Over the past few months different people in our church have had all kinds of visions, dreams, and prophetic words about the Lord pouring out the Holy Spirit on His church, resulting in a spiritual awakening that will affect our cities and region. Last Sunday one of our guests, Jack Thorsen was worshiping with us. Jack is a good friend of Harbor Church and has been very supportive of our ministry in downtown Portsmouth. While we were worshiping Jack felt the Lord tell him the following.

"I heard the Lord say that four hundred years ago the seed of His Gospel was sown in this area.  The seed was then covered with soil and the soil hardened.  Those who sowed desired that the message of redemption would reach many generations of their children.  Others sowed three hundred years ago.  The soil also covered the seed and hardened.  Two hundred years ago, more seed and more soil, and the same one hundred years ago.  Each time seed was sown over the last four hundred years, the soil covered the seed and hardened.  Each time, the sower's desire was for an everlasting redemption for their children and children's children.

Though revivals have sprung up throughout the last four hundred years, much of the seed remains in hardened soil.  Also, much of the seed sown today remains on the ground.

Then I saw the rains come and saturate the soil.  At once, all the seed - the old and the new - came to life together, broke through the hard soil, and reached to heaven in abundance.  So great was the growth that it supplied all needs; even to provide shelter for all the birds of the field.

As I was contemplating the vision of the layers of seed, and the growth the Lord would initiate, the Lord said to me that the children of the sowers are among us today.  They are like the hardened soil, but they contain the seed that will spring to life and join the seed sown today.  The desires of their forefathers will reach them.  God heard."

I invite you to pray with us that God would send this spiritual rain to refresh and to revive and to bring new life as he saturates our communities with His Presence.

You might like to listen to Simon Brading's song 'Let the rain come' while you pray!  Click here.

Limited Visiting Rights

I preached recently on the need of the Western church to fully embrace both the word of God and the Spirit of God; commenting, as others have, on the 'silent divorce' that has taken place. Here is a quote from Dr Jack Deere in his book, 'Surprised by the Voice of God',

“Many in the church today are content to live with only one parent. They live with the word, and the Spirit has only limited visiting rights. He just gets to see and touch the kids once in a while. Some of his kids don’t even recognize him any more. Some have become afraid of him.

Others in the church, live with the Spirit and only allow the word sporadic visits. The Spirit doesn’t want to raise the kids without the word. He can see how unruly they are becoming, but he won’t force them to do what they must choose with their hearts.

So, the church has become a divided family growing up with separate parents. One set of kids is proud of it’s education, and the other set of kids is proud of it’s freedom. Both think they are better than the other. The parents are heartbroken, because unlike most divorces, they didn’t choose this divorce. Their kids did."

A New Season

I believe we are living in days when the kids are beginning to say we need a remarriage! You may have heard of the saying, “Without the Word we blow up. Without the Spirit we dry up. But with the Word and the Spirit we GROW up.” God wants us to grow up to be healthy and mature, to be a powerful witness, transforming lives and communities with the gospel of Jesus. But we need need both word and spirit, truth and fire, gospel and power.

Maybe you have questions concerning the Holy Spirit. Do we all have the Holy Spirit indwelling us when we come to believe in Jesus? What does it mean to be baptized with the Spirit? What does Paul means when he says 'be filled with the Spirit'? (Ephesians 5:18). This Summer during July and August we will be preaching a series of messages on the Holy Spirit. What does the Word teach about the Spirit? What does the Spirit want to teach us through his Word? Let us pray that as word and Spirit come together, God will ignite something in our hearts and lives that will create an awakening in our City and communities. Join us for a "Summer in the Spirit"

To listen to the recent message on Word and Spirit, CLICK HERE.

C T Studd (1860-1931), an Englishman, was a celebrity in the late nineteenth century. While a student at Cambridge University, he achieved sporting prowess as one of the greatest cricket players of his day. He had fame, fortune and the prospect of a comfortable life and successful career, but he turned his back on it all to follow Jesus Christ. Studd and six other students joined the China Inland Mission, they became known as the Cambridge Seven.

Many tried to persuade Studd to stay in England and use his position to influence the young men of the nation rather than go and bury himself in the interior of China. As it was, his determination to obey God led to something of a revival among students that reached just about every University in the English speaking world. The Cambridge Seven sailed for China in 1885.

