In the absence of supernatural activity, I have resorted more to human means. Not so long back the greatest sense of miracle I heard of in the church was to witness a divine co-incidence. Where the display of raw power is lacking we become more convinced that working, strategising and planning are more potent than prayer and His presence. Human effort and planning does bear some fruit. The tower of Babel is evidence of the phenomenal potential of human endeavour, goal setting and organisation. Abraham is evidence of the nation shaping and forming power of God’s blessing and promise. I believe as a church at large we are being weaned off the arm of flesh and trained into true dependence.

 

When Christians gather it is good for us to remember that we are there for more of him, and that He is there for more of us. His plan is that the possessed ones will possess the nations for Him. The nations don’t need Christianized human approaches, but wisdom and power that take their breath away. Ezekiel’s river (Ezekiel 47) shows us that any flow of the Spirit, originating in the presence of God will increase in depth, width and flow without the assistance of human agency. Like God’s word, God’s presence – the Holy Spirit- has the ability to increase built into it. It is supernaturally sustained and reproductive without additives. The Human response required is swimming! Get into God’s flow until it carries you to where it wants to take you. The river will always take us to places that need healing, to nations, to those whose water is stale. I have too often taken the jump of knowing where the Bible says I should go – to the nations, mission- and then planned where and how the river should run to get me there. I believe we are in a new season where intoxication, abandonment and supernatural revelations will produce multiplied fruitfulness beyond any we could imagine by previous means.

 

Do we need structure and organisation, of course. But it needs to be shaped by the presence of God, shaped around what He is doing.

 

In the presence of sufficient flow of God seasons end. Every month is fruit month. In Amos 9:12-14 the treaders of the grapes are pictured as overtaking the seed sowers which can only mean there is a harvest time to come where you enjoy the fruit but never planted anything, and normal seasonal expectations are over!