I am a mutt of religions.
My dad is Lutheran, my mom is Church of God, and I belong to a Baptist church and have attended free churches since college. I have recited creeds, prayers and sung hymns from the hymnal, bulletin and digital screens. I am a mix of traditional and modern worship. This diversity has allowed me to explore and define what I believe.
In the past 20 years I have been satisfied with a weak Christian experience.
I said I believed in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but had never experienced the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was in me, but not upon me, as I refused to yield my will to His. I was a believer, but my desires were more important than submitting to His will.
Honestly, I had a mix of emotions about The Holy Spirit. Why did I have this mix of emotion? As a small child I had the privilege of witnessing others experience the gifting of speaking in tongues, however, I did not understand this gift and it really scared me. I thought this “jibberish” was quite weird. Speaking in tongues was not the only gift I didn’t understand.
At this point in my life, for the past 28 years, I have been ignorant to spiritual gifting. I must have tuned out every sermon ever preached on this topic.
During the second night of Training Camp, our speaker, Ron asked us to invite the Holy Spirit to join us in worship and prayer. He stated that he knew we were from different walks of life and that we might/ would experience the Holy Spirit differently, as we have different spiritual gifting. He told us not to allow others experiences to distract our time praying, listening, receiving, etc. As I asked and was in prayer, my palms of ice became warm and I felt His presence. Luke 9:9-10
Suddenly, a mentor of G squad put his arm around me and began speaking words he had received for me. He told me not to worry about my students during the last week of school, that I had planted a seed in the future generation of missions, and that my finances would be provided. (Note: I had only spoken to this man for 5 minutes about 5 hours earlier)
I was in the middle of an anxiety attack of heavy breathing and tears a week earlier, overwhelmed by the thought of training camp AND the possibility of resigning from my job. At that moment, I clearly received Matthew 6:34- so do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Talk about peace abounding!
Are you willing to surrender to follow the direction of the Spirit?
I will no longer be content and happy with a WEAK Christian experience. I WANT MORE of the Holy Spirit. Any gift He has for me, I joyfully welcome.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 2 Corinthians 3:17
