Kia ora e te whānau,
It's Dan here. I have felt compelled to write a special little message today. It's not a sermon or a news update, but a short encouragement. Hopefully it names a reality for you that you might be experiencing too, and gives you courage about what to do.
•••
What an Ash Wednesday that was yesterday.
To say the earth is groaning in suffering feels like an understatement. "Ash" seems relevant don't you think?
We had the most Omicron cases to date, with the disruption of this being felt widely throughout our church family and everyday lives. Our parliamentary lawn was a scene of fire, chaos and disorder like never witnessed before. The Ukraine suffered intensified bombardment, airstirkes and destruction...
There's plenty of ash around.
Late last year we felt the Lord say to us that we would be spending 2022 "seeking God's reordering work amongst such a disordered time." Yesterday was perhaps the most disordered day yet.
So how do we seek reorder in this?
During a Vineyard pastors call on Tuesday, we heard of the Vineyard church in Kyiv, who on their Instagram had been posting each night a live stream of a lone worship leader and his guitar, just worshipping Jesus. In the middle of the fighting, the church had chosen the weapon of worship, prayer and intercession.
Recently, we set up a 24/7 Prayer Room, and have been spending the last couple of weeks praying throughout the week as a church that we may lament the disorder in our world, "return to our first love" of being with Jesus, and having him reorder us by the power of his Spirit. Just this morning, only a brief moment ago before I started typing this, I was in the prayer room with a brother from CV, and we were spending our hour praying. During the time of prayer, the Lord gave me a picture, one I have felt compelled to write to you and tell you about today:
I saw the post-protest scenes on the parliament lawn. There had been fire. There had been chaos. A huge pile of tents and rubbish. There was left a terrible mess. The grass was gone, and instead the ground was brown and dusty. As I looked at the mess, I felt the Lord say; "Behold, I am making all things new. The green will come back."
I sense that in this moment of our lived disorder, amongst the chaos and mess of disrupted lives from Omicron, the noise from protests and the grief of watching war unfold, the Lord grieves the injustices and brokenness, but is also set about making the dirt into green grass again.
We are not through it yet. Yes, there is suffering. Yes, there is groaning. There are still bricks lying dormant on the ground post-throw. But, we have a hope in the One who is making all things new – and He is! Bit-by-bit, God is at work in people throughout our church and bringing about renewals and encounters. Our job is simply to keep showing up to be open to that work in us, that it may be done through us a little bit more in this time. Slowly, the green is coming back.
Maybe, that Ukrainian worship leader is a prophetic leader for us today. Maybe you need to pick up the weapon of worship, prayer and intercession.
That's where the reorder is.
Grace, shalom and aroha nui.
Dan.
P.S. If you haven't come to the Prayer Room yet, God is meeting people there in significant ways.Get booked in here.