As I grew into a young man I succumbed to all of the temptations of the world: alcohol, premarital-sex, profanity, lying and a little cheating here and there. I was insecure, vain and proud beyond words. As I grew into a young man I found myself without a career and purpose. I forwent a career in professional soccer after college and instead found myself living in Dallas chasing after the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.
The odd thing about all of this was that I was still holding onto something from my time in that private school as an 8 year old boy. I had a spiritual seed inside of me that stayed with me throughout my years of adolescence and into my early 20's. Growing up I prayed every night before I went to bed and I always held the name of the Lord Jesus in high regard. I refused to take his name in vain even though I obviously had a problem with swearing.
At the age of 23 I began dating a young woman from Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was a back-sliden Christian herself. She however went to church every weekend as a matter of ritual even though the fruit in her life did not show anything different than it did in mine. As I began attending church with her, when I would listen to the preachers, I would feel a sense of conviction and prompting within my consciences on a deeper level than anything I had ever experienced.
After that relationship ended I found myself attending Willow Bend Church in Plano, TX through the invitation of a co-worker. This particular church was affiliated with the Southern Baptist Union. All of their core doctrines aligned with the SBU even though outwardly they postured themselves as a "Seeker" church. They were also affiliated with the Willow Creek Community of Churches started by Bill Hybels.
The Lord definitely led me to this church. It was there that I really began to enter into relationship with the Lord. In the fall of 1994, at the age of 24, I began giving my life totally over to Christ. I started to have some dreams on occasion. I even had an open-eyed vision one day where I saw the room physically disappear around me when I shut my eyes while in prayer one afternoon. I began to feel a sense of conviction about my sins over the course of about 6 months. I was water-baptized on April 9th, 1995 as a sign of my inward repentance and heart change.
The Lord then led me to change jobs. I went from working for CTX mortgage company to a company that did extremely large, high-end landscaping operations for wealthy people in Dallas, TX. It was during this time in the summer of 1995 that the Fear of the Lord descended on me like a ton of bricks. It wasn't one particular event or occurrence that caused this to happen. It was simply like feeling the weather progressively change over a period of weeks. It settled on me in a very tangible way so that I began to look to the Lord more and more with a sense of reverence, fear and awe.
After another six months at that job and being persecuted for my faith by my superiors, the Lord had me change jobs again. I started valet parking cars for a living. This was very humbling to me. I had a college degree and yet the Lord put me into a deeper measure of his fire and discipline. For 15 months he had a slow, steady flame burning underneath me at that job to burn out a measure of dross from my soul.
"For who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver." Malachi 3:2,3It was as if I was expelling spiritual toxins from my system. If you have ever done a detox program with a physical change in your diet you know what that feels like in your glands. It can make your skin smell and give you bad breath. I was being detoxed and cleaned up to a certain measure by the Lord.
As this whole process was occurring, the Lord began to show me a particular passage of scripture over a period of several weeks in early 1996.
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:8
Now remember, I was still going to the seeker church in Plano. "I" was making plans to go to seminary in Ft. Worth because I felt God's call into the ministry. Willow Bend was going to sponsor me and pay for my tuition so I could get a masters in Theology. I thought I had some direction, some clear wisdom for my life. Yet I was about to find out that the Lord had another path for me to take.
My best friend in the Christ was having a prayer meeting at his house on March 9th, 1996. At that time I had been valeting for 3 months. At this particular prayer meeting, when I walked in at about 11:30 PM, everything had already been well underway. I noticed that others were praying in tongues. I really felt that I was supposed to be there and one of the men at the meeting walked over to me and opened up his Bible and read the following verse to me:
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:8
I knew the Lord was speaking to me in typical echoing fashion as this verse had been in my heart for a few months by that point. No one was teaching it to me. It was simply the Lord continually putting it in front of me....again and again.
I walked over and sat down at the dining room table. I group of people gathered around me, placed their hands on me and began praying for me. I began to feel a heat all over my body. My forearms and thighs felt a squeezing pressure. It wasn't painful. I wasn't uncomfortable. But I could definitely feel something tangible in my physical body. Suddenly I looked up to heaven and tongues began coming out of my mouth. It wasn't me talking. The only way I could get it to stop was to shut my mouth. I stood up from my chair and when I would try to speak to others standing around me I couldn't speak English. Only tongues would come out of my mouth.
