Once I was ministering in another church where the meetings had begun Sunday
morning and were scheduled to go through Wednesday night. We were having
tremendous meetings, with evidence of repentance, healing and deliverance. The
church had experienced a breakthrough in its finances. The attendance increased.
But Tuesday evening before the service the pastor began to weep. "What is
wrong?" I asked.
"John, I am not jealous of you. I just do not understand why I never see God
move. I am filled with the Holy Spirit, yet none of the gifts of the Spirit
operate in my services. No one is healed or delivered, and everything just seems
so difficult."
So I began to ask questions. It turned out there were two couples on his board
who had both been filled with the Holy Spirit longer than he had. Because of
this they told him what to do and how to run the church. I explained, "You're
intimidated by your own board. You need to step back into your God
given-authority and tell them you are the pastor - not them."
The next day he spoke with them. Both couples were upset and eventually left the
church. The meetings were extended, and on the last evening a group of people
came forward for prayer, but the Lord told me, "You are not to pray for these
people. The pastor is."
I looked at the pastor, and I could see the power of God all over him. "Pastor,"
I said, "God says you are to pray for the people."
He began to run through the midst of that group of people. He would merely touch
them and they would collapse under the power of God. There were some who fell
before he touched them. The power of God was so strong that they were affected
even before he got to them.
One girl who was demon-possessed was gloriously delivered. Within a few minutes
everyone in that group of people was on the floor being ministered to by the
Holy Spirit! The pastor turned, took one look at me and fell over backward on
the floor. His wife had to close the service. A half-hour later two men picked
him up off the floor. That church was never the same.
The power of God in the pastor was inactive because of intimidation. The result
was that the presence and power of God were rare in his church. After breaking
the power of this intimidation, the gift of God was released.
Used with Permission. Bevere, John. Breaking Intidimation. Lake Mary: Charisma
House, 1995, p. 77-78.
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