What is the cause of the unbelievable levels of violence in South Africa – specially in terms of rape and murder – what men do to women and children in our country? Our society and the public media, including the government, is debating what’s behind this, trying to isolate the cause of this pandemic of violence. What are your comments?
Continue reading South African Crisis of Violent Rape and Murder
Gill and I had a wonderful but intense weekend in Amsterdam and Brussels, teaching 25 ardent students at Vineyard Leadership Institute (VLI) from the Vineyard churches in the Benelux countries (and a few that flew in from Lithuania). It was Friday night and all day Saturday ending at 2100 and then driving home to Amsterdam!! We had wonderful ministry times with God touching a number of students, some quite significantly!
Continue reading Following Jesus @ VLI in Columbus, Ohio (USA)
Today, Wednesday 5 Sept, Gill and I fly to the Netherlands and the US to teach at the Vineyard Leadership Institute. VLI operates in both Europe and the US. I will be lecturing a few courses: Healing 1 (Equipping to Minister Healing in the Power of the Spirit) and Healing 2 (Receiving Healing in Six Dimensions), and Doing Reconciliation (The Gospel Mandate of Reconciliation in regard to social transformation, and specifically in regard to racism, classism and sexism). This will be besides ministering at the weekend services in Amsterdam Vineyard, and in Columbus Vineyard in Ohio, USA.
I want to share our itinerary and preaching/lecturing times (below) as a request for prayer – and this schedule includes our trip to do a weekend conference at Newton Park Methodist Church and to speak at the Vineyard National Conference in Port Elizabeth at the end of September. I will be stretched to the outside limit of my stamina in taking on this intense teaching and traveling schedule (Gill has berated me for accepting so my commitments!! But she is traveling with me as a support and especially to keep me in check!! Help me Jesus!!)
So we covet your prayers for God’s protection and supernatural strength, stamina and good health. And of course pray that God may anoint me to teach his Word with great boldness and authority, and that he will stretch out his hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders in the name of his holy servant Jesus (Acts 4:29-30). Thank you! We are very grateful for prayer – we can do nothing without Jesus! Continue reading Prayer Request: Following Jesus to Netherlands & USA
In late July I went to Umhlanga Rocks in Durban at the invitation of the Global School of Supernatural Ministry. There were about 15 students who are doing a one year program. I was invited to lecture one day on “Doing Reconciliation” (racial, economic and gender reconciliation) and then three days teaching on “Doing Healing” – as in what I call The Six Dimensions of Healing:
Continue reading Feedback from Teaching at Global School of Supernatural Ministry
My beautiful wife and I are going back to the Western Cape on Friday to do a family camp for Valley Church in Hout Bay. The pastor, Grant Baston, has invited me to teach on receiving healing in terms of psycho-emotional healing of past hurts, deliverance from addictions and powers, physical and relational healing. He says over 100 people have registered for the camp.
We are SO looking forward to the awesome privilege of teaching God’s Word and ministering to his people. Please pray with us for God’s kingdom to break through with real power to heal the sick; and in the process to equip Christ-followers to be instruments of Jesus’ healing ministry. The camp is from Friday to Sunday lunch, then I speak at the youth service on the Sunday evening in Hout Bay. Thanks for your prayers!
Gill and I returned home on Sunday night tired but filled with gratitude to God for the great time of ministry in Christian Life Camps Bay, Cape Town. I must confess: I did not take photos of the church and/or leadership meetings, or even the Saturday quiet retreat! I just took pics of beautiful Camps Bay itself! Forgive my carnality! 
On the first Sunday (15 April), and during the week, I taught on the call for every follower of Jesus to minister healing to others in the name of Jesus – what we call “equipping the saints.” This included me teaching the practical 5 step model of healing ministry. All those who came to this session practiced it with excitement and good feedback. For many, if not most in the congregation, it was a first to lay hands on people, and to see God work through them in ministering some measure of healing to others. Hopefully some will become really “hooked” on the joy and adventure of doing this Kingdom stuff … laying hands on anything that moves, speaking God’s words of healing by the power of the Holy Spirit!
