Shining and a Great Black Blob

Shining with His Glory

Catching the train in freezing cold weather and with a chesty cough, probably caught from Mia our youngest, I certainly did not feel like I was manifesting the glory of God to those around me! More like a load of cold germs and a pretty grumpy face huddled in amongst coat, scarf and hat!

Look around at the covering of snow, that’s a picture of God’s goodness dropping on us, covering everything!

So . . lines from a song:
Beauty for ashes
Joy for mourning
Praise for heaviness
I am for glory
I was made for you glory!

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1 To the Chief Musician. On Stringed Instruments. A Psalm. A Song. God be merciful to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us, Selah
Psalm 67:1
What would His face look like? What would our faces look like with His face shining upon us? As we consider His many blessings upon us, the great things He has done, our faces begin to shine, reflecting the goodness of God to those around us – OR – As we consider all the things it appears God has not done then our faces will tell a different story . . . Turn, face your Father, receive His good will toward you and your face will shine!
8 The earth shook; The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God;
Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel
9 You, O God, sent a plentiful rain,
Whereby You confirmed Your inheritance, when it was weary.
10 Your congregation dwelt in it;
You, O God, provided from Your goodness for the poor.
Psalm 68:8-10



The actual heavens dropped to the earth or dropped rain . . the earth reacted because heaven arrived, as it were. Why? Because God wanted to confirm His inheritance. The people He had rescued, His inheritance, a people that had become His! Yes a people who once were not His people, but now are! That’s you and me, once lost, now belonging to Him, our Father! So when we are weary, when we have given up hope he ‘confirms us’ by dropping rain. By dropping on us heavenly blessings . . a taste of what is coming when we get to heaven, a full measure of what is to come! Now! That is, we ‘dwell in it’. Verse 10, ‘Your congregation dwelt in it’
Each of us has a place that no one else can fit! Living stones ‘fit together’, bonded in love. Born for good works, significant, adopted and put where we are destined to be. We are born for significance! We are made for His glory. We are filled with it, it emanates from us, we are His glory!



8 Let my mouth be filled with Your praise
And with Your glory all the day.
Psalm 71:8



11 May you abound in and be filled with the fruits of righteousness (of right standing with God and right doing) which come through Jesus Christ (the Anointed One), to the honor and praise of God [that His glory may be both manifested and recognized]. Amplified version
Philippians 1:11

God’s glory manifested and recognised, in and through us!
A Prayer

Dear Father

Though we may not always be aware of it, help us to know that as we go about our daily business we are, ‘manifesting’. May we have such a thirst for you and the food and drink you provide, that it would be you that we would be manifesting all day long. So much so that people around us will wonder, what is that? What is it they have got? And when they find out, Lord, we pray they will want you too!

Amen



What a great, wonderful, loving, accepting, bountifully giving, always forgiving, restoring, redeeming, healing Father we have! Woooooohoooooooooooo!!!

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This Great Black Blob

Is there anyone close to your heart that you have prayed for to come to Jesus? It could be a brother or a sister, a son or a daughter, a husband, wife or partner, maybe a friend, work colleague or neighbour? What if Jesus said to you, ‘I’ll set you a challenge, if you can do this one thing, then that person will come to me and be saved’. Would you do it? Suppose it was climbing a mountain or running a marathon or walking fifty miles. Would you do it? I guess most of us would if we were desperate enough to see that person saved. Now suppose the challenge was this: I want you to stand up in church and publically confess that (pick one of the following) a) You have not spoken to person x for years and you make sure to avoid them, because you can’t forgive them, they have hurt/offended you somehow in the past. b) There is someone you judge as lesser than yourself in some way and you make sure to avoid them if at all possible. c) You are angry at someone in the church, you avoid them. d) You are jealous of someone, when you see them, you secretly hope things are going bad for them. One day things do go bad for them and you are secretly glad. e) Someone seems like they need caring for in some way, it looks awkward, you avoid them and you won’t let God put that person on your heart.

