“If that were my wife, sir, I would have her in surgery right now and get that baby out of there as soon as possible.”

Those chilling words were followed by a flurry of frenetic activity. The on-call surgeon was paged. Nurses were summoned from their coffee break. Permission forms signed.

The anxious young mother was wheeled into the operating room with her nervous husband in tow.

It was a totally unexpected turn of events for the couple who had come in twelve hours earlier when her contractions were too close for comfort.

The labour had been proceeding quite smoothly until the intern decided she would speed up the process by breaking the water before heading home from the very last shift of her internship.

Everything started to go downhill from that point. The dilated cervix started to contract. The labour started to slow down.

Thankfully, since she had been a gestational diabetic, the mother was wearing a monitor. Nurses had offered her the option of having it removed after the first few hours. She had politely declined.

It turned out to be a divinely inspired decision. Without the monitor, no one would have noticed that the baby’s heart beat had been dropping steadily.

As it slowed down to 30 beats per minute, the attending ObGyn looked the father of the child in the eye and uttered the aforementioned words.

Doctors were not sure what was responsible for the low heart beat. Best guess? The umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby’s neck.

Within a matter of minutes, the C-section was in full swing. The nervous father took the best course of action that he probably could under the circumstances. He prayed fervently. And waited impatiently.

Pretty soon, he was treated to the sight of a baby boy being extricated from the womb. When he heard the baby’s cry, he too sobbed as hot tears of joy spelled relief for his tense nerves.

The attending pediatrician who checked out the baby thought he looked a bit blue. The baby’s colour turned healthy shortly after the doctor held an oxygen mask under his nostrils for a few minutes. And all was well with the world.

Meanwhile the tired mother was resting comfortably under the influence of the anaesthetic, totally oblivious to all the commotion.

On this eve of Mother’s Day 2013, we celebrate every woman for whom child birth did not proceed the way it was depicted in the prenatal class videos.

We tip our hats to every mother who did not experience the joy of seeing her newborn at the moment of birth.

We bless every woman who underwent the pain of surgery and the discomfort of post-partum recovery so that her child would gain healthy entry into this world.

We salute every mother who still wears the scar of a C-section as a proud badge of honour.

We praise our Father in heaven for being there for the Sam family at the Regina General Hospital on May 11, 1990 as Sulojana took the perilous path to motherhood.

We thank Dr. Bastien for his forthrightness, Dr. Cardoso for his surgical prowess, Dr. Gunawardene for the pediatric assessment and the masked crew for their able assistance.

Happy 23rd birthday, Sathiya Sam! Happy Mother’s Day, Sulojana Sam!

Darren Canning has been ministering at Forks Road East United Church for the past two days. It’s been a Holy Ghost blast!

Yesterday morning, he and I went to a gathering of Revival Leaders at Lakemount Worship Centre in Grimsby. On our way back, we got caught in a horrendous traffic jam.

Sadly, the reason for the slowdown was a serious accident that resulted in the loss of two precious lives.

We wanted to get off the highway and take a faster side road to get to our house. But where do we get off?

I’m from the area. Darren’s not. So the lot fell on me to make the decision. I picked Exit 55, Jordan Road.

For a few minutes, it looked as though we had made the right choice…until we realized that a number of other drivers had the same idea! Welcome to Traffic Jam #2!

“Fear not, dear Darren, I know this area. I know another road we can take. It will be a slightly longer route, but it will be a lot faster.”

Sure enough, we sped through the virtually empty street for a few minutes, but soon had to contend with another convoy of cars that had taken the same route and were now responsible for creating Traffic Jam #3.

I must admit that I was very impressed by Darren’s attitude through all this meandering madness my misguided directions.

He was very calm, even though Mother Nature kept calling and he was doing his utmost to give her a busy signal.

Finally, we, correction, Darren made the decision not to take any more detours. We would simply stick it out on the route we were taking right now, no matter how long it took us to get home.

