Jonathan Bellamy, Cross Rhythms CEO, shares openly about what he believes the Lord is doing with the CR team and its relevance to the wider church in the UK.

Jonathan Bellamy

The weekend after descending from the mountain top experience that was The Ben Nevis Challenge, I was at home reading the Sunday papers. Spiritually I was more heightened than usual, still carrying the import of the Ben Nevis experience, and probably due to this I was aware of a sense of being 'dirty' through what I was reading - gossip, slander, desire for money and the ever present sexual angles to stories and articles.

I felt a sense of grieving from the Spirit and in confessing and repenting of having taken this in, I felt him say 'What I allowed in the last season cannot be allowed in the next'. I was then reminded of the Psalm we read to the nation from the top of Ben Nevis, Psalm 24: 'Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. HE will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God his Saviour. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob.'

God is saying 'it is time to come up higher'.

To be effective for God, to see his Kingdom come in our world, first it must come in us. The disciples once asked 'Where is this kingdom' and Jesus replied 'It is within'. Intriguingly that connection between the internal and external kingdom is seen in Psalm 24 as the very next verse declares: 'Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.'

I believe this is a significant Psalm for the UK church at this time. It is reminiscent of the story of David returning the Ark up the hill to Jerusalem. There came a point God could not allow the wrong handling of Uzzah (dirty hands) or the incorrect heart of David's method (impure heart), and they could go no further. Once they had corrected their behaviour however, David WAS able to bring the 'glory' through the gates and ancient doors of Jerusalem. Perhaps David even wrote that Psalm from out of these experiences?

Whatever, this Psalm's significance for us today was confirmed to me the morning of the Ben Nevis climb. I had been asking for the Lord's confirmation that all I felt we were standing for spiritually was not my imagination, but was truly him. Apart from the confirmation I felt in my own spirit, built up over months of growing revelation, God gave me two strong specifics, one of which was a text message that came through to Chris Mountford's mobile, minutes before we were about to climb. It said: 'Have a great climb! I feel Psalm 24 for today.' I knew the person who sent it and trusted their hearing. I also knew this was from the Lord for me that day, but now today it re-enforces what he wants us, his church, to understand and respond to.

In recent weeks God has been correcting us and disciplining us, corporately and individually at Cross Rhythms. As with Achan's sin he is uncovering things in people's lives that cannot be allowed if he is to bless us in the new land. What was OK for the Children of Israel in the desert was not OK in the Promised Land. They needed to consecrate themselves, circumcise themselves and show a higher level of submission to his commands.

For us, God exposed a wrong practice in our accumulation of data for our shop. A process that was wronging another brother and could potentially cause an offense and breakdown in relationship. Ultimately this would affect the Kingdom of God advancing through us, particularly if God has strategy that involves both parties. In repentance and apology to this brother the relationship was redeemed and God has cleaned our hands and hearts in another area.

The following day we received a challenge from someone on using a photo we did not have permission for. Again we saw this as a correction from the Lord and have taken steps to correct our procedures so we do not do this again.

Then, one of our team had a motorway car accident. It was potentially very serious but he walked away from it, by the grace of God. However he could be prosecuted for careless driving and the challenge to drive with due care has a sense of discipline in it. Another member of staff mentioned how God had been challenging him on how he governs his decision making.

This week we had a new challenge over the Job Board on our website, when we were chastised by someone who had applied for a job we had advertised that turned out to be fraudulent. Again we have taken that as a disciplining of the Lord to govern this website gateway more diligently.

Why is God doing this to us now? Well, in Psalm 24, as we allow him to purify our hearts and clean our hands we position ourselves to allow him to give us 'blessing'. That blessing though is to be able to bring his Glory through the gates of our 'city'.

Over the years He has been 'training our hands for war', but now he is preparing us to go into true battles. Unless we are clean we will be taken out by the enemy. The enemy knows where we are weak, where we are compromised, where he can expose us and where he can defeat us, and he will go for us there. God will not just cover and protect us from these attacks because he wants us to be disciples who 'overcome'. Those who can truly stand for him, and stand in the strength of having gone through the purification process because we love him more than holding on to our own lives.

