OUR TRUE CALL

"The best that I can hope is that this has just opened a window, and that as you look through it you are seeing one thing - how superior is Jesus Christ to all else!" - T. Austin-Sparks

Open Windows
Excerpts from the writings of T. Austin-Sparks

To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God... (2 Corinthians 2:16,17).

The Lord has not called upon us to form churches. That is not our business. Would to God men had recognised the fact! A very different situation would obtain today from what exists, if that had been recognised. It is the Lord Who expands His Church, Who governs its growth. What we have to do is to live in the place of His appointment in the power of His resurrection. If, in the midst of others, the Lord can get but two of His children, in whom His Life is full and free, to live on the basis of that Life, and not to seek to gather others to themselves or to get them to congregate together on the basis of their acceptance of certain truths or teaching, but simply to witness to what Christ means and is to them, then He has an open way...

The Church is not increased by your going and taking a building and trying to get people to come to it, and to your meetings, and then forming them, by a church roll, into a local church. That is not the way. Growth is by Life, and this, to begin with, may be by the entering into Life of but one soul, and then after a long waiting time of another; or it may be more rapid. But the point is that it is increase because of Life. That is the growth of the Church. For the growth of His Church, the Lord must have Life channels, Life centres. I believe that, given a Life centre, sooner or later one of two things will happen, that it will be abundantly manifest that Christ is fully and finally rejected there, or else there will be an adding, a growth. There is tremendous power in Life, and the Life of the Lord either kills or quickens. It depends on the attitude taken toward it. He is a savour of Life unto Life, or of death unto death. Things can never remain neutral. What the Lord needs is Life centres.

From:The Risen Lord and the Things Which Cannot be Shaken

Wonderful Women

I saw them again today ... these wonderful women. Once again I came away inspired and encouraged by seeing the strength of others. Over long months of visits to various cancer treatment wards etc. they have continued to impact and impress me.

What do I see that is so powerful?

I see wives, mothers, daughters, sisters and ALL of them are displaying the same quiet courage and grace. Each one in her own way, some in treatment, others supporting, but steady as rocks and pressing on with painful and difficult journeys with a quiet fortitude.

I sit in waiting rooms and wards, watching them share a smile, a joke, a touch ... watching them giving care and comfort in the quietest way. I see great displays of selflessness, love in the hard places, strength that others lean on in their journeys.

There is always a little wonder about what their story might be.

The Pacific Island woman and all her grown children (some such big boys that they take up two seats each), sitting quietly beside the man of the household, just being with him, never leaving his side, doing the journey together.

The beautiful woman in a long pink scarf that trails like a wedding train down her back, covering her hairless head with soft beauty. She smiles and walks alongside her husband and son, carrying the evidence of the baby soon to come with quiet dignity ... how graciously she deals with what life has dealt her.

The bright little single woman who has come alone. Trendy little hat on her head, softly spoken, and a twinkle in her eye that she shares with those around her, making them smile too.

The nurses, who stare death in the face every day, and yet give away warmth, humour, love and care out of a seemingly bottomless capacity to make life easier for those they have chosen to help.

It has been some weeks now since I felt I wanted to talk about the remarkable people I have been blessed to observe, sometimes talk silently to God about, always encouraged to feel proud to be one of their number. They will never know how they have touched my life by simply being themselves and living their lives ... makes you wonder doesn't it ... what do people see in us, those we don’t even know are watching, and what silent impact do we have:?

LOVE/LIFE/LONGING. PLANTING & MANTLING.

It was out of LOVE that God gave to us what He most LOVED in order that we might have LIFE.

LONGING : He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty. Luke 1:53 NIV

This is a time of recognising the LONGING God allows - the sense of emptiness and not being complete and of being unable to remedy this ourselves.

There is an ever louder cry in the hearts of many, a cry for the unknown, a cry for the One their hearts know but cannot see. The Holy Spirit begins to increase the desire that causes us to cry out with Him "Come" - a cry that arises out of our increased LONGING. The closer we move towards the marriage the more intense the cry of the bride's heart will become. It is intensified by His nearness.

'As a bridegroom who puts on a tuxedo and a bride a jewelled tiara. For as the earth bursts with spring wildflowers, and as a garden cascades with blossoms, so the Master, God, brings righteousness into full bloom and puts praise on display before the nations.' Isaiah 61 (The Message).

PLANTING HIS CHOSEN

Meanwhile, the Holy Spirit continues to anoint and send God's people to preach good news, heal the heartbroken, announce the year of God's grace, comfort those who mourn.

