God has BIG dreams for you! You have a destiny to fulfill...

God of the Impossible: Norman Barnes' Remarkable Journey

In this episode of the Jesus Studio podcast, we welcome Norman Barnes, a man whose life is a testament to the miraculous power of faith in Jesus Christ. From witnessing Gods supernatural provision and healing to standing before kings and rulers, Norman’s journey is filled with extraordinary moments that reveal the hand of God at work.

Born into tragedy, Norman’s path led him from the streets of East London to global evangelism and the founding of Links International, a ministry that has impacted thousands worldwide. His story is one of relentless faith, impossible dreams becoming reality, and the power of obedience to God’s call.

If you’ve ever doubted whether God can move in your life, this episode will reignite your faith and challenge you to dream again. As Norman says, "What you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth gets established."

Guest Links

https://www.destinycalls.org/

https://www.links.charity/

Books

Destiny Calls

Eternity Calls: Grace Barnes ... She Lived her Dream

Grief Unmasked 

Shop:
https://www.jesusstudio.co.uk
Contact:
thisisjesusstudio@gmail.com

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@jesusstudio

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/jesusstudio.podcast/

Transcript

Transcript
00:00:00 Narrator 
You're listening to the Jesus Studio podcast.
00:00:04 Norman Barns
So this is my story. I trust it'll bring a blessing to you. Encourage faith to believe that God is the God of the impossible dream. He makes the impossible dream possible and the possible dream reality because he's that kind of God.
00:00:19 Norman Barns
And remember this, every one of us are born not by mistake, but by design. We have a destiny to fulfil.
00:00:27 Norman Barns
And God wants to work for you in miracle. May God bless you.
00:00:34 Norman Barns
Big Irish guy came up to me.
00:00:36 Norman Barns
I was talking.
00:00:37 Norman Barns
Him and all of a sudden he drew a knife on me. It was a six inch stiletto knife and he plunged. It plunged it into my chest, and it gets to my it gets to point gets to my chest.
00:00:52 Norman Barns
And he can't. He's tried to push it and it won't go in. So my chest and I looked at him and I said.
00:01:01 Norman Barns
You can't do this, I said. Between you and me, there's an Angel. I can't see him and you can't see him. And he ain't my time to die. So I said so. There's no way you can do it. And he dropped the knife and fell into my arms.
00:01:19 Norman Barns
Sobbed and sobbed.
00:01:20 Norman Barns
Sobbed and I led him to the Lord. He came to Christ.
00:01:31 Ash
Welcome to another episode of The Jesus Studio podcast. I'm ash and I'm here with.
00:01:36 Jem
Jem. Hi.
00:01:37 Ash
And today we have a friend, Norman Barnes, who has an incredible story. And there's so much we can say about Norman. I mean, just one little story. I just wanted to actually say, I've been thinking about this morning. Was you always kindly offered to pray for our?
00:01:51 Ash
Business and we were at Church recently. You probably remember and we prayed for a particular thing and you you said anything I can pray for and we we all stood in a circle. All of us together and prayed and it was amazing what happened with the answer to that prayer. And I remember saying to you the week you won't believe what happened and you said I will believe.
00:02:11 Ash
You know, it's like.
00:02:12 Ash
It's great testimony there just in itself, and that answer to prayer was miraculous because it was we were asking for a return e-mail and and I didn't get the e-mail I was expecting every day for that e-mail straight away. But instead God did it a different way. And I met somebody.
00:02:29 Ash
Randomly, who knew the person who was supposed to be emailing me?
00:02:33 Ash
You know, and and and. I asked him kindly, would you give the person a nudge because it was quite an important e-mail for work that I needed to progress in something. And it was a small thing, but it it meant a lot.
00:02:43 Ash
OK, thanks for praying. Always. We really appreciate it.
00:02:47 Jem
Yeah. And if you haven't read Norman's book, I'm 2/3 way through it. God gave me a dream, and it's just it is really inspiring. And I think the first and you probably don't know this for the first night we had dinner and met you. I think you re ignited.
00:03:03 Jem
Something in us because we're big dreamers, and I think we'd lost it a little bit. You know, having children like your priorities change and your life goes off a little bit and it gets very busy. And I think you reignited a little bit of that that. So we're so grateful for that.
00:03:18 Jem
That. Hi, Norman, welcome.
00:03:19 Norman Barns
Welcome. It's nice to be with you.
00:03:22 Jem
Kids, we love having you here. We love all your stories and it's a treat if you haven't heard Norman's story, this is going to be a treat to the ears.
00:03:29 Ash
Yeah, definitely. So Norman.
00:03:31 Norman Barns
There we go. There's my stories. Yeah. What's interesting, I think probably been my story starts with a tragedy.
00:03:39 Norman Barns
And the tragedy is I was two years old and I had an older brother who would be.
00:03:47 Norman Barns
Probably 6-7 years old.
00:03:50 Norman Barns
And my father, I was born in 1942. All right. So it's 1944 and my father was not allowed to join the armed forces because he worked in Ford Motor Company, making tanks and armoured cars and so on.
00:04:07 Norman Barns
But he joined the Home Guard.
00:04:10 Norman Barns
And in the Home Guard, he was issued with a brain gun, which is an automatic rifle.
00:04:16 Norman Barns
And came home one day with it. I've been on the practise range and my brother. His name was Tom. So what's that? Daddy said it's a brain gun. He said. Oh, shoot me, Daddy. Shoot me, daddy.
00:04:31 Norman Barns
And my dad picked up the gun aimed at him and pulled the trigger.
00:04:36 Norman Barns
Not realising there was still a bullet in the in the breach and killed my brother and my dad was on a manslaughter charge.
00:04:49 Norman Barns
The verdict was accidental death, but obviously at best the coroner recorded it as a very stupid mistake made by my father.
00:05:00 Norman Barns
My dad lived with that tragedy for many, many years, and that's another whole story of how God brought about restoration for him and he did in a very wonderful way. But that resulted in the fact that we had to move.
00:05:16 Norman Barns
Mum and Dad could not remain in the home. They kept seeing Tom and things like that.
00:05:21 Norman Barns
And so we moved to a place called Lyont Rd in Dagenham and we were out Sunday afternoon walking as many families used to in those days and.
00:05:35 Norman Barns
By that time, my sister had been born, and so I would be about 5-6 years old. My sister would be she's two years, three years younger than me. She'd be 3 or 4. We're out walking and we walk past this church.
00:05:50 Norman Barns
And.
00:05:52 Norman Barns
And I said to my dad. So. So what is? What is that? What's going on there? And he said it's a Sunday school. I said, well, can we go?
00:06:01 Norman Barns
I guess you can go because it's usually usual time 3:00 on a Sunday afternoon, everybody went to Sunday school. And so the following Sunday off we went to Sunday school.
00:06:12 Norman Barns
And absolutely loved it. There was an amazing time. And then the following week I gathered all the children up in our street and took them all to the Sunday school with me.
00:06:26 Norman Barns
An interesting caveat to that story is that two years ago, so we're now talking 75 years on.
00:06:36 Norman Barns
I talked to somebody.
00:06:39 Norman Barns
As a result of my wife dying grace dying.
00:06:43 Norman Barns
There was a lot of notices going round and there was a notice from this man called Terry Negus.
00:06:49 Norman Barns
And Terry Negus, I thought this same guy was my friend when I lived in Lynnette Rd. So I contacted him and it was the same guy and I.
00:06:59 Norman Barns
Well, are.
00:07:01 Norman Barns
You a Christian? Yes, he said. I'm I've become a Christian. All my family are saved.
00:07:06 Norman Barns
Because that's this wonderful. How did all that happen? He said. Well, you remember you took us all to Sunday school.
00:07:15 Norman Barns
In the Ulum church in Dagenham, I said yeah, I remember that, he said. But we all fell away. But you and your sister carried on, didn't you? So I said yes, I remember that too. And he said, well, later in life he said I couldn't escape.
00:07:29 Norman Barns
What had happened to me in the Sunday school and I gave my life to Christ, he said. And my whole family have come to Christ and the amazing thing is, would you believe it, that his daughter lives in on the Wicker state?
00:07:45 Norman Barns
And her daughter went to the youth club Whitbourne Centre. And I'm going Lord 75 years on and I hear a story of somebody who I took to Sunday school.
00:07:59 Norman Barns
Has come to Christ, you know, you sow a seed, you don't often see the harvest, but the Lord is faithful. And that's just one of the hundreds of stories, of course, as part of my life. But.
00:08:11 Norman Barns
I when I got to 14 I remember I got my first pair of long trousers, which was really funny. In Nostage you had to wear shorts until you were about 14. So I I bought my first long trousers and I bought a packet of cigarettes and thought I was a man. I've got into an X-rated film.
00:08:28 Norman Barns
And I was only 14 because I looked older than I was, and I thought life was really great. But I was so disappointed. I thought if this is it, then what's it all about? What's going on? And then my sister.
00:08:40 Norman Barns
Umm.
00:08:42 Norman Barns
Found a friend and they went to the local Assemblies of God church and they went to this convention on a Monday on a on a on a Saturday and came back and said to me we've been saved and we've come filled with the Holy Spirit.
00:08:58 Norman Barns
Go. What's all that about? Well, I've been going to a Pentecostal church up until the age of 14, but of course, we only went Sunday night when if you went Sunday night, that was the Gospel service. So he didn't. Anything hear anything about the Holy Spirit or speaking in tongues or anything like that?
00:09:13 Norman Barns
And so that will happen Sunday mornings with tongues and interpretation of Pentecostal tradition, as I think.
00:09:19 Norman Barns
And I said, well, I don't know about all of that. What's that all about? So I said I'm going to go, I'm going to go. So I turned up on the Monday night and sat in the back row of this church and sat there, waited. And I thought to wait for somebody to speak in tongues. And somebody did usual Pentecostal tradition. 3 times interpretation.
00:09:37 Norman Barns
And the moment some bespoke in tongues.
00:09:40 Norman Barns
I knew it was God. I thought this is God.
00:09:45 Norman Barns
Went to the Assemblies of God Church the following Sunday, the pastor preached on the sword of the Lord and of Gideon. I was two rows back from the front and as soon as he gave the appeal, I went out. I remember it clearly. They took me into his backroom man called Jimmy. Duller prayed over me and I gave my life to Christ.
00:10:02 Norman Barns
And it's never ever gone back since one month later.