What if God clearly said to you, ‘make this public confession and that person on your heart will be saved!’ I know what you are thinking, how can there possibly be a connection between my not speaking to/avoiding a person and my friend/family member/work colleague coming to the Lord – I just don’t believe it! Or I just won’t believe it? There is a connection and a very strong one . . .

While trying to sleep I had a feeling when thinking of our church that something was trying to hide. That ‘something’ was something I needed to fight. I heard the Lord speak to me and He said, ‘you must go at this hard, over and over again, until you defeat it’. I could not get hold of what it was that I was so supposed to go at, fight as it were, though I had a very strong feeling I must do so. I felt a very strong physical sensation at the same time, very hard to explain. I began to get a picture of a black sort of blobby substance that was about five to seven feet in the air and it hovered over us all. I imagined running at it with a knife in my hand trying to pierce it, I ran at it over and over again, imagining that if I pierced it I could make all it’s badness drain and wash away. Finally, exasperated, I asked the Lord what this thing was. He told me it was the feelings of people toward other people. These feelings included jealousy, anger, unforgiveness (for hurts and perceived hurts), bitterness toward people, judgement of people, viewing certain people as lesser and treating them so or avoiding them as unimportant, meanness toward people and lack of real care for others.

This great black blob hung over us all, so much so we had sometimes to give it a shove upwards in order to talk to or see other people.

This great black blob was what was hindering revival in our church. Once this thing began to be substantially dealt with, revival would begin.

Afterward I was reminded of the Welsh revival, a feature of which was the public confession of sins. People who had not spoken for years stood in church to publicly confess their bitterness or anger toward someone. When people heard of these public confessions and reconciliations it brought them into the revival . . so think on! (The Welsh revival saw 100,000 converts in 1904 alone!)

When you think of that person you want saved, think! Do I have a person in church that I am having a wrong attitude toward?

We need to ask ourselves: Is this collective unconfessed sin in our church stopping more people coming to Christ? Even stopping revival?

Bless you, in Jesus name

Andy Harper

History Lesson 1

1890 St Louis Tent Meeting




Taken From Biography of Maria Woodworth-Etter, read more here

She had no itinerary, and often changed plans as the Lord led her. Once she was going to California, but in obedience to the Spirit's correction turned and headed for St. Louis instead. The resulting tent meeting at the infamous Kerry Patch, a stronghold of Catholic idolatry and rampant vice, was an epic victory that she describes in her 1918 book, Signs and Wonders. St. Louis, Missouri, 1890: "They had pistols and clubs, and were ready to kill us, and tear down the tent. It looked as if we would all be killed. Several ministers tried to talk, but were stoned down, or their voice drowned out. It looked like surrender or death. "It was an awful sight to see a little band of Christians, sitting nearly frozen to their seats with fear, surrounded by a mob of wild, fierce men and women, many of them half drunk, their eyes and faces red and inflamed. Every effort failed, and we could do nothing with them. I said to my co-workers: "We will never give up, and if they take us out of the tent before we are ready to go, they will take us out dead." I told them to lead in prayer one after the other, and the God of Elijah would answer. "A sister knelt on the pulpit pale as death, her hands and face raised to Heaven, and in a clear ringing voice asked God to save and bless the Judgement-bound multitude. A feeling of the awful Presence of God began to fall on the people. Another sister followed in prayer, then I arose, and stood before them. I raised my hand in the Name of the Lord, and commanded them to listen. I said the Lord had sent me there to do them good, and that I would not leave until the Lord told me to, when our work was done. I told them the Lord would strike dead the first one that tried to harm us or to strike us with a dagger. If any tried to kill us the Lord would strike them dead. The power of God fell, and the fear of God came upon all the multitude. The sweat came on their faces, and they stood like as though in a trance; the men began to take their pipes out of their mouths, and their hats off. The women began to cover up their bare necks and arms with their aprons. They felt they stood naked and guilty before God. They began to get off the seats, and try to sit down, but some fell and lay like dead. Others stood with their mouths open. One Catholic said that I struck him down, and showed him Hell. Tears ran down many faces, through the dirt, leaving streaks. They stood like they were afraid to move, and they all passed out quietly. After that the hoodlum element always respected me."



