Act

I turned the page.

Psalm 107.

A completely beautiful piece of the reality of God’s massive love for us.

I needed it, you know, to be reminded.

To be reminded of the fact whatever type of distress, however dark the situation, however much we can’t see the way ahead, when we cry out to him he listens.

And.

Acts.

This Psalm written to celebrate the Jews return from exile in Babylon speaks about some of the different types of darkness they will have encountered in Babylon. Deepest gloom, iron chains, peril on the seas, affliction, loneliness, hopelessness amongst others.

But.

Hope that reaches epic proportions flows from these words.

The Psalm gives us the message that however extreme our calamity may seem, God is able to break through to help us.

Verse 6 & 7 kind of sum this up.

“Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle.”

So.

Hey.

If you feel in distress today.

If you feel pretty hopeless or like nothing is going right for you.

If you feel unsettled or restless.

If you feel discouraged or even disillusioned.

If you feel trapped or claustrophobic.

If you feel like you are kind of losing the plot completely.

Don’t think about it, just cry out for God and then let him shower you with hope.

However extreme your thing is?

Let God help.

Smooth

Snow fell onto the pavements and roads.

The view through my window at home in West London was soothing and reassuring. The city seemed to be that little bit more silent even though it was as busy as ever on the main road where I lived.

I was thinking.

Thinking very hard.

So the smoothness of the wintry evening outside helped to keep my mind clear.

And.

I needed it.

Yeah.

I needed a clear mind.

I had a major decision to make. I had been a Salvation Army minister for close on fifteen years including my stint at College in London.

The feeling I had was that it was time to move out and move on was so overwhelming that I was having trouble trusting my feelings. I was wondering in my heart where the Salvation Army in the UK was heading. My overriding sense was that it was heading into a place called nowhere really. But that was probably just me and the circumstances that I found myself in at that time. However, the reality was I didn’t do well with insane decisions leadership made time after time. I didn’t do well with the archaic regulations that only serve to stifle not affirm. I didn’t do well with theologians who if they are good sound like they have the key to eternal life themselves. In short I didn’t fit very well as a SA minister.

I love simplicity not complexity.

While I was deep in thought, being tossed about the shall I leave or shall I stay question that I was asking God to help me with a flashback came from nowhere.

A flashback that had the clarity of a UHD Movie.

I remembered the night I had to make another big decision! I was on a freezing street in Liverpool City centre when I came across a homeless guy in a doorway. His head was blue with cold and he only had a thin jumper on. Something told me this guy was in trouble and that he could actually die with those type of temperatures. Earlier that day I had bought myself a really nice coat that had cost a lot of money. I had it on that night. I felt an argument start in my head. Shall I give him my new coat or should I keep it and walk on. I had no choice! I gave him my new coat.  I gave him my coat and took him to McDonalds for a coffee and some food.

Maybe a simple act of kindness would save a life?

As I remembered this.

I knew I had to step away from the complexity of organised religion. I knew a simple faith, a simple mission, a simple love was God requires of me.

I know there are many ministers who operate in the organised religion of the denominations are brilliant at doing so and could easily argue that they live and operate a simple faith, and please this is only my experience that I am sharing, but I wasn’t really cut out for that stuff.

So since I have stepped out in faith, out of the security of the Salvation Army with its comforts and safety, I have found some perspective, I have found some peace, I have found my relationship with God has developed in a completely new way, more like a friendship than a theology.

And.

I think I needed that.

I think soon I can return to the church a different person, stronger, more resilient and more effective.

The simplicity of a relationship with Jesus is massive. Religion complicated it way too much for me to handle. It seems to me when I grasped the real essence of a relationship with God, breathed it in, allowed it to change me, my task to help people to know Jesus has become easier and way more understandable to a world who need to know. 

Hey.

So.

If my advice counts for anything with you? I would ask yourself, “How complicated is my relationship with God?

If it is pretty complex.

Have a clean out.

Get rid of the clutter and enjoy the friendship of Jesus.

Hey thanks for reading.

