The two pathways

I came across this last year, and the words continue to ferment in my heart.

The message was given to Christine Larkin in 2007.  That year was life-changing for me and my family: this prophecy confirms how our lives have been caught up in God's greater purposes.

THE TWO PATHWAYS

"As I was praying about the next season I felt strongly that what is coming is not a new season, but a whole new era. A time which is more significant than any other time on earth in terms of the church being shaken into the purposes of God. Seasons will merge as we move forward, just as the seasons on earth are being mixed up and weather patterns are surprising forecasters, so the church will begin to be unsettled as the winds of change begin to blow on all that is ‘known’.

"At the start of this time I saw two pathways opening up before each child of God. One was a flat path – called ‘Known’ and the other was a steep and winding path called ‘Unknown’. Along the first pathway were many words ‘of man’. The way ahead from the beginning of this pathway seemed to be clear – with a clear destiny/destination. Many voices could be heard discussing the best way to walk along this pathway. Along the second pathway were many words of the Lord. The way ahead for this path twists and turns and it is only possible to see a short way ahead. One voice can be clearly heard amidst the stillness and relative silence along the path.

"The ‘known’ path will be for those who have faith to do great things for God. Those who take this path will find that they get what they have faith for. Much ‘success’ will be evident and the Lord will be present to speak wisdom to whoever will hear. Prophetic voices can be heard on this path and they are true voices – those who have seen what the Lord wants to do and many of the saints on this path are courageous and confident in the Lord, eager to serve him and willing to pay the price to see God’s will done on earth.

"I knew that both pathways were costly to build and costly to walk on everywhere there were many places at which a ‘toll’ must be paid in order to go on.The starting point is the same for both paths – they joined together at the beginning and it was possible to start with one foot on each path. But then they widened sharply and the only way to make a step forward was to choose which path to take. Each path was diagonally opposed and it was almost impossible to see the other path once the first steps were taken.Each ‘step’ on both paths required choices – life choices, relationship choices, position and place choices. Once the first steps were taken there was no more opportunity to have a foot on both paths, as one path is the way of human choices and the other is one of abandonment to the leading of the Holy Spirit. However, the Lord was present on both paths. He was close to all who were walking on each of the paths. Once a decision was been made and the path was taken it was impossible to ‘view’ the other path. This was the grace and mercy of God to avoid confusion and judgement among the people.Also, once a path had been chosen it was almost impossible to turn back. Both paths had the presence and purposes of God on each side. But they were very different.

"The ‘unknown’ path looks very different. Everyone on this path starts off on their faces, empty of all confidence in their own ability. These people have faith in God, but have been brought to the end of their own strength. All old visions and dreams have become meaningless to them as they realise this is a new era and that they have nothing in themselves to bring. Badges of success from the past, though valid and true, are irrelevant for the new path. Each one on this path is aware of great weakness in their own ability. They start to walk almost like they are crawling, almost flat on their faces, holding on to hope in the strength of Christ. Few voices can be heard at the start of this path and there is only one prophetic voice to be heard at the beginning – it is a simple phrase repeated over these prostrate saints – “let him who has ears, hear, what the Spirit is saying”.

"The two paths lay before us, Known and Unknown. The Unknown – where the Holy Spirit is totally in control. The Known – where people work hard to serve the Lord.  Both paths are populated with God’s children.The starting point for the Unknown path is realisation, recognition and relinquishment of any vestige of self-reliance or expectation of ability to do anything in human strength. This starting point is not a choice – it’s a position, where self is at an end – personal ‘bankruptcy’; a crashing from self – weakness, wretchedness, blindness, and poverty of spirit – of self.  Helpless but not hopeless.There’s stillness, a silence, not even sights or sobs – for these have gone before. At this place sights are really too deep to be uttered. The last breath of confidence in self is expelled.Leadership on this path will be sacrificial to God and man – it will be to release people.

