Colin: Hosting God

The Bible reveals a God who longs to live with us. It says His love for us stretches higher than the heavens are above the earth, that He is for us and that He’ll never leave or forsake us. Incredible! No wonder Paul writes to the Romans encouraging them that if God is for us, who can be against us? The obvious answer is: it doesn’t matter, for we are more than conquerors because of His great love for us! Us and God working together equals a winning team. He brings peace, hope, joy, healing, provision, guidance and the power to mend the brokenness in us and around us.

The Bible also makes it clear that God only comes where He’s invited and that His will to bless us can be resisted. He doesn’t force His way into our hearts or into our lives. Revelation 3:20 says He doesn’t even enter His church uninvited, but knocks and waits patiently for us to open the door. The same is true of the door to our hearts.

So if God is a gentleman, a guest who needs to be invited in, how do we make Him welcome and host His presence well? We can learn some great lessons from the time King David wanted God to live with him in 2 Samuel 6. The Ark of the Covenant represented the presence of God, and David saw how it blessed the people who lived with it. He decided to bring the Ark to Jerusalem where he lived, so God’s presence would be with him.

The first lesson he learned is that structure won’t carry His presence. They transported the Ark on a new cart, spending a lot of time, money and energy building it. On the way, the cart hit a rut and the Ark nearly fell out. Uzzah reached out his hand to stop it falling and died. David realised his mistake, that God had clearly told them that His priests should carry the Ark. The point is that God’s presence is carried by us, His people, not by our structures or our buildings. At the moment, River is looking to purchase a building in Maidenhead; I’m excited by this prospect as it will help us serve our community, but I also know that the building will only truly be a blessing if we continue to carry His presence and make that our priority. That’s what Jesus meant when He said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.”

Secondly, David sacrificed offerings to God. Later he realised that the only real sacrifice the Lord requires of us is a broken & contrite heart (Psalm 51:16-17). Jesus is our sacrifice, a heart that recognises its own brokenness and need of a Saviour is the first step towards a life filled with the presence of God.

Thirdly, David worshiped by leaping and twirling and praising God. The Lord doesn’t need our worship, He commands it because He knows it does us good. When our minds are fixed on Him, filled with visions of His goodness and mercy, we get drawn heavenwards, gain heavenly perspective on life and feel better about ourselves as we receive His love. That is why River is committed to providing spaces like Sunday services, Deeper and Dwell for us to enter His presence and praise Him. Please do come and be refreshed in these worship settings, but let us worship God in our hearts as we go about each day.

Lastly, David had a generous heart. He blessed the people and gave them all food to eat. In the same way, we host God’s presence powerfully when we bless the people around us with kind words and practical help. This is exactly why we put on events like Messy Church, the Larchfield Open Table, community lunches and clubs for children and youth. We serve in these ways because we are mindful that every person is made in His image and worthy of honour. In what ways might you demonstrate generosity this week? What kind of prophetic words might you say to strengthen another’s heart? What practical act of kindness might you do to bring a smile to someone’s face?

Do these things and we will host God’s presence in our hearts, homes and communities, and they will be blessed!

Colin: Embracing A Year of Favour

Barnes family selfie!

So it’s the start of a new year; how does that affect you? Are you filled with optimism, or fearful of what it might hold for you and your loved ones? Some might argue that the way we feel will be determined by our circumstances, what we can see around us and what we can see coming down the road.

To a certain extent they are right, but what do we see? If we only see with our eyes, material things and the stories presented by our media, then we may well become fearful. There certainly are many challenges, including: terrorism, continuing economic instability, climate change and an unprecedented refugee crisis, and that’s before we get onto our personal problems around family, health, finance, career and relationships. But knowing God as Father, that we are His children, and that His kingdom is coming, trumps all these very real difficulties and changes everything!

As it says in Hebrews 10:39 and 11:13, we are not those who shrink back, but those who have faith and embrace God’s promises (even if we don’t see them realised immediately in our lives). We walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7), because we know that the unseen realm is more important than the one we can see with our eyes. The truth that God is love, He is our Father and that His love for us stretches higher than the heavens are above the earth, that He is working in us, with us and through us in all things for good, far outweighs every obstacle the enemy might put in our way. We are more than conquerors through Him who loves us!