19 But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak; 20 for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.

http://www.youversion.com/bible/nkjv/matt/10/19



Prayer

We invite you Holy Spirit to strengthen and encourage us. Give us a passion to tell people of the goodness of God toward them. Give us a supernatural courage, remove the fear of man, remove the fear of offending and loose from us the excuses we make for not speaking up. Above all give us a heart of love, especially for those who don't know you, for your names sake, Lord Jesus, Amen

Taking New Ground

Or 'Follow my Leader'
Or 'Be a Leader'

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One Amazing Man!
Kind of a Billy Graham of his day, only combining a salvation message with healings. John Alexander Dowie had an amazing ministry and founded Zion City, however, he was toward the end of his life a very much flawed character, though one wonders if this was simply a mental illness. Dowie influenced many people and his ministry was going on around the time of the Welsh Revival. Alexander Boddy, a C of E minister from Sunderland (Sunderland Revival), visited Zion City in 1913 and this article from a magazine of the time is very interesting and includes something about Mrs Woodworth-Etter as well (last email's 'Amazing Woman'). This from the article, “Thousands have been made whole of every disease known at this age of the world, including one case of leprosy. Most of the cases that were healed were considered chronic by physicians. Many were brought on beds in a dying condition, given up by the best physicians; and many of them are living today, well and happy. Hundreds were saved and healed at the same time, otherwise they would have died in their sins ,and thousands of unbelievers of all classes were brought to Christ by seeing the mighty works of God”


John G Lake also visited Zion City and the Azusa Street Revival. The picture above is a common one from the time of Dowie's ministry and such pictures often had a banner saying, 'Captured From the Enemy!'

I wanted to look at Psalm 85

6 Will You not revive us again,
That Your people may rejoice in You?
7 Show us Your mercy, Lord,
And grant us Your salvation.
8 I will hear what God the Lord will speak,
For He will speak peace
To His people and to His saints;
But let them not turn back to folly.
9 Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him,
That glory may dwell in our land.
10 Mercy and truth have met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed.
11 Truth shall spring out of the earth,
And righteousness shall look down from heaven.
12 Yes, the Lord will give what is good;
And our land will yield its increase.
3 Righteousness will go before Him,
And shall make His footsteps our pathway.

Surely our heartfelt prayer for our nation is verse 6, 'revive us again'. The, 'why', is a bit surprising perhaps, 'that Your people may rejoice in you'. Not so we have reformation? justice? an end to crime? an end to poverty?, families restored? No, primarily that we may rejoice in Him! All these other essentials do follow, righteouseness, truth, increase because of God's goodness. Now verse 13 is interesting. It's as if someone is beating a path through the undergrowth, we are meant to follow that person. It's very hard for our leaders to both have the vision, then the courage and strength to begin beating a path forward, they need us to catch the vision, to help to push forward, to support. Even if sometimes they are mistaken. It's like sometimes they beat and hack a path through and we follow and then we have to turn round because it turns out it wasn't that way - we deviated a bit is all that happened. So we must try again in a slightly different direction.

If we look at these people's lives, they suffered hardship and personal loss. John G Lake's wife died on the mission field in South Africa, many of John G Lake's commissioned workers faced death from starvation. Mrs Woodworth-Etter lost children. Yet these people saw things happen that we can hardly dare believe for today! Yet these things are happening in countries like Mozambique today, so what's the key ? Is it all just about God's sovereign will or can we bring about revival again in our lives and in the lives of those around us? See these testimonies from recent IHOP meetings in Manchester and Bolton testimonies - so maybe we can and we can rightly expect. We know anyway, that we are to lay down down and consecrate our lives . .

