No worship or praise to the Lord is ever wasted; however, when a service does not have clear-cut guidance, then everyone is going in his own direction, and that is a sure guarantee that nothing will happen in the service. Every minute should count. Every moment should be effective in going some place in the Lord.
We concentrate on the procedures, on the praise, on exhorting one another, but all that God is really asking us to do is to open up to an awareness of Him.
A service can be very intense, but that intensity must be focused on the Lord.
When we prophesy, it must not only be with a lot of force, but with an awareness that this is a word from the Lord.
In our worship, there must be a focusing on the Lord; we are loving Him, and He is very real to us. He is demanding that we have a greater awareness of Him.
The Lord has been cautioning us about falling into a rut or a form. This has to be a walk with God. It is not a new liturgy or a new form of service that will interest young people, because they cannot be reached by the old traditional methods.
We are not interested in methods, gimmicks, rituals, or forms of praise and worship. What we are concerned about is this: Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord. Hosea 6:3a.
Unless we come to know Him, and we see Him with the eyes of our spirits, and He is very real to us, we are missing a walk with Him.
A walk is not going in a circle. We must eliminate the merry-go-round type of service that leaves us in the same place we started. We ought to pray to love the Lord so much and be so focused on Him that we can almost lose sight of everything else. We are not approaching a service correctly if we come primarily for a blessing or for a deliverance, if we come to see what the Lord will do or to experience the ecstatic feeling of prophesying or the glow of worship.
I do not worship to feel a glow. I want to feel that I am standing in His presence and adoring Him. I ask for nothing else. I want to have an awareness of Him and to concentrate on Him. That is what a walk with God is all about. If we are walking, we are going some place. What is the goal? What is the objective?
Is it to survive? That is not our goal!
We want to walk in something greater than has ever been walked in before, but we will not do so if that is the only goal we have. The only way we will be what God wants us to be is that we realize that the walk takes us into His presence.
The word “Parousia” means “His presence.” In King James it is translated, “His coming.” The Scripture talks about the Parousia, the presence of the Lord, as though it is an all-pervading thing for His people. During that time there will be tribulation and judgments. People will even pray for the rocks to fall on them to hide them from the face of God (Revelation 6:16). The presence of the Lord will only be felt by those people who are dedicated to focus on it and to develop an awareness of it.
Even though satanic forces, principalities and powers, and antichrists are raging round about them, they see only one thing: they see the Lord. They are focused on Him.
Our purpose is not starting businesses. It is not survival or storage. It is not even psalms, hymns, and prophecies. These are all by-products and effects that are incidental.
The goal is that we develop an awareness of Him; that is done by faith. Nothing will happen spontaneously. That is what is wrong with the rapture theory that involves just waiting for the Lord to blow a trumpet and catch the saints out of this present mess. In the meantime they are simply waiting. Hebrews 9:28 tells us, … unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. They are looking for Him. There is an awareness. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself (in everything he does) … 1 John 3:3.
Why are we trying to be sanctified and purified? It is for a purpose.
When a girl is getting ready for a date, she takes a bath, puts on her best clothes, and fixes her hair. She wants to smell as sweet as a rose. Why? She is meeting the fellow who she hopes will ask her a certain very important question.
We are looking for the Lord like the bride who has made herself ready. To her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, the righteousness of the saints (Revelation 19:8).
The fine linen is not just to show off. We want to be righteous because we want to please Him. We want to stand before Him; therefore, we purify ourselves. With all our hearts we want to be the bride of Jesus Christ.
We still have hang-ups and problems that frustrate us with their persistence. Let us go on and do what we are supposed to do. Some trees drop their leaves in the fall of the year, yet a few of their leaves always hang on, refusing to come off. We might wonder why they do not let go, for they are dead. We feel the same way about our faults. We wonder how long the old dead things will persist in our lives.
We walk with the Lord not just to get rid of the old dead leaves. We seek a contact with Him, an awareness of Him, a walk with Him. What will be the result? When the blessed Spirit begins to flow through us, just as the sap flows through the tree, a little bud forms, shoving off the old leaf. Down it comes, without anyone picking it off.
When you have a sticky problem that hangs on, you do not need to concentrate on the negative aspect of your deliverance.
Take the positive approach. Come and seek the Lord. Cry unto Him. Develop that awareness. Stand in His presence. Then when you look around, you will be surprised how much of the old has fallen away.
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory … 2 Corinthians 3:18. What happened to the old problems? They disappeared because we followed on to know the Lord. He met our hearts, and we had a revelation of Him, and it changed us. We did not have to worry about the negative side of it. We concentrate on the positive aspect, and the negative side takes care of itself.
Come to the service determined to meet the Lord. Worship the Lord and focus on Him. If you have just that one little moment when He becomes real to you in some way and completely overwhelms you, that will be the meeting He is seeking.
After a while you will be able to practice His presence in an even greater way, for the Parousia does not happen spontaneously.
The presence of the Lord will be manifested to those who believe for it, who focus on it, who want it.
In that day they will say, “He is in the desert. He is in the inner chamber. We must go find the Lord.”
The Lord said not to follow such sayings because as the lightning flashes from the east to the west, so will be the Parousia (Matthew 24:26, 27). Just be aware. Be open to it.
Will everyone see it? No.
Will everyone experience it? No.
Only the ones who have faith for it will experience it. Determine to be one of them. We are on the threshold of this event even now.
