Spiritual Stew Pot

 This afternoon I have taken a few hours to have some silence and some heavy engagement with God.

Tomorrow I embark on a new part of my ministry journey as I travel to London to become part of the Salvation Army's UK Spiritual Life Development Unit, specifically the Territorial Prayer Network.

This afternoon I had an attack of the "why me Lord" variety! Why Lord am I going to this appointment, I didn't ask for it, I didn't expect it, and I have no clue where I will possibly fit in! I'm surely not the right person for this type of role! I have quirks and my own views, my own ways of working I have been used to being totally working in your visions Lord, building churches, prayer centres, communities.

"When you called me Lord and gave me such a visionary spirit and a creative mindset on top of a longing to see people find you, I saw such a completely different vista before me! 

So, before these feelings completely took over my thoughts, I did what I have learned to do when anything like this hits my mind and seeks to immobilise me, I get down and quiet in prayer. 

Seriously down and quiet.

I don't care what I am doing, I drop everything and turn to face Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

The first thing that dropped in my head was an answer to my immediate question. Why choose me? This was the Lords answer. "Because I have, and I am going to use in ways that you really can't see yet. and as for fitting in, I made you, I gave you a voice, I gave you an ability to connect people, and I gave you some unique attributes that I need to use at this point in time." 

I felt an immediate lift in my Spirit.

Then the Lord gave me a strong vision in my minds eye.

It was a pot of stew bubbling away over a nice firepit.

This is what the Spirit of God spoke into my Spirit.

"This is my spiritual stew pot. You are not the stew Gary, but you are an ingredient. An ingredient I really need just now. There are many other ingredients in this stew and when cooked, this spiritual stew is wholesome and nourishing and fulfilling. Whether you or anyone else thinks that you don't fit, When I mix the ingredients together believe me you fit, and my spiritual food will satisfy the world. All of the different quirks, ways of working, thought patterns etc that every individual has all mixed together can be a fine stew."

Wow!

I turned from being anxious about tomorrow into feeling excited.

Hey

I felt the need to write this little splash of my personal feelings today, because I felt in my Spirit that this could help someone today.

So 

Be an ingredient in Gods spiritual stew!

The world is hungry for it!

Where there is prayer there is growth

I’m a terrible PowerPoint man!

There

I said it and feel much better with life now I’ve said it. 

I’m at the UK Salvation Army Territorial Prayer Gathering in Swanwick Derbyshire. I haven’t been around the SA Prayer network for about four years. So I was amazed to see how many people were at the event. 

About 130 or so. 

Now 

When I was last involved in the Prayer network, these things would attract usually between 30 and 60 people. 

There has been growth. 

And 

It reminded me. 

God once spoke these very words into my ear. 

“Where there is prayer there is growth.”

I’ve seen it time and time again. 

Where prayer is relentless, numbers grow, understanding deepens and spiritual lives grow. 

I hear so many Salvationists saying to me this “The Salvation Army will never recover from Covid.”

I always ask, “really?”

But 

It is too often said in the context that it’s kind of over for us as a movement. There will be no further growth. 

Hey

God is the master of the impossible. 

And

In plain sight, The prayer network in the UK has undeniably grown, and that is so counteractive to the notion it’s over for us and we are slowly sinking into the sea of the past. 

Hey

Where there is prayer there is growth. 

The key is and always will be prayer. 

Sitting in this building this morning, not doing very well with the PowerPoint, my mind went back to the two ladies in the Hebrides that prayed relentlessly back in the day and caused a revival of epic magnitude. 

Where there is prayer there is growth. 

It is so amazing to see the Prayer Network in the UK growing. 

Let’s not give up. 

Let’s not subscribe to the notion that Covid has stolen our progress. 

God can do more than we dare dream or imagine. 

Let’s start talking growth. 

Let’s start a positive wave of the power of prayer. 

