Stories…

Caught in Uganda!
I was living in Uganda for a year when Father began to deconstruct my view of Him. Whilst there I encountered a culture and situations that I was not prepared for. It was too much for me: seeing needless suffering and death, and I wasn’t sure if the God I knew could do anything about it. Little by little Father opened my eyes to see that He was there in the middle of the pain, loving people one by one. He wanted me to simply join Him in loving individuals. I was not the answer nor did I have to find the answer.

As I began to see things differently I fell upon sick child after sick child in an area of Uganda called Kamuli District. My heartache cried out to my Father who said, “Remember the one, not the crowd. I see the one and that is where I work. Love them one at a time and I will come.” Very simply, Father showed me that we could love each child by giving them the medicine which they could not buy. This practical display of Father’s love would enable children to finish their education, helping to develop their communities in a positive way. The resulting project is called Helping Hands and it aims to care for around 3000 children, loving them one at a time. It is fuelled by a faith in a God who wants to be a Father to each one of His children in a real way that makes a difference.

Debbie

Sabbatical Surprise!
In the spring of 2003, my church released me for a four month sabbatical. I had no idea what to expect during this period, but God began to speak to me progressively about His true Father’s heart towards me in a way that has been absolutely life-changing. This began in the first week when a friend gave me the book “The Return Of The Prodigal Son” by Henri Nouwen. I then studied Bob Mumford’s video series “The Agape Road” before going on a 4 week “Leaders’ School Of Ministry” course at the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship in Canada.

My whole way of thinking began to change. This can be encapsulated in a statement made by Bob Mumford that “Heaven is not the goal. The goal is intimacy with the Father.”

The prime motive of Jesus’ work of salvation was to bring us back into relationship with Father God, and that starts now! The revelation that the Father actually likes me and wants an intimate relationship with me, despite my still-so-present bad attitudes and wrong thoughts, has changed everything. It has affected not only my relationship with God himself, but also with my adult son and daughter and with my own dad in his closing years.

Andy

An Encounter with Father God
I became a Christian in 1970, straight into the ‘charismatic movement’. Over the years, I came to know Jesus and the Holy Spirit, but was never sure about Father God. I found that, although I could worship and appreciate Him, I didn’t love Him as I felt the first commandment was telling me to. In fact, deep down I felt He was distant and that I would never make the grade. I found myself regularly sliding into what I now realise was mild depression. I would be relieved when I could ‘pull myself together’ and feel that no-one had realised what was going on. The mask was firmly in place again and I could ‘carry on’.

Then, in His mercy and completely unexpectedly, early in 2002, God told my husband and me to visit Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship. During two visits He lovingly ministered to times in early childhood when my own parents were not able to love me because of their own hurtful pasts.

Early one morning on our second visit, I was sitting up in bed in the hotel meditating on this verse: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1). Suddenly, I clearly heard an inner voice saying to me “You don’t have to look for love any more.” I knew at once that this was my Heavenly Father’s voice. Amazingly, His voice carried on. He said, in such loving and affirming tones, “I think you are wonderful. I’m so proud of you. You are lovely. You’re my daughter.” On and on it went. I began to laugh, then cry, then laugh again. For the first time, I knew I had heard my heavenly Daddy’s voice loving me, not ‘doctrinally’ but ‘experientially’!

Since that time, Father God has filled my heart over and over again with His love. I now love Him because He first loved me. I can now be the ‘real’ me – my Father’s daughter – instead of trying to be a ‘strong Christian’. With His help, I am growing to love Him with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul and with all my strength and to pass His love on to others. Thank you, Father, I love you.

Anon

My Heart has Come Home!
What difference has knowing the Father made in my life?

"For there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God" Heb . 4 v.9

Over many years, I have often read this verse, always wondering how to come into the place that it describes. Knowing the Father's love has brought me, for the first time in over 50 years, into a place of rest. I have discovered that the Sabbath rest I have been seeking is to be found in His embrace. I know now that my Father loves me for who I am, not for what I do. I no longer have to perform or achieve in order to impress Him, or to impress others. My Father loves and receives me always.

