Showing posts with label Xn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Xn. Show all posts
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
The Mountaintop in The Valley
What an awesome privilege it is to worship God at any time of the day or night. Here I am in worship on my futon in the middle of a wet November day and experiencing the awesome power of God’s Holy Spirit present in my life when all the darkness is seen to blow away. Here in what should have been one of the lowest and most helpless periods of my life is God present and abundant in His grace and favour towards me. Never again will I doubt my confidence in God, and never again will I doubt my confidence in my confidence in God because He is mighty and awesome to save and I have experienced it and been able to step up and seen Him do it, to see Him in this place and to know that I am big enough in His strength to allow Him to do this through me.
The Intercessory Power of Worship
I have a theory, and that theory is that many local churches are free of all the stuff that Warfare Intercessors think they need to bind and cast even though these congregations do not bind and cast. I believe that this is because our worship is powerful and effective in sending the demons packing.
James wrote that the fervent prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective. But what about the fervent praise (and worship) of the righteous?
My local church is, in context, a powerful and effective local Church.
• In March 2007 it has somewhere in the region of 8000 participants across five service times in three locations and two countries, as well as its weekly social (connective) events.
• In the calendar year of 2006 it saw over 6000 decisions for Christ, both first time and recommitment.
• It has raised the identity of Christ and His Church across both the Christian and secular communities of Europe, impacting leaders in many spheres of business, finance, education, health and service industries.
• It directly supports social and community work among some of the poorest people of Mumbai (India) and Kasisi (Uganda), along with work in the United Kingdom and special projects across the world.
• It prays weekly for the needs of its people, and has heard reports of the effectiveness of those prayers in healings from cancers and many other physical and mental illnesses, release from financial distress and debt, and provision of employment/housing/visa/friendship for its contingent of young visitors from the Commonwealth.
• It continues to expand, and has a vision for new endeavours: empowering individual Christians to influence their own spheres and championing the cause of the local church across Britain and Europe.
We proclaim a gospel of grace, of a righteousness accredited to individual Christians because of their acceptance of Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. We are saved by grace, and out of that grace we do works; but our righteousness is that of Christ by virtue of divine exchange.
So, how does a local church which does not wave banners and march around its streets, does not have all-night prayer vigils, does not have “prayer warfare” or “prayer counselling” or “deliverance ministry” teams, manage to be so effective in the face of demonic opposition? Christ tells us we are righteous, our world sees us as powerful and effective (in context): yet this takes place without what some would describe as “fervent” prayer.
Repentance is the first place of revival. Revival planning is not about casting and loosing powers over Norwich, but about humility and contrition in the Church. God commands a blessing when the church is united. Hillsong is a place of humility, contrition towards grace (and confidence beyond it), servant-heartedness, and unity behind the cause of Christ.
Bridal forms of Intercession.
In late 2002 and early 2003 I had the privilege of joining with a small group of strategic-level prayer warriors in East Anglia, living on site with them and travelling with them to various parts of the East of England to take part in local, strategic warfare. During this time we became aware of a move in prayer circles that God was revealing a new form of intercession, which was to be known as “Bridal Intercession”. The word came from God that it was time for the intercessors to come down off the ramparts and to come into the throne-room of God: the time for battle was at an end, the time for intimacy with the victorious Lord was beginning. (In no way was this a suggestion that “the War” was over because only the return of Christ as King of Glory will ultimately bring destruction to the reign of satan on Earth.) Prayer was to move away from “pulling down strongholds” and shift instead to “calling down Heaven”. The Bride was to take off her boots and put on her slippers.
The idea was circulated that when a stronghold is pulled down, the demons are sent to the pit and the Church stands victorious in the rubble. When Heaven is called down, the demons flee from the presence of the Living God under their own conviction, and the Church stands victorious in the Shekinah. In both cases the work of satan is utterly destroyed, but only Brides get to spend time with the King in His glory, the warriors just get to step across the rubble and go home. God was bringing refreshing to His armies, stepping in as He did in the days of Israel and Judah to glorify His own Name and accept the praises of His people, (or His People.)
It is my view that my local church is such a People, a company of worshipping Brides who celebrate their love by the Husband in their songs of worship and their lives of utter submission to the Cause of Christ: to love God and to love people. We don’t require a company to march around our house on a Sunday, any power or authority that will not submit to God is blown away by the power of the worship of the house: not the music, the worship. The heart-attitude of the believers in Christ in the House brings glory to God and He delights in this praise: not for the sake of “doing Bridal Intercession”, but simply because that is who we are, as the Church of Jesus Christ we are the Bride of our beloved Lord and Saviour and we delight to have him come to visit. When he does, the adversarial forces run away.
