All of a sudden the choir anthems seem out of place, empty of meaning. They still are beautifully sung but somehow they seem to be an exercise in futility, a weak endeavor, as you think about what is happening in the world. They are lacking something!

Then you enter an assembly where the people are marching with the great banners portraying the ramping lion, the Rider on the huge white stallion. The little children are waving flags. The young people are acting out the words of the hymns and choruses as they are sung.

Much of the music is militant, being about war and conquest.

There are men involved in Jewish-type dancing, and also women in other routines; not men and women together for this is unseemly and unproductive, sometimes leading to immorality.

There is an atmosphere of holiness, of war, of the coming of the King in His Kingdom. The service has become a grand welcome for the approach of the Lord Jesus Christ.

When the Spirit of God comes upon people they sometimes behave in unfruitful manners. The elders lovingly and firmly make allowances for their inexperience and gently lead them to more constructive behavior. If someone roars like a lion it is not the end of the world, neither is the person to be shamed before everyone. Let us all roar with him or her and then get back to more edifying activity. The mistake is when we make a doctrine out of someone who acted out in the flesh and our assembly has roaring, barking, neighing, and God only knows what else at every service.

If someone is "moved" to roll on the floor, then let him alone if he is not destroying what the Spirit is doing. He will outgrow such behavior soon enough if the elders are wise and patient, knowing it is their responsibility to bring about decency and order in the house of the Lord.

When you enter such an assembly you will feel deep within yourself that this is what you have been hungering for—reality, the Presence of God, the Lord of Hosts leading His people forward toward their inheritance.

The above are some of the symptoms that God is bringing you past Pentecost and into the Feast of Tabernacles. The rain is falling from Heaven today. Some are jumping into the pool headfirst without regard for anything. They will be sent home. They are immature.

Others also drink the water but they keep their head up, watching for the enemy. It is through this minority of diligent saints that our Gideon will bring the victory.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, not after spiritual experiences but after righteousness. It is a time for Simchat Torah, for "rejoicing over the law."

If you want God, His righteousness, His Kingdom, you will receive it. Go after the fullness of God, the "Tabernacles" experience. It is available today.

(from Symptoms of "Tabernacles")