Spiritual Awakening : (SWC)

This is my entry for @jerrybanfield Supernatural Writing Contest, it's a great opportunity to share a story about my life that I seldom let out of the bag.

I grew up up in a predominantly Catholic family, where we were simply taught the basics Of The Christian faith. We were taught every now and then from the Jerusalem Bible and Sunday Missal. Mary the Mother of God holds a very primal position in the devotion of Catholics.

My major issue with the church was my inability to agree with too many of the church's doctrines which most times had mundane or traditional explanations rather than scriptural or biblical view points.

Just like the Old Testament priesthood, I never really had that deep rooted and personal encounter with the God I was serving. God was represented in forms and symbols, so many ceremonial displays but lacking power.
I was in dire need of a spiritual awakening. Yes, even a touch of it.

This was my earnest daily pains and desires, that God could relate with me on a more personal basis.
I felt the priest didn't always have to come in between me and my devotion and service to God.

One other issue that got me thrown off balance was the rite of confessions or what the Roman Catholic Church called penance. Where a man or woman would go to meet a priest who is also a sinner like him and unworthy, to confess and ask for forgiveness of sins. The priest most times would declare them "forgiven". A right that only God was to enjoy .

My other bone of contention was the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory which taught us that after death, there was such a place kept by God for sinners to be purified and made holy in order to be able to enter heaven (a place if eternal rest and reward for those who lived right and Holy).
This was not only hieresy, it was outright lies and non scriptural.

Then the issue of idol worship came in, where we had to bow down to various moulded images like that of Mary the Mother of Jesus and many other dead apostles or sometimes earthly priests that had been canonised with the title of Saint. I struggled hard to agree with this in totality because the Christian Bible strongly admonished against worship of any image irrespective of whose image it was. These again increased my yearning and desire for a spiritual awakening of some sort. I needed help so much because I could feel my own emptiness as that of qn empty ocean seeking to be visited by the rain or even the dews.

It wasn't yet over for me as I had to battle with yet another issue I found controversial, the excessive involvement of the church in deep rooted traditional and cultural activities which did not quite reflect the teachings of Christ and the apostles. My understanding of what the church was, was that of a body of folks that had been called out of darkness into God's glorious light. Why then was the church so involved in these fetish practices. No one was able to give credible answers to my questions. I was like a sheep lacking a shepherd, without direction.

The church system was so stiff necked and unrepentant that it didn't allow for any revelational insights. It held on to ancient religious dogma and need less practises. I read the scriptures over time as I had the inspiration to, I heard of lots of miracles and signs that were performed by Christ and His disciples. Why then could I not feel any of those personally?

I desired for a relationship not merely a religion. I yearned for an encounter not merely a practise. I needed a revolution in revelation, such that the church could not give at the moment. I was really tired of the "Mass" and daily communion taking, with water spraying and ash Wednesdays. Yes we had enough ceremonies to celebrate but I needed an encounter.

How about the dead that I read were raised and the sick that were healed forever? What of the signs from heaven, The transfiguration of the Christ?

Why could my hands not perform these miracles too? I thought the Good Book had said that we were in God's image and likeness created? I sought for that likeness day and night I couldn't exactly see how I resembled God in prototype or original.

I was hungry, very hungry : not for food, water nor pleasures, I was hungry for that divine awakening. I needed that supernatural touch, that magic wand that could rearrange my whole life and give me that feeling of great belonging and love .

I was the created who didn't quite know my creator. I yearned to know that one God who breathed into me and I became a living being.

Desperation got the whole of me, desperation and curiosity. I began to be hungry for that supernatural touch u yearned for. It's true that curiosity is the mother of invention, this was true for me because I started noticing somethings I never used to feel before in my entire Christian life.

I began to invest more and more time in the study of scriptures, before long I was well vested in various bible portions and verses.
In the year 2007, January 4th precisely, I had an encounter with the Holy Spirit. I found myself speaking in various languages, this to me was strange but I felt such deep happiness inside me that came with fulfilment and inner joy..

Then something occurred that I will never forget. Towards my last years in the University, a colleague slumped and died instantly in an examination Hall. She was confirmed death few minutes later by the school physicians and was about to be ported to the morgue.

Then a sudden inward push asked me to stop them. A voice was strongly saying I should not allow Henrietta get into the mortuary. I felt dizzy and lazy to obey but somehow I did. I began to pray with so much boldness and a strange confidence. A sign I had the Holy Spirit in me.

People were just looking at me queerly as I spoke in tongues, giving the dead girl a press on her chest. Then the unusual happened.

Henrietta sneezed, coughed and came back to life. She opened her eyes and asked what had happened to her.

I fell on my knees and wept profusely, so God could hear my prayers and even answer them?
This was what I needed all my life! I was so happy that I sang through out that day and then fell asleep only to awake the next day.

What a Spiritual Awakening it was after all!

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