Showing posts with label Revive New England. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Revive New England. Show all posts

Monday, August 19, 2024

Revive New England | Consecrating a Heart for Prayer + More

God is ready to move in our region.
We as God’s people can get ready.

Over the past season, people who follow Jesus through New England have been leaning into more prayer and worship together across states, congregations, traditions, ethnicities, and cultures.

The hope is that in trusting God comes where He's wanted, we will posture ourselves to do our part in opening the door of hospitality to Him and to those beginning to seek Him as we long for revival.

Here are notes from these times together: 

+ In Our Time w/ Jon Tyson: March 15, 2023

Ultimately, we want to reveal Jesus
who said "I Am the Door" to:

+ open hearts asking for healing,
+ sinners longing for salvation, and 
+ rebels ready to receive redemption

When it's all about Jesus,
we see Him move in people's lives
in ways only He can.

We can't make happen what only God can do through our prayers and praise, but we can prepare for the time when He comes by how we humble ourselves before Him and humble ourselves before those He has given us to love. Some ways we've been practicing this posture in August include:

On Saturday, August 3, 2024 in Worcester, Massachusetts, more than 100 people came together for an evening of wonder and worship.

On Saturday, August 10, 2024 in Warwick, Rhode Island, more than 100 people came together for a day of consecration, activation, equipping, and encouragement.

On Wednesday, August 14, 2024 more than 30 people with Living Word Church and Emmaus Church came together for an evening of prayer that finished with repenting for any division in Jesus' Church in Worcester and praying blessings for congregations and parishes by name across our city and region.

This post features a few pics from some of these times along with some notes from Consecrate: Hitting Refresh on a Movement of United Prayer on August 10.

May God refresh our hearts for prayer.
And may we become living sacrifices
whose bodies, minds, and hearts are renewed.

Consecrate 2024:
Building New Altars
+ Greg Johnson

What is an altar
(in the heart, home, church, and city)?
An altar is a sacrament of seeking God
outwardly with visible signs of hearts
that have resolved and agreed 
to pursue God together 
for the blessing of all.

In 1 Kings 18, we enter a time of 50+ years of decline in the life of people who walk with God, including natural and supernatural drought that has withered worship and creation.

Elijah is known as the "Troubler of Israel" (1 Kings 18:17) because he knows "there's nothing normal about 'always winter.'" Sadly, when he looks to others to decide if they will follow God during this time, so he asks, “How long will you waver between two opinions? ... (1 Kings 18:21). Sadly, "the people said nothing."

This is also a question for our time.
And as those who follow Jesus, 
will we say nothing?
Will we do nothing?

Seek the LORD
while He may be found.
Call on Him
while He is near.
+ Isaiah 55:6

My heart says of You, LORD,
"Seek His face!"
Your face, LORD, 
I will seek. ...
Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.
+ Psalm 27:8, 14

Lift up your heads, you gates;
lift them up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
+ Psalm 24:9

Elijah seeks the LORD, 
builds an altar,
and prays:

"Answer me, LORD, answer me, 
so these people will know
that You, Lord, are God,
and that you are turning
their hearts back again (to You).”
+ 1 Kings 18:37

United, we can pray together to:

Build altars of prayer and worship.
Unstop wells of repentance and renewal.
Pray for hearts turning back to God.

Consecrate 2024:
Developing an Alter in the Home
+ Fr. Len Cowan

While we get to continue to come together as Jesus' Church, we also want to see people experiencing the holy presence of God in our homes. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we get to create spaces where people can encounter God.

To begin we simply and humbly look to God for inspiration. Like Solomon, we ask God for wisdom only He can give.

+ Start with a Humble Appeal

"I would like to meet with Jesus with you."
No demands of acceptance.
Gentle invitations to participate.

+ Make a Concrete Agreement
(Space and Time)

"Aim at nothing and you'll hit it."
Look at your weekly calendar.
Find the space and time to pray.

+ Create Patterns Centered Around God

Solidify specific places of prayer
(ex. by a window, in a room, on a chair)

Solidify specific times of prayer
(morning or evening, 8:10 a.m. + p.m.)

Consecrate 2024:
Developing an Altar of the Heart
+ Jonathan Angell

We can't stay where we've been and expect new results. It's time to get a little uncomfortable. It's in our weakness that God displays His power. God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

Anybody can be a cynic.
Anybody can be a critic.
Anybody can complain.
Anybody can not do much.

