“But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles.”
By David Sibley
So many continuing difficulties and hardships! 2011 was no different. Struggles overcoming heavy burdens, work increasingly stressful and unfulfilling…. I struggled to continue to fight so many battles and was so exhausted that I came close to walking away into retirement. But also in 2011, so many blessings were poured out!
Miracles started
Su Jing and I were at Faith Community Church, an Asian Apostolic group. I had never attended a similar meeting with songs, singing in tongues, healing and prophetic ministry with the thirty or so people in attendance. I anticipated something good when they started the night with a reading from Isaiah 54 “no weapon formed against you will prosper”!
Prophetic words
At the end of the meeting we were both shocked when the first person the pastors picked out to pray for was Su Jing. They boldly spoke of healing in her womb, no barrenness, the blessings of a child…. We had already resolved to try for a pregnancy the next month but no one knew! Irene continued to prophesy to Su Jing that she was not “useless”, rather blessed to be made in the image and design of God. Earlier that day Su Jing had complained to me with that exact word: “useless” because she had been unable to work for almost one year due to back pain resulting from a computer injury. The pastors also prayed for me that I would be renewed, walk out of the past, be used by God, my career would be blessed, that my ministry was in the workplace, that I would reap the fruit of the land if obedient and faithful, my career will be blessed, that the Lord was pleased with me. I struggled to see how this could be. We kept all of these things to ourselves for several months.
More
We were in Faith Community Church again when I was surprised Irene prayed for me again. She prayed I was a key figure brought to Perth for this time and place, that I was a catalyst for Revival in the City. She continued to repeat the words “Revival and Unity”. She said, “Don’t worry, you are protected by a shield of faith and you carry a sword.” As she described Perth Prayer# I was deeply touched knowing this had to be coming from God since she was unaware of what was happening. “God will give you the strategies to bring revival to the city…. unite people in intercession and prayer. Get up each morning to read the Bible and pray and God will tell you what to do. God will give you dreams and visions….” I was thrilled for God had already done this!
Afterwards Su Jing came to tell me about the young lady she had prayed with. “I feel the Lord leading me to pray about a baby. Can I pray for you?” Su Jing began to cry as she proclaimed, “The Lord says, the baby will come at just the right time”. And of course he did, conceived just two months later!
And more
Later that year many things started to happen – actually they began two years earlier. Perth Prayer was started in June 2010. We were averaging about 15 people each week. I had been praying hard that our first year anniversary would be blessed with more people to help celebrate the Perth Prayer miracle. On that day we had our largest group of about 20 when 12 Korean missionaries from Sydney walked in, marking this day as our largest gathering to end the first year. No one knew who they were or how they had found us in the obscure meeting place when they announced they were on their way to Christian mission in Indonesia and stopping in key cities to pray on the way. After singing, testimony and during prayer time, prophetic words were given including the significance of Perth Prayer and that it would be a bridge to the City. In the midst of prayer, two young ladies from the missionary group began to laugh as John Yates prophesied that he saw Jesus opening a large treasure chest full of gifts that were being passed out, freely to be shared, not kept. These prophetic young ladies had been laughing because they had the same vision while praying together before leaving Sydney and was confirmation the vision God had already given me that Perth Prayer was to bring Christians together.
Perth Prayer grows
Meeting David Hodgson at the Governor’s Prayer Breakfast in August of 2010 was another “God moment” that promoted Perth Prayer into significance in this city. Listening in the audience that day I heard how God had moved this man from being SAS solider, Selou Scout and paid mercenary in Rhodesia to Christian Leader in the Australian Marketplace and CEO of Paladin Corp. He accepted my invitation to come to Perth and share his testimony to about 100 people. This was a key transition for Perth Prayer as people came from around the city and the CBD to fill the church.
Another key event was in 2007 when I heard Dr. Philip Lyn speak on the raising of his daughter from the dead in Malaysia in 2002. When Perth Prayer began in June of 2009 even though I did not know him personally, I prayed that he could come and share this testimony at Perth Prayer. Amazingly several months later I was introduced to him and we scheduled his testimony during one of his visits to Perth that “just happened” to coincide with our second year anniversary bringing another large crowd to Perth Prayer. But the most amazing coincidence about Philip’s visit were events set in motion a few days prior by a horrific accident.
