30th May 2026 : The power of one and God

The power of one and God

Yeah Father we just want to say thank you Lord God, that as we worship we come right into your throne room and Lord in that place, Lord God, you can speak to us Lord God, you can reveal your heart to us, you can show us how much you love us, but also Lord you can, Lord, pour out your gifts and pour out your spirit into our hearts and lives that you can use us in an extraordinary way that would be impossible for us to do on our own, and I just thank you, Lord God, that you are just looking for the one, you're just looking for the one tonight Lord God, and there's so many of us here tonight, Lord God, that you could change the whole of Leigh, Lord God, with the people here tonight, Lord God, and so I pray, Lord, that we would not just be hearers of your word, but Lord, you would empower us and activate us, Lord God, to be the one that you can use in a dynamic way, no matter how we feel right now, Lord God, because it's not about us, it's all about you. And so we just thank you for today. Thank you for what you're gonna do and say in Jesus' name, Amen.

Take my glasses off because these are glasses that are rubbish when you're trying to see your notes. I don't about you they're never quite right are they? The reading bits are not quite right and the long bits not quite right so it's easier to take them off and do big print so that's what I do.

My name's Sue, this is my gorgeous beloved Steve who's with me today and we've got two kids, two gorgeous grandkids, which we absolutely love and we had them for two days this week. Who knows how exhausting it is having little ones around and sleepovers and stuff. We had a wonderful time with them at the beach, collecting treasure and all the things you do at the beach. And I wanna say we went crabbing and Steve and Max, who is five, went with the bucket and the net and everything. Didn't find a crab, but they did manage to catch the bucket when it blew away, which was good. And me and Eliza we were just paddling about, she's four and a half, Max is five, and we caught a crab so that was really exciting, uh moved its claws and did interesting things so you know life is very interesting isn't it when you see it through the eyes of little ones? Although very exhausting and so we've had a great week.

I hope you've had a great week yourselves whatever you've been up to and you know God is always on the move and he's always doing something amazing.

I just want to share a little bit of our story. I came from a very battered home, major domestic violence, had the police rocking up most Friday nights. At my home my dad was a violent alcoholic and my mum was an alcoholic but hid it all away and so you can imagine it was like dynamite and it was really explosive virtually every Friday night, and so from the age of 12, I can't remember much from before then, but from the age of 12 I would be the one who would be, you know, trying to keep them apart while the neighbours were calling the police. I'd end up in the back of an ambulance with my mum while my dad was being taken away. And in those days, nothing was done. You know, today, I'm sure me and my brother wouldn't have been allowed to stay in a situation like that.

So I was very broken. I was very angry. I had, you know, no relationship with God at all. I went to a church and I went to this church this particular day and said, we really need help. I think I was about 12 and a half at the time. We really need help. Began to tell them what was happening and they went, don't talk about those things and sent me away and so I took an overdose, ended up in Alder Hey because as a 12-year-old child I was expected to carry the burden of life that was horrendous.

I met Steve when we were 14 or 15. He's my toy boy, which is great. And he has just been absolutely amazing, stood by me. We got married when we were 18 and 19. So this year we've been married, I think that's 47 years, 47 years. And I have to say it wasn't easy. It's very often when you're in a pattern of violence, it repeats and that repeated with us. And, you know, we're open about what happened in our marriage because we absolutely believe God can bring a solution if we submit your hearts to him. And our relationship was really tough, really difficult, but God, but God, but God.

And so, you know, we're very passionate about sharing our story. We're not ashamed. We're not embarrassed because God redeemed our marriage and it's a real sign. We're a real sign and a real wonder of what God can do. Nothing is beyond redemption. We just really believe when you're willing to submit to God. And so we're really happy that we're together, that we survived and that we've got a story to tell. And so we became Christians when we were Berni Inn Steakhouse managers, let's just say that. We went, moved away from Liverpool, to get away from my dad actually. And we went down to Kent, we became managers of Berni Inns. Who remembers Berni Inn's Steakhouses? A bit like Beef Eater, much better. And the standard was like par excellence, you know, it was really good. And it taught us so much actually in preparation for all that God had ahead of us.

And so we moved around a bit until we were the youngest steakhouse managers in the whole of the UK. So we had to wait till Stephen was 21 and could get a license. Can you imagine that today? 21 year olds, you know, managing a big steakhouse with two bars and all that went with it. So we had a lot of responsibility, but God used it to teach us, you know, just more than you can ever dream or imagine, literally taught us a lot. But through that, you know, we began to cry out to God.

This friend of mine called Linda had prayed for me. I was a pain in the neck, I was horrible, I was really angry, I was hurting, I was a mess. But she told me about Jesus and I just kept loving her because she was great, but I didn't want anything to do with this Jesus fella, you know, because, you know, why would he allow me to go through all that I was going through? And so I kept Jesus at arm's length for a good while. But we came to a point when we were in Berni Inns where, you know that moment when you get desperate and everybody gets desperate, don't they, at some point? And I cried out to this God that Linda believed in, because I wasn't even convinced he was real, but I knew she thought he was real. So I cried out to this God that Linda believed in. If you're real, this is what I want you to do for me. Which is a bit cheeky really, isn't it? But you know, so I said, if you get us home to Liverpool, because we were so homesick. Get us home to Liverpool. Give us our own front door because we were living on the premises, so you're on duty nearly all the time, working all the hours. It wasn't great and our marriage was really struggling at that point. Would you give us a child? And also, can we have a dog?

