Maranatha Weekend Gathering
Our weekend gathering in Davyhulme was a blessed time of renewing fellowship with one another in person. We were delighted that a number of folk, who were unable to travel, were able to join us for the sessions on Zoom and that they reported feeling fully part of the gathering. We continued the pattern of the last 3 years by submitting the weekend to the Lord, without any human agenda. We spent time in worship, affirming our oneness with the whole Body of Christ, including those who have gone before us, and uniting our worship to the worship of heaven.
The following are some of the key points from the gathering:
- The Lord is calling us to be primarily concerned with our hearts – the most important place of ‘knowing’. Our oneness with the Lord is firstly through our hearts, as is our oneness with each other and others in the Body of Christ.
- There is an important relationship between the Christian home, the local church and the global church, which is like the relationship between the 3 ossicles (tiny bones) in the middle ear. This was brought into focus as we listened to the Lord for His direction regarding (a) the property in which the Maranatha Office and Taste & See is situated (102 Irlam Road, which is to be sold), (b) The Ark and (c) the local church which currently meets at The Ark (Flixton Fellowship Church). A further image was given – a tricycle. All 3 wheels need to move at the same time.
- This is a time of opportunity, with open doors for initiatives. During a time of worship several people identified initiatives they believe the Lord is calling them to take. We were all challenged to consider what steps the Lord is calling each one of us to take in the coming weeks. The promotion of unity within the local church is key in all these situations.
Recordings of some of the weekend sessions are available. If you would like to view these, please contact Charles in the Maranatha office.
Monthly Maranatha Gathering Online
On Sunday 4th February, we ‘gathered’ for our monthly online gathering. The following are key points shared from our time of worship and waiting on the Lord:
- Get ready – it is time to be alert and watchful, keeping our eyes on the Lord, deepening our union with Him in trust. He is in the eye of the storm. Our journey ahead will be like going through the eye of a needle, for which we will need to let go of excess baggage.
- The Lord wants to increase the range of our senses, especially hearing and vision – an image was shared of someone with ear trumpets in both ears. Rev 3.18: How do we ‘buy’ salve for our eyes? Similarly, the question was posed: does the Lord have a ‘loop’ system for us to hear through? (a reference to modern hearing aids where sound is heard directly from the source, thus cutting out ambient noise). How much do we ‘hear’ God through scripture?
- We tend to have ‘selective hearing’. For example, when listening to music most will hear only the melody. There are many parts to hear if we attune our hearing to a greater range. All the messages to the churches in Revelation end with the phrase: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
There is a difference between hearing and listening.
God wants to teach us how to listen and see. When our eyes are fully open to His light we will see more clearly. Our ears need to be attuned to the Lord’s voice in a similar way to the fine tuning into a radio frequency on an old radio. Question: ‘Can you hear the angels singing? Can you hear the trumpet blast?’
- It is with and through our hearts that we hear, see and know the Lord’s revelation – Image: God’s hand reaching into a human heart and turning a ‘tuning knob’, accompanied by the word “I am tuning the heart of the Church to hear my voice”.
One member shared that they had recently had a series of ‘heart’ images in prayer. The last one was a bicycle chain in the shape of a heart. Fine machine oil was being applied to the links. This speaks of oneness of heart, anointing, and mobilisation. We were also reminded of the image of a tricycle which had been shared at the Maranatha Weekend.
From early days, the Maranatha Community adopted the prayer of John Henry Newman, in which is the phrase, “…I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons…”
- We need to embrace a deeper commitment to pursuing the Lord’s will – when we believe the Lord has given a vision for something, there is a tendency to ‘achieve’ the vision in the way we determine. This was likened to the way in which a jig-saw is often constructed by putting the edge pieces together first. God is taking away these defining pieces so that we have to depend on listening to Him, for each step at a time, as He brings a far bigger vision into being – See Eph 3.20. We are part of the ‘new creation’. In the midst of terrible things, our call is to live as the ‘sons of God’ (Rom 8.18-21), holding out the Word of life in the midst of death (Php 2.14-16).
- We have agreed that we will all pray for clarity of the Lord’s message during this month – the word ‘unfold’ was given followed by an image of receiving an envelope, which was opened and a folded document removed. There was a sense that this is a legal type of document, such as would be about land, property or ownership, like a will. We need to unfold the document and see what is in it. After further prayer, it was felt that the document appeared to be written in invisible ink. A spotlight is needed to reveal the word and to bring it into focus.
