God's Lily Training

God’s Lily and start ups

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The story of God’s Lily and start ups goes right back to the beginning of the journey. If you have read the story of Lily’s Place you will remember how the diagram of what Lily the Pink Ministries was supposed to do came in a dream.

I had tried putting some workshops on and then wondered how to pay for them. The answer seemed to be to get funding but to get funding I needed a legal entity and the only form of legal entity that one person on their own in could set up under British law is a limited company. So I set up a Community Interest Company. Once I had done that I asked the question that I should have done right from the start i.e. God what do you want me to work towards? The morning after asking that question I woke up and drew the diagram of Lily’s Place.

How on earth could Lily’s Place ever become a reality?

One of the things that became obvious after God’s Lily had the vision of Lily’s Place and that was that it was impossible for her to do it all. It got worse in that her desire to teach led to her looking at the idea of providing online courses. Bear in mind that this was well before the learning platforms that we use today were available.

I had looked at the idea of learning platforms in one of the modules of the masters course that I had started at University of Teesside. (I ended up with a diploma rather than a full degree as I was unable to complete the project.) They focussed on systems that could be sued in schools and universities and the only such platform I had access to afterwards was Moodle.

Problem one – Creating a learning platform

There was a huge issue that I had to overcome i.e. Moodle was designed for educators rather than entrepreneurs. It was the leading learning management system for schools and colleges but it was designed to be used on their internal servers. I never managed to find a way to add a front end to it so that I could take payment for courses.

Today there are plugins that will link Moodle to other websites that can be used as a shopfront and make it possible to develop courses that you take payment for. Instead, I started using WordPress and then added a membership plugin and a learning management plugin. Now I had the ability to create and sell courses. They did not have all the features of Moodle but they had all the essentials

Problem two – Generating course content

Once I started with Moodle it became quickly obvious that one person could not produce all the course content that would be necessary. There were two solutions I have tried using to resolve that problem.

Solution one was to do something similar to what I had done while teaching in a college i.e. find teaching material others had created and sold. In a college context, this is textbooks. In the online world, this is private label rights. The difference is that textbooks are generally written by people with integrity and are made available through the traditional publishing system. PLR material often has a bad reputation as people are more focused on making money than serving others. Finding good PLR can be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Solution two was to find people who were subject experts in their own right and wanted to run their own courses. That is the space that systems like Thinkific, Udemy and Teachable have moved into. The fact that these are businesses with teams shows how hard it would be for one person to develops something like that. Maybe that is why this has been a step too far at the moment.

As far as I can work out the only other alternative is to do it yourself. Producing good content is like producing fine wine. Some years (or products) are better than others. They also take time to mature. Well, how can you write about something unless you have at least read around the subject and then pondered on what you have read?

Some of what I have spent time on writing is a mess. They are definitely learning pieces rather than masterpieces. Others like Setting up Safe Haven, The Virtuous (and Successful) Woman and Find your Purpose Love your Life are worth reading and have been published on Amazon. In fact, as I write this I am waiting for proofs of all three of them to arrive. I have just completed one, I have added the bit that I had not covered but was bugging me to another and made some corrections to the third.

Problem three – Sharing within the church

In many ways, this is the biggest challenge of all. When I started on this journey I had huge problems trying to explain to those around me what I was doing and why.

I tried sharing it at church but then came across Mrs Fear. I would say something and the response was I don’t know about that. There was the time when I said I would like to use biblical principles but not make them obvious. I got the lecture on you cannot do that because that would be deceiving people. You have to quote scripture to back up those principles everywhere. Ever tried doing that in a secular setting. It starts to sound as if you are putting yourself on a pedestal because you do things the Bible way and it does not take long before you manage to upset everyone. Yet she was a leader within the church and you are supposed to submit to leaders. Trying to submit to her did a lot of damage. The only way forwards in that situation was to declare independence and do things alone.

The other person I met at church was Mr I Don’t Believe that Social Action Projects Work. Or maybe it would be fairer to say that in his experience they had not been successful in the way he viewed success. So I could put an idea forwards and it would be rejected as not being something that would benefit the church.

Those attitudes led to a problem in terms of gaining the experience I needed for content creation. How do you gain the experience you need to help others get church-based community projects up and running when your own church puts up obstacles? Maybe that is why the strapline of this site says it is for those frustrated by the slow progress towards a fair society.

The big issue then becomes how do you gain the social proof that what you are trying to do works when you cannot overcome the obstacles those around you have put up. If you do not have the social proof of it working you end up talking about the frustrations of not being able to do things.