This past Sunday morning (22 April) was a blast! I spoke on receiving healing in one or more of the six dimensions of human personality: spiritual healing, psycho-emotional healing from past hurts and bad memories, healing from demonizations, physical healing, relational healing, and healing of death and dying. Many people responded all over the congregation in both the 0800 and 0930 morning services. All we could do was general ministry to those who responded, with everyone else standing up and laying hands on them to impart God’s healing presence. It was really wonderful. There is NOTHING like the quiet moving of the Spirit, the pregnant presence of God that fills the atmosphere, with people crying softly, others trembling, and many being touched and freed up in all sorts of ways. There is NO substitute for God’s manifest presence. It cannot be engineered, manufactured, hyped, or pretended, just invited. 
Although Zander and I did not go to Lahore, Pakistan, the pastor who organized the conference, etc, sent a brief report:
“It was very nice experience to serve the Lord with fellowship of brother Odd Ivar. He is very humble and simple man of God. Here all the pastors and church leaders missed you very much. We are praying that may God make possible your visit next time. Thanks God all the meetings done well. In conference there 200 pastors and church leaders came to attend the conference. All the pastors and church leaders learnt new things about God’s kingdom as bro. Odd Ivar taught from your book Doing Healing. So it was very inspiring and blessing. In our Evangelistic meetings and Sunday service in every meeting there were about 700 people came to hear the Word of God and in these evangelistic meetings all together more than 2500 people heard the voice of God. Many received Jesus Christ in their lives as their Saviour Lord and sick are healed through the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Odd Ivar, an elder from a Vineyard church in Larvik, Norway, got his visa and spontaneously had to do all the teaching! He sent me a brief report: “The two evangelistic meetings were good I think, a lot of people wanted prayers. And in the last meeting many of them opened their eyes, lifted their head, and started to pray for the one next to them standing with the hand in the air. The pastor went around in the congregation and motivated the people he knew to start praying for the others. I remember especially an alcoholic bent down by the burdens in life, showing us the official permit letter to trade with alcohol. We prayed for him, and he tore the letter. Next day he came with his child and wife, all beaming with joy. The theme was to step into Kingdom reality instead of our own wiew on what is possible, and practical steps to help us open up for it. People seemed very receptive. The pastor will continue to teach about this, and practically how to pray for each other.”
Thanks for those of you who prayed so much for the conference.
Gill and I travel to beautiful Cape Town on Saturday 14 April to minister in Christian Life Church in Camps Bay. It’s one of most beautiful places in the Cape, and on the planet! I will tell them this: when we all die we’re going to Camps Bay to be with them because that is the Kingdom of God, heaven on earth!! When they die they’re going nowhere – they’re staying right where they are!!
Anyway, the church has invited me to teach the sunday services for 15 and 22 April – and other meetings during the week – on healing. We will focus on equipping ordinary Christians to minister healing in the name of Jesus by the compassionate power of the Holy Spirit. We will also meet with their leadership team and staff to further enable healing ministry in their congregation.
I’ve also been invited to teach on Sunday night (15th) on Praying the Psalms, at Grapevine Christian Fellowship in Durbanville. And I will be meeting with a Vineyard church leadership team for some consultation during the week. As if this is not enough, Gill and I have been invited to lead a quiet day of retreat, prayer and meditation in Hout Bay from 0930 – 1600 on Saturday 21 April. The New Life Vineyard in Pinelands is organizing this retreat. We return home Sunday afternoon 22 April.
So, after the disappointment of our trip to Pakistan being cancelled due to no visas being issued, we are SO looking forward to this time of ministry. Please will you pray for us that God’s power will advance the Kingdom in the lives of people and churches, for God’s glory! Thanks so much!
I didn’t send out a report after this trip because when Gill and I got back home one of my teeth became seriously infected. I’ve been through two weeks of the most terrible pain. The short story is that I had to have dental surgery to extract the tooth and to scrape the infection from the jawbone. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy!! Anyway, I’m now recovering and I want to share with you our experience to thank those of you who prayed for us – God answered powerfully!
