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We would love to connect you with one of our smaller Connect Groups, or our weekly online prayer event. We’re also available for online / phone call support with pastoral pressures or to chat about your journey of faith and help talk through your questions.

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We love this city. We love the creativity, beauty and diversity that can be found here – from Blackbird Leys to Summertown, from the universities to the MINI Plant. We think everything good points to the Creator who made it, and so we want to celebrate and support what’s good about Oxford when we see it. And where things could be better we want to serve and support those who are working to improve them.

We love helping people grow in their relationship with God and place a high value on worship and discipleship. We also want to help those seeking faith to learn about and meet their Creator through Jesus Christ. We want to provide a great environment for people to connect with God. And we think the best way to do that is with others, which is why we gather together on Sunday mornings and scatter throughout the city in Connect Groups during the week.

We believe the church should make the city a better place to live, and so we support projects and people who are trying to make life here better for everyone - particularly the poor. We’re already involved with serving refugees, helping people gain employment and contributing to the local foodbank, and we’re always looking for more ways to serve.

And we encourage people to use their gifts and passions in a way that brings our city to life – whether in the arts, medicine, education, academia, business or anywhere else. We want to see Oxford flourish, and we want to play our part in that by connecting faith with everyday life.

Each episode, we interview a new guest about their journey of stepping out and following a God inspired calling. There are also some useful application points.

'Stepping Out' is available to listen to on

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0u6CdgISFUGKSXdwUD0i...

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/stepping-out...

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/emmanueloxford/sets/steppin...

Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/emmanuel-church-o...

Podbean: https://emmanuelsteppingout.podbean.com

Lacking our usual Sunday meetings, where such words could be shared and weighed together, we have decided to share a summary of the key words here. Please refer to this resource regularly and let these words motivate your prayer life, pointing you towards the purposes of God in these challenging times.

It is so encouraging to read these words as a collective whole and understand that none of those who brought them were aware of what others had said. This is the first time we have presented them together.

The key themes are:

• Prioritizing prayer and intercession
• Valuing the presence of God and allowing his light to fill our homes / lives

We have listed the key words in date order of when they were received by the church office.

15 March – Time to step out with God (2 Sam 6: 9-15)

I believe God is calling us to ‘step-out’ and mobilise, firstly to expect and see God move faithfully and with more power in our own lives, to see break-through and to ‘arrive’ at a bigger understanding of God’s purposes in our lives. “A comfort zone is a beautiful place but nothing ever grows there”. Secondly, to be part of seeing His presence and blessing made known to our unsaved friends and colleagues; and to seek breakthrough in the lives of our fellow Emmanuelites.

To see real break-through, I believe this means committing to sacrificial prayer and fasting for people in our family we know who might be seeking long-term answers or for salvation of an unsaved friend or relative.Importantly I believe we must be attentive to His voice – we must ‘keep in step’ with Him, not veering to the left or right. We must not depart from His presence (just as the procession into the city kept ‘toe-to-toe’ with the Ark), and so I believe that our corporate worship will be of paramount importance (David danced with all his might) – these times will become times of essential infilling of His Spirit and receiving direction.

25 March – a reminder of prophetic word brought in 2019

I had a picture of a land map, there are no road/path markings on the map, it is completely new and unmarked territory. I feel that God is leading us as a church into new territory:

Isaiah 43:19-21 TPT

[19] I am doing something brand new, something unheard of. Even now it sprouts and grows and matures. Don’t you perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and open up flowing streams in the desert. [20] Wild beasts, jackals, and owls will glorify me. For I supply streams of water in the desert and rivers in the wilderness to satisfy the thirst of my people, my chosen ones, [21] so that you, whom I have shaped and formed for myself, will proclaim my praise. …

The Holy Spirit will lead us and enable us to put markings on the map as we explore and possess this new territory. The markings we make in this season will be used by others in the future to guide them.

