A normal God... I don't think so

For the past few weeks I've been reading the book of Joshua and thoroughly enjoying it. Yesterday I had the pleasure of reading about The Fall of Jericho (see Joshua 6). Great story... and brilliant for visualizing.  I probably spent a good half hour picturing it all in my head, then spent the next half hour marvelling at how amazing God is. Who would have thought up a whole nation marching around a walled city with no talking (definitely another miracle!)!? And for six days. Imagine the terror in Jericho! How do you counterattack, then again why would you want to? There's too many of them. And what on earth are they doing?

How does this many people march around the city walls seven times on the seventh day(must have taken ages, but it also makes me wonder at the size of cities back then..). Again, they remained silent until the end when the trumpets are blown? Then (finally!) you're allowed to open your mouth and shout. And after all your effort the walls fall down, but not just any way. They fall flat. What's normal about that? It's like expecting the stone walls at the front of our section to just keel over! Strange.

I admit it, God's ways and thoughts are nothing like ours! He doesn't make sense to our mind, he far exceeds our imaginings. He's not typical, normal, standard or any other word you could throw in there for normal. It's just another reason why God's pretty awesome. It makes my striving look crazy... why not rest? Why not trust?

It does make me smile though. If you're anything like me and NOT always logical, you're in good company.

Giving Birth

This week I've been listening to a message by Bill Johnson called 'Hearing God's voice'. Somewhere in this message he shares about how God spoke and the world was created. God never recalled the word. As a result the universe is expanding, the natural world and the universe as a whole actively maintain it's laws, cycles and seasons. Creation reproduces itself all because; God spoke.

At Essence on Thursday morning we'd been talking about tonight's Flame service, Step onto Liquid. It's the first of it's kind at Flame with no songs or sermon prepared, there'll be a few chords played for worship and an open floor to share a word, testimony, prophecy etc by those present. We don't know what's going to happen, we only know that God will be there, we'll be there and we're hungry and full of expectancy for what He might do.

God impressed something upon me while we were praying. I think it's a small illustration of what Bill shared and an encouragement to those involved in Flame. God is present, He's excited, and He has big plans for Renewal Youth Ministry. I also think God is overjoyed that we're open to trying out Step onto Liquid.

I was standing near the entrance to the main church auditorium. I didn't see people, I only know that the room was full of young people attending Flame. When I looked up I saw words floating through the air. There was a sense of knowing that the room was literally crammed full of words, stories and testimony's. There were layers to these words because in the normal sense there's no way they could fit in the room naturally. They were things that God had written on the hearts of the people in the room. They were past, present and future. The atmosphere was weighty, heavy and tangible. There was an expectancy in the room that had something to do with both the people and the words, something which was in a sense, prophetic, but would be likened more to the expectancy of giving birth to something. That the comprehension of each of these words held life and the power to create.

That's what God showed me, and I'm a little excited..