Last week , I made the transition from sharing about our action in God’s mission and into how that action leads us into a greater intimacy with Jesus. I began to talk about that intimacy and how we experience Jesus in greater measures when we get our hands dirty in the work He is already doing in the world. I want to share about three of the ways that intimacy has worked itself out in the lives of those of us who reside in the Quip.

First, our action here in Aliquippa has led us into a deeper and more meaningful experience in prayer. From the beginning of our time here, we have understood prayer as our primary work in the mission of God. One thing I appreciate about the Christian and Missionary Alliance church that we are apart of, is its foundational emphasis on prayer. We are very engaged in active service in the Kingdom, but at the same time, we have understood that none of our work will amount to anything if the Lord is not present in it. For that purpose, we began most of our work and ministry here by praying together on a weekly and oftentimes a daily basis. We began the work with prayer, and the presence of God in prayer is what has sustained us and the ministry. Prayer has become more than just checking off a list of requests. Too often, I am afraid that prayer meetings become times for Christians to share all kinds of news about people and then prayer through the list and call it a night. We have viewed our prayer times very differently than that. Primarily, they are times for us to meet with God, for God to speak to us, and for us to grow in the gifts that God has given us. Prayer has become a deep experience for us, and we have learned different expressions of prayer. One thing that I had never really experienced was the different kinds of praying that there are. We have ventured out into things like listening prayer, centering prayer, contemplative prayer, prophetic prayer, prayer for deliverance, spiritual warfare praying, intercession (sometimes the only type that people know), and prayer that ushers the Kingdom into our city.  It has been a great experience, knowing that prayer is much deeper than praying for everyone’s uncle’s knee surgery (not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it isn’t all there is).

Next, that has led us into a desperation for the Lord’s power. When we started coming across things that we couldn’t solve on our own, our only place to turn was the Lord. This became a deep reliance on Him for His intervention in the lives of people and situations that we couldn’t handle. In my earlier years, I felt like whatever I couldn’t understand or explain in the Bible, I left out and didn’t really incorporate into my life. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe that Jesus could heal or deliver people from oppression, or that spiritual warfare was a real thing, it was just that in my comfortable existence, I didn’t need that stuff. It wasn’t until we engaged in a place where Satan had an obvious stronghold, that I began to re-read the life of Jesus and His supernatural authority with new eyes. It is now hard to ignore the power in Jesus’ ministry to heal folks, to drive out demons, and to basically overcome the powers and principalities of this world. You would have to throw out much of the gospels if you didn’t believe in these sorts of things. It’s strange to me now, how I didn’t see all of this before. But I think that many people live in that state, not really experiencing the power of Jesus because it’s not necessary in the normal American life. The supernatural authority of Jesus has no place in the American dream. If Jesus weren’t powerful to save – spiritually, physically, emotionally – then we would have no hope in Aliquippa. But we do have hope, because Jesus is.

Lastly, we have grown in an understanding and openness toward the Holy Spirit and His gifts. In my estimation, it is the experience of many that the Holy Spirit is the ignored person of the Trinity. I think the most common reason for this, has been people’s abuses of the Holy Spirit for their own fame or power. Those who have witnessed these abuses have just flipped the switch in the other direction, completely turning the place of the Holy Spirit to the “off” position. So for many people, they have never been taught or led into an understanding and experience of the legitimate ministry of the Holy Spirit. I mean, for goodness sake, Jesus said that the disciples would be better off once He left the earth, so that they could have the Holy Spirit. And while our whole being is supposed to be His temple, we have packed and cluttered His house with all sorts of other things – material possessions, money, other relationships, good works, and religion – and leaving Him no room to operate. In the Quip, we have relied on the leading of the Holy Spirit. Many times, we have no recourse but to listen to what He wants us to do. [An important side note that we will get to later is that this experience with the Holy Spirit happens best in a community of folks who can listen together and check each other] We have also grown in our understanding and practice of the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives. There’s a lot we could say about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and not enough space to say it. There’s much about Him that I don’t know. But this I do know: God’s plan was for His people to be equipped with the resources needed to usher in the Kingdom of God in their place in the world, and that the many of the resources come by way of the Holy Spirit and His filling our lives. What could we do without Him?Nothing. “I am the vine, you are the branches…” We have to abide in Him, and we do that through the Holy Spirit and His presence in our lives.

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