00:10:07 Norman Barns
In the April round of it, it was. We used to have wits and time. So in the Pentecostal church you got saved at Easter, baptised in the Holy Spirit of Wits and.
00:10:16 Norman Barns
So I went out and thought I'm going to receive the Holy Spirit. So I walked into the back.
00:10:20 Norman Barns
Room and a man called David prayed over me, and the moment he laid his hands on me, power of God hit me and I just flowed out, speaking in tongues. And I've never stopped since, and my feet have never touched the ground since, and I just knew God. I wanted God.
00:10:37 Norman Barns
I wanted God so much so I turned up at all the meetings and all that sort of stuff. I mean prayer, meetings, meetings.
00:10:42 Norman Barns
Days where you you've got a cushion and you knelt down and at 8:00 and you prayed and and you had to. You had to get in on the last word of the person who just finished praying, because otherwise you weren't going to get into pray. And I wanted to pray out loud.
00:11:00 Norman Barns
And so you all message as though before they said Amen, you'd start praying. And and that's. And you pray that was that was it. And I and then they said to him, right, you were preaching on the Sunday at the youth group.
00:11:12 Norman Barns
And you've got to give a word. And so I thought, oh, right. OK, fine. And so I took, I took. What's everything to pure whatsoever things are holy, etcetera. And Philip think on these things. So I preached on that. Then I preached on the whole thing without faith it's impossible to please God. And that really kind of was the the thing.
00:11:31 Norman Barns
So I went back to the Enum church. This was in the Assemblies of God. I went back to the Enum church that I'd grown up in.
00:11:38 Norman Barns
And I threw myself into it. I took all night prayer meetings so we'd pray from 8:00 at night through till 10:00. The next 8:00 the next morning, we prayed 12 hours right through the night. And it was so funny because I had such a loud voice.
00:11:54 Norman Barns
And I'd pray out loud in the middle of the night. Of course it went a long way and.
00:11:58 Norman Barns
He said he used to ring a bell, that kind of, you know, you're praying too loud, but the problem is I prayed so loud I never heard the bell ring, so I just kept praying. And then and then I organised St evangelism. So we just go out on the streets and talk to the teddy boys as it was in those days.
00:12:15 Norman Barns
And the bikers and all that sort of thing. And then I'd invite the bikers to come round to my mum and Dad's house. We'd have all these motorcycle guys come round. My mum and dad's house. My mum would make Angel cakes and feed them all up and all that sort of thing. We'd tell them about the Lord.
00:12:29 Norman Barns
And this is this is how I live.
00:12:31 Norman Barns
Then I started a Sunday morning prayer meeting, so we prayed at 7:00 Sunday morning. So I had the keys and I opened up the church, put the heat on, and then I would pray from 7:00 till 9:00 because I knew somehow prayer would. The thing that changed things.
00:12:48 Norman Barns
And so I just, I just, I would pray. And so God began. Then they asked me if I would be the song leader, so I used to lead the songs. I guess it was the modern.
00:12:57 Norman Barns
They would be the worship leader and I used to lead the singing in the church and all that sort of thing. And so then I became the secretary of the of the Youth club and the whole thing got began to do phenomenal things for.
00:13:13 Norman Barns
And I was 16 years old, and I remember being in this youth group and and the power of God just came down on me.
00:13:22 Norman Barns
And and and the whole thing spread out over young people. God was blessing all these young people. They'll be flaking out all over the place. And and I I had this vision and this vision was me on a platform.
00:13:37 Norman Barns
Preaching to thousands of people and I knew I was in Africa. So when I kind of recovered from this dream, prayer, vision, whatever it was.
00:13:47 Norman Barns
I said to never been here all the time and they said, well, yeah. So well, one day I'm going to go to Africa and I'm going to preach the thousands of people. I'm 16. It's 1958.
00:13:59 Norman Barns
They said we.
00:14:00 Norman Barns
I've never been to Bible school. I've never had any training or anything, you know? And I mean, those days you you went to Africa by ship and those sorts of things. And I go well, I'm going to go to Africa and I'm going to preach the thousands of people. I'm pretty arrogant, really precocious kind of person. And so.
00:14:15 Norman Barns
So, but that's what I'm going to do.
00:14:18 Norman Barns
And I just held on to that. I learnt the principle, what you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth gets established.
00:14:25 Norman Barns
You know you can believe in God but doesn't save you. The devil believes in God and he ain't saved the thing about the word of God says what you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus died and rose from the dead. That confession establishes the word, and that is what brings you to Christ.
00:14:44 Norman Barns
So I know that the Bible also say if you're going to make a confession, make a good confession, don't make bad confessions, make good confessions, because you you become what it is that you confess.
00:14:56 Norman Barns
And so I knew.
00:14:57 Norman Barns
Good. And so for over 21 years, I confessed. I'm going to go to Africa and I'm going to speak to thousands of people, but in the meantime, you've got to get on and live. So when I was, I got to about 17.
00:15:14 Norman Barns
There was a little Pentecostal group of guys who used to go on the beaches preaching and they came to our church and and they were required to recall other people, recruit people for their for their for their group.
00:15:30 Norman Barns
And I, of course, was a young man, and they asked the pastor, would you release Norman to come and be part of the team? It's called the Pentecostal news team. In those days, became Lifeline Fellowship later.
00:15:43 Norman Barns
And and he graciously said yes. And I knew that was a big yes for him because obviously I was such a a main leader for stirring up people and getting things going.
00:15:56 Norman Barns
And so I went with this team and we used to go on the beaches and and preach stand on a soapbox. So Margate, Ramsgate, Brighton, South End, Leigh on sea, you name it. We went there to on a beach.
00:16:12 Norman Barns
And we'd pray all the way there. And then during the afternoon, preach preaching the evening a local church and then pray all the way back and all that sort of thing home and. And that was my that became my my rhythm.
00:16:25 Norman Barns
And I remember we had so many stories, but we saw hundreds of hundreds of people come into Christ. I remember once I was on Brighton, Brighton beach.
00:16:34 Norman Barns
Now this huge great clock, a Guinness clock, and every quarter of an hour it had all these little models that would dance around in a circle on this big clock, you know. And but of course, he had this music and what it interrupted the preaching. And so I'm on the platform on this soapbox preaching.
00:16:52 Norman Barns
And I'd had enough of this blooming music going. So I said in Jesus name I command that clock to stop and it stopped.
00:17:01 Norman Barns
And everybody's looking like, well, what? What's, what's, what's going on here? We preached a gospel. And then when we packed up, it started to go off. It went just so God do miracles. Absolute miracles. I had one guy.
00:17:17 Norman Barns
Who, who? Who grabbed me by the collar, wanted to punch my face in, you know, going. No, you can't do that because there's an Angel between you and me, and God isn't going to allow it. And he broke down and I led him to the Lord. And then we started doing coffee by evangelism in London. So we did in the winter time, we went into London and went into Leicester Square.
00:17:36 Norman Barns
And preached a gospel on a on a, on a box, soap box in Leicester Square.
00:17:40 Norman Barns
Yeah. And I remember one time we were in an alley upside the Warner Cinema in Leicester Square and I was preaching and this man in a in a tuxedo came out and he says, excuse me, excuse me, Sir, but could you kind of speak a little quieter? Only we can hear you on the inside of the theatre.
00:17:57 Norman Barns
My voice was so loud and we had so many people gathering around. Leicester Square literally came to a standstill. The police had to move us on because we had so many people, hundreds and hundreds of people stood.
00:18:09 Norman Barns
We must have had so many funny, wonderful things, but God did miracles. Remember one time this man came up to me and he he.
00:18:16 Norman Barns
A clawed hand.
00:18:17 Norman Barns
And he said, do you believe that God could heal my poor hand? And I said yes. I got off the platform and prayed over him. Power of God hits him. His hand was released in a moment and he took, took a letter out and showed me the letter that he was going for surgery on his hand. And God had totally healed his hand.
00:18:35 Norman Barns
So we just saw miracle after Miracle and then we had just coffee bar and when and we had this group playing and this big Irish guy came up to me.
00:18:46 Norman Barns
And I'm talking him and all of a sudden he drew a knife on me. It was a six inch stiletto knife, and he plunged. It plunged it into my chest. And it gets to my it gets the point, gets to my chest.
00:19:02 Norman Barns
And he can't. He's tried to push it and it won't go into my chest. And I looked at him and I said.
00:19:10 Norman Barns
You can't do this, I said. Between you and me, there's an Angel. I can't see him and you can't see him. And he ain't my time to die. So I said so. There's no way you can do it. And he dropped the knife and fell into my arms.
00:19:28 Norman Barns
Sobbed and sobbed and sobbed, and I led him to the Lord. He came to Christ, so we just witnessed these kind of miracles, really, of God. And then.
00:19:39 Norman Barns
The one of the team leaders was a guy called Bernard.
00:19:42 Norman Barns
And so we used to have this prayer time, so he and I would be praying, you know, once a month, we'd pray right through the night, as I say, from 8:00 in the evening to 8 the next morning. Then he said to me, So what you doing on on Saturdays?
00:19:56 Norman Barns
I said well.
00:19:57 Norman Barns
You know nothing much, he said. Well, meet me at the lighthouse mission. The team's going to meet at the Lighthouse Mission Canning Town at 10:00. So I said OK, fine. So I'll get on the bus and I'll.
00:20:08 Norman Barns
Go there and so he, as I said so. So what, what do we do for lunch? No, we don't. We don't stop for lunch. We pray. Oh, right. So So what time do we finish? Well, four o'clock. 5:00. Oh, OK, fine.
00:20:23 Norman Barns
So basically you knelt down, you knelt down at 10, and then you didn't get up until 4:00 or 5:00.
00:20:31 Norman Barns
And with pride, we pray for six hours or wherever else it was, he'd pray for nearly two hours and didn't stop, and I'd just be beside him, just soaking all this up. This prayer of this guy.
00:20:47 Norman Barns
But in quote Scripture, reams and reams of scripture, it's kind of Lord, why does he quote all this scripture? You know, God, you wrote it. You don't need to be reminded of it. You wrote it because then it.
