In spite of worldwide conflicts, the Holy Spirit is guiding the true Church into her greatest season of transformation. We must not look at the pressures of our times as though they were obstacles set to restrict us. For in the hands of the Almighty, these are the very tools He is using to perfect us.
One of the problems of interpreting end-time events is the tendency to focus upon only one set of conditions. If we look only at the fact that satan is raging or that lawlessness, wars, earthquakes and famines are escalating, we might conclude that difficulty and darkness are all that we have awaiting us until the rapture. And, as I mentioned, many people have been taught that life will only grow more evil until Christ returns.
But the same Spirit that predicted the perilous conditions at the end of the age also forecasts that, in spite of difficulties and battle, the gospel of Christ's love will be proclaimed worldwide to all nations (see Matthew 24:14). The Lord also said that the "crop" of last-days Christians will reach full stature (see Mark 4:28-29), and that those who know their God will be strong, do exploits, shine like the stars and lead multitudes to righteousness (see Daniel 11:32; 12:3).
In every age God requires that we walk as overcomers. Our call is to pray, to stand in spiritual warfare, to intercede for our leaders and soldiers and not to surrender our vision of a world in revival, regardless of whatever temporary setbacks we may face. The very fact that some distant nations are experiencing renewal and great harvests in recent years (Uganda and Fiji, for instance) reminds us that there is still time for our own nations. Our focus must remain riveted upon becoming like Christ in all things.
We might feel overwhelmed by the flood of evil storming against our societies, yet the promise of God is that, when the enemy comes in like a flood, He shall raise a standard against him (see Isaiah 59:19, KJV).
So we must ask ourselves, is our focus upon the enemy's flood? Or are we aware of the standard God is raising up to counter the onslaught of evil? Do not forget, beloved, that even when darkness covers the earth and deep darkness the peoples, the promise of God is that His glory shall rise upon us and His presence shall be visibly seen through us! In spite of the appearance that darkness is never ending, the Lord promises that, at the end of the war between light and darkness, "nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising" (Isaiah 60:1-3). Indeed, God's Word reveals that nestled and unfolding in the panorama of end-time events will also be an ongoing "period of restoration" ( Acts 3:20-21).
This does not mean that the world will be subdued by the Church (as some erroneously teach), but that the true church itself will be glorious, subdued and transformed by Christ! This final display of grace will be consummated in a Christlike Church, whose spiritual maturity shall manifest on earth the person and passions of Jesus Christ Himself.
Our fight is the fight of faith: Do we believe what God has promised? Our war is against principalities and powers: Do we believe the report that Christ shall "sprinkle [that is, cleanse, and bring forgiveness and transformation to] many nations" (Isaiah 52:15)?
I, for one, believe the promises of God. His Word is not just a comfort to me in times of trouble but a sword that I wield in times of spiritual war. His faithful Word is what I proclaim over my family, my church, my city and nation! Consider His proclamation: "So will My Word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it" (Isaiah 55:11). No matter how the battle rages, God's Word shall not return to Him void.
Consider also His commitment: "I am watching over My Word to perform it" (Jeremiah 1:12).
And His accessibility: "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into Heaven?' (that is, to bring Christ down), or 'Who will descend into the abyss?' (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? 'The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart' – that is, the Word of faith which we are preaching" (Romans 10:6-8).
We are not mere mortals stumbling blindly on earth, separated from God and isolated from His response to our needs. No! We are new creatures, born again from above, and resident within us is the Holy Spirit of Almighty God.
Yes, we labor and intercede; we repent for our sins and the sins of our nations. But the weight of our victory rests not upon how much we labor and groan, but upon how sincerely we believe what God has promised. The Lord does not want us worrying about the future; He wants us to create it through the knowledge of His will, through the proclamation of His Word – which is the "sword of the Spirit" (Ephesians 6:17) – and through our yieldedness to the power of the Holy Spirit. And then He promises, "Whoever believes in [Me] will not be disappointed"(Romans 10:11).
Beloved, the sword God has put in our hearts and mouths is nothing less than the echo of His voice in us! So, let's not whine about negative conditions in the world or sigh prayers muttered in fear and unbelief. Let's embrace the fight of faith! May Christ's love for mankind be our compelling motivation! Pick up your Bible and speak audibly the promises of God's Word. Pick any verse quoted above and speak it out loud, with faith and authority. I guarantee that if you proclaim God's Word with faith, it will release power in and through your spirit. No power can quench the promises God has inspired in His Book.
