Thursday 19 July 2018

How to See a Move of God

We'd just finished a home-meeting.
We'd sung well; someone shared a nice word; we'd prayed a bit.
Then the meeting was closed.
Most of the group had moved to the dining room and were enjoying supper.
But I felt dissatisfied.
I sat there.
Yearning for something more.
Thinking about the Bible's descriptions of the ways the Holy Spirit manifested in the early Church.
For example:
"...if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth" (I Corinthians 14:24,25); and
"...ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted" (verse 31).
"Have you got a prophetic word for me?" one of the ladies asked.
She must have thought I was looking at her, but really I was just deep in my own thoughts. Or maybe she was spiritually sensitive to what was about to happen.
"No," I answered, "but do you want one?"
I was so hungry for more, I was willing to do my part and then see what God might do.
Turns out she was feeling like she needed more that night too.
So even though I didn't have anything, I laid my hands on her. And as soon as we began to pray, the Holy Spirit inspired me with a message for her.
"Me next," someone said.
Then someone else who was in the dining area saw what we were doing (or what the Lord was doing), and came and joined us.
Everyone followed until we were all back in the lounge room again, everyone desiring to be part of it.
I suggested that one person at a time sit in the middle while the rest of us all gather around and lay hands on them. That way everyone could be ministered to by everyone; and everyone could minister to everyone.
A lot of the group had probably never prophesied before.
"Just ask the Lord what He wants to say to them, and then say what He gives you," I explained.
To their delighted surprise, almost every person that night saw visions, or received words of wisdom, or words of knowledge, and prophesied - and not just once, but for every person in the room. (Only one girl didn't say anything.)
Some of the most spectacular ministry that night actually came from a person who you might have thought was the least spiritual of all!
Everyone felt so encouraged, comforted and satisfied!
"...the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal" (I Corinthians 12:7).
In one such meeting, a lady told us afterwards she'd seen a vision of the most crystal clear water. She was refreshed and experiencing joy!
"Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day shall ye say, Praise the Lord..." (Isaiah 12:3,4).
So, as it turned out, the end of the meeting was really just the beginning - of the 'more' that the Holy Spirit was willing to do that night.
Actually He's willing to do things in our meetings from the start. But as Smith Wigglesworth reportedly said:
"Those who are waiting for God have mistaken the position: God is waiting for us to act".
Certainly it starts with spiritual hunger. Wigglesworth said it's an awful condition to be satisfied. But even hunger isn't all that's needed in order to actually see the Holy Spirit move in a meeting.
God acts in response to our action, to our faith.
"If the Holy Spirit doesn't move, I move the Holy Spirit," Wigglesworth said.
Wigglesworth didn't mean usurp God. He just understood that God is more willing to heal [or to express His presence in other ways too] than we are to ask.
But "whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it" (John 14:13,14).
Even if you think you're the least spiritual person in the room!
Because God is just so willing to bless.
The Lord Jesus is so eager to work with us, confirming the word with signs following (see Mark 16.17-20).
"I take - He undertakes" *

Tuesday 17 July 2018

Church Fathers

If something isn't already clear in the New Testament, then I don't think we need to quote the 'Church Fathers' on it in order that we can be more dogmatic about it than the New Testament itself allows us to be.

If they repeat something already established in the New Testament, then there's value in their witness.

But if they purport to be clear about something not clearly established in the New Testament, then you still have to take what they write about it with a grain of salt.

I'd rather be clear about things the New Testament is clear about, and remain unclear about something if it isn't clear to me what the New Testament means by it.

