1st May 2023. It happened on a day in 2004 during my recovery from Depression following a Heart-Attack (which I believe I am correct in saying happened exactly twenty years ago on today’s date). I said to Linda, my (late) wife, “I think I’ll go out into our back garden and cut the Runner Beans plant back because we seem to have had all the beans we’re going to get from it this year”. When I approached it, I was amazed to find it laden with newly-grown beans. But something even more amazing was what happened in the next moment: I heard a distinct voice – not through my ears, obviously, but no less audible within my head – saying words to the effect that “Just as you have been surprised to see this second harvest of beans you had not expected, so I will bless you with a Second Harvest of Ministry that will surpass your first”. I wrote it down in a little notebook I had been sent by a publishing company with my church’s name on the front cover. (Companies send these, and pens, in the hope you will buy a quantity for its members). I quickly interpreted this ‘epiphany’ incident as a message that God was finally going to promote my singing talent, so I later headed off round to my friend Trevor Stevens (a wise Christian and bass-guitarist who had worked with ‘Fleetwood Mac’) for prayer and advice. Soon after, having been invited to attend a ‘Score’ chaplaincy conference, I then surmised that my new ministry might be as a chaplain to Williams Grand-Prix Formula One team, and consulted my friend Cliff Royal. Before too long it would become apparent that God had something quite different in mind for me than Music and Sport! I made my last entry of this episode on 15th October 2004, and tucked the notebook away in a drawer, where it would wait for over thirteen years for its next entry.
On recounting the incident of the ‘Bean harvest’ to my church friends, some were heard to murmur that there was no miracle in this – a proper gardener would recognize “that’s what beans do!” This was not the point, however. The fact is that I was not expecting it, and even less was I expecting to hear God’s voice so clearly.
I am sure the reader will be asking “Why don’t such revelations happen to me?” I used to say the same myself; in fact I sometimes said some popular Christian books could be depressing as well as inspiring, because remarkable revelations only happened to their authors, not me! I can testify to only this one ‘epiphany of God’s voice’, and only one picture/vision, which happened at another time. I am glad I took photos of the Bean Harvest to remind me of what really happened. And this event was the inspiration for my first book – a mini-memoir and testimony, entitled “My Late Harvest (An old man dreams)”. See ‘My Books for Sale’ page, if you would like to acquire it.
Healing in Jesus' Name 