i61 Sydney

When Israel crossed over from the desert into the promised land, it represented the most significant shift in a generation. 40 years of doing things the same - largely focused on themselves and their families and practicing their faith in the desert. Then in one day everything changed. Where God once was, He now was not. The focus of God’s activity in regard to His people shifted - from getting Egypt, the old, out of them, to getting them established in the new, and taking territory. We are at a threshold moment. God is moving us away from self focus to taking territory. We don’t know what the new fully looks like, but we can’t stay in the old. Tim Ferris and Megan Edward unpack the significant strategic prophetic moment we are in, and from Joshua chapter 3 show us what is needed so we can “cross over”.

Last time Tim talked through 4 thresholds in Kingdom life. The second of those thresholds was the threshold of Lordship - where Jesus is not just IN my life. He’s lord of my life. Tim and Vaughan Blackwood have an interactive discussion on the place of Scripture in that lordship threshold. As a church culture we are barely a generation away from a biblically illiterate generation. Without a deep relationship with scripture, we wander away from the ways of God and from truth, and we elevate our own opinions and experiences to be level with what God says. That’s dangerous ground. This discussion calls us back to a living relationship with God through scripture that keeps us off the throne of our life and Jesus well and truly on it.

In part 2 of this series on thresholds, Tim looks at 4 thresholds in Kingdom life. These thresholds are part of a meta-process of growth and development into the fullness of our calling and destiny. At each threshold, there is warfare, and a series of choices that need to be made. The temptation, when we don’t understand what is really happening, is to retreat to our “false refuges” rather than embrace the challenge and step into the next season.

The concept of “thresholds” in Scripture is one of those subjects that you don’t see and until you see it. Then once you see, you can’t un-see it, and you see it everywhere. Tim shows us that a threshold moment is a transition place from one season into another. It happens in the natural (e.g. puberty), and it also happens in the spirit as God leads us into a new season in our calling and assignment. Whenever we are at a threshold, we will generally have an encounter with the enemy who wants to keep us stuck in and old season. Jesus had one such moment at His temptation - the doorway between staying private, and launching into public ministry. Many of us are at threshold moments right now. At i61, we are at a threshold corporately. The decisions we make here are critical if we are to walk into everything that God has promised us. Prophetic ministry follows.

It’s so important to be reminded that we don’t have to commit intellectual suicide to be a Christian. This Easter Sunday, Tim takes us through some of the facts and data surrounding Jesus’ life and death, and the sheer weight of fulfilled Old Testament prophecy, and Jesus’ claims - that completely rules out Him being simply a good moral teacher. Tim ends with a fresh call to respond to Jesus, and to find life in Him.

The last message focussed on the “raise the army” part. Today we focus on the imperative to “set the table” - to create an atmosphere that is welcoming, loving, and healing, so that broken people can come, fall apart, and be loved back to life. Loving well requires a healed heart. My ability to love someone says more about me than the other person. And, love always takes the initiative - because He “first-loved” us.

We are in a transition season, and what we have known in the past is no longer sufficient for where God is taking us. Israel faced this transition after they crossed the Jordan. They moved from a season characterised by “coming out” to a new season of “going in” - taking the land that God had promised them. This was an entirely new operating system. As we finish laying the foundation for 2023 at i61, Tim looks at Joshua 5. Before Israel could take Jericho - the first city they were to conquer - there had to be a fresh consecration for a generation that “had not been circumcised along the way”. It is a season for us to “set the table” and “raise the army”. The dry bones from past seasons are starting to rattle as the Spirit of God is breathing new life over us!

Remnant seasons are a time where there is a focused purifying - often following some kind of correction from God. Not all of the people of God can handle the correction, and many grow weary and lose heart. Tim and Debbie describe the season we are in, looking at Hebrews 12 and Acts 3. God has been working to bring His people back to what it is really all about, and is calling us to a new level of holiness - being set apart for Him alone, so that times of refreshing come.

Too often, we achieve a breakthrough - a deliverance, a moment of freedom - and we think the work is done. In fact, that’s when the work begins. Jesus taught that when a demon leaves it goes looking for somewhere to rest, and then attempts to return to where it was cast out from. As the people of God we need to become good at occupying territory after the breakthrough - that is, filling the space with the opposite of what got you into captivity. This is true in individuals, and it is true in spheres and geographical regions. Tim then sets the stage for what God wants for i61 in 2023. It’s time for what’s in the house to flow through the house and go out and impact our community and our city.