A friend of mine started going to a new church and invited me to check it out with her.  It was a pretty charismatic church: passionate speaking, dancing, and singing.  The atmosphere was intimate, warm, and intense.  I mostly enjoyed myself.

There was one problem: I personally had a really hard time connecting with the Holy Spirit.  And I began to realize that just because the people were moving and singing and loudly proclaiming blessings over themselves, didn’t mean that the Holy Spirit Himself was moving through them.

This isn’t to say that it wasn’t a good church (maybe I was having an off day?) or to criticize any type of worship (we have so many personalities and each connect to the Lord best in our own ways).  It is important to remember though that when the Holy Spirit moves it happens in the hearts of the people first and overflows in various personalities, so loudness and physical movement aren’t necessarily an indication of His presence.