James wrote that the fervent prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective. But what about the fervent praise (and worship) of the righteous?
My local church is, in context, a powerful and effective local Church.
• In March 2007 it has somewhere in the region of 8000 participants across five service times in three locations and two countries, as well as its weekly social (connective) events.
• In the calendar year of 2006 it saw over 6000 decisions for Christ, both first time and recommitment.
• It has raised the identity of Christ and His Church across both the Christian and secular communities of Europe, impacting leaders in many spheres of business, finance, education, health and service industries.
• It directly supports social and community work among some of the poorest people of Mumbai (India) and Kasisi (Uganda), along with work in the United Kingdom and special projects across the world.
• It prays weekly for the needs of its people, and has heard reports of the effectiveness of those prayers in healings from cancers and many other physical and mental illnesses, release from financial distress and debt, and provision of employment/housing/visa/friendship for its contingent of young visitors from the Commonwealth.
• It continues to expand, and has a vision for new endeavours: empowering individual Christians to influence their own spheres and championing the cause of the local church across Britain and Europe.
We proclaim a gospel of grace, of a righteousness accredited to individual Christians because of their acceptance of Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. We are saved by grace, and out of that grace we do works; but our righteousness is that of Christ by virtue of divine exchange.
So, how does a local church which does not wave banners and march around its streets, does not have all-night prayer vigils, does not have “prayer warfare” or “prayer counselling” or “deliverance ministry” teams, manage to be so effective in the face of demonic opposition? Christ tells us we are righteous, our world sees us as powerful and effective (in context): yet this takes place without what some would describe as “fervent” prayer.
Repentance is the first place of revival. Revival planning is not about casting and loosing powers over Norwich, but about humility and contrition in the Church. God commands a blessing when the church is united. Hillsong is a place of humility, contrition towards grace (and confidence beyond it), servant-heartedness, and unity behind the cause of Christ.
Bridal forms of Intercession.
In late 2002 and early 2003 I had the privilege of joining with a small group of strategic-level prayer warriors in East Anglia, living on site with them and travelling with them to various parts of the East of England to take part in local, strategic warfare. During this time we became aware of a move in prayer circles that God was revealing a new form of intercession, which was to be known as “Bridal Intercession”. The word came from God that it was time for the intercessors to come down off the ramparts and to come into the throne-room of God: the time for battle was at an end, the time for intimacy with the victorious Lord was beginning. (In no way was this a suggestion that “the War” was over because only the return of Christ as King of Glory will ultimately bring destruction to the reign of satan on Earth.) Prayer was to move away from “pulling down strongholds” and shift instead to “calling down Heaven”. The Bride was to take off her boots and put on her slippers.
The idea was circulated that when a stronghold is pulled down, the demons are sent to the pit and the Church stands victorious in the rubble. When Heaven is called down, the demons flee from the presence of the Living God under their own conviction, and the Church stands victorious in the Shekinah. In both cases the work of satan is utterly destroyed, but only Brides get to spend time with the King in His glory, the warriors just get to step across the rubble and go home. God was bringing refreshing to His armies, stepping in as He did in the days of Israel and Judah to glorify His own Name and accept the praises of His people, (or His People.)
It is my view that my local church is such a People, a company of worshipping Brides who celebrate their love by the Husband in their songs of worship and their lives of utter submission to the Cause of Christ: to love God and to love people. We don’t require a company to march around our house on a Sunday, any power or authority that will not submit to God is blown away by the power of the worship of the house: not the music, the worship. The heart-attitude of the believers in Christ in the House brings glory to God and He delights in this praise: not for the sake of “doing Bridal Intercession”, but simply because that is who we are, as the Church of Jesus Christ we are the Bride of our beloved Lord and Saviour and we delight to have him come to visit. When he does, the adversarial forces run away.
The Handwriting of God
God writes the first 10 commandments on stone.
God writes on the plaster wall at Belshazzar’s feast.
Jesus writes in the dust.
Where else does God WRITE in writing in the Bible: and what does it mean?
God writes on the plaster wall at Belshazzar’s feast.
Jesus writes in the dust.
Where else does God WRITE in writing in the Bible: and what does it mean?
Things Damien learned at Hillsong Servant School
The challenges that God has placed upon my life in the past six months, both within and without Ministry School, cannot be adequately summed up in typed words: His grace and favour to me have been beyond anything I have experienced so far in my life, and that extends to the things He has allowed me to learn.
