Thousands made the commute to London's 02 Arena last week for this
year's Hillsong Conference. Senior Pastor and founder of the Hillsong
Church Australia Brian Houston took to the stage to deliver a message on
God's sufficiency and the importance of yielding to the Holy Spirit.
"Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. We need the Holy Spirit, Europe needs the Holy Spirit," he said.
"It's not only in the atmosphere of great services, great conferences
or great churches where we can know the power of the Holy Spirit. You
can know his power in your life. He lives within, he leads us and
empowers us."
Worship was provided by the Hillsong team from their album Glorious
Ruins and also present at the conference was the Archbishop of
Canterbury the Most Reverend Justin Welby.
Houston shared how God's favour has been upon the conference.
"I
genuinely believe that it is God breathed and Heaven sent, otherwise it
couldn't happen. For many years, according to the Australian tourist
blogs, the largest national conference in the country year after year is
not some business conference, not some self-motivational help
conference. It is a church leadership conference about championing the
cause of local churches everywhere. That won't happen if it's not God
breathed and heaven sent," he said.
The day's schedule included a panel discussion on the unity of
churches joined by Brian and Bobbie Houston, Vicar of Holy Trinity
Brompton (HTB) Nicky Gumbel, and Pastor of Hillsong London Gary Clarke.
"When we are united the world will believe. We have to work together,
we have to love one another. We are all in the same business, the
kingdom of God. We are not different businesses," said Gumbel.
He continued: "We want to see all the churches filled. Hillsong
coming to London is brilliant news for London and it's brilliant news
for HTB. It's brilliant because our vision is to see this nation
transformed. What a contribution Hillsong has made to Australia and now
to the whole world. Hillsong is the largest church in London. We can now
boast that there is a church that has 10,000 people. That's amazing
news!"
Towards the latter stages of the gathering , Louie Giglio, Pastor of
Passion City Church in Atlanta challenged visitors to trust God and
believe that He will do great things with the little they have.
He also reminded visitors that in Christ they are made new.
"The
shape of your future is not defined by the condition of your past.
That's a lie. Your past is not more powerful than Jesus. The scope of
your influence is not defined by your present resources," he said.
Judah Smith, lead Pastor of the City Church in Seattle, and final
keynote speaker shared a message about God's love for mankind based on
John 3:16. "Because God does not do love, does not possess love, does
not express love, he is in fact love personified. You can't shake his
love, you can't stop his love, you can't redirect his love, it is always
there."