Anthony Delaney on L1FE

When we were in Lakeland they kept talking about how you could ask for and receive a burning coal, to take back with you to where you’re from. Of course that’s coming from Isaiah 6. It was the year King Uzziah died. That king had a long and (mostly) distinguished rule of 52 years. He became king at the age of 16 following his father’s assassination. He started out really well and was faithful to the LORD for a long time - that is the measure of a governmental success in scripture - and during that time he and his nation prospered.

Unfortunately one day he made a terrible mistake, when he entered the temple to burn incense, a duty reserved by the LORD for the priests only. Pride comes before a fall. It says, But when he was strong his heart was lifted up, to his destruction, for he transgressed against the Lord his God by entering the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. (2 Chronicles 26:16)

He was confronted about his sin, got angry instead of repentant - and ended up a leper, living out his last days in tragic isolation, while his son Jotham ruled in his stead until he finally died.

Lesson? Don’t try to light your own fire! Don’t step outside your anointing! How often do leaders try to light something or set something going themselves when God hasn’t commanded or empowered them? Uncommanded labour is just tiring and leaves you empty, disillusioned, powerless and lonely (been there, done that, got the t-shirt).

So when Isaiah went into the temple, he was probably at a very low ebb. A wise and good king who’d started well but finished terribly had died. The nation’s in mourning.

But then, unexpectedly, GOD WAS THERE! Imagine, finding God actually in church! It’s amazing where he might turn up you know

What happened when God came? He saw the Lord on his throne of glory, High and lifted up - and his train filled the temple! He saw strange visions of angels, the seraphim heard them calling and declaring the praises of God in worship. That whole huge building quaked and shook!

Surely if that was available under the old covenant, we should not be surprised as believers in a greater covenant that when God manifests his presence it’s with similar and even greater glory? If the ministry that brought death…came with glory… will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? (2 Cor 3:7 & 8). Why would you be surprised that he who shook the temple causes people to shake? Why would you doubt that the angels who are ministering spirits sent to serve us who inherit salvation still come - and that people of faith still see them and hear them as did believers and sinners and even a donkey?!

Does not the Lord still inhabit the praises of his people? (Ps 22:3 NKJ). And is Jesus the same, yesterday, today and forever; mighty to save - a healing, miracle working God?

When God came to Isaiah he came with conviction, with cleansing, and then with a call. My friend Mark Stibbe has been emailing me about his time in Lakeland as he’s there right now. I will leave him to publish his own assessment but yesterday he reminded me, “the Holy Spirit is the limitless and unlimited presence and power of Almighty God. And he is uncontainable…”

Isaiah found that whatever the nation looked like, the real King was still on the throne that day! The length of a king’s robe signifies his majesty. Our KIng’s robe filled the temple!

The angels cried out, “Holy, Holy Holy!” Why? Some scholars say it’s because in Hebrew one way to express a superlative is by repetition. For example, we say, ‘good, better and best.’ But in Hebrew you could just repeat the word to express a superlative, similar to ‘Vanity of Vanities’ or ‘King of Kings.’ Other say it’s just a chant, Holy, Holy, Holy - because He is! So if anyone complains that the worship chorus is too simple, tell them you’re just trying to do it like the angels.

That recognition in the worship of who God really is brings conviction. “Away from me Lord, I’m sinful!”

Spurgeon said, “God will never do anything with us till he has first of all undone us.” Isaiah became undone before he could do anything,

That was certainly something I felt in the very simple worship at Lakeland. No great band, showy flashing lights, or technological paraphernalia (all great stuff, but if I want that I’ll go to see Oasis). All there was when the presence of God was most powerful and tangible for me was a lady singing, a keyboard and drums. Sins committed recalled, but not to condemn - to cleanse and restore.

Oh, and angels ascending and descending. That evening when Hannah was healed, in the worship, I had a vision of angels dropping down gift after gift on me, I thought ‘that’s wonderful’ - but I knew it wasn’t it. There was even a bicycle among the gifts, and that’s one of my favourite things!

Then I saw them bring a golden word from God, a page from the Bible, I thought, ‘That’s fantastic!’ - what more could a preacher want? But then I knew it wasn’t it either.

Then the Lord gave me his heart.

That’s it! Those who hunger and thirst WILL be satisfied.

A burning coal ( a ‘live’ coal) comes from the altar. What Uzziah could not do, God does. He brings the fire we cannot and should not try to self generate. He convicts, He cleanses, and then the call. “Who will go?

