I was saved in a non-denominational church right before my 27th birthday. Over time I had picked up some ideas about the individual members of the Trinity that were rooted more in word of mouth than the Word of God: beliefs that Father God was the Godfather (the mean one), Jesus was my homeboy (the nice one) & the Holy Spirit – well, he was the WEIRD one who made people do embarrassing things in very public places. As an introvert, I wanted no part of that! So I kept him at arms length. Yet, more & more my thoughts began to be drawn to the mystery of Him. Who was He? What was He all about?
One day I heard the lyrics of a Shane and Shane song called Be Near that resonated with how I was feeling:
It’s beautiful & wonderful to trust in grace through faith, but I’m asking to taste. Your fullness is mine, revelation divine, but, oh to taste, to know much more than a page, to feel Your embrace…
Those words shot off a deep-seated thrill in me. Might it be possible to feel & taste the reality & presence of God? Excitement came, followed by worry that desiring to experience Him was somehow wrong. Doesn’t Hebrews says that faith is believing in things we cannot see? Didn’t Jesus tell doubting Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen but still believe?” Yet in the very same story, there was Jesus instructing Thomas, “Here, touch my side. Feel my hands. Stop doubting & believe.” And the Psalmist invites us to “Taste & see that He is good!”
I began to study this lesser known person of the Trinity and started traveling all over the southeast looking for conferences, worship nights & prayer meetings that claimed to have the Holy Spirit in attendance. Some were pretty tame, similar to my own church. Others were chaotic & honestly frightened me – people screaming, horn blowing, hysterical sobbing & falling over. On the few occasions where I experienced the rare tension of the truth of the Word & the power of the Spirit in what felt like a safe & peaceful environment, that is where I began to fall in love with Him.
Now I am a licensed pastor of the Foursquare Church and I am passionate about helping people learn about the More of God. If you are on this website, whether you know it or not, the Holy Spirit is whispering for you to come closer. My hope is this website would be a non-threatening gateway for all those who may be hesitant to draw near. I know from personal experience that many of the resources currently available online can be extremely overwhelming & often times off-putting. That is not truly representative of who He is. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ himself, the essence of all that Jesus is. He is sweet & funny & personable and he offers an invitation to all who want it, to taste & to see that He is good.
(Trust me, you want it).