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Tag: #kingdom

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ONLINE WORKSHOP: SPIRITUAL FORMATION 301

DATE: Wednesdays from 10th May to 5th July 2023

TIME: 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm AST

VENUE: Online Zoom Event (Cameras On)

FACILITATORS: Matik Nicholls, Tricia Celestin-Nicholls

DESCRIPTION: Participants will be taken on an 11-week journey that explores topics such as building connection with others, corporate identity, interdependence, true vs false community, church vs kingdom, 5-fold ministry, and discipling nations. The sessions will include teaching, discussion, reflection, and activation in an environment of loving community. The emphasis is practical, not theological. Our focus is on how to practically live out the commands of Jesus.

TARGET AUDIENCE: This workshop is open to anyone seeking to walk more intimately with Jesus Christ and become more like Him. All denominations are welcome. 301 is particularly geared toward those who want to be agents of unity in the body of Christ.

COST: FREE

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

TESTIMONIALS:

Spiritual Formation 301 was EXCELLENT!!
Like the previous Sessions SF 101 & 201, packed with solid Biblical content, thought provoking, life transforming activities and discussions. I believe the facilitators through the leading of Adonai took us all on a journey each session where we were confronted, inspired and motivated to pursue authentic deeper intimacy with our Father. All my relationships have benefitted significantly from what I have gleaned as a participant in these sessions and if possible I would be willing to do them over again!

Thank you Matik and Tricia for making yourselves available and willing to process life with us in community as we provoke each other unto good works, and grow up into mature sons. God bless you and your ministry. We love you.

Rose, Turks & Caicos

It was a great pleasure to be a part of Spiritual Formation 101, 201 and 301. It has been a very enlightening, informative and eye-opening experience.

The purpose of these sessions was to encourage spiritual growth; to move from a place of immaturity to a place of maturity in Christ. It was about teaching the participants how to form new habits to help us grow and be more intimate in our relationship with others and with God. We identified where we were at in these relationships and through teachings and practice, looked at ways to find our identity in Christ. We learned and discussed ways to move from individual mindsets to a Kingdom mindset.

I loved that this was an open place to share. I had quite a bit on my plate at the start of 101, and being in that space was a healing in itself. It renewed my trust in God. At that time, my husband was having some issues with his sight; he couldn’t see. But listening to the teachings and hearing what others had to share helped me to see God’s hand working in my life, and that of my husband, even in that situation.

It seems like there was something happening in my life for each fraction of Spiritual Formation. In 201, I was having some issues with my alcoholic brother. He was drinking and getting into fights. But being in a place that I felt safe to share and being taught about God’s continued grace, helped me through. During 301, I was not in the best place spiritually; I wasn’t giving God His due, not spending enough time in His presence. But Matik’s presentations (practice and
assignments) helped to pull me out of that place and be more focused on my
relationship with God.

I truly believe that spirituality is much more important than religion. I also believe that God isn’t about saving only one religion but all of mankind. These three ‘courses’ reiterated that fact. Interacting with people of different countries, religious persuasions and socio-economic backgrounds, taught me that I take a lot of things for granted in my life.

I truly enjoyed these sessions and looked forward to them. I would this again if given the opportunity, because there was so much to learn that I’m sure I missed something(s).

Thanks so much for this Matik! May God continue to bless your efforts to spread His Kingdom message to others.

Jeneil, Trinidad & Tobago

Hi everyone. My name is Gillian. My husband and I met Matik and Tricia virtually during our search for a greater level of understanding of the Kingdom of God and desiring a greater daily impact in our lives through a deeper intimacy with God. I have had the great opportunity to sit expectantly through the Spiritual Formation sessions for the 201 and 301 courses. At the time when the 101 course was being offered, I was not available, but caught up, I believe, with the Basic, and Phase One sessions on the Authentic Joy website- https://authenticjoy.org/.

The Authentic Joy journey has been a real eye opener for me. In their loving way, I was encouraged to ask myself some deep questions, that allowed me to understand who I am and who God created me to be. My fellow course-mates helped in the process by sharing their experiences and what they gleaned as well. I especially liked the exercises and the habits we were encouraged to develop. Journaling is still a challenge but I appreciate the value of it and will settle in one day. Our model was always Christ Jesus and I learnt that real life was thriving in His love, joy and peace and not the false self of the survival mode where I had the tendency to perform for acceptance.

We are all to continue to seek the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness and in this, mature in love and purpose. I encourage you to go on this journey of Spiritual Formation. For me although the course has ended, the transformation journey continues. I am committed to ardently pursue intimacy with Father, Son and Holy Spirit. My life depends on it.

Thank you, Matik and Tricia for your passionate pursuit of God and joy in giving this course. I love you both.

