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. […]
Tag: Christianity
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 […]
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: […]
SOW MORE SEED – BILL HYBELS
From DVD of Willow Creek GLS last year – watched with staff team today. Parable of talents. – Luke 8 Despite how bountifully the seed is sown (the good news of God’s love). Some people reject it- but don’t get discouraged. Some of it will land on good soil, too. The maths of this is amazing for the seed rejection ratio – he says there’s a 75% rejection rate. But then look at the maths of the tree that represents someone who says yes and has their life changed. How much is produced by a transformed life. We want to see more trees! So – what must I do? PLANT MORE SEED! To overcome the rejection maths. Don’t just complain about the rejection rate! Plant different kinds of seed. We have to sow a lot more seed in our communities. Alpha Course Just Walk Across The Room Experiment!! You will see more trees. Leader – this depends on you. The church takes its cues from you. One of the fundamental requirements of a leader is to learn, experiment and stay […]
Why the Great Commission has stopped me ‘Evangelising’ and ‘Discipling’ people.
I’m disturbed that the church has made DISCIPLING a new kind of industry in the last 5 years or so. Everyone’s doing conferences or writing books with plans and formulas to ‘disciple’ people. As if it’s a verb – not a noun.
CROSSED OUT – Carpenter worth less than the wood and nails?
The cross, crossed people out. They didn’t matter anymore. It was a death that deliberately stripped all dignity. You were belittled. That means you were being, littled. Jesus’ cross was inconsequential. The sign above his head ‘King of the Jews’ – a bitter irony. He was nothing. Crossed out.
‘COULD YOU NOT WATCH ONE HOUR?!’ – (My struggles with learning to pray. part 2)
Occasionally I’d have a bit of an energy burst and do some journalling (ever done that?). Some of the conferences I went to had experts saying if you didn’t journal every day you had to doubt your salvation. I got a journal. The ‘MAN’ type, leather, with a cross on the front, not the girls one with flowers. Some time later I got another one because I’d hardly written in the first one. It had ‘MY PRAYER JOURNAL’ written on the front. But there’s still not much written in it. Actually though, Jesus didn’t journal. It really wasn’t me. I love writing, I hate journaling. I’m not even sure journalling is a word. How many ls should it have if it is? Spellchecker doesn’t like either. I read somewhere that CS Lewis STOPPED journaling when he became a Christian, because he’d done it for years before, and found it made him too self centred. I was doing really badly from the outset at how I thought you were supposed to be growing spiritually. It never got better. It’s not like […]
‘Could You Not Watch One Hour?’ – Er… to be honest… no.
I have felt so GUILTY about prayer. Because I am rubbish at it.
Make This Sunday’s Message RESONATE!
I’ve been a Nancy Duarte fan for years, highly recomending her books as a great investment to anyone who communicates (that’s you) and especially preachers. How fantastic to discover that one of the world’s leading authorities on getting your message across in a way people will hear it is also a Christian and passionate about THE Message that changes lives forever and the world for good. Invest 20 minutes on this video, and take notes! (I have the structure line on my office wall now together with some other prompts to help as I pull messages together).
Watch LeCrae Explain What ‘A Real Man’ Is
Then if you live within striking distance of Manchester book in here NOW for the Diamond Geezers Men’s Day on Saturday April 13th before it’s too late. [vimeo http://vimeo.com/59965923] (If you have any trouble watching the video here, go to http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/lecrae-explains-true-manhood)