What Really Is the Presence of the Lord?
I have been bothered by some things that are going on the name of the Lord now for some time. Without specifically naming individuals or locations, I want to just speak from my spirit and let the Holy Spirit work within you about whatʼs on my heart. We have a group of meetings going on across the country with the emphasis to believers that they must be in these meetings to have the best chance of receiving something from the Lord.
One of the writers in the Gospels said people would be looking for the presence of the Lord everywhere and would be drawn in by miracles that pointed to the anointing on individuals. My first red light or warning comes when there is an extreme amount of emphasis on individuals or unique meetings. I have a problem with anything that diverts your sight from Jesus. In the past ten years we have a lot of very serious meetings in which many miracles have happened and have been wonderful displays of what appeared to be the presence of God.
I could name each one of these meetings, and one of them saw more than 1.5 million people attend in a two and a half years, and dramatic crime drops in certain cities occurred. Now that alone indicates that God was present there, but something happened to break down the flow of the Holy Spirit in the meeting area. It is so bad now that the revival is over in one city and the crime statistics are back up and the church is near bankruptcy.
We must ask, was the Bible searched out to see what the standards for the moving of Godʼs Spirit would for a revival to happen in this current time? Do we put a negative emphasis on groups of services when we automatically label them an end-time prophetic movement? I wonder if the Holy Spirit canʼt handle that on His own.
The unique meeting in Lakeland Fla. has a negative cloud over it in the form of some commercialistic activities that are going on. An internet TV group is broadcasting the meetings all over the country and giving intermittent feeds to a national Christian television network. We now have a certain commercial value established with people and churches from all over the country being encouraged to come see God perform.
I wonder what happened to the groups from Kentucky that came to meet God here; isnʼt He in the churches there?
Is there a distortion in our vision here and abandonment of certain responsibilities to our home churches and all that is supposed to be happening at home? Doesnʼt it require us to keep a balanced view of what and who we are and where we really belong? Canʼt all these things come to pass for us when we seek the Lord for His presence where we are instead of going hundreds of miles to get a joy boost, as one Canadian brother commented?
There is in many of our churches in the Philippines and Asia all of these things that are happening in Florida, plus a great deal more because of hours of prayer and fasting for the churches before the meetings began. Some churches now in Asia have been in service for more than a year, and God is miraculously moving just as in the days of the church in Acts.
I believe with all of my heart if things like the meetings in Florida and elsewhere is what we are believing for, then somehow we have lost sight of the person of the Lord and arenʼt really in touch with the last-day outpouring of His Spirit that is about to come to the church.
I watch the things that occur in these meetings, and they are things that have been previously spoken in prophecy or people have had put in their mind in teaching sessions about what God can do. We seriously in some of these things are putting God in a box and are limiting our vision to what He can do by what we can see and conceive of. God is taking a lid off His mercy and grace because it is the last day that we have been preaching about, singing about, praying about, and believing for, and now that He, the Lord, is ready to do this, we have our own conception of what He can do and are telling Him how to do it.
My thoughts are I donʼt care how, Lord; letʼs do it and get it done so I can go home for supper. You see, our definition of revival is that two prophecies in a service happens, we sing in the spirit for a couple of hours, several people fall under the power, a few folks get saved, and we go home. Folkʼs, thatʼs us, not God altogether. Godʼs into reaching countries and continents, not just a couple of people. We have been praying for the Philippines for years, and we are about to see the entire southern portion of the country come into the kingdom of God.
Whatʼs wrong with having prayer meetings go on year round for the country in several towns in each state, and when you travel, if you want to be with people, find out where they are praying in that town and go join them. That is where you will see the Spirit of God show up and miracles happening. Canʼt help it; miracles just occur when the reality in the Holy Spirit is there. Start a prayer group or groups, and start praying the Word of God. Make lists of needs and put them under the Word of God, and see what happens if you have the courage. If you donʼt have any one else to pray for, Deb and I need your prayers.
Pastor Jim
