Victory
2011 Conference, Spiritual Portals
SHOW ME YOUR WAY
SHOW ME YOUR GLORY
The Victory 2011 Conference was held on 16 to 17 July 2011.
The evening service was conducted by Dr. Jeremy Lopez, who has a prophetic ministry. Central to this message was the building of the spiritual portals to access to the heavens unimpeded by spiritual hindrances and opposition. Portals are entrances, the way between heaven and earth where divine messages travels up and down with no demonic influences.
Being a Christian does not necessarily mean unimpeded access to heaven. We have the issue of interferences eg in Daniel. It can be the demonic but equally important, the perception and mind sets that blocks the path to the heavens. “As a man thinks, so is he!” said Jeremy. Our lives are built on our thoughts and what we say. I am reminded that many Christians don’t believe in reality of hell or heaven, the demonic. How then can they move in a Holy Spirit led reality!
Such open heavens are geographical and locational where the work of the Holy Spirit is moving mightily without restrain. The most notable examples was
a. Upper room at Pentecost
b. The Holy Spirit led revival of Azuza Street in 1906 of which much of the evangelical charismatic movement was derived from
God often works according to our desperation, our hunger and thirsting for Him. We often proclaim erroneously that the Holy Spirit is everywhere and can work with or without us which is true only to a certain extent. The manifest presence of God comes in relationship with Him. James 4:8 reminds us to draw near to God and He will draw near to you. It is an effort to take the action and decision to draw near to God, to set ourselves in a position and desire to be desperate for God.
Each one of us are to find our place of ministry, to build our nest and resting place, and place where there is an open heaven.
Dr Lopez reminded us that there are also the counterfeit of the heavenly portals, where there are demonic portals where the religious power and idol worship is strongly manifested. Key regions such as Tibet were mentioned.
In reflection of the sermon by Dr. Lopez, I am reminded that many of the affirming GLBT churches in Asia has a form and structure of a church, and a bonded in a large part by relationships and a common faith experiences reconciling their faith and sexual orientation. We focused on reflective theology on exploring queer interpretations of the bible, and how to make sense of our faith in the midst of our struggles and experiences. Whilst these are important aspects of our faith journey, there is a danger of being inward, and we go from a personnel closet to bigger church closet.
God wants to move us, step by step, beyond our hurts, beyond our pains and rejection, to the ministry of Christ, God has ordained for us. We have to look inward, to be able to accept our own innate sexuality, to love ourselves, to come out of shame yet at the same time, outward looking with our hands lifted to the Holy Spirit to receiving the anointing in our lives to receive wholeness again which was marred by deep rejection, and sorrows. As we look outward and upward to God, we move out of our closets, and bridge the gap between heaven and earth.
We need the power and move of God, more than probably any other community for we have been wronged, gravely harmed and wounded by the Christian Church as a whole, that has for many shipwrecked their Christian faith in God. The organized church has their history, traditions, structure, and sacraments to keep them going, but we have nothing except for a tattered past. Our GLBT community have been so gravely and unjustly harmed by the established church that there is a wall between the Christian Faith and the GLBT tribe.
We need open heavens and the power of the Holy Spirit. In order to be more effective and expand the Kingdom of God into the lives of many more people be-it gay or straight, we need an Open Heaven. In particular,
· If we want to move in God’s ways, God’s heart, and God’s power, we cannot but have the fullness of the Holy Spirit working as experienced in the bible. The Holy Spirit was the God of creation, was there in creation, yet through history has often chose to reside/manifest Himself only in certain places and locations like in the Holy of Holies.
· We create the Open Heavens through a Spirit of Prayer, and unity focussing on the Lord Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection, His love and Grace. Although many disciples heard Jesus’ call to gather in the upper room in Jerusalem to await the baptism of the Holy Spirit, only a handful of less than 100 did so. But God honoured their faith, unity and heart that sought God’s ways.
· The bible says that when two are gathered in my name, Jesus will be there in their midst because the Holy Spirit will bring the presence and anointing of Christ to be there. Key to this verse, is gathering in name of Jesus, ie we must first believe that He exist, His works of power and miracles authentic, and His death and resurrection for our salvation a given. That is the basic foundation of gathering together in my name, coupled by a heart to seek after God, to want more of God, to want more of His presence. We are not to take the presence of God for granted, just as those who missed the upper room did not receive the mighty move and filling of the Holy Spirit.
When Peter had a dream, he saw the forbidden animals made clean. This dream soon came to pass when Peter was summoned to the house of Cornelius (Acts 10:29), the Roman commander who soon received Jesus in to their lives, and was baptised by the Holy Spirit with the sign of speaking in tongues.
Two thousand years later, God is making what is considered unclean by the general Christian community, a clean vessel for God. God is knocking at the door of Gay Christians, and His Holy Spirit is being manifested in such a powerful way, that the sound of thunder of the coming revival to the GLBT community is arising. When they are baptised and filled with the Spirit, who says that gays could not be Christians.
SHOW ME YOUR HEART
SHOW ME YOUR WAY
SHOW ME YOUR GLORY