BuildPlantBlog

Why some worship songs are hard to learn

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 16:02:19 GMT

I imagine that even angels can get frustrated trying to learn some worship songs...

This morning Ingrid was listening to an old Vineyard worship CD titled " Holy And Anointed One " and was trying to memorize the words of the songs. One song in particular was giving her difficulty. The song is called "Redeemer" and the words go like this:

Redeemer, Mighty One

King of kings above all the earth

Father of light, Healer of lives

Lord God Most High

And yet You call me loved one

You even call me chosen

You cherish me, calling me friend

(repeat)

Messiah, Holy One

Name above all other names

Song of Songs, Word of Life

Lord God Most High

And yet You call me loved one

You even call me chosen

You cherish me, calling me friend

(repeat)

Ingrid said to me, "The chorus is great, it's powerful. But I can never remember the verses, the words don't seem to follow one another. I think the best worship songs are ones that are easy to remember, like "Blessed Be The Name Of The Lord." The words of that song are simple but express truth, and the use of repetition emphasizes this. The music is also very powerful."

I replied that I thought she was absolutely correct, and that the weakness with the song "Redeemer" is that the verses are a kind of "word salad" meaning that there's no logical reason behind the order of the words. Redeemer, King, Father, Healer, Lord Messiah, Holy One, Song of Songs, Word of Life — all true of course, but there's no simple pattern to help one remember the order of the words.

As I mention in Chapter 4: Writing Worship Songs of my book Simple Kingdom: Worship , I've sometimes been guilty myself of using the "word salad" appoach when writing worship songs. For example the following song, which a dear friend of ours once told us was her "most favorite worship song ever," has words that are so hard to memorize that I can't even get them straight myself when I try to sing it:

Because You Are Beautiful

Because you are beautiful,

I will seek your face.

Because you are wonderful,

I will stand in awe.

Because you are marvelous,

I will lift my hands.

Because you are glorious,

I will praise your name.

I'm not saying that "Redeemer" is a bad song. It's actually a good song. But it's not that easy to learn. And as Carol Wimber reminded us in her book "The Way It Was," her husband John especially loved musicians who could write simple worship songs that were easy to sing and play, songs that even novice guitarists could use when they led worship times in home fellowships.

So if you are a worshipper and an aspiring songwriter, try laying down your talents and ambitions at the feet of the Lord and write worship songs that anyone can learn, songs one can sing while washing the car, preparing meals, walking the dog or cutting the grass.

Hear what I'm sayin'?

Cheers,
Mitch

(Image: Angel playing the lute by Rosso Fiorentino, 1495 – 1540)

Still Bearing Fruit

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 19:56:08 GMT

A few years ago an old friend of Ingrid’s who lives in BC had a word from the Lord for us. The word was Psalm 92:13-15 and in the Jerusalem Bible it reads like this:

Planted in the house of Yahweh, they will flourish in the courts of our God, still bearing fruit in old age, still remaining fresh and green, to proclaim that Yahweh is righteous, my rock in whom no fault is to be found!

The important part — the part that struck us with prophetic forcefulness — was this:

still bearing fruit in old age

This encouraged us tremendously because at the time we were feeling our age. And even though the desire to serve the Lord was still there, the energy just wasn’t there anymore. We were growing old.

For over four decades Ingrid and I have been building and planting God’s kingdom. We’ve started home fellowships and house churches, helped establish church plants, trained and led ministry teams, led Bible Studies, delivered food hampers to the poor and and done all kinds of other kingdom stuff. But we’ve reached a point in our lives — I’m in my 70s now — where there are some things that we just can’t do anymore.

Like starting another home fellowship. We see the need for one, a place where we can invite those we’ve been trying to draw into the kingdom. But the reality is we can’t do it anymore. We’re just too old. In earlier times our midweek homegroup meetings often ran until midnight as we counselled and ministered to people. Now however we head to bed around 9 pm so we can get enough sleep to function the following day.

But if we’re too old now to start something — and if you start something then you’re also going to have to lead it, right? Because otherwise it’ll fall apart. So then, if you’re too old to start and lead something, what can you still do?

My friend Martin, who is in a similar season of life, says what we can do is to resource those leading the front end of the battle. And that’s exactly what Ingrid and I have been trying to do with our BuildPlant.org website: to provided resources, based on our decades of experience, for those who are young and bold (and maybe crazy) enough to want to build and plant fellowships, equip and lead ministry teams, train worship leaders and songwriters, and so on.

But there’s also something else you can do for God’s kingdom when you’re old like we are. And that’s to pray. And guess what? Jesus even tells us what we should be praying for. Because the problem is that there are few who are willing to commit the time, energy and money— and deal with all the attendant difficulties and problems and frustrations and disappointments and pushback and flak — involved in building and planting fellowships, equipping and leading ministry teams, training worship leaders and songwriters, and such kinds of stuff.

So then, considering this situation what should we as old leaders who can no longer lead be praying for? The answer lies in what Jesus said as recorded in Luke 10:2:

“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

In chapter 2 of our book Simple Kingdom: Discipleship I explain what Jesus is actually saying in this verse. Here's an excerpt:

There's a double note of urgency in what Jesus said here. First, he says pray earnestly—earnestly! The underlying Greek word used here expresses the idea of begging for something that is very much needed, as in "Please, sir!" And the Greek verb translated above as "send out" isn't the same as the word used earlier in Luke 9:2 where Jesus "sent out" the Twelve. Luke 10:2 instead uses a word found elsewhere in the Gospels when referring to driving out demons. So what Jesus is actually saying here is something like this:

“There aren't enough of my followers who know what it really means to be a disciple. So I beg you, please pray earnestly that God will push more Christians out of their comfort zones, out of the pews and into the streets, so they can gather more people into my Father's kingdom.”

Because the meat is in the street, as Wimber used to say. And the time is short, too. But we'll talk about that later.

So to conclude then, I may be too old to start and lead another home fellowship or organize evening equipping workshops. But I can still try to create resources like the ones you find on this website to help others do the heavy lifting in building and planting.

And I can also pray what Jesus says we should all be praying.

And I’m going to pray this. Earnestly.

Cheers,
Mitch

(Image: L'homme à la houe (Man With a Hoe) by Jean-François Millet, ca. 1860, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles)

The Older Son

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 14:09:30 GMT

The other day Ingrid and I were reading together some passages in the Gospel of Luke and we ended up focusing on the parable of the Prodigal Son. This is often used by preachers to show how ready God is to forgive sinners who repent. But the real point of the story comes at the end when Jesus describes the reaction of the older son to his father’s celebrating his younger brother’s return:

“Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’“ (Luke 15:11-32)

Ingrid offers the following comments on this:

“I’ve heard this parable told again and again in church, and it’s always the same: about the Heavenly Father’s love for us. But the point Jesus is trying to make here to his audience — the Pharisees — is the behavior of the older brother. The older brother never went out looking for his brother to try and bring him back. He didn’t have a heart of compassion. And when his brother returned, he was jealous that his father had made a feast to celebrate his return.”

Ingrid really nails it here. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). And if that’s what Jesus did, then that’s what we’re supposed to do if we’re really followers of Jesus. Because being a follower of Jesus simply means doing what Jesus did. And that’s what our book Simple Kingdom: Discipleship is all about. Give it a read if you haven’t done so yet, it’s free to read online and is also available as a free PDF download .

Cheers,
Mitch and Ingrid

(Image: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, The Return of the Prodigal Son, c.1660, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland)

He is risen!

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 15:24:50 GMT

Happy Easter everyone!

Love in Christ,

Mitch and Ingrid

(The image of Christ is from our visit to the Catacombs in Rome many years ago.)

Sowing into God's kingdom

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 12:51:12 GMT

The kingdom of God was the central theme of Jesus' teaching during his time among us. Matthew reports that Jesus "went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people" (Matthew 4:23). Mark says Jesus announced that "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15).

The gospel of the kingdom is Good News because it means God has come in Jesus to reign and rule, and to reclaim what is rightfully his. At present we see God's kingdom coming intermittently, according to the Father's will, as people are saved, healed and delivered from Satan's dominion over them. John tells us however that the day will come when "the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever" (Revelations 11:15).

Until then, our assignment as followers of Jesus is to keep sowing into his heavenly kingdom (Luke 8:4-15). We do this by sharing our testimony, by praying for the sick and demonized, and by helping the poor and oppressed. We also do this by strengthening the church — God's people — which Paul describes as "the pillar and foundation of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15). That is our aim here with BuildPlant.org and we encourage you to sow together with us into God's kingdom by telling others about the books and songs that are freely available on our website. Our books include:

Simple Kingdom: Home Fellowships , which demonstrates how small home fellowships are the place where church really happens — where people get saved, healed, encouraged, equipped and discipled.
SImple Kingdom: Worship , which highlights the value of simple, intimate worship and includes detailed instruction on how to write worship songs and how to lead worship in home fellowships.
Simple Kingdom: Discipleship , which explains that following Jesus means not only doing what Jesus did — gathering people into God's kingdom — but also doing it how Jesus did it — by healing the sick, casting out demons, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.

We ask you to help us advance God's kingdom by sharing links to our free books and worship songs with others who belong to your church or home fellowship, with any church leaders you may know personally, and with any of your family and friends you think may benefit. You can use the icons at the bottom of each page of our website to easily share a link to that page either on social media or via email.

Thank you!

— Mitch and Ingrid

Making it easier to read

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 19:09:08 GMT

I've broken up the online version of our book Simple Kingdom: Discipleship into separate pages for each chapter. That way you can use the book's table of contents to jump directly to the particular chapter you want to read instead of scrolling, scrolling, scrolling until you find it. Much easier to read now instead of having the entire book on a single page. I'll also do this with our other two Simple Kingdom books when I have some time. --Mitch

The storms of life

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 21:04:12 GMT

Is your house built upon a rock or has it been built on sand? In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus tells the following parable:

"Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." (Matthew 7:24-27 ESV)

What we often miss when we read this parable is that the storms of life can affect all of us. Both those who follow Christ and those who follow the spirit of this present age are subject to sudden and unexpected happenings that can shake the stability of our earthly existence. The difference though is that when your life is grounded on following Jesus, the storms of life may shake your existence but it won't all come crashing down like it does for so many people around you.

Look at all the precious promises our heavenly Father has given us as his children:

The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all. (Psalm 34:19 NIV)

The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand. (Psalm 37:23-24 NIV)

Ingrid likes these promises which from Psalm 91:14-16. The translation here is from the Jerusalem Bible:

I rescue all who cling to me,

I protect whoever knows my name,

I answer everyone who invokes me,

I am with them when they are in trouble;

I bring them safety and honour.

I give them life, long and full,

and show them how I can save.’

And then there's this one, which is one of my own favorites:

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned;

the flames will not set you ablaze. (Isaiah 43:2 NIV)

Ingrid also adds the following words taken from an old hymn which perfectly sums everything up:

On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand,

All other ground is sinking sand.

Both Ingrid and I can testify that God is faithful, that he always does what he promises in Scripture. So if you know God, you can always trust him completely. And if you don't know God yet, you can still meet Him through his son Jesus. Read my testimony to find out how you too can enter into a personal relationship with the living God.

Blessings in Christ,

---Mitch

New book: Finish Life Like One of the Twelve

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 22:27:19 GMT

In his book Finish Life Like One of the Twelve (WestBow Press, 2025) Richard Morton asks, Where are the seniors? Why are they sitting in pews instead of being involved in active ministry? He blames the American Dream for this, the idea that after working hard all your life you've earned the right to sit back and enjoy life in comfort and ease. No more commitments, just play golf, travel, and throw away your alarm clock. Rick argues convincingly that this is not what the Christian Life is all about. That every believer, not just pastors and missionaries, are called to follow in the footsteps of Jesus right until they go to heaven.

Rick frames his argument on the message of the Kingdom of God, which was the central teaching of Jesus and his disciples. He argues convincingly from Scripture that Christians today — all Christians — are called, equipped, commissioned and sent to do the same things that Jesus did: to heal the sick, cast out demons, and proclaim God's kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit. And he frames this not as a heavy burden but an exciting opportunity that believers who are seniors and retired can easily enter into.

Rick also shares stories from his own life and the life of his wife Sharon to illustrate how God can use us to advance his kingdom. As a senior himself — he turned 70 as he was writing his book — Rick provides practical, actionable steps for entering into the ministry of Jesus, and into what he calls Radical Retirement — finishing the final years of your life like you are one of the Twelve.

Ingrid and I feel every Christian who is a senior and retired should read this book. Some will be challenged by it, and a few may even be offended. Many however will be inspired to dive back in and start following Jesus again with renewed vigor and passion. A great way to make use of Rick's book in your church might be for a group of seniors to meet together once a week and work through it one chapter at a time.

You can buy Rick's book on Amazon .

Healing Story: Pneumonia

Wed, 11 Feb 2026 19:05:56 GMT

One of the great things Ingrid and I learned during the early days of the Vineyard is that you could ask people to pray for your healing whenever you got sick. And more often than not, you got healed. But you can also learn to pray effectively for your own healing, as the following story demonstrates.

Recently I had been experiencing a sharp pain in my upper right chest whenever I tried to breathe very deep. This had been going on for several weeks, but not being a very mindful person I tended to ignore it. I also thought it might have something to do with the upper-body weightlifting I was doing. Perhaps it was only a muscle strain from trying to lift too much. Or maybe my heart is feeling stressed from lifting weights that are too heavy for someone my age (71) so maybe I should just dial down a bit. Which I did, but the pain didn't go away. And it couldn't be my heart, could it, since that's on the left side of my chest, not my right. So maybe it’s just a muscle strain, and those are no big deal and if left alone usually heal by themselves after a few weeks. Anyways, those were my thoughts as I continued to try to ignore my condition.

But after about another week had passed, I finally decided one morning to pray for my condition. I placed my left hand on my upper right chest where the pain was located and asked the Holy Spirit to come and release God's healing power on my condition. At that moment several things happened.

First, I suddenly recalled that I had experienced similar pains in my life several times in the past, and they had all been associated with having pneumonia, medically verified by a physician. "Of course!" I thought to myself, "I've just got a touch of pneumonia. How silly of me not to have recognized it!" But then I remembered that pneumonia if it is allowed to persist can permanently damage lung tissue, so it shouldn't be taken lightly.

The next thing that immediately came to mind was that the pneumonia I was experiencing might have been caused, or at least aggravated, by certain lifestyle choices I had made lately. Nothing sinful, mind you—just stupid behaviors. So I resolved to try and change those behaviors if possible. But that still left the problem of experiencing sharp pain whenever I tried to breathe deeply.

Then another thought struck me. In Hebrew as well as Greek, the word that means "breath" can also mean "spirit." So could my breathing problem be caused by a spirit? This idea hit me with the force of a revelation (i.e. with a feeling of certainty) so I thought it was probably a word of knowledge. Which meant that I needed to do something in response to receiving it. So placing my hand again on my right upper chest, I rebuked the spirit of pneumonia by saying "Spirit of pneumonia, I break your power over my body and command you to leave right now!"

Then I took a very deep breath. And the sharp pain was no longer there.

But I still felt a kind of dull ache in my right chest when I tried breathing deeply, so having driven off the demon that had been trying to get his claws into me — figuratively speaking, but literally true in ways our natural mind can't understand — I spent several minutes laying my hand on my chest and asking God to release his healing power to heal any inflammation in my lung tissue and damage my lungs may have experienced.

After praying like this awhile, I tried breathing deeply and still felt the same dull ache. But fortunately no more sharp pain.

So I resolved to keep praying like this for myself every couple of hours, hoping that through "soaking prayer" my remaining condition would progressively be healed. I did this three or four times that day, and then I forgot about it. The next morning I took a deep breath. No ache, no pain. And as of a week later my condition is still completely healed.

What can we learn from this story? As John Wimber tells us in his book Power Healing , sicknesses often have several different contributing factors involved in causing them. These may include organic (functional) breakdowns of physical health, like wounds causing damaged tissue or through invasive viruses or bacteria; environmental factors like poisonous substances; social factors like relationship problems with others resulting in unforgiveness and hardness of heart; and various levels of demonic activity. Effective healing often involves determining which of these is the root cause (i.e. the most important or fundamental contributing factor) and dealing with that first. The root cause of a condition can sometimes be determined by careful listening to what the person you are praying for says, but more often it involves receiving a word of knowledge (a direct revelation from the Lord) as to what is causing the problem. In my case, the Lord used the word play of breath-equals-spirit to show me that I had to deal with the demonic element first before my condition could receive further healing.

But if the Greek/Hebrew word for breath can also mean spirit, does this mean that pneumonia is always caused by an evil spirit? No, but sometimes it can be. And in this case, I think it was, based on the outcome of the way I ministered to my condition.

Hope you find this helpful. And if you haven't read Wimber's book yet, I urge you to buy it and read it .