Standing

My blog has gone on the back burner for the last ten months.

A lot has happened in terms of realigning and readjusting where I am regards my calling and my ministry.

I have had to do a severe reality check following my years as a Salvation Army Officer. I had to step out of that bubble and shake off the fallout from some pretty shoddy treatment over the years I spent there. Yet I wouldn’t want to say it was all bad because it wasn’t, and I believe God used Dawn and I to help many people in my fourteen years as an officer.

The outcome of my soul searching?

I will always be a minister.

In whatever capacity.

I have the credentials.

That’s the thing I can’t get away from.

God won’t let me, no matter how far I have tried to run from it.

All this inner examination has culminated in me leaving my job at the funeral directors which was a temporary measure, and going freelance as a speaker and a writer while conducting funerals as a freelance minister.

God is doing massive things in my life.

I am so grateful to Andrew Homes and Son in London for giving me a job which paid very well and gave me chance to see the world in a new light.

How I needed that.

To step into the pain of people who have lost loved ones, to see horrific death of people taken too young, to be able to help people to function in their time of deep need.

It helped me to see that the pain of the world really needs Jesus.

So I stepped out and said “here I am God use me.”

It is so amazing how when you step out of the security of a job and decent pay to follow what God really wants for your life how he provides. Straight away I have had bookings every week to speak or to do funerals. And the funerals have been massive opportunities to minister to extremely needy people. I have embarked on my calling to write a book which is filling the gaps between speaking engagements.

My one to one prayer ministry and counsel has led me into the lives of some very troubled people who I can speak into their respective situations and bring some comfort and help to them.

During the last two years I have fought hard.

I have fought depression, I have fought to make a living, I have fought some very strong attacks from the forces of evil.

And.

Here I stand.

Ready to do.

Ready to fight on.

Ready to do what I can to help people.

Ready to help others discover their true identity.

Ready for anything

From time to time I feel prompted to republish a past post.

As it happens I was undoubtedly prompted tonight.

I felt it was actually imperative and urgent.

I have no clue why.

So the following rehashed post from early 2011, I guess becomes a kind of prophetic call tonight.

So here goes.

A mix of sun and torrential rain invaded my walk on the streets around my Neighbourhood this morning. The rain though, felt strangely nice as it bounced on my face relentlessly.

Most days I take a walk around the streets.

As I walked today I really noticed the shabbiness that adorns some of the streets of this former mining community, a community that has seen more prosperous days when the local coal mine was up and running.

I saw weeds, lots of weeds, growing out of walls and pavements. I saw litter, lots of it strewn around the streets. I saw the barrenness left by a recent demolition project right in the centre of the place. A few odd walls were still standing looking out of place and almost lonely. I walked amongst the sparse scattering of shops on the main street and watched as people went about their daily routines. The rain clouds above were almost black and this cast a bleak glaze over the whole of the place.

On one of the odd walls sat a teenage girl, she couldn't have been more than 16 years old and she was pregnant and already had one other child with her. I saw a guy struggling up the hill towards the doctors surgery with two walking sticks to help him he looked extremely pale and withdrawn.

As I walked down one of the streets a couple of guys now in their twenties, who I have talked to on these streets before shouted, "alright Gaz," then proceeded to take the michael out of me by mimicking a priest walking with his hands together.

I laughed to myself!

But didn't laugh for long.

As I walked in and out of the streets today I felt like crying.

I didn't know why.

I began to pray over the houses, the businesses, a couple of Church buildings, the community centre, the streets.

I prayed the Aaronic blessing, The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace.

I prayed it over houses with barbed wire over their fences, I prayed it over overgrown gardens and back alleys. I prayed it down streets lined with houses.

I began to imagine the different needs that probably lay behind those doors.

You don't really need to waste time doing fancy questionnaires to find out what the needs are in your community.

Your eyes will show you.

Your heart will show you.

The Spirit of God will show you.

I began to weep. Not much, but enough to ask God what is going on here Lord?

I heard six words drop into my thoughts.

"You are humbled by the need."

