A prophetic picture for Ireland? The apple tree and the bees. 🐝

Three weeks ago I was driving across the border from the Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland when I sensed the LORD speaking to me and giving me a picture of an apple tree and bees.

Now, it’s important that you note two things:

Firstly the words ‘I felt the LORD speaking’. I didn’t hear an audible voice but an inward impression.

Secondly I am not someone who gets pictures and visions regularly but when it does happen I pray into it, test it by scripture and take time to consider what the LORD would have me to do with it. Hence the three week gap. 

That evening we had a worship and prayer evening at Crown Jesus Ministries and the special guest felt he had a picture to share... a picture of an apple tree. 

I asked him about it afterward, he NEVER had a picture of an apple tree before! You may call that coincidence but I do not. God was challenging me to reflect further. 

Often the words and pictures I receive are for my own spiritual guidance or for a small group of people. This is the first time I have ever shared a picture on social media and blog but I am only seeking to be faithful to what God has impressed upon my heart. 

It’s yours to discern... 

‘As I was driving across the boarder I  sensed the LORD giving me the following revelation, I saw an apple tree blossom in a garden. Beyond the fences I could see other gardens had  a single apple trees also. They were very pretty, yet some had no fruit, and others had very little fruit and the apples were small. 

I enquired of the LORD what was the meaning?

The reason for the lack of fruit was the lack of cross pollination. These trees all required a pollination partner, the partner has to be a different variety of the same fruit species. Two trees of the same variety will not pollinate each other.

The Lord then impressed upon me these words: ‘In 2018 the bees are coming. I am sending swarms of bees to pollinate the trees, do not be afraid of the bees in your garden, do not be afraid to give away pollen, do not chase my bees from your flowers.’

This is my interpretation of the picture and words:

Churches and ministries across Ireland are the trees, in being over protective of our ministries, money and members we have chased the bees from our garden. We have been afraid of the very thing that will bring much fruit. We need to give away our pollen. The Lord is sending the bees, 2018/19 has the potential to be the most fruitful years ever if we will only take our eyes of our own tree, not be afraid of the bees and give to the Kingdom of God. (It was significant that I was crossing the boarder at the time I received the the picture being inclusive but not exclusive to cross-boarder projects.)

In practice what will this look like? Some examples:

1. Send your young people on mission trips across the border and let them experience the diversity.

2. Building relationships, sharing resources and finances with other church’s in your community will bring you much fruit.

3. Giving money away to mission local and across the island.

4. Make the most of para-church organisations such as Summer Madness, S.U, Y.F.C, Young Life, C.I.Y, Exodus, Crown Jesus etc. sharing skills and resources with local churches and with each other.

5. Investing in church planting across Ireland. 

6. Pioneer more non-denominational prayer gatherings/ networks  and outreach events. Allow the Holy Spirit to minister freely in power.

7. Releasing your congregation into ministry and mission in Ireland will bring much fruit.

A brief prayer:

Father God, give us the ability to see beyond our own fence, to take courage and invite your Holy Spirit to invade our garden. Freely we give our resources to the Mission of God in Ireland. Father God, bear your fruit in us that Jesus Christ your son might be gloried in our lives,

Amen

Mitch,
Evangelist

Celebrating Jesus the Healer

Celebrating Jesus

INTRO: 

Starting Sunday 1st September: Carryduff Elim and Crown Jesus Ministries are running a joint project, over 4 months, focusing on Jesus the Healer, Saviour, Baptiser and King.

For more info on services and events visit:

Celebrating Jesus

or:
 http://www.crownjesus.org
 http://www.carryduffelim.com

Does God heal?

Firstly let me make my position clear:

I am not an expert on healing. I don't have all the answers, I am just a follower of Jesus who believes the bible and tries his best to live it out. I am typing this with three discs out of place in my back, tinnitus ringing in my ears and my father in law in hospital since February. My parents both died as a result of cancer and I see sickness around my everyday. I don't live in Cuckooland. It's not just bad people who get sick either...  in fact it can seem a great injustice that some of the finest people I have ever met are either suffering with sickness or have died as a result of sickness. Sickness seems to be evident in all kinds of people: babies, kids, youth, adults, elderly, tall, small, rich, poor, black, white, Catholic, Methodist, Pentecostals and even Presbyterians!! :-)  Sickness can come to everyone... even the best of us.

Secondly I do not believe that all people remain sick because they lack faith. The Pastor who would dare tell a mother that her child continues to suffer with leukemia because she does not have enough faith for their healing needs a... (I will leave that to your imagination). Of course a prayer of faith can rise up the sick (James 5:15) but to blame a person’s lack of faith is ignorant and very cruel. God’s ways are higher than ours... there is a mystery in it all.

Thirdly I believe that what the bible says supersedes my experience. This is very important.  As I Christian I cannot allow what I see to determine what I believe. If I see no one healed does that mean God does not heal? If I lead no one into faith in Christ does that mean Jesus does not save? If I have never seen a shark do they not exist?
Faith in God required me to move beyond what I can physically see and touch.

When my mother died of cancer a well meaning individual said "Has that shaken you faith in healing?" Of course not! God is bigger than my experience, he is the God of the bible and he does not change. I believe God to be loving, just, merciful, gracious, jealous and patient. I believe God to be Creator... and if that be the case he is also the best person to go to when something is broken. There is logic in this. The one who makes things is also the best one to go to for a repair? I believe God to be a healing God... irrespective of my experience.  (To that point may I add I have prayed for and witnessed first hand some amazing miracles.)

Fourthly I believe God can heal in many ways. Through the hand of a surgeon, medicine and also as a supernatural act of power. When I pray for the sick I pray my best prayer and always in Jesus name and for His glory. With the persons permission I will at times lay on hands or use oil.

