After nearly 2 years of internet presence, first commenting on Dan's blog Life On Wings , then at the encouragement of others, beginning this blog in August 2008 (hence the title), then exchanging items with many friends on Facebook, I am noting something.
More people are getting this 3rd level stuff.
I also note that Havant Church are getting nearer and nearer to these matters. This morning was no exception, where there was a lot of prophetic picture/song and word on the subject of the Exchange that was made at the Cross.
Tonight I want to reiterate that this blog is not about me. This blog is about the third level. I have not been given another subject....and anyway, it covers just about everything anyway but from this new perspective.
Unless God gave me another project, there will not be another blog on say "Archaological finds in Genesis", as valid as that might be.
What I am saying is this blog is about the third level and it is completely immaterial who the authors are. Many contributions have been made from Sylvia Pearce,Merrill Thompson,Nancy Gilmore,Brian Coatney, Page Prewitt, etc etc. ofcourse the rest have been by me trying my best to reach deep down into my spirit to cover some of the vastness of the subject.
But at the end of the day, I am a muzo type. A prophetic musician creative type. The sort you DO NOT ASK to organise your church expedition.
Rosie Esseveld has a prophetic type friend in High Wycombe. He says "You can ask me anything you like about the next 10 minutes, or about 10 years time, but don't ask me about anything in between."
The previous contributors above are a particular breed. A firstfruits breed who knew there was something beyond the charismatic/evangelical experiences of Christianity. Like me, they found these levels are great, but daily life just wasn't working. There was something we weren't seeing, which IS in the Bible.....but just as we missed baptism in the Spirit for years.....so the reality of the birth of the Christ child in our being....just was not noticed at all. Yet people refer to it obliquely or expressly over and over in the New Testament.
The older contributors have been established in these truths for decades. But I am aware that many on Facebook are starting to get their first glimpses. And I am eager that anyone, whether quite established, or taking their first steps, should also be allowed to share their revelations on this blog.
So.......not only muzos. Let's hear from nurses , teachers, unemployed, administrators, JCB helicopter chauffeurs....anyone. And yes this last example of a job comes from a piano removal I did for a man employed to fly farmers in the north down to the Southern headquarters of JCB UK, to buy their new tractors from them. What a job eh??
Sunday, 31 January 2010
Consuming Glory Conference 2010 Havant
CONSUMING GLORY,
Theme
This conference continues to expand the theme of God's glory - His visible and active presence - and of this being revealed in and through us. It has been said that "the glory of God is man fully alive ......
Once glimpsed, His "glory" consumes our affections, our focus, our life choices and our destiny. Creation awaits its own release from corruption as our "glory-ous freedom" as God’s
family on earth is revealed. Redeemed humanity is mandated to carry the image of God - to reveal His glory - and become "word made flesh" to our troubled communities.
The Key of David synergy of worship, the prophetic and the presence of God continue to be foundations on which this conference will seek to build.
Invited Ministries
Speakers will include Greg Haslam, Senior Pastor of Westminster Chapel in London and from our church - Peter Stott and others from the Key of David team.
Greg Haslam travels widely -is a Bible teacher, conference speaker and writer. He has a real heart to bring Word and Spirit together through biblical theology that is on fire. He desires to see the widespread emergence of healthy churches that can become a credible voice to our declining culture. This requires an informed and vigorous depth to their faith, and a dazzlingly different lifestyle in marriage, home, work and Christian community. He is married to Ruth and has three grown-up sons and two granddaughters.
This conference continues to expand the theme of God's glory - His visible and active presence - and of this being revealed in and through us. It has been said that "the glory of God is man fully alive ......
Once glimpsed, His "glory" consumes our affections, our focus, our life choices and our destiny. Creation awaits its own release from corruption as our "glory-ous freedom" as God’s
family on earth is revealed. Redeemed humanity is mandated to carry the image of God - to reveal His glory - and become "word made flesh" to our troubled communities.
The Key of David synergy of worship, the prophetic and the presence of God continue to be foundations on which this conference will seek to build.
Invited Ministries
Speakers will include Greg Haslam, Senior Pastor of Westminster Chapel in London and from our church - Peter Stott and others from the Key of David team.
Greg Haslam travels widely -is a Bible teacher, conference speaker and writer. He has a real heart to bring Word and Spirit together through biblical theology that is on fire. He desires to see the widespread emergence of healthy churches that can become a credible voice to our declining culture. This requires an informed and vigorous depth to their faith, and a dazzlingly different lifestyle in marriage, home, work and Christian community. He is married to Ruth and has three grown-up sons and two granddaughters.
Logistics
The venue: Upstairs storefront where Portsdown Church,Havant meet, Meridian Centre
in the centre of Havant,Hants,UK.
When: (If the above picture is unclear) FROM Thursday 18th March 7pmUNTIL Saturday 20th March at 5pm
The venue space is EXTREMELY limited so book your places quickly if you want to come.
Contact details are on the church homepage here
Friday, 29 January 2010
Michael Harper dies
This will be meaningless to many readers, but Michael Harper has died. Readers will know that the prophetic in me screams at any reference to divine epithet, Father, Apostle,Pastor,Prophet Smith etc.
But if anyone deserves to be called Father, this man does. Virtually singlehanded...not quite....this man tethered the Anglican church to the wall just long enough while it kicked and screamed blasphemies to introduce into its hallowed/unhallowed walls...the reader picks....the subject of baptism in the Spirit and the spiritual gifts. More detail is listed below.
But beloved...if you are in the UK and you are not a Pentecostal, and you consider yourself in the current move of the Spirit,you need to acknowledge this man.
Without Michael, aided and abetted later by such father figures as Arthur Wallis...
you can forget Dales Bible weeks
you can forget Kingdom Faith and Colin Urquart
you can forget the revival in Dr Challoners in 1972
you can forget the small move we had in Exeter university
you can forget Dr Heribert Muhlen probably in Germany and
then my links to my Catholic Charismatic friend Martin Franke
you can forget Chorleywood and New Wine and Soul Survivor
and Matt Redman
you can forget Mark Stibbe
Barry Kissell....at least being in Chorley wood
Holy trinity Brompton
The Alpha course
The John Wimber days in the UK
The doorway for the Toronto outpouring
......where do you want me to stop.
Michael Harper freaked me out by disappearing off the scene and going into the Orthodox church. Some tuning friends told me of this. But I now understand , for him it was his version of the third level. A way of contemplation and intercession. I am grateful to John Crowder's book....New Mystics for helping me to pick this up.
The Times just has no idea who they were writing about.
From yesterday's Times Obituary column
But if anyone deserves to be called Father, this man does. Virtually singlehanded...not quite....this man tethered the Anglican church to the wall just long enough while it kicked and screamed blasphemies to introduce into its hallowed/unhallowed walls...the reader picks....the subject of baptism in the Spirit and the spiritual gifts. More detail is listed below.
But beloved...if you are in the UK and you are not a Pentecostal, and you consider yourself in the current move of the Spirit,you need to acknowledge this man.
Without Michael, aided and abetted later by such father figures as Arthur Wallis...
you can forget Dales Bible weeks
you can forget Kingdom Faith and Colin Urquart
you can forget the revival in Dr Challoners in 1972
you can forget the small move we had in Exeter university
you can forget Dr Heribert Muhlen probably in Germany and
then my links to my Catholic Charismatic friend Martin Franke
you can forget Chorleywood and New Wine and Soul Survivor
and Matt Redman
you can forget Mark Stibbe
Barry Kissell....at least being in Chorley wood
Holy trinity Brompton
The Alpha course
The John Wimber days in the UK
The doorway for the Toronto outpouring
......where do you want me to stop.
Michael Harper freaked me out by disappearing off the scene and going into the Orthodox church. Some tuning friends told me of this. But I now understand , for him it was his version of the third level. A way of contemplation and intercession. I am grateful to John Crowder's book....New Mystics for helping me to pick this up.
The Times just has no idea who they were writing about.
From yesterday's Times Obituary column
Father Michael Harper was one of the first priests to leave the Church of England for the Eastern Orthodox Church, in protest at the decision to allow women to enter the priesthood.
The vote was the last straw for him in his growing dissatisfaction with the Church, after 40 years as a leader on the Charismatic wing of Anglicanism during which he earned an international regard and following. He said later that his decision had surprised many of his friends, who were ignorant of the Orthodox Church.
In his 15 years as an Orthodox priest he set about trying to dispel some of this ignorance, continuing to describe himself as a charismatic and charting his journey to Orthodoxy in his book, The True Light.
Michael Harper was born in 1931 in London. He was baptised, although he recalled that his parents were not very devout Christians. His father was an entrepreneur at Smithfield Market and his mother a beautician with Elizabeth Arden. His first real exposure to Christianity was through his evangelical nanny, who took him to Baptist churches and encouraged his prayer life. He once said he would write a book about the influence of evangelical nannies, citing Winston Churchill as another who enjoyed that benefit.
He won a scholarship to Gresham’s School, Cambridge, and then went to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, to read law and theology.
It was there that he experienced his adult conversion to Christianity, in a revelation during a Eucharist at King’s College Chapel. The following year he put himself forward for ministry in the Anglican Church and after graduating spent two years training for ordination at Ridley Hall, Cambridge.
His first parish was St Barnabas, Clapham Common, London, before he was invited by John Stott to join the staff of the leading evangelical church of All Souls, Langham Place, where he was given special responsibility for the shops along Oxford Street.
While at All Souls he experienced the second turning point along his faith journey, which he described as his “baptism in the Spirit”, the start of his journey as a charismatic. This experience led to a rift between him and Stott for some years.
Harper and his wife Jeanne, a talented musician whom he had married in 1956, left All Souls and dedicated themselves to the renewal movement worldwide. They formed the Fountain Trust, which organised charismatic conferences all over the world at which he addressed thousands of people. Jeanne co-edited the hugely influential songbook, Sound of Living Waters, which is still used by charismatic churches today.
