My Rooftop

Hope and Faith

2008-03-16T17:37:00.009+00:00

Hope is a powerful thing and it changes lives both when it is there and when it is not. I know christians who think that Hope is just a secular word for Faith, that somehow Faith supercedes Hope and because of our Faith we don't need to bother with the mere trifling that is Hope. How wrong can we be.

1 Corinthians 13:13 says that three things will remain, Faith, Hope and Love. Paul lists Hope separately to Faith because it is vital. Hebrews 11:1 says that 'Faith is the substance of things Hoped for...' (KJ version). Without Hope there is no Faith.

We are allowed to Hope. We have to Hope.

One of my greatest friends and inspirations says that Faith is for the now but Hope is for the future. I believe that Faith is, simply put, an alloy between my Hope for the future, and what I know about God; His Faithfulness, His Power, His Love, His Glory.

I want to stress just how much we need to have Hope. Hope that God will work all things for the good of His loved ones, Hope that He will lead us by still waters, Hope that He knows the plans He has for us and Hope that He will give us the desires of our hearts. We are allowed to Hope. We Have to Hope.

Hope for our families, Hope on behalf of others, Hope when things start to crumble and Hope at the start of a new adventure. We really are allowed to Hope, we really have to Hope.

The Best 'Number Two'

2008-03-03T20:13:00.004+00:00

Sometimes people ask me who is my favourite character in the Bible (other than God... or Jesus... basically anyone outside of the Trinity) and they're often surprised at my answer. They expect me to say someone like Abraham, Moses, Elijah or Paul but in fact its Jonathon.

Throughout 1 Samuel we hear the stories of Saul, Jonathon and David and the changing relationships between them. Jonathon was an awesome Leader, Warrior, Prince and Friend. He held the respect of all the people because he was a man of honour, goodness and strength.

But the thing that makes Jonathon stand out above all these qualities was his humility. Here was Jonathon, the first-born son to King Saul and rightful heir to the throne of Isreal. He had all the qualities of a great King and He feared God yet when he saw David, the man that God had annointed King, he humbly and without fuss stepped into line with the will of God. He forfeited the earthly kingdom that was by rights his, in order to pursue the Kingdom of God. He became the greatest 'Number Two' guy and happily served the man he recognised as God's 'Number One'.

Very few of us are called to be God's Number One but we are all Number Two's, serving not just our Pastors or Church Leaders, but above all these things to serve Jesus as God's Ultimate and Eternal Number One.

Jonathon displayed the truest of humilty. He didn't use humilty as an excuse to hold back from doing awesome things, but faced with the will of God he gave absolutely no thought to himself. C.S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity that true humilty is to lose all sense of self when in the Presence of God. This is why Jonathon is the man (other than Jesus) that I most want to meet when I get to Heaven.

Freedom - The Power of Revelation

2008-02-23T12:02:00.000+00:00

I've been talking about Freedom and trying to highlight how Living for God is supposed to be full of Freedom not entrapment. In Christ I am captive only to His Love and Grace over me and to nothing else. I've tried to show how we can start to walk in this Freedom, and some of the keys the Holy Spirit hands us to start to unlock more of it. I want to talk here about one of the most powerful keys we have. That is the Power of Revelation

We all have those 'Light Bulb moments', the Dropping of the long missed Penny, and it always amazes me just how powerful a feeling it is when suddenly we understand something for the first time. Joy rises as clarity emerges.

After His resurrection Jesus was walking with two of his followers on the road to Emmaus but He hid Himself from them whilst explaining to them everything in the Scriptures that related to Himself. He was able to show them how all creation had been leading up to the moment of the cross, how this wasn't the end of hope, but just the beginning. Yet why does He hide himself from them? It's because they needed to Jesus in the scriptures before they saw Jesus in the flesh.

It wasn't the presence of Jesus that got their hearts burning (Luke 24:32). They had no idea who they were walking with. Their hearts were burning simply because of the powerful revelations they were experiencing, long before Jesus revealed His face. Before any of the disciples could act out the next stage of Gods masterplan on Earth and build his Church they needed revelation and understanding of the purpose of everything they had seen whilst Jesus had been with them. Revelation opens doors for us, it gives us hope and a future, it brings clarity and direction.

