I wrote this particular worship song way back in the mid-80s. This was a few years after Ingrid and I encountered Vineyard worship and the teachings of John Wimber. Although the Vineyard Movement has Evangelical roots that acquired a Charismatic flavor, my song actually derives from the Kyrie of the Catholic Mass. I'll explain why in a moment, but first here are the lyrics: Lord, have mercy! Christ, have mercy! Lord, have mercy upon a sinner. Christ, have mercy upon my soul. Man of Sorrows! Man of Sorrows! Like a sheep I have gone astray. May your wounds take my sins away. Bread of heaven! Bread of heaven! Feed me 'till I no longer hunger. Let me drink 'till I thirst no more. One of the things that attracted me to Wimber and the early Vineyard was how he often worked together with different denominations to advance the kingdom of God. An example of this with Catholicism is the conference that John did in the late 80s with Francis MacNutt, a Catholic priest who practiced and taught healing prayer and was widely regarded as a leader in the Catholic Charismatic Movement. MacNutt wrote several books including Healing (1974) to help equip other Catholics pray for people's healing, and Ingrid and I were blessed from reading this book and some other Catholic Charismatic equipping materials we learned about from the Vineyard's own magazine Equipping the Saints . Also, because I had been an unreligious pagan before I became a Christian ( read my testimony if you haven't yet) I was hungry to learn everything I could about Christianity. So as a new believer I visited many churches of different denominations and read all kinds of Christian literature from St. Augustine to John Bunyan, John Wesley, Charles Finney, C.S. Lewis, Smith Wigglesworth and many others. So I guess it's not surprising that some of the early worship songs I wrote were "seasoned" sometimes with the flavors of different denominations. But this song is special. Because it's simple. And Biblical. We sang it many times in our early home fellowships, often as a communion song as we shared the bread and wine together in remembrance of our Lord's death, resurrection and coming return. I hope you like it too. You can listen to a recording that I made of this song on SoundCloud , and you can download a PDF leadsheet that has the melody in musical notation along with lyrics and guitar chords. One more thing: the song is dedicated to the Reverend Dennis Dickson , a priest of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada who was a very good friend of ours and passed away some years ago. Blessings in Christ, Mitch

Besides the Ephesians 6 passage that I talked about earlier, another Scripture on spiritual warfare that is frequently misunderstood (and often argued about) is this verse from James: Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7) Many Christians take this as a promise they can claim in their personal struggle against temptation, accusation, and other kinds of attack they experience from the Enemy. Others, especially some Bible commentators, point out that the passage in which this verse is found has a corporate dimension: What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble." Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you — who are you to judge your neighbor? (James 4:1-12) It appears, these commentators say, that what James is actually talking about here is selfishness and how it poisons relationships among the people of God. And the antidote James appears to suggest is repentance, not "duking it out" with the Devil. Who is right? Both are, actually. For although the focus here of the exhortation to "resist the Devil" is to resist Satan's attempts to create disharmony and strife among us, the statement that the Devil will flee if we resist him is a general truth — a promise from God — that James is applying here to a particular situation involving the audience he is writing to. Look at Jesus for example. In Luke 4:1-11 when Jesus was "led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil" he experienced a whole range of different attacks from the Evil One of which the Gospel writer keys in on three in particular. Jesus resisted each attack however, and in the end after the Devil had emptied his quiver of flaming arrows, he left — probably to try and plan some other schemes to bring down Jesus. So the Scripture which says that if we resist (and keep on resisting!) the Devil, he will (eventually) flee from us — or at least walk away in frustration — is indeed a trustworthy promise. And it applies both on a personal level in our struggle against the Prince of Darkness and on the wider corporate level of God's people resisting together the attempts of Satan to cause division and disunity among them. Context is important when interpreting Scripture, but truth is true regardless of the situation it's being applied to. —Mitch

The other day I was browsing an architecture and design magazine, and suddenly I remembered what it was like before I met the living God. I was a young man at university, and the whole world was wide open before me. There were a thousand things that interested me, and a thousand ways I could have gone in life. A thousand ways I could have lost myself. Ten thousand ways I could have lived, loved, died, and yet never have found the Author of Life, and the true life that He offers to all of us. How can I possibly express my deep gratitude to my Father for revealing His Son to me ? I could have searched for a thousand years and yet never found God. Ten thousand years wouldn't even have been enough, for only when God reveals Himself to us can He truly be found. "Who do you say I am?" asked Jesus of his disciples, and Simon Peter said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 16:15-17). May the living God reveal Himself to you too though His Son Jesus. —Mitch

