Weekend Away 'Love:Intimacy'
26 Nov 2009
'Abide in me' was the offer Jesus gave his disciples in John 15, presenting the joys and the fruit of a closer walk with himself.
Expectant and excited about a weekend themed around intimacy with the Holy Spirit, forty of our students and twenties convoyed to Oak Hall Manor somewhere in deep Kent.
It is rare that we get time to simply 'soak' in God's love and presence and so a weekend such as this is a precious commodity. The freedom to pray, worship and wait on the Holy Spirit for as long as is necessary was just an incredible experience. Thanks to this, we saw a massive amount of people stepping up and sharing prophecies, words of knowledge and songs, some for the first time.
Everyone was blessed by Dave Holden's sermon on the Saturday night about abiding in the vine, highlighting the need and the blessing of a consistent and intimate relationship with our creator and saviour. There was a sense that this could be a seminal moment in the lives of many of our students and twenties really guiding us from experiencing the Holy Spirit only on Sundays and Life Groups into knowing Him in every aspect of our lives.
This was the mindset we were encouraged to take in a seminar on 'Treasure Hunting' (if you've not heard of it, look it up!). Rather than a day out with the Holy Spirit we were challenged to spend every day with our spiritual eyes open, ready and expectant for God to break out – anytime and anywhere.
One of the key themes that came up in the worship was that our actions, our desire to abide, our expectation of the spirit all came out of a response to what God has done and is doing. This was powerfully articulated by Chris Smyth on the Sunday morning spurring us on to apply everything we had learnt and experienced throughout the weekend and to live a life of praise. Because (quote of the week) as Jesus said:
“I tell you, If these were silent, the very stones would cry out” and no-one wants to be shown up by a rock!
Mike Addis
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