Our Heart for Darebin by Eric Fan

OUR HEART: LOVE GOD, LOVE PEOPLE, LOVE IN ACTION!

Our heart as a family of believers is to love God wholeheartedly, to love people passionately and to love in action practically, so that we become a channel of blessing to see lives and communities transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

In January 2010 I had a dream which I believe was from the LORD and which speaks into the direction of Darebin Centre.

In this dream I saw two visions. The first vision was of a hand stretched out over the land as in prayer. The land was dry and the land was stained with blood. This then transitioned into the 2^nd vision as the hand was stretched over the land, water began to gradually wash over the land- cleansing the blood. The water then began to increase in depth and flow, and began to be channeled.

As I awoke, the Holy Spirit reminded me of two verses.

The first verse 2 Chronicles 7:14. This passage talks about the importance of humbling ourselves as God’s people to pray and to seek Him and to repent of our sins. As we do this it promises that God will hear our prayers and will forgive our sins and will heal our land.

The second verse Ezekiel 47:1-12. This passage talks about a river flowing from the temple of God with increasing depth and wherever the river flowed it brought incredible life and renewal. Salt water became fresh. The river was teeming with life, with swarms of living creatures and large numbers of all kinds of fish. The fishermen were able to spread their nets from the shore. There were a great number of all kinds of fruit trees that grew along each side of the river which never failed to bear fruit every month and whose leaves never withered. The fruit served for food and the leaves for healing.

Initially I wasn’t sure what to make of this dream and had put it to the back of my mind; it wasn’t until the 2^nd half of 2010 where I was challenged repeatedly after my bible school classes to seek God for Darebin centre’s direction. After each of the first three classes, the Holy Spirit spoke to me strongly to seek him. As I began to seriously seek Him, God reminded me of the dream and also revealed to me the keys we are to follow to see the dream come to pass for Darebin Centre.

We desire to see the power of the Holy Spirit to fill our lives through Holiness.

The first key is holiness. This was wonderfully confirmed by our Senior Pastor when he revealed the Hope Melbourne theme of Holiness for 2011.

God reminded me that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the very first thing that we need to cultivate in our lives is holiness. We are called to be holy just as He is holy. This is what it means to love God wholeheartedly. Holiness is required so that the rivers of living water which is symbolic of the Holy Spirit himself can fill us and flow through us as a channel of powerful blessing to touch and transform our communities for Christ. This process of transformation begins with us, through cultivating a life of holiness, setting ourselves apart for God’s purpose. I believe one of the keys to cultivating a life of holiness is to progressively go deeper in the word of God through reading and meditation of the scriptures (Ephesians 5:25-27).That is why each year we aim to read through the whole bible at least once, and to be consistent in our daily devotions.  

We desire to see the power of the Holy Spirit to be released through Humility

The second key is humility: this is about dependence on God. This is about humbling ourselves as God’s people, as His spiritual representatives to pray and to seek him, and to repent of our sins and not only that but to intercede and identify with our land including the sins in our community past and present. This is what it means to love people passionately. We need to discern the causes of the spiritual dryness, past injustices-the blood that stains the land. As we humble ourselves and pray, God will hear our prayers, and God will forgive and the healing power of the Holy Spirit will be released to wash over, to cleanse and soften the spiritual ground in our community.

We desire to see the power of the Holy Spirit to be channeled through us to bring Healing and Harvest.

Cultivating an increasing depth of holiness and humility will cause us to be increasingly filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and for us to be increasingly bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit- the harvest of righteousness. This will enable us to minister according to our various gifting in the power and grace of the Holy Spirit- the water of life to bring healing to many precious lives and a great harvest of souls into God’s kingdom.

We desire to see all kinds of people in our community irrespective of their cultural and socio-economic background experiencing physical, emotional and most importantly spiritual healing as they are touched by the Holy Spirit as He flows and ministers through his people. This is what it means to love in action practically.

As a Church it is our desire to abide and flow with the Holy Spirit to see a great number of growing and fruitful Christ centered disciples from all walks of life, who would in turn give spiritual life to those who are spiritually hungry.

As a Church it is our heart felt desire to be a channel of blessing to transform lives and our society through the power of the Holy Spirit.