Pam,the pilot and the peaked cap.

(Pilot picture and cartoon have no resemblance to the real personnages.)

Fini and Isi De Gersigny might like this one. So, anyway, Nicholas and Pam have been staying with us. They are leaving tomorrow for the arctic regions.

Pam shared of an airport incident. I think it was Anchorage. She deliberately put on a Lakeland teeshirt hoping to attract the attention of someone who had been there last year.
She sure did.
A pilot came across and announced that he had been there, and that originally he had been in Bethel Church (Bill Johnson's church). He was now part of a church plant in Atlanta.

While he was in Bethel he had seen a vision of a big golden angel who had announced that he was an angel of provision for the Church. He had received an anointing to pray over people for provision, and that people's needs be met, in the service of the King.

Ofcourse Pam asked that he pray for them. Pam also prayed for the pilot. The slight problem was that as he was still in uniform, people were still coming up to him to ask questions. Gradually as both of them were decidedly worse for wear, as they were praying over each other in the concourse, the pilot decided to turn the peak of his hat round, so he would look less official.

By this time , both of them were very wobbly and feeling decidedly drunk. Hopefully, the pilot was coming off his duty!

Usually both Nicholas and Pam both keel over at such times, and stagger about the floor, but this time it was mainly Pam!

I thought this was all hilarious and reminded me of Ursula. Thought you all might like it too.

Life in The Melchizedek Order VI - more from Nicholas and Pam

Prayer Letter – June 2009.
“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.” 2 Corinthians 2:14 (NIV)
Descending through the clouds a sombre view appeared before us of tundra beneath and a lagoon ahead. The two-engine aircraft banked to the left and there in the distance was the small Eskimo settlement of Wales. Nestled between steep hills to the east and a beach on the west, this small community of one hundred and fifty-three people is isolated. Landing safely on an airstrip close to the sea, we, along with three others disembarked from the six-seat passenger aircraft. Wales is next to the Bering straits and is the furthest settlement west on the Alaskan mainland. It is only about twenty-five miles from Russia and the International Dateline and the weather there is notoriously unpredictable. There had been no flights on the previous day and our plane had already been delayed in the morning by two and a half hours, as the weather was down. But it cleared, and there we were finally at our destination and asking about the flight out. There certainly was reason behind this as we had recently spoken to someone who had been stuck in Wales for three weeks! This was a prayer trip and so having only about two hours we quickly walked off. The settlement of wooden shack-like houses was stark in comparison to a large and well equipped school that seemed surreal in its setting. About one hundred miles to the south-east of Wales is a town called Nome of about four thousand people. The proprietor of the bed and breakfast where we were staying for two nights had asked us if we would take a box for the acting Lutheran pastor called, Gilbert. This we did and someone at the landing strip took the box to him. So entering the school we met Judy an American teacher and asked about Gilbert. It turned out that she was a Christian and we were able to pray for her. Judy then took us on her four-wheeled motorbike (All Terrain Vehicle) to Gilbert’s very small house.
Gilbert is an Eskimo and appears to be a strong Christian and we also had the privilege to pray for him as well. He said that a group of Christians were coming from South Africa in July to travel from Wales to Jerusalem. Judy then took us back to the school where we could wait for the aircraft. We were told that the plane had arrived and someone came and picked us up with their ATV. Holding on tightly we drove speedily along the beach and then onto a long gravel road to the waiting plane. We arrived back in Nome which has the feel of a frontier town and is the hub for the surrounding villages. The next day we were at Nome airport waiting to fly back to our starting point of Anchorage. An Eskimo woman thought that she had seen Nicholas several years before. Later on when we were on the plane this same woman was sitting ahead of us and turned around and said the same things again to Nicholas. Interestingly Nicholas had bought a book in Nome that he was reading called, “Jesus and the Eskimo.” This woman recognised photographs of different people in the book and said that her father had been the pastor of the church in Wales at one time. She had a problem with her back and we were able to pray for her. The world seems to get smaller when God makes the appointments!
When we went to Israel this year the Lord reminded Nicholas of two things that He had shown a number of years before. We always pray about what the Lord wants us to do and how He wants us to do things and so this is what we did regarding future trips to arctic Finland and Alaska. Pam is very good about researching the logistics of travelling but we found that it was very difficult to make contacts with people in Alaska. Also Mount Redoubt, a volcano to the east of Anchorage had erupted earlier in the year, and had become quieter. But the potential to disrupt fights through another eruption was high. This all became frustrating and in the end we just had to put the whole trip to one side. On Friday 22nd May Pam was doing her Russian language on the computer and she heard a voice within saying, go and look up flights in Alaska. Pam went to Google and put in, “How to fly to the Bering Straits in Alaska?” Up came an instant web-site. This was the Holy Spirit speaking in such a clear way and from that point Pam found all of the flights that were needed. On the Tuesday prior to our leaving Latvia, on Sunday 21st June, Nicholas had a problem with a tooth and on the Wednesday and the following two days was at the dentist. We are thankful that this did not occur in Alaska! Whilst on our journey we had to change planes in America at Minniapolis. We boarded the plane for Alaska and the pilot said that there had been an earthquake eighty miles to the north of Anchorage, but that everything was all right! Then we had to change planes as one of the two air-conditioning units which also help pressurise the cabin had failed and they could not risk using this aircraft in case the other unit failed. The reason being that we were to fly over mountain ranges of over 10,000 feet and this was above the safe level at which breathing without air pressure becomes dangerous. We certainly have interesting travel! The time difference from Latvia to Alaska is eleven hours and our bodies have coped remarkably well. It has been one of the longest prayer trips in distance that we have undertaken and has certainly stretched us.
We seem to pass through nations as we pass through rooms of a house. We forgot to mention in our last prayer letter that we were in England between the 16th and 22nd April and had a very busy and successful time. Between the 3rd and 16th of May we were on a prayer trip into arctic Finland via Norway. Before we left Latvia the weather forecast for northern Finland was getting progressively worse, but it did not materialise and all the roads were clear of snow. We then spent some time with our friends in the area of Norway that we used to live in the past. The trip was successful and we drove over 1,100 miles. The next day after our return Pam completed her first half-marathon race in Riga, which she was very pleased with.
On May 22-23 we were invited to the Holy Spirit weekend of the Alpha course that our Latvian friends have run. Nicholas spoke on the Friday evening and a friend of ours spoke on the Saturday. We saw God touch people significantly over the weekend. Two people gave their lives to Jesus, one of them being a husband of one of the attendees. It was amazing as he had never been before and left a new creation. On Saturday 6th June we went to a Messianic fellowship and Nicholas spoke briefly. It is interesting how the Lord is opening up the Jewish world to us. On Tuesday 16th June Nicholas spoke at the last Alpha course dinner and this was a special time especially praying with people afterwards.