When I wrote Doing Healing, Randy Clarke from the USA wrote an endorsement for the book. He was the guy God used to start “The Toronto Blessing” in the mid 1990s. He has since left pastoral work and has started an international ministry called Global Awakening, with Schools of the Supernatural in various places, to equip followers of Jesus to do Kingdom ministry in the power of the Spirit. He sent a team to South Africa to set up a GSSM. It started in February 2011, hosted by Harvest Church in Umhlanga Rocks, Durban. Randy is on record as saying in a number of places that, in his view, Doing Healing is the best book on healing out there! What a commendation! What an honour!
So he invited me to teach Doing Healing at GSSM SA, from the Wednesday to the Friday, about 10 hours of teaching and practice. We were hosted with such generosity and kindness – treated like royalty!! There were 12 students and 5 staff members and one or two guests who came for the lectures. What great fun! I so enjoyed having quality time to teach eager students and then to practice ministry – for them to receive and to learn ministry. I was totally in my element, realizing that working with committed disciples/students who are in a structured process of learning, is one of the best things I can do with my time and energy. There is a real sense of impartation that takes place over a few days of intense time together in worship, prayer, teaching, discussion, and ministry.
Gill thoroughly enjoyed the trip as well, also getting stuck in during ministry times. We prayed for many students with a good flow of the prophetic gifts of the Spirit – insight, knowledge, wisdom, healing, deliverance, etc. There were some really strong power encounters and manifestations of the Spirit. Gill and I came home filled with joy and gratitude to God for such an awesome privilege that we can do this for God’s people. And what lovely people we met! We are the richer for the whole experience. We say thanks to Rosanne for hosting us, and to the GSSM staff and students for an amazing time together. Perhaps the best way to communicate something of the experience is to include an email from the GSSM administrator with brief comments from the students:
Hi Alexander,
Here are some of the comments/testimonies our students had following your time with us!
the most important part of me.”
They were also encouraged by the prayers and declarations spoken over them. The two students who received deliverance thank you for your compassion during the process.
Things during this school year have naturally been building…one teaching has built upon previous teachings and our students are seeing how their foundations are being firmed and strengthened. Thank you and Gill both for being a part of this process. You are both treasures 🙂
Blessings and Joy!!
Thanks: A heartfelt thanks to those who prayed for me. You have participated in a real but mystical way in what God did while I was in Norway. One day when all is revealed you will see how your prayers partnered God – and me – in the work we all did together. Thanks for this labor of love.
The Facts: I gave two inputs on church government, biblical leadership and models of leaders and teams, to the Vineyard pastors who had gathered in Kristiansand. We had a great time of ministry to each leader. The weekend public conference had five meetings. I addressed 1) Understanding intimacy with God and others, 2) Intimacy in sexuality and spirituality, 3) How to build intimacy with God and others, 4) Healing blockages to intimacy, and 5) Characteristics of a mature intimacy. We had extensive Spirit ministry after each session.
Then I went to Larvik, three hours drive from Kristiansand. The first night I met with the broader leadership team of the Vineyard and talked through leadership issues. The next night I addressed a public meeting of the congregation on “The 10 Communications of God” – a prayer that Gill and I developed years ago and pray often (available on request!) – to develop intimacy with God. I also had the privilege of addressing pastors at an ecumenical meeting for church leaders in Larvik. It was a particular honor. I spoke on keeping our hearts soft and tender in God’s love to be authentic spiritual leaders. The danger of hurt, going through the motions, hardening of the heart, and professionalization, is ever present for pastors. One young pastor announced at the beginning of the meeting that he had resigned as the pastor of his church. He was tearful as I shared. My heart went out to him as I saw such pain in his eyes.
Some observations:
Please pray for Gill and I as we go to Durban for me to teach at a Bible School at Harvest Church in Umhlanga Rocks, from Tuesday to Friday (6-9 Sept)…. thanks so much!
Refocusing Church for 21st Century (3 teachings MP3 set)
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Bundle of ‘Doing Healing’ Teachings
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Spirituality and Discipleship - Equipping for Life Series 301 (6 teachings Flash Movie)
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Doing Healing: Six Dimensions of Healing (6 teachings CD set)
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Matthew Series (Matt 1) – Lineage of Jesus
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