How did a pastor of very modest means visit an island in the English Channel which is one of the world’s leading tax havens? Visited not just once but seven times, and each time experienced God’s power!
It began when a well-off lady attended a week of meetings we were holding in Bournemouth, in Southwest England, in the final meeting the Lord baptized her in the Holy Spirit and set her free from severe depression. So filled was she with the Spirit of God she was unable to eat for three days.
Noting the remarkable transformation of the lady after her return to the island, her pastor said to her: “If that Australian pastor ever returns to the UK, please invite him to come and minister in this church.”
Six months later I did, accompanied by Lorraine and two close friends. I preached a pretty ordinary message and the Lord then poured out His Spirit on the congregation. It was a meeting that those present would long remember. On a return visit I was gifted with a new, all-wool, pinstriped Marks & Spencer business suit. How very British!
The island was Jersey, about twelve miles off the coast of France. A Jersey-Friesian-cross cow provides a combination of butterfat content and milk capacity that make the breed a farmer’s ideal; all that a dairy farmer desires.
Our first meeting in St Helier, the island’s capital, was itself an ideal blend of the Word of God and the Power of God, with most of the church members lying prostrate on the floor under the power of God. The spiritual atmosphere of the presence of God and the drama in lives changed combined to make a meeting that remains memorable.
What can the preacher do when God moves sovereignly in a meeting? Absolutely nothing! When a sixteen-year-old girl stepped behind the pulpit and began to “sing with the spirit” (i.e. spontaneously and in an unlearned language) the best thing one can do is stand back and wait to see what it is the Lord is doing. An elderly lady commented to a team member that the meeting was “the best one we’ve had in twenty years!” To God be the Glory!
I flew the 40-minute Southampton to Jersey flight seven times in all. During one meeting, Jesus healed an autistic teenager without the slightest fanfare. No falling down under the power of God. No sign that healing was taking place. And after the meeting had ended. The young man later received a doctor’s certificate, which stated that he was fully recovered after having been autistic from birth.
His father, a pastor, was healed instantly from a condition that doctors thought would require the amputation of his leg at the knee. The power of the Holy Spirit hit him so hard that he jumped up and spun around shouting that his leg was healed! I love it when the Spirit of God moves in power in a meeting and our Lord Jesus is glorified!
I worked for more than three years in my teens on dairy farms and enjoyed working with cattle (I’m not a sheep man and I detest pigs.) I have a photo taken of me doing a bit of ‘Jersey whispering’ to a heifer on the Island.
My dairy farming days are but a distant memory, and much of my visits to the Isle of Jersey have faded, but the miracles of healing that Jesus did on that small island will never fade. Nothing the Lord does fades.
Nothing will in Eternity either. You need to make sure that your entry into Heaven and everlasting life in Eternity is absolutely certain. Your decision to surrender your life to Jesus Christ will not only guarantee future entry but also present acceptance of you by God through His Beloved Son.
The Island of Jersey is a tax haven, but Heaven is a sin-free haven, one that you can enjoy to a degree now in this present life — and forever in the Afterlife. I treasure my many Jersey memories, but inevitably, they are diminishing in the light of my daily experiences of God’s amazing power and glorious presence!