2. A Herald to Jesus of Nazareth's Bride

The Church in this country is at a time in which there will be no Isaiah 64:1-3 without Joel 2:13 first.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Okay, this is uh episode two of a herald The Jesus of Nazareth's bride in the United States of America. So I'm picking it up before I left off. This is my version of an audiobook, I guess I should say that too. So during the time that I was at Rotha, a friend told me about a Southern Baptist church that wasn't very typically Southern Baptist. My wife and I went to check it out, and it was a little different. We began attending, and some months later, three pastors, one senior pastor and two associate pastors, asked me to join the pastoral team. In the next few years, we added two more pastors. Initially I came on staff part-time the first of August 1988. Then in January of 1989, I was full-time. The first event uh I attended was one of the full uh as one of the full-time pastors, was their annual pastors retreat where they discussed and planned for the coming year. Throughout most of the planning, I remained quiet, seeing myself as the new guy who didn't know much. At one point the senior pastor asked me if I had any suggestions. I did, and explained that even though I was certainly no expert on moves of the Holy Spirit, that one of the things I had noticed in my reading about this was that such moves always seemed to follow extensive and intensive times of prayer. Prayer especially done by those who were fed up with religion and were desperate for the real thing. Joel 2, 15 through 17. My suggestion was that we four pastors set aside two or three mornings a week to pray. One of the uh one of the associate pastors was adamantly against this, saying we were too busy to spend time like that in prayer. Senior pastor though had some interest. However, he didn't think we could do three mornings, but was willing to try two. So, beginning the next week, first thing in the morning, we went into the auditorium to pray. Quite quickly we discovered that this was not easy. For after each one of us expressed some things to Jesus, we didn't know what else to say or to do. But it wasn't long before the Spirit not only began to draw our hearts, but also to instruct us in what to do. And in this he showed us two things. First, to combine prayer with worship, as in Revelation 5, 8. And secondly, to pray the scriptures. A good example, of course, is Ephesians 1, 17 through 19, and chapter 3, 16 through 19. It wasn't long before that single arduous hour morphed into 8 a.m. to lunchtime. But with each appointed time of Jesus, something was happening to us. Put it simply, we were becoming hungry and thirsty for the living God. And in this, we began to become obsessed with having to have Him and His presence among us. Anything less than this was not acceptable. We didn't know it, but we had no idea what such a thing would even look like. Much less what it would cost. Then one Monday morning, the second week of July 1989, we were in the auditorium praying. And we'd only begun praying for a short time when someone entered the auditorium. This is difficult to put into words, but it was kinda like this. You ever been in a room with your back to the door and you become aware that someone had entered? You didn't become aware they entered because you heard them enter, but because you sensed them. Well, this was sort of like that. There was no physical indication, and yet someone, besides the four of us, was in the room. Being in the presence of this holy person caused us to prostrate ourselves on the floor. And after some intense silence, this presence began to speak to us. And in his speaking, it was sort of like having a conference call in our hearts. We didn't hear him with our ears. We heard him in our spirits. And the essential point he was making was this. Christianity is not about you. It's about me. We'd say, We know that. He'd say, No, you don't. Yes, we do. No, you don't. Yes, we do. No, you do not. We know John 15 5. You're the vine, we're the branches, and we can do we can't do anything apart from you. I know you know this theology. You're not doing this theology. Yes, we are. No, you're not. Yes, we are. No, you're not. And in this, the Lord seemed to be telling us to do nothing so he could show us. Not just tell us what he meant. But doing nothing seemed absolutely absurd to us. And then this do nothing thing, the senior pastor got so exasperated, he blurted out, God, are you telling me not to even preach? Maybe you need a little information on the Southern Baptist's view on preaching in order to fully appreciate this. In those days, Southern Baptists did not not preach. Not preaching to a Southern Baptist was like some sort of unpardonable sin. Not preaching? It's utterly unacceptable. It's unthinkable. A church building can be on fire and no one is leaving until the sermon is over. So for the senior pastor to question Almighty God, who some Southern Baptists believe is a Southern Baptist, might be one of the greatest heresies known among men. But at this question, the senior pastor passionately voiced the presence suddenly left the room just as suddenly as he'd come in. It was like a light switch had been turned off. This was quite an unusual experience for the four of us at that time. So we got up off the floor, went to our offices. I sat in my office wondering what in the world had happened. Over the next four a few weeks, we four continued to pray. Then, on the last Sunday of July, we were just ending the singing part. We were s we were still learning what worship is, of the early Sunday morning service, which was about 8.30, when that presence suddenly stepped in. On those days we four pastors used to sit on our little thrones, as I used to mockingly call them, up on the platform. We also used to wear coats and ties. When this presence entered the auditorium, we recognized him instantly. A couple of us prostrating ourselves on the pulpit platform. The congregation did not immediately sense this presence. Their spiritual dryness made them unreceptive. Sort of like a very dry sponge resists water at first. We too had been just as dry. But excuse me, unlo unknowingly in those hours and hours of seeking to lay hold of the living God, to actually touch Jesus of Nazareth himself, in which we pressed him with our ever-growing longing to actually