Awakening

"Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants." - Exodus 12:24 So in chapter 12 of Exodus God explains to Moses how he wants the Jews to partake in the Passover festival. Moses then passed this commandment on to Israel in verse 24. This becomes Moses' legacy. 4000 years later there are 13 million Jews in the world that still partake in this festival to remember and worship God for delivering them from oppression. Doesn't matter if they are Orthodox, Reformed or Observant or the Jews that look like ZZ Top they all still agree and unite on one thing and that's Passover. What will be our legacy? Will it unite the generations to come? What we do and sew into now - our grandchildren are going to either reap or suffer. I love awakening because it stands to unite the church, from all denominations under the banner of Christ. How priveleged are we that God allows us to be a part of this great legacy!
Be Blessed, Joel.

What can I say??? Awakening Sydney was AWESOME! This was my first ever awakening, and certainly won’t be my last! All the speakers were amazing, however I felt Robert Guerrero’s messages cut me to the heart, making an impact, changing my attitudes and awakening a sense of Justice in me! Pastor Robert talked about how the cries of injustice are heard in heaven, that just kept ringing in my ears, and how he said “what is in your hands right now? Ask God to show you”. Well I did ask, and I began to think of what injustice really is, I began to feel a sense of injustice toward the elderly in our community, and how they sacrificed their lives in service for us fighting in wars for our freedom, having a lifetime of stories and knowledge only to be abandoned and forgotten. My hands of gratitude, my hands that can help, I choose to reach out. I searched on the internet about social justice and I began to see how children and adults are used and abused in labour to make clothing and footwear for large companies, working long hours and poor wages, and suffering physical abuse. Some arguments were that they were lucky to be earning an income to support their families. This is so wrong when the companies are paying so little for labour yet charging so much in western countries. What is in my hands? What can I do? I find it easy to throw money into an offering or at a cause and not REALLY pay a price. (I’m not against using my increase to fight for the cause of others), I simply began to think “there must be more I can do”. Now I am little miss bargain hunter, and always look for cheap garments...... until now, I began to wonder where these cheap clothes were coming from, who had to sacrifice time with their family to make them? Did a child make this instead of getting an education and going to school? Who suffered physically from me getting a bargain? I am only one person; I decided that the conviction of my heart had to have some sort of action. I have decided to make a sacrifice and pay extra to buy Australian made, where I know the people will be getting at least a minimum wage and working in reasonable circumstances. My hands will protest against inhumane treatment and injustice. A small beginning but a step in the right direction. So thank you to all the speakers at AWAKENING who made a mark on my heart that will never be erased.

Cherloe Morgan

At Awakening in London I saw the potential for radical change that can come about if we take a hold of all that comes from our togetherness and the reality that this togetherness enables us to be more effective in doing His work and demonstrating His love to this world.

Doing a search on verses that have both the words love and together in them kicked back some really key and inspiring words like the ones below... Please stay with me if you have time as I’ve got one more thought on London after these...

Ephesians 4:16
From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Colossians 3:14
Bear with each other .... Forgive as the Lord forgave.... And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Ephesians 3:18  
We may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,

Psalm 85:10
Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.

To get really practical, the thing that made me so stoked about Awakening London was that this (increasingly) global community of young adults (irrespective of which church they were from) took a major step toward a new level of togetherness which I believe God will use in the year ahead to increase the extent to which we speak prophetically into each others lives and disciple, develop, teach and encourage one another ....  truly working out our faith and being even more effective in reflecting His love.  I wouldn’t have missed that time in London for anything.  I’ve heard similar things about New York, lets not miss out on Sydney.

The outcome of all the above, is not only awesome change in us, but through this God equips us to make a difference in this city and this nation and the nations by being His hands and feet. Whatever church the crew in London were from (and we had guys from Anglican HTB / Hillsong / CCC / and many others) and even if they were from the same church - Awakening London (at least for me) woke us up to this huge potential for radical change in our world through this generation of young adults. I’d love as many guys in our network of friends from across churches in Sydney to come.   

To find out more, go to www.awakenthislove.com. As there’s heaps more info there. By the way one of the things you’ll find is a Justice tab on this website; I reckon this makes a powerful statement that it is not “me” that is important but “us” .... and through us as a body working together we can be awoken to the power for change from God’s love flowing through us as his hands and feet in this broken world.

I really hope you can get there. You’ll be changed if you do.  I guarantee it.  I was.  If you want to go, register on the site or just call or message me and I’ll sort it. Infact let me know and I’ll make it happen.

Much Love
Tim Morris-Smith

Something powerful has happened - Awakening has become a global movement. That's easy to say, and probably sounds like hype. But it is real.

We have just finished the first ever Awakening conferences in London and New York. Both weekends were incredible, with so many highlights. But what struck me more than anything was the significance of so many people from different countries uniting for the one cause. People attended the conferences from the UK, US, Canada, and countries all over Europe. It was clear that people from all of those places have caught the Awakening vision. Awakening has become much bigger than any one church. And that is what is so great - the focus is on God, not on religion or any particular church. This has united people, even though different types of churches were represented.

Do not miss Awakening Sydney, it's going to be epic. And invite people from everywhere - because that's what it's all about.

Rob Kerr

Awakening for me was by far one of the most eye opening experiences I have had in far too long. And I don't mean in the way were God showed me  few cool things and then I forgot about them within that next week, I mean that  the my spirit and my heart were forever impacted and that God really used the two weekends to make a massive shift in my life.

Francis Chan's message on the last night of Awakening NYC, combined with some of the most powerful worship moments were just some of the highlights for me through out the two weekends, and as God moved my eyes were opened to the truth of what it means to love God, to love
His people.

I was so honored to have been apart of what God did over the two conferences and I am so excited to her about what He is going to do in Sydney.

Dylan Thomas