Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 5:18-21).

A few weekends ago, my wife and I attended a Charismatic seminar.  During the entire day, everyone sang praise songs and worshiped the Living God. The speaker spoke about the freedom and deliverance that Jesus’ death and resurrection gives us.  It was a spirit-filled weekend and many people were delivered from things they struggled with and things that kept them from having a relationship with the Lord.

When the conference was over, people were praying for another and the worship team was still singing praise songs.  Struck by the Spirit, I sang and danced in joy beyond joy in the Lord, more joy than I had in a long time.  Definitely, the power of the Holy Spirit had descended in the room.

What happened next was something that I would never forget.  Not only had the power of the Holy Spirit descended into the room, the Lord, the God of our relationships, connected me with someone there.  The person just began to dance and sing praise too!  He began to laugh in the joy of the Almighty God.  The laughter connected my spirit with his.  And, when he kept on laughing, I told him, “You are drunk with the Spirit.”  He smiled and kept on laughing.  I laugh too because the presence overtook the two of us.  And, in that joy, we continued to sing praise songs and worship the Lord.  At one point I was singing tongues.  We both praised the Lord.

Having reflected on the events that happened a few weeks ago, Ephesians 5:18-21 came to my mind and illuminated.  It is only through the Holy Spirit that such a connection can be made with another person on such a deep and profound level.  When we meet people, there are guardrails that we have to protect ourselves, protect ourselves until we know them better.  In this instance, there was nothing really protecting either of us as we were laid ourselves bare before the Lord, bringing everything to His presence and as a result of that openness to the Lord, we somehow opened to each other in the Spirit.

Have you ever had an experience where the Holy Spirit connected to you to another brother or sister in the spirit?

Copyright 2012 by Christenstein

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his for my my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:39)

Last night, my wife and I were reflecting on the scriptures and going through a Bible study.  One of the questions asked us if we found it difficult to believe in God’s promises and whether we truly believe that God is compassionate, gracious, and slow to anger.  When we both went through these questions, we just looked at each other in the eyes and at that moment, the Holy Spirit spoke to us both, reaffirming to us that God kept His promise of marriage (He told us to marry each other) through each of us and through that promise, during the past about one and a half years, showed us His Son – we both became more compassionate, gracious, and slower to anger.  And, at that moment, we both realized that we see Jesus in each other.

Imagine that – seeing Jesus in each other and knowing what a living sacrifice and example of Christ we both had become to each other.  We both took a risk in marriage.  We knew each other for only a few months when God told us that are married.  In this world, people would like to believe that a person chooses his or her own spouse and that God does not directly tell us who we should or should not marry.  But God did tell us and also told us the date.  So, we got married (but then, God already knew we were married because He joins us (marriage is His doing), so to God we were married).  

And, the verse above struck me.  I was not trying to find my life, find my way, or to find my spouse.  I did not rely on my own thoughts and judgments regarding marriage.  I relied on God Himself and what He told me. My wife relied on God Himself and what He told her.  We never proposed to each other.  We just knew by divine revelation who we were to each other.  It was not about my life, my choices, and the way that I wanted it, but His ways, His choices, and the ways that He wants it. We both, by marrying each other, have given up our lives as living sacrifices to the Almighty God for His sake.  After all, all we had relied on for our marriage was God speaking to us – His words and will for our lives.

And, having said this, given the flaws that we both have, the flaws that we both carried, it was amazing to see how much we both have grown in Christ together.  And, having given up our choices, given up being captain of our own ship, we have come to see more of Christ and grown more in Christ than we would have had if we were choosing our way.  

By giving up our decisions to Him, we have gained life abundance!

And, praise the Lord for that!