Coming Out and Crossing Over

I have been hiding something for about 10 years. Not only hiding it, but trying to suppress it. It's time to come clean. It's time to come "out of the closet." This is part 1 of my coming out story.

Ten years ago, while serving as the pastor of First Baptist Church in Purcell, Oklahoma, I became hungry. Hungry for more of God's presence and power in my life.

This led me to do a 21 day fast seeking God's presence. About midway through the fast, early one Sunday morning, I was overwhelmed by the outpouring of God's Spirit upon me. My Charismatic friends call it the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Yes, this Baptist preacher encountered the Holy Spirit in a very tangible way. It felt so good I thought I was going to die. I had to ask the Lord to stop.

This experience made me more hungry. I read ever book I could about the Holy Spirit, some I read in one day. The great R T Kendall helped me tremendously with my journey.

I wanted all that God had for me so I asked the Lord to give the gift of praying in tongues. He didn't answer my prayer immediately. In fact, I thought he would not give me the gift. Until one morning, while having my prayer time, the Holy Spirit came upon me and I started praying in tongues. It scared me and I quenched the Spirit.

The Baptist in me struggled with what God was doing. I surely didn't want to tell my fellow Baptist preachers I prayed in tongues.

"Coming Out and Crossing Over" Part 2

Back in 2008 the Lord blessed me with the gift of praying in tongues.  I had prayed on several occasions for this gift, but no answer.   It was in late August, or early September of that year that the Lord started speaking to me about doing a new thing in my life.  Honestly, I thought it had to do with ministry direction.

Each day during my quiet time with the Lord he would speak to me about this “new thing” he was going to do in my life.  Then it happened.  It happened just the way I wanted it to happen.  It was a passive experience for me at first.  The Holy Spirit came upon me and I started praying in tongues.

Had I not quenched the Spirit that day I could have very easily prayed in tongues all day, or at least I wanted it to last all day.  But fear came over me.  Fear because I was not in control, and that my wife would hear me and think I’m crazy.  That fear stopped the flow of God’s Spirit.

It took me several days before I actually told my wife what happened.  I was unsure of what happened. Not that I didn’t know, but how do I move forward with this new gift.

After quenching the Spirit I struggled with my gift of praying in tongues.  I didn’t have many Spirit-filled, tongue-speaking people in my life to help me, so my gift struggled for several years.

I still hungered for more of God’s presence in my life, and on occasions his glory would permeate my life, and the worship services I participated in.  On several occasions, while pastoring Fairview Baptist in Sherman, Texas, God’s presence in worship was very tangible.  I credit this to a great worship leader, Steve Weeks, who understood and hungered for the presence of God in corporate worship.  I will never forget one Sunday God’s presence being so tangible that people were at the altar before I ever started preaching.  I even wondered if I even needed to preach.  I really believe I should have allowed the Spirit to move that morning, and not preach, but I didn’t.

In late 2013 and early 2014, I started asking the Lord to bring Spirit-filled people in my life to help me with the things of the Spirit.  God started to answer this prayer through a sermon series I preached through the book of Joshua.

It was this time last year that I was preaching through the book of Joshua.  My fourth sermon from the series was from Joshua chapter 3.  This is where Joshua and the Israelites cross over the Jordan into the Promise Land.  The sermon title was “Crossing Over.”

During the first service at our church, the traditional service, I was speaking about Go doing unusual things, you know, like crossing the Jordan river at flood stage, on dry ground.  As soon as I said that God does unusual things a lady in the back of the worship center starts yelling.

Not going to lie, this lady scared most of the people in that service.  Glad no one had a heart attack.  My first thought was an “angry” church member, gut I soon realized it was not a church member.  My first response to the lady was a simple “Excuse me?”  She the shouted 2 more times, “Abounding in his presence! Abounding in his presence!” Then she left the building.

My response to her before she left was “We receive that word.” I then continued to preach.  Many people thought I planned the lady, but I didn’t.  A few, like me, thought the lady was from the Lord.  Most, however, didn’t want that to happen again, and so we tightened up security.

Looking back, that lady brought a prophetic word, to whoever would receive it.  I did.  What was interesting is that the lady left me a bag with some cake in it.  When I opened the bag I found a role of paper towels and some dump cake stored in an old plastic container that once contained “Spring Mix” lettuce that you buy at the grocery store.  I didn’t dare eat it.  It wasn’t meant to be eaten, but interpreted.

It symbolized what God was doing in my life.  He was going to give me more of his presence, but not expect it to come nicely packaged in a familiar way, or manner.

When is shared it with the second service God started answering my prayer for Spirit-filled people to come into my life.

"Coming out and Crossing over" part 3

As I was preaching about God doing unusual things, God did something unusual. An unknown lady starts to yell from the back of the worship center, "Abounding in his presence." My response was simple, "we receive that word," and I continued to preach.

I then shared the experience in the second service, about God doing unusual things, and the prophetic word given in the first service.  The prophetic word would soon come true.

A gentlemen named Robert Whetstone came up after the second service and introduced himself and said that he had experienced unusual things from God. This peaked my interest so I asked if we could meet the following week.

Now, several months earlier I started praying for the Lord to put Charismatic Christians in my life to help me with my Holy Spirit encounter. It became apparent during my first meeting with Robert that God was beginning to answer my prayer. After our first meeting, I started meeting weekly with Robert for prayer.

Each week we met God showed up in tangible ways. Robert laid hands on me and I experienced a great fullness of God's presence in my life. Soon, I started experiencing greater peace and power in my life and ministry.

After a few months, Renee Whetstone started praying with us. It was then that I began to experience the prophetic. Within a matter of 3 months I experienced total deliverance from depression.

One day, the Lord spoke to me and said I was no longer depressed and to stop taking anti-depressants. I have experienced some hard times since I have been delivered, but never once felt I needed drugs to help my mood. The joy of the Lord is my strength.