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| (Green Lake, Wisconsin) |
The presence of God is the dominant theme
from Genesis to Revelation.
David Fitch
What can sustain the American Church during the global pandemic? More than anything, what is needed are experiential encounters with God. "Surely the Lord is in this place" happenings.
The location of these events is: human hearts.
A friend of mine who is a great scientist had an encounter with Jesus in his hospital room. It changed his life forever. I have many friends who were alone in their homes, when the Holy Spirit unexpectedly fell on them. They were never the same again. Recently, this happened to one of our Redeemer persons, in their living room, as they listened to our worship service on YouTube.
A temple is a building that hosts the presence of God. Followers of Jesus are temples of the Spirit of God. We are portable sanctuaries. We experience God with us.
In my book Leading the Presence-Driven Church I write about the primacy of the "presence motif" in Scripture. It is God himself that we need. We need encounters and experiences with God, such that we declare, "The Lord God Almighty is here!"
A. W. Tozer knew this. He writes:
"There is today no lack of Bible teachers to set forth correctly the principles of the doctrines of Christ, but too many of these seem satisfied to teach the fundamentals oft he faith year after year, strangely unaware that there is in their ministry no manifest Presence, nor anything unusual in their personal lives." (A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, Kindle Locations 38-40)
