soul survivor mini mag: winter 2011

16
SOUL SURVIVOR MINI MAG, WINTER 2011/2012: SPECIAL NATURALLY SUPERNATURAL EDITION FEATURING PLUS MIKE PILAVACHI WONDERS HOW WE TUNE INTO GOD BETH CROFT ON MOUNTAINTOP MOMENTS OF OUR FAITH ANDY CROFT GETS TO GRIPS WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT REAL LIFE STORY OF HEALING FROM A STRUGGLE WITH ANOREXIA SOUL SURVIVOR SUMMER 2012 UPDATE THE LATEST GOODIES FOUND AT THE SOUL SURVIVOR SHOP

Upload: soul-survivor

Post on 30-Mar-2016

220 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

DESCRIPTION

Special Naturally Supernatural Edition! Mike P wonders how we tune in to God, Andy Croft gets to grips with the Holy Spirit, Beth Croft sharew about mountaintop moments of our faith - plus all sorts of other goodies!

TRANSCRIPT

SOUL SURVIVOR MINI MAG, WINTER 2011/2012: SPECIAL NATURALLY SUPERNATURAL EDITION

FEATURING

PLUS

MIKE PILAVACHI WONDERS HOW WE TUNE INTO GOD

BETH CROFT ON MOUNTAINTOP MOMENTS OF OUR FAITH

ANDY CROFT GETS TO GRIPS WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT

REAL LIFE STORY OF HEALING FROM A STRUGGLE WITH ANOREXIA

SOUL SURVIVOR SUMMER 2012 UPDATE

THE LATEST GOODIES FOUND AT THE SOUL SURVIVOR SHOP

hope you’re really well. I’m a little bit exhausted as Johannus Von Lycra* has me on a crazy-strict work out programme to get me super fit for next summer...

Aside from that I’m really excited about the things God is speaking to me about at the moment. As you know from being around Soul Survivor we love to make space for the Holy Spirit to work in our lives and I’m desperate that we do that as followers of Jesus all year round, not just when we get together at church or big events.

This little mag hopefully gives you some thoughts and ideas about what that might look like for you as we explore who the Holy Spirit is, how we can meet with him, how he can heal us and how we hear God’s voice.

Plus in February we’ve got an event in Eastbourne where we want the whole church to come together as we learn more about moving in the power of the Holy Spirit. As we step out we’ll see even more people coming to faith and God’s kingdom breaking through in our every day lives. That’s what I’m passionate about! Please do tell your youth pastor and church leaders about the event and encourage them to come along – we want to reach as many people as possible so we can be doing this together.

I’d love to hear your stories too of how you’re growing in things like hearing God’s voice and praying for healing. You can post your stories on our Facebook wall or email [email protected]; we’d love to hear from you and we can keep encouraging each other about the awesome things that God does when we step out in faith. Go for it guys – be bold and pray for the Holy Spirit to fill you so you can live a naturally supernatural life.

With love

Mike

* If you didn’t know, Johannus Von Lycra is Mike’s personal fitness trainer. You can check out a special Worship Workout video with Johannus at:www.soulsurvivor.com/uk/news

summer update

Hear a little about our plans for the morning sessions at

Soul Survivor 2012 and find out where you can get all the

latest summer event news.

one stop shop There’s all sorts of stuff kicking about in the Soul Survivor Shop these days.

all the dates Turn to the back page to get

all of our upcoming Soul Survivor 2012 dates...

WHO IS THE HOLY SPIRIT?

by andy croftA little theological exploration into

who exactly the Holy Spirit is.

KEEPING THE FAITH

by beth croftFinding it tough to get back to everyday life after a summer at

Soul Survivor?

SOUL SURVIVOR MINI MAG: WINTER 2011/2012

BREATHING LIFE INTO DRY BONES

jo’s story An amazing story of healing

from a struggle with anorexia.

HELP! WHERE IS THE HOLY SPIRIT?

by jeannie morgan Not sure you’re feeling where God is at the moment? Don’t panic, check this top advice.

LISTEN UP!

by mike pilavachi Ever given a prophetic word using

lines from an Abba song?

