After the experience I had with the lesbian lady and the “holy spirit,” I backed off from my openness to the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. I had, so to speak, thrown out the baby with the bathwater. The following two experiences jerked me back to attention—to a more balanced view. I believe God was trying to show me that the Holy Spirit is present today and is working through the gifts of the Spirit, yet not every manifestation is of God. Some are from God, others may be from the self (psyche), and a number could well be from the devil. Therefore, rather than make sweeping generalizations, careful discernment was in order.
One Friday night, Carolyn and I had attended a spiritual gifts seminar in Salinas. The teaching seemed to be very biblical and not “far out” as some charismatic teaching is. It was about 10:30 that night we went to bed.
Our bedroom had an eight-foot sliding door that opened to a fenced redwood deck to the east of our home. Often, because we lived in the country and no houses were close by, we left the drapes pulled back. This night there was a bright moon in the sky.
I woke up about two in the morning and was just musing with the Lord when my thoughts alarmed me. Why was I thinking what I was thinking?
We were now meeting with the Neighborhood Christian and Missionary Alliance Church107 in Santa Cruz. Some weeks before this night, I had made an announcement that our church needed a new hot water heater. When we had a baptism, we had to run a long hose from another part of the church to fill the baptistry, and by the time it was full, the water had already cooled off. What we needed was a fast- recovery, high-capacity water heater that could be installed by the baptistry. I put an announcement in the church bulletin explaining our need. A few weeks later, the husband of one of our church members brought a new water heater that filled our requirements and donated it to the church. However, it had not yet been installed.
As I lay in bed, my thoughts (or was it God’s voice) said, “I can’t bless your church as long as that hot water heater is there; it was stolen.”
As I lay in bed, my thoughts (or was it God’s voice) said, “I can’t bless your church as long as that hot water heater is there; it was stolen.”
“Where did that thought come from?” was my first reaction. But it came again, “I can’t bless your church as long as that hot water heater is there; it was stolen.”
Just that week, I had written a letter to the donor thanking him for his gift. I was not about to accuse him of stealing. I had no evidence. No way!
But that thought came again, “I can’t bless your church as long as that hot water heater is there; it was stolen.” I began to think that God was speaking to me. My reaction was, “No, Lord, I am not going to accuse this man. I have no evidence that it was stolen.”
Then I went into terrible torment. I cannot explain it other than to say I sensed God was not at all pleased with me and was letting me know it. Yet I did not give in. I was not about to accuse this person without some evidence.
The moonlight was streaming into our bedroom, and I could make out our furniture in the dim light. Suddenly I realized that my right eye was blind. Now, I was really under torment. Then, just as suddenly, my right eye came back and my left eye went blind. There was a minute or two—it seemed longer but probably was not—that my eyes went in and out of vision. First one eye then the other, like a highway patrol car with alternating headlights flashing.
I now realized that God was trying to tell me that He wanted me to get that hot water heater out and do it now. I had told Him that sometimes I had a hard time discerning His will, so He would have to make it clear. Well, He was making it clear! So I said, “O.K. Lord, I will confront this man tomorrow.” Instantly I was back to normal. Now I had peace, and my eyes were working properly.
I arose early that Sabbath morning and typed a letter to this man. I told him of my experience, how I felt God was telling me that the hot water heater was stolen, and He could not bless our church as long as it was there. I suggested that if it were true, we could pay for it and he could give the money to the person from whom it was stolen. Then I added, “You be the judge if this is from the Lord.”
While this man’s wife was a regular attendee, he only came occasionally. I took the letter with me to church and secretly hoped he would not come. However, he did. At the end of the service, I asked him to stay and meet with me in the church office. With some trepidation, I handed him the letter and asked him to read it. I saw his face turn ashen. I knew it had hit home.
“Tell me,” I said, “Where did you get this water heater?” “I work at Fort Ord108 in the plumbing department,” he said. “The base did not have the heater the church needed, so I contacted a plumbing contractor who was doing some work for the base. He gave me the heater, and I gave him four times its value in plumbing fixtures from the base.”
“_______”, I said; “you must pay for it.”
“I can’t do that,” he said, “If I paid for it, I would have to explain what happened, and I would get fired.”
“Well then,” I said, “You must take it back because God can’t bless our church with it here.”
He was to pick it up the next week but failed to do so. Therefore, I somehow tied it into the trunk of my car and took it to his home. No one was home, so I left it standing on his front porch. I had encouraged him to make it right. I don’t know if he ever did.
God knows all, and He can, through the prompting of the Holy Spirit, communicate to us things that we would otherwise not know.
This taught me several things: God knows all, and He can, through the prompting of the Holy Spirit, communicate to us things that we would otherwise not know. Second, God’s blessings are hindered by a lack of integrity.