Once I stopped trying to put right all the things I felt were wrong in my life, I found that the Father's unconditional love was starting to change me on the inside.  Addictions began to be broken as His comfort filled my heart. Many fears were removed as He "quietened me with His love " (Zephaniah 3:17) As I spent time with Him, His love started to heal many wounds from the past.

The Father began to speak truth into my heart about who I really was - precious, beloved and beautiful. These truths have begun to work their way from the inside to the outside. People tell me I look younger! Perhaps I do. I am learning how to enjoy my Father's company, and to rest in His plans and His love. It is so good to discover that at the heart of the universe is One who loves me unconditionally. It feels as if my heart has finally come home.

Libby

Hannah’s Journey
How did you come to know the Father’s love for yourself?

It was when James Jordan came to our church and stayed in our home. I went to all the meetings that weekend. I sat at the front and listened to all James said. I really missed him when he left.

James came back a few months later. At that time I was prayed for in a meeting that God would reveal His Father’s love to me.

A year later, we met up with James and he prayed for me in a car-park! In the following week, I woke up one morning and knew that God loved me as a Father. It makes me feel happy inside.

Hannah (Age 13)

My Journey Home
Having been extremely successful in the newspaper business for many years, as well as being a very conscientious church worker, I began to question why performance and success were so important to me. With the help of friends I realised that it stemmed back to my relationship with my father.

Although I was raised in a wonderful family, my father struggled with alcoholism. As a little boy, I always wanted to please my Dad and get his affirmation. Since my Dad was very proficient in Judo, my older brother and I started to learn this sport with a vengeance. By the age of 7 I was training for two hours per night in preparation for tournaments. Unfortunately, my motivation was not rooted in the love of the sport but in love for my Dad. If I lost I felt I had let him down. Inside me was an emptiness which I continually tried to fill with success and recognition. Only later was I to understand what I was really looking for – the need for a father’s love and affirmation.

My hunger for the Father’s love was awakened through attending a number of conferences on the subject. There was one, though, that proved to be the turning point in my life.

Realising I had closed my heart to my Dad many years before, I repented of this, purposing to restore my relationship with him. This opened my heart to being a son again and prepared me to receive God as my Father.

One of the conference speakers, Jack Winter, asked me if he could stand in for my father. He asked if I could forgive him for not being the father I needed. The pain and disappointment of a five year old boy caused me to weep as Jack embraced me as a father would his son.

As the pain was washed away, wave upon wave of liquid love filled my empty heart. Jack’s arms became the arms of my Father in heaven as he embraced me. A cleansing, soothing presence filled me and comforted me like I had never felt before. Finally I found the Father I was looking for all my life.

Barry

Double Heart Miracle
In February 2002, a few months after I had retired, I found myself under investigation for a heart condition. This came as a great shock as I had always been healthy and was looking forward to an active retirement. Then, at a church meeting, God spoke to me from Isaiah 40 “Those that wait on the Lord will renew their strength”. At the same time He spoke to my wife and me about visiting Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship. We ended up there for a conference “Experiencing the Father’s Embrace” with Jack Frost. I had always known God as Father, as early as I can remember, so I wasn’t expecting anything startlingly new from the talks. I was completely unprepared for the impact which the message had on me.

Since then, I have come into a deeper understanding of the richness of the Father’s love and of His personal care for me as His child. I have received deliverance from a generational curse that I did not realise existed and healing of hurts and thought patterns which I had become resigned to living with. My physical heart condition may have been top of my agenda, but my spiritual heart condition was the thing that God dealt with first.

The physical condition God left to the surgeons, but they did a perfect job and instead of waiting for months I was slotted in a week after diagnosis. For those who understand the British National Health Service, that also counts as a miracle! Five weeks later, I was walking the Lake District hills, so God was not slow in fulfilling His promise of renewed strength.

Anon