Song of Solomon

We could hold a hundred more prayer meetings where the church gathers to ask God to move by His Spirit, asking God to pour our revival on the meetings.

The church could fill up its cup of prayer until it overflowed. Jesus would be present in each meeting – yet we could still fail to see a manifestation of the Spirit and still miss the revival that He came to give.

Why? Because at some point, we need to actively receive.

Asking is not receiving. Believing is receiving.

And believing is an act.

What is the act that releases the manifestation of the Spirit in our meetings?

If we have asked for revival in our meeting - and we believe we have received - we will act that faith. We will deliberately do something which activates the answer.

For example, we will purposefully allocate time during our program in which we expect the Holy Spirit to manifest - and He will.

"You shall have whatsoever you say," said Jesus.

Saying is another act of faith.

Not just asking - but saying.

But very often we unknowingly negate our own prayers for revival, through failing to respond when the anointing is present.

Here is a parable based on the Song of Solomon which dramatizes the Church as she learns to let the Holy Spirit move:

"I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night."

JESUS: I've come to move in your meeting

"I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?"

CHURCH: I can sense your anointing Lord - but we've got a song list to complete; we are just about to give the announcements whilst we take-up the offering; and then a guestspeaker will preach – so how can we just drop our program and let you move in the meeting?

"My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him."

JESUS tries His best to do all He can in our meeting, but it was really up to us - up to the Church - to receive His visitation.

"I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock..."

As an afterthought - when it was convenient for me - I, the CHURCH decided that we still really do want a move of God in our meeting...so let's give an altar call at the end, for hungry people - after we've dismissed the meeting. Or, let's relegate Tuesday Night as the Holy Spirit night, so we don't interrupt our Sunday program.

"I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone."

CHURCH: We were willing to let God could move in our boxed-in way at the tail-end of the meeting, when most of the congregation were already dismissed - but somehow the same pervailing anointing that we'd begun to feel earlier in the meeting just didn't quite take-off; by this time most of the people were thinking of going home; and some of the people who God wanted to touch had already left the meeting; so it didn't quite give us the revival we know we need.

"...my soul failed when he spake"

CHURCH: I really do long for Him, I really do want revival, you know

"...I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer"

CHURCH: so we held more prayer meetings in which we again asked for revival; we did more preaching about revival - but these things alone have still not brought the breakthrough that satisfies the heart. Something has to change. I wonder what the next step is - the key?

"I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love

CHURCH: Now I know it. Now I what I want - I've determined I'm not going to be satisfied with running church as I usually run it. I now want His manifest presence: I want the meeting to run how He wants it; from now on I'll let the Spirit move when He wants it, through whomever He wants it; and for as long as He wants it!

"What is thy beloved more than another beloved,that thou dost so charge us?

NARRATOR ASKS THE CHURCH: Even though it could become an inconvenience to your scheduled program for the meeting, if the Holy Spirit is given His way - what makes you decide you really want Jesus to have time to move in the meetings - the way He wants to - from now on?

THE CHURCH ANSWERS:

"Because my beloved is..."

I want to yield to Jesus - as soon as I sense He wants to do something in our meeting - because He is beloved; because He it is who fills with joy, who fills with the Spirit, who works miracles, who gives healings, who can comfort us through prophesy and who gives visions, who speaks through tongues and interpretation - it is He who anoints with words like no other, and He is able to add daily to the church such as are being saved. And that's what I want! I want to be intimate with Him. That's why I tell you that from now on, I want to let Him move in all of our meetings. I want it. I want Him!

Then she and her beloved enter into that mutual celebration of each other's love, and appreciate everything around them together.

CHURCH: And "the disciples went out and preached everywhere, THE LORD WORKING WITH THEM AND CONFIRMING THE WORD WITH SIGNS FOLLOWING". And the "disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Ghost." And the "hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord."

May this become the story of our life and of our church services.