Patterns of God

     Does God speak by patterns? I think so. He not only speaks by command but by pattern.  Some of the most important things we can learn, we learn by seeing the pattern God reveals to us.  According to pattern, church was birthed in an outpouring of the Holy Ghost (Acts2).   Pattern?  Holy Ghost falls and church sprouts.  God was so anxious to do this when Peter preached for the first time, that He didn't even let Peter finish preaching.  "While Peter yet spake" the Holy Ghost fell and the Gentile church sprouted up out of that.  Same pattern as Acts 2.  God's patterns don't require constant repetition on Bible pages.  He does what He does - perfectly.  That is why we can sometimes trust the pattern more than we can simple words. We are too prone to interpret words to suit ourselves.  Harder to do that with a picture pattern.   What happened when the brand new church that sprouted up after the first Holy Ghost rain was threatened?   Another outpouring of the Holy Ghost (Acts  4).  Another pattern.

     Think about these patterns and then look at the church of America.  Are we observing the patterns?  I fear the situation is that we have strayed so far from the pattern we have forgotten there was a pattern.  I don't sew, but I can imagine the happy little seamstress sewing away making a dress.  She just loves sewing so much and she sews on a piece here and a piece there, just humming as she sews.  Forgetting that there is a pattern to observe, when she holds up what she has made to the light, it bears no resemblance to the pattern before her and she has no idea what she just created, if anything. It is worthless, though she worked so hard. Feeding the poor, even reaching the lost and other good works are wonderful things churches can do to reach out beyond their walls.  But, churches according to God's pattern didn't spring up from feeding the poor or any other good work.  They emerged from the soil of a God-manifestation.  They survived and grew from a steady stream of God-manifestation.  The great Pentecostal church of today didn't start with feeding the poor or reaching the lost.  It started with a Holy Ghost outpouring on Azuza street, in an run down building in California with some kids and a black preacher willing to believe for revival.  Observing the patterns is why the Bible defines the gospel, not as mere words, but words accompanied by the demonstrations and power of the Holy Ghost.  That is why the Bible gives us a promise that God would go with us confirming the Word, not with more words, but with signs and wonders. 

    The problem, among well-meaning people, is that we want to race to the end product - reach the lost - feed the poor - do the good work.  We are like those who stand over a plot of ground, wanting a apple from an apple tree that hasn't yet been planted.  I know a lot of good people busy, busy, busy praying for the salvation of the lost who have not prayed with equal or greater intensity and desire "oh that thou wouldst rend the heavens, that thou wouldst come down, that mountains might flow down at thy presence" Isaiah 64:1.  Isaiah went on to say that there was none who would call upon His name, that would stir himself up and take hold of God.  There are lot of apple-pickers willing to pick the fruit but too few who will stir themselves up and take hold of God, who will call down the rain, the manifestation of God that makes mountains move.  I went to a beautiful fruit orchard this last spring. "Wow", was all I could say as I stood under those peach trees, branches bent with the weight of the fruit.  I loved picking those things, but looking at the healthy trees and well kept ground, it occurred to me that someone before me, put in a lot of work in order to have that harvest I was enjoying, with so little effort.

     The pattern says that from "glory to glory" we are being changed.  Glory falls and the church springs up. This will go on until the very end, but the pattern will never vary.  We are all looking for the end of this pattern, when Glory appears in the eastern sky and suddenly, we all spring up, an immortal church.  But, for some reason, we fail to observe the pattern in the here and now.  We don't need more people in the pews. We don't need more money in the pocket.  We need more glory, more revealed God, and those who want God will run to God. Understand, this is not a new word from God, or a best-selling Christian book, or a great sermon from the pastor.  This is a manifestation of GOD!  This is happening around the world right now with awesome results. God is showing up in far away places like Nepal, and boom, church is springing up in the wake of a God-manifestation.  Come saints. Stir yourself up and take hold of God.