In the early church of the first several centuries baptism was an event that people prepared for. Part of that preparation was the study of a written "baptismal confession" which stated in writing the confession of faith into which they were being baptized. As I reflected on this I decided to do something similar (just different). First, as a house church we went through Romans 6:1-11 and talked about it’s meaning and significance. Next, I wrote out a series of confessional statements which asked questions specifically related to their spiritual struggles. For example, prior to her new life in Christ, Jaime had been a satanist and a "cutter" (self-mutilation by cutting). One of the confessional statements I wrote for her read: "Do you publicly reject and renounce any and all evil or unclean spirits, including all spirits of self-destruction, self-mutilation and cutting, and do you profess that they now have no power or authority over you? Do you? ("I do"). I did the same for Fred (His confessional statements were obviously different). The goal was to personalize their baptisms ad to make them specifically appropriate to what they were going through at the time. The effect for Jaime was profound. The spiritual battle surrounding her baptism was intense, so much so that she scarcely remembers it (but she has her written "Baptismal Confession" as a dated reminder!). But more importantly, her struggle with the demonic ended that night. She is no longer harassed, and she now sleeps peacefully through the night (a much bigger deal than any of you reading this will understand)!

Any story like this deserves an "epilogue". This past Friday evening, Jaime came to house church . . . with her mom. Now you need to understand that Yvonne seldom leaves the house due to health problems. She suffers from a form of epilepsy and a case of lupus which makes her skin feel like it’s on fire. But the changes in Jaime have been so profound that she has been asking about coming to one of our gatherings for weeks, and last week was the week. During the meeting one of our prophetically gifted people (Randy) had a word that God wanted to heal Yvonne of a blood condition. Yvonne’s skin hurt so badly that we couldn’t lay hands on her to pray, but we did pray for healing. Jaime and Yvonne left and headed home. About midway home Yvonne blurted out, "I’m not in pain! I don’t know what’s going on!" "Think about it, mom," Jaime replied. Don't you just love a God of surprises! While Yvonne’s healing is still a work in progress, she has been profoundly touched and God has gotten her attention.

And the ordinary work of house church goes on . . . .

People who have stood in God’s Presence (such as during times of genuine revival and spiritual outpouring) and who have touched and tasted the powers of the Age to Come often get "ruined" for life. What do I mean? Having drunk deeply at the well of the water of life, they find it difficult, even impossible to return to the days of artificially flavored soda pop. They have discovered the difference, and nothing less will do.Such people also understand the meaning of genuine spiritual poverty. Having once swam in deep and great spiritual oceans they have become acutely sensitive to the changing of the tides. They know the difference between the high tide of spiritual abundance, and the low tide of spiritual poverty, for they have experienced both. Isaiah was such a person. Early in His ministry Isaiah had stood in the Temple in Jerusalem and had seen it fill with the very Presence of God. In that moment both Isaiah’s life and his ministry were changed . . . forever. But years had passed since then. Now, at the end of His ministry, Isaiah knew that the spiritual tide had gone out in the life of the people of God. And we know this because Isaiah reflects upon the situation starting in verse 15 of Chapter 63, which is where we will begin.

In this verse Isaiah openly wonders what has happened to God’s zeal for His people. You see, Isaiah knew something about "the zeal of the Lord". In addition to standing in God’s very Presence and personally witnessing and experiencing God’s Holiness (see Isaiah Chapter 6), the prophet had personally witnessed God’s "zeal" on behalf of His people in the incident with Sennacherib the Assyrian in Isaiah 37. When Sennacherib, King of Assyria beseiged Jerusalem and threatened to take the city, God spoke to Isaiah and promised that the City and it’s people would be delivered:

Isaiah had personally witnessed God’s holiness, God’s zeal and His mighty deeds. He knew the difference between seeing them and not seeing them. And as he penned these words in Isaiah 63, he was not seeing them. But Isaiah was more spiritually honest than we are today. He was willing to admit that the spiritual tide had gone out of God’s people. And probably out of himself, as well. He was willing to openly admit his own spiritual poverty as well as the spiritual poverty of those around him. Are we? Verbiage about power is no substitute for power. Verbiage about healing is not substitute for healing. Verbiage about holiness, repentance and intimacy with God are no substitute for experiencing them and walking in them. The American Church talks a lot about such things, but walks in precious little. Contrary to what Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 4:20, for most Western Churches and Western Christians, the Kingdom of really does consist of words, rather than power.

When was the last time you candidly admitted your own spiritual poverty before the Lord? God loves it when we do. Through David he tells us that a broken spirit and a contrite heart He will not despise (Psalm 51). And Jesus Himself tells us that the "poor in spirit" are blessed in His sight. The recognition of our own spiritual poverty is a good thing, because when we are weak, then it is that we are truly strong. Scripture regularly warns and admonishes us that God is opposed to the proud (people who profess spiritual strength and blessing when the reality of their lives is something quite different). But He gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5: ). Which are you?

