We believe that testimonies are powerful! When we take time to record the things that God is doing in our lives, or has done in the past, they act as reminders to us of His faithfulness. Not only that when we hear a story of what God has done in someone else's life it can help us to trust God afresh for the things we are still waiting for Him to do in our own lives.
With this in mind, following our week of prayer and fasting we spent some time sharing some of the stories of what God has been teaching us or what He has been doing amongst us as a church family throughout the week
You can watch and read the testimonies of various people as they shared what they felt God had been saying to them.
We're so grateful for all that He has been doing amongst us. If you have a story you would like to share, why not email us: info@jubilee.org.uk or call the church office: 013332 322655 or you can complete this form: jubilee.org.uk/stories
Video
Audio
Full Service 28/01/2024
Jubilee Church Derby
Week of Prayer & Fasting 2024 Report & Testimonies
Sunday 28/01/2024
During our Sunday celebration various people report back about our week of prayer & fasting and what they felt God speaking to them about and what they have been encouraged by during the week.
Tim
Now's the moment. Listen, many of you have said you’ve got something you want to share. There’s something on that’s on my heart. It’s this thing which I’ve loved praying about this week or something that you’ve felt the Lord saying to you.
So as we come to this time where we’re going to share together, I’d love it if you could come down to the front and get ready to share it and as we do that, just a reminder. What you share doesn’t have to be prophetic, it doesn’t have to be in tongues, it doesn’t have to have 15 bible verses either. It could simply be, I went along to this prayer meeting and I loved praying for this. Okay, that’s what it might be and that will encourage us all.
It’s so important that as a church, we take time to encourage one another and tell one another of the goodness of the Lord, remind ourselves of the goodness of the Lord. Sometimes we don’t see or hear about it and it’s so good to know how God is moving in other people’s lives.
So if you’ve got some reflections on this week of prayer, why don’t you come to the front and, basically we’re going to make a queue and listen to how God is moving amongst us.
We're going to encourage one another with the goodness of the Lord.
Cathy
I’m not going to stand up at the minute because my legs are still feeling a little wobbly but I wanted to give God thanks and praise. Many of you may know that my sister at the moment has a terminal illness motor neurone disease. It’s really affected her body, her speech, her mobility. She’s only 38 with a young daughter of 12. So she was given two to four years to live and she’s now in her fifth year.
I came to the front because I really felt that while I was sitting at the back, that God gave me a vision, that she was sitting in her wheelchair, and that she had chains on her neck, her wrists, her ankles and I really believe that God removed those chains as I was sitting there at the back.
I felt I should come to the front and encourage anyone at all that is either going through any sort of illness. That isn’t initially why I came up but as I’m here now, I’m feeling to encourage anybody that’s got any kind of disease, infirmity, illness, and also addiction (that comes to mind as well). I want to encourage you to never give up and to always have faith. We know that it’s always God’s will and I’m believing for a miracle for my sister, that she will walk again, she will talk again and she will be able to come and give her testimony herself.
I really want to give God all the glory and all the praise
Tim
Thank you so much, Kathy, Lord we lift Cathy’s sister to you! Listen this is important, when we pray together, the word amen is a really important word, because it basically means agreement. So this means in a room like this we’ve multiplied one prayer by however many people are in the room at this moment – however many people are alone (hi everyone online!).
Lord we lift Cathy’s sister to you and we ask for her healing, we say to this motor neurone disease to be gone, go in the name of Jesus, in the name of the risen Jesus. Lord, would you remind her of the joy of her salvation. Lord, we look forward to seeing her with us in this room, and so if you agree with that prayer in the name of Jesus, amen, amen.
David
So last night I was listening to a song, that I haven’t heard for a long time. I don’t remember now what it was but it’s not really important.
As I was listening to it I felt the phrase: “come like you did at first” come to mind. Then I also felt God continue to speak and so I wrote down what I sense God was saying. Hopefully it will encourage you as well.
I’m calling you to the simpler things of faith,
I’m calling you to return to your first love,
To come like you did at first.
Cast off your disappointments though they may be great and focus on me.
Come to me my dear, dear children, your fathers arms are open, come rest, come be refreshed - this season has felt harsh for many; even if you haven’t felt personal loss many of you feel burned by the hurts of others.
So come my dear ones come to your king, come like you did at first, uncomplicated, cast off your burdens, lay them at my feet for I care for each one.
I’ve counted every teardrop, I hold them, they are precious to me.
I want to restore broken hearts today, I want to refresh thirsty souls and I want to cause those who are rejoicing to break out into song.
Let Joy breakout, let Joy breakout. Inspite of your circumstances be they good or bad, I want my joy to fill you to overflowing.
I am going to renew you in these days my precious people and I want to renew you.
I want you to see that the harvest is plentiful and to see that I have called you to the harvest, invest your hearts and your lives for I am making something glorious and the whole earth will see it!
