Derek Prince

One of the gift cards I received for Christmas was for Family Christian Bookstores. I headed to the Charismatic Interest section and found an old friend sitting at eye level. Derek Prince was one of the best known teachers and authors from my early Christian days and I had seen him in person when he came to Chenery Auditorium in Kalamazoo during the late 1970's. The introduction to the book I eventually purchased says of him:

“A British citizen born in India, Prince was Eton educated and Cambridge trained, a contemporary and acquaintance of C.S. Lewis. For a time prior to his dramatic conversion experience, he held a prestigious fellowship in ancient and modern philosophy at Cambridge. But once his amazing intellect was submitted to Christ and illuminated by the Holy Spirit, he became a formidable force for communicating the truths of Scripture. As a classically trained philosopher and unabashed charismatic, he was that too-rare confluence of academic rigor and openness to the supernatural. The Word and power. Truth and Spirit”

Until he died at his home in Jerusalem in 2003 Prince had written over 50 books and had a world wide radio ministry. My choice, THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, was compiled by his still active ministry from a rather large collection of his teaching letters. Although I was familiar with most of what I read I still found myself challenged on almost every page. That's the Holy Spirit working.

Prince had written extensively on the foundations of the Christian faith and he was also well known for his books on deliverance and healing. He came to Chenery to talk about healing and then after wards to have people come forward for prayer. What I found really interesting is that he always kept the focus away from himself. He brought with him a half dozen prayer teams who would do most of the actual ministering while he would observe and encourage the teams.

Jackie and I, along with her parents and some other friends and relatives, sat in the same row at Chenery. When the call came for people who wanted to go forward for healing prayer one of our group responded. Mirza Kennedy was a friend of my in laws and someone Jackie and I knew from the prayer meetings at St. Joe. She spoke with a very heavy accent and had been in a concentration camp as a child during World War II. For about 35 years she had walked with a limp caused by that experience. I will always remember the big smile on her face when she came back to her seat. “Look, I am healed! The limp is gone! Look! Look!” And Mirza would walk for us to demonstrate. Oh by the way, that limp never came back.

My friends, the Holy Spirit still moves in power today.  Power to heal, power for deliverance, but most importantly power to lead a life pleasing to the Father.  To this end God also wants to build up in us faith and endurance so He allows challenges in our lives.  When we manage one hurdle another appears.  This develops Christian character, where our desires have been crucified with Christ so that Christ can be seen clearly through us.  I submit that the world needs to see the signs and wonders, to see the lame walk and the deaf to hear.  But it also needs to see Christ in us.  He is perfect, we are not, but the light will shine through.

Let me end with one of the memory verses given at the end of each chapter, taken from Romans 5:3-5 NASB.

"We should exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perservance,; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."