The Tabernacle

Ok so now I am getting excited, I had just put up the previous Blog when this came into my Email.

Blow the Trumpet!
A Call for Repentance and Prayer
Joel 2
Global Day of Prayer, 23 May 2010

32 Days to go

195 Countries

Dear Friends

Sunday 23 May 2010 is a very unique day in the Christian calendars, when the Eastern Orthodox tradition of “Kneeling Day” and the Western tradition of “Pentecost Sunday” converge on the same day. Thus the 10 year celebration of the Global Day of Prayer is very significant in that hundreds of millions of Christians from all over the world will kneel simultaneously in a day of repentance and united prayer before God, expecting the glory of the God to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. (Hab.2:14)

Christians everywhere in the world will assemble to pray. Many will gather in small groups in homes, many will assemble in large stadiums and other public venues. In some places, television, radio and internet will help to connect and align our prayers even more.

Global Day of Prayer

Today the skies over Briton and Europe are re-opened after 6 days being closed to air traffic due to the Iceland volcano.

9 days ago I posted the previous Blog about waiting and this being a time to wait between Passover and Pentecost.

It seems to me that God initiated a bit of ‘set apart’ time for about 7 million people, let alone the people on the other side of their journeys. 1 cloud.

Only God can work with those kinds of numbers, I look forward to Pentecost this year, May 23rd.

Source the Melbourne Age. -

Airlines face a vast task after an estimated 95,000 flights were cancelled across Europe alone.

“Airlines have nearly 7 million passengers stranded around the globe. Australians account for about 60,000 of them, with a quarter being carried by Qantas. Airlines also have planes out of position.”

Right now we have friends emailing or facebooking from all over the world who are stranded on route. The result of a volcanic eruption in Iceland is an ash cloud lingering over Europe stopping all flights in & out. One friend trying to get back home to Germany is stuck in New York, another is stuck in London trying to get back to USA.

People are being made to WAIT.

This morning the Lord took me to Ecclesiastes. “To everything there is a season. A time for every purpose under heaven.” (3:1) On God’s calendar it is now the time between Passover/Easter & Shavuot/Pentecost. In Acts 1, Jesus instructed his disciples to “wait in Jerusalem for the Promise” (1:4). What was the promise?

Something completely new. Something completely different to what God had EVER done before.

God was about to come, no longer to dwell in a physical building, but dwell in the body of men. And He would give himself to not only the Jew but to the Gentile. The Tabernacle of God would be with & in all men!

The route to this moment in time was waiting.

Isaiah 40:31 says, “Those who wait on the Lord, He will renew their strength.” The word ‘wait’ here means “to bind together by twisting, to expect, to tarry”. There is something about the experience of waiting that involves twisting & binding. As we wait & continue to wait, we naturally seek out something to bind to.

On the Jewish calendar, now is the time between Moses first appearance from Mt Sinai (when the “Law” was written on two stone tablets) & the second time from Mt Sinai.

These two stone tablets containing the “Law” (defining their identity from God’s perspective), ended up being destroyed because as the people of Israel waited, they chose to bind themselves to the lies & deception that Moses would not return & that the Land God was taking them to would not be better than the slavery of Egypt (unbelief).

What we do in the waiting matters.

In both these events (Israel waiting in the Wilderness & Jesus disciples waiting in Jerusalem), God was about to do something He had never done before. In the waiting, He was preparing them to host the presence of God within them!

Again now we sit waiting. Being rather than doing. Stranded to be. Stranded to wait.

What new thing does God want to do with men, in men?

He is looking for a resting place, not a doing place.

As He rests in us & as we wait on Him, we are bound together with Him.

He is doing a new thing. Are you ready for this?

