Nikita Koloff, the Holy Spirit, and Me

Saturday mornings when I was a kid were awesome - several hours of cartoons followed by the pinnacle of the morning's entertainment: NWA Championship Wrestling (which, if memory serves, came on at 11:00).  At the time, the Cold War was still a big deal, so of course pro wrestling got in on the action with Ivan Koloff and his nephew* - a beast of a man named Nikita Koloff**.  In the mid to late 80's, Nikita was one of the top heels in the NWA and was really intimidating.  Over the next few years (coinciding with the collapse of the Soviet Union), Nikita would switch back and forth between heel and face until his retirement from wrestling in 1992 following an injury.  Shortly after his retirement, Nikita became a Christian and became active in several Charlotte-area ministries, typically of the Pentecostal/Church of God varieties. 

On a Sunday morning in November of 1992, I had an experience of God that changed my life.  The reverberations of that experience are still being felt in big and small ways in my life and a lot about who I am today can be traced back to that moment.  There were no tears, I didn't run to the altar, I actually didn't say anything.  But something 'clicked' in my head and my heart - I began to take my faith very seriously.  As we used to say in youth group, from that moment on, I was "on fire" for God.  I began trying to learn as much as I could about being a Christian, digging into the Scripture and making numerous trips to the Christian book store in Kannapolis.  Over time, I became really interested in the role of the Holy Spirit, which was not necessarily a huge topic of discussion in my church.  In the spring of 1995 (20 years ago!), I heard some friends at school talking about an awesome revival that was happening at West A Church of God.  Having attended a couple of Church of God services with a friend back in elementary school, I knew it was likely to be a little bit more energetic than worship at my church, so me and a friend decided to check it out. 

The first night, we stayed in the balcony as the preacher poured his heart out in a display of high-energy preaching (his being blind and British made the whole affair fairly exotic for us Enochville kids).  My friend and I looked around, a little bit freaked out by the hand raising and shouting, along with the snippets we could hear of people speaking in tongues.  This was definitely not my calm, laid-back United Methodist Church.  We came back the second night, bringing a few more friends with us.  After the sermon on this night, I decided to make my way to the altar to pray. I had already seen a number of people "slain" in the Spirit - the preacher would place his hand on their head, say a prayer, and they would fall down.  I was a fired up Christian, to be sure, but I was skeptical, thinking that there was no way this was going to happen to me.  I expected to be prayed over and then I would make my way back to my seat. 

I stood in a row with other expectant people - most of them other kids I went to school with.  The preacher prayed over all of us.  Some people fell down, some cried, some stood still and quietly walked away after being prayed over.  The preacher came to me and laid his hand on my head and began praying.  I can't really explain what happened, but suddenly I couldn't really feel my legs.  The next thing I remember I was looking up at the faces of the ushers who were tasked with helping people who "fell out".  The first face I saw clearly was, no kidding, Nikita Koloff.  I can't explain how truly odd this moment was.  A life-long Methodist with no experience in this kind of worship being "slain in the Spirit" and then being helped to his feet by the Russian Nightmare!  He was serving as an usher for this revival and was one of those helping people back up on their feet, which made sense given how big the guy still was.

That revival was the last time I attended at charismatic/Church of God worship service - not because I'm opposed to charismatic worship.  It's just not my preferred style of worship.  But that evening (along with a couple of other odd incidents during that revival) taught me a couple of things.  One, the Spirit is real and powerful and is not contained in any one style nor limited to our experience or understanding.  Two, God works in weird ways and through weird people sometimes.  Like me or you or Nikita Koloff...

*Not really his nephew.
**Not really his name, which was actually Scott Simpson, until he legally changed it to Nikita Koloff.  That's dedication, right there...