CAILIN LEACOCK
Founder I Director
Hi, I'm Cailin.
Welcome to the Firstlove Movement.
FirstLove was born out of two things
• My own personal passion and love for the Word of God.
• A small little rebuke from the Lord (if I can be honest)
A few years ago, as one does at the end of a season and in preparation for the next, I was taking some time to reminisce, reflect, and really seek God’s heart about what it is He wanted for me going into a new year. He lead me to a verse in the book of Revelation and at first I’m sure you could almost see the heart emotions in my eyes :
“I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.”
Revelation 2:2-3
Yes Lord - you know me so well! I remember having a tear in my eye as I was reminded that He sees and He knows. My endurance, my hard work, my perseverance - it is not in vain! However, I then proceeded to read the next verse…
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"Yet I hold this against you: you have forsaken the love you had first."
Revelation 2.4
Have you ever had a moment where it all goes silent?
You could have probably cut through my conviction with a knife. What had been my initial excitement at God’s praise for me, quickly turned into a genuine repentance from me, because I was reading about myself!
As a Christian, the thought of having forsaken God probably seems shocking and unimaginable. We would never intentionally forsake God, but if we’re honest, we tend to unintentionally forget Him.
I hadn’t really forsaken God. I love Him so much. I have loved Him all of my life.
The desire of my heart is that I would live for Him completely all the days of my life - I would do anything for Him. But I knew in that moment that there was way more depth to the truth that God was trying to get me to understand.
I love Him. I love His house. I love building His house. I love engaging in activities that honour and bring glory to the Lord. I love doing things for the Lord, keeping busy for Him. But my “works” had outweighed my worship and devotion of the person of Jesus. How can I be so busy for Him and yet not prioritize cultivating an intimate relationship with Him and simply engaging in His presence?
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If I was to truly play my part in helping a lost world remember God, I had better remember Him myself…
And so FirstLove was birthed!
At FirstLove, we are passionate about reclaiming and cultivating a passion for the Word of God in people’s lives. These are two words I really felt God speak to me about: cultivate and reclaim
CULTIVATE
To cultivate speaks of creating an environment in which something can grow and develop. This can often take a lot of hard work. To reclaim is to recover or to bring back. I felt the Holy Spirit talk to me specifically about these two words in relation to two “types” of people. There are some for who the Word of God is new and fresh in your life and you are in a season of cultivating. Similar to how Jesus told the parable of the Sower in the book of Luke chapter eight - the seed of the Word has fallen into your heart, and it is now your responsibility to cultivate it, to create a good environment for the Word to grow and bear fruit and be everything that it ought to be in your life.
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RECLAIM
For others, you have been around the block a bit, and the Word of God has become a little distant for you. You have lost that first love; the fervent passion, joy and desire of diving into God’s Word and if you can be honest, it seems a little boring and irrelevant. The challenge in this is to reclaim what the enemy is trying to take from you; take back what has been stolen and restore the love that you had for God at first.
This is not a place of judgement or condemnation. Whatever group you may find yourself in, I pray that FirstLove would be a community where you can establish, awaken and ignite an insatiable hunger and passion for the Word of God. I pray that FirstLove would be a safe community for you where you feel supported, prayed for and loved on. I pray that FirstLove would do just that, awaken your heart once again to come back to your first love, Jesus Christ.
With Love, Cailin.
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