by Tim Harrold
30 people from across the church of Thurrock turned out last Saturday 30 May for the second of three ‘Firestarter’ training days.
Held at Gateway People’s Centre (GPC) in Stanford-le-Hope, the topic was Street Healing.
Worship was led by Neil & Laura Frost (right) of the All Saints Centre in Grays.
Led by former Thurrock schools’ head Alan Cass (below right) of North Kent Community Church – and joined by his friend Mark – those who gathered heard story after story of healing when combined with the elements of Treasure Hunting. The purpose of the day was what Alan calls an activation time.
Each believer can be a bridge for God to meet with people, and vice versa. Mark likened it to breaking concrete, though – sometimes it takes a lot of effort to break through and see results.
Another picture Alan brought was of the re-intorduction of wolves in Yellowstone Park to bring down the numbers of deer. Gradually, there was a knock-on effect, and plants began to reappear on the ground and small mammals came back to live there, and eventually eagles in search of small mammals to eat. The landscape and the ecosystem was returned to normal. That’s what the Firestarters’ training is all about – returning the landscape of Thurrock to heaven’s ‘normal’.
Alan pointed out that “natural people cannot do supernatural things“. He also said that regarding the fear of failure comes from the enemy – “The dogs of doom bark at the door of your destiny.” But because of Jesus’ love, we can overcome intimidation and be those bridges for God in a world where healing is needed on all sorts of levels – physical, emotional and spiritual. “Behind the fear is the fruit“, he said. As it says in 1 John 4:9-12 in The Message:
This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.
My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!
After a time of prayer and writing down our clues from God, we were all sent out in twos and threes into Stanford High Street and the other streets in the vicinity to find our treaure and bring healing. As it happened, it was really quiet that morning in Stanford; nevertheless, there were a number of testimonies afterwards.
Grace Gbajabiamila of GPC prayed for a man with prostate cancer who then gave his life to Jesus. She felt her clues led her to a lady – so she asked her if she had mobility probelms, to which the lady replied that she didn’t, but that she had problems with her shoulders and knees, so Grace prayed for her (as they walked up the hill by St Margaret’s!). Grace also prayed with two youths who gave their lives to Jesus – she invited them to church on Sunday.
Dave Matthams (below left) of the All Saints Centre, Grays, had clues which led him to a girl who was going into the wedding dress shop – she had a broken arm, and was happy for Dave to pray with her.
David Waite of GPC had the exact description of a man (tartan shirt and ginger hair), standing in the exact place he had in his clues (at the car park) – Dave was able to pray with him.
Vera Harrold had a clue which was ‘Hercules’ – this meant nothing, until the next day at All Saints, when Neil Frost walked past her carrying a copy of the DVD of the film Hercules, And then we noticed that his mic stand was made by a company called Hercules! So the clue Vera had was actually for the worship leader at the Firestarter training all along!
With thanks to GLP for hosting, Debbie for manning the sound desk, and Jacqui & Steve Trott for making the teas and coffees.
The next training is the Prophetic Reading Firestarter on Saturday 27 June at Grays Baptist Church.
Register here: http://tt-firestarter-spiritual-readings.eventbrite.co.uk
