Connections 07 Debrief

Wow, what a weekend!!

The focus of our weekend here in the Southern Territory of the Salvation Army in Australia was being connected. We focused on the scripture of John 15:4 which says "Stay joined to me, and I will stay joined to you".

There were many different electives to attend during Friday and Saturday morning which allowed us to look at maybe what we should be doing and a chance to look at what we have been doing. How do they line up - are we doing what we should be doing? Something for us to think about as we go forward.

We had some non-Salvo's as special guests to give us an outside view of the Army's work and some views/comments made us think!

Saturday afternoon we had a rally through the streets of Melbourne, where many of the streets were closed off for us, and there were thousands of Salvo's flooding the streets. It was quite a sight - God's Army of Salvation.

The destination of the rally was Federation Square where we had a public 'announcement' time where the Commissioner and a few others, like our Territorial Justice Leader - Danielle Strickland, had a chance to talk to Melbourne.

We were told officially we weren't allowed to hand out evangelistic tracts or anything, but the Spirit led me to a guy. I saw this guy smoking early on and the Spirit pointed him out, but it wasn't until later that I actually talked to him.

This guy was born into a Hindu family but quickly became an atheist. When I started talking to him he didn't want to know a God or anything to do with it, but once we got talking, the Spirit took over!!

This guy connected with Jesus, felt the need for Him. He didn't want to commit anything in that moment because he still wanted to know more about Jesus first, but he was in love with Him - he really was!! I think if he came face to face with Jesus that night, I believe he would have been saved. He had repented of his sins with me and loved the concept of all Jesus stood for. So before I left this guy, I prayed with him and asked the Holy Spirit to guide him further into the truth and love of Jesus.

During all the afternoon at Fed Square, there were many bands playing and bringing glory to God in the midst of the streets of Melbourne - Hallelujah!!

Sunday, we had 29 Captains commissioned and sent out into the world to make disciples of all nations. What a time of worshipping our God - even if the sound wasn't there the whole time!

So much happened over these few days - this is just a scratch of the surface of the weekend. Possibly more will be blogged about soon.

Connections 07 was amazing - so much organisation - but so worth it!! Congratulations to Commissioner Knaggs and all the army of people behind the organising of this great event.

"But the LORD Almighty will be exalted by his justice,
and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness"
Isaiah 5:16

Connections 07

Connections has finally arrived!! The event of the century! The special time where we send out our new Officers (ministers) after their 2 years of training. This year it has been turned into a weekend celebration... if you are going to be near Melbourne Friday, Saturday or Sunday, the 23rd - 25th of November feel welcome to drop in!

For more info see http://www.salvationarmy.org.au/SALV:STANDARD::pc=PC_61776

Saturday afternoon we will be having our parade which will take us into the heart of Melbourne to Federation Square.

Please, as you are reading this, specifically pray that the Army will take the word to the streets and into the hearts of everyone we come across and that these people will call upon the Name of the Lord.... and hence be saved!!! Please pray this will be done, pray that the Holy Spirit will possess us and it is Jesus talking straight into the heart of Melbourne.

If you are in the neighbourhood, why not come and join in - we'll be @ Federation Square from 3pm Saturday 24th of November 2007. See the link above for the itinerary for the rest of the weekend.

Why not come and join the Army - join the battle!!

Give up your small ambitions - and COME, CHANGE THE WORLD

(Mark 8:34-35)

To God be the glory!

Empowerment through the Holy Spirit - say no to Satan!

I will be responsive to the Holy Spirit’s work and obedient to His leading in my life, growing in grace through worship, prayer, service and the reading of the Bible.

This is the first part of a soldiers covenant that we agree to uphold when signing our lives to serve God in the Salvation Army.

I was just watching a show which involved psychics to solve crimes, people are attracted to this, it is attractive - why?!

I believe people think it is something that makes you different - it gives you a supernatural power and people notice you if you are psychic.

This is something I don't like to talk about often, but I was once psychic, I was a medium!

I was once attracted to this when I was younger and basically wanted to have this special ability - I thought it would be cool and I would stand out of the crowd and I would become the centre of attention - somehow I started to develop the ability!

I didn't realise at the time, but I said yes to Satan!

It wasn't relaxing or as glamorous as it is made out to be. I couldn't rest, my heart was becoming strained - if I didn't pass on a 'message' from the 'dead person' they would make my heart strain Anytime during the night 'they' would wake you and keep bugging you. It freaked out all my work mates and it was always negative or scary stuff.

