Under The Jacaranda Tree Prophetic Round Table

Last month I had the privilege of attending a Prophetic Roundtable. Never been to one before, but it proved to be a genuinely good day amongst gifted but grounded revelatory people who are totally sold out for Jesus. Before the Roundtable, I had sensed the Lord telling me to start a regular meeting at The Bridge, Cheltenham for prophetically gifted people to share, pray, learn from one another, hear from God and glorify Jesus. This was not to be a 'big name' gathering, more a gathering of prophetically gifted people who are seeking to move on and develop their gift for the benefit of all. Humility and a passion for the Presence of the Lord were to be the criteria. The Roundtable I attended confirmed in my mind that we should proceed with setting up our own - not in competition but in addition. Incidentally, at that Roundtable, Dr. Sharon Stone had spoken out about the Lord wanting to set up Roundtables all over the UK at this time, so I took that as another confirmation.

'Under The Jacaranda Tree' Prophetic Round Table will begin on Monday 26th July at 19:30 at The Bridge, Cheltenham; Unit D, Churchill Industrial Estate, Churchill Road, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL53 7EG and we shall see where Holy Spirit leads us.

Why 'Under The Jacaranda Tree'? The elders in the OT used to gather together under the shade of a tree outside their cities to chat, gain wisdom etc. So a tree was appropriate. The Jacaranda tree has incredibly blue flowers - the prophetic - and has an interesting seed pod which dries out and then shed the seeds out to propagate the next generation. And that too seemed appropriate!

Do come along if you can, all are welcome, but rather obviously, intercessors and prophetically gifted people are especially invited!

We Are In Unit D Even If We Have No Broadband!

Anyone who was present at the 'official' opening of our new office and training centre at Unit D, Churchill Industrial Estate, Churchill Road, Cheltenham GL53 7EG would have been aware of the blessing of God on the place. Andi Foster led us in some inspired worship and the place took off! Feedback from others confirmed my own sense of the presence of angels (more than one person said they had seen an enormous angel on the 'stage' in one corner) and they added their voices to the worship and celebration. The Presence of God's Spirit was overwhelming and a number of people were spontaneously weeping as Holy Spirit touched them. All we need now is for the Holy Spirit to work wonders and send a BT engineer who knows what he or she is doing - we've been in there for nearly a month and there's still no broadband access. I believe it's the Lord - I once made the mistake of asking for more patience, He in His infinite wisdom is now using BT to develop more patience in me!

We are also going to be starting a new regular event entitled 'Under The Jacaranda Tree' which will be a forum or discussion group and workshop for all things revelatory (not dream interpretation which is brilliantly covered by Wendy & Andy Cowgill with their regular Dream Interpretation workshops). I sense God calling us to dig deeper with Him and learn from Him as we share our experiences, questions and maybe some answers too.

So there's lots going on and it's all good, well mostly! The Kingdom of God is often also about holding in tension the good and the not so good and knowing that God IS in control and as Bill Johnson says, "and He's in a good mood!"

We can trust in His goodness! Amen

Bethel Team Report

Where to begin? They came, they loved, they honoured, they ministered and we fell in love with them all. What an extraordinary week! Trisha Wheeler and her team from Bill & Beni Johnson's church in Redding, California deposited something so sweet and fragrant amongst us and I believe into the spiritual atmosphere of Cheltenham. We were already experiencing God's favour in a way we have not known since we first planted this church in 1997, but everything seemed to go up a couple of gears during this wonderful week.

Our thanks too to Christ Church, Cheltenham and in particular Julia Hook the Administrator for Christ Church; what a warm welcome! They too gave us such favour and we were able to bless them a little. On Monday night there were healings and on Tuesday night there seemed to be a unity which I have not felt for years. There were at least four other church leaders there and some very powerful prophetic words spoken by Trisha over the town.

It will take us some weeks to process all that happened and all we have learned this past week, but our goal will be to maintain what the Team demonstrated to and with us and develop the same culture of love and honour within The Bridge, Cheltenham.

Finding The Formula

As followers of Jesus, maybe especially in the Western Church, we tend to be focused on finding formulas rather than finding the Father. In other words, we shy away from intimate relationship with our Father in heaven (because we are afraid of rejection or disappointment or of not being in control) in favour of cold and impersonal religious formulas. I call this vending machine Christianity (or works). If I do this, in the 'correct' way, then God will deliver thus and so. On healing, for example, our preference too often seems to be a 12 point 'how to' rather than opting to spend time with the Three-in-One learning the ways of heaven and building understanding and intimacy so that His Spirit flows through us to heal for His glory, not our own.

One Person's Integrity (or Honour) is another person's stronghold!

I can remember clearly the day the Lord spoke to me and told me I was a perfectionist. "Huh! That's the last thing I am!" I was adamant(!). After all, a perfectionist was someone who was a details person, who was tidy and organised and well, nit-picky, wasn't that so? Now I have many faults but being a details person, tidy, organised and the rest, isn't one or even three of them. No there must have been some mistake.

But God simply does NOT get things wrong. He communicated to me that a perfectionist is someone who has unreal expectations of themself and of others. I judged others because they didn't do things the way I thought they should be done - the way I would do them......oh no, God was telling me I was judgmental, picky, mean-minded......well, if the cap fits.

Once I realised the truth - by divine revelation - I changed. I didn't like being a person like that. I wanted and still want to be more like Jesus, not more like me! These days my conscience rings a little bell when I realise I have false expectations of others.

If we are to embrace a culture of honour (and yes, I believe it is implicit in the good news of Jesus) we have to learn to see others as Jesus sees them. The view from heaven is very different to the view across a room. People are valuable and beloved of God and we need to be treating them with the same value and acceptance as He demonstrates towards us.

Aah, this is another aspect of the freedom Jesus promised us - freedom from judging others because they don't match up to our false expectations.

Bethel Team Update - 22nd February 2010

I'm not alone in becoming focused on the arrival of the Bethel Church Team led by Trisha Wheeler from Redding, California. Sometimes God just links you with people in an extraordinary way and in the space of a short weekend, Dwee and I and the Bridge people who met her just kinda locked onto who Trisha is as a person. I am getting really excited at the prospect of this team impacting The Bridge and, hopefully, other churches and friends of Jesus here in Cheltenham. Although the Prophetic Art will be stimulating and stretching, I really want to hear more about Bethel's Culture of Honour [get yourself a copy of Danny Silk's book; Culture of Honor, it's very challenging and empowering] as I know it's a key issue for The Bridge and for the Church in the West.

Something's Stirring In The Air

IT's at times of significance that we ask the bigger questions. For us at The Bridge, Cheltenham, it feels like the renewing of the lease on our Church Rooms is a time for asking the bigger questions. Yesterday, I asked some of these bigger questions to members of The Bridge and it feels like something even bigger is stirring as a result. Maybe it's just me, but I feel something is stirring in the air, or more hopefully, in the Spirit.

The bigger questions are simple:

Are we using the money we pay for our Church Rooms well and wisely, or could we be doing something more in line with what God is calling us to with the same funds? This sort of a question, of course, raises a whole raft of other relevant questions, but the main benefit is simply pausing, assessing what we currently do and asking God if this is in line with what He is saying from heaven. And that is exciting.

We're fasting and praying on Wednesdays to hear and see more clearly. And we anticipate He will give us clear direction as we seek His face, His Presence. So a double benefit: we get to spend quality time focused on Him and He lets us in on His plans for us. Cool!