Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Holy is as Holy does!

Wow, wow, wow is all I have to say!

I've had the absolute honour of spending a few days this past week in both worship and ministry with some of my (hopefully!) future fellow Ambassadors Of Holiness. And to be honest, for the first time in my ENTIRE life, I feel more than happy - I feel content!

It's a great feeling to be "released" from the stuff that you hold onto isn't it?! On Thursday night, I headed in to ACC, and whilst Commissioner Joe Noland was great, I actually got more out of some conversations I had with one of my future session mates. He & I have been going through some similar stuff, and it made me realize that there is an enemy out there who must be shaking in his boots, because he's throwing all he possibly can to trip us up!

I started to get a little excited by this idea, and on Friday I spent a lot of the day praying that God would give me an opportunity to spend more time exploring what that might be. So on Friday night, I returned to ACC, and again was sitting with a future session mate. Both of us have a strong call to international service in The Salvation Army, and both of us have a strong feeling that our session will see many of us serve overseas. After the service, I spent some time in conversation and prayer with him, and felt a real sense of peace that God has already gone before me, and prepared the way... so I need to FEAR NOT!

After ACC, a group of us went out for dinner, with some friends, and as I looked around the table, I realized how much my friendship group had already changed in the past six months or so, and was going to change in the future. I looked around and saw my future... and the future was exciting!

On Sunday, James & Sarah Thompson came to run our new service "Laos" (more about that in another post), and for the first time, I got an opportunity to actually MINISTER alongside some of my future session mates, with Sarah leading worship, Simon playing in the band & James preaching. WHAT AN AMAZING NIGHT! Earlier in the day James had told me that Janet Munn had prayed "God we want you to show up and show off!" and we had a real sense that God would do that at Laos that night... and you know what?! HE DID!

I've never been in a more Holy-Spirit filled meeting in all of my life. People were genuinely moved by the Spirit of God, healed and released from their physical, emotional and spiritual pain and baggage. It was quite simply A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I'm often quite nervous about leading anything, but I felt with those three by my side, I could literally do anything, because I felt the presence of God working in and through them, and I didn't fear anything! We prayed with and for each other, and that's all we needed.

So today... I'm glad to say that I genuinely do trust that God is in control of my life and my future. I know that He is calling me to be an Ambassador of Holiness with those amazing people, who will challenge & inspire me and who will walk this journey of ministry with me the rest of my life. And the thing is... there's even more of them out there I feel exactly the same about!

So in the words of my favourite song from my not-so-favourite-but-still-rather-fond-of musical "Fame" -


"Bring on tomorrow, let it shine! Like the sun coming up on a beautiful day, it's yours and mine...we can make a difference, it's not to late... bring on tomorrow! I CAN'T WAIT!"

(Ok Theatre Geek...I know it... whatever, God made me that way! lol!)