It came to the point I had to do something. One of my mates, Pete (see blog roll) prayed with me and discerned that it was demonic and we prayed through it for many hours until I was free from it - I was then baptised into the Holy Spirit which I then developed the Spiritual gift of Spiritual Discernment and it became very obvious to me that what I 'saw' as 'dead people' were really demons deceiving me through a demon oppressing me.

Always remember this... Satan's biggest lie - he doesn't exist!!

If Satan exists, God exists - so he and all his fallen angels pretend to be something else that diverts our attention from God!!

What do we want to see?... our dead relatives to say that one last goodbye we didn't get.... we need to learn to use every minute we have in the hear and now!!

So, back to the first statement - we as Soldiers need to be responsive to the Holy Spirit's work!! If we are, we find we get word's of prophecy - that is a million times better than a word of a psychic!!!!!!! We find we can receive the gift of Discernment of the spirits - a helpful gift - Satan can appear as an angel of light!!! Hence - psychics are evil, they are empowered by demons... they might be nice people, but read 2 Corinthians 11:14 which says;

"And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light."

Let the Holy Spirit reign freely in your life for the glory of God!! Why go through the demons when you can go through God!! Do you want to follow the 'real thing' or an imitation?!

Psychics (demons) or God (Holy Spirit)??

Jesus or Hell??

Work on Holiness, it is quite obviously the answer to everything!! (Thanks Stephen!!) You won't find any psychics with the baptism of the Holy Spirit - wonder why?! We have the power of the Holy Spirit, so why don't we use it like psychics 'flaunt' their abilities?? Satan is much pushier I suppose, God leaves it up to us, so let's step it up Soldiers of Holiness!!

Praise God, be responsive to the Holy Spirit, 'preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season' (2 Timothy 4:2), bring all the glory to God He deserves!! Praise you Jesus, the Name above every name!!

"Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy"

1 Corinthians 14:1

"For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy"

Revelation 19:10 d

Pray it through!!

I'm a fan of Smith Wigglesworth, for those of you who know who he is. One of my daily devotionals is by him. I was about to go to bed ('cos it's getting late!) but I felt I had to write this blog for someone who was about to read it!

Here's some of the text from the past few days from Smith Wigglesworth - I'll entitle this selection - 'Pray it through';

"I was called at 10 o'clock one night to pray for a young person who was dying of tuberculosis and whom the doctor had given up on. As I looked, I saw that unless God intervened, it would be impossible for her to live...

...Then the fight came. It seemed as though the heavens were brass. I prayed from 11pm to 3:30am. I saw the glimmering light on the face of the sufferer and saw her pass away. The Devil said ' Now you are done for. You have come from Bradford and the girl has died on your hands'.

I said 'It can't be....This is a time to change strength'. I remembered the passage that said 'Men always ought to pray and not loose heart' (Luke 18:1) Death had taken place, but I knew that my God as all-powerful and that He who had split the Red Sea is just the same today. It was a time when I would not accept 'No', and God said 'Yes'

I looked at the window, and at that moment, the face of Jesus appeared. It seemed as though a million rays of light were coming from His face. As He looked at the one who had just passed away, the color came back to her face. She rolled over and fell asleep."

Then today Smith added,

"We need to wake up and strive to believe God. Before God could bring me to this place, He broke me a thousand times. I have wept; I have groaned. I have travailed many a night until God broke me. We will never have the gifts of healing and the working of miracles in operation unless we stand believing God and 'having done all' (Eph 6:31), we still stand believing"

The main message I feel I need to say is; pray through the problem that is facing you!!

Be determined to keep praying until whatever is opposing you is gone, God is bigger and stronger - keep praying until it is destroyed or until your the problem is gone! If that means praying for 4 hours straight - DO IT!! If it means you don't eat for 12 hours and using that time to pray instead - DO IT!!

Pray it through - and give God the glory!

Hallelujah!

"By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus' name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see."

Acts 3:15-17

Renewal

I've been going through one of those dark times the past few days - coming off a high from being empowered for my trip to Rwanda etc, then as I expected, the enemy tired to bring me down.

Tonight we had our Songsters and Band practices, nothing particularly special, but I walked away tonight praising God in my spirit, and feeling so much freedom, and that the effects of the enemy had no footing on me.

