This week we move the thought on, with our scripture reading: Romans 5

Colossians 2 says that “you also are complete through your union with Christ”. We are not complete by ourselves. We are not complete because we have a relationship with someone, like a marriage. You’re not complete because you have stuff either. It’s only through our union with Christ that we are complete.

We are complete positionally when we make peace with God by believing in Jesus. It’s an accomplished work -- it’s done.

Experientially, however, we are in the experience of walking into that completeness day by day. And as long as we’re on the way, that’s good. We’re not there yet but must be moving in the right direction.

It is access that brings us to the position of completeness. It is through submission that we truly find freedom.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NprbvI1dOUw

What was the orignal sin? The act was disobedience, but the sin was idolatry. As a lawyer, you don’t look at the act so much as the motivation behind the act. Murder may be the act, for instance, but self-defence or planned murder are two different motives.

The motive inside of Adam and Eve was idolatry -- seeking meaning, security and personal identity in someone or something else other than God. Eve swapped God as the source for the tree as a source. They moved from truth to a lie.

When idolatry took place, there was a consequence. As we read in Romans 5, “by one man’s death, sin reigned.” Individual death, and from one man, society experienced chaos.

When God breathed into Adam, He imparted ten things to Adam which we participate in. One of these was God’s gregariousness -- His social capacity. God is social! When you understand this, you begin to understand things like honour, respect, submission, love -- all of these are social.

Being social, there are 5 areas of relationship:

1. With God
2. With Self
3. With People
4. With Things
5. With Places

God originally wanted us to have a health relationship with all of these things -- but because chaos entered the world, these are corrupted. We have a corrupt relationship with God, ourselves, with others, with things and with places.

We can seek to find meaning and identity in ourselves -- “I’m my own person” -- but this is idolatry. The serpents real lie to Eve was that she would become God -- it was making God in the image that we want Him to be, rather than us in the image of God!

The Word says Jesus came to seek and save the lost -- lost meaning those disconnected from their Creator, their God, Their Heavenly Father. Jesus came to seek and save -- this was His mission -- and His mission set His attitude in life toward everyone He came into contact with. When you read the Gospels you don’t see Jesus fasting and praying and striving for God to lead Him to the right people -- waiting for some weird mystical experience that would lead Him to ‘an intense God appointment’. Rather we see Him going through His daily life with an attitude of seeking and saving. This lead Him to people like Zacchaeus. And although the religious establishment wasn’t happy with Jesus associating and befriending Him -- with them Zacchaeus never featured and was written off / never stood a chance -- Jesus commentary on what He did was ‘I came to seek and save’.

A mission that set His attitude which set His thoughts and behaviour. It established the way He related to Himself, God and people. Relationally He became a winner -- not because He wanted to be known as Mr Nice Guy for some egotistical motive, but because His purpose was to show people the Father and further to introduce them to the Father -- He Himself being the Peace-Maker. Our impact and significance on others must not be motivated by the advancement of self or selfish gain but in our impact on others for our God! Everyone that came to Jesus He lead them to the Father. Our goal is be like Jesus.

John 3: 16-17 says [For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He even gave up His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish - come to destruction or be lost - but have eternal, everlasting life. For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge - reject, condemn, or to pass sentence on the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him.]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFZAbkOp4o8

Small people keep people around them small thereby containing themselves to live in an ever smaller world. Negative, critical people have to always reduce everyone around them; they’re always fault-finding so that they can bring people down to their level so that they can feel good about themselves. Whenever people treat you badly all they are doing is  projecting their own unhappiness onto you.

The German Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book -- Cost Of Discipleship wrote: “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” Small people are too full of themselves to give themselves to anything beyond themselves.

Romans 12:18 [Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.]

When hurting people come to Christ and get healed and know what it is to be healed then as healed people they can in turn inspire the hurting to get healed too! Inject Life into every situation, every meeting, every conversation you have -- let it frame your everyday world. Instead of defaulting to the atmosphere in the room or the pressure of your daily circumstances take responsibility for the atmosphere in your life -- your home -- church. You are an agent of change and you can change the atmosphere. Jesus did it so well that not even death could dominate the atmosphere when He entered it. Just His presence lifted the room.

People are electrifying- some light up a room when they enter it and others when they leave -- which one are you?

You will come into every person’s life no matter how brief for either a reason; a season; or a lifetime -- whichever it is make it a positive one. As a believer your goal should be to laugh often, to keep smiling, be warm-hearted, genuinely friendly, endearingly mischievous and free-spirited. The River’s overarching mission is the increase in our generation and culture of the love of God and neighbour.

Love God -- Love people!

Mark chapter 4 is a parable about hearing -- The soil that the parable talks about is a metaphor for our hearing. What you hear and how you receive it affects how you process the information you receive and what you do with it .

[Romans 10:17]says faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God! So the Word of God in the first instance imparts faith to us -- it is the source of our faith; it also communicates with our faith growing and strengthening it; and finally it is the perfecter of our faith -- causing those things God promised to us in His Word to manifest as our own.

God and as human beings necessitates the development of our hearing.

• Communication is the Basis of Life.
• Exchange is the Process of Life.
• Balance is the Key to Life.
• Agreement is the Power of Life.

John says: ”Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God.” [Jn 13:3]

John reveals three keys from the life of Jesus: What He had, Who He was and Where He was heading! Breaking this down for where live today it looks like this: Power. Position. Purpose.

You have to know your power – your talents, gifts, abilities and powers that lie within you. What power has God put in you and placed your hands?

You have to know your position – who you are in Christ which includes where you come from!

You have to know your purpose – where are you going – your visions and dreams – the reason for your existence.

Knowledge of your power, position and purpose allows you to do life with confidence. This is Godly security. People’s opinions no longer matter. No task too demeaning. Nothing can be stripped away from you. Nothing to distract you from your focus in life.

We’ve been ministering on greatness this year, and this is all centered around service. Jesus said, “the greatest among you is the one that serves.” The question we need to ask then is are we serving people? Do we love people?

Jesus said that we need power to be witnesses. Acts 1:8 tells us about this. Acts 10:38 also tells us that Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit and Power -- He needed power to minster to people!

Ephesians 6:10-13 tells us that we must “be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” Most see this as some incredible, spectacular supernatural miracle, but the reality is that in everyday life, it is about us activating our faith for people on a daily basis in a simple way.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD6dZYME2hE

Consider 1 Kings 18:1 “After a long time, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.”

According to a couple NT passages, this “After a long time” was actually 3 ½ years. The famine was 3 ½ years long. For 3 ½ years, the people apparently continued to sin, Elijah continued to hold on by faith, but God said nothing. God was apparently inactive, not speaking, even to His great servant Elijah.

Have you ever been there? Has the silence of God in your life ever been eerily strong?

Imagine you had been faithfully serving…God is using you…you are in constant communication with Him…and then suddenly…everything is quiet.

The separation must have seemed unbearable. Elijah is un-liked and unpopular; he’s an outcast from the people and the One he trusted most was seemingly absent. God would soon do a miracle through Elijah, but during this period, all Elijah could do was wait.

If you have been believer for very long at all, you have had periods where it seems God is nowhere to be found. We often call them periods of spiritual dryness. Sometimes I refer to it as being in a spiritual funk.

What should we do during the times of silence, before the miracles of God come through for us?

If you are like me, you can figure out how to celebrate a miracle. You don’t need much help doing that. The tough part of life is figuring out what to do during the years of silence; during the years when miracles are nowhere to be found.

What do we do during the spiritual dry periods of life when we don’t hear clearly the voice of God?

Here are 7 actions I encourage you to consider:

Don’t ignore the silence…
Some of the biggest moves God has made in my life have come after a period of spiritual dryness; when it seemed like God was doing nothing in my life. Stay very close to God and watch for His power to be displayed.

Confront known sin in your life
This wasn’t the problem of silence for Elijah, but the problem for the Israelites was that they were chasing after other gods and living lives in total disobedience to God. Sin may not be the reason you don’t sense closeness to God right now, but if you have known sin in your life it will affect your intimacy with God.

Go back to what you know
Get back to the basics of the faith that saved you. You’ll do it 100’s of times in your life, but you must remind yourselves of the basis of faith. God is in control. He really is…even when it doesn’t seem that He is anywhere to be found.

Make a decision…Choose sides
You can’t adequately serve God and the world. Something happens in life, often sin, or busyness, or boredom, or a tragedy…but if we are normal, we have periods where we grow away from our close relationship with God. God hasn’t moved, but if you’ve shifted in your obedience, get back securely on the right side.

Trust More…Not less
Times of silence may be filled with fear, but these times will definitely require more faith. Times come in our spiritual life when our enthusiasm isn’t as real as when we began our walk with God. That’s not an indication to quit…it may be that God is using that time for something bigger than you could have imagined, but it will require a deeper level of trust.

Listen and Watch Closely
Some day God is going to make His plans known to you. Don’t miss them. He may come to your personally, through His Word, circumstances or another person. You’ll need to be in a position to know that God is moving.

Get ready to receive

God will break the silence some day…and when He does….it WILL be good. If you mope around in your sorrows, you’ll be less prepared to receive the good things to come. Not because of your circumstances, but because of your faith, clothe yourself in joy as you wait for God to bless you after the period of silence.

Are you in one of those periods of silence today? How do you handle these periods of time?

[By Ron Edmondson]

Our annual Beach, BBQ and Baptisms was last Sunday, with over 90 church members heading down to Budleigh Salterton where 10 members got baptised in the quite cold British channel!

You can also see the album and tag yourself on Facebook.

If you need wisdom—if you want to know what God wants you to do—ask him, and he will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking. But when you ask him, be sure that you really expect him to answer, for a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. People like that should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.They can’t make up their minds. They waver back and forth in everything they do.

Is it not the worst thing when your prayers are not answered? “How do I ask, so that I get answers?”, says Pastor Michael.

1. Ask Intelligently

Intelligence is not the same as education. Often we pray educated prayers, but we don’t pray intelligbly!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPfBpZHoOv8

What does it mean to ask intelligently? It means I understand what I am asking for and the effects of it. In you pray “God use me”, are you ready for God to really use you? Because often people are upset when “people are using me” -- but we can’t be if we prayed for “God to use me”!

God many times saves us from our asking by not answering. Many times we are protected when God doesn’t give us what we are asking for, because we don’t know the effects of it!

2. Be Specific

As you mature in Chris you become more specific in your answering. Being specific is essential for faith to work, because faith can’t be vague! When you are general in your asking, you can’t be focussed in your faith.

“When you pray general prayers, God generally answers.”

Rather than saying “take everything in my life”, take one thing to Him and ask Him to deal with one thing. Be focussed and don’t loose the intensity. If you are asking for money, say how much. If you are asking for issues to be dealt with in your life, say which ones. If you need a car, specify what you need it for.

3. Ask In Faith

Faith is the willingness to take intelligent risk. Faith is not blind!

Also, a lot of people makes their faith walk about their own ego rather than about the glory of God. “Let’s raise the dead” -- but it’s more about their ego than the purposes and glory of God!

Jesus said that before you even get to asking, you should count the cost so that you can finish what you’ve started. Your faith has to be greater than the pain of the call!

Do I have the faith to see through what I’m starting? So we start out in faith and then finish what we started. The starting point should be faith and not money or anything else. Unless your faith can support what you are about to receive, it will create a crisis in your life.

Often, the time it takes from asking to receiving is when God is working on you to handle what you’re about to receive. During the waiting time, let patience have it’s perfect work.

Finally

What type of person do I need to become to receive what I’m asking? If you go to a bank and ask to be a banker, but you look like a Rock Star, you’ll unlikely to get the job.

I am asked dozens of questions about what we did or didn’t do as parents. I am amazed that God has allowed us to raise the two young men we have in our house, but there were a few principles we practiced consistently.

Here are three principles for parenting I think all parents should consider:

Be intentional – Parenting is hard work. Don’t try it without a plan. It’s amazing how we tend to plan for everything in life, but seldom for our parenting. I know men who have a plan to improve their golf game, but nothing to help them grow as a father. If you want to be a great parent, you must be intentional about that role. Have an overall plan for your parenting and an individual plan for each child, depending on their needs at the time.

Shape the heart – The Bible is clear that we should “Above all else guard the heart for it is the wellspring of life.” (Proverbs 4:23) I believe in firm discipline. I also believe in extending much grace. More than anything, however, the parent should learn to know, protect and shape their heart of their child. It is that heart, which will determine the decisions and directions the child eventually makes in life.

Enjoy the ride – Children are children for a very short time. Enjoy those days. Be a fun parent, balancing love with discipline. Laughing together with your children will help relieve the stress of your life and keep them wanting to be close to you well into the difficult teen and early adult years.

For my complete parenting philosophy see THIS POST or read other parenting posts HERE.

Which of these do you most need to improve upon as a parent?

If you need wisdom—if you want to know what God wants you to do—ask him, and he will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking. But when you ask him, be sure that you really expect him to answer, for a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. People like that should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.They can’t make up their minds. They waver back and forth in everything they do.

Last week we discussed Growing, Developing and Maturing. This week, we’re going to continue the thought in this message, The Power Of Asking.

Prov 4:7 says “Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.” This is much like Pastor’s testimony.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf15f4yC4Vo

“When I found the truth of God’s Word -- not the religious does and don’ts -- but the truth that sets you free, it did indeed set me free, and this is what I bring every Sunday.” When you get understanding, when it finally clicks, no one can steal that from you!

God’s Ideal

Deut 4:5 says this:

Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess.

So this means that anything that we possess or gain in life comes from understanding God’s word. Verse 6 then says:

Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”

This means that when you have God’s word and wisdom, those around you will admire this wisdom. Then Verses 7 and 8 say:

“For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the LORD our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day?”

In other words, God’s idea was that a spiritually based social order that would become the envy of the world.

Today

It is a pity that the Church currently for the most part does not reflect that effectively and so the world does not envy us as God said they should. Our moral high ground gives us the authority to speak but because certain sections of the church have lost that moral authority, the world does not listen to us.

But we are a new generation and a new breed who are raising up a different standard!

Paul writes in Ephesians 3:10 that “through the church the manifold wisdom of God would be made manifest.”

We are not human beings trying to have a spiritual experience -- we are spiritual beings mastering the human experience. And based on that mastery we gain the attention of the world where they ask us how do we do the things that we do.

Everything we do in life should reflect a sense of mastery about it, because it has the touch of God in it!

As we learnt in the Parable of the Sower in Mark 4, some seed fell on the wayside and never produced any fruit -- because they lacked understanding. This is why Proverbs says that in all our getting we should get understanding!

Cause and Effect

We live in a universe of law governed by a system of order. The Bible reveals the author of those laws and that system of order and it teaches us those laws and how to co-operate with them.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU3CJ981BXw

One of these laws is cause and effect. For every cause there is an effect. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Whatever you will sow you will reap.

Your thoughts are the cause for the effects of your condition.

Why do people act the way they do? -- look at how they are thinking. The reason why the Bible says we will be transformed by the renewing of our mind is that the only way you can change the conditions in your life is by changing the thoughts in your head. Change your thoughts and you change your life. Changing your thoughts includes changing the way you at things -- including the Word.

Change your thoughts, change your life!

Mark 11:22-24:

So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, “Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

1 John 5:14-15 then says this:

And we can be confident that he will listen to us whenever we ask him for anything in line with his will. And if we know he is listening when we make our requests, we can be sure that he will give us what we ask for.

If we ask according to His will He will hear us.

So the real question is -- is it about asking or receiving? What do we focus on?

What is the condition paced on -- the asking or the receiving?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBz8AMwFGRk

The conditions are always placed on asking not receiving. If you ask right you will receive. Receiving will take care of itself. You do not have to focus on receiving -- so you can believe you receive all you want but if you asking is wrong you will not receive anything.

It’s like asking for finance for a car. If you don’t complete the application form correctly or don’t have the necessary credit rating, you won’t get the money. There’s not a problem with the finance, it’s a problem with asking!

James 1:5 therefore says

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

This is all about how you ask -- you must believe and not doubt when you ask. Again the emphasis is not on the receiving but on the asking.

Whether it’s marriage, a CV, prayer, a proposal, meeting up -- life is all about asking.

Growth is a necessity for life!

Pastor Michael recalls how he has loved God all his life (he’s 47 now) and never really had a defining moment when he ‘started’ to love God. He first began to preach on his own when he was 17 -- which makes it 30 years of preaching for him.

