Here is an important message given by David Ruis at our National Gathering in Montreal this past summer. Situating us as a Vineyard movement in Canada in the context of where we’re coming from and where God is leading us. It’s an inspired talk. Please take the time to listen – especially in this time of shaking.
>>Click here to download the talk and to view the speaking notes.
The end game was never to be signs and wonders. The end game was never to be the published song. The end game was to be “Jesus getting his church back.”
Zeus. Poseidon. Aphrodite. Mammon. Consumerism. Racism. Privilege. Abusive power. Lust. Rage. Insanity. Greed. The Lamb has disarmed you, making a public spectacle of you at the cross. We will not bow. We will not submit.
“The other really disarming thing for me was the current fruit of a Quaker branch, this capacity to wait. To rest. To not hype or coerce not only the work of the Spirit, but our engagement in the church. All of this impacted the worship. Not only the songs themselves, which reached for a level of intimacy and authenticity like I had never experienced but “why” the songs were not only sung, but set in this certain sacramental way full of expectation and hope, yet not afraid of an almost uncomfortable ease with the place of brokenness.
“Oh Lord, have mercy on me. And heal me.
Oh Lord, have mercy on me. And free me.
Place my feet upon a rock.
Put a new song in my heart. In my heart.
Oh Lord. Have mercy on me.”We were to continue to grow up and into these aspects of “our lane.” Peter Davids, I think, nailed it in 2004. We were not to camp here. The racial middle of 2018 is not perhaps the radical middle of 1987.”
You’re part of something that is in motion and will not stop in its violent commitment to reach, to dream, to prophetically embody and cooperate with, surrender to and engage in in the transforming power of this kingdom coming. This kingdom here.
Repent.
Think again.
Reach again.
Believe again.
Dream again.
The kingdom is upon us. It is here, now, and yet with still a whole lot more to come.
Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus. The Spirit and the Bride cry out. Creation groans. Can you hear the cries of the oppressed? The hurting? The dying? Those entangled by the power of their greed? Their need to consume? Their need to belong? To be something?
The endless cycle of the oppressor and the oppressed. The relentless whirlpool of wounding and revenge. The crippling disease of a consumerism that will never. Never. Be enough.
Come. Come all who thirst. Come all who bleed. Come out all who are hiding. Come all who long.
