It was while I was in prayer with the Irish guys in Buenos Aires - Argentina that a number of things began to make sense.  Some years earlier I had received a prophecy about God having "got me by the thumbs".  

The implication was that I had little choice but to go where he led.  It felt to me that day as if God were saying to me , of the Irish, "trust these guys and give over the control to them". I shared this image with them.  Over lunch we went for a walk in the city centre and I saw this ring for sale. It was most unusual. Ian Bothwell bought it for me as a small reminder of what had just taken place in prayer. 

Some years later one of the others who had been present felt that I should throw the ring away lest it become a superstitious - even controlling - thing. So reluctantly I did, but not before taking a picture of it.

See "Of Rings and Things" - comment on 24-7

Click on image for full size map

Click on picture of Reading Abbey for detailed history 

Ireland Links

A further connection to the thumb thing comes through an understanding of the history of Reading. 

It came about one night when I was praying for Reading and had my hand on the map. As I took my hand away I saw that it had fitted exactly into a shape on the map. The geography of the land has a remarkable resemblance to a man's hand, even down to roads demarking the joints of the fingers. However there was no thumb - least not till 1999 - when the A33 bypass was built. The new road forms the thumb, down to roundabouts marking the joints! 

It is easy to get carried away with these images but it did speak to me.

Reading was once dominated by the Benedictine Abbey.  The whole of what is now "Whitley" to the South of Reading was owned by the Abbot as the Abbey Farm. Place names such as Monk's Barn still exist today. 

Reading Abbey was dedicated to the 'Virgin Mary' and St. James (of Santiago del Compostella in Spain). The main relic of the Abbey was the hand of St James (still in the county) - the rest of him being in Spain!  I felt God saying that the South of the Town was as it were under the "dead hand of the enemy". 

No disrespect to James, if it is indeed his hand, but the enemy uses misplaced faith.  If you understand Santiago you will understand my concerns.

Somehow while in prayer in Buenos Aires I saw a connection between this "dead hand of the enemy" and the "Red Hand of Ulster". A hand of control and oppression.            

Images of Santiago