Harper then went on to found Soma (Sharing of Ministries Abroad), which was committed to sharing ministries between the developed and developing world. He was involved for many years with the World Council of Churches. Colleagues remember him as a man with the ability to build friendships across the Christian traditions, and to encourage vocations. A gentle and humble man, Harper was nevertheless a dynamic speaker and networker, able to draw people in whatever their background or differences from himself.
His ministry was recognised in the Roman Catholic renewal; he spoke at several Catholic meetings and he met Popes Paul VI, John Paul and John Paul II. During this time he also edited Renewal, the longest-established charismatic magazine in the world, and he was a canon of Chichester Cathedral. He wrote 18 books, including the bestseller Equal and Different, which set out his views on women’s ordination and the gender debate.
Harper’s final spiritual step was to join the Eastern Orthodox Church. His first experience of Orthodoxy had been 20 years earlier in 1975, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He said he knew even then that Orthodoxy was very important and he would meet it one day. In 1989 he went to his first Byzantine liturgy at the New Valamo monastery at Heinävesi in southeastern Finland, and that, he later described in an interview, it was the “real answer”.
While the ordination of women in the Anglican Church prompted some clergy to convert to Roman Catholicism, Harper was never tempted by this, believing they would find too many problems in Rome. He described himself as “being led to Orthodoxy”, and in 1993 he was made president of the Pilgrimage to Orthodoxy. Two years later he and his wife were received into the Orthodox Church.
When he was first ordained into the Orthodox Church in 1995 he did not have a parish, so he set about forming an English-speaking Orthodox parish in London. Initially it was attached to the Arabic-speaking Antiochian Cathedral parish, and Harper started an English-language liturgy there on Saturday afternoons. This became the core of the now thriving St Botolph’s parish in the City, near Liverpool Street Station.
He was appointed dean of the new Antiochian Orthodox Deanery of the UK and Ireland, and on its tenth anniversary he was raised to become Archpriest. He was committed to educating about Orthodoxy at all levels, and was involved with the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies at Cambridge from its beginnings a decade ago.
He resigned as dean a few months before his death. He had suffered from cancer, but continued to minister at St Botolph’s until a few months ago.
He is survived by his wife, Jeanne.
Father Michael Harper, Archpriest of the Antiochian Orthodox Deanery of the UK and Ireland, was born on March 12, 1931. He died of cancer on January 6, 2010, aged 78
The vote was the last straw for him in his growing dissatisfaction with the Church, after 40 years as a leader on the Charismatic wing of Anglicanism during which he earned an international regard and following. He said later that his decision had surprised many of his friends, who were ignorant of the Orthodox Church.
In his 15 years as an Orthodox priest he set about trying to dispel some of this ignorance, continuing to describe himself as a charismatic and charting his journey to Orthodoxy in his book, The True Light.
Michael Harper was born in 1931 in London. He was baptised, although he recalled that his parents were not very devout Christians. His father was an entrepreneur at Smithfield Market and his mother a beautician with Elizabeth Arden. His first real exposure to Christianity was through his evangelical nanny, who took him to Baptist churches and encouraged his prayer life. He once said he would write a book about the influence of evangelical nannies, citing Winston Churchill as another who enjoyed that benefit.
He won a scholarship to Gresham’s School, Cambridge, and then went to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, to read law and theology.
It was there that he experienced his adult conversion to Christianity, in a revelation during a Eucharist at King’s College Chapel. The following year he put himself forward for ministry in the Anglican Church and after graduating spent two years training for ordination at Ridley Hall, Cambridge.
His first parish was St Barnabas, Clapham Common, London, before he was invited by John Stott to join the staff of the leading evangelical church of All Souls, Langham Place, where he was given special responsibility for the shops along Oxford Street.
While at All Souls he experienced the second turning point along his faith journey, which he described as his “baptism in the Spirit”, the start of his journey as a charismatic. This experience led to a rift between him and Stott for some years.
Harper and his wife Jeanne, a talented musician whom he had married in 1956, left All Souls and dedicated themselves to the renewal movement worldwide. They formed the Fountain Trust, which organised charismatic conferences all over the world at which he addressed thousands of people. Jeanne co-edited the hugely influential songbook, Sound of Living Waters, which is still used by charismatic churches today.
Harper then went on to found Soma (Sharing of Ministries Abroad), which was committed to sharing ministries between the developed and developing world. He was involved for many years with the World Council of Churches. Colleagues remember him as a man with the ability to build friendships across the Christian traditions, and to encourage vocations. A gentle and humble man, Harper was nevertheless a dynamic speaker and networker, able to draw people in whatever their background or differences from himself.
His ministry was recognised in the Roman Catholic renewal; he spoke at several Catholic meetings and he met Popes Paul VI, John Paul and John Paul II. During this time he also edited Renewal, the longest-established charismatic magazine in the world, and he was a canon of Chichester Cathedral. He wrote 18 books, including the bestseller Equal and Different, which set out his views on women’s ordination and the gender debate.
Harper’s final spiritual step was to join the Eastern Orthodox Church. His first experience of Orthodoxy had been 20 years earlier in 1975, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He said he knew even then that Orthodoxy was very important and he would meet it one day. In 1989 he went to his first Byzantine liturgy at the New Valamo monastery at Heinävesi in southeastern Finland, and that, he later described in an interview, it was the “real answer”.
While the ordination of women in the Anglican Church prompted some clergy to convert to Roman Catholicism, Harper was never tempted by this, believing they would find too many problems in Rome. He described himself as “being led to Orthodoxy”, and in 1993 he was made president of the Pilgrimage to Orthodoxy. Two years later he and his wife were received into the Orthodox Church.
When he was first ordained into the Orthodox Church in 1995 he did not have a parish, so he set about forming an English-speaking Orthodox parish in London. Initially it was attached to the Arabic-speaking Antiochian Cathedral parish, and Harper started an English-language liturgy there on Saturday afternoons. This became the core of the now thriving St Botolph’s parish in the City, near Liverpool Street Station.
He was appointed dean of the new Antiochian Orthodox Deanery of the UK and Ireland, and on its tenth anniversary he was raised to become Archpriest. He was committed to educating about Orthodoxy at all levels, and was involved with the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies at Cambridge from its beginnings a decade ago.
He resigned as dean a few months before his death. He had suffered from cancer, but continued to minister at St Botolph’s until a few months ago.
He is survived by his wife, Jeanne.
Father Michael Harper, Archpriest of the Antiochian Orthodox Deanery of the UK and Ireland, was born on March 12, 1931. He died of cancer on January 6, 2010, aged 78
Monday, 25 January 2010
In Him was the light of men
Paul Anderson Walsh just did a short video on Facebook commenting on the phrase
In Him was the light of men. He was flagging up the way Christians perceive non-Christians.
I replied that this is one of the biggest changes that take place as we move out of Christian childhood/youth (1John2) and into Fatherhood. We now see with a single eye. We don't divide God up into Christendom and nonChristendom, secular and spiritual.
Why? In the second level, and for many of us this has been a Holy Spirit and me secondlevel experienced in the charismatic realm, we divided everything up into born again and non-born again. We made crass and hurtful judgments based on human perceptions and assumptions drawn from the simple intellectual equation: if a person is not born again then their contribution in this world is decidedly iffy.
All religions do this. And this is the irony. Christianity is meant to be different. We claim that Jesus is the Life. So therefore there must be some evidence in the form of a new way of behaviour. If not, we just sell up now...become a Baptist, a Methodist, a Catholic or an Anglican and just acquiesce to the particular religious form surrounding us.
In the third level we make some extraordinary discoveries.
We learn that we are spirit.
But we learn that this spirit is variously expressed like a lamp or lightbulb through the lampshade of soul and body.
We learn in Christ we change spirit at new birth. But our lampshade remains pretty much as it was....except that now it manifests good fruit of the Spirit and positive actions.
So we come to the next bombshell. We realise that all the people that surround us whether Christian or non Christian, are at one level, the more surface levels , unable to change from their God-given selves...their flavours, their giftings....all that changes...and this is after all the real change...is one at their spirit centre when they move from darkness to life in new birth.
This is what is known as "circumcision of the heart" . But even in the natural realm, what is circumcision but a removal of a tiny bit of skin at the tip of the reproductive organ? When we look in Christ, and see no man after the flesh:
We see a man or woman moving in / not moving in the Spirit of God....but either way we see their souls and bodies pretty much how God made them to be.
And I think that is what Paul Anderson Walsh is trying to get over.
We honour the God- created in each individual. And we meet everyone in this positive way. Even if we came face to face with Al Capone! And on the foundation of what they have already we seek to communicate the spiritual need to turn round from darkness to light at their spirit centre. Not in some Dalek process that evangelism has been guity of in the past: having a sub agenda....I will only like you if you convert. But this time loving from that Other Lover that is at our spirit centre whose name is Jesus....and will go on loving whatever another person chooses to do.
But apart from the Spirit falling in meetings, this only seems to take place on a daily basis as we get fixed in the third level revelation of Christ living His life as me.
Here is an extract of CS Lewis that Norman Grubb uses in his final book "Yes Iam" at the end of Chapter One.
**C. S. Lewis, in Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer ver (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich), chapter 13, makes several statements which distinguish monism from pantheism:
"On the one hand, the man who does not regard God as other than himself cannot be said to have a religion at all.
On the other hand, if I think God other than myself in the same way in which my fellow-men, and objects in general, are other than myself, I am beginning to make Him an idol.
I am daring to treat His existence as somehow parallel to my own.
But He is the ground of our being.
He is always both within us and over against us.
Our reality is so much from His reality as He, moment by moment, projects into us .... Arnold speaks of us as 'en-isled'from one another in'the sea of life.' But we can't be similarly 'en-isled' from God. To be discontinuous from God as I am discontinuous from you would be annihilation ....
"We must, no doubt, distinguish this ontological continuity between Creator and creature which is, so to speak, 'given' by the relation between them, from the union of wills which, under Grace, is reached by a life of sanctity.
The ontological continuity is, I take it, unchangeable, and exists between God and a reprobate (or a devil) no less than between God and a saint.'Whither shall I go then from thy presence? If I go down to hell, thou art there also.' .. .
