KEYS TO THE MIRACLE WORKING POWER OF GOD -PART 1

THE PRESENCE OF GOD.

I will endeavor to share a few things that I have learnt about the "Keys" to the Miracle-working power of God.

The first of these "Keys" is what I call "The Presence of God". This is most important, because miracles are an expression of the fact that God is "present' at a certain time and place. The fact is this: That if God is present, miracles take place. If God is NOT present, there are no miracles!

In present-day Pentecostal-Charismatic belief, people associate the "presence of God" to certain "feelings" and "emotions" that one may experience during services. The mood, the music, the lighting, the ambience, must be just right; only THEN can people "feel" the presence of God.

In the New Testament however, this modern-day concept of "feeling the presence of God" does not exist. When I think of "The presence of God", two things come to mind.

1.That God is Omnipresent.

2. Our Lord Jesus said, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them". Matt 18:20 In other words, God is there whether we "feel" Him or not!

Ministering in churches back home in Sweden in those early days, I was very dependent upon the mood and the atmosphere created by the singing and the music. I had to "feel" the presence of God; and it was only after I could "feel" it that I could have faith for miracles.

And then I started going to poorer countries of the world to preach to crowds desperately in need of the Gospel. The smell of dust, the odor of sweat and unwashed bodies would fill the air. Children pooping, people urinating by trees, others smoking cigarettes - all this while I was preaching. There was a total absence of Charismatic "mood" worship, etc.

At first, I was dismayed, because I just could not "feel" the presence of God in such an atmosphere. But then in times of prayer that the Lord showed me that He was there, no matter how I felt or what the circumstances around me were like. I thought what it must have been like for Jesus and His apostles when they ministered to the multitudes on the shores of Galilee. There must have been no charismatic ambience there in those settings...

The Lord showed me that how I "felt" wasn't that important at all. It was not the mood, the ambience, the lighting, the music, but the weight was upon the Word preached, about man reaching out to God by faith, and about God reaching down to touch man.

So, this one thing I have learnt: That the presence of God is a vital key to miracles, but we cannot tie the presence of God to any "mood' that we create through our artistic efforts. God is always there, no matter what. Where only two or three believers gather in the Name of Jesus, God is there. Wherever the Word of God is preached under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, God is there. We must learn to put our faith solidly upon our God even we do not "feel" that He is there, because no matter how we feel, HE IS ALWAYS THERE WITH US!

The Greatest Miracles in our days happen not in our modern-day charismatic churches in America and Europe where the mood, the music, and the lighting are perfect, but in poor places where desperate people seek God, and where men whose hearts are on fire preach a passionate and Blood-washed Gospel.

Don't get me wrong, I am not "dissing" the music and the lighting in our churches; all I am saying is that we cannot make our faith in God and our expectations of Him be dependent upon these things or upon the emotions that they generate.

I personally love to worship with great music and in air-conditioned comfort, but we must wean ourselves away from dependence upon these inventions of Charismatic Christianity, and instead put our faith in our Omnipresent God who is always there to confirm His Word with His miracle-working power, no matter what the outward ambience is like.

It is about His Word, and not the feeing generated by man-made ambience.

Originally posted on Facebook by Pastor Christopher Alam