The next experience happened some months after the first. I had an important elders’ meeting that was to take place in a few days. I woke up sometime after midnight and was thinking about some of the issues on the agenda. I was not consciously trying to visualize the meeting, but as I was considering some of the items, I saw myself in the meeting. I turned to one elder and said, “God sees all the things you are doing for Him. You don’t need to keep reminding everyone of all the good things you are doing.” Then I turned to the next elder and said, “You are involved in pornography, and if you want to continue in church leadership, you must overcome this vice.” Then, I spoke to the third elder, “You must be careful that you do not grieve the Holy Spirit but allow Him to do His work in this church.” Then, I turned to the last elder and said, “God is pleased with your service.”
After I had finished, I said to myself, “where did all this come from?” I began to question this, thinking it was just my thoughts. Suddenly I seemed to be under the same torment— although this time without any of the physical symptoms I had with the stolen hot water heater incident. Remembering what happened then, I said, “O.K., Lord, I will tell these men what I have seen.”
When the day came for the elders’ meeting, I began to have serious second thoughts. Who was I to give this kind of confrontation, advice, and evaluation? This could ruin my relationship with these men. Should I go ahead?
After the church secretary left, I locked myself in my office and prayed. I cried out to God using every name for God I could think of: YHWH, Jehovah, Jesus, Adoni, Savior, Lord, El Shadai, etc. “Please, Lord, give me some kind of confirmation if I should go ahead with this.” I would pray and then wait, pray, and wait. Thinking back on my thoughts in the night, I remembered where I had seen each elder sitting. They were in a circle with five chairs, one for each of them and one for me. There was no audible voice, but God seemed to be saying (or was it just my mind?) “Why not use this as a test? If the elders come in and sit in exactly the same configuration, then you will know to go ahead, and this is from God.” I accepted this “test” and set up five folding chairs in a circle in my office where we were to meet. I spent the rest of the time in prayerful meditation. I took a piece of paper out of my desk, drew a diagram of the five chairs with the names by each chair, and put it into my top desk drawer.
As the elders began to arrive, I sat on the edge of my desk and breathlessly waited to see where they would sit. They came in, shared a few bits of conversation, and then sat down exactly as I had seen them in the night!
One of the elders had a few words of devotion and opening prayer. I then broke into the conversation. I pulled out the paper from my desk drawer, laid it on the floor in the center of the circle for all to see, and rehearsed with them my experience. Then, I spoke to each elder using the words as I remembered them. What was the result? First, let me give the context.
After my experience with the stolen hot water heater, where it was deeply impressed upon me that God could not bless our church if open sin were present, I prepared a series of sermons on repentance and confession of sin. I used the illustration of Achan. I had pressed home this point, stating that it could well be “that some of us have cherished sin in our lives which is blocking the flow of God’s grace and power in our church.”
The first elder I spoke to accepted the “word” that he had been doing his works for recognition. Later this same person came to me confessing he had taken a large metal vice from his employer. I encouraged him to make it right, and he did.
When I turned to the second elder and shared with him the thoughts I had been given, he shared the following: Yes, he had been involved with pornography for some years and knew it was wrong. He had, he said, almost gone to the last pastor to get help but did not. He said that during the sermons on repentance and confession that I had given, the Holy Spirit had convicted him that he should confess. Then, he shared with the group that he knew I was going to confront him that night. He repented, and we all prayed that God would give him the victory.
I spoke to the third elder warning him not to grieve the Holy Spirit by hindering what He was doing in the church, but there was little response. I encouraged the fourth elder with words of acceptance.
I believe that the gifts of the Spirit are still present in the church today. I also believe there are many counterfeit and misuses of spiritual gifts.
I believe that the gifts of the Spirit are still present in the church today. I also believe there are many counterfeit and misuses of spiritual gifts.109 Discernment is one of the gifts and is certainly needed.110 However, let us not quench the Spirit for He is the presence of God in our lives by which we are sealed.111 The Holy Spirit is the one Who testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.112 The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit,113 and working with the Word, He testifies of Christ,114 guides us into all truth and will disclose to us what is to come.115
There is great danger in rejecting the true manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said,
…whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin (Mk. 3:29).
This statement seems hard, but by continually rejecting the Holy Spirit Who speaks to our conscience, our con- science becomes seared, the voice of God is silenced, and we close our eyes and ears to the very means God has ordained for our salvation.
Therefore, let us be true to His Word and the promptings of His Spirit by which we are changed from one glory into the greater glory.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18–4:1).
NEXT WEEK: “EXPANDING MINISTRY”
ENDNOTES
107. I was pastor of both the Biblical Fellowship Church and the Neighborhood Church at the same time.
108. An army base near Monterey, California. It has since been closed.
109. Over the years I have been given numerous “prophecies” by Chris- tians who believed they had a message from God. Most have proven to be in error.
110. 1 Cor. 12:10.
111. 2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:13, 4:30.
112. Rom. 8:16.
113. Eph. 6:17.
114. Jn. 15:26.
115. Jn. 16:3.
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