Problem four – Gaining visibility

Lily’s Place is such a huge dream and a big concept that those with their feet on the ground say they cannot get involved as it is just pie in the sky. Finding the right message that speaks to the sort of people I think should be involved in Lily’s Place has proved to be very difficult.

It is a name that speaks to women more than men. It speaks of love and mercy rather than dominion and fighting for justice. Lilies are used to represent things like purity and peace rather than more manly virtues.

For someone who has spent a lifetime being told shut up and keep quiet standing up and shouting about what they are doing is not easy. Then there were the school bullies and the chocolate coated dragon who helped me learn the skills required to hide and stay safe rather than those required to  stand up and speak up. Add to that the idea that if there is any contention in a marriage then it is the wife’s fault for not being submissive enough rather than the unreasonable behaviour of the husband. I can find loads of stories to use as excuses for why it so hard. People fear being burnt for speaking out but when you have been burnt for presenting your case it adds to the challenge.

If you have not already guessed  I am something who thinks deeply and then writes it down trying not to miss anything out. That apparently is part of having the redemptive gift of teacher.  In an age of short quick messages that does not help.

Where is Lily’s Place now?

It took 8 years of battling to get the first prototype up and running. It was only after I left the people who had become obstacles behind. I had been looking for pastures new for other reasons but in the process found a place where it was much easier to thrive and move forwards.

After that had been up and running for about 18 months I wrote a book about the project specifically for those who were also facing obstacles. One chapter lists the reasons we could have used to stop us doing what we did. Reasons that others could use or have used to stop them. Setting up Safe Haven is the book I wish I had 25 years ago.

The next step has two components. There is the offline business club and the online business club each serving different purposes.

The offline club for those who are out of work and thinking about starting a business. The aim is to support them in a sort of apprenticeship before they officially venture forth as fully fledged businesses. The way that the British government provides financial support for those on a low income means that if people start a business they need to have a reached a certain level of income within 12 months and to be able to maintain that income every month. If they don’t then they will be worse off financially than if they had not even tried to help themselves.  The aim is to prepare people so that they can launch themselves in such a way that they manage to reach escape velocity.

The online club is for those who want to mix business and some kind of minister to the community. That is in some ways is the easier to set up as all it needs is a website. The COB club can be accessed here.

Neither of these two things are easy to launch in their different respects. So many people are under so much pressure in terms of time that starting another church-based community project would not be easy. Putting out the bait to attract people to join either the online or the offline group is a challenge. Well, publicity is often hard to get right.

Progress might be slow but there is some progress.

Who do you learn from?

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The question of who do you learn from troubled me. You see there are some people who I had heard teaching, whether in church or on video or whose work I had read whose ideas left me concerned.

We all know that there are plenty of ungodly sources of ideas out there. Often it is easy to spot them as unhelpful. However, one of my big concerns are the counterfeits or copies that are so like the real thing that it is hard to tell the difference between them and the real thing.

I was wondering who it was possible to trust. Then when I was reading the Amplified version of the Bible I came across the following verse in John 6:45.

“They shall all be taught of God and have Him for their teacher”

After I read that verse I wrote out this request.

Lord I want you to be my teacher. Yes, I do hear and read others but I want you to speak through them and show me yourself through them. Please use them to help me learn more about what you want me to become and do. Then empower me to follow you in all your ways.

I hope that you agree with me about this.

Website for those starting a business

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The Welsh government has set up some useful websites. This link will take you to the start of a series of pages of starting your own business. There is a lot of good advice here. Obviously, most of it general but it is worth reading.  The links on this site will give you a  good grounding. in topics like preparing a  business plan, market research,  marketing and finance.

You can make a start by going  to https://businesswales.gov.wales/zones/starting-up

There are very few differences between the legal requirements in Wales and those in England. There are a few more between Wales and Northern Ireland and Scotland. However, most of this is basic business advice and is helpful for anyone looking for the basics.

What is the right legal structure for a social business?

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There are a number of possible legal structures can be used for a social business. Some of them are seen as primarily charitable. Others are seen as .a primarily business structures. There are the number of options that you could use. This link will take you to a pdf on the Welsh Government website that will help you make up your mind.

https://businesswales.gov.wales/socialbusinesswales/sites/socialbusiness/files/Legal%20Forms%20vSBW.pdf

The importance of starting small

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We believe in starting small and testing ideas and even people. That is why we support those developing prototypes and encourage people to gather experience running small scale projects.

A case study – Safe Haven

The dream was to develop a social enterprise offering supported employment for people with learning disabilities. The idea included making hand-crafted items from the natural raw materials grown on the premises. Umm to do this required obtaining premises and how do you fund them before you have an income.