The Soul Survivor Mini Mag is made by Soul Survivor UK. It’s a bit of an in-house job and so all the content and design is put together by Liza, Sarah and Dan (the Soul Survivor Communications team) and editorial oversight is given by Mike, Andy and Ali. The Mini Mag is free to anyone who would like to receive it and we send out around two a year.

[email protected] Soul Survivor, Unit 2 Paramount Ind. Est., Sandown Rd, Watford, Herts, UK, WD24 7XF. Charity No. 1080720. Company No. 03991111

SOUL SURVIVOR MINI MAG, WINTER 2011/2012: SPECIAL NATURALLY SUPERNATURAL EDITION

FEATURING

PLUS

MIKE PILAVACHI WONDERS HOW WE TUNE INTO GOD

BETH CROFT ON MOUNTAINTOP MOMENTS OF OUR FAITH

ANDY CROFT GETS TO GRIPS WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT

REAL LIFE STORY OF HEALING FROM A STRUGGLE WITH ANNOREXIA

SOUL SURVIVOR SUMMER 2012 UPDATE

THE LATEST GOODIES FOUND AT THE SOUL SURVIVOR SHOP

Draft1.indd 1 22/11/2011 14:47

SOUL SURVIVOR MINI MAG, WINTER 2011/2012: BEING NATURALLY SUPERNATURAL

he Holy Spirit is the most misunderstood person in the whole of the Bible! To live out our faith we need to understand who he is and what he does.

Firstly we need to know that the Holy Spirit is a person not an ‘it’. We have an earthly equivalent of fathers so it’s easy to relate to the idea of God as our father, and we understand the concept of Jesus as the Son, but there’s no earthly equivalent of the Holy Spirit so we can get confused.

Sometimes we think of him as a mysterious force rather than the third person in the Trinity and someone we are in relationship with. Once we recognise that, our mind-set starts to shift.

For ages I related to the Holy Spirit by thinking “I need to get more of this power so I can use it.” Then I realised it’s not about me using him, it’s about me being full of

him so he can use me for his will. When we surrender to him and let him take charge, that’s when we start to see the supernatural happening in our lives in the way that God intended.

I heard about some missionaries going to China who were translating the gospel into local dialect. When it came to talking about the Holy Spirit, the nearest equivalent they could find was ‘the resident boss’. What a great description! He’s the boss who lives in us so that we can be of use to God.

So how is the Holy Spirit talked about in the Bible? There are four main ways: wind, fire, water and a dove.

doveThe Holy Spirit is also pictured as being like a dove in the Bible. This happens at the baptism of Jesus when the Father’s voice is heard from heaven and the Spirit descends like a dove (Luke 3:22). This dove symbolises peace or the Shalom and wholeness of God. This Shalom isn’t just about a lack of stress, it’s about an awesome, rich, fulfilling sense of God’s peace and presence.

These are just four examples of how the Holy Spirit is talked about in the Bible. As we understand more about who the Holy Spirit is and what his role is, we start to realise how truly incredible he is. The more I learn, the more amazed I am that the holy presence of God makes his home inside the hearts of people like us.

wind

In Acts 2 where we read about Pentecost, the room is filled with a blowing wind. Also Jesus says in John 3v8: “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.”

To state the obvious: you can’t see wind! But you can its effects. The Holy Spirit can be anything from a powerful tornado to a gentle breath of wind. Also you can’t grab the Holy Spirit just like you can’t grab wind. You can’t track him down or catch him, but you can follow him.

fire

On the day of Pentecost the disciples saw the spirit ‘like tongues of fire’. It’s amazing that he is like fire and water which aren’t exactly similar! That’s the God we serve; he bends our minds and doesn’t fit any rule we try and make for him because he’s outside of our understanding.

Fire purifies and as the Holy Spirit fills us he makes us holy; he makes us a place where God can live. He transforms our character and, like fire, he refines and purifies us.

The more we allow the Holy Spirit to work in us, the more we will not only receive his gifts, but bear his fruit. This means we will be more loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle and full of self-control.

waterIn John 4 we read about Jesus meeting a Samaritan woman at a well. He tells her she will never thirst if she drinks the Holy Spirit. Sometimes when we think about water we think about rain so it doesn’t seem that appealing to us!

