During our online gathering this month, the Lord brought three key themes to our attention – a wonderful confirmation of the calling of the Community: HEALING RENEWAL UNITY
During our online gathering this month, the Lord brought three key themes to our attention – a wonderful confirmation of the calling of the Community:
HEALING
In these challenging times, Jesus invites us to unburden ourselves to Him (Mt 11.28). More than this He invites us to a place of deep intimacy – the uniting of our hearts with His. It is a place of trust. He is compassionate, loving, caring.
We all need to come to the Lord frequently for healing: “Let my wellspring flow through you, filtering out all the debris from your hearts. I want you to allow my Spirit to move mightily through your inner being. Allow the water to wash through your heart to overflowing, and bring a new baptism.”
A further word of encouragement was given: “Come my brothers and sisters. Lay bare your souls before me. Be open, be transparent before me. Let me see you as you really are, warts and all. For did you know, I love the warts as well? For the moment they are part of you, but only for this moment – not forever; for I am healing you, turning darkness into light, what is lost to be found, and what is broken – mended.” The Lord’s desire for us is to know and live from His Shalom – a place of wholeness, in which there is nothing missing and nothing lacking.
We listened to the recording of ‘A Shalom Prayer’ during the gathering in response to the Lord’s invitation to receive His healing. The written prayer can be found here and the spoken recording set to music can be found here.
Healing is central to the Gospel and we, as Christ’s Body, are to be ministers of healing to a needy world. “The people of the world need to know me so they can trust me alone for their problems. They do not know me, not as you do. They’re weighed down by their problems, too heavy for them, so they’re broken people and they need mending with your love, my love”.
God’s healing love is redemptive, even for the most desperate of situations. Our personal testimony of healing brings hope and comfort to others. Our proclamation is – ‘There is a God who heals!’
RENEWAL
The word ‘exhausted’ was given, with the sense that we need to be united and empowered by God in a new way. Our culture, and in many ways the world, is exhausted of ideas and resources. It has exhausted its attempted solutions to humanity’s problems. We are not self-sufficient! Exhaustion can be the result of resisting God’s ways, especially when it involves change. We are the ones who are “born of the Spirit” (Jn 3.8). Our proclamation is: ‘It is time for a radical change of direction!’
We were reminded of Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones. The bones need to “…hear the word of the Lord” (Ezek 37.4). Fresh breath – the breath of God – is needed. We have been given the breath of God’s Spirit to prophesy life into the dead places.
In this age of multi-media saturation of our senses, there is a great need for the renewal of minds – our minds, as followers of Christ, and the minds of those who don’t know Him. Western culture has been subjected to a systematic re-programming of mindset according to anti-Christian ideology. We pray for minds, as well as hearts, to be opened to hear the Word of the Lord and pray that we, and all Christ’s Church, will be faithful to speak out and give witness to the enduring and unchanging Word of God.
UNITY
A picture was shared: a toy doll with an intricate set of internal mechanisms with inter-linking gears to bring about movement of the head and limbs. However, one leg was missing and this meant the toy did not work. Is this a picture for the Church? All the parts of the body are needed for it to work properly and all the parts need to be connected in order for the body to mobilise.
Is the missing leg on the doll representative of the Church having one leg in the world?
The only thing that will enable the body to move as one is the breath of God. Our proclamation is: ‘It is time for the Church to be ONE and, by the Spirit of God, to manifest the person and power of Jesus Christ through His living Body in the world!’
