On Wednesday night we had a gathering and the word of the Lord that came through was the "last of the summer wine" and there was this huge sense of shift in the spiritual realm. That the things that had been, had come to an end. That it was the ending of one season and that things would be very different in the future. Where God had been growing us, maturing us, teaches us to really love one another in the small and the sense of family that had been built was never going to be the same again.That there was a time for thankfulness of all that had been in the 'stretching and growing' and a word came saying that season of "Peters' being released was the new things. Peter whose shadow healed people as he walked, that as a people we would see things happen for us all as we walked with the presence of God overflowing and out of us that we would see lives changed in the marketplaces.
In the last week we have seen the 'open door' that we have been praying, believing and waiting for. Part of our dream is to see the unity in the body of Christ and in the past week, God has opened the door into five different streams and a coming together in an unexpected way, in part through our building where we normally hold church, suddenly unable to hold church there due to ceiling tiles falling down. Currently still not fixed and because of guest speakers that had been planned and organised, have had to rearrange things. But for me it is no small insignificant thing that has happened. I see God's hand totally on all of this helping to push us 'out of the nest', out of the 'comfort zone' and into the next season of fruitfulness and of abundance.We have talked and preached since before Christmas about getting ready as a body, being prepared to move and as a people we have been doing what we can in preparation of the shift, in preparation of God saying He is bringing more people, in preparation of the fact that there will be more teaching and training happening, in preparation for the unknown but known in the sense of we knew there was a shift coming. And I believe the shift is here, it is now.
We have not walked this way before, and therein lies the challenge, the unknown, the 'what are we doing, where are we going questions'? The sense of discomfort as change occurs but as last year's word was "we don't know what to do but our eyes are on you". So as a people and in this change that is very exciting and yet challenging, please take time and keep your eyes on the Lord.
In this places things that may have been dormant get stirred up and reawakened, things like pressure or stress, where comfort and knowing what was happening left things unstirred in our lives, as an example, so please keep in that place of surrender to him and his heart and be quick to forgive, to hand things over to him, to remain in peace (speaking to myself there :))
We can trust in the Lord as he leads us places we have not been before. We need not be afraid because the Holy Spirit goes before us and makes the way. Thank you Jesus for the last seasons we have been in and help us to move with you in whatever you have ahead for us in this season.
