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

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...

The baby's been handed over

Several weeks ago the Lord shifted us out of the 'home office' into the 'market place' and in the process a spiritual shift happened - one of letting the 'baby' go, a releasing and handing over the batten, so to speak to others. In this process the nests that WE ALL have been in have been stirred up, shaken about, and pushed out, to fly in ways that perhaps we were too afraid to do previously. The amazing thing with God is that He knows the timing of all of this and where each one of us is at and what we can handle. Yes there has been a fluttering of wings in panic. Yes, we have had a few weeks of challenge as authority and structures get changed and challenged, frustrations coming to the fore, but love helps us overcome, love helps us to forgive, love helps us to see the good and not the dirt, love helps us remember our own failings and yet forgiveness and grace that the Lord has for me, that I can give to others, remembering it's the glory of G...

The lie of a lack of spiritual fathers and mothers

My ponderings this morning. I believe we have a generation (of which I am a part of) at the moment who believe that there were not the spiritual mothers and fathers who taught them in the things of the spirit; of the way they should go etc. I believe to some extent there is truth, we don’t seem to have seen the ‘spiritual hero’s’ that we want to follow in our daily worlds around us. But I also believe that our generation or those who don’t believe there have been the spiritual parents, actually need to repent for not honouring the ones that the Lord has put in their lives and in which we have not received them as such and honoured what they inputted into our lives. There have always been people around us sowing into our lives, sowing truth, sowing help and hope, but because it has not come the way we expect it, we have not honoured what those people have brought. Sometimes too those people sow into our lives with truth that we don’t want to hear and so we walk away from those ...

"And now these three remain: faith. hope and love." 1 Cor 13:13

Two pictures things the Lord has given me over the last 10 days. Firstly; Prior to going to Christchurch I had this vision where I saw this massive tree falling to the ground and taking out people around them as it fell. Then this morning I was reading in Matt 3:10 and it reminded me of that vision I saw. Matt 3:10 says “The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” It’s a powerful word of warning that if we are living supposedly Godly lives and yet are not living lives that produce fruit in keeping with repentance, the fruit of love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, etc, the fruit of the spirit that is found in Gal 6, then I believe we will see people who are big people to those around them, people who are leaders etc. fall and cause damage. Secondly; Something that startled me yesterday as I was sleeping, I woke up to the sound of a clanging symbol....

I shared last night about 1 Cor 15:36 "What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body..." I was preaching on it last night and it will come up in video form later in the week on the GRM sight, mainly reflecting on we can sow things one way, but God raises it up as HE determines how it should look. But this morning I got more revelation which will be quite obvious to some, but to me it struck me afresh. When we sow something it get's buried, it cannot be pulled back up. It no longer has 'connection' with 'me' if you like. It gets 'covered over' unable to be pulled up. And yet I recognise in my own life how we can sow something but there are still 'strings attached' as such as we often are still determining or expecting it be rai...

Things to ponder from the book of Luke

Some powerful stuff out of the book of Luke this morning that spoke to me 17:10 " So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty'" This really spoke to me how we expect and want the praise from man for what we do and yet we have only done what we were asked to do when we freely gave ourselves as bondslaves/servants to christ so why should we expect praise from man or from God? The other thing - actually there was heaps this morning out of Luke so take a look, but 18:8 "However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" The one question about will Jesus find people of faith who believe in what they have not yet seen? It is only faith that pleases God and so to be a people of faith.... A challenge. One more thing that I have to share is Luke19:11-27 the parable of the Ten Minas and about being faithful with what you have, but v24 "Then he said...

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