'My times are in Your hand ... How great is Your goodness, which You have laid up for those who fear You.' (Psalm 31:15, 19)

Time is very important to God. From the beginning, in Genesis 1:14, the days and seasons were created as signs and tokens of God's provident care (AMP). If you and I knew the times He has scheduled, we would not doubt His Word, we would move forward in faith believing that He is able to save, heal and deliver.

God has always had a clear plan and strategy in everything He does. From creation to salvation, nothing has happened in heaven or earth without the foreknowledge of God. God is always seeing the future. When you were still a sinner, God saw something in you He wanted. Sometimes it takes a long time for Him to fashion you into the person He needs you to be. - With Moses it took eighty years to form the real man that He could use to do the job! God is the potter, we are the clay; our responsibility is to remain pliable to His moulding. If only you knew what God sees in you, if you could see yourself as He sees you, not as you see yourself! What a difference it would make in your life if you would recognise your potential with God! As an evangelist, I know that when God looks at sinners, He doesn't just see alcoholics, drugs addicts, the hopeless broken lives; what He sees is the potential, what they can be when He touches them!

When God deals with you, He does something unique. So often we want what other people have. Don't copy other people. In my relationship with God, I have never wanted what somebody else has. I want what is in His Word, what God has for me personally! The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:14-27 writes that just as the body has many parts, so God has placed each of us just where He pleases; if we were all an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? God has placed us all together as Christ's body, and each of us, with our differences, is an important part of it.

In Deuteronomy 4:27 Moses encourages the people, 'If from where you are you will seek the Lord your God, you will find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart.' In the midst of every distress, fear, want, even sickness - whatever situation you are in - there you will find God. So often we are told that if you want to find God, you've got to be 'holy', to give up something, separate yourself, shut yourself up like in a monastery. No, the reality is that spirituality is not isolating yourself, not trying to be some kind of 'holy' person - it's you dealing with God right where you are. If you want to meet with God, you don't have to wait until you have done this or that. I would never have become an evangelist, never have seen a miracle of healing, if God had waited until I was perfect before He answered my prayers. I call on God; He deals with me where I am.

The Apostle Paul, writing to the Romans (5:8) said: 'God demonstrated He own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.' You don't need to clean yourself up before you can be forgiven, Jesus has already forgiven you. All you need to do is accept the free gift of salvation. When Jesus called Zacchaeus, the notorious tax collector, Zacchaeus hadn't repented, he was just curious to see 'who Jesus was'; but Jesus looked at him and said: 'today I must stay at your house' (Luke 19:3-5, NKJV). Seek God from where you are and He will find you.

'Where there is no vision, the people perish.' (Proverbs 29:18, KJV)

When Moses sent out the twelve spies to view the Promised Land they all saw the same thing: A land flowing with milk and honey, with corn and grapes. They also all saw the walled cities and the giants. The difference was in the reaction. For ten, their fear of the giants and walled cities dimmed their vision: 'We cannot do it, it is impossible, we will be overcome'. Only two, seeing the same thing, recognised the power and authority of God so that their vision of God's power and ability blotted out their fear: 'In His Name and by His power nothing is impossible; we shall overcome'.

It is just the same today. If we really knew our God, and had a vision of His ability, we would attempt the impossible and take the Land. It is only this kind of vision, which obeys in faith, that will conquer every obstacle and win every battle. The problem today is that the vision of too many people is obscured by the problems they face, instead, we need to be like Jesus who: 'For the joy set before Him endured the cross' (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus had His vision fixed on the prize, you and me. When your eyes are upon Jesus, you'll overcome every problem and climb the highest mountains. Ephesians 3:20 says that God is able to do infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes or dreams.

Three thousand years ago the Jewish Temple was the very Presence of God on earth, the evidence of God to the world - it was to be a demonstration to the world of the power and the glory of God. Today, we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit, God lives in us; our lives are the very evidence and demonstration of the wonder and glory of God. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says that Jesus bought us at a price; we are now the very sanctuary in which God dwells. - Because God lives in us, He is with us wherever we go; there is no need to fear.

You don't have to search for a holy place to receive your miracle, nor do you need to receive something extra to what you already have in Christ. The Apostle Paul taught that the very same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of each of us (Romans 8:11). You cannot receive any greater power than the power that came to live inside of you when you first believed. There is only one Holy Spirit, and He lives in you! Jesus said in John 4:21-23, that the time has come when true worshippers shall find and worship the Father, not in a supposed 'holy' place, but in spirit and truth. You don't need to meet with God in a church or any special location, why? Jesus said: 'God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth' (John 4:24). The wonder of salvation is, we are all the 'Holy of Holies' - the most beautiful, precious and wonderful place on earth!

