Ephesus was full of the witchcraft culture during biblical times and yet people were hungry and got saved!
The people of Ephesus were exposed to supernatural witchcraft and sorcery, and they were open in their spirits in the demonic realm. Because of that, it was easy to bring them to the cross with Jesus and into the supernatural realm.
Invading Our Comfort Zones
Today, many people move in half-hearted, contented and comfortable styles and avoid moving in the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. Some don’t like the supernatural and almost hate it. Some don’t want the Holy Spirit because it makes them feel uncomfortable.
We want people to speak in tongues a little bit, but kind of keep it cool and nice. Don’t make people uncomfortable. Don’t have people vomiting and screaming out, getting set free from demons, running around yelling, “I am healed! I am healed! I am out of the wheelchair.”
We need to be a people where there is a noise and a sound, because Jesus is walking in the house. We need to be able to move in and meet Jesus. He moved in a paradigm of signs and wonders. The unsaved could hardly wait to get to Him. They wanted what He had! Are people asking you if they can have what you have?
Denmark Speaks
Not long ago, I was in a huge church in Copenhagen, Denmark. I heard there was a Nigerian healing evangelist doing meetings in this church, so I wanted to go and see what God was doing in the land. He was sort of the talk of Copenhagen. In Denmark, only 1% of the people are saved. Yet, this minister was getting people to stay until 3 and 4 am because the Lord was healing the sick.
It was 10 pm at night when I heard about these meetings, after being in another city doing meetings myself. So we went down to this large church and there were probably 15,000 people there. They were totally engaged in the meeting and loving it!
When I looked at the crowd, they were mostly an unchurched group: business men and women, witches and warlocks, prostitutes, street people and people from every walk of life. Broken, hurting people were getting prayer for cancer, being confined to wheelchairs, and all kinds of deformities. The people were standing or sitting and waiting for hours to get prayer.
I ran into the pastor, and I said, “I love the people! How did you get these people here? I can tell that they are not a church crowd, how did you get them here?”
New Age Advertising
He said, “Well, Jill, we just advertised in all of the New Age papers. We advertised in all the secular papers about signs and wonders and healings. All these people come and they don’t know the Lord and many of them end up accepting Him! We have over 800 people who have just signed up for the Alpha course. We will start to disciple them, but they just come because they want the power of the Gospel.”
Hiding in Church
He went on to say, “A lot of people who get hurt in the Charismatic and Pentecostal churches go into the seeker-friendly churches, which have more of a social gospel or the neat intellectual gospel, so they won’t get hurt … and they don’t want the emotionalism. You know many times there are great biblical teachings there, but there is no demonstration of the power of God. So there is the Word, but there is not much of the Spirit. They will go for their 45 minutes and want to get their kids home.”
The World Isn’t Jaded by God’s Power
The Denmark pastor concluded, “Those in the world do not know the Lord,” he continued, “and they are not jaded by the power of God. They have not been hurt by the move of Holy Spirit. They want a display of signs and wonders. We touch the unchurched people, and they keep running. So often we feel that if God starts to grip people radically, we are going to offend the unsaved. The reality is that we offend the church, the religious folks, the Pharisees; we offend the people who have a controlling spirit.”
What Will the Church Choose?
So if you do not have the power of Holy Spirit in your churches, then the altar of the church is barren. How do you keep the dragon from crawling up on the altar of your church and laying its eggs of religiousness, compromise, apathy and intellectualism?
How do you deal with that whole demonic anti-Christ spirit that invades your church? If you don’t have the power of Holy Spirit and radical watchmen - people who move in the Word and the Spirit, and they are able to see deception and move with unction and power – then your altar and church will be barren.
I feel like the Lord is challenging gatekeepers at this hour. It is not only that there is the rebuilding of the altars in our lives. We need to rebuild the altars in our churches!
The Charismatic Movement
Because of what is happening, I’ve been asking the Lord, “Is the Charismatic Movement dead?” This movement was a mighty outpouring in the 1960’s. We all have our prayer language, but we don’t understand the government of Holy Spirit. I believe that in this decade, God wants to bring the government of God to back up His Word. He wants us to move with the spirit of Elijah.
The Power of Jesus in Society
That is the spirit that Jesus has, except that Jesus took it one step up from Elijah. He moved in more signs and wonders. There are more scriptures on Jesus’ revival of radical signs and wonders than anywhere in the Word of God. There are more scriptures about Jesus’ revival.
So the kingdom, the power of God, came to heal suffering, broken humanity by a God who loved them. It wasn’t enough that they were just in the temple going over the scriptures day and night. We need to take our scriptures and actually have them in our very being so we can impact our society, impact hospitals, impact our governmental and political arenas.
Jesus moved in real life and went out into the multitudes. He moved in everyday life, touching, healing, speaking, and teaching. That is the Elijah anointing. That is the anointing Jesus had through the power of Holy Spirit.
Our Cry
There needs to be a fresh cry to the Lord in us, “We want Pentecost! We want to break open areas in our society! We want to bring healing, set the people free, and let God free their minds!”
Make this your cry, as it is mine.
Jill Austin
Master Potter Ministries