TRANSFORM! Day - Awake & Arise!
 Thurrock’s TRANSFORM! Day at Hassenbrook School in Stanford-le-Hope on Saturday 22 October equipped and resourced delegates from across the borough and beyond.
Billed as a day for unity, mission and prayer for Thurrock, people from local churches were joined by others from Southend and even the Ipswich area. Special guests were Rachel Hickson (right, right) and Helen Azer (left, right) of Heartcry for Change, who had travelled over from Oxford.
Water from the Rock
The format for the day was split into three parts. The afternoon began with an hour of corporate prayer, which Transformation Thurrock’s Tim Harrold opened with a reading of Isaiah 41:17-20, the oft-quoted word over the borough since around 1996.
 Helen Azer - picking up on the mention of Rock Thurrock - was provoked to bring a word to those who were present, that water will come from the rock. She urged us to keep to striking the rock, and water will flow - despite all the contesting and grumbling!
People split into small groups to pray with each other and for the transformation of Thurrock (left).
The second part of the afternoon saw delegates go to a choice of seminars and workshops. These ranged from the contemplative (The Lord’s Prayer with Frank Gaisie) to the informative (Engaging with the Olympics with Alasdair MacGillivray and Rob Groves), and from the celebrating (Rock Thurrock with Colin Baker) to the challenging (Pray For Schools with Maria Levy).
 Cheryl Cunningham and her friend from Southend who led the Healing On The Streets seminar ended up getting their socks blessed off by members of the stewarding team - under the proficient guidance of Roy Edworthy - who prayed for them instead! (See right.)
The four ladies from Ipswich and Felixstowe (see picture at bottom of piece), along with Grays' Bar'N'Bus team leader Gary Jones, thoroughly enjoyed their time of Treasure Hunting with Lee Hopper.
From Little Acorns...
The remaining folk listened to Rachel Hickson talk on the subject of Healing The Land. This teaching was deep and practical. The salient points were:
- don’t hate a piece of geography when you wouldn’t hate a personality (Luke 19:42; Proverbs 24:33)
- change your language: bless don’t curse
- love the land, honour your heritage and history
- believe by faith you’re planted where you are, connected for a purpose - God determines where we live and sets us there (Acts 17:26)
- God gives land to take possession of it (Genesis 15:17)
- if you want to be fruitful, be rooted
- spy the land; have strategy for the land; sacrificially commit to the land; stake the land
- if the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, then that includes the people and geography of Thurrock (Psalm 24:1)
- we are put on the land to perform a task and to treasure the land and have a unique relationship with it (Genesis 2:15; 2 Chronicles 7:14; Isaiah 62:3-4)
- the land knows what it’s for - transformation!
- don’t defile the land or break the covenant with the land (Jeremiah 2:7; 3:2-3,9; Leviticus 18:25; Genesis 4:10)
- redeem the land - set your foot like a warrior would anchor his long bow into his foot (Joshua 1:3)
- say ‘enough now, no further - I’m marking my territory, setting the arch of my bow’
- the land is crying out for the church (Luke 19:40-41; Romans 8:19 - see below)
- don’t miss the day of your visitation!
- don’t turn away from your own flesh and blood (Isaiah 58:7)
- where we’re rooted is where we’re going to fruit
- social action with spiritual declaration will break the defilement of the land
- the nation needs to be possessed (Genesis 17:4-6,16; Romans 4:17-18)
- if we get connected, something can get birthed
“The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own.” Romans 8:19 (JB Phillips)
At the end of the session, Rachel and Helen produced a basket of acorns. Rachel explained that in her garden she has a large oak which this year has produced an incredible amount of acorns. “Before we left this morning, I felt the Lord say, ‘Go and rake up a load of acorns to plant in Thurrock’, so out we went and collected all these to give away.” She encouraged everyone to pray over their acorn or acorns as to where God wanted them planted.
 The amazing thing about this was that Rachel and Helen were completely ignorant of the fact that Thurrock’s logo is two oak leaves, and that just two weeks before at a Rock Thurrock Payer gathering at Aveley Christian Centre, the while image of acorns and oaks had come up. (See link.)
Between the afternoon and evening programmes there was time for delegates to eat and network. A fine menu of baked potatoes, chilli con carny, salad, and/or chicken wings, followed by a variety of highly calorific puddings, was provided by Graham Marshall and his ably marshalled kitchen team (left).
 Shakey shakey, wakey wakey!
The evening began with a time of anointed worship led by John Gorham and his band drawn from a wide range of churches across the borough (right, praying before they played).
