MY WHOLE LIFE IS BREAKING BARRIERS…AND DOING THE IMPOSSIBLE!

Not many people can celebrate 75 years in ministry as I am this year – especially not many can keep as busy as I am – I’ve got a busier programme this year than ever!

I want to share something with you from the Book of Numbers – it’s very heavily marked in my Bible, and I believe it’s extremely important. This was a very great period of miracles, in fact the Children of Israel saw more miracles under Moses than later under Elijah and Elisha. It was Moses who led Israel out of captivity in Egypt. He spent 40 years of his life doing this one job! I wouldn’t have liked to be in Moses’ shoes!!!

By Numbers 13, the Children of Israel have come out of Egypt and are on their way to the Promised Land. But there were problems. The journey should have taken 40 days, even with their families and all their cattle. It was a massive migration of about 2 million people in all! As they approached Canaan, the Promised Land, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, “Send men to search the land which I will give the Children of Israel. From the 12 tribes, send a ruler.” As leaders of the 12 tribes, these men represented the whole of Israel. And Moses directs them to climb a mountain from where they can see the land, and then to go in, check the people who live there: are they strong or weak, few or many, what kind of land is it, is it good or bad, what cities have they got, do they dwell in tents or in strongholds… Basically, the spies were told to make a very thorough investigation.

Numbers 13:21ff tells exactly where the spies went. It was harvest time. In Eshcol they cut down a bunch of grapes so great, they had to carry it between 2 poles. After 40 days – it was a detailed search, and remember, they were on foot, or perhaps with donkeys – they returned. This was their report to the whole congregation of Israel, v27ff: “The land is exactly as promised, it flows with milk and honey – they showed the fruits of the land – it’s good! But the people living there are very powerful, their cities are walled and very great, and the children of Anak, who are giants, live there!!!”

At this point, v30, Caleb speaks very strongly – to Moses and all the people: “Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it!” But in v31, ten of the spies brought an evil report of the land they had searched: “It devours its inhabitants, and it’s got giants! We’re not able to go up against these people, for they are stronger than we are. We were as grasshoppers in our own sight, and in theirs.”

Caleb, supported by Joshua, insists, “We can go up and take the land!” But the other ten men say, “No, it’s impossible, the task is too big, we can’t do it.” And the whole congregation wailed – all night! And they turned against Moses saying, “It would have been better for us to have died in Egypt or the wilderness! Why have we been brought here to this land only to fall by the sword? It’s better to go back to Egypt!”

We all know the outcome – and it’s so sad – the Children of Israel did not enter the land, but had to wait a full 40 years from this point until they could finally enter, after all the doubters had died! It is so significant that none of the doubters entered the Promised Land!

I liken the Children of Israel to Christians and to the church. When Moses led the Israelites through the Red Sea to freedom this, to us, is a symbol of the Blood of Christ. We’ve come through His Blood, delivered from sin into salvation. BUT, we then have to travel throughout our lives before we finally enter into God’s Heavenly Kingdom – the Kingdom Jesus talked about so much. For the Israelites, the final crossing into Canaan was through the Jordan. For us this symbolises when we die and enter into the Kingdom.

What disturbs me is that, because of their lack of faith, the Children of Israel could not enter the land for 40 years! The Israelites saw all the miracles in Egypt, the ten plagues, the death of the firstborn in Egypt – but they had escaped, they’d lived through the miracle of the crossing of the Red Sea – that was a POWERFUL miracle! The Red Sea where they crossed was not shallow – it was deep enough that it drowned the whole Egyptian army! The Children of Israel had witnessed all of this just weeks before, and yet now ten of their leaders are saying – despite all those miracles in Egypt which were still so fresh in their memory – we cannot go into this land, the people are strong and live in fortified cities, we’re not able to defeat them! I’m shocked at their unbelief. And so they had to wait 40 years to enter into the Promise God had given them!