The deadlock was broken by starting a prototype. This has proved an interesting experience. A partner was found who was willing to offer support in terms of premises. This enabled craft sessions to be set up one afternoon a week. The people who attended the craft sessions where not quite the ones it was envisaged that this project would serve.

God’s Lily Training has provided support for Safe Haven from before it was launched. The one thing that Safe Haven has proved is that prototypes or pilots are an essential. If the concept had not been tested then it would not have been possible to determine where the real need was in terms of providing activities for people with learning difficulties.

Why prototypes?

If the money had been available to invest then it could easily have been used to develop an activity centre that simply did not meet the needs of those who attended. The finer points of working with those in wheelchairs would not have been discovered. It is the little things like the strength of the fittings that keep the toilet seat in place or the position of the legs on the tables that make all the difference.

Thankfully some thought had gone into adapting the premises to make them accessible to wheelchairs. However, there is no substitute for being given a practical test. Similarly with the activities offered. The initial ideas proved to be unsuitable so have needed to be adapted. In the beginning, it was flying by the seat of your pants.

Without this test, it could all have gone horribly wrong. Safe Haven would just have become one more casualty on the list of businesses that did not survive its first year.

It is not just testing the business idea but the people involved as well

Starting small enables people to learn the skills that they need to run the business as it grows. A business cannot grow or even survive if the people involved in it are not the people that they need to be to enable it to survive. It sounds almost too easy to be true but experience proves that someone cannot survive as a manager unless they behave like a manager. In other words, they have to be the person they need to be to become a manager.

Becoming the person you need to be to make a business successful does not happen over night. It can take time. How do you learn? Small projects also act as apprentice schemes. A small project gives people the opportunity to grow into the people they need to be to succeed.

 

 

5 dimensions of training

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God’s Lily wanted to know what was she needed to teach. in terms of subjects. Her idea was to ask for a divine download to give ideas about what subjects to cover. The download she had surprised her. it was not a list of subjects it was a lot broader than that. That is why she started calling them dimensions of training. You can see the download after the diagram.

  • Initiation training – This covers the basics that will help them go forwards. This includes the idea that they are accepted and loved and other basic concepts that will build a good foundation in their lives. For Christians, one basic skill that they really need to master is how to listen to the voice of God as how do you follow someone when you struggle to hear them.
  • Recognition training – This covers recognising who they are and what they are capable of doing. It includes uncovering their gifts and talents. As well as that it is necessary to work out what their strengths and weaknesses are so that they can truly fulfil their potential.
  • Impartation training – This includes what others have passed on to them in terms of spiritual gifts. Not just gifts though but how to use the spiritual tools (or what some people call weapons). There is a wealth of techniques and tactics that different churches use in prayer. There is a lot that can be learnt from each other hence the idea of impartation.
  • Embarkation training – This includes how to set off on the journey towards building ministries and businesses. There are all sorts of practicalities that can be covered here including things like how to set up an appropriate legal structure for what you want to do. In the UK this would include setting up a charity or a limited company and looking at which of these legal structures suits what you are doing best. It also means helping people set up an embryo organisation that will grow into the type of organisation they want it to become.
  • Perspiration training – This includes how to do the actual work and supporting those who are putting in the effort of building. All sorts of things here including marketing, setting up systems and other business type skills. Then there needs to be the opportunity for people in particular fields of endeavour to share best practice such as how do you be a godly teacher in a secular teaching environment.

That is obviously a lot more than just a list of subjects. In one sense as God’s Lily saw many needs around her that could be met by teaching others so so her real fear was not missing anything out. By listing five broad categories it was easier to work out what was needed.

It sounds good but what is it. The best description seems to be dimensions.  Why dimensions? It seems a strange word. Don’t training courses cover subject areas and topics? This really was not her idea. God was showing it to her as she wrote it out for the first time. She finally had a means of describing the ideas that had been percolating for years thanks to that download of words.

One thing that amazed her about this download was that after she wrote it down she kept seeing more and more things in it, things that she had not seen previously. For example, the fact that impartation is the middle of five dimensions could say something about this being at the heart of all the training offered.

It is obviously a progression from novice to accomplished and is remarkably like the process that Jesus used with his disciples. He had chosen them, (initiation). He had trained them to use their gifts. (recognition). He had prepared them to receive power from on high, (impartation). One of the things Jesus told his disciples to do was to wait for power from on high. It was only after they had received that power that they could get started with their ministries. It was the experience of Pentecost that gave them a flying start, (embarkation). It was later that the perspiration dimension kicked in.

