Like all across the globe, more and more USA youth ministries will begin to embrace the power and miraculous works of the Holy Spirit. Youth ministry will do this not because of “some cool new idea”, rather youth ministries will be forced to rely on the miraculous works of the Holy Spirit.
Our existential students desire and thrive on experience. Thankfully the miraculous works of the Holy Spirit generate remarkable experiences for students, which they will never forget.
I suspect many students in our YM have:
* seen dark angels
* not experienced the transformative power and manifestations of the Holy Spirit
* toyed with some of the new agey spirituality, including wigi boards, tarot cards, palm reading, and psychics
* a type of demonic suppression that has a deep strong hold on them, namely depression, pornography, suicidal thoughts, identity crisis
*not seen a miraculous deed
* not participated in an intense intercessory prayer session
The New Testament church heavily relied upon the renewal in the Holy Spirit, a willingness to accept the presence of signs and wonders, a belief in the reality of the demonic, and a willingness to enter into intercessory fasting and prayer in order to make a difference in the Spiritual realm.
I don’t care what tradition you come from or what seminary you attended: the spiritual realm is alive, present, and very active TODAY. There are many forces working against us (include the dark force). We must abandon the cessationism tradition. There are too many crazy spiritual phenomenas happening all across the globe, which we must accept.
Our youth ministries must become very familiar we naturally dealing with the supernatural. Dallas Willard says that we should come to a point that we expect to see the miraculous outbreak of the Kingdom take place as an “ordinary” part of our “extraordinary” Christian lives.
Bottom line: if a student encounters the Spirit of God in real ways, then we don’t have to articulate a case for faith. This is why teaching students how to pray is insanely important! If we can teach students to push back on the dark forces in their life, this is sooo huge!!
I think all of us have much to learn about the Kingdom’s supernatural power. Unfortunately, I am having to learn on the fly because in my present context we have seen a lot of crazy spiritual phenomena happening with our students.
Would you be freaked out if I told you, I had to pray for a student who was channeling dark spirits; and the Holy Spirit manifested itself in this student pretty intensely?
I think the best youth ministries are the youth ministries that can stimulate the students’ mind, heal their soul, and provide environments where they can encounter and experience the power of God’s Holy Spirit.
© 2009, Jeremy Zach. All rights reserved.
