My Heart is Smiling

I’ve had such joy in my heart the last few days – of the real kind – during the NCMI Equip South Africa 2013 time in Johannesburg. Some of you reading this blog won’t know what Equip is, so I best let you know. Basically, it’s a gathering of churches from around South Africa that partner with New Covenant Ministries International (NCMI) in strengthening and planting churches and myriads of other things relating to the mission Christians have on this planet.

If you don’t know what I mean by the ‘mission Christians have’ then you can send me an email and we can reserve that for another discussion 🙂 For now, let’s get to why I’ve had such joy.

Transformed

A key scripture for me during this time has been Ezekiel 46: 9 (this came up in our worship time together yesterday morning).

^“When the people of the land come before the Lord at the appointed feasts, he who enters by the north gate to worship shall go out by the south gate, and he who enters by the south gate shall go out by the north gate: no one shall return by way of the gate by which he entered, but each shall go out straight ahead.”

When people come in to worship God, who can really be known by us personally (an amazing truth), they should never be the same when they leave. This is what God does, little by little, every day – he changes us and conforms us to become like Jesus Christ. If you’re not a Christian and you’re reading that, I can understand you might not be sure of what I mean. Basically, part of what God wants to do in us is he wants to transform us into new people. The Scriptures put this so strongly that in 2 Corinthians 5:7 it says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

This is both a one-time event (when you put your faith in Jesus, God changes your heart) and its an ongoing event, as we become more like Jesus in our hearts, which affects our thoughts, which affects our actions.

This is how I’m feeling this week. Sometimes this transformation is a slow process – a slog can be an apt word. Then there are these moments, very many times in events like these where so many Christians get together, when there’s a fast-track of the process. When you leave, you really aren’t the same.

This year’s change

The amazing thing about these EQUIP times is they’re often like this for me (they happen every year). Last year I felt God had finally done a transforming work in my heart around my ambitions. One of the upshots of that transformation has been a certain discernment where I can start easily picking up when I’m going down that road again, and I can do what I need to do to not go down there. This was a big deal for me. My ambitious nature makes me incredibly restless. And restless is not what God wants for us.

After God’s dealing with my heart on that issue, it seems at EQUIP this year he’s reminding me of many of the things He has spoken in the past to me about that I should be involved in. The brilliant thing is, this time I’m seeing them without the cloud of ambition and restlessness, but in clarity and joy. The first night of EQUIP was a ‘fresh commissioning’. This is for us as a group of partnering churches and partnering people. But I’m feeling this for my own life, and this is how God works – both corporately and personally. It’s one of the most amazing things about Christianity – God works with His church as one body; but he also works with us and speaks to us so personally.

The colour and vibrancy of the Christian life is starting to become a reality for me again. I feel very much like I did in my 20’s. Full of faith. But I was also full of idealism in those days. This time, however, this faith is coupled with my real-world experience of suffering and the knowledge in my heart that the Christian life is also filled with hardship and hard work.

I have the joy without the idealism. I have the commissioning without the ambition. Now this is gold.

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EQUIP SA 2012 Session 1 – Tyrone Daniel

Tyrone Daniel raving about Jesus at EQUIP SA 2012

What a fantastic evening of worship and a focus onto Jesus at the kick-off night for EQUIP South Africa 2012. I’m really looking forward to a fantastic couple of days in God’s presence and the presence of His people!

As promised, here’s a live-blog of Tyrone’s talk tonight on Jesus and based on Isaiah 6. It’s obviously not as live as I’d like (see how MTN dumbs down your 3G signal when 2000 people are in the same room 😛 ) but it’s live-ish. Also, these are just pointers and highlights and I’ve only done some minor editing. This is also, of course, not a word-for-word transcribe of Tyrone’s talk!

Session 1 – #EQUIPSA 2012 – Tyrone Daniel

God is being very kind to us and I think in the next three days he is going to show us some wonderful things together.

