Darren Wilson - what a pleasure

I had the awesome pleasure of spending time with Darren Wilson and his family this weekend.  Darren is the producer for the amazing films Finger of God, Furious love and Father Of Lights.  These films are life changing.  They have changed my perception of God and who He is.  It was through watching the 1st two films that my husband was inspired to take my 11 year old daughter to India on a mission trip.  It was these films that led me to travel to America to the Bethel School of Worship earlier this year.  It was these films that have led me to live my life totally for God, seeking Him more than anything else.  It is these films that have led me to to be dissatisfied with the middle class nicey nicey church and want to see radical, passionate people rise up and worship God and see the lost saved and the sick healed.

So you can see why I jumped at the chance when asked to lead worship after the Premier of his 3rd film Father of Lights in Oxford.  I have never known such easy worship leading.  By the time the film finished every single person in the room was already worshipping God for His awesomeness.

It was lovely to meet both Darren and His family.  They were wonderful, grounded, God loving people.  It was their 1st visit to England and were enjoying the lush green rolling hills and rain!  It was lovely to hear Darren's testimony of how God got a hold of him and told him to make the 1st film. 

As you can see I managed to get my usual cheesy photo of myself with Darren.  I seem to be building a collection of these (much to my friend Jamie's amusement).

Please check out the films if you have not yet seen them - they will change your life.

http://www.wpfilm.com/

It has been ages since I last wrote on here.  I have been struggling with being home from Bethel and feeling in No Man's Land since I got back.  But in actual fact a  lot has happened since my last blog.

I have had the pleasure of leading worship at 2 conferences in the past few months: one was for Open Doors (the charity started by Brother Andrew the Bible smuggler) and one for Besom (a fantastic charity linking money, food and furniture resources with the poor and needy). 

Both were events organised to bring together their key volunteers and they were both an amazing pleasure to lead at.  It is always interesting leading people from different types of churches in worship.  I spend time listening to God and asking what His focus will be for the day - but then try to choose a mix of hymns, older chorus' and a few newer songs but by well known worship leaders like Matt Redman and Tim Hughes.

Both days were so exciting because the people that came came with an expectation that God was going to speak to them: and He did.  When people with passion come together it is awesome.

I would do it every weekend just for the pleasure of knowing God is using me and I get such a buzz.  But I got more than a buzz from one of the conferences - I GOT PAID.  I know, paid.  After feeling like I should give it back and talking to the person who issued the cheque begging them to do so (they would not accept it back - they thought I had earned it) I then had the thought flash through my mind that I am now a professional!  Yes I have been paid once for leading worship - so  now it is my job.  The fact that I may never again be paid for the joy it doesn't matter- I was paid once and I am well chuffed!

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.