Old and cynical
Sometimes I really think I am getting old and cynical.
I went to church yesterday, and there was a visiting preacher who was teaching about "prophetic ministry". Now although I believe in the prophetic, I am always rather wary when it comes to things like this. Actually, I'm wary when it comes to any teaching on the various spiritual gifts, period. Coz, well, sometimes the emphasis on these spiritual gifts gets a bit too extreme and can be taken too far.
Anyway, I prayed before the service that I would be open to hear whatever God wanted to teach me that day. The preacher talked about how praise is a weapon given to us to use in spiritual warfare, which I believe is true. The Paul and Silas prison incident reinforces that, not to mention numerous other references in the Bible. When we praise God, things start to happen behind the scenes, so to speak.
But after that the preacher had us all get up to sing a "warring song" (Days of Elijah) and told us all to clap. Later he stopped the music and instructed us to dance -- or more like jump up and down -- because "when you dance, you are stomping your feet on the enemy". We kept on singing the chorus over and over again, and he began encouraging people to come on stage and dance, which they did. Then he stopped the music and INSISTED that everybody dance. He said he would come and MAKE us dance if we didn't. We sang the chorus a few times again and then he again stopped the music and reiterated his directive to dance. "The Lord told me, 'Get them to dance!'" he announced to the congregation.
That's the point where I left. I take very poorly to any sort of coercion and I really don't like it when someone comes up and tries to make me do something. Especially in church. I don't think it's right for anybody to tell me I have to worship God in a certain way (eg. by dancing) and I'm not going to do it just because a preacher orders me to do so.
I'm probably being rebellious, I suppose. I walked out coz I couldn't take it anymore -- the constant repeating of the four lines of chorus, everybody enthusiastically jumping onto the bandwagon (pun intended)... and of course it helped that the worship band played stirring, thumping, rhythmic music. See, I told you I was old and cynical!
I really think I might have an attitude problem coz I don't know of anybody else who had a difficulty with what was going on. It really is different strokes for different folks -- my cousins said the service had been "fun" (fun?!) and the younger one, Grace, said that if church was like that all the time, she wouldn't mind going four times a week! The older one, Yean, said at least he had explained why he wanted us to dance. If I were the type to take everything a preacher says at face value, and had accepted his statement about "stomping on the enemy", I'd probably have enthusiastically hopped up and down too. But I dunno, I was just extremely sceptical. Where in the Bible does it say that by dancing during worship, God's people are stomping on the devil?
Maybe I have issues with authority. Submission and all that. If the preacher wants me to dance, I should just dance...? But I couldn't bring myself to do that!! At least that guy was a visiting preacher. Hopefully next week my church service will be back to normal... haha.