God is wanting reveal himself to us in a fresh and new way.

Isaiah 6 – if we can get this thing understood more and more and if the Holy Spirit can reveal this to us everything else will in a sense fall into a new place.

 

I do believe we’re in a new season – God has reminded us over and over that transition is important. There is a purpose in transition – to get us into position into what God has called us to. The purpose of transitioning isn’t too keep transitioning. God has gotten us to go back to some things to see what it’s all about. Even people with good hearts and good intentions often get caught up with the wrong things because we’ve taken our eyes off the main thing.

 

I’ve never experienced Jesus like I have the last few years. I come out excited and my message is to tell the world and even the church about Jesus Christ. I recognise that everyone is expecting different things this week. What unites us is first and foremost our great King, Jesus.

 

That gives us clarity and perspective again. In our transition God has now said we’re in position. This is exciting because it means it’s go time, we are now in the position to walk more and more in things. Even in this great land of SA.

 

The church, God has a plan; the nations, the church is alive and well – God’ church is triumphant and victorious. Same all over the world.

 

There’s this partnership and a willingness to go at it again. Something in the heart of God is getting us to go into it again. It’s time go time.

 

God wants to envision us. Where we get vision from is so very important. When God reveals it has ramifications not just for us here but for the nations. What God can reveal to us this evening can change everything around us.

 

I still believe that the biggest battlefront we have in the Kingdom is the truth about Jesus Christ. He is and must stay the central theme and focus to everything we are and ever become. If we move away from that we lose the very truth and foundation of what it’s all about.

 

We can talk and rave about Jesus but we need the Father to reveal the son to us this evening.  We seem to want to hear a lot about ourselves but when we see Him then we see us and then we see the world after seeing Him then we understand our role and responsibility.

 

The church needs to understand who Jesus is and continually be pointed towards him. Because my friends our message is Jesus Christ.

 

In these times we must contend for our revelation. We must be intentional. It’s not about mentioning Jesus from time to time but intentional about making Him the central theme and focus. We’re not going to graduate from Jesus. First and foremost, stay in the learning of who Jesus Christ really is. Revelation is from above.

 

The most revealing thing about your church is what your people think about Jesus – not about mission, your church, or NCMI. Our most significant message is what we say or leave unsaid about Jesus Christ. This is a key value for us – we’re about the Bible. If it’s in there we do it if not we don’t. We still believe this is God’s word. If you’re doing stuff that’s not in here then you are killing people.

 

We are a people who say we’re about the Bible. Word plus nothing, minus nothing. The Bible testifies about Jesus. So it’s not just about biblical way it means we’ve got to testify what the Bible testifies.

 

God exalted Jesus to the highest place. It was when I started seeing something of this revelation of Christ I began to feel pleasure again in preaching and leading. It’s not because I’m doing a great job, it’s because I’m raving about Jesus Christ. And God’s pleasure is all over people who rave about Jesus.

 

God releases life over us. We want to see great things this week so Jesus can be absolutely glorified. We want His presence and power manifested here not to feel Him but to see Jesus exalted. Revelation tells us that right now angels worship Him in heaven.

 

The early church stayed the course not because of a mission but because they were captivated by Jesus. I don’t know what the future holds; it’ll be exciting but it’s going to have difficult times. As we break open regions and new places it’s not going to be a church that’s captivated by mission. People will bail on mission if the mission is what drives us. What holds us is our absolute love, passion and revelation of Jesus. That will allow us to die for what we believe.

 Isaiah 6

Isaiah’s Vision of the Lord

6 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train^[a] of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³ And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”^[b]

⁴ And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. ⁵ And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

Isaiah’s Commission from the Lord

⁸ And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

 

– We have to live with this revelation – our Christology will determine our missiology, not the other way around. I’ve listened to many preach on this text (and so have I) and they talk aabout the commissioning of Isaiah. But Isaiah had been preaching for 18 years, so this was not a commissioning of Isaiah. But what he needed was a revelation of Christ again and it’s that that undid him.