Dowie got everyone to say this prayer of consecration (or similar) at the end of his meetings, 'My God and Father in Jesus name I come to Thee. Take me as I am. Make me what I ought to be in spirit, in soul, in body, no matter what it costs. Give me thy Holy Spirit. Lead me to thyself my Father. Take away my sins, and give me a pure heart that I may fervently love Thee and all things pure for Jesus sake. Amen.'


God Bless you

Andy Harper

Email Response

Affirm the Good

“We should affirm what is good” the Rev Paul Hardingham, Sunday night’s (07/11/10) sermon at St Peter’s

"What I have to say touching visions or dreams, is this: I know several persons in whom this great change was wrought in a dream, or during a strong representation to the eye of their mind, of Christ either on the cross or in the glory. This is the fact; let any judge of it as they please. And that such a change was then wrought appears (not from their shedding tears only, or falling into fit, or crying out; these are not the fruits, as you seem to suppose, whereby I judge, but) from the whole tenor of their life, till then many ways wicked; from that time holy, just, and good” John Wesley Journal

Last week we our church hosted a conference organised by Vinelife UK. There were also three evening meetings at Salford University with over 2000 people each evening. A team came from the International House of Prayer, Kansas City, which is also a bible school. They were instrumental about eleven years ago in setting going the 24/7 prayer movement. They now have about a thousand people praying and worshipping 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. About a year ago, after ten years of praying an awakening/revival occurred. In the year since there have over 1500 baptisms/salvations, many healings, for example, emotional from shame, self hatred as a result of sexual abuse, cancer, over twenty people who no longer need glasses, etc.

The conference was amazing! The main teaching was how much God loves us and that we should be chasing after that love, that everything flows from this amazing intimacy we can enjoy with Jesus. Also that healing is a ministry for all believers. We got to practice this and a number of people were healed from bad backs, joint problems, stiff necks, etc. The evening meetings were also astonishing, with healings including, curvature of the spine, asthma, Lupus, legs from needing leg braces, etc. I received healing from asthma, which I need to confirm, when I have a lung function test next week. There certainly has been a huge improvement, for example, I was on three different kinds of inhalers and have awoken every night since spring this year (bar perhaps two occasions) needing to use my rescue inhaler. Since Wednesday night I have slept soundly right through to my alarm! I love it and feel great!

Now I do have to say that some things were going on that could easily draw our focus away from that which we should be affirming as good – namely healings and salvations. We can get over excited in all sorts of different ways about people falling to the ground (see John Wesley above), shaking, laughing, crying, etc. We don’t need to judge these matters nor do we need to go around telling people it is necessary to experience the Holy Spirit in this way. We are all unique as individuals and churches and God has his special plan and unique way of dealing with us. We all earnestly desire that we move forward with salvations and healings and the last thing we want is division over these lesser matters (not lesser to the individuals concerned, but to us watching on, if you get my meaning) We have our biblical model in Jesus and biblical instructions ( for example, the laying on of hands and anointing with oil). Whatever else happens is God’s business!

We all know and love and trust each other enough to push forward, to tolerate, to have our questions along the way. The main thing is let’s get our ‘shoulders to the boulder’ of sickness and sin and see them defeated! In the name of Jesus!

18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God 20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think Ephesians 3:18-20


Bless you in Jesus name

Andy

Joy and Offense

Hi Folks

“Our identity must be rooted in His desire for us” and “the greatest hindrance to prayer is because we don’t believe God enjoys us” - Wes Hall, International House of Prayer, Kansas

