'Keep Calm and Carry On' was one of three key messages created by Britain's wartime propaganda department, the
As previously mentioned, I finally discerned the voice of the Holy Spirit who spoke and showed me the most sustainable way of 'doing local church'. It considered all the decisive factors, from distance to cost. There was a bonus of familiarity. Namely, when I no longer could be a meaningful part of my former local church in the biggest city of the UK southern shore, I felt led to start commuting to a vibrant West-London church. I was in touch with many livelier UK ministers via social media (before I merged my profile and my page which I had set up for the Facebook notes - a function which was discontinued a couple of years ago), and one of them - a prophetic London evangelist - shared an invite to the meetings of James Maloney.
Jim (James) Maloney was in a fivefold ministry of a prophet. These days many identify with the calling, while every individual believer can prophesy (1 Cor 14:31). The Spirit of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Rev 19:10 refers to the testimony of Jesus, but we know that the Spirit of God was in Jesus, and is a separate entity of the Triune God, and He is the One who unites all Three, and us. (1 Cor 2:10-12).
The fact is that while we can all prophesy (and should!), not everyone is a prophet. (1 Cor 12:29).
It takes more than just tapping into the gift of prophecy.
The gift of prophecy is one of the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor 12:4-11). There is more. But we need to learn how to use them. It may seem as if they are dispensed individually, and it may leave an impression as if they were handed out only for some select individuals, while the truth is that everyone can tap into them, according to the existing need (or common good) which means that when we have a need, He lets us get the answer via a spiritual gift, or when there is a need to minister to another, He lets us tap into a respective spiritual gift and help another, and when He sees a need which might benefit a wider audience (a church, or in case of prophetic evangelism, the people) He lets us tap into a spiritual gift for that particular moment and need He has in mind.
James Maloney was a prophet, and a healing minister with a tremendous gift of faith. His ministry was very supernatural (and while we do not want to chase the supernatural per se as opposed to seeking and following the Spirit of God, it has always been a part and a parcel of the Christian ministry and individual walk of the believers, and it enriches our life, for everything about God is supernatural, or like one minister Jennifer Eivaz put it 'His Super upon our natural').
If interested, then my church has several recordings of his preaching where he shared some things God had been doing to him, and with him.
https://www.
Skipping the rest and hopping back to the present day when I finally heard and understood God, who directed me back to the same place.
I reconnected with a former acquaintance who had been to both places, in Southampton and Chiswick. Today she is standing on her two feet, spiritually together, built up and called into the ministry of a prophet. She had set up her own work and reached out to me. We shared some, and I ended up googling the name of James Maloney who had been instrumental in getting me to CCC. He had a tremendous and most supernatural prophetic healing ministry. If you can listen to his CCC recordings via one or all the links listed above, then at one place he tells how he sat down in his bed in the States. Suddenly, the Spirit transported him somewhere. He was not aware was it in an actual physical realm (or a vision). He ministered to huge crowds of people, one by one, and God made the most wonderful healing miracles, creative physical healing miracles. - Later, he found out that it had happened to the actual people in one corner of the earth. They compared their accounts, which matched. And that was only one such instance from his ministry.
Yet, when I googled his name (in hopes that he might visit some London venue again), I found out that he, a man who had been operating with such tremendous gift of faith which had brought healing to so many people, had passed away due to COVID pneumonia complications, right at the beginning of the wave. (He is not the only powerful healing minister to whom this has happened).
https://www.facebook.com/jamesgollpage/posts/shocked-to-learn-of-the-passing-of-james-maloney-of-dove-on-the-rise-internation/10158740418821832/
As to CCC, the former pastor found that after decades there, his time was up. The church went without a pastor for a while. Then they got a younger trainee pastor who had been freshly ordained. I managed to visit the church without ever meeting him. My daughter had better luck. She quite liked him. But when I finally heard the Spirit of God tell me to go there, he was no more around. Which means that we are waiting for a new pastor again. In the meantime, the church is on the roll. There are many capable persons, but we all know that it takes a special calling to be a pastor. There are other ministry gifts and callings, which are not necessarily set in one location. But a local church pastor must be first called and equipped and prepared for that calling. And then he is local. Which means that even if he is also ministering to the people in other locations, his main ministry revolves around the local church.
This church is not in my Borough. I hoped to find a suitable strong place in the two Boroughs where I have lived in London, after our move here at the relative beginning of the pandemic, on 5 June 2020. I looked up all places I could find and conducted an extensive search. I visited some places, but none were a suitable fit - which means I did not sense a confirmation or how Kenneth E. Hagin used to put it - 'a green light' in my spirit.
There was a strong church nearby. I first found their evangelistic brochure in my mailbox. It was made with Easter in mind, but it was compiled in a clever mode, covering several topics which might have interested a casual reader. It contained some quite well-written poetry, local historic background from the spiritual perspective, a scientific approach, and other articles. This made me personally look this place up. But alas, all their leadership were men. Men only. Not a reference to a single woman. And I am a woman, with a ministry background. While it was a strong church, I would have been automatically cancelled there due to being a 'weaker vessel', or due to religion which saw women as homemakers, but not in any way related to any spiritual ministry, apart from singing a few songs or making music.
