When the Word and the Spirit come together!

Hi People,



Take a look at what Smith Wigglesworth prophesied in 1947, the year of his death.

"During the next few decades there will be two distinct moves of the Holy Spirit across the church in Great Britain. The first move will affect every church that is open to receive it, and will be characterized by the restoration of the baptism and gifts of the Holy Spirit. The second move ... will result in people leaving historic churches and planting new churches.

In the duration of each of these moves, the people who are involved will say, 'This is a great revival.' But the Lord says, 'No, neither is this a great revival but both are steps towards it.' When the new church phase is on the wane, there will be eidence in the churches of something that has not been seen before: a coming together of those with an emphasis on the word and those with an emphasis on the Spirit. When the Word and the Spirit come together, there will be the biggest move of the Holy Spirit that the nations, indeed, the world, have ever seen. It will mark the beginning of a revival that will eclipse anything that has been witnessed within these shores, even the Wesleyan and Welsh revivals of former years.

The outpouring of God's Spirit will flow over from the United Kingdom to mainland Europe, and from there, will begin a missionary move to the ends of the earth."



This is significant and this is happening ... a coming together of those who champion either the Word or the Spirit. Not only is this so, but in the hearts of many there is a cry ' We want the Spirit to demonstrate His Word in this day!' And it is this that excites me.

Consider what Bill Johnson wrote in his book 'Face to face with God' ... "The kingdom of God must never be reduced to talk, ideas and principles. The kingdom of God is power. Unlimited power has been granted to those who encounter Him over and over again. Each encounter works deeper in our hearts, bringing about the needed transformation so that we might be entrusted with more of Him. The more profound the work of the Spirit within us, the more profound the manifestation of the Spirit through us."

At this time the Spirit of Truth is removing options and excuses from us quickly, leaving us with with only one alternative, the reality of the Word made real through real people. The Living God revealing Himself in a real way through real people who seek Him!

And so, He is looking for a 'So be it' generation ... 2Cor1:20 says "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ. And so through Him the 'Amen' is spoken by us to the glory of God." Jesus' life, ministry, and triumphant work on the Cross declares 'YES' into eternity on our behalf so that we, with great child-like boldness (often considered 'presumption' by many), may respond 'LET IT BE' today as it is in Eternity to His glory.

As Hebrews 11:39,40 reveals, we live in the privileged day of fulfilled promises, so let us not cower away into the fear of the 'unknown' or 'what if'; let us, together, be that people who boldly say 'let it be as You have promised Father', that the dimensions of Heaven would be the demonstrations of earth, and that the living words of the Living Word would not remain as ink and paper, but be etched onto the hearts, lives, bodies and minds of a world groaning for the Sons of God to be revealed to usher in the Father's intended time of 'when the Word and the Spirit come together'!



I'm pumped to be alive in this day!!!!



Loads of love,



Ryan

“Sacrifice is not in the vocabulary of Romantics and Lovers!"

“Sacrifice is not in the vocabulary of Romantics and Lovers!” What a significant and profound statement; one of many Nick Davis charged us with as leaders this past weekend. Consider that a moment … as God is moving us ,as His ‘called out ones’, into the wild and breathtaking expanse of Revelation, Transformation, Demonstration and Reformation in this world, He is calling us to Kingdom feats that require dramatic decisions of us all. He does not stand looming over us with a pointed headmasters finger demanding change for Kingdom’s sake; rather, He comes along side us as the Great Shepherd and leads us on with His Love. His eyes are the window to our future, and as we intentionally and passionately gaze up, we, like Paul,will say, ‘ Christ’s love compels me. ‘
The Father recently showed me that, in enlarging our hearts for the future, there are two ways. One is His way, the other carries the guise of religion and leads to human effort. I’ll start with the last …
Here, we see and know what is right, and through devotion, we make room for the things of God in our lives. This is not all that bad, but God has a better way that has lasting life-giving fruit. If we find ourselves in this first place, all the decisions we make will seem like sacrifice, but, again, he has a better way ….
Here, Father God delights us with a deeper and more intimate ‘knowing’ of Him; and His delighting of us with Himself gives natural birth to spontaneous devotion. Romance!! This one takes a little more time as we marinate daily in His presence and in moments together called church meetings; ah, but here, all seemingly sacrificial decisions become moments of ’starry-eyed’ obedience, because we ’see’ Him and lose sight of ourselves!
So, 1. a quick-fix devotional sacrifice, or 2. a patient marinating where He increasingly delights us with Himself and we can’t help respond.
Didn’t He say after all, ‘obedience is better than sacrifice’! I vote for God’s Delight that leads us into Devotion!!!!
Mountains of love on your heads,
Ryan

