Sunday School Take-over

I was raised in a Catholic family that went to mass on Easter and Christmas, so Sunday school was not part of my life. I became a Christian when I was 16 through the youth group called Young Life. Though I have attended church all these years, I never experienced Sunday school very much. However, around 1989 I my husband Cliff and I visited a little church that had a Sunday school class with a book study going on about living life full of the Holy Spirit. The chapter mentioned speaking in tongues. The teacher asked if anyone in the class spoke in tongues. Cliff and I raised our hands. The teacher asked Cliff to tell the class about it. Cliff spoke for the whole hour with a full discourse with Scriptures from the book of Acts on being baptized in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues and he shared his Jesus People days story and what happened to him. At one point Cliff asked me to share how I received the gift of tongues, so I gave my testimony as a part of the class too. (Note: For my testimony on receiving the gift of tongues, here is the link:  http://thedanceoflifewithjenna.blogspot.com/2012/09/more-of-holy-spirit-filled-life.html  ) We didn’t plan on a Sunday School Take-over—it just happened. Hahaha! 

My husband and I both enjoyed remembering that day over twenty years ago. That is our favorite Sunday school class memory, but a runner up would be another week in the same class when the pastor’s wife shared about speaking in tongues while she was in Israel and someone recognized the language she was speaking and wrote down the interpretation for her. She still had the ragged scrap of paper and read it to us. It was a beautiful prayer and it was also speaking of our glorious love relationship with the Lord Jesus.

To me the best part of any class, book, or lecture is the stories people tell about what happened to them. I have found that testimonies, or stories of real lives, are extremely powerful, moving, and life giving. They are also memorable!

How I Strengthen Myself in the Lord

When I find myself in times of turmoil, trial, or testing, I don't give way to them, but PRESS into the Lord more than ever. He is the Prince of Peace for peace to be restored in my life. The Holy Spirit is the Comforter when I need comfort. When things look dark, I go to Jesus for He is the light of the world. His light illuminates my path. I run to my strong Tower, my Fortress and my Rock, as David wrote about in the Psalms. God has all wisdom, knowledge and understanding, so if I have questions He has the answers. I belong to Him and He knows me and loves me better than anyone else; so He is the Person to go to when I need help. When storms hit, I know the One who calms the sea! I am hidden in Christ, a little bird in the cleft of the Rock, in the secret place with my almighty God. I can do everything through Christ Who strengthens me. In the Amplified this verse says Jesus infuses inner strength into me! (See Phil. 4:13.)

Many times the battle is in our minds. We need to take every single thought captive. The enemy wants to distract us and get our focus off the Lord and onto the trial. When I am down-hearted, depressed, discouraged or any of those awful ‘d’ words, I like to go to be alone in my closet—my prayer closet that is. I turn my thoughts heavenward and tell God all the things I am thankful for. The Message Bible says “Thank you is the password to His presence.” See Psalm 100. When we dwell upon whatever is positive, lovely, beautiful, noble, of good reputation, and worthy of praise and let our minds dwell on all the good gifts and all the awe-inspiring things of the Lord, it lifts our spirits. (See Phil. 4:8.)

A friend told me whenever she is feeling down she will call ten people and give them encouraging words and it lifts her right out of the dumps and she feels encouraged herself. A guy I knew about twenty years ago shared that whenever he felt lonely he went and found someone more lonely and needy than himself and befriended him and then he wasn’t lonely anymore.

I know I need to constantly turn my eyes, my heart, and my thoughts to God and steadfastly fix them upon Him. There are many Scriptures on looking to the Lord and trusting in Him. God is first love, He said to seek His kingdom first, and He said to love Him with all we’ve got. I like how Isaiah says it, “I set my face like a flint.” Jesus tells us to abide in Him, live in Him, and stay with Him. (See John 15.) He cries out in prayer that we would be one—inseparable. (See John 17.) God is my BFF! I want to be habitually walking in intimate fellowship with the LORD of my life 24/7. (We are even right with Him when we sleep, for the Bible says He gives to His beloved in sleep.) This is how Enoch lived and also his grandson, Noah. (See Genesis 5:24 and 6:9 in Amplified Version of the Bible.) This is the life that pleases God. If we live this way as a lifestyle, and not just in times of crisis, we will be ready and right close to God, when stormy times hit.