After conviction comes cleansing, and after that comes a call. I said, “Me Lord! I want a coal! I want to burn for you! I’ll volunteer! (That’s one of the reasons I’ve got my hands up!). Send me! I don’t just want to go, I need to be sent by you. Commissioned to fulfil the call.”

He said, GO!

Last night, we held a meeting at the place where we meet for L1FE, which ran well over three hours, and it was so - well, easy. When the Spirit is there, there is liberty. No hype, just God coming to church. Hannah gave her testimony, I preached because this has to be founded in scripture, and then the Lord took over. The coals are starting to ignite in the UK.

An email I recieved this morning says, this:

Along with I hope many others, may I share with you what happened to me last night? During the worship I several times felt a gentle tingling all over me and a need to try to sing in tongues. I asked for prayer from Emma … and during that time I felt her hand really warm on my shoulder. I couldn’t actually hear what she said because the singing was too loud, but it didn’t matter. When I got back to my seat I started shaking all over for several minutes, and in the next worship time I did sing in tongues…wonderful release ! I have not felt the Spirit like this before….

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Well there’s been interesting responses to yesterday’s post – to say the least. First off, the traffic to the blog has taken off exponentially, with hundreds of new readers and subscribers (if that’s you – welcome, if you’d like to, click over there on the right!). I suppose it’s not my skilful prose but the subject matter that’s drawing attention from all over the world, it’s the question I posed yesterday which still stands about Lakeland – is it revival?

Some people say yes. They look at people being healed, recognise that were there’s a lot of Spirit there’s also going to be a lot of ‘flesh’ and can come to terms with that – no, rejoice in it. It’s been wonderful that there have been so many people who have known about Hannah’s back problems, and are rejoicing with those who rejoice over its healing, and thanking God (by the way the girls went to pray for people at the Leatherhead theatre last night and I’m told it was amazing time!).

I’ve also had one or two e-mails via the blog which I ended up spamming because they were from sources I didn’t recognise, and when I looked at the content of the sites they linked to, they seemed to have already made their minds up that this is not of God but has to be of the devil. A tattooed bloke who shakes and shouts? People crying and laughing and carrying on? All too weird – certainly not from God. They have never been, they’ve never seen, they’ve never sensed the presence and power of God there, but they know it’s wrong; illegitimate - of the devil.

This morning I was reading with my men’s group out of John 9. You know what comes before that? The end of John 8. Read it and you’ll see that some ascribed to Jesus and his miracles both illegitimacy and evil origin. (Verse 48 is particularly nice!).

In John 9 Jesus comes across the man born blind. His disciples spend time theologising about his suffering and its origin. They debate the human condition, bewail the sins that cause it. Their question? “Who sinned?” All they don’t do, is anything that helps.

I like how the Message puts Jesus’ reply. “You’re asking the wrong question.”

I’m not saying we shouldn’t weigh the source, but if you’re asking, who sinned – the answer is… EVERYONE. Todd Bentley, Paul Cain, me, you. If you look online you’ll find some evidence and lots of accusation about anyone and everyone involved (by the way, still reading that biography of Whitefield, a fantastic preacher and a wonderful godly man now so often hailed and lauded. Boy did he take some stick!).

I’m not so naive to imagine some of the accusations against Bentley et al. are correct. But Jesus was pretty clear it’s not just people who live in glass houses who shouldn’t throw stones (in fact, if you lived in a glass house, where would you shower?). I for one wouldn’t want all my sins paraded on-line, and people spending their lives looking for things wrong with me would find plenty of material, but I thought the devil was the accuser?

(PS I just got the following comment, which I’m not approving, to show the love that abounds here from a brother or sister…) You vile deceiving heretics and enemies of the gospel when will you repent and face reality and the true gospel of Christ and His sound doctrines the HOLY BIBLE. You filthy enemies of God you will pay dearly for supporting your fellow tools of Satan who lead others into doctrines of devils so they may blaspheme God and end up in hell along with you if you don’t repent. You filthy vile deceivers you dare call yourself Christian. Sick filthy heretic.

If the wrong question is ‘Who sinned?” Maybe the better question is, “Who saves?”

Jesus went on to do something, well, pretty weird. It’s almost too embarrassing to think of the Son of God making spit-mud pies! Then he does something degrading! He smears it on the blind man’s eyes - where’s the respect for dignity or decorum there? He even puts some of the responsibility for whether he’s healed or not on the man, by getting him to do something that looks like faith (he has to walk round the place and wash off the mud himself, Jesus didn’t lead him by the hand.).