Putting it into practice

One of the things Susan already knew was that there were a number of secular organisations that taught practical skills like how to set up a business or how to market a product. They did not have the impartation dimension. On the other hand, the church specialises in teaching things in the impartation dimension. Sadly it is not that common for them to be brought together in a way that makes sense.

Susan’s desire is to see more multi-dimensional training. Especially training that would lead to her dream community becoming a reality. That is the dream of what would happen when Lily’s Place became fully operational.

Sharing ideas

Her first thought was set up a blog and add posts every time she discovered a new website or book or something else that would be useful. To gather that sort of information in the sort of quantity she wanted to do sounded like a lot of hard work. She had other things to do like write the occasional book. In fact, she got started and then wrote a book which meant writing posts for the blog fell by the wayside. That was not the best of plans.

Her second thought was to set up some forums. The idea was that she would still share what she found but so could other people. You can find the index for the forums here.

 

The 5 dimensions in action

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One of the problems is that we have forgotten that we are a body that is supposed to be working together. (1 Corinthians chapter 12 starting at verse 12) Going back to the idea of a training centre, remember the five dimensions. Different parts of the body are concentrating on different dimensions and they are not coming together and as such the body is not working effectively.

Some concentrate on the initiation dimension so their focus is on evangelism. Some concentrate on the recognition dimension so their focus is on personal development. Some concentrate on the impartation dimension so their focus is on chasing after spiritual experiences for their own benefit. Some concentrate on the embarkation dimension so their focus is setting up small projects in their local community and on helping people be good employees. Some focus on the perspiration dimension so want to change the world using blood sweat and tears. It takes all five dimensions working together for the church to fulfil its intended role in society. If one is missing then it is not effective.

Ever thought how the business world works? You have big businesses and little businesses. Some businesses are specialists in one tiny area. Other larger businesses depend on those specialists because they cannot do everything themselves. Not only that but there is a chain of dependency. The car maker needs seats so they go to the car seat maker. The car seat maker needs nuts and bolts, foam, fabric thread etc. Do they spin their own thread? Unlikely, they probably go to the thread maker. The thread maker needs a spinning machine so they go to the spinning machine maker. It just goes on and on as there is so much interdependence.

It is taken for granted that a business making something will go to suppliers to get what they need. What happens in the church? We struggle to work together. Those who specialise in the initiation dimension struggle to work with those in the recognition dimension. There are discussions about how appropriate the activities in the impartation dimension are. This reaches the point where some avoid one or more types of impartation like the plague. I could go on but you get the picture.

I saw people concentrating on the initiation dimension and said no you are not doing enough there is more. It was the same with all five dimensions. I struggled until I started to think about what a training centre would need to cover. I had some ideas but then I tried hard to listen to what God was telling me and the concept of the five dimensions of training was the result.

The truth is that Christians need all five dimensions of training. Miss out one and they are less effective. Yet this is such a rarity. There is nothing wrong with concentrating on one dimension of training, in fact, we need specialists who can help move the rest of us forwards in that dimension.

Seeing all five dimensions at once is not easy

Once I saw this I gained a new appreciation of the way God made me. In the 1990s I was in an environment where there were a lot of personal prophecies given. I gathered a whole book full of them but when I read them in an attempt to find out what really were my strengths and weaknesses I became confused. This one said this, that one said the other and I could not work out what on earth was going on.

When confused like that the best thing is to say God what is going on? The next prophecy I had described me as both a nine layered cake and a decathlete. It described my problem of thinking I had this strength when others saw another strength and asked me to do something else. In other words, there was no problem in being like that it was just the way God had made me. Phew, that settled that issue.

One reason I was confused was that I heard so many other people being told you are good at this one thing or that one thing. Not only that but the idea that you could be good at more than one thing was seen as ridiculous by many. Yet I knew I had all these different strengths but to be honest it just did not seem right.

Why is this relevant here? Think about it. To an evangelist the most important thing is evangelism. All that social action stuff is OK but it is not the most important thing in the church. The same is true with someone who is a specialist in anything. The most important thing is what they are passionate about and good at doing. Keep on like this and one part of the body ends up in arms with another because they do not see the importance of what they are doing. Those who are not specialists are pulled this way and that way until they are so confused they do not have a clue what to do next. Each one is trying to encourage people to do more in the dimension they are passionate about.

The church ends up being as confused as I was until I realised that I really was a decathlete or multi layered cake. Each dimension warring against the others trying to get the importance of what it was doing recognised. Peace only comes when you accept that the church needs to operate as a multi-dimensional force. Each dimension is important and all are needed for the church to function as it should.

