No escape

Regenerated buildings tend to inspire me.

The Baltic Centre on the Gateshead side of the Tyne is one of those buildings.

This morning I was in there.

On level 3 there is an amazing exhibition.

The work is by Janet Cardiff, a Canadian artist who has reworked the renaissance Choral work for forty voices Spem in Alium Nunquam habui written in 1573 by Thomas Tallis.

The exhibit consists of forty seperately recorded voices played back through forty individual speakers.

So basically you sit in the centre of a circle of forty audio speakers and listen to the forty voice motet.

I kind of got lost in the beauty of the thing.

As I sat amongst the specifically arranged expensive speakers neatly lofted on silver stands, I quickly had an experience of unforgettable quality.

Whichever way you turned or listened or looked, you were surrounded by beautiful sounds. You couldn't get away from it.

At all.

No escape from the beauty.

Two things happened.

First a scripture pierced my internal vision.

Psalm 139:

You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you. If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty! They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies. Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:1-24 NIV)

And in that moment as these words spilled lavishly into my hearts space, the second thing happened.

My mind projected the beautiful images from a day on my holiday recently.

I had taken my 3 year old granddaughter for a paddle in the sea.

She was so excited.

I stood on the edge of the sea and watched as she ran straight into the freezing foamy sea and back out again.

And then again.

And again.

For about an hour!

As I watched her splashing and giggling, watching her fascination with the small waves that occasionally knocked her over, I suddenly for no reason became quite overcome with emotion.

I was guarding her with my life.

Whenever the gentle waves knocked her over I was ready to run into the sea and pick her up again.

I marvelled at her innocent fascination and her thirst for fun. I laughed at her fearlessness and determination to stay in as long as she possibly could.

I was watching over her.

I loved it when she would glance back to make sure I was around.

My heart melted when she wanted to show me what she could do, like jump over a little wave or splash the seawater everywhere.

I felt strong love.

My granddaughter can never escape my love.

I think I realised there and then what the reason for the sudden emotion was.

I knew in an instant that this is what God does with me.

With us.

He watches over us.

This is what God feels for us.

And according to his word?

We cannot escape his presence.

We can never escape.

Whatever we do, wherever we are we cannot get away from him because he is always watching.

I guess the problem is we don't always glance back to make sure he is still there.

But he is.

As I sat in the centre of forty recorded voices, there was beautiful sound whichever way I turned.

I think the same can be said when we sit in the centre of Gods presence.

I felt an overwhelming urge to write this today, so I guess maybe someone simply needs reminding that God is watching over us.

He is there.

As I watched my gorgeous little princess of a granddaughter from the edge of the sea, I was totally reassured of that fact.

So whatever is going down for you today.

You cannot escape from his presence.

If you glance back at him, you may get lost in his beauty.

The prayer generation

Last night I was leading the Thursday night devotional meeting at the Northern Summer school in the Salvation Army.

It felt like an honour.

Seeing the passion of the young, being amongst it, is always pretty much awe inspiring.

Seeing these guys and girls respond last night, was humbling to say the least.

And how times are changing.

I cast my mind back to when I was at summer camp all those years ago now, how if the floor was thrown open for testimonies, there would be a dead silence, a pure tumbleweed moment. Then probably someone in the staff would desperately give the most spiritual student, who was probably seen as a bit of a geek, a prompting eye gesture to get up and speak, and the poor geeky Christian would have to put his rep on the line once again! And the rest of us would say "O he or she is up again!"

But last night?

Now, in 2012?

The testimony time was just filled with the testimony after testimony of the young. Raw, honest, funny, and deeply moving.

Every single one of them spoke about the importance of prayer.

This generation is embracing the vital essence and the none negotiability of prayer.

Yeah, times are changing alright.

The prayer generation is rising.

I spoke to this generation last night about taking the bended knee to the street, about the vital intertwining between prayer and mission, and these guys get it.

The passion of the young

An amazing thing.

I was so encouraged.

Which was much needed.

Because earlier in the day, at Sanctuary21 I was tending to another young person.

Phil.

He had taken an E on top of a shed load of alcohol.

He lay on our couch in tears, speech incredibly slurred, clothes rotten from a night sleeping behind Argos in Durham. He kept saying over and over again "there is no hope for me, there is no hope for me."

We sat with him as his eyes rolled and he just faded into a deep comatic sleep.

The police came in and were telling me that phil had been to court just the day before, which I knew about, but they said he is being sent to another city to a rehab centre and it is his last chance really. He constantly steals, he abuses drugs and alcohol, he begs on the street, he sleeps rough.