Rachel’s presentation for this part was entitled Awake and Arise, starting with the scripture from Hebrews 12:26-29:
His voice that time shook the earth to its foundations; this time-he's told us this quite plainly - he'll also rock the heavens: "One last shaking, from top to bottom, stem to stern." The phrase "one last shaking" means a thorough housecleaning, getting rid of all the historical and religious junk so that the unshakable essentials stand clear and uncluttered. Do you see what we've got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God. For God is not an indifferent bystander. He's actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won't quit until it's all cleansed. God himself is Fire! (The Message)
Rachel said, “Everything is being shaken, but God is still in control. The shaking exposes what can’t be shaken - that which is of man is shaken to reveal something that’s greater. It’s time to wake up to the opportunity!”
She continued by sayin g that this is not the time to downsize as that is to miss the opportunity we are being presented with, and urged us to always go in the opposite spirit. “If we get bitter then we’re not going to get better,” she said, “so guard your heart, which is the wellspring of life.”
Rachel stated that the opportunity set before us is to serve our community and recognise that it’s our time to influence and spread out - to arise and shine. We should be the answer, not be part of the problem, as we are favoured. “If you’ve sown, you’ll reap,” she added. “This is a tipping season - the church is the pivot as the nation is balanced on the scales. Shakey shakey, wakey wakey!”
Rachel then went through four points, the gist of which were:
1. Arise and change atmospheres
- Isaiah 60:1-3 (Arise, for your light has come) - carry a different presence, turn the light on
- Ezekiel 37:11 (Valley of the Dry Bones) - reconnect the disconnected, be community
- one act of kindness changes the atmosphere like a candle lights up an entire room
- the little we think we have is more than enough in God
- how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! Turn your light on!
2. Arise and deepen your desire for God
- Revelation 22:17 (“Come!”) - God loves it when the Spirit and the Bride say the same thing at the same time
- go deep and wide - deep in our relationships with God and each other; then stretch wide in influence (Isaiah 54)
3. Arise and run your race
- Hebrews 12:1-3 - run the race, fulfil the purpose for your life; don’t give up, there is a mandate for your life
- Mark 1:17-18 (“Come, follow me”) - run, drop your nets; it’s the ‘come’ of intimacy but also the ‘come’ of assignment
- he makes us what we need to be to get the job done - he will make us what we’re not
4. Arise - this is a new day
- don’t be intimated by the change
- this is a day of transformation, but the journey isn’t easy - it’s not ‘con-formation’, but ‘trans-formation’ leading to ‘re-formation’
- our institutions have got stuck!
The Challenges of Change
- Don’t be sentimental (Leviticus 29:9-11) - make room for the new harvest; let go for the new harvest
- Don’t stay in the same place for too long (Deuteronomy 1:6-7) - change, break camp and move
- Don’t get hard and resistant (Hosea 10:12) - break up your unploughed land; for a new crop, break up again the hard ground (which yielded a harvest before)
The Five Stages to Transformation
- desperation
- intercession
- revelation
- activation
- transformation
 Rachel concluded by quoting 2 Corinthians 3:18 - “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
“Be transformed,” she urged, “because it is a rise and shine time - awake and arise!”
Rachel and Helen then ministered to a number of people with very powerful and completely relevant prophetic words.
Afterwards there was an opportunity to buy materials from the Heartcry book stand.
Thank you...
 Transformation Thurrock would like to thank all who helped to make the TRANSFORM! Day a reality, whether in the stewarding team, on the kitchen staff, the worship team, or leading a seminar stream, or helping with the technicalities, or praying in the background.
We would also like to thank the site staff at Hassenbrook Academy for their support and hospitality.
And also a big thank you to Cheryl Cunningham and her friend (sorry, forgot your name!) who came over from Southend very late in the day to do the Healing on the Streets workshop; and Rachel Hickson and Helen Azer for their ministry.
And thank you to all those who came. We hope you were equipped, envisioned and empowered for the works in and of faith that King Jesus has foreordained you to do for his glory and the increase of his Kingdom.
Pictures: Above right - Colin Baker serves Richard Earll his baked potato
Below left: Mick Hubbard and Dave Matthams of the Stewarding Team
Below centre: the four Suffolk ladies - the one in the red, Margaret Jones, drove; and the one in the white (sorry, your name escapes me!) attends the same church in Felixstowe as Pete & Mary Howe
Below right: Maria, Helen and Brenda prepare to pray!
The TRANSFORM! Day replaced the former Thurrock Day of Prayer of 2009 and 2010.
  
|
Tim Harrold, 04/11/2011 |
|