Humbled by the need?

I understood that sentence straight away.

Yeah.

Humbled by the need.

Being effective out on the mission field requires it.

Becoming humbled by the need.

Not in some attempt to become humble or practice getting good at doing humbleness, or carry out a way of being humble that I've read in some book somewhere.

But by becoming humbled by seeing and sensing the things that God is so humbled by.

I guess God is longing for the Church to rediscover humility.

What it means to be humble.

If we aren't humbled by the need in our communities, in our cities, our families, our circles of friends, our workplaces, our streets, then how can we reach out to the need?

My mind hit on a scene from the bible.

Just before Jesus made an amazing miracle happen that saw a crowd of around 5000 hungry, needy, people fed from a few loaves of bread and a few fish, the scriptures give us a glimpse of the motivating factor behind this miracle.

Matthew 14:14 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

As soon as Jesus saw the need. He was humbled by it.

It fired up a compassion in him that led him to do something about the needs these people had.

He was humbled by the need.

He didn't need to try to be humble.

He just was.

For me it makes so much sense. We can go out into the world to make a difference. We can create mission plans, We can do need surveys, we can do the intentional thing.

But are we humbled by the need?

Do we feel it deep inside?

Do we have a compassion that comes from the heart of Christ himself.

A compassion that spurs us into action. That catapults us into feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, slaking the thirst of the thirsty?

God is relentlessly calling his church to be humbled by the need.

I think all great revivals were birthed in prayer that's for sure. But before the prayers, those prayers came from people who were humbled by the need that surrounded them. By the needs of a nation. It was always the motivating factor.

People moved with compassion.

Is God calling the church to be like a Jeremiah who would weep over a nation?

I think so.

The time is now.

To get into the heartlands of our communities, our circles, our mission fields, and look around. To allow God to show us the need. To allow the compassion of Jesus to touch the nations through us.

To be humbled by the need.

Prayer and life Seminar 2017

Hi

A request.

I have been working on an idea for a new seminar centred around prayer and life. Very much looking at individual prayer life and how it interacts with every day living.

It will involve teaching and the opportunity to share stories and discussion. It will last around two hours.

I am going to take it out and about early 2017.

If anyone is interested in booking me to come to your Church, cell group, event or any other type of gathering, and to find out cost, then please contact me on wglacey@outlook.com or text your interest on 07462544414.

Thanks for continuing to support my blog.

Blessings

Gary

Omnipotence

Its Saturday morning 9am.

I am sitting in Church.

The soft lighting and the quiet grab hold of me.

My cell phone notification sound breaks the quiet.

It's my daily scripture from life Church Bible app.

It's significant.

My journey into the world as I have taken a break from all church involvement has taught me so much. I've learned about my inner strength and my potential to seriously up my relationship with God has been unleashed.

But this morning I was reminded that Church is important but definitely not everything.  And I totally understand the scripture that flashed on my QHD screen this morning.

Here it is.

Jeremiah 23:24

New International Version

Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?” declares the Lord. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the Lord.

I began to wonder.

I mean wonder as in feel the awesomeness.

God doesn't just sit in the shadows of the church.

He is everywhere.

Omnipotent.

And.

I've totally experienced that lately.

I have felt the power of God in magnificent measure.

The Lord has spoken to me today.

Urging me never to hide in the shadows in the Church. He urged me that getting amongst the mess of the world is vital.

I'm getting closer to being able to return to be a part of a church community once again.  Maybe even pastor one once again.

But I feel the Lord has equipped me more than any other time as a Christian.

And.

To stand safe in his omnipotence.

Re-run

This is a re-run of a blogpost from back in 2011. 

I felt an urge to republish it tonight. 

So for whatever reason the prompt has come.

May it bless you massively. 

Here goes.

Tonight I am Just chilling.

My earphones are firmly in my ear canals.

From the depths of my Smartphone streams a song. Leona Lewis singing "The first time ever I saw your face." It sounds like pure golden liquid pouring into my ears.

As the song played its spine tingling notes, I began to reflect on the first time I ever saw the face of Jesus.

