LAND OF THE LIVING MAGAZINE - Magazine - Page 50
SONG STORY
Caleb & I were leading worship, one night
and during rehearsal running through
another song, I began to sing, “So run
through my trees like You’ve gone wild,
Fall upon me till my flames rise higher like
fire.”
One of the biggest things we do in our
ministry, is host what we call: Rekindle
Retreats so I thought, how cool would it be
to center in on this focus within a song.
The fire represents the Holy Spirit–once
being a fear to me. I remember when I saw
Holy Spirit manifest for the first time in a
crazy group of charismatics. They were
speaking in tongues, dancing like they
were drunk, and falling like they had
passed out. I was freaked out. I thought
they were demon possessed, took shots
before church, were over emotional, and
putting on a show. I wasn’t there for it. I
got ready to leave and I told God, “If this
is of you, show me now or else I’m out of
here!”
Right then, a stranger seated next to me
put her arm around me and said, “The
Lord just gave me a vision of you.” She
said, “You are a dreamer. You are
creative." (and a million other things that
only the Lord would know.) She continued,
"I see you holding a crayon box and the
Lord says, He just wants you to paint your
picture.” I wept. I couldn’t understand
how the nonsense of it all was of Him, but I
knew it was, so I stayed. I looked around
at these seemingly drunken crew, and the
Lord said to me, “that’s exactly what the
Pharisees thought on the day of
Pentecost." And I said, “Oh my gosh Lord,
I’m a Pharisee?” And He said, “Yup!” Then
I asked, “And they’re drunk on Your
Spirit?” He said, “Yup!”
I knew I had a choice to either lose my
pride, look like a fool and join their
“drunken” parade or stand statuesque like
a proud Pharisee in judgment. I didn’t
choose the latter. I began to shift side to
side like I’d never seen a dance club
before. Finally, I thought, “I’m never
gonna see these people again. I’m literally
in a different city. I have nothing to lose
but my pride!” And as I began to dance
like I never have before, I felt the chains
fall to floor and joy began to rise up. I
looked around the room and thought, “Oh
my gosh…this is like a wedding reception
and we’re Your bride!” Immediately, I was
wondering, through silly twists and twirls,
why church wasn’t like this every Sunday!
After the dance party died down, they
began praying for people and coming
through the entire room. In the Baptist
church I grew up in, you went forward for
prayer. People didn’t come to you. And
you only went forward to lay hands on ‘the
sinner’ you brought to church, because
heaven forbid, you don’t have your stuff
together and if you did get brave enough,
then you’d have to answer to everyone
afterwards asking what you went to the
altar for! But sure enough, two ladies
reached my shoulders as I stood there
hands out saying to God, “Okay Lord, if
this is of you, You’re gonna have to make
me go down because my legs are locked
and I’m not gonna be emotional about it.”
They began to pray in tongues and finally I
just sat down because of the awkwardness
of the moment. I wasn’t understanding
anything they were saying and not feeling
it AT ALL. Until I was…
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