Cheers,
Mitch

Fixes to worship book

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 11:45:02 GMT

There has been a formatting problem with the online version of our book Simple Kingdom: Worship where if you clicked on a link to a footnote it would take you to that footnote, but clicking the back button on your browser wouldn't return you to the place where you had been reading in the book. This has now been fixed by embedding the footnotes directly into the text of the book. An alternative and probably better fix would have been to make the footnotes popups, but unfortunately the web hosting company we use for our site charges extra for that particular feature, and we're cheap ;-)

BTW if you are (or want to be) a worship leader or write worship songs, we encourage you to read our book as it steps you through the whole process of crafting different types of songs, putting together worship sets, and practical tips on leading worship in church and/or home fellowship settings. And if you know anyone who is a worship leader or songwriter, please let them know about our book by using the sharing icons at the bottom of this webpage. Thanks!

Outline done, ready to start writing

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 20:00:26 GMT

We've finished the outline for our next book Simple Kingdom: Word and Spirit and are ready to begin writing it. I'll be posting draft chapters here on our website so those of you who are interested can read them as we finish them.

How to find God

Sun, 18 Jan 2026 19:19:20 GMT

If reading my testimony has resonated in your heart and you want to know more about how one can enter into a personal relationship with God, this article which I've just uploaded to our Resources section can help show you the way. And for those of you trying to bring others into God's kingdom, feel free to use the article as a guide for explaining the gospel message to them. --Mitch

Personal testimony updated

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 14:04:26 GMT

I've revised a few things in my personal testimony with some clarifications and additions. You can check it out here .

Remember the poor

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 20:47:53 GMT

Times are difficult for the average person here in Canada. One indication of this Ingrid and I have noticed as we drive around is the number of cars we see that have a non-working headlight or brakelight. It seems people are trying to reduce their spending by not getting their cars serviced. This is not a good idea -- cars need to be maintained properly, and driving without working lights endangers both yourself and others. But with stubbornly high food inflation, rising housing and insurance costs, and wages not keeping pace, people are having to make hard choices about where they should allocate their money.

Times are even harder for the poor in our society. While their are many kinds of poverty, and many reasons people may be poor, the ones the Lord has especially laid on our hearts are the poor elderly that live among us. For example, yesterday we did our weekly grocery shopping. Our first stop was Safeway, a chain of grocery stores here in Canada. As I walked around to get some items we needed, I quickly noticed some elderly people who looked like they were struggling to make ends meet. The old man who bought only a single litre of milk. The sad-looking elderly couple who slowly pushed their shopping cart through each and every aisle looking at items but not putting anything in their cart. I also noticed that the store had far more comfort food (chips, popcorn, candy, chocolate) on display than it had fresh fruit and vegetables in the produce section. That's another sign of how times are hard for people, prioritizing snacks that have low nutritional value (and high profit margins for the store) over healthy but expensive fresh foodstuffs.

While the official rate of inflation here in Canada has now declined to just over 2 percent, the reality is that the cost of basic necessities (food, clothing, transportation and housing) for many people has risen by a huge amount over the last few years. This has impacted elderly people living on a fixed income, especially those who depend mostly upon the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) and Old Age Security (OAS) since those government payments have not increased nearly as much as the cost of living.

It's an old story, isn't it, of governments and news media making misleading statements and promises about the real state of the economy. For example, our Prime Minister here in Canada during the 1970s, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was a popular and charismatic figure during a time of revolutionary idealism. But in a news clipping from the 1970 Christmas Eve edition of the Winnipeg Tribune newspaper, Prime Minister Trudeau was quoted as saying that "Inflation no longer exists in Canada" and was reported to have also said that "the fight against inflation has been won" and "the government's anti-inflation performance was unequalled in any country in the Western world."

Unfortunately, inflation rose rapidly over the next couple of years, reaching 11 percent in 1974 and then peaking even higher at 12 percent in 1981. The result was that the whole decade of the 70s was a "lost decade" for many Canadians, and especially for the working poor. Those who had money got richer because they could invest at high interest rates. But those who just had enough to live found their dollar stretched more and more as the decade went on.

Truly the Psalmist was right when he said:

Do not put your trust in princes,

in human beings, who cannot save.

When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;

on that very day their plans come to nothing.

Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,

whose hope is in the Lord their God. (Psalm 146:3-5)

What shall we do?

As followers of Jesus, how should we walk in these difficult economic times? First, we should ask God to help us see the poor, to notice and be aware of them. As Paul said when he and Barnabus met with the other apostles in Jerusalem:

All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along. (Galatians 2:10)

And second, we should try to be like Jesus and do good to the people God brings across our path:

You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

One practical way in which Ingrid and I try to "go around doing good" during these present hard times is to buy Safeway gift cards that can be used to pay for groceries when shopping at Safeway stores. This way when we're doing our grocery shopping and we see an elderly person who seems to be struggling to make ends meet, we can offer them a gift card to help them pay for their groceries. Whenever we've done this they usually accept with astonishment and gratitude.

Great idea, isn't it? Now go and do likewise :-)

Cheers,

Mitch

P.S. Have a (not too) Merry Christmas and a (safe and) happy New Year!

More equipping resources

Sun, 14 Dec 2025 18:30:38 GMT

A friend recently asked if I had any advice on how to equip members of his church to pray more effectively for the sick. I responded by sharing with him some materials I had developed for this purpose many years ago when Ingrid and I were Ministry Team Coordinators at a Vineyard church. We had used these materials to conduct a series of workshops for members of our church and for visitors from other churches.

You can download a PDF of our Ministry Team Training materials from the new Resources page on our website, and if you find it useful feel free to share it with others.

Cheers,

Mitch

Draft of Introduction

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 12:05:41 GMT

The draft version of the Introduction section of our next book Simple Kingdom: Word and Spirit is now finished. You can read it here .

Our blog is back

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 13:34:20 GMT

Hello everyone,

I've just restored all the blog posts that I deleted a few weeks ago. The reason I did this is because last night I had a dream which I think was from the Lord. It was a very brief dream and I won't describe it in detail, but the gist of it was that our blog has value for those in certain corners of God's kingdom even though I had lately grown dissatisfied with it. But that's just me, I'm still a perfectionist at heart and usually spend too much time trying to get things right instead of just getting them done, warts and all. I'm reminded also of a story Carol Wimber told in her book The Way It Was about a prophetic word that was spoken out loudly during the early days of the Vineyard where the Holy Spirit said "I have made you a MARKETPLACE and I can take it away if I choose to!" I'm quoting here from memory, but the idea is that our lives as Christians should be an open book to the world around us so they can see the reality of the living God despite our numerous faults and failings.

So the blog is back, though a couple of posts I felt were irrelevant have been removed. I've also made a brand new start on writing our next book Simple Kingdom: Word and Spirit and should have the Introduction at least finished and posted here before Christmas. The rest of the book will probably have to wait until the beginning of the new year as things get pretty busy around here during the Holiday Season. For example, tomorrow we're having a First Advent celebration in our home with family and friends who all go to different churches including Baptist, Brethren, Mennonite, Pentecostal and Vineyard. These are my favorite kinds of church gatherings, and the early home fellowships we started way back in the 80s and 90s often had people joining us from different denominations like this. So tomorrow we're going to be singing Christmas carols together and eating lotsa goodies as we celebrate the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ into the world "to save us all from Satan's power when we had gone astray. O tidings of comfort and joy!"

Peace and joy to all of you,
Mitch

15 November 2025

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 13:01:55 GMT

Hello everyone,

Our original goal in launching this website three years ago was to write and publish a series of free PDF ebooks on five key aspects of the kingdom of God. These "keys to the kingdom" are intended to help Christians become better followers of Jesus. So far we've managed to publish three books in our Simple Kingdom series, covering the areas of worship, discipleship and fellowship. You can download our free books and also read them in full online.

We still have two more Simple Kingdom titles we feel God has laid on our hearts to write: Word and Spirit, on how the Holy Spirit speaks to us through the Scriptures; and Spritual Warfare, a practical guide on resisting the Devil. The problem though is that each time we start writing one of these books, we get attacked! For example, when we started writing Word and Spirit way back in September of last year, we immediately got hit with some unexpected breakdowns in our home that occupied a lot of time and energy as well as costing considerable money. And we also experienced some worrysome health issues which, in addition to the financial stress of home repairs, caused us to scale back our writing efforts.