He assures us, "All things are possible to him who believes" (Mark 9:23). Let's break the bondage of a passive spirit. Let's take up the sword of the Spirit and embrace the fight of faith!
Lord, I repent of self-pity and fear. Train my hands for war! Teach me to stand and fight back on behalf of Your righteous cause. In Jesus' name, Amen.
The preceding message is adapted from a chapter in Francis' book, This Day We Fight!
Francis Frangipane is the founder of River of Life Ministries in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and has traveled throughout the world ministering to thousands of pastors and intercessors from many backgrounds. Francis' heartfelt prayer is to see established in every city Christlike pastors and intercessors, united before God, revealing the love of Christ to their communities. Since 1985, he has written fourteen books plus a number of study booklets. Over the past decades, Francis has served on a number of other ministry boards. However, in recent years he has gradually resigned from these various boards. As of June 2009, he has also retired from his position as senior pastor of River of Life Ministries. In this more simplified life, Frangipane is devoting himself to prayer and the ministry of God's Word.
A man who became a Christian bought a Bible. He said, "Have you seen this thing?"
The Bible is daunting. At roughly 770,000 words, that's about 2,500 normal book pages—equivalent to 12 non-fiction books!
Bible reading falls into that special category of things we all know are important but struggle to do, like diet and exercise.
Every year since 1988, I've read the Bible cover to cover. This is certainly not required, but I've learned some things along the way that may be helpful to you.
As you might suspect, I've encountered every imaginable distraction from lack of motivation, inability to concentrate, and outright laziness to barking dogs and making the mistake of checking my email just before I planned to read!
There have been times of emotional weariness, physical tiredness, and spiritual warfare. Nevertheless, I succeed because I have a plan.
If you already have a plan, great. But if you don't—and even if you do—here are seven tips to help you make the most of reading your Bible.
1. A Purpose for Reading
First, what is your purpose for reading the Bible? When I attend a meeting I like to ask, "What's the purpose of our meeting today?" That way, we tend to stay on target.
Uppermost, I read the Bible for communion with God. First and foremost, Christianity is a relationship with the Father who lavishes His love on me. When I read the Bible I am literally spending time with the living God who delights in me.
The Bible, along with prayer, allows us the experience to holy presence of God for a few moments. Communion is what keeps me coming back. For everything else, there's google. I also read the Bible for discipleship—to grow and mature in faith.
So, my purpose to read the Bible is for communion (knowing) and discipleship(growing).
What is your purpose?
2. A Fixed Routine
What is the best time of day, frequency, place, and amount of time for you to read the Bible? My best time to read is early in the morning, because that's when I'm fresh. I grab a cup of coffee and settle into a favorite chair for an unhurried time of prayer and reading the word of God. If it fits your personality, it's a good idea to have a set schedule.
Daily Bible reading (often called a "quiet time" or "personal devotions") makes sense for the same reasons we recharge our cell phones. Of course, things come up—an argument with your spouse, an alarm that doesn't go off, early meetings, or cranky kids. On average, I read about five days a week.
How much time you spend reading is completely a matter of personal preference, but I like to read one day from an annual Bible reading plan.
What routine works best for you?
3. Pray Before Reading
Third, how should you pray when reading your Bible? It's a good idea to pray when you read. How I pray connects to my purpose: communion and discipleship. I start by bringing myself into the presence and power of God. I usually start by praying:
"Father, I come to meet with You. Please meet with me, Your much loved son. (Then I will usually add a few sentences, mostly repeating Scripture about God's love for me and my love for Him).
"Jesus, I come to meet with You. Please meet with me, Your much loved servant. (Again, I add sentences like, "I surrender my life today to Your Lordship.")
"Holy Spirit, I come to meet with You. Please meet with me, Your much loved vessel. (Plus the additional sentences like, "Lord, I invite You to disciple my heart, to reveal what's inside of me, and to speak to me."
Also, I pray about things as I read. How do you pray, or want to pray, when reading your Bible?
4. It's Always Good to Have a Goal
Fourth, what is your goal for reading the Bible? My friend Tom Skinner said, "When you set a goal, you are literally writing history in advance."
If you're new to the Bible, your goal might be, for example, to read a chapter a day in the New Testament five days a week. (If you did this you would read all 260 chapters of the New Testament in one year: 52 weeks x 5 days = 260 chapters).