This last six months in Latvia has been very different to any of the other times that we have been there in the past. We feel that we have had a greater depth of relationship with our new Latvian friends and have seen them grow in Jesus at a fast rate. Their perseverance and faith and their unconscious love for each other and those around them is something we have never seen and has been an example and an encouragement to us both. So all of the teaching that we have done has been for them to rely not on us but on the God to whom we all belong. We think that we will return to Latvia at some time in the future, but as yet we do not know when. We go to England on Tuesday 7th July and as yet we do not know where the Lord will lead us next. We would certainly value your prayers for our next steps.
We thank you so much for being behind us in prayer and appreciate this greatly.
May God bless and open up new doors of opportunity for you.
Nicholas and Pam

Inspire - The free magazine

You can order Inspire for you and your church here.

Here's a great article from this summer's mag.

Being Jesus in Dupont Close

IT WAS the words of a Chief Constable that started Nigel and Elaine Waterfield on their new adventure with God.
They had been at the Trumpet Call to Prayer at the NEC in 2006 where the Chief Constable of Leicestershire Police, Matt Baggott, launched Redeeming our Communities – an initiative that had been making an impact on council estates in Manchester. It proved to be a turning point for them

"We were so inspired that we moved to a terribly run-down estate called Braunstone Frith, Leicester, to copy this incentive, but on a smaller scale."
The Waterfields, who've been
married for four years, set up home in Dupont Close and launched the Watering Hole, a name chosen by the charity that helps them with funding. " I asked them to choose a name from a list I had given them deriving from words from Isaiah 41:17- 1 19;'says Nigel.
They started out by engaging with the children from single parent families by taking them on outings to a local park and zoo and on a theatre trip to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Through this, they began to build supportive relationships with the kids' parents, many of whom battled with poverty and often alcohol and drugs. The Waterfields went with them to hospital appointments, court hearings and school meetings. "As we began to engage with them and showed them the love of God they started to come to the Lord.'

Struggling single mum Tammy and her kids were known as "the ASBO family from hell"when the Waterfields first came to Dupont Close. "People wanted me to complain to social services about her children because of their unruly behaviour," says Nigel.
"However, we stood by her. She later gave her life to Christ. She backslid, but we kept praying with her and helped her.
"She came back to the Lord again, only this time she has seen great miracles and victory in her life. She now comes out with us to do outreach and gives her testimony. She talks to people on the street, ministering to them with their many problems!

The Watering Hole also hold their now legendary street parties once or twice a year in Dupont Close. "We have a bouncy castle, a live Christian band, the use of the New Parks Neighbourhood Management Party Pack (ie gazebo, face paints, barbecue, goal-posts).
"But most of all we have testimonies from people whose lives have been radically transformed from a life of crime and addiction through Jesus Christ. People like Steve Cattell, once Britain's most prolific burglar and ex-gangster Davy Falcus.
"These street parties bring together the community and build bridges with the police and the council as well as integrated services that we also try and work alongside.'
What is most remarkable about the Waterfields is that Nigel has Muscular Dystrophy and is in a wheelchair and Elaine is his carer. They are also on benefits themselves. "We have an open house where we share meals and have our own little family of people who have no family," say the couple who are passionate about reaching out to those who have so little.
"The problem today is that the Church has become a holy huddle. We send so many people to Africa and India, yet fail to see we need missionaries here on deprived estates
"Jesus came for the lost and the poor and the needy and this is what we have found here on this estate – the lost, the poor and the needy. There are many
mothers who are struggling with unruly children and poverty, which entails bailiffs, so they turn to drink and drugs.There are also tremendous mental health problems.
"All we Christians need to do is show love to a few families and it makes such a difference.'
The Watering Hole project was nominated by Tammy Candy from Leicester
As told to Sharon Barnard
Enter at www.inspiremagazine.org.uk

******************

19th July Update -I never expected to get contacted by the people in the article. Nigel is now a FB friend.