From that time forward, something was different about my life. It wasn't just the tongues. It was a sense of something that was very much the Lord. It was peaceful. I just didn't know how to express it doctrinally apart from the one verse that the Lord had given to me.
With great joy I returned to my church and testified about what had happened to me. Two of the families that I spoke with about my experience later received the same impartation of the Holy Spirit that I did with the evidence of tongues. The rest of the church, the pastoral staff specifically, began to reject me and later I found the Lord leading me in a new direction. It was at that point that I heard the Lord telling me that whatever he had called me to, he would prepare me for it. I didn't feel the need to go to seminary at that point and never really thought much about it again.
Roughly a month later, while praying in the Holy Spirit one morning with my prayer language (tongues), the language that I was speaking in changed dramatically. The only way I know how to explain it was that it sounded like I went from praying in tongues to praying in, what seemed to me, was a tongue of men, a human language. It sounded as if it may have been Russian or some language from Eastern Europe. I wasn't really sure. Praying in this form lasted for about 2 minutes and then it completely stopped. Again, I had no control over the way it sounded. It started and then when I stopped yielding the parts of my body (my mouth and tongue) to it, it simply stopped as if the Lord was the one controlling this moment.
As soon as it stopped, when I went to pray in tongues, I went back to praying in the spiritual language that I had originally been given on March 9th. As I stood up and got dressed to go to work I found myself feeling very tired. While working that day I began to feel very drained and very, very ill. I didn't know what was happening to me. As I prayed about it the Lord reminded me of a testimony that I had seen a minister give on T.V. about a similar incident occurring with him. He said that the Lord had shown him that while he was praying in a new tongue one morning that he was in fact interceding for someone in another place who had been injured physically.
Whether his testimony was accurate or not I cannot personally validate. What was happening to me however was very real. I went home that afternoon and collapsed in bed. For 10 days I could hardly get up for more than 10 minutes at a time and then I would have to lay back down. What I did notice however was a change in my heart that has stayed with me since. I started to have an insatiable hunger to read scripture over those 10 days.
Up to that time I read my bible on occasion. But this was a major heart change I was experiencing while lying on my back. So much so that it was as if I was being cleansed of a measure of spiritual dullness and apathy.
"Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires but rather for the will of God." 1 Peter 4:1,2
From that time forward I could not get enough of Bible reading and praying. Here I was at 25 years of age and I had no interest in dating or socializing at some of the local youth groups that were nothing more than Christian dating clubs. All I wanted to do was read, pray and drink my favorite coffee. So much so that for almost a year I prayed and read my Bible about 5 hours a day. I started journaling and eventually, as I began to flow in doctrinal revelation, the Lord would snap together sequences of scripture for me. I was still fellowshipping with others but it was in very select environments and with very specific purposes.
In was in this season that I began to witness and experience healings along with witnessing people being delivered from demonic spirits. I began to be exposed to prophetic ministries and began to hear the voice of he Lord in a way and that I had not experienced prior to March, 1996. Everything was changing for me. Things had gone from 1st gear to Overdrive with one shift of the clutch. Their was no 2nd, 3rd or 4th gear in the transition. The bursting forth of the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit was exponential.
"For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power." 1 Cor 4:20
"And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well." Mark 16:17
My testimony of the baptism of the Spirit is not solely about the gift of tongues. It is about the flow of power.
"Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law or because you believe what you heard." Galatians 3:5
Before March 9th, 1996 I did have discernment and conviction about things. I saw God provide for me financially. I had the fruit of repentance in my life in an increasing sense. God was with me. He was speaking into my heart, which is within me. I heard his voice on numerous occasions. But I had never felt his presence in my entire 25 years until that one night. From that point going forward things were completely and totally different.
I transitioned from the lesser light that governs the night to the greater light that governs the day. I will explain what I am talking about in the next post.
JEB
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