Okay, so who else is excited by this season of MORE? I, for one, just stopped short of asking for a hallelujah. God seems to be galvanising and bringing into reality things which had been bandied about by our community in theory-land for quite some time. I can see the hand of God cranking up not only our worship life as a family, but also his influence in our daily lives. I'm having more God-conversations with friends and colleagues (don't you just love those?), enjoying greater intimacy with God, hearing cool God stories from others and seeing a whole slew of answered prayers.

Wednesday, 9th March

  Yesterday we talked about hunger and expectation as the keys to accessing the Life of God. But what about the in-between times?  How do we sustain those two things in the waiting room?

  The Bible always has the same answer for questions like this.  The Scriptures unanimously resound with the chorus of one word that is the key to open the doors of the Kingdom and all it offers.... FAITH.  All the riches of the Kingdom are accessed by Faith.

This article is written by Carol Wimber, John's wife about how HUNGER FOR GOD was central to God's work in birthing the Vineyard Movement:

In 1976 I went to God asking him what was wrong with our local Quaker church. John had left the pastorate there two years earlier, and all that we had worked so hard for seemed to be waning. Instead of pointing his finger at the church, God started showing me where I was wrong. And that September I had a disturbing dream.

Thursday, 3rd March

from Bill Johnson, A Life of Miracles: Day 12

"It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter." (Prov 25:2)  Some things are discovered by the desperate.  That highly valued Kingdom attitude (see Matt 5:6) is what marks the heart of true Kingdom royalty.  The God who put gold in the rocks brought His Kingdom with Him, but left it unseen.

Tuesday, 1st March

Read Song of Solomon 2:10-13

From Brennan Manning, The Furious Love of God

Friday, 25^th 2011

[from Brennan Manning, The Furious Longing of God]

The wild, unrestricted love of God is not simply an inspiring idea.  When it imposes itself on mind and heart with the stark reality of ontological truth, it determines why and at what time you get up in the morning, how you pass your evenings, how you spend you weekends, what you read, and who you hang with; it affects what breaks your heart, what amazes you, and what makes your heart happy.

A.W. Tozer, pastor, preacher and devotional writer on the reality of the Spirit

“The doctrine of the Spirit is buried dynamite.  Its power awaits discovery and use by the Church…  When He gets into the thinking of the teachers, He will get into the expectation of the hearers.  When the Holy Spirit ceases to be incidental and again becomes fundamental, the power of the Spirit will be asserted once more among people called Christians

David and Solomon: A Life Of Blessing AND Adversity vs A Lifetime Of Peace

[submitted by Alastair Blackwood]

Just to say that a week or so ago I felt prompted to read 1&2 Samuel and 1 Kings - specifically on the lives of David and Solomon and felt God wanted to reveal to me (and perhaps us as the CV family) the difference between the outcome of a life of combined blessing AND hardship/adversity verses a lifetime of peace.

Thursday, 17^th February 2011

9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.11 Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?  Luke 11:9-11