a Spirit-filled weekend

Yesterday I came back from Derby-- and what a weekend it's been!! Basically I feel like this:

That said, I'll try to explain what experiences lie behind this feeling.

On Thursday and Friday we were a part of the salt and light leaders prayer&fasting... I thought I'd be hungry and tired and maybe a bit bored, but actually it was just great, inspiring, everyone was geared to pray and it produced more hunger in us all for God to breathe his life into our churches- and we also prayed for Europe (yay Norway!) so yeah, that was all good.

Saturday was DI-day (for worship leaders / those interested in the prophetic / musicians), which was, for me, AWESOME. And considering the note we ended on in praise (WOW!!) I think everyone was shaken that day.

First, we were seriously provoked in a seminar through Dave Richards, a prophetic guy, asking where are our songs? Some points from my notes:

• Are we still a prophetic people in praise and worship?
• Pointing to how some people go mad praising God (he was giving examples from churches in America but if you don't like seeing anything good about the USA then just look up some how people worshipped in the bible), what can we learn? 1) half hearted people can't worship a whole-hearted God 2) prophetic praise gathers people, produces thanksgiving and produces warriors for warfare
• Intimate worship is wonderful, but currently our worship leaders are more individually focused than corporate.
• Who are we gathering the people to?
• Are we as worship leaders following others, singing other people's journeys, or are we being led by the Spirit?
• Worship leaders should be on the leadership team, to know what God is saying to them, to musically journey with them.
• Do we build faith as we lead or do we run through a song list?
• Is there an atmosphere created for Body Ministry (the body of christ- the church- building up one another) and a willingness to follow the Holy Spirit? (Be sensitive- what does God want- where is the wind blowing?)
• Is there an Ascension in the meetings or are the meetings like the grand old duke of york? ("He marched them up to the top of the hill and he marched them down again...")

And on a more personal note:

• Are you expecting to deepen your gift or are you just looking for a bigger platform?
• If you take care of the depth of your gift, then God will take care of the arena it operates on (depth being found in spending time with God, getting deeper in His word, and learning to listen to what His Spirit is saying and to follow).
• Do you believe that the anointing you have is your only anointing..? (David needed new anointings: Bethlehem, Hebron, Jerusalem..)

Which leads me on to the last thing I want to share, how God's been stirring me to realise that I can actually hear His voice and speak out when He wants to speak to someone through me... and I went to the prophetic singing seminar, which was really challenging - I actually got a song! Which was scary... specially cause at the meeting afterwards I realised the consequenses of my actions. Dave had challenged us and said that when we come to church we should all come ready to give, or we may as well just stay at home. So I almost didn't want to go to church today! But I did (and God didn't give me anything to share today, luckily!) hehe but I am happy that I'm learning to be open to the Spirit! Don't want that to stop. It's what makes life hot, not lukewarm :)