Speakers include Simon Holley, who leads The Kings Arms and is a pioneering leader pushing the boundaries in seeing the church come into a lifestyle of signs and wonders. Angela Kemm, a personal hero of mine, who has pioneered churches in Cape Town townships during the apartheid regime. She has many powerful stories of God breaking into the poor through signs and wonders. Worship will be led by Karen Sprenger, From Bethel Church, Redding, California, USA. Don Not Miss this, I have a sneaky suspicion that God is going to move powerfully.

Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, not to be missed. Get in quick, it's gonna be a blast!

So many of you know that I have been in Zimbabwe this last week. My time at Easter camp in Bulawayo was also very cool. Mbonisi and Tashinga Malaba, together with their family is seeing an amazing work being established. I have had the joy of ministering and seeing the power of God at work in extraordinary ways. Numbers of healings and loads of exciting freedom being brought to people. What was also great was seeing people who got healed last year of various conditions, are still healed and many prophetic words that were spoken over people have now come to past!

What has impressed me most is meeting two of the most amazing people I have met in a long time. Pioneers of the faith, champions of the poor and down trodden, loving and kind but most importantly Jesus followers to the extreme. Few people bring to a place of an overwhelming sense of destiny about them, Brian and Cath Oldrieve, definitely do that. There is no doubt about it, history will one day tell of a couple who literally fed and changed a nation. Check out what they are doing here

I was not expecting this at all. My time in Zim was gonna be with new creation church in Bulawayo, predominately. We squeezed in an overnight trip in Harare, which is 5 hours drive north of Bulawayo. After a busy season of travel (don’t feel too sorry for me, I planned this last season of traveling under the spirit of stupid anointing), where I have seen God move in incredible ways, the last thing I felt like was a trip like this. The thing that got me about my few hours with them,is that I got more energized physically and spiritually than I have been in some of the best conferences or holidays I have been on. They exude the peace of God, the love of Jesus and the energy of the Spirit. Brian and Cath are the youngest, mature people I have met! They have serious amounts of life in them.

Brian and Cath have a phenomenal personal story of Gods goodness to them. Having lost everything a number of times, being forced off their farms and yet still rejoicing they are pioneering a wholistic kingdom adventure that literally is feeding hundreds of thousands of people in Zim and now in many nations across Africa. The opportunities to take what is called , Foundation for farming, is gaining momentum and many African nations and beyond are seeing the incredible potential and power of farming using the zero tillage system. The yield consistently produces more than two times using the conventional method. And it uses very little or none of the chemicals and machinery needed in ‘western’ farming methods.The key though? Jesus at the foundations. A simple message, yet one that is being used powerfully to shape and shake the nations. Zimbabwe is now amongst the poorest nations in the world, yet there is hope! God loves to use the weak and the foolish to confound the wise. This is what he is doing in Zim. What is being piloted here in demonstrating the gospel will be an example to the rest of the world! Watch the nation of Zim, it’s days are not over yet, it will once agin be the bread basket of Africa! I feel like my head is spinning with a sense of expectancy at what God is going to do in Zim. Won’t you please consider praying for this nation in an intentional way.

I said on my last blog that I would share my heart as to what I believe God is saying to us in this season, due to lack of time, I won’t be speaking about that in this post. I am hoping that next week, I will get a chance to do that! I am now in Durban where I will be ministering in two churches, one of them being Harvest Church, led by my good friends, George and Liane Gouraly. Early next week Matt Davies from Bishop Stortford, UK, will be joining me. This young guy is not only  massive at spinning the decks (check some of his tunes out here), this guy has Holy Spirit power in him. He’ll be helping me minister the next two weeks! I am expecting big things from God…

Heaven Touches Earth 9-11 June 2011, More info soon!

Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, not to be missed

I am getting ready to head to Zimbabwe and South Africa for the next three weeks where I will be working with a number of different churches. I am especially looking forward to being at the conference above at my home church, The Bay Community Church. These guys hold a deeply special place in my heart as it was Jeff and Viv Kidwell, and the many amazing people in this church that helped me grow in the prophetic and things the of the Spirit. If you are in Cape Town, make sure to get to these meetings! I am typing this blog in Swindon, where I have been ministering at Gateway Church. We have seen a phenomenal outpouring of God’s Spirit as a number of people have testified to being healed. One lady was healed this morning of chronic back pain that she had for more than 10 years! Another lady was healed of retinopathy (damage to the retina). More than that, it seemed as if the power of the Lord was present in a very unusual way, in particular this morning! It’s been an amazing time, and if it is anything to go by, I think Zimbabwe and SA are in for a treat!