Being a disciple of Christ means that you are a constant learner. You never stop being taught by Jesus -- the Teacher. And the more you get of Him, the more you want of Him!

Micah 6:8 summarises much of how Pastor feels right now -- “He has shown you O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

John 10:10 says that the thief’s purpose is to steal, kill and destroy but Jesus’ purpose is to give a rich and satisfying life. This doesn’t mean making you a multi-millionaire! If your life isn’t rich and satisfying -- there is something wrong!

If you aren’t living this life, Pastor suggests you revisit your expectations and revisit these scriptures to understand what Jesus is saying!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h7OC_qo_QY

When we worry and stress -- our worry is a down payment on the troubles of tomorrow!

God wants to bring stability into our lives -- “He leads me beside still waters” is what David said in Psalm 23. We’ve got to get off the roller coaster and settle into a mature and balanced Christian life. In this settledness, we grow, develop and mature.

Jeremiah 29:11 tells us that God has a plan for us -- a hope and a future. His plan isn’t for us to live on antidepressants! His plan isn’t for us to live at the bottom of the barrel or live with stress! His plan is for us to wake up in the morning and see everyday as a precious gift for us to enjoy!

In Mark 4, we looked at the power of the casual invitation. A university did a study to see how much a farmer contributed to the development of a seed -- and discovered it was only 5%! Hence Jesus says “the kingdom of God is like a farmer who planted and seed and didn’t know how it grew, but it did.”

Pastor says -- take my son Gregory when he was 10. If I gave him everything he needed at 10 that he would need up until he was 20, it would be too much! You don’t get all the nutrients that you need right away, and you don’t get there right away!

You can’t make your body grow faster. If you pump yourself full of junk, it’ll hurt you and make you unhealthy. You need a stable diet to grow. Three things about growth:

• Growth is a mystery
• Growth is a process (See Mark 4:28 -- first, then, finally)
• Jesus Himself grew! (See Luke 2:52 “He grew in wisdom, stature and favour with God and man.”

Over the last few weeks, we’ve looked at the casual invitation -- a seemingly obvious thing, but actually really grates against our culture because as Pastor said the other week, inviting people to church is weird in our culture! I really loved really getting into this parable. Jesus says that if you don’t understand this parable, you can’t understand the other parables. The ironic thing is that this is one of the most debated parables.

• Some people use this parable to say that we should only sow on good soil, because look what happens when we sow on bad soil.
• Some people measure -- quarter here, quarter there, then there’s 30/60/100 folder -- x times y =…
• One preacher even said that Jesus was telling a joke in this parable -- “A sower threw seed onto stoney ground? Pull the other one!”

Scatter

But as we’ve heard and understood this parable and the casual invitation, we’ve learned not only how the casual invitation works, but even more about how God works in our lives and how life works in general. You don’t even know which is good soil and which isn’t! In fact, when I generally think I’ve found good soil, it turns out to be the worst! In the parable, the sower just scattered. He didn’t choose to plant in good OR in bad soil, but he allowed it to fall on all soil.

How do we know that there is good soil? It bears fruit.

Once we understand this, we can now move on from scattering, to gathering.

Gather

I’m sure many of you have had fruit -- result -- in your life, but you didn’t keep it. We’ve had fruit in this church that we haven’t kept. As any Farmer will tell us, and as we see in the parables, once you’ve scattered, and the seeds bear fruit, it’s no longer the time to scatter, it’s the time to gather.

In the church context, gathering is about relationship. Building people into our family. Gathering together for greatness!

The same way we have the casual invitation and the intense invitation to church, we have the same thing with gathering -- some is intense, and some is casual. The intense gatherer says, whether you are gathering someone to you, or you yourself are gathering around church -- that it has to go in at this major height of spirituality!

But gathering, just like the scattering (the invitation) can be intense rather than casual. In the same way that the intense invitation locks off everyone else because you think it’s all about YOU and your invite, the intense gathering makes it all about YOU.

The casual gathering says, let’s grab a coffee, I’ll text you or Facebook you, I’ll keep in touch, sure let’s have dinner, my house is, well… you know! You have to gather your fruit to keep it. When you get some fruit in your life -- some result -- don’t become complacent. You have to gather to keep it.

Matter

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD6KgOaOHRU

Mark 4:30 Jesus said, “How can I describe the Kingdom of God? What story should I use to illustrate it? It is like a mustard seed planted in the ground. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of all garden plants; it grows long branches, and birds can make nests in its shade.”

We scatter, we gather and then we matter. As the song says, “Take this life and make it matter.”

Our wonderful senior Pastor, Michael Meyers, has been tracked down by Elim’s national magazine to answer some questions that their readers have submitted. The article will be out in a few weeks, but seeing as we had the scoop on this one, we thought we’d share it with you now!

Question 1: I’m diabetic, but I believe that God wants to heal me. My friends have had a release of faith and prayed over me. Should I stop taking my medication?

Answer: Jesus is certainly the Healer for the whole man! He is moved with compassion when He sees us in pain and discomfort and this is evident through the release of faith that your friends have sensed toward you. After all, God uses people to accomplish His work on the earth. Thank God for giving us godly friends that care for us and pray for us! Taking medication or not taking medication is not a sign of the presence of faith nor a sign of the lack of faith. Our faith is based in our relationship with God and the promises of God’s word, not in stopping our medication.

When Jesus healed people in the Gospels He commanded them to show themselves to the priests where they would inspect and verify that the healing had taken place. In like manner, I would suggest that you go to your doctor to verify whether the manifestation of your healing has taken place. Once verified and on his advice you can stop taking/decrease your medication. If however your condition remains unchanged then don’t be discouraged. Keep on believing God and taking your medication.

Question 2: Do you feel that in our Hillsong inspired push for excellence in Church we have favoured ‘programme over presence’?

Answer: Excellence in our lives as believers and as the church starts with us as individuals. It is a reflection of the God that indwells us and Whom we represent on the earth. 1Pet 2:9 (AMP) says, “But you are… God’s own purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him…”. Like Old Testament Daniel we should have an excellent spirit which manifests through us as excellence of character, excellence of lifestyle and excellence of faith.

This excellence should also push us for excellence in church. In our nation it is culturally acceptable to push for excellence in business but it is anti-cultural for us to push for excellence in church because it is seen to be ‘American’, pretentious, unspiritual and not authentic. This attitude has contained and diminished our capacity to reach the world. Excellence is a means to an end rather than an end in itself. If a church is more concerned about excellence rather than the presence of God then it has lost it’s way. An excellence-driven church should not be prideful but keep on seeking ways in which they can connect to, serve and reach their communities.

Question 3: Why do people talk about the Holy Spirit ‘coming’ into a meeting? I thought he was there already?

Answer: Psalm 139:7, “Where could I go from Your Spirit? Or where could I flee from Your presence?” God’s omnipresence means He fills the universe in all it’s parts and is present everywhere at once so there is no place to go where God is not already there. So when we meet together God is already present, but He may not be manifestly present. For example there is always a certain level of moisture in the atmosphere around us even though we are unaware of it – like God’s omnipresence. Moisture however intensifies in certain areas and manifests as clouds or mist. To be in these clouds or mist would make it’s presence ‘felt’. This is likened to God’s ‘coming’ into a meeting where He makes His presence felt. The Holy Spirit does not come into a meeting for our sensual pleasure or some Charismatic frivolity. He comes into our meetings for purpose. How He is experienced varies according to the need of the people and His purposes for that meeting. So in Lk 5:17 the ‘power of the Lord was present to heal’. The more we can discern why He is present the more effective our meetings will be.

Question 4: My youth group are trying to stop me going out with a girl just because she’s not a Christian. Is that not the same kind of misguided ideological approach to humanity that led Hitler to attempt to ‘cleanse’ the world of Jews?

Answer: I don’t think you can liken your youth group’s motives to the ideology of an evil leader. Your youth group care for you and your prospective girl friend by giving you God’s counsel. 2 Cor 6:14 says we shouldn’t become emotionally connected with people who hold different belief and value systems to us. Although you may both have some commonality of values they may not have the same priority as each other. For example you may have a common interest: she may want to spend her Sundays with you while you will want to put God first by going to church. The tension caused by this difference in values means that either you will compromise and live ‘emotionally’ or follow Jesus and live ‘principally’ [based on His Word]. This becomes true of the places you go, the people you hang out with, how you spend your money, what music you listen to, how far you go physically etc. God calls this emotional connection being ‘yoked together’. Whatever you are yoked to you will carry the burden of. Before you become yoked to this relationship you need to consider how it will burden your life. No-one can stop you from doing anything but I counsel you to follow godly wisdom.

Question 5: I really want to help my church grow, but I’m convinced that any feedback I give will be perceived as unwanted negativity. Why do churches seem to want to hear only positive comments about their ongoing activities?

Answer: The simple answer is that your leaders are probably acutely aware of the gaps and shortcomings in the church’s activities and feel much more burdened by this than you do. They carry the vision of God in their hearts and are working it out to the best of their abilities with the limited human and financial resources they have available to them. They are probably doing the best they can. Church leaders are also used to being criticised for almost every reason under the sun including third world poverty, global warming and the deforestation of the Amazon jungle, with the critics offering no solutions and no help to ease the burden they carry. It’s easier to break down than build. I suggest that if you aren’t already, become involved in your church by giving of your time, talent, treasure and tongue. Get under the weight of glory that God has placed on your leaders and as a co-worker labour with them. Learn obedience! Once you carry the heart of your leaders then they will be more open to hearing what you have to say. This ‘right to speak’ may take years. Finally, when you do bring feedback to your leaders ALWAYS bring solutions with you. Best of all, be the solution by being a gap filler instead of a gap finder!

About Michael

Michael is Senior Pastor of The River Church, Exeter together with his wife Beloved who is on the Aspire Team. Missionaries from the South African Veld where they frolicked with lions, elephants and bugs their teaching ministry has taken them to 30 nations. In addition they have pioneered churches, a leadership school, tv ministry, authored books and a blog that are all significantly more interesting than you might initially think.

Thursday Night

Friday Morning and Night

Saturday Morning and Afternoon

Saturday Night

Mark 12:28-34

It’s great to say that we are going to serve our city, but another thing to do it. We’ve tried to break it down into clear tasks.

First of all, the task requires purpose.

We serve our community by adding value to it and making a positive contribution to people’s lives. We need to know what the heart is for this -- the why -- because if we don’t, we won’t last at the casual invitation to church.

Our purpose is the increase of the love of God and neighbour in our culture and our generation.

The second thing our task requires is aim.

Aim arrives when our purposes becomes focussed. Our purpose also cannot live in a vacuum -- love does not live in a vacuum!

The power of the casual invitation is this: we don’t care where the seed ends up! We don’t know the condition of people’s hearts -- that is why He is the Lord of the Harvest!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=udPLpxsLFNU

The third thing our task has is objectives.

Many times, church becomes very mystical. But the New Testament has very quantifiable language; from the parable of the talents, to the counting of people on pentecost, to the addressing of specific issues.

After all is said and done, a lot more is too often said than done -- but we must have objectives that are concrete, definite and time bound!

Vision is the mental picture that we have of our church.

We see ourselves as a church:

• Gathered -- filled 5 times on a Sunday with people in our community
• Scattered -- a contemporary people that engage our society where the people are!

For the rest of days we are going to build the power of the casual invitation into our Church!

See the photos below, or directly on Flickr.

You can look at the photos below or view them directly on Flickr.

See the photos below, or check them out on Flickr.

Check out the photos here, or view them directly on Flickr.

Mark 4:13-32

We have said that inviting people to church in the United Kingdom is anti-cultural. For other nations, it might be cultural, but for us Brits, it’s weird! It’s weird to invite people, and weird to be invited. It’s also weird to invite people to our church because we are also, in many ways, an anti-cultural church -- in the sense that we are not a culturally typical church.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIT_4WgmVMM

We are not going to limit who can and can’t come to church!

We need to sort out this antagonistic thinking that wants to divide people up. When we as the body won’t go, then we neutralise God’s hands and feet through our prejudice! We can’t sing “all things are possible” and then not practice it!

The power of a casual invitation is that I don’t care where it ends up. It’s like the seed that is scattered -- we don’t know how it grows.

We have prayed in our church for it to grow for 13 years. We’ve done every type of prayer you know how -- yet we haven’t seen the growth that we want. Jesus also debunked the “not yet” theology when He said to His disciple “you say ‘Not yet -- 4 months’ -- but the harvest is now!”

Church in the UK for now is an invitation only business!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=onaex7s67o0

Thank God for friendship evangelism, however it is too limited -- it is an intense invitation. In Luke 14, Jesus says “go the periphery of your life and invite those people -- and then go even further and invite people you don’t know.”

True love - according to what Jesus says -- is not about “I love you, therefore I love you”, but it is about inviting those from who we can receive nothing back. It is not about reciprocity!

Many of us are first generation believers! We were right on the edges -- probably in a galaxy, far, far away!

In 2 cor 10:4-5, it says “We use God’s mighty weapons, not mere worldly weapons, to knock down the Devil’s strongholds. With these weapons we break down every proud argument that keeps people from knowing God. With these weapons we conquer their rebellious ideas, and we teach them to obey Christ.”

These strongholds are like a fence that looks out, but doesn’t let you get out!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7P4mKX924s

Change is the essence of growth. To not change -- that is truly destructive.

Luke 14:12-14

Jesus says to not only invite your family and friends into your life but enlarge your circle of invitation. This gives ‘friendship evangelism’ a place in our lives -- where we invite our family and friends to church, but it should not be the only tool we have in our box to meet and befriend unchurched people. We should be befriending and influencing, not just the exclusive people called “family and friends”, but everyone. Lets think about this -- most times those in our family who do not attend church are the most unresponsive to us and we are missing so many other people coming into our life who are much more responsive than our unchurched friends and family.

Just as Jesus stopped trying to reach those who were His family, so I have given up trying to reach my friends and family who every time I tried to speak to them became emotional, argumentative, confrontational, disrespectful. Remember, you are not the only person on the planet that God can is limited to use to speak into your friends and family’s lives.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A61AuShAqI

Your family is my stranger, who I may be speaking to next week and they may respond favourably to the power of the casual invitation and be here next Sunday! Sometimes we are the worst people to invite our friends and family to church because of the baggage we carry between us relationally that makes them unwilling to respond favourably to anything you have to say. On the other hand when we befriend people that live on the periphery of our lives we have no baggage and therefore they would be more open to respond to me because they have less to overcome with me than with you.

This doesn’t mean we stop praying for them but we should release them to God. Most times our well intentioned conversations with friends and family end up so confrontational that we end up polarising them totally against us, Christianity and God. Don’t let church ruin your relationship with them. If God found you then He can and will find our friends and family.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCSkZ_wEjYc

If you have used the power of the casual invitation this week or the previous week then please let me know your story. Email me whether you failed, succeeded, were beaten up on or were kissed!

The power of the casual invitation is so that our city and county and nation will know that God has a house, a family and that they are welcome to be a part of it no matter who they are, no matter what they’ve done, no matter where they’ve been, no matter what they’ve done! Let’s contract with each other today that we will do away with the church mafia who will vet who is and who is not acceptable to be a part of the family -- and love everyone who walks through our doors!

It’s important to read here that “some will not believe the Good News”, and that when we explained the Parable of the Sower, there will always be those who don’t believe. This isn’t a downer -- it’s to be expected.

We said that we are increasing the love of God and neighbour in our culture and generation. There is a mantra today “if you make others people’s dreams happen, then yours will too”, but this didn’t come from the world -- it came from the Word. This is greatness. It is living beyond yourself and knowing that the greatest among you is the one that serves.

Every promise that God has, there is an offence attached to it that we must overcome.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkySAB1eGz4

We must understand that whether we do the intense invitation or the casual invitation, both will have an offence attached to it because even the casual invitation is anti-cultural. We are against what the Bible calls a stronghold:

• Jesus, for instance, in John 4 spoke to a Samaritan woman -- which was anti cultural
• Jesus went into a Samartian village as a Rabbi -- which was anti cultural
• Jesus touched a coffin -- which was anti cultural
• Jesus allowed children to come around Him, which as a Rabbi, was anti cultural
• Jesus empowered women to minister, which was exceptionally anti cultural
• Jesus washed people’s feet, as Rabbi, which was anti cultural
• Jesus didn’t fast during the religious fasts but ate -- that was anti cultural
• Jesus ate food from the fields on the sabbath and even healed on the sabbath -- both were anti cultural!

