All Access 2010: Day Two, Session Two with Priscilla Shirer

Priscilla Shirer brought some power with session two of the All Access 2010 conference!

She opened by recounting a trip to Haiti where poor people were thrilled to come to church to worship and give of what little they had. When a nine year-old girl, who had received much needed food and clothing from church, was asked why she enjoyed coming to church so much, she said she came because of the presence of God.

Shirer said,” People want to hear God’s voice and feel His miraculous power” when they come to church. People attend church for an infiltration of God’s presence in their lives.

She taught that people have HEARD about God and they come to your church to EXPERIENCE Him because there’s a hole in people’s hearts and they want it to be filled.

Shirer went on to do some serious preaching about how all of these different people, groups, governments, and schools of thought try to explain Jesus away, but cannot. She then declared boldly that “Oprah cannot explain Jesus away!” And because Priscilla happens to be an African American woman, this seemed to give what she had just said some serious clout and the crowd literally went crazy with that statement in its context!

Shirer said over and over again that people are after the manifest precense of God! And her prayer is that when people walk into a church that they fall to their knees because of this manifest presence. She hopes that when a worship ministry team begins to lead in worship that they would not have o coax the crowd because the crowd would already be so aware of God in their midst that they would automatically start worshiping Him.

Priscilla also warned that the presence is not guarantied- because often times we forget to invite Jesus to be the star of the program. She told us not to assume that the manifest presence of God will be there just because it’s the church.

She said that people need to amend their ways to in order receive the presence of God. She used John 11 to unfold an interesting point that Jesus sometimes will move in the opposite direction of your church because you are trying to kill Him (His presence) and instead will sometimes go the opposite direction of your church to meet with people who are willing to worship and serve Him (Mary, Martha, and Lazarus).

Shirer says that it’s better to be a magnet of the presence of God than to be a magnet of people. She stated that we need to let the Holy Spirit do more talking than us; that people don’t need pastors and speakers, they need the presence!

She wrapped up these ideas by saying that Jesus would rather be around a few who are expecting His presence than a crowd who has their own agenda and who is waiting for the next thing on it.

One thing I found interesting is that Shirer had a message that almost contradicted Bezet’s. Bezet essentially said that we need to be aware of the unbelievers in our midst and be wise and considerate to how we utilize our Spiritual gifts in order to make the unbelievers more comfortable in our presence so that they can encounter God. While Shirer essentially stated the opposite, that IT IS the manifest presence and gifts that unbelievers are seeking. I enjoyed and respected what both of them had to say, but there was a little bit of a contradiction. Neither side is anywhere close to heresy though. It’s a matter of opinion, presence, and the context of which you minister. But I think the relevant truth lies somewhere in the middle of these two amazing speakers philosophies.