 

We need something of God undoing us because when we see Him and we’re undone we’re far more effective in reaching the world. The context of this scripture – nation of Judah in a time of transition and uncertainty. The nation saw their godly king rebel against God and see God’s judgement. As the kingship changes, God decided to reveal himself afresh in a new way to Isaiah. God doesn’t confirm His word He shows Himself first. The vision that Isaiah received was not the beginning of His ministry. What did he see? What he saw we’ve got to see tonight. God’s heart for us is this – we’ve got to see something of the Holy Spirit. I’m praying that tonight we’ll see something of that.

 

1. He saw revelation of Jesus the King. I saw the Lord… high and exalted… train of His robe.

A personal revelation of this King is indispensable to everyone one of our lives. When we see Jesus, it awakens our love and drives out the spirit of weariness and oppression. This has to be personal revelation, not read in a textbook. We cannot minister to others from a textbook. The knowledge of God has to come from your experience of God continually. He is the very source of our being, lives, ministries, we have to be grounded in Him for that to be a reality as we move into our glorious inheritance.

 

We cannot go through the motions and lead god’s people. You can’t follow others on their revelation of Jesus. God is asking for us again to trust for that revelation.

 

I’m experiencing more and more the soveriengty of God. That’s what motivated god to become undone. We’ve got to see Him in His sovereignty. His Lordship is over all time and space.

 

2. He saw God in His glory. Exalting Jesus, calling Him holy, holy, holy.

 

I think that His sovereignty was powerful, His glory overwhelming, but when He saw God in his holiness then that’s when he said woe to me, I’m a man of unclean lips. I think there’s a lot of need to see Him in His holiness.

 

Notice the sheer awesomeness around His throne.

 

3. He saw himself

 

After seeing the Lord he saw himself and said woe to me, I’m undone, I’m a man of unclean lips, I’m a work in progress.

3. He saw others

 

He saw that all people are unclean, him himself too.

 

Like the wind our sins sweep us away. Isaiah saw people who are lost and did not have a clue about what the should do. What I love about this – he doesn’t just reveal Himself to Isaiah so that he can show that everyone is undone. God does not leave Him there. Don’t stay there. God shows Him redemption – He gets the angels to touch His lips with a hot coal and He says you are not unclean. If God just left us in that place of being undone and seeing others undone, what hope do we have? With redemption he said I have now purified you, you are clean.

 

This thing of redemption must ring out from the church. Often it becomes an evangelistic project. I don’t need an eveangelsit telling me I’m going to win souls when my lips have been made clean. We must be a people who don’t talk about the finished work of Christ but a people who walk in the finished work. Jesus finished it on the cross. Everyting that Jesus needed to do has been done.

 

The church is living in an unfinished work of Christ. The times of telling what He’s done has passed – He’s looking for a people who walk in what He’s done. We’ve been redeemed to go and help others to be redeeemed.

 

What honours the King most is not thanking Him for what He did; telling others about what He did; but walking in what He did. Most believers stay at the foot of the cross. IT’s hard to win the world when you stay there. Now without the cross we have nothing. But it’s not about that cross but about a King. The cross is the entrance point. We’re being given keys of the kingdom, not to the Kingdom. Now we’ve entered, now we walk in it. We walk in salvation, healing etc. Get rid of performance. Kill it. The church is such a performance driven people because we live by the land and so forth. But Jesus destroyed religion. It’s undertanding the finished work – I cannot earn this, don’t deserve this, I just receive, enjoy and live in what Jesus did on the cross..

 

The very thing Jesus killed on the cross, religion, fills the church again. Religion is spraying purfume on a casket. Religion either ends in pride or despair. Pride is I tick all the boxes. Jesus destroyed that on the cross. Most of us live in despair – can’t tick thet, that, that etc. Jesus dealt with it on the cross.

