A week last Sunday, as is our practice, we spent some time in our Sunday morning service actively listening to God.
Unbeknown to us, Zac felt that God spoke to him and told him that he should preach the following week. Wisely, he asked God to confirm this. When we got home later that day and checked the schedule for who was preaching the following Sunday, we found that the person scheduled to preach was unavailable. What should we do?
We were discussing this when Zac piped in, "I think God wants me to preach"!!!!! Imagine our shock!!
"But what on?" we asked. "On Faith" he replied, "and would it be o.k. if I did a power point presentation?" Download file here (1Mb)
After conferring we felt that God might just be in this and decided that Judi would open with some introductory thoughts followed by Zac's sharing on faith.
He spoke about Adrian Plass, an English author and comedian, who tells of how he tried to move a paper clip by faith, after reading Jesus' teaching on moving mountains. Zac pointed out the ludicrousness of this exercise - when Adrian could easily have moved it himself. Zac made the point that faith is not magic... it is God centred, tied into His will.
He also gave some examples of miracles of faith from the book "70 years of Miracles" by Richard Harvey, our old pastor's dad.
Using scripture, he pointed out that we are able to do great things if we pray according to God's will, even move mountains.
He then gave some examples from his own life where God didn't answer prayer the way he asked, and also when He did.
He told how when he was 5 yrs old he had prayed for a McDonald's toy (Sully from Monsters Inc), which happened to be out of stock. God answered his prayer, he got the toy but lost it a short time later. He was very upset and began to pray fervently that he would find it. However, he never did. Zac explained that the toy had become far too important to him to the point where he had become obsessed with it. He felt that it would not have been healthy for him if God had answered this prayer. God's purposes are much bigger than ours.
He then gave another example of how God did answer a very specific prayer. Some of you may remember that Zac left his dog Jigger behind in Canada. He considered Jigger a friend. On arrival in Africa we contemplated getting Zac another dog. We soon realized that with his going to boarding school he would never see it, so instead we prayed for his dorm parents to have a dog. We had also thought that it was good to have 2 dogs to keep each other company. When we prayed for this, Judi asked Zac what breed of dog he would like if he could have his choice. He wanted a Daschund, his second choice being a German Shepherd. This is what he and Judi specifically prayed for. On his arrival, he was met by his dorm parents with their two pets - a Daschund and a German Shepherd! You can imagine how excited Zac and Judi were. God had heard their prayers and answered them to the letter!
Zac went on to tell the congregation the importance of that answer. It was God's will for Zac to be at RVA school and He knew how hard it would be for him and provided some help in adjusting to boarding school life in the form of Lily and Bailey- the two dogs.
Zac finished his sharing by asking folk to come and share stories from their own experience. Many got up and shared. We then asked those who felt God wanted them to pray for something by faith that they KNEW was God's will to come forward and take a poppy seed (we couldnt find mustard seeds) and eat it and pray. Those who had issues that were particularly close to their hearts and really needed an answer on, to come and take a poppy seed with them and commit to dialoguing with Jesus about this on a daily basis till it was resolved.
We believe that God wants us to pray for radical things - where we see His kingdom coming and making a difference. We want to see a wave of prayers going up to God and breaking through, back down on our lives in change and harvest...
We pray this for your life too!
Unbeknown to us, Zac felt that God spoke to him and told him that he should preach the following week. Wisely, he asked God to confirm this. When we got home later that day and checked the schedule for who was preaching the following Sunday, we found that the person scheduled to preach was unavailable. What should we do?
We were discussing this when Zac piped in, "I think God wants me to preach"!!!!! Imagine our shock!!
"But what on?" we asked. "On Faith" he replied, "and would it be o.k. if I did a power point presentation?" Download file here (1Mb)
After conferring we felt that God might just be in this and decided that Judi would open with some introductory thoughts followed by Zac's sharing on faith.
He spoke about Adrian Plass, an English author and comedian, who tells of how he tried to move a paper clip by faith, after reading Jesus' teaching on moving mountains. Zac pointed out the ludicrousness of this exercise - when Adrian could easily have moved it himself. Zac made the point that faith is not magic... it is God centred, tied into His will.
He also gave some examples of miracles of faith from the book "70 years of Miracles" by Richard Harvey, our old pastor's dad.
Using scripture, he pointed out that we are able to do great things if we pray according to God's will, even move mountains.
He then gave some examples from his own life where God didn't answer prayer the way he asked, and also when He did.
He told how when he was 5 yrs old he had prayed for a McDonald's toy (Sully from Monsters Inc), which happened to be out of stock. God answered his prayer, he got the toy but lost it a short time later. He was very upset and began to pray fervently that he would find it. However, he never did. Zac explained that the toy had become far too important to him to the point where he had become obsessed with it. He felt that it would not have been healthy for him if God had answered this prayer. God's purposes are much bigger than ours.
He then gave another example of how God did answer a very specific prayer. Some of you may remember that Zac left his dog Jigger behind in Canada. He considered Jigger a friend. On arrival in Africa we contemplated getting Zac another dog. We soon realized that with his going to boarding school he would never see it, so instead we prayed for his dorm parents to have a dog. We had also thought that it was good to have 2 dogs to keep each other company. When we prayed for this, Judi asked Zac what breed of dog he would like if he could have his choice. He wanted a Daschund, his second choice being a German Shepherd. This is what he and Judi specifically prayed for. On his arrival, he was met by his dorm parents with their two pets - a Daschund and a German Shepherd! You can imagine how excited Zac and Judi were. God had heard their prayers and answered them to the letter!
Zac went on to tell the congregation the importance of that answer. It was God's will for Zac to be at RVA school and He knew how hard it would be for him and provided some help in adjusting to boarding school life in the form of Lily and Bailey- the two dogs.
Zac finished his sharing by asking folk to come and share stories from their own experience. Many got up and shared. We then asked those who felt God wanted them to pray for something by faith that they KNEW was God's will to come forward and take a poppy seed (we couldnt find mustard seeds) and eat it and pray. Those who had issues that were particularly close to their hearts and really needed an answer on, to come and take a poppy seed with them and commit to dialoguing with Jesus about this on a daily basis till it was resolved.
We believe that God wants us to pray for radical things - where we see His kingdom coming and making a difference. We want to see a wave of prayers going up to God and breaking through, back down on our lives in change and harvest...
We pray this for your life too!
Comments
Thanks for following the leading of the Holy Spirit and sharing that Zac.
I've uploaded your powerpoint file after some minor tweaks and it should be fine for others to download now.
Wal