WEEK OF PRAYER & FASTING
What has God
been saying to the Church?
Rev. 3: 8-13
“I know all the things you do, and I have opened a door
for you that no one can shut. You have
little strength, yet you obeyed my word and did not deny me. Look!
I will force those who belong to Satan—those liars who say they are Jews
but are not –
to come and bow down at your feet. They will acknowledge that you are the ones that I love.
Because you have obeyed my command to persevere, I will protect you from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world. Look, I am coming quickly. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take away your crown. All who are victorious will become pillars in the Temple of my God, and they will never have to leave it. And I will write my God’s name on them, and they will be citizens in the city of my God—the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven from my God. And they will have my new name inscribed upon them. Anyone who is willing to hear should listen to the Spirit and understand what the Spirit is saying to the churches”.
Be strong and take courage.
Before we can know where know where we are to go, we need to know where we are now.
- spread the Gospel
- signs and wonders will follow those who obey the Lord
- God will lead us to the people who are prepared to follow you.
- Be established in what we know we are to do.
- Seek God to be directed by the Spirit.
“For I decided to concentrate only on Jesus Christ and
His death on the cross”.
“For Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the
Good News—and not with clever speeches and high-sounding ideas, for fear that
the cross of Christ would lose its power.
I know very well how foolish the message of the cross sounds to those
who are on the road to destruction. But
we who are being saved recognize this message as the very power of God. As the Scriptures say, I will destroy human
wisdom and discard their most brilliant ideas”.
Matt. 7:6
“Don’t give what is holy to unholy people. Don’t give pearls to swine! They will trample the pearls, then turn and
attack you”.
Psalm 111:10
“Reverence for the Lord is the foundation of true
wisdom. The rewards of wisdom come to
all who obey Him.”
God’s Spirit saves
people. Keep seeking the unsaved.
God will speak to us both
individually and as a group. Fasting
puts us in a place of seeking God. We
have lots of head knowledge but God speaks to the heart. Listen with our hearts and God will speak.
Seek first the Kingdom of
God. Don’t seek the praise of men.
Are we a place that can
receive the Christians who are disconnected.
Sharing Christ in an effective way.
God is not limited to Calgary.
Go everywhere in the
world. We must evangelize and walk in
our own world first. Break us of
ourselves and put us back together to look more like God. Share the person of Jesus Christ rather than
a formula.
Gal. 4:19
“But oh, my dear children! I feel as if I am going through labor pains
for you again and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your
lives”.
God wants Christ to be
fully formed in us.
Be focused on Christ, not
on the wrong things. Shape us as a
people. God adds to the church
daily. This is not about us.
We are to be a mighty army
of love. Minister to people where they
are. Work together as a body of Christ.
We are to humble ourselves
and God will show us the way. Forsake
out selfish ways. Be still and know that
He is God. We must see people as God
sees them.
January 3, 2006
Lord, have you anything you
want to say through me?
Yes, my son. There is a wide door of opportunity
opening. It will seem too large and too
great for our abilities and financial means.
But I will bestow abilities upon you and will provide the finances. Do not look for small tasks but for
impossible ones. Walk carefully in my
ways and seek my guidance for every step.
I will not do this all at once but it will be step by step. There will be the necessity to be open to my
Spirit constantly. I am looking for a
people who will do this.
Picture of a fire
(Jesus). As we sow logs of belief on the
fire of faith, the fire will get bigger.
Bring impossible tasks to the Lord and He will consume the problem.
Live life with
abandon. Where is your first love?
Back to basics. Where is our first love? Focus back on the Lord and not on the things
of this world. The way we think church
ought to be, it will not be.
We need to change our
thinking. The miracle that God will do
will be through a few people to bring Glory to His name.
Whose strength are we
relying on? God can make anything
happen. We must start with where we are
and what we know God tells us. Rely on
His strength to get to the next place.
Future is too great to
fathom. We have to participate with
God. Everything belongs to Him.
1Chron. 29: 11-13
“Yours O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory,
the victory, and the majesty. Everything
in the heavens and on earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all
things. Riches and honor come from you
alone, for you rule over everything.
Power and might are in your hand, and it is at your discretion that
people are made great and given strength.
O our God, we thank you and praise your glorious Name!”
In the natural, it looks to
be an impossible mission. The numbers
are not the point; the mission is the point.
Keep focus on Christ. Be a people to walk very carefully
forward. He won’t allow us to be
embarrassed.
Don’t become paralyzed. God will give us direction. Sees a gate rusted shut. God says He will open it.
Don’t compare to other
churches. We are unique with a specific
mandate.
Be ready for I have a
mighty anointing that I am about to release on my people. You are not prepared for what I have for
you. You have not sanctified yourself
before me. Forsake the flesh. Prepare the way of the Lord. My people must be holy before me. Get rid of the idols in your life.
Who will intercede for the
perishing? Will you stand up and fight?
The gates Robin saw are to
individual hearts. God will give us the
key.
Robin saw 1 big
wrought-iron gate with a hedge.
Indicates private space. We need
the fire of the Holy Ghost to loosen the hinges. “Behold I stand at the door and knock”.
