Your Kingdom Come...

This morning was an exciting morning at Church - more so than ever we were aware that God was wanting His Kingdom to break out. Earlier on in the week Paul (lead elder) had encouraged us to be asking God for words of knowledge for the Sunday morning.

We started by hearing testimonies from around the country, Paul shared stories from Southampton, Bedford and Canterbury. Following this a lady from CJC shared how in the summer she had been diagnosed with a bladder stone. She had been for scans back in September which clearly showed the stone. She was due to re-visit the hospital in December and also had more scans booked in for mid November. Prior to these scans she visited the healing rooms at a recent conference. The next day she realised the dull pain she was constantly experiencing had gone and she had loads more energy than she had for the past few months. The following Monday she had three different scans at the Hospital and when she saw the Dr he declared 'Who told you you had a bladder stone - there is not one here...' She explained about the previous scans and the only thing the Dr could suggest is that she had passed it without noticing. He did then admit that passing such a stone is very rare and passing one unknown is not really heard of - the lady was able to explain what she knew had happened - God had healed her!

A few of us shared words of knowledge, and we prayed for those who responded. One lady who I prayed for with a pain in her tooth said the pain totally disappeared, we then prayed for a pain in her chest. After praying the pain was still there but she was happy with the tooth healing so went and sat down. She later grabbed me over coffee and said that as she took a sip of her drink she heard a noise in her chest and the pain totally disappeared - she left this morning totally PAIN FREE.

I felt God speak to me about healing Migraines - someone else had the same word of knowledge. A member of the staff team came bounding up to us instantly saying 'it's me with the Migraines, it's me...!!' We prayed for him and he said he felt pressure behind his eyes release - we're waiting to hear that he is totally healed.

I was also able to pray with a lady whose name God had given me - I had no idea why, I just felt I should pray for a lady with this specific name. As I said it over the microphone I was so unsure, but a guest this morning (visiting from another church) came up to me, told me her name and I was able to pray for her and speak into her current (unknown to me) situation! She left this morning with a whole lot more than she'd expected - God is soooooo good!

Paul spoke this morning on being free from religiosity and rules - God has opened up the whole of His Kingdom for us to enjoy and explore - it should be fun and exciting. It certainly was this morning :)

More stories from InDeep.

'What has God done this week?'

Two stories from girls aged 10:

"We've just got a new puppy, she's really playful but every now and again she would bite me. Mum and Dad and me were worried that she might end up being a dog who bites when she gets older and I was really worried she might get taken away from us. So I prayed, and asked God to stop the puppy from biting me. I went downstairs the next morning and the puppy came running towards me all excited, she went to bite my feet like she normally does and then she turned around. I looked up and there was an angel standing there, telling her not to bite me. She turned around and licked my feet and then went off and played. She hasn't bit me since."

"I was at home this week doing my homework. I didn't really know what I had to do and was getting confused. I prayed to God and asked him to help me. Then I felt something on my arm and I saw my cats paw print. Then I looked again at my arm and I saw the word 'description.' So for my homework I wrote a description of my cat and that was exactly the sort of thing I needed to do and I got good marks for my homework."

WOW!

I have absolutely no explanation for angels talking to pets, or words appearing on arms.... but I do know that God is powerfully at work in the lives of the young people at In Deep - it is an honour and privilege to listen to their stories of God's goodness, provision and His intervention in their lives each week.

Who Am I?

Today I got sent an email requesting a short bio about myself for the church website and staff team board that goes up each Sunday. The person requesting wasn't trying to get me to take it so seriously, but it did get me thinking....

I've made a couple attempts to write something and drawn a blank. I think I'm struggling because I can't decide what to include and what to leave out. Should I go for a slighty quirky... 'let's tell people something a bit random about me, I'm a cool youth worker' blurb, or perhaps a more straight forward 'I do the youth work and I grew up in Southampton...' spiel...?

At the end of the day, none of that defines who I am, perhaps that's why I'm struggling.

I'd settle for something a long the lines of:

Sarah Dickenson: A total mess until the Grace of God rescued her, now living the dream, loved with an outrageous love by a totally good God - desires to see His Kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven.

can't get enough of....

Right at the moment I can't get enough of this song:



Perhaps it's not the usual sort of lyric I'd fall in love with, but you simply can't deny the anointing on this song, listen to it, sing it and let God minister to you through it :)

Thinking about youth work...

