The "Normal" Christian Life?--Part 1

By David Hobbs

2/10/2009

Last Sunday we had the first of our planned inter-church praise services. The idea is to meet one Sunday evening/month at one of the participating churches and have a praise meeting to promote unity among the churches and to build a platform of praise in our community that goes beyond one church. This first service was at a neighbor church.
They had two complete bands which shared the service. The first band got us off fairly well, but it had a drab spirit about it. No one (on stage) was smiling or seemed to be happy leading God’s people in worship. They were all seriously going about their jobs--playing their instruments well--but the spark of joy was missing.
However, they did get us out into the river of Holy Spirit anointing. I wondered how many people realized we had entered the river. At times like that I wonder what people are aware of. How many realize when we pass beyond singing songs and enter the river of Holy Spirit that flows from God’s throne?
After an hour the bands changed. I took a break and got a drink because I had a raging thirst.
The next band was a younger, livelier bunch. It wasn’t long before they had us on a whole new level—a way deeper channel in the river. Now this was what praise and worship was all about! It still required work on our part, to focus and engage, but the Spirit of God was thick.
After another hour of getting progressively deeper the host pastor took the mic to rap the meeting up. He commended everyone on being able to worship for 2 solid hours.
However deep into the river the 2 hours had carried us, he didn’t seem to realize that we were right on the edge of a much deeper hole in the river. He turned the mic over to his wife, who then made the “mistake” of saying she thought she should give it to Cheryl to close us in prayer. Cheryl asked what she wanted her to do. “However you feel led.” (Mistake #2.)
Cheryl started to pray and then said she felt the Holy Spirit wasn’t done for the night. She proceeded to call everybody up who wanted prayer. Many came forward and the leaders began praying over them. The Holy Spirit started moving and people responded in many ways including going down. I didn’t feel a need to be prayed for and I wasn’t a leader but I liked being up front where the Spirit was moving. So I hung around praying for people from behind and catching them when need be. It was great!
After awhile I noticed one of the leaders who seemed to carry a good anointing standing at the front alone with no one to pray for. I thought, “What the heck. I might as well put him to work. I can always use more of God.” So I went up and asked him to pray for me. (His name was Jason.) The Holy Spirit came upon me immediately. Things were going well when Cheryl came up from behind and ambushed me. She laid both of her hands on either side of my head and began praying in her fervent way. But being Cheryl she started pulling me over and soon I was staggering off balance and going down. Though I didn’t go down “under the power,” I have found that when Cheryl does that, often the Holy Spirit uses it simultaneously to move into people in a mighty way, which is what happened to me.
After she left (seeking other prey) I staggered to my feet and Jason continued praying for me. He laid his hand on my belly and began prophesying that God was going to bless me because I had deferred to Him in many areas of my life, doing His will rather than my own. When he laid his hand on my belly the Holy Spirit began surging out. I’m not sure if I was singing or shouting, but it seems like it was one long, sustained note coming out of my inmost being in full power. Maybe the best way to describe it would be “roar.” I roared with all my might with my hand on his hand on my belly while he prayed and prophesied.
After that I did go down, really under the power this time, and lay there in an overwhelming aura of peace for a long time while the altar service swirled around me. When I finally got up I was so woozy and relaxed I asked Marcine to drive home. All I could say was, “Wow! We hit a really deep pool this time!”

(To Be Continued)