Behind the gate is what God
wants done. In front of the gate are our
hearts not wanting to open the gate.
Behind the gate is a treasure.
We are too
self-focused. Lean on God’s
understanding and not our own.
The gate was an
offense. Hedge grew up around gate.
Bitterroot was around the
hinges.
When we seek the Lord, He
guards the process. He will speak to us.
2 visions:
1)
Understanding the
difference between the Christian and non-Christian. Two oil lamps were seen. One has these characteristics: so dirty you can’t see through the chimney,
finger prints, soot, dirt, grim, oil clouding the chimney. Also this lamp has no wick and no oil. It has no light except for the light shone
upon it. The other lamp has a chimney
that you can see through. It’s still not
perfectly clean. There are still some
fingerprints and some residue off the chimney.
This lamp has a wick and oil. The
wick is our relationship with Christ; the oil is the Holy Spirit. The non-believer is missing the wick and the
oil. As the Christian’s lamp burns, the
Spirit sanctifies: cleaning the chimney
and allowing more light to shine. Our
mission as Christians is to get in-filled by the Holy Spirit and be sanctified
so that our light and life shines brightly on those around us. Then when the Holy Spirit’s light has
enlightened them, we have the opportunity to show them how to receive their
wick and their oil that is salvation and then the infilling of the Holy Spirit.
2)
A dream about
sharing our faith. Picture two people –
one is God and one is the nonbeliever.
Now picture gum in a package in the hand of the one who is God. The gum represents the free gift of
salvation. The nonbeliever asks the
person, who is God, if they can have the gum.
God says yes. He says the only
thing you must do is receive, chew and allow the free gift to flavor your life.
Dream: We were meeting in a facility with lots of
room. There was another church kitty
corner. Two churches merged together. There was total chaos. Robin felt lost. Don’t marry ourselves with others that aren’t
like us. Keep our sense of who we are as
believers.
Temptation
to merge when numbers are small. Not the
way to go.
Transplant
with the wrong donor could kill us.
January
4, 2006
We
must be wise as serpents, gentle as doves in this perverse generation. Don’t lose sight of who God is. They need Him.
Anointing
here for the prophetic.
Stay
the course.
I
am leading you into a new area.
Something that has no precedent that you have seen with your eyes. I want to do great things. I am looking for those who want to do them
also. As you surrender, I will take
control and astound you. As you seek Me
and walk in obedience to my words to you, you will be amazed at what I will do
in and through you. I am waiting for you. I want to be exalted in your midst. I want to draw men to me. This is my heart. Know that I am God and there is nothing that
can limit my dreams, visions, and plans.
You will know my ways in order to walk in them.
God
wants us to be totally dependant on Him.
God
will give us a new revelation of who He is.
Building
we are in now is for a time and purpose.
We are a lighthouse. Lives need
to be touched in that area. Use things
in place we already have. He desires
unity and purity in His body. New power
has come upon us. The Lord will move but
won’t be able to if we are broken.
Be
faithful over a few things. Be careful
with people who are hurt. Embrace them
with what He has given us now. His grace
is sufficient.
God
will make us a great nation so we can be a blessing. God will bless us and make us great because
He is great. God will do a new
thing. Worship God and come away from
idolatry. We are great imitators. Get our direction directly from the
Spirit. God will give abundant understanding
of His ways.
Do
we sense the Lord Jesus in our midst?
The
Lord is here because of who He is. He is
here because He loves us.
He
does love us and we need to trust Him.
Don’t worry and let Him guide each step.
This
is the Lord’s ministry. He has a
plan. We must surrender to Him. Are we putting the cart before the
horse? God has a plan.
We
need to please God in order to move in faith.
Cannot please God without faith.
Obey him and love one another.
Luke
17: 5-6
“One day the apostles said to the Lord,
‘We need more faith; tell us how to get
it’. ‘Even if you had faith as small as
a mustard seed’, the Lord answered, ‘you could say to this mulberry tree, May
God uproot you and throw you into the sea, and it would obey you’.”
It’s
not how much faith you have. Faith is
assurance and confidence. Faith is when
you have a word from God built upon his Rhema word.
Heb.
11:1
“What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we
hope for is going to happen. It is the
evidence of things we cannot yet see.
January
5, 2006
When
the woman came to Simon’s house to worship Jesus, she took a huge risk. She risked rejection, she allowed herself to
be fully exposed in front of Jesus and everyone that was there. She gave Him her heart at the risk of
ridicule. God wants us to be like that
woman. He wants us to risk everything
and allow Him to see our hearts. All
this week, God has been exposing our hearts before us. He has challenged us in the area of our first
love, He has called us to humility. He
has been asking us to place our eyes back on Him. I really sensed in the Spirit last night that
we are giving mental assent to this but we haven’t let it pierce our hearts. The alabaster jar was broken and the perfume
was spilled out over Jesus’ feet with the woman’s tears being mixed in. Jesus wants us to be broken and spilled out
over His feet. He wants to radically
change us. He is calling us to give
ourselves to Him with total abandon, without reservation. Are we responding to Jesus or talking back at
Him? He is calling us to lay down our
pride and all the things we hold dear and to follow Him. The disciples dropped everything to follow
Jesus. Are we willing to?
