02 Nov A Beautiful Visitation
A powerful visitation happened at 10:30 Celebration this morning. For those who were at the 8:30, I don’t know if you noticed this or not, but the worship time we shared was incredibly tied into the message titled, “Journey Through The Wall”.
We endeavor to have every worship set of songs each week tie into the theme and direction of the message, and our Worship Leaders work diligently with myself or whoever is speaking that week to make it so, but I especially sensed that to be true at the 8:30 Celebration today.
I even mentioned to the Worship Team during the 8:30 as we were concluding the Greeting time that we could just as well receive the offering and go home, that’s how strongly the worship set had already spoken the message I was bringing.
Well, lo and behold, the same was sensed at the 10:30 Celebraton, only this time the worship set never really ended. It just very naturally transitioned into a very spontaneous time of seeking God in worship, prayer and Communion.
Every Pastor I know plans his heart out and studies God’s Word for the message he is to bring. And, every Pastor I know longs for the Spirit to move so powerfully that the message notes would be put aside and 1 Corinthians 14:26 would come alive. Today, it did, and it was POWERFUL!
As we waited on the Lord at the end of the “Worship Set”, a number of people, including one confident and courageous Middle School student, brought words of wisdom, revelation, Scripture and more. We were eventually led by several words that confirmed one another to pray for Tuesday’s elections.
We circled the Sanctuary, side by side, hand in hand, and spent at least 30 minutes in concerted, fervent prayer for Tuesday’s results. We weren’t praying for the direction of the results, but for God’s will to be done, and for Christ’s Bride, His Church, to be prepared and strengthened for whatever lies ahead.
The 10:30 Celebration was smaller than the 8:30, and I expected that to be the case with the move back to two services on the same day as we “fall back” one hour in our time change. I was blown away by what the Lord was doing. I kept thinking, “Lord, why are you visiting this band of brothers and sisters to pray in such a strong way today?”
It then dawned on me … one of the ways we serve our city is by donating the use of our parking lot and Sanctuary space as a polling place for elections. In one of, if not the, most contentious elections ever, when voter turnout is expected to be the largest ever, people will be swarming the campus on Tuesday to vote on both of two very divided sides.
Then I knew, how fitting that the Lord would break into our midst and lead us to do what we did. I write not only to share this account with you, but also to encourage you to continue to pray throughout the day and evening on Tuesday. This is all in God’s hands, truly.
No Comments