God Cares

     I want to share a story with you that contains both facts and faith.  It involves two separate incidents that occurred almost 30 years apart, yet are tied together with a knot of love and eternal hope.  Life always is good at throwing us curve balls, or even leading us down dead end roads.  But, there are also those times when God's presence shines upon us, and it all seems to make sense.  Even, in it's randomly disjointed patterns.  I think that this maybe one of those stories that let us take a peak at the grand scheme behind the great patchwork quilt of our lives.
     Answering a heavy knock at the door, and opening it only to see two uniformed police officers is not comforting to a little girl.  Then, comes the overhearing of the heart wrenching inevitability voiced through compassionate tones as the officers make their pronouncement.  They tell your mom that your brother has been fatally injured in a car wreck. 
     The world seems to slow and become a hollow place all around you.  The once festive Christmas holiday trappings that decorate your warm home lose their color, joy, and effect.  Life as you know it can change on a dime.

  You walk through the next few days as if on some kind of unreal conveyor belt.  Just going through the motions, while being hit at times by both the sharp pain of a broken heart, and the empty blackness of unending loss.  Christmas itself, is only days away.  The presents under the tree are still there, ready, waiting to disclose his last gifts of familial love and caring.  It will be one of those extremely few days in a life that will have to be  both endured and cherished.

     That year her brother had bought her a soccer ball.  She played with it all of the time.  So much so, that more than likely it became too much for her mom to handle.  Torn between letting her daughter keep this last treasure and her internal nagging fear that she may have an obsessive attachment to the toy.  It wouldn't be long before the ball simply disappeared.  Allowing time to make it more of a memory, instead of a sports item made of rubber, air, and love.
     I must make a point to stop us here.  So that you will know all of the facts before we begin our leap into the unknown.  First, I am not saying that the soccer ball magically disappeared.  It was more than likely human action that caused it to happen.  Secondly, my wife had told me once before about this story from her childhood long ago.  But, it was never something other than a fleeting story that she had shared from her past.
     Now, lets fast forward the timeline to a period about 30 years later, to a time quite unlike that of the one in the beginning of our tale.  It was when our church was immersed in the gentle, loving, moving of God's Holy Spirit presence upon the congregation as a whole.  It was to the uninitiated, a Holy Spirit revival.  A time where it seems that the very essence of Heaven touches Earth.  A period of weeks, and months, where hearts are changed, bodies are healed, and everything just seems to be right with the world.
     The only way to really relate to you what a revival is like is for you to have to experience it.  No amount of verbal articulation can describe what you see, hear, know, and feel.  Whatever your spiritual temperature is, you will be challenged, convicted, and yes maybe even offended.  But, hopefully when the Spirit moves you will have been changed, and the love of Christ will burn within in you more than it ever did before!  It is a spiritual thing, that's all I can say.
     It was during this move of God that I found myself on the floor.  Laid down gently by the overwhelming presence of God that left me too weak to stand.  In the past this has been called being "thunderstruck", but today it would be referred to as being " slain in the Spirit".  Whatever it may be called, it is a time where He seems to speak directly to our hearts with peace, love, power, affirmation, revelation and change.

     Here now is where faith will become your guide.  In this state, I sensed myself surrounded by white.  Bright, warm, comforting white light; yet it also had a sense of softness to it, dare I say fluffiness?  I also saw people motioning towards me.  I did not see detail, by that I mean everything was soft, not focused to crystal clarity.  I wouldn't say that I was, "in Heaven", as much as I was seeing a vision of heavenly things.
     Two of the people who stood together were my grandparents, Nana and Gran.  they were both Christians, so I assumed that they would be there waiting.  They smiled, and radiated warmth. The third person there I had never met.  He was tall, thin, young and standing just ahead of my grandparents.  At the end of his long lanky arms, pressed between his hip and his hand was a soccer ball.  He brought it up in one hand, holding it out to me, and seemed to say, " tell my sister that I am waiting to give her her present".
     Then it hit me like a ton of bricks, this young man was my wife's brother.  Emotion gripped my reposed body.  I found it hard to grasp and accept all that I was seeing, and how I was feeling.  My reaction pulling out of that state was one of profound tearful emotion.  I stumbled out of the sanctuary to find my wife, and somehow share with her this event.
     Moments later, I found her with an associate Pastors' wife.  Through tears, I shared my experience with her.  She knew something had happened to me, but exactly what she couldn't tell.  Yet, she treasured the comfort and reassurance I was able to share with her about her brother.
     Now, you may think that my tale is now all told, but I must share the most important feature, so that you may know the rest of the story.  You see when my wife's brother died in the car wreck it occurred in a secluded mountain canyon.  The officials said that he could have been there for up to 3 days, and was not killed instantly.
     He was by no means a Christian.  He had had a smattering of church upbringing.  He even had a short stint as an altar boy in the Lutheran church.  But, due to his current lifestyle and religious beliefs, it was assumed that he passed away being lost.
     Yet, we did have the knowledge that he had survived the sudden crash.  So there was some period of time, which could have been just enough for God to share Spirit to spirit, and remind him of what Jesus had done for him.  A glimmer of hope, no matter how small it may have been.
     What we do know, and can see, is that his death changed his family for generations after him.  For you see, in the weeks and months after the funeral, and that sad Christmas day; one by one his siblings all came to know Jesus as their saviour.  Whereas before church and faith were simply part of the of their cultural background as it is with most Americans.  Not living and real, just "church". 
     The first, the next eldest child of the family, went from being a drug using, rebellious young man to a sold out radical disciple of Jesus.  Then another brother, and finally my wife herself, all turning to Christ in the hope of salvation and eternal life.  Eventually, even his parents would be baptized for all of the children and grandchildren to watch.
     It wouldn't be long before the eldest was married to a similarly radical Christian girl.  They would in turn raise their family with that new found faith. My wife and I would round up the last tail end of marriages and our children the third generation to be open to the living Christ.
     So as our nephew just recently observed; Could his death have started the chain reaction that panned out over time?   Was there some kind of divine purpose?  Could the tragic loss of one so dear have been the door that gave three generations of family the opportunity to come into the Kingdom of God?  I don't have any of the answers to those questions.  those are for you to wrestle with in your own quiet times.  What I do know though is that God really, really does care for us in ways large and small much more than we think He does.
    

