Outpouring

Amongst a certain section of the church - especially those who are within streams associated with the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements there is considerable interest in what is happening at Lakeland, Florida. Todd Bentley - quite a character and not remotely 'english' in his approach - is seeing extraordinary healing miracles happening at meetings at Lakeland.

A church in Dudley in the West Midlands is also experiencing this outpouring as the Pastor returned from Lakeland. Various people I know are heading out to Lakeland and I await with interest their report on what they have seen and experienced.

The Toronto Blessing saw a significant outpouring of the Spirit in the mid to late '90's and many of us have been waiting to see what the Lord will do next as the times between 'outpourings' or 'awakenings' seem to get shorter and shorter. These things do cause controversy. As we saw with the Toronto Blessing people took up very strong positions yet many of us will vouch for a life-changing experience of the refreshing and reviving power of the Spirit.

Don't Take Offense and Don't Judge

It is so easy for us to say we will be open to God. However our attitude so often is really that our openness to God is subject to certain rules we put into place. When we experience the power of the Spirit, when we see the kingdom coming and people getting healed etc we want it to be in acceptable ways. We would rather we didn't have to get out of our comfort zones, we would rather it wasn't someone like Todd Bentley who doesn't fit our image of a leader in these kind of things. Sometimes our minds are offended so our hearts can be revealed.

I don't know yet whether this is going to be as significant as Toronto - but I do know that I don't want to miss out on anything God may be doing. I have seen people missing out totally on something God is doing - sometimes even choosing not to go that way - I see the danger of being like the people of Nazareth who didn't recognise and welcome Jesus when he came to them. He was only able to do a small number of healings rather than many that other areas saw because of their lack of faith.

I made a decision in the late '90's to seek to be open to whatever God may do - however strange the manifestations and however it came culturally. If God is on the bandwagon then I also want to be.

I don't understand fully what all this is about. Fortunately I understand this as a main factor of being a disciple - there are things I don't understand. My expectation for many years now has been that the next wave of the Spirit would be missionary in character, not just for refreshing within the church but for new life outside the boundaries of church-life. If the recent impact of Bill Johnson's teaching on the UK charismatic and pentecostal churches has any lesson to teach us it is that the Spirit is not given for cosy church life. It is on the streets, in the ordinary things of life that the kingdom comes. If we are finding that this is a time when the dunamis/dynamite of the Spirit is seen as a catalyst for us getting out more then I will have a bit of that thank you very much.

Any way, what have I got to lose? As far as I can see on the UK church scene the only way is up. We need an outpouring of the Spirit and we need it now.

Investing in Influence

I woke up this morning thinking about the importance of investing in the right things. This line of thought was probably based on recognising that for a significant proportion of this week I have worked without investing adequately in times of rest. As a result I am overtired and feeling a bit run down.

But as I lead a church and reflect on how to do it I realise that the areas we invest in are vital - where we put our energies and who and what we identify with are important.

There are lots of things of course that we can identify with, invest in etc. But it strikes me that many of them may be good but not God. I want to make Godly decisions according to his way and this may well put me at odds with others and lead to some hard times of discernment.

Jesus himself aligned himself very strongly with the repentance movement that John the Baptist started, indeed, his birth place and the circumstances surrounding his birth made very strong points of connection and alignment.

As I have looked at the lives of others I see the greatest leaders being unafraid to invest themselves and be identified clearly with some movements that others may frown upon. I have witnessed other leaders pay lip service to being open to the influence of the Spirit through another movement and then swiftly reject it or become judgemental later when the culture of the movement creates discomfort for them. I have seen too many people having their minds offended so their hearts can be revealed and then not being able to walk with the Spirit who leads us to a change of heart and mind. Sadly, I see how easy it is for me to be like this - rejecting the way of repentance.

Stepen Covey in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People writes about the circle of concern and the circle of influence - and our need to live in the circle of influence - doing that which we can do rather than seeking to take action in the area of our concerns which are largely to do with things we can do nothing about. Jesus clearly worked on this basis - there were things he was concerned for and about but he invested himself in the areas of his calling ('the lost sheep of Israel'). There were often crowds but we read stories of his individual intervention (doing what he saw his father doing). He taught his disciples (by implication - Us) to identify a person of peace - an individually tailored programme of mission to those the Spirit is preparing.

We are supposed to work on the basis of working within that which we can influence under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

There's loads here to reflect on - I have worked out that I am supposed to invest time and energy in certain areas. The churches I lead, the missional movement represented by the Order of Mission, the New Wine Network. I will continue to invest time and energy into my family and my relationship with God. These are the things I can influence and though there is much that concerns me many of those things are not areas I can do much about.

So - I'm just going to do what I can do - lead by exercising influence, not be afraid of being identified and aligned with certain things. I will seek to live the way of repentance so that my heart can be changed and my mind renewed. I won't seek the good - I will seek what is God.