Testimony: Estranged granddaughter gets reconciled and saved!

We have this sister at church that has believed for an estranged granddaughter for several years now. A prodigal. A girl who was actually raised by this sister who loves her like a daughter. For several years, a failed marriage, deception, hurts and wounds all conspired to embitter this girls heart towards her grandmother to the extent that she used to walk past her and ignore her, turn right round when she saw her or simply corss to the other side of the street to avoid making contact with this grandmother who yearned for relationship.

For years this veteran of the faith simply believed. She took God at His word and refused to acknowledge what she saw with her eyes – in the eyes of her heart, her granddaughter was coming back one day.

On Saturday morning this lady was shopping at the market when her granddaughter actually came up to her and fell on her neck crying – through sobs and cries she said that she could not stand being away from her anymore and that she wanted back! C’mon! She then said that she was attending this church in the neighboring town of La Linea in Spain but wanted to visit our fellowship.

She visited on Sunday together with her boyfriend (also unsaved but hungry) and her mother who had also been estranged from the family. They were really impacted during the meeting, and during the evening went to an outreach at this other church and this girl and her boyfriend both got saved! Jesus! The joy on this grandmother’s face is awesome to behold.

I now live for this. All of the prodigals – come back home!

Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, And gather you from the west; I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’ Bring My sons from afar, And My daughters from the ends of the earth— Isaiah 43:5-6

The Lord is calling you. We got a word from the Lord last night. It goes like this:

I will do this again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again.

At His right hand……

Walking with God means tasting of the pleasures forevermore that are at His right hand. In the church, however there has been a general presumption against pleasure, as if it were wordly. Now there are wordly pleasures, but are’nt they the enemy’s counterfeits? Last time I checked, a counterfeit looks almost exactly like the real thing, but is not as valuable.

Yes, the word promises us pure unadulterated bliss, pleasures and joy unspeakable at His right hand. Now let me see, according to Ephesians 1, Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God now – the place where there are pleasures forevermore. “Must be awesome up there,” you say? Check your bible again, especially Ephesians 2:6. Yes, that’s right, you are seated in the heavenly places in Christ. In Him. And where is He? At the right hand of God – that is where you are right now. What can you find there? The pure unadulterated bliss of everlasting pleasures.

Jesus’ death and resurrection has bought us an ample entrance into that Kingdom. Now I can appreciate that there is no place for a downcast spirit when I am confronted with these good news – when we cling on to the old wineskin of sour religion, may big brother’s words themselves convict us deeply: “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?” (Luke 24:17)

He is risen!

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Farewell Bongo-Lady!

Tuesday was our last worship set with Nadine a.k.a. “Voz” a.k.a. “Bongo-lady”. She leaves us to finalize her studies in Cardiff, Wales. We sure will miss her contributions to our worship - it has been an awesome season for us and we thank the Lord for having lent her to us! :)�

Nadine, we will miss you dearly. You have an awesome gift, and an incredible heart for the Lord. Go Rock ‘em in Wales!

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Sunday wrap-up

We were very thin on the ground on Sunday, with only a handful turning up for church.  This is the skinny on my day:

• We had a great worship set.  We normally go through seven songs or so, providing about 45 minutes of worship time.  This works for us at the moment.  Although some do find the 45 minutes of worship to be too long, I really feel that we are called to spend time in the presence of the Lord in worship - it is one of the key stirrings in my heart.

• Every first Sunday of the month we celebrate communion and after the meeting we order a take-out and eat lunch together as well.

• During communion we celebrated the life of the New Covenant that Jesus bought for us at the Cross.

• Getting my inspiration from my last post, I spoke on our church’s history and our vision.  My teaching notes can be found on our church website teaching notes page.   (Link)

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Fernando Morales at Living Waters Tabernacle

Yesterday we had a visiting speaker with us from Madrid, Spain. Our dear friends Fernando & Marisa spent the weekend with us and Fernando ministered a powerful word on Sunday. He shared how it is awesome to have a hunger for the things of God but it is even more awesome to actually go to Jesus and HAVE OUR HUNGER SATISFIED! Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled (Mat. 5:6). Worship wast great too - so all in all it was a tremendous day which we wrapped-up with a good meal at a local restaurant.

