When I first became a Christian, sorry a Christ follower, (I nearly lost my creds. there, that’s the cool thing to say these days), I remember being seriously mystified by the lingo. One fellow went on at length about being certain he had received the ‘anointing’. Having grown up in the Anglican church before my serious flirt with atheism during my anti neo-colonialism/imperialism/racism years, I had no recollection of ever hearing the word.
Consequently I had no idea what it meant and was distinctly awed by this comrade who seemed to have attained a high enough degree of spirituality to have this nebulous (to me) but highly valuable spiritual endowment bestowed on him. He used it copiously which only increased my discomfort. I could only reflect on the fact that i was not yet, and perhaps never might be the happy recipient of this something. The mists soon cleared, thankfully and I was able in turn to intimidate unsuspecting new believers with my linguistic acquisition.
We have a principle in Abba House Paris, ‘speak French’; in other words, we are devoted to plain speak. We train ourselves to speak in a way that anyone who walks in from the street will understand. When we converse with people we don’t blast them with ‘witness in my spirit’, ‘ move of God’, ‘grieving the Spirit’, ‘effusion of the Spirit’ type language. Which is why i found this video quite hilarious.