Read: The Holy Spirit: An Intro
this stuff was reserved for nut-jobs on TBN and overzealous
Pentecostals who were shaking uncontrollably in an attempt to
outperform each other. My reservation was immediate and I felt
paralyzed, stiff with uncertainty and a vital wave of doubt resonating
through me. Inwardly it was warranted because I had no idea what was
going on – no clue whatsoever.
I
was surrounded by a bunch of wacko’s who were praying in what I would
call ‘tongues’, eyes closed, and hands stretched out towards the group
of us standing in the middle of their circle. They started saying
things about us that I hadn’t told them, doing what they called
‘prophecy’, what I considered fortune-telling reserved only for people
that operate cult-like-demonic-practices from the basements of their
homes for a certain price. I was freaked out, swearing to myself that
these guys were embracing the darkest side of the ‘the force’, casting
some kind of spell on me.
It was the training camp for the World Race in Apr 2007. The main thing I wanted to know more about was praying in
tongues. These guys claimed that God gave them their own prayer
language and that the Spirit muttered things that even they didn’t know
about, but at the end of their prayers they were so full of peace. I thought this stuff
was merely reserved for the pages of the Bible. I had no clue that
legit Christians still did this stuff today.
My Holy Spirit heebie jeebies were grounded in a
spirit of fear, driven by the fact that I knew absolutely nothing about
what I had encountered. And it wasn’t because it was evil… it’s
because I had never been taught anything about the
manifestations of the Holy Spirit. I don’t blame my parents. I don’t
blame my friends. I don’t necessarily blame the church body that I
grew up in. I don’t know who to point the finger at, really. I just
know that I had more questions than I did answers.
I came to terms with the fact that heebie jeebies
were normal, especially when I knew nothing about what I had
encountered. Fortunately, my curiosity was so provoked that I was
determined to find answers.
I started with the Bible.
