Some years ago I was invited to speak at a conference. The theme was how we can know God, how we can come into His presence. Most of the speakers were saying you need to have holiness, quietness and peace. I caused some revolution because I began preaching from Deuteronomy 4:29: 'If from where you are, you shall seek the Lord your God, you shall find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart and all your soul.' You will find God if you search for Him from just where you are! When you are in tribulation, when all the problems of life have come on you!

When everything's going well, when you're not sick, when you have no financial problems - you don't call upon God as much. But when you are in difficulty, when you're sick - that's when you begin to call on God more intensely. I have had long years of experience with God and I know personally that I learned more about prayer when I had cancer, when I was in prison, when I had financial problems, than at any other time! Prayer becomes more urgent when there is no other way - no alternative. When I had both experiences of cancer there were two ways - an operation or a miracle! I chose to go the hard way of asking and believing for a miracle - but this meant total commitment - not accepting 'no'. When I was in the prison, there were two alternatives: either accept the inevitability of five-to-ten years incarceration or 'barnstorm' Heaven until I got out! That's not holiness, it's just following the prayer principles Jesus laid down for desperate widows and people like me! - Luke 18:1-8.

I don't see the powerful miracles and life-changing conversions in my ministry because I am more 'holy' or 'better' than you, but only because I am desperate to see God's power and call upon the person of the Holy Spirit to help - 'from where I am!' I want to encourage you: the people who are healed and converted are not the righteous or the 'holy', but the sinners, the poor, the needy, the desperate! You don't have to be 'holy' to find God, you find Him when you need Him!