In the Middle East where Jesus said these words to the Samaritan woman, water meant life. The Holy Spirit brings us life. It is by the Spirit that we know more of the Father and the Son – in fact you might say the Holy Spirit is the most modest member of the trinity because that’s pretty much all he seems interested in!

WA

NT

MO

RE

? If

you

’d li

ke to

hea

r A

ndy

talk

abo

ut th

e H

oly

Spir

it yo

u ca

n bu

y hi

s ‘N

atur

ally

Sup

erna

tura

l’ ta

lk fr

om th

is s

umm

er fo

r £

1 (c

ode

1503

9)

from

sho

p.so

uls

urv

ivor

.com

f I could draw a graph of my spiritual journey as a teenager, it would look a little bit like a roller coaster.

�������������������

���Each summer, I used to go on Christian holidays with my family. In addition to getting a tan and crushing on boys, I went along to groups each night, where all the young people hung out, chatted about God and worshipped together.

There was something about being there that completely recharged my spiritual batteries. I don’t think it was anything they put in the water, but it probably had a lot to do with the amazing people I met and the quality God-times we had.

When I was there, hearing about Jesus’ death on the cross wouldn’t seem like another story from a Sunday school textbook, instead it would reduce me to tears. I would think back over the previous year with my many mistakes and stuff-ups, and couldn’t get over the fact that God loved me despite all that.

I’d always known that God was real, but every summer I seemed to experience him in a new way. Year after year, I would repent, receive God’s amazing forgiveness and get filled with a new passion to live for him. Come September

I would go back to school on fire to live for Jesus and ready to change the world! But it wouldn’t take long before I lost heart and began to stuff things up again.

Maybe this sounds like a familiar story. Going to Christian festivals over the summer, encountering God in a personal way and then going back to the daily grind of life where things seem so different. It can throw up some big questions for sure. Does God only meet with us at big events? What does our faith look like when we get back home? How can we be in the real world without conforming to its ways? How do we keep going and stick close to Jesus?

Firstly, life is always full of ups and downs, ebbs and flows, highs and lows. Sometimes we will feel really close to God and other times not so much. And that’s OK! Our walk with Jesus will never be a continuous ‘mountain-top experience’. You may get an amazing view on the top of a mountain but nothing grows there; the place where there is growth and life is down in the valley. So God uses those mountaintop experiences to equip us for the times when we find ourselves in the valley.

We can draw encouragement from the Psalmists. Their songs are so real and honest, expressing joy when God felt near, and sometimes confusion when it seemed like God had forgotten them. But they always acknowledged that he was worthy of praise regardless of the situation.

Connecting with God each day is vital if we want to maintain our faith; just like any relationship, it

will only thrive if we make time to spend time with him. James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you”. Although God loves us unconditionally, our relationship with him was not designed to be one-way. He longs to have a real two-way relationship with each of us. This inevitably involves time! It doesn’t matter so much what you do during that time, it’s finding a good way for you to personally meet with God.

It’s helpful to shut out other distractions (so having the TV on in the background, or checking your phone every few seconds probably won’t help!) Some people like to journal and write down their thoughts and prayers, others prefer to be somewhere no one else can hear them so they can say the things out loud. You might want to sing and worship or be totally quiet! Do whatever it is that helps you personally engage with God and give him your attention.

As well as touching base with God each day, community is crucial. Living a life that has an impact on God’s Kingdom is virtually

You may get an amazing view on the top of a mountain but nothing grows there; the place where there is growth and life is down in the valley.

impossible without each other. Christianity isn’t about going solo; we are part of a huge team called the Church which is God’s plan for transforming the world in which we live. ‘Doing life’ with other Christians requires us to be vulnerable and put ourselves out there. It’s about loving each other, serving our churches and community, and committing to a place of worship. The church may not be perfect but when we get it right, it’s an amazing reflection of God himself.

So now that the summer seems like a while ago, let’s not spend the rest of the year living for those mountaintop experiences, but let’s press into God even when it feels like we’re walking through the valley or life seems mundane.

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10

Throughout the year God wants to use us for “good works” in our schools, colleges, families and workplaces, but it starts with making ourselves available.

When we get bogged down with life and tangled up in sin, it can be tempting to wait until the summer to ‘get sorted’, but God wants to mend us on the way!

