Tell Them What They Don't Know

I've had some email correspondence this week from someone who has been deeply wounded by insensitive, and frankly ignorant, sharing of a 'prophetic' word. This sort of thing causes so much grief and damage amongst God's people. John Paul Jackson in his Art Of Hearing God instructs us to: "Tell them what they DON'T know - tell them that God loves them!" Too often, immature understanding of what to share and how to share it brings prophecy and revelation into disrepute. It does not need to be so! If only church leaders would insist that anyone seeking prominence or even approval as a prophetic voice takes the Art of Hearing God and Advanced Prophetic Ministry Courses before being unleashed onto their vulnerable congregations, then far less damage would be done and prophecy would be restored to its proper place in local churches. Check out these amazing Courses at www.streamstrainingcentre.co.uk

Finding The Formula

As followers of Jesus, maybe especially in the Western Church, we tend to be focused on finding formulas rather than finding the Father. In other words, we shy away from intimate relationship with our Father in heaven (because we are afraid of rejection or disappointment or of not being in control) in favour of cold and impersonal religious formulas. I call this vending machine Christianity (or works). If I do this, in the 'correct' way, then God will deliver thus and so. On healing, for example, our preference too often seems to be a 12 point 'how to' rather than opting to spend time with the Three-in-One learning the ways of heaven and building understanding and intimacy so that His Spirit flows through us to heal for His glory, not our own.

On-Going Training, Networking and Growing!

My friend Andy was on the phone yesterday following a meeting he'd had with a contact called Chris who had taken the Streams 'Understanding Dreams and Visions' (UDV)Course in Scotland with our good friends from the Streams Training Centre up there (www.northatlanticdreams.net). He, Chris, had apparently loved the Course but was now a little unsure about how to move forward with the new training he had received. This is a common enough issue and one which we at Streams Training Centre, England are thinking through in terms of what we can do to help.

Part of the problem is that, at the moment, dream interpreters are relatively few and far between. Cheltenham is one area where there is a fair number of us within 20 miles of one another, but that's NOT true for many others. But that is changing, so we need to think through how we can network and work together as this thing grows and develops in England. We're trying trying to build an empire - this is KINGDOM building.

We already hold excellent Dream Interpretation Workshops roughly every six weeks. There are really informal, open to everybody whether they have taken the Streams 'UDV' Course or not. So these workshops work as a taster for those who know next to nothing but are interested, as well as those who want to practise dream interpreting and are eager for more practical hints and help. But they are based in Cheltenham, only last for a couple of hours at most, and are therefore out of the reach of many people.

So what we are looking at is perhaps offering a two option approach to helping 'graduates' of the 'UDV' put all this wonderful stuff into practice. These are our thoughts so far:

1) A single day (a Saturday, surely....) which would take place in Cheltenham primarily (but which could be held elsewhere if UDV grads can gather sufficient others to make it worthwhile for us to travel. Features of the day could be: Practical Dream Interpretation in teams and/or individuals; additional teaching and hints on specific subjects within the dreams topic; how to set up your own Dream outreach team etc.

2) A weekend where we cover all the above (with significantly more practical dream interpretation) PLUS an actual dream outreach on the streets or at an event so you get a feel for what an outreach is like (it's fantastic!).

As needed, 'delegates' would have to find their own way to the venue, find their own accommodation and pay for food etc.

We would have to charge for these events - POSSIBLY £35 for the day, and £50 for the weekend (we haven't done proper costing yet and we do have to charge to cover our costs and put some money into future work).

So, if either, or both of these options seriously appeals to you, PLEASE, PLEASE let me know by email or by posting a comment to this blog. Also, if you have better or different suggestions, again, PLEASE let me know.

I have a feeling that, for some, this might really scratch where there's an itch! And if that's true, then we'll work at setting it all up.

Disconnected Jottings

There are so many friends of Jesus who are nowhere near reaching their full potential in God, and I include myself in that sweeping generalisation. Even a cursory look through the teachings of Jesus and Paul suggests that there is much more available to us than we have been taught to expect on a day-by-day basis. Somehow we have come to believe that what is available from heaven is rather cerebral, super-spiritual and philosophical rather than intensely practical. This has in turn somehow made abundance, peace, freedom, joy, love and other God-given aspects of faith in Christ into a just-out-of-our-grasp promise that we seldom get our hands on.

Teaching and training people through the Streams Training Centre, England is such a privilege! These amazing Courses, written and developed by John Paul Jackson, literally change the lives of the students who do not simply take the Courses, but absorb the Courses. That's what happened to Dwee and I. As we allowed ourselves to be gripped by the teaching, we began, almost subliminally, to absorb it and live it. Each time we teach a Streams Course we discover another golden nugget of truth and revelation and we are very different from the people we were when we took our first Art Of Hearing God back in 2003 in Banff, North East Scotland. John Paul taught on that Course (now, because of other worldwide commitments, he only trains the teachers for his Courses) and just as he does when he trains the Course teachers, he cast vision and it was that more than anything else that we picked up from that first Course.

Nowadays our kick is to hear stories from people who have been students on a Streams Training Centre, England Course whose lives have been changed through the teaching. Only the other day, someone phoned to say how the teaching on colours in a recent Understanding Dreams and Visions Course had opened their eyes. They have visited the National Gallery in London the week after the Course and been blown away by the emotional and spiritual significance as well as the renewed vibrancy of the colours of the exhibits. I love that sort of feedback! We have to be taught how to open our eyes to the spiritual and the natural, but once the penny drops, some of the wonder of heaven is conveyed through things on earth. What you look for you tend to see and when you see it through refreshed and renewed vision it's like a whole new realm is opened up. That's worship!

You don't need to have a PhD to live a life infused with the Spirit and just because you have a PhD doesn't mean you can't live a life infused with the Spirit! It's there for us all! As Bill Johnson has famously said; "God is here, and He's in a good mood!" How did we ever get to the point where we believed otherwise?