Overwhelmed
Shortly after being born again, another monumental experience dramatically impacted my life.
I was in my early twenties and living in a small trailer with my older brother, his wife, and his son. I had a tiny room in the middle of the trailer with a small bed and my drum set, so it was hard to maneuver in that room.
When I would spend time there in prayer, I had to lay on the bed as I meditated on the Lord and talked with HIm. One day, as I was doing this, I recalled a passage I had read.
2 Chronicles 6:18 “But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built!
I mulled it over in my heart and soul that God was so great and huge that He filled all of heaven and more.
To me, it was like saying the universe and all of heaven could not contain Him. That thought just put a hook in me. As I lay there thinking about it, I couldn’t help it from becoming very personal. I began to say to the Lord, “Lord Jesus, Your word says you are so great and so immense that the universe and the heaven of heavens cannot contain you, and to me, that means You are very great and very large, and there’s more to You than I currently know and probably possess. So I want You to give me whatever I might be missing. I am asking You to fill me up.”
When I said that to the Lord, I began to feel like electricity was pulsing through my body as if to lift from my bed, and it was so intense and powerful that I began to say, “Lord, please stop, or I will die.”
After that moment, I realized I had come to know God, and He was no ordinary God. He was God all-powerful, and although that experience was a bit scary to me, it was also reassuring. After that experience, I began to know things I could not know on my own accord about situations and people, and I began to prophesy. I did not know it was prophesying at the time because I did not know the gifts of the Spirit.
Shortly after, a friend who had also come to Jesus invited me to His church for an evening service. We had played in bands together before we were saved. That night, when I went, he wasn’t there, but I met a man who took me to the balcony and sat with me. As things began to start, I looked down, and there was a cloud in the place so thick you couldn’t see below, and the worship music was playing. The Lord spoke to me and told me He would raise me up in that house and send me out from there to accomplish His purposes in my life. Then, a man began to speak, and the cloud lifted, and I could see everything. On the stage was a set of drums I had sold to a church while I was a lost man needing a car. The man spoke about being baptized in the Holy Spirit and about the gifts of the Spirit, and that was when I first realized what had happened to me that day on my bed. That experience brought a dramatic change in my life that I have never regretted.
The Lord did exactly as He said He would that night. Jesus raised me up in that church under the mentorship of that man, and years later, I was sent out from that church by that man and the other elders to plant a church which I still pastor to this day. I am so glad the Lord overwhelmed me as He did that day on my bed. I am glad He is still overwhelming at times. There is still so much to experience and discover regarding Him and His ways. I never want to lose the wonder of Him. Have you ever been overwhelmed by Him? You can be. If you hunger to know Him the way He wants you to know Him, you will find He is willing to reveal Himself in supernatural ways to you.