Freedom - The Power of Condemnation

2008-02-21T16:01:00.001+00:00

I've been writing about Freedom in Christ and Freedom in Christianity. I have spent my whole life in church, I've been to many churches and met many Christians in many parts of the world but I've noticed that many Christians aren't free. We are burdened to the point of inaction by the heavy weight of condemnation.

I have seen people leave great churches because the person next to them was a drug addict or homeless person who had been saved. What right do we have to judge who can and can't get saved?! We HAVE to believe that anybody can come to know God and recieve the full extent of God's Grace. When I got saved I needed the full amount of God's grace to cover my sins, and I still do. Paul writes this to Timothy

"Here is a trustworthy saying: Christ came to save sinners, of which I am the worst."

I am ashamed that we can be so be so condemning in our churches, but this is not the kind of condemnation I want to talk about. The biggest killer of Freedom in our lives is Self-condemnation. In my church I am always blessed by people who find the courage to break free from self-condemnation. They are heroes in our faith. Everytime I see them they have grown in confidence and security as they focus on God.

The truth is that "There is now no condemnation for those in Christ" (Romans 8:1) yet have we really grasped this? If we had then we wouldn't be putting pressure on Pastors and church Leaders to be perfect and get it right everytime, we wouldn't go round searching for the 'perfect church' only to leave at the first hint it isn't perfect. Most importantly if we had really grasped this truth we wouldn't be condeming ourselves to be the 'Super Christian' who has an incredible intimacy with God, a powerful pray life, who has the most incredible success' in his career, and did I mention the perfect family life, his love and patience for everyone and his spiritual giftings?

So what are we aiming for? How do we know when we've got to the end? What if there was no end? What if there never came a point in life, especially a christian life, when we could look and happily say that we have figured everything out, we have got it all sorted and that we have not single outstanding issue or problem left to face or resolve? It is obvious to me that there is no such point and strangely most people would be fearful of this but they would be wrong. In fact to me it has become the most freeing of revelations, the most releasing of feelings, the deepest of sighs in my spirit as the heaviest weight is removed that there is no end point. There is no perfection. There is no condemnation.

Freedom - The Power of Perspective

2008-02-21T11:22:00.000+00:00

Wow what a period I'm going through in my life at the moment!! I'm reaching a major decision point in my life regarding jobs and careers and all the other things that you suddenly notice for the first time when you finally get churned out of the educational factory of University. It would be so easy to get worked up by ever present deadlines, and to buckle under the pressure of my dissertation but I have learned a little secret, something I want to shout from this Rooftop.

There are many people who have passion and motivation. Just spend some time watching women in a shoe sale and it's obvious that we can all summon up unrelenting passion for something! Yet it seems to me that we only ever get this passionate for one-time or short running events. We can easily summon up a passion for something if it's only gonna take a few hours or maybe days, but it's hard to get excited about the long-haul. Christian living should all be about the long haul, about sticking it through to the end.

We are surrounded by one-hit wonders and people riding the back of instant success. I'll be brutelly honest, I don't care what Lewis Hamilton has to say, yet his was one of the best selling autobiographies this Christmas. I'm not inspired by people who have only just hit the scene. If Lewis Hamilton is able to stay at the top his sport for the next 10-12years, still pushing new success and still achieving greatness then I will sit up and listen. The most inspirational people in my church are those who have been christians for 30-40years and are still in church, still loving God and still pursuing new things in Him. These are the people I want to listen to, to glean from and I honour them.

Ask yourself, how long do you want to be a Christian? How long do want to be in church? This is my secret: I always want to be a Christian and I always want to be in my church. Therefore if I want to do this my whole life then I have my whole life to get it right!! Longevity is what I aim for, not success. Longevity is the key to success, not the other way round. There is unbelievable freedom in that revelation.

This is the perspective we have to take in our Christian Lifes. We HAVE to! I'm being serious when I say that the consequences of not seeing this only lead to disaster in a downwards spiral of negativity, condemnation, failure and depression. We need to get a Passion for the Long-haul.

Freedom - The Power of Words

2008-02-20T12:01:00.001+00:00

I've been thinking lots recently about Freedom and how christian living shoud be about the Freedom that Jesus has won for us. It's this Freedom that I want to shout about! There is Power in Freedom and so I want to spend some time looking at the things that set us free and the things that take us captive. I really hope and pray that you catch onto this freedom as you read.

