Sligo22: Surrender
Johnny Nimmo and his wife Jana lead Central Richtsberg in Marburg Germany, a church that seeks to bring the Kingdom to their neighbourhood. They also travel around Germany and beyond to train Christians in ministry in the power of the Spirit. Here is a summary of what he had to say at #Sligo22. (NB: notes taken during week A).
The Lord is here! Heaven is open. It is a great pleasure to be here. I find it moving to read everywhere the New Wine slogan, “Local churches changing nations.”
We started a church in a wonderful neighbourhood called Richtsberg (literally translated judgement mountain). It has the feeling of the village. We planted the church there together with a few friends. It has its challenges 8,500 people from 95 different nations. We have lots of broken people, problems with crime and addiction. We seek to be a local church that changes our neighbourhood. We have a vision that Richtsberg becomes Lichtberg… (light mountain).
We want to see 8,500 people transformed and our neighbourhood invaded by the glory of God. We want to see a church that truly is light in darkness. We don’t have a vision for our church. We have a vision for our neighbourhood – the kingdom of God in our neighbourhood. That is why we are there.
I believe as a church that we are on the verge of a new move of God. It won’t be what we had before Covid. We should not get nostalgic because I think the Lord is shaking something up and He is forming us into something new. It is very important for us to position ourselves in a good and right way.
It will have lots to do with ordinary people who start to move in their neighbourhoods. Just doing the stuff that Jesus did; representing Jesus well. When we started, it was hard work and we didn’t see lots of fruit. I got hold of books from John Wimber and heard about New Wine. They spoke about presenting the Gospel not only by preaching but by demonstrating it in the power of the spirit. We started to seek the Lord and see where we could receive the power of the spirit.
When we were newly married about 12 years ago, we heard about the New Wine conference in England. The Lord took us on a journey where He taught us more and more to see the kingdom come in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Throughout the years, we have seen how the kingdom breaks in and the power of heaven is released.
I remember this young girl (we have lots of kids and youth activities). She was the roughest girl in the club. My wife used to say, “She needs some extra love.” Her parents were drinking and she grew up never eating like normal children (just eating sweets and drinking coke). She used to steal from our team. When she turned 12 or 13, she started being more interested in boys. She started to smoke weed and then to take chemical drugs. You could see her walking through the neighbourhood. We lost contact with her and didn’t see her for ten years. Every now and then, my wife would shoot up a prayer for this girl. Then ten years later in Covid, we had our service outside. A new church member approached me and said, “I sense the Lord giving me the name Julia. The Lord wants me to write a letter from Father God to Julia – is there a church member with that name?” I said, “No, but just give me the letter and then we see.”
Then out of the bushes came this lady who had been part of our girls club. She suddenly stood next to me. I said, “I know you from girls club ten years ago. Remind me of your name.” She replied, “Julia.” And I said, “I have a letter for you.” She gave her heart to Jesus that day. Got into rehab, messed up, spent time in our home and now she is part of our church and her life is transformed. Just a few weeks ago she brought her sister to the church and she also wanted to give her life to Jesus. That is what we dream of. We want to see the kingdom of God invade our neighbourhood.
There is another guy and he was selling drugs because his daughter was an addict and he wanted to get money to pay her debts. He was caught but he could not go into prison because he is so mentally confused. He was sentenced to 100 hours of social work and he asked us to do the work with the church. We said, “Of course.” We told him, that one of the tasks was to help in the church service on Sunday.
As we usually do in our church service, we would share prophetic words. He freaked out because he said “Every one of you knows my whole life.” I just talked to him last Friday and he said, “Johnny when I came to your church I always had a longing to be part of your guys. The interesting thing was I was unable to work but since I’ve started to come to church I’m completely healed of my panic attacks and now I can start to work again.” He asked if he could work full time for the church. Then he said, “Do you know how this feels… it feels like being born again. Do you understand that?”
