“We are a civilised people,” intones John Alley in announcing that we will have 30 minutes for morning tea, even if we are running late. We were running to time, but John likes to ensure that there is time for fellowship between the sessions.
Debbie Gadd is the pastor of Snowy Valley Community Church in Tumbarumba, NSW. As you might guess, it is a cold place, even in summer. Debbie shared how she and her church came to be participants in the fellowship of John Alley’s apostolic network.
Derek Ott is a prophet and teacher from Arizona in the USA. It is the opposite of cold for most of the year. Derek was the main speaker for Session 3.
We were baptised into Christ’s death, and so our responsibility is to live from Christ not from ourselves. As spiritual sons of John Alley, we all need to step up in a bigger way in joining with John’s battle. If God calls a father to a mission. He is certainly calling the sons also. We need to be aware that battle weariness can catch up with us, but God prepares a feast for us on His holy mountain (Is. 25.) We are moving into a season where instead of fighting battles, we are sharing in this feast prepared by Jesus for His people,
For some reason I didn’t sleep well last night, so I was quite weary to start off with.
Mostly, everyone so-operated and we got to the church with a couple of minutes to spare.
The session started with a powerful time of worship. Linden Scilley spoke about why he believes that John Alley is a genuine apostle. Linden is a Salvation Army officer based in south western Sydney.
The main speaker was David Alley, John’s eldest son, who was born in Narrabri when John and Hazel were stationed there. David is now the pastor of Peace Church, and has worked tirelessly amongst the pastors and priests of Rockhampton, bringing a very real sense of unity amongst the churches.
The lighting of the stage has been confusing for the camera, and for some reason ir decided not to fire the flash.
David talked about how we can learn to feel love for other christians, especially those who are not of our “tribe.”
Make a deliberate choice to feel God’s love for me- we cannot love others until we have experienced God’s love as a reality.
Make a deliberate choice to ask God to give you love for others. Some people are easy to love; others not so much.
Make a deliberate choice to pray for God’s people. Prayer is like an investment. We pray for things that are important to us. Equally when we pray for other christians, we start to care about them
On Thursday we set off on the epic pilgrimage to Rockhampton for the 2026 Apostolic Summit. This year, we took Kate and Daniielle, which made it a cosy fit in the back seat.
We left at 7 am, arriving for our traditional lunch time stop of Condamine. Thursday is Donut Day in tiny Condamine. The donuts here are excellent, and the centres are guaranteed to be 100% fat free!
We arrived at the Peace Church after a quick dinner, and in time for the start. We met up with the Coopers and the Boltons, all of us thankful for a safe journey of nearly 1000 km.
In the first session, John talked about the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR), which we are definitely not part of.
There are criticisms made of NAR, some of which are valid and some of which are not. The problem with many critics of the NAR is that they typically have little or no experience or knowledge of the charismatic and Pentecostal movements. They lump anyone who is prophetic or apostolic in with NAR. Many Pentecostal/ charismatic ideas and organisations are also seen as “contaminated” or “influenced” by the NAR, even those that were around long before the NAR.
This led on to a discussion of the idea of revelation. Again some critics of the NAR teach that when people have a “revelation” from the Holy Spirit, they are putting their own ideas as equal to Scripture. No, Scripture is the test of whether a personal revelation is genuinely from God or not.
The session concluded with prayers for more revelations, prophecies and words of knowledge for the attendees.
Islam is a total system of laws and expectations so expansive and demanding that failure is inevitable. Guilt becomes constant. But Islam offers a way to offset that failure :pledge allegiance to the faith, stand with the ummah, and oppose its enemies. And nothing signals that allegiance more loudly than standing against Israel. Danny Burmawi
If prayer helps patients heal, why is it still treated with suspicion?
Stories of nurses and doctors facing disciplinary action for wearing a cross at work or offering to pray with patients have become increasingly common. In many healthcare settings, there is a hardline and strict boundaries when it comes to discussions of faith and spirituality. But what if such policies are actually denying patients significant aid in their healing?
Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have found that just five minutes of in-person Christian prayer can significantly reduce both pain and anxiety, with effects lasting for weeks.
According to the study, prayer proved even more effective than listening to music for the same duration of time.
The randomised trial, conducted by the Department of Family and Community Medicine, involved 180 patients who were divided into two groups: one received five minutes of in-person prayer, while the other spent five minutes listening to music.
Researchers then tracked patients’ self-reported pain and anxiety levels immediately after the intervention, as well as two and six weeks later.
While both groups experienced improvements, the prayer group reported substantially greater reductions in both pain and anxiety. Notably, the anxiety benefits remained statistically significant six weeks after the prayer session.
Dr Katherine Jacobson, assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, told Fox News that 97 per cent of participants were either neutral or supportive when asked whether this type of prayer should be available as part of medical visits.
There is little doubt that many churches would gladly send volunteers to nearby hospitals to offer brief prayer sessions to sick and dying patients. The question is whether our institutions are willing to set aside their atheistic bias and allow such care to become a normalised option for those who want it.
The findings, published in the Annals of Family Medicine, add to a growing body of research exploring the role of spiritual care in health and recovery. Yet much of the scientific and medical establishment remains constrained by a materialist worldview—the belief that human beings are nothing more than physical matter, with no soul, spirit, or immaterial dimension.
If that assumption is mistaken—and it is—then the therapeutic value of prayer may be addressing a part of the human person that modern medicine has largely neglected.
A beautiful morning in Narrabri today. I rode to Bunnings then around the edge of town and then up Ugoa St past the lake and to Railway St before coming home. #cycling #Narrabri
Scripture He told them, “My soul is crushed with great grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
Observation On their way to the Mount of Olives, Jesus tells the disciples that they will all desert him. After he is raised from the dead, they will meet again in Galilee. Peter boldly claims that even if the rest desert him, he will not. But Jesus says that very night, Peter will deny three times that he knows Jesus.
At Gethsemane, Jesus takes Peter, James and John with him to pray. Jesus tells them his soul is crushed with grief. He asks them to pray for him and he goes on a little further.
Jesus prays, asking the Father to take his time of suffering away. “Yet not my will but yours be done.” He goes back to the three and finds them asleep.
After the third time of this happening, the betrayer comes.
Application This scene in the Garden of Gethsemane is a powerful spiritual battle. Jesus is under the most severe testing of his life. The awful fate about to befall him weighs heavily on his soul. We can be sure that satan will be there, whispering in his head that he doesn’t need to be obedient to God, that he can go his own way.
I think it was likely the disciples were under attack also. Their tiredness seems to be unnatural. There have been times when I have been called to pray, and almost immediately I come under a heavy weariness that I have to push through to get to prayer.
At this point of intensive grief and foreboding, Jesus goes into deep prayer. He draws on the strength of the Father to face up to what is coming.
Listen Lord, is there a lesson for me in this account of your struggle?
Keith, it is your communion with me that is your greatest strength. When you cast yourself on me and surrender all of your plans and ambitions, all of your fights and self-justifications, that is when you are strongest because that is when you are trusting me.
There are times when you allow the enemy to Overwhelm you with fatigue, sinful desires or interruptions. Keep pressing in, even when it seems impossible.
