My Journey With God's Holy Spirit

I thought I would share my journey with God’s Holy Spirit especially what I experienced last weekend on a retreat I led with Pastor Rob Nelson at the Bethel Horizons Camp near Dodgeville. I, like many of you, were raised in a church that was more concerned with what we said we believed than what we did. One thing we didn’t do, was talk about the Holy Spirit (except, perhaps, on Pentecost Sunday). The Holy Spirit is what those Pentecostals did (and they handled snakes, too, didn’t they?). Mystery and transcendence were not part of my spiritual life.

So, how was a white boy from Minnesota ever going to get a chance to meet and experience this Third Person of the Trinity of whom he said he believed? It would be a long time because it was much easier for me to think about God than to experience him.  Yet, in John’s gospel, Jesus talks about God’s Spirit.  He warned us about the Spirit of God when he made an analogy between it and the wind, "The wind blows whenever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit" (John 3:5-7). Wow! Spirit-filled people are unpredictable -- they move like the wind! Jesus further tells us that God’s Spirit can (and should) dwell in us. In fact, it was his parting gift to us!  Maybe that's why a large part of the Church has shys away from the Spirit.

My own journey began when I was a teenager serving with the Marines. One night, when I was stationed in the South Pacific, I looked up and contemplated the millions of stars above me and I suddenly felt the presence of God. Yet I continued to ignore God and run away from him. Years later, God caught me.  I finally was touched again by God’s Spirit as I was just as suddenly called to ordained ministry! Soon after, I attended and participated in an Anglican evangelical mission at Regent College to a city near Vancouver. From that time forward, my life with God’s Spirit became a great and "windy" adventure.

The young Anglican students I met at Regent were on fire for Jesus – there are no better words for it! I have never witnessed anything like it before – it was the fire of the Holy Spirit working among those who believed. They prayed at the drop of a hat, sang praise songs, and were the disciples I had read about in the Book of Acts – men and women “filled with the Spirit!”

They spoke boldly about their faith, laid hands on each other and prayed for those who were sick or hurting. They even worked to cast out demons, prophesized, spoke “words of knowledge,” and some even prayed in a private prayer language -- “tongues.” And these were Anglicans! They opened my heart to experience God more fully than I had ever imagined possible.

I had to make a decision. Was I going to be closed to these strange (yet biblically-based) practices, or was I going to be open to them? I decided to be open. Soon I was giving testimonies in local churches, preaching on street corners, and laying hands on people and praying for those who were sick. And one night in a prayer group my new friends prayed that I would receive the “gift of tongues.” It didn’t happen right away but years later, when I was teaching the Alpha Course, it did.

That week-long experience at Regent College almost twenty years ago changed my life and moved me closer to the presence, awe, majesty and mystery of God. Last week, I had another powerful experience.  Pastor Rob and I took a group of Lutherans to the camp with the objective of fully “experiencing” God rather than just thinking or studying about God. It was a bold adventure that became a mighty experience and one that created a local group of spiritual warriors for God.  I wrote this note to Rob when I got home:

“Whew! There is NO doubt that God is working mightily among us at New Heights Church. It is truly a time to move and to say out loud, ‘No more old church,’ but a spirited, transformed church! While I cannot envision now exactly where we are going or where we will end up – we, nevertheless, are on the move with God. And in doing so, God has unleashed a number of spiritual gifts within this church in so many areas that it almost seems like a little Pentecost has happened – another birth-day of the church!


“The out-pouring of spiritual gifts, growth in childhood education, teens, men in mission, as well as a number of other new ministries tells me that something big is happening here and I, for one, want to be part of it.


"So what it is we have to do now? First, we must continue to be OPEN to God’s Spirit and direction (not me but thee, God!) remembering that above all the spiritual gifts, St. Paul tells us LOVE is the greatest: love in mission, love in welcoming the stranger, love in healing our pain and brokenness, love in repairing fractured relationships, and love in empowering a greater God-future. Hang on! I’m not sure where we are going, where God is leading us, but I’m in for the ride!”

I have come to understand that God wants us to worship and love him with our entire body: with our whole heart, mind, strength and being. And when we do so, we become powerful disciples ready and willing to work to bring God’s reign closer as we serve others. It is God’s Spirit that pours gifts of love, joy, peace, kindness, faithfulness, self-control, patience, generosity, and gentleness upon us. It is also God’s Spirit who brings us the spiritual gifts of wisdom, strength, knowledge, prophecy, healing and discernment.

I perhaps have gone on too long, but I wanted to share with you what I have experienced and how you can, too. You can experience the fullness of God and be filled and empowered with God’s Spirit – all you need to do is ask and pray. I guarantee it will rejuvenate your spiritual life. That is my hope and prayer for you on your own journey.