Following a wonderful time of worship with members of her church and a powerful encounter with the Lord, wife and mother Amy went to meet relatives. “Oh, Amy, it’s you,” they exclaimed, surprised, as she got out of the car to walk across to greet them on the other side of the car park.
They simply had not recognised her. They told her afterwards that it was because she was carrying a supernatural aura of such beauty that they had assumed she was a film star. For me, it’s clear that Amy had been manifesting the presence of God through her physical body. She was displaying the glory of God.
Entrepreneur and business woman Jenny, a member of our church, had experienced night terrors for most of her life, from which she would awake, screaming. They left her exhausted. No prayer nor counselling had made a difference.
But, on hearing that she had authority in the Spirit of God to bind evil and unleash His blessings, Jenny’s faith grew. So, instead of waiting for someone to pray for her or addressing the terrors as if they were a natural problem, Jenny rose up in faith and took authority over the spirit of fear that she discerned was energising her dreams. There was no great flash of lightning or a radical physical manifestation of what happened in the spirit realm, but from that day onwards the dreams stopped and Jenny’s sleep was peaceful and refreshing.
These two examples illustrate what I, and members of ChristChurch Fulham, have been witnessing and experiencing first-hand in recent years: God reigning in our lives through the power of His Spirit as we draw closer to Him and follow His leading.
God is changing us
In 2005, God began to teach me some ways to live a more vibrant, exciting and effective kingdom life. As a church pastor, I then began to teach members of ChristChurch Fulham the things that I was learning. This brought a real, lasting and powerful change into our lives, as we began to internalise God’s teachings and live them out.
What changed? We are now developing a more intimate and joyous relationship with the Lord, to hear His voice speaking into our lives more consistently and more accurately. Not only has this been profound so far, but it is so much fun too.
We are also finding new levels of freedom from habit patterns and attitudes that have hindered us is the past. As we experience the reality that Christ in us is the key to living in fullness, this is bolstering our joy and hope. Hitherto, it’s been awesome.
On top of this, we are beginning to understand how to become aware of the spiritual activity around us in the invisible realm and to activate our authority over the enemy. God is also revealing to us the presence of angels and their ministry.
Living in the good news
All these experiences are central to the gospel, and we are finding new relevance for our lives in Jesus’ life and ministry. We are now striving to live lives that look more like the life of Jesus than before, and that has been the cry of our hearts for many years.
We want to share what God has been doing in our lives. We believe that this authentic Biblical teaching, lived out in the power of the Spirit, is relevant to anyone in any culture. Hence, since 2005 we have been teaching this material to Christians in the UK and abroad. In addition, we have run many conferences and prayed for thousands of people.
It’s not a fad or a formula but authentic kingdom truth and, as Jesus says, the truth sets us free. So, we have produced six short films that will help you understand some of the foundations to this teaching. Each one is set in a location around the UK which will make the content interesting and engaging, and there are lots of stories to ground it all in real life.
The films can be seen on ‘stepping into the supernatural’. They are available free of charge.
Stuart Lees is vicar at ChristChurch Fulham.
