Recently we have been stirred to find God in new and richer ways as we walk out this journey together. Even in the corporate gathering, we are re-aligning ourselves to find Him and gaze on Him in all that He is. We want our prayers to be filled with devotion and come from a heart that knows He enjoys us (even in our weakness). It is so easy to slip into a prayer mode where you are essentially standing at the walls of heaven, pounding relentlessly and demanding what we believe is best for our city. It sounds bad when I say it that way, but it is a fine line that seperates this from prayer that captures what He wants for our city first.
One of the most important questions for us, and for all really, is this: "Lord, what is on your heart...what are you thinking right now about our city?" It is from this place that prayer changes. Once we come to realize deep within us that the awesome and holy One, the uncreated God of all that exists, is thinking certain things, good things, then our way of asking is affected. God, do you really want to pour out your spirit of wisdom and revelation to reveal yourself in deeper ways to all that want to know you (Eph 1:17)? Do you want to pour out the Spirit on all flesh (Acts 2/Joel 2)? Are you serious about seeing the love that the Father has for the Son being in our hearts and the hearts of all your church in Winnipeg (John 17:26)?
And on and on it goes. These are not just good ideas. When He speaks them to us and reveals that this is HIS intention, our prayers change from desperate to exciting. He is going to move. We get to partner with Him by asking. Our agreement with Him in how He leads and directs His church (and touches humanity through it) releases power in our city. And, our own hearts are changed as we connect with Him.
God is bigger than we think! As we press into Him, our view of Him changes and so does our heart. Intercession changes us as it changes situations. Power comes on the church. Transformation is possible. He has His way. And, seeing that in action just makes you love Him all the more.
Of course, God will use us to be the answer to our own prayers as well. His power flowing through simple and broken people (there are no other kind) bringing His kingdom announcement to those in darkness. From Him, through Him, to Him. I love it!
Brian Creary
Ministry Director
April 25, 2006
April 18, 2006
Fast With Us May 1-7
As we launch forward into becoming the Sanctuary House of Prayer, there is a stirring in me to know that we are standing before the Lord with the right heart. A while ago, one of our leaders had an encounter with God where he felt that a corporate fast was the correct way to begin our journey and that God would meet us as we turn our faces to Him. After thinking and praying through the specifics, we have decided to invite all that feel themselves part of Sanctuary and the journey into worship and intercession to consecrate themselves and fast for the week of May 1st to 7th. We will not add any new meetings but simply make the focus around devotion to Him as we begin together.
Why fasting? Well, there is real power in connecting with our own weakness. Nothing seems to help us get in touch with this weakness like not eating for a time and seeking Him in prayer. As I get closer to ending my position at the church here and prepare to launch forward into Sanctuary, I am in touch with a level of weakness that is both painful and exciting. We cannot do this alone! It is His strength and His direction that will allow us to stay steady in prayer for our community and in ministering to God. Fasting, combined with prayers of devotion and consecration, will allow us to humble ourselves, feel our weakness and long for His nearness to be our strength. He is our reward, not a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day for what we did for Him and our city.
This is not a corporate fast to contend for change and breakthrough in our community. We'll have lots of those in the months to come. It's not even a fast to receive specific direction. I think we know what we need to be doing. This time around it is all about His presence, His nearness and getting ourselves right before Him as we take another step.
So, we invite you to join us as we lay ourselves before Him. Ask for revelation of your place in the kingdom and the clarity to press into it with boldness and determination. Ask for Him to make all that He is calling you to even more real in this next season. Again, not asking for something new, but longing that He would take what you know and make it burn within you. May He go deeper in all of us and may we see Him and what is on His heart with even more clarity as we go forward together.
Brian
Ministry Director
Why fasting? Well, there is real power in connecting with our own weakness. Nothing seems to help us get in touch with this weakness like not eating for a time and seeking Him in prayer. As I get closer to ending my position at the church here and prepare to launch forward into Sanctuary, I am in touch with a level of weakness that is both painful and exciting. We cannot do this alone! It is His strength and His direction that will allow us to stay steady in prayer for our community and in ministering to God. Fasting, combined with prayers of devotion and consecration, will allow us to humble ourselves, feel our weakness and long for His nearness to be our strength. He is our reward, not a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day for what we did for Him and our city.
This is not a corporate fast to contend for change and breakthrough in our community. We'll have lots of those in the months to come. It's not even a fast to receive specific direction. I think we know what we need to be doing. This time around it is all about His presence, His nearness and getting ourselves right before Him as we take another step.
