Create A Scavenger Hunt

A few months ago I began to experiment with using a scavenger hunt, listing several experiences you can reach for as you seek to grow in the things of the Spirit.

Recently I was led to create a scavenger hunt to stretch myself as I spend December and January with Dunamis Resources in Las Vegas.  Here’s my list; you’re welcome to use it yourself, or to use it as a sample as you develop your own.

But here’s a caveat.  I’m trying to avoid good ideas.  I took time to soak and asked God what He wants to do in my life with prophetic song in the next few weeks; I want it to be what He wants, not necessarily what I want.  As I got quiet and listened, I sensed I need to prepare myself for more worship leading that will make room for the whole church to get involved in prophetic song.  So here are a few things I feel led to reach for.

Stay filled with the Spirit. I’m seeking to stay in a fulfillment of Ephesians 5:18-20.  I wrote about this a few weeks ago – see Testimony:  Spirit-Filled Living.

Get into the flow at home. This means I should have a few soaking times at the keyboard in my private devotions at which I access the manifest presence of God.  I might simply sense His anointing, or there might be a rich flow of spontaneous words or even music that is a bit beyond me.  But however God chooses to manifest His presence, I want to access it not just in the church but also at home.  See More God Encounters.

Learn five songs and write sequels that make room for a congregation to join in a spontaneous spinoff. I need to be ready to use songs everybody already knows.  It shouldn’t be hard to write a bridge that will be musically interesting but easy for the whole church to sing along with.

Write a song with a spontaneous bridge in it. I’ve already written a few songs, some of which are not quite finished.  I need to finish at least one; it should include a few lines that will allow the church to go off in the song of the Lord.

Write a song in my sequencer; leave room for spontaneous playing in the track of my choice. This is a bit technical and I won’t try to explain it; but if you have a Korg Triton, this is something you can do in the sequencer.

If you don’t have a Korg Triton, here’s how you might want to revise this item in the scavenger hunt.  Is there a feature in your electronic instrument that you haven’t bothered to learn to use yet?  Or as far as that goes, is there a technique you can learn on your guitar or flute or drums that will expand your versatility as a musician?

In broad terms, that’s what this item is all about.  In the specific terms that fit my life, I will expand my versatility by starting to use a feature in my keyboard I’ve never bothered to use before.  But here’s the key thought:  it isn’t enough to play around with it when I practice at home.  I need to get something ready to take into the church and use in live worship.

 

That’s my list.  I think it will make room for me to stretch as I soak 2-3 times a week and encourage 5 people – new musical techniques, new ministry opportunities, and plenty of room for the manifest presence of God.

Feel free to join me; take the list to God in a soaking time and let Him revise the list to fit you better – look for items you can use not just at home but also in the church.

Stan Smith  ::  © 2009, GospelSmith  ::  www.GospelSmith.com

 

6 Things To Teach The Congregation

My home church flows in prophetic worship, but we get a steady stream of newcomers and I’ve noticed that we can sometimes sink into a performance-mode as we worship.  Recently I received a prophetic word for our church, and part of it was that we would need to set aside a few Sundays for teaching about worship.

Here are a few  things to teach a congregation to help them flow in prophetic worship.

1. Focus on Jesus. Get in the habit of looking for Jesus whenever you worship.  Look for what He’s doing in the church at the moment; look for whatever He’s speaking in your personal life; look at what the scripture says about Him.

Why focus on Jesus?  Because Revelation 19:10 says the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy.  Whatever you sense about Him, put into words and sing it or pray it.  This is the root system for prophetic worship.

2. You don’t have to sing what the worship team sings. They have the microphones; everybody hears them, not you.  This gives you a private space where you can sing whatever you want to God.

Sing what the worship team is singing whenever you want, and think about the words you’re singing.  Often this will spark a revelation of Jesus.  As soon as you have something of your own to sing, sing it to God.  Nobody will hear you but Him.

3. You don’t have to stop singing when the worship team stops. Sometimes you’ll be engaged with God and will want to keep singing softly in the pause between songs.

The goal here isn’t to take over the meeting.  Don’t sing so loudly you call attention to yourself.  The worship team has been given the job of leading the service; respect their authority and don’t try to take it away from them.

Instead, stay in the secret place God has led you into during the last song.  Keep it private and intimate as you keep singing.

