Charismatic Renewal Revisited

Thirty four years have gone by since that wonderful day when, after reading “Nine O’Clock in the Morning” I, along with my wife Barbara, my sister Audrey and her husband Dan Varcoe took the plunge around our coffee table in Brandon to ask the Lord to baptize us in the Holy Spirit. Life for us changed immediately and new exciting ministries began at St. George’s Anglican Church in Brandon and St. Paul’s Dauphin. Both congregations discovered they had new priests, albeit the same Rectors.

A year later, Malcolm Harding and Graham Bradshaw came on board to begin conferences on the Holy Spirit in the Diocese of Brandon.

So many people come to mind who, travelling from Regina, Winnipeg, Kenora and throughout our own Diocese, discovered that Pentecost was for real today. One of my most delightful memories is that of Roy Hubbard who at first disdained charismatic renewal and then after ministry, was overwhelmed by the joy of the Lord.

So why am I writing today after all these many years? I am writing to say that I am just as filled with the Holy Spirit today as I was in 1972. I am writing to say that if we keep close to Jesus, we will find the Holy Spirit has not diminished one bit.

Here I am at the age of 79, Priest in Charge of St. Peter’s Okotoks until we find a new Rector. Here I am ministering with more freedom than ever in the Holy Spirit. And yes, I will give a message in tongues if I sense being led by the Holy Spirit to do this. Why not? The Church is His business. I have a real concern that in order to be respectable and seeker sensitive, we have domesticated the Holy Spirit.

Many prophetic people today are living in expectation that the Heavens are being opened for more of the Holy Spirit with signs and wonders.

I am most impressed by what Bill Johnson writes about ministry in his congregation in Redding California, USA. His two books “When Heaven Invades the Earth” and “The Supernatural Power of the Transformed Mind” open doors to wonderful possibilities: if in Redding, why should this ministry not happen in Okotoks or wherever it is you live?

For me, I have possibly six to eight months to minister in leadership and I have nothing to lose …so I will go for broke in the Lord. The key is “the Joy of the Lord”. I am determined to walk in the Joy, to minister in the Joy, and yes, because this is what I love to do, preach the Joy in Jesus.

My question to all ‘old charismatics’ is this: have you let the world squeeze you into its mould (Romans 12:2a J.B. Phillips)? Have you let life’s experiences overwhelm you? Then it’s time to get up with determination and move in the Holy Spirit and discover again the Joy of the Lord. Jesus is not diminished by the world. His Love has not diminished; His promise of the Holy Spirit has not diminished.

“You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

Bob Reed is the Priest in Charge at St. Peter’s Anglican Church Okotoks Alberta.