Where we are heading . . .
You will notice a consistent theme running through the teaching and preaching this year. Everything we talk about is in line with the vision. This is quite deliberate and part of moving us into the place where we need to be as a body of believers.
It’s not about being “under the spout where the Glory comes out” but “being the spout where the Glory comes out!”
The Bible says “Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way, just as the Scripture says.” (John 7:38 MSG) That’s talking about the abundance of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer! Does that sound like you?
I was standing on the platform waiting for a train last week when God put something special on my heart. I took out a notepad and started writing right there at Central Station, and what God had given me was a new way of looking at the anointing of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer.
I’m going to do a series called “Lubricated”, and it’s all about how the anointing works in our lives. Put away the old thoughts of the anointing—let’s get a new insight into what God intended it to be in our lives. I believe the body of Christ hasn’t come into the fullness of what God intended us to have, and that all too often we’ve settled for just a touch.
When God drops something like that into your heart out of nowhere—you know something special is happening. I’m so excited about it and I know you’re going to get something special from God out of it too.
I want you to catch our vision and make it your own vision for this year. I want to do as much teaching/preaching as I can early in the year because I believe we’ll get to a point in the Spirit where we just won’t get time as often as we do not because we will get lost in His presence!
Things are starting to happen . . .
It’s great to see such a sense of community developing in our church as everyone gets into the vision for this year. I feel so strongly that this is our year to see what we’ve been praying and believing for. We’ve grown and matured as a church, and we’re primed for God to use us in a new way.
I know that we have God’s presence living within us, and we already have what we need to see this vision arrive. Pastor Peter Sutcliffe preached a message entitled “Where you are, God is!” I think we’re only just beginning to understand the power of that truth, and when we grasp the extent of God’s riches towards us we will never be the same again.
But I’m expecting more in this move of God that’s coming. I’ve probably told you so many times, but when the Azusa Street outpouring came to an end, it was prophesied that in 100 years a similar outpouring would happen. This phenomenon was accompanied by the cloud of Glory of God’s presence, often called the Shekhinah Glory.
Shekhinah is the English spelling of a Hebrew language word that means to inhabit, dwell or settle, and is used to denote the dwelling or settling presence of God, especially as in the Temple in Jerusalem in the Old Testament.
Eyewitness accounts of the Azusa Street outpouring told of a thick (often green coloured) cloud that was visible when God’s presence descended in such a powerful way. When this would happen people would be spontaneously healed and transformed by the living presence of God, without a single person praying for them or even touching them.
I believe strongly that God will move this way amongst us. It is my real expectation that our desire and real hunger for God will act as a lightning rod for His presence. Do you want to be irresistible for our God?
These things I know:
· the focus will be on our God, not on a person;
· the glory will be God’s alone;
· those who have fallen away will return to God;
· people will come from great distances to be touched by God;
· healings and miracles will be a common occurrence;
· our lives will never be the same again!
