One Touch from the King Changes Everything

By Mark Stibbe

Sometimes something happens in your Christian life and it changes your world forever - sociologists call it a paradigm shift. Such a change happened to Mark Stibbe, and this book is the result! One Touch from the King is about how God can radically transform our lives with one simple touch. One moment of divine contact can bring an invasion of heaven into our world that means we can never be the same again. Filled with Mark Stibbe's trademark combination of sound biblical teaching and hands-on practical experience, this book will encourage you to a new level of faith.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Authentic Media
• Release date: Sep 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781850789291

Mark Stibbe

The Revd Dr Mark Stibbe leads the Father's House Trust, based in Watford. He has written many books, including the acclaimed A Box of Delights (Monarch) and is a popular speaker both in the UK and throughout the rest of Europe.

Book preview

ONE TOUCH

FROM THE

KING

CHANGES

EVERYTHING

ONE TOUCH

FROM THE

KING

CHANGES

EVERYTHING

The Father’s healing power today

MARK STIBBE

Copyright © 2007 Mark Stibbe

16 15 14 13 12 11 10   7 6 5 4 3 2 1

First published 2007 by Authentic Media

This revised edition first published 2010 by Authentic Media

Limited, Milton Keynes

www.authenticmedia.co.uk

The right of Mark Stibbe to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying. In the UK such licences are issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1P 9HE.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the

British Library

ISBN 978-1-85078-929-1

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.Where indicated ‘NLT’ Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation, copyright © 1996.Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.,P.O. Box 80, Wheaton, Illinois 60189, USA. All rights reserved.Where indicated ‘NIV’ Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, a member of Hachette Livre UK Group. All rights reserved.

Cover Design by Oliver Griffiths at Father’s House Trust

and Paul Airy at DesignLeft

This book is dedicated to Phil Clark

24 November 1931 – 12 December 2005

CONTENTS

Foreword: Bishop Joseph Garlington

Foreword to the New edition: Mark Stibbe

Introduction: Just One Touch . . .

1 The Hands of a King

2 The King’s First Move

3 Grabbing Hold of God

4 The King of Hearts

5 God’s Touch Through You

Conclusion: When Everything is Changed

Bibliography

Just One Touch

Verse:

If you are desperate, I know

When hearts are broken, I care

There is no problem that I cannot solve

There is no sickness that I cannot heal

This is your moment; don’t wait

This is your hour; press in

Only reach out; it’s time to receive

Look to me now and only believe

Chorus:

Just one touch; just one moment in time

Just one touch brings your heart close to mine

Just one touch from your Master’s hand –

Just one touch from the King changes everything

Just one touch, just one touch

Just one touch changes everything.

Hallelu, hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah

© Joseph L. Garlington, 2006

FOREWORD

‘And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech.’ ‘And let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not’ (Ruth 2:3,16, KJV).

These are two very interesting insights in the Book of Ruth that are intriguing to me, and they are interwoven; indeed, the second event in verse 16 is the byproduct of the first event in verse 3. Ruth, in her noble desire to care for her grieving mother-in-law, Naomi, sets out to find a place of employment that will produce favour. She ‘happens’ upon the field of Boaz – the one person qualified to be their redeemer. Boaz gives his workers instructions to be very intentional about providing an abundant but unearned harvest for Ruth.

I believe that Dr Mark Stibbe’s ministry is characterised by the same dynamic, in that once he ‘chances’ upon a life-changing insight, he is diligent in his quest to understand and then impart what the Father has entrusted to him. And it is in these quests that the Father lets fall to him ‘handfuls on purpose’.

Someone once said, ‘Heroes are not born; they’re cornered.’ In the same vein, I am convinced that great truths, life-transforming truths, often ‘happen’ into our lives when we are simply too tired to reject them. Great insights can come to us in that strange state between sleeping and waking. These revelations are essentially unveilings that happen to us in unguarded moments when we are too tired to care or even argue, and the left brain simply surrenders to an overwhelming insight without the usual fight. The outcome itself is amazing, and we are credited with undeserved brilliance because the Father wanted to get a simple truth to his children.

Mark’s account in this book of his encounter with the carpenter Hank is a wonderful example of the gracious way the Father reveals his truths to us, and of course Mark’s desire to steward this truth is indicative of the Father’s concern that his gifts should be used to communicate those same truths with humility and brilliance.