The Inspire Magazine, Elaine & I are in the article about Dupont Close that you did a blogg about and so I thought I would add you as a friend if thats OK.That was a real amzing story as our friend Tammy was in court as her and her kids got very ill with MRSA and the hospital blamed Tammy. Well I asked God to send me the magzine before the court hearing and it arrived so we coulds show the judge what Tammy has been up to since coing to faith a short while ago, The judge however was adiment she was going to priosn but we prayed and spoke in tongues and Elaine saw a presence over the judge and after rteading our reference and also Tammys daughters he changed his mind and gave her a suspended sentence. When we got hom and I looked at the magazibe it read Liecester asbo family new start....So Tammy saw the hand of God upon hert life amen

God BlessNigel & Elaine

The Moravians - a history

Red Moon Rising available here

The Moravian Church, or Unitas Fratrum, of which Zinzendorf was a bishop, had been founded hundreds of years before his great Herrnhut experiment. Prior to Zinzendorf, the Moravian Church had never, as far as we know, dreamed of praying round the clock; this was an idea flowing within monasticism. But the Moravian Church had a long and very remarkable history that inspired and shaped Zinzendorf and the renewal movement he catalysed.
The Moravian roots
The Moravian Church served the cause of Christ in two distinct eras: the Ancient Unity and the Renewed Moravian Church.' The roots of Christianity in Bohemia and Moravia (modern-day Czech Republic) could be found in the mission work of two Greek Ortho­dox bishops, Cyril and Methodius. They, like the Celtic believers, had much in common with other branches of Christendom, but didn't always feel comfortable with the policies of the current rulers in Rome. The inadvertent founder of the Unitas Fratrum was Jan Huss, the President of the University of Prague, who, years before Luther, railed against the sale of indulgences and the belief that you could buy forgiveness of sin. What's more, Huss insisted on preaching in the language of the people and not in Latin. As aresult he soon had the ear of the masses and the heart of the people. He was eventually tricked into attending a church court, imprisoned and killed.- Material about the Ancient Unity is based on an article found at http://www.everydaycounselor.com/archives/sh/shistory.htm
His death was a catalyst for revolt and helped spawn three different sets of supporters. One of these, the Moderates, believed in the 'heart religion' that had been practised by the primitive Christians of the New Testament. In March 1457 they formed the Brethren of the Law of Christ, a group that sought to influence the church of the day rather than split from it.
They were often persecuted, emphasizing that faith must find expression as a 'faith that works'. Like Huss, they passionately believed that the gospel should be made accessible to ordinary people and so they had the extraordinary distinction of being the first to translate the Bible into a native tongue, the Kralitz Bible. They went on to publish a further 50 books despite the attempts of the authorities to find and burn copies of their Bible.
The seventeenth century saw their number decimated by persecution and many fled Bohemia to Moravia, Silesia and modern-day Poland.
John Amos Comenius
This ancient Moravian bishop later became known as the Father of Modern Education and was hailed by Life magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the last millennium. He created a new educational philosophy called Pansophism, or universal knowledge, designed to bring about worldwide understanding and peace. Comenius advised teachers to use children's senses rather than memorization in instruction. To make learning inter­esting for children, he wrote The Gate of Tongues Unlocked (1631), a book for teaching Latin in the student's own language. He also wrote Orbis Sensualium Pictus (1658; The Visible World in Pictures, 1659) consisting of illustrations that labelled objects in both their Latin and vernacular names. It was one of the first illustrated books written especially for children.
Comenius was asked to assist in Swedish educational reforms, but his first passion was the church and this is where he devoted much of his time and genius. Faced with bitter persecution, heresolved to plant a 'hidden seed', and on his death bed, convinced that he was a failure, urged the Brethren to 'take care ... that the foundations of our unity may not be so entirely ruined as to make it impossible for our posterity to find them'.
The 'hidden seed' was to spring back into life in 1722 when a Moravian carpenter called Christian David encountered Nicholas Ludwig Von Zinzendorf, and asked if he could find them a place where they could practise the heart religion of the early church without persecution. Zinzendorf promised to give it some thought, and returned to his estate in June to find that Christian David had presumed he would say yes and had arrived already. They began building a new community on Zinzendorf's Berthels­dorf estate, which would become known as Herrnhut, a phrase that meant 'the watch of the Lord'.- Material in this section draws from John R. Weinlick, CountZinzendorf (The Moravian Church in America, 1984).
Count Zinzendorf
Zinzendorf was to prove an able leader for the religious refugees who began to arrive on his land. Raised in a devout family, Count Zinzendorf seemed set aside for spiritual leadership from an early age. Church reformer and education pioneer Spener prayed with him at the age of four with respect to his spiritual destiny! At the age of 16 he graduated from Halle University, but not before informing the principal that in his time at the college he had started no fewer than seven different prayer groups and asking him to keep an eye on them.'
One of these prayer groups was named the Order of the Grain of Mustard Seed and contained a number of future leaders, including John Potter, who was to become an Archbishop of Canterbury. Together with his friends in the Mustard Seed prayer group Zinzendorf made a solemn pledge that would shape the destiny of the rest of his life. He vowed:

· to be kind to all men;
· to be true to Christ;
· to send the gospel to the world.
Each member of the order wore a ring inscribed with the words 'No man liveth unto himself'.
The count's youthful vows were to be a constant theme in the life of the Renewed Moravian Church. But first he had to try and bring some structure to the diverse group that was sprouting up on his land. The count was a voracious reader and was delighted to discover one of the foundational documents of the Moravians, a 'Covenant' document penned by the great Comenius himself. To this he added some local law and some of his own thought, and in May 1727 presented it to the warring factions on his estate.
The earliest historian of the eighteenth-century Moravians, Spangenberg, suggested that there were seven aspects of the 'Brotherly Agreement' that reflected the influence of Zinzendorf.
· The need for personal conversion.
· A commitment to simplicity and integrity as marks of a true church.
· A refusal to be hostile to other believers – even when you believed they were not understanding the Scripture as you might.
· The belief that the sin of some believers was their fault, not that of the church. Zinzendorf believed in discipline but not in coer­cion.
· A wariness of labels and names that might divide rather than unite.
· An active quest for spiritual growth. There was to be no reliance on the blessings of the past. The people of God were to be intentional.
· A readiness to lay aside one's personal desires and be ready to make sacrifices for the sake of others.

