Turn Up the Volume!

Over the past week I have enjoyed participating in the live services via my laptop and iPhone from Piper’s and My home church and Bible College in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.  The yearly event called “Winter Bible Seminar” invites attendees from all over the world and while it is open to anyone, it is specifically centered around Rhema Bible Training College and all those who have attended the accredited Bible School.  The event is advertised as “Homecoming” and is a gathering for the over 70,000 individuals who have graduated from the Rhema USA campus in its 45 years of existence, as well as the graduates from the over 200 Rhema schools overseas.

I had to laugh this morning as I recalled a comment made to me in the late 1970’s by a friend who was attending the Baptist Seminary I had originally planned to attend.  He spoke to me after church one Sunday advising me that the “Faith Message” taught at Rhema (that Piper and I had discovered a few years earlier and had seen it change our lives, electrify our faith, and give us an insatiable hunger for the things of God) was a limited message that could only be applicable in the United States.  But alas, his concern has proven to be untrue.  During the previous night’s service that highlighted the foreign schools and attendees, our Pastor read some recent statistics from a nondenominational source that discussed how the Rhema organization has grown across Europe and Asia faster than any other Christian denomination in recent years.

One thing that continually caught my attention during the week was the child-like faith that seemed to overflow from the leaders that spoke from the international schools.  I couldn’t help but want to jump and shout when they would talk about the miracles that they see almost daily in places like Kenya, Columbia, Venezuela, the Pacific Islands, Peru and throughout South America, in Europe and in many of the former Communist nations.  It reminded me of the excitement that my wife and I saw and were involved with during the latter days of the Charismatic Revival in northern California in the 1970’s and ‘80’s.

It seems to me, that we in the USA have gotten a little too refined and or intellectual in the state of our Christianity since then.  Sure, we have the occasional revival that pops up here and there around the country with signs, wonders and miracles along with displays of the Holy Spirit’s fire, but it’s definitely not the norm for the Christian church in our country today.

The first speaker yesterday morning, who is an American but has spent over twenty years overseeing one of the Rhema International Schools, caught my attention when she taught on our relationship with God and our need and ability to hear from the Holy Spirit.  She spoke of the night a number of years back, when her husband passed away and of her experience with hearing the Holy Spirit which, as she put it “turned my darkest day into my greatest day of victory.”  She recounted an incident that occurred as she laid on the floor trying to get some rest (explaining that she hadn’t slept for two years – to which I yelled out loud without thinking… “I can attest to that” as I haven’t slept soundly through the night for over eight years since Piper got sick!) when she suddenly heard a command from God.

As sleep evaded her in the midst of the pain she was suffering over the loss of her mate, she said she clearly and distinctly heard the voice of the Holy Spirit from deep inside her say: “You’re winning, Get up!”  So, she obeyed that now familiar voice and declared that she got up and has been winning ever since.  Her story hit a chord with me for within the sorrow, I also have felt a sense of peace and victory at the passing of my wife almost six months ago.  When Piper moved on to glory, I was happy for her, but I was also happy that we never gave up on our stand of faith since those first ominous medical reports in 2007. 

Yeah, we had lots of opportunities to toss in the towel.  We received plenty of unsolicited advice that tried to point out how stupid (their words, not mine) we were for listening to what we believed were the Holy Spirit’s directions for us.  But it quickly became obvious to me that His plans contrasted with what their natural senses and intellect were telling them.  And then of course, there was all of the physical evidence we faced on a daily basis that looked to be the opposite of God’s promises.

But looking back today, I can see the faithfulness of God repeatedly over the years that followed.  Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to “Trust GOD from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own.  Listen for GOD's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; (for) he's the one who will keep you on track.” (MSG)  The speaker made the point that “Faith is not blind” and just because it doesn’t line up with what some might consider to be “common sense,” it doesn’t mean that God has you working in the dark, but instead has given you a clear plan through His Word and the leading of the Holy Spirit… which He continually did for us each step of the way!

Examples of Moses and the splitting of the Red Sea and Joshua crossing the Jordan River and taking Jericho, were sighted as proof of this spiritual reality.  As a Christian regularly seeking the truths of the Word and staying sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit, you’ll quickly discover that God always gives specific instructions to specific people for specific things (ie; tasks and or assignments etc…), for specific times.  Doesn’t that just send thrill chills down your spine?  It does to me!

That excitement that the speaker felt, that I felt along with Piper in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s and recently revived again, is what I saw over and over again in the faces, voices and actions of the groups of people who traveled to Oklahoma to be at the home church and campus from all over the world.  That is the excitement I want to see around me here in North Carolina and throughout the USA!  What do you think about that?  Let’s get back to the place where we follow the Psalmist’s suggestion to “Trust the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding.” (Proverbs 3:5 God’s Word ©)

So what do you say?  Let’s turn down the volume on the intellect and voice of our natural reasoning and rekindle and turn up the sound of our reliance on our child-like faith in God, His Word and with our sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit!

Have a wonderful weekend, and as you do, say along with me… “I am expecting to exhibit an ever-increasing child-like faith in God!”