His mercies are new every morning and we get a fresh chance everyday to receive them. So let’s not allow addictions, selfishness or boredom to stop us living a year-round life for Jesus. Let’s get right with God each day, and take hold of all that he has planned. The time is now!

We loved hanging out with so many of you in the summer and we can’t wait to do it all over again in 2012! We’ve been going through your feedback and we’re busy making plans so that next summer is better than ever. We’re planning on some new venues – including a new café – and as it’s the Olympics we’ll be finding the biggest screen we can so you don’t have to miss a second of the action!

Got a passion to serve other young people? Love to make a good cuppa? Like keeping nippers entertained? Think you could rock a steward’s jacket? We want to hear from you! There are loads of roles that go on behind the scenes, all of which play a vital part in making Soul Survivor happen. If you’d like to join the team, check out the www.soulsurvivor.com/team and apply!

In our morning meetings Andy will be taking us through the book of Acts so we can learn together from the life of the early church. We’ll be finding out more about the work of the Holy Spirit, how we can share our faith with others, and what worship looked like for them and can look like for us.

Keep an eye on our website, Facebook and Twitter in the run up to the summer to find out more about what we’ve got planned and who will be joining us! In the meantime, don’t forget to book and pay for your place before the end of January to save up to £24.

WEEK A: 27th-31st July, Stafford Showground WEEK B: 7th-11th August, Bath & West Showground WEEK C: 12th-16th August Bath & West Showground

GET ALL THE LATEST SUMMER EVENT NEWS AT WWW.SOULSURVIVOR.COM/UK/SS2012

CATCH UP ON SOME TEACHING

audio and video dvds of

seminars

Missed a talk this summer or think someone you know might like to have a listen to one? You can buy all the talks from each event on both Mp3 and video DVD.

FROM £1 FOR ONE TALK£30 FOR A SET OF ALL

THE TALKS

We’ve got loads of goodies at shop.soulsurvivor.com that will encourage you or someone you love in their relationship with Jesus!

S T U C K F O R A P R E S E N T I D E A ? Give someone a Soul Survivor gift card to buy something very nice from our online shop.

Available from £5 and upwards.... Or give them the Live Worship from Soul Survivor DVD which features brilliant tracks from Beth

Croft, Ben Cantelon, Tom Field and Jamie Rodwell. Just £8.99!

WE ARE THE FREE

the new soul survivor live

album

The brand new live album! It’s here at last! Tracks include: ‘You never give up’ ‘Your love reaches’ ‘We are the free’ and ‘One thing remains’ from worship leaders Matt Redman, Beth Croft, Tom Field and Jamie Rodwell. It’s even got a Momentum bonus disc that

features Tim Hughes!

£12.49

ENCOUNTER THE HOLY SPIRITjeannie

morgan’s new book

In Jeannie’s brilliantly down-to-earth way she tackles the questions of who the Holy Spirit is, how we can be filled with his power and how we can begin to use his gifts.

£6.99

A LITTLE LOOKEY LOOKEY AT THE GOODIES WAITING FOR YOU AT SHOP.SOULSURVIVOR.COM

ne of my favourite stories in the Bible is when the prophet Ezekiel sees a heap of dry bones. God talks with Ezekiel and shows him that he can breathe life in to the dry bones so that they can live again (read it all in Ezekiel 37).

The reason I love it is because I have felt like these dry bones; for about 10 years of my life I had Anorexia. I hated the

way I looked, I didn’t know who I was supposed to be, I had no confidence and the only way I knew to make myself feel better was to control how I looked and control what I ate.

The obsession consumed me as focusing on food and what I looked like meant that I didn’t need to deal with the feelings I had about myself and the pain in my heart. It felt like I could disappear so that no one could hurt me or misuse me. I could fade away into the background, choosing death.

Anorexia is a complicated illness that is often misunderstood. People saying

“just eat” never helps. My disappearing body was a cry for help. I was in pain, physically and mentally. I needed someone to come alongside me and understand what was really going on. I needed someone who would fight for me and be my advocate.

God gave me just that: the Holy Spirit. One word used to describe the Holy Spirit is Paraclete and means counsellor, encourager, comforter and Spirit of truth. The Holy Spirit is God’s gift to us and he is an amazing gift! We can live every day personally knowing the Holy Spirit living in us. We can know him as our comforter and counsellor in every area of our lives.

