At the beginning of our online gathering on Sunday 1st Sept., as we offered our worship to the Lord, we were reminded that we belong to Him. This truth prompts humility and joy in us, but it also comes with responsibility – we are not ‘our own’. We have an obligation to crucify our opinions and personal ambitions. We are each responsible to listen to the Lord’s voice and to respond in obedience to Him, not just as individuals but as one people. In this way, we will see the Lord’s purposes fulfilled in our lives.
The following are key points shared during the gathering:
- A picture was shared – a large woven basket, which was torn apart. It was understood that this represented the Church. God is re-weaving the basket into a bigger and better shape. The picture carried a warning that we should not strive to put things back to the way they were. Another member then held up a basket which they had bought recently. It was made from pieces of rubbish. The Lord will use those who have previously been discarded in the creation of the ‘new basket’. In This way He will make the Church beautiful.
- Another picture: a set of shears to be used for the pruning of a branch. On closer inspection, a lamb was already between the blades. The lamb has to be sacrificed before the branch can be pruned. When the picture was shared, two members had a sense of the branch screaming. This was thought to indicate both the suffering and pain in the branch, but also some resistance to the process.
- We are in a season of revelation. The Lord is giving new insights and He is also exposing things that have been hidden in darkness. He urges us to see what is happening from an ‘ascended’ perspective so that we are less vulnerable to deception. The vision He gives is not just about what is seen but, more importantly, includes our interpretation of what He reveals. For example, in envisaging the image of the lamb between the pruning shears, a human perspective would prompt a shrinking back from being cut. However, the picture is an invitation to enter into the Lord’s process by uniting and aligning our pain and suffering with that of the sacrificial lamb – Jesus. In this way there is just one ‘cut’. This is God’s desire – that we be brought into alignment and conformity with his Son.
- Testimony was given to the way in which the Lord does not often work according to our preconceived ideas about His ways. There are many Biblical examples eg. Acts 2, Acts 10 in relation to the early Church. Are we in a similar season now? We can inadvertently resist Him because what is happening does not conform to our expectations. This is painful! We prayed that our minds be open and brought into alignment with His ways.
- A picture of a kaleidoscope was shared, with the sense that we are each one of the small pieces which makes a pattern when looked at through the viewing opening – a heavenly perspective on what our unity looks like. The shaking of the kaleidoscope produces a new pattern. (NB. see Heb 12.26)
- The Lord spoke to us about anxiety – which occurs when our experience doesn’t match our expectations, or threatens our ability to control what is happening. What is needed is a change in our mindset, not our circumstances. The Lord always directs us to the cross when we don’t understand what is or isn’t happening. The cross is the place where we are set free by seeing from God’s perspective. The key to our freedom from anxiety is repentance and surrender. Php 4.5-7: “The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” The Lord doesn’t give His Word as good advice. He commands us “do not be anxious” !!
In summary, the Lord wants us to see that He is making us ready for what is to come. There is enormous change taking place, especially for the Church, globally. It is time for us, as God’s people, to engage with the spiritual battle in the heavenly realms, according to the strategy He gives. This is our responsibility, not that of the politicians.
Our gathering finished with a time of prayer, for ourselves and for the whole Body of Christ, to surrender more fully to the Lord and His ways. Two passages of scripture: Col 1.12-20 and Php 3.10 were offered and two prayers of the Church were used: The Methodist Covenant Prayer and A Prayer of Abandonment by Charles de Foucauld. Both of these may be found in the Maranatha prayer folder ‘Stillness Before God’, which can be downloaded free here.
