T H E W I N D B L O W S W H E R E V E R I T P L E A S E S

The Adventure of Life in the Spirithenry kendal

Visionary, engaging and has a ring of reality of the Holy Spirit. GEORGE VERWERMany people know God personally and occasionally stop

to ask, Is there more than this? but then they move on hurriedly, fearful that the answer might be no. Yet Henry Kendal affirms that the true answer is yes, for God invites us onto the rollercoaster journey of faith. In this gentle but thought-provoking introduction to the life of the Spirit, Henry shows us how the Lord invites us to a dance of faith that will set us whirling through this life and the next.

Are you just playing church or drifting in your Christian walk? Then this book is for you. Its visionary, engaging and has a ring of reality of the Holy Spirit. GEORGE VERWEROperation Mobilisation

With up-to-date stories, personal insights and clear biblical references, Henry has written an engaging challenge to walk out in faith the exciting lifestyle of following Jesus, and to experience the power and unpredictability of the Spirit in daily life.MARK BAILEYLeader Trinity Cheltenham and National Leader New Wine

A great antidote for anyone who has allowed their Christian faith to become mundane. This book invites everyone to a life of adventure, following the prompting of the Spirit and becoming more like Jesus. It will be a wonderful addition to the library of churches trying to introduce the life of the Spirit to their congregations.JOHN COLESformer Director New Wine

RELIGION/Christian Life/Spiritual Growth

www.authenticmedia.co.uk

Henry Kendal is the vicar of St Barnabas, North London, a large evangelical charismatic Anglican church which is part of the New Wine Network of churches. Henry is married to Jane and they have three adult children.

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With up-to-date stories, personal insights and clear bib-lical references, Henry has written an engaging challenge to walk out in faith the exciting lifestyle of following Jesus, and to experience the power and unpredictability of the Spirit in daily life.

Mark Bailey, Leader Trinity Cheltenham and National Leader New Wine

This book is a great antidote for anyone who has allowed their Christian faith to become mundane. It invites every-one to a life of adventure, following the prompting of the Spirit and becoming more like Jesus. It is very readable and accessible, practical and thoughtful, illustrated from personal experiences, and referencing the lives and think-ing of others. It will be a great addition to the library of churches trying to introduce the life of the Spirit to their congregations.

John Coles, former Director New Wine

Are you just playing church or drifting in your Christian walk? Then this book is for you. Its visionary, engaging and has a ring of reality of the Holy Spirit. Henry comes across as biblical, honest, real and filled with the Holy Spirit. Do you know why? Because he is. Its a privilege to know him.

George Verwer, Operation Mobilisation

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The Wind BlowsWherever it Pleases

The Adventure of Life in the Spirit

Henry Kendal

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Copyright 2015 Henry Kendal

21 20 19 18 17 16 15 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

First published 2015 by Authentic Media Limited,52 Presley Way, Crownhill, Milton Keynes, MK8 0ES.

authenticmedia.co.uk

The right of Henry Kendal to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,

electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying.

In the UK such licences are issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 610 Kirby Street, London, EC1N 8TS.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-78078-132-7ISBN 978-1-78078-279-9 (e-book)

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken fromThe Holy Bible, New International Version (Anglicised edition).

Copyright 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica (formerly International Bible Society).Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, an Hachette

UK company. All rights reserved.

Scriptures marked esv are taken from The Holy Bible English Standard Version, published by HarperCollins Publishers. Copyright 2001 Crossway Bibles, a publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.

Scriptures marked nkjv are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scriptures marked ncv are taken from The Holy Bible New Century Version. Copyright 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson Publishing, Inc.

All rights reserved.

Cover design by David McNeill (revocreative.co.uk)Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY.

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INTRODUCTION

Countless people go through life knowing about God and knowing him personally in their lives, and yet they remain firmly rooted in the normality of this world with all its pressures and strains. They occasionally stop to ask, Is there more than this? but then hurriedly move on, fearful that the answer might be no. Perhaps you are like that. Yet the true answer, Im confident, is yes. God invites us on a rollercoaster journey of faith; an amazing adventure in his Spirit.

Wont you join me in exploring this journey?

An Extraordinary Break-InOne Christmas we had invited our entire family over for Box-ing Day. It was one of those long, happy days when people sit around over a lengthy meal enjoying each others company, while time slows down. As the house was full of people and it was a mild day, I threw open the windows to let in some fresh air. Eventually our guests melted away to their homes and Jane and I flopped into bed, exhausted but satisfied.