Because of this in December I thought it might be better to shelve writing whole books for awhile and just start a blog on our site where I could post short articles on different topics like worship, healing, evangelism, and so on. But having tried with difficulty to keep a blog running for almost a year, I've now come to realize that blogging regularly is hard work! And more importantly, it's been keeping me from finishing the task God has assigned us of writing these Simple Kingdom books.

So I've made the decision to stop blogging and get back to work with Ingrid on finishing our series of Simple Kingdom books. I've also deleted all my old blog posts and will instead be using this blog, which has now been renamed Site Updates, to post short updates like this to keep you informed of our progress. Some of my deleted blog posts may get repurposed later, either in future books or as standalone articles, but for now I'm shelving such ideas until we can finish the two remaining Simple Kingdom books the Lord has told us to write.

Our plan going forward then is to post short updates like this twice a month here on our homepage. You can also receive these updates directly in your inbox by subscribing to our email newsletter . And be sure to subscribe to our SoundCloud stream where we'll be uploading new worship songs when we have the time and energy to record them.

Anyways, please contintue to pray for us, especially that we can stay focused on the task God has given us to do.

Thank you!

Cheers,

Mitch and Ingrid

Healing and Old Age

Sat, 06 Sep 2025 16:49:19 GMT

I'm seventy-one. And unless the Lord returns soon, I'm going to experience death someday, just like Jesus did. And then I'll live forever in the presence of God, just like Jesus does.

And while I still believe that healing is the children's bread (Matthew 15:21-28) — that it's God's will that our sicknesses and infirmities be healed through faith — growing old does change one's perspective a bit with regard to the ministry of healing. A few years ago this was brought home to me through a chronic condition involving my bum. Or buttocks if you prefer a less colloquial word. Or derriere if you want to be fancy. Or whatever you feel comfortable calling it :-)

Since I was a young man I've experienced, on and off, problems with pain and bleeding from my rectum. Once it got so bad I decided to see a proctologist, who discovered I had an anal fissure (a crack in the skin inside the rectum). He recommended surgery, and I agreed to it. This solved the problem for a time, but eventually my love of spicy food led to recurrence of the condition. And when I went on a modified Atkins Diet to lose some excessive weight, the resulting constipation due to insufficient fiber left me in so much pain that I sometimes had to spend hours in a hot bath seeking relief. Eating several bran muffins each day eventually brought the condition under control (though it derailed my attempt at weightloss) and though I've now given up eating Kung Po Chicken and hot Indian Curry dishes, it's still frustrating how often restaurants incorporate black pepper or paprika into many of their dishes.

At this point I'm sure you're saying "Ick!" at hearing all this stuff. But don't worry, I'll soon get to the "spiritual" point of my story.

It goes without saying that whenever I was experiencing such pain, I asked for prayer, primarily from my wife. And while Ingrid has an anointing in the healing area (see this story for more about the gift of healing God has given Ingrid) on each occasion no divine (i.e. supernatural) healing seemed to take place. Only when I altered my diet (by adding more fiber and avoiding spicy/peppery foods) together with treatment (e.g. Tylenol, suppositories etc.) was the pain mitigated.

But several years ago I experienced an especially bad episode of bum pain after we had a dinner out to celebrate the ending of our business and start of our retirement. I woke up after midnight in excruciating pain and went upstairs to sit in my soft comfy prayer-chair. And I prayed, hard, crying out to the Lord for his healing power.

And the Holy Spirit suddenly spoke to me saying, "You must manage your condition." And I understood immediately that my chronic bum problems have been largely due to my habitually poor eating habits over the years.

Since then it's been more daily fiber (e.g. lots of vegetables every supper, and a bran muffin with a few dates for dessert) no spicy foods (I used to love BBQ potato chips) and avoid any prepared or restaurant foods that might have pepper or Cajun seasoning in them (e.g. no more hamburgers, favor alfredo sauce over tomato sauce for pastas etc.) and eat home-cooked meals most days (easier now that we're retired).

And I've had no bum problems since I chose to obey what God told me to do.

Just a few more thoughts...

Is this really a healing story? Yes, I believe it is; it's an example of healing by word of instruction. See this story by me for another example, and read also the story in chapter 20 of Second Kings of how Hezekiah's painful boil was healed.
What I actually heard the Holy Spirit say to me was just the word "manage." But from past experience praying for the sick I've often received only partial revelation from the Lord concerning the situations and conditions I was praying for. And I remember John Wimber mentioning something similar in one of his sermons, how words of knowledge sometimes come to him like whispers that are easily missed or overlooked.
If you want to learn more about praying for people who have chronic illnesses or conditions, I strongly recommend that you read Wimber's book Power Healing as this topic is covered somewhere in his book.
And by the way, if you need someone to discreetly pray for healing for some "sensitive" part of your body, it's probably best if you ask your husband or wife to do this. Because (presumably) they are familiar with all different the nooks and crannies of your body :-)

Anyways, feel free to email me if you have any questions or comments regarding this story or anything else on our site.

God bless, and be healed in Jesus' name!

—Mitch

SoundCloud updates

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 17:53:56 GMT

Just a couple of quick updates about our worship stuff. I've pulled the recordings of a number of the songs on our SoundCloud stream as I haven't been very happy with my recordings of them, either because my singing sucks or they need a new arrangement (i.e. better playing and/or different instruments). Songs that will (eventually) be re-recorded are now listed as such on the Songs page of our website.

I also happened to stumble across another verse I had written years ago for my song Lord, Have Mercy which I recently uploaded to SoundCloud . The additional verse goes like this:

Son of David! Son of David!

Stretch your hand out and make me whole.

Heal my body, my mind, my soul.

I've added this extra verse to the free PDF leadsheet you can download for this song which has the melody, lyrics and guitar chords so you can learn how to play it :-)

Enjoy!

--Mitch

An open book

Sun, 06 Jul 2025 17:11:15 GMT

Carol Wimber once said that as followers of Jesus, our lives should be like an open book for anyone to read. This means that as Christians, we shouldn't try to cover up our weaknesses and failures; we should instead be open and honest about them. "I will boast of my weaknesses," says Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9, "so that Christ's power can rest upon me." And as disciples of Christ, isn't that what we all want to see more of in our lives — the power of God?

Paul understood this. He was originally Saul, named after the first king of Israel and a man described in 1 Sam 9:2 as being a head taller than anyone else in the land. Paul's father probably named him Saul in the hope that he would turn out to be a great man of God. And until Paul met Jesus on that road to Damascus, he certainly seemed to be headed towards greatness as someone who could boast of his character, zeal and achievements (see Philippians 3:3-6).

But fame, and the fortune which often attends it, meant nothing to Paul after he came to know Jesus as his Lord (Philippians 3:7-8). So instead of Saul, he changed his name to Paul (Acts 13:9) which in Latin means "little." It seems Paul did this because after he met Jesus he no longer saw himself as someone destined for greatness. Instead, he saw himself as "the least of the apostles" and someone who didn't even deserve to be called an apostle (1 Corinthians 15:9). In fact he said his success in his calling was due only to God working in him, not because of his own human efforts (1 Corinthians 15:10). "I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling," he told the Corinthian converts (1 Corinthians 2:3). Doesn't sound very much like a "great man of God," does he?

Jesus says that those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted (Matthew 23:12). He also says that whoever humbles himself like a little child will be great in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:4). Being open to others about yourself can be scary, because you might end up getting hurt. But guess what? If someone does laugh at you or look down at you, your reaction should be to jump for joy! Because that's how the prophets — those "great" men of God in the Bible — were treated (Matthew 5:12).

As for me, I will humble myself and be like a little child before my heavenly Father. Because that's actually what I am — just a simple, ordinary guy trying to follow Jesus.

How about you?

Cheers, Mitch

Evangelizing Christians

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 15:02:31 GMT

Don't worry, I'm not talking here about trying to convert Catholics to Protestantism, or Protestants to Catholicism, or Baptists to Pentecostalism, or anything like that. I love the church — all of the Lord's church — too much to ever want to do anything like that.

What I'm talking about is fulfilling the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:18-20 where Jesus gave his first disciples the task of making more disciples — of multiplying themselves — by teaching others to do everything Jesus taught them to do.

But the Great Commission isn't about making more Evangelicals, or Pentecostals, or Charismatics, or Catholics, or Orthodox believers. And it's not just about leading people to Christ either. It's about helping people become followers of Jesus.

And that's the essential character of doing personal evangelism. It's about meeting people wherever they are at and then trying to move them a bit further along towards knowing Jesus and becoming more like Jesus. Because the ultimate goal of being a follower of Jesus is to become like Jesus. "A disciple...when he is fully trained will be like his teacher" (Luke 6:40).