Blessings

Calling in the things that are not

Morgan Freeman is an actor who has a convincing way of saying profound things, even if they are just in the script he is sticking to when acting. I was watching a film just the other night starring the said actor, called Once More. A story about a washed up writer who moves to a small town to try to rekindle his writing gift. he moves next door to a young family and most of the film then concentrates on his relationship with one of that families kids who really wants to be a writer. As he teaches her to unlock and use her imagination, he says one of those profound script bites that only he can make you feel that it is real. He says this, "Never stop looking for things that aren't there." Only a fleeting line. But It hit me between the eyes! Only because, just before that film I had been clean down in prayer for an hour, praying about my new role with the Territorial Prayer Network in the UK Salvation Army. And During that hard and fast session, I had been led to a scripture. 

Its a weird but wonderful thing that God often drops a scripture reference right into my mind, and I have learned to go to it without delay. 

I dont normally use the ESV bible much, but its text best puts the word I received, I think so anyhow. Romans 4:17 "God calls into being that which does not exist." 

Wow!

  

The NLT says it this way, "God creates new things out of nothing!" 

Hey,  now how astonishing is that! That is the God I serve and love. 

You can understand how taken aback I was when Morgan Freeman comes out with, "Never stop looking for what is not there." 

 

Then

I instantly understood what God was saying to me. 

I think it is safe to say we are in the early stages of seeing how Covid 19 and its lively team of variants has impacted the Church, and its probably a realism that its not looking too good. 

I love it! 

Its the best challenge any of us Christians could possibly have. 

I am so excited about the future. 

Its been needed for decades (Not Covid of course! But a cessation of what the church was pre-Covid)! And God, I believe is calling us to understand fully that he is calling the things that are not. 

In other words we are entering a period of stark reality as the Church licks the wounds that this bizaare period in History has left on it.

But God is releasing the creativity that sits inside so many God followers that hasn't been utilised as effectively as it could have. So, that's where I think Morgan Freemans words come in for me, for you, for the Salvation Army, for the Church. "Never stop looking for things that are not there. 

Wow.

There is so much to come. 

Imagine a total reshaping of the way we are as Christians?

A remoulding of the Church and its practices and endeavours?

A completely new understanding of who Jesus Christ of Nazareth really is. 

Are you trapped in the decline and slow death of the Church as we now it or do you choose to see the incredible new pathway forward? 

Listen! 

God calls into being that which does not exist! 

Use your imagine. 

If you are seeing that there is no way the church can recover from the ravages of a deadly virus. Then read this unbelievably brilliant word from God. Take it directly to your heart, your mind and your being. "Greater things are yet to come," the amazing words of that fantastic song, "God of this City" says, this is true even when things are seemingly impossible, the things that are not. So get your imaginations ready, start thinking about things that aren't there, in order for the Church to rise up strong and new. 

Wow!

Thank you God that you are so infinitely amazing. 

In Jesus name.

The return

This is just to inform you guys that I am returning to blogging after a break of four years. This time, all my posts will be around the infinate subject of prayer, hopefully giving you insights, motivation, courage and inspiration to develop your prayer life and hence your relationship with the super, the amazing, the incredible, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. I will be posting every wednesday. Be blessed this New Year. Gaz

Clear Future

Praying this morning in a McDonald's in Manchester....

Does it get much better than that?

Anyhow 

A short word came to me and for me.

But

It could be a message for someone struggling this morning. 

So

Hear this guys

Our past was wiped away. Not the lessons and memories, they are valuable, but all the sin and past mistakes.

Through the death and resurrection of the King of Kings. 

What we are left with is a clear future. The ability to start again. 

Think about the enormity of that.

Jesus overcame all our mess.

"No we are more than conquerors through him who Loved us." (Romans 8: 37)

Wow

Have a blessed day 

A word for these times.

Praying at Manchester Central Salvation Army Corps the other day.

Hey

The Lord made something clear to me that I thought was for us in this City centre Corps. 

But

I had an overwhelming sense that this is for a wider field. 

