Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Mat 10:8
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Viewing the devastation of our drive from the kitchen window through the evening rain, I reflected on how long it takes to build something, and how quickly to destroy it.
A parade of former owners had stamped their signatures on the front of the property over more than twenty years – pseudo lytch-gates, bordered walk-ways, a feng-shui garden and trellis everywhere, not quite our style! Our self-imposed promises of, ‘That’ll have to go!’
when we first arrived now haunt us for their fulfilment.
So last month an army arrived of builders, diggers, and trucks bearing ‘sub-base’ metal (gravel!), and in two days left a great gash in our serenity like an open wound. This Monday it rained, dissolving our gash into yellow clag. Wheelruts became canals. Our feet grew clay plates. And the cats washed theirs off on the once-white bedspreads.
‘It will look great!’ we keep telling ourselves, trying to restore the glint to our mud-dulled eyes. It will. Truly! And as we watch the bank account dwindle beyond expectation (does any building ever cost less than the budget?), we keep reminding ourselves that ‘the increased value will be greater than the cost’. It will. Surely…
Amazingly, God is in the middle of it all. For the Word of God tells us that ‘God is the builder of everything.’ All building requires removal of the old. A surgeon must cut before he can stitch. Nor should we expect our hearts or spirits to be any different. Yielding them to the Master’s knife is the greater challenge.
We’ve had to learn new techniques. Bron has become an expert in cutting down camellias, but which resprout from the stump, green and cheerful, with no hard feelings at all. The borders are covered in weed-mesh and bark chips which are (meant to be) raked periodically to kill the weeds. Unmowable corners are sprayed. Paths are sprayed. Roadsides are sprayed. Grass under hedges is sprayed. (And 1080 poison is dropped by helicopter into vast swathes of native forest to kill the possums. Green New Zealand refers to its colour, not it’s environmental
consciousness, which is at least ten years behind Europe. Organic is still quirky here.)
GOD THE HEALER
Meanwhile we have been greatly blessed in ministry. Two Godincidental meetings yielded two preaching invitations, and on both occasions God healed and saved! Barry Farmilo leads Life City Church in Albany along similar lines to our own, which is growing rapidly. The night before I had a picture of an older lady wearing a green twinset, sitting by a pillar with others, and a blanket across her knees. When I shared this, although not present, she was immediately identified, detail perfect, and we were able to pray for her with increased faith! God is amazing!
A few weeks later I was at the new Jesus First, already with nearly 200 and many were healed, including a man delivered quite dramatically from a spirit of depression, his whole demeanour changing.
In between, I had the privilege to minister at Hillsong, Sydney, special for many reasons. This was the fulfilment of a long-held dream that the Lord first dropped into my spirit more than ten years ago when, sitting in a meeting there, he whispered, ‘One day you will speak on that platform.’ My brief was to teach their 500 first-year college students how to heal the sick. Drawn from across the world, they will one day return to their native countries and churches and influence many thousands of lives. To be able to influence the influencers is humbling.