But who will say,
"Lord, we want
what You want."

Be a flame to fan.
Be a fire to stoke.

the spirit of Elijah
found in John the Forerunner,
the Baptizer:

He will go on before the Lord,
in the spirit and power of Elijah,
to turn the hearts of the parents to their children
and 
the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—
to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
+ Luke 1:17

God doesn't need a majority.
God uses wild ones, like Elijah,
like John,
to turn hearts back to Him 
and to each other.

It's time to 
learn the fear of the LORD again,
to be humble,
to speak honestly,
and to hunger for holiness.
To develop our hearts as altars.

Don't get caught up 
in expectations.
Though John never 
performed a miracle,
his life was on fire
with the supernatural.

Don't let pain and disappointment
define you for this moment
and hide the light God has given you.

Ask Jesus to make you shine,
to transform your brokenness
into a living sacrifice for what God wants.
Consecration is about holiness.
Jesus' holiness will set you apart.
He will see His Church shine.
Let's continue to pray and plan for more 
days and nights 
to witness and worship together 
in Worcester and throughout New England
with Jesus' Church 
across congregations, traditions, and nationalities.

Maranatha.
Come, Lord Jesus, come.

May God's Kingdom come, His will be done.
Que le Royaume de Dieu vienne,
que sa volonté soit faite.
愿神的国降临，愿神的旨意成就。
Nguyện xin Nước Chúa đến, ý Ngài được nên.
Jesús nuestra Rey, venga Tu reino!
🙏💗🍞🍷👑🌅🌇

With anticipation and joy,

Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,
Location: Worcester, MA, USA

Monday, March 11, 2024

Revive New England | In Our Time, Nothing Is Far from God


"Nothing is far from God." + St. Monica (Mother of St. Augustine)

This is the Gospel:
God draws near to us
in Jesus — us,
we who are sinful, broken,
wounded, mortal, dying, and
incapable of self-saving,
with many of us completely
uninterested in God or even
enemies of God — to draw us
into His inner life, to heal us
by immersing us within the fold
of His Trinitarian love, and then
to send us out into the world as
agents of His love. 
+ John Mark Comer
Practicing the Way

"These are days when Christians are yearning increasingly for spiritual awakening — for a renewing work of God, a fresh in-breaking of the Spirit’s love and power, and an abundant ingathering of the reborn into the church. We long for the kind of healing and vitality and fervor and unity that are unexplainable in human terms, beyond human excellence, beyond what we can program or plan. 
We long for the things 
that only God can do ... "
+ David Thomas

The words above were spoken again by David Thomas in Providence, Rhode Island this past Friday, March 8 around 8 p.m. at the 2nd "In Our Time" event. For a glimpse of the 1st event, see "When the Rain Comes, the Desert Blooms."

This time during the season of Lent (which means "springtime"), Thomas shared this message with nearly 500 people from 50+ congregations that had gathered together to hear from him and others who had been on Asbury's campus when for 16 days straight during February 2023, a simple chapel service didn't end and people from around the world came to repent, pray, and encounter the God who drew near to heal with the refining fire and warmth of His holy presence.

There was much more that was shared together between 7 p.m. and midnight this past Friday, including highlights of previous moments in which God drew near (some of which you can read in "Sowing for a Great Awakening") as well as more of what happened on Asbury's campus during those two weeks of presence and profound impact (see also "Lessons from the Asbury Revival of 2023"). This post will not be able to capture all of those treasured moments. 

This post will simply provide a few things that I personally resonated with because of themes and verses that God has been bringing me back to the past 4+ years.

 | 1 | Making New Wine

Usually when I step into a time of worship-in-song and prayer with seekers and believers of Jesus across cultures, ethnicities, and traditions, I'm praying for God to highlight a specific song that I need to hear, and in some cases, Emmaus City Church might not to hear as well. In the midst of the many songs we sang together this past Friday night, one song had lyrics that mirrored conversations I have had with another minister in Worcester since the summer of 2020 when it became apparent how long the pandemic was going to settle in to reshaping lives and ministries.

In the crushing, in the pressing
You are making new wine.
In the soil I now surrender,
You are breaking new ground.

