Under the Power of The Holy Spirit

This is a subject this author has never written about but here goes, I think it’s time.  In 1987 I became psychotic with much fear.  I had been delving into New Age ideas.  The reason I became interested in New Age is because it offered a “power” that my early experience with Christianity lacked.  I had recently given birth to a beautiful child and I wanted to “know” the “Creator” who made this all a reality.  The allure of the New Age was so strong I thought surely this must be of the God I grew up with.  I began to read every book I could get my hands on regarding reincarnation, out of body experiences etc.   

The teachings I had heard of Christianity offered a good moral code of conduct with a lot of do’s and don’ts but my experience was that it lacked any power for me on a personal level.  

As I went deeper into the occult—which is what New Age is—I did not heed any of the warning signs, and disaster struck.  Paired with bipolar illness the two extremes ended up in a horrible tragedy.  My book, Set Free From Darkness, is the place to read the rest of the story as I couldn’t possibly go into it here.  

In December of 2002, I found Jesus again.  It was the sweetest of reunions.    It had been 15 years before I could begin to trust God. Then, many walls had to be torn down for me to even venture out in faith.  I was very cautious and I learned to measure everything by what the Bible had to say.  I needed to know what God had spoken about the subject. The more I grew up in the Lord the more balanced I became and solid in what I believe is true.

And yet about six years later, in 2008, I began to crave more.  The only way I can describe it is that I wanted to know more of the Holy Spirit. If there was indeed power there, I wanted in.  It was the same type of allure as before.  So, I matched it up to the Bible, and I found the spiritual gifts.

Now this time, mind you, I was grounded in Christ.  I had a lot of Christian friends, I regularly attended a Christian church and I was fulfilled. But the old desire for more was still there.  What about healings?  What about miracles? What about prophecy?  What about speaking in tongues?  I wanted “in” on the ones I couldn’t “do”on my own, like hospitality, which I had been hearing about and knew I did not have.  Ones I needed the Holy Spirit for!

A friend of mine spoke in tongues and I always kept my distance from the conversation.  Now, however, I found myself seeking her out to discuss this “weird” thing.  She told me about it and gave me a couple books to read.  It took me nine months to read one.  It was not because it wasn’t interesting; I simply needed to be sure.  I could not afford to delve into something not of God again.  I’d pray and ask God to help me discern the truth.  I can’t say I got anything from the Lord except silence. Okay, I thought, proceed with caution.

I had left my large suburban church for a smaller “Gifts of the Spirit” church as I was craving more.  After nine months the new pastor asked if anyone wanted to receive the gift of speaking in tongues.  Then it happened. My right arm betrayed my body and raised itself to full staff.  My heart was beating so fast. I thought, what am I doing?

After the service I went up front for prayer. A couple of elders prayed for me and I may have babbled a bit.  The lady told me to keep practicing, it is like pumping a well, and it will come.  “Don’t let Satan make you think nothing happened; you speak in tongues now.”  I left there very skeptical.  

Within three days I was singing in a language I’ve never spoken before. You have to know, I can’t sing a note on key so I think it was a bit of humor that the Lord gave me a song instead of simple words.  I sing in tongues to this day. I don’t know what the song means but I know He does.  I pray for people in tongues when I don’t know what they need and again, I know He does.  

Speaking in tongues is an outward sign of the Holy Spirit.  There is no denying it.  I speak in tongues.  Now I’m saying, what else is there?  I mean, could I move mountains, dry up a fig tree, heal the sick, give a word of knowledge or wisdom?  I still don’t want to set a table and feed people☺.  The allure is drawing me back again.

Once when I was at the church where I learned to speak in tongues I thought I was seeing things.  Some people were praying for a lady and she fell over.  I was sitting in the back row and did not have a good view and I never saw her get up.  About six months later, I finally got up the nerve to ask my friend who spoke in tongues, “Whatever happened to her?”  I thought maybe she died and they carried her out later.  She told me the lady was “slain in the Spirit.”

A month ago I was at a worship meeting, I was being prayed for and I, too, was slain in the Spirit.  Now that I have experienced it (once) I can only tell you that you simply fall over as if you were falling onto a cloud. I suppose someone caught me. They covered my body with a towel, I’m not sure why.  I lay on the floor of the church and didn’t care about anything, just basked in the peace of the Holy Spirit.  

To some this may be getting a bit weird.  But here is why I’m talking about this; you may not hear it anywhere else.  There is power in the Spirit.  While I was growing up if my church would have taught me this I may not have gone looking elsewhere into New Age. You see horror movies advertised all the time; Satan is real—as much as he’d like you to believe otherwise.  The greatest deception of Satan is to make people think that he doesn’t exist.  People dabble in the occult all the time and they may be opening a door for the enemy.  If it isn’t talked about, ignorance festers in the darkness.  There is a spiritual dark world.  There is also a godly Spiritual realm as well.  It is imperative that you know which one you’re dealing with because they both have power.  You get into danger and cross the line when you don’t acknowledge the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Any deviation from the Trinity and you will be unbalanced.  

I am by far one of the most unlikely candidates to be writing about this, as I had been frightened of the “dark” world since my earliest memories. The other night I was in bed reading about the workings of the Holy Spirit and the next chapter I turned to was about “Deliverance.”  I looked up toward the Lord and said, “Can you believe you have brought me this far?”

Anyone who knows me will know how far I have come.  I suppose I always knew instinctively that the evil realm was real.  Even as a child after we had watched a scary movie as a family and my parents said, “That was just a movie” something told me it was more than a movie.  That it could be a reality.  

I’ve always been sensitive to the realm of the spiritual world, which I ran from for years. Yet something, someone (the person of the Holy Spirit) keeps drawing me. The first time when I got into New Age, I was unarmed and alone, but not this time. I’m wearing my full armor and I’m surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses!