Preposterousness

Ladies and Gentlemen...please welcome my first guest blogger...the very wonderful, Diane !

Well I've caved to husband pressure in order to provide my first ever guest blog! David has already supplied his perspective on the Bill Johnson conference @ Dayspring last weekend, but as I was the one taking notes the old-school way, he thought I may have picked up on something else. And since I get told that I look at things from a different angle most times, I thought, 'why not'.

First things first, I don't think I was mentally prepared for a conference, but I find I seldom am. Busy, tired, distracted; I'm sure most of you know the drill. I also don't 'do' crowds at the best of times. I needn't have worried - the team @ Dayspring know how to welcome and make people feel comfortable from the get-go, and one of our Pastors had kept seats for us, so it was easy. And it was PACKED. So many people with expectation in a smallish room. It was tangible how hungry people were for the Word.

The Dayspring worship team kicked everything off - they were tight, volume maybe a bit low (or it could be that my hearing has been permanently damaged by ear-bleedingly loud sound elsewhere...), but the most important thing was that the Holy Spirit was there. An hour of full-on worship is a wonderful thing, but my note to self was to not wear heels next time...hard to enter in when you can't feel your toes. :-)

I just could hardly wait to hear Bill Johnson. You have to understand that I'd never heard of the guy until a copy of 'Dreaming With God' caught my eye in a Christian bookstore, and told me to buy it. It did, really. When I read that book I felt something shift in my head, heart and spirit, and the repercussions of that are still being felt today. It was the catalyst to rediscover my creativity - something that had been shoved down as 'not practical or worthwhile' and 'only a hobby'. Since then, God has opened doors for me to try my hand at video editing, animation, graphics and to have people like it. A big boost to the old self-esteem.

I'd heard some podcasts from Bethel Church, and I liked what I heard, so I knew the content of the conference would be good. However, it's like David said, being able to watch and share the move of God as it happens is something else.

Some of my highlight quotes of the weekend:

"People who feed on bad news can never become part of the solution."

"The world is crying out for an example of the goodness of God. He's better than we think."

"Everything and everyone before Jesus pointed to something they could describe, but could not demonstrate."

"We each represent an aspect of God's character that no-one else on earth can."

"The problem with the church is that we have exchanged 'the Kingdom of God is near' for 'the end of the world is near.' "

"God isn't looking for an answer, but a testimony." (LOVE this.)

"We're told to 'grieve not' and 'quench not' the Holy Spirit. We grieve Him when we do wrong things. We quench Him when we don't do the right things."

"We have to learn not to be offended at God, and unimpressed with us."

"The Holy Spirit is imprisoned in unbelieving believers."

"The church spends a lot of time praying for what we already have."

"God may ask you to sell your house and give the proceeds to the poor, and the next day ask you to open a savings account. When you ask "Why? God, you're confusing!!" He says, "That's why you need to stay close."

David Crabtree - "When there is no Holy Spirit, we are governed by externals."

I could go on, and on, and on, but space and a blog reader's attention span may be limited!

I talked of a shift in my heart, mind and head after reading the book. Well, after this weekend it feels like I've been rotating on a certain axis - it was a perfectly fine axis as it was still going round - but there has now been a shift of degrees. I can feel it, and I know it. Without getting too esoteric on youse all :-) It feels that I can see things clearer and am stronger. And totally non-hyped.

I was prayed for by one of the team - I didn't go forward or anything, we were to pray for those around us, and she turned to me twice - I recall her praying for me to have 'sharp teeth' like a lion, to be given wisdom as I walk into what God has for me to do, and that I would be given the right words to say, because God has given me the ability to speak and create a new atmosphere, as my words contain weight and make people listen. I certainly hope so.

So yes, I'm still experiencing a little conference-sickness. It was an awesome time full of hope and joy, now it's the hard yards of applying it. I do know one thing - after being a bit non-plussed by the noisy and 'big-bang' ministry experiences in the past, I've realised that when correctly applied, there is NOWHERE else I'd rather live than in a life where the prophetic, and the tangible and frequent intervention of the Holy Spirit is expected and experienced. I want to hear amazing stories of the miraculous power of God for healing and not just say 'wow', but to also go "yep, that's what happened when we prayed too". People who live in that way don't need to shout and scream, they just allow God to move, and there is a closeness in their relationship to Him. They KNOW Him.

I want that, please.

This post is part of the weekly Sunday Setlists blog carnival over at FredMckinnon.com.  Make sure you check out the other setlists too! A few of you have noted my tweets on the Bill Johnson conference I attended with Diane and a few others from our church who've come to know and love Bill through his books, podcasts, etc.  I did a post on Friday night after the first session, but haven't quite got around to the Saturday sessions.  It's coming... I also tweeted that the last 24/48 hours have been the most amazing of my life.  In retrospect, though it's all still very fresh, I do think that statement is true.  For what started at the conference on Friday and Saturday continued today in our own services with God continuing to speak to PsG powerfully as he has done these past few weeks. JUST TO CLARIFY: this recap is for my home church services on Sunday, not the Bill Johnson conference which was Friday/Saturday.  However, I think it is significant that the content of everything was very similar...and PsG wasn't at Bill's conference.  We have been finding this "same word, same timing" thing happening a lot lately with other churches and ministries. Music AM Run (Houston/Hillsong) Happy Day (Hughes/Cantelon/Soul Survivor) To Meet You Here (Goodwin/Scarpato/Harbourside) - I'm particularly fond of this, done for the first time and some great response in both the team and the congregation.  Looking forward to doing this again next week. This Is Our God (Morgan/Fielding/Hillsong) PM For Your Glory (Pringle/Christian City Church C3) - from the first C3 album to contain really top quality pop-rock uptempo songs as well as downtempo (in my opinion, anyway :) You'll Come (Fraser/Hillsong) Worship+ Stronger (Morgan/Fielding/Hillsong) Fire Fall Down (Sampson/Hillsong) Jesus' Blood (Delirious?) Message The AM message was "Where Are You : the faith zone or the safe zone ?", which continued on from last week's unplanned message from fresh visions God is giving PsG.  These messages have shown a side of our pastor that I've only ever seen glimpses of before, and it's been beautiful to see him show more of his whole self in his preaching.  The PM message was a continuation of the morning, titled "Obeying the Voice of God".  In a weekend full of meat to chew on, I didn't feel ready for more messages where there is so much to absorb.  Of course, God knows much better than I do... Service Summary While not as long as last week, there was a still plenty of desire to stay and soak in the goodness of God after the AM meeting (which is usually fairly time-driven), and nearly everyone was still there worshipping when it finished an hour over time (This Is Our God formed the basis for this).  There was a time when lots of people would have had something to say about this sort of thing; I'm really glad we've had a fresh wind blow in and the church is being given back to God for Him to move.  The PM meeting was great, and I'll say again how much I love being able to be in the congregation for these meetings.  The sound was great, and special shout out to the tech guys for learning from last week :).  This young team did a great job of both the service and the free-worship for Worship+; seeing youth flow freely in the Spirit is beautiful. Favourite Moments The AM service video intro thing was really good this week (not particularly funny, but good) which was great after the extremes of the last couple of weeks. PsG was talking about dinner parties at one point, and came out with "I'm not interested in chin-chin with cinzano", which cracked us up anyway :) Annoying Moments Nothing except that the MacBook still wasn't on connected up as the adapter to get the video into the MacBook Pro for ProPresenter, etc wasn't available anywhere.  Should be next week.  Yeah, I know I've said that before...

This post is part of the weekly Sunday Setlists blog carnival over at FredMckinnon.com.  Make sure you check out the other setlists too! I'm still actually lost for words to describe what happened in our church services yesterday, so I'm not going to try too hard.  I've also not got a lot of time, but if I don't do this now, it won't get done. Music All the music was great today - band was tight, AM harmonies & feel were great, the Ablaze guys in the PM (singers) are getting better musically while their enthusiasm still makes for a powerful time - it's all about the heart. The music set the atmosphere for what followed today, and I don't think anyone saw it coming... AM 1. Let God Arise (Tomlin) 2. The Freedom We Know (Houston/Hillsong) 3. Lead Me To The Cross (Fraser/Hillsong) 4. Redeemer (Murgida/Harbourside - ours again, this is the first song we're recording next month) 5. Now Is The Time (Delirious?) PM Walk-in (which is something we never do, but today we did) : Fire Fall Down (Sampson/Hillsong) 1. Run (Houston/Hillsong) 2. This Is Our God (Morgan/Fielding/Hillsong) Worship+ 1. Fire Fall Down 2. Mighty To Save (Morgan/Fielding/Hillsong) 3. Let It Rain (Farren) Message Both AM & PM planned messages were scrapped. Our pastor had a vision early Sun AM and re-wrote his messages. This never happens. They were based on the four horns outlined in Zechariah 1; the things which hinder God's people from seeing/hearing/walking in the vision He's planted in our hearts...that doesn't even begin to explain the message really. People were getting convicted and dealt with right there and then during the preaching. It will be on TV (as all our msgs are) in a few months, but that doesn't help non-'Oz'ers. We might get a decent website with podcasts, etc someday. Service Summary I know I'm not doing a good job of this today. There is too much to explain and too much going on in my head. The total time we were at church yesterday was 8 hours...yes, eight. Sure, that includes pre- & post-service, but that's still about 3 hours more than usual. Why? Because the Holy Spirit moved, there were prophecies, baptisms (which almost got forgotten because of the move of the spirit), people dancing, people weeping...it was...wow! During these times (which basically took up most of the AM service), we free-worshipped over the bridge of Redeemer - for, um, 80 minutes, I think. I really don't know, no one was clockwatching, hardly anyone left. Our pastor had to tell people to go home eventually. No-one wanted too. We came back for the PM service a couple of hours later, with probably double the number who are usually at that service. The ministry / Worship+ time was ... um ... wow. That's all I can say, truly. Funny Moments More pastors linguistic anointing: 1. Apparently, you can cut down on words by combining metaphoric and methodical into metathodical.  Who knew? 2. From Zechariah 1:21, the logical conclusion is that we should be Holy Ghost Terrorists (cue raised eyebrows, laughter and "did he really say that?" whispers).  This brought to mind Manic Street Preachers' debut album Generation Terrorists...that's how my brain works, everything is linked back to music in some way.  Also, the 2nd week of the video intro was hilarious.  We practised it really well, but for the service, the tech guys started playing it before we gave the signal, so the band had to RUN to get setup so there wouldn't be an uncomfortable gap after the end of the video intro. It was actually great for the energy of the opening praise songs, and no-one tripped on a cord or anything! Amazing  :) Next week, we should have our new MacBookPro running the visuals - hallelujah - which will mean Diane will be stepping back from the music team to lead that for a while uintil everyone is trained up...so she might be permanently stepping back, in other words ;) Annoying Moments 1. We had two new Sennheiser Evolution G2 mics (and one more is still on order). Lovely. I set the levels perfectly (no really, I did) and practice was great. Then, we get out on stage for the service and the gains had been taken OTT. Why??? 2. I spent the evening service down at the sound desk making sure everything was a little less earbleedingly shrill. I'm convinced our willing sound tech volunteers are deaf as well as well as having even less knowledge than my inconsiderable knowledge (?!).  I do love'em though :)

