Open Invitation

This Monday we have a special guest from Lakeland Vineyard, Florida; Kristina Collins, who is the founder and creative director of At His Feet Ministries. Kristina has been with Alun and Donna and the members of Bridge since Wednesday and they will testify to her anointing. The sheer energy and freedom that comes from her, the Fire, the Passion - it's engaging and enjoyable. An incredibly creative and expressive woman, she will be travelling to Neath this weekend, with Alun and the Bridge worship team to impart God's outpouring to the people - and then will join with us on Monday evening. Expect great things as God is surely with her.

A notice regarding the summer meetings: During August the healing and outpouring meetings will be moving back to Central Baptist Church and to Sunday evenings, from 7:00pm. God is doing amazing things with His church in Southampton - particularly evident is how the churches have come together and unified their worship - our petty differences mean nothing now. They never did, but for whatever reason they kept us apart - and God has had enough. So we'll continue to meet during the holidays and then on into September - when the meetings will return to Central Hall.

And in other news.....

It seems that if you do a search including the words, 'Lakeland', 'revival', 'healing',
you get the God TV site, Todd Bentley's site - and then a whole bunch of blogs and other such pages dismissing the whole thing as hype, demonic - well - anything other than God really.

The people that have written this stuff have really done some research, they've really poured over scripture; they've scrutinised every word spoken by Todd since he first started appearing in YouTube videos. They will begin their critique by mentioning the Toronto blessing through the Pensacola revival up to the present goings on in Lakeland. And it seems to be that many of these people have not been to any of these meetings, don't know Todd or any of his team personally and have watched all of the emerging coverage with a pre-determined will to scrutinise it.

And they are within their rights to do so - after all, we are urged to test what we hear from preachers and the like. However, be encouraged to get along to these meetings and see for yourselves - come with an open and expectant mind - unbelief, a will set against God - will invariably see you finding all the holes and problems and not engage with Heavenly Father

Here's an analogy that may help: Musicians... sometimes to hear them speak is like hearing some strange language. A classically trained orchestral player could describe the mellifluous melodies and rich textures employed by Debussy to evoke emotion, whereas a scientifically minded musician could explain why certain frequencies combined with others, at certain intervals, with specific timbral qualities can evoke the same emotions.

The terminology they use is different, their conclusion is the same - music can evoke emotion. Just ask any Damien Rice wannabe.

What's the point? - Mis-quoting someone and saying they're unbiblical isn't much help if you don't subscribe to their descriptive method. Todd Bentley refers to things like 'the third heaven' and to spiritual experience involving fire, and wind and bright lights and shaking. The concept of a third heaven, to some is now an obsolete term of phrase that, when the Bible was written, was based on the understanding that above the earth were crystaline spheres that held the sky above us, the stars above that, and somewhere outside of that, there was God. We know now that there aren't crystaline spheres. But Todd uses it to conjure an image in people's minds. His descriptions of his spiritual experiences may bear significant resemblance to alien abductions (as some have suggested) - but he is simply using the words he has to explain them - it's a type of language that would vary from person to person.

You may have read this far and be wondering why all this stuff has been written. Simply this, the outpouring of God's glory in Lakeland is being handled in a certain way - this method annoys people, seemingly as much as it draws them in. The outpouring of God's glory here in Southampton is also being handled a certain way. In no way is it a case of the Lakeland outpouring in Southampton. It IS the Southampton outpouring. Specific to the city - all from the same God.

This is clear from the meetings we've been having. As I'm sure anyone who has been, there is an atmosphere of the presence of God during the meetings, and a palpable presence of change in the city, and it doesn't look like the Lakeland meetings.

These Southampton meetings have drawn together churches from across the city - in massive numbers - this simply didn't happen two months ago. But, as was shared at last Monday's meeting by Chris Davis - this stuff - all of this brilliant stuff that is going on has got to get out on to the streets. It has to start impacting the city, lives changed. A few weeks ago the Life Church crew were out spreading the gospel in Palmerston Park. People were healed, people were saved. We all have that responsibility - if we truly want to steward this outpouring, this great time of blessing and healing, into a full-scale revival - then we need to be prepared to say 'YES' to God - and run with it - get out there and tell people.

So, there concludes this rather lengthy post (which should make up for the rather silent couple of weeks); and with that conclusion there is simply this: Invite anyone and everyone to these meetings. Bring the unchurched, the lost and the broken, but also bring your skeptics and synics - urge them to come and see for themselves rather than basing their opinion on what they read on the internet. (which, hopefully, doesn't discount this post!)

Blessings and Peace to you all!