This might mean for example trying to convince an atheist that there just might be some inconsistencies in their position. Or helping an agnostic see that believing in God isn't such a difficult thing after all. Or talking with a longtime churchgoer about actually having a personal relationship with the Lord. Or demonstrating to a Dispensationalist that Charismatic Christians aren't so looney after all. And so on.

Moving people further along the path of discipleship and deeper into God's kingdom.

That's what evangelism is really all about.

—Mitch

Personal Evangelism: Priorities and Practices

Tue, 17 Jun 2025 17:20:18 GMT

A few months ago I started a series of blog posts on personal evangelism. My goal in doing this was twofold: to motivate myself to share my faith more effectively, and to help equip other followers of Jesus to do the same.

And it's working — at least for myself. I've had several opportunities recently to share my testimony with others, and it's almost like the Lord has been bringing people to me who are already moving towards faith on the Engel scale . (See also pages 54 – 57 on this topic in Wimber's book Power Evangelism ).

What has helped me are the guiding principles for doing evangelism that I described previously and which can be summarized like this:

The Lord wants everyone to be saved, and he's commissioned and empowered his followers (including me!) to help Him gather people into his kingdom. So let's get on with it!

To put this into practice, whenever I go out into the marketplace I try to start by praying a simple prayer along these lines.

But it's still hard. Often I don't know what to say to people and feel like it would be useless to even try to talk to them about Jesus. And instead of feeling I'm being led by the Spirit, I usually feel like God is a million miles away from this cold, dark world I live in.

The answer of course is to persevere. But it's also important to build upon these evangelism principles by adding priorities and practices. It's just like when you're building a house, you first lay down the foundation and then you erect the walls. And that's what I'll try to briefly do here.

Evangelism Priorities

The number one priority for effective personal evangelism is to make time for people . You can't tell people about Jesus if you don't talk with them! Our world is so hectic nowadays, and we are so stressed out most of the time, that we tend to be more focused on the tasks we need to do than the people we encounter as we perform them. This is probably the major hindrance that prevents us from sharing our faith with those we encounter in the marketplace. Valuing people more than our tasks, goals and accomplishments is a huge shift for many of us, but it's essential if we're to become effective in evangelism.

Another priority when doing evangelism is open, honest sharing of your personal experience of God . Sharing your testimony — what you were like before you were a Christian, how you became a Christian, and how meeting the Lord changed your life — is generally more effective in winning people's hearts than reciting the Bridge to Life (Navigators), the Four Spiritual Laws (Campus Crusade for Christ) or some other salvation formula.

A third priority is to view evangelism as a lifestyle . When Jesus called his first disciples, he told them he would make them fishers of men (Matt 4:19). Then later after he rose from the dead, he instructed them to go and make disciples, that is, others who would do what Jesus taught them to do (Matt 28:18-20). And if we too are followers of Jesus, then clearly our main job is to fish — to work with the Lord to bring men and women into God's kingdom.

Evangelism Practices

While taking time just to talk with people must be a priority for those of us who want to become more effective in evangelism, it's even more important for us to learn how to listen . While the ultimate goal of evangelism is to bring people into the kingdom, our immediate goal when we share our faith with someone should simply be to try and lead them one or two steps higher on the Engel scale. If you can simply lead them from merely having some interest in Jesus Christ to deciding to investigate Jesus further, for example by reading one of the gospels or visiting your fellowship, then you've probably done your job for the day as far as fishing for that particular person is concerned, because they've gone from sniffing the bait to actually taking a nibble. To accomplish this, you must listen carefully how people respond when you talk with them as this enables you to determine what level of awareness, interest and involvement they already have with Christianity.

A second practice that is important when doing evangelism is to use the J-word . For example, if you're in a conversation with someone and they offer some objection concerning what they perceive as negative in Christianity, you might respond with "Well, you have a point there. But Jesus says..." and simply quote some verse where Jesus said something that bears on the subject. Remember, the goal of evangelism isn't to win people to Jesus, not to your church or denomination or personal way of thinking.

Finally, if you want to become more effective in sharing your faith you should make it a practice to ask God for boldness . When the early disciples did this together in Acts 4:23-31 the result was that they were filled with the Holy Spirit and with boldness to proclaim the gospel even in the face of opposition. As Ken Blue, the former pastor of Foothills Vineyard in San Diego once told us many years ago, "Evangelism is just guts."

So ask God for guts.

Cheers, Mitch

New Worship Song: Lord, Have Mercy!

Sat, 14 Jun 2025 11:48:06 GMT

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!

Like a sheep I have gone astray.

May your wounds take my sins away.

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

P.S. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter so you can be notified whenever we put up a new worship song on our SoundCloud page.

[Update added on 24 July 2025] There's one more verse for this song and I've added it to the song's PDF leadsheet but haven't had a chance yet to add to my recording on SoundCloud. You can find this extra verse in this post on our blog.

Resisting the Devil

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 12:43:48 GMT

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

A thousand ways, a thousand years

Sat, 07 Jun 2025 15:06:21 GMT

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

The armor of God

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 14:19:11 GMT

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

Parable of the Squeegee Kids

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 19:32:14 GMT

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]

Panic in London

Tue, 13 May 2025 16:18:15 GMT

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

Praying for a swollen ankle

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 20:07:36 GMT

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

On the floor again

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 20:43:31 GMT

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

Applying the principles

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 13:41:12 GMT

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

Rejection and Abandonment

Sat, 22 Feb 2025 17:21:15 GMT

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

For my wife on Valentine's Day

Fri, 14 Feb 2025 02:05:39 GMT

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

Guiding principles for evangelism

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 22:45:36 GMT

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

My Testimony

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 02:34:21 GMT

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

Here ended all confusion

Fri, 24 Jan 2025 13:21:10 GMT

---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

Equipping the saints for evangelism

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 13:05:41 GMT

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

On the floor

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 01:03:35 GMT

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

New Worship Song: Evermore

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 21:43:41 GMT

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

Evangelism or entertainment?

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 13:41:26 GMT

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

Was it just a daydream?

Tue, 14 Jan 2025 12:41:46 GMT

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

Go look for a red bottle

Fri, 10 Jan 2025 14:05:29 GMT

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

A father's affirmation

Sun, 05 Jan 2025 13:55:26 GMT

The affirmation of a loving father is important for the emotional development of a growing adolescent. The mother's role is to nurture the young child. The father's role is to prepare the adolescent for separation — for entry into the world as an independent person.

One day when I was still a young man who had recently married and was starting his career, I went to visit my parents. After talking with my mother and devouring some of her recent baking, I went outside to greet my dad. He was sitting in the back yard with his two golf buddies, the Dawn Patrol, enjoying drinks together and talking about old times. Dad was on supplementary oxygen at the time; it was a couple of years before his death from pulmonary fibrosis.

I loved my dad, and I know he loved me, but I also knew he wasn't very demonstrative, so I had no expectations as I sat down to join them for a few minutes. I decided however that instead of just being the passive son who mostly listened, I would try to actively join their "adult" conversation. And I did. I asked questions, made comments, and joked around for a while. Then when I got up to say goodbye and leave, I stretched out my arm to shake hands with each of Dad's friends, and last of all with him.

Dad grasped my hand tightly and squeezed it hard, and looked into my eyes with a smile on his face. I understood immediately what he was silently trying to communicate to me: "I'm proud of you. You're a man now, and you joined us and behaved just like a man should. I'm so proud of you, my son."

My heart thrilled as I walked to my car. My father had just affirmed my manhood, and for the next couple of days I was flying high. Even now I almost cry as I remember this experience.

Many years later I had a similar experience with my Heavenly Father. The church family I belonged to had allowed idolatry and immorality to creep into their teaching and practice. God showed me that I should address this matter, so I wrote a book and sent it to all of their leaders and to individuals I knew in various congregations. The response I got surprised me. Those who were not in leadership said "Hey, this is good teaching!" Those in leadership however either sharply criticized me or ignored me. But I knew in my heart that I had been faithful, because I did what the Lord had told me to do.

A few weeks later Ingrid and I were watching an action movie together in our den. We were movie buffs at that time and had built up quite a DVD collection which later on helped us weather the isolation of the COVID lockdown period.

Anyways, about two-third of the way through the movie, something remarkable happened. Heaven opened, just a crack, up above my left shoulder and near the window in our loft. And a soft voice came from heaven, saying, "My son." This experience only lasted a second or two, then the voice of Tom Cruise or whoever it was entered my awareness again.

