in Christ: Andrew Fountain's blog

Stepping out in our churches

• I am really passionate about moving people from coming to a meeting about the prophetic to being activated and stepping out in their gift.
• The two Jack Deere books are really good
• The world is hungry for an encounter with God
• Story of three young men, unsaved, who came to a meeting where there were lots of manifestations
  • I prophesied to them and one of them began to weep and thought I was some kind of a psychic
  • I explained you should never be impressed by power, but it was the source for power that you are plugged into that counts
  • I was angry that the only source of power he knew of was demonic
• It is so important that we restore NT prophecy, so that when people come into our meetings they know that God is there
  • drawing people into an encounter with Jesus
• We need to contend for this in our churches
  • I want to encourage you to step out, because there will be mistakes and fear
  • But went it brings glory to God it is one of the most satisfying thing ever
• The secret council of the Lord is to those who fear him [read more...]

Exodus 32

1. Leadership Matters
   • direct correlation between spiritual health of people and spirituality of leader.
     • e.g. Matthew: Jesus went through all the villages healing everyone and preaching.
   • Was Jesus rejoicing? Jesus saw the crowds that gathered as harassed and helpless, and he had compassion
     • They were leaderless, like sheep without a shepherd
2. Leadership matters at every level
   • not good enough just to have great senior leaders
   • the church advances on delegated leadership
   • Your leadership responsibility matters

Aaron’s mistakes

1. He was seduced by his own success. [read more...]

• I grew up in a home with an atheist dad and agnostic mum—no faith in the house at all
  • No legacy of any Christianity whatever
  • As a little 5 yr old boy I felt his presence. It was the same up in my room earlier today
  • I never felt the presence of God again for 18 years
    • My only rule was “Thou shall not deny thyself”
  • Switched to becoming a Hare Krishna
    • Once again felt his presence and his holiness was terrifying, in a Hindu temple
  • Surrendered to him and stopped running
    • Immediately I felt the same presence as a little boy.
    • From then on the pursuit of my life has been the presence of God [read more...]

• Being sure of who God has made us as people enables us to more forward
• If as the pace picks up we are not firmly clear on whom we are then we will become unstuck
• This morning I am going to remind us of whom we are
• This will mean that when the spotlight is on us we will be able to respond with boldness

Five points from Acts 13:1-4

• Church history tells us that at its height 1/3 of the people of Antioch were Christians

1. We together are to be a People of the Spirit
   • You only find prophets where the Spirit of God has been poured out
   • Examples of people who are saved because they recognize God’s supernatural presence in our churches [read more...]

• There is a flow in the topics between these three seminars
• It is essential that people in our churches are filled with the Spirit
  • Sometimes people come because they like the worship
  • The heart of what we are in churches is a gathering of individual people who are baptized in the Holy Spirit
  • This is the doorway that opens the gifts of the Spirit

Introduction

• What is the function of the HS as we gather?
• Where do we get our ideas from? As much as possible the Holy Scriptures

  • John 4:21 —a huge difference between the Old and New Covenants

  • This is a radical new way of worshipping
  • Our meetings have to be Spirit led and so there is spontaneity
  • There is not a rigid structure for worship. We have moved from form to the unknown
  • 1 Cor 14:26 “whenever you come together, each one has a...”
  • 1 Cor 12 lists gifts of the Holy Spirit (I am concerned when there are no gifts being manifested)
• The HS has a massive role in our lives. We can’t do anything of any value without him [read more...]

Acts 19:

• God has said, “the earth will be filled by the glory of God as the waters cover the sea”
• What was the apostle’s strategy?

