From the Mystery of Sin to the Mystery of Syn III - Synergy

All pictures are google results for the word "synergy"

Clive Jackson (Shaftsbury Church)-Who is the King of Glory Conference- Havant May 2008. (next one May 2009 - see below)18 minutes contribution on the subject of synergy

In the Bible is a word that I didn't realise was in there, BUT IT IS THERE in the original Greek: "synergy"which is ofcourse management speak today and was summed up very well in the Paris Motor Show many years ago.

BMW fixed onto the roof of a building this giant set of scales, and they put a BMW at one end of the scales and they put all the parts of the BMW at the other end of the scales.And the car outweighed the parts. So it was a picture that the sum total of the parts collectively is so much greater than the parts individually.

And in simple terms it is simply "working together".When people work together they are so much more effective - be it ten times or a thousand times more effective than if they were just individually working on their own.

And you find this term in the scriptures because sometimes in Days of Revival this whole question emerges: How much is the sovereignty of God and how much the responsibility of man?

Because we know there has to be a sovereign move of God from heaven, because we can do nothing without Him making the move...yet we have a responsibility.And there's a kind of tension between what's our responsibility and what is His. And someone has said that when it comes to days of visitation and revival you can't see the line between His sovereignty and our responsibility. Because He sovereignly moves, we respond and it goes on like that and it kind of happens this working together....

So I just want to show you a couple of places in scripture where this word is used and try to make a bit of sense of it.

Right at the end of Mark chapter 16 it says ..." and the disciples went out and they preached everywhere and the Lord worked with them....the word was synergised...so you have this dynamic where the disciples went out and preached and the Lord worked with them.You don't have them on their own, or the Lord on His own, you have this synergy between the two.

If you turn to 2 Corinthians you will see another place where it is used...there are several places, actually,and I don't intend to go through all of them. In 2 Corinthians 6: As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. The word for fellow workers is synergise. It's the picture of one planting the other watering and God giving the growth. Or as one person described it...he said a man was commenting to another man about his garden and how beautiful it was,saying it showed the beauty of the creation of God, to which his friend replied, "you should have seen the garden when God had it on His own".

So there is a sense in which God has ordained it in such a way...in fact He has bound Himself to working with us . He could work outside us.But he has, just by the nature of things, He has called us to co-operate with Him and to work with Him.

...and when we work together ....something happens
God can do His part...you know we can't make the plant grow...but we can plant it, we can water it and we can put it in a row...dig out the weeds...but God alone can make this beautiful plant come out of a seed, something we cannot do...so it's that co-operation between the two. Then one day I was reading through Acts Chapter 4 because we were fasting and praying earlier in the year.

I wanted to look at the sort of prayers the people in the early church prayed...I don't know if you've ever looked at that prayer there when they're gathered together. Remember they'd just been thrown in prison because they were preaching in Jesus Name. And they were released and warned not to preach in Jesus name again.And then the saints were gathered together and they began to pray. And it's a very interesting prayer because two thirds of it is telling God stuff that he already knows. "Your servant Jesus did this, then Pilate did this,..."

and you think,"Well God already knows this stuff, why are you going through it? Maybe to remind yourself.But then they prayed the heart of the prayer in couple of lines.And what they pray is:

Lord, Give us boldness to preach in Your name and follow Your Word with signs following.

So what you have is this strange thing going on. The disciples are a little bit scared. You know it isn't long after when James has his head off for being a believer.It was a dangerous occupation to proclaim the Word of God. They'd been chucked in jail, and at the time they did not know they were going to be let out...then they were released and they were kind of scared about csarrying on in obedience to Jesus command. But then they went on to pray something which shows me they understood something.

They say Lord Give us Boldness to do what We've got to Do. And You do what You have to do.

They don't pray Lord you do what we're supposed to do. Because they knew they had been commissioned to actually proclaim the Word.They'd been commissioned to lay hands on the sick. That was their commission.But they were scared and they needed boldness to do it.So what they ask for is boldness to help them do their part. And then they say ofcourse,accompany it with signs following.

And so you have this picture of the early Church who understood it was a synergy, a working together between man and God that brought the work on the Earth.And it has never changed. It really has never changed.

And the whole revival where God fills the whole Earth with His glory comes about where somehow we work in harness and in synergy with heaven and with the Father and we do our part and He does His part and we do our part and he does His part...and it gets kind of exciting that way because we think..."Wow...it works this stuff!!!"

One of the things that happens with the Holy Spirit it says "You will become My witnesses!" Which was their part.It was no good for them to get into a little holy huddle and pray and say Oh God You do it...go out and get them Lord, speak to them...

