2018 Here We Come!

Prophets, Vision and Perspective!!

We have been moving through the Bible at Church at the Manor as Jen has walked us through Isaiah and Jeremiah.  We continue our theme with God and the Prophets as we now look at Ezekiel.

First of all I want to point out something quite interesting.

Ezekiel was by the Kebar River and at this point we are 5 years into the exile of King Johoiachin.  So, they have now been in Babylon for 5 years.  It was at this same time that we have Psalm 137 penned yet the perspective of Psalms is very dark, loathing and full of regret.

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
    when we remembered Zion.
² There on the poplars
    we hung our harps,
³ for there our captors asked us for songs,
    our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
    they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

⁴ How can we sing the songs of the Lord
    while in a foreign land?

However at this very point God is giving Ezekiel an incredible vision of His glory.  The word for glory here is the word “kavod” meaning a physical display of God’s presence and it’s a powerful one.

Just like Jeremiah, Ezekiel had a very difficult task to warn God’s people that they were deserting God and completely forgetting Him in their everyday life…so much so that they actually were turning to other gods and doing unthinkable worship practices following the worship of our nations.

So, God asked them to very challenging things to get the attention of the people.

Let’s look in particular at a few things that Ezekiel had to do in chapter 4

Clay tablet – He had to set up a miniature display of the city and create a scene of destruction.

Bake bread over human excrement – he actually is able to ask God to change his mind, and gets to cook wheat, barley and beans over cow manure….for 390 days while lying on his side to represent the Northern Kingdom. He then had to turn to his other side and do the exact same thing for 40 days for the Southern Kingdom.  The point, food and water were going to be scarce when the nation is invaded.

It goes on at the beginning of Chapter 5 when he has to shave his head and beard….

The call on the life of a prophet wasn’t an easy one and often was met with great resistance especially when the message was a difficult one designed as a wake up call.

Kevin was a man in our previous church who had a prophetic gift.  Unfortunately he wasn’t well received either even though his message was always one of blessing and encouragement.  He also was socially awkward and would often cry and be right up in your personal space to give you the message.

He also did warn people too.  In Sharon and my case, he made it very clear that I wasn’t to pursue a traditional church ministry again as I was looking into a church in Kitchener.  I am so thankful for his prophetic messages that spoke deeply into my life.

As we look back into Ezekiel’s story there is a bright side.   Ezekiel, much like Jeremiah comes full circle with a message of hope, reconciliation and deliverance. There is a future beyond exile for Israel.

Ch 34-37  Hope For Israel

There will be a new David – the Messiah, a new Israel – a new transformed people.  They will receive a new heart – a heart of stone will turn to a heart of flesh that will enable them to love and obey.

There is a vision of a valley of dry bones in chapter 37 He sees skin appearing on the bones and new humans coming to life.  It’s a parallel to God’s creation in Genesis 2  There will be a new act of creation where the new transformed people will act in love with each other and with creation.

Ch 38,39  Speaks of hope for the nations.

God will defeat evil.  It is everything that this nation Gog represents.  Gog are all the violent kingdoms of the world.  This paves the way as well for a new creation.

Ch 40-48 God’s presence will return to a “new temple’.   There will be a new city and Ezekiel gets a tour of this city with a new altar, new priests and a new sense of worship.  The glorious chariot that Ezekiel saw in chapter 1 makes it rendezvous here as well.

The meaning of the vision of the temple is very symbolic of God’s presence with His people.  It is a picture of the Garden of Eden with God’s life giving presence there.  This new garden is called “The LORD is there. 

It is a place full of hope for a new future, a world that is permeated with God’s love and justice.  We continue to pray for God’s preferred future for the Church at the Manor as we enter a new year and are excited for what He has in store for us!  Continue to pray for His leading and His Kingdom come to the Manor in 2018!

Here are a few highlights from this past month!

We were so excited to host about 70 people for our Manor Church / Staff Christmas Party

                                   Dan showing off his new tattoo with Philippians 4:13

                          Also, interesting to note that we are recognized by uberfacts!

Going For Broke!

In Ephesians 3:14-21 Paul risks everything in prayer in an all-out effort for his readers to know the Holy Spirit’s power, the presence and love of Jesus and the fullness of the Father.

I am really inspired by this prayer and it definitely a favourite prayer of mine.  It is especially significant in that it focuses on the whole trinity and the part that they all play in the glorious outworking of our faith.  It's a prayer that serves as an example to me, as a pastor, of the kinds of qualities that I should pray to invade the souls of each and every one of you. I believe it should also serve as an example of how we, as individual members of this church family, should pray for one another.

But most of all, I believe this prayer is meant to motivate us! It is meant to impact us with a sense the wonder and value of the spiritual riches that are ours in Christ. It is meant to take hold of every fiber of our being and let the truth of those riches sink deeply into our hearts and lives and transform us from the inside-out.

Ok, let’s dive in and break it down.

For this reason I kneel before the Father v14

There is something to be said about posture in prayer. 

Our best attempts at prayer fall short unless they are empowered by the Spirit of God.  Otherwise prayers are just spoken words, Bible study is just words read, worship music is just words sung and music played. Once Paul had emphasized the grace by which we stand, he now he falls to his knees .  In that day it was typical for the Jews to stand in prayer as we can see in Matthew 6:5; Luke 18:11,13.

Kneeling was significant because it showed an expression of deep emotion and earnestness.  We see Solomon kneeling at the dedication of the temple(1 Kings 8:54), Stephen kneeling as he was being martyred, Peter kneeling at the deathbed of Dorcas, Paul as he made his farewell to the congregations and most significantly, Jesus, as He knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

As a child I will never forget walking past my father's bedroom and seeing him on his knees in prayer.  It is forever etched in my mind. I knew that he prayed in earnest for me as he did for my family as well.

From whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name v15

Paul is praying specifically for those who are part of the family of God.  This is not a prayer for just anyone, it was for those who had crossed the line of faith, those who had a defining place of giving their life over to Jesus as Saviour and Lord.

It was out of his glorious riches, that He is calling us to discover just how much confidence, power and resolve we have in our very being!

Prayer request #1 

16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,

Can you have the power and still not access the power of the HS?  Yes, it’s like have a bank account that we don't access.  However when we continually make a withdrawal we are powerful in Him.

When you are made strong in the inner man by the Holy Spirit, there will be power to blast out the unbelief, and power to overcome despair, and power to rise above anger, and power to keep going when you would rather quit. That “inner man” is the control room of life where every great decision is made.   KAPOW!

SO WHAT??  SO that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

The power of the Holy Spirit works in tandem with Jesus.

Dwell = It was a presence that He wanted to remain in us continually, to be at home.  It was something for us to discover in its fullness; not sporadically from time to time.  There are places where we feel his presence stronger more than others, yes, but He is with us always.

Also, know that because of your relationship with Him, there is not a single thing you are lacking from your spiritual treasure-store!!  The fact is that you, as a believer, have already been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

Prayer request #2

 And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. V17b -19

We need to go to the very places where we can know the power to experience the depths of Christ’s love. 

to grasp (understand that this is hard work) 

The enemy loves to keep us busy, loves to keep us distracted.  He also is very good at accusing you of not being where you should be.

The decision to remain still and be before God instead of ‘doing’ for God is a very difficult thing for us to wrap our minds and hearts around.  However it is often that in those extended times of stillness where we give ourselves over to listening to Him that He washes over us with His love.  For some of us it is doing something that we absolutely love that is of a pure heart and feeling His joy there.

Here is the paradox: Paul prayed that we would “know” something that is beyond knowledge.  It surpasses knowledge, He wants you to experience it.

He wants it to go from information to transformation!  

Realize this that as he prayed for his readers to have this experience.  He was unable to describe it nor was he going to try to teach it happening in a certain way.  He recognized that we are all unique in the ways that we feel our way to God.  We also know that true spiritual formation is caught rather than taught. 

An exercise that we recently asked the leaders of Crossings to participate in was to write a love letter to God and then in response to ask the LORD simply, what do you want to say to me?

Here is my love letter to God that day.

God and Father I love you with all my heart.  You are sooo gracious and patient with me.  You restore me, You strengthen me, You love me and I’m so thankful.  Without You I am nothing, there is no purpose, no point.  With You, I feel so good, so at peace.  Draw me more into this sweet spot! I’m so often busy and miss out.  I don’t want to miss out on what You are doing.  Jesus, thank you for so sacrificially loving me, forgiving me.  I don’t deserve any of it.

Here is what I sensed in my inner being as He spoke to me.

Jack, be near, be still, be close.  Watch what I’m doing in your midst.  In stillness and quietness is your strength.  I will be with you through the fire, through the cloud, through the rain.  I have loved you with an everlasting love.

Then I spoke, God I know you are most glorified when I’m most satisfied in You.

Then I heard,   stop racing, stop running, slow down, enter in.  Don’t make it an assignment.  Come to me, listen, learn, dwell.  Don’t rush ahead.  I have so much I want to show you, discover it with me, be restored in My presence.

Recognize that this is going to be hard, it’s going to be a battle.  The enemy doesn’t want you to go there.  He doesn’t want you to read your Bible.  He’ll throw as much interruptions in your life as possible to keep you from going there.  I know you are busy, most .  If you set out to do this, there will be spiritual battles that will rise up, guaranteed.  He doesn’t want you to hear from the LORD.  Put on the full armor of God.  Set a time, set a place, turn off all the notifications to go there.  I had a roommate who was so committed to meeting with God that he literally went into his closet to pray and it wasn’t a walk in one!!

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

THIS IS A STATEMENT OF FAITH – When you have experienced the power of the Holy Spirit, the presence and love of Jesus and the fullness of the Father will be ready to be unleashed to go OUT! 

To dream big dreams for the Church, for His kingdom, for the glory of Christ.

The power that is at work within us”; “at work” translates energoumai, meaning to be energized!  Be energized by that very work that He wants to carry out through all of us collectively as a body of believers...a fusion that creates an undeniable synergy in our ministry and focus!

On being filled to the  fullness of God

The word for “filled” has the idea of being dominated by something. If you are filled with rage, then rage will dominate your life. If you are filled with love, then love dominates your life. If you are filled with joy, then joy dominates your life. When you are filled with God, then God himself will dominate your life. It pictures the total transformation of the human personality by virtue of the presence of God in your life.

Let’s look at some prayers of desperation and God’s strong reminders of our identity.

Do you know who you are?

Do you know what resources are available to you?

Do you have the power?

Are you experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit in your inner being?

Turn with me to Judges 6

11 The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”14 The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”15 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

Ok, tell me what did Gideon believe about himself?

However, who did God say he was?

Gideon – How did he see himself?  He saw himself as the very least, his clan as the weakest and the youngest, most forgotten in his family, yet he was called by God, “a mighty warrior, a man of valor.”  God led him to an improbable victory!

Now, let’s remember it didn’t come about right away.  Gideon tested God quite a few times while putting out fleece.  God is so gracious with us.

Often with God, it goes against all earthly sense and the way to victory for him

Takeaway

God’s love is extravagant, He lavishes His love on His children. Take time everyday to embrace His love because when you know it there’s nothing 

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!   1 John 3:1

We are called to embrace it and there’s nothing you won’t go broke for in whatever Jesus calls you for His kingdom, His glory.

Be unleashed in the world He has sent you to with His love!