Let the Spirit flow!

     We were having a night of silent prayer, accompanied with beautiful worship music.  We are usually there for an hour or two, every other Sunday evening at the Church.  It's a time of quiet reflection, and praise to God for all that He is, has done, and will do in the future.  Our purposeful intent in this time in the Spirit, is for our hearts and minds to uplift Him in whatever situation we may currently find ourselves.
     At the close of the evening, we come together from the various areas of the sanctuary.  We take the last remaining moments to share as a group, and voice the feelings, burdens, and thoughts that we might have had on our hearts during this time.  We use it mostly as a time to vocally share our prayer requests with one another.  Doing as the Bible asks us to "bear one anothers' burdens", and "pray one for another".  In these moments, God's presence seems to seal our earlier offerings of deep heartfelt worship.
     Various members of the team spoke, each sharing a concern that they would like us all to agree with them in prayer for for victory.  Then, one woman spoke up in an assured voice.  She directed her statement to a believer, whom I will call Hannah.  She told her that," God was going to fill her with the Holy Spirit to the degree that she had wanted for a long time".
     Hannah was a little shocked, but then was overcome with excitement, sprinkled with a bit of trepidation.  You see, Hannah was a devout believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.  And she wanted the fullness of God more than anything.  She had sought the Baptism in the Holy Spirit for decades.  She had come to similar moments like this many times before in her journey in Christ.  Each time to only come away not obtaining that overflowing presence of the Father's promise that she so earnestly desired.

     At various times in her past, people had prayed for her to receive the promise.  Most having a specific form or model of " how" a person should receive this gift,then pressed her into their mold.  Instead of simply ushering her into His presence to simply receive Him.  Yet, with each "failure" so to speak, there was being built up inside her an invisible wall.  Doubt, the enemy of faith, was being created in her heart.  A feeling/thought pattern that she may never be able to receive what her spirit longed for, for so long.  Yet, through all of the trials, and years, she had never lost the desire of her heart to know God fully.  That someday she would receive the gift that she had so valiantly sought.  So, here she was once again, faced with the hope and the promise, yet still having a spiritual track record of not obtaining the prize.
     The group being led by the lady who spoke, were united in faith for Hannah.  Believing that tonight was her night!  Praises rang out to God.  We asked Him to grant our friend the desire to know Him more.  Hannah was simply asked to receive what the Lord had promised as a gift, by faith, and to speak any words that He might be sharing on her heart, whatever He would put in her mouth to speak.  As you might have guessed, after a few minutes, nothing happened.
     May I share with you some insight at this moment?   There are times when Christians operate not by faith, but rather out of hope.  Which can easily be sidetracked, or even derailed because we base it on our current condition, or our past experiences.  Faith is based on God's Word, and His character alone!  Sadly, for our sister, she had had past experiences that were very similar to this moment in time.  So, in her heart that invisible wall had to be torn down, before she could obtain her victory.  This is in no way an indictment of her condition, but is meant to help others, and shed light on somethings that sometimes hinder all of us in our Christian walk.
     So, back to our story.  As you remember, prayer and praise was going forth for our sister to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, and her spiritual language.  Suddenly, I felt a prompting, which I shared aloud.  " Hannah*", I said "  I see that you have already received this gift in your spirit, but there seems to be a blockage in releasing it in you.  I see you like a bottle of champagne, and the cork just needs to Pop! So speak out the joy and words in your mouth!"  Within a moment of those words leaving my mouth, she literally exploded with joy!
     This middle-aged woman seemed to be filled with electricity and emotion that burst forth like light in the darkness.  She laughed, she cried, euphoria seized every ounce of her being.  And then out of her mouth came a language that she did not know, faster than the tongue seems to have the chance to form syllables.  Interspersed with the loudest, "Praise the Lord's" that I have heard in a long time.  She knew that she had received her personal gift from above.  Joy had seized her, and His name is the Holy Spirit.  As we all observed, and would later testify, this was one of the most exuberant cases of someone being filled with the Holy Ghost as we had ever seen in our lives.
     Hannah slowly melted to the floor; shedding tears of happiness, and laughter full of praise.  Her spiritual language melodiously pouring across her tongue.  I can truly say, that the only time that I have seen such a state of euphoria before, is seeing a child on Christmas morn.  I believe that it wasn't just Hannah that received a blessed gift that Sunday evening, but the group as a whole.  Even in a Spirit-filled Church, we can become stale to the things of God.  In pursuit of ever more of the wonders of His grace,and power; we become bored with what is presented so simply before us, this, awesome and treasured gift given for all who believe. 
     There was a great lesson that we learned by observing another of His children receive Him as a little child.  We must always, always, remember to both come to Him in joy of anticipation, and in that a child has for a parent.  No wonder Jesus taught in Matt 19:13, Mark 10:13, and Luke 18:15; that we needed to be like a little child to enter this majestic Kingdom of His, and His everlasting presence.