Monday 29 October 2012

Knowing the Will of the Spirit for a Meeting

It's one thing to sense the presence of the Lord in a meeting - it's another thing to know what to do with it.

I was in a meeting recently where the Spirit of the Lord came upon the meeting-leader in such a way that the meeting-leader could barely speak. He could hardly continue with his announcements. He looked as though he was going to have difficulty standing up, so a member of the congregation brought him a chair, and he sat down.

The meeting-leader had been inviting testimonies from the congregation, so a certain young men went forward. As he began to speak, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him also in such a way that he was scarcely able to speak. He began to shake.

He sensed that God wanted to pour out His Spirit on the whole congregation, so he whispered in the meeting-leader's ear what he felt. But the meeting-leader answered, "I think you should just hand the microphone back to me." So the young man obeyed.

The meeting-leader then invited the appointed preacher forward to preach. The preacher came forward, and as he began to preach, he also was surrounded by an anointing that made it difficult for him to preach. He managed to push-through it though, and preached for quite some time.

He preached about experiencing a higher level of the glory of God in our meetings - but the meeting never quite achieved it.

Now here's the thing: the Holy Spirit doesn't strike people mute just to make a spectacle out of them. He's trying to say something!

Is it possible the Holy Spirit was making a point that He didn't want a sermon at that point in the meeting? Maybe He wanted to do something else first.

Three people were struck mute - one of them the meeting-leader; another the invited preacher. The other was a young man from the congregation who sensed that God wanted to do something special amongst the congregation. The meeting-leader and the guest-pastor felt the same touch of the Spirit that the young man felt, but did they know what to do with it?

Sometimes the Holy Spirit wants to do something extraordinary in our meetings. The Spirit does fall on congregations. He can fall on the same congregation more than once. He will even interrupt a sermon to do so, if we are sensitive to Him.

The blessing, if we yield to what He wants to do, when He wants to do it, through Him He wants to do it, for as long as He wants to do it, will be untold. And you can always preach later anyway, if you still need to. Chances are you'll preach something different to what you had planned. Or the congregation might erupt into spontaneous praise and singing.

Learn to recognize and flow with the anointing of the Spirit of God.

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