Recently, visiting a church, the pastor introduced the speaker this way, “come on William, offend us, shake us up’. Offend us ?!?! Offend us? No thanks! I came here for a quiet sit and to be entertained! How many of us can remember, before we were Christians, being offended by the gospel, the struggle, accepting Jesus, then the joy? Now, how many of us know that that is just the start of a journey (yes, we are saved and nothing can change that). Sometimes it’s like we have let Jesus into the hallway of our lives, we run off and fetch a chair and say, “now Jesus, you just sit here and keep quiet, I’ll handle things from here on in” Then when the kitchen’s on fire we run back into the hall and say, “Jesus, help me, help me, don’t you know the kitchen’s on fire?” Before running back into the kitchen . . So in some ways the ‘struggle, accepting Jesus, joy’ process is meant to be repeated as we journey on. Let’s ask God to make us willing to submit, for wisdom to recognise the devil’s lies. Here’s one I fell for without realising it. Looking back I think that I didn’t fully believe that God is good to me and good all the time. If we don’t fully believe this then the devil can sneak in and during hard times we become resentful. We stay too long with the ‘why has God allowed this to happen’ question and rebellion or self pity become our routes of choice. And to be honest I know I have a good long way to go with this . .

Sometimes we have a problem with Joy, in that we feel it is selfish to seek it or to be seeking to be joyful all the time. I’m not talking about chasing happiness as an end in itself, rather the joy from having an ever more intimate relationship with Jesus. And expecting, as we grow in this relationship, to be more joyful , more of the time. Scripture confirms this, church history also gives some clues, we can trust the Holy Spirit to guide as to what is truth and God has also given us the ability to ‘reason’ ie work things out with our brains! And learning from experience is also valid!

Evan Roberts, one the main characters in the Welsh Revival, was thought by some to be insane because he was, “too happy”. The welsh revival produced 100,000 new Christians, oh that I was that happy!

“Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever”, the Westminster Catechism

“17 For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God, and others will approve of you, too. 19 So then, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up “ Romans 14: 17-19

Here Paul tells us that living a life of ‘goodness’, ‘peace’ and ‘joy’ in the Holy Spirit will please God. Doing good is linked with living a life of peace and joy

“16 Always be joyful. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
19 Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. 20 Do not scoff at prophecies, 21 but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. 22 Stay away from every kind of evil” 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-22

“Always be joyful” is fairly unequivocal – it couldn’t be much clearer really !

My plea to you and for me, is this – submit, ask Him to show you areas of your life you need to hand over. Get hold of “God is good to me, all the time!”, say it out loud! Ask the Holy Spirit to nudge you when you have a thought or say anything contrary to God is good, so that you will say “No, wait a minute God is good to me/you, all the time”. Run after Him, because He is running after you, He totally loves you, you are unique, loved with a unique love, His favourite, with a unique job to do for the Lord that no one else can do! Be humble/courageous enough to ask someone you trust at your church to pray with you (or if you have a regular ministry time, get up there!), ask them to put their hand on your shoulder and tell them , look I always feel rejected like nobody likes me or I just can't believe God loves me, or that God would ever use me or that God would ever heal me or whatever it is - because God has something for you!

Andy

A Woman's Role ?

These are my notes from a recent Bill Johnson sermon I listened to, so apologies Bill and to you guys, hopefully though I have captured something of the essence of the message, the Lord bless it to you! It's a fantastically encouraging message!


Genesis2:18 And the Lord God said, “ It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”

Ephesians 2:31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

Apparently the Hebrew word for 'helper' is two words, Hebrew often has no vowels so you can get a word with two or three words squashed together. The word is best translated as, 'power', 'strength', and 'rescue' - the King James translaters made this into 'helper'. Comparable means 'face to face' or 'reflecting' or 'doing on behalf of' or 'doing together'
Paul in Ephesians 2:31 reflects on the relationship between a man and a woman being like that between Christ and the church or you and me and Jesus

My orginal notes are below . . ( a woman's role? of course in relation to Christ it's a man's as well and I'm sure equally applies to a husband and wife . .)

Stand face to face to God - like a wife (a mans strength, power, rescue - true meaning of 'helper' in Genesis 2) and you will go past what Jesus did

God doesn't need anything except you
God has chosen you as an individual, by grace something unique in your being that only you can do
I want to represent Jesus well, actually be Jesus to people
You represent Him in a way that only you could, you represent a unique aspect of God
Each of us has the privilege of representing Him uniquely and differently
A realm where we are co labourers with God to bring about His will - as oppose to those occasions where a sovereign act of God brings His will about
It's tragic to wait for a sovereign act not realising that in His definition of sovereignty, your obediance, your desires, your dreams were all written into His definition of sovereignty . .