So they were the four things that I asked God for. And it was just amazing, five actually ordinary jobs, we wanted ordinary jobs, didn't we? And so within two weeks, we were offered three jobs in Liverpool just by ringing up different places and saying, we're coming back to Liverpool, will you give me a job? And we were offered three jobs, which was amazing. We moved into a little flat that was in Bootle. My mum's dog had a litter of pups, so this pup was landed right into my hand, and then within about 12 months we had our Phil, so God fulfilled every part of that prayer, but who knows that when you say to God, if you do this, I will believe you, very often the crisis has gone and you just forget all about it, don't you? You forget to even thank God because you've just moved on and life's okay.

But when we were about to have our Phil, suddenly one morning we both woke up, didn't we, and said, let's try going to church. Nobody had invited us, we had not had a flyer through the door, anything like that, it was just God just prompted us so we went along to a church and it was as dead as a dodo. Absolutely dead. No life in it whatsoever and we just said oh we're never going there again, that was terrible you know, awful, um but thankfully our friend who um had been telling us about Jesus all along happened to see us the following Saturday and we said we went to church last week. She was so excited because she'd been praying for us for years and we've given her no hope whatsoever, no sign at all, that you know we were on our journey with Jesus and she said well don't worry about it she said there is this other church and if you go there, you know, you'll be given a really warm welcome and so we did.

We went to this church, a Church of England church, the curate was on fire for Jesus. And you know, before very long, in fact, the day my son, our son was born, Steve left me in the hospital, which I've forgiven him for, and he ran straight to church and gave his life to Jesus which was amazing. But it took me a little bit longer because I couldn't figure out how I could love Jesus more than loving my newborn baby and my husband. So it took me a little while. And what happened to me was on Easter Sunday, our son was born in February and on Easter Sunday, of course it was all about the cross, it was all about Jesus and what he'd done for me. And Bill Sanders, who was the curate at the time said, Sue, it's time you gave your life to Jesus. And everyone was going, yes, Sue, you need to give your life to Jesus. So I prayed this prayer to give my life to Jesus and nothing happened. Nothing. No fireworks, no voice of God, nothing. Absolutely nothing, nil, blank, nothing.

And so about eight months later, I was just getting, we were going to church, we were going through the motions and I was thinking, Jesus walked in in the middle of this church service, I don't think anyone would even notice. And I was just getting more and more and more and more frustrated. And this one night, Steve was working on taxis and I was on my own. Phil was in the cot fast asleep and I just began to rant at God. And sometimes, you know, that's what he's waiting for. Sometimes he's waiting for you to be real. You know, he doesn't want flowery religious language. He wants us to be absolutely real and to nail the frustration, the pain, the grief, all that's going on inside us. And so I cried out to God, Where are you, God? I know where the devil is. I know we're having a really tough time. I'm going to church, feel like I'm just having a history lesson that's 2,000 years old. I feel like I'm speaking to a brick wall and I'm not hearing your voice. You're supposed to be my heavenly Father, where are you? And that's what I was like with God.

And I sobbed myself to sleep, but in the night, God came. And I can't say it was a vision, a dream or what it was, but God came and he changed my life forever. And you see, what happened was when I prayed that prayer eight months earlier, I'd done it to please Bill Sanders, I'd done it to please Steve, I'd done it to please the people around me, but it wasn't something I really wanted. And God really wants our heart, doesn't He? And I reached that point of desperation. And so in the middle of the night, God came to me. And people have said to me over the years, I don't know how you can trust God, the situations, the difficult times you've gone through. How can you still believe in God? But when you have met somebody, you can't ever deny their existence, can you? You know, somebody said to me, you know, Steve doesn't exist. I could say to them, I know he exists, I've touched him, I've heard his voice, you know, I know how he is, I know all about him. No one could ever tell me he doesn't exist. And you know, having met God in a radical way, no one could ever say to you, however you've met with God, you know, that God does not exist.

And what happened to me was that God came and he was standing on this side of me and he placed a big two edged sword in my hand. Now, I did not know my Bible. I didn't know there was a two edged sword. I didn't know anything about that at all. So I couldn't have said, well, I've just read that Bible verse. And it was, I dreamt it because I didn't know any of this stuff, it was God. And so you put this big giant two-edged sword, I'm five foot seven, and this sword, you know, two hands to hold, and it was on the floor, the tip was on the floor, so you can imagine how big it was. And you know, I stood shoulder to shoulder with God. And I took this sword like that, and the devil was just a few yards away standing in front of me. And the Lord showed me so much in that moment that has carried me every day of my life ever since. And all I had to do was take the sword, stand shoulder to shoulder with God, raise the sword like that, and Satan totally disappeared. Totally disappeared. So I didn't have to speak to him, didn't have to fight him, didn't have to tell him how rubbish he was, didn't have to say you belong in the lake of fire, didn't have to do any of that stuff at all. You know, the victory was in the power of the blood of Jesus. You know, the victory has already been won on the cross and I just needed to stand positioned as a child of God with my Heavenly Father and holding that sword of the Spirit.

I woke up the next morning full of the Holy Spirit. No one had told me there was a Holy Spirit, although I'd seen things happening, I'd seen people in our home group falling on the floor. Nobody told me what it meant, I thought it was a bit mad. These people just being touched by the Holy Spirit and it freaked me out a bit because I didn't understand, but it was just the Holy Spirit coming on people in a way to just minister to them and to bring powerful impartation of what he was doing.