I want to start this little series on Freedom by looking at perhaps one if the most binding and/or freeing part of our lives. Our words.

That words have power is obvious to anyone who has spent anytime around another human being. School playgrounds are evidence enough but so too are our families and workplaces our Governments and particularly our Churches. The Power of God's Word created every facet of the universe, and the Power of our own words will create our own influence, our world view and form the basis of every relationship we do or don't have.

Words can change impossible situations. Abraham was faced with such a situation when God gave him His promise. Yet he chose to believe God not just in his heart but in his speech. Faith without action is dead and what are words if they are not the most affirming and powerful of actions we can take? All the Heroes of Faith in Hebrews 11 backed up their faith-filled hearts with faith-filled words.

Churches often tell us to watch our words so that we don't become negative. I've often heard it said that it doesn't really matter what we say as long we don't hurt anyone or say anything negative. This type of redundant positivity is so damaging. We need to spend our energies actually being positive instead of trying not to be negative, then we can be purposefully positive rather than redundantly positive. This is Freedom.

What is Maturity? - Part 3

2008-01-03T12:22:00.001+00:00

I've been thinking more lately about maturity and it seems to me that perhaps there are two stages in the growing up process. I've already spoken about the first part, that we must mature in ourselves. I was lucky to learn this early on in life, and I became confident in myself, yet I didn't realise that was another stage of the journey to come.

Tthe second stage of maturity, after growing up in yourself, is to grow up in the world. I often meet people who have only gone through this first stage, they are not immature but smart, fun to be around and even have some direction in life, yet I've noticed that often this direction is set by what they know about themselves rather than what they know about the world. To grow up in the world takes experience.

Some of my best friends have never travelled as far as London, have never left Europe and go on holiday with the same family or friends that they spend all their time with and just end up re-enacting life but in another location.

In the 18th and 19th centuries young gentleman amongst British society were expected to take the 'Grand Tour' before recieving their entitlement to the family wealth. Often in their late teens these young, well educated men were not deemed mature to run the family estate until they had experienced more of the world. They travelled, often alone or in pairs, around the major cities in Europe building relationships and inspecting factories, farms and other businesses. They returned home as young men ready to take on the challenges of becoming head of the family.

Travelling isn't the only way to find your place in the world. Many people find it in the home towns, in their colleges or schools but only because they have stepped outside of their small bit of life and dared to find something else. These people have volunteered at homeless shelters or day care centres, they have gone back into schools to help children to read and they have found their place in the world.

We all learn to grow up in ourselves, learn to make sound choices, and become more confident however real maturity in life comes when we find our own little spot in this earth, our role, our section of that battle line that no-one else can fill. Our Life.

British Quaintness

2007-10-24T12:17:00.000+01:00

Am I an anomally in this country? Do I stand out as different from the rest of the population? I've noticed something about English people that doesn't make me so proud to be one.

I heard on TV the other day that a British couple have spent the last 22years living in a Travelodge Hotel next to a lorry park. They do no cleaning, cooking or washing and spend their days watching the lorries come and go. This lifestyle in and of itself isn't so bad. It has it's advantages but to me it is just another symptom of a plague embedded in our nation.

I call it British Quaintness. All we want to do is build for ourselves a quaint life, with a quaint home and quaint existance. And trust me when I say that by Quaint I'm not talking about a good thing. I first noticed it when I came back from travelling around the world. I spent time in many cultures with many different people, but when I got back the first thing I noticed was just how small everything is in this country! We have small houses and small country villages, we don't have much space here so we all cramp in nice and cosy together... It's not like Canada or Australia where you have to drive at least a whole day to get to another place!! This is a small country, but I'm not just talking about our Great and Beautiful Landmass.

We have small vision. We have small lives that seek out nothing but a quaint, cosy existance in a Travelodge Hotel and lorries for company. I pray everyday that I would have a BIG LIFE!! Not Big in terms of material things or Big in influence or wealth, but just Big in what ever I end up doing. We as Christians need to claim this lifestyle for ourselves (read my post 'Missing the point...? for a more Biblical breakdown) and I rejoice as I continue to meet more and more Christians across the country who want the same thing.