 

The true message of redemption needs to ring out from our churches afresh. Not the laws. What He’s done has touched my lips. The sound of grace filling SA again and not this warped, sick one-sided stuff. To see the world won for Jesus.

 

Touching his lips was painful. Redemption is wonderful but there’s stuff you need to deal with.

 

He saw the Lord, Himself, others and experienced redemption and then he saw…

 

4. He realised his true purpose

 

He heard the voice say whom shall I send and who will go for me? I don’t believe he was coerced into this but he also didn’t have an option. Why? Because he saw what he saw and experienced what he experienced. We need to go because I have seen what I’ve seen. I’m living in redemption and the finished work and because of that, here am I, send me.

 

The thing about mission. Our mission we have is because of a compassionate God. Most people when they think of mission they think of the great commission. I want to suggest to you from Scripture that mission started in the heart beat of God. It started with a God who is compassionate. Isaiah saw and understood that there is a God who cares. Mission is not something we come up with but it’s the very heart of God.

 

This motivates us because there’s a God who’s compassionate. Mission is the heartbeat of a comapssionate God. God is mission minded and He has given us a compelling message. When you see Jesus and His glory it gives you passion for that message. But our message cannot be compromised. IT’s incredible truth that can’t change. IT doesn’t needed to be added to, taken away. It’s a distinctive message like no other. IT’s theo nly message that says about Jesus being the only way.

 

God has given us, His people, a compelling message and it’s good enough. And it works anywhere in the world. For the regions we’re yet to break open for this Gospel, it works there and will work there because it’s God’s message. A compelling message and a comissioned church.

 

Inauthorised this commission by the power of Christ. All authority in heaven and earth – have you ever thought about that? Jesus said ALL athority in haven and earth has been given to Him. Now you go. So this is authorised by the power of Christ.

 

This isn’t a man’s idea. Even God reveals Himself with a commission, my plan, go. And it’s assured by the presence of God. Why would we not go?

 

When any church loses their spirit for the great commission they surrender the very reason for their existance. God is a mission’s God, the Gospel is a mission’s message, the church are a mission’s people, and when it ceases to be they betray their trust. The church has many responsibilities but our only mission is evangelisation of the world.

Excited About EQUIP SA

So 28 – 30 September is EQUIP South Africa, a training time for churches across South Africa. I’m quite excited about it. Here’s why.

Ephesians 4:11-16 talks about how God has given to the church the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints to do the work of the ministry and for building up the body of Christ.

It goes on to talk about the unity of the faith so that we may all grow up to mature manhood, so that we may no longer be tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, that we would grow up every way into Christ. It ends off with how, when each part of the body is working properly, the body grows so that it builds itself up in love.

EQUIP SA is one of those key times in the year when all this takes place. We get to sit under some powerful teaching from guys who I have huge respect for. We get to ask questions. We get to connect with each other and enjoy each other as churches across the country. And, of course, when I say “churches” I don’t mean organisations – I mean the people, because we are the church.

All this helps us to grow into unity and mature manhood. It also keeps us from weird and strange teachings, like the many we can find all over the Internet. I think this is done not just by the content of the teaching we receive but the depth of the relationships we have the opportunity to form. When we form better relationships we know each others’ hearts better, so there’s more trust between us all, and more openness for correction and, of course, encouragement!

It’s about being built up together in love. See, verse 15 says that through this equipping we are able to “Speak the truth in love”, and so we grow. The end results are that every person in the body is performing their function while at the same time being built up in love towards each other, which brings unity. Friendship within function. It’s a marvelous picture and you get to see it happening at EQUIP times such as this.

It’s not just about receiving teachings so we can be a sponge but to be equipped to actually DO the work of the ministry. And that work is multi-layered with one purpose: Jesus. To spread the good news of his life, death, resurrection, Kingdom and coming Kingdom. To work in every part of society to be salt of the Earth and let His Kingdom break through into the lives of the many hurting out there, rich or poor. It’s broad and yet focused, freeing and yet a challenge. All awesome.