This really happened — I kid you not.

I immediately understood that my Heavenly Father was affirming me, telling me He was proud of me, of what I had done — being obedient to Him regardless of the cost. But my reaction to this experience surprised me. Unlike my earthly father's handshake many years ago, this time I felt no great emotional high afterwards. Instead, I just felt warm contentment, and silently said "Thanks Father, I love you too" in my heart.

I guess I'm more mature today than I was back then. But while I may be a fully-grown man now, I'm still just His child.

May you too know the affirming love of your Heavenly Father.

—Mitch

Let them come forward

Fri, 03 Jan 2025 13:31:37 GMT

This morning I was reading in First Timothy and came across the following passage:

If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing... (1 Tim 6:3-4 ESV)

I was actually reading this in my Greek New Testament and I translated it differently:

If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not come forward with the sound words...

The ESV and almost every other English version translates the Greek word προσέρχεται here as either "agree with" or "consent to" or something along those lines. But it doesn't mean that. The lexicons clearly state that the Greek verb προσερχομαι means to come or go to or towards someone or someplace. In particular, it can mean to come forward in order to speak and address a group of people.

This struck me, because it gives such a clear picture of what church meetings were like during those early days. When the disciples gathered together, different ones would stand up or step forward to share a short teaching or a word of encouragement or an exhortation or revelation or prophecy and so on (see 1 Cor 12:26). The elders leading these meetings encouraged and allowed such participation, making room for the Holy Spirit to do His work among the saints. The result was that the people were strengthened and encouraged, and some were probably even healed or delivered during each meeting (see 1 Cor 12:9-10).

While Paul here is warning Timothy that some who come forward like this may be conceited and argumentative, my point is that if the early church gave freedom to everyone to share during their meetings — and thus gave freedom to the Holy Spirit to do whatever He wanted to do at the meeting — then shouldn't we be "doing church" the same way today?

This isn't practical of course if your church gathering has hundreds of people. But it's easy to do if you only have a dozen or so attending your meeting, for example in a home fellowship. That's why Ingrid and I have always maintained that home fellowships are where church really happens. We explain this in detail in chapter 2 of our book Simple Kingdom: Home Fellowships which you can read online or download as a free PDF. I encourage you to read it if you are in church leadership and have a heart for equipping the saints for the work of the ministry (Eph 4:12).

And I'm not suggesting that having a big church is bad, or that you should break your church up into a bunch of smaller churches (though that might not be such a bad idea.) What I'm saying is that church should be somewhere where everyone gets to play , as Wimber used to day. Otherwise, what's the point? Are you trying to build an army or an audience? Let them come forward!

Hear what I'm sayin'?

—Mitch

I have healed you

Wed, 01 Jan 2025 18:45:13 GMT

The door opened and I was about to step off the bus when God spoke to me:

"I have healed you."

I paused in wonder for a moment, and then becoming aware that the bus driver was impatiently waiting, I stepped down and walked towards the high school where I was the Physics teacher. As I walked, I reflected on what God had said and realized that what He was telling me was that I was no longer an insecure adolescent like the students I was teaching. I was now an adult — I was then in my early 30s and had been married several years — and though I could still remember what it felt like to be a teenager, there was now a healthy distance between myself and my students.

I felt that God was affirming my manhood by these words, and this made me feel happy inside. But then a few days later, and again while I was on the bus to work, God spoke to me once more:

"I will heal your manhood."

Argh, I don't understand, Lord! You told me I was healed, and now you promise that you're going to heal me??

I struggled for several weeks over these two seemingly contradictory divine utterances, but then slowly I began to understand what God was saying to me. He was indeed affirming me, but He was also saying that I still had some way to go before I reached mature manhood.

It's now several decades after these early experiences, and I'm thankful that I'm now a lot closer to being fully mature. But I'm not quite there yet; I'm still learning and growing as my Heavenly Father continues to father me.

My prayer for you today is what Paul prayed for the Ephesians: that with the Father's help you may reach "mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph 4:13).

Be blessed and filled with the Father's love for you.

—Mitch

Parable of the dark room

Mon, 23 Dec 2024 13:01:14 GMT

What is the kingdom of heaven like? And what it is like to enter it?

Before I met the Lord, it was like I was living in a dark room. As I moved around, I would bump my shin and knock my head against obstacles I couldn't see. I would step on something sharp and hurt myself. I would slip on other things and fall. My life was full of pain, and the darkness made me fearful of trying to move. And it just got worse and worse over time.

Then I met God through Jesus, and it was like someone had suddenly turned on the lights! Now I could see clearly the things that were causing me pain: the misplaced furniture, the lamp hanging low from the ceiling, the broken glass on the floor, the loose rug with no backing. And the dirt everywhere — so much of it!

But now with the lights turned on and brightly shining, I could move around again without hurting myself. And I could start getting my room in order. I began moving furniture to where it belonged. I raised the lamp I had been bumping my head on. I swept up the broken glass and got rid of the slippery rug. And I started to clean out all the dirt that had accumulated in my life.

Jesus is the light of the world. May he shine his light in your heart today and lead you upward from this dark world into his heavenly kingdom.

—Mitch

P.S. Ingrid and I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy (and safe!) New Year's eve celebration. We will be back again early in the new year, so stay tuned!

Christmas Carol: Come And See

Sat, 21 Dec 2024 19:40:55 GMT

And here is one more beautiful Christmas carol that my beautiful wife Ingrid has written. She also composed the music for it, but I had to tweak her melody a bit when I arranged it. The song is in a minor key and has a kind of Celtic lilt to it, I think. My recording can be found here on our SoundCloud stream, and yes, it would have sounded a lot better if a young woman had sung it instead of an old dude like myself ;-)

Come And See

Come and see that the Lord is good, come behold his face.

Bend your knee to him, Christ the King, come behold his face.

Jesus Christ, our living Lord, we behold your face.

He will suffer and die for us: Come behold his face.

Jesus, Savior, Emmanuel: Come behold his face.

Jesus Christ, our living Lord, we behold your face.

Alleluia, alleluia, we behold your face.

Merry Christmas to all from Mitch and Ingrid :-)

Christmas Carol: Christ Child Holy

Sat, 21 Dec 2024 19:26:12 GMT

Here is another of Ingrid's wonderful Christmas carols. This one was inspired by the Germanic "Christkind" and celebrates the birth and coming kingdom of our Lord Jesus. The words go like this:

Christ Child Holy

Christ Child holy, Christ child pure,

Christ the Son of God we adore.

Born in a stable, born of a virgin,

Born to reign and rule forevermore.

Alleluia, alleluia, Immanuel we adore you!

You are holy, You are pure,

You are the Son of God we adore.

You were born to us, died and rose for us,

You will reign and rule forevermore.

Alleluia, alleluia, Immanuel we adore you!

You can listen to this song on SoundCloud . Once again, my guitar playing and singing aren't very good. Maybe I should just stick to playing keyboard? More info here .

P.S. We tried translating her song into German but somehow we just couldn't seem to get the words to flow well. Contact us if you'd like to help us improve our translation. Thanks!

Merry Christmas to one and all, great and small :-)

—Mitch

Christmas Carol: Favored By God

Sat, 21 Dec 2024 19:06:18 GMT

Since it's just a few days until Christmas arrives, I thought it might be considered appropriate if I shamelessly plugged Ingrid's Christmas carols here on our website :-)

Ingrid has written several beautiful Christmas carols which I've helped arrange to music and have recorded on SoundCloud. One of her earliest ones is actually an advent carol that celebrates how the angel announced God's favor to Mary and highlights how God shows similar favor towards us, His children. The full story behind how this carol came to be written can be found in chapter 4 of our book Simple Kingdom: Worship which you can read online or download as a free PDF.

Here are the words to Ingrid's song:

Favored By God

Washed in his blood, changed by his Spirit,

Cleansed thru his Word, we are favored by God.

Filled with his love, sharing his mercy,

Sent in his name, we are favored by God.

Not for what we have done, but for what he has done for us,

In the gift of his Son we are favored by God.

Not for what we have done, but for what he has done for us,

In the gift of his Son we are favored by God.

My recording of the song on SoundCloud isn't very good. If you listen to it you'll notice that my guitar playing sucks and my voice wavers and gets creaky on the high notes. But hopefully you can still get a feel for the heart behind her song.

Merry Christmas everybody!