Three practical things I do when I am struggling. First I put on praise music and start singing my heart out. (Usually I dance too and dancing ALWAYS makes me feel better. Hahaha! A brisk prayer walk with praise music on my ipod/headphones works the same way.) The enemy hates it when we worship the Lord because He knows God inhabits the praises of His people. (See Psalm 22:3.) When we draw near to God, God draws near to us (See James 4:8.) AND that means the enemy exits in a hurry. Yay! Usually while I am worshiping with dance and singing I experience a shift in my thinking and the Lord gives me a new perspective on my life.

The second thing to do is to pray in tongues. In the book of Jude verse 20 it says that we build ourselves up in our faith when we pray in the Spirit. The enemy comes against praying in tongues because he hates it when we start praying in our heavenly language those sweet, spirit-filled prayers! Our prayer language is a powerful weapon we have ready to use at any time.

Thirdly, I read and meditate on the Bible—when I’m struggling I read it more. When we think and meditate and mull over the Word, it washes us and renews our minds to be thinking truth and living in faith and trust and hope—the ways of the Lord. Ephesian 6:17, “Take and use the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God.” We are His children of light and it is His will that we have the Word so much a part of us that we are literally “brainwashed.”  Sometimes a thought creeps in that is ugly, suspicious, negative, or downgrading in some way. I try to ask myself, “Is this from my beautiful, loving Papa God?” If it is not something HE would say, then who is saying it? Ah ha! I smell a rat! The enemy is a sneaky, lying, scheming, and accusing snake that tries to steal, kill, and destroy. (See John 10:10.) Let’s never give him any room in our thoughts and be sure to extinguish his little darts. We crush his head under our heel and quickly raise our faces to the beauty and splendor of the glorious, love-filled eyes of Papa God once again.

Romans chapter eight in my Amplified Bible is a favorite to read when I need to strengthen myself in the Lord. Verse 6 says to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Verse 15 talks about what bliss we enjoy as His adopted sons and daughters, chosen to belong to Him. Verse 31 says, “When God is for us, who can be against us? Verse 35 says, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God.” Verse 37 says, “We are more than conquerors through Him who loves us!”

I also like to dwell on how we are dead to sin and instead we get to enjoy eternal unbroken fellowship with Papa 24/7. (See Romans 6:11 Amp.) Eternity is now! Heaven is on earth right here with us! Whooohoo! The Kingdom of Jesus is right here and now and we can reach out and touch it (Jesus said it is “at hand” right?) and we can enter right in, if we haven’t already.

In Acts we read how God’s people seemed to be drunk. The fullness of the Holy Spirit is right here for you and I to tank up on and enjoy. Don’t let the enemy tell you any different. Papa has everlasting joy for each one of us, no exceptions! My favorite verse of the Bible is in two places. “You show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (See Psalm 16:11 and Acts 2:28.)

Heavenly Father, we come to You and praise You for power and dominion over darkness and for Your joyful presence that makes the enemy flee. We thank You for the privilege of being Your sons and daughters. We love You, Papa! Thank You Papa for giving us victory in the battles of life!

More of the Holy Spirit Filled Life

I had been a Christian for several years when I first heard about becoming “Spirit-filled” and “speaking in tongues”. A friend in college, Glen, who I met at an Inter-varsity Campus Fellowship Meeting, whispered to me, “There’s more!” Glen invited me to a meeting at a Pentecostal Church in San Jose, California. I remember two things, people singing in tongues and the altar call. At the conclusion of the meeting people lined up for prayer and the laying on of hands. One after another people went down—straight backwards! Glen encouraged me to go forward. A skeptic, I replied, “I will NOT go down.” He said, “Oh yes, you will--the Holy Spirit is strong!” Determined to stay on my feet, I went forward for prayer. Sure enough, I went down. I was “slain in the Spirit” against my will. I don’t even remember doing it. Bewildered I sat up and grinned sheepishly at Glen. On the drive home He gave me another challenge—to read Acts and all the verses in the New Testament on the Holy Spirit. Each day I read in my Bible a little more about the Person of the trinity I knew the least about.