I didn't want to share it, but had to let go of that feeling and share. 

So here goes, I ask you to maybe test this word and pray about it see what the Lord says to you. 

I had just read Amos 9. Trying to get a perspective on where we are going in the SA. 

Wow

I was hit by its description of the Lord stripping things back to be able to move into a period of fantastic restoration.

Amos 9: 8-15

“Surely the eyes of the Sovereign Lord
    are on the sinful kingdom.
I will destroy^(W) it
    from the face of the earth.
Yet I will not totally destroy
    the descendants of Jacob,”
declares the Lord.^(X)
9 “For I will give the command,
    and I will shake the people of Israel
    among all the nations
as grain^(Y) is shaken in a sieve,^(Z)
    and not a pebble will reach the ground.^(AA)
10 All the sinners among my people
    will die by the sword,^(AB)
all those who say,
    ‘Disaster will not overtake or meet us.’^(AC)

Israel’s Restoration

¹¹ “In that day

“I will restore David’s^(AD) fallen shelter^(AE)—
    I will repair its broken walls
    and restore its ruins^(AF)—
    and will rebuild it as it used to be,^(AG)
12 so that they may possess the remnant of Edom^(AH)
    and all the nations that bear my name,^[e](AI)”
declares the Lord, who will do these things.^(AJ)

¹³ “The days are coming,”^(AK) declares the Lord,

“when the reaper^(AL) will be overtaken by the plowman^(AM)
    and the planter by the one treading^(AN) grapes.
New wine^(AO) will drip from the mountains
    and flow from all the hills,^(AP)
14     and I will bring^(AQ) my people Israel back from exile.^[f](AR)

“They will rebuild the ruined cities^(AS) and live in them.
    They will plant vineyards^(AT) and drink their wine;
    they will make gardens and eat their fruit.^(AU)
15 I will plant^(AV) Israel in their own land,^(AW)
    never again to be uprooted^(AX)
    from the land I have given them,”^(AY)

says the Lord your God.^(AZ)

^{Just as I finished reading the words of Matt Redmans famous old worship song came vividly to mind, so much so, I felt I could here angels singing it.} 

^{"When the music fades all is stripped away and I simply come."}

^{And then the Spirit of God spoke this.} 

^{"I am stripping back all that is fruitless in the Salvation Army. During these times all that will be left is that a remnant will simply come. Then the blessings will flow faster than you can keep up with. New wine will saturate you direct from things above. I dont need Mission structures or business models or worldly ways. I want you to simply come. Change comes not from shifts in practice but from a transformed heart. A heart engaged in my being.} 

^{Simply come.} 

^{Let me reshape you, mould you, restore you.} 

^{Simply come.} 

^{I am.} 

^{My spirit will cause a shift in you that will bring back the heart of the Gospel to the church. Love, peace and intense reaping.} 

^{Simply come.} 

^{Then I will see a fighting machine like at no other time in your history."} 

^{So, hey.} 

^{I'm these challenging times. Don't be fearful. Be excited. Stripping back is not an easy concept. Yet it is vital. I can see hear at Manchester the signs that God has already started this work of stripping back.} 

^And

^{I feel utterly excited to accept that an avalanche of blessing is on its way.} 

^{So bless you guys whoever reads this.} 

^{Don't be afraid if things drop off or can never come back. Things I'm our own lives in our Corps, in our churches.} 

^{Something better is coming!} 

^Amen

^{Keep safe and stay blessed.} 

Jigsaw (Putting the broken pieces of you back together)

I had one of those daft brain waves the other day, thinking it would be a good idea for me to do a jigsaw puzzle. I found one in the building of the new Salvation Army Church in Central Manchester that Dawn and I have been appointed to. I tipped the pieces out onto a table and was amazingly encouraged when within a minute I managed to fit two pieces together. Twenty minutes later I had lost the will to live and threw all the pieces back in box. 

But All was not lost! 

