Beyond The Fast

So, it was a great 10 days of hunger and devotion to Jesus. Sure, many of us felt weaker, colder and hungrier than we ever want to feel again. But, the general concensus is "it was all worth it!". In fact, Shane's humurous announcement that we were beginning a 40 day fast today, ending on Dec 24th, didn't really phase most of us.

Beyond the fasting, however, we are excited about the future. The Lord has been speaking to us recently about the priesthood and ministering to Him with our lives. The story of Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles 29 contained much for us to consider in our journey to minister to God. This new king, only 25 years old in fact, was wise enough to realize that God was no longer dwelling with His people in the way possible because the temple had been desecrated and left unattended. He knew that God would come and dwell in the actual building, and as a result in the midst of the people, if they would restore the structure and take up their role to minister before Him once again. In fact, Hezekiah is so confident of God's willingness to return and dwell with them again that he calls the priests to activity with determination. In v. 11 he says to the priests among them (in essence), "Now is not the time to negligent of your calling. Time to stand and do what you are called to do, because I am about to make a promise to God and ask Him to return. If I promise to Him, He will respond...so, get ready!".

After this he calls them to "stand, serve, minister and burn incense" before the Lord. Be bold. Be confident before Him. Do what He asks of you. Do what is the essence of the kingdom and do it before this audience of One. Please His heart as you do it. Find out what He loves and do that. Seek out His heart and mind on things. Agree with His plans and decisions. And offer up the prayers of others as incense for He loves to receive it from you.

Sanctuary exists to create a place for God to dwell with us more than He does in this age. It will not be the only place, but it will be a place intentionally created and maintained for the presence of God. He will be served, ministered to and adored constantly. Those who come will be called to stand before the Uncreated One, to not shrink back and become negligent. His eyes are never off of us for He loves us and will have us for Himself. We are going forward with this reality as our fuel for the journey.

Brian Creary
Ministry Director

Fast Day #8

We had a good day yesterday! We certainly are moving a little slower and feeling a whole lot weaker, but there is a tenderness I notice in most of us that is God at work. Fasting truly is an amazing experience when combined with prayer and devotion to Jesus in a determined way.

Hour after hour was rich with hearts engaged and the room filled with worship. I was really struck by the intensity with which everyone brought to the intercession set. It felt like we were never more honest before Him, never more desperate for His presence and never more convinced that He enjoyed us in our efforts than at that moment. Sure we were cold, tired and hungry...that is all part of the experience and there was no holding back last night.

Today, in our internship class, we were listening to some of the prophetic words given that have shaped some of where we are and what is emerging in the prayer movement world wide. A phrase caught my ears: "You don't really understand whats happening here, do you?". Funny, because the context was a prophetic-man saying this to an emerging leader in intercession. I remember listening to this same dialogue a few years back and being struck that I was in the very same place. I really had no idea what I was doing here. I was beginning to "experiment" with worship and intercession but I could never have concieved of that time producing all that we are now. I had no concept of what was happening in my city, in our nation and in the earth. What was God doing and why was this little group of people in Winnipeg important to Him in it all?

Its a few years later now and I smiled as I heard it again. Things are considerably clearer now. There is a reason for all this and it doesn't have much to do with whether anyone out there recognizes it or not. We are called to stand before the Lord God of Heaven! That is much is certain. He is doing things in the earth right now and He is inviting people to partner with Him through intercession and agreement with His plans. This is more than a place to bless our city in the hope that things will improve around here. He is striding forward and we are invited to move with Him in this simple way.

God is so faithful. I am sure there is even more to the story, but there are years ahead for us and He seems more than willing to keep us informed and shape us according to what He has for us.

Continue to pray with us. We conclude this fasting period as the day ends this Wednesday.

Brian Creary
Ministry Director

Fast Day #4

It has been a good week so far. Although I missed the meeting on Tuesday, I understand that it was a packed house and a good meeting. There is something powerful about gathering together during a fast to seek God together. The theme of interceding for the under-30 generation was put aside for the night to focus on asking for the Sanctuary community and for an increase in revelation. Good stuff!

No majour encounters have been reported yet. "Stay steady", I have heard over and over again from those who are feeling hungrier, weaker and more in touch with the things of the spirit these days. You have no idea what you are giving yourself to, folks! Turning to God with your whole heart really matters!!

There is some increasing excitement about this weekend's meetings, as well. Maybe its because people are more sensitive right now, but the feeling seems to be spreading that this weekend could be a significant one for us. More on that next Monday, I guess. I am eager to find ourselves together again, offering who we are in our weakened state to God. It is pleasing to Him and that makes me very happy. We will ask for more from that headspace. Ministering to Him is thrilling once you see it for what it is.

I was talking with a pastor of a church in the city recently and we talked about the awesome transcendence of who the Lord is and the seperation that exists in the minds of believers as they set out to serve in the community. But, if you can get it in your head that He really is as awesome and near to us as we dare to imagine, it makes perfect sense of standing before Him first on our way to ministering to people in His name. He stands King and Bridegroom over this city. He loves these people more than we ever could. He calls us to partner with Him in HIS WORK! But, never forget it; He is God...and we are not. So, with love, fear and excitement we stand before Him to minister to His heart, knowing He is pleased by this.

To say it another way, "go through the fire on your way to loving your neighbour".

Brian Creary
Ministry Director

Fast Day #2

We had a rockin' discussion this morning at our internship class about the presence of angels in our daily activities. Some of it was biblical, some more theological and much of it experiential. What did we conclude? Well...

1. We are quick to recognize the presence of a demon and act on it, but don't recognize the presence of an angel with as much conviction. For some reason, most felt they needed to be a bit more convinced if someone said "I felt the presence of an angel, although I didn't actually see it". And, that is not good.

