Don
From: Penticton, Canada
“I was instantly healed and the migraines and paralysis never came back… then a rush of energy went through my body, followed by hearing myself speak in an amazing new language… Being filled with God’s Spirit…is a comfort that I would not trade for anything. It’s a solid consistency in an ever-inconsistent world.”
I was 22 years old in 1985 when a former college friend told me he’d been filled with the Holy Spirit and that he could now speak in tongues. I was completely confused by what he told me because I had no formal religious upbringing except for going to a Baptist Sunday school when I was six years old. At six years old all I wanted to do was play, so after a few weeks of complaining we didn’t have to go anymore.
As I grew up I had a few friends who went to church, but no one was ever able to answer my questions regarding proof that the Bible was true. I couldn’t understand why they would continue to follow the Bible if there was no tangible evidence. Even as a child, the idea of having blind faith in something just never made sense to me.
My college friend explained to me that the Scripture commands people to do more than blindly accept Jesus by believing in Him in an accepting kind of way. People actually need to (as the Bible says in John 3:5) be born of water (full immersion baptism) and of the Spirit in order to enter the Kingdom of God. He assured me I would know the moment I was anointed with God’s Spirit because I would speak in a brand new audible spiritual language (called speaking in tongues). This intrigued me.
My friend explained that it’s through Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross that I would be given the opportunity to be forgiven for my sins. Despite all the mocking I had expressed toward the word “sin” growing up, there were things I’d done in my life that I was not proud of. Deep down, I knew I didn’t measure up to a God that requires moral rightness. If God was truly willing to offer me proof of His existence, and if I needed to be forgiven for my sins, I figured it was about time to give it a try.
My friend baptized me at home in my bathtub. Coming up out of the water, I prayed for the infilling of God’s Holy Spirit, but nothing happened. Encouraged to pray more, we went to the living room where my friend added a prayer that I would be healed of debilitating migraines from which I had suffered since a car accident many years earlier. The pain was so bad that I had to sleep each day, sometimes three times a day, and I experienced intermittent paralysis on one side of my face.
By no coincidence (I now realize), I had been examined by doctors at UCLA medical center just five days prior to my friend’s visit. They had said there was absolutely no cure for my condition and their solution was to put me on drugs for the rest of my life, to mask the pain. Now my friend was saying that prayer could completely heal me. He laid his hands upon me and prayed in English, then in tongues. I was instantly healed and the migraines and paralysis never came back.
It wasn’t until two weeks later that I actually received the Holy Spirit as I knelt down to pray with another person. I began to praise God in English by saying “Hallelujah” and then a rush of energy went through my body, followed by hearing myself speak in an amazing new language. I knew at that very moment that the power of the Holy Spirit had come to dwell inside of me. I suddenly had this constant awareness of God’s presence inside of me and that I could communicate with God in the pure language of the Spirit any time I wanted. I was encouraged to pray in tongues every day because it would strengthen my bond with the Lord (kind of like making the effort to work out daily in a gym once you’ve been given a membership). I did this and I was amazed at all the good things that began to happen.
As I began to read the Bible, I was excited to discover that it actually made sense. Two years earlier I had, in fact, tried to read the Bible for the purpose of finally proving it wrong. Yet, during my attempt to discredit the Bible, I simply could not understand the little I read. At that time I was teaching a course on positive thinking that I had previously developed. It had been part of my quest to find the answers to life. After being born again of water and of the Spirit, I read through the Scripture and realized that the promises of assistance from God far outweigh the philosophy of positive thinking by one’s own efforts.
Being filled with God’s Spirit, made possible by Jesus Christ and His redeeming blood, is a comfort that I would not trade for anything. It’s a solid consistency in an ever-inconsistent world.
The most amazing thing besides my own experiences with the Lord is praying for others and seeing their lives also changed miraculously. I have the privilege of traveling a lot, and every trip is always filled with “God-incidences” (never “coincidences”!) where I meet people that are searching for answers in some way. It’s such a thrill to pray with them to be anointed with the Holy Spirit and hear them speak in tongues as proof, to see them baptized, and to witness their excitement as they feel connected with their Creator for the first time.
It’s also an awesome thing to then help these people to understand their calling i.e. that now they’re born again of water and of the Spirit, they too have the authority to do the same with people that come their way. It’s how the New Testament Church (there is only one Church – the Body of Christ) began on the Day of Pentecost, and God is still adding to His Church this day in the very same way. The Book of Acts is still alive today and it’s a thrill to be a part of it!