Well so far we have only spent time in the city here in Ghana. We have been in two different parts of Accra, the capitol of Ghana. It is not really at all what one would think of when one thinks of a capitol city with 1.8 million people. It is really more like a huge village with city traffic, a nice football stadium and some government buildings. It is spread out in every direction for a long way and because of the bad traffic it takes a good two hours to get across. Fortunately, we don’t have to travel around the city every day. We have been visiting churches most days, at least one every day and sometimes two or three.
Its feels a little like the bible belt back in the States. In that, on the way to every church we are going to we pass at least 10 other churches and that’s if we are just walking a short distance. It can make it a little hard to feel need here. Especially after being in Asia were there were almost no churches. But the more time we spend at these churches the more I see that they are in need of a change. That’s not to say that we aren’t in need of change at most churches in the States, but at first when we got here, we were all excited because they love the Holy Spirit here and aren’t shy about it at all. But as the weeks go on, We have started to see that they have about the exact opposite problem as we do in the States.
Instead of being afraid of the things of the Holy Spirit or believing that they don’t happen anymore, like many churches back home, here they want the things of the Spirit so much that they don’t look for anything else, many of their services are focused on wanting the manifestations of the Holy Spirit to such a degree that you might start to think they don’t even know that there is a Father and Jesus. And that with out all three, things start to get weird and frankly fake.
Many people here have the Sunday Christian thing going on just like at home. They come to church and want an encounter with the Spirit so bad that they go to get prayed for and spin in circles until they fall down. We call that getting dizzy where I come from. Not that the Lord couldn’t or doesn’t maybe move in that way but I have seen very clearly here that it is just a show. And I see why many churches back home don’t want anything to do with the Holy Spirit. If its just a crazy show with people doing silly stuff to no end, the why would you want it. But it is so much more that that. Yeah, sometimes it will look crazy and weird and silly and fake. But when it’s real, when He is moving, it is amazing. People’s lives get changed: spiritual, emotional, and physical healing take place. But as much as we want to see these things, we can’t make them happen and we have to just wait on Him and see how He wants to move. So as usual, there is a balance and most of us fall on one side or the other of where we should be. So I guess which ever side of things you find yourself on with the Holy Spirit I would challenge you to try out the other side a little bit and see what happens.
