Close Encounters of a God Kind

GOD’S WORD: Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.  Then their eyes were opened, and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight.  And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?” – Luke 24: 30-32 

By Glenn Miller

I remember seeing the movie Close Encounters of a Third Kind when I was in High School; a 1977 American science fiction drama film written and directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon and Teri Garr. The film depicts the story of Roy Neary, an everyday blue-collar worker in Indiana, whose life changes after an encounter with an unidentified flying object, and Jillian, a single mother whose three-year-old son was also abducted by a UFO. The title is derived from Ufologist J. Allen Hynek’s classification of close encounters with extraterrestrials, in which the third kind denotes human observations of extraterrestrials or “animate beings”. I won’t give away the plot for those who haven’t seen the film, but I’m awestruck remembering my own encounters, not with UFOs but with the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit. I’d like to tell you about one:

In January of 1989, I was transferred by my company from East Texas to Oklahoma City. My wife and 3-year-old daughter at the time made the trek on an icy, cold wintry day in my pickup that took us 14 hours to make, creeping along the road inches at a time. Once settled in, we began looking for a church home. I had grown up in one church all of my life and felt it was home but after moving to Oklahoma City, no church we visited offered that same warm, fuzzy feeling like I had back home. I figured I just had to jump in and see what grew from being involved. But more devastating than not finding a warm, fuzzy church, I felt that God didn’t know who I was anymore; that He didn’t get my forwarding address. I tried obsessively for the next ten months trying to “earn” my way back into God’s recognition; that if I was good enough, He would take notice of me and return to me the feeling and relationship I had with Him when I was home in East Texas. The more I tried to earn my righteousness, the further away He seemed to be.

Finally, in October of that same year, I was going from Edmond to Oklahoma City down the Broadway Extension when I began to pray to God. I was angry with God because I was doing all I knew to do; singing in the choir, serving on church boards, reading my Bible, listening only to Christian radio stations, you name it. But the more I did, the further part from Him I felt. I prayed to God, “God, I’m doing everything I know to do to have the right relationship with you but you either don’t recognize what I’m doing or don’t care! If you want a relationship with me, you’re going to have to do something yourself! Show me a sign! The ball’s in your court because as of now, I GIVE UP!”

And with those three words, it happened.

Immediately, I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit fall over me like a blanket of peace and power. It was like Jesus showed up in the passenger seat next to me, telling me “It’s about time you give up. It’s not about what you do, it’s only about what I did on the cross for you.”

I had to pull over. I was both frightened and crying tears of joy as I was bathed with unconditional love and a supernatural understanding of how much God loves me and how close He is at all times. My life has never been the same since. Selectively telling others about this experience, many initially found me to be weird or that I hadn’t gotten enough sleep. But others helped me to understand that what I experienced was the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

I’ve had many encounters with the Holy Spirit since then, almost on a daily basis. There have been numerous occasions when I’ve felt His tangible presence, particularly in worship. Yet I also bask in His presence in nature, in His Living Word (scripture) and through music. He often shows up on the faces of others around me, particularly my beautiful Spirit-filled wife, Sharon.

The Holy Spirit is not a ghost as I was led to believe as a child, but the tangible presence of God in our lives every day. For those who are ready to stop trying to earn God’s righteousness on their own accord, and simply GIVE UP, trusting that Jesus’ price paid on the cross for your righteousness is enough.

And it was.