Jump, Shout, Let it all out!

               One thing that was always disturbing to me is when I would find myself in a church service where the praise and worship leader and singers are trying so hard to usher in a spirit of praise. What they don’t seem to realize is that they are losing the few that may be ready with the repetitive unfeeling songs.

                Having been a Praise and Worship singer one of the things taught was never force the worship. The one thing we always had to do was pray to get on one accord, which sometimes, no matter how much effort put into, it may not happen with the proposed group of singers. It is so difficult at times to come into an atmosphere that is stifling and try to force the praise of a God we know is worthy of all praise.

 Then sometimes I think for too many years the church pulpit has been a stage for some to perform. To garner the trust of the people with a good emotionally stirring sermon. As I was studying and all night I found myself wrestling with something that has been on my mind for a very long time.

One of the things which has come to be expected for some to qualify the service as good is when the “Holy Ghost” has control of the service. For decades the Pentecostal ways of praise have been held as the standard by which we praise. What is considered is the day of Pentecost that has been assumed to have occurred at Azusa Street.

I will forever be thankful to my first Pastor who hammered into us how important it is to study the word. To find out for yourself what God really says about a whole matter and not what has been interpreted by someone.  The study tools available today make it so much simpler to find and research is not as tedious.

Well what I’ve found is just that, things I’ve found in my quest to know God better and be a better servant for him. I was torn on what direction I wanted to take my blog and who I was ready to get flak from for my opinions and observations. Over the years even some of our most prolific evangelist have followed a pattern of service designed by men. By men looking at the time for means to spread the gospel. Men who understood fully the best way to get cooperation was to hit an emotional trigger. To stir up the emotions of people already disturbed by problems is easy when the right things are said.

I get so upset when God is portrayed to be like a genie in a bottle and with the right rub, your desire will be granted. Or even more upsetting is when God is made to be like an ATM, put in a hundred here and God will give you a tenfold blessing. I’ve heard that so many times and have actually given and honestly, still waiting on my return, let alone a tenfold return.  This is where I’m sure I will get the most disagreement from those so set in the ways of a denomination. God is not an ATM, God doesn’t make people lose control and go wild, the spirit is not many of the things we have seen demonstrated in many churches.

When I began to search the scriptures for certain things, not one of them could I find. For example I did not find any instance where when Jesus healed, did the afflicted person have a highly emotional reaction. Yes, there was excitement, like to woman at the well and perhaps the one leper who came back to say thank you. But I sometimes feel we have allowed the enemy to get us distracted by emotional reactions rather than God inspired revelation.

Okay, just so I can bring some to the same page I am on, let’s look at a few things the word tells us about the spirit of God and then we will take a look in-depth at each of the fruits of the spirit. If my ministry is to be one of teaching, please understand what I teach I had to learn first. It is not only the student that will either accept or reject, but as a teacher sometimes I’ve been forced to look at the hard things and have to stand alone because precedent has been established and no one wants to disrupt. Well thank God, Jesus didn’t care about precedent, but he came to change that. To shake things up, to get people past emotional response and get the real spiritual answers.

This is one of things I believe has been a block for me to step out, the one to have to share the hard things. The one to shine a light on some of the areas we’ve allowed to be clouded with deception and cunning.  Really it wasn’t until the parable in Matthew 13, the wheat and the tare, was shown to me that I was able to see a deeper answer to one of my questions. Jesus told the disciples God put the wheat and the enemy placed the tare together, but what is missed is God allowed it to strengthen the wheat and not for the wheat to take on the characteristics of tare.

Because I only have so many hours in a day and this holiday sapped me of a lot of it, I will pick this up after work and continue thru the morning on this subject until I feel a release. My desire is to have a new post daily to this blog, but it appears some days and some things on my heart may take more time to put together. That being said, please bear with me as I get rid of the tare in my days so I can present all I feel strongly in my spirit.

When I became aware that my call to the ministry was to be one of hard not wanted to be discussed truths. I recall sitting on my cousin’s couch and asking, why do I have to be the one with this message?  Laughing I said okay, I’m going to do a Jonah move. Well little did I know my whale was going to be the small secluded town of Hobbs, New Mexico. I reminded the Lord yesterday Jonah was only in the belly three days, so why must I still be in the belly. I had to laugh when I got the response, “Well Jonah got the revelation a lot faster than you did!”

So, now I go off to the bill paying portion of my day and hope if you find my study intriguing, please come back tonight for more. Jump, shout let it all out Monday!! Smooches~~