Leadership and land | Print |
Monday, 01 March 2010

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Summaryof our IAM10 event last Wednesday night.

What a smashing night!!  It felt very special to be together with lots of friends, celebrate God's goodness and praying for our nation.  Many people have commented that they sensed such a great atmosphere and energy in the room as we gave thanks to God for the stories of the last 10 years.  Everyone who shared did such a great job in giving evidence of the way God has been mobilizing people to pray all over our land. Listening to these stories reminded me of how much we have been blessed to get caught up in an amazing movement 
of God.

 

 

 

 

 

For those of you who were unable to make it we just wanted to keep you in the loop of what we feel God is saying to us at the minute and reinforce it in the hearts of those who were present.

From the book of Joshua we feel that God is bringing a challenge in 2 areas - Leadership and Land.

Leadership
We sense like Joshua, God is bringing a fresh call to have courage, take responsibility and LEAD.  'Moses is dead ' is part of God's opening conversation with Joshua. It is a new day and God's call is to step up to the mark, have courage and lead this new generation into the new land that God has for them. We sense the challenge is to recognise our influence as leaders and take seriously the responsibility that comes with that.  In practice we feel this leadership responsiblity begins in the place of prayer.  In the book of Joshua, we are given the account of how the Children of Israel crossed over the River Jordan.  In this story we are told that the priests, went before the people and stood in the River Jordan with the ark of the covenant until all the people had crossed safely.  The ark of the covenant was 
viewed as the abiding place of God's presence on earth and the priests held it aloft as the people crossed over.  It seems that central to this process of moving from the old into the new was abiding in the presence of God.  Likewise we sense that our responsiblity as leaders is to abide in God presence on behalf of our generation - to intercede for them essentially - so that they can possess the land/inheritance that God wants to give them.  Let us respond to God's call as leaders to, like the priests in this passage in Joshua, go before the people and on their behalf abide in the presence of God.

Part of this leadership call is not just inspired from Joshua response to God's call but also that of Caleb!! We 
feel there are many people 
that God is calling to have that 'Caleb spirit.'  Those people who have fought the battles before and witnessed 
significant victories.  God 
wants to rekindle within them a hunger and vigor again to keep fighting.  In Joshua 14 we are told that Caleb, 
who at this stage was 85 years 
old, actually asked for the difficult pieces of land where the enemies still lived because He was sure that the 
Lord would help him drive them 
out!!  Bring on the Caleb's!!

Land
The second half of the book of Joshua is taken up with the delegation of Land.  We read how God has given the Israelites this new land and how it is being split up between the 12 tribes of Israel.  In Joshua chapter 18 we are told that Joshua gathers all the people of Israel together. At this time the 'land is subdued before them.' (vs1). In other words, there is peace; the war has stopped.  We find that in this time of peace 7 of the tribes have still not received their inheritance.  Joshua brings this challenge to the people in vs 3  'How long will you put of taking possession of the land?'  It appears to be a challenge and rebuke to the people.  The text seems to suggest that the land is subdued, and there is no reason why the Israelites have not received the fullness of their inheritance. In our nation we are at a time of peace.  The politics of our land may be far from perfect but God has heard the cry of His people over the years and we now have a time of peace.  We have had glimpses of the churches inheritance but there is much more territory that God wants to give His church.  He wants the church to help establish the kingdom throughout our nation and truly walk in the inheritance He has for us.  His word of exhortation to us is 'how long will you put of taking possession of the land.' 



We really want to respond to these challenges together.  We thank God that we have many friends who connect with our hearts for God's kingdom in this nation and we pray that we can continue to help support and bless each other in this mission to see a generation mobilised to prayer; mission and justice.  Let's continue to stay connected and work hard to maintain our friendships as we walk forward together in God's great plan for our land.

Please keep an eye out for the latest news on our plans for a prayer room in Donegal Place, Belast City Centre.  We are excited about the opportunity this is to bring prayer and the presence of God to the streets of our cities and we feel there will be many significant kingdom ripple-effects for the glory of God.
 
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