We have had lots of time to share, have fellowship, catch-up on news regarding friends and church family. There is a spirit about this couple, watch this space to see God do awesome stuff in Spain through them! Now its my turn to make a trip to Madrid!

More pictures:

Eyez Wide Open

Photo by Speedy2

Had a planning session with a few other pastors today for an event that a Gibraltar student wants to organize next summer. This girl got saved in her university and she is definitely going for it!

She is organizing a fully-fledged evangelistic campaign for next summer, intending to bring over a bus load of students from the United Kingdom. It is going to be awesome! On the cards are a service at the beach (!), together with a BBQ, a DVD night, outreaches at the local bars, concerts and lots more.

C’mon Jesus!

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SUNDAY WRAP-UP

I love the presence of God. This morning was just another reminder that we have ravished His heart, and He is captivating ours every day. The worship set was awesome - a ministration carrying the life-giving breath of the great I AM.

Derek Hosken shared a line on the men that lowered the paralytic through the roof. He emphasised how in order to press in to Jesus we may be called upon to break some rules. Desperation may call upon us to go the extra mile, to enter the darkest hole all for the sake of a soul.

I shared the second part of the message on the weapons of our warfare. Cool. My teaching notes can be found here. I feel ready and kitted out for the battle. Go Jesus!

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Sunday wrap-up

Sunday service was awesome! There was a great anointing on the worship, with the tangible presence of God in the hall. With summer in full swing here, we experience theusual summer dip in attendance with people being away on vacation, but the “thin on the ground” issue did not detract at all from the sweet touch that the Father had for all that were there.

I taught the first part of what I think will be a two-part message on the weapons for our warfare for the mission that God has called us to. My teaching notes are available for download at the Living Waters site (link)

After the service we had some lunch and headed off to the beach were my wife’s family were, and we had a fun day with the boys. (Yes I had to swim in the Cryogenic water.)

Technorati Tags: Living Waters Tabernacle, Weapons of our warfare

A Holy Spirit Workshop

Tuesday evenings usually see us “Living Waters” folks alternating between our Harvestime School of Ministry teaching class one week, and a prayer meeting / worship session / Holy Spirit workshop the other week.

This Tuesday we had our “Holy Spirit workshop” - a “more Lord” type of gathering where we press-in for a greater measure of anointing and freedom in the Spirit. In these sessions we purposely invite the Holy Spirit to come and the feel free to move in His gifts. Some worship, others soak - great stuff really. As we get more proficient in this “stuff” we want to get to a place where we minister to each others in the prophetic, etc.

I view these fortnightly meetings as an equipping class - getting acquainted with the Holy Spirit and His ways and methods - in order to take it all outside subsequently.

Main points covered on Tuesday:

• Psalms 100:4 - The key to entering the Manifest Presence of God is thankfulness. The word thanksgiving literally means “to raise” and it implies the offering of a sacrifice of praise. Sacrifice involves a cost - we offer thanksgiving by focusing on what God is doing , or what He has given us in the New Covenant, at the expense of everything that our circumstances may be telling us.
• Our worship should be modeled on biblical patterns of worship rather than our ecclesiastical tradition or comfort. Biblical patterns of worship involve extravagant jumping, dancing, clapping, shouting with joy and lying prostrate to name a few.

How about next time you don’t close your eyes and bow your heads - how about lifting your heads, O gates, and lifting them up, O ancient doors, That the King of glory may come in?

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Looking back: Sunday Recap

This past Sunday was a cute and cool service! Many in the church were missing in action as a LATE NIGHT on Saturday due to the wedding meant that people’s commitment to Christ was tested (JOKE!)

The few of us who ventured out of bed were still feeling the Holy Spirit buzz of the previous day when we got to the meeting hall only to find out that they worship leader, who was arriving late because of work commitments had the only set of keys and was currently on a ship in the middle of the ocean! Crazy!!!

