do for Andy is I want to bless him. I want to minister to him. I want to bless you. I don't want to pray about you as if you're not here. So I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit to come, and I'm going to ask him to do the job now. So I'll probably start out with something like help, or Holy Spirit, you come. Now remember, we have authority to heal. So I don't have to say, God, if it's your will, please make him better. I can say, stomach be healed. Now I know this sounds silly, but apparently Jesus talked to bits of the body. He rebuked the fever. Go away fever. It sounds really silly when you start talking to legs and things, but you'll get used to it. So I'm not saying anything out loud at this minute. I'm just saying, Holy Spirit, I invite you to come and do the job. Okay, Andy. No, I am not going to pray for him like this, because he looks hopeless. Okay. He looks hopeless. He's not expecting to receive anything. So are you happy to stand or do you prefer to sit? Okay, fine. Would you open your hands? Okay, fine. You don't have to lift them up high. Please don't make people do sort of gymnastics. I'll be healed if I have my hands up. I mean, poor things. I've asked him to open his hands really as a gesture on his part that he's expecting to receive something. But if he looks as if he's getting tired, let him put them down. Okay. Right. And I'm also going to encourage him to put his head up, because it's very difficult to pray for people when they've got their head in their boots, you know. You don't know. You can't see their face. They're not expecting to receive anything. They're showing you rejection immediately. So very gently, you can just physically put them into a position where they're expecting. Okay. Now, if you keep your eyes closed, Andy. Okay. Now, I'm going to keep my eyes open for lots and lots and lots of reasons. Firstly, I want to see if he's tired. You see, I might pray for him for half an hour, and he might have had enough after two minutes. And that would be exceedingly rude of me to go on and on and on when the poor chap needs to sit down or go to the bathroom or something like that. And do remember, this is really important, you see. When we're ministering to people, we're ministering to them. We're not making them go through some suffering experience, being prayed for. Poor things. Now, we're actually here. I want to bless him, not make the poor chap suffer. So if he needs to sit down or something, fine. Now, when you invite the Holy Spirit to come, what happens is that people frequently cry. And this is just the work of the Spirit. You just frequently weep. Now, oh, who's got a hanky? I have a hanky. Oh, so you. Okay. This is everybody who's going to pray tonight, people, you must bring a hanky. It's very important. I need... Oh, boy. Okay. This is very important. Because, see, when he starts to cry, I know all of this sounds funny, but, you know, he could be quite worried if he cries and his nose runs and everything. I'm going to do it for him. That's another reason I've got my eyes open, so that he can allow the Spirit to do what the Spirit's going to do, and I can mop him up. Okay. He might laugh, I don't know, but these are both common responses to the work of the Spirit. Okay. So, when I think that the Spirit is giving me some words to say, I'm going to come and bless him. Okay. Now, I'm not going to put my hand heavy on him, because I don't want him to feel tired. So, if it's appropriate to put your hands on somebody, fine. Obviously, if you're praying for a woman, there are certain places that would be exceedingly inappropriate, in which case, have another woman with you and ask them. Sometimes you can get them to put a hand on themselves, and then you put your hand over that. But it may be that you don't need to lay hands on them at all, that you just put your hand somewhere near the area. Or actually, it might be something different. When my back was being prayed for, people moved their hands, I don't know where they were. I mean, they didn't actually touch me, but it was extraordinary. There were bits of heat going all over my body. I mean, God was doing a complete workout. So, it may be that the Lord's actually telling you to put your hand somewhere else. We don't do this for any funny reason, this business, except we don't want to swamp somebody with our hands. I really want to bless you, Andy. Now, he's got a stomach complaint, and I think I know why. He's got a few other complaints now. So, Andy, will you forgive me for pushing you down? So, Andy, I bless you in the name of Jesus. I'm speaking to him, you. I'm doing direct blessing. Not, God, will you please bless Andy. Andy, I bless you. I have authority. I bless you in the name of the Lord. And in Jesus' name, I speak acceptance to you. And I tell you that you are accepted, and you are acceptable. And God has chosen you to be