—Mitch

New Series: The Father's Love

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 18:57:18 GMT

When my friend Martin Buehlmann handed over the leadership of the Vineyard churches in Germany, Austria and Switzerland to his son Marius, he urged Marius to remember three priorities that God had laid on his heart for the Vineyard: the Father's love for us, allowing freedom to the Holy Spirit, and Equipping the Saints as Wimber taught us. The Father's love has also been instrumental in my own Christian life and ministry, and I thought it might be helpful for some of you if I were to write a series of short posts on this important topic.

Much has been written in recent years about the need, especially for men in our fatherless generation, to experience the love of God the Father. The subject of the Fatherhood of God has also been dealt with in books and videos from both theological and pastoral perspectives.

My approach however is going to be different. Instead of presenting you with theology and practical advice, I'm simply going to share some stories about how I have *personally experienced* God as my Father and what impact these experiences have had on my life as a Christian. My stories will not be in any particular order — I'm not writing biography here, or an instruction manual like "Seven Steps to Experiencing God's Love." Instead they will simply be glimpses of key breakthroughs — and setbacks — in my lifelong journey of getting to know God as Father and experiencing the depths —and sometimes limitations — of his love for me, his child through Christ.

My hope is that one or two of my stories will bring a new awareness of how you can experience the Father's love. And my prayer for those of you reading this — and especially for men — is that the Father will father you the way he has fathered me.

I'll begin my series of posts shortly after Christmas. Ingrid will also be sharing some thoughts on this subject.

In the meantime, be blessed and filled with the Father's love for you.

—Mitch

Prioritizing the Kingdom

Sun, 15 Dec 2024 13:56:17 GMT

This morning I was drawn back to a verse that has been foundational for me since I became a Christian:

Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33 NIV)

In the NIV and most modern English translations, the passage where this verse is found (6:25-34) has to do with worry and anxiety about the necessities of daily life (e.g. the NIV has "do not worry", the ESV has "do not be anxious" and so on).

But I don't think that's what Jesus is getting at here. Worry and anxiety are associated with fear, but the underlying Greek word μεριμνάω isn't about not being afraid: it's about not being concerned with stuff that's really not that important. In other words, Jesus isn't saying "Don't be afraid that you won't have enough money to buy food and clothes if you follow me" but rather "Don't focus so much on trying to earn a living; God will take care of you if you follow me."

In other words, Jesus is saying we should prioritize God's kingdom above our own concerns, pursuits and aspirations.

How do we do this? We can start by asking God to give us eyes to see the opportunities he has arranged for us today to do the stuff: heal the sick, drive out demons, proclaim the good news, help the poor. God has prepared these works — Wimber called them divine appointments — in advance for us (see Ephesians 2:10). Unfortunately we often miss seeing them or don't have the courage to seize the moment and act upon them.

So we should pray for courage too. The early disciples did (Acts 4:29) and look what happened.

Be blessed and strengthened.

—Mitch

Faith for progressive healing

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 19:58:00 GMT

The story of the healing of the centurion's servant in chapter 8 of the Gospel of Matthew concludes in verse 13 like this:

And to the centurion Jesus said, "Go; let it be done for you as you have believed." And the servant was healed at that very moment.

The ESV translates this poorly here, as the Greek actually says "And the servant was healed in that hour" (καὶ ἰάθη ὁ παῖς ἐν τῇ ὥρᾳ ἐκείνῃ). This suggests that the healing happened over a short interval of time, but not instantaneously. Examples of progressive healing (where healing progresses over a period of time) can be found in several other stories involving Jesus. See for example Mark 5:1-20 (especially verse 8) and of course Mark 8:22-26 which is the most well-known example.

Ingrid and I have ministered healing in progressive fashion to a number of people over the years. And also to each other! Here are two recent examples which, to me anyways, helps clarify the nature of the faith that's involved in such praying for healing.

Healing a rash

Not long ago I began to see an rash on my right upper thigh. Thinking it might be jock itch, I applied an anti-fungal ointment that I had used with success in the past. I kept applying this for a week, but the rash began to spread further down my thigh.

Worried this might be a recurrence of a severe case of poison ivy that I had experienced about five years ago (I thought this could be the cause as I had done a little yard work a few days before the rash appeared) I tried applying cortisone cream several times a day to try and reduce the redness and relieve the itch. But the rash continued to spread.

Soon it became uncomfortably itchy and small bumps appeared. This worried me as I thought it might be a recurrence of hives, something which has plagued me from time to time since my teenage years. In the past they had occasionally gotten so bad that my doctor had to put me on prednisone, but my doctor had recently retired and I've been unable to find a new one I've felt confident about. So I began taking Reactine which has been my standard way of treating episodes of hives. But the rash kept spreading further until it appeared under my knee and on the back of my calf.

Now I was getting worried.

Sensing my worry, Ingrid said "Let me pray for it." She laid her hands on my leg and prayed, first in words asking the Lord to heal the rash and then in tongues. Then she said, "I rebuke fear in Jesus' name."

Suddenly I thought, "That's it, I'm afraid. Fear is the Enemy's tool, and he uses it to destroy. I won't let him use his fear against me." And I started to relax. I felt confident that, without fear oppressing me, we would get to the bottom of this problem and it would be healed and go away.

And the next day, the rash began to fade.

A week later there was no more burning sensation, though the skin where it had been was still somewhat red. Then I gradually weaned myself off Reactine over a two-week period. (They say its formula is non-drowsy, but it does have negative effects on your emotions, or at least on mine anyways.) Several months have now elapsed since Ingrid prayed for me, and the skin on my right thigh still looks slightly darker than on my left thigh, but they say that fungal infections (which it may have been) can lead to permanent changes in skin color.

But I'm healed.

Healing a swollen ankle

More recently, Ingrid noticed that her left ankle had become swollen. We tried to figure out why. Could it be several days of gorging on pastries at a German bakery we had discovered recently? Maybe too much sugar triggered something with her blood sugar. And the left side of your body is connected with the heart, right? We weren't sure however what the cause was, but we were getting quite concerned as the swelling didn't go down as the days passed.

So one morning I said, "Let me pray for it." Clutching her ankle with both my hands, I prayed "Swelling be healed in Jesus name." But nothing seemed to happen. Then I rose to put my hands on her chest and back, but she said "It's not my heart."

She went back downstairs, and I thought, "Well, I guess I didn't have enough faith to see instantaneous healing happen, but I think I do have enough faith (maybe a third of a mustard seed) to believe that her swelling can be healed progressively.

The next morning Ingrid came and found me upstairs in my study and said, "Look, the swelling is less." I looked at her ankle, but it still seemed somewhat swollen to me. "No, it's definitely less." OK, we'll wait and see.

And the next day it definitely did look like there was less swelling. And a week later, both her ankles look exactly the same as far as I can tell.

And we've laid off eating sweets for a while :-)

[NOTE: This article was previously published on our site six months ago in early June 2024 and since then her ankle has had no swelling. --Mitch]

Conclusion

The lesson here, as I see it, is that as Jesus says in Matthew 8:13, healing happens "as you have believed." That is, the degree of healing power God gives us can depend on the level of faith we have that God is going to heal. So even if you don't have faith to believe that the person you're praying for will be healed instantaneously, you may have enough faith to believe that some degree of improvement will happen in the person's condition.

That's all it takes to see someone (or even yourself) healed when you pray for them to be healed. Just a smidgen of faith, along with the patience to see it realized over time.

Be blessed, and be healed.

--Mitch

Praying for someone's back

Fri, 26 Apr 2024 19:51:37 GMT

A strong, pain-free back is important for an active, healthy life. Back problems are common however, so it's not surprising that we often prayed for many people suffering from various kinds of back pain in our home fellowships, church gatherings and conferences over the years. Here are three stories that illustrate some of the kinds of things that can happen when you minister healing prayer to people experiencing back problems.

1. The team approach

At a Vineyard conference a man who came forward during ministry time said he had been experiencing almost constant mid-back pain for years. After interviewing him, three of us decided to take the man downstairs where we could minister to him in a more private setting. The three of us laid hands on him and began praying for the man, who was standing in the midst of us. One of us took the lead and began asking God to release his healing power on the man's back. The second member of our team was praying in tongues. I remained silent and waited for the Holy Spirit to give us a word of knowledge about the man's condition.

After a few moments I saw in my mind what looked like a vertebrae that glowed warmly, so I began to pray out loud and say "Touch that vertebrae with your power, Lord, heal it." At this point the man we were praying for was twisting his torso and moaning. It sounded like he was in pain, so we continued with our prayers, each of us praying independently according to how we felt the Holy Spirit was leading us.

