JESUS HEALS

 This last weekend I went to the Jabula conference. (Jabula New Life Leadership Conference.)I always come away from such events thinking ‘that was the best conference ever!’ I suspect what this is, is being in tune with the NOW moment.

What went before should have been absorbed and used and what is fresh and new is what we need to concentrate on in the present.

It is always the best word ever because God works in a present way and we can’t live on yesterdays word.Either we use what we hear or we lose it.There is always something that speaks loudly to us.

For me Bishop Tudor saying ‘trust your first instinctt’ was a moment of relief.

My first instinct about people is very strong and sometimes I pick up things way in advance of others when someone is a bit ‘off’ and likely to do the church some harm.

Maybe it was only a small part of what was said, but I have been thinking about it a lot. 

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1)

 We are in the end times and there are false prophets and the place they will start out from is our churches because they can’t get at the sheep till they get into the church. 

But….we are meant to be nice to everyone aren’t we? Most people, even the wolves in sheeps clothing, are nice people - or so they seem. That means most people accept them because they don’t have their spirit in them going stir crazy like mine does.

It took me years to realise this was a gift of discernment and that we do not have all the same gifts.

 It is the gift I find hardest to carry.

Your daughter comes home with a man, and everyone thinks he is the best thing since sliced bread and if you say what you ’see,’ you are just a jealous mother.

You watch someone made a leader but every time they minister you feel like walking out. Everyone round you is listening with rapt attention to the wonderful word.

 You see everyone ‘giving’ to a new person in church but for you something is just not sitting right but when you try and say it it is clear nobody thinks you are right.

The person is so hurt and needy and everyone wants to help yet you can see they are going to turn and devour. People prophecy they will do great things and you want to scream. (God does not work life changing miracles in the hurt and needy till their heart is in tune with God and this kind of person will present themselves as ’spiritual but broken.’) Most people like this need our love and sympathy but this is a door the wolf will also use. 

We need to be careful what we say to people about their future. Most wolves do not truly know their own heart. Lift them up and we will sway their heart.

There is always a PETER moment and a JUDAS moment.Peter was a nobody and knew it. Judas was a somebody and persued it.They become convinced of a spiritual superiority and will claim it.  Those who see them prophecied over in this way will believe they are worth following and we compound the problem in the church. 

So easy then to think we are wrong but that first instinct has kicked in and it is always present.Over the years I have learnt that I need to speak out,  then if what I feel is not recieved, to pray and that in time what I feel is confirmed by others.

The first instinct is usually proved true and we need to listen to it. It is there for a reason - JESUS said there would be wolves in sheep’s clothing. Wolves often appear as the best Christian since sliced bread.But oh it is so hard to sit there and watch as others follow where I cannot go.

There is always a time when the ‘niceness’ of the person starts to sway you and you think ‘oh I  must be mistaken!’Yet get that person ministering from a platform and the doubts will come flooding back.

What the wolves do not realise is that tthey always show their colours when they get to the place they want to get to - out front on the stage. What you are becomes evident in the pulpit. Maybe not to everybody but there will be those who have seen just what you are because GOD is a jealous GOD  and JESUS is determined to protect the church.

It always comes out in the end. What we as saints have to realise that that by that time is too late. By that time some will be swayed and led astray.

Wolves are nice or terribly needy and surely we can’t be so insane as to think they are a wolf?
After all they are so anointed!

Anointed is as anointed does and we need to be sure those we are saying are anointed are actually living in their anointing and not in a counterfeit.

Are you comfortably and smugly thinking you are glad you are not a wolf?

 But wait! There is a question we must ask ourselves.

I do not believe that all I feel that first instinct about initially have wolfish intentions. I am not as young as I was and I have watched some very good men and women of God turn bad. Some thankfully turned back and repented but there was an awful lot of false prophecy on the way and people got hurt.

I doubt it is conscious at all. It happens over time and what we are seeing is potential.

 There is potential for good, and there is potential for harm. 

THERE FOR THE GRACE OF GOD GOES YOU OR I.

We are all capable of turning into wolves if we allow any little discouragement or dissatisfaction with the church to be passed on to others.

It starts as a small criticism, a little moan and grows into a root of bitterness in our heart consciousness.

Our wonderful church becomes less wonderful.

Our great pastors are suddenly too human and have faults we can no longer cover with our prayers.

Our view of the leaders is that this one or that one is doing something we personally disagree with and do not like.

We don’t like the way this or that is done (and it is OK to not like it but it is never ok to be critical of it.)

