Dear People Who Keep Company With God,

When I was a young believer, I heard, Arthur Burt say, “You will be surprised at who God uses in revival and you will be surprised at who God doesn’t use in revival.” That stuck with me. I wanted to be one of those who God employed in the day of His power. I saw the truth of it when the Holy Spirit River manifested in our church.

Let The River Flow PhotoThere were a lot of people suddenly being used by God in significant ways that only a few months prior were pew warmers. People are willing in the day of His power (Psalm 110:3). They were prophesying, ministering healing and deliverance and releasing the atmosphere of heaven. It was awesome and some of them are still doing it. I was changed and the way I do ministry was forever changed.

We had several significant ministries such as inner healing and deliverance, physical healing and wellness ministry, ministry to the poor and church planting that was birthed during that time. Although the Lord gave us the vision for RiverLife-Chapel Hill before the River, it was during that season that Matthew and Sarah were accelerated and equipped to plant and lead that congregation.

Wisdom may not look like wisdom at the moment, but wisdom will always be justified by its’ children (Luke 7:29-35). There is not a river on this earth that you step up to get into. You always step down to get into what God is doing and if you do, it will take you places you could never go apart from it. 

There were also some people in our church who would not or could not engage with what God was doing. Most of them didn’t leave the church, but it was like they were on the outside looking in. I wanted everyone to be able to participate and take advantage of what God was doing. I knew in my heart this season would not last forever. No River anywhere stays the same. I knew the River would change and shift toward other purposes just as it did all through the Bible. So I sought the Lord for ways to help all of us flow with the River.

He gave me two thoughts:

Testimony. There is so much power in our testimony. In John 9 Jesus healed a man born from birth. There was an argument with the religious leaders over his healing. They accused Jesus of being a sinner. The man’s response in John 9:25 was brilliant, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

No matter what else was said, the man knew the Pharisees could not refute the basic fact that he had been healed. This story reveals that the Pharisees were bent out of shape because they could not argue their way around the fact that the man stood there healed. People just cannot argue against the truth of your experience with the Holy Spirit.

It is still a walk of faith. When the Lord’s Presence and power is manifested in a heightened manner, it is easy to connect with the spiritual realm. Yet we still have to exercise faith in response to the manifestation of the Spirit. I learned that you always access the spiritual realm by faith, not by the way you feel or what we see going on around you. God uses these things, but it is still by faith (Rom. 5:1-2). We discern things spiritually by knowing them through our spirit man and not through our natural man (1 Cor. 2:9-15). 

Many Blessings, BW

            

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