There's much poor teaching (and some very bad teaching) in the church on the topic of spiritual warfare. Much of it centers on the interpretation of Ephesians chapter 6: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. (Eph 6:10-20 NIV) Where interpreters get it wrong here is by focusing too narrowly on the meaning of words like belt, truth, breastplate, righteousness, sword, and so on. It's a case of missing the forest for the trees. For example, is it truth about God that Paul refers to here? Or truth from God i.e. the Bible that He has given us? Or does Paul mean we should be truthful in everything we say and do? And how exactly is truth like a belt? At this point the preacher or commentator will often start describing the way men dressed in Biblical times, the kinds of belts and materials used to make them, and so on. All very edifying I'm sure, but in fact missing the main point of what Paul is saying. Because what Paul is doing here is using a metaphor to describe the Christian life. He is simply saying that as followers of Jesus, we should consider ourselves soldiers fighting against an enemy who rules over this dark world, an enemy who uses lies, wickedness and fear to keep people under his power. And if we are God's soldiers, then we need to live disciplined lives, strong and courageous, always on the alert. As soldiers we also need to always keep our armor on and learn how to effectively wield our weapons. And we need both offensive and defensive equipment and skills if we're going to win these battles. Even more importantly, we need godly character as God's soldiers. For no matter how gifted we are, if our character is deficient then we won't be able to stand our ground. One day we're going to fall, and will likely bring down others with ourselves. Finally, we need to recognize that we are in a war we can't escape from. There is no opt-out clause or room for conscientious objectors in this war we are in. "He who is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters," says our captain. This then must be our focus as we read this passage in Ephesians. If we lose focus on the big picture — the image of us as soldiers under attack while boldly proclaiming God's message — and instead get stuck on drilling down into the root meaning of Greek words and obscure customs of Biblical times, we are going to end up arguing with each other while our enemy sits back and laughs. So be strong, be bold, be patient and kind. Be like Jesus. —Mitch

What is the kingdom of God like? It's like a kid waiting at an intersection holding a squeegee. When a car drives up and stops at the intersection, the kid runs forward and starts cleaning the windshield. The driver may be annoyed by this, but this kid isn't doing it for a handout — he's doing it so the driver can see clearly to proceed safely toward his final destination. And once the car has driven away, the next car in line drives up and the whole process repeats. Hear what I'm sayin'? —Mitch Based on a dream God gave Ingrid several years ago. [Image credit: Richard Arless Jr/Postmedia News]

In my previous post in this series I shared a story about a powerful experience I had of the Father's love. I had heard my Father's voice speaking words of love and affirmation over me, and I felt greatly loved and affirmed afterwards. But only for a few days, and then I was my old insecure self again. Why? Why were the spiritual highs I experienced by encountering the living God always followed by desolate lows? Why couldn't I cement in my heart once and for all that my Father loves me? He gave the life of His only Son in exchange for me — isn't that enough? But that happened almost two thousand years ago. What about His love for me today ? In fact God has given me many proofs of His love for me. Six years after I met God, I was walking down a street somewhere. I was full of passion for following Jesus, but I was also a young man approaching thirty who was lonely and had no career in sight. I remember praying this prayer based on Ephesians 3:18: Father, I know by now I should filled to the height and depth and breadth and length with your love, but to be honest, all I really want at this point in my life is a wife, a car and a career. Very spiritual, wasn't I? And yet around a year later I was married, had a job as a high-school teacher, and had been given a free car. God loves when we are honest and He doesn't tolerate bullshit (a.k.a. hypocrisy, but I like the contemporary word better). And when that happened, I started to "get it" that God really did love me — in the here and now, and not just theologically. But despite such spiritual experiences and answers to prayer, I still struggled with insecurity and self-doubt for many years, until one day when Ingrid and I were on vacation in London, England. We had run out of cash (British pounds) and had used up our traveller's cheques. My debit card wouldn't work in the UK because of some issue. All we had were our credit cards, but we needed cash since not every establishment accepted credit cards. So I started to enter panic mode. We went to a bank nearby, but they said they couldn't help us. Finally after running around for some time, we found a bank that with the help of our passports and phone calls was willing to advance us some cash on our credit cards. "I am never going to let this happen to us again, " I shouted as we left the bank. I was in full-on panic mode by this time, and was determined to wear several money belts full of cash if we ever travelled outside Canada again. And then at that moment I remembered something the Lord had spoken to me after we had been told we were done with the church-planting internship program we had been taking at a Vineyard church on the West Coast. I had felt like a failure because I hadn't demonstrated that I could multiply the homegroup we had started, and afterwards as I was reading through Isaiah part of a verse spoke to me: Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you... (Isa 43:4 NIV) When I read this I thought: that's the first time that God has said "I love you" to me. I felt somewhat encouraged and filed the words away in my journal, but deep down they didn't make much difference in how I felt about myself. But in London when those words came back to me, I suddenly understood why God had reminded me of them. Because if I am precious to Him, I need not have any fear about anything. And if I am honored in his sight, then I shouldn't consider myself a failure in His sight. Precious — no fear. Honored — no failure. And, of course, loved. So I used this verse to wrestle down the fear and panic that had been overwhelming me, and we continued with our vacation and enjoyed our remaining time in the UK. And what had I learned? That I must exercise faith when God speaks to me or reveals Himself to me. I must believe what He says to me, and continue to believe even in the face of circumstances. The following story in Mathew 14:22-31 is important in this regard: Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid." "Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water." "Come," he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!" Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" While the heading for this passage in most Bibles is "Jesus walks on water" or something similar, a much better heading would be "Peter tries to walk on water." Because the lesson is really about learn how we, as followers of Jesus like Peter was, must learn how to exercise — and to continue to exercise — faith in every circumstance. It's the difference between walking on water or sinking into the depths of self-doubt and despair. I've had many powerful experiences of God over the years: I've heard His voice, seen Him on His throne, and had other foretastes of the powers of the age to come (Hebrews 6:5). But until I began applying myself to believe what He says to me, especially concerning His love for me in Christ, the impact of all these many experiences didn't last. And this — resolving to believe God — is what has finally enabled me to cement in my heart my Father's affirming love towards me, and to erase the roots of insecurity and self-doubt from my heart. Not that I'm already perfect — but I'm getting there. May you get there too, and soon! —Mitch