I have always been a sound sleeper, and find waking in the morning the most challenging event of the day. But the following morning was different. At 6 a.m. I sat bolt upright in bed, awake and totally alert. All I could think was, Ive left the window open downstairs.

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The Wind Blows Wherever it Pleases2

Pulling on a dressing-gown I trudged down to our front room and switched on the light. At the very instant the light went on there was a sharp intake of breath at the other end of the room by the window. There followed some banging and scuffling and rapid footsteps running away down the road. I sat on the floor, my heart pound-ing, trying to take in what had just happened.

My chance encounter with the intruder had been an impossibly unlikely coincidence. I had been spookily but unconsciously prescient of what was about to take place when I had woken up so early and so suddenly. The would-be burglar had been caught entering our house with literally one leg through the window and the other yet to follow. What are the chances of that being the very instant I flicked the lights on? A few seconds earlier he would not yet have started his entrance and I would never have known of anything unto-ward; a few seconds later I would have met him in the mid-dle of the room, and who knows what would have ensued. A friend suggested to me afterwards that some great angel must have shaken me out of my slumber that morning.

The life of the Spirit is an invisible thing that is easy to miss. I hardly qualify to be held up as an example of scintillating spirituality, but my story has been one of adventure with God. It has involved learning to live by a different sight, focusing not on what is seen but on what is unseen. Not many of my experiences involve burglars and extraordinary timing, but I have found God at work in and around me, often in the most unexpected ways.

However, many of the people I speak to know little of this alternative life. For them, Christian faith is little more than an insurance policy for the afterlife. They assume theyll

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Introduction 3

need a certain amount of keeping things current and up to date to make sure their policy remains valid, but what they miss is the dynamic of God breaking into our lives daily.

Engaging in the Dance of Faith In more than 20 years as a pastor I have met every flavour of Christian imaginable. The churches Ive led have been full of a rich mixture of people from every social back-ground, ethnicity, and philosophical outlook. In observing and engaging with this rich potpourri of life, I am grateful to have learnt, grown and developed through my interac-tions with numerous marvellous people. Many of these individuals have inspired me in my own walk with God. But many of my fellow travellers seem to never quite grasp the fullness of the Christian life, either in experience or belief. I see unrealised potential everywhere I look.

Perhaps some of you picking up this book will be look-ing in on the community of faith occasionally from outside intrigued, charmed and perhaps even captivated by what you see. You like something about it but dont really under-stand it or feel comfortable pursuing it further. For you, faith has a luminous quality that both attracts and repels in equal measure. You remain an outsider, knowing something good is going on and yet not at all sure that you want it for yourself.

Others skirt the fringes of the church, longing to be fully part of what God is doing, like a little child wiping the mist off the toyshop window. Over the years some of these good people have attached themselves to me, hoping that this personal connection with the vicar can somehow connect them to God. It is as if, apprehensive

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of taking the plunge personally, they opt for a vicarious faith, using me as a buffer to either connect them to or protect them from God. I have come to love many of these people, and yet my heart yearns for them to engage with God fully themselves, not just via me. Far from connecting them to God, I fear that I may become the obstacle that obscures God.

Some of you have known God much of your life. But this knowing has sometimes been at a level that fails to energise faith. You search earnestly, but lack the missing ingredient to turn your mourning into dancing. I long for God to animate those who believe all the right truth and often do all the right things, and yet whose Christian walk has the appearance of drudgery. Among you are folk who would traditionally be regarded as mature Christians: you know your Bible, pray regularly, and are soaked in ser-mons from church and Christian TV. Yet knowing the stuff of faith is quite different to living the life of faith.

I believe that God wants to engage all of us in a dance of faith that will set us whirling through this life and the next. But in order to do that, he first has to attract our attention. Thats not always easy, so distracted are we by the cares of this world and background noise of our own agendas, or even the stuff of life, such as creaky chairs . . .

The Curious Incident of the Old ChairsA few years ago we were purging some old and, frankly, dangerous chairs at St Barnabas. These chairs, with their slightly bent chromium-plated frames, had wooden arms that threatened splinters and legs that were in danger of puncturing human legs, so we decided to ditch them.

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Introduction 5

Our facilities co-ordinator rounded them up and we got rid of them.

The following week I was down in Somerset meeting some people. They dropped me off at Temple Coombe Station which, although it sits in an especially pretty part of the countryside, felt rather windswept and desolate.