Jesus didn’t have to do any of that. He could have just said, “Be healed!” (even ‘Bam!’ as Mr Bentley does?) as on other occasions. He could have just done ‘Drive By Healings’ if he wanted and not even engaged with the man. People baulk at the idea of ‘touch your TV screen and get the healing…” but didn’t Jesus sometimes say to the effect of, “Go on home, I’m not coming to lay hands on anyone, I don’t have to be there physically to heal spiritually.”

And to compound it all, having done it in the wrong way, he does it on the wrong day! That’s what really got the religious riled. (See my blog entry ‘What Day is it?)

I discussed with the guys this morning whether we thought Jesus did that on purpose. It’s been said, “He offends the mind to reveal the heart.” Was he provoking a reaction to see whether they were more concerned to protect things being done ‘properly’ (even if nothing was done?).

It’s entirely possible to have the form of godliness but denying the power thereof – go to a church near you this Sunday to confirm that; or look at the dire stats and predictions published yesterday, much being the consequence of just such a travesty – a church with pomp but no power and presence. Moses said to God, “We’re not going anywhere with out you!” But too often we’re not going anywhere because we’re without Him. The glory days are consigned to a golden age, with people worshipping a (Deist?) God who used to be powerful (he even wrote a good book!), but now has kind of lost His divine stuff.

Actually, Jesus didn’t waste a lot of time with people who’d already made their minds up not to believe (verse 22 tells us they’d ‘agreed already that if anyone confessed that He was the Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue’). ‘There’s none so blind…’

They saw a man born blind saying he’d been healed. They said:

• He wasn’t a man; we’ll ask his parents instead!
• He wasn’t born blind; he must be a liar!
• He wasn’t the same man; because that man was blind!
• He wasn’t a good man; probably a confederate, and who includes the testimony of crazies who say they’ve been healed?

Anyway, everyone knew his sickness was his own fault, or a judgement from God, his cross to bear – to perfect him through suffering…

The ex blind man’s answers to their questions? Track them…

“I don’t know.”

“I don’t know if he’s a sinner or not.”

“Why won’t you listen?”

“Do you want to follow him too?”

“One thing I know – I was blind, now I see.”

I don’t know whether Lakeland’s a revival. I do know from visiting I’ve got my first love for Jesus back and I’m and full of the Holy Spirit to overflow more than I have been for years (obviously a work of the devil?).

I don’t know whether some (or all) of the people who get to minister on the platform are ‘sinners.’ I do know many sinners were repentant and trusting Jesus for the first time.

I don’t know why not everyone was healed. I do know on the nights I was there God healed so many people the queues were full both sides of the stage, and I know my own daughter joined that line! (“Ask her, she is of age!”)

So before you send me a link to your website explaining why the devil’s behind it all, deceiving and deluding - let me ask whether your God still does that kind of thing, today.

If not, I’ll stick with mine, thanks.

Well I’m tired - but WOW am I fired up! Just a few hours ago I was at Orlando airport when I got a text from J. John asking whether I thought what was going on out there is revival. My reply? (I’m hopeless at texting so it took ages).. The blind see, the deaf hear, the lame dance and many are saved!

(If that’s not revival, I’m looking forward to what comes next!). The fire is falling!

I heard last Friday about God TV stopping all its programmes because of ’something happening in the States,’ so on Saturday afternoon I thought I’d check it out on You Tube.

I have been reading a biography of George Whitefield, which has increased by desire (and faith) for revival in our nation. I’ve also been stirred up by the increasing depravity in the news, especially the awful things we read about in Austria. When I started looking online at what’s going on out there, Todd Bentley pointed his finger at me, and God called me - revival is my heart cry and His - and I knew I had to go.

Looking at the diary it seemed impossible, but I was so hungry and ‘desperate people will do desperate things’ (interestingly, that’s what anti-revivalist Hank Hanegraff writes all of this off as; which makes me wonder - why isn’t he desperate for God? King David was!).

I prayed with Zoe and tried to book to go online, everything was going wrong, until we recalled a prophetic dream Zoe had (I urge you to listen to it here) back in January, where it wasn’t just me but me and the children wanted to go, higher up, into the pool/ place of blessing, so amazing that it would eclipse former visitations of God by comparison, (‘having experienced God in a totally different way, which is for everyone’). Amazingly, as soon as I put three people in not one, we got a great deal on flights and hotel, except we had to go Sunday - the next morning!