00:21:00 Norman Barns
Tickle me. It dawned on me it wasn't God that needed reminding. It was. We need to remind ourselves of what God had actually written in his word. And so I began to learn, you know, to read Scripture, to understand it, to.
00:21:16 Norman Barns
And.
00:21:18 Norman Barns
Believe God for revival. Believe God for salvation. Believe God for miracles and things like that. And then we began to see things happen in the mirror, in the realm of miracle.
00:21:29 Norman Barns
And I I got a job when I left school at at 16, when I was nearly seventeen. I was one of those ones year older than most people in my class. And I remember in in in 195858 coming up 50.
00:21:48 Norman Barns
And.
00:21:49 Norman Barns
We had. I was in. I was hit by the school when I got just walked. I walked in favour. I was persecuted at school or, you know, I was bullied at school. They all run away from me. And people pick fights with me and all that sort of thing, all because I was a Christians, you know, I was very tall and very weed.
00:22:08 Norman Barns
And I had John Lennon glasses when they weren't fashionable. It meant that you were poor and and we were poor. We were poor, poor family, and but everybody was poor. You know, there's no cars in our street, no telephones or anything like that.
00:22:22 Norman Barns
And so, you know, I had a second hand bike, never had a new bike or anything like that. And and and and.
00:22:30 Norman Barns
I got favour with the headmaster and the careers officer came to me said. Have you. You ever thought about working in the City of London? OK.
00:22:38 Norman Barns
Nobody worked in the City of London, born in Dagenham for goodness sakes. I went to a secondary modern school. You know, you had to grammar school for your professional people, didn't you? And your doctors and all that sort of thing and your lawyers, you had to technical school was for your engineers, your draughtsman and all that. And then the secondary modern school was can be the servant of the other two. I mean that was basically it. You worked in a factory or something like that.
00:22:58 Norman Barns
So I said no, he said. Well, there's some names and addresses here. Well, we didn't have a phone in our house, so the headmaster said to me, well, you can you can use my phone in my office. So I sat in the Master's office and made all these phone calls, long and short of it was. I've got a job in a in a company called Brown Shipley, which was a merchant bank.
00:23:16 Norman Barns
Only later in life did I realise I was the only guy who was educated in a secondary modern school. Other were grammar, school or public school. It was a very exclusive bank. I was the only guy who lived in.
00:23:30 Norman Barns
London everybody else lived in New Hampshire, Sussex, Surrey and all of those sort of places.
00:23:36 Norman Barns
And I was the only guy who lived in a Government House. Everybody lived in private houses. It was. I mean, it was. I was the only guy whose father was a blue collar worker. And here I was in this exclusive merchant bank.
00:23:51 Norman Barns
And God.
00:23:51 Norman Barns
Did it? I mean, God did it and I wasn't even good at maths and I'm finished off of working in. I worked in a bank in this exclusive bank and I met this guy called Tony Wakelin who became he did go to a public school and he.
00:24:08 Norman Barns
And we became good friends and he was part of the Brethren.
00:24:12 Norman Barns
And we used to get a soap box and we used to get a soap box and and and preach during our lunch hour.
00:24:21 Norman Barns
And then we we transferred, I got another job in a in a in a another solicitor's office. Top 10 solicitors in London. I go. God, how do I? How do I get here? All this doing trust funds and all that sort of stuff.
00:24:36 Norman Barns
Lord, I don't know how you do it, but it's the favour of God. In fact, the company that the the partners heard about, Tony and me going on the street, they asked, they asked us not to because they thought it was demeaning, you know, for the bank, for the the solicitor.
00:24:54 Norman Barns
But one day we were standing on our soapbox outside the embankment station and the BBC came along.
00:25:00 Norman Barns
And I said we're doing a a a feature. Would you mind if we, if we film you suck it? No, not at all. So we got all this equipment, boom. Microphone or act 1. Scene one. No Clapper board and all that sort of thing. But of course, hundreds of people came round, didn't know it was a film set or what. Well, I preached the gospel for all I was worth. I.
00:25:21 Norman Barns
It was actually wonderful. And then they they showed it on around London on the TV. We saw this sort of stuff, God doing miracles. And then in 1964, I I met Grace when I was 18.
00:25:36 Norman Barns
13 she was seven years older than me, so Grace was 25.
00:25:42 Norman Barns
And we got married when I was 21. We're 22 two days later, and she made me wait because we had to sign your own name. In those days, when you couldn't do it at 18, you know, it had to be 21. So we got married and 20. So 1964. We got married.
00:26:00 Norman Barns
But we had no money. We lived in a furnished flat one bedroom furnished flat and and we had no money.
00:26:06 Norman Barns
And so.
00:26:09 Norman Barns
We, my mum, had a had a vision. My mum was a very godly woman and she prayed and we were looking to want to start a family and things like that. And and this is now 1966, so 2 years.
00:26:25 Norman Barns
And my mum was praying and the Lord gave her a vision and the vision was of a a mission hall with had blue curtains and brown chairs and a two-bedroom flat with it.
00:26:39 Norman Barns
That was her vision. And so she said to me, Norman, you're going to be the pastor of a church.
00:26:46 Norman Barns
And I said no, I'm not. There's no way I'm ever going to be a pastor of a church. You can't forget it. I'm an evangelist, so we used to go around as a little team.
00:26:57 Norman Barns
My mum, my dad, great for myself, preaching.
00:27:01 Norman Barns
And.
00:27:03 Norman Barns
We we went to this, went to this Chadwell Christian mission.
00:27:07 Norman Barns
John Noble recommended that we go there and so they invited me and I walked into this place and my mum said you'll be the pastor at this place and he had blue curtains on the stage brown seats and had two-bedroom flat.
00:27:23 Norman Barns
And I said, well, I'm not going, I said no way, 14 elderly people going, there's no way I'm going here. You can forget it. So die in church said, I'm going to do it.
00:27:33 Norman Barns
And said well, OK and.
00:27:38 Norman Barns
So so I was like, oh Lord, what are you doing? So I said, Lord I. And then I said anyway, they haven't invited me. And then they invited me. Would you become our pastor?
00:27:50 Norman Barns
No, I don't want to become your pastor. But I thought, OK, Lord, so said so. I said. All right, let's let's look so that I had to preach with a view for three weeks twice on a Sunday. So 6 I only had 7 sermons.
00:28:04 Norman Barns
And the whole thing, and so completely there were 150 in the Bible. And so I preached.
00:28:12 Norman Barns
And I said, Lord, I am not coming here. And as I get a 100% vote, I want no no's, no absences, and he's run these places. But all these members that never turned up. So there'll be about 30 or 40 people.
00:28:26 Norman Barns
Usually about congregation about 14 and they had a vote and it was a 100% vote yes.
00:28:35 Norman Barns
And I went oh, right.
00:28:38 Norman Barns
Thank you, Lord.
00:28:39 Norman Barns
And I was at a conference and there was a man called Edgar Trout, and I went out for prayer.
00:28:44 Norman Barns
He spoke this word over and he said if you will obey the Lord, I will give you my word and I'll put it in your mouth.
00:28:51 Norman Barns
So I can't find Lord with great reluctance. I said yes and we became the pastor of this church, but we couldn't move into the flat because somebody else was living in it. We had to wait.
00:29:06 Norman Barns
Nearly two years for them to move out.
00:29:09 Norman Barns
So we're living in this rented flat and we had no money and.
00:29:16 Norman Barns
One day we we had no food and so we laid out. We set our plates out and knives and fork, something like that. And we just bowed our heads and said Lord.
00:29:29 Norman Barns
You can look after us and you'll feed us.
00:29:32 Norman Barns
Thank you, Ahmed.
00:29:34 Norman Barns
They will knock on our door, my landlord.
00:29:39 Norman Barns
Hello. Hello. Sid called him, Mr Gabriel, and he said.
00:29:45 Norman Barns
Dora's cooked too much food Stew and we don't want to waste it.
00:29:51 Norman Barns
Would you be insulted if we gave it to you? Went. No. Thank you very much. And close as God. Yes. Thank you, Jesus. And we ate that night and we saw God do miracles.
00:30:03 Norman Barns
And then we were kind of part time pastoring. I had to leave the the solicitor's phone because I needed time off to look after people. So I went. I went, became a builder and a decorator.
00:30:18 Norman Barns
So I literally went from.
00:30:22 Norman Barns
Surge suit, stiff collar, silver tie, cuff links, briefcase rolled, umbrella to a donkey jacket and an overalls and worked on a building site.
00:30:33 Norman Barns
And that was, so I started my hands used to bleed and. And so I did all of that.
00:30:40 Norman Barns
And.
00:30:42 Norman Barns
One does such a grace. We had a motorbike. I had a motorcycle with a sidecar and.
00:30:49 Norman Barns
So we got no petrol because you can on a motorcycle can shake it and you can hear it sloshing around where there's no petrol in it. And we were we're in an upstairs flat. We we had a one bedroom shared a bathroom and toilet with other people and.
00:31:05 Norman Barns
All of a sudden, grace disappears and I look out the window and she's laying her hands on the motorcycle. So she comes back up the stairs, she says.
00:31:14 Norman Barns
OK, let's go.
00:31:16 Norman Barns
And I I had a decision to make.
00:31:19 Norman Barns
I could either say to earth grace there's no petrol in the tank, you know that.
00:31:25 Norman Barns
And we walk, it was 3 miles walk to the to the church. Or I could believe the prayer.
00:31:34 Norman Barns
And get ready. And so I put my motorcycle gear on my helmet on walk downstairs and in those days, you didn't. You didn't have a key start. You had to kick it. So I kick started the motorcycle and it burst into life.
00:31:51 Norman Barns
And we'll run it all the way to the meeting. I did a Bible study that night. Nobody was interested in my Bible study. They all wanted to see if I was going to get home on the motorcycle. Went outside.
00:32:05 Norman Barns
Kicked it started again. We got home for three days. We ran a motorcycle with no petrol in the tank. Don't ask me how that happens. If it can multiply loaves of fishes, it can make a motorcycle work, he said.
00:32:21 Norman Barns
Miracles and so we saw God do supernatural things.
00:32:28 Norman Barns
And on the day we got, we had somebody gave us a pound in those days you have pound notes. Somebody gave us a pound note and I drove it round to the petrol station and it died at the pump.
00:32:42 Norman Barns