1. He established a base church in God’s timing
   • He said to the church at Thessalonica that the testimony had gone out from them
   • Previously he had been prevented by the Holy Spirit from doing this!
     • The timing must be prophetically led
   • Paul left Aquilla and Pricilla there in faith
2. He ensured that key values were established in the core group
   • He noticed a serious deficiency in the disciples
   • One of the weaknesses that occurs is a failure to establish core values in the base group.
3. Consistent teaching of apostolic revelation
   • Paul taught so powerfully in the Hall of Tyrannus that it was spread out throughout the province of Asia
   • Apostolic foundations
   • The Big Picture, from Genesis to Revelation, showing them how they play a part in it.
     • This takes people away from a “felt needs” philosophy of the Christian life [read more...]

• I have a problem with the teaching that God does nothing except in response to men’s prayers. How did he great the universe
• Nevertheless he does respond to faith initiatives
• Jesus seems to be totally controlled by his father’s initiative
• Other times it looks like he is being directed by the faith impulses of mortal men (e.g. Jairus)
  • Then the woman touched his garment and he focused on her

1. Be honest with God that you don’t have the faith to heal those in wheelchairs

• The doesn’t mean it is not the will of God.
• Jesus says, “all things are possible to them that believe”
• Often we need to learn how weak and needy we are before God will help us. It is not that we are strong and just need a little help, but we have no strength

2. By exercising the Spirit of Faith

• Story of a blind woman he prayed for. Not healed, but he did try!
  • Peter sank, but at least he got out of the boat!
  • He started exercising his faith, and later on his shadow was healing people
• Story of a blind baby who was healed a short time afterwards [read more...]

Joshua 10

• The book of Joshua is an account of God bringing his people into their inheritance.
• He takes them across the Jordan, into some big battles
• At the half way mark, chapter 13, the page is turned and there is a new phase
  • For the first half there is a new leader and a real togetherness
  • 10:29 “then Joshua and all Israel with him moved on”
  • Same kind of language in v.31, v.34, v.36, v.38, v.43, 11:7, 12:7
• 13:1 begins the new phase when Joshua is well advanced in years
  • Joshua is old and there are still large tracts of land to take
  • He gives them a new plan: the land and the people are distributed
  • They all receive their allotment—their area to conquer
  • If Israel was to hold on to all the land that had been won during their “together” exploits, there needs to be a dividing up and putting things in place.
• This second phase of Joshua is pivotal to any ministry in the church
  • Otherwise we run a risk of HQ ism, leading to frustration [read more...]

• Presence of the Spirit is of massive importance
  • The manifestation of his presence, not just singing good songs.

Acts 1:8 —they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came.

• When we are helping people to enter into the Baptism of the Spirit, it is very important that they be theological comfortable with it.
  • There is no point in praying for people who don’t believe in it!
  • Never just pray for them. Even if they are blessed at the time, they may experience a backlash of doubt afterwards.
  • the more you are assured from Scripture, the better.
• When Jesus said “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you” they had an O.T. background for understanding this.
  • The Spirit coming upon people was not a strange thought for the Jewish mind.
  • David, the 70 elders in the wilderness, Judges.
  • Joel said there would be an end-time outpouring
  • John the Baptist introduces him as the baptizer in the Spirit
• Jesus didn’t immediately talk about this, but said that first he must have his baptism of fire. [read more...]

• The Joy of the Lord is our strength. Why will the trees of the field clap their hands? The whole of creation is waiting for the sons of God to come into their joy, and that is when they clap their hands—they are waiting for us to “get it”!
• Joy always brings noise!
• But all of us have had faith failures. We measure ourselves by some unfair standard when we read the history books about the great men of faith.
• Religious traditions are blockages that hinder our faith.
  • He is the one who anoints us to lift the yokes and burdens from our shoulders.
    • Our people must know that we love pastoring them!
  • Every day we need to get into the anointing. To get our first love back every morning.
  • We need to deal with these issues of the heart, cynicism and skepticism, which is a barrier to the anointing.
  • He is the one who has the burden of the nations, not us!
  • One of the great supernatural signs will be ministers who are not under a burden because his burden is light!
  • Let’s take a moment to all stand and spend a moment asking God to free us from all strongholds of cynicism. [read more...]