26 March – reminder of a word from end of 2019

As you enter the year 2020, it is going to be a decade of revelation. It will be a decade of 2020 vision and people will see me for who I really am. There is going to be a pouring out of my spirit (Ephesians 1:8 - I pray for the spirit of wisdom and revelation that you may know me more). There will be a supernatural opening of eyes as God reveals himself in visions and dreams.

God is doing a Luke 3:4-6: Raising up valleys and lowering the hills and 'all flesh will see the salvation of God'. Everything changes when you see the LORD.

27 March – A call to deeper prayer and intercession

1 Peter 2:9

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

I feel that God is calling us deeper into prayer and intercession, as his royal priesthood. We are all aware of the need for prayer at the moment, for ourselves, for our communities, for our nation, and for the world. God showed me an encouraging image of us as a church stepping in to a "river" of prayer and intercession. I felt God saying that he is inviting us into the flow of heavenly intercession at this time. Sometimes, sitting at home, it can be hard to pray, even though we want to deep down. But I felt God say that there is an invitation into the river, and that it will feel like we're flowing with him and with heaven itself. I feel God wants to free people from the feeling that they ought to pray but then being harsh with themselves if they are struggling. I saw an image by the river of a mother duck ushering the ducklings into the water. I believe there is grace in the Spirit to help people of Emmanuel into a flow of prayer and intercession that we might not have experienced before. I also had a sense of the importance of our intercession at this time...that God is looking for his people to pray, and how essential this is in God's purposes.

28 March – Amazing Grace

We will see His 'amazing grace' in these challenging times. That will look different to different people, but we will see it. A lot of people are feeling stretched right now but His 'amazing grace' isn't.Secondly, He spoke to me about this being a time of MATURING. There is no way round this, only through it. But through it, with Him, we will see a maturing, both individually and in the wider body.

1 April – A call to prayer!

I was reading Revelation 6 and it mentions the prayers of God's people being in a bowl, and later in Revelation, I think it says about those bowls being poured out. And I was thinking, we want those bowls full!

I had a picture of a car’s catalytic converter, a device which reduces toxic gases and pollutants in exhaust fumes, making what comes out cleaner. These converters are worth a lot of money and thieves often steal them from cars to sell. I believe prayer is like a catalytic converter, highly valuable, purifying and detoxifying, and vulnerable to thieves.

This time is to be used to pray BUT we must protect prayer from being stolen away. It is highly valuable and needed!

2 April – Loving the light of the presence of God

Luke 10: 38-42

This is a time to be like Mary, not Martha. This is a time to give more of ourselves to God and to have the sweet Presence of the Holy Spirit flood our hearts, our lives, our families and our homes. It’s a time to be restored in Him (“Though I walk through the

valley of the shadow of death… ...You restore my soul.”) This is a time where, figuratively speaking, we can drink deeply of God’s Spirit and be refreshed. It’s a time where it’s easier than normal to meet with God in a meaningful way.

I saw a picture of houses at night with their lights on. These represent the homes of God’s people during this time where the light of His Presence lives.

3 April – The mess of child birth eclipsed by the joy

Quite a few years ago I had a picture while praying and worshiping of a labour (child birth). I had the impression that we were going to go through a season of hardship and birthing something new in Emmanuel. I felt like it wasn't going to be an easy time, but a dry period of uncertainty and change. But it was also a time that needed to happen in order to birth something beautiful and that it would be worth it. I then felt like God was saying that when this new season/birth came, that it would be something amazing and spectacular that would grasp our attention and love, that we would forget the labour time before this just like a birth. I felt also that in this birthing period, that just like in child birth there is a lot of blood, a lot of mess and sometimes a bit of confusion... but actually just like in childbirth, no one looks at the floor and pool of mess etc, they look at the beautiful new life that has been born, that there was also a bit of an encouragement/ warning, not to look at the mess around this time in Emmanuel. That there would be an outpouring of his spirit and gifts in a new way, but to encourage the birth and new life and not to look at the mess that may come out with it.

Let there be light

I had the phrase "let there be light" on repeat in my head while worshiping. I felt like God was reminding us that this was the first thing we see God say in the Bible Genesis 1:3 and the importance of this phrase "let there be light". I was then reminded of the verse "I am the light of the world, whoever follows me, will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life" John 8:12 and "the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it." John1:5. I then saw various people in Emmanuel lit up like a light bulb from within and just shining out light. Like in a plane as you take off, I then saw more and more people become this light as it got higher, you could then see Emmanuel and other churches that were light. As it went higher, just like in a plane at night time I could see this light coming on in different places and spreading until it was a picture of the world lit up with so many dots of light on it that they started linking up into big blobs of light. All throughout this I had the repeating phrase "let there be light, let there be light." I felt like God was saying that this is a season he is declaring his light over us, Emmanuel, the churches and the world. That although it looks like a season of darkness, it is through this darkness that he is shaking us and bringing his light more than ever before. I feel like just as light and dark are polar opposites, that this is a time of opposites. As the world seems to be in darkness and in a sense slowing down and stopping the normality of life, there is a light in the spiritual realm that is increasing/accelerating that has begun that is bringing light in the darkness and bringing unity. I felt like this might be a new season of his light and of his spirit within the church (both Emmanuel as a whole) and that we should take heart in the fact that even though in the natural life looks pretty bleak and painful, that there is a speeding up that is happening in the spiritual realm that we will start to see through this season and particularly when we start meeting again.

20th April

The wind was blowing and I felt God saying that there is a wind of the Spirit blowing across our nation to stir those with dormant faith. He wants to bring new life. There will be some in this category who, as their faith is re-enlivened, will not know that there are lively, Spirit-filled, family churches like ours. God wants the church to be ready for these people returning to God. God wants to link together the churches and those whose dormant faith has been re-kindled.

25 April - Come let us return to the Lord.

The Lord is looking to see who will return wholeheartedly to him in this time of difficulty, pressure and grief. He is waiting with open arms for all those who choose him.

I had a picture of a huge shepherd’s crook and I saw the Shepherd going to sheep that had wandered away from the main flock and lovingly drawing the sheep back to him. He wasn’t harsh with the sheep’s neck, he was very gentle, there was no sense of dragging the sheep back.

I felt the Lord was saying that there are many whose hearts have become lukewarm or cold that he is wanting to restore in this season. He’s looking for those who will willingly yield to his gentle care.

Isaiah 53:6

Like wayward sheep, we have all wandered astray. Each of us has turned from God’s paths and chosen our own way; even so, Yahweh laid the guilt of our every sin upon him.

(‘Wandered’ here has the implied meaning of self deception)

2 Peter 1:25

You were like sheep that continually wandered away, but now you have returned to the true Shepherd of your lives— the kind Guardian who lovingly watches over your souls.

Again on Wednesday the Lord spoke to me through a photo of a sheep in Tasmania which went missing from a farm 7 years ago and turned up recently, his coat is so heavy having not been cut for so long. He has grown strong under the weight of his coat, he has adapted to the weight but imagine what he’ll feel like when it’s removed? He’ll be skipping across the fields! I felt God saying that he wants to release us from the heavy weights we are carrying (that we don’t even know about because we’ve gotten so used to them and adjusted our lives to manage them!) he wants to release us from self deception and heavy weights so that we can experience being carefree under the careful watch and safety of our heavenly father!

We're passionate about working in partnership with other churches and organisations in our city and nation. The groups we work with include:

Newfrontiers

We’re part of Newfrontiers, a family of around 1000 churches in over 80 different nations. newfrontierstogether.org

Catalyst

Within Newfrontiers we’re part of Catalyst, a network of churches aiming to make disciples in the nations of the world. catalystnetwork.org

Evangelical Alliance

We’re members of the Evangelical Alliance, the umbrella body representing the UK’s two million evangelical Christians. eauk.org

Love Oxford

We’re closely involved with Love Oxford - an annual gathering of churches in Broad Street to worship God and pray for our city. loveoxford.org