I struggle with skepticism. But, if there is one thing that blows my skepticism out of the water, it is tangible, experiential evidence. The Holy Spirit is both tangible and experiential. This past week at World Race training camp I experienced the Holy Spirit in amazing ways. One specifically:
On night three of training, about 150 missionaries spent the evening seeking hard after the presence of God.
According to the words of Jesus,
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
I believe this verse is especially true of His children asking for more of His presence in their lives. I kept asking and He kept coming.
The music was beautifully loud, as were the voices calling out to the heavens. I was reluctant at first, but I wanted more of Jesus. Amongst the dances and praises of my brothers and sisters, I raised my hands toward the sky and began to say one word over and over. I didn’t whisper. I didn’t speak passively. I shouted. I yelled. I sang.
“JESUS”
“JESUS”
“JESUS”
“Jesus, come be with me.”
He heard me. He was behind me. He boldfaced turned toward me, put His hand on my shoulder and began pouring living water into my mouth. His presence comes in waves and gets more intense the more you seek him.
“Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me… one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
Like John, I felt dead. My heart was thinly beating and my chest was shaking with heavy breath. I was a goner. I could no longer bring intelligible words to the surface. They were drowned in the flood of tears, water that was poured in now flowing out.
I am not claiming the same experience John had in Revelation, but I am claiming one similar. I am claiming that the same glorious Jesus that visited John in his vision also visited me as the Holy Spirit.
How seriously do you want Jesus? How fervently do you seek his face? How often does your assumed theology or religious structure get in the way of you communing with Him?
He is there. He is right behind you, waiting on you to invite him in for an evening of communion. But, be careful. He may drown you in Living Water. For the time He is around, be prepared to feel like a dead man under His immense Glory.