I don't micromanage my Bible reading. Instead, I set one annual goal each year. That's to read through the Bible cover to cover annually. I don't worry if I miss a day or two. Call me "inconsistently" consistent. I like the flexibility of chasing down rabbit trails, such as looking up all the verses in the Bible on, say, "God's will." As I wrote this, I'm 20 days behind in The One Year Bible. It doesn't matter. By December 31, I'll catch up.
You may prefer shorter goals. God has no set formula for Bible reading.
What is your goal for reading the Bible?
5. Increase Your Comprehension
Fifth, what can you do to increase your learning and retention? I mark up my Bible. Some may consider the Bible too reverent to mark. But from a learning theory perspective, writing things down improves my comprehension. I've got margin notes, underlines, arrows, check marks, asterisks, and a few chicken scratches I can no longer decipher!
You can also journal in a notebook, on a computer, on scraps of paper, or in the margins of your Bible. I do them all.
You may concentrate better with a display screen or a hard copy. If you learn better by listening than reading, the Bible is available in all popular audio formats. It's totally up to you.
Memorization makes up an important part of my plan. I keep a list of verses I'm working on. At this point in my journey, it's rare to find myself in any situation without a verse coming to mind.
Another part of your plan could be to teach the Bible. Preparing Bible lessons drives me deeper into the Bible than anything else.
What can you do to increase your learning and retention?
6. What to Do When Your Mind Wanders
Sixth, what will you do when your mind wanders? My mind wanders all the time. And to be honest, I like it. There are four possibilities when my mind wanders: the world, the flesh, the devil, or the Spirit. When your mind wanders, you have to figure out which one it is. If it is the world, the flesh or the devil, then of course you want to reel it back in.
However, if I read a text and my mind goes racing to a relationship that's not right, or I am convicted of a sin, or prompted to some good deed, then that is the Spirit and I let that happen. When I read a phrase or sentence that impacts me, I like to linger awhile, letting the Word soak into my soul.
What if your mind wanders because you're tired and exhausted? When I get that way, I try to read out loud. If I still can't concentrate I just stop and live to read another day! What can you do when your mind wanders?
7. Know What Keeps You Coming Back for More
Seventh, figure out what keeps you coming back for more. My commitment is to stay at it each day until I have what I call "a moment of humility," an overwhelming sense of God. It could be an insight, a sense of awe, or feeling completely and totally loved. It's a moment when I feel the power and presence of God washing over me. I'm not looking for a self-help book. I want the truth. The truth is what's relevant and applicable. That's what keeps me coming back.
What keeps, or will keep, you coming back for more?
For three decades, Patrick Morley has been regarded as one of America's most respected authorities on the unique challenges and opportunities that men face. In 1989, he wrote The Man in the Mirror, a landmark book that poured from his own search for meaning, purpose, and a deeper relationship with God. With over 3,000,000 copies, this best-selling book has captured the imaginations men worldwide, and was selected as one of the 100 most influential Christian books of the twentieth century.
Hallelujah Acres, a Christian health organization, has urged Nigerians to eat healthily by adopting proper diet and healthy lifestyle.
Speaking a seminar on Nutrition and Nourishment, the Chief Executive and President, Dr. Paul Malkmus said 70 percent of sicknesses come from what a person eats.
Noting that 70 per cent of sickness comes from animal products such as white sugar, white flour, artificial sweetness, caffeine, he stated: "God designed our bodies to be healthy. But every day, toxins, free radicals, artificial additives, pesticides and preservatives enter our body from the foods we eat and this depletes healthy cells and when this multiply, disease comes in."
Malkmus said God did not create humans to be sick but has given them every food they need to be healthy, strong and vibrant. Part of which include fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts among others.
Chief of Education and Training, Ann Malkmus, said diseases manifest when there is no relief, no balance, no cycle work and rest. She further advised that people should engage in exercise, relax and embrace diet plan adding that juicing vegetables and plant foods are major parts of the diet plan required to get nutrients into the bodies.
"Your digestive system only extracts 35 percent of nutrients in food, whereas when you juice the food, it is like an intravenous shot of nutrients, and you will absorb 92 percent of available nutrients, so juicing vegetables and plant foods will get nutrients into our bodies," stated.
She said the Hallelujah Diet product can help strengthen the body because it contains living foods designed to build cells in the body.
