I am going to wrap up these last few blogs on the Holy Spirit by relating an experience that happened to me over twenty years ago.  Back in the early 1990’s I had the opportunity to travel to Kenya for a forty day mission trip. It was basically a trip to strengthen churches in Nairobi, Mombasa, and Nakuru, as well as other small towns.  Our small group didn’t do any construction, medical work or other activities, but we were able to preach, teach, and give testimonies in all sorts of venues and occasions. Aside from preaching and teaching on weekends in different churches, I had the opportunity to also speak in movie houses and parks during lunch hours.  It was during one of the lunchtime services I wish to elaborate on in this blog.

In Nakuru there was a park in the middle of town and the church regularly held noontime services as an outreach to the community.  As you can imagine, the crowds there varied from service to service.  On this occasion a group of over 100 people showed up for the noon gathering.  Everyone present from the church walked around the park inviting people to come for the service.  The church also brought a small P.A. system and a few instruments to sing songs to help attract a crowd.  I noticed several people laying on their stomachs under the trees.  I was told these were the hungry who had been looking for work.  Since they couldn’t find work that day, they were sleeping in the park on their stomachs to help quell their hunger.

I was the guest speaker on this occasion.  That should have been enough to attract some folk’s attention.  I probably was the whitest preacher from America with the funniest accent they were ever going to encounter.  At this time, I had been in the country over thirty days and had grown accustomed to speaking with an interpreter.  Also, I was beginning to understand which messages to share and which illustrations to use in order to minister to people.  We sang several songs and I began to share.  From all appearances everything was “normal”.  At the end of every service I would turn the service over to a local pastor.  I did the same after this service.  Several people came forward and  some gave their lives to the Lord and a few made other decisions.

While I was standing up front listening to the pastor with my back towards the crowd… I heard the sound of a galloping horse, bull, or water buffalo.  What was galloping towards us, I did not know.  At the time I wasn’t even sure if anyone else heard it.  Because I wanted to know what it was, I turned towards the crowd to detect what was going on behind me.  I looked and looked but couldn’t see anything….but the sound was getting closer.  The galloping came right into the crowd but no one seemed to care or even be aware.  I know all this sounds crazy.  It is one of the reasons I don’t share this story very often.  But I knew I was hearing the sound of a galloping animal coming into the crowd.

All of sudden the galloping turned into a crash!  The galloping horse, bull or whatever ran straight into and over a young Kenyan girl.  She immediately hit the ground with a thud.  It was like a sack of potatoes had fallen off a ten story building.  She was just six to eight feet away from me.  She laid there like someone shot or clubbed her.  Fortunately, some of the ladies in the church gathered around her and started fanning her as if she had fainted.  In fact, as the minutes passed, several of the ladies tried to stir her, all to no avail.  She continued to lay there like a corpse as the service broke up.

As time continued to pass, I heard some of the people who spoke English talk about the “galloping” right before the girl went down.  Now, at least I knew I wasn’t hearing things.  The conclusion everyone was drawing was this young lady had been slain in the spirit.  I had seen such activity before… but not in services I’d held.  I’m not against it or anything… at the time I just didn’t normally see such events.  This young lady’s experience was not like what you might have seen on t.v..  The people I had seen on t.v. barely even went down.  Still after about 20-25 minutes the people were still trying to wake this young lady.  Finally, I could see in her eyes…she was still groggy and wasn’t sure where she was or what was going on around her.

Some have asked me what I thought of the whole situation.  Because I wasn’t able to talk to her after, I don’t know what really happened to this young lady physically or spiritually.  Some would easily write the whole thing off as a coincident.  I didn’t.  I felt then and I still do now, the Lord was moving.  It might surprise you to know all I could think about was … I wanted to be her.  I wanted the Holy Spirit to come galloping across some park and run me down like a Mack truck.  I didn’t care if I was in some foreign country or at home in the U.S.A..  I didn’t care if anyone was watching. I just wanted to be taken out by God and wake-up never being the same.  Here I was preaching some “important” message and the Holy Spirit came head hunting for one lone Kenyan girl.  I am sure He knew what He was doing… but I desperately wanted to be her in that moment.

My whole point for sharing this story is to remind believers that we all should be ready in the blink-of-an-eye for the Lord to move, even in unusual ways.  We never truly know just what the Lord is going to do in any given situation.  We quietly go about our business, even sometimes spiritual business and the Lord is just about to break into our world with a visitation.  I do believe we should desperately desire Him to do more and be more in our lives.  There have been other occasions when the Lord showed up when I least expected Him.  I was just as shocked on those occasions as I was in this one.  Not everyone needs to be run down by a wild, galloping invisible force… but I do believe we need to be touched from time to time. I don’t think the Lord ever intended us to travel this life without Him visiting us and giving us just what we need in those moments.

If you are saying to yourself…”The Lord has never touched or visited me,” well that just may be the issue.  You are neither believing or expecting the Lord to move in your life in any supernatural way.  You just may have relegated the Lord to the quiet recesses of your life and never really expected Him to show up in any way.  When the Lord does show up, you don’t even believe it is Him.  It is sad when all we read about is “what God did long ago in history past” and never hear stories about “what God is doing in the here and now“.  I know I have grown tired of reading about what God did years ago in revivals past.    Praise God He moved back then.  But, what I really want to see and experience is God moving today.

Let me encourage you to seek the Lord anew.  Give the Lord permission to move in your life anyway He sees fit.  And if you are hearing the sound of a galloping horse coming up behind you… get ready!  Your time of visitation might be at hand.

Blessings,

Pastor