These seven aspects captured the heartbeat of a movement that sought to be active, simple, good, peace-making and sacrificial. Turn to 'Vision and Values' (p. 305) to see how we have sought to reflect the thinking of the Moravians and our own distinctive culture in the early twenty-first century.
Zinzendorf arranged for his new community to gather in small groups or 'bands'. In time, this developed into a more formal 'choir system' based on age, sex and marital status. These groups met daily for prayer or worship. Often they would gather simply to sing. Zinzendorf was a prolific hymn-writer so they never lacked new material!
Following a Holy Spirit visitation at an August 1727 commu­nion service, the warring factions in the group finally made public peace. A 24-hour prayer meeting was initiated two weeks later, which would last for 100 years. Twenty-four of the single men and 24 of the single women began an hourly intercession. Their prayers were informed by a weekly meeting where letters and messages from other Moravian Christians were read. This gave the praying believers specific people and places to pray for. In 1732, five years after their pentecostal experience, the group began to go out around Europe and the world to take Christ to the ends of the earth.
An emerging generation
Many of the people in this emerging generation of Moravians would later travel the world as missionaries. The Moravian community at Herrnhut spurred a movement that sponsored 3,000 missionaries in its first 200 years of existence. Many believe that it was one of the wellsprings of the modern mission movement.
The commitment to mission took them to the far corners of the earth. Two missionaries, it is said, sold themselves into slavery to reach the Caribbean community of St Thomas, and others trav­elled to Greenland. Greenland was to prove a watershed. Mora­vian historian James Hutton described what happened:

In the past they had discoursed [with non-Christians] about the Fall of Man and the Plan of Salvation; hence forward they gave the people the Passion Story in detail; and the Eskimos themselves soon noticed the difference. At the story of Adam and Eve they had merely wondered; at the story of the Crown of Thorns they wept; and, some­times, at the baptismal service, their tears dripped into the font.
When informed of the success of the Greenland Mission, Count Zinzendorf said, 'Henceforth, we shall preach nothing but the love of the slaughtered Lamb.' From that time forward Moravian evangelists were schooled in telling the Passion Story — the story of Christ's death on the cross for humankind — as succinctly and as simply as possible."
The Moravians would eventually go to Surinam, Ceylon, South Africa, Cairo, Jerusalem and Baghdad. But they also touched the life of another man whose ministry would take their values and ideas to the far-flung corners of the world.

John Wesley
The impact on Wesley arose partly from their conduct in a terrify­ing storm. Wesley noted them as he returned from a dishearten­ing trip.
At seven I went to the Germans. I had long before observed the great seriousness of their behaviour. Of their humility they had given a continual proof, by performing those servile offices for the other passengers which none of the English would undertake; for which they desired, and would receive no pay, saying it was good for their proud hearts, and their loving Saviour had done more for them. And every day had given them occasion of showing a meekness, which no injury could move. If they were pushed, struck, or thrown down, they rose again and went away; but no complaint was found in their mouth. There was now an opportunity of trying whether they were delivered from the spirit of fear, as well as from that of pride, anger, and revenge. In the midst of the psalm wherewith their service began, the sea broke

James Hutton, The History of Moravian Mission (out of print).Try http://www.alibris.com/

over, split the main-sail in pieces, covered the ship, and poured in between the decks, as if the great deep had already swallowed us up. A terrible screaming began among the English. The Germans calmly sang on. I asked one of them afterwards, 'Were you not afraid?' He answered, 'I thank God, no.' I asked, 'But were not your women and children afraid?' He replied, mildly, 'No; our women and children are not afraid to die. '5
He subsequently visited their Fetter Lane church in London. It was here at an extended prayer meeting that he first felt the 'strange warming' of real relationship with Christ. One of Wesley's first acts was then to sail for Holland, where he was met by Zinzendorf and escorted back to the Berthelsdorf estate. Methodism, founded of course by Wesley, has helped shape the Christian witness on every continent, not least through its subsequent influence on Holiness, Pentecostal and Salvation Army groups.
The Moravian Church never grew particularly large, even though it was widespread, because of its commitment to Christian unity. Many, perhaps the majority, of its converts were given away to other denominations. However, the influence of the Moravian tradition has been massive, as the brief history above makes clear. The Moravian Texts are today the world's best-selling daily devotional, used by 1.5 million people each day in 50 languages and dialects.
Chris continues:

At some point we have to make a decision. Are we prepared to be a small work that contains Divine seed. Are we prepared, like Mary the mother of Jesus, or like Jacob the father of a brood of just twelve, or back even further to Abraham, whose calling was just to father one child of promise; are we prepared to be a background person, yet whose Divine seed will far, far outstrip us in achievements and influence? Or must we remain in the limelight for all to see.

Jorge Pradas, the father behind Los Rios de Vida in every province of Argentina, often laughed about this. You can hear him talk about this in a message on Unity in the Body. How nobody, but nobody ever seememd to remember his name. One of the English guys here had such bad Spanish pronunciation that he called him "Hawkeye" which freaked my mum out, when I joined them at 20 years of age.

Or Ed Miller. Ed who? Yet he is behind virtually all the early USA praise albums. Behind many of the early ministries sharing about the power of praise, like Judson Cornwall, like the Bible Temple in Oregon. Having a great deal to do with people such as Ruth Heflin in Israel. And so the list goes on. Do you want to be somebody whose life secretly affects nations. Or do you want to be Brother Zap of "Power for the Hour ministries", who has great anointing but precious little else? History speaks to us of some very influential servants of God with absolutely no worldly recognition. Your Sharma's and David Starkey's, wellknown TV historians have absolutely no idea of the linkages both spiritual and natural which came into being precisely because of these people. Even strange repercussions that are better known about like the birth of the chocolate industry in Britain. The Quakers Fry and Cadbury's etc.

