Come Spirit - Blow & Flow!

UICS Ministry team L to R: Rev. Dr. Jamie. John, Benyamin, Rev. Neil

On Retreat with our United Irvine ministry team at Kilmalieu, near Ft William, in the middle of that recent glorious spell of sunny weather, I sat for hours in a dry riverbed. Rivulets trickled by me to unite in a small stream which meandered its way through bone-dry rocks & stones to Loch Linnhe. 

I imagined the white skull-like rocks, worn & smoothed by relentless rounding rivers of time, to be like prophet Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones and had me contemplating revival in our day, God breathing & blowing new life into us by the wind of His Spirit. 

Again God said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord God to these bones: “Surely, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.” (Ezekiel 37:4-6) 

And as I imagined God’s People in Irvine & Scotland raised up to new life, I saw a time coming soon when this dry riverbed, sat & sauntered in, would overflow with water. It was hard to imagine at the time, but floods have come with recent rains! And I saw dry riverbeds like Church & God’s Kingdom in Irvine & Scotland needing to ready for an outpouring of God’s living, reviving, cleansing & renewing Spirit. 

The third picture involved rocks where it was easy to stumble & fall. However, when carefully considered, they became stepping stones instead. In the middle of soul sapping exile, God’s Word comes to a beleaguered People, “Do not despise the day of small things.” (Zechariah 4:10).

Curiously, there were 2 types of people who viewed the ruins of the Jerusalem Temple that Jews returned to: 1. those who remembered the ‘good old days’ when the place overflowed with People & Praise. Full of nostalgic lament & mourning, they fix on ‘what was & is no more’ and in the darkness stumble to find a way through. 2. Not so those who look up for God’s hope & help: in the rubble & rocks they see ‘stepping stones’ to rebuild the Temple with, not stumbling blocks. They follow God’s prompt to fulfil their promise as God’s People, and become a renewed, beaming Light for the World. 

Across Scotland & in Irvine we have these two camps, worshippers with their eyes on ‘what was & is no more’, and those trusting & working towards a new dawn and fresh outpouring of God’s Spirit. As Rev Jamie regularly quotes from Isaiah 43:19, 

“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

Pentecost Sunday across our United Irvine Worship Centres were great opportunities to celebrate God’s loving presence, purpose & power gifted to us in the person of His Holy Helper, The Holy Spirit. And so, we join with the echoed prayer of 2 millennia, “Come Holy Spirit, come, to revive & renew!” Happy Pentecost! 

by Reverend Neil Urquhart

Pentecost Sunday morning & evening services at Fullarton Connexions