When I arrived no one was there and I made my way to the waiting room. On the waiting room wall there was a plaque with the wording Temple Coombe, Best Station 1988. This evidently had been a well-tended and cared-for station back then, but on the bleak day of my visit its appearance suggested that no one had done much to it since. There was a time when it was the best, but that time was long past.

I went to take a seat in the waiting room and there, to my astonishment and horror, were our chairs. What were they doing in Temple Coombe Station in the middle of rural Somerset, 120 miles from St Barnabas in North Lon-don? How did they get there? Had South West Railways been rifling through our skip?

Back at St Barnabas, by chance I went into an office I rarely ventured into. There, to my utter amazement, were two more of the chairs that had somehow missed the cull. As I took immediate action to get rid of them, I sensed God speaking to me through these ridiculous chairs about chucking out the old, leaving the past behind and not going back again. It was a profound prophetic insight which changed my perspective on church and it came through furniture.

Sometimes the way God gets our attention can be quite peculiar! The wind blows wherever it pleases. You

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hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going (John 3:8).

In this book we will explore the life of faith that so often eludes us, a life that requires us to see things differently, with some surprising results. In Part 1 we will start by look-ing at how the Christian life is intended to be lived out in our daily lives it can be far more than an afterlife insurance policy. In Part 2 we will take our lead from Jesus himself and see how the life he lived that we read about in the gospels applies directly to how we can live our lives. In Part 3 we will see how the Holy Spirit can empower us in a way that we might have thought was beyond our reach. And then in Part 4 we will discover that this is the transformational real life that God desires us to live every day.

It has been forty years since the day I first gave my heart to the Lord Jesus Christ and started out on a rollercoaster adventure of faith. Undoubtedly, the intervening passage of time has dulled the sharp before and after contrast of new life. Today I have to try and remind myself what life without Christ was like, and the memory is distant now. Jesus became my new normality and the old life of veiled confusion is long gone. Thats not to say that my life is always a bed of roses and that I have everything easy far from it. Neither has my walk with Christ been one unre-mitting ascent towards glory, but far more the ups and downs, struggles and triumphs of a frail pilgrim.

But I do find it increasingly hard to imagine living with-out Jesus. In John 10:10 Jesus said, I have come that [you] may have life, and have it to the full. In my own fee-ble and flawed way I have discovered something of what that means. And that is the subject of this book.

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Part 1

THE GOOD NEWS OF GODS KINGDOM

ON EARTH

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1PIE IN THE SKY WHEN YOU DIE OR CAKE ON YOUR PLATE

WHILE YOU WAIT?

Some years ago, before we came to St Barnabas, the church where I am currently vicar, Jane and I knew that God was calling us away from our previous church. This was a pretty big deal for us because we had been involved in planting that church, I had led it for nearly a decade, and wed had our children there. We had a lot of very close friendships, especially with other couples who were raising their children alongside us. I had seen many people come to faith in Jesus Christ there and it had been a wonderful time. So for God to call us away was really quite a wrench. But we knew God was calling, so I was starting to apply for jobs and praying about the type of church that I would go to.

One day I was driving somewhere, and as I drove I was saying, Lord what kind of church are you leading us to go to next? Whats it going to be like? What should I be looking for? I found myself behind a removal van, and on the back of the van was the name of the removal company

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The Wind Blows Wherever it Pleases10

Parish of Berkhamsted. I found myself thinking, I wonder what the parish of Berkhamsted is like? I wonder what the church in Berkhamsted is like? Maybe thats the place I should be going to. On the van, underneath Parish of Berkhamsted it said Removals and Storage.

In that instant I knew God was speaking to me about my calling and about the purpose for the church, through what was to me a cryptic message on the back of a van. I knew that I was not at all interested in storage: keeping Christians happy until they die and go to be with Christ. The idea of the church as a holding repository for Chris-tians waiting around to die was not my kind of thing. I know Ive painted a slightly negative picture of church. I know we have wonderful worship and fabulous relationships and, in many churches, lovely flower arrangements but these things dont really float my boat. I need something more than that to get me out of bed in the morning.

Whats the Point? Have you ever stopped to ask yourself the question, Whats the point of life? Is it just a process made up of one phase after another, each one apparently meaning-ful at the time but rather pointless seen from a cosmic or eternal perspective? Is there more to it than career, marriage, family and a nice house in the countryside? It is a question that keeps prodding our subconscious, and its one that many and various people have attempted to answer over the years.