I've realised that the only way to have a Big life is to meet with my Big God. If I have God in my life everyday then by default my life is going to be Big! It's just going to happen... Please, please let's seek out the symptoms of Quaintness in our lives and give them to God and watch them become massive!

Gifting: Blessing or Curse

2007-08-31T10:30:00.001+01:00

We often get trapped by our gifts I think. Churches are often rolling out 'gifting appraisal' courses amongst their members to find out what gifts the congregation has. We are always told that if we figure out what we are good at then that is probably what God will get us to do. There is truth in this but it is vital to realise that God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

Look at Paul and Peter. Galatians 2:7 shows us that Paul's ministry was to preach to the Gentiles whilst Peter went to the Jews, but to my limited wordly vision and understanding this doesn't make sense. Paul was a zealous Jew. He knew all the teachings and history, he understood the culture of the day and would know therefore how best to minister to the Jews. If anyone was best qualified to preach to the Jews it would have been Paul! Instead God sent him to the Gentiles and gave Peter (a simple fishermen who, because of Jewish culture, was essentially a school drop out!) the task of speaking to the Jews.

To God's mind though...

It doesn't matter what we are called to. It doesn't matter what we are good at or where we think we will be called because of that. Romans 12:3 expands this a little bit.

"As God's messenger, I give each of you this warning: Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you"

The only qualification we need to do something for God is FAITH! That's it. It's not our training or upbringing, it's not how sensitive we are to the Spirit and it is not our Gifting. It is not the size of our church, or even the size of our calling. It's the size of our faith.

What is Maturity? - Part 2

2007-08-22T17:28:00.001+01:00

I heard someone once describe maturity as 'Living life as we are now, whilst looking to ahead to what we will become.' There has to be a distinction between our present and our future. There are parallels in the Bible. (Eph 4:13; Phil 3:12-15)

1 John 3:2 says 'Beloved, now are we children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him; for we shall see him even as he is.' Put simply although we are not like Christ now, we shall be when he returns. But what does this mean for us now? What are we supposed to do until then?

Philippians 2 shows us that Jesus was able to separate the present from the future. He lived life on earth as a man yet He knew He would be seated in heavenly places at the right hand of God. He had a choice between claiming himself as equal with God, sitting on His laurels and soaking in the praise; or to put aside His future life and humbly serving, swapping the laurels for thorns.

Our journey through maturity presents us with the same choice. Can we live with our feet in the present, with our choices, hearts, words and actions firmly rooted in who we are now, whilst also realising that the best is yet to come?

In Philippians Paul writes about us as citizens of Heaven (Philippians 3:20), that our future is not the same as our present here on earth (vs 21). Yet how can we live as a citizen of Heaven? Paul writes that we can expect three things to continue past this Earth, three things we will find in Heaven: Faith Hope and Love. So to my mind to live as a citizen of Heaven means living with these things in our lives even now here on Earth. We have Faith for the Now, Hope for the Future and Love, the greatest of all that covers the past present and future of both ourselves and of everyone around us.

What is Maturity?

2007-08-22T16:35:00.000+01:00

Yesterday's post about quiet confidence got me thinking about maturity. Ive always been fairly mature for my age, and I remember people always commenting on how I looked and acted older than I was. I picked up quite quickly that maturity was one of these 'journey' things, just like everything else in life (so much so its becoming a bit of a cliche...).

Probably the first time I started to understand this was around 15 years old when my youth leader gave me a book, sat me down in a corner and said "Read! And don't look up 'til you've finished!" The book was called Wild at Heart by John Eldredge (great book - If you have read it then I urge you to also read 'Is God Wild at Heart? by Randy Stinson available online at www.cbmw.org/resources/reviews/eldredge_wah_review.php).

Reading this book gave me permission to live my life, permission to be a man at a time in my life when I thought there was no chance of that ever happening. It helped me to understand that maturity isn't about being sensible all the time, being boring. (This was my view of adulthood when I was a kid). Maturity also isn't about putting other people first, or about taking responsibility for your actions. It isn't about the choices we make but its about the very climate we create for our lives to play out in. Its about our focus. (Eph 4:14).

I remember my very first day of sixth-form college. The speech given by the head of college to all the new sixth-formers told the incredible story of 'The Magic Door'.