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Land and the difference it makes

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I have been learning lessons about the positive and negative impacts that land can have on people for years. In the beginning, I did not realise that the issues I was dealing with were anything to do with the land we had just bought. I said the problems were due to other things which was at least partly right. The reason some things got totally out of hand was that being on a certain piece of land magnified these issues.

It took years to work out what was really going on. The impact of that land was so severe on three people that I suspect it contributed to their deaths. Another fifteen or so others had health struggles that I believe were made worse by being on that land.

Eventually, I realised that just being on that land messed with my head. Any negative thinking was magnified. What should have been positive was overwhelmed by negative ideas. There were even times when I should have accepted things were not going to work out but believed that they could do so because of the impact the land had on me. Now that is really and truly messing with your head.

There were so many layers and implications of being on this land that I am not sure if I have appreciated them all yet. As I am writing this I am seeing more and it is making me realise what a trap I was in. If the only way of moving forwards out of a situation is accepting that it will not work out and the impact of being on that land is that you believe that things will improve how do things change.

How wrong thinking kept me stuck for years

I had a serious problem and I had two options. Stay where I was and find ways of changing the situation. Or I could escape. OK fairly obvious really. I refused to take the escape route for years because I believed I could change the situation.

Maybe I could have made some positive changes in the right circumstances but the only changes that happened were negative. I had a boatload of bad advice and the impact of that was magnified by the influence of the land. I found myself in a downward spiral until I ended up all not just stuck in the mud but all but buried by it.

Yet despite that, I could not see the only escape route. Well, I could but there were so many reasons not to take it. It was like a door was there but it was covered by thick layers of vegetation that had grown up over years that stopped me taking it. These layers were more numerous and some were thicker and more luxuriant because of the impact of the land.

Something that struck me as I started writing this is that it was the fact that other people stopped spending as much time on the land that enabled me to get free. My reasoning goes like this. Whatever was using the land to impact me wanted me to stay on that land so they discouraged any thoughts that would enable me to leave.

My freedom came because someone else stopped spending as much time on the land which then made it easier for them make the decision that they did not want me on that land. In other words, the less time they spent on the land the less of an impact it had on their thinking and the easier it was for me to be released.

It is not all negative

I realised a long time ago that if we are going to have good things then we need to be aware that there are ways that they could be used for wrong purposes. For example, it can be risky giving someone money because they could spend it on the wrong things. Yes, the intention is to help someone but they can use what you intended for good in a way that causes harm. Therefore if we are going to have the blessing of positive things in relation to land then God has to take the risk of that same mechanism being used to harm us.

After years of discovering how it is possible for land to have a negative impact on people, I am starting to discover the positive impact it can have. I have discovered somewhere that has literally soaked up so much love that the very fabric of the building exudes love. You walk into the empty building and you can feel the love and acceptance of the generations of people who have used that building.

Just being in the building brings a sense of peace and loving acceptance. It is a place where misunderstandings are resolved simply because of the willingness to talk and then lovingly accept the point of view of others. People who come in from outside don’t know what it is that they can feel but they know there is something special about the atmosphere of the place.

How this affects you?

The impact that land has on you, whether positive or negative could be one of the factors that is leading to your frustration. It was while I was experiencing such negative effects from the land that I felt that the future I wanted was far far away.

It is not just the land but the environment around us that has an impact on how we feel. I don’t know about you but when I am surrounded by untidiness and mess it promotes negative thoughts. Actually, that can be a vicious circle can’t it? We don’t feel up to doing what is necessary to improve the environment around us so we don’t. We then feel worse and when that happens it can become increasingly difficult to break the cycle. Of course, once we make the effort to do something we feel better. We then spark an upward spiral that carries us on so that we do more for a while. Well, we do until we let things go again and we head downwards again.

Of course, my excuse is there are too many other things that I should be doing for me to spend time tidying up or filing notes. They are the things that get squeezed out of my day but of course that eventually catches up with me. As you might have guessed planning and then maintaining focus on the task at hand do not come easily to me. Or maybe it would be better to say that I struggle what to say no to.

I don’t know about you, but there are times when I find it hard to stay on an even keel and maintain a positive outlook. Part of the problem is what I can see and feel in the environment around me. That concentrates my mind somewhat and I make the effort to do the little jobs that will make me feel better. Daft thing is that 3 or 4 hours later when I have caught up I look around and feel so much better because most of the little things that were draining my positivity have been dealt with.