Elizabeth
Thank you, David. That really resonates with me, and it links to what I had to say. So last Sunday when Graham shared all those words beginning with ‘P’ the first one was passion and that really convicted me. It resonated because I feel like I’ve lost that, and so I didn’t drink my can of Passion drink, I took it home with me and I’ve stuck it in the fridge. I wanted to put it on my dashboard, but I was afraid that with the changing temperatures, it would explode.
So it’s in my fridge on the top shelf and it’s going to stay there all year, provided Dave doesn’t drink it. It will remind me when I open the fridge after a long day at work, or when I’m going to get some food ready and I can pray again.
I can pray and ask God to renew that passion for Christ. So hopefully that’s an encouragement to you. So if you drank your can of passion, go out and buy another one and pop it in your fridge too!
Joe
So I had a really incredible week this week, it’s been the first year that I’ve really taken prayer and fasting more seriously. I didn’t know what to fast food wise, to spend more time with God. So I decided I’d delete all the social media apps of my phone...so I could focus in on really spending a bit more time with God.
The results this week have been incredible. Really, really good – so loved the prayer meetings, I joined the AMP prayer on Wednesday morning. It was such a fast and such energetic prayer that I didn’t even get a chance to speak!
Then there was Friday, it was a really special night, we had an evening of high speed, high energy prayer with Naomi and Tim. I went there not really knowing what it was about, not really knowing what I was doing there so to say! I was a little bit shocked and confused, there were blankets on the floor; there were LED string lights set out... I wasn’t sure what to do but as the evening went on I really felt the spirit of God pour over me afresh. We started singing and very quickly there was a sense of something really special there. I felt God speak to me with a word for Eva, I don’t very often get that sort oft hing but it was amazing to go and pray with someone and pray for something which God put on my heart to share.
Then Naomi came and asked me whether I’d ever spoken in tongues, it’s something that I’ve never done very much, may be once or twice but never loudly, never publicly.
Naomi encouraged me to simply breathe in the Holy Spirit and then breathe him out, and then the tongues just flowed out of me. It was incredible. I’ve always said to Sarah (my wife), that the first time I felt the Holy Spirit, was like this warmth over me, a loving, caring warmth. That happened on the first night I became a Christian and I felt it again on Friday. Jonathan was praying for me and put his hand on my back while we were speaking in tongues, just supportively. As I finished speaking in tongues (I had my eyes closed), I opened my eyes and I could feel still feel his hand on my back and I looked across the room and Jonathan was stood about eight feet away. I could still feel this hand on my back suppporting me, this really loving, caring feeling. It was just the most powerful night.
So I went home from that and all this week, everyone knows I’m a bit of a techie, so I tend to have my Bible app on my phone and I’ve put it in alphabetic mode so I can look at the books of the Bible more easily.
I felt God encourage me to just go and get an actaul paper Bible out, to read the words as they were written on paper.
So that’s what I did, I read through all of Romans, loved it, can’t wait for the series.
So yeah it’s been such a rewarding week and huge thank you to everyone that arranged it because it’s been such a great experience.
Tim
That’s so good, thanks Joe! Some really important things to pull out of what Joe said, that he felt, for a start you made time for God, you’re intentionally making time for the Lord and the huge difference that made this week. You decided to remove social media and to make more time to read the Bible this week. It’s a simple equation but it worked out really well – there was also some intentionality as well.
One other thing to point out, social media in itself isn’t wrong, no one is saying you shouldn’t be on it, alright. Actually though prioritising God’s word is such a good thing, it’s the bread of life for us, okay. We live on every word that comes from our Father in heaven.
Also just kudos for being willing to receive, willing to speak out, dwelling in God’s presence and beng sent out.
That was actually in what David was saying as well, God doesn’t just give us these warm fuzzy feelings because they’re nice. Actually it’s with purpose, He empowers us to go!
Bea
As many people may know I’ve been really struggling with my mom passing away. It’s been such a hard time for me. This week as we were doing our prayer and fasting, you know it doesn’t matter how many times people pray for you, how many times people tell you things are going to get better, that it is really hard when you’re going through this kind of stuff.
Then on Wednesday, I prayed to God and just told him how I felt, I just gave him all my grief and everything. Once I did that, God just gave me such a sense of peace. I’ve never felt that kind of peace before. He also gave me such a sense of joy, so much joy in my heart.
Instead of thinking of my mom as she was when she was really, really poorly. God gave me a face of her smiling as she was. God also said to me “you know what? Don't worry about your mom, because she’s with me. Go and worry about the people that need to come to know me.”
You know, during this time of prayer and fasting I was praying more for the planting of churches because it’s so important for us to think about the people that sacrifice so much to go and plant churches. I was praying that God would help them, because they really need our help as well.