EQUIP is not just for NCMI relating churches

The EQUIP time is run by New Covenant Ministries (NCMI) relating churches and I’m stoked that it’s being hosted by my church, Cornerstone Church, this year. But it’s not just for NCMI relating churches, it’s for everyone. Some people tend to think it’s exclusive but it’s not. I think it’s worth mentioning that.

There is going to be a host of guys from all over the world whom I have the utmost respect for who will be there to exhort, encourage, challenge and teach. On the Thursday and Friday mornings there will be two sessions, effectively. The second session will be a ‘break-out’ session where we can gather into more intimate sort of ‘workshops’.

Mike Hanchett from the USA will host Prophetic break-out sessions while John Bishop (Australia) will host Evangelism sessions and Jon Daniel (Australia) will host Worship sessions. These are more intimate times of teaching where we can ask questions and receive practical training as well and each of these guys are awesome.

It’s going to be fantastic and registrations for EQUIP SA 2011 are at www.equipsouthafrica.co.za. R70 a session (five sessions) but as from Monday it will be R85 a session. If you’re looking for more info have a poke around that site but you’re also welcome to ask me and I’ll provide anything you need as best I can.

Also check out the EQUIP SA Facebook page or follow @NCMIEquipSA on Twitter.

Equip Gauteng Was Great!

At last, after spending the entire weekend working at the rAge video gaming event at the Coca-Cola Dome, Northgate (JHB) I’m able to post a quick blog about the Equip Gauteng time that happened from Wednesday night to Friday night this last week.

(For those interested, check out the great coverage for rAge at http://gaming.do.co.za.)

Anyway, Equip Gauteng was awesome. Although I had to work Friday at rAge, the time I did manage to spend at Equip was really awesome.

God really moved and spoke to me over the weekend, thanks to the wonderful facilitation done by the guys who came to preach and facilitate the electives.

Terry Virgo was one of these, and I thoroughly enjoyed his talk about the Holy Spirit, where he related his own walk into understanding the Holy Spirit.

I did the “Holy Spirit and Evangelism” elective, which had Keir Taylor and a team of others (whom I admit I don’t know) administer a wonderful time while relating some of their own experiences with the Holy Spirit. It’s really interesting to see how the same God works so personally and differently with everyone.

I think I’m finally starting to get it. Rather than trying to understand how the Holy Spirit works through some calculated, mechanical method, this keeping in step with the Spirit thing is more about the wind blowing wherever it pleases (John 3:8). This means the Holy Spirit, although the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, is also rather unpredictable. You can’t box Him and expect Him to react in a certain way. He blows wherever He pleases, and will do whatever He wants to do.

Of course, when people hear this they think that it’s all about throwing our heads away and forgetting about the Word. But this was Tyrone’s point – for too long the Church has argued over being either “Word based” or “Spirit based”, with people sitting in only one of these camps.

But actually, the Church needs to be Word AND Spirit based, the two working hand-in-hand.

Tyrone’s illustration that he has been using lately focuses around an aeroplane. An aeroplane needs TWO wings to fly, not one, and – likewise – the Church needs both Word AND Spirit to do what God has called us to do on this planet.

This is so integral to what we see in the Bible that to ignore it results in dire consequences for the Church.

Personally, I have faith more than ever now to see healings take place through simple prayer. Not mechanical prayer based on all the formulas I’ve been taught (“Say this!” “Believe like this!” etc.) but simple prayer with faith in Jesus to do what He did on this earth before when He walked it; not to try and formulaise anything when I see healings happen, but to simply let the Holy Spirit blow wherever He pleases; to stop trying to calculate and manipulate God, but rather simply live in the freedom He gives.

I’m excited!