Tuesday 24 November 2009

Mike Pilavachi

I can unashamedly say Mike Pilavachi is the Christian leader whose ministry has had the greatest impact on my life.

From my own walk with Christ being energised and developed at Soul Survivor camps in my teens, through to him preaching one of the most powerful sermons I have ever heard. Chuck in a "Words, works and wonders" conference while at university and the influence of various worship leaders whose gift he has helped fan into flame (Redman & Hughes spring to mind) and he really is the real deal. Not just with his words, but with his action, and with the impartation of the Holy Spirit that follows his ministry.

This is a fairly bold statement, but I am pretty sure if I could not be in my Church, his would be my next choice. That is not necessarily a doctrinal decision, but the fact is, I would like to watch and learn from him for a while. For a long while.

No-one who went to Newday last year failed to notice the Holy Spirit works through him! Many of our teenagers came back having been baptised in the holy spirit, speaking in tongues, some have since been baptised, and they point to the night the humorous Greek bloke from Watford started preaching.

On friday evening Mike came to speak at a meeting arranged by Beacon Church Whitchurch. Our Church planted Beacon just over 18 months ago.

I wrestled with whether I should go or not. I was tired. It was Friday evening. I had been busy every evening that week with a mixture of church stuff and a rare outing to an away football match. Part of me felt I "should" go, the kind of "should" that says it was important to go to support Beacon and be seen to be there. What a pompous fool I can be.

Why should I go? Well, suffice to say, that would be about Jesus. About encountering the glorious presence of Jesus. About seeing Jesus equip a new generation of young people. About hearing from someone the Lord has used to greatly shape my life. And about going back there. Going back to the place where the Lord had touched my life in my teens.

So I went.

He was, simply, superb. Worship, Evangelism, Justice. I'm with you Mike. I want to be a WEJ Christian.

We worship because we want to declare our love for God.

We witness because we want to declare our love for God, and the reason for it, with those who don't know him.

We seek justice because if we love God, then we do His commands, and a major thing He commands us to do, almost without equal, is to express His love within our society in a way that brings justice to the oppressed and marginalised.

Worship, Evangelism, Justice.

When I consider the sheer redundancy of some of the things people argue about within the body of Christ I wish sometimes we would just shut up and get on with it. I want us to be a WEJ Church.

And then the ministry time. Lots of silence. No hype. A gentle invitation for the Holy Spirit to move. Several absolutely bang on prophetic words for people. Still no hype. No noise. A gentleness of spirit. A humble desire to see God move.

Not all of what Mike Pilavachi is can be taught, some of it is just caught, so I would certainly encourage anyone to go and hear him if you have the opportunity.

Not to be seen to be there, but because you want to meet Jesus.

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