Here are some more ways the Holy Spirit sill talk to us, My next blog will probably take a detour and talk a little bit about what I feel the Lord is doing in these days. I feel we are n the brink of a very exciting move of the Holy Spirit in the second half of this year!

trances

The most common encounter of a trance is recorded in Acts when Peter has a trance (Acts 10:10). Now this is a very interesting encounter and forms the basis for the breaking out of Salvation amongst the Gentiles. Please note that the gospel coming to us as part of the gentile nations was as a result of a revelatory experience. Now many people seem to be afraid of this word trance as it sounds very ‘new agey’! This word is a biblical word and we are not to be afraid of it!

The Greek word trance is closely associated with the word ecstasy. It speaks of displacing your ordinary state of mind with an elevated, God given state in order to receive prophetic revelation. I have had one encounter where it felt like I was suspended in time as God began to speak to me about a new shape of prophetic ministry. I was in a meeting where I ‘fell’ into an encounter with God for about a half-hour. It felt like time stood still and God began to speak to me about not domesticating the prophetic ministry. I was clearly involved in it and at times felt physically what was happening. When I came out of f the trance, I felt encouraged and strengthened.

visions

Heaven Touches Earth, The Kings Arms, Bedford, UK 9-11 June 2011

There are different types of vision listed in the bible. I will try and briefly explain them to you. An open eye vision is when you see clearly with your eyes in the physical(Paul had a vision! Acts 16- there is many encounters listed in the bible such as this one!) This has not happened to me often. I was once in an area in South Africa called Clarens when the Lord opened my eyes to physically see the host of heavenly angels around the mountains. It was amazing! The bright light shining from them was startling!

Sometimes it seems as if something is superimposed over the natural. This often happens when I see angles or when I am involved in bringing deliverance. I see the demon walk in with the person.

A moving vision is like a movie that is being show to you as you encounter God. I often get these as I prophesy over people. You will hear me say ‘I see you …’ in my prophetic flow. This is because I am actually seeing something above them or around them I will declare what I am seeing. Often as I am describing a room or an encounter someone might have had, it will be like a movie and there will be details that I will recount from that. Ezekiel received revelation in the form of visions from God when he received his prophetic encounter (Ezek 1). He is seeing something moving and taking shape as he prophesies.

Another type of vision is the inner open vision. This is when your eyes are open, yet you are seeing the picture in your mind. Many people receive this kind of visionary experience but do not recognize it from God because they have not understood it as more than just their imagination! This speaks of the eyes of your heart (Ephes 1:18). The word heart is sometimes translated as understanding or mind. In other words the eyes of you mind is seeing something that you are to comprehend and understand.

Then finally a closed vision is when your eyes are closed and you receive revelation. I have had powerful encounters with God when I have had these pictorial and symbolic visions. They have helped shape and prepare me for what God wants. I had an encounter with God where he walked me through a stadium telling me about some of the nations I would go to and minister in. A number of them have come to past many months after receiving the vision.

Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, not to be missed

I have just been at the Free Life Conf 2011 at the Durham Centre, UK. Amazing time of sitting under the ministry of Marc Dupont. What a fantastic man of God. A real thinker, engaging and an empowerer of the purposes of God. His thoughts about the coming moves of God are very challenging and very exciting. I am sure I will blog about that soon.

I wanted to carry on from the last blog about the Holy Spirit. I have begun to discover that the Holy Spirit loves to speak to us. He guides, he leads, and he speaks. When Jesus was baptized in water, the bible says that ‘the Holy Spirit rested and remained on Him’. I like that word, rested, it means he made his dwelling with Jesus. He moved in, he took up residence! It was a picture of the dove in Genesis, when Noah released the dove, he found a resting place. I have come to realize that the Holy Spirit is looking for a resting place and he does so through relationship. That means we have to learn how to make it comfortable for him. He loves to speak to us and he does so in various ways.

1 Cor. 2:9-12 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

God wants to develop a relationship with you that opens up the very depths of His heart to you. He wants to speak to you and develop your own love language with him. Here are some prophetic experiences and types of revelation to help you. This is not exhaustive but I believe will help you understand some ways in which God will interact with His people. Revelation can and often is expressed in the following ways;

impressions

These are moments when you ‘sense’ or just ‘know’ things in the Spirit. Jesus has an encounter where he receives knowledge by the Spirit. The word used is perceived. In Luke 5:22 the bible says that Jesus ‘perceived’ in the Spirit that they were reasoning amongst themselves. That word perceived is sometimes translated as knowing (Matt 9:4). The Greek word speaks of an ability to know fully and to be acquainted in a discerning, recognizing manner.