Thanks to the help, love and encouragement of Peter Davis and Glenn Huntington, we were able to drop everything and the three of us were flying to Florida! I’d always wanted to take them to Disneyland, but GODland is even better!

I”ll put more up in posts to come, and some photos, but there’s such a fire in me right now that is going to spread. This is the fulfilment of visions I have had for many years, and how exciting to live in these days! By the way this Sunday just happens to be Pentecost, and the Global Day of Prayer (Come on!).

With my own eyes I’ve seen people getting out of wheelchairs and walking, innumerable deaf people receiving their hearing, the woman a few rows in front came in with an oxygen mask on and was carried in by her family, later she spent ages running laps around the arena (her and her 20 year old daughter who brought her both became Christians that night, well you would wouldn’t you).

And how about Hannah, my lovely daughter? If you watched God TV last night, Hannah got up on stage and testified. She has (no HAD) degenerative disc disease, confirmed by MRI scan, and had the back of a much older person with lots of damage to discs, lots of pain etc., wherever she went for the last year she had to carry a lumbar cushion, and when we went she was on pain killers.

In the meeting – where I saw amazing visions and literally physically basked in the presence of the Lord like I’ve never known before, she felt the power of God go right through her (nobody touched her but God) and I was shocked to see here get up from her seat and touch her toes – impossible? NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE TO GOD. She’s healed – no pain at all.

This anointing is real and it’s transferable! God’s on the move. It’s time to fan the flames all over the UK!

If you have 6 minutes more, it’s worth watching this prophetic word given months ago to Todd Bentley by Ron De Luca a Pastor in NZ who we met over there in Florida who prayed for all three of us. He really accurately prophesies this happening, and particular mention is made of England!

LORD,I have heard the report of you, and your work, O LORD, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it;in the midst of the years make it known; Hab 3:2

I was looking at Pharaoh with the ‘we get up early on Friday because we are mighty men of God’ group this morning. We followed a study in my mate Carl Beech’s fantastic book Spadework. Turns out none of us really want to walk like that particular Egyptian. The pride and arrogance he displayed in continually saying no to God is what got him in so much trouble. You think Gordon Brown has problems this morning with the awful drubbing his party is receiving in the local elections around the country? Read the list of plagues - it could be worse!

Unlike Mugabe, at least there’ll be some contrition. No doubt we’ll be hearing from various Labour politicians today about how “…the people have sent us a clear signal that we’re going to listen to and make all the necessary changes… blah blah blah…”

I imagine Pharaoh said something very similar as his nation lurched from bad to worse. He was surrounded by ‘wise men’ who told him he was great, and it would all soon turn a corner and be okay in the end.

This isn’t about Mr Brown, Labour’s misfortunes, or politics. It’s about you and me. Ignoring God.

As God’s spokesman stepped into his palace and demanded, “let my people go,” Pharaoh forgot that all the blessings and wealth he had received which he and his people had received came from God of Israel in the first place, via Joseph (read all about it here). We too easily forget as nations and individuals that without God’s hand of protection and blessing on us, all would be curse and plague.

By the way, isn’t it interesting that many people who would never dream of thanking God when something good happens in their lives, automatically blame Him for something bad?

Much of what happened to Egypt parallels exactly the biblical warnings of the consequences of ignoring or rebelling against God’s laws, one ends up living under a curse of our own making, rather than the blessing He desires for people.

One of the most haunting parts of the account is early on, only the second plague, as frogs teem throughout the land. Pharaoh had the chance to heed the warnings of the first plague when the Nile turned to blood, to let the children of Israel go out to worship God. But his advisers stroke his ego, and he thinks of himself as a god anyway. “Who is this God of the slaves?” Why should the powerful and the rich listen to the God of the weak, the poor and the oppressed? (Is it any wonder the book of Exodus - a goldmine for liberation theologians - is specifically banned as radical revolutionary material in some oppressive states?).

I don’t know, perhaps Pharaoh had Batrachophobia, but the frogs really got to him. He begged Moses to plead with God to get rid of the frogs. He promised he would comply and change the policies so the people could go and worship. So here’s the part that grabbed me. Moses said, “Okay, when do you want this to happen? When do you want to connect with God in this way so that things will change? I’ll leave it up to you to set the time.”

(The frogs picture is from http://www.jackiemorris.co.uk)

What would you say, with frogs all over the place? You’re having a laugh! Surely you’d want them to hop it (ouch) now! Not one more slimy second would I want those amphibian atrocities in my house, in the bed, in my kitchen. Get them out!

