How do you continue to write after such a week? It's quite hard! The lasting fruit from the 'Together on a Mission' conference continues to amaze me. If you want to see some excellent photos from the event, my church has has posted some here. There is also a link to the hugely exciting church plant that we are embarking on - in the Malverns.
Secondly I am running up our electricity bill by having both the DVD machine and the audiotape copier runnning almost permamently! If anyone isn't aware, I am now able to copy videotape messages of Dr Ern Baxter onto DVD (I've got about 20). I am so excited about this! It preserves the message and makes it possible to send them out to whoever is interested. Please do either email me or leave a comment if you would like copies.
While I was copying one message from Ern Baxter's series on "Salvation Words", I heard the following quote. It is excellent yet maybe provocative. Here is the transcript:
"The power of my salvation experientially is in the Holy Spirit. The power of my salvation legally is in the blood. The blood was shed that provided the legal basis on which God could come by His active power and deliver the people out of Egypt. So that when we are speaking about the blood, we are speaking about legal authority. When we are speaking about bringing them out, we are speaking about vital power.
That is the difference I think between the Cross and the Resurrection. Personally I don't think the Cross is the symbol of Christianity. I think that using the Cross as the symbol of Christianity has accounted for us being bogged down by lifeless Christianity. To me the symbol of Christianity is a crown!
The writer to the Hebrews said, "For we see Jesus crowned". Now the Cross is a very vital part of the whole redemptive process. The whole Gospel runs like this; "How that Christ died, and was buried and rose again and how He ascended to the right hand of the Father and poured forth this which you now see and hear". So that the power of Christianity in it's vitality is in the Holy Spirit. What about the Cross? The Cross and what happened on the Cross was validated by the Holy Spirit declaring Jesus to be the Son of God by the Ressurection from the dead.
There is nowhere in Acts where they finished their gospel service by appealing to people to come to the Cross. The Cross is the basis on which God redeems men. But everything about the Cross is negative. When He rose from the dead He brought a new life, a new community, a new future, a new hope. So the blood had to be shed to enable God to bring them out. But resurrection is the emphasis of the Gospel. Christ is risen to bring His people into the Presence of God".
3 comments:
Dan, bless you, and bless you some more!!
After a very busy past couple of weeks, coming under some very real, and continued spiritual attack, I finally took some time to read word-for-word your entire blog on the conference. I read late into the night. ;-) Once in awhile, I'd pipe up to my husband, who was propped up in bed doing his own Bible studying, and say, "Listen to this...this is uncanny."
It was as though you transcribed some of your notes "just" for me/us. Let me take a moment and pull some examples:
"Moses had to get them from slavery to inheritance. Holy God - miserable people and the pressure point in the middle is Moses."
"...Their complaints however proved to be a catching fever among the people of God. Even the apostle Paul knew of complaints. As a leader there is a sense of being sandwhiched between the people and God Himself."
"Leadership is where you work out walking with God admist pressures."
"Moses did have pressures. The first was that he had had an encounter with God. Anyone truly called into ministry today will know that he has no choice. Yet he must face having to represent God often. When you are called God whispers things into your heart. That vision nourishes and excites you. Moses had seen the unseen whereas the rabble hadn't that. You are the one leading into the future therefore you become the problem."
"Moses is essentially saying that maybe he hasn't got it. It is a dangerous place to be and lead him eventually asking God to take his life. It can be hard for wives to see their husbands go through that pressure. Leaders are vulnerable."
I could go on. There's more, from other messages on other days.
We are, by our own admission and discernment, and the prophetic confirmation of our apostolic oversight (www.mbfellowship.com) in a season of intense warfare - on the verge of significant break through in this particular church plant. (what a worn out term, "Break through", but my brain is literally too weary to get very creative at the moment!)
Everything from being verbally and viciously attacked, to BOTH of us having much back pain..."all of a sudden, this week"...from gossip and division in the "ranks", to one of our daughters being in a freak car accident through no fault of her own(she's perfectly fine - but it could have been bad), to that SAME daughter encountering serious injustice on her job (her middle name is Danielle, meaning "God is judge", and she's continually having to stand for what is just!) and she only TODAY walked off her job, ONLY at the wise counsel of her father. Whew.
It is all going on, and has gone on non stop since late November when we had to regrettably put a church member in prison for a long time.
Church life is never dull, never perfect, but it is the proving grounds for men (and women). If you could see me in the Spirit, I'm smeared with war paint, weary to the bone, not ABOUT to fall on my sword! ACK!
Dan - thank you for what must have been hours of your time, helping ME feel like I've been to a vital Bible conference. I feel a kinship to Newfrontiers, and that is unusual for me - I've learned to be entirely more cautious than THAT! ;-) I don't know that much about Newfrontiers, in other words. There's just some witness of the Spirit going on here.
Blessings on your continued "decent" from the mountaintop experience. May you run in the strength of what you got from it for many many many days. I appreciate your labor in the Lord.
I am so so honoured and blessed that my reports have been of help to you, wonderful Sheila!! Phew ... to think that they are actually helping church leaders!! Horray!! I did feel an ounce of jealousy at the conference that my call has come but the time is no yet for me. Yet I felt the peace of God that I might not be a leader but I am not insignificant either!!
Yet I refuse to take any of the credit as I am just the scribe. You have met the unusual prophetic ability of Terry Virgo to speak right into situations and make it feel like he is speaking to "you". Such is the anointing of God on him!! He is the father of Newfrontiers and is responsible for thousands upon thousands of people and yet manages to make each one feel as though he fathers them individually. A true apostolic gifting indeed!
I could recount time after time when he has preached or prophesied and I have felt as though he just "knew" what I am going through!!
Once again thank you for being so honest and sharing where you guys are at. Be assured of my prayers, love and support for what they are worth.
We are all on a mission together cross-church movements with one goal! What a blessing and what a privilidge!! Keeping standing! Keep moving forward! And I pray feel the pleasure and smile of your God!
Your church looks so amazing. After a few years of disasterous encounters with church, have you finally found a place you can call "home"?!
I pray God so.
Dr S A J Burgess
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