In limiting myself to a page of typed summary I have chosen to focus on the one key thing that “pings at me” the most as I review my notes: I need to get started so that God can take what is in my hand and use it to His glory. He did this with Zerubbabel (Zechariah 4.6), He did in with Paul (1Corinthians 3.6), and He did it with Jonathan and the anonymous Armour-Bearer (Numbers 14). It is this last story that has most impressed me as it was the understanding that Gary Clarke brought out of this text, that God can use me mightily even when I am anonymous and “hidden” to the peripheral world (and even the Church), which was the thing I most needed to hear.
• God will increase what I do: if I do nothing then He has nothing to multiply, if I am nothing then He has no-one to replicate.
• Action with sacrifice gets God’s involvement: I need to be prepared to risk God not acting so that I can give Him something to use when He does come through for me. (I come through for Him by taking the initiative, either in the role of Jonathan and getting out from under the tree of boredom to act, or in the role of armour-bearer by committing “heart and soul” to the initiative of my leader.)
At present I am serving on two teams in the life of Hillsong Church London: New Christians-Discovery, and Because We Can. In my life beyond Church I am in transition in a number of ways, but in all of these (and at Church) I have taken the wisdom of God and the college to “just get in there” and am seeing Him begin to move in what I have already commenced.
Away from this key message I am constantly reminded that leadership is about servanthood, and that its main task is people-development. Servanthood is about serving people, the Greek words used in the New Testament refer to the role of leaders (diakone and episkope) as servants. Indeed everything is about people, God’s answer to every need in the church was people (Acts 6) and it still is today: indeed, as Mark Wilkinson spoke into Hillsong at a Sunday service in 2003, God’s treasure is people (Matthew 6:21).
The task of God’s leaders, whatever their role in the life of the congregation, is to connect people with the cause and focus of God Himself: the cause of Christ. His own life’s purpose was to show the Father to the world, John 14.31(msg), and the focus of his ministry was people themselves. Our motivation comes about through these two things, a deliberate focus on people and the cause of getting them connected to God and His Church. As Christians it can be nothing less.
Beyond that is the message that I am wonderful (Psalm 139 as read to us by Martin Houghton-Brown), and that I need to back myself, believe in myself, and get over myself. Once I am out of the way then it is easier for me to focus on other people, and to begin to do something that will bring glory to God and fulfilment to my spirit: I am free to get better at relationships, and be better set up to handle the twists and turns of life with my scenario-planning Father. It’s much easier to do “Selah, then move on” when my focus is on God’s wonderful and fearful creation, and not on my own shyness or the events of my life at work. This is both liberating and empowering: I’m ready to get on board with God and trust Him to see this through until the end.
27th March 2007.
In limiting myself to a page of typed summary I have chosen to focus on the one key thing that “pings at me” the most as I review my notes: I need to get started so that God can take what is in my hand and use it to His glory. He did this with Zerubbabel (Zechariah 4.6), He did in with Paul (1Corinthians 3.6), and He did it with Jonathan and the anonymous Armour-Bearer (Numbers 14). It is this last story that has most impressed me as it was the understanding that Gary Clarke brought out of this text, that God can use me mightily even when I am anonymous and “hidden” to the peripheral world (and even the Church), which was the thing I most needed to hear.
• God will increase what I do: if I do nothing then He has nothing to multiply, if I am nothing then He has no-one to replicate.
• Action with sacrifice gets God’s involvement: I need to be prepared to risk God not acting so that I can give Him something to use when He does come through for me. (I come through for Him by taking the initiative, either in the role of Jonathan and getting out from under the tree of boredom to act, or in the role of armour-bearer by committing “heart and soul” to the initiative of my leader.)
At present I am serving on two teams in the life of Hillsong Church London: New Christians-Discovery, and Because We Can. In my life beyond Church I am in transition in a number of ways, but in all of these (and at Church) I have taken the wisdom of God and the college to “just get in there” and am seeing Him begin to move in what I have already commenced.
Away from this key message I am constantly reminded that leadership is about servanthood, and that its main task is people-development. Servanthood is about serving people, the Greek words used in the New Testament refer to the role of leaders (diakone and episkope) as servants. Indeed everything is about people, God’s answer to every need in the church was people (Acts 6) and it still is today: indeed, as Mark Wilkinson spoke into Hillsong at a Sunday service in 2003, God’s treasure is people (Matthew 6:21).
The task of God’s leaders, whatever their role in the life of the congregation, is to connect people with the cause and focus of God Himself: the cause of Christ. His own life’s purpose was to show the Father to the world, John 14.31(msg), and the focus of his ministry was people themselves. Our motivation comes about through these two things, a deliberate focus on people and the cause of getting them connected to God and His Church. As Christians it can be nothing less.