I think about the times the disciples were beaten and thrown into gaol, etc, they just praised God through it all and they always found themselves close to God, and God drew closer to them also.

When you find yourself in a situation or a place you're not comfortable with - just remember to praise God - you'll find yourself "soar(ing) on wings like eagles" (Isiah 40:31). Try it out!

To God be the glory! Hallelujah!

"Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth!

Worship the Lord with gladness.

Come before him, singing with joy.

Acknowledge that the Lord is God!

He made us, and we are his.

We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving;

go into his courts with praise.

Give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the Lord is good.

His unfailing love continues forever,

and his faithfulness continues to each generation."

Psalm 100

Listen!

How well do you hear God's voice?

Do you sometimes hear it but want more confirmation?

Do we trust our Spiritual leaders to hear and confirm our call? Should they be prophetic?

Are you being responsive to God's call whatever the support level you get from your leaders/peers?

Keep our leaders in our prayers so they hear God's voice above all the ringing phones and above all the emails requiring responses.

May Jesus be first in all our lives! Remember your first love!

"Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place."

Revelation 2:5

Spiritual Authority

I was just reading yesterday from 2 Kings 2 when Elijah is about to be taken up to Heaven.

Elisha knew it was his last day with his teacher, leader and mentor. This was confirmed through other prophets in the towns they were going through, and no matter how often he was told to stay where he was by Elijah, Elisha refused to leave him.

It made me think how different we are today in many ways. We aren't great followers of God's appointed leaders. We prefer to put down our leaders and think of ourselves as a better leader ourselves. Elisha knew Elijah had the power of God on him - Spiritual leadership, something we really don't respect well today.

Since I have the gift of Spiritual discernment it is much more obvious to me how important, and real, Spiritual authority is! Pray your eyes will be opened to this also, it will enhance your leadership - being submissive under your Spiritual leaders - try it!

Pray for our Spiritual leaders - their placement and their future decisions.

"But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong."

1 Corinthians 1:27

And now, a word from our sponsor....

Isn't getting a word spoken into your life directly from the Creator an amazingly great thing!!

The past few weeks I've been getting a bit run down and discouraged. It's funny how even fellow brothers and sisters in Christ can even discourage you by being competitive about being the most 'righteous' or even the most 'anointed'.

Others look down on you because they have been lucky enough to have had some theological training, so that makes them better than me who is 'trapped' in a work place, even though I use every spare minute I have serving God, and every holiday I earn not for 'me' time, but for things that will benefit the Kingdom.

Last Saturday night we had an Acts 1:8 night for equipping and empowering through the Holy Spirit so we could prepare for our time in Rwanda in January. During this time one of the guy's that were there went around speaking a word from God into each of our lives. One of the points he said to me from God was "you are worthy to serve Him - don't listen to the other voices".

God speaks right into our hearts and answers us right when we need to hear Him! Our God is a god of love and encouragement! I'm glad I serve the living God!

God has given us His Spirit and along with that, the gift of prophecy - those who have been entrusted with this gift, let God speak through you as was done to me on Saturday - build up the church! Speak God's words into peoples lives - and even if God gives you a word for people on the street who don't yet know God - don't hold back!!!

Another word I was given from God was that I was going to come across decisions that I will need to lean on Him soon...

All glory to God - thank you for Your words!

"The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught."

Isaiah 50:4

What a weekend!!

What a weekend!!!

I've just arrived home from warm, sunny, humid Brisbane!

Our team that is going to Rwanda in January had our training this weekend which was amazing!

The team is amazing - it is hand picked by God. Totally different personalities in each team member. There is a couple of introverts, a few P's (un-structured people), a couple of 'fun lovers', a couple of.... you get the picture - a great team that makes up the body of Christ that is specifically made up to go to Rwanda.

Many of us don't know why God has put as on the team, but we have just obeyed and are going. Saturday night we had the Acts 1:8 night (look it up to know why), and many words from God were spoken. One was, 5 of us on the team complete the jigsaw to put it all together. Doesn't make sense to you - we're waiting to see what it means too!!

Please pray for our time in Rwanda in January, and that lives will be changed, directly and indirectly.

I'll have to blog more of about it in the next few days - I need sleep - sooo much info and planning in such little time.

"but he who stands firm to the end will be saved"

Matthew 24:13