In the Mood

All scripture references, unless otherwise noted, are from the King James Version of the Holy Bible. The Hebrew and Greek meaning of the words mentioned are from Strong's Hebrew Greek Dictionary.
A song that was still popular when I was a small kid was, "In The Mood," by the Glenn Miller band. You can still find it on the internet. Although I always liked what was known as the, "Big Band Sound," that is not the subject of this post. What I would like to talk about is the mood a good church service or good preaching puts me in. My wife and I recently watched a live church service on the internet. While the preacher poured his heart out to the church and to the sinner, I was almost moved to tears listening to the preaching.

I have listened to many sermons over the years. Some of them moved me to tears, some did not. I remember one evening service that happened not too long after I had given my heart to God. We had a brother in the church that was mightily used of God in giving messages in tongues and interpretation. On this particular night we seemed to be having a move of the Holy Ghost. Our pastor had been out sick with heart trouble and was in service that night but not yet fully recovered. He had asked the assistant pastor to preach. This man was as sweet natured as they come but he was not a particularly good preacher. The brother that was used in tongues and interpretation gave what seemed to be a message from the Lord. Someone in the back of the church said, "move Spirit move," At that point the pastor got up, took the pulpit, had everyone sit down and introduced the speaker. The assistant pastor preached for about 1/2 hour in his somewhat lackadaisical way, gave an altar call and, as I recall, sat down. I was very confused.  However you don't have to be in the mood for God to move in your life.

I went to the brother that had the gift of tongues and interpretation and asked him what had happened? I was sure that there should have been an interpretation of the message (remember I was young in the Lord at this time) and that perhaps the pastor had quenched to Spirit of God's moving in that service. What I was told opened my eyes. The brother that had the message in tongues told me that he had had the interpretation but wasn't allowed to give it. However he told me that the message that was preached that night was the message in tongues. I realized that God didn't allow the interpretation to be given because He had already anointed the assistant pastor with the message. Sometimes we look for what we think is a move of God and overlook the obvious. The Bible says in 1st Corinthians 1:21,  "For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." Sometimes God will use a message in tongues and interpretation of the same to confirm the Word of God that was and is preached. But it is a rare occurrence when God will bypass the preaching of His Word.

It is no wonder then that the apostle taught in 1st Corinthians 14:5,  "I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying." So preaching, (the word prophesieth  according to Strong's Hebrew-Greek dictionary is, "prophēteuō (pronounced) prof-ate-yoo'-o From G4396; to foretell events, divine, speak under inspiration, exercise the prophetic office: - prophesy," speaking under inspiration is better than speaking in tongues without the interpretation of what was said. If you won't respond to the plain preached Word of God, you probably wouldn't respond if there was a miraculous event take place either.

I love that chorus we used to sing (and sometimes still do), The Word of God is Right. It goes something like this;

The Word of God is right Hallelujah to the Lamb,
The Word of God is right Hallelujah to the Lamb, The Word of God is right Hallelujah to the Lamb,
Hallelujah to the Lamb!
The second stanza says, 
It makes me walk upright Hallelujah to the Lamb.

I am glad for the preaching of the Word of God, it truly does make me walk upright.