4. Let the worship team lead, but let God be your source. It isn’t their job to release the anointing; it’s yours.  No matter how anointed they are, they can present nothing more than an anointed performance unless the congregation chooses to engage with God.

This is why it’s so important to focus on Jesus.  If your eye is on the team, it will be hard to get into the flow of the Spirit.  But if you see Jesus, He can lead you.

5. Get your body involved. There is more to worship than words and music.  God will sometimes lead you to do something nobody else is doing:  to raise your hands, to dance before the Lord, to kneel at the altar, or to lie prostrate before Him.  These small acts of obedience contribute richly to an atmosphere of spiritual freedom.

6. If there’s a lull, don’t disconnect. Sometimes there will be moments of waiting to see what God will do next.  The lull doesn’t mean that the worship service has ended; don’t disengage.  Instead, keep your focus on Jesus.

Finally, It takes three to bring prophetic worship to the church:  the pastoral staff, the worship team, and the congregation. The pastor casts the vision for it, the worship team facilitates it, and the congregation carries it.

Ideally, we all work together.  And if we do, our worship services can become holy ground, a place where God and His people meet face to face.

Stan Smith  ::  © 2009, GospelSmith  ::  www.GospelSmith.com

Testimony: Spirit-Filled Living

I’m not trying to come up with a new doctrine, but a fresh idea hit me a few weeks ago: that a good litmus test for whether we are truly filled with the Holy Spirit might be Ephesians 5:18-19, which commands us to “be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord…”

Charismatics and Evangelicals sometimes divide over the issue of tongues, but the spontaneous song of praise and thanksgiving is something we can all have in common. And it keeps us on our toes.

After all, I’ve been a Charismatic for almost forty years and have been able to speak in other tongues whenever I want to.  But I’ve been through my share of dry times over the years.  How Spirit-filled was I?  Using Ephesians 5:18-19 as a yardstick, I haven’t always been filled with the Spirit.

What fills our mouths?  You may be able to speak with other tongues, but how much time do you spend complaining?  Gossiping? Ranting about the government and the media?  Jesus said that from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Your speech reveals where your heart is.

With this in mind, I decided to use Ephesians 5:18-19 as my guide.  If I kept finding myself singing spontaneous songs of praise to God during my daily life, I would assume I was filled with His Spirit and overflowing.  If not, I would assume I needed a fresh refilling with the Holy Spirit; the way I usually try to get refilled is to spend time soaking.

Here’s what I found:

1. It is possible to be so filled with the Holy Spirit that songs of praise will flow out spontaneously during the day.  We get there by asking God to fill us, then taking time to linger in His presence and let Him do it.

2. The atmosphere of the Holy Spirit is very peaceful and very holy.  I can lose touch with it by allowing myself to become frenzied or hurried.  Any unholy choice, something as simple as being rude in traffic, can disrupt it.  I have to cherish His peace and His holiness.

3. When I am filled with His Spirit, it is very easy to overflow with grace in ministry opportunities. They are easy; they press themselves into daily life.  I catch myself singing softly to God as I walk down the aisles of a grocery store, and then I easily find a prophetic word for a friend I meet a few minutes later.

4.  The song is a symptom of something greater:  being filled with the Spirit.  Just deciding to make myself sing isn’t at all the same.

 

As I say, I’m not interested in creating a new doctrine.  Spend your life in theological debates if you feel you must, but here’s how Jesus advised us to test a new teaching:

Jesus answered them and said, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me.  If anyone wants to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.  (John 5:16-17)

The key is to do what God says, not to talk about it or study Greek words about it or to debate about it.

So let me challenge you to be filled with the Spirit according to the words of Ephesians 5:18-19.  Ask God to fill you and linger in His presence until He does. See what the fruit of it is in daily life; and if you like what you see, refuse to live with less

 

 

Stan Smith  ::  © 2009, GospelSmith  ::  www.GospelSmith.com

 

Preparing For Spontaneous Worship

This is a very busy week and all I’m going to write is a testimony of what it’s like to do the assignment.  For soaking and encouragement, I’m listing the record at http://miraclelifestyle.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/use-the-cracks-in-the-sidewalk/.

But I used music just once this week as I led a devotional at the Healing Rooms at Santa Maria.  The team who ministers healing spends about an hour soaking in God’s presence before they step into ministry. Every other Monday night I play live worship at their soaking meeting.

I’m going to give a brief synopsis of how I prepared for an evening of spontaneous worship.