I spent the day just whacking God with prayers for phil.

I felt a hopelessness that I quite often feel in the everyday struggle for lives in our mission.

By hopelessness I mean a human hopelessness, a form of frustration really. Frustration that guys like Phil who I work to rescue everyday seem to be so heading for oblivion.

When Phil roused slightly on a couch in our HOP, I prayed directly with him, with a proper laying on of hands and a proper desperation from my heart.

Tears of hopelessness ran straight down his massive cheeks leaving tracks in his dirty face.

So last night I had come straight from that to standing in front of loads of young people. Some the same age as Phil, yet clean, bright and ready. and I saw in this generation that hope is alive. I pray that the generations coming through now would minister to the Phil's of this world. That they would take prayer beyond the bricks and mortar of the church. I believe times are changing, I believe that more and more people are becoming intolerant of bland religion and joining the movement of Jesus Christ through his Spirit in our communities. I see it in the actions of those passionate young people last night who don't bat an eyelid at responding to what God is doing.

I was so encouraged that people are seeing that prayer is a none negotiable.

And in that vein, I don't do this often on my blog, but I ask if there is anyone out there that would join me in praying for Phil right now. The truth is he could die. I have my doubts about the rehab. I know in his heart he is giving up on life. He is a young man of 25. My team pray for hundreds of Phil's but I feel God asking me to ask for some help on this one. So if you have a spare moment please pray for him. He is an alcoholic, a drug addict, and he is heading for oblivion.

Humanly hopeless.

But spiritually full of hope in Jesus

Thank you

Gaz

Green Light 2 (Pray like never before)

So here I am smack bang in the presence of God.

Right here.

Right now.

Even the air in prayer room 1 here in Sanctuary 21 is thick with the electric atmosphere that only the presence of The Spirit of God can bring to this world.

It's like you can taste Holiness you know?

Every breath I breathe in here saturates my inner being with focus and peace.

Like a Holy oxygenation.

And it takes me a while to start to pray.

Because unashamedly I just want to draw the electric air into my body.

In the background I have 10000 reasons (Matt Redman) blaring out of my smartphone at full volume.

I hear one line of the first track.

"Sing like never before."

And I feel a challenge direct from the depths of God's heart.

In fact it's his voice I hear in the air.

The voice says.

"Pray like never before."

Lately I've literally prayed like I never have before.

As I said in my last Green light Blogpost, I've pushed into prayer even when praying was the last thing I felt like doing.

And I've seen it's power.

And boy have I felt, seen and experienced its power.

So right here, right now, my hand has been Spiritually set to work on adding to my last blog post. Even though my human side feels like I'm repeating myself, feels like I am going over old ground. Nevertheless God wants to say this to whosoever today.

So fasten your seat-belts!

To the whosoever.

Pray like never before.

I think of General Linda Bonds call to the Salvation Army to pray. And it's been great to see people taking up the call.

I believe though the call to prayer is more than a call.

I think it is a direct order from God himself.

To pray like never before.

Have you taken up the call?

Can we honestly say that we are praying like never before?

The thing is if we pray like never before we will see the miraculous power of God sweeping the nations like never before.

Is there anyone out there sick and tired of the mundanities of Church? Of the relentless blandness that stone dead religion brings?

Is there anyone whose christian walk seems to have a missing link?

Is there anyone who is on the verge of giving up? Because your prayers, your service, your commitment seems to amount to almost nothing?

The Spirit of God says to you, "what's the missing link?"

"The missing link is praying like never before."

The times we exist in now needs a church that prays like never before.

That takes creativity. It takes a commitment like you've never had before. It probably means a break with traditions, you know, the bad side of tradition, the side that holds on to things long past their sell by date. It means a loosing of human inhibition regarding prayer. It means pushing into God with strength and courage. It means taking our frustrations, our desperation, our deepest desires, our visions, our joys and our needs to God instead of taking them to the world. it means sometimes laying aside things we think we ought to be getting on with and praying instead.

It means taking everything to God.

Everything.

Pray like never before.

Make it a mission.

Make it a priority.

Make it a necessity not an experiment.

No matter what.

No matter what it takes.

Pray like never before.

So who will take up the call?

Who will take up the command?

Will it be us?

Green light

One step beyond.

That's what I awoke to on the radio alarm this morning.

Madness.

Not literally.

But madness the 80s group.

A bit of a mad song, a song with no words.

Except!

One step beyond.

Lately I've been praying like crazy.