Gillian, Jamaica

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The Inner Life, Revival and The Kingdom

Many agree that Jesus’ over-arching message was the kingdom. John the Baptist preached that the kingdom was coming and then Jesus came and it was ‘at hand’. Jesus was a walking demonstration of the love and power of God made manifest on the earth. Jesus brought heaven to earth. The enemy’s kingdom was completely outgunned. Sin fled in the face of forgiveness! Sickness yielded under the power of healing! And demonic oppression was evicted as Jesus proclaimed freedom! A new kingdom was on the earth! The fact that this governmental mandate has been passed onto the church has been a hot topic among the Christian circles that I am a part of.

Today, I gathered with a group of men and women with hearts earnestly desiring the manifestation of His kingdom in Trinidad & Tobago. We shared a meal and shared our hearts with a humility and intimacy that I have rarely encountered. No titles. No agendas. And God turned up. As we prayed and shared, the presence of God was amongst us and things shifted in the atmosphere undoubtedly far beyond our awareness or comprehension.

My friend, Dave, shared about the governmental reality that the church of Acts came into. He illustrated the journey that started as a church powerless in the face of the enemy’s attack on the apostle James. James was imprisoned and killed. Then Peter was imprisoned, and the church woke up. As they prayed for Peter in the prison, an angel turned up and supernaturally broke him out of prison. Then this governmental authority became so real in the church that when Paul and Silas were imprisoned, they started a revival in the prison complete with supernatural miracles and mass conversions. That’s a picture of a church walking in progressive governmental authority.

So, as I said, this is a hot topic in many circles. For many, this revelation is communicated by an understanding that the word translated church in the scripture – “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18 ESV) – is the Greek word ekklesia which refers to a gathering of the citizens of a nation for the purpose of governance. But as another brother in the meeting today focused on the verses that precede this one, some things that I had been struggling to articulate properly before suddenly became as clear as day!

So let me share what is on my heart by unwrapping these verses. Here is the full text (Matthew 16:13-18 ESV emphasis mine):

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

So Jesus says that this governmental force that will wreak havoc on the kingdom of darkness will be built upon a rock. The question is: what is the rock? Let’s start at verse 13. Jesus asks His disciples who other people say that He is… and they give some answers but what Jesus really wants to know is this: do His disciples really know Him? Peter answers, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Right answer Peter! But let’s look at this more closely. This is not mere intellectual knowledge. You see most Christians think that because they believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, they can walk in kingdom authority. That is a fallacy! And that fallacy is a big obstacle because many believers are busy spreading this revelation of ekklesia and kingdom governance in the very erroneous assumption that the information is sufficient for governmental function. I don’t believe it is.

You see the real rock that Peter identified with was not the objective fact that Jesus was the Christ. It was the subjective experienced reality of who Christ was to Peter that was birthed out of real physical intimacy with Jesus. Peter had experienced the Messiah first-hand. The Messiah who walked on water, empowered him to do the same, rescued him when he started to sink and calmed the winds and waves! It was after this encounter that those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” (Matthew 14:22-33 ESV). In fact, this reality of Christ’s deity and power was so tangible in Peter that Christ identified him as the rock. The quality of Peter’s knowing changed him on a fundamental level. This type of knowledge only comes through experience not education.

Jesus will only give the keys to bind and loose to those who know Him like Peter did. While Jesus is not physically with us now, His Spirit is in us and it is only through a deliberate pursuit of intimacy with the Christ in us that we can walk the path to any form of true kingdom authority on this earth. Those who are on this path understand that the inner life of intimacy and communion is our highest priority. We must cultivate and grow this communion to become the rock like Peter did. The reality of Jesus with us here and now must be an increasingly experienced reality. Those along this path often use words like worship, encounter, contemplation, meditation, tarrying, lingering, and retreat to describe practices that enable this pursuit.

This is why the current revival that God is doing across the earth (most recently in Asbury) is so important and exciting. Revival is the word we use to describe when God moves from intellectual theory to experienced reality in a corporate way. It is actually the necessary start of ekklesia. Many do not make this connection. Many discount revival in favour of more teaching and organizing. If we meet in homes, if we teach everyone that they are a citizen, if we take the 7 mountains, if we do more evangelization, if we do more missions, if we do more community service, if we (insert whatever educating/organizing effort)… then we will see the church take its place as a ruling change agent in society. We all long for this and these are all good things that the church should do but they are not the first step or even the most important step. In fact, without intimacy with God any education/organization effort is doomed to failure no matter how great it is, even if it accomplishes great things in the natural. You see, education and organization can take us very far (exhibit A: the tower of Babel) but it cannot give us real authority and therefore it cannot defeat the kingdom of darkness. The kingdom of this world will only bow when the King becomes incarnate in His body.

When God begins to encounter us on a corporate level, He is opening a window of opportunity for us as a body to step into a Peter reality. That is why I am going after revival. This is why I think it is important to celebrate and connect with anywhere that God is breaking into this world. It may just look like people laughing or crying or worshipping but it is much more than that! It is God bringing the reality of the kingdom in us first before we can bring it to the world. You have to worship in the boat with Jesus before you can worship in the prison. You have to be blinded by the light and knocked to the ground and hear Jesus speak to you before you can invade the darkness with light and knock the enemy off his feet. You must become the rock shaped without human hands before it can grow and take over the world. As a corporate body, we must encounter God in unity in the upper room before we can turn the world upside down.