A few weeks ago a woman who had a swollen ankle for over a week asked me to pray for her. Not feeling very anointed, I swallowed and said "OK" and laid both my hands on her ankle. I asked the Holy Spirit to come and release His healing power. And then I waited. After about two minutes I looked up at her face to see whether there were any visible signs of the Holy Spirit touching her. These visible signs or "manifestations" are well-documented in Vineyard literature (for example see page 212 in John Wimber's book Power Healing) and can range from violent shaking or falling over to slight trembling, eyelids fluttering, breathing slowing down, a feeling of warmth, and so on. Often when I pray for someone's healing, one or more of these manifestations occur in the subject indicating that the Holy Spirit is present and the person's healing has begun. But not this time. So I looked down at her swollen ankle and continued praying. I prayed silently and earnestly, using a formulaic prayer that I had once learned from John Wimber: "Oh God, oh God, oh God..." After a few minutes I asked the woman if she felt anything happening. "No," she replied, and when we examined her ankle together it still looked the same. I asked if I could continue to pray, and she said Yes. So once again I laid my hands around her ankle and prayed, silently repeating another formulaic prayer that John Wimber taught people in the early days of the Vineyard: "Help! Help!! Help!!!" And once again, I waited. Then after a few more minutes I noticed something happening. But it wasn't happening to the woman—it was happening to me! A feeling of peace had come upon me. My breathing had also slowed down and my posture had changed, making me lean more forward. I thought, Hey, just a minute! This kind of stuff is supposed to happen to the person being prayed for, not the person doing the praying! But I accepted what was happening and welcomed the presence of the Holy Spirit—and then I felt faith rising in me that God was going to heal. A few more minutes passed, and then we looked at her ankle again. There was still no change, so I just said I'd be happy to pray for her again the next day. She agreed to this, and we ended our ministry session together. But about two hours later the woman told me the swelling in her ankle had diminished. "That's great!" I said, and thanked God that I hadn't completely blown it ministering to her. And the next day she reported that her ankle was back to normal, and when I asked her about a week later, it was still normal. So God healed her. Lessons learned What lessons can we learn from this story? First, learn how to recognize signs when the Holy Spirit releases healing gifts. And second, follow up with people when you pray for their healing. In this case when I talked with her later, she said she thought the condition might have been caused because she ate too much sugar (too many desserts). I'm not a physician or nutritionist, but I know from personal experience how over-consumption of sugar can have a negative impact on your health, so I simply agreed and suggested she learn to say No to desserts :-) Hope this helps. Peace, everyone. —Mitch

I shared previously how as a young man I had ended up on the floor after being ministered to at a Vineyard conference. That occasion however left me feeling desolate as I ended up crying out "Father, I want to feel your love!" over and over again. Instead of being filled by the Spirit from this experience, I felt nothing but emptiness afterwards. But shortly after this I had a different "floor time" experience. Back then there was no Vineyard church in our city, so Ingrid and I were attending what we thought at the time was the next best thing: a growing Charismatic church located in the downtown area. It wasn't until long after we had left the church that we learned it had previously belonged to the Shepherding Movement. During one of the Sunday services, the pastor gave out what he felt was a "word from the Lord" that some of those present had told God they had "drawn lines in the sand" and would "not cross them again." He said however that this was wrong and that those who had drawn such lines should come forward and repent. Frustrated and discouraged from having tried to engage in various ministry activities only to be criticized and rebuffed by leadership, I felt that the pastor's "word" must apply to me. So I went forward and got down on my knees to repent. I began to pray, telling God how sorry I was that I had drawn those lines in the sand. Then I felt someone's hand on my back, and as the hand started trembling I began to weep. "I'm sorry, Father," I said, repeating this again and again as my eyes began to fill with tears. Then suddenly the Lord spoke to me: You've never drawn any lines. "Whaah" I cried, "whaah, whaaah" as tears rolled down my face. This went on a while and then God spoke to me again: You've always obeyed me. "Whaaaah! Whaaaaahhh!" I cried loudly as the hand on my back shook strongly. Then He spoke to me one more time: You're a man after my own heart. "WHAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!" Lying on the floor by this time, I proceeded to sob my heart out, totally oblivious to everything and everyone around me. Then after some time had elapsed and my tears had dried up, I opened my eyes and turned around to find out who had been praying for me. "What happened, Mitch?" It was my brother-in-law who had laid his hand on me. "Mitch?" he repeated, "What was happening there with you?" We both stood up. I looked at him and wanted to say, "My name isn't Mitch, it's CHRISTIAN!!" But I just smiled instead and thanked him and said I couldn't share right now, maybe later. Because I didn't want to lose the wonderful feeling I was experiencing at that moment: the feeling of being loved and affirmed by my heavenly Father. The experience was so precious to me that I thought if I should share it I might lose the potency and power of it. This feeling only lasted several days however and then it dissipated. And by the end of the week I was struggling with insecurity and depression again over not being able to find my place in the church and not being recognized by the leadership for the gifts I felt God had given me. Like my daydream in the house church that I previously used to attend, this new experience of God's love was powerful, but once again it didn't last. Why not? Probably for several reasons which at the time I just couldn't fathom. But the question always remained: How could I cement in my heart the fact that my Father really loves me? Was there something I needed to do? Or was I doomed to endure a series of spiritual highs followed by desolate lows? More to come soon. --Mitch

