I am Pentecostal. We live for the experience.

When I see things advertised on Facebook for some Pentecostal service, youth service, etc., the hype words are always there.

EPIC!

UBER EPIC!

CUTTING EDGE!

DON’T MISS THIS ONE! (or the next one… or the next one…)

I am soaking in Richard Foster’s little book, Sanctuary of the Soul, again. He relates an incredibly powerful experience he had with God in a retreat. There were distinct movements of the Spirit that had powerful worship, incredible silence, and repentance. Truly epic.

He does note this, and I think it is wise: such experiences have been few and far between. Now, most of my Pentecostal friends may read that and feel sorry for him… and for me for agreeing.

Foster goes on:

It is not wise for us to hanker after such heights. (You’ll have to look up hanker.) Worship can be fully valid when there are not thrills or flights of ecstasy. The group, just like the individual, must learn to endure spiritual weather of all kinds with serenity of soul. The heights are full of wonder, but in between those heights we may well travel together through shadow and valley and desert for months and even years. That is all part of what it means to walk with God.

I welcome powerful experiences. I love the powerful sense of his presence. Yet, his presence is ready to guide me day after day. It won’t be the emotional high. There is a constant presence, a knowledge that he is moving in and through my day, and my soul quieted before him can rest in his great guidance.