Friday 13 July 2018

The Best Strategy

One Sunday night I was visiting a church.
During the meeting, I began to feel that I was meant to minister that night.
But there was nothing I could do about it, because I knew that by that stage someone else would already have been chosen to preach.
But still I felt I was meant to minister, so I just committed it to the Lord.
Then during one of the songs, an elder in the church came and sat beside me and said to me:
"I was supposed to preach tonight, but I just thought, seeing you're here, that I would give you the opportunity to minister".
So I accepted.
I'd heard about some concerning-behaviours of some of the youth in that church. Even during the service I'd observed some of them going outside disinterested and getting up to stuff.
So I thought to myself, "I'm going to preach about sin!"
But sitting in my seat, I felt the Lord say to me, "I want them [the congregation] to experience the joy of the Lord".
At first I wondered whether that would be appropriate.
But then I remembered that when Nehemiah originally said:
"...the joy of the Lord is your strength" (in Nehemiah 8:10)
it was actually immediately after all the people wept when they heard the words of the law.
But Nehemiah told them, "Mourn not, nor weep".
"Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord".
"Neither be ye sorry..."
"...for the joy of the Lord is your strength".
God's grace knows best, I felt assured. And I felt excited anticipating what His strategy was about to accomplish.
So when I was invited to the stage, instead of giving them a sermon, I said to the congregation:
"I feel that God wants us to experience the joy of the Lord".
I didn't quite know what to do in order to let that happen though, so I said, "Let's sing the song 'The Joy of the Lord is my Strength' ".
The band played, the congregation sang, it was a little bit rousing.
But still I thought to myself, "I don't think that's what the Lord was talking about when He said 'I want them to experience the joy of the Lord' ". I felt He meant something more.
I remembered a couple of years before, I'd seen a preacher point to different people in a congregation and say, "Receive the joy of the Lord", and they seemed to - so I thought, I'll try that.
So I pointed to a lady in the congregation and said, "Receive the joy of the Lord". I wasn't quite sure what to expect.
Straightaway the lady was filled with laughter, so much so that she ended-up on the floor rolling around.
That worked, I thought. So I pointed to someone else, "Receive the joy of the Lord" I said. Same thing happened. Filled with laughter.
One person after another. Until soon there was no need to speak anymore, it just spread!
Many were filled with joy and laughter, on the floor rolling around and didn't stop.
I hadn't laid hands on anyone.
The band wasn't even playing. (If the band had been playing, it would have been more of a hindrance than a help, especially if a song-leader was singing too).
I just stood there.
The Spirit Himself was working in the congregation, like a wave swept through.
After about 40 minutes, I thought I guess my time is up. So I dutifully handed back to the MC.
He invited testimonies. One lady came forward, "I was suffering pain, but now it's gone", she was barely able to speak she was so happy.
Another person said, "I've been depressed all week, but it's hard to feel depressed when you're laughing so much for joy!"
It was obvious that laughter was only what we saw on the outside: at the same time God was doing a deeper work on the inside.
Then the Pastor's son turned-up. He'd been visiting a sister-church that night, and he told us that he'd witnessed something he hadn't seen before: the congregation had started laughing for joy there too.
God was visiting His people - and it was just the start. Over the next several weeks and months, in every meeting in that church, even at music practices. Extra nightly meetings were added. No matter who was rostered-on for a meeting, they always let the Holy Spirit move.
Other pastors came and visited and saw the grace of God, and brought their congregations, even from other cities.
Nearly everyone - youth, adults and children - experienced joy and laughter; and tears, and forgiveness and reconciliation; they were filled with the Spirit and spoke with tongues, and interpreted, and saw visions and prophesied; there was repentance and deliverance from demons; they were on the floor unable to stand; then ended-up spontaneously dancing for joy.
From there it spread to other churches near and far, and to schools and universities. People got saved, it started getting media attention.
People started giving, until the churches experienced financial blessing like never before.
Numbers of young people consecrated their lives to the ministry, and decided to go to Bible college. And today some of them are pastors and missionaries.
"...the disciples were filled with joy, and with the Holy Ghost" (Acts 13:52).
God really knows the best strategy.

Thursday 5 July 2018

No, it's beautiful, it really is

I want to buy a thousand-dollar DSLR camera, so I too can take close-up pictures of furry flies on leaves with a blurred background.

I want to spend thousands of dollars on international flight tickets and accommodation, so I too can Post how thrilled I am that I get to eat lunch - maybe even Post pictures of my lunch!

Might even go to JERUSALEM! so I too can take a picture of the domed Mosque. 

