18 June 2011

This was Cageless Birds worship gathering, day 2. Joel led worship this morning, and it was such a beautiful time! There’s an incredible amount of peace that Joel carries on his life, from a place of deep intimacy with the Father – and it comes out so strongly in his worship. I don’t really know if I can describe this time of worship in words! Wish you could’ve all been there though :o) after that, we had a bit of a break, and some lunch, and then time with Papa Ken again. Some highlights:

·         Marriage (and falling in love) is falling into God together.

·         Spread your wings – you were MADE to fly.

·         The key to discipline is desire. “what matters to God matters most.” What matters to God? I do! You and I are each His favourites and He is pursuing intimacy. He wants oneness with ME!

·         God will give me what I need. If you wait til you have everything you THINK you need, you will be waiting forever. Just get going, start with what you already have in your hands.

·         The Japanese word for ‘busyness’ can be literally translated as “soul-killing”. God time is the space to detox from busyness.

·         If you are a people-person, but never have God-time, you will become a leech – sucking the life out of everyone you come into contact with. If you are a solitary person, with no interaction with other people, you will become a hermit. Balance!

·         Journaling – God enjoys it more than you do. Give value to what God says to you. Practice hearing God’s word for yourself, and it will become easier to hear words for others (prophecy).

A little later on that afternoon, we had a session with Jonathan and Melissa. I felt what a great privilege it is to be one of the people invited into their lives, allowed to catch an inside glimpse. I looked around at all the people there, hanging on every word they were saying, and I felt so proud of them. We have seen that they live every word that they say – that none of it comes from an empty place of head-knowledge. Again, some highlights:

·         My own heart is the closest I’m going to get to heaven whilst I’m still on this earth. I need to learn to love the heaven inside of me. The very Trinity lives on the inside of me! Living and breathing inside my chest – I can’t understand that until I learn to love myself. We often think that we will learn to love ourselves by loving others, doing things for them. We have to start with loving ourselves; Jesus in us.

·         “Glory to glory” isn’t living worship conference to worship conference, or highlight to highlight. It’s moment to moment – sitting at a supper table, hanging out with friends.

·         We tell God who He is in worship not because He’s forgotten, but because WE have! And when we remember who He is, we find out who we are. Rom 8:15 “You did not receive a spirit that made you slaves again to fear...” We are sons and daughters.

·         We are cageless because He made US His cage! He made my heart His home, and made me free. “The glorious freedom of the kingdom of God...”

·         Amos 9:11 – the rebuilding of the tabernacle. When David was anointed, the oil would’ve run down his head, and stuck to him for a while (no shampoo!) The next morning, when he woke up amidst sheep dung, he still had the oil of anointing on him. “Oh yes, I am a King!” Perhaps he still had it on him when he faced up to Goliath!

·         The tent of David was skin stretched out into a tent. WE are the tabernacle now – skin stretched over a frame of bones, housing the very Glory of God. Restoring the tent of David means returning to a place where people know who they are.

·         Insecurity is looking inside myself to find security – and it will never be there! My security must be in what my Father thinks about me. And what He thinks about me is always good.

We went into another amazing time of worship that evening. You could see God doing amazing things in people all over the place, bringing freedom and breakthrough as He re-spoke identity into us. We ended the evening with all of us 18Inchers joining the band on stage, and spontaneous songs over the congregation. Wish you could’ve heard it! One of the girls said that a little girl came up to her and said she was sure she heard angels singing with us! We ended LATE that night, and then had to pack up and clean the building up for their church the next morning. It was a sleepy trip back home; and we still had to do some unpacking when we got back! But what a GLORIOUS time! Free day tomorrow, yay!