Manifesting Presence of the Holy Spirit

“Bible knowledge without Bible experience is pointless.” Bill Johnson

“It is by revivals of religion that the Church of God makes its most visible advance.  When all things seem becalmed, when no breath stirs the air, when the sea is like lead and the sky is low and grey, when all worship seems to have ended but the worship of matter, then it is that the Spirit of God is poured upon the Church, then it is that the Christianity of the apostles and martyrs, not that of the philosophers and liberals, keeps rising from the catacombs of oblivion, and appears young and fresh in the midst of the obsolete things of yesterday and the day before.”  Sir William Robertson Nicoll

I am a direct descendant of John Knox Witherspoon. John Witherspoon was the sixth great grandson of the great Scottish Reformer, John Knox. Witherspoon was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the sixth President of Princeton University, and the man historically responsible for bringing the Presbyterian Church from Scotland to the United States. Witherspoon was the only signer of the Declaration of Independence who was a clergyman. Between Witherspoon and myself, five of seven generations were Presbyterian Ministers.

I have a great love for this and all denominational churches in America. My heart breaks for this church foundation. But my heart burns for God to do and have His way in all His churches. I hope for these denominational houses of God to be filled with the Spirit of love and joy and unity. However, I am a member of a non-denominational church and will never go back to denominational ways until the Spirit of God is fully welcome in such places. 

Worldwide denominations are dying. In most cases, they are all but dead. How many souls are being saved in these churches on a weekly basis? How many sick are being healed? How many people are being delivered from emotional wounds and social dysfunctions, not with programs and salves that only cover over, but with outright powerful supernatural healing? My Bible says, along with salvation, that healing, deliverance and life from the dead are things that Jesus Christ died for, things that we are supposed to be doing. They are things well understood and acted upon in the first church of Acts.

In reality “Do it yourself Christianity” is the very failure of the denominational church. For in such places, man relies on man’s old dead religious ways, man’s thinking, man’s programs, and man’s worship. Church leaderships choose to be the roof over the church, the “coverage”, instead of being the foundation of the church as Jesus chose to be. God never meant for there to be a roof over the church! 

Jesus lifted His church up to God and said, “Do with them what YOU want”. He said, “I only come to do the will of my Father.”

In today’s religious church, we do it ourselves, without God’s divine influence. The result is lifeless church; looks great on the outside, but is all but powerless and dead of the heart. People come in one way and leave the same way. Church is supposed to see people come in one way and leave healed, delivered, set free and raised back to life.

God is reduced to a God of chance rather than of a guarantee. Manipulation and control out of fear or other fleshly reasons are in place by man rather than the direct personal intimate release and love of God the Father. Only the most talented of people get released to give and the result is a nice exactly one-hour show. Meanwhile those without talent go and bury their talent. Such places leave no room for the Holy Spirit to do what Jesus Christ died for.

No church is disqualified from God’s manifest Presence to come and be free to operate. Certainly this is no less true for the denominational church than it is for non-denominational churches. I am convinced; God is willing and waiting for any Jesus believing, Bible believing church that will give Him all their reigns of control. In such a place, control gives way to love, fear gives way to intimacy, and satan gives way to the power of God! 

What do we have to fear if God is resident in the room? Could it be… money, position, or loss of control?

What will this nation look like if God’s church was fully filled with the power of Christ’s Cross? What would it look like if God’s houses of worship were filled with the fire of God’s Presence so much so that the walls could not contain it? How many would go out into the nations to reap for Jesus the reward for His sufferings? How many billions of dollars would flow through the church for this harvest? How many men and women of God would rise up into positions of national leadership and with power, authority and fearlessness declare, “This is one nation united under God!”

The rising up of the non-denominational church is not a work of man but of God Himself who has been looking for a people who would let Him lead instead of man. In such a way I have seen incredible moves of God in our city and into missions works around the world. (As of this writing…) My church alone has sown over $2 million annually into international missions and with only 2000 members. I myself have been sent out to Ukraine, China, Bulgaria, Mexico and beyond to minister in love on a part time basis. The church explodes when the Holy Spirit is given release to lead. And then we take it to the streets and to the nations.

People who do not understand the purpose and work of the Spirit in the post Cross church are the ones most vocal against it, just as were the Pharisees in Jesus day. The Pharisees accused falsely against what they did not understand and what they would not believe. 

If you want to see real Christian unity that lovingly affects this nation in the days ahead, it must be of the Spirit, by the Spirit, for God… not of man, by man, for God. 

The question to the denominational church is this: “Do you want what God is doing today and tomorrow? Or do you want to stay in the old dead lifeless swampy bog waters of where God’s River used to be? Yesterday is gone! Why should we live in our yesterdays? The Bible says, “I am doing a new thing, do you not perceive it?”