“Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3 (HCSB)
What do you expect when you go to your church worship service each Sunday? Good teaching that leaves you feeling better about yourself? Seeing friends and worshiping together? Singing a few songs, listening to a helpful message, in a comfortable seat with air conditioning and getting home before noon? Or do you go not knowing what to expect? Do hope to experience the God of wonders in your midst, to see people healed and set free? Do you go wondering what great and incomprehensible things will be revealed? Do you go ready to hear God speak and are willing to respond however He leads you, even if it is messy, misunderstood and costly?
Worship is not meant to be free. King David once asked how he could offer up something to God that didn’t cost him anything (2 Samuel 24:24). David also once danced, nearly naked, before the Ark as it was carried into town. His own wife mocked him, but he replied I’ll become even more dignified than this (2 Samuel 6:22)!
We have so dumbed down what we expect when we ‘go’ to church! Jesus said where two or more are gathered in His name, He’ll be there in their midst (Matthew 18:19-20). Coming together in His name is not simply a perfectly choreographed, error free service with a tight message and all the AV working well. Coming together in His name is meant to be an exciting encounter between heaven and earth! When He physically travelled on this earth, everywhere He went, heaven touched earth. He did three primary things… preached the gospel, healed the sick and cast out demons. Yeah, He also turned water to wine, multiplied a few fish and biscuits to feed thousands, walked on water and rose the dead, just to name a few. Then He commissioned His disciples to go and do likewise, with the implication for all of us, go to all nations and do what He did (Matthew 28:18-20)! He even said we’d do greater things (John 14:12). But back to our first questions, do you have any expectations for these to happen in your Sunday morning service?
Nevertheless, there is a growing sense that God is about to release a wave of revival that will change the way we “do” church and experience Him.
Ask God to stir you, even wake you up to expecting Him to do supernatural in your natural gatherings. Ask Him to release a new sense of wonder and expectation in your spirit. Ask Him to turn over the tables of man in your worship services. Invite Him to come do what He loves to do, even if it is messy. Ask Him to release heaven on earth in your church, and in the churches across our city! Ask Him to fill your pastor with courage to let the Holy Spirit do as He wants in your services. Thank Him that we live in a day when He is already walking into the room once again in very tangible ways, even here in our city!
