Hi Pastor John,
I had an experience this morning that was wonderful. I had been asking God about how the Old Testament prophets and individuals like David felt when given instruction. I know it was through the Spirit, but those had to be all consuming experiences where God took over completely and gave them detailed instructions. I felt like in the New Covenant, we have the Spirit within us all the time; but, I hadn’t really felt it in that all consuming way before. I wanted to know what David felt when he was consumed like that. I was reading Psalms last night and really started feeling how consumed David was by God.
As I was watching your teaching with the young men this morning, I felt that very deep peace when the Spirit takes over and it melted everything inside me. It was so intense, I closed my eyes, and I felt myself losing any reality of being in this world. It was like Jesus was breathing for me, he was doing everything through me. I knew through this feeling what it feels like when God puts words in your mouth. I knew that in that place, it was only what God wanted me to do, feel, or say. In this space, there was only God’s thoughts and feelings. It felt like He was slowly taking my feelings deeper to be able to get comfortable in a new place with His power.
It was very encouraging for us! Every once in a while, He would tell me that this was what it would feel like, like the feelings would grow like this. For us, as it grew, it would be more of this. At the end, I didn’t even know it, but I came out of it weeping and knowing that this was the reason Jesus did what he did for us. And that being alone with God, whatever that feels like for each of us…is worth it all.
As the day went on, I had these thoughts:
- God is encouraging us to be that fourth type of soil from Jesus’ parable. We’re in an established congregation to plant seed in good soil. He has so much to show and teach us through these experiences.
- He loves us so much that He’s going to require our work and experiences to be purely received/given with a clear conscience (not mixed with dead works/form). He wants our fruit to feed His people through His unadulterated love, mercy, and truth.
- The freer we are in the Spirit, the more we can learn, grow in fellowship, and spiritually feed each other. We need to occupy our places and be happy/free to help God’s people!
Wendy