The other thing I was praying for was for our leaders here, our leaders, our elders, in everything that they do. That is so important as well, God was saying to me, do you know what, it isn’t easy for them, they go through so much stuff. To pray for them and to keep them in our hearts and minds, to take time out to pray for them as well.
Rai
On the Friday prayer evening as Joe testified it was a really amazing evening, so a massive thank you to Lucy, Naomi, Tim and the others involved, not to forget Bo too!
As we stepped into the room, my first impressions were, what, what’s going on here? Some people were lying on the floor on blankets. I thought – “they're going to sleep, aren’t we supposed to be praying”?
Actually, it was pre-arranged to make it feel relaxed and comfortable, to help people spend time in God’s presence. We did a number of things during the evening and I wanted to share a bit about one of them.
There was a table full of small tealight candles. There was one large candle in the middle representing Christ, everyone else came to the table and lit their candle and then took it away.
Then we spent some time praying and then brought back the candle to the table and carried on with other things.
This really spoke to me about community. It took my thoughts back to a week or two ago in a leadership team meeting. God gave me a picture then and these candles relate to it also. So I felt it was right to share it now.
The picture that I received was of boats floating on the water and inside those boats were lights. Some of them were burning brighter than others. The boats were all facing at different angles and in that picture I saw God blowing and turning these boats around.
Those that had a small flame, as they aligned themselves with the other boats (the ones with brighter flames), the small flames became brighter, they all became brighter.
I felt at the time that this was something that God was doing, talking to us about community, that as we come together, there will be those amongst us that have got those small flames. Maybe it’s just holding on. Others have got a bright flame and it’s that coming together, as we join together as a community, that we begin to catch God’s fire for ourselves.
Those who are really on fire, can impart to us some of their experience, some of their passion, some of their love and experience into our lives.
The second thing was when we put the candles together, the candles were all lit and it was a representation of the church and we put our candles there in Christ in the middle burning brightly.
As we have come together for prayer and fasting, we’ve become a deeper more committed community. That’s not only for us now, it’s not just for a week that’s gone by. I believe that this is something that God is speaking to us about. He wants to grow us as a community.
That isn’t just growing in the social things, but growing spiritually. Imparting God’s gifts to one another. Sharing hymns, songs and encouraging one another in the Lord
This morning has been another example of that, you know God doesn’t want that to stop, He wants that to continue and this morning has just been an example of that. God doesn’t want that to stop, He wants that to continue.
The underlining thing that I felt God was saying was that you know, we’ve been speaking about power and God will give us power in situations. Sometimes you can ask God for power and you’r expecting something and nothing happens. What will happen is if God is asking you to do something and you go into a situation and you ask God for power, He’ll do it, He’ll do it, because you are in that right place. However, if you ask for power and sit back, not much is really going to happen.
The other thing that came out of this is that there is a power that God gives us, in our unity when we come together as a church in unity. We were in unity, in one mind and one spirit over this week as we prayed, we were focussed. I believe that part of that is as we come together, as we look around our brothers and sisters, that we encourage them, we lift them up. If you’ve got something for them, share it, be looking out for one another and saying, Lord, can I just pray for this person? Go up to them encourage them, maybe it’s just they need an embrace, it might be they simply want you to pray for them. God is building us up, he’s building us up in unity. Let’s thank him for this week.
I’ll just finish with this, this week has been absolutely incredible, and I know many of you may have not been able to get involved. Maybe you’ve been unwell, or you’ve just not been able to get there. All those that were involved really were blessed, as individuals receiving from God. But it’s not over, you can still fast, you don’t have to have a special week of fasting to fast. Honestly, it’s true and I want to encourage you if you want to learn more about fasting, if you go onto the website, there’s some information about fasting. If you’re taking medication, then you need to be careful. It gives you all the details but I want to encourage you to carry on, don’t leave it here for this week, it might be just the one day you want to fast or like Joe with social media, or television, whatever it may be but that time then becomes God time, God’s time with you.
So let me encourage you, you will find benefit and blessing in it.
Tim
Yes there is info on the website: jubilee.org.uk/fasting so if fasting is on your mind, talk to Rai, come and talk to me. We’d be very happy to help you in that.
Something Rai spoke about was community and the unity of that. Community really works when, like just now Cathy shared some stuff which was super honest, we don't normally hear that! When we are honest from the front, like Graham said last week, “I’m almost preaching this to myself”. Let’s be honest with one another and share with each other about stuff, open up the door to our lives a little more. When we are honest the Spirit of God is able then to come and we can encourage one another.
Claire
That’s pretty much what I was going to say. So, this week, so I suffer from anxiety, I have panic attacks and it’s something that I do take medication to get on top of. When I feel them coming on, sometimes I can pray and cope in that way. Sometimes though you’re that busy and that anxious that, that’s not the first thing I do quite honestly. On Thursday morning I was really struggling, this week at work has been incredibly stressful and I had a big deadline on Thursday, and I’d actually started writing Naomi a message but then I deleted it and just got on with things, because I don’t like to bother other people. Literally 20 minutes later, she messaged me to say, how’s your day?
