Report on March 5 Gathering

What an exciting and powerful time in the presence of the Holy Spirit we had on Saturday night. Despite the fact we had received a number of apologies from people wanting but unable to join us and few others that disappointedly missed the night due to getting their dates mixed up, those of us that were there were truly blessed by the ministry we received.

Have a look at the following scriptures:

Acts 2:1-3  ¹And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.  ²And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.  ³And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

Acts 2:46-47 ⁴⁶And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,  ⁴⁷Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

Acts 4:24-33  ²⁴And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:  ²⁵Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?... ³¹And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.  ³²And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.  ³³And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.

Acts 4:12 ¹²And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch.

I have used the King James version for these scriptures as many of the other versions simply say something like “in one place”. But this does not do these scriptures justice. Do you see the pattern in these scriptures? The believers were gathered in “one accord” and the result was the Power of the Holy Spirit was released. The word in the original Greek for “one accord” is “homothymadon”. It is two words joined together, one meaning “rush along” the other “in unison”. This rather unique word was perhaps coined by Luke when writing Acts and appears 10 of the 12 times it appears in scripture in this book. The idea of the word is that of “going together” not meeting together, it is ideological not locational. This concept of being of one mind and one passion is where we see time and again the power of the Spirit released.

So when it comes to Without Walls we are not so much looking to gather MORE people, but the RIGHT people. Does that mean that we become exclusive? Certainly not! On the contrary, we will welcome with open arms anyone who dares to walk the narrow way with us. But I keenly understand that there will be those who will visit us and decide “it is not for me”. Their reasons will be varied, but it’s ok. What God is doing amongst us will not be for everyone and we don’t want to coerce those are not in “one accord” with us to stay, as we will then be blocking the very power we are looking for!

So with this thought in mind, we should then start asking the question, “What is God’s intention for Without Walls?” While we all may have our own ideas – including me, we can see that the Holy Spirit has already begun to shape and mould this gathering through the prophetic words and themes we have seen in our first two gatherings. Some of those themes have been:

1.      On the first evening through the several prophecies brought by the young men was a theme of pressing into God for yourself and hearing from him for yourself. It was a call to maturity, not to rely on others to feed us but to allow the Holy Spirit to feed us directly. This requires us getting before him on our own in prayer and in the word.

2.      Matched with this on the first night was a strong emphasis on “fatherhood” ministry. The father’s role, generally speaking is one of extending the experiences and expanding the horizons of the young to teach them to stand on their own feet. A concept I would like to elaborate on at another time.

3.      This weekend carried a more solemn theme of the fear of the Lord. Psalm 111:10 says “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”. The word fear here in the original Hebrew is “yir’ah”, and it means literally terror – be afraid, be very afraid. I find it interesting that we are told to come to the Lord as a little child. A small child has no problem with simultaneously loving and fearing their father. A little child loves their father with all their heart, but when daddy gets mad – he can be really scary. But it does not change the child’s love for the father. There is a call here to make sure our walk with God is one of holiness and righteousness.

I am very excited about the path the Lord has us on, and for those of you that have found your path next to ours, I believe we have times ahead that will give us stories we will be telling on into eternity!