There is a word translated “appearing” which is not Parousia or apocalypse, not the great unfolding revelation of the Lord in the final event. It speaks of frequent times when He is going to appear. I think the Lord is trying to bring us to the place where we will come to the church services waiting for the Lord to appear. It may seem fanatical, but whether we see Him with a natural eye or with our spirits, He will be real to us.
It must be firmly planted in your mind and spirit to believe for a revelation of the Lord to your heart. He Himself may choose the way that He appears to you, but come to meet the Lord, look for Him, really desire to touch Him.
Come with the desire in your heart to focus on the Lord. Set everything else aside and focus on the Lord. You do not do this independently; the whole Body should enter in with mutual faith.
I believe the Lord could actually appear and stand in a service, ministering and speaking to the people. Very shortly it will take place.
The Lord shall stand before His army which is exceedingly great. He will lead His army and make known His words. This is the prophecy of Joel 2:11.
When prophecy comes, it must not be an exhortation, telling everyone to get busy and praise the Lord. Exhortation is good, but we can have too much of it. Maybe you need a little, but you do not want only salads in a meal.
That old style exhortation will give way to just standing before the Lord and prophesying things into being. You will loose and you will bind as you move in the Spirit of the Lord. Would you like to have a meeting like that? You can have it.
What would happen if the Lord really manifested Himself? What happened when the Lord met John on the Isle of Patmos? He fell as a dead man, just as a felled tree (Revelation 1:17). The book of Ezekiel and other Scriptures speak of the overwhelming experiences when the Lord appeared to people.
A service can be like an airplane. It can rise just ten feet off the ground, time after time, or it can soar over a mountain, across an ocean, or through a valley.
We desire to have a meeting with the Lord that eliminates completely the depression and the discouragement, that raises us out of the level of the fog. The sun always shines though it is not always visible from the ground.
When we are up in an airplane, we can see it.
In our services, we want to do more than just sputter through the fog, through the satanic battle and conflict. After we have been in the battle all week long, it would be good to come to church and rise right up into the presence of the Lord and be blessed by Him. It would be sweet and precious.
We would be coming not merely for a blessing; we would come for a revelation. And there is a difference. Blessings can be sweet; but like sugar, they give you a lift, followed by a letdown.
We want more than a blessing; we want something that will sustain us by day and by night. We want such a revelation of the Lord that we are aware of Him, we walk in His presence, we live with Him, day and night. This is what we want. This is what we need. We do not have any program, and we are not going to be slaves of methods. We are going to walk with God, as we put our hand in His and sense His presence.
Waiting on the Lord involves a prayer of listening, an intense focus. We are not like an amateur short-wave operator, scanning the dial carelessly; we are trying to dial in one specific place and listen, with an intent focus. Scientists keep listening for sounds, for electric impulses from outer space, thinking that there may be some intelligent beings out there that are trying to get through to us with some kind of code.
We are not just listening to see if someone is saying something; we are listening for a word from the Lord.
If someone speaks who does not have a word from the Lord, we dial him out. That is not despising prophecy, for Paul tells us, Prove all things; hold fast to that which is good. 1 Thessalonians 5:21.
We want to get the one prophecy in the service that is right on, that tells us we have heard from God.
We are very selective. We listen to the psalms, and when someone in the Spirit really contacts God, we tune into that. We want to meet God. We want to hear what He is saying. This will be the selectivity of the services in the days to come.
More and more, we will find that New Testament Church services will either disintegrate into many unrelated, miscellaneous manifestations of the Spirit and the gifts, or they will focus on the one thing that the Spirit is giving. Jesus said, “The Spirit shall testify of Me” (John 15:26). Every service must be a revelation of the Lord.
Instead of just singing a lot of choruses, let us find out what the Lord really wants in a service. He wants the focus on Him. He wants our own will set to worship, our desire set to break through to Him. He wants us to come not as so many passive individuals, a congregation waiting to be stirred up until we flow together; He wants us to come with expectancy, anticipating that He will meet us.
The format of our services is not the issue; we are concerned about their effectiveness. We must touch the Lord on a new level. It remains to be seen what God will do in just one service when the people come with expectation. We have not yet seen it happen.
Much of the time we hope something will happen, but we do not come with that living, vital expectancy that stands and draws the presence of the Lord.
Smith Wigglesworth was once asked if, when he saw a devil-possessed person, he waited for the Spirit of the Lord to come upon him as Samson did when he went out to tackle the Philistines. He said, “No, I never wait for the Spirit of the Lord to come upon me. When I see a devil-possessed person, I start after him, and it is up to the Lord to bring the anointing by the time I get there.” That was an audacious attitude, but because he believed it, it happened.
Somehow that spirit has entered into my own heart, and when I come to a service, I do not pray for the Lord to meet us in that service.
I come expecting God to meet us. I come with expectation. When I stand before someone, ready to minister to him, I do not wonder if I will receive a revelation over him. I come expecting God to show me. Revelation comes because the will is set to believe and to appropriate.
When the woman touched the hem of His garment, Jesus said, “Who touched Me?” He was not aware of her until she touched Him (Luke 8:45). You must determine to come and touch the Lord in each service.
Much depends upon you making up your mind to the fact that God intends to meet you. He said, “Where two or three are gathered together, there am I in the midst” (Matthew 18:20). If He is in the midst, let Him manifest Himself. Expect to see it; then it will happen!