Encounters with God - April number 1
Don't you hate it when you are really expectant and seeking after a blessing and a word from God to brighten your day, and the Holy Spirit misses by one seat!*
A particularly good verse, as just an hour previously I'd been in mothercare world (great place, but not, I suspect, on a busy Saturday) purchasing a variety of gifts for assorted babies in my life... God loves it when we draw near, spend time with him and encounter the real Jesus. He loves to give us good gifts and we just need to ask.
The rest of the evening was amazing too, a guy who was struggling to walk with the aid of a stick was prayed over, and totally healed, he ran down the main aisle of the church! The group that were over, a youth group from Redding, CA (that's California for the non-initiated) had been working with the youth of Rugby, they'd taken the love and healing power of Jesus out onto the streets of the town and prayed for people, and lives have been changed.
One man, blind from birth, received his sight!
Others were healed too. This is the stuff of Bible times, it's the stuff that happened when Jesus walked on earth, it's the miracles of the Early church when the apostles first received the Spirit, and it's available to us today, if only we are bold enough to get filled and to run with what God is doing.
I started thinking, David Blaine gets a massive audience when he goes round doing miraculous signs and wonders for people and being filmed. He's not the only one. How would it be if God raised up someone, or a team to go round praying for people and then gave them airtime so that others could be blessed through it? Not for their own glory, but for the Glory of God. People who are open to Mr Blaine and his weirdness should be open to the healing that only Jesus can give... yet somehow the sceptics reign. Maybe God will do that someday...
My sister was telling me recently of a group over in her town, very much like L.Spa, that go out in pairs on a Friday night at pub / club closing time offering chocolate and prayer for the revellers. A team is in praying at the same time so that they are completely protected. And they are seeing results, lives transformed through encounters with the real Jesus. Other people do it in Ibiza. Does no-one have a vision to do something similar here?
How can we talk about a picture book Jesus and tell people he's great and he can heal etc etc, if we are not living demonstrations of his power and testimony to his work in our lives? Who would buy products from a salesman who merely talked about his fabulous products yet didn't show us a demo of what those products could do? Jesus has given us ALL authority to do the same miracles he did, healing etc. It's time, surely, to jump on the bandwagon that's slowly been meandering on for thousands of years, and perhaps if enough of us jump on it, it will gather momentum and impact. There is no doubt that things of God are gathering speed in Royal Leamington Spa, which is so exciting (and also annoying cos I'm called to the other side of the world, but I'll be back one day!)
More prayer, more of God, more encounters with Jesus and more of Him working through us in the community, through our friends and our fellow shoppers, gym-goers, or wherever we hang out... let's listen for the direction of the wind and jump fully into it...
*this is, of course, a joke. The Holy Spirit NEVER misses... ;-)
Took my friend J to an evening of prophetic evangelism last night here in Leamington, and he ended up getting loads of amazing and spot on words of knowledge from God, which is great and I know has blessed him totally, but I was sitting there going... 'Come on God, it's my turn now, bring it on...'
Yet God did speak to me, but perhaps in a less dramatic method.We sang the fantastic song 'There must be more than this... Consuming Fire, fan into flame, a passion for your name' And as I was singing, I looked up and a banner on the wall was suddenly very clear to me, it's like something jumping within me.
Anyway the banner read : '... how much more... Matt 7v11''If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!’
The rest of the evening was amazing too, a guy who was struggling to walk with the aid of a stick was prayed over, and totally healed, he ran down the main aisle of the church! The group that were over, a youth group from Redding, CA (that's California for the non-initiated) had been working with the youth of Rugby, they'd taken the love and healing power of Jesus out onto the streets of the town and prayed for people, and lives have been changed.
One man, blind from birth, received his sight!
Others were healed too. This is the stuff of Bible times, it's the stuff that happened when Jesus walked on earth, it's the miracles of the Early church when the apostles first received the Spirit, and it's available to us today, if only we are bold enough to get filled and to run with what God is doing.
I believe he is calling us to be more open to the supernatural, to stand up to those who dismiss it as dodgy or are sceptical. To walk in the power of the Holy Spirit and to seek his guidance in knowing when to offer to pray for people. There needs to be a culture shift in the whole 'praying for people' thing. I love praying for people and seeing God transform them, but somehow it seems a little be un-British and I don't do it often enough. We should be able to offer and receive prayer in Jesus' name from any brother or sister in Christ and how much more should we be open and listening to the Spirit's prompting when we are out and about regarding who God might want us to pray for. If we did that, Leamington would be transformed, in a good way...
I started thinking, David Blaine gets a massive audience when he goes round doing miraculous signs and wonders for people and being filmed. He's not the only one. How would it be if God raised up someone, or a team to go round praying for people and then gave them airtime so that others could be blessed through it? Not for their own glory, but for the Glory of God. People who are open to Mr Blaine and his weirdness should be open to the healing that only Jesus can give... yet somehow the sceptics reign. Maybe God will do that someday...
My sister was telling me recently of a group over in her town, very much like L.Spa, that go out in pairs on a Friday night at pub / club closing time offering chocolate and prayer for the revellers. A team is in praying at the same time so that they are completely protected. And they are seeing results, lives transformed through encounters with the real Jesus. Other people do it in Ibiza. Does no-one have a vision to do something similar here?
How can we talk about a picture book Jesus and tell people he's great and he can heal etc etc, if we are not living demonstrations of his power and testimony to his work in our lives? Who would buy products from a salesman who merely talked about his fabulous products yet didn't show us a demo of what those products could do? Jesus has given us ALL authority to do the same miracles he did, healing etc. It's time, surely, to jump on the bandwagon that's slowly been meandering on for thousands of years, and perhaps if enough of us jump on it, it will gather momentum and impact. There is no doubt that things of God are gathering speed in Royal Leamington Spa, which is so exciting (and also annoying cos I'm called to the other side of the world, but I'll be back one day!)
More prayer, more of God, more encounters with Jesus and more of Him working through us in the community, through our friends and our fellow shoppers, gym-goers, or wherever we hang out... let's listen for the direction of the wind and jump fully into it...
*this is, of course, a joke. The Holy Spirit NEVER misses... ;-)
posted by Caroline @ 9:16 pm
2 Comments:
At Wednesday, 05 April, 2006,
Martin said…
David Blaine is an illusionist though. People know that many things can be faked by such people, so they assume that if someone does something that appears supernatural, it must be an illusion. In fact, this isn't just something felt by "outsiders". I confess to often having a lack of faith in such things. I believe such things can happen, and yet I never know with a specific event - is it real or is it an illusion. Sure, if something happens to someone I know, it's real, but how about with someone I have never met before, what am I meant to believe then? Maybe I need to pray for some kind of discernment, or maybe more faith, I don't know. Sorry to go and post a comment full of doubts, but better to acknowledge them and tackle them I suppose. Hope this isn't rambling on too long.
At Thursday, 06 April, 2006,
Caroline said…
no, that's cool to write about doubts. But you believe a lot of the Bible stories of healing and yet you never knew them personally. God doesn't need for us to believe him to heal people, I think we just need to rejoice when people's lives are transformed, be it through a miraculous healing, or through decisions made after prayer to change some aspect of their life for the better. Jesus came to give us life, and life to the full, he's interested in making us whole, however that needs to happen, and in setting us free, free indeed.
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