Dan Holland’s recent seasonal message to TFM supporters resonates with a wider community
Unshakable
The phrase “one last shaking” means a thorough house cleaning, getting rid of all that historical and religious ‘junk’ so that the unshakable essentials stand clear and uncluttered. Do you see what we’ve got as believers? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, and deeply reverent before our God. For God is not an indifferent bystander. He is actively cleaning His house, torching all that needs to burn. And he won’t quit until it’s all cleansed. God himself is Fire! (Hebrews 12v 26-29 MSG)
Rude awakenings …..
Flying back to Heathrow after the Kenya mission in February I relished the warm glow of a successful mission, satisfied with the start of a glorious future connection. My heart brimmed with gratitude to God, looking forward to some restful weeks with my family, yet blissfully unaware of the rude awakenings that were headed my way. My father-in-law had been seriously ill but became considerably worse on my return. We lived in that hyper-vigilance of being ready to get in the car and go at any moment. I sought to comfort Rebecca and Anna through these difficult days and , earlier than we expected , Gordon was called t to His Lord on Sunday 18th February. Gordon was a spiritual father tmany and his death leaves the family, and his church, irrevocably changed. We are still discovering exactly how much.
Houses …..
Our tenants of five years in our house in Hunstanton abruptly told us they were leaving. We are convinced this is God’s timing to sell up and buy in St Ives (please pray for a buyer for our Hunstanton house). Our hand was rather forced in this and we had to spring into action, as the house needed a lot of work to get it ready for sale. I have made countless trips back and forth to Hunstanton, proverbially passing myself ‘coming back the other way’! Landlords out there will know how badly a property can deteriorate in a short time when not looked after properly! Meanwhile I, like many others, have been shaken to the core by the appalling public exposures and failures in the wider institutional church. This needs much prayerful processing, and there is certainly much work to do. God’s house is also in (self-inflicted) disarray!
A metaphor …..
At TFM wonderful opportunities have started rolling in almost weekly, and we need to meet these opportunities with faith. Somehow, mysteriously, I sense all this personal change is a metaphorfor TFM. God is on the move. TFM is not going backwards, rather we are marching forwards but exactly where to next only God knows. He is pushing us like eaglets out of the nest. I’m convinced God is graciously at work in all the changes! I have a thousand ideas for how TFM can move forward, but vision is the easy part! It takes time, wisdom and hard work to see ideas realised, and even good change can be stressful. The bottom line is, do we simply trust God, and are we willing to stay in the fire with Him?
Passion week speaks – irreversible change
So what has my ‘bellyaching’ got to do with this Biblical season? This year the ‘passion week’ speaks to me of irreversible change. Calvary shatters quiet comfort and complacency. Everything changes forever and at every conceivable level. If eating chocolate eggs and roast lamb is all that’s different then, frankly, we know nothing of the cross and it’s absolutist demand. Calvary’s cross confronts – and changes – everything in us and about us, to make us entirely and eternally new. There’s no turning or changing back, unless it is to destruction – like Judas Iscariot (Matt 27v 1-10).
The disciples who followed Jesus throughout His ministry still fought hard against His inexorable march to Calvary. Everything in them resisted this final change. What are the issues, the changes that we refuse and which put us at odds with Jesus and resist complete surrender to Him? Where in our lives has comfort and control replaced the Lordship of Jesus? Sometimes it takes disruptive change to amplify it. There is no resurrection without Calvary, and no victory without death. This Easter, if we allow it, the cross of Christ will break hard shells that have imprisoned us. In His resurrection Jesus will lead us through our tombs of painful change to new and fruitful life with Him.
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Dan Holland is a UK missionary with Through Faith Missions. He wrote “Through The Tunnel – Free at Last” published by PUSH Publishing, as his personal testimony. His second book “Prophetic Evangelism – Kingdom Exploits in the Risk Zone” has been reissued in an expanded second edition via Christian Publications International: https://christian-publications-int.com/PropheticEvangelism.html . More recently he has penned 2 short books on Growing As a New Christian and Caring for the New Christian.
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Here is a link to a Prophecy Today review of “Prophetic Evangelism”: https://prophecytoday.uk/study/resources/item/2076-review-prophetic-evangelism.html
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