Remembering stories

Lately in an attempt to remember my roots, the truth of what God has done in my life, I've been re-listening to the testimony of John Wimber (the founder of the Vineyard movement). It's entitled, "I'm a fool for Christ, who's fool are you?" I'm thoroughly enjoying it, both laughing and sniffing back tears. I think more than his story or the way he articulates simple Biblical truth, or his laid back hilarious manner ... is the intimacy with which he talks about God, it almost sounds too personal, too dichtbij, but it's having quiet the effect on me. I love all his little quips, for example... "one prayer that God always answers, is 'God, what's wrong with me?' " Or, how he had been praying for healing for over a year and finally a woman is healed, and he walks out of her home, looks up at the sky and says, " Yeah God... we got one!" His journey from being raised in a thoroughly un-churched family (for generations) to a personal relationship with Jesus, to falling in love with the church, to encountering the Holy Spirit and starting a new movement of churches is such a gift to us.

I met John just a few times in my life. He died when I was about 18 years old and I still have strong memories of him sitting on a bar chair each Sunday morning and praying simply, "Come Holy Spirit." My brother, sister, and I would at that point put away our coloring books which kept us occupied during the message and sit up to watch the Holy Spirit come. Some people encountered Him in a quiet way, others with tears, others with shaking or laughing, it didn't really matter how He came but that He was thick in the place. And the way John lead the time was without hype or extra craziness, just simple and confident.

We grew up excited to go to church, expectant to see what God would do. Still to this day when it's time to pray for people at the end of a Sunday service, I get this little twist of excitement in my stomach, expectant to see God touch people. Listening to John's testimony brings back my childhood memories, it renews again my love of the greater Church and makes me so thankful that Jesus didn't just promise to return one day in the future but that He left His Holy Spirit with us for the now.