I expected to have a high-level spiritual experience as I would look to God for inspiration; instead, I prayed and didn’t hear anything from God.  Office work gobbled up the morning and I had no time to practice or to prepare in any way. Then as I got ready to go, I realized I would have to take just one keyboard because my station wagon would not be available.

So I felt unprepared and very limited as I drove to the healing rooms.

Just as it was time to begin, Rick Taylor, the director of the Healing Rooms, told me a few testimonies of miraculous healings he had seen on his last trip.  Then he asked if he could pray for me before I began; I said go ahead.  He prayed that the heavens would be open as I played and that I would sing prophetically.

I had thought I might begin with “Breathe” and then include an old hymn, but when Rick prayed that I would sing prophetically I decided to drop into prophetic song and see where it went.

Soon I found myself singing about Jesus the rock, and the paradox that He can be rocklike and yet tender.  For a moment I would sing a song to Him, then it would be His words to us, then there would be a few moments of instrumental as I would wait on Him for the next lyrics.  All the words were based on scripture, yet it was a time of linking passages I would not usually think to connect.

Suddenly I realized God wanted me to shift gears and play an instrumental. I glanced at the clock; twenty-five minutes had already gone by.  I switched to the most heavenly sound on my keyboard, a split that allows me to make the lead instrument anything I want:  vocals, strings, flutes. When it was time for Rick to speak, he motioned for me to keep playing.

I never had time to prepare anything, but it didn’t matter.  The music flowed effortlessly for about an hour.  When words were needed, they were there.  And during the instrumental, I somehow knew what I was supposed to play next.

Even I noticed a rich sense of God’s manifest presence as the soaking time progressed.  Sometimes the air feels a bit heavier than usual, as though it’s filled with droplets of the water of life.  Rick stood up and announced that healing was in the atmosphere.

God is more than willing to give a flow of the Holy Spirit to those of us who are willing to jump into the river of God and let the current carry us.

Stan Smith  ::  © 2009, GospelSmith  ::  www.GospelSmith.com

Play By Ear

What if you are a piano player who has been classically trained, and now you find it hard to improvise or to play by ear?  During a recent trip to Korea, I was led to have an altar call for people who are trained musicians who want to learn to play by ear so they can jump into prophetic song.  Six or eight people came up.

Playing by ear can be challenging for those who have learned to sight-read because most training does not focus on improvisational skills.  Here are a few things that can help you get started – notes on how to pray, followed with a few musical exercises that will stretch your skill.

Prayer – Ask, believe, receive. “You have not because you ask not.”  Step one is to ask God to impart the gift of playing by ear.  Step two is to believe that He hears your prayer and is answering.  This is how James 1:2-8 says to pray for wisdom; the ability to play by ear is a form of wisdom.

Prayer – be patient in tribulation. Note this theme as James tells how to pray.  You will probably feel naked at first as you try to play by ear.  You are used to musical richness as you read and play a score; now you have nothing to work from but whatever you can think of yourself.  Be patient with yourself during this season.

Prayer – make the most of plateaus. As you learn new techniques and patterns, see how many songs you can use them with.  The skills that help with one song will often help with another.

Music – start with a tune you already know and fool around with it. For example, you might begin with Beethoven’s “Ode To Joy” and put it through a few permutations.

1. Transpose a familiar song from one key to another. The fingering patterns change, whatever instrument you’re playing.

2. Transpose songs in a major key into a minor, and vice versa. This gets you used to thinking of alternate ways to play a melody.  It will also force you to restructure the chords.  If the first line of “Ode To Joy” begins with a C – F – G progression, shifting it to a minor can lead tidily to Am – Dm – Em chords.  But as I played it just now, I was drawn to Am – F – D9 – G in the first line.  Fool around with it and see what you come up with.

3. Transpose songs in 4/4 or 2/4 to 3/4, and vice versa. Okay, it butchers “Ode To Joy”, especially if you’re still in a minor key.  But the point is to get used to what happens when you change the rhythm of a familiar song.

4. Play the melody, then add variations. Use parallel thirds and sixths.  Add trills of one kind or another – you may have run into grace notes in some of the classical music you’ve already learned.  Ask God to give you a few new ones of your own.

5. Try different octaves. Generally, the lower vs. higher registers provide a lot of contrast:  darkness vs. light, strength vs. weakness, heaviness vs. lightness.  Use these different sounds to capture different moods as you work through a piece of music.