As a Church, we have challenged the challenge -- both within the church and without the church.

• We were told that the South West was the graveyard of evangelists and evangelism, but every week we have seen people give their lives to Jesus.
• The British Christian mindset is that church should be done “on the cheap and nasty”, but we have bucked the trend and done things with a high level of excellence.
• The British mindset is that our faith is private, but after each service at The River Dream Centre, the average time that we spend talking together is an hour.

In Africa or India, the casual inviation is not anti cultural, but in Britain, it is very anti cultural and not everyday. But then again, all the things that we have achieved in our church were anti cultural 16 years ago when Pastors Michael and Marion arrived -- but churches throughout the United Kingdom have challenged the challenge.

There are still, a few assumptions to challenge:

1. We assume people aren’t ready for church -- but thats the ‘intense invitation’ talking!
2. We assume people aren’t calling out for God -- but they are!
3. We assume people aren’t God conscious -- but 3 summers ago we sae 3014 people lead to Christ on the streets of Exeter!
4. We assume people aren’t praying -- but many of the unsaved people that we know do pray!
5. We assume people have been invited to church -- but most haven’t, and would say yes if they were!

How will they believe unless someone tell them? And how will someone tell them, unless someone god? We are the hands of God that extends the casual invitation.

Luke 14:16-24

Greatness means that God has never let himself to be contained to a small circle of relationship or cliques of people that refuse to expand and grow.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUQUL75dWVw

We see in this story that Jesus first of all issues an RSVP. This is like us when we first get saved. There is nothing as intense as a newly born again Christian!

And it works! There is zeal and we see some fruit, but we mustn’t stay hooked on this intense invitation, whereby those that respond become a clique, and those who don’t are polarised and we push into outsiders.

We don’t mind people being polarised -- because everyone will at one point or another -- but the intense invitation polarises people unnecessarily.

When people don’t respond to the invitation, Jesus doesn’t stay hooked up to those people -- He creates new invitations, saying “go into the highways and the byways.” He goes into the work place, the coffee house, the bar, the school, and issues casual inviations whereever He goes.

The result? The casual invitation returned more result than the intense invitaiton did.

Jesus doesn’t cancel the event

www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8OOTkbibMQ

True Christianity is seen when we act well towards people who can do nothing back for us.

Often we don’t issue the casual invitation, and cancel the event, because of fear. Plato said that “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark. The real tragedy is the men who are afraid of the light.”

The characteristics of a casual invitation

The Word is sown by scattering seeds. God has enough seed to scatter. If some lands on the rock, it doesn’t matter -- God has more than enough seed to scatter elsewhere. No seed can grow unless it has time to germinate. The intense invitation keeps on interfeering with the seed -- poking and provoking it -and the seed doesn’t grow.

The casual invitation releases me from the divine appointment theology. You’ll find the more casual invitations you extend to people, the more ‘divine appointments’ you actually get!

Here are some testimonies of people are part of The River, just because of a casual invitation to church:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvxZWMeJh6o

Last week we said that:

• The only thing Jesus ever said He would build is His Church!
• And the only commendation Jesus will ever recognise is service in His church!

The truth is that greatness means that God has never allowed Himself to be contained or confined to a small circle of relationships or cliques. When there are cliques, Jesus begins to leave. In this parable from Luke 14 we see this happening. We see it again with the letters to the churches in the book of revelation.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA-fdo1gj8o

The question is, given that Jesus crossed the universe to connect with mankind, will cross the room and meet new people?

Are you prepared to cross the room -- go to the watering holes -- and start entering into banter, friendship, and relationship, than can leed someone to Chris?

Greatness means we are continuing to break relational containment.

The problem is that we have so elevated ‘The Invitation’ to a level of near-perfection that we have inhibited people from doing it.

You can watch Pastor Michael preach on the difference between the ‘intense’ invitation and the ‘casual’ invitation here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yui0aTN5aZg

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDPdEaW5ugI

The only thing Jesus ever said He would build is His Church! And the only commendation Jesus will ever recognise is service in His church!

The story we read last week records Abraham’s instruction to His servant, Eliezer, to find a wife, Rebekah, for his son Isaac. The story records the finding of this wife.

Servanthood is the key to three things in our lives: Promotion, Authority, and Destiny

In one day Rebekah opened the door to her destiny through servanthood, and she became God’s choice to mother God’s chosen people. This biblical matriarch was the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob. 39 generations later that people bring forth the messiah – Jesus. To us she is the picture of a believer the Spirit searches for, with which He adds to and Jesus build’s His church with. True greatness is found in servanthood!

Every resource you will ever need lies in the hand of another person.

That other person is a key to open the door into the room you are desperate to get into. And many times they come in the form of a stranger – and perhaps not a nicely packaged stranger but a difficult stranger. People will train you to become a great servant!

Rebekah sensed God in Eliezer coming across her path. She was no spiritual giant. No Bible in her hands. No complex theological understanding. At best, she was a member of a semi-pagan, heathen, non-believing family. But that small seed of faith she had she used and look what greatness came to her.

Rebekah’s experience at the well in Genesis draws a fitting parallel with that of the Samaritan women in John 4. The progression between the two stories are fabulous. Both ask for water. Both are searching for someone. Jesus said that He came to seek and save the lost.

The truth is that God has never allowed Himself to be contained or confined to a small circle of relationships – cliques. If you only interact with people that think like you, act like you, look like you, feel like you, you will always be small and limited because the world is much bigger than that. God blesses people other than you and your buddies. There really are people who think that they have franchised God and that he fits within the circumference of their ideology and theology.

The question is are you prepared to step out of your circle of relationships that has contained God? Are you prepared to cross the room? Are you prepared to make new friends because friendship always precedes evangelism? Do you know where the watering holes are – where the wells are in our city where it’s people collect? These are not just places where people get together but these are places where people come to quench the thirsts of their famished souls. Let’s be inclusive and outward focused, just like Jesus.

The Search of the Spirit for a Church! The only thing that Jesus only said He would build is His church. Ultimately no matter where we are, everything we do should be for the glory of God. This is realised by our working with Jesus! We need to get along side where He is working.

Everything we should do should be alongside Jesus and the building of His Church -- and for us, this should be at The River.

The only thing you will then hear from Jesus when you meet Him, for the stewardship that you have had while on earth, will be “well done, good and faithful servant.” There are no prizes for sport, or business, or position, or profit. The only prize is “well done, good and faithful servant” -- servanthood.

The greatest among you is the one that serves.

Gen 24 records the story of Abraham’s servant finding a wife (Rebekah), for his son, Isaac. The servant travels 450 miles to find Rebekah. This story of is a shadow: God is Abraham and the Holy Spirit is the servant who is finding a bride for the Father’s Son, Jesus. The servant went with criteria to find a bride -- not just anyone!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdbRp6htvsw

So What Are The Qualifications?

Rebekah was beautiful, which verse 16 tells us. God is looking for a beautiful believer. A beautiful believer is one who is looking to increase in their culture and generation the love of God and neighbour. Someone who is beautiful takes it seriously when called to be a carrier of the Glory of God.

Rebekah was a servant. Rebekah also wasn’t proud or arrogant. She came from a statured and influential family but was a servant. She was the servant of all. Servanthood does not begin in the hands, it starts in the heart. What we can we learn from her heart?

1. Rebekah had a willingness. She had a ‘can-do’ attitude. 7 times it records that Rebekah was willing. Willingness creates energy.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Asg9uMYr2SA

2. Rebekah had excellence. What she started, she finished.

3. Rebekah had enthusiasm. Verse 18 tells us “then she quickly”, and again in verse 20 “then she quickly”. Enthusiasm is noted by the speed on your performance and execution. An enthusiastic waiter will get the food served quickly to you!

4. It was an inconvenience -- but Rebekah didn’t mind and she didn’t ignore the servant. She didn’t excuse herself to not help -- she got down and served at her inconvenience, not begrudgingly.

5. Honour. Rebekah was honouring to a stranger -- even to a servant! She laid aside the social norms, whereby she was a first-class citizen, and was humble.

6. She was a hard worker. She served the camels, which was no mean feat. Each Camel would’ve drunken about 5 buckets worth, which means she would’ve done up and down the stairs to the well about 50 fifty times!

7. Rebekah was caring. Statistics for most churches are that only 1 in 4 serve in Church -- and only 10% of them touch the lives of strangers.

The Holy Spirit is looking for someone with dirty hands -- someone who is in the arena.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMf_mpnA3Ps

More Testimonies

Dear Pastors Michael and Marion

Thank you for what you spoke about last night about getting into the flow and going to the secret place with no agenda. I asked Jesus into my life when I was 11 and had a few very real, tangible experiences of the Holy Spirit much like Pastor Marion was speaking about when I was a child but nothing to speak of since my teens, which, for the most part, has made me feel very insecure. Therefore, what Pastor Marion said last night was very enlightening, encouraging and reassuring.

Love you both loads and Nigel and I are so blessed and privileged that God has led us to The River and to be a part of the family there.

- Elaine

Dear Pastor Michael,

For quite a while now I had been struggling with doubt in that, was I really hearing the Holy Spirits voice. I was blessed in that it could never touch the plans God has laid in me for the future but it really took a hold in the more superficial things, the main one being when I was walking somewhere and then being told to take a different route. There was one point when I walked up and down the same street at least 6 times such was the “go this way”, “no this way” in my head. I felt it lift a number of times but it came back again and again.

However, at Spring revival on Tuesday I felt the Lord say I would be free from it and this time I really felt it lift, but could sense it was still lingering around, but on Friday after the laying on of Pastor Marion’s and Liana’s hands it went. The difference this time is I have no fear of it coming back as I had the previous times, I have full confidence. And I truly am free in Jesus.

Thank you all so very much,

- Hannah

Dear Pastors,

I’ve had a fantastic week in the presence of God! He has revealed himself to me and moved in me a different way every night. I’ve had Joy, Peace, and Rest in the Lord. It’s also been a lot of fun, especially when I’ve just sat back and observed the move of God. The Joy lasted the whole week, and at one point my Christian housemate had to explain to everyone else in the house why I was curled up in a ball laughing when I got home. God’s also been dealing with some issues in my life that aren’t serious but I just didn’t want them to grow and eventually make me a slave to sin. One of them was ego.

As a performer I’ve sometimes been encouraged to develop an ego to give me the confidence I need to do what I do. After a while I started listening to this and let the ego come, which made me start living in the flesh in some areas of my life. I decided this week that if I wanted to step into what God had for me, I had to get myself out of the way (interestingly enough Drew was saying to the worship team that this week God was telling him that we need to get ourselves out of the way of what God wants to do) -- it’s not about me, it’s about glorying God, and serving others. By faith, I have claimed the victory over my ego this week.

God’s also been working in me by giving me, through Michael’s fantastic messages, a deeper understanding of what it means to be living in the spirit of God and his presence. I can’t wait to get these messages into my head and heart and start walking in his presence on a whole new level.

Thank you for this conference, it changed my life forever last year and this year it has equipped me to step into new territory. I love my River family so much!

- Chris

Hey Pastor Michael,

It’s Geri, I just wanted to email you about today. That was the first time, anything like that has happened to me in church. When You had your hand on my head you said you’d seen it, and the bit about the cross roads! I think that’s something that’s happening in my life now.

In all it was a great night as usual. Thank you and Pastor Marion so much for the wise words!

- Geri

Dear Pastors,

God has really used this last week to move me forward in my walk with Him. I have been filled and challenged in many different ways, and have learned to respong to His presence. I have had breakthrough in a lot of areas, and particularly in the area of fear.

On Frday Pastor Michael called for people who had felt a reaction on Wednesday to come forward for prayer, and God prompted me to go forward. When I was prayed for I felt instantly that God had set me free. He showed me quite clearly how small my fear was in comparisson with Him, and that it no longer had any power over me. The revelation of His power was enough to release me from fear permanently, and I know it will never bother me again.

I thank God daily for the amazing church family He has placed me in, and I look forward to putting into practice everything He has taught me and growing closer to Him.

- Beth

Matt 11:25-30:

Then Jesus prayed this prayer: “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding the truth from those who think themselves so wise and clever, and for revealing it to the childlike. 26Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way!
27″My Father has given me authority over everything. No one really knows the Son except the Father, and no one really knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
28Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light.”

Be careful what you yoke yourself to! Where you are over burdened, it will take your joy, it will spill over into your body and you will age before you time. Stress is over yoking and over burdening yourself.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ594f7Drz0

Jesus says in Matthew 6:44 that today’s troubles are enough for today! The idea is that by the end of the day we cast our cares onto Him -- His yoke fits perfectly and His burden is light. He didn’t come to burden us with something that we couldn’t bear.

In our relationships, when we are yoked to someone’s presence and character, then we are yoked to their glory. This is why the wife is the glory of her husband. This means that she is a product of the husband’s character and presence -- you can what the husband is like by looking at the wife.

So what Jesus does is link us to the Father’s presence and character, which has transformation power about it!

Lessons from Turning the Water into Wine

In John 2:1-11, we learn some lessons about this:

1. Jesus doesn’t refer to His mother has his ‘mum’ but as ‘woman’ -- He is not letting a close family tie confuse His relationship with God. When God draws you to Him, you mustn’t do it through your family or friends -- it must between you and God! Jesus is saying that He doesn’t do stuff to impress people, which is in contradistinction to so many ministers who will boast about their “special relationship” with God.

2. Mary doesn’t get insecure by this either -- because she knows His compassion.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXqy-MJomo8

3. The water pots are dirty. People have walked to be here and they clean their hands and feet using these water pots. Once the miracle has happened, the master of the feast says “you have saved the best for last.” This represents Christ’s ministry to today!

What Jesus does here is unyoke us from the sinful nature, and yokes us to the Father’s glory. This is why 2 Cor 5 says that once He gives us His character and presence, we are so transformed that we are “a new creation”.

The Principle

Your presence comes out of your character.

This is why the Word says when we spend time with people’s presence, it will affect our character -- either for positive or negative. This is why we have Spring Revival Conference, because the more time you spend with God’s presence, it transforms your character.

If you can’t see the photos above, you can view them on Flickr here.

We had an incredible time at Spring Revival Conference this week – the power of God showed up, set people free and broke things off of people. If you were unable to come, or want to go through the notes, then you can read the live blog for each night here:

• Night 1: Monday Night
• Night 2: Tuesday Night
• Night 3: Wednesday Night
• Night 4: Thursday Night
• NIght 5: Friday Night

Do you have a testimony?

If God touched you in a power way and you hace a testimony to share, then we’d love to hear it. You can add it in the comment section below.

Eph 5:18 “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,”

You shouldn’t be ‘drunk’ with anything that alters your state of being. When something become an addiction that alters you, it has power over you. A glass of wine in itself is nothing, but it can have power when you become addicted to it. You should be controlled by the Spirit, not the flesh!

So how do you live filled with the Spirit?

Three things that you are if you’re living in the Spirit:

1. You have a song in your heart

Ephesisans says “singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” If you have a song in your heart, you can come through anything.

What happens if you don’t have a song in your heart, then you’ve leaked! Ecclesiastes 10:1 says “Dead flies putrefy the perfumer’s ointment” – don’t let dead flys get into your ointment! When you have a song in your heart. you can overcome anything. This is why Paul and Silas could sing praises to God after being beten and thrown in jail (Acts 16:25.)

2. You are agreeable

The Bible says to be kind and tenderhearted and submit one to another. Sprit filled people are agreeable, not hard hearted and difficult.

The place where you really find out how agreeable you are is at home! This is why God says husbands and wives should submit to one another! If you are not agreeable at home, then everything else is a facade. We need to be agreeable on the interior – in the core – not just on the shell that others see.

3. You have a boldness of faith

When you become ashamed of the gospel and ashamed of Jesus, you have lost your spirit-filled living. This doesn’t mean standing on the street corner and shouting at people – but it means standing up for the gospel and having a word in season for your colleagues, friends and family. It means sharing the gospel and not shying away from it when people need encouragement.

Psalm 140:13 “Surely the righteous shall give thanks to Your name; The upright shall dwell in Your presence.”

Heb 9:23-24 “Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;”

Heb 10:19-22 “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water”

The Tabernacle

The tabernacle of Moses was a copy of the Heavenly way of things. We can look at that tabernacle to understand how to access the presence of God, and dwell there. That’s why in Heb 10, the Bible says that we have enter by Christ’s blood – and stay there!