his son. By now, he's probably crying, because his problem was rejection. Okay? Not talking about his stomach yet. And in Jesus' name, break the power of any words spoken over you, which told you that you were hopeless. And I tell you in Jesus' name, that you're a special child of God, chosen by him long ago. That he's named you and called you. That he sees your heart, that he's pleased with you. That he loves you, no matter what you do. You are loved. And as a member of the body of Christ, I accept you. And I bless you, and I love you. Now, I'm only doing this is how, but you see, so far I'm doing all you, you, you. I'm not speaking about him as if he's not here. And you know, if you pray for somebody like this for just a few minutes, they get healed. Because what you're doing is you're positively feeding in blessing. Okay? I'm not saying, oh, I know that you were rejected as a boy, putting all my sorrow for him on him. And, but I'm breaking the power of that rejection by blessing him with acceptance. And probably after a few minutes, his stomach pain will go. Okay, now I can speak to him in the middle. Andy, don't open your eyes, but just tell me how you're feeling now. I've still got a bit of a stomach pain. I've got a headache as well. Okay, well, it's a good thing he's been brought up to tell the truth, because some people will answer you a lie, because they've been taught in church to lie. Well, my stomach hurts, but I believe it has healed. I'm believing it's healed. Now, you know, Jesus said to the blind man when he prayed for him, how are you doing? And the blind man said, well, trees are a bit fuzzy. And so Jesus prayed for him some more, and he saw perfectly. Supposing that man had said, in faith I see perfectly. Standing on the word. He'd go around seeing fuzzy forever. But he was truthful. You can tell the truth. It's fine. Now, if God gives a gift of faith, that's fine, but don't try and work it up. A gift of faith is a gift of faith. And he does give it. So he's got a headache, and still a bit of a stomach ache. Andy, have you got any other feeling in your body? Sometimes people will feel heavy when the power of God is upon them. Is it okay, the feeling? You don't feel oppressed? Okay, fine. So, you're healed now, Andy. Okay, fine. I just have to cut this short. We've decided to finish when he's healed. Now, you can talk to people in the middle, and then you can go on. You can have conversations. They can keep their eyes closed, or they can open their eyes, and then you can go on and pray some more. When do you stop? You stop when they've had enough. Would you like a cup of tea now? Yes, okay, it'll make your headache better. You stop when they've had enough. You stop when you've had enough. You stop when you can't think of anything more to say. You don't have to go on for a long time. But you can make an appointment to pray again. To go on praying, so somebody doesn't feel, well, nothing happened, I wasn't a success, because they feel awful then. Sometimes they feel worse than when they began, you know. She prayed and I didn't get healed, I didn't have enough faith, you know. So, do it short, people. Every time you pray for them, God works. Doesn't he? I mean, he said, whenever you gather in my name, I'll be there. He'll always answer. So you say, well, you know, God's begun to work in you, let's pray some more. You know, and maybe God will give you some more insight next time you pray as to how you can bless somebody. This is really why I think healing ought to be done in the church. Not particularly just at meetings and big gatherings. Because people are removed from their social church context. And half the amount of healing will be kept when people are in a good relationship with their neighbors in the church. Particularly women. Particularly middle-aged, single, or unhappily married women. They'll invent all kinds of complaints. Because they're lonely. And you can heal them at a meeting, but if the church doesn't look after them, and talk to them daily, and give them things to do, and help them, they'll get sick again. Because it's their only reason for getting attention, you know. So it's no good taking people with chronic diseases off to meetings to get healed if you don't look after them in between the meetings. And you can do that in practical ways and in spiritual ways. So please don't just use healing meetings as a substitute for the work of the body of Christ. Okay. Now, words of knowledge. In Goyal, Tzisika Yinyu. Okay. Will you all stand? We're supposed to finish at 3.45, but we're going to finish at 4. So we're all going to get a shot at this. Tzisika Yinyu. What we're going to do is this. If you'd all close your eyes, we're going to invite the Holy Spirit to come, and then we're going to ask for words of knowledge. And we'll have 3 or 4 or 5. We ask your Holy Spirit to come now. And knowing the needs of your