and in our reality have him present among us. We had been soaking in small amounts of his presence. As for what happened, I think the people must have been wondering what in the heck we pastors were doing, stopping the service and laying on the platform on our faces in our coats and ties. Maybe some might have said, Look, Mildred, what are the pastors doing? Is this some new form of ministry? I don't think I like it. It's not becoming. It's not respectable. Seems odd, especially radical. I don't like radical. I like respectable, comfortable, nice, cute. Nothing that really challenges me. Where's the special music? When is this thing gonna be over? I'm hungry. Where do we have him for lunch? I sure hope Pastor doesn't preach long. But time seemed to disappear. I'd say some fifteen or twenty minutes went by. And with each passing minute, a heaviness slowly filled the room. No one was moving. No one made a sound. Finally, the senior pastor stood up to turn on his lapel mic, and softly said, I know the Lord is in the room, but I don't know what to do. So we're just gonna wait on him. And with that, he turned off his lapel mic and returned to his prone position. Some more time went by. And then suddenly all heaven broke loose. Lots of people with obvious signs of some conviction spontaneously began coming to the altar area. And being one of the professional ministers, I went to one lady to try to give some help to her. After all, as one of the pastors, I'm supposed to know how to help people. This woman was so overwhelmed and was weeping so hard that I felt like I should wait for a lull before I offer to help her. But the lull wasn't coming. She kept getting more and more intense. So I decided to break in and to ask her what she felt like was happening to her. And when I did this, she turned herself to face me, grabbed my shoulders, and said intensely, I am lost. I'm not a real Christian. In short, what Jesus was initially doing was to deal with church people's lost condition, sins, lukewarmness, and compromises with this world. And in this typical middle class American congregation, there were lots of these issues. Further, it became quite clear quite quickly that we four little pastors were not in charge of what was happening. We hadn't started it, thus we had no control of it, and although we probably could have stopped it, we didn't dare. So whatever this was, it was showing no sign of letting up or slowing down. Even though it was past time for the first Sunday morning service. So we posted some deacons at the front entrances to try to help the arriving people. The deacons told people that the Lord was doing something a little unusual that morning. What an understatement. And instructed them to go in and to try to find a seat. And as some entered the auditorium, they too would be overwhelmed by this presence. Finally, at about 1.30 in the afternoon, the presence lifted. And when we came back to the 6 p.m. service, the place was attacked. The news had spread. But more importantly, for probably the first time we began to worship. For we had experienced the Jesus. Gone was this religious spirit in which we in which people went through the motions of just singing songs. Now, blown away by the presence, people sang their love for Jesus, to Jesus. Truly we had tasted something way beyond mere theology about Jesus. And when the worship time ended, the presence again entered. And he did his thing to us until well past midnight. The next morning, Monday, the senior pastor called us together for a meeting. And as we sat around a table trying to understand what had happened, something suddenly hit me. I turned to the senior pastor and said, You didn't preach. Which we had all overlooked. Instantly the presence drew close and pressed this truth into us. Christianity is not about you. It's about me. I am able to accomplish what I want to accomplish. You serve my purposes. I will serve you and your programs. All you must do is to seek me, follow me, fall deeply in love with me. I'll do the rest. Now we were beginning to understand. A wise man used to say that the living God will offend people's minds to reveal what's truly in their hearts. If you haven't seen this God do this many, many times throughout the entire Bible, you aren't reading very carefully, nor accurately comprehending what you're reading. And if you're unaware of this in all of church history, you don't know church history very well. Jesus Jesus' discussions with the Pharisees, the segment of Jews whose theology was the most like his own, is probably the clearest example of this. And if you think you're exempt from this, you're an arrogant fool. Fact is, if Jesus of Nazareth presents himself to you personally or visits your group, he absolutely will do things, many things, that will offend you as you as he confronts your wrong beliefs. If this doesn't happen, be assured that you are not experiencing the Jesus. So be prepared to have your beliefs and practices and thus your hearts tested like this. My suggestion is that you hold everything with your palms up and open so that you can eat, so that he can easily blow away what he does not like. If you doggedly grip the things he wants gone or changed, you yourself will be blown away with the chat. The followers of Jesus of Nazareth in this country need far more than Bible lessons or theology. They need to experience the living God Himself in reality. In other words, the Spirit and the Word. And to do this, people need to repent of their religious churchianity as well as their Bible allotry deifying the Bible. And return to the ultimate purpose for which the bridegroom came created creation. That of having a marriage-like relationship with creatures being made in his image. The listener who would like to know more about the love, sick, passionate, and intimate relationship Jesus of Nazaret came to offer. I suggest both again it's in written form, and it's one of the uh audiobooks I've done. It's titled The Bride The Bridal Process of the Song of Songs to Fulfill John 1726. Before I move on, I'm not providing this very short summary about myself to try to validate what follows. I'm sharing these few things to give some personal background to what follows. If you'd like to know more, again, you can get the book or you can listen to it in an um in an audio book that I've done on with my podcast titled Moments with the Holy Spirit.