The instant release of built-up pressure in a person can be dramatic. Those old steam boilers in commercial laundries and train engines needed safety valves to release the build-up of pressure and prevent them from exploding.
Likewise, we need ways to release emotional pressures built up over time. Just as screaming at a football match can be emotionally helpful in this regard, praise can be a spiritual safety valve through which a bound-up person can find release.
I have seen many Christians struck so suddenly by the power of God they dropped to the floor and laid there for some time, as though sound asleep. After a while, they came to themselves and rose to their feet, obviously released.
When ministering, it’s possible to mistake an emotional problem for a spiritual one. I make no pretense as to understanding why people ‘sleep’ soundly after being dramatically released from pressure by the Spirit of God, but half a century in ministry has taught me to think of human needs as not only spiritual but as also psychological.
I did not expect that a woman I was ministering to in the UK would manifest years of painful loss through a sustained roar of grief, but a spiritual touch from the Lord through me relieved — perhaps even released — her from years of emotional trauma.
Months later, she came to me down the centre aisle of a church to where I stood ministering, and when she reached me bent low and then lower. I stood still and was led by the Spirit of God to do likewise. When her hands touched mine the power of God threw her backward about three metres. She lay on her back in the aisle for a few minutes and then got to her feet and walked away, apparently free. I had no idea of what had taken place in her life; it was between the Lord and herself; but it was very impressive!
Christians find relief through prayer and meditation, and release through praise and worship. When ‘lost’ in the Holy Spirit, it’s easy to ‘let go’ those issues that might later surface in emotionally- satisfying but relationally-damaging outbursts. During times of prayer, praise and worship, God is glorified and the Lord Jesus is exalted.
My advice is to stop trying to find yourself and instead lose yourself completely. Who and What and Where you are “in Christ” is by far better than the person you will find within you by endless, fruitless searching. God does not do makeovers, He does transformations! Your satisfying journey will begin when you find forgiveness at the Cross of Jesus Christ (John 3:16), and will ascend to another, to us incomprehensible, era (1 Corinthians 15:28). Along the way, enjoy the journey!