REVIVAL IN LEICESTER (19) - THE ROLLING HOLY SPIRIT

As a writer, I’d hope to come up with a better description than ‘rolling’, but I think it’s the best I can do…. We have a ‘rolling’ Holy Spirit!

Let me explain what I mean….

 

I’ve noticed it a few times now, but it was most obvious at our Revival Prayer meeting on Tuesday night. The presence of the Holy Spirit was such that the majority of us were on the floor, weighed down by the Spirit’s presence. But I got up and sat down for a while – which meant I was able to observe what then happened.

Starting at the far side of the auditorium, the Holy Spirit started to roll over the people. On the far side, many began to groan in the Spirit, others cried out, some shook, or rolled on the floor. And as I watched, I saw the Holy Spirit move over the congregation. From the far side to the middle. From the middle to the near side. Each time, the effect of the Spirit was for those feeling God’s presence to cry out, groan, laugh or shake.

And then I observed the same thing happen in reverse. The Holy Spirit began to move over the room from the near side to the far side with a repeat of the effects.

Something similar is recorded in the Charles Finney meetings of the mid-1800s. And earlier still in the Methodist Circuit Revivals in ‘Wild West’ America. Here’s a quote from an onlooker at the 1801 Cane Ridge Revival:

At one time I saw at least 500 swept down in a moment, as if a battery of a thousand guns had been opened upon them, and there immediately followed shrieks and shouts that rent the very heavens.

I love that we are experiencing revival. Many healings. Many salvations – 80 or so in the last two months in our meetings alone.

A dear friend who was part of the Pensacola revival in the mid-1990s commented that what she is witnessing at Leicester is the first time she has seen a Holy Spirit move in a similar way to Pensacola in the 25+ years she has been in the UK.

Reflections

The first picture is the view from my sister’s holiday house. We are frequent visitors and the seat by the window with this view is my favourite place to sit.

The second picture is the view from our kitchen. Most days I start by sitting and looking at the beauty of God’s creation with this view in front of me.

Starting right is important. A time of reflection at the beginning of the day. Thinking through the day before us, looking to the day ahead.

For me as a Christian, it involves a short study from the Bible and some prayer. But whether you have a faith or not, a time of reflection is a good start to any day. I appreciate it’s easier for me nowadays with the kids away from home, but even five minutes reflection will help with the day ahead and bring context to the daily pressures of life.

And last thing at night too- just to be able to look back at the day, maybe to say a prayer of thanksgiving for another day. I reflect in a different way too – I keep a daily diary. And that’s the other rather boring looking photo here – I started writing a daily diary at Christmas 1977, when someone bought me one as a Christmas present. I thought I’d give it a go – I’m still giving it a go.

Diary writing, or an occasional piece in a journal, helps in the same way as a morning reflection – it gives time to consider the day, to record thoughts, thanks, anxieties, prayers, hopes and dreams. It takes us away from a cycle of work, sleep, TV and smartphones to an age-old tradition of crafted words, sentences that reach out beyond the daily rhythm of life.

And that leads to this blog. Just another way of recording and reflection – this one a bit more public. I started the blog when Elspeth, our oldest daughter, got married. It seemed a bit of a watershed moment. And it practically coincided with my 50^th birthday. Hence the 50 in the blog address. Seventeen years later – I’m still giving it a go.

So why not give it a go too? Reflect on the day. If you’re a Christian, pray and thank God for the day ahead and the day ended. If you don’t have a faith, why not try praying anyway? Or perhaps start that journal you always thought you should write.

My blog calls it climbing the mountains of life. The writer Eugene Peterson calls it a ‘long obedience in the same direction’. Our walk of life can mean so much more when we take time to reflect, to adjust course, to record, to say ‘thank you’ to the God who created the view, the day…. the years.

One Thousand Snowflakes

I don’t have the answers. But nor do the Government. On a day when lives are declared unimportant with the new deportation rules, I have ventured into poetry….. be kind!

 

One thousand snowflakes fell today. I didn’t count them, but they were there.

One thousand migrants landed today.* I didn’t count them but they were there.

We discuss the weather, talk of a cold start. We ignore the migrants, talk of a cold heart.

Closed gates. Closed doors. New rules. No choice.

Having risked everything, they are lost. Lost in a system that values politics before life. Lost in a broken world that talks of snow in March. And hides its eyes to the melting lives of a desperate people.

No surprise.

 

*The actual number of migrants detected landing in small boats in January was 1180.