What's up Doc(trine)?

My recent blog about smoking has caused me to think some more, and (as ever) I'm thinking about church. Recently I was having a conversation that got rather heated about the Doctrine of the Church of England, and how I believed that the C of E (on the whole) were about doing good things, and not about seeing manifestations of God; or Miracles, you might say.

Their point (as this was a room of C of E people) was that everything is a miracle, and Jesus was about Love, so we should Love God, Love each other and Love ourselves. That is the Christian way.

I then had a further discussion where I raised the question; what is more important (in the realm of being a Christian); acting in the supernatural realm of God, seeking his manifest presence and taking authority over sickness, demons etc; or living a humble life, sharing all you have, doing good deeds, and really loving all those around us.

You may be asking yourself why I've segregated those two, because I think we all realise that both are equally important to the Christian life. We only need to look at the headlines of Jesus ministry to see that Love and Power were his gifts to the world.

However I find in mondern church, that the two ARE segregated! The churches that really press in for the presence are not really involved in the good deeds stuff (soup run, school evangelism, homeless help, prison visits), but they do see people healed, set free, and at times an open heaven over what they are doing. Conversely, many churches that don't seek that manifestation are more significantly involved in the good deeds stuff, but often don't even ask for the healings!

I don't know why there is this segregation, and I don't want to name names and give examples here, but I hope you can see what I mean.

Personally I LOVE the spiritual realm, I love experiancing God, I want to experiance more, I want to touch him, I want to feel him, I want to worship him!!

But I've just been struck with another thought. Let's say you have a really good friend, she has a Daughter. One day, there's a problem, I don't know what the problem is, but you are there, and able to help her out. This may even be financially. You know that if you speak to your friend, you'll get your money back, or they'll do something nice to repay your efforts.

Shouldn't that be how we treat other people, our best friends child?

Woah, deep, back to Tuesday afternoon banter with spreadsheets.

'be careful what you wish for...'

In c.600BC, a man called Aesop first coined the phrase 'Be careful what you wish for, it may just come true'. Well, he probably wrote it in Greek, but you get my point. Well, that hasn't really played much of a part in my life until recently.

Last Tuesday, Dan and I went to a Roy Fields meeting in Chorley Wood (at Latimer Park) just north of London. Roy was one of the worship leaders at the Lakeland Outpouring. At the end of his talk, he offered a response for people who were in ministry but had problems with stuff - like smoking.

Well, I had said to someone earlier that day that if there was the option, I'd go forward for prayer about my smoking, but I didn't really feel convicted about it yet so I wasn't expecting much.

To cut a long story short, he gave the call, I went forward for prayer. On Wednesday, I managed to smoke 3 and a half cigarettes, and each made me feel sick. on Thursday I managed to smoke one half of a cigarette. It made me feel REALLY ill.

So, today is Monday, I havent had any cigarettes since last Thursday, so I guess I'm just coming up to 100 hours of no smoking now. What's more, I haven't had any cravings, I haven't had any grumpy moods, I haven't been stressed. Nothing. I've had the psychological kinda 'Oh wait, I don't smoke now' stuff, like when having a cup of tea, after eating, driving spending time with certain friends and stuff like that, but that's been it.

Before last week, I was happy smoking 15 a day, now it's 0.

But this has made me think a bit, you see, I didn't feel convicted, so why was God's response so swift? It actually made me realise that I hadn't LET myself get convicted. And there's more areas that I have handed over to God in my head, but not handed over in my heart.

It's a tough pill to swallow when you realise that actually you're a mess because you're making yourself a mess, and the stuff that you thought that you'd prayed REALLY, you didn't mean and it was all just a waste of time. It's when our hearts desire something and the prayer comes from there that I believe God really listens to it.

I had opened myself up just a bit, and I really believe God was there in heaven, saw me pray a bit and said "That's good enough, Mike, Gabe, get in there and sort it, I've been waiting way too long for this", followed by some kinda sci-fi noises and a heavenly light show.

So now I'm not a smoker, but I'm not saying I've given up, because I haven't - in all honesty I'd probably like to smoke again, I'm just unable to! How funny is that!

So, if I've learned anything from this, it's look to yourself for your questions about God first, before going to him, because he does hear your prayers, and he does do stuff today.

On another note, stuff is going really well, been having lots of fun ministering in different places and playing in different bands, been to Dudley a few mroe times, me and Dan will be playing at a conference there in November that should be amazing, speakers such as the Bakers, Bill Johnson and Ken Gott - I'm looking forward to it. Oh, and I brought a new amp...Gonna be buying some more stuff soon, so I'll do a big post when I get it all.
(Me, Ryan Baker-Barnes and Dan)

God is good...

Porsche anyone?

I've been thinking a lot lately about our individual circumstances vs our state of mind.

Let me clarify, I believe that we can all achieve pretty much anything. If you want to own a Ferrari, it's not impossible. Let me give you an example. A friend of mine has been globetrotting for the last 18 months or so. Every now and then his facebook status will say 'Steve is in ...' and some of the countries he has been to are staggering! But this isn't because his family have lots of money, indeed he comes from a working class family who I imagine don't have £1000's to throw away travelling. I firmly believe that Steve travels the world because his state of mind enables him to do so.