Australia Day - when we celebrate the English colonisation of our country - the Great South Land of The Holy Spirit.** What a mighty prophecy that was to be spoken over a land which at that time was unknown to the western world, and which has since been noted in lots of prophecy as being the last place on earth to experience revival. Tonight PsG opened the meeting with an explanation of these prophecies, reading the Prime Minister's speech from this morning's festivities, and dedicating the evening to prayer as found in 1 Timothy 2:1-4 : for those in authority. He then asked the worship team to come up to the platform. I'd prepared 3 songs (as had become the norm for these meetings) - Breathe (Barnett/Vineyard), Still (Morgan/Hillsong) and Welcome In This Place (Webster/Hillsong), but soon after we started on Breathe I knew the He had something else in mind. An hour and 10 minutes later, I was speechless in His presence. Through the course of one set of chords, He gave me and the other singers songs for this time and place ("We declare this Great South Land is Yours, Holy Spirit", "We stand in awe of You, our God, our Lord", "We repent, we cry out to You for mercy Lord for this nation Lord". That never looks as impressive as I retype it, but some words are for a time, a place, a moment. The atmosphere in the room was indescribable - a tangible presence of God. As I sang one of the songs - "Wherever I go, I breathe You in, I breathe You out to change this world" - I felt the Holy Spirit telling me to get the band to stop playing, but without me having to do or say anything, one of the other team members gave the direction. I love how God does that :) We then sang the song a couple more times accapella, then total silence for a minute or so until people in the congregation began worshipping in tongues, which grew and grew and grew. What a night! The meeting closed with PsG telling us to get out there and share what we did on Australia Day (in addition to the BBQs, which are law after all ;-) While sharing with one of our elders afterwards, she shared her vision of the prayers being offered as like those in Revelation being presented in the golden bowls, and that the angel hosts were joined with us as we worshipped. What a blessing. If you come around here a bit, you might remember what I wrote last week about having no idea what to expect of this week. That was confirmed tonight, and again, I come tomorrow free of expectation, but just wanting more and more and more of You Lord. I'm excited by the vision for new ministry being dropped into the hearts of the people in our church, and that as worship leader they share them with me, very often before anyone else. Such a privilege to serve in this way. Praise Jesus! **note that this links to an ugly ugly site, but it has some great info, ok :) And just a note, this isn't the place to go into the debate on whether it should be called Invasion Day for obvious reasons...

During January, every Wednesday our church has special prayer meetings to prepare for the year ahead. Around 80% of the church come to these meetings at least once, and then during the last week of the month they are held every night of the week, with usually 40-60 people. We open with some praise and worship, and then see how God leads - sometimes it's a night of praise, sometimes it's all prayer. We just never know, and that's what's so good. This week, we started with You'll Come (Brooke Fraser), and the intro alone had about 3 minutes of free praise before we got into the song. The Holy Spirit totally took over and we ebbed and flowed through Welcome In This Place (Miriam Webster) and Shout Unto God (Marty Sampson, Joel Houston) for around 60 minutes, with pastors and leaders praying during the quieter moments. It doesn't translate into a blog all that well I don't think, but it was truly awe-inspring. And we had nearly 100 people there too !