We finally made it home nearly two hours after leaving Grimsby—a drive which under normal circumstances would have taken no more than 25 minutes.

At last night’s meeting, Darren recalled this incident with the dramatic flair of a raconteur extraordinaire, and then remarked:

“The quickest way through a traffic jam is to stay in it.”

As he pointed out, the real issue was not external–whether we could find a fast alternate route or not.

The critical factor was actually internal—whether we would have the peace inside of us to stick to Traffic Jam Numero Uno and eventually make it back home.

As mentioned earlier, Darren clearly had such peace inside. That is why he did not get rattled by the delay or the detours.

It reminded me of Jesus sleeping in the boat while the storm was tossing the boat and wreaking havoc. The disciples come to him and say: “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”

Jesus’ response is to simply get up, rebuke the wind and command the sea: “Peace! Be still!”

The reason he could sleep through the storm was because he had a deep abiding peace inside of him. All he had to do was release that peace to the sea. Calm restored. Case closed!

How would you handle an unexpected slowdown on your road to your destiny? Would you focus on the external and chase the fastest side routes?

Or would your internal peace help you to keep going, knowing that the quickest way through a traffic jam is to stay in it?.  

For a very long time in my life, I did not really see a need for signs, wonders and miracles. After all, giving your life to Jesus and continuing to trust God was all that really mattered! At least, that was my reasoning.

Yes, it was nice to see some miracles once in a while… no problem there! But, I did not expect them to happen on a regular basis.

All of that changed in a 3 month stretch between November 2005 and January 2006, beginning with a pastors’ meeting in Burlington where I met Steve Long, Senior Pastor of the Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship (now Catch the Fire Toronto).

Pastor Steve showed us from Scriptures how Jesus lived his life on earth exactly as we do, in every way a complete human being. He gave up “equality with God” (Philippians 2:5-8), stayed in intimate communion with the Father and relied totally on the Holy Spirit—just as we do.

He went on to say that if we live the way Jesus did, then we too MUST expect signs, wonders and miracles to happen in our lives. Wow! That was quite a revelation for me!

While I was still trying to process all of this, we started praying for one another. Right in front of my eyes, a pastor’s wife was healed of horrific back pain which had kept her captive for many years.

I began to realize the truth of what the apostle Peter said in Acts 10:38 about “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how He went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with Him.”

Two months later, at a Pastors and Leaders Conference in Toronto I witnessed many more signs, wonders and miracles. Verses that I had glossed over before had new meaning for me now:
“These signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons…they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” (Mark 16:17-18)

I also began to realize now why Jesus did not simply encourage his disciples to preach, but also to demonstrate the kingdom. “Proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.” (Matthew 10:7-8)

I was reminded of verses like this: “Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed His word by the signs that accompanied it.” (Mark 16:20)

Friends, the first and foremost reason we need to see signs, wonders and miracles is that by daring to step out in this arena, we are being obedient to our Lord and giving Him a chance to prove that His promises are true!

Isn’t that what happened to the apostles? “The Lord…confirmed the message of His grace by enabling them to do miraculous signs and wonders.” (Acts 14:3)

That is exactly what happened when I came back from the Conference and started to expect signs, wonders and miracles to happen in our church.

A dear sister who had been living with acid reflux for 38 years, yes, 38 years, was healed instantly the first time I ever stepped out in faith…praise God!

Since then, I have been privileged to see the Lord fulfill His promise by relieving hundreds of people from all sorts of pain and healing them of every imaginable condition, even HIV/AIDS!

Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8).

As you continue to expect signs, wonders and miracles, you too will experience the faithfulness of the Lord over and over again. Will you?

He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me. (2 Samuel 22:20)

Annoying would be a mild word to describe what I have been experiencing over the past few days of driving from home in St. Catharines to Wainfleet, where the churches I pastor are located.

Highway 406, the road which takes me more than half way toward my destination has been under construction lately.