I suddenly heard the gentle voice of God whisper in my ear, “Hey Gaz, you think that puzzle is hard? I had to put you back together!” It was one of those moments where God and I had a little fun and a little ironic chuckle together.

Five years ago, I was completely broken, depressed and revelling in self-pity, blaming every Tom, Dick and Harry for my demise and feeling like I would never recover from that point in my life. 

I was so broken; it was not looking good for my future. 

A series of bad episodes in the series of life served to smash me apart into a thousand pieces. It really did feel like the point of no return!

Fast forward! 

To today. (Sunday 16th August 2020) 

A trip to our building in the centre of Manchester! To worship and pray both in the building and in the City Centre. We were marvelling at the promises of God especially related to prayer. Just Dawn and I as we are still closed due to the pandemic. Dawn read me a scripture.

Mark 11: 22-25 

“Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown in the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything, and you have believed that you have received it, it will be yours. But, when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your father in Heaven will forgive your sins too.”

As I heard those words, about first forgiving and not holding a grudge against anyone, I was washed with a warm calm directly from the air as the Holy Spirit opened my mind. 

Five years ago, when I was so broken, I wasn’t really allowing God to fix me up, to put me back together, because I was definitely harbouring some unforgiveness and held grudges against a few people who had hurt me. 

No wonder I found it hard to pray, to trust God, to receive prayer from people and to feel I was heading towards restoration. 

But 

A few years ago, I came to a point where I was walking straight down a slippery road towards a town called oblivion. I do not know how, but the Lord stepped into the road with a halt sign. He showed me how unforgiveness and the holding of grudges was devastating to my life. He also showed me that I had complete authority to stop, turn around and head back towards freedom. 

 And

This morning In the quietness of MC Hall.

I revelled in the peace that I have. In that warm calm of the Spirit I could say with complete honesty that I hold nothing against anyone. I praise God for that. He has put the thousand broken pieces of me back together. (And he didn’t get bored or give up on me!) 

So As I minister to so many who struggle to get beyond the hurt that they have endured in their personal life, I know how hard it is to forgive and to let go. Hey, I really do know. 

And

Hey, the only way to turn that around is to say out loud “I forgive you and I am letting you go!”

But I felt compelled to write this today, so I am assuming that someone out there is in the broken stage right now. Well please listen. God wants to put you back together. He is desperate to do that. So listen. Allow him to do that. Just lay that unforgiveness and the hurt, and the person or people who you are really struggling to let go of a grudge, even when it so obviously is their fault right at the foot of the cross. Allow Jesus to heal you, put you back together and move you into a brand-new state of mind and heart. 

Don't delay 

Life is way to short Live it! 

Hey so many blessings to you this day.

Hometown

Boxes lay everywhere.

It will take a couple of days to get straight.

It's our fifth move in twenty years.

This time?

To Manchester.

Dawn and I were so tired last night. So, we rigged up the TV and fired Netflix onto the screen. The new TV stand hasn't arrived so the 65 inch slab of black rested on the floor. 

We flipped through the watch options. 

We settled on a comedy.

Eurovision: The story of Fire Saga.

It's a family thing to watch Eurovision every year. 

So

We loved every minute of this film. 

And

You have to watch it!

The story focuses on a pair of friends who have grown up in the tiny mesmeric village of Husavik in Iceland. The guy makes it his lifes goal to win Eurovision. The girl, supremely talented would love to be in it, but isn't struck on winning. She just wants to win the guys heart. 

I won't tell you the rest of the story, I am not a spoiler!

But

One thing I will say, it has a spine tingling ending. 

Spine tingling because they sing a song about their hometown. 

A breathtaking song actually sung by the brilliant Swedish voice over artist and singer, Molly Sanden. 

Wow I was touched beyond reason. 

There is a line in this song that says, "I had to get away, to realise I had to stay."

This resonated with me in stunning high definition.

