Fire in our hearts - The Jesus Army

FIRE IN OUR HEARTSCOMMUNICATE!community life and compassionate street work. Other streamslike Ichthus and Pioneer had developed their own distinctivesand we were beginning to enrich one another.Flowing with the mainstream was a whole new chapter inour story. What was now happening amongst us was precious.I wept to see our church becoming young again. At times wehad been proud and pushy. The sword we wielded hadwounded people unnecessarily. But God had applied it to us.We had tasted humiliation, rejection, failure; God’s woundingshad caused us to need others, to recognise our mistakes andweaknesses, to forgive and be forgiven. And through that opendoor sprang a new anointing.Noel’s new vulnerability touched me, his painstaking effortsat reconciliation and the genuineness of his vision forBritain. But some Christians elsewhere doubted his motives.Was it all a cosmetic job? Another ruse to sign people up,promote ourselves? Cynicism came our way and it hurt —tremendously.We held a big Celebration that April in Westminster CentralHall, London. There we presented our first Jesus Army video,Fighting For You, along with Reinhard Bonnke’s A BloodWashed Africa. Also a well known worship leader joined usfor the evening. The next day in Basingstoke, he sported asweatshirt with these words:Dave Bilbrough appeared with the Jesus ArmyAnd survived!304