Learning to step out

Learning to step out

... and trust in God

Stephen Cade, a young accountant from Knebworth in Hertfordshire, had his Catholic faith awakened through attending a Harvesters Men’s weekend. Below he reflects on how God brought his faith alive and has encouraged him to step out in faith more and the things he has seen happen as a result.

Stephen My mum was involved in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal for a long time and I used to drive her to events, but it didn’t mean so much to me. I was just there, not really participating. My journey really began with the Goodnews magazine. My mum had seen a men’s weekend advertised on the coming events page and she kept pointing it out to me. As I didn’t have anything planned I eventually agreed to go. I had never been to anything like it in my life. There were about 600 men there and the atmosphere was amazing. Everyone was very open and honest and so down to earth that I really felt able to be myself. That’s when the door opened first for me spiritually. I went on subsequent men’s weekends and each time I got more and more blessed and became more and more open to the Holy Spirit.

My girlfriend Carol, is involved in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and she started to take me to a few other events, including the Celebrate conference. Around this time I went through a difficult time with my job because of the heavy work load and suffered terrible burn out. This experience of weakness also helped to draw me closer to God. I took time off and went travelling for a while down under and when I came back to Britain I felt I didn’t want to get back on the city treadmill and I decided to just take temporary work contracts which are quite easy to get if you are an accountant.

Daily Mass and reading Smith Wigglesworth were key

One of these was in London and, as there was a church nearby, I started going to daily Mass and adoration. On the way into work I also started reading books by Smith Wigglesworth, who had an amazing healing ministry from 1907 to 1947. These two factors were a huge influence on my life.Then in 2006 things really started to happen to me as a result of attending three different events. One of the these was the Catholic Miracle Rally last summer. Here I experienced for the first time the power of the Holy Spirit in a big way. Then, at the men’s weekend a week later, I was overcome with a longing to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I had heard people talking about feeling electricity running through their body, but it had never happened to me before until that weekend. It was amazing!

The call to holiness

I knew something had happened to me at a deep level through this because from that point onwards I found I was given the grace to resist temptations that before had been a problem for me. It was as if the Holy Spirit was drawing me closer to himself and I experienced in a new way the call to holiness. It was the first time I really understood what grace is. It wasn’t me trying harder, it was something that had changed in me that made things easier. That’s when I started cutting down on the TV. I started to sense that there were certain shows I shouldn’t be watching particularly after the 9pm watershed. Eventually I got rid of the TV altogether and I stopped watching 18 rated or violent films. I also limited drinking alcohol to one pint of beer or a glass of wine. Some people probably felt I was becoming a bit extreme, but I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to change these areas of my life, if I wanted more of him. It was a gradual purification process that is still ongoing.

The Charism School, Chertsey

The final event I went to was a charism school run by the Cor et Lumen Christi Community in Chertsey. I had actually been to one before but I wasn’t ready for it then, but this time I was really hungry and in a better place to want it and understand it. I didn’t experience any overt manifestations but I felt very encouraged to step out in faith and that’s what I have started doing since then.

Stepping out and praying for healing

The first incident was with my girl friend’s mother. She had terrible pain in her ear and she asked me to pray over her. The pain went immediately, but then it came back again about 5 minutes later. I handed her my crucifix and she placed it over her ear. Within a minute she pulled it off and said it was burning hot and her ear was healed! She has had no more pain since then. The second healing happened 3 days later. I went to Derek William’s “Set My People on Fire” seminars and he said that he felt the Holy Spirit wanted to heal people that night. I prayed with a gentleman who had had constant pain in his lower back for the last three months for which he was receiving physiotherapy.

Yet after a few minutes of praying in tongues and with my crucifix laying on his back he asked me to stop praying because he felt he was totally healed. When I spoke to him later he still had no pain and is now able to play golf which he loves. The third healing was a member of our parish, whose wife asked me to pray with him. He had a terrible skin condition, especially on his back. He had been told by a skin specialist that it was incurable and untreatable and there was nothing they could do. I prayed with him for about 5 minutes and I felt the Holy Spirit saying to me “olive oil”. I also received a scripture passage about the man with the virulent skin complaint (Luke 5.12). I told him to put olive oil on his skin and pray that scripture every day. The next time I saw him he told me he had had the best week he had ever had and that his skin condition was almost gone. I prayed with him again and I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to remind him about the scripture reading which it turned out he hadn’t in fact been doing. He promised he would pray this and when I saw him last he told me that the condition did not cause him a problem any more. These healings have all really helped to build up my faith and encouraged me to step out more with others. Now wherever I am I pray that God will use me and show me whom he wants me to speak with or to pray with.

Learning to walk in the Holy Spirit

I still can’t quite believe all that has happened these last few months. When my last contract ended I decided to take a few months off and give my time to various communities and ministries which are serving the Lord, helping them out in whatever way I can, as I try and discern what God wants me to do next. I would never have done this two years ago as by nature I am a worrier but I am trusting that God will show me the next step for my life. For me it’s all about having faith in God, becoming aware of the power of the name of Jesus and learning to walk in the Spirit. Smith Wigglesworth has inspired me a lot with the way that he was so bold in stepping out in faith. It’s not about having confidence in ourselves but in God and just being a pure vessel for him. He can accomplish marvels through us if we let him as I am beginning to find out. The key, as I am learning, is to read and meditate on the Scriptures as much as possible and to ask the Holy Spirit to use and teach me. This builds up faith because it is the same Holy Spirit today as it was then and we learn that nothing is impossible for God!