"A new kind of church will emerge – built by the Spirit of God and populated by the those who have to hear and see what the Spirit is saying and doing. Any other way will be untenable on this path.Badges of success gained before this point in time will be meaningless. They will be a hindrance and distraction. For it is not what has gone before that will count – it will be each step forward into God’s purposes, led by the Spirit. This is a new era.You can’t read about it, learn about it, think about it or talk about it for it is not like any time before. It requires a place and position of surrender – to human plans or God’s leading.

"Each path will be populated across the span of diversity in the church – from Catholic, Orthodox expressions, through to Pentecostal and Charismatic – all coming together by the Spirit of God.This is the time for choices. Many people have been struggling in the past few weeks, unsure of what is happening and why they are feeling so unsettled. They know that something is about to change but are not seeing the way ahead. The next few months will be a time of significant choices. Even the smallest choice could have great significance. The choices will reflect the chosen path.

"Let us pray for right choices, courage and commitment."

Christine Larkin 2007

How He feeds us

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me."  For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.  (1 Corinthians 11:23-26)

I've spent many years in churches where the preferred description for the bread and wine is 'emblem'. A peculiar, rather timid word. Not likely to impart faith to us that anything is really happening spiritually when we eat and drink them.

Last night, amongst a small group of worshippers welcoming the Spirit among us, I read the passage above - which felt an odd thing to be moved to do, for we weren't going to take communion - and spoke out what God was showing me.

Each of us present had received the bread and wine many times; and every time, Jesus was infusing His body, His blood, His very life, into ours. If we forget all the theological and historical arguments, isn't this so obvious? How a child can see it? Believer, be of very good cheer: this has been done to you by God, Who is working the miracle through and through you, time and time again.

Then, see how the body He gives to us is broken, and the blood He shares is spilt out. Those are His terms for us to be able to receive Him: His death, His cross.

And there is more: this spiritual work done in me is a proclamation to others. Like every action Jesus took, it is a sign which proclaims that the Kingdom of God is here with power - not just a matter of words. Jesus said His disciples would live on the same terms as He did: by the cross.

So our own lives now make the same proclamation as His: they are given to others broken and spilt. We are little Christs now, becoming identical to Him, and ever more so each time He gives us His body and blood.

I'm an Archbishop too

It has been quite a tumultuous time for elections: Obama's epic struggle and perhaps against-the-odds victory; China's old-fashioned transfer of power, or at least of figurehead; and now the cumbersome, decent, ever-ridiculed Anglican Church has proved herself nimble on her feet and come up with a refreshing surprise: Justin Welby.

What sparks in me a hope and delight is Welby's own delight, humour and optimism in accepting the position. No hint of "poisoned chalice" talk here. And I personally identify with the way he demonstrates an authentic mix of views on different matters, defying our desires to categorise others.  I could trust a man who appreciates his Evangelical inheritance and has a Catholic spiritual director.

For that is what seems to happen as we mature: we become more our true selves, and find ourselves holding convictions in balance which place us outside any one human camp. And gradually, the Kingdom of God takes shape in us and shapes us.

And so to the capricious title of this post (I'm going to blog more light-heartedly in future): it struck me this morning that my role in my immediate family is beginning to resemble that of the A of C. 

Once upon a time we were a family of six and our children naturally fell in with what Mum and Dad believed and where they worshipped.  Simple days, so long ago ...  They grew up, left home, some of them got married and started their own families - and our little closely knit family has expanded to fifteen and has become very diverse.  By the grace of God, every one of us has found a place near God's throne and believes in our Saviour, Jesus the Christ: but He was absolutely right in telling us that there were many rooms in the Father's house!  One family is part of a Baptist fellowship on a deprived estate in Bradford; another is now Roman Catholic, drawn to the most traditional wing of that Church, and in a fellowship in Ipswich; another son is recently married and planting new Christian communities in Helsinki; and our daughter belongs to a large Anglican church in Oxford.  Mum and Dad are between fellowships right now, but looking for one with enough pentecostal freedom and passionate worship - that's where we thrive.