And I put a pound worth of petrol in it and God looked after us. I drove the motorcycle and I crashed it and hit a hospital sign of all things. And so I went into the hospital and I.
00:32:57 Norman Barns
Hit my knee and I came out with crutches. Came out on crutches.
00:33:04 Norman Barns
And.
00:33:07 Norman Barns
And I tried to walk with what? And my knee just swelled up and I went to the I went back the next day and they said if this doesn't change, we're going to have to do surgery on your knee. And on the Wednesday.
00:33:22 Norman Barns
I testified to a young people's group I was in the Young People's Group and I testified and I said, you know, God is able to do miracles, and I believe he can heal me. And on the Thursday I was due to go on the Friday to to see about having surgery.
00:33:38 Norman Barns
And.
00:33:40 Norman Barns
Within our flat and we just prayed and I heard God say to me.
00:33:45 Norman Barns
Walk up and down the stairs. Oi, put my crutches down and I started to walk U and down the stairs. And as I walked up and down the stairs, God just healed me, supernaturally healed me.
00:34:00 Norman Barns
Next today I went to the hospital with the crutches under my arm, went into the, see the consultant.
00:34:06 Norman Barns
And and and I said, well, God's healed me and he went. Oh, yes, right, fine, fine, fine. Thank you. Yes. Well, goodbye. Nice. So glad that glad you've got can Get Me Out fast. God.
00:34:14 Norman Barns
Miracle God did an absent miracle. I walk glasses.
00:34:19 Norman Barns
This when I was 11, they realised I lost all my maths because I could never see the board. Nobody worked out the fact that all my written work was very good.
00:34:30 Norman Barns
All my.
00:34:30 Norman Barns
Board work was very poor and I couldn't say.
00:34:35 Norman Barns
And then when I did the sight test at age 11, you know, kind of read the top line, I couldn't read the top line, let alone all the other bits. And they realised I need glasses. So I so I had to have glasses, but I got challenged and I'd be about.
00:34:51 Norman Barns
2120281920 it's in the matrix. A man called Cecil cousin.
00:35:00 Norman Barns
Was preaching and I just knew how God speak to me and say, take your glasses off and I took my glasses off.
00:35:09 Norman Barns
God healed me in a moment.
00:35:12 Norman Barns
Absolutely miracles. But then and I went to work.
00:35:17 Norman Barns
The next day and I said, what's what's this about? You know what you said? Why are you wearing a glasses? Well, God healed me. God healed me. And that was through to the Wednesday. I woke up on the Wednesday and I was blind as a bet.
00:35:29 Norman Barns
Couldn't see.
00:35:31 Norman Barns
Oh Lord, what's happening here?
00:35:34 Norman Barns
So no, Lord, you you who started a good work is well able to finish it. So I'm believe in you. So I just said no, Lord, you've healed me. You've healed me.
00:35:45 Norman Barns
On a Saturday, still, nothing happened. And I'm I'm I went and bought. I remember it clear with buying a pair of boots for grace, winter boots for grace 'cause. I couldn't read. Johnny couldn't read. The prices. Woke up Sunday morning. Could see.
00:36:01 Norman Barns
Was in my 20s and I never wore glasses again until I was in my 50s. God just healed me absolutely miraculously so I've lived my life like that. But then you live with the conundrums you live, you live with the the difficulties. Grace had a history of of fibroids.
00:36:19 Norman Barns
When she was born with fibroids.
00:36:22 Norman Barns
When she was in her 20s, she had surgery.
00:36:26 Norman Barns
And then she got pregnant.
00:36:30 Norman Barns
And but then suffered a major major miscarriage.
00:36:35 Norman Barns
And had to go into hospital and it was fibroids and she had to have a hysterectomy.
00:36:44 Norman Barns
And obviously I saw last chance of ever wanting to having children and all that sort of thing.
00:36:50 Norman Barns
And you know, you live with the contrast and remember going in there. She nearly died. She was 8 hours on the on the table trying to go through the surgery. And then the girl in the girl in the bed opposite her was 17, having her second abortion.
00:37:06 Norman Barns
And you kind of go God, what is going on here? What is all this about? What kind of God are you? We've got this 17 year old girl having children. Don't want them. We want children that can't have them.
00:37:22 Norman Barns
But you have to bow to the mystery of God. I'd seen miracle after Miracle Grace and I have prayed for over 20 couples to have children.
00:37:33 Norman Barns
And all of them have had children. I mean, we saw miracles of people who have been trying for years, couldn't have children or something. They said I would lay hands on within a year, they'd get pregnant. God would do things. And yet here we were, we couldn't have children.
00:37:50 Norman Barns
And so, you know, I remember sobbing, kneeling down by my bedside with grace beside me, sobbing and going God in heaven. I don't understand you. You are the Lord, and I can't go anywhere else because only you've got the word of eternal life.
00:38:08 Norman Barns
But I don't understand this, but I have one request and I ain't going to go anywhere. I will not serve you unless you guarantee me this.
00:38:18 Norman Barns
And it was almost like the Lord said. So what I said I'll want from you. Children in the Kingdom of God. I want from you, Lord, to see children coming to you. I want children.
00:38:33 Norman Barns
For the Kingdom of God's sake.
00:38:36 Norman Barns
And daughters honour dad in an amazing way around the world as I've travelled. God has. I've seen God do things and then beautiful stories.
00:38:50 Norman Barns
Like for instance, I remember one time in 1979 running a tape back.
00:38:58 Norman Barns
I got an invitation to go to Ghana, West Africa. Here I am now.
00:39:03 Norman Barns
1979 from 1958 when I was given this word, I'm going to go to Africa.
00:39:12 Norman Barns
And I remember going to John and nopal and a guy called Morris Smith saying to him, I've had this invitation to go to Ghana.
00:39:20 Norman Barns
Do John Noble was kind of more. You never know what it is, Morris Smith said. Yeah, you need to go flap your wings. Go well, thanks. If you 2 could sort your act together, it would be really helpful because I knew, you know.
00:39:33 Norman Barns
To go.
00:39:35 Norman Barns
But the amazing thing was.
00:39:39 Norman Barns
I arranged to go there and all I had. They closed the country down.
00:39:45 Norman Barns
And I flew into, I flew, was going to fly to Ghana, was, and all I had was a post box number.
00:39:53 Norman Barns
And my air ticket. That's all I had. I had no address, but this man called Nicholas Ando, was going to meet me in Ghana.
00:40:03 Norman Barns
And they were going to open up the new borders of the country. So the day I flew in, when we got over to to over Africa, they said there's been a 24 hour delay and the country in Ghana is not opening up until tomorrow. So we're flying you into to to.
00:40:20 Norman Barns
And to Ivory Coast, so we flew us into the Ivory Coast.
00:40:24 Norman Barns
Absolutely amazing. I'd never been in a third world country. The only country I'd ever been to was Germany. I'd never been to a third world country, didn't have a clue about cross cultural or anything like that. I got a post box number.
00:40:39 Norman Barns
And an air ticket I've got on a plane. I'm going to Ghana to meet this person.
00:40:45 Norman Barns
And we landed in the Ivory Coast and they were going to put us in a hotel overnight and fly us into Ghana the next day. And as they were allocating US hotel spaces, there was this man called Jim James Mason, would you believe behind me?
00:41:00 Norman Barns
And he said, can I share a room with you? And I said, yeah, fine. I didn't know it from Adam. So we.
00:41:07 Norman Barns
Room and I said. So what do you do so well in actual fact? He said.
00:41:13 Norman Barns
I work for a book company. I sell books. I said I said yes, it's actual fact. I'm I'm a I'm a Christian. OK what's what's am I? He was missionary.
00:41:24 Norman Barns
And and I told him my story and he was absolutely amazing.
00:41:29 Norman Barns
Do you know what you're doing? No, I've got a clue. So he said. Well, if it doesn't work.
00:41:33 Norman Barns
Out.
00:41:34 Norman Barns
I'll wait around when we get into Ghana, and if your person doesn't turn up, you know you can come with me because I'd know where to go. I'm flying into a country.
00:41:44 Norman Barns
With nowhere to go with a post box number.
00:41:48 Norman Barns
In Kumasi, which was up country.
00:41:52 Norman Barns
It was a stadium post box number and so anyway, so when I get there, sure enough.
00:42:00 Norman Barns
Was there waiting for me? This is the miracle.
00:42:04 Norman Barns
The day before, on the day I was due to fly in, he's in prayer.
00:42:11 Norman Barns
And the Lord said to him, go to your post box and said bet there's no post, there's nothing happening. Lord said go to your post box and he goes to the post box and there's a telegram from me saying I'm arriving on this day.
00:42:27 Norman Barns
So he gets on a bus.
00:42:30 Norman Barns
He's now 24 hours late.
00:42:34 Norman Barns
He gets on a bus and travels overnight and arrives at the airport.
00:42:40 Norman Barns
With me to meet me. Who is 24 hours late and we join up.
00:42:46 Norman Barns
Taught it a miracle. My journey began. I'm on a coach with the goats and the chickens.
00:42:55 Norman Barns
I'm in a suit. I'd never ever been in a country. It was so stinking hot. I couldn't believe it.
00:43:02 Norman Barns
I didn't know what to eat. I didn't know how to act. I didn't know anything. I sat on the back seat of this coach with no springs, no shock absorbers, nothing with all the windows open covered in red dust.
00:43:15 Norman Barns
And this woman had her baby crying baby. And she just this is absolutely she held it out of the window while it irritated and then brought this baby back in. I'm going. I've seen everything now and I've got the goats and the chickens.
00:43:29 Norman Barns
And I go to.
00:43:30 Norman Barns
Get to Kumasi and I'm in the tenement block.
00:43:36 Norman Barns
And Muslim country. I didn't even know what all that meant when I told the missionary feared for my life. And so I'm in there and this guy had given up his bed. Well, it was rock hard. And and I learnt to bathe myself.
00:43:52 Norman Barns
In in, in a bowl of water, behold of me, bathe in a little fruit bowl of water. And then he said, he said I've arranged for you to use the management's toilet.
00:44:05 Norman Barns
Well, OK, fine. So I need to go to the bathroom or the toilet. Get there.
00:44:12 Norman Barns
Because there's there's no pain.
00:44:14 Norman Barns
So it's a hole in the floor.
00:44:18 Norman Barns
I've never squatted over a hole in my whole life before. What do you do with your trousers? Where'd you hang them? I mean no toilet paper because they use water.
00:44:28 Norman Barns
Cool, it's dark. I can't see anything. This is my first.
00:44:33 Norman Barns
Baptism into a totally different culture, and of course, then 6:00 the next morning.
00:44:42 Norman Barns
And it's him. I'm calling people to prayer. OK. God in heaven, where am I? What's going on here? And so here I was.
00:44:52 Norman Barns
I learnt to eat African food. I travelled in this guy's car. We had a Volkswagen van.
00:45:00 Norman Barns
