Not Much Happens Until There Is Engagement

God does not speak to me in a distinctly audible fashion very often. The two most significant "audible" acts were when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and while having a vision of Christ being crucified. In the former He said, "Remember this, and it is all right," and in the latter He said, "Come unto Me."

Perhaps the most important thing in the "this" He pointed out is engagement. As Neville so often said of causation by imagining, "It does not work unless you actually DO it." You can hear about it, read about it, study it, watch it, document it, preach it and teach it, but it does not and will not work for you until you get your rubber on the road and DO it, until you engage in it.

At the House of Praise in Kaimuki, Hawaii, I saw people being healed. I heard people speaking in tongues. I received the teaching. I read the books. But I remained ignorant of the act, the actual acceptance of Lordship of Jesus Christ and of full submission of myself unto God. I was dealing with all this God stuff as an observer, as God's peer - as if I were separate from Him. At Grace Bible Church in Honolulu, I watched and listened to the evening's performance, and while my friend Raphael sought the baptism in the Holy Spirit, I waited in the vestibule.

Get the picture: Ralph (as I knew him) was actively seeking, and I was about thirty feet away reading notices on a bulletin board. One of the church's young ministers came out and asked me if I spoke in tongues, and when I didn't, asked me if I would like to. Here is the thing: I got down on my knees and directly asked God for it. I engaged. The relationship became literal. When my rubber touched the road, as they say, God took over dramatically and I entered a trance which has affected my life ever sense. My life would still be that old life if I had not engaged in prayer as a literal engagement.

"This" is engagement, the DOing of prayer. It does not work unless you DO it. What IS working is what you ARE doing. The real DOing of real prayer has its reward, but the two must become one. Repent, and BELIEVE the reward. Engage.