Possibly the most famous conclusion comes from The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy1, in which the answer to

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Pie in the Sky When You Die 11

the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything is 42.

More serious people have also had their say on the meaning of life. I watched a debate between the famous atheist Christopher Hitchens and Christian speaker Frank Turek at Virginia Commonwealth University, in which Hitchens was asked what the meaning of life is. Interest-ingly, he answered with a joke. He didnt have a serious answer for the most profound question we face, and felt the need to give a joking reply.

In a way this is not surprising, as for the atheist the meaning of life is not a question that can be answered. As Bertrand Russell concluded very honestly, Unless you assume a God, the question of lifes purpose is meaning-less. For many people without a faith the answer to lifes meaning is just too grim to vocalise. The truth is that for many, life has no meaning or purpose at all the point of it all has eluded them.

And what about for us as believers are we much better? Do we live most of our lives like those around us, without any kind of meaning, mindlessly pursuing money, career and pleasure? Or is there more to life than this? The point for Christians, some might argue, is that we get saved by Jesus and go to heaven when we die. If thats the only point, all this waiting around on earth in the meantime is a bit tedious. Why cant we go straight there? But is there some-thing more? The famous Christian Aid strapline stated, We believe in life before death. And author and activist Shane Claiborne said, I am convinced that Jesus came not just to prepare us to die, but to teach us how to live.2

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In Philippians 1 Paul is writing from prison facing immi-nent death. He is clearly wondering, Am I going to live or die? He is torn: in one sense its better to die and go to be with Christ, but on the other hand its important to go on living and serving here on earth. He concludes that he needs to live. For Paul, to go on living is not boring, just sitting around waiting to die and go to heaven it means something far more. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain (Phil. 1:21). So dying isnt a sad or sorry thing he will go to be with Christ. But to live is something really valuable to me, to live is Christ. In other words, there is something more for us here on earth right now. There is purpose, there is meaning and there is value to our lives.

Begin With God However wonderful the life of grace and favour might be, it doesnt completely answer the question, What is the meaning and purpose of life? Rick Warren begins his bestselling book The Purpose Driven Life by saying, It is not about you . . . If you want to know why we are on this planet, you must begin with God.3 Or as author Viv Thomas put it, I am not the point of my own life.4

We often start with the wrong perspective. When we say, What is the meaning of life? we actually mean, What is the meaning of life for me? And when we start from that perspective we are going to end up with all the wrong answers. As Colossians 1:16 says, For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invis-ible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.

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13

Our purpose, therefore, is not for ourselves. Our pur-pose, our fulfilment, our happiness and our satisfaction are not found by looking inwards towards ourselves. Mick Jagger sang, I cant get no satisfaction, despite the fact that he tried and he tried and he tried! If you are seeking satisfaction it will surely elude you, because you are seek-ing the wrong thing, you have got the wrong perspective and you are starting from the wrong end. On the other hand, Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount that if you seek Gods kingdom and his righteousness, then all that other stuff will be given to you as well (Matt. 6:33).

Its what you start off seeking that counts; its having a perspective that comes from the right direction. God wasnt made for you you were made for God. God wasnt made in our image we were made in his image. As has been famously said: God created man in his image and then man returned the favour.

So once weve got the order of things correctly sorted out in our minds, we find that our place in that order is better than we could possibly have imagined we have been made for God, and he has chosen us to be his children.

Romans 8:1415 says, For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, Abba, Father. We are made to be sons. The Bible uses the masculine term sonship because in that culture it was the sons who were the valued ones, the heirs, the inheritors of all their

Pie in the Sky When You Die

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fathers blessings. However, this granting of sonship applies to men and women equally. We are all called to be sons and daughters, heirs and beloved chosen ones of God. What a purpose! What a destiny!

I believe there is meaning to life which is far more than just waiting around to go and be with God when we die. There is meaning to life in the here and now. We are caught up within the purposes of God. In 2 Corinthians 3:18 we read, And we all, who with unveiled faces con-template the Lords glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. In other words, we are beginning to become like him. It takes time, it takes discipleship and it takes transformation.

Sometimes it is not always very perceptible that were becoming like God. When we look around church, some-times we see disciples of Jesus Christ who dont particularly look like Jesus Christ yet. But its happening. A transform-ation is taking place. I am not what I used to be and, praise God, I am not what I will be. There is a process of transform-ation thats happening in my life and in yours if we allow the Spirit of God to reign in us. Each of us is being transformed and as we are transformed we affect the world around us.