It was in Victoria train Station in London back in 1999.

And on reflection tonight, it was the very moment that changed my life forever.

No flashes of lightning, or claps of thunder.

I saw a homeless girl sitting down propped up against a wall.

She was so young.

She was tired, dirty and obviously hungry.

I don't know what made me stop.

As from a distance I looked at her, I saw another girl, also so young, but much healthier, clean and well dressed, walk over to her and simply kneel down beside her.

She placed her hand on the girls shoulder and whispered something into her ear. She was seemingly to oblivious to the thousands of people coming and going to their respective destinations. More than that the thousands walking past seemed oblivious to the homeless girl lying on the floor.

As she placed her hand on her shoulder, she closed her eyes and began to pray for the homeless girl.

As she prayed, I saw tears start to stream down the homeless girls face. They left tear-trails in the dirt on her face.

I watched.

Transfixed.

I had never ever encountered Jesus in my life before, due to my indifference.

But here in the face of this young homeless girl, I saw him.

I saw Jesus.

I encountered him in her hot tears.

I saw him in her pain filled face.

I was so touched.

This was a simple act of kindness in a frantically busy London train station. But I knew that in that one moment something big happened in my life.

I think that was the first time ever I saw His face.

It was so amazing.

It changed my life forever.

All the rubbish that was attached to my life, stuff that I had been dragging around with me for years seemed to loosen. I had a feeling inside that this was a real chance to draw a line on the past and begin a new life.

In that moment I couldn't get away from the feeling that the only way to experience a new, full, amazing life, the only way, was to be in relationship with Jesus.

I was also dumbfounded by the girl who had taken the time to care for this young girl.

How brave she was.

How beautiful.

How breathtaking was the unconditional love she was showing.

I was in a daze, I just felt like abandoning my life altogether and spending the rest of my life wiping the tears of the lost and the lonely.

My life up until that moment meant nothing. All the partying and overspending just suddenly came out into the open and I saw it clearly as a worthless pile of hopelessness.

I wanted desperately that my life should mean something.

And the first time ever I saw His face? It all changed.

Changed in an instant.

I remember saying over and over, "Will you fix my broken life?"

And all these years on? He has.

So do you remember the first time ever you saw His face?

Hey, maybe you have never seen His face?

Look around you.

He is absolutely everywhere.

In the eyes of brokenness.

I urge you to look for His face.

Maybe you haven't seen Him for a while?

As I say, maybe you have never seen him.

The other day I gave a pair of my jeans to a guy who has nothing. He had soiled his one pair of jeans in a drunken stupor. As I handed them over to him, his face just lit up. 

His face looked almost angelic.

Definitely, I was giving the jeans to Jesus.

It felt like an act of communion somehow.

More and more amidst the often lifeless religion and church, and all that stuff, I see Jesus crying out for water, food and even a pair of jeans.

So if you have never seen His face?

There is always a first time.

Mr Likeable

I was desperate to be liked.

Growing up.

That was it.

The unknown goal.

The unseen dream.

It drove me on.

To do?

Many outstandingly stupid things.

What was behind it?

Well that took a year of prayer and psychological counselling to begin to understand and unravel.

That’s a story for another day.

Being desperate to be liked is only part of a much wider desperation.

That being.

To be accepted.

I somehow from birth felt an outsider, in church, in school, in work, in my family everywhere.

Yes, the root of that has been uncovered.

Thankfully.

Again that is a story for another day.

Being desperate to be liked is has its side effects.

One massive one being blaming everyone else for making you feel like an outsider and completely shirking any responsibility for oneself, one’s actions, one’s reactions, one’s lifestyle.

Being desperate to be liked makes you do stuff, like buy stuff you can’t afford, be someone you are not meant to be, be untruthful to get where you think you should be, make relationship choices that are not right for you. Be led by other people even though you don’t like what they are doing.

All this can lead to debt, false self, disastrous relationships, unsettling work relationships and ultimately gross unhappiness.

Yet.

In my case?