Most times when I flow in a word of knowledge it starts out with a ‘knowing’ and a ‘sensing’ of need. This can manifest in a sympathetic pain in my body or simply a strong impression in my heart. Often I can walk into a situation and sense specific need that have to be met by God and bring directive prayer and faith for it to be done.

the voices of God

Let’s look at the audible voice of God first. Paul on the road to Damascus had an encounter with God where people actually heard the voice of Jesus with their natural ears but saw no one (Acts 9:7). Although as of yet I have not heard the audible voice of God many who have will testify to hearing with their natural ears the sound of God’s voice.

The second way God speaks (and this is in no order of importance) is through what I call an internal audible voice. I have heard this a few times in my life and it is a clear and distinct voice that I hear inside my being. It is clearly different from my own thoughts or impressions and it catches my attention immediately. I first heard this when I was 15 when I heard God call me to the prophetic ministry. It was clear; he said ‘I will raise you up as a prophet to the nations’. I remember being in my room when that happened. As I walked out of my room, a family friend who had a prophetic gift looked at me and began to prophesy, she said that she had a dream the night before, where the Lord spoke to her about me being a prophet who would reveal the secrets of people’s hearts.

Then there is the most frequently experienced voice, which is the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit. Elijah heard this when he asked God to speak to him (1 Kings 19:11-13). These can come in a variety of ways and is most often the way God speaks to me. It is just a clear sense and leaning into God as he speaks, very often clearly and directly. Thoughts, which are clearly not, my own ‘pop’ into my head and a message is revealed to me. Words of knowledge most often are received in these times. There is a wonderful peace and easy flow that come with these words.

Okay, thats just a few ways that the Holy Spirit speaks, more to follow later….

Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, not to be missed

I have been known to use this phrase often. We must learn to linger longer. Jesus modeled what it was like to live as a man submitted to the the Holy Spirit. We know that while he was fully God, he too is fully man. Luke records the activity of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus. If you were to highlight the activity of the Holy Spirit in the book of Luke you would see the work of the Spirit on almost every page! He is the one who authenticates Jesus Messiahship. It was the promise of old. a particular bit of Luke has often intrigued me. Luke says in 5:17, that whilst  Jesus was teaching, pharisees and teachers of the law were there, and the power of the Lord was present to heal . What gets me about this is that Luke is writing this, observing what God is doing. No miracle had happened yet, no signs and wonders, yet he recognizes and discerns the presence of God in the place! What did that look like? How did he see that?

Marc Dupont, Ginny Burgin, Phil Whilthew & Julian Adams. Bookings go live 3/3/11

Often I do a test in conferences and churches as to their ability to sense the demonic. Most people can instinctively recognize an evil presence by using very subjective observation. Some feel a tightness in their stomachs, others feel an oppressiveness in the air, others might even come under spiritual attack, the point is it is discerned using one’s senses, both physically and spiritually. What get’s me about this is that most christians have trained themselves to recognize evil more than they have to recognize the presence of God! Last time I checked there are more angels than there are demons, which means our expectation and predisposition should be to expect more of the Holy Spirit’ presence.

Our bodies were designed to recognize the Holy Spirit and his presence. David, said ‘Take not your Holy Spirit from me’ how would he have known, whether or not the Spirit was on him? What method of deduction would he have used? I believe the Holy Spirit wants to talk to us, lead us, guide us and reveal Jesus to us. How does he do this? He does so by developing a love language with us. The next blog we are going to discover how he still speaks to us today! He is so very good!

Conference with: Marc Dupont, Ginny Burgin, Phil Whilthew & Julian Adams. Bookings go live 3/3/11, Emmanuel Church, Durham, UK

The discussion on enjoying Life in the Spirit continues on from my last blog. People often ask me who shaped my early life as a Christian? Or what book played and important role in your development. Well between my dad, mom and a few heroes, like my Youth Pastor Justin Hall, the book that has most shaped me is ‘Good Morning Holy Spirit’ by Benny Hinn. Now for all those anti Benny fans, I feel I should justify why I like this book, and why I like Benny Hinn (not that I know him in any way other than being in some meetings and seeing him on TV). But I am not going to justify why I like him. Last time I checked Jesus really loves him. This does not mean I endorse everything he says and does, but then I don’t endorse everything I do or say. The jury is still out in whether or not my theology is the best. To which I am sure a number of people will agree! Point is; I don’t have it together, nor do I feel I have to defend why I think Benny Hinn’s book is good.

Changed my life. Read it it will bless you!