Bethel Church sermon of the week podcasts (inc Bill Johnson) here
Bethel Church Video, free registration and some videos free, quite alot of the previews play all the way through! here - watch and listen on your PC !

*As a side note it's worth reflecting on the sovereignty of God further, the great battle evangelicals fought over this in relation to salvation, yet the incongruity many (most?) evangelicals have in relation to healing! In other words the truths evangelicals fought for in relation to salvation absolutely must apply to healing! One for another email . . .

Strength Comes From Joy

" . .and perhaps as we consider it, and remark the multiplied reasons for its existence, some of those reasons may operate upon our own hearts, and we may go out of this house of prayer ourselves partakers of the exceeding great joy" Spurgeon Sermon

"Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid.
The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.
WITH JOY YOU WILL DRAW WATER FROM THE WELLS OF SALVATION" Isaiah 12:2-3

"You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore" Psalm 16:11

For You have made him most blessed forever;
You have made him exceedingly glad with Your presence. Psalm 21:6

When I first stop to think on these verses they seem unrealistic, 'fullness of joy' ok I can accept that, maybe from time to time. 'pleasures forevermore', now hold on a minute, forevermore ! Perhaps that's only in heaven when we are his right hand, well actually Christ is at God's right hand and Ephesians 2:6 tells we are also sat there with Him!

So maybe we can begin to accept what these verses say in our head. And we know we have a living relationship with Jesus and "fullness of joy" and "with joy" and being "exceedingly glad" can't be just head knowledge, surely we are to experience this? So what could practically help us?

Someone once explained to me and Emma (thank you Rick!) that we each have in us a well of salvation, from which joy flows. It can get a little stopped up though, like a real well. Busyness, family concerns, worry, etc. Can we think of times when these things seem to become smaller and we have experienced peace and joy? Presence is mentioned in the verses above, so maybe it's when we come into His presence? It might help us to reflect a little , for example, can you think of a worship CD you used to listen to, at home or in the car. Or may be a church service you used to go to fairly regularly, or a prayer time you used to have, a group you used to belong to or someone you still get together with and you used to pray more together?

Perhaps it would be good to try and do these things again or similar, or do them more? I have found that when I try to do this there is an initial resistance, sometimes quite strong!. So at first there is a bit of determination needed. Often in the past when the time for evening service approached, though I had been fully intending to go, I suddenly felt I didn't want to. All sorts of things would come into my head, like, Iv'e not had my tea, why not take it easy and watch telly, I'm not in the mood for mixing with people, my wife/husband won't be pleased, and so on! A few years ago this happened and guess what? I dropped off going! And yet I've found that if I push through and go, there is tremendous blessing, worry goes peace returns, joy comes, etc. Similarly I can sat in the car and think, I'll put that Christian worship CD on and there can be an immediate resistance, no I prefer Radio 4 or the news, or Radio 1 or whatever. Occasionaly even if I put the worship music on, the first song starts and I think, 'no, I don't like this', it jarrs, doesn't sound right, However, at some point I am drawn into His presence, sometimes there is something I need to confess, and/or a conversation starts, 'you know what God I've been worrying about . . or I've been rushing around and hardly thought of you or asked you for help' Apply the same principle to whatever it is you used to do. Perhaps a key here is determine in your own mind that you will use the negative feeling as a trigger to do that thing, ie pray, listen to worship music, go to church, whatever it is that used to bring you into His presence After a while you will realise you have established a new habit and that negative feeling will come rarely, but, remember and say to yourself, 'you know what if it does come, that's my trigger to do, to go'.

I meant to talk about strength coming from joy, but, maybe the above is right for now