Extract from The Hot Line

 from the Introduction

This is a beginner's book written by a beginner for beginners. When it was suggested to me that I write a book after only two years of ministering in the power of the Holy Spirit at Christ Church, Burney Lane it seemed almost laughable. 'I'm only a beginner,' I complained to God. 'Why should I write a book?'

 'That's why,' he seemed to say. 'If you wait until you've been doing it ten or twenty years, you'll have forgotten what it was like when you started.'

 So here we are. Half a step ahead of some and miles behind the rest who've been ministering for years. When I began, it seemed to be doing what I thought God was telling me to do, both in his word -the Bible - and directly in my mind, which set the ball rolling. I believed Christians were called to follow the living Lord Jesus, and naturally to do this they needed to hear his voice and obey him. When I started trying to do this I made many mistakes but even so God appeared to honour the atttempt and occasionally something would turn out right. For the first time in my life I found myself in small ways begin to do some of the things Jesus had done when he also ministered in the power of the Holy Spirit.

 For me getting started was undoubtedly the hardest part. Brought up in a cynical age with a natural tendency myself towards defensive humour, there was always one voice ringing in my ears which held me back:'Got a hot line to God, have we?' it was for ever asking. I remembered Joan of Arc claiming to have a hot line to God and ending up in the hot seat, and I was never one with a burning ambition for martyrdom. But somehow, often at very low moments in my life, God drew close to me and it happened.

 So here is the story of a few modest beginnings, propped up now and again with some biblical teaching. I've tried to include all my first stories - good or bad - in an attempt to encourage others to have a go. In these pages is my first 'word' from God which led to my first laying-on of hands and my first healing service. You'll also find an account of the first time I asked the Holy Spirit to come publicly and privately, at home and away, and how striving to hear God speak led me to witness my first healing and meet my first demon. There is an account too of the first time I tried to help someone else to hear God, the first time someone was converted through ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit, and several other personal 'firsts'.

.......Of necessity, I am learning to minister from a position of weakness. If you knew me as my friends do  you would be amazed that God has been able to do anything with me, in me or through me. This being so it is inevitably a book about God: his love, mercy, power and grace. If any story or teaching helps anyone else to recognise the voice of the Good Shepherd then to God be all the glory. God loves some decidedly odd people and has some very strange friends. This book is written by one of them.