"In Pantheism God is all. But the whole point of creation surely is that He was not content to be all. He intends to be 'all in all' " (pp. 67-71).
See also: Ephesians 4:6, Acts 17:28 and Romans 11:36.
Paul Anderson Walsh also wears other hats
This was the show clip that shows what it was about: Truly inspirational
Sunday, 24 January 2010
ETERNAL LIFE IS A PERSON..by..Sylvia Pearce
Sylvia put this up on Facebook with the words "I call the book of John the "I Am Book""
ETERNAL LIFE IS A PERSON.... "He that hath the Son hath (Eternal) Life;"
(I John 5:12) I call the book of John the "I am" book. Jesus never said that He would give us a little piece of himself called "the way, the truth, and the life." He didn't say he would give us a little bit of bread and it would be life to us. He didn't say that he would give us resurrection, or life, or living water, and these would help is have more of God. No, what he did strongly and emphatically declare was this: "I am the Word, I am the Light of the world, I am the Living Water, I am the Bread of Life, I am the Resurrection and the Life, I am the Way, I am the Truth, and I am Eternal Life." God's name always has been "I AM," not, "I have it to give." We do not have a distant God, dishing out to us humans, little bits of himself to live on. No, He has given us the fullness of Himself. The mystery of the gospel is, "Christ in you, our only hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). He is the deity in the temple, He is the contents of the vessel, He is the vine of the branch, He is the husband of the wife, and He is the head of the body. He firmly announced to all His creation, "My glory will I not give to another"(Isaiah 42:8). Therefore, salvation is a Person, Love is a Person, the Truth is a Person, Peace is a Person, Righteousness is a Person, and Eternal Life is not just a place we go after death, but it is a Person! His plan from the beginning was to create a family of sons who would freely contain and express His deity nature throughout eternity. It takes a great blow to our egos to really know that we are only the clay pots and not the glory of the contents. Christ is the content, it is He that fills the temple. Yet we have been falsely taught that we are the one who should fulfill the law and try to fill our temples with good works.
(I John 5:12) I call the book of John the "I am" book. Jesus never said that He would give us a little piece of himself called "the way, the truth, and the life." He didn't say he would give us a little bit of bread and it would be life to us. He didn't say that he would give us resurrection, or life, or living water, and these would help is have more of God. No, what he did strongly and emphatically declare was this: "I am the Word, I am the Light of the world, I am the Living Water, I am the Bread of Life, I am the Resurrection and the Life, I am the Way, I am the Truth, and I am Eternal Life." God's name always has been "I AM," not, "I have it to give." We do not have a distant God, dishing out to us humans, little bits of himself to live on. No, He has given us the fullness of Himself. The mystery of the gospel is, "Christ in you, our only hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). He is the deity in the temple, He is the contents of the vessel, He is the vine of the branch, He is the husband of the wife, and He is the head of the body. He firmly announced to all His creation, "My glory will I not give to another"(Isaiah 42:8). Therefore, salvation is a Person, Love is a Person, the Truth is a Person, Peace is a Person, Righteousness is a Person, and Eternal Life is not just a place we go after death, but it is a Person! His plan from the beginning was to create a family of sons who would freely contain and express His deity nature throughout eternity. It takes a great blow to our egos to really know that we are only the clay pots and not the glory of the contents. Christ is the content, it is He that fills the temple. Yet we have been falsely taught that we are the one who should fulfill the law and try to fill our temples with good works.
The essence of all idolatry is trying to be what only God is. This too is the essence of legalism.Trying to be good leaves our hearts empty and still cry ing out for more. For it is Christ who can fulfill the law in us, and it is He that wants the glory.We are His dwelling place, not our own dwelling place. Could this be why Christians are so miserable? We, of all people, who know that our sins are forgiven and our future destination is heaven, should live in the joy of the Lord most of the time.But do we? I dare say that if we are honest, most of us experience the very opposite.I believe that most of us live condemned and frustrated lives, trying to cope with what we have and wonder why faith doesn't work.That is why so many Christians are crying out to Jesus, "Come quickly Lord Jesus," as they wait to be relieved from their misery by the second coming of Christ.Our salvation and entrance into the kingdom of God is wonderful, but it's not good enough to just know that our sins are forgiven. What about now? What about the present tense? Why do we love the Jesus who saves us, but hate the human person that He saved? Did He do only half the work? Maybe we are getting closer to our answer by looking at just that. We think that we are responsible for finishing or perfecting the other half of what doesn't seem complete, namely us.What a job! We are taught to pray more, read our Bibles more, come to Church more, tithe more,and strive to become more like Jesus. Then there is the problem of the world:we should keep ourselves from worldly thoughts and not overindulge in worldly pleasures such as eating, drinking, smoking, and carousing. Then there are our personal shortcomings: tempers, jealousies, pride, and secret sins. The list goes on forever. But most of all we must look good to the world and keep our reputations and God's reputation respectable because we must be good witnesses. I say it again, "What a job!"Why doesn't Christianity work? I'm not happy and I'm not satisfied--God is satisfied because He sees his son in me, but I'm not satisfied. I look most of the time like Paul in Romans Seven--"the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not that I do. For the will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not."Since the problem is exposed in Romans seven,
then the whole solution, which is the missing link in Christianity, is hidden there as well. The real problem and hidden sin of the Christian is self-effort. "I ought to. I should do better by self-effort." It is very subtle, though, for it seems right and good, yet in truth it is the very heart of our problem. The law continually stirs up self-effort because we believe we can and should do it. We are not believing in God, but in ourselves. Colossians 1:27 says, "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." The mystery of the Gospel is "Christ in you," yet we believe more in our own performance than Christ in us. That is why the third person of the Trinity (the Holy Spirit) is the least known to most Christians. We are provided with the life of Christ by the Holy Spirit, yet we strive in our own efforts to be that life. Paul strongly warned the Galatians against legalism in their church. They began their Christian walk by faith alone, but soon after, added all kinds of laws to live by. Therefore, Paul cried out, "O foolish Galatia ns, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth.This only would I learn of you; Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh"(Galatians 3:1-3)? Paul's strong warning "Who has bewitched you," implies that the devil is at work. It is devilish to try to become what only God himself is. Let us understand though, that the law isn't wrong in itself, for it is God's perfect picture of His holy nature. Our problem is not God's picture of himself, the problem is how to be like that picture. We can never be like God by self-effort, yet God wants us to come to the end of believing that "WE" can do it.
The only way that we can come to the end is for us to go right on trying. But don't try half way.Try with all your heart. Try until you're bloody from trying.Most Christians settle somewhere in-between; a little bit of Jesus, a little bit of me, a little bit of the law, a little bit of righteousness, a little bit of the devil, a little bit of sin, "Ho hum! God doesn't expect me to be perfect anyway." On the contrary, Jesus demands perfection, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48).Jesus says it has to be all or nothing.
It is better to try until we can't try anymore, than to settle somewhere in the middle ground That is why Jesus said to the Laodiceian church in the book of Revelation, that because they were lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, He would s pew them out of his mouth (Rev. 3:15-16). God wants self-effort to become exceedingly sinful. God wants you to be real desperate, so desperate that you can't try anymore.Then you are more than happy for righteousness not to depend on you. It is a desperate, but thankful heart, that knows that righteousness and eternal Life are both a person, and that person is Christ, who lives in us.
then the whole solution, which is the missing link in Christianity, is hidden there as well. The real problem and hidden sin of the Christian is self-effort. "I ought to. I should do better by self-effort." It is very subtle, though, for it seems right and good, yet in truth it is the very heart of our problem. The law continually stirs up self-effort because we believe we can and should do it. We are not believing in God, but in ourselves. Colossians 1:27 says, "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." The mystery of the Gospel is "Christ in you," yet we believe more in our own performance than Christ in us. That is why the third person of the Trinity (the Holy Spirit) is the least known to most Christians. We are provided with the life of Christ by the Holy Spirit, yet we strive in our own efforts to be that life. Paul strongly warned the Galatians against legalism in their church. They began their Christian walk by faith alone, but soon after, added all kinds of laws to live by. Therefore, Paul cried out, "O foolish Galatia ns, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth.This only would I learn of you; Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh"(Galatians 3:1-3)? Paul's strong warning "Who has bewitched you," implies that the devil is at work. It is devilish to try to become what only God himself is. Let us understand though, that the law isn't wrong in itself, for it is God's perfect picture of His holy nature. Our problem is not God's picture of himself, the problem is how to be like that picture. We can never be like God by self-effort, yet God wants us to come to the end of believing that "WE" can do it.
The only way that we can come to the end is for us to go right on trying. But don't try half way.Try with all your heart. Try until you're bloody from trying.Most Christians settle somewhere in-between; a little bit of Jesus, a little bit of me, a little bit of the law, a little bit of righteousness, a little bit of the devil, a little bit of sin, "Ho hum! God doesn't expect me to be perfect anyway." On the contrary, Jesus demands perfection, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48).Jesus says it has to be all or nothing.
It is better to try until we can't try anymore, than to settle somewhere in the middle ground That is why Jesus said to the Laodiceian church in the book of Revelation, that because they were lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, He would s pew them out of his mouth (Rev. 3:15-16). God wants self-effort to become exceedingly sinful. God wants you to be real desperate, so desperate that you can't try anymore.Then you are more than happy for righteousness not to depend on you. It is a desperate, but thankful heart, that knows that righteousness and eternal Life are both a person, and that person is Christ, who lives in us.
Friday, 22 January 2010
Vantage Point messages 1 and 2 by Frank Viola
For those who like the BIGGER PICTURE
Frank Viola's Two Part Message : Vantage Point 1 and 2 can be downloaded as a podcast here.
You will learn how much of the entire blueprint of God's plans are in the very first chapters of Genesis. God has not altered His goals. He has always been clear about what He is doing. And as Project Manager there is no way that it won't come to pass.
Frank Viola's Two Part Message : Vantage Point 1 and 2 can be downloaded as a podcast here.
You will learn how much of the entire blueprint of God's plans are in the very first chapters of Genesis. God has not altered His goals. He has always been clear about what He is doing. And as Project Manager there is no way that it won't come to pass.
