The Irony

So perhaps it was dangerous to post about wilderness times... or perhaps it is God's direction before a time of trial.... but I am certainly in a wilderness time.

I think I came home from Bethel all fired up to see God move in power in my church... and then we hit the 'summer season'.  Basically our church stops normal services for about 7 weeks. Some weeks we have had no church, another week was a cream tea afternoon, and a few services with shorter worship sessions and no sermons. I have never been so hungry for more of God.  I am still reading my bible and worshiping at home but I long to see our church filled with the Glory of God.  It bothers me that we all shut down for God over the summer holiday.  I know that God never shuts down on us....  surely we can give him all in every season? 

This week as I faced another 'event' rather than church my spirit cried out for some Godly meat.  We decided to go to another church 30 mins away in Oxford.  St Aldates was our church 15 years ago before we had all our children.  They are a vibrant church of England Church - similar to HTB.  As the worship began I felt like God filled a huge dry well that had become vast over many weeks.  We had the pleasure of taking the children to the kid's work and then listening to an excellent talk about the Holy Spirit.  God's word.  Amazing.  I was really encouraged by a member of their worship team who came straight over to me when they had finished to encourage me about my singing.  He said it was beautiful and really encouraged Him to worship God.  As we left the church the vicar grabbed me by the arm and asked me to wait to talk to him.  He asked me if we were joining his church - when I said that we were only visiting is face dropped.  He said that he was so blessed by our passion for God and it really encouraged him to push more into Him.  He said that he would love people with our passion in his church. 

It was like God was encouraging me. I need to worship God.  I am passionate about Him.  I am passionate that the lost are saved and passionate that the church rise up and give God the glory he deserves. 

Our choice in the wilderness

At church on Sunday I had a word for the church about wilderness times.  We are not only led into the wilderness by the devil, we also can be lead there by the Holy Spirit, Just like Jesus was after he was baptised (he was lead into the desert for 40 days of temptation).  But, we do have a choice when we are in the wilderness.  We can listen to the lies of the evil one and wallow in our misery, or we can choose to praise God in the wilderness.  You see when David wrote the psalms, they were very up and down in terms of mood, but even when David was in the deepest darkness he chose to lift the name of the lord.  For example in psalm 22 v 1 - 3 he writes:

My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Why are you so far away when I groan for help? 
Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer.
Every night you hear my voice, but I find no relief. 
Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.

I love the word YET in the 3rd verse.  You know even in the darkest of times we can offer praise to God.  It may be a sacrifice of praise but He is always worthy of our praise.   The amazing thing is that as we praise Him in the darkness His light will always shine in our wilderness.  You see as it says in verse 3 when we praise Him he is enthroned.  He dwells with us in our praise.  He fills us with His spirit and of course when we dwell in His spirit the gifts of the Spirit are ours.  It is a given... we will get Love, Joy, Peace, Kindness, Goodness, Patience, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self Control.  What do we need in the wilderness?  More of the devil's lies or peace, patience and joy. 

I love how it is when we turn to God and praise Him in our most difficult times: we develop such an intimacy with God that goes deeper than ever before.  We come out stronger because the rock under our feet seems to grow and grow.

So are you in a wildness time?  Are you blaming the devil or did the Lord lead you there to see whether you would call on Him and praise Him?  In the desert we face a crossroads...  which way will you turn?

Awesome Reflections

Today I have been musing over something I had heard said at Bethel....  that God inhabits (or dwells in) the praises of His people.  I decided to look it up in the bible and find the reference.  Psalm 22 v3.

It reads deffiernlty in different versions:

• American Standardized Version - But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
• Amplified -  But You are holy, O You Who dwell in [the holy place where] the praises of Israel [are offered].
• New Living Translation - Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.

I am so moved by this verse.  There 7 Hebrew words used for Praise in the bible; the one used in this passage is 'tehillot' which means to sing songs and hymns in the spirit. So when we sing songs in the spirit God actually dwells, or inhabits in those praises and He is enthroned in them.  How awesome is that!  

Now I see why we hear angels as we worship God, why things like the Glory Cloud appear...  God is dwelling and being enthroned through our praises.

We want God to dwell in our churches...  in our houses,  in our hearts... so we need to be singing praises in the spirit to Him.  We have such a responsibly as worship leaders to allow time for (and encourage people) to sing in the spirit.  Wow.