If you don’t like it go tell the Pastor then pray. If it is right it will change if it is not you will change. Just be prepared for the latter to happen and not convinced the former should happen.What turns most of us into wolfish creatures is that we don’t have the honesty to tell the person we need to how we feel in humility thinking we actually might be wrong, and we don’t have the patience to pray for what we feel is wrong till it is put right.Then, when we are truly dissatisfied we tell our friend and our friend begins to doubt and before we know it we have become wolfish.

 It is all very well to discern others but do we first discern ourselves?

Discernment is the only gift that I have ever wondered if I might ask the Lord to take back!Not really, but I do feel that those of us who carry it find it harder than we admit.

  It is hard because sometimes you have to wait for others to see what you see because they do not realise that you are not being difficult, but that it is a manifestation of your gift. It is hard because your gift manifests when others are not seeing what you see and it is hard because usually it operates when the person you are uneasy about is ministering - and believe me they are always platform people, these wolves.It is also hard because to carry the gift means you are tested in the area of the gift. If you see me growing a coat of fur sit me down cos I would rather be sat down than hurt my Lord or my church by growing a hairy coat of wolfish fur.  

Powerpoints from Sunday: http://jesusheals.informe.com/forum/dynamically-inspired-f10/disciple-t11.html

In Jesus’ time a ‘disciple’ would follow the master lock, stock and barrel. I am very careful who I follow. I have had bad experiences of following the wrong person and of having them try to impose things in my life that were not what God wanted at all. I look very carefully at the life of the person. I will follow spirit if it is infused with the Holy spirit, but never ever flesh. The difference between love submission and control has been on my heart a lot today.As a leader I want always to be someone who wants the other person to grow past me. I don’t want to have a vested interest in keeping anybody down out of fear I will lose my position. Leaders need to be very secure they are in the right place with God so they are happy to lift their followers to the status God has assigned in life for them. We must always be willing to help people progress their Christian walk and never hold them back.

In the 1980’s a new move swept into charismatic Christianity in England and America and the Shepherding movement was born. This turned out to be a really bad thing for some Christians as some ‘Shepherds’ did not understand that Jesus said ‘follow me,’ but he gave the choice to do so.  In many cases, ’shepherds’ began to interfere with the lives of their ‘flock’ to a degree that constituted not setting an example but controlling people. It became hard to do anything without the ‘Shepherd’ wanting to have a say in it. The trouble was that so many started to ‘Lord it over,’ rather than to serve. God won’t tolerate that so many of the churches that existed at that time got into difficulties. If it is not of God then God tears it down.

This kind of asking people to follow is dangerous. People (like me,)  with a sincere desire to follow Jesus and wanting to be a disciple started to think that submission to elders meant the elder or ’shepherd,’ could control every aspect of life and the shepherds thought they had a God given right to do so.I am still shocked that I once thought I even needed to tell the ’shepherd’ I had of that time when I went to see a friend.That kind of ‘leading,’ where leaders want every thought of the follower subjected to them is just plain wrong and cult like. The Bible tells us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling and how can you work it out yourself if you are always telling another what you think and always asking another person what you should do about the minutiae of life?

To this day, I have no pension because I was told by a ’shepherd’ it was wrong to have one. I felt guilty watching TV for most of my life because I was told it was ‘wrong’ to do so and for many years I didn’t go to the cinema or to see a play because the ’shepherd’ told me it was wrong. I even have friends who stopped seeing the person they loved and married someone else because the ’shepherd’ thought it was alright to interfere in someone’s life to that extent. That is not discipleship, it is insanity!

Discipleship is not following blindly. it is following where there is a genuine example and the following is out of choice. Jesus gave the choice to follow Him. He demanded our all, but he did not try and take away our free will.

To this day, I am sometimes slow to act because I had so much about ’submission to shepherds’ drummed into me I can’t see when the shepherd would expect me to use some initiative! I love the comment of one Oxford Pastor about people staying or going from His church (Pastor Grady,) ‘If they do not stick with you, you never had them.’ 

The imposition, wrongly, of the shepherd’s will on one of the flock is a control issue. The 1980’s shepherding movement meant that a lot of Christianity became very controlling and as a result, there were casualties because as I followed so I also led.  If you follow someone who is controlling, then you yourself will become controlling. Every so often, Pastor Memory has to come alongside me and say ‘you are being controlling.’ I follow Pastor Memory in this because I know he does seek not to be controlling. You will start to think like the person you are following and then become like the person you are following, and then impose that standard on others.