Wednesday 4 July 2018

General and Specific

A lot of Bible-readers seem to want to force Bible-statements into exclusive single categories, in ways they wouldn't do with statements made by anyone else anywhere else.
And not only that but many also pick and choose which Bible themes they want to do it with, and which ones they don't.
The theme of baptism, for example.
Regarding baptism in water, when some read Bible-statements like:
"...whoever believes AND IS BAPTISED shall be saved";
"...born OF WATER..."; and
"...baptism DOTH NOW SAVE US"
- verses where baptism is associated with the new birth and salvation -
many are willing not to force that association of baptism with salvation to mean that the moment when an individual believer is baptised can't also be considered separately from the moment of his initial saving-faith.
After all, many realise, Cornelius' household had received the Spirit and spoken in tongues (which meant God had accepted them) before they were baptised in water.
So as Scriptural as it is to associate water baptism with salvation, it's equally Scriptural to consider the two separately. And many Bible-readers accept that.
They accept that a statement was made in one place with a certain objective in mind, while another statement on the same theme was made in another place with a different objective in mind. And they're okay with that. On the theme of baptism in water.
Yet when it comes to the theme of the 'baptism with the Holy Spirit', many of the same Bible-readers tend to want to insist on a single category only - on a narrow, exclusive way of considering a term - in a way they wouldn't do with water baptism, or with other themes.
So for example they read passages where the Bible associates the indwelling Spirit with salvation; yet when the Bible also describes believers 'receiving the Spirit' and being 'filled with the Spirit' in an experience DISTINCT from and SUBSEQUENT to the initial moment of their saving-faith, then rather than allow that - rather than allow both ways of discussing it - they instead want to force all of their theology of the Spirit into a single category. Their preferred category.
And in order to do that, they have to say that part of the Bible is not normative (such as the experiences described in the Book of Acts).
Or they have to say that such parts of the Bible are now obsolete.
And the irony of it is that while doing so they claim 'Sola Scriptura' - sometimes even more proudly than other Bible-believers do.
I really don't think the authors of Bible-books always intended all of their statements to be taken that way, any more than we ourselves today intend our statements to be.
Like, imagine if you give a friend an iPhone, brand new in the box. It comes with a charger, lead and earphones. All wrapped up, as a gift.
Your friend might take the phone out and play with it a bit straightaway. He might leave the charger and lead folded still in the box. He might put it on charge a little later, or even the next day.
Or he might take it all out of the box and give it a full charge first before doing anything else much with it.
But either way it would be just as appropriate to discuss the gift as a single item as it would be to consider the items that came individually inside the box.
It's correct to discuss something both as a single unit, and separately.
Same with the themes of the 'Holy Spirit' in the life of a believer; or the theme of water 'baptism'; or the overall theme of 'salvation, in the Bible. It can be discussed as a unit - or it can just as legitimately be considered separately. The Bible does so both ways.
The Bible's theology of God Himself is another example. The statement is true that 'the LORD our God is one LORD'. For the intent and purposes that the 'Hear O Israel' proclamation had, in the polytheistic world in which it was proclaimed, the statement was and is entirely true.
But the proclamation wasn't intended to preclude a more detailed consideration about the inner nature of the one God and LORD. Because even the Old Testament itself did so (like in Genesis 'let us [plural] make'; and in Psalms 'the LORD said to my LORD'; and in Daniel 'one like unto the son of man, appearing before the Ancient of Days').
So, a theme discussed generally, isn't meant to preclude more detailed consideration of the same theme. We speak like that all the time.
Yet many seem to want to impose unintended and unnatural categories onto parts of the Bible. Parts of their choice.
Especially since the Enlightenment.
Not least among Reformed and particularly Calvinist Reformed Bible-readers.
But really: proper exegesis is meant to involve the discipline of thinking into the mind of the writer - rather than imposing paradigms and categories of our own onto it.
So when Jesus, and John, and the Book of Acts, and the Epistles discuss the theme of the Holy Spirit, while they certainly associate the theme with the overall theme of 'salvation', that wasn't to deny that there could be some process, or timing, or variation, in the way individual believers come to experience all that there would be and is to experience of the Holy Spirit.
And it's the same with baptism. And with 'resurrection'. And with 'salvation' itself.