My previous post on this topic set forth four principles that provide a foundation to encourage and equip ourselves and others for doing personal evangelism. I ended that post by suggesting that each time we step out into the world, we should bring these principles to mind by praying something like this: Lord, I believe you want to save him/her/them and that you've sent me and empowered me. Help me share your good news! Over the next couple of weeks I've tried repeating this prayer to myself as Ingrid and I have gone shopping for groceries or new clothes or just for coffee somewhere. And the results have been encouraging. For example, the first time I tried this was when we were about to enter an Italian grocery store we often frequent. As I walked around the store I saw a man who worked there whom we had previously talked with. I grabbed the opportunity to point him to my testimony which I've put online and he responded positively. I haven't seen him since, but plan on following up when I do meet him again. Then after we paid for our groceries, we sat down for a coffee and one of the checkout girls we hadn't seen for several months came over and started talking with us. She began telling us about an injury that had kept her away from work, and how she needed to find a new fulltime job which was difficult to find in these current economic conditions. Soon we were praying for her and telling her about Jesus. Another time when we were shopping for groceries, Ingrid saw a young woman standing in front of the meat counter. "What a beautiful coat," said Ingrid, "the color suits you perfectly and it looks well made with good material." As they talked together, the young woman said she was buying a steak for her boyfriend whom she was soon going to marry. At that point Ingrid said, "Jesus is in our marriage, and if Jesus is in your marriage you will be able to forgive one another and make decisions together and your marriage will succeed." I recall how many years ago our friend Mac Jardine told us that the key to doing evangelism is to "have the courage to say the J-word." Ingrid has this courage, and she often brings up Jesus in her conversations with strangers. We've also had problems recently with our kitchen sink and bathroom shower leaking, so last week we called a plumber. As he worked I started talking with him, and soon he was sharing his regret over the failure of his marriage. As he talked I kept thinking to myself: How can I say something meaningful to this man before he leaves? I prayed the above prayer again and again, asking the Lord for his help. Finally the man gave me the bad news that we needed to replace our shower and it would cost us quite a lot. And then suddenly I knew the words I should say: "We'll have to talk with God before we decide whether to approve your estimate as we always ask Him when we're faced with making financial decisions." The man replied "I respect that" and prepared to leave as he had other customers to attend to, so we couldn't continue our conversation. But perhaps there's an opening now for me to pray for him when he comes to install the new shower in our bathroom. So no great revival has broken out since I started praying my above prayer, but so what? The kingdom of God often advances gradually in a manner we can scarcely notice or perceive (see Mark 4:26-29 ). The point is to keep on doing it and not give up. And I hope these stories encourage you to do the same. Cheers, --Mitch

The first chapter and introduction of our latest book Simple Kingdom: Word and Spirit are now completed in draft (unedited) form and we're making them available on our website for those who are interested in previewing them. Check out the section we've added near the top of our home page for links to these draft chapters as we finish writing them. Cheers,  Mitch and Ingrid

The following healing story is excerpted from chapter 3 of our book Simple Kingdom: Home Fellowships : Inner healing can be variously defined but essentially involves helping an individual become emotionally whole through the intervention of God's power. Individuals are often hampered in their spiritual growth by painful things that happened to them in their childhood and growing years. Often the person is not even aware of the problem or what may have caused it. Others may be aware however that the individual has a problem, typically because of unhealthy behaviors they manifest such as chronic anxiety, depression, substance addiction, or suicidal tendencies. Home fellowships can be the place where those in need of inner healing can receive it because the love they experience from others in the group fosters a sense of trust that gives them courage to share their deepest hurts. Ken, who had been healed from self-destructive behaviors including drug abuse and suicidal thoughts when he became a Christian, shares next how he received inner healing in a home fellowship from feelings of rejection and abandonment: I always did risky things as a kid, like drinking heavily and mixing different kinds of drugs together. I overdosed a couple of times, and I often felt like I had some sort of "suicide mark" on me. One winter day as a teenager, I decided to end my life. So I went to the highway and drank a whole bottle of booze and lay down in the culvert thinking I'd slowly pass out and freeze myself to death. But the trouble was, I got so cold I couldn't fall asleep! So I got up and went home. A few years later after I had become a Christian, my mom confessed to me on her deathbed that she had tried to abort me when she realized she was pregnant. I began wondering if this might lie behind my suicidal behaviors, so I went to see the couple who led our house church and told them about it. After I shared my story, the woman picked up her guitar and began singing a Vineyard worship song that starts with "I will change your name, you shall no longer be called wounded, outcast, lonely or afraid." I immediately flopped on the floor and thought "This is so weird." A deep feeling of rest then came over me. I felt something break and I forgave my mom. For more healing stories see the Blog page of our website. --Mitch

