The whole Christian life is like a series of conversions. Each one takes you deeper and closer to God in some area of your life. Here is my spiritual journey thus far. Here are seven spiritual awakenings I have experienced in a little over fifty years of life.
1. First Awakening: Conversion to Christ when I was fourteen years old. I was raised in the Southern Baptist Church and I sensed the Spirit of God pulling me so hard to give my life to Christ that I tried to resist for a month and I finally gave up, surrendered, and gave my life to Christ. I have had many spiritual valleys and mountains in my walk with Christ but I am learning to go deeper into a life with Christ.
2. Second Awakening: Call to ministry at age seventeen. Church camp was like my Bethel experiences of drawing closer to God. It was at church camp I accepted a call to preach the gospel and it was at church camp just a few years later I baptized a close friend of mine into Christ. I am learning to go deeper into ministry.
3. Third Awakening: The Unity of the Body of Christ. I learned about the Cain-Ridge Revivals of Kentucky in the early 1800's and about the Restoration Vision of full communion between all Christians when I was in college. The Restoration Vision was spiritual unity through a deeper understanding of God's Word. I am learning always to go deeper and farther into God's Word and being a bridge builder for the unity of God's church.
4. Fourth Awakening: Reading the Bible with Jewish eyes. It was the largest gatherings of ministers ever in the United States at a Promise Keepers stadium event. God's reconciling reviving Spirit was so powerful during that event that I was changed instantly. I cried with a Hasidic Jewish brother and have grown immensely in a deep love for church history and the Jewish roots of the Christian faith. I am growing deeper in becoming the one new man in Christ where man-made traditions and ecclesial practices which separate Christians are slowly being removed. I am learning to go deeper into the unifying symbols of the Christian faith.
5. Fifth Awakening: Experiencing the Power of the Holy Spirit. It was only after I graduated from seminary that God led me into a deeper journey of fighting both demons and being overcome by the presence of God. God took me deeper enlarging my heart with God's heart and enlarging my gifts with supernatural power. I am learning to go deeper in the life of the Spirit and it's been a slow journey of learning to walk in the Spirit.
6. Sixth Awakening: The sacramental reality of all of creation and the catholicity of God's church. It was an Emmaus Walk that led me into a deeper journey seeing God in all of creation and everything in the church as a means of God's grace to participate in the oneness of God. I am learning to go deeper into God's good creation as well as experiencing the catholicity of God's church.
7. Seventh Awakening: Waking up to the mystical path. I had a break down from ministerial burnout and physical and emotional suffering not that long ago and I still have not fully recovered. In the midst of my pain and suffering, I discovered God is preparing me and taking me on a deeper path in Christ. God is purifying my soul. God is illuminating my mind. God is erupting my spirit with His Spirit. I am entering another world and living a very different rhythm of life in bringing mind, body, spirit all together in a more balanced lifestyle. I am going through a mystical conversion of my soul. I am learning to go deeper in knowing myself and in knowing God.
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