Portraits of the Holy Spirit- Words from the Season (May 2007- )

Sunday Morning May 27th 2007
How often it is that we stumble upon things of great significance but only realise it afterwards? I have struggled to encapsulate the season ahead of us in a single phrase that would help focus us on what God is trying to say and help us get a greater revelation of who He is. As I was reading something the other day, the phrase, Portraits of the Holy Spirit jumped out at me, and I knew instantly that this was what I had been looking and waiting for! It was as though the Holy Spirit drew a frame around Himself and said, take a look into the Scriptures and see the infinite portraits of Myself.

The next day as I was journaling, God began to speak to me and so here is what He impressed upon my heart.

Craig, get ready for heaven's revelation! Prepare the canvas of your heart. Put yourself on the easel ready for Me to paint and create a collection of eternal worth! I desire a new canvas, white and prepared! I desire to do a new work of art. Many hearts and spirits have been painted with fake paint and colours. Many are displaying a faded image, many are portraying a blemished image, a false image. As you look into My Word, My colourful infinite palette, let Me gently paint again a revelation of who I am and what I am about to do! Many will come with layer upon layer of paint on their canvasses. I desire to do a new thing. Let the Blood of My Son, Jesus Christ wash the canvas white, new, ready for a bright new portrait of MySelf

My prayer is that God would stir up the gifts that He has placed in His people to speak, paint, draw, take photo's, craft, write, sing to help us gather together a gallery of portraits of eternal worth! If this is what God has said, then what are you and I going to do about it . (Craig Clark).

June 2007
I was blowing bubbles and felt God wanting to show me something through it. God is showing how to blow bubbles. We will blow light, colourful bubbles. They are delightful. Pleasant to see. Like fruits of the spirit. People want to touch it. And it becomes fun to do. But we have to keep using the right source for bubbles, or else they will pop straight away and frustrate more then they delight, to us and others. God is the only right source, living ‘bubblewater’. Delightful for ourselves and others. First to each other in church. Then drawing people from around. Be gentle, calm, delightful. Fruits of the Spirit. (Brechtje Haasnoot).

3 June
We need to get out from under the duvet covers of our lives to hear what God is saying to us. Things that are covered and not exposed can not be covered with Dew. ( Wessie van der Westhuizen)

June 2007
I was standing with my arms stretched out and looking up so that I could soak up the magnificent warm light that was coming from a place directly in front of, and above me. I felt a sense of total elation and indescribable joy. I realised that I was not alone, but in the middle of a mass of people, all quiet, not moving, just basking in that same light. Somehow my vantage point changed so that I was above the crowd. There where so many people that I could not see the end of the crowd to either side of me. As I watched tiny drops started forming on the surfaces of clothes and skin facing the light. As every person became covered, the liquid filled in all the broken places, cracks and imperfections until each person was as smooth and shiny as a mirror, reflecting the warm light all around, until the whole place was filled with the light. (Liezl)

6th June Wednesday Prayer Meeting

- Isaiah 43:18 – 21

- Had a picture of a dirt road that is hard and compacted. It’s impossible to dig it up, but when it’s been raining on it for long, the road gets softer. There are places in our hearts that are hard and God wants to soften them again so He can work in them, plant things in them. (Nikki Martin)

- I was walking around the plot I have just bought and I wondered if the soil was fertile and would things grow well if I planted them. Then after it had rained I saw that the soil was dark and rich. It was like the rain exposed the potential for fruitfulness. When the Holy Spirit rains on us it will expose our fruitfulness, it will show us things we didn’t know about ourselves. (Katherine du Plessis)

- I had a picture of a dam wall that was holding back a lot of water. We have put up walls that don’t let the Holy Spirit in and we need to break down those walls so His living water will flow. (Devalynn Maguire)

- Hosea 6:3- “Let us acknowledge the Lord;Let us press on to acknowledge Him.As surely as the sun rises, he will appear;He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.”

I then read that the winter rains in Israel assist in softening and ‘preparing’ the land for planting. The spring rains assist in the growth of the plants – to allow for the harvest. I believe that God is doing great and mighty things – He is ready to show us so much more than what we have yet seen.
(Debbie Maguire).