Alongside the presence of his Holy Spirit, God has used many people throughout my illness and recovery to breathe life back into my dry bones. I had amazing support from friends, pastors and professionals. But it was a long journey to recovery. Every day I had to make hard choices, face my biggest fear (food) and deal with the pain inside. Choosing recovery and life is the bravest and best choice. It is hard, but it is possible. We don’t do it in our own strength but by knowing God and having his Holy Spirit in us, cheering us on, being our counsellor, speaking truth about us and who we are in God. Gradually I got better but the illness still seemed to have a hold, like it had left a root in my heart.

As time went on I became increasingly angry that the illness was keeping me from one of my passions: dance. My body didn’t have the physical strength to dance and I felt like the illness was stealing my life. I remember crying out to God in worship, sobbing and screaming. I was desperate. Then, one time during worship, a friend came over to me and

gently sang a song over me that God had given her. It felt like liquid healing being poured over my soul. As she sang she spoke truth and life, and I could feel that truth pouring into me. I could feel a root being pulled out from the deepest part of me and space appearing inside me. As my friend sang, she allowed the Holy Spirit working in her to breathe life in me, just like God breathed into those dry bones in the book of Ezekiel.

In Romans it says, “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.” As the Holy Spirit filled me I began to know the truth that I was God’s child. I felt alive, I felt loved, I was God’s daughter who he thought was beautiful and who he delighted in. I felt like the illness no longer consumed me, or had a hold on me. God had given me freedom!

FU

RT

HE

R R

EA

DIN

G:

Mer

cy fo

r eat

ing

diso

rders

, by

Nan

cy A

lcor

n

First

step

s out

of

eatin

g di

sord

ers, b

y D

r K

ate

Mid

dlet

on &

Dr

Jane

Sm

ith

ww

w.an

orex

iabu

limia

care

.org

.uk

| w

ww.

b-ea

t.co.

uk |

ww

w.do

ve.c

o.uk

/cam

paig

n-fo

r-re

al-b

eaut

y

Recovery is a slow journey that has been both exciting and hard. There are setbacks and wobbles, but that is part of the process. I’ve continued having counselling and knowing the Holy Spirit enables me to continue my journey. He is my counsellor, the speaker of truth, and my supporter and I can call on him in any and every moment. Through him I can believe the beautiful truths God says about us, his children, in the Bible!

If you are struggling with an eating disorder, know that there is hope. There is life. God is for you and the Holy Spirit is with you so you can know comfort and peace in the storm, and he can lead you to the wide-open spacious place called freedom. If you are supporting someone with an eating disorder, continue to be a good loyal friend and speak truth into their life, remembering it’s not just about food; they are dealing with a lot of pain.

t seemed so easy to pray for one another when we were at Soul Survivor in the summer didn’t it? Can he do the same things when we’re home? Has he got the same power?

Of course he has! So how come it doesn’t feel the same? We need to remember that at the summer events we were worshipping Jesus for at least two hours a day, sometimes longer. All that time our spirit was connecting with the Holy Spirit. We were expectant of meeting with Jesus and expecting him to DO something and expecting to connect with him.

be stillSo now you’re home, just try being still for at least 5 minutes (10 is even better) and invite the Holy Spirit to come upon you.

Psalm 46v10 says, “Be still and know that I am God.” So don’t do anything! Don’t pray – just be! Doing can stop us receiving. Be a receiver. I realised this a few years ago when I broke my arm and shoulder in five places. It couldn’t be plastered and for 10 weeks I couldn’t pray, worship or read my Bible as I was on too many pain killers. All I could do, was to be! I would say to Jesus – “Here I am”.

After 10 weeks of doing that every day I was finally able to go out again but I couldn’t wait to get back and just be! This taught me a big lesson: being still gives us an opportunity to interact with the Holy Spirit and for our time with him to be about what he wants to do.

After being still for a while, ask the Holy Spirit to lead you during the day, to show you what he is doing and to prompt you to interact with him throughout the day. Ask him to fill you with the love and power of Jesus. Then during the day be expectant of him speaking to you.