Now bearing in mind that I have not read it in a long time, the lasting impression it left me with was a deep desire to know the Holy Spirit more. I felt desperate to get to enjoy the kind of fellowship he spoke of in the book.  What struck me about the book, was a sense of direct active relating that was mine to have with the Holy Spirit. HE is the promise of the father after all. For me that’s when the penny dropped! The Holy Spirit is the promise of the father. This was not simply a new testament promise it stretched back to the days of Israel’s wanderings to and fro from Yahweh. The hallmark of the messiah was the Spirit of God resting and remaining on him (John 1:33-34). Prophecies found in Isaiah 11 and 61 speak of this messiah on whom the Spirit would rest and he would usher in Yahweh’s rule and reign. The promise of the father would be carried in the Son by the Spirit. Jesus then promises us in both Luke 11 and Acts 1&2, that father would pour out his Spirit upon us, as the same mark of sonship (Rom 8, Gal 4 and Eph1). What gets me about this, is that most often we refer to the Holy Spirit as a missional Spirit. In other words he propels us into mission. And this is right. However, His primary job  is to mark us and deeply affirm that we are the very sons of God. One commentator says this about the Holy Spirit ‘Sonship and the reception of the Spirit of God are not regarded as separate, but are instead inextricably linked: the Spirit comes with sonship…it is in no way dependent on law- keeping! (Witherington) The Spirit coming on Jesus is about a familial anointing. That’s because the Holy Spirit is primarily a familial Spirit. The same way Jesus is marked as the Son of God is the same way we are marked.

Here’s what J I Packer says: ‘God adopts us out of His free love, not because our character and record shows us worthy to bear his name, but despite the fact that they show the opposite. We are not fit for a place in God’s family; the idea of His loving and exalting us sinners as he loves and has exalted the Lord Jesus sound ludicrous and wild -yet that and nothing less than that, is what our adoption means’ At the end of the day the coming and anointing of the Holy Spirit is not just about service. It is about being set apart for sonship. This is not simply an academic truth, it is, as one commentator says ‘the two things, sonship and the Spirit (go) together, the status and the condition and the experience of sonship’.

Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, not to be missed

Click on pic to find out more about Redeemer Central

I have just finished a month in Belfast, Northern Ireland. What a time it has been. Testimonies of healing, breakthroughs and wonderful freedom has come to many at Redeemer Central. I also got to minister at Hope Church, Coleraine and then down south at Saoirse, Ireland. I have met many new friends, been spoilt and loved, had my hair dyed (Believe it, it’s true! Pictures might follow, I look cool though!) and extended the Kingdom! If you are keen; check out these websites and download some of the talks I did, I hope you will find them encouraging! Better still if you are up for being involved into church plants that are pumping, why not call one of the spectacular leaders in these churches. You’ll love it!

I love the Holy Spirit. I was once rebuked by a pastor, who said ‘ Julian my problem with your ministry is that you place too much emphasis on the Holy Spirit’ to which I replied, ‘that’s because He is God’. Much has been said about being reformed and charismatic recently. Many of my friends who would have seen themselves as cessationists now see theological weight in clear teaching that embraces the gifts of the Holy Spirit as a fully functioning part of a believers life. Terry Virgo, one of my personal heroes has done much to further the understanding of ‘life in the Spirit’ for the everyday believer. With His emphasis on grace, the baptism of the Holy Spirit and restoring the gifts of the Spirit to the church, he has seen significant breakthroughs into previously non-charismatic movements. Because he has a high view of scripture, trust has been established and many more from a ‘conservative’ background are now open the work of the Holy Spirit. I am so grateful to Terry and of course God for this. It will make it easier for the next generation to articulate the work of the Spirit.

Leading prophetic voices together! Bookings go live 3/3/11. Be There!

The apostle Paul calls us to deep fellowship with the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 13:14). Friendship, communion and intimacy is what he sees as part of the normal Christian life. Else where he says that our daily lives depend on the leading of the Spirit . In fact its a mark of our sonship (Rom 8:14). What I see in the church at large though, is a lack of deep understanding of the person of the Holy Spirit. At best most Christians understand the theology of the Holy Spirit being co- equal, co-existent and indeed God. They believe he is a person, yet they experience him simply as a force. Much like the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Most Christians I have met seem to have a deep misunderstanding of the Holy Spirit, or at worst, just avoid any mention of him. I have noticed in the church that some how we have accepted an unholy trinity: God the father, God the son and God the holy bible! Bill Johnson makes this radical statement, ‘we sometimes value a book the early church did not have over a person (the Holy Spirit) they did have’. I am intentionally overstating a fact to prove a point: we seem to be trying to replicate early church Christianity with out the emphasis of the early church!

