Key Brief 12: Revelation in Action: how do we respond?

This is a WATERSHED moment for the Church!!

We need to RESPOND to the things we are learning, not just hear them! So to be DOERS of the word, this section will be a review of the revelations God has shared in this teaching and how we should act in response to them.

I think of Martin Luther and when he realized the bible was not being followed correctly and reformed the way Christian churches operated, among many things he changed the liturgy. It was the way the weekly formal church service was run and this was the way the common person was affected by church doctrine. In a similar way our modern services are focused primarily on “pastors preaching doctrine” as the main expression of ministry that spreads the gospel. Because there are more vital aspects of ministry than merely preaching, we therefore need to make appropriate room for core ministry functions other than lecture type sermons in our weekly meetings. At a minimum this means after-sermon prayer lines, but small group prayer teams is another option. Incorporating the sharing of prophecy during the meeting, and praying for healing at the end are also important ideas to consider.

Sometimes however, the Holy Spirit needs more elbow room and will ask for the entire normal routine to be scrapped entirely for a week or a month or a year. The Holy Spirit does things … unconventionally. And we had best follow his lead if we want to please him and get maximum benefit from his leadership.

If he asks us to suspend the music or the sermon and just worship all service without music or singing, or to play background music while we wait all service just for his word of prophecy to come, and then to pray for each other to receive the impact of that word, or to stop what we are doing and pray for world events to prevent the outbreak of war or famine, or just for our people to get on their faces and repent of pride and wait until he is relieved to move on to our next activity, the Holy Spirit needs to be allowed to be in charge. Leaders must be mature and sensitive to his leading. We need order, but not man’s blind authoritarian control. And when he makes these unusual requests we can be sure there is a legitimate reason for it, and obedience will bring real fruit, save lives, empower our people, protect our cities.

Having a set routine for our weekly service is not wrong, but being inflexible and following a pre-planned liturgy by rote without any deviation is. Every week in a public service we should have teaching, praise reports, music, prayer and other things, but how we do these things, how much time we spend on each of them, how serious we take them and how often we let go of our rigid formulas and fly by the seat of our pants, at the Holy Spirit’s direction not our fanciful whims, will determine how successful we are in releasing the blessings of the Kingdom.