Since our last online gathering we have seen serious conflict break out in the Middle East. We believe this is a significant indicator of an intensification of the spiritual battle in the heavenly realms. However, we remain committed to offering the Lord the two hours of our gathering as a ‘blank canvas’ as we fix our focus on Him alone in worship and adoration, as ONE people. Our conviction is that He is moving powerfully throughout the earth, in this ‘new time’, and that He is inviting His people to draw near to Him, in the ‘ascended place’, to receive His revelation. Our starting point for all our gatherings is the Lord, not what is happening in the world. He alone knows His plans and purposes for this period of time. He is equipping His people accordingly.
The key points arising from our gathering are set out under simple headings:
Glory
- The Lord is the ‘Lord of Glory’. Habakkuk prophesied that “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Hab 2.14). His glory is like a ‘canopy of Truth’, covering everything.
- Glory is the highest realm. Through our oneness with Jesus, God’s glory is already in/on us (Jn 17.22). We are already seated in glory (Eph 2.6). God’s glory is already in the Church (Eph 3.21).
- God reveals His glory through His nature (Ex 34.6-7). Jesus was glorified and brought glory to God through His sacrifice on the cross. We are to glorify Him through our lives of sacrificial love.
- It is time for us to reveal the glory of God. “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things…. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Col 3.2-4). “…and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Eph 3.19). “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed“. (Rom 8.18-19).
- The glory of God is manifest in life in all its fullness. A picture was shared: a dried, dead leaf, with the visible pattern of veins. This was associated with Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones (Ezek 37) – lifeless, though carrying the pattern of potential life. God’s breath (Spirit) and Word brought the dead bones into life and form. God is now bringing to life a glorious army.
Heaven and Earth Connection
- “Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.” (Ps 24.7). We are the ‘gates’ at the interface of heaven and earth. Those who have gone before us – the communion of saints – are as the ‘ancient doors’. As we worship Jesus, as the members of His one living Body – transcending human separation in time – heaven and earth are joined and the King of Glory is revealed.
- Ezekiel’s vision (Ezek 1), describes creatures moving in the heavenly realms which have connected wheels on the earth: “Wherever the spirit would go, they [the creatures] would go, and the wheels would rise along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. ” (Ezek 1.20). This description might be considered alongside Jacob’s dream (Gen 28.10-17).
- There is a sense that this is a time when God is wanting the Body of Christ in this age to reconnect with the spiritual deposit of those who have gone before us. A picture was shared: a river, glistening as if containing crystals reflecting a spectrum of colour, was seen to flow into the east side of the Dead Sea. As it entered the Sea it became a waterfall which, on cascading on to the salt deposits, released what was contained. It was felt that the salt represents the spiritual ‘deposit’ of the saints of the past and that their voices, including the voices of martyrs, is to be released along with hidden treasures and buried proclamations.
‘This is a Day of Release’
- The Lord wants us to live more fully in the revelation of what He has already done and what He has already given to us (see the section on glory). He wants His people to be more secure in who they are in Christ. “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.” (Is 60.1-2).
- Three pictures: i) a heart, which then became like a bloom with petals opening; ii) a firework going up into the air, as we praised God, culminating in a shower of light; iii) a flower opening and releasing pollen and fragrance. All these illustrations speak of the way in which something happens as our worship rises to God. The opening of our hearts to God in worship is received by His open heart, with the release of more love, which has a fragrance. Similarly, as the spinal cord ‘ascends’ to join with the brain at its upper end, we, as God’s people “grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ” (Eph 4.15)
- Release requires the letting go of those things which constrain us and tie us to the world. Individuals and the Church as a whole have been ‘locked’ up. Therefore, we, and the Church, have not matured. We prayed for the whole Church to be released and for a fresh outpouring of God’s Spirit, so that we will shed light over the UK and the world. “Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name.” (Ps 142.7)
- Much healing is needed within the Body of Christ. Unhealed wounds provide the enemy with an opportunity to cause division. Wounds are painful, even when they are in the process of being healed. The key to healing is knowing whose we are.
- An image was shared – Jesus on the cross with outstretched arms. He was held on the cross, but His arms were free, reaching out with a gesture of ‘Come’.
We are the Aroma of Christ
- “But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?” (2Cor 2.14-16). The aroma of Christ is not confined to the individual but is a reality throughout time and space. It has the power to push back the powers of darkness in the spiritual realms. The ‘triumphal procession’ includes the communion of saints. Together with them, we emanate the aroma of Christ, which is purity for the angels of light and death for the angels of darkness. It is lives offered in worship that produce the aroma, not clever battle strategies. “He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his saints….” (Ps 148.14).
Words given during the course of the gathering
“I want to say this to you – You are My children, I love and bless each one of you. Whatever you are going through, know that I know about it and will bring you through. For My purposes will not be thwarted. Mercy and grace are yours for the asking; so ask.”
“The glory, my glory shall cover the earth. It’s been sung about, it’s in my Word, and I want to say that as you spoke and about my glory tonight, my glory indeed does rest upon you, each of you. And it’s that light in you that shines out from you, from your eyes, of your soul, and your countenance that will draw people to me through you. Yes, I want you to ascend to the higher places, you are sitting there; but there is, as it were, a ladder that takes you closer and closer to your Lord, myself. And I want to say to you that as you prayed for release, there will be a release individually and corporately over Maranatha and the work and the position I’m placing you into. Each of you is selected, is preordained, and I love you. Each of you is special, I have no favourites, I love you all. And in each of this love, I want you to realise that my glory is love. It is the love that has been spoken tonight about the cross that I hang upon, my wounds, and also that I choose to remain there. Yes, my hands are free, and it’s that freedom too that I am imparting to you in this release. And you know my Word, some of you more deeply than others, but I say to you that the Word within you is as glory, too, for my Word goes out and with it the light and the glory of my presence, whether you witness or preach or you pray according to my purposes and plans as you’ve sought me, be encouraged, be encouraged, be encouraged. I am with you. And in this presence now is my glory, receive from me more and more and more, and in you’re time together after or individually, just wait upon me and know the depth of the love that I have for you and the glory that comes from that love.”
“If the UK is unlocked, the whole earth will be revived”