The Holy Spirit is a person. A true reflection of the God head. One of the trinity. The promise of the father. The joy in sonship. The power in mission. He is my best friend. I love him, I worship him, I find strength and joy in him. Having said all of this I do find the lack of preaching on the person of the Holy Spirit and his work in the life of a believer startling. I have studied a few systematic theology books and yet I seem to find that most of them are fairly weak on the person of the holy spirit. This is in stark contrast to Pentecostal theology, which is rich in truth about the Holy Spirit. Its been a long time since I have heard good teaching on the person of the Holy Spirit in reformed circles. At best he reduced to the butler of heaven doing the stuff the father or Jesus won’t. I am not just talking about theological correctness but a deep experience of the Holy Spirit. This might have to do with the fact that most reformed theology owes a lot to Augustine, who was the first of the early fathers to propagate the theory that the gifts of the Holy Spirit died along with the last apostle. Although he expressed this in his early writings, there are records of healing miracles that took place later, in his own ministry.

A casual reading of both Luke and Acts record the activity of the Spirit dramatically. He is all over it. In fact he is all over the bible! He wrote it after all. Contrary to what many people think, the Holy Spirit is not in direct opposition to the bible. He moved men to write the bible. There really is no difference between word and Spirit. They were always meant to be together. Just as is demonstrated when the Holy Spirit rested on Jesus (the word made flesh ). It seems to me that there are often proviso’s that come with teaching about the holy Spirit  ( i.e. Don’t run after the gifts, run after Jesus ). Or deep concerns about particular responses to the Holy Spirit that is evident in physical manifestations like shaking, laughing, falling over etc. The Next few blogs will be given to discovering more about him. Not just what he does, but who he is as a person. This should be fun!  Hopefully it will include some of my own adventures in discovering who He is.  In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, (Ephesians 1:13)

Saoirse Church, Dublin, Ireland

This nation, and I include Northern Ireland (non-politically of course) was once the pioneers of christianity to England and indeed a large part of Europe. Apostolic in expression saints of old like Patrick, Brigid, Aidan and the list could go on, shaped a large part of modern-day Christianity. It’s been my joy to work with, Saoirse (pronounced seer-sha) Church. This gaelic word means ‘freedom’. How apt for what God is doing here. We have seen some mighty breakthroughs into the lives of many people who needed a fresh encounter with God. Things that’s stick out for me, the Vincent family, who moved here a few years ago. On a mission together, they are making a difference in the neighborhood they live in, the church they are helping to build and they have crept under my skin (they are fabulous!). Great kingdom family. The friendly Irish people, happy and kind. I like.

More things that stick out, seeing a woman who overheard her father wishing she was dead, getting freed through a word of knowledge with pin point accuracy. She came up after and said ‘I am free from that!’. Seeing a young man with a powerful anointing speak in tongues for the first time. A young lady, wanting to give up on life, got freed from depression as God spoke tenderly to her! I love it!

This is all about the kingdom of God coming. When Jesus began his earthly ministry, he came with a specific message, His message was expressed in a two fold way. He revealed his father, and he revealed his father’s kingdom. His whole life was orientated to declare and demonstrate theses two things. In doing so he dealt with our sin, our reconciliation to the father and our resurrection into new life. His message was not simply one of repentance from sin, it was a re-orientation of our whole life. His message was one of a kingdom, not just individual change. His gospel was one of the kingdom of God coming to earth, not just forgiveness of sin. He starts off his ministry with ‘repent for the Kingdom of God/ heaven is at hand.’ Change the way you think about the domain of God, it is now within arms reach. This message Jesus proclaimed was so revolutionary, in terms of religion, politics, ethics, financially and indeed every aspect of life  that it got him killed. It was offensive to the culture, to the political powers of the day and especially to the religious controllers. His message carried with it not only ideals but the very power to fulfill and carry out those ideals. George Eldon Ladd says in his book The Presence of the Future ‘ The word which Jesus proclaimed itself brought to pass that which it proclaimed: release for captivity, recovery for the blind, freeing of the oppressed. He goes on to say : ‘His authority consisted in the power to accomplish what he proclaimed’ Jesus was dangerous, because he challenged the very status quo.

Ireland, the world needs a kind of demonstration like this again. One that will rock the status quo, with the fathers love. I wonder if we have placed too much emphasis on the structures and institution of church at the expense of the Kingdom? The church has the high privilege of extending the kingdom. Maybe we have built our external lives around the church and not the mission of extending the kingdom. Just a thought. Lord let your Kingdom com!

