Performance or Presence?

 I am deeply troubled by much of what I hear and see on the airwaves regarding ministry these days. Most, if not all, of the relationships I have, including the RAIN network came about because we were all seeking the supernatural of God. So, for the next few sessions that I have opportunity to write we are going back and rehearsing our roots. 

The Holy Spirit recently asked me a question that I knew He already knew the answer to. So, what was His purpose in asking? God asks questions not to find answers, rather to reveal to us what He already knows. The questions cause us to look inward and search our hearts. Here is the question:

 Do you want a performance ministry or a presence ministry? 

I ask each of you the same question. What DO YOU WANT? 

Performance ministry is what is popular. Performance ministry has learned how to move the emotions of the hearers. Often, thinking the emotions is the anointing, when in fact; the anointing of God is nowhere to be found.  Where there is no anointing we must substitute something emotional to take its place.

 Most congregations do not know the difference. Most ministers don’t know the difference either. Many do but prefer to do what is popular rather than submit to the Holy Spirits agenda. 

Preachers have exercised their natural talents and gifting to the point that with the mere movement of their hand, stance, and charge they can get a reaction from the pews. These “pulpiteers” have learned how to manipulate the hearers with the rise and fall of their voices making valid points without the aid of the Spirit of God.

 Churches have learned how to submit to the program and follow the ways of Hollywood and Wall Street to pack the crowds in. They have learned how to make people feel comfortable with their sins rather than confronting the sins. As long as the pews are full and the finances are good church rocks along as normal. Don’t anyone dare rock the boat preaching righteousness, holiness, and separation from the world. 

Pastors have a beer with their congregants to show how “cool” you can be and still be a Christian. Joining them at R rated movies laughing at the same crude jokes and watching the same sexual immoralities as those on their way to hell do. How can you tell a Spirit filled man of God from a banker, a lawyer, or a doctor?  That doesn’t mean a banker, lawyer or doctor can’t be Spirit filled as well; the point is where is the separation unto God?

 Ministers perform and entertain to keep the crowds coming back for more. Coming back with the same sins, the same addictions, and the same habits with no hope of conviction to bring change. You’re okay, I’m okay – Jesus loves us just the way we are.

 But, He doesn’t love the sin, control, excuses, and the manipulation of the congregant’s emotions thinking if they are standing on their feet while you parade across the room like a man in a one-act play, they have been in Gods Presence.

 This isn’t a personal tirade against preaching that moves emotions. Emotions are a part of us. Emotions will be moved when God shows up. The point is when Gods people think they have been in His Presence only when their emotions have been stirred.

 When God comes in – change comes with Him! 

He changes our lives forever. He brings us from darkness into Light, and from the entertainment industry of preaching to the presence ministry of preaching. 

We must praise Him until the spirit of worship comes. We must worship Him until the Spirit of Glory comes. Then stand in His Glory. 

I heard my dear friend, the late Ruth Ward Heflin, say this over and over and over again. She knew the presence of God and this was her formula for bringing the Glory into the house! 

Stand in the Glory. When the manifest Presence of His Glory comes you won’t need to preach! You won’t need to pray for the sick, and the demon possessed. When God’s Glory cloud comes into the meeting lives will be changed in His Presence. No one dare attempt to “perform” when the Kings’ Presence is in the room! 

When you have a Presence ministry God alone gets the Glory. People will leave talking about Him not about the sermon, or the special entertainment cloaked in “gospel music”. 

When the Presence of God is released the atmosphere is filled with the fragrance of another world. The immediate environment of His World has now invaded ours. His Kingdom come, His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

Presence ministry is costly. As a matter of fact, it will cost you everything you have. Including your reputation, ministry and life. Presence ministry is His ministry in you for His Glory. You must become dead to the accolades of men and seek His Face alone. However, it is Presence ministry that Jesus is looking to release. Are you willing to be a candidate? Will you volunteer for this elite group of Special Forces? 

Come men of God. Come back to His Presence. Come back to the womb from which you were launched. Come back to the supernatural. Come back to the Glory of God.

 ~

Praise Him until the Spirit of Worship comes. Worship Him until the Glory comes. Then stand in the Glory.

Ruth Ward Heflin - Jan 21, 1940 – Sept 15, 2000