Take
opportunities to witness.
The
sword of the Lord and Gideon (Judges 7).
We have been given the pattern for the battle to come. Lessons we can learn from Gideon. Toupins brought
here at the Word of the Lord. They are
like Gideon and have called us to battle.
32,000 initially came to Gideon.
22,000 left and that left 10,000.
God told Gideon that was still too many.
All 10,000 were sent to the river to drink. 300 were selected; because they drank water lapping
like a dog. 9700 were prepared to fight
but were not for this battle. The ones
that stay are chosen by God to fight.
Notice the weaponry. Sword was at
the hip (represents the Word). If you
hold the sword by it’s tip it looks like a cross.
The
cross is the weapon. They were also
given trumpets.
Trumpets
are for worship. The fire in the
trumpets is Jesus. We’ve been doing the
right thing.
We
have 3 weapons.
Horn
of Worship
Sword
Light
– Jesus.
We
will see the enemy run. We will see
people come to the Lord. Others merged
but Gideon separated them from the others.
This is God’s battle and He will prepare us for the next battle. Cry of unity:
1 Lord, 1 Sword, 1 Battle, 1 Victory.
The
sword of the Lord and of CWC. He has
shown us how to do this. 1 Vision.
In
the military when you have a small division, it is easier to be united. When you have a legion, confusion comes
in. Everyone watches everyone else’s
back. They are lapping water like a dog
to see what’s going on around them.
The
Bible is full of stories of how God used the insignificant to do mighty things.
And
Gideon was nothing
Was
nothing in the fray
But
just a suit of working clothes
The
Spirit wore that day.
January
6, 2006
The
disciples met together in unity. Dwelt
together in one accord. The things God
want to do in this place, we at CWC must also want to do. That brings unity.
All
things that don’t matter would be non-existent.
All pettiness that we experience as humans would be laid aside.
I
saw a sword stirring red hot coals. Then
the sword was removed from the coals by a hand.
The sword carved a line from the center of the coals out into the
ground. It then carved a square in the
ground and then another square. I got
the sense that the squares were bricks for a new Jerusalem wall. The hot coals were the refiner’s fire. The Holy Spirit will make us strong.
There
are times to be on fire in the Spirit.
There are times of resting in the Spirit. Accept the way things are at the moment.
At
the end of harvest and before the time of the next planting there is a time of
preparation. Equipment needs to be made
ready. Queen’s Park Church has been
harvested. CWC is about to be
planted. We are the equipment being made
ready.
God
wants us to go to a new name; to the name of Christian. Get rid of labels. Define ourselves as Christians. Get rid of the segregation. Something new for us is to walk as a New
Testament Christian.
Labels
have become a religion themselves.
Disciples
didn’t talk about doctrine or theology.
The talked about Christ and Him crucified.
We
must do what Jesus wants us to do.
Flow
with God and stop trying to analyze it.
It
is accomplished. We understand what He
want us to do.
Nonbelievers
don’t are about our labels. We become
taken up with churchianity and this becomes a
problem. We must spend more time with
nonbelievers. Our message becomes Jesus. Nonbeliever look for our compassion, our
caring, our friendship. They are looking
for real Christianity. The Lord is
looking for people who will carry Him boldly into the world.
January
7, 2006
We
received more general things the Lord wanted to focus on, such as seeking his
face, walking in humility, evangelism, etc.
As we do that more specific direction will come as opportunities
arise. All of those things will make us
more open to direction and guidance.
Picture
of a steeple. Steeple didn’t have a
foundation. God is still building the
foundation.
Steeples
represent organized religion. We’ve
erected a church, God is going to build a church.
We
like to set goals and to make future plans.
God likes to work in the moment and the process is more important to Him
then the arrival.
A
steeple is something that is seen. We
have wanted to be seen. God wants to
build something deeper.
God
has a plan for every opportunity.
Sometimes windows are narrow and timing is short. Sometimes people are open to the Gospel at
that moment and not later. We like to
see a 10 year plan but in 10 years the plan could be obsolete. Unless we’re flexible we may miss the
opportunity.
Be
careful what we do and not to do anything too quickly. We’ll be tempted by 3 buildings and not to
jump into anything too fast.
Vision:
I
looked and I saw our resource center. I
saw people being ministered to. It was
on a hill. There were people in
wheelchairs being pushed by Christians and loved. There were poor people being fed. There were single pregnant girls being
attended to and I know this was our Christian resource center. Many people being loved, served and saved. In all of the images, there was no
building. God showed me our resource
center is us following Christ serving others.
No matter where we are we are not to seek a building, we are to seek
God. We are to continually do the work
He has called us to do. Be faithful to
what I have told you. I will provide all
that you need to do it.
Minister
to the need, see the need, serve the need, save the soul. Get back to the basics. Be a Book of Acts church. Unchurch the
church.
Look
for sanctuary in our hearts first before finding a sanctuary within 4 walls.
Wherever
we are placed in our mission field, are we missing opportunities by focusing
too much on the things we are doing?