PART 2
So, sure, I could tell you about how I've witnessed all the gifts of the Holy Spirit in operation today. And more! The list of gifts in the NT is not comprehensive and "many other signs were performed that aren't recorded in this book [John]." I could tell you about people receiving the gift of tongues. I could tell you about different visiting pastors receiving prophetic words on the spot about people they'd never met, including friends of mine, including me. The Holy Spirit revealing specific information to them about me and others that, in my case, no one knew except me. I could tell you about the time I was asked to play background guitar worship music for an informal small prayer meeting of pastors and how I was running late and some not so wholesome words were coming out of my mouth while driving. And then during that meeting how the Holy Spirit revealed to one of the visiting pastors who was there (a person I'd never met in my life) that that had happened on my drive there.
I could tell you about the half a dozen different times on different occasions over a period of several years witnessing the stigmata before my eyes before I even knew what the stigmata was. A visiting woman ministering in prayer. I watched wounds open up in the palms of her hands where none had been before. On another occasion I witnessed anointing oil coming out of her palms as she prayed for people and anointed them with oil including myself (And I'm a scientist, so you can believe I was looking for all manner of trickery and deception and fake blood, oil, the whole nine yards. Nothing. Just a woman who spends about ten to fifteen hours in prayer a day. Ministers eleven months out of the year, and the twelfth month she spends praying and fasting for the next eleven).
I could tell you about healings at other times with different visiting ministers. I could tell you about a different occassion with a different visiting minister who was praying for people and our worship pastor, who was a close personal friend of mine, was there for support. I could tell you how a person was healed right in front of us and how my friend's jaw dropped open in amazement at what we were witnessing. And as he did so how I and others witnessed a metallic silvery something materializing on the spot in his mouth filling in a cavity he needed fixed (the filling is still there to this day). As he describes it, all of a sudden he had this metallic taste in his mouth.
But when these types of things were happening they still weren't the focus. These things happened in the midst of corporate prayer and worship. The most powerful thing I saw and witnessed during these times were not the signs and wonders miracles, but the people pouring their hearts out to God. Tears of repentance. Tears of joy. Worship and God glorified and praised throughout. The miracles truly did feel like they were happening off to the side. The focus was always on God, Jesus. The Cross.
I could also tell you about prophetic dreams I've received from the Lord. Dreams that warned me in advance of spiritual attacks. Dreams giving me guidance or reassurance, directions about decisions.
I could tell you about prophetic dreams I've had about people---people I've never met that later I did. For example, a dream about a particular person unknown to me who then appeared at our church three days later for the first time. I was able to encourage that individual in accordance with what the Holy Spirit had revealed to me about that individual.
And of course God speaks to us through Scripture all the time, and in 'just' that "still small voice." How do you know it's God's voice? How do you recognize anyone's voice? Time spent. Experience. Getting to know the person. The same way with love: you just know; know from experience. (*And I have never trusted myself or in my ability to hear God. I tell God I don't trust myself, but that I trust Him. I trust His ability to get through to me and to make Himself heard).
I could tell you of my many debates on science, philosophy, apologetics with atheists. I could tell you about this atheist I went round and round with for weeks until a crazy thought occurred to me: "Hey, maybe I should ask God what to say to this person." So, silently in my mind while standing there debating this atheist, I asked the Lord what I should say to this guy and instantly I heard the following in my mind: "Ask him if he loves Me." So, I paused the debate and said, "I just have one question for you: Do you love God?" (Who asks that to an atheist!?). Stopped him dead. Dead silence. "Let me get back to you," he said. A few days later we ended up on the beach as he poured his heart out to me how he used to be a believer but lost faith when he couldn't overcome sin in his life. I just listened. All I did was listen to him pour out his heart for several hours. And then afterwards this atheist came back to the Lord that very day. And all I did was ask him that one single question. Of course I've tried the same question with other people since then. Never, ever worked again. And that's how the Holy Spirit works. Always in a timely manner, the right words at the right time, when we're atuned to Him.
So, sure I could tell you all these things and more. But NONE of it is important. It's all peripheral stuff, on the edges, and not important in and of itself. It is God Himself that is important. It is God's Presence. All these miraculous things and more I've experienced are not the focus; its all peripheral; all of it PALES in comparison to being in the Lord’s Presence. It is all simply a byproduct of time spent in God's Presence. I never went seeking specific gifts. I went seeking God and made myself available to Him however He wanted to use me, and spent time loving and worshipping Him.
When do I experience things like prophetic dreams? When I'm actively spending time in God's Presence. Specifically, during a time in my life when I was meeting for prayer with a friend every morning around 4-5 am for a year. And around this same time, I also drove up into the mountains every day for a week and spent about eight or so hours in prayer and worship every day for about a week solid. Just loving God and pouring out my heart. Asking for more of Him in my life.... Those are the times when my experience of the supernatural and prophetic are greatest.
And do you know what one of the greatest supernatural miracles I've ever experienced is? Supernatural ability to live a godly life. I'm not kidding. Like many believers I was saved by grace, and then taught that now that you're saved you have to try really, really hard to be a good person. That is a miserable life that I always found myself failing at. But when I spent that week up in the mountains eight hours a day praying and worshipping. Asking for more of God I experienced something I never had before in my life. A miraculous, Spirit enabled power to live a godly, holy life. When the Spirit is present in a *real* tangible way in our lives, all of a sudden I was able to bear the fruits of the Spirit not from trying hard to be good, but simply because I was walking and living in the Spirit. I'm not just saying this. This truly is one of the most miraculous things I've experienced: the Spirit enabled power to live a godly, holy life. When you have a taste of this type of Spirit-filled life you're forever changed and you never want to leave it. Because you never want to leave God's Presence. It's a small taste of what heaven will be like. The thought of going back and trying to be good on my own strength and power---it's exhausting just to think about it.
And guess what? When I'm not actively spending time with God, can you guess what happens? Yep. I don't experience the prophetic gifts. I don’t experience dreams and visions. And I don't experience Spirit enabled righteous living. I have been so close to God as in the times I described. But there have also been times subsequent to that where I've never been further away from God.
So, again, signs, wonders, miracles, healings, prophetic dreams, visions and the like---all wonderful. But still peripheral to what's most important: God Himself. Such things are a byproduct of time spent living one's life in God's Presence.
