Experiencing God: Feel the Heat

I’ve been thinking a lot about the different ways I experience God, and I thought it would be good to write about it…to share the ways God can (and is) tangible to us.  I will preface by saying, I was raised in the church, a traditional United MethodistChurch, which is to say, we didn’t really talk about how we might “feel” God.  We believe God is real. We believe in the traditional doctrines (you can get a sense of those from the Apostle’sCreed).  We believe Christians are to live their faith and to become more like Christ as they do that.  And, in practice, we were “reverent” (read: quiet, well-mannered, didn’t clap in worship, didn’t speak out of turn, etc).  And in that tradition, my faith grew. I learned the stories of the Bible. I learned to care for others (even if I didn’t like them). I learned generosity. I learned selflessness.  I learned to pray.  And I learned to have a “thinking faith” where it was ok to ask questions, to have doubts, and to explore the historicity of the Bible and how that converges with faith.  

But what I didn’t really learn is how you “feel” God.  I think the closest tangible expression of God that I might have asserted is feeling peace in difficult circumstances.  But as I grew and developed in life and in faith, I started to learn that there were other ways, tangible ways, we could experience God.  God wasn’t just in our head or our hearts, but God is also around us in the form of the Holy Spirit and can be felt. 

The first time I remember experiencing this was at Santa Paula UMC.  It was a bilingual congregation and my brother (a UM pastor) had been asked to preach.  He had some Spanish, but not really enough to do a full sermon. So, he asked me to do the translation since I had just finished a full year of study abroad and came back bilingual.  Before the service, our mom came and talked with us and offered to pray for us.  She put a hand on each of us and began to pray…and her hands were hot on our backs/shoulders.  She wasn’t feverish, and to touch her hands in general, she wasn’t hot, but as she prayed, heat transferred to us. And I understood that heat to be the presence of the Holy Spirit. God could be felt…tangibly, physically. 

It was a small thing, heat during a prayer, but it became a big deal…an entry point for the other ways God would become manifest in me and in others confirming the power and presence of the Living God. 

The Power of Prayer

Over the years (I'm nearing the completion of my fifth year here), we have done a lot with prayer in worship and in workshops at my church, Wesley United Methodist Church.  We have learned about healing prayer, talked about asking the Spirit to be a part of our prayers, and also talked about using blankets, or handkerchiefs, or even teddy bears to be the bearers of our prayers.  Once or twice, we have talked about standing in someone's place when we are unable to pray with them face to face.  

This last Sunday during worship, we had only a few prayer requests shared aloud.  Two were praises with hope for continued prayer and one was for a teenage boy struck by a severe illness called Stevens-Johnson syndrome. 

When it came time for prayer, I thought, we should pray specifically and intently for this young man.  So I called up the person who shared the concern and asked him to stand in the boy's place.  I also invited up anyone who wanted to lay on hands.  And invited others to lift their hands (or leave their hands down, whatever their preference) as we prayed for this boy.  

I prayed aloud and led us, but could hear others who had come forward uttering their own prayers for healing.  It was powerful and as I prayed, I could feel the stand-in begin to tremble.  I've been experiencing the charismatic side of faith for nearly a decade, so I knew not to worry, assured that the Spirit was at work.  After I finished I looked around the congregation and saw many wiping the tears from their eyes. It was truly powerful.

What was more powerful was what was shared later by the stand-in. He had gone that afternoon to see the boy and had shared what happened during church and that we were praying for peace and complete healing.  Then he prayed with the boy and said that as he did he could feel the Spirit of God pass from him to the boy.  

Since Sunday we have received a couple of updates and praise reports.  1) The boy's eyesight, which was at high risk, has been spared.  2) He was able to come off the breathing tube and was able to speak some.

I am grateful to be part of this type of church, one that prays, one that cares, one that is willing to let the Spirit move.  They have always been faithful and prayerful, but not always ready to be a part of the charismatic side of church.  But it is powerful (and affirming) to see God work in these ways.