Rhonda Hughey. Despereate for His Presence. Bethany House. 2004.
Hughey addresses the main need in Western churches today, revival. She states:
In a declining culture, the church cannot fully recover the presence of God in her midst apart from the catalyst of a true revival from heaven. We are living in an important hour in history! God is challenging the church’s self-centered identity and shifting our mindsets and ineffective methodologies. He is inviting us to respond to one of the greatest challenges we have ever faced—to return t our first love and to step out of our compromised church culture into His kingdom! [Page 15]
John writes to seven churches in Revelation outlining their problems. Those same problems are readily apparent in our modern churches. We need to return to our first love. She studied both those churches in the third world that are experiencing altar calls where thousands of people go forward and cry out to God versus what happens in the western church where the pastor gives the invitation and everyone waits for the final amen so they can go home to Sunday dinner.
Everyone, from pastors to deacons and elders to the individual Christian, needs to read this book. You will be challenged to get your own relationship to God settled. Then you can become a “gatekeeper” crying out to God to revive your church. Has your church doctrine drifted away from what the Bible says?
Is your typical worship service just steps that you always go through? Do you really experience the presence of the Holy Spirit when you have altar prayers? Do your members understand that they are part of the priesthood described by Paul.
We have the privilege and responsibility of being mediators before God on behalf of men and before men on behalf of God. … Every person who has been born again and redeemed into God’s family has become a member of what Paul refers to as “a royal priesthoodj” and “chosen generation” (I Peter 2:9) This isn’t a special calling for only a few but rather part of our identity as the bride of Christ. [Page 135-136]
Recommendation
Desperate for His Presence is one of the most powerful books I’ve read this year. I challenge every Christian to read it and learn what YOUR true role in any church is. Are you ready for the challenge of being a “priest” to your city? Why not make this book the first one you read in 2007. If you read it, apply it to your life, and then share it with your church, you will begin the process of transforming the church one member at a time; then you will begin to reach your city one person at a time.