Perhaps us being a 'city on a hill' which cannot be hidden, is the result of having ascended the hill of the Lord through being purified, having entered the gates of the 'city' of our world and brought the transforming glory of the Lord into this marketplace, and it is this glory that cannot be hidden.

God is encouraging us to a deeper embrace of losing our lives in this New Day. He is looking for SHEPHERDS not HIRED HANDS.

Jesus said: 'The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.'

In Cross Rhythms recently I have felt God say 'pray for shepherds to be added to the team, not hired hands'. Why is this? It's simple, because Hired Hands see themselves, and when certain challenges get too close they are likely to drop what they are looking after. They do not care for what they hold at a level that might cost them everything.

Shepherds however only see the sheep. They 'own' in their heart what they are caring for. And they are willing to lose their lives to continue in this care.

God needs shepherd hearts for the future he is taking us into because for us to faithfully take our stand in the battles for our 'city' it is only the shepherds who will not run away from their post when the 'wolves' attack.

Consider again David. His shepherd heart meant he had already 'lost his life' through taking on the bear and lion while protecting the sheep. This qualified him to be chosen to protect the nation as King. God said he was a man after His own heart.

So often over the years we have felt some frustration in our ineffectiveness. Thinking 'when will we be really effective in reaching people'. Truth is, God loves us so much he won't take us into the city until we are ready, until we have lost our lives in the face of our bears, because we'd simply run away or get eaten alive. Another truth however is that God SO loves and wants to reach those who don't know him yet, that we won't have any problems being effective when he finally says 'now you are ready'.

I believe we are right on the edge of that new season. In the coming year of acceleration we will be led into greater battles and breakthroughs. In time we will see great spiritual advances through the radio and the website. People outside the Kingdom of God will be drawn to engage with us like never before. More confirmation of this came yesterday when a local health organization approached us to say that having looked at our website 'could they do some Life Articles for us?'

In all our years to date we have been very covered by the Lord. We have had little issue from the world. Whether on Sky Satellite, internet or even locally on FM, there is a sense we have been kept hidden as we have been trained and matured. As we are released this will change. We will be tested, challenged, threatened and suffer like never before. But we will be seeing the advancement of the kingdom of God more than ever before too.

In September 2007, at the time of our declaration from the 'Mountain Of Heaven' (which is what Ben Nevis means), Chuck Pierce gave a word of the coming acceleration in 2008. He declared that God would be applying his force to bring momentum, but the enemy will also be bringing an opposing force to stop the kingdom advancing. We are to choose which force we submit too.

(Addendum: Two days after writing this article I read a word given out by Mark Stibbe at St Andrews, Chorleywood, which confirms much that we are sensing at Cross Rhythms. It reads: 2008 IS THE YEAR OF THE GATE. Pass through, pass through the gates! Prepare the way for the people. Build up, build up the highway! Remove the stones. Raise a banner for the nations. Isaiah 62:10.

In Hebrew, the number eight is rendered by the letter CHET, which is depicted in the form of a GATE. The number eight is related to new starts and new life in the Scriptures - eight is the number of the gate. And I sensed the Holy Spirit saying this: 2008 is the year of the open gate. Prepare to pass through the gate. There are new beginnings ahead for those who have been waiting patiently for their moment to come. Obstacles are being removed. The Father is breaking his children out of a sense of captivity to past restrictions. The anointing for new beginnings is on many in this year. The time of frustration and exile is coming to an end. This is the Lord's time for his people to rise up and follow him through the gates of opportunity. New starts are looming. Many are on the point of experiencing the new life that convergence brings. And the true church - even though it will know many trials - is on the point of experiencing new life, a new season of vitality and creativity, a brand new Reformation. A highway is being built, stones are being removed, and a banner is being raised for the nations.

So get ready...and do not be afraid. Do not be anxious. 2008 is the year of the gate...and there is a BREAKER ANOINTING on those who are pushing up to the threshold of their opportunity:

One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate and go out. Their king will pass through before them, the LORD at their head. Micah 2:13)