And here is one more beautiful Christmas carol that my beautiful wife Ingrid has written. She also composed the music for it, but I had to tweak her melody a bit when I arranged it. The song is in a minor key and has a kind of Celtic lilt to it, I think. My recording can be found here on our SoundCloud stream, and yes, it would have sounded a lot better if a young woman had sung it instead of an old dude like myself ;-) Come And See Song ©2016 by Ingrid Tulloch Come and see that the Lord is good, come behold his face. Bend your knee to him, Christ the King, come behold his face. Jesus Christ, our living Lord, we behold your face. Jesus Christ, our living Lord, we behold your face. He will suffer and die for us: Come behold his face. Jesus, Savior, Emmanuel: Come behold his face. Jesus Christ, our living Lord, we behold your face. Jesus Christ, our living Lord, we behold your face. Alleluia, alleluia, we behold your face. Alleluia, alleluia, we behold your face. Merry Christmas to all from Mitch and Ingrid :-)
Here is another of Ingrid's wonderful Christmas carols. This one was inspired by the Germanic "Christkind" and celebrates the birth and coming kingdom of our Lord Jesus. The words go like this: Christ Child Holy ©2014 by Ingrid Tulloch Christ Child holy, Christ child pure, Christ the Son of God we adore. Born in a stable, born of a virgin, Born to reign and rule forevermore. Alleluia, alleluia, Immanuel we adore you! Alleluia, alleluia, Immanuel we adore you! You are holy, You are pure, You are the Son of God we adore. You were born to us, died and rose for us, You will reign and rule forevermore. Alleluia, alleluia, Immanuel we adore you! Alleluia, alleluia, Immanuel we adore you! You can listen to this song on SoundCloud . Once again, my guitar playing and singing aren't very good. Maybe I should just stick to playing keyboard? More info here . P.S. We tried translating her song into German but somehow we just couldn't seem to get the words to flow well. Contact us if you'd like to help us improve our translation. Thanks! Merry Christmas to one and all, great and small :-) —Mitch
Since it's just a few days until Christmas arrives, I thought it might be considered appropriate if I shamelessly plugged Ingrid's Christmas carols here on our website :-) Ingrid has written several beautiful Christmas carols which I've helped arrange to music and have recorded on SoundCloud. One of her earliest ones is actually an advent carol that celebrates how the angel announced God's favor to Mary and highlights how God shows similar favor towards us, His children. The full story behind how this carol came to be written can be found in chapter 4 of our book Simple Kingdom: Worship which you can read online or download as a free PDF. Here are the words to Ingrid's song: Favored By God ©2014 by Ingrid Tulloch Washed in his blood, changed by his Spirit, Cleansed thru his Word, we are favored by God. Filled with his love, sharing his mercy, Sent in his name, we are favored by God. Not for what we have done, but for what he has done for us, In the gift of his Son we are favored by God. Not for what we have done, but for what he has done for us, In the gift of his Son we are favored by God. My recording of the song on SoundCloud isn't very good. If you listen to it you'll notice that my guitar playing sucks and my voice wavers and gets creaky on the high notes. But hopefully you can still get a feel for the heart behind her song. Merry Christmas everybody! —Mitch
When my friend Martin Buehlmann handed over the leadership of the Vineyard churches in Germany, Austria and Switzerland to his son Marius, he urged Marius to remember three priorities that God had laid on his heart for the Vineyard: the Father's love for us, allowing freedom to the Holy Spirit, and Equipping the Saints as Wimber taught us. The Father's love has also been instrumental in my own Christian life and ministry, and I thought it might be helpful for some of you if I were to write a series of short posts on this important topic. Much has been written in recent years about the need, especially for men in our fatherless generation, to experience the love of God the Father. The subject of the Fatherhood of God has also been dealt with in books and videos from both theological and pastoral perspectives. My approach however is going to be different. Instead of presenting you with theology and practical advice, I'm simply going to share some stories about how I have *personally experienced* God as my Father and what impact these experiences have had on my life as a Christian. My stories will not be in any particular order — I'm not writing biography here, or an instruction manual like "Seven Steps to Experiencing God's Love." Instead they will simply be glimpses of key breakthroughs — and setbacks — in my lifelong journey of getting to know God as Father and experiencing the depths —and sometimes limitations — of his love for me, his child through Christ. My hope is that one or two of my stories will bring a new awareness of how you can experience the Father's love. And my prayer for those of you reading this — and especially for men — is that the Father will father you the way he has fathered me. I'll begin my series of posts shortly after Christmas. Ingrid will also be sharing some thoughts on this subject. In the meantime, be blessed and filled with the Father's love for you. —Mitch
