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."