At a certain point, two lanes are reduced to one. Depending on what time of day one is driving, this could translate into a short slowdown or a lengthy delay.

Either way it is an inconvenience. And it is not going to go away anytime soon.

You see, Hwy 406 was two lanes only up to a certain point. Now crews are working away to widen it to two lanes all the way.

So, we know that when all the work is completed, it will make the trip a lot faster than it is right now.

But, for now, we have no choice but to put up with the delays.

The highway of life on which we travel often takes us through these times of narrowing lanes, doesn’t it?

The narrowing could be a restriction brought about by changes in our health, work, business, finances, relationship, family, church, faith…(please feel free to add to the list!).

It puts a dent in our plans. We are delayed unexpectedly. And it can be very frustrating.

The enemy of our souls makes us feel as though we were hemmed in and slowed down forever.

Ministers such as Darren Canning and I who minister prophetically are often asked questions such as these by those who seek ministry:

“Why am I not advancing into my destiny as fast as I should? Why have the promises God made not come to pass yet? What is the reason for the delay?”

Of course, there is no pat answer to any of these questions. Sometimes the Lord tells us something. Sometimes He is silent.

In my own life though, I can think of several times when the highway narrowed from two lanes to one. It was as though I could not make progress even if I wanted to, because someone else was dictating how fast I could go. I could not simply speed by as I would had there been an extra lane.

Looking back, I now realize that there was a reason God wanted me to slow down, to get a more narrow focus on life, to put up with the extra stress.

He had to prepare me for the next phase which took me to life in two or more lanes once again.

But before He could take me to a “broad place”, He had to make me go through a “narrow space.”

He wanted me to learn what it means to depend more on Him for provision. He needed me to make more time to draw closer to Him and feel His heartbeat. He forced me to work on strengthening our marriage.

When David says in Psalm 23: “He makes me lie down in green pastures”, I am struck by the expression “makes me lie down.” It is as though David were saying that voluntarily we would not lie down and rest, so the Good Shepherd makes us lie down!

Can you relate? Perhaps you too are finding yourself impatiently enduring life in the lone lane…involuntarily!

Take heart!

God’s desire is to take you to a broad place. You may simply be experiencing the narrowing before the broadening.

The GPS (Global Positioning System) has become such an indispensable part of our lives these days that we wonder how we ever managed to get from one place to another without one all these years!

Last week, as Sulojana and I travelled late at night to a town we’d never been to before, I was so grateful for the GPS that provided me with directions there and back.

My appreciation was especially heartfelt after I made one wrong turn and had to rely entirely on the good graces of the GPS lady to get us back on the beaten path.

However, there is one thing about relying on a GPS that bothers me.

At any given time, you have no idea where you are as you would with an old-fashioned map or atlas.

Yes, the GPS tells you how far you are from your destination, how much time it would take you to get there, etc. But you don’t know how close you are to the next town, where you are with respect to a landmark, what else is in the vicinity, etc.

Of course, you could access all that information if you were able to search for it on the GPS.  But that is time-consuming.

In comparison, one glance at a map tells you all you need to know your position.  Now you can follow directions with a better perspective than before.

As I was reflecting upon this, the Lord pointed out how we too can travel on the road to our destiny in a similar way. Let me explain.

We can make our Christian life a matter of following directions given to us by another person without really knowing our position in Christ.

For example, we can develop a dependence upon others to tell us what to do next, where to go, where to turn, etc.  We could rely on a mentor, an author or a pastor or go about receiving one prophetic word after another for direction.

And, yes, following directions provided by others is nothing to sneeze at. It can indeed be a lifesaver and keep you on track.

The danger in relying on others all the time though is that we can lose the perspective that comes from knowing our position in Christ.

This perspective is something that only God can reveal to us, so that we know where we are in His plan at any given time.

Without this perspective, we will still get somewhere, but there is something we miss in the process.

It is something that we need to seek on our own. It is something that comes out of a deep, abiding relationship with our Father in heaven. It is something that the Holy Spirit reveals to us when we fix our eyes on Jesus.

