I am beginning to realize that many who have been raised up in church in the last 20 years have missed out on something that many of us had the privilege of receiving!  In order to become acceptable to society, we began to first have user friendly services.  Then finally user friendly churches.  We did not want to offend anyone or leave them out.  So we stopped talking about the precious Holy Spirit!

We stopped allowing Him to move among the believers and instead have replaced Him moving with entertainment and all kinds of programs and it has become more like a social club than a place where we allow God to move in His power.

A while back I had a dream of being in a local church and my mother who in the past was always used in the gift of tongues and sometimes interpretation was about to stand up and speak in tongues.  Suddenly a woman who actually looked Pentecostal came up behind her and whispered in her ear that we no longer do that here.  She stopped in her tracks.  The woman in the dream was a woman that was a well known Pentecostal preacher in our area.

I realized that most of the Pentecostal denominations around here were as dead as some of the denominational churches had become!  They no longer encourage their people to pray in the Spirit.  They no longer encouraged their people to move out in their gifts but had allowed it to slip away because they wanted to become accepted in the world.

God is once again wanting to have free reign in His church.  He is wanting to move among His people and He is coming because of a cry of a people (a remnant) who long to see the Holy Spirit come into His church again and do the miracles of the early church!  He is coming I tell you in answer to the hunger of a generation who are desperate for the raw power of God!  They are desperate enough to look foolish to the world.  They are desperate enough to not care what any one thinks or says.  They just know that they have a deep Spiritual need and only the power of the holy spirit can deliver them!

The young people today have been raised up knowing all about the spirit realm in the negative sense but not knowing the power of God!  So much so that when they see the power of God it is so foreign to them that they are afraid!  We who know of this power need to raise up in this hour and begin to teach and preach again about the precious Holy Spirit!  We should begin to have alter calls for the baptism of the Holy Ghost!  We need to tell them how He will change their life and how He gives them overcoming power!  We need to begin to allow “our people ” to move in their gifts.  No, it isn’t acceptable to some but what does that matter if God is pleased.  In order to have power in the Lord we have to be willing to look foolish to the world.  God has never been interested in our cute little selves but only wants to be let out of the box that we have had Him in and so that he can once again move among us!  He is waiting on a people who will not care what anyone thinks as long as we have Him!

What if we begin to allow the worship to go on until it comes up before God and He comes and consumes us!?  What if?  What if we were to preach on the Holy Spirit until people desired to have Him more than the doughnuts in the back?  What if?  What if we allowed people to move in their gifts and they would get a taste of what God can do when they are allowed to obey?  What if ?  I am telling you that we are beginning to see that all of our best efforts do not satisfy our souls and an awakening is happening in the church.  A call to those of us that have known who Holy Spirit is in our life and to begin to equip those with what we have learned and seen and know of Him!  As Wade Urban always says, “this kingdom life is all about life in Holy Spirit.”

It was why Jesus had to go away.  He said because if He did not go away the comforter would not come!  The word also says had the princes of this world known what would happen that they would have never crucified the Lord of Glory!  They didn’t know that He wanted to multiply Himself in His followers and that now the same power that Jesus had operated in would be present in those who were simple enough to receive it!  Ha!  They just didn’t know!

“However, I am telling you nothing but the truth when I say it is profitable (good, expedient, advantageous) for you that I go away.  Because if I do not go away, the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby) will not come to you [into close fellowship with you]; but if I go away, I will send Him to you [to be in close fellowship with you]”   John 16:7 (AMP).

– by Jo Ellen Stevens
Arise Shine!

Jo Ellen Stevens of TCIC Ministries is a Prophetic speaker, author, worshiper and intercessor.  She has ministered with her husband for 23 years and was a worship leader at the Assembly of God for many years.  She is an ordained minister (Restoration Ministries) and works with Restoration Ministries in their Ministry Rooms doing prophetic worship with her husband.  She has taught many bible studies and have led many intercessory prayer groups.