WHEN THE ANNOINTING TAKES AWAY MORE THAN YOUR SINS

WHEN THE ANNOINTING TAKES AWAY MORE THAN YOUR SINS

Here I am studying while  listening to gospel songs. I managed to distract myself and started watching the videos. As I watched the people dancing to the songs, I could see how they connected spiritually. This made me recount the moments that I “felt” the spirit of God in church. This specific one stood out! 

 I remember going to church on what seemed like an ordinary day.  I had just joined the church which was to become and remain my church of choice to date. However, in regard to this particular memory, I was no longer a newbie at the church; I had been to a few services already. It was long enough to have been acclimated to the dress code of the church ladies. They always looked elegant with a great sense of style that my fresh-Kenyan-in-Germany look could not beat. God being so good and merciful, my good friend; one of the ladies I admired, became my stylist. She tried to pimp my uncool clothes; mostly to no avail. 

On this particular Sunday, she had encouraged me to wear a wig to cover my natural hair. Natural hair was not yet as well accepted then. Moreover I had no idea how to work with my hair back then. I had about three hairstyles: a sad twist out, braiding and keeping it short. Some of us know well enough that those youtube videos don’t work; especially for the first few tries . It’s usually more tragic than successful outcomes! It happened 9 out of 10 times; this is my truth.

On the  aforementioned day, I was having a wonderful time in church. My then shy self was sitted and enjoying the service from afar. On this day, our pastor decided to preach thunder! Everyone was in the spirit. People were falling under the anointing while he preached.

 I was not used to this! I mean the church I  attended in Kenya did not have all these shenanigans. If anything, my friends and I made fun of the older people who would speak in tongues. When our pastor ended the sermon, I was thankful that I was not part of the shenanigans I just witnessed.  How do people fall just like that? I mean are they pretending? You should atleast have some strength to stand straight. 

Dear brothers and sisters, be careful what you think in church. When you hear that God exposes us, it is true. Okay maybe that’s a little bit too dramatic but just stick with me and you can be the judge of that… While we were standing for the last prayer to end the preaching, the pastor called for an altar call.  “If you are struggling with finances, come to the front. If you are struggling with forgiveness, I feel anointing for you today, come to the front and let me pray for you…” he said.

My innocent self decided that it was time to get rid of one of the struggles that he had mentioned. I can’t remember which one exactly took me there but I was at the front with a couple of other people. He started  praying and laying his hands on us from the left side of the line where I was the second person. The person next to me fell and internally I was like,

“aaah come on! Hmm that can’t and won’t be me. I am not falling for no one! My business here is to get my problems taken away which I don’t think necessarily includes me falling.”

Then he got to me, he looked me straight in the eye, dipped his hand in the oil jar that the usher was holding next to him and started praying. A second faster than I had anticipated, I felt one of his hands press on my forehead and one at the back of my head.  

I knew that was what he was going to do since I had been peeping while he was praying for the person before me. Irrespective…I felt this warmth rush through my body. From head to toe! That, ladies and gentlemen, was exactly how I lost my strength and consciousness for what felt like a split second. 

What brought me back to consciousness was the realization that my wig was loosening. The pins that I had badly secured also lost their strength and gave way. To the human beings who wear wigs, I am sure you know the feeling. To those of you who have never worn wigs, I am sure you have worn hats and more than once, almost lost them or even lost them altogether. To awaken your imagination a little bit more, imagine that that hat was really tight to a point that it felt like it was part of your own skin. So when the wind blows,you feel a cold breeze you know you should not feel. . Simultaneously, you feel the hat move and it feels like you are losing your soul. Losing your soul feels like a cold breeze across your head when you know you are not supposed to feel it. 

That’s exactly what I felt as I went down. I was confused and had nothing to hold on to.

You are probably thinking “you could have held on to your wig then!” Right? Wrong! Remember I  told you that my pastor had held my five head (get it? big forehead?) and the back of my head? So there was no way I was going to free myself from his hands. That could have easily been interpreted as me fighting with the spirit or the anointed man of God. Trust me you don’t want that. So at this point I chose my fate which was pure embarazzzment (more than embarrassment). When I finally landed on the floor, my pastor also realized that he had more than my head in his hands. My unwilling soulless wig was also laying in his palms. 

Upon this realization, he put my wig next to me, on the floor where I was laying and continued to pray for the other people. 

So I laid there. And I laid down some more. I tried contemplating what to do at this point since I definitely knew that people had seen all this. I tried discreetly opening my eyes  to see what was going on with the congregation. The first thing I saw was my sorry wig laying next to me. “I should wake up, take my wig, run out of the church and never come back” I thought “Dear God, I know that I was doubting your spirit but did you need to manifest yourself through my wig?” I thought about it some more. What did it do to you? Is it a sign that I should not wear it ever again? Could you then please help me vanish?” You know what they say, too much thought leads to inaction. I felt a hand lifting me up. The person lifting me directed me to the nearest seat as my knees were still weak.  I have to say that I do not remember how I wore my wig back. 

All I remember was the women commenting and laughing at me after church. Of course I pretended that I did not care or rather like Njugush would say, “mhhh ata sijaskia vibaya( “mhh, I didn’t feel bad” or rather, “it doesn’t affect me”). But I learnt two important lessons. One, be careful how you think about the spirit, especially in church. Two, you can’t trust those hairpins in church. They also can be overpowered and directed by the spirit .