E N L A R G I N G  YOUR TENT

The year was 1977. I was in my second year of study as a live-in student at Christian Life Bible College in Lower Hutt, near the city of Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. The desire to be in this location to further my knowledge of God's Word, and be more equipped for Christian service was birthed in my spirit a couple of years before when I heard the Director of the college, Frank Houston speaking during a ministry trip to the Gold Coast. He spoke of the Bible college, and his passion to see men and women prepared for Christian service over two years of study, and then to go out on fire for the Lord - not necessarily as pastors, but in whatever ministry, to be prepared and passionate for the Lord.

Frank Houston, originally a Salvation Army officer, had encountered the Holy Spirit and the added dimension of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit through a fiery extrovert evangelist in Auckland, Ray Bloomfield. Ray had mentored Frank in the early years of his Pentecostal experience, and had encouraged him to expect the gifts of the Holy Spirit to operate in his own ministry. By the time I arrived at CLBC in Lower Hutt, Frank Houston had been successfully pastoring Christian Life Centre in that city for some years, and had risen in the "ranks" of the Assemblies of God" (AOG) in New Zealand to become the national General Superintendent of the movement.

In his own words, he said later that "he thought he had it made". As well as his pastoral leadership of his local church, the national leadership of the AOG movement, and his leadership and lecturing input of the Bible college, he had travelled widely overseas conducting evangelistic meetings, seeing many hundreds of people come to salvation through Jesus Christ. Many physical and emotional healings, and deliverance from demonic oppression were also hallmarks of his ministry, as was other gifts of the Spirit, including the word of knowledge and prophecy.

Then in early 1977, something happened which would set him on a new path of adventure and fulfillment in the work of the Lord. His wife, Hazel was away with friends in the South Island of New Zealand. One night, while sleeping, Frank had a dream. He dreamed of Sydney with its familiar sights - the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and the beaches. He awoke during this time, and he could still see before his eyes in vision form the same sights of Sydney, Australia.

The Lord then told him to read Isaiah 54 - the whole chapter. In his own words, although he had read this chapter many times before, he could not remember what was in it. He opened his Bible and began to read, and, as he did, the Lord spoke to him from every verse. The Lord spoke to him, and told him He wanted him to go to Sydney and pioneer a church there. Verses 2 and 3 of that chapter spoke to him in particular: "Enlarge the place of your tent,
And let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings;
Do not spare;
Lengthen your cords,
And strengthen your stakes.
For you shall expand to the right and to the left,
And your descendants shall inherit the nations,
And make the desolate cities inhabited." NKJV

 The next day he shared this with his church board and elders. They had a 
witness in their spirits that it was of God, and later that year, Frank and Hazel moved across the Tasman to Sydney to begin a whole new chapter of their lives in ministry in Australia. At the age of 57, he said they were like a couple of kids, having to go out and rent a building for meetings, to buy communion glasses and other necessary items for the infant church.

Eventually, they were able to secure a permanent church building in the inner-city suburb of Waterloo, where the church grew to a congregation of a couple of thousand, which in those days, was huge for Sydney. Frank and Hazel had been joined by a small team of several families from Lower Hutt in establishing the work in Sydney - including their recently wed son, Brian and wife Bobbie Houston.
Brian and Bobbie commenced Hills Christian Life Centre in Baulkham Hills, a north-western suburb of Sydney. The church was to become what is now Hillsong Church, one of Australia's mega-churches with multiple campuses across Australia and around the world. In 1986, the first Hillsong Conference was held, an annual conference drawing thousands from Australia and overseas, featuring high-profile ministries as well as well known Christian worship artists.

One could argue that, if Frank Houston had not obeyed the vision to move to Sydney and answer the call of God at that time to step out by faith into the "unknown", that Hillsong Church with its phenomenal growth and impact over the last thirty years - just may not have been.

Fast forward to 2017, and my wife Tessa and I live in southern Tasmania, and are in fellowship at a vibrant Pentecostal church at Bellerive, on Hobart's eastern shore. Part of the vision for this church this year is based around Isaiah 54:2,3 quoted above - about ENLARGING OUR TENT, and SPREADING THE CURTAINS WIDER IN 2017, so that individually and together, we can grow into all that the Lord has for us.

