Repotted

In October 2018, Mark Iles came to Bognor Vineyard and shared what he sensed God was saying to the church. Here is a condensed version of one of the most enduring images of his time with us:

I had a picture of a healthy plant that was completely pot-bound - there’s so much root in there, there’s no earth. That is a sign of success, growth, and fruitfulness. But once a plant has become pot-bound it can’t grow anymore and is quite restricted. What a gardener will do is he will find a bigger pot with fresh earth and replant it very gently. I have a sense that’s the season what God is doing to you. There is going to be a repotting. God is going to take you into a bigger place. And I think for me this is about changing your mindsets. This is about understanding what is our inheritance in Bognor and regions around. I think this is recognising that God has bigger plans for you than you thought before.

I've recently returned to this word as we enter into autumn. We’re like plants that need the ongoing nourishment of the Word of God and prayer and the weeding out of sins that choke the life out of us. But for us to experience more growth, we also need to be repotted - to recognise and grow into the plans he has for us outside of our own limited mindsets. We received multiple prophetic words from May through July encouraging us to depend totally on God and be brave and courageous, believing he will do so much more than we can imagine. Are we willing to give up our security about who we are and what we’re about?

In the book of Acts, we see a church that was tremendously brave and courageous and saw God do amazing things as they depended totally on the Holy Spirit. But they had to give up their security about who they were and what they were about in so many ways: their safety and security (due to persecution and generosity), their identity (no longer in Jewish law, no longer excluding Gentiles), and their future hope in Jesus’ kingdom (not a political kingdom). On Sunday, (listen here)we will begin a new series on the book of Acts, exploring how these repotted people changed the world.