A Kingdom

A Kingdom, A People & A River
A New Paradigm For the Post Modern House Church Movement

Parousia Weekly Update Letter For The Week of January 4, 2006

"When a prophet is accepted and deified, his message is lost. The prophet is only useful so long as he is stoned as a public nuisance calling us to repentance, disturbing our comfortable routines, breaking our respectable idols, shattering our sacred conventions" (A. G. Gardiner as quoted by Arthur Wallis, "In The Day of Thy Power").

In This Issue:

The Eight Day After Christmas
My New Year’s Resolution: To Prepare For A Spiritual Wildfire
Next Meeting – This Friday, January 6

Dear Friends,

Last week I promised a longer letter this week, so here it is! Last week I talked about what life was like “The Day After Christmas.” This week I want to talk about the 8^th day after Christmas. I also want to challenge your thinking with a New Year’s Resolution to Prepare for a spiritual wildfire. Come join us on Friday evening if you can!

Blessings,
Maurice

The Eighth Day After Christmas

“And there was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with a husband seven years after her marriage, and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. And she never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and pray ers. And at that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Israel.” Luke 2:36 - 38

It had been eight days since Jesus’ birth, eight days since Christmas. On this day Joseph, Mary and the newborn Jesus traveled the five miles from Bethlehem to the temple in Jerusalem in order to fulfill the requirements of the Law regarding child birth. First, a newborn male child was to be presented for circumcision on the eighth day following his birth (Leviticus 12:1-3; Luke 2:21 ). Next, the Law required that every first-born child be devoted to the Lord (Exodus 13:2, 12; Numbers 3:13; Luke 2:22-23). And, as part of her ritual of purification following child-birth, Mary was required to make an offering, too (Leviticus 5:11 ; Luke 2:23 ).

But their day of worship and fulfillment was soon interrupted by unexpected blessing as God spoke into their lives through two “prophetic encounters.” The first encounter was with an elderly prophet named Simeon ( 2:25 -35), a devout man to whom God had revealed “that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” On this day, he had come “in the Spirit into the Temple ” and God fulfilled His promise to this faithful servant by revealing Jesus and by giving Simeon a prophetic word for Joseph and Mary. The second prophetic encounter was with a prophetess named Anna, an elderly prophetess whose service of worship before God consisted of “fastings and pray ers.” For Anna, “fastings and pray ers” were part of her regular service of worship before the Lord. Fasting and pray er had become a part of a lifestyle of worship and service. Born of the tribe of Asher (meaning “happy, fortunate or blessed”), Anna was indeed blessed on this day for her faithful service of fastings and pray ers. For on this day God now honored her faithful service by giving her prophetic revelation and insight to see the infant Jesus and to recognize Him for Who He really was.

Out of all the male children presented at the temple for circumcision that day (and there were undoubtedly many), God spoke to Anna and revealed to her Jesus’ presence among the crush of humanity in the temple on that day, and He revealed Jesus’ identity as “the redemption of Jerusalem .” Scripture does not tell us why Anna felt called to spend her life serving God with fastings and pray ers, but Scripture does give us the result: His revelation to her of the Desire of Nations. In a Temple filled with priests and men dedicated to knowing God, serving God and waiting for the revelation of His redemption, none of them recognized the Messiah when He was brought to the Temple , except an elderly prophet named Simeon and an elderly prophetess who had exercised a life-long discipline of worshiping God with fastings and pray ers.

There is often a spiritual price to be paid if we are to stand among those who see what other people miss. Generations of prophets, priests, religious leaders and ordinary people had longed to see what Anna saw in the temple on this day. Yet, on this day all of them (except two) missed the arrival of the Messiah, the Desire of Ages. Likewise, there is a price to be paid for a spiritual awakening. It is the personal price of regular, dedicated and disciplined fasting and pray er on the part of those whose heart’s desire is to see God move in extraordinary power and blessing in our day.

