It is, what it is! – When God does not show up in the worship service.

1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

Light is what God is. God is also life. God is also love. These are not just attributes of God, but who He is. This may be difficult for us to understand but the Word of God says this is so. When God reveals Himself, its always in light, life, and love. When you experience God’s presence, its always uplifting, always edifying always full of light, it’s never the opposite. If your experience with God is not edifying, or uplifting, or is not full of light and comfort, then you haven’t experienced true fellowship with the Father. Mark E. Baker

I like what our guest blogger stated in the above article: When you experience God’s presence, its always uplifting, always edifying always full of light, it’s never the opposite. If your experience with God is not edifying, or uplifting, or is not full of light and comfort, then you haven’t experienced true fellowship with the Father.

In my experience in the church (not all churches) Gods presence has been replaced with much activity during the worship service. Speaking in tongues, dancing in the spirit and the display of half decent oratory skill (called preaching).  When you are called out or preached about in a sermon, how can one feel the presence of God?  When leaders place a guilt trip on the people of God or you are simply not edified one can not always lay claim to: “Its the sin in your life”.  Could it be you are in the wrong place? Could it be, there is no room for God in that place?

I had the experience in church where I was instructed to pray like it was my last time. The underlying purpose of this instruction was to prepare the minds of the people for the message from the pastor by praying them into an emotional frenzy where they believed the holy ghost was in the place (sounds like most services in the C.O.G.I.C church).  My question was: What if God wanted to do something else?  Shouldn’t I allow the spirit of God to lead me? Well just be prepared for just in case He doesn’t show up, was the reply.  How many times do you resort to and rely upon yourself (flesh) when the spirit of God doesn’t sanction a service or action? Its a scene we see all to often in many worship services, fake it until either God shows up or the people don’t know any better.

Sounds like something out of the 34th Psalm when David feigned the mad man. When Abimelech found him out, David played the part of a crazy man (Psalms 34).  The short story behind Psalm 34: Saul was King of Israel. He wanted to kill David. David ran away. Saul followed him. David went to Gath, which was a Philistine city. The king of Gath was Abimelech. He was not a friend to David. David became afraid. He should have trusted in the LORD. He did not, but made a plan of his own. He made Abimelech think that he, David , was crazy. For this reason, Abimelech did not kill David. In those days they thought that it was wrong to kill crazy people. Abimelech sent David away.

The analogy that I want to take from this is, there is much faking it in the churches of God in Christ! When the church service is not moving like some want it, the church, ministers and even some pastors resort to skill (the flesh and their ability to move “emotionally”, the crowd) and training as to fill in for the Holy Ghost.  Nobody wants a dead service, but who wants a show or entertainment?  Unfortunately most church goers do.  Services are usually dead because there is simply no life their.  The people could be preoccupied in their minds about their situations.

Some of us are so conditioned, we think motion (dancing in the spirit, people running around speaking in tongues) and commotion (everyone speaking in tongues, people being slain in the spirit) equals the move of the spirit.

As a believer, you might find yourself in a worship service and you discern the spirit of God is not in the place. To confirm this you can clearly see more of self, talent and positional influence on display than the move of Gods spirit. Furthermore, you clearly see, there is no order, when the word is delivered it is more of a rebuke (stern correction) coming from the pulpit and its not in love.

It is, what it is when people gather together in a place and leadership and order is not respected. When people want to do their own thing and they come to life when the spotlight is on them, God in more than likely not there.

Once again: “When you experience God’s presence, its always uplifting, always edifying always full of light, it’s never the opposite. If your experience with God is not edifying, or uplifting, or is not full of light and comfort, then you haven’t experienced true fellowship with the Father. Mark E. Baker”

Originally posted 2010-03-04 22:40:54. Republished by Blog Post Promoter