Born in England with parents loved the Lord

Dad was a pastor

1. Early concern

• lots of questions
• “I really mean it”
• cowboys
• Does just saying a prayer make you a Christian?
  • What does the Bible say?
  • “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved”
• It’s not something we can measure! God knows the heart. You know if you have believed because the Spirit comes to live in you.

2. Teenager (early high-school years)

• re-evaluate
• sure it was true because of the reality in my parents’ lives
• up and down /\/\/\-> in concern
• Occasionally I would be stirred up by a good speaker at a meeting
  • I would say a prayer for salvation
  • I would think: I wasn’t a Christian before, but I am now!
  • yet it would quickly evaporate
• sometimes I thought I was a Christian—even organized prayer meetings
• I was absolutely sure I would end up a Christian, so I didn’t need to worry too much.
• Living totally for myself, in my own Andrew-centred world
  • no fruit

• Life was fuun

• Many people are in this position—they believe in God and think they are ok but nothing really happens.
• What do such people need?
  • A dose of reality: This is what a Christian is, not someone who is just saying a

• There was no fruit in my life, and I was living for myself. Everyone else could see it except me.
• What is the answer for someone in this position?

3. Worried still teenager

• Noel Heather: you are not Christians! You need to turn to God!
• Realized I had no automatic pass to heaven and could go to hell.
• Listen to cars passing in street outside my window
• went on for several years
• complete misunderstanding about salvation

• What did I need at this time? —good theology
• God brought me some good theology, but in a very unusual way

4. Shock

• Three things that dominated my thinking—girls, electronics and music

• I really wanted a girlfriend—not for a life-long relationship but just because I was lonely
• Problem of being a “seeker”
• Conversion of one of the YP who had just started coming
• they had been reading Spurgeon
• I decided to.
• Finally, some good theology

5. Life like a road /:\

• I had heard the story of Blondin walking across the falls
• Just believe. You don’t have to do anything else
• “roll yourself onto Jesus” I had no strength for anything more
• One evening as I was praying I was thinking about the beauty of what Jesus did
  • I felt that even if I was go go to hell, I would still spend eternity praising him
• I don’t know exactly the moment I was saved, but that was June 6, just after my 17th birthday

6. Slow Assurance

• talked to parents
• studied science, eventually getting a Ph.D. in computer science
• Married Anne
• It was great fun, but I had a deep desire to know more of God and to serve him more
  • worked for different companies, ending up being a university lecturer
• 1885 finished Ph.D.
  • Take a year out and study theology —Toronto!
• by this time had two lovely children:

• 1990 I felt God leading me to change careers and study theology
  • I did a Masters degree in Theology, studied 5yrs of Greek and 3 of Hebrew
• Then in 1994 God opened up an opportunity for me to teach in Seminary, in fact I was appointed the Principal
  • Certainly not a Spirit-centred seminary, but God was doing things in my life
• My heart’s desire was to know God more and to help others to do so
  • I started to teach a course on the Christian life
  • I set myself to pray that God would reveal to me what I should teach
  • I was expecting a kind of “brain dump” of theology
  • What actually happened was that God brought a whole load of pain and suffering into my life
    • open to change
    • hungry for answers
• I spent a lot of time studying the Bible, and finally came to the conclusion that
  • the supernatural gifts have not ceased
  • what I needed was more of the Spirit
  • but I had no idea how to get more of him
• End of 2001, a friend in England was saved
• She was given Surprised by the power of the Holy Spirit by Jack Deere
  • I was SO HUNGRY I read anything I could get my hands on
  • Amazed by what I read about prophecy
  • by Summer 2002 I desperately wanted to see what it looked like, and the only place I could think of going was to a church out by the airport...
• Prophecy
• Questions
  • I decided that if what was happening at TACF was real, it was one of the most important moves of God in history
  • I had to find the answer
  • Read about 30 books
  • read 100’s of internet articles, from those which supported it, right through the spectrum to those which said it was demonic
  • I was very cautious, and spent a lot of time watching the LiveTV on the internet
• People on both sides kept quoting Johathan Edwards to support themselves
  • They couldn’t both be right, so I decided to read him for myself
  • got hold of the main documents, and underlined all the parts relevant to TACF
  • shocked at how opponents selectively quoted him!
  • Main principle:
    • The Bible doesn’t tell us to judge by manifestations (list of good and bad)
    • We are to judge by the fruit in people’s lives
  • So I decided that I couldn’t do any more evaluation from a distance, I had to start coming, and see people’s lives
• So, Jan 2003 I started going to some evening meetings
  • I wanted to see if there was fruit, so every antenna was out—if this was the Spirit, they had to be very good
  • I was impressed—particularly with the reality of the relationship that people had with God.
  • I WANTED IT, I WAS SO HUNGRY FOR MORE OF GOD
• So on March 6th, I decided to get my feet wet
  • I volunteered to be a catcher (I don’t have the gift!)
    • it was very interesting
    • I was very struck by the love shown by ministry team lady to those she was praying for
    • I was prayed over, which was a blessing, but I didn’t feel very different
  • I was tired and happy and went home to bed
• The next morning I woke up with a powerful feeling of how much God loved me!
  • The next night I only got two hours sleep because of this wonderful feeling of his love invading my being
  • It hasn’t stopped since then!
  • It has ebbed and flowed, but this sense of his love is there all the time, like an arm wrapped around me
• This led to some differences of emphasis between me and the Seminary where I worked

• God provided for us amazingly
  • Job immediately
  • New church family
  • Discovered Newfrontiers
• Spirit: Truth, love, power