The Sweet Presence of God During a Prayer Meeting

Yesterday I went to a prayer meeting at church. Typically four, five or six people gather together from 7:00 to 9:00 PM on Fridays to pray for needs in the church. Because our pastor has announced his resignation, the need for more prayer feels more acute.

Partially because seven people showed up and the small prayer room gets stuffy, we moved to the main sanctuary and the sweet presence of God settled in that place. To linger and pray in that presence was a profound blessing for me. I miss attending prayer meetings like that.

In the past I have regularly attended dynamic prayer meetings on Friday or Saturday evenings. But they seem to go strong for a season and fizzle to a handful of people. I believe it is time for a new season to start. It would be good to do some discipleship on prayer. I believe God will bring in a group of people that regularly invite the manifest presence of God. The manifest presence of God changes people and churches.

Casting Out Demons

Demons are real and powerful but God is greater. A great many books have been written about binding and casting out demons. But the typical casting out demon book puts the emphasis on the demon. The emphasis should be love and compassion for the person afflicted by the demon and the power of Jesus in us. About all these books are good for is making lots of money for the writers and publishers.

I once heard an entire student body of a small foreign Bible college try to cast out a demon. I did not want to interfere so I stayed away from the situation. After about an hour of the women shouting the hymn “Nothing But the Blood of Jesus,” and the men yelling at the demon, I thought maybe I should get involved. I found a group of six men holding down Beth. Beth was a young coed of about eighty-five pounds that was studying to be a pastor. The six men holding her had two men on each arm, one man holding her head and another man holding legs that were tightly wrapped in a blanket. And the men were physically struggling with the demon. Their focus was on the demon and not so much Jesus or the young women.

I laid a hand on the woman and softly said something like, “In the name of Jesus, demon be silent and still. I do not want to talk to you; I only want to talk to Beth.” I repeated that a couple times and told the guys to let go of her. When released she struggled so the guys grabbed hold of her again; but I think she struggled in her own power. I repeated the process again and she was calm. In just a few minutes I carried her away to a more private location. Two other young women accompanied me.

I held her on my lap while I prayed in tongues. After a about a half hour she was getting heavy so I asked her to get up and exhausted, she laid on the floor. She started calling on Jesus and delivered herself of her own demon.

What I learned from this experience is that deliverance needs to be in the love, mercy and compassion of Jesus. The focus is not on the demon but on loving the person the way Jesus would. Jesus’ power and love is so much greater than any demon.

Is God in Control at General Council?

I have a friend that describes being elected as the student body president while attending seminary. He says God started speaking to him about two weeks before the election. God was telling him that he would be student body president. He did not want the job so it is good God started dealing with him early.

He relates that there were about a dozen ballots, each time eliminating a group of nominations. Seems my friend was consistently on the bottom of the nomination list that was saved. When three names were left, one vote separated the front runner from the second runner and one vote separated my friend from the second runner. My friend should have been eliminated, but someone said, “There is not enough separation, lets hear from the nominees.” In two more ballots my friend was elected.

Now if God can control a simple election like that, I suspect God can also control the election process at each General Council. It is mostly Pentecostal ministers that are voting. Do we trust they can collectively hear God?

Will Your Church Someday House a Community Theater Group?

Less than a block from the church I attend is an old church building that was built by the Methodists in the early 1900's. It must have seated around 2000 people. I can only imagine how that church had a powerful, culturally relevant impact on that culture. The church had fallen into the hands of a small, liberal denomination that could no longer support the huge building. Now a community theater group has taken over the building.

As a fifty something year old Pentecostal, I am concerned that we develop culturally relevant methods to share the Gospel with a younger generation. It is a generation that has little understanding of the church. If we don't do that, perhaps in another fifty years a theater group will get a super good buy on another building.

Earl Creps is an authority and conference speaker on church growth and evangelism. His podcast, "Walk With Me" at http://www.earlcreps.com/podcast/ is worth listening to if you have a spare half hour. He addresses how the younger generation see us, the church.