King's Wedding photos by Sally Anne Roberts

30 years ago I used to direct productions at Emsworth Christian Church. One of the people who got *dynamited *into the kingdom at that time was called Sally Ann Roberts. (*Ern Baxter expression). Sally is wearing a blue top with light blue slacks, I'm in the dodgy diamond jumper.
Sally kept soldiering on even though I told her to get rid of all her worldly records, like Cliff Richard's "Small Corners". It had a drum beat!! Yes , we were the church where the main leader preached in all sincerity that "All aerobics was of the devil!"

You grace people simply have no idea! You need to be locked up in my dungeon for at least a month!

So Sally comes up one day with this idea that I couldn't get my head round....since it was mixing Disneyesque mouse anthromorphisms with the Marriage of the Bride to the Bridegroom Jesus.

But you know what? It worked!

I hate how these new believer's behave, messing up all your previous cast in stone convictions!

I mean, if God was going to give new believers revelation and anointing then in the Parable of the Prodigal son, the Father would have gathered all his clothing round his middle and run towards the Prodigal like a maniac, wouldn't he?

Oh....he did!

"Red Moon Rising is not just a book:it's an invitation"

Red Moon Rising (by Pete Greig and Dave Roberts of Prayer 24/7) is not just a book:it's an invitation
The header comes from the Foreword to Red Moon Rising by Floyd McClung. As does this section:
In 1722 a rag-tag band of several hundred young people gathered on the estate of a wealthy count by the name of Zinzendorf. Five years later, God showed up and they began to pray. They prayed in strange and creative ways, but they prayed. They prayed 24-7. Their prayer led to compassion for the poor and those who had never heard of Jesus. Their prayer meeting went on for 125 years without ceasing – the longest prayer meeting in history.
God has decided to do again what he did among the Moravians almost 300 years ago. A 24-7 prayer meeting has started again, but now it has circled the globe overnight. We should not be surprised God chose an unlikely candidate to lead the 24-7 prayer movement. Pete Greig struggled to hear God's voice and wasn't very good at praying, but he was determined to chase the Spirit wher­ever that took him. The chase led to a blue-haired kid in Dresden, who in turn got him to the home of that first 24-7 prayer meeting started those many years ago. God got through to Pete, and the rest, as they say, is history.Pete Greig reminds us that prayer doesn't belong to the stodgy or the religious. Nor can prayer be controlled by reli­gious types who think they have a corner on the right words to use and the correct way to stand. Red Moon Rising reminds us that prayer is not something to do, but someone to talk to. It stirs faith in us to believe that when we talk to God, He responds.
Pete Greig writes in"Shifting Culture"- Chapter 2
This generation stands at a time of profound social change. With the invention of the Internet, satellite communication and low-cost air travel (not to mention global terrorism and the rise of tribalism), the Western worldview is becoming more complex and possibly less rationalistic.
We are, therefore, a vanguard generation with a responsibility to lead at a time of great opportunity and great danger. We are watching the world change and we don't yet know what it is going to look like. This is what we mean when we talk about an emerging culture.

The challenges for the church at such a time are profound. A generation that finds itself in the crux of such a change has a significant responsibility for shaping the new ways of thinking that will define its own age but also that of the coming era. When Christians get it right at such times, adapting themselves to the changing culture and finding new language for timeless truths, the gospel spreads more easily for years to come because it makes sense to people. However, when the church gets it wrong by resisting change and enshrining nostalgia, we risk apparent irrelevance and an upward struggle.

Will Jesus Christ be famous and favoured in the coming age, or will he be a peripheral choice on the menu of social preference? You can call the culture 'progressive', 'emerging' or 'postmodern ' but the challenge is the same: to reinvent the church without changing the message, to reach this generation for the sake of the age to come.

Some of the stages of getting to grips with what is going on inside ourselves in the Christian walk,
taken from Chapter 3 "Taking Jericho."
1. Numb, dumb heart
The passage of time brings to every disciple the relentless pounding of pleasure, pain and sin. These conditions can imperceptibly harden our hearts, slow the arteries and make muscles once lithe grow inflexible. We are generally unaware of this ageing process, but God sees and cannot look away. He loves us too much and has called us to too much to allow us to settle for less than full spiritual health. The writer of Hebrews says that at such times God 'dis­ciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness' (Hebrews 12:10).

In order to call our independent minds and self-satisfied souls back to a place of spiritual intimacy and dependency, God must make our numb hearts begin to feel again. Through Scripture, circumstance — perhaps even through this book — he may begin to trouble and disturb our soul. Such feelings are not often associated with the Holy Spirit. They may be like the tingling ache in your mouth as the anaes­thetic wears off after dental surgery, or the howling pain of greater loss. But there can be no movement in our lives until we are confronted with the reality of our current state.

