Sunday, December 05, 2004

blind-sided

went to Christian meeting thing on satuday nite 40mins outside dublin in Naas, its run by the guys i have been bible studying with on tuesdays and i was doin my testimony. anyway i got there quite early(it can happen) and went upstairs to pray, in the small room was a guy with downsymdrome who i had met the week before and arrogantly i had judged him as a nobdoy but Jesus had not... He nearly knocked me right out of the room with the power of his prayer, i mean this guy was on FIRE. . the next hour of so was a bit weird, kinda like the world was tilted up and everything that didnt matter kinda slid off into a far corner. Which left Aodhagan(this guys name), the Holy Spirit and me, it all kicked off in a falling around & laughing kinda way, he encouraged me to pray louder in tongues and to take hold of what God has for me... i was definately crappin myself at moments but ultimately totally blessed. reminded me how Big God is and how He loves to show up from the least likely place at the least likely moment.
I then went down to the meeting did my testimony and heard one of the most traditional preaches ever, which kinda wound me up. he was talkin about Lot and the evil of sodom as a parallel as to us and the world of socialising. He was tryin to say lets be positive but set apart, but it all sounded a bit like clubing/bars = wrong, but maybe thats more to do with me than him.
then this morning went to Core church and the guy was all about kingom living in this messy world, which was a bit more up my street. i then went for prayer, the guy prayed for peace and i ended up lying on the ground for about 20mins. just chillin, like i didnt want to move. Not a im in bed and can be arsed getting up. More like "the feeling inside me is so cool i just want to enjoy it not do anything else at all", hard to explain but kinda like being stoned.
which brings me back to another train of thought, are the feelings we can experience through drugs/alcohole/extreme sports/etc a quick or cheap version of what God gives us if we are in totaly unity with Him? or is that totally heresy?

ps new photos of dublin up in photo blog

5 comments:

Heather said...

i want to know what was making you crap yourself...and i definitely think God can make you high but the kind of high that you don't feel bad about or paraniod or guilty afterwards and not a confusing high but a high that actually gives you something that helps you to the next thing or clears up some kind of confusion about yourself or God or others.

miriam said...

hey graham!
i saw your blog address at jonah´s blog. That´s cool! Since now, I´ll read your blog. A big hug from the spaniard miriam!

graham said...

hi miriam and heather and naill,
the reason i was crapping myself was because i am front a tradional church background and i am on a learning curve with all forms of charismata, ie a year or two ago even hearing someone pray in tongues made me "crap myself" but not i am happy to pray and be prayed for in tonuges, so when this guy was laughing really loud with no obvious cause except for the Holy Spirit it made me feel a bit wieird cause im not used to it. in the context of where i am - i have been praying for more of God and i felt that the experience of praying with this guy was an encouragement to reach out and take what God was giving me, not to feel unworthy for His blessings

on the drugs thing i didnt mean to take the analagy too far, ie the obvious negative assosiations with a drug related high - getting paraoid, feeling like crap afterwards. i just meant that the feeling of peace i had was undescribly good and better than any drugs i have taken but the only thing i could liken it to is when you take a big draw of a joint and just stay still for ages. peace g

Heather said...

ok, now i understand. that is so cool that you have been experiencing God in these really cool ways. definitely can understand and can relate.

Graham, I had a layover in Dublin on my way to USA last month (my first time in an Ireland) and now I really, really, really want to go back. I was in the airport for 3 hours and never even went outside the airport but something stole my heart. I think the beautiful countryside and the people in the airport. They were very friendly in a genuine, humble way. I could tell there was something very, very special there.

well, thanks for being a voice from this magical place.

Stevie P said...

thats soo awesome dudepraying for ya...prayer would be appreciated likewise (http://stevepointon.blogspot.com)