Tuesday 3 July 2018

HEARING FROM GOD; GUIDANCE; and confirmation through SPIRITUAL GIFTS



Some years ago I started sensing in my spirit that I was meant to go to Papua New Guinea.

I didn't tell anyone. But after a church-service one Sunday, as we were walking through the corridor to go to the lift to leave the building, one of our Pastors spontaneously laid hands on me: he said he saw a vision of Papua New Guinea, and he said to me, "I feel like you're meant to go there".

Then after quite some time, and having possibly missed at least one opportunity to go, one Sunday night I felt led to go and stand in a particular part of the auditorium. There I noticed someone who rarely visits our church. We greeted each other, and he happened to mention that he was going with a team to Papua New Guinea.

I checked my bank account, and I found - and this wasn't a regular thing - but someone who I wasn't in regular contact with had deposited some money into my account.
On top of an amount of money which I already had in the account, it amounted to enough to buy a return plane ticket but only as far as Port Moresby, not enough to also buy the domestic flights to and from the island where the team was going for a crusade.

I wondered whether I should at least book the international flights anyway, and just trust that the money for the domestic flights would also be provided in time: but my mind started imagining the scenario if I only made it as far as Port Moresby (where accommodation costs can be exorbitant, and it isn't recommended that you're on the streets after dark), so I hesitated. And the team was flying early the next morning.

As a friend dropped me home from church that night, I told my friend everything. My friend told me that it had so happened that they just received a back-payment at work and my friend had already decided to give a percentage of it to missions. So my friend offered it to me.

When I got inside and got online, I found that due to my hesitancy in booking the international flights at the moment when I originally wondered whether I should have, the fare had gone up a bit. But still I now had enough to cover all the flights including the domestic ones, plus enough for accommodation during the one-week crusade (so I was informed) but not enough to buy meals.

I opened my Bible, and it fell open at a passage which described people gladly receiving the apostles' visit and contributing to them out of what they had. I felt like I could 'see' it happening to me. I could see the ministry that would unfold for me there. I even felt a message burn inside me for them. It's like faith was forming inside me. I booked the flights.

It was too late at night for me to phone the Pastor/team-leader to say I was coming, because they would all have been in bed because they had an early flight the next morning. But at about 5a.m. I phoned the Pastor and told him I'd been able to book flights. He said they'd pick me up in 10 minutes.

My own household were still asleep and didn't even know what I was doing, until I phoned them after we'd gone through Customs!

"How long will you be away?"

"Well, the crusade goes for a week..."

"You might end-up staying longer."

I thought of the names of some Papua New Guinean pastors belonging to our denomination, who I'd read about in missionary magazines when I was a child. One of the Pastors had been a leading Evangelist in the nation; another had died, and I felt a desire to encourage his family, if ever I would get to see them. I didn't have any contact details though.

Nearly 10,000 people attended the open-air crusade, in a town with a population of only about 5,000. The island is about as far away in the Pacific Ocean from the capital Port Moresby as Sydney is from the Gold Coast. People had come from all over the island. On the Sunday our team split up and ministered in different churches.

The day before the team was due to come back to Australia, I began to feel in my spirit that I should stay.

I asked the Lord to confirm it through the Pastor who had invited me to be part of the team.

I came out of my room, and the Pastor was sitting at a breakfast table right in front of my door.

He looked at me and said, "So, are you staying?"

The problem was, I didn't have enough money to stay.

A young person from a local church there visited me at our accommodation, and talked to me about staying.

We talked about how after David defeated Goliath, the rest of Israel then finished off the job.

"If you stay, you will have many spiritual sons in this place," I felt the Lord say in my heart.

I went to the airport with the team, still grappling with it in my mind. But I just couldn't leave.

When I saw their plane going down the runway, it was a bit of a sinking feeling!

The town was like a ghost-town. Everyone was staying indoors after the crusade, or had already left for their villages. All the excitement had simmered sown. And I didn't even really know where I was going to stay at night. But at least I'd decided to stay.

Right at that moment I got a text message from someone in Sydney. From someone who I hadn't seen for years and who didn't know anything about what I was doing lately but who interceded for me and often had the word of the Lord for me.