Ingrid and I have started working on the next title in our Simple Kingdom series of free books. The book will be titled Simple Kingdom: Word and Spirit and the (tentative) table of contents is as follows: - Introduction - History or myth? - It is written - Apostles and prophets - Hearing God in the Scriptures - Hearing God through the Scriptures - Experiencing God beyond the Scriptures I'll be posting the draft chapters here in our blog as they are being written. Then once all the chapters are finished, the book will be made available as a free PDF download from our website. More news about this soon :-) --Mitch

I've been married now to my wonderful wife Ingrid for more than 40 years, so I thought on this Valentine's Day it might be nice if I put the following poem online which I wrote during our first year of marriage when we lived up north in Cranberry-Portage, Manitoba: You are God's lesser gift to me; The greater one they hung upon the tree. Yet this small gift I value none the less, Though mortal is your sweet caress. Love you, Schatz! --Mitch

In his book Power Evangelism Wimber says articulating guiding principles for training people in the ministry of divine healing is like laying down the foundation for a building you want to build. What are some of the Biblically-based principles for equipping others (and yourself!) in the ministry of personal evangelism? The first guiding principle is simply that God wants to save people . In 1 Timothy 2:4 the apostle Paul says that God "wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." And in 2 Peter 3:9 the apostle Peter says "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." And Jesus himself says in John 3:16 that "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." The second principle for evangelism is that we have been commissioned and sent by Jesus . "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 29:19). "As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you" (John 20:21). See also Luke 9:1-6 and 10:1-12, and also our free book Simple Kingdom: Discipleship where the task we are to perform as followers of Jesus is described in detail. A third key principle is that we are empowered by the Holy Spirit . "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses...to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8). We are to bear witness to coming kingdom by both words and works: "As you go, proclaim this message: 'The kingdom of heaven has come near.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons" (Matthew 10:7-8). Ingrid and I have both found that effective evangelism often begins when we pray for someone who is ill, troubled or tormented as we encounter people in the marketplace. Our final principle for doing evangelism is that trust in God is demonstrated by action . Studying the Bible is good, but doing the Bible is better. Jesus says that "Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock" (Matthew 7:24). He also says that only those who do God's will have the right to call him Father (Matthew 12:50). Application How can we apply all this to help us become more effective in sharing our faith? One way is to remind ourselves of these principles as we pass through our world. For example, when we go to work, enter a classroom, take our kids to the movies, wait in line at checkout in the grocery store, are greeted by the barista at a coffee shop, or whatever, we can recite a short mantra to ourselves to remind ourselves of these principles. Like saying this simple four-point prayer: Lord, I believe you want to save these people! Thank you that you've sent me to do your will! Thank you that your powerful Spirit is always with me! Please help me share your good news today! Of course if you’re like I am, then about ten seconds after you've recited the above and stepped into the world, you've completely forgotten it! But hey, that's just the world, the flesh and the Devil at work trying to inhibit and impede us. Get used to it and keep on moving forward in the kingdom :-) Blessings, —Mitch

As some have recently asked how I became a Christian, I've decided to share my personal testimony on t his website . The pattern I've followed is the one the apostle Paul used when he addressed the crowd in Jerusalem from the steps of the army barracks where he was going to be held pending examination (Acts 22:1-21). Like Paul, I describe what kind of person I used to be, how I met God, and what happened afterwards. You can read my testimony here and feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments about anything in my story. Cheers, --M itch Tulloch

---By Ingrid Tulloch---  When I was a young woman who had come of age, I wanted more than anything else to be on my own, to make my own decisions for my life and not be under the control of my parents. So I started praying about my situation. Not long afterwards the door opened for me to attend a Navigators conference in Colorado Springs. While I was there I attended a Bible study on Second Timothy led by one of the Navigators leaders, and during the study I was struck by this verse: "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." (2 Tim 1:7) Here ended all confusion for me. After receiving some counselling from the leader, I made the decision that when I returned I would tell my parents right away that I was going to move out, live on my own and take steps to further my education which was to become a teacher in Early Childhood Development. When I got home, I told my parents my plans. They were puzzled, but they didn't try to stop me. My Heavenly Father had given me courage and confidence through that verse, and I often returned to it whenever I faced a difficult situation in my life. May the Lord lead and guide you in your own life! —Ingrid

