Reflecting the next day about a conversation a very close friend of mine and I had over breakfast, I realized something that He, my other two close friends, and I had in common this past year.
Epiphany
Dictionary.com defines epiphany as:
A comprehension or perception of reality by means of a sudden intuitive realization:
If we were to look back on the beginnings of epiphany, I started the process amongst our core group of friends almost four years ago when I decided to leave a charismatic third-wave church that got carried away and began embracing the teachings of the New Apostolic Reformation (Wagner, Sheets, Jacobs, etc) and decided to start attending a Spirit-filled Evangelical Presbyterian church that earnestly desires to find the balance between the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Little did I know at that time that many years later, my closest friends would also experience epiphanies of their own. One friend left non-demoninational church structures that he had participated in most of his life to go into a Baptist church. Another friend started a new adventure in his life and has left the Charismatic church for a full-gospel church where he now lives. The third close friend has left the independent church he attended for over ten years and is still searching for the church he feels God is calling him to.
When you see stuff take place that really bothers you and as time goes on, the stuff gets more and more bizarre ‘in the name of God’, the time to draw the line in the sand becomes more intense. Tragedy, discernment, triumph, common sense, revelation, enlightenment, and the waking up to face reality really has an effect on the beginnings of epiphany.