Beyond that is the message that I am wonderful (Psalm 139 as read to us by Martin Houghton-Brown), and that I need to back myself, believe in myself, and get over myself. Once I am out of the way then it is easier for me to focus on other people, and to begin to do something that will bring glory to God and fulfilment to my spirit: I am free to get better at relationships, and be better set up to handle the twists and turns of life with my scenario-planning Father. It’s much easier to do “Selah, then move on” when my focus is on God’s wonderful and fearful creation, and not on my own shyness or the events of my life at work. This is both liberating and empowering: I’m ready to get on board with God and trust Him to see this through until the end.
27th March 2007.
Oracle
I want to speak as an Oracle of God, not asking him for stuff but instead speaking His word into the situations in my world. Like Peter is Acts 3 I want to command the lame man to get up and walk, not command the Lord to heal: nor to inquire of Jehovah Ropheka whether healing is His will. (It is more than God’s will it is God’s nature.)
To be an Oracle of God I need to walk closely with Him, to know His will by knowing His word and His nature: these done by prayer and study. I want to be the light and salt: to reflect and infuse into the peripheral world what Jesus has directed into me.
An Oracle declares the divine will of God. As a Christian I can do this as overflow and output of my personal intimacy with Him: my union with His will and purpose.
To be an Oracle of God I need to walk closely with Him, to know His will by knowing His word and His nature: these done by prayer and study. I want to be the light and salt: to reflect and infuse into the peripheral world what Jesus has directed into me.
An Oracle declares the divine will of God. As a Christian I can do this as overflow and output of my personal intimacy with Him: my union with His will and purpose.
Imagine a world...
Imagine a world lead by a nation with:
The global influence of today’s USA
(or the “global” influence of UK in 1887 and Rome in 150: the conquest and rule of the known world and with forays into the fringes)
And the wealth of OPEC
And having held these things continuously since 1400 BC
And lead by rulers under the Abrahamic Covenant and motivated to honour the promise of God to this nation and then on to ALL NATIONS through this one nation.
THAT is God’s intent for the world.
God’s promise to His people is that they will ALWAYS be:
The Head and not the Tail.
The Front and Not the Back.
The First and not the Last.
The Top and not the Bottom.
Jesus advised the church to be as innocent as DOVES and as wise as SERPENTS. Imagine the Church with more:
money than Bill Gates.
influence than the EU/US/UN/(USSR).
people than China.
ingenuity than Japan/Korea.
That was what lay before the Hebrews as they walked out of Egypt behind Moses. God had promised them a land 3 times the size of the greatest extent of Israel. They could have been there in less than two weeks of walking. They would ALWAYS and FOREVER be the best nation on Earth and the means by which God would bless the whole planet.
This was what was sacrificed:
At Sinai with the Law.
When they settled for “enough” under Joshua.
When they failed to heed God’s continued calls through the prophets until Jerusalem fell in 598BC
And has never been recovered by God’s people.
It is still God’s intent for the world.
The global influence of today’s USA
(or the “global” influence of UK in 1887 and Rome in 150: the conquest and rule of the known world and with forays into the fringes)
And the wealth of OPEC
And having held these things continuously since 1400 BC
And lead by rulers under the Abrahamic Covenant and motivated to honour the promise of God to this nation and then on to ALL NATIONS through this one nation.
THAT is God’s intent for the world.
God’s promise to His people is that they will ALWAYS be:
The Head and not the Tail.
The Front and Not the Back.
The First and not the Last.
The Top and not the Bottom.
Jesus advised the church to be as innocent as DOVES and as wise as SERPENTS. Imagine the Church with more:
money than Bill Gates.
influence than the EU/US/UN/(USSR).
people than China.
ingenuity than Japan/Korea.
That was what lay before the Hebrews as they walked out of Egypt behind Moses. God had promised them a land 3 times the size of the greatest extent of Israel. They could have been there in less than two weeks of walking. They would ALWAYS and FOREVER be the best nation on Earth and the means by which God would bless the whole planet.
This was what was sacrificed:
At Sinai with the Law.
When they settled for “enough” under Joshua.
When they failed to heed God’s continued calls through the prophets until Jerusalem fell in 598BC
And has never been recovered by God’s people.
It is still God’s intent for the world.
Brightly
The brighter the light the more fun you can have.
If you have huge stadium floodlights you can play football at night or hold a concert for 25,000 people or stage an Olympic Games.
