Kingdom Focus Blog

The Expectancy of God….

This article is being written because of a conversation I had with a young Pastor today. He is seeing an ‘expectancy’ being manifested in the meetings over the last couple of weeks, an expectancy of God to reveal Himself, and an expectancy in those gathered that there is more. Because of his sensitivity to the Lord, he is not wanting to miss what God wants so he asked me what do I do now. So let me see if I can share what I told him.

The older I get, the more I am understand the importance of ‘waiting’. Waiting is one of the most crucial elements on stepping into what God wants. Real waiting is often manifested as a ‘holy hush’ or silence as we call it. Oh how we need to learn, to wait, really wait on Him.

Let me start by saying that I have been involved in the Pentecostal and Charismatic expression of the Body of Christ, for over 52 years. In that time I have been involved in many areas of ministry, from Kids, Youth, Worship Leader, Church Planting and Pastor, member of Leadership Organizations and served on their committees. Whilst there have been many great experiences, one thing I have learned is that we miss some of the dynamics of what we consider, tradition Christianity.

I remember many times when I was ‘leading worship’ as it has been termed today, that

I sensed the need to allow for silence as the presence of the Lord began to be revealed. The problem was that in most of our churches we don’t know how to handle the silence. Even when I encouraged the embracing of the silence, there was often a clash as someone would burst out, disrupting the manifestation of His presence. As the one who was ‘in charge’ at the time, I would try to redirect again to the acceptance of the time of silence.

We have learned response to worship, which is not really biblical, more and more worship has been redefined as something that happens within the musical part of our services. Often manifested in the singing slow songs, or as we would say worshipful songs. In fact I wait for the day when I can teach on the ‘high-jacking’ of worship by the musicians.

Over the years when I have taught on worship I would do so by explaining the protocol one operates by within a monarchy system.

As a beginning point let us look at Psalm 22:3 “But thou [art] holy, [O thou] that inhabits the praises of Israel. The concept within this verse is that God is enthroned on the ‘high praises’ of His people.

Simply put, as we begin by singing praises to God and we really open ourselves up and the praises build up into an intensity, to make a show and boast in God, God Himself will manifest Himself by sitting down (be enthroned) on our high praises. When that happens it is like God reveals Himself within our midst, and there is an awesome feeling, like heaviness, but a heaviness that is not depressing, rather exciting. The Hebrew word for Glory ‘Kabod’ carries that dynamic.

This is what they experienced during Solomon’s dedication of the Temple, in 2 Chronicles 5 of special note is verse 14. “So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of God.”

Lets look at what worship is. Worship is defined scripturally as ‘falling prostrate’ it is an action that takes place when in the presence of majesty.

However the ‘prostrating’ of oneself is but the beginning of the act of worship. When one is prostrate, on their face before majesty, one does not get up at ones whim, but rather remains in the prone position, until commanded to arise. When one is given the command to arise, there is always a commission that accompanies the command to arise. Examples abound in the Word, for instance “Arise, fear not”, and others. I am reminded of the old English word for worship, ‘obeisance’ which has within it the concept of obeying. Thus worship manifested in three actions:

Prostrating oneself

Remaining until given the command to arise, with a commission

Obeying the commission.

It is also interesting that the Hebrew word for Worship, and Work come from the same root word. Thus working out the commission in obedience to the King is worship.

Remember Jesus telling the woman at the well, “The hour is here, that the Father seeks those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth.” Meaning that rather than obeying out of ‘external law’ written on tablets of stone, true worshippers are those who have “His law internalized”.

With the redefining worship as something that is simply connected to singing we have believers coming together to simply sing 3 or 4 ‘worshipful’ songs we become satisfied with worship.

Yet when we understand what worship really is, as I have attempted to define biblically, and we see many believers doing what they think is worship, yet are walking in disobedience to His commands, we know God is not being worshipped at all, and therefore He is not honored.

God has this expectancy, that we will worship Him, really worship, it is then there will come an expectancy in us, that God will show up and direct the next step.

We have for too long had our own agenda with church, often dictated by the ‘we have always done it this way’, ‘people won’t stay longer than….’, and many other reasons. Yet I am convinced more than ever, that Father is longing for something different, He is longing for us in our ‘corporate-ness’ to gather together unto Him, and not a program.

It may mean that the message you have, or the visiting ministry that is there will not speak. In honoring your guest you may still give a love offering because of their commitment to come to you

Let me now ask a question:

“What would ‘church’ be like if we instead of coming with our program, or should I say do our program, which is in essence ‘our agenda’ and allow the Spirit to really ‘take charge’ of our gathering time, what would church look like?

Would we see hours of sitting, laying or standing in God’s presence, and instead of just relying on the ‘God is present’ idea, which He is, we actually see or know His manifested presence?

Would we leave the building ‘knowing’ we are leaving changed from the way we come in?

Would we see Him working, really working in our lives and the lives of those around us as we go about our daily work, as the outflow or overflow of His manifest presence, continually works in us and then through us?

Would people be healed and delivered, simply because we come into their presence, as the ‘glory’ of God?

Would we really see lives changed as we rather than ‘try to witness’, we really become a witness that impacts our family, friends, and neighbors?

Would we truly see out community, our county, our state and our nation changed?

I know the answer to these questions is YES, and we will be walking in true biblical revival, which is simply, “The re-establishing of the centrality of His Kingdom, and the reclaiming of society for Him”.

Will you, especially if you are the leader, allow the ‘expectancy of God’ to bring an ‘expectancy in His people’, regardless of your program and agenda, to bask in the ‘silence’ of His presence, and remain in that atmosphere regardless of time, whether it be 5 minutes or 5 hours, until the commission to arise, go do.

It may mean that the message you have prayed over and spent much preparation will be put aside. It may mean that the visiting ministry that is there will not speak, yet you will still honor them by taking up or giving a love offering because of their commitment to come to you.

Jesus said; “I will build My Church”, but so often we act like it’s our church or ministry, then we wonder why we are getting ‘stressed out’, ‘burnt out’, trying to build ‘our’ church, working for Him, instead of working with Him, as He builds His church.

Its time to do church differently, if you will, you will not be disappointed; you and your church will never be the same again.

John D. McDonald (Apostolic Leadership)

SchoolOfTheKingdom.com

Copyright 10/2009

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John D. McDonald (Apostolic Leadership) http://www.SchoolOfTheKingdom.com