Fifthly, not everyone who is prayed for is healed... Why? I have no idea... but I trust God, my Father in heaven, to make the right choices whenever I don't understand the reasons. If you have been prayed for in the past and you have yet to receive your healing here is my advice; don't quit! Keep praying for a YES until God gives you a NO. I have been prayed for 100's of times for healing and it hasn't happened...yet!
Ultimately, and this is of utmost importance: Everyone who believes in their heart and confesses with their lips that Jesus Christ is Lord will be healed; this may not come until we reach heaven but rest assured your healing is coming!

Finally, God's ability or willingness to perform the miraculous is not confined to a certain time frame of Church History. God's Holy Spirit has power to heal today just as He had power to heal at any other time. God does not change.

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT HEALING?

Over the coming months I will assemble into this little blog a list of some references to healing in the bible and brief thoughts on the passage.



I have put together this collection of Scriptures so that you can know the truth about God and healing; and the truth that you know will set you free. Fill your life with God's promises and take Him at his word. Trust Him today for your healing and apply these scriptures to your life.
I pray as you read these you will trust in Jesus as your Saviour, Lord and Healer.

The first reference in the bible which deals with healing is found in Genesis 20:17.

So Abraham prayer unto God; and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants, and they bare Children.

This first physical healing recorded in scripture as a result of answered prayer.

In Exodus 15:26 the bible says:

If thou wilt diligently harken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statues, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which i have brought upon the Egyptians: For i am the Lord that healeth thee.

This scripture has two parts to it; the conditions and the promise. Additionally God declares that he is the Healer. Jehovah-Ropheka. God your Physician.

Exodus 23:25
 And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he will bless thy bread and thy water and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.

Leviticus 16:21
And aaron shall lay both his hands upon the goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions in their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send him away...

In the same way as the goat carried the sins and sickness of the people and was put out of their midst to die, so too was Christ put out of the city walls carrying the sins and sicknesses of the people.

Numbers 21:8
And the Lord said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent, and set it on a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looks upon it shall live.

The serpent upon the pole is symbolic of Jesus Christ becoming sin for us on the cross (John 3:14)

Deuteronomy 34:7
Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural forces abated.'

Joshua 14:10

And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, as he said, these 45 years, ever since the Lord spoke this to Moses while Israel wandered in the wilderness, and now, here i am this day, 83 years old. As yet I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me, just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war...

Both Moses and Joshua experienced God blessing of long life and health.

The Bible is a dusty old fashioned book loaded with rules, contradictions, half truths, manipulative stories and legends.

“The Bible is a dusty old-fashioned book loaded with rules, contradictions, half truths, manipulative stories and legend. It is at best irrelevant and at worst a dangerous book which has divided people, broken families and caused militants to rise up and kill the innocent. It is a crutch for week people, a hiding place for the weird and a platform for religious nuts to shout and force their opinions into others. Should such a book even be kept in the house let alone read?”

That may be your opinion but I dare you to read it. I dare you to lay aside your preconceived ideas and prejudice to give it a go. If you have been ‘Bible Bashed’ before or people have tried to manipulate or intimidate you with its words then on behalf of all right thinking believers I apologise. The Bible is described as a sword and there have been many, including myself, who have in their enthusiasm and lack of skill flashed it’s blade like a toddler with a light-sabre. 

Why read it?

The Bible is a book like no other; it has not only shaped our country but the world. It has moulded politics, culture, human rights, equality laws and democracy the world over.  Three Bibles are distributed free of charge every second and it remains the world’s No1 best seller.  It has inspired kings, leaders, artists, poets, sports stars the world over as well as billions of others as they go about their daily lives.

This book has something to say to everyone. It teaches us about honesty, hard work, leadership, integrity, charity, compassion, humility, self-sacrifice, putting others first and above all love. It brings hope to the hopeless, comforts those who mourn and shows us than in our brokenness God has made away for wholeness.

I desperately want to make this book ‘trendy again.’ There was time when carrying your Bible under your arm was just as cool as walking today with a set of ‘Monster Beats’  over your ears while plugged into your Ipad. 

Here is just one of many stories that offers great lessons for everyone.  

It’s the 20^th year of Artaxerxes, King of Persia about 450BC and the walls of Jerusalem have been a broken messy rubble for 120 years. They were torn down by the Chaldeans and then allowed to sit unrepaired for now more than a century. Now a city wall in ruins was a bad thing in those days. Not only did it leave the city open for attack, but it prompted ridicule from neighbouring powers. Literally tens of thousands of Jerusalem’s people had seen the broken walls and done nothing. What the people needed was someone to rally them, plan a course of action and take them through the building process. They needed a leader and they got one in a cup-bearer to the King called Nehemiah.

His story is one of the most remarkable stories of leadership ever recorded. He made plans, envisioned the people and worked with them to rebuild the walls. In the end, what lay a mess for 120 years was repaired inside just 52 days.

Are you a leader? There is much you can learn from this guy and you can find his full story inside the Bible in a book that bears his name: Nehemiah

Whey not find that old book and give the story a read... alternatively you can download it here 

Here are some leadership lessons from Nehemiah that we would do well to follow:

• He identified the problem that no-one else could see
• He approached and shared the challenge with key influencers 
• He measured up the task
• He cast the vision before the people
• He encouraged them with stories of past success
• He received ‘buy-in’ from the people
• He organised them
• He worked with them and not just from a desk

The walls were built because Nehemiah had a burden, showed ability to work in a team and led them with clear direction.

A dust irrelevant book? I dare you... blow the dust of the Bible and read it!