Andy Hall Writes

‘Hosting the Spirit of Revival’ By Andy Hall

Zechariah 4:6 says “…not by might nor by power but by my Spirt says the Lord…”

These words were addressed to Zerubbabel a Governor in Jerusalem for the Persian Emperor Darius. Having started his job of rebuilding Jerusalem well, it had got bogged down and needed a kick start. The prophet tells him it’s not human power or position or authority but only by the moving of God’s Spirit that this project could go on to completion. It was the Spirit’s power he needed, the Spirit’s power and ability is constant always available and not dependent upon circumstances.

In Ezekiel 47 God speaks about the river of God flowing out from His temple this is a picture of God desire for us to have an ever-deepening experience of Holy Spirit. In our experience the river of good can seem to go underground but it does not go away, we can actively access it today. God’s will is not up and down, His desire is for us to have a continuous increasing experience of the Spirit as we go from one degree of Glory to another!

Revival history is very varied. It’s not just speaking in tongues (like at Azusa Street), not just falling, and laughing (ala Toronto), not just societal transformation (as with the Salvation Army), not just mass conversion (as in the Welsh revival) nor is it just signs and wonders as currently being experienced in Bethel. It’s all the above and more, we can’t pick and mix our manifestations. Each past revival advances now part of my inheritance as I welcome the Spirit of revival. Previous generations ceilings are now our floors or starting points! We can ask for more!

How can I keep the flow of the revival Spirit in my life and church?

·         Do not change the subject.

·         Do not go back to Old Testament theology, of the Spirit only being for special people for special tasks.

·         Do not back slide into a non-supernatural faith of your own power and might.

·         Keep raising the bar of your expectations.

·         Keep living in a permanent expectation of Holy Spirit turning up until our environment changes.

The Spirit of Revival is not stop-start, so let us connect, bore down, open ourselves up to Him in expectation of increasing waves a deeper river a more fire filled environment.

Why not here? Why not us? Why not now? Come Holy Spirit!

Miriam Thurlow Writes:

 A life with Jesus is a life with the expectation of transformation.

Luke 5:1-11 is the calling and commissioning story of Simon Peter. Jesus was being followed by a crowd eager to hear His teaching and so He asked Simon and the other fishermen to use their boat so He could teach the crowd. But, even though they weren’t initially the hungry ones, it was the fishermen whose lives were transformed.

They had had a fruitless night of fishing and were weary, but when Jesus asked Simon to put out the nets one more time, Simon recognised something in Jesus and decided to do as He asked. And a miracle happened! The two fishing boats were overflowing with fish. Simon has a revelation of who Jesus truly is and falls before Him in repentance and sinner. He moves from calling Jesus master to recognising Him as Lord. 

Even though Simon tells Jesus to go away because he is not worthy, Jesus draws close and says to Simon ‘from now on you will be catching people’. This phrase ‘from now on’ really struck me. It reminded me of the song from the Greatest Showman when the lead character reaches a crisis moment and makes the decision to live differently from now on. The lyric of the song is: ‘And let this promise in me start, like an anthem in my heart, from now on’. 

There are echoes of Simon’s story in these words. He has a revelation of who Jesus is and responded in repentance. From this place Jesus calls and commissions him to join His kingdom work. There is a new anthem in Simon’s heart, it is the anthem God is singing over him, and therefore ‘from now on’ his life is transformed.

Coming to Jesus means choosing from now on the walk in the promises of God, to allow His anthem to be the anthem in our hearts. We all get things wrong, but ‘from now on’ means something has changed. No longer is the world centred around me or no longer is my identity dictated by a criteria the world decides. From now on my identity is found in Jesus. Simon went from a worthless fisherman in the world’s eyes, to a valued fisher of men in Jesus’ eyes. 

Sometimes we get stuck or forget that transformation isn’t just a part of the beginning of our testimony. Life as a disciple is a lifelong journey of learning and transformation. 

The fishermen left everything (including the huge catch of fish) behind to follow Jesus and become those who catch people for the Kingdom. Will we also lean in? Will we also allow the Holy Spirit to transform us? Because a life with Jesus is a life with the expectation of transformation. 

Revd Miriam Thurlow, Curate CCBN

Miriam Thurlow Writes

We enjoyed welcoming Vicky Earll and some of the community from The Ascension and St Thomas (AST) Church in Derringham Bank, Hull at our New Wine celebration on Sunday.

