[ Post a Response | Community Chapel Gathering ]
Posted by Theophilus God did a sovereign work in me and revealed to me the awareness of His presence on the night I came forward to confess Jesus as Lord and Savior. I like to tell people that God saved me... and so I believed. I know that many people simply believe in God through Christ, or make a decision for Christ, etc. I must confess that had God waited for me to actually believe in Jesus... it might have never happened. And while my experience was not as dynamic as St. Paul’s, I did an about face as a result of His intervention. True, I was in a Church, and came forward in response to an altar call... but it was not because I believed, or was convicted of my sins, or because I needed the Lord... I had simply been talked into giving this Christianity thing a try... God made His presence known to me and changed me in a moment of time – and so I believed. Theologically, my experience parallels the Reform or Augustinian view of salvation... except that it happened to me in a Oneness Pentecostal Church. On the same night God saved me, I was baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and immediately after coming up from the water, the Youth Pastor (Jim Hopkin’s) and the church prayed for me to receive the Holy Spirit. I felt wonderful, having just been born again, but I did not speak in tongues at that time, nor was I filled with the Holy Spirit. After I dried off the youth pastor took me through some Bible verses to explain to me what had happened and why I had been baptized. I drove home from Puyallup to Federal Way that night just feeling jazzed and amazed at everything that had happened to me. When I got home I opened my KJV Bible that the pastor gave me and began reading in the Book of Revelation... I think I must have underlined every passage in the first 3 chapters where Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches. And then I turned out the lights and went to bed. Shortly there after as I was lying in bed, I felt the Presence of God coming down the hall outside my room... I don’t know why it happened like that, but that’s how it happened. I closed my eyes, pulled all the covers over my head and curled up in a fetal position – I was 19 and afraid. Even so, I could feel the Presence enter my room, and I felt like my room was filled with bright light – my closed eyes registered orange – like when they are closed facing the sun. Then, I began to feel my toes, feet and legs tingling intensely, as if something was filling my body with... (living water?). This powerful sensation progressed until my whole body was tingling from head to toe and seemed to persist for several minutes. Gradually the feeling subsided, and when it did I was left with a mental impression of how much God loved me, and with the words – Welcome to My Family, imprinted on my mind. For years I lacked the theological knowledge to understand what happened to me. So I quickly adopted the concepts and terminology I was taught at the Chapel, and for years told myself and others that I was baptized in the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues... back in later August 1975. However, the truth of the matter is that God filled me with His Spirit on the night I was saved... and I spoke in tongues about a month later or so. ~ Sid
on 4/30/2006, 3:46 pm, in reply to "Sid."
4.242.153.118
Just by looking back on my life, I know when God saved me, I know when I was baptized, and I know when I was filled with the Holy Spirit.