Thursday, 21 January 2010
Comment on Tale of Two Trees
Comment on Tale of two trees by eat the word left today... very grateful...thanks. As it is quite old how did you find it?
A lot of people are referring to Genesis 3 on Facebook at the mo.It's like something just shifted in the last few months.
Very interesting blog. I got to thinking about the statement: "The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil contains both the knowledge of good as well as the knowledge of evil. Knowing good is not the equivalent of doing good. Good is a life form". Prior to the fall man already knew the life form that is good (for God walked in the garden with Adam and Eve and fellowshipped with them). So, when they ate of the tree what they also acquired was not just knowledge of evil behaviour but knowledge of the one who became evil, i.e. the devil. And they made his acquaintance. And they lived his life which led to death.
A lot of people are referring to Genesis 3 on Facebook at the mo.It's like something just shifted in the last few months.
Very interesting blog. I got to thinking about the statement: "The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil contains both the knowledge of good as well as the knowledge of evil. Knowing good is not the equivalent of doing good. Good is a life form". Prior to the fall man already knew the life form that is good (for God walked in the garden with Adam and Eve and fellowshipped with them). So, when they ate of the tree what they also acquired was not just knowledge of evil behaviour but knowledge of the one who became evil, i.e. the devil. And they made his acquaintance. And they lived his life which led to death.
Throwing Away the Key - By Jamie Weeks
All these links are excellent thought-provoking posts from fine people.
http://finishedwork-rjw.blogspot.com/2010/01/throwing-away-key.html
http://finishedwork-rjw.blogspot.com/2010/01/throwing-away-key.html
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
An Administration Suitable to The Summing Up of all things
First published on Facebook
How as we move into the third Level way of Living literally everything we do now in Politics,Education,Business,Religion will just take on a whole different wineskin.
But more also on the mechanics behind Romans chapters 3-8.
How some grace preaching is stopping short
Is such an administration going to be a reflection of how a rightly functioning brain operates or how genuine Spirit-filled meetings operate?
i have written about the seeming insanity of a two party political system that lurches from the right to the left every 4 years. Or does this simply mirror the way we shift balance when we walk forwards.
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil affects our entire walk. Our education. Our politics. Our business corporations. Sadly our churches.
Let's focus on Offsted. Christine and i have a friend who works as an Offsted inspector. Perhaps more with nurseries. Perhaps the reason Offsted does not work is the reason we don't work as people.
Offsted is Labour's sincere and honest response to inequalities in education up and down our land. If we could standardise the levels of teaching everywhere, then we can ensure that minimum standards of reading writing maths and comprehension can be attained so that later on children can be suitably employable or able to train further in higher education.
As a basic measuring tool it is very similar to the Law. Standards that are measurably kept or not kept.
The part of our thinking that this measuring tool and the law relates to is our step by step reasoning tool.
If we are failing, then measurable steps can be introduced that redress the balance. And, actually, this is much the way we correct any activity and in itself is quite neutral. Neither a good thing or a bad thing in itself. Just a tool.
The Law it says in Romans drives us
to discover our own inadequacies. If the measuring stick wasn't there, we'd never know. The same with Offsted.
But here is the problem with Offsted. And here is the problem with the Law in Labour's government. And the law in the Christian's life.
Schools spend so long and so much energy ensuring the many, but still limited criteria that are measured in the test are complied with, that as a result the school's main function of producing a well-rounded functioning set of individuals can be impaired.The admin takes priority over the job in hand.
This is a problem throughout any Tory or Labour administration. It is a problem in Christian life.It is a problem in our lives together.
Now in the Christian life around Romans 3-5 there is a fundamental disconnect at this point. Perhaps there needs to be something similar in Offsted. The Bible revelation effectively says OK Reasoning, you have correctly assessed that your behaviour before and after becoming a Christian is not meeting the standards...so what we are now going to do is switch you on standby with a particular phrase....
YOU HAVE DIED TO THE LAW. In other words your ability as a measuring stick to actually of yourself produce any change is called into question and in fact firmly judged...SO SHUT UP!
It's here that another device is switched on. This is the internal capacity to Hear the Word of the Lord and Believe it into existence, for which there is a certain amount of lead time that the Reasoning part of us is very unhappy about. Now whether this bit resides in our right brain, our insides, or wherever...it is a spiritual capacity that we were all born with that got switched off in the Fall, about the time that we, as it says in Proverbs 3:5,began to RELY on our own INSIGHT......and not FIRST trust the Lord with all our heart.
So Romans 5 and 6 is all about what is now true of us since the death of Christ, but can only be activated by the apparatus in us that believes things into being. It cannot be activated by our reasoning machine...because that will always feedback real world truth to say "I'm sorry, what you are believing is not here yet." Well thanks a lot Mr reasoning...I could have told you that. It's like looking at a train time table and your brain saying the train isn't in yet. Well, thankyou for being so enlightening Mr Brain, however tomorrow's 3.30 from Waterloo won't be in yet because it's not tomorrow, so SHUTUP please, and let me carry on with my hunt for advance information.
Now Norman Grubb articulated a very interesting additional process that the rest of the Church seems really slow to acknowledge. That having switched on the Faith cooker to full power, and the fan oven of praise which accelerates the cooking procedure, both individually and corporately, Romans 7 switches the reasoning section back on. How strange?
No, not really. The reasoning section needs to be switched on again so we have a measuring stick to tell us whether we have what we ask yet or not. Now at the moment, a lot of grace preaching is in denial about this second switch on. And perhaps, while people are busy switching off their measuring sticks in order to have a fair crack at switching on their faith cookers....particularly blokes...who have a hard time doing two things at once.....perhaps if tha bulk of the church are at this stage, talking about Romans 7 is going to be darned confusing.
So........for you.......pretend we never said anything.....and carry on cooking....or starting to cook....
But for the rest be prepared for a left-brain holocaust as it continually screams "It isn't here yet!".
Thank it kindly, but tell it firmly that your faith is still cooking.
How such a process could be used to improve Offsted, I don't really see yet. But I do note a couple of things.
The Buddhists have the saying "When the pupil is ready, then the teacher will come." Which I have certainly found true in my Christian Life. Jesus said...if any man IS WILLING to do the Will of God....then shal he know whether the My teaching be of God. " Which contains within it a similar parallel.
Secondly. Home schooling. In a small group setting, whether family or extended family...a teacher or parent will find something that their child really wants to learn....NOW....with an inner motivation and drive to propel them forward.
Several public schools operate this way much to the horror of the British traditional learning system.
Coming out of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil has so many ramifications.....I don't think it has hardly hit anyone yet.
How as we move into the third Level way of Living literally everything we do now in Politics,Education,Business,Religion will just take on a whole different wineskin.
But more also on the mechanics behind Romans chapters 3-8.
How some grace preaching is stopping short
Is such an administration going to be a reflection of how a rightly functioning brain operates or how genuine Spirit-filled meetings operate?
i have written about the seeming insanity of a two party political system that lurches from the right to the left every 4 years. Or does this simply mirror the way we shift balance when we walk forwards.
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil affects our entire walk. Our education. Our politics. Our business corporations. Sadly our churches.
Let's focus on Offsted. Christine and i have a friend who works as an Offsted inspector. Perhaps more with nurseries. Perhaps the reason Offsted does not work is the reason we don't work as people.
Offsted is Labour's sincere and honest response to inequalities in education up and down our land. If we could standardise the levels of teaching everywhere, then we can ensure that minimum standards of reading writing maths and comprehension can be attained so that later on children can be suitably employable or able to train further in higher education.
As a basic measuring tool it is very similar to the Law. Standards that are measurably kept or not kept.
The part of our thinking that this measuring tool and the law relates to is our step by step reasoning tool.
If we are failing, then measurable steps can be introduced that redress the balance. And, actually, this is much the way we correct any activity and in itself is quite neutral. Neither a good thing or a bad thing in itself. Just a tool.
The Law it says in Romans drives us
to discover our own inadequacies. If the measuring stick wasn't there, we'd never know. The same with Offsted.
But here is the problem with Offsted. And here is the problem with the Law in Labour's government. And the law in the Christian's life.
Schools spend so long and so much energy ensuring the many, but still limited criteria that are measured in the test are complied with, that as a result the school's main function of producing a well-rounded functioning set of individuals can be impaired.The admin takes priority over the job in hand.
This is a problem throughout any Tory or Labour administration. It is a problem in Christian life.It is a problem in our lives together.
Now in the Christian life around Romans 3-5 there is a fundamental disconnect at this point. Perhaps there needs to be something similar in Offsted. The Bible revelation effectively says OK Reasoning, you have correctly assessed that your behaviour before and after becoming a Christian is not meeting the standards...so what we are now going to do is switch you on standby with a particular phrase....
YOU HAVE DIED TO THE LAW. In other words your ability as a measuring stick to actually of yourself produce any change is called into question and in fact firmly judged...SO SHUT UP!
It's here that another device is switched on. This is the internal capacity to Hear the Word of the Lord and Believe it into existence, for which there is a certain amount of lead time that the Reasoning part of us is very unhappy about. Now whether this bit resides in our right brain, our insides, or wherever...it is a spiritual capacity that we were all born with that got switched off in the Fall, about the time that we, as it says in Proverbs 3:5,began to RELY on our own INSIGHT......and not FIRST trust the Lord with all our heart.
So Romans 5 and 6 is all about what is now true of us since the death of Christ, but can only be activated by the apparatus in us that believes things into being. It cannot be activated by our reasoning machine...because that will always feedback real world truth to say "I'm sorry, what you are believing is not here yet." Well thanks a lot Mr reasoning...I could have told you that. It's like looking at a train time table and your brain saying the train isn't in yet. Well, thankyou for being so enlightening Mr Brain, however tomorrow's 3.30 from Waterloo won't be in yet because it's not tomorrow, so SHUTUP please, and let me carry on with my hunt for advance information.
