Mental Illness Revisited...

[llambert]

This is such an interesting and meaningful subject to me.

I believe that some of us have been gifted by God with great sensitivities that other people simply don't have. Some people can be very damaged by things that other people just shrug off. If I had a dollar for every time I have heard someone say, "Just get over it...."

I know people who get very emotionally upset at just the mention of any of the following words:

-Religion

- organized religion

- church

-Jesus Christ

-hell

-Pentecostal

Those people in the church world who just say "Get over it" may never become sensitive to why others have strong reactions and honestly, I think waiting for them to become sensitized isn't the way to go. That's like relying on other people to save or deliver us.

I could really see how being in a loud church environment could not be a good fit for some of us, so I want to ask this question:

Has anyone been in Oneness of God in Jesus Christ fellowship services where people receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues as the initial evidence and there wasn't a kind of mass hysteria, emotional contagion sort of atmosphere (people yelling, screaming, hollering, running the aisles)?

I was filled in an InterVarsity prayer meeting in my HS at age 17 and come to think of it now, that meeting wasn't your typical "Pentecostal" service.

What happened was that we would have prayer and bible study every Wed after school. On one Wed, as we were getting ready to pray out, two of the club members came in late. One said that he had gone to the other's church the Sun before and had received the Holy Ghost baptism and that it felt like electricity running all through his body. I didn't think that much of it. As we were praying out, the prayer became fervent. I opened my eyes to see my classmate on his knees praying intently. I asked the club member whose church the electricity guy had gone to

"What's happening to him?"

and he said, "He's getting the Holy Ghost."

So in my mind, I said, "God, give me the Holy Ghost, too."

The next thing you know, I was speaking in a new language.

One other club member began to speak in a new language, as well as my classmate who was on his knees.

None of us fell out, screamed, rolled on the floor, barked like dogs or demonstrated any other dramatic manifestations.

Now when I went to the club member's church (an "apostolic" church, I'd prefer not to say which organization), the normal atmosphere in which people received the Holy Ghost was very, very loud. We would dance on a Sunday night to the point that the floor would shake and the dust would rise from the rugs. Shouting and dancing were very much the norm. The more you "shouted", the more you were cheered on and affirmed as "belonging".

Don't get me wrong, I think free emotional expression has its place in church. I still dance in church when I have the mind to. But I think the danger is when those of us who are more highly sensitive get caught up in the emotional atmosphere of the church world, we can go into the soulish realm and get out from under God's divine protection.