"I can see you've stepped-out on a path God has for you. Stay on it. And you will have many spiritual sons".

When the locals saw that I was staying, they were thrilled.

One Pastor invited me to minister in his denomination, and offered to arrange accommodation for me, but I didn't feel quite right about it in my spirit.

Some time later another Pastor when he realised I was staying, decided to continue with nightly meetings in his church, and invited me to be the minister. And I felt right about it.

It even turned out that the family of the pastor whose name I'd read about in my childhood and who had died, belonged to this church. So I was able to meet them and encourage them. It felt very special.

And I learned that the church was the mother-church of our denomination in PNG, and had been founded by the very missionary who had later became our Pastor in Ipswich. So it really felt like I'd stumbled upon family.

I learned that the church had suffered a split over doctrine leaving much of the congregation and building in disarray for eight years, and had only recently started up again. So it felt like a timely visit.

We'd been given two-month visas upon arrival. I ended-up being involved in 61 meetings and outreaches in 59 days. In nightly meetings in the church for 12 days; in every department of the church; home meetings; youth meetings; in their school; in their regional Pastors' meetings; and in daughter-churches in remote villages; in one village we shared the gospel with every house, people received Jesus with tears.

People who got saved or filled with the Spirit during the crusade were able to be assimilated into church; others who hadn't attended the crusade came and got filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues and saw visions and prophesied; many experienced joy in the Holy Spirit.

One young person who came and who received the Spirit and spoke in tongues, called me 'daddy'.

Church members gave me accommodation, delicious food, and money. And a couple of friends in Australia, once they knew I was staying, also put some money in my account.

One Saturday we got everyone together and repainted the church-building. The painting-skills I learned just before going to Papua New Guinea came in handy.

When someone saw the painting going on, he donated electrical work and new lights.

And the ladies started donating new decorations for the stage.

It's like every aspect of the church was receiving a renewal.

After several weeks I began to feel it was time to go. While I was thinking about it, that same young man who had visited me at my accommodation when I was feeling I should stay, came again, and we talked heart to heart.

But there were still two things in my spirit to do. One, was I'd seen a 'vision' of a volcano. I thought I'd like to see a volcano: I hadn't seen a live one since my childhood in Japan. I knew there was a volcano on another island, but it would require another flight. I really wasn't sure what to do with that vision.

I asked the local pastor what he thought. He said, "Somehow I feel I should tell you that you shouldn't do anything to try to go there".

But it felt like my time in PNG was incomplete.

The second, was I still desired to meet the pastor who was a national Evangelist, whose name I'd known since childhood.

Before I flew, I visited a family who had accommodated me and fed me a lot, and gave them an envelope with money in it.

But the next day they came to the airport when I was leaving, and gave it all back to me. Church members had all gotten up early to come to the airport and wave me off. And asking me to come back again. My new family.

Little did I know, the flight to Port Moresby included a stopover in another island, the very island where the volcano was. We even flew right by it. I saw into its crater, with the smoke coming out. Someone said later it was just God's way of letting me know I was completing my task.

In Moresby I had five hours to wait before the flight back to Brisbane. Church members on the island arranged for some relatives of theirs to pick me up and spend that time with me. I mentioned the name of the Pastor to them - who'd been a leading Evangelist - who I still desired to see.

They knew his name and drove me to his church, but he wasn't there. But one of his associate pastors phoned him, and he invited me to come and meet him, at a certain shopping centre for lunch.

So we went there, meeting this wonderful man of God whom I'd heard about since my childhood. And all I wanted to do was confirm our love for him.

While we were sitting at the table meeting, I glanced to my side, and I noticed two Pastors, pastors from Australia whom we both knew, in the same food court, at the same time.

And so each of us talked together. Not only was it a thrill for me, but it was such a Divine appointment for each of them. I immediately understood God's reason for it all, but I won't go into that now. It felt like such a profound moment.

With everything I felt I had to do and could still do, now done, I was in the departure lounge, waiting to board, when I got another text message. From the same person in Sydney. Who still didn't know anything about me going to PNG, and staying, and now being about to leave.

"I feel like the Lord wants you to hear, 'Thank you - and well done'."