So that's kind of our background really. You know, God has taken me. I haven't got a theology degree, haven't got any of those things. You know, I thought I'm a woman. God can't use me because I'm a woman. You need to be a man to be in ministry. No one has ever said that, by the way, but it was just something, you know, that's in the atmosphere at times that just comes, doesn't it? You know, some of you women will feel the same way, I'm sure. And you know I thought I can't be used by God because I haven't got a theology degree but it doesn't say that in the Bible actually at all anywhere does it, you know, so um God has just led me.

We started something called Community Watchmen Ministries in 2002 and when I say we it was God started it. I had no intention in beginning that um but what happened was God began to speak to us about drugs in our community and I made the mistake of saying to God, how are we going to sort this out? And I actually meant how is God going to sort it out? I didn't actually expect that I would be part of the problem solving, you know, I thought it would be God. So, you know, he just began to lead.

A situation happened and we got the opportunity to lead the chair of the police authority to Jesus. She opened the door for us to meet with the police and we began to regularly meet with the police. And God just did the most crazy, funny things. Like one of the first meetings we had with the police we'd said to the guy at the police station, we really want to pray for you, you know, that God will give you protection and bless you. Is there anything particularly you'd like us to pray for? And he said, we couldn't ask for a bolt of lightning, could we? I think he was just being a bit, you know, cheeky really. And I said, no, don't think so. I'm not going to pray for that. Anyway, about three or four days later, the police station took a direct hit of lightning, so it was really funny.

And we had their attention quite well after that, really. So it was really funny. We could tell you loads of stories, honestly, because God cares about our communities, doesn't he? You know, he really does care. And when you begin to partner, you know, God just moves powerfully, blows your mind. It blows my mind all the time. You know, our minds are too small. God wants to do measurably, measurably, measurably more than any of us can dream or imagine.

So we just began to meet with the police. They began to get every national award for drug-related crime. We were given Citizen of the Year award for bringing down crime just through prayer. And almighty God, almighty, mighty awesome God, because God moves. When you just put even a little seed of faith into action, God backs it up, doesn't he? He's just amazing. So, you know, we could tell you a million stories and we've written three books, but we've only got two here tonight that tell some of those faith stories. And these are not things that happened in Peru or, you know, South America somewhere. This is what God has been doing in Liverpool, the lessons he's taught us that we've then taken into the townships of South Africa, into the offices of presidents and prime ministers, crazy places, that God has opened doors for just for me that was born in Bootle for goodness sake you know, hasn't got a theology degree. I'm a woman you know, all those things that I thought God couldn't use me for God just takes ordinary broken messed up people and turns you into a messenger.

And so you know we've had such exciting times with God uh we've had such terrifying times with God um but you know the best thing to know is when you're in the right place, the right time, the right people doing the right thing, even if it's the most scary place in the world you are in the right place. And we've got stories of arriving literally in townships in South Africa, in Cape Town, where going to speak at a church, just arrived in the middle of the 28th and the Americans, which are two of the big gangs, which come from the wings, those wings in prisons. And they've just been having a big fight just outside the church and between five and eight people have been killed. And we arrived in the middle of all of that. And you go, well, how don't you know whether there was five, six, seven or eight people killed? That's because they're Muslims and they're literally dragged away because they've got to be buried before the end of the day. And so even the police didn't know the numbers.

But we've just been in some amazing situations that we can just tell you lots and lots and lots of stories. But I really want to bring the Word of God tonight as well, because I really believe God's put a word on my heart for you, for every single one of you, no matter how old you are or how able you feel you are, I believe God has got a word for you, for Leigh tonight that's important.

I'm going to talk about the power of one and God, the power of one and God. That's all God needs is one person to really begin to shift things. I'm going to talk about how one person can begin momentum, release momentum, one person, you know. Sometimes we're waiting for the masses, aren't we? We're waiting till all the churches in Leigh are working together and then we can do something. But actually it's, you know, the Bible tells us it's the power of one person and God very often.

I'm going to look at four particular characters. So I love Hannah. I love the story of Hannah and I really encourage you to read because I'm not going to read all the stories, obviously. But her story is told in 1 Samuel and she was used by God to bring incredible breakthrough and a whole new era for Israel. The Bible tells us, we know that Hannah was barren, we know the whole situation with Hannah. She was crying out to God. She was being bullied by Penina. You know, she was just really low because it was seen as a real curse from God when you didn't conceive. But she chose five things. She chose, number one, not to be a victim. You know, sometimes in our lives, we can look at our situation and go, you know what, you don't understand what I've been through. You know, oh, I had post-traumatic stress syndrome. I could go, you know what, I've got PTSD. Feel sorry for me for the rest of my life, you know.

And you can stay stuck. And God never created anyone to stay stuck. You know, no matter what mess you've gone through, we have to say, I am choosing not to be a victim. I am choosing to believe that Jesus died on the cross and took every sin, every sickness, everything that has come against me is already on the cross. And so I can choose victory. I can choose to overcome and I can choose to be victorious. And that's what Hannah did. She chose. She was not going to be bullied by Penina. She chose not to just settle as Elkanar's wife. Elkanar was saying to her, husband, am I not good enough for you? Aren't I enough? Can't I just be enough for you? And she was like, no. I want more. She knew she had this frustration inside of her.

Number three, she chose to go to Shiloh and there's a whole massive study on all of this and I could, you know, just read it because it's amazing. Shiloh means dominion. And she knew she had to go to the place where God had dominion. She had to go to the place where breakthrough could come. She couldn't expect it to come from her husband. She couldn't expect it to come from anyone else. She had to go to God. And sometimes that's what we need. Sometimes we can depend on one another when we should be going to God and saying, God, I need a breakthrough in this situation.