The Future of the Assemblies of God is in Good Hands

As an older guy who has held Assembly of God credentials less than a year, I am impressed by the young pastors in our fellowship. I have read with great interest the blog Future AG (http://futureag.blogspot.com/). The reins of the movement will soon be turned over to these more youthful pastors and I am excited about the future.

The postmodern generation is a generation with great interest in the supernatural. (For the most part, my enlightened generation did not see the possibility of the supernatural.) As younger guys and gals move in the charismatic gifts before your generation, we will have people movements like we studied about in missions classes. I trust that you will find the methods to package the old Biblical truths in ways appealing to post moderns.

Older Pentecostals must demonstrate the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives and the lives of their churches. Too many of our young pastors have not seen a real move of the Holy Spirit. If we cannot demonstrate the charismata, we are in trouble with our movement. What makes a Pentecostal different from a typical Evangelical is the Pentecostal worldview holds a very immanent God. Our “Pentecostal” God is here, now, and in us to change the world.

Hey older pastors, the younger pastors have trouble with “initial physical evidence” because we have not demonstrated it. In the last three years, other than myself, I have seen only one pastor preach on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And that pastor was not AG, he was Baptist.

“Controlling and Manipulative Prophecy”

Some years ago, prophesying got Pete into trouble at the church he was attending but was not aware of the cause of the trouble. Over a period of time, the church relieved Pete of all ministries he was involved in. He lost his Sunday school class, small group, Bible study, etc. Pete had no idea what why this was happening. Counsel from a close friend from another state was that Pete should leave the church because he was not allowed to be effective in ministry.

It seemed when the senior pastor spoke, the Pete’s prophecies did not dovetail with the pastor’s messages. When the associate or a guest minister spoke, prophecies dovetailed with the message. A couple times Pete gave only the beginning of a prophecy and asked for someone else to complete the prophecy. The prophecies were completed by others.

When Pete returned from vacation, there was a microphone put up in the front of the church. The new policy was that prophecies were to be spoken into the microphone.

Uncomfortable with the loss of ministry responsibilities and a sense of growing estrangement from much of the church leadership, Pete decided to start attending a different church. About a year later, Pete asked a close friend what was going on at that former church that caused the trouble. The friend said that for about six months Pete had been prophesying against every decision the board had made behind closed doors. What capped off the matter was that Pete had prophesied about the need for moral leadership just after there was a moral failure on the church board and the broad took no disciplinary action. It was felt the board member was sufficiently repentant.

The purpose in using a microphone was to catch Pete trying to use his “false prophecy” to control and manipulate the church.

Things Pete could have done better:

1. Carefully examine prophecies that could be interpreted negatively, consider delivering it privately to the pastor or board and not the entire congregation.
2. Have followed the advice of another church’s pastor to talk to the church board. (Pete made the excuse to himself because he was busy with legal problems being sued in two different jurisdictions.)
   

Things the church could have done better:

1. Have called Pete into a board meeting or meeting with the pastor and confront him directly.
2. Listen to see if Pete’s prophecies ring true when the associate speaks or a guest speaks. Examine whether good prophecy or controlling and manipulative prophecy can come from the same person.
3. To not focus so much time on trying to find out whom was leaking information to Pete and be straighter forward.
4. Seriously consider whether the prophecies were valid instead of immediately assuming they were attempts at controlling and manipulating.
5. Have prayed for discernment.
   

Things the church did right:

1. They did not forbid prophecy as so many Pentecostal churches do now.
2. They did not expose the entire matter to the congregation.
   

In the Bible, prophecy was sometimes used to bring correction. Churches should consider that to be a possibility. Churches should confront the person prophesying if leadership feels the prophecy is in error. Churches have a responsibility to help mature their people in the use of spiritual gifts. Above all, all parties should be willing to be straight forward and discuss the issue.

I welcome comments. I have something to learn here.

Pete Prophesies

Yesterday Pete prophesied during the church service just before the pastor spoke. It fit in perfectly with the pastor’s message which is what we should typically expect. God would set a theme for a Sunday morning and prepare all the leaders.

