Sky gazing

1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach 2 until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. 3 After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with[a] water, but in a few days you will be baptized with[b] the Holy Spirit.”

6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” ACTS 1:1-11

Reading this I was transported back in my memory to when I was about nine years old. I pictured myself at Liverpool Airport standing with my parents and other family members on the old viewing platform watching the planes take off. The reason we were there was to say goodbye to my brother Clive who was flying to South Africa where he was going to work for about a year.

I kind of idolised my brother back then and I was devastated at the fact I wouldn't see him for what I thought, being a kid, was forever.

I was truly poleaxed by it.

I was inconsolable.

I remember my old Nan, who was at the airport that day, in her loving but aggressive way that she used to say things, telling me to pull myself together, and stop staring at the sky. She informatively reminded me that the plane wouldn't be coming back, but it would one day.

"You just need to get on with it" she instructed me.

The memory brought a massive smile to my face.

I felt for the disciples who were watching a guy they loved with everything they had, and had worked with, and lived with, ascending into the sky, when two men dressed in white gave them the very same advice my old Nan gave me. "Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

And

Fast forward to right now, in the middle of the Coronavirus Crisis.

I began to hear God's loving voice.

Gently speaking things into my heart like, "Now you are locked down, dont stand looking at the sky waiting for normal life to return.

There is work to do!

And

I have been working!

Yeah, Dawn and I have been delivering food, doing shopping for people, distributing bread, checking people are OK and all that stuff, which to be honest has been one of the greatest privileges of my life, but I've also been working on me!

I've been walking at least three miles a day, eating better, relaxing more, reading even more than usual, praying relentlessly.

It has been brilliant.

I am trying to prepare myself Physically, mentally and Spiritually to move to Manchester where I feel God has something massive for Dawn and I to do.

And.

I will come out of this lockdown different than when I went in to it.

Yeah

I haven't just stood still and looked the at the sky.

So

Why am I telling you guys this stuff?

Well

I felt the Spirit of God ask me to share this as to speak into someones life today.

Maybe you have been staring at the sky, so to speak, wishing this whole virus thing would just disappear forever?

Listen to Gary now!!

God says, there is so much work to do both now and in the coming days as we slowly head back towards civilisation!

But

There is a chance for us to work now to become better people, to know God better, to seek his will for our lives going forward.

It would be sad if we came out of this crisis unchanged.

We can't be the same.

Hey

The spirit of God says, "Don't miss this chance, don't stand still. I love you and wanna use you!

So be blessed

Stay safe

Discover all that God would have for you!

Rise Changed

Crisis, National emergency, Global pandemic.

Whatever you want to call it, it's real.

Hey

It is so sad people are dying .

Families are blitzed and hurting. People are seriously ill and many are fighting for their very lives.

Many of us are marooned in our houses, only going out for necessary reasons.

Yet 

Directly in the middle of all of this devastation is God. 

And

In all of the uncertainty of the present, he is the one true constant.

The one true hope.

And

He is still transforming lives, still at work, still on a mission to save this planet.

This week we had a burglary at the Salvation Army hall where my wife Dawn is the minister. There was smashed doors, a broken safe, a right royal mess. We had police and crime scene investigators, and around £300 stolen. I watched the CCTV with a policeman and we saw at ten to three in the morning, a lone shadowy figure, hooded up, scale around the back of the building and dissapear, only to reappear around twenty minutes later and fade into the night.

It didn't feel like God was around at all.

But

As people in the community got to hear about it through the local news, we have had kind people donating five times what had been stolen.

God is astonishing 

And 

He is constantly at work .

And because of that.

We can never stay the same .

And hey

In the centre of the Coronavirus crisis, God is really at work .

I was reading Joel 2 the other day as I've been intensely praying at this time. I've been reading about swarming locusts devouring everything in their way. Hey, it is hard not to compare coronavirus with these locusts.

But

God instructs his people to "rend your hearts", and to turn to him with all our hearts. 

Then

A beautiful promise  

"I will restore to you years that the swarming locust has eaten."

Wow

In the very moment I read these words. The Lord gave me a word for the Salvation Army.

It was this

You cannot come back the same as you were. My mandate is spiritual. My story has you in it. But my mission is to the broken, the powerless, the hopeless and the lost. It's time to step beyond the citadel, beyond the stuff of doing, beyond what we have always thought was the right thing. For too long we were heading inwards, so far inward in fact, oblivion was barely a heart beat away. But I am working to transform people. I am working to host the whosoever in Heaven. In the midst of this global crisis, there is a magnificent opportunity for change. An opportunity you may not see again for a long time. And the change starts in you. My child let me in. Let me give you a heart of flesh. Let me transform you whole. Let me touch you, light the touch paper again. Rise from this crisis reshaped, reformed and restored. I love you .

And

God can do tremendous things.

He will restore the years the locusts have eaten.

Five times the money we had stolen was immediately a reality at Winsford this week.

So

Rise up faithful Army.

But rise differently.

Rise changed.