"This Hallelujah diet is made up of variety of supplements, including B12, oils, digestive enzymes, a cleansing product, and barley powder, which can help to restore the body back to normal."
Today the third person of the Trinity is underappreciated by those who misunderstand Him and misrepresented by those overzealous for His manifestations. Somewhere between those extremes we must realize our desperate need for a genuine move of the Holy Spirit.
The world is full of books about God the Father who created the universe, and more books are written about Jesus the Son of God than anyone who ever walked on this planet. But isn't it interesting that far fewer books have been written about God the Holy Spirit?
When teaching on prayer, Jesus declared, "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!" (Luke 11:13, emphasis added). You'd think that promise would create a huge desire to know more about this promised Helper—?who He is and what He does. And it would be even better if we were to experience Him as a living reality the way the early believers did.
We know that Jesus the Son is seated at the right hand of the Father (Luke 22:69; Eph. 1:20; Col. 3:1). So that means the Holy Spirit is God's only agent on Earth. He is the only experience we can have of God Almighty, the only way we can have the work of Jesus Christ applied to our lives and the only way we can understand God's Word. Without the Holy Spirit, we are like the disciples before Pentecost—?sincere but struggling with confusion and defeat.
More than 100 years ago, Samuel Chadwick, a great Methodist preacher and leader in England, summed it up concisely: "The Christian religion is hopeless without the Holy Ghost."
The early church provides the perfect illustration of that hopelessness. It was made up of simple men and women. The leaders were former fishermen and tax collectors who fled in fear when Jesus was arrested and needed them most. They weren't courageous and faithful. In fact, they lacked faith and courage. They were the least likely to be put in charge of any Christian enterprise.
Yet after the events in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit was poured out, those same nobodies were suddenly transformed. With courage and faith, they turned their community, and eventually the world, upside down.
It wasn't a result of their seminary training; they didn't have any. They couldn't hand out copies of the New Testament; it hadn't been written yet. It wasn't because they were wealthy and had the greatest sound system and light show at their church; they were poor people without a church building.
To the existing Jewish religious establishment, those early Christians were mocked as unlearned and ignorant people with few resources. To the Roman Empire they seemed fanatical and strange.
But one thing they did possess was the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told them to rely on the Spirit for everything. The early believers knew well that Christianity was hopeless without the Holy Spirit.
Giving the Spirit His Due
The Holy Spirit is underappreciated and underpreached by the 21st century church. There is a prejudice of sorts against the Holy Spirit that impedes many from learning more about Him.
The body of Christ is often divided into two sides. One side stresses the Word of God, separating itself from what it views as the emotional fanaticism often linked to those emphasizing the work of the Holy Spirit. The other side is sometimes known for drifting into unbiblical manifestations and unorthodox teaching while attributing it all to the Spirit of God.
Seeing the abuse and bad teaching, many on the first side will say: "I'm not interested in experiences and manifestations of the Holy Spirit. I just want to study the Word."
But it was the Holy Spirit who inspired the Bible, and there are lots of promises concerning His person and work. How can anyone treasure God's Word without giving the Holy Spirit His rightful place?
To those who move in circles strongly emphasizing the Holy Spirit, they must be reminded that everything must be tested by Scripture. The Spirit never contradicts the Word He gave us. He also never puts the focus on the preacher, because the Holy Spirit was sent to glorify Christ alone (John 16:14).
Somewhere in the middle is the kind of Christianity we see in Scripture, where the Word of God is honored along with a childlike dependence and openness to the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can make the things of Christ real and alive to people.
Christianity does not stop at the cross where Jesus died and paid the price for our sins. After Good Friday was Resurrection Sunday, when the Spirit raised Christ.
Yet so many of us live with faint trickles and shallow pools of the Spirit, rather than the promised rivers of living water. "On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water'" (John 7:37-38, emphasis added).
By this He meant the Spirit. Everything about the Spirit speaks of powerful currents of life that refresh us and flow out to bless others.
Let's remember how any person becomes a Christian: Before a person can feel the need for Jesus Christ as Savior, he or she must first be convicted of sin. "And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (John 16:8). The Holy Spirit shows us our sin and our need for a Savior. That is what every believer experiences in conversion to Christ.
It is the Holy Spirit working inside of us that causes us to turn from our sin and fix our eyes on Jesus. While we may be tempted to think we can create emotional environments for this to happen, the truth is that this kind of rebirth or transformation can happen only through the work of the Holy Spirit.
