As I sit to write this I am reminded of two articles written for the New Frontiers Magazine a few years ago. The first was by Arthur Wallis -. It was entitled ‘Are your meetings always like this?’
The second article was by Dave Devenish. It’s entitled ‘Prophetically Speaking’
In Arthur Wallis’ article he paints a very vivid picture that portrays an epic, exegetical expression of the move of the Holy Spirit in the local church. This scene was drawn from 1 Corinthians 14:26. ‘What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up’
I still get goosebumps as I read the description of how a gathering of Saints percolated with the palpable presence of God. There was a genuine sense of the priesthood of all believers. It seemed everyone had a word, a psalm, a hymn, a prophecy and words of encouragement! The end result was that the Church was built up.
It’s often been said ‘Two is company, Three is a crowd.’ Amongst church planting circles the following question invariably comes up in different ways..’What kind of a crowd are you drawing or gathering?’
It goes without saying that the inference here is pretty self explanatory. However through a combination of my personal devotions and this weekends meeting at CityLight Church, I can safely say that we had the ‘right crowd’ in our meeting.
GOD, JESUS and HOLY SPIRIT. The ever present truth of these three Persons became an unmistakable reality as three things happened. Firstly, God’s sovereign rule and reign was declared through the public reading of scripture; Secondly Adoration of Jesus and his victory on the cross was bellowed out in song; and finally as the combined yearning of our desperate hearts met with the deep call of Holy Spirit – it seemed in that moment, that heaven truly touched earth.
The result was nothing short of a tidal wave of God’s tangible presence. There was Passionate Prayer, Praise, Prophecy, Spontaneous Songs, and did I mention the Prophetic?! The most striking thing about the Prophetic utterances was that they were all speaking about God and His redemptive purposes for the city of Toronto through the local church. This released an unmistakeable sense of courage in CityLight Church as we responded to the call of making disciples of all nations!
Drawing from our most recent experiences, my encouragement for both new and older churches seeking to pursue a culture of cultivating the prophetic is as follows:
1) Prophetic Culture must be intentionally modelled by all who’ve tasted of it
2) Prophetic Culture is a direct overflow of personal relationship with God
3) Prophetic Culture is to be desired
4) Prophetic Culture has no well worn paths – Sometimes a mix of reckless abandonment and childlike faith are the key to unlocking something of significance in the Spirit!
I will follow up with the Dave Devenish article next time as we look at Cultivating Prophetic Cultures Part 2
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CityLight Church Toronto is a ChristCentral Church in Toronto, a part of Newfrontiers Churches.
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