My New Year’s Resolution: To Prepare For A Spiritual Wildfire

The question remains – like a “pregnant pause” – awaiting an answer: “How do we go about preparing for the spiritual wildfire of revival?” (I have given an updated and extended answer to this question in my “House Church Manifesto” posted on our website). Or, to change the analogy, if you knew that a flood-tide was coming, what would you do to prepare for it? All too often we resemble people who – during times of drought - attend special pray er meetings to pray for rain, but don’t have the faith to bring along an umbrella! (a prudent step of preparation for people who expect their pray ers to be answered)! In the spirit of the New Year I thought I would answer the question: “How do we go about preparing for the spiritual wildfire of revival?” by offering four potential New Years Resolutions:

I Resolve This Year To Embrace An Attitude of Personal Repentance and Spiritual Desperation. Let me offer a little context here by asking a question: How desperate are you to see God move in our Community? Desperation always precedes revival. In his account of the beginning of the Second Great Awakening (1795-1811) in America , Dr. J. Edwin Orr observed the terrible spiritual conditions in post-Revolutionary War America and the desperate nature of the pray ers among God’s people: "The new rationalism - like evangelicalism - claimed to be vitally interested in the welfare of man, equally ready to grant him liberty, equality and fraternity. Its greatest lack lay in its inability to satisfy him in the things of the spirit. It offered bread, but forgot that man could not live by bread alone. Its appeals were heeded, and the multitudes turned away from the things of the spirit. Evangelical Christi ans knew that they faced defeat. They began to pray the pray ers of desperate men." (J. Edwn Orr, The Light of the Nations (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1965), p. 20). How desperate are we? Are we crying out to God for blessings, or are we crying out to God in desperation? Do we truly appreciate the desperate nature of our condition? Do we appreciate the nature of the defeat which confronts us? A homosexual scandal in the mayor’s office (which goes unrepented in any public forum and which results in his recall), a rampant drug problem that goes generally unrecognized by anyone above the rank of garbage collector, 82% of our population which refuses to darken the door of any church, a city unable to balance its budget due to strongholds of mammon and control, and the list goes on. But where is the genuine desperation among God’s people? Desperation leads to brokenness; brokenness leads to repentance; and repentance results in cries for mercy (as opposed to blessing) which eventually touch and move the heart of God. Why is this important? Because the height of blessing to which we desire God to take us must be matched by the depth of brokenness to which we are willing for God to send us. To ask God for height of blessing without depth of brokenness (repentance) is to ask Him to grow a tree without roots that cannot long stand. Roughly 30 days into the great Welsh Revival of 1904 London journalist W.T. Stead asked a penetrating question in his account of the revival, a question that is as valid today as it was then: “Will the Revival in South Wales be like a bonfire on ice? Or will it set the heather afire, kindling a blaze which no man can extinguish?” A season of revival and blessing which lacks a depth of brokenness and repentance is little more than “a bonfire on ice.” It is fascinating and entertaining to watch, and will probably attract a good crowd while it lasts, but it is unsustainable. You don’t ignite a prairie on a frozen lake. Allow me to draw a generalization at this point. In seasons of spiritual awakening there are always those who are willing to settle for “a bonfire on ice” so long as it is attractive and sensational, even though it is unsustainable and eventually unfruitful. In 1904 when the Welsh revival broke out, Welsh newspapers (particularly The Western Mail) began covering the meetings. But the press came, not because Evan Roberts invited them or sent out press releases. The press came because it was impossible to ignore what was happening; not “a bonfire on ice” but a spiritual wildfire, a “fire in the heather” that was spreading through the thatch roofs of every village in Wales . When a community is on fire in a season of awakening, it’s difficult for the press NOT to attend and report, whether they are invited or not.

There is a humorous story that illustrates how Evan Roberts dealt with the press (and the press with Evan Roberts) during the 1904 awakening. On Thursday, November 10^th, during the second week of the revival a journalist came down from Cardiff , the capital of Wales , from the national daily, The Western Mail. He attended the Thursday evening meeting at the Brynteg Congregational Church. According to the recorded testimony of Rhys Penry, who attended that Thursday evening meeting in Brynteg, something remarkable happened: “My father was at Evan Roberts’ side in the meeting. At the end a reporter came up to Evan and asked, ‘What can I put in the Western Mail.’ Instead of answering him, Evan pray ed, ‘O Lord, save the reporter’ - and he was saved and went home.”! On Saturday, his report, which was extensive, ran two columns and featured a photograph of Evan Roberts, appeared in The Western Mail newspaper. I have posted that newspaper report on our website and you can read it for yourself by clicking on this link: www.parousianetwork.com/The_Scenes_At_Loughor.htm.