people here, and those of us that need healing or blessing and freeing and forgiving, we invite you to show us the Word of the Father. And the Lord wants to touch somebody here who has a heart complaint. Good. Could that person... Who is it that has a heart complaint? Could you just come out to the front? Sorry? You're getting the pain, but it's not your heart complaint. Okay, that's 3 words about the heart complaint. Who is it? Who's got the heart problem? You have angina. Would it be all right if you came to the front? Would you mind? Maybe your husband could come with you. Or your friend. Somebody who's got a toe problem in their left foot? Good. Any other words of knowledge? You've got a toe problem too. Okay, why don't you come as well? Good. Three toes. Okay. Would you like to come this side? Now what we'd like you to do is just to face the people here. We'd like you to face them. Would you mind facing them? That's right. Okay. Okay. Okay. Now this is what we're going to do. We're going to continue to ask the Holy Spirit to come. Can you just curve around there? Okay, not too near to one another, because people are going to come and pray for you. Spread out. That's right, okay. Now I want you people here, as we invite the Holy Spirit to come, to decide which one would I pray for. Now the one that you should begin to pray for is the one upon whom you see the Spirit moving. So if in future you ever have to deal with a healing cue, you don't necessarily start with number one, because if God is healing number 32, you start with number 32, because He's doing the work, you see. And you just bless what God is doing. Everybody's faith will go up. The faith level will rise. And Jesus said, I only do what I see the Father doing. I can't do anything unless the Father's doing it. So this is what we're going to learn to do, is to start looking. So you may keep your eyes open. We're going to ask the people that we're going to pray for to keep theirs closed. And we're going to invite the Holy Spirit to come and touch them. And you'll see that they will respond, all of them, in different ways. Sometimes they might shake a little bit, or you might just see them shining, or relaxing, or crying, or eyelids fluttering, or sometimes people ripple. I don't know how to explain it. But these are just ways which... Don't worry. You are. These are just ways in which you learn, after a little bit, how to observe. And they're just... It helps you to know, then all you need to do is to come up and say, Holy Spirit, we bless what you're doing. You see, that's all. You get to be in what God is doing. And as you say, Holy Spirit, we bless what you're doing, you'll see the work of God increasing. Okay. Right, all of you pray. Is it all right if you close your eyes, you lot? Would you put your hands open? That's right. Okay, you... I'm so sorry. What's your name? Spirit's upon him. What's your name? Paul. Would you mind opening your hands? Is that okay? Was it a foot problem? Okay. Okay. Come, Holy Spirit. As you... As you feel the needs of these people, now come with your healing power. Stretch your hands out. Bless them. Okay, I'd start there. And then I'd start there. Okay, now as we're standing here, are there any of you whose hands are tingling? Okay. If any of you who are feeling your hands are tingling, I want you to come out and pray for one of these upon whom you see the Spirit. Okay, you don't have to say loud prayers. Keep your eyes open. Oh, good. Watch them. See if they need a handkerchief or to sit down. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you how to pray for them. Oh, this is a keen lot. How do you see the people being prayed for? Now the rest of us here, keep your eyes open. The rest of you here, keep your eyes open. I know you're in the habit of praying with your eyes shut. You need to watch for all kinds of reasons. Start to communicate with the people around about, and you can ask the person you're praying for how they're feeling. Okay, now the rest of you here, we're going to do something a little different. Close your eyes now, because these people are getting on with the job. Okay, Diana, Maruth, Maryam, if the rest of you would close your eyes, we're going to ask the Holy Spirit to move upon all of you here with anointing to use the gifts of the Spirit. So, if you would close your eyes. I don't know how God's going to do this. Holy Spirit, there are two gentlemen here, and you're married, and you've had bad breakup with your wife, and you're feeling that because of that, God won't use you. And God wants you to know that despite that, He will use you, and even more, because of it, He will, for you to show mercy and compassion. Receive that. And there are also several ladies here, and you're over 60, and you feel that it's a little late to start these modern ways. And the Lord says, the ways of my Spirit were from the beginning, and