After about five minutes of praying, we looked at each other and decided to stop praying. "How are you doing?" one of us asked him. The man opened his eyes and began to slowly twist and bend his torso. Then he looked at us with puzzlement in his eyes and said, "The pain is gone."

"Really?" we all said? "Try bending right over, but be careful, do it slowly."

The man bent over and touched the floor, then stood up straight and said, "No pain."

The three of us who had been praying looked at each other with wonder and some excitement, but the man merely looked puzzled and somewhat apprehensive, perhaps fearing that he might only experience a temporary reprieve from his pain. But since the man seemed to be healed, we blessed him and he left to go back upstairs.

Looking back on our prayer session, it struck me afterwards how poorly the three of us had functioned together as a team. We had prayed independently of each other and had not shared with each other what we thought might be the root cause of the man's pain or how we should pray effectively for him. We also didn't discuss our prayer session afterwards to see what we could learn from it or what we might have done differently.

And yet the man was healed, for a few years later I ran into him again and he confirmed that his back was still healed and he was no longer experiencing any pain! But he still looked puzzled when I talked to him about it, and I probably should have probed his mind further in case there was some missing spiritual dimension to the constant pain he had been experiencing. But we were both busy and had other things to do, so we parted and moved on.

2. Persist in prayer

The second story illustrates how persistence in ministering healing prayer can, over a period of time that may range from weeks to months, can eventually result in healing. This story was told by my friend Ken and has been excerpted from chapter 3 of my book Simple Kingdom: Home Fellowships which you can read online or download as a free PDF.

Anyways, here is Ken's story of how his back got healed in our home fellowship:

When I joined the house church I was experiencing back pain almost continuously. The group prayed for me every Sunday for over a year until my back was finally healed. I received a lot of love from that group and it encouraged me to pursue God and pray for healing for others.

While this story is short, it illustrates several important things. The first is that home fellowships provide an ideal environment for people to learn how to pray for the sick. A second observation is that when someone gets healed of a debilitating condition, the result is often that they start praying for others to be healed—that's kingdom multiplication happening through the expression of God's power! And finally, don't give up when you pray for someone's healing—keep on praying until they get healed!

John Wimber brings this last point home on page 158 of his book Power Healing when he says: "There is another reason—I believe the most fundamental reason—why more people are not healed when prayed for today. We do not seek God as wholeheartedly as we should. In other words, God is able to do greater miracles than we have yet seen, if only we would persist in seeking him."

3. Seize the moment

The third story happened at the end of a time of fellowship in our home when those who came were standing in the entrance getting ready to leave. One of the men bent over to tie his shoelaces and suddenly let out a yelp. "Ouch! My back!"

"What's wrong?" we all cried. "I can't stand up, I've thrown out my back again!" he said, as he remained stooped over. "This has happened to me before, and it'll be days before I can stand up straight again. Oh, damit!"

At this point my wife Ingrid suddenly rushed over to the man, laid her hands on his back, and said "Be HEALED in Jesus' name!" The man's torso suddenly jackknifed upwards and he stood up straight. I asked him how his back felt and he twisted his torso and said, looking somewhat bewildered, "Fine, there's no pain". We all felt somewhat stunned, but we hugged each other and praised God and everybody went home.

There are various ways one could explain how this healing occurred e.g. the Spirit came upon Ingrid, God gave her a gift of faith, she was moved with compassion, and so on. But the point is probably that she saw someone hurting and decided to act by praying for him, immediately and with expectation that God wants to heal.

I wish I was more like that.

Anyways, be blessed everyone, and be healed :-)

--Mitch (with edits by Ingrid)

Faith, Medicine and the Power of God

Sun, 11 Feb 2024 19:43:53 GMT

While Ingrid and I have had some measure of success in learning how to effectively heal the sick, we've found that the hardest person to minister healing to is often ourselves. Here's a recent story that illustrates this, and how an integrated approach that combines faith, medical knowledge and the Holy Spirit can effectively result in the person's condition being healed.

For several months I had been experiencing high-pitched pulsating tinnitus. Repeated attempts at praying for my condition resulted in no improvement. Then about a month ago my right ear started blocking up at night. I assumed it was wax buildup, but when I used a flashlight and combination of mirrors to look into my ear canal, I couldn't see much wax. So I assumed it was an impaction where the wax goes deep into the ear canal right up against the eardrum.

I've had this problem before a few times in my life and had to have my ears irrigated by my doctor. Unfortunately our doctor retired recently and we haven't been able to find another we've felt confident with. Our health care system here in Canada has deteriorated in recent years, and our province Manitoba has the poorest healthcare in the country. Just like with any other profession, good doctors (skilled in medicine and having a good heart) are usually hard to come by. This was true during Biblical times (see Mark 5:26) and Paul could be considered blessed that he had a good one accompanying him (Colossians 4:14).

So I decided to try performing ear irrigation on myself. I should mention at this point by way of disclaimer that I am not trying to offer any kind of medical advice here, I'm simply relating a personal story.

I began by searching for how-to articles about this online, and just as good doctors can be hard to find, good information concerning medical procedures is also difficult to find. There's so much poor, and even bad, medical advice on the Internet. Fortunately I finally came across this article whose target audience is medical professionals, and having a science background myself (Physics) I felt the advice in the article was trustworthy. Then together with Ingrid we reviewed a number of online videos about earwax removal, and after weeding out a lot of junk we came across this video that has helpful information on preparing your ears for irrigation.

I bought some mineral oil and a 60 ml plastic syringe with a 16 gauge catheter attached from Amazon. Then after using the oil to soften the wax and with Ingrid's help, I tried to flush the impacted wax out of my ear. No wax seemed to be expelled, but for a few moments I could hear Ingrid's voice very loud and clear. After trying several more attempts, we decided to stop and pray for awhile. Remembering how Jesus put his fingers into the ears of the deaf man (Mark 7:33) Ingrid decided to try this as she prayed, but nothing seemed to happen, so we decided to try again tomorrow.

The next day turned out to be a busy one, so I decided to wait another day before trying again. But that evening Ingrid said, "Let me pray for you again." So she put her fingers into my ears and then suddenly burst out with these words: "Open up! Open up! Let the living waters flow!" I recognized that this was a word of knowledge she had received from the Holy Spirit. Many years ago at the very first Vineyard conference we attended, Ingrid received a gift (or anointing) for healing during ministry time. Her words caused faith to rise up in me, but no healing occurred at that time.

The next morning I put a good amount of mineral oil into my ear and left it there for 15 minutes to try to really soften up the wax. Then we went into the bathroom again and I tried flushing out the wax. After half a dozen attempts a tiny bit of wax was expelled, but unfortunately now my ear was completely blocked and I couldn't hear a thing!

Argh, I thought, I've probably just pushed the softened wax deeper right up against the eardrum.

That afternoon, discouraged and half-deaf, I began searching online for otolaryngologists in Winnipeg. After doing this for awhile, I decided to review some of the promises God had given us in the Psalms over the years. As I was reading a Psalm however, some words Jesus spoke to Jarius in Luke 8:50 suddenly came to mind: "Do not fear, only believe." The story of the healing of Jairus’s daughter in Luke 8:40-56 is a good example of what can happen when we start to pray for someone sick: instead of things improving, things suddenly get worse!

I realized from these words that the Holy Spirit was encouraging me to continue the treatment I was doing, so after supper I went to the bathroom, carefully put the catheter end of the syringe into my ear in the direction specified in the NIH article linked to above, and began applying moderate pressure to the syringe to squirt a steady flow of body-temperature water at moderate pressure. I looked into the mirror after this and saw a huge gob of brownish-black gunk hanging from the edge of my ear canal. "IIIINNNGRID come and see what happened, the wax came out!" I shouted up the stairwell. Ingrid rushed down and we stared at the gunk after removing it with a kleenex. "Hooray, thank you Lord!" we said excitedly.

Using mirrors and a flashlight, I then saw that there was still more brownish-black gunk in my ear canal, so we decided to irrigate a second time and an equally hideous lump of gunk came out of my ear. And suddenly I could hear everything LOUD AND CLEAR. We used mirrors to look one more time into my ear canal and no more wax was visible. Since then, my hearing has been perfect, and my tinnitus has much subsided.

The lesson here is that our goal in healing the sick, which is to bring glory to God by extending his mercy to others (and also to ourselves) doesn't depend on the manner in which it's done. It's quite OK, and Biblical, to use a combination of faith, medical knowledge, and expressions of the power of God.

Be blessed, and be healed :-)

--Mitch