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

"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, ...

"I am ruined for the ordinary"

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Education changes the fabric of community

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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...

Distraction or Traction?

Our most value asset is: TIME I don't know about you but I find it is easy to get distracted and drawn away from what I was intending to do or where my focus needed to be. I often find myself getting 'entangled in civilian affairs' as it says in the scripture above. But the discernment is knowing if that is God's interruption for the day or a distraction that takes me away from the purpose and plan that God would have me walk in. I think we can often miss those God opportunities and God calls on our life because of distractions. " A distraction is something we do that moves us away from what we really want." Distractions bring confusion, feeling like you are in a muddle, not knowing where you are going, often feeling like you are busy but probably not really achieving a great deal. The opposite of distraction is TRACTION. Traction is an action that moves us toward what we really want. Momentum and movement toward the desires of the heart. But often we don...

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...

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