‘Smell the color 9′ is a song by Chris Rice that has got me thinking about Christianity in general. Here are the lyrics:

I would take ‘no’ for an answer
Just to know I heard You speak
And I’m wonderin’ why I’ve never
Seen the signs they claim they see
A lot of special revelations
Meant for everybody but me
Maybe I don’t truly know You
Or maybe I just simply believe

‘Cause I can sniff, I can see
And I can count up pretty high
But these faculties aren’t getting me
Any closer to the sky
But my heart of faith keeps poundin’
So I know I’m doin’ fine
But sometimes finding You
Is just like trying to
Smell the color nine

Now I’ve never ‘felt the presence’
But I know You’re always near
And I’ve never ‘heard the calling’
But somehow You’ve led me right here
So I’m not looking for burning bushes
Or some divine graffiti to appear
I’m just beggin’ You for Your wisdom
And I believe You’re puttin’ some here

‘Cause I can sniff, I can speak,
And I can count up pretty high
But these faculties aren’t getting me
Any closer to the sky
But my heart of faith keeps poundin’
So I know I’m doin’ fine
But sometimes finding You
Is just like trying to
Smell the color nine

Smell the color nine?
But nine’s not a color
And even if it were, you can’t smell a color
That’s my point exactly…

Now the song starts off saying what we’ve all been through. You know that point in your life when you’re praying and you need God to answer, you just ask to hear His voice in order for you to make  a decision but He’s all majestically quiet? I know we’ve all been there. I don’t know one person who always prays and always gets an immediate answer from God. Sometimes you want Him to even say ‘no’ but at least you’ve heard from Him. And even the next line about never seeing the signs people claim to see might be true. It’s not like every single person has had a miraculous healing or touched someone and immediately they leaped off their wheelchair. Sometimes we wonder if we’re really in the truth when we don’t have such miraculous testimonies to tell.

What got me really sad however is the second verse. He says he’s ‘never felt the presence’. How can we say we’re Christian and be in Him for 30 years (that’s approximately how long Chris Rice has been saved) and never have felt His presence? It is a sad, sad state of affairs. It got me thinking about many a Christian. Sometimes people tell me that all it takes is a knowledge within you that He exists and that’s all. You don’t need to feel him and you don’t need to do all those crazy things people do of jumping up and down and even speaking in tongues. Oh how they don’t know! They don’t know what it’s like to actually FEEL God. To physically know that you’ve been touched by Him. In the book of Acts, the apostles didn’t tell people that all they had to do was know in their hearts that they’ve been saved. No! There was an actual manifestation when people came to the Lord.

I’ve heard people say, ‘I love the Lord and I’m Christian but those things of speaking in tongues are just weird’. Yes, I’m tongue-talking. Yes, I’m weird. But if I’m weird then I’d like to be weird the way that the first church was. People who have never received the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in another tongue have no idea. And oh how it makes me sad to hear someone who’s been in the church for decades but has never felt God’s presence in their lives. Feeling God is not like ‘trying to smell the colour nine’. It’s as real and physical as drunkenness. When you’ve had a glass or two of wine you can tell that you’re tipsy, you’re getting drunk. And even someone who’s drunk knows full well they’re completely drunk and there are things they know they can’t do. Why is it so hard for people to believe that I can be drunk in the Holy Spirit? There’s a level of inebriation and freedom that comes over you once you’ve got the Holy Ghost in your life. People look at me strange sometimes when I tell them I speak in tongues and many times they want to run away from me because they think I’ve run mad. Others say to me, ‘ok, start talking in tongues now’. Paul said, ‘I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all’ (I Corithians 14:18), and he is hailed as one of the greatest missionaries of the Christian world. Didn’t he write over half of the New Testament? We quote him often but do not know the Spirit that was behind his writings.

Many times I invite people to church and I start worrying what they’ll think. We Apostolic Pentecostals are a crazy bunch with our jumping and dancing for the Lord. We are not afraid to pray aloud, run up and down the aisles, dance for the Lord, and even just stand there with our arms raised and tears running down our faces. Church can be crazy for newcomers and I worry all the time. But one thing I know is that I ‘feel’ God in the church. I know He’s there and it’s not just a faith thing where I will keep hoping He speaks to me, but He has. I have testimony after testimony of the things God has done for me. I have seen signs and wonders, clearly heard the voice of God (you can all unfriend me now on fb if I’m too weird) and gotten special revelations. We cannot say we’re Christian and just be content with hoping someday we’ll feel God or hear His voice. We need to get up and tell Him we are tired of waiting for His voice.

It is sad to hear people who have been in the church for ages and have not heard of the workings of the Holy Spirit. It’s like Acts 19 when Paul asked some disciples of John the Baptist, ‘Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?’ and they answered, ‘We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost’ (Acts 19:2). We cannot think that it’s ok to not know if God actually exists, because the devil will try to convince you He doesn’t. Unless we can feel Him for ourselves and we can see what He has done can we know that the devil is a liar and bring out our testimonies. I get so sad and my heart is heavy for people who say they’ve known God for many years but ‘have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost’. What Bible are they reading? What parts are they skipping over? How is their prayer life? We need to have this hunger for God that won’t let us leave until we’re fully baptised in His Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not just a third person in the godhead, or some Spirit floating about the air giving us peace. He needs to dwell in us and give us fire. Fill us to a point where we can no longer doubt that we believe in the one true God.

I may be strange and weird and even lose friends but I want to stir someone up to seek God’s face more diligently. Of all the times I’ve run away from God and even fallen into sin, I’ve always known that when I felt God it was real. I’ve always known that no matter how far I run, there’s a God who I know for a fact exists and is waiting for me. He’s after all spoken to me, given me visions and dreams, physically touched my body. I KNOW without a shadow of a doubt He exists. If you say you’re Christian, I hope you stop thinking that signs, wonders and revelations are meant for ‘everyone but me’. That thinking is wrong and we need to get rid of it. I’m afraid this song speaks to majority of Christianity though. We need to rise up out of our apathy and truly seek God to actually prove He exists.

I’m not even speaking to people who don’t believe in a God, people who don’t want to hear about this faith thing. I’m speaking to people who have believed in God, trusted Him and dedicated their lives to serve Him. I’m speaking to all who profess Christ. Jacob fought with an angel all night and refused to let him go until he blessed him (Genesis 34:22-28), why can we not ‘tarry a little while’ in the presence of God until we feel Him. Let’s not let Him go until he blesses us. I remember telling a friend of mine that I’d been praying for like the past 30min and he was surprised and said, ‘as you have many things to ask God for’. In our minds prayer is asking for things and maybe mostly it is but when you’re filled with His Spirit, sometimes it’s just glorying in His majesty. You may be physically tired and want to get up off your knees but you can’t because ‘the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us’ (Romans 8:26). I just hope I’ve spoken to someone today who can’t feel God or isn’t even sure if the God they serve is real.