He had no brakes, no headlights were travelling in the middle of the night in the dark, God in heaven. He looked after me. The guys had to pump the brakes, but I couldn't have been given an address.
00:45:15 Norman Barns
By somebody to go and meet this man called David Mills, who was O'Neil, a missionary, kumaras.
00:45:21 Norman Barns
And so I got in AI, got in a taxi A4 seat, a Datsun and there were six of us in it and A and a mum feeding her breastfeeding her baby. So we're all crammed into this taxi.
00:45:37 Norman Barns
And I go and meet David Mills and I I find him. All I've got is David Mills. Kumasi in Quadraso and I find him. And I walked into his house.
00:45:49 Norman Barns
And immediately there was a connection.
00:45:54 Norman Barns
Absolute connection and he said to and we talked and so on and justice, something happened. He had four girls and something happened, he said. Would you can you come back so few days later? I got on a Mammy truck. That's a big.
00:46:11 Norman Barns
Big truck that they have with 30 or 40 people crammed it in the back with the goats and the chickens. But because I was white, I sat in the cab with the driver.
00:46:23 Norman Barns
My dear Lord, so he starts it up and it's belching black smoke. It's it's diesel. There's no philtres on it, of course. And it's all this belt. She smack black smoke and he puts it into gear and obviously gear changer gun and he holds the gear in with his knee.
00:46:42 Norman Barns
Holds, so he holds the gear lever in with his knee and we start off.
00:46:46 Norman Barns
And the steering wheel is doing 180°, but we're not moving the wheels sort of thing. So we go, we're driving along and then he wants to stop, so he starts pumping the brake because there's not enough brake fluid.
00:47:02 Norman Barns
We've got 40 people on the on the back. They can't stop this blooming truck, so eventually he stops it. We go round the corner and he's turning it and turning the steering wheel round and round and round. Finally the wheels move.
00:47:14 Norman Barns
And you, I mean, you pray like you have to believe God. You think I'm gonna die any minute? This. What's going on?
00:47:20 Norman Barns
Yeah. And so I met this guy, David Mills again. And he said, would you preach for me Tuesday night? So I said, yeah, sure. So I spoke. He said to me, Norman, would you be willing to speak at the come at the committee?
00:47:37 Norman Barns
Temple. So I said. Yeah, sure.
00:47:41 Norman Barns
And I said OK, fine.
00:47:44 Norman Barns
No problem at all. And so anyway, I didn't know what what that meant or anything.
00:47:52 Norman Barns
And so on Sunday morning.
00:47:56 Norman Barns
1979.
00:47:59 Norman Barns
I went to this church and as I drove up, I could hear all the singing.
00:48:06 Norman Barns
And they took me through the side door and put me on the platform.
00:48:11 Norman Barns
There were 5000 people packed into I don't even spoke to about hundred 200 people. I'm now on a platform with 5000 people.
00:48:22 Norman Barns
That you knew what happened.
00:48:25 Norman Barns
My video repay for when I was 16 and here I was living it. I knew what was going to happen when it was going to happen and how it was going to happen. It was exactly as I'd seen it when I was 16.
00:48:43 Norman Barns
From 16 to 1958 to 197921 years later, of confessing that I will go to Africa and I will actually preach to thousands of people. And here it was.
00:49:00 Norman Barns
Being unfolded in front of my eyes and God gave me a dream.
00:49:08 Norman Barns
God is a God of dreams. God is a God of destiny. I've written a book called called Destiny calls. You can get it on Amazon. Actually. Put that in. But it is. It's a story of.
00:49:23 Norman Barns
Believing God.
00:49:25 Norman Barns
And so I've lived my life believing God, trusting God. I had a prophetic word. This prophetic word was I stand before Princess and kings and rulers and nations.
00:49:36 Norman Barns
We can't exactly. You can't exactly phone up Buckingham Palace, and in those days, of course, it was the queen. And say, excuse me, Elizabeth, but I've had this prophetic word. It'd be nice if you could invite me to afternoon tea. It doesn't happen like that.
00:49:52 Norman Barns
I mean, I'm a I'm a I'm a I'm a secondary modern school educated boy.
00:49:59 Norman Barns
From east London, how am I going to meet Princess and Kings and rulers and nations?
00:50:06 Norman Barns
But what you believe in your heart? Confess with your mouth gets established because God is the God of impossible dreams.
00:50:14 Norman Barns
You can do what God wants. You can do. You can be what God wants you to be. You can say what God wants you to say. You can go where God wants you to go if you walk.
00:50:22 Norman Barns
Obedience to him.
00:50:25 Norman Barns
And say here I was a Lord. That's what I'm going to do. Then I'm going to stand before Princess and kings. And we was the nations. So I'm 1979, I'm in Ghana. And they say to me, want you to make king apocalyptic.
00:50:37 Norman Barns
Didn't mean anything to me. I thought, oh, we're going to go, you know, meet a guy in a grass skirt with a few fellas in his head, living in a mud Hut somewhere. Well, it was far from that. We finished up going to his palace. He is the major.
00:50:54 Norman Barns
Of Ghana of the tribal people, the Ashanti people, they're the biggest tribe. I mean, he's one of the most powerful men in Ghana. Obviously the government. And then you have the tribal leaders are very powerful and he's the head honcho of all the tribal leaders.
00:51:10 Norman Barns
And so we walk into this palace, into the, into the foyer. You have to sign your name in the in the book. So I signed my name in the visitors book, but above my name is Prince Charles. Now the King of England.
00:51:25 Norman Barns
And I'm going. OK, fine. This is an important place here.
00:51:31 Norman Barns
If Prince Charles has been there.
00:51:35 Norman Barns
King of Paka worry the second is probably an important guy, so I wrote in and he sits on a gold throne.
00:51:41 Norman Barns
And the interest he's spoken in in, in his language.
00:51:46 Norman Barns
And which was shanty and.
00:51:51 Norman Barns
All the ceremony over. Then he speaks in perfect English.
00:51:55 Norman Barns
He'd been Oxford educated, got a law degree, Oxford. Absolutely. Brilliant guy again. OK, Lord, it's me, little me, sitting here in the presence of king apocalyptic. Thank you, Jesus. And then then.
00:52:10 Norman Barns
I I I get another occasion. I get invited Grace and I got invited by Gerald Coates to a celebration meeting in Leatherhead.
00:52:21 Norman Barns
And so we turn up, and Grace was only people never want to sit in the front row. I always want to sit in the front row. So I like to be near the action. And so I said, we have to sit in the front row. No, no, I said no. They've invited us and they want.
00:52:33 Norman Barns
To sit in the front row. So we sat in the front row.
00:52:37 Norman Barns
And sure enough, you know, they the worship starts and it. But it was an empty seat beside me.
00:52:42 Norman Barns
And the worship starts. And what sort of thing? And then we had a really good time of worship and then that was done. And then Gerald Coates, who's leading the meeting, says it's so nice to have normally grace with us and people clap and cheer it's place to go to cobbl quite a bit and speak. And, hey, it's always nice to be loved. Our father, I'd be loved and hated. And so anyway.
00:53:01 Norman Barns
So we here we are and and then during the worship time this grey haired lady had walked in and sat down beside me, he said. But we're also very pleased to have the Queen of Romania.
00:53:14 Norman Barns
And this lady sit beside me, stood up.
00:53:18 Norman Barns
Wow, OK, I'm now sitting beside the Queen of Romania. And the reason why she is late because she'd had afternoon tea with her cousin Queen Elizabeth.
00:53:30 Norman Barns
So, so go. OK, fine. So then we get invited to a reception afterwards. And I'm thinking, oh, yeah, hundreds of people.
00:53:39 Norman Barns
And I'm disractic, which means you're accident prone. And so we go into this House, but it's only 30 people. There's all these dignitaries, members of Parliament, and then there's this Queen of Romania and her daughter, Princess Margarita. Or there you see and they give me a plate and a glass of red wine and add red carpet. And I'm going.
00:54:01 Norman Barns
And I'm going. Oh, God, place. Just, you know, I'm actually. I'm proud. Please. You have to look after me. I must have. Not now. Not with all these people with dignitary. So I'm like a trip over or something like that. But anyway, so I talk. I'm now talking to to Princess Margherita.
00:54:16 Norman Barns
And Grace spent 25 minutes talking to Queen Queen of Romania.
00:54:24 Norman Barns
I mean with that from Dagenham, you know what are the chances of us moving in those kind of circles? Only God can do it. So God does his miracles. So here we are.
00:54:38 Norman Barns
Chatting away there so that was OK and it was a real an amazing time. And then after that.
00:54:47 Norman Barns
Go home and then two months later I get this envelope and I open it up and it's a gold edged card.
00:54:57 Norman Barns
And and this is what I said and it was from the Romanian Embassy and it's as to Mr and Mrs Norman Barnes.
00:55:08 Norman Barns
The ambassador in Ambassador of Romania invites you to come and meet the king of Queen, King and Queen of Romania at the Romanian Embassy.
00:55:20 Norman Barns
So here we are now. We've got an invitation to go to the Romanian Embassy and meet the King and Queen of Romania.
00:55:30 Norman Barns
So we're turning up in Velcro, yeah.
00:55:34 Norman Barns
There's two big guys at the door, obviously packing weapons and but you see you've got the card, the card gets you in. So we presented. I wished I that they kept the card. I wish they'd let me keep the card, but they took my invita and we go ushered into this hall.
00:55:51 Norman Barns
And here we are. Meet the King and queen of.
00:55:56 Norman Barns
God, you're absolutely incredible.
00:56:00 Norman Barns
'Cause you can you can get me anywhere.
00:56:04 Norman Barns
And I don't know, there's still more places I'd love to get into Buckingham Palace. I don't know how I'm going to do that. But the interesting thing is the book that you talked about called God gave me a dream. There was a lady that I knew.
00:56:18 Norman Barns
And she worked in a care home, a new care home and the Queen of England as she was the Queen, Elizabeth was going to open it up. And so she wrote to me and said.
00:56:33 Norman Barns
Give the queen a copy of your book called. God gave me a dream.
00:56:39 Norman Barns
Would you write something in it for Her Majesty?
00:56:43 Norman Barns
So I this is absolutely true. So I write a message to the Queen of England in my book, Your Majesty.
00:56:55 Norman Barns
And I write a message to her.
00:56:58 Norman Barns
And then she said, I want to do it. I want to wrap it in the Nottingham place. It was in Nottingham. There was such a. And sure enough, she gave it to the queen and she got a letter back. And I've got a copy of the letter.
00:57:12 Norman Barns
Buckingham Palace.
00:57:15 Norman Barns
Note paper.
00:57:18 Norman Barns
Her Majesty has instructed and devoted to the lady.
00:57:23 Norman Barns