2. Most had desire to see angels but not much interest in seeing demons. I understand...

3. We were quick to state that there seems to be a biblical precedent for finding angels all-too-attractive and tending toward worshipping them when they were around. That, too, was a bad thing and one we wanted to keep in mind. God is our focus...exclusively...utterly...forever...

4. Although a few of us had brief encounters with angels in the natural realm (seeing them in some form), almost all of us could say they had the experience of feeling like there was an angel in the room with us at one time and being almost...able....to see....it..... Turns out they are more present in our experience than we were realizing, despite not actually seeing much.

5. We all want to see them!

6. We love Jesus even more as we consider these ones as servants of Him, acting on His behalf to minister to us in some form.

7. God is totally in control and neither angel nor demon has anything to say or do to you without His permission granted. Don't you love the safety you feel in that?


Tonight we are meeting at Shane and Kristi's place for our Tuesday pm intercession meeting. We are putting aside the under-30 focus for this week to call out as a community for more revelation and direction. Come if you are in the neighbourhood!

Brian Creary
Ministry Director

The Fast Begins

Today is the first day of our 10-day corporate fast. We are once again calling our community to join together in restricting their food intake and praying more around some central themes. We are feeling this time that God would have us press in and ask Him to release revelation to us about our House and what the future holds for us. It is an exciting time as very often corporate prayer and fasting releases a new season in God for the community. Most of us are desperate to know Him in a deeper way, to hear what He is saying to us personally and corporately and to be changed for the future.

Of course, fasting is a discipline that serves to show us just how weak we really are. There is something about going without food for a time that has a person weaker and stronger all at the same time. Stronger if they turn their weakness into prayer and seek God in the midst of it, that is.

We were considering the possibilities last night. What COULD the Lord do for those who are turning to Him with focus and devotion, asking for Him to speak to us? The question should really be "What if...?" for all manner of revelation can happen to any of us at any time. To assume that it won't amount to much or that He will speak only to the really committed ones is just bad thinking. He is not impressed by our efforts, but He loves us more that we know. He wants to speak to us and often stirs a community to press towards Him in fasting and prayer for just such a purpose. He stirs us, we respond thinking it was our idea, He gives the grace to endure and stay steady AND THEN He responds with the encounters He wanted to give us in the first place. You just have to love the way He does it! He is so engaging. And He draws us constantly with hunger...usually spiritual hunger, but for this week it is physical as well.

Join with us if you have heart for this city and long to see His kingdom established here. Join with us if you are beginning to believe that His return is sooner than you thought and great difficulty is coming to all on the earth. Join with us if you want to hear Him more clearly and want to feel His presence.

Updates to follow...

Brian Creary
Ministry Director

Searching...

We are feeling stirred these days to look for a more permanent home for our house of prayer. We have been hosted by The King's Fellowship on Osbourne Street since late April of this year and it has been a HUGE blessing. But, in the last while we have been feeling the need to look with even more diligence for our new home. King's has been able to give us free reign but only for limited hours, as we share the facility. We are eager to take our growth to the next level and have meetings on a daily basis. We need our own place to make this happen.

Please pray with us in this next season. We are going to begin a 10-day corporate time of fasting and prayer beginning on October 30th. We will focus on asking God to speak clearly to us and give us further insight to what He has for us in the next season ahead. We believe that part of that will include understanding on a new location.

I'll keep you updated as we hear from God and as we search out a building to house us.

Brian Creary
Ministry Director

God Is Not A Stoic Detached Being

Shane spoke again a couple of weeks ago and really gave it to us straight on the love of God for humanity. He was on to something when he said "God is not stoic...and he is not detached". The word stoic is defined as "of or pertaining to the school of philosophy founded by Zeno, who taught that people should be free from passion, unmoved by joy or grief, and submit without complaint to unavoidable necessity". Boy, Shane is right; God is not stoic!

For many of us, we see Him as one who directs things on this earth, moves the pieces around in our lives and on a macro level beyond human comprehension, but never really gets too emotionally involved. Some see Him as so intelligent, with infinite foreknowledge and wisdom, that He is never moved by any event...He knows it all already so He remains unimpressed by anything. At the same time, when we consider our own failings and weakness, we are keenly aware that God has feelings towards us...and they are all negative. We are sure that He is disappointed, angry and generally weary of working with us as sinful as we are.

But, the truth is that God feels deeply and it is not mostly negative. A most profound verse always comes to mind here: Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. (Ephesians 1:4 The Message). Amazing! Before He established the earth in its foundations, He had us in mind. He saw you. He knew about you in your entirety, your strengths and your weaknesses. He knew of your propensity to sin and be so easily distracted. He knew that you would struggle, fail frequently, live a life less than worthy of Him and yet...He determined that you were the focus of His love. It is more that the focus of His building plan. It's His love. And, how deep this love is! Another passage in Ephesians 3 says that the love of Christ is essentially boundless ("how deep, how wide, how long, how high is this love").

God is moved by our activity on this earth. But more often, I believe, He is moved with love and desire for us than He is overwhelmed in disappointment. He is working actively to have us "whole and holy". He loves it when we turn our face towards Him. He is not thrown off by our weakness. He already knew it, it's true, and yet He has great passion for us to press through and choose to live voluntary love for Him in the midst of it. Every time you choose not to give yourself to sin, even the hidden stuff, because you want it to be an expression of love for Him, it is a significant thing in the heart of God. Every time you choose to love someone else, especially the ones who are not so loveable, as an expression of love for Him, it is moving His heart.

There is great comfort in my heart that God knows it all already and still likes me! My life can really be about love, then. I don't have to earn it. I can't make Him love me any less. But, I can embrace it. And, that is the best news I can think of.

Brian Creary
Ministry Director