The Spirit of Australia - KRock Music Festival (Melbourne)

Read Luke 23:1 - John 4:54

They say Qantas is the "spirit of Australia" but let me say that Australia is the land of the Holy Spirit! Boom! ;) It's been a great weekend. I was down in Melbourne for a Korean Music festival held by Mikkeli entertainment. The main act was an upcoming Rock band called "Nia" (which means perfection in greek...I
think) and also featuring Jayesslee. But it's clear that the majority of the fans were there to see the JSLEE.

I'll be recapping my weekend this post and not so much sharing "revelations" I received from the text so yea enjoy!

It was quite the experience. I had to book myself into a backpackers hotel due to budget constraints with the entertainment company but found myself sleeping on the floor of JSLEE and NIA's apartment because I was so goneskies by the end of the night(s). Anyway the backpackers hotel was called Nomads Industry on A'beckett St in the heart of Melbourne CBD, which I must add is sooo much cooler and chillax than Sydney CBD. They have hook turns, trams and they like the colour green on their buildings. My roomies were three irish blokes straight outta high school wanting to find work here in Aus. Their names were Robin, Olle and some other guy (couldnt really understand their accents). But they spent more time acquainting themselves with my suit case than me which is kinda sad. I wanted to pray for them before I left but everytime I walked in they were always sleeping! 

The gig was held on Swanston St in a small yet intimate church which seats approx. 700ppl. The concert was a success with amateur bands curtain raising the event in a battle of the bands format. The MC's were pretty good. JSLEE performed, captured the audience with their original "failure in disguise" and many other great songs such as Bruno Mars' "the way you are." The setup and the backline wasn't that great seeing as it was held in a church. The foldbacks were outdated but JSLEE did very well considering the equipment to their avail. We went shopping the other day at ICONS music shop in west ryde and now have our eyes set on a pair of in-ear monitors to avoid that mess in the future should they need it. NIA came out and rocked the house. Lead singer was good but I cant really tell who sings good or bad. One thing I do know is drums and yea the drummer was solid. Well with Rock, you can't really go wrong. You just stay solid, keep the backbeat and thrash the kit. The drummers in the battle of the bands were so wimpy. I think they were jazz drummers - all caught up in doing these double stroke fills which sounded empty cos the kit wasn't miced up. Man up and hit the drums I say. But yea in saying that I do wanna learn jazz. hohoho. ;)

I've managed to keep up to date with my daily qt's but didn't have the capacity to update. One occasion, I was reading my bible at my hostel when this tall, middle aged man walks up to me and says "what you got there?" and I sheepishly said flicking through the pages "the bible..." and then he sits down and introduces himself. Turns out he's a childrens pastor at the local church but works part time as a courier and was delivering mail when he saw me. I would like to say, he then proceeded to give me the gloriest prophesy ever but he didn't. haha! We just chatted, blessed each other, he gave me some advice and then he went on his way. But I've come to learn that I need to be more bold with the power of the gospel that is in my hands! I made a promise to myself that if someone asks me that question again I'm going to lift the bible high up to the heavens and declare the goodness of Gods word....Nah just joking. But really we should be more confident and bold with the power the gospel contains. Romans 1:16 says "I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the POWER of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the jew then for the gentile".

I've also been hearing and fb seeing great outpourings God is doing in our mist right now. I was speaking to my good friend sung at mcdonalds last night after basketball and WOW it is srsly praise God. Testimony after testimony. God is clearly at work. Thank you Jesus!!! One thing I felt God pressing on my heart however is unity and to be careful of pride. This is clearly God at work using us broken people to partner in what He is doing. We are merely his tools. He does not have a "favourite" tool. That is not God. He wants to use everybody. That includes us all. And that includes the churches in Sydney. I feel like, for this to be fully blown out we need to start getting other churches involved. I feel like there are churches on the sideline seeing this and becoming discouraged because its not happening to them. I also feel like people need to run their own races. The key is faith. Faith that God has a great plan and purpose for you also. One common and dirty lie the enemy uses is that he often takes what God is doing and twists it so you will be discouraged. For example he takes the outpouring of God right now and twists it to whisper lies that "because you're not experincing these things that God isn't going to use you". That's baloney and you need to rebuke that straight up and bind it in Jesus name. God has plans to prosper you. He has plans to prosper this city and nation for His glory. It is no longer "make like a tree and leave" but "make like a tree and be planted by streams of living water!"