Dive.
Dive.
This past weekend I did something that is extremely odd for me. I went to an Pentecostal revival conference.
I’m probably going to lose half of my already only a handful of readers as soon as y’all read that, but hear me out!
I grew up in a very conservative Baptist Church where you didn’t even raise your hands in worship. I thought that things like speaking in tongues and slaying in the spirit were, at best selfish and self-glorifying, and at worst demonic.
However, I’ve been reading in the Old Testament the last couple of months, and have been really blown away by the prophets Elijah and Elisha. Of course I knew about them from Bible stories in Sunday School but I’ve never taken the time to really study them myself. It’s taken me back how powerful these men were, of course by the power of the Holy Spirit. Before Elijah was taken up to heaven, Elisha’s last request to him was that he would receive his (Elijah’s) power twofold. That’s what happened, and the things that Elisha was capable of doing were absolutely insane.
The Lord has been impressing these facts in my heart and telling me “Charity, I haven’t changed. I’m the same God, I’m just as powerful as I was then, and I’m actually living inside of you.” Jesus also says, “…if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move….” (Matt. 17:20). So why, then, do I limit God’s ability to do miracles? I’ve been asking God to fill me with his spirit and show me his power. Don’t you know that when we pray for these things, he answers?
So like I said I went to this conference. I was completely blown away by how comfortable I was in a setting so opposing to what I grew up in and thought I was comfortable with. I also grew a lot of respect for different styles of worship. Second Samuel 6:14 says, “David danced before the Lord with all his might.” But Psalms 27:4 says, “One thing I ask…to gaze on the beauty of the Lord.” Two polar opposite styles of worship, but both acceptable, and pleasing to the Lord. I think that’s the biggest thing that really excites me about the weekend—how the Lord has been changing my heart and showing me that people don’t have to be one certain way and as long as they are not in opposition to the scriptures, there is more than one right way to do things.
One thing my heart was stirred over, was one of the speakers talking about how we like to dabble with Jesus, but we don’t like to dive into Jesus. We like to give things over to him when it’s good for us and comfortable for us, but not when it makes us uncomfortable, when it hurts, and when it’s difficult. Jesus doesn’t want us to be comfortable, he wants us to follow him. He doesn’t want us to only give him the easy things, he wants us to whole-heartedly, sacrificially dive into him and quit dipping our toes in to see if the water is too cold. There were a lot of things in my life that came to mind, and a lot of places I need to quit wading around to see if the water’s comfortable enough.
I’m not switching to the Pentecostal denomination or anything, but I do, like I said, have a new found respect for people of that denomination, and that style of worship. I have a lot of questions about it, but I am grateful to the Lord for changing my heart and continuously moving me to learn and understand him better.
Soli Deo gloria,
Charity
