Crisp, sunny and cold.
That was the weather report as I stepped out of the tube station onto the pavement.
I looked left and yes, it was still there.
Fixed to the side of Hounslow West Tube Station with blackened Victorian London brick.
Probably the dingiest cafe you could ever experience.
It's a place I have become acclimatized to over recent weeks.
The floor is a worn down linoleum sheet. Filthy, with holes ever widening. The walls are painted a dirty cream which I suspect were once brilliant white, probably darkened by a million fried English breakfasts. The tables and chairs are rickety and unstable adorned with plastic checked table cloths which at least can be wiped clean. This cafe sits right next door to Hounslow West tube station London.
And.
I love it.
Its got an atmosphere you just don't get in the posh coffee shop culture.
I got my coffee, black, straight and steaming hot in an off white mug with a picture of a mouse on it.
Nice.
It cost me £1.00.
Even nicer!
I was waiting for two guys who I have been working with on a project with the Salvation Army to investigate the possibility of planting a fresh SA in the area. These two guys are fantastic to work with. Both work for the Salvation Army but are not Salvationists. They both have fantastic gifts in looking at problems at working hard to solve them.
Chris walked into the cafe to meet me.
I could see his brain having a thought download. Probably with something like, "What on earth is he doing in here!"
We met Olly outside the Tube Station main doors.
Then we headed up to an area we have been looking at called the Beavers Farm estate.
Beavers is a vast 60s housing project built to relieve overcrowding in post war London.
It has it's problems.
I'm not actually going to plant this new venture if it goes ahead, I've just been invited on to the steering group to add some more experience to the already great team of people. My role in the investigation and research stage is to carry out spiritual reconnaissance in the area. In other words I spend time on the streets using my prophetic gifting to try to sense and see what God is sensing and seeing directly on the street. I look for signs of the enemies work such as witchcraft, drug abuse, sexual activity, things like that. Its easy for me to spot these things after years of prayer training and street prayer, and travelling teaching people how to do it. I love it, its a bit like being a crime scene investigator collecting evidence to convict a criminal. Exciting stuff. The purpose of this is to try to find out from God what he actually wants in an are. So many people plant stuff without spiritual reconnaissance and wonder why the venture does not flourish.
So what I do is do a series of street trawls then right a report with a prophets eye view of what God is saying so that others can test it and add it to the hard research that is also so essential.
So.
Yesterday.
With Chris and Olly we walked the streets of the Beavers in London and my job was to share what I feel God is saying. Olly works for research and Development at the SAs Headquarters and Chris is the Community Director of the Central South Division. We had a really fruitful time.
One of the many things God has showed me in my observations was that there were certain Spirits camped out in these streets. Things like isolation, resignation, bitterness, mistrust, anti authority, poverty, and quite a few others.
Yesterday as I walked and talked with Chris and Olly God was speaking to me directly about these spirits. I've already added to my prophetic report that God requires any attempt to plant a project in this area to be approached with the opposite to all these spirits, for instance, to come against the spirit of resignation we need to carry the spirit of hope, for isolation, friendship, etc etc.
Yesterday I really felt a jolt of God. I sensed just how important in our lives living out christian values that we take this opposite spirit stuff really seriously.
When people are gesticulating out of car windows at us because we have annoyed them with our driving, try saying bless you instead of retorting with our own gesticulations! Come on, you know what I mean! That kind of thing in every day life.
But.
More importantly.
Where there is no life bring life
Where there is no hope bring hope
Where this is poverty bring a giving spirit
Where there is hate bring love
Where there is bitterness bring sweetness
Where there is anger bring calmness
Where there is danger bring safety.
And.
I guarantee I could go on and on and on and on with this list.
Which!
Brings me to a little spiritual exercise for us today.
A little spiritual reconnaissance in the territory that makes up the inside of us.
Where could we make some adjustments in terms of coming in the opposite spirit?
The world desperately needs the Spirit of God which is opposed to all things evil;.
It has to be us with that opposing Spirit living within us, the Holy Spirit, that this wave of the opposite spirit starts with.
I am convinced this is world changing stuff.
