Many evangelical churches and most pentecostal or charismatic churches you go into today, raise their hands in worship. Like everything else in Christendom, there can be the mechanical act of doing something because it is supposed to be done, or there can be the true living dynamic response to the very presence of the Living God. Every single aspect of the natural worship of Christianity can be reduced to some dusty empty ritual that has long since replaced the living reality of God’s manifest presence. It is interesting when you watch secular concerts that you see arms aloft all over the stadium or concert hall, swaying to the rhythm of the song. Good music entertains us and can move us, Gods manifest presence invades every part of who we are and never leaves us the same. It creates in us a thirst that can never be quenched by anything other than His presence. It tears down and builds up, it raises us up from the dark valley floor to the lofty heights of His glory.
There is the presence of God to be found in glorious, enthusiastic and energetic worship, the kind of worship that lifts your spirit. It can lift up the head and invigorate the heart and fill you full of joy and you leave strengthened. This is good worship. Yet there is another kind of presence of God in worship, the kind of presence that there seems to be such a famine of throughout the land. The first kind of presence we spoke of lifts your heart, the second kind of presence invades every part of who you are. It falls from heaven like a heavy dew, heads are lowered and hands are raised. All becomes quiet, one barely breathes as the Spirit of God slowly penetrates our very being and the ground upon which we stand becomes Holy ground. It saturates our very DNA.
The first kind of presence uplifts us, the second changes us fundamentally. As living waters pour into us then it rises up like a great river that is so full that it overflows its banks. The banks themselves begin to crumble and fall into this river of pure life as it swells up and floods every part of who we are. The landscape is being changed by this flood, the very topography of our lives is being altered by its powers and everything that is not securely rooted to Godly foundations are simply swept away. Changed forever. And when the flood recedes we are left with a glorious afterglow. As the deer pants for the water-brooks, I wonder, do our hearts pant after this kind of encounter.
The Lord Himself does not need professional worship teams. He does not need people to encourage us to stand up, jump up and down and raise our hands. In the Welsh revival two young women singing either acapella or simply backed by a piano typically sang “Here is love, vast as the ocean.” And there was love, in the very midst of them, vast as the ocean, flooding the hearts and minds of all who attended. Brothers and sisters, in all our modernity, what have we lost? In the program of churches and the professional class of worshiper leaders and pastors we have lost the simplicity of it all. And in the losing of it we now have to entertain the people. Spirit led worship is exactly that, it is Spirit led.
In work we have a routine. In life we have a routine. Prisoners in prison have a routine. Oftentimes we are slaves to the routine, it is what gets us through life. Yet, there is nothing routine about the Holy Spirit of the Living God. He is dynamic and you can never know what way the wind will blow next. Have we sold our souls for a routine? Routine in the home, routine at work, routine at church. Routine people do not change the world. Routine people do not do wage war on the battle-fields of life. The Spirit of God is dynamic and those filled with His “dynamis,” change the environment around them because the environment inside them has been filled to capacity and is overflowing its banks. Lord fill us again to overflowing with the kind of presence that invades every part of who we are.
This was a song that the Lord laid on my heart as I walked and pondered our upcoming meetings in Oklahoma in July. My dear sister Mary Greig wrote the melody and sung the song beautifully. May this song represent your heart’s cry to the Lord .
Faith is the least self-regarding of the virtues. It is by its very nature scarcely conscious of its own existence. Like the eye that sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the Object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. While we are looking at God, we do not see ourselves-blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ, the very things he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him. It will be God working in him to will and to do ( see Philippians 2:13) (Tozer)
Despite the vastness of the universe, we know that the Lord holds it all in the hollow of His hand. Our minds simply cannot conceive of the vastness of our God. How can it be possible for mere humans to know God? And what is this ” knowing?” The Scriptures in Ephesians three are not saying that we can know about Him, it is saying that we can know Him and the fullness of Him. As I read Ephesian’s three I penned the song/poem below. To know God is the most intimate of terms. The Scriptures tell us that Joseph did not ” know” Mary until after Jesus was born. Of course this was a reference to physical intimacy, which of course makes the husband and the wife ” one flesh.” This coming together is of course a sacred thing and this one flesh is a mysterious thing. Now consider the even deeper aspect of this ” knowing.” The spiritual knowing is something very mysterious.