Number four, she chose not to be offended. And if you read the story, I mean, she had plenty of reason to be offended by Eli, who was the priest. She went along desperate, desperate to meet with God. And Eli accused her of being drunk. You know, Eli was the priest and he was such a mess himself. His two sons, Hophni and Phineas, were absolutely disastrous. You know, they were in sexual immorality. They were drunk all the time. And here was, you know, the priest accusing Hannah of being drunk. And she could have gone who do you think you're speaking to? Imagine we'd say that, wouldn't we, from the North West?

We'd be like, Ohh, you know, she could have took offence, but she chose not to. She kept her heart right with God. She forgave. Some of us need to forgive those who are around us who have accused us of things that haven't been true or have not understood what we've been going through.

But number five, she chose to press into God. for the breakthrough because she knew that Israel needed a breakthrough. She wasn't just looking for her own personal breakthrough, she was looking for a breakthrough for the sake of the nation. One woman, Hannah, didn't just bear the son for herself and her family, but she brought the end of the season of desecration. That is aware that I feel so strongly about in this time, that many of our altars in our nation right now are desecrated. God spoke to us last year, probably about this time last year, and said, I want you to go to every cathedral in England and we were given a declaration to make in every single cathedral. And thankfully I didn't have to go to everyone. We went to Canterbury and God said to us, when you get to Canterbury, I want you to blow the shofar.

Well, you know yourself, you can't just go into these places with a great big loud shofar and just blow it 'cause you'd terrify the living daylights out of people for a start. But it was just amazing the way God made a way for us to do that and you know before the new Archbishop of Canterbury was enthroned, we went in September as a team and we happened to go at the very beginning of the Feast of Trumpets. That was the only time we could go. Do you think that might have been God? Absolutely incredible. And so, we just had an amazing time and we put the word out across the nation amongst different prayer leaders to say, we believe God has said, he wants to mobilise prayer for every single cathedral in England. And we want you to take this declaration and make this declaration before the altars there, calling on for a consecration of altars. And Liverpool, we've got a long way to go, but we're still praying.

And so here, Hannah could see the desecration of God's altar. And she was about to birth something that was going to change that. It was the end of the season of unfaithfulness to God. The Bible tells us actually that Eli had not heard the word of God for many, many years. He'd not heard God speak because of their unfaithfulness to God. The sexual immorality was brought to an end. A period of silence from God was brought to an end when she birthed Samuel. Samuel's birth marked the restoration of the fear of the Lord. Wow, don't we need that today? Don't we need that today? You know, just even in our churches, you know, if we had the fear of the Lord, you know, we would be a very different church. How holy is God? If we saw how holy and awesome he is, we wouldn't dare not do things when he speaks to us, would we? We would live a completely different way.

She birthed the season of the priests and the prophets, a season of consecration. She birthed the start of the kings being chosen and appointed and anointed by God. She birthed the restoration of the voice of the Lord being heard again. That was the power of just one little woman. And God, and God, who shifted a totally desecrated nation back to God. How awesome. Do we need that today? Do we need that today? We do. That's one person and God can make a massive shift.

Let's look quickly at the story of David. I love David. David and Goliath, we're gonna look at, again, we're not gonna read it just for time, but 1 Samuel 17 is where you'll find the story. So it says Goliath was a giant. He was nine foot nine inches tall. He was the champion of the Philistines. Every day for 40 days, Goliath provoked Saul and his army who assembled in their battle positions, shouted their war cry, but they were too terrified to move. And so often our churches can be like that, can't they? I'm not looking at anyone. Our churches can be like that, can't they, in our nation where we all can all come together, we can make a good sound, we can look great, it all looks wonderful, but actually we're not shifting anything. There's no momentum, there's no movement. We're not seeing anything happen and change and transform outside. You know, we're just doing our bit and that's enough, isn't it? You know, we can make the right noise, we can look good, but actually there's no momentum and there's no movement, there's no lives being taken, there's no shift happening.

And that's what was happening here. They were intimidated by Goliath. Goliath had taken away their authority to actually move towards and young David he's only a young lad you know again very often these people in the Bible look quite young like Mary you think Mary how young she was to actually birth Jesus, but he was probably a young lad but he had fought the lions and the bears so he had a lot of faith and I love where it says you know David arrived and there they were, you know, the Saul's army all assembled, you know, looking very grand making a good noise but not moving nobody was willing to take on Goliath and the Bible says David was outraged. Now I don't know whether he was outraged at Goliath, I think he was, but I don't know whether he was outraged at the army who could not move because they were so frightened and intimidated by one man, Goliath. He was a big man, he was strong, but even his armour weighed about 14 stones or something, it was really massive.

So outraged, David ran to the battle lines and declared, who is this uncircumcised Philistine defying the armies of the living God? Now he didn't say Saul's armies, but the armies of the living God. You know, David trusted God. He knew he might only be one little lad. But he had the whole power of God waiting to move. And I just believe we're in the day, no matter how old or young we are. I mean, we've been to Uganda and taken 80 year olds with us, you know, so there's no excuse. You know, some of my team right now are in the 90s and they're just amazing, awesome people of prayer. So I'm not letting anyone off the hook tonight, you know, we can all pray and we can all be used by God while we've still got breath in our bodies.

But David trusted God. He wasn't waiting on Saul's army to back him up. He knew who he was as a son of God and he knew the power of God to reinforce whatever he did. He knew God was a victorious, covenant keeping God and God was on his side also. David said to Goliath you come against me with sword and spear and javelin but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty and, you know, God wants to say to you whatever's going on in your families, whatever is going on in your communities you have the power of the Almighty God just waiting to be released, when you seek His face, ask Him what He wants you to pray, and you pray and release the Word of God, you will begin to see things shift.