In the fall of 2005 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at Covenant Church, Dr Mark Stibbe delivered this powerful message – that you can have what I call an ‘elliptical encounter’. Now, in our church, you only have to say the words, ‘Just one touch from the King . . .’ and the immediate and enthusiastic response will be, ‘. . . changes everything!’

Great insights and great discoveries produce ‘children’, and one of the children of Dr Stibbe’s message is a song that some of us wrote after he preached in Covenant in October 2005. The congregation now sings the truth of the sermon: ‘Just one touch from the King changes everything.’

Another ‘child’ is the amazing increase of the miraculous, particularly in my wife’s healing ministry. Just a few days ago she prayed for a young woman who had cracked her funny bone in a fall. When she laid her hands upon the injured area, there was an immediate loud crack, and the pain was instantly gone! The following day, X-rays revealed that the bone was perfectly whole, and the specialist actually said, ‘This is not the same arm I saw a few days ago.’ Her employers, who had witnessed the accident, were simply astounded and promised her they would come to church.

This increase in the miraculous is another by-product. Dr Stibbe prophesied a release of greater faith in our house to believe for and to see the miraculous works of the King in our daily lives.

It is my prayer that those who read this book will be encouraged through precept and example that they too can produce more ‘children’, since we are convinced that the King himself wants to see his ‘touch’ multiplied in the life of every believer.

Bishop Joseph L. Garlington, Sr Covenant Church of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

FOREWORD TO THE

NEW EDITION

It has been three years since the publication of One Touch from the King in 2007 and at least five years since I started preaching the message about the Father’s power to transform our lives through his compassionate touch. I would like you to know that I believe this message as much today as I did when I first started preaching it. In fact, I am absolutely convinced that the High King of Heaven can change our circumstances in the twinkling of an eye. He can save, heal and deliver us in a moment. There is no one like our Father!

One of the main reasons I remain so committed to this idea is because of the diverse and sometimes remarkable ways in which this biblical principle has borne fruit in peoples’ lives.

Take, for example, Godfrey Birtill. Godfrey wrote a well-known worship song based on the message of this book. He heard me preach its message in 2005 and published his song, ‘Just One Touch from the King’, shortly afterwards. The lyrics go as follows:

There’s battle raging over this land

A deep damage in the people

Yet pride stops us

Stretching out our withered hand

Yet God has stretched out to heal us

This I know, this I know,

This I know, this I know that

Just one touch from the King

Changes everything

Just one touch from the King

Changes everything

There’s a great darkness over this land

A deep darkness on the people

But a light shining

That the dark can’t understand

Light of the world King Jesus

Do you know? Do you know?

Do you know? Do you know?

O land O land O land

Hear the Word of the Lord

Godfrey and Gill Birtill © 2006 Thankyou Music

That song has been sung all over the UK – and elsewhere in the world – and has led to increased faith in the Father’s power to heal.

The book has not only had an impact on worship leaders; it has also deeply affected the lives of the sick. When I did my research for the first edition, I was surprised to discover an order of service in some of the older versions of the Book of Common Prayer – a service in which the Monarchs of England laid hands on the sick, because it was believed that they could heal through the power of their royal touch. It was particularly used for the healing of those with scrofula. The critical moment in the liturgy involved the presentation of the sick to the monarch, in order that hands could be laid on them and a prayer for healing uttered:

Then shall the infirm persons, one by one, be presented to the Queen upon their knees; and as every one is presented and while the Queen is laying her hands upon them, and putting the gold about their necks, the Chaplain that officiates, turning himself to her Majesty, shall say these words following:

GOD give a blessing to this work; and grant that these sick persons on whom the Queen lays her hands may recover, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The discovery of this ancient liturgy for the Royal Touch led to further research, including the reading of Marc Bloch’s monumental study, The Royal Touch: Sacred Monarchy and Scrofula in France and England, which contains many testimonies of reported healings at the hands of these royal healers. Not long afterwards I wrote this book – One Touch from the King Changes Everything – and I decided to begin it with a description of the ancient order for the healing of those with what was known as ‘the King’s Evil’.

What happened next was remarkable. Unknown to me, a married couple on Jersey (an island I visit often to minister) had a child called Esther, who was suffering from scrofula. Their Anglican priest had read my

Reviews for One Touch from the King Changes Everything

[Harold Hart · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Such a Beautiful book with such amazing stories of the touch of the King. Truly amazing.