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Roy explains the importance of slipping away to let the Holy Spirit deal with people directly and personally. And a pattern of prayer for blessing is set, not only for visitors but for the local area too.
Last time we saw how important it was to persevere despite the difficulties visitors might bring with them. And in the end the Holy Spirit would step in and take over. Roy shares why this is important.This slipping away was an important part of our ethos. I wanted people to have direct dealings with God. When visitors left we didn't want them to feel that there was somebody at Ffald-y-Brenin who had led them and taught them, to whom they must speak when they had difficulties in the future. I wanted people to know that God himself had come and met with them, and that he was able to convict and counsel them, and that they could speak to him directly - they didn't need to be taught 'special words' to pray. If I had been present through these encounters they might have asked how to pray or been scared to admit that they didn't know how to. Afterwards, when people would come to tell us their stories of wonder and weeping, we would explain and encourage, offering them a context for what had happened and suggesting how to find out more about God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
Several patterns began to emerge in the months that followed. We often did not need to offer to pray a prayer of blessing, as the Holy Spirit fell on people just as they walked around the centre or the grounds. Our job was to go along with what the Holy Spirit was doing and to continue to bless what he was doing, and respond to it.
It was so rewarding to speak blessings on the people God brought along who didn't know him, so we turned our sights outwards and began a pattern of speaking blessings into the local community. Every Friday morning in our chapel meeting we would speak blessings over the neighbourhood. The valley below us has a two-mile section that you could call our locality. It is home to about eighty people scattered across its half-mile width.*
How striking that Roy felt he should walk away once he felt people were sensing the presence of the Spirit touching them. Most of us, I dare say, would have stayed to guide them or encourage them or channel them in accordance with our traditional teaching. How right Roy was to take this line! What the visitors received would come direct from the One who really knew what was needed. And in their hearts and minds afterwards they would know to turn to him again as necessary.
And then there is the turning outward. Am I more likely to turn inward or outward? How about you? When we are inclined to turn inward perhaps we are forgetting the words of Jesus to go and make disciples of all nations. Even if this requirement seems strange and difficult to us, we still cannot ignore it. 'Go and make followers' are the words of the King.
Turning out towards the community is always the right thing to do. How hard can it be to pray for a blessing on our neighbours? We don't even need to know what kind of blessing to ask for, the Lord knows what is needed. But he wants us to have a desire in our hearts that they should be blessed and bring it to him to fulfil in whatever way he wishes. And if he does give us specific things to ask, so much the better.
But whether it's specific or general - we can and should ask!
Read a brief review of the book (includes several ways to buy a copy).
*Copyright 2008 Roy Godwin, Dave Roberts. The Grace Outpouring published by David C Cook. Publisher permission required to reproduce. All rights reserved.
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