When God looks down on the earth, He doesn't focus on ethnicity, and He never acknowledges religious denominations. He just sees two kinds of people: His children who have the Spirit living inside of them and unbelievers who don't have the Spirit living inside of them. It's as simple as that.
Today we split hairs about doctrinal positions to validate our faith, but to the early church the definition was simpler. Either we are temples or we are not temples. Paul wrote, "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His" (Rom. 8:9).
It would have been impossible for the apostles to consider someone a true believer in Jesus without the accompanying witness and work of the Spirit. The Spirit of God was the bottom line.
And He still is. His miraculous work on behalf of believers hasn't ended.
One Saturday night, I got a call from our chief financial officer, Steve. A pastor we knew of in Gojra, Pakistan, had telephoned him and reported a problem in his city.
"What's wrong?" I asked Steve.
"At the five o'clock Muslim call to prayer, something set them off," he replied. "Now they're shouting: 'Death to the Christians! Burn their houses down. Death to the Christians!' The pastor's really concerned."
"OK, I am going to pray tonight. You pray too, Steve," I said.
I prayed that night, and then saw Steve the next day as our service was beginning. He was holding his cellphone, and I could tell by the look on his face that something was wrong.
"The pastor just called again. The situation's worse," Steve said. "He's on the rooftop with his wife and children and some of the local Christians. There are thousands of people in the square chanting, 'Death to the Christians!' I can hear the fear in his voice and the chanting mob in the background, so I know what he's saying is true."
I felt as if I'd taken a punch and the air had been knocked out of me. As we walked into the sanctuary, the congregation was singing and praising God. When the song ended, I interrupted and told the congregation, "We're going to get back to worshipping God in a moment, but right now there is an emergency situation we have to pray about."
I told the church what I knew and asked our worship leader to lead in prayer. Suddenly a chorus of cries went up to God on behalf of the Pakistani believers. It was just like what occurred in the book of Acts: "They raised their voices together in prayer to God" (4:24, NIV).
Later in the day, Steve gave me an update. "You won't believe this," he said. "The pastor called me back. As they were on the rooftop, some clouds came out of nowhere. It rained so hard it dispersed the crowd! Everyone was safe, and they were able to get off the roof and return to their homes."
I couldn't wait to tell the church. God rescued the man, his family and the other local Christians through the prayers of His people half a world away. The Holy Spirit was working in Pakistan, protecting those believers from the mob. But at the same time, the Holy Spirit was also moving among the people of our church, helping them to pray fervently and with a bold faith that only God could give.
Genuine Manifestations
To many people this story about Pakistan might seem "out there." But maybe that's because without the Spirit of God moving strongly among us, many of us have become faithless and cynical. We have seen so much ministerial self-aggrandizement and so many dubious financial appeals linked to a supposed "Holy Spirit anointing" that we have turned away in disgust because so little of it reminds us of Jesus.
But don't the false appeals prove that something true really does exist? William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, said: "We are not such fools as to refuse good bank notes because there are false ones in circulation; and although we see here and there manifestations of what appears to us to be nothing more than mere earthly fire, we nonetheless prize and value, and seek, for the genuine fire which comes from the altar of the Lord."
The counterfeit proves there must be a true genuine manifestation of the Holy Spirit! There is a counterfeit gospel, but there is also a true message of salvation. There are false portrayals of Jesus, but there is also the true Son of God, Savior of the world. And so it is with the Holy Spirit. We must not be scared away by the abuses.
To the Corinthians, Paul said: "Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good" (1 Cor. 12:7). Now what are we going to do with this verse? The infallible Word of God says the manifestation of the Holy Spirit was given to each one for the common good. To each one, not just to the apostles.
Think of the impact of that verse. Is that something we preach? Do we believe it? Do we pray about it? Do we expect it? God has promised every one of us a manifestation—?supernatural by definition—of the Holy Spirit. It is part of being a Christian. To water that down to mean human talent is unbelief in God the Holy Spirit.
One of the ways the Spirit glorifies Christ is to build up His body for the common good. That is how God strengthens His church. Since the church is a spiritual organism, it needs spiritual ministry to build it up.
Spiritual ministry can only come by the Holy Spirit showing Himself through human beings. His power flows through human vessels.
Our Lord Jesus Christ never intended that His church operate without visitations and blessings from the living Spirit of God. Why would He send another Helper if not to help us? Just look around at our world. Don't we see the obvious need of something fresh from God to overcome the powerful influences of evil?
