What's up Doc(trine)?

My recent blog about smoking has caused me to think some more, and (as ever) I'm thinking about church. Recently I was having a conversation that got rather heated about the Doctrine of the Church of England, and how I believed that the C of E (on the whole) were about doing good things, and not about seeing manifestations of God; or Miracles, you might say.

Their point (as this was a room of C of E people) was that everything is a miracle, and Jesus was about Love, so we should Love God, Love each other and Love ourselves. That is the Christian way.

I then had a further discussion where I raised the question; what is more important (in the realm of being a Christian); acting in the supernatural realm of God, seeking his manifest presence and taking authority over sickness, demons etc; or living a humble life, sharing all you have, doing good deeds, and really loving all those around us.

You may be asking yourself why I've segregated those two, because I think we all realise that both are equally important to the Christian life. We only need to look at the headlines of Jesus ministry to see that Love and Power were his gifts to the world.

However I find in mondern church, that the two ARE segregated! The churches that really press in for the presence are not really involved in the good deeds stuff (soup run, school evangelism, homeless help, prison visits), but they do see people healed, set free, and at times an open heaven over what they are doing. Conversely, many churches that don't seek that manifestation are more significantly involved in the good deeds stuff, but often don't even ask for the healings!

I don't know why there is this segregation, and I don't want to name names and give examples here, but I hope you can see what I mean.

Personally I LOVE the spiritual realm, I love experiancing God, I want to experiance more, I want to touch him, I want to feel him, I want to worship him!!

But I've just been struck with another thought. Let's say you have a really good friend, she has a Daughter. One day, there's a problem, I don't know what the problem is, but you are there, and able to help her out. This may even be financially. You know that if you speak to your friend, you'll get your money back, or they'll do something nice to repay your efforts.

Shouldn't that be how we treat other people, our best friends child?

Woah, deep, back to Tuesday afternoon banter with spreadsheets.

'be careful what you wish for...'

In c.600BC, a man called Aesop first coined the phrase 'Be careful what you wish for, it may just come true'. Well, he probably wrote it in Greek, but you get my point. Well, that hasn't really played much of a part in my life until recently.

Last Tuesday, Dan and I went to a Roy Fields meeting in Chorley Wood (at Latimer Park) just north of London. Roy was one of the worship leaders at the Lakeland Outpouring. At the end of his talk, he offered a response for people who were in ministry but had problems with stuff - like smoking.

Well, I had said to someone earlier that day that if there was the option, I'd go forward for prayer about my smoking, but I didn't really feel convicted about it yet so I wasn't expecting much.

To cut a long story short, he gave the call, I went forward for prayer. On Wednesday, I managed to smoke 3 and a half cigarettes, and each made me feel sick. on Thursday I managed to smoke one half of a cigarette. It made me feel REALLY ill.

So, today is Monday, I havent had any cigarettes since last Thursday, so I guess I'm just coming up to 100 hours of no smoking now. What's more, I haven't had any cravings, I haven't had any grumpy moods, I haven't been stressed. Nothing. I've had the psychological kinda 'Oh wait, I don't smoke now' stuff, like when having a cup of tea, after eating, driving spending time with certain friends and stuff like that, but that's been it.

Before last week, I was happy smoking 15 a day, now it's 0.

But this has made me think a bit, you see, I didn't feel convicted, so why was God's response so swift? It actually made me realise that I hadn't LET myself get convicted. And there's more areas that I have handed over to God in my head, but not handed over in my heart.

It's a tough pill to swallow when you realise that actually you're a mess because you're making yourself a mess, and the stuff that you thought that you'd prayed REALLY, you didn't mean and it was all just a waste of time. It's when our hearts desire something and the prayer comes from there that I believe God really listens to it.

I had opened myself up just a bit, and I really believe God was there in heaven, saw me pray a bit and said "That's good enough, Mike, Gabe, get in there and sort it, I've been waiting way too long for this", followed by some kinda sci-fi noises and a heavenly light show.

So now I'm not a smoker, but I'm not saying I've given up, because I haven't - in all honesty I'd probably like to smoke again, I'm just unable to! How funny is that!

So, if I've learned anything from this, it's look to yourself for your questions about God first, before going to him, because he does hear your prayers, and he does do stuff today.

On another note, stuff is going really well, been having lots of fun ministering in different places and playing in different bands, been to Dudley a few mroe times, me and Dan will be playing at a conference there in November that should be amazing, speakers such as the Bakers, Bill Johnson and Ken Gott - I'm looking forward to it. Oh, and I brought a new amp...Gonna be buying some more stuff soon, so I'll do a big post when I get it all.
(Me, Ryan Baker-Barnes and Dan)

God is good...