An Incredible week

Hi Everyone,
Wow, what an incredible last week we’ve had together. Last week’s time of prayer seemed to be the foretaste of what was to come with us ‘ending’ at 8.50pm on a Thursday night, toward the end of a long week! A Spirit-led, unrushed time of pursuing the Person of God as our prize. He is the place and source of all fruitfulness that will last into eternity.
And then, personally, a Saturday that the Spirit will always remind me of … I was watching a Bill Johnson DVD and he made a statement that the Holy Spirit has used to reach into the deepest recesses of me, ‘we need an anointing equal to the revelation we have received in order to see it demonstrated. A revelation is an invitation from God to encounter Him in order to be transformed and empowered to usher in His kingdom.’ (my paraphrase around Bill’s kernel of truth.) Think of that … it is profound! God has begun to show me how He has revealed much truth to me over the last year and how legitimate things have taken the edge of my prioritized personal pursuit of Him. I have no more excuses as He continues to ‘disturb’ the status quo in my life.
And then Sunday night … after a ‘good’ morning time together, the Lord had something special up His sleeve for us that evening. After a great time of worship and my message ‘The Anchor-man generation: co-labouring with the Holy Spirit’, there was a natural, unforced, worshipful response for nearly 45minutes. Scotty G got behind the mic with his guitar and slowly the hearts began to rise in love songs as we devoted ourselves to our Lover, Jesus. (I even made a return to the bass guitar after at least a years absence. The blister is proof of that.) Wow!!! Again, having to ‘kick people out’ at 9.10pm ‘cos we don’t have the freedom of a ‘home of our own’, yet!
Yes, God is moving and stirring our hearts for more of Him! Let’s continue to ‘press through the crowd’ as a people for more of Him!
Within this, Nick Davis recently had a sense from God that the Spirit was releasing ‘a wild hunger’ for the King and His kingdom in LCi, and that ‘God wants to hallmark (us) with wildness’! May we not reduce ‘wildness’ to rabid, mouth-foaming religious action that amounts to nothing more than a more weary Bride; rather, may this ‘wildness’ be undergirded and inspired by a desperate hunger for God , and as He responds and graciously draws us nearer to know Him more intimately, may God encounters fuel our living for Him in a world poised for the reality of the Kingdom coming!
From glory to glory, here’s to more of Him dwelling with us!(Eph2:22,3:19)
Much love,
Ryan

Two profound statements

Hi Everyone,
Here are two profound statements that I stumbled into the other day that some up something of where we are at as a ‘People of Faith’. Here goes …
“If you want to build a ship, don’t summon people to buy wood, prepare tools, distribute jobs, and organize the work; rather, teach people the yearning for the wide, boundless ocean.”
De-Saint Exupery
”A great deal more failure is the result of an excess of caution than of bold experimentation with new ideas. The frontiers of the Kingdom of God were never advanced by men and women of caution.”
J. Oswald Sanders

Church, let us continue to find ourselves in the place of constant wonder as the wild blazing fire in His eyes sets our hearts racing with the excitement of the new frontiers of God and His purpose! Great moments of Revelation of Him moving our lives into Transformation to be like Him so we can tangibly live out Kingdom Demonstration like He did!
Much love,
Ryan