5. Glory

I'm currently at a place where I just want God to move how He wants to move. I'm learning that we have created boxes for God's movement and as long as He moves within those boxes, we are fine.  What do I mean by boxes?  Often the boxes manifest as denominations, styles of music, worship, or instrumentation, or even time constraints, among other things.

I want to see a move such that our little, insignificant, self-made boxes are blown away by the wind of God.  I want to see people changed, not just inspired or even worse, simply entertained.  I want revival...not a series of scheduled services, but an uncontainable life restoration that is so big, so rare, so noticeable that it can't be ignored, downplayed or stifled...individually, corporately, or globally.

I've found myself praying today, but not praying for any particular service.  What I hope to see God do is bigger than a service.  I'm not praying for a particular church or denomination, because what I want God to do will transcend all of that.  I want to see God blow away all of the things that hinder His glory from being revealed and get us back to the essence, the root, the purity of where His glory resides...in HIM.

I'm beginning with me.  Where have I gone wrong?  How did we seemingly get so far away?? How did we get so sidetracked by our own ideas of what the glory of God looks like??  That's the thing: there is no one reason.  Here are a few contributors that I've observed.

1. We limit ourselves by marking moments that we feel God's presence, and then we try to mimic those moments in hopes that we will get another similar visitation. We talk on social media and in discussions about how "God's presence really took over service today", but we fail to recognize that God's presence can't be contained in a moment.  If and when He truly moves, it doesn't come in a praise break and leave as suddenly as it came.  God's presence lingers and it accomplishes something.  We like the feeling of God's presence but we don't look for what God's presence is there to do for us and in us.  I heard a preacher say this before, and I connected with it immediately: It's almost like we're praising praise.  We yearn for a dance, or a feeling more than we yearn for the God whose presence is supposed to be behind the praise.  We should long for whatever and however God wants to move, not for a repeat of the feeling we had in a memorable moment of worship. Scripture strongly suggests that He may not show up the same way everytime.  Chase God, not the feeling.
2. We confine ourselves by our own culture and prejudices.  God's presence and creativity is too vast to only show up when a Hammond B3 organ is playing.  God's presence is too great to only linger with an acoustic guitar.  God is too big to only be praised in the dance.  God is too mighty to only be felt in worshipful tears.  And certainly God's presence, power, and anointing are not at all limited by manmade denominations and factions. It's all His praise....or is it?  When we limit God and only see Him through our own cultural or preferential lenses, we aren't giving Him His just due.  Some people even declare that other styles or ways of singing, worshipping, etc are "ungodly" or "not anointed".  Who are we to determine what gives God praise and what doesn't?  I mean, the Bible declares that if we don't praise Him, the rocks will, which proves that God will get praise one way or another...with or without your methods. We are in essence making more of the method than of the God we are supposed to be praising. Let's move beyond our personal style limitations and see God's praise, presence, and glory however HE decides to manifest it.
3. We only know Jehovah Jireh.  We only know and praise the God who provides. We've reduced praise (and for that matter faith, spirituality, and blessings) to material things.  We will shout more for a big offering than we will for souls saved (I'll leave that there). Our ancestors praised God with nothing, and at times, seemingly for nothing since everything seemed to be going wrong in their lives at times.  Now, we get depressed and will not praise if we don't get a promotion we thought we deserved.  Here's my question: What is God to you when you remove all of the stuff that He's so carefully provided for you?  This speaks to relationship. If we only tap into one aspect of God's personality (ie. provision) then we don't know how to praise or appreciate the other aspects that He equally wants to share with us.  We must know God to be able to feel when He moves and sense what He's doing.
4. We're in a rush.  For most of us, long gone are the days of being in church all day on Sunday (sun up to sun down in a lot of cases), and 3 or 4 more times during the week for services and prayer.  I agree that there is no reason to have superfluous, repetitive long services and large quantities of church for the heck of it.  However we've moved to this dangerous place where time restraints are placed on everything and if God's presence begins to move on people's hearts, the statement is made "we have to move on".  But didn't we come to God's house for Him to move exactly how and as much as He wants to move?  There's a delicate balance in being overbearing and being overly time conscious.  This applies at church and in our home life as well.  There is equally a balance between the natural obligations we have in life and the needs of our spirit man. The correct balance is best determined by the Holy Spirit.  Don't let a clock rob you of what God wants to do for you in His presence.
5. We leave God at church.  What happened to personal devotion?  What happened to private time in prayer?  What happened to time spent reading the Word? What happened to worship time alone?  The God of Sunday morning is the God of Thursday afternoon.  The God of the sanctuary at church is the God of your kitchen at home. The God of corporate worship is the God of private intimacy.

I'm sure, like myself, you can find yourself in one or more of these categories. These are just a few of the things that I've observed.  I'm sure there are many more that can be added.  I'm not an authority. I just want to see us all move closer to God and to the pureness of worship and longing that He deserves so that His glory can be revealed in us and through us for the world to see.

What steps, adjustments, or changes in attitude can we make individually that will make the move of God easy?  What walls have we built that need to be torn down in order for God to really send revival in our lives and in the earth?