The tabernacle of Moses consisted of three compartments – the Outer Court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. Throughout each of stages there were various elements and parts that are a pattern to us today. In fact, Jesus calls Himself “The Way, the Truth and the Life”, He was referring to the names of two doors and curtains that separate each of the compartments.

The Outer Court was about the body. The Way to God is about being a living sacrifice.

The Holy Place is about the mind and the soul. The Truth is being renewed in the spirit of your mind.

The Holy of Holies is about the spirit. The Life is the very presence of God – “I have come that you might have life”

So to finish what Jesus said, “no one comes to the Father but by Me.” What Jesus was saying is that He is the tabernacle of Moses in flesh. He is the way to the Father.

The Elements in the Temple

The Brazen Altar and Laver of Water were in the Outer Court, where sacrifice was made. We have to submit ourselves to the fire of God (which consumed what was on the altar) – which is why the Bible says that no flesh can glory in His presence.

This is why Romans 12 says that we are to be a “living sacrifice.” Our body and its lusts and appetites have to be subdued and dealt with. You can’t live anyway that you want to, and then live in the presence of God!

The problem with asking for forgiveness then leaving is that you only get a sense of forgiveness – but you don’t subdue your flesh. You appetites only really get subdued in the Holy of Holies, which is where you become more spiritually aware than bodily aware. The nature of the lusts of the flesh are that they want more, more, more but are never satisfied! If you don’t realise this, you’ll constantly be a consumer.

There is a cost involved to carrying the presence, and this is the cost: saying no to your flesh. What keeps you a living sacrifice? Loving God more than you love (or lust) other things.

Here’s an important point: don’t drag it out when you make a mistake with God.

In the Holy Place there are the Golden Lamp Stand and the Table of Shrew-bread. This is a place of revelation – where the scriptures that you already know take new meaning and you have revelation of things that you already ‘knew’ in your mind. This is where you begin to live on the Word of God: “Give us this day our daily bread.”

You can’t get someone else’s daily bread. You have to get your own food from God – the Word becoming real to you.

Then there comes silence:

Zeph 1:7 “Be silent in the presence of the Lord GOD;  For the day of the LORD is at hand”

Psalm 62:1 “Truly my soul silently waits for God;”

Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God;”

Then He anoints you – covers you with His presence.

Firstly what an awesome night. The message preached was powerful and on point again! For me there was a real mind change as we were taught that God should lead our personal meetings with Him, not us – we are to work together and flow with His Spirit and to allow His Spirit to flow through us. One of the best ways to enter to a point where we can do this is to pray in tongues, for by doing so we are already allowing the Spirit to pray through us. As we do so we should be seeking what God’s plan and will is for this meeting.

2 Cor 13:14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.”

Psalm 140:13 “Surely the righteous shall give thanks to Your name; The upright shall dwell in Your presence.”

Eph 3:19 “That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!”

“To become” means we are not there yet. We have to grow into this. It’s not going to happen overnight – the same way that you don’t become an adult overnight.

In 1 Cor 2:4-5, Paul says “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” In other words, I don’t want your faith to rest in man, but in the power of God.

Flowing With Him

John 7:37-38 “On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

Mark 16:20 “And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.^“

If you work with God, He will work with you!

When Jesus talks about living water, this is water that is flowing. When you are in your secret place, you need to learn how to flow with God. We often forget that HE is God – so we being praying and then we set the agenda as if WE are God! If HE is God (which He is!) then He should in control on the secret place – HE should set the agenda!

When you go to the secret place in your prayer – just go wanting to meet with Him!

We sing the songs about “have your way”, but then we don’t give Him time to have His way. This is why in prayer we must flow with Him and allow Him to have time and set the agenda.

A husband and wife learn how to flow with one another. You learn, through spending more time together, how to flow better with each other.

Whenever Pastor Michael begins with his prayer time, he begins by praying in the Spirit – in order to get him out of the natural and onto the heavenly agenda.

The Power

Acts 4:29-31 Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, 30by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.” 31And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

Answer to this prayer: Acts 5: Ananias and Saphira drop dead over an offering; Then Peter’s shadow healed people; vs 12 – through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people.

Zech was struck dumb for 9 months – couldn’t speak

Falling over:

• Acts 26:14 And when we all had fallen to the ground
• Jn 18:6 “I am he,” they all fell backward to the ground!
• 2Chron 5:14 / Matt 17 But even as he spoke, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy. Listen to him.” 6 The disciples were terrified and fell face down on the ground.
• Matt 8:24 – the guard at Jesus tomb / Rev 1:17 John on seeing Jesus.

Blindness:

• Acts 22:11 – I was blinded by the intense light and had to be led into Damascus by my companions. Saul was blinded, by a bright light and fell to the ground.
• Acts 13:11 Elymas the sorceror – mist and darkness fell upon him

Mist / Cloud:

• Is 6:4 Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke.

Trances:

• Peter fell over bodily and went into a trance
• Balaam fell into a trance – fell down with eyes open.

Drunk:

• Acts 2 These are not drunk as you suppose!

Dancing in the Spirit / Joy of the Lord – are expressions of joy!:

• Acts 13:52 And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.
• Ps 126 We were filled with laughter, and we sang for joy.
• Is 12:3 With joy you will drink deeply from the fountain of salvation! / with joy will you draw water from the wells of salvation –
• Jn 4:14 But whoever takes a drink of the water that I will give him shall never, no never, be thirsty any more. But the water that I will give him shall become a spring of water welling up (flowing, bubbling) [continually] within him unto (into, for) eternal life.

Yesterday, Ben Hare wrote on his blog about his experience so far of Spring Revival Conference 2010. Ben writes,

“Yesterday was the first day of the conference and the Lord began to minister to me, releasing His joy afresh in me – I could not stop laughing. When I arrived on Monday evening my face was displaying all of life’s troubles, I left with a huge grin and a face glowing with Him!!!”

Ben continues on the message that Pastor Michael brought on “Private presence means public power“. He says that

“I spoke to God and said I do not want to be a public success, but fail at home! And He began to minister in me! I couldnt contain it, after a few minutes i was laughing in joy, and then suddenly He released me in such a way that I began to dance in a rather wild manner – not out of control in the way that i was forced, rather free to be released from the constraints of pride and self image and to dance free in the delight of Him. Then I began to shout aloud – I couldnt help it I had to praise Him for touching my life and meeting me!!!”

You can read everything Ben has to say on his blog post, “Thank You God For Knowing Me“.

2 Cor 13:14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.”

Psalm 140:13 “Surely the righteous shall give thanks to Your name; The upright shall dwell in Your presence.”

Eph 3:19 “That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!”

Being a People of His Presence

It has been said that private presence means public power. In Acts 1:8 tells us that the disciples would receive the Holy Sprit privately, and have public power as a result. We shouldn’t have to try and hype church up – too many people have to hype up the power because they lack the private presence. Someone said that “A lot of kneeling will keep you in good standing.”

Psalm 91:1-2 says:

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress;
My God, in Him I will trust.”

This is a dwelling – not a visiting.

The Wisdom That Comes From Above

James 3:17 says that “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.”

“The wisdom that comes from below“, Pastor Michael says, “is full of argument.”

You can mess things up by having presence, and then being bullish about it. There is a difference between having tenacity and pride. When you want to be in the secret place you must understand how like in Psalm 631:1, you have to be hungry and thirsty for it. Jesus said that when you prayer, you will have what you desire.

David found his secret place through harsh times. His hungry and thirst for God came from heartfelt need and desire – not a reasoned head desire.

Right now there is a big debat about prayer in school. A teacher then made the statement, “as long as there are tests, there’ll always be prayer in school!” The point is that when there are harsh times, prayer comes. The Psalms that we read, like Psalm 63 or 91, were written in times of distress and trial.

Prayer is Union and Communion with God

Pastor Michael says “Prayer is ultimately about getting into union and communion with God. To be a Christian without a secret place in God is like being alive but having no heart.”

When you begin to magnify God, He becomes magnified beyond the size of your problems! Righteous, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit is not the absence of hardship but the presence of communion with God.

James 4:1-5 says:

Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?

What is James saying here? That God is a God of hearts.

God looks at the heart – the internal. If you internal is in it, your exterior is in it. For many people, there exterior is in something, but their interior isn’t. They are in Church, but they aren’t present in Church. This what God meant when He said that people were near him in their words, but distant in their hearts.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLdu2ugyxQc

This week we will be centering around three core scriptures:

2 Cor 13:14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.”

Psalm 140:13 “Surely the righteous shall give thanks to Your name; The upright shall dwell in Your presence.”

Eph 3:19 “That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!”

In John 17 Jesus prayed that we as a body of believers “would be one, as even as we [Father, Son and Holy Spirit] may be one… And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one.” We have God’s glory. What makes up God’s glory? His Presence and His Character.

You can’t have God’s presence show up and everything stay the same. God’s presence is impregnated with His power. When you have God’s presence, it can change things without you doing anything, this is why the presence of God causes such changes in people. We must retain this presence and not let it fade away from us.

We call ourselves Pentecostals because of Acts 2 and the events that happened on the day of Pentecost. Here there is an infilling. Then again in Acts 4 there is another infilling.

They leaked!

Over two chapters, they leaked. That’s why we need to stay in the presence of God! There is one baptism but many infillings. Acts 2 was a baptism, Acts 4 and numerous other examples in Acts are further infillings.

A clear definition creates a clear understanding. We need to understand what it means to be ‘Pentecostal’, and what it means to be people of His presence.

Being Pentecostal means we are a people that have a direct, personal relationship with God experienced through the infilling of the Holy Spirit and by the power of the Holy Spirit. We don’t have a priest or intercessor -- we boldly enter the throne room of God in time of need (Hebrews 4) and have direct access to God -- which is known by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

When we speak about living in His presence, we don’t mean in His omnipresence but His manifest presence. This is the difference between God being everywhere because He is God, and God being tangibly present in a room. A doctor can be present in a room and no one knows, but the moment there is an emergency, the doctor steps forward and becomes manifestly present.

John Wesley said “I entertain and practice the presence of God.” AW Tozer said that “I want the presence of God Himself, or I don’t want anything at all to do with religion. I want all that God has or I don’t want any.” John G Lake said that, “Salvation is not something God gives you that is going to bless you after you die. It is having the presence of God now.”

In Judges 16, the story of Samson and Delilah is told. Samson gives her his heart and reveals everything to her -- including what his hair stood for. In verse 20 it recalls that Samson “didn’t realise that the Lord had left him.” He was playing with the things of God.

Pastor Michael says that as a young man he’d preach the message of “shape up or ship out” -- because the presence of God was on him and he mistook that power for his own dedication. One day he woke up, and God said He was taking him through a time where the presence would not be so heavy on him. Over years like this, Pastor Michael learnt what it was like to not have God’s presence heavily upon you every day and a lot of the arrogance that he had was dealt with.

There is a difference between talking to God, and embracing the truth that we are with Him. In God’s presence we learn His ways and His character. We said last Sunday that whatever you are yoked to in life you carry. Your look and presence comes out of your character, which creates an attitude.

When you are some people’s presence you feel warmth, and in others, the lights go out and it becomes cold! Just based on someone’s look, or presence, you’ve already anticipated how things are going to go.

The Word says that we shouldn’t therefore spend time in some people’s presence, because if we do, we’ll take on their character. Proverbs says “don’t spend time in the presence of angry man lest you learn his ways”, and Corinthians says that “bad company corrupts good character.”

Proverbs 27:17 then says that “as iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.” The presence principle works both ways -- it can corrupt you or build you up. This is why Pastor always says to surround yourself with people who are more on fire than you are.

Acts 4:13 tells us that Peter and John were recognised as people who had “been with Jesus” -- it was clear by their character that they had been in the presence of Jesus. The conclusion was that the only way they could be like they were was because they had been with Jesus. It was the only explanation.

We are stewards of the Glory of God -- the character and presence of God!

Last week we talked about Revealing a Great God, but this week we are talking about Revealing a Great Believer.

The greatest commandment to each one of us here today above all is to love God and love our neighbour. The highest overarching mission of the church, and which every one of us must embrace, is the increase in our culture and generation of the love of God and neighbour. It is a single commandment in two parts -- like a coin with two faces.

When the man at the gate called Beautiful in Acts 3 asked Peter and John for help, they said “Look at us.” We are what Christ looks like to the world -- we are the revelation of Jesus to the unchurched!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Dft4npHPQk

If we are to reveal God’s glory and be His revelation -- then we need to understand what God’s glory is!

Two things make up God’s glory: His presence and His character! The essence of God’s character is goodness.

We should be good. Not worldy good, but Godly good. The Greek word for righteousness literally means equity of character which is to possess all of Christ’s character in perfection and perfect balance.

The World’s Good and God’s Good

The world’s idea of good is that a mother has a bill of rights, which includes the right to choose abortion. But God’s idea of good is sanctity of life, which includes not murdering, and not murdering a fetus. So you can say that life is greater is choice.

Or the world’s idea is that “do what you want as long as your don’t hurt anybody else” -- but God says that the absence of hurting someone isn’t good -- you must help people -- that is good. You have a responsibility to serve others.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjxXc_e_qpI

God’s righteousness is expresses in the ten commandments and then summarised by Jesus in  the double commandment of loving God and loving our neighbour! The first commandment [Ex 20] is, You shall have no other gods before me -- equating to loving God and then commandments 2 -- 10 are about loving your neighbour.

This law is written on our hearts. As believers in Christ by faith this work is represented as already been accomplished. The Holy Spirit then undertakes the work of accomplishing Christ’s character in perfection and balance a practical reality in our life. By His Spirit God communicates to us the spirit of that same law which is defined in the Old Testament.

Look at what Peter says in 2Pet 1:

2 May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. 3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvellous glory and excellence. 4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.  5 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.  8 The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins. 10 So, dear brothers and sisters, work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen. Do these things, and you will never fall away. 11 Then God will give you a grand entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

This is a step by step process -- adding one thing on another.

It truth that whatever you are yoked to in life you carry the burden of. So when Paul says do not be unequally yoked -- he means you need to know the character of what you are yoked to because it will become your burden that you will carry. And whatever you are not designed to carry will spill over into your mind, emotions and body -- it will age you / cause you mental pain of worry and anxiety / depress you / make you sick and diseased.

So Jesus says take my yoke upon you because my yoke is easy and my burden is light because Jesus knew that whatever you are yoked to in life you are burdened with and He didn’t come to burden us with what we could not bear.

We had an incredible evening last night at the Vision Carrier Awards. Above are just some of the photos of our teams at The River.

If you’re on Facebook, you can see this album here.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZGkgSERtkg

Jesus is the revelation of God to us. When we want to know what God is like, we can just look at Jesus!

John 1:14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

We see many people shout “glory” or “God you’re glorious”, but what is the Glory of God? What is God like? Who is he? This verse 14 tells us that there are two elements that make up God’s glory:

His presence = So the Word became human and made His home among us.
His character = He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.

What is God’s character?

the inherent (built in) group of attributes that determines a person’s ethical and moral actions and reactions.

In other words, the decisions that we make on a daily basis are are not made up in the moment of time, but made according to our character. Sometimes, we make decisions that are our of our character -- this isn’t necessarily good or bad -- but it is when we do something that we wouldn’t normally to. Perhaps

Sometimes we make decisions that are out of character and surprise us. Not consistent with who I am or who I think I am -- bc sometimes our choices and decisions reveal a part of our character that we did not know was there.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuLoKzkAEhs

God however, never makes any decisions out of character because He never changes, He is always the same. James 1:17 says:

Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow!

So: God is good -- all the time. Good God is! God is not good today and then not good tomorrow! He is good all the time. We can’t judge God on a give and get basis like we judge other humans on our human plane!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXXUHwHuDtk

Romans 8:28 says that all things work together for the good of those who love God. How times have we had to experience things in life that we didn’t like but were good for us?

God’s goodness is expressed in two ways:

1) His holiness, and
2) His love.

These two attributes balance and assist God from ever being in a moral dilemma.

God’s holiness is His separateness from all that is evil. God’s holiness is His separation from anything that is conspiratorial, seditious, oppressive, dominating, (domination is self-serving and oppressive). So God’s holiness is an expression of His goodness in His separation from all that is bad, wicked, evil. He is holy.

But God’s goodness is also expressed through His love. It is through God’s love that He can be sacrificial because love is the desire to benefit the one loved at the expense of self. So love -- God’s love -- is self-sacrificing. God is not only good but God is also love. Love is an expression of God’s goodness. His love comes out of His goodness and that is why He cannot ever have evil intention toward us.

