Keep your heart soft.

The Sunday meeting was really really good and I took copius notes which I'd like to share here becasue I think it could be an encourigement and it's also a nice view of how I'd like this blog to grow over time. Although I'm blogging this on Wednesday I've found I can change the date hehe.

Anyway here it is:

Old wineskins can be soaked in oil and streached and made as new again. Old people are still relevant.

Recapturing joy can come from the Holy Spirit. Get fresh anointing to receive jopy and tenderness of heart.

Worship and prayer should be fresh anointing. In prayer and intercession we need tenderness. It makes sense to me that tenderness and intercession would go together and maybe that is why I find it quite hard to interceede because I've been let down so much (more on that later) but we have to have a soft heart for the people we are interceeding for, we have to love them.

Psalm 126:5 - 6 says "He who sows in tears reaps in joy" so we need to cry - tenderness and tears go together. God is looking for our tears - Jesus wept . There's no real harvest without tears and you can't have tears without tenderness.

Psalm 56:8 says "Every tear before God is noticed by God."

2 Kings 22:18-19 can be summed up as Responsive heart (to God) -> Weeping -> God responds

A cold heart can be caused by 3 things:

1) Sin (Hebrews 3:12)
2) Inner vows - When we vow to ourselves things like "I will never let anyone hurt me like that again", it makes us distance ourselves to people and I totally agree with that. I'd been hurt before and maybe I hadn't vowed it out load but I think sub conciously I had been. I'd been keeping myself away from people I didn't let anyone get close to me and I don't think I have still except for people who I really really trust and that's a problem for me, trust. I find it hard to care for people because I don't trust them unless I've come to a place of trust. I can't just trust people and I certainly find it very very hard to care for people I don't know which makes intercession hard for me because I don't love the people I'm praying for. When we do that, we loose our vulnerability and being vulnerable is part of being a christian. When we loose vulnerability our heart gets cold and we can't receive new things from the Holy Spirit and I can say that my heart is pretty cold sometimes
3) I guess this kind of links with 2) Unforgiveness - when Joseph heard about his brothers coming he wept for them. After everything that had happened to him by his brothers, he forgave them (and there was a lot to forgive).

We need to renew our wineskins and that can only happen through the Holy Spirit. So we need to pray "Give me a tender heart and tears and joy." Remove my inner vows, take them away, give me trust and love for people. Give us joy and laughter in your house and in your church. Take our bitterness away and give us a tender heart Lord."

After that we had a great time of ministy and I got prayed for. I've had so much disapointment with people and I really do want to be a good intercessor for people, I really do want to care for them and I think that over time and just by allowing myself to be changed, God (through the Holy Spirit) will do that.

I felt freer after the meeting. I'm going to add another entry about some other stuff that God is freeing me from and that I struggle with). I feel that now is going to be a time of great transition for me and I'm looking forward to what God is going to be doing in me and through me.

So Father, give me a tender heart, free me from my past disapointment with people and help me to love them and be weak to the world be strong in you. Help me to weep for the people in this town and country and world so you can come in power. Let me sow in tears, let me weep for the lost so you can come. Let me sow in tears and reap in joy. Yes Lord!