I messaged back letting her know and she said, you know, I’m going to pray for you and everything. But for me God broke in at that moment, God knew that I needed support and for me that was really encouraging. Not just because in that moment I refocussed on God. For me the opposite of anxiety, is joy. Standing in God’s joy. I also was reminded that it’s ok to reach out.
God knew I needed it, so He decided to tell Naomi without me messaging her, it’s okay to reach out if you don’t feel in a place where you can be totally open to God, you’re not ready for that, say to someone and they can pray for you!
There is so much power in praying for each other, if you get this sense of someone needs prayer, then do it! Reach out to them, God is going to move!
Tim
Thank you, Claire, we’re called to reach out to one another in love and to bear each other’s burdens.
Matthew
So on Friday night, I was prayed for about anxiety, that I’d have like a power over it in my life. Yesterday I still felt anxious, but for the first time in forever, I felt like I could be more powerful than the anxiety was to me.
Paul
Amen! God is good, God is good.
When I was talking to Tim about this, I said, we need to get a queue, but you’ll probably need a timer to limit how long people are going to talk for!
So now he’s sitting down...
I’ve thought a couple of things this morning as well as during this week, God was speaking about the body of Christ, Us as a family, we’re family aren’t we?
How as a family we, we need to love and care for one another. So much of that is coming out about what everybody is sharing. The two main things for me were these.
Matthew 22 – talks about the king, you know he’s got this feast going on and he invites loads of people and they don’t come. He then sends his people out onto the highways and byways to invite the bad and the good. I know it starts with the bad and the good. God was talking to me about how we are invited to a wedding feast. We are the bride, it’s an arranged wedding, alright? Ok? It’s an arranged wedding and the greatest thing is the groom who is Christ. He’s the best you could get isn’t He, we all shrink in comparison with Jesus, don’t we.
Ok so here’s this arranged marriage and we are invited to be the bride, I know guys, it’s a bit weird, alright, I get that. We’re invited to be the bridge, and here’s the groom and we can invite people to our wedding feast. Yes, the King, our Lord Almighty has arranged it and we are invited, I just felt so excited that actually, I took my shoes off because wherever I stand, you know is holy ground. Do you know that wherever you go, where ever your feet tread, the place becomes holy.
Cause you are there and he is with you, in you, it’s just wonderful. So that’s what was coming out for me this week.
You know this morning God was talking to us about being this family, and being in the presence of God. I know that Alpha’s coming in the autumn, and I was thinking passion, you know God was stoking our passion this morning. As well as we go through the week, we knew something of His presence in the meetings.
There was something of His presence, a release of power and I certainly felt it down the front this morning anyway. There was a sense of more power coming for healing and all sorts of things. But as far as the people of God, there was a real sense of unity and also a power for people that need to be invited in, for going out onto the highways and byways.
We’ve got Alpha happening in the autumn term, and what about walking down the high street and say, do you fancy going to dinner tonight, we’ve got a free dinner tonight, would you like to come.
It’s like we’ve said, who are we to invite? Well invite everybody, because seriously there’s no shortage of tables at the wedding feast in this parable.
We had this list of things we are seeking God for and when you look at places on the list and on Wednesday night, we prayed for a building, who would like to be in a better building than this? Now quite a few of us have got a bit of a vision for a building and we started getting there, the starting point was, okay everybody, before we pray for a building, what are you going to do personally?
I felt God saying, what? Would you be able to give an extra five or six hours a day, or a week or whatever for the building? Because there is admin, there’s cleaning, there’s organising, there’s charity stuff, we’re going to be doing. Because, actually a building is not just about it looking nice. There are buildings like that, but that’s not the point, is it? If we are going to have a building, it’s so we can serve the community. To see souls saved, lives transformed, that takes a real resource.
On the other side of that is God doesn’t need your money, he doesn’t but He’s given you money and he might expect you to do something with it as far as the building is concerned. So when we’re looking at buildings, I asked everyone what are you going to do? If it’s part of our vision and it is something that you think actually needs to happen, what’s God put on your heart to do?
Purpose – that the earth be filled with the glory of the Lord. It was on Monday night and Graham said that, I thought, oh yeah!
Now I’ve got a list of four other things which we’ll have to park but I just wanted to say there’s a milestone. We’ve come out of a week of prayer and fasting and I’m thinking for the first time, that was great!
I’ve been around here a few years now and done a number of weeks of prayer and fasting over that time and I’ve come out and thought, that was good. This time, I’ve come out thinking, that was great! That was, God’s been on the move, God’s been dealing with us. We need more of this!
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