The Gold Experience
During my late twenties to early thirties, I was more into church than I had ever been during any time in my life. Admittedly, I was somewhat of a fanatic about going to church as I was first under the notion that missing out on church meant that I was missing out on God. I thought that if I was not present every time the doors of the church opened, then God might be frowning upon me with displeasure. To think where I am today is quite laughable as I look back upon those times. I have not graced the doors of a church in over 10 years.
Anyway, during this time period, there seemed to be a great wave of signs and wonders being performed within the church – specific churches even. I say performed because there was not always a clear indication that any of these signs and wonders had anything remotely to do with God. I did not know because all of it was new to me, and I did not feel knowledgeable of the scriptures enough to know better [as I had been told]. I always did my research though.
In the very beginning of my experience with all this, I was a great skeptic. I believed in miracles, but far too many of these “miracles” that were performed in the church did not seem to believable to me or even relevant. Yet, I was told not to question God’s desire to show His power. One would have thought that God masqueraded magic powers just for the fun of it without rhyme or reason, but I knew this was simply not the case. God is Holy and I assumed that from all that I have ever read or learned about God, He does not have time for nonsense.
Anyway, a friend of mine invited me to go along with her to a church. She claimed that the church was the talk of the area for the appearance of gold in the congregation although I had never heard of it. This gold apparently showed up in the form of tiny specks of gold dust. It apparently had healing qualities. The friend said that a woman she knew was healed of a dental cavity by the appearance of gold dust that was showered upon her during one of the church services. I must say that the first time I heard this, I laughed out loud and joked how getting to the dentist must have been a challenge. My friend balked at me for not being serious.
Reluctantly, I agreed to go with my friend, but I was on edge because she was always about chasing an experience. This friend was a super spiritual Christian, but she was considered somewhat nutty by more conservative spiritual Christians. She was considered nutty mainly because she jumped on the waves of all things pertaining to signs and wonders. She was just different, but I liked her.
My friend exhibited ways about her that many others in the church we attended considered strange. For instance, she swayed on her feet from side to side and then in a circle while she prayed during service. She also gave people prophetic words of knowledge. This was not something that church leaders desired from her because it was not seen as proper protocol within the church.
When my friend gave people these prophetic words, she would always cry. I would later reason that the crying occurred because she believed herself to be really sincere. Later on during our friendship, however, I discerned that she used these words and tears to manipulate and control the listener and draw them to her. I had noticed that when she gave me a few prophetic words, she would always close her eyes but then peer out of them to see if I were actually listening to her. I found this odd. So I kept this type of behavior as a reference to take note of for the future.
At the time, I did not know enough about the charismatic side of Christianity to refute the idiosyncrasies that I saw as manifestations. So I just observed as a bystander, but eventually I decided that this lane of spirituality was not for me. Something just did not seem right about it. Nevertheless, I went with my friend to the particular church that was known for gold manifestations. In all my life in any of the churches that I had attended up to this point which included varying denominations and even different religions, I had never seen gold clouds, gold dust, or gold healings.
What would I discover? Find out what happens in the next post.
My Voice Unchained 