Yesterday while meeting in ekklesia at The Salvation Army Berry Street, I kept feeling my phone vibrating in my pocket. I would then put my hand on the phone, but it wasn’t vibrating. This happened over and over. Finally words (something like these) came to me: “I’m calling you, but you’re dropping many of My calls. I’m calling many people, but they are also dropping My calls. Be still and listen to Me, in the day and in the night, and you will clearly hear.” I shared those words with the brothers and sisters who were gathered for worship.

–It’s a wonderful experience when the Spirit speaks through you. You feel the words flowing effortlessly from deep within, spontaneously rolling over your tongue and out of your mouth. I believe God wants all Christ-followers to regularly have the experience of the Spirit speaking through them. And it doesn’t have to be just in a religious meeting. Jesus said: “But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” (Matthew 10:19-20)
–At Berry Street we want to be a platform where the Holy Spirit can speak through anybody present in the meeting, whenever He wants to. To do this we have to set aside our agenda so that we don’t quench or stop the Spirit when He wants to speak through someone who isn’t on a program.
–That’s why the Bible clearly teaches something that churches (who say they believe the Bible) usually ignore: “If a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop.” Sometimes our program or our featured speaker can get in the way of God speaking through someone else, perhaps someone completely unexpected.
–I believe that we miss out on so much in church, because we plan and control everything that happens in a worship meeting, not allowing the Spirit to speak through any person He wants to. Perhaps this is the time, this is the generation, to go beyond church to ekklesia and allow the least to the greatest, the commonest to the most clergified, to freely speak out as they are prompted by the Spirit.

Ekklesia at Berry Street yesterday morning was beautiful! It was like Christmas (the birth of Christ), full of oxymorons. It was:
1) Simple — nothing complicated, no special human arrangements; yet incarnationally profund and complex.
2) Common — ordinary, looking like nothing special; yet glorious.
3) Unplanned — spontaneous; yet directed by the living God.
4) Full of heavenly rejoicing — celebrating with God’s angels!

Learn more about ekklesia in my book, Beyond Church: An Invitation To Experience The Lost Word Of The Bible, Ekklesia.” It’s available in paperback and Kindle at Amazon! Please get it and if you like it write an Amazon review for me! Thanks so much!