When I got saved, radically saved, in 1989, I was taught to obey God, hear His voice, tithe, worship because He was worthy of praise, and to go to church because that is where we fellowship and hear the word together. Over the past 30 years there has been a slow decline from what we are called to do for God to what is God doing for me. This change has brought with it, people who have no clue their “identity”, very few have any spiritual authority; and even less know how to hear the voice of God.

Many people can see the decline that has happened in culture, but my concern is the decline I have seen in many people’s understanding of God. God is God and we are human. God is eternal and we are a vapor. God is the head and we are the body. God is ruler over all and we are called to be servants. What I have noticed is that when we lose sight not only of who God is but of who we are, we begin to live as though we are God and God is our servant. It’s not anything anyone would admit as true, but when we listen to sermons, hear songs and listen to people talk, it is obvious the order of who is God and who is the servant has been reversed.

Yes the church needs to repent of sexual immorality, injustice and unrigheousness in a variety of ways, but more than anything we need to repent of being out of order. We need to repent of the attitude that needs continual reassurance that God loves me, but has little to no concern about whether we love God. Until we start serving God rather than seeking to be served by God, we will remain out of order, unhappy, lacking power and continually needing someone to pray for us or prophesy over us.

Many are wondering what the next great awakening is going to look like, sound like, feel like, and honestly I don’t think we know, but I have a sneaking suspicion it is going to sound like maturity. For God has given us the 5-fold ministry for training, equipping, deploying and maturing the body of Christ for the work of ministry. (Ephesians 4:11-13). Maturity is what we as the church needs not a party. This is why it will not be a man we follow, a ministry we want to be known for or a platform we seek, but maturity means we individually and corporately seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. My friends, until it’s literally about following Jesus, becoming like Jesus and loving like Jesus, we will remain immature looking for the next party to attend, no matter if it is in a tent, a park, a church or a house. And even though parties are fun, they don’t prepare you to stand in any situation you find yourself in, but maturity does. Maturity is the gift that keeps on giving and that is what we long for.