I yield to You 
into Your careful hand.
When I trust You, 
I don't need to understand.

"New Wine" by Hillsong, 2018 A.D.

Make me Your vessel,
Make me an offering,
Make me whatever You want me to be.
I came here with nothing
But all You have given me.
Jesus, bring new wine out of me.

+ Hillsong, 2018 A.D.

Even though this song is more than 5 years old, I hadn't heard it until this Friday. But Jesus' words about new wine and wineskins (see Matthew 9:17) have been a regular part of conversations with a friend and pastor in Worcester since the summer of 2020 in relation to Jesus' Church in the city, Emmaus City Church, Surge School, and more. So they were a fresh reminder to trust Jesus again during this next season, which includes celebrating the first decade of Emmaus City, and stepping into the next decade.

 | 2 | Psalm 126: Sow in Tears

The main text of Scripture preached on during the evening of Friday, March 8, 2024 was Psalm 126, particularly verse 5. David Thomas preached on the travailing prayer Psalm 126 highlights:

"... The true seedbed of awakening 
is the plowed-up hearts 
of men and women 
willing to receive the gift of travail. 
'Those who sow with tears 
will reap with songs of joy' 

That prayer would be the precursor 
to the work of God — 
always the preparatory, 
anticipating act of awakening 
— is not a new idea. ... 

This is the praying of the Psalms. 
'Streams of tears flow from my eyes, 
for Your law is not obeyed' 
(Psalm 119:136); 
'day and night I cry out to You' 
(Psalm 88:1); 
'Listen to my cry, 
for I am in desperate need' 
(Psalm 142:6).

This was the praying of Jesus, 
who 'offered up prayers and petitions 
with fervent cries and tears 
to the one who could save Him' 
(Hebrews 5:7); 
'As (Jesus) approached Jerusalem 
and saw the city, 
He wept over it' 
(Luke 19:41) ... "

The Bible seems utterly unfamiliar 
with casual prayer: 
prayer of the mouth and not the heart.
Travail — a kind of burdened, 
focused pressing — 
seems closer to the throbbing core 
of prayer in Scripture. ... "

This is the prayer of "sowing in tears and reaping with songs of joy" that Psalm 126:5 speaks of. And since visiting the Abbey of the Genesee, Psalm 126 has been the psalm I've returned to pray, preach on, and bless others with more than any other the past 4+ years. It's been the means by which I have sought to plant seeds in the rain and the dark and return to the joy that Jesus can bring even in suffering.

And during the evening of Friday, March 8, much of the time I was on my knees in prayer, at some points sobbing, in light of the grace of a broken heart for my church, my city, and particularly the youth who go to Burncoat Middle School and Burncoat High School. I pray these cries sown in tears will reap songs of joy.

Those who are now crying are blessed, 
Jesus promised in Luke 6:21, 
because you will laugh with joy. 
Those who sow with tears 
will reap with songs of joy. 

That is His promise 
to travailing prayer. 
And He is too worthy, 
awakening is too beautiful, 
and the need for it is too great, 
to settle for anything less.


 | 3 | St. Monica +  St. John Chrysostom

Two of the saints I have returned to the most in the past year of 2023-2024 have been St. Monica and St. Chrysostom.

St. Monica's timeless quote,
"Nothing is far from God."
has not only been
on my heart and mind,
I've worn it many places
(see pic at top of post)
and I've preached on it
with Emmaus City,
other congregations,
and at the school
where I serve as chaplain
in the past year.

During the message on Friday, St. Monica was highlighted as an example of travailing prayer. Thomas shared:

In his Confessions, 
St. Augustine
(son of St. Monica), 
referring to his conversion,
 called himself a son
of his mother’s tears.

St. Monica's travailing prayers were how she sowed in tears and reaped with songs of joy because she believed nothing is far from God, including her son, Augustine.

St. John Chyrsostom had a similar posture with prayer. Thomas said about St. Chrysostom (along with St. Benedict and Celtic missionaries who I have also greatly appreciated as of late, including Sts. Brendan and Brigid, St. Kevin, St. Patrick, and more):

The Celtic missionaries expected 
that “Thy measure of prayer 
shall be until thy tears come.”
St. Benedict wrote the same 
understanding of prayer 
into his monastic Rule.13

In Eastern Orthodoxy, 
St. John Chrysostom 
advocated for travailing prayer, 
“for with these tears 
souls are planted.”