Identity in Jesus.

Clarity in purpose.

Creative in expression.

Increasingly powerful in demonstration.

It is a phenomenal community.  It’s made me think about the wine skins that are needed to  help host and usher the new wine in. one of the things that have got me about this crowd is a  throw away comment my friend Dave Capener made, ‘small is the new big’. It made me  think about a scripture in Isaiah 65:8-9 Thus says the LORD:

As the new wine is found in the cluster, and they say, Do not destroy it,

for there is a blessing in it, so I will do for my servants’ sake,

and not destroy them all. I will bring forth offspring from Jacob,

and from Judah possessors of my mountains;

my chosen shall possess it, and my servants shall dwell there.

It seems to me that God is in to small. And it’s not that new either. God in his wisdom loves to choose that which looks small and insignificant. That which seems to be insignificant and weak in the eyes of man. He chooses Abraham, a random middle-eastern man with not much to offer! Then he seems to repeat it throughout Israel’s history, choosing the weak, choosing the small, choosing that which seems insignificant. Out of choosing the so called foolish things, He changes the world.

This cluster of grapes seems small in comparison to the largeness of a vine, yet in this very cluster is the potential of new wine. Wine that intoxicates, which will be strong on the palate but effective in its ability to inebriate. In other words, the concentrated goodness gets to impact you quicker than when you settle for the old way of doing things. I believe this is true of the nature of the kingdom too, a mustard tree becomes the biggest in the field, a rock becomes a mountain and one day a garden will cover the earth as all things become new. Bill Johnson helpfully makes this statement ‘ I look for what God is doing and build structures to support and increase what He is doing’. We must begin to change the way we think about what it will look like in this next season of kingdom activity. It’s not hard to look and see that the world is in turmoil. It is looking for an authentic expression of family, where fathers call out destiny and mother provide sustenance. What ‘small’ does is provide a context for growth and discipleship. Surely, with all the mega churches we have seen, certainly in my nation, where it seems like many people would be professing christians, there would be an over spill onto the community of kingdom Shalom. Surely things would begin to look like heaven if there were clear communities who were actually discipled? Small does that, it means that you have to get real with close friends about who you are and how God can change you.

It’s not that I am against big, indeed, I think big can be good. I am simply realizing that there is a deep need for men and women to be changed and it does not look like it can only happen at a Sunday gathering. There has to be a contending for a full expression of the gospel of the Kingdom. It begins with something small, just like a motley crew of 12 men who have not got a cooking clue, and yet Jesus uses them to turn the known world upside down. We can very often be attracted to that which seems big and successful, yet God seems to conceal himself in that which can be small and seemingly weak. He often does that to reveal the true motives of our heart. The pharisees presumed that God would send a conquering messiah king, yet the father did was send Jesus, a suffering servant, an uneducated teacher, a rabbi with disciples who could not even hold to the hygienic rules of the day! He chooses a cross and a man who does not retaliate and the result is a new Kingdom breaks in on the earth. Smallness, insignificance produces greatness. This is an upside down kingdom.

Possessors of land and of mountains begin with a small cluster. What gets me about the ways of God, is how he chooses the unlikely. I still wonder how it is that God would take a young boy, with deep insecurities, a lisp and a funny hairstyle and use him to touch nations. How did I get here? The point is Jesus often worked with the responsive few, and even then it was sometimes the weird few! He does this in order to reveal what’s really in our hearts. When the packaging does not fit our experience, theology or tradition, we can miss what God could do through an individual, a church or a particular movement, simply because they do not fit our mould. I wonder if my religious heart would have recognized the messiah? Just reading the gospels, it’s easy to see that he often does not fit the mould. He breaks tradition, lives in away that offends the religious and radically changes the culture of the day. I do believe this next move of God will be a grassroots move. It’s not that it will be faceless, it’s just that it will be about genuine communities/ clusters given to building wines skins around the new wine not the other way around! Any way these are just some random thoughts…

Also I thought I’d take this opportunity thank many of you for your continued love, prayers and support for me.I also wanted to communicate with you about changes that will be happening in the new year with regards to the ministry I am involved with. Many would know that I have since July 2008 been working with dear friends, Jeremy and Ann Simpkins, who lead the Newfrontiers North team, which now oversees more than 55 churches including some in Canada. Together with them we moved to Manchester to reestablish a church now called Christ Central Manchester. The church is doing well and is growing under Jeremy and Ann’s leadership and is meeting in the city centre. It really is doing well and this last season we have seen a number of gospel responses and many new people looking in.

