I know you would have enjoyed this. Tonight at the altar call there were so many down front (mostly youth dedicating their lives to the Lord and seeking the Holy Spirit baptism) that the stadium guards stopped me and the huge stream of others at the base of the stairway.
“Unless you go with me I will not go.” Moses
Intro: The God who created us has acted to rescue us.
Jesus looked his disciples straight in the eye and said, “Go into all the world… etc… but please don’t go on your own. Wait for the promise of the Father. Exod. 33: God says to Moses, “I will not go with you. I’ll send my powerful angel to destroy the Amorites, Hitites, Jebusites and all the other ites (even the mosquito-bites). I’ll get your people into the land flowing with milk and honey, but I won’t go with you”.
Are we settling into God’s blessings without His presence? What else will distinguish us from any other people? In our churches what will make us different from the government social workers, the doctors or social clubs and community social efforts? It must be God’s presence.
In our focus on Praise, let us not forget Prayer. In our focus on Leadership let’s not forget Love. In our focus on Models let’s not forget Discernment. In our focus on Creativity let’s not forget Encounter. In our focus on Serving others let’s not forget Evangelism!
What makes us different? The presence of God! In every service there must be a tangible encounter with God! God wants us to go deep before we go wide.
In Num. 11 the people were sick of manna and were complaining, each one sitting in front of their tents and moaning. Moses said to God. “I can’t handle this… just kill me now.” But God gave him 70 new leaders. He gathered them in front of the tent of meeting, but 2 of them didn’t make it there for some reason. Traffic jam… whatever. There in front of the tent, God’s power fell on the 68 who were present and they began to prophesy. And the other two who were far away also had the presence of the Lord fall on them and they began to prophecy. Joshua got all worked up about this and reported it to Moses as though it was a bad thing. But Moses waved his hand in a wide stroke and said, (vs 29) “I wish that all God’s people were prophets!”
Well in Acts 2 the Spirit fell on the whole bunch and all of them were filled and spoke in tongues. But Jesus let us know that when we get filled the Holy Spirit we will not just speak in tongues, we will be different. He gave us tongues as a sign that He wants to use our tongues to declare His name… as witnesses. He has called us to speak as oracles of God. God was saying, “There’s going to be a lot of people in your future and I love every one of them.”
The story of Rachel Siessler of the Azusa Street Mission. (Not sure of last name. Showed her picture on the screen) As she lay on her back in God’s presence she saw a dove descending upon her, but it stopped and hovered over her as she heard the words in her soul, “Are you willing to die to your reputation?” When she answered “Yes” she says, “It was like there was a great open space in my heart and the Holy Spirit of God came in and filled it.”
I don’t want your promise, God, without your presence! If you do not go with me, I cannot go! And I was thinking Argentina!
Ralph