I described previously some efforts I made a while back to try and rekindle passion in my Christian life for doing personal evangelism. I've also been thinking a lot lately about how those of us who are leaders can effectively train others in evangelism and (re)ignite passion in them for sharing their faith. I believe the answer to these two questions — how to motivate/equip both myself and others in areas like evangelism — can be found in the method John Wimber used in his book Power Healing . In chapters 9 through 12 of his book, Wimber describes a model he developed for equipping people in the ministry of divine healing. Wimber begins by articulating key principles underlying divine healing. From this foundation he then develops values, priorities and practices that can help make people become effective in healing ministry. The model can then be used to develop contextually-based programs for training people in divine healing. Wimber concludes by outlining a simple 5-step procedure people can follow when praying for the sick and demonized. Following in Wimber's footsteps and based also on several decades of my own involvement in leading/planting homegroups and house churches, I developed a similar model for home fellowship ministry in Simple Kingdom: Home Fellowships . Beginning from first principles, I outlined in this book the values, priorities and practices that I believe are important for building healthy, Biblically-based home fellowships. I wrote this with the goal of helping people build and plant new home fellowships, the doing of which I believe will be a key part of bringing to fulfillment Wimber's vision for planting thousands of new fellowships (see chapter 5 of Bill Jackson's book The Quest for the Radical Middle for the story of how Wimber received this vision). In this short series of blog posts I'm going to try and do something similar for personal evangelism. My goal will be twofold. First, to provide church leaders with a framework they can use to motivate and equip their people for evangelism. And secondly — and more importantly, at least for myself — to provide some simple points of reminder that someone like me can use to help them become more effective in sharing Christ with others. Lately I've been feeling an urgency to address this important subject, both for the church at large and also for myself. For as Ingrid has said in the final chapter of Simple Kingdom: Discipleship , "A phrase keeps coming to my mind: the urgency of the kingdom." Do you too feel this urgency? Blessings, —Mitch

In the early 80s we attended a Vineyard conference where one of John Wimber's associates was speaking. By that time Ingrid and I had listened to numerous teaching tapes by Wimber and were leading a home fellowship where we all practiced learning to heal the sick. I was excited about attending the conference, and had put together a laundry list of spiritual gifts I wanted to receive from the Lord so I could be more effective in power ministry to help build His church. So when the speaker finished teaching and invited people to come forward, I hurried to the front and waited for someone to minister to me. The speaker came and stood in front of me. (Yay, the Big Guy, just what I was hoping!) He asked me what I wanted him to pray for. I told him I wanted the gift of prophecy and the gift of tongues, and more anointing for healing, and so on and so forth. He looked at me, and then he placed his hands on me and said, "Say this prayer out loud: Father, I want to feel your love." So I prayed as directed. Next thing I knew I was on the floor bawling my eyes out. I sobbed and sobbed, silently crying "Father! I want to feel your love!" over and over again. I felt so empty. Meanwhile, the speaker had left me there and gone on to pray for someone else. Eventually I got up, dried my eyes, and went back to my seat. I don't remember the rest of the conference; I just remember feeling empty afterwards, and confused. Was this effective ministry on the speaker's part? Did he minister to me the way the Lord wanted him to? I don't know; Paul says we prophesy in part (1 Cor 13:9) and James says we make many mistakes (Jas 3:2) as we teach and minister to others. What I do know is that my hunger for knowing God — for experiencing his presence and power — continued to grow during the years that followed. But it seemed like a long time before that hunger was satisfied. But You have satisfied it, Father, thank you. May our Heavenly Father satisfy your hunger for Him too in the coming days, months and years. —Mitch

I've uploaded a recording of a new worship song called Evermore . I originally wrote this song about ten years ago but it still needed some revision which I've just managed to complete. The words of the song go like this: Jesus, it's you that I love You that I worship and you I adore You I will honor and praise evermore Evermore And I worship you, yes I worship you I will worship you all my days And I worship you, yes I worship you I will worship you all my days Evermore You can listen to my recording on SoundCloud , and you can download a PDF leadsheet with melody, lyrics and guitar chords from our Songs page. I like this song because it's worshipful. I can express the feelings in my heart when I sing it to the Lord. I hope you like it too. Feel free to email me if you have any comments regarding my song. Thanks! --Mitch

Some years ago I started feeling there was something missing from my Christian life. As I thought more about it, I realized what the problem was: I was no longer doing any personal evangelism. When I first met the Lord, I was on fire for Him and shared Christ with anyone who would listen. I was not embarrassed to do this, though I was puzzled by some of the negative responses I received. After all, why would anybody *not* want to meet God and have eternal life? Over time my fire of enthusiasm diminished however. Part of the reason for this was the church circle I moved in. I started out as an Evangelical where becoming educated seemed to be the goal, so I studied hard and read many books. But my hunger for God wasn't satisfied by this, so I moved over to the Charismatics where the goal seemed to be having cool experiences. But this didn't satisfy me either. What I really wanted was greater intimacy with God, a closer relationship with Him. And when I encountered the Vineyard movement and its emphasis on worship as our highest priority, I found what I was looking for. But even so, the way is hard that leads to life. And as my walk with God progressed, thorns grew up and began to choke my Christian life. It didn't help too that there was an Enemy that was trying to knock me off the Way. But I had reached a point where I had stopped bearing fruit. What should I do? I decided to try and rekindle my desire for doing personal evangelism by reading some books on the subject. So I went to our local Christian bookstore to see what I could find. And after perusing the shelves of top-selling titles, this is what I found: About 30 books on the subject of "the prophetic" More than 300 "Christian novels" Three books on personal evangelism, all of them first published in the 1960s. I was shocked. Is being excited and entertained what Christians here in North America crave most nowadays? By this point of my life I had already spent several years working in West Africa, and the Christians I met there viewed personal evangelism as a lifestyle, not some unpleasant activity they were occasionally required to engage in. Will the Son of Man find faith when he returns? I wonder. Because faith doesn't just mean believing, it also means doing. And sharing the Good News with people is part of what being a follower of Jesus is all about. But how can one get going again if one's efforts have dried up in this area? I'll share some thoughts on this in a future post. Cheers, —Mitch