He's growing 'Oaks of Righteousness through whom His life flows to display His glory. It is most certainly time to begin to 'build a new city out of the ruins, wreckage and rubble' of what is currently falling down.

This passage in Isaiah is highlighted for the coming year as we are not to focus on what no longer works,but search for what survives and use it to build as God instructs. This is the time to look for what remains, all that each of us can come and place before His throne.

'Rename them "Oaks of Righteousness" planted by God to display His glory. They'll rebuild the old ruins, raise a new city out of the wreckage. They'll start over on the ruined cities, take the rubble left behind and make it new." Isaiah 61 (The Message)

"They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will RENEW the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations."

It will be the work of the "Oaks of Righteousness", those prepared and placed by the Lord, to allow Him to bring new life to everything around them, we can expect to see this in the ruined and devastated places. This will be a work of renewal/revival that will exceed expectations and break down current mind sets on what 'revival' looks like.

You will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God - all of this taking place for the display of HIS splendour.

MANTLING

There will be a specific mantling on those God chooses and places. It is light, protective and seamless. It wraps them in His comfort and protection. There is great strength inside this beautifully light garment.

LEADING & POWER

It is important to know that those carrying this mantle will be lead and directed by the Lord where to go - it will not be for man to say when and where. The going will be "in Him" and in His mantle. It feels very like living in Psalm 91, and there will be an outworking of His mighty power which will be as described in Isaiah 63 - to gain for himself everlasting renown ... to make for Himself a glorious name.

FOR 2010

It will take a people called, prepared, and surrendered to God's will, to stand with Him in the dark places and see Him pour out His light. Many are invited but few are chosen. Matthew 22:14 NIV

There are many willing to go and do good works, but it is another thing to be planted by the Lord for the display of His splendour. These are those who will indeed love Him more than their own lives, and who are willing to trust Him in their own great weakness and vulnerability. These will be 'sent' in order to gather into His Kingdom.

I see these mantled ones walking into position and standing wrapped in all He has given them, clothed in soft blue light. They are positioned by, and for, Him. He has cleared the space in which they stand displaying His goodness and His power.

I see people gathering, looking at this light, wondering at it, timid and afraid to approach. Then I see small figures (children?) and they dart in and tug at the hem of the mantle - it fills their hands and mouths like candy floss. Many begin to come and gather and eat and it is a constant supply - the mantle maintains its shape and size no matter how much is taken.

I feel the enormous love this mantle contains and allows to pour through it. This love attracts the lost and hungry and repels darkness.

Isaiah 65 says in The Message "For my people will be a long-lived as trees, my chosen ones will have satisfaction in their work. They wont work and have nothing come of it, they wont have children snatched out from under them. For they themselves are plantings blessed by God, with their children and grandchildren likewise God-blessed. Before they call out I'll answer, before they've finished speaking, I'll have heard."

I feel the Lord is saying: "I want you to hear that I am near, and to know that I am active in areas as yet unseen. Remember that I hold the future in My hands and remain sovereign. The living must be in Me in the days ahead, to live by the ways of the world will be very unsafe, even destructive. There are so many things known only to Me, so do not rely on the words and wisdom of men.

Isaiah 64 (NIV) Since ancient times no-one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him. You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways.

The key is to wait on the Lord, to become entwined in Him and His purposes. It is the way to allowing Him to develop and to plant those He chooses where He chooses. There will be a remarkable flow of His love, power and strength to those who allow Him to place them according to His purposes.

GETTING WHERE?

One of the greatest minds that the Christian family has ever produced is Thomas Aquinas. Near the end of his life, the great theologian had a revelation of Jesus Christ. In light of that revelation, Aquinas said, “All that I have written seems to me like straw compared to what has now been revealed to me.”

"Most people plot and plan themselves into mediocrity, while now and again somebody forgets himself into greatness." ~ E. Stanley Jones

We need each other and most of all we need Jesus - it was God's idea that we be family and He the Father, and to that end He gave His very own Son to lead us into that incredible relationship.

Like all families we, the Body of Christ, seem to be a dysfunctional one in various areas, however we have a Father who cares and works to bring us ever closer to each other and to Himself.

It seems that Christmas time is simply a time to remember family. We know that it has become a commercial monster and who knows what actual day Jesus Christ was born in the stable? However, we do have a day when we are reminded that family is important to our God, and that His way of doing family is summed up in love and giving of oneself.

The revelation of Jesus Christ undid all that Thomas Aquinas had considered important, and that continues to happen to men, women and children today. We are not in need of recognition, achievement, or success, we are greatly in need of Jesus Christ, and of His Life being formed in us, transforming us into the family He is longing to see joined in love and unity - His heart is just like ours!