I've just returned from a weekend away in Eastbourne at the youth work conference. Helping a friend out on her organisations stand meant I didn't get to a whole heap of sessions/seminars, but it did get me thinking a bit about youth work and the young people we work with.

As my friend and I chatted one night, we hit on something that I think is both shocking and provoking. My friend told me that some research has been done recently (can't remember exact statistic... will have to check..) that says a whole heap of kids are choosing to leave church aged 10. 10 year old children are opting out.

We chatted for a while about why this might be and I shared a story from a recent experience I'd had teaching that age group where they initially completely missed the point of the Scripture we were looking at. I was shocked - I couldn't believe how much they didn't get what the Bible was saying, or that it had anything to to teach us for today. My friend shared a story from her experience - a whole group of Children had no idea that the story of 'Joseph' and his coloured coat was in the Bible.

We talked about how so often youth and children's resources are written to teach young people ABOUT God. Even the more interactive stuff is written down in books, formulated and presented as a 123 ready made tool to enable young people to experience God.

I don't want to discount some of the amazing resources out there, but I do want to ensure that what I'm doing as a youth worker enables my young people to meet God powerfully. If they know about God but don't KNOW Him then why should they opt in? If I teach Bible stories in the same fictional, 'what a nice story' way I talk about Twilight or Harry Potter, why should they expect God to impact them now? If my only expectation is that they understand rather than experience then I'm doing them a disservice and I deserve to be moved on and shipped out.

We serve a LIVING God, if young people don't understand that he is NOW rather than 'then' we have a serious problem. I'm encouraged to be led more and more by the Holy Spirit with regards to what I teach and when I teach it. I want young people to treat the Bible as their daily bread, not a story book, I want young people to enter church expectant that they will meet with their God, not dragging their feet expecting to be bored, I want young people to change their worlds now, not wait to be world changers in the future.

How are we going to do all of this.... I'm not sure... maybe I'll write a book on it ;)

Confrontation and Honour

"The goal of honour is to empower other people."

"People are at their best when they feel powerful"

"Everyone expects to live powerfully in the community - we all have value and power"

"The challenge is to live a vulnerable life in dangerous surroundings. "

"The testimony of heaven in us is that we love each other"

"How you treat people flows from what you believe to be true"

"the love in any relationship must be protected. Confrontation must keep in mind the love"

"Confrontation is about strategically applied pressure to expose areas that need strength and grace"

"Confrontation must happen in a relationship that is built on trust, if there is no trust, there should be no confrontation"

"We should be asking good questions, not making 'good' judgements"

"The kingdom is an internal government (the Holy Spirit IN us) not an external controlling government"

A context for Honour

This weekend I went to a Conference about the Culture of Honour. Danny and Sheri Silk were speaking from Bethel Church in Redding.

Here are a few notes from the leaders day on Friday:

'When the gifts of Christ (ref 1 cor 12:27-28) are shoved into a government (church leadership structure) that can't handle it, that gifting won't function.'

On the 5 fold ministries:

Pastors focus on the flock, communicating to the church 'you're the most important thing to my ministry'

Teachers focus on the value of the Bible and are concerned with presenting truth that is right.

Evangelists focus on the lost.

Prophets want to make what is invisible visible, they focus on the Spirit realm.

Apostles focus on heavens blueprint. They are determined for 'Your Kingdom to come...'

He spoke on the need to have input from Apostolic leaders into the local church as they have the blueprint of heaven as their focus. 1 Cor 12:27-28 shows us the model of 'FIRST Apostles.....' this is the structure we should follow if we desire Heaven on Earth. The governmental structure we should be looking for is this (priorities in brackets)

Apostles (Heaven)

Prophets (Spirit Realm)

Teachers (Understanding the Kingdom)

Workers of Miracles (Supernatural Activity)

He helpfully noted that this is NOT a 5 fold corporate ladder!

What has God done this week?

InDeep is our Wednesday night group for those in years 5-7 who are serious about getting to know God better. It's an exciting place to be and God turns up powerfully each week.

We always start by asking the children 'what has God done this week...' here are two stories from today:

One of the lads in the group injured his wrist a few weeks back, he'd been to the doctors, followed their advice, but it didn't seem to be getting much better. Then he and his mum realised they hadn't prayed for it yet, so they prayed and told the pain to go. The next morning he woke up totally pain free and the wrist has been fine since!!