'The Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.' (Exodus 33:11, NKJV)

God wants us to walk and talk with Him as we would a friend. From the very beginning with Adam in Genesis, God desired this relationship with us. He wants to reveal His plans and purposes for your life. You may say, 'How can I know what He wants? I keep asking Him, but I don't get any answers.' But with a married couple, the wife doesn't ask the husband every day, 'What do you want?' If there is a right relationship between them, the wife knows what the husband wants, and the husband knows what pleases his wife. You begin to think alike, you want the same things, you do the same things, you go to the same places. When you know God, when you have a close relationship with Him, you don't have to be always asking, 'O God, what do You want? Do I do this or that?' If you have the Holy Spirit within you, you will know the mind and the will of God. When you really know Him, when you live with Him, when you walk every day in the Spirit, you know what God wants. You may ask, 'How can I know Him?' We know Him through the Bible. Just as a couple treasure each other's love letters, we need to treasure the Bible - it is literally God's love letter to us.

Jesus said in John 15:15 that He calls us His friends, 'for everything I learned from My Father, I have made known to you'. Let Him reveal His character to you through His Word. Start with the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John - read the books of Psalms and Proverbs - read the book of James, and allow God's Word refresh, strengthen and renew you. 'Don't copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect His will really is' (Romans 12:2, NLT).

'As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?' (Psalm 42:1-2, NKJV)

Whilst ministering in Chita, Siberia, 1994, the pastor collected me from where I was staying. As we drove down the avenue leading to the stadium, we passed two long columns of soldiers in uniform, marching two by two, military fashion, in the same direction. A civilian and an officer were leading them. I commented how wonderful it would be if they were heading for the meeting. Shortly after our arrival, there was a sudden stir in the crowd, people began turning to look, and then burst out clapping! Imagine my joy - the entire formation was winding into the stadium and filling up one complete section of seats. There must have been more than 300 soldiers. We learned afterwards that they had been brought in by their captain who had given his life to the Lord at the Friday night meeting.

The most thrilling thing was when I made the appeal for Christ, every soldier came forward for salvation, including others who were scattered among the rest of the crowd. But please don't think they came forward out of a sense of duty. Our cameraman filmed them reaching out to get their New Testaments. He commented afterwards that never had he seen any as hungry for the Word of God as these men were.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God has planted eternity into the heart of man. I remember some years ago an officer in the Russian army told me that in the last War, when the fighting was very dangerous, although the soldiers didn't believe in God, when they thought they were going to die, the soldiers were the first to pray. Many people fill this 'God' void with drink, drugs and all other kinds of destructive behaviour, but Jesus came to satisfy this thirst. In John 4:7-39, Jesus was speaking to a woman who had searched for fulfilment through the relationships she chose. In each case, the relationship failed because only Jesus could satisfy her thirst. Jesus said to her (v13-14): "Anyone who drinks of this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water that I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them."

'Take the old prophets as your mentors. They put up with anything, went through everything, and never once quit, all the time honouring God. What a gift life is to those who stay the course! You've heard, of course, of Job's staying power, and you know how God brought it all together for him at the end. That's because God cares, cares right down to the last detail.' (James 5:10-11, The Message)

It is one thing to dream, but it is the reality which counts. Too many people dream, but not many actually do anything to make it happen. God so impressed on me over the years the importance of never making a statement unless I intended to carry it out. This was one of the reasons behind all my adventures in those early expeditions to Jerusalem in the early 1960s. I had made a declaration while holding a crusade in Northern Ireland in 1959 that I would go overland to Jerusalem, to attend a World Conference being held there in 1961. Because I made this confession publicly, God enabled me to fulfil it. Yet the hunger in my heart which had been the reason for going to Jerusalem all those years ago, is still my underlying motivation today.

The reason I wanted to be in Jerusalem in 1961 was that there was to be held that year, the first World Pentecostal Conference in Jerusalem, on the day of Pentecost. I had a hunger for the reality of the power of God. If only I could be there on that day. But I had no money for the airfare. So, looking at a map of the world, it occurred to me that it is nearly all road between the UK and Israel. I could go by car. And that is just what I did. But although God was to use this to open the door into so many miracles and confirm my call to Eastern Europe and Russia, the conference itself was such a disappointment. Unwilling to accept this disillusionment, I began a life-long search for the fulfilment of this dream of seeing all that God had promised in His Word. This search has ultimately lead to the ministry we are holding this year in Israel, Holland and Poland. In the intervening 50 years, between that original trip to Israel and today, God has led me and taught me perseverance. Yes, it has been difficult at times, especially through my cancers and imprisonment, but God has planned every last detail for good.

