Salem Oaks Goals

At the beginning of this year both teams took a three-day retreat to recap the last year and set goals for the new based on where God was leading us. The picture above is a list of the Salem Oaks team goals.  Inside the gray triangle are the 7 Kingdom Core Values: Holy Spirit, Multiplication, Primacy of the Kingdom, Strategic Thinking, Great Commission, Unity and Community, and Accountability. We asked ourselves: Is there one Kingdom Core Value that if we took it out, everything else would fall apart? We knew right away that it was the Holy Spirit. If the Spirit is not active in us, everything we do is in the flesh.

Coming into the retreat Jacob felt like we were supposed to read and discuss Isaiah 6 together. From that there were many main points we took away from that.

1.     King Uzziah had to die because he did not handle the things of God with care. King Uzziah has to die among our team and in ourselves.

2.     The mighty, energetic praise of the seraphim shook the Temple to its foundation.

3.     Isaiah was at a place of brokenness before the Lord. He understood and recognized God’s holiness.

4.     He first had to be prepared by repentance.

5.     The Lord forgave Isaiah for his iniquity and chose him to do His work despite his sinfulness.

6.     The Lord then commissioned him, and Isaiah, without hesitance, responded to the call of the Lord.

We also read through 2 Kings 6:1-7. In this story Elisha is a picture of God and the prophets are us. Points from that:

1.     Their focus was inward: we, us, let us.

2.     Their meeting was void of his presence.

3.     They found their identity among the body and not in personal identity with God.

4.     They made plans first and then asked him to bless it.

5.     Only one person asked for his presence; it was a secondary concern.

6.     They cut down the trees and took them away from the river, which had been giving the trees life.

7.     We need to be brought to a place of brokenness.

8.     The work has to be submerged in the Spirit for it to be useful.

Prophetic words we received:

1.     Ps 42:1 As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.

2.     Spirit break out, break our walls down.

3.     The Spirit in us needs to fill us to the point of breaking out and overflowing into the lives around us.

4.     Leaning not on our own understanding, trusting God’s wisdom. Job 38- 42:6 Being brought to a place of utter humility, and laying down our crowns.

Through seeking, prayer, and worship throughout the retreat we felt like the Lord was leading us away from setting measurable goals. We can’t control the uncontrollable. That’s His job. Our job is to stay in a place brokenness, seeking Him and His presence, desiring Him above everything else. Out of the overflow of our love for Him, the Spirit will break down the walls between and among us and overflow into the lives of those we're ministering to. Only as the Spirit does this work in and through us, there will be fruit. We don’t want to produce in our disciples a value for the work to be done, but value the King himself.

Please be in prayer for our teams:

• That we would increasingly recognize His holiness and revere Him.
• That every King Uzziah in our lives would die and we would stay in a place of brokenness at the cross.
• We would grow in letting the Holy Spirit move during our Redemptive Community time instead of coming in with our own plan and asking God to be a part of it.
• That we would be patient, listening, expectantly waiting on God to move, and follow Him when he does. 
• Pray we would not run ahead of God, but trust His wisdom and His timing.

Thank you and God bless!