Vicky explored Matthew 3:16-4:11 with us, looking at how the place of testing is the place of training for God’s purposes. Before Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, He was equipped with all He needed for the place of testing that was ahead of Him. He received the infilling of the Holy Spirit and had His identity affirmed by the Father. The 40 days of prayer and fasting, at the start of His time in the wilderness, were also training for the testing. 

Jesus was in a place of vulnerability when the devil came to test Him, but because He had been fully equipped, He was ready. The devil first questioned His identity and tempted Him to prove His identity and use His power as a gimmick. But that is not the purpose of Jesus’ power. We too sometimes are tempted to prove ourselves worthy or prove our identity as a follower of Jesus, and we may also have some blind spots where we don’t realise that is what we have been doing.

The devil then questions God’s promises to Jesus and tempts Him to prove the promise there and then rather than rest in the promise. The devil offers Jesus what He will get, but Jesus turns down this seemingly easier shortcut. Instead, He chose the costly way of the cross.

We too are tempted at times to prove our identity or to try and make God’s promises come true rather than trusting Him. But we see in Jesus’ time in the wilderness, as well as equipping and training, there is a way forward, so we don’t fall into these traps. We can ask the Holy Spirit to fill and lead us as He did with Jesus. We can seek daily encounter with Him. We can dwell in God’s word, the Bible, so that as with Jesus it is what comes to mind when we are tested too. We can also become more aware of our own places of vulnerability. All these help us to know and live into our identity as beloved children of God. 

Ray Yates writes:

Mark 5.1-20 Legion

First of all to state the obvious, this is a shocking story, we can fail to allow the Bible to shock us! What a terrible picture this story presents of this poor demonised man:

This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. 4 For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

It would seem that all this man’s humanity was lost to all but Jesus.

When Jesus asks: “What is your name?”

“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” His human name is lost! This poor man!

This passage points to an amazing truth - no one is too far gone for Jesus’ help.  Jesus can see our real potential, beyond all the mess and sin in our lives…  We shouldn’t write any one off….

What a transformation we see in Legion, Jesus breaking the grip of evil: sitting there, dressed and in his right mind, a man at peace after torment!  Jesus can do that! Jesus wants to do that, Jesus does that.  Many people are tormented by their own demons… Jesus can bring us peace…

We come now to the best part of the passage for me:

As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him.  Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”  So the man went away and began to tell those in his home towns how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

The healed man wants to go with Jesus but he is sent to his own people.  This is a tough call.  Our mission field is often in front of us:  family, friends, local area, and this is often the toughest mission field.

That’s where Jesus sent Legion…That’s where Jesus often sends us…

It couldn’t have been easy to go back, with all that had gone on.

It seems his enthusiasm knew no limits, rather than stay at home he went to the ten towns (Decapolis).

Jesus sends this man to those who asked Him to leave, not only that, these towns were known to be a bit rough!

What qualification did this man have to be one of the first Christian missionaries?  In one sense he didn’t know much about Jesus, but in another sense he knew so much about Jesus.  The healed man had this in abundance. He had a life changing Jesus Encounter.

The man could do more than talk about freedom (or quote Bible verses about it), he’d found it in Jesus.  It is not just learning we should desire but Encounter.  Encounter with Jesus should always make us want to learn more about Him..

And all the people were amazed!  I am constantly amazed at what Jesus can do!

Reverend Ray Yates

Miriam writes:

In Mark 5:25-34 we hear the story of a woman who reached for Jesus with faith and encountered His presence in a way that completely transformed her life. She had been suffering with bleeding for 12 years and had spent all the money she had trying to get well but she was only getting worse. According to the Old Testament purity laws her bleeding caused her to be considered unclean by her community. As a consequence, she had spent 12 years socially isolated because people would have been afraid to come close in case they brushed up against her and became unclean too.

So, it is even more amazing that having heard about Jesus she had the faith (and courage) to risk everything and enter the crowd just so she might touch Jesus’ cloak. And when she did reach out, she received immediate healing. However, rather than her uncleanness transferring to Jesus, His holiness transferred to her - contagious uncleanness becomes contagious holiness in Jesus. Not only that, but Jesus called her out in front of the whole crowd so that she might be fully restored and no longer live in isolation.