Abundant LifeThe first question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism is a gem: What is the chief end of man? with the answer, Mans chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him for ever. (Written in 1647, the Westminster Shorter Catechism is a set of 107 questions to learn off by heart.) Isnt that

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15

fantastic! But if thats my end, wonderful though it is, I still want to know what my beginning and middle are. I have only got about three score years and ten and I dont just want to sit around in meaningless waiting before I go to glorify God and enjoy him forever. I want to get going with it while I am here.

Now some have assumed that our time in this life is a form of test, its like an exam. And if you pass the exam you go to heaven and if you fail the exam you go to hell. Of course, its true that what happens in this life does affect our eternal destiny. But the idea of a test or exam simply doesnt work. To start with, the pass mark for the exam is 100 per cent right the way through your life, so if you slip up when you scream at your mum at the age of 2, youve already blown it youve failed the test almost before you started.

The other problem with the whole test thing is that Jesus has taken the test for us and passed it on our behalf. So for those of us who have not relied on our own right-eousness but on his, the test is all done and finished, and this is very good news. But then what? Surely theres more to life than just being stored until such time as we die and go to be with Christ?

Removals and storage. I am not really interested in stor-age. Removals, on the other hand thats a whole different matter. Removals speaks to me of change, of rescuing people from the downward spiral into the abyss that is in so many peoples lives. It means removing people not from the world but from the dominion of darkness, where people are lost and in the clutches of Satan. I am inter-ested in removing them from that darkness and setting

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16 The Wind Blows Wherever it Pleases

their feet on solid ground. This involves purpose and action something of value to carry out in this life that has eternal consequences. Removals involves the transform-ing power of God breaking into our lives to give good news to the poor, freedom to prisoners, sight for the blind and release for the oppressed.

Jesus gave us the Great Commission (Matt. 28:1620) to go into all nations and make disciples, reaching out to the lost. That gives us purpose and meaning. The times when I have had the privilege of leading someone to faith in Jesus Christ for the first time are some of the most amazing moments of my life. To pray with someone and see them step out of the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of light, receiving Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, is an amazing and wonderful thing. But even this work of evangelism cant be my whole lifes purpose. If Im honest, the amount of time in any given year that I actually spend leading someone to faith in Jesus Christ is not a huge proportion of my average working week. What about the rest of life?

In John 10 Jesus said that he had come to give us abun-dant life: life in all its fullness. And if there is a fuller life for us to live, we need to understand what the implications are for us today. Even the task of the Great Commission can be understood in terms of extending this fullness of life. Or as Vincent Donovan said, The aim of evangelisation can be nothing less than what Israel expected the Messiah to do, i.e. to establish the shalom. Shalom is much more than per-sonal salvation. It is at once peace, integrity, community, harmony, and justice.5

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17

I believe there is a bigger, richer, more beautiful, col-ourful and exciting life that God has purposed for us to live: a vision of establishing Gods shalom in our lives. It goes beyond simply waiting to be with God in glory when we die or even the evangelisation of a lost world, impor-tant as both those are. I believe that God is inviting us into an adventure with him: an abundant life, life in all its fullness, kingdom life. As St Teresa of Avila said, The pay starts in this life, or as Jesus put it, The kingdom of God is at hand (Mark 1:15, esv).

Pie in the sky when you die or cake on your plate while you wait? Of course its both, but I want to focus on the cake. Weve got a piece of cake to be tucking into. Its an exciting life, an adventure. We cant always see the fullness of it, but we are stepping out with God to live a bigger life than just the mundane fripperies of our daily doings life in the Spirit.

* * *

So in this chapter weve seen that God has placed us on earth for a purpose, not just to wait around for heaven. How will Jesus good news affect our lives? We turn to this subject next.

Lord, I want to embrace the fullness of the life that you have called me to. Forgive me for the times where my faith has been a sideline in my life, something confined to Sundays and special times. Please help me to step out with you every day. Amen

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Notes1 Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

(London: Pan Books, 1980).2 Shane Claiborne, Irresistible Revolution (Grand Rapids, MI:

Zondervan, 2006) p. 117.3 Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life (Grand Rapids, MI:

Zondervan, 2006) p.17.4 Viv Thomas, speaking at a St Barnabas weekend away in

January 2010.5 Vincent Donovan, Christianity Rediscovered (Maryknoll, NY:

Orbis Books, 1982) p.192.

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