Early in our marriage my wife wanted to go to a church where she thought I would like the pastor. I didn’t want to go, because it was a charismatic church. But, it was early in our marriage, and I had to pick which things to argue about. So there we were. Some strange things were happening, but I was mostly able to ignore them and enjoy the good preaching and fellowship.

I grew up thinking miracles ended with the early church. The pursuit of miracles were for people who didn’t have the maturity to follow Jesus without being entertained. We would treat passages about spiritual things like we treated genealogies: we would skip them, not because we were opposed, just because they were irrelevant today.

My world began to change drastically when my childhood friend Mike came into town. He accepted Jesus in our house in elementary school, and now God had sent him back to me to introduce me to the Holy Spirit. Mike told stories of his ministry travelling the globe preaching the gospel, healing the sick and prophesying. The healing stories had the most impact on me. How could I not believe my childhood best friend? I adjusted my theology to include God still doing miracles in places where the gospel was being preached for the first time. That opened a crack in my armor through which God intended to enter.

Four days later, a “prophet” was visiting our church. Heather wanted to stay after church for his session. I reminded her that we already had plans to clean up our basement. She implored me, “But what if God is here?” and I responded in a tone I’m not proud of, “God is in the basement too, honey.” Anyway, early marriage, so we stayed.

I had no concept of God speaking. I thought loving God meant obeying him, and a “personal relationship” with God meant really obeying him. Accepting Jesus into my heart meant obeying him from the heart. The Word of the Lord was completely encapsulated in the Bible. I was not about to trust a modern day prophet.

He taught a little on prophecy and then started giving words. The accuracy was remarkable for someone who had just flown in and knew none of us. I was quite involved in church and realized that this man knew things about my friends that shouldn’t be possible. Interesting, but not life-changing. Just something to ponder later.

(to be continued)