We start praying in Liverpool in 1999, and there's a whole big story about that. And many of you will remember what Liverpool looked like in 1999. It was dreadful, dreadful, dreadful, every square inch of it was just awful and we began to pray and, you know, I can't say this is just us, there's lots of different people doing different things. We had Bishop James Jones in at the time and he was great, you know, but God, the moment we began to pray, God began to move and curses were broken over our city as we prayed on the back of decades of people praying about the slave trade, about the evil of that. We began a journey just praying about that that took us to Cape Coast. We went to Cape Coast four times.

And in 2017, we gathered together the leaders of Cape Coast. We gathered together the mayor, the council leaders, the tribal leaders, the church denomination leaders. We pulled them all together and we had this day of apology where we started in the cathedral and we walked through across the road to Cape Coast Slave Castle and we went to the door of no return and we prayed and I'm so amazed at what God has been doing, for Liverpool because we know those things break curses. When curses have come upon families or cities, God can break those curses and we are seeing the fruit of that. And today, my friend, Dr. Betty King, who is a Ghanaian lady, she has hosted world business leaders in Cape Coast that have been flown in on their private jets with the president's permission. And they've gone into Cape Coast and they're investing and they're doing amazing things, raising up entrepreneurs.

And God is just wanting to see reconciliation and healing and He can do that through one person. He can do that through groups of people. What are the issues that God wants to bring breakthrough in your family, in your community, in Leigh? I believe God wants to bring a lot of restoration in Leigh. God's heart is on Leigh. I really know that. So you know if God puts a Goliath in front of you he must have put a David inside of your heart you know do not be intimidated by those things that could shut you down and immobilize you.

Under the story of power of one and God is the story of Jonah. And I love the story of Jonah. I could do a whole series for about three months on Jonah. Just love the story of Jonah. He was such a naughty prophet, wasn't he? You know, God spoke to him and he basically went, no. And off he went onto the ship, thought he was gonna run away from God, ends up in the belly of a whale, you know, it must have been a stinky place wasn't it so imagine when he you know was vomited out of this whale eventually in the story you know he was probably covered in slime.

I believe it's very valuable actually, whale vomit, it's very valuable. It really is, really, really is. Look, it's like worth, one little ounce is worth like thousands and thousands of pounds. So if you find some whale vomit, you're well in, well in there. It's used in perfumes or something like that, which I believe it's very, yeah. So when I do the proper talk about Jonah, I could tell you exactly how much it's worth. But so he arrives in Nineveh, you know, his attitude stunk as well as his body probably. And, you know, he arrives in Nineveh and then he delivers the word and, you know, I'm a prophet and sometimes God gives me things to say that are a little bit difficult to say to people because, you know, prophets aren't all about just, you know, like Holy Spirit Jacuzzi machine that just gives you a nice little touch and encourages you. And we've got a bit like that with prophecy, haven't we? We're all like hungry for that nice little word that just encourages us. And there's nothing wrong with those things. There's nothing wrong with being encouraged. We need more encouragement, don't we, in the church? But actually, prophets are called to bring a shift, to align heaven and earth and to bring a shift, and that's kind of what God does. when he sends me into different situations.

So I feel for Jonah actually, because I think it might have been quite tough to bring this word. And he had to say, 40 days from now and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Wow. Wow. I mean, I'll be honest with you. I went and spoke to one of the canons in Liverpool Cathedral and I never talk like this. And I said, I'm coming to speak to you as a prophet. And I brought them a word about the desecrated altar and their need for repentance and cleansing of the altar. And I knew that God was gonna send a sign if they didn't obey. And then a few weeks ago, there was a fire in the tower and there was something else and I knew it was a sign I haven't spoken to them about it yet but, you know, not that you want those things to happen but God will not be mocked really, you know, he's a holy, we can't just sing you holy and then live a desecrated life You know, that's just mockery, isn't it really?

So, you know, we need to really get back to God. So here Jonah rocks up smelling of whale vomit. Goodness knows what he must have looked like. But he turned up and says, 40 days from now and Nineveh shall be overthrown. The amazing thing was immediately the people of Nineveh believed the word. And what I believe in this day is that out there in the world, people shopping in Home Bargain and everywhere, at your neighbours, they are ready. They are ready.

The Bible says the harvest is ripe. And I really believe that we were in Birmingham a few weeks ago on a prayer training. We do prayer training and we were doing some prayer training, but the day before we went right into the heart of Birmingham and just were praying about some specific things God had spoken to us about. And every single person we spoke to allowed us to pray with them. And there was one point when we were praying over, I don't know, being to New Street Station in Birmingham and seeing the great big, huge bull, Ozzie, Ozzie the bull. And everything he stands for is horrendous. If you look at it, it's absolutely horrendous.

And so we'd taken communion as a team and we took some wine that was left over with us and threw some over Aussie like we're praying this thing breaks and everything demonic that is attached to this thing, you know, loses its power over Birmingham really that we can see breakthrough begin to come in Birmingham and this police officer came over and our team thought I was going to be arrested or something so they were all like, you know, we're not with her kind of thing. And so I just said to him, oh, we're here to pray. You know, you're doing a great job and must be really difficult looking after this big, busy station and, you know, watching over security and never knowing who's coming in with what, you know, and we're really grateful for what you're doing. Can we pray for you? And, you know, immediately we were standing there in the station praying for this police officer. And every single person that we spoke to, we got to pray with. They were really, really open. People are open, people are ready. And we're certainly seeing more people now getting saved than we've seen in a very long time. So I just encourage you with that.