as you are willing, so I will work through you. I will never ask you to do anything that is not for me, so you receive that now. Some of you are just beginning to feel like shaking. Some of you don't understand why, but you feel like crying. It's not grief, it's alright. It's a moving of the Spirit. And there's one man here, and your hands are feeling quite oily. It's you, okay. I want you to pray for the people around about you. Now, right now, we're going to divide into two. Either you know the Holy Spirit's working in you, and you're enjoying it, in which case, keep standing there. Or, you know you should be praying for someone. So I want everybody now either to receive prayer or to pray. No onlookers. And you can have two or three people stand there now and ask how you can pray for them. Pray for them with your eyes open and watch the Holy Spirit bless them. Yeah, the Holy Spirit's on that gentleman with the beard. You need to pray for him. Go with a strappy t-shirt. God's going to use you. The Holy Spirit's on you. So the girl next door, pray for her. The young man with the green shirt. Holy Spirit's calling you and anointing you now to do what you've been praying about. So the two girls next door to you, pray for him and bless him. Man in the blue t-shirt at the back. Just stay where you are. The Holy Spirit's going to bless you. So maybe the man behind with glasses. Come around, pray for him. But don't pray for his back. Pray for his front, please. Watch him. Okay, there's a lady over there with glasses with her hands up. Maybe those around about would pray for her. I don't know what the Spirit's doing, but he's touching her for healing. Man with gray hair there. Holy Spirit's upon you. So if the people around about you, turn to him, put out your hands and bless him. Holy Spirit's on you. Now just have a look at him. See the Holy Spirit on him? All over him. You just see God shining. Okay, the man with the gray beard there. Pray for the man beside you. The Holy Spirit's doing things in him. Have a look at him. You can see that. Okay, you pray for the lady there beside you. Holy Spirit's upon you. You pray for her. It's lovely to watch, isn't it? As you bless him, you'll see that the Holy Spirit's work increasing. So we're finding out how they're doing down there. Anybody get healed yet? Okay, man in the green shirt there. Would you pray for the man behind you? See the Holy Spirit on him, right? And the two or three people around about, also pray for him. Put your hands out and bless him. And you'll see God work on him. Watch him. Do open your eyes. I know you're not used to it. Now if you've been prayed for, you don't need to pray. You don't need to pray in tongues, even. You can relax, you know. Just learn to get blessed. The rest of you should be looking around if you're not actually being prayed for to see upon whom you see the Spirit. Okay, that man up there. Turn around and pray for him. See? See? Don't knock him over. Put your hand out and bless him and you'll see God work on him even more. Okay, somebody needs to pray for that girl in the white t-shirt. Okay. Okay. Is anyone praying for the man in the white shirt with the beard? You can see the Holy Spirit all over him. Can you see that? Now, as you say, Holy Spirit, we bless what you're doing, you'll actually see the Holy Spirit working upon him even more. See, he's actually rolling around with it. The fun of doing it this way is you see that God does the work, not us, and he just lets us be in it. That's why we're doing it this way. So we're just learning to get eyes of the Spirit. We're learning to see what God is doing and then we learn to enter into that. It's not the only way to do it, but we're just practicing how to start where God is starting. Okay, I'd like two or three people to come here. Pray for this gentleman. Start asking his name and start to bless him. Then ask what you can pray for him for. Yeah. Okay, somebody come join in praying for this girl. We need more people. Okay, somebody needs to pray for the girl in the pink shirt up there. She's got glasses on. Can you see the Holy Spirit upon her? Come out of your seats, go pray for her. Just bless her. Okay. Holy Spirit's still on the man with the gray beard there, so you go on praying for him. Yeah. Some others of you just pray for him. Bless him. You can say it out, I bless you in the name of the Lord. You have that authority. See whether you get any words from the scriptures. Okay. The girl there with the man in the blue shirt with his arms crossed. In front of you there's a girl that needs praying for, so get around the seat. Pray for her from the front. Don't pray for her back because you don't know what's happening that way. Yeah. Maybe one or two other people will join you. Yeah. So Holy Spirit, we thank you for whatever you're doing and touching lives here and blessing people. Please go on doing