Now Norman Grubb articulated a very interesting additional process that the rest of the Church seems really slow to acknowledge. That having switched on the Faith cooker to full power, and the fan oven of praise which accelerates the cooking procedure, both individually and corporately, Romans 7 switches the reasoning section back on. How strange?
No, not really. The reasoning section needs to be switched on again so we have a measuring stick to tell us whether we have what we ask yet or not. Now at the moment, a lot of grace preaching is in denial about this second switch on. And perhaps, while people are busy switching off their measuring sticks in order to have a fair crack at switching on their faith cookers....particularly blokes...who have a hard time doing two things at once.....perhaps if tha bulk of the church are at this stage, talking about Romans 7 is going to be darned confusing.
So........for you.......pretend we never said anything.....and carry on cooking....or starting to cook....
But for the rest be prepared for a left-brain holocaust as it continually screams "It isn't here yet!".
Thank it kindly, but tell it firmly that your faith is still cooking.
How such a process could be used to improve Offsted, I don't really see yet. But I do note a couple of things.
The Buddhists have the saying "When the pupil is ready, then the teacher will come." Which I have certainly found true in my Christian Life. Jesus said...if any man IS WILLING to do the Will of God....then shal he know whether the My teaching be of God. " Which contains within it a similar parallel.
Secondly. Home schooling. In a small group setting, whether family or extended family...a teacher or parent will find something that their child really wants to learn....NOW....with an inner motivation and drive to propel them forward.
Several public schools operate this way much to the horror of the British traditional learning system.
Coming out of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil has so many ramifications.....I don't think it has hardly hit anyone yet.
Thursday, 14 January 2010
Nigel's Homegoing Celebration
Sometimes, we get to be a witness to something truly extraordinary.Something unexpected occurs in the midst of what is expected.Such was Nigel Waterfield's funeral and celebration. From the point of view of this blog, new readers should understand that it was only God putting the spotlight on Nigel and Elaine Waterfield in the free Anglican magazine "Inspire", and me posting it here, and another reference here that we should ever get to know each other. In many ways they were not being fully recognised in their own area but as the celebration service unfolded, maybe for the first time the full significance of what had been going on was being revealed. The service was held in their main church Holy Trinity Leicester (above picture) , but since the couple got together their greater allegiance has always been to listening to Jesus and obeying Him, and in so doing a whole rainbow coalition of services, organisations and churches were moved into their orbit, recently including Havant Church (Portsdown Community Church) in the south here.
Amazingly, there was a gap of one day when it did not snow here in Britain and I was able to travel up on a clear M1 arriving at the back of the service with a Cybershot digital camera with the flash turned off and zoom on full, but with no real hand support. The pics are what they are...
Nigel Waterfield, we were told by his uncle and godparent, was born into a caring family in 1963. His muscular dystrophy was only diagnosed around age 7 and would only severely disrupt worklife in his very late 30s. Throughout, he had a totally positive outlook towards his condition and never came across with self-pity. He made the best of what he had .Considering what they accomplished together as a team, it is extraordinary that Nigel has only been a born again Christian for four and a half years.Knowing his time was short, and that the muscular restrictions were really beginning to kick in he had resolved to really "go for things" while he still could...and this was the template for his marriage to Elaine.They met on the internet and Elaine had to tell him to shut up about his condition because she wanted to know about him. Nigel was the quieter one, but people that in the later years could see beyond the condition could perceive his wisdom, his steadying influence on Elaine, and his inner cheerfulness expressed in his warmth towards absolutely anyone, and the thing that nearly everyone remembers and comments on - his smile.
Nigel's uncle was very moved as he shared. John McGinley on the right is the vicar of Holy Trinity who led the service with Pastor Sam , a Gospel DJ and Street Pastor.
Pastor Sam was a DJ who does Strictly Gospel who supported them in many ways including the street parties and was there with Elaine and Dave when Nigel died.I used the phrase "rainbow coalition" deliberately. Elaine received many many cards with two particular images. Rainbows. Trees or the Tree with leaves for the healing of the Nations.
The rainbow image describes, I feel ,the way they network with a lot of disparate groups that would not normally relate with the other.They refuse to be tied down to human organisation. Humanly this is disparaged, but I feel Nigel's celebration showed the folly of this. This last point is of huge significance in the third level type of christianity we are entering into.If we understand that ALL Christianity is, is changing our operator from the genesis 3 operator of Satan, to being now containers of Christ, in our forms, in our individuality...then you see just how the former mid-stage construction companies become just like temporary scaffolding to the main building programme - which is Christ being built into each one of us.
At the moment in the first two levels, people of like mind and function tend to stick together. But Paul shows us in Corinthians that our natural and supernatural giftings which are sometimes intertwined sometimes not, are for each other. For people who are like us and people who are NOT.
People like Stephanie and Jackie MacEntire, Nigel and Elaine Waterfield,many aspects of those who naturally gravitate to Mother Teresa's organisation, many like Julie Wilcox and Carlos Iggy Shelton, and so many who are networking on Facebook and feeling their exclusion from Institutional structures which do not address their giftings.......
The true vision of the Body of Christ is one where the meetings themselves are only the exclusive "bedroom sessions" with Christ our Lover corporately, the rest is us expressing Christ as individuals and small groupings within our families, communities and work. But for that to be real and not pious denominational rhetoric, people need to know the trick of believing in our new identity on the inside of us...wherever we go and whatever we do. And at some point we need to have made the migration internally from "not born again" to "born again", to knowing that indeed we have passed from "darkness to light".
The Tree with leaves for the healing of the Nations is a direct picture that Elaine had already drawn for me.These leaves take on many manifest forms but they are all a manifestation of Christ's love in practical form.
So having married,Nigel and Elaine pledged themselves to throwing themselves into life.One of the first things was to go to Florida and canoe on the Everglades surrounded by alligators. As you do! Especially with muscular dystrophy!
In the following photos are many expressions of the leaves of healing. All coming via one couple in less than 4 years. They received a call from God to go into a needy estate in Leicester: Dupont Close.
They organised 4 street parties with local police invited as well as ex-offenders being invited to give testimonies:ex-offenders such as Steve Cattell
at one point Britain's most prolific burglar, who now takes delight in sharing about Jesus as an evangelist.
Steve Cattell shared how, as he often goes off to share Jesus on his own, was absolutely gobsmacked to be supported on a trip to Bristol Park where he was speaking. Rain was tipping down. "You'll never get that wheelchair over that grass!" But Nigel was already off and away on his powerful chair, proving Steve wrong.
This is Tammy, the one mentioned in the Inspire magazine. It was lovely that she shared a little about the madcap world of knowing Nigel and Elaine..even when Tammy and Nigel might not have had even so long a life....because Elaine had forgotten to put the handbrake on the van a couple of times. Tammy not knowing about handbrakes , had Nigel quickly trying to explain what they look like as the van began to roll down the hill.
Sandra Hastings in the picture then shared about Nigel and Elaine's involvement with her locally in "Restorative Justice". Sandra is one of the main movers and shakers with this idea in our country and I have heard her a couple of times on National Radio. Old wisdom used to be that the perpetrator and the offended never meet, effectively denying both sides a quicker form of closure. Not always successful, but in many cases the effects have been outstanding.
Pastor Doug Lyon is the pastor of Kingsway and they would do a lot of prayer support and came to their street party.
Kirk Roberts with whom Nigel and Elaine and a guy called Jason did a lot of outreach.
Matt Baggott was really shocked to see that Nigel and Elaine had travelled down from Leicester to their Ashburnham conference camping out in the van en route. They learned about the "Adopt a Cop" initiative. Originally a means of Christians taking a supportive role to Christian police as they faced tough roles and decisions, Nigel and Elaine didn't get the Christian bit so just turned up on the police doorstep in leicester and asked who wanted to be adopted. In actual fact the Leicester cops were up for it anyway, and a supporting relationship ensued. So for this reason, a whole police convoy turned up in Dupont Close.
They organised 4 street parties with local police invited as well as ex-offenders being invited to give testimonies:ex-offenders such as Steve Cattell
at one point Britain's most prolific burglar, who now takes delight in sharing about Jesus as an evangelist.
Steve Cattell shared how, as he often goes off to share Jesus on his own, was absolutely gobsmacked to be supported on a trip to Bristol Park where he was speaking. Rain was tipping down. "You'll never get that wheelchair over that grass!" But Nigel was already off and away on his powerful chair, proving Steve wrong.
This is Tammy, the one mentioned in the Inspire magazine. It was lovely that she shared a little about the madcap world of knowing Nigel and Elaine..even when Tammy and Nigel might not have had even so long a life....because Elaine had forgotten to put the handbrake on the van a couple of times. Tammy not knowing about handbrakes , had Nigel quickly trying to explain what they look like as the van began to roll down the hill.
Sandra Hastings in the picture then shared about Nigel and Elaine's involvement with her locally in "Restorative Justice". Sandra is one of the main movers and shakers with this idea in our country and I have heard her a couple of times on National Radio. Old wisdom used to be that the perpetrator and the offended never meet, effectively denying both sides a quicker form of closure. Not always successful, but in many cases the effects have been outstanding.
Pastor Doug Lyon is the pastor of Kingsway and they would do a lot of prayer support and came to their street party.
Kirk Roberts with whom Nigel and Elaine and a guy called Jason did a lot of outreach.One of the main things that alerted locals that this was no ordinary funeral was when Chief Commissioner of police for Northern Ireland Matt Baggott phoned the local Leicester police force to organise a full Police Escort for the funeral. The picture here is of the acting Chief Commissioner
of Leicester sharing their involvement with local police and reading out a wonderful condolence letter from Matt Baggott who was the former Chief of police in Leicester and had it not been for the events in Northern Ireland this week, would have felt freer to travel for Nigel's event.
of Leicester sharing their involvement with local police and reading out a wonderful condolence letter from Matt Baggott who was the former Chief of police in Leicester and had it not been for the events in Northern Ireland this week, would have felt freer to travel for Nigel's event.Since Nigel and Elaine's involvement in the Dupont Close area, a documentable drop in crime had occurred.