This is why we stress taking the time to seek God to show us where we are on His map. Once we have that perspective, then following directions becomes more meaningful.

Do you know where you are on God’s map? Do you seek Him for this perspective on a regular basis? Please share your responses with the rest of your DWOD family.

30 plus years ago, at a chapel service at Queen’s Theological College in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, one of the students read the following passage out aloud as the Scripture reading for the day.

Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. (James 5:14-16)

Then she turned to us and said something like: “Well, friends, you heard what James said about healing. I am sure that everyone of us here needs healing in one aspect of our life or another—physical, emotional, mental or spiritual, right?”

Pause. Pregnant Pause.

She continued: “So, right now, I encourage you all to pair up and confess your sins to each other.”

If you thought the pregnant pause caused a hush to come over the gathered community, the silence that followed this call to action was deafening.

The looks on the worshippers’ faces were nothing short of bewildering. “Awkward” does not come close to describing what we were experiencing.

Of course, we were seminary students who wanted to honour the word of the Lord. And, yes, we all had one healing need or another. Even if we couldn’t identify one at that moment, we could be part of the process of healing for another. It made sense.

But, did we have to confess…like…right now? Under the watchful eyes of our worship leader and one another?

So, after what seemed like eternity, which was in reality, a few moments, there was the quiet shuffling of feet followed by quieter conversations.

To be perfectly honest, I do not remember what I or my prayer partner confessed. But, I didn’t have to. I got the message. We all got the message.

Most of us were quite familiar with the part about anointing with oil…but not the part about confessing.

It was only recently that I have come to recognize the significance of this crucial step.

Over the past two years, Sulojana and I have been blessed by “inner healing” ministry through two different models—Restoring the Foundations & Sozo—where prayer ministers helped us work with Holy Spirit as He revealed and healed wounds that had been inflicted upon our hearts.

Frankly, we have been amazed at the incredible freedom that has come to us as a result of these times of ministry.

Friends have often asked why we couldn’t have done this on our own—just between us and Holy Spirit. We have certainly done that in times past, but for some reason, the results never matched what we experienced at the end of these sessions.

Could it be because we were obeying the command of the Lord in James 5:16 to “confess our sins to each other and pray for each other so we may be healed?”

Perhaps corporate worship was not the most conducive setting for this to happen, but our worship leader at Queen’s did indeed hit the nail on the head, methinks.

No wonder that Alcoholics Anonymous includes the Fifth Step in which you simply confess every sin you have ever committed to another person in confidence.

How about you? Have you experienced the healing that comes from confessing your sins to another?

Please share your responses with the rest of your DWOD family

“Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)

There was a time when our vacations were so packed with frenetic activity that we would come back exhausted needing more time off to recuperate from the vacation!

We would make a mad dash from one “Top 10 attraction” to another, ensuring that all of them were included in our itinerary.

We have since wised up considerably and now take at least two consecutive days in a week of holidays to simply rest, relax, read, reflect and re-create, preferably beside a body of water. What a difference this makes when we return refreshed to face the demands of daily living!

Do we need to wait for an extended vacation to experience restful recreation? Of course not!

Jesus models a lifestyle that makes room for periods of rest on a more frequent basis.

In Luke 4:33-42, we see details of a day of ministry in Capernaum. He teaches in the synagogue, casts out an unclean spirit, heals Peter’s mother-in-law of her fever, and, that same evening, lays hands on everyone who was brought to him “sick with various diseases” and then drives out more demons.

I get tired just reading about how busy his day was!

But notice what he does following a few hours of sleep. “Jesus left and went to a secluded place.” The parallel passage in Mark 1:35 reads: “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”

It has been suggested by scholars that this description of Jesus’ disciplined departure to a deserted place was not just a one-time event that happened on that particular day only, but a daily detail in his Day-timer.

