Amazing time in Maun - What is it to be child like?

We have just finished four days of meetings, really like a semi conference every night preaching and seeing God moving powerfully in their lives and then last night another meeting with the leaders. What to say, we are looking forward to a few days of rest but we are so thankful. God gives seed to the sower! We have been so blessed as the Lord has given us what has been needed for the people and to see such freedom and joy come into their lives we are so blessed. People powerfully delivered of demons, people healed of pain and sickness and issues of the heart. People set free by the power of the Holy Spirit in joy and freedom. For the Pastor, he felt so refreshed and strengthened and knew it was Gods timing in bringing us. People were so full of the Holy Spirit they couldn't stand up to speak, it was just wonderful seeing them filled with joy leaning on the podium in order to stand up :) They were just so blessed and spending four days with people have put them in our hearts and this morning as we said goodbye it was like our hearts were being torn out but we believe we will be back at some time the Lord willing.

In all the places we have been in Botswana there is an open door for us to come back and to bring teams with us so that is very encouraging and look forward to what the Lord may do in the future.

We have just booked into a place by the river for a few days to just spend time with the Lord alone and see what the next steps are. We are both well, Jim recovering from his cold. Although I am getting a little homesick for my girl and as we look that we still have another 2 and a half months think, "Lord what have you got ahead?" We have only been away from New Zealand for 2 and a half weeks and yet already so much has happened it seems like a lifetime! I know we will certainly be different when we come back and already am seeing Jim stepping up into so much more authority it is amazing. And seeing things bow to the name of Jesus here is just amazing. One of the most precious things yesterday that we will remember forever is a girl who the Lord set free in such a powerful way and then to see her come back to the leaders meeting hungry for more even though it was her first time in the church. It broke our heart as she was told she could not stay as she was just so hungry for more of God.

We have had such a variety of stuff happen in two weeks, the contrasts are amazing. From the comforts of South Africa, to the bus crash, to washing in a basin, to God opening doors for ministry and homes for us to stay in, it is just amazing! God keeps reminding us that he will do what he promised!

A revelation I have had is about what it is to be "child like in faith", an understanding is the innocence of a child, innocent of sin, unhindered by hurt or pain. I have had the revelation of child like in trusting the Lord for his provision of food and shelter before but this is bringing a whole new level of understanding of the innocence that we need to come back into in the Lord. These past few days we have seen so much pain, so much hurt in peoples lives, so much sickness, HIV, abuse and I had a dream that showed me of murder and in processing this the Lord is teaching me about His forgiveness that brings people back to that child like innocence before pain, before hurt. And is murder any different of any other sin and to love and forgive.
Powerful questions that tests your heart so we are going to enjoy just processing some of everything that has happened over these past couple of weeks and see what the Lord is revealing to us.

So bye for now but know that God is doing powerful things and will continue to do so as He has promised.
With love & thanks, Jim & Sarah

"I am ruined for the ordinary"

“I am ruined for the ordinary” A statement that can possibly be to some, come from a place of judgement, or it can be from a place of there is more in the Kingdom of God that I am yet to experience or understand, revelation that I have tasted of something that actually shows me that I have not tasted of anything yet. A place where there is such a contentment and joy in what I have seen and longed to see and yet a revelation that there is way more "beyond what I think, ask and imagine" (Eph 3:20) and one that spurs me on to seek and discover all the fullness that could be ours in the Kingdom of God. When we as Christians see other Christians going places or experiencing things that we don’t understand or perhaps we have not yet moved in, we can either become jealous of that person and judge and bring them down to our level, exclude them from our lives or we can choose to be excited by what is happening and be encouraged and spurred on in the Lord for the more than ca...

"A man's enemies will be the members of his own household" Matt 10:36

Recently we have been pondering how to deal with situations in our family that don't line up with the word. What action do we need to take? Are we being too harsh? Do we accept the behaviour or be considered by those around us as "too radical" or "too black and white"? "Where is grace in all of this? How do we love the sinner but hate the sin? What about forgiveness? What is the role of discipline? What makes that sin any worse than lying? What is true love? And there are a lot more questions going through the mind in how to work through this and know God's will and desire for the situation and the person. And firstly to say we have not come to any conclusions and are growing and learning day by day in this but I want to throw it out there. In Matt 10:34-39 says "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn "a man against his father, ...

Obedience and Commitment are big things in Gods Kingdom

Reading in Acts 7 this morning the story through Stephen of Abraham being told by God to " Leave your country and your people and go the the land I will show you" So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child." As I reflected on this and the journey of Abraham stepping out in faith into a land that he received no inheritance in but a promise of what was to come for his descendants of which we live in the fruit of that, I thought of todays generations in which often is only doing things that we want to do or that will benefit us personally as we live for 'today' not worrying about tomorrow. A sense of if it feels good then do it, if it doesn't then we will move on - perhap...

Perhaps a change of perspective might be needed

This morning I had a dream and in the dream I saw I was shifting a nest of blackbirds as they were in a bad place that was going to get destroyed shortly, but as I went to shift them, the Father of the babies came and tried to attack me. I wasn't going to hurt them, just shift them so they wouldn't get damaged. Of course the Father was just trying to protect what was his and thought I was bringing harm to his family, but actually my intent was to help them. Often we can have the wrong mindset about a situation as illustrated by this picture. Both had the intent of heart to help and protect, but because of the mindset of how we see things, often our reactions comes from our point of view without even taking the time to understand why another is doing what they are doing. 2 Cor 2:10 "The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them." We often find ourselves fighting with those w...

Can God highjack your day?

Last night I had a number of dreams/visions and in each one there was a scenario happening where there was opportunity to share the gospel, opportunity to warn someone of something I could see happening, opportunity to take advantage of but if we didn't act then that opportunity would be gone. Opportunity to teach someone something that they were hiding from that they didn't need to. So many opportunities and I thought of the scripture in Gal 6:10 which says "Therefore as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people especially to those who belong to the family of believers." and in Eph 5:15 "Be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what The Lord's will is." Recently we were driving to Hamilton to go to church but along the way we saw a woman on the road who looked dejected and looked like she needed a lift. S...

Prophetic pictures: Burnt Flesh, Big Fish, Expansion, Signs and Wonders

A couple of weeks ago I have had several visions which I believe is a prophetic picture of what God is currently doing and what He is about to do. Fi rstly, I saw ahead on the highway a huge explosion with black smoke billowing up and as I came to it I saw people had been burnt and I could smell the smell of burnt flesh. Our God is consuming fire (Heb 12:29). His love is in the fire. Something the Lord has been talking to us about is the fall of the acts of the flesh, the strength of man. This vision I saw was a representation that of the fire of Gods love is coming and going to burn away the things of the flesh, the things that were not of the Lo rd, the things that may have been good in their time but today is a new day. Perhaps the familiar things we are so used to that we don't even know it's there. The way we might speak, the way we might act, the way we might respond that are familiar with us but aren't necessarily of the Kingdom natur...

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