A ten plus year church attender asked Pete if the pastor gave him his sermon notes before the service. How is it we have done such a poor job in training the people attending Pentecostal churches? It is as though the people do not have any idea what the role of the Holy Spirit should be. God forgive us for not doing better.

Who Should Prophesy?

We all should prophecy. In 1 Corinthians 14:1 Paul tells us, “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.” To eagerly desire spiritual gifts means to go after them. Seek the gifts, ask for the gifts, and ask others to pray for your gifts. When you ask for good things from the heavenly Father expect them to come. The Father in heaven gives good gifts, not scorpions and snakes. Think about the Holy Spirit manifesting in you. Spiritual gifts are the Holy Spirit manifesting in His people. Paul puts a special emphasis on prophecy because it is so important.

In Acts Chapter 2:17-18, Peter is boldly quoting the Prophet Joel.

'In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.’

Scince that day in Acts Chapter 2, God has been in the process of pouring out His Holy Spirit on ALL people. This includes sons and daughters, young and old, even on the servant classes. That includes everyone and it concludes saying, “And they will prophesy.” Therefore, all [Pentecostal] Christians should prophecy.

Prophecy

What is prophecy? Prophecy is when the Holy Spirit puts an idea in your mind and you share it with one or more people. God puts the idea in your mind and you put it in your own words.[1]

Normally prophecy is to encourage people and to build them up. It would be very unusual for the Holy Spirit to give a prophecy of correction to a person new at prophesying.

I remember once giving a prophecy encouraging the church to seek the sevenfold spirits of God. The last spirit listed was the fear of the Lord. Well, the associate pastor was preaching that morning and he almost jumped out of his socks he was so excited. His message was on the fear of the Lord. When a prophecy dovetails with the preacher’s message, the preacher is encouraged and it rubs off on the listeners. That would be a pretty typical prophecy.

Now the person new to prophecy may get the prophetic idea days before the time he or she is to speak the prophecy. Most often the person delivering the prophetic words has time to think them over, and possibly write them out. There is nothing wrong with that. Some people think all prophecies are always spontaneous and the person does not know what he is going to say before he or she says it. That is nonsense; God does not treat us that way. Spontaneous prophecies are very unusual in my experience.

How can a person be sure that they are to speak a prophecy? Each of us has probably been led of God to do something that was quite difficult for us to do. Perhaps it was to witness to someone we thought would be difficult to talk to, to write out a big check for a visiting missionary, or to take on a new responsibility within the church. What ever the task was, we had to be pretty sure it was God speaking to us before we did it. Afterwards we just knew God led us to do something good. If you are equally sure of a prophecy, go ahead and speak the prophecy. Sometimes the person new to prophecy starts prophesying is a small prayer group, Bible study or home cell group.

Timing when to speak a prophecy can be difficult. Pastors always seem to be in a hurry to get everything done in the shortest possible time.[2] Between choruses, I have seen the worship leader at the church I attend pray for God to speak to His people. Then the worship leader would pause to give you an opportunity to speak. Now that is a Spirit led worship leader. Perhaps there is a transitional pause just as the pastor moves to the lectern to speak, that could be a good time. Perhaps you are a little scared and missed the opportunity to speak the prophecy; if that happens, repent. Maybe you could write an email to the pastor asking forgiveness for not being bold enough to speak. Do this a few times and God will give you greater courage next time.

Prophecy is a wonderful gift for the church. It builds up and makes us stronger. Take courage and speak what God gives you to speak.

---

[1] That is generally how the Bible was written, the Holy Spirit put the ideas into the writers mind and the writer put it into words. Muslim’s claim God dictated the Koran word for word. According to Islamic teachings, Mohammad was little more than a dictation machine relaying words to the person writing the words. The Christian concept of biblical inspiration gives more credit to people who did the writing. God is not afraid to work through people. We are created in His image.

[2] That is an American problem and not so much of a problem in other parts of the world. American pastors know they are pushing for time and will typically stop speaking if you inadvertently cut them off.