If you have a flashlight you can usher one person to a seat, or perhaps walk single file several people along an easy path.
If you have a bonfire you can watch it and toast marshmallows.
If you have a solitary birthday candle you can blow it out.
The same amount of darkness, but depending how much light you have you can bore one person or entertain 100,000.
Let your light shine brightly before all men...
If you have huge stadium floodlights you can play football at night or hold a concert for 25,000 people or stage an Olympic Games.
If you have a flashlight you can usher one person to a seat, or perhaps walk single file several people along an easy path.
If you have a bonfire you can watch it and toast marshmallows.
If you have a solitary birthday candle you can blow it out.
The same amount of darkness, but depending how much light you have you can bore one person or entertain 100,000.
Let your light shine brightly before all men...
Tetris
Church is like Tetris: if you don’t make adjustments (or you don’t make them regularly or quickly enough) everything tends to pile up and become overwhelming.
In a church like Hillsong Church London where every teaching is a meaty one, it is important to apply things straight away: use the teachings of past weeks as foundation to build upon this week.
If you don’t, (as I haven’t been) then you get a “glut”, and the quantity builds up like too much food leading to sickness (two exits, no waiting) and lethargy. Christmas Afternoon and all are asleep on the couch. As a church, as “The Church” we don’t have time to be asleep on the couch.
In a church like Hillsong Church London where every teaching is a meaty one, it is important to apply things straight away: use the teachings of past weeks as foundation to build upon this week.
If you don’t, (as I haven’t been) then you get a “glut”, and the quantity builds up like too much food leading to sickness (two exits, no waiting) and lethargy. Christmas Afternoon and all are asleep on the couch. As a church, as “The Church” we don’t have time to be asleep on the couch.
A sadness about the peripheral world
13th December 2006
I am continuing to feel a sadness about the peripheral world – ever losing faith in it. I suppose “faith in the world” is self-evidently stupid for an Evangelical Christian anyway, but it just seems like the failings of the alternative system of Men have become so obvious, plan to see, that I despair for a world without God. I know there is some good in this place, a portion of glory in the law like a warm afterglow of a godliness long since passed – but it seems so apparent to me that ultimately, even presently, (and at present: immediately) there is no hope outside of the Church.
So what is to be done about it? I do have faith, in God and His Church, so this is no maudlin suicide note where “all is lost” and “there is no hope” – because all is found and restored by the grace of God in Jesus. But how do I go about telling others about it?
How do we establish a world based on Acts 2:42 without becoming a cult or something peripheral? We are not supposed to “do community well” off to one side: that is not “well”, and it is true that the eyes of the world are focussed in the wrong direction, looking intensely at the peripheral and seeing the centre with a side-ways glance.
Help me to be inventive and prophetic Father, without it being about “who can I get to pay me for this?”
Confident that God is my provision:
1. I don’t want to squander this wealth, but choose instead to learn how to honour God with every penny. (Proverbs 3.9)
2. I want to continue to seek after His truth in knowing what the centre looks like and how to point people towards it. To bring people to Jesus and also connect them to His Church.
I need to be connected to His Church.
I need to be brought closer to Jesus.
Then others can come with me.
I am continuing to feel a sadness about the peripheral world – ever losing faith in it. I suppose “faith in the world” is self-evidently stupid for an Evangelical Christian anyway, but it just seems like the failings of the alternative system of Men have become so obvious, plan to see, that I despair for a world without God. I know there is some good in this place, a portion of glory in the law like a warm afterglow of a godliness long since passed – but it seems so apparent to me that ultimately, even presently, (and at present: immediately) there is no hope outside of the Church.
So what is to be done about it? I do have faith, in God and His Church, so this is no maudlin suicide note where “all is lost” and “there is no hope” – because all is found and restored by the grace of God in Jesus. But how do I go about telling others about it?
How do we establish a world based on Acts 2:42 without becoming a cult or something peripheral? We are not supposed to “do community well” off to one side: that is not “well”, and it is true that the eyes of the world are focussed in the wrong direction, looking intensely at the peripheral and seeing the centre with a side-ways glance.
Help me to be inventive and prophetic Father, without it being about “who can I get to pay me for this?”
Confident that God is my provision:
1. I don’t want to squander this wealth, but choose instead to learn how to honour God with every penny. (Proverbs 3.9)
2. I want to continue to seek after His truth in knowing what the centre looks like and how to point people towards it. To bring people to Jesus and also connect them to His Church.
I need to be connected to His Church.
I need to be brought closer to Jesus.
Then others can come with me.
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