I remember when a friend of mine visited a small town south of Tucson and related to us his experience of visiting an historical church that was built in the early 1900’s down there. He said that when he entered this particular church he was struck with the presence of the Spirit. The words he used to describe it were “thick” and “tangible.”
Many of us can relate to that feeling and perhaps have visited such a place ourselves. It is almost as if all the prayers spoken there, all the hymns and holy songs sung, and all the incense burned and ancient rituals performed had lodged themselves in the DNA of the building itself. It seems to me that it would take a lot of time and effort to bring about this spiritual condition of a church building. Perhaps the environment had been cultivated for so long and so deliberately that angels themselves had taken up residence there.
I have felt this presence many times in my life. Sometimes, as above, it is ingrained in buildings or holy places. Sometimes it is found in nature. The ancient Celts used to call certain Holy sites around Ireland “thin places” where the veil between Heaven and earth seemed to be much thinner than normal and Heaven much closer. Sometimes an event such as a powerful prayer meeting or worship gathering can bring such a powerful presence that all around can feel it deep inside of ourselves in that “God place” we all have.
The first time I felt the real presence of the Holy Spirit was at the time I first dropped my spiritual guard and prayed out loud for a God that was, at that time unknown to me- to ultimately help me and save me from myself. The Spirit came to me at that moment in a flood and bathed me in heavenly love and spoke a name to me- “Jesus”. It was unmistakable at the time and I’ve clung to that memory as the most important moment in my life.
The second time I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit was a few weeks later when I found myself entering a church here in Tucson that I had been “led to”. I say led to, because I don’t remember anyone telling me about this church or recommending it to me beforehand. I simply found myself compelled to go to this church one Sunday. As I entered, I felt this “thick presence” and I instinctively knew what it was and where it had come from. Music was coming from a band playing and the room was filled with people freely worshipping and openly displaying their devotion to the Source of the Spirit I felt. I will never forget that moment either.
I will be bold here and state that I believe that God led me to that place in order to experience what it is to enter a church building and sense the Presence and experience that feeling when the Spirit has been called and invited to dwell among God’s people. It was as if God was telling me “see here these people who worship me and seek Me without hesitation or timidity. Where my Spirit is- there is freedom and these children of mine are freely expressing their love and need for Me.”
When I first entered that church, God touched me so deeply there was no way I was going to turn around and run out. The room and the people felt strange to me and I was experiencing something new and unusual, yet I was unafraid and soon I joined them in worship. I was drawn by the spiritual atmosphere even though my natural tendency in that situation would have been to leave. I was blessed with a supernatural boldness that led me on. I was attracted beyond my normal nature.
I try to sense these things in every church gathering I attend. If I visit a church, I enter the building and try to spend some time with my eyes closed just getting a sense of the Spirit in that place. Sometimes I feel it, and sometimes I feel nothing. Of course this is certainly not a definitive “test” of the spiritual activity in a particular church. I am simply attempting to put into practice the gift of discernment that God showed my long ago. If I don’t feel anything in a church building or gathering, it could mean nothing. But, if I feel the active and tangible presence in a particular place, it is significant to me. There is nothing more attractive to me than the presence of the Holy Spirit.
I believe that we all have the ability to sense God’s Spirit to different degrees. I also believe that we can increase our ability to feel God’s presence around and in us if we choose to pursue this ability. But it begins with experiencing it for the first time.
It is my heart’s desire that all church communities begin to seek after this Spirit and take steps to create a hospitable environment where the Spirit would take up residence in. Many churches have taken to creating an atmosphere that is worldly based in order to attract new parishioners. The trend these days is to make the church building comfortable and inviting to the “unchurched” by focusing on external atmospheric conditions. Lighting and sound, comfortable furnishings, secular music, entertaining concert-like worship sets and simple and non confrontational preaching are common tools to bring in the new flock. I understand this approach and this way of thinking. It’s difficult to trust God that He would open a person’s mind and heart when they step in to our churches for the first time, without our help.
If I had walked into a church like that back in my early Christian days, I might have stayed for the wrong reasons and for a short time as I would have quickly outgrown such a place in my hunger for the deep spiritual presence. I have come to believe that if we put as much effort into creating a place where the Holy Spirit would comfortably dwell as we do in making people feel comfortable, we would tap into the deeper spiritual self and begin to fill our church buildings! I believe that we would experience more miracles and spiritual, mental and physical healing in such a place. That is great news! The potential is limited only by our faith. I think this would be a great time we toned down the externals and built up the spiritual in our church gatherings. We can count on the Lord working in a strong Spiritual atmosphere, can we not? We can have faith that He will want to dwell in our church houses if we invite His Spirit in significant and consistent ways. If we instead, lean on our worldly understanding and utilize the world’s ways of attracting people, perhaps all we can expect is worldly fruit.
Are you building your church gathering on sand or rock? Do you trust that people will be attracted to your church based on clever ideas and planning or does your attendance rely on faith and Spirit? Do you want people to pay compliments to your music and atmosphere or do you want them to come back to your church to once again feel the presence of God in their midst? Remember, even people who are unacquainted with Christ can feel His Spirit within them. If the music is too loud and too entertaining and the atmosphere has dumbed down the Spirit, people might not be able to feel or hear God’s touch on their soul. Their spiritual senses could be overridden by the best laid plans and your church may become a revolving door.
A church with a powerful presence of God might just create “stayers” and not “comers and goers.”
That seems like a worthy goal doesn’t it?
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