The world thought I was Mr likeable.

The world thought he has got it sorted.

I’ve come to realise I was an expert in creating and wearing various disguises.

I could invent and be whoever I needed to be for any given situation.

In that life of ultra-falseness?

I lost me.

The genuine me.

The person I am destined to be.

But.

Wait.

This isn’t a sad eulogy to my former life.

No.

I have to tell you the truth.

The truth is.

You can change.

Especially with Jesus help.

I know there will be people reading this blog who are thinking deep down oh my! That sounds like me!

I know that because I have sat in the course of my ministry with hundreds of people who have been devastated by their false self. And indeed are continuing to be devastated right now.

But.

You can purge that false self out of your life and rediscover who you are.

The simple key to do this for me was this.

To firstly stop looking at how others or circumstances were treating me and blaming them for my gross unhappiness. Secondly, look at my own part in the unhappiness, what have I contributed to it. Thirdly, to take responsibility for the inside and outside of me.

I remember the day I got so excited that I could actually let go of being a false me. It came with such clarity that I couldn’t understand how I had actually spent most of my life trying to be Mr likeable, trying to please others, trying to impress, trying to be the top dog, the number one. That is so tiring to keep up that no wonder we end up exhausted, unhappy and unfulfilled in life. I remember I was deeply upset by the fact I had not got a certain job that I really wanted and was wallowing in self-pity and rejection. I began to think seriously that no one actually liked me, no one thought I was of any worth and I began to really get depressed by the way I was living and that things didn’t seem to go my way as much as I truly wanted. On the back of a book in my office was a bible verse that was backing up the title of a book I can’t even remember. It was Psalm 10 :5 the first few words hit me and struck me as if having been hit with a stun gun. ‘His ways prosper at all times.’ I don’t know why but I realised that my own ways weren’t prospering at all.  My own ways were a problem. I saw it. The life I had been leading for years in the false self was all about me. And as simplistic as this sounds I knew I had to discover more about God’s ways. I was sick of a none prosperous life. Now so as we are not confused here I am not talking about financial stuff. I’m talking about every aspect of my being.

             I knew I had to change.

             I’ve now stopped blaming others for my circumstances. Even when people are not nice with me. I’ve practiced and learned to look at my own self, to take responsibility for what I do and say, for my own responses and actions.

Once I did that I discovered some amazing things about the real Gary.

I found I was humble.

I found that happiness was sourced in loving and caring for others.

I found that other people actually only hurt me if I let them.

I found that I have more energy because I’ve stopped the tiring drag of trying to be something I’m really not.

I found that I can’t control what others think or say about me.

I found that because of that I didn’t have to invent a Mr likeable anymore.

I found I like the real Gary and hated the inventions of the past.

In all of this?

I am recovering my life.

The reason I write this today is probably slightly prophetic as I started it by just practicing my typing on a new piece of software.

Then.

This came out!

So.

I’m sure this will help someone.

I pray it really does.

No eye has seen

I rocked up at the prayer centre in London that Dawn and I pioneered and planted this morning. All set to pray specifically for my future.

Things are hotting up in my life.

God is really moving.

I pray daily.

But.

Right now as the future starts to stir before me, I sense the need to pray harder.

So I secure a prayer room.

As I entered the building this morning I was met by Frank. A guy who Dawn and Nicky and the team at Sanctuary West London have stood by, loved, helped and are hanging in with as we speak, caught up with me.

He excitedly said, "Gaz, remember to Love Jesus today."

Frank has got transformed since coming to the sanctuary. He had been in prison for violence and kidnap among other crimes. He has been amazingly healed of a life of drugs and alcohol and now helps the team with the arduous work of helping the many addicts that use our place.

Remember to love Jesus.

I think he meant to say remember Jesus loves you.

But.

That phrase remember to love Jesus hit me in the head hard!

I carried that phrase into prayer room 4 at Sanctuary West London.

And.

From nowhere.

A scripture reference zoomed into my mind.

Literally like this, "1 CORINTHIANS 2: 9"

Now immediately I didn't know what that verse says.

