WHAT IS WORSHIP 3

When the manifest presence of God is palpable, watch out. When you are in the ‘God zone’ anything can happen. That is the time when he runs the show, so it means that anyone, and I mean anyone can and will be used by God to pass on what he has to say.

When God’s presence is manifest, you can’t just sit there and observe for the simple reason that you are taken out of your comfort zone and into his presence which is not measurable in natural terms. It just is. When that happens, time and space become irrelevant. What matters is grasping hold of the spiritual dimension that takes place and being filled with something outside of yourselves.

For this to happen the only stance you can take is surrender. A case of doing it God’s way, in God’s time and for God’s purpose. Only surrender can maintain the manifest presence of God.

I have been in meeting where God’s presence has descended and people have been aware that God had showed up. They have surrendered themselves to him allowed him to begin meeting with people. Then someone has stepped in and announced that we need to move on to communion and as a result the manifest presence of God has disappeared as quickly as it came.

In cases like this God had to submit to the programme.

If you like everything done decently and in order, interpreted as a programme planned from start to finish, don’t ask God to show up or expect him to. God’s blessings are always conditional and his presence is not ours to command at will when it suits us.

Surrender is surrender. If it is conditional, it is not surrender. If Jesus said he will build his church that means we cannot no matter how hard we try. All we will ever do is build our church or our kingdom, not his.

We haven’t been told to build God’s church and when we have done that successfully, he will come and give us his tick of approval.

The church is a body of called out ones that God has designed to be the repository of his presence. He doesn’t want to fill a programme, he wasn’t to fill us with his power and his presence and let the powers that be in the heavens know who is God and who runs the show.

If we are not doing that we are not worshipping. We are playing in the sandpit.