I have been thinking a lot control today, because God has been asking me to move out in certain areas and I have been realising He is telling me to get on and do it, but I am still waiting for someone to tell me how.

If I look at our Pastor, then I have a great example in being brave enough to follow what God is saying even if others wonder why.  In Oxford we have a fellowship because our Pastor was brave enough to assume God could gift him in that area - so he set up a church. I don’t think anyone said to him, not even Bishop Tudor Bismark, ‘go and set up a church.’ But he did. God blessed the initiative taken.

We also now have the Pastor’s forum and that is also thanks to  Pastor Memory and others. Nobody said ‘you must have a Pastor’s forum,’ but they took initiative. I am sure these things  have happened because the Holy Spirit directed them and would have happened even if someone had said ‘no, you cannot do that.’

Good disciplers are those who allow disciples room to try things out. Jesus knew Peter might sink, but He still allowed Him to walk on water.  Good disciplers and therefore good people to lead are not those who are so tied up in people submitting them they are afraid for others to try things out. They allow room for the disciple to try out what they believe God is saying and know deep down that if God is not saying it, then God is big enough to sort the difficulties out and get the person back on track. They are not afraid to ‘let go and let God.’ A leader is secure in the knowledge that God is bigger and more able than they are. A controller is someone who is not secure enough to allow people room to develop.

This ability to allow the disciple the freedom to try things out and not be afraid is an excellent thing. Jesus was brave enough to send 70 disciples out and let them see what they could do. They could choose where they went and yet the gifts of God were there for them to use. If they could not do it, they knew they could come back to Jesus for advice. When the disciples could not cast out a demon, Jesus did not say, ‘you need to leave that to me,’ He said, ‘This is the way to do it.’ Jesus was willing to help the disciples grow and be able to do what He could. The disciples part was to go to Jesus and ask. It was also their part to listen and then to follow the advice.

If I am going to follow anybody, then I will follow that person because I sense in them the desire to see me grow and to their level. They do not have a desire to keep me down. That is why I am so thankful for all the opportunities Pastor Memory gives us to lead in Oxford Living Word Fellowship. If we understand discipleship right and see the bravery in our Pastor we can follow, seek the wisdom God gives him, and have a heart to build there is nothing but nothing that will hold our church back. If we want to soar like eagles, then we can, but it takes us to act and not sit back and let others take our place.

Whatever we do in church, we need to do it with a heart to become those who can be leaders in that area. It takes us to be 100% sold out. Who will be the great evangelists among us, for example? It will be those for example, who realise that to be an evangelist means to get to the training on offer, to learn, who put that learning above all else they are doing, and those who as a result of that also turn up for evangelism on Saturday.

Who will be those who are good at family relationships? It will be those who turn up to the marrieds meeting, and so on. If you want to be a worship leader, you will turn up to worship practice as a priority, and so on because what you see is that you can learn from the person leading. They are not going to harrass you to come. We follow Jesus by invitation, and not by compulsion. The kingdom is built only with willing followers. Following Jesus and making followers always happens when people want it to. It does not happen when we are half hearted.

The powerpoints on discipleship so far can be found at http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=ddqf2mwr_87hm4zbpgv

  How many times have we all done it? Got to church and found we did not realise something was going on. The notice was  given out but at that point we were miles away and not listening at all.  I wonder how many of us really take things in.

 Until I read a very funny piece of writing in one of the Adrian Plass books I had not really thought that much about what a ’scrip’ is.  Yet, if you have a King James version of the Bible, then the word scrip is in there.  It is in Luke 10:4. As a lot of us will have a King James Bible among others then we need to know.  

I confess, I had read the verse many times and never thought ‘what is a scrip?’ Actually, I looked it up and found that one possible meaning of the word is a letter of credit. I think Jesus was saying in modern terms, ‘go out there and do not use a credit card!’Go here  and find out what all the different translations of the verse say. 

It made me think. Most of us end with credit card debt. Few pay off everything at the end of the month, and most of us, if we are asked will say we have things we owe. Some of these things God may well have wanted to provide for in a miraculous way, but we, with our credit cards, rush ahead and get them the worldly way. Sometimes to use a credit card is to try and do it ‘my way,’ and not God’s way.

  Then I started to read the rest of Luke 10 

It is all clear to me now. What Jesus is saying when he sends the disciples out is that time is short. “Stop trying to pick stuff up on the way that will hold you up!”

