Glory and Humility

I was away for the weekend so missed the baptisms and testimonies given in church on Sunday. Tonight at Cell Group Paula told us of the mental picture she had when Josh spoke. Josh had said that even though he was a Christian, prior to coming forward for baptism, he had still felt in chains. This had conjured a picture of huge chains in Paula's mind. She read 2 Chronicles chapter 7, verses 1 - 14 to us, and spoke about how humility comes when we see the glory of the Lord - we need to fall on our knees, intercede for the nation and be humble in our hearts. She felt that the huge chains she saw signified something stopping people entering into the kingdom of God because of the state of the church. Christina read to us John F's vision (as delivered on 28th September), which reminded us of the need to humble ourselves to be freed of chains.

As a visual aid, Paula tied Dan up with thread, first with one thread (representing 'one little sin' - something that we're doing which may not seem too bad, 'after all, everyone does it') - and this one thread was easy for Dan to break out of, but then Paula bound him round and round with many threads, representing that one sin repeated time and time again, and it was much harder for Dan to break out of until in the end the thread might as well have been chains.

If we really want the Glory of the Lord to come like at the beginning of 2 Chronicles 7, we need to humble ourselves, to repent and intercede for our nation, to check our own lives - is there anything we do need to repent of?

We looked at Daniel chapter 9, about pleading in prayer, fasting, putting on sackcloth and ashes - we need to be on our knees in prayer and petition for the people we come in contact with in our daily lives.

During the time of worship, Bev had a vision of a massive shield - so large we could all crouch behind it - and she felt God wants to say to us that He wants to be our protection, a shield around us - He wants to say 'stay close to me, stay with me - I can protect you'.

Also, when Paula gave the visual aid with the thread: sin may be more about NOT doing things - we might be sitting in our place in church feeling comfortable but there could be so much more we can do as mature christians - we may need to lower our expectations, not to be consumed with all the clutter in our lives, to keep things simple, let God have that time and space, do the things we've been called to do. How can people see we're different (as per John's vision) without us allowing God space to move in our lives. Humble ourselves - make space for God.