This prophetic picture I saw during a fast time with the Lord on Jan 23, 2010. Watch for the shadows of this. I submit it is coming to pass on the earth now as you read these words…

“I saw upon the mountains a whirly.
It sprung up from nowhere & began descending down the rugged, stony slopes to the plains & valleys.
It moved around with an intentionally.
It did not move fast
but at a deliberate pace.
It was a pure white.
Then it stopped in one place.
And many from the mountains
Who’d been taking refuge there came down. (Matt 17:1-5)
They were dressed in animal skins,
All were thin
& long haired. (Mal 3:1)
They came down & stood before the white whirly looking up at it in wonder.
A strong sense of mission upon them
& in their eyes.
As I saw their eyes
they were filled with fire
& intense love for only one thing, Jesus.
Nothing else.
Nothing else.
There was a strong sense of internship upon them.
Slowly by 1’s, 2’s & 4’s
They were very carefully assigned to places & people.
There were not many people that they were assigned to
& those with no people
Where assigned in groups of 4 to a place.
They went & simply sat in these places
& camped around fires.
And slowly various numbers of individuals & families
Came together & gathered at these fire places.
These who joined them also were slim in figure,
consumed with no other agendas or focus,
but Jesus. (Isa 40:3-5)
I saw the whirly go & rest upon each fire place
then move onto the next.
After its departure from the fireplace,
I saw the people gathered there
disperse in all directions carrying swags
& a burning torch lit from the fireplace,
tattooed upon their foreheads was the word “NEW”. (Isa 43:19, 2 Cor 5:17, 20)
They went in all directions of the compass
Consumed with one thing, JESUS.”

“Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple..” (Mal 3:1)

Helen & I have been struck again in the last weeks by this word in Acts 1:4-5

“On one occasion, while Jesus was eating a meal with them, he told them, “Do not leave Jerusalem but ‘wait’ for the gift my Father promised. Remember, I have told you about this before. 5 John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

So what the Disciples had to do in order to receive the magnificent gift of the Holy Spirit was: Wait! Yep that’s it, the most magnificent powerful gift that God has ever given to human’s and all they had to do was ‘not do’.

We are now in this same period of time between Passover (When The Lamb was killed to deal with sin) and Pentecost (When the Holy Spirit was given). In this time Jesus told His disciples to ‘wait’ in Jerusalem. We have felt to set aside some extra time just to ‘wait’ on the Lord no agenda, no talking just waiting, resting in His presence eager to hear what is on His Heart. On Saturday night Helen and I both had a wonderful time with Jesus doing just this. Some friends of ours called today and told us how after we had shared with them that they too had set apart time and just waited on the Lord. This resulted in an unusual boldness as they taught Sunday school this morning, and after the lesson ‘teaching the kids to wait on God/ hear His voice’ they took the kids into the sanctuary where the main church was and one of the kids spoke out what they had heard and this was then followed up by a matching prophetic song, and God got to hijack the rest of the service. Very very cool report, all inspired by the kids. Go God!

Then tonight it just struck me to share this and encourage people to just get with God in this season of waiting. This is a special time and I don’t want anyone to miss out. No agenda’s no talking just come together and take the time, as long as it takes, to hear what is on God’s heart.
I can guarantee from my experience, it will be surprising and life changing, God is very very Good and He loves sharing His heart with us.

If you have a go at this please share your experiences here so that others can be Blessed by your adventure.

“It is not the first time in history that God has required a people to be ready for a paradigmatic change.

Many generations have longed to see the glorious impact of God’s Kingdom tangibly into their own time & space, & failed to see what we are about to experience.

At this point then we must be prepared to learn from the disciples on the road to Emmaus & be ready for our hearts to burn within us as we consider Him opening our eyes to new perspectives & possibilities that we haven’t yet even considered in the Scriptures. What a paradigmatic change was in store for them & is yet for us!”
(Roger & Mary Mitchell, Target Europe, 2001)

Since reading these words in 2005 while living in Europe, they have echoed in our spirits over & over again with pulsating rhythm.

When Jesus appeared to his two friends on the road to Emmaus, they had no idea of all that was about to unfold into world.

Passover was finished for these two friends of Jesus & now they waited for the Feast of Shavuot (Pentecost). But this year they had no idea of what radical change would come their way.

This year the Spirit of God would dwell IN them, pouring out his “Spirit on all flesh” (Acts 2:17); doing something God had NEVER done before…. giving himself to the Gentile not only the Jew.

Now again here we are, on the road between Passover & Shavuot (Pentecost). The invitation beckons again…. Are we ready for God to mess with our paradigm’s? Our paradigms of how we see Him, ourselves, our nations, His Church? Every holy cow in our paradigm He will mess with.

Are we ready for His Kingdom to come, His will be done on earth as it is in heaven?