Rolling with the Pentecostals. And Listening to Heidi Baker at River Camp

Englishness and Pentecostalism: Can you think of more antithetical things?

So watching the English version of Pentecostalism or Charismatic-ness always amuses me. It’s like the watching the English morph into Americans--or Nigerians.

I am spending six days at the Pentecostal River Camp in Gloucestershire. Actually, I should use the future conditional tense for the noise level is unbelievable, and I might not last out the whole six days. (I am a bit of a contemplative, and experience God best in quietness and silence!)

Of course, it takes but a sentence from the Lord to transform one’s life and its direction, so that’s okay. It takes but a sentence to help you see yourself clearly, to convict you, bring you to repentance, and to change your heart. I will stay as long as it feels right (hopefully, until I hear God speak to me) and then leave for home, leaving the rest of the family here if they want to stay.

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I came to RiverCamp with some Brennan Manning and John Eldredge books to listen to on my iPod as I walked by the river.

Well, it turns out that the River in River Camp is metaphorical. Duh! It, in fact, describes my favourite river in the world, the river which flows from the sanctuary in Ezekiel 47 1-12. Googling my own blog, I see I’ve written about it repeatedly. Where this water flows, the salty turns sweet. Trees on the banks of this river bear fruit every month. The fruit is good for food and the leaves for healing.

Some conferences keep the “best act” for last to induce people to stick it out. To their credit, and thank goodness, River Camp did not do this, but put the bouncy Heidi Baker on first.

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Heidi is 52, but has the figure and bounce and personality of a very ebullient teenager. She tells stories with absolute child-like delight, and literally jumps up and down with excitement as she tells them!!

Her life is her sermon—and this is true of very few people. She has lived with such close obedience to Christ, and that she goes on stage and tells stories of her life, and this is more powerful than any theological sermon.

I have heard her thrice before, twice in Oxford, and once at New Wine in Somerset, but always gain new things from her stories. Well, she explains it this way—you may have been pregnant before, but when it comes time to push, you feel something!!

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Heidi was severely dyslexic until the age of 16, could barely read or spell. After prayer for healing, she was healed completely of dyslexia and went on to get a Bachelor’s, Masters and even a Ph.D in Systematic Theology, for heaven’s sake, from Kings’ College, London.

I love that story. The molecules in the brain can be healed just as much as the molecules in the body, the dyslexic receiving a Ph.D, just as later, her husband, Rolland Baker, who had advanced dementia, was miraculously healed.

I washealed from a long, long burn-out which severely affected my reading speed, and ability to concentrate for long hours after humbling myself by requesting prayer in a healing service at church in April 2010. The week I started blogging!! Without that complete healing, which restored my ability to read, write and concentrate for long hours, after a severe intellectual burn-out and intermittent depression which had lasted for over 20 years, I doubt I would have been able to blog successfully!!

Remember how Naaman was told to wash in the River Jordan (2 Kings 5).  Sometimes, healing or the spiritual gift you seek comes because you humble yourself and take the time to go and ask for it.

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One reason I find Heidi Baker inspiring is that  she makes following Christ sound joyful and easy. Listen, hang in there, press in, pray constantly, obey. She snorkels outside her home in Mozambique. She goes knee-deep, then waist-deep, then puts her face in, kicks her legs out, lets go, and looks into an amazing new world.

Stepping into the Kingdom is like snorkelling, she said. Leave, go deep, deeper still, and look at your world, a new world, with the eyes of faith.

I have pages of notes from her two talks, and will write up another post on them.

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Here’s a last story. When Heidi was 18, a Christian preacher came to her college, and said that God gave him a city. She sat in front, smiling, nodding, and thinking, “What a jerk!! Gave him a city!! As if God would give him a city.”

And she said she saw a vision of angel, pointing at the man, saying, “He’s telling the truth. Listen to him.”

And she collapsed saying, “Then give me a nation.” She asked for the poorest, most desperate nation on earth, which was Mozambique.

She is building a university there, and has seen some of the abandoned children she has educated become professors, journalists, architects, doctors, nurses and preachers.

(I would love to go to Mozambique and see her work in action. I who find River Camp, Gloucestershire a tad crowded, and noisy!! Let’s see how the Spirit leads.)

Anyway, lesson: Just because we’ve never heard of such a thing as being given a city by God doesn’t mean it’s not true. In fact, that could even be a reason for it being true.

Just because we have never seen an angel (I haven’t, though I experienced angelic protection and deliverance numerous times) doesn’t mean no one does.

When we lived in Manchester where Roy as a Distinguished Visiting Professor, we went to another healing meeting, for the same burn-out I mentioned. The speaker, an American, kept pointing to corners of the room, saying, “There’s a large female angel there, over you in pink.” “And, you, sir,” pointing to a mild, inoffensive Englishmen, “God is doing something in you. I see angels around you.” The man turned around startled; so did I. Didn’t see any angels. I didn't, at least.

“He believes in angels,” I sang to the tune of the Abba song, “I have a Dream,” soto voce to my daughter, Zoe, 10, each time he saw another angel. “Ssssh, mum,” Zoe whispered. Apparently, she had been brought up to believe one should behave oneself in church!!

I later realised how stupid I was being. Just because I’ve never seen an angel does not mean that speaker did not see one. Or the controversial Todd Bentley who says he sees an angel called Emma scattering gold dust. Yes, really. (He really says so, I mean.)

There are more things in heaven and earth, than you dream of, Anita!