Hi everyone, a question- have you ever fallen out under the power of God? (When God's power hits you and you fall over, and God ministers to you) This happens often at the church I go to, Grace Chapel in Elizabethtown, PA. However this has never happened to me, sometimes it happens to everyone in the entire room but me! Sometimes I am the only one left standing! Some people think there is something seriously wrong with me! Some people have laid their hands on me and prayed for it to happen and it still doesn't happen!
So let me offer you some peace about this. I went through the same thing many years ago. I believed it was possible for this kind of thing to happen. When Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane, it says that the soldiers initially fell to the ground. John 18:6 As you know, some refer to this as being "slain in the Spirit," although that’s a term coined by men, not by God. In my church circles—just like yours—it often seemed like people were acting things out or claiming it was happening all the time. At the church I attended, it was the same. I'd often be the only one still standing, and it was like that all the time. I even felt, though I could be wrong, that the leadership thought I wasn’t being spiritual, or wasn’t being moved by the Spirit. It made me wonder:
Does God not love me? Is He upset with me?
But one thing was for certain—I was
not going to fake it and just fall down, even if others called that “yielding to the Spirit.” When the soldiers came to arrest Jesus and this event happened, there’s no way they were “putting it on.” John 18:6 That wasn’t a performance—it was real.
This began to depress me deeply. I remember one night going for a walk and praying quietly under my breath. Finally, in frustration, I blurted out, “OK Lord! I’ve got to know—
why? Why is everyone else experiencing this and not me? I feel so down and discouraged about this!”
Well, He answered me—so clearly that it startled me. About 20 minutes later, I came home and, for some reason, felt like pulling out one of my old teaching cassette tapes. I had hundreds of them in a big box, preaching from different preachers. I just reached in and grabbed one at random—not even looking at the subject. It wasn’t even about falling under the power of God. The tape was halfway through to almost like it was cued so that I could here this one thing on a future day.....and i put it into the player!
As soon as I hit “play,” I heard this:
“Now, for some of you who are wondering about this falling under the power, and are upset that you don’t experience it—DON’T DO THAT! DON'T DO THAT! DON'T DO THAT! (It said it three times!)It was like the Lord was correcting me through that tape. The speaker continued:
“Look, if something like that happens, fine—but it’s not a sign that someone is more spiritual than someone else. Don’t put any focus on it. Put your focus on the Word (the Word of God), and apply My Word to your life. That’s where your focus needs to be. Put the priority where it needs to be.”That word from God broke the depression I had been under—the feelings of self-pity and of being left out. God was clearly saying to me,
“You are NOT left out.”
Over the years, I’ve continued to reflect on this. Is all this “falling down” genuine? Is it always real? I can’t say it never is—God told me that night that these things
can happen to some people. But I believe He was also showing me, without words, that sometimes people are just doing what they think they're expected to do. Every minister will have to give an account for their actions, and only God knows their hearts.
But I do sense that some ministers tend to walk straight into a person, almost pushing them off balance, so naturally, they fall. Not all do this, but I think some want it to look like God is moving through them in a powerful way. I’ll let God be the judge of that. Maybe that's not their motives but it could be with some. But I’ve even heard some say,
“Don’t be afraid to fall back… just yield to the Spirit.” Yet that phrase—*“fall back” or “yield to the Spirit” in that way—is found nowhere in Scripture. Again, I ask: what are the motives of those saying such things? Only God can judge that. But I know this—He spoke to me clearly that night, and it gave me peace. In other words, DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT DAVE and even if some around you want to make you feel you're missing it NOPE, NOPE, NOPE just forget that and chuck it. If they're seeking to correct you on genuine solid spritial matters in the way you live your life in regard to Christian living YES at least be open to that but not with these side issue things. God Bless and PEACE!