I Resolve This Year to Take a Personal Risk To Prepare For A Spiritual Wildfire. I must confess that I have a certain degree of admiration for Hernando Cortez. When Cortez landed in the New World he knew that the greatest danger facing his men was not the inhabitants of this new land. Rather, the greatest enemy facing them was their own fears and their desire to return home. Cortez had a simple solution to that problem. He ordered his men to strip their ships of everything useable. Then he ordered them burned (the ships, not the men). Now that’s commitment! How committed are you and I to preparing for a spiritual wildfire of revival? Risk should always be weighed before making a commitment. There is a certain degree of risk in making a personal commitment to prepare for a spiritual outpouring. The risk is that people begin to ignore us (“that’s just so-and-so, he’s always talking about revival. Just ignore him”), or ridicule us (“Hey, where’s that revival you keep promising us is coming?”). But there is a GREATER risk that we must take into consideration, namely, the risk that no spiritual awakening is forth-coming. Without a genuine spiritual awakening our post-Modern culture will increasingly regard institutional Christi anity as an anachronistic curiosity left over from a previous age when foolish people actually believed that God created the world in seven days. Or, as British mathematician and atheist Bertrand Russell once asked, “Do I really have to believe in talking donkeys in order to be a Christi an?”

The pray ers of a John Knox (“Great God, give me Scotland or I shall die”) are the pray ers of a desperate man who has taken a personal risk by preparing for a spiritual wildfire, who has stared spiritual defeat in the face and has cried out in a desperation which declares “Grant me this or take my life.” Desperation leads to brokenness; brokenness leads to repentance; and repentance results in cries for mercy which eventually touch and move the heart of God.

I Resolve This Year to Commit Myself to Disciplined Prayer & Fasting For Spiritual Wildfire - I would hope that this point really doesn’t need much elaboration or explanation. Fasting, when combined with pray er, constitutes a sacrificial act of worship (i.e., worship that costs us something) on the part of a heart that is desperate to humble itself before God and to cry out for His mercy and His blessing. Need I say more? I would like to encourage you to covenant with God to set aside one day per week to fast and pray for 1) The house church movement in your city of which you are a part, 2) the needs of the house church movement in our nation, and 3) that God would ignite a spiritual wildfire within the house church movement that would result in its supernatural growth. John Wesley fasted two days every week (Wednesdays and Fridays). Can’t you afford one day per week?

I Resolve This Year to Take Practical Steps of Obedience and Preparation For Spiritual Wildfire – And this brings us back to the issue of house church (wondering when and how I would get there?). I believe that the practice and pursuit of house church is, in fact, a genuine step of obedience and preparation for the coming spiritual wildfire. I am committed to pursue the new emerging paradigm of “house church” for two basic reasons. First, I believe house church to be a more biblical expression of New Testament “ekklesia” and as such God is returning His Church to His basic paradigm. But secondly, I believe house church to be the new channel which God is raising up in our day in preparation for the spiritual outpouring of the River of Ezekiel 47 in spiritual power, blessing and awakening. Therefore, I regard the practice and pursuit of house church as steps of both obedience and preparation.

The Season of God’s gracious visitation is unfolding. Today The River of God’s Spirit, the River of Ezekiel 47 is preparing to flow in transforming power and blessing never before seen in our generation. Do you see it? Are you ready? Are you a channel through which He can flow?

Next Meeting – Friday, January 6

This week we resume our Friday evening meetings. The focus will be worship, pray er, waiting on God and ministry. I believe it is important that we “press in” to this unfolding season, and so that is our “agenda” starting this Friday evening, January 6, 7:00PM at the home of the Shipley’s (Call if you need directions – 926-7743).