Held Hostage

“Just take a look at Zion, will you? Centering our worship in festival feasts! Feast your eyes on Jerusalem, a quiet and permanent place to live. No more pulling up stakes and moving on, no more patched-together lean-tos. Instead, God! God majestic, God himself the place in a country of broad rivers and streams, But rivers blocked to invading ships, off-limits to predatory pirates. For God makes all the decisions here. God is our king. God runs this place and he’ll keep us safe.” Isaiah 33:22 MSG

Today church was just real.  Ever been in a service where you just knew God was there?  A moment in time where nothing seems to really make sense?  A feeling of a call to enter into what He has planned instead of the agenda in the bulletin?  A chance for the congregation to unite and become one living body to honor our God?  A slight glimpse of what is to come perhaps, a closer look at what God desires for us at a church gathering.

Today there was no sermon.  There was devotion.  There were announcements and worship was a gateway to the heavens.  Soon pastor was inviting the church to the altar and one thing led to another and we stood in love, singing songs, praying and wiping tears from our faces.  Wow, what a rush!  What a revival to the soul.  How humbling to the spirit that we could gather around the throne of God and worship, not worried about not receiving a word from a sermon.  God spoke in the tears.  He whispered how much He loves us in our ears.  He rendered our spoken words life!  He gave us scripture as He placed it into the pastor to speak.  God moved among us and we knew He was there.

I wish this happened more often.  Think of the pressure it would take off from the people who are responsible for Sunday  services.  If they would just come in and yield to the Holy Spirit and let Him run the ENTIRE show.  How much more healing could happen?  How much more free could God’s people become?  Getting lost in worship and leading the people of God right to the throne room where God could flood us with love and mercy.  Now I am not saying there is anything wrong with tradition and we need to be fed the Word, yet we need to be prepared to move in a different direction of God wants to do so.  We need to be open to the possibility that God does not want us to learn on a particular Sunday but to receive what He has for us simply by being obedient and surrendering.

I guess realizing God truly is in control makes more sense when a worship service goes like it did today.  I felt freedom.  I felt healing.  I saw peace show up.  I could sense a release happening as it swept through the congregation.  God is real and He wants to move among His people so that He may be seen and not just spoken about.  He longs for us to see Him in all His intended glory and if it takes moving the people out of there seats to stand at the altar for 45 minutes instead of listening to a sermon, then so be it.  God is God and that my friends is never going to change, what needs changing is our worldly views of what church is:  three songs, offertory, prayers, sermons and a dismissal.    Lately at my church even the Wednesday night services have been going late into the evening, being led by the Holy Spirit. Healing is taking place.  People are being changed and minds renewed with the right thinking of the things of God.

I pray your next service at church is taken hostage by the Holy Spirit and you begin to feel captured by what God wants to do.  Trust me you will come alive again with a renewed spirit.  I cannot convey in mere words the joy which is radiating in my heart from just coming from such a service.  God is not a boring God by no means, He spoke life therefore He desires to see life!  Dance before the Lord and make rejoicing noises, be free to sing and dance, after He created you for such a purpose!