I have no time for people who moan and groan that life is so hard, and I don't understand because I come from a fairly well off family. Well let me tell you that's a load of crap. As a family we have lost a house due to bankruptcy, we've suffered extreme poverty where fortunately our church were able to provide food. My mum has worked hard, and even after a marriage breakup we find ourselves doing well. I did have my own place but moved back home mainly to be with her over a difficult time.

But here's my point, I come from very poor surroundings, I have little more than GCSE's under my belt. Yet I'm not stuck in a dead end minimum wage job, indeed my job with BT is quite well paid.

If I wanted, right now I could go to a garage and pick up pretty much any car I wanted. On finance obviously. I choose however to spend my cash on guitar stuff, so I can sound as good as possible when I'm playing. So, in the last year, the amount I have spent on getting my studio together, and buying music stuff, I could easily have brought a Porsche.

As it happens I'm happy with my '96 Golf GTi, it gets me about!

But I want to encourage the world, because your state of mind will determine your destiny.

Belonging

This weekend saw an epic adventure for myself and THRE3 to Germany. Read my blog on the trip here:

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=34795126807

We got to chat with loads of people who were literally on edge of accecpting Christ. We've made the descision as a team that we should encourage this by allowing certain people to 'belong', or be a part of what we do.

This isn't a massive step, it's letting three people have roles in our wider team. These people haven't accecpted Christ as their friend YET, but they'll be working alongside our crew of people who are dedicated Christians as well as us.

This I'm sure will be open to criticism, in the past I've seen people get involved through serving and find a relationship with God through that. I've also seen people try to gain praise through it. Prayer is needed to guide us and give us wisdom in dealing with this, but Jesus came for the Sinners, not the Saints!

It's funny, for an event this weekend, there will be the THRE3 of us, Dan, Lee and myself, but in the wider crew we'll have Tim, Matt, Mark, Kevin, Jemma and Jordan. So, THRE3 become nine?

Seeing a large scale event this weekend has reminded me of the Body of Christ, how we ALL have a role in the body. Some roles are more obvious than others, but all are essential. Let us not forget that.

If you feel that your role is insignificant, you should watch this video, even the smallest cells in the body are essential...

Living it...

There's a whole lot of religion in the press recently. My previous post about Todd Bentley has caused quite an uproar, and Today I found out about about pastor Michael Guglielmucci (click the link to see the news report), the guy connected with Hillsong Australia, and is part of one of the largest youth churches, PlanetShakers, has deceived the world in the most extraordinary way. In short, he wrote the song "Healer", written from his place of struggling with terminal cancer. He performed it (I believe) on the Hillsong 2008 DVD, wearing an oxygen mask, with his oxygen tank on stage, appearing quite weak, but able. As it turns out, he was never ill, no need for oxygen, he just wanted to be famous.

I guess I should point out that he's now getting psychiatric help, but even so, how was this able to go on? How was Todd Bentley's marriage able to fall apart? How were these things able to happen in the realm of the world media?!!!

Lets look at a bible passage from the beginning of 2 Peter (The Message)...
But there were also lying prophets among the people then, just as there will be lying religious teachers among you. They'll smuggle in destructive divisions, pitting you against each other—biting the hand of the One who gave them a chance to have their lives back! They've put themselves on a fast downhill slide to destruction, but not before they recruit a crowd of mixed-up followers who can't tell right from wrong.

They give the way of truth a bad name. They're only out for themselves. They'll say anything, anything, that sounds good to exploit you. They won't, of course, get by with it. They'll come to a bad end, for God has never just stood by and let that kind of thing go on.

There's a couple of things I'd like to point out from that.

> Lying Prophets / teachers, this could even refer to someone who gives a 'Good' message rather than a 'God' message.
> Those who can't tell right from wrong, doesn't refer to people who are stupid, it simply refers to people who believe something they haven't fully tested.
> The way of Truth, basically 'Christianity'

So, am I judging these people, no, that's for God to do in his divine way. I don't have a clue what he thinks about it, and it's not my sin to carry. It's theirs.

For me, this reminds me of a sermon I once heard, about carrying Jesus with us. I want to have a look at it this way:
Would Jesus be upset by your: Conversations / phone calls / text messages / emails / facebook account / IM Conversations? Imagine that Jesus is watching over your shoulder as you sit at your PC, would he be uplifted by your actions? Or would he cry at your deception?

I used the word deception. If you go to church and you're most definitely one thing, an all out 'Christian', doing all the 'Christian' things, but you go home and write a smutty email to someone you're flirting with...Why? If you go any pray with someone but then text a friend with some gossip...Why? If you lead worship and then go and have sex, or even foreplay, with someone who isn't your wife...Why?!!

It's hard hitting, and a tough pill to swallow.

God Loves us, and when we repent, we are clean in his sight. But don't deceive yourself, if you're not living (or trying to live) the life, then jog on mate, because God ain't having it.

I am far from perfect. I do many things I shouldn't. But seeing this deception in the church has inspired me to try even harder to get closer to God, in word thought and deed.