Well there was only one thing to do – I went to a nearby stall and ordered some coffee, tea, hot chocolate and “Churros” and we waited for the arrival of the ship and crew whilst treating our taste buds to a cholesterol-packed treat

When we finally got going it was awesome to see the new set of bongos in action (Hat tip to Nadine…a.k.a. “Bongo woman” for incredible percussion gifting) and the new microphones, music sheet stands etc…….mmmmm…..Things are looking better.

Anyways, got talking a little on embracing a supernatural lifestyle, and what that might mean for us here in Gibraltar. It was cool! Check out my teaching notes here.

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Living Waters’ 1st Wedding!

By johnbaw at 2007-06-24

Following-on from this post, Isabel and Carlos got married on Saturday evening with Yours Truly doing the honours.  It was a small, family  wedding and the whole service went beautifully, with a cute worship set-up that included Angel leading on guitar, a new bass player that is being primed for worship, and Nadine with a new set of bongos!.

There has been an incredible response from the pre-Christians that went to the wedding - isn’t it awesome when a message speaks into the lives of ‘unbelievers’ in such a way that they all witness to the encouragement and blessing that they have received?

Pictures will follow shortly.

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Re-engineering my rhythm

During my weeklong “rest and recovery” vacation, I received the following clear word from the Lord:

Do more by doing less

As I explained here, before leaving for the vacation I was pretty much experiencing burnout. I was constantly exhausted to the point of returning home from work almost numb with tiredness. A couple of occasions I felt dizzy spells, and I pretty much hit a wall, physically, emotionally and even spiritually. I believe the Lord wants me to slow down, and in the measure that I do so, He has promised that He will increase my effectiveness, even when I am doing less.

To give you some background, I am married to a stunningly beautiful brunette (Been married to her 11 years and she is still smokin’ hot to me!) (pics), and have two little treasures in the form of two boys aged 9 and 6. These three are my top priority. Period.

I also work in full time employment in a firm where we act as property advisers to the Government of Gibraltar, and have recently been coping with major transitions in my workplace, including a promotion (Yea God!), several huge projects and a change in my role within the organization. At the same time, I am working on achieving a professional status as a member of the prestigious Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors of the United Kingdom and this entails a lot of work and reading, working up to becoming a Chartered Valuation Surveyor (Sort of like a real estate Appraiser).

I also pastor Living Waters Tabernacle, a small church that I planted in 2003. Small churches have their own set of unique issues and challenges (believe me), especially as we do not have a leadership team in place yet, so at the moment it is just me, myself, and I. I have been teaching non-stop since 2003 every Sunday (I have probably NOT shared on a Sunday just a handful of times), and I also moderate a Tuesday evening home group in Gibraltar, and a Thursday evening prayer meeting in La Linea, Spain as part of our collaborative support of the Campo 24/7 House of Prayer.

As someone said: “I have not been able to lead the church because I have been too busy just keeping it running”. Does that make sense? It is certainly true of how I have been feeling. As a result of “Do more my doing less” I am making time in my schedule to rest, pray, soak, get some exercise and generally find some kind of balance within. So I am slowing down, stopping some things, saying NO to other things and I hope to gain a healthier rhythm that will allow me to lead this great group of people for the long haul.

I am making a top priority to raise up a leadership team around me and for this I ask for your prayers for wisdom, knowledge and insight for the days ahead.

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Fourth baptism of the year.

Sunday saw the fourth baptism of the year for Living Waters, our church here in Gibraltar. We all assembled at a local beach called “little bay” and started the day with some praise and worship at the beach. After a short word we then headed for the water which was surprisingly cold for June, and Isabel, one of our Spanish members publicly endorsed her faith in Jesus Christ through water baptism. I shared some verses that I had in my heart for her out of Mark 14:3-9. When we give our best to Jesus many will see this as a waste, but we are called to be wasted for the Lord, what for others is waste, for us will be a most valuable investment.

See all the pics here. This precious sister got saved last year at a crusade in Spain by renowned Puerto Rican evangelist Yiye Avila. On the 23rd June this year I will be officiating at her wedding to a good friend of mine, Carlos De Lara.

After the baptism we ordered some chicken and chips (fries) and we all had a meal together at the beach. The weather was beautiful, we all had a great time, I am all sunburned now, and we only just got home at 6:30pm!!!

More pics here

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Missing the “now” moment of God.

On Tuesday we had our home group at my place, and the Lord allowed me to learn a valuable lesson that I hope I will never forget. We started worshiping and as I got into the presence of God I really felt th anointing of the Lord. After a short while I started feeling a burning sensation in my lower back, and not having been suffering from back pain I asked the Lord whether He wanted to heal anyone in the group form back pain. The lesson is this, instead of stopping everything that we were doing and asking if anyone had any pain in their lower back, I continued worshiping, sort-of getting lost in the flow of things and thinking that later we could have a time of ministry and prayer for healing. After a few more minutes I suddenly see this brother with a perplexed look on his face bending forward, and setting himself back straight over and over again. He then said that he had been suffering from pain in his lower back, and it was getting worse as he was involved in construction work, among other things. Even without asking the Lord for it, in the atmosphere of worship the pain just left. C’mon!

I rejoice in that my bro. got healed from his affliction, but I cannot but think that the Lord wanted to use ME to bring this healing, and because I did not STOP EVERYTHING and go with God’s KAIROS moment, the Lord in His awesome goodness just went ahead and healed him anyway. Cool as though this healing was, this would have been way cooler had I been used by God for this! I do not know if I am making sense here, but in learning to co-labour with God I want to be at a place where I am available, sensitive, and free to cooperate. Free from hindrances, fears, insecurities, and the like.

Friends, I do not want to look back at my life and imagine what may have been that never was.

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The Bulletin # 1

I have started to record short video messages that will be five minute vision-casting bulletins for Living Waters Tabernacle. They are a way of sharing what’s cooking inside my bald head, and where I am at and what i am thinking regarding LWT.

Topics covered:

• Identifying gifts, Equiping and Releasing people
• Identifying leaders
• Leadership training
• Outreach

If you get this via email or read it via RSS you will have to log-on to the blog here in order to view the video.

Technorati Tags: Living Waters Tabernacle, Vision Casting

When the Holy Spirit descends on a home group

Tuesday night we had out home-group at home ( ) and we were enjoying a cool time in the Holy Spirit, thick presence, great flow in worship and in the middle of the worship time the Holy Spirit started stirring up a few things in one particular sister’s heart. She suddenly felt conviction about stuff she had thought of one other lady in the group, and started to confess and repent when the Lord said to her, “tell her”….oh-oh! She went up to the lady and her husband confessing her sin of judgment and a time of cleansing, forgiveness and deliverance from bitterness followed that has left me on a high.

You see, I delight in seeing God do stuff. Seeing people being affected by God is what I live for, and sometimes I just love the Holy Spirit invades a person’s heart and begin to do some house-cleaning: “Oh there’s some bitterness here, this has got to Go! This sister is too precious to Me to have this stuff holding her back!”

WOW Jesus! Carry on invading our puny circumstances and make us into what you designed us o be.

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Help needed: Hard questions from the inbox

My inbox is normally a benign environment, hosting “Faith Fodder.” Stuff that I delight in: “Revival Fire” network emails of powerful testimonies, Fresh Fire Ministries Teaching of the week, you get the picture.

Inbox nirvana is no longer. I have someone asking hard questions at the moment regarding our church:

• I feel that the worship is too long and is starting to become as an obligation to certain people, rather than worshiping out of love for our father.
• I also believe that what is done on Sunday is starting to become a bit of a tradition and rather predictable.
• We need new wine skins
• Your message is great. And is getting very interesting. Is it catered for non-believers? What would they think if they came to church? Would they understand what you’re saying without even knowing the basics?
• There are people who need to hear the good news.

Ouch! But it is a good ouch! This raises quite a few issues:

1. We have a L O N G time of worship. It is not uncommon to have more than an hour of worship before getting into testimonies by others, open pulpit time (We do this weekly) and a message/word by myself.

Many times there is such a freedom in worship and the Spirit is doing so much that I would hate to just curtail the times of worship in order to cater to visitors or new Christians who may not appreciate such a long time of praise and worship. And yes, like in any place sometimes the worship is off the hook (!) and other times it is not as anointed – but I guess that happens at every church (right?). I have also observed that no matter how anointed and glorious the worship may be, some people just don’t seem to get in on what God is doing and are just looking at their watches (Not refering to the guy that is asking the questions here).