This is the first stage, and for me it took the form of sleepless nights troubled by something I couldn't define. This is a lonely time because you are feeling something you can't explain — even to God.
2. Wrestling
Next comes the wrestling, trying to make sense of this inner turmoil, looking for words to describe what you are feeling. You may study Scripture, splurge in your journal, read books, write songs, go for walks and try to pray, wondering why you're weeping or waking or considering taking some crazy, counter-intuitive step. Of course God is watching all this new activity with delight, biding his time.
3. Waiting
When eventually God gives you words for the things that are troubling your heart (and I'll say it again: this may take some time), things become easier. The internal storm calms and you can talk at last with clarity to God and to others. The chaos has a pattern now. There may be no answers yet but at least you have questions and you will throw these at the Almighty again and again. You no longer wrestle with yourself, but like Jacob with God. This is the time of waiting and watching and it can last years or mere minutes.
4. Blessing
Finally God steps in. The one who sowed those atomic seeds in your hard heart in the first place, the one who watched you cracking up and breaking down, the one who gently gave you the questions and waited and watched while you learned to pray, that same God now steps in to bless. A heart that was hard is now bruised and bleeding soft. An independent adult has become needy, humble and poor in spirit.A self-sufficient child has succombed to a hug. You have learned to need and to heed, to wait and to watch once again. ' And He said :" I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" '(Matthew 18:3).

This is all coinciding with our second Prayer 24/7 weekend which is running from this Friday 10 th July until Tuesday 14th in and around Portsdown Community Church Havant. Many many spin-offs resulted from the last session, and the sense was always that that was just the start. One of the spinoffs was the glorious way in which God came totally fresh and new and in simplicity at the May Conference 2009 here.

To give or not.

I returned today from taking an old grand piano yesterday to a club in Carlisle. To clarify, for those abroad, that is from the south coast near Portsmouth all the way up north to 5 miles from the Scottish border.

On my return journey, I drove then slept, then drove then slept through the night. I woke again at 8am in a service station car park, to see a forty or fifty year old woman tapping on the windows of various truck drivers. At first I thought she looked like a nun. Then she approached me.

She was after money. I was eyeing her very closely and was pretty firm with her. She persisted.
The widow technique! So still unable to work out whether it was a scam I asked her to take me to the rest of her family.

The story was this. They were Romanian and were wanting to return to Europe via Dover, and they had completely run out of money. Their was no petrol in their car, which they were at pains to "prove" to me by showing me the dial. (They could have rigged the gauge).

The father of the family returned. He had been round the services staff, and public who were in the services complex. He flashed his credit card, saying that it had been blocked.

I looked right into the eyes of each family member, still unable to know for sure. Was this a "service station "scam routinely carried out up and down the motorways? What if they were genuine and they really did have no recourse to anything in England? or again were they just Romanian gypsies after a buck?

Well, for good or for bad I withdrew £50 and handed it over. The father said he wanted to return the money and asked for my address? I gave the address but no name. So if he is good to his word it must be cash.
Anyhow I spoke to a manager in the service station, just in case it was a scam, so he would know his car park was being tapped for funds that would ordinarily be spent on them.
Since being scammed in my twenties ,during a Quilmes Creations sales run for Bible House, I don't think I've ever given anything sizeable to anyone I didn't know, or could be vouched for by other intermediaries.

He who gives to the poor, lends to the Lord. But He doesn't encourage us to behave like idiots. There are plenty of really good things to give to.

What do you guys think?

Partition Wall Christianity

I have a problem with partition wall Christianity.


These are Christians who say similar things , but somehow, they are never in the same room. They speak to you from behind a partition wall. Presumably because they feel it is safer.

Do you know the first word that laid a foundation for my former Church Emsworth? It was given by Jorge Pradas, who was only in town for a holiday. The fellowship of rather adhoc charismatics met as and when, and had other churches they all were involved in.


Jorge's word way back around the early 70s was this. Are you a Church or are you a fellowship?
Because it was given in the Spirit, everyone there was pricked by an arrow so sharp, that they, in the manner of Acts 2 knew they had been pricked to the heart, and that a response was demanded.....that very night!

Now Abraham had a similar problem. It's a half in half out problem. It's a safety partition problem. He knew that Sarah his wife was going to be the means whereby he was going to be the father of many nations. Yet would he stand by her?

Nope. Whenever the pressure was on by an admiring King, he kind of let slip that Sarah was a sort of half-sister...which was also true. But not as true as the fact that he was in a married relationship with her. She was spoken for! Or should have been.

