‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.’ (Isaiah 55:8)
It's a well-known passage, often declared. And absolutely
true.
At Revival Prayer at Chroma Church on Tuesday, God surprised us. Something just
shifted. Something just changed.
To all intents and purposes, it was a pretty normal
gathering. In fact, the numbers were a little lower than average, with maybe
around 120 attending. Dark nights and colder evenings have likely reduced the
numbers.
And so, it wasn't anything special. But it was for God.
We started differently. We started with a fire tunnel. It's
something we often do at the end of a meeting, each of us walking through a
tunnel of people who pray over us. It's a good way to end an evening and send
us out.
But on Tuesday, that's how we started. Consequently, there
was an increased sense of God's Holy Spirit upon us as we moved into prayer and
worship. That led, perhaps, to an increased openness to God having His way and
towards us not having a particular agenda.
God impressed upon us the need to be open and honest, to be
unafraid to declare to the world around us what is good and holy and what is not
in line with His purposes.
There was a moment when we realised we needed to return to
our first love. We reflected on the early days of our faith. For many of us,
those days were crazy days, when we did outlandish things, when we were bold
and brave about our faith. When our love for God overwhelmed us and overcame
our fears.
And so, something shifted. How that works out in the life of
our church, I don't know. We are living in days of revival. Certainly, in
numerical terms, God's blessing is on us, with over 500 people surrendering
their lives to Jesus Christ already this year.
But it was in the unexpected moment that God chose to move
again. Something just shifted.