God’s love is not lust. Love gives at one’s own expense. Lust gets at others expense.

Because God is holy and separate from sin he cannot have a relationship with anyone or anything that is sinful. It’s not that He wont -- it’s that He cannot! So sin separates us from God because God is holy. When Adam sinned that sin separates from God. Because of God’s holiness He cannot be identified with evil, sin. Is 59: It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore. So sin separated Adam from holiness.

But although it separated him from God’s holiness because God’s goodness is also expressed in love it did not separate him from God’s goodness. Because although God could not relate to man out of His holiness He could relate to sinful man though His love. So what man lost through sin God could counter-balance that through loving that man and sacrificing Jesus Christ for that man’s sin so that man could be restored to God’s holiness and also His full goodness.

So holiness put me out, but love brought me back!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjA3ruVy0Xc

• Some evangelists mission statements revolve around winning the lost, proclaiming the gospel and reaching the unchurched
• Other ministries believe our mission to bring society back to God’s original order and design for their lives

But when we listen to the words of Jesus, as in Matt 22:35-40:

A lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 36″Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” 37Jesus said to him, “”You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and great commandment. 39And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ 40On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

What is the goal of church? The the increase in our culture in the love of God and the love of our neighbour.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykigmj9zN4A

If you want to see a great life in action, this is it -- a life living for the love of God and their neighbour. Any other life is inferior to this -- the pursuit of fame, the pursuit of wealth and material possessions, the desire for emotional fulfillment, or even a purpose driven life.

This goal runs throughout the whole Bible

The first commandment was “you will love the Lord your God”, and then the next 9 laws were all about the love of your neighbour. God’s idea with Israel was not for them to a nation that would help other nations and strangers -- not an arrogant and proud nation. The idea was people would look at Israel, see how they helped and loved on the world, and say “hey, I want that!”

It’s impossible to think about God and not think about His love for mankind. John 3:16 is that well known scripture that says “For God so loved the world.” We understand that the value and meaning of life hangs entirely on a relationship with God.

A society that does away with God does away with the value and meaning of life. Long ago, life in a mother’s womb lost all legal right and meaning. Euthanasia is being passed as law as life decreases in value.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOBfuHEaRFU

The love of God and neighbour may start with just a smile and the sharing of bread, but it goes to the core of our nation.

Capital Punishment is abhorrent to a Christian because it is saying that the blood of Christ as a limit and can’t help some people.

1 John says that if we do not love our neighbour, whom we can see, how can we love God, whom we haven’t see? Mother Teresa famously said that in every unloveable person, she saw God.

The reason why we find this hard is because we are often waiting for the emotion before we act. Rather, we must act, and then the emotion will follow. If we don’t act, then we fail in fulfilling the commandment of God.

Pastor Marion says that recently she attended a number of funerals after having none to attend for many years. Being at each of these she realised how important life is, and how you have greater clarity of this when you face the transition from death to eternal life. In John 17, Jesus prays his last recorded prayer, and His focus in this moment of clarity runs to relationship. It runs to achieving greatness through people, for people.

We need to have greater relationships -- in both quality and quantity. We should have, as Pastor Michael says, “ever increase circles of love.” We are not called to be an exclusive group of people!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=u25MK67840I

When we look at each of the people with the talents -- we see that greatness is internal before it’s external. The person with the 5 and the two 2 talents, the scripture records as “immediately” going to invest and trade with their abilities. But the person with the 1 talent was diminished, and rather than immediately going, they had a small view of themselves.

What are the mindsets of greatness?

1. Your mindset prejudges. Before the person with the 1 talent even starts, they’ve decided to hide their talent.

When we hear about the wind of the Spirit being behind The River Church and pushing us forward, Mr 5 Talent and Mr 2 Talent get behind the vision. They are already seeing how they get involved and go with the wind. But Mr 1 Talent gets an attitude and begins to hide behind excuses -- without even understanding that their abilities!

2. Our mindset determines our attitude. With some people, we can see their attitude a mile off and know they won’t get involved.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eORCX3d2qlM

Mr 1 Talent was even going to try and do what he’d been asked to do. He’d failed before he started because of his mindset. These people are the same victims that, without sowing, expect to reap all the benefits. They say “why doesn’t anyone want to spend time with me”, the reality is that you have to sow relationship in the first place to reap relationship!

What gives these people away is the phrase, “Yes, but.” They have a big but for everything and it gives them away. This attitude sabotages our greatness and the greatness that we can achieve for others!

Mr 1 Talent was fearful. This fear keeps us from even geting out of the starting block.

3. Our mindset sets our exceptions. If you expect nothing, you’ll get nothing! Pastor Marion always says “turn your expectors on!”

God does not work in an environment of fear but in an environment of faith and expectation. Hebrews 11:1 says that “Faith is the substance of all things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.”

4. Our mindset governs our behaviour. Pastor Marion says that “Words do not define reality -- behaviour does.”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZLDMYZvCPY

If someone tells you they love you, but they are being mean, nasty and manipulative, you must realise that their words are not defining reality -- their behaviour is!

It’s not good enough to say we love God but then not invite anyone to Church! What we say and what we do are contradictory!

We are thrilled to show you the front cover of Pastor Marion’s follow up book to the ABCs of Emotions. Being released at Touch 10, The ABCs Of Relationships is full of wisdom, insight and truth to help you have fruitful and whole relationships!

The ABCs of Relationships will be £9.99 and available for pre-order soon!

These words in his final prayer are still powerful today! These words are all about relationships -- about the ones that had been given to Him, that His disciples would stay close, and for the further relationships that the disciples will have.

What we’ve discussed so far

Last week, we spoke about the shift from Excellence into Greatness. We are not forsaking excellence, but building greatness on top of it.

We said last week that, among other things, Excellence can lead to pride but Greatness should lead to humility. Excellence is internal, but Greatness is external.

This week I want to continue and bring a new point:

• Excellence is an end in itself => Greatness has no end and sees excellence as a means to keep on serving

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn9_y14PwyI

Excellence is an event -- an end in itself. Once we’ve achieved it, that’s it! But Greatness is a process -- it keeps on going -- it has no end. It sees every event as part of the process.

Take marriage as an example. Just because you spent lots of money on the wedding day doesn’t mean that that’s it and you’re marriage is going to go well. You must have process -- greatness!

And this is the point -- you have never finished with greatness in your marriage -- your always pursuing and moving towards it.

In fact, you can have an awesome wedding day but a terrible marriage! It’s the same with bringing a friend to church. Just because they liked the service doesn’t mean that’s it! You need to follow them up and keep in touch with them!

Excellence is only an event. Process is before, during and after

One of the four timeless fundamentals of greatness is a relentless pursuit for growth and progress.

If at the end of the year we haven’t grown our church then the same chairs that are empty will show us that we’ve not relentlessly pursued growth!

Another point on this, when we think about events as opposed to process, is that excellence can be very rude, but greatness always puts people first.

When ‘excellence gets broken’, we reveal our bad attitudes. It doesn’t matter how good things are, if someone breaks what we’ve done, we still need to put that person first.

Pastor tells a story of his mother who kept the house so clean that him and his three brothers couldn’t play in that home:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bonB6wJm4ps

Have you ever been to a museum? Excellence can be cold, removed, uncaring, and non-involved. Two of our fundamentals are that we need strength beyond one person, and to make it all about people.

It is all about people. Making people a core value means we place them at the centre of everything we do. That’s greatness!

We used to say that when people come to our church and they see how excellently we do things, they’ll stay. The fact that we have empty chairs shows that this thinking is wrong. Now we understand that people will come where they are valued and served.

Here are the photos from our second Singles’s Day!

For many years, we’ve built our church on excellent. We’ve not built it on mediocrity because we don’t have a mediocre God! Our God is an excellent God!

But in understanding more about excellent, pastor says he realised that “Excellence wasn’t a core value of Jesus -- He was excellent”

The thing was excellence is that we can get very proud about it. Excellence is a tool to achieve greatness -- if not, excellence goes to pride, but greatness goes to humility and service.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkrrdwhBFno

When someone asks you to help them, but someone asks “can you help me?”, pride will respond with “but I was going to…” Humility and greatness, however, doesn’t think about self as much as it thinks about you!

Here’s some points about Excellence from Greatness:

• Excellence goes to pride => Greatness goes to humility/serving/relationship
• Excellence is Internal => Greatness is External -- it reaches others and is embracing
• Excellence is an end in itself => Greatness has no end and sees excellence as a means to keep on serving
• Excellence is short term => Greatness is long term
• Excellence is only in the event or occasion => Greatness is in the process before, during and after
• Excellence can be rude to people => Greatness puts people first
• Excellence is Exclusive => Greatness is inclusive
• Excellence says you cant do this because I can do it better => Greatness gives you a go.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBsUrkMuJkY

We are moving on from excellence. We are not leaving excellence, but we are building upon it.

You might think I’m talking about the world, but I’m not. There are bullies in the church.

As in the marketplace, these ‘church’ bullies, whether they are ministers or support staff, are lauded because they ‘get results’. As the late Jamie Buckingham noted, no-one cares or chooses to mention the spent trail of human carcasses that are left strewn in the wake of these ego-maniacs in Christian organizations. On whose backs these kingdoms are built!Bullies in the church are often more subtle and insidious in their approach than the brutish playground bully, but their mental and emotional punches are no less belittling and demeaning. These sociopaths that hold positions of power in church offices are supposed to be adults that display some baseline Christ-like character and meet some minimum biblical requirements to fill that office. They are supposed to be mature adults-Christians, not sanctified mafiosa!

It seems to me today that just as in Jesus time there is little difference between the world and the religious church.

The bullying, conniving, insidious reasoning, legal loophole jumping was veiled behind a religious facade that murdered Christ with ‘clean hands’. So they do today in the church world to further corporate aims and ambitions. At least the world has an integrity to their fallen nature where-as the bullies in church are the genuine hypocrites rather than their fake worldly counterparts. Jesus called them vipers because the forked tongue will pray, praise and posture godliness while the other side of the tongue will destroy you like the cold-blooded serpent it really is.

An Infection In The Church

The ambitious spirit of the world that has infected the church is the kingmaker attitude that has more care and concern for results, numbers and the bottom line than for people. While we are supposed to see Christ in every person and treat them accordingly, the bullies will think nothing of sacrificing you on the altar under the cross for a bigger church, more money or a bigger and better facility – and sincerely believe that they are doing Christ a favour. These bullies couldn’t care less about the human carnage they leave in their wake because they see the stream of ambitious fodder lining up and waiting to be fed off to further their aims. This is the reason the bully is hired in the first place.

And the Christian employers who employ worldly business practices together with church business bullies appease the appointment of such men because every organisation needs a rabid dog or two to keep everyone in line! Right? Ephesians 2:2 in The Message tells us:

“You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live.”

We cannot get information about life from darkness! The ambition-driven console themselves in the fact that many organisations in the world completely bereft of the Spirit of God need a ‘whip’ to ensure party discipline and so adopt the same ungodly methodology in the church world. Copying the world does not grow the church!

Excuses for Bad Behaviour

I’ve seen these church bullies use this detestable, borderline psychopathic, behaviour to further their own aims and objectives ‘for the kingdom’ and then excuse and deflect with some higher moral ground justification.

Recently our prime-minister has tried to spin his alleged bullying of some No. 10 staff as the behaviour of a mature man who is ‘strong willed’ and ‘very determined’. Bullies in the church are master craftsmen of this type of spin. Spin from the power-drunk like (and I know you’ve heard them before, as I have):

• “being focused on the building the church/kingdom”,
• “just really passionate”,
• “must do my job”,
• “God wants me to bear fruit”,
• “I care too much”
• and my all-time best – “I really do love people”.

Note to bullies: the only one you’re kidding is yourself. Everyone else knows you’re a jackass – even if you’re furthering their or their organizations aims. Most of all, God sees!

One thing is certain, while you are going the same way as these bullies they will seem to be ‘the nicest, most godly and spiritual’ people you know. You may even get some warm feelings. While you may catch glimpses of the trail of human carnage in the wake of their power wielding you will choose to be blind to it because you are the benefactor of their grace and favour – for now. But cross them and woe to you. Your chosen blindness to overlook and excuse and minimise will have been to your own detriment.

Stunted

Bullies in the church lack emotional and spiritual intelligence. They may ‘get results’ and win but in doing so they have lost. No-one really respects them because they break people instead of the issue at hand. Emotionally intelligent leaders and administrators respond with care and maturity to other’s emotions which is better for church business, spiritual life and long term productivity.

Leader’s who display higher EQ’s prove to be better team players, better at serving people [and church is all about serving people], better at leadership and more trusted to take people through change [the church is certainly a change agent].

The best way to deal with a bully is to stand up to them. I took my mother’s advice at school and dealt with the bully. When you are no longer intimidated by them or fear them or what they can do then your freedom makes you uncontrollable. And bullies will do anything to control. Let’s declare war on the church bullies by just not caring any more about their threats of what they can/cannot do to us. Be free!

Thanks for reading. Perhaps you’ve met some bullies that you can share some wisdom on too?
Michael

P.S. This post does not detract from good leaders having to take forceful action and being supported by a skilled team. We all know that sometimes discipline must come!

If you can’t see these photos, click here.

Africa Nite again raised the RDC roof!

Our third annual Africa Nite last Saturday was an incredible success as 250 high profile members from our community joined us at the River for a night of celebration around Africa.

The fundraising efforts for our supported cause – the Kondanani Orphanage – were supported by Unicef, and together we raised over £670 to aid them in their work with AIDS orphans in Malawi.

Thank you to all who were involved, and every worker in the house who helped us achieve an evening of greatness!

Greatness goes to servanthood. It is directly correlated to people. This is what Jesus mean when he said “he who desires to be great among you must be the servant of all.”

Jesus was great. He served people. Religion wants to say ‘you must be a doormat’ -- but it doesn’t say we must be servile, we must be servants.

How you serve determines your greatness. Greatness goes beyond excellence!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1pZ81_XUBA

The first thing to you need to fulfil greatness is:

1. A Core Set Of Values

Values are those things that you stand for, are willing to die for, and unwilling to negotiate on.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mumS-a2PDdc

What you appreciate will increase in value.

There is a difference between values and a value system. Values are what you prize and stand for. A values system is how you order them. People might share your values, but have them in a different place in their value system.

2. A Core Purpose

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es4W0igX8ZM

Why are you here? What is there that you are here to do?

3. You Must Have A Relentless Drive For Progress And Growth

Paul said “Where Sin abounds, Grace abounds all the more” -- there is an abundance, abounding amounts, growth, progress, increase. Paul also said “God gives the increase.”

When you begin to pursue growth -- when you have an insatiable appetite for God -- then people will try to detract it from you. You fire convicts them and makes them uncomfortable.

Pastor Michael recalls how after a Sunday service, he doesn’t go home and switch off. He’s listening to his friends service in America. He’s reading up on Bible notes. He’s thinking about the church and growth. A relelentless drive!

What is excellent on one level is mediocre on another.

• You must have the attitude: This isn’t enough.
• You must have the attitude: There is more.
• You must not have plateaus -- just rest!
• You can’t grow in isolation - you grow in community.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFcGmjOvbv8

Every person has three basic needs: intimacy with God, intimacy with each other, and self-worth. If you don’t find these things in the right place, you end up looking for them elsewhere, outside of God and church.

To grow:

1. Time (intentionally sitting, waiting on and listening to Him)
2. Transparency (saying, “Here I am, as I am”)
3. Submission (yielding, surrendering and cooperating with God)
4. Consistency (a day by day effort)

Pastor Michael says, “Our first steps are to acknowledge the need to grow, realise that you want to grow, and decide that you will grow”

4. Strength Beyond Any One Person

One is too small a number to achieve greatness. Longevity requires perpetuation.

• If you want a great family, you need a spouse.
• If you want a great church, you need members and helpers.
• If you want a great business, you need partners and employees.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7G7hvAar_c

We’re really excited about our third annual Africa Nite on Saturday 20th March. Check out the video above to see what it’s all about!

We’ve got a whole mini-site dedicated to Africa Nite, with all the details you need, as well as some info about Kodanani Orphanage that we are supporting and photos from last year’s Africa Nite. You can see it all here.

Great news for all 12 to 16 year olds. The fun begins at 5 Polsoe Road, Exeter at 6.30pm. See Pastor Rob for details!

