Just heard for the first time a visiting preacher
Lisa Harper this morning, she said she's a "Bapticostal"... I remembered your post here, does that sound like you?
As for me, Presbyterian -> Baptist-> Spreydon Baptist (charismatic) -> other (brethren-like) ->Pentecostal
OP: There will be differences... but in the end what is important? certainly not denomination.
The important thing for me is having constant fellowship with God. I was a Pentecostal for two years and did all the right things, probably to excess, but I had never really met the Lord and no one in the church was able to introduce me to Him. They were able to introduce me to all the religious stuff, including tongues and prophecy, but I didn't know Jesus personally.
So when I went back to my parents' home in another city, I went out into the middle of a golf course in the late evening and introduced myself directly to God. I got all lit up inside like Times Square, and Jesus became very real to me, and I heard His voice for the first time. It is significant to me that I had to get away from that church environment to actually meet Jesus in person. This showed me that God is not the church, whatever denomination, and the denomination isn't God.
In some ways, I got into strife with some in the Charismatic church because of the way I saw God as being separate from the church. Just because a church teaches something, doesn't mean that God is automatically agreeing with it. I got accused of not cooperating with "the body of Christ" because I didn't toe the party line.
After 12 years with Pentecostal and Charismatic churches, I became disillusioned because what my last church taught and those in it conducted themselves did not match with what God was showing me in His Word. So I departed for "greener pastures", and that's when I discovered that no matter what denomination church I found myself in, Jesus was there waiting for me.
The interesting thing that happened to me when I left the Charismatic church was that I couldn't stop praying in tongues. I realised that it was a integral part of my personal fellowship with God and was not just an extension of the Charismatic church. If it was just part of being a member of a Charismatic church, the tongues would have ceased. It was also interesting that because one cannot pray out loud with tongues in Anglican, Baptist or Presbyterian churches, I found that it really enhanced my personal and private prayer life, and I discovered that a lot of public tongues praying in Pentecostal churches was for show to show others that one is a truly Spirit-filled believer. But when one is alone with God, there is no one else to impress, and putting on a religious show simply doesn't wash with Him. He told me so!
He encouraged me to be the real me, not a Pentecostal caricature of myself. He loves fellowshiping with real people, regardless of their shortcomings and faults. When I questioned Him about my shortcomings and faults, He told me to be just myself and what He didn't like about me, He would change me! So I just relaxed and put off all the religious show and carried on just being the real me. That was 1969, and ever since then, wherever my church wanderings have taken me, I have found the reality of Jesus always there.
Of course, I discovered that it is the Holy Spirit living in me, and this made it that wherever I went, I took the indwelling Jesus with me. That's what I told my Presbyterian church when I preached to them, that they didn't have to work up a worshipful atmosphere, because as soon as they walked in on a Sunday morning they brought the atmosphere with them. In fact, they were the atmosphere! I think that is what some Charismatics miss when they try to work up an atmosphere for God to move in their midst.
