What Hungry Christians Can Learn from Britain's Awakening
WELCOME to Issue #256 of The Seedhead from Alex and Hannah at Dandelion Resourcing - a weekly confidence booster to help you step into naturally supernatural discipleship and mission!
If you're longing to see God move in your context, these three lessons from Britain's awakening will transform how you pray and live.
When I was in Oxford last month visiting friends in ministry, they told me about three secular Chinese medical students. These young people went to an international gathering put on by our friends’ church, where they heard clearly about Jesus for the first time. They were so amazed by the story that they came to their first ever church service, and said that if this is true, they want to follow Jesus! The next week they were all returning to China, so the church leaders scrambled to resource them and help connect them to believers back home.
At Easter this year, St Aldate’s Church in the center of Oxford (a long standing student church) was so packed that they not only filled the sanctuary and lobby, they packed the corridors and people were then flowing out onto the street. The team there was busy sending people to neighboring churches - imagine, “We’d love you to come in, but we literally have no room! But 100 metres up there is a great church run by people we know and trust…”
God is on the move!
We’ve heard from several places about young people in the UK coming to faith after having dreams where Jesus appeared to them. To be honest, previously we’d only ever heard of this happening to Muslims in closed Islamic countries (where it’s very common) - but now it’s going on in the West, with people from every type of background.
Dreams, Angels, and Divine Appointments
Here’s another s a great Christian word!” But when he picked it up, the leaflet was advertising a new cafe that was a New Age wellness center, doing tarot cards and similar. He felt stirred to pray that people would be awakened to Jesus’ love through that cafe, and stuck the flyer on his pinboard as a reminder.
One week later he was texted by a mother he knew from his kids’ old school, who asked to meet because she’d had a huge spiritual encounter, even though previously she’d not been at all open to Christianity. She had been in a custody battle with her ex-partner, but it hadn’t been going well, and she knew that she was about to lose her children.
Before the final court hearing, her mum had given her a small crucifix and told her to pray to Jesus. At the very last moment in court, when it looked like the judge was about to rule against her, she touched the cross and asked Jesus to intervene. No sooner had she done so than a smartly dressed man she’d never even seen before stood up in the courtroom and asked to speak.
The woman recounted, “This man had all my papers, he knew my case, and he spoke so persuasively that the court was swung in my favor, so I gained custody of my children! Afterwards I looked everywhere to thank him, but couldn’t find him.” She continued, “I now think that the God who I don’t believe in sent an angel, and that’s why I have my children, so what happens now?”
So Pete joyfully led her to Jesus. Then the woman said, “The only thing is, I’m a partner in a business, we run a local occult cafe called Awaken.” Pete said he’d been praying for Jesus to be revealed through the cafe! She said that she was so deep in that she’d paid to fly in shamans from abroad, and that sort of thing. Eventually it proved too difficult to turn around, so she sold her share to the business partner and now follows Jesus wholeheartedly.
3 Lessons to Embrace Today!
As we reflect on these and similar stories, we have three words of insight for you: Perseverance, Faith, and Boldness.
Obviously, we share all of these with the awareness that God is up to something far greater, that His plans are way beyond our understanding, and we’re not trying to tie everything into a neat little 3 point sermon box!!
Having said that, here are 3 things we’re pondering…
Perseverance - One thing we’ve noticed is that in almost all the churches we know that are seeing God on the move, they have persevered and persisted in being faithful to Christ and bearing witness to Him. In particular, this is expressed in prayer. We see praying people, and they keep on praying and crying out to the Lord for the lost.
Lesson 1: IF YOU’RE NOT YET SEEING AWAKENING… then pursue God in prayer. Be joyful for those who have seen the breakthroughs that you hunger for, and let their testimony not cause resentment, but instead be encouraged to pray even more expectantly.
”Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” (Luke 18:1)
Faith - Our God is a supernatural God, and loves to empower His people to be naturally supernatural in how we live. This means that we operate not from a secular worldview, but a Kingdom perspective.
We have access to all of the resources of heaven, and so we need to live by faith rather than sight when we encounter the works of the evil one. Sickness, oppression, poverty, injustice - all must fall before Jesus. While we might not see everything we want in this life, and disappointments and struggles continue, that is NOT an excuse to step away from a life of faith and heavenly mystery.
Lesson 2: IF YOU WANT TO SEE AWAKENING… then choose to live in a faith-filled way. How can you operate out of the patterns and norms and rhythms and resources, of heaven? Do your life and do your prayers look noticeably different to your lost neighbor’s or colleague’s mindset and behaviors?
”Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)
Boldness - The Gospel cannot advance without us being willing to be bold and take risks. This means that not everything will work out how we wish - but we still choose boldness. The UK is experiencing the birth pains of awakening, which does carry pain with it.
Yet God is on the move, with clear data to demonstrate that. Let’s not be put off by the pain but, like a mother in labor, celebrate that these are signs of something amazing that is to come.
Revivalist and author Leonard Ravenhill wrote, “The early church was married to poverty, prisons, and persecutions. Today, the church is married to prosperity, personality, and popularity.” If we truly want to see awakening and then revival, we must be willing to lay down our preferences in obedience to God’s call and direction.
Lesson 3: IF YOU WANT TO SEE MASS SALVATIONS… then you cannot be a Secret Squirrel Christian and hope to make an impact! While boldness does not mean being obnoxious - having high emotional intelligence is definitely a good thing - the honest reality is that the rampant danger in 99% of churches is not being over the top, but rather timidity. Let’s choose boldness!
“For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:7)
Next Steps
Perseverance - What’s your SPECIFIC next step?
Faith - Identify an area in your life where you struggle to live by faith. How would it be different if the resources of heaven were applied there? Now turn that into a regular prayer.
Boldness - Name one environment (e.g. work, school, the guys you play soccer with, the family gathering, etc) where you commit to being bolder for Jesus.
The lost are looking for something authentic, something that is real and different, even weird. Strangely enough, your lost friends actually expect Christians to be Christians! They think, “I want all that stuff, if it’s really true.” And then they’ll ask us, “Why are you not fully embracing it?”
Let’s stop being so afraid of being unusual. We need to quit trying to blend into society. Instead, let’s be signposts towards the realities of the Kingdom of Heaven
“A holy life will produce the deepest impression. Lighthouses blow no horns; they only shine.” (D.L. Moody)
With love,
Alex + Hannah
ALEX AND HANNAH ABSALOM
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