this. Okay. Would you go pray for that lady there? She's about five rows back with glasses on. Okay. Put some people, go pray for the gentleman in the gray beard there. People in his row. Keep your eyes open. Okay. Put your hand out. Say Holy Spirit, we bless what you're doing. I'm not sure what the Holy Spirit is doing, but he's upon him to bless him. And then later start asking some questions. We'd like to pray for possible pregnancy. You're very concerned about this. I think it's quite early on in the pregnancy. And the Lord wants you to know that you don't need to be afraid because the baby is in his hands. And if you'd like to make yourself known maybe a little later to us, we'd love to pray for you. ...days when the church is beginning to sort of explode outwards, which is great. So often in this country we've been concentrating on the inward care and now God's saying get out there and really begin to touch and affect the world. So we've got with us this afternoon quite a few folks from different groups and organizations who can share with us some of the ways and means that we can get involved and get trained. And what we're going to do in a few minutes is split you into two groups and send one lot upstairs and the holy ones will stay downstairs and have some of these people just very, very briefly share with us about what God has got or what means are available to us if we want to serve the Lord in these days. But before we bring on some of those people locally, I'd like you to listen to us for two minutes. Two and a half. And just very, very briefly, just a few general things if we're going to really be effective for God. We're very sorry to say that in Hong Kong right now we're not actually considering any more foreigners joining us. I mean overseas people because our own group has got flooded. So apart from teams, and sometimes we have teams coming, which is more helpful to us if a team comes for a short time because usually we'll ask the team leader to pastor people on the team. You see, much of our experience has been like this. We've spent so much time looking after the pastoral needs of the visitors who've come to help us that we've been less able to help the locals than before. And I think the result of this whole experience has been wonderfully beneficial to the kingdom of God all over the world. I think everybody who's been to Hong Kong has been blessed. But right now where our work is we can't afford to take that time in training people on the job because it's at the expense of our local people who really ought to be the leaders. And so because of that one or two comments from our own people I think about the way that foreigners, overseas people could be appropriate for you to hear. In the last two years I've observed many people coming to help in Hong Kong and so I want to speak from the point of view of an Asian, a Hong Konger, somebody from China. I would like to ask you please that if you come to our country you would be careful in your dress because Chinese people are very conservative. When a Chinese person comes to Hong Kong he thinks he's going to help Chinese people but he's not. We don't have a heart to help people we have a heart to learn from people. When you go to Hong Kong you have to teach Chinese people, no, you have to teach Westerners how to work. If you come to Hong Kong to teach Westerners how to work you will have a hard time. Why? Because Chinese people have different ways of doing things so Chinese people teach Westerners a lot of things. His comment on dress as you can see from the way some of us dress is nothing to do with our culture. That's what our men find quite upsetting in the way that many foreigners dress because it's a hot country they immediately start revealing all kinds of things. So please be careful and appropriate. It's quite hard for our guys to get prayed for by people who are inappropriate in their dress. I don't know why as soon as it's hot people start putting shorts on and things like that and that generally would not be appropriate except in certain places like the beach. So be careful and I suppose you would cover this if you were going through a particular mission. I'm sure they'd help you but we have lots of people who come through for a short time and this kind of thing it's just an indication I think sometimes of not being careful about somebody else's way of thinking. So he went on to say that the attitude is very important because many overseas people come to Hong Kong to learn from us and perhaps even learn from us because in this way we would find it most acceptable in getting on with you. I've been working with a lot of Westerners for a few years. Some Westerners really encourage us Chinese because they've come to Hong Kong to learn from us and to learn from us. I've met many people who've come on a mission to Hong Kong and many of them have blessed me because I see they've