R.T. Kendall - When God Shows Up: How to Recognize the Unexpected Appearances of God in Your Life

WHEN
GOD
SHOWS UP

R. T. KENDALL

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WHEN GOD SHOWS Up by R. T. Kendall
Published by Charisma House
A Strang Company
600 Rinehart Road
Lake Mary, Florida 32746
www.strangdirect.com

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwisewithout prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Design Director: Bill Johnson; Cover Designer: Judith McKittrick

Copyright 2008 by R. T. Kendall
All rights reserved

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data:Kendall, R. T.
When God shows up / R.T. Kendall.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-59979-342-9
1. Spirituality. 2. Christian life. I. Title.
BV4501.3.K458 2008
248.4--dc22
2008026473

This book was previously published by Renew, ISBN: 0-83072-340-4, copyright 1998.

08 09 10 11 12 987654321
Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

by John Bevere

by Jack W. Hayford

D RAWING NEAR TO God, experiencing His presence, and hearing Him speak to you are some of the most important things you can do in life. James 4:8 says, Draw near to God and He will draw near to you (NKJV). This drawing near is initiated by you, and its not an If you do this, maybe God will show up. Its a promise. When you draw near, God will draw near to you.

We also see from this amazing invitation that we are the ones, not God, who determine how intimate our relationship is with Him.Its very important that we realize that God doesnt always communicate with words. Do we always communicate with words? No. There are many nonverbal signs that we as humans pick up on. My wife can give me one glance, and I can write an essay on what she is saying!

R. T. Kendall has laid out an excellent resource on how to hear from God, know what He is saying, and how to respond to what He says. In this time of media and sensory saturation, understanding the principle of hearing God speak is vital to fulfilling your calling on this earth. I know, in my own life, that God many times tries to get my attention at what seems to be inconvenient times. The amazing thing is, in those times when I have responded to Gods inopportune beckonings, they have revealed some of the most powerful revelations I have ever had.

R. T. Kendall is a man who has for years led people to experience Gods presence. The wisdom and insight you gain from this book will take you further and deeper into your amazing journey with our heavenly Father.

JOHN BEVERE
Author and Speaker
Messenger International

Y OU ARE ABOUT to experience a beautiful collision between the classic and the contemporary! In fact, in a very real sense, thats not only what may be said about this book, but it is also what this book says.

For example, nothing is more classic than our Creators unlimited creative potential, or more contemporary than humankinds obvious human limitations. Before you read very far, you are going to be encouraged to let those two collideto welcome the

wonder-working wisdom of our Creator into whatever need characterizes your own present moment. God is showing up today! He is revealing Himself and manifesting His power in remarkable and amazing ways, and hungry souls are the primary candidates for experiencing His arrival after that fashion. R. T. Kendall is someone who is beautifully qualified to point the path for any of us with that hunger and thirst for righteousness because he has led his congregation in that wayand not without a price.

Any spiritual leader who pursues the Spirits present workings with passion, while still staying true to traditions proven values with fidelity, will experience a collision. He pays the price of being stuck between the fanatic and the formalist. He never seems to completely please the radical revivalist or the trustworthy traditionalist. But if you can find a leader who presses for the best of todays newness while still holding to the best of yesterdays solidity, youll make a discovery. Youll find refreshment and renewal that not only stirs your soul with heavenly excitement, but also stabilizes your path forward toward longer-term growth and blessing.

In regard to refreshing us with revival hope, this book is alive and intensely practical. But I have enjoyed this book for another reason. It has to do with a less-observable collision than mentioned earlier, but that contributes to making these pages a source of lasting value to the reader. It relates to something that, I suppose, only a pastor might notice.

You, dear reader, are about to enter the collision zone, where two preaching values encounter one another. You will unquestionably noticeimmediatelythe way these pages speak to you. The insights reaching into your heart are not only practical, but also intensely personal. Dr. Kendalls stories, illustrating the texts he unfolds, are in the best tradition of todays contemporary Christian writer. However, there is an almost silent crash, as this fact is impacted by another.

For earnest Bible teachers, the handling of a text is as important as the proclaiming of its truth. This is a classic value that is too often neglected by (sometimes even unknown to) some current messengers of Gods Word. It doesnt mean that these are teaching errors, but that their expositionthe actual unlocking of the inside of the Bible textis sometimes incomplete. In contrast to this too-common contemporary failing, Dr. Kendall brings that classic expositional approach that is so historic in British tradition.

For the first decade of my pastoral life, I was greatly influenced by the writings of some of the great expositors of the English pulpit. Among these were G. Campbell Morgan, Reginald E. O. White, and Guy H. King; three preachers who were of the twentieth century, but who evidenced the qualities born of earlier insightful teaching resulting from thorough scholarship. That classic quality needs to impact even more contemporary Christian resources, for, as youre about to see, there is a richness and depth that such solid study gives to us all.

This enriching quality is actually unsurprising in one sense. Dr. Kendall was the pastor of Westminster Chapel in London, where he opened the Word at a pulpit with a long history of faithful, gifted preachersa role he served worthily for many years. But what is even more important than his preaching is his passion.

This is a book filled with the Holy Spirit of revival! Though this book is the fruit of careful study, it is light-years removed from being stuffy. It is centered in the current of the Spirits flowing renewed life and blessing into the church today. All in all, its the right stuffthe kind of good for the soul that both builds and blesses. The United States astronaut training program gave rise to the right stuff term, and I think youre on the brink of liftoff, ready to gain a new outlook from a new level of perspective.