'Just as you trusted Christ to save you, trust Him, too, for each day's problems; live in vital union with Him.' (Colossians 2:6, Living Bible)

In Siberia, in the Far East of Russia, they were taught under communism that there is no God, that He is dead. In one of my meetings I said:

I want you to know how much God loves you, and that He is concerned about the value of the human soul. Some people say Stalin killed as many as 100 million people, most of them died in Siberia. The fact is, if Stalin, from the moment of his birth, had begun to write down the name of every individual who was to die under his regime, he would not have completed that list by the day he died. Under a system like that, people as individuals don't count. But I want to tell you about a loving heavenly Father who puts such a tremendous value on a human soul that He was willing to let His own Son die just for you. This is the greatest revelation of all time, that God could love with such feeling and emotion that He would send His Son to set you free from sickness, sin and death, and give you a freedom you've never understood. To know Christ is the only way to life.

I want to tell you about a lovely 15 year old Russian girl called Marsha who had given her life to Christ in Siberia. She said to me, "We've all done so much wrong. How is it possible that God loves us so much?" I wish I could answer this question. How CAN He love us that much? I don't know the answer, how or why - but I know He does love us. He IS concerned about us - He knows us, where we are, what we're doing, He cares for us.

One reason why I evangelise is because I know how much God loves me. To have God as a Father, to know the real love of God in my heart and life, to know He loves me enough to forgive every sin and heal every sickness - to have this relationship with God is so wonderful, and I want YOU to have a relationship like this. God will forgive all your mistakes, solve all your problems, heal all your sicknesses - there is no limit to what God will do to demonstrate His love for you. As the Scripture says: Just as you trust God to save you, trust Him too with each day's problems. It doesn't matter who you are or what you have done - those that call upon Him shall be saved, healed and restored. The Song of Solomon tenderly describes the relationship we have with God by saying, I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine. Ephesians simply says: We have been freely accepted in the Beloved (1:6).

'Without faith is it impossible to please God...' (Hebrews 11:6, KJV)

Do you want to live a life that pleases God? Then you need faith. We are all given a measure of faith, but it is up to us to develop it (Romans 12:3 & 10:17). But there is also a faith which comes as a gift from God. Of all the gifts of God, to me, faith is the greatest - it's the key to the 'normal' Christian life. There are nine gifts, which you only receive after you have been baptised in the Holy Spirit: three vocal gifts - speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, and prophecy; three intellectual gifts - the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom, and the discerning of spirits; and three practical gifts - healing, working of miracles, and the gift of faith (1 Corinthians 12). These are the normal everyday gifts of the Holy Spirit to the believer. By the same power with which you speak in tongues, you also heal the sick and work miracles! Paul asks, 'Does everybody work miracles?' What a challenge! Does every church work miracles? When did you last see a miracle?

Do you have the gift of faith? This is not an intellectual gift. Faith is nothing to do with your education or with what you think - it's what you do. Faith is action. Hebrews 11:1 describes faith as substance and evidence, something solid and dependable - it is the rock you build your life upon; without it, you build your life upon sinking sand. Storms will come and batter your life, but faith will stand strong. Faith is the most practical gift God can give.

Paul says we should 'earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal... And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love' (1 Corinthians 12:31; 13:1, 13, NKJV). All the other gifts of God will vanish away, but faith and hope working through love should be our highest goal (1 Corinthians 13:8; 14:1).

As the train disappeared from view, we found ourselves, bodies, bags and baggage standing sleepily by the side of the track in pouring rain. Dawn was just breaking. Some of us had found coats to protect against the weather, others had still got theirs packed into the luggage. It was hardly time to start searching through suitcases, because my translator, Svieta, said that we had to hurry to catch the only bus which would meet the train and take us from this absolute wilderness to the civilisation of the nearby Siberian town.

"What bus?" I wearily asked Svieta, who seemed to be the only person not asleep, but yet she was not really awake! Wordlessly she pointed to the vehicle which was now vanishing into the distance. "That was the only one, there won't be another until the next train arrives." The thought of spending the next five or more hours standing in the rain with thirteen members of my team, no food or drink, and no shelter from the heavy rain, was not my idea of evangelising Siberia!

Rather desperately and somewhat selfishly I began to pray out loud, "God help me and deliver me from this!" Within minutes a small Lada Niva, a four seater car appeared down the road and stopped in front of me. I hastily pushed two of the older ladies and Svieta into it, and then started looking to see who else should go, when I suddenly woke up and remembered that I was supposed to be the evangelist - and after all, it was my prayer for deliverance that had brought this car! We never did discover why the driver came to the train station at that time of the morning - but to me, he was a miracle!

In Mark 6:48, Jesus, having seen from a distance that the disciples where troubled and tormented on the sea, walked on the water towards them to work a miracle. It doesn't matter where you are, you can be at the furthest point on earth - or descended into the depths of darkness, you are not so far away that Jesus can't find you and calm the storm; Psalm 139 says that we can never be lost from God.