Well, enough social commentary. I want to write now on something totally different.
One of the phenomena during charismatic meetings when people receive prayer is that people fall down. This is variously described as being slain in the Spirit or falling under the Power. In 1984, one of my elders at Beth Messiah said this would happen in our congregation when we were praying for people. I did not like the idea. But it happened. Another elder was so offended at how it looked that he thought we should pray for all people only when they were sitting on chairs! I eventually came to see that there is reality in being so overwhelmed by the presence of the Spirit that one cannot stand, but then there is also auto suggestion and even pushing. I had a scientific approach and would ask people at conferences and citywide gatherings what happened to them. Sometimes they would say that they had an amazing experience with God and at other times that they just felt that they should allow themselves to fall. The book by the noted Christian Psychiatrist John White, When the Spirit Falls with Power, is a great study on the history of revivals and how such manifestations unexpectedly occurred. There are three cases of falling under the Power which have convinced me that this is very real, though it never happened to me in the powerful ways that others described.
The first is my Professor of Philosophy, Dr. Stuart Hackett, whom I served as an assistant in the department at Wheaton College. Dr. Hackett was a brilliant rationalist. I took Philosophy of Religion East and West under him for a year and also Ethics. Dr. Hackett was known as a super rationalist. If something was not rational, it was not worth considering. What was real was rationally provable. He was a brilliant lecturer and nationally famous for his writings and teachings.
One day I drove from Chicago to Wheaton to visit him. I was in my own period of rationalism. I asked him, what ever happened to that arthritic elbow? How is it? Dr. Hackett said, “Well, Dan, you are not going to believe this but God healed me.” He then said that it was not just his elbow but that arthritis had developed in his back. It got to the pace where he was in excruciating pain. A friend invited him to a small Evangelical Free Church that was experiencing a move of the Holy Spirit. They were seeing healings. He believed that he had nothing to lose so he went. When the invitation was given, he was reluctant to go forward. He saw that some who were prayed for fell backwards, were caught and then were laying on the floor. He thought it was bizarre and that he did not want this to happen to himself and did not think it was real. Then he decided to go to get prayer anyway because he was in such pain, but not to so fall. He said he does not remember that contact was made with him. The next thing he knew was that he was on the floor having an amazing experience of God’s love. When he got up he was healed and spoke in tongues. He was from then a charismatic. When he transferred to teach at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School north of Chicago, he was questioned as to his balance in his charismatic orientation. He was then hired. He was indeed more balanced than ever form a biblical perspective. This was so amazing to me that I began to question my rationalistic bent.
The second is my late brother Richard. He was the last person I would expect would have such an experience. My sister used to call him the head. I was almost 7 years younger than him. He had the highest academic record in the 50 year history of his school. He was so rational oriented. After his military retirement he also was in great pain. In this pain, he went to a healing meeting with a minister, Gene Lilly. He had himself been healed of multiple sclerosis. Richard does not remember even being touched, but down he went. He described the experience of the love of God as waves coming over him again and again. He said it was the greatest spiritual experience of his life. Richard retired from the Air Force as a Major after 23 years. Sadly, he had agent orange disease at the end of his life, and died just before he was 69. Yet this experience stayed with him in those last decades.
Then finally is my best friend in the secular High School, my Jewish friend Michael. Michael was so important to me because as a really fat kid at 14 and 15 years old, before I lost all the weight, Mike as a cool Jewish kid and accepted me. He was the best man at my wedding. After over 35 years of sharing the Gospel with him, finally he accepted embraced Yeshua. A few years later, he had an experience just like my brother.
Now I have had some wonderful experiences with the Lord, but not one like these. I knew the joy of the Lord to come upon me so powerfully that all I could do was to run and run. But I never fell under the power with such an experience of love. This is God’s sovereignty. However, the testimony of these three assures me that this is real and significant and that I should be open to what the Spirit does.