Whether he spent this time simply resting (as Luke implies) or in prayer (as Mark amplifies), it was something he valued so much as to make it an integral part of daily living.

Jesus wanted his first followers to learn this important aspect of ministry right off the bat. When they returned from a successful mission trip He said to them, “Come you yourselves apart into a desert place and rest a while.” (Mark 6:31)

Perhaps we should not be surprised at the value Jesus placed upon rest. He was simply reflecting his Father, who rested on the seventh day following the six days of Creation (Genesis 2:2) and commanded His people to rest on the Sabbath (Exodus 20:9).

In addition to incorporating periods of purposeful rest into our vacation schedule, Sulojana and I have been setting aside a block of time every day where we simply rest—sometimes with reflective music playing in the background (Soaking) or in total stillness.

What a difference this time of rest makes! We are more productive, more sensitive to the voice of God and more responsive to the needs of others, especially each other.

When one of us gets cranky with the other, we can usually trace it back to a lack of quiet rest in our Father’s arms.  There is an uncanny correlation between how well we retreat and how well we treat one another.

On the road to destiny, we would do well to make time for planned periods of rest and prayer as Jesus did.

For when we heed his call to “come apart”, we are less likely to fall apart!

Whoever learns from correction is wise. (Proverbs 15:5)

It was one of the wittiest presentations of the entire three day Conference. Designed to impress upon the delegates the need to establish a full-time Youth Worker position for the entire province, it succeeded beyond expectations in achieving its purpose.

As the speaker came off the stage to thunderous applause, he was greeted by a ministry colleague who was also a good friend and a classmate from seminary.

“Great speech!” he exclaimed. “I just had one question though…was it meant to draw more attention to the speaker or the subject?”

Frankly, I was insulted by the insinuation that it was a purposeful attempt to shine the spotlight on myself than the mission I had set out to accomplish.

I gave Keith an icy stare and left rather abruptly.

However, I could not simply ignore the gentle rebuke from my wiser friend.

As a matter of fact, it is something that I still remember 30 years later, every time I am tempted to get carried away with humour—be it in a sermon, speech or article.

Correction is not something any of us relish receiving…yet, it is a necessity on the road to achieving our destiny.

Earlier this month one of our DWOD’s focused on the need to have “many counsellors.” (Proverbs 24:6). One of the most valuable services our counsellors can offer us is correction.

Their hindsight can become our foresight as we avoid the pits into which they fell, thus saving ourselves time, money and energy in the process.

No wonder that the Bible stresses the importance of heeding correction, especially in the book of Proverbs.

Recently, I was reading the 15th chapter and ran into these wise sayings, all on the subject of correction.

Only a fool despises a parent’s discipline; whoever learns from correction is wise. (v. 5)
Whoever hates correction will die. (v. 10)
Mockers resent correction, so they avoid the wise. (v. 12)
If you listen to correction, you grow in understanding. (v. 32)

As you can tell, Solomon points out the benefits of receiving correction as well as the perils of resenting it.

His most severe warning is in Proverbs 29:1: Whoever remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed—without remedy.

When we see correction as one way that God uses others to advance us toward our destiny, we will not be insulted by it as I was then. Instead, we will be grateful for it.

Personally, I am thankful to God for all the people He has brought into my life over the past three decades, who have cared enough to correct me.

I would rather stand corrected than fall uncorrected!

How about you? Has God used others to bring correction to you? Please bless the rest of your DWOD family by sharing your experiences.

“But as for you, O man of God…pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.” (I Timothy 6:11)

The power of hearing God for others and delivering those words to others had just moved from being an interest to a passion for me in 2006.

That is why the opportunity to learn from one of the pre-eminent prophetic equippers of our time was simply too good to pass up.

Add to that the fact that he was not known for teaching outside of his own ministry framework…I just had to be at the Prophetic Equipping School at Catch the Fire, Toronto.

Then came the much-anticipated opening session.

As a newbie to prophetic ministry, I was expecting to hear quite a bit about how to develop and grow in the gift.

