Conference

The conference was an absolute blast and indeed a time when God moved personally in my life. I faced the challenge of getting to know new people each day and even amazed myself at how much i enjoyed talking to people from different centres. Gartmore house on first viewing reminded me of the hotel from the film 'The Shining'. Kinda creepy! But inside it is magnificent! Full of the peace of God and the people who work there are practically invisible!

Teaching - The services with Stuart Blythe were interesting. I was drawn into the one about words of authoruty. He explained that people who knew YOU and who knew your name had authority over you (back in the days of Jesus) they had some kind of power so to know someones name was giving them knowledge. Thats why the evil spirit in mark 1:21-27 called out His name saying 'I know who you are- the Holy One sent from God'. This evil spirit wasnt shouting out His name in acknowledgement and praise but to gain power over Jesus by his own knowledge. Jesus shows His authority comes higest when he tells the evil spirit to 'be silent' and the evil spirit comes out with a shriek....but not one word is uttered from this spirit again! The words from God hold more authorty than any other. This piece of scripture had never fully made sense to me. I always wondered why Jesus made him silent. I thought He just didnt want the evil spirit telling everyone His name but that wasnt the case. Jesus didnt want the evil spirit to think he had any kinda power over the living God. Jesus turned the usual ways of life on its head. This evil spirit thought he had power and Jesus proved Him wrong. This goes on all the way through His life. Even to the cross. The enemy thought he had won when Jesus died on the cross but Jesus turned it all on its head. He showed the enemy that He has power even over death. Jesus is amazing!