Exodus 8:10 “Do it tomorrow,” Pharaoh said.

If there was a biblical award for the patron saint of Procrastination, it goes to this guy. He was going to go to Procrastinator’s Anonymous but they never got round to meeting.

So, where are your frogs?

What are you putting off changing today (even though you know it’s going to create a world of trouble) until tomorrow?

Actually going to that gym you paid membership for? A phone call to sort out a relationship? Someone you need to encourage? Someone you need to let go? I still need to sort my taxes out for this year. It’s the jobs I hate I never find time for. People smoke one last cigarette standing outside the cancer ward, and tomorrow they’ll give it up. When will you write the book? Take the trip? Learn the instrument/ language? Do you think you’ll get serious about finding out about God tomorrow? You’ll pray about that situation and ask God’s help with it tomorrow? Tomorrow never comes. Do it today. Carpe Diem!

The leaders of nations need to stop making promises about changes that will help the poor, break the shackles of debt, feed the hungry and set captives free - not ten or fifteen years from now when they’ll be collecting their pension and writing their memoirs, but today. Now.

What is there to stop us getting rid of the frogs today?

My dad was Irish and he told me about a conversation between a Spaniard and an Irishman where the Spanish guy was trying to teach him about the concept of manyana. “It’s a word that means you’re going to put something off until tomorrow, or maybe the day after, or a day after that…”

The Irishman said, “I don’t think we have a word to describe such a terrible state of urgency.”

IN THE beginning God (prepared, formed, fashioned, and) created the heavens and the earth. (Amplified Bible).

Thus starts the beginning of the book of the beginning, Genesis 1:1. All kinds of theories exist about how that happened, but the problem the theorists have is that however clever they are, they’re not eye witnesses - they were not there at the time when time started.

Just next to my house is a field. In the field is a patch, 40ft square, where the most beautiful hyacinths are just starting to flower. Driving past, like many visitors to the village, you might wonder why this patch just happens to be there in a farmer’s field. How did that come about? Who planted them?

What you won’t think is, “That ‘just happened.’ ”

In the words of physicist/ cosmologist Paul Davies, ‘….the big bang represents the creation event; the creation not only of all the matter and energy in the universe, but also of spacetime itself.’ Not just matter and energy, but physical space and time came into existence at the Big Bang. You either believe that Someone created everything out of nothing (ex nihilo), or, as Gerald Coates contends, you can believe that nothing created nothing out of nothing!

Atheist philosopher Kai Nielsen wrote, ‘Suppose you suddenly hear a loud bang, and you ask me, ‘What made that bang?’ and I reply, ‘Nothing, it just happened.’ You wouldn’t accept that. In fact you would find such a reply quite unintelligible.

Well, what’s true of the little bang is also true of the Big Bang. It must have been caused. From the very nature of what was made, this cause would have to be uncaused, immaterial, changeless, timeless, and enormously powerful.

But we have to go beyond looking at the creation and acknowledging there was a Creator, that’s doesn’t require faith - just a lack of ignorance (Too harsh? look at 2 Peter 3!).

Going back to the hyacinths, I happened to be walking by that field last year when I saw a man digging rows in a field. The ex policeman in me was suspicious! I went over and (nicely) asked what he was doing. Wiping his brow as he had been digging away in the heat, he told me. Seems some rare hyacinths were likely to be doomed as a result in the change of the landscape in a different part of Britain they naturally grew in, as a result of the awful flooding around the Cheltenham/ Gloucester area.

This near neighbour I hadn’t met before, is an expert on hyacinths, and discovered this particular field is perfect for them, he was preparing the ground for the bulbs reception!

It didn’t just happen!

Someone made it happen!

I met him!

He communicated!

He cares enough about creation - to do whatever it takes to rescue it!

And that, by the way, is the gospel.

We should focus on Jesus - and on what He wants us to do. I like how the Message put vs 17: God didn’t send me to collect a following for myself, but to preach the Message of what he has done, collecting a following for him.

It’s possible for human leaders to end up attracting followers to themselves, it’s natural that it would happen. The problem is that any human leader has feet of clay and will let us down. We have a banner which is displayed in the entrance hall where we worship in East Horsley. Some well meaning person put my photo and name on it, as well as a big message; “Welcome to L1FE.’ I really don’t like that banner. I am a leader, it’s a gift God has given me. But I don’t want to attract my own following. I have been privileged to lead some people to the Lord, but it’s the Lord who draws people. Years ago a man I didn’t know prophesied over me, “You are a reaper. God has called you to reap where you have not sown.”