Much to my utter disappointment, his three hour talk had no reference whatsoever to a technique or a text that could even remotely be classified as a teaching on growing in the prophetic.

Instead, John Paul Jackson spoke passionately about why we needed to focus on developing our character above everything else.

He shared how he was once part of a group of 25 or so well-known prophets who had a reputation for being extremely accurate. They were in high demand all over the body of Christ.

Yet, at the time of speaking, two decades plus down the road, only 4 of them were still left standing.

What happened to the other 21?

Their gift was still intact, but their reputation was not. Most of them had fallen into one form of sin or another.

That is why he wanted those of us who were just getting started in prophetic ministry to get this truth seared into our spirits right off the bat.

“Focus on developing your character first and foremost. Keep it in the forefront at all times. It is the key to keep on growing in the prophetic.”

To be perfectly honest with you, I didn’t really get it that day.

Today, seven years later, I am beginning to appreciate the reason why John Paul Jackson took three hours to drill it into us.

Sad to say but over the years, we have indeed seen a number of high profile gifted men and women of God who moved mightily in supernatural gifts–be it healing, miracles or prophecy–fall from grace.

There was nothing wrong with their gifting (charisma in the strictest translation of the Greek word). Their downfall was directly related to the upkeep of their character…or lack thereof.

Your gifts will take you places, even within the Church. But the gifts of the spirit cannot be sustained for long on the tree of life without the fruit of the spirit. Therefore cultivate the soil of character.

This is why after a detailed discourse on the gifts (Charismata) in I Corinthians 12, the apostle Paul says:“I will show you a still more excellent way”and goes on to stress the importance of love (Character).

Yup, Character trumps Charisma.

May the Holy Spirit sear this truth into your spirit forever.

As Jesus was getting into the boat, the demon-delivered man begged to go along, but he wouldn’t let him. Jesus said, “Go home to your own people. Tell them your story—what the Master did, how he had mercy on you.” The man went back and began to preach in the Ten Towns area about what Jesus had done for him. He was the talk of the town. (Mark 5:18-20)

It was one of the most dramatic transformations recorded in the entire Bible. Here is how Mark describes the man’s life before his encounter with Jesus:
“This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.”

His life was at the mercy of the Legion of demons. Once Jesus had driven them all out, the people of the town found him “sitting there, dressed and in his right mind.”

If ever Jesus needed a testimony to open up his meetings and prepare his audience to expect more miracles…there it was! More precisely, there he was…begging for the privilege to travel with Jesus.

But Jesus tells him to be a Home-Based Missionary instead.

Can I be honest with you? The first time someone prophesied over me that I had a call to the nations, I was SOOOOOOO excited!

Now, as the Lord uses Sulojana and me to deliver a similar word to someone, often we sense that excitement in those to whom we minister as well!

Yes, it is indeed exhilarating to realize that God would deem us worthy of being sent to the nations.

It did not sound like a very glamorous prophetic word: “Go home to your own people. Tell them your story—what the Master did, how he had mercy on you.”

Yet, when he acted in obedience, everyone was amazed at what the Lord had done!

After all, they knew him before Jesus came on the scene. His testimony had the greatest impact on those who lived closest to home.

Those who knew us well before we met Jesus can tell the difference He has made in our lives better than anyone else, amen?

I still recall the change that our hometown witnessed when Mr. Singh, the town drunk, met Jesus and had his life turned right side up.

There was no better talking testimony to the transforming power of Jesus than this man who once used to stagger along the streets, now walking uprightly with the Lord.

Even his physical appearance changed completely as he gained weight. The sight of him walking to church with a Bible in his hand and his family in tow every Sunday spoke volumes to his non-Christian neighbours as well as lukewarm church members.

He was indeed “the talk of the town.”

How about you? You may not be called to travel to the nations of the world either. Most of us are not.

Let that not be a discouraging word, though. Instead, take heart!

You too can be an amazing home-based missionary!