What are your experiences when praying in Church

a reply to: Tristran

Back in the day, mid 80s, I was a deacon in a Christian congregation. There was a set schedule that the elders used for offering the Invocation. One Sunday, an elder asked me to substitute for him the next week because he was going to be out of town. I agreed.

So I looked up invocation in a dictionary "a prayer invoking God's presence, especially one said at the beginning of a religious service." Pretty straightforward.

So the next week I went up to the right hand (as viewed by congregation) lectern and said, "I'm going to ask God to join us, so bow your heads." I asked Him to join us and He did.

Judging by the rather loud startled gasps from the congregation, there must have been three or four who had neglected to bow their heads.

originally posted by: pthena
"I'm going to ask God to join us, so bow your heads." I asked Him to join us and He did.

Judging by the rather loud startled gasps from the congregation, there must have been three or four who had neglected to bow their heads.

Were they gasping because they :-
a) saw the Spirit of the Lord.
b) were shocked to see 3-4 people prove that they were not true Christians ?

If (a), then this shows that Yahushua is only too happy to use you as a conduit for His Spirit.

a reply to: Tristran

I don't know what anybody perceived. I didn't ask them. Maybe they experienced personal gnosis.

I don't particularly think that someone who failed to follow my "orders" was not a "true" Christian.

No one died (Acts 5) and no one got up and left.

a reply to: Tristran

Edit time exceeded. I would like to revise a line.
Instead of:

Maybe they experienced personal gnosis.

Insert:
Perhaps they had a numinous encounter.

Edit To Add:

I took a creative writing class in the 70s. The professor handed out a one page piece of his own writing to the class as an example. It was titled something like: Why I became a Christian. Basically: "I became a Satanist because I thought something real would happen. When I figured out that nothing real would happen, I became a Christian, because Christians never do expect anything real to happen."

That writing of his bothered me quite a bit. Notice I still remember it.

The assignment was to write a short autobiographical story. Larping wasn't a thing yet. That's probably why he didn't understand my story and gave me a rather low grade. Basically:

The boy wearing short pants and a tee shirt goes down to the canyon where the bamboo grows. He chops down a stalk, then attaches the butter knife that he used to the stalk with electrical tape. He then heads further down the canyon where the willow trees grow.

The adolescent in loincloth checks the tightness of the dried sinew holding the obsidian head to his spear shaft, then follows the game trail into the underbrush. He freezes when he hears rustling ahead. A five foot long rat with very sharp teeth comes into view. They face off, gauging each other's strengths and weaknesses.

Looking each other in the eye, they calculate and compare probable expected damage with amount of hunger. They each turn around and go back the direction they came from.

When the boy in shorts and tee shirt gets home, he untapes the butter knife from the bamboo stalk and thinks about the sharpness of opossum teeth.
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I'm sure the professor thought his paper was better then mine. I disagree.

I have great experiences in prayer but no usually in the church building. Mostly away from the organized gathering place.

I have seen many prayers answered and many that were not.

But prayer to God usually brings me closer and gives me a sense of oneness and undoubtfulness in God's words as found in his preserved word.