SLAIN IN THE SPIRIT

©Danna Shirley

The Bible calls it falling under the power of God but among Charismatics today it is called being slain in the Spirit (see scriptures). I’m sure a more profound description can be given by Biblical scholars; however, I will just tell you of my experience.

            

The first two times I was slain by the power of God was during two Evangelistic meetings in Gautier, Mississippi. A guest Evangelist, David Alsobrook from Brentwood, TN spoke at our church in February 1992, just prior to my family moving to Japan in June. I had listened to his cassette tapes and read his books and monthly newsletter for years. When his schedule brought him to south Mississippi, I asked my pastor if we could invite him to speak at our church and Brother Tolar graciously gave him four nights. We were packed out with visitors, as several other churches announced his meetings.

            

Attending Charismatic services throughout my years as a Christian, I had witnessed several believers being slain in the Spirit so it was not foreign to me. I, however, had never been touched in that way and had already accepted the fact that it probably would never happen to me.

            

The first night’s altar call was for a specific purpose I felt didn’t apply and so I did not go forward but stayed in the back of the church. Those who did go up were on the floor in a short time. Then David gave a general call for prayer. Since my sixteen-year-old niece had just been injured in a head-on collision, I decided I would ask him to pray for her. I had rehearsed in my mind how I would explain her injuries and how he would pray an eloquent prayer and then move on to the next person. 

            

David began stepping over bodies and started walking up the aisle toward me. I wasn’t prepared for what happened next. As I opened my mouth to tell him about my niece, he didn’t even listen! He just touched my forehead and I went down like a rock! Evidently, you don’t have to tell anyone the details of a prayer need . . . God knows already! I don’t know how long I lay in the aisle and I assume people were stepping over me as well.

            

The second and third nights of David’s messages were also met with many people being touched by God. That doesn’t mean everyone present is slain in the Spirit, but it does mean that the Spirit’s presence, if allowed, will definitely change some lives.

            

When it was known my family was moving to Japan, I had received many “words” from well-meaning friends who said I would have a ministry to the Japanese people. So, on the fourth night, when David gave an altar call for those who wanted to step out in their ministry, I went forward. I couldn’t imagine what kind of “ministry” I might have because up until this time I had been a behind-the-scenes worker, just quietly doing my job. I didn’t necessarily want or need to be seen by anyone. 

            

Several of us went up for prayer and David went down the line praying for each one. When he got to me, although he had already heard I was going to Japan, he said, “I see you ministering to Americans.” Then he touched my forehead and moved on without another word. I fell backward and couldn’t move. It was February and I remember thinking, “It’s awfully hot in here. I wish I had taken off this sweater!” 

            

When David came back down the line, he pointed at me and said, “God is all over you!” I believed him because I knew then that the heat I was feeling was the Holy Spirit’s fire and it was coming from the inside out. It would have been so easy for David to tell me my ministry was to the Japanese people; however, I don’t credit him for knowing anything except that he listened to the Holy Spirit and spoke as this word of knowledge was given to him. Yes, my ministry was to Americans!

            

Although I witnessed to a few Japanese people in the five years we lived in Japan and I also taught a few English classes, my ministry was mainly to the Navy wives whose husbands were stationed in Sasebo, Japan. I taught a Bible study for four years, led Praise and Worship for the Charismatic service at the base chapel, and even preached a few times from the pulpit.  I coordinated the Harvest Party (Halloween) for three years and in general just did whatever came up. So, in essence, I did have a ministry to Americans!

            

Now fast forward a few years to 1994 . . .

            

Aaron, my youngest, was now a very difficult thirteen-year-old having many problems in school; especially with his P. E. teacher. Ron and I had received numerous phone calls about his behavior and we were all strongly warned what would happen if he didn’t correct his attitude. Ron threatened him and I cajoled him to behave himself and clean up his act.