The Magic Door is a door that exists only in time, standing guard as the only passage between two opposing Worlds. Its power is unrivelled, it is always right and once someone goes through the door they can never go back. It is the door that separates the Land of Childhood from the Land of Adulthood. However the most important thing to understand about the Magic Door is that it doesn't exist...

We will never one day magically transform into the person we always wanted to be: into an adult. There is no door that washes away our naivity, our fears, our past as we walk through, leaving us to continue on in a new life, free from everything that conditioned us in our upbringing.

The apostle Paul understands this well:

'I do not claim that I have already succeeded or have already become perfect. I keep striving to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has already won me to himself. Of course, my friends, I really do not think that I have already won it; the one thing I do, however, is to forget what is behind me and do my best to reach what is ahead. So I run straight toward the goal in order to win the prize, which is God's call through Christ Jesus to the life above. All of us who are spiritually mature should have this same attitude.' (Philippians 3:12-15)

So what is maturity in the face of tough times? To me it comes down to simple choice. I either seek to 'get through' them, or I seek to 'grow through' them.

Quiet Confidence

2007-08-21T19:21:00.000+01:00

Ive been reading Isaiah at the moment. So much in the book has spoken to me and often reminds me of some pretty major parts of my life. As a kid growing up I wasn't the most popular. (My current friends will probably say that nothing has changed...) I was never in any one group of friends but just seemed to hang on the fringes of every group in the school. I could talk to the cool kids or the some of the geeky kids, but was never really excepted by either. I hung out with the sporty guys and the music guys, the science guys and the computer guys. I had friends in most year groups in the school but never had a group of friends I could call my own.

The first 3 years of my secondary school life were not great. I felt alone and nervous, I had issues at home and issues in myself (mostly related to girls...) and my way of coping was just to keep quiet and get on with it. I knew I had strength in me but never figured out how to get it out. Part of me always just assumed that in order be confident I had to be loud, extrovert and the centre of everything.

Isaiah shows us that this really isn't the case. Isaiah 30:15 says 'For thus said the Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.' Its odd that Isaiah put these 2 words in the same sentence, because as I said I always thought that quietness and confidence were total opposites.

It wasn't until I was around 14 or 15 that I started to realise that I had something to offer to the people around me and I didn't have to be on the fringes of everybody else's lives. At the time I was taken on by a few key young men from my church back in Somerset. They took me under their wings when I most needed some strong male guidance and allowed me to see that I was capable, that I mattered and that I had something worthwhile to offer. All of these are key messages for a young lad.

I grew in confidence but was still fairly quiet. I still am today sometimes and I still have a tendancy to hang on the fringes of many groups, but I have a quiet confidence, knowing that God loves me, knowing that people that I love and care for feel the same way and knowing that my life matters.

Ups and downs

2007-08-18T18:27:00.001+01:00

So often in life things get a little hard. In fact as an Englishman I have become so good at moaning that Life often has way more downs than ups. Especially in churches we have this bizarre tendancy that when things get a little hard, we stop coming. Even if it's only for a week... Odd.

Here are my thoughts on that:-

When times are good, praise hard. When times are bad, Praise Harder!
When times are good, pray hard. When times are bad, Pray Harder!
When times are good, have faith, based on hope. When times are bad, step up that faith, just focusing on the hope we have in God!
When times are good, love each other with all we have. When things go a little sour, take that love to another level, with generosity and forgiveness.

Inspiring Churches

2007-08-18T16:47:00.000+01:00

One thing I love most of all about my church in Leeds (Hope City Church - www.yourelookinggreat.co.uk) is the leadership. They inspire and challenge me, not through their words, or their lifestyle, but the fact that they are always growing. The worship leaders get better from month to month, the youth pastors are constantly coming up with more and more creative ideas and the young pastors are growing and getting better every time.

What I like most is that I can see where they have come from. Not one of them is there because of there calling, but simply because of their capacity. Dave Gilpin (my senior pastor) often talks about the difference between our calling and our capacity. The size of my calling has no bearing at all on what I can do for God's Kingdom, partly because we almost all have the same calling (Matthew 28:19). It is not the size of my calling but the size of me that will dictate what I can do for the Kingdom.