Her Majesty instructed me to say thank you for.
00:57:26 Norman Barns
The gift of the book, and so on signs it lady in waiting. And so my book God gave me a dream is in Buckingham Palace.
00:57:38 Norman Barns
Princess and Kings, rulers of nations. I don't know if the royal family have read it. I have no idea. But I do know that if God can get Joseph in front of a pharaoh.
00:57:54 Norman Barns
He can get my book in front of the royal family because he's God. He's the God of miracles.
00:58:03 Norman Barns
And so we began to see God do so many things. I'm sorry I'm darting around, but these stories are coming to me as I.
00:58:10 Norman Barns
I tell them, but.
00:58:12 Norman Barns
God did so many supernatural things for us. We saw miracles. We saw miracles take place in our church. We had one lady who was diagnosed with cancer in her neck.
00:58:30 Norman Barns
And I said we're going to have to cut away your jaw. It's half a face was going to have to be cut away. She's going to obviously be disfigured.
00:58:41 Norman Barns
For the rest of her life, and so we as a church, we fasted and prayed.
00:58:48 Norman Barns
And she went back to the oncologist. The cancer had disappeared. Totally healed.
00:58:55 Norman Barns
See, I don't understand why the others like my dear friend Steve Legg. You know who's recently died of cancer?
00:59:06 Norman Barns
And yet God touched this woman in a miraculous way.
00:59:11 Norman Barns
There is a doctor friend of ours and.
00:59:15 Norman Barns
And she.
00:59:18 Norman Barns
Was very, very close to us. Looked after Grace when she was ill and.
00:59:24 Norman Barns
She went to her doctor for a check up and the doctor said to I'm sorry to have to tell you, but you need to put your fares in order because you've got terminal cancer, lung cancer.
00:59:38 Norman Barns
And she said, well, you know, excuse me, how long to live? He said no, I think it'll put your affairs. Can I look at the X-rays? Yes, certainly. Look to the X-rays. Obviously cancer there.
00:59:51 Norman Barns
And so they phoned us up as a church, and because we were very close to them and we said, right, we're going to pay. So we called the church the fasting and prayer.
01:00:01 Norman Barns
And we fasted and prayed for four days. The whole church fasted and prayed for four days, and then on, I think it was on the Monday.
01:00:15 Norman Barns
Somebody in the church said we had a guy used to lead up prayer time. Call Phil.
01:00:21 Norman Barns
And somebody in the church.
01:00:25 Norman Barns
Prayed and saw this cancer disappearing.
01:00:31 Norman Barns
And told us that I believe that God's healed her, and so we we put all around the church, right? We're not going to pray anymore. Let's give thanks. We believe God is healed.
01:00:42 Norman Barns
That was a real step of faith. I was on the Monday. She goes back on the Wednesday.
01:00:50 Norman Barns
For new new X-rays.
01:00:54 Norman Barns
Take the X-rays and the doctors. I don't. What's?
01:00:58 Norman Barns
It's not cancer. It's all gone.
01:01:02 Norman Barns
That was documented evidence in the local newspaper.
01:01:06 Norman Barns
Cancer. No cancer.
01:01:08 Norman Barns
Totally healed.
01:01:11 Norman Barns
And so, I mean, there was another time where we were were Sunday, Sunday morning and I had a phone phone call from my friend in Germany, Edward and he phoned me up. He said please pray for my my daughter. She was.
01:01:27 Norman Barns
Found in the bottom of the swimming pool.
01:01:31 Norman Barns
But she was pronounced dead, but they put her on a life support machine in the hospital, but she was basically technically dead.
01:01:41 Norman Barns
And so we said yes. And immediately the church.
01:01:46 Norman Barns
Began to fast and pray.
01:01:52 Norman Barns
And then as we were praying, we just felt God had given us a breakthrough and a guy called Ernie Peters and he said, Norman, we're all in my front room praying, he said. I believe that.
01:02:04 Norman Barns
'S raised her from the dead.
01:02:07 Norman Barns
Let's give thanks.
01:02:10 Norman Barns
Now it's easy to give thanks afterwards.
01:02:14 Norman Barns
It's another thing by faith giving thanks so the whole church we just began to give thanks. It'll be about 30 of us in one from room and we're going to worship the Lord. Say thank you, Jesus.
01:02:26 Norman Barns
And as we were worshipping the Lord, my phone rings.
01:02:29 Norman Barns
Pick up my phone. Edward here. My daughter has been raised from the dead. She is alive.
01:02:40 Norman Barns
Absolute Miracle took place.
01:02:42 Norman Barns
So you can imagine for in those sorts of things, we saw so many things, different things happening. We had one guy who had to wear a corset iron corset back was so damaged, prayed over him. God totally healed him.
01:02:59 Norman Barns
Never wore brace again, miraculously healed. So we lived with Miracle. We lived with God doing supernatural things. God moving in supernatural ways. And of course then as a result of that.
01:03:16 Norman Barns
Me travelling now when I went to Ghana, West Africa in 79.
01:03:22 Norman Barns
Staying with this missionary family, eventually the Millsis I just made a note and I would. I would write things down. Why? Why, why?
01:03:32 Norman Barns
Kids, what date for breakfast? I had Uncle Ben's stuff. It's horrible. So I said, well, why can't I get you can't get **** flakes. I thought **** flakes. Why isn't your car working? Why can't get a start on my drugstore and I just wrote down a list of all this stuff.
01:03:47 Norman Barns
That I I saw that and I came back. Grace didn't know whether I was alive or dead. I because in those days didn't have Internet or anything like that. So. And I extended my stay and so I said to Grace. Don't worry about me because if you hear from if you hear any news, it's probably because I'm dead. If you don't hear any news it means I'm alive. Alright.
01:04:08 Norman Barns
British Embassy of contact.
01:04:10 Norman Barns
But if they don't contact her, it means I'm alive, so don't worry about it. So anyway. And and. And so I just and I came back to our church and we were a little congregation.
01:04:23 Norman Barns
And I I had an administrator called Peter Martin and I said, Pete, we need to get this stuff out and freight it out. I don't have a clue what to do or how to do it, but I know we can do it. And as a church.
01:04:36 Norman Barns
We took up an offering, raised the money.
01:04:40 Norman Barns
Filled that listing and freighted all that stuff out.
01:04:45 Norman Barns
And that was the beginning of links international.
01:04:50 Norman Barns
That was in 1979. In 1985, I was going around the country sharing my story about my trips and things, and then what happened was people started to give me money.
01:05:04 Norman Barns
And so we had to form a charity called Links International.
01:05:11 Norman Barns
And now, since 1985, to the present day.
01:05:17 Norman Barns
Over nearly £2,000,000 a year is going through that account.
01:05:21 Norman Barns
And God's done miracles. Absolute miracles. We have reached hundreds of thousands, literally hundreds of thousands of people planted. How many churches? I have no idea.
01:05:35 Norman Barns
Hundreds and hundreds.
01:05:38 Norman Barns
Our assion is to serve the church around the world, not to establish our name. It is to serve missionaries, church planters and give them the tools to be able to do their job. God spoke to me in the early days.
01:05:54 Norman Barns
To listen to the cry of the poor and to say God do miracles and we've seen it happen again and again and again. God, just working miracle working Miracle Miracle after miracle.
01:06:07 Norman Barns
It was my passion to actually be able to give.
01:06:14 Norman Barns
10% of our people to the mission field and 50% of our church income. When I finally left the church, we were giving away 8% of our people and 40% of our income. So we nearly got there. But God just began to prove himself in many.
01:06:31 Norman Barns
Phenomenal ways.
01:06:34 Norman Barns
In seeing God do do things, we sent a couple out into Brazil in their 50s, learnt the language, did it. They saw miracles.
01:06:44 Norman Barns
They had one time. They were caring in an orphanage with boys, and one boy got struck by lightning and died.
01:06:49 Norman Barns
And all the boys prayed for him and he came back to life. He was dead.
01:06:55 Norman Barns
I mean, one little boy got his hand caught in a dough mixing machine and rolled it and it pulled his hand away from his arm toy and he went to the hospital, he said. We have to amputate the hand because it's obviously it would die and the missionary Brendan said no, we're going to pray. Pray the my pastor's going to pray.
01:07:14 Norman Barns
In England, and so we prayed for him and I flew in with grace. And this little boy came up to me, waving his fingers, waving his fingers to God. I totally healed his hand.
01:07:24 Norman Barns
So we live, we live with miracle. We live with God doing supernatural things. We went through plenty of pain, a lot of disappointment, a lot of hurt.
01:07:35 Norman Barns
Bad church splits people, all those sorts of things. You know, it wasn't all rosy, but God has been faithful.
01:07:42 Norman Barns
In 1996, yes, when the whole Toronto thing came, God moved in incredible ways. And that's another story.
01:07:54 Norman Barns
But the net result was in the end, we had to leave the church that we planted.
01:07:59 Norman Barns
And start all over again asking God what to do.
01:08:04 Norman Barns
And then God, after five years, we went to Molesey, God healed us. And then after five years, 19 years now.
01:08:15 Norman Barns
We came to Aaron and went to Aaron Church and there we have lived.
01:08:23 Norman Barns
So I'll tell you one more story.
01:08:26 Norman Barns
In 2022, Grace fell over the washing machine door.
01:08:34 Norman Barns
And broke her femur and had to go to hospital.
01:08:40 Norman Barns
I was on a Sunday.
01:08:42 Norman Barns
On a Monday, they did the surgery.
01:08:45 Norman Barns
On the Tuesday, she said to me.
01:08:48 Norman Barns
Norman, I think I'm gonna die.
01:08:53 Norman Barns
And I said no love, it's painful, but it's been successful. I think she knew.
01:09:00 Norman Barns
On the Thursday, she deteriorated. They took her into the ICU unit.
01:09:06 Norman Barns
And I they called me in on a Friday morning. I remember it.
01:09:12 Norman Barns
And Tim and Becca were there.
01:09:15 Norman Barns
And Tim went with me to talk to the consultant who's I'm sorry to tell you, but your wife is going to die. There is nothing we can do.
01:09:23 Norman Barns
And so I said, OK, we got days, months now hours.
01:09:28 Norman Barns
So I went into the IC unit and grace is sitting up in bed.
01:09:35 Norman Barns
Bright eyed.
01:09:37 Norman Barns
Totally lucid and said have they told you and I?
01:09:40 Norman Barns
Yes, he.
01:09:42 Norman Barns
Said I'm going to die, Norman, I said. I know, she said. But I'm not afraid and I'm at absolute peace and I'm going to go and be with Jesus.
01:09:52 Norman Barns
Said fine, so did John and Brenda here. Go here. Tim and Becker here. Yes.
01:10:00 Norman Barns
John, Carolyn that they're on their way or they have to pray for me and then I'll.
01:10:04 Norman Barns
And be with Jesus.
01:10:07 Norman Barns