The only really important thing is that people know there is a Great and Loving and Saving God who is there for them and will supply their needs. We need urgently to help them become disciples because that is the greatest need every single person on this earth has.

  As for that bit about saluting no man on the way. It always struck me as so very rude! Now I know (from the article) that Jewish greetings were long and protracted and very formal and I understand.

We go out as willing disciples to share the gospel via the coffee shop because we are thirsty where we talk about the weather to a Christian friend who then wants to go shopping and then meet a few others and have a nice chat and the evangelising we set out to do is pushed aside to another day.

So many of us when faces with a call to actually tell someone about Jesus are happy when we are sidetracked because the truth is, we are a little scared.

It takes courage to go out disciple making. Jesus had us all figured out way back then. 

Jesus knew what was in man and he knew some of those disciples would end up in the coffee shop gossipping - although I guess tea shop is more likely in the Middle East. They’d get sidetracked if he let them.

Getting two together to help spread the gospel is a great idea but it is my experience and confession that unless both have a real disciple heart then you spend at least 75% of the time you are meant to be evangelising talking about something else and it is probably about the needs of one or the other or both of you.

What we miss is in Luke 10:1 where it says the WORKERS  are few. Plenty of us think we are disciples, but how many of us are really willing not just to listen, but also to do the work?

 Somewhere around verses 8 to 13 Jesus shows a lot of common sense. Because the other side of things we have to consider is those so eager to do the work they actually do it a disservice because they go where they are not wanted.

You probably know the scene, the baby is in the bath, the dinner is burning, you need to be out by seven and your clothes are still in the tumble dryer. There is a knock on the door and some dangerous looking person dressed like they popped in from the 1940’s tells you they want to talk about Jesus. “It will only take a minute,” they say.Three hours later they are still on your doorstep.

 Jesus did not say go force yourself on a busy person - He said go serve them. You don’t serve someone by helping the baby drown and the dinner burn. What Jesus was saying was time is too short to spend on people who do not want to hear about me.

People listen when they are ready. Go to the ones who do, when they do and stick with them and help them not just with words but with your service until they see what I am all about. Bath the baby and take the dinner off the stove. Clean their house and love them till love gets them!   

Powerpoints from Sunday: http://jesusheals.informe.com/forum/dynamically-inspired-f10/disciple-t11.html

Of course, when I went to work, still feeling a little mad, it all worked out and I was glad I hadn’t lost my cool and resigned….Friday seemed to me more like a keep on going while you walk through treacle sort of day. I really have not got a lot to say about it as all I seemed to do was get up, go to work, go help our Pastors move - only by the time I got there there was nothing I could do, come home and go to bed.

Sometimes discipleship is just being where you are. THEN it hit me and I feel so awful. I forgot the prayer watch! I didn’t get a call from the person before either. I wonder who in Oxford Living Word will have done the prayer watch? Who is going to admit they didn’t if they did not because we can’t lie?

The really awful thing is I meant to cover more than an hour…I had such good intentions and yet my body just did not keep the pace. I was so tired…not that that should be an excuse;  but HOW did I forget? It is unlike me. Or maybe it IS like me?.

I’m so often like Peter, jumping out of the boat. Yes! Lord I wanna walk on water………and so often when we do that we find we are weaker and less full of faith than we believed.

How amazing then that though I blew it, somehow because EVERYTHING WORKS TOGETHER FOR OUR GOOD,  GOD  is still going to use us ..I just hope He doesn’t stop using me cos I still have to go out there later today and do evangelism and I am doing it using some of my poetry.

What was it Paul said?

Romans 7:23 King James Version

But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

He seems to have had problems too.

What do you do when you fail? Some years ago I fell in another way. My marriage was ending, and although I am not a big drinker I picked up an bottle of wine and drank the entire bottle just to blot everything out. I was so ashamed the next day. A friend wrote to me: ‘Pick yourself up off the floor and carry on.’

I repented and I just carried on trying to do my best I could to be who Jesus wanted to me. I don’t think the act was right even if it was a way of masking great pain and perhaps understandable,  but we follow a Lord who spoke to prostitutes and sinners. His whole heart was to see fallen people made whole and well. After that event, Jesus started to really touch me and make me whole.

Discipleship is not always about being a success. It is about being able to get yourself back to the place you should have been.  It is about picking yourself up off the floor when you sink and determining to walk the next step with Jesus. I can’t get those prayer watch hours back, but I can fight the devil by determining to pray even more this week for our evangelism.