Little boy run over
On that day I was sitting in my office and looked across to my colleague Ray Teakle sitting at his desk bent over his chair with his hands covering his face. I got up to check on him and was told that he had just received a call that his son and daughter had been run over by a car on Scarborough Beach road. I immediately drove him to the hospital and arrived before the ambulance so we sat down to wait while I prayed silently with no words to comfort him. The ambulance arrived after about 10 minutes and the nurse came running explaining that Ray only could see his son briefly as the doctors were still trying to revive him. I immediately began texting people around the world asking for prayer for Ray’s children: Joe and “Charlie”. Over the next few days Ray’s daughter recovered from minor injuries while his son remained in a coma with critical head injuries.
Joe was still in a coma the day Philip Lyn spoke just a few days after the accident. Ray, Liz and Charlie came and the amazing coincidence was apparent to all as Philip spoke about the raising of his own daughter from the dead and led a full church together in prayer for Joe. (See “Little boy run over by car” and “Brought back from the dead”)
I was again encouraged by a coincidence that occurred when I went to the Wesley Chapel to pray during CHOGM* week and met Shirani Wikramanayake. She told an amazing story about Christian faithfulness in business and I felt moved to ask her to pray that I would have similar character and actions to those she described in her story. In her prayer she prayed for me as a Christian leader in the City and went on to focus on a 100-fold blessing (as the day before I remembered the story of the parable of the sower in Mark 4: “….other seed fell on good soil…. multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times), I had felt embarrassed to pray for a 100-fold blessing. Having Shirani pray this back to me the very next day overwhelmed me and spoke hope and faith into my heart. So did Isaiah 54 “… no weapon formed against you will proper” which she also prayed.
Challenges
The year of blessings came with difficult, severe spiritual struggles and several close calls on our lives. One evening having dinner with friends after having a blessed time of praying together and sharing about our Christian walk, being excited that key Christian connections had been forged, we left the restaurant and hurried back to our car.
As we crossed the street I was a little impatient with Su Jing as she hesitated to cross and stopped at the median when the crossing light quickly changed from green to red. Suddenly she yanked me back at the same time a car suddenly appeared at high speed and fishtailing out of control as it approached where we were then standing in the middle of the road on the median.
I felt shaken as I watched the car finally stop right where I would have been!
I was shaken yet again, as we got into the car and pulled out to drive home and almost hit another car that abruptly pulled out in front of us!
Was it just coincidence that all of this happened within 3 or 4 minutes after we prayed and said goodbye to the others?
Coincidences?
Similar coincidences happened again, immediately after leaving a prayer meeting and crossing the street in front of the Dome Café. Several car accidents also involved my children. Then right before Su Jing became pregnant, we were visiting Lake Martin, Alabama in the United States, I had to quickly jump in to save her from drowning. One minute she was showing off how well she could swim and the next, drowning right in front of me. Thank God for the premonition that kept me watching as I had started to leave just a few minutes before!
How true Isaiah 54 was: “no weapon forged against you will prevail….” Job Near the end of 2011, I thought my current assignment in Australia was finishing and was reviewing options for our next move. I was even a little concerned that I had already turned down a promising assignment in June because I felt the Lord wanted me to remain in Perth a little longer. Since Chevron overseas assignments are four-year rotations and I had been in Perth for six years there was no chance to consider staying much longer. I asked several people to pray about this issue but there was little reason to expect an unprecedented extension. Unexpectedly later that month my boss was transferred to another project and I was asked to stay in Perth for an additional 3-4 years to maintain technical continuity in the Wheatstone Project! I am still in Perth in 2016. *CHOGM Commonwealth Heads of Govt. Meeting Oct.2011 in Perth # “How Perth Prayer started” and testimonies connected with it: “Back from the Dead” and “A Little Boy is Run Over” see Issue Aug. #20 2016 (Enquires: perthprayerletter@gmail.com) Also in this issue:
David is an Earth Science Advisor with Chevron and the organizer of Perth Prayer which holds 3 weekly meetings on different days in different venues at 12-1pm