All my life I’ve taken it as a challenge to do what is impossible. All those years ago, aged 29, I was determined to attend that big Conference that was to be held, for the first time in 2000 years, in Jerusalem, on the Day of Pentecost, in the Upper Room. I was a young evangelist with a wife and 2 children and no support! I didn’t have the money to buy an air ticket. So I determined to go by car. This was in post-war Europe. Everyone said I couldn’t do it, it was impossible. Even my own father until 3 weeks before I left was praying for 2 years that God would stop me! He thought I would die on the way! I don’t know what my poor wife thought, I didn’t discuss it with her…

That one journey was to change the whole of my life. It opened up the door that God needed for me, because, if you are British and do something incredibly stupid, you end up on television! I was the first person to pioneer that overland trip to the Holy Land behind the Iron Curtain, through the communist countries and through Arab nations hostile to newly founded Israel! As a result of the publicity, so many people wanted to go, I ended up with a travel company! And this became the means by which, for all those years until I was arrested in 1972, I was able to smuggle Bibles, 2 tonnes at a time, into the communist lands, beginning a ministry that has lasted for 60 years! Out of my 75 years in ministry, 60 years have been spent working in the former communist Soviet Union where atheism was enforced. All because, by faith, I did something impossible! AND I received that ‘greater blessing’ that I so sought after in 1961!

I’ve had to live like this all my life – doing the impossible! After I came out of the prison I continued to work in the East, and I saw that there was a need for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, that believers behind the Iron Curtain needed to have what I had received! So in 1986 I determined to set up an East-West Conference uniting East and West. At that time, we still had the Cold War and that ‘Iron Curtain’ still separated us from all the countries in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Literally it was a barrier. We wouldn’t get permission for such a Holy Ghost Conference in the East, and it would need a great miracle for people from the east to come into West Germany. But in 1961 I had broken that barrier! The whole of my life has been based on breaking barriers and doing the impossible! That’s where the blessing has come in my life – simply by doing the impossible!

So when in the 1980s I got this vision of seeing revival – revival that I had experienced personally – flowing behind the Iron Curtain, it was impossible! When I shared my vision with church leaders, particularly in Germany, they laughed at me. They said it’s impossible, how can you bring people from the East into Western Germany for a conference – and in any case, who are you?! You’re no one, you’re on your own, you can’t do it – we’re the only ones who could do it! But they never had the vision, and they never did it. But I did! It took me 2 years to plan, but the miracle is that in 1988, I brought 4000 people together from East and West to my East-West Conference in Germany. The whole purpose was to prophesy the breaking of the Iron Curtain by the Power of the Holy Spirit, and that the Holy Spirit’s Fire would bring revival to all the Soviet Union countries and would sweep from East to West across Europe. In 1988, it happened. I did what was impossible. Then I held a second East-West Conference in 1989 and within weeks, the Iron Curtain separating East and West Europe began to break!

In 1990, when Bulgaria was still under Soviet control, I was preaching in Yambol and I got the vision, we’ve got to get out of the church building, we’ve got to take the stadium and preach the Gospel in the open. Everybody laughed at me, you can’t, the stadium belongs to the Communist Party. I went to the directors of the stadium, they laughed at me, you can’t! But I would not take NO for an answer. I simply prayed, “O God, change these men’s minds!” I saw the moment in their eyes when God changed their minds and they said, “We’re communists, we can’t rent you the stadium, but there’s nothing to stop us giving it to you for FREE!”

I held a third East-West Conference in 1991, and the day after it finished, the stronghold over the Soviet Union itself crumbled, there was a coup, the Soviet leader was out and by December that year all 15 member states became independent countries.

The whole of my life has been based on the fact that nothing is impossible – if you go by faith!

Joshua and Caleb were so upset with the Israelites, and said in Numbers 14:8ff, “Look, it’s an exceeding good land. If the Lord delights in us, He will bring us into this land and give us the victory! Don’t rebel against the Lord! Don’t be afraid of the enemy! They’re like bread for us, their defence is gone, and the Lord is with us!” At this, the whole congregation made to stone Joshua and Caleb, but the Glory of the Lord appeared before all the Children of Israel, and God said to Moses, “How long will these people provoke Me? How long will it be before they believe Me because of all the things I have already shown them? How long will they resist Me and provoke Me when they have already seen the miracles I did to bring them out of Egypt?”

God was angry with the people for their unbelief, and said to Moses, “How long must I put up with these people? I will give the blessing to you.” But Moses argued, v15, “If You destroy Your people, the Egyptians – who saw the miracles You did in Egypt for the Israelites – will hear and say that You didn’t have the Power to fulfil Your Promise and bring them into the Promised Land!”

Moses pleaded with God, “Pardon, I beseech You, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Your Mercy, as You have forgiven them from Egypt until now”, the Lord replied, “I have pardoned… and as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the Glory of the Lord.” WE must enter into THIS Promise – by faith!

I want the world to see the Glory of the Lord fill the earth and to experience His Power! If only we would believe what God says, He will fulfil every Promise. Live by faith!

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.