Hour Of Power – Every Monday, 7 – 8pm, Lower Hall

Every Monday evening we pray for our Church, our City and our Community. There’s more than enough room for you to join us in this opportunity to pray corporately, whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned prayer warrior!

Africa Nite – Saturday 20th March, 7pm

Our annual Africa Nite – Celebrating all things good about Africa – from Cape Town to Cairo – is running hot after our stunning International Nite, and ready to get some good food, great dancing and power-house drumming in the house!

Africa Nite is designed to celebrate Africa – it’s culture and people at The River. Everyone is invited, both within our Church and our Community, to come and have a great time and see how we as a local Church is the place that celebrates the diversity that unites us.

This is perfect for bringing your friends to introduce them to a River that is full of life – and a church!

Valentine’s Day Messages

A great selection of messages are ready for you to purchase online and listen to right away at our Resource Centre.

Join us this Sunday 14th Feb for a Valentine’s Day Special. We’ve lined up gifts for all the ladies (sorry guys).

For our married couples this day is helping you to make your marriage richer, deeper, more fulfilling, purposeful and fruitful.

And for the single people in the house, this day will help you to ensure that you don’t put your life on hold – wrongly thinking that life doesn’t begin until you meet your Special Valentine. And PS – that includes our married Christians who also put their life on hold while they wait for their Valentine to come to faith.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrjEprFjp-4

If you can’t see the above video, click here.

How to make a difference

1. Sign the petition

This petition asks the Government to remove the amendments that would make the law more restrictive for religious organisations:

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/harryhammond

2. Write to Peers

Please write to one or more Peers listed at this link and ask them to vote for Baroness O’Cathain’s Schedule 9 amendments, explaining that the vote will take place on 25th January

Click here for information on writing to Peers.

3. Find out more

The Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship briefing on the Equality Bill.

Please see the CARE report: A Little Bit Against Discrimination?

Our vision for 2010 can be summed up in one word: Greatness.

Download the banners for your desktop

With over 300 in attendance throughout the evening, our second Annual International Night was awesome! In total 20 different performances, with representatives from 5 continents and more countries to number all celebrated food, dance, culture, literature and music together.

International Night also played an important part to the students at Exeter University, many of whom are foreign students and away from their homes. This evening, as Rob Sharp and Munya Hoto of the Nooma Project said, “celebrates our diversity – and our humanity that unites us.”

Next up for the Dream Centre after Chrtistmas is our third annual Africa Nite! Get ready!

Men!

Like curry? Of course you do! Is it even better with good friends? Of course it is! I’m hosting a He Saved The Day Curry Night and you’re invited!

You’re invited to come and join your fellow brothers in Christ for a He Saved The Day Curry Night on Friday 27th November at 7pm [right after you've dropped your leading lady off at WIT, i.e. if you have one].

Our resident curry experts – The Punjab Curry Inn – will be cooking us good food while also gathering around the vision that is He Saved The Day.

So, Friday 27th November, 7pm at Sanjay’s Place  - call our office for directions on 01392 425070.

Please RSVP with me by emailing inbox@go4god.tv as soon as possible so that we know who to cater for, and if you can bring a few soft drinks or fruit juices along it will be much appreciated.

Moving forward together as One
Pastor Michael

Join us and nationalities from across the world at at the River for our second International Night! We’ll be having food, enjoying music, feasting on international dishes, and celebrating art as people from each of the seven continents bring their culture to the party.

International Night is being held in association with Exeter University’s African and Caribbean Society, International Society, Asia Society and Nooma Society. If you want to get involved, bring a dish, or perform, then let us know by contacting Munya Hoto on 01392 425070.

This celebration is on Friday 20th November, from 7:30pm, at The River Dream Centre in the centre of Exeter. You can get directions here.

Sign up to the Facebook event here.

This November we’re talking about Celebrating Life. Jesus celebrated passover, He celebrated His disciples, and He celebrates us. Likewise, we must celebrate each other, our Church and our Christian life.

If you can’t see the photos above, click here.

On Saturday 31st October, the River Dream Centre was packed with over 200 women from the around the region as Aspire held it’s first conference in the South West.

Guest speaker Lara Martin (read about her here) brought a encouraging message right in line with the theme of ‘Aspire2Fly’. Lara said:

“Thank you so much for a wonderful weekend with you and your church family. Rachel and I felt very welcomed loved and embraced. I understand only too well what is involved in running a conference and hosting others and know that much goes on behind the scene that the delegates nor the guests ever see. Thank you for your commitment, dedication and sacrifice of time. A spirit of excellence was very present. What a great atmosphere from the moment we stepped through the front door.”

If you can’t see the photos, please click here to view them.

Photos from our guest speaker Fiona Des Fontaine. The house was full, and the Word was powerful! If you are unable to see these photos, click here.

I was first exposed to Lara’s ministry at Abundant Life Church in Bradford at their annual Stronger Conference. Lara was the worship pastor and filled that roll as an anointed psalmist leading worship team that has now cut many albums and have their worship songs sung all over the world. We look forward to hearing from her on Suday at the 10 am service. By the way, we will also have Marilyn Glass with us on Sunday morning, who with her husband minister as the leaders of the ELIM movement. We are blessed to have Marilyn with us, who leads Aspire with an anointed team, the women’s ministry of Elim.

Rick Bezet together with his wife lead the fabulous New Life church in Arkansas. Their church has also been noted for being one of the, if not the fastest growing church in the United States. He is also at the heart of a great vision to pioneer churches and has successfully planted many thriving churches over the past years. Rick is also known for encouraging believers to step up into every facet of society where they do life. One such example is one of his song leaders in his worship team, Kris Allen, who recently won American Idol with 100 million votes. I am thrilled to hear what the Lord will say to each one of us through this ministry gift especially since this house has an identical vision in these areas.

We look forward to seeing each and every one of you for an awesome Super Sunday. Our Barnstaple Church will be joining us for this Sunday. We look forward to seeing you guys with us on Sunday too.

This coming Sunday 1st November, we have the pleasure of welcoming two guest speakers to The River

Lara Martin: 10 am Service

Jon and I are now based in ROMANIA in Eastern Europe. We strongly believe in the combination of Worship, Justice and and Mission. We are currently based with Lee Saville and his team in the Christian Charity called ‘Networks Romania’ (as mentioned below) and are involved in some other worship and music related projects. “I believe in the powerful combination of Worship, Mission & Justice.. We can’t say what Jesus said without doing what Jesus did. ”

A favourite quote: “OCEANS OF JUSTICE: Amos 5: 21-34 The Message Bible
“I can’t stand your religious meetings. I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making.I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang to me? Do you know what I want? I want justice—oceans of it.I want fairness—rivers of it. That’s what I want. That’s all I want. ” God

Rick Bezet: 4:30 pm Service

In the winter of 2001, in obedience to the call and direction of God, Rick Bezet and his family moved to the Little Rock area from his lifetime home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. When Rick and his family moved to Conway, Arkansas, their goal and purpose was to begin launching a church with a few people that would reach the un-churched and “de-churched” of the area and region. On February 4th, 2001, New Life Church was born in a remodeled car dealership in Conway – 508 people attended the first service! Today New Life Church has three campuses, including eight weekend services averaging 4,000 in attendance.

His Vision: Loving God, Loving People, Loving Life.
His Purpose: Bringing our Friends in so they can become fully devoted followers of Christ.
His Mission: Bring them in, Build them up and Send them out.

Kris Allen, winner of 2009 American Idol by 100 million votes, is also on the worship team of Rick Bezet’s New Life Church. an upset for Cowell it clearly was — the outspoken judge was the only one not to give Allen a standing ovation when he was announced the 2009 winner. Ouch Simon!

On Saturday 31st October, we have the Elim Aspire team along with guest speaker Lara Martin joining us for a one day event, ‘Aspire2Fly’.

The day is from 10am to 4pm. Doors open at 9.30am for registration and refreshments. Conference registration is £15 (includes lunch). You can download the booking form here.

From the Aspire website:

Join us at Aspire2Fly, an inspirational day gathering women of all ages, status and background for a fantastic time of celebration and motivation. In a contemporary and delightful environment, women will be stirred and empowered to rise up and embrace life.

We as God’s women need to Aspire2Fly in every area of our lives. Held at Exeter Elim Aspire2Fly is a one day conference hosted by Aspire, Elim’s national women’s initiative.

Bring women from your local church to this exciting event. It will be a day to connect with other women and embrace a fresh sense of God’s presence.

Lara Martin is a musician, songwriter and former worship pastor of Abundant Life Centre, Bradford.  Together with her husband John she has moved to Romania to work with the poor. Working with a charity called Networks Romania they reach out to street children and single parents who are struggling. Lara is passionate about God and the calling He has placed on her life. She will challenge and encourage you to fly higher in all that God has called you to do

Fiona was a spiritualist medium and sincerely believed that she was helping people but later discovered that she was dealing with spirits that posed as ‘angels of light’ but were anything but that. The spirit realm is more real than the physical realm that we contact with our touch, sight, hearing, taste and smell. We do life in both realms – the spirit realm and the natural realm and everything we do affects both realms all the time. Within the spirit realm other ‘spirits’ besides you also operate and influence you and your environment where you do life. We invite you to join us for two Sundays services of great ministry.

This Sunday, 27th September in our 10:00am service, we are joined by Rev. Annie Chikhwaza.

Annie is founder and director of Kondanani, a ministry that offers a home and hope to hundreds of children left orphaned by the AIDS pandemic in Africa. The ministries of Kondanani are located near Blantyre, in Malawi, and Zambia.

You can find out more about Annie at www.kondanani.com, or by downloading this PDF file.

We had a wonderful time at The River with Prophet and Evangelist Dennis Tinerino. A personal friend of Michael and Marion, Dennis brought a prophetic word in season that spoke directly to the church.

UPDATE: You can see the photos for our time with Dennis here.

Hey Beautiful Church

I trust that you’re living in another victorious week with your closest, dearest and best friend, the Lord Jesus Christ.

This coming weekend in the am service we have my good friend, Evangelist and Prophet Dennis Tinerino with us.

Raised in the projects of Brooklyn, New York, Dennis Tinerino grew up surrounded by poverty and crime. Surrounded by his large Italian-American family, Dennis learned the ways of “the family” along with his family values. The sport of bodybuilding removed him from that environment, but it took the Lord to change the inner man. As former Mr. America, Mr. Natural Universe and four-time Mr. Universe, Dennis understood power and strength, but only in the physical sense.

Exposure and fame in bodybuilding brought acclaim in TV, movies, magazine articles, exhibitions, seminars and great success in business and every area of life. This success came with a price, however, and his efforts to maintain the lifestyle of his rich and famous friends eventually caused him to be sent to prison. There, Dennis came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of his life through the ministry of Ray McCauley. This champion body builder is now called and anointed by the Lord as a Prophet/Evangelist to partner with the Lord in helping build up His Body, the Church. Since his conversion to Jesus Christ and his call to ministry in 1979, Dennis has an understanding of real power – moving in the strength of the Lord Jesus Christ.

A minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Dennis now has a mandate as a Prophet/Evangelist, and is called to the churches and the nations. His vision is to help stir up, equip and edify believers to flow in the supernatural, overcoming power of the Holy Spirit, trusting the Lord to move in signs, wonders and miracles that follow the Word and to impart the gifts of the Spirit.

Anointed in the prophetic and healing ministries, this gifted preacher and soul winner travels the world, helping God’s people get set free. Author of the soon to be published autobiography, “Blood, Sweat and Victory,” Dennis considers himself blessed that this anointing and calling on his life is used mightily by the Lord in preparing a glorious church, ready for the second coming of the Lord – a church that will roar as God’s people soar in the Spirit over darkness.

Looking forward to seeing every one of you Sunday for another magnificent time in the presence of our beautiful Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Blessings
Pastors Michael and Marion

Below: Dennis Tinerino as Mr Universe and Dennis with old friend Arnold Schwarzenegger

On Friday 9th, Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th October 2009, HE SAVED THE DAY is a gathering of men, God’s champions and heros, who are fighting the good fight, and who have experienced a Saviour who has saved their day.

This ministry isn’t about crying men full of regret – we are celebrating Jesus working with us – helping us overcome the unique challenges we face as men. We’re having loads of fun and food, and standing up to be counted as men that glorify our God who has brought us through tests and trials to stand here today.

To find out more, and register for the conference, visit www.hesavedtheday.com.

On Sunday 6th September, we graduated our summer interns – 10 university students who decided to spend their 3 months of summer building the Kingdom of God at the River.

Join us over July for awesome ministry that will take you to whole new level in your ministry!

Marion was ordained at the Elim Conference on Monday, 1 June 09. Congratulations Marion. There are now two Reverends in the house!

With 45 harvesters, 330 decisions were made for Christ, including now-former Buddhists, Muslims, Atheists and Spiritualists.

We will be giving some awesome testimonies, and then going onto the streets of Exeter to share the Gospel.

Meeting at The River Dream Centre, Northernhay Street, EX4 3ER at 9:30am.
Going onto the streets at 10:30am

** All Churches and Christians welcome **

Sign up to the Facebook event here

You can see photos of previous soul winners on the streets of Exeter in our Soul Winning Gallery

Supporting Churches so far

• The River Dream Centre, Exeter
• New Frontiers Church, Exeter
• Vineyard Church, Exeter
• Isca Church, Exeter

*** Update: View the photos for the event here **

Last year, England was set on fire as Evangelist Rodney Howard-Browne visited the River Dream Centre, with hundreds turning up from across the country to get a impartation of fire from the world-renowned preacher.

Now Rodney is returning to England with a 5 city tour of The Great Awakening

Important Links

• Join the Facebook Event
• Visit Revival.com for more photos and video

Participating Exeter Churches so far

• The River Dream Centre, Exeter
• Riverside Church, Exeter
• New Frontiers Church, Exeter
• Vineyard Church, Exeter
• Isca Church, Exeter

Tour Dates

City #1: Dudley
Monday 25th May, 3pm & 7:30pm

Apostolic Resource Centre
117 – 120 Wolverhampton Street
Dudley, West Midlands DY1 3AL
+ 44 (0) 1384 239 943
Pastors Trevor and Sharon Baker
www.revivalfires.org.uk

City #2: Bristol
Tuesday 26th May, 7:30pm

Carmel Christian Center
817a Bath Road, Brislongton
Bristol
United Kingdom
+44 (0)117 9775533
Pastors Gerry and Michelle DiSomma
www.carmelcentre.org

City #3: Exeter
Wednesday 27th May, 7:30pm

The River Dream Center
Northernhay Street
Exeter
United Kingdom
+44 (0) 1392 425070
Pastors Michael and Marion Meyers
www.riverdreamcentre.com
Exeter Facebook Event

City #4: Swindon
Thursday 28th May, 7:30pm

Citi Faith Church
38 – 40 Regent Street
Swindon
United Kingdom
+44 (0)1793481555
Pastors Mike and Les Everson
www.citifaith.co.uk

City #5: London
Friday 29th May, 5pm & 7:30pm

Kensington International Centre of Champions
468-474 Hoe Street
Walthamstow
London E17 9AH
+ 44 (0) 20 8525 0000
Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo
www.kicc.org.uk

If you would like to attend, please book your place soon as many places are already taken.

Date: 25 April
Time: 8:30am
Cost: £10
Location:

Exeter Conference Centre cafe,
Northernhay Street
Exeter, Devon
EX4 3ER

An event like this is so desperately needed in today’s church for two reasons. Firstly, we need to find out the Word’s standard of relationships. Romans says ‘Do not be conformed to this world’, however most Christians draw their values regarding dating, kissing, relationships and romance from watered down ideas from the world rather than gathering God’s council. The second reason we need it is, after establishing how we are to live pure lifestyles free from sexual and relational sin – how do we then enter into healthy relationships and ultimately onto marriage? Many minsters are keen to preach the first but not offer a clear, cohesive way to go about the second.

So join us on Sat 28th Feb, from 9:30am through to 5pm. Lunch is included, along with refreshments through out the day – and it is all free - because we love you and want to empower you!

Whether we’re married with children or grand-children, newly weds, or single, we have decisions to make about our marriage. We have to decide that through good times and bad, through joy and through conflict, through being single and staying pure, to being married and staying true, that will be happily ever after. Rather than being victim to life and every storm that it sends our way, the Word has called us to rule and reign in life. Our marriages are not to be made of haphazard reactions that we hope keep us together. Quality, lasting marriages come from daily quality decisions to choose life in marriage.

Starting this Sunday 1st February, vision 2009 begins.

