Peter Horrobin

Back in 1985, before the work of Ellel Ministries had begun, I was sitting on the back row of Sheffield City Hall. John Wimber was speaking about healing. I was so encouraged to hear his teaching, which spoke so powerfully into the vision for healing and restoration that I had already been nurturing for many years.

I knew God had called me into such a ministry, but I confess that I was getting downhearted. The years were passing and no doors had opened. I was already over forty and supposedly by then, on the downhill path towards being put out to grass! I had lots of questions for God, but no answers. Perhaps I was now too old for God to use and I’d missed the boat – whatever God’s boat might have looked like!

I’d read in the Christian press about John Wimber coming from the USA to Sheffield for a conference on healing. I decided to go and spend four days concentrating on whatever the Lord had to say to me through the teaching and ministry. I was in complete agreement with all that John Wimber picked out from the Scriptures about both healing and deliverance. My heart was beating in rhythm with what was in the Word of God, but I knew that something had to happen to kick-start the vision that had burned within me by then for fifteen years.

At times during that amazing conference I felt as though I was the only person there. I was aware of crowds of people in one sense, but at the same time I was oblivious to their presence. God had got my attention. I’m not sure whether I was wrestling with God or God was wrestling with me. I knew there were deep issues being tackled, largely associated with what the cost and the consequences would be of being totally unconditional with God.

It’s so easy to say ‘Yes, Lord’, without too much thought about what those two words really mean. But now the inner wrestling was going deep into the inner recesses of my soul – touching depths that I didn’t even know were there and facing challenges in the spirit that I knew one day I would have to face in the flesh. I felt so inadequate, unsuited and unprepared but at the same time I was straining at the leash desperate to get going.  But God was showing me that if He had let the leash go too soon, I would have gone out like a greyhound on a track to try and build God’s Kingdom my way instead of His!

There is a breaking that leads to wholeness and destiny. And deep inside me there was a breaking of my own will taking place as one by one I placed every area of my life into God’s hands, decided to trust Him unconditionally with the consequences and agreed to follow Him wherever the journey would take me.

On the last night of the conference I was extraordinarily aware of the presence of God during the worship. It was irrelevant to me what anyone else was experiencing. I felt as though I was being pinned to that back wall of Sheffield City Hall by the presence, the power and overwhelmingly by the love of God. It was as if a series of three huge waves came rolling in to cover me and across the top of the first wave was written, in huge letters, the word ACCEPTED.

At that moment I didn’t just know God’s forgiveness as a theological proposition, it was pervading my whole being, And realising that there was nothing that God hadn’t forgiven, meant that I could unconditionally believe that He really loved me – every single bit of me. The acceptance I felt at that moment was totally life transforming.

I was just recovering from this wonderful experience when a second wave came in and covered my soul. Across the tops of the wave were spread the letters of the word RESTORED. It seemed as though in all the areas of my life where I had known God’s acceptance and forgiveness, he was now healing and restoring my soul. New strength came into my being as I realised that the restoration of God was equipping me for whatever lay ahead.

I had no idea what would happen next. I was relaxing in the presence of God – the joy of His love was filling my spirit and my soul – when the third wave came rolling in and to my enormous surprise written across the top of the wave was the word COMMISSIONED. Deep down I knew exactly what this word meant. It was as if in a moment of time, years of preparation were coming to a head and that whatever it was that God was calling me to Himself to do, was about to begin.

A commissioning marks the beginning of something new. On the day a new ship for the Royal Navy is commissioned, the years of building and preparation are over, and it enters service. I had no idea what commissioning would mean for me, but as the impact of those thee waves subsided, I knew that a new phase of my life was beginning and that I was entering service.

Shortly after that God opened the doors for the work, that became known as Ellel Ministries, to begin at Ellel Grange. It was as if at that conference God had fired a starting gun over my life. It was a time that I can’t forget, for what God did then is part of who I am today. This is the first time I have ever put an account of what happened to me at that conference in Sheffield into print.

Since then we have been enormously privileged to conduct many similar conferences through Ellel Ministries. The first one, The Battle Belongs to the Lord, was a life-changing event for many hundreds of people. It seems as though when we take time out to really seek God, and listen to His voice in a focussed and concentrated way, that He rejoices to hear the cries of our heart and answer our prayers.