So, we invite you to join us as we lay ourselves before Him. Ask for revelation of your place in the kingdom and the clarity to press into it with boldness and determination. Ask for Him to make all that He is calling you to even more real in this next season. Again, not asking for something new, but longing that He would take what you know and make it burn within you. May He go deeper in all of us and may we see Him and what is on His heart with even more clarity as we go forward together.
Brian
Ministry Director
April 10, 2006
...With Your Whole Heart
We have been looking at Joel 2 recently and considering God's solution to impending crisis in the bible. It's interesting that it tends to be the same answer everywhere you look: turn to me with your whole heart. God is longing for HIS people, on behalf of the land and the people in the city or nation, to come before Him in humility and honesty and turn from their ways. He is looking for wholeheartedness. Consider the famous 2 Chronicles 7:14 as another passage. In both of these passages, it is God himself who is bringing crisis and judgement on the land and people as a way to draw this wholeheartedness out of them. It's not surprising, then, that Jesus summed up all the law and the prophets as hanging on the necessity to "love God with your whole heart, soul, mind and strength".
You see, God doesn't really want to bring trouble and judgement on us. He is not sitting in heaven evaluating us against an eternal standard virtually impossible to reach. He has made a way for us. Jesus has already done more for us than we will ever do for him in His incartnation, life, death and resurrection. God wants relationship with the ones He loves. He wants your whole heart. Always has. Always will.
Think of the beginning of it all. Man and woman, betrothed to each other and in communion and intimate relationship with the uncreated God of Heaven. Think of how it ends. All who embraced Jesus find themselves joined once to Him as His bride and eternal relationship. God will dwell with man one more time. He wants us for Himself.
Because of His zeal for us, however, and because of our willingness to give ourselves to other loves time and again, He is willing to use judgement and crisis to get us to turn. It is biblical. And, it is relevant for today. He is calling us to turn, from our sin and to His embrace. Do not believe that Canada is immune to this. We have lived in relative safety but have grown dull in our intensity for relationship all too often. It is our sacred trust as His people to turn and embrace Him. Sanctuary exists to do this very thing and call others to it as well.
Brian
Ministry Director
You see, God doesn't really want to bring trouble and judgement on us. He is not sitting in heaven evaluating us against an eternal standard virtually impossible to reach. He has made a way for us. Jesus has already done more for us than we will ever do for him in His incartnation, life, death and resurrection. God wants relationship with the ones He loves. He wants your whole heart. Always has. Always will.
Think of the beginning of it all. Man and woman, betrothed to each other and in communion and intimate relationship with the uncreated God of Heaven. Think of how it ends. All who embraced Jesus find themselves joined once to Him as His bride and eternal relationship. God will dwell with man one more time. He wants us for Himself.
Because of His zeal for us, however, and because of our willingness to give ourselves to other loves time and again, He is willing to use judgement and crisis to get us to turn. It is biblical. And, it is relevant for today. He is calling us to turn, from our sin and to His embrace. Do not believe that Canada is immune to this. We have lived in relative safety but have grown dull in our intensity for relationship all too often. It is our sacred trust as His people to turn and embrace Him. Sanctuary exists to do this very thing and call others to it as well.
Brian
Ministry Director
April 03, 2006
We Are Rolling!
We had our first Gathering last night in our new home. King's Fellowship at 190 Osbourne will be the spot to come and worship with us for the next while. It was a blast to be functioning as Sanctuary House of Prayer and doing what we do.
King's Fellowship is a great blessing to us! Al and Sue Gordon have pastored this church for a decade or more and the fruit in their midst is telling. They are gifted and God is empowering them in their efforts. We are excited to be able to sit in their location for a season and ask for God to bless the city and visit us by His Spirit. Many of you may remember that it was these very same people that were so instrumental in allowing the Toronto Blessing to flow in Winnipeg in '95. If you were at Prairie Fire at all, you have seen Al. He loved the moving of the Spirit then and he loves it now. It is this fact that gets me excited as I sit in his building. I am asking for a visitation of God knowing that he has asked and waited for the very same thing. Feels like a good fit for us right now.
We are going to add more meetings in the weeks to come but, for now anyway, they will be held in homes due to space issues. We are excited about beginning Going Deeper as it is focused on meditating through the scriptures with music. This activity will allow anyone to get the truth of the scriptures deep inside where it becomes part of what causes you to respond in a godly way in every situation. I want that! I am eager to see what God will do as we sit in His presence and sing through the scriptures, having the prophetic singers dwell on the specifics and allow the Spirit to change our hearts and minds. Details to follow on where we will meet...
Brian
Ministry Director
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
