It was 2011 and I was a bonafide Pentacostal Christian. You couldn’t miss me: I was that girl that stopped you on the street and asked if I could pray for you. I was the girl rolling around on the floor, giggling, “drunk in the holy spirit” at church. I was only nineteen, but sometimes I was the one giving you your Sunday sermon. I was leading worship, singing at the top of my lungs. I was the face charismatic churches wanted to see: young, pretty, passionate, and hip. I was part of an almost hipster-like sect of Christianity that was obsessed with redefining itself, breaking off from the stuffy hymns and quiet faith their parents taught them. We wanted to be BOLD. We thought we were going to change the world.
This is why I didn’t think twice about driving an hour away to go to a stranger’s house on a weeknight. It was a prayer night! As long as they were a charismatic Christian, they weren’t a stranger; just a friend I hadn’t met yet.
My best friend James and I had heard about a woman named Rea who held a prayer night every Thursday in her home. She was a self-defined prophet, healer, and leader, and had recently quit her high paying job to devote all of her time to “raising up an army” of young, passionate, like-minded Christians. We were never in the slightest bit skeptical of her or any of her claims. She was something of a small celebrity in our social circles so we were thrilled to meet her and become a part of this buzzing new prayer group.
That first Thursday we found ourselves sitting cross legged on Rea’s living room floor with a group of about 15 other young people. Rea, a single woman nearing 40, was by far the oldest in the room. Looking back on it (they say hindsight is 20/20) she kind of had the vibe of a mom desperately trying to stay cool like her daughter’s friends. She seemed to only be interested in 20 somethings.
I came to be a close friend of Rea’s and a regular face at her Thursday night group. She relied heavily on a shock factor- the crazier, the better- and seemed to whip out a new spiritual gift every week. Here is a list of things Pia believed she could do:
- See into the future. She claimed to be a total wreck the night before 9/11 happened, wailing in her room and shouting in tongues, spiritually a wreck even though she had no idea what was going to happen the next day. Her ‘spirit’ was aware. She also believed she could
- dream prophetically. Whether it be small news like a friend’s pregnancy or national news like the presidential election, Rea claimed to have had dreams predicating events in perfect clarity.
- Heal other peoples’ physical ailments on the spot. Rea saw a person in a wheelchair as an opportunity and would approach them almost like a vulture would approach their prey. She claimed to have healed deafness, blindness, paralysis, and life threatening diseases. She also believed God liked to ‘show off’ for fun sometimes, and would aid her in making a person’s legs grow out several inches, or improve their eyesight so they didn’t need corrective eye wear ever again. She was a bonafide miracle worker!
- Give prophetic ‘words’ about anybody’s future by listening to the voice of God. Let me explain real quick what ‘words’ are for those who are unfamiliar. “Words” are prophetic messages from God himself, which he delivers to you by speaking to you through that ‘little voice in your head’. Yep, that’s right: that little voice in your head is GOD and you better listen to everything he has to say. (Although, sometimes it’s actually Satan, so you better develop the gift of ‘discernment’ real quick so you don’t get it mixed up.) Anyways, God would apparently speak to Rea and her possy and give her a prophetic insight about someone, something she couldn’t possibly know, to show that God is real and supernatural and fun and hip and all that fun stuff. Examples would be,
“I feel like God is telling you not to be so stressed out.”
“I feel like God just wants you to be open and free before him.”
Sometimes we’d get bolder and more specific:
“I feel like God’s telling me you have back pain, can I pray for you?”
“I feel like God’s telling me there’s a friendship you need to let go of.”
Basically, she was a shitty psychic, dealing out cold reads, things that could likely apply to anyone, to illicit a response.
- Teleport through time! That’s right, Rea believed God could supernaturally warp space-time and make her car travel to work in half the time, if need be.
- Exorcise demons. I remember one night an obviously gay young man came over, and during worship, while we were all on our knees or rolling around ‘drunk in the holy spirit’, he began to ‘manifest’ a demon. Rea could tell because instead of rolling like the rest of us, he was slithering like a snake. Rea stopped the music instantly and called for all of us to devote our attention to this young man while she prayed over him, in a mixture of tongues and English, to be free from the demon of sexuality. And according to Rea, it worked! She proudly bragged that demons hated her because she had a reputation of calling them out.
- Feel sympathy pains. I always thought this one was interesting. Rea claimed that this happened to her so frequently some days she couldn’t even leave her apartment. She’d be walking down the street and pass somebody and suddenly get a sharp pain in a part of her body. She took this as God saying her fellow pedestrian was suffering from this physical ailment and needed to be healed, by her, of course.
- See, hear, and physically feel God.
- Visit heaven. Often during her Thursday night group Rea would have us lie down on the floor, close our eyes, and guide us into ‘heavenly visitations’. Essentially, she would hypnotise us into a vivid daydream and then claim that our spirit left our body and chilled out in heaven for awhile.
Here are a couple things Rea believed in:
- Rea believed there was a portal in the corner of her apartment’s ceiling through which angels would periodically come down and visit with us.
- She also believed these angels would leave behind ‘glory dust’, or gold sparkles. She was always finding it around her apartment.
- Rea believed people could be teleported: she liked to tell a story about a ‘friend’ who went into an airport restroom and walked out in a different country, just like that.
I am just touching the tip of the iceberg here. Rea became a consistent character for a few meaty chapters of my life, and the story doesn’t stop there. I think the craziest thing of all is that I didn’t think any of this was crazy, and neither did my peers. If Rea seems crazy to you, please know there are thousands of Rea’s out there, and thousands more following them blindly, 100% convinced of everything they teach.
Sorry for the length. More to come.
unbornagain 