The Presence Provokes

As I was leading worship last Sunday, the presence of God was very powerful. What I mean by that is that I found myself in tears at times, while at other times the air seemed heavy and charged with energy so that I bowed under it. God is always with us, but sometimes He appears or makes His Present-ness manifest. This was one of those times.

As we moved from worship into teaching (its all worship; you know what I mean), Bob taught on the gifts of healing and the ministry of Jesus - that He never prayed, "Father, if it is Your will," or "Father, please heal them." He never prayed for healing, He always declared it.

At the end of the time, Bob invited one of our friends up, who is battling cancer. He invited us to stretch out our hands and declare healing for her. People began to do this, hesitantly, when Jack (not his name) stood up and began to shout, "Get out of her! You don't belong here! You have no right to be here!" and so on, proclaiming against the cancer in the name of Jesus. This went on for some time. Jack, I think, became self conscious and took on a bit of a theatrical tone to his voice. It was, perhaps, like Peter getting out of the boat to be with Jesus and then looked around and thought, "What am I doing here?!"

At the same time that Jack was proclaiming, our friend Janice (not her name) had her hand stretched out and began to shake. We've seen this with Janice before when she prays, but this time it gained volume and momentum until she was screaming and shaking violently. Eventually this subsided and another friend came and sat next to her and held her.

We've spent much of this week processing and debriefing all this. Janice had described her experience as starting with being angry about the cancer (as was Jack) and being moved by Jack's response. Then she felt the fire of God on her and in her, and it increased. Inwardly she felt at peace, though she knew she was screaming. Today I asked her if, while all that was going on, if she felt anything leave her. She told me, "Yes. Four dark things left me."

This was standard fare for the ministry of Jesus. He would come into religious gatherings and demons were provoked by His presence - they would shout at Him and He would cast them out. That is what happened for us Sunday. His presence provoked the darkness, exposing it, and casting it out. We didn't even pray for it. He just did it.

It makes me excited to go to church. I love His Presence.