I recently spent ten days in Georgia with Adventures in Missions. During these ten days I met the people I would spend the next year of my life living and serving with. We trained in both a spiritual and physical aspect over our week and a half together, sleeping in tents in the surprisingly cold Georgia weather, racing to complete a three mile timed run with a 40lb pack, and running through different scenarios of real life situations that we might encounter over the course of our race. Needless to say it was one of the most uncomfortable times in my life.
I was not uncomfortable because I tend to be introverted when meeting new people and had to push through my shell. It had nothing to do with sleeping outdoors in cold weather; I’ve earned my polar badge multiple times over my scouting career. Admittedly I was a little uncomfortable on the night we had a scenario with a twelve-hour layover at the “airport,” and I was sleeping on some cold concrete floor. Truly though I was only uncomfortable because God wanted me to be.
We had a lot of speakers throughout our training come and talk on many topics, some were comfortable but others were incredibly uncomfortable. Admittedly I would sometimes look around the room and think, “these people are crazy, why on Earth have I been called to minister and love God’s people for a year of my life with these loons.” To hear people talk about visions and healing will scare any Methodist such as myself. But yall this stuff actually happened in the bible and it still happens today! Am I saying I have special powers because I am a Christian? No, because if that were the case then J.K. Rowling owes me a Hogwarts education and a free Firebolt Broom.
The truth (subjective truth I guess I should say) is unless you believe in the doctrine of cessationism, which says that the Holy Spirit wrapped up his job after God finished piecing together the bible, then you believe in these things too. Often times the gifts of the spirit can cross a nerve with people, because it is so often abused, distorted, and over exaggerated. What comes to mind is the video of the preacher hitting his members with his jacket and the people instantly and dramatically falling to the ground as if the Holy Spirit were a linebacker sacking Eli Manning. This should not be scary stuff to talk about, but often times we avoid the topic because of the many differing opinions on the matter (if only we could do this with politics on Facebook).
We see, feel, and read about the things the Holy Spirit is doing in our world and through us everyday. People are miraculously healed all the time, whether it was because of the prayed over steady hands of a nurse that God placed in our path, the new medicines developed by researchers discovered at the right time, or even a prayer for healing said by someone thousands of miles away. We do not make the miracles happen, but rather God makes the miracles happen through us to show his power and love. Some of you are probably relieved at this point, “Oh good, he’s not actually crazy he just wanted to give us a good read,” but I’m not finished here because we’ve got visions next. Not to worry, I am not even going to touch speaking in tongues or prophetics today because my only source of reference is 1st Corinthians, and simply put I know nothing. Any way.. back to visions because I’m sure everyone is dying to know my opinions.
Have I ever been in the right place at the exact right time God wanted me to be there and realized it after the fact? Sure, I would say we probably all have because he’s that good yall. Who is to say that the feeling God places on your heart or the piece of scripture that pops into your head during a stressful time isn’t the Holy Spirit giving visions? I have never heard the direct audible voice of God or seen some vision of what is to come, and I assume I am not the only one in this category. Who am I to say that others have not, in fact many Muslims that convert to Christianity often say they experienced dreams or visions where Jesus came to them in some form or another.
What kind of God would he be if we could understand the way he works and knew of the limits of his power? I am not writing this to tell my readers that after ten days of training camp that I know everything there is to know, or even that I am right about what I am writing today. Rather I am here to say that God has made me very uncomfortable the past ten days because I have further pursued to deepen my relationship with him, and as with any relationship there will be growing pains. Prayers for my trip and for my squad are always greatly appreciated, but even more so prayers that we could all find comfort in the uncomfortable.
Side Note here are my fellow Brutes (we call ourselves Brute Squad.. I’m told it has something to do with The Princesses Bride), these are the people I will be living and traveling with for the next 11 months.