It might sound relatively unimportant but creating a good environment around those you want to help is important. They need to feel respected and cared for and one way of doing this is by taking care of the environment around them. It has also set me a challenge for the future how do I find places that have such a positive feel about them that they make it easier to do what I am trying to do rather than harder.

Can those dry bones live?

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Are you like me and look around and see dry bones? Dry bones come in a variety of shapes and sizes.

Some of us see dry bones all over the place. Ever walked along a row of shops where every other shop is closed and boarded up. There is just not enough money circulating around the community after the main employer closed down. Dry bones could be a community where few people have an earned income or that is part of a food desert. A food desert is an area where it is hard to buy food because there are so few shops.

Or it could be a community where it is extraordinarily difficult to sell property. So tough that the prices are tumbling and the more they fall the more likely that the perceived quality of the area will fall. It can become a negative spiral. When you can buy a house for less than an ordinary family car you know that an area is struggling. OK you will need to spend some money improving the house before anyone can move in but even when you have done that you have a bargain home.

Life is tough in the land of dry bones. It is hard to survive and it is hard to escape. I have tried living in the land of dry bones and seen it and and felt it for myself.

Why is it so hard?

In the land of dry bones the life is literally sucked out of you. Everyone around you is so dry that you get dry yourself. They say that we become like those we associate with. If we are around dry bones then we become like dry bones ourselves.

Once we become like dry bones how do we come alive again? I can tell you what I did one time when I found myself in that kind of situation.  I found myself some real live people to associate with. I spent time with them soaking in the life that they offered.

I was in a tough spot in my personal life and I was struggling to cope. I looked for help locally but there was no one who had enough life in them for me to catch some energy from. It was then that I realised that I had the financial resources to do a series of teaching weekends that I had wanted to do for ages. I signed up for the first of that series and while I was away from the trials of my home life I got an infusion of life.

If it happened once it could happen again so I signed up for the next and the next weekend and before I knew it I had done enough weekends to complete the whole course. Something strange happened though. After I had had a few infusions of energy I started to look for a way out. I stopped accepting the situation and did something to make it change.

It is possible to escape

I could not do anything to move until I had those life-giving infusions to strengthen me. It was only once I had gathered strength that I could start the journey to move away from the dry bones. Once I had given God permission to help me escape He got things organised for me.

The problem is that many people are not comfortable leaving the dry bones behind even for a short time. Feeling life come into you is a new and different experience. It is strange. It is uncomfortable. You wonder if it is really right that someone like you has that kind of infusion of life. You feel that you belong amongst the dry bones. There is no alternative for someone like you.

I am thankful that was able to go somewhere and experience life away from the dry bones. I wonder though what happens to those who don’t  or even those who try to move away but then find that they cannot cope with life away from the dry bones.

As i write this I am thinking of people that I have spoken to in the last few days who from my perspective are living in the land of dry bones. People who say that super encouragement approach is wrong. Well maybe that is something to do with their experience of living amongst the dry bones and they struggle when they are in a place where they could get an infusion of life. I am thinking of people who accept situations rather than fight back against them so end up with less than they might have otherwise. People who have a taste of what life could be like but then settle to live amongst dry bones as that is all that they can have or do.

But how?

Without an infusion of life it is not possible to escape. So how do we give people an infusion of life? For them life might mean hope of doing something different. For them life might mean encouragement and a belief that change is actually possible. For them life might mean feeling a burst of inspiration from worship.

I will be honest I don’t know how to give life to people. It would not surprise me at all if different people needed infusions of life in different ways at different times. However, what I do know is that there are times when God’s life flows through me to other people.  He is quite capable of using me to help others if I let Him work through me.

Yes I do get frustrated when I see people who are able of having or doing more but seem to be stuck where they are. I would love them to get an infusion of life that would help them move forwards.

It is interesting to see what Ezekiel was told to do when he was faced by dry bones. First of all he was led to a certain group of dry bones. He had to go to the dry bones God wanted him to go to. Secondly God asked him if they could live. Ezekiel said I don’t know but you do. Thirdly even though Ezekiel did not know if what he was asked to do would work he still did it. Finally what did Ezekiel do? He spoke to the bones repeating what God said about them.

How do we copy Ezekiel’s example?

  1. Go to the dry bones God wants us to go to.
  2. Accept that it is only God who knows if they will live. It is not our choice whether they live again.
  3. Even if we cannot be sure whether it will work we still need to follow instructions.
  4. Tell the dry bones what God thinks about them and what He wants to do for them.

Do you see what that last step is? It is telling them the good things that God can do for them and with them if they agree. You see even God cannot make things happen if the people He wants to help do not respond.