After seeking the Lord and working through a process of decision making together with Jeremy and other respected leaders, I have felt it is time for me to move to a base church from which I will minister. Simon and Caroline Holley, good friends who lead the Kings Arms Church in Bedford, UK, together with their leadership have agreed for me to relocate and be based there. I will be part of their local church and serve other churches from there.

I am very excited about this move and feel like God is in it. This will release me to travel more and give more flexibility to be a blessing to many churches. It will also allow me to work more intentionally with key leaders in our family of churches and beyond. My time at Christ Central has been a real blessing to me and I am grateful for the many friendships I have made there. As I look back on nearly three years of working very close to Jeremy and Ann, I am so grateful for our friendship and partnership in the gospel. Although we will still be working together in the future, I will miss the fun and joy of being together on mission in a close proximity. I will move to the Kings Arms, toward the end of February. Until then I am serving Redeemer Central, Belfast. It is a vibrant church in the heart of Belfast. Very exciting time indeed! My next blog will be a guest, who will be blogging. Watch this space for it!

To end this blog here are some thought’s I am pondering on:

And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’ Luke 15:31-32

I have grown up in church! I have tried to work out how many meetings I have been to and I think I have a pretty high average. I remember as a kid being very different from most kids in that I really loved going to church. It was one of those things that I could not help but want. In fact sometimes I would be most upset when I could not go. I would try every trick in the book to convince my parents that I need to go to certain meetings. A close friend of the family who is an evangelist once wrote a song in my honor called ‘Preacher man don’t ever leave me at home’! I really loved church. I remember doing meetings with my dad from the age of fifteen ministering alongside him. It was great. Many memories of God’s power breaking in and touching the lives of the hurting and sick are indelibly printed in my mind. I loved the word of God! I took pride in studying the word in order to prove a point. I went to a great bible school run by our youth pastor, which equipped us with some basic Christian truths. I remember being so bold in my desire for God and my need to defend Him.

I soon became very intense and uncompromising (which I thought was very spiritual) in my display of Christianity. I remember telling people about Jesus and carrying all the ‘cringe worthy’ Christian paraphernalia. My school case had in bold print ‘I love (in the shape of a heart) Jesus!’ Talk about cheesy! All the while I was struggling on the inside to make sense of my own inadequacies and failures. I had become a great Christian example on the outside but on the inside I began to crumble. I became judgmental and angry with anyone who appeared less spiritual than I did. This was demonstrated most vehemently at home. I became pharisaical toward my siblings and felt so much better about myself when they did not behave like real pastors kids! A very serious disease of religion was creeping in and affecting me. My passion for Jesus was replaced by an intensity that was merely a mask for the religious spirit. I found myself in the trap of performance and works based relationship with God. I took pride in my bible knowledge and my regular quiet times. I began to gage my intimacy with Jesus by how I was doing on my spiritual scorecard. Yet in my heart of hearts I knew I was as far from God as I could be!

By this time I had been through bible school and was working for a church full-time. I began to see cracks appearing yet the façade of hard work for Jesus simply increased. More meetings, more prayer times and more fasting simply aided to increase my spiritual pride and did nothing to reduce my sinful attitudes, thoughts and actions. I had become a professional Pharisee. To everyone else I looked amazingly spiritual, yet I knew that my passion for Jesus was waning and I was in trouble. It’s amazing how long one can be a professional Pharisee. A number of years went by and still I was unhappy and working really hard at being a ‘good’ Christian. I was really bad at it. I remember seeing my peers being promoted in leadership after a long time of being in the world. They had done all the things that I thought was sinful and worldly. Yet they came in and by God’s grace was leading and enjoying God a lot more!

In the story of the prodigal son, the older brother hears the celebrating of his brother’s return and asks the question ‘what is going on?’ I was like the older brother; I could not even recognize the sound of a good party because of my baptism in lemon juice! I lived in the bondage of performance and religion for many years until I heard Terry Virgo speak! It was revolutionary! God chose to use a high school building in Cape Town to speak to me about enjoying God’s grace. The text was taken from Titus 2 and verse 11. As Terry expounded on the glorious gospel of grace, it revolutionized my life! I finally began to understand that grace has made a way for me to no longer be a slave but be a son (Galatians 4:7)! I experienced such freedom from sin and performance that night! I remember talking to my friend on the way back, rejoicing that my performance was not the basis for my acceptance and sonship. Grace became more than a girls name or something I said before I ate. Every cheesy acronym I had about G-R-A-C-E did not come close to experiencing such confidence in my approaching the Father. If you have not encountered this apostle of Grace, Terry Virgo, please read God’s Lavish Grace. It is a brilliant book, with teaching that forms the very basis of our Christian life.

