The remarkable true life story of Peter Newman (Part 18)

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"I Am Just About to Shoot You"

I have continued travelling and going wherever the Holy Spirit leads me. I have always found it a trying experience, to be led by the Spirit. As soon as I am bidden to go I immediately find a dozen reasons why I can't. I think, "Where's the money coming from? Will any one turn up when I get there? It's your own imagination." I hear voices shouting the odds against my going. Then finally Satan will start at me. That gets me going quicker than anything. That's when unbelief and fear fly out of the window. If the father of lies, the great deceiver, tells me not to go, then that's the time to go.

When I arrive at places, unexpected and uninvited, it does my soul good to hear the words, "Brother, the Lord has sent you."

One of the things I have begun to notice is that my ministry is changing and I am being directed more into the ministry of prophetic utterance.

This really made me nervous at first. Had I not been warned to beware of false prophets? And I, too, had warned people. Yet here was I proclaiming to many people things that for the life of me I did not understand myself. I will share just one event so that you may understand my feelings about this new ministry.

I was in a large meeting and after having preached and prayed for a number of people I was approached by a young woman who was quite agitated. In her distress she poured out her story. Her husband was in prison and was taking out papers to seek a divorce on the grounds that they couldn't have any children, because she had taken drugs.

As I was praying for her I heard myself saying, "This time next year you will have a baby boy."

Someone shouted out, "Praise the Lord", but all I could think about was how to get out of the church as quickly as possible.

Eighteen months later I was back in the church. I had forgotten about the previous incident. If I had remembered I don't think that I would have accepted the invitation without making a few discreet enquiries first.

After the meeting was over, I was approached by the same young lady. I must confess that I panicked when I heard her saying, "You said that I would have a baby boy in twelve months."

"Lord I've had it now," was my immediate thought.

But she continued, "I couldn't bring him tonight: he's too young. My husband came out of prison and got saved. Six months ago we had a baby boy and we've called him Joshua."

I heard a loud voice say, "Praise the Lord." It was mine. In a meeting in England the words came loud and clear: "Brother Newman, I have shaped you and sharpened you into a fine arrow and I am just about to shoot you on target."

I thought, "So that's what God's been doing with me all these years: shaping and sharpening me! No wonder it's been so painful at times."

I've already told you about my first foot-washing experience. I had completely forgotten that God had told me this would happen on two further occasions.

I was in America when, after a meeting, a woman crept up to me and whispered that God had told her to bless my feet. I was astounded to say the least, and I felt the same awe mingled with embarrassment.

Later the woman told her story. Eighteen months earlier God had spoken to her and told her that He required her to bless an evangelist's feet. Being shy and nervous, she thought that she would never have the courage to carry it through. So she confided in a few friends. She said that at every meeting she went to, she dreaded that this would be the time when she had to obey God. Finally she came to one of my meetings and God showed her that I was the evangelist, and she could not do it. When she arrived home she felt that she had disobeyed God, and could not put things right, as she heard that I had left the area.

But, as always, God is good and bigger than our mistakes. Through unforeseen circumstances I stayed over, and she arrived at another meeting to find I was unexpectedly speaking. This time she was obedient, but only just. She said, "It's not easy to obey the Spirit of God, for often He asks us to do the most unusual and childlike things.' Yes, there was excitement in my spirit. God had told me that the foot washing would happen three times, so there was one more to go. It had been four years since the last time. How long before it would happen again: four years or forty?

Only four weeks later I was having lunch in a house in Jacksonville, Florida when, as we were preparing to leave, in came a sister with the now familiar bowl and towel. There was no embarrassment on my part this time; I endured it joyfully.

What will happen next? Where will God lead me? What will He do? I do not know the details. But I do know that, since the very earliest days when Grandad prayed with Mr Mascall, God has honoured prayers and fulfilled His will for my life. Sometimes, because of my rebellion, this has taken a long time. But God's faithfulness never wavers, not even for a moment.