Another girl told a story of God protecting her mum this week. She had left her car parked on the roadside to go into a doctors surgery. As she was at the reception she heard a massive crash, walking outside she saw her car 100 yards further up the road and smashed into a tree. A moving car had crashed into the back of it and her car was totally writen off. Had the mum been back at her car 1 minute earlier she would have been in the car during the time of the collision. We gave thanks to God for his protection!

What has God done in your life this week?

God uses Ready Salted!

A new Christian at CJC shared an amazing story this week. She's been suffering serious pain recently due to a cyst on one of her ovaries. Having recently come to know Jesus (2 weeks ago...!) she asked her cell to pray for her. As they prayed another lady got a strong sense that she should eat a packet of Ready Salted Walkers Crisps... (random!)

The next day and wanting to do what God had seemingly said the new Christian spent a good amount of time hunting for the specific walkers crisps. Eventually after visiting a few shops she found some and ate them. Two hours later the pain had totally gone!!!....... This isn't the best bit!

Previously her cell had been praying that the cyst would burst so she could avoid an operation. A day or so after the crisp incident the cyst burst of it's own accord. She visited the Dr who sent her for a scan which revealed she was TOTALLY HEALTHY, every trace of the cyst had GONE and she was given a clean bill of health!!!

How good is God?!!

Raised With Christ: How the Resurrection changes everything

Adrian Warnock, arguably one of the most famous Christian Bloggers, has written a book on the Resurrection and it's available to PRE ORDER now!

A whole bunch of people have reviewed it and have nothing but the highest praise for it - check out his blog for some of their comments.

I'm going to read it and so should you!

Here is Adrian talking about it in his own words:

Raised With Christ: How The Resurrection Changes Everything from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.

Most challenging song of the year award:

I first heard an unmastered version of this song back in May this year. From the start of the song to the end I found myself balling my eyes out - the challenge was plain and simple: everything we do must come from a place of love, that's how Jesus lived His life and we must do the same.

Listen to it and let it challenge you too!

Red coats, green hoodies and stationers!

I was asked to speak a bit about treasure hunting with the youth in Orpington this afternoon which was followed by us all hitting the streets for about an hour. Armed with some notes by seasoned treasure hunter Wendy Mann and plenty of stories from Newday Global and other hunts I've been on I was excited to be spending the afternoon with the guys and girls there.

After a quick briefing we split into 4 teams and headed out.

I think throughout the course of the afternoon I spoke to almost every person on Orpington High Street wearing a red coat! Some were more successful than others. One lady we spoke to didn't match any other clues but asked what church we were from. When we told her it was 'Hope Church' she said 'oh my neighbours go to that church.... do you know the....' One of the team members was able to have a bit of a chat with her about their mutual friends... God is clearly on her case! We later prayed that she would talk to her neighbours about her encounter.

Later on we met another guy who was wearing a red coat. As we approached he said 'it's OK, I've already spoken to two others up there... I don't match any of your clues...' He'd just left another one of the teams. As we chatted he was surprised to see the clue bag pipes on one of the treasure maps... he was from Scotland. We had a quick chat and he exclaimed 'I'm going to tell my wife about this, she's religious you see....' We said goodbye to him, a lovely man who was slightly taken about that he'd been picked out by God twice on a Sunday afternoon!

Another lady wearing a green hoodie asked us to pray about a major job interview she had on Tuesday and we also got to pray with a lady in (another!) red coat with back pain. She said it felt a bit better afterwards but was in a rush so we didn't get to pray again. (doh!)

One of the other teams had the clues purple scarf, WH Smith, stationers and butterflies between them. As they were heading back to the church centre they spotted a lady heading into WH Smith wearing a purple scarf. They patiently waited outside until she walked out of the shop, straight pass them and into Rymans.... another stationers...!!! At this point a double decker bus drove past with butterflies on it. They knew this was God so waited again and were able to chat to her about how God had singled her out this afternoon, she was clearly blessed by their words about God's love for her as an individual.

Another team this afternoon met an atheist guy in the park who spent most of his days there feeding the ducks. They were able to talk about the incredible adventure following Jesus is and were able to pray with him 3 times for various things. Amazingly he wouldn't take a card about Church because he was an atheist... he was however happy to receive prayer and listen to the team explain what Jesus meant to them... awesome stuff!

Again I was struck by how once you get over the initial fear and the first set back, treasure hunting is such an easy way to get out on the streets and tell people about Jesus. It shouldn't be difficult to communicate God's love to a broken and hurting world. Treasure hunting seems to be a great tool God is blessing at the moment to enable His Kingdom to come on earth as it is in Heaven.