That's OK. Fine. So John and Brenda pray with her. Tim and Becca pray with her.
01:10:14 Norman Barns
So funny 'cause Joan Cavaler had come in and she said to Joe, do you know the queen died yesterday? So he said, yeah, I said, well, I guess I'll meet her in heaven, but I won't have to curtsy, will I?
01:10:26 Norman Barns
Though price making jokes and she's dying, they all prayed for her, and then it was my turn and I she prayed for me and thanked God for 58 years of marriage, which was wonderful.
01:10:41 Norman Barns
And then I prayed for her and said, Lord, she belongs to you. You take her.
01:10:48 Norman Barns
As I said to her.
01:10:51 Norman Barns
Do you want me to hold your hand?
01:10:53 Norman Barns
There's no no, don't need to do that.
01:10:57 Norman Barns
Said why don't we just kiss goodbye and you can you can go home and hug and be with the Lord.
01:11:05 Norman Barns
So that's what we did. I kissed her goodbye.
01:11:10 Norman Barns
And I walked towards the ICU unit door. Turn around. She blew me a kiss and waved. And that was the last time I saw her. She went to be with Jesus.
01:11:22 Norman Barns
400 people turned up.
01:11:25 Norman Barns
Celebration service.
01:11:28 Norman Barns
Rice was a self effacing, humble woman. If she'd have walked into that, she would have thought. Who's this for? Never realised that she impacted so many lives.
01:11:41 Norman Barns
I'll finish on a good note with another story and the story is that we, as I've said, we couldn't have children.
01:11:50 Norman Barns
In 1979, as I said, I went to Ghana, West Africa.
01:11:55 Norman Barns
In 1981, of the Brethren in the church came over and stayed with me.
01:12:01 Norman Barns
I took him, bought him some clothes, blessed him. I went out in 1981 and the missionary said, you know, Daniel had been with.
01:12:13 Norman Barns
So grateful for what you did.
01:12:16 Norman Barns
And he would like to say thank you. So I said and I.
01:12:18 Norman Barns
To.
01:12:18 Norman Barns
You a gift. And I said, oh, thank you very much. Yeah. They want to give you their five month old son.
01:12:26 Norman Barns
Now, pardon said they want to give you their five month old son.
01:12:31 Norman Barns
And I'll burst into tears.
01:12:34 Norman Barns
And I said, what do we have to do? He said no.
01:12:39 Norman Barns
You accept that, then you give the child back to his mum and dad and ask him to look after your child for you.
01:12:46 Norman Barns
He said. I would suggest that you then you take responsibility. He becomes your child.
01:12:53 Norman Barns
So we actual fact educated him.
01:12:57 Norman Barns
From they are born into nursery school right the way through to university is now a civil engineer. But when he got to 5-6 years old, he said to his daddy his birth daddy, he said. Is that right that Norman Barnes is my daddy?
01:13:16 Norman Barns
And he goes, yes, he's your godfather. But he's your daddy, he said. Well, I don't want to be called. I don't want to be called Ebenezer anymore. I want to be called Norman Barnes.
01:13:30 Norman Barns
And so he's changed his name and his official name on his passport is Norman Barge Junior.
01:13:38 Norman Barns
I wrote a chapter in a book called more than one way to have children.
01:13:43 Norman Barns
So I have a son.
01:13:47 Norman Barns
Call Norman Barnes after me.
01:13:51 Norman Barns
Then we got given another shot.
01:13:53 Norman Barns
And her name is Grace.
01:13:56 Norman Barns
And so we have a Grace Barnes and a Norman Barnes.
01:14:00 Norman Barns
And I guess a few more around the world.
01:14:04 Norman Barns
That bear, grace, is named I just had today an somebody is christening their child and so we want to do it. Remember, it's a great call and called the child grace. I have it all the time. So many that people grace.
01:14:20 Norman Barns
For so this is my story. I trust it'll bring a blessing to you. Encourage faith to believe that God is the God of the impossible dream. He makes the impossible dream possible and the possible dream reality because he's that kind of God.
01:14:36 Norman Barns
And remember this, every one of us are born not by mistake, but by design. We have a destiny to fulfil.
01:14:44 Norman Barns
And God wants to work for you in miracle. May God bless you.
01:14:51 Ash
It's a great story.
01:14:54 Ash
Should I kick off with the most?
01:14:56 Ash
Question that.
01:14:57 Ash
I've got on on the way out. Would you mind laying your hands on our fuel tank on our car?
01:15:06 Ash
Do you have any questions or the same this question?
01:15:10
I.
01:15:12 Ash
I like the bean your story why you're thinking of a question. I love the bee in your story. Also about the children. When you're on the bus and you, the lady lifted her child out to go to the toilet. And I was thinking, gosh, I would have been handy.
01:15:20 Norman Barns
Yes, first.
01:15:24 Ash
Trip back here.
01:15:25 Ash
A little bit younger. Yeah, I can. I can think of a few times and that would have been very useful.
01:15:27 Jem
So even now.
01:15:32 Jem
Yeah, I think it's not really a question, but I just love the way that.
01:15:39 Jem
Just ignite that dream. I think God, actually, he doesn't want us just to go through life and just cruise. I think he's actually got, if we're, I think you you said it. You said if we're willing to be obedient.
01:15:52 Jem
Then you know the impossible can happen, and it is the obedience. Obedience. That's key, isn't it? I think listening to him and actually doing what he's asking you to do.
01:16:03 Jem
I think that's really beautiful and yeah, like, I just think if you're listening and you've got a dream like you've had this dream and and it is a good given dream like, don't give up on that because it can sound really crazy to some people, can't it? And.
01:16:19 Jem
But God is the God of impossible, and I just think I love that that that's what I.
01:16:24 Jem
Think when I think of you, Norman, I think that you're like that dream giver. You know, you like, ignite that in people. And that's really cool.
01:16:31 Norman Barns
It's it's the the tragedy is it's like looking through a telescope.
01:16:37 Norman Barns
One more turn.
01:16:39 Norman Barns
Would bring it into focus.
01:16:43 Norman Barns
And people quit.
01:16:46 Norman Barns
And they're one more turn away from seeing the fulfilment of the dream.
01:16:53 Norman Barns
And that saddens me that because there's an enemy who wants to steal dreams from us because dreamers are dangerous people.
01:17:04 Norman Barns
See somebody looked at the moon.
01:17:08 Norman Barns
It wasn't as it wasn't the engineers, it was a dreamer. A dreamer. Looked at the moon and said.
01:17:16 Norman Barns
We can go there.
01:17:18
Hmm.
01:17:18 Ash
Yeah.
01:17:19 Norman Barns
And the engineers got there.
01:17:23 Norman Barns
But it started with a dream.
01:17:27 Norman Barns
An impossible dream. And I remember when first man walked on the moon. I'm standing out looking at the moon, and I go back in my front room and I see it on the television. And I'm thinking there's a man walking on the moon now on the television.
01:17:44 Norman Barns
And I go outside and I look at the moon and I think there's a man up there walking on that.
01:17:52 Norman Barns
MMM, that was an impossible dream. Made possible became a reality.
01:17:58 Norman Barns
I mean, God can get a man walking on the moon.
01:18:02 Jem
Yeah.
01:18:02 Norman Barns
What can it do for?
01:18:04 Norman Barns
Yeah.
01:18:04 Norman Barns
When he spoke the word and created everything anyway by the word of his mouth.
01:18:11 Jem
Yeah.
01:18:12 Norman Barns
You start putting it into context and all of a sudden your impossible dream becomes a possibility.
01:18:18 Norman Barns
Yeah.
01:18:19 Ash
How do we encourage people to dream more as well? Would you say I?
01:18:25 Norman Barns
There is far more in people than they give themselves credit for, but the.
01:18:33 Norman Barns
They don't. They're not willing to believe it or confess it, because it's impossible. And I think that dreams get established by confession.
01:18:47 Norman Barns
And so it's it's hearing, the voice of God, my sheep hear my voice.
01:18:52 Norman Barns
Well, God speaks to me in East London accents. You don't speak in Russia because I don't understand Russian.
01:19:00 Norman Barns
And so there's a lot of people here, a lot more than they give themselves credit for, but don't believe what they hear is from God because it looks ridiculous.
01:19:14 Norman Barns
But God's the God of the ridiculous. Go and build a boat, Noah.
01:19:19 Norman Barns
Why? What's going to rain? No, it's never rained before.
01:19:23 Norman Barns
Why would you build a boat?
01:19:26 Norman Barns
But he believed God, so he built a boat, and God sends the rain and you sort of think.
01:19:33 Norman Barns
By faith he starts to, and that's what Hebrews 11 is all about. It by faith, by Faith, Abraham offers up his son Isaac, living with the promise that through his seed, the world is going to be blessed. But he's now going to put the knife into his son, which he knows he's going to kill him.
01:19:49 Norman Barns
And yet God makes some incredible provision for him, with a RAM in the thicket, and so on, and the dream gets fulfilled.
01:19:58 Norman Barns
You know, Abraham and Isaac, this is another beautiful thing. If you if you weren't, if you've got a picture in your mind, you've got Abraham. You get so promise from God you will have a son. Excuse me.
01:20:08 Norman Barns
This is ridiculous. It can't happen. We're too old. We're too old. We're too old. And so time goes by and he's feeling he's getting further and further and further away from that dream being fulfilled. So he tries to help God out. And we have the son of impatience.
01:20:26 Norman Barns
So we.
01:20:26 Norman Barns
Up with Ishmael and we'll be suffering from that ever since. And what he failed to realise that from God's perspective, every day brought him nearer to the promise of God being fulfilled.
01:20:39 Norman Barns
So you got to decide where you're going to stand. You either stand in a place where I'm further and further and further away from the dream being fulfilled, or you stand with God and say no, I'm nearer today than I, while yesterday to see that word coming to pass.
01:20:57 Norman Barns
So if God's given us a word about our families coming to Christ, then you confess that and then you start giving thanks to the Lord. Lord, that's it. You've given me a promise and you've never bailed out on any of your promises.
01:21:11 Norman Barns
God is faithful to fulfil every promise he's ever given, but it's up to us to what we believe in our hearts, to confess with our mouth gets established.
01:21:20 Jem
I think the fear stops here doesn't.
01:21:22 Norman Barns
Fear.
01:21:22 Jem
Yeah.
01:21:23 Ash
Fear of man.
01:21:23 Norman Barns
'S, well, fear fear, the antithesis of faith, the exact opposite of faith is fear.
01:21:31 Norman Barns
So.
01:21:33 Norman Barns
As Christians, we can't live with both of those. We can't live with both of those because, Barbara says, without faith, it's impossible to please God. But he hasn't given us the spirit of fear. The power of love, and a sound mind.
01:21:47 Norman Barns
So what you think is what you are?
01:21:51 Norman Barns
So that's why you have to think differently. So we've got to change.
01:21:54 Ash
Our thinking. That's true, the Bible says as you think in your heart. So are.