2. Sundays can be predictable in a sense. I mean, normally there will be worship, a message, an offering will be taken etc. I guess the crucial question here would be whether the King is among us (?). The presence of Jesus may be the determining factor here.

3. I do accept that my message is catered to believers in that I do preach to build them up, feed them, connect them to their purpose and destiny in Christ and then release them to be who they are called to be OUTSIDE THE CHURCH. Also, in a small church setting like ours I will flow with what the Lord leads in the moment and be extra careful to clarify and explain things in more detail should I see that we have visitors or un-churched people with us for that service.

4. Our greatest weakness at the moment is outreach (Rather, the lack of it) and I am seeking God desperately in order to have Him give me instructions and keys for this city and region that urgently needs HIM.

Lord, thank you for those that ask the hard, gut-wrenching questions and are used to help keep my feet on the ground, even if my heart is in the clouds.

And you, what are your thoughts on these points?

Technorati Tags: Outreach, Living Waters, Gibraltar

Re-digging wells of Revival

Spoke on Sunday about honouring past moves of God and Revivals, as honour opens a portal of grace to get what they had.

In Genesis 26 we find Isaac re-digging his father’s wells, before he dug his own and found living (running) water (ref). He then dug his own well and found living (running) water (ref). The living water, caused contention – it always does. You see wells have a water level. You check it out, if the water level drops, then you dig some more reaching newer depths and going after more water. When you hit a well of living water, it means that you have stumbled (?) upon an underground stream. This means you lose control and the water just explodes out of the ground into a fountain.

Living water makes the residents of Gerar very nervous (Gerar means “a lodging place” in Hebrew) – Lets keep things as they always were shall we? I mean we do not really mind you re-digging these wells, it is a noble thing, but do you really have to have living water? Oh for the water without the life!

From there, after several fist-fights, Isaac dug a well in Rehoboth (ref) which means “a broad place”. God will bring you to your own “broad place” in the Kingdom. A place where you carve out a niche of Kingdom authority that God has designated for His glory through you!

It all starts with re-digging past wells of revival that have been filled up with earth for so long. This happens through honour.

Technorati Tags: Revival, Living Waters, Wells, Isaac, Abraham

Spring forward

If you live in Europe, don’t forget to set your clocks forward one hour this weekend. If you live in the US, you guys have been the forerunners here and you should ignore this Euro-blog-post”.

If you attend Living Waters Tabernacle, and show up to church one hour late this Sunday, be warned! We shall be giving a “wooden spoon award” to those who show up @ noon instead of 11:00am.

Technorati Tags: Livng Waters Tabernacle, Daylight Savings Time

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I want you to be tucked under His wings.

Last night was a powerful Home Group meeting! 19 showed up at home and between grabbing chairs from the kitchen, and shuffling people around to squeeze them in you get to think “Car Park Full” or “Sorry, come back next week!”. The best thing of all was that Jesus was there! So wait, that would make us 20 instead of 19.

Worship took us to a heavenly place, a place where all cares are just dissolved in His embrace whilst hopes, dreams, faith and destiny are birthed within hearts that now cry “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and glory and blessing” (Rev. 5:12)!

There is a place, under His wings where you find refuge and safety as He covers you with his feathers (Psalm 91:4) In that place, you find yourself protected by Him. It is the place that is closest to his Heart (!) and something else hit me about this place last night (Hit me, as in 18-wheeler coming at you with lights on and horn blaring but you have the deer-in-the-headlights look until WHAM!). When the Sun of Righteousness arises upon those who reverence His name (Malachi 4:2) it (Jesus) brings healing in its wings! Being tucked under His wings is a place where healing is found as He draws you close to Him and there pours out His love upon you.

You have not been overlooked by God my friend, you have been pursued by Him! With a fiery love that burns within His Bosom, He zealously seeks you and gives His love no rest until He finds you! Have you been found by Him yet? He stands at the door and knocks my friend (Rev. 3:20).

Technorati Tags: Home groups, Cell Meetings, Jesus, Under His wings

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