These few stretching exercises will get you started.  Begin with the songs that seem easiest to you.  Get alone with God and fool around with your music.  Think of Him not as an audience demanding a perfect performance, but as a teacher who delights in awakening your creativity.  Mistakes don’t put Him off; they are necessary as you are learning to walk with Him on new paths in the realm of worship.  He looks past the musical imperfections and sees your heart, reaching to draw near to Him.  He in turn will draw near to you.

Stan Smith  ::  © 2009, GospelSmith  ::  www.GospelSmith.com

Two Ways To Flow

I was teaching about prophetic song at a conference in Korea with both Evangelicals and Charismatics attending, and I needed to teach this diverse group how to get into a prophetic flow.

As I pondered this great divide that has crept into the church, I made two decisions:  (1) I will not apologize for my own testimony, which falls into the Charismatic camp; and (2) I refuse to dishonor the Evangelicals, who tend to focus on the idea that everything has been provided in Christ and we don’t have to pursue a second experience to receive the Holy Spirit.

In both camps, I have met people who hunger for God and who move in the gifts of the Holy Spirit – they don’t always explain the gifts the same way, but it’s amazing how Spirit-led some of the Evangelicals have learned to be as they explore the things freely given them in Christ.  And in both camps, I have met smug, self-satisfied people who think everyone else is deceived.

Frankly, I think the two groups have more to agree about than to disagree about.  And at the conference in Korea, the crowd all seemed to think so too.

So here is how people from either background can get in the flow of prophetic song.

Evangelicals focus in Christ, which is the key to prophetic words and songs because the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy.  In other words, as we begin to fill our mouths with truth about Jesus, the Holy Spirit will step in and begin to speak or sing through us.

Scripture after scripture reveals that Jesus is the Holy Spirit’s favorite subject matter.  To give just one example, I Corinthians 12:3 says no man can call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Spirit.  In other words, if we choose to declare that Jesus is Lord, the Holy Spirit gets into it, whatever our motive.

Start by calling Him Lord, and expect the Holy Spirit to help you pour out a flow of words of praise.  Call Him Truth, and let the Spirit of Truth pour specifics out of your mouth as you preach or worship or pray…

You get the idea.

Charismatics speak in tongues.  This gets us into a flow of words we don’t understand, given by the Holy Spirit.  This is a good introductory exercise; it gets us used to letting God give us our words one-by-one, and it gets us used to not having to understand everything – Proverbs 3:5 calls us to trust God with our whole heart and to lean not to our understanding.

But God doesn’t want us to stay in the dark.  He calls us to seek interpretation when we speak in tongues.  We may begin with a flow we don’t understand, but understanding will follow as we look to Him.

In time we can learn to jump straight into the prophetic flow, focusing on Jesus just as I’ve suggested the Evangelicals can do.

All Christians have an inheritance in the outpouring of the Spirit in Acts 2, however we choose to explain it.  But as Peter quoted Joel’s prophecy (see Acts 2:16-21), he never mentioned tongues.  Instead he listed God’s prophetic promises to the church:  sons and daughters who prophesy, people who se dreams and visions, open heaven encounters, signs and wonders.

Whether we speak in tongues or not, there’s plenty more for all of us to press into.  Jump in the flow wherever you can, and let the Holy Spirit take you higher and higher in Him.

Stan Smith  ::  © 2009, GospelSmith  ::  www.GospelSmith.com

Open-Heaven Bondslaves

This week I experienced one of the sweetest times of prophetic worship in thirty-plus years. It came at the end of a three-day conference in Korea; the theme was prophetic ministry and prophetic worship.  I was the keynote speaker, and the conference was held to coincide with publication of the Korean translation of my book, Prophetic Song:  Gateway To Glory.

I did my best to do my part well, but the best moment came when my part was done.

On the third day of the conference my theme was the open heavens, and I shared an experience I had a few years ago when God had me sing a prophecy that changed my life.  The essence of the word was that God had opened the heavens to the church 2000 years ago, and He was grieved that so few of us had dared to believe we could even approach the door of heaven during our lifetime.  He called us to be faithful to enter into an open-heaven experience as often as we could.

So now as I prepared my heart for the final day of meetings at the conference, I sensed God taking us to Exodus 21, where a servant had the opportunity to become a bondslave if he loved his master and wanted to serve him forever.  I sensed that God was offering us the opportunity to allow Him to pierce our ear with His awl at heaven’s doorpost, making us His servants forever and binding us to heaven’s door.

