The place of rest and intimacy

Tim writes: Over the past few months, and particularly during the past few weeks, God has been teaching me about the life that flows from a place of rest and intimacy with Him. Here are some of the things that He has shown me:

Restoration

Encounter

Strength

inTimacy

Restoration

“Rest”oration comes out of rest.

Psalm 23:1-2 “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not be in want, He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He restores [repairs, renews] my soul.”

Matthew 11:28-29 “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest… you will find rest for your souls.”

John 7:38 “If anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me… streams of living water will flow from within him.”

Encounter

Psalm 46:10 “Cease striving and know that I am God” – the word “know” here is the Hebrew word “yada” which means to know by experience/to be intimately acquainted with.

Psalm 16:11 “You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.”

John 7:38 “whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

John 17:3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

Strength

Isaiah 40:31 “but those who wait [linger] on the Lord will renew their strength.”

Psalm 91:1 “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my strong tower and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust’.”

Intimacy

John 14:23 “If anyone loves me… My Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home in him“.

John 15:4 “Abide in me and I [will abide] in you.”

Romans 18:15-16 “you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry “Abba Father”. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”

David sums it up best: “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere… For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold.” (Psalm 84:10-11). Perhaps this is why Jesus “often withdrew to lonely places” (John 5:16).

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Amazing healings!!!

This past week we attended a healing school, led by Randy Clark and Bill Johnson, at the Redding Convention Centre. During the days we enjoyed outstanding teaching on healing and then in the evenings we got to experience it!! During the course of the week hundreds of people were healed, this included a lady who had been deaf since birth and a lady who had a severe lung problem, which had caused her lungs to collapse 7 times, and who had been on oxygen 24/7 for over a year (after God touched her she was able to run around the auditorium and up stairs without her oxygen).

God also touched dozens of people who had metal in their bodies (e.g. metal rods/pins) as a result of previous injuries. He healed them enabling them to bend and move in ways that they were previously unable to (you can watch a video of this on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMSzRIFvneo). Bill and Randy are seeing people with metal healed like this on a regular basis – a short while ago a former gymnast who had very restricted movement as a result of metal rods having been inserted into her back was able to do a full body arch after God touched her. People are unsure whether God removes the metal or just makes it flexible – either way it is amazing. In fact, a local chiropracter has offered to take x-rays of those people who had metal in their bodies and who were healed during the past week, so that they can see what God has done with it!

On Friday evening we also heard the testimony of a man who had been miraculously healed of stage 3 colon cancer just prior to Christmas following prayer at Bethel’s healing rooms.

On a personal note, Emily has also been healed. She has had a fungul infection on 4 of her toe nails on her left foot for the past few years. She tried taking some medication in August before we moved out here, but a couple of weeks in she came out in a nasty rash and so was unable to continue the full course. Consequently, she had resigned herself to just having to live with it. Anyway, back in October we prayed for her toe nails and asked God to heal them. Nothing happened initially, but we have noticed that since then all of the new growth is clear. 2 out of the 4 toe nails are now completely clear and the other 2  are over half way there.

It is amazing to see God’s healing power and great to witness first-hand God’s love for people and His desire to make them whole (however, major or minor their ailment). We are realising that healing is simply an expression of God’s heart of love for us and that as we experience His heart we are better able to partner with Him in this. Even when you see hundreds healed there remains mystery as to why others aren’t, but we are being encouraged not to blame God or ourselves for this but to press into Him for more.

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We’re going to Mozambique!!

In March all of the first and second year students go on mission trips to all corners of the globe. We are very excited because we have been chosen to be part of the team of 15 which is going to Mozambique to partner with and bless the extraordinary work being done by Heidi and Roland Baker and Iris Ministries (www.irismin.org).

Heidi and Roland moved to Mozambique (one of the poorest countries in the world) in 1995 and established an orphanage to care for around 80 orphaned children. Since then they have been on a remarkable adventure with God, which has seen them open many more orphanages so that they now care for thousands of orphans in Mozambique and the surrounding nations. At the same time they have also planted over 5,000 churches in Mozambique and the surrounding nations and they have seen thousands of lives transformed by the power of God.

During our trip we will be based at Iris Ministries’ Pemba base and we are expecting to be involved in:

• caring for the children
• serving and blessing Iris Ministries’ staff, missionaries and bible school students, and
• preaching the gospel and ministering in the local villages (this is likely to involve trekking and camping out in the bush!!)

We are very excited to have been given this opportunity and we can’t wait to experience firsthand all that God is doing in Mozambique.

If you would like to partner with us and sow into what God is doing in Mozambique, you can do so:

1. by praying for Iris Ministries and the success of this trip – to find out more about Iris Ministries you can visit http://www.irismin.org. We will also post some specific prayer points on our blog in the run up to our trip; and/or
2. by making a donation towards the cost of the trip – the total cost of the trip for the two of us is $6,400. If you would like to make a donation you can do so at https://www.ibssm.org/?action=donate&target=missions&student_id=208108 or e-mail us at timemily@live.com.

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