So-o-o . . . the last time I was slain in the Spirit was during a Sunday night Charismatic service. We had several sailors who attended when their ship was in port and one of them, John Reed, arrived to say God was giving him one word he strongly felt was meant for someone in the service. The word was “struggle!”

            

Our Chaplain said if anyone felt this word was for them, they should come up for prayer. I knew with every fiber of my being that it was for me so I jumped up and ran to the front. Chaplain stood before me and his wife stood behind me. As he began to pray, it felt as if my body was being lifted off the floor and the only part of me that touched earth was my toes. I fell under the power of God and when I opened my eyes, I saw a vision of the word, struggle, blinking like a neon light. Then a wave of water washed over it and every time it blinked it faded more and more until it was washed away completely. Then all I saw was the bottom of a folding chair. I don’t know how I got under there without hurting myself but I know I didn’t hit my head.

            

I left the service floating on air and continued to float throughout the week. All the “struggles” I was experiencing with Aaron seemed to be under my feet and I was in the clouds. By Thursday, Aaron was suspended from school . . . and I was still floating. God knew what I would be facing and He prepared me to rise above the circumstances and keep my eyes on Him. 

            

I’d like to point out that I’ve experienced being slain in the Spirit only three times this intensely in my years as a Christian. God can get our attention this way; however, He also can get our attention with His “still, small voice.” (1 Kings 19:12)

            

There might be some skeptics who would view this as exaggerated or melodramatic but no one can tell me it didn’t happen because I encountered the presence of God myself and HE IS AWESOME! 

It has been said, “A man with an argument

                     is no match for a man with an experience.”   --Unknown

“And it came about when the priests came from the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.” (1 Kings 8:10-11)

“...when the trumpeters and the singers were to make themselves heard with one voice to praise and to glorify the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice accompanied by trumpets

and cymbals and instruments of music, and when they praised the Lord saying, ‘He indeed is good for His lovingkindness is everlasting,’ then the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priest could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.” (2 Chron 5:14 NAS)

“And it came about that as he [Saul] journeyed, he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground...” (Acts 9:3-4 NAS)

“I [John] was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day...And when I saw Him [Jesus], I fell at His feet as a dead man.” (Rev 1:10, 17 NAS)

                       

June 2007, Postscript"

As I wrote in my story, “...it felt as if my body was being lifted off the floor and the only part of me that touched earth was my toes.” I wondered if the reader would actually believe me or would they consider this an overstatement as I was caught up in the drama of the moment. I had a hard time believing it myself . . . until I found the following account written in a book I was reading in September 2008:

          Rapture of any sort has about it an element of transport. It is as moving as it is resplendent, but its resplendence cannot be defined.

          No dictionary can make this real to us; it is too experiential to be defined.  Things real but indefinable we call mystery, and mystery lies at the heart of rapture.  Those who have known it attest to its reality by their failure to define it. Dumb before its power, they confess, “The greatest meaning that may be known is buried in a mystery so deep that I cannot express its reality to fit within the mind of another.”  Still, it is a state to be praised, for its sweetness lingers in the heart and leaves all those who have experienced it with the need to experience it again and again . . .

          At such a moment—at the peak of rapture—we not only are at a loss to define it, we also can no longer explain it to those who witness our captivity to its spell. We know only that to be lost in the joy of knowing God is, in itself, a kind of elation. If we are spiritually healthy, we never get addicted to the elation, but to the Savior. And we find rapture an immense aid in carrying us over the rough and painful places of our lives.

          I once visited a cave in Spain where Saint Teresa of Avila and Saint John of the Cross became so lost in the rapture of their prayers, that they levitated—at least, this is what the natives say. Whether they actually levitated may be questioned, but surely they experienced a buoyancy in their joy.*

I was so happy to find this actually written down. It confirmed that my deep experience with God has also been experienced by others.  It also defined what God was doing at the time . . . “carrying [me] over the rough and painful places” with Aaron.

* Loving God Up Close – Rekindling Your Relationship with the Holy Spirit

Calvin Miller, 2004, pages 144 and 145.