I have been reading some other intelligent blogs.
My problem with intelligent blogs is not that they are well written. Richard Wurmbrandt and Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote very well. My problem is that they have an intellectual detachment from the subject matter that is just like speaking through a partition wall. Perhaps the more scriptural picture is the one in Song of Solomon; that of speaking through a lattice.
When we come to the Lord some of us spend a while dancing a twostep around those born again ones who are telling us the gospel. We want to be sure. We ask questions. That is OK. But after a while like any good salesman, the Holy Spirit brings us around to the decision again. Do you want this Divine Life within you or don't you? He never lets us answer every single question. The fact is we will still be asking questions until the day we die. So it's a waste of time.
He lets us satisfy ourselves with several answers, but then drops the bombshell that His Life does not consist of right answers. It is Life itself. It is indeed an Answer on a completely different level. And as soon as we sign on the dotted line and ask Jesus in.....in other words a commitment has taken place....then we can know the Assurance of salvation within us that is the privilege of everyone that hears and acts on faith.
If Christianity was some lame circular thing...like this:
I believe because I asked Jesus in and now I believe I have the assurance....
How do you know you have the assurance?
Because I believe in Jesus.
Well that's a bit of lame reasoning. If any non-Christians are reading this I want you to learn something. Although this appears to be the circular nature of religion, you are missing something that actually happens halfway round the circle. The reality of the Life of Jesus Christ enters into the soul of a Christian. And that's why someone will be so stupid like me to remain a Christian for 37 years. Here are some effects. You feel brand new. Every weight of inadequacy,wrongdoing against others and yourself is washed away. You now know what you are here for. You know what your future will be. Everything around you seems brighter, more meaningful; in fact you notice things for the first time in your life, or maybe the first time since you were very small.
But here's the kicker! You love people! And not just for what they can give you. You just love people fullstop! This is all Day One stuff...and does not in any way include things like finding prayer is now a natural thing. That you actually long to be with Christians. That Church is actually one heck of a place. And if that is not enough you start getting involved in things that are just not humanly explicable....a host of supernatural abilities which you find your buddies have got as well. And so on and so on.
Back to blog observers. And the now stately Christians living among new church networks. Sipping genteely at several church doctrines.
Here again,the Life of Christ itself bounds up unannounced outside the safety of your lattice. You want to be sure that you have the right doctrines. That you are in the right network. But all the Life of Christ does is ignore what you are currently into.
Doesn't even answer your questions. They are the wrong questions.Forget right doctrines. Forget whether you are in the right network. The Life of Christ just speaks in the same way as when you were unsaved. "Your criterion is wrong. You are dead already. Life is the other side of this lattice. Life is hearing my unique voice and coming down with me to the beds of myrrh and spices."
It's not humble to say "We are trying to be the Church. We are just one church network. It's not humble to say "I am trying to be a Christian. Just give me time"
It's not humble to say " I could never go as far to say I am Christ in my form. I don't believe any of us are good enough to say that."
Just like salvation, when we commit to what God says about us, we actually put the onus on Him and the Holy Spirit within us to shape us up so we fit alongside all the other nutters who are beginning to make the same confession.
Things only start working when you come out from behind the lattice. Just like Jesus had a kind of Tourette's syndrome whereby He would suddenly shout out at Feasts and meetings, embarrassing all the religious in earshot....I shouted out at last Sunday's meeting these words:
If you believe in your heart
and If you confess with your mouth
then you shall be saved...but not just spiritually....The whole of you!! (Romans 10 declaration)
You have to believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that You have died with Christ, it is now not you who live, but Christ who lives within you. (Dodgy ,they all say from behind the lattice)
You have to believe that you are the Church along with all those who call upon the Lord with a pure heart. This wishy washy half in half out stuff has to go!

An English resurrection and what maturity is for

The gist of this morning's meeting in Havant
One of the churches Peter Stott visits and whose leaders have some input here is Shinewater Fellowship in Eastbourne.

Peter shared this news this morning.
There is a barber in Shinewater fellowship. A man collapsed dead in his salon. Paramedics were called. His death was ascertained. Presumably no pulse.

Therefore it was with great difficulty that the barber could get near to pray for the dead man.
Obviously Britain's paramedics need cluing up in the same way as Bill Johnstone's "prayer for the dead squad"...which is now officially recognised. But this is Britain.

Sheer forcefulness prevailed and the barber did eventually pray. The dead man immediately sat upright and his eyes sprung open!!!
I think the paramedic /s was/were shocked.

This happened in England. In one of our little associated fellowships.
This is encouraging!

The gist of the rest of the meeting is following on from the current emphasis here:
maturing through sufferings.

Romans 8 clearly connects the love of God towards us actually IN the sufferings we experience.
The first thing we always feel is the full impact of the pain of the suffering. This is real.
The devil always lies that such and such a thing is evidence that we are abandoned by God, that we are worthless to Him. The truth is God in us is suffering too, and working things to greater glory; in us and through us.

There are two sufferings. One caused by our own failings.
But the other is ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with us. Or rather because we have received an alien Life at complete odds with the system of the world...yes there is friction. But instead of being cowed by all this, in these days we will learn to rise above it, as we understand this too is a thing of glory. It is an effect of having received God's own glorious Life within us.

The other impact from what Peter shared connected our new relationship back with the Father,
with our own maturation as sons. I recorded clips from this morning on my mobile camcorder, but forgot it was not set to record sound!!!
He said that we love the aspect of God the Father coming close to us and revealing His love to us. The world is not too impressed with this. What impresses them is how God's people go through amazing trials and difficulties and still stand.

This is more of the context in which Romans 8 is written when it says "All the earth is waiting/groaning for the revealing of the sons of God."

This mature, divine species of life that overcomes, that somehow rides out a storm to the glory of God.

I am reminded of the words in the Upper Room when Jesus knew His time was come to be glorified. Now we understand and restrict this to the resurrection and ascension to sit at the right hand of God the Father. The Father looks at it differently, viewing the WHOLE process from here on in as the Son glorifying the Father...
His cruel sufferings
how He managed Himself when all betrayed Him,
when He stuck back the guard's ear severed by Peter
standing through a fake trial
going through the cross
the whole deal.

This is truly third level, Fatherlevel stuff...and this is what God is currently birthing in His Church.

A video of Recommended Soaking Music

Enjoy!

Lee Ann Rubsam on Dreams

Every so often I visit Lee Ann Rubsam's blog.

The last post was interesting because it tied in with the things Ursula Kuba has been sharing.