Attention to our individual inner life with God brings corporate revival in the church and revival in the church brings kingdom come on earth.

Copyright 2023, Matik Nicholls. All rights reserved.
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A Prophetic Decree For Trinidad & Tobago

It was the evening of Friday 24th June 2022. My wife and I sat with a friend on a couple of concrete benches taking in the twilight sky. We were perched on the hillside of Mount St. Benedict, with the plains of Central Trinidad spread out below us to the South and the sun setting over Port of Spain to the West. The sky was littered with cloud-frescoes that changed constantly as the wind manipulated them like paint on the sky-dome of the Sistine Chapel. Not to be outdone, the setting sun added his own dramatic effects by casting various light filters on the entire scene – yellow tint, rainbows, orange tint, darkness.

Our hearts were expectant for what God would do over the weekend. This moment marked the beginning of an ecumenical weekend retreat where nine of us would gather to seek God for personal and national revival. The significance of what we would see in the sky that evening would only be revealed in days to come.

In the clouds appeared an angel holding a scroll. It was only after it began to dissipate that I thought to take a picture but hopefully, you can still see the figure of an angel riding on a cloud, bent over a scroll with majestic wings stretched out behind.

As the scenery morphed, rainbows began to appear. At first, it was just one short colourful burst straddling two clouds in the sky, but then another appeared way in the distance touching down somewhere in the East. Sadly, I did not take any pictures of the rainbows as I completely missed their significance at first.

Lastly, a huge crown appeared dominating the twilight sky.

I pondered in my heart what these signs in the sky could mean but I did not give it too much thought as the remaining attendees arrived and we went inside to sort out accommodations and prepare for the start of our retreat.

What God did in the midst of us over those few days can only be described as sacred. As I prepare to describe what happened this weekend, I feel like I should take off my shoes as men of God did in olden days when they discerned God was near. This is holy ground.

We shared the stories of our lives with each other and gave thanks for what God had done. In each of us was a monument built in flesh and blood to God’s grace and goodness in the midst of pain, suffering, and brokenness. But God!

We shared our deepest desires for our lives to become better, for our families to be restored in love and peace, for our children to serve God and become all that they were meant to be, for us to become all that God has called us to be, for more love, joy and peace deep inside of us, for more of God.

Then we listened. We had poured out our hearts. What would be God’s response? We let the stillness and silence envelop us as we individually tuned our ears to the still small voice of the Holy Spirit.

Then we came back together to share what we had heard and to hear God on each other’s behalf. It was like a firehose of grace was unleashed in our midst, pouring down from heaven, drenching us, washing us, cleansing us, filling us, and renewing us! Hurts were healed through tears as the saints gathered around in comfort. We painted God’s dreams for each other in vivid scenes that restored hope, renewed faith and assured us that we were not forgotten orphans but precious daughters and sons; seen, known and loved. We listened as God shared His desires. We gently invited us to restore broken relationships, forgive past hurts and believe what He had done and was doing in our lives. He ushered us into greater forgiveness, faith and freedom. By the time we were through, the love of God for us and our love for each other was palpable in the air, and we had lost track of time.

Sunday evening came and we prepared to leave. There was great joy. Not jumping up and down joy, but the deeper, quieter kind. The final words of God, “This was not the end but the beginning.” Then came a surprise. A desperate soul appeared on our doorstep seeking prayer. We surrounded him and shared with him of the meal we had just received. More tears. More love. More breakthrough. Just like God to do something unexpected.

As we came off the mountaintop, (having reminded each other not to let the invasion of noise and busyness of the valley loosen our grasp on what we had heard on the mountaintop) I determined to revisit and process all that God had said over the weekend. For a few days the rhythms of prayer, shared meals, laughter, tears and listening to God’s voice in community had dominated. Oh, what bliss. But now as I process the entire weekend with Holy Spirit, God is still speaking and I wonder, “As much as God spoke in our hearts and minds, and through the voices of our brothers and sisters, did He also speak to us through the clouds?”

I believe He did. Let me share with you the interpretations of the signs that I believe the Holy Spirit has given to me:

  • The angel with the scroll – a prophetic decree has been issued from Heaven for Trinidad & Tobago.
  • The rainbows – a promise of God’s covenant with us reassuring us of hope and new beginnings – restoration.
  • The crown – the Kingdom is coming – the sovereign will of the King of kings is being established over Trinidad & Tobago.

This is the decree that I believe has been released from Heaven for our beloved country:

“There will be a shaking. Leaders will fall and leaders after My heart will be raised up. The false and the true will be exposed. Then I will pour out My Spirit.”

Legions of angels have already been released all across the country to execute this decree. I invite all who would read this to pray with me:

Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.

May your Kingdom come soon.

May your will be done in Trinidad & Tobago, as it is in heaven.

Give us today the food we need.

And forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.

And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.