been willing to put down their own work and come to our country. But I would like to reiterate that in a large number of cases it's been hard to receive blessings and to receive the foreigners think they've come to teach us and they don't join in with our way of doing things. instance, when the brothers are getting off drugs they're completely new Christians and what will happen is when they see an overseas helper who has come to help them, if they observe that that overseas helper has that kind of attitude of heart then the local person will not respect them. And you'll find that the very new Christians are terribly discerning. They very quickly can sort out. So please, before you go, wherever you go, would you check on the attitude of your heart and make sure that it's God who's sending you and when you go please be determined to make relationships and be friends with the people that you're ministering amongst. Or if you have no relationship with them, it will not listen to you. And there are some people that come and boss us around and it could be that we do what they say but actually our benefit to us eternally is little. This is not a criticism. It's an observation that what they saw amongst us is not spiritual. So we don't want to make this a racial issue. We don't say this has anything to do with any country. We'd like to suggest that wherever you go, when you go, you make relationships with the people that you're there and learn to serve them. And lastly, I'd like to say that we're very pleased. Some come for a very short time. Even just a few weeks or a few months. And we're tremendously blessed by them but we're very upset when they go away. We really are upset when they go away. We're getting less and less fond of short-term mission. Because our say for those is a long minute, that I have many friends here in England that are working here with the poor and nobody regards them very highly. It's much more glamorous to be in Hong Kong or overseas than working with the poor in Britain where their friends in Britain simply can't understand and why they're not around anymore. And if you work with the poor, it's a full-time job. You just don't get weekends off, or weeks off. So we would like you to consider those here in Britain. And for any of you who are hoping to work with the poor anywhere else in the world, please start here, because they're all around you. All right, thanks very much, Jackie and team. I think that brings home to us very clearly the need to learn, to be willing to change, to submit in whatever we're gonna do if we're gonna work for the Lord. And that, I believe, is why it's important for us to work in association with other people who've perhaps had some experience and can give us a bit of orientation and talk to us a little bit further about culture and all these sort of things. And that's true both at home and overseas. I wanna emphasize that again, that for many of us, if we go into the inner city, we're going into a totally different culture than many of us live in. And I say, it is a totally different culture. And we've got folks here today. Steve Clifford's with us from Thai Teams, Ian and Peter from Target Teams, who are working, training people in evangelism, and in that training, reaching in to the inner city areas in particular, and seeking to minister there among the poor and so on. So what I'm going to suggest we do now, can I just ask Ian to stand, Ian Clifford? Steve Clifford, Steve Clifford. Ian Clifford's a missionary in France. Steve Clifford, sorry Steve. I've written your name down as Steve too. Steve is coordinator for Thai Teams, working in this country. Ian and Peter of Target Teams, where are they? Over here, right. Noel Moles, who's working with Workshop. And Peter Butt, who's got a leadership training course here in this country. Now if you are one of those people who feel, yeah, I'd like to work for, serve the Lord, but I feel I need to get some more training, both in the scriptures, in practical things, I need to sort of find my gifting, release more and more, and I'd like to work with a team maybe just through the summer or for a longer time, whatever it is, but you feel you want that training in this country at the moment. If you would like to follow those gentlemen that I've just mentioned, Peter Butt will stand up, lead the way across that door, and go up to the bar upstairs where Steve and Ian and Peter and Noel and Peter are going to talk just for a few minutes each about those various organizations, the tie teams, target teams, workshop and leadership training. All that is for working in the first instance in this country. So if you guys like to go and anybody interested in those areas would like to go with them, and then we've got other folks who are gonna be sharing down here. Just follow on, follow Peter. He looks as if he knows where he's going and I've got a feeling he might.