The Weller's and me, and praying with folk

In case I get lost with this one, the general gist is this. Yesterday I felt very strongly to pray with an older man for his healing . I met him in the course of hunting down pianos to sell.



Like so many of you out there reading this, I am at that tantalising stage of having experienced the electricity of God's anointing upon me and seeing people instantly healed, or subsequently healed thoroughly some time later. eg 10th April comment 21:32
Or at other times to feel absolutely nothing...and still see the power of God move, as in the 90 year old in a coma in France. I think this is also somewhere in Dan's Vaults.

But the rest of the time...it's like Todd Bentley's debut, or Bill Johnson. You pray.....and nothing appears to happen. These two guys prayed for a gazillion people each before they saw any flow in it all.
So like a lot of you in secular jobs, you see all these sick around and you are faced with a challenge. Dan Bowen (see link to Life on Wings)who works in a hospice for children is up against the cliff face continually. Before you experienced the anointing, things were simple. You adopted the standard UK position.....God doesn't heal today...leave it to the NHS (that's National Health Service). It's very simple in denominational Christianity. You're immature if you expect God to heal today. He probably wants to teach you something through you being sick. It's very Que Sera Sera in English church services. You bring the requests of the people to God and , if in 10% of cases some improvement occurs...well that's God blessing folk. If nothing happens or people get worse, well that's just the sovereign will of God. Quite simple really. And if challenged in their position, the vicar/priest/minister will simply adopt that patronising glare, and quietly assure you that it takes a lot more maturity to bear with the sick and see their skin waste away.

From a patience/people skills/loving service point of view they know this is almost impossible to challenge...and so for the last 100 years since the anointing for healing really became commonplace again in a worldwide if not sparsely scattered sense in the Body of Christ, there has been this Goliath versus Israel army stand-off. The Goliath in this case is the firm unyielding position that true maturity is to expect nothing...so you will never be disappointed. Just get on with mopping up the mess until the inevitable occurs.
The Israel army position in this example is to believe that healing is out there somewhere, but that Goliath Denominational traditional position does seem to have a point...and we just don't know how to get round him.

Then a David comes along armed with 5 stones! Just 5 stones. Something like....well my grandmother was virtually dead and she immediately got well. Or those three men I prayed for lost their symptoms immediately..... and armed with nothing more than the promise that God is a good God and has been faithful before....David tears down the Goliath arguments of non-faith which have been around for thousands of years. (Please understand I am not talking about me or any particular ministry , but a position we must adopt if we are to see any headway)

I don't know if I will ever know if the man I prayed with yesterday got healed. But I felt a definite inward prompt to pray. They were Jehovah's witnesses, but unlike many that I meet...they did not seem 100% locked in left-brain teachings. There was some love...some spiritual life there that went beyond treating the Bible as a textbook. And based on that , they warmly received my offer.
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If you are a piano tuner, and if you are any good...one part of your job is going to take you into stage work, or into the homes of famous musicians. You soon lose the starry eyed tendencies that celeb culture encourages. Because, other than serving these individuals to the best of your abilities.....the celeb bit means absolutely nothing. You're like a butler in somewhere like Chequers (the PMs UK Country home). You're there to do a job....and that's it. My website lists some of those I have tuned for.

From 1978 until around 1985 I lived exclusively in Christian Community. Our generation threw many many things aside to explore how this seeking of God thing worked. One thing we threw aside was TV and secular music. The good thing about that was that we experienced a clean break. We knew we were not dependant on any of the hooks that secular media plays your insides with!!! The bad thing about that was when I was called to Paul Weller's house, or more particularly his parents John and Ann's house....I had really no clue as to how important a guy he was. I discounted the whole punk thing as of the devil anyway. Listen....I wasn't even sure about Cliff Richard!!!! he used drums!!!! .......So forget Paul Weller!!
On the floor of the lounge was a mountain of letters. It was only where Paul's sister dealt with the entire Jam or Style Council fan club! Sometimes Paul was there visiting when I was tuning, but being pretty reclusive, I never saw him until one occasion. On that tuning, I chatted with him about the merits of his Dad's Yamaha Grand.
So here is some background to me and the Wellers.
I'm assuming I am the last to know....but if not, can I just say that Paul Weller has survived about 3 incarnations as a Jam band member, as part of a duo in Style Council, then since the late 80s out on his own....a total of 30+ years as a successful performing artist. Since my total ignorance of punk I have been catching up. I have also been listening attentively to Paul's stuff. While I was tuning for them he won the Ivor Novello award for Songwriting. If you've not heard his stuff you must listen to "WildWood","You Do Something To Me", and the rougher "A Town Called Malice" and "That's Entertainment". Also "Standing Out in The Universe"...well so many really..
His Dad was a rock. A manager with a lot of flair...but also a lot of will to succeed. see more here
and also here.
He reminded me of a shrewd London market trader. He had more faith for money in his little finger than I probably do now after having immersed myself in the Prosperity blessings of the Word. He was ALWAYS generous. He never once paid me what I charged him. It was always more. I enraged him once when he was looking to sell a little upright to me, and I wanted everything secure on my side of the deal. The point of business is that the one taking the risk should stand to make the greatest profit. As I've mentioned before in the episode with Rory and Wendy Alec....I can have the vision and faith of a gnat, sometimes. This intellectual UK approach to life, born out of a great education, that then as soon as possible plunges itself into the greatest possible security of a reasonably paid job in a bank, or the council, or an accountants'......well it's just the sort of middle-class narrow existence that Paul rails against in his songs. And pretty darned right! If we spend our life trying to avoid extending in faith and opportunity...all we're doing is burying our "talents" in the earth in case anything happens to them. And this aspect of Paul and his Dad ,being ones who are all about extension..... comes straight out of Kingdom thinking.....but they never knew that, because they'd all adopted the fixed atheist posture. And probably because any Christians they've ever met....have been pretty naff.

On the last occasion I tuned for them, his mum was pretty distressed. John was in hospital and was not doing well. I guess Paul was either in London or with John. I felt suddenly to go for it, so I asked Ann if we could pray. I felt to be really specific, and I looked at my watch and prayed that from that moment at 1 pm, John would get better.
I saw John and Ann a few weeks later in Bosham Walk near Chichester. John clearly did not want to know. I was ofcourse pleased because he was up and about. But without speaking how is anyone to know? You are all left with silly game-playing. He's probably thinking: that Christian twit probably thinks I am well again because he prayed for it.....when really the doctors managed to pull me through. Perhaps that is actually what happened. Or his improvement really was remarkable...but because God doesn't exist...he certainly doesn't want to do anything to fuel the mad beliefs of that twit Christian.
Who knows????????Perhaps someone who knows Paul can ask him.
John and Ann moved nearer to Paul after this, so I never did their piano again.
One thing is interesting. Paul has put some sort of track about God on his latest CD.
I hope that this post has expressed something else too. How much I hate Christianity in the UK.
Does it make it clearer in a larger size and with big letters?
How many other leading artists are to be condemned to a life of near atheism because you Oh England actually choose to run a Christianity that stinks..... want a verse for that ??? Rev 3:1"you have the name of being alive but you are dead"