Last week at the New Wine Leadership Conference Bishop Ruth spoke on this passage and how she accidentally typed ‘she re-ached for Jesus’ instead of ‘she reached’. But this mistake reveals something of the woman’s heart. She had tried everything else, and now she had faith that Jesus could heal her. Her heart ached for Him.

Do our hearts ache for Jesus? And not just once in a while, but do we re-ache for Jesus daily?

The other week at Family Breakfast we were thinking about what it means to grow as disciples and we did an experiment to grow salt crystals. Salt crystals only grow when string is immersed in salty water and left for the water to evaporate and the salt to cling to the string. This process happens slowly, but bit by bit crystals start to form.

This is a bit like what living as a disciple looks like, it means choosing again and again to reach out for Jesus with faith, with a heart that is daily re-aching for Jesus. Slowly the Holy Spirit transforms us and enables us to grow in our relationship with Jesus.

Are we day by day choosing to listen to His voice and obediently follow where He leads? Are we those who want to be with Jesus, become like Jesus and do the things Jesus did? Because Jesus is the one who heals, the one who rescues, the one who saves. And the one who calls out to us: come follow me - how are you going to respond? Are you reaching for Jesus? Is your heart re-aching for him?

Revd Miriam Thurlow Curate CCBN

Miriam Thurlow writes

Last week as we worshipped we were led into a beautiful extended silence and as we sat in God’s presence I felt God ask me: why are you bringing your haste with you into my presence?

My life is often full of haste but I had this strong conviction I didn’t want to bring that into the presence of God with me. Because if I did I would bring my own vision of God and his kingdom, my own vision of the right timings, rather than coming to him and letting him reveal himself and his will to me.

As I reflected on this, I realised God has been speaking to me about slowing down with him in various ways - about not rushing time with him. And I found myself reflecting on Moses’ encounter with God at the burning bush (Exodus 3).

This encounter happens whilst Moses is going about his daily life as a shepherd. He is tending his flock when an angel of the Lord appeared and made God’s presence visible to Moses in a tree that was on fire but not burning up. The fire catches Moses’ attention and he begins to draw near to it. As he does he hears God calling him by name. But before he can draw any closer God tells Moses to take off his sandals for he is on holy ground.

Yes as a sign of respect and reverence but for 2 other reasons too. Firstly, Moses is told to take off his sandals because they are dirty. He is a shepherd and so they would have been covered in all kinds of dirt on them. But the dirt of the world does not belong in this holy space. Moses turned away from his business as usual, including taking off his dirty sandals, leaving the signs of the world outside so that he can come into the holy place. He takes off his sandals so that God can do His transformation.

But I wonder also whether God told him to remove his shoes so would not go anywhere. So he wouldn’t rush off, but stay in this holy place, stay in this place of encounter.

It is a holy place because God’s presence is there. God is inviting Moses into this holy place but he has a choice to make in order to draw near, to take off his sandals.

We too are invited to draw close, to be in God’s presence and be transformed, but we have to make a choice - to take off our sandals and trust God’s wisdom and command rather than our own strength and own way.

Why do we seek God’s presence? In part the answer is simple: we desire to be in God’s presence because that is where God is - and we want to be with Him.

Are we hearing the Holy Spirit inviting us to draw close to God? Hear the Father calling our name? But what are we bringing with us? What is stuck on the bottom of our sandals? Distraction? Haste and hurry? Our own agenda? Resentment? Unforgiveness? Pride? We long to come into the presence of God and be transformed - but that is a purifying place - what do we need to leave behind so that we can fully enter in?

We seek God’s presence for He is there and in His presence we are transformed. In His presence we hear Him calling our name and listen as He reveals who He is. Our cry in this holy place is: teach me your ways Lord, show me the way You love, make my heart grow more and more in love with you. As we do this we discover and learn to walk in God’s way, at His pace - to not let the haste of the world lead us, but instead be led by the Holy Spirit, to dwell in God’s presence and be obedient to where He calls us.

Revd Miriam Thurlow Curate

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David Phillips writes:

The spiritual world is all around us because God is all around us, this is fundamental in Christianity.  We are spiritual children living in a material world.

The Bible says that we are aliens here on earth and that our home is in heaven.  So we are urged to grow in spiritual things, in gifts of the Spirit such as prophecy, visions, healings, tongues, kindness, faithfulness, love, self-control.  And lots of other things, because we cannot have a lasting effect for the Gospel if we are not aware of and do not grow in the spiritual dimension.