Think of the man who was told to pick up his bed and walk. How could he have had a miracle if he had not tried to do what he was told? It would have sounded outrageous to his ears but he had a go and managed to do what he was told.

Put it another way what do the dry bones hear? They hear the Good News of the Kingdom. The Good News that they are valued and valuable, loved and accepted, cherished and respected. The Good News that their life can change for the better if they do things God’s way and believe in the right things. The Good News that their community can be transformed.

Thank God there is hope for dry bones!!!

 

Is Lily’s Place the place for you?

by

The biggest problem I have faced with the concept of Lily’s Place is not explaining it what it is but explaining who would benefit from it. Explaining what it is simple. It is a one stop shop that people facing hard times can come to and find help. A place where they can find everything they need to recover apart from actually putting a physical roof over their heads.

The hardest thing has been finding people who are willing to work with me to make it happen. You see this is not a one woman idea. It always has been a concept which needs to draw in other people who have similar outlooks but want to help people in different ways.

It is not just a team but a tribe or even a clan working towards a common goal of helping people. People who may come into the orbit of Lily’s Place and then recover enough so that they become helpers, then restorers of people and end up leading projects that change the lives of many many people.

Lily’s Place is for  both chickens and eggs

The idea of which came first the chicken or the egg is something that been used to bamboozle creationists for a long time. The actual answer is really quite simple. Chickens were created were on the point of lay. In other words, they were created with the egg inside them. They could then lay the egg shortly after they were created.

Looking at things from that perspective was extremely helpful. To get Lily’s Place off the ground it is necessary to involve those who are able to set up projects that are able to help them. They will then lay the eggs i.e. start the projects that they already know they are called to start.

It was very similar to what I had done. I started by thinking of one project but then asked God what He wanted the business I set up as a result of starting that project to do. The morning after I posed that question I woke up with a dream of Lily’s Place.

Who should flock to Lily’s Place?

Lily’s Place is not designed to be trapped in a church. It is designed to be focused on a business that takes Christian principles into the world. The idea is to draw people in so that they are trained and enabled to be the hands and feet of Jesus. In fact, I had the idea of developing an incubator centre for small businesses many years before I had the dream of Lily’s Place.

I would love to connect with people like me. Here are some descriptions that will help you work out if you are like me.

You wear the right t-shirt – one that says I have been there and I want to help you find the way out

The reason why I started this whole journey was that I wanted to do something to help those still going through what I had come out of. OK, how do I describe that or maybe I should say how do I list all the things that have happened? The best summary I could come up with was facing the challenge of a destructive marriage, followed by a divorce and starting again and along the way facing serious issues in terms of family relationships and finances. All of these things were aggravated by a series of mental health crises but unfortunately, some of the advice given by church leaders in relation to the mental health challenges was destructive rather than constructive.

I have tried to make that as brief as I could because when I have tried describing what did happen in any detail I have ended up in some kind of wilderness unable to describe any further points of connection. The thing is I learnt the hard way that people need help and the right sort of help to come through whatever challenges they might be facing. I also learnt that it is it is hard to truly understand what people are going through until you have been through it yourself.

The best guide for a journey is someone who has been that way before. The community around Lily’s Place can say I have been there and have come through the other side. They even have a t-shirt that says I am willing to be your guide and will help you get through the hard times. It does not matter what the problem is but they must be wearing a t-shirt that tells others they are willing to help.

You have a God-given idea

God given ideas are often crazy or ridiculous. They are so big that they seem preposterous or unrealistic. People often struggle to know where to start the journey towards a dream or vision. What they can do seems way too small in the face of what is needed. If you are going to get anywhere near fulfilling that dream God will have to add a lot of His super onto their natural. Yet they are willing to work with him to make this happen.

Included in that God given idea are things that you can do to achieve that dream. It could be to teach others or to develop a practical helps ministry. Whatever your plan is it is tailored both to the problem you are trying to help people with and your own giftings and abilities. You are just putting into action the good deeds that God has prepared you to do.

You are willing to start in Jerusalem before taking on the entire world

This is one I found tough. I so wanted to tackle the entire world. I saw time passing me by and worried if I would ever get anywhere near my destination. The harder I tried doing things that did not connect with others the more disillusioned I became.

It seems that by starting small you are giving up so much. Yet it can be what you need to help you learn the basics before you move forwards towards the next step. The prototype seems like giving up on your dream yet without it you will not know how to take the next step with your dream.