Scroll through and enjoy them here!

Steve and Lesley Chaudry, Pastor River of Life, Bristol

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LLNrAnNt1Y

Wynne and Carol Lewis, Retired General Superindent Elim Pentecostal Churches

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPPlvg-P5jo

Dr’s Rodney and Adonica Howard-Browne, Tampa, USA

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEX3sw8CGes

Tom and Barbara Ingles, Pastors Sydney Australia and Psalmody International

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebdQ1pozZ9g

Joe and Mary Peter, Pastor’s Pastor, Australia

www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-4ClQBc5nw

Gerri and Michelle Di Somma, Pastor Carmel Christian Centre, Bristol, UK

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoJsc5UUS9E

Delirious, Gospel Artists/Worship Leaders

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWTpxOFpw7I

Tim Hughes, Worship Leader/Gospel Artist

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNuhqV9C_OY

Chris and Mary Lodewyk, Pastor of Pastors, South Africa; Pastor Carl Hendriks, Jubillee Church, SA

www.youtube.com/watch?v=adqS7tjRDxc

Brian & Bobby Houston, Darlene Zschech & David Reidy -- HillSong Australia

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FZbZL5d_lk

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Dear friends

We are thrilled to hear of your 10th anniversary celebrations and wish you every blessing as you continue on towards the next 10 years!

We so appreciate your partnership in the gospel!

May the Lord bless you and keep you; may the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; may the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26

In Him!

Martin Hawkins
Director KCM Europe

Jeanette Chambers

My dearest Michael, Marion, Grace Anne and Gregory,

It is 10 years and we still miss you!

You left in faith, yet God has done so much…. both in you and through you.
We know…you have worked hard, prayed harder and have been found faithful!

We salute you…..love you … and thank GOD for you.

Our warmest regards and love to you and all the beautiful members at the Rivers Church as you celebrate this awesome occasion.

Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

Jeanette and Nicolas

Geir and Solvei Sieverstol -- Pastors, Ulsteinvik Bible Centre

Mark Rylands, Revd Canon Mark Rylands, Director of the Council for Mission & Unity, Exeter Diocese

Dear Michael and Marion

My warmest birthday greetings to all at The River.

Mark Rylands

Mike and Freda Price, Pastors No Limits Church Birmingham

Happy 10th Mike, Marion, Grace and Gregory and all at The River Dream Centre… all our love Mike, Freda, Rich, Adam and all at No Limits Church B’ham

Simon D’albertanson, Pastor Pinhoe Baptist, Exeter

Dear Michael and Marion

Congratulations to you and The River Dream Centre on your 10th birthday. May you continue to grow in the good work you are doing for His Kingdom.

Simon D’Albertanson and all at Pinhoe Baptist

Emmanuel School, Exeter

Dear Michael and all at the River Dream Centre

CONGRATULATIONS on the occasion of your 10th Birthday.

Together we will advance the kingdom of God in Exeter.

From all at Emmanuel School

Peter and Annettette Riggall, Pastors ECF, Spain

Dear Michael and Marion

We rejoice with you as you celebrate 10 years of ministry in Exeter and we
know that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day
of Jesus Christ.

It has been a blessing to know you and to see how
the church has grown since
the early days. We have great memories of our visits to Exeter when we
shared in your church and were received with much warmth and love by
everyone.

Congratulations and may the Lord bless you all.

Annette and Peter Riggall
The Evangelical Christian Fellowship
Costa del Sol, Spain

Jeremy and Ann Simpkins, Pastors Jubilee Church Tyneside

Dear Michael & Marion,

So lovely to hear from you.

We fondly remember the days in Eastbourne and the impartation of the Spirit that you so powerfully ministered to us.

We are so pleased to hear of the growth, development and success of The River Church.

Congratulation to you both on 10 glorious years of ministry -- we pray God’s richest blessing on you for the next 10!

Much love,

Jeremy & Ann Simpkins
Jubilee Church Teesside

Giles and Silvie Stevens, Evangelist and Missionary to Brazil

Dear Michael,

Peace greetings from Brazil!

I have been blessed to see how the Lord is using you to build a great church in Exeter and to minister to the wider body of Christ.

You’re a blessing to Britain!

Giles

PS. Perhaps you will come and minister in Brazil in the future. Our churches want all the fire we can get!

Building churches of champions
Giles Stevens

Mark Greenwood, UK Evangelist

My dear friends Michael and Marion

I am honoured to be able to stand with you on this your 10th birthday as leaders in your church. It is always good to know people who are blazing a trail in this country. You are people full of enthusiasm and vision but also full of the reality in making that vision come to pass. May you know an acceleration over the next 10 years of all that God has placed in your heart. I look forward to seeing you soon.

Yours in Him

Mark Greenwood

Andy and Gunilla Glover, Missionaries to USA and Ghana

From Revival to the Nations, we wish you all at the River a blessed birthday
celebration. We love and appreciate you very much.

Be Blessed!
Andy & Gunilla

International Director
Revival to the Nations

Vello and Ingalill Vaim, Prophet and Author, Sweden

Dear Marion and Michael!

We, together with so many others extend our “happy ten year” celebration
greetings to you and the entire River Dream Centre!

Thank you for being forever faithful to the heavenly calling as it ministers
life and freedom to multitudes of people and nations!

Thank you also for being good friends and for being some of the people that
God has used to set our lives continually on fire for God and His Kingdom
purposes!
I for one will never forget the awesome weeks in Gothenburg, 1999…
(Ingalill )

With much love

Vello and Ingalill Vaim
Örebro, Sweden

Peter & Tricia, Pastors of Fresh Springs Christian Fellowship Seaford

Dear Michael, Marion and members of and visitors to the River.

With real warmth in our remembrance of you!

Praying that God increases His joy amongst you at this time. I am sure that your basket is full of fruit and may he make you increasingly fruitful.

Happy Birthday!!

Peter & Tricia
Pastors of Fresh Springs Christian Fellowship Seaford.

Bruce and Cecile Weyers, Pastors Sandown Union Church, SA

Dear Michael, Marion, church, and friends,

Well done!

We celebrate with you and we do well to celebrate times like this! Throughout Scripture God has used celebration, ceremony and memorials as opportunities for
virtue, strength, impartation and grace to come into our lives – and today is no different. In Hebrew culture we see God strategically placing right within ceremonies, customs, and habits memorials to ensure that what God has done is not lost. The theme of remembering, with its twin truth of giving thanks, is inseparable from faith in the Bible and for you as a church today. The man or woman of faith is the one who remembers, and the one who remembers is the one who gives thanks. Clearly, memory for a Christian is not nostalgia or historical reverie. It is far more profound than having a mental skill or a better-than-average ability to recall. The redeemed memory, as it works under God’s Spirit, keeps the living awareness of the present in line with a living awareness of the past. Thus our gratitude and thanksgiving, which are spurred by a knowledge of the past, are linked to our faith and hope, which engage the present and look toward the future. This gives continuity and wholeness to the life of faith that are indispensable to its growth and maturity. Be encouraged – let His grace continue to wash over you with waves of new possibilities, new options, new chances to receive new direction and new empowerment – continue to become more like HIM!

Remembering – is your story of grace – a sacred story – HIS-story!

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others. (Marcus Tullius Cicero)

Our love and kindest regards on this wonderful day,

Bruce, Cecile and the Sandown Church in Sandton, South Africa
Sandown Union Church

Alastair Gibson, Friend of ours for 25 years+

Dear Michael & Marion

Congratulations on your 10th Anniversary. Praise God for your faithfulness and obedience to His Call. How wonderful that you have completed your first decade at the River Dream Centre and how awesome to consider what the Lord still has in store for you…

Can you believe it? It is now some 25 years since we were at university together,
where the Lord lit a radical fire within our hearts… I have watched that anointing burn within you over these many years and seen it become a blazing fire. Watch out Exeter, watch out the United Kingdom, for these two Holy ghost fire-lighters, for the Lord is surely not finished with them, but He will continue to use them to fan the flames of revival wherever they go.

I remember your wedding day when the Lord joined you together, two spiritual dynamos and the amazing vision you had then to do something for the Lord. We have shared many happy times together including the blessed arrivals of Grace-Ann and Gregory and what a blessed family you have today.

Yet, I have also seen some of the obstacles that you have had to overcome. And overcome them you did, always in faith that God would come through for you. Like Rory & Wendy Alec, who I work for at GOD TV, you left your homeland and moved across the sea to break new ground for the Gospel. Like the Lord used the Alecs to pioneer Christian television in the UK, so He has used you to bring a new breed of radical Christianity to the local church, and now, I believe to the nation.

Michael and Marion, I believe the many things you have accomplished up to now are but a stream, in comparison with the river of revival, healing and deliverance that is still coming. And I am privileged that I will be a part of it when my wife Jeanine and I relocate to the South West in August. I look forward to seeing you all then.

LONG MAY THE RIVER CONTINUE TO FLOW.

Alistair Gibson.

Lyndie McCauley, Pastor and Teacher, USA

Dear Pastor Michael and Marion, The River Church and Friends,

It is with great blessing that I write this very SPECIAL BIRTHDAY GREETING to wish you a wonderful, blessed and glorious HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY!

You have a special place in my heart as I have
been honored to minister to the precious ladies and wonderful congregation at The River on a number of occasions, and found out that you are a truly fine family!

I believe that all the seed that has been sown in your hearts is multiplying and bringing forth wonderful fruit in your lives. Not only for your benefit but for the benefit of everyone that God brings across your doorways!

I pray that this year will be a great year for The River and that all that you are believing for will come to pass for your great blessing!

Michael and Marion, I love you and pray for you, and thank God for your faithfulness, ministry and lives.

With much love

Pastor Lyndie
Psalm 1
Lyndie McCauley Ministries

Roger and Amanda Wells, Prophetess, Australia

Michael, Marion and All at the River

Happy Ten Year Birthday!

Well done guys………Though I’m not there in person, I do celebrate this awesome achievement with you this weekend.

Have a Great Weekend and may the next years be the Best TO COME.

Go Guys, as you lead the generations to come, into their God given destinies.

Run with the destiny God has Given you, and may the next years accelerate the purposes of God in your lives.

Roger and Amanda Wells

Father Bud and Fran Williams, Episcopalian Revivalist, USA

Dear Michael and Marion

Birthday greetings to The River Dream Centre, to Pastor Michael, Marion, their family and friends in Exeter:

You are, indeed, a dream come true, a prophecy fulfilled and a living and testimony to our faithful God who always keeps his promises.

This anniversary you will remember
a decade in which souls were saved, lives changed, healing came to the sick and captives were set free. It was a decade born in revival, spanning from one millennium to the next, of peace and war, economic ups and downs, and unprecedented globalization. As your own life changed, you carried the banner of spiritual renewal to others, always upheld by the Spirit of God.

When I visited, you were called “the church who meets at the hotel,” or “the church that dreams of having a building”, and probably a few other names that should not be mentioned. Yet, wielding the sword of the Spirit correctly—persevering, praying, believing—you prevailed.

After taking looking back, savoring the joy of the moment, your may ask, “What lies ahead? What will happen as year succeeds to year? What will we be celebrating ten years from today?”

You will not be able to see clearly, but you will know that based on past tradition, the same grace that brought you this far, will continue lead you even until the Lord returns in glory.

God bless you all,
The Rev. Hugh E. “Bud” Williams
Lakeland, Florida USA

RayGene Wilson, Pastor, Crusade Worship Leader for Dr KE Hagin and Jack Bauer Body Double

Greetings from Southern California! Home of swimming pools, movie stars, and of course West Coast Believers Church! We are all wishing you the happiest time of celebration.

Ten years is quite an accomplishment for a church, especially in the
age in which we live. You have had ten years of sowing, the next ten it’s time to reap! “Beloved, my prayer above all other things, is that you prosper, and be in health, even to the same measure that you are prospering in the inner man!” Happy Birthday!

Much Love,
Pastor RayGene Wilson
West Coast Believers Church of Santa Barbara
and Los Angeles

Dennis and Anite Tinerino, Prophet/Evangelist USA

To my good friends Pastor Mike & Marion:

Happy 10th Anniversary of the Ordained work of God that you pioneered in England. I have been so blessed to minister at your church over the past ten years. I really enjoyed the last meeting I did for you Oct’06..What a move of God that was released amongst the hungry and thirsty saints of God. God is going to honor and bless you for
allowing the Holy Spirit and the Five Fold ministry to have freedom in your congregation. Get ready-get ready- get ready…for a dunamis explosion of the Glory of God everywhere you and your family and the congregation ministers God is going to enlarge your territory, bless you to be a blessing, release favor with signs, wonders and miracles as your congregation brings in the end time harvest and ignites revival fires throughout Europe.

I am looking forward to ministering at the River where the water is deep this year.

Blessings your friend,

Prophet/Evangelist
Dennis Tinerino (The Sermonator) USA

Geoff and Carole Feasey, Elim National Leadership Team, UK

Hi every one in Exeter, have a great celebration weekend, sorry to miss the celebration we are both thinking about you and praying for you, and our prayer is this………….that the bext 10 years will be greater, more prosperous and more blessed than the first ten years.

Geoff and Carole Feasey

Dr Tayo Adeyemi, Pastor New Wine Minitries, London

Hi Michael and Marion

Congratulations on the occasion of your tenth anniversary.

I trust that you are both very well and that the church is doing great as well. I pray that the next ten years will be years of phenomenal growth and accelerated progress for you.

Every blessing
Tayo

Vicar of Baghdad and formerly the Archbishop of Canterbury’s envoy to the Middle East

Greetings and blessings to the River Church in Exeter from St George’s Church in Baghdad. Two very different places with very different experiences but we serve the same wonderful G-d that you serve. We know that our Lord has good and wonderful things in store for you. The one major lesson I have learned here in Iraq is
NEVER GIVE UP. It may seem as if at times we are loosing the battle but if G-d is at the CENTRE we will never loose. But will always win. G-d wants His Church to be a place for winners not losers.

In the past year I have had 11 of my staff killed. In the past week I have had my assistant kidnapped but by the Lord’s grace we got him back despite loosing his home and all his furniture. Other members of my congregation have been killed this week we hear bombs and rockets all day but we so love our G-d. And even though you are in a very different place we are the same family We ask G-d will bless you richly on your anniversary.

We love you and ask G-d to give you new vision and purpose.

By the way I am so pleased Wynne Lewis is with you. When I was a young student at St Thomas Hospital studying Surgery and Anaesthetics I went to KT when he was the Pastor. I have never seen him since but you can tell him G-d used him to help produce the Vicar of Baghdad. I pray that G-d will forgive him for producing an Anglican!!!

Grace , Peace and Blessings to you all,

Canon Andrew White
Vicar of Baghdad
President of the FRRME.

John and Marilyn Glass, General Superintendant Elim Pentecostal Churches, UK

Dear Michael and Marion,

I am writing to congratulate you on reaching this important landmark in the life of the River Dream Centre.

You have created, under God, a place of teaching and worship that is characterised by excellence in everything that you endeavour to do..

Our prayer is that the days ahead will be hallmarked by a rich visitation of God on your ministry and on your church.

We thank God for all that you are seeking to do in His name.

Warm regards

John and Marilyn Glass

The Rt Revd Michael Langrish, Bishop of Exeter

To The River Dream Church

I have just discovered that this weekend you celebrate your tenth anniversary and I send you my congratulations. I was particularly pleased to hear about your work with the homeless and your relationship with the Cathedral and others in doing God’s work with those amongst us who have very little or nothing. I wish you every blessing for the future of your fellowship and ministry in this place.

Michael Exon
Bishop of Exeter

Dr RT Kendall, Retired Minister Westminster Chapel and Itinerant Preacher, USA

Dear Michael and Marion

Congratulations to The River upon your tenth anniversary. It was my privelege to speak there, also at of the graduation ceremonies.

God bless you and give you the best ten years yet -coming up.

RT Kendall

Eph 4:11-16 

Lk 4:16 So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. 17And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: 

        18″The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, 
        Because He has anointed Me 
        To preach the gospel to the poor; 
        He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
        To proclaim liberty to the captives 
        And recovery of sight to the blind, 
        To set at liberty those who are oppressed; 
        19To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” 

20Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

History makers – planetshakers – Get the basics right.

 Jesus was the ultimate example – He esteemed church.

He is the head of the church – His concern is the church – always has been – always will be.

