Sunday, July 15, 2007

Sunday at CCK Brighton!!

As I promised here are the day by day reports from the heavenly week we have just had in Brighton and it began of course on Sunday at Church of Christ the King (where Terry Virgo is based). Scott and I had gone down on the Saturday afternoon to be there for the reason that CCK had managed to get Rob Rufus to come and speak to them before the conference began both morning and evening. Kate Simmonds was also back early to lead worship at her former church, so it was with some degree of excitement that we arrived at what we consider to be our second home! Both Kate and Rob were welcomed with typical CCK passion.

One of the reasons I love Kate's way of leading worship is that it seems there is;

"No warm-up allowed!".

Straight away we were being led into the Presence of God and God responded with His zeal for His people by coming down so powerfully upon the gathered masses. Here's how the worship went;

There then was the most AWESOME prayer shouted out from an African lady in the congregation! Her passion and her zeal and evident love for the Lord had people trembling and crying out. I love charismatic churches! Without them - you wouldn't have this!

A lady then came up the front and began to prophecy;

"There are coming days when you will appreciate the sense of betrothal more and more. I am going to draw you into My Presence more and more. This love will give you a passion for the Kingdom. You will know the mystery of this love of God for His Bride the Church and it will impact your lives. I have had your names written on My heart. Look to Me afresh for the signs that I am drawing you".

John Hosier then came up and appropriately weighed and responded to the prophecy in a prayer. And Kate then led us in the awesome song;

  • Every knee shall bow.

Joel Virgo - the lead elder at CCK - then came up and introduced Rob Rufus warmly and filled in some of the history as to how long Rob had known Terry (who was present and in the front row with Wendy). Rob then came up to preach;

His text was 1 Corinthians 10:1-2 (but he didn't use it a great deal!).

Rob began by making some comments about "Antioch" churches and "Corinthian" churches and their presence today. "Antioch" churches are those churches who for them the boundaries of the Kingdom of God know no bounds! They live to give! "Corinthian" churches on the other hand are indeed a people of power (and there is nothing wrong with that) but they are limited by self-indulgence. They cannot see past their own borders. Rob urged us;

"Give away your best to the nations for they are in our inheritance! The kingdom of heaven is given to those who believe that worship must cater to His temperament and His desire. The time to reap is coming in a powerful way!".

Rob then asked his wife Glenda to come up and bring a prophecy that the Lord had given her that morning while he was out for a run. She came up and said the following;

"The heart of God wants to commend you as a church. Younger generations have faithfully guarded what has been passed down by their fathers. They know the price that was paid and the battle that was fought. The fathers fought to see God's kingdom restored. They cried out for revival! You as a church are going into a season of reaping. It is harvest time! It's promise time! It's fulfillment time! This is not a time to waver and say "Will it come?". It's time to be bold in the Spirit! It is an Amos season!".

Rob then continued. Budda's tomb is occupied! Mohammad's tomb is occupied! But there is an empty tomb in Jerusalem! He said that he has been given an assignment to birth grace-filled churches across the nations. There is a cry for freedom across the churches of the nations. A cry for chains to fall off!

He referred to his text and made the point that Israel was baptised into Moses when they went through the sea and into the cloud. Too many evangelicals stop at baptism in the sea and forget the cloud. For us we are baptised into Christ but we also need to pass through the cloud of glory! There is more to come! We should be expecting our shadows to heal the sick as we walk through the streets of Brighton! He said;

"We cannot win people one by one - the race is too fast! We need the cloud of glory to settle on cities so that hundreds of thousands of millions are swept into the Kingdom of God! It has happened in Wales! It has happened in Azusa Street! There MUST be more in heaven than there is in hell!".

When you touch the glory of God, God Himself in tangible naked glory is revealed to us! Religions today are trying to counterfeit the lack of the glory with Adam-like fig leaves. Conversion means more than baptism in water - we must be enveloped in the glory! He prophesied;

"The day is coming when you will stand in My glory and radiate it effortlessly".

Access to the glory is through the finished work of Jesus Christ and that is it. It isn't our good works that produce faith but our faith that produces good works. God has prepared Newfrontiers by living in a foundation of grace to stand in the glory. Grace is essential! The Old Covenant glory revealed God's opinion of you and me through the law. We all know we are breaking the law. He demands a perfect righteousness from you yet under grace in the New Covenant we see His opinion through grace.

"Law says "DO - DO - DO!". Grace says "It is DONE!".

If we truly grasp our weakness and utter helplessness apart from grace then the cherubim will back off and allow us into the glory. He testified that while preaching in Hong Kong before coming to the UK, 2 angels came down in glory and stood either side of him while preaching with trumpets. A lady got healed even before making it to the front! He made the point that fasting doesn't earn the blessing or the glory. It simply positions us to be more sensative to God.

"All over the world true New Covenant churches with a foundation of grace are moving into the glory. You can never see the cloud of glory while you are in the land of slavery".

The enemy knows that legalism in the church will stop the Church coming into the cloud of glory. The doctrine of demons that will be taught in the last days is not license but a return to legalism - forbidding marriage and so on - people will not leave the faith for license. They will leave it because of legalism. We may know a bit of freedom but then like Pharoh and his armies, the slavemasters of the law will come and attempt to drag us back.

(Exodus 20:14) At one point the Israelites were more aware of the armies of Egpyt than they were the cloud of glory that was ahead of them. But then the cloud of glory moved through them to seperate them from the slavemasters. This is where the church is prophetically in 2007. This is where the Israelites got baptised into the cloud. There is a teaching abroad that calls to "balance the teaching of grace with law!". Satan is behind that lie! How can you balance heaven and hell? How can you balance good and evil? They are mutually incompatible!

God the Father treated Jesus Christ as the worst sinner on the plant so that you and I can be treated as the most righteous. "By one sacrifice you and I have been made perfect forever!". Disobedience or obedience doesn't affect the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In the Father's eyes we are perfect forever! In the cloud of glory you can see only Jesus!

"Jesus + Anything = Nothing.

Jesus +Moses + Elijah = Nothing.

Jesus + Law = Nothing.

Jesus + Nothing = Everything!".

It is effortless. "He healed them ALL".

Tonight: Simon Brading leading worship and Rob Rufus speaking the "Anointing of God" with the most incredible ministry time!

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