When we become Christians we think that we have arrived, and if we have truly given our lives to Jesus we have arrived, but there is so much more to learn, so much more to grow into, because all the things that Jesus displayed and taught and show us in His life are ours too, all the blessings and gifts of heaven are ours in Christ.  And if we are willing and brave, we will never stop learning this side of heaven.

We are growing into the image of Jesus and when we finally get to heaven and we see the Lord, the bible tells us that we will be like Him for we will see Him as He is.  Obviously, not physically but spiritually, and like all living things we have to grow, or die, you never just exist.

So how do we grow?  Of course, the Bible tells us firstly to crave that growth.

1Peter 2:2-3 says: “Like newborn babies crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good”. 

You can’t stay as a baby, you have to grow, if you eat or drink it happens, in the material and in the spiritual.

Spiritual truths found in scripture, and Christian books will feed you, sermons feed you, prophetic words feed you.

2Peter 3:18 says: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”

It’s a command to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus.

To grow in His grace is to accept His undying, unmerited forgiveness then give it away to others. We give ourselves for the sake of other people, just as Jesus did.  “Have you truly accepted His forgiveness of you and because of it have you been able to forgive others who have wronged you?”  Have you grown in grace and knowledge of Jesus?

It’s hard but it’s how we grow and all of us have some growing to do.

2Cor 10:15  “Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our area of activity among you will greatly expand.”

As your faith grows all sorts of spiritual ministries grow as well and the area of spiritual activity in a town or area grows as well.

You have to exercise your faith, practise it, test it, step out in faith and cause it to grow.

Reverend David Phillips CCBN

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Mark Carey Writes:

Have you noticed we so often reserve talk of resurrection to Easter? We don't factor it in to our lives on a daily basis.

I found myself thinking about this after we read the account of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus in morning prayers. I was struck by, even at the point of death, resurrection power was showing up as tombs were opened. I observed that the authorities went to great effort to make sure resurrection couldn’t happen by guarding the tomb and sealing it up - but that couldn’t stop Jesus being raised. It reminded me that throughout Jesus’ life He showed resurrection power….. you couldn’t miss it - like a foretaste of what was to come.

The true state of a disciple of Jesus is to be one who lives in resurrection power. Jesus modelled it, lived it, and set it before us and therefore we are called to live it as well. How do we do this? Well, watch what I said last Sunday night https://www.youtube.com/live/YsILmLppcV0?feature=shared 

Maybe the thing I would most highlight is what I learned from watching Gladiators the TV show. Those familiar with it will know that the last and most difficult part of the final challenge is the Travellator. Contestants have to run up an incline of 30 degrees, moving at 13mph against them. By this point, they are exhausted by the other challenges they have completed - many fall and end up sliding down to the bottom. One contestant found himself at the bottom of the travellator and the referee was overheard encouraging him - “keep your eyes on the top of it… don’t look down…. keep your eyes up”. This is what we must do to live in resurrection life - stay focussed on the resurrection- it’s where the joy, the encouragement and the power is. 

Reverend Canon Mark Carey Christ Church Bridlington Network

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Miriam Thurlow writes:

Recently I’ve been thinking about how being a disciple is living in the tension of trusting God’s grace is enough and playing our part as co-workers of Christ.

In 2 Corinthians 12 7-10, Paul tells the Church in Corinth about a thorn in the flesh which he has pleaded with God three times for it to leave him. The prayer is seemingly unanswered, but in this appealing to God, Paul hears this revelation: ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness’.

Paul’s thorn has not left him; however it is in this place of weakness where Paul is learning the truth of God’s power and the truth of how God’s grace is enough. Sometimes we ask God to open the door right in front of us because we assume that is what needs to happen next, but in fact God shows us a different door, or even a trap door we didn’t know was an option. Paul’s thorn, his weakness, has in Jesus become a means for God’s power. Like it was at the cross. The cross should have been a place of shame, a place of pain, a place of weakness, and a place of death. But through Jesus’ death and resurrection, it instead becomes a place of victory, a place of healing, a place of power, and a place of life.

Grace is a free, unconditional gift of love and salvation offered to each of us by God. It is not earned or achieved, and through grace we are forgiven and restored; we can come to Jesus and find new life in Him. All we have to do is decide whether we will accept it, and each day choose to keep on trusting His grace is enough.