What is the way there?' Jesus told us that we should 'esteem others more highly than ourselves' and with that in mind I am going to repeat the quote above:

"Most people plot and plan themselves into mediocrity, while now and again somebody forgets himself into greatness." ~ E. Stanley Jones

Is it only me?

Is it only me ... never quite settled, living with a sense of quiet disturbance as a constant?

Yes, I know and also reside in the peace that Jesus give me, but there is a stirred up thing inside of me that never actually goes away.

It is as if I look constantly back and forth over our nation, always watching, always alert for a movement or a glimpse of something more than we have seen before.

There is a lot of movement, a lot of activity, but I frankly don't see anything out there that excites me with it's freshness and a sense of 'new and now'. I see a lot of bringing back what had come and gone, and none of that is wrong, but surely there is a new day, a new level, something that is a completely fresh release out of heaven?

Some wise person said that we cant do the same old thing and expect a new result, but in many areas I just see the same things, over and over again. Maybe they are altered ever so slightly, given a new name, advertised in a different way, but they still have that sense that we have been this way before.

What if we all stood still for a second and just waited? What if we waited long enough for all the dust we've stirred up to settle so that we could see, hear and feel with greater clarity?

Do we have the courage to stand still and quiet, even if it appears we are doing nothing, achieving nothing at all, in order that God could come and do something that was incredible, amazing, and what He has in mind for this precise moment in time.

As I watch back and forth I have a sense of the sand running swiftly through the hour glass, slipping through our fingers and lost forever.

What if there is something entirely Kiwi? What if New Zealand is the one place on earth where something that is utterly, completely, and excitingly God can take place? What if we are so busy being impressed, excited and taken up with the things He is doing in other places that we completely miss what it was He wanted to do here?

To be honest I've had nearly all I can take of man's ideas, advertising and activity. Still waiting to see what God can do with a couple of completely committed Kiwis and a piece of number 8 fencing wire!

Borrowed Wisdom

This arrived in my inbox recently - it is way too good to keep to myself and helps us all hold perspective in testing times. :)

 

Enlargement through Perplexity
The facts are that there is often a larger service through a certain curtailment, a fuller life through a deeper death, a richer gain by a keener loss; and we have to look for the impact of the operation of God in us in a realm where the eye of man cannot trace....
Supposing the deepest purposes of God can only be realized by His hiding from our flesh all that that flesh craves for its life, and – more – supposing His work in us, whereby triumphant faith and obedience reach their highest form, necessitates His concealing Himself and accepting the risk of being considered to have been unfaithful?
There is no doubt that most of those who have been called into some of the most vital expressions of “the eternal purpose” have been trained in the school of apparent Divine contradiction, delay, withdrawal, and darkness.

T. Austin-Sparks

HEAVEN'S FLOW

Recently, while sitting quietly and praying, I had a vision/pictures of Jesus coming and holding me as I wept, as you would a child, not speaking or doing anything, just being there.

Then, as He held me, His power was pouring out across the heavens like a meteor moving at powerful speed.  I felt "this is happening now".

Following this I saw myself sitting on a stone wall beside Him looking outwards towards the horizon.  I could see the flow of power like a transparent, liquid force, like a moving picture as it moved from earth up into the heavens.  A powerful creative force, never ceasing.  The words "all creation on the move" came to my mind.

As this force touched heaven it split into streams that flowed out in all directions over the earth.  It looked like a huge fountain of sparkling power.  Then I heard the words "Do not try to name this, you do not know it at all."

I saw the streams flow into rivers and make them clean; over desert sands and give them life; through forests regenerating growth; and coral reefs living, vibrant and colourful again.

This is God, creation is His, He is coming to give life and newness to all things.  In the midst of this flow people are clothed and healed, the hungry are receiving food, the armies of evil are driven back.

The question arose: "Will we believe the report of God or man?"  His life is undiminished and is flowing freely throughout the earth, but most eyes don't see it.

I hear the bombardment of human voices and sounds that prevent ears from hearing.  I see the flashing of man-made images that captivate eyes and keep them from heaven's vision.  I see hearts assaulted and wounded by human emotions and actions so that they cannot feel the love of God.

We must break into heaven's flow, it is for NOW, for today, available and free.

For those who pray - cry out that there would be a breaking of these chains that hold and bind, of blindness and deafness that has become comfortable - let it become uncomfortable so that the BREAK OUT would come.

