RAINMAKERS

  Jesus said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” Matthew 21:13 The other night I attended a weekly gathering in a city. We had a wonderful time of fellowship, worship, prayer, and prophesying over people.  During the time of worship the host played a song that I had never heard before. It is a new song in the Christian world, and I pulled up the lyrics on my phone to follow along. It's not the kind of song that you could probably sing on a Sunday morning, but I was blown away by the lyrics. The host played it a second time, and I sang along gently, reading the lyrics out as I sang. I had the thought, "This is like a Mission Statement in a song" I wept, and was moved, and my thoughts were stirring. I mused how if the church adopted these lyrics as their tenets, we would be a lot closer to where we need to be. I also personalised it—IF I ADOPTED THESE LYRICS AS MY TENETS THEN I'D BE CLOSER TO WHERE I ...

  I love autumn. I am an October baby, so each year I love the connection between the changing of seasons and celebrating another year around the sun. This is my first year back in Wales since moving home last November, so, I have been enjoying the transition from summer to autumn. In the States we call this time "Fall", and I like that word too. Autumn is a warm word, but Fall is an expression. The leaves fall from the trees. It can be a time of shedding what we need to in order to prepare us for what God has next. I'm not a new year's resolution kinda guy, I want to move and make decisions as the Spirit leads, not the calendar. However, there is something about autumn that revives me. I always like to do something significant on my birthday. For example, I started my publishing company on my birthday in 2021, as I have other ventures. This year I did something like that too. It feels right to start my next journey around the sun with establishing something.  This br...

  I was rummaging through some photos the other day and came across several of my father during times of leading worship. I have had the privilege of ministering with my father since I was around 12-13, when I started playing piano in the worship team of our church. I am now 51 years of age, so that is a 38-39 year partnership. That's how long I have been in public Church ministry. Which is a crazy long time!  Anyway, as we prepare this week for our next Gathering of Rainmakers , the preparation is not about getting songs right, it's about being in the presence of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. My father taught me an important truth when it comes to worship leading,  "You cannot take people where you haven't been yourself" Meaning, if you do not know how to worship in a way that attracts the presence of God, then you cannot lead a congregation to that place. Today, we have many song-leaders but few worship leaders. There is a world of difference. My father taugh...

  Back in May, a group of us were praying. We were seeking God for the new "wineskin" (a symbol of the current "framework" for what God is doing).  Where did God want us to be, and what would be the "structure" of that church, ministry, or whatever? We then started to feel that we were being overly concerned with the "wineskin" over the "wine". We felt the Lord saying, "Forget the wineskin. I want the new wine of my Spirit to flow freely over Wales. Just let it flow and wash away all religiousity. Let it wash away all preconceived ideas of how I want to move. Just let the new wine flow!" We prayed, in response,  "Lord, we burn all of our wineskins. We declare that there is no wineskin!!  Let your new wine flow over Wales!" I have thought much about this over the past six months since that prayer meeting. Sometimes in our attempt to keep things Biblical we can miss what the Spirit is saying. That's a hard thing to...

  Why do we place such importance on the need for God's Presence in our gatherings? I have a friend who runs the largest ministry in the country where he lives. I was once invited to preach at their mid-week prayer meeting, where approximately 250,000 people attend. If I had gone to preach at that time, it would've been the largest crowd I've ever spoken to. WOW! 250,000 people gathering for a mid-week prayer meeting!!! When he and his wife stayed with me in St Louis, I wasn't fully aware of the scale of his ministry at that time, which was good. Being clueless put me at ease. However, when they came to stay I had to arrange some flights for them as they had some important lunch meetings to make with some of the "biggest" minister names I had heard of. I then Google'd to see if he was legit, and he was!  When it was time for him to speak at our church on a Saturday night, I had totally underestimated the kinds of crowds he was used of preaching to. 100,000...

My first ever trip to Africa was life changing. I visited South Africa for two weeks. My host, a man called John, gave me an eye-opening missions trip. I ministered at his church in the suburbs of Johannesburg, a church that John G Lake had planted almost a hundred years before, and we visited the villages of the northern Transvaal (now known as Limpopo and Pretoria). One of the most notable meetings was held in a marquee on a calm day. It was a hot day, and there was no wind to help clear the hot air from inside of the tent, until a lady in her seventees stood up to tell of her story of becoming a follower of Jesus. (I have this interview on video somewhere).  As soon as this  former Witch Doctor  took the mic, a wind blew into the tent and swirled around, it was blowing the tent walls outward. I turned to John, because I knew it had to do with her testimony, and John simply said, "Yes, that is an angel" (we had talked about angels a lot before this). My eyes grew wider,...