The Father says a staggering thing to the older prodigal brother. ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours’ If we are to come into ever-increasing seasons of revelations from heaven, we have to settle some issues regarding who we are. Our access into the throne, our freedom to get revelation comes from a radical understanding that we are sons. We can enjoy all that is in our fathers’ house at any time. What marks you as a son; is that you have free reign in your father’s house. The older brother was no better than the slaves in his father’s house. He never took advantage of the fact that he could celebrate any time he wanted. More importantly, he did not understand that he was called to be with his father before he worked for his father. We are with the father always and that is why we have access into the very courts of heaven! When Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan (Luke 3:21-22). Something amazing happened. The heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descended and remained on Jesus. There was a voice that was heard saying ‘You are my son, in you I am well pleased’ this scripture really shows the delight of the Father in his Son. Up until this point Jesus had done no miracle or works that would impress anyone. There was no significant display of his ability as the Son of God. Yet in the midst of that the father is pleased to display his favor on Jesus. No performance on Jesus’ part. Just complete pleasure on the fathers’ part!

You see our performance will mean nothing unless it comes out of relationship with the Father. An open heaven over our lives, an outpouring of Holy Spirit supply flows from the fathers’ pleasure in us as sons! This is the basis for revelation and open heavens. Jesus said to his disciples in John 14:18 ‘I will not leave you as orphans’; the context for this statement was connected to Jesus going to the cross and his resurrection. He was going to the father. He was going to pour out the Holy Spirit on his disciples. He goes onto speak about our oneness with him in the father (John 14:20) and then he promises to manifest himself to us! Revelation flows from our relationship as sons. The father wants us to know his pleasure in him! We cultivate our relationship by being sons. I find it fascinating that a great deal of our generation has been crippled by a lack of fathers. In South Africa, one of the ways that the apartheid government would keep the black majority subdued, would be to separate fathers from their families and send them to different locations to work. This strategy seems to be used throughout history. The enemy would either attack fathers, or the rising generation. It is devastating to see the affect of a generation who have not enjoyed the privilege of having a father around. Much of the problems surrounding the issues facing the nation of South Africa have to do a lack of fathers. This I believe is true of many of our societies around the world.

At a youth conference called Newday, my friend Joel Virgo was speaking on Ephesians 6 and how children should honor their parents. It was an incredibly moving preach and the Spirit of God seemed to jam pack the 6000 seater tent as young people came under conviction and decided to do what the bible said! I felt the Lord drop a word of knowledge in my heart about adopted children not being able to receive love from their parents and in fact some of these dear ones were lashing out in anger toward their adoptive parents. A young man approached me after the meeting weeping as he realized he was doing that very thing. I prayed with him to receive the Holy Spirit and come under the ‘Spirit of Adoption’. Unbeknown to me, his adoptive parents had come to the end of their tether concerning this young man. He had become violent and abusive. He eventually had to be moved out of home to live with a family in church because the tension was that strong. His psychologist called his problem an ‘Attachment Disorder’. This disorder is commonly found amongst adopted children, where they find it hard to connect and receive love from adoptive parents. That night after he received prayer he phoned his adoptive parents and asked for their forgiveness because of his hardness of heart and God has begun the process of healing. He described his heart like a big metal tank with loads of gunk in it, and as we prayed the Jesus broke it open and all that gunk left him. My point is this, many people in the church live with an attachment disorder toward their heavenly father. It is the Holy Spirit who releases the ability to cry out ‘Abba!’

We have to learn how to be sons to the perfect father. When we hear the story of the prodigal son we forget that there is a third son represented in this story. The teller of the story is Jesus. Jesus is our example of a son in right relationship with the father. Allow that to sink in. Jesus’ mission came out of a radical intimacy with the father. His context for mission was doing what he saw his father do. His will was centered on the fathers. Even in times of difficulty, his response was ‘not my will but yours be done (Luke 22: 42)’. The basis for this was simply that he trusted his father implicitly. Most Christians struggle to believe God because they do not trust his character as father. In Romans chapter eight we learn that we cry out ‘Abba’ father by the Spirit (Rom 8: 15). We receive the joy of sonship by receiving the Spirit of Adoption. There is a spiritual transaction that takes place when we receive the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that brings unfolding revelation of our sonship and the fathers heart toward us. In the story of the prodigal son, the father ran to him and ‘fell upon him’ and kissed him. It is the same Greek tense used speaking of when the Holy Spirit ‘fell’ on the disciples. When the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of adoption comes it brings us into intimate fellowship with the father! The Holy Spirit is the kiss of the father!