Blogger seems flakey this evening.

Tried to log in earlier, first go it rejected me, second go it simply went to a non-functional page.

Never mind.

I'm slightly hesitant to talk about this because words, both spoken and written, can have real power.

When we were prayed out of BCC last week there were quite a number of words for us, and we were very grateful for them too. A consistent picture was of us going through a gate into a place of freedom, open green fields, and the time of constraint was over. At the time that these were being spoken God showed me that actually we had entered a desert, with sheep that needed to be lead to those places of rest and pasture.

At the moment we're having a real battle on our hands - or in our minds - and for me, I would so much love to run back through the gate.

And I know why there is so much resistance too. But it *feels like* we may have taken a step or 2 further tonight, in spite of it all. I'm really praying that we will see things change as we move forward, because the desert is a grim place to live, and I couldn't survive it long.

We have also been given words about going empty handed and just being ourselves. So that is what we are going to do. Chris is a mother, I am a father. We build family, not cliques, not power bases, not religious structures. And this is where we are going to start again, building family. I am praying for grace, because grace is what will allow us to all rub along together instead of just rubbing up the wrong way.

*edit*

There's some things I missed out. I am also a teacher. Jesus said "the truth shall set you free" and a part of my calling is to teach people so that they are no longer blown around by every wind that whistles through their life, bound up to myths, habits and traditions. I guess that is threatening for some people, because it means that things they've held onto might be suddenly found unhelpful, and others will not like the truth for the challenges it brings. It will be interesting to see how the freedom we are given works out in that area.

And finally, I am prophetic. Not much, but enough that it colours everything I do.

Why mention this? Because there's a feeling that if we allowed it to happen, we would be stripped of all our gifting, everything that God has built up in us. Consider this a boundary mark of the beginning, not the end, of where we're going.