I decided to talk about why I joined my last church for two reasons:
1] Because I have no idea what motivates people to join churches or not…,
2] Because if you can see where I come then you can see where I am and where we’re heading with The River, you can see what my motivations are that make me get out of bed in the morning, and what I value.

I know a single dish cannot satisfy the tastes of a hundred people but here goes…

1] I joined my last church because it preached the Word. The Word changed me because the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a transforming Gospel.

I wanted my life transformed from what I was into what God had created me to be. Transformed lives is what God is about.

The Word concerning faith, healing, prayer, the authority of the believer and being led by the Holy Spirit transformed my life.

2] I joined my last church because it had a world vision to make a difference one person at a time bc I wanted to make a difference here on the earth for God. 

I caught the vision that one was too small a number to achieve greatness     and make a difference. Together, with one heart and one vision we can do more. Church is not about looking at each other but in looking forward and moving forward together as one.

We accepted, honoured and celebrated our differences and esteemed them of lesser importance than what God wanted to do in us and through us. Our differences didn’t divide and make us small-minded, menial and petty – our vision of Christ united us in kingdom purposes and pursuits.

I joined my last church because I wanted to be a part and play my part in making a difference.

And the difference my last church wanted to make was by doing so one person at a time. We never spoke about taking a city for God or taking a nation for God. We just spoke about making a difference in one person at a time – the teller at the bank, our work colleague, the dad at the rugby match, the mom at school picking up her kids, the businessman we’re making a deal with.

We could focus on our purposes, or we could focus on our problems. If we focus on our problems, we went into self-centeredness, ‘which is my problem, my issues, my pain.’ But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.

And when we looked up a city had been taken and a nation had been changed.

3] I joined my last church because I wanted to be a part of a family – my spiritual family – the family of God. Relationship was essential bc I had come from an ungodly broken dysfunctional family.

Matt 12:48 “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” 49And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! 50For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”
A family is accountable to each other for the way they live.

Acts 4:23 After they were permitted to go, [the apostles] returned to their own [company] and told all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.
24And when they heard it, lifted their voices together with one united mind to God.

Col 2:6 6As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it F2 with thanksgiving.

The Word gives pictures of the church – a believer without a church is like a 
a living stone without a building
an arm/leg/eye without a body
a son/daughter without a family
a sheep without a flock
a soldier without an army
a bride without a groom
a plant without a field

Within the church, we should have our closest and most life changing relationships (like a family), we connect with the greatest purpose to which we could give our lives (like an army), and we discover the unique gifts God has given us to offer others (like a body). We also discover that God has provided leadership to help us grow (like a flock), a pursuit of a Christ-like life that unites us (as a fellowship), and that the church has become the temple of God, financially supported by those who are part of it (like a building).

4] I joined our last church because it loved to reach the lost bc I once was lost and will forever be indebted to those who reached across the table to me and gave Christ to me. We loved leading people to Christ were-ever we went. We loved inviting people to church. We loved our pastor doing the altar call and loved see hundreds of people go down the aisles to the altar and give their lives to Christ.

5] I joined my last church because it challenged my walk with God to grow in Christ because I grew up around people who never grew in any area of their lives; never upped their game but his under a victimized blame and excuse culture. Grow in my Christlikeness – grow in my love walk, grow in my faith, grow in my character, grow in the fruits of the spirit, grow in the gifts of the spirit, grow in my spirituality, grow in my obedience to God through His Word, grow in my giving, grow in our worship.

It challenged us to increasingly love God more on a daily basis as reflected in our humility, submission and obedience before Him.

In our happy moments we were taught to praise God
In our challenging times to seek God
In the quiet times to worship God
In our pain to trust God
And at all times to thank God

1Pet 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, [God's] own purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

6] I joined my last church because it equipped and empowered me for spiritual warfare in my daily life because I had enough sense to understand that if I was ever going to have a better life I would have to stop making the same generational choices that landed my family in a mess all the time. Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you’re just coming out of one, or you’re getting ready to go into an other one. My last church equipped and empowered me to navigate my life successfully through these problems. Sometimes deliverance was quick and other times deliverance was slow but in our perseverance we formed our character through the adversity of life’s problems – and it’s our character not our comfort that He is interested in; our holiness not our happiness.

Rather than life being a constant journey of going from mountaintop to valley, it’s more like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life. No  matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.

7] I joined my last church because it was an empowering church. It believed in my potential, in my the treasure that God had hidden within me. Believed that with God I could do it. Because I grew up in a family that had a crab bucket pull everyone down mentality.

All things are possible with God.

8] I joined my last church because it wanted me prepared for eternity instead of living for the here and now. Our relationship with God was paramount because God wants us to spend eternity with Him. 

Only rewards we get in Heaven was based on what we did with our resources and people here on the earth for the Kingdom. Our faithfulness toward Him to advance kingdom purposes with the two things will determine what I get to do for eternity.

9] I joined my last church because it was purpose-driven – behind everything we did there was a kingdom purpose behind it instead of just doings things but not knowing why

We learnt how to stop being driven: 
by the pressures of life,
by the guilt of past wrongs
by the bitterness of pain
by the fear of things inward and things outward
by the insecurities of our weakness and dysfunctionalism
by the greed of materialism
by the yearning for popularity
by the fear of failure

and to be His and His alone.

Eph 4:11-16 

Take our example from Jesus – not the person sitting next to you:

Lk 2:40 – And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, F11 filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.

52 – And Jesus increased [matured] in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

From the Word we learn that we can grow in many different ways:

1] Grow Cold
Matt 24:12 Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.

Lawlessness in the church is a sign of the end times. 2Thess says that the return of Jesus Christ to the earth will not come until there is a mass falling away from Christ within the church. This doesn’t mean that there will be a mass awol of believers from the church but rather as Paul tells Tim in 2Tim4 – that “3…the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”

This lawlessness is turning away from sound doctrine – instead of sticking with the Word they go into error – they appear to be on fire for God but God says they’ve turned from the truth and therefore the love of many will grow cold. When you no longer stick with the Word, you’re no longer sticking with Jesus because He and His Word are one. These people are not believers gone awol on Sunday – they’re in church and they have stone cold hearts toward God because they have rejected the Word as the final authority for their lives.

If you are ever going to grow and mature in God then you will have to stick with the Word no matter what.

Jesus Wrote a letter to a church in the book of Rev 3:15-16 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
Jesus measures your heart in three temperatures when He describes your relationship with Him – hot, lukewarm cold.

The mass falling away in the church is because the love of many will grow cold – which means they were once hot. Most people if they really get saved – get saved hot – they’re on fire but they allow the enemy to dilute and pollute their spirits and they grow cold. They go from hot to lukewarm to cold. 

If God had to put a thermometer into your heart today what would the temperature be? Hot? Lukewarm? Cold?

Well I know I should be hotter – instead of knowing what you should be why don’t you just be hot? Jesus isn’t waiting for an answer – He just wants you to be hot. The excuse culture of well I know I should be doesn’t wash with him. He says either be hot or be cold because if you’re lukewarm you make Him feel sick and nauseous which make him want to wretch and throw up. I know I have often gone to the bathroom right after a service and thrown up some lukewarm believers.

In comparison to last month where are you? Last year? When you got saved? When revival came into your life? You’re not supposed to grow cold. You’re supposed to possess the ground you take and increase. 

I want to grow hotter and hotter in God because then He will not vomit me out of His mouth, but I will be like Him – a consuming fire – and burn the hell and the devil out of people.

2] Grow Worse
2Tim 3:13 says some people will grow worse and worse.
Some people grow bitter not better.
Some people grow fearful not faithful.
Some people grow harder not stronger.
Some people grow sarcastic not sharp.
Some people grow pitiful not powerful.
Some people grow into the victim not the victor.
Some people grow vague not vision.
Some people grow gory not glory.
Some people grow jealous not generous.
Some people grow fury not faith.
Some people grow compromise not conviction.

Lime the woman in Luke 5 who had the blood disease many grow worse not better. Some of the meanest people I have met are in the church – meaner than junk yard dogs. Religion has not made them sweeter but sour.

What are you growing in your life? Are you becoming better or worse? The work of the Spirit in your life is to make you sweeter – better – more like Jesus.

Gal 5:16-25 Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Who are you becoming? Are you becoming better or worse?

Whatever you are feeding will grow. Whatever you are starving will die.

3] Grow Fruit

God has called us to be fruit bearers not fruit inspectors. Too many are growing nothing themselves because they’re too busy inspecting everyone else’s fruit. Be careful that you are not found lacking in producing your God-given purpose here on the earth.

Jn 15:1-16 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. 5″I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. 6If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 8By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples… 16You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain.

The Secret to bearing fruit is abiding in the vine.

4] Grow Up

Growing up is not the same as growing old. Methuselah lived until he was 969 years old but it doesn’t say anything about doing mighty exploits for God. Growing older doesn’t mean you’re growing up in Christ. 

Eph 4:15 Mess – God wants us to grow up. We have to stop being babies and grow up. Too many believers are happier to remain as babies rather than grow up in Christ because they prefer everything to be done for them rather than be responsible to be accountable and work out their own salvation. 

1Cor 3:1-3 HOWEVER, BRETHREN, I could not talk to you as to spiritual [men], but as to non-spiritual [men of the flesh, in whom the carnal nature predominates], as to mere infants [in the new life] in Christ [unable to talk yet!] 2I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not yet strong enough [to be ready for it]; but even yet you are not strong enough [to be ready for it],
3For you are still [unspiritual, having the nature] of the flesh [under the control of ordinary impulses]. For as long as [there are] envying and jealousy and wrangling and factions among you, are you not unspiritual and of the flesh, behaving yourselves after a human standard and like mere (unchanged) men?

While the flesh dominates you you’re still a babe in Christ.

If you have the Word and Spirit – grow up

1Pet 2:2 – “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby”

AMP – Like newborn babies you should crave (thirst for, earnestlydesire) the pure (unadulterated) spiritual milk, that by it you may benurtured and grow unto [completed] salvation.

Eph 4:15 – Paul says, “may grow up in all things into Him who is the head–Christ—“ 
AMP – Enfolded in love, let us grow up in every way and in all things into Him Who is the Head, [even] Christ.

Matt 14:13-21

Eph 4:11-16 

Every person has a default position or an autopilot

They run on your energy

Let them go because you can only prop up so many people for so long – falls apart because they didn’t learn the lesson God was teaching them that would take them to the next level in their life

They retaliate – control / manipulation, helping you is hurting me, feelings of rejection, don’t care etc

12 plus 2 Can Do’s

1] I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me. Phil 4:13
AMP – I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency].

I am able.

2] I can face up to and endure any danger or difficulty that presents itself to me.
Joshua 1:9 Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.

Jud 20:22 But the people, the men of Israel, took courage and strengthened themselves and again set their battle line in the same place where they formed it the first day.

2Tim1:7 God has not given us a spirit of fear but of love, power and a sound mind.

He have courage.
3] I can be content and peaceful in the good times, the bad times and the average times.

Phil 4:12 I know how to be abased and live humbly in straitened circumstances, and I know also how to enjoy plenty and live in abundance. I have learned in any and all circumstances the secret of facing every situation, whether well-fed or going hungry, having a sufficiency and enough to spare or going without and being in want. AMP

I am content.

4] I can be confident that He will ever leave me helpless or hopeless.

Heb 13:5 Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down ( relax My hold on you)! [ Assuredly not!]

I am confident.

5] I can be composed in even the worst of times remaining calm, serene and controlled.

Phil 4:7 And God’s peace shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

I am peaceful. 

6] I can celebrate the goodness of God in the face of life’s adversities.

Jn 16:33 I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]
I am joyful.

7] I can cope with problems, pressure and people knowing that God always has a solution for me to overcome rather than sink in defeat. 

2Cor 12:9 But He said to me, My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble manfully]; for My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness.

1Cor 10:13 For no temptation (no trial regarded as enticing to sin), [no matter how it comes or where it leads] has overtaken you and laid hold on you that is not common to man [that is, no temptation or trial has come to you that is beyond human resistance and that is not adjusted and adapted and belonging to human experience, and such as man can bear]. But God is faithful [to His Word and to His compassionate nature], and He [can be trusted] not to let you be tempted and tried and assayed beyond your ability and strength of resistance and power to endure, but with the temptation He will [always] also provide the way out (the means of escape to a landing place), that you may be capable and strong and powerful to bear up under it patiently.

I am strong.

8] I can communicate my faith in God through Jesus Christ, no matter what the opposition, because to every question man has Jesus is the answer.

Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the Gospel (good news) of Christ, for it is God’s power working unto salvation [for deliverance from eternal death] to everyone who believes with a personal trust and a confident surrender and firm reliance, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

MESSAGE – It’s news I’m most proud to proclaim, this extraordinary Message of God’s powerful plan to rescue everyone who trusts him, starting with Jews and then right on to everyone else!

2Cor 3:12 Since we have such glorious hope, we speak very freely and openly and fearlessly.

I am bold.

9] I can change.

2Cor 3:18 And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.

Phil2:5 Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus.

I am Christlike

10] I can be consistent, remaining steady and not wavering, no matter what opposition or persecution the enemy may throw at us.

2Tim 2:3 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

James 1:12 Blessed is the man who is patient under trial and stands up under temptation, for when he has stood the test and been approved, he will receive [the victor's] crown of life which God has promised to those who love Him.

I am patient.

11] I can resolve conflict

1Cor 13:4-8 Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. 5It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. 6It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. 7Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. 8Love never fails

Gal 5:22-23 the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] is love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (an even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness,
23Gentleness (meekness, humility), self-control (self-restraint, continence). Against such things there is no law.

2Cor 5:18 But all things are from God, Who through Jesus Christ reconciled us to Himself [received us into favor, brought us into harmony with Himself] and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation [that by word and deed we might aim to bring others into harmony with Him].

I am a peacemaker.

12] I can complete what He has asked me to do.

John 17:4 I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.

2Tim 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Phil 1:6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

I am a completer.

13] I can be certain that He is a good God to me.

Jer 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. NIV

Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

:38-39 I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers, 39Nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

MESSAGE – I’m absolutely convinced that nothing–nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, 39high or low, thinkable or unthinkable–absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

I am convinced.

14] I can challenge the powers of darkness and it’s works on the earth.

Lk 4:18-19 18The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the good news to the poor; He has sent Me to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed [who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity], 19To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord [the day when salvation and the free favors of God profusely abound].

Jn 14:12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.

Lk 9:2 He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

I am a commander.

Rom 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

AMP Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].

1] We all want to live in God’s best

- the Gospel is a transforming Gospel

- live in the good and acc and perfect will of God

- live in the purposes of God for our lives
-2Cor 1:20 For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.

-Eph 2:10 For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].

We must be prepared to change. A transforming Gospel means that you change.

2Cor 3:18 And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.

Living in God’s best for your life is a journey. If you have the wrong map you will stay lost.

2] We therefore need to know why we are not there and how to get there

When you become born again, your spirit instantly changes; you are recreated in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17). Yet your mind is not recreated. You must conform your thinking continually and on purpose; it is not an overnight, one-time event.

The new birth changes the spirit. Renewing the mind changes the soul.

1Cor 3:1-3 1HOWEVER, BRETHREN, I could not talk to you as to spiritual [men], but as to nonspiritual [men of the flesh, in whom the carnal nature predominates], as to mere infants [in the new life] in Christ [ ‡1 unable to talk yet!] 2I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not yet strong enough [to be ready for it]; but even yet you are not strong enough [to be ready for it].

3] For you are still [unspiritual, having the nature] of the flesh [under the control of ordinary impulses].

- a carnal christian thinks like the world – learn about the difference between a carnal and a spiritual mind

- carnal christians don’t change – don’t transform bc they accept Christ but still live in defeat and failure – they either deduce that Christianity is another religion like others and give up or live a life of defeat as christens- religion cannot transform you – gospel does – the carnal Christian keeps examining their life and heart for wrongs to right but it has to do with renewing ur mind

- their carnal mindset produces the fruit of the flesh described in Galatians 5:19-21.

Gal 5:19-21 19Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Prov 23:7 For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.

Satan got people confused – distracted – ineffective – neutralized soldiers – not understanding new creation realities

You can’t just cut off the fruit without digging up the root. If the root is not removed, the fruit will grow back.

You can be on your way to heaven, but live in hell on earth.

Renewing the mind is more than learning. It is changing. Too many Christians know sooo much yet change so little.

Nothing, including the mind, gets better on its own.

Renewing the mind is a lifestyle not an experience. It takes time.

For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Rom 14:17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.