Because of the revelation God gave us in Bible school many years ago we have devoted much of our ministry to describing the work of God that comes after Pentecost. There is the basic salvation experience, and then there is the Pentecostal experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit, often accompanied with speaking in tongues.

But the Bible shows clearly the work of redemption in three stages. The many types, such as the feasts of the Lord, the Tabernacle of the Congregation, the journey of Israel from Egypt to Canaan, the days of creation, Noah's ark, and so forth, portray three levels of redemption.

We could call the third work of salvation the fullness of God, or the Tabernacles experience, or total consecration, or the throne level, or conquest, or your Aunt Gertrude. (Let us not make another denomination for Heaven's sake!)

But you know, after all is said and done, the third level actually is knowing Jesus.

When we first are saved we know Jesus a little. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit we know Jesus a little more. But isn't it true that most of our knowledge has to do with our church culture or formulas that we think will enable us to get what we want out of God?

We talk about Jesus.

If you don't believe me, the next time you are in a meeting listen to what is being said. Jesus is in the third person singular. He does this and He does that. It isn't You are doing this and You are doing that.

The only time Jesus is addressed directly is in prayer.

God has more than this for us. God wants us to practice the Presence of Jesus in our daily life, as well as in the assembling, much, much more than we are doing. It is not "He is with us," it is, "You are with us"!

Last Sunday I was sitting at the keyboard. We were in the middle of the song service and I had this feeling we were going to go through this service with something important missing.

Suddenly one of the song leaders said, "The Lord wants to do something."

The guitar player behind me said, "The waters are troubled."

I go up and kind of staggered around, telling the congregation we were supposed to do something but I did not know what. Isn't that great? God's man of faith and power without the answers.

The young people started marching around the church with their big banners. (I hope this doesn't shock you!)

Our air traffic controller (the lady who keeps our banners, tambourines, dancing and so forth from becoming chaotic) said, "I think the whole congregation is supposed to do something." I felt the same thing and so I said, "Everybody stand up and do something."

To be continued.