Wednesday Night Wonder

"Everyone was excited and confused. Some of them even kept asking each other, 'What does all this mean?'" Acts 2:12, Contemporary English Version

Last week at The Focus, the youth church held on Wednesday nights at Refuge, something out of the ordinary happened. It's not the first time that our mid-week gathering has taken an unexpected turn  (see, for example, my post from March 22 of this year entitled, "What does this mean?") but the fact that it did makes it no less memorable. In fact, when things transpire in such an unusual way it should make those of us who attend Focus regularly to sit up and, at the very least, ask, "What gives?"

Here's what happened. It had been a pretty normal night at Focus. Kayla and team had led worship for maybe 40 minutes or so. Some of those gathered were purposeful in their worship. Some were (as far as I could tell) just sitting there while others were using the "down" time to catch up with their fellow...er...Foculusians. Like I said, it was a pretty normal Wednesday night. After worship we circled up at the front of the sanctuary and shared announcements, God-stories from the week past and prayer requests. Trisha shared a prayer request for a friend of hers I'll just call Jane. (Anyone who was there and reads this will know who I am talking about. I only change her name because people are always in process and making pronouncements about a person who hasn't "gone public" themselves is always an act that teeters on presumption. But it's such a good story, I'm going to forge ahead anyway). Jane and her family have been going through a very difficult year or so. Her dad is battling cancer and has already exceeded his doctor's expectations for his lifespan. But that doesn't make it any easier to bear for a young woman who loves her father and has already lost her mother. In any case, Trisha had bumped into her the night before at a basketball game and they had ended up talking together. At the end of the conversation, Trish invited Jane to Focus. That was the long and short of it. We had moved on to other requests and the like when Trish received a text from Jane informing her that she was, in fact, on her way to group as we speak. Cool coincidence, right?

A modern day "high place"

The weekend before, Troy had taken a car-load of kids from Focus down to the International House of Prayre in Kansas City, MO, just to "soak" in the prayer room as the saying goes. The plan of the evening was to have these kids share a sample of their experiences with the group. While they were down south they encountered God in various ways. One fell down in the presence of the Lord during ministry time (apparently more than once). One received a dramatic healing. A few were used to pray for someone suffering from asthma and God touched that person in a demonstrative way and healed them. One experienced the joy of the Lord in the manner that the "King James'" folk describe as "joy unspeakable and full of glory." And one smelled unusual and beautiful aromas in different settings the end result of which was to heighten their hunger for the Lord. Jane showed up about 10 minutes into the story-telling time. We paused and welcomed her and the sharing continued unabatedly like popcorn kernels going off for another 20 minutes or so. I think to the unitiated it would have all sounded very weird but given that many of these same kids have made the trip down to KC for one event or another over the last several years it sounded "typical" KC/IHOP: God shows up and people fall down or shake, rattle and roll and return from the high place like Saul among the prophets. If Jane was weirded out or perplexed by the sharing her body language didn't giver her away. She sat and listened politely to the stories like everyone else.

When it was clear that the sharing had pretty much run its course, I felt it would be appropriate to summarize Acts 2:1-21. For those of us from Pentecostal/Charismatic circles, its familiar territory. The disciples were waiting on God during an important feast of the Jews and while they were waiting He shows up in wind and fire. They are so filled with the Spirit that their behavior defies reasonable explanation. In fact, to some who gather their only grid for understanding what's going on is to conclude that they must have started pretty early in the morning to go on a bender. But there are others who raise the more sensible question, "What is the meaning of all this?" Peter seizes the moment and with an unfamiliar boldness proclaims that what they are all witnessing is, in fact, Scripture being fulfilled. The last days have begun just as God had said they would by pouring out his Spirit on everyone - young and old, men and women, rich and poor, Jewish and Gentile - and now is the day of salvation. It seemed logical then that just as Peter and the disciples ministered to the crowd that gathered outside their prayer room on that day, these kids and Troy newly returned from the prayer room in Kansas City should pray for any and all who wanted it. And, as it is our usual custom, we designated chairs for just this purpose and several pepole responded, Jane among them.

The worship team reassembled and began to lead in a song and the kids, Troy and I began to pray for those who had sat themselves down in the chairs. I joined Trisha and Sarah and the three of us began to pray for Jane. It seemed that the Lord began to thaw her heart as all three tissue boxes were called into service (not just by her but others who were sitting in the chairs). I read Psalm 27 over her and asked Cody to pray behind her since it seemed to me that she needed a taste of the joy of the Lord. He knelt behind her and was convulsing quietly (it's an odd juxtaposition, I realize) in the Spirit as he prayed for her. After awhile I moved over to Mary (another pseduo name), a young woman who has been a Christian for several years now and has recently returned from an extended missions trip overseas. Mary was weeping as if she had just lost her mother or father. In the meantime, Troy took my spot with Jane and began to minister to her. At some point during this time, the song of the Lord came upon Kayla and she began to sing and play a spontaneous worship song upon the keyboard. It was a simple song as those things usually go but beautifully sung.

Now, here's where things took an unexpected turn. While Troy and Trisha are ministering to Jane she tells him that she is hearing something in the song that Kayla is singing. But it's not the words that she's singing which are speaking to her but the notes she is playing upon the keyboard. "They're telling me a story that I need to hear" is the gist of what she told Troy. He speaks prophetically into her life and she confirms the stuff he is saying but more than anything else it's the story in the notes that has grabbed her attention. Scintillating, to say the least. Later, Trish moves on to Mary and joins Troy who has been ministering to her now for awhile. But Jane gets up from her chair and joins the small circle as well and places her hands upon Mary and begins to prophesy over her. I don't want to overstate it. She didn't say, "Thus saith the Lord, etc., etc." I don't even know if she realized what she was doing. In fact, I suspect she didn't. But as Troy listened to her pronouce a very simple "word" over Mary to his amazement it was "spot on."

Artwork from the Prayer Room in KC

So what does it mean when a person whose commitment to Christianity is uncertain but shows up and hears a story in random notes played upon a keyboard under prophetic inspiration and then proceeds to deliver an accurate "word from God" to a disciple of Jesus who at that present moment (unbeknownst to Jane) is resisting the Holy Spirit? It's a sign and a wonder, that's what is. It's a sign that God is in our midst (see 1 Corinthians 14). It's a reminder to all of us that we are, indeed, living in those days spoke of so long ago - days of God's Spirit who like cascading waters is being poured out upon all people and demonstrating his wonders in the skies above and leaving signs on the earth below that he "will save everyone who asks for his help" (Acts 2:12, CEV). It means that God can use any means he chooses to deliver his good news to people be it rustic shepherds "keeping watch o'er their flocks by night" or an undergraduate student who just happens to show up at a worship gathering and becomes both the recepient and the conduit of God's grace and truth.

I spoke with Mary just the other night. She looks like her "old" self, her eyes revealing the new joy of the Lord within her. We talked about what had happened at Focus the week before and she recounted how much she had been resisting God these last few months. Sometime during the gathering, however, her will began to soften and during ministry time she sat herself in one of those chairs and suddenly could not hold back the flood of tears that came. But when Jane spoke her word to her she needed no more persuasion but came running home like the prodigal she really was. Coincidence? No, sign - a sign to all of us  - Jane, Mary, Troy, myself - that now is the day of salvation and truly "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (NIV).