Alison Adams shared about Nigel and Elaine's work in Glen Parva, Leicester's youth offender's prison.This has been notorious for suicide. The Waterfields had been regularly leading Alpha and Freedom in Christ courses in weekly evening sessions as well as regular attenders and sharers in their Sunday morning chapel services. A young ex-offender read out a moving response to the loss of Nigel which had been compiled from about 16 people all brainstorming the things Nigel meant to them. Again it was his warmth , his smile. His patience and interest in them as people.
Alison Adams shared about Nigel and Elaine's work in Glen Parva, Leicester's youth offender's prison.This has been notorious for suicide. The Waterfields had been regularly leading Alpha and Freedom in Christ courses in weekly evening sessions as well as regular attenders and sharers in their Sunday morning chapel services. A young ex-offender read out a moving response to the loss of Nigel which had been compiled from about 16 people all brainstorming the things Nigel meant to them. Again it was his warmth , his smile. His patience and interest in them as people.Nigel and Elaine travelled regularly to Transformed Southampton, Transformed Leicester, Transformed Brighton. These are Christian initiatives to provide support and infrastructure for people who want to turn around in their lives and get re-established after prison life.
Can I just make a comment here as an aside, that many initiatives have been either born or nurtured out of what was formerly Southampton Community Church. My friend Mike Thom made the comment that from a handful of ragtag students, who becoming converted in the 70s heyday of the rediscovery of spiritual gifts, and community church life, stayed on in the city to see the birth of a large City Church. This church, in the space of just 30 years, by people with very limited life experience went on to spawn a leading Church school, to host many evangelistic events, to nurture and really help kickstart the 24/7Prayer movement worldwide and finally to establish the Transformed infrastructure. People need to know of the real world effects that occur after real revival . It is true to say that next to nothing is either known or reported of the longterm results of a whole generation like myself who en masse found themselves caught up in a rediscovery of the baptism in the Spirit experience as pioneered 100 years ago initially among the Pentecostal groups of believers.
Simon Sharma and David Starkey need to spend some time at least discovering that the identical experience of New Birth in Christ and baptism in the Spirit which spearheaded different expressions of church growth through history...be it the 2 burned Lollards at Amersham, or later pioneers of social reawakening such as General William Booth...or political stirrings in the wake of Luther...or the abolition of the slave trade.....or the pioneering intercessory work across the nation of Poland before the Fall of Communism. Although a secularist is always going to take a new idea such as water baptism, or the Presbyterian idea of leadership plurality as coming out of an evolutionary process of thought progressing from century to century, the spiritual reality has been more like a rediscovery of an unfolding heavenly pattern slowly revealed and uncovered as mankind has related to his Saviour. But to even admit to such things would ofcourse prejudice a view that history must align itself to a Darwinian process. For me this is the test of a historian. Will he or she bend historical events to their own world view, or own up to simple things such as:
Simon Sharma and David Starkey need to spend some time at least discovering that the identical experience of New Birth in Christ and baptism in the Spirit which spearheaded different expressions of church growth through history...be it the 2 burned Lollards at Amersham, or later pioneers of social reawakening such as General William Booth...or political stirrings in the wake of Luther...or the abolition of the slave trade.....or the pioneering intercessory work across the nation of Poland before the Fall of Communism. Although a secularist is always going to take a new idea such as water baptism, or the Presbyterian idea of leadership plurality as coming out of an evolutionary process of thought progressing from century to century, the spiritual reality has been more like a rediscovery of an unfolding heavenly pattern slowly revealed and uncovered as mankind has related to his Saviour. But to even admit to such things would ofcourse prejudice a view that history must align itself to a Darwinian process. For me this is the test of a historian. Will he or she bend historical events to their own world view, or own up to simple things such as:
possibly the only reason that bloody revolution did not come to Britain during the 18th century was the incredible revival stirred by the preaching of Wesley and Whitfield.
One of the most powerful tipping points leading to the American Civil War was the result of a praying AfroAmerican mother who by revelation was inspired to write a book, often only by night. This book Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe is recognised as being one of the straws that broke the camel's back.
In this same spirit of wanting to see the cross outworked as a Tree for the healing of the nations both Nigel and Elaine followed the efforts
One of the most powerful tipping points leading to the American Civil War was the result of a praying AfroAmerican mother who by revelation was inspired to write a book, often only by night. This book Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe is recognised as being one of the straws that broke the camel's back.
In this same spirit of wanting to see the cross outworked as a Tree for the healing of the nations both Nigel and Elaine followed the efforts
of the Christian Police organisation.
Matt Baggott was really shocked to see that Nigel and Elaine had travelled down from Leicester to their Ashburnham conference camping out in the van en route. They learned about the "Adopt a Cop" initiative. Originally a means of Christians taking a supportive role to Christian police as they faced tough roles and decisions, Nigel and Elaine didn't get the Christian bit so just turned up on the police doorstep in leicester and asked who wanted to be adopted. In actual fact the Leicester cops were up for it anyway, and a supporting relationship ensued. So for this reason, a whole police convoy turned up in Dupont Close.
I spent much of this event with moist eyes. I find like many others, any reference to people turning round,
ex-prisoners making a go of things,
police coming together with community problems to find a way through,
a person such as Nigel, in Nigel's condition making an internal decision to make himself available to city estate life, instead of retreating to a suburb to quietly live out his days or Nigel and Elaine going off to preach at Notting Hill carnival, and many more street operations around Leicester....well it really speaks.
Nigel and Elaine have been a total inspiration in just being willing. Many times on the full receiving end of flack, from people who just did not understand what they were doing, they continued to pour themselves out.
This all shows so clearly we do not have to understand everything before we head off following the Lord. We do not need to know fully how we are going to proceed. We just take the next step. And each step is not linear. What actually happens is one fruit multiplies up into several, and each in turn beget a similar amount of fruit. Such that after only 4 years you can have an event occur such as last Tuesday.
God is good.
Friday, 8 January 2010
Learning to Fly- Pink Floyd,Isaiah and others
Into the distance, a ribbon of black
Stretched to the point of no turning back
A flight of fancy on a windswept field
Standing alone my senses reeled
A fatal attraction holding me fast, how
Can I escape this irresistible grasp?
Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted Just an earth-bound misfit, I
Ice is forming on the tips of my wings
Unheeded warnings, I thought I thought of everything
No navigator to guide my way home
Unladened, empty and turned to stone
A soul in tension that's learning to fly
Condition grounded but determined to try
Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I
Above the planet on a wing and a prayer,
My grubby halo, a vapour trail in the empty air,
Across the clouds I see my shadow fly
Out of the corner of my watering eye
A dream unthreatened by the morning light
Could blow this soul right through the roof of the night
There's no sensation to compare with this
Suspended animation, A state of bliss
Can't keep my eyes from the circling skies
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earth-bound misfit, I
Floyd clip via John Madden on Facebook
Isaiah 40:27Why, O Jacob, do you say, and declare, O Israel, My way and my lot are hidden from the Lord, and my right is passed over without regard from my God?
28Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not faint or grow weary; there is no searching of His understanding.
29He gives power to the faint and weary, and to him who has no might He increases strength [causing it to multiply and making it to abound].(I)
30Even youths shall faint and be weary, and [selected] young men shall feebly stumble and fall exhausted;
31But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired.(J)
Francois Du Toit preaches on Meta noia using the other meaning of meta to mean alongside, to join with. I have had it settle in my spirit recently to mean Meta= more than/beyond.
Both are so in greek, but Francois is picking up on the same spirit of revelation...to mean we move outside of our own thoughts and conclusions based on very natural limitation and actual data as read by our senses. This is how i was seeing it when I was doing the Jack Fortenberry animations, particularly video 3. Francois uses it to mean we join up with the mindset of God...which in the Spirit is the same thing. Francois' entire message is here.
The third level is learning how to fly!
Not like Yogic flyers. But getting caught up with God's activities and plans. Francois says "Be careful about your waiting". The word "hw"a(wait upon the Lord) means more than wait, it means intertwine. We multiply our strength in Him. We become a strand intertwined in His rope.
“Wait” in Isaiah 40:31 is the transliteration from the Hebrew hw"q;, which means ‘to twist, or to bind, whence a rope.’ This verse reveals the active nature of intertwining one’s life with the life of God. When intertwining is being done, that person is made strong. He who “waits” (twists his life with God’s) upon the LORD is made strong.
Arise My Butterfly via Megan Anne Fey on Facebook
Break forth from the bonds which
have surrounded you,
and have protected you until this day when
I call you by my Spirit to arise and fly.
To fly with abandonment and
delight in that heavenly
realm for which you were created,
to fly in self abandonment to the delight
and saving of those around you.
For such beauty is hidden until it is my time
to call it forth. You have been transformed.
The old has passed away.
Behold all things have been made new.
He has tried you and you have come forth as gold.
So fly my golden butterfly.
Let the world see the precious gems with which
I have adorned you and shown
the world the beauty
with which none can compare.
For the beauty is none other than that
of my son, who is your life.
By: Chris Dew
Revival reality is another aspect of thirdlevel reality.
I experienced a trailer of this kind of life.....actually many do just after being baptised in the Holy Spirit. But this was not then, this was 6 years later.
There was a positioning by faith.
There is a cost.You step out having nothing other than a rhema (Now Word) Word from God.
Very often there is a lull, where you are tempted to believe you've heard wrong.
Very often the very opposite happens. Others get on with their lives in apparent blessing,
and you sit there with egg on your face. But....just a bit longer.....and it happens....
a door opens onto a manner of life that you could not open for yourself...
you couldn't arrange it.
Time itself appears remoulded.
For me as a 20 year old
I was openly received as a prophet by a family in Northern France
they sucked word out of me.
I was used on the first morning to bring deliverance from lifelong epilepsy to the mother of the family.
The father and I were led to make contacts up and down France. While driving we
heard angelic choirs singing an English chorus in French outside the car.
Everything was provided. Places to stay. Money to eat. Everything had precise timing.
The stay concluded with believing for a place on a full plane.When the place was provided
I experienced the plane vision (vision3)which I have already noted and now included in this animation (No 2).