As I prepare to take the reigns of a new project for us in trying to transform a small inner City Church in central Manchester housed in a massive building into a powerhouse of Christian love and mission, something Dawn and I are used to from our past appointments together. I realised why I had to resign in 2015.

I had to get away from the SA to realise I actually had to stay. 

Being brutally honest, and please I mean no disrespect by what I am about to say, really I don't, it's just me, and my feelings alone, but I just not into tradition, brass bands, songsters, flags, uniforms, officers retreats, councils,  people who still think wearing a hat is relevant, and all the many other trappings of traditionalism that the SA hang on to for dear life. So, why come back then? I can hear you saying it now! Well I'm with you on that. It's something I struggled with in private as I argued with God about coming back. 

But

I also respect that there are those who love those things too. 

And

There are so many beautiful people in the SA that have been so good to me, I wouldn't want to disrespect them either.

Yet!

I had to come back.

Why?

Because being away helped me to realise that I still believed in the purpose of the SA.

To touch the lives of millions through the love of Jesus. 

And

Despite my misgivings about the traditions, and my not wanting to upset anyone who holds them dear?

And

Despite me not being a really good fit, and knowing that many people think that, and seem to love to let me know!

God called me back

And

Opened the way for me to do so.

I said to God, "if I get through the process of coming back then I will."

And 

Miraculously

I'm here now. 

Ready

Not for tradition

But to help as many people as I can discover the amazing love of an astonishing Saviour. 

And

On a recent reconnaissance trip around the streets of central Manchester, I saw the need. I saw the opportunity, and I felt the purpose. 

Once again I feel excited, something I never thought I would feel in the Salvation Army again. I know Dawn and I will have to lovingly turn Manchester Central on its head and that is a massive task. 

But

God is with us.

And I realised something

The Salvation Army with God as it's leader, and the world wide mission field is my hometown. 

It's where my family has lived for five generations, it's where I have served my whole life. 

And

It is where I want to be right now. 

My hometown

Be blessed

Gaz

Contemplations

The past has been a blast

No wait

Occasionally it has,

But,

There have been dark times too.

Yeah,

And,

Bland times.

Times I would change,

And

Others that I wouldn’t.

Probably?

The same as everyone else.

Yet,

This last few months during the pandemic?

I’ve had time to contemplate the past, the present and the future.

Before the virus?

I was busy, I was living a bit frantically, and, I longed for change in my life.

But,

I chugged along regardless.

Then,

Came the lockdown.

Life as I knew it?

Kind of Faded away.

So,

Change crept up on me.

Every day I had time to contemplate, ruminate and explore. Talking with God asking what changes he would have me make.

And

I began to look to the future

One thing I knew for sure within a few weeks was that I wasn’t going to the future the same.

I just can’t.

I need a fresh scene.

And

That is so exciting, so wild, so needed.

I was thinking about church, and my role as a minister.

And

I can’t change the church, I learned that a long time ago.

I used to like to think I could.

And

To be honest I got tired of trying.

But

I can change me.

God can change me.

And

He is constantly changing me form glory to glory.

Therefore,

The future has to be different

Yet

The mission remains the same

God’s mission

“To bring good news to the poor

To comfort the broken hearted

To proclaim that captives will be released

And prisoners will be released.” (Isaiah 61)

And so

It is with fantastic anticipation that I head towards the future.

Waiting there are new ways of joining God’s mission.

Waiting there are exciting new opportunities
Waiting there are people who desperately need a saviour.

Waiting there are victories so amazing that we cannot take them in.

But

One thing is for sure

We cannot stay the same

Every life matters

Witnessing the footage of George Floyd being restrained by a policeman using a sickening technique of kneeling on his neck, then watching him pleading for his life repeatedly shouting “I can’t breathe,” sent a message to the world that injustice such as that is inherently evil.

Black lives matter

That is a fact that is absolute

In fact

Every life matters.

I stand in these words with all those black people who are fed up with the injustice they have suffered for decades.

