lent day 12 - kindness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1yQstWOh_s

I was at a course in church yesterday - all about the Kingdom and the Holy Spirit and stuff.  As sometimes happens at these things, you find you are supposed to be there for one thing and God decides to do something else 😇 

Part way through the day a word of knowledge was shared and the chap who responded was someone who is very new to the things of the Spirit.  He has been a Christian for decades but belonged to a church which didn't really pursue spiritual gifts.  So even being prayed for in front of a group was quite a step for him.   He closed his eyes and put his hands in his pockets.   But then he hesitantly took his hands out of his pockets and held them at pocket level slightly open.  And I knew this was a huge step for him.  Within moments of people starting to pray for him the Holy Spirit was all over him.  He was breathing really heavily and vibrating and swaying.  After a couple of minutes someone came over to him and raised his hands up and continued to hold them there for the duration of the praying time ( which was probably 15 or 20 minutes)   Not much was prayed.  There was no need. God was clearly at work.  Soon the tears started to come.  There were several moments when we thought he was going to hit the deck.  I was so touched by what God was doing - even though I didn't really know what it was.  I just knew that a huge transformation was taking place and that this guy's life would not be the same afterwards.   I knew that because this sort of encounter has happened to me.  It is profound and inexplicable and deeply healing, cleansing and good.

When he opened his eyes and wiped his tears and fell into a chair he looked completely wasted.  As though he had climbed a mountain or suffered a tremendous shock or something.  He couldnt speak for a few minutes.  And then he said that now he finally understood why people sometimes fall over when they are prayed for.  He said it had taken a huge amount of control to stay standing up.  He now understood what people had been talking about when they spoke of the power of God.  He had met the Holy Spirit in a powerful encounter.  The encounter had taken years of theology and knowledge and suddenly made it all real and relevant and life giving and powerful.

I cant wait to see what happens in his life over the coming weeks.

As I watched God at work yesterday I was once again overwhelmed by His kindness to us.  God is the kindest, most gentle, most loving, devoted Father you could ever imagine.  He absolutely LOVES to bless us.    He is not angry with us, disappointed in us, impatient at our faults and failings, bored by our prayers, frustrated at our lack of progress.  He isn't even cross about our sins.   He LOVES us.  And it is His kindness which melts our hard hearts, causes us to fall in love with Him over and over and therefore turns our faces towards Him and away from the temptations and distractions of the world.    Once we have tasted and seen how kind He is we don't want to go running after other things.  Once He has lavished His goodness on us ( that's a great word isn't it - lavished ?) nothing else is going to compare.

If kindness is the hallmark of God's interactions with His people then surely it has to be the hallmark of our interactions with each other too.   God's people need to be known for showing grace, mercy, gentleness and generosity to those around them.   We do this so much better from a position of overflow than one of emptiness.  I'm pretty sure my friend who received prayer yesterday will be dripping God all over the place this week 😊  The people he drips on will notice the difference.
So today lets take a few moments to stand with open hands and receive the kindness of God.  Let's open our eyes to see all the places in our day where He is being good to us.  And let us determine to overflow His loving kindness into the places we walk.