I hear the call "Break out, break out, break out ... now .... today ... before it is too late."

It is a dry cloud of man-made dust that keeps us from heaven's flow ... "Break out!"

As I sit watching, all the streams have become one great sea and there are people swimming, and comfortable, in this deep calm water.  They are clean and strong, in need of nothing, and able to breathe above or below the water.

Hab 2:14  Meanwhile the earth fills up with awareness of GOD's glory as the waters cover the sea.  (The Message) 

WISDOM

I know I have posted this before, but today it impacted me again, and so here is the cry of wisdom in the face of religion:

 

Give me the truths which are veiled by
the doctrines and articles of faith,
which are masked by the pious words
of sermons and books.
Let my eyes penetrate the veil
and tear off the mask,
that I can see your truth face to face.

St. John of the Cross

TUMBLING IN THE WAVE

There are many in this time who feel caught up in things beyond their understanding and control - the feeling is like being caught in a large wave on a surf beach, and tumbled - over and over and over - until finally you find yourself in the shallow water not knowing which way is up, but really glad to be out of it and able to breathe!

The feeling is so intense in the moment that one is thrown into survival mode, nothing to hold on to, no sense of direction, no way out of this - and then suddenly there is sand, light, sun, the joy of being deposited on the firm sand and feeling the water run away from you, back down the beach!

Many are finding their walk with God a bit like that and wondering why. For so long it was 'steady as you go' and even though there were a few tests along the way, it wasn't too hard to find a way through them and then back to a sense of steady forward movement again! But in this moment that sense of steadiness is missing - except that HE remains steady and we can feel that, even though we are tumbling.

As I've prayed about this there has been a strong sense of the Lord's encouragement. A sense that we are caught up in, and by, what is coming and it is no longer optional or avoidable, it has been put in motion by hands bigger than ours.

I sense HIs reassurance that He does indeed hold the future in His hands, that He holds us in His hands, and the two are closely entwined. In this place we do not need to be afraid of what we dont understand because we know Him and our lives are lived in the knowledge and love of Him. We are safe.

I hear Him saying that we are to trust Him for an outcome that will surprise and bless us. To encourage me in this He led me to Ephesians 4:16:

From Him the whole Body, joined and held together by every supporting

ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

The Message Bible puts it this way:

Ephesians 4:15 & 16
God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love--like Christ in everything.

We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do.
He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through

us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.

So here we find ourselves still connected, In fact we are important connectors. We may not be able to see the shape of the rest of the Body or understand all it's working parts, but we all joined and held together, constantly building up in more and more love, as each of us is doing the part that has been assigned to us. What a marvellous thought!

We find in The Message that all we have to do is follow the leader and keep our eyes on Him.

He supplies all we will ever need.

He knows the way and keeps us in step with each other.

His breath and blood flow through us nourishing us in spirit, soul and body.

We continue to grow up - healthy in God, robust in love.

This tumbling around isnt so bad after all, in fact I am beginning to enjoy it. See you on the beach!

SPECIAL DAYS

My heart is full today, it is more special than most, because of the people I have sat, talked, and shared life with.

The wonder of honesty and transparency, even in hard times, never leaves me. I am left wondering 'is this how Jesus felt' when I have had the privilege of listening to words and hearts, stories the world will never hear, and praising God for the resilience of these precious ones He created.

No wonder He hung out with those that the rest of society would look down on. In the place where there is no energy for anything but getting through today, in the place where people say it like it is and are without all the trappings that build barriers between us in 'polite society', there is a richness of relationship to be found.

I am humbled by the trust, convicted by the words, broken by the pain and cruelty some encounter, and made a better person just because I have had this wonderful opportunity.

When He called me to work in the wider 'community' I had no place to start and no idea how or what to do. But the One who calls us knows, and He is the One who opens doors, presents opportunities that don't even look like opportunities at the time. All we have to do is follow Him, right outside the walls, out of the comfort zone, into places we have feared and need to learn to trust Him with.

How amazing it is to find ourselves truly a work in progress, and to walk alongside others in whom the same work is taking place. We become filled with light and with life, our tears flow easily, and the laughter is genuine joy.

How grateful I am for this opportunity to live my life out of the One who created and understands all life. It is a constant humbling privilege to watch as He touches a heart, lifts a head, sows hope afresh.

How blessed I am in this place that I, and others, do not truly understand. Living outside the walls of the establishment, and yet finding myself immersed in all that is real and at times challenging, and, best of all, finding that He lives here too - smiling on us, pouring out His unfathomable love and strength, pursuing the one, always the one ... that He loves.