see-through faith

Let God move you from captivity to celebration was the message bishop Zevi gave here in Finland last night.

He’s a dynamic speaker from Nigeria. More than that Zevi is a man who loves God and on whose heart God has put Finland. I am not sure how many times he has visited this nation, but I’ve been priviledged to hear him speak on several occasions including in the local methodist church because two of our former pastors invited him to share God’s heart with us. On every occasion I’ve come away blessed but challenged in a good way. I’ll never forget him bursting into ‘God rest ye merry gentlemen’ in the late spring one time, and his preaching on the need to come down from the mountain into the valley too. Best of all was his thoughts on ‘pressed down and running over’

Last night’s messages (my friend and I had thought it was one meeting at 4pm, but it turned out to be two with coffee in between)  were a message of hope to the people of Finland, and Zevi radiated with the glory of God as he delivered the message.  The meeting was  hosted at Toivo (hope) II over in Kaskenkatu/Itäinenpitkäkatu, which I’ve never been to before, and it was encouraging (for me) to see so many older people being challenged and transformed by the message that God really does have a good plan for our lives.

I am so glad I went!

The winter here in Finland is always long. This year has been easier in some ways because there’s been so much snow (and therefore it’s been brighter) but nonetheless it’s easy to become depressed and discouraged because of the lack of light. I think that’s one reason why messengers like Zevi are so needed here. Last night he preached firstly about moving forward with God (and not being held back) …reminding us that the Israelites were trapped by the Egyptians and the Red Sea, only to see Almighty God part the sea and destroy the Egyptian army until it ‘was no more’. (The second meeting was about anointing but I’ll write a separate post about that)

I loved the way Zevi used the Gospel reading of Jn 5:1-14 (the miracle at the pool of Bethsida) to show how Jesus left the feasting to minister to someone in captivity. That man had been waiting for a miracle at the pool for 38 years and his plea for help had been rejected time and time again. Zevi made the interesting point that Bethsida had lost its power ‘just like some Christian churches today’ and that it only changed when King Jesus stepped in. His message last night was an encouragement to us all to let Jesus back in, and allow Him to take charge of our programme (including in the church but also in our own lives)

It gave me pause for thought.
What have I not surrendered to God that I ought to have?

What I also found interesting what Zevi’s take on the man, who having been healed, picked up his bed started to walk home. … only to be challenged by the Pharisees. “Mr Man. What are you doing? Don’t you know it’s the sabbath? Go back to where you came from!” They would have sent him back to captivity but his response was that he was not going back, he was moving on! Only moments before Jesus had held out His hand to pull him from the pit and put a new song in his mouth and a spring in his formerly crippled step – and that has to be a challenge for us today too. To take the hand He is extending to us and allow ourselves to be pulled out of the miry pit (be it pulling us out of winter depression, a crippling disease, an abusive situation, loss of hope or whatever it is that binds us).

Zevi’s message was that God will restore the strength that has been sapped and that that is a cause of celebration. To that I can only say ‘Amen!’

This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 1:44 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.