The mention of St. Chrysostom made me smile because just the day before on Thursday, March 7, I was asked among a group of pastors which dead (or more alive with Jesus in paradise) preacher I would want to have lunch with and I shared St. John Chrysostom (Chrysostom means "golden mouthed" in Greek) because his Paschal sermon from more than 1500 years ago is still preached every year in Eastern Orthodox parishes during Matins of Pascha, and Catholic and Protestant pastors still return to his messages. I now understand that we will benefit from returning to his practice of travailing prayer.

| 4 | Galatians 4:19: Until Christ is Formed

In sharing about the Hebrides Revival (read more in "Longing for Revival"), David Thomas included this story and verse:

" ... The best account of the Hebridean Revival is a book entitled Sounds from Heaven, which includes testimonials of twenty-three eyewitnesses. In conversation with some of these, now in their eighties, they recalled what it was like when God moved among the people ... to a man or woman, eyewitnesses described ... a kind of spiritual posture found among some who were the catalytic core —
 
a spirit of urgency and audacity, 
an attitude of brokenness 
and desperation, 
a manner of prayer 
that could be daring and agonizing. 
These friends in the Hebrides 
called it travailing prayer, 
like the Holy Spirit groaning 
through them, they said, 
like a woman travailing in labor, 
like Paul in Galatians 4:19 
travailing as if 
'in the pains of childbirth 
until Christ is formed in you.' ... "

With Emmaus City Church, we had the privilege to journey through the letter to the Galatians for much of 2023. Just a couple Mondays ago on February 26, 2024, I had the honor to meet with Protestant and Catholic students on Assumption University's campus to share some about what I learned through our journey through Galatians. If I were to pick one verse to sum up the entire letter for me as a window into what this new congregation of Jews and Gentiles were going through to be children of God, one in Christ Jesus through baptism as a new family and a new creation (see Galatians 3:26-29 and 6:15), it would be Galatians 4:19. This was also the verse I came back to the most last year in continuing to remember the calling I get to walk in as one Emmaus City Church's ministers of the Gospel, continuing to learn how to be a midwife to what God is giving birth to in our City Groups and throughout Worcester.

This posture of prayer and leaning into what God may be doing has also been the practice of The Forerunners Fellowship and Revive New England who are seeking together with others how to invite the Lord to come and rain down His grace in the desert spaces.

| 5 | Saturday Breakfast Notes

The final notes for this post are from a breakfast I got to join with 50 or so people on Saturday, March 9 alongside David Thomas and his wife, Karen, and Austin and Maddie Wofford with Arise who helped shepherd students during the 16 days at Asbury. Below are little snippets of main ideas they shared that included stories and examples I won't record here, but feel free to contact me if you'd like to hear more.

Have eyes for the small.
Steward the mustard seed.
(see Jesus, Matthew 13:31-32)
Linger until the Lord is done.
There's subtlety to God's glory.

Prayer is irrigation for living water.
(see Jesus, John 7:38)
Pray contending (disruptive) prayers.

Live in relational integrity.
Exude relational holiness.
If you have a barrier with someone,
you have a barrier with God.
Leave the altar 
and go be reconciled.
(see Jesus, Matthew 5:23-24)

Gen Z and Gen Alpha wants Jesus.
"Either it's real or we're out."
Production, programming is out.
Cult of personality is out.
Not looking for clean or exciting.
They see through manipulation.
They're looking to go deep.
They're calling for consecration.
"Go on a journey of death to self."
(see Jesus, John 12:24-26)

Be a non-leader leader.
Take the long view.
Carry God's presence w/out words.
(see North Korea missionaries)
Renounce any platform.
Love obscurity (John 3:30).
Highlight "Death to Life" stories.
(see Jesus, Luke 15:32)
Walk the line of no fear, no excess.
Anticipate pushback.
Pray longer than Satan hassles you.

Love the stumps in the rot.
Favor the shoots in the small.
Pray, "God, come. Jesus, govern us."

Asbury was a story 
Jesus wanted to tell.
It was digital lives
having an analog experience.

Pray people encounter Jesus.
Then we'll be able to talk.

Be holy. Be hungry. Be humble.

