Cake, icing and Bobby Connor

A friend of mine, with whom I had only been in contact by email for 15 years, had travelled all the way from the south of England to see me. She told me at a final lunch how precious the time was for her. „It was so great to see you - and Bobby Connor - one of the speakers - was the icing on the cake!“ Here is some extremely tasty carrot cake that tastes great in and of itself, but the wonderfully soft icing on top makes it extra special.

Bobby Connor (on the left in the photo) is a man who has been travelling with God for decades and has experienced just about everything you can experience in the service of God. His sermons - if you can call his spiritual impulses with spontaneous dramatic interludes that - were extremely original. Bobby is a number in his own right. Extremely unconventional and at the same time powerful and profound. The man knows the word of God and the power of God. One of his favourite passages is from a psalm in which it is described that God has given the psalmist the strength of a wild ox. He thinks that's pretty good.

It touched me that my friend referred to me - in comparison to this man - as the cake and Bobby, God's wild ox, as the icing. When I thought about it, I realised that she was right. Cool inspiration, even powerful work of God, doesn't come close to the value of long-lived friendship, standing up for each other, love and prayer. Deep, lived relationship is the cake - also in life with God. Great experiences, signs and wonders are the icing on top, which is of course part of it. Without the icing, the cake is nutritious, but a little dry.

Icing Bobby was definitely full of content. As he was staying in the same house, I had the opportunity to hear many more stories in the evenings after the events and to ask him one or two questions. He is someone who clearly hears God's voice, has impressive, supernatural experiences and answers to prayer, regularly experiences healings - of course I wanted to know what his secret is. „Deep times with God and his word are the fastest way to grow in the supernatural,“ he replied. And immediately quoted Psalm 42:7, which expresses that the depth within us longs to resonate with the depth within God: „Deep calls upon deep!“

That is also what I like so much here - that it is emphasised again and again that personal, intimate times with Jesus are the key to all work with God. There is clearly a longing for his power. And Aliss says again and again when she hears about something she has not yet experienced: „I want to see that too!“

But for all the fun that inspiring miracles bring - it is not sensationalism, but the desire to bring people closer to the love and power of God. You can see that in Bobby - when he talks about healings and deliverances he has experienced, you can feel the deep compassion he has for people.

For example, when a woman cursed and shouted at him during a lecture. He went to her, switched off the microphone, made everyone else wait and told her what God had shown him - that she had been brutally abused as a child. She began to cry, acknowledging it. He prayed for her deliverance. Underneath her extreme aggression, he saw the suffering human being.

Or the story when an extremely violent burglar held a gun to his head. For several months beforehand, he had repeatedly spoken about the biblical passage „Whatever you bind on earth will also be bound in heaven...“ (Matthew 18:18), which he understood to mean that if we, as children of God, decide something on earth, heaven will agree with us.
So he stopped the shooting and although he tried, the man was unable to pull the trigger and fled. Because he was considered so dangerous, 150 police officers from a special unit were deployed to apprehend him. Bobby was put in the police van for security reasons. There he received all the radio messages. Including the order to shoot the man.
He decided to stop this because he did not want the man to die and prayed and commanded silence. Immediately after his prayer, the commander cancelled the order. Then he was asked what should happen. He said and commanded: „The man should come out of hiding with his hands behind his head and no harm should be done to him!“ And so it happened. He would have had good reason to do the man harm, but he had mercy and compassion.

Bobby exemplifies the importance of God's word for him and that the encounter with the living God and his living word is his source of strength. In my entire life as a Christian, I have never experienced anyone who knows so many Bible passages by heart. „You ask yourself xy - the answer is in Bible passage z!“ His sermons were ultimately nothing more than a series of questions and answers in the form of Bible verses that he quoted from memory. At a pace that I couldn't keep up with the writing. Sprinkled with anecdotes, musical interludes, Louis Armstrong imitations and prophetic impulses for individual listeners - also mostly in the form of Bible verses. For pious people who expect a structured three-point sermon, it will certainly take some getting used to. For everyone else, it was a candy machine that churned out one spiritual treat and powerhouse after another at a rocket-like pace.

The man knows his Bible. And believes it like a child. Like a child, he occasionally speaks of himself in the third person. „You know, I thought to myself: God is no respecter of persons. So I told God: I want to experience what the other people in the Bible experienced. And I told him: Bobby wants to experience all that too - give it to him or explain to him why he can't!“ Wow!

He makes no secret of the fact that some of the experiences he has had with God have also cost him a lot. Asking God is a key. However, true authority always comes at a price - growth, character transformation, overcoming challenges. Jesus was no different. It is said of him that he went into the desert filled with the Holy Spirit. And was tempted there by the devil. After he had passed the test, he was no longer „only“ filled with the Spirit of God, but served and spoke in the power of God. (Luke 4, 1 -15)

Bobby is usually preaching and ministering somewhere five times a week - I asked him how he manages to have quiet times with God with such a busy travelling schedule. He said, „The Bible says that you should go into your closet to pray. It doesn't have to be a chamber in the material sense. I have created a chamber within me where I can retreat, even when life is raging around me.“ Wow again!