Blog: The Secret Place
Before you read this amazing blog by Peter Ford (legendary youth pastor and leader of Bayside Christian Church in Hervey Bay). Have you registered yet for the 2011 Momentum event? This one Wednesday night next week will help you reset your leadership compass for 2011 and continue with amazing momentum. Tim Ross (USA, spoke at this year’s conference) will rock your world with two sessions designed to build you as a leader.
Register online and find the details at www.youthaliveqld.com/momentum
Over the past six months I’ve realised even more the importance of raising up the next generation. Four months ago I began meeting fortnightly with a group of thirty of our youth and called it “Core”, the sole purpose being to disciple them and raise up new leaders. Discipleship can be hard work and the results aren’t always instant, but the long term benefits are invaluable.
It’s been great to watch these young people grow, mature and get a heart for the young people of our city and beyond. An example of this was last week. We’ve been getting some really hard kids at youth recently that know nothing about God, but come because they feel excepted. They test our love and patience, but also have some spiritual darkness attached to their lives. Realising that we were in a spiritual battle, I spoke to this group of thirty young people, and said this Friday I want you to pray and fast for these young people, to break this spiritual darkness off their lives. Some of them had never fasted before and were still learning how to pray, but they did it, and the results on Saturday night were very obvious. Young people were saved, our attendance and offering were the biggest for the year so far and these same hard young people listened to instruction and were impacted by the gospel. The Core group learnt a valuable lesson that day. The Word of God works and when it’s put into action, it’s more powerful than any spiritual darkness.
The reason these young people were willing to fast and pray for breakthrough is because they are finding God in the SECRET PLACE. The secret place is simply the place where you meet God every day. Just you and him, worshiping, reading the Word, praying and being real with him.
We all need to be in the secret place every day. Everything we do will be determined by our secret place relationship with God. Life and ministry have many challenges and pressures, but spending time in the secret place gives us the strength to overcome and sets an example for young people to follow.
When you seek the Lord for yourself, you find him for an entire city and when we do what Gods calls us to do; God does what only he can do. We become the answer to what’s on God’s heart. It’s like the story of Jonah. God’s heart was for the city of Nineveh.
Jonah 4:11 says: But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?”
Jonah couldn’t care less about Nineveh until God used circumstances to change his heart. Jonah became the answer to what was on God’s heart.
God’s heart is longing for my city and your city and we are the answer to what is on God’s heart. Let’s continue to disciple young people, have a heart for our city and live life out of the secret place.