I explained that it didn’t really matter who did the anointing, for oil is one thing and piercing is another.  But we used oil simply to give us an act of faith by which we could invite God to do the real work, for the passage in Exodus makes it clear that only the Master could drive the awl through the earlobe of the servant.

I called a few helpers to help minister to people, anointed my helpers’ earlobes with oil, then I went to the keyboard to play a bit of worship music while they anointed the people.  The presence of God was intense as most if not all of us came forward in this childlike act of surrender.

When the last of the people had been ministered to, I suddenly sensed that I needed to stop playing.  There was a moment of stillness, but someone back in the crowd was still singing.  Soon I heard another voice, then another; within seconds we all were worshiping spontaneously.

There was no visible worship leader.  I left the platform and went back to my seat. Someone told me later that the song lasted thirty-five minutes.  It was one of the holiest experiences in prophetic song I have ever experienced.

I prayed the next morning and got further understanding about what happened.  The anointing with oil service was supposed to happen – that was the simple little step God gave me to present so we could act on our willingness to surrender – but God waited for man’s ministry time to end, then His began.  And He is the Master, and He truly made us His in a new way.

And what better way to end a conference on prophetic song than to have the Chief Musician come and lead us in it Himself?

Stan Smith  ::  © 2009, GospelSmith  ::  www.GospelSmith.com

Filled With The Spirit

I’m old enough to remember the early days of the Charismatic movement and the lively debate about what was the real evidence that someone had received the baptism in the Holy Spirit.  Was it tongues?  Some said yes, some said no.

It isn’t the hot issue it once was, but most of us have worked out a conviction one way or the other.  Some say tongues are the evidence that we have received this empowering work of grace; some say tongues are optional and God doesn’t give them to everybody; some say tongues are dangerous and not for our day.

I’ve meet good people in every camp, and I’ve seen abuse from each camp, but I’m not interested in resurrecting the debate.  I recently read a verse I’m sure I have read dozens if not hundreds of times, and it struck me that God may have given us a clear answer to the question about the real evidence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit.  I want to present it reverently but playfully, more in a “what if…?” scenario than as a doctrine:

And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  [Ephesians 5:18-20]

I’ll say it again:  I’m not trying to create a doctrinal issue.  But looking at these words devotionally, I asked myself a few questions.

How do I know I am filled with the Spirit?  Well, I can speak in tongues any time I want to; this was the evidence I accepted years ago as proof that I’m filled with the Spirit.

Okay, but is there any fresh evidence that I’m filled with the Spirit?  Am I overflowing with spiritual songs?  Does the Holy Spirit keep pouring songs of praise through me?

I had to admit that it wasn’t happening, and I asked God for a fresh filling with His Spirit.  I took time to soak; I can’t say that particular soaking time was exceptionally anointed.

But sure enough, later in the day when I went out to do errands, I began singing a new song to God.  If I had played it in church it would have been a song we all could have learned and used again and again; it was a song of thanks for God’s promise that we are new creatures in Christ.

But I had no opportunity to write it down, and a day passed and now I can’t remember it.  It’s gone.

That’s okay.  If I need a song for the congregation, God will give one.  But perhaps He wanted me to give Him a drink offering with the song He gave me – something I could pour out for Him just once, and then it was gone forever.

New songs keep bubbling up, and moments of praise and thanksgiving.  There is something very gentle and peaceful about it.

May I recommend that you ask God to fill you with His Spirit in a way that will fulfill the words of Ephesians 5:18-20?  It’s a lifestyle that will release prophetic song in our personal lives, helping to equip us for prophetic song in the church.

More important, it equips us for life in the Spirit wherever we go, even if we never sing a note in our lives.  We can sing it; we can speak it.  The important thing is to be filled and overflowing with the Spirit.

Stan Smith  ::  © 2009, GospelSmith  ::  www.GospelSmith.com

Soaking Testimony: “Open Your Mouth”

I’ve been overworked.  On Wednesday I lay in bed with worship playing on my iPod and decided not to get up until I had met God.  Suddenly He poured out a word to me, and I wrote it down as fast as I could:

Haven’t I said Open your mouth wide and I will fill it?  Therefore be not slack, be not passive, but stir yourself to take hold of the promise of your God.  There are many things I will yet speak to you, but I look for you to abandon yourself to the flow of My Spirit.

