Finally, about "atmosphere".
Yeah, I've heard that buzzword half a dozen million times in Pentecost. And yeah, I know what people mean when they use it to sound spiritual. But it's pseudo-spiritual garbage. It has no clear definition and doesn't carry any Biblical weight behind it at all. It's meaningless, no matter how one slices it.
Less than a couple of weeks ago in one of my church's meetings, as we were singing and worshipping the Lord in my mom's living room, God gave me the word "atmosphere", and the verse in
Isaiah 6 about the train of God's robe filling the temple, coupled with the NT concept of believers being the temple of God through the Holy Spirit.
I didn't fully understand it at the time, and considered sharing it, but decided against it, as I could tell the direction the Lord was leading didn't include sharing this word.
But then, this thread shows up, and the word "atmosphere" gets bandied about several times like it has potent Scriptural force to mean something important. Then I knew why the Lord talked to me about atmosphere.
It is simply uncanny the way the Lord works. His understanding is infinite.
So, when I see people talk about the Lord's presence, that it has to be invited in, that we have to create an atmosphere of praise and worship and whatever else, so the Lord will feel welcomed and become willing to respond to our prayers and petitions, I know it's a bunch of nonsense. God is already there, whether you feel or know it or not. He is Sovereign Creator and Sustainer of the Universe. We don't invite and welcome Him anywhere, He invites and welcomes us into His presence. Further, He goes where He wants when He wants. We are simply graced with His abiding presence through the Gospel. He is a loving Father, more than always willing to hear us and respond to us and answer us in prayer and petition.
We don't need to jump through hoops (like the prophets of Baal) to get God to come around and inhabit the "atmosphere" we create for Him so He can do the stuff we want Him to do. Rather, we need to enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. The atmosphere, if you will, is already holy, powerful, full of love and mercy and grace, without our help. We just need to go in boldly as the author of Hebrews indicates.
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