It was the first time I was ever floored by the Holy Spirit, as those words were spoken, BAM! This was on a cold, hard stone floor of a church. I certainly didn’t expect (or even want) to be ’slain in the Spirit,’ especially on a floor like that! But I knew when - eventually - I was able to get up, I was a different man. The Lord had put a new level of anointing on me. But that’s not anything I did. Since that time, I’ve seen the reality of that promise many times.

Paul told the Corinthian Christians, in effect, “I really don’t care about who baptised whom. While I was with you I was just trying to do what God told me to do—preaching the gospel. I don’t care who gets the credit; I was just following my orders.”

It gets even clearer in Chapter 3:3 in the Message: he says, ‘right now, friends, I’m completely frustrated by your unspiritual dealings with each other and with God. You’re acting like infants in relation to Christ…. as long as you grab for what makes you feel good or makes you look important, are you really much different than a babe at the breast, content only when everything’s going your way? When one of you says, “I’m on Paul’s side,” and another says, “I’m for Apollos,” aren’t you being totally infantile?

Who’s Paul anyway? Or Apollos, for that matter? Servants, both of us—servants who waited on you as you gradually learned to entrust your lives to our mutual Master…. I planted the seed, Apollos watered…but God made you grow.”

(1 min vid - take a look) -

It’s God who grows people, and grows churches. Anyone who leads, is just a servant of that ‘mutual master,’ and none of us can do what only God can do! If we remind each other of that it might stop us getting big headed personally, grabbing the glory from Jesus, or exalting one human leader above another. Reading this, you get God’s perspective and so you can see that whoever we are, we’re just servants of God. God doesn’t NEED any of us anyway! Yes, we should honour those who serve well, but from heaven’s perspective it’s ridiculous to put one human above another. It’s like saying my sunflower is growing higher than my neighbours; viewed from outer space – who cares!?

What God wants from us can really be summed up in two words: faithfulness and fruitfulness. God wants us to be faithful to him—to worship and honour him with our whole life, to be willing to joyfully follow wherever he leads and do whatever He says; without grumbling or putting it off, that’s faithfulness. (Maybe you have a better definition?)

And God wants us to be fruitful for him. You can’t be faithful without being fruitful. I believe Fruitfulness has to do with us getting the message out, telling others about Jesus. I want to be fruitful and faithful in this one short life. (Look at my entry on ‘one short life’ for that!)

The best part is, whatever comes our way, if we focus on Jesus, we will have peace; because He is our peace. If we focus on Jesus we won’t worry. If we focus on Jesus we’ll know HE is the reason we’re here - yesterday today and forever, he is the leader we all follow and serve, and I invite you to pray now, “Lord help me do what YOU want – above all else.”

The apostle Paul knew what a big part of the problem was with the church of Corinth. He says, Focus on Jesus - instead of people. I mean by that, human leaders. We’re to focus on God, not men. Why? Because people in that church were following ordinary people, rather than Jesus. They were aligning themselves with certain personalities, rather than God.

In verse 12, He said, “Here’s what I hear is happening there: some of you are saying ‘Paul is our guy.’ Some are saying that you follow Apollos. (We know from Acts 18 that Apollos was a gifted orator, that might have had something to do with it). Some of you say you follow Peter, and some of you are even misusing the name of Jesus by splitting off from everyone else and saying the kind of thing you sometimes here in ‘emerging’ churches, ‘We don’t need any leaders at all – we follow Christ alone!’

There’s at least a 4 way spilt over personalities taking place! He doesn’t lay out the specific concerns they were disputing - he didn’t need to; they knew what they were anyway. And behind it ALL the main issue was this: division. All these groups, fighting, striving for position, labelling themselves as right and labelling others as wrong – and trying to pull off in one way or another. Nightmare!

Paul said, “This isn’t the way it’s supposed to be! Jesus died for us and we were baptised into Him, not into any mere man.” Then Paul posed 3 rhetorical questions – and the answer to all of them is no…

Is Christ divided? NO! So how can his people be?

Was Paul (or any other human leader) the Saviour, head of the church, crucified for the forgiveness of their sins? NO! Well why were they exalting mere human beings?

Do you baptise people in the name of any human being? NO! It’s not about them! It’s all about the FATHER. It’s all about the SON. It’s all about the Holy Spirit.

