I don’t like to go barefooted. I like to keep my shoes on. However, sometimes I need to take off my shoes so that I can clean my feet and so that I can put on even better shoes.

God called to Moses from a burning bush. He told Moses to take off his shoes because he was standing on holy ground.

Jesus told His disciples to take off their shoes and then He washed their feet. Today God’s not looking for holy places but for holy feet attached to people who have been made holy by the blood of the Lamb and by the indwelling presence of the risen Jesus — people who will daily be led by the Spirit. Their feet bring demonstrations of the good news of “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” everywhere they go.

Take off your shoes. Step out of the prideful human ways of walking. Go beyond routine religion. Put the Gospel of peace on your feet and begin to walk supernaturally in the Spirit.

If a church is just presenting information about Jesus and not training the members of the congregation to daily listen to Him and walk in His shoes, it isn’t fully proclaiming and demonstrating the Good News of walking in the Spirit. It’s time for a shoe change!

If people aren’t trained to turn on the faucet and regularly drink the water, it does little good to teach them the details about the plumbing. (If churches don’t train people to open up and experience Christ’s living water day and night, merely teaching them the details of the Gospel won’t impact their life very much.)

As I watched a preacher, filled with passion for Jesus, talking about the Bible in front of a stone-faced congregation, I wished that he would lead the people into experiencing and expressing life-changing passion for the living Jesus instead of just excitedly sharing information about Him. Information about Jesus will be little applied and even forgotten, but experiencing “Christ in you,” burning like a never-ending fire, will empower people to continually spread His presence, power, and love to everyone they meet.

Preaching with passion and trying to get Christ’s living water to flow from the heart of people in a church service is like preaching to a shut-down faucet and trying to get water to flow. I’ve tried that many hundreds of times and it’s not very effective (preaching to a passive congregation, not to a literal faucet).

To get water to flow from a faucet you have to turn it on and open it up. To get Christ’s living water to flow from people’s heart you have to train them to open up their heart and stop blocking Christ’s inner rivers. Then you have to give them opportunities to open up in the meeting and speak from the Spirit as the risen Jesus prompts them until person after person begins to open their heart and let the Spirit lead them to humbly and honestly do what Jesus tells them to.

Preaching to people who are passively parked in church pews (or chairs) is like trying to steer a car that is parked in a garage. No matter how hard you steer, you won’t change its direction. The Bible never says, “Sit and hear a talk about the goodness of God.” It says, “O taste and see that the Lord is good.”

Church is one man
On a platform
Trying to inform
People about God.
The Gospel is
Jesus the Christ
Working to transform
People from within.
“Christ in you,
The hope of glory.”

The sound
That creates
Holy ground
Is the sound
Of God’s voice.
Open your heart.
Hear His word.
Let Him confound
You with awe
Till you abound
With the fruit
Of His Spirit.