01:21:55 Jem
Yeah.
01:21:57 Ash
Or something.
01:21:58 Norman Barns
That's right. Yeah. So it's the whole thing and that's the Ministry of of faith and believing God now, I'm not talking about name it. Claim it and all that sort of stuff. It is knowing that you've heard God.
01:22:12 Norman Barns
And the government of that is the Bible talks about. Let the peace of God govern. Rule govern your heart. What I find about knowing the will of God is, if you're at this peace, stand still.
01:22:26 Norman Barns
Don't keep moving.
01:22:28 Norman Barns
Don't try and shove a door open that's clearly closed.
01:22:33 Ash
But is this is this piece is this piece?
01:22:36 Ash
Though sometimes.
01:22:37 Norman Barns
Yes, it can be and and if we're at this place.
01:22:42 Norman Barns
Get back into a place of peace and then you make your decisions. Most people make decisions in the wrong state. They make decisions out of fear or whatever else it is, and not in a place of peace. If you're in a place of peace, faith can be released.
01:22:59 Norman Barns
In that place.
01:23:01 Norman Barns
That's what I've found anyway.
01:23:02 Ash
Yeah, well, as a you know for for I know the plans I have for you says the Lord plans to prosper you not to harm me, to keep.
01:23:09 Norman Barns
That's a absolutely, absolutely, absolutely.
01:23:09 Ash
Home in the future.
01:23:12 Ash
And I wonder 'cause I was chatting to an alpha, I'm doing an alpha course at the moment, helping out, just chatting to somebody who's very, very, very new to faith and probably wouldn't even be at the point of calling themselves a Christian yet. But we're talking very much about the.
01:23:29 Ash
I was trying to explain to he's very comfortable in his life. Really. He's got a very nice life, so he can't see beyond that. And I'm trying to tell him you've got a lovely life, you know, that's great. But God has a plan.
01:23:33
Yeah.
01:23:42 Ash
You and a purpose that's even better, and trying to explain that to somebody who's very comfortable.
01:23:48 Ash
And it and it links with the dream.
01:23:51 Ash
That God has a dream for this job.
01:23:52 Norman Barns
And we also got to realise that we've.
01:23:53 Norman Barns
Angels who look after us.
01:23:56 Norman Barns
You know where I live is the safest place for my neighbours.
01:24:01 Norman Barns
To live.
01:24:02 Norman Barns
Yeah, because we've got agents looking after us now, they don't know that. But I do know that. Yeah, living next to me is a safe place to live. I can tell you God looks after him. And so I remember one time. Can I tell you a story about this businessman? There was this businessman.
01:24:17 Norman Barns
And I I did a lot of speaking to people in business, as you know, because that's been one of my heart. And I was doing this conference on a Saturday morning and I walked past this man and the Lord said when I go back to him and I said to him, I judge, hear the Lord speak to me saying that, you know, financial difficulty with your business.
01:24:34 Norman Barns
And he said yes, he said I can't get any bills paid. There's a particular company that will not pay their bills said. OK, well then what you're doing?
01:24:42 Norman Barns
It well.
01:24:42 Norman Barns
What can I do? I said, excuse me. The enemy is a thief, and a robber is out to break your business. He'll bankrupt you just by. He can destroy your business by unpaid bills. You can have the best business in the world.
01:24:55 Norman Barns
They don't pay their bills. You go bust. Said you have to be aggressive. You realise an enemy wants to destroy you.
01:25:02 Norman Barns
All right. Because they separate out business and and Kingdom of God and and and church and all that sort of thing. This is 2 separate things I'm going that's all one or the same thing. And so I said so this we're going to pray. So I said OK, fine. I said do you believe in angels? And he went.
01:25:17 Norman Barns
I'm not. I'm not too sure, I said. Well, you need to know the angels, so we're going to pray. This is the prayer we're going to pray, right. I'm going to pray that the Lord, Lord Angels, you go to that to that office and you move all the invoices from the bottom of the pile to the top of the pile.
01:25:34 Norman Barns
So I said you didn't do that. He wasn't too sure about that, he said. Well, I'm not sure about. I don't about that. I said, well, I let me believe that. I said, do you believe in the Holy Spirit? Oh, yes. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I'll fight. So then we're going to pray that the Holy Spirit on Monday mornings and Saturday on Monday morning.
01:25:51 Norman Barns
The Holy Spirit's going to so convict the bookkeeper with your invoices on the top of the pile. They're going to have to pay all those bills.
01:25:59 Norman Barns
So let's come into an agreement because there's power, an agreement. So we pray. Lord, send your Angels, move the invoices from the popular party to.
01:26:06 Norman Barns
Popular party.
01:26:07 Norman Barns
On Monday morning, convict the bookkeeper that I have to pay these bills in Jesus name.
01:26:14 Norman Barns
Name. Amen. That's it, pray.
01:26:18 Norman Barns
So I'll carry on praying with people Wednesday morning, obviously, since on Saturday, Monday morning, the office. I'm Wednesday morning I get an e-mail from him saying all bills paid.
01:26:31 Norman Barns
Come on, get. Get God working for you. God. God is looking to work for us, to see miracles, to bring in business. You know, it's like somebody would say, if you're selling toothpaste and nobody you know and again, well, you know.
01:26:36
Yeah.
01:26:49 Norman Barns
Said. Well then you can be the best toothpaste seller in the world, you know, because people are still buying toothpaste even in in recession. So, you know, I'm thinking get everyday Lord.
01:26:59 Norman Barns
Give us divine contacts and connections in our business.
01:27:03 Norman Barns
You you prosper us, you give us it. You give us the best work that we can get. Lord, because your it's your Kingdom. We will honour you. And I believe if we honour God, if we're faithful in our giving to God, we'll seek God, prosper our businesses. Because I believe that's what God wants to do.
01:27:19 Jem
There's favour, isn't there?
01:27:21 Norman Barns
His favour walk in God's favour.
01:27:23 Ash
We had a similar situation where we were waiting for a 40,000 LB cheque that was being delayed definitely on purpose. So that morning 4/3 of us in the office were Christians. We we nailed.
01:27:35 Ash
And that day, the check came in the.
01:27:36 Norman Barns
Yeah. See, now the interesting thing you've got. You've got Joseph that has a dream. He has a dream. All right, that his brothers are going to deal before him. They all laugh at him, of course. And in the end, it. But the interesting. He shared it with his father and his father. The word of God says and his father hid these things in his heart, which is very interesting.
01:27:53 Norman Barns
If you've got fathers, he'll pray for you, even if they don't understand the word that you're actually giving to them. The brothers. You've got to be careful about because they get jealous. And so the brothers, what put him in a in a pit? Who put him in a pit?
01:28:06 Norman Barns
God or the devil.
01:28:12 Norman Barns
Interesting, isn't it?
01:28:14 Norman Barns
Because God has a plan, God has a plan, so he goes into the pit all right. But then the A caravan comes along, gets him out of the pit, and he goes into Podipher's house. All right. God gives him favour in.
01:28:15 Ash
Yeah, there's a plan, then a big.
01:28:31 Norman Barns
But because of the lying off his wife, part of his wife, he finishes up.
01:28:35 Norman Barns
A prison.
01:28:36 Norman Barns
Yeah. Who put him in the prison?
01:28:37 Ash
Well, I actually think it's the enemy. And for what? The?
01:28:40 Ash
Meant for.
01:28:40 Ash
God uses for his people.
01:28:41 Norman Barns
Well, God put God wanted him into prison. God needed him in the prison. Yeah. Why? Because he's getting him going to get him in front of a pharaoh. Yeah. So you've got a pit, a prison and a pharaoh. Free peas are good for preaching. But anyway, so it gets in front of a a pharaoh.
01:28:57 Norman Barns
Now we spend all our life worrying about the blooming pet. We've read all our lives worrying about the prison and what we don't do is the fact is that God got him in front of a parrot. Farrah, the end result was God got him where he needed to be for such a time as this. God does it.
01:29:11
And that's been stuck.
01:29:12 Norman Barns
God has arranged all this stuff, so it's very interesting. Very interesting, very interesting. Psalm 112 says this, he said, do not fear bad news.
01:29:16 Jem
Yeah.
01:29:24 Norman Barns
For I have a plan.
01:29:27 Norman Barns
Very interesting that God has got a plan for us anyway. God bless you.
01:29:34 Ash
Thank you.
01:29:35 Jem
Amazing. It's Norman. Before you leave anyone that's listening, can you please pray over them?
01:29:40 Norman Barns
Yes.
01:29:43 Jem
Just. Yeah, just with your, with your life. I mean, you've got so much wisdom and you just praying. Really strong authority. I I feel so.
01:29:51 Norman Barns
Well, Father, we thank you that you're our God.
01:29:55 Norman Barns
And we do nothing is impossible.
01:29:59 Norman Barns
You can take the little bit that we've got and multiply it.
01:30:04 Norman Barns
5 loads and two fishes, you multiplied it.
01:30:08 Norman Barns
Moses, what have you got in your hand? A rod and you use it.
01:30:12 Norman Barns
You're part of the ocean, the sea. So, Lord Jesus, I just pray for those who.
01:30:17 Norman Barns
Listening to this podcast.
01:30:20 Norman Barns
Something that we've said in Frailty, Lord Jesus, you will stir faith.
01:30:27 Norman Barns
That Lord Jesus, you will release things, release people from fear, from phobias. Lord Jesus, you've come to set the captive free. You brought to a salvation.
01:30:39 Norman Barns
Bodies, soul and spirit, and I pray Lord Jesus that you will restore Lord Jesus lust dreams.
01:30:49 Norman Barns
Dreams where people have laid them down. Lord, breathe on them again and bring life. Lord Jesus, that Lord. You can do things and realising, oh God as we sow a seed, then Lord, you said some plant, some water. But God gives the increase.
01:31:06 Norman Barns
70 odd years later from taking a young lad to Sunday school, his whole family comes to Christ. Lord, you can do it. And we're believing you for our families and our homes. We call out to the Prodigals and ask for restoration.
01:31:21 Norman Barns
Believing you to do miracles. So I pray today Lord in giving you thanks and grateful to you for everything.
01:31:29 Norman Barns
For Lord, we are merely stewards. We own actually nothing. It all belongs to you, and we're grateful to you. We only pray that prayer you taught us to pray. Lord, let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done here on Earth.
01:31:44 Norman Barns
As it's already done in the heavens, in Jesus name we ask it Amen.
01:31:51 Jem
Amen.
01:31:51 Ash
I'm at that.
01:31:55 Narrator 
Thanks for listening to the Jesus Studio podcast.
01:31:59 Narrator 
Please rate and subscribe the testimonials and stories shared. Reflect the personal experiences and unique journeys of our guests. Shop our merch at jesusstudio.co.uk.