Take a look look inside today.
That was the weather report as I stepped out of the tube station onto the pavement.
I looked left and yes, it was still there.
Fixed to the side of Hounslow West Tube Station with blackened Victorian London brick.
Probably the dingiest cafe you could ever experience.
It's a place I have become acclimatized to over recent weeks.
The floor is a worn down linoleum sheet. Filthy, with holes ever widening. The walls are painted a dirty cream which I suspect were once brilliant white, probably darkened by a million fried English breakfasts. The tables and chairs are rickety and unstable adorned with plastic checked table cloths which at least can be wiped clean. This cafe sits right next door to Hounslow West tube station London.
And.
I love it.
Its got an atmosphere you just don't get in the posh coffee shop culture.
I got my coffee, black, straight and steaming hot in an off white mug with a picture of a mouse on it.
Nice.
It cost me £1.00.
Even nicer!
I was waiting for two guys who I have been working with on a project with the Salvation Army to investigate the possibility of planting a fresh SA in the area. These two guys are fantastic to work with. Both work for the Salvation Army but are not Salvationists. They both have fantastic gifts in looking at problems at working hard to solve them.
Chris walked into the cafe to meet me.
I could see his brain having a thought download. Probably with something like, "What on earth is he doing in here!"
We met Olly outside the Tube Station main doors.
Then we headed up to an area we have been looking at called the Beavers Farm estate.
Beavers is a vast 60s housing project built to relieve overcrowding in post war London.
It has it's problems.
I'm not actually going to plant this new venture if it goes ahead, I've just been invited on to the steering group to add some more experience to the already great team of people. My role in the investigation and research stage is to carry out spiritual reconnaissance in the area. In other words I spend time on the streets using my prophetic gifting to try to sense and see what God is sensing and seeing directly on the street. I look for signs of the enemies work such as witchcraft, drug abuse, sexual activity, things like that. Its easy for me to spot these things after years of prayer training and street prayer, and travelling teaching people how to do it. I love it, its a bit like being a crime scene investigator collecting evidence to convict a criminal. Exciting stuff. The purpose of this is to try to find out from God what he actually wants in an are. So many people plant stuff without spiritual reconnaissance and wonder why the venture does not flourish.
So what I do is do a series of street trawls then right a report with a prophets eye view of what God is saying so that others can test it and add it to the hard research that is also so essential.
So.
Yesterday.
With Chris and Olly we walked the streets of the Beavers in London and my job was to share what I feel God is saying. Olly works for research and Development at the SAs Headquarters and Chris is the Community Director of the Central South Division. We had a really fruitful time.
One of the many things God has showed me in my observations was that there were certain Spirits camped out in these streets. Things like isolation, resignation, bitterness, mistrust, anti authority, poverty, and quite a few others.
Yesterday as I walked and talked with Chris and Olly God was speaking to me directly about these spirits. I've already added to my prophetic report that God requires any attempt to plant a project in this area to be approached with the opposite to all these spirits, for instance, to come against the spirit of resignation we need to carry the spirit of hope, for isolation, friendship, etc etc.
Yesterday I really felt a jolt of God. I sensed just how important in our lives living out christian values that we take this opposite spirit stuff really seriously.
When people are gesticulating out of car windows at us because we have annoyed them with our driving, try saying bless you instead of retorting with our own gesticulations! Come on, you know what I mean! That kind of thing in every day life.
But.
More importantly.
Where there is no life bring life
Where there is no hope bring hope
Where this is poverty bring a giving spirit
Where there is hate bring love
Where there is bitterness bring sweetness
Where there is anger bring calmness
Where there is danger bring safety.
And.
I guarantee I could go on and on and on and on with this list.
Which!
Brings me to a little spiritual exercise for us today.
A little spiritual reconnaissance in the territory that makes up the inside of us.
Where could we make some adjustments in terms of coming in the opposite spirit?
The world desperately needs the Spirit of God which is opposed to all things evil;.
It has to be us with that opposing Spirit living within us, the Holy Spirit, that this wave of the opposite spirit starts with.
I am convinced this is world changing stuff.
Take a look look inside today.
