Weird

Wow, I went like eleven days between my blogs. I’ve failed all (both) of you. Don’t worry, I’m sure what I’m about to share about will scare you off, so you won’t worry about missing my weekly thoughts anymore.

A couple of weeks ago, I watched this movie called “Finger of God” and it talked about how the Lord is moving throughout the world. It was all about this conservative Christian guy going out and documenting some of the things that happen that seem “weird” to the “normal” person. A guy on the video brought up a good point, saying that using the word “weird” presupposes that something else is “normal,” but that can vary from person to person and church to church, so there’s not really a true normal. If there’s no true “normal” there can’t be a true “weird.” So for some churches they think about your service and think, “wait, you actually spend time in worship and no gold feathers, manna or flawless stones materialize out of thin air? That’s weird.”

I was raised in a good, conservative church. At the age of 19, I moved down to the Pentecostal (where most people aren’t) school of Vanguard University. Shortly after I got there, Katrina rocked New Orleans and they had a prayer meeting for the people. I went and loved it. I found out that this isn’t just a one time thing, but rather a small portion of these people get together every Thursday night and pray for anything and everything. It became a staple in my life for the next two years. Through Prayer Movement, I became introduced to words of prophecy and people that speak in tongues. At the time, I personally didn’t prophesy or speak in tongues, but it became less weird.

Since then, through my first trip to Tanzania, normal Christian growth, stepping into a personal prophetic ministry in California and realizing the legitimacy of this strange stream, I have begun to act a bit more weird in my personal faith. I’m realizing more and more that I’m not the only weird guy out there (and far from the weirdest) and that this weird stream isn’t really weird at all.

Praying in tongues is often one of the first steps down this road. This could be the interpretive tongue, or it could be a personal prayer language. I speak in a tongue that I don’t understand in my mind. I am conscious when I do it and I know what I’m praying about, but not what the words mean. I’m not the only one that does it. A friend of yours does probably, someone in your family might. I have friends and family that do this and it makes it not so strange. I remember when I first started speaking in tongues, I was questioning if it was legit. As I do, I asked Clesi for her thoughts knowing that she regularly spoke in tongues. I asked her to say something from her prayer language, she paused for a moment and said something that didn’t sound anything like what I had been speaking in my language. Each is so unique. I’ve got another friend who just makes this tic-tic-tic noise super fast. I’ve heard Lydia speak in tongues so much, I could probably speak her language. People do this.

Well after I first spoke in tongues and figured that I was the only weirdo in my family, I heard someone else in my family do it and it maybe added to the legitimacy of it more than any other event (even though I already knew it was legit). Right before I moved here, I was at my parents house and packing for Tanzania. I had received prayer earlier and as I was packing, my dad came in the room and said that he wanted a time to just pray for me alone. I said okay of course and he hugged me. He prayed in English and then he started praying in a language I’ve never heard him speak before, it was a spiritual language.* And that’s probably the best part about praying in a different tongue. If I’ve reached the point where I can’t fit my emotions or thoughts into articulate words, I can switch to another language and the words will fit the prayer.

Its not just tongues though. I have a friend who every Thursday night during worship, gets a case of the holy giggles. Giggles isn’t a sufficient word… she laughs like a crazy person. Its quite contagious and enjoyable. I have a growing number of friends that utilize prophecy during times of prayer. To be honest, that’s my favorite part of this stream. Also, we get words from the Lord through our dreams. All sorts of stuff. Stuff that wasn’t previously a part of my “normal” Christian life.

I know what you’re thinking. I know it because it was (and at times is) my thought. Some of that stuff is NOT legit. Some of those guys are fakes, some of them have no integrity. Totally, and they ruin it for the rest of us. Even some of the good guys get caught up in religiosity. Last summer, I came to a training and impartation for The Call Africa conference that took place here. That afternoon, for the first time while I received prayer, I could feel the Holy Spirit so much that I hit the ground, or rather someone caught me as I fell down. I was standing one moment with my arms out and the next moment I felt this weight fall on my body and gracefully fell to the ground. I was at an incredible state of peace. After I got up, I was wanting a certain individual to pray for me. As I was waiting to ask him to pray for me, another man, a well-known preacher, came up to me and next thing I know he’s praying for me. It was brief and then he did something. Essentially, he kissed me on the forehead and pushed me over. Moments before I felt the Holy Spirit (legit) and the next moment I got pushed (not legit).

I know that’s out there, but nonetheless we should be careful not to discredit the real stuff, because there is power in it and it ministers deeply.

We have a team here right now and on Monday night, Eli, Rosa, and I joined everyone else and the team at Lydia and Jodie’s place. The team ministered prayer to the five of us staff members and it was legit. Like really legit. Before I received prayer, I told them how I had been under attack the last few days. Saturday night, I was incredibly lonely and couldn’t sleep well. When I did fall asleep, the Lord gave me a prophetic dream and two hours later after I fell back to sleep, I was attacked by a demonic dream. The next two days I also had a terrible stomach ache. I shared some of this briefly with them and then they interceded for me. These people that I hardly knew, started speaking such truth in my life, I was weeping like I haven’t in a long time. I was weeping over something that was way overdue. I realized how wounded I had been by a previous experience and that it was affecting me drastically. And yeah, if you looked in and saw me sitting in a chair with these six people encircling me, you’d say “that looks strange.” On top of receiving the prayers and prophecy, I had one invisible arrow pulled out of me (like the wound that I had suffered), I had my stomach sliced open and my stomach ache pulled out and I took two soft karate chops to the back (I forget what that signified… it was a little weird.) I’ll be honest, I was deeply ministered to and the “weird” stuff played a part. The next day, my stomach ache was gone and the words they gave me and the prayer I received has given me a clearer direction.

God’s ways are higher than ours and His thoughts are higher than ours. Despite that, our services seem pretty fathomable. He should be the ultimate pastor and director over our gatherings and if that is the case, it will probably cause our services to not look like anything to be described as “normal.” If Jesus were transplanted into the states or Tanzania and walked into a church gathering, He’d probably think “this is kind of weird.” Jesus did strange things (anybody else see blind dudes get mud on them and getting healed normally). The Holy Spirit continues that ministry in the authority of Christ today and we need to allow ourselves to be in step with Him. Even if that seems “weird.”

* I’d apologize for outing my dad, but its not really anything to be embarrassed about in the first place. Besides, everyone who knows my dad, knows he’s a roller in all other regards already.

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The Rundown: Boy, its been so long, its hard to say. My fast went well. I had told some friends that I was going to do it and a few of them decided to do it with me. So I spent the evenings of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of last week at Lauren, Ronda and Gina’s place for prayer and worship which was really great. We ended the fast after prayer on Wednesday night at El Rancho. Friday night, a six-person team from a church in Florida came to work with Hidden With Christ and they spent the first four days with us. Rita came in the following night, so its been great having all of them around. The team brought a bunch of education and overall children’s home supplies for us and I have enjoyed getting acquainted with all my new tools. Rita meanwhile brought me a whole bag of non-perishable food from the states, which is also quite nice. Saturday we went around Moshi and then they came and hung out at TOA with us. Sunday, I went with some of them out to Pastor Mbasha’s church and it was wonderful as always. Afterwards, we had lunch at his and Mama Janet’s place. I love Pastor Mbasha so much. He’s like my Tanzanian dad. He called me “kijana yangu” which means “my young man.” We just laugh so much together. Monday and Tuesday the team was at work at TOA and they got a grip load done. Wow, it was really remarkable and we are very blessed. They are off to Arusha now and will be going on safari before ministering out at Pastor Zablon’s village. Now, its back to business as usual.