Right now we are in the thick of preparing for the next Ellel Conference at Blackpool, God of the Breakthrough at the end of March. I know that in these very testing and difficult days there are many people looking to God for a personal breakthrough in their lives, their circumstances, their local church and even in the life of their nation. I have a deep sense that this is going to be one of those conferences of which, in years to come, people will say, “God changed my life at Blackpool in 2012.” For me it was Sheffield in 1985.

Yes, I am a little older now, but I’m still young enough in spirit to be looking forward to Blackpool with eager anticipation – like a child, dreaming of something very special that lies ahead, but not fully aware yet of all that’s going to happen! I’m wondering what starting guns God is going to be firing over the lives of those who are present, as they seek His face and come before Him in faith and expectation. I’m ready and waiting!

You can find out more about the conference at www.godofthebreakthrough.org

An elderly landowner had two grandsons, both of whom longed to be farmers in their own right. Two of his farms, of equal size and value, had lain semi-derelict for decades. He was keen that his inherited land should remain in the family so, when he died, he left one farm to Grandson A and the other to Grandson B. Additionally he left each of them £50,000 to help with running the farm and turning it into a profit-making operation.

Grandson A was so excited to receive the deeds of his farm and he immediately went out and spent all his money on the very best animals he could find and set out to make his fortune on the farm.

Grandson B, however, spent the whole of his first year of ownership of his farm repairing the buildings and, especially, mending the fences and rebuilding the broken down walls. By the time he’d finished all this work, he only had a small amount of his money left, with which he bought a small flock of sheep.

Meanwhile, Grandson A was having a lot of problems. He placed his prize cattle in the field in front of his farm but, to his horror, found that they were all gone in the morning. As animals will do, they had soon found the holes in the walls and fences and by the time morning came, they were scattered all over the place. And, sadly, one of them had got onto the main road and caused an accident in which the animal was killed, and as a result of which a child lay seriously injured in hospital. It wasn’t long before legal papers arrived which made it very clear that the farmer was responsible for the accident by not having had his fences in good order. Not only did he lose the animal that had died, but another person’s life was terribly scarred. Eventually he had to sell all the rest of the animals, and the farm to pay the damages.

Grandson A had first thought that Grandson B was wasting his opportunity by spending so much time on mending the offences and repairing the walls. But now he realised that his own failure to spend time and money on this had eventually brought disaster upon himself and he was left with nothing.

Grandson B, however, had taken time to protect his small flock of sheep. They soon multiplied and year on year his farm became more and more successful. Everyone came to see how he had made the farm so profitable and he told everyone who came the most important principle he had learned – mend the fences, keep the boundaries secure and the flock will be safe.

Two young men became Christians from very similar backgrounds. Both had been into many things in their former lives. But they joined different churches.

Christian A’s church was so excited that such a worldly young man had found the Saviour, that they soon had him doing all sorts of things right away. He was a great musician and he gave his testimony everywhere. He was paraded around like a trophy and became quite a star in his church circles. But beneath the surface there were problems. Pride became a real issue and the more publicity he was given, the bigger the problem became! He had come from living quite an immoral lifestyle – the boundaries of his life were quite disordered – and because nothing had been done to mend the fences of his broken down life, he was soon found to be straying into fields that Christians shouldn’t be entering. Before long his testimony was quite discredited and he left the church –he’d tried Christianity, it hadn’t changed anything and he finished up throwing himself headlong into his former way of life.

Christian B’s church, however, rejoiced in the fact that he had become a Christian, but immediately set about the task of making this new Christian into a disciple. They spent time with him, looking at the areas of his life where the moral boundaries had been breached in the past and where there were real issues that needed healing. They prayed with him through the issues that caused him problems and little by little the areas of weaknesses were dealt with and he became strong. For quite a while the church leaders were content to see him slowly but surely become established in his faith as a member of the congregation. But before too long it became obvious that he had some very real gifts that God could use and he was carefully released into using his gifts and became a very effective and valuable member of the fellowship. Years later, when he became a Pastor himself, and would share his testimony with his congregation, he would always say that those years of ‘doing nothing’ in the church, except learning to be a disciple were the most important part of his Christian story. Without them, he said, he would have soon gone back to the world he had come from through the gaps in the fences of his life.

All the above is a parable which filled my mind yesterday morning as I looked out of my bedroom window and saw a flock of sheep in a well-kept field.

