Celebration for the Nations
Update July 2012

We are now just days away from this year’s Celebration for the Nations. Our hearts are full of expectation. Our longing is to worship the Lord as he deserves. Let’s pray as people travel that all will go smoothly, and nothing will stop anyone who should be here from gathering.

It’s the Festival Fields for 2013!

At last we have come clear as to what we believe the Lord is saying about the location of the seventh and final Celebration in Wales in 2013. It has not been an easy journey, as there are many advantages in locating to the Rugby training grounds. There is also something to be redeemed about Wales and singing and rugby. However, we now feel that is for a later date. The Lord is leading us back to where we were in 2007, where I thought we would never go again because it is too much work and too expensive...the Festival Fields!

Prepare now!
And if you say, ‘What shall we eat in the seventh year, if we may not sow or gather in our crop?’ I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, so that it will produce a crop sufficient for three years (Leviticus 25:20-12).

The Lord is commanding his blessing! We are seeing a small trickle of young people coming to know him. It started at the Spring Celebration in May, but is continuing on week by week. Last Sunday in the Apostolic Church that a number of us go to, nine young people were baptised, and five more young people prayed to receive Jesus as their Lord and Saviour! They all come to the Celebration meeting on Monday! How beautiful it is to see young people weeping their way into God’s Kingdom as they start to embrace his overwhelming love!

We believe that the Lord will command his blessing regarding finances too. This year has been very tight, keeping us close to him, depending on him. One of the reasons I was so hesitant about going back onto the Festival Fields is that we worked out it would cost so much money, probably around £180,000! However, the Lord is telling us to go ahead, and trust him. He will work everything out!

If we do our part, we can depend on Jesus to do what we cannot! We will start by gathering in the harvest of the sixth year, not only in souls, but in what we can all give to the final seventh Celebration. Please stand with us to see this final Celebration happen. Be part of the miracle that the Lord wants to work!

A Wedding!
As we are praying into the seventh Celebration, the Lord has been speaking to us of a wedding. He wants to draw his Warrior Bride into deeper, more intimate union with him, to prepare us for the final battle and the final outpouring of his Spirit.

He longs to woo us:

A garden locked up is my sister, my bride, a spring locked, a fountain sealed. (Song of Songs 4:12)

He wants us to become:

... a garden fountain, a well of living water, and flowing streams from Lebanon (Song of Songs 4:15).

His glorious River of Life runs through us, his Bride, the New Jerusalem, as he is enthroned in our lives;

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city (Revelation 22:1-2).

We feel that the Lord is asking us to list the items we need to make Celebration 2013 happen and ask people/churches whether they would consider giving ‘wedding gifts’ of those items. We will have a ‘gift list’ prepared for you in this year’s Celebration. Please pray over it and see if there is an item that the Lord is asking you or your church to give over the coming year.

In the present economic conditions it seems foolish to be spending so much on an international gathering simply to worship the Lord. However we feel Jesus’ pleasure, as he was pleased with Mary, who poured the expensive perfume over Jesus’ feet. These Celebrations are an extravagant expression of worship to our Lord Jesus Christ. Many of us are pouring out everything we have to be involved in this. He does not overlook any sacrifice of love. Be encouraged that he sees your offering, and even though others may misunderstand, he receives it.

See you all very soon!

With love

Gail for the Celebration Team