In Our Time: A Movement of Prayer & Worship for Revival in New England

LORD, I have heard of Your fame;
I stand in awe of Your deeds, LORD.
Repeat them in our day,
in our time 
make them known ...

+ Habakkuk 3:2

May God's Kingdom come, His will be done.
Que le Royaume de Dieu vienne,
que sa volonté soit faite.
愿神的国降临，愿神的旨意成就。
Nguyện xin Nước Chúa đến, ý Ngài được nên.
Jesús nuestra Rey, venga Tu reino!
🙏💗🍞🍷👑🌅🌇

With anticipation and joy,

Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,
Location: Worcester, MA, USA

Thursday, January 18, 2024

New Year Renewal | When the Rain Comes, the Desert Blooms


The Atacama Desert, Chile by Laura McWhinnie

The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. ... Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, "Be strong, do not fear; your God will come ... He will come to save you."  + Isaiah 35:1, 3-4


Due to the generosity of my friend, Greg Johnson with Revive New England, sending me this video of Jon Tyson at Exponential (he also shared this message at the first "In Our Time" even in Providence on March 15, 2023), I am left in awe of an image above and an image below that showcase the curious and wonder-filled planning, creativity, and beauty of the Creator God who brings life in desert spaces.

At initial glance, it would seem like the picture above is just a person in a dry desert. For those that read this blog, the theme of waiting in desert spaces has been a recurring topic the last few years for me. I have been learning from Marlena Graves, A.J. Swoboda, Mandy Smith, Paul Pastor, Thomas Merton, Andrew Peterson, and more what it means to trust the Spirit of God who not only leads us into wastelands, but reveals what we have missed during first glances as He unveils His abundance where there's seemingly nothing. 

So join with me in looking at the image above again. The Atacama Desert in Chile is the world's driest desert. And yet, there is the potential of flowers buried deep beneath the sand. As one scientific publisher records, "Some weather stations in the highlands have never recorded rain, and flowers bloom only rarely here – usually only every five to seven years, when dormant seeds awaken."

Wait. Check that again. "Flowers bloom rarely in the driest desert." Yes, there are still flowers that bloom there. And they're stunning. Now look at the image below of the same desert. Tyson highlights how this phenomenon happens at the end of his 20-minute message, "God Comes Where He's wanted." I encourage you to listen to the recording and then soak in the image of spectacular purple blossoms bursting forth all over the driest place on earth. 

What may look dry and dead, whether it be a place or a community of people, may just be dormant, ready to spring forth with life at the first drop of rain.
God comes where He's wanted. 
Hunger is what He's drawn to (James 4:7-8). 
And when His rain comes, the desert blooms.
When all it looks like is desert, there is still life. 
When the rain comes, what takes a decade happens in a day.  

 


Faith to Proclaim Provision When All You See is Scarcity

It takes faith to cast a vision of something you haven’t yet seen, so that the vision might become a reality for all to see, including yourself.

It takes faith to say “God is good” when you feel like giving up.

It takes faith to rest when you want to look (and feel) productive and efficient.

It takes faith to stay when your survival instincts say, “Get me out of here!”

It takes faith not to take things personally when they feel so personal.
It takes faith to proclaim that God can heal when all you see is brokenness.

It takes faith to proclaim provision when all you see is scarcity.

It takes faith to pay attention to the still, small voice within more than the clamoring calls for clarity around you (some of which are the noise within your own mind).

Whether or not we like it, we find ourselves pioneers, at a crucial time. It may feel like disruption, but future generations will look back on this as a time that shaped their present. The Church they know will be possible in part because of our courage, our perseverance, and our daily watching for God—in short, our faith (small though it may seem).

+ Mandy Smith
"We're All Pioneers Now"

God comes where He's wanted ... 

God,
We want You in our hearts.
We want You in our homes.
We want You in Your Church.
We want You in our region.


Next post:

Thirsty to read a little more? 
Bonus posts on waiting curiously and blossoming in desert spaces: 


May God's Kingdom come, His will be done.
Que le Royaume de Dieu vienne,
que sa volonté soit faite.
愿神的国降临，愿神的旨意成就。
Nguyện xin Nước Chúa đến, ý Ngài được nên.
Jesús nuestra Rey, venga Tu reino!
🙏💗🍞🍷👑🌅🌇

With presence, peace, and many blessings,

Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,
Location: Worcester, MA, USA
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)