So.

I looked it up.

It contains these words.

"What no eye has seen, Nor no ear has heard, Nor no human heart has conceived, the things God has prepared for those who love him."

A spectacular clarity filled my life.

It is massively important to remember to love Jesus.

And.

Oh my life how at do love Jesus.

And.

With the future imminently about to change for me I felt a security I haven't felt for a long time.

I sometimes forget that God has great things in store for me. My eye doesn't see it, my ear doesn't hear it, my mind doesn't grasp it.

Yet.

It's the truth.

So in the quiet of prayer room 4 with the city loud and proud outside, I no my future is safe.

I know God is going to use me.

I know I am fully recovered from past hurt.

And.

Anyone out there burdened by the future?

Take strength from this amazing scripture.

What no eye has seen, nor no ear has heard, nor no human mind conceived, the things God has prepared for those that love him.

Jesus loves you.

Yet

Remember to love him back.

Blessings.

A plea

This morning I have been hit by the risen Lord big time.

He has woken me up from my lean times over the last two years.

He has reawakened the vision He have me to carry for the rest of my life.

I sat wondering am I just missing home or is the Lord leading me back to Liverpool. To the Wirral specifically.

The answer is both.

But.

The Spirit of God says carry what I have laid on you to that place.

I thought it was over.

The vision to create places of prayer for those who are disillusioned, lost, wayward, outcast even.

But.

God says no.

He says to me this morning in no uncertain terms, 'Go to Merseyside and to the Wirral specifically and pray. I will do the rest.'

And.

A fire starts in my heart.

The passion to help people, to teach people, to release people returns stronger than ever.

So.

I respond to God and say Yeah I am listening.

I am heading home!

The thing is God asks me to write this on my blog today.

The other thing is I have no Idea how it will pan out.

And that's exactly how God intends.

All I know is God asks us to carry on building what he asked us to build. He says ' finish the task. '

We have no money.

We have no house.

We have no specific place to pray.

But.

We have been there before and God has blessed our hands in his work. We have seen miracles and lives changed along the way.

That work will never be finished.

But.

God says he will provide. He will send those to work with us. He will send everything we need to build a praying community, a house of prayer in the Wirral.

The fire is burning.

The passion has returned.

It's real.

So what I ask today is those who know our ministry. Those who have supported us in prayer. That you will pray hard for us. And support is in any other way the Lord directs.

And please pray for me.

I am stronger now than ever. I have been through the worst of times. Yet I am healed and ready.

I'm like a caged lion. Ready to speak. Ready to act. Ready to build again.  Please pray for us. Dawn has been like a rock in a super storm. She has watched me go down and now rise up again. For both of us massive change is a coming. So I truly appeal for your prayers as we start to look towards future days.

Thank you

Refill

This morning.

Saturday morning.

After a lie in I head up to the church.

Sanctuary.

The house of prayer Dawn and I planted and brought from vision to reality.

Its feels a bit strange for me now I'm not the minister here.

But I see this morning the very reason God brought Dawn and I here to London and enabled us to build this sanctuary here in West Ealing.

I watch a homeless man come in for a warm and some food and drink.

I watch as Dawn sits with him.

I watch as he asks for some help.

I catch his words.

He starts to cry.

Real big tears.

His words reflect how lost and hopeless he is.

I watch as Dawn lovingly comforts him with her kind words and openness.

I watch as she takes decisive action to help him.

I see hope flood into his hopeless eyes.

Pure.

Simple.

Devastatingly effective action.

O man.

My heart leaps at the simple yet majestic love of Jesus flowing through the heart of a human to a desperately needy heart of a man with literally nowhere or no one to turn to.

I am touched.

Deeply.

Refilled.

It's as if God is reminding of my own calling and purpose while I am on this earth.

There are so many.

Who need love.

There are so many who need simple action.

There are so many who need a saviour.

I needed this so badly this morning.

My passion comes flooding back.

So

I don't know where God will take me from this precious moment this morning.

But.

I'm ready.

Are you?