Come on, fall over!
Last night I decided I was going to go to the church service for the first time in a while, but found out that our church had cancelled the evening service so people could go to hear this guest speaker from interstate at one of the Pentecostal churches. I went along because I was pleased that we 'Baptists'* were going to a church that has previously been seen as some kind of opponent.
Anyway. At the end of the service, I went up the front to be prayed for, and the guest speaker pushed me over. Because I had my hands in the air and my head back, he got me off balance. I probably could have got my balance back and stopped him from pushing me over, but I didn't really want to resist him for some reason. I didn't want to make a fuss.
For anyone who is a bit confused as to why this guy would be pushing people over in church, it's something that happens sometimes or a lot in some - probably not all - pentecostal churches. I think it's supposed to be that the Holy Spirit knocks you down, and I don't doubt that it could be real sometimes.
However, the guy had been saying in his sermon that If you claim that God told you something, when you just made it up, then that is blasphemy (and I agree). Therefore, wouldn't pushing someone over and pretending it's the Holy Spirit doing it be just as blasphemous?
*I don't actually consider myself to be a Baptist.
8 comments:
I don't think I'm really a church-goer either. I go to church services every now and then, but I don't usually find them very helpful. The main expression of Christain community I'm part of is just a small group of people. We normally meet at my house on Tuesday nights to read the scriptures, discuss different things, pray for each other, connect with God, support each other in our spiritual journeys and eat stuff.
Oh yeah, I was talking to Tab before, and she said he put his hands on her throat and tried to push her over, but she wouldn't let him.
Also, I was thinking, when pastors who push people over need to be pushed over themselves, who gets to push them over?
Another thing I've been thinking about (more seriously this time): If someone comes to a church service for the first time, they go down the front to be prayed for and someone pushes them over, claiming that it's the Holy Spirit, they're probably not going to trust anything they've seen and heard during the service.
I have been prayed for at meetings like that and I put one foot back so they can't push me over. God doesn't need any help if He wants people to hit the ground. (I have also had the opposite happen, i.e. if the person praying for me had not be holding me, I would have fallen over.)
Consider John 18:6, with the statement "I am He", those who had come to arrest Jesus fell to the ground!
What I don't understand is...why would the Holy Spirit *want* to knock anyone down? What would be the point? Jesus called him a Counselor, not a David Copperfield.
Christop, I think the answer to the final question in your post is "yes."
I don't really know. Anyone know if there are any other references in the scriptures to people just falling over?
You probably won't read this cos you wrote this back in 2005... but anyways...
How do you know it WASN'T the Holy Spirit?
Because it was a preacher pushing me over with his hand.
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