Enough is enough

And

I stand with them.

Listen

The human race is just that, human.

There is no hierarchy or layered order of things other than what man creates.

God created us equal.

Every life matters to him

Every life should matter to each other

For all the injustice of the past, slavery, segregation, apartheid and every other kind of evil act that has stuck to history like a malignant deposit, then understand this, love, respect and justice will win in the end.

Victory will come when man lays down his differences and loves his fellow man no matter what race, creed, colour or views a person may have.

As I viewed the footage on my iPad of George Floyd pleading for air, I paused the scene and looked straight into his frightened eyes. In that moment I saw the pain of a downtrodden society. I saw the injustice of a world full of false power and misplaced judgement and hate. I saw a human being, a life that matters being stifled by a mad man using his position to inflict maximum suffering.

Every life matters

We are all the same

Human beings

I also saw something else as I looked into Mr Floyd's eyes.

I saw Jesus.

George Floyd’s pain was identical to a man who two thousand years ago got nailed to a cross because of injustice and mad men’s positional deployment of maximum suffering.

Out of that suffering came a love we have never known

Out of that suffering came an opportunity for change like we have never known

Out of that suffering life became meaningful.

Because of that suffering

Every life matters

So

My prayer is that through the death of George Floyd, we will all completely get that enough is enough.

That we will breathe in love for each other no matter what colour, race or religion or whatever.

That we will take this opportunity to change

To make the world we live in a better place

To make our communities safer through respect for one another

And

To know that our life is meaningful.

Every life matters.

Exit Plan

Lockdown

Restrictions, rules, enforcement.

Cabin fever, boredom, longing.

You feel desperate to visit your family and friends.

You get sick of watching TV.

You long for some kind of normality.

It was kind of comforting to listen to the Prime minister say that aroad map is being drawn up to get the country out of lockdown over the coming months.

Yeah, it was like catching a cool breeze of hope on your face.

One of the treasures of the lockdown for me has been the amount of quiet space I’ve had to reflect and think. Sitting often in almost total silence, letting my mind clear itself of the barrage of thoughts that run around inside my head. Letting my gaze focus on Jesus.

It was during one of these quiet moments that God led me to a scripture.

And

I was under no doubt that God wanted me to share it today.

Isaiah 55

As I read this passage which opens, “Come all you who are thirsty, come to the waters, and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost!”

Hey

As I read the whole chapter, it dawned on me that this is the greatest lockdown exit strategy, road, map, or whatever you want to call it.

And

I reflected on the period of time in my own life where I was on a lockdown of a very different type.

A deep, dark and heavy depression that had me lockdown in a place where I would never want to be ever again.

Interestingly, I had the same kind of feelings many of you will be experiencing now.

Cabin fever, a mind-numbing boredom and a longing to be free of it.

I needed an exit plan.

And

This passage of Scripture helped me to find one at the time, and continues to be a map to follow.

I was really lost at that time. I lost all sense of worth, all sense of feeling and all sense of purpose.

But reading these words, especially verses 12¬13, “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace, the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn bush will grow the juniper, and instead of briars the myrtle will grow. This will be the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign, that will endure forever.”
I remember reading those words, I mean really reading them, almost lectio style, over and over again, letting them flood my being, and letting the living word of God touch my life.

And.

The amazing seeds of hope started to land on me, started to flourish and helped me to see that there was more than just longing to look forward to, but reality awaited my life and was definitely attainable.

So, hey.

This is what I felt the Spirit of God say today.

He gave me a strong feeling that someone needs this boost today.

And.

I suggest you read this whole passage, *Isaiah 55 right now. Read it slow and hard. Push back the distractions. Let these words sink in today.

Maybe you have been floundering a little trapped and locked down not just because of the Coronavirus crisis, but locked down in something in your life that you long to be free of.

Let the spirit of God take you past the peak of your crisis and show you a real and irepressable exit plan right now.