No that is not God's part. His part is to run before and open people's hearts. But it was the responsibility of the Church to declare. And ofcourse we've been a little bit kind of miffed because sometimes when we've declared it hasn't happened. Sometimes when we've got a little bold, we've ended up feeling as though we've been let down. And you know one of my own convictions is that in this current overflow from heaven....is that we've seen outpourings before...but this outpouring is an outpouring of fire(Florida still ongoing at this point)which is kind of the mark of it.And fire is never to destroy us , fire is to burn up the rubbish in us, to purify us... because Jesus said "You'll receive a baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire.." So there is that process which we have to go through of burning up the rubbish in us. But secondly there will come upon us...you know if you watch Todd Bentley(whatever you want to do with him)he is bold.He is in your face and bold and challenging the Media, the Press, everybody."come and see this is authentic..Miracles are happening. The blind can now see. The deaf can now hear....And you know, you of yourself cannot be like that.

It's not a personality thing.It is some work of the Holy Spirit in us that kind of overtakes us and we start to be full of the Holy Spirit in situations where we take on this boldness and we make the declaration about what Jesus has done for us ...about His love for us and all those things, and we lay hands on the sick....and somehow we are taken over for a while and we are not too conscious with how we are going to look, what happens if it doesn't work.It doesn't seem to bother us, we become something like people that have an adrelain rush in the Spirit and we are like a rugby player who damages himself...but doesn't realise until after the game and he's in the the shower, that in fact he has cut himself.because while he is on the pitch he has still got the adrenalin running.

And it's a little bit like that in the Spirit for us and it seems to me that what God is going to visit the church with is a kind of Holy Boldness.To actually declare that which needs to be declared.Because the people that don't hear it will not actually have a chance to believe.

God's part was to prepare the heart of Lydia to receive what Paul brought. Paul's part was to preach to her.It says in Colossians...Pray that we may have open doors to preach the gospel...and ofcourse it is not open doors, physical doors, it is men's hearts, which need to be open.

So the Church in Acts are praying for the ability to declare clearly with boldness about all that had taken place."Let us know when to do it.Let us get on and do our part and You open the doors, You perform the miracles,You build Your kingdom...but we're going to work in synergy together.

Just like Jesus and the Father...they were in perfect synergy.And the Father would say something and Jesus was representing Him on earth and He would say something, or he'd see the Father doing something and he would do it on Earth. It was almost that through what Jesus said that the Father was able to do what he did.And through what jesus did, the father was then able to do what He did.

And so....not many of us will be called to preach in great big football stadiums. i'm sure that will take place, and there will be these wonderful miracle meetings...all over the world and all over britain as God takes on the powers of darkness.But there will not actually be many of us who will be doing that. Some may. But it won't be very many.

But what will happen that in your life...in your region of operation...in those who God has given you to affect...you will become bold. And you will operate in your arena. it may be 5 people in your supermarket.... or 10 people at your place of work.And you're going to start to do what you are meant to do.Partly because you are going to start to get bold and get working with Him. And when you start to do what you're meant to do.Then God will start to do what He's meant to do. And before you know it, your communities will catch on fire and you will have your moment in those shopping malls and in those places where you go to.

I was down at the local builders yard the other week hetting some timbers . this young girl who serves at the counter with all the guys. I knew she hadn't been well. I knew she had been in hospital. i just said, "How are you". She said,"Well actually it's not too good."She said they've operated on one cyst and had to remove the ovary."She said"They think it may have spread to the other ovary. I'm just about to get married and I really don't want it."

Then this kind of boldness came upon me and I said "Listen love, you need to let me..pray for you in Jesus name." And she said"Yes...please!" you can imagine we are in a builder's yard and there are a number of colleagues there who know me fairly well!! But at this moment everyone's attention is on this conversation in the office. Also there are customers who are thinking, "What on earth is going on here?"

And i said"I don't want to embarrass you...so I'll go and tie my load of wood on...then come back in and maybe by then there will be less people around." Well it's a Saturday morning and the place is fuller than ever when we get back in there.But this girl is all bright -eyed behind the counter...thinking " well when's it gonna happen then?" Then this other fellow who I have witnessed to...sees the crowd and says..."I'll take care of the cutomers, you go round the back and pray for her."

So she didn't need a second asking and we went into this little office with aa kind of open door there, laid my hands on her...just...took authority over the sickness or something. Didn't take long. isaid"Well god bless you love." And she returned to her work. This has only just happened a week ago,so I haven't heard of the result yet. But listen, that was my arena.That was the place where I had to do what I had to do.

Now for all of you, this anointing that's coming will bring a boldness on you.That will cause you to do that sort of thing. it's the Holy Spirit that does it...but we have to do our part.If I can just emphasize that. It's not as though God's going to do it all. The last words of Jesus were that we go out and preach and teach concerning forgiveness and the Kingdom of God, to make disciples of the nations...healing the sick etc that's our part and God Himself will accompany us as we do. And we do actually need that visitation from heaven to be able to make that declaration.

KEY OF DAVID CONFERENCE 2009
'CROWNED WITH GLORY Thursday May 14th - Saturday May 16th.Our 2009 conference will be held from 7pm Thursday evening May 14th to late Saturday afternoon May 16th. Booking leaflets are available now from the church office - contact details at bottom of this linkpage. Speakers this year will be Peter Jackson from Toronto and Peter Stott.