I absolutely love this diversity, and I let all our grown-up children and daughters-in-law enrich my devotion to God by sharing their lives in Him with us.  They will sometimes argue among themselves and reject things another holds dear, but I will not exclude anything or any of them.  Of course, it doesn't rationally add up.  We have become a microcosm of the Church Universal.  But I see the good fruit which validates all this diversity; I appreciate how different we are from each other, and therefore how different a journey God will have planned for each of us, until we all become like Christ.

This made me weep

It seemed like all the anguish and injury of those days swept over me

(St Andrew’s, Cullompton, Devon)

The heart is a slow learner

I owe an immeasurable amount to human teachers, the ones I’ve heard and the ones I’ve read; but my heart only begins to believe things if it hears them from the Spirit, Who has drawn as close as can be to my heart, as Jesus promised.  

This is how I tend to think: ‘If God likes what I do, I don’t have to worry about what someone else thinks.’   But I see that I am selective about thinking like that.  I wouldn’t dream of applying such thinking to those I love and respect - that’s a bit of a give-away!  It’s obviously not a godly principle, but rather self-serving.  To cut to the chase, I love those whom I feel loved by, and ignore those whom I feel I’m not loved by.   But these days, God is correcting my course, adjusting my sails a bit so they can pick up breezes from other directions.

Jesus taught this: ‘Love your enemies’.  He added no reservations or conditions.  He loved people, all the time, and most of all as He faced the Cross.  He let His enemies do their will.  Although His Mother and other companions were with Him on the road to Golgotha, I believe He went ahead alone without the reassurance of their comprehension, with a faith unique to Himself that to do so would ‘draw all men’ to the Father and to Himself.  

So does that still work in the same way?  It must!  Serving and loving our enemies, adversaries and uncomprehending strangers is what may free them to find salvation: which means their reconciliation with the Father and their resurrection to life.  Jesus always intended His followers to do this as well, once He’d gone ahead first in living out love to the unimaginable extent of His humiliation, torture and death.  St Paul calls this ‘sharing in the sufferings of Christ’, and teaches that it is a vital part we are to play, as co-workers in the healing and salvation of the world.

Yes, Jesus has finished His one, perfect sacrifice; but that opened the way for us to live like He did. Unless we co-work with Him to do the same things He did, others will not be reached by the Kingdom of God.  It’s not at all enough just to tell people about what Jesus did, and say that they are saved if they believe the story.  My life, and their lives, are intended to change and look like Jesus’ life, and we are intended to become inspired by the same faith which once upon a time, now so long ago, He was the only Person on earth to have.  But no longer.

Beginning a new season

I greet again all my readers in name of the Father of all Mercies and pray His grace be with you.

Five years ago, God started me on a training programme in His love through the ministry of John and Carol Arnott and the 'Catch the Fire' network they founded.  He has brought me into a secret and intimate place with Him, where my heart lies open to His loving gaze and healing, and heaven is open all around me for a thousand loving conversations.

This morning, we talked about what is happening now.  Through our intimacy, I know He is my loving Father all the time, and all my value and identity come now from Him.  If anyone speaks a different word about me, I know immediately it is not true, and I run to hide in Him in safety.

This intimate relationship with God protects me so that when I encounter damaged people - including myself - I will not be damaged.  I will not "return evil for evil" (1 Peter 3:9 ) nor become "spotted by the world" (James 1:27).

But I am sensing a change in season, spiritually.  A first stage of my training is over, and I have had a big shock: when training is over and you start doing what you have been trained for, at first you will mostly fail.  The overwhelming feeling is the cry: 'What then was it all for?'

But He comes to comfort and reassure.  My failures and sins are all necessary and good, to complete everything God loves to change about me.

On the third day He rose again from the dead!

Today, no words - just Piero della Francesca's icon of Christ's resurrection which he painted for the town hall of his native town, Borgo San Sepolcro, in around 1458





Christ has died!  Christ is risen!  Christ will come again!