This morning I was drawn back to a verse that has been foundational for me since I became a Christian: Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33 NIV) In the NIV and most modern English translations, the passage where this verse is found (6:25-34) has to do with worry and anxiety about the necessities of daily life (e.g. the NIV has "do not worry", the ESV has "do not be anxious" and so on). But I don't think that's what Jesus is getting at here. Worry and anxiety are associated with fear, but the underlying Greek word μεριμνάω isn't about not being afraid: it's about not being concerned with stuff that's really not that important. In other words, Jesus isn't saying "Don't be afraid that you won't have enough money to buy food and clothes if you follow me" but rather "Don't focus so much on trying to earn a living; God will take care of you if you follow me." In other words, Jesus is saying we should prioritize God's kingdom above our own concerns, pursuits and aspirations. How do we do this? We can start by asking God to give us eyes to see the opportunities he has arranged for us today to do the stuff: heal the sick, drive out demons, proclaim the good news, help the poor. God has prepared these works — Wimber called them divine appointments — in advance for us (see Ephesians 2:10). Unfortunately we often miss seeing them or don't have the courage to seize the moment and act upon them. So we should pray for courage too. The early disciples did (Acts 4:29) and look what happened. Be blessed and strengthened. —Mitch
Hello everyone! We've redesigned our website to make it simpler to navigate and have added a blog so we can post fresh content more often. Our blog posts will include healing stories, personal testimonies, thought-provoking articles, and links to new worship songs we've recorded on SoundCloud . We also migrated the healing stories we had previously published on our site into our blog. Feel free to contact us at info@buildplant.org if you have questions or comments about anything on our site. --Mitch
The story of the healing of the centurion's servant in chapter 8 of the Gospel of Matthew concludes in verse 13 like this: And to the centurion Jesus said, "Go; let it be done for you as you have believed." And the servant was healed at that very moment. The ESV translates this poorly here, as the Greek actually says "And the servant was healed in that hour" (καὶ ἰάθη ὁ παῖς ἐν τῇ ὥρᾳ ἐκείνῃ). This suggests that the healing happened over a short interval of time, but not instantaneously. Examples of progressive healing (where healing progresses over a period of time) can be found in several other stories involving Jesus. See for example Mark 5:1-20 (especially verse 8) and of course Mark 8:22-26 which is the most well-known example. Ingrid and I have ministered healing in progressive fashion to a number of people over the years. And also to each other! Here are two recent examples which, to me anyways, helps clarify the nature of the faith that's involved in such praying for healing. Healing a rash Not long ago I began to see an rash on my right upper thigh. Thinking it might be jock itch, I applied an anti-fungal ointment that I had used with success in the past. I kept applying this for a week, but the rash began to spread further down my thigh. Worried this might be a recurrence of a severe case of poison ivy that I had experienced about five years ago (I thought this could be the cause as I had done a little yard work a few days before the rash appeared) I tried applying cortisone cream several times a day to try and reduce the redness and relieve the itch. But the rash continued to spread. Soon it became uncomfortably itchy and small bumps appeared. This worried me as I thought it might be a recurrence of hives, something which has plagued me from time to time since my teenage years. In the past they had occasionally gotten so bad that my doctor had to put me on prednisone, but my doctor had recently retired and I've been unable to find a new one I've felt confident