The third level exists!
Rory and Wendy Gallagher experienced the same arc when they left South Africa for England based entirely on a Word to their spirit. It was many months before they realised what it was about. During this time they came to visit my house.(I say this not because it was related...but that was why I knew about it) Next thing I know they are embarked on one of the biggest projects in the world today. God Channel.
Jesus moved in this realm continually. Here are some pointers. The Father required that at the peak of His popularity, instead of spending more time with people, Jesus withdrew up a hillside. The disciples had already moved on. You can sense the natural tension. Jesus looked as though He'd missed the boat. But spending time with the Father opened a supernatural door, and Jesus literally walked back to the boat on water!
When Lazarus died, the Father required that Jesus stay behind a further 3 days. By this time Martha was hopping mad. This is NOT what you do when friends die. But walking in the Spirit Jesus rather moved into a new level of authority in calling a 3day old dead person back to life.
The Father also had Jesus stick behind when His brothers said in John 7 "Well....are you coming up to the Feast then?" In actual fact the Father eventually had Him go up, but in secret. He took a fresh authoritative position in doing this, because if He'd gone up with His brothers, He'd have been swept up in the "what is expected"..."the comfortable natural way of things" which involves no faith at all. In the end He was used on a wave of prophecy to effectively state that He Himself was the Feast....He was the fulfilment of it. That would have been embarrassing and nearly unforgivable to his unbelieving brothers. There is a pace and walk in God that His own authority upon it.
Hard wired DNA
Don't misunderstand me. I am not claiming Holy Spirit life as a natural thing to my flesh. We all have to choose His Life. But there is something hardwired within my existence which I did not plan ,to do with flying.I was virtually born on a plane...well within a few days was rushed home to Gt Ormond's Street Hospital from Ghana. I was some time learning to walk. Many are. In fact I never did walk. I just stood up in another airport concourse and ran.
When I was baptised in the Spirit a Word was given about " eagle soaring life". And this was only given after obeying the Lord on that day in a specific way. So just as Jesus would sometimes tell a cripple to get up and walk...and the miracle is contingent on someone stepping out and doing the impossible....so our door will open as we hear and obey. Sometimes this gets confused for works, as though we are working for our salvation. But FAITH is expressed through works. Baptism in water does not make you any more saved than the thief on the Cross who recognised Jesus for who He was. There was no way he was going to be baptised. But the reason God instituted baptism was so we could do an action in faith to make that which has been bought for us at such cost our own. These steps of obedience open spiritual doors. That was an aside.
At the time of learning about the third level in 1988, I had a whole download of revelation concerning Israel. It became clear to me why Israel has never been too impressed with the Church. But Romans 9: 11 says they will . "But through their false step and transgression salvation [has come] to the Gentiles, so as to arouse Israel [to see and feel what they forfeited] and so to make them jealous. "
A third level mature church will indeed make them jealous.
We see this picture in the original story of Jacob's sons. The younger one, and normally speaking they were AT THE END OF THE LINE in terms of inheritance.....received the promise of God and was rejected by the older brothers. Joseph underwent a whole process, which Norman Grubb has also described in terms of levels or stages, until he entered fully into his destiny as right hand man to the Pharoah himself. At this point the other brothers returned to him.
Church, the reason Jews are not interested is that the Joseph community - the Church having the gospel of Christ - have not matured into their destiny. We do a "great prison life", but we don't yet do a "ruling Prime Minister" kind of life.
Jews sniff us. While we reek of the independent life we can say or do what we like. We can pray great prayers.Teach great teachings. See great miracles. And show this all on God TV. But the whole thing reeks. And not one has yet eaten of Christ in his or her inward being. This is what is meant by the parable of the 10 virgins.......
It's suddenly time to meet the Bridegroom, and we realise we may have oil. That is a familiarity with the baptism in the Spirit realm. But we haven't got enough of a supply and it's too late to buy some more.
This is the subtle next stage that you never hear in grace preaching.
Everything is by grace. But that does not mean that we are permitted to stay in the realm of the independant self of Genesis 3. We need to buy oil in preparation . This means on a daily basis to appropriate the "exchanged life" that happened at the cross. We have died and we now live by faith in the Son of God. There is no middle ground. We either live from Christ by faith, or by our former delusion of an independent self-driven life....a lie...a phony realm...a fable that was spun in Genesis 3, that we took delight in believing, and still believe in our Christian lives.
Now Jews can smell this. And they have a proverb about it. "A Proverb in the mouth of a fool - that is all our teachings,Christian belief systems, truths about healings- are like a man with no legs."
Church, we need not to be a fool. We need to have discernible spiritual legs. Which are the product of believing the right stuff, and appropriating that stuff every day in our lives. And getting up again when we fall...and not wallowing around in the devil's quicksand.
God has His ways to bring us all to "ground zero". The cross levels us all completely. "For we are all without excuse". But at the foot of the Cross we begin again,rebuilding, but this time in Him.
Additional notes:The use of "Virgin Flight" is purely allegorical and does not relate to the real world brand. This is not a straight prophecy on a geographical level.Prophecies concerning the Earth are laid out throughout the Bible. This is a prophetic picture of the Third level. When like David, anointed yet chased round a desert, then made King, then falling into adultery, then trying to hide his adultery....finally after the Nathan's finger finds him....He discovers the key of David. He discovers Ground Zero. He discovers total unmerited grace. He is rebuilt.
And at that level, and only in that place, Jew meets Gentile,Arab meets Jew.All denominations and non-denominations meet each other....because there is only One Name left to meet in....all other reputation has come to nought. "And of the twain He has made ONE NEW MAN" in Christ Jesus. The whole of history, like falling dominos, is left with its mouth unstopped before a holy God who has provided for us - every single nation - the Perfect Requirement - His Son. Last track of Early Harvest Double CD recorded mainly 1990-91 entitled Airplane 7 Day of Atonement/Day of Fusion (Psalm 149) Produced by A.Christopher Welch and John Daniels. Engineered by John Daniels. Instruments: John Graham,Andy Smith,Nick Beggs,AC Welch.Heather Williamson,John Daniels.Vocals and Jew Helen Burgess,AC Welch. Air Hostess:Tami Daniels.
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Do you understand how seriously wrong our Western World view is?
Dave Aldrich was describing on Facebook his dislike for goal-setting.....much preferring to wing it. This provoked me to write out some of my current thinking on how crippling an overdependency on left-brain thinking has been to all our lives. There have ofcourse been many many benefits....but we were never never never never programmed to live this way as our foundation.
------------------
Chris Welch to Dave Aldrich
Can I be serious for a mo? yesterday I was thinking about sending you a reference to Van Gogh, Sylvia Plath and many many more.I just think you are ideally placed for working on one of the major flaws of the western world since the Enlightenment. There is NO PLACE for artists! Because everywhere is left-brain dependant. Van Gogh and Plath, like bats were sending out signals in their environment and when they received no confirmatory replies,fell to a deathly despond, felt there was no place for them in the world and took their lives.The average UK musician who has spent 8 years or more training is on £16000 a year.No music gets played except for love.Living by the tree of Knowledge of good and evil...in its more surface form...of restricting the whole of life to a plan sheet...actually kills people, or at the least pushes the "non functional" creatives to the wall. But this does not only affect the artistic...it has now affected all scientific research.Unless science can posit an end function no research gets done now. But as the space race showed,science advances tangentially to the actual project in hand. I actually want to be among those who overthrow our Dalek or Cyberman existence. One spinoff is that you can begin to share about Spirit in an environment that accepts there is more to life than planning sheets. Having said all that, as Norman Grubb shares..once you are clear about your Spirit objective...you do "say it" or "write it down" because this is faith going into action. But yesterday i was feeling that this pause in your life is more significant than you think Dave.
Notice the excessive left-brain activity in depression. Living from the left-brain can at times prove fatal. Look how balanced in function a normal brain is.
Chris Welch to Dave Aldrich
I'm boring everyone with this at the mo, but this and the word metanoia have become a big current concept. By this I refer to Proverbs 3:5-6 which we have known for years. But it's now become huge to me. It is the exact opposite and it is the very antidote to 200 hundred years of "the Enlightenment experiment". Whereby we had to forget everything ... See Moreelse inside our makeup, and live exclusively from our intellectual left-brain. We built our education around it. We built our social interactivity around it.We built our PC (both meanings)world around it. we've built our health system and care system by it....so for example my friend Nigel Waterfield with muscular dystrophy just died in hospital(see my blog), partly because there is less secular will to fight in the case of terminal illnesses. Trusting in the Lord with all your heart and not relying/building your whole foundation on your slender left-brain intellectual insight....is 180 degree opposite way of living. Then it says if we acknowledge Him, in every single thing we do....just acknowledge Him...just say that He in us is living through us now, whatever we are doing....THEN He will make straight our paths. We don't even have to make our paths straight.He does it. Do you see how off kilter we are in the way we live in the West? Do you see what a key these little verses are...which we've always kinda known...but not really!
------------------
Chris Welch to Dave Aldrich
Can I be serious for a mo? yesterday I was thinking about sending you a reference to Van Gogh, Sylvia Plath and many many more.I just think you are ideally placed for working on one of the major flaws of the western world since the Enlightenment. There is NO PLACE for artists! Because everywhere is left-brain dependant. Van Gogh and Plath, like bats were sending out signals in their environment and when they received no confirmatory replies,fell to a deathly despond, felt there was no place for them in the world and took their lives.The average UK musician who has spent 8 years or more training is on £16000 a year.No music gets played except for love.Living by the tree of Knowledge of good and evil...in its more surface form...of restricting the whole of life to a plan sheet...actually kills people, or at the least pushes the "non functional" creatives to the wall. But this does not only affect the artistic...it has now affected all scientific research.Unless science can posit an end function no research gets done now. But as the space race showed,science advances tangentially to the actual project in hand. I actually want to be among those who overthrow our Dalek or Cyberman existence. One spinoff is that you can begin to share about Spirit in an environment that accepts there is more to life than planning sheets. Having said all that, as Norman Grubb shares..once you are clear about your Spirit objective...you do "say it" or "write it down" because this is faith going into action. But yesterday i was feeling that this pause in your life is more significant than you think Dave.
