Tuesday morning at 10 AM, I ended up in a tiny town, at a tiny church, in a tiny room with 6 people. I’d never been there before, I went because God told me to go.
I found out there was going to be a prayer meeting and I felt God telling me to be there. It was just a few people in an old messy room and it sure didn’t look like much. I walked in, sat down, closed my eyes AND THE POWER OF GOD FELL.
There was no warm up, no hype, no need to stir anything up. GOD SIMPLY CAME DOWN!
“When You did awesome things which we did not expect, You came down, the mountains quaked at Your presence.” -Isaiah 64:3
I love it when God does unexpected glorious things!
We went on for 2 1/2 hours in prayer and it seemed like a couple minutes! It was a wonderful thing, like Heaven on Earth.
The longing of my heart is HEAVEN ON EARTH. His will being done down here. His power and presence DOWN HERE WHERE WE LIVE, not just in heaven!
And that’s what was happening.
Not just for 2 1/2 hours, but the entire day after I left the prayer meeting, until I laid my head on my pillow!
God manifested His Presence among us and answered prayer. I took note of the faces of those in that room. They were different leaving than arriving! They glowed like the face of Moses after he’d been in the presence of God. They looked like different people!
“And the people of Israel would see the radiant glow of his face. So he would put the veil over his face until he returned to speak with the LORD.” -Exodus 34:35
In a tiny town, at a tiny church, in a tiny room with 6 people GOD SHOWED UP!
The scriptures give us a special promise:
“For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” -Matthew 18:20
It’s not necessary for 5,000 to gather in His name at a church, nor to have a stadium filled with people. The promise here is that Jesus will be “in the midst of them” when as few as just two people gather together!
In our carnal mind we are always thinking that bigger is better, but God is not governed by our carnal mind!
Never forget Jesus was born in a barn. God’s trying to tell us something here. He didn’t put Jesus up at the 5 star “Hotel Bethlehem”!
“And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.” -Luke 2:7
So Jesus is out there in a barn. It’s not much! It’s cold and smelly, but the SON OF GOD showed up there!
That’s the first place He showed up when He came to this earth. Think about that.
He comes out of the womb into this world and that poor stinking barn is THE FIRST PLACE HE SHOWS UP!
Jesus is NOT like us. He shows up in places we personally don’t like to be in, and often times it is in those very places where THE GLORY IS REVEALED!
“Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”-Luke 2:13
What a sight it must have been! Glory to God!
Over the last five years of my life one of the main things that I feel Jesus has been teaching me is that He often shows up in small unexpected places. So much of God’s activity in my life has been in out-of-the-way places that nobody would expect God to be at.
For example, I’ve been gathering with a handful of people over the last couple years in somebody’s basement. I found out about it because I wanted to get together with others and worship the Lord one day, and so I prayed, “God there must be a place in Portland where I can worship you on a Tuesday night.” About an hour later I got a text asking me if I was going to be at Mary’s house that night. I said, “Who’s Mary?” I had no idea who she was, but God answered my prayer and I’ve been gathering with them every Tuesday night since. I’ve lost track of the number of glorious encounters I’ve had with God there! Most of the time there’s only 5 or 6 of us gathering together. Some might look at that and be tempted to think it’s too small to really matter. But Jesus is there with us. Is there anything better than that? I would give anything to be where He is, and He’s right there in that basement!
Don’t despise the day of small beginnings, neither dismiss small things, because God is often present in them.
“Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin…” – Zechariah 4:10