Come Holy Spirit - Day Four

Mike Pilavachi, the leader of Soul Survivor in England and a vicar in the Anglican Church, led the next two sessions. His theme for the first one was “Do Whatever He Tells You.” He starts with Mary, the mother of Jesus telling the servants at the wedding at Cana to do whatever Jesus tells them to do.  He then tells them to fill the jugs with water. He follows that instruction by telling them to draw some out of those very same jugs and take it to the master of the banquet. They do so, but in the back of their mind they have to be thinking, “You want us to take plain water for the master to taste?” When he tastes it he marvels at the fact that they saved the best wine for last. The servants must be thinking that he is drunk or out of his minds because they know that they poured ordinary water into the jugs. The lesson is to do what we are told even when we don’t understand what or why He is asking us to do it.

We want intimacy with Jesus, but are we willing to be obedient enough to achieve that intimacy. We should want the miraculous not so that we can be amazed or have stories to tell, but in order to usher in the Kingdom that people might be saved.

Sometimes Jesus sends us into the storm that He might meet us there at a deeper level. Jesus sent the disciples in their boats to go on ahead of Him. Then the storm hits and they are terrified. Jesus starts to come toward them but they don’t recognize Him. When we are filled with fear, desperation and are disappointed, we often don’t recognize Jesus in our midst.  Peter goes out on the water and starts walking toward Jesus. The storm is raging around him and he takes his eyes off of Jesus for a split second and he starts to sink. He realizes his predicament and cries out to Jesus and in an instant Jesus takes him by the hand and they walk back to the boat.

My longing to see God move has to be greater than my fear of failure.

The Gospel of John is filled with “I AM” statements that echo what God told Moses in the Old Testament.  He is the ‘I AM that IAM” all throughout Scripture and He is to be obeyed as such.

At the next session he talked about why would choose the twelve that he chose to be Jesus’ disciples and later Apostles. This was the greatest assemblage of loser and misfits ever put together. Two of them were called “Sons of Thunder” for goodness sake. Two were natural enemies as one was a zealot and hated everything to do with the occupation of the Romans. The other was a tax collector and worked to enforce to oppression of the Roman invaders. Among them was John who selfishly ambitious and caused division among the disciples (Mark 10:37-41). He was vengefully violent and was extremely competitive. In spite of all these flaws, Jesus chose him and it is later said that he was the “beloved”.  God knows the inner person and sees beyond the rough exterior. Regardless of our flaws, we can be His beloved ones if we obey him.

A quote I had from Mike was “Church is not meant to be a business, it is a family.” That resonated with me.

Let me wrap up my summation of the conference by sharing something that Phil Strout told us. He quoted

Jer 6:16

This is what the LORD says:

"Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.

The Vineyard, forty years after its beginnings is standing at the crossroads and we have a choice. Will we follow history and become a formalized organization like so many denominations have and focus on form, ritual and the glory of the past, or will we seek God and obey Him even if looks completely different from what He has done so far in our midst. In the words of John Wimber, “will we take the good and run with it and leave the rest behind?” If this conference is any suggestion, our answer is “Come Holy Spirit, and we will obey.”