http://refinedinthefire.wordpress.com/2009/04/14/hearing-from-god-through-dreams-part-3/
April 14, 2009
Hearing from God Through Dreams (Part 3)
Filed under: Charismatic, Charismatic Christian, Christian, Christian teaching, Christianity, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Prayer, Prophecy, Prophetic Christianity, Prophetic movement, Religion, Revelation, Spirituality, Uncategorized — Lee Ann Rubsam @ 7:50 pm Tags: Christian dreams, dream interpretation, dreams, hearing God, hearing God's voice, interpreting dreams, visions
LeeAnnRubsam.com
God doesn’t always give us an immediate interpretation of our dreams, and this is another reason it is good to keep a journal. As we reread our dreams, sometimes He drops understanding into us months down the road from when we first had the dream. Why? Perhaps events had to unfold in our lives before the dream could become relevant to us. It could be a matter of maturity in our understanding.
Early in my experience with this type of revelation, I had a dream that explained specifics of what my primary function in the Body of Christ was to be. There were many details, and the Lord explained most of them to me immediately. Some details seemed important, but were held from my understanding for another two years. I read through that dream often, and continued to ask about the unexplained details, and eventually the interpretations were given.
Dreams with recurring themes are particularly important to pay attention to, even if they seem a little silly. Over a two month period, I dreamed four times about turtles in various situations. God did not tell me right away what the turtles symbolized, and dream books and people I knew who were familiar with dream interpretation were not able to help me with this one. I like turtles, so for me, turtles are connected with happy things. I pondered the turtle dreams before the Lord many times, asking into them, and eventually understood that they represented blessings and God-promises in my life. The Lord then showed me what He had been speaking about my promises in each of those dreams.
Dreams can be either panoramic, full-blown stories or snapshot pictures of one simple scene. I sometimes doze off while praying, and when I do, I’m likely to have snapshot dreams from the Lord. Even the snapshots can be full of important details. Here is an example:
I had been praying for favor for my husband and myself – God’s favor and also a particular person’s favor. In a snapshot dream, I saw a man in brown uniform running up to our front porch. I just saw him from the back as he got to the porch. I immediately awoke, startled. I understood from the brown uniform that he was a UPS driver, and then had this conversation with the Lord:
“Lord, what was that?”“He’s bringing you a package.”“What is it, Lord?”“Favor.”“Is it God’s favor or So-and-so’s favor?”“It’s both.”“God, You know that first and foremost I want Your favor!”“I know that, and that’s why you can have the other one, too.”
Some of the details of this dream continued to nag at my mind over the next couple of days, so I asked more questions, and got more revelation:
The UPS man was running to show haste. God said we would get this favor quickly. The package was left at our door – which meant I needed to actively receive it, to take it in.
I asked, “Lord, why was the package left at the front door? They usually leave it at the back door.”“It is front-door favor, not back-door favor. It will not be done in secret.”
A week after the dream, we were given great favor by the person I had prayed about, and it definitely happened in a public manner. It was also something we could have rejected, but chose to accept.
If you haven’t yet explored hearing from the Lord through dreams, I encourage you to get started now. Ask Him to speak to you through this avenue, and be serious about recording your dreams and asking into their interpretations. Those of you who have difficulty hearing from God in other ways may even find that dreams are the key that unlocks the door of revelation for you. You will want to expand into other ways of hearing from Him, but dreams are a great place to start.
Previous: Hearing from God Through Dreams (Part 2)
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Pingback by Hearing from God through Dreams (Part 2) « Out of the Fire — April 14, 2009 @ 7:55 pm Reply

I do like your blog.I think all these areas need to be opened up. Ursula Kuba has started a series on the prophetic and dreams. A few of her posts have been stunning. See link to Open Door on my blog. She has a lot to do with Isi de Gersigny who also moves a lot in this kind of area, as well as gifts of discernment and powerful healings. The link to their Jubilee church is on Life on Wings under Dan’s favorite churches. Isi likes coming to Bethel, Bill Johnson’s Church, because she feels understood there, because Bill shares such a lot on the lines of dreams and creativity.My purpose in bothering to leave a comment is simply to say I feel the time has come for us to be more vocal about the things that people have thought weird for centuries. I am absolutely clear that spirit is spirit, mind is mind,brain is brain. But it is no accident I feel that in the last 50 years the actual processes of how are brains function are just beginning to be opened up. What a breakthrough for creatives to actually learn in the 90s that there was such a thing as right-brain creativity. It was received in an overly simplistic fashion, when the truth is we think in a much more parallel way than we ever thought. But at least it opened people’s minds to the fact that , yes, artistic people do think differently. And somehow, some more of these hidden recesses of our selves are brought to the fore when we are svaed and baptised in the Spirit. For me, at 13, I discovered for the first time I was a muzo. Songs and often prophetic songs started to pour out. More on this subject is covered in these February posts.http://080808onnowto.blogspot.com/2009/03/evangelicals-preach-on-itsometimes.htmlhttp://080808onnowto.blogspot.com/2009/03/christines-shampoo-post.html
The question I would ask you is….do you think that dreams come a lot more to the fore for you and Ursula and Isi, because you are “visually” oriented?Songs, prophetic impressions, senses, come a lot more to me because i seem a lot more “auditory”. Or do you think it is simply a matter for us all to seek to press in to everything?
Comment by Chris Welch — May 8, 2009 @ 2:27 am Reply

I’m sorry, Chris. I missed seeing the end question of your comment until today. I am very auditory, not very visually oriented at all in my waking hours. But dreams have become a significant way that I hear God, in spite of not being visual.
I am growing in the visual as I press in for it, though. I think we can all cross the lines between auditory and visual to some extent — if we ask the Lord to do it in us.
I think what caused me to begin hearing more from God through dreams was that my pastor, who is also both an apostle and prophet, felt it was important for me to come into the dream realm of revelation. He prayed for me with the laying on of hands multiple times for dream revelation. His care for widening out my revelatory gifts has impacted me greatly.
I guess everybody’s story is unique.
Comment by Lee Ann Rubsam — July 1, 2009 @ 4:45 pm Reply

Hey… this is Power of teams territory!http://080808onnowto.blogspot.com/2009/06/i-stayed-with-my-friend-john-stevens.html
Not that the above post had anything to do with dreams, but it shows the same principle that Paul showed with Timothy in the NT, whereby the Body is able to confer real life-changing elements one to another.
For this reason alone, and it isn’t the only reason, I do not recommend the habit of some of NON-MEETING.
Great replyChris
Comment by Chris Welch — July 2, 2009 @ 2:31 am Reply