Many times I have heard fellow believers speaking on seeking after God almost like a great adventure, as if He is lost and we have to find Him ,they seek him out in revival meetings, in churches focusing on special speakers, they seek Him out in coliseums and football fields, and I wonder, why isn’t He at home? Why is He not being found in our church, in our town, in our circumstances? Why do we have to leave and find him elsewhere? Hmm. Good question.
I remember the teens coming back from camp and from weekend conferences, and being so intensely fired up that you would think someone lit them up with matches, but over time, the zeal dwindled down to day to day, and sometimes they even completely walked away.. I remember how their zeal re- stoked the church, excited voices and excited emotions mingled in with corporate praise and lit a room with expectation.. ah that’s the word, EXPECTATION.
We have let our expectations of God, become traditions of man, hunny they aren’t even in the same realm! We have allowed agenda and bulletins and programs surpass Presence. We watch our watches and the minute it passes 20 minutes of praise and worship( or less) we shuffle our Bible into place and push the pulpit forward. I am not saying its wrong to have the Word of God, but the Word should be enhancing the praise and visa versa, but, in most cases we have become so stagnantly committed to program that we entirely dismiss further pursuing presence. Can someone Please tell me why that is?
I can tell you what I believe it is, but your not gonna like it. I believe we think that Gods spirit needs our help. We believe that if we don’t fill those moments with our words God won’t be known. We believe that what we have prepared and felt from God wont be told to others if we let Go and let him take over, And yet we profess to believe his Spirit can convict , change, renew, awaken and modify above and beyond anything we can do. So, which is it? Can God handle service on His own, or does he need us? Mind you, I am not saying the Word of God is not important or relevant,( Gods Word is pivotal!) but what I am saying is, His words can and should mingle with presence, and perhaps, mind you , just perhaps, He will STILL speak them without them being from the pulpit.
Expectancy- that’s a beautiful word, indeed a beautiful expression of what our hearts should be doing when we gather together in praise, Why have we stepped away from it?
I believe over all, we have let agenda and time allotments, and programs rule our thinking. We have in essence tied our own hands with normality and are no longer looking for an outpouring or rejuvenation. While balance is important in the body, so is comprehending that God in all ways and by all means should be Glorified. That his name and exalting him should never take a back seat to a bulletin, nor to hand shaking and pot luck.
We have a lot of times made church far more of a social hour, and a get together than a place to corporately raise God in praise. Which explains why we love concerts and conferences and retreats so much, it takes us from standard church as usual, and puts us into an air of expectancy, we go there desiring a shift and change in our lives,
And oft times we do find it there. What a shame ! Because in truth we should be finding it, well, everywhere. But Particularly in our church, and I cannot fathom why we can turn up the music full blast in our cars and homes and dance like idiots to footloose, or scream bloody murder to a football hero who just fumbled in outfield, and we cannot let go and let God ROCK HIS HOUSE> His earthly house, his portable house and any other house God wants to rock.mmm, mmm, mmm, TRUTH.
I want to challenge you saints, you ministers of God, set the atmosphere for expectancy. Change your agendas, change your programs, change you Mind. Who said it had to be church as usual? Haven’t you yourself been craving more? Well commit to more!
Set the air of your church by putting the fragrance of praise in the air before the doors to the sanctuary are opened, have the worship teams pray and get in the spirit before their feet hit the floors of the stage, have the atmosphere around them as welcoming to the spirit and untie their hands so they can move with where God is going. Allow your church to have a better understanding of corporate praise by setting their minds to it, inform them of changes and begin to move away from stoic programming and catapulting into a Presence first mentality.- its not hard to wrap your minds around these theories, when you consider this thought, David wasn’t a man after Gods heart because of anything he did to impress God,( we tend to think temples, and services, and alters and ceremonies are impressive) the temples didn’t thrill God, the stoic priests did not charm his ears, but David laying himself entirely real, entirely bare, dancing and singing, and Loving God full throttle,now that got Gods attention!
Beloved heaven wont be about sermons laced with a thousand rabbit trailed stories,(and FYI we wont enlighten God with what we disclose about him up there,he not only wrote the book HE IS THE BOOK) but we WILL be praising Him ( Yeah, even the ones with bolders weighing ten tons who cant manage to lift a hand in praise, yep, you guys will be waving those hands in the air and praising like you just don’t care- up there!) So I say we might as well get the hang of it now, LET Go, Let God be the most exciting thing you have experienced in Church and in life, because,( Hellllloooooo) HE IS the most exciting thing you can experience.
Beautiful father God take out my man agendas, and my small thinking and expand my territories and my tents of praise- because I want to experience you God, I want to undo my sandals and walk on Holy ground, I want to walk in your midst until your face is shining off me, I want to radiate, I want to dance like David, I want to sing til' my throat gets scratchy,( and I get that real cool Carly Simmon voice) I want to give you Glory Lord, because YOUR worthy ! AMEN.
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