Monday, July 31, 2017

Missing the Boat

I became a Christian in the early 1970s. It was an amazing time to be a follower of Jesus. The Holy Spirit was moving in amazing ways. People were coming to faith all over the place, in the oddest ways. Demons were being cast out and people were being set free. We went to conferences where people were being healed. The worship was amazing. There were no worship leaders cavorting on the stage, but the presence of God was so strong, you could hardly stand.

Our generation’s experience of the Holy Spirit in the 70s and early 80s was unprecedented. A few heroes in earlier generations had greater intensity, but not the widespread move we experienced. It was like the Spirit was “poured out on all flesh”.

Yet looking back to that time, it feels like our generation has missed the boat somewhere. This generation received so much, but we do not have as much to show for it as we should. The church is stultified and the culture is going down the gurgler. That is not what I would have expected following such an amazing move of the Holy Spirit.

Much is expected from those to whom much is given. Something must have gone wrong.

2 comments:

  1. August2:52 am

    It is hard for those of younger, who have seen your generation destroy, to believe that the spirit that moved in the 70s was in any way holy.

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  2. Anonymous7:50 am

    Well said. It appears to me that everyone developed preconceived notions about what a move of the Holy Spirit looks like. Much of today's Christianity is a warmed-over 1970s folk religion because most people think a move of the Spirit has to look and sound like the '70s. Basically the '70s have hardened into tradition. I have seen so many people who are absolutely blind and deaf to what God is trying to do, because they can't imagine him doing anything that wasn't redolent of the '70s.

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