So here, Jonah saw the people, much to his dismay, because his heart was terrible. Not only was his body stinking, actually his attitude was really stinking as well, because he wanted to see Nineveh condemned. And sometimes we can look at people in the natural and we don't see what God has deposited in them. We don't see the redemption and the plans and the purposes that God has. God has never given up on one single person. He's still got a plan and a purpose. So people in your lives that you know that seem to be the worst of the worst of the worst, pray for them, because God never gives up on pursuing people. Jesus has already paid the price for them.

So here in Nineveh, they began to fast and turn from their wicked ways they cried out to God and it was a powerful and genuine repentance as people completely turned away from wickedness and a whole city you know was turned back to God. That's what revival looks like. Wouldn't that be great in Leigh? What would you do tomorrow if people began to pour into your churches, would you be ready, would you be ready?

The last story I want to share is about Deborah and another story of the power of one and God. Again, paraphrasing from Judges chapter two and three. The people served the Lord because they had seen all his great works, but a day came when they'd all died off and a generation arose who did not know their Lord. And that's a lot of what we're living in right now, is that we have generations who've never been to Sunday school, who've never seen the power of God moving in their lives or in their family, totally unchurched people who've got no discipleship, no discipline, no fear of God. And yet God is ready, able and willing to bring them into the kingdom isn't he which is great?

So this was a kind of time of Deborah um they did great evil and they worshiped idols um and lived sinfully. Judges 4 tells us that God was angry and he lifted his hand of blessing from them. And this is what I can't get over. The word of God says, God sold them. God sold them. God sold them. Can you imagine how sinful they must have been that God would sell them into oppression? He will do whatever is necessary to force us to come back to him and so again this cycle of Israel of sinning and oppression and then eventually, you know, 20 years down the line they would then cry out to God. Why don't they cry out to God the first day. We're like that aren't we? We're like that so they began to cry out to God and, you know, they've been living for 20 years under oppression.

So once again, the Lord had pity on them and he raised up Deborah, who was a prophetess. She was married to Lapidoth. And I could tell you a whole story about that amazing story. Please, please read it in one of the books where, now I'm gonna, have I got time to tell you? Am I okay for time? We're okay till 12 o'clock aren't we? Yeah, Lapidoth. I was in Africa and God said to me this one day, Lapidoth. And I'm like, what does that even mean? Where is it? Who is it? What is it? Lapidoth. And God said to me, you know, Lapidoth was Deborah's husband. So that's the only thing it said. So I arrived at this church to speak at, never been there before, worship is going on. I was, they said, we're just gonna pause and do the peace and we're all gonna do the peace and save loads of people and all that. And so this lady came over and she said, hi, my name's Deborah and I'm Pastor Frank's wife. And so I was like, ping. And straight away God began to speak. So at the end of me preaching, instead of me saying, oh, we're going to pray for everyone, you know, be there for like eight hours, just praying for everybody because they come from all the villages, you know, Steve will tell you all about that. He had some quite interesting times when he was out with me.

But this particular time, I just felt God say, actually don't pray for everyone individually, do a corporate prayer and just ask to meet with the leadership team and so at the end of my speaking we met with the leadership team and I didn't even know what I was going to say until God just began to speak and God said to them, you know, Pastor Frank your wife absolutely loves you very much and she is trying her best to be a good pastor's wife. However God wants you to know she's an evangelist and actually it's killing her that she can't be evangelist when she's just trying to best to be a good pastor's wife and Deborah just went bang and hit the floor um just it was just the word of the Lord and she was sobbing um and her husband was like totally bewildered because she obviously hadn't felt she could tell him um and she was doing her best but all this frustration was inside of her because she had this awesome gift to be an evangelist.

And so I felt the Lord was saying, if you release Deborah for two week blocks, so many times a year, God will bless you. And they had this church right in the middle of this very dark place, dingy, horrible church. Atmosphere was horrible, 'cause it was just overshadowed, really dark. And I said, believe God's gonna give you a new church building in a beautiful place. Anyway, a year went by and we got together with them again. And as the car came to take me to the church, it took me to a totally different place. And it was in the middle of this beautiful big green field, all light and gorgeous. And they were busy building a brand new church. Someone had given them the land and it was just really beautiful. And they were getting the money given to them to begin to build this church.

What happened to Deborah? Deborah was released by her husband, Pastor Frank, and she would go out about five times a year, two week blocks, and off she'd go. And she would raise up other evangelists. She would do these crusades. She was leading literally thousands and thousands of people to Jesus and planting churches everywhere she went, raising up evangelists and she was the happiest pastor's wife you ever could see. And it was like their marriage was restored, everything that they'd been struggling with because her husband had released her.

Pastor Frank is now one of the main prayer leaders over the whole of Uganda now. God has really blessed him and he's been reused really powerfully. So that's just one little story, you know, when God just gives you even one little word, you know, just say, Lord what you're trying to say, because he loves the conversation, doesn't he? You know, he loves to talk and have a chat with you. And that just, you know, we'll never know the fruit, you know, it's just absolutely incredible. All glory goes to God, you know, just awesome.