It might just be one word. I realised a few years ago that the Holy Spirit had often been saying to me just one thing when I was engaged in conversation with someone. They would be telling me about their concerns, worries or health problems and into my head would come ‘PRAY’. I ignored it making excuses: ’they will think I am a religious nut’, ’they probably haven’t got time’.

Eventually I realised it was the Holy Spirit prompting me and I took the plunge. Guess what? No one hit me or rejected me! I offered to pray, gently laid a hand on the person (with my eyes open so I looked normal) and asked the Holy Spirit to come upon them. I kept the prayer really short and they looked really pleased afterwards.

So far no one has been healed, delivered or raised from the dead but it has felt good to be obedient to the Holy Spirit. And I have to remember it is not my responsibility for people to get healed; it is God’s. All I was doing was joining in with what the Holy Spirit was doing.

Sometimes we get disappointed when we pray for healing. Sometimes it is because we have prayed for healing when really we’ve expected a miracle. A miracle is instant. Healing is a process. Sometimes we have to pray more than once. We need to be praying for wholeness because Jesus is interested in the whole person not just the physical.

When a man was brought to Jesus who was paralysed and so lay on a mat (Matthew 9v1-8), the first thing Jesus did was affirm him by calling him ‘son’. Then he healed him spiritually by forgiving him his sins. Only after doing both of those things did he heal the man’s physical condition.

surpriseThe Holy Spirit uses me when I am least expecting it. Recently my husband and I had to get up really early to go to the airport. We were travelling to suffer for the Lord in sunny Florida speaking at a retreat for church staff. The taxi arrived at 6.15am and I have to say that I am NOT a morning person. About 10 minutes later we were stuck in heavy traffic when the taxi driver asked, ‘Are you going on holiday?’ At this point I could have just said yes but I proceeded to tell him where we were going and what we were going to do (inwardly thinking ‘Oh no!’)

This unleashed a whole barrage of questions. It was an evangelist’s dream. However, I am not an evangelist! For the next two hours while the traffic crawled along we answered every question from our taxi driver.

We told him stories of what we had seen Jesus do during the Soul Survivor events including some amazing healings, people giving and receiving forgiveness, and people experiencing God’s love.

When we arrived at the airport, I reached into my bag and gave the taxi driver a book on inner healing. Did he become a Christian there and then like in all the good stories? No – but I know that the Holy Spirit is on his case. The Holy Spirit is the one that will lead that man to Jesus or maybe he will use you to take him another step on his journey. All we have to be is willing. Are you willing?

Jeannie has been a friend of Soul Survivor for ever. She often speaks at our events and she’s written two books on prayer and the Holy Spirit!

agerly desire the spiritual gifts especially the gift of prophecy... For anyone who prophecies, speaks to men and women for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort.

I once met a guy called Bruce Collins who came to lead a meeting at my church and prophesied over people. My eyes were on stalks the whole time! How did he know all this stuff about people he’d never met before? At the end I asked Bruce how he did it and he told me “God wants to speak to all his children. The only qualification you need for God to speak to you is to be a sheep. Because Jesus says in John chapter 10: ‘My sheep hear my voice and they recognise my voice’.”

Seeing my eagerness for the gift, Bruce invited me along to his next meeting

as his assistant who would also pray prophetically for people. I said yes but I knew I was in trouble. When the meeting came round I was in state of total panic. I didn’t feel very prophetic at all. I knew that Bruce would have all these amazing words for people and then he would turn to me, and say ‘What do you have Mike?’ and I would say ‘...pass’. It would be humiliating.

The meeting began, we all sat down and as Bruce prayed I started begging the Lord to give me a word… but nothing came. I made all sorts of promises to

1 Corinthians 14v1

God but the only thing that came into my head was ‘Dancing Queen’ by Abba. The more I tried not to think of it, the more it was thudding in my skull.

Finally the dreaded moment came. Bruce said, ‘What do you have Mike?’ I thought ‘If I don’t say anything and I say ‘pass’ I’ll be saying ‘pass’ for the rest of my life’. So I just took the risk and said to the lady in front of me “I think that maybe the Lord might want to speak to you in the words of Abba: You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life’.” And then I wanted to die.

What made it worse was this lady and her husband started laughing. But then she said ‘Three weeks ago I started a dance group in our church and as we were coming to this meeting I said to my husband in the car I wanted to scrap it. I actually said to my husband ‘I can’t dance’. ‘I can’t dance’!”

