There is a void and a vacuum of the supply of the Spirit in many churches today. This fact alone should be driving us to prayer.
My wife and I have been touching this in the Spirit of late. The concept of it is found in Galatians 3:1-5:
“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth? Before your eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified. I want to learn only this from you: Did you receive the Spirit through the works of the law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Have you endured so many things for nothing, if indeed it was for nothing? 5 Does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by hearing with faith?”
The miracles and the supply of the Spirit of God that is needed in the church today is found and manifested through faith, and not the works of the Law. This is where many leaders are missing it today—going with only what they know and relying upon their own knowledge and ability. The Lord wants abandonment to His ability and the anointing of His Spirit, in the same way Peter walked on the water. “If the Spirit doesn’t move, we are sunk,” should be the attitude of every minister.
Think of the bigger ministries in this country—men have been called, and heavy ministry expenses have been incurred from the cost of fuel for airplanes to TV broadcasts, and a big hoopla has been made for high-profile events and conferences, but God did not have any say in it. He didn’t speak. He didn’t move. The ministers barely did anything for the people. They did not minister in the power of the Lord or bring a supply of the Spirit, or the present-hour word of the Lord. It is pathetic.
There has been great failure in those ministers who are in the limelight from relying on their own wisdom and their past accomplishments. The unknowns and those who’ve labored in near obscurity have fared much better. What has happened in this country is that the bigger, more influential ministries have gotten entangled in the luxury and prosperity of American Christianity while being lax in their private prayer lives and consecration. Just as we are seeing an uprising in the political scene, so there must be in the spiritual. People are tired of the establishment and the “Christian” cartel.
“Your miracles are too old for me,” says the Lord. “Your manna is stale. Your feasts now stink. Your reliance upon your own wisdom and past accomplishments is keeping you out of faith and from depending on Me.”
That is what I hear the Holy Ghost saying.
The earthly ministry of Jesus is our example. He set the pattern for moving with God. He went to the Father every morning to receive His daily bread and direction. The evidence was there as people’s needs were met.
In our own traveling ministry, the Spirit of the Lord has been speaking to us: “You must never get comfortable with where I’m sending you; you must constantly be taking a step of faith in believing for My supply. It’s in the believing that the increase comes in the supply of the Spirit for whatever you need (miracles, revelation, direction and provision).”
In the resurrection of Lazarus, Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” That stone is symbolic of the unbelief that was present then and now, for Martha’s response makes that obvious.
“Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days” (John 11:39).
Notice Jesus’ response to Martha’s unbelief: “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:40)
Many of God’s people are dying today because of the predictability of man’s wisdom and leadership and of their deepest spiritual needs not being met. The state of the church is the result of this predictability spawned from the philosophies of men. It is a spirit of unbelief that manifests in operating strictly from the arm of the flesh and the soul, and man’s wisdom from what they’ve done in the past. It is death and a stench in God’s nostrils.
In Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). The children of Israel are a great Old Testament example for they had to gather new, fresh manna every morning. Moses commanded them not to leave any of the manna until the next morning. When they tried to preserve it, notice what happened.
“However, they did not listen to Moses, and some of them left part of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank, and Moses was angry with them” (Ex. 16:20).
The Lord has shown us that there are hungry people who are tired of the stale manna, and there are others, especially the newer believers, who don’t know what the real manna tastes like, or even looks like. It is important how they’re introduced to Christ and Christianity.
The biggest need in the church today is for the spiritual supply that would meet the people’s deepest need, which is to see His glory, and be touched and filled with God. For when a man is touched and filled with God, he is satisfied, and the temporal world with all its enticements and temptations will no longer lure him.
Look at the scriptural examples of what happened to the people who were touched, healed, delivered and filled with God. The leper was made whole and blazed abroad the matter to everyone (Mark 1). The woman at the well received a revelation of her Messiah and testified to the men in her city (John 4). The Gadarene demoniac was delivered and began to proclaim all that Jesus had done for him (Mark 5). The two disciples on the road to Emmaus received a revelation of Jesus in the breaking of the bread, and the word Jesus spoke to them burned in their hearts like fire, as they ran back to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples of the risen Lord (Luke 24). Oh, what life and glory was ministered to them!
The supply of the Spirit stops the ministry of death. The supply of the Spirit prevents stench and decay. This supply manifests through prayer (Phil. 1:19) and faith (Gal. 3:5).
Let no man bewitch you into thinking otherwise and being satisfied with the wisdom and philosophies of men.
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