I am not sorry to see the back of 2015. For me it was a difficult year in which some important aspects of my life were rocked: this included having my integrity challenged, my theology questioned and an earthquake destroying the training centre I had established in Nepal! But in the midst of all those trials God spoke some wonderful promises (through Sharon Stone) to confirm my calling and encourage my heart, Pioneer commissioned me as an apostle, and as I ministered at various Ignite courses around the country I found myself walking in the things God called me to 25 years ago! I imagine that most of us will have had years filled with a mixture, as well. In such times it is vital we dwell on and fill our hearts with the good things God says about us and does for us, and not to nurse disappointment by worrying about the challenges and the things He doesn’t appear to be helping us with.

When Jesus came He declared “The year of the Lord’s favour” (Luke 4:19), that God was looking favourably upon men to bless them and not to judge them. That enabled Him to go about doing good to all who came to Him for help, not just the ‘good’ people. He knew that His Father was gracious and therefore wanted to bless all men beyond what they deserved. That enabled Jesus to confidently forgive adulterers and accept tax collectors and robbers as friends. Some, like Judas who betrayed Him, trampled on His kindness and grace, but that didn’t stop Jesus extending grace to everyone who came to Him.

The truth is, it is still the favourable year of the Lord! As ambassadors of Christ, those who represent the kingdom of heaven, we too may go about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the evil one. Undoubtedly, there are challenges for us to face, but Jesus has promised to be with us and to help us overcome them. So let us press on into 2016 with great courage, knowing He is with us; let us embrace the challenges and take hold of every opportunity to represent the kingdom of heaven and bring light and life to every situation we find ourselves in.

I pray you will know God’s favour this year and be blessed in every way, especially in every act of kindness prompted by His love. Let’s push on into 2016 with much faith, hope and love!

Colin: Heavenly Partnership

There are two contrasting errors we can fall into when we think about how God’s kingdom of love, joy and peace might come. The first is to think it all depends upon us, and that if we work hard enough, smart enough and for long enough, then we’re sure to see revival. The other is to think that it has nothing to do with us, that God has already planned when the next revival will take place and there’s nothing for us to do but wait patiently for Him to work out His plans and purposes, which are mysterious and beyond our understanding.

Within the River Churches, the openness of God is a cherished belief. We have a growing revelation of the freedom that is at the heart of our Father’s will for all His creatures. Therefore we have made openness one of our values, the ‘O’ in GOLD (Goodness, Openness, Love & Dynamic power). We value our own freedom and choose to exercise it in working for good together with our God (Romans 8:28). He’s working for good in all things and we love to join in as we long to be more like Him. Consequently, we work to bless our communities, helping people find freedom through following Jesus. Valuing freedom for all, we serve, refusing to dictate or manipulate to get our own way. We believe that God has given humanity the earth to rule over in order to fill it, make it fruitful and bring out its fullness (Genesis 1:26-28). Therefore He won’t work on the earth without us! At least, that’s what the prophet Amos tells us (Amos 3:7). Indeed, 2 Chronicles 16:9 tells us He is continually looking for men or women through whom He can work signs and wonders on the earth, people who are loyal to Him and trust Him.

On the other hand, Jesus taught us to depend on Him, saying, “Without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Not meaning we can literally do nothing, but that we can’t produce the fruit the Father is looking for. He also taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done” (Matthew 6:10), asking Father to work His will on the earth. It’s a mysterious truth that more of His will gets done on the earth when we pray and ask for it to be done.

Now I would like us to work hard and use all our strength to see the church grow, but I know that, “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain who build it”, Psalm 127:1. To believe it all depends on us, is to choose independence and to fall into pride. When we think like that, we find God standing in our way because He opposes the proud, but shows favour to the humble.

I feel the Holy Spirit calling us to prayer. I hear 2 Chronicles 7:14, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

In 1746, Jonathan Edwards wrote “A humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of All God’s People in Extraordinary Prayer for the Revival of Religion and Advancement of Christ’s Kingdom.” Some say this book sparked a prayer movement that ignited the world in revival. Today, we see prayer movements such as 24/7 Prayer making similar ‘humble attempts’ to unite us in intercession for the world. Surely, revival cannot be far behind!

God seeks partners who will work with Him for good in all things and pray for His kingdom to come on the earth. Let’s give ourselves to work and to pray in His name, trusting that Jesus is building His church and that of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end.