For I will catch you into the momentum of the flow of My Spirit in heaven, and the current of My river will carry you to places beyond the reach of the energy of your flesh.  Haven’t I said My thoughts are higher than your thoughts, and my ways higher than yours?  So, says the Lord, as you abandon yourself to My Spirit, I will convey you out of the shallows of your thoughts and into the deeps of Mine.

Trust Me.  Abandon yourself in Me.  Plunge into the flow of My Spirit.  Open your mouth and let Me fill it.  Pour out your heart to Me, and listen as you do.  You will hear me pouring My words through you. And so you will hear My voice, and I will reveal My thoughts and teach you My ways.

I wrote as much as I could, but the main conviction that gripped me was that I needed to start getting in the flow. My end is to open my mouth in childlike faith; God’s end is to fill my mouth.  But where could I get into the flow?

Four ways to flow. Before the day was over, I found four opportunities to flow.

The first was in prayer.  We had a guest speaker at our home church, Jon Collyer from England.  After what God had spoken to me while I was soaking, I felt it was important to take time to pray aloud for the meeting.  As I did, a few words flowed out of me that took my prayer in an unexpected direction:  that our worship would go to an unusual intensity in the evening service.

So the second opportunity to flow came during the worship service that evening. The worship team led several songs posted on the screen.  Occasionally I sang the words that were written.  More often, I sang something new and fresh from the heart.  I got a revelation about the blood of Jesus as I sang.  Hebrews 12:24 says that in heaven, the blood of Jesus speaks better things than the blood of Abel; in a vision I heard the blood crying from heaven, “Compel them to come in.”

The third opportunity came because God has given me favor as a prophetic voice in my home church, and Pastor Mike asked me during worship if I had a prophetic word.  I did – God had given it to me during my soaking time earlier in the day – and I got up and gave it.

The fourth opportunity came when Pastor Mike invited me to meet him and Jon Collyer for a late supper after the meeting.  I met them and had a prophetic word for Jon, which I gave in a conversational tone of voice.  He thanked me with a deeply sincere look in his eye.

You have a share in this. You may not have open doors where you are being asked to step up and speak to your church prophetically, but you can have them.  Start by reaching for the flow of the Holy Spirit when you pray.  Then start getting in the habit of singing a spontaneous new song to God whenever you are in a worship service in church.  Don’t just sing the words on the screen; expect God to give you something new and fresh.

As you get into the flow in secret, you’ll find opportunities to speak an encouraging word to a friend.  One thing will lead to another.  But as you start getting into the flow before God in secret, He will open doors for you to minister openly.

Stan Smith  ::  © 2009, GospelSmith  ::  www.GospelSmith.com

Testimony: God’s Noticeable Presence

When a congregation gives themselves to God in prophetic worship, God often gives His manifest presence to us.  Yesterday I heard a testimony of a way God showed His presence outside the meeting.

A team of Korean ministers had come to the Santa Maria Valley Healing Rooms for a conference.  Rick Taylor, the leader of the healing rooms, has been contending for an atmosphere of God’s glory in all their gatherings and in their times of ministry one-on-one.  For the Saturday sessions, they had invited Peggy Cole to speak in the morning and the afternoon.

My role was very small:  to help with personal ministry when the opportunity arose, and to play keyboard to back up the worship team.  The worship team did a great job and God was good to us; we went into a prophetic vein in worship in both sessions and the presence of God was very intense.

Between sessions, Peggy went back to her hotel to rest.  As she walked through the hotel lobby on her way to the afternoon meeting, a man in the hotel greeted her and said, “There’s an aura of light all over you, and I think it’s the presence of the Holy Spirit.”  She asked him if he knew the Lord, and he replied, “I’m  Orthodox.”  (Peggy didn’t say whether this meant Eastern Orthodox or Jewish Orthodox.)  So Peggy asked if she could pray with him; he said yes; soon a prophetic word flowed out of the prayer.

Peggy shared the story humbly and tearfully, and urged us all to expect God to do the same in our lives.  Her testimony made me think of a Bible study someone told me about recently; he had looked up the word “overshadowed” in the New Testament and found that the same Greek word was used when the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and when Peter’s shadow was healing the sick in Acts 5.  There is a Holy Spirit “shadow” you and I can have as we learn to cherish God’s manifest presence.  Peggy walked in it Saturday, but it’s for all of us.