Romans 12:3 says 'As God's messenger, I give each of you this warning: Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you.' This passage was a revelation to me as it spoke to me about the qualifications we need to do great things for God. Faith!! Thats it..

We need qualifications to work, to drive, to achieve... but not with God! Its is not the size of our calling, not our interpersonal skills, not our upbringing, not our past, not our vision and not our experience that dictates the heights we can reach in God.

We build up our faith and capacity by walking with God, which is probably why I labelled this section the way I did... This is why I'm so inspired by the leaders in my church. They walk with God everyday and you can see it. Its almost as if the growth and leadership I see in their lives just comes as by-product of their relationship with God.

Day by day this is becoming something that I want my life to be. I've realised that if I want to build up my capacity then I need to walk with God. Get up and walk with God, work and study as I walk with God, hang with friends and walk with God, go home to my family and walk with God. Thats it. Thats all the qualification I need to bring God's Kingdom to earth. I want the love and hope and joy and peace and strength and life that I have in God to just flow out of me as a by-product of my walk with God. Same for my leadership, wisdom, speech and priorities.

Thats what I love about my Leaders. Every day they walk with God and as a result He adds new strings to their bows. God is awesome!!

Living God's life (Studying Galatians)

2007-08-16T11:56:00.001+01:00

We often talk about Giving our whole lives over to God. We sing about, preach it, we constantly jabber on about 'Living for Jesus'. Yet we back it with a life style, with actions, that suggest otherwise. This isn't a call for us all to invade the nearest monastry, claiming selibacy and vowing to silence, poverty and other extreme measures. Religious fervour never led to intimacy with God. This isn't a call either for us to have no zeal or hunger at all in our lives (Galatians 4:18).

If I am honest I'm getting a little fed up of singing such cliched lines as 'I live for You' or 'I'm on fire for You' etc. Paul writes in Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." I think it's time to take 'I' out the equation completely so its no longer

'I Live for Christ'

but better

'Lord live out Your Life through me'.

However as I mentioned in the previous post (Inspiring Churches), this is not about forcing ourselves into changing our entire behaviour because someone said we should. We have to realise that Christ came so we could have freedom (Galatians 5:1). In church we often take this to mean we have freedom from sin and shame, that we can walk free from nasty situations. Yes the freedom we have in Christ does give us these great things, but it goes so much deeper.

We have freedom to be ourselves, we have freedom to be God's chosen people, we are free from religion (Galatians 5:4), so much so that this should change the whole way we see church. I really want people to get this! We have freedom in church. Simple. Therefore if we are walking in freedom we don't have any feelings of obligation, duty, commitment or otherwise to the church. My love for my church is simply a by-product of my relationship with God. It naturally flows out so therefore I never feel pressured to grow in church. I want to grow. This is freedom. No pressure, no condemnation, no jumping through hoops I don't agree with.

New wine skins

2007-08-16T11:24:00.000+01:00

This sunday we listened to Dave Gilpin speak. Dave is one of these speakers that can say just one throw-away sentence that suddenly open up new revelation. His message was about being predictably unpredictable, about unlocking the creative genius inside all of us. God is a creative God and we are made in His image so therefore we all have creativity within us. I know because I couldn't draw to save a life. Or paint...

Through out the Old Testament we see God encouraging people to use their creativity. Moses asked for authority, God gave him a stick. Gideon asked for a mighty army, God gave him clay jars and torches. Sampson needed a weapon and found the bones from a donkeys face. Time and again in my life I have asked God for things only to be given the bare bones of what I need. Its what I do with those bare, dry bones that will bring God glory.

However it was one throw away sentence from Dave, one little insight into another of his many revelations that sparked my interest. If I'm honest I never really understood the passage about new wine being poured into new wine skins. It seems flimsy an irrelevant, even as a metaphor. Yet when Dave starting talking about renewal, about creating something new in our lives, something clicked. The Holy Spirit is always looking to do something new, he is pouring out new oil, annointing, wine, whatever you want to call it, but if we want to take part in the new move of God, then we must become a new wine skin. If I want to be a used by God to bring salvation to this city, to this nation; if I am seeking God to come and move in my finances, in my relationships; if I want to see God's Spirit poured out on all the nations then I must become like a new wine skin.