The Anglican church was more open to the concept of female ministers and varied in my area, with some taking a more religious hardliner approach, to the others who had embraced healing ministry. While there has also been an Anglican revival, for God is not partial when it comes to His Holy Spirit, I quickly came to a realisation that I was not a good fit for the Anglican church either.
There was some short, but lively worship in one nearby Anglican church where we happened to partake of their Harvest Feast service. A trainee minister sat at my table. We met later in another Anglican church in my home village which I also checked out. Also, a greeter lady at his church connected with me, for she had also been to a Chiswick Christian Church, and knew some of the people there, including the gentlemen who has been filling in, in the absence of its officially selected and appointed pastor (in the traditional Elim Pentecostal church manner). An elderly lady with a local council employee background kindly offered us a lift back. I managed to come out of her car while my daughter slammed its door shut, with my finger stuck in between. (The finger was black and blue, but the lady driver saw me pray for this, and speak the Word of God over it which hopefully taught her about God who heals.) (I wanted to go back next time when they had a Platinum Jubilee weekend, to help her be calm and assure her that my finger was still there, and no actual harm had happened to it, apart from the pain and discolouration, but I chose to go to Chiswick church, instead - in hopes of meeting its new pastor, who could not come for he had been barricaded by the street parties, and the engineer slash preacher Alistair who was a common acquaintance of me and the Hampton Wick St. John's Anglican church usher lady ended up doing some freestyle preaching which I personally could not hear at all, due to insufficient mike volume... which made me take a step back for reconsideration... during the lockdown, their YouTube streaming had similar issues when it came to their new young pastor, whose wife I could hear, but it was a bit of a problem, both when it came to their online services, and when I was present, and it would be only elementary that I'd be able to hear what is going on... when going to church. The worship was still good. Then again, I had already been to a church in my past, which had similar sound problems which made me hear only a third, or half on good days when sitting in one of the first three rows... and I did not really fancy a repetition of that experience...)
And then, there was one Pentecostal church in my Borough. My daughter could visit their service, and it was good. We had even previously checked out the venue by taking two buses and walking there on one Saturday. But it was best accessed by a car. And a walk through a wild overgrown thicket, along the slippery brookside, in darker rainy autumn days did not seem like an amiable prospect. In any way, it was at the outer extremity of Outer London, at the far end of the most remote part of our Borough, where you could go via another Borough, and then there was one bus taking you there, all the way to the water reservoirs at the end of the Hampton Village. The place was great, spiritually speaking. And yet, not a sustainable option for someone who had experienced some mobility problems in the near past.
Yes, there is always an option to set up the work. The disciples prayed to God to send out the harvesters, and He sent them forth. I am a capable minister, right. But the fact that we could does not necessarily mean that we should. Unless Holy Spirit tells the builders to build, they toil in vain. Psalm 127:1. We need to be a good fit for the work which means we need to be called for something specific, when it comes to setting up (and upholding) the work of ministry. We may want to do it at the leading of God, stepping out on His Word, His spoken or Rhema word, which gives us extra faith to withstand the challenges (and believe me, the storms will come, but a house built on the rock will stand - Matthew 7:24-27). Then again, there have been a few hiccups after our move to London, which have been related to my need to reinvent myself workwise. For one cannot live only out of air and love. And while my work has been of a supernatural origin ever since I set it up at the direction of the Spirit of God, according to the blueprint received from Him, there are seasons in our life.
Seasons can differ (they usually do!). When prophet Elijah had his draught period experience, He was supernaturally sustained, while the rest of the country suffered from the consequences of the draught. Then, this season ended in his life. Time had come for something different. The flow stopped. The provision God had been providing throughout the famine, was no longer there. Which meant that prophet Elijah had to seek God regarding his next step. And then he had to follow the received directions. While in the meantime, during the period of his journey from step A to step B, there was a pause. We call it a transition. A transition is the time when we are no longer in the former place, while we are not yet at our next destination either. It can be a troubling time (if we allow to, and it can be troublesome until we figure out the cause and find a solution, or our next road instructions to our following destination which God has arranged for us in His Master Plan).
So, one such season took me from Southampton to a Western London Borough. Then we had to move again. To an adjacent Borough. Thankfully, we can be sure that this place is the one with the backing of God (which means that it will automatically release us an extra dose of faith regarding our stay here). God who gave it is the One who has the final say in the matter, and there will be no more unpleasant surprises - the way it happened at our previous place where our assured two-year tenancy was discontinued already on the 9th month when we received a surprise note regarding the future need to vacate the premises. There was a government-backed six-month period which meant that we knew we had to find a new place, yet we could not move before the mentioned period was over. We quickly found that London private rental market could be quite challenging, with dozens pouncing the moment something suitable and remotely affordable opened up. So, no more unexpected unpleasant surprises. But it also means that if one has more demanding neighbours who want to go to bed early in the evening and feel that any decibels which my ear can hardly detect are a problem, then the answer is private property ownership. Which, in London, can be quite a challenge. Especially, in greener safer and hence, more expensive Boroughs, with London prices being the topmost in the world. But there is God who has supernatural solutions. In the meantime, before He tells anything different, it is CCC and the nearest local church for me. Not in my Borough, but close enough to be a sustainable option. With at least some people who are familiar from my earlier commuting years. Some have moved on after the pastor moved on. The others are still there. And they are who make up the church. They share a similar teaching, and they are 'my tribe'.
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