Darren J Stott

“Something’s changed!” I keep hearing this all over the place, buzzing throughout our community and resonating in my heart. Last Sunday we slipped into the glory of the Lord, the atmosphere was charged, there was a sense that anything could happen, that impossibilities could become possibilities, and it all started with worship.

Bill Johnson preached an insightful message on throne room experiences and he made an interesting observation: normally Revelation 3:20 is taught with an evangelistic emphasis, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” Bill expounds that the text was written actually to believers, not unbelievers! Now imagine Jesus knocking on the closed doors of believer’s hearts: what a sad thought. However , what a EYE OPENING REVELATION - our desire for Jesus to come to reveal himself to us pales in comparison to his desire to come and be with us. When we pray, “Come Holy Spirit, come,” (and we really mean it) we are praying according to his will, because it is his burning desire to be invited into our lives and reveal himself and his glory. When we pray according to his will, the answer to that prayer is immediate. Many times we do not see our answered prayers because we do not know what to look for, but often times, if you will give it some time and then reexamine the situation, you will see that God has completely changed everything. This will leave you saying, “Something’s changed!”

I had this amazing conversation at Starbucks with Michael and Penny Proctor they, pastors at Elisha’s Request church. We chatted about my favorite topic, “worship.” Michael said something that I thought was fascinating. He said, and I paraphrase, “You know, we need to watch what we are singing when we worship. There are words in songs that I refuse to sing because they do not align with God’s will. When you sing, you are making a proclamation and so, if we sing as a church, ‘Lord heal our broken hearts’, we begin presuming that we must all have broken hearts that need healing… Heaven wants to invade earth and we need to sing and assume that reality.” If we worship with the assumption that Heaven desires to invade earth, this assumption will eradicate performance, de-activate striving and prime the atmosphere for the supernatural.

Something has changed and it isn’t GOD, it is us. Our expectations and definitions for what is “normal” have changed. The presence of God is so accessible, his glory is so tangible and his will is so enabling. Something has changed and is transforming, and will continue to reform, as JESUS longs to disclose himself to his bride. It is not difficult to enter into the presence of GOD: all you have to do is stop striving, grin at Heaven and assume access by grace into the glory. It’s as simple as slipping on in. Go ahead, try it now and see what happens.