It was a seemingly normal day in the life of pastor and prolific author R.T. Kendall when he cried out to the Lord. A young pastor burdened with the needs of his church, he was also challenged by the demands of his college classes. He met the new day downtrodden and weary.
Kendall shared the story of how the Lord lifted his heavy burden on a recent Greenelines podcast.
“One Monday morning on my way back from Palmer, Tennessee to my college, I had an unusual experience with the Holy Spirit. I have never had anything like that before. I’m driving down old U.S. 41 toward Nashville, and praying Scriptures as they came to my mind,” he said.
Kendall specifically recalled two Scriptures.
“The first one was ‘casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.’ The other one was ‘My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.’
“And I thought, Lord, my burden is heavy. Please help me—help me to cast all my cares upon You,” he said.
Kendall described what happened next.
“All of a sudden, right while I’m driving, I see Jesus interceding for me, more real than you are right now. And He was praying for me, and I burst into tears. I thought, He loves me more than I love myself. And for the next hour, I was just a spectator. I just stopped praying, I just watched.
“About an hour later, I heard Jesus say to the Father, these words, ‘He wants it.’ I heard the Father answer back, ‘He can have it.’ And that moment was like liquid fire that went into my heart, and there was a warmth in my chest. And I was given a peace and a joy unlike anything I’ve ever had in my life. I didn’t know you could have that. I had no idea of such, as I knew I was assured of my salvation. I knew I was eternally saved. And before the day was over, my theology changed. And I’ve never been the same since. That was my introduction to the power of the Holy Spirit,” he said.
Kendall’s divine appointment with the Holy Spirit on that Monday morning launched a lifetime of seeking and understanding the need for a convergence of Word and Spirit.
“My way of doing things is to simply preach the Bible. Just start with the Word,” he said. “I don’t care if it’s a Word church or spiritual word people; I pray for the anointing. And I try to preach messages that are a fast track to know more of the Holy Spirit. And the message for which I’m best known is called ‘Total Forgiveness.'”
Kendall’s live message produces transformation. “If I can lead Spirit people or Word people to forgive, totally, it opens their hearts, and it does something to them. And Word and Spirit converge in a moment when people totally forgive their enemies and those who have hurt them, and then they pray for them and ask them to be blessed. And that path will open a person up as quickly as any message that I’ve ever had. It’s a life-changing message–it has transformational power.”
Whether by Word or Spirit, God leads us to forgive.
Click here to listen to this episode of Greenlines with special guest Dr. R.T. Kendall. {eoa}
Dr. Steve Greene is the publisher and executive vice president of the multimedia group at Charisma Media and the executive producer of the Charisma Podcast Network.
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