I was attending a midweek prayer and ministry meeting at a local ex-AOG Pentecostal meeting place. The followers were few and mostly elderly. But the speaker was the Director of the Far East Evangelical Mission, a branch of the Worldwide Evangelical Crusade (WEC) of which we had a house on Mount Pleasant Hill, Swansea.
He told us of Two Chinese Sisters recently converted. They had read all the words of Jesus and were hearing His call to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel.” So they went to their pastor and explained this to him. “We have read all the words of Jesus sir and want to go.”
The pastor was suitably impressed and said, “I’ll make some arrangements.”
“No sir. We want to go now, it’s urgent.” And continued to press him for somewhere to go.
Eventually he said, “We have an island with a fishing community where there is no work yet. I will send you there.”
Two years later they were called back to a Mission Board Meeting to report their progress. Although he did not say so, I suspect from the details of his reporting that he was head of the Board.
“How did you get on?” they asked. “How many churches have you planted?”
“Not many,” they said in their humble Chinese way. “Only two years.”
“Yes, but how many?”
“Not many,” they continued in their very humble Chinese way. “Only two years.”
This continued for some time, the two sisters being very reluctant to say how many. Until the board insisted on knowing, “How many churches?”
“Only two hundred sirs.” And very apologetic, “Only two years sirs.”
The board members were astonished. Such numbers would be huge by anyone’s standards.
“So, how many converts?”
“Not many sir. Only two years.”
And so it continued.
“Well, how many in the smallest?”
“About two hundred sirs. Only two years.”
“And the largest? How many in the largest?”
“Not many sirs,” they continued in their humble Chinese way. “Only two years.”
“But how many in the largest?”
“Thousands sirs. Many thousands in the biggest. Only two years.”
Again the board was astonished and asked, “How did you do it?”
“We prayed and listened sirs.”
I was greatly struck by the simplicity of this report. And on the way to the door at the end of the meeting my friend David Morris, a 24/7 evangelist that we often worked with in Open Air Ministry, asked me, “Roy, what are you doing tomorrow?”
I said, “I don’t know David. I’m going home to pray and listen. I want some of that.” Pointing to the speaker.
So, I went home, knelt by the sofa, and prayed and listened.
Immediately the Lord said, “Go to your neighbour.”
I knew what He meant. We lived in a One-Way street and on our side, there was a steep camber to the road which made it difficult to open the driver’s door unless there was a dropped kerb. These were only provided by each front door. For my neighbour to do this he had to park partly across the front of my house. This had resulted in a sort of ‘parking war’ because the street was full of cars and the last one home had to park somewhere else.
I settled it in my heart to go to my neighbour, thinking I would have to testify to the Lord’s goodness and forgiveness. But it took me four days to get there! I had never experienced so much difficulty in obeying the Lord’s leading.
On the fourth day I was able to park and knock his door before going to mine. His wife answered, but I could see him sitting inside.
“I just want you to know that there is no hard feeling about the parking,” I said. And they simply agreed.
The very next day I again return home after work and the street is totally clear of any animosity!
The parking war had stopped.
And so began the ministry of “Changing Atmospheres” by simple obedience.
One of the most dramatic examples of this occurred on my first tour of Israel. Tours are usually busy and personal quiet time is one of the first casualties. So, when we arrived at our hotel just south of the Old Jerusalem about 4 pm, and nothing was planned for the evening. I asked the Lord, “Where do you want me?” thinking, He’s going to say, “Bible Study and prayer.”
But He says, “I want you outside to taste the atmosphere.”
I had clocked the streets as we drove away from the city, so I knew roughly how to get back. Packed communion and set off. To cut a long story short, I went via The Golden Gate to The Garden of Gethsemane, and on to the Mount of Olives. The atmosphere was foul up there and I did not stay long. It’s mostly Arab occupied and it makes a huge difference. When the Lord says, “Thou shalt have no other gods!” He means it.
I returned via the Lions Gate where Steven was stoned to death and detected a spirit of murder in the area of the gate. I rebuked it in Jesus Name and continued to circumnavigate the Old City and home to the hotel. But before I left, I used the public call box to call home. “Where are you?” she asked. “At St Steven’s Gate.” I said. “That’s dangerous!” she said. “Aye, but dangerous to who?” I replied, thinking, “You would not want a spirit of murder in your back garden. Would you?”
Beloved children, when we follow faithfully, He gives us authority over all the power of the enemy. Let’s use it as He gives us the opportunities.
The next day we toured the area with my fellow students and the spirit of murder was no more!
On the last day in Jerusalem we were to meet at the Damascus Gate in the north. Which meant I had to traverse the length of the Old City. In the Jewish Quarter there was peace and joy so much so that I was singing in tongues. But when you cross over into the Crusader Markets which are Muslim Quarter the noise and atmosphere is horrendous. Another example of the oppression of Islam that those people need to be freed from.
Another application at home in Swansea. We got a flat in a converted church. Lovely, but the area was renowned for vandalism, car theft and damage, and anti-social behaviour. Because we needed to park our own vehicle and the works van on the street, we felt to pray over the spirits of disobedience in the area and the results were immediate. It stopped! And even the children noticed, got friendly, invited them in, and over only a short period of time 24 gave their hearts to the Lord Jesus. Then they told us that the local Muslim children were bullying some of the Welsh children, to such an extent that there had been several suicides. We prayed over that, and that stopped too. That’s not unlike the spirit of murder that was detected at Steven’s Gate in Jerusalem.
Now as lovely as it was to be in a flat with church style windows looking out onto the park, we had some trouble with the sofa. My wife was greatly troubled by a strange uncleanness about the sofa, and we were constantly praying over it, but to no avail. Then one day we met the Anglican vicar and got invited to look around the much-reduced church part. There, on the wall that backed on to our apartment was a huge crucifix with the Lord hanging on the nails! We dealt with the culprit and had no more trouble. When the Lord says, “Erect no graven image of Me!” He means it.
“Erect NO graven image of Me.”
It’s as if it opens a portal to some unclean spirit of disobedience.
There is a similar practice among the native American Indians. If you see a man-sized black figure in their Indian Rock Art, it is a Shaman Portal that has been opened to allow waring spirits from the Underworld to come and go as they please and cause havoc in the community. They are usually in remote places, but as with many other things in the spirit world, they can be closed with words and water libation. When the US Military and settlers drove out the Indians onto reservations, they knew nothing of these portals, and they were never closed.