Sundown

How I miss Liverpool, how I miss the city life.

I am a city boy through and through.

I love the fast pace.

I love the sound of the sirens, the traffic, the beautiful notes produced by commerce and trade, the constant interruptions caused by business ringtones on the latest smart phones.

I love all major Cities.

I operate better in them.

But most of all?

I do miss the city that’s in my heart.

Liverpool.

There is a saying that says you can take the boy out of Liverpool, but you can’t take Liverpool out of the boy.

And I know just how true that is.

But for now?

I don’t live there.

I remember the first time I returned home to Liverpool within a week of moving to my appointment in the north East.

I was so homesick, I had to just get in the car and drive back to the city.

That was nearly four years ago.

I remember the drive well.

It was a gorgeous summer evening. The sun had been staring down on earth from its constantly changing position in a cloudless almost aqua-marine blue sky.
As I drove smoothly on an almost traffic less M6 motorway, I approached the City of my childhood, the city of my youth, the city that was my home for the largest part of my life so far.

As I approached the end of the motorway the sun began to set.

It seemed to increase in size as it descended toward the precision straight line of the horizon.

Its colour also seemed to become deep red, a deep red that was so deep it soothed your eyes with its beauty.
And it was then that I heard God’s voice.

I heard him speak into my mind, but more importantly I heard his voice deep in my heart.

His words were like golden oil.

“You need to let the sun go down on Liverpool.” I have work for you to do elsewhere. One day you will return when the time is right.”

This week I’ve been speaking in various places in the UK. God has been moving.

I noticed that I prayed with a number of people who were in the situation I am describing. Do I stay or do I go? This seemed to be a common thread in what people were asking for prayer for.

Not just for geographical moves, but people wanting to move on from situations that they had hung around, or let hang around them, for maybe too long.

Do I stay or do I go?

It’s a hard question. I obviously can't answer that.

God has the answers to that.

But I do know this, that sometimes there is a time that comes where we have to draw the line on something.

Of course the closer to our heart that the situation is that we face, the more difficult to actually let it go.

But you know, I feel spiritually compelled to write this tonight, so I guess someone reading this tonight will know God is speaking to you.

Here is a scripture to help you clarify some things maybe?

“No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” Luke 9: 62

God has so much for us in the future.

There is so much to do.

And no matter how hard it is we need to stop ourselves from looking back. I was getting tied up in knots when I kept looking back to the place I love the most on the planet.

I had to let go.

I had to let the sun go down on it.

I had to close that chapter.

And open a new one.

While I wasn’t letting the sun go down, I was not fit for work. Well I did it, but I wasn’t as sharp as God needed me to be.

Here is what the Spirit of God says tonight.

Be full of courage and draw the line. Put your hand to the plough, move into the future boldly and confidently. Even if you don’t know what’s waiting there, in the future, I’m there so come, claim what I have for you.

Do not look back.

Let the sun go down on what you know needs to be finished.