Notice the excessive left-brain activity in depression. Living from the left-brain can at times prove fatal. Look how balanced in function a normal brain is.Chris Welch to Dave Aldrich
I'm boring everyone with this at the mo, but this and the word metanoia have become a big current concept. By this I refer to Proverbs 3:5-6 which we have known for years. But it's now become huge to me. It is the exact opposite and it is the very antidote to 200 hundred years of "the Enlightenment experiment". Whereby we had to forget everything ... See Moreelse inside our makeup, and live exclusively from our intellectual left-brain. We built our education around it. We built our social interactivity around it.We built our PC (both meanings)world around it. we've built our health system and care system by it....so for example my friend Nigel Waterfield with muscular dystrophy just died in hospital(see my blog), partly because there is less secular will to fight in the case of terminal illnesses. Trusting in the Lord with all your heart and not relying/building your whole foundation on your slender left-brain intellectual insight....is 180 degree opposite way of living. Then it says if we acknowledge Him, in every single thing we do....just acknowledge Him...just say that He in us is living through us now, whatever we are doing....THEN He will make straight our paths. We don't even have to make our paths straight.He does it. Do you see how off kilter we are in the way we live in the West? Do you see what a key these little verses are...which we've always kinda known...but not really!
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
Another chance to see the Bono Interview series
This was pasted up a year ago, and I saw one of the films pasted on a brother's page.Perhaps It was the mention of Maeve in the last post.
Facebook conversation today with Sarah Culverhouse
In Emsworth Church we used to have some dynasties who were legends in their own lunchtime.One such dynasty were the Dale family. Now Anna went off to study in London in the early 80s, and shared a flat with Sarah Culverhouse, who has just filled me in on this via Facebook, and Maeve.
-----------------
Thanks for being honest! We have been through a dreadful year financially...which has spurred Christine to do what she has had on her heart for a while...train to be a nurse. She was working for me. This Access year is unpaid so we're teetering on my income. Have been quite encouraged today and yesterday by work coming in. Feeling pretty gutted about Nigel Waterfield dying on Sunday am, since we were enjoying a day out round Portsmouthwith him and Elaine the other day. Going up to his funeral next Tuesday in Leicester was unseen.Let's keep things on hold and see what turns up.
How are you about revivals when they break out? We are keeping our eye on IHOP, or International House of prayer, Kansas.
I think when I was in Bible House, (for all the gripes....and Maeve, friend of Sarah,also the one who led Bono to the Lord,came to visit our church in Emsworth occasionally) I learned there were three or four sides to life, and various of us had trouble with one or the other sides. There's work. There's study. There's worship and there's family day to day fun stuff. The more people broke through on their issues, and bondages....by walking things out by faith...the more they were able to function in all areas. To start with several of the girls were cutting themselves. At least 2 of us were almost totally intellectual...and absolutely no earthly use whatever.
I just think that Organic church is filling in the bits that your average charismatic warehouse, as I call them, missed.
You'll know from Maranatha Ministry days(London early 80s), that you have your charismatic flash harry leading it, then you have a worship band, then you have the plebs, sitting backed up in the bleachers. Sound familiar? Emsworth tried to be different....but we didn't know the stuff in Jack Fortenberry's book:Corinthian Elders. Nor did we know Norman Grubb's insights on no independant self. And wherever independent self is still believed in, leaders always gravitate back to pyramid leadership by default. Since that is the rock from which we were hewn since genesis 3...and before knowing Christ.
The Body of Christ is something totally different. It's a vision. It's a revelation. No man runs it, but people have anointings empowering them to give certain inputs. But the old idea of some apostle being at the top of a giant pyramid is simply stupid....and if you watch in the Spirit...things don't work that way.The people on facebook (Sylvia Pearce,Merrill Thompson,Brian Coatney(usesTandy's entry),Nancy Gilmore,Barbara and Alan Rogerson, who have walked this way for decades sometimes use the 3rd level jargon, or father ministries as in 1 John, or just say "mature". You can see from the blog I am making a particular point of saying 3rd level, because I am convinced the charismatic world we have known is 2nd level.
In the charismatic world, you just had to be baptised in a strong Holy Spirit gifting,know how to get others baptised in the spirit, have the gift of organization, get a worship band together and a bit of prayer, believe for a warehouse, or school hall, and you were an apostle.The Bible however makes it plain that the apostle or 3rd level ministries are those who can reproduce Christ in other people. Period.Not lead them to the Lord.That's understood. Not get them baptised in the Spirit. That's understood. Christine and I were doing that when we were 13 in our respective areas, before we knew each other.Nope. 3rd levellers reproduce Christ in other people.
I personally feel there are two sides to it. 1. Meetings. The gathering together of God's saints is absolutely unique....and when they really are gathering unto Him it's an awesome room to be in. 2. Teaching the New testament as the early 3rd levellers knew it. And not changing the bits we don't like. Not sure where that leaves us about headscarves.....but all the rest of Romans Ephesians and Colossians has to be preached as it was originally revealed...and not made into a religion of works. It concerns how Jesus Christ lives His life by us!!!! Not just how He does meetings by us.
-----------------
Thanks for being honest! We have been through a dreadful year financially...which has spurred Christine to do what she has had on her heart for a while...train to be a nurse. She was working for me. This Access year is unpaid so we're teetering on my income. Have been quite encouraged today and yesterday by work coming in. Feeling pretty gutted about Nigel Waterfield dying on Sunday am, since we were enjoying a day out round Portsmouthwith him and Elaine the other day. Going up to his funeral next Tuesday in Leicester was unseen.Let's keep things on hold and see what turns up.
How are you about revivals when they break out? We are keeping our eye on IHOP, or International House of prayer, Kansas.
I think when I was in Bible House, (for all the gripes....and Maeve, friend of Sarah,also the one who led Bono to the Lord,came to visit our church in Emsworth occasionally) I learned there were three or four sides to life, and various of us had trouble with one or the other sides. There's work. There's study. There's worship and there's family day to day fun stuff. The more people broke through on their issues, and bondages....by walking things out by faith...the more they were able to function in all areas. To start with several of the girls were cutting themselves. At least 2 of us were almost totally intellectual...and absolutely no earthly use whatever.
I just think that Organic church is filling in the bits that your average charismatic warehouse, as I call them, missed.
You'll know from Maranatha Ministry days(London early 80s), that you have your charismatic flash harry leading it, then you have a worship band, then you have the plebs, sitting backed up in the bleachers. Sound familiar? Emsworth tried to be different....but we didn't know the stuff in Jack Fortenberry's book:Corinthian Elders. Nor did we know Norman Grubb's insights on no independant self. And wherever independent self is still believed in, leaders always gravitate back to pyramid leadership by default. Since that is the rock from which we were hewn since genesis 3...and before knowing Christ.
The Body of Christ is something totally different. It's a vision. It's a revelation. No man runs it, but people have anointings empowering them to give certain inputs. But the old idea of some apostle being at the top of a giant pyramid is simply stupid....and if you watch in the Spirit...things don't work that way.The people on facebook (Sylvia Pearce,Merrill Thompson,Brian Coatney(usesTandy's entry),Nancy Gilmore,Barbara and Alan Rogerson, who have walked this way for decades sometimes use the 3rd level jargon, or father ministries as in 1 John, or just say "mature". You can see from the blog I am making a particular point of saying 3rd level, because I am convinced the charismatic world we have known is 2nd level.
In the charismatic world, you just had to be baptised in a strong Holy Spirit gifting,know how to get others baptised in the spirit, have the gift of organization, get a worship band together and a bit of prayer, believe for a warehouse, or school hall, and you were an apostle.The Bible however makes it plain that the apostle or 3rd level ministries are those who can reproduce Christ in other people. Period.Not lead them to the Lord.That's understood. Not get them baptised in the Spirit. That's understood. Christine and I were doing that when we were 13 in our respective areas, before we knew each other.Nope. 3rd levellers reproduce Christ in other people.
I personally feel there are two sides to it. 1. Meetings. The gathering together of God's saints is absolutely unique....and when they really are gathering unto Him it's an awesome room to be in. 2. Teaching the New testament as the early 3rd levellers knew it. And not changing the bits we don't like. Not sure where that leaves us about headscarves.....but all the rest of Romans Ephesians and Colossians has to be preached as it was originally revealed...and not made into a religion of works. It concerns how Jesus Christ lives His life by us!!!! Not just how He does meetings by us.
Sunday, 3 January 2010
Ben and I were sightseeing around Portsmouth this week with the man who died last night.
While Jenny and Christine were visiting the grandchildren this week in Blackpool, Nigel and Elaine,Ben and myself were seeing some of the sights round Portsmouth.
Nigel and Elaine kindly invited us out to Perfect Pizza in North Harbour. The picture above is one of theirs taken on another occasion, but it is very similar to our view at the Pizza Hut.
So can you feel my shock as I relay the news that after battling pneumonia and fluid on the lungs later in the week, and asking for prayer in the last two days, Nigel weakened and died last night back home in Leicester. As a couple they were lights for the Kingdom on Dupont Close. Elaine's life will change immediately, after being a continual carer and enabler for Nigel.
Part of our meeting was devoted to praying for Elaine and her family at this time.
The story began here in the Inspire magazine.I was so struck by the tale I did a post on it, then a second one about the significance of their lives. Nigel and Elaine contacted me on this very blog and our lives sort of connected from here, on Facebook, and a couple of visits to our home and Havant Church. Havant again did this amazing thing on the first meeting occasion, without knowing any of their story at that point began prophesying in from all sides, specific directional words for them.
Like Rob Rufus and Morris Cerullo, I am unwilling to change my theology to fit circumstances, believing that Jesus came to destroy all the works of the evil one, and He suffered a specific 39 lashes which is the same number as the 39 main classifications of sickness. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him. But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus.Hebrews 2 :8-9. Nigel, however gets release from horrible confining circumstances and gets to be with Jesus.
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