“Christ's call is to feed the hungry, not the full; to save the lost, not the stiff-necked; not to call the scoffers, but sinners to repentance; not to build and furnish comfortable chapels, churches and cathedrals at home in which to rock Christian professors to sleep by means of clever essays, stereotyped prayers and artistic musical performances, but to raise living churches of souls among the destitute, to capture men from the devil's clutches and snatch them from the very jaws of hell, to enlist and train them for Jesus and make them into an Almighty Army of God. But this can only be accomplished by a red-hot, unconventional, unfettered Holy Ghost religion, where neither church nor state, neither man nor traditions are worshiped or preached, but only Christ and him crucified.” - Studd

Studd spent ten years in China, and a further six years in India. Ill health eventually forced him to return to England. He was fifty years old, when, in 1910, he saw a poster that said "Cannibals want Missionaries". Studd believed God was calling him to go to Africa. His doctor advised him against it and his missionary committee refused to back him, but Studds response was typical: "Gentlemen, God has called me to go, and I will go. I will blaze the trail, though my grave may only become a stepping stone that younger men may follow"

He spent the next twenty years in the Congo in Africa where he saw an amazing move of God with many natives coming to Christ. He died there in 1931.

Studd was a trail blazer who lived a full life to the glory of God. Perhaps you have wondered whether God could ever use you. Maybe you lack boldness and courage. What would Studd say to you? -

"The difficulty is to believe that He can deign to use such scallywags as us, but of course he wants faith and fools rather than talents and culture. All God wants is a heart, any old turnip will do for a head; so long as we are empty, all is well, for then He fills with the Holy Ghost...The fiery baptism of the Holy Ghost will change soft, sleek Christians into hot, lively heroes for Christ, who will advance and fight and die, but not mark time. Let us race to heaven..Don't be a luggage train!" - C. T. Studd (1860-1931), quoted by Norman P. Grubb in C. T. Studd: Cricketer & Pioneer.

J O Fraser (1886–1938)

Born in London, in 1908 James Fraser dedicated his life to missionary work and joined the China Inland Mission. He arrived in China in 1910, and spent nearly thirty years working in difficult conditions among the Lisu people in the mountains of Western Yunnan Province. For six years Fraser prayed for a spiritual breakthrough, often battling with depression and discouragement as finally his first Lisu family turned to the Lord, only to then turn back to ancestral worship.

It was in 1916 that the Spirit of God broke through in an incredible way, after much prayer, faith and patience. Fraser's journal entries at the beginning of that year show how he overcame discouragement and despondency.

Sunday, January 16, 1916. Not a single person at service in the morning ....The walls of Jericho fell down "by faith." Of all the instances of faith in Hebrews 11, this corresponds most nearly to my case. But not faith only was necessary; the wall fell down after it had been compassed about for seven days. Seven days’ patience was required, and diligent compassing of the city every day - which seems to typify encompassing the situation by regular, systematic prayer. Here then we see God’s way of success in our work, whatever it may be - a trinity of prayer, faith and patience.

February 5, 1916 I am not taking the black, despondent view I took yesterday. The opposition will not be overcome by reasoning or by pleading, but (chiefly) by steady, persistent prayer. The men need not be dealt with (it is a heart-breaking job, trying to deal with a Lisu possessed by a spirit of fear) but the powers of darkness need to be fought. I am now setting my face like a flint: if the work seems to fail, then pray; if services, etc., fall flat, then pray still more; if months slip by with little or no result, then pray still more and get others to help you.

March 13, 1916 Cloud seems to have lifted considerably - perhaps because prayer burden fought right through ...After much pressure, even agony, in prayer for Lisu souls, enabled to break through into liberty, and to pray the definite prayer of faith for signal blessing among the Lisu during the next few months .... Real, prevailing prayer, for the first time for a week or more, and well worth the travail that led up to it ....Much peace and rest of soul after making that definite prayer, and almost ecstatic joy to think of the Lisu Christian families I am going to get.

It was later that year, over a four month period, that 600 Lisu turned to Christ! With Fraser’s oversight, an indigenous church planting movement was started with Lisu believers leading scores of other Lisu villages and families to Christ. By 1918, 60,000 believers had been baptized. The conversion of the Lisu is one of the greatest stories in mission history. Today, there are an estimated 300,000 Lisu Christians in China.

Are you looking for a breakthrough, either in your life or in the lives of people around you? Be encouraged by the example of Fraser. God's way of success is so often accomplished through a "trinity of prayer, faith and patience". Keep praying, keep believing and be patient, don't give up!

Journal entries taken from: 'The Prayer of Faith' by J.O. Fraser. Further reading: Mountain Rain by Eileen Fraser Crossman