Sunday School Teachers, Youth Leaders, Pastors

SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS, YOUTH LEADERS, PASTORS

Can I encourage you to deliberately allow time for your members to soak in the Spirit, in your meetings.

I'll use that word, 'soak'.

Children, youth, and all ages.

Let them stay in the Spirit a while.

So, not just a touch of the Spirit during worship, and not just a quick laying on of hands then moving on - but once they start to experience the touch of God, let them stay in the Spirit and soak deeply for some time.

Let them interact with the Spirit. And with each other, in the Spirit.

Prolong the moment a bit.

And can I encourage you to be intentional about it.

Let it be a memorable time for them with God.

Often times the Lord Jesus, and the Father are wanting to do a bit of extra work in us. Once the Spirit has started to touch people, the longer we allow them to stay in the Spirit and soak, the further JESUS can go down the list of things He wants to do in each of them.

Often times I've seen young and old alike fall to the floor under the weight of the glory of the Lord - and if you let them stay in the Spirit for some time without interrupting it, their experience goes deeper.

Tears of healing soon turn to laughter for joy; then they might see visions, and prophesy; deliverance might start to break out spontaneously; some will speak with tongues, and interpret.

When all others have gotten up off the floor, very often two are still on the floor longer than the others, receiving an especially deep empowerment. Then they get up off the floor and begin going around laying hands on others, exhorting them and ministering the Spirit to them. Even teenagers.

You can see the Lord have His way to that extent, by just not cutting the moment short. And by not overriding it with other things.

Like, when the Spirit gets to moving like that and all are getting caught up in Him, it's better to cut the music - so there is nothing else that any of them feel they need to go along with at that moment other than what the Spirit Himself is directly doing in them and through them all.

After the Spirit has been fully experienced and expressed - after it's all said and done - for one and all to see and hear and be caught up in - that will be a nice time to start up the praise, singing, music and dancing again!

Derek Prince used to call it 'God's operating table'. He would lay hands on people, they'd fall to the floor - then they'd just stay there getting healed or delivered. They didn't get up in a hurry.

In Randy Clark's meetings, when people had hands laid on them and they ended up on the floor - they just didn't get up! They were experiencing a profound moment with God. In many cases in Randy's meetings, the people on the floor seemed to experience getting visions, or callings to specific new ministries.

Remember Ezekiel's vision of the river? When he first entered the river, it was ankle deep. And a little further, it was knee deep. Still further, it was waist deep. Then when he went further, it was too deep to wade through: he could only swim in it. And the water brought healing and life.

Let them stay a little longer, go a little further, go a little deeper, 'til it's an inundation - a Holy Ghost washout, for EVERYONE.

Thinking back on youth camps and church meetings I attended as a teenager in Charismatic Renewal days, there wasn't always a lot of deliberately making time in meetings for us all to have deeper, extracted, interactive experiences with the Holy Ghost together like that.

There was singing in the Spirit (we don't see a lot of that in contemporary churches); and opportunity was given for some to come forward and prophesy; we had altar calls, when there would be laying on of hands for salvation, or for the baptism in the Holy Spirit, or healing. There was personal prophecy. There was a lot of falling under the power. But it mainly happened on altar calls. There was nearly always music being played during the altar calls. So the congregation as a whole didn’t always get drawn into the experience of those on the altar call. And there was deliverance ministry.

It was wonderful. But I often had a sense that there was more to come. There was often a sense that we were cutting it short with announcements or with the structure of the services.

Then the river movement. It was like a wave flooded the room. Ordinary parts of the programs, like the bands, song lists, and sermons couldn't get in the way even if they tried! Songleaders and musicians often ended-up on the floor. Preachers could hardly talk. It just broke out all over the room. The Holy Ghost held the floor. The whole room. After a few hours of that, everyone really had something to sing about!

John was 'in the Spirit' he said - and then he saw the whole book of Revelation. That wouldn’t have happened in just a minute or two. There's much that can happen when we let people stay in the Spirit, under the power. Then let them and the Spirit determine what happens next in the meeting. Let them, with the Spirit, carry it. Roll with it.

Even children. I've seen meetings where all the children were on the floor in the Spirit, for the whole meeting. Afterwards they told of interacting with Jesus, seeing the river and angels. Even nine year olds!

One day in Hong Kong a young person came to see me desiring me to come to his youth group to bring a move of the Spirit. But instead of going, I told him how to do it:

Ask the Father in Jesus' Name to send the Spirit; believe you receive it; intentionally let it take its time in the meeting, I said - don't be in a hurry to move on, and don't override it with music, or talking on the mic.

And away he went.

A week later he came back all excited. They did it, and to everyone's great joy, the Holy Spirit took them up on it. The young man was intentional about it: and the Spirit moved!

And because he'd seen it himself, he felt equipped to keep doing it in future. That was better than me going, wasn’t it.

The hand of the Lord will be with you too, in your meetings.