52 GOOD MORNING, HOLY SPIRIT
Easterners consider it unthinkable to disobey parents.
But now I was nearly twenty-one. And I vividly recall the
night I summoned the boldness to tell my father, "I'll obey
you on anything you want, but on the matter of going to
church I will not obey you. I must obey the Lord!"
He was stunned. You'd have thought someone had shot
him. And he seemed to bristle even more.
Out of respect, I did my best to be obedient. I'd ask him,
"Can I go to the meeting tonight?" He'd say no, and I would
go to my room and pray, "Please, Lord, please change his
mind."
Then I'd go back downstairs and ask again. "Can I go?"
"No," he'd growl. And back up I'd go.
Little by little, he began to give in. He knew it was a
losing battle. The Catacombs rented another building for
services on Sunday, and I was right there. Bible studies
were on Tuesday and Friday, and a youth meeting on
Saturday night. These meetings became my whole life.
In the two years after my conversion, my spiritual
growth was like a rocket's moving into orbit. By the end of
1973 Merv and Merla Watson were inviting me to join
them on the platform to help lead in worship and singing.
But I couldn't speak in public.
Jim Poynter, the spirit-filled Free Methodist pastor, had
seen me there. And one day he stopped by the kiosk at the
mall just to talk about the things of the Lord. That's when
he invited me to go with him to the Kuhlman meeting in
Pittsburgh.
My personal encounter with the Holy Spirit after that
meeting was awesome. But it took a few days for me to
realize the dimensions of God's revelation to me.