about. So I began taking Reactine which has been my standard way of treating episodes of hives. But the rash kept spreading further until it appeared under my knee and on the back of my calf. Now I was getting worried. Sensing my worry, Ingrid said "Let me pray for it." She laid her hands on my leg and prayed, first in words asking the Lord to heal the rash and then in tongues. Then she said, "I rebuke fear in Jesus' name." Suddenly I thought, "That's it, I'm afraid. Fear is the Enemy's tool, and he uses it to destroy. I won't let him use his fear against me." And I started to relax. I felt confident that, without fear oppressing me, we would get to the bottom of this problem and it would be healed and go away. And the next day, the rash began to fade. A week later there was no more burning sensation, though the skin where it had been was still somewhat red. Then I gradually weaned myself off Reactine over a two-week period. (They say its formula is non-drowsy, but it does have negative effects on your emotions, or at least on mine anyways.) Several months have now elapsed since Ingrid prayed for me, and the skin on my right thigh still looks slightly darker than on my left thigh, but they say that fungal infections (which it may have been) can lead to permanent changes in skin color. But I'm healed. Healing a swollen ankle More recently, Ingrid noticed that her left ankle had become swollen. We tried to figure out why. Could it be several days of gorging on pastries at a German bakery we had discovered recently? Maybe too much sugar triggered something with her blood sugar. And the left side of your body is connected with the heart, right? We weren't sure however what the cause was, but we were getting quite concerned as the swelling didn't go down as the days passed. So one morning I said, "Let me pray for it." Clutching her ankle with both my hands, I prayed "Swelling be healed in Jesus name." But nothing seemed to happen. Then I rose to put my hands on her chest and back, but she said "It's not my heart." She went back downstairs, and I thought, "Well, I guess I didn't have enough faith to see instantaneous healing happen, but I think I do have enough faith (maybe a third of a mustard seed) to believe that her swelling can be healed progressively. The next morning Ingrid came and found me upstairs in my study and said, "Look, the swelling is less." I looked at her ankle, but it still seemed somewhat swollen to me. "No, it's definitely less." OK, we'll wait and see. And the next day it definitely did look like there was less swelling. And a week later, both her ankles look exactly the same as far as I can tell. And we've laid off eating sweets for a while :-) [NOTE: This article was previously published on our site six months ago in early June 2024 and since then her ankle has had no swelling. --Mitch] Conclusion The lesson here, as I see it, is that as Jesus says in Matthew 8:13, healing happens "as you have believed." That is, the degree of healing power God gives us can depend on the level of faith we have that God is going to heal. So even if you don't have faith to believe that the person you're praying for will be healed instantaneously, you may have enough faith to believe that some degree of improvement will happen in the person's condition. That's all it takes to see someone (or even yourself) healed when you pray for them to be healed. Just a smidgen of faith, along with the patience to see it realized over time. Be blessed, and be healed. --Mitch
While Ingrid and I have had some measure of success in learning how to effectively heal the sick, we've found that the hardest person to minister healing to is often ourselves. Here's a recent story that illustrates this, and how an integrated approach that combines faith, medical knowledge and the Holy Spirit can effectively result in the person's condition being healed. For several months I had been experiencing high-pitched pulsating tinnitus. Repeated attempts at praying for my condition resulted in no improvement. Then about a month ago my right ear started blocking up at night. I assumed it was wax buildup, but when I used a flashlight and combination of mirrors to look into my ear canal, I couldn't see much wax. So I assumed it was an impaction where the wax goes deep into the ear canal right up against the eardrum. I've had this problem before a few times in my life and had to have my ears irrigated by my doctor. Unfortunately our doctor retired recently and we haven't been able to find another we've felt confident with. Our health care system here in Canada has deteriorated in recent years, and our province Manitoba has the poorest healthcare in the country. Just like with any other profession, good