Leaving Beyond – Grounded In Scripture

Written by: April J. Buchanan

They come because they are broken, seeking, searching for something that will help with the pain, the anguish, the panic, the overwhelming and consuming darkness. The last place they have ever wanted to be is in the church among all those perfect people. They are desperate. They have tried everything else. If this does not work, they do not know what else there is.

Many come to churches that promise experiences, claim to hear God speaking to them all the time, claim to have encounters with God, and claim to be able to do deliverance and set people free through encounters and power spoken and flowing from those with special anointing, authority, and power.

The music begins and it drops their guard because it is not much different than a concert, and they are encouraged to seek personal encounters and to come experience God. They feel something, but they are not sure if it is real for them because these people just do not know who they are and what they have done and been through. But they do feel something.

Then the pastor takes to the pulpit and he cracks jokes, lightens the mood, and tells many personal stories. His message is very motivational and inspiring. He claims God gave him that message and that someone there needs that word from God. Could it be? Could God have really spoken to that pastor and given him that message for them? The pastor gives a message that speaks right to the brokenness of that man. It feels personal. While it is somewhat vague, there are certainly parts that feel like they were just for him. He begins to allow himself to think that maybe God really does see him and maybe God really does care for him and maybe He will help him.

Then there is a call to worship and prayer and to seek God personally. He does. But he is still unsure.

Then the pastor pauses and says that God is wanting to do something special for someone today and gives some specific and vague words. He then invites anyone who feels like God has been dealing with their heart to come forward.

He hesitates. He wants to come forward, but he is not sure it is him.

The pastor says, “Do not wait. Do not doubt. If God is dealing with you, come forward now so you do not miss out on what you came for and what He is ready to do for you today.”

He wants so badly to come forward. Could it be? He leans forward, but he is scared to go because what if it is not for him? His heart is going forward but his feet are like lead.

The pastor offers one last call and encourages “prayer warriors” to pray and, if they see someone struggling, to take their hand and bring them forward.

People around him begin raising their hands and shaking and speaking gibberish, and he begins to really feel something. He cannot stand there a second longer. He feels like something is pushing him out of his seat and drawing him forward, though no one is touching him. He wonders if that is God. Maybe God is drawing him forward.

He goes. He is crying. He is concerned that maybe it is not for him, as much as he wants it to be and needs this so badly.

The pastor walks along the front of all who have come forward. Catchers gather behind them. The pastor calls prayer warriors to gather around them and invite the Holy Spirit and stir up the atmosphere so the Holy Spirit will move among them. The pastor says, “Do you feel that? That is God. He is here.”

The singers sing louder. The worshippers worship louder. There is shouting, weeping, shaking, people speaking some kind of gibberish, and the intensity rises. Something must be about to happen. This is it. This is what he needed. He wants whatever God is about to do. He needs whatever this is. He wants to believe that God loves him and will accept him and help him out of this dark place.

The pastor begins speaking over different people and they shake and fall back. As the pastor moves toward him, he feels an intensity and heat rise within him. He is crying now. He is shaking now. He wants whatever that is. The pastor comes to him and speaks a word over him that feels so personal, as though God has not cast him away and as though God truly does see him and cares for him. He is overwhelmed. He is sobbing now.

The pastor leans in to his ear and whispers to him a personal word. Then he leans back and says, “That is it. That is the power of God all over you. God has highlighted you. He sees your hurt, and He is going to use you mightily. Surrender. Surrender to Him now. Do not hold back.” The man begins to shake harder and cry harder.

The pastor asks if he has ever spoken in tongues. The man says no.

He says, “Well, today is your day.”

He leads him to begin to speak whatever comes to his tongue, even if it sounds foolish. After a few promptings, he does. The pastor says, “That is it. He has got it. He has just received the baptism in the Spirit. Come on, church. Celebrate.”

Singing and dancing and shouting ensue.

The pastor comes back to him and speaks another word over him, and he feels so special. God has highlighted him. God has come to him. The pastor says, “Today God has set you apart. He is all over you.” The man weeps all the more.

The pastor invites prayer warriors to pray harder and musicians to play certain keys and all to join in singing repetitive lyrics so as to invite the Spirit’s work and to witness what He is doing. He then raises his hand over the man’s head. The anticipation in him and all around building. The man remembers how others went down following this same movement, and he wants it. He wants to feel that kind of power from God and that kind of love from God. He feels a rush within him. He weeps. Then the pastor speaks with power. The next thing the man knows, he is gently lowered to the ground by catchers. He is weeping and smiling and praising God.

Later, when he feels like he should get up, he does and is love bombed by many eager to make him feel welcome. His experience has helped validate their own beliefs as their highs have become lows and they have been struggling. They needed his experience to reignite their own.

He had such a different understanding of church and Christians. He will be back for this. This is not what he expected at all. He does feel lighter. He feels like he is on a high, and he does not want to come down from it. He is all in. He needs to maintain that high. He wants everyone to “come experience what God is doing in that place.”

And this is why so many sincere, hurting people become convinced they have encountered God when, in reality, they have encountered something else. They are not necessarily insincere. They are hurting people who desperately long to know that God sees them, loves them, and has not abandoned them. They interpret what they have experienced as the work of God because that is exactly what they have been told they are experiencing. They are led into experiences and not to the true and saving Gospel.

Many broken people go looking and find what promises encounters, experiences, and deliverance, and they find many churches offering counterfeits. Everything was built around them having an experience.

The true work of the Spirit is ordinarily by means of the Gospel rightly proclaimed and the Word of God faithfully opened and exposited. He works through the means He Himself has appointed. Do men have true experiences by such means? Yes. But they are not the superficial and counterfeit experiences of so many today.

The Holy Spirit works in the hearts of men by the Word rightly proclaimed, and men who come broken may hear the true and saving Gospel and be made alive in Christ, whereby they experience true deliverance, true power, and true regeneration. They may or may not weep. They may or may not feel something in that moment. But where the Spirit works in regeneration, He brings life, hope, and peace. There will be evidence.

Such men may not be able to look on a calendar and point to an experience to mark the day they were saved. But they may, in time, be able to say, “Over these last months I have come to hear the Gospel, believe, repent, and I can see the evidence of God’s grace and mercy whereby He has saved me and He is working in me. He has delivered me, and He has saved me. What more could I ask? I want to know Him more, so I shall continue to study His Word and know Him as He has made Himself known to men. And when I am weak, I shall remember Christ, who He is and what He has done. He is enough. I will trust not in feelings, impressions, or experiences, but in Christ who is faithful and has promised in His Word. I will trust in Him and Him alone. For the truth remains when all else is so fleeting.”

Christ, my Lord, my God, my Savior. My hope and my salvation. To Him be the glory, the honor, and the praise. Evermore. Evermore.