So Deborah, I love the story of Deborah. So again, Deborah, the Bible tells us, you know, she calls for Barak and she says to Barak. I've read this lots of times. I'm sure you have as well. I've read it so many times and never seen this. And the Bible's like that, isn't it? You can read things, you know, dozens and dozens of times and all of a sudden God will give you revelation that you've not seen before. And in this story, Deborah says to Barak, has not the Lord God of Israel commanded, go and deploy troops at Mount Tabor. Take with you 10,000 men. God said to Barak, against you, I will deploy Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army and his chariots and multitude at the river Kishon and I will deliver him into your hand.

She said, has not God said? So she was saying, God is saying to you. She is saying, Has God not said? So he's obviously been told before. How long had the children of Israel been in oppression because Barak had not deployed his troops? And you know every one of these stories has got a common theme. It's the power of one person and God that just begins to mobilize the people in a way that they haven't been mobilized before that breaks oppression. And we hear Deborah doesn't go, well, I'm going to take charge of the troops. She didn't take his authority. She didn't try to lead the army. She just came alongside Barack. And then Barrack had the confidence to move.

And sometimes we can be afraid of coming alongside one another like you have tonight. How great is it tonight that you've come alongside one another? There's power in that. It blesses God so much when his people come together. You know, we're not looking at our differences, we're looking at Jesus.

My team, I've got about 45 people in my team, would you believe it, and I have Catholics and Anglicans and Baptists and all kinds of people from all kinds of church backgrounds. And one of my team is in Accra, in Ghana, and one of my team is in Malawi. She's working for the UN in Malawi, so we can connect up via Zoom and stuff like that, but they're from all different parts of the church and we have the pleasure of God. We have the favour of God because we're not worried about our differences, but we focus on Jesus together and it's so powerful.

And so God wants to say to us, all creation, Romans 8:19, is waiting in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. That's every one of you here tonight. You know, whether you know Jesus as your saviour or not, you're still a child of God 'cause he created you. He's your father. He's your heavenly father, whether you know it or not.

Creation waits of eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth, right up to this present time. Can you hear the cries? You only have to watch the news. You only have to go to Home and Bargain and you'll hear people just sharing their woes and sharing their heartbreak and sharing the pain and the difficulties that they're going through, sharing how worried they are about how they're gonna pay the bills. You know, sharing about losing their homes and being evicted or whatever the situation is, all creation is groaning and crying out and you know for the people of God that's you that's you in Leigh. That is you, the power of you and God is more than enough and you know to begin to transform things. When God speaks and we do what he tells us to do, God can then move in power. He can do it without us, but he chooses not to for some strange reason. Even if you're a mess, God loves you. He always has a plan to redeem your life and to restore you to your destiny. Even when you've missed your God opportunity, if you ask him, he'll bring you back round again.

I could tell you a story about that as well. When God calls you to arise and go, He empowers you, He provides for you, He opens doors for you, and He resources you. And that is the word of this season, it's time to go. We've been always saying, we've got to get ourselves ready. You know, if the bride is so busy getting herself ready she never meets the bridegroom then it's not working. We've got to, we've got to change and, you know, come into step with what the Lord is doing and the way the breath of God is moving we need to get into alignment with that.

I want to talk to you and finish it really I am about Leigh and you probably know all this stuff because you live here. But this is what I felt God was highlighting for me. The power of one and God is important and can be clearly seen already in Leigh. Some of the things about Leigh, I didn't know this stuff, you probably do. You can probably tell me more things about Leigh, actually, but it's the birthplace of many famous artists, scientists, incredible scientists, not just people who can play with a bunsen burner, but really like world renowned scientists, mathematicians, businessmen including.

I don't know if you knew this one this, really surprised me, um including Sir Morris Flanagan. Can anyone tell me who he is? You won't believe this. He was born in Leigh in 1928 and he became the founder of Emirates. Can you believe that? In Leigh? He was born here in Leigh. His name, you know, his business is all over the world. Emirates, who's flown on an Emirates flight. We've been on lots of them, haven't we? When we go to Africa, you can fly Emirates. Emirates? Can you believe that? Born here in Leigh.

It's a tradition, apparently, and you might know this, that Thomas Hyes was the inventor of the spinning jenny and the water frame in the 1760s. But the latter invention was pirated by Richard Arcright who subsequently made a fortune from the patent royalties. Why is that important? Because I sense that God wants to say to you tonight, people of Leigh and the wider area, you are brilliant people. God did not create mediocre people to live in Leigh. There is something special about your land and your place and your people. You're radical, if you're not radical give yourself a little slap, wake yourself up, because you're made to be radical.

Radical people here in Leigh brought about lots of electoral reform for the nation. Did you know that? Amazing. The universal suffrage movement was huge from the women of Leigh. Come on, ladies, wake up, speak yourselves. You know, it's time for us to be all that God praises us to be. Many of your people who have gone to be MPs have ended up in office, ministerial office positions. And who knows what might happen to Andy Burnham in the next few weeks. He was your MP, wasn't he here in Leigh?

God is saying it's time to rise up, people of Leigh, time to take hold of the gifts that God has given you. If you don't know what your gift is, ask the Lord. If you do know what your gift is and you've not been using it, stir it up. Stir it up again and use your gifts for God's glory. God wants to break poverty spirit off you. You know, poverty spirit means God can't use me. I'm not good enough. I'll never be good enough. My family's never good enough. God wants to break that tonight because the power of one person, even if you're a mess, with a mighty God can do incredible miraculous things. He wants to break off that spirit that undermined and has stolen things from you, you know, just like that patent that was stolen and the person who stole it, you know, made lots and lots of money out of it. I feel that that has been a whole thing where people have been usurped and undermined, your ideas have been taken by someone else or something belongs to you it's been taken and I really believe it's time we went actually enough we've had enough of that but not having that operating anymore in Leigh we're taking that back, we're drawing the line, and we're just going to begin to declare that everything that has been stolen from us is going to be returned. Anybody up for that. Oh a few.