Two Prayer Meetings--Different Results

By David Hobbs
1/21/2009

We had prayers meetings on Monday night and Tuesday night of this week. The occasion was a series of special meetings the latter part of the week into the weekend. To push through in the spirit we had an all-church fast Mon.-Wed.
The two prayer meetings were almost identical, except for the results.
I arrived at the first in passive mode. There was nothing in me--not a single cell of my body--that felt like praying, which is normal. I knelt down on a chair and tried to feel the Spirit and make contact with the Divine. Nothing much happened. After awhile I turned around and sat down on the chair and tried to hone in my thoughts on the Lord. I gave out some weak verbal praises and declarations. Once, there started to be a convergence, when people from 3 different places in the room began to operate together in the spirit and I felt like it could bring the Spirit’s anointing into our midst. But it only continued a short time before they went their separate ways and the spiritual synergy disintegrated.
Pastor Dave was praying out like he usually does when he’s present, but other than that it was pretty subdued. Some were laid out “soaking,” others were reading or praying quietly or silently. There were only 10-12 in the prayer room.
After awhile I began to space out and doze off. I can tell when I doze off because my thoughts scramble and quit making sense. That means my mind has slipped from the conscious to the unconscious. This serves as a warning that if I don’t change positions, get up and walk, then I’m done for. But by this time I was so passive that it was hard to stir myself to action. It was so much easier to continue in the passive mode.
I thought I could bring my mind back and keep it in the conscious realm…. The next thing I knew I heard a voice from a long way away pulling me back. It was Pastor Dave asking everyone to come stand and pray together in a circle. I realized that I had been asleep, who knows for how long, but the first hour of the prayer meeting was over. We prayed out loud for another half hour, mostly Pastor Dave. He was holding my hand in the prayer circle and squeezing it so tightly in his zeal that he was mashing my little finger and middle finger against my wedding ring on both sides. I kept waiting for a break in the prayers so his grip would relax and I could quickly slip my ring off and put it in my pocket; but there was no break. (Sure I could have pulled out of his grip any time and done it, but I was still in passive mode!) By the time it was over there were deep, red indentations on each finger. My wife Marcine had a good time in prayer but I left feeling like I had accomplished nothing.
Fast forward 24 hours to Tuesday night. We went back out to the church. I didn’t feel any more like praying than I had the night before, but I thought, “I am not going to go through another worthless night like last night. I am just not going to do it!”
As soon as we got there I eschewed the chairs and started walking around the “circuit” (the chairs are arranged in such a way that you can walk in a circle around the perimeter of the room). I opened my mouth and began to call on the name of the Lord. I thanked Him for His goodness, His salvation, whatever I could think of. Pastor Dave was still praying out loud like he does and everything else was like the night before except that Dave’s firebrand wife Cheryl was there.
I knew I was probably the loudest one in the room, but I had to go on. The longer I went the more of the anointing I felt—at last the power began to come. I rattled off in tongues, then prayed in English—exhorting, declaring, asking, proclaiming—anything to keep the flow going. Cheryl began to get anointed and walk around. I wanted to pray with her to combine our efforts but wasn’t sure how to do it.
Now things were getting hotter in the spirit and I was almost shouting, still pressing in, not letting up. When I ran out of things to say in English I switched to tongues, anything to keep it flowing. Then Cheryl began praying for a sister. I took the opportunity and joined her. I was full of the Holy Spirit by this time and longing for an opportunity to pour some out. I joined Cheryl and poured out all over the sister.
When we were done I said to Cheryl, “Let’s pray for people; we need to pray and impart.”
She said, “Fine, let’s start with Dave (her husband).” We went over and began praying for him. By now the prayer was really intense. I was calling on God to fulfill every promise He had ever made to the church and Pastor Dave. I kept shouting “Now! Now! Now!” I opened my eyes and noticed that half the people in the room were now standing with us praying for Pastor Dave. We were storming the gates of heaven and it was wonderful and powerful.
When we finished Cheryl asked for prayer for herself. We laid hands on her and she instantly burst into tears because God was showing her a vision of people in insane asylums whose minds were completely gone and there seemed to be no hope of salvation for them because there was nothing left inside them to even reach out for help. She was crying and groaning and we were praying over her, not knowing yet why she was overcome but pouring out the measure of the Spirit we had over her.
Afterward I gave her a prophecy, because I had seen her in the spirit wielding a sword. I told her there were some she could rescue with her tears, but for others to be saved she would have to wield a sword, hacking the shackles and bindings of the world off them. Some would be too weak or confused to free themselves and would keep getting re-entangled again in the things that had mastered them unless she took action. The Scripture I used was Nehemiah 13:25 where Nehemiah says “I rebuked them and called down curses on them. I beat some of the men and pulled out their hair.” [Imagine that happening in the church today!]
Then the prayer meeting was over, but what a difference from the night before! I was filled with power which continued the next morning with our daily prayer meeting at Dave’s house.
I realized more than ever the importance the human will plays in spiritual things. The only difference for me from one night to the next was a decision of my will to be active instead of passive, to go for it instead of waiting for it to come to me. And the Lord met me. He always does!