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My mum was involved in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal for a long time and I used to drive her to events, but it didn’t mean so much to me. I was just there, not really participating. My journey really began with the Goodnews magazine. My mum had seen a men’s weekend advertised on the coming events page and she kept pointing it out to me. As I didn’t have anything planned I eventually agreed to go. I had never been to anything like it in my life. There were about 600 men there and the atmosphere was amazing. Everyone was very open and honest and so down to earth that I really felt able to be myself. That’s when the door opened first for me spiritually. I went on subsequent men’s weekends and each time I got more and more blessed and became more and more open to the Holy Spirit. My girlfriend Carol, is involved in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and she started to take me to a few other events, including the Celebrate conference. Around this time I went through a difficult time with my job because of the heavy work load and suffered terrible burn out. This experience of weakness also helped to draw me closer to God. I took time off and went travelling for a while down under and when I came back to Britain I felt I didn’t want to get back on the city treadmill and I decided to just take temporary work contracts which are quite easy to get if you are an accountant. Daily Mass and reading Smith Wigglesworth were key One of these was in London and, as there was a church nearby, I started going to daily Mass and adoration. On the way into work I also started reading books by Smith Wigglesworth, who had an amazing healing ministry from 1907 to 1947. These two factors were a huge influence on my life.Then in 2006 things really started to happen to me as a result of attending three different events. One of the these was the Catholic Miracle Rally last summer. Here I experienced for the first time the power of the Holy Spirit in a big way. Then, at the men’s weekend a week later, I was overcome with a longing to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I had heard people talking about feeling electricity running through their body, but it had never happened to me before until that weekend. It was amazing! The call to holiness I knew something had happened to me at a deep level through this because from that point onwards I found I was given the grace to resist temptations that before had been a problem for me. It was as if the Holy Spirit was drawing me closer to himself and I experienced in a new way the call to holiness. It was the first time I really understood what grace is. It wasn’t me trying harder, it was something that had changed in me that made things easier. That’s when I started cutting down on the TV. I started to sense that there were certain shows I shouldn’t be watching particularly after the 9pm watershed. Eventually I got rid of the TV altogether and I stopped watching 18 rated or violent films. I also limited drinking alcohol to one pint of beer or a glass of wine. Some people probably felt I was becoming a bit extreme, but I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to change these areas of my life, if I wanted more of him. It was a gradual purification process that is still ongoing. The Charism School, Chertsey The final event I went to was a charism school run by the Cor et Lumen Christi Community in Chertsey. I had actually been to one before but I wasn’t ready for it then, but this time I was really hungry and in a better place to want it and understand it. I didn’t experience any overt manifestations but I felt very encouraged to step out in faith and that’s what I have started doing since then. Stepping out and praying for healing The first incident was with my girl friend’s mother. She had terrible pain in her ear and she asked me to pray over her. The pain went immediately, but then it came back again about 5 minutes later. I handed her my crucifix and she placed it over her ear. Within a minute she pulled it off and said it was burning hot and her ear was healed! She has had no more pain since then. The second healing happened 3 days later. I went to Derek William’s “Set My People on Fire” seminars and he said that he felt the Holy Spirit wanted to heal people that night. I prayed with a gentleman who had had constant pain in his lower back for the last three months for which he was receiving physiotherapy. Yet after a few minutes of praying in tongues and with my crucifix laying on his back he asked me to stop praying because he felt he was totally healed. When I spoke to him later he still had no pain and is now able to play golf which he loves. The third healing was a member of our parish, whose wife asked me to pray with him. He had a terrible skin condition, especially on his back. He had been told by a skin specialist that it was incurable and untreatable and there was nothing they could do. I prayed with him for about 5 minutes and I felt the Holy Spirit saying to me “olive oil”. I also received a scripture passage about the man with the virulent skin complaint (Luke 5.12). I told him to put olive oil on his skin and pray that scripture every day. The next time I saw him he told me he had had the best week he had ever had and that his skin condition was almost gone. I prayed with him again and I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to remind him about the scripture reading which it turned out he hadn’t in fact been doing. He promised he would pray this and when I saw him last he told me that the condition did not cause him a problem any more. These healings have all really helped to build up my faith and encouraged me to step out more with others. Now wherever I am I pray that God will use me and show me whom he wants me to speak with or to pray with. Learning to walk in the Holy Spirit I still can’t quite believe all that has happened these last few months. When my last contract ended I decided to take a few months off and give my time to various communities and ministries which are serving the Lord, helping them out in whatever way I can, as I try and discern what God wants me to do next. I would never have done this two years ago as by nature I am a worrier but I am trusting that God will show me the next step for my life. For me it’s all about having faith in God, becoming aware of the power of the name of Jesus and learning to walk in the Spirit. Smith Wigglesworth has inspired me a lot with the way that he was so bold in stepping out in faith. It’s not about having confidence in ourselves but in God and just being a pure vessel for him. He can accomplish marvels through us if we let him as I am beginning to find out. The key, as I am learning, is to read and meditate on the Scriptures as much as possible and to ask the Holy Spirit to use and teach me. This builds up faith because it is the same Holy Spirit today as it was then and we learn that nothing is impossible for God! << Top Home >>