There is another refugee from Ukraine. A church member had a word of knowledge that someone was having a problem with their right ear. She is deaf in one ear. She started to get deaf when she was 12. We prayed for her and her hearing started to come back but then it stopped. I asked her, “What did you experience when you were 12.” She told me, “My dad was drinking and then he left the family.” I led her in forgiveness for her father and now she can hear perfectly. She is employed by our church to run a kindergarten for Ukrainian children.
Breakthrough
We don’t see this every day. But we have discovered that when we follow the Lord and seek to bring light into our neighbourhood, when we develop a vision of the kingdom for our neighbourhood and seek the power of the Holy Spirit, we start to see change. I want to present to you today with a breakthrough plan; how to receive more of the power of the Holy Spirit. How can you experience Jesus becoming big and great in you? We are not here in New Wine Ireland just to have a good time. We are here to see local churches changing neighbourhoods and local churches changing Ireland.
This is a simple plan – it is a one-step plan. The role model is a person in the Bible that in our context that we don’t often speak about because some value her really highly. But she is a true kingdom hero. Jesus literally became big in her and the kingdom of God came into the world through her. Her name is Mary. She was a teenage girl, just engaged to Joseph. Everyone was excited about the wedding preparations. He was a man of integrity. During the wedding preparations, he would have been preparing a house for them to live in.
And then the angel Gabriel visited her.
This is the breakthrough moment. She said, “I am the Lord’s servant, may your word to me be fulfilled.”
Mary knew that she would get pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit and that everything in her life would fall to pieces. She would lose her wedding, her family, Joseph... People would say she was a liar. She will bring shame on her family and on the village. And yet she says, “May your word to me be fulfilled.” It is not about me. I am willing to give it all up in order to receive the pearl of great price. Take it all, just give me Jesus.
Dying to self
William Booth said, “The greatness of a man's power is the measure of his surrender.”
This is called dying to self. So often growing up, I was asked, “Would you be willing to die for Jesus?” The better question is, “Are you willing to give your life for Jesus today? Your boundaries. Your time. Your dreams and visions. Are you willing to give everything to receive the power of the spirit, to see Jesus grow in you and His kingdom invade your neighbourhood?”
In the world we live in, death is loss but in the kingdom of God, death is a great win.
I remember a time in our youth club. None of our kids came from a Christian background. We thought when we started this youth club, they would be just waiting for us to come and introduce them to Jesus. But they had zero respect for us. They made fun of us. They did not listen when we talked. They did not stick to the rules. One Christmas, I bought sweets for all the youths and gave them out. They took the sweets and threw them all around the room.
One Friday was particularly bad. They approached us with knives and sticks. It got worse. Out of a mistake and lack of experience, we gathered together in one room. The boys left the room, locked the door and vandalised the youth room. One guy, climbed out of the window to open the door and we tried to get control over this ‘mob’. Then one of the boys started punching a team member. We had to call the police.
When everything was finished, we had a feedback meeting as a team. We prayed and we cried. In my heart, I made this decision to say, this is my last Friday. What I actually thought was, “They don’t want me. I’m too good for this.” Then the Lord started to speak to me. He did not speak to me as the great comforter. He didn’t say, “Oh poor Johnny.” What he said was, “Ah you are going to leave? I thought you meant it last week when you sang, ‘I surrender all to you.’” I said, “I am sorry Lord. I give up.” I chose to surrender again. That was an important moment.
My question to you is, do you want to be used by God? Do you want to be used in your neighbourhood to go to the poor, to the broken, to those in captivity? Are you willing to say with Mary, “May your word to me be fulfilled.”
About 30 years later, Mary introduced her son into ministry saying to the servants, “Do whatever He says.” There are people here who know the broken and dark places in their neighbourhoods. You know that you need to do bring the gospel of His kingdom to these places.
William Booth said “Go straight for souls and go for the worst.”
Come Lord and spend us. We are loose change in your pocket. Amen.