No two people's experience with the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is exactly the
same for God leads us in individual paths in ways that His name will be
glorified. I know of a man who received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit at a
FGBMI convention. Prior to his baptism, he was annoyed with a woman seated right
in front of him who constantly talked to a man next to her during the time when
the guest speaker gave his testimony.
Then the thought came to him, "He doesn't understand English and she is
translating for him." From then on he gave his full attention to the speaker.
When the praise and worship was in progress he suddenly burst forth in an
unknown language, in tongues. After the meeting the man and the woman came up to
him. The woman asked him, "Where did you learn to speak fluent classic Italian,
because in concise words you gave the same message as the guest speaker?" The
Italian man was an unbeliever, but when he discovered that the Holy Spirit was
speaking through this brother, he gave his life to Christ and was born again
into the Kingdom of God.
The praise and prayer meetings, held prior to the general meetings, were
exclusively for members of FGBMI. At those meetings I would ask for prayer to
receive the Baptism. Other men would receive, but not me! Yet I longed for this
gift which the Lord Jesus promised to all who profess faith in Christ and have
been born again. Sometimes I was a bit frustrated through it all, but I kept on
knocking. One time I fell under the power of the Holy Spirit during prayer time.
Although "slain in the spirit," with my 6'2" glued to the floor, unable to move,
yet I was conscious of people around me and was able to hear. I heard Lovell
McGuire, who was kneeling beside me praying for me to receive, say, "Albert, I
don't want you to fool us by praying in Dutch so that we will think you received
the Baptism with tongues!"
There was openness, honesty and an unusual camaraderie among us and there was no
kingdom building. We all prayed, worshipped and labored together for one
purpose: that God the Father and Jesus Christ would be glorified in all we were
doing and that God's Holy Spirit would be poured out in the general meetings in
order that people who came would be saved, healed and set free from the bondage
of Satan.
De Jong, Albert. Two Soldiers in God's Victorious Army. 2002, p. 24,25.
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