I was sitting in the living room at Mandy's place where the house church I belonged to was meeting. One of the elders was speaking on some topic. I was bored, so my mind began to wander and I had the following daydream: I needed to talk with my father about something, so I went to the castle where my father was the king. I walked across the drawbridge under the portcullis hanging above the gate and into the courtyard. Two guards in armor were standing by the castle entrance, and they ignored me as I reached to open the door and enter the castle. I walked down the hallway where other guards were silently standing at attention on either side of the hall. I approached the door to the king's chamber and looked up at the guards standing silently on either side of the doorway. I slowly opened the door and looked into the room. The king was hunched over his table together with his counsellors. They were discussing important matters while examining some papers on the table. Realizing the king was too busy that I should interrupt him for such an unimportant matter as mine was, I turned around and left the room, quietly closing the door behind me. With my head hanging and feeling sad, I walked slowly back down the passageway and out through the castle door. I walked across the courtyard, under the portcullis, and onto the drawbridge. But just as I was about to step off the drawbridge, I remembered something: Wait a minute — he's my FATHER!!! I quickly turned around and ran back through the gate into the courtyard. The guards saluted me as I approached and opened the castle door for me. I ran down the hallway and the guards on either side briskly saluted as I ran past. And when I reached the door to the king's chamber, the guards standing there opened it and waved me in to enter. I ran into the room where my father the king was busy conferring with his counsellors, and I shouted "Dad! Dad!!" The king immediately straightened up and looked straight at me. Then he brusquely waved away his counsellors and told them to leave the room. Pushing his papers aside, he lifted me onto his table and putting his arm around me, said, "Son, what's wrong?" I can't help wanting to cry whenever I remember this daydream. I'm crying right now in fact, even though this happened many years ago when I was a young man who had only been a Christian a few years. It was my first powerful experience of the fatherhood of God, and the effect it had on the others in our house church — I think someone had asked me what I thought about the topic being discussed, and when I didn't respond they realized my attention had been elsewhere — but when I told the group what I had been just been daydreaming, the effect on them was electric: "Whoooaaahhh!" most of them said, leaning back on their sofas in amazement. That felt nice. At the end of our house church service, one of the elders asked if I would like to bring the message the following Sunday. I said yes, and I spent that whole week trying to think up more parables (made-up stories that taught a lesson) I could share with the group. Well, the following Sunday finally arrived, and the church members looked on with smiling expectation as I began sharing my parables... They were hugely disappointed. My thought-up parables were contrived and lame, and I felt more and more embarrassed as I shared them under the increasing frowns of the listeners. Needless to say, no one thanked me at the end of my sermon. That didn't feel nice. Some thoughts and analysis Clearly my experience had been more than just a daydream: it was a revelation of the Father's love. One might expect that such a revelation would have had a deep and lasting effect on my understanding of the Fatherhood of God and my relationship with Him. It didn't. I was still the same insecure young man afterwards: passive, unassertive, lacking in confidence, full of self-doubt and plagued with anxiety. My revelation didn't "take" in my innermost being and had zero impact on my spiritual growth as a young Christian. Why? Perhaps it was because I already understood that God was my Father and that He loved me, for I knew I had eternal life because of what Jesus had done for me on the cross. So my daydream didn't really tell me anything that I didn't already know. But I think the real reason my daydream had so little impact on me was because of my relationship with my earthly father. I loved my dad, and I know he loved me too; he proved that in so many ways when I was growing up. But my dad had his own struggles with insecurity that affected his behavior towards me and which left me feeling uncertain about his love for me. For example, dad could be demonstrative in showing affection by giving me hugs and expressing admiration for my achievements. But he could also be sharp and cutting with his words, calling me a jerk when I did something stupid or withdrawing in coldness whenever I rejected his advice. Because of these mixed messages I received from him, I found it difficult to approach my father whenever I needed something, fearing he might reject my request. But whenever I did ask him for something, he almost always gave it to me. I think this confusion I experienced regarding my earthly father's feelings towards me probably carried over into my relationship with my new Father when I became a Christian. The first part of my daydream seems to confirm this, while the dream's ending shows my Heavenly Father's true feelings towards me. But just as my dad's demonstrations of affection could be negated by a single expression of his criticism, my assurance of God's love towards me was similarly precariously balanced at this point in my Christian life. After all, what if I don't live up to my Heavenly Father's expectations? Will He still love me? And yes, I was aware that Romans 8 says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But what if I sometimes still walked according to the flesh instead of according to the Spirit? Was I truly in Christ if I struggled so often with sin in my life? These kinds of arguments raged through my mind in the early years of my Christian life. Truth is, even though I had become a convinced Evangelical by that point, all the sound doctrine I had learned didn't really help me very much — and this despite having read all six volumes of Martin Lloyd-Jones's commentary on Romans and memorized much of the first eight chapters of Romans in the original Greek! In a future post I'll explore this question of why experiences of God's love don't always help help us grow spiritually. But for now, let me just conclude with one final, and I think very important, observation concerning my house church daydream/revelation. I believe that the most fundamental reason why this particular revelation had so little impact upon me personally is because it wasn't actually intended for me: it was intended for the others who attended that house church meeting. My daydream was a gift from the Holy Spirit, and such gifts are given for the common good (1 Corinthians 12:7) not to bring the person who delivers the gift high regard from others or boost their self-esteem. But none of us in our house church understood this as we were all die-hard Evangelicals: good, solid Christians, but limited in some ways by our cessationist theology. So when I shared my daydream with them, the elders reacted by thinking I must be a gifted teacher and invited me to bring the message next time. And since among Evangelicals being a gifted preacher is often viewed as the sina qua non of being a committed Christian, I readily assented to their invitation — and was then deeply hurt by their reaction on the following Sunday. Fortunately I now have a better understanding of what the Christian life is supposed to be like, some of which Ingrid and I have tried to describe in our free book Simple Kingdom: Discipleship . But I'm telling you, it's been a long, hard journey, and I'm looking forward to reaching the finish line. Because then there won't be any more questions —I'll see Him face to face. Take care, and be filled to overflowing with the Father's love. —Mitch

