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14. Poway Powerhouse Meetings
Electrical Store
After Colton, the Bishop sent me to a mission town called Poway on San Diego's outskirts. Its motto was "the City in the County." Hidden from the main highway, the new housing estates lay in a natural dip surrounded by five hills. Going from door to door was easy for an evangelist. From the smallest apartment on the lower slopes to the stately mansions on the hilltop boulevards, every home was my field of action.✞
Powerhouse
Though we possessed no church or meeting place, soon, five "Poway Powerhouse meetings" had sprung up in the different areas. Eventually, these groups ventured out from the hillsides to worship together. The Powerhouse meetings joined together in a little shop front, hung the original electrical store sign, the "Power House."✞
PowerHouse Church
The Power House Church of Jesus flourishes in the little high desert town of Poway, San Diego. God empowered us by our oneness in Christ and warmed us by the Holy Spirit's presence. Our community of Jesus people flourished as St. Bartholomew's Church. Like Jesus, I liked to disappear at times into the high desert. The Joshua trees froze like the leader of Israel with his javelin outstretched in victory. In the sandy sparseness up there, I imagined I was back in Galilee.✞
Flashback to Jesus
As the warm breeze wafted across the rocky landscape, my mind summoned up little flat-roofed houses, with crowds milling around Jesus as he preached and healed the sick. During these excursions, God ministered to me personally and built me up for something even more incredible. One evening, its climax came when Louis Weist invited me to dinner at his home with his friends, including an Episcopalian minister from Arsto.✞
Holy Spirit's Gift
The Holy Spirit gift and the blessing of tongues come unexpectedly upon Captain Ray Lewis. Our discussion ranged everywhere that night, including the Holy Spirit gift and the blessing of speaking in tongues. I felt so embarrassed whenever anyone mentioned this that I changed the subject immediately! My plan was succeeding. Suddenly, the clergyman in the group rounded on me to ask pointedly, "Ray, Do you believe in the Holy Spirit gifts or not?" He waited intently for my answer one way or the other. Hoping to divert his attention, yet again I tried another trick. "Sure," I said casually and began to turn away. "Then what about asking for the baptism of the Holy Spirit yourself?" he responded. Stunned by his directness, I garbled, "But it is not for me, I'm too proud!" In disbelief, he asked me to repeat what I had said. "I'm too proud," I answered, then "I want to know what my lips are saying!" "You say that you're too proud, Ray, but isn't that a terrible sin? You have been an evangelist all these years!"✞
Holy Spirit's Blessing
The Lord had caught me in my trap that night. I had always vowed that I would have nothing to do with this so-called "elitism of the Holy Spirit" without an Anglican priest. Yet here in Louis' sitting room was one challenging me now! Awakened, I said, "I'm willing and open to any Holy Spirit blessing God might have for me." At this, the minister, Louis, his wife, and children gathered and laid their hands upon my head. Initially, nothing happened until, after an hour or two, I felt my resistance melting and the fear ebbing away. From sheer joy, I praised God with an open heart in the Spirit. That night in Louis Weist's home, God plucked my vocal cords to orchestrate a heavenly language of praise that seemed to refresh me to the core of my being.✞
God Can Bless Anytime
My newly discovered Holy Spirit blessing remained with me, although his gift of tongues ebbed away the next day. God taught me a self-satisfied churchman as I was, a valuable lesson that night. He showed me that he could bless me anywhere and any time he chose, irrespective of the church's ministrations. Later he gave me this gift of speaking in tongues again and then the continual glow of the Holy Spirit blessing.✞
"Poway Powerhouse Meetings"
by Ron Meacock © 2021
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