This morning began with an early, pre-breakfast Oswald Chambers time with Papa Ken. It’s definitely an earlier start to the day, but it is so worth it... both because Chambers is great and also because it’s just so good to hang out with Papa Ken and learn from his wisdom! There was also another surprise for us in the dining room too... beautiful blue envelopes were hanging above the tables, one for each of us. Inside were invitations to an exclusive concert by the AMAZING band Songs of Water – they would be playing at Jonathan and Melissa’s house that night, just for our school! The invitation said “Dapper dress encouraged” at the bottom! What a good way to start the day :o)
We went from there into the next chapter of “The Furious Longing of God” (Brennan Manning), ‘Union’. Basically it’s about us become one with Jesus, in “abiding restful union”. As Paul said, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” (Gal 2:20) And Jesus told His disciples: “Make your home in me just as I do in you.” (John 15:4, The Message) I think the section in the whole chapter that rocked me the most was this:
... (John 17:22-23)... I came to the inescapable conclusion that the degree of Abba’s love for me is in direct proportion to His love for Jesus. For example, I can love the mailman twenty percent, and my best friend ninety percent. But with God, there is no division, no more and no less. God loves me as much as He loves Jesus. Wow!
The scripture that the chapter asks us to meditate on is: “Cease striving and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10 NASB). What does that really mean to us? Do we really believe that the work of the cross was final, and that we can rest in it? The questions at the end of the chapter are:
1. How often do you monitor your spiritual growth – several times a day? Once a month? Every thirty days? Twice a year?
2. Would you, could you, devote not one more minute to monitoring your spiritual growth? If so, it’s possible you just might find you like green eggs and ham.
HA HA! Love it.
We had time to go off and think about those questions and journal a bit, and then we came back to the worship room to meet with Stephen Roach. We had already had a session with him a few weeks before, so it was great to see him again. He is the leader of the band ‘Songs of Water’, that we were going to see that night. He talked a bit about the band, and it was really great to have some stuff put into context. Basically, they’re a mainly instrumental band that goes out an plays in various random places (bars, concert venues... they even played at a new age festival thingy before!), and they just allow Jesus to come out of them and their music and show His kingdom (righteousness, peace, joy, love) to people. They have some INCREDIBLE stories! They once had a drunk guy come up to them after a gig, and ask: “What is it that is in your music? What is that sound?!” Their answer was pretty much: we’re Christians, so our sound is Jesus. And he said, “I KNEW it! I knew it was Jesus!” It was like he was hearing in their music some ancient sound that his heart knew, but his mind had forgotten. Another amazing thing is that almost every time they play somewhere, it starts raining! How crazy is that?! The leaders of the new age-y thing they played at contacted Stephen and asked if the band would play; he explained that the whole time was about showing young people different “spiritual paths”. There would be shamans and various “spiritual” people doing different things. The band agreed to play because they wanted to bring light there! The organisers wanted them to be outside, for only a short concert, and then the shamans would take over. Stephen warned the guy that it would probably rain, but he answered that the shamans had already told them it definitely wouldn’t rain. The night before their concert, it began BUCKETING down with a vengeance! The place the concert was supposed to be in was completely washed out. The organisers gave Songs of Water an indoor venue... and also gave them the whole evening, because the outdoor shaman thing had to be cancelled! As they started playing, the Holy Spirit fell in a tangible way in the room. Apparently half-way through the night they noticed the organiser in a corner, sobbing his eyes out! Afterwards, so many people commented on the “energy” they had felt, on how it was music like nothing else they had ever heard. One shaman and his wife came over, and they said as soon as they started playing, they began (literally) seeing this spirit, unlike any spirit they had ever seen before, flowing between and around all the band members! And they said they had never felt so much Good. How COOL is that?! This is surely what it means to be salt and light to our world! Some other highlights:
· Feel at home with heaven – and then take heaven wherever you go. Citizens of heaven can be at hone wherever they go, because they take heaven with them. We are constantly setting up new realities. This is our inheritance – we can go wherever we want to go, and unlock those places for the kingdom.
· Music is a language, just like any other language. It says things, communicates with us – but because it doesn’t carry words like we usually understand them, it can by-pass our heads and get straight to our hearts. It’s almost like another form of tongues!
· 2 Kings 3:9-18 “As the musicians played, the hand of the Lord came upon him...” God’s Spirit fell as the music played – Elisha was given directions; given a word that changed the direction of the nation.
· 1 Samuel 10:1-8 As Saul met the musicians, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. There is authority on our lives, and on our callings – know that wherever you’re going, things will change.
· Psalm 87:7 “Both the singers and the players on the instruments say: ‘All my springs are in You’.” NOTE: they were SAYING this, on the instruments!
· Ezekiel 28:12 Lucifer was adorned with precious stones. Flutes (wind instrument) and timbrals (rhythm) were a part of his being. When man was created, he was jealous of US! Because we have breath (wind) and hearts (like drum-beats), and every part of us was created to worship. EVERYTHING we do is worship, every breath, every heart-beat.
· It is necessary to have 2 wings on a plane – we need to be connected to the church and fellowship; but we also need to be reaching out to people not in the church. One without the other spirals out of control. Daniel in Babylon became excellent at Babylonian culture, without selling out to it. Rick Joyner talks about being ambassadors for God. We are sent from His kingdom to represent His values and ideas in a foreign land. After a while, and ambassador needs to be recalled to his own land, to reconnect with the culture, and with the King, so that he can continue to accurately represent Him. We need to constantly come back to be immersed in the kingdom – but we need to be out there!
· Isaiah 49:6-7, 25-26 It is too small a thing to just maintain church; we have to take the kingdom out there. There is no formula for doing that – we have to constantly pioneer, constantly ask God for fresh ideas for different situations.
After that, we had lunch, then our work details, then a quick shower and supper... and then the GREATNESS of Songs of Water! There are 6 people in the band (plus Molly, who joined them for some songs!), but between them they play RIDICULOUS amounts of instruments! There must have been over 30 instruments, no jokes! And the sound they produce is impossible to describe. I have never been in an environment like that before, where the very air literally feels THICK with sounds and colours. I felt like I could actually SEE the sound – I could see weavings and tapestries of colours and sounds weaving through the atmosphere. You travel crazy emotional journeys through their music – joy, excitement, sombreness, awe, TRIUMPH, praise... we all ended up joining in at random places, singing our hearts and lungs out! SUCH an exciting evening! Everything within me was rejoicing! And if all that wasn’t enough... Stephen announced that he had a hamper to hand out – two books he’s written (a children’s book and a book of poetry), a journal and pen, FIVE cds. He asked who could name the most instruments, and the one who knew the most would get the hamper. I knew I could name quite a few of them, but I just sat there, waiting. For some reason, I just KNEW I would get the hamper! I didn’t have to do anything for it. No one seemed very keen to answer the question... so Jonathan changed tactic. He said that the person who had travelled the furthest to get to the 18Inch Journey would get it. And it turned out it was me! HA HA! So I got this ridiculously great hamper on top of the most heart-explodingly great evening! It felt like God was going: “Here, take this! OH, and this too! OH, and THIS!” HA HA! He’s so good :o)
No comments:
Post a Comment