Resurrection Sunday

I woke at five o’clock this morning on two hours of sleep to go a sunrise service. I felt the power of the Spirit alive this morning, but I had no idea what was in store for the rest of the day. At all.

I met Alalcomeneus and Philathea in a subway station at 6:30am to go to the service. On the way I told them of the previous night’s events. Alalcomeneus said, “That sounds like a normal night at Glafira’s. The Spirit is always there.” Wow. Sunrise service was on the waterfront in 30 some odd degree weather with a strong wind. It lasted 20 minutes. The choir pianist delivered a message entitled “Shattered Expectations”. She talked about the expectations Mary and Mary Magdalene had when they went to Jesus’ grave on Easter morning. They expected the stone to be in front of the tomb, they expected the stench of death and decay, and they expected the dead body to be there. All of these expectations were shattered.

Little did I know this was foreshadowing the remainder of my day. I expected to enjoy a few services, celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, get my homework done, and go to bed early so as to catch up on sleep.

After the sunrise service, Alalcomeneus took me back to his church (who had hosted the service) for breakfast. On our way to breakfast we stopped in the sanctuary. The lights were not on, but it was a beautiful room. Immense, probably seating around 1500 with two balconies, a carved ceiling, a pipe organ, gold leafed architecture, and so much more; I stood in awe of God. “This is His house, and He is here.” I thought to myself. Alalcomeneus told me they usually had 50-60 people show up on any given Sunday. I told him I could see that place being full. We went on to breakfast and then afterwards I returned to the sanctuary. By this point there were people there decorating and rehearsing; I picked a seat in the second balcony to sit in. I meditated on some scripture. God led me to Titus, which is about leadership, something He has laid on my heart recently. I spent some time praying and dozed off for a while.

Now the second balcony has not been redone like the one below it and the main level. It still had old wood, old unpadded chairs. As I sat and looked at this I first had an image of that balcony bustling with people long ago therefore making it look so worn now. The next image I thought about was from Phantom of the Opera, where the old dusty chandelier is raised up to re-illuminate the theatre. After more mediation I left to go to Park Street church for the 11 o’clock service, as my friend Rhoda was being baptized there. I hoped to arrive early so as to spend a little more quiet time with God; the sanctuary I had been in was filled with beautiful music and I wanted a few moments to just listen to God.

I arrived to a packed corner outside Park Street Church. The previous service had just finished and there was a large line for the next service. No peace and quiet. The service was filled with wonderful music including “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” and “Hallelujah Chorus”. It was exciting and inspiring to hear Rhoda’s testimony and see her be baptized.

Upon leaving the service at Park Street, I met Alalcomeneus in the subway station and we decided to go to Fenway Church. He shared with me about a lady in the choir speaking in tongues. No one translated, so we looked up the verses regarding this (1 Corinthians 14:1-25). I needed to eat, so we made a quick stop by McDonald’s with not much time to spare. My burger got fixed with pickles and onions, but neither of them turned out to be a problem for my stomach. We arrived at the bar/club called Church for the 1pm service. We had no idea what we were walking into. (This is a theme.)

Praise and worship began and the Spirit was present. Kalista gave her testimony again for those who didn’t attend the baptism, even more powerful than before. Ezequias prayed, empowered by the Holy Spirit. Then he preached. Or rather, the Spirit preached through him. He spoke about only 5% of his generation acknowledging Christ and challenged us to be a part of the crowd who acknowledges, believes in and lives for Christ every day.

After the message we got to worship again. It was so wonderful to spend time in God’s presence praising him. Alalcomeneus and I didn’t leave until 3pm. It was such a blessing and joy to have been there and I’ll be going back. God also laid it on my heart to reach out to the owner of the club they meet at who is not following Christ.

Before Alalcomeneus and I left, Ezequias had mentioned Heidi Baker speaking at MIT tonight. Heidi had seeded several thousand churches and done some work in Africa. It’s not something I would normally think of going to, but for some reason I felt compelled to. In fact, I also wanted to go to the evening contemporary service at Park Street too. I told Alalcomeneus this and he said if I went, he’d go. I called Xena who works at the computer lab with me to see if she wanted to work my hours. No answer. I prayed God would work out something, trusting if He wanted me to be at work instead that He had a better plan. I walked into the lab. Normally there are 2 people who work Sunday mornings and 2 who work Sunday evenings. These are the only 4 employees I usually see there on Sundays. When I walk in, there are 4 guys sitting behind the desk just hanging out. I said, “Who wants my hours, 4 to 10?” Immediately one guy claimed them and I left for the next church service.

Alalcomeneus and I took seats in the front center of the sanctuary, and I saw my friend Ovelia from all night prayer sitting on the left side of the sanctuary. She came over to sit with us. Two of her friends showed up shortly thereafter and joined us. I thought I recognized one of them. She introduced herself and sure enough it was Leto, who I had last seen in middle school. I had no idea she was in Boston, much less attending the same church I do. As the evening went on, she thought she recognized Alalcomeneus. Turns out they were on a People to People trip around the summer when I last saw her. Small world. No co-incidence; God-incidence.

