Between 2006 and 2009 I was relatively active in aspects of community life in areas of Stoke-on-Trent.
The church fellowship to which I played a role in various aspects of community life whether supporting city-wide carnivals, running community centres, supporting community initiatives, running training sessions for the disadvantaged, assisting with luncheon clubs for the elderly, etc.
The motor behind the activity was the prayer meeting. Held on Friday evenings and done along with brothers and sisters from other fellowships, this was a dynamic time not just to put our requests to the Lord, but to hear what was on His heart for us. I have great memories of these meetings and the things that resulted from them – significant individual and corporate transformation that gave opportunities to people who may never have had it otherwise.
My prayer life before 2006 wasn’t super, but events happened between the summer of 2004 and April 2006 that drastically changed my outlook on prayer. I engaged in those prayer meetings and through that got greater appreciation for what happens wherever God’s Spirit resides.
Now it would fit with church culture to suggest that the Spirit revealed Himself especially during the prayer meetings and He did, but what He did during those meetings informed a lot of what happened outside of it.
I was reflecting on the genesis account of creation and again reading in those initial verses how we’re introduced to the Spirit of God. I noted the location of the Spirit. In the dark. In the void. In the chaos. Apparently He was hovering. He was around.
The work we did in the community engaged with people from broken, chaotic, messy backgrounds. People whose lives were void of much that could be considered wholesome, lovely, positive or endearing. These were the people God called us to serve. These were the lives God called us to touch with His love in our actions.
These were reflective of our own lives, for very much like Paul told the church in Corinth that although those who had sinned grossly against God wouldn’t enter His eternal Kingdom, such were some of us. We didn’t necessarily cover the whole spectrum of sinner types Paul lists, but we certainly had skeletons in the closet that God in His mercy had cleared out.
This all prepared me for a real insight in what happens where the Spirit of the Lord resides. Where He is there is darkness. As He hovers He awaits the Word to bring about light.
Some of us having walked in the beautiful light, seem to believe that we no longer have to enter the darkness again. Indeed we are not supposed to return to the state we’ve just left. Yet we are called to return with the same Spirit that brought light at the Word into places of darkness. That is very much our call. That is very much our mission.
Darkness in its most explicit form, but also the darkness of the deluded minds of some of our own who have not yet truly witnessed and embraced what the Light has to offer.
What the light has to offer is illumination – showing the way for us to follow.
What the light has to offer is clarity – where confusion and chaos abounded, now things are becoming more in focus and there is better understanding as a result of it.
What the Light has to offer is exposure and disclosure – the things that were hidden for shame and for fear are confronted and resolved in this wonderful Light. The issues, the resentment, the bitterness, the hatred, the lies, the deception, the burning desire in fatal pursuits of greed and power.
In as much as we may strive for order, life suggests that there is a great deal of well contained chaos, fracture and dysfunction. The rational mind can only do so much. It takes the hovering presence of the Spirit of God to move in and turn on the light in these dark situations and that is what tends to happen wherever the Spirit of the Lord resides.
I’ve witnessed it on quite a few occasions where we’ve engaged with people in their mess and seen God bring about light that shone not to bring shame on what was exposed but to show there was a path to take. A path away from temptation. A path that delivered from evils of drug and alcohol abuse, hurtful promiscuous behaviour, greedy and resentful attitudes. A path towards righteousness made of righteousness.
This wasn’t about the happy-clappy of church services, happy and clappy though they were. This was moving in the Spirit and with the Spirit to see the very dark lives that needed to be changed in His Light.
I continue to be a recipient of that amazing blessing of the presence of the Spirit that brings light in dark situations. I continue to hope to witness more occasions of God shining His light in the world by His Spirit.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 