But here’s what had happened. These Christians were focusing too much on the people who had brought them to the Lord, instead of the Lord himself. Paul had founded the church in Corinth. Then after him Apollos took it on for some time. It seems Peter came there too. The fact is, God calls leaders for a season, then he calls them on. If you were to visit my beautiful C11th church, and look at the long list of names of past ‘Rectors’ on the wall over the centuries. Any local church ends up with a variety of leaders in its history. They are called for a time, and then they are called away - or called home.

Since I was called into full time ministry I’ve never lived anywhere longer than three years, until God called us here to Horsley, over 7 years ago. It’s such a fantastic loving place for us as a family, we’ve seen God do so much in our own lives and in the lives of other people too. And one of the hardest things for me to ever do - I’ve been wrestling with God in these last few months over it - was to announce last Sunday that we’re going to be moving on in the next phase of my own call in following the Lord’s call, to go to lead Ivy Cottage Church, Manchester.

Anyone who knows me will know that this hasn’t been an easy decision, it was made with much prayer and many tears. I began to sense this might have been a call from God as the New Year turned, and God has been unsettling me for some time.

A few months ago I went up to look at the Manchester Church and came away that night, got a bit lost and ended up driving through some horrible rough streets, thinking, “No way! We left Manchester! I love Horsley. This isn’t right, we shouldn’t be going, and I don’t want to go.” So I told all of that to God in prayer and went to bed fully convinced that there was no way.

But that night I had two very clear dreams, and I’m not one who has many dreams I can remember, but I knew God was calling me, had called me – that very night. He even sent an angel to tell me in that dream, unforgettable. I must blog about those dreams actually!

And one of the hardest things is that nobody else in the family has had any dream or angel or really any kind of revelation about it; but we are going in faith on the basis of that call - and God is confirming it and has confirmed it - as we follow. If we have to have it all laid out before us, let’s not pretend we’re people of faith. Because if the Christian life isn’t about faith then I don’t know what it’s about, if it isn’t about trusting God then I don’t know what it’s about.

So I can trust God for my own life, as I always have done, and I can trust Him for my family, as I always have done, and I can respond to his call in obedience and trust Him for this Church as I always have done; because He is the Lord of the Church. Jesus is the head of the Church! So I said to the people here in Horsley last Sunday - ‘Focus on Jesus!’ and they are doing!

I’ve said it before many times. to them, “I am not the head of this Church. Jesus is the head of this church.” Some people there, I’m thrilled to say, have become Christians while I have been here – I am (to use Paul’s terminology later in 1 Corinthians) their ‘father in faith.’ For them, it will probably be more unsettling than for others. But to any extent that people end up following me or any human leaders - then that’s just not the right way for it to be, because my job as a leader is to be like John the Baptist; who pointed the people away for myself and said, BEHOLD the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world! My job like his is to say, “I must decrease so that He can increase.” Focus on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

In this 40 Days of Community we’re doing as a church we’re remembering that churches are made up of imperfect people. The apostle Paul would have agreed! Because he had to address a lot of problems when he wrote to a very gifted, but very immature and divided church in the city of Corinth. Paul heard from Apollos that there were problems there, then he got a letter from the church itself, and finally while he was living in Ephesus, some friends visited and told him some really disturbing report about the church.

Yes they were gifted, Paul said, in fact they did not lack ANY spiritual gift… BUT there was little evidence of the fruit of the Spirit there! You know you can have gifts - without love? Paul heard about moral failures, sexually immorality, abuse of the Lord’s supper, false teaching and failure to follow through on promises to be generous with their money.

This church had divisions, nastiness, gossip, lawsuits, jealousy and envy. They were about as mixed up as any church ever got! You know why he wrote that really famous chapter 13 all about love? Because they didn’t have a clue!

So Paul wrote to them and said there were really three things that these people in the church needed to do, to get their focus right. I’m going to detail those things in my next three blogs - based on the talk I gave last Sunday, which I hope will soon be available on the www.l1fe.org website. It’s all about focus…

1. Focus on Jesus - HE is the reason we’re here. Paul knew they were fighting and quarrelling. So he says to them in verse 10, “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another (some translations put that – ‘say the same thing’) so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.”

In that one sentence, he reminds them that people in the church share a special relationship with one another. We’re related to each other because we all call Jesus our Lord. And for that reason, we ought not to fight.

When my brother and I were young, we fought like cats and dogs. (I once punched him right over the settee!). Sometimes it was his fault, rarely was it mine…. but we were both guilty at times. What was totally consistent is that my mum and dad hated it when we fought. Why? Because it’s just not right!