God wants to break timidity off you he wants to release courage and boldness um so I just want to pray tonight as we finish, as I finish anyway, I really believe God wants to release reconciliation and healing in relationships, a restoration, as I said, of everything that has been stolen personally, corporately, the church, ministry-wise. I'm sure you can be thinking of situations where things have not worked out the way they should have done, someone else has undermined in things that God has given you.

We're going to call for the raising up again of that radical spirit that brings breakthrough, not just for you personally, but for your families and for your communities and your nation. And just before I pray, I just want to let you know, because it's not that far away from here, our team is doing a prayer school in Manchester, in Sale, which is just up the road, isn't it, from here? It's going to be on a Tuesday night for four weeks at St. Mary's Church. You'd be really welcome to come. It's probably about half an hour, is it, Sale, from here? Probably not even that. So it starts at half seven and we finish at nine and it starts on the 9th of June for four weeks and we're looking at prayer and lots of stories, lots of worship, it's going to be amazing and if you want to know any more I can e-mail the details through on that.

But I want to pray right now and I just want to ask you if you've never given your life to Jesus, you know, we don't want you to be someone who just watches from the edge. We don't want you to be someone who has never had a relationship with Jesus. You know about Him, you've been going to church maybe for a long time, but you've never had that encounter with Jesus. You've never given your life to Jesus. Like me, where I just went through the prayer, but actually I was not born again. I didn't have that new life with God. You know, I want to pray for you tonight, if you'd like to give your life to Jesus, you know, you'd like to accept that Jesus died on the cross, and if you'd been the only person in the whole world, he would have died for you. You know, we want to give you that opportunity tonight.

What happened to me that night was I was filled with the Holy Spirit. It revolutionized my life. It empowered me to move in signs and wonders and miracles and to see God move in the most incredible ways. If you have never been filled with the Holy Spirit or you know you're empty, we would love to pray for you tonight. Don't go away empty. You know, go away full of the Holy Spirit. If you need healing in your body, again, and you know I would love to pray for you, you know, we've seen lots of miracles and you know just amazing things that God has done and it's all about him and so I'm gonna pray and maybe for ease if you close your eyes, and if you would like to give your life to Jesus, I would just like you to quietly stand where you are and we will pray together.

Thank you, Jesus. Okay, good. If you would like to be filled with the Holy Spirit, I just wanna suggest you stand right now and we're just gonna ask you to put your hands out before the Lord ready to receive. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.

Holy Spirit, we thank you. Thank you for your presence here right now. Thank you that you know those who are empty. You know those, Lord, who are full to their ankles. Lord, I pray, Holy Spirit, come right now. We invite you to come. Come on every man, every woman, every child in this place right now. Come. Come, Holy Spirit. Come and fill us with your presence. Come and release your gifts to us. Come and empower us. Come and equip us, Holy Spirit. Come Holy Spirit, open our ears that we can hear you speaking to us. Open our hearts that we will know when your presence is so close to us. Open our eyes so we can see you. Open your word to us that it becomes active and living. Holy Spirit, help us where we have sinned, or we are sinning. Help us to consecrate our hearts afresh tonight. We repent, Lord. We repent, Lord God. We turn away from those things that have offended you, God. And we say, Holy Spirit, come birth your holiness in us that makes us different to the world.

I know Holy Spirit's just touching people right now. Can feel his peace. He's pouring his love in. Heavenly Father is just pouring his love in. He's breaking shame. He's breaking condemnation. He's breaking intimidation off you. He's breaking the power of fear. Some of you've lived with fear most of your lives. God is breaking that right now as perfect love is coming and filling you right now fear cannot stay. Love is so powerful, the love of God is so powerful, thank you God.

If you need healing in your body right now I just want you to touch that part of your body where you need healing. Father I pray for every person in this room right now that needs your healing touch. Thank you, God, it's not about me laying hands on anyone. Lord, it's about your Spirit.

And Lord, we just release healing right now. Lord God, we command frozen shoulders, Lord God, to loosen right now in the name of Jesus. Father, we pray, Lord God, we break allergies off our bodies right now in the name of Jesus. Father, we speak to hearts and we say be healed in the name of Jesus. Father, we command arthritis, Lord God, to go in the name of Jesus, Lord, for joints to even be recreated. God, I've seen you heal knees, Lord God. Recreate knees, Lord God. Lord, we pray for lungs. Lord God, right now, Lord God, that breath, your breath would come into lungs tonight, Lord God, and bring healing and wholeness, Lord God. Lord, we command cancers to be gone right now in the name of Jesus. It's all about you, Jesus. It's all about you, Jesus. Thank you, God. Thank you, God.

Lord, we speak to those who are suffering depression or oppression, Lord God, and we speak and we command it to be broken right now of people's lives. Lord God those who've suffered with it for years, Lord God, Lord we break its power right now in the name of Jesus. Lord we pray, Lord God, that this this people in this room will be known, Lord, as we began the meeting tonight and we spoke, Lord God, from scripture about the joy of the Lord. Lord we pray for such a release of the joy of the Lord, Lord God, that this people in Leigh will be known as the smiliest, happiest, joyful people, Father God, because that's how your spirit is working in them. Lord, it's a fruit of the spirit. Thank you God, thank you God, we give you all the glory, Lord God, for what you're doing right now father, in Jesus name, Amen.