Maria Mason begins our new series on Heart Life this week. This series explores all things related to inner healing and heart management. In this particular message, Maria delves into the book of Nehemiah, a prophetic picture of the profound restoration of the walls of Jerusalem.

This unique story of Nehemiah in the Old Testament imparts invaluable lessons to us about our journey. It teaches us to fight for our healing, just as Nehemiah fought against the distractions that the enemy brought to thwart God’s purposes during the reconstruction.

God desires to restore us completely, and there is nothing that He can not do! Do you have some broken spaces in your life? Do you have any broken connections? Are you feeling wounded? That makes you a perfect target for walking with the Lord toward healing.

The restoration of the heart ministry is a central message of Jesus’ ministry in the Kingdom of God. Let’s step up for fresh commissioning to heal the broken-hearted places in our lives, reassured and comforted by our faith in God’s healing power.

If God can heal bodies, He sure can heal hearts! He is more than able!

The call to intimacy with God is a call to draw near to his heart and listen to his heartbeat. What is on the heart of our Father in heaven? What moves him? What motivates him? What are his highest purposes for our lives? For those who long for a deeper intimacy with God, the concerns of heaven ought to become our concerns as we align our hearts with the heart of our Father.

In this message, Phil Mason explores a dimension of our intimate relationship with God through the lens of the role of the fivefold ministry as outlined by the apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter 4. The fruit of fivefold ministry is an explosive “knowledge of the Son of God”in the local church. (Ephesians 4:13) This is the knowledge of the heart of the beloved Son in his relationship with his beloved Father. May this message challenge you to draw near to God and align yourself with the things that move his heart: his desire to see a mature Church with a mature expression of sonship.
We hope you enjoy this message.

The battle for the secret place is ultimately the battle for the focus and the affection of the heart!

We see in the book of Exodus that God chose to lead His people through a wilderness on their journey from Egypt to the promised land. This is not an isolated story. There are many accounts throughout the whole bible of followers of God who experienced wilderness seasons. Even Jesus himself was led into a wilderness after his baptism.

In this message, Rosie looks at the purpose of these wilderness seasons in our lives, as times of testing and strengthening with the goal of transformation and drawing us into deeper trust and dependence on God.

Rosie looks at Song of Solomon chapter 8:5 as a key verse which describes the Shulamite as one who is, “coming up from her wilderness leaning on her beloved.”

The Lord is seeking a bride who will trust him, partner with him, depend on him and lean on him like John the beloved at the last supper. He is also longing to set us free, to heal us and to transform us. These are things that will happen for us in the wilderness, if we choose to go on this journey with God.

He has been preparing our hearts for this journey and he is longing to lead us “through the archway of trust” to wage war with him in the lion’s den and the leopard’s lair. (SS 4:8) In order that we will be transformed and come out of this season leaning on our beloved.

In Luke 10, we read about Martha and Mary, two sisters who offered hospitality to Jesus and the people traveling with Him. They had a brother, Lazarus. The three young people were friends of Jesus. When Jesus came to eat at their home, Mary sat at the Lord's feet and was consumed by His teachings, heart, and ministry.

On the other hand, Martha was consumed with serving and preparing the dinner, but as we dive into this portion of scripture, Maria Mason opens an even deeper reality of what was happening. Martha represents our orphan heart, which often manifests a victim mindset and uses victim language to distract us from love.

Mary represents the transformative power of the secret place, a place of intimate communion with the Lord. She chose the ‘better thing’ because she had already decided to be a person of the heart. Mary had predetermined to take responsibility for her inner life, which is the most important choice.

Maria shares some wisdom about our needs when we come to God. We need time to process our pain, lament, or repent. She offers some advice on using our time well so that when we do come to sit at His feet, we are free to gaze and not be in an emo mess. Processing in the secret place is not always a good use of our time and cuts into valuable time just looking at His face.

The Bible tells us to buy oil, wine, and bread. This is a metaphor for being in God's presence and withdrawing from His heart as we sit and rest in His love. Let us learn to pray like a Bride and not like a widow, full of revelation and light as we look on the Lord's face. It's from here that we are empowered, shifting from being a victim to a victor.

The Good News is God loves you with an unconditional love and He chooses to love you in that way every single day. God wants to be in relationship with us, and He values every moment we will give Him. So what kind of relationship does God want to have with us? All of Scripture is full of rich wisdom and insight on this. In this message, we take a look at the relationship between Mary of Bethany and Jesus. Mary went on to participate in the Messianic mission of Jesus because of the special insight she had received from her time with Him.

Many who were serving Jesus completely misunderstood and ultimately missed out on partnering and supporting Jesus through the greatest act of love the world has ever seen. Why is it that not all who served Jesus knew what their Master was doing?

In Luke 10:42, Jesus says of Mary of Bethany that she had chosen the good portion and that it was a good thing to do and would remain with her always. What did Jesus mean by choosing the good portion? We explore the Psalms to uncover what choosing the good portion looks like as a lifestyle and what fruit it bears for our lives. Jesus encourages us in John 15 to bear the fruit of remaining in His love and the wisdom given to the Disciples in this passage of Scripture was blessed to them because Jesus saw them as cherished friends.

Looking at a cross-section of Scriptures we draw out revelation on what it looks like at a personal level and at a community level to have a group of beloved sons and daughters choosing a daily relationship with Jesus, living from the abide-and-go impartation of His Spirit, and following in the more excellent way of love.

David Balestri takes us on a tour of the concept of the Imago Dei, the image of God. Human beings are image bearers, meaning we carry and express the very image and likeness of God. In Genesis 1:26, we read, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.” Through the fall, certain aspects of the image and likeness of God were lost, such as His holiness and His glory. However, through redemption, the glory of God has been restored to the sons and daughters of God. Paul now declares, “Christi in you, the hope of glory!” (Colossians 1:27) David encourages us to step into the glory God has ordained for each of us to walk in. We can now shine with the glory of God. Jesus said, “Let your light so shine…” (Matthew 5:16). May this message inspire you to put on Christ and live large in your witness of Christ in this world.

In Matthew 5:9, Jesus said “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God”. What is this ‘peace’ that Jesus is encouraging us to ‘make’? And in particular, what does it look like to cultivate this kind of peace within a Christian community? Join us in Ephesians to hear how Paul encouraged the Jew and Gentile Christians in Ephesus to unify and foster this harmonious peace, despite their cultural differences.

This week our message is from Wayne Benn, our local Crosslink Network leader for Southern QLD. He shares on the power of the outpouring of the Spirit.

The ancient custodians of Judaism loved an argument.…and they had plenty to argue about around the time of Pentecost.However, their arguments became tired and weak against Jesus disciples.

Those disciples (fishermen and rascals) were academically inferior and theologically lacklustre. They should have been no match for the theological prowess of the rulers in the synagogue.

But Pentecost changed all that.

Gods power and authority was given to ordinary people.

Its amazing how religious arguments always lose out to Gods power/ miracles/ signs and wonders.

Pentecost still happens because God is continuing to pour out His Spirit in the last days. Australia needs to see a church ablaze with the fire of God. Lets keep praying like the Bride for that which has been promised.