The Lord’s voice was unmistakeable, “Spend time helping people to mend the fences and maintain the boundaries of their lives and you will be building leaders who will be able to lead the Church in times of temptation and testing. If you fail to do this the enemy of souls will have little difficulty in plundering the flock.”

There was a quiet soberness in my heart as I travelled into Ellel Grange, knowing that God had just spoken deep into my spirit to remind me of what the great commission is all about – “Go into all the world and MAKE DISCIPLES.”

As I write this blog, the television news bulletins are showing pictures of a massive Italian cruise liner lying on its side off the coast of Italy. It’s not yet known exactly how many people have lost their lives, but, amazingly and thankfully, the majority of the passengers and crew were rescued from the Costa Concordia. The fact that over 4000 people were rescued at night, from a rapidly sinking ship, is something of a miracle.

No doubt there will be a full enquiry into the cause of the disaster and we will learn exactly what happened last night, when the ship was sailing in what should have been the safest of waters and in the calmest of weathers.

Almost exactly 25 years ago, on the 6^th March 1987, the Herald of Free Enterprise sank just outside Zeebrugge harbour. This ship was a large roll-on roll-off car ferry. It had crossed the North Sea many hundreds of times and had already made four crossings on that day between Belgium and the UK.

When disaster struck 193 people lost their lives. The tragedy of this tragedy is that it was totally avoidable. It was not an accident. The ship set sail with the bow doors open and as the ship hit the open sea, water flooded the car decks. The ship took a heavy list to one side as vehicles began to move and then the whole ship capsized in just 30 feet of water.

As I watched a documentary TV programme about the disaster, God began to speak to me of the dangers of sailing through life with the bow doors open. The crew had set sail like this on many previous occasions without consequence, but on this occasion the unthinkable happened. The Captain of the ship was responsible for setting sail with the bow doors open. The crew were responsible for not closing the doors in time. The victims who died were innocent bystanders of an avoidable drama.

We are all individually responsible for the ship of our lives. If we are sailing with the bow doors open, then nothing untoward may happen for a long time. There is little danger when the waters are smooth. Complacency and pride can make us careless in our conduct. But when the unthinkable happens it’s not only the individual who suffers, but all “the passengers” who were depending on us for their well being are in danger of becoming victims.

Those passengers include our own families, our colleagues, those who work for us and all who look to us for spiritual input and care at various levels of church life. For a Pastor or leader of a Christian ministry, the passengers include their whole congregation, staff and even the wider Body of Christ. When the disaster occurs to a high profile Christian leader the ripple effect can become a tsunami.

Many of those I have prayed with, whose lives had experienced some form of shipwreck, had been sailing through life with the bow doors of their lives wide open. For some, disaster struck by way of public exposure of immoral conduct. For others the torment of inner guilt was the root cause of personal breakdown. For yet others the circumstances of life had turned against them and when everything was laid upon the table, it was painfully evident that bow doors which had been left open years ago had never been closed.

The enemy will use anything and everything in our lives which is out of harmony with God’s covenant of blessing. The ten commandments are referred to as God’s covenant in Deut. 4:13 – they represent God’s very best for us. Unresolved sin issues always condense down to a willful choosing to ignore one or other aspect of God’s covenant of blessing.

There may be reasons in the past as to why a particular sin has remained out of control – such as abuse or various aspects of parental damage – but sin is still sin and it is far better to face the fact of it and receive healing for the cause than to wrestle on one’s own to close a bow door that has been jammed open and which seems immoveable. There are answers. If the bow doors are not closed there will come a time when disaster will strike.

There are many disasters waiting to happen in the Body of Christ – people who are shipping water privately through open bow doors. Those disasters can be avoided. All the problems a person has in this life are not automatically resolved at conversion. When we get to heaven the old man will fall away, but right now we are still wrestling with the consequences of the fall – even after we are born again. We all need healing. Conversion is but the beginning of a journey of discipleship.

It’s clear from the dramatic pictures of the holed vessel that the ship hit submerged rocks. With modern safety equipment on board, that can warn the Captain of such dangers in good enough time to change course, it’s hard to understand how such an accident could have happened. But happen it did.

The enemy loves to deceive us, in our own personal voyage of life, to sail into waters we thought were safe but which, in reality, are strewn with underwater rocks. We desperately need to have our spiritual radar switched on at all times. God has promised to lead His people when they trust in Him. How we need to keep close to Him so we can always hear even the whisper of His voice and avoid the rocks that could make shipwreck of the vessel of our lives.