Unchanging Truth in a Time of Change

I think one of the reasons why the SGM drama/crisis affected me among so many others is that it has shaken our faith mainly in church leadership but also has caused us to evaluate what we really believe.  My church history background has been based in based in reformed/charismatic evangelicalism that emphasized most of our problems were sin-related.  We were also taught to respect and honour our leaders.  In both situations - my faith in our leadership was shaken.

In Dunstable, Stanley - our senior pastor - made a major shift in his theology on the Holy Spirit and such a change unfortunately coincided with my baptism in the Holy Spirit.  However God worked this together for good - and I had to dig deep into the Word of God and such teachers as Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones and Terry Virgo who led me to see the glorious truth.

In SGM, my history and subsequent observation of C J Mahaney and Dave Harvey's behaviour as revealed by Brent Detwiler shook my faith again.  But I am believing that God is working this together for good and is leading me step by step away from this sin-focused obsession and step by step into His glorious grace.

I was running on the treadmill at the gym today and by chance (I run my iPhone on shuffle) a wonderful old chorus of Dave Fellingham's came on (squashed in between Steps and Lady Gaga);

"At Your feet we fall, mighty risen Lord, 
As we come before Your throne to worship You. 
By Your Spirit's power You now draw our hearts, 
And we hear Your voice in triumph ringing clear.


I am He that liveth, that liveth and was dead, 
Behold I am alive forever more. 


There we see You stand, mighty risen Lord, 
Clothed in garments pure and holy, shining bright. 
Eyes of flashing fire, feet like burnished bronze, 
And the sound of many waters is Your voice. 


Like the shining sun in its noonday strength, 
We now see the glory of Your wondrous face. 
Once that face was marred, but now You're glorified, 
And Your words like a two-edged sword have mighty power".

An amazing song!  But it was a tremendous reminder of the unchanging nature of the living God.  I've been spending time tonight re-visiting the past promises, dreams and visions that God has been so favourable to grant me (nothing compared to a man like Rob Rufus - but still - I am BLESSED!).  For example, I was amazed to have completely forgotten these few dreams;

"Terry Virgo and Angels Snipers!!" - a dream I had back in 2009.

"Dreams, dreams, dreams!!" - documenting some of the key dreams I have had in my life - one back in 2001 about a call to "ministry", one involving a tidal wave of glory speeding towards Brighton in 2006 (that I shared with Terry Virgo) and another about walking in a field of corn with my dear friend Pete Day.

A reminder - a glorious one at that - of the power of children prophesying - "your daughters shall prophesy!".

"The tide is turning" - a prophetic promise from Terry Virgo back at the glorious Brighton conference in 2007 - is still true I think.  But tides ... who can predict when they reach fullness?  I found this quote from Jim Goll;

"When God seems silent, there are several things you can do. 1. Stick with what you already know.What was the last thing the Lord said to you or told you to do? Have you done it? Why should He tell you something new until you have completed what He has already revealed?".

Resurrection of "Spirit of God" blog!!

I had a chat with Pete Day yesterday and we've agreed that it's time to get this too-neglected blog up and running again. I've given it a face-lift as well which I hope is helpful. The reason is that I've begun having an increased amount of very interested and maybe significant dreams. Now instantly the mention of "dreams" I am sure flags up orthodoxy alerts in some reformed Christians! But we cannot escape the fact that not only did the prophet Joel predict the coming of dreams in New Covenant life but Peter also spoke of it after the pouring out of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost;

Acts 2:17; "And it shall be in the last days' God says, 'That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; ... your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams".

The Bible is full of dreams! So why are we ignoring them? I was fascinated to find a book on exorcism recently brought out by the Roman Catholic church. It seems that they have recently set up a college for priests because they are recognising that the need to deal with the demonic. Where are evangelical Christians and what are we doing to respond to this need? But in terms of dreams it is not acceptable to ignore any dreams God may give simply because some dreams may be thanks to an over-indulgence of cheese!

Chuck Pierce defines dreams as;

"A dream is a release of revelation (whether natural or spiritual) that comes at a time when your body is at peace and you are settled".

