School

I was one of those people that was waiting and waiting and waiting at the altar. I was one of those people that was waiting and waiting waiting at the altar, uh, so that I could get baptized in the Holy Spirit. I remember when I heard this. I was 11 years old, and I remember I looked around at all my friends and I was like, "Do you guys want this?" And they're like, "We already have it." I thought, "If you already have it, why don't you tell me about it?" So, I went forward at the altar call, and I was like, "I want this. I want to be baptized in the Holy Spirit." And I remember praying and praying and praying and praying and waiting and waiting and waiting, and I just couldn't get there. And then finally, um, they said kind of like, "Well, you're the last guy. If you want to just hang out here, that's fine." I said, "I'm not leaving." And I got to a point where I was like, "I'm not leaving till I get this, Lord. I'm not." And I can remember when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, I started speaking tongues. I ran out of the chapel and told everyone like, "I got it. I got it. I got it." And in that moment, I just knew that uh this was available for me.

And I tell people, man, sometimes you have to terry. Sometimes you have to wait. Sometimes you have to fight. Sometimes you have to be hungry. Uh, God wants to give this to us. I just believe that so strong. I was I was in my mind thinking, "Have I done anything wrong? Have I what's blocking this?" this. And then I realized nothing was blocking this except for I needed to be ready to receive it. I I didn't do anything wrong. This is a gift God wants to give his children. And so once I got to that spot where he wants to give me this, don't let the enemy tell me that I'm done, that I'm not good enough for this. If I'm his child, I'm good enough for this, and I need this. And I would just tell people, go for it. Because for me, with that moment of realizing, I'm going for it, this is what he wants to give me. I want to receive it, and I want to live in it. And now, man, you can't stop me. I thank God for the gifts of the spirit of the Holy Spirit. I I see him in operation every day. And I can't imagine living a life that wasn't baptized in the Holy Spirit.

I'm an introvert. So when it came I'm an introvert. So when it came to thinking about being baptized in the Holy Spirit, I I was scared to death of going down front and people laying their hands on me and and all that. I I was just the thought of that almost made me break out in hives. It was a Sunday night service. The pastor called people forward to the altar, want to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. And with with some hesitation, I went down, and sure enough, I was surrounded by people, and they were praying loudly, and and I was shutting down. I wasn't thinking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I was thinking about getting out of there. One one old lady, the church grandma, came down. She knew me, and she recognized what was going on. And she just shued all those people away. And she knelt down next to me, and she said, "Rodney, are you ready to be baptized in the Holy Spirit?" And I said, "I am." And very quietly, no sensationalism. I didn't shout. I didn't dance. I didn't jump. She prayed with me. And I began to pray in my prayer language. I'm so thankful for a church grandma that knew it didn't always have to happen with big emotion and big excitement, but the Holy Spirit would work within the confines of my personality and gloriously fulfilling.

I was born in South Korea, and the country uh when I actually got saved was in fact when I was in Thailand for six months. I didn't know that he was an Assemblies of God pastor, and we were just dating. We started to share our faith, and when we were prayed together, I noticed that he one day he was speaking in tongues. He was speaking in a different language. I was like, what was that? I didn't know what it was. That's kind of scary. And even after getting married, I was always skeptical, my in the back of my mind that I don't think that's true. My personal experience it came about a couple years ago that when I attended um church camp in Tama, thousands of people were there were worshiping, and for somehow my husband got involved in worshiping. They needed a drummer. My husband plays drums. The speaker invited all the people to the altar. Let's pray. I'll pray over you and everything. And I thought, okay, my husband's there, drunk. I better get the camera and take pictures. It's going to be a memorable thing. Somehow I found myself being in the center of the stage. They're starting to pray over me, and I wasn't ready for it. And I was like, I was just taking pictures. And but I just like, oh, maybe I should pray. I hear people speaking in tongues. Even even up to that point, I was still like, I don't I hear people speaking tongues and falling down, but I don't think I'm going to do it because I don't believe in it.

It was then when God started speaking to me. I heard somebody speaking, whispering in my ears, just let it go. And I said, let it go. How do I let it go? Like, do I stop talking or do I still mumbling or even say something? How do I let it go? Nobody taught me. I told me just release, just submit, and give up. He basically said, "Give up." And I said, "Okay, I'll give up." I was actually on the ground when I was done with receiving the Holy Spirit. I was there for an hour and a half, but when I woke up, I thought I was there for 10 minutes. On that day, on the very moment God had in mind in his plan that he was going to give me his spirit, and I will speak in tongues so that I will never doubt in my life. It's really amazing because even when you think that you're not ready to receive the Holy Spirit, God is ready.

Hey, this is Pastor Choco. My experience of the Holy Spirit came when I was around 14 years old. And I was not always born in the Christian church. I was raised in Catholicism. And so when I got saved and I went to a church on a Sunday night, and I began to see people jumping and screaming and speaking another language, and I know it wasn't Spanish because I'm Hispanic. That what I saw began to uh maybe cause some fear that created some walls that I I thought this can't be real. This cannot be God. Until the curiosity of me said, "Wait a minute. What if this is this is the Lord?" And I remember that um going to the altar myself, curious about this experience that people were having that I too wanted this, and the Holy Spirit is about being filled with the Holy Spirit, walking in the Holy Spirit. And um and I remember going to the altar, and I was there for at least an hour and a half to two hours praying and crying. And it was there that I experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit, speaking in other tongues. And that that marked me for the rest of my life. That marked me. That experience is what catapulted me going forward being filled with the Holy Ghost, giving me boldness, giving me the words and the strength to talk in in my city. And so for me, that would be my experience of the Holy Spirit.

From the time I was 8 n 10 From the time I was 8 n 10 11 years of age, I was going to church camp in our district. The annual youth camp was a big deal. But I was quiet and reserved, and there were always services where people were praying to receive the Holy Spirit, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I was so analytical. So I had two things I was trying to work through. I love God. I wanted all he had for me. But I was incredibly reserved and quiet, and I was always trying to figure everything out intellectually. So I would go into those prayer rooms, and it was loud. In those days there were many people praying, and often if he responded for prayer for the Holy Spirit, I was hungry for all God had for me. But I would have someone on my right praying over me and saying, "honey let go. Let go." And on the other side of me, I have some woman praying sincerely, "Hang on honey hang on." I was so I I was so quiet that all the noise for me was distraction. It wasn't until one night everybody left, and it all was quiet. And there just Beth and I. I was in his presence, and I began to pray and say, "God, I've all you have for me." And as I was in his presence, that sense of his presence grew. And suddenly as I worshiped him and praised him with an open heart, he filled me with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I love that because he knew who I was. He knew I needed the quiet place and the power of the spirit. He does not always have to come in the loud and what is overwhelming. Often he's come to me all these years. Ever since he filled me with the spirit and as he daily fills me, it's in the quiet place. He knows who we are. He knows what we need. And he knew I would need the power of the spirit and the courage of the Holy Spirit to do what he's called me to do. I'm dependent on him.