The admission of spiritual poverty is the first, and perhaps most important step, in coming to terms with what God is doing in our lives, or in the life of His Church. For Isaiah, the admission of spiritual poverty, the absence of God’s "zeal" toward His people and the absence of His "mighty deeds" in their midst combined to signal a profound change in God’s attitude toward and dealings with His people. Something had changed, and Isaiah knew it. God’s attitude was different now than at previous times. He was no longer "stirred up" toward His people. A more literal rendering of Isaiah’s words here would be, "The commotion of your inmost parts and your womb of compassion are restrained toward me".

If Isaiah were speaking today, many believers would want to comfort Isaiah by assuring Him that God’s Presence never leaves us, or that God’s love is always constant. But this kind of comfort would be little more than theological words spoken by people who have traded power for words, and whose own spiritual poverty has hardened into spiritual complacency. Such people have become satisfied with little, mistaking it for abundance. The self deception is made complete when we mask our poverty and our complacency with spiritual verbiage about "anointing" and "God’s Presence". Isaiah was well aware that Jehovah was still his Father, "Thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer of old." But Isaiah understood things which we appear to have forgotten. He understood the changing of the spiritual tides. And he knew that something had changed in His relationship with God. The divine tide had receded and God was "restrained" in His dealings with His people. And this deeply troubled Isaiah. Does it trouble you in our own life? If not, isn’t it time to ask yourself "Why?".

The people of God had wandered away from God and His ways. In the process of wandering they had lost their fear of God. I’ve often wondered which comes first: Straying from God’s ways or losing our fear of God. Isaiah doesn’t address this question. He simply acknowledges the reality and seeks to deal with it. How does he deal with it? By asking God to return for the sake of His people. You would think at this point that Isaiah would call the people to repent. The Hebrew word translated "return" means "to turn" and is the word most frequently used for "repent". The idea is not a change of heart but a change of direction. But Isaiah doesn’t call on God’s people to repent. Instead, Isaiah implores God to change direction and to come back to His people.

There’s a point here. Restoring the fear of God to the people of God requires the work of God. We can’t do it ourselves. Pursuing the fear of God without the Presence of God ultimately leads to legalism. And legalism always produces spiritual death. Recovering the fear of God requires a divine encounter. Isaiah understood this from personal experience, and so he implores God to "return for the sake of Thy servants".

When the tide of God’s Presence recedes from His people, it soon becomes obvious, because the results are disastrous. And perhaps the most disastrous result is that the people of God soon begin to look no different than the surrounding culture. Listen to what Nehemiah told the people of God in his day when they wrestled with a similar problem: "Again I said, ‘The thing which you are doing is not good; should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies?’" (Nehemiah 5:9). The people of God of Nehemiah’s day had a two-fold problem. First, they had apparently lost their fear of God (when you’re no longer walking in it, you’ve probably lost it). Second, the loss of the fear of God had led them to their next problem. You see, when we lose our fear of God we soon lose our holiness. And when we lose our holiness we lose that divine distinctiveness which sets us apart form the rest of our surrounding culture. Soon we begin to think, look and act like everyone else.

Americans are a "fix it" kind of people. Like the ancient Romans, we tend to be great builders, but lousy philosophers or theologians (when the Romans needed a philosopher they would simply go out and conquer another Greek city-state). If there is a spiritual problem, we want to write a book, create a DVD and offer a "three step plan" to fix it. It probably won’t work, but as long as sales are good maybe no none will notice. But Isaiah saw things differently. Isaiah understood something we often forget. Isaiah understood that spiritual problems require divine solutions. And Isaiah understood that one of the first signs that God is about to move is the yearning felt and the groaning heard in the hearts of His people.

Throughout history the people of God have understood the significance of this spiritual yearning and goaning. "This longing for revivals we cannot but consider a cheering indication of the noblest life. Next to a state of actual revival is the sense of its need, and the struggle to attain it at any sacrifice of treasure, toil or time." (Minutes of the Presbyterian Church of 1857) A.W. Tozer understood this when he wrote that God is always "prevenient". Before a man (or woman) can truly seek God, God must first have sought the man. So it is with groaning. We yearn and groan for God because the Spirit of God groans in us and through us. And that means that God Himself is moving His people to ask for more.

So, what’s all this got to do with organic house church? In this coming move, God is looking for channels through which He can flow and vessels which He can fill. The greatest promise of organic house church is the potential and the promise it holds to become the new channel through which the River of God’s Spirit can flow in this upcoming spiritual outpouring. Conversely, the greatest threat to organic house church isn’t heresy or divisiveness (yes, they’re important, but the early church confronted and survived those threats and more, and we can too!). Rather, the greatest threat to organic house church is that it becomes "the new wineskin" while remaining devoid of any new wine. There’s a word for a new wineskin without new wine: a "methodology". But I believe God has new wine for His new wineskin. I believe He is about to visit His Church and to permanently stamp it with three new DNA markers of His Presence and Power. The new house church wine of this coming move will consist of 1) a restoration of genuine holiness and the fear of God, 2) a restoration of a genuine spirit of personal repentance to believers, and 3) the restoration of genuine intimacy with God in His church.