As the dust settles on an amazing three week journey at church with our God Evenings I have a number of thoughts running around in my head that I think need to be downloaded. So here goes…
1. There were different leaders responsible for each event. That is a great thing, because it ensures that what God is doing is not identified with a specific personality – clearly this was a work of God and will never be linked to an individual.
2. There was a balance of inward, upward and outward focusses. Each week we lifted our eyes up to focus on God, we looked inward at what he was doing to bring change in our lives and we also looked out to link what God was doing in our midst to what he is doing in our city, country, continent and world. This was no escape from reality – naval gazing experience – but a genuine encounter with God that always translated into mission in the world.
3. Each week there were different experience. There did not seem to be a formula – beyond that we have a brief time of impartation each week followed by extended time in worship, the actual events took on a life of their own and even my personal experiences each week were radically different. I am reminded that God is always fresh and comes to do a new thing every time we create space for a holy encounter.
4. There is a sense of connectedness with what God is doing elsewhere. It is great to read of how God is moving around our country and around the world and know that we are simply a part of what is taking place in the world today. God is sovereignly choosing to move in the world today and is doing so wherever people are open to his presence.
5. The move of God is not contained to a specific event. We heard testimonies of how God had moved on the young adults camp, how God is moving on the universities of South Africa, in the children’s ministry and we are expectant that as we unveil our Supernatural Sundays at igniteYOUTH in the coming months we will see an equally powerful move of God take place among our teenagers.
6. We need to guard the move of God. The evil one is rampant, he is not impressed that people’s lives are being changed, that sin is being exposed, that people are learning how to walk in victory, so you can bet that he is unleashing reinforcements to derail what God is doing. But he cannot operate in the presence of God – he is a defeated foe and he must flee! Yet, we need to be vigilant and identify his works in our lives, in our church and in our relationships – especially in our families.
7. We need to include children and teenagers in the church events. It was encouraging to see children and teenagers participating so freely in the last God Evening – they were not a distraction and truly were impacted by God’s presence. This will help us with our church value of multi-generations worshipping and learning together.
8. We are motivated to walk in holiness and victory. The message of recent weeks is that we are accepted just as we are because of the grace of God, however, we sense a greater desire to walk in purity so that we do not miss out on what God is doing and become even more sensitive to hear his voice and be used by him to touch other lives.
9. Personally, I am overcoming my reluctance to speak about what God is doing. When I started to blog about these evenings, I was filled with mixed feelings about the wisdom of being open about what God is doing. I have received so much encouragement over the recent weeks that it has helped me get over my shyness over talking about God’s move in our midst.
10. We must think about what is next for us as a church. I ended the last blog with a question about what next after these three God weeks are over. We probably do not want to camp in this moment – we could call it revival and start meeting every night of the week and who knows where that would lead; we could scrap our Grow Evenings (which are also held on Tuesday nights) and continue with the God Evening; or have a monthly event – or a combination of all these options. We must be open to what God’s desires are for us as a congregation and ensure that what has begun in the Spirit does not end up in the flesh.
May God’s name be exalted, may his kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven!