While all the world is sleeping

While all the world is sleeping
And everybody dreams
We can't rebound the echoes
That bleed into our peace
Our buildings lack foundation
Our roofs are leaking shame
We need an intervention
That moves these stones again
An ocean forming impact
That changes what we see
A flooded river flowing
And the healing touch of leaves

Why do we need to have a year of prayer?
Because God wants to break in through us and an increase in authority comes from being with the One who has authority.

We need an intervention and where the intervening river flows everything will live..fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river..their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.

What do we want from God?
For Him to flow without limitation.
What do we want from God?
Nothing except what He wants from us.

I'm reading Alan Hirsch at the moment and for those interested in church development and leadership I believe he's saying important things which we need to engage with.

But this is firstly a year of prayer - not pointless purposeless prayer but prayer that commands angels and destroys strongholds. Prayer that occupies the hill-tops and brings down the avalanches of God. Where deep calls to deep and where we know the inclined ear of the healer.

God will revolutionise His church - all He asks is for us to listen and let Him flow, intervene, interfere, have His own way - then we will see all His dreams and more fulfilled.

Living in a thin place

I'm so excited by so many things rising up in the church at the moment. Both in OCF and across the world. I see hearts turning away from schemes and towards God.

Not that there's anything wrong with schemes, ideas or plans but without God they are fruitless.

I heard of something during the Summer that I'd not heard before. In Celtic Christianity there is/was a saying that the distance between heaven and earth is about 3 foot (i.e. not much) and in the 'thin places' it is even less.

I want to live in a thin place. I want to pray that my friendships are thin places, that my home and my marriage and my family are thin places, that OCF and the wider church is a thin place. That Ormskirk and the surrounding community is a thin place where heaven touches earth.

How does this happen? Hosea 2 v21 says "In that day I will respond," declares the Lord - "I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth...."

We are entering a time when God is declaring that He will respond to the cries of His people like never before. What do we do? - we cry out.

Does this mean we do nothing else? - no, but I recall the verses I was given over 20 years ago when I first came to really know Jesus - from Isaiah 55:-
"my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord

I have a favourite character at the moment from scripture. Moses was a murderer who ran away and went to live in the desert after being in the courts of Pharaoh. Then God called from a bush and sent him back to where he had run away from.

Before we can do great things we need to hear the call of our great God and know that our schemes and the exciting things God has for us to do can only be fruitful in the thin places where we lay down our ways and submit our lives to His.

The difference

"If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here........What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?"
(Exodus 33 v15-16)

Amen! God always first, His Presence always above everything else, connecting with Him paramount, nothing else matters more.
We can organise, prioritise, socialise even revolutionise but I'd rather let God arise.

What does that mean in reality?
It means we spend more of our time only with Him.
It means we get to know what He is thinking by listening only to Him.
It means we overflow to others with more of Him.
Time in His Presence makes a difference - it 'distinguishes' us, for God and His glory.

Hungry for God

'The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young assistant Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent' Exodus 33 v11
WOW! face to face! Joshua, the future leader, could not retreat from the presence of God.
Did he have friends or family or other things to do? No doubt.
Could he leave the presence of God? Not when it's been 'face to face'

How hungry am I for God?
Is it above every other hunger? Hunger for acceptance, for love, for wealth, for material possession, for family, for church growth, for friendship, for justice, for peace, for respect, for healing, for comfort? Is my hunger for God above all these things?

When it is these things will be added to us but even if they are not what is our perspective? Are we hungry enough to cry out with the prayer of Hannah? Do we hunger for the one who thought of light when everything was darkness all the time?

Church has some interest but far more interesting and exciting and wonderful is God Himself, for Himself and as Himself 'face to face'.

mike is blogging

Hello welcome to Mike's first blog.
I will be letting you know why I'm doing this at some point in the future.
Love you all
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