Experiencing Father’s love: looking back on a wonderful Fatherheartschool

In 2004, as we were attending a Fatherheart school in Den Hague, we had the strong impression we could invite this school to Belgium. Shortly after we contacted the Faterheart team from New Zealand and picked a date: 13th to 19th November 2005. Quite a challenge… who wants to invest an entire week plus money in a weeks ’teaching and ministering on the theme ‘’the Fatherheart of God’’?

Danny (thanks again!) set out to look, with patience and diligence, for an affordable place accommodating a group of about 60 people. This was our pre-set goal,,God was thinking much bigger! It was a lovely week in the midst of nature in the beautiful diocesan centre of Torhout. To our amazement our heavenly Father sent 80 participants and 11 co-workers from 8 different countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switserland, Norway, England, Canada and New Zealand. James had never had such a large school before!

21 people from our church attended! Our speakers were James and Denise Jordam from New Zealand and Ian and Janice Ross from Canada. All four have been travelling around the world for quite some time now with Gods healing Fatherheart ministry and so they ministered to us these days. God impressed their hearts to work with a school format, so people could be immersed a longer time with the teaching and the ministry of the Fatherheart. Right from the start you could perceive the hunger of those present… Gods tangible presence was a clear response! All of us, we drank in the teaching, many a new friendship was forged, together we enjoyed wonderful soaking moments and there was lots of laughter! Here some participants share what this week meant to them…..

Els and François have been walking with the Lord for a long time and have been to many conferences. When the invitation for this week arrived, Els was very reluctant to go. ‘’Another conference….yet another one..’’She secretly hoped François wouldn’t want to attend. When she discussed it with him, François replied :’’If we do not go there, the Fatherheart of God, what then is the purpose of it all…’’ And so they register… Els tells us that all the sessions appealed tremendously to her and several things impacted deeply. From the very beginning after her conversion Els heard babies cry each time she went into the garden she looked and listened everywhere, but nowhere there were babies around. After a while she realised this must have a spiritual meaning, but she didn’t understand it,,, Did something happened to little children in the neighborhood? Was it abortion? The holocaust? She never understood where the crying came from. It stopped about a year ago only to start again a couple of days before attending the Fatherheart school.

One evening at the school Denise was explaining how she had felt a very deep void in her own life. This emptiness was so big that she heard herself cry as baby, although she was a grown woman now! God showed her she had lacked motherly love what caused this great void in her life. Immediately Els thought of the babies she had heard crying. She too, sensed a void, grief and deep loneliness notwithstanding her conversion. That night she was deeply touched by God’s motherly love, it gave her life a new turn. The first night back home God showed her she was born a breechbaby. The birth was very difficult, the midwife thought even for a while that Els would not make it. So she finally was born but her mother was completely and utterly exhausted, and the first days Els did not get the necessary attention and mother love…

Also when James was telling how God created man, Els was deeply touched by the Father. God breathed the breath of life in the nostrils of the man….that means He was very closeby when the man opened his eyes and looked straight into the eyes of his Creator… it was as if He kissed the man. As James recounted the creation story, Els went along in it and felt as if she was created all over by God…. she knew for the first time that her Heavenly Papa really loved her, not with her mind she knew it now but with her heart…. A daughte of the Most High God discovered her true identity…..

Filled with God’s love François and Els returned home and visited François’ mom that very evening. She was widowed in May and was having a hard time… Els and François listened to her and talked with her, let her cry and hugged her… and mother was completely different when they left her house that night. The Word says: without love you can do nothing. ‘’I always wanted to do good, but now I had Gods love and that makes is totally different’’ Els witnessed. ‘’I used to do good out of a sense of duty, but now I’m overflowing with the love of the Father.’’ In church Els can now really look people in the eye and hug them with the love of the Father. Even in donating Els experiences a completely new depth. She was always faithfully tithing and offering, now she has come to realise that only love can truly give…’’ Now I have to contain myself, I understand for the first time how people can give really everything because of this profound love…’’

This week influenced even people that could not attend the school. Elly heard the testimonies of some people explaining how they had asked their father forgiveness for their own mistakes as a child. She felt addressed and prayed over it. She forgave her father, who has already passed away, and asked him forgiveness for all her shortcomings. That night she had a dream and was allowed to see her father in heave. She asked him forgiveness for all her faults. He forgave her, and Elly forgave him for all his faults. A loving embrace followed. Elly found it very special!

Danny thoroughly enjoyed the entire week…. to her the message of the Fatherheart school closely joins in with what we do in church…. healing has everything to do with relationship with God as Father. It is all about building up your love relationship with Him. The vision God gave already gave for her life was again confirmed and refreshed. James talked of how God thought of each one of us from before the foundation of the earth. He designed us as unique individuals with a unique task on this world. Often people feel superfluous, thinking it would be better not to exist. God wants to set us free so we can become the person we can be! During this teaching James said: ’’you were born for love’’ at that moment he looked Danny straight in the eye and pointed at her. This was like a thunderclap to Danny and she received a deep healing. She cried a lot and went to lay down the rest of the morning, then she experienced how this was healing her profoundly. Together with her husband, Hugo, she enjoyed a beautiful week and testified that through the school their relationship was touched very deeply as well.

Hugo was equally touched by the message on forgiving your parents. Hugo’s parents lost their firstborn son. He was, after his older sister was born, the boy who had to make up for the loss of their first son. Hugo was being overprotected. He was hardly allowed to do anything, his mother always feared to loose him…He couldn’t make his own choice, wasn’t allowed to do sports, while he really enjoyed that; he wanted to learn drawing, he wasn’t allowed… His entire life was determined by the choices his parents made for him. It was like a straitjacket that caused many problems even to this day. A few years ago God urged him to forgive his father and mother in order to be delivered from chronical pains in the joints. Although finding it very hard, he did forgive them. Since then he has hardly had any painful joints.

James explained there is a difference between forgiving from your will and forginving from the heart. During the prayer after the teaching James asked us to visualize our parents and to speak out forgiveness. That’s what Hugo did and he explained he could well visualise his parents though both are long gone. He could precisely tell what suit his father was wearing. In prayer he laid his hand on his father’s shoulder and he experienced how God was helping him. It produced a deep healing for Hugo. The testimony of Ian and Janice challenge him to do something about his own heart’s desires. On 15th December last year Hugo suffered a cardiac arrest. Prayer pulled him through but he quickly became tired. He feared not being able to follow the school. The first day was very tiring. But from the second day on he wasn’t experiencing any fatigue at night…. Father restored his strength! A while after the school, Hugo went to the doctor to have his blood pressure checked. Hugo had an increased bloodpressure for over 30 years and now for the first time in all those years the diastolic was 9 (it used to be 10 or more). The inner healing clearly influenced is physical health.