But as we trust in the truth of God’s grace is enough, we also live in the tension that we are co-workers with Christ (1 Corinthians 3:9). Being a co-worker with Christ is about doing what God is asking us to do and being faithful, it is being disciples, being apprentices of Jesus. Apprentices are people who work with a master, learning from him and helping them with their work. So, as we continue to be disciples and learn to live the Jesus way, we are learning to live in the tension of God’s grace is enough and being called to be co-workers – we are both saved and appointed.

But do we really trust that God is enough? In all parts of our lives – our relationships, our finances, our families, our futures? Or have we deceived ourselves, saying we trust God is enough, but actually having a back-up plan just in case He isn’t? It’s not easy or pleasant to admit we have deceived ourselves, but in doing so have we lowered our expectations of what God can and will do?

God’s grace is constant and unchanging, and He wants us to join Him as co-workers in His kingdom work – are we living in this tension of God’s grace is enough and being called to be His co-workers?

Miriam Curate CCBN

Andy Hall writes:

In Matthew 12:28, the demons were cast out by the Spirit of God, the motive power source of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is empowered, enlarged and enforced by the activity of the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit is in all that the Kingdom is in. He encompasses the Kingdom. He is inseparable from it but not the same as it. Where the Spirit is present the liberty of the rule of God is seen (2Cor 3:17). The King’s domain is made manifest by the working of the Spirit. Any one lead by Spirit will come into conflict with the other kingdom.

God has immediate & ultimate goals: salvation is not the ultimate goal of Christ’s coming! It was the intermediate target (without accomplishing redemption there was no hope of the ultimate goal). The ultimate goal was to form a people, a born again, citizenship of heaven, bringing the Kingdom upon the earth by means of the anointing of the Hoy Spirit. To prepare for Jesus ultimate return to bring a new heaven and a new earth.

What is the anointing? Anointing is the tangible expression of the Holy Spirit. Christ was not Jesus surname! Christ means the anointed one. Not sufficient that Jesus was sent to earth with a title. He had to receive and anointing coming to Him in an experience, if He was to accomplish His mission. Jesus had laid aside His powers and was only able to do what He did in power of the anointing. The anointing of the Spirit on Jesus started an intervention from heaven which still flows today. So by the Spirit the “kingdom of heaven is at hand” not just our destination but our present experience within arm’s reach!

Anointing means literally “to smear” or “to pour over”. Holy Spirit as anointing oil of God was smeared over Jesus at His baptism. Today the Holy Spirit wants to make Christians literally into little Christ – ones smeared with Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament people were anointed for priesthood, kingship and prophet-hood. We today are anointed to be prophets, priests and members of a royal kingdom.

So Jesus is committed to moving us out of our religious social comfort zones to embrace the religious radicalising of the Holy Spirit.

• Spirit wants to shape us for His service not our convenience.

• Spirit comes to take over not to take sides. Only acceptable control in Church is that of the Spirit.

• Spirit takes us into the realms of imbalance. Balanced people are stuck.

• Spirit has no commitment to not rocking our boat (storms are not always from the devil!).

• Spirit has no commitment to maintain our current status-quo. The Spirit is committed to no other peace than His own. 

Following the cloud of God’s presence today? Following Jesus means to follow the anointing, this is analogous to the Israelites having to follow the cloud in the desert. The cloud helped them to know Gods presence and direction. Moses said “don’t send us up unless you go with us”. The issue is how much value do we set upon the primacy of God’s presence? And how do we recognise it amongst us today?

Many Christians struggle to follow the leading of the Spirit because we tend to see Him in such a narrow spectrum of phenomena e.g. conviction feelings of peace or bringing a scripture to mind. We often have a small list of acceptable manifestations of the Spirit. Recognition of situations with the Holy Spirit’s fingerprints on them is essential if we don’t want to end up grieving, quenching or opposing the Spirit presence when He does something different from what we believe He should do! Wide spectrum Holy Spirit phenomena: shaking, groaning, laughing, roaring, dancing, goose bumps, up welling joy, up welling compassion, heat, fire, winds or breezes, mist, oil, aromas, gold dust, prophetic actions or movements, high praise shouts, light phenomena.

Fear of being deceived shows we have too small a God.   Let us learn to trust that when Jesus offers us something it will be good for us and good for His Kingdom.

Andy Hall Associate Minister CCBN