The early church was alive and active because of the Holy Spirit. There is no verse—not even one—?that relegates the importance and vitality of the Spirit only to the New Testament church. That's the key: We have to believe the Holy Spirit is present for us today.
We can receive only according to our faith. If we don't believe, we won't pray; and when we don't ask, we won't receive the blessings God has for us.
How easy it is for us to become parched and dry. What we need are fresh showers of blessing to soften our hearts and bring fruitfulness to our lives. That's why the Old Testament prophet cried to God, "Rend the heavens and come down" (see Is. 64:1, 3).
Come down on us, Holy Spirit, for we are truly helpless without You.
You can live a life of extraordinary, supernatural power! The secret is actually quite simple. God's power is obtained through a lifestyle of intimacy with Him.
Jesus understood the connection between power and intimacy. Luke 5:15-16 says: "Great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities. So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed" (NKJV). Jesus was constantly flowing in the power of God and releasing it through His life to others. The level of His anointing was in direct proportion to His prayer life.
Everything Jesus accomplished in His earthly ministry was birthed out of the time He spent with the Father in prayer. In John 5:19 He declares, "'Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.'" The mighty power that flowed through Jesus' life to work miracles was a direct result of His communion with God. God taught me this truth early in my walk with Him. Both before and during my years in pastoral ministry I would spend hours a day waiting in His presence.
At that time I had no idea how God would use me to bring His love and power to thousands. I would often walk into my office at the church as a young pastor to find the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit waiting there for me. Periodically I would spend all day and night locked in my office basking in the radiance of His glory.
One day I felt guilty for spending so much time in prayer. I knew there were practical things that needed to be done. But God said to me, "Matt, if you do not have this time with Me now, you will not be able to walk in what I have for you in the future."
Instantly all the guilt was gone. I knew that my future ministry would be released out of the time I was spending with God. And, of course, the tasks I had to do always got done.
After five years of pastoral ministry, during which the anointing of God increased on my life, I suddenly found myself being launched by Him into a worldwide, prophetic healing ministry. During the last several years we have seen thousands saved, healed and delivered by God's power.
I attribute the anointing I have today to the years of hidden devotion I had with God as both a young person and a pastor.
I could write pages of accounts of divine encounters in which the power of God has been released as a result of my cultivating a relationship with the Holy Spirit in my life. One particularly memorable event occurred during a church service in West Virginia. It was 8:30 p.m., and we had already been worshiping for an hour and a half. Suddenly God said to me, "At 9 p.m. My power will hit this place."
I knew something extraordinary was about to happen. I stood at the pulpit and encouraged those in attendance to continue worshiping. Then I instructed the ushers to close off all the air vents. I didn't want anyone to mistake the air conditioning for the wind of God.
The members of the congregation lifted their hands and began to worship with a new fervor. The atmosphere became electrified with a supernatural faith.
At precisely 9 p.m. I could feel a surge of power hit my body as the person of the Holy Spirit swept across the sanctuary. Some could feel a physical wind blowing over their bodies, while others felt a tangible fire. God had invaded the meeting!
People ran forward testifying of God's healing power. Many were instantly healed of fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, chronic back pain, chest pain, shoulder conditions, knee injuries, pneumonia and rheumatoid arthritis.
As we have allowed the Holy Spirit to move in our meetings since that incident, we have also witnessed the healing of cancer, the opening of deaf ears, the restoration of sight to blind eyes and the ability to walk to the lame, as well as the healing of deep emotions. Glory to God!
Let me encourage you to continually develop a lifestyle of intimacy with God. Not only will you experience His tremendous power, but you will also enjoy getting to know Him, walking closely with Him and learning the secrets of His heart. You will discover that fellowship with Him is the greatest joy a person can experience.
You can walk intimately with God and live in the reality of His presence every day of your life. You can be a releaser of His glory in a hurting and lost world. Whether to the woman in the grocery store who needs healing from arthritis or to the multitudes in Africa and India who are starving and lost in spiritual darkness, you can carry God's power and love as you intimately walk with God each day.
Matt Sorger (www.mattsorger.com) is a prophetic revivalist who travels worldwide preaching and teaching God's Word and bringing a fresh impartation of His Spirit through national conferences, prophetic healing revival services and international miracle crusades. He has seen thousands saved, healed and delivered by the power of the Holy Spirit.
