Worship Filled With God’s Presence
You can be rest assured that an atmosphere is going to be charged with the Presence of God when the people have actually tasted the realities they are singing about in worship.
Third Day led a hungry crowd of 6000+ worshipers in some of their classic songs, a few new ones, and a selection of the worship cuts from their incredibly popular Worship albums. One such song was God of Wonders. Think about it for a minute. You are at Voice of the Apostles, under the leadership of Randy Clark.
Reinhard Bonnke is getting ready to command the platform, not with sleek showmanship or refined eloquence, but his authentic, raw hunger for the Holy Spirit and fiery passion to see the entire planet evangelized.
Needless to say, in such an environment, lyrics like these have new, tangible depth:
God of wonders beyond our galaxy
You are holy, holy
Rest assured, the God of Wonders was not merely sung about tonight—His power was visibly demonstrated as many experienced a life-changing touch in the Presence of God.
The Holy Spirit Is Not Downgraded For Some
Reinhard Bonnke was the perfect person to kick off the week. Of course, Bonnke is synonymous with evangelism. The man could read the phone book and get me fired up to save the world. Why? The anointing. Perhaps more than the topic of evangelism tonight, Bonnke let every participant in on the secret of his supernatural success in ministry. No gimmicks. No theological pedigree. No hypnosis tactic. The key to Bonnke’s unparalleled ministry is, in my opinion, his powerful relationship with the Holy Spirit. Many might look at his life and ministry, and in turn, write themselves off. “Well – that’s Bonnke’s anointing” almost as if they received some type of downgraded Holy Spirit.
The wonderful Truth that Bonnke tirelessly proclaims is that we need not go out to some spiritual superhero to get this anointing. “God does not have a factory where anointings are produced to be dished out,” noted Bonnke. He is convinced that we have all received the Anointing – the same Holy Spirit that empowered Jesus lives inside of every single Christian.
“What qualifies us to receive the Holy Spirit is the blood of Jesus.” – Reinhard Bonnke
In addition to sharing his powerful testimony (if you haven’t heard his story about George Jeffreys, I encourage you find and listen to it – incredible), and delivering a strong exhortation about the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the divided tongues of Pentecost, and the mighty rushing wind of the Spirit, Bonnke concluded the services with a powerful time of prayer and stirring up of the anointing.
During his message, he noted that too many people are waiting for an atmosphere to receive a touch from the Holy Spirit. The fact of the matter is, the Holy Spirit creates the atmosphere. When a hurricane hits, you don’t think about how you prepared an atmosphere for it. It blows you over. The same is true with the Holy Spirit – and I believe every conference attendee experienced some measure of that rushing wind tonight!
Bonnke, at 73, has no plans of retirement. He summed it up quite aptly (and to much applause):
“I must kick the devil before I kick the bucket.” I have no trouble believing that!
What About You?
Did you attend the first night of the Voice of the Apostles conference? What was your greatest takeaway or revelation? Let me know in the comments below.
About Larry Sparks