I've been re-reading John Wimber's book Power Healing lately for about the fifth or sixth time. I'm doing this because I want to get better at healing the sick and demonized. Because that's something that disciples — followers of Jesus — are supposed to do. See the first two chapters of our book Simple Kingdom: Discipleship if you're not yet clear about this. Anyways, in chapter 11 of John's book he talks about prayer selection, which means answering the question of what kind of prayer is needed to help the person you're trying to heal. He gives some examples of different kinds of healing prayers that include prayers of petition, prayers of intercession, words of pronouncement, words of command, and so on. One type of healing engagement he doesn't talk about here is what might be called a word of instruction. An example of this can be found in chapter 5 of Second Kings where the prophet Elisha sends a messenger to Naaman, the Syrian army commander who suffered from leprosy, telling him to go and bathe himself seven times in the Jordan river if he wants to be cured from his leprosy. Over the years Ingrid and I have occasionally given such words of instruction to people whose healing we were praying for. One such example involved myself: During our early days when we were just beginning to learn about healing from Wimber's cassette tape series and other Vineyard materials, I developed some painful sores in my mouth. This got worse and worse over the next few days until I began having difficulty swallowing. At this point Ingrid laid hands on me and started to pray for my condition. As we waited for the Holy Spirit to lead us in our prayers, I suddenly saw a vision of a red bottle. Ingrid and I discussed this and concluded that God was probably instructing me to go look for a red bottle containing some liquid that would heal my condition. So I went to our local pharmacy and started walking through the aisles. When I reached the oral health section, I suddenly saw a red bottle that had the exact same color and shape as the one I had seen in my vision. It was a product called Sterisol, and the bottle's label described it as a therapeutic oral rinse that contained hexitidine, an anti-bacterial and anti-fungal agent. I was unfamiliar with the product, but because of my vision I concluded that God was telling me I should use it to heal my condition. So I bought it and went home and washed my mouth with it several times. The next morning my sores had greatly diminished and were no longer painful. And by the second day they were completely gone. As a postscript to this story, many years later I developed a small sore in my mouth. After about a week it went away, but I thought I'd better buy a bottle of Sterisol and have it around just in case I ever needed it in the future. But when I went to the pharmacy I couldn't find it, and looking online I discovered that the product had been taken off the market here in Canada because our health authorities had decided that the ingredient hexitidine was unsafe. Argh! Fortunately upon further research I found that this was not the case in the UK and that one could still buy a similar hexitidene-based mouthwash there called Oraldene, so I ordered a bottle of it from amazon.co.uk. Thank you, Amazon :-) In conclusion then, when you pray for healing for others, or even for yourself, be open for the Lord telling you to do something in order to be healed. Not all healing happens through divine power released during prayer; sometimes you have to actually take concrete steps to get healed. Be blessed, and be healed in Jesus' name. —Mitch

Just wanted to let everyone who visits our website that we (finally!) have a *proper* newsletter as opposed to me occasionally sending emails to Undisclosed Recipient (myself) and bcc'ing a bunch of others. Our newsletter will keep you informed about what's new on our website i.e. new blog posts, articles, free books, worship songs etc. The newsletter is being hosted on Cakemail to make it GDPR-compliant, and you can sign up here to receive it. When you click this link your browser should open a form that looks like this: