Emma Stark: Friends of Father, Son & Holy Spirit (James 2:23)

• But I’m fourth generation preacher, and my father actually is a senior, a theologian, but I married my own William Wallace, my own Braveheart, and I moved to Scotland and so I’ve got all the Celtic, Irish and Scottish warrior vibe going on. And I run a ministry, the Glasgow Prophetic Center, Global Prophetic Alliance. I run the British Isles Council of Prophets, part of the European Council of Prophets. The long and the short of it is, I prophesy over everything that moves, like you know. But I grew up cessationalist, I mean, we did not know who the Holy Spirit was at all.

00:41 - It was Father, Son and Holy Scriptures, amen. So we have a rooting of our love of the Word of God. And then at 18, I met the Spirit, I’m now in my mid-forties, and I’m like, “Oh, there’s a Spirit?” And that was a total shock. So we married Word in Spirit and have built on those foundations, but a rich history in church and theology and loving church, not always liking her, but certainly loving church and growing as a leader of the prophetic, certainly in the continent of Europe and beyond. - How did you get connected with Christian International? - Oh, I went to a training school that Dr.

Sharon Stone went to, 01:30 - and that was, oh, decades ago now. And she really took me under her wing. And, of course, we were ordained clergy through Christian International with Tom and Jane Hamon, and Bishop Bill Hamon, and all the the godfathers of the prophetic, if I can call them that respectfully. And she just did a training course, and she has just been a star in nurturing me over the years. She actually is still one of my trustees to this day. - Amen. - Yeah, we love Jane. We love Tom Hamon and Sharon Stone, of course, and Greg Black. They’ve been wonderful. They’ve been here many times.

02:08 - But I just think it’s interesting that you said that your background was basically cessationism, right? You love the Holy Scriptures and it’s very important that we have a foundation of the Word, but how did you transition? I know you said you met the Holy Spirit at 18. How did you transition into, you know, operating in a revelation and a fullness of Holy Spirit? Because it’s not that difficult, is it? - No, it’s not. I mean, I would have seen things as a child. That sounds a bit odd, but I grew up, it was quite scary initially until you know what you’re dealing with. I would see faces, I would see faces in walls. I didn’t know they were angels or demons.

02:48 - How would you without a background in that? And I would say to my dad, “Dad, dad, I think so-and-so is gonna be shot, “or the phone’s gonna go, “and there’s gonna be an IRA bomb here.” And, of course, my dad would have to be the first responder, as a member of the clergy. And he didn’t say to me that was odd. I thought everybody could do that. It wasn’t until I, it was probably 1998, I left home. I was at university. I was doing my first degree and the Toronto Blessing exploded. And I saw John Wimber preach. And I mean, I was a wee slip of a thing, had no idea who he was at that point. I would have had no history with that.

03:30 - He started prophesying, and I’m like, I can do that. What is that called? I’ve never seen anybody else do that. You know, what is that? And he must’ve been quite infirm at the time, but I mean, to me, I simply had no idea who he was. And I’d grown up in this rural idyll in Northern Ireland. So there wasn’t an internet to know what he was carrying.

03:56 - And so I went searching and discovered that it was called prophecy, which was a complete shock to me ‘cause I thought that had died out in the Bible. And I begged God to baptize me with his Spirit. And I fell on the floor in a student university meeting, Christian meeting, only students round about me and went straight into this open vision and spoke in tongues, laughed for about 90 minutes and thought everybody would be really delighted (laughs). I felt like, oh, you know, we’ve all done that. Here’s the rural backwater Irish girl catching up.

04:44 - Little did I know, I’d offended half of them. I thought they’d be pleased. So it was incredibly innocent and naive those days, but it was that sense of, well, God’s my friend. God’s my friend. So my assumption is that His Spirit’s gonna be my friend, too. And Jesus is my friend as well. If I discover he’s part of the Godhead, well, I’m just gonna chat away to Him. And I think one of the major issues is we are far too formal with God. - Absolutely. - It’s a major issue that we have.

05:23 - Now does God like protocol? Oh yes. You know, there’s only one way. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. The protocol of coming through Jesus, the protocol of “Enter His courts with thanksgiving,” you daren’t disobey that protocol, or the protocol of “Come boldly before the throne.” But I think God is not as formal as we make out. He’s a family God. He’s much more chatty. And so for me, it’s like, God, do you like these shoes? “Let’s go shoe shopping.” And then God will say, “Let me show you my shoes.

” 05:57 - “I’m like, God, you wear shoes, I love that.” (Peter laughs) - Hallelujah. - And so everything becomes this friendship adventure, where I’m not just going (sings), waiting for revelation to land in my lap. I’m looking for this informal, family-orientated, chatty conversation with the God who adores me, who I’m in love with. And I think that should demystify revelation right there. - It’s interesting that you bring up John Wimber because as a musician, I was drawn to the music that the Vineyard was putting out early, and I heard the expression “first person worship.

” 06:39 - So part of that movement was when the song started singing to God, “You are the air I breathe, my daily bread.” There was one song by David Ruass, who was part of Wimber’s group there, And it’s “Let me know the kisses of your mouth. “Let me feel your warm embrace.” And some churches got really offended and called it bedroom music, and that doesn’t belong in the church. And you can probably defend it to some degree that they thought the Fear of the Lord meant that God is really serious and that this has to be taken serious. It’s a life or death matter. It’s heaven or hell. And He doesn’t wanna be your pal because He’s gotta correct you.

07:17 - But it’s a shame that they missed the Father Abba side of God. And it’s so cool that the music helped usher it into people who probably were still a little afraid that I can’t get too chummy with God, because that will look disrespectful to Him. I remember at the Promise Keeper meeting in the early nineties, there was a lot of people that came from a similar background as yours. Didn’t think that that was okay, but the music was so powerful, they were singing some of those songs that you couldn’t help but… 25,000 guys all singing out loud together about loving the Lord, not singing about Him, but singing of their love for Him.

07:56 - There was an anointing that just softened people. You could see their arms going up, tears coming down their face. So I really think he doesn’t get as much credit as he should, John Wimber, not that he wanted it, for having such a big hand in helping us see Abba because of the movement he led. - Do you not think sometimes that God is lonely? I think sometimes God is lonely. I think he’s starved of friendship. - [Trisha and Peter] Yeah. - That would be my take on it. That actually, is it only three people in scripture get called a friend of God? And friends just get to be themselves with each other.

08:35 - And so my whole thinking there is, “Well, God, are you just able to be yourself with me?” Do I treat you like a friend? Or do I treat you to and formally, do I treat you like a vending machine in the sky? Are there moments where on our face in reverential Holy Fear and wonder, you better believe we are being burned by the righteous justice and the purity of the Fire of God. But actually, mostly he’s looking for friends who He can share the secrets of his heart with. - Well, people say that verse said it’s a terrible thing to fall in the hands of an angry God. So He just got this image of an angry father who’s always ready to correct you for your mistakes. But then when you have children and they call you, unsolicited for no reason, other than to get your opinion about something, you’re bouncing off the walls happy because they could be going on Google or doing all these other things.

09:34 - And that’s how He looks at us when he’s praised. “They think I have a good opinion about this. “They’re asking me for answers.” - This morning, when I woke up, I was coming out of my sleep and I was eating apples and I thought, “Oh wow, I said, “I really, really would love to have apples right now.” And I’m eating it. And it was so refreshing and so delicious. And I said, “Oh man, I wish they were in season.

” 10:02 - And the Lord said, “Oh no, this is the season.” He said, “I am refreshing my people. There’s a refreshing.” He said, “My breath is being released “over my body of refreshing.” Even with the turmoil, what’s happening, it was so palatable, so tangible. And I smelt apple. So I smelt His breath this morning. I remember sitting up thinking, “Was I eating apples?” You know, when I was coming out of it. But that’s the thing about being a friend of God, how He responds to us and how He just speaks to us because, you know, needless to say, we’re troubled over what’s been happening. And I just been really praying. We did prayer journeys last night.

10:43 - Went to all the different gates and prayed and prophesied at communion. But this morning He was feeding me apples. - Amen. - I love that. - And so it was just beautiful but I felt so refreshed and it was just invigorating. So anyway, He wants to get so personal with us. - Yes, and of course you’re, I mean, you’re quoting to us Song of Songs where God’s breath is described as being fragrant with green apples. - Amen.

11:15 - - And of course, you’re leading to that scripture there, that actually we need to be so spiritually sensitized to our best friend. When He breathes, we should smell green apples because that’s what His breath smells like. So, of course, that’s the first thing Adam and Eve smelled, isn’t it, why? ‘Cause God’s (exhales) right into their mouth. So their nostrils are full of this smell of green apples. So every apple thereafter is a trigger memory of what God is like. Or Psalm 45, Jesus smells like myrrh and aloes and cassia. Jesus smells a little bit like Christmas. (Peter laughs) and that’s beautiful, isn’t it? That we want to be that sensitized to Him, that we can smell the difference between Jesus and smell the difference between the Father, or we can feel the vibrations of a hovering Holy Spirit and know which of the Trinity we’re interacting with. .