It turns out God can even speak through me and Abba. I was the most surprised person there! Afterwards I told Bruce I’d expected for God to speak in an old man’s voice, not through a pop song. He pointed me towards Numbers 12v6 in the Bible which says:

‘When a prophet of the Lord is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams but this is not true of my servant Moses... With him I speak face to face. Clearly and not in riddles. He sees the fullness of the Lord.’

So with the exception of Moses, God does not speak clearly to us, he does not speak face to face, he speaks in riddles

and in dreams. That’s why the words we think we might have for people can sound a bit crazy, but like the words from Abba they can still be spot on.

That said we need to make sure we prophecy in accordance with the Bible. That means any words we offer should be strengthening, encouraging and comforting (1 Corinthians 14 v3), and it must point towards Jesus. The Holy Spirit who releases prophecy, always points to Jesus. Christian prophecy is more about revealing Jesus than it is about revealing the future. It is not the Christian version of fortune telling. Sometimes God speaks to us about the future but it ALWAYS leads us to Jesus.

We can also tell if a word is from God by testing it against the Bible. All prophecies from God will be inline with Biblical teaching because the Bible is God’s final authority. God doesn’t change his character, God doesn’t change his personality, and he stays the same so he would never speak to us in a way that contradicts scripture.

If you want to hear God speaking prophetically, get into the Bible, because the more you read the book, the more you receive his word and the more you can discern what sounds like your Father and what doesn’t.

Let’s get as close to God as we can so that we know his character and we know his heart. And let’s eagerly desire the gift of prophecy that we might strengthen, encourage and comfort one another.

MATT’S STORY...Me and a friend were in a pub and felt God say we should offer to buy a round of drinks for two other lads who were sat in the corner of the bar. We’d never met these guys before, but we went over and asked them if we could buy them a couple of drinks. We ended up chatting with them for a while about faith, life and all sorts. To cut a very long story short, one of these lads started coming along to church with me and a few weeks ago he went on the Alpha course and gave his life to Jesus…

It’s amazing what God can do when we hear his voice and act on it!

FUR

TH

ER

RE

AD

ING

: Su

rpris

ed b

y th

e Voi

ce o

f G

od,

Jack

Dee

re |

The

Gift

of

Prop

hecy

, Way

ne G

rude

m

Enc

ount

er th

e Hol

y Sp

irit b

y Je

anni

e M

orga

n |

The

Hol

y Sp

irit a

nd S

pirit

ual G

ifts,

Max

Tur

ner

We’d love to see your face at one of these events:

SOULNET RETREAT

A weekend of relaxing & meeting with God for youth leaders.

3rd-5th February at Sherwood Forest Center Parcs

CHECK OUT WWW.SOULSURVIVOR.COM/UK FOR ALL THE INFO

INCLUDING Teaching from Mike Pilavachi and Andy Croft, with special guest Christy Wimber from Yorba Linda Vineyard in California.

MOMENTUM WEEKEND 2nd-4th March

MOMENTUM SUMMER 17th-21st AUGUST

soulsurvivor.com/momentum

Layout.indd 4 11/07/2011 09:23

NATURALLY SUPERNATURAL Find out more about the Holy Spirit and how to see his power

at work today. 15th- 18th February at Eastbourne

Congress Theatre

SUMMER EVENTS!

It might seem a long way off but get yourself booked on now & then you can start counting

down the days!

soul survivor week a: Fri 27th – Tues 31st July

soul survivor week b: Tues 7th – Sat 11th August

soul survivor week c: Sun 12th – Thurs 16th August

momentum: Fri 17th – Tues 21st August

MOMENTUM WEEKEND

For twenty & thirty somethings who want to connect their faith

with the rest of their lives. 2nd – 4th March at Sherwood Forest

Center Parcs

SATURDAY CELEBRATIONS at soul survivor

watford: 28th Jan

More 2012 dates being confirmed!

FROM: Soul Survivor, Unit 2 Paramount Industrial Estate, Sandown Road, Watford, Herts. WD24 7XF. W. soulsurvivor.com/uk E. [email protected]

We’ve ditched the

plastic wrap to

save on waste, so

please recycle

this mag or

pass it on!