Breakthrough

I’ve found the Father,  Family, Frontier triangle that Mark introduced to us last week helpful and challenging.  As I’ve been chewing it over this last couple of weeks my feelings have been summed up by another F – Further.

I have felt a call to go further.  Pursue a closer relationship with the Father.  Seek to build deeper relationships with the family-on-mission that I lead.  Push out more into the frontiers that he has called me to pursue.  God is calling,  actually God is taking me futher.

Here’s another way to describe this feeling.  It feels like the water level of my life is rising.  Actually it feels like the water level of our church is rising.  This isn’t about having to, work harder or, be productive, its about noticing something God is doing.

It seems that we’re going deeper quicker when we gather together.  I am also hearing exciting rumours – stories of one or two people getting saved.  Plans for a greater pushing out of MSCs.  Is it me,  or is the water level rising?

This week I’ve been drawn to a verse in Ezekiel 47.  God’s presence with his people is described as a river,  flowing from the temple out to the dry and dead places,  bringing life as it goes.  There is a key point when the writer says the river became too deep to cross and  he had to swim.

There is a challenging side to this.  Crossing the river is about coping,  its about control and trying to manage life.  When a river is too deep to cross,  you just have to surrender and let it carry you.    As I look at our family-of families I can see quite a few challenging things going on:  in our relationships with each other,  in our use of money and time.  I wonder if the river is getting just a bit too deep for us to cope.

To be honest I’m longing for,  praying for, hoping that the river would get to deep for us to cope and that we would have to learn to swim and be carried by God’s presence to bring life to the broken and lost.

Are things feeling challenging?  Be encouraged!  Keep going,  but resist the temptations to cope and control.  Keep looking for signs that God is taking us deeper and further.  Trust the Father and follow where he is leading you.

Ben