Monday, October 22, 2012

Holy Spirit move me: take two

We saw the Holy Spirit move at church yesterday. What started out as ordinary Sunday worship quickly changed into something extraordinary. Holy Spirit took the service and ran with it. People were being healed. Others interceded for loved ones. We stood there praising God for over an hour, maybe almost two. I don't know how long it went really. It could have lasted all day if we hasn't dismissed.

My only regret is not going forward to the altar. I had just asked for prayer during our morning Bible study for my index finger that feels like I jammed it. It just doesn't want to bend properly right now. Why didn't I go forward? In writing earlier, my first attempt at this post which won't be posted, I came to the conclusion that it is because of fear. Fear that I will not receive the healing that others were receiving. The fear that I would just have to deal with it. Why can't I just go beyond that fear and experience freedom? I am praying for the heavens to open up again during service. The Holy Spirit is moving in our little church. We have already faced opposition from the enemy. The enemy has had to report an uprising. God is going to do things through this church. Big things. We don't know yet what God has in store for us. But we are prayerful and are continuing to seek Him.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Silence

Bible study this evening was an amazing study/discussion on spiritual warfare. This study will last several weeks and is from a series titled "The Invisible War". I'm not going to get to be there for all of the sessions in this study but I'm excited for this.

During the discussion we were asked to give a response to a question, which several people did. During Sunday morning Bible study there is always discussion and questions. Even last Sunday evening we had a sort of spontaneous meeting and were given the opportunity to discuss various topics and input our thoughts.

My problem is I may have something to say, but I rarely speak up. I never feel like I have anything worthwhile to say that will add to the conversation. Or I just don't want to interrupt. I don't like to talk over anyone to make my point heard. If I do have something to say and actually want to say it I will usually not speak very loudly at first. If no one hears me trying to get into the conversation I usually just hold on to the thought. Although after a few seconds my thought will escape if I don't write it down first!!

I think part of it too is that I'm a quality time/small group kind of person. With one to three people I'm usually fine talking. That's small enough of a group for me to actually get a chance to speak. I don't like trying to speak up in a group of more than four or five.

I just get so annoyed at myself for feeling like I had something I could say, something to add to the conversation, and I don't speak up.

The same goes for spiritual things as well. Every once in a while I may feel that Holy Spirit is doing something. Sometimes I'm able to discern what it is and speak that. Other times I can just sense that He is working, but on what specifically I'm not sure, so i may not say anything. If there's a specific picture I'm given, I can usually tell then what I'm supposed to say.

Those are my thoughts tonight. I want to have the boldness to speak up more. I have the freedom to do so. There are plenty of opportunities. But just speaking is the hardest step for me. To add my thoughts or experiences to the mix. Not that I don't trust my church family with what I would say. I trust them. I just don't trust myself to say things the right way the first time. I tend to write things out and edit my thoughts before I will say them. Or just edit them in my head a million times so sometimes I don't know if I said it out loud or just thought it really intently so it sounded loud in my head. Maybe I'm strange. This is why I write instead of talk most times. Because sometimes what I say may sound strange.

That is all I have for now. Leave your thoughts or comments below. (Seeing views on my posts and no comments is like me sitting in Bible study and being silent. I'm there but what am I contributing to the conversation?)

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Battle Cry

I was watching the Today Show this morning. They referenced a recent Pew study (see link at end of post) which found that those who identify themselves as being a Protestant Christian are declining, and those who identify as having no religion are on the rise. While this is not surprising results, it is surprising to me that it actually made the morning headlines.

Immediately after they went to a segment of Today's Professionals. The first story they talked about was a recent football game where the crowd cheered when a player was injured somewhat seriously. They asked themselves why the crowd is cheering when bad things happen to the opposing team. They thought that was a backward way to act in America.

How blind this generation is to spiritual things! They cannot connect the fact that a godless generation is going to celebrate the offensive and disgusting things! They even paraphrase Scripture when they themselves admit that people are calling wrong things right! (Although they don't reference it they have at least heard it enough to admit that these actions are not how people *should* act.)

"Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter." (Isaiah 5:20 NIV)

Now is the time to pray for this country. Now is the time to tell people about Jesus Christ and the fact that He is not on the same level as all these false gods out there that people worship! We are facing a spiritual warfare that cannot be fought with nuclear, biological, psychological, or otherwise physical weapons.

I guess what I'm saying is that we need to pray. For our churches. For our families. For our states. For our nation. We are waiting on the bridegroom to come, and every day is one day closer. I guess my platform for telling people about Christ is here, this blog. I know I don't have that many readers outside of immediate family. But that's more people than I speak to face to face each day.

I just don't get how people can walk through life without looking through a spiritual lens these days. Looking through the spiritual lens is like looking through a SLR camera. You see what is actually there. It helps you focus. If the view is crap it shows you. It doesn't photoshop it before you click the shutter release! So many people walk around with a photoshopped reality that isn't a reality at all! My heart hurts for those people. And not being a very socially adept person, I really don't know how to reach them.

That is all for now. I need to sleep. I am weary from running errands and trying to get the words right to say what I felt needed to be said here tonight.



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