This week we had the pleasure of having Fernanda and Fred Barros come and speak from Iris ministries in Rio Brazil.

Fernanda gave a word on God's provision in the wilderness and desert seasons and our need to ask and lean on Him for help.

In every season we need Gods provision

And we have the freedom to go into Gods presence with vulnerability 

Also, His grace gives us a place to be vulnerable with each other 

Genius 21:8-20

Perhaps like Haggi you are in the desert 

But God sees you in the desert and He has provision for you

If the enemy can’t lead us to sin through temptation he will use distraction. This often latches onto us when we are weary, even when we get tired of doing good things.

Although, the Lord wants to draw us even closer in these times, into His perfect love and covenant. It is in these times that we need to know He is our banner. Run to Him in times of need, then also reach out to your brothers and sisters in Christ!

Sam Garfoot is a great father in the house and elder in our church. For this Sunday Sam brought a word to remind us of the power of the cross, that Jesus gave us His righteousness. 

1 John 2:28 - everyone that practises righteousness is of Him and has been born again

1 John 3:1-3 - this is how the Lord sees us as His children! 

This is a constant purifying of our heart as we behold and walk with Him.

This isn't something that we have to strive for, but just come to Him in humility and let Him move us.

I don't think we can tick a box and say 'we’ve done dependency, we don't move on from it'!

Jonah continues the running theme from conference of dependency on Jesus

For the Hebrews the name El Shaddai is was more than just the term God Almighty, it was a like a sentence: The God who is sufficient and the God who knows how to say 'that’s enough'.

He is enough and He is our Daily bread

The lord had to reteach the Israelites this when He brought them out of Egypt as they had lived in slavery for so long.

We need to keep coming to Him everyday to receive our daily bread 

Rory starts with a recap of the conference we had with UPPERROOM, where God came with a deeper message of 'I'm going to teach you guys to depend on me'.

The question is what will that look like in your life, what is God saying to you on how to depend on Him?

God had different calls to different churches, perhaps we are like the churches that had abundance and wealth, stay in dependence on me, stay abiding.

Where the western world tempts us into thinking we don't need God, we need to remind ourselves of our need for Him and come humble.

Theme of the conference

Ps 27:4 this one thing have I desired, this one thing will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, behold His beauty and glory and meditate in His temple.

For our Sunday service we had the pleasure of hearing again from Aaron, share on the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38. Serving only becomes a burden when worship doesn't exist. 

The first commandment says to love God with all your heart, then loving people comes out of the first. Yet in the church we often swap these two around, although we cannot do this. First and foremost we need to love the Lord our first love!

This is His desire, for us to behold His beauty.

Beholding His glory isn't a genre of worship or a modern day denomination, its what the church was always called to be!

The mark of success isn't how many people came, its did He come!

If you will not commit to private pray don't commit to corporate, it comes from the secret place.

Longevity is cultivated in faithfulness

He comes where He's welcomed but He stays where He's Honoured! 

When you sit with the Lord be present with Him

Theme of the conference

Ps 27:4 this one thing have I desired, this one thing will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, behold His beauty and glory and meditate in His temple.

Following on the beautiful message by Jonah in the morning we had this prayer room set in the early afternoon led by Andrea and Justus. Enjoying Jesus in prophetic worship from John 15 Jesus the true vine to us the branches.

Theme of the conference

Ps 27:4 this one thing have I desired, this one thing will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, behold His beauty and glory and meditate in His temple.

For the Saturday morning session we had the pleasure of Jonah bringing a word of how available Jesus is to us when we call on Him. A theme arose from the Friday afternoon of our need for Jesus, this deep longing and need to be desperate for Him which Jonah carried beautifully in this word.

That in this deep desperation for Jesus, He is always available and present in relationship.

Jonah shares how the Lord has kept Him in John 6:10, highlighting the phrase 'as much as they wanted'.

Jesus is available as much as you want. He is the bread, our daily bread and He will distribute Himself out as much as you want.

The ancient Greeks believed that man was the measure of all things.

Although, we know through scripture that this thinking is heresy

As Jesus is the measure of all things, He is the beginning and the end.

Colossians  1:15-18 

Theme of the conference

Ps 27:4 this one thing have I desired, this one thing will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, behold His beauty and glory and meditate in His temple.

For the second night of the conference we had Aaron Smith share

God doesn't want leaders He wants followers and we are seeing leaders fall that weren't following Him.

Man does not give you bread, this is only Jesus, Jesus is the bread!

We see this in John 6:32-33 

Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

Prayer is going 'I don't know what to do in this situation Lord what do I do?'

Talking with God..

The bible says if you follow Jesus you will have trials although take heart for you will have the good shepherd.

Theme of the conference

Ps 27:4 this one thing have I desired, this one thing will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, behold His beauty and glory and meditate in His temple.

This was the Friday afternoon Q&A Panel for church leaders with Aaron and Sara-Beth Smith and Josiah Sherwen and Jonah Pearson.

Jonah kicked off the session by sharing what He felt God say for the session

The Australian church needs to learn how to prioritise my presence and follow my leadership even unto death.

This session was about our choices and it ended in our choice to lay down the things of this world and our flesh to be dependant and consecrated to Jesus.

Our all consuming fire..

Song of Solomon 8:5

'Who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved?'

Broken, always leaning on our beloved!