I looked at the Exponential Conference list of speakers and noticed Steve Childers. I looked him up and his organization Global Church Advancement. When you have time, you should read this page from his web site to see that it is about growing the Kingdom of God now from an invisible kingdom to a visible kingdom. He says that the church needs to work with the Holy Spirit to restore all things to be as they were intended to be. It sounds so appealing and such a commendable work. However where does it say in the Bible that the church is to be building a visible kingdom on this earth? This is what the emerging church is believing isn't it? They have shifted the focus of Jesus Christ's work on the cross for the individual salvation of sinner's souls, the fact that He did come to give His life a ransom for many--the fact that He did die for His sheep--they have changed that truth to include that Jesus Christ died to change the cultures of this world, etc. and that the church should be busy to bring all of society under God's rule. http://www.gca.cc/About_GCA.htm
In looking at the Kingdom prayer I had not noticed before the request for a personal experience of God's presence. The Bible tells us that we are to walk by faith and not by sight. If we had personal experiences of God's presence we would then be walking by sight. This can only be obtained by the forbidden tools that people are using today which are tools of darkness, the occult under the heading of spiritual formation/mysticism. Jesus does not tell us to live by a physical experience to know Him. He tells us to trust in Him with all of our hearts and to believe His promises through the Bible.
They then begin to make the big request–a sight of the glory of God. That includes asking: 1) for a personal experience of the glory/presence of God ("that I may know you" – Exod. 33:13); 2) for the people's experience of the glory of God (v. 15); and 3) that the world might see the glory of God through his people (v. 16). Moses asks that God's presence would be obvious to all: "What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?" This is a prayer that the world be awed and amazed by a show of God's power and radiance in the church, that it would become truly the new humanity that is a sign of the future kingdom.
They then begin to make the big request–a sight of the glory of God. That includes asking: 1) for a personal experience of the glory/presence of God ("that I may know you" – Exod. 33:13); 2) for the people's experience of the glory of God (v. 15); and 3) that the world might see the glory of God through his people (v. 16). Moses asks that God's presence would be obvious to all: "What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?" This is a prayer that the world be awed and amazed by a show of God's power and radiance in the church, that it would become truly the new humanity that is a sign of the future kingdom.