God has laid a massive vision on my heart and Dawn's heart. A vision to create a string of prayer communities or houses of prayer and justice, in cities throughout the world.

I hate having that responsibility sometimes. I have to admit that over the last eleven years I've lost the will to live with the vision at times as we have met brick wall after brick wall.

But!

We've stuck with it.

No matter what.

We have one so far!

Sanctuary 21 is such a move of God.

Thankfully!

So here we are finding we are in a place where we strongly feel we are at a crossroads with the vision.

And just when you think it's all but over and you need to let go of the vision and move on to something else that God may have for you, doors for the vision to move forward start to open.

So as I said, lately I've been praying like crazy.

Much more than I've ever done in my life. I've prayed even when I haven't felt like it. I've prayed even when my faith levels have been low. I've prayed when I feel on fire with God, I've prayed relentlessly.

But I've felt for the last couple of months that I need to focus my prayer towards the vision.

As I believe it is a crucial time on the visions journey.

In fact I humanly feel I owe God at least a last push forward of this dream we have had in our hearts that has shaped our ministry to date.

I know there have been people who have doubted this vision. There have been people who have even tried to knock us off course, (and frankly almost succeeded!) there have been unbelievable highs and desperate lows on this journey.

But we are still hanging on.

It feels a bit like an eleventh hour.

So I was thinking. How do I give it a last push.

I felt deep in my Spirit that I need to hammer the now with specific prayer.

So what I did was I knocked myself up a 'prayer for the vision' template.

In other words an extensive and deeply thought out list of prayer points specifically aimed at pushing this vision through.

Basically for this vision to fly in the Salvation Army, it needs to be caught, blessed and endorsed by key decision makers in the leadership.

So this template I have used to pray every working day for at least a couple of hours.

I've spent hours praying, sometimes having amazing spiritual moments, other times feeling like I'm talking to fresh air.

But I've felt the need to hang in.

To pray against the odds.

To pray no matter what.

I've had to be relentless in doing it. I've had to move appointments out of the way to do it. I've had to sometimes turn down things I love to do.

But I've prayed hard and fast.

Suddenly.

Things have started to shift.

Surprise surprise.

Without going into detail because there is still a long journey ahead, doors have swung open, others have started to catch the Sanctuary 21 vision, key people in the Salvation Army and a process is maybe in sight to get the green light to see our vision develop.

So what am I saying in this blogpost?

This is a fact.

Prayer is vital.

Whatever dreams we have. Whatever vision we hold.

Prayer is the key to see our visions become reality.

Yeah I've done loads of legwork, building networks, relationships, forming approaches to building a praying community at S21 as well as opening our arms to the needy. We've been hospitable to everyone, respectful to other Christian groups, I've overseen building work to the prayer house.

I've done all that.

And that work is vital.

But do you know what?

You know by now what I'm going to say.

Don't you?

All that work, without prayer is meaningless and futile.

Prayer and mission go hand in hand.

Prayer is mission in fact!

It's not just fuel for mission.

It has to be intertwined with everything we do.

Everything!

And as much as I would encourage little prayer groups etc, listen it can't be left up to them either!

We all have to do it.

Even in the dry times.

Even when it seems like too much.

Nothing, and I repeat nothing is as important to the success of the kingdom than prayer.

So why don't we seem to make time.

For prayer?

We seem to able to fit all kinds of other things into our schedules both personally and corporately.

Yeah I know it's hard.

I can vouch for that.

But prayer is a vital work.

And hard work pays off guys.

Prayer should be the first thing any Christian, any church, any Christian community puts into their existence.

Because?

If we aren't talking and listening to God then how are we joining him in his mission to save this world?

How?

Wow.

I'm preaching it today!

So I'll shut up now!

Promise.

But just before I do shut up (for now) I wanted to say this.

If you are struggling with your onward Christian journey. Either with your own walk with God or with a feeling that your dreams and visions aren't really being realized.

Then now is the time to get on your knees.

Now is the time to make yourself do it.

Now is the time get yourself a template.

Write down a prayer template designed to frame up your prayers.

Hit the prayer button in your life.

It's called clinging to God.

I make a bold statement here shaped out of my own experience. I declare that you will open up the pathway God has set for you.

Why?

Because when we pray, we connect with Gods heartbeat.

We become infused with his heartbeat of mission.

We Claim the effectiveness that is borne out of his victory through Jesus on the cross.

So back to madness.

I think prayer puts us in a position that's ahead of anything we dare imagine.

One step beyond!

In prayer we begin to glimpse the green light for go.

Wow.

Blessings today you amazing people.