I’m glad to say it hardly happens, but it hurts me if my kids fall out, and it hurt my parents when I fought my brother or sister. It’s not right for people who are part of the same family to be fighting and arguing and hitting each other – it just wasn’t right. I’m really glad we grew up and grew out of it. Because, when times get tough, like when my Dad died, being family makes a big difference.

Paul said, put your focus on Jesus. “For Jesus’ sake, because of his name - you’re united in him, you ought not to be fighting among yourselves. You ought to help each other, to hang together and strengthen each other, not tear each other down.”

We’re imperfect people aren’t we? No one in their right mind argues with that, but we need to remember that the reason we’re here is because we love Jesus. He’s the one who’s brought us into the family of God. He’s the reason we’re here. We want to follow Jesus. He’s what it’s all about.

Read again verse 10: I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (that’s the ONLY name that matters), that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions (the word there is what we get schism from) among you - and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. So the Bible says let’s focus on Jesus; because after all, he’s the real reason we’re here.

I sometimes get asked to write for a men’s magazine called Sorted. The editor, Steve Legg, contacted me a couple of weeks ago to ask if I’d write an article on the subject of Family, but the deadline was just a couple of days away. We were getting ready to go up North, for what was had been booked as a holiday yet ended up as a very busy time, which I’ll write about again.

Anyway, I initially figured I could squeeze the time in to write the article, along with all the other things I had to do for work. All it would take was : less helping at home, spending less time with Zoe and the kids, creating more stress for myself and everyone, putting in more time in the study - doing ‘the work of the Lord.’ I could probably even do it so they’d all feel guilty if they tried interrupting such important work, I’m a past master at it.

Then again, I nearly lost my family doing just that years ago - ended up in marriage counselling as a result - so finally I thought it better just to say to reply to Steve’s e-mail; ’sorry mate, can’t do it.’

Now it was very hard for me, as a man, to press send on an e-mail admitting to not actually being able to do everything. It was hard to say no. It was hard to say no to a friend. It was hard to say no to more ‘work’ ( you might not class it as work, but it’s what I do!) in order to say yes to family time.

The fact is, I can quantify how many hours I put in, but I can’t quantify how well I’m doing as a Dad, or as a husband. Perhaps that’s why many blokes end up putting their all into their work, laying everything on that altar, because it all ‘counts’ somehow, whereas we never really know how well we’re doing in the area of family.

Despite the e-mail refusal, the subject of family still ticked away in the back of my mind. As we sat down together for an meal that day, I asked my son and daughter, “What do you think the most important thing about family is?”

Joel (14) said, “You should all trust each other enough to tell each other what you are thinking, whatever that is.” The fact that he said it, proved to me he does. Fantastic!

Hannah has just turned 18, and what she said was, in my opinion, really quite profound - showing what a high E.Q. she has. After a few moments thought, she volunteered, “I think the most important thing about families is that we need to remember that the other people in the family are, themselves, people - not just roles.”

I asked her to explain that a little. “Well,” she said, “it’s only been in the last couple of years that I’ve come to realise - you’re not just ‘my Dad,’ and Mum’s not just ‘my Mum,’ but you are separate people - with your own ideas, and lives, and everything.” Wow. How often have I thought of her as ‘my daughter,’ rather than ‘Hannah Delaney.’

I was reading about the time when Jesus healed a blind man and he took him away from the crowd so he could pay him individual attention, then prayed - and asked if the man could see.

He said, “I see people like trees, walking around.”

Well listen, if that was the Anthony Delaney travelling ministry healing crusade I’d have called that a result and passed the collection plate! But Jesus wasn’t satisfied. My wife sometimes calls me ‘Half a Job Joe’ because of all the part-completed projects I am surrounded by, especially DIY (which when I make things stands for - ‘Drat! Idiot! Yelling!’).

Jesus, carpenter of Nazareth, is NOT a half a job kind of guy. He wasn’t happy that the blind man only saw others as trees. Jesus wanted him to see other people - as PEOPLE! So he prayed for him again. We need that second touch from Jesus, so we can see people as people - however our family is constituted. Because sometimes, especially when I’m in a busy rush, people - even those I love most - end up being, well, camouflaged.

I’m glad I made time to sit at the table for a meal with the family that day, instead of working away on a piece about family, so I could learn from two people I love and admire greatly, my brother and sister in Christ - Joel and Hannah Delaney.