By Their Fruit

By Their Fruit

With your permission, I would like to share a very poignant little testimony. Still there?? Good. . . . .

Nearly fifty years ago now, there was a very run down Elim Church in a fairly run down suburb of North London called East Finchley. I lived in North Finchley – about three miles away. Confused? Don’t worry about it. It’s the last time it will be mentioned. A near neighbour of ours was an elder at the church and the pastors, Johnny and Carol Cooper, lodged with the neighbour. They were all “as poor as church mice” – as were we all in that area.

Johnny Cooper was a fiery little Welshman, born into the pre-war aftermath of the Welsh revival. He burned for God with every single breath he took. Another neighbour, now living in Australia, invited me to the church one Sunday. Now I had heard that Johnny Cooper was a mean table tennis player and I wasn’t too shabby at it myself, so I went along. A few weeks later, on December 2 1962, I sat listening to Johnny preach and he gave an altar call. I had heard it before so I took very little notice until some invisible person seemed to stick a needle in my backside :-)

Thus began my Christian walk. Then around 1998, the Lord seemed to urge me to contact Johnny and Carol again. When I mentioned this to a senior pastor in the Elim movement, he told me that Johnny Cooper was a very widely known and respected evangelist and revival preacher with a diary that stretched over three years in advance !!! Nevertheless, he kindly gave me their home number. I did nothing for two years for whatever reason. Once again the urgency to call them returned – so I did finally call.

A young lady answered the phone and I explained who I was and what I wanted. She replied that her dad was with the medics at that moment. He had been ill for some time with a brain tumour and it was felt that this was his final few moments. I apologised, said I would pray for him and for Carol and hung up. About a week later the Lord urged me to call them again. I was told that Carol was not taking any calls at all, except mine (if I called again).

A very sad Carol came to the phone and this is what she said. “Hello ChrIs, The Lord has taken my darling Johnny home. But I am glad you called because you need to know something special. When you called last week, we really thought for a few moments that it was Johnny’s healing. That was not to be. However, the Lord showed me that, even in his final moments, the devil was trying to taunt Johnny by asking him, “Where’s all your fruit now?” The Lord told us that, when you called, we could say to the devil, “Here’s the fruit – now go!” Johnny couldn’t speak but when I told him this he smiled and then he died peacefully in my arms. So I just wanted to thank you for being obedient to God’s call and for calling us.” She said much more than this but this is all we need for this testimony.

For whatever reason, I have never shared this with anyone before now, but the Lord is urging me to do so now. You see, the enemy never stops trying to rob us – even as we go home to the Lord, he is still trying. Yet God always has a response ready for him and He gives us such peace as we can only stand in awe and wonder.

Don’t ever let the enemy rob you or your loved ones like this. He is defeated, once and for all time, at Calvary and we are the victors.