Our lives, as Christians, do not have to be the "same old, same old" year after year, where we feel that we are just going through the motions. Yes, faithfulness to God will mean we have to persevere at times doing what we know is right in God's sight, as we walk in obedience to His Word. We may go through periods of dryness spiritually, where we find it hard to hear God's voice and sense His direction. It is in these times, that we need to hold on to the promises of God - to walk by faith, regardless of what is going on around us - knowing that, in His time, He will bring us to times of breakthrough and renewed blessing.
"Do not remember the former things,
Nor consider the things of old.
Behold, I will do a new thing,
Now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert." Isaiah 43: 18,19
Psalm 138:8 says The Lord will perfect that which concerns us.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Then you will call upon Me, and go and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity....Jeremiah 29:11-14a.
God's vision for our lives is far greater than most of us can imagine. That is why most personal prophecies given to Christians are not condemning of our sins and failures - but they most often speak to who the Lord sees us becoming. He sees our potential for growth, and for enlargement of our capacity to host the Holy Spirit's power and fruitfulness in our lives. My wife and I are now in our sixties, but, speaking for myself, I do not want to retire - but to refire in the purposes of God that we be fruitful in life and ministry in this season of life. We want to ENLARGE OUR TENTS as part of the church community corporate vision and purpose where we are planted!

TESSA's Postscript: When I was seven or so, a few girls locked me in a garden shed. I could see mum's head through a tiny window as she searched for me.
Of course, that fear crippled me. 
One day I got a bike for Christmas and found freedom - so don't be locked up small by fear. Let the perfect love of Jesus set you free to reach up tall and touch the stars!

C H A N GE

For I am the Lord, and I do not change... Malachi 3:6
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. Hebrews 13:8
God is not a man that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent.
Has He said, and will He not do it?
Or Has He spoken, and it not come to pass? Numbers 23:19
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
and comes down from the Father of lights, 
with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. James 1:17
The grass withers, the flower fades, 
but the word of our God will stand forever. Isaiah 40:8
Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth,
Or ever You had formed the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting,
You are God. Psalm 90:1,2
If we are faithless, He remains faithful 
- for He cannot deny Himself. 2 Timothy 2:13
Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven. Psalm 119:89

The above quoted verses from both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible and numerous other verses which could be quoted bear testimony to the unchanging character and divine attributes of the Living God. The God of the Bible, expressed as the triune God - Father, Son (the Lord Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit - can be fully trusted to be true to His character, and to fulfill His word. 
The Bible further tells us that "God is Love" 1 John 4:8
and also it says that "God is light" in verses such as 1 John 1:5 where it says: This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in Him at all.
Unlike some other so-called gods of other religions, the One True God is not capricious, His character has not, or will ever change. He is not vindictive. 
He is both a God of Justice and Mercy.

Although God's nature and His character never change, those who would be His disciples must change. The Bible tells us clearly that man is separated from fellowship with God by his sin, as it says in Romans 3:23. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. 
Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, came to earth to be born a baby, grow up into manhood, all the time living a sinless life - then die a cruel death on a Roman cross - as the Word of God states in 2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Romans 5:8 declares But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Just as a human being starts life as a helpless baby, and in the course of time, grows through various stages of childhood, then into adulthood, all the while maturing physically, mentally, intellectually and socially - with the proper nurturing and tutoring, so too the child of God goes through various stages of growth, of CHANGE.
At the point of salvation, a Christian is born again by the Spirit of God, his or her human spirit being re-created by the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul put it this way: Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17
Every Christian starts his journey of new life in Jesus as a spiritual "baby", feeding on the "milk" of God's Word. Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking,
as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,
if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. 1 Peter 2:1,2.
The writer to Hebrews, believed by many to be the apostle Paul, talks about those who lack spiritual maturity, who come to still rely on milk, instead of solid food (spiritually speaking) because they have not progressed from the first principles of the faith as expressed in Hebrews 6:1,2. 
Through daily feeding on God's Word, through study and meditation on the Word of God, through prayer, fellowship with other believers, through praise and worship, both alone and in a corporate body - and through sharing by way of bearing testimony to the goodness of God in our lives, we grow through stages into a place of spiritual maturity, all the while remaining teachable that we may continue to grow. 
The goal of the Christian life is not to change for the sake of change, but to be transformed into the image of Christ in us - to become more like Jesus.
Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:17,18.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Romans 12:1,2.
The fact that through the redemptive work of the blood of the Cross of Christ, "we have been accepted in the Beloved" - we are now sons and daughters of the Most High God by God's grace, does not excuse us from the need to change more and more into becoming more Christlike -"But speaking the truth in love [in all things - both our speech and our lives expressing His truth], let us grow up in all things into Him [following His example] who is the Head - Christ." Ephesians 4:15 AMP
Back in the 70's, when the ministry of the Teacher was being restored to the Body of Christ as part of the Charismatic Renewal, I remember one well-known teacher, Bob Mumford saying that one day he was having a conversation with the Lord, in which he said the Lord told him: "Mumford, you and I are incompatible - and I don't change." The inference was that Bob Mumford would have to change. I am sure the Lord was not condemning him in that statement, but making a point that God, in His love and wisdom desires for our benefit that we grow up into spiritual maturity, that we might obtain the full benefits of a life committed to Jesus, that we might in turn be able to nurture others and see them grow into Him as well.