This entry is re post! of an event in 2011.
I continue my qualm with those who believe that spiritual gifts are not for today.
Or with who say that God’s power is offensive to the seeker and even apologize for it.
Yesterday, Heartbeat of Miami hosted a youth event at our church.
“Sex, Truth, Lies behind the Scenes,” was a hard-hitting intro to the dangers of premarital sex and abortion. As a pastor, I was thrilled to see more than two hundred people in attendance, most of them teens and young adults.
After the altar call, many came up for prayer. I ended up ministering to about 12 kids. The majority, though attending churches, had never been met by God’s amazing power.
It is my habit to do my best not to touch anybody. I certainly am very sensitive about being faulted with pushing people down.
I love to see God do His work, without my help. If I do touch, its slight, so that there can be a point of transmission.
One boy, crumbled to the floor weeping as the Holy Spirit overwhelmed him. It was breath taking.
A sixteen year old girl, shaking like a caterpillar in an earthquake, was magically pulled down, “Hey, what’s going on…what happened?”, she exclaimed!
Another teen ogling at the kids falling out ran to me. ”Hey, I want to fall.”
Shaking like a leaf on a windy day, she slumped into the arms of a friend.
I asked, “Do you want more?” “Yeah”, she said, eyes and mouth wide opened.
Then there were two young ladies, staggering backwards by God’s power, never touched by me. Perplexed and amazed, big grins on their faces, they hugged me. I asked if they had ever experienced “The Power.” Both said no.
My night concluded with a girl who wants to be a lawyer. God read her mail through my prophecies. I shook her hand, but she had questions and would not leave.
“How are you so in touch with the Holy Spirit that you can stretch out your hand and people fall?” She asked. “How do you do that?” She was so hungry.
I told her that in part, it comes by revelation knowledge of God’s word as you study it.
I detailed how God had taught me NT Greek and the importance of using the Strong’s Concordance. Then, to my surprise, she said that she had seen a Strong’s Concordance.
I located a copy in the church, sat down and taught her how to use it. At that instance her dad came. I taught him too! Both were grateful and amazed.
We, as pastors, do a disservice in prohibiting God’s glory into our services.
Kids everywhere are hungry for the supernatural. Church and unchurched alike! Everybody is looking for the glory. Everybody is looking for the power.
We are going to have to make a choice. We will either gain this generation to God’s glory as God pleasers, or lose them to the magic of Harry Potter as men pleasers. Either way they will go to where the power is.
Let’s face it. Church without it, can be downright boring.
Jose and Mary Alvarez 