The service began with praise and worship. Once again it was incredible to be in the presence of God just to worship. His Spirit is alive and was moving there! The minister gave a captivating message about not being ashamed of Christ the Risen King. He also talked about how Mark’s account of the resurrection ends with Mary and Mary Magdalene fleeing and not telling anyone what they had seen. This is not what God has called us to do. It was good to be reminded of that. For this reason, the minister mentioned, Mark is often not chosen for Easter services. Every service I attended today used Mark’s story.

After the message, there was more praise and worship. Absolutely fabulous.

Fast forward to 7:30pm when Ovelia, Leto, Alalcomeneus and I arrive on MIT’s campus. There was a large crowd outside the auditorium; I wondered if we would get in. As we approach the building we run into Elektra, who is waiting in the (very short) student line. All of the adults were being held outside so students got first dibs on seats. We got seats pretty quickly and met up with Kalista and Agave. Turns out the event didn’t start until 8. Most of us had no idea what we were in for. It began with praise and worship. The first song we sang called for the Holy Spirit’s fire to rain down on us, and that it did. The Holy Spirit was alive in that room and moving even more so than any other encounter I had today. In this moment God made sure I had my priorities straight. He reminded me that Jesus could be coming back today; I should not be preoccupied with tomorrow.

Heidi was introduced and she came up on stage. She knelt and said, “will you all pray with me.” Wow; a woman of God, humbling herself before Him and this entire audience. I felt connected and captivated. Heidi told amazing stories to the glory of God. She talked about falling in love with God. Those words spoke to me; I don’t need to be concerned with falling in love with anyone but God right now. She told of her work in Mozambique including healing the blind. And one time when she prayed for healing of a blind woman, the Spirit broke her down. God said to her, “you’re blind”. She said, “no I’m not”. She tussled with God back and forth three times until she finally surrendered and said “Okay, I’m blind. Let me see.” She saw the western world and how God’s love needs to be shown to all of His children here. She talked about how full surrendering to God allows Him to extraordinary things. She told of her vision of large crowds of lovers laying down their lives for Jesus. She first offered an invitation for anyone who didn’t know Jesus to accept him. But then, she gave an altar call for those wanting to completely lay down their lives for Him. As a crowd began to come forward, I joined them.

I fell to my knees, bowing down in tears and sweat. I was pressing into the floor trying to bow farther. I cried out for God to show me His dream for me. As I continued crying out, my body was overtaken with an extreme tingling sensation. The closest thing I can relate this to was last year when I sliced into a live wire with one hand and felt the electricity flow through both arms and across my chest to be grounded. This time the feeling was all over, there were no live wires and I couldn’t make it stop, yet it wasn’t torture. It was the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Hands were laid on me by various religious leaders who were at this event for that purpose. The first few hands I never heard anything spoken, but then a man came and prayed for me, while I was still experiencing this consuming sensation of the Spirit. He prayed for peace, rest, and a clear vision. After he left I received these. My body trembled less and I saw myself as a leader in some regard of either a new revival movement similar to that of Billy Graham, or as a part of that one. Two things became clear: leadership and evangelism.

As I sat there pondering this, wondering how God was going to use me another man came by to pray for me. I do not remember what he prayed, but when he finished praying he told me what he saw. He saw gift boxes being unwrapped and within each one, another gift box. He said I needed to continue unwrapping and discovering gifts until I get to the heart.

I meditated a bit on this and then my thoughts wandered a bit. How will God accomplish this vision? How will I tell my friends and family about this? What will they say? Is this even possible to do? A lady came to pray for me. She prayed for encouragement, freedom from doubt and strengthening of faith. I’d been asking for strengthening of faith, and by golly I was getting it. It’s amazing she knew exactly what to pray for. She did not pray in English the entire time, but whenever she spoke in tongues she also translated. She then told me I need to read more of God’s Word, that He would reveal himself to me through that.

Heidi also came by and laid a hand on me. After she had gone on and I was thinking about all of this, she said we should ask for more. More dreams, more love. I cried out for God to show me and to show me more. More love and more of His vision. After a while my cries turned to worship. I worshipped on the ground and then eventually standing. I worshipped, filled with the Spirit.

Eventually I returned back to my friends in the row where I had been sitting. To my knowledge none of them came forward, they had been worshipping right there. (There was music from the time the first invitation was given.) After sitting with arms around each other for a while, we left. Agave offered to drive us all home.

When it was just Kalista, Agave and I in the car they asked about my vision, so I gave them a short synopsis. After Kalista was dropped off, Agave and I enjoyed worshipping together with a few CD tracks.

Upon arriving home I realized that I needed to document this and I needed to share it. I didn’t need to worry right now about writing my story of coming to faith, but rather about my experience this weekend. I started this blog for that purpose, as a testament to the work the Spirit is doing in my life.

1 Corinthians 2:9 “However as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’”.