“Breaking Through The Cloud”
I am well aware that we lead busy and full lives, and that at times our world can be filled with various challenges and complexities. We have children to take care of, friendships to build and nurture, careers to lead and jobs to do, bills to pay, cars to have repaired, gardens to tend too, doctors to see if we have health issues, kids extra tuition and hobbies to pay for and the list goes on and on… Phew! Therefore one of the greatest challenges I have found during personal and corporate worship times is the laying aside of concerns… the laying aside of burdens and the many things that seek to steal our attention from encountering God.
I find that for at least the first 15 minutes of my own private worship & prayer time with God – it’s about me letting go of and dealing with every concern and distraction. Sometimes I’ll sift through things in my mind and find myself putting my thoughts and anxieties on the shelf. Or I’ll find myself praying my challenges through. I may even need to ask for forgiveness so my conscience is clear again… Whatever it takes to clean the slate so I’m positioned in faith and peace. Then I’m able to enter into a place where I am attuned to hearing God’s voice as clearly as possible. It’s there that I become increasingly aware of His still small voice and it’s there that I enter a location where I know I have captured heavens attention… His presence becomes stronger and our hearts connect on a deeper level with each other…
This wrestle also translates into a corporate setting because people enter the service carrying all kinds of baggage since there are so many things going on in our busy lives. Some walk away from the corporate service saying, “The worship was a performance,” or “I didn’t connect with God.” Well hang on, maybe that’s not so much because of the worship team but more to do with their own week and their preparation in coming to church… Maybe they are weighed down with stuff…?
The challenging thing in a church setting (most of the time) is that the worship leader or worship team have 20 minutes to focus people on Jesus Christ and hopefully draw them into a powerful worship experience… That’s kind of overwhelming when you think that there are 168 hours in a week and the worship team is given 20 minutes out of all those hours to impact people’s world. So… sometimes our ability to Break Through The Cloud is like hitting up against a brick wall! That’s why I believe it’s fundamentally important for God’s people (not just the worship team) to consistently build the kind of atmosphere at home through private worship, prayer and devotion to not only encounter Jesus for themselves, but also so we make it easier to connect with God in a corporate setting. So then we enter church on a Sunday with a living, vibrant and active relationship with Christ… We come with faith and expectancy, with a heart that is full to overflowing with the praises of our King!
It takes a catalyst with a strong anointing and boldness on their lives to Break Through The Cloud in 20 minutes! It takes someone who is full of God, prayed up & positioned in faith to burst through the grey clouds and take the people into blue skies… It’s just like the experience of being on a plane, you’ve just taken off and you begin to hit turbulence because you’re in the clouds… Well what the pilot understands is that the turbulence won’t last long! He or she has a destination to reach and this bumpy patch is just a fleeting moment before the smooth part of the journey arrives… And sooner rather than later everything begins to even out and the turbulence stops because you’ve Broken Through The Clouds.
This is when the next part of the journey kicks in…
“The Place Of Presence”
The Place Of Presence is where everything becomes easier… It’s where things almost go into slow motion… Zechariah 4:6 – “It’s not by might, nor by power but by My Spirit saith the Lord.”
We find we have broken through the flesh… the multiple distractions… complexities and spiritual debris, have been dealt with. We have become aware of His presence… Yes… AWARE of His presence… In His presence is fullness of joy… The burdens are lifted and we are able to focus on Jesus and spiritually see more clearly… Not as man would see, no… we begin to see from a different perspective- with a God’s eye view because God’s presence lifts us and encourages us… The things that seemed impossible suddenly become possible… His promises become real and start to take pre-eminence within us instead of the worries and anxieties that have weighed us down… God’s way becomes real and alive… we become more attuned to Him… Faith rises in our hearts causing our prayers to have more authority and more impact…We sense the weight of our words as we begin to speak to our mountains and believe that they CAN and WILL be moved… Doubt is eradicated… it’s dealt with because we have entered a different air space… There are no clouds here… there are only blue skies in this air space… The things of earth grow strangely dim… We are flying at a whole new level… Our heavy heart becomes lighter… Our joy returns…
I am aware corporately that I need to lead the people into this level as quickly as possible. So if I’m not fresh and sharp and haven’t found this level privately I will have a job on my hands bringing the people there! The simple fact is… you can only take someone where you have first been… you can’t force and push people into a place that you aren’t living in… That’s like driving into a beautiful gated community, finding a beautiful home, proceeding to get out of your car on someone else’s driveway, opening up the front door and asking your friend’s to enjoy the facilities in a home you don’t own… Well – reality check… you’re going to get chased out because you’re not the owner!!
There are postcodes in God that He desires you to live in and possess, not just visit on occasions…but it’s up to us… May we go in and possess them so we can bring people into the fullness of them to enjoy their fruit! Places where incredible liberty, favour, joy that’s unspeakable and full of glory, peace that surpasses our understanding and favour are found…
You see so often we look to change external things and fail to realise that if God can change us within, then everything we are connected to will follow suit.
And as we linger in The Place Of Presence we become filled to overflowing with Him and find that God is able to take us into the next level, which is by far the best…
“The Place Of Exchange”
The Place Of Exchange is a wonderful and breathtaking place. It’s where you don’t speak – God speaks… “Deep calls to deep… Your waves and billows have gone over me…”(Psalm 42). You breathe Him in… The waves and billows of God wash over you… You are communing spirit to Spirit, heart to Heart with the Living God… It’s the place where He begins to transfer promises from His heart to yours… He removes the old ways of thinking and replaces them with the new… He downloads new software into your mind because the way you thought in the previous season has now become redundant… It’s also a place where you are still and you know that HE IS GOD… There is no fear in this place… No demon can enter… It’s an uncontaminated area… Undefiled… You are fully immersed in God… and it’s there that you understand what Abraham understood in Genesis 15 – that God is your ‘exceedingly great reward…’ not things… Things are only a bi-product of knowing and encountering Him… Everything else pales into insignificance… You are truly overwhelmed…
Too often we get to the second level and fool ourselves into believing that that is all God has for us… But here we are reminded that He is inexhaustible and never sleeps nor slumbers… There is so much to be found in Him… You need wisdom? It’s granted… You need peace? It’s given… You need healing? It comes… You need joy? It’s in abundance… You realise that He alone is your source… If God can transfer it into your heart it will then become a living reality… ‘And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…’ (John 1:14)
I see it as my responsibility to usher people into this place but sadly that is often not the case because of structured plans and time restraints… We live in a busy western world that places high demands on us…
These are the 3 levels I have constantly noticed… Read them through again and get a greater sense of them and watch for them when you’re worshipping Jesus…
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