So What’s Been Going on with God and Me Lately?

Hmmm…. So where exactly has gay aflame been lately?  All 25 of you who have viewed my posts in the last few days may be asking this.  To be honest, gayaflame has been having an awesome time in God!  I’ve also been busy learning to be a dutiful husband by helping my hon do stuff around his yard.  In addition, I’ve been on and off leading a little charismatic bible study around the oxford area, seeing signs, miracles, and wonders, experiencing angelic visitations, and encountering the manifest presence of God.   That may sound like I’m making light of it, but in truth, God has been doing some definitely amazing things.  So whether sweating in the yard or seeing the Glory, life has actually been very good lately.

Oh, where to begin?

If you’ve read any of my previous posts before this one, you probably have figured out I’m into the manfiest power of God.  One sad, sad truth about Christianity today is that we fail often to preach the gospel with power.  Just a few scripture references are the following:

“For the Kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.” 1 Corinthians 4:20

“And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of  God….” 1 Corinthians 2:4

I find it interesting that the scripture specifically says the Kingdom is not in word, but many times the only way we release the gospel is through preaching.  That’s not to say that preaching is weak–Paul says God chose to save the world through it (1 Corinthians 1:21).  However, the preaching done by the Apostle Paul is far different from what is typically taught in the church today.  Paul says that he preached with the “demonstration of the Spirit and power.”  In other words, he didn’t just tell people about the power of Christ, he showed them.

We see this confirmed elsewhere in the Apostle Paul’s writings, lest anyone think I’m misinterpreting the Word here.  In Romans 15:18-19 we read: “For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.”   To me, preaching “through mighty signs and wonders” sounds very much like “the demonstration of the Spirit and power.”

These verses are a major part of my experience with God right now.  I just can’t justify teaching about and believing in a God that never bothers showing up.  If one watches most of what comes out of Hollywood these days about God, one major theme that always plays out is whether God is even there or not.  Most of the time–at least as far as I’ve watched–the question is left open but at least one thing unexplainable happens, as if to hint towards God’s existence.  It seems even that God is pleased at men having to grope about and wonder if He’s even there.  Sadly, this is so far from the truth biblically.

What did Paul write above?  That he preached with the demonstration of the Spirit and Power “that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”  “Heresy!” some would cry.  But it’s in the Holy Scriptures as plain as anything else written there.  Long story short, we preach a real God.  God never intended for us as believers to “guess” if He was real or not.

At any rate, this message sort of sums up a major component of my spiritual belief system right now.  If I seem overly zealous or arrogant, I do not mean to be.  I just really yearn to see a Christian people that really express Christ, being His hands and His feet.  How can we validate to the world that we have anything real when we hardly ever have the Spirit of God come to our meetings and demonstrate who He is?  He is so real and so wonderful, so sweet, tender, and powerful.  I would rather leave this world tonight as I write this than live the rest of a long, full live with all the pleasures the world could offer away from His precious, Holy Spirit, my best friend.  Nothing is worth Him.

So what has my friend, the Holy Spirit, been doing for me lately?  A lot–teaching me, training me, comforting me, and visiting me in the mornings.  Lately he has been opening my eyes into the spiritual realm and I’ve been seeing beings there–angels and, yes, even demons.  I prefer the angels much, much more.  I’ve been moving much more in the revelatory gifts than the power gifts lately.  I’ve been having dreams aplenty, visions, trips in the Holy Spirit to heaven and other parts of the spirit realm.  This is something I’ve yearned for for so long, and it is so refreshing and curious to be happening now.

Long story short, a few months ago God told me to discontinue public outreach and return the bible study to my family–my spouse, his father and mother.  God had shown up mightily in public.  A friend and I out “treasure hunting” together (asking the Holy Spirit to lead us to people to minister to) came across a woman in Wal-Mart and prayed for her, seeing two years of chronic pain from a car wreck dissolve in seconds.  It was amazing!  But that all turned off.  I wasn’t seeing anyone healed and, to be honest, I wasn’t hearing from God much.  It was time for me to learn obedience.

There have been things in the past I have ignored God on–not intentionally, mind you.  The Lord, however, took this opportunity to remind me of one.  I had ignored his instruction to bring back home this bible study that was experiencing such blessing in the wealth of supernatural outpouring–finding people most times “treasure hunting,” giving prophetic words that were accurate over strangers, and seeing people I didn’t even know until a moment before healed.  I had even “seen” in a vision that the anointing being poured out was specifically for me family, not those tasting of it.  However, I was so thrilled just to see God coming…. Then, judgment.

No one died, but God did deactivate the gift I held most precious–the healing anointing over arhtritis and physical pain.  At one point, I saw a 100% healing rate in prayer for the first time in my life.  It seemed anyone with physical pain I prayed for would receive a noticeable difference in that pain level after prayer, and if I continued on praying, it would disappear completely.  I loved it–people were touched, I felt close to and blessed by God.   Then it all stopped and Jesus began His work.  During this time, the Lord began to deal with my heart.  I had put so much emphasis on healing that I ignored the prophetic gifts–seeing and hearing from the Lord both in revelation and in things to come.  That was one of the first things the Lord dealt with.

 In honesty, this post is already–again–way longer than I wanted it.  I will be adding updates as time goes along.  Continuing on with my story quickly, however, let me just say that I got that area right with God.  I then, after several weeks of nudging by the Holy Spirit, began teaching a bible study with the family.  The first area the Lord hit was strife and relationships among our members.  Then the Lord took us into blessing and cursing, and speaking words of prosperity, health, and healing over each other.  All this time, manifestation were beginning to take place in small ways when this week God showed up majorly….

In a matter of 10 days, we as a family have experienced 7 miracles of financial supply.  Long story short, my spouse’s brother’s house sold (finally), my spouse’s son got a job we’ve been believing for, his father and mother experienced two instances of unexpected income, we got a large, unexpected check in the mail, my spouse got 27 hours back overtime from work he’d been trying to get for months to no avail, and I–last of all–logged on to check a credit card only to be told no payment was due this month.  This all happened in a very short period after we, as a family, obeyed a word from the Lord wholeheartedly and just began blessing each other.  In all honesty, I’m amazed.  God didn’t tell me this was coming–at least not directly–and I wasn’t actively believing and “claiming” for this happen.  We just obeyed and look what He poured out!  He truly is awesome.

At any rate, peace to all who read this in Christ Jesus, Our Lord.