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Monday
Notes from the Prayer Meeting 3 June 2004
Download:
Notes from the Prayer Meeting 3 June 2004.pdf
Notes from the Prayer Meeting 3 June 2004.doc
Read:
Prayer Meeting 3 June 2004
Regarding the St Elizabeth Church Building
We began with remarks from Dave Nixon. He mentioned Luke 6, the passage where our Lord spends the night in prayer before choosing his Apostles. Here are some thoughts from this passage and on preparing to pray:
Who God wants
Discernment
Listening for God’s voice
We are not planning here, we are opening ourselves for the Spirit
Because this kind of Prayer/Opening isn’t always part of our week, it can be awkward
It’s ok to be silent
We may think others hear God, but not us
Don’t discount anything, images, urge to seek certain scriptures, etc. It may be God tapping you on the shoulder
A recap of the building situation was asked for and offered:
The building is not “falling down around us”.
There is water damage in the crawl space. The building inspector is concerned about fans falling down.
There is roof, gutter and plaster damage.
A structural engineer is assessing the building and preliminarily finds the following:
He is not seeing lots of cracks around the foundation.
Most of the problem is in the damaged gutters.
There is nothing that alarms him.
If we are led to do repairs, we do not want slip-shod work.
We are thinking long-term.
Actual figures will be in the final report from the structural engineer.
We begin to open ourselves in prayer. All impressions, statements, songs, scriptures will be noted below:
Jeremiah 18:3 The idea of clay not conforming to the potter’s wishes and being re-formed
Ezekiel 11:17-18 Take away your idols. Flatten them to the ground.
Jeremiah 4:4
Praise the name of Jesus (song)
Isaiah 10:11 I will destroy Jerusalem with it’s idols just as I did Samaria
Revelation “behold the temple of God is within”
From Answering God by Eugene Peterson: We get ourselves ready to pray by looking at a tree.
Exodus 40: Guidelines for how to set u the Tabernacle
Revelation: Being shown Jerusalem
144,000
Exodus 35: Building the place of Worship, Offerings
Haggai 2:3 “Who of you is left who saw this house in it’s former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing?
Impressions of Kings, Nations bringing wealth to the City. Wealth belonging to God.
Does God bring monies to restoration by secular means?
Romans 12:1 Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-This is your spiritual act of worship.
Aaron sensed a transition into a different phase at this point-exploring
He invited us to speak out what we thought God was saying
Verbalize our discernment
Those verbalizations/impressions included:
Obedience
Transformation
Tribes
The start of our House Church model was in the condemnation of the Community Center building. Now this period is ending, but the House Church model has stuck.
There is a really powerful story in the building
Thoughts went back to the way the purchase of the St. Elizabeth property developed: 24 hour prayer group, Catholic diocese resisting price, ending up with the property in the end- Did God say to us “ you keep my promises”?
“If you don’t’ keep my promises, I’ll do ________”?
What was our covenant with God in the beginning of Vineyard Central?
Have we lived up to it?
Have we strayed so far away from what He wanted us to do with the building for His glory?
Idols: Are there idols here we need to get rid of?
Is the building an idol?
What idols are stopping the flow between us and Jesus?
Is the building an idol preventing God from doing what he wants with us?
Blockage
Hindrance
Be careful not to allow the building to become an idol. If it has it needs to be demoted in our minds.
God wants us to ask Him about what to do with the building.
Reflecting on idolatry: realizing God wants us to knock this down in our minds.
The next question is “What are we going to use the building for?”
This night’s prayer is leading us to this question.
More images and impressions followed:
The roof collapsed and a tree growing in the center (Came with an eerie feeling of the building collapsing)
At the last corporate meeting an image was received of a building of windows
Did He bring us here to see if we were brave enough to tear it down?
“Beautiful Albatross”
“Ailing Queen”
Warehouse vs. the very symbol of the institutionalized church
Prove to me, now that you have this beautiful place, this museum, that you can still follow me.
Abraham to sacrifice Isaac
Are we brave enough to tear it down?
Is it the church as the clay or is it us?
Jeremiah 18:3-4 “ So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed in into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
Is the transition a formal recognition of what is already happening?
