The House Church We’ve All Been Waiting For…

Saturday did not start out the best way.  Christy and I had spent all day inside, tending to things that needed to be done.  We never left the house.  Early in the day we found out we had no gas to cook on all weekend because of a mix up in the gas bills.  Then by about noon or one o’clock I realized that I hadn’t heard the furnace kick on in the last hour or so.  So I trudged down to the basement to find the furnace cold and unresponsive to the thermostat being raised.  Saturday wasn’t looking like a day the Lord would show up.

House church began the same way.  I spent the first 30 to 45 minutes of house church helping the heating guy fix our furnace.  After all was said and done we had a working furnace and I managed to snag a few tacos and some French silk pie in enough time to catch the beginning of the 501(c)3 conversation that some of us have been having throughout the week.  I wish I could say many people saw their walk with the Lord grow by leaps and bounds because we had the discussion.  It was looking like house church for this week was going to turn into little more than a business meeting…

That’s when a cute blond (Christy) stepped into the conversation and thoroughly rebuked us for being consumed with the legal ramifications of tax exempt status.  Really what we needed was to pray.  I think most of us were a little taken aback; no one in the house church (besides me) had ever been rebuked by Christy before.  And so we set out to pray and see what how our God would answer.  Novel idea, huh? 

The crazy thing is that God responded.  We ended up caught up in worship and intercession for the better part of two hours.  We were only planning on having house church for two hours this weekend, in reality we ended up going about 4.5 just because the Lord kept meeting us and speaking to us and giving us things to pray.  It was amazing.  Spontaneous repentance broke out in the room.  People began asking God to remove their petty grievances.  Holy Spirit began to highlight different people that needed prayer and as we prayed for them, prophetic words began to flow easily and with power on them.

Now I know what you’re thinking: “Isn’t this what house church is supposed to look like?”  Of course, this is what we all want, but we can’t make this happen.  You can as much make this sort of house church happen as you can walk down the street and heal a person from a broken leg.  It only comes by the supernatural power of God.  We meet in a little tiny room and hope that He shows up, but in reality, that’s the only thing we can do is hope and pray that He does.  We become the responders to His divine initiative. 

But in a way that you can only describe to someone who has been part of a house church, the Lord showed up and took control of an un-lead meeting.  He proved once again that He is the head of His church, and even when we bring our little agendas and tired programs, He is intent in taking full control of our lives.  The result, I’m hoping, is lives a little more put together than when they came.  I’m beginning just a little bit to see a few hearts knit together in a way that can only happen when Holy Spirit lubricates hearts.  I’m beginning to see humility and repentance touch us just a tiny bit.  We started out rough, but Saturday night was the house church we’ve all been waiting for.