An Intro to the Conference

The first session that Sunday evening after we arrived was an introduction to the week. The ground rules were given (be on time, attend all sessions, don’t sit in the back row because the leadership team sits there praying for you, quiet time is at 10:30 p.m., discard the roles you came under—wife, mother, CEO, clerk, whatever—and simply be a child of God and receive), the format of the week was outlined (first four days was focused on our own continued healing, the fifth day was solid teaching on being leaders in various capacities) as well as the format for each session: worship, words of Jesus (teaching and ministry), work of Jesus (small groups—a time to pray and bring to God what has come up during the teaching) and each of the 30 members of the leadership team gave a brief 5 minute introduction and testimony. I learned that there were two teams from Winnipeg, the other team being based out of a church rather than as an International affiliate as my team is.

In fact, being based from a church is the more common circumstance, to my surprise. It’s a curious thing. This program is very much a charismatic program in that its focus is on the work of the Holy Spirit—listening to God and responding to him as he speaks through pictures, words of knowledge, and other means and through a very free and contemporary style of worship. The churches that sponsor the program are often churches in which you would not expect to find an acceptance of the movement of the Holy Spirit and yet, there they were, Catholics, Anglicans and Lutherans worshipping and learning beside Pentecostal and Vineyard types.

We were warned of several destructive responses that we should try to avoid:

Defensive: Where we guard our heart from receiving. We were told to allow the Lord to break through.

Critical Mode: Where we criticize everything, have doubt and skepticism, don’t like this and that.

Critical of Others: We were admonished that when this happened, we should take it to the cross.

Detach and Dissociate: “I won’t receive anything. I won’t have emotional involvement.” I didn’t see this, or any of the above responses, a problem for me but I was to realize later in the week how easy it was to detach and dissociate. In fact, I’m wondering if I do this a lot more than I realize.

Isolate: This is what I saw myself doing—going to my room and reading (or writing). We were advised that we needed to experience God in community. Because of this I made a point to be in community as much as possible, accepting invitations to sit and chat instead of escaping as I often felt like doing.

We were also advised that God would heal what HE wanted to heal, not what WE wanted. We were to stay open and allow the Lord to do His work.