Like most, I’ve had many experiences that have shaped my life. I was once Catholic and an altar boy, and I had determined in myself to be the first American Pope. Then I got saved by Jesus at 11. I felt His presence enter my heart. I asked my step-mother if she had ever “felt” God and she said “no.” I kept it to myself for many years not understanding why I felt the Holy Spirit enter my heart. Eleven years later, at 22, I cried out to God for more of Him. He answered by bringing a Pentecostal woman to our Southern Baptist church to keep the nursery. We were super small, but 6 couples and 4 of us Airmen.
One night, in my Wednesday teaching, I taught on Matt 10. I asked if anyone had experienced the miraculous in their lives like in Matt 10. No one said anything, not even me. I had no examples either. I was so hurt that no one had a Matt 10 experience. I dismissed the class and I went home and cried my heart out. I cried to the Lord to give me more of Him since He was unchanging, why was it no one I knew ever had an experience like those in Matt 10 in their lives. I knew this was against Baptist teaching, but I knew their teaching didn’t jive with the word of God as I saw it.
So the night the Pentecostal lady came to my Wednesday meeting, (the very first time she ever attended any of our events) I was devastated from the emptiness of last week’s teaching, and told everyone that I didn’t have anything prepared and I asked if anyone had anything they’d like to share. The Pentecostal woman spoke. She shared about having the anointing of God on her all day for this moment. (I thought, how could she know what I had asked the week before.) She spoke about how the Lord would heal her kids when her husband prayed over them, and how the Spirit moves in her life. I was THRILLED!! My prayer had been answered in a very amazing way. Then the pastor coldly said, “Thank you for YOUR testimony!” WHOOOOOSH! “It” was gone! But what was that!?!? I knew something happened in the Spirit, but I didn’t understand it at the time.
After I dismissed the meeting, she walked up to me and said I should meet her husband. As I followed her in my car, all the verses came to me about needing to test the spirits. So I did. Something I had never done before and I didn’t even know how to test anything, so I asked the Lord, “If she’s real, have her….” and before I could finish my sentence, she lifter her hand into the air. She wasn’t playing with the mirror or her hair, she just had her hand palm up, just as I was going to ask of the Lord. That freaked me out. I met with her husband. Small talk was exchanged, and the woman started praising the Lord and lifting up her hands to heaven and her husband joined her. He came back to me on the sofa and asked why not stand up and join them. I told him, “I’m stuck! It’s like I have 500 lbs of weight in my butt.” He touched me and I was on my feet! To this day I can tell you that there was no transition from sitting to standing, I was just instantly standing.
I raised my hands and gave God the glory. As I was praying, she put her hand on my chest, and her husband put his hand on my back. I felt this stirring in my stomach which was creeping up my chest and into my throat. I thought I was going to choke and when I let it out, I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues and glorifying the Lord IN the Spirit! I felt a warm thick liquid poured on my head and I thought to myself, “Wow, these folks go all out” thinking they were the ones pouring it on me. When the Spirit subsided, I went to fix my hair thinking the liquid made a mess. My hair was DRY!! Nothing on it! Hallelujah! What an experience!! As we sat on the sofa basking in the afterglow of the Spirit’s visit, the husband arbitrarily asked, “Why do you think the Lord spoke everything into existence.” And without a thought I heard myself say, “As with an arrow launched, words have the power.” “WHAT!??! Who said that!” I said to myself. WOW!!
What do I believe? The word of God and being led by the Holy Spirit. The rest, you can judge for yourself. This was my experience and some decades later, He never stops amazing me. Glory to God. This is why I do this blog, to help those who wish to learn from my experience. I do not attend a physical building nor do I belong to any denomination. If the Spirit tells me to go to a building, it’s to find one of His. I hope you grow in the Lord because of my two cents. All the glory goes to the Lord Jesus – Yeshua Adonai!