doctors (skilled in medicine and having a good heart) are usually hard to come by. This was true during Biblical times (see Mark 5:26) and Paul could be considered blessed that he had a good one accompanying him (Colossians 4:14). So I decided to try performing ear irrigation on myself. I should mention at this point by way of disclaimer that I am not trying to offer any kind of medical advice here, I'm simply relating a personal story. I began by searching for how-to articles about this online, and just as good doctors can be hard to find, good information concerning medical procedures is also difficult to find. There's so much poor, and even bad, medical advice on the Internet. Fortunately I finally came across this article whose target audience is medical professionals, and having a science background myself (Physics) I felt the advice in the article was trustworthy. Then together with Ingrid we reviewed a number of online videos about earwax removal, and after weeding out a lot of junk we came across this video that has helpful information on preparing your ears for irrigation. I bought some mineral oil and a 60 ml plastic syringe with a 16 gauge catheter attached from Amazon. Then after using the oil to soften the wax and with Ingrid's help, I tried to flush the impacted wax out of my ear. No wax seemed to be expelled, but for a few moments I could hear Ingrid's voice very loud and clear. After trying several more attempts, we decided to stop and pray for awhile. Remembering how Jesus put his fingers into the ears of the deaf man (Mark 7:33) Ingrid decided to try this as she prayed, but nothing seemed to happen, so we decided to try again tomorrow. The next day turned out to be a busy one, so I decided to wait another day before trying again. But that evening Ingrid said, "Let me pray for you again." So she put her fingers into my ears and then suddenly burst out with these words: "Open up! Open up! Let the living waters flow!" I recognized that this was a word of knowledge she had received from the Holy Spirit. Many years ago at the very first Vineyard conference we attended, Ingrid received a gift (or anointing) for healing during ministry time. Her words caused faith to rise up in me, but no healing occurred at that time. The next morning I put a good amount of mineral oil into my ear and left it there for 15 minutes to try to really soften up the wax. Then we went into the bathroom again and I tried flushing out the wax. After half a dozen attempts a tiny bit of wax was expelled, but unfortunately now my ear was completely blocked and I couldn't hear a thing! Argh, I thought, I've probably just pushed the softened wax deeper right up against the eardrum. That afternoon, discouraged and half-deaf, I began searching online for otolaryngologists in Winnipeg. After doing this for awhile, I decided to review some of the promises God had given us in the Psalms over the years. As I was reading a Psalm however, some words Jesus spoke to Jarius in Luke 8:50 suddenly came to mind: "Do not fear, only believe." The story of the healing of Jairus’s daughter in Luke 8:40-56 is a good example of what can happen when we start to pray for someone sick: instead of things improving, things suddenly get worse! I realized from these words that the Holy Spirit was encouraging me to continue the treatment I was doing, so after supper I went to the bathroom, carefully put the catheter end of the syringe into my ear in the direction specified in the NIH article linked to above, and began applying moderate pressure to the syringe to squirt a steady flow of body-temperature water at moderate pressure. I looked into the mirror after this and saw a huge gob of brownish-black gunk hanging from the edge of my ear canal. "IIIINNNGRID come and see what happened, the wax came out!" I shouted up the stairwell. Ingrid rushed down and we stared at the gunk after removing it with a kleenex. "Hooray, thank you Lord!" we said excitedly. Using mirrors and a flashlight, I then saw that there was still more brownish-black gunk in my ear canal, so we decided to irrigate a second time and an equally hideous lump of gunk came out of my ear. And suddenly I could hear everything LOUD AND CLEAR. We used mirrors to look one more time into my ear canal and no more wax was visible. Since then, my hearing has been perfect, and my tinnitus has much subsided. The lesson here is that our goal in healing the sick, which is to bring glory to God by extending his mercy to others (and also to ourselves) doesn't depend on the manner in which it's done. It's quite OK, and Biblical, to use a combination of faith, medical knowledge, and expressions of the power of God. Be blessed, and be healed :-) --Mitch
