Mike Starkey – Saul and the Witch of Endor 1 Sam 28 Let’s find a very difficult passage dealing with issues like divine guidance, mental illness, spiritualism, failure of leadership and the silence of God in the face of desperate situations. Ah, here’s one. In the week Mike was praying and asking God, ‘Where are you at work in this nation?’ And then he pulled up outside a house, and the first sign that said ‘Ivy Cottage.’ Then there was another prayer time in the week and he asked the same question, and went to his office and there was a note from a B& B. ‘Ivy House.’ He once asked God in the supermarket, ‘What kind of minister do you want me to be?’ And a bag of salad had written on it, ‘Washed and ready to serve.’ God can of course communicate in all kinds of ways. Primarily scripture but also maybe through dreams, discernment, etc. But there can be times when we long to hear from God, and the heavens are silent. […]
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Sheep and Shepherds
Preparing for next Sunday's Video talk, which we're filming later today, I found a great deal of interesting detail from this source, reproduced at www.baptistbiblebelievers.com Manner And Customs of Bible Lands by Fred H. Wight Copyright @ 1953 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - Shepherd ...
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Why Paul told Timothy he was so FOR women leading, and I want to be too!
Why would Paul name two men getting it wrong then apparently write ‘so the answer is don’t let women teach?’ Writing something which for 2000 years since has been used - by men - to clobber women into submission at ...
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Curses and Blessings, Balaam & Barak
It's not just the strange tale of a talking donkey. Numbers 22 has a lot to tell us about blessings and curses and how words work God's way.
Matty Hawthorne ‘Goliath’s sword’
> Matty works jointly for Ivy, leading our Sharston congregation, and for > the Message > > Our church has desperate people visiting; > Hurt or a hurter > Helpless! > What will they find? Raised eyebrows or open hands? > > David was a desperate man, a wanted man. > Sleeping with one eye open > On the run from Saul > 6 times he tried to kill him… > But where does he go? > > He goes to church > For sanctuary. > To Ahimilech – the priest > 1 Sam 21 > > Desperate David resorts to lying for self protection > (Vs 2) > He wants food! > But all the priest has is ‘holy bread’ – only the priest should eat it. > Dilemma. > Should he keep the law and ignore the need? > > David reassures him, with more of the desperate lies desperate people tell. > The priest decided that a higher call than the law was an empty stomach > > David lies over and over here in his desperation. […]
Writing, Stories and Your Brain (infographic)
Fire carriers – Rachel Hickson at the Message Prayer day
What are Fire Carriers? People who carry presence, passion and power Lk 3:16 We are meant to be baptised with the Holy Spirit and with fire! Fire and water mix in God’s economy. Stay wet – monastic And on fire – mission When dry people carry fire it’s dangerous. But we get wet and put our feet on Britain’s dry ground. Isaiah 44:3 This is not just for us, it’s for our descendents. Wet people burn! If we are dry and we burn we get burnt out. Some people are scary for all the wrong reasons. So stay wet in the presence of God 1 Kings 18:33-38 The prophets of Baal were the new spirituality. They set up a dry altar. Prayed to the God of fire. Elijah says – wet it again and again. Let the water overflow. It’s seriously wet! Because you have serious challenges and God wants to put some serious fire on you. Fire that touches you touches everything around you. Are you a fire carrier? It’s great to touch the dry ground – but we […]
Eric Delve at Ivy Manchester
Grace has become a theological abstract that we argue about. Grace is basically the generosity of God wanting to bless you. Don’t live in the kingdom of grace AND fear. ‘God has to love me, but really I deserve to be punished.’ Sin is nothing compared to the power of grace. The vast majority of us though are not perfect. So what do we do with those who mess up? One act of grace deals with it all! So you really ARE forgiven. And if we really got that – we’d be a lot easier on ourselves and everyone else. If we get the abundance of grace, then we can REIGN in life. When sin abounds, grace hyper-abounds. Sin is like dog poo on your shoe! No point ignoring it, it will start to stink and everyone around you will notice. Imagine you have that shoe under Victoria Falls. That’s hyper abounding grace. So because of that – we are FREE! When we say to ourselves we are not worthy it’s because we have an idol not God. Because the […]
Dream Of A Coming Revival