My friend Linda and her husband also shared with me they had discovered, “There’s more.” She had a special sparkle about her that was new and she was especially full of joy when she told me how she had gotten a prayer for “the Baptism of the Holy Spirit” and how she and her husband prayed in tongues and how beautiful it was to pray in this spiritual, angelic, heavenly language. She astonished me by letting me know she’d been praying for me that I’d receive the gift too. They led worship with guitar and singing at Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto at their Sunday night Body Life Meeting where many Stanford College students attended. They were asked to leave the worship team because they did not believe in speaking in tongues. She told me they were actually glad because they were free to start helping lead “Spirit-filled worship” at another church.

The summer of 1978 I had completed two years of Canada Community College. I moved into The Birch House in Redwood City owned by a minister who rented out rooms to Christians. I rented the upstairs bedroom for $100 a month and commuted to San Francisco on the train for a clerk-typist job in an insurance company. The train station was two blocks from The Birch House, so that was convenient. As soon as I met Debbie, who rented the room across the hall from mine, she got out her guitar and began to sing a song she wrote and she said “The Holy Spirit fills me as I lead others in worship.” She invited me to a coffee house where Christians fellowshipped called “The Way Inn” where she led a singing and worship time. She introduced me to three guys that looked like hippies and had recently taken over the ministry of “The Way Inn.” (One of whom, would become my husband, Cliff Silliman.)  Debbie said, “They are Spirit-filled-speaking-in-tongues-Jesus-people too.” She said it like it was a normal part of following Jesus in a Christian’s life. They made me want more of the Holy Spirit too.

My younger brother was into using drugs and got into trouble shop-lifting and using drugs. He was put into juvenile hall. We did some family counseling and I remember praying for him a lot during that year I lived at The Birch House. One morning I remained kneeling by my bed after I had finished praying for my brother. I still had such a burden on my heart, but I didn’t have any more words that I hadn’t already prayed. I said to God, “If praying in tongues would help, I would like to receive this gift.”

On a Sunday night a few weeks later, in October 1978, my new friend, Debbie, invited me to go to the Assembly of God Church where Rick Howard would be speaking. He said, “I do not want to major on a minor topic in the Bible, so I only speak on this topic about once a year. Tonight I am teaching on how to receive the gift of tongues.” I knew God was answering my prayer. I felt like the preacher was speaking straight to me!

At the conclusion of his teaching, he said, “Often when you receive the gift of tongues you will have some strange words or syllables in your head. On faith just speak them out and don’t try to reason it out. It is kind of like walking on water. You have to trust the Lord to give you what He promised. If you ask for a loaf of bread, Jesus said, He will not give you a stone. We should come into His Presence expecting to receive. Come into the prayer room if you would like to receive your special prayer language.” When I went inside, there were about ten Christians already kneeling in there praying aloud and some were praying in tongues. I took a spot on the kneeler and Rick Howard began to go around laying his hand on each person’s head and praying for the infilling of the Holy Spirit and to receive the gift of tongues.

I have to back up in my story for a minute and tell you about a park in that area. It was called Gloria Duncan Park. The guys at The Way Inn were joking around about the name one day and said it reminded them of speaking in tongues. In unison said, “Shawn-da-la Bawn-da-la! Snatch-a-banana! Gloria Duncan!” It made us all laugh and was fun to say, so we all said it.

However, It wasn’t funny when I knelt in the line-up in that prayer room seriously seeking to pray in tongues. Sure enough all I could think about was “Shawn-da-la-bawn-da-la.” However, I made up my mind to be brave and just speak it out. As soon as I felt that hand on my head and spoke out those silly sounds, it was like someone had turned on the hose of a fire truck—a torrent of tongues poured out of me! I just kept praying in tongues and praying in tongues and was flooded with the joy of the Holy Spirit. It was so fun and so amazing I didn’t want to stop. Debbie prayed in tongues too and we started singing and praying together as she drove us back to the Birch House. We told everyone how I had gotten the gift of tongues that night. One woman freaked out like we had lost our minds and left to go hang out with her sane friends.

I have shared this testimony many times and have enjoyed the overflowing Presence of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues for 34 years now. What I have learned is that the more we pour out this amazing LIFE and the more we need, the more the Lord gives us. He delights to give us all we need for life in Him, and more, so we freely share with others. What my friends told me back in 1978 is true—THERE’S MORE!