Two thoughts: the shaping of the pot, the tree in the middle
Place of rest
Hebrews 4:1 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it
Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
It’s about the business of dying --------------------------------
Notes from the Prayer Meeting 3 June 2004.pdf
Notes from the Prayer Meeting 3 June 2004.doc
Read:
Prayer Meeting 3 June 2004
Regarding the St Elizabeth Church Building
We began with remarks from Dave Nixon. He mentioned Luke 6, the passage where our Lord spends the night in prayer before choosing his Apostles. Here are some thoughts from this passage and on preparing to pray:
Who God wants
Discernment
Listening for God’s voice
We are not planning here, we are opening ourselves for the Spirit
Because this kind of Prayer/Opening isn’t always part of our week, it can be awkward
It’s ok to be silent
We may think others hear God, but not us
Don’t discount anything, images, urge to seek certain scriptures, etc. It may be God tapping you on the shoulder
A recap of the building situation was asked for and offered:
The building is not “falling down around us”.
There is water damage in the crawl space. The building inspector is concerned about fans falling down.
There is roof, gutter and plaster damage.
A structural engineer is assessing the building and preliminarily finds the following:
He is not seeing lots of cracks around the foundation.
Most of the problem is in the damaged gutters.
There is nothing that alarms him.
If we are led to do repairs, we do not want slip-shod work.
We are thinking long-term.
Actual figures will be in the final report from the structural engineer.
We begin to open ourselves in prayer. All impressions, statements, songs, scriptures will be noted below:
Jeremiah 18:3 The idea of clay not conforming to the potter’s wishes and being re-formed
Ezekiel 11:17-18 Take away your idols. Flatten them to the ground.
Jeremiah 4:4
Praise the name of Jesus (song)
Isaiah 10:11 I will destroy Jerusalem with it’s idols just as I did Samaria
Revelation “behold the temple of God is within”
From Answering God by Eugene Peterson: We get ourselves ready to pray by looking at a tree.
Exodus 40: Guidelines for how to set u the Tabernacle
Revelation: Being shown Jerusalem
144,000
Exodus 35: Building the place of Worship, Offerings
Haggai 2:3 “Who of you is left who saw this house in it’s former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing?
Impressions of Kings, Nations bringing wealth to the City. Wealth belonging to God.
Does God bring monies to restoration by secular means?
Romans 12:1 Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-This is your spiritual act of worship.
Aaron sensed a transition into a different phase at this point-exploring
He invited us to speak out what we thought God was saying
Verbalize our discernment
Those verbalizations/impressions included:
Obedience
Transformation
Tribes
The start of our House Church model was in the condemnation of the Community Center building. Now this period is ending, but the House Church model has stuck.
There is a really powerful story in the building
Thoughts went back to the way the purchase of the St. Elizabeth property developed: 24 hour prayer group, Catholic diocese resisting price, ending up with the property in the end- Did God say to us “ you keep my promises”?
“If you don’t’ keep my promises, I’ll do ________”?
What was our covenant with God in the beginning of Vineyard Central?
Have we lived up to it?
Have we strayed so far away from what He wanted us to do with the building for His glory?
Idols: Are there idols here we need to get rid of?
Is the building an idol?
What idols are stopping the flow between us and Jesus?
Is the building an idol preventing God from doing what he wants with us?
Blockage
Hindrance
Be careful not to allow the building to become an idol. If it has it needs to be demoted in our minds.
God wants us to ask Him about what to do with the building.
Reflecting on idolatry: realizing God wants us to knock this down in our minds.
The next question is “What are we going to use the building for?”
This night’s prayer is leading us to this question.
More images and impressions followed:
The roof collapsed and a tree growing in the center (Came with an eerie feeling of the building collapsing)
At the last corporate meeting an image was received of a building of windows
Did He bring us here to see if we were brave enough to tear it down?
“Beautiful Albatross”
“Ailing Queen”
Warehouse vs. the very symbol of the institutionalized church
Prove to me, now that you have this beautiful place, this museum, that you can still follow me.
Abraham to sacrifice Isaac
Are we brave enough to tear it down?
Is it the church as the clay or is it us?
Jeremiah 18:3-4 “ So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed in into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
Is the transition a formal recognition of what is already happening?
Two thoughts: the shaping of the pot, the tree in the middle
Place of rest
Hebrews 4:1 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it
Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
It’s about the business of dying --------------------------------