To know and be filled with the ” fullness of God,” is a supernatural thing. There is nothing physical about it, it is above and beyond that. So one may ask this very legitimate question of all who profess to be Christians ” Do you ” know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Eph 3:19) One must ” know,” the love of Christ, not know about it ( because the scriptures say it passes knowledge) if one is to be filled with the ” fullness of God.” This is the Christian man or woman. The man or the woman who can say ” For we do not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of His majesty( 2 Pet 1:16)
To know the unknowable you
Is all I want to do
To plunge the depths of your love
Is to soar in the heavens above
Oh to know what cannot be known
It to kneel before your throne
Lord have you seen my tears?
Can’t you see I’m drowning in my fears?
I try to run but there’s no where left to hide
I fall to my knees because I’m dying here inside
I lift my eyes and there’s darkness all around
I try to get up but I fall back to the ground
I try to scream but I cannot make a sound
I’m lost and alone and I never shall be found
Reach down and touch me Lord wont you please?
For if you don’t I’ll die here on my knees
My heart is broken and has spilled out all my love
My only hope is a touch from up above
Can the rain fall from cloudless skies
Can your tears fall from hardened eyes
I cried out to the Lord , in my time of need
I prayed for the rain, my soul to feed
And my God, who is never far away
Opened up His heart as He listened to me pray
And from heaven on high He sent down the rain
There’s a river of grace that’s gonna wash away the pain
And out of my heart flows a river so deep
My once dry eyes they now continually weep
And everywhere the river flows there’s grace from above
And everyone it touches they are filled with His love
This rain that falls , it falls from endless blue skies
It fills my empty heart and falls down from my eyes
The Lord Himself sent down the rain from above
And now the cloudless skies are filled with clouds of His love
So if it’s rain your looking for, this moment, today
Wont you fall down on your knees and cry out and pray
The Lord of every rain drop that falls down from above
Will sweep you down the river to an ocean of love
This ocean is boundless, its forever and a day
And in this sea of beauty you will hear the Lord say
I am the Father’s tears that was shed from above
And I will carry you home across this ocean of love
Hi saints, if you have been coming to this site for any length of time you will know that I have two passions. One is the presence and the glory of God, and the other is poetry which I write when I feel moved of the Lord. I have just published a book called ” A poem for every Psalm” which combines these passions. The first part of the book is every Psalm followed by a poem the Lord gave me and asked me to write. The second part of the book speaks to the presence of the Lord . You can find this book here…………. https://www.createspace.com/3900708
A sister in Christ asked me to write a poem about a mothers loss when losing her child. This was an adult child and one can imagine the pain, perhaps you may have experienced it yourself? I have buried a son so I know something of the pain of losing a child………bro Frank
Weariness is a dreadful thing. The definition of weariness is……..
“physically or mentally fatigued, having one’s interest, forbearance, or indulgence worn out.”
Oftentimes Christians do not want to admit to weariness. It may seem like a lack of faith to acknowledge one’s weariness. Of course this is not the case. Every Christian will walk through all the seasons of life and will experience every facet of life, he will be immune from none. Yet, as in all things, we are not defined by one season of our lives, nor are we defined by individual incidents in our lives, aren’t you glad about that? We shall be known by the thrust of our lives. It’s not about falling down, you will fall down, it’s about getting back up. Who amongst you believe that you will not fall down in this life? Idealists and younger Christians are particularly vulnerable when they fall. It’s a very humbling thing to fall down. Gal 6:9-10………..
This link http://www.box.com/shared/6dc0jj6eao is a recording made in 2010 from a Tuesday night prayer meeting that we have. It explores the meaning of justice, what does it mean, what does it take to forgive our enemies? How many times? Should we pursue justice? Deep questions, hard answers and lessons. The first 30 minutes is the message.
A Call To The Remnant 