Anyone who knows my wife Zoe well will know over the years she has a great prophetic gift in dreams, really insightful and occasionally scary! The wonderful thing is how they come true in detail. It’s no exaggeration to say that every major move in our life has been foretold in a dream she’s documented. So the other night she had a dream – about a move of GOD that’s coming our way. This ties in with an increasing excitement I have been feeling, many reporting a palpable sense of the presence of God last Sunday in our service at Kingsway, a number of miraculous answers to prayer here at Ivy recently; and reports from various sites I’m connected to of outpourings in various churches. It seems the spiritual temperature is being turned up! Here’s Zoe’s dream, from her notes. The bits in brackets are my explanatory notes. I was with a few others (women friends/prayer partners) were in an upstairs room – when a storm was coming up outside. I told someone there how bad it looked but they […]
Bill Hybels – Muddle Of The Middle
Bill Hybels – GLS: The Muddle Of The Middle He has talked before about Moving People from Here to There You’re a leader to move people toward a preferred future. Don’t just focus on THERE FIRST build the reasons why we can’t stay HERE Then people are ready to move THERE. So, along the journey from here to there – when is the vision most vulnerable? In the MIDDLE. When you’re half way there, that’s when you can get real problems. You haven’t got the impetus of the start off, and you can’t see the finish line. God has to carry us through the tough times in the middle. So – be very careful in the middle. The middle of your ministry life is the toughest part. Don’t you want to finish? To finish as strong as can be? To leave everything stronger than when you started. Remember what a privilege it is to be a leader. Yes there’s a price to pay. BUT… We are among the privileged few in all the world. Thanks be to God. It is […]
Successful Succession
Bill Hybels on Succession The person who helped him think through the tough questions around this asked – Do you ever see yourself dying? The death rate is 100% Do you see yourself being Senior Pastor till your last day? Or when you’re walking slow and drooling? PLANNING PHASE Every important matter to do with this needs to be asked. Who decides? How long will they have approximately What role will the pastor have afterwards How will their contribution be honoured? PHASE 2 Is there an internal successor? Give this a time frame. If not.. PHASE 3 External successor PHASE 4 18 months transition to new person. This is a GOOD process! It gives security to the church. But it’s tough on the pastor and needs to be handled with great sensitivity. Don’t assign a person with low Emotional Intelligence to handle it! Some senior pastors hang on too long. Leave a great legacy! Trust God to guide you on the journey. Set the church up to be stronger as you go.
David Shearman at Ivy Manchester
The mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. Let your mind be controlled – Not by your mind Not by your emotions Not by your body By the Spirit Cultivate the presence of God in your life. Be filled with Him. Recognise that each of us was born to be a presence carrier. You are incomplete without that. How do we engage in prayer? For our families? There are some great prayers in the Bible. Prayer is a conversation But it’s also about listening Prophecy comes from listening It comes from what you hear. If you stand long enough you’ll see more, if you listen long enough you’ll hear more. Otherwise you just give people out of your intellect. When was the last time when something swept over you and you knew that you were loved? Prayer is about knowing and being known. God is committed to making this life better and easier with Him than without Him. The word is near you – in your mouth. 2 Kings – Elisha The road to anointing: Gilgal – where […]
The most tragic verse in the Bible?
I believe that this Saturday, God is going to do something supernatural in the lives of the men who come to the Diamond Geezers Day here in Manchester, releasing our potential for supernatural greatness. If you’ll come along to the Message building and connect to God’s presence there, hearing His Word and doing what He says, I believe that God is going to raise up from the day some spiritual leaders to make a massive difference in this world. And the reality is that this is so important because there’s a huge shortage of godly men in our nation. In the church men too many men have relegated themselves into passivity, or fallen to compromise and shame. One of the most tragic verses in the Bible is Ezekiel 22:30: I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it… God said: I looked for a man like that… How many did He find? The Bible tells us: […]