After my having commented, as in Part 1, we went to LifeSpring Church and after testimonies and worship the speaker refers to the saying, “God is good all the time” but then asks, ‘How do we stay faithful when it doesn’t feel like that?’  He refers to Joseph as recognising God is good when he is thrown into gaol and in Daniel that king Nebuchanezzar is used by God as an instrument of judgement. However, this isn’t a popular idea in Charismatic circles as it has developed a ‘bless me’ mentality. This is due to a misinterpretation of 1 Corinthians 14 where people start to see edification, encouragement and exaltation but Hebrews 12 v.6 says that God disciplines those whom He loves.

Afterwards, the church leader David Berry briefly spoke and immensely pleased me in his being inspired – unbeknown to himself – to connect into my earlier remark on the Bride of Christ – as well as being their 12th birthday and the import of it in Jesus’ life and ministry; as in answering Mary and Joseph on finding Him in the Temple:  And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”  (Luke 2.49, NKJKV)

Auto-generated transcript, so bear with re-formatting numerical and textual timestamps and blank lines removed. The added emphases are mine:

At 40 min 10 sec…“As John said last week, our identity needs to be in Christ….So, it’s time to wrestle…”

David adds,

“This is Paul writing.. ‘You show that you are letters from Christ delivered by us written not with ink but with the spirit of the living God not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.’

He’s saying to the Corinthians that you carry something that’s a written letter as it were that’s saying you’ve taken what I have given you and you’ve run with it. you’ve lived it.
Now he says, “Such is the confidence that we have through Christ towards God.

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God. Who made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Spirit gives life.

That’s what he’s doing. That’s what he’s doing in us. That’s what he wants to do in this community to bring life. And Phelim has highlighted a number of areas, areas of compromise, areas where we can struggle. There are places where you know we if we’re not if we become unaware ways of thinking come in that actually changes us takes us away from where we’ve started. We started the journey well but then we get diverted and you know that’s our heart isn’t is that none of us do that because God is so good. He is genuinely good. And and it’s life’s tough at times. It really is.

But you know what? He’s preparing a beautiful bride.

He’s making men and women who understand how to do do battle, who understand how to stand strong when it gets tough, who understands that God is still faithful even when everything around says it isn’t.

That’s what he’s making. Because this bride, this wonderful Bride…But but He’s not looking for something, that somebody, who looks great but actually has no substance. He’s looking for a bride who understands suffering because he has suffered. He’s understanding a bride who can stand with Him in authority because He is all authority.

He’s looking for a bride who understands creativity because he’s so creative.

He’s looking for a bride that knows what love is and how much it costs because his love has cost him everything.

And the battle we’re in is a real one!

It’s a battle for your brain. It’s a battle for your heart. And we just so easily get side-tracked. But like Daniel, like Joseph, if we’ve got what Paul says here, our confidence is not in ourselves, but through Christ towards God. Because we are not sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us. Our sufficiency is in God. And it is. And in that place we can be strong. In that place we can declare God is good even when the world is a mess….”

So, when I’m back at the desk PC on Monday I comment as follows to Simon Braker:

My above comment was made before attending LifeSpring Church and at the close the leader came to the mike after a couple of congregants’ remarks and brought a Holy Spirit inspired reference to the Bride!  NO such thing as coincidence! Next, it becomes ‘God-incidence’ as the Lord uses GPS! (Global Prophecy Signals) per Deut 19:15 (two or more witnesses)”

I then refer to the third ‘God-incidental’ witness from Canada, as told in Part 3 t>>