Waiting 2017 - Recap #1 - "Shalom"

Having just returned from a unique event…”Waiting 2017” held at Parker City Christ Fellowship in Parker City, Indiana...I had a great desire to not let anything fall to the ground or to lose the gift of tremendous forwards motion towards “Holy Ghost Awakening” which we believe is on the horizon. 

I’ve been to many church gatherings in my life as many of you have.  This was different.    I found myself in a place where God was able to have something close to “absolute sway” among his people.  Pastor Aaron Simms at one time made reference to the one hundred twenty in the upper room in Acts 1 in the days before Pentecost who just waited on God until the fire of God fell.  Something like that.

God began to burden Pastor Aaron, the pastor of Parker City Christ Fellowship, some weeks ago to call a meeting in which we just simply came together and “waited on God.”  Those of us from the “Revival For Our Day” stream (the ministry that was formed to help Rev. Loran Helm years ago.  “RFOD” is still shorthand for the churches that his ministry touched and helped.)  were familiar with the concept of "waiting on God." Rev. Helm, who was promoted to heaven in 2006, led “Waiting Upon God” meetings for decades, in which many people were helped to look to Jesus, deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Him.  The meeting that Pastor Aaron called was very much like that…yet very different.  God has a way of making something entirely new out of something old.

This was a meeting with no program.  It had of necessity a start time and we knew that the meeting would be held during a two day period, but we came together not knowing how many times we were going to be meeting in the two days, who the speakers were going to be (if any), what songs we were going to sing (if any).  If it sounds like we didn’t know what we were doing, you are right!  We just knew that we were going to wait on God and allow Him to be the leader of this meeting.  What a novel idea!

As I was thinking about writing this, I ran across some notes that I took a few weeks ago when I was trying to understand the concept of “shalom,” the familiar Hebrew word that is most often translated as ‘peace.”  Here’s a few tidbits from that study:

• ·         Shalom means much more than peace, as in the absence of war.  Completeness, wholeness, harmony, fulfillment are all embodied in the word “shalom.” 
• ·         Implicit in this word is the idea of unimpaired relationships with others and fulfillment in one’s undertakings. 
• ·         Shalom is the result of God’s activity in covenant and is the result of righteousness. 
• ·         This sort of peace – this “shalom” – has its source in God alone.

This concept of completeness, wholeness, harmony, and fulfillment is a wonderful description of the feeling that I can testify was present in that “upper room” this weekend.  In hindsight, we almost could have called this “Shalom 2017.”

Missy Simms, Pastor Aaron’s wife and an anointed woman of God, shared her perspective with me:

Missy Simms at "Waiting 2017"

…Everyone came together in humble unity and surrender and prayed down their selves this weekend to truly wait on the Lord! His perfect love was throughout the entire place. Not one person was striving or trying to gain or take control. It was complete and holy surrender in beautiful love to our savior! The Holy Spirit was flowing in and out of everyone so beautifully and interweaving everyone’s hearts in perfect unity! Praising the Lord for this true miracle. This is such a miracle to have such love throughout the entire waiting and everyone to be building each other up in the Kingdom of God! Praise praise the Lord!

In the next few days, I hope to gather some “handfuls of purpose” from many of you, in the hopes of presenting a multi-faceted display of God’s work in the lives of His people.  If you are reading this and were present for any part of these meetings, I’d like to invite you to share your perspective with me. If you were not able to be at the meetings, I hope you’ll come along with us on a “virtual tour” of these happenings.  Whether you were there or not, please feel free to share these reports with your friends.

I feel a little like a “roving reporter,” reporting on events of far more import than today’s headlines.  Maybe this will be God’s headlines.  The top of the page should read “God Is Working!” 

To read the next post, click here.