So my hope in resurrecting the "Spirit of God!" blog is to document dreams and visions that I get. I would love anyone who also has dreams to write in and I will try and post them. It would be great to see this neglected area of God's gifts restored and see how He is speaking to us - His Church. Keep your eyes peeled on the blog - hopefully more dreams to come!

Get Thee Up into the High Mountain!!

Well once again God shows His wonderful grace through some awesome friends I've got. I'm being taken away tomorrow for a week's surprise holiday for my birthday! (It's on the 8th December). It was felt that I would benefit from some winter sun. I can tell I'm a workaholic when I don't want to go away because I will miss the chance to work! But I am going because I think it will be a good break - and hopefully a chance to re-boot, rest and make some major decision choices.

But most importantly of all - I pray again its a chance to just do "nothing" and encounter God in powerful ways. I love this clip where Rob was speaking to the Mobilise thousands last Brighton conference when we were there and he urges that getting away with God is so important.



I love the way that Rob's example is so grace-filled. My life has been full of great men and women of God who have testified to an awesome relationship with Him. But somehow I have always felt condemned and guilty because I couldn't quite match up to their walk with God. Yet Rob Rufus is a different story and I am not quite sure how he does it. He testifies to encounters with God that I can only dream of - yet this motivates me rather than condemns me! I think because his teaching is so undergirded with New Covenant grace - no one can be left with the impression that it's thanks to great scholar-ship or great study or great prayer and fasting but GRACE!!

So I've got great hopes for this week - I hope to return refreshed and full of revelation and new vision for the end of this difficult year and a new year full of hope and promise! Loadsa love to everyone - hope you have a great week. I will try and get to an internet cafe if I can but if not - see you when I get back!

Frustration's Okay ... for a Purpose!!

I'm sure one of the overriding emotions that frequently comes across from me is "frustration". Frustration with church, with God sometimes, with people. I would freely confess that I am a frustrated individual and the over-riding advice that I have received from church pastors is usually "Get over it" (speaking of that phrase - Pete Day has written an outstanding post on this very subject coming soon on this blog - keep watching!). However that's all changed and I found a fellow kindred spirit in the sermon that Rob Rufus preached; "The Struggle for the Authentic - Part 2". By the way in his next Sunday's sermon, Rob described that message as;

"Probably the most powerful message I have ever preached in my entire ministry".

I've been really enjoying reading Christopher Paolini's latest novel; "Brisingr" and during it the main dragon Saphira has a thought about human beings that is quite profound. She says this;

"Saphira knew it puzzled Eragon why she did not participate more in conversations. Her reasons for silence were simple; save for Arya or Glaedr, she felt most comfortable communicating only with Eragon and in her opinion - most conversations were nothing more than pointless dithering. Whether round-eared, pointed-eared, horned or short, two-legs seemed addicted to dithering ... for her, choices were simple; either there was an action she could take to improve the situationor there was not - and everything else said on the subject was so much meaningless noise".

If many more of us adopted that mind-set then I am sure that many, many meetings could be cut quite short! One of the huge frustrations I had during the days when I sat on the CU Exec at Birmingham University was how issues such as whether we would work with the Catholic Society to do a University Carol Service could occupy so many hours of conversation! So it was an incredible thing to read some of Rob Rufus's comments on frustration in Gideon's life. He said this;

"Frustration is a sign that you have got passion! You can't change anything unless you have got passion! Passion - if it is not fulfilled - results in frustration!"

Rob then went on to speak about the opposite to passion and frustration - passivitity;

"If I meet a person that has never been frustrated then I know that is someone I don't want on my leadership team because they are passive. Frustration is an indicator - it is a measure of where God has called your destiny".

And he ends by saying;

"I would rather have a 100 frustrated Christians who want greatness in their life than a whole bunch of passive, loose-wrist people that are happy with the unacceptable all around them who live their whole lives in smallness".

So - frustrated Christian - take heart! God may be using it to draw us out of our wine-presses of comfort to the destiny that He has planned for us!