The other aspect of this is that it is easy to start small and stay small when they should be growing or spreading. Their vision is so small that they cannot see that more could be done.

You are willing to change your thinking so that your thoughts are in line with God

That is actually harder than it seems. Many of us are unaware that our ideas are out of step with God. We have learnt things from our families and been taught things in church that are not 100% in line with God’s ways of doing things.

Our so called godly ideas can actually work against God. For example, for years I thought that all divorce was wrong and that I had to find a way of making my marriage work. When I in utter frustration screamed at Him to get me unstuck so that I could serve Him better that scream became a catalyst for a divorce. I then realised that although He hates divorce there are some situations where it is the least worst option so He makes sure that it happens. Part of the answer to my insistence that He got me unstuck was helping me through the divorce that I believed at the time was wrong. It is now very obvious why it was needed but it seems so against biblical teaching.

It is not just that but there are progressive revelations of the scriptures. There is a substantial part of the gospel accounts that show a whole set of ideas that Jesus taught. Not just Jesus though. Peter, Paul, James, John the writer to the Hebrews all added further interpretation to the Old Testament. Once the basic teaching was in placed God did not stop helping his people understand new ideas. After all, Martin Luther gained a whole new understanding of scripture which then encouraged him to take a stand for what he believed in and sparked The Reformation, i.e. decades of political and religious turmoil where many old ideas were overturned.

There is something called the present truth within the church. What people mean by this is the latest understanding of passages within scripture. So you get a way of praying known as approaching the Courts of Heaven. If you have not heard of this do a search on YouTube for Robert Henderson Courts of Heaven and look for any videos of his teaching. It is a specific format or protocol of prayer. It should not be a surprise that it starts with repentance but it then uses a specific way of asking God to make a decision in your favour that spiritual powers like angels and demons have to abide by.

This is a new interpretation of old truths that have always been in the Bible but are now pulled together to make a specific teaching. It is an interesting new revelation on how to pray and one that can bring about great changes in certain situations. However, the problem is that as Jesus and the writers of the New Testament discovered that not everyone likes these new ideas. Some people reject them. Others struggle to appreciate them. While some pick them up easily and run with them.

There are new interpretations of many different things such as attitudes towards money or business or how Christians can impact society. Those in the community around Lily’s Place need to be willing to seek out God’s truth from His word and change their thinking in accordance with it even if that new revelation of truth challenges the things that they were once taught by the most learned of people.

You don’t quite fit in the business world

Not everyone is comfortable in the business world. They don’t like the idea that money dictates so much of what happens, for good or bad. Some struggle with marketing as it can be very manipulative with the various techniques used to encourage people to buy. Others do not like marketing as it can seem boastful or they know that some make such an effort to present such a good face to the outside world that have created a false image. Others find just making money or even having money a challenge.

You struggle with some of the attitudes in the church world

Not everyone is happy with the emphasis on numbers in the church. The truth may be that if more people do not start coming to a particular church that it will close but that cannot be the entire motive for doing things. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, there is the idea that lilies are well-dressed and don’t have to worry because God takes care of them.

Not only that but nearby there is the idea that if we meet the needs of others then our needs will be met. Or as I interpret it if we help others get what they want e.g. a new pair of trousers then God will do something to meet our needs like send a visitor in our direction.

Your idea of supporting the community goes further than just tots and carers or the children’s midweek group. It could serve any or even every age group from babies to the elderly. It could be targeted at either men or women even both. It includes things that meet practical needs like money management and things that meet the need for companionship.

You are happy to see a Christian community built around something other than a church

There are people who see the church as little more than a performing circus where people go to be entertained. Obviously, it is not like that all the time but it is like that enough of the time for it to be a concern.

The community around Lily’s Place is comprised of people who attend a number of different churches but who work together to build what God wants them to build. It could be a business or a community centre or a café.

It is a community that learns together and maybe worships together but is not a traditional church. It is unique and shaped how God wants it to be rather than struggling to fit in with the expectations of a traditional church.

You want to see a world that is becoming more and more like God would like it to be

You want to see a world where people have such a good character that there is no reason to be concerned about criminal activity or there is no need to be concerned about hurtful words of any description.

This is the ultimate Good News. OK, it is good for the individual to be saved but that is not the be all and end all. There is more to the Good News than that. There is the whole idea of the community being transformed so that it is a good place to live. A place where God’s Kingdom has truly come down to earth. In other words, a place where the oft repeated request for your Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven actually becomes a reality.

P.S. If this resonates with you sign up for the journal and we will be able to stay in touch.

P.P.S. If Facebook is your thing check out the Lily’s Place Facebook group.